Chapter 60
Chapter Sixty
ORPHEUS
Of what do mortals dream when vampiric blood races through their veins, quickening their souls and magnifying their senses?
I couldn’t wait to find out.
Waiting for her colleague to leave, I had chosen my moment to enter Ingrid’s flat. She slept deeply on her sofa, watched by me. “You’re dreaming again,” I said, waking her.
Ingrid sat up with a jolt. “It’s you!”
“I’m flattered you remember me.”
“Orpheus,” she hissed my name in panic.
She wore PJs, only the material was insubstantial, the fabric clinging as though it had been made to betray her. Whatever innocence it suggested was undone by her expression, sharp, deliberate, and uniquely brave.
She knew what and who I was.
She jumped up from the couch and headed for her bedroom. She banged her door shut.
“Are we safe now?” I whispered from behind.
Ingrid whirled around.
I bore down on her, my gaze threatening. “Déjà vu.”
Ingrid pushed past me, running to the far side of her bedroom. She searched for something, anything that could be used as a weapon.
“Shall I help you look?” I said.
Ingrid tried to gain composure. “What the hell are you doing here? What do you want?”
“I’m here to wish you happy birthday!”
“It’s not my birthday—”
“Oh, but it is.” I approached her, glaring.
“Get out.”
“I’m offended. I thought there was an understanding between us. After all, we have shared such intimacy and—”
“I saw the photos of you,” she said.
“Ah. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep track and destroy that.”
“I know that you are connected with these murdered girls.”
“Damn, you’re good.” I laughed.
“You’re a monster.”
“They were going to kill themselves at some point.” I shook my head. “They did terrible things to access drugs. No coming back from that. I merely made the world a safer place. You’re welcome.”
“Get out.”
“What have I done to deserve such hostility?”
“You’re not human—”
“I’m a new and improved version. That’s how I see it.”
“Tell me what it is you want, just so that we are clear.”
“I don’t plan to kill you. In fact, on the contrary, I have a rather special gift for you.
It’s the ultimate bestowal, Ingrid—the gift of immortality.
We are connected, you and I. It was my lover Sunaria that bound us together.
She had returned to Cornwall to find her relatives and observe how they were progressing in the world—”
“Wait.”
“Ingrid, I’m talking. As I was saying, I found Sunaria’s obsession with her lineage strangely amusing.
She could not resist seeing them, and the more I told her not to go, the more she wanted to.
Her stubbornness was to be her downfall.
” I nodded, remembering the way Sunaria used to frown when she was determined to do something.
“Sunaria’s bloodline ends with you. You even look like her. After she was taken, I observed her descendants closely over the years, just as she had done.
“I chose you, my love. I lost her, but found you. My plan to make Jadeon fall in love with you has worked remarkably well. All this time, he thought I kept Catherine away, but it was she who kept me from him until now. Can you fathom it? In the meantime, I watched him suffer through his affection for you, which can never be realized.” I leaned in close to Ingrid.
“Orpheus, you have to calm down.”
“Don’t I seem calm to you?” I said.
“I need you to step back and—”
“I’ve watched and waited, biding my time until a female was born from Sunaria’s lineage who resembled her in every way. I waited for you to become a woman. I came into your bedroom every night and joined you in your dreams.”
“No!”
“Yes, and I led you out of them again. You were born to be one of us.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, but from her fear, she knew.
She was enchanting in every way, Sunaria’s heritage shining through her—and I longed to kiss her.
“I can give you all that you have ever desired. I am one of the oldest vampires, and the most powerful.” I reached out and offered my hand. “Drink.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“You said so yourself. The science is undeniable,” I said.
Ingrid watched me bite into my forefinger. Blood trickled down my hand.
“You are dripping blood on my carpet.”
“Yes, let’s not waste it.” I pressed my red-stained finger to her lips.
Ingrid turned her head away and pursed her lips.
“Always so controlled, aren’t you?”
She glared at me.
“I will not offer you my blood again as a mortal.” I forced my finger into her mouth. “Consider it a sedative.”
Ingrid bit down hard onto it.
“What you call pain, I call pleasure,” I said.
My blood flooded her mouth. Helpless to forestall her reflex, she swallowed.
“Enjoy your rightful inheritance,” I whispered.
Unable to resist the urge, Ingrid sucked wide-eyed.
