Love Bites by Crimson Romance

Author:Crimson Romance [Romance, Crimson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, paranormal
Publisher: Crimson Romance, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
Published: 2012-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

“So, you asked Stonewall Jackson to make you a vampire?” Abby wiped tears from her eyes. The poignancy of Malcolm’s story gnawed at the pit of her stomach.

“Actually, I asked him to kill me, but he wouldn’t do it. I told him I couldn’t do it myself. I wanted to die a soldier’s death, an honorable death at the hand of the enemy. And then he came up with an alternative. He’d never turned anyone, but he’d be willing to make me a vampire. Speaking from his own experience, he told me that emotional pain is not as intense for a creature of the night. Though he missed his wife and daughter, being a vampire gave him a different perspective. I didn’t understand how it could be any different, but if he wasn’t willing to kill me, I told him I’d take the next best thing.”

“Becoming a vampire, you mean?”

“Yes, though the irony is that I missed Sarah just as much after I was turned, and becoming a vampire did nothing to assuage my guilt. What Stonewall hadn’t accounted for was the fact that his wife and daughter were still alive. Even though he missed them terribly, he had hope for their future, whereas my wife was lost to the ages.” Malcolm got up from the footstool and walked to the mantel. He stared into the fire.

Abby left the wing chair and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face to his back. “If you’ll let me, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you never feel that kind of pain again.”

Malcolm folded his arms around hers. “You’ve already brought me out of the darkness, Abby.”

With her head still pressed against his back, Abby asked, “Why didn’t General Jackson visit his wife and daughter himself?”

“He thought it would be too much of a shock for his wife. She’d seen him ensconced in a coffin, laid in the ground, and covered with dirt.”

“Okay, I need more information here.”

Malcolm turned to face Abby. “Sorry. Let me explain.” Malcolm ran a hand through his hair. “Stonewall didn’t die from his arm amputation. He was recovering from the surgery when he contracted pneumonia, and that was the fatal blow. The doctor who attended Stonewall knew the day he was going to die, and told him so. But he gave Stonewall a choice. He offered him the alternative of immortality.”

“So, the doctor was a vampire?”

“Yes. He actually turned Stonewall on the day everyone else thought he died. New vampires need a couple of days of complete rest before they can emerge in their altered state. The doctor bit Stonewall, and ordinarily in vampire creation, the inductee would then bite the vampire. But Stonewall was in such a weakened state that the doctor bit himself on the wrist and let the blood trickle into Stonewall’s mouth. The doctor called Stonewall’s family back in the room and pronounced the general dead. Two days after the funeral, the doctor returned to the gravesite and uncovered Stonewall Jackson, vampire.

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