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Chapter Ten
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“Do you still miss your daughter?” he asks me sincerely.
I bow my head in grief, gazing at the stars in which I have always sought guidance.
“I do,” I admit.
“Why?”
His question startles me. Why would I not miss my beloved child?
“She was my daughter,” I reply sorrowfully.
“I am aware of that,” he continues coldly, “but do you not believe that she has gone to a better place?”
I consider his words for a moment before answering him.
“I do.”
He observes me in silence, standing next to me like a shadow I am doomed to carry, along with the loss of my humming-bird. I see him ponder my reply before asking me another question, ripping open a wound that has barely begun to heal.
“Would you bring her back, had it been in you power?”
I am stunned by this question. The thought has not even crossed my mind.
“Is— is it p-possible?” I stutter.
“I know not of such power yet, but you shall find that the powers of a vampire will in time be limitless,” he says arrogantly.
I stare at him blankly. Already I can tell that his pride for his race will be his fall; he speaks too highly of them and do not realise any weakness in them. I have only been a vampire for half a year and already have I observed a weakness that could very well be the end of vampires. That which brings humans joy, happiness and even strength means imminent death to a vampire. He did not tell me about this weakness, but I realised by the way he always avoids daytime, but more importantly when curiosity got the best of me and I attempted to walk outdoors during daytime – I felt my skin boil, trying to crawl away from my body. Why this is I do not know, but it is indeed a weakness which no humans possess.
I contemplate his question for a good fifteen minutes.
“You still have not granted me an answer,” he reminds me.
It is not a question to be taken lightly.
“I am aware of that, Sire,” I reply courteously.
After another minute I give him an answer.
“No, Sire. I would not bring my Emily back, even if it had been in my power.”
“Why not, child?” he asks curiously.
“It is not my right,” I say, saddened by the memory of my sweet Emily. “It is not my choice to make – only she can make that choice.”
“But she is gone,” my Sire says gravely. “It is therefore a choice she is incapable of making.”
His words are like a poisoned dagger impaling my heart. They hurt as much as the day I buried my beloved humming-bird.
“And thus the choice shall never be made,” I finish sadly with a tear running down my cheek.
He nods at this.
“I see.”
Perhaps he understands, perhaps not – I do not care which. I wish not to speak of this any longer.
I spend a good while observing the stars light up the night sky like fireflies spread on a dark blanket. Could it be that my Natalie and Emily are up there somewhere, watching over me as I sit here? I hope not – I am ashamed of what I have become.
“Had you been able to save her before dying then – would you have interfered then and saved her from her illness?” he asks me.
I am beginning to wonder if he is just out to hurt my feelings rather than learn from my answers.
I hesitate for a moment, then reply.
“I would,” I say. “That which is possible to do before leaving this world to save a beloved should always be done – no matter the cost.”
“I see,” he says, nodding sincerely. “Would you have given your life to save hers’?”
I need not search my mind for this answer – for it lies in my heart.
“In a heart-beat.”
---
I grab the wrist of the Reborn before he can react. He is newly turned but claws are already shooting through his fingers. There might still be time though; his eyes are not completely drowned in mist yet. I throw him before me. He is pain. I am not exactly handling him with love. Had I had the time I would have made him speak now – but I obviously do not. Instead I punch him in the face, temporarily knocking him out.
“Death,” he hisses as his world turns black.
“Yes,” I whisper poisonously, “death.”
I will get you for this, Jackston. But first I must beat you to it.
He knows where Mina lives, but does he know the fastest way to get there, I wonder. He has never been much for going out, spending most of his time at the Asylaum. It is possible that I will get to her before him only because of this. The fact that I move in at least twice his speed speaks for my benefit too. What does not speak for my benefit though is the dead weight I shall be forced to carry on my way there – I cannot afford to lose this Reborn. If that bastard Jackston turns out to be lying to me, this Reborn will be my only lead.
I place him on my back and leap to a balcony a few meters up in the alley. The fastest way to Mina has got to be above the city – too bad I cannot fly. I must leap from rooftop to rooftop and hope that no human witnesses my greatly inhuman performance. But being seen by humans is the least of my concerns now – I have to hurry.
Well on my way I hear the Reborn moan on my back. He is regaining consciousness. I take a brief pause on a roof and remove him from my back. Looking at his face like this I can swear that I have seen him somewhere before. I think of it no longer than the time it takes me to knock him unconscious again.
Leaping across the roofs with my companion, while racing my ex-best friend Jackston is taking a lot more energy than I had expected. I am pushing my body to the extreme to get to Mina before him. I feel every muscle in my body ache as I launch myself from one rooftop to the next. It is the landing that is most painful – I am landing for two with the bullet still stuck in my thigh. My companion is not a light-weight, to say the least, but I shall have to endure. Mina’s life depends on it, and her brother’s too, I suspect. Though I am not nearly as concerned for him as I am for Mina.
Why are you doing this, Jackston? Is it power – have you betrayed your only friend’s trust for power, or is it something else? Damn it, Jackston – tell me what is going on.
