Doug was a vampire.
She gave a confused shake of her head. Why hadn’t she recognized what he was right away, instead of having to piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle? It didn’t make any sense.
She could feel Doug’s blue eyes focused on her, but she refused to look at him. Staying focused on Luis, she took her rage and anger with Doug out on him. She slammed one fist into Luis’s face, and the other into his stomach. She then kicked both of his kneecaps so hard they buckled beneath him. He wouldn’t be healing so quickly this time.
“That’ll teach you to play with little girls,” she said as she withdrew the stake from the back of her pants. Instead of stabbing him with it, she hammered the blunt end against his face again and again and again. She hit him so many times that when Doug grabbed her to physically stop her, Luis’s head looked like a squashed watermelon.
“Get off me!” She shrugged Doug’s hands off her, and he didn’t resist.
She stepped toward the downed body of the ancient vampire who’d believed he could defeat her, lifted the wooden stake with both hands, and slammed the spiked end right through his heart, following it down until she collapsed to her knees. He managed a sudden intake of breath before he began to decompose and turn to ash.
Slowly, she stood and stepped away from the bloodied carcass. Soon Luis would become a valuable pile of ash, and she would put it to good use.
“Trina.”
She closed her eyes. It wasn’t the urn who’d said her name, but she felt its demand, too.
“Trina!”
When he touched her shoulder, she spun around. “Don’t. Don’t you ever touch me again.”
Doug withdrew his hand and held up his palm. “I’m sorry.”
“Save it. Why do you all have to be the same?” It hurt to look into his eyes, and she was startled to feel the sting of tears. To keep from crying, she bit her bottom lip hard enough to make it bleed.
Doug shook his head, and for a long, silent moment they stood within arm’s length, both breathing a little too heavily and never breaking eye contact. It felt as if they were wordlessly saying so many things to each other, and yet they were saying nothing at all.
When he made a sudden movement toward her, she didn’t take on a defensive stance. She didn’t even push him away when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his hard body. He was taller than her, which really wasn’t all that strange since most people were.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she should be smacking him. Hell, she should be killing him. Instead, she pressed her face against his shoulder, feeling the warmth of his body. She knew he shouldn’t feel human, nor should he feel or smell so good, but he did.
“Oh, Trina,” Doug whispered into her hair. “He hurt you.”
I’ll survive. She couldn’t speak the words because her throat burned as much as her eyes.
“Trina, look at me.”
Like an idiot, she tilted her head enough to meet his lovely blue eyes. She should be yelling at him, beating him to a pulp, not responding like a . . . well, like a woman to a man.
“I’m so sorry.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, and she felt like an idiot for having blood drying on her face.
Before she got the chance to stop him, his lips met hers. He licked the fresh blood from her bottom lip, and then he kissed her slowly, as if unsure of how she would react. She knew this was wrong. It broke every single rule and belief she’d ever had about vampires, but she let the fingers of her left hand wind around the curls of his hair and kissed him back.
The kiss seemed to last forever. The rhythm of their mouths moved in perfect tandem, hungry for each other in a way she hadn’t expected. She didn’t even shy away when his tongue ventured into her mouth and touched hers. It felt so good, so right, and so pleasurable that, for just one tiny moment, she wondered if she could possibly enter into a relationship with this man.
But that was just wishful thinking because forever wasn’t something she could pursue with him. Not when he’d lied about what he really was. Not when he’d led her on and pretended he was human. And certainly not while the Allure Urn demanded she take him so strongly that even now her head throbbed with the pain of its demand.
What would happen if she just ignored it? If, for once, she allowed her own reasoning to call the shots? As soon as the thought entered her mind, the gut-wrenching pain tore through her insides so hard and fast she almost had to break away from the kiss.
I’m never as in control as the urn is.
As if Doug felt her pain, he tightened his hold on her.
With him rooting her to the spot, she lifted her right hand, the one still holding the stake she’d used on Luis, until it was situated behind him. Tears flowed from her eyes as soon as she stabbed him through his shoulder and felt the moment when the sharp point struck his heart.
Doug’s arms remained around her waist, but he removed his lips from hers. He gazed down into her eyes, but he didn’t look shocked.
“I . . . I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stop the compulsion.”
“When did you know?” he asked, blood sliding from between his lips.
