Page 127 of Blood Lovers

“Obscurati?”

Lucia smiles. “Everyone has a boss, darling. Even us.” She waves a hand in the air. “But they are beside the point. Maybe one day, if we’re very lucky, we will have the luxury to worry about them. But right now, we’re so far away from that day, they don’t matter. What matters now is that Josep is your actual creator.”

“What? I come from a vampire?”

“Not quite. He’s the scientist who made you from a lineage that started with me and…” She pauses, turning her head to side-eye me. “The Darkness, of course.”

I’m so confused.

And she sees this, because she laughs as she takes a seat on the bed next to me. “Would you like to hear the story?”

And now I’m just annoyed. “Ya know, for someone who says we’re in a hurry you sure are taking your fucking time getting to the point.”

She just chuckles, then gets up, closes the tube that’s collecting my blood, removes the full bag of now-lavender liquid, and places it in a chest of ice near the door that is disguised to look like a wooden box.

Then she grabs a fresh bag, hooks me back up, slaps my wrist to get things flowing again, and then sits back down.

My vision is starting to blur and when I turn my head to watch the Black blood collect, I get dizzy.

“Let’s get to the point then, shall we? You, dear Syrsee, are the one Paul has been waiting for. After much trial and error—and the death of every scion he’s ever made—he, and Josep have made Ryet. But we learned a long time ago—almost eighty years, actually—that in order to bring the scion to maturation he would need a genetically engineered… well, you.”

“A feeder,” I say. My voice is low and weak and I realize that she has already taken a lot of blood and it’s still flowing at a pretty good rate.

“Witch is a better word. Black witch is more precise.”

And even though I already know that the Guild sold me out, this is when it finally solidifies and becomes real. And along with that comes the realization that they made me. For this. To bleed me, and use me, and again—even though I already kind of knew this—it hits me hard that I am just a… a… an outcome. A result. A product of some grand plan.

That I do not matter. Not as a person, anyway. Paul is not infatuated with me. He’s not in love with me. He’s simply using me to get Ryet through some… biological process.

“You are Paul’s saving grace. You are the key to his door back into the Obscurati. They banished him for crimes against the bloodlines. That’s why we’re here. He was thrown out. But as he is an eternal being, nothing is forever, is it? And that’s why they let me come. And let Josep come. Because even though they knew they were giving Paul so little, they also knew he would find a way through it. And when he did that, he would be worthy of coming home. Ryet will be Paul’s very first child. In a sense, of course. In the same way that you are Josep’s child, or my child. Which is to say none of us are related except that we all come from the Darkness.”

The second bag is filling faster than the first and I realize it’s because my heart is beating so quick from an adrenaline rush that I’m actually speeding up the process.

“And when Ryet matures a new clan will be born. Amerigo nosferatu. Or, in English, the American Vampires. From one, two. From two, many. And Paul, when this happens, will be unstoppable. You are the one he’s been waiting for.”

I can’t even think straight. All these words are just running together for me. And I realize it’s because the second bag is full now and Lucia is putting it inside the ice chest, then hooking up another. I can’t even focus as I watch a third stream of blood race through the end of the tube and drip into the bag.

The next time she speaks, I hear something I’ve heard before. “But dear Syrsee—dear, dear Syrsee—you are also the nightmare I’ve been waiting for.”

Just as that last word leaves her lips my world goes black.

And then… purple. Lavender. Present time. Here and now. And I find that I am standing in the middle of the room watching my lifeless body being bled out into a bag.

Lucia turns to face the dreamwalk me, smiling. “Now that my duty has been done, let’s have a real chat, shall we?” She walks towards me, hooks her arm into mine, and then, the next thing I know, we’re outside in the blowing snow.

It’s dark. And it’s the present. And I’m not quite sure how much time has passed since I was brought up into that room, but it has obviously been hours.

“What are we doing?” My voice is strong again, but that’s just because I’m a spirit now. Not human at all. Not even real.

“We’re going to have a little walk and I’m going to tell you a story.”

“Well, I guess there’s no rush, is there? I thought you were getting to the point?”

Lucia simply chuckles and starts to walk, taking me with her since we are still locked by the arms. “Have you ever heard of the ‘aquis equī?’”

“What? No. Should I have?”

“Perhaps. I don’t have any idea what the Guild has been telling you all these years. If you knew the story I would cut to the chase. But since you don’t, we must start at the beginning.”