by Joshua Laack
Chapter 35
The figures at the table held Andrew's interest much more than the audience did. The two in the center smelled different than the other immortals he had come in contact with. Not that it was a lot, but these two were different. It was the older two from his dream, the man with gray at his temples and the even older woman who had gray mixed in all throughout her dark hair. The other two at the table looked and smelled just like the others he had met and the group behind them in the room, but Andrew couldn't think of the right words to describe the first two.
Ancient was one word, but some of the others smelled ancient too. Even Johari had a definite smell of age to her that Andrew was sure he did not yet have. There was something besides that. They didn't smell human, but unlike the rest of the Blood, their bodies smelled alive too, not just the blood flowing in their veins. These two had blood that smelled like immortal blood, but bodies that smelled more than human as well. Andrew just didn't know enough to understand what the difference was.
The man raised his hand, as Andrew had known that he would, and likewise, the room went silent, as he had known that it would. The man waited a moment and then lowered his hand and then began to speak in Aramaic.
“Welcome and greetings to all who have gathered here today. I Lazarus, have called you here as witnesses to this trial. This is as it has been done in the past, and as it shall continue to be done in the future.” He paused for a moment to look around the room, as if to be sure that he had everyone's attention. “Through servants that work for us as eyes in the world, I have been informed of crimes that have been committed by these two before us and we are gathered here today to discover the truth of the extent of these crimes and to decide the nature of a just punishment.” The woman in the middle glanced over at the first man before turning to the front once again.
“Greetings also,” she said, again in Aramaic. “I have not been informed as to the nature of these crimes, but I stand ready to listen to the evidence and to judge.” There were a few murmurs in the audience, again in Aramaic. One of the comments was repeated several times.
“Tabitha doesn't know what the case is about?” The voices were shocked. Andrew wondered what reason that this Lazarus could have to want the case to occur without Tabitha having a lot of time to examine the evidence. The last two members of the council spoke in unison.
“We also have been uninformed, but stand ready to listen and judge.”
During this whole exchange, one of the robed figures behind Andrew had been translating everything that they said into English for his benefit. The guard didn't translate the murmurs, so as he listened to those, Andrew let his translator ramble on, but ignored him for the most part. Who was he to tell another that their job wasn't necessary? Lazarus waited for just a moment while the murmurs quieted down, and then he spoke.
“The crimes as I have heard them reported to me are thus. The female accused, Johari,” A murmur of recognition both from her appearance and the associated name rippled through the crowd. Apparently, she was known here. Not all that surprising, considering the amount of time that she had been around. Lazarus continued, “has broken the golden rule and revealed our existence to a man after knowing him only a short period of time. She then turned him without prior consent. On top of this, she abandoned him to awaken on his own. After he located her, she made little attempt to teach him any self control or the language that we all know and use to communicate no matter what our first language might be. My informants have been thorough in their investigation of this matter.”
Andrew wondered about the informants. They either had to be made up, or else they were good, because he hadn't noticed anyone watching them. Lazarus waited for the English translator to finish before continuing.
“The accused, Andrew Marks, awoke with such venom of anger and insanity in his soul against his own mother that instead of seeking out his maker upon waking as our kind normally does, he went first to his mother in her own house and he attacked her there. Leaving her upon the floor, he then went out and attempted to attack a truck driver. In his insanity, he didn't even realize that the man was still in his truck at the time, and that the truck was driving. Andrew was struck and thrown by the truck. Only after this did he attempt to locate Johari, his maker.” There were quite a few nervous stares from around the room and even the guards around Andrew seemed to lean back before regaining control of themselves. They seemed to believe that he was going to haul off and attack them.
“We have all heard your tale now,” said Tabitha, “Give us the charges so that they may be refuted and we can get on with our day.” She seemed frustrated by this trial for some reason as if she couldn't believe that Johari would do the things that she was accused of, or maybe Lazarus did this sort of thing a lot and she was getting tired of dealing with him.
