Eternally Blue (Sunset Cliffs Vampire #1) (Paranormal Teen Romance)

ETERNALLY BLUE
♥

A vampires attempt at humanity

Katie Aleo

Eternally Blue
♥

By: Katie Aleo

Copyright © 2011 by Katie Aleo

Blue’s Playlist

1. Kate Nash – Navy Taxi

2. Lightspeed Champion - Sweetheart

3. Ellie Goulding – Your Song

4. Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch

5. Silverstein – My Heroine

6. Miss Li – Dancing The Whole Way Home

7. Spark – Crave

8. Regina Spektor – Blue Lips

Chapter 1

As far as I can tell I’m dead. I’ve heard of the bright lights that accompany death, the noises. I lay there and think about the pain for awhile and then realize that in death, I should feel no pain. I decide it must still be early along in my death, and squeeze my eyes tighter shut against the bright light. That movement on my part brought on excited talking from outside my closed-eyed-heaven.

“
She’s awake!”

“
I knew she’d pull through it, poor thing”.

At that point my eyes snapped open, I recognized human voices, only slightly different in pitch than my own, but slightly rougher sounding, less pleasing to the ear, and their nearness surprised me. I could still hear the strangers excited chattering as I looked over myself assessing the damage. I could still die here, where was my family, how did I get around humans, all strapped down and defenseless?

”
Rest, dear, rest”.

I didn’t have a choice; I could feel something pushing through my veins, making my eyes shut.

Chapter 2

OK I’m experiencing that same feeling again. Calm down and don’t panic. Don’t move; don’t let them drug me again. How did I get here? Think, think.

I sought after my last memory straining to bring it to the surface. Was I caught while hunting? Did I get captured by a rogue vamp? As I felt myself calm down slightly to allow myself to think, I was suddenly aware of the last thing I remembered which was drinking the elixir from Elder Victoria and reciting her instructions. Oh my God. Why did I think I wanted this? Did they actually let me become an immortal?

I think back to the unappealing hospital gown I was wearing when I first woke up, the appearance of needles in my arms, arms not as translucent as they used to be. The humans smiling at me, not the looks I am used to of enrapture or fear but of concern and excitement.

I open my eyes again and this time different, but still eager, human faces anxiously look at me. I mentally go over my prepared story, well my feigned absence of one anyways and smile timidly.

“
Where am I mom” I croak. Ew, my voice is so human sounding.

The nurses tried to look discretely at each other to mask their alarm, and I smile to myself. Keep it up! I cheer myself on, fake amnesia.

The first nurse, the older, braver looking one said “No honey, unfortunately your mom is not here right now, do you know where you are?”

“
No” I croak again.

“
Well Hun it seems you’ve been in an accident, you’re going to be ok now though, do you remember the accident?”

Did I ever. It hurt like hell. To change from a vampire to what we only slightly incorrectly call immortal’s, (which is as close to a human as an ex vampire can ever hope to become, but it is really like a human with slightly heightened senses, and oh yeah, the inability to age, but the extremely annoying human ability to get killed) you have to appeal to your clan’s council for the elixir.

After drinking the council’s elixir (you have to drink the correct amount for your size and age, or the results could be disastrous. In fact, most vamp societies don’t have a chemist who can properly gauge the exact amount, and then to get permission to make the change you would have to appeal to another council, often at high cost to your council so only people in high power can usually afford to make the change in those societies. My clan is lucky enough to have a chemist but still our council doesn’t just hand out elixirs like candy bars, they are still dangerous in many ways) Still following?

If you don’t die – meaning you probably were given the correct dosage – then you have to be dunked by a human in holy water, it doesn’t have to be a priest, but it is the second to last test on the heart; if it can withstand the holy water then you will probably complete the transformation to mostly human, starting with bringing your other organs back to life, including the ones that make you hungry.

That in itself is a very painful process and after your fresh water dip you are laid out in the sun by the same human, in a foreign place to you, to be found by humans. So yeah, I vividly remember all approximately 48 hours of it.

However I mustered a weak “No”.

