Blood Rose Ch. 07

It's blood!

As soon as the first drop had slipped down her throat, the logical part of Kaeli's mind that had somehow been suppressed until now began screaming at her. She instantly remembered where she was and how she'd gotten there—and desperately hoped to God she was wrong about what had just happened. She bolted upright, throwing Annabelle off of her as if Annabelle were a bed sheet. It couldn't be true... she knew she'd used the antidote, and it had only been minutes after she'd been bitten. It couldn't be...

Her shaking hand rose up to her mouth, and her fingers slipped inside her mouth, feeling for... her blood practically froze as she felt the sharp tips of her new fangs. "Oh God," she managed to say in a hoarse, raspy breath. "No... no!"

"Whatever is wrong?" Annabelle said, not even trying to hide the smug undertone in her voice. "Isn't this what you wanted?" Kaeli stared at her. How much did she know? How could she have known? What in the hell did that bloodsucking bitch do?

"Come to think of it, you must be thirsty by now," Annabelle added, getting up and walking into another room. Kaeli began hurriedly throwing on her clothes, not wanting to be in the room when she got back. She dressed and grabbed her purse—

She picked up the tracer that lay at her feet, still blinking. Suddenly a whole new series of questions had been raised. Regardless of why the antidote might not have worked, it should have taken her about twenty hours to change, during which time Dorian and the others should have already come crashing through the doors and laid siege to the mansion. Yes, the plan had been for her to be awake to let them in, which obviously hadn't worked, but regardless they still should have been able to break in somehow when they got the signal from the tracer. So why was she still here? Why hadn't they come charging in and carried her back to HQ—or killed her, for that matter, if she was already changing? Why was Annabelle still alive? What happened to the team?

"Here we are now," Annabelle said, returning in a simple black dress with a white bowl in her hands. Kaeli realized that her moment of pondering had cost her the moment she needed to get away unnoticed, but that wasn't going to stop her now. She headed for the door, but Annabelle immediately stepped in her path, cutting her off. "Don't be in such a rush. Here, drink up."

Kaeli was about to push past her and walk out the door, until she looked down into the bowl that Annabelle was holding up to her. As soon as she set eyes on the dark red fluid, everything in her body started screaming at her. Her stomach churned in anticipation and she felt a stirring in her teeth. The rational part of her head was the only thing that wasn't demanding her to grab that bowl and plunge her mouth into it like a ravenous dog. Before she even realized it the bowl was in her hands, inches from her face. She could smell the stuff in it, the heavenly aroma promising a sweet and delicious release from the way her body was screaming at her.

God save me, I really have turned! I'm a fucking vampire!

Shrieking through her teeth, Kaeli tossed the bowl across the room, making a crash and a splatter on the far wall, and shoved Annabelle aside and bolted. She moved like whirlwind through the hallway and down the stairs, only stopping when she collided with one of the girls in the main lobby. She looked up from where she'd landed in a sitting position on the bottom step, and instantly recognized Elizabeth looking down at her. "Kaeli? Are you alright?"

"I'm sure you'll remember what it feels just after you first wake up," Annabelle said, smoothly descending the stairs. "You'll understand if she's a little scared right now. Is the party over already?"

"No, the other girls are still in there. I just need to go. I have to meet someone."

"All right. Remember to practice with this person if you get the chance. Don't let yourself get complacent."

"I know. I won't." Elizabeth looked down at Kaeli, said, "Don't be a stranger," and turned and left through the big double doors.

She talks to me like we're friends!

"You really should try to relax a little bit," Annabelle said. "It'll get easier. I know it might be a little difficult to accept at first. Especially for a hunter."

She knows!

Kaeli glared with more loathing than she'd ever had for anyone in her life at Annabelle, who simply stood there, smiling at her. She'd killed a lot of vampires before, but she'd never hated any individual one so much.

"You'll feel better after you have your first drink. Come on, let's go to the kitchen."

"No!" Kaeli shouted, bolting to her feet. "You stay away from me, you goddamn bloo—"

"Careful what name you use, hunter. Remember, you're one of us now."

Her moment of seething rage was swept aside by the crushing reality that Annabelle was right. Goddamnit, she was absolutely fucking right! Kaeli's head fell into her hands. "No... please, God, no!"

