City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) (13 page)

I nodded. “This isn’t something I would joke about.” I
pulled the Band-Aid off and Scott winced. “It isn’t bleeding again is it?” I
asked, putting my hand up to the bite.

“No, it’s just that it’s a vampire bite, Ailis, right
there on your neck.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sorry, I couldn’t think of a good way
to tell you. Do you want some water or something? Why don’t you sit down? I
have some wine, but it’s warm.”

“No,” he replied, walking over to me. “Just let me
think for a minute. Do you mind if I take a closer look?”

“Go ahead.”

Scott brought his face close to my neck and placed his
thumb and index finger on either side of the bite. “How did this happen? And
why didn’t it kill you?”

I told him how I had thought I recognized Desmond the
night before. It now seemed like ages ago. I told him about the open door and
how I had decided to go exploring. I was embarrassed at how dumb I had been.
Scott didn’t say a word until I came to the part where Desmond bit me.

Scott put his hand to his head. “If only we hadn’t
taken so long with that body. If we had come upstairs and seen the open door
and heard you, we could have done something.”

“Look, Scott.” I squeezed his arm. “This is in no way
your fault. I was an idiot to go in there by myself. I’m really amazed at my
own stupidity.”

“Okay, well why aren’t you still back there? Why
didn’t he drain you dry? Did you kill him?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think he got much blood.
After only a second or two he pulled back, like he was disgusted by me. Then he
threw up.”

“He threw up?” Scott looked puzzled. “Why?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea, but he didn’t want
anything to do with me after that. I was in shock so I just ran out the door.
Maybe it has something to do with why that vampire in the basement hesitated
before she bit me. Have you ever seen one do that before?”

Scott shook his head. “Never. I’ve never even heard of
it. What are we going to do, Ailis?” He looked so sad when he looked at me. I
instantly felt guilty for putting him in this position. We had all grown close
to each other over the past month and a half. I would have felt terrible if
anything had happened to one of the others. I felt I should have thrown myself
off a bridge before putting Scott in this position.

“I’m sorry, Scott, I shouldn’t have done this to you.”

“No, Ailis, you did the right thing. I want to do
anything I can to help you. How do you feel?”

“Honestly, I feel fine.”

Scott nodded. “I don’t think we should tell anyone
else. We don’t know for sure what effect this will have on you. There’s always
a chance...”

“I don’t know.” I was starting to have doubts about my
plan. “Maybe I should just disappear somewhere. I don’t want to put anyone in
danger. It was wrong of me to come back here in the first place.”

Scott was pacing now. “No. It’s been at least a few
hours and you’re feeling fine. The vampire threw up after biting you, that
vampire in the basement didn’t like you, maybe there
is
something
special about you.”

“And maybe not. I’ve never heard of anyone being
immune to this.”

“There are always people who are immune. There are
people who are immune to HIV, people who were immune to the black plague. We’re
going to wait this out. I’m not letting you leave this apartment and I’m not
letting anyone in.”

A few hours ago I had accepted that my life was over.
Now, someone who had known me for a little over a month was insisting on
risking his life to give me a chance. What could I even say to him? What if at
the end of all this I killed him?

“I don’t want you to get hurt, and I certainly don’t
want to be the one to hurt you.”

“I won’t get hurt. I’ll keep an eye on you. When I
need to sleep or go out I’ll board your room up from the outside. At the first
sign...I mean if you start to change...”

“You’ll end it,” I finished for him. “I know, it’s
okay, you have to. I can’t tell you how much this means to me, how grateful my
family would be. What are you going to tell everyone?”

Scott thought for a moment. “Maybe you should play
sick, but make an appearance every once in a while in your turtleneck so people
won’t ask too many questions. If I get caught staying here overnight, they’ll
just think what James did.”

My face grew hot again, but I shook my head. “No way
am I going around those kids like this. It’s not worth the risk.”

“You’re right. That’ll be your reasoning though. You
play sick, you don’t want to get anyone else sick. If someone insists on coming
to visit you, you can wear the turtleneck and lie under the covers for good
measure.”

That was the most reasonable plan we could come up
with, so we decided to go with it.  We wouldn’t have to carry on the act
long anyway. We would know in a day or two what my fate would be.

I had a few things in my apartment that we could use
to board up my door and Scott had some more supplies at his place. We also kept
some supplies on the floor above mine. Scott moved quickly, gathering supplies
and explaining to anyone who asked that some of the boards on my windows needed
to be reinforced.

