The Shepherd

  As she stood up I could see what was wrong. Blood. The front of her dress had fresh, wet blood all over. She made her way slowly to the window. She could barely walk. She let him in, but then collapsed on the floor. Then I noticed the blood streaks down her bare legs. Her normally fair complexion was deathly grey. Mikhail started cursing in a stream of Russian, and then he cried like a baby as he inspected her more closely.

  I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Hurry, get her to a hospital now!” But they couldn’t hear me.

  My Russian twin finally gathered his wits. He hurriedly wrapped Nadia in the blankets off the bed and carried her out into the night. I followed them as he wandered the streets of New York, lost, Nadia unconscious in his arms.

  He babbled to her in his broken English as he roamed, “I cannot go back to the Count, I took the silverware, it must be valuable. I think it will pay for our trip west, at least as far as the Mississippi.”

  He went on and on about how good their life together would be once they made it to the west, about the home he planned to build for them, and always telling her how much he loved her. Mikhail wasn’t thinking straight. Several times he went in circles around the same block, and he repeated the same promises over and over.

  I screamed in his face. “Wakeup! Do something!” But they could not hear me. I was only an observer.

  Dribbles of Nadia’s blood ran down Mikhail’s arms, dripping from his elbows as he walked the streets of New York aimlessly, struggling not to fall asleep. In the dead of the night, lost in the streets, Mikhail found himself confronted with a man who had been following them for a block or more. I knew immediately there was something very different about this man, something very wrong. But Mikhail was oblivious. This stalker seemed entranced by the sight of Nadia’s half-dead body in Mikhail’s arms, an unnatural and morbid fascination.

  I knew this man was a predator, attracted to Mikhail and Natasha by the overwhelming smell of her blood. A landshark. Mikhail had left an easy trail for the creature to follow. The thing was tall, lanky, with pale white skin, dark eyes, and raven black hair. It was well dressed in a fashionable suit and cloak, and it introduced itself as, “Doctor Hess.”

  Suprisingly, it sounded calm and peaceful when it spoke, yet to me the thing radiated a sense of pending doom. I wanted to shake Mikhail, to scream in his face, to make him wake up and see the obvious.

  The doctor invited them home, “You can bring her to my office, but hurry, she will not last long this night. She has lost too much blood. She could hemorrhage at any moment.”

  Faced with this calm and intelligent sounding man, Mikhail chose the only source of help available. He looked exhausted. They walked quickly down the street to the Doctor’s place. It was an actual doctor’s office storefront, with a sign depicting the painted image of the rod with a serpent wrapped around it. I felt a little better about the arrangement. Maybe this man-creature was bound by the Hippocratic Oath.

  In the office, the doctor instructed Mikhail to lay Nadia on his operating table, and then proceeded to examine her. Mikhail sat down to rest on the nearby bench. I was way too worried to take my eyes off of Nadia, but Mikhail, in his exhaustion, was already nodding off. Before I could see what the Doctor was really up to my vision jump-flashed.

  When I got over the nauseating disorientation of the quick-change of scenery, I found myself in a dark, dank room of moldy bricked-in walls and earthen floor. To one side of the room was a steel cage mortared right into the brick wall. Nadia lie curled up in a fetal position on a small cot inside the cage-cell. She looked filthy, her lank hair hung in greasy clumps across her face. I could actually smell her. She reeked with a rotten, coppery tang of the old blood caked on her filthy cotton shift which hadn’t been changed in who knows how long. On the wall opposite the cage was Mikhail, sitting on a bench, but not exactly relaxed. His arms hung from steel cuffs attached to steel chains bolted to the wall, a prisoner in this dungeon-like place.

  Doctor Hess came into the room descending a set of slimy black brick steps and went directly to the door of the cage with a huge skeleton key. He unlocked it and walked inside to check on Nadia. “Good evening child. The fever seems to have run its course, very well then. You have survived the process of change. It is time.”

  Nadia croaked, “Can I please have a drink, sir?”

  “Yes, in a moment, child.” Doctor Hess seemed kind, caring, but the setting was all wrong, with cages, chains and restraints.

