Chapter 37
37
I walked into the den to find Michael pulling on his coat. “Ah, I was about to check in on you. Looks like you found some nice things. You happy?”
I nearly mentioned my thorny exchange with Marlena, but I couldn’t see any point in spoiling the mood. “Very. Thank you again, Michael.”
“Don’t mention it. You ready to hit the road?”
We walked into the garage, and I gently flattened my new clothes across the backseat. When we got in, I said, “You know the way to Robert’s?”
“Sure do.”
After we’d been driving a bit, I said, “Michael, I just want to say that I appreciate the opportunity you’ve given me. I can’t tell you how much Dignitary has changed my life for the better. You’ve opened my eyes to so many new things.”
“And Robert,” he broke in. “You also met Robert.”
I grinned. “Yes, there’s that, too.”
“I’m happy that we got to have you as a decoy, even if it was for a short time,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road. Vampire Jerry could take a few lessons on driving from Michael. “So, what’s next for you?”
“I was thinking about going to grad school and getting my—”
“No,” he cut in. “What’s next for you and Robert?”
Well, that was pushy. Since when did Michael care about my love life? “We’re taking it day-by-day,” I said offhandedly.
“You two are pretty serious, aren’t you?” He mashed his foot down on the gas and the engine grumbled. “You’ll probably want to get married.”
“Eventually, but we haven’t—”
“Did you know that I used to be a decoy like you, Olivia?”
I was shocked. “No, I had no idea. It’s hard to picture you differently. Not as a vampire, I mean. I sometimes forget that you guys—vampires—all used to be human.”
“Yes, I was very human.” He glanced over at me with sad eyes. “Like you, I even fell in love with a vampire while I was a decoy. Her name was Iris.”
Her , I thought? That was surprising. Guess you never can tell, not that it made any difference to me. “You did?”
“If you think Marlena is a looker, Olivia, you should have seen my Iris. She was the most beautiful woman to have ever lived. Making love to her was like basking in the sunshine, only better.”
Nothing against this Iris, but I really didn’t want to hear about Michael “basking in the sunshine” with anyone. It was creepy, like imaging your parents having sex or something. “She sounds lovely,” I said, uncomfortable. What did he expect me to say? Go you and your sunny sex! Yuck.
“I was so certain of her love that I gave up my mortality for her. Iris wanted me to stay human because she didn’t want me to make such a major decision over her, but I wouldn’t hear of it. I was head over heels. I’d met a vampire, Lance, who was cash poor but desperately wanting to maintain a facade of wealth—all his money was tied up in investments, you see. So, one day Lance and I made a deal. In exchange for a few months of my decoy services, he’d turn me.”
I didn’t know what to say. This was getting personal fast. I shifted uncomfortably.
“So, I became a vampire and Iris was thrilled.”
“That’s great.”
“Not really.”
“Oh.”
“When I changed over, I gained the oddest talents,” he said.
“You can see the future,” I blurted and then cringed. Robert had never told me not to say anything about revealing Michael’s gift to me, but he also hadn’t said it was okay, either.
Michael smiled darkly. “I’m assuming Robert told you the specifics of my gift?”
“He didn’t get into details. He just said that you can see the future, but not all of it. Only pieces.”
He nodded. “I’ll see an event occurring—like a plane crash—but I won’t know which airline. Or I’ll see a crime and not be able to make out the face of the victim. Sometimes, a natural disaster like a tsunami or volcanic eruption. Again, I’ll have no idea where, though. These visions always come true, but it can be quite annoying, only seeing pieces.”
“Like reading a book and having a few pages missing in every chapter,” I said.
“Exactly. But seeing the future wasn’t the only gift I gained.”
“No?” I became aware of where we were. “Oh, shoot, Michael. We just missed my exit.”
“Can you guess what that other gift was?” It was like he hadn’t heard me.
“I honestly have no idea.” I peered ahead. “Good, there’s another exit up at the split.”
