Death of a Friend - Chapter 10 of The Meredead
They all carefully climbed down off of the rocks and headed for the stream and the trail down through the forest, with Rikki, Bella, and Emma leading the way as fast as they could. Bonnie, Caroline, and Elena followed right behind them.
At the beach Emma, Rikki, and Bella ran into the surf and dove in, a flickering of tails visible moments later.
"Go on, Bonnie, we'll take the boat over!" Elena said as Bonnie hesitated.
"Hurry, guys!" Bonnie told them before she dove into the surf as well and vanished.
Elena and Caroline jumped into the boat and quickly started the engine and roared out through the rocks and around the point. Elena pointed out the narrow channel of the inlet that butted up against the rocky cliffs. As they approached the cliff they could see that the mermaids, including Bonnie, had pulled themselves out of the water on the rocks below the cliff and were steaming themselves off with Rikki's help.
Caroline pulled the boat up next to a flat rock that jutted out into the water and Elena jumped out and tied the line around a scraggly bush that was growing in the cracks between a couple of rocks.
Cleo was lying on a rock column about twenty feet above them. Elena jumped, easily soaring up to land on the rock next to Cleo. A quick check of Cleo revealed that she was in fact dead: no pulse, no rise and fall of her chest, and her neck at an abnormal angle. Elena reset Cleo's neck back into its normal position then gathered her body up in her arms. Looking down at the horrified mermaids waiting for her she took a deep breath then jumped, landing lightly next to them.
Elena gently laid Cleo's body down on the rock and shook her head sadly at Caroline who was watching from the boat.
"I'm sorry," Elena said.
"She's dead?" Rikki exclaimed. "No, it can't be true!"
Rikki checked for a pulse and, finding none, started giving Cleo CPR.
"Help me, guys!" Rikki shouted. "She can't die!"
Bella and Emma knelt next to Cleo's body and grabbed her hands as Rikki continued to try to pump air into Cleo's lungs. Elena and Bonnie stood there, wanting to comfort them, but not knowing what they could say.
"Rikki, stop," Emma finally said, crying. "She's not coming back."
"No, I don't believe it," Rikki said, also crying.
Rikki continue to try to force air into Cleo's lungs and start her heart but nothing worked. Finally Bella reached out her hand and put it on Rikki's arm.
"Rikki, let her go," Bella simply said.
Rikki sat back on her feet and screamed. She then fell forward and pressed her face into Cleo's still body.
"Can't you do anything?" Emma asked Bonnie. "Isn't there a witch spell or something that could bring her back?"
"I don't have the power to bring her back," Bonnie explained. "But maybe I could…"
"Don't!" Rikki said forcefully, staring at Bonnie. "No false hopes."
"Let's at least get her in the boat and take her back to the mainland," Elena said.
Elena picked up Cleo's body and lightly vaulted into the boat. After laying Cleo down she beckoned for the others to join her and after the mermaids had gotten into the boat Bonnie untied the line and jumped in to join them. Caroline then turned the boat around and headed out of the inlet, through the rocky channel, into the ocean and towards the mainland.
The ride back was quiet; no one felt like talking. Even though the island wasn't far from the mainland to the mermaids it felt like the longest boat ride they had ever been on.
It was just starting to get dark as they approached the Gold Coast. At the entrance to the harbor district Caroline throttled back and turned to the mermaids.
"Where?" Caroline asked. "Back to your café?"
"No, we should take her to your and Will's place," Rikki said to Bella who nodded. "Its quiet and out of the way; we can figure out what to do next there."
Bella gave Caroline directions to her and Will's house on the pier. It wasn't too far but it quickly got dark on the water. Luckily Caroline had no problem seeing in the dark and after a few more minutes she pulled the boat in alongside the pier, then jumped up and tied it off.
Elena vaulted up with Cleo's body onto the pier and waited with Caroline as the others slowly climbed up.
"Uh, Caroline," Elena whispered.
"What?" Caroline replied, also in a low whisper, too soft for the others to hear.
"She still had my blood in her," Elena said.
"Oh, that's right," Caroline said. "That means…"
"She's going to wake as a vampire…" Elena said, finishing the thought.
Bella led the way to the shack at the end of the pier and inside. Once inside Elena laid Cleo's body on the bed in the side room and closed the door. They then all went and sat around Will and Bella's cluttered main room.
"So what do we do?" Emma asked. "We can't just leave her in there."
"There're going to be a lot of questions," Bella told them. "Where, how, why we came here, etcetera."
"We need to get a hold of Lewis," Rikki told the others, her face in her hands.
The room became silent as everyone thought about Cleo and what they were going to do next.
Suddenly Elena thought she heard a sound from the side room, and turned her head, listening.
"What…" Rikki started to ask, noticing Elena's concentration.
"Shh!" Elena said, standing.
Elena walked to the door to the side room and stopped, listening intently. Then they all heard it; the sound of someone gasping for breath.
"Is that Cleo?" Bella asked.
