"You are a holy vessel."
A WHAT?!
Marcus was cowering against the wall, trying to keep me from touching him. I stood watching him with my hands on my hips.
"Kim, it's not just your brands that can't be touched by a Vampire...it's you!"
I didn't dare take my eyes off of Marcus but I wanted to stare at her open mouthed.
The smell in the room was horrendous but that wasn't why I was suddenly feeling a headache...What did any of it matter when I was planning to trade my life for Tige's?
We stayed like that for ten minutes with Marcus being as quiet as anyone could with a melting hand. Finally, Tyler came back into the room. Alone.
She looked at me. Marcus had enslaved all of his employees. The other was no Angel but he hadn't enslaved anyone. Still Mandy wanted to go to the safe house and she knew many others who would also.
I nodded my thanks to Tyler, who didn't take her seat. I repeated the news to everyone else along with my intent to behead Marcus with the chain.
"Please Kim." I heard her ask. "Let me kill him."
I looked at her surprised. "Are you sure? It hurts to kill...even an already dead, evil Vampire."
"I-know what he's done to them. I need the release." She responded calmly.
Release. I just nodded.
Tyler walked calmly to the cabinet. With no apparent thought she removed a small pistol. When Marcus saw what she was doing he tried to leap up. Why he didn't just light away I'll never know; perhaps he thought that his control on Mandy would be stronger and running would make him a rogue which was certain death. Still it was his hesitation that resulted in his death. Using more speed then I would think humanly possible Tyler swung and fired the gun at him repeatedly. He was floored. One of those bullets had found its way into Marcus' heart. He turned into a pile of ash not far from Terrence's two piles.
I wanted to hold Tyler and rock her and soothe her, but she didn't need it. She was strengthened.
I stared at the terrified remaining Vampire.
"Since Marcus is dead...my judgment is in your favor. In the matter of his assets they will revert to his workers, however his territory is now yours. But Mandy...she is her own."
The young Vamp had enough sense not to protest. He stood slowly. "Yes Master. Thank you."
He hurried out of the room.
Kat rushed into the room soon after. "That's our last appointment!"
"What do you mean?" Tyler asked. "There were fifty people out there." "They all left! All that screaming and then shooting. They gave their apologies and settled everything amongst themselves." I collapsed into my chair in hysterical laughter.
Mara took my wrist cautiously and examined them. She looked at me curiously. "It may be many years before these heal...if they ever do." I nodded.
"You will not be able to...Kim; you can't be with a Vampire while you're a holy vessel."
I felt bad that I wasn't telling them that I wouldn't be a holy vessel for long. I felt that it would only cause a lot of drama for them to find out now.
"Tony will be very angry."
"I don’t exist for Tony’s approval." I smiled at them hoping to ease the tension. "It'll be okay. Trust me." Monica frowned in confusion. I dismissed the ladies but Monica lingered.
"I don't mean to pry, but, I think there's something more going on here."
"You're right, there is. Our lives are very precarious...it makes me want to create a will." Monica nodded silently.
We sat with our heads together. She wasn't convinced that this was my true issue but knew that I wasn't giving anything up.
With a tickling at the back of my neck I felt Tony's arrival. Quickly I sent Monica to her suite of rooms with the rough draft of my will.
I strolled out of my office and met Tony in the front room.
He froze when he saw me and sniffed.
"You smell like death. What happened here?"
I had removed the silver chain but not the crucifix when Tony saw it he grimaced and turned away from me.
"What the hell is going on here?!" I was afraid for the first time that night. Not that Tony would hurt me. I was afraid of how badly I was about to hurt him.
"I had the first" and apparently last "of the territory meetings for my sector."
"And you had to kill someone?" He said not looking at me directly, face still creased in discomfort. "Will you take that off!"
I did but placed it carefully in my pocket.
He made an angry move towards me but I raised my arms and showed him my wrist. He virtually skid to a halt.
Tony's face took on a look of horror. It broke my heart. He couldn't look at the crucifixes directly but he couldn't completely turn away from them either.
"Who did this to you, Kim?!"
"I did it."
"What?!" He roared. "Why would you do something like this?!" His expression was completely horror filled. I could barely look into his eyes.
"To become a weapon. And, baby...it gets worse. I don't just have these on my wrist. Mara said that they've made me into a...religious vessel."
He was shaking his head in disbelief. "That's impossible. Vampires can't-" He closed his eyes briefly. "If that's true, you can't be touched now, not by another Vampire." His eyes opened and he stared at me in disbelief.
"Tony the crucifixes were my only intent. I wasn't trying to be completely untouchable...but it doesn't matter now-"
"Baby, what are you TALKING about?! It doesn't matter?! I CAN’T TOUCH YOU!"
