City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) (11 page)

14

I can’t say I was attached to Desmond the way Tony was attached to his wife. I
had only been on a couple of dates with him, but it was incredibly strange to
be standing there, looking into his glowing, yellow-green eyes.

He was British. He’d been a friend of a friend of my
sister’s, or something like that, and my sister had given him my email address
when he was transferred to New York
in February.

Aside from the fangs, he didn’t look very different
from the way he had looked the last time I saw him when he had taken me out to
dinner. He had dark skin with pale undertones that didn’t look quite right. I
assumed he worked too much and never saw enough sunlight. Despite that, he was
still good-looking. His eyes flickered as they reflected the dancing
candlelight.

“Desmond,” I whispered. What does one say to an
ex-boyfriend who has become a vampire?

 “I knew you’d recognize me, Ailis,” he whispered
back. He sounded human, his breathing barely carried the tell-tale rasp. What
had I been thinking, walking into that apartment all by myself? Catching
vampires by surprise was one thing, but this one was just standing there
waiting for me. He had set a trap and I had walked right into it. I wondered if
we were alone in the apartment or if there were more of his kind. Maybe I could
still slowly back out the door and run down the hall. Maybe I could just call
for Paulo.

As if reading my mind, Desmond whispered, “Don’t worry
Ailis, we’re alone, I don’t like to share, and if I decide to kill you there
won’t be much you can do about it.”

That infuriated me. “Screw you Desmond. You were here
last night, didn’t you see my handiwork outside the apartment? If I believed
you were alone in here I’d kill you right now.”

Desmond’s smile grew broader. “No need to get all
excited, Ailis, although I suppose you should consider yourself fortunate to be
standing here speaking with me as an equal.”

“An
equal
?” I repeated incredulously. “I mean I
thought you had a bit of an ego, but that’s a little over the top don’t you
think?”

“Maybe, but I have eternal life. I’m a superior being.
You’ve seen some of the other vampires. They’re just as stupid as they were
when they were human. They need a leader, and I naturally fit the role. These
creatures are wild and unruly, they don’t even know how to hunt properly. They
beat on doors and stalk cars, hoping their prey will just walk out and allow
itself to be killed. Those tactics may have worked fine in the beginning, but
not any more. Instead, the prey sits inside safe and secure and shoots the
vampires through the window like so many sitting ducks. Those of you remaining
are obviously the special ones. And yet,” he paused, “I’ve lured one of the
smartest right into this dark apartment, during a very cliché thunderstorm no
less, and she’s mine for the taking.”

I could hear the downpour outside. The thunder was
coming closer.

I thought that surely the guys would come looking for
me soon. I didn’t want to challenge Desmond by myself if I didn’t have to,
especially if he was lying and there were other vampires in the apartment.

“I think you’ve been watching too many movies,” I
snapped. “You sound ridiculous.”

Desmond never stopped smiling. “You know you’d make a
good vampire, Ailis. You’re strong, you’re smart...don’t you know your place is
at the top of the food chain?”

“Like I said, you saw my work last night, I’m already
at the top of the food chain. You’ve got just a handful of people left in New York and then what?
You’ll eat subway rats? You’ll starve?”

Desmond’s smile wavered for a moment. “We don’t need
to eat rats, Ailis. We have people underground, saved up for a rainy day such
as this one.” He smiled again at his own joke. I shuddered. Was he telling the
truth? Were there still people alive underground, in the subway tunnels?

“Besides,” Desmond continued, “blood is just something
to enjoy. We don’t need it to survive, we don’t need anything to survive. We’ll
live forever, stay young forever...”

“Says the two month old vampire.” I tried to keep the
fear out of my voice, but I was becoming nervous. Someone should have come
looking for me by now. I was afraid to make a move, afraid to scream. I knew either
action would cause Desmond to try to silence me. Maybe I could take him, and
maybe I couldn’t.

Desmond moved toward me. “You know we don’t let just
anyone become one of us these days, Ailis.” I thought of my neighbor, lying on
her kitchen floor with her head cut off, the knife licked clean.

“Christ, Desmond, were you in my building? Were you
next door?”

Desmond took another step toward me, the way you would
if you were trying to gain the trust of a feral cat or some other wild animal.
“Yes, Ailis, those were the early days, but I was ahead of the times. I assume
you saw my work? Gruesome, yes, but would you prefer the alternative? You cut
our heads off when you find us. We’ve made it standard practice now. We don’t
want the city overrun, and neither do you.”

I felt weak. “Did you know I was there?”

“I knew someone was there, but I didn’t know it was
you. I’m not a killing machine. I had just fed. I planned to return later. By
the time I was ready to go back you had boarded your place up too well. When I
caught a glimpse of you one night I couldn’t believe how close I had come...”
Desmond shook his head. “I kept an eye on you. I knew I would have you sooner
or later. Besides, I had to be sure…”

“Desmond, I swear if you come any closer I’m going to
kill you.”

“But I’m not going to kill you, Ailis. It’s a little
sting, then the sickness is a bit unpleasant, I must admit, but that’s a small
price to pay for eternity, isn’t it?”

I had stood there too long listening to Desmond.
Vampires can’t hypnotize people like they do in the movies or in books, but he
had certainly done a good job of keeping me spellbound. I told myself he didn’t
know anything about eternity.

Desmond and I moved at the same time and with the same
speed, but he was stronger. I lunged at him as he lunged at me, his fangs
bared. He grabbed my left arm as I tried to stake him and pinned it over my
head as he slammed me against the half-open door, which banged shut behind me.
Paulo must have heard it down the hall, but maybe he mistook it for a
thunderclap. It didn’t matter if he heard or not, because he could never have
gotten to me in time.