My bedroom door locked from the inside. I took the
knob off and turned it around so that it locked from the outside. I hoped
anyone who came to visit wouldn’t notice this. In fact, I hoped I wouldn’t have
any visitors at all. Scott had a large piece of plywood that would cover nearly
the entire door. Even if I did manage to get it off I would have to make a lot
of racket doing it so if Scott was asleep he would wake up in time to stop me.

When everything was set up, Scott went over to Beth’s
and told them I seemed to be coming down with a stomach virus. He explained
that his mother was a nurse and he knew these things were extremely contagious,
and that even he did not feel comfortable being around the children after
spending time with me. He told me what he had said to Beth and the others. and
said that no one protested or made any comments when he left.

I stayed in my apartment for three days. Scott and I
talked, played cards, played board games, did anything to pass the time. I also
wrote my family a letter telling them about the past two months, how I had been
bitten and how Scott had volunteered to make my last few days easier. I didn’t
say that it was Desmond who had bitten me. I didn’t want my sister to feel
guilty for setting us up. I asked Scott to give the letter to my family only if
I took a turn for the worse.

Several times over those three days Scott promised me
he would hunt Desmond down and kill him, but I made him swear not to. Desmond
was clearly dangerous and I didn’t want anyone to get killed because of my
stupidity, especially Scott.

After three days, I still felt no symptoms. The bite
marks were starting to heal and I was starting to relax. Scott and I decided I
was in the clear and I could go out. I still didn’t want anyone to know what
had happened. Someone might overreact. I showed Scott the leather collar I had
picked up in Times Square and he couldn’t stop
laughing.

“I’ll have to tell James I finally bought into his
idea,” I giggled.

The next time Scott went out he returned with a
leather collar of his own. “Just to make it a little more credible,” he said,
“we’ll both give in.”

We tried on our collars together and I laughed until I
cried. We looked like we ought to own a dungeon somewhere. I also asked Scott
to go out and pick up a few scarves that might cover up my bite. People had
accepted that James was a little nutty wearing his collar almost all day, every
day, but I thought it might be nice to try something else out every once in a
while.

I was amazed at my own body. My immune system had
fought off a virus that as far as I knew had killed millions of people. No one
that I knew of had survived as a human, yet I never developed so much as a
stuffy nose or sore throat. Although I had made Scott promise not to hunt down
Desmond, I secretly hoped to run into him again.

15

People accepted my new scarf and collar habit without much question. I explained
that after seeing Sophie and how close Tony had come to being killed I wanted
to take more precautions. They had heard how shaken I was by the whole
experience so wearing a collar or a scarf to protect myself must have seemed to
them the next logical step.

James gloated about it for a while, especially when
Scott said that he too had decided to wear a collar whenever we might be going
into a dangerous situation. Then, Paulo followed suit, and soon a few others
were wearing collars as well.

Seth had never moved into our building, and we started
to think it was because it gave him an opportunity to make up stories about his
supposed vampire hunting adventures. If he lived in our building, we would know
his comings and goings and could call him on his bullshit. As it was, we could
only speculate as to how much he actually made up, which we theorized was a
lot.

We continued to receive assistance from the outside
world and the man on the radio continued to evade our questions about rescue.
We also continued to read about ourselves in the newspapers and magazines our
families sent us.

Our families started a publicity campaign to put
pressure on the government to set us free, and the news networks ate it up. It
seemed as if the entire world was fascinated by the “Manhattan 27”—that was the number we were
down to at that point. The networks ran stories about our past lives, and wrote
up as much information as it seemed they could gather from our families, the
sound bites the government gave them, and the bits and pieces they gathered
from those who occasionally hacked into our radio frequency.

Some of the tabloids ran fantastic exaggerations about
our vampire slaying adventures. Several of us had told our families about
clearing out my building and the basement. One magazine ran an eight-page story
with illustrations that made it seem as if we had barreled through the rooms,
slaying vampires everywhere we went.

The basement scene was written as if I had slain all
the vampires at once. There was a wonderful illustration of me staking two
vampires while side-kicking a third. It was like a comic book. At the very end,
the story included a single paragraph demanding we be set free.

There were also reports that some companies were going
to try to get the rights to make a television show about us. I found this
inappropriate and irritating. As entertaining as the stories in the tabloids
were, they were still exploiting misery, and profiting from death. A television
show would make life in vampire-infested Manhattan
seem glamorous. No doubt we would be depicted driving around in Ferraris,
ridding the city of vampires and then hooking up with each other and causing
drama in every scene. Still, maybe that would be better than the world
forgetting us.

