Falling From Eternity (A Paranormal Love Story) (16 page)

I brought Autumn several books
recommended by the doctor for her to try. It was hard for her at
first, but I tried a few of the exercises with her and she
eventually got the hang of it. After almost a week she began
teaching a class at Shady Willows, helping the residents learn the
power of positive thinking and the effect it can have on the body.
They took to her easily with fascinated curiosity; many of them
eager to find a cure for their ailments that didn’t involve another
pill, or another dangerous side effect. I had no idea how she found
the energy to do it all, but she somehow managed. At times I felt
like she wasn’t one hundred percent onboard with my plan; like she
was playing along to please me, but she never said
otherwise.

Memories of the last few
weeks played through my head as I drove to the city to plead for
Ming’s help. It was such a different drive than the last one.
Before, I was pulling on an imaginary choke collar to keep from
attacking him, and now I was thinking of ways to plead my case. I
was willing to beg if I had to. Anything for him to offer the help
I knew he
could
give. If I had to make a deal with the devil to save an
angel, then that’s what I would do.

Thirty minutes later I was parked down
the street from Ming’s concealed blood bank; staring at the vacant
parking lot of a long forgotten manufacturing building. The tall,
brick building was checkered with broken windows; tangled with
clinging vines and moss. A rusted, rickety fire escape hung
precariously from the southern side. I could hear it squeak with
deafening intensity as two large ravens landed on it.

I sat, staring at the crumbling
building until I felt I had built up enough courage. I needed to
win Ming over; Autumn needed me to win him over. Inside that blood
bank were the very doctors who could save her. They could very well
be her last chance. In a moment of devastating fear I contemplated
revealing the truth about me, and offering her the curse I so
desperately tried to evade, but I just couldn’t do it. Turning her
would be a fate worse than death and I couldn’t do that to her. How
could I live with myself if I turned her into a monster?

My hand gripped the handle as I took a
deep breath before pushing the door open. A bell chimed my entry,
and I clenched my teeth together when a sickeningly familiar face
looked up at me. Viola.

“
You’re not wanted here,”
she growled the words from her desk as she clicked away at the
computer. I glared at her, marching toward the back door without
acknowledging her. I needed to get to Ming’s office before anyone
tried to stop me.

“
Hey! You can’t go back
there!” she shouted at me as she jumped from her seat. I glared at
her, marching toward the back door before she could get to me. “I’m
calling security!” she reached for her phone, but I was quicker. I
wrapped my fingers around the cord, yanking it from the wall. It
popped out easily and in one swift movement I placed the plug
between my teeth, wrenching it free of the wires. Viola gaped at
me, total shock and disgust plastered on her ugly, painted face as
I spit the plug on her desk and flashed her the cockiest grin I
could manage.

I stomped my way through
the mass of scientists with their cluttered desks and bubbling
beakers; through the doctors as they tested blood donations and
filtered it from donors. Feeding before coming here was a very wise
decision on my part; with as hungry as I’ve been, the intoxicating
aroma of fresh plasma would have driven me mad. It was everywhere.
With little effort I could pilfer any number of containers from the
workstations, or simply walk into one of the refrigeration units
and start gulping it down. But, there was something else that
seemed easily accessible that I wanted just as much. Doctors. I
could bypass Ming altogether and snag one of them; forcing them to
help me. All it would take was the threat of one bite and
they
would
help
me.

Pushing away the thoughts of
kidnapping and binge drinking in the storage room, I trotted toward
the stairs to Ming’s office as security guards marched toward me,
Viola on their heels. She was pointing at me, screeching
profanities as all eyes rolled my way. Ming’s security guards were
vampires, it would only take them seconds to reach me; maybe even
less. I wouldn’t be shocked if they wanted revenge on the ass
kicking I gave two of them the last time I was here.

As I grasped the handle for Ming’s
office, the guards reached the bottom of the stairs. I flung the
door open, slamming it behind me in less than a second, flicking
the lock closed as they pounded on the door. I knew Ming had the
door reinforced, so there was no way they were going to get in
unless someone unlocked it for them. A gasping laugh escaped me at
my small victory. I’d made it inside, and now all I had to do was
convince Ming.

“
You’ve got some nerve,”
he growled at me as he stood beside the window that overlooked his
factory. He’d probably been watching me since the second I opened
the back door, but why had he let me get this far? “Didn’t I warn
you what would happen if you came back?”

“
Ming, listen…” I knew I
had to get my point across, fast.

“
No!” he roared, seething
with rage as he flew at me. He pinned me to the wall, his fangs
fully extended and his forearm crammed against my throat. “You
listen! I told you not to come back here, William. I warned
you!”

“
I know,” I wheezed,
willing my fangs not to extend. It wasn’t easy for me to give in to
him, but if I fought back I’d never get him to help me. The old me
could never control my temper, but I
had
to, Autumn’s life depended on
it.

“
Then why are you here?”
he hissed at me, pushing harder against my throat as he breathed
his smoky breath into my face.

“
I…need your help, Ming,”
I replied, letting my body go limp to show I wasn’t going to fight
him. Fists pounded at his office door, and my eyes flicked over to
it nervously.

“
You can get your meals
someplace else. We don’t feed traitors here.” His eyes raked across
my body with disgust before he threw me across the room.

Drywall cracked against my weight as I
crashed into the wall and then crumbled to the floor. I rolled over
as a growl rumbled in my gut. Rage was building inside me, but I
had to fight it. Ming’s footsteps circled around me as he
anticipated my attack. My fist slammed against the floor as I
squeezed my eyes shut and focused on the one thing that I knew
could calm me down. Autumn’s beautiful face.

“
Get up!” Ming
ordered.

“
No.”

