The Vampire King's Bride

Chapter 8

My vision came in and out of focus as I tried my hardest to see what was happening. I was in a car, that much I could tell, and the person was speeding. Rubbing my eyes hoping that would help clear them up a little, I started moving about.

‘Shh, it’s alright.’

I knew that voice, it belonged to Skylar. Knowing that Skylar was there with me made me relax immediately. I was safe if he was there with me. What happened in the changing room back at the underwear place? Did that really happen or did I just imagine it?

The car came to a stop and my body was lifted out of the car, the smell of rain filling my nose.

‘Benny, connect with Axel and find out what’s going on there,’ Skylar said.

‘Can do.’

Skylar was carrying me into the house and then up the stairs. The sound of the door opened and shut behind him as he walked into what I assumed was a bedroom. My body connected with something soft and I completely lost consciousness again.

My eyes shot open and I lunged out of bed. The dark shadow was there in the room again, just silently waiting.

‘You’re real, aren’t you?’ I asked.

‘Yes and no,’ his voice drifted from within him somewhere.

‘What does that mean?’

‘You’ll find out soon enough.’

That made even less sense than the answer he gave before. How could I make heads or tails of this if he never gave me a straight answer?

His figure started swirling and moving around the room, yet he looked a little more solid than the last time I saw him.

‘Time is running out.’

‘For what?’

‘You.’

A shiver ran down my spine followed by a sickening feeling in my gut. If I was going to die, didn’t that mean that I didn’t have a future?

‘Don’t think like that. Your future is set in stone.’

‘What does that mean?’ I asked again.

‘You’ll find out in due time.’

A clock chimed on the wall, ‘Happy Birthday,’ the shadow said before disappearing.

‘What?’ I looked at the clock and remembered today was my birthday.

I sat upright, almost headbutting Skylar in the face.

‘Sorry!’ I said.

‘Is everything okay?’ he asked, concern filling his features.

‘I’m alright, just what happened?’

‘I went into the store to see how you were going and you were collapsed on the floor. Axel saw one of Mr Akuma’s men there and assumed that he did something, but we couldn’t be certain.’

‘Yeah, I saw him too, except he injected me with something.’

‘What was it?’

‘I’m not sure I blacked out.’

‘Maybe a sedative?’

I rubbed my head. It was starting to hurt.

‘Does your head hurt?’

‘A little.’

‘Come with me, we’ll get you to the doctor and see what he says.’

As I got to my feet, I didn’t feel dizzy or anything. Which I thought was strange because sedatives didn’t generally last for such a short amount of time. I saw Skylar frowning as well.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s nothing, come on.’

Skylar took hold of my hand and led me from his room. The warmth spread into me once again, relaxing my nerves. I wondered if he could feel it to or if it was just one-sided.

Walking down the stairs back to the first floor, we turned to the left, the opposite side to the kitchen. Skylar pushed open a door and revealed a long corridor that had many doors and had a dark grey carpet. There were nurses walking between each room probably taking care of patients.

‘This is our personal medical centre, people that live within this household, including the servants, are looked after here. For the people of the town, there is a hospital they can go to that has the best equipment you can get.’

‘Why do you need a personal medical wing here?’

‘Just in case. My father had it installed before he passed away. He didn’t want what happened to him to happen to me.’

Before I could ask any further questions, a man wearing a white lab coat came out and stopped in front of Skylar.

‘Sire, we weren’t expecting you down here till tomorrow at the earliest.’

He was old, looking in his mid-fifties. White hair on top of his head and black rimmed glasses on his face. Most vampires don’t age past 25 unless they were humans previously, then they age just a lot slower.

‘I apologise but something urgent happened. We need to get the tests taken care of quickly.’

‘Yes, sire. Come with me, we have a room ready.’

He led us down the rest of the corridor and to a room near the back. The room itself wasn’t huge, just like any medical room, it had one bed and a lot of medical equipment inside.

‘Please have a seat, miss,’ the doctor said, gesturing to the bed.

I sat down on the bed quietly doing as the doctor asked.

‘My name is Doctor Reiki. Nice to meet you, Cordelia.’

‘Nice to meet you too.’

‘Now I understand that you need a blood regression?’

‘What’s that?’

‘It’s a way to find out what your parental lineage is.’

‘Yes, she needs that, but she also needs a regular blood test to see what was injected in her,’ Skylar advised, taking a seat beside the bed.

‘We can definitely do that. However, I would like to do a full check-up on her none the less.’

‘Sounds good.’

‘For that we need to get you into a hospital gown.’

Skylar left the room so I could get changed but promised he’d come back in afterwards. The gown itself was white with little spots on it. It was tied up at the back, which I thought was very strange, but I was told to take everything off except my underwear.

After getting changed, I opened the door and let Skylar back in.

‘All done?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, but the gown doesn’t leave much to the imagination.’

Skylar laughed as he sat down on the same chair beside the bed as before.

‘Ready?’ Doctor Reiki asked.

‘Yes.’

The complete examination wasn’t too bad, it was over relatively quickly. The blood draw was not my favourite. When the needle went in, I started feeling a little lightheaded. Fortunately, he had me lie down before he commenced the procedure.

‘Alright, if you could please get changed and we will discuss what’s to happen next,’ he said, taking off his gloves.

I closed the curtain and got changed out of the gown and into my clothes. I hoped that the clothes we bought today at the store came home with me.

Swinging the curtain open again, I sat down on the bed again while Skylar got to his feet.

‘Okay, so your general health is pretty good. I’d say a little underweight for your age and height, but nothing too drastic. We’ll send the blood off to get tested and will call Skylar when the results come in. That should take 2-3 days. Other results will only take about 24 hours. While I was doing your examination, I noticed something.’

‘What’s that?’ I asked.

‘You’re a pre-transition vampire, am I correct?’

I nodded my reply.

‘Well, it seems that the time for you to change is running out.’

The shadow’s words echoed in my head. ‘Time is running out.’

Maybe that’s what he was going on about. My time to turn is running out quicker than I thought.

‘What do we do?’ Skylar asked.

‘She needs to go through her transition soon. I suspect within the next few days to a week at the latest.’

‘Okay.’

‘I’m sure you’ll organise that, Sire.’

‘I’ll see to it.’

‘Right. We’re all done here.’

Doctor Reiki excused himself to take the blood to the lab to get tested urgently.

‘Why do you need to see to the transition?’ I asked.

‘No one transitions without the king’s permission. I’ll have to go through all the right channels, and we’ll organise it once we get your regression results back.’

‘Why are they needed?’

‘We need to know your lineage so we can use someone that is close to your family tree. You need to drink from a vampire to complete the transition.’

‘I see.’

‘Come on, let’s go.’

‘Where?’

‘I promised to show you the gardens, didn’t I?’

I smiled as I got to my feet, the transition playing at the back of my mind. The shadow's voice echoed in my ears again: Time is running out.