"No...please, no..."
I gave up trying to force my will into being. I gave up trying to pretend that the man I loved was only joking. I gave up trying to hold back the racking wails of sobs that my body demanded. I closed his eyes, so I wouldn't have to endure the lifeless stare any longer, then I hunched over his limp body and completely gave myself over into grief.
Teren Adams was dead.
****
I don't know how much time I spent huddled over Teren's lifeless body. I knew it was pointless. I knew I couldn't bring him back, and I knew that he would come back to me shortly, but it's not every day that you watch the light of consciousness fade from someone you immensely love. It affected me. I'd darn near say it wrecked me.
I even tried CPR. How ridiculous is that? I knew it was hopeless the moment I started the compressions on his chest. This was no sixty-year-old man with coronary failure. This was a vampire whose human heart could no longer handle the strain of his mixed blood. There was no artificial stimulation that could be done on his organ that would overcome that fact. It was simply...done. I still tried though. For a longer time than I cared to admit, I tried.
When that failed, or more appropriately, when my arms couldn't handle another forceful push, I slumped across his silent chest and cried some more of those useless tears. I knew he wanted me to run far away from him before he woke up, and I knew I was running out of time...but Teren had only freed me from the wall. I was still padlocked down here behind an iron barred door.
All I could do was wait for Teren to wake up and eat me. Then the man would hear my death and open the damn door. I sat bolt upright as my mouth dropped open. Oh crap. Did I just finally have an idea on how to get out of this hellhole? My mind tumbled over the details and I had to stop thinking for a second. I slowly exhaled for ten long counts before I tried again to think in a more organized way.
The man was waiting for Teren to kill me. After that happened, he'd have a very short window of opportunity, before Teren became too strong for him to easily stake. So he'd be listening closely after nightfall. Since Teren was lying dead before me, I was going to assume it was.
So the man was listening right now. In fact, he'd probably heard my heart wrenching sobs, I hadn't exactly been quiet. He was probably on the other side of that door, perched on a dirty little chair with his sharpened stake in his hand, waiting for a bloodcurdling scream. Once he heard that scream, he'd open the door and...
That was it.
Nervous butterflies swarmed my stomach by the hundreds as I considered everything I was going to have to do for this to work. I didn't know if I had the skill or strength to pull this off, but I knew it was my only chance. Once Teren woke up...well, I really didn't want to be anywhere near him when that happened. My only chance at freedom resided in that fanatic lunatic on the other side of the door.
Great. When did my life take such a drastic turn? Just months ago, I was plugging along at my tedious job, wishing something would come along to break up the monotony of endless days of copying and faxing, and endless nights of watching eighties sitcom reruns on the television. In truth, I'd been hoping for Clarice to retire, so I could have her more appealing job. And then maybe one of the firm's more prestigious clients would have taken an interest in me, and swept me off in his private jet to Paris, for an authentic French dinner and a romantic stroll down the Seine.
But instead, I'd crashed into a vampire.
I smiled, and my nerves settled somewhat as I thought over that day. The look of surprise and pain on his face as my drink had spilled down the front of him. His hands brushing mine as he'd taken my card and shoved it in his pocket. And now that terror was clearing my brain cells, I could clearly recall the crooked grin he'd given me, as I'd hurried away from him in embarrassment. I'd been awaiting an irate phone call that day, but he'd never been angry at me. Even back then, he'd been more amused by me than anything else.
I smiled wider as I looked back down at Teren's still body and stroked his hair. No, no bigwig sweeping me off to a foreign country could have measured up to the man that fate had forcibly led me to. My life with Teren was exactly what I wanted it to be, what I always hoped it would be...once we got past this little speed bump, of course.
I kissed Teren's forehead and scooted around his broken body as I stood up. I left him slightly turned toward the wall and facing away from me; he almost looked like he was sleeping that way. Silently, I grabbed the iron rod that Teren had pulled from the wall. It was contorted on one end, where the metal had twisted from the strain of wanting to stay attached to the stone wall. Teren's pure vampiric strength had disagreed, and brutally ripped it from its home. Luckily, the squeal of its removal hadn't attracted the vampire hunter upstairs; he'd either discounted it or Teren's loud yell had masked it. Either way, now I was free and now I had a weapon.
My nerves came back, and I inhaled and exhaled as slowly and smoothly as I could. One shot...no chance at a redo. Either the man or Teren would kill me if this didn't work. Nope, no pressure at all. Silencing the fear and doubt in my mind, I focused instead on the tiny things that I could control-my grip on the twisted end of the rod, my feet soundlessly crossing the dirt floor, retreating into the shadows under the stairs, and lastly...screaming.
"No, Teren...please...don't...please...no..."
Then I let loose all the terror and fear I'd been struggling to rein in for the last several hours, and I let out the loudest scream my body was capable of making. I was sure I was making every horror movie vixen very proud, as the scream rang throughout even my own ears. At the very highest point, I clamped a hand over my own mouth and shut off my vocals.
