Chapter 50
Fifty
JULIAN
Ihave never been more angry with a woman than I was with Maris when I sucked the drugs out of her system.
I’d also never been more fucking worked up by a woman either.
I was right that it was a roofie they’d slipped her.
The second I started to filter it out of her blood, I felt it.
The dose was high, so high that I’d almost taken too much blood from her trying to get the drugs out of her.
I look over at Maris. We’re walking up the sidewalk to her house. She’d been just as surprised to see the way downtown was alive.
“It wasn’t like this earlier when I came down here. It’s like everyone has lost their minds. What the fuck are they doing?” she asked, pointing to a group that was setting off fireworks in the middle of town while the deputies tried to get them to stop. Down the street we saw a couple streaking.
“Something isn’t right,” Maris said.
She was right. The town felt drunk. Like it was trapped in a frenzied dance that only exhaustion could cure.
“They’re being turned.” We both stop when we hear gunfire and I put my hand to her back, urging her forward. “I want to get you inside. They’ll start spilling into the neighborhoods soon.”
“Turned into what?” Maris asks. She looks so young in the moonlight. Her dark and lovely eyes shine bright, the fall of her hair reminds me of the sea, fathomless and beautiful.
“Vampires,” I tell her. “They’re acting like that because the blood lust is setting in.
They’re not worried about being careful.
It’s easy not to care when you have that kind of high in your blood.
” It’s true. I still remember the way I felt the night Rosanna turned me and I accepted there was no death. Only this new afterlife with her.
Everything had been electric and new. I’d felt like a god.
Untouchable. All fledglings feel that way.
If their maker abandons them, most don’t make it to the next sunrise.
The truth is, newly turned vampires are weak.
It varies depending on their maker. The older their maker, the more skilled and adept at mastering their abilities, the stronger their offspring are.
Rosanna was a decent enough maker. She wasn’t the strongest but she wasn’t the weakest either, and what she lacked in brute strength she made up for with her wits. She’d kept me more than safe in those early years.
The vampires in Vesper Point though? They’re low quality stock.
Easy pickings for vampire hunters and any other demon keen on a fight.
Even if most of the town turns, they’ll probably end up killing themselves by accident because they feel invincible.
They’ll climb something too high, leap from a building they shouldn’t, try and swim against a current they can’t manage.
Even if they’re immortal, their humanity will linger, cling to them in the worst way and make them reckless.
I bet the police department manages to pick most of them off by morning if the deputies put their mind to it.
“W-who would do that?” Maris asks. She looks like she wants to go back down the street but I don’t let her.
I haul her up in my arms and stop her. “What did I tell you about your safety?” She blushes and looks away but I don’t let her. I give her a shake. “Who does your life belong to?”
Maris crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me. “You.”
“Don’t forget it.”
She jerks away from me when I let her go. “Just because I said I’m sorry and you said-”
“I said I love you,” I cut in, “and it’s because I love you that I’m unwilling to let you risk yourself. If you have people in town that you care for, call them now and tell them to stay indoors. We’ll sort this mess out by the morning.”
I only half mean what I’m saying. I intend to have my wife and I halfway to Seattle by morning. I’m going to make her pack a bag when we get to her house. I pull out my phone and find two tickets to Italy. She’ll love Italy. I’ll show her France later. In the springtime, when it’s best.
Maris makes a few calls. From what I can tell it’s the newspaper staff.
She argues with them about the next issue.
She’s going over the finer points about the line between journalism and tabloid conspiracy theories when I buy two first class tickets to Rome and text Aubrey that I’m going to be changing the duration of my stay in Vesper Point.
Leaving tomorrow and will be flying out of Seattle with a guest. Inform the hospital I’ve resigned.
Aubrey’s reply is instant.
Oh my god. Did you get a girlfriend?
No.
Bummer.
I got a wife.
WHAT?
She calls but I don’t answer. I silence my phone and shove it back in my pocket. Maris gives me a curious look when I’m finished.
“Was that a friend?”
“I don’t have friends,” I tell her. “It was my assistant. She’s going to wrap things up for me here while we travel.” I grab her hand and start back up the hill towards her home. It’s good that it’s so high up. We’ll have a good vantage point for what’s going on in town.
Maris digs her heels in and pulls on her arm. “What do you mean, travel? I can’t-I have to stay here.”
“This place is falling apart. This town is going to eat itself.”
“It’s my home.”
“It’s your prison.”
Maris’ beautiful face twists. She’s frustrated, I can see it. She’ll get over it. I stop trying to coax her along by her hand and throw her over my shoulder. She shrieks when she goes ass up on my shoulder.
“Julian! Put me down.” She hits my back but I keep walking. “I mean it! This isn’t funny, you asshole.”
“I’m your asshole,” I remind her. “Remember that.”
“You fucker!”
Maris keeps up a colorful stream of curses the entire way to her house.
The further we get from downtown the quieter it gets, at least to her it does.
I can hear what’s going on just fine. There’s a scream and another few gunshots.
I hear a car crash into a building. Whatever the baby vamps are getting into down there isn’t good.
I open the door with a still wriggling Maris on my shoulder. “Put me down!”
I only listen to her because we’re inside. I set her down on her feet with more care than I did picking her up and close the door behind us. I deadbolt it when she looks ready to march back outside.
“If you need to learn the lesson again, wife. Just say the words.”
Maris’ mouth parts. Her breath comes quickly from the rise and fall of her chest. The Lesson. She knows exactly what I mean.
“You can’t ju-” Maris freezes and stops mid-word. “Oh fuck,” she whispers.
I touch her side. “What is it?”
Maris points at the floor. “Someone’s here.”
I look down at where she’s pointing and sure enough, there’s wet footprints on the foyer floor. The dark hardwood shows the path they took. The footsteps veer right and go into the living room. Maris and I exchange a look.
I sweep her behind me with one arm. “Stay behind me, and get your gun out.”
She nods. “Okay.”
After I cleaned her up, we left the dock and made sure to swing by for the gun and knife Maris had lost there. She told me about the holy water in the bottle she’d used, too. She’s clever. Resourceful. We’re going to make it out of this.
You will not lose her.
She’s not like Claire.
But still, the past is an angry beast and its claws are lodged deep, threaded between my ribs. It threatens to pierce my heart, hollow me out and stack my bones like firewood.
I look back at Maris, satisfied to see she has her gun out and she looks like she knows what she’s doing with it. She had to have, if she managed to hold off three vampires. Even shitty vampires are tough for a human to handle when there’s more than one.
We both walk towards the living room together.
Maris’ free hand presses to my back as we go.
We follow the footsteps until we’re in the doorway and take in the scene.
The hearth is lit with a fire. A barefoot woman stands with her back to us.
She holds her hands out to the fire and water drips off her and puddles around her feet.
She lifts her head when we enter the room and turns to look at us in profile.
I see the flash of teeth when she smiles at Maris. “Hello granddaughter.”