Beautiful Monster-The Exchange (2 page)

“Carly?” Lev said breathlessly. Could he be wrong? Could
she really be here in front of him?

She silenced him with a finger to her lips and moved
closer. He hadn’t shifted even an inch from where he’d landed at the bottom of
the staircase. Fear, anticipation, curiosity, or perhaps all of the above
rooted him to the spot. His pants were dusted in a fine earthy grit, as were
the white cuffs of his shirt, but he dared not move to brush himself off.

A terrifying thought struck him then. What if this…this
being…wasn’t Carly? Could Alexei be playing a trick? He thought on this for a
second and decided it would be impossible. His brother, though devious, was not
clever enough to pull off something this elaborate.

She was in front of him now, growing denser and less
translucent before his eyes. He could see her flawless skin, plump pink lips,
and wide blue eyes sharpening and changing back to the Carly he knew before the
accident. Her hair shone, as if each strand were lit from the inside out.

She sat down beside him, and for some silly reason, Lev
worried about her pretty dress being ruined by the dirt that covered the floor
of the old cellar. He glanced around for something for her to sit on and found
nothing but cobwebs and more dirt.

She seemed to read his mind. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”

They were face to face, her lips just inches from his. A
moment later, a feathery kiss tickled his cheek. She’s real, he told himself,
absently bringing a hand to the place where Carly had just kissed him. Then Lev
caressed her face. “Is it really you?” She felt real, alive, but he’d just seen
her die.

“Yes, my darling, it’s me.” She punctuated her words
with a giggle and seemed to enjoy his astonishment.

“But how can you be here? I…I was in your hospital room.
I saw—”

She gave a wide smile and when she did, it stilled him.
Instead of continuing with his question, he let out a sigh of relief, then got
to his feet and finally dusted himself off. He reached for Carly’s hands and
pulled her up beside him. They moved to the bottom step of the creaky old staircase
and sat down, so close together their knees touched. He wanted to hug her to
him and kiss her, but first he needed answers.

“I did die, Lev, but it’s not like you think. Death
isn’t the end.” She stood and looked down on him. “I’m still here, right? I’m
still Carly.” She nodded as if trying to convince herself too.

He lightly pounded a fist to his forehead. “You’re
telling me that you’re a…a ghost?” If his heart hadn’t stilled years ago, it
would be thumping wildly now, not from fear but out of surprise and maybe even
excitement.

She shook her head. “Not exactly.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she muted him with a
hand. “I’m in spirit form. I’ve left my body.”

“But you just said you
weren’t
a ghost.” Lev ran
his hands through his hair and pulled, then got to his feet and began to pace.
Did ghosts really exist? It had to be a possibility; after all, creatures like
him existed.

“You can call me whatever you want. Ghost, spirit, soul,
but I’m still me!”

Carly tilted her head, her eyes suddenly no longer held
the innocence he loved, but something he saw frequently in his own expression:
sorrow.

“I only have three days and then I have to go.” Her
voice was little more than a whisper.

Lev didn’t understand. “Go where?”

Carly chewed on her lower lip, her eyes darted from
Lev’s to the floor, then back to Lev’s again. She gave a little sigh then said,
“To another dimension. I’m not entirely sure where, or what it is.” A
half-hearted grin curled her lips but quickly faded. “We have three days
together until then.”

He felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach. He was
losing her all over again.

From above them, Alexei’s footfalls echoed. Then his
brother called down the stairs. “Going out for a bit. Hope you can manage not
to kill yourself in your grief.” He laughed at his own joke.

“Do you want to go upstairs? We’ll be more comfortable,”
Lev said.

Carly nodded, and together they made their way back up
the stairs and into the parlor.

“Do you
have
to leave?” Lev hated how desperate
he sounded. “There has to be a way for you to stay.”

“I’m sorry, Lev, but the passageway to the other side
closes in just seventy-two hours from physical death. Hours have passed
already. I’m afraid these last few days will be all we’ll ever have.” Tears
shone in her eyes, threatening to spill.

Lev hung his head. There would never be an afterlife for
him, no passageway to the other side. He was already dead—a soulless being
doomed forever to walk the earth. “Why can’t you just stay here?” Shame filled
him immediately. He was being selfish. How could he ask her to give up whatever
lay in that other dimension to walk the earth for eternity with him? He had no
doubt it would be a far better place than where they were now.

He took her hand and kissed it. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have said that. I’d never hold you back.” He wanted to ask if there was a way
he could go with her, but he already knew the answer.

Carly placed her hand on his. “It’s kinda funny if you
think about it. I’m dead, and you’re, well, you’re dead too, but we can’t be
together because you have no soul. Talk about star-crossed lovers.”

