Shaking, I peered over the bed to find my love standing calmly at the window, staring at the night. "It's beautiful," he said softly, and my heart broke to hear his familiar voice coming from the mouth of a stranger. He was dead. Kisten was an undead. "I can see everything, hear everything. Even the mosquitoes over the water," he added in wonder, and he turned.
My chest clenched at the familiar smile, but the eyes behind it had lost something. If he could hear mosquitoes, then he had heard me scream and had done nothing. His blue eyes were without recognition, a confused, beautiful angel. He didn't know me.
And my tears wouldn't stop.
The vampire who had killed him had an irate expression, almost bothered. "You need to leave," he said brusquely. "You're worthless now. Used up. Get out."
One by one the tears fell, and I stood, not expecting any help from Kisten.
"I know you," Kisten said suddenly, and his eyes lit with remembrance. My bruised hands clasped at my chest, and I closed my eyes, weeping. They flashed open when his soft touch on my chin came too soon for him to have crossed the room, but there he was, his head cocked as he puzzled it through.
"I loved you," he said, with the wonder of the sun's first rising, and I caught back a sob.
"I love you, too," I whispered, dying inside. Ivy was right. This was hell.
"Piscary," Kisten said, confused. "He told me to kill you, but I didn't." He smiled, and my soul was crushed to nothing by the familiar twinkle. "In hindsight, that might have been a stupid thing to do, but it felt right at the time." He took my other hand and frowned at my swollen fingers. "I don't want you to hurt, but I don't remember why."
It took me three times before I could make the words come out. "You're dead," I said softly. "That's why you don't remember."
Kisten frowned, confused. "It makes a difference?"
My head hurt. It was a nightmare. A freaking nightmare. "It shouldn't," I whispered.
"I don't remember dying," he said, then let me go and turned to the vampire who had killed him. "Do I know you?" he asked, and the vampire smiled.
"No. You need to leave. She's mine, and I'm not sharing. Your blood needs are not my problem. Go take a long walk in a short shadow."
Again Kisten frowned, puzzling it through. "No," he finally said. "I love her, even if I don't remember why. I won't let you touch her. She doesn't like you."
I held my breath as I realized what was going to happen. Shit. I was going to be bound either to Kisten or to his killer. My fear coloring the air, I started backing up.
"She'll adore me in a few moments," the vampire said with a low growl. He dropped his head to eye Kisten from under his brows, and his hair swung forward. Kisten hunched, mimicking him, turning into an animal on two legs. The beauty and allure were gone. It was pure savagery, and I was the prize.
The vampire silently jumped at Kisten, shifting at the last moment to lunge over his head. He was headed right for me. Eyes wide, I ducked, swearing when his fist smacked my shoulder and sent me spinning into the wall. My head hit, and I struggled to focus.
I started to slide down the wall, but propped my feet against the carpet and locked my knees. I wouldn't go down. If I did, I might never get up. I watched, riveted, as the two fought. Kisten was not as fast, but he was ferocious. Barroom brawls had given him dirty fighting techniques that kept him moving and upright as the attacking vampire struck hard enough to break bones. Each block and punch did damage that the vampire virus mended.
"Get out, Rachel," Kisten said calmly when he finally got the vampire pinned in a corner.
Crying, I went for my bag instead. I had charms in there. My numb hand fumbled for something to save Kisten, to save myself. Seeing what I was doing, the attacking vampire took a hit and lunged at me. Terrified, I dropped the bag. I had the bottle of sticky silk in my hand from when I had pasted Jenks to my bathroom mirror so he wouldn't follow me.
I dodged out of the way and sprayed the vampire. The man screamed in shock as it hit him squarely in the eyes, but he was between me and the door again. I tried to edge by, and his arm flashed out, flinging me into the dresser. My gut landed squarely on the edge, and my momentum flung my head into the mirror. Pulse hammering, I spun, going stock-still when I saw Kisten in the other vampire's grip, his arm around Kisten's throat in what could easily become a neck-snapping grip. Fear took me again.
