Gap muttered the whole time I drank from his granddaughter, but if she survived, he would have to get used to this. I didn't drink much, allowing most of her blood to collect in the bowls placed beneath her wrists. Rowdy waited off to the side, watching intently.
I heard the girl's heart slow and somehow knew when the time was right. I licked both her wrists to stop the blood flow and heal up her wounds, then opened up my right wrist lengthwise, just as I'd done hers, pressing the wrist to her mouth. Gap helped, pulling her jaw open. Just as Wlodek said, the girl accepted my blood and began to drink. Gap's cousin Rowdy timed it; he had a watch with a second hand. He called time at four minutes exactly, even though the girl wanted to keep drinking.
"We have to keep her in a dark place," I said, licking my wrist to close the wound. Gap carried Lily as he led me down heavy, hand-hewn plank steps to a cellar beneath the main floor of the house. The cellar was small and had a dirt floor with rough, split log walls all around. At least it was swept and didn't have cobwebs. Spider bites probably wouldn't hurt me, but I still didn't want stray arachnids crawling down the back of my shirt.
A cot stood in a corner of the tiny, underground room. The mattress on it was quite narrow, with room for only one person. Lily got that. I asked for a unit of blood and one was tossed down. Gap left with the half-bag of blood I passed back to him. "Don't let any sunlight in down here," I warned him as the cellar steps creaked beneath his feet. "And I'll need more blood when night falls again." Daybreak wasn't far off; I knew that for certain. Gap left us and when daybreak came, I slumped over where I sat.
* * *
When I woke again, I pondered my dilemma as I listened to voices and footsteps overhead. At least the girl was still whole and not ash. Lily's heart and breathing had stopped the moment I'd pulled my wrist away from her lips. I had no idea what that meant or if it was natural. Gap had confiscated my cell phone before leaving me in the cellar, so I didn't even have that to try to contact anyone else. I also wanted to know how Winkler and Weldon were doing. Hunger made its presence known so I climbed up the cellar steps to the trap door, which was locked. Punching through it might have given me some satisfaction, but I held back. Gap's cellar was a dark place to hide and sleep. I knocked on the door instead to ask for my blood. A bath would have been nice as well, but I was told I'd have to wait another day or two for that. I wanted to curse but politely asked about Weldon and the others instead.
"Grumpy as bears. We've had to tranquilize 'em. We only wake 'em up enough to eat," Gap grinned at me while walking down the steps to check on his granddaughter. She didn't have the stink of decay about her and I imagined he could smell the same thing. He seemed satisfied with her appearance, allowed me to walk around the house a little and then sent me back to the cellar. No sense asking him for a book to read, I hadn't seen a single one in the entire house.
Instead, I moved over to the girl's bedside and told her stories. I told her about Franklin and Greg. About Winkler and Weldon. I even told her about some of the recent books I'd read. I catnapped a little, too, passing out when dawn came. The second night, I noticed minute signs of a change. Lily was transforming. Her lips were fuller, her skin held a tiny bit of color and her hair seemed a bit thicker. Was this how it had happened with me? Subtle changes, here and there? I'd been overweight, though, and had wakened to a much smaller size. Was the girl going to have enough mass to get through the entire thing? She'd been so thin and wasted-looking. Her continued existence was the only thing likely to keep Weldon and Winkler alive, too, so I was grateful for that much. Even if I killed everybody upstairs, the Grand Master and Winkler could still die before I found them.
Another day passed and a few more slight changes came by nightfall. I got my blood and drank; they'd passed me two unfinished units. I emptied both and went back to watching the girl. Gap came to observe as well. "She's lookin' prettier," he said. I nodded. I figured if she were completely gone, she'd have turned to ash by now, just as any vampire would. "How much longer do you think?" he asked. I turned an angry gaze on him. "This is my first turn. How should I know?" What I did know was that if he and his granddaughter escaped, I'd have to hunt both of them and kill them. Wlodek would never allow the girl to live anyway.
"All right, no need to get testy," Gap grumbled, walking up the stairs.
A fourth day passed and I woke, getting my blood and a bath, finally. Some of the werewolves wanted to watch I could tell, but Gap chased them off and I got the bathroom mostly to myself. The door was left open, however, and my guard stood right outside. Someone had also gone to the cabin we'd rented and emptied it, likely so the owners wouldn't think anything suspicious was going on. My bags, along with Winkler's and the others had all been dumped inside the log house.
Having my suitcase meant I had fresh clothes to change into and I was grateful for that. The clothing I'd worn for days smelled from spilled blood, both mine and Lily's. I wondered what the people in South Carolina were thinking, too. Weldon was scheduled to be in Summerville the day before. After I cleaned up and braided my freshly washed hair, I was sent right back down the sturdy plank steps into the cellar. Lily still seemed to be making progress, although slowly. I was settled in my usual corner, not far from her bed when the racket started. At first, I thought the werewolves upstairs were arguing, but that wasn't the case. And when one shrieked, I knew for sure that wasn't it. The trapdoor was ripped off its hinges and Merrill's voice was shouting my name.
Chapter 9
I climbed out of the cellar in a blink, finding Merrill, Russell, Radomir and Brock all there, surrounded by werewolf bodies. Every one of the werewolves was dead. Gap's head lay in a corner of the cabin's main room while his body occupied the kitchen. Both spaces were splattered in blood. Merrill didn't have a hair out of place as we stood there, surveying the bodies.
"What about Weldon and Winkler?" It took an effort to gather my wits; I was still dazed from the surprise rescue and the smell of death about me.
"We split up. The other vampires are at a cabin twenty miles away. I imagine that's over with as well. Where's the girl?" Merrill asked. I led the way to the cellar.
"She's started the change," Russell sighed, eyeing the girl. "Probably a quarter of the way there, or close enough."
"Lissa, one of us can do this if you don't want to," Merrill placed an arm around my shoulders as we stared at Lily's body. It was hitting me, then. The girl could turn completely if we didn't stop her. This would be my child, if she made the turn and was permitted to live. Wlodek would never allow that. Likely, he'd instructed Merrill to dispose of her if she hadn't turned to ash already. Merrill or one of the others was prepared to destroy Lily. If they didn't, she'd be fourteen forever. That just seemed wrong to me. All of it seemed wrong to me. I cursed her grandfather for making me do this. I cursed him again for not letting her go. For failing to understand that death is not always the enemy. I didn't realize I was doing my cursing out loud until Merrill squeezed my arm.