“Here’s the funny thing, Olivia. My gifts are related indirectly,” he said, passing that exit, too. As ancient as he was, I figured he probably knew some old school shortcut from back in the day. I left him to do the navigation. “In addition to seeing pieces of the future, I can tell when a human comes from an altered bloodline.”
I frowned. “What do you mean, altered bloodline?”
“If you’d stop interrupting me, you’d find out,” he snapped.
What was up with Michael’s sudden hostility? Maybe he no longer felt obliged to be polite now that I wasn’t his employee. Kind of a shitty way to behave. Talk about an odd way to burn a bridge. Some individuals were terrible with goodbyes. They’d rather act like jerks than endure an awkward farewell.
“Human blood gives off different scents,” Michael prattled on. “At least, to me it does. Many vampires can detect small variations—like if a human is sick—but I have yet to meet another immortal who has my distinct nose. I can even tell when a human is in love with a vampire.”
“That’s . . . great.” Why hadn’t he turned around yet?
“But it isn’t, Olivia. Don’t you see? Humans aren’t meant to love vampires. It’s unnatural. We’re dead for Christ’s sake!”
“But when you were a human, you loved a vampire,” I pointed out. Take that, hypocrite. Unnatural? How dare he. Now he was being just plain rude.
“I was foolish,” Michael said, his mouth pulling down at the corners. “I haven’t told you about what happened with Iris. Maybe you’ll understand once I do.” He was talking loudly and driving faster. We'd passed more exits, but he didn't seem to notice them.
"Michael, Robert's house is—”
“DON’T INTERRUPT ME!” he roared.
I sat in stunned silence. Had I upset him or was it the topic of conversation? If it was the latter, he had no right being irritated with me, since he was the one who’d started it. I would have been happy talking about the weather.
He carried on like he hadn’t just screamed in my face. “When I was human, I worked with another decoy named Alexander. We became close, like brothers. I’d spend hours boring Alexander with romantic ramblings about Iris. He was the one who suggested that I turn for her, actually. The problem was, I could obviously no longer work as a decoy once I did.”
He grinned at the memory, then looked over at me like he was expecting me to say something. Guess now it was okay for me to talk. And I’d keep him talking, if it meant he’d stay calm.
I’d been planning on staying in touch with Michael once my time at Dignitary was over, but after the way he’d behaved tonight, I never wanted to hear from him again. I couldn’t un-see those ugly true colors he’d shown me in the last fifteen or so minutes. Shame.
“Because now you were vampire,” I said.
“That’s right. But vampire or not, I was still a man. I got jealous. I didn’t like the idea of Iris seeing others, even if they were decoys. So, I came up with a solution.”
“You asked Alexander to decoy for Iris because you trusted him,” I interjected.
“Very good, Olivia!” He slapped a hand down on my forearm. It stung like a son of a gun. “And can you guess what happened?”
I didn’t want to play a guessing game. I was tired, and Michael’s crazy outbursts and incessant yammering was about as soothing as fingernails on a chalkboard. His erratic driving was also making me nervous. “No, I can’t.”
“As I said earlier, I can smell when a human is in love. Iris, having that special way about her, bewitched Alexander. I couldn’t conceive that my closest friend would betray me in such a way,” he said, scowling. “And maybe I would have believed his denial over their affair, had he not smelled different to me because he was in love.”
“The heart wants what the heart wants, I suppose.”
Michael provided me a dour look. “Regardless of Alexander’s new love scent, he’d always emitted a different odor that set him apart from other humans. To me, anyway. Most humans smell downright delectable to vampires, because they are our food. But Alexander’s blood had smelled repulsive to me— sour —from the moment I’d turned vampire.
“Initially, I thought this was because he was my best friend, and that I’d been imagining his stink as a preventative measure. If he smelled bad to me, then I wouldn’t be tempted to attack him when I was hungry. As a new vampire, the thirst can be so great that it’s difficult to maintain control.”