"Come here or he dies again," the vampire said to me, and I obediently took a step forward. Kisten had only one life left.
Kisten's eyes were wide. "You love me," he said, and I nodded, wiping the tears from my eyes so I could see.
The vampire smiled, long and toothy, as he held Kisten close, like a lover. "It would have been so distracting to take your last blood," he said into Kisten's ear, lips brushing the hair that I had once run my fingers through. "The only thing I'd have enjoyed more would be to take Ivy's, that bitch, but I can't have her," he snarled, jerking Kisten so his feet were on tiptoe for an instant. "She's Piscary's fucking queen. But this will hurt. I owe her some pain for the years I spent in prison, living off scraps and discarded shadows who bleed for anyone. Killing you is a good start. Making a puppet out of her roommate is better, and when she's a whining bitch with dead eyes and no soul, I'll move on to Ivy's sister, and then every last person she ever loved."
Kisten became frightened, the emotion crossing death, where love couldn't. "Leave Ivy alone," he demanded.
Kisten's killer's lips brushed his hair. "You're so young. I remember loving someone. But they died, and now all I have is the purity of nothing. My God, you're still warm."
Kisten looked at me, and from somewhere, more tears welled forth. We were all so very lost. It shouldn't end like this.
"So take my blood instead of hers," Kisten said, and the other vampire laughed.
"Right," he said sarcastically, and shoved Kisten away like the poison his blood now was to him.
Kisten gathered himself. "No," he said softly, in a voice I had heard only once before, on a cold snowy night when he'd fought off six black witches. "I insist."
He jumped at the vampire. The man stumbled, arms raised and almost helpless from the shock of the attack. Kisten's fangs flashed, still short for an undead, but they were enough.
"No!" the vampire screamed, and Kisten's teeth sank into his neck. I stared, pressed into the wide windows as Kisten's killer jammed a palm into Kisten's chin. I heard a sickening snap, and Kisten fell.
He hit the floor, convulsing before he even found the carpet. The other vampire clutched his neck and stomach as he staggered to the door. I heard him stumble down the hall, fleeing as he fell into dry heaves. The boat rocked, and I heard a splash.
"Kisten!" I dropped down beside him, dragging his head up into my lap. The convulsions slowed, and I wiped his face with my hands. His mouth was red with blood, but it wasn't his, it was his killer's, and now they both would die. Nothing could save him. The undead couldn't feed upon each other. The virus attacked itself, and both would die.
"Kisten, no," I sobbed. "Don't do this to me! Kisten, you sweet idiot, look at me!"
His eyes opened, and I stared, breathless, into their precious blue depths. The haze of death quavered, and cleared. My chest clenched as I saw a moment of lucidity return to him, as he teetered on his final, true death.
"Don't cry," he said, his hand touching my cheek as he looked up, and it was Kisten. He was himself, and he remembered why he loved. "I'm sorry. I'm going to die, and so will that fucking bastard if I got enough of my saliva into him. He won't be able to harm you or Ivy."
Ivy. This was going to destroy her. "Kisten, please don't leave me," I said, my tears spotting his face. His hand fell from my cheek, and I grabbed it, holding it to me.
"I'm glad you're here," he said, his eyes closing as he took a breath. "I didn't mean to make you cry."
"You should have left with me, you dummy," I sobbed. His skin was hot to the touch, and he convulsed once and took a rasping breath. I couldn't stop it. He was dying in my arms, and I couldn't stop it.
"Yeah," he whispered, his finger twitching against my jaw where I held it. "Sorry."
"Kisten, please don't leave me," I begged, and his eyes opened.
"I'm cold," he said, fear rising in his blue eyes.
I held him tighter. "I'm holding you. It's going to be okay."
"Tell Ivy," he said with a gasp, clenching in on himself. "Tell Ivy that it wasn't her fault. And tell her that at the end...you remember love. I don't think...we lose our souls...at all. I think God keeps them for us until we...come home. I love you, Rachel."
"I love you, too, Kisten," I sobbed, and as I watched, his eyes, memorizing my face, silvered, and he died.