Page 71 of Immortal By Morning
“Wait,” Abril said suddenly, her questioning gaze shifting to the men in the room. “That means this immortal was a rogue too?”
“It would seem so,” Lucian said. “She was not killing her ‘dates,’ but should not have been biting them either. Had we discovered her, she would have been punished.”
“Punished how?” Abril asked, but Lucian ignored her and turned his attention back to Diane.
“Continue,” he ordered.
For a moment, Crispin didn’t think Diane would. It was obvious from her expression that she resented his bossing her about like that, but then she apparently decided she wanted to tell her story more than she wanted to defy Lucian and said, “John came home that night and told me everything. At first, I had no idea why he was telling me what I thought at the time was a ridiculous story. I didn’t believe him, of course. I mean... vampires?” Her eyebrows lifted with obvious incredulity. “I thought he must be drunk and just mistook what he’d seen. In fact, I was getting pretty annoyed with him and telling him to take himself to bed when he said that perhaps if we got the vampireto turn me into one, I’d be able to walk again. Maybe everything would be fixed and he could make love to me too instead of having to pick up strange women in bars.”
She lowered her head briefly and then raised it again, her expression carefully empty. Giving a shrug, she admitted, “That actually gave me pause. I still didn’t believe he’d seen what he thought he’d seen, but the idea of being able to both walk and be with my husband again caught my imagination and I began to daydream after that... about being a vampire and whole again.”
Her mouth thinned. “I remember wishing it was true. I hated being paralyzed. Hated that my husband had to look elsewhere for sexual pleasure because I could no longer provide it. And I hated that we’d lost our son and I could never provide him with another. I hated everything, and I didn’t deserve it,” she told them grimly. “I was a good, dutiful daughter, and then I was a good faithful and caring wife and mother. I always did what was expected of me. Never slutted around, never broke the law, never even went above the speed limit and what was my reward?” she asked bitterly. “To lose everything because of some drunken asshole they never even caught so didn’t punish for what he did to me.”
“Never caught?” Abril asked with surprise.
“The driver apparently wasn’t hurt, or at least he was well enough to jump out of the car and leave before the police got on scene, and then the owner of the vehicle claimed it had been stolen.”
Crispin noted the way Abril frowned at this news sowasn’t surprised when she asked, “Then how did they know the driver was drunk?”
“There were several empty beer cans and one half-full liquor bottle in the car,” Crispin said quietly when Diane just glared at her for interrupting. When the woman continued to hold the expression without speaking, he added, “John knew Diane didn’t fully believe his story, but he was determined to find the vampire and somehow bring her back to turn his wife. He tried to research vampires to find something to help him subdue her and get her back here, but in the end, he went for brute force. He purchased and wore several necklaces and rings with crosses on them and bought a bat. Then he started frequenting the bar almost nightly until she returned. He never told Diane what happened, but one night he came home with a beautiful woman unconscious in his arms and—”
“He didn’t have to tell me what had happened,” Diane interrupted impatiently. “He’d started taking a bat out with him when he left for the bar and the back of her head was caved in. I had a pretty good idea what had taken place without his having to explain.”
Resentment plain in her expression, she added, “And yes, she was pretty, but other than that, she just looked like any other woman. John kept insisting, though, that she was a vampire.”
Before the woman could continue, Abril turned to Crispin in confusion. “The way you describe immortals I assumed you couldn’t really be hurt, that you’d heal quickly from any injury other than having your head cut off or being set on fire. But youcanbehurt? And if you can, why wouldn’t he just drug her or something?”
“I presume either because he did not think of it, could not get any, or was not sure what would work. If it was the latter, he was right, normal drugs do not usually work on us,” Crispin said, answering her last question first. “The nanos clear them out too quickly.” When Abril merely nodded that she understood, he added, “But of course we can be hurt. Bullets and knives will pierce our bodies, our bones can break and our skulls can be crushed and caved in. The only difference is they will not kill us and we heal very quickly. But an injury as grievous as Mrs. Foley described would incapacitate us for some time.”
“Oh,” Abril nodded, her expression solemn.
“As I was saying,” Diane went on heavily, obviously annoyed at the interruption to her tale, “John insisted she was a vampire and begged me to cooperate. He loved me and wanted our life back. Even if I might never be able to have a child again as a vampire, I’d be able to walk. We could dance, travel, and so on, but most important, he could make love to me and stop feeling like a cheating asshole. Of course I wanted all that too, so I finally agreed to let him use her to turn me.”
