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  “Do what I did. Embrace your nature.”

  She shook her head. “We’re different creatures, believe different things. We have been in blood and pain, but you accept this demon. It’s my punishment.” She wormed her way out of my grasp, but I caught her again.

  This time when she faced me she was fully transformed, just in a matter of milliseconds. This was her true other half, Ronnie, birthed by Devon. Her hand wrapped around my throat, her talons cutting into my skin. She lifted me up so my toes brushed the floor. Her nostrils flared as she took in my scent. Looking into her eyes I knew this was the thing that had attacked me in New Orleans.

  It licked its now black lips with a forked tongue. It didn’t matter if I was a friend, a fellow vampire. It only smelled the remnants of human blood on me. I was not going to let my existence end in its embrace. I had to get to Veronica’s buried personality. Gathering my dwindling mental strength, I threw my mind into hers. The beast was not expecting the attack so it dropped me, its hands flying to its head. I worked through the madness of its personality and hunger. I sensed something else in its twisted mind, emotion for me, which was strange. I didn’t linger on it and found Veronica huddled in a corner of her mind.

  Help me, I whispered.

  She didn’t respond and the beast fought my invasion. It didn’t like being tested.

  Is this how you want to look forever? You want me to die by this thing? I took the image of her in bestial form and threw it back into her mind.

  I shook my head, coming out of a daze, watching as the creature smiled and wagged its finger at me as if I were a child who’d disobeyed its mother. Then something happened.

  The thing stopped. Its whole body writhed as if a thousand bolts of electricity ran through it. Muscles rippled and contorted. The features of the face went from human to animal to something in between. The wings withered like deranged flowers. And then it all stopped. Veronica crumpled to the floor and lay there. I crawled over to her and put my hand on her back, running it along her spine, feeling the tension of her muscles. As I took her into my arms, she relaxed and it was then she finally looked up at me.

  Her eyes were not like they had been, not purple or totally black. Her pupils were dark blue, the irises dotted with purple and the whites of her eyes were gray, almost silver. Her face changed shape and was not as pointed, but more rounded, fleshier, more human. She looked into my eyes as tears moved out of hers, and she smiled.

  “It worked!” she whispered. “It really worked.” She gazed at her fingers and felt her face, examining the changes. “You’re okay?” she asked, the innocence in her voice as sweet as any child’s.

  I nodded. I knew it would work. I knew she could overcome her own fears and demons, no longer punishing herself for what was done so many years ago. She was so happy. She and the beast had accepted one another. Hopefully it would be for the better. Her joy radiated for now she was in control and no one could take that from her. Devon could no longer manipulate her. Even as we both shared in her joy, the pain and hunger I had suppressed overwhelmed me and I fell into Veronica’s arms, moaning. The look of joy was replaced by one of dread.

  “Come, we must get you fed.”

  Veronica helped me up and out of the Tearoom. She pressed the elevator button and hauled me in and out of it. I tried to move, but my legs weren’t functioning, just dragging along. She finally got me up and told me to stay, leaning against the cool glass front of the building. I closed my eyes, trying to let the temperature ease my burning veins, but no. I stood there, my vision blurring and my hearing becoming muffled.

  “Here, little one. You must take her, or you won’t have enough strength to complete the change.”

  I didn’t argue, even though I wanted to. I wanted to be the one to choose my first victim, but my body called out for food, something to keep me going, so that my dead cells could rejuvenate and kick start my system. I needed blood, and even though I had reconciled my nature, I had plenty of time to learn the ways of the hunt and to taste blood. Now all I wanted was the girl in front of me. I opened my mouth as Veronica pressed her against me. My teeth descended and I pushed them against the girl’s flesh, feeling her heart through my canines. I stood there a moment, hypnotized by the beating of life as it vibrated in my mouth. I knew this was what I wanted, what was underneath the surface.

  My teeth pierced her flesh. I swallowed the first mouthful and the warmth spread throughout my system. As I tasted her blood I noticed there was an odd flavor to it. Almost like decay. I realized my prey was dying even before she came to my lips, but her life was better than coffee or hot chocolate as it warmed me. All of my nerve-endings came alive. The oily texture of my meal’s perfume clung to my upper lip and went up my nose, overwhelming my olfactory senses with a hint of musk. I almost sneezed, but my body processed the smell and evaporated it. The tiny fibers of my clothes dug into my skin. I longed to rub against the glass to scratch my back, but I knew it would do no good. Ducks flapped their wings on the water in the Boston Gardens about a half-mile from where I was, settling down for the night. I heard cockroaches scrambling though the walls in the building, trying to find places to lay their millions of eggs.

  This was the life I had chosen before I had been born into the world as a human. Edmund had been right. Fate played a part in everyone’s life. I was destined to become a psychic, to feel compassion for humanity and understand their emotions. In that skill I could make a living in the enchanted and haunted city of New Orleans. With it I attracted and hypnotized Veronica while pretending to be the thing I craved all along, and she brought me into the life I had already set up.

