A Mother's Love - - (whitelam books txt) 📗

Liz,” John said.  Only it wasn't John anymore--the eyes told her that.  White and lifeless; the eyes she had seen so many times on the TV.  He hadn't died. He had become infected.  She watched as a ripple flowed through him, and he gripped the wire, fingers flexing to show long talons where fingernails had once been.  “You really don't want to know how much I want to be in there with you.”

“Where's Ruby, John?” Liz begged.

“Ah, yes, the child.  Such a sweet thing.”

“Please, John.”

“Don't worry, we haven't hurt her.  Not yet, anyway.  It really is good to see you, though.”  She could see the way he was looking at her.  There was no love there, just pure animal hunger.

“What have you done to her?”

“Me?  Trust me, I haven't been allowed anywhere near her.  Which is for the best because the temptation to rip her entrails out and feast would have been too great.”  John's eyes kept scanning the wire as if he was trying to find a way to get in at her.  “Normally they don't let us in here, but we are allowed just this once.”

“We?”

“You really don't understand, do you?”

“No, and I don't care.  All I want is to be able to see Ruby.”  She would give her life for just five minutes with her only child.

“You will if you behave.  You will have lots of me time.  But most of your days will be spent here, in this cell. I hope you get to know your neighbours.”  John actually laughed at that.

“I don't understand.”

“Well, I suppose I'd better do the whole villain thing,” John said, mocking her.  There was a harshness to his voice as if he'd smoked forty a day all his life.  The skin around his face was taut with evidence of weight loss, the cheeks sunken in.  This was definitely John’s body. Liz just didn't know the person who occupied it.  “You will notice the cannula in the back of your hand,” John said.  Liz fingered it, fighting a strong temptation to rip it out.

“What are you?”

“You know what I am, Liz, and don't interrupt.  Being close to you like this pains me.”  He inhaled deeply, savouring the odour that seeped from her body.  “I can hear your heart beating, your blood pulsing.  Never have you been more desirous to me than you are right now.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Why, your blood of course,” John said.  “Every other day, one of those orange bitches will come in here and extract some.  We will take enough so as to just keep you alive.  I'm hungry, you see, and I have a voracious appetite.”

“But you’re my husband.”

“So they say, but if I'm honest, I barely remember you.  But we are married, so you have been assigned to me as my property.”

“Assigned?”  The word didn't seem to make sense.

“Yes, Liz.  I am going to feed off you.  I reckon you will be good for a few years.  And when you are finally nothing more than a dried-up husk, you will be replaced by Ruby.”

“No, you can't do this.”

“Of course, we can.  This is happening all across the country, Liz.  The women are being rounded up to be farmed.  So much easier than hunting you all down, and this way we keep the stock from getting ravaged.”

“We aren't animals!” Liz said defiantly.

“Oh, but you are.  Juicy cattle, ripe for the bleeding.  Be thankful you were married to me.  Many of those who aren't attached to a surviving vampire are sent off to be breeding stock.  There are so many of us now. We need to keep the farms stocked.”  Farms?  Was this what this place was?  “Those too old or infertile, well, we have our fun with them.”  The grin on his face was manic.

“But the women in orange?”  How could they walk about so freely?  John actually shivered in disgust.

“There are some of you who taste vile to us.  They were given a choice.  Work their lives away or be given to our more sadistic brothers.”

“But why do I get such special treatment?”

“Because you are mine.  Your daughter is mine.  Hell, I might even stick another baby in you just to keep my family going.”

“I'll kill you if you come near me,” Liz warned.

“No, you won't.  You will be my pet until I tire of you.  And then you will be given to the dogs to devour.”  Liz didn't know it, but John wasn't referring to the canine of the species.  The majority of males descended further than others into a savage, rabid-like creature.  “You are lucky really. There aren't that many vampires who retained their cognitive abilities.  If not for me, things could have gone so much worse for you.”  John stepped back from the wire.  “Here, you will be fed twice a day.  You might not find the taste to your liking, but the food is designed for maximum blood output.  And you will eat it because your daughter's well-being hangs in the balance.”

“Don't you feel anything for me?”  Liz knew if she could just somehow get through to him.

“You are food, Liz.  The sooner you realise that, the sooner you will come to love your new home.”

“Go fuck yourself!” Liz screamed, which woke some of her fellow prisoners.  Their muffled voices seemed to agitate John.

“I'll see you soon, Liz.  We'll catch up and talk about the old times.  But in the meantime, don't go running off.”  John turned and strode out the way he had come.

Liz wanted to show more defiance; to hurl abuse after him in the hope that he would tear the door off her cage and rip her throat out.  But that would be selfish.  She had a daughter somewhere in this facility that she needed to try and protect.  And if that meant Liz had to endure and suffer for decades so that John would keep his hands off Ruby, then that was exactly what she would do.

A mother’s love could endure many things...but could it endure that?