“I think I knew from the beginning, but I didn’t want to face it. There’s no way I can ignore the call. The urn’s hold on me is too strong.” And now that she knew what he was, she understood why he hadn’t noticed the urn, which happened to be the biggest piece of furniture inside this almost empty room.
“It’s okay. I knew you would have to kill me.”
The tears slid silently down her cheeks. “Then why did you come back? You should’ve stayed away.”
“I came back for you.”
Trina shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe it doesn’t now, but it will one day.” Doug sighed, and a small smile teased his bloody lips. “Go ahead, finish it.”
Why was he asking her to do this? As soon as the wooden point pierced his heart completely, it would kill him. “What if I don’t want to?”
“You have to. You have no choice.” He kissed the top of her head before pressing himself harder against her body, giving her good arm enough moving room. “Do it.”
Trina nodded, the tears dribbling out of her eyes so fast his gorgeous features blurred. She couldn’t stop herself, and with Doug watching her, she reached for the stake protruding from the back of his shoulder and shoved it in so sharply that she heard his spine break.
Trina stepped out of their embrace a second before Doug tumbled back and fell to the floor. The spiked end of the stake stuck out from his chest and his eyes had closed.
“Thank you, Trina,” he whispered.
She shook her head, dropping to the floor beside him. She grabbed his hand and held it until he turned into a maze of bones, and the bone turned to ash—until she was left holding nothing but dust.
Chapter Fourteen
It didn’t take long for Trina to deposit Luis’s ashes into the urn and receive the strong dose of power she’d been long overdue. Yet, in spite of the positive impact it had on her physically, she didn’t enjoy it emotionally.
She looked at Doug’s ashes one last time. He was still in a neat, large pile on the floor.
I need some air.
As soon as she stepped out into the night and let the crisp air into her lungs, she found the bright pink earphones Doug had bought the first time they’d met sitting on her balcony. They were wrapped around the MP3 player that sat on her kitchen counter for so long. When had he taken it?
She exhaled. This was a foreign sensation and it was burning her up inside. Her heart felt too heavy inside. Her body, her lungs constricted in a way that kept her from being able to breathe properly. Even her hands were shaking, and she should feel energized from Luis’s ash, but she felt weak and defeated, deflated. She’d never mourned the death of a vampire she’d killed for the urn.
ich probably turned out to be the problem. During her latest “I’m human” stint all she’d wanted to do was surround herself with normalcy, yet had ended in the same place she always did. With dead vamps all around her.
She exhaled slowly, while leaning over to pick up the MP3 player. She stared at the casing and the bright colored earphones for what may have been a minute or an hour, before her legs gave out and she sat cross-legged on the balcony. She pressed her spine against the bricks, not caring about the strands of her hair caught on them. Just like she didn’t care about her bloody face or her bitten arm. It would all heal soon enough, though she wasn’t sure how her heart would survive.
With cold fingers, she plugged the earphones into her ears. Maybe some music would lull her for a bit. She trembled when she switched on the player and noticed that all of the menu music, clips, pictures, and games had been wiped. The only thing left was a recorded message.
What the hell? Trina sucked in a deep breath and exhaled it before pressing play. Tears again stung her eyes, but she blinked them back as she heard, “Hey, Trina, it’s Doug.”
She pressed the pause button. How could she listen to his voice so soon after killing him? She’d kissed him, and then staked him, for heaven’s sake!
It took a while, but she pressed play again, and heard, “If you’re listening to this, it means that I’m not here anymore. Or it could mean my surprise was ruined because you found this before you were supposed to. Either way, I’ve got to tell you a few things, okay?”
Silence buzzed for a moment and she thought she recognized the chirp of a nearby bird and the ringing of her phone. Had he recorded this here, on her balcony? “Listen, the first thing you need to know is that I don’t want you to be sorry. I don’t want you to feel bad either, because you did what you had to do. To be honest with you, I think you’ve helped me. So don’t waste any time mourning me. I’m just a vampire, after all. And you hate them, right?”
This time when he stopped talking it was to chuckle. “Although, if all the rumors about you are true, I don’t think you’ll care one way or the other about my passing.”
You’re wrong about that.
“The second thing you need to know is that Luis Gallego is the vampire who made me.”
