Carefully, she opened her eyes, expecting more uncomfortable lighting to sear through her skull. It didn’t.
Right away she could tell she was in a living room and that it was dark, but there must have been some measure of light coming from somewhere because she could see just fine. She reached up, touched her head gingerly, and didn’t feel anything but some residual sticky blood.
Then she wiggled her toes, expecting excruciating pain to jolt through her broken leg and found there wasn’t even any discomfort. Her leg was fine.
“What the hell?” she muttered, glancing around at the furniture covered with white sheets and determined that something was definitely wrong. Then her eyes caught sight of a giant hole in the floor not five feet away from her and her brows shot up in surprise.
A second later, none other than Anatoly hopped out of the hole as though it were nothing. Maggie’s heart should have skipped a beat, but she realized it wasn’t beating. She wasn’t breathing either and yet here she sat, alive and well.
“Maggie, you are awake!” Anatoly rushed to her, kneeling at her side.
He slipped an arm around her shoulders, trying to steady her, but Maggie found she was fine. Still, she didn’t push him away and instead leaned into his embrace, feeling more than a little relieved that he was here.
“What the hell happened?” she asked him, wondering if he had done something to fix her up when she was unconscious. “The last thing I remember was this asshole forcing his blood down my throat and then…”
Anatoly stiffened and she trailed off.
“He gave you vampire blood?” he rasped, alarm evident in his tone, though she was sure he was trying to hide it. “Tell me everything.”
It took her a couple seconds to shake loose the cobwebs in her mind, but Maggie relayed everything about her captivity that she could remember. When she was done, Anatoly was far too quiet, and she asked, “What is it? What did he do to me? I feel… strange.”
At first all he did was shake his head, his expression unreadable for a moment. Then she realized the emotion there was just not one she was used to seeing from him; he was angry. His gray eyes were dark and unfathomable like a lake beneath several feet of ice and his jaw popped incessantly beneath his beard.
“What is it? Tell me, I’m a big girl, I can take a little bad news,” she insisted, not wanting to let her mind wander to the possibilities. She wanted him to be the one to confirm or deny her worst fears.
“Maggie, izvinite…” He searched her face, the hard lines slowly melting away to reveal the guilt and sorrow radiating off him in overwhelming waves. “You are vampire now… I did not come fast enough,” he added in despair.
Maggie sat there in stunned silence. That wasn’t what she wanted him to say. She’d thought at worst her attacker had used some sort of funky vampire trick to heal her, but turning her into a vampire? “Why? I thought he was killing me…”
Anatoly shook his head, squeezing her hand in his. She found he wasn’t so cold anymore, or maybe it was because she wasn’t warm anymore.
“Well, okay, but it’s not so bad. My leg is fine at least.” She tried to look on the bright side.
Anatoly turned a sad look to her, and she saw how much this bothered him, but she couldn’t figure out why. “Your soul is damned, Maggie. Like mine. You will soon feel need for blood…”
“I’m definitely hungry,” she admitted, but nothing that came to mind sounded good. Not even the delicious dishes Anatoly had made for her not so long ago. “Are you sure about this? Is there some way to reverse it?”
“Nyet,” he answered, his voice breaking on the word. “Izvinite, I should have acted sooner. Izvinite,” he repeated the word over and over as tears shimmered in his eyes. “I failed to protect you.”
Maggie pulled from him, frowning ever so slightly. “I’m not dead, Anatoly. I’m just… undead? Maybe this is for the better. Imagine what we can accomplish together as vampires…”
“I did not want this for you, Maggie.” The words were forced out in a strained bark. It was the first time he had ever snapped at her and right away she could see he too was taken aback.
After a pause, he went on more gently. “I wanted you to live long life and for soul to go to heaven. Now you are damned and when true death comes, I cannot say what will happen to soul…” He leaned close, resting his forehead to her temple and let out a ragged sigh. “Everett Reed took choice away and for that I grieve…”
She began to understand, but she wasn’t sure she agreed entirely. “I would have liked to have chosen this as well, but I’d rather be a vampire than laying here crippled after what he did to me.” A lump formed in her throat, and she quickly swallowed against it.
“I was helpless, Anatoly, frightened. Nothing I did to him mattered…” Her voice broke and she tightened her arms around him before pressing on. “If being a vampire means never being helpless again, then so be it. I won’t mourn a soul that was probably already damned.”
“Nyet, soul was pure and good,” he breathed in her ear.
“I can still be and do good. Just like you. Except now we never have to say goodbye…” She gripped his hand tighter, willing him to see the upside. She supposed he would in time, but until then she didn’t want him to beat himself up.
That he was here at all meant the world to her. “I’m glad you came for me.”
He kissed her cheek and pulled back, fixing her with an intense stare. “Always,” he rumbled, emotion thick in his voice.
Maggie leaned in and kissed his mouth, letting him feel her love and relief. She was sort of alive and they were together. That was all that mattered to her. The rest they could sort out later.