  The tarot card Edmund pulled had so much more meaning than I had anticipated. The Universe had given me a chance to plan my life, and now was my time to take my place in a universe created just for me. I had the time and the opportunity to do whatever I wanted, to go anywhere, to be with anyone. It didn’t matter because I was alive, or undead at least, and I had everything I needed.

  The girl underneath me grew colder with each sip. My newborn hunger demanded I finish her, but I sensed that my body didn’t need all of her blood. There was something else, too. I couldn’t kill her. It didn’t seem in my nature to kill. I pulled away from the prey.

  “I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t kill her.” I looked up at Veronica for her approval.

  “Why?”

  “It’s not who I am. I can’t. You, you finish her.” I moved aside, knowing that Veronica had to feed as well.

  After a moment of indecision, she acquiesced. She took up where I had left off. After a few moments, she had drained the girl. I picked the body up and scanned the streets, noticing the trash bins across the way. I stuffed her into one. If any passersby saw me, they thought I was a tenant dumping a bag of garbage. It was the image I projected, so they paid me no mind. They assumed I was going on about my natural business. I liked my new powers very much and would soon learn to love them even more as I grew into my existence.

  I smiled, but now that my mind had cleared and my body was sated, something else bothered me. A tingling started in the back of my brain, just like those I used to have when I was human, letting me know something bad was about to happen. I tried to shake off the feeling as we walked down the street. That tingly feeling in the back of my head remained as I thought about the events of the evening. It was not going away, and soon something bad was going to happen. It had something to do with Veronica and Devon, as well as me. No, he was not done with us yet. Soon we would have to confront Devon once again, this time to rid the world of his evil. Looking back, I didn’t understand how I didn’t see him for the con he was when I had fallen for him in New Orleans, but then again, it was a city of mystery and anyone could wear a mask. It seemed that all three of us did. Now I had Veronica to myself and the night called for me to explore it so I could discover my new powers and be with the one who truly loved me.

  Part Four

  The Devil

  Chapter
Twenty-Five

  My name is Veronica.

  She was my blood, forged from my own image, but there was something so alien about her. There was no beast nestled inside of her, as there was in me, because she had been born embracing it. Brenna had forced me to face my other half to stop it from hurting her. And I did. Ronnie and I squared off. I told her I didn’t want Brenna harmed. She was going to be our child. If Ronnie cared for her as she said she did, then we had to work as one. We argued, and then finally agreed to merge our personalities. We became one. Now it was as if there was a part of me missing, and yet it was still at my calling. I didn’t know how to share this knowledge. I didn’t even know how to absorb it myself. As Brenna walked beside me in the fall breeze, her cloak billowing behind her, I wondered if she would ever fit in with other vampires. The ones we’d encountered so far hadn’t detected anything different about her, except a softness of her aura. Part of her was still human. Something I was not.

  I sighed, letting the breeze play with my hair. I had showed her how to use our powers. She was stronger than I, and her tolerance to the sun was unheard of. The first day she woke, she patrolled the streets, taking in the sights and sounds with her heightened perception. When I woke and found her gone, I panicked by the time the sun had set. I followed the invisible thread between us and found her standing in the Garden gazing at the ducks in the pond, marveling as she saw the mites jumping in their feathers.

  I noticed how flushed she was. A faint blush adorned her skin. I asked her how long she had been out in the daylight. She said she’d been out since eight that morning, just wandering around. I couldn’t believe it at first because that meant almost ten hours of sun exposure and there was nothing, just the slight irritation on her hands and face, the beginnings of a more severe reaction. I asked her if the sun made her uncomfortable or if she had begun to burn. She looked down at her hands, noticing the color, and replied that she had been itchy for the past three hours, but it wasn’t anything that bothered her.

  This tolerance was unheard of, even among the Ancients. They could go out, but some type of degradation happened in their cells. The newest ones had the greatest aversion to the sun. One would think it would be the other way around, the youngest still close to humanity would have the highest tolerance and the older ones would have no immunity because they were decaying inside. But no, it all depended on the beast inside of us and how much we indulged it.

  Brenna had no demon, but I surmised if she had not fed, and had consistent exposure to the sun for days on end, eventually she would die because of it.

  But now, a week after her changing, I wondered how she truly adjusted to her new life. She had become quiet and withdrawn and we had not shared the same bed since before her turning. I missed the closeness of her pressing into my body as we slept, even the scent of her hair. When I woke and found I had lost her that morning, I didn’t know what to do. Now it felt as if she was a stranger spending time in my house while I walked her through the nuisances of our existence; the woman I fell in love with had vanished. I hadn’t brought it up because I didn’t know how to broach the subject. How could I tell her she had changed and we were two separate beings?

  Even when I tried brushing her thoughts, they were lost to me. I couldn’t penetrate the walls, and even her expressions were unreadable. The more I tried to bring us together, the more she separated herself from me. Everything in me wanted to take her into my arms and comfort her. My heart cried out to be wrapped in her very being, but she was so distant it seemed she survived on a desert island.

