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FATAL
RETRIBUTION
A RAINA KIRKLAND NOVEL
Book 1
By Diana Graves
Copyright © 2011 Diana Graves
All rights reserved.
Book cover & format by Diana Graves, www.dianagraves.org
Kindle Edition
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License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Disclaimer
This book is a work of pure fiction. Characters, places and incidents are creations of the author’s imagination, and any similarity to people, living or dead, businesses, events or places is purely coincidental.
Acknowledges
To my family and friends, thank you.
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OTHER WORKS
Fatal Retribution
Mortal Sentry
Grave Omen
Deadly Encounters
Toxic Warrior
The Artist: The Serial Series Book 1
The Librarian: The Serial Series Book 2
The Zombie Book: Zombie Book 1
Adult Coloring Book: Dark Whimsy
CHAPTER 5
I HAD NEVER been in a VCC before, not many people have. Darkness’s VCC was underground, and a large elevator took us there. It was completely sterile white, with parts of the room sectioned off with glass walls. Those areas were full of complicated equipment and nifty beds that looked like they moved up and down at the touch of a button. Outside the glass walls, there was a sitting area. It consisted of a few powder blue chairs, a matching sofa, and a coffee table. Not too far from the elevator was what looked like a kitchen, just replace the stove with a couple gurneys. There was a fridge, a microwave, a large sink and stainless steel cabinets. The lights were dim and the air smelled of bleach and lemons.
“He’s turning so fast. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said our doctor, Tasha. “We’re going to need at least six liters of fresh blood, type doesn’t matter,” she said to a nurse named, Gerardo. She and Gerardo were inside one of the glass rooms with Michael strapped to a bed that was at a forty-five-degree angle to keep him from choking on his own blood. Both Tasha and Gerardo wore white biohazard suits as they worked around him. Tristan, Katie and I stood outside of the glass room and watched.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Ruy and Ranger had taken Nick’s body somewhere else first. Ranger ordered a uniformed officer to watch me. He stood silent by the elevator, like a statue. His face was open with high cheekbones and dark almond-shaped eyes. His Native American heritage was both obvious and beautiful. His hair was thick and long chestnut brown and his face and arms were tattooed with tribal designs.
“This turn is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.” The doctor looked down at Michael, and though I couldn’t see her face from this angle, her voice told me I would have seen pity in her eyes.
Michael looked small and weak lying on the bed, struggling against his restraints. His skin had paled to the point of near translucency.
“Why is this happening to me?!” he screamed
Tasha looked at each of us in turn and yes, there was sympathy in her solid brown eyes.
“You’re infected?” she asked me.
“Yes,” I said. “I think so.”
“Put on a lab coat. It can get messy,” Tasha said.
“But, we’re on this side of the glass,” whined Katie. Tasha just gave her a look. It was a platinum mom look.
“I was talking to your sister. Your brother needs to be comforted, and she’s already infected so—.” She didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she turned back to me. “The coats are in the cabinets by the fridge. If you want to keep your clothes clean you’ll want the coat.”
I looked down at my clothes already caked in blood and ash and shrugged my shoulders. I guess it wouldn’t do to add to it.
Soon I stood over Michael, almost completely covered by the large coat.
“Raina?”
“I’m here,” I said. Sweat was dripping from his hairline. I brushed my thumb over his brow to catch a drop before it landed in his eye, but I took my hand back with a quick jerk.
“You’re so hot!” I turned back to the doctor, who was grabbing a damp cloth from the small sink. “He’s burning up.” She nodded and handed me the rag.
“Comfort him, he needs it,” Gerardo said, and he and the doctor stepped back to give us room. I looked to Tristan and Katie on the other side of the glass, but I only found Tristan still standing there, leaning against the glass. He looked lost.
“Raina,” Michael said, bringing my attention back to him. He licked his pale, almost blue lips. “I don’t want to die.” I had to swallow deep to hold back the tears and bite my bottom lip when that didn’t work.
“Your body is dying, Michael, but you won’t stay dead. You’ll be a vampire,” I whispered it to him and I tried to make it sound like a great thing. “You’ll be super strong and fast and—.”
“Soulless,” he whispered to me with wide eyes.
I brushed his wet sandy-brown hair out of his face. “No, that’s just silly.” But I couldn’t think of anything better than that to say.
“My mom won’t love me.” That was it. I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer and they streamed down my cheeks. I knew his mother and I knew he was right. She was a hateful bitch. It would be just like her to abandon her only son because he wasn’t human enough for her.
“Our dad will—,” I began.
“No! He won’t want me either. He’ll disown me like he did Nick. I won’t have a mom or a dad anymore.”
“You’ll have me,” I assured him, “and Tristan and Katie.”
“Katie?”
I looked out to see if she’d returned. She was his full-blooded sister, and her words would mean more to him than mine. But I didn’t see her. I turned back to Michael and I didn’t know what to say, but I didn’t have to say anything. Tristan tapped on the glass to get our attention.
