Awakening - Book of Fire (Blood Heritage #1) (15 page)

The day flies by and Amber takes a cab to the grocery store to pick up a few things. The first sign of trouble comes in the form of a nagging worry pulsing in the back of her mind. Catching only a glimpse of someone, there is a moment of cold recognition before it fades to disbelief. It could not be him. Seeing only a brief profile from across the parking lot he seems vaguely familiar, but the fear in her rises instantly and she quiets it with logic and knowledge. He’s in prison, there’s no way they let him out this early. He will not be able to find me even if he is out, and why would he bother anyway. She feels herself sabotaging her own good mood and pushes it out of her mind. She should know better than to ever doubt her intuition.

He almost caught up to her once in the past, when she was a private dancer, but he was caught passing off bad checks and they sentenced him to twelve years for stealing identities and check fraud. They found a decent stash of cocaine on him as well, so she is sure he won't get off that easy. The way she figures it, she should not have to worry about him for at least another ten years or so. Heaven forbid they actually send him to jail for his worst crimes. She should have a few years of peace at least, even with the crazy parole releases and other get out of jail free cards society dreams up.

Now that her mind is drifting into the dark place of her past, she wants to get home and get her place in order. Getting some laundry done and putting away the groceries will help her to feel her sense of order return. She hopes to have everything done before dark just in case James has time to come over tonight. She purchased meals for two and is starting to feel like she’s actually in a real relationship. With her nerves slightly frazzled she’s hoping he will come and protect her tonight. She’s feeling a little vulnerable with all of this new emotion and the feelings of security and happiness. She realizes she actually has something to lose, and that scares her more than anything else possibly could. Refusing to allow herself to sabotage her present with fears of the past she makes her way home and begins focusing on the tasks at hand.

Something still feels off, the foreboding within her will not fade away and as the hours pass she becomes more and more anxious. With the laundry running and the groceries put away she tackles the floors as well, but nothing makes her feel better. Turning on the radio, she hopes the music will ease her mind. She uses the back of the couch to stretch, her legs feeling tight and stiff. She realizes how badly she had been neglecting her body with all the changes that have been keeping her so busy.

Amber changes into a pair of shorts and a crop top, the rhythm of the music getting into the frayed ends of her nerves. The calming effect is instantaneous, her body reacts with skilled responsiveness that could only have come from many years of practice. The living room floor is not forgiving of her movement and she severely rug burns her toes and knees in the time it takes to reduce her anxiety. She’s covered with sweat and shaking when she finally concedes she needs to take a break.

Amber unlocks the front door in case James comes by before she’s done, a tiny warning rings in her head, but she ignores it. She rinses off in the shower putting on her bathing suit. The warmth of the hot tub is calling her. Stepping into the soothing embrace of the waters she lets out a deep breath. The steam clears her senses and the jets massage the newly formed knots out of every muscle. Amber's mind begins to wander, and she leans her head back on the side of the tub, allowing as much of her body to sink into the warmth as possible. She thinks of James and the warmth rises from inside her as well, she finds her inner peace. He is her light in the darkness.

He grabs her hair and pushes her under the water, before she even has a chance to react. His grip is firm on her shoulder, bruising her deeply, nails breaking flesh. He can only think of releasing her soul, returning her to the darkness that created her. She struggles under his grip and he looks at the swirling tendrils of her hair wrapping around his wrist. Such beauty gone to waste. Why can she not see that she belongs to him, she was born to serve him, to touch him, she should not have tried to run away, and she should not have let another man touch her. His anger rises and he slams her head against the edge of the tub, she manages to get a bit of breath in the struggle and wraps her hands around his wrist. He has always been stronger than her, and she feels the darkness pressing in on the edges of her vision, her head filling with a heavy thick numbness. He has finally won, he has found a way to take everything from her. She does not want to die!

She feels life's tenuous grasp and thinks hard of her desire to hold onto it. The pressure in her head and in her lungs begins to subside, she sees colors swirling through the darkness. She knows she can't stop fighting and she dares not let go of his wrists as he continues to struggle with her. She feels her heartbeat rapid and panicked and then it begins to slow to calm, she feels her father's heart, knows it is her only hope, the strength inside of her growing as she tugs at the oxygen, the blood within him, taking back what he is trying to take from her. In the beginning she has to work at holding each life-giving beat, as she grows stronger, he weakens and the beating of his heart feels like it belongs to her. She only has to reach toward it and it becomes a part of her.

She feels herself inside him, bathing in his blood, taking the oxygen into her lungs, his last breath surprises her and she feels him completely release his hold on her. He collapses backwards and she surfaces with a gasp. She does not feel the pain of holding her breath for so long, she is no longer dizzy or scared. The calm overtakes her as the power does with no knowledge or warning, and somehow she just knows what she is. In that moment she sees the rivers of blood and knows that she still swims in them. She knows no one will ever hurt her again, she owns their strength she can drink of them and drain them as surely as any storybook vampire. The blood is life, and she has become the bringer of death. She shakes off the accusation and the morbidity of the moment. She has such a wild imagination. She has no idea what actually caused him let go, but it couldn't have been what it seemed. She's all jacked up by the near death experience and the understandable hallucinations of her panic filled, oxygen starved brain.

This man who had forced her to run away, made her escape his cruelty, chased her into a life of sex, abuse and poverty that somehow was better than what she had endured at his hands. This man who caused her thousands of sleepless nights in terror of being found, who stole her innocence and left her bleeding and bruised...now he is dead on her sidewalk, looking peaceful and harmless against the cold grey stone of the pathway. She knows she should call an ambulance, but she does not know what to say. She determines she can tell them the truth when she walks past the mirror in her house; the bruises on the side of her neck and shoulder are already prominent and the attack is obvious.

