Blood Song (9 page)

She realized he was trying to cheer her up after the ghastly story so she gave him as authentic a smile as she could muster. “I’d say that’s an understatement.”

“Okay, there’s a downside to your voice, but there are a lot of upsides. Have you ever been unable to cure someone you tried to heal?”

“Yes, lots of times. I can’t inflict healing on someone who doesn’t want it. Sometimes people who are terminally ill are ready to die. They don’t want their well-meaning family and friends to bring me in to save the day. I always sense when the answer is going to be
no
, and in that case I sing to soothe them and ease their passing.”

Ethan stared at her for several seconds, frowning. “What if someone’s really close to death and they don’t want to die? Can you save them? And what if they’ve already died? Is there anything you can do?”

Grace’s vision blurred and her head spun. Her breath caught.

“Hey! You went all chalk-white on me.
Relax, relax, relax
.” He pushed against her shoulder with his finger and she dropped back into the cushions. “What just happened?”

Tears gathered in her eyes, and she blinked them away. “I’ve healed many people who were on the brink of death. That’s no different than any other kind of sound healing. But the first time I pushed the limit—when I didn’t listen to my intuition telling me it was too late—I caused a disaster. I let my pride and ego take over. I refused to stop the process, even when I felt the soul leave the body. I was young and stupid, and I wasn’t going to let
Death
win.”

“So, what was the disaster?”

Grace hyperventilated, unable to get enough air to speak.

“Grace, close your eyes and breathe deeply.” He waited while she followed his instructions. “Imagine yourself floating above the scene of the disaster. You can see it, but it doesn’t affect you.
Relax
.” He paused. “Now tell me what happened.”

Her heart rate slowed. “I sometimes go to hospitals to do healings requested by a doctor or nurse familiar with my work. Once at a New York City hospital, after I finished healing the person I’d been scheduled to see, I stopped by the cancer ward and spent a few minutes with each patient. I was about to leave when someone’s groans of pain caught my attention. It was a young woman whose cancer had metastasized throughout her entire body. She was in horrible agony. As I began singing to her, I felt her struggle to live. I pushed my will into her, and for a couple of minutes it seemed she chose to stay. But I was wrong. Her soul left and I didn’t stop pushing. She was dead but I forced the body to react. I animated the corpse, which started bleeding and oozing substances from every opening. Since there was no soul—no consciousness—present, the body began moving instinctively. It shot up off the bed and ran down the hallway like a zombie from
The Walking Dead
. I followed and watched her crash through a window and fall ten stories to the street below. The cause of death was listed as suicide. Once again, nobody knew it was all my fault. But
I
did.”

They both sat silently for a few minutes then she frowned. “Hold on. I was very emotional—angry and fearful—when I sang that high-pitched sound at you a few minutes ago, but you aren’t bleeding or clutching your skull. Why didn’t my voice hurt you?”

He shrugged. “Maybe because I’m a vampire. I’m already dead so you can’t hurt vampires. But...”

“But what?”

“That doesn’t feel like the right answer.”

“Not that I believe your vampire story, but how could you possibly know how my voice usually affects vampires, since you’re the only one I’ve ever—allegedly—met.”

“You’re right... wait! You
have
met another vampire. The newbie you thought was a dream. We noticed he had his own blood all over him, but we didn’t know why. Were you yelling at him?”

“Yes, of course. I screamed myself hoarse trying to get him to let go.”

“So, maybe your lethal weapon
does
work on vampires. Except for me.”

“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t it work on you?”

“This is just a guess, but I sat by your bedside when I took you home and there was an odd, calming sensation—the one I feel every time I’m around you. Like some kind of positive radiation. And then I attended your sound session where you healed the woman. The whole room was full of powerful vibrations. Maybe I’m immune to your voice now. I think you’ve altered my vampirism and I’m something in-between alive and undead.”

None of that can really be true, can it?

“Let’s do another experiment,” he said.

