Blood Reaction A Vampire Novel (6 page)

The hot water wrapped around my skin like a blanket as I slipped down into the tub. I had gotten the water as hot as I could take it, hoping to ease my aching muscles from where the vampire had thrown me around.

Red as a lobster, the jets of the tub punched at my skin until that pain began to overtake the muscle cramps. Although the water couldn’t erase everything that had happened, my mind did clear a little and I was able to think more rationally.

It was close to 4 p.m. If the vampire lore I knew was correct, most of which had been gathered from the occasional movie, he would return sometime around sundown. It was mid-February so the sun would be setting about 5:30 p.m. That meant I had about two and a half hours until he returned.

Should I use the two and half hours to make a run for it? Try to drive to Ellie and pull her out of my mom’s arms and get as far away from here as possible. Leave my mother to face his wrath?

It didn’t seem probable that I could convince her we were being stalked by a vampire and we all needed to go into hiding. The psych facility would be getting a call if I told her that story. Then I would be hiding from the police as well as a vampire.

But as much thought as I put into that scenario, I knew I couldn’t leave my mother to face him. It would be better to be dead than to know I had betrayed one of the two people that had loved and raised me and whom I loved more than anyone in the world besides Ellie. Mom deserved better.

I contemplated telling her the truth for a short time longer, knowing all along that it was a dead end road. Mom, most of the time immensely practical except where this house was concerned, would never buy into that story. Not that I could blame her. It sounded ridiculous even to me, sitting here in the daylight in my bathtub.

Sliding deeper into the tub, I let the water run over my head and through my hair. Reaching up, I fanned the long locks out with my hands and rinsed it out of habit. I scoured my scalp and then scrubbed myself from head to toe.

Remembering his mouth on me, I scrubbed at my neck again until the skin felt nearly raw. Giving up because I couldn’t make myself feel clean no matter how long I scrubbed, I leaned back into the tub, trying again to focus on the best solution to my problem.

What about a priest? Was there some sort of exorcism for vampires? And once again, was I willing to risk that person’s life to see?

Could I kill the vampire myself? Another improbable plan, I felt, given the speed of his movements I had witnessed. But of all the plans that I had worked through in my mind, killing him seemed the safest for everyone else involved. If I didn’t succeed though, it would still leave Ellie at risk. He probably wouldn’t feel obligated to hold to our agreement if he felt I had betrayed it.

A chilling thought occurred to me for the first time. What if he didn’t follow through with his word and went after Ellie despite his promise? I mean, how much could you trust a vampire?

The more I thought about my situation, trusting a vampire seemed like the most absurd plan of all. Hadn’t I felt the air change just by his entering the room last night? Didn’t my hair stand on end? And here I was, sitting in my house, like a fly in a spider web waiting for him to return. To be his beck and call girl until he killed me, hoping that he would keep a promise to me, his intended victim, and not kill my family.

Panic seeped into my mind once again while I had been running this scenario through my mind and now I was under its control, feeling its heaviness beginning to suffocate me.

I shot up out of the water, splashing it on the walls and onto the floor with the force. There wasn’t much time. I needed to pack some clothes for myself and some food. I didn’t want to be stopping to eat once I had picked up Ellie. She had clothes at my mom’s house. There was money and a gun in the safe.

Grabbing a towel from the linen closet, I barely had made a dent in the water beading on my skin before I was pulling on my jeans and t-shirt. My hands were shaking as I attempted the combination on the safe and it took three tries for my trembling fingers to get it right. Finally, the lock released and the door swung open on the hinges. I reached into the dark of the safe, my hand landing on the gun first.

Grabbing the small amount of emergency cash I always kept, I stuffed the money in my back pocket and pushed the gun into the waistband of my pants. Jerking the hangers violently, I pulled a few warm clothes out of my closet including a thick down-filled coat and shoved them all into an overnight bag.

I was in my car in less than ten minutes. The clock in the car shone like a beacon in the dark garage reading 4:45 p.m. forcing my mind to register how close I was cutting this. Pushing the garage door opener on my visor, I waited impatiently for the door to open and was pulling out just as the edge of the door cleared my car.

Jabbing my finger down on the locking mechanism, I didn’t give the old house a second look as I roared down the driveway that turned into the winding dirt road.

Taking each curve too quickly, my wheels spun rocks and dirt into the trees covering the road. Since the dirt road dead-ended in my driveway, it was unlikely I would meet another car. My nerves were frayed and my eyes strained around each curve, half-expecting the vampire to be standing in the road waiting for me.

It was still light out, however, with the late afternoon sun having taken on the dark yellow color rather than the clear light of midday. Coming from an angle, the sun shone through the trees casting long shadows from the neighboring forest across the road, adding to my fear and desperation.

Reaching the end of the eight-mile dirt road, I sat facing the busy highway, left turn signal on, watching the passing cars filled with people. They were probably returning home from work or going to eat with their family or to visit friends. Normal people living normal lives and I so badly wanted to join them.

To turn the clock back and appreciate the mundane, to take my mom up on the offer of going with her and Ellie. Why had I not listened to her? Why had I stayed at that old house, cut off from the outside world for all intents and purposes? If only I hadn’t been so stubborn.

The clock flashed 4:55 p.m. The eerie red numbers glowed more brightly as the light outside began to dwindle.

Driving wildly, I had made it to the end of the dirt road in a record ten minutes. I so badly wanted to punch the gas pedal and take off after Ellie, rejoin the land of the normal, but I couldn’t make myself do it. I couldn’t risk Ellie’s life on the chance he couldn’t find us.

Despite my previous impulsivity, I knew I had to go back. There was no true way out for me except to return where fate had placed me. He was the way out and when he had consumed me, then and only then would it be over.

