Turned By Him

Chapter 4

“She’ll be fine,” said a woman’s voice compassionately. “She isn’t turned yet so she’ll be susceptible to phantom pains.”

“I didn’t know how to make her stay,” another voice responded remorsefully. “I tried to explain the danger.” There was a long pause. “Do you think someone could have spotted her and caused the collapse?”

“They’re really cracking down,” the woman said.

“We have to be very careful.”

Eliza slowly opened her eyes. The room was dark but everything was still visible. She was lying down on a red couch that smelt vaguely of cigarettes. Her body felt heavy and her mind swam with resonating recollections of her life. Eliza tried to sit up but didn’t have the strength. In her extreme weakness, she found even speaking to be too much effort. She lied there and listened as the two voices continued their discussion undisturbed.

“She needs to feed or she’ll be dead in a day.” The woman sounded a bit annoyed; “if she’s not already.”

“If we can’t take on the young-ones who can,” the familiar voice retorted in an exhausted tone. “Besides, it’s possible that someone attending last week’s gathering is responsible for this. Her friend is also dead.”

“We don’t even know her,” the other responded. “For all we know she could be a familiar.”

“She’s not. She knew nothing about our world.”

Eliza felt her strength slowly returning. She let out a deep groan.

“She’s waking up,” said the woman.

“Eliza,” said the familiar voice. “Eliza stay lying down.”

A bright light danced between Eliza’s eyes. She instinctively recoiled at the intrusive brightness. She didn’t feel up to speaking. She tried to shove herself upward but a firm press of someone’s palm kept her pinned to the smoky couch. She let out another moan.

“Almost done,” said the woman’s voices suddenly more sympathetic than before. Eliza felt the touch of cool metal against her skin. She could feel thin fingers probing and inspecting her. Eliza thought about George. She wished he had been able to tell her what was wrong with her. She trusted him. Though those who tended to her now didn’t seem hostile, Eliza’s mistrusted everyone now.

When the inspection was over, Eliza felt the press of the hand relieve and she sat up. The dark room which surrounded the red couch was vacant, save for a few couches, the woman who had been treating Eliza and Tom. The lighting in the room was dim but bright enough for the few pieces of furniture and people to cast long shadows across the carpeted floor. The room was filled with the thick smell of stale cigarette smoke. “Where am I?” Eliza asked as she mustered her strength.

“You are in Novum Sanguinem,” the woman said as she lit herself a smoke.

“Which is a fancy way of saying our club house,” Tom added. “You’re safe here.”

“If we are,” the woman said before striding away from the couch into the dark room.

Eliza tried to gather her thoughts. She hadn’t been able to think clearly since she was attacked in Brooklyn. She wasn’t even sure what day it was much less where or why she was here. “What happened?” Eliza felt dizzy and weak but her strength was returning. As her senses returned to her she assessed the situation. She was in a room with no windows. It was dimly lit and the man who had recently claimed was a vampire had picked her up. Eliza looked around hastily for her purse.

“Looking for this?” The woman handed the bag to Eliza. When Eliza looked inside, her father’s gun was still there. “Everything is still there,” she said. “Thank you.” Eliza felt better knowing she still had the gun it made them seem less threatening. “I’m Eliza.”

“My name is Mirana,” the woman responded coolly.

The room was now filled with a strange silence. Eliza could not hear the sound of the city traffic. Tom broke the silence. “Listen,” he said getting Eliza’s attention. “I need you to believe me so we can actually help you.” His look was sincere. “What will it take to prove it?”

“To prove that I, that we, are all vampires?” Eliza questioned. She was still tired and didn’t feel like answering the question. “Well, what can vampires do? Other than kill people of course.”

“That’s a big question,” Mirana said taking a seat on the couch adjacent to Eliza. “I suppose all vampires are: strong, fast, ravenous blood drinkers who live indefinitely on the warm life essence of others to quell the insatiable emptiness inside. Every person infected with magika however, will always express a unique symptom. I for instance,” the woman turned and looked at Eliza, “Can be whoever I want.” The woman’s face changed from the narrow pale humorless expression framed in brown to a young round faced girl with pink hair. The face then changed again to a beautiful woman whom Eliza recognized as an actress. “My curse comes with the gift of face changing.” The woman’s face morphed back to the narrow nose between green eyes. Her dark curls bounced down to her shoulders.

“That’s amazing,” Eliza said. She looked over at Tom.

“Sorry,” he said raising his hands. “You already saw what I can do. I am a monster twice over.”

“Tom,” Mirana said in a chastising tone.

“I can make people feel fear,” Tom said.

Eliza looked at him accusingly. “So you are why I was so afraid?”

Tom shrugged and said, “It is a horrible thing. I needed you to stay out of the open and it was the only way I could think of.”

Eliza considered how he didn’t approach her that night in the park. Mirana added to Tom’s description. “Tom can make people feel hope and love and peace. He is an excellent nurse here when we need him to be.”

“The reason for keeping you from the public is as simple as why we had to bring you here. You are very weak right now Eliza. You are not yet a vampire” Tom ran his hand through is thick dark hair. “First you must make a kill. Until then you are simply undead.”

“Like a zombie,” Eliza asked.

“In many ways,” Mirana said. “You see, vampirism, like all of the other magika infections, it enters your body and clings to every cell it can get its greedy, rapidly multiplying, phylum onto. The infection seeps into the host and proceeds to take the life of said host.” Mirana was unaffected by the morbid nature of the magika infection. “In order to save the host from the Virus, another life-force must be given. This satisfies the virus, temporarily. It is important to feed however, as you are weakest when hungry.”