“Hearing the news that my informants brought to me, I charge Johari with revealing our existence to a human, unsanctioned creation, negligence and failing to properly instruct her illegal young charge. The result of these crimes is the accused Andrew, who I declare unfit to be among us, which all know has but one result which is death.” The younger immortals on either end of the table looked at Johari.
“To the charge of revealing our existence unwisely, how do you plead?”
“Not guilty.”
“To the charge of unsanctioned creation, how do you plead?”
“Not guilty.”
“To the charge of negligence, how do you plead?” Johari paused for a long moment.
“Not guilty.”
“To the charge of failing to instruct your charge in the necessary ways, how do you plead?”
“Not guilty.” Lazarus looked less than pleased when Tabitha spoke up.
“Lazarus, we both know that she is telling the truth. I don't see how your charges can be accurate.” He raised his hand again to silence the surge of murmurs around the room before he turned again to Johari.
“Truth is subjective to belief.” Lazarus murmured to Tabitha. His murmur was loud enough though that the whole room could hear it. “Allow me to ask her in another way.” Tabitha looked at him askance, but nodded her consent. Lazarus turned to Johari once again. “Did Andrew know of our existence while he was still human?”
“Yes, but...” Lazarus cut her off with the next question.
“Were you there when Andrew finished the change?”
“No, but...” His hand went up to silence her.
“Have you made any attempts to teach him control or our language when he finally came to you?” Johari looked angry.
“No, there was...” Again the hand went up and he cut her off.
“Did you get permission from anyone in the council to turn him?” Johari stared at Lazarus in frustration. “Yes or no please.” She ground her teeth together in aggravation. It was a loud sound in the now quiet room. There was a long pause before Johari answered his question the way that he wanted it.
“No.”
“With your own words of admission, your pleas of not guilty will be struck from the record and replaced with pleas of guilty. My recommendation to the council is that Johari be sentenced to a term of service here where she can be shown an example of proper behavior for our kind once more. She has been away from that example for too long.” Johari snorted in disgust.
“I should have known, Lazarus,” she said. The way that she said his name made Andrew glad that it wasn't his name. He would hate to hear his name sound that way. Tabitha glanced at Johari. For a woman, or immortal, who was well disciplined at showing little emotion on her face for dealing with trials, she was showing quite a bit at the moment. There was a mixture of frustration and irritation, whether at Johari and Andrew, or at Lazarus or for some other reason, Andrew couldn't tell for sure.
“Known what Johari,” she asked? Lazarus waved his hand in a dismissing gesture.
“She is just trying to get out of a punishment for her crimes. Besides, of what import are the words of one who is, by her own adm
ission, a criminal under our laws.” At these words, Andrew felt the last little tiny shred of hope of leaving this place drain from him, just as it had in his dream. Johari looked more upset than he had ever seen her. The expression upon her face seemed to be voicing the words she had spoken aloud to Lazarus in the dream, “Do your worst.” Despair filled him because just as in the dream, Andrew knew that this man Lazarus, was prepared to do his worst.
Tabitha's voice broke the spell of despair that had begun to crush him.
“Lazarus,” She said, her voice rising a few notes. She wasn't happy and she was going to get her way. “Johari was with us for a long time as both friend and member. I want to hear what she has to say. You have rushed this trial by in such a hurry and now I would like to hear a few more of the details that you have glossed over.” She looked at Johari and it seemed to Andrew as if he could almost see a little bit of a smile in her eyes. Some small sliver of hope appeared in the distance and he grabbed onto it as if it were a lifeline, and it truly was. “I am truly sorry for the rudeness of Lazarus.” Her face became a little bit more stern. “However, among our kind, as you know, the charges you face are serious. I ask that you speak only the truth. Lies will not free you here.” Her stern expression melted and she smiled, “but of course you know that already. Please tell us your story as it happened. Leave out nothing you think important.”
