“If I leave you with this knowledge, I will have to be able to monitor you at will. I am responsible for the safety of my people. I have to know that you are capable of keeping our secret at all times, and I will have to make sure that the undead cannot use you to get to Destiny.”
Mary Ann swallowed her fear. “I think that’s fair enough.”
“It entails my taking your blood, MaryAnn. Not converting you, simply taking a small amount of your blood so that I can touch your mind at any time. It wouldn’t hurt and you wouldn’t be in danger, but the idea of it is uncomfortable to humans.”
MaryAnn was silent, leaning her chin in her hand while she studied his face. “Destiny wasn’t given a choice, was she?”
Nicolae shook his head. “She was converted by the vilest of creatures. The undead. A vampire lives for the pain of others. He made her suffer for years. He subjected her to every humiliating degradation he could think of. He murdered men, women and children in front of her and forced her to drink their blood. He used her body for years in the most painful ways possible although she was an innocent child.”
MaryAnn rubbed the heel of her hand over her face. “And you want me to desert her because I might be uncomfortable for a moment or two? I owe her more than that. Take my blood if you feel it is necessary, Nicolae, and let’s find a way to help her.”
Destiny rushed out into the night, dragging great gulps of air into her lungs. It was humiliating to be shaking like a child just because she was in such close proximity to so many people. She wouldn’t admit her distress had been caused by anything else. How could she want to touch a man’s skin? Be held in his arms? Breathe him into her body?
She knew about men, what they did, what they wanted from a woman… a girl… a child. A scream welled up from her soul, the terror of a child trapped with a monster. She pressed the scream back with her hand, as if to shove it back down her throat and bury the terror where she would never have to look at it. See it. Think of it.
The night is so beautiful, Destiny. Clear and cold and crisp. Look above you at the stars. His voice came like magic. Soothing. Gentle. Out of nowhere, simply there in her mind. Pushing away the memories of hard, hurting hands, rivers of blood, the faces of the damned. There is nothing so beautiful as the night. Even the leaves are a shimmering silver. I did not remember that. Did you notice the color? Silver and gold tonight. The wind is whispering to us. Hear? Just listen to it, little one. It speaks to us of the secrets of the earth.
She closed her eyes, listened to his voice, found her heartbeat, knew she was alive and whole. Knew she could make it through another minute. Another hour. Even another night. Destiny knew the truth then, accepted the truth. If she were to survive, then so must Nicolae. The nightmares haunting her were far too strong to conquer on her own. She might fight and win every other battle, but not the one for her sanity. Not the one for her soul. That was Nicolae’s battle.
She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, at the stars glittering like gems over her head. The tension was slowly draining out of her body, but the need was there, crawling through her with insistence. A craving she couldn’t ever escape.
Your craving is natural, Destiny, like breathing. We are of the earth. We do not eat the flesh of living things. Is it so terrible what we sustain ourselves on? We harm no one. We see to the protection of humans. We live among them, do business with them. Just as you have learned to care for the people who live along these blocks, so will you care for our people.
Her first reaction was denial. More of them? Vampires? She shook her head, forcing herself to consider his words. Carpathians. A race of beings she now belonged to. Beings with special powers. Beings who could enter churches and stand under strings of garlic. She suddenly laughed, the sound flowing down the street like music. She had a reflection. She knew what she looked like.