VA 2 - Blood Jewel (22 page)

My heart went out to Sol as I
watched his eyes move to Avery’s. Given no choice, he placed his
hand on the blonde curls cascading over her neck and pushed them
away. He watched her eyes in the reflection of the mirror and I
almost thought I heard him whisper, “I’m sorry,” for what he was
about to do to her.

Sol’s incisors lengthened as he
lowered his eyes and found the spot he once found so familiar. He
quickly pierced Avery’s flesh and a low groan escaped her mouth as
her lips pulled away from her teeth as she grimaced with pain. He
sucked lightly, trying to be gentle with her, while he waited for
Vincent’s permission to stop.

A full minute must have passed and
then I heard Vincent say, “Enough,” granting Sol permission to
release Avery. He began to clap his hands and said, “That was
marvelous. Let the party continue. We have many hours yet, until
dawn. Please, enjoy yourselves.”

Solomon released Avery and turned
her around to inspect his bite on her neck. He leaned forward and
ran his tongue along the site where blood oozed and covered her
bite with his coagulant to stop the bleeding. He took her face with
his palms and looked deeply into her eyes. I hadn’t known Solomon
to use his persuasion in years, but I knew his intentions as he
said, “Avery, when you wake in the morning, you will not remember
this incident. Your neck will be sore and you will believe it is
from sleeping in an uncomfortable position. Do you
understand?”

She stared back into his eyes and
whispered, “I do.”

Sol took one last look at her and
turned, leaving her standing with her guards staring after him.
When he returned to my side, I didn’t say a word about what had
just happened, but I knew he and I had the same thing on our minds.
What was Avery’s blood going to do to him?

18 Someone Say They Need A Hero?

Avery returned to sit on her throne
and it was painful for Sol to look at her, so he tried to avoid
her, but occasionally his eyes betrayed him and he looked in her
direction to verify that his actions had not harmed the girl. Avery
seemed to be fighting the same inner battle because I would catch
her searching the room and her eyes always seemed to focus in on
Sol.

As the next hour ticked by slowly
and we watched the guards escort Avery toward the back of the
house. As she rounded the corner, she turned for one last look at
Sol before a guard gave her an unnecessary shove, causing her to
stumble. Sol leapt to break her fall, but she was able to recover
on her own and he stepped back, thinking better of his move to
approach a Blood Jewel with armed guards.

We didn’t discuss the incident
between Sol and Avery, but we began to notice the peculiar behavior
displayed by our hosts and other guests. Their strange drunkenness
seemed to increase as the minutes stretched into an hour and we
waited for the dreaded effects of Avery’s blood to attack
Sol.

Sol was anxious and ready to jump
out of his own skin by the time the second hour came after
consuming Avery’s blood. “Ugh! These drunken fools are driving me
crazy. I feel fine for the time being, but I know it’s only a
matter of time before I space out, so it’s probably time I left. I
can’t be positive I’ll be able to control myself once this thing
hits and I can’t bear the thought of hurting that girl again.
Everything is up to you from this point.”

I nodded in agreement and then
watched Sol leave through the front door without looking back to
meet Gia, his getaway driver. The guests began to thin as they
sought dark resting places for the day and for passing out.
Gloriana appeared at my side, still in a drunken stupor and said,
“I knew you wouldn’t find a resting place without me.”

I played my part well, pretending
to be under the influence of the Blood Jewel, and seductively said,
“Who says we have to find a resting place?” As the words left my
mouth, I fought the bile threatening to spew behind
them.

She peered at me through her
squinted, intoxicated eyes and smiled. “My thoughts exactly. Dawn
approaches soon, so why don’t you join me in my bedroom?” Her hand
grazed my arm and I consciously forced myself to not recoil because
this was my chance to explore the house in search of the
girl.

“I do believe you are a mind
reader, and a beautiful one, if I may say so?”

“I believe you did just say so.”
She looped her arm through mine and began to lean heavily onto me
as she led me toward her bedroom.

“What’s behind these mysterious
doors?” I asked, hoping she would foolishly identify Avery’s
location.

She pointed to the six closed doors
to each side of us and said, “These are guest rooms, all occupied
from the sounds of it so I guess it’s good for you that I’m willing
to share my room with you.”

I heard sounds best left
unidentified coming from behind the closed doors and said, “It is
almost dawn, so maybe the time to find a resting place has come,”
implying that sleep was on my mind.

“Yes, it certainly has sneaked up
on me this night,” she slurred.

We continued walking the corridor
and came upon a room with guards outside the door and I knew I had
hit the jackpot. “What’s behind that door?” I asked with an
innocent quality to my voice.

She pointed her finger, shaking it
at me as she said, “You are a terribly naughty boy and you’re going
to get me into a lot trouble with my brother, but I’m rather pissed
at him right now, so I’m feeling a little defiant at the
moment.”

The luck of the gods were with me
and I encouraged her as I said, “You should show a little defiance
more often because you wear it well, Beautiful.”

With heavy lids like an drugged-out
human, she shook her head as she said, “You are quite the charmer,
aren’t you?”

I could see she was winding down
and I was glad. “Now you’re beginning to hurt my
feelings.”

We stopped at the door next to the
guarded room. She hesitated, contemplating if she should confirm my
suspicion, then grinned and whispered, “That’s where my brother
keeps his Blood Jewel, the only thing he cares about.”

Bingo.

“This is my room.” She opened the
door, entered and waited for me to follow. I looked at the doorway,
thinking how it resembled a gate to Hell, but pushed the thought
aside as I told myself this was all about saving Avery and I would
be out of here within the hour if things went well.

“Would you care for a drink?” she
offered as she walked to a small bar within her room.

“Yes, I definitely need a drink,”
I gladly accepted.