Andrew found himself considering Tabitha's words. Was it possible that Johari had been a member of the council. She hadn't mentioned it, but it's impossible to mention all that you have done over the course of eight hundred years in just a few short months. He looked to Johari and waited for her to tell the story.
Johari's anger had drained from her face as Tabitha spoke, and she directed a small smile at Tabitha. Then her own face grew a stern mask that perfectly matched the one Tabitha had just worn, and the words she spoke were for more than just Tabitha and the council.
“I'm glad to find that at least one of the pillars for truth and justice still remains faithful to the cause, even if the other has not.” She glared at Lazarus for a moment, but he just grunted at her, ignoring her remark and her glare. He had done his best to get this trial over and now he knew that Tabitha was going to seek out more details than he wanted her to have no matter what he said.
He still had a small smile on his face as though he believed that no matter what the details of the story that Johari told were, there couldn't possibly be any good enough excuses for the way in which she had behaved. Andrew felt confident that Lazarus would be more than a little surprised as he heard the real story. It was still surprising to Andrew and he had lived it.
“As you know Tabitha, and many of you here, I was once a member of this council. I left almost fifty years ago because I was looking for something more in this life of ours, I just didn't know what it was yet.” She smiled at Andrew, “After many years of seeking as I did the tasks that you charged me with, I found the missing piece of myself in this young Blood that you charged me to watch. I didn't quite know it when we first met and he was not yet a Blood at the time, but I came to realize that there was more to him than was immediately obvious.” The whole room was silent and lost in the story that Johari shared. Even Andrew found himself drawn into the words as she spoke even though he knew most of the story.
“I first met him about five years ago. It was night and I had just received the orders. I was walking the perimeter of the lot where his house was. I came to the edge of the trees and found myself staring up into the open window on the back of a house. Leaning out of the window, was a young boy who appeared to be about twelve or thirteen. He seemed sad and he stared at me unafraid. After a moment, I went up to his room, intending to leave him with no memories of the event. Once in his room, I began to walk toward him. Despite how strange the situation must have seemed to him, he still didn't appear at all afraid. Then, when I was only three feet from him, our hearts bonded. I was so shocked that I cried out. I looked into his eyes and willed him to forget and then I ran, believing that he would do just that.” She paused as the memory played in her mind. Andrew smiled as the image of her shock appeared in his mind. Johari continued with her story. “I did not forget though, and thought of it many times as I watched him. I didn't approach him again, just watched from the shadows as we are told to do. Even with the separation, our hearts remained bonded and I felt them beating as one. I continued to watch over him, fascinated by him for a reason that I could not fathom. I got to know everything there was to know, or at least that's what I thought.” She glanced up at Tabitha's face. That face was smiling back at her. It seemed to give her reason to continue and it increased Andrew's small sliver of hope as well. “Then, near the end of his senior year, I could keep myself away no longer. I had this huge desire to tell him everything, but I knew I couldn't do that. So, instead, I registered at his school and tried to befriend him there as just another human. It was a place where I thought that he would be less likely to question me coming into his life, but would allow me to be near him.” She stopped and smiled at Andrew again. “I discovered several fascinating things about him immediately. The first was that he was of an interest to the dark demons we were created to fight. One was sent to watch him in school and it followed him to work afterwards. The other thing that I discovered was that he could sense its presence, something I cannot do and have not heard of before.” All of the faces on the council were incredulous and there were murmurs of shock in the crowd behind us. “I was able to stop and destroy the demon with the help of the other Blood in the area, Paul. I thought that it had just been a simple seeking and that the demon had transferred to him because of my own interest. Since it had been killed, I thought that there would be no more issues, though I had Paul watch out for more demons from a distance. After the attack, I told Andrew to forget about the events of the day since he had seen me fight it and had even seen the demon itself fighting.” There were more gasps from the audience.“The next few days were shock after shock for me. He could sense my presence even better than he felt the demon. I passed it off as something to do with the bonding, but something didn't feel right about that. I was amazed, but thought maybe it had been a fluke. Then I discovered that on his own, he had overridden the command I had given him to forget. I tried more than once to make him forget things, but it never worked. He also recalled the first night that I was there almost five years ago. Even then, he had known I was different, but didn't care. I came to realize that Andrew had loved me from the moment that our hearts bonded and I also realized that I felt the same way.” Lazarus' face clouded as Johari said this, and Andrew had a fleeting thought in his mind as to what this might be about. “I thought that this was the end of things. I was certain that he was more than I realized, but that I had discovered everything there was to know about him. Instead I came to discover that it was much more complicated than I ever imagined. Andrew had figured something else out on his own that he shouldn't have been able to. He was possessed by a demon and had been for as long as he could remember.” The crowd was on it's feet and the immortals were in attack positions, ready to take Andrew down. Tabitha raised her hand.
