---
Chapter Twenty
---
Jackston remains at the Asylaum to calm the Brethren. They have been locked up in their living chambers for too long, unknowingly awaiting their execution, though they seem to be aware of whom they fled from and who caused them to lock themselves up. They are not easily convinced when Jackston reassures them from the other side of the door that they are safe now. I shrug, laugh and leave him at it. It does not matter to me whether they stay locked up or not, in fact; I might even prefer if they did. Especially after everyone finds out what really happened. I figure that they will swiftly forget about Ariane’s death, and even her existence, when they learn of the death of Lord Dunstan and Lord Amaddeuas, and who was responsible of their demise. I do not fully appreciate the irony of having avoided an execution by having the Asylaum slaughtered, only to be sentenced for execution again for having defended myself against the ones who slaughtered it. Therefore, I am leaving.
Jackston catches me on my way out.
“Wait, where are you going?” he wonders unobtrusively.
He has not spoken a lot since we left the chamber to free the others. I am grateful – I do not wish to hear whatever he wishes to say. I glance at him briefly before turning my back to him.
“Away,” I say.
He gives me a solemn look before gazing around the Great Hall, which is sparkling as if it was new; only a few light bulbs need to be replaced. He does not ask me why I am leaving; I gather that he is already aware of my predicament.
“Where?” he asks instead.
I do not understand why it matters to him. He has always been one to obey the Council like a good boy – he should be yelling at me for killing two of its members, rather than caring about where I am headed. It is his duty as a Reader. Readers are just like the Officials, only more powerful; sworn lap-dogs of the Council. Too bad that none were around when Ariane showed up. They were all too busy cowering in their chambers, or in one case; turning into the enemy.
I do not find myself blaming Jackston for anything, not even killing Mina. I just hope that he has the strength to prevent these events to repeat themselves, with a taste of Ariane’s blood in him and all. I am curious whether the blood has enhanced his abilities, or if it just simply prevented him from dying, made him sane again and gave him the strength to defeat a foe of ten times our power. Those things might appear sufficient from such small amount of blood, but still; I cannot help wondering. I will not stay around to find out.
“You know where,” I state.
He nods slowly and sighs.
“Will I see you again?”
Strange, I find myself wondering the same thing.
“Maybe,” I reply, “if I’m welcome back.”
“You are,” he states, as if his word was law.
“It’s not up to you,” I grunt, though smiling slightly.
Turning my back to him, I determinedly begin to walk the stairs to the south exit and leave the Asylaum behind me.
“No,” Jackston whispers behind me, “it’s up to you.”
I do not need to see him to know that his head is bowed and his lips are curled – I know him too well. Knowing him as well as I do also means that I know that my response does not need to be spoken – only thought.
“No, it’s up to the Lords.”
I have reached to top step when I hear him reply, though not from the bottom stair on which he is standing, but in my mind.
“Same thing.”
In amazement I turn to him, glancing down at him two hundred steps below and whisper quietly.
“Telepathy?” I gasp, astonished.
He nods and smiles – and I can see it clearly, all the way from up here.
“One of the perks of drinking Sugar-bum’s blood, I suppose,” he speaks in my mind.
“Did she taste as good as you thought she looked?” I ask with a grin.
The remembrance of his small crush makes him blush. I do not know if it was Ariane mind-juggling him, but I suspect that part of it was very much natural. I shake my head in laughter. You are incorrigible, Jackston.
“Goodbye, Jackston,” I say as I open the heavy wooden door to London.
A faint echo in my mind becomes his reply.
“Goodbye, Theodore.”
It is freezing outside. Things are not made better by my lack of clothing. Why did she have to remove my shirt? The cuts have finally closed – I cleaned them thoroughly before leaving the chamber – though a faint scar remains just below my navel. Perhaps it is there as a reminder of the recent events. I smile softly – I do not need a reminder; this I will always remember.
The night sky is covered with dark clouds. I recognise those clouds. They are here to bring an end to autumn and welcome winter. ‘For where there is cold there is also darkness.’ My dimples twitch as the first snowflake reaches my cheek. I hurry to the car I parked a few blocks away from here. I am lucky to find a worn out jacket in its trunk; it is enough to keep me warm. Putting it on, I pull the zipper up high to make sure that no heat escapes my freezing body. As I exhale, a small cloud reveals my breath. I smile, tremble slightly and turn my head gazing at the first winter night this year. Thousands of small snowflakes are falling peacefully from the dark sky; a few have the misfortune of landing on my forehead and melt.
Yes, it is time for things to get a bit brighter. I welcome winter, and the snow that follows to illuminate the city during these dark times. Hopefully, it will stay for a while.
