Notes:
- English is not my first language, forgive me for any mistakes.
- I forgot explaining in the previous chapter. The only usage of Adrian's serum in this story is to make the vampires able to walk in the sunlight. It doesn't make them any human or stronger ;)
- Your likes and reviews are always appreciated.
*Special Note to Kamilah: Stay away from Mountain View, CA! I heard there are vampire captors out there 😨
Flashback - London, August 15, 2018
Ignoring her uptight personality, Kamilah decided to follow her heart for the first time in centuries. She'd make that call, after pondering for days. What could go wrong?
She pressed Amy's name on her contact list. As she waited on the line, she came up with an excuse, a reason of why she was calling. It wasn't so late in New York yet, but the girl didn't answer.
"She must have gone bed earlier tonight," Kamilah lamented. Working at such a big company like Raines Corporation should be exhaustive for a young mortal. Adrian's schedule could get really busy sometimes.
In this case, she shouldn't insist. Instead, she would leave a message on her voicemail and wait for Amy to return the call when she was avaliable.
"Amy, hi. This is me. Kamilah. Sayeed. In case you're not recognizing my voice. Listen, I visited some of the places you suggested, I even took some pictures but... it'd have been better if you were here, I guess...
Anyways... after the whole thing with Gaius we haven't had much time to uhh... be together. Oh and I bought you something. So I was thinking we should..."
Kamilah lied. She needed to create a situation to meet Amy as soon as she arrived in New York, but she had no idea what she liked. She opened her laptop, checking the girl's Facebook page for suggestions, when something caught her atention. Less than one hour earlier, she had posted a picture having dinner with Adrian. They looked so close, so intimate... His arm around her shoulder...
She went mute and without thinking, she pressed option number two, cancelling the message.
Kamilah stared at her cellphone screen waiting for Adrian to call. She couldn't do it herself. It was over 10 PM and at some point he'd be questioning why Amy wasn't picking up her phone. Then his only option would be calling Kamilah's number. But she still didn't know how was she supposed to deliver those news. How do you even tell the man, who trusted you his fianceé's life, that she's possibly dead?
That initial scene was still haunting her mind.
"Do you know the victim?" A paramedic asked.
Kamilah nodded in response, unable to speak. Minutes later, she was placed inside the ambulance that was carrying Amy to the hospital. Where she could finally take a better look on her. Or on what was left of her.
There was blood coming out from everywhere, her mouth, her nose, her ears... it was too much blood, even for a vampire. For the first time since she was Turned, the smell of blood made Kamilah feel sick, instead of thirsty. She felt she was about to throw up.
Amy's heart stopped for the second time. Kamilah felt hers was about to stop too. This time it was taking longer to start pulsing again, but one more time, the doctors were able to bring her back to life. Kamilah smiled faintly after a relieved sigh. Despite the severity of her injuries, Amy was still being the tough little fighter she usually was.
She held Amy's hand. It was pale and cold. She was so brave, even unconscious. She remembered the first time she did it, when she was only four months old. Differently from that day, there were no giggles or even the electric sensations of bounding. It was the first time touching Amy didn't make her feel a single thing. Did that mean life was leaving her body? It couldn't be... I just couldn't.
Since she was taken to the Emergency Center, Kamilah had no more news. She tried to contact doctors and nurses but no one could inform her on Amy's condition.
Her last desperate attempt was to follow a woman, whose son was in a long and complicated surgery, to the hospital's chapel. She explained that she didn't have any beliefs but the kind lady held her hand, asked her to close her eyes and said a prayer for Amy's life. Her faith was somehow comforting and contagious, for a second, Kamilah let herself get involved by her words, thinking:
"God, if you... if you're really here like this woman is saying... Listen to me, I've done horrible things in the past. I wasn't even be supposed to be here. My existence contradicts everything your bible says but... not Amy. She's still young and good. Her heart is pure. She deserves to live.
And if I'm still able to repair everything I did... just let me be with her. Let me take care and protect her, with my life if I have to. Please."
Minutes later after they returned to the waiting room, a female doctor emerged from the Emergency Center.
"Amy Parker?" She asked, searching for family and friends of the patient.
Kamilah stood up, apprehensively.
"Are you family?"
"No, I'm her... friend."