“An experiment?” Her stomach tensed. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t like whatever it was.

“Yeah. I think we both know we’re attracted to each other. I’ll kiss you and get your hormones all stirred up. Then you yell my name and we’ll see what happens.”

“What? No! Are you insane? I told you about the damage my voice can do. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Although I like the part about kissing...

“But you haven’t hurt me yet. I want to figure this out.” He scooted closer and took her face in his hands. “Okay, ready?”

Her breath hitched and she reluctantly nodded, both scared and excited.

The kiss started out slowly, a brush of lips, and then it went deeper. He slid his tongue into her mouth and she opened for it, her heart racing. His skin seemed to warm to her touch. Unable to believe how bold she was acting, she wove her fingers into his silky hair and groaned. “Ethan.”

He pulled away enough to whisper. “Say it again and again. Just because I want to hear it. And I’m not bleeding yet.”

“Ethan, Ethan, Ethan...”

Their lips met again, tongues dancing together as they melted into each other. Heart pounding along with his, she groaned when Ethan cupped her breast and used his thumb to caress her nipple. Pleasure shot through her. She didn’t know why her voice didn’t hurt him, or why she was acting so weird, but forced herself to stop thinking about it. Instead she enjoyed every moment of her newfound freedom and the wonderful things Ethan was doing with his mouth and hands.

“I like this experiment,” he mumbled as he untucked her shirt and slid his hand up her stomach and under her bra, giving her chills and making her hot all at the same time. He squeezed one breast, then the other.

Because of her affliction, she’d given up thinking about ever being with a man again. She didn’t understand why Ethan had changed that. Part of her was afraid, but the rest of her wanted to feel his naked skin against hers. For the first time in years, she wanted to take a dangerous risk. Maybe Roz was right about Ethan being her twin soul. She wasn’t completely sure what that meant, but it sounded exotic.

She’d begun to plan the fastest way to get rid of all their clothes when someone snickered.

“Well, what have we here?” A man’s voice growled.

Grace and Ethan’s heads jerked in the direction of the abnormally tall man wearing a black robe and blood-red snakeskin boots, who stood in the doorway of her office.

“Look, children.” The intruder pointed one of his crooked, bony fingers, the nail protruding like a jagged, yellow claw. “Come and witness the disobedient vampire playing with his food. What shall we do with them?”

“Alexander!” Ethan bolted off the couch and stood before the visitor. He spotted Nelson standing behind the Master and glared at his friend.

Nelson mouthed “I’m sorry” before lowering his gaze.

Obviously Nelson had followed him to Grace’s studio and reported his whereabouts to Alexander. Ethan thought he should be outraged at the vampire with whom he’d shared so many years of servitude, but he couldn’t summon any anger, because he knew how damaged and frightened Nelson was. The lost soul simply never had the strength to defy the Master, no matter how much he hated his undead existence.

“It appears we have a doomed love affair in progress,” the sandpaper-edged voice boomed again. Towering over everyone, Alexander stalked up to within an inch of Ethan’s face, his long silver hair flowing down his body like liquid mercury, an evil grin stretching his lips. He bent his head and locked his black gaze onto Ethan’s. “You know the rules, silly boy. Now I have the pleasure of draining your plaything dry and making an example of you for the rest of my slaves.”

The menacing vampire glided over to Grace, exposing his long, sharp fangs. Quick like a snake, he bent, lifted her arm and bit her, making loud sucking sounds as he drank her blood.

Before Ethan could even think about coming to her rescue, Grace screamed. The razor-sharp, high-pitched sound bounced off the walls and crawled over his skin like sonic bugs.

All the vampires in the room began to tear at their ears and wail. Alexander retracted his dripping fangs, and jerked upright. Howling, he covered his ears as blood oozed from his nose and eyes. “What is this witchcraft?” He pulled his hands away. They were covered with thick, red liquid.

“Master, save us!” the servants pleaded as they panicked and rushed toward him, bleeding from every opening.

