House Wyndham Vampires: Half Light Part 16

I cracked skin open on my knees as I crawled through the car on broken gla.s.s. I felt it slash open the palms of my hands but I didn't care.

I just wanted to get to him.

The rain came from the busted fire hydrant. It shot high into the and crashed down in heavy drops.

Finally I reached him and put my hand on his lower leg. He didn't move. I eased up over his body, careful not to disturb him in case he had broken bones. He still didn't move.

And then I saw half of the window, a ma.s.sive slice of the gla.s.s, sticking out of his chest.

No...

I watched his blood pump out of his heart and I was torn between pulling it free or leaning in to drink as deeply as I could. The thought disgusted me, that I would think of my own needs. But the survival instinct was alive and I was so....very...hungry...

Stop.

I'd heard voices in my head before-Father could on occasion do that. But this wasn't Father. I hesitated and looked around. I could hear something dripping, and I smelled gasoline and oil.

And blood. I looked down again at Brandon- But I wasn't on the side of the road, and neither was Brandon. He was still beside me in the car, propped up on his right by the driver's side door. The gla.s.s wasn't in his chest anymore. I reached out with my right hand to touch his shirt. It was unmarred. There was nothing there. But, I'd just seen a piece of gla.s.s...

No. It was an illusion. Can't you feel it?

The voice again. I recognized it. Male. And human. But if it was human, how can I- Because we now have a bond, Carly. Your blood broke the previous bond, and now, you are my Master.

I blinked as I stared at the wreck around me. False rain ran down my face. "C-craft?"

Yes. Now stop, and listen. Do you hear it?

Hear it? Hear what? I could hear him- But there it was. On the peripheral of my senses. Just barely there. Almost like looking to the corner of my eye to catch something that wasn't really there. A soft, distant thud. And then again. As I strained to listen, I also felt something pressing down on my shoulders. I'd known this sensation before-known it the day my Father had said a Hunter had come to the house.

"He's here," I whispered aloud, as if Craft were right beside me.

Yes. He is checking on Brandon.

"But I saw Brandon dying. I saw his chest-"

No. You saw what the Hunter wanted you to see. It's testing you, Carly. You have to pa.s.s this one. Wait. Just, wait.

"Craft...what did you mean-"

Shhh. Wait.

I waited, sitting there in the wreck of the car as I looked around me. I could sense the presence. But I couldn't see it. Every pane of gla.s.s was shattered. Nothing was visible outside, only the spattering of rain from the fire hydrant. But he was there. Circling. Sensing. Doing what my Father bid him to do.

I had nothing to worry about, right? Jared said he didn't sense my influence in Brandon's blood anymore. Then why was I nervous? Was it because I didn't trust Jared? Or I believed he'd lie to protect me?

Not just believed-I knew he would.

Suddenly the weight on my shoulders was gone, and the presence of impending doom was lifted.

"He's gone," I said aloud, knowing this without really seeing.

"Yes," Craft's voice was even closer. I turned to see a shadow outside the window. "Stay back," and then something smashed through.

It was his fist, wrapped inside of his leather coat. He'd destroyed the driver's side door. And when he bent down to look at me through the missing window, I was so happy to see his beautiful face. His eyes were wide as he looked inside and then he frowned at me. "Carly, just hold still, okay?"

He reached in and unlocked the door before he wrenched it open. Ghouls had enhanced strength-as a human he'd never have been able to nearly tear the door off its hinges. Once it was peeled away he bent in close and looked at something below my chin. "What-"

"Just shhh..." he said.

I felt a pressure and then watched in horror as he pulled a long, blood drenched sliver gla.s.s away from me. I immediately put my hand to my neck and felt the blood flowing.

"That's why you were seeing Brandon wounded. You're losing blood, so your survival instincts kicked in and overrode that compa.s.sion of yours to disguise Brandon as food. The Hunter was able to use this weakness to test you, to see if you would consume the human."

I blinked at him. "Psychology today?"

He shrugged. "I went to college. Some. Brandon's gonna need medical attention-he's knocked his head. But you're in worse shape. Let's get you fixed up enough to avoid scrutiny you don't want first." He rolled up his sleeve and held his arm out to me.

