Crimson Born - Amy Patrick Page 0,41
caverns, but they also featured rare shield formations, thin stone discs that jutted from the ceiling and dripped with what looked like liquid rock, frozen by time.
There were candles everywhere. They cast flickering shadows throughout the space that were at once beautiful and eerie.
“I hear you’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the medical clinic,” Imogen said. “How’s the patient?”
For some reason I had a sudden attack of nerves. It was hard to keep them from showing in my voice.
Had she been keeping tabs on us? Watching us? People said there was nothing that went on in the Bastion Imogen didn’t know about.
“Oh yes. Reece. He’s doing better, I think. He’s having some issues with... adjusting.”
And aren’t we all?
She walked to a small, ornate table that held a crystal decanter and two glasses. Pouring red liquid into both of them, she offered a glass to me and kept one for herself.
“No thank you,” I said with a shake of my head.
Imogen took a sip from her own glass. “He’s very handsome.”
In spite of her casual tone, I felt myself bristle. So she had seen him.
Had she been to the clinic and watched him through the observation window? The thought creeped me out.
“Yes. He is.”
“So much better looking than I realized that night on the highway,” she added.
Though she’d always taken a motherly role with me, there was nothing maternal about the way she sounded now.
Was she interested in him—romantically?
The baby hairs on the back of my neck actually rose. She hadn’t asked me a question, so I didn’t respond, just let her continue.
“You know... it’s very common for our citizens to find a mate here at the Bastion,” she said, gesturing with the glass in her hand. “But it isn’t strictly necessary to stick to only one. Have any of the males here caught your eye? Or more than one perhaps?”
The discussion struck me as strange and made me highly uncomfortable. I wanted to switch the subject away from Reece.
“What was it that you wanted to see me about?”
She gave me a tolerant grin and allowed the change in topics.
“You’ve been here for three months now. Your education is nearly complete. It’s time you took the final step in your journey of transformation and become a true daughter of the Bastion.”
“Final step?” I didn’t like the sound of this. “What kind of step?”
“There’s going to be a ritual at the end of this month—up on the surface. We call it the Inception Ceremony. Several humans who desire to become like us will be granted their request. Some of them are nearing their fifteenth bite, but there’s one who’s never been bitten.”
She gave me a Cheshire Cat grin. “He’ll be yours.”
“Mine,” I sputtered. “No—I—I can’t. I told you—I thought you understood.”
She seemed not to hear my protest. Or not to care anyway.
“It’ll be the perfect test of your powers. If your bite doesn’t do the job, then I’ll allow the others to work in tandem to turn him. If it does succeed however... then you’ll take your place at my side as my true daughter and heir.”
“I told you Imogen—”
“Call me Mother.” Her tone went frosty. “I’ll be insulted if you don’t.”
“I told you... Mother, that’s not the kind of vampire I want to be.”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter—this is who we are. It’s who you are.”
“There are some vampires who live a different way.”
She flicked her wrist as if waving away an unpleasant smell. “I don’t want to hear about those pacifist wimps. It’s unnatural. And unsustainable. Why can’t you see that? You’re my child.”
She seemed so distraught I actually felt sorry for her. Harkening back to my parents’ teachings, I tried to put myself in her shoes.
Maybe if I’d been the one who’d done the turning, who’d saved the life of a girl I could just as easily have drained and left on the highway that night, I’d feel the same way she apparently did now.
Rejected. Maybe even betrayed.
“Why me?” I asked the question I’d always wondered. “Why did you choose me? There’s nothing special about me.”
“Oh, but you’re wrong. I haven’t elected to create a child in a hundred years, and I had no intention to do so anytime soon. But that night as you lay dying on the asphalt, there was something about you. A rare quality. I couldn’t let it perish. As I’ve told you before, Abigail, I see great potential in you. With me there to guide you every step