“
Do you remember where you live? Your name… “.

She let that one linger awhile.

“
No no I don’t remember anything”, I wailed and jumped up attempting to pull out my IV’s to show her I was ok. My complete lack of strength startled me – I couldn’t get the stupid IV out of my arm. Seeing that it was either take it off of me or have me rip it off, a nurse came over to help.

“
Well dear you have been here 3 weeks now and it seems we’ve had your picture on nearly every TV channel and nobody else has provided a real lead on who you are either’

I think that’s what she said anyways, I tuned out after 3 weeks, counting in my head. That is seriously cutting into my valuable time here; I was only supposed to stay human six months before I went home.

I pretended to look sad then perk up and asked “Does that mean I’m just free to just go? I feel fine”.

“
Well now Blue, we need to figure out what is your best next move before we make any rash decision, right?”

Blue. She said my name. “What did you call me” I asked

“
Oh! Blue” she grinned “Do you recognize this? You had a necklace on with your name on it when you got here” she held it out to me.

I have never seen this necklace in my life. The council was so thoughtful, it hadn’t occurred to me that I’d have to pretend to not know my name along with the rest of my life. I was grateful for them letting me keep that special part of me.

I smile and look thoughtfully at the necklace, which had my clan’s symbol on it which is a fox carrying a dagger in its mouth, repeating my name aloud as I admire it. I had seen a necklace with this symbol on it before worn by someone from home but I can’t remember on whom, but it’s not shocking since it is the symbol of our clan after all. “Yeah, that’s mine; I wonder why I can’t remember anything personal about myself?”

“
Give it time dear, it seems you’ve had a nasty fall, you were found at the bottom of a popular climbing spot, luckily you landed on the sandy beach below, so your head sustained the injury internally but your bones withstood the fall gracefully.” Well that at least was a blessing; I didn’t want to spend what little time I had here spent in a cast thanks to some clumsy human the clan had working for them.

“
Can I go outside?”I was suddenly eager to step out in the daylight and see my new self. See if this was real. “Sure let me get you a wheelchair sweetie, you’ve been out awhile and will probably be a little unsteady on your legs.”

I smile politely and walk away on my own two feet. Are humans really this babied? That’s when I felt my legs start to give as if to say ‘you
are
essentially human now’, but I collected myself and walked out of my room on my own two feet, flanked by two well meaning nurses that is, but still.

When we started approaching the door leading to the patient courtyard, my steps became slower. I was still terrified of going outside, I had never been outside during the day and growing up, those were the types of horror stories that we told each other – the ones of vamps being caught unawares as daylight approached and slowly burned to death. It was nightmare inducing. I had been through the counseling by Elder Victoria before I took my elixir and knew logically that the sun couldn’t hurt me, but years of practicing otherwise haunted me. I bent forward at the waist inside the doorway trying not to hyperventilate, prompting the nurses to hover and try to get me to abort the plan. I shook them off and knew that I had to act now or risk them forcing me into a wheelchair and dragging me back to my room. I said a prayer, held my breath and took the first baby step into the sun. I felt it warm my calf and I braced myself for the impending burn but after a few moments I realized it wasn’t coming. I let out a short burst of laughter, which I’m sure caused my nurses to think I was crazy, and I stepped the rest of the way into the sun.

It was so warm; the only thing I can compare it to is standing too close to a campfire. After a moment I felt my eyes starting to get heavy as if I was tucked into a blanket and ready to nod off, and I tugged off my robe and handed it to the nurses behind me. I was still decent in a tank top and pajama shorts, and now the luxurious warmth was able to reach even more of my skin. I sighed contentedly and shuffled over to an unoccupied bench that was mostly in the sun. I lay back, closing my eyes and inhaled the smell of flowers basking in the same glorious sun. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to a nurse nudging me, and noticed that I was now in the shade; the sun must have shifted. The nurse was offering me a giant glass of ice water which I took and drained greedily. She laughed and told me to come inside for dinner, and that we would both be lucky if I wasn’t burnt up from the sun because she would be in trouble for letting me stay out so long.