"You know what they say about being careful what you ask for. Because Kaeli, darling, you got it."

"NO!" Kaeli ran for the front doors, threw them open, and ran some more. The front gate with the electronic lock stood ahead of her; it could easily be opened from the inside with the push of a button, but that would have required her to stop running and push it. Instead she jumped. She jumped, grabbed onto the top of the gate, vaulted over, and kept on running.

She ran until she collapsed to her knees on a park walkway, leaning against a wooden bench. As much as her head was churning, she realized that so was her stomach. The image of that bowl of blood Annabelle had offered came rushing back to her, and it wasn't a small part of her that was now wishing she'd taken it. As horrifying as it was to admit, she needed to feed. She needed blood.

No! It wasn't going to come to that. Every hunter knew what had to be done in this scenario. It was the scenario she had always been prepared for, but had always believed she would never have to worry about. She hadn't forgotten the rule her father taught her: "it's better to die as a human than live as a monster." It was too late for one, but she could still avoid the other.

"Hey, lady, you okay?"

Frowning, Kaeli looked up at the pair of nighttime joggers, a man and a woman, who had happened upon her. Immediately she noticed one particular thing about them: they had been jogging for a while now, and their blood was pumping hard. She could hear it pounding in their veins. Her muscles tensed, as if she was preparing to pounce.

Don't do it!

"Are you alright?" the woman asked, bending down to her. "You want me to call 911?"

"Get away from me!"

"Hey, lady," the man said, "we just want to help and you don't look so good—"

A bare-fanged, bestial growl, which it took Kaeli a moment to realize came from her, caused both of them to recoil from her. "Whoa, what the—"

If he said anything after that, Kaeli didn't hear it. She definitely heard the woman screaming, though, whether or not she was consciously aware of it at the moment. It was all kind of a blur. But when she lifted her head and her senses started to clear, she saw the woman looking at her in horror in and then turning and running off screaming. And when she looked down she saw why: the man's dead body that she knelt on top of, with the bloody wound in his neck and the taste of his blood still fresh in her mouth.

It suddenly became difficult to breathe. The nightmare had just taken its worst possible turn. She collapsed onto her side, and what few breaths she managed to get out came out as hysterical sobs.This isn't happening!

Why didn't the team show up when they were supposed to?

They should have already killed her. It would have been better than this. They should have followed the tracer's signal—

The tracer... where was it? She still had her purse, but on careful inspection she found the tracer wasn't in it, nor did she remember putting it back in her purse, or switching it off... she last remembered having it in her hand before Annabelle came in. She didn't remember putting it down anywhere... when she thought about it, she was sure it had still been in her hand when she ran out of the room...

Elizabeth! She'd been too caught up in her panic to notice it at the time, but when she thought back on it, she remembered seeing the little blinking light on Elizabeth's back down close to her waist on the left side when the girl walked out the front door. She must have accidentally planted it on her when she bumped into her.

So they'll follow the signal to her... they'll track her down, and they'll kill her... and that's good, right? She's the one who bit me...

Because I let her.

She could try shifting the blame all she wanted; this was really all her own fault. She was the one who came up with this crazy plan, and didn't even bother to tell Dorian about it because she was afraid he would've said no—and rightly so, apparently. She had walked willingly into a vampire's hands, almost as if she wanted this to happen...

God help me.

She clutched at her cross—a gesture that suddenly felt like an offense. Of course she knew the myth about vampires being harmed by the cross was false, but right now it would have made perfect sense for her hand to start burning from the piece of jewelry she held. She'd allowed herself to become the very abomination she'd spent her whole life hunting; how could God possibly allow her to touch His symbol?

But nothing happened. Her hand didn't burn; all she felt was the smooth, cool brass of the thing in her hand.

Clearly, the only appropriate thing she could do now was die—but why did that not feel right? In spite of what she had always been taught about the rules of being bitten, she had always thought of suicide as being the act of a coward. Even after what she had just done, she just couldn't make the idea of killing herself feel right. Should she just go back to the headquarters and let the team kill her then?

What was she supposed to do?

Please, God, tell me what to do!

