Blood Gifts by Kara Lockley Read Free Book Online

shirts off hangers and a couple pairs of
jeans from a shelf. He put it all in a duffel bag. He pulled a
backpack from the closet and filled it with the meager contents of
a few drawers. He carried it all with one hand and put his other
hand on Karina's back as he led her out of the apartment.
    The sun was starting to come up as they
ascended the stairs.
    "This way," Luke said as he walked to a
carport on the side of the house. He pulled a tarp off of an old
dark green car and threw the tarp in the trunk. It was a car he had
fixed up, a muscle car from the '70s. He threw his duffel and
backpack in the back seat, then led Karina to the front seat and
helped her in. She seemed to be in shock. He shut the door behind
her and sped around to the driver's side. He got in, started the
car and quickly pulled out onto the road. He started driving, and
kept glancing at her to see how she was doing.
    "You okay?" he asked her.
    "I feel like I'm dead," she said quietly.
    "What?" He was startled by this.
    "I can't go home. I can't take anything I own
with me. My friends won't know where I am. And my life is sort of
over. My town, my business... and vampires are after me." She
stared at the road ahead.
    "I'm so sorry for this," he said quietly, and
put a hand on her forearm. She had her arms wrapped around herself.
She loosened her arms so she could hold his hand.
    "You can call your friends," he said kindly,
"when we get to where we're going. They can take care of your
apartment and everything." He squeezed her hand.
    "Okay," she said. A few tears rolled down her
cheeks. "Why do they want me so bad?" she asked. "Even if they
change me, I wouldn't be theirs." She looked over at him with
worry.
    "You actually would be, the way they do it,"
Luke said.
    "How do they do it?" Karina asked.
    Luke took an exit off the highway to get onto
another road, as he answered her. "Well, first of all, whoever
turns you into a vampire... your personality is sort of infected
with their personality. Infused with it. So if they changed you,
you would be a lot like them. You would also have a bond to whoever
changed you. Making you feel a pull to them. Making you loyal to
them." He looked at her.
    She looked worried as she stared out the
window. "Is there more?" she said flatly.
    "Yes," he said. "In the first three days of
your vampire life you are very vulnerable. The Runic clan uses this
time to do magic on you. They put spells on you that will make you
loyal to them, make you love them, obey them."
    "Oh, my God," Karina said. "I would really be
their slave." She looked shocked.
    "Yes, but it won't happen," Luke assured her.
"I won't let it." He squeezed her hand again.
    "Well, who changed you?" she asked. "What
group are you a part of?"
    "It doesn't work like that. I mean not every
vampire is part of a group." He checked the gas gauge then. They
should have plenty for a while. He glanced over at her. "I was
changed by a priest," he said.
    She looked over at him then, her eyes wide
with surprise. "What?"
    He laughed. "He was a good person. He was a
priest before he became a vampire, but even afterwards he was
sincere about it." He smiled at her. "He saved my life. I was dying
from a wound. I had been attacked by robbers on the road as I
traveled by foot." He sounded quiet, talking about things that had
happened so long ago.
    "How old are you?" Karina asked quietly.
    "I'm 251," he answered.
    She mouthed the word "wow". He smiled.
     
    ***
     
     
    Luke drove up to a bright little motel just
off the highway, inside the first town they had come to. Karina had
dozed off in the front seat and he didn't want to wake her. He got
out of the car quietly and went to rent them a room. When he came
back she was awake and looking anxious again. She got out of the
car when she saw him, and he led her to their room.
    "Home sweet home," he said as he opened the
door and let her inside. She walked exhausted to the bed and lay
down on it fully clothed, on top of the covers. He