“Michael,” Tristan said through the glass. “What does it feel like?”
Michael licked his lips again but he didn’t wet them with saliva this time, he made them thick with bright red blood. “It feels like—everything hurts, especially my head.”
“Some areas of your brain are shutting down and others are becoming available. Your brain is rewiring itself to accommodate the virus,” Doc said. “Most vampires are dead during this process.”
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
“Can’t you give him something for the pain?” Tristan pleaded.
“I can sedate him but not at this time. He first has to purge almost all the blood from his system, then we feed him fresh blood, and then we can give him a very strong sedative.”
“Why in that order?” I asked.
“Becoming a vampire is a process. If I give him a sedative now, even a small one, it could seriously damage him. It could even kill him permanently. After the purging, we know the virus has taken hold and giving him a sedative won’t damage anything.”
“I didn’t realize it was so complicated,” Tristan said.
“People call vampires the walking dead, and yes, by our definition of death they are dead. But it’s more like the body simply adjusts to the presence of the virus. The virus completely alters the human condition.”
“So that people burn in sunlight?” I asked.
“The virus literally exists in every single cell of a vampire’s body and yes it burns in the sun. It’s light sensitive. Most vampires are even uncomfortable in brightly lit rooms.”
“Can we speed this up?” Michael asked.
“I’m sorry, I can’t. But, you’re lucky. Your turn is happening so fast. You could purge at any moment, one minute from now or fifteen.”
“I’m scared,” Michael said.
“I’ll be here the whole time. I won’t leave your side,” Tristan said from beyond the glass wall.
“We won’t abandon you,” I said. I combed his hair with my fingers. He pushed his head against my hand, a vaguely catlike gesture and started to say something, but he never got the words out. He began to shake like he was having a seizure.
“Michael!” I screamed. “What’s happening?!”
“It’s the purge!” Tasha shouted. “Get out of the way.” I backed away from the bed, but not far. “The final stage of turning is the purging of blood before death!” Tasha yelled. “Don’t be afraid for him.”
Michael was shaking uncontrollably, biting his own lips. Blood was running down his jaw. She shouted for Gerardo to bring her all sorts of things and he ran to the fridge and grabbed a metal tray with syringes and vials.
“God damn it,” she said, wiping the blood from Michael's face.
I backed away until the thick glass wall was hard against my back.
Tristan knocked on the glass. “Help him!” he yelled at me.
I shrugged helplessly. “There isn’t anything I can do for him.”
He looked down at me and the pain in his eyes broke my heart. He felt responsible for what was happening. Camping had been his idea, he’s the oldest, he let Michael come along, and now Mike was dying, turning into something not human. It was all there in his eyes and I had to look away.
“Tristan, this isn’t your fault.”
I looked back at Michael. Blood was flowing out of his mouth and gargling around his screams. Gerardo got in my line of vision and blood erupted from behind him. The room was painted thick with candy apple red blood. Gerardo had blocked most of the blood from hitting me, but I got my share of the spray. Michael’s screams stopped abruptly.
“I need blood, Gerardo, stat!” screamed Tasha.
Gerardo’s sympathetic eyes were the last thing I saw before I slid to the floor, wrapped my arms around my knees and cried with my eyes shut tight. My cries were loud in the new silence, but I didn’t care.
“Raina,” Tristan said gently. “Come out of there.”
I nodded, and made my way to the door, leaning against the glass for support. It was slick with blood. When I was out he helped me out of the coat, careful not to touch the blood. I felt weak and suddenly so tired, and I leaned on the glass wall again, but this side was dry. I looked down the length of my body and watched the blood drip from my hair.
Tristan let out a shaky sigh. “I want to fix this, but I can’t see how I can fix it, Raina. My mind is running a mile a minute. How can I just stand here? That should be me in there!” He looked at me with hopelessness eating at his heart and mind. He needed me. I swallowed my pain, buried it as deep as I could manage. It wouldn’t stay buried. Later it would hit me hard, maybe harder than if I’d let myself let it out then. But my big brother needed me to be calm and sympathetic.
“Tristan,” I said. “Michael will pull through this. Vampirism won’t change who he is or his love for you.” They were weak words, but it was the best I could think of. Tristan joined me in leaning against the wall, but we didn’t touch each other. We stared down at the floor in silence.
A few minutes later Tasha and Gerardo came out of the room positively drenched in the brightest blood.
“Michael died but he’s back,” Tasha said. She shook her head, smiling wryly as if she didn’t really believe he was going to come back. I looked up at Tristan and I didn’t need my empathic abilities to know he wasn’t as relieved as the good doctor, just sad.
The elevator doors opened to the sound of a soft chime. Ruy stepped out with a tall dark woman at his side.
“Raina,” Ruy said. “Come with me.”
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