“You’d probably feel pretty bad for munching on your best friend,” I said, and he nodded.
“After a few weeks, I confronted Alexander about his love for Iris, which of course he denied. But he couldn’t have hidden it from me no matter how much he tried. His regular stink mixed with his new love stench was almost unbearable, even if I was the only vampire who could detect it.”
“So, why did his blood smell bad? Was he sick?”
Michael went quiet for a moment. “I honestly don’t know why he smelled different, Olivia. Some things just are . I suppose you could say the same about mortals. Why do some humans who’ve led healthy lives fall ill with terminal illnesses while others who do not take care of themselves live to be a hundred?”
“So, Alexander was sick,” I said. My tired, wary brain was getting so confused.
“No, not exactly. But he was a peculiar kind of human. A rarity.” Michael reached over and squeezed my hand. “And you are also a rarity, Olivia.”
I’d had taken everything I’d had not to recoil at his touch. “You mean I smell weird?”
“Yes. But why? Again, I don’t know.”
I was still puzzled as hell. “What are we talking, here, as far as the rarity of weird-smelling humans?”
“In all my years of being vampire, I’ve encountered but a handful of humans with this mutation. I call them Cataclysmics.”
He hadn’t said mutation in a kind tone. “Cataclysmics? As in a cataclysmic event—like things being destroyed?”
“You’ll understand soon but do try not to look so insulted. You cannot be faulted for the way you were born.” A strange smile formed on Michael’s lips.
The city lights were now behind us, but I didn’t dare bring it up. I couldn’t deal with another one of his outbursts. I’d just have to stay calm and wait him out. “Do other vampires share your outlook on these Cataclysmics?” I asked. I hoped he couldn’t glean what I was thinking, which was that these abnormal smells might be all in his head. Clearly, the man had issues, but far be it from me to point it out.
Michael shook his head. “The peculiar thing is that I may be the only vampire in existence who can smell Cataclysmics. I can’t say with absolute certainty that I am; there could be others in the world who I simply haven’t yet found. But, as far as I know, it’s just me.”
You don’t say, I thought. “I’m not sure why you’re telling me all this, Michael,” I said. The insinuation being: how about you stop wasting time and take me the hell home?
“As I touched on earlier, I can smell it when a human has fallen in love with a vampire. But when a Cataclysmic falls in love with a vampire, I can smell it from a mile away. Like you, Olivia. I can smell it all over you,” he said, giving me a onceover. “How you feel about Robert.”
I folded my arms across my chest. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, like I was an insect under a microscope.
“I smelled that you were different the first night we met, you know. That you’re a Cataclysmic. That I could smell from across the bar. And then when you fell in love with Robert, oh the stench . . .” He made a disgusted face.
I glared at him. Screw Michael and his nasty opinions, none of which I’d asked for. I lived in a free country and could love any vampire I wanted. I could smell any way I wanted, too.
Michael continued, “As I mentioned, I can see visions of the future.”
“Wait! Where are you going?” I sat up with a start. “This isn’t a regular exit. You can’t turn around here.”
Michael slowed and took an exit ramp marked REST STOP. We drove onward and Michael parked the car. As late as it was, we were the only ones there. My heart leapt into my throat when he cut the engine.
When he turned to face me, his eyes were illuminated by the dashboard, two green goblin orbs. “Yes, I’m aware. But the ending of my story is so fascinating that I know you’d be upset if you didn’t hear me out.”
I told myself to stay calm. This was Michael . Michael! He was probably lonely, with Marlena serving as his closest option for company. He just needed someone to talk to.
Right. I wasn’t buying that for a second. “I’d love to hear the rest of this story,” I said, placating him. “Why don’t you pull back onto the road and keep telling me?”
He frowned. “But we’re so close to Robert’s. I’m afraid I won’t have time to finish before we arrive.”
“It’s just that it’s late—”
“It’s not that late, Olivia.” He waved his fancy wristwatch at me.