  Their conversation awoke Mikhail. He immediately started in on the doctor, “Stay away from her you bastard! Do not touch her again!”

  The doctor replied tolerantly, “I have not harmed the girl. On the contrary, I have saved her life.” The doctor spoke directly to Nadia, “You are happy to be alive, yes?”

  Nadia nodded her head and asked again, “Can I have a drink now?”

  “Ah yes, now we come to the purpose of this exercise. I have brought you here together for a little experiment. The object of the experiment is to determine how long the subject can abstain from feeding before her bloodlust overrules her reason. What is your name?”

  “Natasha,” she croaked.

  “Good, Natasha, come with me now.”

  Mikhail argued all the way, “Do nothing he tells you! He is evil, do not listen to him!”

  The Doctor replied with an unmistakable tenor of authority, “Shut up!”

  Nadia followed the Doctor out of the cage to stand before Mikhail. She finally became aware that her fiancée was imprisoned. “What are you doing with him?”

  Doctor Hess reached out with a quick flick of his left hand and sliced Mikhail’s right shoulder with his long, wicked fingernails, leaving a one inch cut that welled up with blood. Mikhail spat at him, “Bastard.”

  Nadia realized the implications and started to beg, “Please sir. Please do not hurt him. We leave and never return. We not cause problems!” Her English worsened in her anxiety.

  “Silence, child!” The doctor snapped and Nadia was silenced, as if he held some strange power to command obedience. He wetted his finger in Mikhail’s blood and held it up to Nadia’s nose. She attempted to turn away, but the scent caught and her attention focused unerringly on the Doctor’s red-tipped finger. Nadia was entranced by that one digit, her little pink tongue flicked out once-twice-three times to clean every last drop off the Doctor’s finger. She obviously liked it. Her eyes took on a feral, hungry gleam, darting back and forth between the Doctor and Mikhail. Her eyes lingered on the open cut across Mikhail’s shoulder.

  Nadia took a step towards Mikhail, but he spoke up to caution her, “Nyet! Fight him! You must not let him turn you into a monster! You are strong enough to fight him! Ja teb’a l’ubl’u.” I had heard him say that to her so many times as he carried her, I knew he meant I love you.

  The doctor gestured towards Mikhail, “There is your drink, warm and fresh. Go to him, a little taste will not hurt.”

  I could see how bad she wanted it. “A little taste?” She licked her lips.

  As she advanced, her fiancé started in again, “Do not listen to him! He will turn you into a monster! Strigoi!”

  With Mikhail’s words, she backed off. “I am not strigoi!”

  That was some kind of serious word for them. I recalled hearing it before, a Russian vampire. Nadia’s superstition and abhorrence was strong enough to give her pause.

  She shook her head and backed even further away from Mikhail, denying herself what she obviously wanted.

  The doctor sighed in resignation. “Get in the cage!” He clearly held some power over her, because she moved immediately, doing precisely as commanded. The doctor locked the cage door.

  “Until tomorrow night.” He exited up the slippery brick stairway.

  The scene jump-shifted to the same exact place, only sometime later. Since there was no real change of location, I didn’t feel the nausea-vertigo so bad.

  Looking around, things were pretty much the same. Nadia lay on the cot in the ca
ge, and Mikhail was still sitting on the bench chained up. The Doctor came down the steps like the last time, unlocked the cage door, and spoke to Nadia, “Three nights without feeding, are you ready to give in to your needs?”

  The filthy girl launched at the Doctor, moving faster than the eye could see. He moved just as fast, slamming the cage door in her face. She hit it hard, rattling the steel. Then this dainty little girl growled and snarled like a beast, speaking in a guttural voice that had no business coming from her mouth, “Let me go, now!”

  The doctor remained calm and collected. “Of course, as soon as you feed from the young man you can go wherever you wish.”

  The Doctor swung the cage door open again, sidestepping as Nadia flew past him in a blur. In an instant she was there in front of Mikhail, reaching for him, grabbing his arm to pull it to her mouth.

  Mikhail yelled in her face, “Nyet Natasha! Nyet! You must not let him do this! You must fight him!”

