Untitled Chapter twelve

Suddenly I felt a chill creep up my spine; the air around me became very thick till it was almost choking me. Momentarily panic ensued me. There was no way for me to escape this but I sensed that something was wrong; very wrong. I rushed down the cliff side and ran; I did not know where I was heading to I just followed where I felt I was being led to. The panic died and was replaced with a sudden urgency as I heard the yells and growls of the fight. I arrived to the edge of the wooded area and in the clearing ahead of me I saw the battle.
First I saw Christian, he seemed to be holding his own against the vampire attacking him. Liz and some of her coven were battling another group. Then I saw Matthew, he was pinned down by four vampires and a fifth was looking straight at me as they injected him with what I could only assume was holy water. As soon as it was done the vampires quickly pulled away from him. I summoned everything I could and caused a gust of wind to push them far away from him as I rushed to his side. I knew what to do as I grabbed his arm and began to suck the poison from him.
“Owwww,” I screamed out as I pulled back and spit the fluid from my burning mouth. Suddenly silence engulfed the clearing as tears rolled down my face; I knew I couldn’t save him as I had done with Christian.
“You did change,” Matthew said.
I looked at him. If I had turned then I didn’t know why it hadn’t showed up before this. I looked at him and knew that I didn’t want to see him die. I began to try again to suck the poison from him but he pushed me away.
“No, it will kill you,” he said.
“Then it will kill you,” I begged of him.
“I couldn’t live knowing you died because of me,” he said as he touched my cheek and wiped away the tears.
“But I have to live knowing you died because of me?”
“No, I am going to die because of Abraham and his coven of followers, not because of you.”
“But they did it because of me.”
“Doesn’t change the fact. And if you really love me then you will always remember that,” he said as he pulled me towards him. I wrapped my arms around him as the water slowly reached his heart. I could feel his heart as it burst from the invasion. And then he was gone. There were no dying words, no time for a final kiss.
An anger passed over me that I had never felt before, I stood up and looked at the vampires that had killed Matthew. Suddenly they burst into flames; not a single one of Benjamin’s vampires in the clearing survived. I collapsed onto the ground near Matthew, only vaguely aware of voices and of the entry ways as they opened and closed. I woke up in the cave, disoriented and unsure of what was going on. As I sat up I could feel the scars to the roof of my mouth, a small bit of proof that to some degree I had turned. Holy water now held the same deadly force over me as it did with the vampires. The odd thing was that I still didn’t feel any different. I heard Christians voice outside of the cave.
“I don’t know that it is a good idea. We have no idea what could happen.”
“But it is better to find out for ourselves. The last thing we need is for Benjamin to get control of the situation,” Liz’s voice answered back.
“Still to risk her turning violent, it could be worse than I am when I go back.”
“We will be there to help keep her under control. But we need to find out for sure.”
“She didn’t turn when we were there before. I’m telling you that we tried this before.”
“But things have changed. Matthew always said that he was able to keep from turning violent by a control of his emotions. We all know that you hold a hatred to yourself for what you have become. Well up till now she has had a control, the loss of Matthew might have caused her to lose that control. We need to find out.”
“I don’t want to put her through that. Not now, she has to deal with his loss first.”
“That is the best time, while she doesn’t have control. We need to find out. The sooner the better, we know that one of Abraham’s guys got through the entry way. By now he knows that Matthew is dead and she is turned. So we may not have a lot of time before he plots his next attack.”
“I know,” he said. The conversation seemed to just stop.
I stood up and walked to the cave entrance. Suddenly annoyed by the brush that had served as a door of sorts and I quickly caused them to fall over. I stepped out to find that neither Christian nor Liz were anywhere around. I looked around the base of the cliff and still no sign. I could hear them talking again but I didn’t see them.
“Christian, can you hear me?”
They both stopped talking again.
“You heard me didn’t you? Where are you? I can here you talking but I can’t see you,” I repeated, trying to keep my voice steady.
“We are in Christian’s cave,” Liz answered back.
I opened an entryway and stepped out into the cave next to them. Christian took one look at me and quickly grabbed a hold of me. I looked up at him not sure of anything right now. I wanted to cry but couldn’t. The rush of thoughts and emotions made me dizzy and I was grateful that he was holding so tight because I might have just dropped otherwise.
“It would seem that even more of the vampire is showing up in you,” Liz stated.
“Drop it Liz,” Christian demanded.
“I’ve given my opinion. We will still help but if you are risking our lives unnecessarily I can’t assure you for how long.”