She hadn’t expected to hear this, though.
“He made me and taught me a lot of valuable information before he set me loose. He wasn’t always this reckless and stupid. The guy was losing it, and I hope you were able to kill him. Wish I’d been there to see it, too.”
You did see it, Doug. Hope you enjoyed the show.
Doug sighed into her ear. “There’s one other thing I would like you to consider. Now that you’ve met me and know who my vampiric father was, I hope you’re able to see we’re not all the same. Sure, in most ways Luis is the norm for a vampire, even if what he was doing wasn’t normal for our kind. But there is a small number of us who can control our urges. Killing was an option I preferred not to take, and the fact you couldn’t detect me only strengthens my belief. I wasn’t like the others. There was still something redeemable in me.”
Trina felt the tears slide down her cheeks. Had she really killed a vamp who could have shown her that not all bloodsuckers were the same? She cringed at the thought.
“Look, I’m no angel, and like every other vampire, I have a history. But I made my choice not to kill a long time ago, and I stuck to it.”
Her phone rang, and she pressed the pause button again. I’m not ready to talk to anyone just yet.
Once it stopped ringing, she resumed the recording. “Besides, I’m pretty sure we’ll meet again someday,” Doug said in her ear. “So make sure you don’t cry too much for me, and deposit my remains where you need them to go. It was a pleasure to meet you, Trina. Oh, and if you ever see Zeke again, remember what I just told you, okay?”
That was the end of his message. Trina pulled the earphones out of her ears and sat watching the landscaped gardens below, trying not to think about how Zeke fit into any of this. Even if she already knew, she didn’t want to dwell on it.
When she eventually stood, she shoved the MP3 player and earphones into her jeans pocket and made her way toward Doug’s ashes. After cupping them between her hands and depositing them, she remained beside the urn. The power she received from Doug caressed her body in such a sensual way, she squeezed her thighs together.
Her eyes blurred with another round of tears, and she ran her fingertips over the new inscription that appeared on the urn’s surface. “I won’t forget you, Doug. I promise.”
The phone interrupted the private moment. She sniffed away her tears and made her way across the room to answer it with a croaky, “Hello?”
“Hi, Trina. Hey, are you okay?”
“Sure.” She rubbed her nose with her sleeve, peeling dry blood off her upper lip. “What is it, Tomas?”
“Sure, I’ll be there. I’ve got an update, anyway.” She’d tell them all about Luis, but not Doug. Doug was her secret to keep.
“Okay. That’s good.” Tomas remained silent for a few moments. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m just a little tired, that’s all.”
“Make sure you get some rest then.”
“Sure. Say hi to Father for me. I think you’re right, I need to get some sleep.”
“Okay, take care. And if you need me for anything, just holler.”
“Bye, Tomas.” She listened as he disconnected and held the phone to her ear for a long moment before finally dropping it back into its cradle.
Trying to get away from the duties of the Church, or even trying to forget what she was here to do, was pointless. She was cursed to lead a life in the night, with vamps at every turn, and it was time she got back into the church routine and carried on her mission.
As soon as she walked into work on Monday, she would ask Zeke to reduce her shifts. But for now, she headed for the kitchen to get a cup of hot chocolate. And when that was ready, she would sit on the couch and hopefully fall asleep while listening to Doug’s voice playing in her ear.
Epilogue
Doug was surprised. He’d expected unbearable physical pain to follow the staking, but all he felt was loss. He was going to miss seeing Trina, but deep down inside he somehow knew they weren’t done yet. There were more unwritten pages left in the book of their friendship.
He felt so light. Death hadn’t registered yet. The only clear indication he had of no longer being amongst the living was the sense of weightlessness and of ascending. Light surrounded and warmed his body, like the sunshine he’d missed. It made a welcome change from the eternal darkness he resided in for so long.
Now he was free to move on, as his soul was supposed to have done before he was turned. He could go peacefully, knowing that his maker’s evil deeds were finished. Luis Gallego would never mark another person again.
“Open your eyes, Doug,” a melodious voice he didn’t recognize said to his right.
He hadn’t realized they were closed.
When Doug opened his eyes, what he saw took his breath away.
Well, this isn’t what I expected to see in death.
“That’s because this isn’t exactly death,” the angelic voice said.