She makes the 911 call, and immediately dials James directly. He is already on his way to her house when he hears the dispatch. His phone ringing a few seconds after the radio call sends him scrambling to retrieve it, He hopes it is her, he needs to know she is ok.

"
Are you all right?"
he asks her, panic rising in his voice. He knows she has been running most of her life, and he begins to punish himself for not being there when she needs him. He should have been there to protect her. He is unclear what happened, to her only that a male attacked her and they need an ambulance. He does not know how hurt she is. The phone loses signal and his heart is racing when he pulls up in front of her house. He is there first and runs to the door. She is waiting for him and falls into his arms, unable to speak.

James realizes he should check on her attacker as the sirens bring his attention off of her for a moment. She takes him out back and he instantly knows there is not going to be any need for the ambulance. The man is clearly dead, there is no breath, no pulse, no sign of life and his eyes are completely bloodshot, more red than white, very creepy. She can't tell him what happened, only that the man – her step-father - tried to drown her and would have succeeded if he had not collapsed. She only saw him after the fact, he’d attacked her when she was daydreaming. She thought she was going to die. Even now she is trembling and crying almost inconsolably.

The coroner says it looks like a stroke, and that Amber was very lucky. The stress of the attack caused a vessel in his head to rupture and he bled out in seconds. Though it will take an autopsy to confirm, it looks pretty clear how he died. There will be no need for an investigation and the report will be read he died of natural causes, Joanna is sure of it. She puts a hand of Amber's shoulder and apologizes that they did not get to meet under more pleasant circumstances.

When everyone has what they need they leave Amber and James to deal with the aftermath in privacy. The medics have seen to her injuries and assure her she will have some pain, but won't have any long term effects from the incident. Amber has some ugly bruising, but she is alive. She doesn't really know the details of what happened, but she knows her life is changing. She killed him, she feels the truth of it. His death saved her. She doesn't feel guilty, she feels free, she no longer has to run. She has nothing left to be afraid of. Her life belongs to her now. The realization washes over her like a breeze. Not only does she feel free for the first time in years, she also feels strong, vibrant and alive. Somehow the experience has given her a sense of power and control. She wants to fly, to shout from the rooftops, to feel.

James is stressing, his feelings for her overwhelming him and his tears running freely at the mere realization that he nearly lost her. Her bruises giving him physical pain and his heart aching for her experience. She is so fragile in his arms, her body trembling. He only wants to protect her. His guilt and fear taking hold and he can do nothing but hold her against him. She can't say anything to ease his mind, or make him understand. She looks deep into his eyes and gives him a warm smile and a gentle kiss to ease the tension.

He holds her until she falls asleep in his arms. He sits up in her bed running his fingers through her hair, watching. It’s his duty to keep her safe, to protect her from the bogey man, to make sure there are no other dark monsters able to touch her. He will never leave her to be a victim again. He will be her Prince Charming.

She sleeps the sleep of the free, the confident and the powerful, she no longer fears the darkness, she sees the monsters behind the veil, and knows they fear her. She is a part of it, she is a master of it, she is hungry to taste of it again. Her dreams are of chasing down a fiery dragon flying after it with vengeance on her mind, she dreams of drinking the blood from its still beating heart as it stares at her with fear in its sad dying eyes, the eyes of her step-father. She is the slayer of evil and nothing can touch her now. She feels the strength and strangeness of the blood contact fading as light touches the horizon and the last vestiges of anger and blood lust have gone completely by the time the sun appears with a rosy glow.

He falls asleep still sitting up, body tense and muscles knotting up with the effort. He wakes with a start, realizing she is no longer there. His immediate reaction is panic. She brings him a steaming cup of coffee and a slice of fresh baked coffee cake, as he shakes sleep off slowly. She is bright and smiling, but also very worried about his reaction to the entire evening. His overwhelming guilt is difficult for her to understand. She does not blame him for anything, he could not have known, and he has a very important job to do out there saving people. "You are not responsible for me and everything that happens to me, James, you have other responsibilities that are very important. Let it go, it will all work out the way it is supposed to in the end. I'm still here and not going anywhere." Amber explains how long she has been running from her step-father, describing how every move she’s made has been to escape from him in some way, how now for the first time she is actually and completely safe.

He tries to relax for her and agrees what happened was not his fault, mostly to make her feel better. He tries to understand her happiness, but something is feeling out of place. There is a shift in her demeanor he is having a hard time putting his finger on. She seems less innocent, somehow. She has an inner strength, a surety giving her a bit harder edge. There is something she is not telling him about last night, he knows she isn't telling him the whole truth.

Joanna goes through the motions of the autopsy, feeling sure exactly what she will find. She is astonishingly wrong; as she makes the Y incision she sees just how off she is. This man suffered a complete system meltdown. His heart is twisted and crushed as if it were put into a vise, his lungs collapsed impossibly. When she gets to his head, where she expects to find a ruptured vessel, she finds that much of his brain and optical veins have completely exploded. There is blood everywhere it should not be, this man suffocated and bled out internally with no apparent exterior cause. This is an impossible death, the closest she has ever seen was a tremendous automobile accident but the body was as mangled on the outside and the internals had only been half as bad as this. She doesn’t even know what to put down as the cause of death. "Shit, this is a disaster" she says.