Apotheosis--Excerpt

VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE: BOOK TWO--APOTHEOSIS
CHAPTER ONE

Lilith hurt everywhere, a deep, pervasive pain that filled every inch of her. She could barely move without it shifting, growing and receding and always moving, like some bizarre form of life that had taken root just beneath her skin.

She supposed she shouldn't complain, though. Not that long ago, she'd been dead.

It was hard to judge the passage of time here, but she thought it had been about three days since Julian, Lucien and Lorelei had brought her here. Her sworn enemies, up until that time. Until Julian had brought her back to life.

Here in this part of the vampire Underground there was no real day or night, but the pull of the daytime Sleep still claimed her at appropriate intervals. Here they fed her on harvested blood and kept her carefully alive in spite of the role she'd recently played in Lorelei's kidnapping.

If she'd returned to her own people, she would be dead by now. Instead she'd passed into the realm of the enemy, and remained alive.

She blinked at the pale green ceiling of what she supposed could most accurately be called a hospital room. It still amazed her that they left her alone. She could have yanked out her IV and slipped away, feeling her way--somehow--out of the convoluted turnings of the corridors and tunnels of the Underground. But she had no desire to. Once or twice Julian had come in and said hello to her, held up his end of a short, inane conversation while his dark eyes studied her with discomfiting intensity. Lucien had done the same, though he hadn't bothered to talk. He just looked at her. She had no doubt either one of them could read every thought that meandered through her head. So they knew where she stood. They knew she was, at least for the moment, conflicted enough to be considered safe.

The door to her room squeaked and she looked up to see Dr. Greene enter. He came by every day at about this time to check on her. He smiled.

"Good evening. How are you doing?" He took her chart from the table by the door and looked at it. She wondered why. He couldn't have that many patients, not here. Surely he could remember what her problems were.

"Like shit," she answered.

He nodded soberly. "I've been running some cultures in the lab. My prediction is that the pain will start to decrease in about twelve hours."

"That's a relief."

He checked her IV drip, where rich, garnet blood had begun to enter her system minutes after she'd returned from the Sleep. "Are you hungry at all?"

"No. Not really."

"It's not quite the same, is it?"

"No. Not quite."

Her system's dissatisfaction with the stale blood was secondary, though, to the pervasive pain. Still, the doctor's understanding surprised her. He was a mortal, after all, full of live, pulsing blood. He would have made a damned fine breakfast.

Seemingly unconcerned by his status as possible food item, the doctor checked her IV again, adjusted the timer, looked at the machine that blinked with her vital signs. "You'll be all right."

"Yeah." She doubted that. She'd made some very dangerous enemies by protecting Lorelei and her unborn child. Ialdaboth wanted her dead. Sooner or later, she knew he would get what he wanted.

***

Dr. Jarod Greene closed the door behind him and leaned on it, gathering his thoughts. Lilith was improving rapidly. No surprise there. Vampires healed with predictable rapidity when given half a chance. The fact Lilith had been technically dead for a time didn't seem to have affected her recovery rate.

Yes, physically, she was recovering nicely. But he was more concerned, now, about her mental and emotional states. Especially since he knew Julian and Lucien would be all over her with questions as soon as he declared her healthy.

And so went his dilemma as a doctor. What Julian wanted from Lilith was important, but Jarod didn't want to risk Lilith's health. Nor did he want to endanger Julian's plans to move against Ialdaboth's forces. He had to make the right call, and he wasn't sure yet what that was.

In any case Julian was expecting him--again--right now. These daily meetings were starting to get tedious.

As usual, Julian and Lucien awaited him in his office. Jarod had asked them repeatedly not to touch anything while they were in there--he had a number of projects and experiments underway. Still, Lucien snatched his hands away from a shelf and hid them behind his back as the doctor came in. Julian gave Lucien a wry look.

"You can talk to her tomorrow," said Jarod. He hoped giving them an answer up front might gain him some privacy.

No such luck. Julian settled onto the edge of Jarod's desk. "What's your opinion of her?"