He smelled as no human could. Sweet. Aromatic. It was that special part of a ghoul that makes us want them. I felt that in a way, it was almost cannibalistic. We make Ghouls by giving them our blood, which transforms them from the inside. They're no longer fully human, but they're not vampire. They're stuck in between.

I felt my teeth extend. It tickled at first but as my thirst rushed forward it was a need I had to fulfill. I sensed a connection to Craft-something possessive. And when I bit down into his flesh and pierced the larger of the veins in his wrist, his blood touched my tongue and I knew the truth at that moment.

He...was mine.

My blood had destroyed the hold Michel had had.

And now my blood claimed him as its own.

And as I drank from him I caught images I'd not seen before. Sensations, emotions, witness to events I'd never been to. There was loss and helplessness. I was chained and bound, tortured and humiliated. I could see my own hands covered in blood, and when I looked into the mirror I saw Craft.

"Carly..."

He wore a suit of dark black, in a cut and style I'd only seen in old photos. I saw sadness in his face, and then I knew it in my heart. He had lead such a painful life, and through his new birth as a Ghoul, he'd known even more.

"C-carly..."

I heard Craft's voice in my head as well as in my ears. I zeroed in on his heartbeat. It was strong but it was skipping. I had taken so much! I pulled my teeth from his wrist and sat back but clutched at his arm. He was looking at me with hazy eyes and he was trying so very hard to stay conscious.

In that instant I knew him, and I'd seen glimpses of his past.

A son betrayed. A brother abandoned. A friend...forever changed.

"When..." I heard myself say aloud. "When was the last time you were held, Craft?"

He blinked at me, confused. "What-"

I reached out and took him into my arms at that moment, overcome by the things I'd seen, the emotions that overwhelmed and drowned me. Feelings that weren't mine. I'd fed from living creatures-other than small animals-so infrequently. And rarely from humans. Was it always like this? This flood of knowledge? Of seeing and feeling things?

Craft put his hands on my arms and whispered in my mind again, Carly...Brandon...

Brandon? I turned to my right to look at him.

His eyes were open as he lay propped against the broken side of the BMW. And he was staring at me, as I was holding onto Craft. Oh dear lord no...had he seen me hugging Craft? Did he think that I- No.

I released Craft and reached out to Brandon, but he whimpered and pulled back from me. I saw the blood on my hands. And when I looked back to Craft, I caught sight of something in the rearview mirror. The rectangular shaped reflection was sideways, precariously hanging from the damaged windshield.

And in it I saw myself.

I saw what Brandon saw.

Eyes of black, lips ruby red as if they were painted with the blood of the Ghoul in my arms, and my teeth...

The sound of sirens echoed my own disgust as I reached up to touch my long, extended fangs.

I didn't really know much about hospitals. Except what I'd seen on television and in the movies. They all looked the same-the white walls, slightly scuffed. The bluish paint. Smudged tile floors. The constant paging over my head. Doctors and nurses, names being called to different departments, or asked to answer the phones.

But there was one thing television and movies couldn't replicate-and that was the smell. There was an odor about the building. Something that was both comforting, and hair-raising at the same time. And the feeling of constant worry that seemed to pour off of everyone I saw.

Craft had gotten me out of the car and away from the scene before the paramedics and firetruck arrived. It was from that distance that I could clearly see what happened.

I'd spun the car to a stop on the initial hit from behind. That much I could remember. And we'd taped the fire hydrant at the end of the street near Brandon's home. That's when whom ever attacked us had then rammed us on the driver's side and sent us into the hydrant, as well as a light pole.

The driver's door was gone, ripped away by Craft, and lay on the road a few feet away. The impact had made the car bow nearly in half. It was a miracle Brandon was okay. The doctor said his ankle was twisted and bruised a bit, but not broken. He had a few cuts and bruises and required st.i.tches in a number of places. There was a slight concussion-enough of one for the doctor to request Brandon stay overnight.

Whomever hit us had survived well enough to back the car up and drive away, leaving the scene of an accident.

