Lailah (The Styclar Saga) (3 page)

As the room lit up I was finally able to fully see Jonah, his figure illuminated against the flicker of flame. His dark jeans and chocolate brown half-zip sweater were torn and disheveled. His collarbone protruded prominently in the V-gap of his shirt, and I could see he was strong. His dark hair was tousled and scruffy but still looked attractively thick and shiny. My gaze traveled down to his wrists, which were bloodied. The damage continued across his hands and knuckles and I grimaced, as his fingers appeared burnt and blackened.

“What happened to you?” I asked as I tended to the small blaze.

He looked at me blankly and replied without answering my question. “You know what I am?”

“Yes. I’ve known your kind. You’re not too difficult to spot now.”

His eyes ran over my body, from the tip of my toes all the way up to my face, where his pupils rested on my own. He took some time to gather his thoughts, fixating on me as he did. I instantly felt self-conscious, though I had no idea why. I pulled my jacket down and straightened myself up.

“If you’ve known my kind, you really shouldn’t be around to tell the tale.…”

“The acquaintanceship didn’t end well, but here I am. I’d rather not talk about it.” I shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t argue.

“You got a cell?” he asked.

“Yes, it hasn’t got many minutes left but enough to make a quick call I think,” I answered, shuffling around in my pockets for the cheap Nokia I carried with me. “Why, who are you going to call?”

“I’m not traveling alone.” He gestured for the phone. I handed it to him.

Just moving his arm seemed a real effort; he was in an unusually vulnerable position. I could tell he wasn’t used to it. I couldn’t help but admire him; even in this state, he was truly remarkable to look at. His cheeks were so perfectly smooth; I wished I could touch him. I shuddered, agitated by my thoughts. Of course his skin was flawless and of course his eyes were glazed with a watery sparkle. He was resplendent. But when it came down to it, he was evil. I knew evil came in the most wonderful forms. It was easier to corrupt someone that way.

Everything about him looked as though he had been carefully carved by an expert craftsman and then breathed into life. I was sure this was how they survived. Jonah’s extreme beauty had given him away instantly. Thanks to the Vampire I had once ignorantly befriended, I now knew what hid beneath features like that. I was angry for allowing myself to be sucked in by his looks; they were merely a mask, disguising what he truly was—a killer.

Jonah dialed a number and spoke so rapidly I could barely catch the conversation. He hung up just as swiftly. “My friends are coming, they’ll be here soon,” he said.

“These friends of yours, are they like you?”

“Yeah … for the most part.” He paused. “Thank you for your help,” he said begrudgingly.

I snapped back a look that read a sarcastic “you’re welcome.” I was surprised he had even attempted any form of thanks. Something about the way he looked at me was chilling; I didn’t dare ask any more questions.

I got up and started puttering about nervously. I could hear how difficult it was for him to breathe. Despite his arrogance, I found myself softening toward him once more. But then I’d soften even for a raging killer pit bull if it were in pain.

Reaching for my bottled water, I offered it to him. He simply snorted. I’d forgotten for a moment. Putting it down, I reached over to the sleeping bag; it had fallen away from around Jonah’s body. Instinctively, I yanked it nearer to his shoulders.

Without warning, he grabbed my wrist, flinching as his injuries met my skin, and taking me by surprise. I flashed my eyes to meet his. He held me so tightly I couldn’t break free. The Vampire tilted his head and pulled me in. My heart began to thud, and I froze, filling with fear.

Crap, maybe this hadn’t been a smart idea after all.

Running his lips close to my neck, his breath tickling my skin, I found my insides doing strange somersaults, and suddenly I wasn’t afraid anymore. His bottom lip skimmed my earlobe, sending little shock waves through me. He lingered and then whispered, “I meant … thank you.” His words were sincere and soft—I felt my heart flutter.

He released my wrist and I hovered over him, searching his eyes. They bore into mine. I indulged myself, feeling both confused and elated, but after a few minutes, I broke the connection and slid away. I didn’t want or need the distraction of Jonah, a Vampire no less, derailing my thoughts away from Gabriel. Even if sometimes it felt as though I was hopelessly searching for a ghost.

