IM01 - Carpe Noctem Read Online Free PDF Page A

nose. His eyebrows pulled together and small creases formed in between them.
    I waited anxiously for what would come next.
    “You are a vampire.”
    “A what?” I shrieked.
    “You are a vampire, Alyssa,” he said slowly. “An immortal.”
    “No! That’s not possible.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Vampires aren’t real. They’re fiction; nothing but stories and myths.”
    One of his dark eyebrows rose slightly. He cocked his head to the side. He smirked as his eyes trailed down from my face. “Did you not notice the mark on your neck? Do you not remember drinking my blood?” His fangs showed as he spoke: pure white, sharp little daggers, just a slight bit longer than the rest of his teeth. His voice carried that same arrogance I remembered from when he talked with my attackers.
    My mouth hung open. No, this isn’t possible .
    Things were still fuzzy in my head, but I did remember the blood, the liquid fire, I had been forced to drink. I’d hoped it had just been some drug-induced dream.
    Oh, my God, it was true. I drank his blood . “I’m…a … vampire?”
    “Yes.” He smiled. “Our kind are very real. And now, Alyssa, you are one of us.”
    I slumped backwards into the cushions of the couch. His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I stared wide-eyed at the distant wall. This was like some terrible nightmare. I didn’t want to believe what he was telling me, but I knew he was right. There was no other way to explain what had happened to me. No amount of hallucinogenic drugs could have explained how I had survived the attack, why I had these markings, or the sharpness of my own new set of fangs.
    “Does that mean I’m… undead?”
    “You are immortal,” Lysander said with a casual wave of his hand. “ Undead is a silly term mortals use to explain the supernatural things they cannot possibly understand. You are no more dead than you were when you woke up this morning. You are just, for lack of a better word, changed.”
    Lysander gave me another toothy grin. His fangs were frightening to look at. The memory of him biting me played over and over in my mind like a video stuck on repeat.
    “But you drank my blood.” My hand shot back up to cover the wound on my neck.
    “Only enough to allow the transformation.”
    He reached out, grabbed my hand, and pulled it from my neck.
    “Don’t touch me.” I flinched, annoyed and afraid at his sudden gesture. I tried to pull my hand out of his grip, but he was so much stronger than I was. He pushed my hand to my chest, forcing me to feel the erratic thumping of my heart.
    “You see,” he said calmly. “Your heart still beats.”
    I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. “But…how?” I relaxed my hand relaxed under his grip.
    “Unlike some of your other organs, your heart is still necessary to keep blood flowing through your body.” Lysander let go of me. “For now, while your body is in transition, it will beat in an accelerated rhythm, but it will eventually slow itself to a more normal pace.”
    I was speechless. My mind raced, recalling books and movies, everything I knew about vampire mythology. Bats, stakes, and garlic immediately popped into my mind.
     “I must mention that your generation’s ideas of vampires are a bit off.” Lysander spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Many of the popular books and movies about our kind are no more real than children’s fairytales.”
    Is he reading my mind? I wondered how he seemed to say just the right thing as I was thinking it. “So, none of the stories are true?”
    “Most of the new stories you are probably familiar with are filled with complete nonsense.”
    “What about the old ones, like Dracula?”
    Lysander sighed. His shoulders slumped. “Dracula is not what I would consider an old story, but yes, a few are based on some truth, however little it may be. There is much that is added to make us seem easier to deal with.” His lip curled into a crooked