---
Sarthimia is not surprised to see me again. However, this is the first time she truly appears pleased to do so. I open the door to her office quietly, though without bothering to knock. She still has my respect, but no longer my fear. It is not because I have helped slay one of her sisters, or that I think less of her for not telling me everything – it is simply because I see her for who she is, and not the powers she holds. I finally see what she stands for – what her purpose is, and I respect her for it.
She nods courteously as I enter. I do the same. With a simple hand movement she offers me a seat. I raise my hand to decline.
“I’d rather stand,” I smile faintly.
I am tired now, so very tired of everything. But I shall have to endure – I will soon be allowed to rest.
“Have it your way,” Sarthimia replies.
“I always do.”
My remark brings a smile to her lips.
She too looks exhausted. Though her eyes still gleam of stunning silver along with her beautiful hair, there is something about her, something in her eyes; an urge for peace and quiet. I will not deny her this – my visit will be brief.
“So you do,” she says.
We study each other silently for a while, waiting for the other to speak up. When I do not, Sarthimia begins.
“How much do you know?” she asks with a serious tone.
I close my eyes and let myself be engulfed by the images of the recent events. How much do I know? I know that there never was a disease, I know that many lives has been wasted, I know the true origin of vampires and that Sarthimia is our birthmother, I know that I have ruined a family by killing a father and a brother, I know that I have broken several of the laws in the Guidance by killing and feeding of Brethren and I know that chaos will be the result among the Brethren after the death of the two Lords is learned of. Overall, I figure that there is little else to know of.
“Everything.”
She laughs. This is the first time I hear her do so.
“Everything, I doubt. But most, indeed.”
I do not bother asking what it is I do not know – it does not interest me, and I am too tired to care.
A grave silence follows. We both have accusations to make at one and another. She, for having watched this unravel and done nothing about it, and I, for having broken a number of of the laws by killing several of her children.
“Are they dead?” she asks, though already aware of the fate of Lord Dunstan and Lord Amaddeuas.
I nod seriously, and feel the urge to fill the silence with a question of my own, one which I already know the answer to.
“Did you know?” I ask, referring to everything having occurred because of Ariane.
She replies with the same nod I gave her. Another minute is spent in uncomfortable silence.
“We both did what we had to do,” she says after a while.
Considering her words, I wonder if that is true. Killing the Lords was self-defence; killing Mina’s father was not. Sarthimia followed rules of the age of millennia; I followed a whim, doing what I pleased. Did I do what I had to do? No, but I did what had to be done. It was not what I had to do; it was merely what someone had to do.
There is a thick layer of snow covering the fields outside of Sarthimia’s window. Soon, it will be hard to leave without the proper tyres on the car. Since it is barely holding together, I doubt that there is as much as one spare-tyre in it. I should get going, but before I do there is something I need to know.
“Was it true?” I ask.
Sarthimia’s puzzled look tells me that she does not understand what I am talking about. She could easily read me and thusly not have to ask me anything. I appreciate that she does not. It means that she has come to respect me too.
“Was what true?”
“What Ariane said,” I explain, “that our true faces are when we weep blood and grow claws?”
Glancing at the snow-covered fields outside, Sarthimia sighs before drifting off in her mind, leaving a faint but dreaming smile behind.
“It’s not entirely true,” she begins, “and it isn’t the truth I would choose. Your true faces are, like ours, humanity, which in turn reflects the greatness of the Ancients.”
“I’ve met few humane vampires.”
“Yes,” Sarthimia sighs, “which brings me to the part of my story which I did not share last time you were here, the part which I assume Ariane most willingly shared with you.”
“She did,” I agree.
“Very well. Monstrosity is not your true face, it is however a regretful side effect of fusing our blood with humans. The impure blood blends too easily with the greed and pride of humanity, causing a fusion with part of the Ancient’s powers and part of it turns to burdens. Your inability to walk in the sun and your need of human blood are therefore your greatest burdens,” she explains. “Ironically it is your human traits that taints the silver blood, making the result most inhuman.”
I stare blankly through her window. The stars are illuminating the snow to such an extent that it is as if gazing over a field of light.
“So, to answer your question,” she finishes, “No, it’s not your true face, but it’s a burden that you will have to carry for eternity, one that is easily avoided if you drink the blood of humans to reconnect with the small part of humanity left in you.”
With my back turned to her, I nod silently, still captivated by winter’s birth before my very eyes.
“Which is why you let us feed off humans,” I say, “to prevent us from going berserk and extinct the entire human race?”
