Turnings (Southern Vampire Mysteries)

Chapter 24 - Across the River

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"It's been nice having you here," Lily laid her hand on Rick's shoulder. They were all in the family room. Gran had gone to bed, complaining George ran her ragged at the arcade. George's Gran seemed nice enough, but Rick could hear her thoughts, and they weren't all happy. She liked Mr. Hermosa well enough, but she wished her daughter had found a better father for her children, by that she meant someone not a vampire. It was just as well she'd gone to bed. The donors came soon after, and Rick could tell having humans come to provide blood was causing some tension between Lily and her Mom.

"Have you heard from your Father?" Lily asked.

Rick shook his head. A part of him hadn't expected to, but another part was disappointed just the same.

"Don't read anything into it," Mr. Hermosa told him. "My bet is your Father is very busy. He is just made King and that requires many things to happen. He needs to affirm his Sheriffs and establish his place early, or other vampires might get ideas." Rick saw Mrs. Hermosa shoot Mr. Hermosa a sharp look. He could hear her worry that Rubio would be given an important position, one that would place him in the line of more danger.

Mr. Hermosa had looked gray when he walked up from the basement tonight. He explained it was a side-effect of silver poisoning, and it would take some time before all the silver was gone from his system. He told Rick that a Maker's blood, or a sibling's blood from the same Maker would help speed his recovery, "In my case, I was the only vampire my Maker had the time to create. He fell to his final death shortly after making me. We had less than a hundred years together."

"Was he kind?" Rick asked. Rick was getting the impression most Makers were not kind. It sounded to Rick like a vampire was better off killing his or her Maker, and that didn't sound promising.

"He was a kind man," Rubio assured him, "He had been a vampire for a very long time, but never felt the need to create another until he found me. He considered turning me a sacred calling, and he took his time preparing me for this life." Rick filed that idea away, the one that vampires had some kind of signal telling them who to turn.

"So, what is the best thing about being a vampire?" Rick asked. It was something he wanted to know, for both himself and his Mom, for after.

"Blood bonds," Mr. Hermosa grinned. He took Mrs. Hermosa's hand in his, "We are tied together now, and the intimacy you gain with a person through a true blood bond is a powerful thing." He raised his wife's hand to his lips and Rick could see their happiness. It was like a living presence in the room with them, and then Mr. Hermosa's eyes shifted, and the sensation dimmed.

"When you take blood from a person, you have that moment when you feel connected to them," he told Rick. Rick nodded. He had noticed it. At first, he thought it was his telepathy, but then he realized the experience was different. It was more like a brief glance at a snapshot of the person. It faded quickly, and Rick now found he could almost ignore it. "Well, imagine that experience, but a hundred times stronger with someone you love who loves you in return. It is as if you are one person. You feel their care for you. You know when they're worried, and you can send that person the strength they need when they need it. When that person thinks warm thoughts, it warms you. Before I bonded, I would have told you a hundred other things, but now? Now there is only one thing that matters."

"Jeez, Dad!" George rolled his eyes.

"Someday I hope you find someone you feel as strongly about as I feel about your Mother," Mr. Hermosa said, his voice reasonable.