“Robert will be getting worried that I’m not back yet. I don’t want to keep him—”
“But he’s not waiting for you, is he?” he argued. “He’s out of town, remember telling me that?”
“That’s right.” I swallowed. “I did.”
“In fact, nobody is waiting for you. Nobody even knows where you are.”
Was that a threat?
He continued, “So, you have no need to hurry home, do you?”
“No, I guess not.” I could think of no tactful way to illustrate to Michael that, while it may have been customary for vampires, normal humans—men especially—didn’t usually pull into deserted rest stops in the middle of the night with women they’re supposed to be driving straight home.
Actually, it wasn’t customary for vampires, either. Barring James, the ones I’d decoyed for had gone out of their way to ensure that we remained in the company of others, as to put me at ease. Whatever situation I’d landed myself in with Michael was bad. Very bad.
I said, “Well, it’s late for me. I haven’t been keeping vampire hours since James’s attack, being a human and all.” I’d mentioned the attack in hopes of reminding Michael that I was still skittish, and that maybe he should take the hint and start acting less creepy.
However, my attempt to sound nonchalant had failed. Panic had crept into my voice, making my words unnatural and flat. Regardless, he couldn’t keep me there all night with the impending sunrise happening in a few hours. He’d have to take me home eventually, which meant all I’d have to do was sit there and wait out him telling his story.
Wanting to get the show on the road—literally—I prompted, “Please continue, Michael. I’m all ears.”
“I’d always had gruesome visions as a vampire,” he carried on casually, as if he hadn’t sensed my unease. “But the ones I started having about Cataclysmics . . . I saw such unimaginable things, Olivia! The entire vampire race dying! We were eradicated, wiped from the earth!”
I flinched as Michael banged on the steering wheel. I slid my hands under my thighs so he couldn’t see how badly they were shaking. I was at loss as to what to do. The only thing I could do was try to stay calm.
Quieter, he said, “I tried my damndest to ignore them, these visions. But Alexander . . .” He broke off, rubbing at his forehead.
Wanting to keep Michael’s focus off me, I said, “What about Alexander?”
“In my vision, it wasn’t merely a Cataclysmic who ended the vampire race. It was a Cataclysmic who was in love with a vampire .”
So, someone like me. Uh-oh.
“You must understand, Olivia, I had no choice. I couldn’t see the who or the when , but I knew it was going to happen. My predictions were never wrong. Alexander was the only Cataclysmic I’d encountered at the time, and he was in love with my Iris!” He shook his head. “I had no idea that there were others out there like him until it was too late.”
“You mean until after you’d killed him,” I said hollowly. “Your best friend.”
“I couldn’t let him end us, Olivia! If you saw what he was going to do!”
Michael fell silent while I sat there shaking, wishing I would teleport myself out of the car. I yelped when he reached over and patted my arm.
“I’m going to finish my story,” he said, as if he hadn’t just confessed to murder. “Things will run a lot smoother if you relax.”
I nodded. Not likely, asshole. And what “things” was he referring to? What was he planning on doing?
“With Alexander gone, I figured vampires were now safe and that the visions would stop. But they didn’t, which meant that vampires were still under threat of being destroyed.” He sighed. “So, I began touring the world, searching out Cataclysmics. I vowed never to stop until the visions ended.”
“You were killing them off,” I said with disgust. No use in biting my tongue so late in the game. Michael was going to say and do whatever he wanted to me no matter how polite I was.
“Yes, though sometimes I hired help,” he admitted.
“James.”
“That’s right. For the longest time, I was killing Cataclysmics before they had a chance to fall in love with a vampire.”
“Why, when the one who ended your race was in love with a vampire? You could have been killing completely innocent humans!” I snapped my mouth shut, since I’d basically implied that any so-called Cataclysmics who’d fallen in love with a vampire were then contrastingly not innocent. In other words, guilty .
