Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (23 page)

            Kate
gaped at him in horror. “No, Alexander, please,” she rushed to backpedal. “All
I need is a few supplies, then I can restart my IV and everything will be okay.
Well maybe not completely okay, but as tolerable as this nightmare can get.
Please, I can’t do it myself. Help me.”

            He
sighed. “Alright, make me a list of what you need and I’ll get it.”

            “Thank
you, thank you, thank you.” Leaping from the sofa, Kate snatched the hotel
stationary and pen from the nearby table. She scribbled a quick list of
supplies she would need to restart and maintain intravenous access. Tearing the
page off the pad, she handed it to Alexander. He folded the list and stuffed it
in his pocket.

            “I’ll
put the do not disturb sign on the door. Don’t open it for anyone.” He pinned
her with his golden gaze, daring her to disobey, and added, “You might eat them
if you do. I’ll be back in a little while. I have a few other errands to run.”

            “Thank
you.”

            “You’ll
make it up to me someday,” Alexander said as he turned to leave.

            “Wait,”
Kate said, stopping him. “Will you help me get this tape off before you go?
It’s easier with two hands.” She perched on the edge of her seat, holding the
hand in question out to him.

            In
two graceful strides, he crossed the room to sit beside her. Gently working on
the edges, he loosened the adhesive from Kate’s skin. Eyeing his slow progress,
she said, “It’s okay. You can rip it off. I’m a big girl.”

            A
golden brow arched high in question.  But with a swift jerk, he tore the tape
from her skin, taking the catheter with it. Blood beaded from the puncture site
and Kate reached for the box of tissues on the table.

Alexander caught her bleeding hand in
his strong, golden one. He held her captive with his smoldering amber gaze,
slowly lifting her hand to his lips. His lips parted and his mouth closed over
the wound. The warm velvet of his tongue caressed the sensitive skin of her
hand, tasting the essence of her blood in a sensuous stroke that set her skin
on fire. It was forbidden and erotic, stirring that unfamiliar creature within
her to life with dark desire.

            “Surrender
to the darkness within you, Katerina. I promise no seduction will ever taste so
sweet,” Alexander purred, releasing her hand to trace the column of her throat
with the pad of his thumb. Kate swallowed hard. She closed her eyes, shutting
out his inhumanly beautiful face. When she opened them again, he was gone.
Relieved, she released the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding.

His provocative words terrified her, for
she felt their truth down to the depths of her soul.  Oh yes, the shadow
creature within her lusted for blood. It lusted for him too. Darkness had never
been so tempting.

Chapter
19

When Alex returned hours later, Kate was
surprised he did so empty-handed. He strolled through the door with his hands
in the pockets of his black slacks, the incongruous black ball cap pulled down
low over his golden eyes.

            “Where’s
the stuff?” Kate tried to hide her rising panic, but her voice shook a little
when she spoke. She needed those supplies if this was going to work.

            “On
the plane,” he said with a shrug. “It’s dark now, Katerina, time to go.”

            “Go
where?” She hoped this wasn’t a misbegotten attempt to make her feed. Though he
said he’d work with her aversion to drinking blood, she’d believe it when she
saw it.

            “Home.”
He said the word as if it were Disneyland. What home? He couldn’t possibly mean
her home. Hers was here. At least it was until she started wanting to eat
people. Truth be told, she didn’t have a home anymore.

            Kate
gave him her best ‘why the hell not’ look. “Okay.”

            Leaning
his head out the door, he checked the hallway for occupants and beckoned for
her to follow. He led her down the hall to the stairs. She guessed they skipped
the elevator to avoid making a meal of the other guests.

When they reached the underground
parking terrace, he led her to the black Mercedes with impossibly dark windows
and they climbed in. With a roar of the engine, they were on their way.

            Alex
drove like a bat out of Hell. Or an immortal with a death wish. Kate closed her
eyes and white knuckled the handle by her head. “Aren’t you worried about
getting pulled over?” She swallowed hard. “Or crashing?” She definitely wasn’t
ready to put her new immortality to the test.

            Alexander
flashed her a grin. “Nah. I’d just wipe the cop’s memory anyway. ” He reached
over and peeled her fingers from their vise-like grip on the handle. “And we’re
not going to crash. I have killer reflexes.”

            Her
mind tiptoed around the unpleasant implications of his killer reflexes comment
and focused on the point that sparked her interest. “So you can wipe memories?
How does that work? Can I do it?”

Under normal circumstances, Kate would
be completely opposed to anything capable of robbing people of their thoughts,
memories, or free will. But these were far from normal circumstances.

