So You Used to Be Human - Book 3 (Original Version)

Chapter 11: Fade to Black

"Give her to me Bob. We have to do this right now or it's going to be too late. If she dies, there is nothing anybody can do for her."

Beatrice made a motion and two vampires in surgical garb stepped forward with great efficiency, the heavy aluminum cases they were carrying clanking heavily.  They had been there all along and I just hadn't noticed them, but now their presence was unmistakable.  Beatrice lifted Jaime easily from my arms and ignoring the sob that tore its way out from me, handed her over to the nearest vampire.

I may have tried to go after them as they took her away, the panic rising in me that I would never see her again, that this would be some kind of fucked up punishment from Beatrice.  I have a vague recollection of fighting, but all of that was lost.

Black.

 ***

 "Why are you doing this? What do you get out of it?" The words were out of my mouth before I even woke up properly and I understood in that moment, that Beatrice had been talking to me for a while, minutes, maybe even hours.  And somehow she hadn't tried to murder me yet.

"I have my good days you know.  I can't be the bad guy all the time. That just gets tiring and a little boring you know."

"I know. That's what I liked about you. The non-stabby side of you."

"Oh but you gotta love all of me, Bob. I can't walk around pretending to be normal all the time, because we both know just how fucked up I am."

"So why this? Why now?"

"You needed me. And besides, you promised me the one thing in the world that I want."

"And what is that?"

"Don't you remember Bobbykins? You promised that when this is all over, you promised that you'd love me."

Black.

 ***

It's really hard to aim an oversized handgun like a Glock, especially while holding a baby, but Clarissa, was doing one hell of a job.   She had this look, this murderous intent on her face, that said nobody was going to fuck with her or her baby.

For a second there I thought the gun was pointed at me, but distant flashes of the last thirty seconds came back to me and it occurred to me that no, the gun wasn't pointed at me and damn that baby was loud.

Clarissa was trying to comfort the baby, his cries piercing in the small room, while she held the gun.  It was as if in the way of all babies, his need to be comforted was the most important thing in the world, no matter that his mother was trying to protect him from the monsters in the room.  Babies don't have that kind of self-preservation instinct that tells them to shut up for a second and let the adults do the real work, then comfort will come.  Monsters must die first.

The stickiness on my hands made me look down, and there it was: the easy answer, the dead monster who shouldn't have fucked with Clarissa, she who had been given the command to stay in the room and be safe.  Apparently her version of being safe involved getting every available gun in the garage and surrounding herself with a virtual armoury.

My hands and arms up to my elbows were drenched in blood.  My shirt was a bloody mess, but that was the least of my problems.  The source of the blood was the dead vampire on the ground, a hole in his neck where his throat used to be and an extremely surprised expression on his face.  There were also multiple holes in his torso where Clarissa had gotten some shots in, but the immediate cause of death had been having no throat to breathe out of.  Apparently his disbelief in having been killed by me as proportionate to my surprise at having murdered him.  In my sleep.