"Then listen to what I'm telling you." I spoke sternly, swallowing my pain. "I found out how I can save Tige. I'm going to take his place."
Tony's mouth opened slightly. He stared past me without moving. Suddenly his face turned dark and his body thickened and his teeth ripped violently through his gums. With a roar he picked up Johan's antique table and threw it so hard against the wall that it shattered like it was made of glass instead of wood.
I didn't flinch. He glared at me breathing hard. I had lowered my arms so that he couldn't see the crucifixes.
"Who told you?" His voice didn't even sound human.
"You were supposed to tell me, remember? 'I don't want to hold back the truth from you anymore.'" His shoulders sunk and by slow degrees he returned to the Tony I recognized.
"Baby...not this." He was shaking his head. "Tige would not want this-"
I glanced at my wrists. "It's a little late for second thoughts. Did you tell Alexis that I wanted to see him?"
Tony took a long time to answer. "He knows. He'll see you now. I can't take you." He exhaled a long breath. "You'll have to...follow his trail, he should be open for you to follow his trail."
I searched my mind for Alexis and felt his line. With a jolt I understood that I had always known where Tige was. His line was plain and clear within my mind. He had never closed himself off from me...as was Paul's...as was Tony's.
Before leaving I looked at Tony. "I am sorry, Tony. I do understand how you're feeling. It's a lot like how I felt when I wanted to save Tige." His eyes narrowed and I disappeared before he could respond.
CHAPTER 13
My arrival to Alexis was confusing. When I stopped moving I was not in the same place I had been the last time we'd been together. I had traveled to a meadow or a large garden. Whatever it was, I was outside and it was dark.
Alexis was standing feet from me. I could see him even though there was no light outside other than from the stars. I looked longingly at the sky. I hadn't stopped to enjoy the stars since being turned. I hadn't had time.
"And you are the very one that said that being touched was a necessity for you. Now you have made it so that no Vampire can touch you without being injured." He watched me with hands clasped in front of him. Tonight he wore black pants and black shirt that flowed long over his hips. Nevertheless, his musculature was still quite evident.
"You can touch me." I said.
"But I'm not just another Vampire. Still, there are other thing
s that can love you besides Vampires if those things are to your liking."
"Other things, besides humans, you mean?"
Alexis nodded.
"Why would I care about that now?"
Alexis tilted his head, not understanding my meaning.
"I...I assumed you knew why I was here since you knew about the brands on my wrists."
"I know what you are thinking. You were thinking about the brands. What else is in your head that you would have me know?"
I rubbed my eyes. I stared at him. "I am going to-"
I felt Alexis reach out and grip my wrist. We began moving quickly but it was smooth when he did it, not like we were moving but that the world was moving around us.
When we stopped I stumbled a few steps but Alexis gripped me firmly if not painfully considering he was holding on to one of my brands.
I looked around not recognizing my whereabouts. It was a beautiful palatial home filled with a lot of Asian artifacts.
Then I knew, before I even saw her that we were in Kaniji's home.
She spun around at our arrival. She was wearing a robe and her hair was down over her shoulders. I could see why she always wore her hair up. She had a large bald spot at the top of her head.
"Master!" She said shocked. Quickly she bowed low.
Alexis finally released my wrist.
He watched her calmly. His eyes were not black, they were not gold. They were red.
"Please rise Neco Kaniji San." His voice was as calm and cool as his expression. But those red eyes let me know that he was pissed.
Kaniji rose looking back and forth from one to the other of us.
"I would like to thank you, Kaniji, for assisting me with some Elder Council affairs."
"She...she lies-" Kaniji was grasping at straws.
"She's not said anything to me about you. I went into her mind and picked her memories. It is you that tries to lie now, is it not?"
With a shaky voice Kaniji responded. "Yes, Master."
Alexis made a small gesture with his hand and Kaniji flipped onto her side. Blood gushed from her lips and something went flying across the room. She screamed, muffled as she had clasped her hand over her mouth.
I stared at the bloody thing that had been flung from her mouth. Oh no! It was her tongue.
Her second materialized from no where. He took in the sight of his Master lying on the floor holding in her screams and wanted to assist her. But he also saw that it was Alexis that was dishing out her punishment. He didn't know what to do so he just stood there.
I realized that I was saying over and over again in my head, 'Please don't, please don't, please don't', until it was becoming a mantra.
"I think I will have you as my pet." Alexis' voice was so calm. I'm now trembling, her Second looks terror stricken and Kaniji's eyes grow wide. She started shaking her head and sliding away from Alexis.
I touched his arm. He looked at me with those terrible red eyes.
"Did she...lie when she said that coming to you would mean that I'd get the truth?"
