Page 8 of Cloak of the Vampire
My body hurt, but it wasn’t a great pain; it was almost like I was on painkillers, which numbed a much more unbearable ache.
I was lying in a hospital bed, but the bed wasn’t between four white walls. It was in the middle of a field of an endless expanse filled with red flowers and green, healthy grass, with a deep-purple sky full of tiny stars.
The colors were vivid, the flowers like pinpricks of blood across the plain. I wanted to get off the hospital bed and marvel at the sight. But when I tried to, I couldn’t. Bound to the bed rails by leather straps with gold buckles that cut into my wrists, I wasn’t going anywhere. When I tried to move my hands, I realized there was something else wrapped around my left wrist. It looked like an old, battered wristwatch. My heart gave a large thud in my ears, as if it recognized the watch, but my mind was too foggy to figure out what it was about the watch that bothered me.
Out of thin air, a dismembered head dropped onto the mattress before me. Even in my delirious state, I knew who it belonged to, but surprisingly, it didn’t freak me out. I’d known the day would come eventually when I would see this face again.
A voice echoed loudly in my head.
“Drink it.”
I frowned.
Drink what?
A gash appeared on the head’s cheek, crimson blood spilling down its face onto the white sheets.“The blood,”the voice insisted.“Drink the blood.”
Funny that a severed head appearing out of nowhere didn’t quite make me feel as strange as the thought of drinking someone’s blood. I stared at the head for a few frozen moments, feeling a distant sense of sadness. I didn’t want to drink the blood, but somehow, I knew I had little choice in the matter. Whatever or whoever had brought me here was not going to be taking no for an answer.
“Drink it,”the voice said once more, louder and more forcefully than it had before.
Looking around, I saw the belts were gone, and my hands were free, all but for the shabby wristwatch. My body was compelled to move before I made up my mind. My torso leaned forward, and my lips brushed against the wound, my tongue flicking out to lick the blood.It doesn’t have the metallic flavor blood usually has,I thought with growing wonder. It was like water, tasteless yet so vital; I was suddenly desperate for it, as though I’d been wandering in an endless desert, parched for so long, and had finally found an oasis.
I put my entire mouth over the cut and sucked.
Stillness came over me, freezing my heart, chilling my veins. The more I sucked, the colder I felt, and while it was disconcerting, it was eerily alluring, pulling me in, tempting me to feel ...more.
My hands found hair and pulled, bringing the skin impossibly closer as I licked and devoured every crimson drop my tongue could find. Ironically, a frosty kind of heat lit up inside me, making me feel as if my own blood was suddenly on fire, the flames spreading across my body, causing me to shudder at their force.
It was a war of heat and frost, fire and ice, that made my body feel more alive than it had ever been. I felt so light, like everything that had been bothering me, all of my problems and regrets, had been lifted up and thrown away, leaving nothing but a wicked, awe-inspiring sensation of invincibility.
I had no idea how much time had passed before there was no more blood for me to suck. I pulled back, lamenting the loss of the rush, and the severed head disappeared into dust.
Finally, I lifted myself off the bed. But my feet didn’t touch the flowers or the grass; instead, they went right through.
I fell down an airless, dark void as oblivion took me under once more.
CHAPTER 3
It was deathly quiet when I awoke. I tried opening my eyes, but my lids weighed a ton. It’d been a while since I’d felt so weary. Something was wrong.
But then the memories came so quickly and hard that they slapped me awake at once. Ignoring the heaviness, my eyes snapped open and darted around.
A man holding Cassidy, kissing her, that man right in my face, pressing his lips against mine, then nothing.
I was in a small, unfamiliar room furnished only with the twin bed I was lying in. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made of wood. There was only one small window that let me see the night sky. Pushing down the thin blanket that covered me, I put in a lot of effort to sit up. Using my fingers as a brush, I untangled my loose bed head ponytail, brushed it until the long brown wavy strands were less of a mess, and pulled them back up.
My body begged me to lie down again and go back to sleep, but I refused its whims and forced myself up on my feet. After my knees stopped threatening to buckle under the exhaustion, I toddled to the door on the opposite end of the room. When I turned the door handle and pushed, I found that, unsurprisingly, it was locked.
Sighing, I took my hand off the handle and began to make the long trip to the window when the door suddenly opened, and in walked thetowering man who’d assaulted Cassidy and me. I saw him clearly now, thanks to the lamp dangling from the ceiling.
He wore the same trench coat he’d had on at the Hole, where I’d seen him the first time, and his eyes were midnight blue. He wasthatman, the one with the terrifying presence who called all my survival instincts to rapt attention, yet when he moved, like a predator stalking his prey—slow, silent, and careful—I couldn’t help but be hypnotized.
He closed the door behind him and faced me. “Name,” he said, his voice low, rough, and commanding.
I might’ve been inexplicably tired, but my mind had completely woken up. “I would like to understand what is going on,” I said in a formal tone, ignoring his order. My heart thudded in my chest as everything in me yelled to flee, to run, that this man was dangerous.
But I had to ignore the voice of reason since there was nowhere to go anyway. Not with his tall, muscular body blocking the only exit. Besides, since I had no idea where exactly I was, running seemed like a dumb idea. At least until I found Cassidy, and we could both get out of here.