Rikki, Bella, and Emma jumped to their feet and ran to the door as Elena threw it open. Inside they could see Cleo, sitting up on the bed, looking directly at them. Rikki was about to rush inside with joy when Elena put out her hand, stopping her and the others from entering.
The instant the door opened Elena had sensed the presence of a newly turned vampire in transition. Knowing that Cleo wouldn't be able to control herself around humans she stopped them from entering.
"Careful," Elena said. "She's brand new and ravenous. Until we're sure she's in control please stay away from her."
"What; it's Cleo and she's alive!" Rikki told Elena.
"Um, no, not really," Caroline said, coming up from behind them.
"What's going on?" Cleo asked from inside the room. "Why am I in Bella's guest bed?"
Elena again held up her hand to stop the others.
"So, Cleo, you took a little tumble," Elena explained. "We brought you here while you were, uh, out."
"I remember falling off the rock," Cleo said, getting out of bed. "Ooh, why am I so hungry?"
"Cleo, you need to stay in here for a little while longer," Elena told her. "Everyone, just stay where you are and let me explain."
"Explain what?" Cleo asked, coming closer to the door. "Oh, what's that smell? It smells delicious!"
Cleo tried to leave the room but Elena blocked the doorway, preventing her from exiting.
"Caroline, we need the cooler from the boat…" Elena told Caroline who nodded and headed for the front door.
"And you, Cleo, please sit down and let me explain something," Elena then told Cleo.
"Hurry, I'm starved!" Cleo said and sat back into the chair next to the blocked doorway.
"What's going on?" Emma asked Bonnie, who had joined the group at the door.
"Tell them, Elena," Bonnie told her friend.
"So vampire blood not only heals people who are badly hurt, as we saw earlier…" Elena started to say.
"And makes mermaids drunk, 'causing them to fall…" Rikki interjected.
"Rikki!" Emma interrupted. "Cleo would have died without Elena's help."
With Rikki mollified Emma indicated for Elena to continue.
"So, if someone ingests vampire blood and then dies with that blood still in their system," Elena continued. "They also become, um, a vampire."
"What; you're saying that Cleo is a vampire?" Bella asked. "She looks like her normal self."
"She's in transition; halfway between life and death," Elena explained. "And now she has a choice; to finish the transition and become a full vampire, or…"
"Or what?" Emma asked.
"Or die," Elena said.
"What?!" Rikki exclaimed. "But she's alive; look at her! Cleo, how do you feel?"
"Hungry!" Cleo replied. "Can we go get something to eat now?"
"She's ravenous; she is craving blood," Elena explained. "If she doesn't feed in the next twenty-four hours she'll die."
"And if she does feed?" Bella asked.
"Then she becomes a full vampire," Elena replied. "I'm sorry, but those are the choices."
Caroline suddenly blurred back into the shack, carrying a Styrofoam cooler.
"Thanks, Caroline," Elena told her, taking the cooler and setting it on the floor inside the side room.
"What's in there?" Cleo asked, intrigued.
Elena took off the top, revealing a several IV bags filled with blood.
"Cleo, you need to feed," Elena told her. "Until you transition only human blood will do."
Cleo walked to the cooler and looked at the pile of IV bags inside. As the others watched she reached out her hand and picked up the top bag. She looked at the blood bag and then at her friends, who were watching her through the doorway.
"I'm so hungry," Cleo whispered, looking at the IV bag.
She suddenly ripped open the top of the bag and squeezed the contents into her mouth. Dribbles of blood ran down the side of her chin as she sucked the contents of the bag down. With a growl Cleo dropped the bag and suddenly a ripple went through her. But instead of looking momentarily like she was made of water it looked like she was made of blood, before phasing into her mermaid form and flopping over onto the floor.
"Cleo!" Rikki exclaimed, seeing her friend in mermaid form.
But it was not the same as before. True she had on the golden seaweed top and a golden tail stretched out behind her, but deep red streaks like veins ran through the tail. Her eyes had turned red and there were fangs visible in her mouth. The veins surrounding her eyes were also visible and deep red, just like in her tail. It looked just like a mix of Elena or Caroline's true vampire face and Cleo's mermaid form.
Cleo snarled, still hungry. Grabbing the edge of the cooler she spilled its contents out onto the floor. Quickly she started grabbing the IV bags and with her newly formed fangs she punctured the bags and sucked them dry, tossing the empty bags aside.
After having consumed the entire cooler full of IV bags Cleo rolled over onto her back, feeling satiated. Her fangs retracted and the deep red veins in her face and tail faded, as did the red color in her eyes. It left her lying on the floor looking like a normal mermaid. And then moments later she rippled, again with that weird blood ripple, turning back into her human form.
Cleo stretched and smiled, but saw only looks of horror and revulsion on the faces of her friends.
"Uh, what just happened?" Cleo asked, looking at the pile of discarded blood bags. "And what was in those?"
"Cleo, we need to talk," Elena told her as her friends nodded.
Continued with Chapter 11, Changes
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