"My opinion?" Jarod shrugged. "I think she'll be well enough for you to talk to her in twelve hours."

"I mean as a person."

Jarod shook his head. He rarely got anything other than medical questions from his patients. He liked it that way. It made everything less personal and helped him forget he was the go-to medical guy for a colony of vampires.

"She's not a person," he said, not really thinking. "She's a vampire."

His own words registered when Julian narrowed his eyes, his mouth compressing. "All right then," he said, his tone clipped. "What do you think of her as a vampire?"

"I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"He wants to know if you think she can be trusted," Lucien put in.

"Look, guys. I'm a doctor. I'm not a psychiatrist or a counselor or even a very good judge of character. I look at blood cells all day."

"You've spent more time with her than any of the rest of us," Julian countered.

Jarod lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "She's . . . confused. I think she's afraid you might kill her."

"Do you think she would go back to Ialdaboth?"

"I don't know. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would forgive and forget, based on what you told me."

"But she hasn't said anything to you about him?"

"We don't really chat."

Silence fell. Julian and Lucien regarded each other, seeming to pass messages through their eyes.

"I think we can trust her," Lucien finally said.

Julian didn't look happy, but he nodded. "We may have to." He slid off the desk and headed for the door.

"Trust her with what?" Jarod asked.

Julian looked at him and Jarod saw the age in his eyes, age tempered with long-standing pain. "With the future," he said. "With everything."

***

They left not long after that. Apparently there was nothing left to be said. Jarod tried to settle down to some serious work. He'd been toiling on a project for Julian for a week now, and some aspects of his experimentation were finally coming together.

He'd lived in the vampire Underground nearly ten years, and he had to admit he'd never seen the kind of weirdness he'd seen since this past Halloween night. Julian's blood cells coming back to life--not to mention his sperm--Nicholas's convoluted cancer cure, Lorelei's pregnancy, Julian's latest project to save the children, and now Lilith. Oh, and Lucien, but everything about that guy was weird. Jarod longed for the good old days when he just sat in his lab inventing blood replacements like Vivian's plasma drinks.

Which reminded him--he hadn't picked up her empties yet this week.

Looking again at the cultures from the two children he was working with, he made a few notes, then put his notebooks away. The walk to Vivian's would do him good.

It was a long walk, and a weird one for those not used to it. He was the only mortal he knew of who could make the trip unaccompanied. It had taken him five years to acquire the skill. The doors and corridors and hallways changed every time, but he somehow always knew the way.

Ten years among vampires could change a man.

He picked up the collection of empty bottles next to Vivian's refrigerator and settled them into the canvas bag he'd crafted for the purpose. The house was quiet with approaching daylight. Time was he could spend a few hours to himself during the day, before grabbing some sleep. These days Julian and Lucien popped in at any hour of the day or night. Maybe they didn't need sleep, but he did. Luckily, they generally honored the "Do Not Disturb" sign he'd made for his bedroom door.

Returning to his room, he found himself thinking about Lilith. He wondered exactly what Julian had in mind for her, though he suspected. With her knowledge of the enemy--the Dark Children, Lucien called them--she could be an invaluable asset.

In the lab, he set the bottles in the sanitizer, then went again to Lilith's room. She lay still as a corpse in the daylight Sleep, her straight, white hair spread against the pink pillowcase. Vampires didn't breathe in the Sleep, and she looked eerily dead.

Though he hadn't talked with her a great deal, he'd gotten the impression she was deeply conflicted. As if she couldn't decide which side she should be on and wasn't prepared to make the choice. But she was afraid, as well, and seemed less afraid when he was with her.

He would have to come back an hour or two before sunset to hook up her IV blood drip. No point letting her wake up hungry. But in the meantime, he could head to bed, and not worry about her until nightfall.

Still, he stood, looking at her for a time, at her silent face, like marble statuary. Her face was gracefully put together, the clean lines striking in the frame of platinum hair.

He was, he decided, fairly sure he could trust her.

Leaving her to her recuperative quasi-coma, he turned off the light and headed for his room.

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