"Doesn't she has any family in New York?"
"I-I... I'm not sure. She only told me her parents live a few hours away from here, in a small town in Massachusetts."
The doctor was pensive, silent for a moment. Kamilah knew that expression, that look. She remembered seeing it on Amethu's face when he told her about Lysimachus' death.
"Come with me."
She followed the doctor to a small office, where they both sat down. The doctor presented her a bunch of exams and papers. Terms and expressions her head couldn't quite process at the moment.
"Severe brain injury... Irreversible coma... Sign the papers... Unplug the machines."
After asking the doctor to repeat it all over again, she understood. Amy had a severe trauma in her brain, after hours of surgery they were able to stop the bleeding, but the damage was irreversible. She'd never wake up from the coma state she was in. The only thing that was keeping her alive were the machines she was plugged in. They needed the family to sign the papers to authorize turning them off.
"No," Kamilah protested. "If there's still a manner to keep her alive, she'll stay alive. I'll pay for it! And I'll invest in the most modern technologies, experimental treatments... anything."
"Ms. Sayeed, I know it's difficult to accept. Even if she does wake up someday, she'll never be the same. Her body wouldn't be able to perform the most simple actions, like speaking, seeing or even breathing."
"I don't care," Kamilah punched the wall, opening a small hole. "I would still..."
Another doctor entered the office, announcing Amy's condition had worsened. She had only about two hours to live. Not even her family would have a chance to see her one last time.
"Would you like to say goodbye for them, Ms. Sayeed?"
Kamilah barely knew how she found strenght to walk to that ICU room. Her Amy still looked the same, except that she could barely see her gorgeous features behind that oxygen mask and all those tubes and wires, conected in her entire body. She looked so fragile, so weak...
She pulled a chair, sitting right beside the bed. She touched Amy's hand again, hoping the electric impulses had returned, but nothing happened.
"Hey," she squeezed the girl's hand a little tighter. "Here I am. In 2067 years of life, it's the first time I break a promise. I said you'd never see me again but..."
A lump in her throat prevented her from proceeding. Their fight, right before the accident, started to replay all over again inside her mind, making her feel extremely guilty. She should have drove Amy's home like she asked. She shouldn't have insisted on that conversation...
"I still remember perfectly the first time I saw you, you know? Concidentally, when I saved you from an accident. You escaped without a single scratch and it impressed me, considering how tiny you were. It seems like you were always... a badass, like you say, since early."
Barely breathing and controlling herself to not cry, Kamilah let out a small laugh.
"Oh my god and you really like trouble. I sent you away three times and you returned. You challenged me... you kissed me... you made fall in love with you! Damn it, I love everything about you! Your hair, your eyes, your stupid laugh, your awful jokes, the way you always find a positive side in every situation..."
She glanced at the machines plugged at Amy's fragile body, her vital signs were fading away.
"I can't live without you, Amy. I just can't," at this point she allow a few tears fall from her eyes. "All this time, my body was in California but my mind never really left New York. It never left you! And it never will because... you're mine, and I'm yours."
There was nothing else to be done, unless... She bit her own wrist, opening a large gash. Large enough to feed Amy a considerable amount of her blood. At this point she knew it wasn't enough to heal, or even improve, her state. So Kamilah got up from the chair determined, and plugged off the machines that were keeping Amy alive.
"I'm sorry, Amy. I'm not letting you go. Louise didn't give up on Luc and they're happy. There is still a chance for us. Or at least for you, if you hate me for what I've just done."
She watched as Amy's body stopped completely. When she turned on the machines again, her vital signs started to slowly grow stronger, , showing an impossible improvement considering how much damage her body received.
The next few hours were crucial. First, she went back to the doctor's office with the excuse that, according to her Egyptian beliefs, she needed to be alone with Amy in the bedroom performing a ritual. She should not be bothered, in any circunstances, or her spirit wouldn't find peace in the afterlife. After some fake crying and tears, the doctor couldn't say no to her request. Then, she sneaked to the blood bank, stealing a blood bag from the storage. Amy would need that when she woke up.
Going back to the room, she turned off the lights, making the room as dark as possible. A member of her clan came to meet her, bringing a few items she'd need for the rest of the Turning ritual.