“Thanks,” he said as he scooped me up and sat me down on the bedding area.
“You know she’s right,” I said as I watched her leave.
“I think we need to exercise our other options first. What about the leaders from your parents village? Maybe they could help you?”
“I don’t know if there is any precedence for this. Matthew was one of the originals and he had never heard of it. I can’t imagine that they would know anything.”
“Well maybe you should ask just in case,” he suggested.
“Not today, I couldn’t handle it.”
“No, not today,” he said as he sat down next to me and pulled me close against him. In fact it was the first time he had been able to relax when holding me. I guess he believed it too, I was turning.
Eventually I fell asleep to awake in the middle of the night hungry. The problem was that I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be hungry for. Christian moved and then sat up when he realized I wasn’t there anymore. I moved back over to him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m hungry,” I said.
“Are you craving anything specific?”
“No, I don’t know what I should be hungry for.”
“Well all this time you have been surviving just fine off of fruit and rabbit so there is no reason to assume differently at this time. If it doesn’t satisfy you then we will go from there.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll go catch the rabbit you go and get the fruit. Meet you back here in just a few.”
“Okay.”
I watched as he rushed out the door. I opened an entry way and stepped out into the orchard. I picked a fruits and was about to open a new entry when I started to wonder if I had the same speed as they did. To be honest I wanted to try but at the same time I was afraid of looking like an idiot if I couldn’t. I finally gave up the thought and returned by entry way. Christian was already there cooking the rabbit. I was glad that the scent was appealing still.
I ate with my usual gusto and was very happy that I felt satisfied. At least that hunger was. I should be in mourning but instead I turned to my other love to satisfy my other hunger. He resisted for just a moment before he was unable to control his own desires. He paused when I bit him but then he felt the same rush and we satisfied all our desires. He held me close afterwards.
“Is that how it was with you and Matthew?” he asked.
“Well it is different…”
“Okay, let me reword that. Did you always bite him too?”
“I never really have thought about it. Yeah I guess I did. Well not the first few times.”
“When did it start?” he asked a hint of urgency in his voice. I looked up at his face unable to read his expression.
“I don’t really know.”
“I need you to think. When did you start that?”
I thought about it. Then it came to me.
“After we came back from Vegas.”
“I’ve never heard of it before, but then again you are a new breed altogether. But I have a feeling that any blood lust you have is sated by drinking from Matthew before and me now,” he said. The look on his face was not necessarily a good one.
“That’s a good thing isn’t it?”
“Maybe yes and maybe no.”
“You lost me.”
“Well it is a good thing if you can feed off of any vampire, but if you are dependent on the two of us that sired you then you will die if anything ever happens to me. If you can feed off any vampire then that is better, but then again that is something else that Abraham can use if he finds out. Actually it can be used either way.”
“Oh,” was the only word that came out.
I realized the good and bad of what he was saying. Basically he was saying that I didn’t crave human blood, I craved vampire blood. The question was if it was specific vampire blood or not. I leaned up against him, neither of us spoke as we watched the sun slowly started to rise and light up the cave. I needed to go and talk to Merlin and Christoff, maybe they could shed some light onto what was going on; at least from that side of the heritage.
I spoke with Christian about it and he agreed that it would be a good idea. He asked me a few more questions regarding my feeding habits. I couldn’t help but blush, even though the question was a legitimate need to know the ultimate answer was how often Matthew and I had made love. It was a very hard subject to talk to him about. There was no other option and I knew it. He requested an entry way be opened to where Liz was and then he was gone.
As the entry way closed I felt suddenly unsure of everything. I couldn’t help but question all my recent decisions. When this became completely futile I gave up and went to the caverns. It took me a while to finally find Christoff, he seemed very flustered that I was there. As I tried to explain my dilemma he just kept looking around as if something was about to jump out at him.
“Without the records we can’t help you. We need the records. They were hidden by the third of the elders, the one we told you about. We have told you about all of this before. We need those records.”
“I will try and get them for you.”
“Can you fix this plant please? I asked your father to take care of it but he didn’t have time. It needs sunlight but since we don’t have that around here we need someone to bring it back every time it starts to die.”
I fixed the plant and he thanked me before rushing off again. I wandered down the center of the caverns still very much an outcast by many of the villagers there. As I approached the farther end of the caverns Lucas came rushing towards me. Before I could say anything he pulled me to the smaller cavern we always hung out in. Once we were at the rain forest he let go of my arm.
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded.
“You need to leave and never come back.”