One thing that continued to bother me was what Desmond
had told me about other humans. Had he been telling the truth when he said the
vampires kept people underground to feed on when they became hungry? Could that
explain why the vampires never put forth a group effort to invade our building?

I discussed the issue with Scott and he didn’t have an
answer. We didn’t even know how many vampires were in Manhattan or whether they had the capability
to storm our building. Enough vampires came around our building and Seth’s so
that we knew they knew we were there, but both buildings were well-fortified.

Sometimes, when three or four vampires gathered
outside, Scott, James, or Dwayne would shoot one or two with one of the
crossbows—we had received more after our first was a success. The other
vampires would scatter into the night and they would stay away for a while. But
after a few nights, we would see one or two come back to stare at the building
from the end of the block.

After I was bitten, I started noticing that I had a
heightened sense of awareness for vampires. Somehow, I always knew when they
came back. I didn’t know exactly how many or precisely where they were, but I
could feel that they were close by. I tested this with Scott. I told him when I
felt the vampires had returned and he would look out the window. I was always
right. At first I worried this was a sign I was turning, but I had no other
symptoms so Scott and I decided it was a lone side effect of my attack.

Several times, I had nightmares about vampires in the
subway tunnels. There would be about fifty or sixty of them gathered there.
Then they would go through a small door and follow a tunnel into a square room
with a ladder to one side, leading to a door in the ceiling. The strongest
vampire in the room would climb up the ladder and push at the door with a
crowbar. Eventually, the door would open and vampires would begin to climb up.
Then, suddenly, they were in my basement, streaming up the stairs into the
lobby...and then I would wake up, covered in sweat.

Each time I woke up from this dream I felt that I
could actually sense the vampires far below me in that concrete room that I had
never seen. The next morning, I would insist that we go down into the basement
to check that the door in the utility closet floor was still covered and
secure. I even began taking longer walks through the city to scope out
buildings. The hole in my basement was making me uneasy.

In early June, not long after I was bitten, we
gathered in Bryant Park for a supply drop. Beth and Paulo were playing with the
kids, which meant James was trying to be involved as well. I thought both James
and Paulo had become very attached to Beth. It was only natural. Everyone was
young, Beth was blond and pretty, and we all relied on each other to survive.
In the beginning, she seemed to flirt with James, but later she seemed more
drawn to Paulo.

Most people already assumed Scott and I were together.
We neither admitted nor denied it. We thought it was better that way, and would
keep people from asking questions about the three days Scott and I had spent
locked in my apartment, and the nights he still spent there sometimes.

The weather was beautiful that day and I was feeling
rather cheerful. Two helicopters arrived on schedule. The first dropped boxes
with little parachutes. That was normal. The second dropped much lower to the
ground than usual, making me nervous. I thought they would have forewarned us
if they planned to land and rescue us.

A long line dropped out of the helicopter and a figure
wearing a helmet appeared at the open door. It leaned backward and rappelled
down. I could hardly believe my eyes. First, it was hard to believe that after
all this time someone was brave enough to join us, and second, the helicopter
didn’t even land to let him out. No one moved toward the figure, now standing
in the middle of the park.

The figure backed away and waved its arms. The
helicopter rose and dropped another package attached to a parachute. The figure
waved again and both helicopters flew away.

I decided I had nothing to lose so I walked toward the
figure. It took its helmet off and waved to me. He was a young man with dark
skin. He appeared to be Indian. I walked right up to him and he smiled and put
his hand out. “Dr. Naveen Patel, at your service,” he said with a British
accent.

I put my hand out tentatively. “Um, I’m Ailis, nice to
meet you, Dr. Patel.” I wondered if they had sent a doctor to check us out
before agreeing we could leave the island. The thought made me both hopeful and
nervous. If he checked me out he would find the bite marks, and then what?
Maybe they would let everyone else go and leave me there alone.

“Ailis, lovely to meet you, I’ve read so much about
you. Please call me Naveen.”

“So, what exactly are you doing here?” Scott asked as
he strolled up from behind me.

“Scott, this is Naveen, and he’s a doctor.”

