Chapter one
It wasn't really something I wanted to do. But being what I was now was confusing.
Looking at light, anything was painful. The noises of life buzzed all around me. And there was only one person I knew who would help me.
So, not even twenty-four hours after it was done, I was walking down the street, heading fro SingleEarth. Caryn would help, though I can't imagine why. She helped everyone.
I walk into the building, pulling the hat further down on my face. This was one place I didn't want to see my mother. I walk down the sterile hall and into the little office that she worked in. It was her lunchtime; so she sat behind her desk.
As I close the door I could hear her stand up. I turn around slowly and she looks at me carefully. As she recognizes me her eyes get larger and she falls back into the chair. "Oh my god, Sarah?"
"Don't rub it in," I say still not liking the way my new fangs rubbed against my lips as I spoke. Caryn swallows hard and looks at her desk. I take off the hat and sit in the chair in front of her desk.
"You're just the last person…" She trails off, "How did this happen?" I shake my head.
"That's not important." She nods slowly. "Don't worry about keeping this from Dominique, I have a feeling Adianna already told her. You don't have to tell her I was here though." She looks at me blankly.
"Why?" I was confused, needless to say but the lack of emotions in her voice.
"Why what?" She swallows again.
"Why, did you let this happen." Truth? Sure, less to explain later.
"I was gonna die," I say bluntly and quietly. She takes a deeper breath than necessary and puts her head on her hands. "Listen, Caryn, I need a favor." She nods.
"Ok," She looks at me. "Treason once, I can do it again." I smile wearily.
"You can say I threatened you." She laughs a little and I smile for a second before forcing my face to harden. "I need to get out of here for a while and I need somewhere to go." She nods like she was thinking.
"Where do you wanna go?" I sigh and shake my head. I had been trying not to think about this all night.
"How far away can you get me?" She looks up at me and smirks.
"How's New York?" I look at her a little confused.
"Why New York?" She shakes her head and puts her arms back on her chair.
"I have a… friend, up there that I could probably talk into letting you stay there." I nod.
"That would work."
"Best part, in New Mayhem, even your mom would be crazy to threaten one of their own there." I smile.
"Sounds like the place for me." She nods and picks up the phone. She dials a lengthy number twice before she was happy with the numbers and puts the reciever to her ear. It rings for a long time and she looks at her watch for a second. She sighs and shakes her head. She mumbles after the phone had died and dials it again.
"Stinking vampires," She looks at me after saying it and smile apologetically, "She's asleep." I laugh a little. "And I thought I learned not to wake her up?" She chuckles and leans back in her chair. After a minute someone answers.
"What, Damnit!" Caryn laughs.
"You'd think you were nocturnal."
"Smoke. What do you want, need, or have to discuss and why did it have to be at noon! I'm getting death glares through the floor!" Caryn laughs and the other voice lowers so I couldn't hear it.
"I need a favor… no it has nothing to do with killing someone," Caryn rolls her eyes. I shake my head and Caryn bites her lip as she looks at me. "No, I need you to help me… help someone else." She looks at me a little pained.
"Well," She says on the other line.
"Sarah…" Caryn shakes her head, "I don't wanna! … Because then you'll say no."
"Caryn!"
"Vida," she mumbles.
"What!"
"See!"
"You want me to take in the daughter of a woman who tried to kill me! And him!" She nods.
"Think about what I'm asking here."
"…"
"Shade?"
"…Why would I take in a witch!"
"She's not just a witch anymore." I lower my eyes and look at the red black and blue floor. "Shade, are you there."
"You mean she's a vampire! Isn't that like, illegal?"
"Why do you think she needs to get out of here?"
"Wait. So you want me to take in a witch that's now a Vampire that will be hunted by all of Vida? Do I look blond!" Cary shakes her head and I stand up and take the reciever out of her hand.
"Stop yelling," I say into the reciever, "The fact that I can hear you talk about me is very discouraging and not to mention defiling in every way." I look at Caryn who was smiling brightly. "And just for the record, I might not have been the best Vida, but I could kick all of my family's ass, I don't need your help, I just need to get out of here." I hand the phone back to Cary and sit back down. She doesn't put it back to her ear for a second and looks at me. I was breathing rather hard too. I was hungry; I hadn't eaten since the first time.