Grace took a breath and sang out another, even more lethal tone.

Chills raced up and down Ethan’s body. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Blood was oozing from the pores of the slaves’ skin.
Holy hell. Her voice really
is
a weapon!
He expected his head to explode any second.

Alexander rubbed the blood from his nose and mouth and roared, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I know how to stop you.” He swung his fist and hit her hard on the side of the head above her ear. “Shut the fuck up!”

She fell back against the cushions, unconscious.

All the vampire minions froze, silent.

Ethan started to move toward Grace, but then thought better of it. He knew she was still alive. It was best to keep quiet, to drop off the master’s radar. He couldn’t afford the luxury of showing a reaction to the violence.

Alexander straightened, pulled a rag from the pocket of his robe, and wiped at the blood crusting on his chin and dripping down his hair. “Leave it to you, rebellious servant, to find a human who can bleed you with her voice. What freaks you both are.” He looked Grace up and down. “But she
is
quite fetching for a mortal woman. I can’t fault your
taste
. Of course I’ll
taste
her very soon.” He gave an evil grin. “And I’ll make sure to rip out her tongue first so we don’t have a repeat performance.” His dark eyes narrowed and he beckoned several vampires with a slight twitch of two fingers. “Quickly now. It’s near dawn. Take them to the lair. We’ll have a full gathering tonight. It’s been too long since I made an example of a slave.”

One of the blood-covered lackeys lifted Grace into his arms and trotted out the back door. Another came for Ethan, who was tempted to fight, but didn’t want to let on that he hadn’t been entranced. He’d waited for the usual spaced-out feeling he got whenever Alexander put the vampo-whammy on him, but it hadn’t come. It didn’t take long for him to connect his new immunity to being a half-thing, thanks to Grace. Since he had no idea what he was capable of now—or how long the changes would last—he continued to act as if he were in an altered state. He’d seen ample evidence of vampires being hypnotized by the brutal master, so he knew how to play it. He let his mouth hang open and his eyelids droop. He wasn’t worried about Alexander seeing through his pretense. As powerful as the short-tempered Master was, he had his limits. Ethan discovered years earlier that Alexander lacked any ability to intuit or perceive beyond his normal vampire senses, which surprised Ethan because he’d believed everyone could use imagination and will-force like him.

Barely cracking an eyelid, he tracked their progress toward the lair.

By the time they got to the hideaway there was a subtle shift in the Eastern sky, which was no longer pitch black, but now indigo blue. Dawn would arrive soon. Ethan braced himself for the claustrophobic sensation—he wasn’t sure if it was more like drowning or having huge boulders layered on his chest—that preceded his daily sunrise death.

Over a century ago, Alexander seized an abandoned hospital in the foothills west of the city. The dilapidated place used to be a sanitarium for humans with tuberculosis and other contagious diseases. Back in the day, one of its selling points was access to nearby hot springs, and only the rich could afford to take the cure. The site had been abandoned when half the resident patients died within a three-month period from unexplained causes.

What a coincidence the vampires moved in about the same time.

The city eventually discovered the toxic level of minerals in the hot springs caused more problems than they cured, so the area was fenced off and the property condemned.

Still feigning unconsciousness, Ethan studied all the vampires, noticing they’d begun to slow, their footsteps labored and unsteady. It was during this time, right before sunrise, when all vampires looked like zombies. That’s probably where the horror tales about the brain-eating cadavers originated from to begin with.

“Take them to the lowest sub-basement,” Alexander ordered. “We’ll continue the festivities when I rise.” He strode around the corner of the building and Ethan heard a door slam.

The two vampires carrying Grace and Ethan stumbled down several staircases and pushed through squeaky double doors leading to a windowless expanse filled with rusted medical equipment. Several inches of putrid water, left over from the last flood, covered the floor. Body parts floated in the foul liquid. It smelled like mildew, blood, disembowelment and death.