***

Yes, the team had assembled, or at least what was left of it. It didn't look like any of them were going anywhere tonight, though. Andy was just lying on the table with his hands beneath his head, staring at the ceiling; Keith was idly checking his gun with a cigarette in his teeth; and Ethan was using his good arm to work on refining some of the weapons. The fact that he was able to do that as expertly as he was with one arm in a sling was impressive, but that seemed like the most impressive thing that was going to happen tonight. Dorian looked through the smoke he blew out at heir glum and despondent faces, worried they'd never get out in the field again.

"Anybody got any plans for tonight," Andy shattered the silence with, "or are we just going to sit here and rot?"

"I'd love to hear some ideas if anyone's got 'em," Ethan said. "'Cause if I recall correctly, we just got fucking ass-raped by the same vampire we've been looking for."

"You mean the vampire Dorian's been looking for," Keith added, looking straight at Dorian.

"Yeah, that's a good point," said Andy, looking in the same direction.

Dorian scowled. "I don't think anyone is gonna argue that the world would be safer if Electra Rose was gone from it."

"I don't mean to rain on your parade, Dorian," Andy countered, "but this is going beyond vampire-hunting. This is your own personal vendetta we're fighting here, and look where it's gotten us: Jade's dead, Ethan's been sidelined, and Kaeli's still missing."

"I ain't sidelined!" Ethan grunted. "I just got a clipped wing is all!"

"The point is, we're getting killed because of what you want."

Dorian sighed. "I hear what you're saying, guys. I really do. But if it wasn't us it would've been someone else. Someone has to bring her down."

"Do you know of any other hunters who'd be willing to try?" Ethan said. "You're the only one who's obsessed enough to go after her. I went along with you when you found that card because I thought you knew what you were doing, 'cause evidently you and this broad have some history. I knew that since I met you."

"Yeah, she was awful friendly with you last night, Dorian," Andy put in.

"Care to tell us what that's about?" said Keith.

Dorian gazed around the room, seeing the collective stares of the other three men who awaited his response. He could already feel the potential for mutiny building, and he knew that giving them the answer to that would only push things to the breaking point.

He sincerely doubted they wanted to hear that the leader of their hunting team and one of the most feared vampires alive were once lovers.

For what had to be several minutes, nobody said anything. The pregnant silence was finally broken by a mild beeping coming from Ethan's desk. Dorian hesitated, and then moved to inspect it. And for a second, he allowed himself a breath of hope when he saw what was beeping. "What is it?" Ethan groaned.

"It's Kaeli's tracer. She's on the move."

Andy immediately headed for the weapons rack. "What the hell are you doing?" Keith said.

"What's it look like?" Andy said, strapping on his knives. "I'm gearing up so we can go after her."

"Are you fucking kidding?" Ethan barked. "Am I the only one getting a sense of déjà vu here?"

"Yeah," Keith agreed. "How do we know this isn't another trap?"

Dorian shook his head. "No. Electra wouldn't expect us to fall for the same trick twice. This is for real."

Ethan grumbled. "I don't like it."

"I don't give a fuck what you like," Andy snapped. "If Kaeli's out there, I'm gonna find her."

"Hold on," Keith warned. "Electra said Kaeli was turning last night. For all we know she might have been putting us on, but what if she wasn't? What if Kaeli's been turned?"

"I think that's obvious," Ethan said. "We kill her."

As cold as Dorian felt at the sound of those words, the look on Andy's face told him he felt a thousand times worse. Of course, that notion had crossed Dorian's mind by now, but Andy looked like it honestly hadn't crossed his.

"So what are you suggesting?" Keith said. "We follow that signal and go hunting for Kaeli?"

"I'm getting sick of 'what-if's'," Andy growled. "We're not going to accomplish anything by standing around talking about this! Let's do something!"

"I'll go," Dorian said suddenly, drawing all three gazes. "I'll check out that signal and see what's up."

"You're gonna walk into a potential trap alone?" Ethan said.

"If it's really Kaeli out there and she needs help, then we can't ignore that possibility. But if it's another trap, then I won't risk the rest of you guys this time. This is my fight, remember? Besides, if she wanted me dead, I already would be."