  He reached some part of her that was still the girl that he loved and cherished, his plea stopped her just before she bit into his flesh. Nadia dropped to the floor mewling and crying, a miserable sound that wasn’t quite human in tenor. She crawled on hands and knees to the doctor to beg at his feet in a hoarse whiny voice, “Please sir! Please no! I will do anything you want, please no hurt Misha!”

  “No child! You will not feed or do anything else until you feed from him!”

  She cried and continued with that pathetic wailing sound, pawing at the doctor’s feet like a starving dog. It was the most pitiful thing I had ever witnessed.

  The doctor watched her without emotion. Merciless bastard. After another moment of watching her whine and beg he ordered her back into the cage. She stood and walked back to her cage like a puppet on strings, unwillingly following his commands. She begged and whined all the while. The doctor locked her in and did an about face to march up the stairs leading out. “Until tomorrow!” He sang as he left the room.

  The scene jump-flashed again to the same dungeon-like room, but some point later in time. Nadia was in the cage as before with Mikhail still chained to the wall. All looked exactly the same except for the fact that Nadia was pacing back and forth, little growls and grunts and snarls coming from her at every turn. She spotted Mikhail who watched her with trepidation, and she lunged, hitting the bars of the cage in a bone-jarring slam. She screeched high and shrill, enraged at the barrier blocking off her food source. Nadia was no more. This creature was pure hunger, nothing but animal instinct.

  Mikhail tried talking to her before the doctor arrived to unleash her on him, but it was pointless, she didn’t acknowledge him. Mikhail’s words made me sick to my stomach, “Natasha, my beloved Nadia, my bride to be, my love, my life. I know you. I know this beast is not you. You must get ahold of yourself.”

  His words fell on deaf ears.

  The doctor came down the stairs as usual, the key to the cage in hand. He surveyed Nadia approvingly; tonight was it. “The fifth night – truly amazing. Personally, I never abstain for more than a single night. I am thoroughly impressed. You have remarkable will power for such a young girl. You must have loved him very much.”

  He spoke of Mikhail in the past tense.

  Nadia watched the doctor’s every move, anticipating the moment. She panted like an animal, crouched and ready to spring. The doctor swung the door wide and leapt out of her path as she raced out of the cage to land on Mikhail with a vengeance. Sitting in his lap, she bit his shoulder and sunk her claws into his torso to clamp down like a cat pouncing on its prey.

  Mikhail screamed. “Nadia!” His cries soon became incoherent expressions of agony as she unwittingly tore through his body, engorging herself on his blood.

  She couldn’t seem to get enough.

  She bit him three more times on his arm and shoulder and then finally settled on his neck, sinking her teeth into the juicy arterial flow. Her arms and legs wrapped around him intimately, much the same way she had lain with me in my bed. The similarity was unmistakable, I shuddered involuntarily and my stomach heaved as I witnessed the morbid yet intimate slaughter.

  Mikhail’s head flopped over sideways with a sigh, he finally lost consciousness. In his condition it was a mercy. Nadia didn’t stop, she gripped him tight, sucking for all she was worth. Like a lock-jawed pit-bull, her golden eyes stared without recognition as she held on.

  * * * *

  Chapter 16

  Wednesday, October 27th, 11:15 p.m.

  I jump-flashed back to the here and now, on the beach at the south end of Moses Lake. I was on my back, in the sand, twitching and convulsing in shock. I rolled over just in time to hurl on the sand, emptying my stomach. Nadia crouched over me, looking more or less the same as she had in that dungeon where she had torn into poor Mikhail like a rabid dog.

  To her credit she looked concerned, but that didn’t help the situation. I scrambled up and away from the Nadia-thing. My earlier bravado and sympathy evaporated with the horrifying scene I’d just witnessed.

  I shoved my finger at her in accusation. “Murderer! You killed Mikhail! You mutilated him! I saw it all. I was there!” Emotions flowed across her face, shock, surprise, shame, grief, and then pain. She behaved like I had pulled out a gun and shot her. She looked so tortured, miserable.

  Tears rolled down her face, tears of blood. Surprising, but creepy as fuck. I took a couple more steps back away from her.