He just stared at me and I wondered to myself why I was trying to protect this bitch who out and out admitted that she wanted me dead. Everything she did always back fired on her like some damn Road Runner cartoon. Although nothing as gruesome as having your tongue yanked out of your mouth ever happened to Wile E. Coyote!
Alexis shook his head but he was smiling now and he had lost the red eyes. They were his normal black-no-whites.
"Her tongue will regenerate in a day or two." He spoke inside my mind. "And regarding the matter of her punishment; she is the one who lied the moment she opened her mouth. She will be my pet because her pain pleases me...You please me as well, however I have not determined if your pain will. Do not tempt me to find out."
I pierced my lips together. If I wasn't afraid that Alexis would be offended I would have motioned a key locking in front of my lips.
Carefully I kept my mind blank as I suspected that he had read my mind concerning that Wile E. Coyote thing.
A black leather leash suddenly appeared around Kaniji's throat.
"Come my Pet," He addressed her in a crooning voice. "The hour grows late and I have much to do. Wait for me in my bed chambers. No need to clean up...there will be more blood."
If it was possible for Kaniji's eye's to grow bigger they did. She looked at me quickly as if pleading for my help. I just pierced my lips tighter. I was not going to lose my tongue in order to help her.
Alexis clasped his fingers around my wrist again. He moved so fast I didn't know he had done it until we began traveling.
This time I consciously paid attention to my surroundings, however it was hard to understand. I was seeing flashes of white streaking past me and there was a definite sensation of objects moving past me. I felt like I could reach out and grab something...and possibly lose my arm in the process!
When we stopped moving we were in a plain white room. The floor was white the ceiling was white...but the lady standing in front of us was black.
She was drop dead gorgeous and the first black female Vamp that I'd seen. She wore a white gown of some billowy substance. Thin straps over her shoulders held the dress together.
She wore make-up of some type of shimmery silver eye shadow and silvery lipstick. And she didn't look like some jacked-up Disco Queen from the 80's, either. Sister looked good.
Alexis released his grip on my wrist and I did rub it because the new brands had not even begun to heal and his constant contact had refreshed the pain. He glided over to the female and I felt just fine staying right where I was.
Maybe...somewhere in the back of my mind I may have thought of Alexis as a love interest, but not anymore. He was seriously scaring me and I hadn't even asked him the questions I needed to ask!
He and the female Vampire conferred without speaking. She glanced at me periodically but Alexis did not.
They conferred for so long that I had time to examine my surroundings. Somehow I didn't think that I was in a room. I kept rubbing the toe of my shoe on the floor to see if it was solid and it was, but...the room wasn't quite real. Don't ask me to explain, I don't understand how it could be that way.
My neck began to prickle and another Vampire materialized in the room. He was old and stooped and wore a long white robe like a monk would wear except white. To look so old, someone turned him while he was old. It seemed such a horrible thing, to be trapped for all eternity in that decrepit body.
Four more Vampires materialized, each wearing white. Now, they all were staring at me. In unison they began to glide toward me-all except Alexis, who watched me with completely black eyes.
I braced myself and tried to make my mind blank. I certainly didn't want to offend any of them by thinking something disagreeable.
Suddenly both of my arms shot outward. It wasn't like someone was holding on to me. It was like the very cells in my arm had their own agenda.
Intuitively, I knew that they were the Council of the Elder. They looked at my crucifixes then at each other.
I heard a buzzing and then quite suddenly I FELT the buzzing. It was in my head and I think that if it lasted very long I would be driven insane. I inhaled deeply and concentrated on holding my breath. Then I concentrated on reviving the pain in my wrists because anything would be better then the buzzing in my head.
One of the Elders looked at Alexis and Alexis' face darkened and his eyes turned that scary red again. He clasped his hands behind his back and walked towards me and the rest of the group. They looked from Alexis to the one Elder. They seemed to be squaring off.
The black Vampire arched her brow and everyone stopped to watch her. When that happened the buzzing in my head ended and I slumped in relief.
Again they conferred with each other and I began to do some calculations in my head.
Monica had scheduled the first appointment at Midnight. They had lasted approximately 2 hours. Afterwards we had spent over an hour making a will. Tony had come, gone, I'd m
et Alexis, we'd gone to Kaniji...that had taken perhaps half an hour. And if I weren't mistaken, we had already been in this room for over an hour.
That meant we were like...half a second away from dawn. But I didn't feel the usual lethargy. I knew I was tired, though and I wanted to sit down, even if it was on the floor.
What were they talking about! They were deciding something about me? I just wanted to take Tige's place. Kaniji said it was possible. Alexis' anger seemed to indicate that it was possible...then what was happening?!