I am about half way there when I stop lying to myself. I will not make it – not like this. I slam the Reborn into the roof which I am standing on. It brings him back to consciousness.
“Tell me what you know!” I demand.
He stares at me. I might be imagining it, but his eyes appear less white and more human. He stares at me with eyes widened in confusion.
“Tell me!” I repeat, slamming him into the roof.
He hisses in pain as I slap him over again and over again, but still I receive no answer. I am forced to make a dire decision – continue carrying him and risk not getting to Mina on time, or kill him now and increase my chances of get there in time to save Mina but consequently ridding the world of my only lead that is not religious mumbo-jumbo. I do not have long to decide.
Moments later I bury my fangs in his neck. If I am going to kill him I might as well make use of his blood – I will need it to continue at this insane pace. I have almost drained him dry when I pull the stake from my coat and place it against his chest. I almost feel sorry for him I see him lie in front of me defencelessly – almost.
As I thrust the stake through his ribs and into his heart he twitches and screams. Just before dusting he whispers a single word.
“Children.”
He departs this world in a pile of ashes. A small breeze catches half of his remains and spreads them in the neighbourhood. The rest of him I am sure will blow away soon. I wonder what he meant by his last word; I recall that the Elder also uttered a last word before I fed on him. Is there a connection – or merely coincidence?
I take little time to ponder the situation. With yet more new blood in my veins I feel refreshed and more than able to get to Mina before Jackston. I can get used to drinking the blood of vampires. I know that I will not – for if I do I shall be killed, if not by the Council, then by myself. But I have done what I had to do. I cannot allow Jackston to kill Mina, and drinking the blood of that Reborn was the only way of getting there on time.
I replace the stake in my pocket and head for the edge of the roof. For a moment I close my eyes and let my body embrace the new blood. It is not nearly as powerful as the Elder’s but it will get the job done. I already feel my sore muscles heal. Since I have been pushing my body to the limit, the bullet the officer placed in my thigh has not yet been removed by my system. Now, with a moment of rest and fresh blood, my thigh-muscles are pressing the bullet out of its entry hole and soon the wound patches itself up. That is the great benefit of being a vampire – few wounds are permanent and they are swiftly healed if only resting for a moment. I have rested sufficiently.
I leave the roof with a leap impressive even for me – I have jumped over one of the main streets. Behind me I leave the bullet lying in the remains of the Reborn’s ashes. Still I cannot figure out where I have seen his face before. This bothers me, for I have a feeling that it is a face worth remembering.
---
Five minutes later I have reached a block close to Mina and Michael’s apartment. I decide to continue my race on the ground, worried that either of the two might spot me jumping rooftops. The last thing I want to do is frighten them, which obviously puts me in a pickle. When Jackston shows up, for I appear to have beaten him to it – how can I stop him from hurting Mina without revealing my identity to her? Perhaps if I were to wait here for Jackston to show up and get him before he is close enough for Mina and Michael to realise what is going on? No, it would be too much of a risk. I have no idea where Jackston will come from and he could easily sneak past me since he has the huge advantage of reading my mind. I shall have to improvise. But first I must make sure that Mina and her brother is alright.
I am just about to knock on their door when I realise what time it is. Humans do not tend to have the same schedule as vampires. Have I got another choice but to be a jerk and wake her up? It is either that or a good night’s sleep that will end up killing her. My dilema is made easier by the sound of a TV inside the apartment – someone is still up. I knock the door softly, hoping that my gentleness will justify me coming by at this hour in Mina’s eyes. The door opens slowly after a minute or so. Mina stands before me wearing a pink pyjama. Currently she does not remind me of my daughter – Emily would never wear that.
“You came back,” Mina states with a big smile. “I thought I would never see you again.”
That was indeed my intention. But I had no choice but to return so soon. Damn you, Jackston.
“May I come in?”
“Is something wrong?” she asks, noting my tone.
I was never much of an actor. I cannot even fool a human into thinking that everything is fine, not that I was trying, but in retrospect that might have been wiser. I cannot afford having Mina freak out about this. Somehow I doubt that she will – she does not seem to be the type.
I smile gratefully at her as she welcomes me in. Good, we will be safer inside. Not much, but at least there is only one entrance for Jackston to enter through. I shall await his arrival. Seeing how I am not a big fan of betrayal, I promise Jackston in silence that I will make him pay.
Mina looks concerned, not to say troubled, but it does not appear to be about my grave expression – it is something else. If anything, I would say that my arrival has made her somewhat happier than earlier.
“What is troubling you?” I ask as we enter their living room, well aware of the awkwardness of having only rephrased the question which I chose not to answer.
At my question Mina looks as if I have placed a dark cloud above her head. She avoids making eye contact and stares at the floor instead.
“Nothing,” she replies evasively.
I do not believe her for she is obviously telling a lie, but I decide not the press the matter further as there are other things at hand. I scan the apartment with my hearing, making sure that no one else is here. It is silent. In fact, it is so silent and still that I realise that Mina and I are alone.