I made my way into the bare kitchen to retrieve some more logs for the fire. I was glad I’d gathered them this morning, before I went in for my shift at the pub.

Sitting on the floor, I absorbed the situation and took a few minutes to myself. I would help him however I could because if I knew anything about myself, it was that I was a good person. And perhaps in exchange he might share some insights into his world; he might have some clues about what I was, and where I belonged. It was an extremely dangerous game, but what choice did I have? I returned to the living room and added the wood to the fire. We sat for what felt like hours in silence. Eventually he broke it.

“Is this where you live?” He raised his eyebrows as he strained to take in the hollow shell around him.

“For now.”

“You’re not from here,” he guessed. “This place isn’t your home.”

“Home is wherever I hang my hat. I don’t exactly belong. Time just goes by, the people change, scenery changes. I don’t change.” I teased a little, testing his reaction.

He tilted his head to the right at my response; he was trying to figure me out. “Your eyes … they’re older than your smile, but you’re not like me,” he mused aloud. “But you’re not, well, human either.”

“What would make you think I’m not human?” I rebutted, a little too high-pitched, feeling slightly offended. I had never considered myself unhuman.

“You have no scent. I didn’t know you were coming until you were in front of me.”

I considered that for a moment. As far as I was concerned, I was human, even if I apparently couldn’t die—well, not in the conventional manner. “So what? Given your condition, perhaps your senses are somewhat impaired,” I reasoned. I didn’t want to give too much away, not yet.

“What are you exactly?” he said, dismissing my vague reply.

I pondered for a moment. “I suppose that’s the million-dollar question,” I said. “Oh, and by the way, I don’t remember smiling at you.”

That made him laugh a little and I flushed, unable to stop a grin spreading over my face.

“See? You do like me after all.” He choked, shuddering, and shifted uncomfortably, seemingly trying to subdue the overwhelming agony that flowed through him.

I sat for a while, calmly weighing my next move. “You can call me Cessie, by the way.”

He raised his eyebrows a little, encouraging an explanation.

“My friends called me Cessie.”

“Past tense?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen them for a while, but that’s what they called me. I guess you can, too.”

With the faintest curve of his lip he said, “Honored, I’m sure.”

Hoping the olive branch had softened him to me, I tried again. “You didn’t answer my question before—how can I help you? You’re in a lot of pain. I can see.”

He looked at me emptily. Finally, through gritted teeth, he said, “My friends will take care of that.”

“Who are these friends of yours? What happened to you?”

He contemplated his reply and then offered it, albeit reluctantly. “My friends are the ones I travel with now. We came here, hoping to rescue another, well, another Vampire like me.” He paused. “It didn’t exactly go to plan, and the Pureblood’s clan took me captive.” He snarled angrily, revealing his fangs.

The sight of them caught me off guard and I took a second to collect myself. “The Pureblood’s clan? I don’t understand.”

“Purebloods were the first Vampires to inhabit the Earth. I was human—once. But I was bitten, changed, turned—whatever term you’d prefer to coin. That makes me a Second Generation Vampire. Vampires serve the Pureblood who changed them, as part of their clan, or army, if you’d rather.” He struggled on, shaking.

“If you serve one of these Purebloods, then how is it you have your freedom?”

“Vampires are evil, infected with venom; their souls become submerged in darkness from the change. Free will is not something they seek. But, sometimes, just sometimes, we might see light. Long enough to remember who we were before. My companions are Vampires like me, freed from our Pureblood Master, with some help.… We don’t want to be slaves to them anymore.”

“But you are still a Vampire,” I stated.

“Yes, and I still drink blood to survive. We all do. But we’re selective over our meals.” Pausing before he continued, he said, “I don’t want to have to kill, you know. I wasn’t exactly given a choice.”

I raised my eyebrows at his statement. I felt compassion for him, but I didn’t believe anyone should play God when it came to who deserved to die. “What did they do when they … captured you?” I pushed, wanting to know more.

“I was not turned by the Pureblood of that clan. It was not the right of the Gualtiero—Eligio—to end me.” He saw my confusion and answered it. “Gualtiero means the Leader, the Master. Eligio is the Pureblood’s name.” He inhaled sharply. “They locked me away with no…” He stopped, searching carefully for his next word. “Food.”