She agrees in silence.
“Naturally,” she adds, “we would never allow you to do such thing. Were you to change we would not hesitate to extinct you, rather than the humans.”
I do not know why, but a grin spread on my lips.
“Which Ariane almost did tonight,” I state.
Perhaps it is the image of Ariane’s face, stuck in shock when Jackston stabbed her, that is burned into my mind, or perhaps it is the fact that I have stirred up a hornets nest in the Asylaum that is making me grin – I do not know. All I care about now is seeing Mina.
“So vampires become themselves after having fed?” I ask, making sure that I have understood everything correctly.
Sarthimia bows her head in grief at my question, knowing why I ask.
“It doesn’t work like that,” she explains. “Human blood only prevents the change, it doesn’t reverse it.”
“But Jackston—”
“However,” she says firmly, “once having fed, it increases the chances of turning back greatly, but it requires utter will and experience to do so. Only Elders and Lords have the knowledge and strength to perform the change.”
“So Mina is still—” I sulk.
“Mina is fine,” Sarthimia says with a reassuring smile, “the change back requires a serene mind to be done alone, but with a little aid from others it can be performed on Reborns too.”
I sigh in relief. This means that Mina is fine, and that at least one thing I fought for remains.
“We barely had to help her, Theodore,” Sarthimia informs me, “she did most of the work on her own. She is strong, cherish her.”
I beam vigorously.
“I will,” I confirm. “Where is she?”
I want to see her. After all the pain I have caused and everything I have gone through, it is the least I can do.
“Still locked up in the chamber,” she says. “We apparently have a permanent spare room now.”
Mina is fine and she is still locked up, why is that? Surely she must have earned her freedom by now. Sarthimia notices my expression and does not need to read me to know what I worry about.
“It’s her own choice. She wanted some privacy until you returned,” she smiles, “she’s in the chamber, reading. She’s quite the bookworm.”
“She knew that I would come for her?”
Nodding and smiling, Sarthimia answers me without a word.
“I want to see her.”
Sarthimia’s smile is suddenly erased, to be replaced by a serious expression. The sudden change removes my feelings of joy. I feel somewhat distraught by the graveness in her silver eyes.
“Do you know what she is?” she asks sincerely.
During Mina’s stay, Sarthimia must have noticed something about her, something other than the blood-weeping. I have a hunch of what that something is – I noticed it too before she turned.
“I do,” I say.
Her intense green eyes became even more mesmerizing after I sired her. I have only seen such intensity a few times before, and every time have they lured me into seduction. Though Mina is far more beautiful than any of the others I have seen before, she will never be able to seduce me, and I am very certain that she will not try to do so either. I care for her, as a father would care for his daughter, perhaps even more so since her father’s blood is in me. I was merely stunned at first to see what I had turned her into, though little time was given to reflect upon it.
“Do you know why she was reborn into this?” Sarthimia asks curiously.
Few vampires have the power in their blood to create a Succubus.
Some go as far as to saying that those turned into Succubuses are turned only due to it being their destiny.
“I do,” I say with a thoughtful smile.
Some nights ago I would have said that is due to the great amounts of blood I have fed off the Reborns, an Elder and a Lord. Tonight, I think differently. Despite the misfortunate events that have led to this, I have come to believe that being sired is Mina’s destiny. She was meant to be a vampire, more than any other sired before her. I know that she will achieve greatness in time. I only pray that I will be by her side to witness it, when that day comes.
Walking towards the wooden door to leave her office, I am stopped by Sarthimia’s serious voice once more.
“One more thing,” she says, “What do you intend to do next?”
“Leave.”
Sarthimia lowers her eyes and sighs deeply.
“I feared as much…”
Curiosity once again gets the better of me.
“Why do you ask?”
I receive a disappointed look from her, as if she has expected more from me. I do not know what else to expect, so I head for the door. Just as I grab the doorknob she says something that sears through me as if she has stabbed a knife in my back.
“You’ve killed two vampire Lords tonight, Theodore,” she says gravely.
My eyes are burning with anger as I turn back at her.
“And you could’ve stopped it long before it ever happened,” I sneer poisonously. “I thought we agreed not to speak of it.”
“You thought wrong,” she declares coldly.
Marching furiously towards her I clench my fists in anger, feeling once again deceived by the Sisterhood.
“What point is there in even mentioning it?” I growl.
“The point,” she replies while getting calmly out of her chair, putting her cold hands on the desk before her, “is that they served a purpose, and a crucial one at that. Without them, the Asylaum will crumble, and it will take your entire kind with it.”
