The Blood Talisman (15 page)

Alex walked over to her. “Can we talk
about this? Alone?” He looked deep into her eyes.

She caught his gaze and his eyes were
those of the young boy she had fallen in love with in school. They
had gloom to them but the young boy was in there somewhere. His
eyes flickered but his recent actions prevented her from falling
for their innocence.

“No. Everyone in this room is
involved,” she said, flailing her arms about.

“Would you take this more seriously?
This is our marriage. We are married! You and I. Not us and
them.”

Amalia stopped and stared at him,
surprised.

“That’s right Alex, we are married. You
and I. But you made the decision to include them. I didn’t. You
made that decision last night when you decided to sleep with
HER!”

Amalia pointed at Selene and paced over
to her.

“I bet you didn’t make it hard for him
to refuse you either, did you?” she asked Selene.

Selene just stared at her endlessly,
uncomfortably. Her silence seemed to irritate Amalia as she started
pacing quicker in front of her like a lion stalking its
supper.

Alex walked over and took Amalia by her
arm once more. She whipped her head round quickly to look at him.
Her hair slapped him in the face as she turned. She looked like a
sneering bull to him and it made him almost crack a smile. However,
he was afraid of making her angrier so he resisted the
urge.

“Amalia stop this. You’re acting like a
child. We can handle this like adults. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for
it to happen.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

She flung him across the room again.
This time he landed on a nightstand, crushing it down to splinters.
His pinstripe shirt was now ripped on the back and one arm. It made
him angry that she was being so ridiculous. The anger swelled
within him and he could feel the wolf coming upon him. His nails
began to grow and his teeth ached. He was turning and he couldn’t
stop it. He growled in agony, trying to stop it but it was too
late. The pinstripe shirt had fallen to the ground in front of him
and he stood over Amalia, heaving and slobbering for
meat.

She laughed, precariously. “Do you
think I’m supposed to be scared of you as a wolf?” she said,
backing closer to Selene.

She turned quickly to Selene and
grabbed her by her neck. Yanking her hair back, she bit
her.

“NO AMALIA!” Ram yelled from the
doorway. He raced over to them and pulled her off quickly. “Spit it
out,” he ordered, referring to Selene’s blood that was now dripping
from Amalia’s pursed lips.

She obliged and spewed out the dark red
substance.

“
Why?” she
asked.

“You just bit the same witch Ember did
before she died,” Ram explained.

Alex’s anger quickly turned to despair
and he immediately changed back from wolf to human. Ram picked
Amalia up and carried her over to the bed, laying her down gently
on the soft sheets. Alex wrapped Selene’s neck up with his torn
pinstripe shirt and whispered, “Are you all right?” into her ear.
She shook her head yes and he turned his attention to Amalia and
Ram.

“I’m fine really. I feel kind of
nauseous but I’m fine. Well, except for you putting me on this
particular bed,” Amalia said.

“I could give two shits less about this
bed,” Ram replied.

Amalia coughed slightly and turned to
throw up off the side of the bed. Ram comforted her and gently
rubbed her back. Blood trickled down out of her nose. Ram caught it
with his index finger just before it reached her mouth.

“Guard!” Ram yelled out towards the
door he had left open. A brawny man came charging in, ready for a
fight. “It’s okay, no one’s in trouble, but bring me a doctor.
Hurry!”

The guard disappeared, shouting into
his pocket radio. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion to
Alex. He stood frozen in place, watching another man take care of
his wife. He just wanted to scoop her up in his arms and run away
with her.

The doctor came rushing in and hooked
her to an IV with fluids. He pushed a needle into the tube leading
to her arm and she slept.

The physician pulled Ram off to the
side and Alex followed them to listen.

“
She’s more stable at this
stage than Ember was but I can’t guarantee that she will live. I’ve
induced a coma for now. She should be fine for a few days. I will
keep you abreast of any changes.”

“Thanks, doc,” Ram said and the
physician left the room.

A nurse remained behind to monitor
Amalia’s vitals. Another nurse dressed Selene’s neck wound over in
the corner of the room. She finished and left the room.

Alex had come back to his senses and
focused his energy towards Ram.

“This is all you. This is all your
fault,” Alex growled, grabbing Ram by his collar.

Ram grasped Alex’s hand and twisted it
off of his shirt.

“I believe she was angry with you and
your mistress. Not me.”

“She’s not my mistress. We’re only here
because of you. How is that not your fault?”

“I don’t have time for this. I have to
find that blood talisman before she dies. Excuse me.” Ram exited
the room.

Selene walked over to Alex and pulled
him to her. They hugged briefly as they stared at Amalia as she lay
there on the bed. She looked peaceful. Alex did blame himself for
what had happened but he would never admit it to Ram.

Alex sat on the bed next to Amalia. He
stroked her hand and brushed her hair away from her face. She
looked so innocent. She appeared nothing like the monster that Ram
had turned her into. He couldn’t be angry with her. Tears welled up
into his eyes and fell onto her blouse.

“Alex, my brother will be here soon.
What do you want to do?” Selene asked from across the
room.

He didn’t give an answer. He didn’t
know what to say. He wanted to save his wife. He wanted to take her
back home and be with her and forget about everything that had
happened. He wanted to go back to the past and live there. The past
was better than this wicked present that was playing out before
him. He didn’t want to live in this time anymore. He had forsaken
all of his moral values and betrayed his wife. He had murdered a
total stranger.

He didn’t know where his mind was nor
did he care to find it. On the cliff of madness, he would stay
comfortable. He would stay and hold his wife’s hand while Selene
looked on and he wouldn’t care about anyone or anything else except
this very moment.