“Where is Michael?” I ask curiously.
“He’s staying at a friend’s place,” Mina explains.
This is good news. That places him out of harms way and decreases the risk of my identity being revealed by fifty percent. If I only could take Mina somewhere safe too, but there is no place safe from Jackston. He knows me too well, and the few parts he does not know of, he will force out of my mind.
Mina and I spend twenty minutes watching some kind of movie on the TV. It would have bored me, had I not been busy focusing on the apartment and its surroundings. There is still no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Mina has been watching the move during this time but I think that, as with me, her focus is elsewhere.
“I am worried about my father,” she suddenly says and breaks my focus. “He should’ve come home from a business trip to Paris yesterday, and still he has not arrived.”
I am startled by her sudden urge to open up to me. I do not know what to say to her. She has the right to be concerned about her father, but there is little I can do about it—
I spot a picture hanging on the wall above the TV. How could I have missed it before? It is a photo of Mina, Michael and their father. But I need not see that photo to recognise him – I have already seen him tonight. In fact, not only have I seen him – I have fed off him.
The situation is suddenly highly unpleasant. Apparently I have killed Mina’s father only to guarantee that his daughter survives an attack of my former best friend. If there is such a thing as fate, it truly has a weird sense humour. If the situation could be described with another word than ‘unpleasant’ it would have to be ‘ironic’. Descriptions do not grant us anything. I know that I should tell her – but I do not. Not now, perhaps not ever. Time will tell. I worry more about her safety than her possible grief to come. There is a time for everything – this is not it.
As Mina continues to worry about her deceased father I approach the windows looking over the streets – still no sign of Jackston.
“Why are you here?” Mina suddenly asks.
She appears upset that I have not said anything to reassure her about her father. I do not care about that. If I was to say something about her father – like the truth – it would only upset her worse than she is now. I am just about to answer her when I notice something disturbing. The windows which I am standing in front are trembling. Little at first, but they soon begin to shake on the verge of shattering. I wisely remove myself from them.
“What’s happening?” Mina ejaculates.
So much for hiding my identity.
“Hide!”
But it is too late. The right window in the living room shatters as something tumbles through it. It is Jackston, and yet it is not. He has turned. He is no longer in any shape of mocking me. He has grown claws and blood is seeping from his eyes – he has become one of them.
Mina stares horrified at him, with every right. Normally I would have introduced the two, but I am afraid that Jackston might bite. She was not fast enough when I told her to hide. I did not expect her to be. But it was worth a shot. Now I must make sure that Jackston does not get anywhere near her. This will be hard to do since he is already dashing towards her. Mina shrieks in fear.
I hit him straight in the face, holding back no strength. It sends him into the TV. Too bad, I shall have to replace it. I figure that Mina will be happier to survive than to know that her TV-set is unharmed. Finally she listens to me and flees into the kitchen. The only problem is that if I know – he knows.
Making the mistake of focusing on Mina, I do not notice Jackston’s punch until it hits me just below my ribs. I am staggered. But I as I see him move towards the kitchen I manage to get a grip and throw myself at him, pulling him to the ground. I do my best to avoid his claws but I am still scratched several times. He is a lot stronger now than he has ever been. He is indeed so strong that he manages to get up on his feet despite my extra weight on him. There is no point in holding on any more. He swings for my head but misses. I return the favour by pushing forward with all my strength sending him – not into a wall – but through it. That must have hurt – it sure looked painful. To my surprise Jackston gets up with only a few minor wounds and what appears to be a broken arm. Turning into a monster is the best thing that has ever happened to his physique – it is amazing. I am not sure that I would stand after such a crash, despite my enhanced powers.
He has crashed into the father’s bedroom. I know this partly because I recognise the photos on the wall and partly because of the bed which Jackston is about to throw at me. I dodge the bed with ease, but as I look at Jackston he is gone – and I can hear Mina scream from the kitchen.
I rush into the kitchen, only to watch him toss her through the window. I scream – it does not help. Mina still soars through the window, breaking several bones before hitting the concrete outside, four stories down. I hear something snap – something vital.
“Nooo!” I hear myself scream.
Jackston turns to me with his fangs flashed. He is covered in blood – his and mine.
“Dea—” he attempts to his.
“Don’t you dare,” I cry. “Don’t you dare say it!”
I am actually crying. I throw myself at Jackston but he leaves through the very window he sent Mina through. He vanishes into the night. I am left standing by the broken window with tears running down my cheeks. I have not cried in centuries. Four stories below, I see Mina’s body lying in a pool of blood and shattered glass. In the distance I hear sirens. I am not surprised – we must have awoken at least two blocks with our fight, tearing through walls and shattering glass.
Minutes later the police arrive. They seal of the area effectively so that no one may enter or exit. I am long gone. Where Mina’s body was lying, only a mixture of blood, glass and concrete can be found.
I have no choice.
---
Chapters
Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Epilogue