“Stop trying to blame me for everything!” I roar. “They’re dead – gone – demised. I can’t bring them back. You could’ve have stopped her before any of this happened, but you didn’t. So stop placing the burden on me! Besides, the Asylaum won’t crumble; five Lords remain. That is more than enough to rule over the cowardice vermin.”
I must be starting to agitate her. There is a small twitch in her left eye; she is getting irritated. Good – then I will not be annoyed alone.
“You speak like Ariane,” she sighs deeply, “has she truly gotten to you this much?”
Her remark catches me off guard, leaving me to stare dumbly at her with my mouth wide open. She is right. I do sound like Ariane.
“But you’re right,” she goes on, “they are cowards – not only the Brethren, but the Lords that locked themselves up in a time of crisis. Only the two Lords that stood up to Ariane had the guts worthy of vampire Lords and they paid for it with their lives. Righteously so too, Theodore.”
She gazes deep into my eyes, letting her silver eyes become one with mine. I feel warmth I have never felt before, serenity one can only dream of – completely at peace.
“The Council is ruled by cowards. Amaddeuas and Dunstan were the only ones pulling the strings. With them gone, the Asylaum will crumble,” she says gravely, though with a strange hint of hope in her voice. “However, they were not the only two who came through in this crisis – you did too, and without having been asked to do so. You define the very reason why I fought so hard to keep your race alive – why I still have hope for you.”
I stare at her, aghast, with my most still wide open. Is she saying what I think she is?
“That is why,” she says, almost ceremoniously, “I have appointed you to fill their seats as member of the Council – to become a vampire Lord.”
I stare at her blankly for at least a minute before blinking once, then twice. Then I burst into a frantic cascade of laughter, laughing so hard that I feel the pain in my freshly healed wounds echo inside me. I cannot believe this. Me – a Lord; and after having killed two of the prior sitting Lords too – impossible.
“What do you say?” she asks me seriously, ignoring my childish reaction.
It takes me a moment to gather my thoughts, stop laughing and get a grip. When I am ready, I look sternly into her silver eyes and answer her from the bottom of my heart.
“No.”
“No?” she repeats, as if not having understood a simple word as that.
“No,” I repeat.
“But why?” she demands.
I stare coldly at her as I answer.
“Because I’ve betrayed my Brethren once and refuse to do so once more by becoming their leader – I’m not a leader,” I state heatedly. “I don’t wish to lead those who wish me dead.”
Sarthimia does not believe my words. She is staring disbelievingly at me. Any other vampire would have jumped at the chance of becoming a Lord, I know this. I am not ‘any vampire’, and Lordship does not suit me.
“But they need you,” she declares. “They need someone of your skills – they need to fear to be led. They fear you.”
“And you,” I state. “Why don’t you do it?”
“Because the only vampire in the Asylaum who knew of me was Amaddeuas,” she snaps in a cold and proper manner, “It has always been like that, and will remain so until you’re extinct. They cannot learn that their existence is based on one single being, that still exists – there would be chaos.”
“Choose someone else then,” I shrug, “I’m leaving now.”
It is not as if I do not care – it is simply not a title meant for me. I am convinced that she will find someone who is willing within seconds if she starts asking around.
“You are the only one worthy,” she says as I open the door.
“If killing vampires makes one worthy,” I sneer coldly, “then your sister was far more appropriate than me, considering how many she slew.”
The door creaks as I swing it open – it did not the first time I was here.
Sarthimia raises her voice as I am closing the door behind me.
“Your only betrayal will be if you turn your back on you Brethren in their time of need,” she claims.
“Dare not speak to me of betrayal when you couldn’t even slay one being to save the lives of fifty others,” I growl to myself in the hallway.
I know that she can hear me.
---
Carefully opening the door to Mina’s chamber, my heart skips a beat in relief to see her as herself, sitting curled up in the bed with a book in her hands. She immediately tosses the book aside and hurls herself at me to embrace me tightly. For minutes we do not speak, then she looks at me with pleading eyes. She does not need to speak; I know exactly what she wonders, just as she knows the answer just by looking at my face. I smile faintly with a small tear running down my cheek before embracing her even tighter in my tired arms.
Forgive me, Mina – for not saving Michael like I did you, but I still do not know whether you are saved from death or cursed with life without your family.
I squeeze her tight as tears caress her cheeks. She snivels silently in my arms. I tilt my head and whisper softly in her ear.
“Humming-bird.”
She shivers slightly in my arms. Rubbing my hands comforting on her back, I close my eyes and kiss her forehead, just like I used to with Emily.
---
Chapters
Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
11 | 12| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Epilogue
