Obsidian (Mystic Stones Series #1) (6 page)

“You know very little of me, but soon, everything will make sense. When I said ‘our kind,’ I meant me and my associates. You are not yet one of us, but we can make you just like us, and once you are, you’ll want the power. The need will grow within you. You’ll be the perfect addition to our team.”

“What is the point? Turning everything back to the Middle Ages is just cruel, you’ll have no control over anyone, and they will run wild.”

“We don’t intend to turn the world to turmoil like that—at least, not for long. We do intend to control everyone. In the end, everyone will make a choice. Either submit to us or live without the luxuries.”

“Submit? I don’t understand. What is it you need from us?”

“Not from you, my dear, no. I want you to be with us. You’ll be like royalty. The need we have is from those who will become like slaves to us.”

“Slaves? You want everyone to work for free in return for technology? You’re delusional.”

Tom and the other men laughed. Then, he showed his sly grin, once again, only this time he showed something more . . . fangs.

My mind raced. What on earth did I just see? Was it real? Was it even possible? Could he really be a . . . a vampire?

I could hardly even think it. It seemed so absurd. My adrenaline coursed through my veins.

I looked around the room. They were all vampires. I wasn’t imagining things. All of them brandished their fangs. My heart beat faster and I prayed for it to slow down so I could get up the courage to get out of the warehouse. My feet wouldn’t move.

I quickly tried to use my breathing to steady my heart and then slowly backed away toward the door. Tom saw what I was doing and walked toward me slowly, but faster than I was backing toward the door.

“My, you connect the dots quickly don’t you?” he said, showing his fangs once more.

“What are you? You can’t be a . . .”

“Vampire? Yes, I can be, and you can be too.” Tom disappeared into a blur and popped up behind me. He circled me, but kept a little distance between us. He was like a shark getting closer to his prey with every rotation.

“You see, we’re going to use technology to get the blood we need from humans. Their donations will ensure that their lives stay relatively normal.”

He stood within inches of me. Shivers traveled along my spine and I started to panic. I stumbled over words to say in order to distract him. The only thing that came to mind was, “But--you were out in the sunlight; all the legends say you can’t go into the sun.”

“Oh, Ava, those legends are spread by us to make humans who believe in us think they’re safe. We exaggerate things so that it seems we can’t possibly exist.” He went for my hand.

I froze at the thought of him touching me. He held it gently just as before. He pulled me farther into the warehouse, toward the other vampires. I had to distract him. He wanted me to be one of them and I shuddered at the thought.

“The time of hiding and keeping our secret will soon come to an end,” he shouted to the room full of vampires as they all clapped.

Finally, a clear thought came to me. I needed to get more information and then escape. If I had enough information, I might be able to find someone who could stop them. If I could get anyone to believe me.

“So, when you said you’d been working for this company for what seemed like a hundred years . . .”

“I meant it,” he finished for me. I searched for a way to escape. A ladder led to the upper level of the warehouse only ten feet away. I remembered the pocket knife in my purse. My mother’s notion to give it to me had finally come in handy.

“Enough stalling, Ava. We must do this now. Trust me. Our side is the one you want to be on. You don’t want to be a slave to us.” He motioned for one of the men to bring a chair. “You may want to sit down for this. At first, you will be weak, but when we get some blood in you, you’ll be stronger than you ever imagined.”

I sat on the swivel chair, but only because Tom was so close that he towered over me. I needed room to think.

He turned around for a moment to address his associates. “And so begins a new era for vampires. An era of prosperity. An era of power beyond our wildest imaginations.”

I slid my hand into my purse as he gave his little speech. When he turned back, I was waiting with my knife. His fangs came at me as I flipped open the knife and stabbed him in the chest. I turned in the chair and dashed for the ladder, and then climbed without looking down. As I reached the top, Tom laughed.

“There’s nowhere to run,” he called out. “I’m not sure you want to be up there anyway, we’re keeping a few, uh, meals up there.”

I observed the boxes I hid behind. They were more like coffins. The one next to me had a name on it: Joe Herrick. Another said: David Peyton. As I turned my attention to the others I recognized a few more names. Shareholder names.

“They should have read the fine print!” Tom laughed and the others laughed with him. I wanted to burst into tears, but if I were to succumb to my emotions, I would not leave the warehouse alive, or at least, not human.

“The contract they signed also signed over their blood to us. They are no longer human, nor are they vampires. Once you sign a contract like the one they signed, you become a zombie. There are ways of making people sign those. You don’t want that to happen to you, do you? They will spend the rest of their existence doing our bidding and providing us with blood. That’s not what I want from you. I want you to be a full-blooded vampire, but if you’re going to be difficult, I’ll hand you the same fate we handed them.”

I bit back tears. There was no way out. I was trapped and the future I’d been so sure of before disappeared. Now it was either eat or be eaten.

“Come down here now and stop this foolishness. I could easily come up, but things might get . . . violent. I’ll overlook the fact that you stabbed me if you come down on your own.”

I was scared and I didn’t know what to do. The ladder I came up was the only way up or down besides the hydraulic lift that was no help sitting in the down position.

“Please, don’t do this to me. I can’t be like you. I’m not cut out for it.”

There was a long silence and then Tom spoke. “I can change your mind. I know it seems scary, but I’ll make you a deal. I’ll wait three days to change you if you promise to keep an open mind. If you give me three days, you’ll see that you could have everything you ever dreamed about. You will stay with me at all times and see what your life could be like. I’m sure after the first day you’ll be begging me to change you.”

