Chapter 33: A slice of Hell

+ Nick +

Lucy was the first one to bolt upon hearing the news. Even though I loved my sister, I couldn't have possibly reacted as fast as she had, especially considering that not even sixty seconds ago, I had been turned on to the point of digging my nails in the palms of my hands to stop myself from ridding Lucy of her clothes. That kind of arousal is not the kind of thing that just vanishes, so I was slower to react.

I bolted up to my feet a moment later, getting over myself as Logan's words registered in my mind with all they implied.

The change is starting early. And her body's rejecting it. I couldn't understand. How was this possible? Solange's turning into a vampire was not supposed to have complications. A great prophecy foretold that the first Drake woman born would lead the night world one day. She couldn't exactly lead the night world if she was dead for good.

The scary thing about prophecies was that some way or another, they always came true. A part of me wanted to feel reassured that Solange wouldn't die, because she just couldn't, not while she was directly in the middle of such a great prophesy. The other part of me, a more sceptic and careful part wasn't too sure about that.

Our frantic run took no longer than five minutes. Lucy, who's stamina had improved in the last few days, was panting anyways. I knew for a fact that she was sore all over from practicing so much, so the effort to run all this way must have killed her. However, apart from a few deep breaths and a hand on her chest, she didn't complain one bit.

We entered our home wordlessly. Lucy, who had been so quick, had fallen behind, her steps growing heavier by the moment. I allowed myself to sneak peak into her mind, allowing her emotions to become one with mine.

I felt her raw intense pain as if it was my own and her sadness that I knew would sooner or later stain her beautiful face with tears. But the emotion that dominated everything else was fear. The fear of losing her best friend.

It had started. Three significant days of our lives, and they hadn't started on a positive note at all. I stopped walking until she caught up to me and wrapped my hand around her clenched fist. At my touch she looked up, and I could see that her eyes were already red. Her breath still came out ragged and uneven.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." I tried to reassure her as we walked slowly to the room she shared with Solange. Halfway up the steps, she slowed down again.

"What if she's not? I can't bear to lose her, Nick. I won't. She's like a sister to me." she buried her face in my shirt. I took a deep breath and rested my head on hers.

"I know. I'm her brother and you know that it kills me to see her like this, but the transition is something all of us have to go through. I can't lie and say that it's going to be easy, because it almost never is." She held her breath and nodded and proceeded towards the room. We found my mum at the door, a hand over her mouth and her eyes shut tightly, as if that helped her block our Solange's screams of anguish. Logan had a hand on her shoulder and was trying to reassure her. His eyes met mine and from the dire look in them, I knew that things were way worse that I thought.

"Can we see her?" Lucy asked softly, her voice just above a whisper.

Mum shook her head as she tried to regain some of her composure. "It's best if you don't, Lucy. You'll just torment yourself. There's nothing we can do but wait. Liam's in there with her and he'll help her as best he can, just like he helped the boys."

The shred of hope in Lucy's eyes faded. Her shoulder sagged and she looked down at the floor, as if she was afraid to meet anyone's eyes. Standing in front of Solange's room wouldn't help her one bit, so I decided it was best if we moved, at least it would spare the both of us from hearing every laboured breath and every scream that Solange was producing. I took her hand and went downstairs. She didn't even oppose me.

Once in the empty kitchen, we sat down at the table. Lucy stared off into nothing. It was beginning to worry me. She had never been so quiet for such a long time.

I was going to go mad if I kept thinking. I needed my mind to draw a blank and give me a break. As an attempt to distract myself, I opened the fridge. I popped out a bottle of blood for me and searched for a something that Lucy could drink. At the top shelf, there was a disregarded box of orange juice, and I figured it would have to do. I handed her the box and she took it wordlessly from me, popped the little straw in the hole and sucked on it. The air of gloom and silence around her was maddening.

I microwaved the blood and waited for it to heat up completely before joining her at the table.

We drank in silence, each lost to out own thoughts. She was the one who broke the silence first.

"What does it feel like?" she wondered. I looked at her questioningly.

"What does what feel like?"

From the look she gave me, she must have thought out loud as she looked startled.

"Turning? Is it really always that bad?"

I involuntary shuddered as suppressed memories from when I turned came back to me.

"As far as I know, it's always painful. The transformation your body has to go through is not a light one. It's a a test really, to see if you're fit to become immortal." I told her.

She bit her lip, "So, um... how was it for you, if you don't mind me asking?"