“Good girl, that’s right.”
Ingrid faltered.
I removed my finger and kissed her passionately.
Our kiss was ferocious, tongues clashing, as I gripped her chin, holding her fast. She was more than I had ever imagined, an exquisite creature beyond reckoning.
And despite the years, the decades, despite the long lineage that stretched from one to the other, I tasted Sunaria, and exalted at the realization some part of her live on.
It was gloriously overwhelming, and in this instant, she was mine.
She broke away and I let her. “What are you doing to me?” She breathed.
“Nothing that you don’t want.”
She shook her head. “I’m in love with someone else.”
I refused to believe her.
I nuzzled into her neck.
She gasped, “I don’t want this.”
“Answer me again when my blood has done its work.”
A tear fell. “This is not happening.”
“Be honest with yourself for once. You are bored with your life and fascinated with mine. You are intrigued with my strategies and fail at your own. Enjoy what I have to give you. Once a vampire all pleasures will be multiplied, sensations more intense.”
“I don’t want that life.”
“Don’t fight it.”
“You’ve drugged me.” She groaned.
My words faded into the background. She buried her head into my chest, clinging to me. Ingrid opened her eyes and searched for my lips. Spellbound, she returned my kiss.
A firm hand tugged on the back of my shirt, pulling me away from Ingrid. I turned quickly. Ingrid slid to the floor.
“Alex!” I yanked my arm away from him, disgruntled with his ill-timed intrusion.
“What is this?” Alex asked.
“What does it look like?” I asked.
“What are you doing to her?”
I pointed to the door. “This is kind of a private moment, so if you don’t mind . . .”
“Daumia!”
“What?”
“You said Jadeon had turned her!”
“Ah, I did, didn’t I? Well . . . sometimes I can be wrong.”
“You’re scaring her,” he said.
“No, you are,” I snapped.
“Orpheus?”
“Since when have you called me that?”
Alex glared at me.
“You betrayed me, Alexander. Consider this as part of your . . . punishment.” I knelt down to comfort Ingrid. She lay shaking, dazed upon the floor. “Now look what you’ve done. You know better than to startle her during the blood-sharing.”
“Leave her alone.”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“She’s my friend,” he said.
“She wants to put you in jail again. Some friend.”
“She said that?”
“What do you think, Alex?”
“I think you’re lying again.”
“Like the lie you told me . . . about the ring?” I drew close to him. “You gave Jadeon the Sumerian ring, the one that Catherine gave to you. Don’t look surprised.”
“It was just a ring,” he yelled.
“No, Alex, not just a ring. Its markings are meant to lead the wearer to an ancient. As we speak, your brother is looking for Fabian Snowstrom. Well, there is no Fabian Snowstrom. He does not exist.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This is hardly the time.”
“Who is Jadeon meeting with?” Alex glanced down at Ingrid. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because of who I am.”
“Please.”
“I know that you and Catherine have conspired against me behind my back. All this time, you thought you had the upper hand.” I grasped Alex’s arm. “You are betraying me.”
“It was just a ring.”
“It will lead Jadeon to his death.”
He panicked. “We must warn him.”
“I’ll see what I can do. But you have to back off.”
“Ingrid?”
“She’ll be fine. Ingrid is in Nirvana. Don’t you remember that feeling? Don’t you want to feel that way again?” I let go of Alex’s shirt and tugged on it, straightening it. “Now be a good boy and do exactly as I say.”
“You have to let her go.”
“You must understand. I am your master in all things.”
“Help me to understand this.” He pointed to Ingrid.
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t question me.”
“Then how can I trust you?”
“Look, all I’m doing is giving her a taste. You can see she’s not transformed.”
“Why?” he asked.
“To protect you. Once she’s experienced the bliss, she’ll be sympathetic to your foibles.”
“I don’t want this for her.”
“It’s not up to you.”
“Orpheus.”
“What?”
“I have to get to Jadeon.”
“When I am done here, if you haven’t pissed me off any more, I will help you.”
Alex stared at me.
“Don’t shield your thoughts from me,” I said.
Alex sighed. “They make no sense.”
“There is no sense in our world.”
“It’s madness.”
“Chaos is inevitable,” I said. “Don’t fight it, or it will devour you.”
“I don’t understand any of it.”
“And I don’t expect you to.”