“Lucas what is wrong with you?”
“I just overheard Merlin talking, he was talking to one of the blood drinkers. I have seen him here before but figured he was like you and your father able to make their own entry ways. They are using you, testing to see how much power you really have. Someone named Abraham is promising them something or other for doing it. I was helping them and I didn’t know why. Testing you till you had exhausted your energy. They had me believing that it was for your benefit. You need to go, it is not safe for you here.”
“Apparently I am not safe anywhere.”
“You need to leave,” he insisted again.
“Before I go I have to ask you something and I need a straight answer, when was the last time that you saw my father?”
“I think he was here a few days ago.”
“You are sure it was my father?”
“Of course,” he answered sounding a bit rebuffed by my questioning him.
“Thank you.”
I left the caverns and went back to my cave once more. It seemed like a lifetime had passed me by. My father had purposely abandoned my mother and me. I thought about my mother’s journal and how she had thought he was dead since he didn’t return to her. I couldn’t help but wonder if things would have been different had he stuck around. So many questions circled through my mind.
Questions that might never be answered. And yet I found myself wanting the answers, wanting to know the truth. I thought about my parents from the other world and how they were betrayed by my father’s partner. How they had been betrayed from the early days of me being placed in their care. How they betrayed my real mother by refusing to give me the box she had left behind for me.
Even my own body was betraying me. I had turned but it took Matthew being killed for us to find out. And that all led back to Abraham. Abraham the last of the original three, the one that had started this all. The anger seemed to boil inside me as I thought about Matthews final moments; how his heart had exploded as we held each other. That nagging elephant was back again. I was furious, why couldn’t I figure out what was bugging me so badly. I started to look around the cave. Everything seemed to be in order; but I knew that something here was wrong.
I started to tear through everything. I pulled everything out of the storage spot. I dumped everything out of Matthews bag. I had turned over every stone, log, and paper in the place and I couldn’t find the blasted elephant. I sat on the floor my back against the wall as tears finally came to me. The image of Matthew’s face right before he died. There had been no dying declarations, just telling me that it was Abraham and his followers that caused his death not me. I remembered what my father’s business partner had said to me, Abraham was going after the ones that I loved.
Me falling through the mirror had not been an accident. It had been a carefully calculated plan. He had been in on the plan, Max had been in on the plan, Merlin and Christoff… All had been helping Abraham. Through blurry eyes I looked up at the mess I had made in the cave, and then I paused on the boxes. The ones that had been sealed on the other world. I felt a chill run across the back of my neck. I reached up to try and rub away the sensation. As I did so my fingers ran across the necklace that I was wearing.
I pulled it off and looked at it. Gently rolling the crystal between my fingers until I suddenly saw the elephant reflecting. I looked up again at the contents that were scattered across the cave floor. People had been lying to me from the start. I had discovered that Max was in cahoots with Abraham and yet I had still held onto the things he had told me. I had wanted to believe. Everything had seemed to fit, everything except the pendants. He had said that he gave them to her to use if she found a cure.
But the first box was left with me on the doorstep of my parents house. If that was true the pendant could not have been in there. Max claimed that he had not met my mother until after she had given me up. My head began to ache again. Did he really even know my mother? How did he get the box? I started to rummage through the items until I came across the satchel that had been sealed on the other world. It opened now and note slipped out along with a ground up plant.
I picked up the note, and written in the same hand writing as my mother’s journal. ‘Use with rabbits blood to heal almost anything.’ “You will be turned,” Cassie’s words echoed through my head. How long had all of this been planned? Max and my father’s business partner had been in on it; I could only guess from the start. Somehow someone had placed the necklace inside the box that my aunt had kept for me. Then I thought about how she had said she had tried to get it open.
Which brought it down to two possibilities, either she had been in on it from the beginning or someone that she had taken the box to had been. But then how would they have known that she would keep it and eventually give it to me. I had no other choice but to assume that she was in on the deception too. My parents, the ones that had called all morning long about making sure that I was at that party that evening. But why take me to America, why keep the box away from me?
How far back did the plot go? Merlin and Christoff, and then I remembered the dream of them studying one of the records with my father. The father that was supposed to have died saving my mother from being bitten. The one that was still visiting the caverns on a regular basis. I could only guess that somehow he was also included into the plot. He had purposely sought out to become marked.
I began to doubt everything. How was it that Matthew arrived just in time to help my mother when she needed it? Then he became the one to actually mark her. How many were actually in on this all? Was Liz and her coven really helping me or were they all a part of this too? What about Christian? Was it planned that he would be the one to find me when I was forced into this world? I couldn’t trust anyone. My emotions turned so many times that I just couldn’t focus any more.