"Are you ok," Caryn asks me as Jessica Shade continued to yell for Caryn on the phone. I look at her briefly and she quickly puts the reciever on her ear. "I'm here."
"What the fuck!"
"Jessica," She says still looking at me, "I'll have to call you back."
"NO! Caryn, what the hell-" She hangs up and quickly walks to my side.
"When was the last time you fed?" I shake my head.
"Last night… around sunset." She looks at her watch and takes my elbow standing me up. She walks me out of the small office and I grab my hat. She drags me down the sterile white hall and into another wing. She walks me into a smaller white room and sits me on a table. She takes my arm and sticks a syringe in a dead vein. She pulls up on the lever and after a few seconds the syringe was still empty other than a little dribble of blood. She pulls it back out and throws it on a silver table.
She walks out of the door and walks back in a few minutes later with a nurse and a larger IV bag with an inlet on one side and an exit on the other. She sticks the syringe in my arm again, and hooks what was defiantly not a nurse to the other side. The girl looks at me and I shiver. "Caryn?" She looks at me. There was a look of determination in her eyes.
"I'm not ready to let you die, even if you are," She says forcefully and I glare at her. The girl back up a little not looking much like she wanted to be in the room, or maybe just to whole building. I shake my head and stand up.
"I was wrong to come here." Caryn stops what she was doing and looks at me with mild surprise. I rip the syringe out of my arm and rush the girl. She jumps back. I look her in the eye. "And so were you." She shakes a little and quickly runs out of the room. Caryn looks after her down the hall and grumbles.
"Smoke," someone yells down the hall. I smirk. Caryn looks at me and glares weakly.
"Don't move." She steps out and shuts the door. I listen to what she was saying on the other side of the door faintly. But sooner than not, my head was pounding and I had to put my hand on the wall to not fall over and pass out. I mumble to myself a little and slide down the wall. The door opens and I faintly remember hearing high heeled boots tap into the room. I whimper a little and could feel a hand on my back.
"Damn, Smoke," say that voice again, "I thought you were trying to keep people like her undead, not dying in their own starvation." Caryn laughs a little.
"She's the one starving herself," She says with a little malice, "But then again, it is against her nature to kill." My head was still pounding as they talked. I was only faintly aware of the hand on my back, smoothing my hair and gently moving in small circles.
"Well, we can't have that now can we." Says that voice yet again. "Do you know who made her?" Caryn was silent for a minute.
"I have an idea."
"And?"
"Christopher Ravena." She chuckles a little.
"What do you know? That lil' bastrd is back in the circuit?" She laughs a little and stands up. "I'll get him, that would be best. Stay with her. Don't let her hurt herself. And keep her conscience as best you can." Caryn walks across the room and bends down where the other one had been. She moves my hair out of my face and sighs.
"I doubt he'll be happy about this." She cringes away from me as my head pounds harder. I whimper a little and she sighs harder. "Hurry up Jessica." She pulls me to her and runs her hand over my hair. I could hear her heart in my ear inches form my mouth.
Do you have a death wish! I yell in her mind and she looks down at me. I lift my head with much effort stand and move away form her as she stands. She looks at me a little confused. Damn you! I force her out of the room with my mind and collapse on the dead. I look at the door holding it shut without much effort. But even with as much effort as I was putting out I fell unconscience after a minute or so.
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"Ok, this is stupid," were the first words I heard as I woke. I was in the same room. Only now I was lying completely on the bed. Someone was sitting on the bed next to me. And I could feel at least two others not far away, in the room defiantly. I was awake as I was gonna get but I just didn't want to open my eyes.
"What are you guys looking at her for," That was defiantly Caryn.
"Can I go back to sleep," I mumble. Someone snorts.
"Not right now!" I sigh. That was Jessica Shade. And from the smell of it, Christopher was sitting next to me. "You're weaker that he used to be."
