Blood Relations - Chapter 13

Friday, November 14, 1997

Amber woke up, first becoming aware of a hand caressing her cheek. The heat pouring out of their palm was almost uncomfortable, and there was something about the scent that wasn’t right for a human.

Amber opened her eyes, and in spite of how rotten she felt, she smiled at Jenny, Marcus’ alter ego. She smiled because somehow, Marcus had always found a way to change into Jenny while Amber wasn’t watching.

As she always had before, Amber marveled at the subtle physical differences between Jenny and Marcus. There was a change in the shape of her eyes, making hers almond shaped while his were more round and open. Her mouth pursed, making her lips rounder, and her shoulders sloped with a feminine curve.

But with her senses being enhanced, Amber could understand for the first time that it wasn’t just a change of appearance. Jenny’s scent was female, where Marcus was definitely male.

Amber thought of mentioning it, but instead she said, “I was worried that I wouldn’t get the chance to see you.”

Swiping her long blonde hair out of her face, Jenny returned the smile. But the sentiment was revealed as a lie by the concern in her blue eyes. “I was planning to come out after dinner.”

Amber raised up from her bed on her forearms to search the room. “Where’s Vicky?”

Pointing at the door, Jenny said, “She took off to look for that wyrm.”

“I’ve heard Vicky use the term before, but I don’t think she ever explained what a wyrm was.”

“I don’t know any more than what Emil told me before he left, and I don’t think he knows that much. The wyrm are blood drinkers, but they’re some kind of bodiless lifeform. That thing we saw isn’t its true body. It’s just an illusion the wyrm casts to appear humanoid.”

“So that shadow I saw spilling into the yard was his true form,” Amber guessed.

“I didn’t see anything at all,” Jenny said. She tried to smile again, but she was no more convincing on her second attempt than she had been on her first. “I guess your eyes are getting stronger, now that you’re changing.”

“Yeah, it’s all part of the package deal.” Amber grimaced and tried to swallow away the cold feeling in her mouth. “Of course, there are some disadvantages, like being too eager to sample new bloods.”

“I still can’t wrap my head around you being able to get over your issues with blood so—” Jenny glanced around as the door opened. “She’s awake.”

“I know,” Claudia said, still waiting by the door. “How do you feel?”

“I’m kind of thirsty,” Amber said. “Did Vicky come back yet?”

“No, but neither has anyone else. Jenny and I are the only ones who didn’t rush out to look for trouble.” Claudia’s pensive expression mirrored her worried thoughts, but she forced them away, trying to offer Amber a smile. “I’ll bring you something from the kitchen.”

“No, I can—” Amber tried to sit up, and then she rolled onto her side when her head spun. “Or I can wait here.”

She sank her head back down to her pillow and closed her eyes, so she missed the worried look that Jenny exchanged with Claudia before the vampire backed away from the door.

Jenny returned her attention to Amber, and with nothing else to do, she continued to stroke Amber’s cheek, her eyes and expression both filled with helpless concern.

Amber wanted to tell Jenny not to worry, but she was close to panic herself. All she could think was, What the hell did I drink?

Dimitri’s assurance that the unknown blood wouldn’t harm her child carried little weight with her, and it meant even less now that she was huddled on her side, feeling dizzy and limp.

Her throat and stomach felt icy. She couldn’t swallow away the film clinging to her mouth, leaving her with a constant lingering aftertaste. The flavor was pleasant at first, but it was starting to become cloying.

Claudia returned to the room with a tray bearing four bottles. She set the tray on the nightstand and settled on the bed before she pulled Amber up to rest against her side.

Her concerned expression soon shifted into alarm as Amber drained one bottle after another. Amber finished the last and complained, “I’m so cold. Can’t you bring me something warmer?”

***

Lucas wandered in shadows along a highway underpass, his hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his jacket while he brooded to himself. What’s rule number one of a horror movie? Don’t split up.

A second thought brought a smirk to his pale blue lips. But then again, when it’s a vampire movie, doesn’t the vampire usually work alone anyway? The only times I’ve seen a coven in a movie, all the vampires were whiny emos who couldn’t stand themselves.

He conceded that right then, he was feeling a bit like whining himself. After all, the night was going so well before Dimitri showed up to ruin things for everyone.

Lucas had been hoping that he could pull Simone or Felix aside to talk to them, since he’d never met any magi before. He’d been building up an interview in his head, trying to organize all the questions he had about magic.

Instead, he was out hunting for a wyrm, a creature which probably considered him an appetizer. A small appetizer at that.

I don’t want no trouble, mister wyrm, he thought, just in case Dimitri was close enough to hear him. I just want to know what you poisoned my housemate with.

It was a sarcastic thought, but it was still the truth. Without knowing what Amber had consumed, there was no way to find an antidote. So one by one, the vampires had left the house to search for Dimitri in the hope of getting some kind of answer from him.

Lucas couldn’t speak for the others, but he intended to request answers, politely, and using “please” to close his statements instead of, “or else.”

There was no safety in numbers, or by staying at the house. There was no safety in  staying with the magi either. Dimitri was too powerful, and he could wipe out everyone without taking a single scratch of damage.