The anger of everything I had been through boiled up inside of me. I couldn’t hold back anymore, a huge gust of wind came in and pushed everything against the back wall of the cave. I looked up and saw Christian standing there looking at me with a puzzled look. I had so desperately wanted to have someone to lean on, and there he was as always showing up at just the right time. Too perfectly choreographed.
“Jesse, what’s going on?” he asked. How good he was at faking shock.
“I finally figured it all out. How carefully planned this all was. I just want to know how long?”
“Jesse, what are you talking about?”
“Get out of here. I can’t stand to even look at you.”
Finally I couldn’t contain the anger; I opened up an entry way and went back into the other world. I was out for blood, but not just any blood; I was after the blood of all those that had sided with Abraham. The ones that ultimately had caused the death of Matthew. At least I knew his death was real, at least that wasn’t a lie. I almost wanted to laugh; the ones that sought me out to control and convert me. They had gotten their wish I had been converted but not in the way that they had hoped.
I stepped out into the living room of Max’s flat above his store. When he came out of the restroom he came to a sudden stop. Looking around he seemed completely put out. I used the wind to push him hard against the wall. He tried to run for the door, I pushed him back again.
“I have just one question for you, How long?” I asked as I used the wind to keep him pinned against the wall.
“How long for what?” he yelled against the force of the wind.
“How long have you been in on the plan? How long have you been helping them plan to change me?”
“Fifteen years,” he yelled the fear starting to give way in his voice. The wind died down and he dropped to the ground. Slowly he stood up and looked at me.
“Abraham, recruited me and I have been helping ever since.”
“Thank you for finally being honest about something,” I said as I turned and started to go through the entry way I had just made, but then I turned back to him one more time.
“Oh and Max.”
“What?”
“Burn in hell,” I said before I turned away. I could hear him scream out as the flames engulfed him.
I stepped out into the next house, this one was very familiar to me. Familiar because I had found the other world from here. I carefully climbed the stairs up to the master suite. I opened the door to find him sitting up in the bed reading a book. The book dropped onto his lap as he looked over and saw me. I smiled at him.
“I decided I wouldn’t wait for Abraham to have all the fun,” I stated as I watched him char instantly where he was at.
I stepped through another entry way and landed in my aunts bedroom. The room was empty, I went down stairs. I heard her voice in the kitchen along with a very familiar voice. My mother. Anger boiled up inside me until the house shot up in flames. I heard the screams as I stepped through another entry way. I wasn’t sure where I was at but I looked around until I saw a group of vampires that were mingling with their human prey.
I walked up and confronted them. They all stopped and stared at me. Their future meal seemed just as confused as they were. Everyone stood still. I smiled and cocked my head back.
“This is all so new to me. A sudden lust I have never experienced before. I need help to learn how to satisfy it.”
“We could do that for you,” the one closest to the prey stated.
“Really? Is it that easy?” I asked.
“It’s a party, there will be others,” he said with an evil smile.
“I have always loved a party,” I said trying to contain my desire to attack them right there.
“Come with us.”
“Will Abraham be there?”
“No he doesn’t come to these parties,” he said. The look he gave me proved that he wasn’t so sure of me.
“Good I don’t want him getting in my way of having a good time,” I said with a laugh.
Which was the truth, I wanted word to get to him but I didn’t want to risk him stopping me or anything else of the sort. I was not ready to confront him yet, I wanted to reduce his numbers first. Hopefully it would hurt him just a bit. It made me wonder if there was anyone special to him. The way that Matthew had talked about him he cared about no one but himself. I followed the group as they made their way through a narrow passage way beneath the building.
“We’re here,” one of the others stated as they opened the door. I had been so lost in my own thoughts that I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going.
I stuck close to the prey they had brought with them as we entered the building. It was by all pretenses a wild party. The array of dress was completely off scale; the music at least was somewhat modern. The room was dark with lights of red and blue flashing across the room. It was so crowded that unless you really knew what you were looking for you wouldn’t realize someone was being mauled to death.
We went off to a small room on the side just the three of us; one of the prey, me and the one vampire that had spoken earlier. Once we were inside the room his fangs came out and he moved towards the prey; before he could reach him I grabbed a hold of him and bit into the back of his neck and began to drink. The prey screamed; I looked up at him and pointed to the exit.