  I couldn’t let her out of my sight. Devon hadn’t returned, but I knew he would. I had to care for Brenna until she was strong enough to go out on her own. She was too interested in the wrong things, obsessed with staring at candle flames instead of planning the future, but then again, I couldn’t read her thoughts, even with the bond we shared. My blood should have made it possible for me to go within her mind. I should have even been able to control her if I wanted to, forcing her to obey me, but I would not inflict the same lifestyle that Devon imposed on me. Every time I tried to look into her mind, she knew. She would look at me funny and then smile.

  I smiled to myself at that thought. I was proud of her on that front. Some things I couldn’t teach her. Other things like how to hypnotize, move within the shadows, and how to tone down our senses were harder. She began adjusting to her life well and wouldn’t need my help for much longer. When that happened, I would disappear from her life, letting her make her own way, as it should have been with Devon and me.

  I shuddered, wondering what his next plan would be. He sought to destroy me when he left Brenna for dead, but he hadn’t succeeded. I fought and overcame the beast inside me. Now I was something different, something even different from Brenna. I had combined the two elements of myself and didn’t know where I stood, but I figured over the years they would mesh completely. Things were still shaky in my mind about the demon, the cement of the combination of my two personalities still drying. I didn’t feel the regret of my sister’s death anymore. I didn’t feel the remorse of killing anything, but I would still only prey on the dying. Brenna had fulfilled her promise to bring me back into the light. She kept me intrigued long enough to let me bring her into my life, and now this was where I was.

  “Veronica?” Brenna brought me out of my thoughts.

  “Yes?”

  “Let’s go back to New Orleans. I need to get out of Boston for a while. There are things that should be done before I can truly figure out everything. Can we go back?”

  I nodded, thinking it was a good idea. The scent of our kind lingered in the air, growing stronger in the past few nights, and I wondered if this prompted her decision, but it didn’t matter. I had the urge to travel and now was as good a time as any. I figured I would help her to resettle back in New Orleans and then I’d disappear into the night and let her be on her own.

  “When did you want to leave?”

  “Now. I mean, it’ll take most of the night to get there, but I didn’t know if you would be up for the long flight.”

  “I brought you here in a few hours, so I think I can manage, but you, you’ll need help getting your wings out. You do have them, don’t you?” I glanced at her, not sure if she even retained any of the shape shifting abilities all of our kind possessed.

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I didn’t know. You’re not like the rest of us in so many ways I just assumed, but it doesn’t matter. Let me show you how to unfurl them.” I reached out my mind and brushed it against her, but recoiled when the lash of her psychic abilities slammed into my tether. It was obvious to me she didn’t want my help.

  “No thanks, I can do it.”

  She removed her shirt, her face knotted in concentration. The muscles in her back danced and grew and the skin turned black as her wings emerged. They were the same size as any of the others I had seen and the same texture, something akin to old leather. The mucous on them broke off into crystallized pieces as they emerged from her skin to be blown apart as soon as it hit the ground. She extended them, stretching them as a bird does after being in one position for so long. Her wingspan was over eight feet, impressive. If anyone saw us they might think she was some kind of fallen angel and I might be the inevitable prophet.

  “See, I did it.”

  She took to the air, her wings fluttering against my hair, as she cloaked herself from human view. It would not be good for any mortal to see us. I shrugged and removed my shirt as well, not caring if a passing human saw my tits, and then like her, I became invisible and I was airborne, off to New Orleans, wondering if I was running from something or if I was going to rediscover my destiny this time.

  * * * *

  It took us six hours to fly from Boston to New Orleans. We were not as fast as a plane, and as we landed in the muggy environment, both of us were exhausted. Flying took much out of us, and I longed for the emptiness of sleep to restore my weary spirit. We set down i
n a darkened alleyway of the French Quarter and began to blend in with the tourists still partying even though most of the bars had closed. We went back to her house and climbed up to one of the balcony windows.

  As we entered into her bedroom, I caught a whiff of Devon, as she had slept with him in the weeks before. I crinkled my nose at it and put him out of my mind. Sleep was the most pressing thing. I noticed the bed and a deck of tarot cards sitting out on the bureau. I smiled as I thought of those cards. In the end they had predicted everything that happened to me. What Edmund had told me was just as veiled as what the old gypsy had said. How right she was, how I wished I had listened to her back then. She had been right about being able to save my soul. I guess I owed Fate a lot. I contemplated choosing a few cards about Devon, wondering what would happen next with him. I didn’t want to push my luck, so I left the cards where they sat.

  The whirring of a fan started overhead. It cooled my flushed skin and helped to adjust my body temperature. At the thought my body regulated itself and the fan was now nothing more than something to circulate the air.

  “Do you want something to drink?” Brenna called from the kitchen.

  “Sure, whatever you’re having,” I yelled back and moved to inspect her open closet.

  I pulled out a few dresses and saw that all of them were gothic. I held up a few of them up to myself and looked in the mirror, admiring how they would look on me. It helped that Brenna and I were about the same size, but if I wanted I could change my physical shape and appearance for a few hours, becoming taller, shorter, fatter, it didn’t matter. I never used that part of my power; I liked my own image well enough.

  “You can keep it if you want. I have others in the closet and don’t wear that one much. Here.” She handed me a glass of red wine.