Page 7 of Desperately Seeking Vampire
“Boo,” he said, unable to keep the word from slipping past his lips.
The screams that followed tore through his head, causing him to clutch at his ears as all seven tried to exit the mausoleum at the same time. There was a jostling of bodies to be the first through the door that would have been comical in any other circumstance, but at that moment, Ivo wanted nothing more than to consume vast quantities of blood, enough to stop the soul-searing agony.
He staggered out after the still-screaming people, his eyes slightly blurry after being unused for so long, but fortunately, night wrapped the world in its indigo embrace, allowing him to force his legs into a lurching gait toward the massive black shape of what had to be Drahanská Castle.
Sounds filled the night air, voices, snatches of soft music, and, in the distance, rustlings of night animals hunting for prey.
Prey. The word echoed in his head, causing him to stumble and clutch at his belly, for a few seconds the pain so great that he couldn’t even get air into his lungs.
Light burst out of nowhere, a blue-white light that rose from behind him, casting his shadow against the wall of Drahanská, the figure mangled and twisted as it danced when the light moved behind him. He tried to turn to face whoever had such a powerful lantern, almost falling when he realized the light came from a sleek black automobile, one that seemed to move without sound. He stood staring at it for a few seconds, his mind still slow as the car came to a stop a yard from him. Then suddenly, a shape separated from the auto.
“Ivo? Christ, what are you doing out?”
Ivo squinted at the shape as it moved into the lights cast by the silent auto, his mind grasping for a name. It floated just out of his reach for a few seconds, before it finally allowed itself to be caught. “Finch?”
“You look horrible,” Finch said in that straightforward manner that had always amused Ivo. “Why are you here?”
“Thumping,” he answered, then because he was an honest man: “Actually, it was the twang that annoyed me the most. There were people. They took my lid off, and were dancing, I think.”
“Oh, them,” Finch said, with a deep sigh as he cast a glance toward the north side of the castle. “I’ll tell Christian they’ve broken into your mausoleum again. They did it last year, but didn’t do anything but leave a bunch of trash behind.”
“There’s a party going on?” Ivo asked.
“Festival. Come on, since you’ve emerged from your noctambul, you might as well come in. We have some blood.”
Ivo almost moaned at the thought, but something niggled in the back of his mind, a shadow that worried him. He allowed Finch to help him into a side door, slowly and painfully up a staircase, until at last they arrived in what appeared to be a library.
What was it that his mind was hiding from him ... ?
“I’ll get Christian. He has a special refrigerator with blood, since people tend to end up here needing it. I think it’s something to do with the fact that he took over as head of the Moravian Council. Sit down before you fall.”
It was something important. Something vital to his well-being.
“Ivo?” Finch’s face swam into his view as he swayed slightly. “I would like to ask you if you are all right, but it’s clear you’re not. Stay here. I’ll get Christian and some blood.”
Ivo lifted his gaze, seeing not his old friend retreating out of a door, but the memory of a hazy shape that formed into a woman with dark red hair mostly hidden by a large starched white coif. He felt the cool brush of the woman’s hand as she dabbed at the blood that seemed to be leaking out of him via a thousand different wounds. He heard the surprise in her voice as she bent over him, saying, “Goodness. A Dark One! You are a surprise.”
And then the sensation of life as she pulled up the blue sleeve of her gown, offering him her upper arm, hiding him from the others around them as gratefully he fed. “Go ahead. I’ve got enough blood to donate to a needy vampire soldier.”
Not soldier, he’d wanted to tell her. Doctor. He was a doctor. And she was ...
“Beloved,” he said on a gasp. The world spun, filled with black blotches, and he fell back into the dark abyss that had held him for so long.
Once again, it was sound that pulled his awareness from the depths of insensibility.
“—don’t see why he can’t simply drink it if it’s helping, which it clearly is.”
“It’s helping because he has been in a state of noctambul, and thus, his body is deprived to the point where any blood that can be ingested will be tolerated. For a while. Once he is back to full health, however, he will likely begin to decline again. Thus it is for those whose Beloveds are taken from them.”
Ivo gave a mental frown at the man speaking, forcing his mind to the surface again so he could speak. “She wasn’t taken from me,” he managed to say, his eyes refusing to cooperate and open. “I didn’t even see her clearly, let alone have a connection of any sort.”
“Ah, you are awake again. Good.”
That had to be Christian Dante, Finch’s uncle. Ivo had a vague memory of him, a man with dark hair and incredibly bright silver eyes. With an effort, he pulled one hand up to his face, removing the cloth that covered his eyes. Instantly, light penetrated his brain, causing him to wince and squint. “Ow. Where are we, the surface of the sun?”
Two figures swam into view and, after a couple of seconds, resolved themselves into Finch and his uncle. “Not quite,” Finch answered, giving him a disgruntled look. Finch frequently looked disgruntled, Ivo mused to himself as studied first his old friend, then the man who had helped save him from certain death. “But it is a bit hellish outside what with all the mortals carrying on.”
Christian Dante made a face. “I’ve secured your parents’ mausoleum, but it makes no sense to worry about protecting the empty ones until after the festival is over. Ivo can stay here with us until that time.”