As I drained his blood his skin became very tight against his bones and when I finally pulled away I watched as he dissolved into a pile of dust. A smile danced across my face as I turned towards the party outside. I knew that I had to keep it simple or I would be at risk of being ganged up on. So slowly I started looking for the cocky self absorbed and acting as if they have control over things; those are the ones I lead away, the ones that I destroyed.
I was able to go through three of them before I couldn’t drink another drop. I was satisfied as far as hunger went but I still felt the anger rolling around inside of me; so I walked out into the crowd and looked around. I found my way over towards the bar area and I continued to try and think of some way of getting the attention I so wanted at that moment. My kills had been silent no one would know to report it to Benjamin. Finally I put all my focus on a group in front of me and within minutes they caught on fire.
With a little help the fire spread quickly and panic ensued. I couldn’t help but smile at the chaos. This would get his attention. I slowly turned and walked through the scattering crowd heading for the exit. The sounds of screaming like music as I exited the area. Christian was there waiting for me. The smile dropped from my face as I saw the look on his. I wasn’t sure if he knew what I had been up to.
He walked up and grabbed a hold of my arm and pulled me out of the chaos. He looked at me, and for the first time I saw him as Christian in this world. He wasn’t the gruesome monster he had been before. Then it dawned on me how I must look. I had been the one acting like a monster, guilt began to edge its’ way in as I realized what all I had done. The people and vampires I had killed.
“Get us out of here,” Christian demanded. I just nodded and opened the entry way.
We stepped through into my cave. As the entry way closed I looked down at the floor of the cave waiting for what he might say.
“I had a hard time hunting you down. Do you know how worried I was? Does that even matter to you? What has caused this sudden outburst?” he asked as he studied my face.
“I found out that Abraham has a better grasp on things than originally thought. He has found a way to get to the villagers. My whole life was carefully orchestrated. I don’t know what is true and what isn’t any more.”
“You have completely lost me. Back up and start all over.”
So I went back to the start of finding the elephant. I watched his expression carefully as I told him everything. I even told him about doubting him and Matthew. The look on his face took all doubt from me. So that compounded the guilt that I already was starting to deal with from what I had done.
“Jesse, what the hell did you do in that other world?”
I confessed everything to him and watched as his emotions got the better of him. When he could no longer control his temper he turned and ran away. I could sense that he was still in this world, but he needed to find some way to control his rage. I wasn’t sure how to control my own emotions. I looked down at my left hand to see the ring that Matthew had placed there. I didn’t want his death to be in vain.
I decided to return to the village once more and finish what I had started. The difference was this time I knew exactly what I was looking for. The patch of grass still remained from where I had started searching before. I touched the ground and watched as once again the path of grass headed towards one of the cabins. I stopped the grass from growing and stood up to look around. I could imagine how this place was before they all went into hiding, before the blood suckers came. Once I entered the cabin I was once again absorbed into the memory of the dream. I knew exactly where I was to find the books as I placed my hands on the ground.
Slowly the dirt started to turn up around the area until the box appeared. I opened the box and pulled out the three books that it had held secure for many years now. I returned the box to its’ hiding place and then stepped back into my cave with the books. I opened the first and it was a record of births, along with their gifts, and for many it listed their deaths. I found my mother’s name and my father’s name. Their gifts were listed beside them; my father was listed as being able to open entry ways. My mother was listed as a sun child.
I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant and as I looked over the names there were only three others that were listed as a sun child. I set that book aside and opened the next, it was a book of the history of the village. All the significant events were recorded in the book for several hundred years. It was the third book that held the most information; it was a book of future history, or predictions.
I read through the pages amazed at how much had been predicted. It was when I reached the part about the sun child that drew my attention the most. The prediction was about the joining of a sun child with a traveler of worlds and their union would create a child that if made immortal could have power over many worlds. My father had seen this, this was the book that they had been looking over. I sat back and thought about what this all meant.
So Merlin, Christoff and my father manipulated things so that they could make this happen. Which meant that my mother was the sun child, and since my father could open entry ways he was the traveler of worlds. And I was now the immortal child that the prediction had spoken of. Abraham somehow also knew of this prediction and I wasn’t sure how he had been included; unless he also had someone who could predict the future. Or maybe someone here had plotted with him.
I thought about Lucas and what he had said about Merlin and Christoff; they had been promised something from Abraham. A part of me wanted to believe that they had done what they needed to, simply for basic needs; but that would have been taken care of by going into hiding. Abraham couldn’t have access to the caverns without help. But then maybe it was just my father that plotted against them all.