“
Get up!”

“
No!” I lifted my face,
finally opening my eyes once my anger had subsided.

Ming stepped back, a look of shock
twisting his features. He’d seen something in my face that he
hadn’t expected. I wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good
thing. I’d never seen him look at me like that before. There was no
time to wonder, so I stood myself up and faced him. He wasn’t
threatening me for the time being; this might be my last chance to
speak.

“
I need your help.” There
wasn’t a hint of the old William in my voice. No sign of the
longstanding grudge that wedged itself between us.

“
What’s happened to you?”
He sounded almost afraid, but I could see in his eyes that the fear
wasn’t for my safety but for his; like whatever was plaguing me
might infect him.

“
Nothing has happened to
me, Ming.” I risked taking a step forward, and he responded by
taking a step back.

“
You’re different,” he
responded, latching onto his smoking cigar as if it were some sort
of security blanket.

“
I’ve always been
different,” I replied, a smile in my voice. It was true too. I’d
never met another of my kind like me. Ming had always attributed it
to my maker, a vampire whom no one knew. He’d always said there
must have been something unusual about them that made me, me. I
couldn’t say I disagreed. I didn’t know who my maker was, but I
wished I did. There were so many questions I wanted to ask them.
Why did they turn me? What happened to them?

My existence in this world was as
mysterious as it was strange. A vampire and its maker were
connected by an unbreakable bond, a bond which I’d never felt. I
was found in an alley, left for dead in the midst of transformation
when Ming had found me. He had saved me. We tried for years to find
my maker, but we never found even a hint of a clue. The very fact
that I was left for dead, abandoned by the one who should have
sheltered me fueled the fire that made me the murderous monster I
once was. The monster that Ming had loved so dearly. Through all
that fury a tiny thought always hid in the back of my mind. That
thought grew like a tiny seed in my head, until it developed into
what I was today. A vampire desperate to find the purpose for his
existence. Was I just some mistake by my unidentified maker, or was
I alive for a reason? Maybe that reason was to save Autumn, because
no one else would.

“
What do you want?” Ming
asked; his fangs retracting as he rolled his cigar between his
lips.

“
I need to borrow some of
your staff,” I said, eagerly stepping forward to an open
armchair.

“
My staff?
Why?”

“
Because they are some of
the best doctors in the country, and I need their expertise,” I
answered, taking the evasive route even though I wasn’t sure if I
should or not.

“
And if you take my staff,
who is supposed to push my product?” Ming questioned; always the
businessman.

“
I’m not going to take
everyone, Ming! I just need some…” I paused. If I told him exactly
what I needed, then he’d know what I was up to. My goal was to keep
Autumn a secret, keep her safe from Ming and my kind. But, I knew
Ming and he wouldn’t help me until I told him everything he wanted
to know.

“
Some?”

“
I need all of your top
ranking staff. I have something I need their help with.”

“
My top staff? So, you’re
saying you need my geneticists, my hematologists, my cardiologists
and…”

“
Yes!” I cut him off,
desperate for him to just tell me his terms. I knew he wouldn’t
help me for free; it would come at a price. What he didn’t know was
that to save Autumn, I would pay anything.

“
You’re not going to give
up on this are you?
William
, nothing you do is going to
change what you are. Nothing is going to stop your body from
wanting what is natural. We are the superior species; it’s time you
accept that,” he said, sounding more like a disappointed parent
than the adversary he had become.

All I could do was shake my head;
little did he know I had found the cure I’d been looking for. “This
isn’t about me, Ming.”

“
Oh? Then what it’s about?
You looking to start a business of your own? I must say, William, I
didn’t think you had it in you anymore. Let me guess, you’re going
to offer…what? Kosher blood? Or, perhaps you’ll synthesize an
organic substitute? Yes! You’ll be the one to crack the code to the
formula my best scientists and doctors haven’t been able to in over
seventy years!” He began laughing hysterically as he fell into his
seat, propping his feet up on his desk.

“
You’re an asshole.” I
rolled my eyes at him. There was no way around it; I’d have to tell
him the truth.

“
Tell me what’s really
going on before I open that door and tell Xavier to tear your
throat out. You know, he’s been dying to get at you since your last
visit. I almost sent him to your precious little town just to put
you in your place. Did you know that?”

I shook my head, clamping
onto the arms of the chair and telling myself I couldn’t tear them
off and ram them into his heart like a stake. There wasn’t time to
question how he even knew where I was living. I knew he was testing
me, again. He was
trying
to get a rise out of me, and he was doing a damn
good job. It was probably easy for him too, pretty impossible not
to when you’ve known someone for over two hundred years.

“
Someone I…”

“
Ah ha!” Ming exclaiming,
interrupting me, “Who is it?”

“
I care about her,” I
pleaded, trying to connect with his softer side; if he even had
one.

“
Care about her? Care?”
His brow wrinkled at my words as if I were speaking another
language. Maybe there was no softer side to Ming.

“
Yes! And she’s sick,
Ming. If anything happens to her…”

“
She’s human, isn’t she?”
I could only nod. “William? I knew you’d lost your mind, but a
human? What are you thinking?”

“
I’m thinking that I want
to save her! Don’t you have any compassion?”

“
Compassion?! They’re
humans! Does a cat show compassion to a mouse? Does a wolf show
compassion to a lamb? They are food, William. They are servants,
and employees. Humans are nothing; they are no one and mean nothing
unless they are lucky enough to be turned. One can never
truly
be
until
they are vampire!” he proclaimed, sitting up straight and puffing
out his chest like the self-righteous asshole that he was. I’d seen
him give this speech a thousand times over the years to every batch
of newly born vampires. Always the same words and the same
bravado…I even believed them myself once.