He looked at me blankly as I flinched.

“Withholding my ability to feed is torture. I don’t know how long I’ve been kept in the darkness. They had me bound in silver.” He nodded to his wrists. “I managed to escape, but I’ve got nothing left inside me to be able to fight them if my companions don’t find me first.”

“Would the Pureblood have eventually ended you?” I asked.

“No. My Gualtiero was coming to end me himself,” he replied.

“Is that what Eligio told you?”

“No. My Gualtiero—Emery—and I are still connected, though not so much now that I’ve been parted from him and the clan for some time. But I can still sense him to a degree.”

I was trying to comprehend what he was telling me. It was an existence I knew nothing about.

“Eligio will know I have gone by now. It won’t take him and his clan long to track me down.”

A sense of alarm rang through me—would they come here? Could they track him to this house? Just as I was contemplating the notion of a Vampire ambush, the ground beneath me started to vibrate and shake. Panic began to run through me and I sprinted to the window, checking that the boards were in place, as if that would somehow help.

I turned back to Jonah, terrified.

“That’s them, they’re coming…” His eyes flashed and he snarled a deep, low growl that made the hairs on my arm stand up.

“What do we do? Where are your friends?” I said hurriedly, checking that the wooden boards covering the windows were still sturdy.

“They’ll come, but they may be too late. You need to leave, take the truck and drive as far away as you can get,” he ordered. “Then run and don’t come back!”

Now he was trying to save me.

“I can’t leave you here, they’ll kill you. I won’t let you die like that!” There was something about Jonah I was oddly drawn to. Somehow he had spared me and that was an almost impossible thing for a creature such as himself. I couldn’t let him be destroyed by them. I couldn’t!

He almost sniggered when he said, “I am already dead.”

“You didn’t answer my question: How will your friends heal you?” I demanded.

He looked at me, puzzled. “They will bring me someone to drink from.” His reply was flat.

I thought about it for a few seconds. If he drank from me, just enough to make him regain his strength, he could fight them off and we could escape. Both of us in one piece, I hoped. If I didn’t, his existence would be painfully ended. And they would likely kill me, too. “Drink from me.”

This time I was the one giving the orders.

I frantically searched through my bag and drew out a Swiss Army knife. I rolled up the sleeve of my jacket hastily, my hand quivering as I brought it to my wrist.

“No! I won’t be able to…” He trailed off.

“It doesn’t matter!” Even if he couldn’t stop, I knew he wouldn’t end my existence. It was a hunch. I tried to remain calm.

Suffering death didn’t have the same meaning for me as it did for a mortal; if anything I think I dreaded it more. Unlike them, it wasn’t the fear of the unknown once death had taken hold, because I knew I would wake up again.

It was the waking up part that petrified me.

I could only hope that Jonah would overcome his desire in time to pull me back from death’s white-knuckled grip.

Clenching my legs around him, I sat with my thighs touching either side of his waist. Taking the knife, I sliced a deep cut a few inches below my wrist, instantly drawing blood. For the briefest moment, Jonah’s orbs flashed incarnadine, startling me; the blade slipped from my grasp, clanking as it hit the floor.

“No!” He moaned as loud shrieks came from the distance.

“Drink!”

Jonah shook his head violently. His bone-chilling glare told me that if he had the strength, I probably would have been thrown across the room by now.

I held my wrist slightly above his lips and, squeezing the skin together, encouraged a steady flow of blood to seep, trickling down to meet him.

I watched him struggle to resist. Luckily it didn’t take long for his hunger to take over. He tasted me. Within a second, his mouth was latched around the gash and I felt the sudden sharpness of his fangs cracking into position, stabbing me.

Slowly at first, as if he were sampling a glass of wine, he swirled his tongue, nuzzling at my flesh. It was a strange sensation, and I began to realize quickly that I was the striking surface to his match. I held his stare with my own. I watched as the hazel color of his eyes changed and was replaced by red flames that burned fiercely.

It was exhilarating.

He moved his eyelids downward and began guzzling harder and quicker. It was in the loss of his sparks that it occurred to me that I was now becoming a meal to a starving Vampire.