Dorian picked up the reader and grabbed his shotgun and his crossbow off the weapons rack and headed to his car. "Dorian," Andy said, coming up on his shoulder, "let me at least go with you. It's Kaeli we're talking about!"

Dorian turned and looked Andy straight in the eyes, while keeping his look sympathetic. "If the worst has happened, do you really want to be the one to have to kill her?"

Andy fell completely silent, his look communicating a thousand warring thoughts at once. Without another word, Dorian climbed into his car and drove out.

***

"It's because I'm in love with you." I can't believe I actually said that.

Making her way to Tyler's house, every thought that crossed Elizabeth's mind circulated around what she said to him last night. What in the world possessed her to blurt out something like that?

But the more she thought about it, she slowly realized that ever since her date with him last week Tyler had never totally left her mind once. Every time she had sex with one of the boys at Annabelle's mansion she imagined it was Tyler she was with. When she met Electra and felt so overwhelmed by the woman's terrifying presence, she had wished Tyler had been there to hold her. How had she become so attached to someone she barely even knew?

But she had only to remember that moment when she looked at his eyes in that car to realize that that wasn't true: she knew him better than anyone. That moment was all it had taken for her to know all she needed to know about him, and then that kiss under the bridge was all it had taken for her to fall in love.

She approached his house, and instantly sensed that he wasn't in his room; he was hiding in the bushes, waiting to surprise her. Elizabeth grinned wide; he was so cute. And he was about to learn a thing or two about who was the master of surprise here. Just like Annabelle taught her: conceal her life and breath from the world, make herself light as a feather, give nothing of herself away. She silently hopped to the other side of the bushes and slipped up behind where Tyler crouched down. He nearly jumped out of his skin when she put a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Very stealthy."

Jolting to his feet and turning around, he put a hand on his chest and blew out a breath that turned into a small grin. "How the hell did you do that?"

She grinned back like a shark. "Now where would the mystery be if I told you that?"

"Yeah, I guess you're nothing if not mysterious," he sighed.

She responded by running giggling to him and throwing her arms around his neck and enveloping him with an eager and fiery kiss. His body jolted again, and once he got his mouth free he said, "Whoa, you are just full of surprises tonight!"

For a long while she said nothing, simply staring into his eyes with a smile on her face. The longer she looked at his eyes, and the longer she saw into his heart, the clearer it became that what she said to him last night was absolutely true.

"You know," he said at last, "we probably should go somewhere other than the front lawn of my house, 'cause my parents just might wake up."

"You're right," she grinned. She hopped over to the door of his car. "Come on, let's go!"

"Where?"

"Doesn't matter. Let's just go somewhere... away." The smile on his face indicated he knew exactly what she meant.

He drove them up sloping roads, gradually getting into a wooded area, eventually steering off the road and parking under a tree at a seemingly random point. An eighth of a second passed after he put the car in park before she grabbed his face and pulled him into the most passionate kiss she could give. He was jostled for a moment, but then his hands came onto her shoulders, and his tongue joined hers in its dance. She took hold of one of his hands, slowly guided it from her shoulder to her breast, and she felt his breath jump in his throat. His fingers merely hovered there hesitating for a moment, before tightening and giving her breast the tender squeeze she sought.

Instinctively her leg attempted to move closer and was instantly impeded by the parking brake, causing her to break off the kiss and assess her obstacle. She had suddenly been forced to realize she had never done this in a car before.Not a hard problem to solve, though, she realized. She playfully grinned and slipped between the seats into the back, laying half-curled across the seat, beckoning him with her finger.

The eyes she saw looking back at her quickly calmed her playful mood. He was nervous. But he wanted her. It was all part of that beautiful innocence she loved about him. Gulping, he slowly crawled back with her, and inches from her face whispered, "Elizabeth, you should know I..."

"Shhh. It's all right. You don't have to say anything. Just kiss me."

And so he did. His hands slid up her chest and under her jacket, and she shrugged her shoulders allowing him to slide it off. More items of clothing followed, being slowly, gracefully removed while tenderly caressing each other's skin at the same time. If he was surprised to find she wasn't wearing a bra when her shirt was removed, he didn't show it; he merely gave her exposed breasts gentle love with his hands. Her own hands did similarly with his body once his shirt was gone, and her leg pressed against the thick bulge in his pants.