Chapter 67

Slowly my breath releases as the red on red stayed that way. Putting down the syringe holding Nick's blood, I sit on the small swivel chair beside me. Instant relief sent me reeling as I stare at the ceiling. Finally Nick's voice invades my psychi, 'What's going on Nina?'

My eyes snap to him, knowing Ki hadn't heard him as I murmur, 'Just a worry of mine.'

'Is it something you wouldn't mind sharing with us? We are all ears,' Nick says, a stern look on his face.

I nod, swiveling towards these two powerful Purebloods and reply, 'When I was being held by the Phantasma for two months, I was injected with something that burned through my veins like fire and I thought...'

'You were an incubator for this?' Ki asks, pointing to the petri dish with Nick's now crystalized blood.

I nod.

'It's unlikely that was why they took you Nina, there is something else about you they wanted.'

Ki looked at Nick, then me, and finally asks, 'Ok, am I missing something? What torture, and when were you taken by the Phantasma?'

--D--

Sitting in Central Park with a hotdog I look up at the blue sky. Last night had been a long night as I explained to Ki what had happened to me just a short time before. Then a call came for Ki and he had explained that the Grand Seeker had tapped into Helix's mind to find that a red headed girl had erased his memories and instantly I felt that icy cold invade my being but just as quickly I had squashed it.

Nick had said, 'So it is likely Beck that did so.'

'Meaning she is well over two hundred years old,' K replies.

'Which clan does she hail from and what family?'

'She is still recovering and will likely not be able to be interrogated for a few days.'

Nick had growled in frustration at that as Ki had checked a text from Igor who had just returned to Tokyo for an update on the tunnels.

Taking a bite of my hotdog smothered in mustard and sauerkraut in commemoration of Jerry I twist my face in disgust saying softly, 'Good god Jerry, how could you eat this rubbish!?'

Tossing it in the trash and making a hole in one, I lean back and look at the lake in front of me. A few people ran by and an old man tipped his cap to me as he walked by. If only these humans knew what was truly happening they would be holed up in their homes. Vampires controlled a majority of the stock, banks, hospitals, and money this world, not to mention the countries that were supposedly in control. The world was quite on the surfsce, much like the lake in front of me, but below, in the dark, it was stirring and agitated.

My mind filtered through what Longsworth had said about the ink. When he had explained to me what it was to me, I had though of mercury and how it could kill in small doses. This had been no ink, the fact that it could only be seen in daylight made me even more nervous. This was no accident, the Phantasma was making it clear that it could kill us all. How much of that poison could one ghoul carry? How many people had to die to get what was on that one playing card?

The knowledge was terrifying. But what was more is knowing I had no clue why I was so important to the Phantasma? What did I know that they wanted? Being able to walk in daylight seemed too simple a thing for them to want from me? I couldn't understand. Why did it seem they were accellerating their plans?

I whisper softly, 'Jerry if only you could be here to be my sounding board this would be so much simplier.'

A bird lands on the bench beside me and I look at it. It was a small sparrow and I smile saying, 'I guess you will be my Jerry.'

It looks at me, head cocking to one side as if listening, 'Wouldn't it seem strange that a powerful secret group would want a bitten clanless like me?'

It fluffs up as if saying, 'I don't know.'

'I know how you feel, I don't know anything about them, or their leader. I am clanless, so I have no ties to a group. I am a bitten...'

That's when I stop and look down to see the bird is gone. Shock radiates through me as I look out at the lake and say, 'It wasn't bitten. I was kissed.'

Suddenly the memory slams into me. Nicoli slides off his horse as he takes the basket from me and says, 'A breakfast picnic, I never would have thought of something so refreshing.'

'I couldn't resist, seeing as you will be away on business this coming fortnight, I thought it would be a small gesture of farewell to my friend.'

Nicoli looks up at me with a small charming smile as he holds out his hands to help me down, 'So we are friends now?'

Taking his hands, I slip down from the horse and nearly fall into his arms when the horse shys away. I pull my face away from his chest with a laugh as he chuckles and says with a grin, 'Of course! We have become the best of friends!'

