VA 2 - Blood Jewel (26 page)

Chansey and I descended the stairs
into the basement and her heart was racing. “What should I
expect?”

I vaguely responded, “The
unexpected.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Well,
that’s not much to go on.”

“Even being Agápe, I don’t think I
can prepare you for what you are about to see.”

She stopped a few steps shy of the
bottom of the staircase and grabbed my shoulder. “You’re scaring
me.”

I turned and looked at her. “I
wouldn’t be doing you a favor by sugar coating it. You should be
scared.”

I reached for her hand and she
followed me into the basement where Jenn was being kept. We entered
the room where Sol sat in a chair watching Jenn from behind a wall
of iron bars as he wore a brooding look on his face.

Chansey walked over to the bars and
watched Jenn as she lay motionless on the bed behind the bars. “Why
is she in a jail cell?”

I pulled her by the arm. “Don’t get
so close. I don’t want her to streak over and grab you. The bars
are here so we don’t have to open the door to check in on her. That
would increase her chance of escape. By having access to see her at
all times, we can see what stage of transition she in.”

“What stage is she in now?”
Chansey asked.

“It’s still early. Her onset may
have been delayed, but something about you and Avery being in her
presence at the same time ignited a sudden, ferocious
onset.”

“Do you think she will transition
well?”

“I don’t know. People handle it in
different ways.”

“What does this stage feel like
for her right now?”

“Do you remember when I told you I
felt like I was free falling and I wasn’t sure if it was for
minutes or days? We have found that the duration is different for
everyone. Some go through this stage for less than 24 hours. Others
may experience it for several days.”

“So, she feels like she’s falling
from the top of a super tall building?”

“Yeah, but in the dark.

“That has to be so
terrifying.”

“It’s not much fun,” I
admitted.

We sat and watched Jenn’s
motionless body for hours with no change in her status and then I
saw some strands of her hair blow up from the mattress. “Chansey,
watch her hair.”

Chansey turned to see what I was
talking about and several strands of long blonde hair blew up from
the mattress.

Sol slid to the edge of his seat
and said, “Her transition is accelerating. She’s beginning to fall
faster.”

Chansey looked on as we saw more
and more of her hair beginning to blow. “What is happening to her?”
Chansey asked anxiously.

“She still has a while to fall,
but she will be plunged into darkness when she stops falling. It
will be in the loneliest place she has ever experienced with only
her thoughts and regrets to keep her company.”

“Is she in pain?” she softly
asked.

“Not yet, but she will
be.”

“When will the pain
begin?”

“I can’t say. That is something
that is different for everyone as well”

Chansey looked up at me with glazed
eyes. “I don’t want to see her in pain.”

My heart smiled at her words and I
found a little hope that Chansey might abandon the idea of becoming
a vampire. “She will be in a lot of pain and there’s nothing we can
do to help her. You may change your mind about following her, but I
won’t change my mind about our agreement. I refuse to turn you
until you fully understand the transitioning process.”

A tear rolled down her face and I
reached to wipe it away as I said, “I don’t do this to be
cruel.”

She was thoughtful for a minute
before she replied, “I know and this is something I must do. It
doesn’t mean I have to be turned the minute her transition is
complete, but I need to be prepared for the future.”

“I need to talk with Sol, so I’ll
tell you what. You’re not going to miss a thing with Jenn over the
next several hours. Why don’t you go to bed and I’ll come and get
you if anything happens? Does that sound okay to you?”

“Okay. I am really tired, so that
actually sounds great to me.”

She leaned forward to give me a
kiss and we heard Sol’s disgust. “Gah, get a room. Oh, wait...you
have a soundproof one right upstairs.”

“Damn, you are an ill ass tonight.
What’s eating you?” Chansey asked.

Sol turned his head away as I
hugged her tightly in hopes that she might feel my intentions
through our bond. She looked up at my eyes and I saw understanding
in them, so she realized I planned to get down to the bottom of
what was going on with him.

She turned and stopped at the foot
of the stairs. “Come and get me if anything happens. I don’t want
to miss something and you renege on our deal. Got it?”

“Perfectly, Mrs. Brennan.” She
blew me a kiss and then disappeared up the stairs.

I waited until I knew she was gone
before I began my interrogation of Sol. “What is wrong with you
tonight, my man?”

He ran his hands through his hair
as he leaned over. “It’s Avery.”

Whoa! Did not see that one coming.
“What about her?”

“She is scared to death of me.
Every time I look in her eyes, she reminds me of the monster I used
to be and it’s driving me crazy. I can’t get a moment’s
peace.”

“It will get better,” I
promised.

“Will it? Because right now, I
don’t feel like it will.”

“She just needs a little time,” I
encouraged.

“Did you see the way she recoiled
from me at dinner?” he asked with pain in his voice. “She hates me
and I can’t say I blame her.”

“She doesn’t know the Solomon we
all know. She only knows you’re the vampire that bit her and drank
from her. Give her a little time and once she sees the real Sol,
she’ll love you.”

22 A Long
Week

We spent the next three days
waiting for Jenn to stop free falling and when she did, it wasn’t
pleasant. Chansey was beside herself as she watched Jenn’s reaction
to being plunged into the lonely darkness. She mournfully watched
her cry for two days, but when her screams of pain and agony
started, it was almost too much for Chansey and I wondered what
kind of man I was to force my wife to watch such a cruel
experience.

I pulled her close to me as she
cried for Jenn. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked this of you.
Your heart is too tender for this. You don’t have to continue to
watch this.”