4:57 p.m. Reaching up with my left hand, I turned the blinker off. My heart was reacting to it like a metronome. Very little time remained and so making a U-turn, I began the long drive back to my personal hell.

5:05 p.m. I pulled back into the garage, the door closing behind me with a heavy finality. I had driven back to the house with an even greater urgency than I had left it. Inside the house, I placed the gun and money on top of the refrigerator. Grabbing a juice bottle out of the refrigerator, I downed it quickly without stopping for air.

5:10 p.m. I sat down in the middle of the living room floor, the ceiling fan turning lazy circles over my head. I could smell the coagulated blood in the corner of the room, the ceiling fan blowing the foul scent around the room, making the bile rise in my throat. It wasn’t the blood per say that was making me sick. But it smelled like death, which I had smelled many times. Only this time the stench belonged to me.

If I survived tonight, I made up my mind to clean it up tomorrow. I couldn’t convince myself that he actually meant to keep me alive for a week. I wasn’t sure that I even wanted him to. It reminded me of being on death row. Was there any point to being given a few days to live?

5:12 p.m. I could see the digital clock from where I sat on the floor, its red light glittering in the dark reminding me of my date with the devil. As if I could forget. My mind kept asking the strangest questions. Should I meet him at the door? What should I wear? Would he want to talk and what would we talk about?

5:15 p.m. Gold and red rays from the setting sun caught my eye out the window. The sliver of sun that remained shimmered behind the mountains off in the west and I could see the moon beginning to take shape in the dusk.

One lone star just barely visible on the horizon to the left of the tallest mountain peak caught my attention and I watched it get brighter and brighter as the sun completely set into the horizon. The walls of the living room that had been awash in the gold and red hues of the sun were now dark and I realized I had forgotten to turn on any lights, but I couldn’t convince myself to move or to care.

5:28 p.m. I sat there in the dark still focusing on the one star I could see out the window. It helped me to keep my breathing steady. “Starlight, starbright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight,” I whispered into the dark.  The childhood rhyme played over and over through my mind. I finished it with a silent plea for Ellie’s life every time.

5:42 p.m. Still nothing. I would go crazy, I was sure of it. The house was now completely dark with only the light of the moon shining through the windows yet still I sat there.

I brought my knees up and laid my head in the circle of my arms on them. My blood pounded in my ears pushed by a heart that had been racing ever since I had stepped back into the house. The roar of blood proved I was still alive, but I had no confidence in how long it would continue.

5:50 p.m. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my heart paused for what felt like an eternity before it began to pound all the faster, blood pumping harder than I would have given my heart credit for before now. The same terrifying fear I had experienced the evening before came over me and I felt like an ant under the microscope in the sunlight. Sweat was beginning to form under my arms and breasts and my hands were clammy. Feeling a slight breeze rustle past me, I knew he was there.

Fingertips, cool and smooth, lightly traced circles up and down my neck. I didn’t move, didn’t say a word, scarcely breathed, until cool lips replaced the fingers then I involuntarily jerked back. I didn’t get far for I was quickly caught in the grip of his left hand holding me steadfastly in place while he moved his mouth up my neck. Stopping at the base of my jaw, he parted his mouth to let his teeth graze lightly against my skin. Involuntarily, I tensed up expecting those fangs to slice through my skin.

“This will be nice, I promise,” he whispered into my ear. “I am pleasantly surprised you did not run. I thought it likely I would have to track you and Ellie down. Instead, I find you are a lady of some honor. Tell me, did you do exactly as I told you?” His voice, soft yet rich at the same time, held no hint of anger.

Panicking for a moment, it occurred to me I wasn’t to have left the house but I did when I buried Samuel and when I ran. He had to have noticed Samuel was gone. Would that break our agreement? He continued to stroke my neck with his face, lightly nipping as he moved.

“You are making it very hard for me to take this slowly with your heart racing like a jackrabbit. Again, did you do exactly as I said?”

I hesitated briefly again. “No… no. I buried my dog. He was beginning to stink. What you said didn’t cross my mind when I found his body this morning.” My voiced strained with the attempt to keep it from quivering.

“Is there anything else you need to tell me? Remember, my senses are much more accurate than yours and I will know if you are lying. Be careful with your words, Annalice. They determine your fate.”

Again, I hesitated. “I did think about leaving but turned around in the garage.” My breath rushed out with the words and I left out the part about driving to the road. I didn’t think he could read anything else from me since my heart was already hitting nearly one-eighty. My skin tingled with icy fear as I waited for his reaction.

I was essentially blind in the dark, but I could feel him all around me. The fine hairs on my arms stood up in response to his presence. It was also as if his coolness was in such stark contrast to the warmer air of the house that it provided a line of demarcation between him and his surroundings.

His breath cool against my neck, his hands began to retrace the circular patterns over my upper arms from my shoulders to my elbows. I started to relax in spite of myself and he laughed quietly in the dark.

Wondering what he found funny, it occurred to me he could feel my muscles becoming slack in his hands in response to him, or maybe he thought my terror over Samuel was funny. Either way, the laugh had a mocking edge to it and I could feel myself tightening up all over again.

“Since you have been honest, I will honor our agreement. But do not make another mistake. I would consider that willful disobedience.” Without meaning to, I exhaled in response to his words and, feeling relieved, I nodded my own agreement

In the next second, he was gone and back. I barely had recognized his movement before he was leaning over me, bathed in the soft light of an old lamp whose shade was off-white and muted by the low wattage of the bulb that lit it.

The room had always appeared cozier in this light and almost as if he had willed it, I looked up into his face. The mood of the room suddenly took on an entirely new feeling as his intent was clearly written in his expression.