Of course I knew that this wasn’t true. I had seen them in my dreams, the three of them staring at the records. They knew what they were doing. I had been purposely conceived in hopes of giving them what they wanted. I just didn’t know what they had hoped to accomplish by all of this. There was nothing so definite in my life right now except that they had planned my existence for some time; there was no way in knowing how long they had plotted this. I wondered if Abraham had started this or just joined in once he knew what the stakes were. Did he attack the village to help them hide my birth or in hopes of kidnapping me then.
I wondered how Matthew would have handled this news; if he would have been able to shed any light onto any of this. Of course they had all said it, I was an enigma. No one knew for sure what or how things were going to go with me. That made me a danger, made me a risk to everyone. And yet even with this knowledge several still took up the horrible odds to protect me from Abraham.
What really puzzled me was if I had all this control why would Abraham believe he even had a chance to control me. Did he somehow know of my need to feed off of other vampires? That I would not crave or be sustained by human blood? Maybe he just believed that I would turn evil because ultimately the being I was, was basically evil. As night time fell Christian had still not returned to me. I began to doubt that he would.
I fell asleep quickly but when I woke up I felt tired and restless. I tried to sit up but I seemed unable to exert that much energy. I heard the voices nearby and began to panic until I recognized Liz’s voice. I called out to her and even though it came out as barely a whisper she came to my side.
“What is happening to me?” I asked.
“We honestly don’t know. But you look like your dead,” she said. I hoped that she was kidding but as I waited for her expression to change it never did.
The world became foggy and my head began to spin inside me. I couldn’t reach for the ground, I couldn’t drum up enough strength to try and heal myself. A part of me wanted to laugh at the concept that it could be something that I ate. The voices around me became softer farther away, I just wanted to slip into the warmth of the oblivion that threatened to engulf me. I saw images of Matthew as if he was reaching out for me; and I so wanted to go to him. But somewhere else I could hear Christians voice calling to me.
Matthew disappeared and all I could hear was the voice of Christian, begging me not leave him. A new warmth engulfed me this time from inside. Soon a satisfying warmth consumed me, the fog slowly drifted away and I was there in Christian’s arms. Forcing the movement I gripped onto his arm. He pulled me so that he could see my face and I forced a smile, feebly at best but I was sure it came across. I slowly drifted back to sleep.
When I woke, I was still being held by Christian. I had to blink several times before my vision came into focus. It was night outside and I wasn’t sure how long I had been asleep or exactly what had happened. I looked up at Christian then down on his arms that encircled me; that was when I saw the cut on his arm. I gently touched the healing mark; causing him to stir.
“Welcome back,” he said softly as he reached up and caressed my face. I leaned up against his chest and looked up at him.
“The cut on your arm, was it because of me?” I asked.
“Your body was starving,” he answered simply. Which meant that I could not survive without him. I had drank the blood of three other vampires and even though I had felt satisfied their blood could not sustain my body.
In general it was not a bad thing, I loved him as I had loved Matthew; so the thought of him always having to be near was good news. Of course this could cause a lot of problems down the line. I just didn’t understand it, I had thought that when I killed the three vampires that I had been satisfied. But somehow it had made things worse. I had satisfied a small part of me that had sought after revenge for Matthew; but not the needed blood for my body to survive.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered for lack of anything else to say.
“Me too.”
There was so much more I wanted to say but nothing came out. My mind screamed the words that failed to find an escape from my body. I wanted to tell him that I did love him, but nothing came. I had no idea what was going through his mind but there was just too much going through mine. We just stayed there in each other’s arms as we watched for the sun to rise. I wondered if the sun on the other world would have an effect on me as it did the others.
There was nothing simple about the situation I was in. The rules didn’t seem to apply to me. My stomach knotted up as I continued to worry about the implications of everything in my life. I could not settle the feeling. Once the sun was fully up we finally began our day. I showed him the records and he read through them several times. As if he was missing something he would flip back through the pages. He kept looking and yet never seemed to find the right answer.
Liz came by to warn us that something was brewing in the other world. Abraham and his followers seemed to have all but disappeared from the face of the earth. Since we knew that was not a possibility we all had to agree that they were plotting something. Liz and the others went back and forth between worlds looking for any clues that would tell us what Abraham was up to.
My hope grew thin as the days passed and not a single clue was revealed to us. We all grew restless from not knowing what was being planned. The knot in my stomach would not go away; I was sure something bad was going to happen. I poured over the records looking for any clue or prediction that would shed some light on things. Christian and Liz had gone to feed, and had been gone for over an hour when one of the vampires came rushing into the cave.