It was likely a trick, but I had no choice. Maybe I bought myself some time. I obviously couldn’t trust Tom anymore, but there was no way out of this warehouse full of vampires. How could I be sure he’d keep his word? I went over to the ladder and looked down at him.

“Come. You don’t want me to come up there and get you. There’s no escape.”

I sighed and turned around. The ladder rungs felt cold on my hands as I eased down them. Tears came to my eyes.

Before I reached the last few rungs an arm wrapped around my waist. It was Tom. I struggled against his hold, but it was no use. His strength was no match for me.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he whispered into my ear then set me down.

“Put a wristband on her,” he said as he held out my wrist to one of the men. This man—vampire—was different than the others. I saw him in the Herrick-Peyton building before and he wasn’t one of the visiting vampires. His eyes were bright green—just like the secretary. I tried to resist him putting on the wristband, but he locked it onto me anyway.

“This device is a handy little thing.” Tom said. “Here’s the simple version. If you wander too far from me, it will start to beep. If it beeps ten times the device will deliver a dose of my venom into your system and you will be changed whether you want to or not. I prefer you to be compliant because, well, I do still like you, even though you stabbed me. Not to mention, I want to be the one to change you. Your blood taunted me through your wrist and your neck the other night. It’s a wonder I didn’t change you then.”

I cringed at the reminder that I actually made out with this monster. I glanced at his chest where the stab wound should be. There was no blood. Just a hole in his shirt and no wound. The rules were different in real life than they were in the movies. The knife my mother gave me was broken in pieces on the floor. I touched the wristband.

“If you try to tamper with that wristband, it will inject you,” Tom said with a smile. I turned my head away and crossed my arms. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I didn’t know it could be possible. One thing I knew beyond a doubt, I had to get away, and I had less than three days to do so.

Tom grabbed my arm and brought me toward the door of the warehouse. The other vampires followed.

“We’ll meet here again tomorrow,” he said as we stopped at the door and the others filed out. Some of them said good-byes and some did not. I watched them pass by as they looked at me as though I were something to eat.

After they left, Tom turned to me and said, “Don’t worry about them. They won’t hurt you. I already formally claimed you as my prospect, and vampire law forbids them to bite you or drink your blood. Also, I told them about you and they want you to be one of us almost as badly as I do.”

“That’s comforting,” I said. My voice was thick with sarcasm and hatred. He kept my arm in his grasp and it tightened when the words hit him.

“Don’t act this way, my little dove, you are only making things worse with such an attitude,” he said as he touched my cheek with his fingertips. I flinched away and he released my arm.

“Forgive me if I don’t want to be a blood-sucking monster.”

“You’re just nervous. Don’t worry. Only the initial bite hurts. You’ll see soon enough that this life is a grand life. Now, we are going to your house so you can gather some things and then we’ll go to my place. Please, don’t fight me on this. What I say goes right now, but once you’re one of my equals, you’ll be able to make your own decisions and go where you please.”

“Why not leave me human? You say you have feelings for me. What if you let me stay human to make me happy?”

“I can’t do that. If you stayed human would you stay with me? Even if you did, vampire law forbids a human who knows about us to stay human for long. Eventually, they’d force you to become a vampire or die. I care about you too much to let that happen. I’d much rather have you for an eternity.”

I couldn’t believe what he just said. He was talking about an eternity and I barely even knew him. I didn’t want this. I wanted to go back and decline his offer to take me on a date. I’d let my guard down, and now I couldn’t find a way out of this mound of trouble.

A monster named Tom and his pet named Ava. The horrible thought sent shivers down my spine.

“What if I don’t want you for an eternity?” I asked. I put my hand over my mouth as soon as the words escaped. I waited for his reaction. He walked toward me but stopped short. An emotion flickered on his face, possibly sadness, but most likely anger.

It was gone as quickly as it had shown, and he simply stared me straight in the eye and said, “Then I guess your life will be shorter than expected.”

He grabbed my arm and walked us out of the warehouse. His car waited there. Tom opened the door and put me inside before he slammed the door. The tears were coming on again, and I tried to fight them but I lost before he even got to his door. Tom got in the car then turned his gaze on me at me.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you. Please, don’t cry. This is how it has to be, we can’t risk you running and telling the world what we are planning. It is crucial that our kind remain a secret for now.”

“I won’t tell anyone, I swear,” I said through my sobs, “Just let me go.”

“I can’t do that, and I will not argue with you over this matter. You will be one of us, or you will die at the hands of my associates.”

“But you said that they couldn’t hurt me.”

“They can if I renounce my claim. I’ll be forced to if you chose not to allow me to change you,” he said harshly.

“I can’t believe you are trying to force me to be with you. Don’t you have any respect for my wishes?”

“I know you had feelings for me before I told you my secret, can’t you put that aside and let me show you my way of life. Please give me a chance. Vampires starve to keep our existence a secret. We’ve only been feeding when we need it. Now that we control something that humans want, we can procure enough blood to let us thrive.”

“Why not just go out on a killing spree? Why even set up a system like this?” I asked.

“If we are let loose on the population, we will kill every last food source. However, if we work with the humans and get them to donate blood, we will keep ourselves fed and keep the human race alive and subordinate.”

“How can you do this? I thought you were someone else.”

“Ava, I’m trying to survive. I was changed against my will. They wanted me to be one of them because I have tremendous leadership skills. I want you to survive too, but I don’t want your blood being drawn and distributed as if you were a dairy cow. I can’t stand the thought of anyone else drinking your blood. I’m trying to protect you. Don’t you understand that?”