The Other Side Of Midnight

I know exactly where he is. Not because I am guessing but because I can feel him. I can feel him.

I run quickly and lightly up the circular staircase until I arrive at the observatory. The circular roof is open and Rocco is sitting on the pedestal. There is a bottle of wine and a glass half-filled with red wine next to him.

He turns to look at me and I feel something inside me break.

Chapter 57

Autumn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YxaaGgTQYM

-Bring Me To Life-

“Would you like some wine, Autumn?” he asks politely, distantly. It is as if we are strangers. As if New York never happened. Or he never held me through the night when my heart was shattered by Sam’s passing.

“No thank you,” I say equally politely. “I want you to tell me the ending of the story of the hawk and the pigeon.”

“The man chose the pigeon. He had loved it for too long to sacrifice it.” His voice is deliberately flat. It’s impossible to believe that he is thousands of years old. He looks so young, so beautiful… so human.

I walk up the pedestal as he takes a sip of wine and sit next to him. “Tell me what will really happen to you if I say no.”

“You shouldn’t concern yourself with that. I will probably outlive you.”

“You don’t understand. I want to help you, you will never know how much I want to… to be honest I don’t even care about the blood lust thing, if you can do it, then so can I, but it goes against everything I believe in to make your sister, Daniel, your parents, and all those people at the party strong and powerful again so they can go out and hunt more humans.”

He holds the glass of wine out to me. “Try it. It’s really good.”

I take a sip of the rich red liquid. Suddenly, I think of blood. The thought of him drinking blood makes a shiver of revulsion go through me. I give the glass back to him. “Yeah, it’s good.”

He puts a hand out and touches my cheek gently. “You’ve been crying.”

I bite my lip. “It was a bit of a shock to find out you were a… vampire.”

“Hmmm… yes. Shall I tell you a secret?”

“What?” I whisper.

“I never wanted you to do it.” He hands me the glass of wine.

I take a sip. “Why not?”

He takes the glass back, refills it, then shrugs. “Because I was alive when they were sacrificing virgins to Pagan Gods believing it was for the greater good of their society, and I didn’t agree with that either. Besides, I’ve long wanted to stop my parents and sister, but they always had the right of our laws behind them so I had no means. Until now.”

“I love you, you know,” I blurt out.

He nods slowly and looks away. I don’t know why, but I feel as if he is dying right before my eyes. “I know that, Autumn, but you know we can’t be together, right?”

I try to not let him see how hurt I feel. “Why not?”

He smiles ruefully. “Because my kind are not only bloodthirsty, they are also vengeful and spiteful. They will not allow us to ride off into the sunset together while they decay slowly and horribly. In fact, once they know they have nothing to lose anymore, they may even try to force you to take part in the ritual. Done that way, you will certainly die a painful death.”

An icy finger runs down my spine. “What does the ritual entail?”

“Basically, I consume your blood,” he says impassively.

“That’s it?”

His lips twist. “As far as you’re concerned, yeah. The most important thing for rituals is timing. The ceremony can only be done when the alignment of stars is favorable. The next window of opportunity is in four days, and the one after that will be in twelve years. That is the reason my family was so anxious for me to tell you as soon as possible. None of it matters now, you will be gone before that.”

“Where will I go?”

“You are going to disappear without a trace. I have your new identity ready to go. Social Security number, passport, drivers license, bank account and credit cards.”

Even though I am in a strange state of disbelief and shock, I feel anger rise in me. At the thought of all these decisions being made for me as if my life was no longer my own. Other people were deciding everything for me. I snatch the bottle of wine by the neck, take a swig, and turn towards him.

“So you knew I was going to say no?”

“I would have been disappointed if you had said yes.”

“The decision is harder than you think. Every fiber in my body is screaming at me to save you. I have to fight with myself to say no.”