This was a question I dreaded, but I was one I knew I would have to answer sooner or later.

"Well it was... hell. Not everyone's change is the same though. Mine was particularly painful. After I turned, dad told me that I had barely made it. Kinda glad I did, to be honest." I placed a hand on hers and gave her a little smile, hoping to cheer her up a little. She tried to return it, but the sadness was still evident in her chocolate-brown eyes, which lacked their usual warmth and cheeriness.

"You know," I said softly as I inched closer to her and gave her hand a little squeeze, "As your body starts changing, the most difficult thing is to hold on to life despite all the pain. It's so easy to give in to it and let it devour you. You need to find something to cling on to, something that makes the pain just bearable. You were that something for me, Lucy."

She smiled and sighed a little tiredly. "You haven't slept at all, I'm sure you're very tired." I told her.

She stifled a yawn, "I am, but I don't think I'll be able to sleep at all. I just keep thinking about her. I feel so damn helpless."

"So do I, but only time can tell." I told her grimly. She gave me a dire look before a heart-wrenching scream filled the house from upstairs. Lucy winced, but very slightly. Her poker face won over. "Then we wait."

XXX

Nine long hours had passed. Lucy and I had been fighting sleep for the better half of them, but fatigue got the best of us. Less than an hour later, high-pitched screaming sent us bolting up from the couch, wide-awake with nerves flaring.

Since then, I hadn't been able to just stand still. I kept pacing anxiously around the room, lost deep in thought. I wanted terribly to sit down next to Lucy, who had curled herself up in a ball on the couch and hold her close to me, and reassure her, but I couldn't find it in me.

It was normal for the change to be painful, that's just the way it is, but usually on the first day one would be lost to their own subconscious, only muttering low groans of pain in an anguished sleep until they would wake up the next day. That's when the real pain began, as the heart would begin to slow down and with each pump, it would send the corrupted human blood through their veins all over their body. They'd feel as if they were on fire, combusting in invisible flames beneath their very own flesh.

Lucy however was not following the pattern, from what I've heard my father whisper to my mum, she was vomiting blood... a lot of it. This was never a good omen; not even on the third day when the pain reaches it's maximum capacity and a little blood was always expected. Only nine hours had passed since the change began, and Lucy was showing symptoms only someone in his or her last few hours of pain would show.

Someone was coming down the stairs, and I swiftly headed in their direction, hoping it was mum or one of my brothers so that I could ask if there were any developments.

Much to my surprise, it was dad who emerged. He was blood stained, his green shirt turned into a shade of crimson where the blood had touched it. "Nick. Lucy. Get dressed, need to get going."

My eyebrows furrowed at that. "What? Where are we going? Is Sol okay?" I had about a billion more questions, but my father looked out of it and I doubted he's have the time to answer them anyways.

"No, Nick. She's not. I've tried everything and she's only getting worse so I had to swallow my pride and phone Veronique. Her blood is the only thing strong enough that might save your sister." Veronique DuBois was the oldest living member of the drake family, turned sometime in the 12th century. She was a stern woman whose coldness could freeze up the world. However, her blood was priceless. The older vampire blood is, much like wine, the better it gets. However, I knew that obtaining it from her would be extremely difficult. She does not have a very strong sense of family.

"But wait, if I may ask, what do Nick and I have to do with getting Veronique's blood?" Lucy asked. It was a very valid question, one that I wanted an answer to myself.

Dad started washing his hands in the sink, facing away from us as he spoke. "Somehow, word got out that you and Nick are blood bonded. When I called, she had her servant inform me that she should have heard out this sooner and from us rather than from strangers. She said she wouldn't give us her blood until she meets the two of you." Dad's voice was strained and filled with so much animosity. Veronique was never his favourite person.

Dad sighed as he wiped his hands and pinched the bridge of his nose. Tension oozed from him like blood from a fresh wound.

"Come on, go get changed. Solange might not have much time left." Dad urged us. Lucy bolted off the couch and both off us made our way to my room where she had stored her clothes while Solange occupied their room during her change.

We didn't take longer than two minutes to get ready. Lucy had pulled her hair in a messy pony tail and looked quite casual.

"Do you think that this will be okay? I mean won't she be offended that we're wearing jeans?" Lucy asked me as she examined her clothes. I took her head and led her down the stairs.

"Solange's dying, Lucy. I don't give a flying fuck if our clothes offend that old crone." I said, loosing patience.