She lifted a decanter filled with
dark liquid and poured a drink for each of us. “Bourbon, straight
up,” she said as she passed it to me. I took the glass from her and
drank it in one gulp.

“Thirsty much?”

Her observation surprised me
because she didn’t appear capable of anything involving a thought
process at the moment. “I’m still high from that blood you gave
me,” I lied.

Her face was dazed and she
whispered, “I know. Isn’t it wonderful?”

“It is a sensation like I’ve never
known and I don’t want it to end,” I replied, remaining vague with
my description of how I felt and I wondered if the high she was
currently experiencing was similar to intoxication by drugs or
alcohol on humans. “I don’t want to miss a moment of this feeling.”
I fell across her red satin bed and said, “You have access to this
sensation at all times. I do not and I want to just lay here and
enjoy it before it’s gone. Don’t you remember how it felt your
first time?”

“I absolutely do. It was the most
magnificent feeling I have ever experienced and I try and try to
find that feeling again, but I can’t find it. I take in more and
more of Avery’s blood, but it’s never enough. Sometimes, I think I
could drink her dry and never achieve that first splendid high
again.”

I definitely had to get Avery out
of here. She wouldn’t survive a house full of vampires tomorrow
evening. What was Vincent thinking?

Gloriana fell back next to me on
the bed, causing me to jump when her arm brushed mine, but she was
too impaired to notice and then I asked, “Why did Vincent have
Phillip to bite The Blood Jewel?”

She turned to face me as she
answered, “Because she reacted to him. He caused an adrenalin surge
in her and now Vincent means to use them both to control each
other. He means to control all of you and he’ll succeed because
every vampire in this house is now hooked on her blood. You’re all
addicted, just like us. It only takes one time to be addicted to
her.”

She lay still and quiet on the bed
and I knew she was near sleep. “Why are you telling me
this?”

Her voice was slow, indicating she
was about to drop off into oblivion. “Why not tell you? You’ll know
soon enough, come dusk tomorrow. I’m doing you a kindness by
telling you now.”

She was close to passing out and I
needed information about what made Avery and possibly Chansey a
Blood Jewel. “What makes her blood addicting?”

“I don’t know,” she slurred as her
eyes were closed. I couldn’t let her go to sleep without answering
my questions. “Why do you call her Blood Jewel?”

“You’d have to ask Vin...” she
said before she fell asleep. When I was certain she was in a deep
vampire sleep, I rose from the bed and peeked through her covered
window to see that dawn had finally arrived.

I slowly opened her bedroom door
and saw that the vampiric guards were no longer outside Avery’s
door, so I walked the short distance to the room where she was
being held captive. I silently opened the door and found her in the
center of a large bed, still wearing her red ball gown with her
wrists and ankles bound and anchored to the bed with long strips of
fabric.

I streaked to her and laid my hand
over her mouth before I evoked a scream from her. Her eyes popped
wide with terror and her heart accelerated. I placed my finger over
my lips to instruct her to remain quiet. I leaned closely to her
and she began to squirm and fight for her life, forcing me to speak
to her. “Stop fighting me, I will not harm you. I’ve come to take
you away from this place.”

She stopped struggling and I
removed my hand from her mouth, only to hear her say, “You lie
vampire. You aren’t here to rescue me; you’re here to steal me. You
and your coven want me for yourselves.”

“It is not a lie. We came to
rescue you from this place,” I informed her.

“Would the other part of the “we”
be the leech that bit me?” she questioned with acid in her
tone.

I was shocked by her memory of the
bite because I heard Sol compel her myself. “You are not supposed
to remember that.”

“Yeah, well he told me I would
wake up with no memory of what happened, but surprise. I remember
it all, so why should I believe you are here to take me
away?”

“Your sister, Jenn, sent us for
you.”

“You lie,” she accused. ”My sister
is dead.”

“What if I am lying to you? Would
you be any worse off? All of those sleeping vampires are going to
wake up tonight with an unquenchable thirst that only your blood
will quench. What do you think is going to happen?” She appeared
thoughtful, but didn’t reply and I continued, “I’m sorry. I wish we
had time to discuss this, but we do not have the courtesy of ample
time. I will tell you all you need to know once we are safely out
of here.”

She turned to look at the curtains
and saw the tiny beam of light shining in through the crack in the
curtains. “It’s light outside. How do you plan on taking me
anywhere when you are a creature of the night?”

I reached for her bonds and said,
“That’s not for you to worry about, let’s just get out of
here.”

As I began to untie her wrists, she
looked at me and said, “Who are you?”

“I cannot say my name in this
house, even if these fools are high,” I explained.

“I’m Avery Ferrand.”

“Yes, I know who you
are.”

“How do you know?” she
questioned.

Her interrogation was annoying me,
but I tried to understand her position. “I told you that your
sister sent me. It’s a long story. Do you want to stay here
discussing it until your captors wake up or do you want to get the
hell out of here?”

“The second option you
said.”

“Alright, no more talking. I’m
well beyond ready to be out of this place.”

We crept quietly through the
mansion, and although every vampire in the house was soundly
asleep, I opened the covered windows in the rooms as we entered to
prevent any potential attacks. Her expression betrayed her thoughts
and she was so frightened her heart was close to exploding out of
her chest. I worried its rapidness might possibly stir the addicted
from their sleep because I had no idea what her blood might have
done to those that consumed it.

We were almost home free when she
said, “We have to go back. I forgot something.”

“No damn way! Are you out of your
mind or just suicidal?” I whispered.

She stroked the hollow part of her
neck. “I refuse to leave without my pendant. It was a gift from my
mother.” Her face flooded with emotion and I could see the
seriousness of her declaration as her eyes pleaded with me. “It’s
the only thing I have left from her since Vincent killed
her.”