But the unfair odds weren’t what put Lucas in the mood to whine. It was the unfairness of the attack that bothered him, and it was Dimitri’s choice of target.

Amber had done nothing, said nothing to provoke the ire of the wyrm. She was the smallest, youngest member of the coven, and the one least able to defend herself. So why choose to pick on the weakest member, when none of them were strong enough for a proper fight?

Lucas thought, Because he’s evil, and sometimes evil people just lash out for no reason.

He moved away from the highway to search a residential section, and it was several minutes later when he came back to the thought and asked himself if he wasn’t evil as well.

But he didn’t feel that he was. Humans were big on the concept of preserving a natural balance when it came to lions eating elks in the wild, and even if they didn’t like it, the natural order of the world was that humans were food for vampires.

If Lucas took pleasure in tormenting his victims, then his actions might be evil. But he favored quick, clean kills when he hunted, and he was willing to compromise and feed from pets to avoid killing too many of the humans.

So he wasn’t evil, and while he wasn’t exactly good, he was at least morally principled. Which was about the best that any modern day vampire could manage, really.

With his moral guidance systems properly oriented, Lucas brought his thoughts back to the absurdity of his situation. Because, if Dimitri was evil, he probably wouldn’t feel any moral obligation to explain himself, and certainly not to a ninety-something whelp.

So, what am I still doing out here? Lucas asked.

He thought of the panic in Vicky’s eyes as Emil carried Amber’s limp body into the house, and he decided, One more hour of looking couldn’t hurt.

***

Vicky panted to sample the air, but there was no sign of Dimitri. Despite her running all over the city, there was no trace of the wyrm in the air, nor was there a trail on the ground for her to track.

A wyrm. The name conjured up an old memory of her mother, dressed in her drab black schoolmarm dress with a book open in her lap. The wyrm might be considered distant cousins of the vampires according to human scholars, being that they are both blood drinking races. But the similarities end there, and a great distinction lies between the two races. The wyrm are mystical shapeshifters who are gifted with shadow magic, and in some cases, with elemental magic. Vampires are neither mystical in nature, nor are they gifted with any forms of magic.

In her memory, Florence looked up from her book. The wyrm were granted entry into Lissand during the great cleansing, but the vampires were left on Earth to fend for themselves. The humans might not make a distinction between us, but the elves did. Despite our long life spans, there is nothing magical or miraculous about us, and the Earth plane is where we belong.

Being only a child, Vicky had declared, I want to see a wyrm.

Florence shook her head swiftly. No you don’t. Just because we share a similar diet, it does not make us natural allies. Always remember this, Victoria. No matter how strong you think you are, there’s always something else that thinks of you as food too.

Vicky nodded at the memory, and then she asked herself why she was out trying to search for a creature who considered her food. But the answer was all too easy to find. She thought of Amber lying in bed, her body growing colder while her pulse and breathing slowed.

Six hours had passed since she’d left the house, and she still couldn’t allow herself to admit that she was running just to keep herself from breaking down and giving in to panic. But the search was a fool’s errand, and once she admitted the truth, she gave up and returned to the house.

She found Amber awake, but her relief was short lived when Claudia took her out of the bedroom and toward the stairs to get out of earshot from Amber.

Claudia’s face was etched with lines of worry, and she clasped her hands in a sign of agitation that made the panicked animal in Vicky pace restlessly. “She’s put down three victims since she woke up, and she’s still complaining about feeling cold. I don’t like the smell coming off of her at all. She smells like she has a human fever, but she...

Vicky couldn’t stand the silence. “What?”

“Vicky, she’s as cold as a corpse.” Claudia pouted, rubbing her hands together as if she were feeling a sympathetic coldness. “Nothing warms her, and I’ve had to ask Jenny to leave the room, because Amber is starting to look at her as a potential meal.”

Vicky cringed at the revelation. Amber was dying, and she was dropping into a bloodlust so intense that she was losing her self-control to her hunger.

Vicky’s voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Could you tell what she’s been fed?”

“No. I’ll be damned if I can place the scent,” Claudia said, turning her head back over her shoulder to glance at the door. “I know it’s blood, but it isn’t anything from Earth. It has to be something Dimitri brought with him from Lissand. Whatever mystical creature it came from, I don’t think it’s safe for humans to consume.”

Vicky couldn’t think of anything then. She couldn’t even think to nod an acknowledgement. She walked around Claudia and returned to the bedroom, laying beside Amber.

She draped her arm over her partner, trying not to tremble though she was scared to her wit’s end. Amber shivered and moved closer to Vicky. Her body felt wrong for being so cold, and she pressed her arms into Vicky’s side, as if trying to warm herself.

Vicky’s face squeezed in anguish. She hadn’t felt so helpless in a long time, not since losing William. She felt like she was losing Amber, and the causes for both losses were too horribly similar. Vicky was compelled to stand still, unable to fight for the people she loved. For all her strength, she could still be rendered helpless by anyone with telepathic abilities.

Dimitri kept her standing in place while he poisoned her partner. Why?

The question locked away every other thought in her head until Emil opened the door, silently beckoning for Vicky to come with him.