“Think of it like this: I was cutting out the damaged cells before they had a chance to turn cancerous.”
I felt sick.
“Still, the maddening visions continued,” he said, reaching over to pat my arm again.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed. Crazy to think that I used to find the psychopath’s touchy-feely ways endearing.
He cocked a brow at me. Have it your way, bitch. “It wasn’t working, though, my method. I figured perhaps I was intervening too soon. So, I created a way to keep Cataclysmics close without having to immediately kill them. They needed to be goaded into loving vampires, you see, so I could identify the one responsible for the downfall of the vampire race.”
“So, you started Dignitary.”
“Yes, as well as other decoying services across the globe. Not all decoys are Cataclysmics, of course, but it’s a lot easier to keep tabs on the ones who are when you’re kept in my eyeline.” He smiled over at me.
What did he expect me to say? I wasn’t going to feed into this lunacy. I pursed my lips and stared straight ahead.
He sat back. “I knew it would look suspicious if I allowed only some of the decoys to date vampires, so I encouraged everyone to date, whether they were Cataclysmics or not. Marlena, having no clue about my visions, could never understand why. Imagine if I would have told her the truth. She’d have thought I’d gone mad!” He chuckled.
“You are mad,” I spat. “A monster.”
“Whatever the case, I don’t have to worry about that anymore, Olivia. Because it’s you . You’re the Cataclysmic I’ve been searching for all these years. I can feel it. It’s different this—”
“What is that?” I said, peering out the windshield. I pointed at a shadowy spot by the restrooms. Michael glanced at the area with disinterest. Slowly, I ran my right hand along the door, searching for the handle. I prepared to run. I probably wouldn’t get far, but I had to at least chance it.
“Nice try,” he said with a snort. “Even if I did allow you to get the door open, do you actually believe you could outrun me?”
What he didn’t know was that I truly had seen a shadow. My desperate mind was hoping it was magically Robert coming to kick Michael’s ass the way he had Nick’s. Dare to dream.
“Now, can I continue?” he snarled. “You can think I’m a monster all you want, but I’ll have you know that I did my best to scare the love right out of you. I gave all the Cataclysmics a chance. I thought if I frightened you enough, it would put you off vampires and the visions would end. I ransacked your homes, called hundreds of times a day, stalked you, killed your pets, made you think you were imagining things, going insane. It even worked on a few, but most of you couldn’t be deterred. Like you, Oliva.”
“But I would never hurt a vampire!” I shouted, bringing my fists down on my thighs. “My best friend and boyfriend are vampires. I love those two more than anyone else in the world. I would never hurt them! Never!”
“There’s no need to shout,” he said. “And I believe you when you say that you love them. But there’s a darkness around you that only I can see—it shows itself in my visions like a black halo. I’ve never seen it, ever, on any of the other Cataclysmics. It’s you, Olivia. You’re the one.”
“What if I do what you want?” I said desperately. “If you let me go, I promise that I’ll go away and that I’ll never talk to Robert again.”
“Sure you will.”
“Please—”
Michael sprang on top of me, and I screamed for all I was worth. Your stinking, filthy blood,” he huffed in my ear. “To never have to smell it again! I will save us all!”
I squeezed my eyes closed tight enough to see white stars dancing in front of my lids. His lips were at my neck now, and I braced myself for the agony, for the stinging of his mouth. I held my breath and waited, hoping it would be over soon. But . . .
Suddenly I was . . . slimy?
Slowly, I unscrewed my eyes. Michael was gone. The driver’s side door was ajar, and I was covered head-to-toe in blood, guts, and hair. It was like a gory bomb had gone off inside the car. Everything was covered. In Michael, I realized.
Then the pieces began to dissolve, until nothing was left on the car seat except sparkly ash and a pair of fangs. I coughed from all the dust in the air. “What the hell just happened?” I murmured.
I looked up for the answer. Outside the car, with a stake griped in her quaking, red nail polish-tipped fingers, was Marlena.