“Please sit down. The council will hear all testimony and then the future will be decided.” It took a moment, but the immortals warily returned to their seats. Tabitha nodded at Johari. “Please continue with your tale.”
“The demon managed to gain control of Andrew and tried to attack me and run. Our fight was the strangest I have ever had. When our skin touched, light flared and threw us both back. In that time, Andrew regained control. I was confused. I had never seen anything like it, or even heard of another who had. Some of this I reported to you.” Tabitha nodded.
“The last report from you was that the demon was destroyed, but nothing about how. Paul also reported that he made Andrew forget about the whole thing.”
“I had very little to do with the demon's destruction. The demon gained possession again and when I touched Andrew, the power flare
d again. This time, I held on instead of letting it blow us apart. Somehow Andrew was able to take the light into himself and he destroyed the demon with it. Paul tried to make him forget all about us. Not only did that not work, but he revealed to me that he knew exactly what I was and didn't care. He said that I was what I was and he was alright with that. I couldn't believe that I could have found someone to accept me so fully in a human. I didn't know how to protect him from this world we live in. The idea that came to me was that as long as he wasn't going to frighten away, maybe I could bribe him to stay close to me, but not so close that I would have to worry about my world spilling over into his. I bought him his dream car, offered him an expensive house and fancy clothes. I let him know that there was plenty of money to do whatever he wanted with it. To my everlasting surprise and amazement. An eighteen year old boy, who should be caring about those kinds of things, didn't bat an eye. He just turned it all down, and said that I was all that he wanted.” She glanced pointedly at Lazarus as if to say something to him by her look. He didn't notice, or at least pretended not to. “I have never been accepted so completely as I am. No ifs, ands, or buts and no strings attached. He was going to continue to love me despite anything that I might have done or anything that I might do in the future. At the time, I was overwhelmed, but I was also filled with joy. I stopped trying to keep him away, since none of my attempts had done any good anyway and I spent as much of my time as I could with him.” Her mood turned more somber. “Then one evening, I went over to his house after I met with Paul. I got there just in time to hear a phone conversation from his work asking if he left yet because he was fifteen minutes late. It was dark and the rain was pouring down that night. I felt my heart flutter, and I knew instantly that somewhere, he was dying. I ran as fast as I could along the route that he would have taken to get to his job and I found his car, smashed and laying on its side in the ditch alongside the road. I didn't know until he told me later, but two more demons had been dispatched to prevent Andrew from being able to join us or to destroy another of their kind. One of them smashed into the side of his car several times forcing him to swerve. The other drove a large semi truck and smashed into his car at full speed. The demons left the area, believing their job to be completed.” Johari's voice was full of the pain she had experienced coming into that scene. “As I approached the car, I could see that his life was draining from him. His neck was broken, as was his jaw, both arms and both legs, all in several different places. No paramedics had arrived on the scene yet, and I knew that he would not make it even if they did. I decided to break the law. I didn't care at that moment. I gently pulled him out of the car and laid him on the road. His eyes fluttered open and I asked him then if he wanted to live. He couldn't speak because of the state of his jaw, but he still tried to smile at me, even through the pain that it must have caused him. Then he blinked at me twice. I asked him if he knew what it meant, if he knew that he would become what I was. And he blinked twice more. I knew what he meant by the blinks. He was trying to say yes the only way that he could in his condition.” Lazarus jumped to his feet, grin on his face.
