Page 3 of Alaska Lights

I’m no longer alone.

A gurgle sounds at the foot of my cot, warmth coating the blanket. Lightning strikes, providing a brief moment of illumination.

Red eyes stare back at me. Long wild black hair frames his monstrous face. Talons grip the nurse’s neck, his mouth locked on her throat as he feeds. Blood drapes his chin, dripping off his face and onto the sheet covering me.

And then darkness falls again.

Something thuds to the ground and at the same time a loud lightning bolt strikes outside. A bright glow flashes and the creature is at my bedside, blood of my only friend wetting his mouth.

The only person who was going to send me off to my death with kindness.

Most men in my position would try to run away to save themselves. Even the sick here begged for life when all they were promised was death. I’m not like them. I’m not going to beg for my life when there is no life to be lived.

I am in a dying body that needs put out of its misery.

“You reek of death,” the creature snarls, clattering its teeth together. His voice is deep, pulling at the reminder of life I have left in me. He flicks his claw, raking it on the metal of the cot, lighting his nail on fire.

I’m able to see his face now. Sharp cheeks, strong jawline, and a firm, square nose with bright crimson eyes. His fangs glisten against his bloodstained lips, a curiosity sparkling in his eyes that remind me of the stars on a cloudless night.

He is a handsome vampire.

I’ll happily die in the hands of beauty. That won’t be a sacrifice.

“You are sick with consumption,” he speaks, the depth of his voice tingling my mind. “You don’t have very long. I give you a few days.”

“What—” I wheeze. “Do you want? I’m dying already. Kill me and get it over with.”

He leans over me, his bloody claws tickling across my cheek. “I give you a few days,” he repeats. “Or I can give you two hundred years. You will get to live again. You’ll be healed. You can have the lives you didn’t get to have as a human. If you meet someone and love them enough to not wait for the Goddess Fate to give you your other half, then you will live for a thousand years. Or if you meet your destined, you will live for all eternity.”

All of those options sound better than what’s happening right now. I can live. I can go to my mama’s ranch. Maybe I can fall in love. If not, I have two hundred years to figure it out.

“You’ll outlive every plague that comes to existence. Sickness that wipes out entire villages won’t touch you. You’ll never get sick again. This”—he hisses, waving his hand up and down my body—“will be a thing of the past.” He curls his lip, showing one of his sharp fangs. “I can’t even remember what it is like to be in such a weak and fragile body, but that might be because I was born this way. Powerful and better than humans will ever be.”

“It isn’t great.” I cough again, not bothering to cover my mouth. I hurl over the bed, dry heaving from the force, and nothing comes out. I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten.

I can hear my heartbeat in my head. It’s so loud, pounding to be let out and put into a useful body.

“Consumption is not over. This is only the beginning. More will die unless they want the hope of living forever.”

I scoff, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand. I shouldn’t scoff at death, the being that will kill me in just a few moments time. I lack the care it takes to not hold back.

“You do not fear me,” he states, continuing to try to have a conversation when people are still screaming for their lives down the hall as his friends feast. “I heard you before.” He taps his left ear with his long, black claw. “You didn’t believe we existed and yet here I am.” He curls over me, his glowing scarlet eyes portals to hell. “And you aren’t surprised.”

“Why do you keep speaking?” My head throbs with his impatience. I do not understand why he is still spewing nonsense. “Am I hallucinating again?” That has to be the reason for this odd conversation.

Consumption has finally poisoned my mind.

Yes, yes, yes.

That’s the only option. The only possibility to excuse the vampire at my bedside. He is a story. A nightmare. A tale to tell friends around a fire.

Nothing more.

“You’ll be disappointed to know I am not a figment of your imagination. I am Ceroes.” He places a hand against his chest and gives a small bow.

I manage to push myself up into a seated position, the room spinning as dizziness takes hold. Gripping the sides of the bed, I wait for it to pass like always.

“If you don’t take my offer, you will die.”