She paused briefly, her expression unhappy and then continued, her voice low and solemn. “He said he’d researched it and while vampires usually bit their victim before turning them, he didn’t think that was actually necessary. He suspected ingesting the vampire’s blood was enough to do the trick. So he cut her wrist,” she said, and then released a short, sharp laugh. “Actually, he very nearly severed her hand from her wristhe cut so deep, then he pressed the gushing wound to my mouth. I drank as much blood as I could stomach from the wound and was just trying to push her arm away when the vampire woke up.”
Diane paused and shook her head with a sort of awe. “The next thing I knew I was yanked from my wheelchair and flying through the air. I hit something, probably the wall,” she guessed and shrugged. “I’m not sure what I hit, but the pain in my head and upper back was blinding and that’s the last thing I remember so I guess I must have lost consciousness.
“I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke up...” She shook her head, her face blanching with the memory that was returning to her and then she suddenly straightened, all emotion leaving her face. Her voice was much stronger and colder when she said, “When I woke up the vampire was lying a few feet away with her head missing and John was sitting on the floor with me, cradling me in his arms. I was confused, in terrible pain, and unbearably hungry and he... I remember thinking that he smelled sooo good.”
Abril seemed confused that would be the woman’s thought at such a moment, so Crispin explained, “By good, she means John smelled absolutely delicious to her.” When those words didn’t clear Abril’s expression, he added, “Like a steak on legs.”
Abril’s eyes were wide with incredulity now and Crispin nodded solemnly. “She was mid turn. From her memories of the scene at that point, it does not appear that her husband had even realized she would need blood, let alone arranged to get any for her turn. Sadly, this led to Diane attacking her own husbandwhile she was out of her head with the turn and draining him dry before passing out again.”
“Liar!” Diane roared with fury, trying to rise up off her chair. Both men immediately caught her shoulders and forced her to remain seated. She glared at Crispin and growled, “I would never hurt my husband! The vampire must have injured him horribly before he was able to cut off her head, and then he bled out before I woke up.”
Crispin shook his head. “In your memories of that night, when you woke up the second time you were lying between the headless woman and your cold, dead husband. There was a bloody machete lying near the immortal’s body, but other than that there was very little blood anywhere else. So, while your memory of him shows him so pale he appeared to be drained of every drop of blood in his body, he did not bleed out naturally.”
Diane Foley shook her head in denial, but her expression was stark now as she struggled with the guilt of what she’d really known all this time, but had done her best to deny. Leaving her to her inner battle, he told Abril, “The second time she woke up, she was no longer in pain and could walk. Better than that, she was strong. She buried the immortal, her head, and John in the indoor garden, cleaned up the mess, including showering and changing her clothes. By that time, her stomach was beginning to cramp with the need for blood, and—” Noting Abril’s confusion, he paused to explain, “She was not done turning. That takes a while as a rule, but with the injuries she’d taken in the car accident there was even more to repair than would normally be the case. She needed a lot of blood, andprobably a week or two for the turn to reach the stage where she would remain conscious and seem normal despite the little repairs continuing under the surface.”
When she nodded, he continued, “Anyway, when the pain became unbearable, she passed out on the couch. She was still there when she was awoken the next afternoon by knocking at the door. Half asleep, she stumbled to open it and found a couple of Jehovah’s witnesses on her stoop, eager to press pamphlets into her hand and talk to her about the Lord. Diane invited them in.”
Sighing, he met Abril’s gaze and said, “They were the first bodies in the outdoor garden. She buried them in the dark of night and drove their car out into the country, dumped it there, and walked back.”
Abril grimaced, but then gave him an encouraging smile and he continued, “Unfortunately, Jehovah’s witnesses did not come around every day at dinnertime. But the next day her sister did come. Along with her husband and teenage daughters. With everything that had been happening, Diane had forgotten she’d made plans the week before and invited them to dinner. They were the next four in the outdoor garden and then she had to get rid oftheircar too.”
Abril’s jaw dropped. Eyes shifting to Diane, she gasped, “Your own sister? And your nieces?”
Diane scowled at her. “My sister was a know-it-all bitch who always got everything she wanted, and my nieces were spoiled brats. As for my brother-in-law... don’t even get me started. I always loathed the pompous ass.”
