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“Ronan, what am I doing down here?”
“I didn’t feel it was safe for you to be upstairs alone.”
“Not safe? Why not?”
“Have you forgotten about Hewitt and Overstreet?”
Her eyes widened as memory of the night before returned. “How did you get me away from them?”
“We made a deal.”
“A deal? What kind of a deal?”
“I promised not to kill them if they let you go.”
“That was very clever of you,” she said, smiling. “But surely you don’t think they would try to kidnap me again?”
“I don’t know what those two are capable of, but finding out isn’t a chance I’m willing to take.”
She lifted her arms overhead, stretching her back and shoulders, and then ran her fingers through her hair. “I must look a mess.”
“You’ve never been more beautiful. How do you feel?”
She canted her head to one side, taking mental inventory. “I’ve never felt better,” she declared.
“I didn’t feel this good even before I got sick. Why is that? And why can I see you in the dark?”
Rising, she walked back and forth beside the mattress, her brow furrowed. “I can hear noise from outside. Why? I never could before. And I can smell the grass and the trees, and…” She stopped pacing to look at him. “Even you look different, as if I’m seeing you more clearly.” She glanced around the room. “Everything looks brighter, clearer, more distinct, even in the dark…”
She looked at him once more, her gaze riveted on his face. “What’s happened to me, Ronan?”
she asked, a tremor in her voice. “What have you done?”
He couldn’t sidestep the truth any longer. Expelling a deep breath, he said, “I’ve given you what you wanted the day you first came to see me.”
She digested that a moment, and then she slapped him with all the force at her command. Even though she was a newly made vampire, her strength was considerable.
The sound of flesh meeting flesh echoed like a gunshot in the room. His head snapped back from the force of her blow. He could feel the blood rushing to his face, knew her handprint stood out in vivid relief against his cheek.
“Tell me,” she said, her voice rising. “Tell me that you didn’t make me what you are.”
He stared at her, his silence condemning him.
“Tell me, damn you!”
“I couldn’t let you die. Hate me if you wish. Destroy me if it will make you feel any better.”
“How could you?” She slapped him again, harder this time. “How could you?” Rage and anger bubbled up inside of her and spewed out in a vitriolic hiss. “You knew how I felt about it. I told you time and again I didn’t want to be what you are.”
He said nothing. Indeed, what could he say in his defense? Except, “Would you rather be dead?”
“Yes! No! I don’t know, I only know I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done to me. Never!”
“Then may be it a long and healthy hatred.”
“I’m going out,” she said, striding toward the stairway. “And I don’t want you to follow me.”
He said nothing, only stared after her as she walked up the stairs. He heard the sound of her footsteps overhead as she moved toward the front door.
He listened as the door opened and then closed.
She was gone, perhaps for good, and he had no one to blame but himself.
Shannah left the house with no destination in mind other than the need to be as far away from him as possible.
She was a vampire. Undead. A creature of the night. Forever lost, forever damned. Nosferatu.
She walked down the street, deaf and blind to her surroundings, her rage and confusion growing with every step. How could he have done such a thing to her? He had known how she felt about becoming a vampire. They had discussed it often enough. She had made it clear that she was dead set against it. She laughed mirthlessly. Dead set. A poor choice of words.
She would never be able to enjoy a summer day at the beach again. She would never be able to have children. Never be able to go shopping with Judy, or out to lunch with her mother. Her mother! How could she ever face her parents again? What could she possibly tell them? The truth was out of the question. She could only imagine their reaction.Hi, Mom. Hey, guess what?
I’ve decided to come back home. Oh, there’s just one thing. I’m a vampire now. Right.
Maybe she could tell them that the doctor had discovered a cure.Oh, but there’s just one little drawback. I can only be active at night. She frowned. That just might work. She could tell them her sudden aversion to the sun was a side effect of the cure.
A sudden pain deep in her gut put everything else from her mind. She knew instinctively what it was. It was the need to feed. On blood. Even as the thought was born, her fangs pricked her tongue. Opening her mouth, she explored her teeth with her fingertips. Her new teeth were very sharp indeed!
I am a vampire. I have fangs. What will my dentist think?
A bubble of near-hysterical laughter rose in her throat.Guess what I’ll be next Halloween?
There was a bar on the corner. Taking a deep breath, she went inside, and almost gagged. The smell of liquor, humanity, perspiration and lust was overpowering, the noise almost beyond bearing. And the blood…she could hear it pulsing with the beat of a dozen hearts, smell it, almost taste it on her tongue. She lowered her head, afraid someone would see the bloodlust in her eyes, the way she had seen it in Ronan’s.
A young man approached her. “Hey, baby, wanna dance?”
She shook her head and turned away, then practically ran out of the bar.
The pain in her belly grew worse.
She stopped halfway down the block. A man was walking toward her, alone.
She knew Ronan called his prey to him, that he took what he needed and sent his victims on their way, leaving them blissfully unaware of what he had done, but she couldn’t do it, didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to drink human blood, not now, not ever.
Passing the man by, she walked for miles without tiring or getting out of breath. Amazed by her new powers and abilities, she jumped over a six-foot fence just to see if she could do it, and cleared it with ease. It was like being reborn, she thought, like being Superman. But it wasn’t right. It wasn’t natural. She was an abomination.
No! She was Shannah Davis.
Vampire.
She walked for hours with no destination in mind, the pain in her insides steadily growing worse, but she refused to give in to it. Gritting her teeth, she walked until a tingling under her skin warned her that it was almost dawn and she realized she had nowhere to hide from the light of day.