"Hey," Christopher growls. Jessica laughs.
"You know it's true." If my eyes were open I was pretty sure I would have seen him roll his eyes. "And besides, then you'd miss your own scolding." I open one eye just to glare at her. She smiles, her green eyes shining. I close my eye again and move my arm behind me to sit up. Christopher puts his hand on my side and helps the process. I lean on his shoulder. "Ok, we can do the scolding later." I laugh a little and shake my head looking at her again. She does a little curtsy thing.
I was plainly avoiding looking at him and I could feel that he knew it. Caryn smiles at me. "Thanks for the little stunt," She says bluntly, "But let's not do it again." I shrug.
"Whatever." Jessica looks at Caryn and Caryn looks at her. They were plainly having a discussion in their minds. I look at the Christopher for a second and he smiles at me.
Ok? I nod.
I guess. I look back at Caryn and Jessica. Suddenly, Caryn gets an insulted look on her face and punches Jessica flatly on the arm. Jessica eggs her on and acts like she was hurt. We both shake our heads. She looks at us and glares.
"What are you two looking at."
"We're not sure," Christopher says bluntly. Jessica gapes at him and I shake my head still looking at her. Jessica looks at Caryn again and the witch shrugs. I steal a look at the clock and would have fallen over again if Christopher hadn't still had his arm around me hold me up.
"Is that clock right?" Caryn and Jessica stop their mental fight and Caryn looks at the clock then her watch and nods.
"Yep," she says happily like it was a rare thing. I look at Jessica and she bites her lip and looks at the ground. Then I look at Christopher and he smiles weakly. Caryn looks at one of us to the next. "What am I missing."
"Oh, just the fact that sunset was almost an hour ago," Jessica states her voice growing into a yell. She then glares at Caryn. Caryn scratches her neck and laughs weakly. Jessica rolls her eyes and looks at me. "Stay here," She says to me and I look at her, "I'll be back." And with that she vanishes. I look at Christopher and he looks away first this time.
The added factors of having to feed me again and daily exhaustion where making everything hard on him right now, hence all the weak smiles. "You can go," I say to him and he looks at me with a set face, "I'll see you again sometime." He nods reluctantly and kisses my forehead before disappearing.
Caryn looks out at the hall and then at me. "Sarah?" I don't look at her just lean back on the sterile bed. "I need to get back to work… Will you be ok?" I nod mutely. She sighs and leaves the door a few seconds later.
What the hell was going on with me lately? I sigh and run my hands through my hair. It felt different. Everything felt, looked, tasted, smelt different. I mentally flip the lights off and close my eyes. I liked the dark better. It was warmer.
I lay there for a few minutes, it could have been an hour as far as I knew, but I lied there until a silent movement in the darkness alerted me of another presence. "So, you turned the lights off," Jessica, "Classy." She flips them on but my eyes were still closed so I didn't notice much. "Wake up princess." I scoff.
"I am awake. Like I could sleep." She laughs a little at my monotone voice.
"I don't need to know anything else to know why you're gonna end up dead! Too human." I open my eyes slowly and glare at her. "And don't. You it's know it's true." There was something different about Jessica Smoke. Hundreds of hunters said it, but now looking at her I could see it too. She was so unattached to her human roots. She looked like she had been a vampire from the beginning of time, and some even said she had been.
"So what do you want to do about it, oh great killer?" She smirks and I humph a little.
"What do I want to do about it?" She laughs, "That question always gets me in over my head!" She looks at me softly. "Aubrey's gonna kill me for this." She jumps off the counter where she had been standing and walks over to me. "You need a place to stay, right?" I nod. "And you need to keep the bit of life you still have, right?" I nod again. "I'll help you with both… but you have to do something for me?"
"What," I ask with a little hesitation. She smirks sadly.
"You have to give up your humanity." I just look at her blankly. "That's the only way you'll ever be able to last on your own." I was still looking at her.
"And how does one go about, 'losing one's humanity'?" She smirks.
"You listen to me." I involuntarily shuddered at the words, but in the end I still took the hand she had extended to me.
"Ok."