Now all she had to do was to observe and wait. Amy wouldn't turn into a feral, she could sense it. She was Turned by her bound, there was nothing stronger than that. She smiled, holding Amy's hand again. The electric impulses were starting to sparkle again. For the next six hours, she remained like that, feeling her lover's body and those bounding sensations in a way she had never appreciated before.
Amy made clear she didn't wanted to see her again. She was angry and confused. Now her senses would be intensified, all of those feelings would only increase. And so would her love for Adrian.
"So this is our final goodbye, little firefly. Be happy, okay?"
Amy opened her eyes abruptly. Like coming back from sleep paralysis, it took some long minutes before she could properly move or even breathe again. And she felt different... All her surroundings felt different. She could hear the nurses talking on the corridors, she could hear the monitors from patients in the other rooms, she could hear her own heart beating inside her chest. She was anxious, extremely anxious and thirsty... She needed to get some water.
"Was that really necessary?" She thought while removing the oxygen mask and all those wires plugged to her body. Apparently there were no broken bones or injuries. She felt only a little lightheaded. It was probably a concussion.
Even after drinking an entire jar of water, she still felt thirsty. Her mouth was completely dry. She must had spent days unconcious, without drinking anything and receiving a lot of medication.
She walked to the bathroom to wash her face before calling a nurse. When she looked herself in the mirror, she screamed. Her eyes were glowing red and she had... fangs. Sharp fangs.
"T-This can't be happening... I must be dreaming..."
She returned to the bedroom, noticing a small package on the bedside table with a note "Drink it." A blood bag. Instinctively, she pricked it with her newly discovered fangs and drank it all, in only one sip. At the same time it satisfied her needs, it tasted horrible. She started feeling some sickness in her stomach.
She was now... a vampire. How she would even adapt to that? What would she tell her parents? Would they still love her if they discovered? She began to cry, to sob unconsolably.
A group of doctors and nurses burst through the door, exchanging shocked glances. They were unable to believe what they were seeing.
"B-But... how?" The female doctor wondered. "S-She was technically... dead."
Adrian arrived minutes later. He didn't even know about the accident yet. After the message Amy texted him, he assumed she needed some time alone.
"Y-You didn't Turn me?" Amy asked. "Then who... Kamilah, of course."
Memories of the previous day returned to her foggy mind. After their discussion, she left the Ice Cream Shop texting Adrian a message. A message calling off the wedding and asking for a break, because she had unsolved feelings for somebody else. She was too disturbed, too distracted to notice the bus coming in her direction.
"Adrian," she leaned her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry about that text, I don't know what I was thinking... I was very confused."
"It's Kamilah, isn't it?" Adrian asked, after a moment of silence. There was no anger in his voice, only frustration. "I should've known. She moved away right after we started dating. And you don't like talking about her or even being around her. You were relutanct about inviting her to our wedding, even knowing she's like a sister to me."
"It doesn't matter anymore! I hate her now! This accident was her fault and she Turned me without my consent... I didn't know if I wanted to be this!"
Before they could talk any further about her new condition, her parents entered the room, followed by their Church's Minister, emotions overflowing. They believed Amy coming back from death was a true miracle.
At her hometown, she became the hottest gossip. Everybody wanted to meet and interview the "girl who came back to life". At the Church, a special ceremony was being held in her honor. For her luck, Lily and Adrian followed her to the trip. She wasn't fully able to control her senses and bloodlust yet... She never felt satisfied enough... there was always a need for more. Her body also rejected Adrian's brand for some reason. As soon as he marked her skin, the brand would fade away after a few seconds. With that, there was a possibility she could become a feral too.
With all of that in mind right no, she couldn't force her to pay attention in the ceremony. It was all a lie. She wasn't a miracle. She was now an undead being, what some religions would consider a demon.
"For the second time, the Parker's were blessed by a miracle. Amy rose from the death, contradicting doctors and the medicine. Her severely damaged brain was completely helead, in only a few hours. They call it science, but we all know it was Jesus..."
The whole crowd applauded Amy's miracle.
"If they only knew," Amy shook her head.
"... For those who don't remember, her mother, years ago, mysteriously escaped from a car in flames without a single wound, with baby Amy in her arms."