“See, she even admits her crime. Why is this charade continuing?” Johari shook her head.
“You do not know all that you need to yet.” She looked at Tabitha.
“Please sit down Lazarus. I will hear everything from everyone involved before I make my final decision and you should want that same thing.” Lazarus returned to his chair with a frown on his face. “Please continue Johari.”
“I knew that I didn't have permission, but I was willing to risk it and ask for assessment afterward since there was no time then to ask. I bent over him to begin the process to change him. Before I even cut my skin to give him blood, he faded from consciousness. Sirens blared nearby and then he died.” The room erupted again. The looks on Lazarus and Tabitha's faces were identical disbelieving. Johari waited for it to quiet down a bit. Andrew stared at her with a similar face of disbelief. Johari smiled at him. “I know it sounds impossible, but I never gave you any of my blood.” She turned back to the table. “The ambulance arrived at that point and I had a brief hope that they could revive him enough to allow me a chance.”
Andrew glanced around the room and found almost every face locked on Johari in rapt attention even though the end was obvious. Surely the paramedics had saved him long enough for her to turn him.
“I followed the ambulance on foot and listened to them as they worked on him. It was strange to feel the jolt of their equipment in my own heart as they tried to get his heart beating again. They didn't even make it halfway to the hospital before they called his death. I was lost and heartbroken. I went to his wake and then to his funeral. I watched them lower his casket into the ground. I watched them cover it with dirt.” Everyone was staring at Andrew who was staring at Johari. He hadn't known any of this. He had just assumed she had saved him, but now he didn't know what to think. “My hope and my life were done. The night after the funeral, I began to contemplate taking my own life. I didn't think that I could bear eternity any longer without him in it with me. I decided to wait for a few days before I made my final decision on the matter. Even in my distress, I was far too rational after all my time on this earth to make a spur of the moment decision like that, one based solely on emotion. If I continued to feel the same way, then I would go ahead with my plan. Two mornings later, just at daybreak, I felt my heart skip a beat, like it was realigning itself to something else, another part of itself. I went down to the driveway and stood there waiting for what was coming, not yet daring to hope, not understanding how it was possible. And then there he was, covered in blood, most of it his own. He cried that he had accidentally killed his mother, but I found no fault with him. All have struggled at first with their new lives, he was no different. We have been together ever since. And since then, I have been truly content and happy with my life. In a way that I have not been since I first took up this mantle of a life of blood. Most of the time has been spent together in the simple joy of each other. I still do not know what happened, but all I can believe is that the Creator saved him. Whatever happened, I am forever grateful that we were both given a second chance.” Tabitha grinned at Johari with real pleasure, though there was still an air of uncertainty about it.
“I am so happy for you Johari. I can find no fault in you for the crimes that you have been accused of. Obviously, Lazarus' informants missed much in their gathering of information. You would not have left him alone had you changed him and did what you could to prevent him from discovering your identity.” Lazarus interrupted Tabitha,
“What of teaching? Have you made no attempt at teaching him our language or how to control himself?” Johari smiled.
“I have taught him nothing, nor will I.” Lazarus looked pleased.
“You have no intention to teach him?” Even Tabitha looked surprised at this. Johari shook her head.
“It is unnecessary.” Tabitha shook her head.
“I believe Lazarus is right in this case. You must teach him the language and he must be taught a measure of self control.” Johari smiled.