He knew she was trying to lighten the mood, but Lev
found no humor in her words. He held her hand, marveling at how solid she felt.
The hours had molded her into something more concrete. “You seem so alive!”

“I feel alive.” She smiled weakly and pinched away the
tears standing in her eyes.

Lev kissed her lids and smoothed her hair. “There’s
barely an hour before day will begin to break. I have to go to ground soon.
Where will you go? What will you do while I sleep?”

“I’ll stay with you.”

“But what about Alexei? He’ll see you when he comes down
to the basement to his sleeping chamber.”

“I’m not so sure he will.”

Lev was perplexed. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t think he’ll be able to see me. Those on the
other side said it would be very difficult. Maybe you can because, well, I
don’t know for sure, but maybe because I really want you to.” She shrugged.

Lev’s brows knit together. “What do you mean by ‘those
on the other side’?”

“I was given a few ground rules just before I left my
body. And by
those on the other side
, I’m not even sure who I mean.
There were voices in my mind explaining things. Guess I’ll find out more when I
meet the owners of those voices.” She kissed Lev’s cheek. “Why don’t you go to
sleep now? I’ll visit with my family for a while. I want to make sure they’re
okay, and I’ll see you tonight after sunset.”

He had to go to ground, but a feral yearning nagged him.
He was hungry, ravenous really, but there was no time to feed and he especially
didn’t want to do it with Carly around. She’d never borne witness to that dark
side of him. Lev had no choice but to wait until he awoke in the evening.

In all his one hundred and forty years, this had been
the most interesting yet excruciating day of his life, eclipsing even the
evening of his turning.

Carly gave him one last peck on the cheek before
leaving, then Lev crept downstairs to the basement, threw open the door to his
creaky old wooden sleeping chamber buried in the earth, and climbed in, pulling
the lid shut over him.

Sleep would come. It always did, but he was saddened
knowing that as he slept, the hours ticked past—hours he could be spending with
Carly.

When Lev woke, Carly was already there, perched on the
bottom step, waiting for him.

He’d gone to sleep racking his brain for a way they
could be together. He’d do anything to make that happen. But sadly, he could
think of nothing. Despite being greeted with Carly’s smile, disappointment
filled him.

“Alexei’s up already,” she said when she saw him. “I can
hear him upstairs, and it sounds like he has a friend with him.”

Lev made a face and stood up, then stepped out of his
chamber and onto the basement floor. After a quick dust off, he held out a hand
to Carly, and she took it. He pulled her to him and kissed her eagerly.
Although he hungered for her in the carnal sense, gone was the urge he’d
constantly fought when he heard the rush of her blood or the beating of her
heart. Lev was unsure if this was an unfortunate turn of events or something to
be celebrated.

He’d gone to bed uncomfortably hungry, and his need had
grown during his slumber. He had to feed and soon, but he didn’t want Carly
around to witness it. He’d lied, telling her he only drank from animals, but
now she could follow him wherever he went and would probably want to be by his
side until the time came for them to part.

“So Alexei didn’t see you?” he asked, then remembered
what she’d told him earlier.

“I told you—”

Lev stopped her with another kiss. “Not to worry. I
remember what you said,” he whispered, then led her up the stairs.

Alexei was in the dining room seated at a massive
mahogany table, empty bottles of wine and a crystal decanter of Scotch were set
in the middle.

“Brother, this is Tony,” Alexei said without turning
around.

Tony was a small, slight man in his early twenties with
thick blond hair and chiseled features. His cheeks were pink, and he held a
crystal glass delicately in a slender hand. He extended the other to Lev.
“Pleasure to meet you,” he said, a flirtiness in his voice. “You’re as handsome
as your brother.”

Lev smelled his delicious youth. It was heady and
overwhelming. Then he noticed the pinpricks of blood on Tony’s wrists and neck.
He smelled that too, taking in a deep breath.

Lev threw a furtive glance at Carly. Tony had obviously
been Alexei’s dinner, and Lev’s hunger was unbearable now, knotting and
twisting in him. He tried to shoo Carly away with a look and a quick jerk of
his head, but she took no notice and stood in the doorway, seemingly mesmerized
by Alexei and his friend.

Instinct finally kicked in, driving Lev toward Tony at
lightning speed. He sunk his fangs into the young man’s left wrist. Tony
smelled of expensive cologne and cheap wine, but tasted magnificent. Lev sucked
and pulled, drinking his fill.

“No, Lev. You’ll kill him. Stop!” His brother’s hands
tightened around the collar of his shirt, pulling until his fangs disengaged.
Tony slumped to the floor like a boneless lump of flesh, and tiny pools of
blood soaked into the gray carpet around his hand.

