“Yeah, that,” I held up a hand to him. “My fingerprints are gone. Is that a sekhor thing?”
He regained his composure. “Yes, your skin and body underwent a significant transformation when you turned. There is a certain elasticity in your DNA now that allows you to heal quickly from otherwise traumatic or even fatal injuries.”
So I had super healing abilities, but I wasn’t invincible.
The empty goblet clinked against the marble when I set it down. I asked in a low tone, “He’s not going to let me go, is he?” Despite my new fullness, fear churned in my gut. At least I wasn’t frozen anymore. Warmth ran through me, and I was a new girl. Err, vampire.
Timothy closed the fridge and turned to face me. His eyes were solemn behind wire-rimmed glasses. “He’s charged with preserving the sacred cycle of life,” he repeated.
I didn’t understand.
He continued to stare at me. Somewhere in the penthouse a clock ticked with precise, measured clicks, time expanding between us.
I’d tested the sun theory. I had gotten my hands on some silver, a cross, a bulb of garlic and even some holy water, but not a one of them hurt me like lore suggested. But there were some things I didn’t dare test.
“I’m immortal, aren’t I?”
Timothy slowly nodded his head.
I licked my lips. Did vampires even get dry lips? “And he can’t allow that, can he?”
Timothy’s voice came out quiet and measured. “No, he cannot.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” I said, hating that my voice cracked.
Timothy grabbed the cooler and walked back to the elevator. As it opened with a ding, his eyes remained averted. “I suggest you get some rest. I’ll be up later to clean this. If you need anything, pick up any of the phones and dial three. That’s my direct line.”
When the elevator closed, I had the overwhelming need to throw something again, but it wouldn’t help.
No matter that I could live forever, I’d have to face the same hard truth everyone else did. Death was inevitable.
* * *
I satin the lone chair of the antechamber, thinking on how a vampire could appear after all these years. Not one, but five. This was a catastrophe. That sekhor upstairs in my penthouse right now clearly had no concept of the chaos she presented. If I did not contain the situation, sekhors would run rampant; murdering, power-hungry creatures.
A door opened, and Timothy entered. I looked up from where I’d rested my chin on my fist. Two of my reapers trotted in on either side of him, Yelhsa and Nerual. I could tell by the golden glow of their eyes, they’d returned with yet more souls requiring my judgement. They went over to wait against the wall along with Aicila, Eener, and the fifteen others. Tension coiled into my neck and back like a compressed spring. Work could be demanding, but my duty was sacred, and I never forgot that.
Timothy stopped a couple feet from the stairs of my platform. He didn’t say anything, and neither did I for a few moments. The weight of the situation was more than pressing, and we didn’t need to comment on the fact of the catastrophe. The dire situation was self-evident.
Timothy finally broke the silence. “Why after all this time?”
“I don’t know, but whoever is orchestrating this is moving quickly. We’ve encountered five sekhors, but Vivien…” I paused, thinking on how hard the vampire had deliberated on picking a name for herself, “has been on her own for two weeks, if we are to believe her. Whoever wields the ability to turn people, they aren’t wasting any time on growing their numbers.”
“Only a vampire can turn others into one of their own, and you have long made their kind extinct. How could they simply appear after all this time?” Timothy asked, echoing the question that now tortured me.
I pressed two fingers in my temple, feeling a headache develop. “I don’t know.” Then I got up from my seat and walked down the stairs, gesturing for Timothy to follow me. “At the moment, how they came about is inconsequential. Foremost, we need to find the master. When the sun sets, we will take the vampire back out and use her as bait. The others came for her; I presume they will do so again. If there is one thing I recall about vampires, it’s that they are fiercely territorial of their own kind. They will attempt to get her under their control as soon as possible.”
There was hesitance in Timothy’s voice. “You believe she doesn’t remember her turning?”
I paused. The vampire who spent all her time pressing buttons in a limo like a child and insisting she drank animal blood because she wasn’t a monster was…unusual. Not like the creatures I remember, nor like those in the alleyway. She would have me think her guileless, but I was not new. I was as old as dirt, as Timothy sometimes liked to joke.
“Trusting her would be a grave mistake,” I said. “One I don’t intend on indulging.”
Timothy held his tablet in front of his body. “I don’t think we should either, sire, but those other vampires came for her. Someone thinks she is special.”
“Which will make her the perfect bait.”
We had much to plan. But first, there were souls needing judgment before I could deal with the sekhor issue. It was going to be a long day.