  “Yes, it’s true, I did.” She advanced on me in a blur, much faster than a normal fourteen year old girl should move. She grabbed my hands and went down on her knees. She looked eerily similar to when she had begged the doctor for Mikhail’s life.

  “Don’t you see? I’ve been given a second chance. A chance to make it right. I won’t make the same mistakes. I will never hurt you again Misha, I promise! You have nothing to fear from me.”

  “I’m not Misha, quit calling me that. He’s dead! You shredded him, remember?” I tried to remove my hands from hers, but she had a wicked strong grip, and she wasn’t ready to let go.

  “Yes, you are Mike. There can be no denying who you are. But you don’t have to worry, you’re safe with me. What happened with Mikhail was so long ago. I was a child with no control. I will never, ever hurt you, Mike, you must believe me. I have control now. You can trust me.”

  She stood up and stepped in close, tears of blood trailing down her cheeks, her golden cat eyes focused unwaveringly on mine. “I will never let anyone hurt you, not Tommy, not Rachelle, no one! This is my promise to you.”

  It hit me like a physical blow to the abdomen, robbing me of air to breathe. The significance of her words and all my suspicions speared past the denial. The epiphany of realization brought on the vertigo all over again.

  “Fuck, not again.”

  I dropped to my knees in the sand as I jump-flashed to the parking lot of Michael’s on the Lake. I clearly saw myself, in my tux, standing next to Anita. But from my angle, I noticed things I had not seen the first time around.

  Nadia. She had followed me.

  The outline of her black hoodie and stretch pants was barely discernible from the shadows where she stood behind a large pickup truck. She was stalking me, a predator lurking.

  She watched as Anita and I exited the restaurant, Tommy issuing catcalls from behind. Tommy was such a goof, teasing me, waving Rachelle’s hand around. I could see Nadia’s face twist up with malice. She hated Tommy. She hated him for interfering in my homecoming night.

  Just as I started to worry what she might do to him, the vision jump-flashed to the Moses Lake High School parking lot.

  I could hear the music blaring out the doors to the gym as a handful of students in formal dress entered. Homecoming night was in full swing, the parking lot filled with vehicles.

  Nadia was there too. She must have been stalking me all along.

  I watched with increasing anxiety as Nadia slipped through the shadows, sliding past several cars to sneak up behind a blond kid.

 
Tommy.

  Tommy was making his way through the parking lot to his parent’s Lexus, clueless to her presence. He marched right up to the car, popped open the door with his wireless key ring, and mixed himself a cocktail. Though already blitzed on liquor, he made another drink.

  Nadia watched from the shadows a few feet away. Tommy downed his drink in two huge gulps, his head tilted back. Kid could put it away. After polishing off his drink, he slipped the remainder of the pint of vodka into the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket and turned to head back to the dance.

  Nadia made her move.

  She came in hard and fast, a barely distinguishable blurry streak. She nailed him hard in the back of the head. I could actually hear the thud.

  That had to hurt.

  He dropped face first, KOed. Nadia dipped down to dig through his pockets and after a second found what she was looking for. With a click of the wireless keychain the trunk of the Lexus popped open a few inches. I felt a surge of envy for that Lexus. There was nothing electric in my Geo, not the windows, not the locks, and certainly not the trunk latch.

  With the trunk open, Nadia did what I thought she would, but it was still unnerving to see her in action. That little waif of a girl picked up Tommy’s unconscious body off the pavement and slung him over her shoulder with a slight grunt. She walked casually around to the trunk, lifted the lid, and dumped him in like an airport baggage handler tossing luggage. She closed the trunk lid behind him and then threw his car keys all the way across the parking lot.

  She giggled girly and walked off with a sickly sweet smile of triumph.

  But this roller coaster wasn’t finished. I jump-flashed to another scene, just outside the propped open door of my trailer. My Geo sat in the driveway, passenger door also wide open, as Nadia grunted and cursed in Russian. She was struggling with someone in the passenger seat.

  Me.

  Oohh sooo careful, she scooped me out of the seat, unconscious and bloody. She carried me right up the front steps into my trailer.