Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 24

Lucca

In the days that followed Loughlin Vale, our world changed shape again. I was only aware of this from a distance, taking little interest in it. Sunil and Layrr were taken to the Capital for trial and I was informed that the Council had met for another vote on its new structure. My name was put forward for Tempesto’s seat and I was unanimously selected.

Dominic travelled all the way to Castle Grey to inform me that I had been appointed Third Councilor. It was a highly prestigious position, I would be among the foremost leaders, with real power and resources to back up our decisions. Changes I had been dreaming of making for years, would finally not be an issue.

But all of this felt unimportant.

Not while Izzy was on the cusp of death.

She had returned from the last fight in a feverish daze and this had only worsened in the night that followed. Her temperature was too high, she was delirious and confused and none of the medicines administered seem to work. I flew in doctors from the Capital who did their best but it seemed that there was little they could do. When Layrr had attacked her at the swimming pool, he had stabbed her with his rapier, laced with deadly toxins and she was fighting those toxins. The only thing that could help her now, was more of my blood, or of my kind but it would turn her into one of us.

Apart from me, her most constant companion was Elisha, Robbie’s sister. The girl was quaint and a bit odd, with huge eyes and wispy blonde hair, but like her brother, she appeared to have special powers, in her case it was healing. She brought Izzy broth to drink and wet cloths and stayed with her through the night.

One evening, as I came to look in on Izzy, I overheard them talking.

“My brother was here,” I heard Izzy say in a shaking voice. “He was angry, he said I’d taken his toy. I said I would never and he accused me of lying. He said I was always lying, breaking promises,” her voice broke, I could hear she was close to tears.

“It wasn’t really him,” said Elisha in a soothing voice. “It was the poison talking. It is taking over your blood, feeding you darkness,” she said.

“I feel so weak,” Izzy’s voice was shaking. “I have never felt like this before.”

“You need to fight it,” said Elisha. “Or it will defeat you.”

“I don’t think I can,” Izzy whispered. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”

There was silence then and when I came in, I saw that Izzy had fallen asleep again.

“I thought she was better this morning,” said Elisha, before going down to fetch more water.

I sat down next to Izzy and took her hand. She felt cold to the touch, like she was dying already. Her eyelids fluttered open.

“You’re here,” she said, a faint smile on her lips.

“I won’t go away until you are healthy again,” I said.

“And if I don’t recover?”

I didn’t want to think about that. “You will, you just need to rest.”

She gripped my hand. “You don’t believe that, not really.”

“I need you, Izzy,” I said. “I don’t know if I can face what is coming without you.”

“You are the king, Lucca, of course you can.”

“No,” I said, and I knew it was true. “I don’t care about all that. All I care about is you getting better, you being here with me. I will hand the business over to Ragnar and we can move to a place outside the Capital, get a little farm, grow orchids whatever.”

“Leave the castle?” she asked. “Grow orchids?!” She laughed and started coughing.

“We can build a new castle,” I said. “One for us. Where you will be happy and safe. I don’t care about anything else, Izzy, just you getting better. I love you.”

She smiled at me, tears in her eyes. “I love you too.”

“I want us to be together, to start this new chapter together.”

“Then give me your blood,” she said.

I was quiet for a moment. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I have so much of it in me already. And it was something my mother always said. About change and being open to change. To be open to death, is to be open to life. Growing is about cutting off what is dead to encourage life. You will be giving me new life.”

She paused. “Without it, I will die. I feel it all around me. When I close my eyes, it comes for me, stealing the sweetness from everything. I am not ready to go, though. I knew something new was waiting for me somewhere, but I didn’t know where. This is it. This is my next chapter. Helping you make the world a safer place.”

“Isn’t that the Guard motto?”

Izzy laughed, “Yes! So maybe I’m not changing that much after all!”

It was so good to hear her laugh again.

“Do it,” she said, her voice serious, determined. “Do it now.”

I lay down next to her and took her in my arms. I was shocked to feel her bones and see how much weight she’d lost over the past few days. Her frame was almost skeletal. She did not have much life left in her. The poison was eating away at her. I could feel my anger at Layrr rising again and had to push it away. There was no place for anger now.

This was Izzy’s gift to me. Love and forgiveness, a way to move forward and not live in the past anymore.

I had to feed her quite a lot of my blood. Then, we had to wait and see how strong Layrr’s poison was and if my blood could fight off the dark magic. Her body would die but her spirit would live. This could bring on more fever and illness. I hoped she was strong enough.

It was a long night.

Elisha sat at Izzy’s bedside with me.

She told me how happy she was at the castle, how grateful she was to be given this chance at a new life with Robbie. She had started a school for some of the refugee children. I thought that when we rebuilt Ginnerlong, there would be a place for her there. The city had been flattened by a nuclear strike in an attempt to kill the Servant and his demons. A fair amount of vampires and some mortals were killed as well. There were no guarantees that the Servant had perished though. A part of me feared that he had slipped into the spirit world to survive and would surface again another day.

In the darkest part of the night, I wondered about Layrr and where I had gone wrong with him, I blamed myself for not seeing his unhappiness. I had been a bad father and I had been a bad husband to Tanata, not being there when she was attacked.

How could I counsel others when I couldn’t even look after my own family? All that grandstanding about family and legacy? It had been about show and pride. I got up, needing to get some air. I saw that Elisha had fallen asleep and thought how innocent she looked.

As I was about to leave the room, Izzy opened her eyes. “Lucca?”

I turned and saw her looking at me, her eyes clear, the fever gone.

I went to her, asked anxiously. “How do you feel?”

She smiled. “Wonderful, I feel wonderful.”

She looked much better, there was a glow to her that showed she had beaten the poison. She pushed down the bedsheets and we saw that the bleeding had stopped. She lifted the bandages and exclaimed, “Look! The wound is healing!”

I could see that this was indeed the case.

“You have saved me, again!” She threw her arms around me and I marveled at the strength in them.

“No,” I said. “It may sound cheesy but it was you who saved me. With you, I see hope for the future.”

She smiled tenderly at me, “Then, we have saved each other.”

I kissed her sweet lips and she kissed me back, passionately. Our kiss deepened and I found myself holding her tightly, never wanting to let her go. There was fire in the kiss and it stirred emotions in me that I didn’t realize I had. We made love tenderly, consummating our love. She moaned and I stopped moving.

“You okay?” I asked, worried that I was hurting her.

“Oh, God, don’t stop, please don’t stop,” she said, laughingly pulling me deeper into her and crying out as she climaxed. For us, time would never be an issue again, we would be bound together for all time now. It was time to make an honest queen of her.

I faced her and said, “Izzy Bonnici, bounty hunter and former vampire hater, will you do me the honor of marrying me, becoming my wife?”

She blinked and smiled. “Yes, Lucca Fallon D’Valleira, vampire king and closet romantic, I will. But first, I think, you will have to close that window, it feels like daylight is coming.”

She wasn’t strong enough for daylight yet.

I got up to close the shutters and saw the sun rise in the east, sending bright light into the valley.

A new day was breaking for us and I went towards it, happily.