Chapter 18

John stood quietly in the corner of the
dim, dark office awaiting orders. The ticking of the clock in Ram’s
office was driving everyone to near insanity. Ram seemed very on
edge as he sat there, tapping one finger on his desk. Two guards
stood at the door, and Rose sat on a dark grey sofa near John. He
kept his Glock 9 pistol close to his hand just for reassurance that
Rose wouldn’t try anything stupid.

Rose rocked back and forth, trying to
comfort herself. She kept her eyes closed to avoid the present. She
focused all of her thoughts on Selene. She wondered if she was
okay. She felt so stupid to have just gone charging into a hospital
full of vampires. Her rocking became faster and stronger until
John’s hand slapped down onto her shoulder and stopped her from
going any further into madness.

She shivered and felt the tears boiling
to the surface. A few leaked out and she whimpered.

Ram sighed and stared at her from
across the room.

“John, take her on into the boardroom.
I will bring the other one in a few minutes. And take the guards
with you. I’ll be fine on my own,” he ordered.

“Yes sir.” John complied. He took Rose
by the arm and dragged her towards the door. She whined and
grunted. Ram grimaced at the sounds coming out of her. He rolled
his eyes at her misery.

“How pathetic,” he whispered to himself
as they exited.

The door shut behind them and he took
another deep breath, calming himself.

He opened the top drawer of his desk
and reached in for his small Beretta Nano handgun, which he placed
carefully into his left pants pocket. He noticed a picture
underneath where the gun had been lying. He picked it up and stared
at it. It was Ember. She was sunbathing in a pink and white
polka-dotted bikini. Her blonde hair hung down to her breasts and
white stilettos dressed her feet in true style.

He dug deeper into the drawer and
pulled out a lighter. He clicked it on and the blue flame danced
happily in front of it for a few moments. He set the photo ablaze
and threw it in a metal trash bin sitting nearby. He walked out of
the room, leaving the picture to burn on its own.

He strode down the hall towards where
Alex and Selene were being held. The fluorescent lights had been
changed and weren’t blinking on and off anymore. The brightness
gave him a headache. A maintenance person passed him with a ladder
which he scraped against the walls several times to avoid getting
close to Ram. This put a smirk on the vampire’s face.

He rounded a corner and opened the door
to where Amalia lay in her induced coma. Alex sat on the bed beside
her, holding her hand and watching her sleep quietly. Ram looked
around the room and noticed the bathroom door was closed. Selene
wasn’t anywhere to be found so Ram ran over to the bathroom and
hurled the door open, startling Alex. The bathroom was completely
empty.

Ram marched over to Alex.

“
Where is she?” he
asked.

“She’s right here.” Alex responded,
lifting Amalia’s hand up from the bed.

“Not her, Selene. Where is
Selene?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been here this
whole time. I haven’t left Amalia’s side.”

Ram raced out of the room and looked
both ways down the hall. The guard that he’d stationed by the door
was stepping out of the cloakroom across the hall. He tucked in his
dark green security shirt and looked up to find Ram staring at him
intensely.

“Where did the girl go?” Ram asked
calmly.

“I just ran to the bathroom real quick,
sir. She was in there when I left.”

Ram casually walked over to the guard
and picked him up by the neck, slamming him against the
wall.

“When you take a break, you
ask someone to cover you.
Call out for a
search party
…
now
.”

Ram dropped him onto the ground and the
guard fumbled with his radio nervously, trying to call out to
anybody who would listen.

“We have a runaway. She’s a blonde,
white female, about five feet eight inches tall. Notify Ram as soon
as she is found,” he called out, voice shaking.

The other guards answered
obediently.

Ram pushed the guard back up against
the wall and smelled his neck and one side of his face.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the guard pleaded.
“Please… don’t.”

Ram bit into his neck feverishly,
ripping away flesh and drinking his blood until death. The guard’s
body hit the hallway floor and Ram left it there, in search of
Selene. He went running down the hall back towards his
office.

“SELENE!” he yelled out. “SELENE! I’m
going to find you!”

He stopped short of his office and
turned back from whence he came. He thought about the clumsy
maintenance man who’d avoided eye contact with him. He ran back to
the guard’s body and pulled the radio from the guard’s pocket. It
dripped blood as he lifted it.

“She may be dressed as a maintenance
person carrying a ladder,” he explained into the radio.

“10-4,” several voices answered him in
unison.

He kicked the guard’s body repeatedly
and muttered, “Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

He heaved huge breaths in and out and
leaned his hands against the wall above the guard. The cold, hard
sheetrock felt good to them. Then he heard footsteps and a gun
clicking behind him.

“Don’t move,” Selene warned him as she
grabbed his hand.

His flesh began to burn and she
pressed harder. Feeling the burn, Ram snatched his arm away from
her.

“
Selene. I’m surprised at
your ingenuity. You’re a very clever girl. Alex doesn’t give you
enough credit.”

“Shut up, you sick fucker. All I want
is my sister and I want to leave. I’ve had enough of the warped
games.”

“What about Alex? You can’t leave him
here.”

“Alex has made his choice. He doesn’t
want me.”

“I wouldn’t say that. He just doesn’t
want you for the same reasons that you want him.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she
demanded.

“You want the same thing I want, but
for different reasons.”

“I don’t know what you are talking
about. Move it. Take me to my sister or I will burn your
face.”

Ram grasped her by the neck and threw
her against the opposite wall. She fell to the hard floor and took
a second to overcome the pain in her back. He grabbed her by her
long blonde hair and dragged her down the hall towards the
boardroom.