I was no actress, but I was appropriately terrified, and letting out that scream had been astonishingly easy and a little cathartic. Glancing at Teren's form, bathed in the soft light from the bulb, I took in his stillness as I stared at his back. He hadn't moved, hadn't reacted to my voice. Loud sounds didn't bother the dead. I tried to not reflect on how his skin had looked paler, sallower, and when I'd kissed his forehead, he'd felt cooler than usual. Now was not the time.
I firmly grasped my iron rod in both hands while I waited for sounds of movement upstairs. There was no way the man hadn't heard that. He would give Teren a few moments to finish his meal, and then he'd saunter down to stake my honey.
I went over everything Lita and Hot Ben had ever taught me in kickboxing class. True, it wasn't exactly the same as what I was about to do, but similar logic could be applied. Power comes from the hips-twist them, use the strength of your lower body. Aim for the soft spot of the temple. Commit to the hit and follow through. Abandon all fear. Breathe...
I heard the sound of metal scraping against wood and I knew the man was lifting the bar away from the door. Moments later, I heard the pop of the door unlocking. I closed my eyes and forced peace into my body. Ignoring my childhood fear of what monsters typically lurked there, I stepped further back into the shadows under the stairs. This time, the monster was walking down the stairs instead of lurking under them, and this was one monster I was going to deal with head on.
Heavy boots clomped down the long steps. I briefly considered just tripping him down the stairs, but I discounted it. That might only mildly hurt him, and I needed to massively hurt him. I only had one shot at this, and surprise was on my side, since he assumed I was hanging against a wall, dead.
His hoarse voice broke the stillness, "So, you finished her off, huh? Knew you would...they all do. Are you crying? Sometimes the bloodsuckers actually cry afterwards." His boot stepped off the last stair and he turned towards Teren's curled form on the floor. "Sometimes they even beg me to stake them. Don't worry...you won't cry long."
The man was too intently focused on the supposed threat of the hungry vampire lying on the ground. He hadn't noticed that my body was nowhere to be seen. Well, he was about to see me. With the stealth of a stalking predator, I stepped away from the staircase and close to his side.
"Neither will you," I hissed.
The man startled and twisted to look at me. His eyes widened in shock at seeing me alive, and right next to him. He never even had time to realize I was armed. As soon as his head was facing me, giving me an ideal target, I focused all my pain, fear and rage at the maniac. I brought my arms around, twisting my h*ps and reinforcing the strike. Surprise and adrenaline gave me speed, and he never even moved to defend himself. He didn't have time. My hit was true, and the rod connected to his temple with a sickening thud that reverberated all the way up my arms.
The man's head snapped to the side. Just as I feared that I didn't have the strength to knock him out, his knees buckled and he dropped like a ton of bricks. The wooden stake fell away from his relaxed fingers and rolled onto the dirt beside him. I kicked the vile, symbolic thing under the stairs. The iron rod felt red-hot in my hand. Not wanting the metal touching my skin any longer, I dropped it to my side. It thudded to the ground and rested near my feet.
My vision swam as the adrenaline rushed out of my body and the realization of what I'd done, swept in. The man was very still and I really didn't know if he was alive or not. My stomach rose into my throat and I pressed on it to make it stop. Now wasn't the time to lose my last meal or stare at the downed man like an idiot. Now was the time to do what I'd told Teren I'd do...now was the time to run.
Just as I was mentally preparing myself for the flight away from this rickety farmhouse, and wondering how I'd get a hold of Teren's family in time so they could come help him, I heard it. A low growl was coming from one side of the room; an impossibly deep growl that sent shivers up my spine and dotted my skin with goose bumps. A growl that I'd heard a few times before, but never once directed towards me. An inhuman growl that made me afraid I'd lose control of my bladder.
Tracking the sound, I turned to stare over at the piece of ground where I'd left Teren's broken body. Only, he was no longer where I'd left him; only our ripped apart belts were lying on the ground. He was standing in a low crouch, his body lightly shaking as he wobbled on his feet. That wasn't what sent ice cold fear throughout my veins though. It was his face.
His skin was still ashen, and he had the sunken look of someone very ill. The whites of his eyes faintly glowed in the dim light, and his pale, light blue irises were locked onto me. They danced with a near frenzied excitement. His mouth was open in a vicious looking snarl and his teeth were extended to sharp points; his fangs were longer than I'd ever seen them.
He looked like a pure animal, nothing left of my Teren at all. And for a split-second sadness swept through me at the thought that maybe he wasn't my Teren anymore. Maybe that man really had died today. My sadness shifted right back to fear when the starving creature before me let out another deep, menacing growl, and took a step forward.
Chapter 18 - Shades of Gray
Now, here is the point where I clearly became a touch insane. A bubble of happiness ripped right through my core. Happiness you say? Wasn't I about to be Teren chow? Yes, I was, but the surge of joy I felt was from the fact that my honey had just walked-a clumsy I'm-going-to-topple-over-at-any-second walk, but a walk nonetheless. I was momentarily overjoyed that his shattered legs had indeed completely healed and he really would be fine. Not to mention the fact that he was clearly a reanimated being and I hadn't lost him to the other side. I was over the moon that he was sentient, if not alive.