“Jesse, they need you quick.”
“Who needs me? What is going on?” I asked as I tried to rationalize.
“It’s Christian and Liz. They are trapped and can’t get to the entryway. We need to go and help them now,” he said as he headed towards the cave entrance.
“Wait, where are you going? I can just open an entry way from here.”
“But you might let them in too. I know the entry way that will get us nearby them and then you can decide what to do from there,” he said urgently.
“Tell me where we need to land and I will get us there,” I said as I stood up and placed my hand against the cave wall.
“The underground near Picidilly circus,” he said as he stood next to me.
I opened the entryway and we both went through. As it closed I turned to find out which way to go, before the words could form someone grabbed my arm. There was a sharp stab into my back and I felt the slight burn. I looked up to see the vampire staring at me; I had been betrayed again.
“I think that you already know what is in this syringe, so let’s move slowly together so that I don’t accidently inject you with it,” the voice from behind said.
“Since Abraham wants me alive I doubt that you would,” I stated back.
“I have placed myself on his side, but that does not make me his faithful follower. My mate was one of the ones who died in the warehouse fire recently.”
“And you weren’t there with her?” I prodded as he pushed me forward towards the tracks.
“Just move, I would love to have to start injecting you and watching you scream in pain.”
The knot in my stomach got worse, I did as he instructed and we slipped into a hidden tunnel beneath the tracks of the underground. It opened up into a cavern of sorts, nothing as grand as the one the villagers lived in but for this world it was close. We moved forward until I saw Abraham surrounded by vampires; a scene so familiar as I remembered my dreams of the destruction of the village.
“So nice of you to grace us with your presence,” Abraham said.
“Not like I had a choice.”
“Always with the nasty quips. Bet that must have hurt your parents that raised you,” he said. His tone was mocking sympathetic.
“You son of a b***h,” I swore back at him.
“I have to thank you for cleaning up all my lose ends. I was expecting a much messier event and then you took care of everything. You say you won’t turn, but you already have. Deep inside you is a pure evil.”
I wanted so much to find something to say, or even more so to do to get even but for the moment I was unable to. I wasn’t sure what I could do safely but the knot in my stomach made feel sure that I shouldn’t do anything rash without thinking it through first. I needed a plan.
“Well since we knew that we would be having such an honored guest we made up the cave just for you.”
The group of vampires parted so that I could see the water behind them.
“The beauty about it is that it has been blessed three times over,” he said as he motioned towards two of the vampires that were wearing bishops clothing. I didn’t see the third. “So this whole pool of water is now a vampires worst nightmare. And even for someone of your special circumstances, there is no escaping the severity of the consequences that holy water can cause.”
I watched as he walked forward and then suddenly pushed one of the vampires into the water. He screamed out and then in a moment was gone from sight.
“Now we have one other surprise for you,” the vampires moved again and this time it was to display a wine barrel of sorts. Tied up to a pulley. “In you go dear.”
Once I was in the barrel the needle was pulled out of my back and the lid was sealed up. I tried to find a way to fight back but within seconds I felt the barrel move and then heard the splash. My gifts were limited here as it was and now sealed in a barrel and submerged in holy water I wasn’t sure what I was capable of doing. I knew that I could have an immediate impact on the area around me; but that could make things worse. If I caused a leak to occur I would burn from the water.
Well one good thing about the change that had occurred in my body was that oxygen was not all that essential. I tried to keep track of time but eventually lost track of my count. I became weaker and knew that soon I would start to lose control of my senses as before. He was starving me, and since the vampire had betrayed me, he knew what my only food source was. I worried that he had trapped Christian somewhere like this.
I fought the best I could as the fog slipped in and all clarity of thought started to slip away. I saw Matthew and fought to reach him; but he stayed at a distance. When I could no longer fight to keep coherent Matthew started to come closer to me. Just before I could reach out to him I felt a familiar warmth rush through me.
“I am guessing that you didn’t know that me and Matthew came from the same method. Our blood was mixed when we became what we are, correction, what I am and he was,” he laughed. I was not fully coherent so things drifted in and out, but what I was able to get was that he was feeding me his blood.
It did not restore me the same way as Christians had, but unlike the other vampires I had drank from his blood was keeping me alive. I found myself back in the barrel again. Time seemed to slip away from me, the only good thing was that I got to see Matthew again. I began to worry in my few moments of lucid thought; if Abraham knew that I could be sustained by his blood he had no reason to keep Christian alive. Which would mean that the only way I could ever kill him was to risk my own life too.