“Wonderful to meet you,” Naveen said. “I’ve read all
about you as well.” Naveen shook Scott’s hand. “I have a dual role actually.
I’m British, but of course I’ve read all about the events here. I’ve been mad
to study this virus, but your government wouldn’t allow anyone anywhere near Manhattan. I had to pull
a lot of strings and in the end I think public opinion got me here. I’ve also
agreed to provide medical care to any survivors who need it. You lot have quite
a following you know.”

“Yeah, we’ve heard.” Scott looked suspicious. “So what
are you going to do? Catch a couple of vampires and get blood samples?”

“Well, not exactly.” Naveen walked over to the box
that had been dropped from his helicopter. I was hoping to start out by talking
to your group. Until now I’ve had to rely on reports from my government, which
gets them from your government, which really doesn’t seem to know anything you
lot haven’t told them.”

“I suspect they know a lot more than what they’ve told
us,” I said, crossing my arms.

“That may be true,” Naveen admitted, “but they don’t
share much and I’d like to get the information firsthand. Maybe I could even
run some blood samples on a few volunteers and figure out why the twenty-seven
of you survived.”

“That’s a waste of time,” Scott snapped. “We’re normal
people who just happened to be smart enough to survive. The virus isn’t
airborne and no one here has been bitten.”

Naveen seemed a bit taken aback. “Well yes, then that
makes sense. See I didn’t even know whether anyone had been bitten and
survived. That’s important information right there.”

I didn’t see any point in alienating this doctor.
“We’ll be happy to answer any questions, but we hope that in return you’ll
report back that we aren’t contagious to anyone. We just want to go home.”

Naveen looked sympathetic. “Of course, it’s only a
matter of time. If any of you are a danger, I’m now a danger as well and I
certainly don’t want to stay here for the rest of my life.”

Naveen started to unpack his box. I told him he could
stay in our building. There were some open apartments. They had some broken
furniture and were messy, either from attacks or because the owners left so
hastily, but they were safe. Naveen looked happy to accept. Scott looked
annoyed, but offered to help Naveen with his things.

The three of us turned toward the group. Everyone was
watching us. The kids had gone back to hang onto Tony’s legs, and Paulo and
James were standing protectively by Beth.

“He’s a doctor from England,” I called out, as if that
explained everything.

Naveen went around introducing himself to everyone. He
seemed very excited to be in a place we all wanted to escape. Some people,
obviously suspicious, didn’t hang around for long.

As soon as he heard the good doctor was collecting
information on the vampires, Seth became excited and volunteered to share all
of his knowledge, especially accounts of his own courageous encounters with the
creatures.

Naveen fed the flames, “Yes, yes, I’ve read about all
the vampires you’ve killed in the papers, I’m so very excited to hear the
stories firsthand.” I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to warn Naveen to
take everything Seth said with a grain of salt. I had heard Seth telling some
of his stories over the radio, and doubted any of them were true.

Naveen wanted to get started right away, but he only
succeeded in making things awkward. “Has anyone here seen the virus from the
beginning to the end?”

Tony cringed and held his kids closer.

“Look,” Scott said angrily, “I know they like to
glamorize our situation in the newspapers, but this place is hell. Everyone
here has lost friends or family members to this virus or to the creatures
created by it. You can’t just burst in here out of your ivory tower and expect
people to get excited about telling you their horror stories.”

Naveen’s face fell. “You’re right of course. I
completely understand. That was very insensitive of me, and I apologize. It’s
just there’s very little time...”

“How could you understand?” Tony snapped.

“Little time for what?” I asked.

Naveen hesitated for a moment, then said, “I just mean
it spread so quickly, no one has ever seen anything like it. I want to learn as
much as I can as fast as I can so that I can send a report and get everyone out
of here.”

I nodded. I wanted to cooperate, but at the same time
I wondered what the doctor would do if he found out that I was immune. He might
report back and have me turned into a science experiment. I decided to be extra
nice to him in case I needed him in my corner later. I offered to take him back
to the apartment building so he could set up and then people could talk to him
when they were ready. He seemed only too glad to escape the situation in the
park.

As we were walking away Scott took me aside and
growled in my ear, “Don’t tell him anything about your condition, I don’t trust
him at all. He’s lying about something and if he finds out you’re immune he’ll
drain you faster than a vampire would.”

“Don’t worry!” I hissed back. “You think I haven’t
learned my lesson about trust?”

He looked offended. “You can trust me.” 

“Yeah, I know that, but you know what I mean.”

I looked over at Naveen. Seth was talking his ear off
and Naveen had taken out a pad and paper in an attempt to jot down notes.