"Yeah, but if that old crone gets stubborn or offended and decides that she doesn't want to give us the blood after all, we're screwed." she pointed out. I swore underneath my breath, knowing that she had a point. But it really didn't matter, as there was no time to change in anything fancier.

We got in the car with my dad, the two of us sitting in the back. Veronique lived on the other side of the state and it would take us about four hours to get there. I searched for Lucy's hand and laced my fingers through hers, giving her a small reassuring smile. I braced myself for four hours of strained silence.

At least, the fact that Lucy was next to me eased my burden. I felt better with her comforting scent engulfing me. She smelled like warmth, like the sun in spring, and reminded me of when I was human, when everything was much simpler. Inhaling her scent was like drinking a hot beverage on a cold windy day, it smelled like home. She was like a warm winter day to me.

She was my lucky charm, she was my Lucky.

XXX

Two hours into the drive, sleep grew tired of being evaded. Her head rested softly against my chest. I watched her breath in softly, sleeping peacefully for the first time in days.

"You love her." My father uttered softly. He was watching us from the rear view mirror. His expression had softened since we started driving. We were in the middle of a road that seemed like it would lead to nowhere. Veronique liked her privacy, that much was known.

"I do." I told him without hesitation.

I could see his expression grow grim in the mirror. He pursed his lips, "Then keep her safe, Nick. We're swimming in dangerous waters here. This is no world for a human. She's a tough one, but still far too fragile."

"I will, Dad. That much you can count on."

My father gave me a curt nod. "Good. A lot is at stake here. Your sister's life... and Lucy's too."

Silence fell afterwards, as I had no answer to that. All I could do was hold her hand tighter.

I started getting a little sleepy myself, but my dad's voice wiped away every bit of drowsiness. "Nick. Tell me how many cars you can see behind us." his voice was once more strained.

I turned around and tried to peer outside. The glass was tinted a dark green, but I could make out the shape of four black range rovers.

"Four." I told him, feeling a lump forming in my throat. "Are those Veronique's hired guards?" I asked, hopeful.

"We're an hour away from the Drake Mansion, so no." he responded through gritted teeth. I wanted to ask him if they were enemies of ours, but I was afraid I knew what the answer would be.

When he pressed the gas pedal, I knew for certain that those cars were no good omens.

All I could do was hold Lucy tighter to me. I wrapped my arms around her, making her stir in her sleep as she huddled deeper into my shoulder. I didn't have the heart to wake her up. She had been through hell all week and she deserved to get a full hour of sleep.

My father took a sharp turn all of a sudden, knocking me with Lucy in my arms over roughly to the right. Lucy woke up with a jerk and a loud gasp, disoriented as she asked what was going on. The car had come to a halt. I looked ahead and noticed that two of those black cars now blocked our way and the four behind us had caught up to us, making escape impossible.

Fear bit at me like frostbite. My father swore loudly and slammed his hands on the steering wheel.

Lucy asked once more what was going on, while dad shot last second advice at us.

"Speak when you're bid to, let me talk. Never make eye contact. It's going to be alright." he tried to reassure us, but even his voice wavered.

The four doors of the car were opened at once, and rough hands pulled my father out of the car first. They tried to pull Lucy away from me, but she was frantically trying to get away from their hands. I felt another pair of hands tighten on my arms, pulling me away from her, so I gripped her by the chest. She had managed to kick away the hands with her feet, screaming all the while. The hands got annoyed with us, and pulled me. In my effort to get Lucy close to me, I lost my grip on the seat, and was pulled roughly onto the unforgiving asphalt, Lucy still entangled and screaming bloody murder and threatening and cursing at the top of her voice.

The thing to silence her was a rough slap that one of the gloved hands gave her across the cheek.

This sent me over the edge, and summoned the darker side of me. I growled and tried to attack but the hands blocked my every move. They made me kneel down and locked my hands behind my back. Lucy was kneeling next to me; her eyes were wide and alert. Her cheek bore a red mark, a souvenir of the slap and her lip was bleeding. She was sucking on it, trying to hide it. Whether it was to tame my wrath or because she had realised that our captors were vampires, I did not know.

"Nicholas Drake and consort Lucy Hamilton, you have been summoned by the Lady Natasha, Queen of the Night World and Ruler of all Vampires to answer for your treason and for breaking one of the Ancient Laws.

XXX

Thoughts?