I arrived a little after Brandon did in the ambulance. I was fully healed with new clothing and Craft at my side. It was so strange-I could feel him near me. Even when the officer asked to speak with me in private and we stepped into a smaller room with vending machines and a tiny kitchen I could still sense his presence. I knew exactly where he was.

It was like...seeing the building...no, the entire world from above and knowing at all times where Craft was standing.

The officer took my statement-that Brandon had borrowed my car to get home from the coffee shop and I was going to come later with Craft Hood to retrieve it. Luckily my license said I was eighteen. Whatever happened, I had to keep my own involvement in the accident out of public record. That was the way we did things.

But what weighed heaviest on my mind the most was confronting Brandon once he woke up. I kept seeing the look in his eyes when he'd seen me-a mixture of disbelief and terror. He'd seen my real face. And for the first time, I was ashamed of it.

"Miss Wyndham?"

I shook my head to bring myself back to the present. I was still in the small break room with the officer. "Yes?"

He was handing me back my license. And, he was staring at me with a really odd look on his face. I wanted to ask him what was wrong just as a tall woman in a white coat stepped in and knocked on the open door. "I'm sorry to interrupt-but are you Carly Piper?"

"Yes?" Oh no. Was this the doctor treating Brandon? Had something happened? The fact she was asking for me by the name Piper said a lot as I nodded to the officer approached the doctor. "Is something wrong?"

"No-but I'd like to speak to you if you have a moment?"

I agreed to and stepped out of the break room just as my phone rang. I stopped and pulled it out.

It was Father.

"Miss Piper?"

"I'm sorry," I said and stepped away from her. "But I have to take this call. It's very important."

The doctor nodded. "I understand. I'll be in the waiting area." She excused herself and walked back down the hall. The officer came from the break room and he was still looking at me.

Hospital corridors are full of doors-and not all of them lead to stairs or into patients rooms. Some lead into examination rooms, and others into storage closets. Luckily I found a closet and ducked inside. I didn't have any need to turn on the light.

"Father."

"Carly," his tone wasn't as angry as it had been before-and this time I could hear him without the filter of air and s.p.a.ce between us. "The Hunter has returned."

I swallowed. I already knew the answer, but there was always some possibility for things to go wrong. "Did the Hunter ram Jared's car, Father?"

"What?"

"Someone rammed Jared's car while I and the human boy were in it, minutes before the Hunter showed up." I waited a few seconds when he didn't answer. "Was that the Hunter testing me?"

"Carly-I'm not sure. I'll have to check into what happened. You said you were in the car?"

"Yes sir. But I'm okay. The boy isn't. He's in the hospital. And the police are trying to discover who hit us."

Father made an exasperated noise. "I a.s.sure you, Carly, I in no way condone such actions if it was the Hunter. And if I find that it was, they will be punished. Permanently."

Carly believed him. She knew him well enough and she had his blood in her so that if he lied, she would sense it. "So...what did they report?"

"They sensed nothing within the human boy. He's clean, and he's also free of influence. So whatever it is you've done to him-" he paused and I thought I could see him half smiling. "-is apparently based on mutual attraction."

Yay! I wanted to yell and scream and jump up and down. But I was a lot more controlled than that.

Sometimes. "So does that man I haven't broken the covenant with the Babineauxs?"

"Yes," he said.

I sighed.

"And no."

See? There was the wrong part. "What do you mean no?"

"Carly-there's another problem. And I want you to know that even if you are involved in this, it doesn't effect the covenant and I am not angry with you, mainly because if you are responsible, it wasn't something you could stop, or you had any knowledge of."

I sat in the dark with the illumination of the phone's face the only light illuminating my confusion. "I'm not sure I understood any of that."

"The Ghoul, Carly. Is the Ghoul there with you? Michel's Ghoul, Craft Hood."

At Craft's name I knew where he was, and I also knew who was around him. Brandon's parents were here in the waiting room and he was talking to them, easing their worry. I'd never met them, not in the short time Brandon and I had known each other. But through Hood, I knew them. "What's wrong?"

"I think you already know, Carly."

"Let's pretend I don't." I rubbed at my eyes. "Is Michel nearby?"