The Minister's words caught Amy's attention for some reason. She never heard about that accident and although she was too young to remember anything at the time, a sudden a flash passed through her brain. Like in one of those visions, she could see herself as an infant inside the destroyed car, crying her lungs out while her mother was barely conscious, asking for help.
"Nobody knows how she was able to escape that car. The damage blocked the door. Only a Supernatural force could've acted to save them in that moment."
A row of applauses were heard around the Church again.
Another flash passed in front of Amy's eyes like a movie. Her infant self woke up, being was hold by somebody else. A woman. She recognized her voice, her brown eyes...
"You're so tiny, fragile, but enchanting. Like a... little firefly."
Kamilah.
"What the f-?" Amy whispered, then begging God for forgiveness for saying that word inside the Church.
Before the cult even ended, she walked home alone. That was impossible. The brain injury was probably causing those flashes. They were fake memories her body was producing. Her newly-turned vampire instincts were trying to create inside her some form of gratitude to her maker.
She locked herself in her bedroom. Her old bedroom. She was confused and tired. All the blood Adrian brought from New York was able to supply her needs. A while later, somebody knocked at the door.
"Go away," she yelled. "I want to be alone, please."
"Come on, sis," that was her younger brother, Jordan. "Mom was driving me nuts, she wanted me to make sure you're okay."
Amy relutanctly opened the door.
"I am okay. I just want to be alone for a while. This whole miracle thing is getting a little bit exaggerated."
"I know, it's just... They said your brain kinda exploded, then healed itself in a matter of hours. We should keep an eye on you."
"I'm not turning into a zombie, don't worry."
Jordan let out a laugh. He entered the room, sitting by her side on the floor. They chatted for hours, while listening to some music. He told her about his job and his plans to make a tour around Asia before the end of Summer. She considered going with him, now she and Adrian had broken up, but it wasn't a good idea. Not until she was fully... adapted.
Jordan grabbed something from his pockets. A chocolate bar.
"Want some?"
"Hell yeah, I need it so badly..."
As Amy touched it, the weird flashes started again. She spaced out, seeing herself during a cold New Year's Eve night in New York, 14 years before. She was lost, alone and freezing. A strange man started following her down the streets and she ran in the direction of a fancy building. The only one that had lights on coming from the last floor. It looked quite familiar... was it... Ahmanet Financial?
"Oh my god, you're literally freezing," Kamilah said, handling Amy her jacket."Come with me, we need to keep you warm."
She spent the night at the office, where Kamilah took care of her, keeping her warm in front of the fireplace and forcing her to drink a cup of coffee. Then, she told her about her brother Lysimachus and they watched the fireworks together.
"Did you make a wish?" Amy asked, after the clock struck midnight.
"What?"
"Every New Years's Eve at Midnight I make a wish. Don't you?"
Kamilah shook her head, smiling.
"You're an interesting human thing. I like your optimism."
"Well, you don't always have to be negative about everything, right?"
Amy forced herself to stay in that vision a little bit more... Then she recognized it. The chocolate bar. She pulled one of those from the backpack she was carrying, and offered Kamilah.
"It's my favorite. You'll never know if it's your favorite too if you don't try it."
"Amy!" Her brother grabbed her shoulders, bringing her back to reality. "Talk to me!"
Her eyes were widened and paralyzed.
"Sorry, I... I need to check something out."
There was only one way to confirm if that memory was real. She remembered the jacket she came back home wearing, but she didn't know the owner. A stranger, as the police officer told her parents. She started pulling things out of her closet in a frenzied mode.
"Amy, what are you doing? You're scaring me... I'm gonna call mom."
Ignoring her brother, she kept searching until she found the jacket inside a box with old recordations. It was indeed the jacket from her memory. From a store she knew Kamilah was a client and... now, with enhanced senses, she still could smell her fragrance, impossible to be noticed by a regular mortal.
She sat down on the floor again, holding that jacket close to her body. Where were those memories from? Why couldn't she remember them before? Until now she believed she spent that day in New York visiting the Museum until she fell asleep at a bench in the Central Park.
There was only one possible explanation, she grabbed her phone and dialed Adrian's number.
"Adrian, it's me. Listen, now I'm a... I'm like you, we should have no more secrets. What happens when a debriefed mortal gets Turned?"