A Vampire Named Rose

Chapter Twenty Five

I slept through the night peacefully and in the morning, I had to free myself from Gabriel's arms. Somehow he had gotten his way during the night.

As soon as I was out of bed, I got ready for the day. I was reaching for my lipstick when I felt myself being grabbed around my torso. I was in front of the mirror when I saw no one. I raised the lipstick but I felt the words of Gabriel being spoken into my neck.

"Please don't, how will I be able to kiss you if you wear that crap?"

I smirked. "All the more reason to wear it."

He spun me around to face him. I did not get far with my makeup. I just finished with eyeliner and mascara. I heard a clink from the metal cube. That was when Gabriel attacked my mouth with a vicious kiss.

When he kissed me, I felt my eyes burn. I know what happened and I pulled myself away.

"Will you stop that. That hurts."

Before he could respond, Pavel rescued me.

"Rose, Svetlana is asking for you. She says she is a little nauseated."

I got a brief glance at myself in the mirror. Obviously, Gabriel's work failed.

"I will be right over. Go get her some peppermint tea. Morphine can make you nauseous."

When I left the room, I walked into Svetlana's room. She was sitting up and looked queasy.

"How is the pain?"

I began to examine her and I removed the dressing.

"Gone and my stomach is upset. Please do not tell me that...

I could see it in her eyes. "Calm down, you did have a blood transfusion but it does not affect your soul. You were given the blood to help you heal.

The wound is mostly healed. I will still clean it out and keep a bandage on it. How does your arm feel? Do you have any numbness?"

Svetlana moved her elbow and moved her fingers for me.

"They feel fine. It just hurts to raise my arm. Are you going to clean it out now?"

"Yes"

I cleaned the wound and bandaged Svetlana up. Her arm would be back in the sling.

"Rose, let's have the talk about you going to medical school since I am not under the influence of pain meds."

Shit, I was trying to avoid this conversation. It is too late now.

"Svetlana, I do not think I should go. Gabriel is practically holding me hostage and he is clingy. How often would I be able to use it? You spend four years just to prepare for the possibility of getting in. It is another ten years for medical school. If you want to get into some specialty field like surgery, you are looking at three to five years of training."

I do not think she was expecting that kind of answer from me.

"Just think about it, Rose. More women are going to medical school."

Svetlana is always the insistent type. I will not hear the end of it until something is officially done. Pavel said she was like that growing up.

"I will, but we all need this huntress bitch gone. She maimed you. She is a threat to us."

I left Svetlana to be. There is no way for the huntress to access Svetlana here which is perfect. I know once she is found, Pavel will kill her.

Out in the hall, Gabriel was waiting for me.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, we need to continue the conversation we were having. I know I am not going to win the makeup debate with you. That will not change, what I am concerned with is what happened to your eyes earlier. Rose, that is not normal. That is your soul doing this to you. It is to keep you in line to make sure you act like a human when you are not one."

Fantastic, another soul lecture. Gabriel, you are not going to win.

"Gabriel, just leave it alone. You are too clingy as it is."

"Rose, what you call clingy is normal for claimed vampires. I imagine when you let me remove your soul you will act that way too.

Now I did hear your discussion with Svetlana. I think you should go. Plenty of us do get attacked by a huntress. Most of us have to take care of it ourselves because we cannot see a regular doctor. The only help you can get is if you find a doctor or nurse who was turned. That is rare.

The Huntress has another way to kill us. It is called violet arrows. They are glowing purple arrows. When you are hit with them, you are poisoned and cursed to a long and painful death. The poison basically turns the body of the vampire into a husk."

That is bad. That is very bad. I do not wish a death like that on my worse enemy. I would not even wish it on Gabriel.

"Is there any way to cure it? How hard is it to destroy the huntresses?"

"The only way to survive a violet arrow is to drain dry a huntress. They are elusive but they can be everywhere. They feel the need to kill the souled ones just to be safe. If all of the huntresses are destroyed, the vampires could control the planet."

Now he is insane. Gabriel needs to be in a psychiatric hospital.

"Gabriel, you are acting a little crazy here. I know there is a psychiatrist I could take you to."

It is in the best interest of humanity that I do it.

Gabriel began to kiss me like he did earlier. This time I felt his fangs when he forced my mouth open. My eyes hurt and my mouth even more. I cried out in pain. Why does he keep hurting me like this?

"Rose, I suppose you want to know why I did this? Do you honestly enjoy having to pick up and move because of the humans? You should move whenever the hell you want. You should not have to move because the humans are suspicious.

We are above them in all ways. The humans were not here first, we were. There was a succubus who created the human to destroy us. Her name was Aurora. The soul curse from Marius is not the first curse that is placed on the vampires.

Aurora fell in love with a vampire who didn't love her back. He had eyes for another. She killed his mate. To make him and all vampires suffer, she created the human to kill us. She is the reason why we cannot go into the sun. She is the reason why we can not have children.

Yes, vampires used to have children. Aurora took that away from us. I do not dare say this to Svetlana given the situation of losing her child. I know Peter will not as well."

Why does the man have to make everything so difficult? Do I want to have kids and with him? I do not want to condemn a child to this. Taking my soul away, it basically means I will be compelled to love him. I think that is part of it.