“You fool. You went too long between feedings. Now look
what you’ve done.” Alexei pouted. “I wasn’t finished with him yet.”

The scent of wine and Scotch were on his brother too,
and Lev realized he’d been slowly getting drunk along with his friend. With
each draw of Tony’s blood, Alexei’s alcohol level rose too. Lev felt the giddy
high of imbibing and the tang of wine on his tongue.

He suddenly remembered Carly and turned toward her. She
was still in the doorway, her trembling hands covering her face. A low moan
escaped her and then she, like Tony, slunk to the floor.

“Good Lord. Is that Carly? I thought she was dead,”
Alexei said, turning his attention back to his brother.

“Carly,” Lev called. He knelt beside her and gently
patted her face with a trembling hand while Alexei hovered over them.

“Is she dead now?” Alexei asked.

Lev ignored him, smoothed Carly’s hair, and whispered
soothing words into her ear. He hardly knew what he was saying and realized she
must be fine. After all, she was already dead. It was what she’d just witnessed
that bothered him most.

Carly opened her eyes, and they quickly widened as she
stared at a spot on Lev’s face.

“A bit of blood, brother.” Alexei attempted to wipe
Lev’s chin clean, but Lev pushed his hand away and thumbed it off himself.

“Are you okay?” Lev asked Carly.

“Yes, my dear. I heard you…well, that you died,” Alexei
added with a smirk.

Lev shot his brother a nasty look and helped Carly to
her feet. Then they deposited her on a dining room chair.

“Alexei can see me?” she said to Lev but didn’t wait for
a reply when she caught sight of the still prone Tony. “Aren’t you going to
help him?” Carly’s voice was tinged with alarm.

Alexei rolled his eyes and let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Suppose so. Poor fellow.” He picked up the young man, hefting him over a
shoulder as easily as if he were stuffed with cotton balls, took him to another
room, and was back in an instant. “He’ll live. Still has a pulse.” He looked
from Lev to Carly. “Anyone going to fill me in on what’s going on? Are you, or
are you not dead, Carly?”

“Well, yes, I suppose you could say I’m kinda dead.”

Alexei wiggled his eyebrows. “You managed to turn her in
time, you devil,” he said to Lev, who promptly shook his head.

“No. It’s not like that. She’s not one of us,” Lev said.

“I’m in spirit form,” Carly replied.

Alexei sat down with a thump in the chair opposite her,
the one Tony had previously occupied. “Well now, this is interesting. I don’t
quite get it, but it does sound intriguing. I suppose the two of you undead can
now be together forever?”

Tears slipped from Carly’s eyes, and she turned away.

Lev gave his brother another dirty look. “No. She has to
leave. We only have two days together.”

Alexei seemed to be enjoying the conversation. He
crossed thin legs and stroked his stubbled chin. “Where pray tell does she have
to go? To, like, Heaven or something?” He chuckled.

Lev looked to Carly for the answer. He wasn’t quite sure
himself. She’d said she was going to another
dimension
, but he had no
idea what that meant. Could it be Heaven?

Carly shrugged. “Just another place, hopefully better
than here.” Her eyes met Lev’s, and tears filled them again. “Except you won’t
be there with me.” Carly’s expression changed, and she looked upset as if
suddenly remembering something. “I didn’t know about…about what you do.”

Lev knelt down beside her. “You mean how I feed?”

She nodded. “You never drank from me.”

He didn’t know if she was upset or relieved.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” he said softly.

“But you said you fed from animals. Was that a lie?”

Lev sighed and hung his head. “Yes.”

He felt her hand in his hair, caressing, pushing it back
from his face, and he looked up at her. “I would have understood. It’s your
nature.”

“I’m gonna go see Tony,” Alexei said, rolling his eyes.
“Catch ya’ll later.” He flounced from the room with a little wave.

Lev was relieved his brother was gone, though he knew he
could listen in on their conversation if he wanted. But he probably wouldn’t.
Alexei was easily bored.

“Wouldn’t you have been scared of me then? If you knew
the truth?”

She nodded slowly. “Probably. But I know you love me
enough to keep me safe. I don’t think you would’ve hurt me, would you?”

His response was immediate. “No! Never.”

“We only have two days left. How will we spend them?”
Carly said, changing the subject. Though she was smiling, it was without humor.

“We’re going to find a way to stay together, and we’ll
use our last days to figure out how.”

“But you’ll have to go to ground. You’ll have to sleep.
There’s not enough time. Besides, I don’t think it’s possible. I have to leave
the earth plane and…” She let her words trail off.

“And, you have a soul and I don’t,” he finished for her.