“He already speaks the language fluently. He apparently absorbed it when we were fighting the demon within himself.” Tabitha held up a hand to silence the outburst in the room.
“Please hold your comments for now. Could you pause as well Nathanial.” The translator stopped whispering in Andrew's ear. It was sort of a relief. Not that his mind couldn't listen to both languages at the same time, it was just harder to focus with both voices running. Tabitha looked at him. “Is everything that she has said so far true,” she asked? He glanced quickly at Johari who nodded almost imperceptibly.
“As far as I know. I absorbed a lot of information during that connection and when I turned, the knowledge was still with me.” It was hard to say for sure, but he thought that Lazarus looked just the tiniest bit disappointed at his words. Then Lazarus smiled at Johari. His smile widened. Maybe not. Something was going on here
that Andrew didn't understand and he didn't care for that at all. He wondered if they had a chance of surviving, no matter what was said. Tabitha spoke up again.
“Very impressive Andrew. I have not heard of any young Blood learning our language as a human.” She smiled at both of us. “Although there is some investigation to be done as to the source of young Andrew's change, with the information shared I think that this trial can end happily for all involved.”
“No!” Lazarus stood up so fast that his chair flew backward and smashed into the wall behind him. It fell in several pieces to the floor. Even being able to focus as well as Andrew could, it was difficult to see Lazarus as he moved around, and Andrew didn't notice him standing up until he was doing it. Andrew struggled to concentrate harder. It felt important to him that he be able to see those movements. Lazarus was speaking again and his voice sounded desperate, “The immortal, Andrew, is still insane, despite what Johari may say about him. He killed his own mother upon completion of the change. No Blood can go go around killing and get away with it. He must die. It is law.” Andrew's mind saw Lazarus begin to move around the table and then toward him at an incredible rate.
The robed guards who were still around him but five feet away on all sides, were still staring at the front desk, where Lazarus had been only instants before. It was as if no one else in the room had noticed him moving yet. Andrew knew that this original immortal was planning to take him out before he had a chance to argue his case any further. He hurtled toward Andrew, and even though Andrew's mind was fast, it wasn't fast enough. He saw the fist fly out, but couldn't see it fast enough to react.
The fist struck him squarely in the chest and Andrew heard and felt his sternum and a rib or two crack under the blow. The semi he played baseball with on his first day had nothing on this man's fist. Andrew was launched backward at an incredible rate, bowling over the two guards behind him. He flew back a good twenty five feet and would have gone even further except that a large stone pillar caught and held him fast. His head rattled as it struck the stone, pieces of it falling and hitting the floor at his feet.
In the instants after striking, Andrew tried to refocus back on Lazarus. He knew that the crazy Blood wouldn't wait. He would strike again. Andrew's eyes found Lazarus. He put every effort he could muster into concentrating on Lazarus' movements. His life depended on it. As he did, something in Andrew's mind clicked as though a door within had been opened.
His mind focused on Lazarus and took note of his movements. As fast as Lazarus might be, Andrew's thoughts were much faster. So much faster in fact that it almost seemed as if the other were moving in slow motion. A huge fist drew back and came hurtling forward, strait for his head.
Andrew waited for the fist to approach. At the last instant, he stepped aside. Lazarus had put so much of himself into the punch that he didn't even notice that Andrew had moved until he stumbled past. His fist struck the stone pillar that had been behind Andrew there was a loud crack as the stone pillar lost a large piece off of the side. There was a growl of anger then Andrew heard the air hurtling around Lazarus' fist as he moved to strike from behind.
Andrew felt the air pushed ahead of Lazarus' fist move the hairs on his neck. He stepped aside and Lazarus blew past him and stumbled over the guards who had just stood up, taking them down once again. Andrew stepped back to where he had been standing in the same instant. From the collective gasp in the room, it was obvious that he had moved faster than anyone had registered. It would have appeared that Lazarus went through Andrew as though he were a ghost.