            “Of
course. I’ll teach you everything you need to know,” he confirmed, squeezing
the hand he’d pried off the handle and letting it go. “Now try to relax.
Nobody’s dying tonight.”

             Kate
folded her hands in her lap and tried to do as he said.  A quick glance in the
rearview mirror revealed the sparkling lights of Chicago’s skyline fading into
the distance. Westbound traffic was steady, but free flowing. Alexander weaved
in and out of the other cars as though trying to win the Daytona 500. The white
lights of oncoming traffic blurred as they passed. The opposite side of the freeway
was backed up, bumper to bumper, as everyone within driving distance of the
city made their usual trek to their favorite nighttime playground.

            As
they circled around to the airport, Alexander steered the car toward the area
reserved for private aircrafts. A huge white jet, devoid of embellishment,
waited apart from the rest. If she were a gambling woman, Kate would bet it was
theirs.

            “Is
that our plane?” Kate asked.

            “Yes.
Stay here.” Alexander said as he parked.

Kate knew better than to argue with him.
Nodding her acquiescence, she watched him amble across the tarmac, his
movements fluid as a panther’s.

Alexander approached one of the workers,
shook the man’s hand, and exchanged a few words with him. The worker nodded his
agreement to whatever was said and shouted to the other men in dark blue
jumpsuits. Alexander tossed the man his keys and all of the workers cleared the
tarmac, making their way toward the nearby tower.

            Kate
really wanted to learn that mind trick thing.

            Alexander
popped his head in the driver’s door. “The coast’s clear, Katerina
.
Let’s go.”

            In
a flash, he stood on her side of the car, opening the door and helping her out.
He led her across the now empty runway, up a portable stairway, and into the
cabin of the plane. Kate watched in confusion as he shouldered the door shut
himself.

            “What
about the crew?”

            “They’re
secured in another part of the plane. I thought you might prefer it that way.
Unfortunately, that means you only have me to wait on you.”

            Kate
didn’t mind. She didn’t need to be waited on at all and she definitely didn’t
need to be trapped in a cabin with living, breathing temptation. The less
burning the better. 

            She
smiled her thanks. “I don’t mind.”

            Alexander
indicated the cabin with the flippant wave of his hand. “Please make yourself
at home.”

The enormous jet would’ve been reserved
for international flights in the commercial sect. Instead of rows of seats
divided into sections, the entire spacious cabin spread out into one open
compartment. Lavish appointments surrounded them, comprised of pristine cream
and complemented with dark wood accents. It was like swimming in a tub of slow
churned vanilla ice cream, with the occasional drizzle of rich hot fudge.

            The
cabin gave the slightest shudder as it taxied down the runway. Kate sank into
one of the overstuffed leather couches and folded her legs beneath her. Within
minutes they were in the air, soaring through the night sky. It was so much
better than playing sardines in coach class.

            The
immortals must raise whole groves of money trees. How else did they afford such
opulent lifestyles? This was the second private jet to whisk her away in the
past month. She flinched at the sting the uninvited thought of the other plane
invoked.

Her mind scrambled to throw up walls, to
blockade the flood of memories. Yet there the old Kate was, laughing with
Dominic, beating him at cards, nibbling strawberries and sipping champagne... making
love. Number one hundred sixty seven, join the mile high club. That had been
one of her personal favorites to check off.

            “Are
you okay?” Alexander’s voice dragged her back to reality.

Kate shook off the fog of painful
memories like dust off her knees.

            “Yeah,
I’m fine,” she lied, ignoring the growing pain in her chest. She faked a smile.
“How long’s the flight?”

            “About
twelve hours.” Alexander strolled to the wet bar and poured a drink into a
crystal tumbler. “Shall we get this party started?”

He reached into the fridge beneath the
bar and produced a neatly packaged blood bag, tossing it high in the air toward
Kate. Stunned by her own cat-like reflexes, she caught it deftly in one hand.
The cold, dark purplish fluid sloshed around in the clear plastic bag, making
her mouth dry and her throat burn. The familiar darkness stirred within the shadows
of her consciousness. It would be so easy to drink it. It would taste so good.
Feel so good.

No. Kate considered bagged blood to be
the gateway drug to a road she had no intention of traveling. Ever. She
swallowed at the hot lump of raw hunger at the back of her throat and managed to
choke out, “Do you have those supplies?”

Alexander dipped into a half bow. “Your
wish, my command.”