When he pulled me out again I latched on and it took three other vampires to pull me away from him. He only laughed. I remembered what Matthew had said about him having spent the last five hundred years learning the weakness of his own breed. He knew that he was essential to my survival, and I was sure that he knew that the thought had crossed my mind too.
By the third time he pulled me out he did not let me feed off of him right away. This time he demanded that I open an entryway for him. I debated for an instance then I opened the entry way. A few minutes later the vampires had pulled back two inmates from the prison. Then several more went back through and then returned again. I remembered what had been said before, they wanted to build up their numbers with the inmates.
After he let me feed I was again placed in the barrel. I did make sure that entry way closed when I was sealed back into the barrel. At least this way the need would go both ways, I may need him for survival but he would need me to maintain anything that I did. I could only hope that the vampire that had betrayed me and the others didn’t know how much control I had over things. When he pulled me out again and demanded that I re-open the entry way, I created a different one.
“You little b***h, that isn’t the same prison as before,” he said as he struck out and slapped me across the face.
“I’m sorry. I am too weak to concentrate. It takes focus to keep it open in the same location, I need to feed.”
“I should let you starve,” he yelled at me.
“Then you will have nothing. As you said before we are dependent on each other. I need you for survival and you need me to gain what you want,” I said as I let myself slouch to the ground. My stomach ached, I was sure it was from hunger. After all I had no idea how much time passed each time I was sealed up.
“If I let you feed you will re-open the entry way back to the other prison?” he asked.
“Yes, of course. I just need to get a bit of energy so I can concentrate,” I said back. I was weak but somehow I felt a small surge coming from within. Suddenly for once in my life everything was clear.
As soon as he let me feed, I drank slowly as if I didn’t have enough energy to do more than that. As I did feed I plotted, regardless of what would happen to me Abraham had to go. I pulled away and looked out at the group of vampires waiting for guidance. I created three different entry ways.
“I can’t remember which location. I know that it is one of them. Once we know which one is it then I can sustain it for more entries.”
As vampires went through each and everyone stayed focus on the entry ways. I slouched down on the ground again and pressed both hands on the ground. I watched the crowd but no one was paying any attention to me. I looked at Abraham, trying to keep my focus on his arm where I had been feeding from. He looked down at me and smiled, my stomach churned as I stayed still for a moment longer. As I pulled every ounce of energy I had left I watched until suddenly Abraham caught fire.
He screamed out and as the others came towards me they couldn’t reach me; my wall was intact. I watched as they tried to put out the flames and then one brainless vampire grabbed a bucket of water and doused the flames with it. Of course this made things worse since it was all holy water. I closed my eyes and as my defenses started to fall I caused the whole room to burst into flames before opening my final entry way as I fell through it into my cave.
I had no energy left, but I knew that there was no fear of Abraham any more. I cried for Christian and Matthew and all the others that had died needlessly to protect me. Slowly the fog rolled in once more, I saw Matthew again, he was smiling. I looked around and was surprised that Christian was not there too. But I didn’t have control of this world so I guess I couldn’t have them both. I looked into Matthews eyes one last time before he disappeared.
I woke up to Christian holding me tight. Almost too tight, I gasped. His grip loosened as he released me then cupped my face and kissed me. He didn’t look as well as I had remembered then I noticed the cut on his arm. It was still fresh. I reached up to my lips and could feel the blood that was still there. Everything seemed like a dream, Christian was here with me. The knot in my stomach still would not go away, but I no longer felt that something bad was going to happen.
“How long?”
“Four days,” he answered once again.
“Total?”
“Since you returned to me. You were gone for almost two weeks before that,” he said as he pulled me against him once more and gently he kissed my forehead.
For a few minutes nothing seemed to click. My concept of time was wiped away and I had nothing to base it on. Then something about what had been written came to me. I stood up and fell back down again. Finally I was able to get over to the wall and produced the books of the history of my parents people. I rescanned through the history until I came up on the first sun child, someone who could manipulate the forces around them.
I was a sun child. The prophesy was only partially about me. I felt the knot in my stomach and smiled. I wasn’t really sure which of the travelers of worlds was the father; but that didn’t really matter, I loved them both.

Reviews

[trish420]

Spectacular!! I don;t usually do the whole vampire story thing but this one sucked me right in before I even knew what happened! I do so hope that you will sharemore of your writing; I can't get enough!