“No, I’m going to finish this out.
I can’t stop now,” she argued and I heard in her voice that she
wasn’t going to let this deter her from being changed.

I stroked her long hair as I said
over Jenn’s screams, “It’s up to you, Love.”

Jenn screamed for two days. She
clawed at the skin on her chest the first day of screaming until
she shredded it open. It healed almost instantaneously and this
gory cycle repeated all day. She tore at her skin and veins all
over her body the second day, all while continuing to scream in
agony.

It was a week from the onset of
Jenn’s transition before we saw any signs of it coming to an end.
Sol and I were spent and exhausted because Jenn’s transition had
been one of the most difficult we’d ever witnessed and participated
in.

When she awakened on the seventh
day and sat up on the bed, we all sighed in relief, even if it was
far from over. She looked around lifted her nose to the air. “What
is that delicious aroma?”

“It’s cruel for me to stay here,”
Chansey said as she stared at Jenn.

Sol turned to Chansey and said, “It
may be, but it’s necessary. This is part of the process and she has
to learn control. If you leave, we are going to call in a Blood
Swan. You’ve seen her through this far, so you might as well see
her the rest of the way.”

Chansey was exhausted. The things
she had seen and heard over the last week had taken their toll on
her and I felt too much guilt to make her stay any longer. As I
looked at her red eyes staring in Jenn’s direction, I wondered what
I had done to my wife.

I reached for her arm and pulled
her to me. “I am satisfied with what Chasney has seen and she has
done what I asked of her. She is terribly exhausted, so call a
Blood Swan. My wife needs rest because it’s been a long
week.”

Chansey’s knees buckled and I
lifted her into my arms to carry her to our bedroom. As I carried
her up the staircase, I heard Jenn shaking the steel bars as she
called out, “Don’t take her away. We can all share her.”

As I carried her to our bedroom, I
realized this was my fault and I wondered if the things she saw had
scarred her in any way. I hated myself for what I had done to her.
She did all of this to please me, but it was too much for someone
so good.

I pulled the covers back and laid
her on her side of our bed. I pulled her shoes off and she was so
exhausted she never opened her eyes to look at me. I pulled the
covers up to her chin and looked at her beautiful face. Would she
hate me after she woke up and had time to think about everything
that happened this week?

When I woke up, it was very early.
I was sitting in the chair at Chansey’s bedside and she was looking
at me from where she laid in the bed. “What are you doing in that
chair? Why didn’t you sleep in our bed with me?”

I sat up and rolled my neck. “I
needed to think after I put you to bed and I wanted to watch you
sleep. I miss doing that.”

She scooted over and lifted the
covers to invite me to our bed. “You always got in the bed with me
when you were watching me sleep before. You should have come to
bed. I know you couldn’t have slept well in that chair.”

I didn’t, but I wasn’t sure I
deserved to sleep too well. She continued holding the covers up.
“Come. I want you next to me.”

I didn’t move from the chair. “I
want to talk.”

She leaned forward and tugged on my
arm. “I can feel what’s going on in your head and we can talk about
it after you are next to me. Get in here now, Mr.
Brennan.”

I slowly got out of the chair and
slid in beside Chansey. She scooted up close to me and wrapped
herself around me like a vine. “Now, explain to me what’s going on
inside of your head because I don’t like the way it
feels.”

I shut my eyes and shook my head.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that of you. It was too
much.”

She slowly rubbed her palm across
my chest. “I’m glad I did it. Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad the
first stage is completed. I was so tired I don’t think I could have
hung in too much longer, but I’m good now. I’m ready to finish this
thing I started.”

There was no way I would expose her
to this any further. “No, I don’t want you to and I shouldn’t have
insisted you do it in the first place.”

She rose up to look at me and I saw
something ignite in her eyes. “Is this your way of
reneging?”

“No, I couldn’t do that to you
after what you’ve been through this week.”

“Has it been tough to watch? Hell,
yes. Do I want to quit now? Hell, no. I know it’s not what you
want, but I will be a vampire one day because I’m going to be with
you forever. I think I deserve to finish seeing this through. I
need to see the struggle from the point Jenn is at to the point
where you are now. You owe me that much.”

Yeah, I knew she was right. “You
need rest first,” I conceded.

She sat up as she said, “I just
slept.”

“No, it wasn’t enough.”

She closed her eyes and squinted
them tightly as she grabbed her forehead with one hand and moved
her other hand to the bed to steady herself.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I changed positions too
quickly and got a little dizzy. That’s all.”

“I want you to lie back down for
at least three more hours. You haven’t rested enough for what
you’ve gone through this week. Will you do that for me?”

“Okay. I will give you three more
hours because I’m still tired, but not a minute more.”

I leaned over and kissed her
forehead. “That’s my girl.”

I laid with Chansey until she went
to sleep and then I slid out of bed to go check on Sol and Jenn. He
was sitting in the same chair he had occupied all week and he
turned to look at me as I returned without Chansey.

“Is Chansey okay?”

“She’s fine, but I told her she
needed to sleep a little longer. Husband’s orders, you
know?”

“No, I wouldn’t know, but Chansey
strikes me as one that wouldn’t be too keen on husband’s
orders.”

“Ordinarily not, but she was too
tired to argue. How are things going down here? Any improvement in
Jenn?”

“I think so. She went to sleep as
soon as the Blood Swan left because she was so exhausted. She’s
been talking in her sleep for the last few hours.”