He lifted an oversized black duffel from
behind one of the couches. Rummaging through the bag, he laid out the medical
supplies on the marble table top in front of her. Kate leaned forward and
started opening packages… a tourniquet, IV catheter, t-connector, saline flush,
tape, and alcohol wipes. She primed the tubing with the flush and reached for
the tourniquet. Time to get this sucker in, before she bit the blood bag.

Struggling to tie the tourniquet with
one hand, she turned to Alexander for help. With a reluctant sigh, he secured
the rubber band above her left elbow. Kate pumped her fist a few times. The
vein in her wrist looked pretty juicy and straight, so she scrubbed the site
with alcohol. Alexander watched her through narrowed eyes, silently waiting to
hand her supplies.

Biting the cap off of the catheter and
holding it in her teeth, Kate used her right hand to drive the needle beneath
the skin. She felt the familiar pop as the needle entered the vein and she
advanced the catheter with the tip of her finger. Activating the safety device,
she withdrew the needle and attached the primed t-connector to the hub. Cool saline
rushed through her vein as she pressed the plunger of the flush.

 “Whoa, you really just stabbed yourself,”
Alexander marveled. “That’s hot.”

Kate rolled her eyes. Men were strange
creatures.

“So, how much blood am I going to need?”
she asked, accepting the strips of tape Alexander held out for her to secure
the line to her skin.

“As you know, the average human body
holds approximately ten to twelve units at a time. While a mature vampire can
go several days on about half that, the newly turned vampire typically drains
one person at least every six hours. So, I guess you’re looking at about twenty
four units for the whole flight.”

Kate gaped at him. She couldn’t wrap her
mind around the idea of four people dying each day to keep one vampire fed, so she
focused instead on the astronomical amount of blood she would have to pump
through her system. She could probably get a liter or two in every hour, if the
vein flowed well enough. Great
,
she was going to spend the rest of her
life tied to an IV pole. “But that’s like 10,000 milliliters of blood.”

“Exactly. That’s why I brought you
this.” Alexander returned to the black duffel and produced a machine Kate would
recognize anywhere. The rapid infusion pump had resided in the trauma room for
as long as she could remember. That little machine could infuse fluids at an
impressive rate of 1000 milliliters per minute.

“How did you get that?”

“I convinced them it was broken and that
I would fix it.” Alexander grinned. “I was very convincing.”

“I’m sure you were.” Kate laughed. “You’ve
got to teach me those mind tricks of yours.” She tried not to feel too guilty
about stealing it. As soon as she found those mythical money trees, she would
make a sizable, anonymous donation to the hospital in recompense. In the mean
time, the department would have to get by with one rapid infuser.

“Let’s hook this puppy up,” Alex said,
patting the pump. “I’ll bet he can have you chugging blood faster than your
cousin, Massimo.”

“I have a cousin?” Kate asked as she
spiked the bag, worked the set through the feed system, and primed the tubing.

Hooking the machine up to the hub of her
IV, she dialed in the settings to infuse her first unit. She hit start and the
machine whirred to life. The blood hit her system, sending a wave of relief all
the way to her core. She sighed in pleasure, feeling like a junkie taking a
long awaited hit as her circulatory system soaked up the much needed
nourishment.

“Yeah, Massimo’s a real pain in the ass.
You’ll love him.”

“I’m sure. What else can you tell me
about my family” Kate’s thirst for knowledge about her family and past was only
surpassed by her thirst for blood.

“Anything you want to know. I know them
well. I’ve been in their service my whole life.”

Kate cocked her head to one side.
Something about the way he said his ‘whole life’ made it sound like a very long
time. “Which is exactly how long?”

He clucked his tongue at her. “I thought
a lady never discusses age, Katerina
.”

“No, a lady never discusses her age, but
that’s fine. Be a girl, if you want.” Taunting him was as entertaining a
pastime as any, she supposed.

He sighed. “One hundred and twenty-two
years.”

“Wow. You look good for your age,” she
deadpanned. “You must moisturize.”

“Ha ha.” He didn’t seem amused by her
humor. “Eternal youth is one of the many perks of immortality.”

“So, I’m never going to get any older?”

“You may, but much, much slower than
humans. Even the oldest vampire I’ve ever met looks no older than his forties,
and he’s lived well over a thousand years.”

“I can definitely live with that.” Kate
tucked her knees under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Tell me
something else.”

“How about I show you?”

He moved to the control panel next to a
colossal flat screen and punched a couple of buttons. The screen flashed to
life, a vibrant shade of royal blue. Bringing a remote with him, Alexander
dropped himself next to her on the couch. Brandishing the remote like a weapon,
he took aim and the screen changed. It functioned as a giant digital picture
frame, flashing one still frame shot after another in steady succession.