As I pull away, I feel his arms tighten around me, and my eyes swiftly lift to his in surprise. His eyes had grown a little darker as I ask, 'Is everything well Nicoli?'

'What...'

I tilt my head as he slowly lets me go, setting me to earth and I say, 'Go on.'

'What if I want to be more than a friend?'

I had felt my hesrt skip at those words and I ask worriedly, 'Whatever do you mean Nicoli? Do you not like me? Have I done something wrong?'

'No...no,' He whispered as he placed a curl behind my ear, his touch so featheringly light.

His eyes were so focused I had felt my heart beat speed up, my breathing shallow. He had stepped closer and asked softly, 'May I kiss you?'

All I could do was nod, my mouth dry, my lips seemingly chapped as I bite them. Slowly he had leaned down, and I had lifted my head to his, hands on his chest. Our lips touched and it felt like electricity had pulsed through us as we both hastily pulled away.

We had been both wide eyed as he had whispered words I had always hoped to forget and slammed down on even now.

I had been kissed by a vampire, never bitten. A kiss had changed me, a kiss. Had that ever happened in the history of the vampiric world? Was I special because of it? Was that why they wanted me, because I was so different from any C rank vampire?

It was too much and I was exhausted just trying to piece it together. But I look back down at the bench, the bird having once again returned and I releazed it was for the paper full of crumbs from the hotdog and I whisper, 'Thank you little Jerry, a treat for putting up with this old lady.'

I place the crumbs on the bench and walk back towards the Grand Hotel and my darkened room. Nightfall was a ways off, but I still had much to read over and even more to think about besides my own making and my maker.

The walk was full of people, as I follow the foot traffic down the walkway. Vendors were calling out to pedestrians, cabs honking, people yelling at those cabs. The bustle I had missed, the days of working at my firm, or even as a deli employee for years. I walk past a corner store that had once been a tea shop I owned during the late 1900s. It was amazing to think back on all the lives I had lived. If I hadn't been what I was, I would have probably died young in childbirth to a man I didn't love as a Countess. Instead I had seen the world countless times, but that hunger that was even now making me feel hollow was a shadow that always hung on those memories. I wasn't human as much as I wanted to be, but I wasn't a vampire either. Shaking my head, I whisper, 'Too morbid of thoughts for now Natasha.'

The Grand Hotel wasn't hard to miss with its tall white walls and blue slated roof. Stepping into the lobby, I see wealthy businessmen walking by, talking about the downturn in the stock market and I murmur to myself, 'A canary in the coal mine, it will only get worse from here on out.'

The elevators were free as I slip in only to see a mother and her toddler son follow soon after. The little boys eyes were glued to me and the woman says, 'Tod, don't stare.'

I smile at him and he quickly turns away. The mother says to me, 'Sorry about that, he loves to stare at people.'

'Its alright.'

'Are you here on business or vacation?' She asks, slipping the phone she had into her purse.

'If only it were a vacation, no I'm here on business.'

She chuckles and says with a wink, 'I figured, in that sharp pant suit and powerhouse red soled shoes, I'd have thought business. A model?'

'Stock broker,' I say automatically, something I found easy for people to know of, but not about.

'Wow, big job. So I'm guessing you are from a brokerage firm in London.'

'Yes.'

'Well my name is Callie, my husband is also on a business trip, he had us come along for a small vacation from Vermont.'

Just then the elevators open to her floor and she waves goodbye, as does her son. It was always facinating to me how people would converse in a elevator, or cab about their goings-on in New York City. It must have something to do with the proximity of those small cozy spots. The elevator stops on the top floor and I step out. Only the large suites were on this floor and so it was quiet. The few one percents stayed here and we were the one percent of the one percent.

Slipping into my room, I sigh with relief. The sunlight made me feel refreshed, but the next thing I heard made me freeze in fear.

'Nina, you missed a call,' Nick says, coming from the shadows of the kitchenette, my phone in hand with the looping heartbeat still playing.

Before I even had a chance to say anything he rushed me, the phone dropping from his hand, his eyes full of murderous rage. All I could think was, 'Oh.'