He waited until he was in the den to speak. Charles and Lucas had returned emptyhanded, as had Felix and Simone. Jenny and Claudia sat together on the divan, both of them looking just as lost for answers.

“I’ve got a hunch that I know what Dimitri did,” Emil said as he went to a shelf to scan the titles. “I need to look up some mystical animals first before I can be sure what kind of blood he fed her. But the point might be to change Amber in some way that would render her immortal.”

Emil found the book he was looking for and slid it off the shelf, flipping through it while he continued talking. “There are only a handful of creatures whose blood has that kind of property, but I think it makes sense, given what Dimitri asked Amber.”

Vicky moved to stand beside Emil, trying to read the titles on the shelves. Some of the symbols were familiar to her, but for a few seconds, the language eluded her. Then her memory clicked. “These books are written in daemonic script?”

Emil snorted and cast a disappointed glance at her. “You’ve been here three and a half months, and you’ve only now noticed this?”

Vicky shrugged. “I’m not an avid reader. I used to be, but after my first library went up in flames, I didn’t bother trying to make another.”

Emil nodded and put the book away, his amber eyes skimming book titles again. “These are all copies of books given to me by my father. The copies he gave me were so decayed that I had to make it my first major project. So if the daemonic script looks sloppy, blame me. It’s my handwriting.”

Vicky shook her head. “I’ve only seen a few samples, but your writing looks clean. Where did your father get the books from?”

“He copied them from his father’s books, and his father received them as a gift from Cain.”

Vicky was worried over Amber, which was the only reason she didn’t roll her eyes. Instead, she made an expression of annoyance. “Right, the ‘ancient one.’ I had to figure his name would show up eventually.”

“Typical whelp response,” Emil remarked, then raised his hand to slip another book down from the shelf. “None of you can believe in a vampire surviving forever until you’ve lived at least five hundred years.”

“It is a pretty thin story,” Vicky said. “I felt that way even as a child, when my father told me stories about him. I always think of Cain as our version of Hercules. We spin legends about how he drained the blood from dragons—”

“But there were dragons on Earth, back when the legends were history,” Emil said. “Now all the dragons live in Lissand.”

“Okay, but you can’t really think this one super-vampire is still alive. Somewhere, he had to slip up and get caught, and then he got killed.” Vicky snorted at his silence. “You won’t tell me, ‘oh ye of little faith?’”

Emil shrugged. “You’ve just dealt with a wyrm, and since it came from Lissand, it can be well over thirty thousand years old. By comparison, Cain would only be sixteen thousand, give or take a century. I’m one thousand, four hundred, and...something, so—”

“You can’t remember your age either.” Vicky allowed herself a thin smile. “I thought it was just me.”

“My point is, I don’t look much older than my late thirties in human terms, and I haven’t aged much aside from a few fine lines forming around my eyes,” Emil said. “So why should Cain’s age be so hard to believe?”

“Maybe I’m just a cynic.” Vicky glanced over his shoulder at the daemonic symbols in the book he was holding. “What are you reading?”

“An entry on unicorn blood.”

Vicky’s face pulled into a skeptical expression. “You don’t think he gave her—”

“No, the symptoms are all wrong,” Emil said. “Unicorn blood would make her immortal, but it would curse her with...with a constant need for blood.” Emil paused and brought his finger back up to the line he’d just read before he looked up at the shelf. “Yeah, that might be it.” His eyes narrowed in frustration a moment later. “Where is it?”

Vicky asked, “Where is what?”

“The third volume in the set. This entry had a mention of a nightmare, but I know that entry isn’t in this volume.”

“A nightmare? As in a bad dream or a horse with a bad attitude?” Vicky asked.

“I’m going with the dark horse as my guess,” Felix said. He got up from the couch and tapped the book he was holding to get Emil’s attention. “This might be what you’re looking for.”

Emil spun his head to glance at the book, his face drawing into an expression of surprise as he nodded. “Yes, that’s it. Can you read daemonic script?”

“No, I was just curious and took a book down at random.” Felix handed him the book and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Kind of funny how that worked out.”

Emil flipped through the book, his gaze skimming over entries until he found what he was looking for.

While he read, his expression became more confounded. Emil’s eyebrows bunched together while his mouth flattened into a pale slit, and he raised his head to stare at Vicky with a troubled gaze.

“Don’t leave us hanging,” Felix said.

“I think this is it. Nightmare blood can induce bloodlust in vampires, but it’s a poison for humans. It makes them suffer a freezing fever, and the symptoms sound about right from what Claudia told me when I got back.”

“Does your book mention any antidotes?”

Emil shook his head. “No, there aren’t any antidotes. The book recommends seeing a healer to have the blood pulled away magically. But if this is what Dimitri gave Amber, then he was lying when he said he wanted to make her immortal. I’m not sure that makes sense. We didn’t do anything to him, but he attacked one of our people like she’s a mortal enemy.” His frown stretched as he regarded Vicky with confusion filled eyes. “Why?”

“I’ve been asking myself that all night,” Vicky said.

Claudia rushed into the den, her mouth flapping in a sputter and her blue eyes wide with panic. “Amber’s gone!”