Page 70 of Sleeping With the Vampire

She had returned from the last fight in a feverish daze and this had only worsened in the night that followed. Her temperature was too high, she was delirious and confused and none of the medicines administered seem to work. I flew in doctors from the Capital who did their best but it seemed that there was little they could do. When Layrr had attacked her at the swimming pool, he had stabbed her with his rapier, laced with deadly toxins and she was fighting those toxins. The only thing that could help her now, was more of my blood, or of my kind but it would turn her into one of us.

Apart from me, her most constant companion was Elisha, Robbie’s sister. The girl was quaint and a bit odd, with huge eyesand wispy blonde hair, but like her brother, she appeared to have special powers, in her case it was healing. She brought Izzy broth to drink and wet cloths and stayed with her through the night.

One evening, as I came to look in on Izzy, I overheard them talking.

“My brother was here,” I heard Izzy say in a shaking voice. “He was angry, he said I’d taken his toy. I said I would never and he accused me of lying. He said I was always lying, breaking promises,” her voice broke, I could hear she was close to tears.

“It wasn’t really him,” said Elisha in a soothing voice. “It was the poison talking. It is taking over your blood, feeding you darkness,” she said.

“I feel so weak,” Izzy’s voice was shaking. “I have never felt like this before.”

“You need to fight it,” said Elisha. “Or it will defeat you.”

“I don’t think I can,” Izzy whispered. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”

There was silence then and when I came in, I saw that Izzy had fallen asleep again.

“I thought she was better this morning,” said Elisha, before going down to fetch more water.

I sat down next to Izzy and took her hand. She felt cold to the touch, like she was dying already. Her eyelids fluttered open.

“You’re here,” she said, a faint smile on her lips.

“I won’t go away until you are healthy again,” I said.

“And if I don’t recover?”

I didn’t want to think about that. “You will, you just need to rest.”

She gripped my hand. “You don’t believe that, not really.”

“I need you, Izzy,” I said. “I don’t know if I can face what is coming without you.”

“You are the king, Lucca, of course you can.”

“No,” I said, and I knew it was true. “I don’t care about all that. All I care about is you getting better, you being here with me. I will hand the business over to Ragnar and we can move to a place outside the Capital, get a little farm, grow orchids whatever.”

“Leave the castle?” she asked. “Grow orchids?!” She laughed and started coughing.

“We can build a new castle,” I said. “One for us. Where you will be happy and safe. I don’t care about anything else, Izzy, just you getting better. I love you.”

She smiled at me, tears in her eyes. “I love you too.”

“I want us to be together, to start this new chapter together.”

“Then give me your blood,” she said.

I was quiet for a moment. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I have so much of it in me already. And it was something my mother always said. About change and being open to change. To be open to death, is to be open to life. Growing is about cutting off what is dead to encourage life. You will be giving me new life.”

She paused. “Without it, I will die. I feel it all around me. When I close my eyes, it comes for me, stealing the sweetness from everything. I am not ready to go, though. I knew something new was waiting for me somewhere, but I didn’t know where. This is it. This is my next chapter. Helping you make the world a safer place.”

“Isn’t that the Guard motto?”

Izzy laughed, “Yes! So maybe I’m not changing that much after all!”

It was so good to hear her laugh again.

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