Desmond didn’t hesitate. He was at my throat in an
instant.

I felt a sharp pain as his fangs pierced my flesh.
Tears sprang into my eyes.
No matter how this ends,
I thought to myself,
I’m dead. I’m stupid and I’m dead and I deserve it for being so fucking
stupid.

I saw my headless neighbor, sprawled on her kitchen
floor, I felt the smooth pop as my stake went through a vampire, saw the slow
ooze of the blood as I cut their heads off, I heard my mom’s voice on the
radio, “
We thought you were dead...”

Almost as quickly as he had pinned me against the
door, Desmond let go. The fangs stung more coming out than going in. He lurched
back, and blood—my blood—dripped out of his mouth, as he glared at me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he hissed. His eyes
were bulging and red.

What the fuck is wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong
with you motherfucker, you just bit me!
But the words wouldn’t come out. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut.
I couldn’t breathe.

Desmond kept moving away from me. Then suddenly he
bent over and vomited. The room was still lit only by candlelight, but I could
see that the vomit looked red and dark, and the room began to smell of blood. I
should have staked him right then, but I couldn’t. I was in shock.

I couldn’t understand what was happening. Why was he
staring at me? Why was he sick? Why did biting me make him sick? What was wrong
with me and why the hell did I care? Was my pride hurt because biting me made a
vampire—a guy I used to have feelings for—sick?

I was terrified of everything I was seeing. I felt
sick at what had just happened. I had been bitten and I was going to die.

I reached behind me, feeling for the doorknob. I found
it, flung the door open, and dashed into the hall, slamming the door behind me.
The hall was empty.

I knew I couldn’t run to Tony’s apartment. As soon as
they saw the bite on my neck they would have to kill me. Even if they wanted to
quarantine me, it would just be a matter of time before I became sick and they
would have to draw straws. I would be noble and lie in bed and let one of them
stake me. Then they would cut my head off and put me out in the sun to burn.

I dashed into the stairwell. I reached for my
flashlight, but then saw two flashlights headed up the stairs. I moved as
quickly and quietly as I could up one flight and onto the fifth floor. I kept
the door to the stairwell open a crack so I could hear. It was Scott and James.
They had probably taken so long because they had moved Sophie’s body away from
the building so that Tony wouldn’t have to see his wife burning from his living
room window or when he went outside.  

As soon as Scott and James went into the fourth floor
door I raced down the stairs and out into the pouring rain. I thought about
taking the car, but that would have been selfish. I ran west down the block and
saw Sophie, starting to smoke even in the rain. I looked at her body, her head
lying near her feet, and could see my own decapitated corpse lying outside
smoldering.

I walked west through the rain. I didn’t know where I
was going, so I decided to start heading back south, toward my apartment. What
was I thinking? I couldn’t go there.

Maybe I could join Desmond after all. Maybe that was
the only option left now. I would have to find somewhere secure to hide, to
wait out the sickness so nothing could pick me off while I turned.

Maybe I could keep my sanity about me. I would never
kill my friends, would I? Wouldn’t my parents rather know I was living as a
vampire than dead? Wasn’t anything better than death?

I was terribly confused. I thought I could feel the
venom moving from my neck, to my heart, to my brain, to my fingertips, all the
way down to my toes. What was I going to do? I thought of Tony and Sophie and
Rebecca and John. Poor Sophie, she had known she was losing it. She had known
she was going to try to kill her whole family. She had even kept her awareness
that they were her family. She knew their names and where they lived. Yet, she
had lured Tony out of their apartment, allowing him to leave their two children
unattended, and then tried to kill him. Anything was better than that.

I knew I couldn’t allow myself to become like Sophie,
or God forbid, like Desmond. I thought about killing myself, but I wasn’t sure
how I would go about it. Then I found myself in Times
Square. Three months ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead there
with all the tourists. Now it was empty and the lights were off. I was cold and
soaking wet.

Years ago, before I moved to New
York, Times Square was full of
seedy sex shops and peep shows. Most of it had been cleaned up, much to the
chagrin of one of the old-school partners at my law firm, who occasionally
grumbled that Times Square had become “Disney-
fied
.” I never understood what was wrong with that, but
then I never understood why anyone would want to become a partner at a big New York law firm
either.

A few of the sex shops remained, and I spotted one
nearby. That gave me an idea. I can’t say it was the most well thought-out idea
I’ve ever had, but at the time it was the best I could come up with.

I took out a stake and ducked into the store. I pulled
the curtain down from the window so the place would have some light—dark though
the street was in the pouring rain, it was better than nothing. I took a quick
look around to make sure I was alone. I didn’t need any more vampires to finish
the job Desmond had started.

The store was small and I easily found what I needed—a
black leather collar. I was going to take a page straight out of James’s book.
I stepped back outside and looked at my reflection in the glass. I had two
puncture marks on the right side of my neck. Bright red blood diluted with rain
ran down from the wound. Fortunately, I was wearing black. I tried the collar
on and smiled despite the situation. I looked like a soaking wet S&M
mistress.

Next, I headed to H&M to find a raincoat, but they
didn’t have what I needed. I knew the Burberry store would have one if it
hadn’t been completely looted, but I had to go dangerously close to my
apartment to get it. I needed to be careful. If anyone saw me like this it
would be over.

I kept close to the buildings, praying the rain
wouldn’t let up. I made my way to Burberry unseen. People had already broken
into the store and taken some things, but in the back room I found what I
needed.

I thought if I showed up at my apartment building, the
leather collar would invite uncomfortable questions so I took it off. I chose a
rain coat that was my size, buttoned it all the way up, and popped the collar.
Then I grabbed some galoshes for good measure.