Of the Blood

by Joshua Laack

Chapter 36

  Andrew moved forward, around the guards and Lazarus, all still on the floor. He looked up at the three remaining figures at the table. “How is it that Johari has the right to argue against her charges and I do not?” Tabitha looked shocked and more than a little angry, but that last emotion was directed at the figure on the floor, not toward him.

  “Yes, Lazarus? How do you have the right to carry out a sentence that has not even been decided yet? This young Blood you have charged hardly seems as insane as you have proposed and I would like to hear what he has to say.”

  “Fine,” Lazarus muttered, standing once again, a short distance behind Andrew. “I should think that the fact that he intentionally sought out his mother and killed her before looking for Johari would be enough proof for you.” The frustration in his voice was evident. It was obvious that he had not expected to be thwarted like this and was no longer as certain of the outcome. Johari smiled at Andrew and spoke up.

  “Tabitha, Lazarus' informants are as misinformed in this case as they were in my own. When Andrew first awoke as one of us, he did not know exactly what had happened. He did not recall the accident that led to his death or know that he was now one of us. He was dirty from crawling out of his grave and his first thought was to go home and get cleaned up, just as he would have done before. Upon arriving at home, he saw his mother standing in the kitchen, cutting food on a cutting board. She thought he was dead and did not expect to see him. In her shock, she attacked him with the knife in her hands. Andrew was unprepared for this and reacted, but moved a little too quickly. His mother was stabbed, but it was an accident. Also, his mother survived the wound and is recovering.” Lazarus interrupted.

  “Even if that were true, you are saying that a human being now knows that her son, who was dead, is alive. This cannot be. How many has she told?” Johari smiled.

  “Paul got to her in time and made her believe that what she remembered was a thief who broke into the house and ended up attacking her.”

  “What about attacking the truck on the highway,” Lazarus asked, his voice sounding desperate.

  “After Andrew regained control, he believed that his mother would die from what he had done and he couldn't stand the thought. He decided to end his life as he thought it was supposed to have ended. He went to the scene of his car accident and jumped out in front of a truck. The truck didn't hurt him and the driver never stopped to see what he hit.” Tabitha turned to Lazarus.

  “You never even checked any of the details of this story before charging these two did you? Where has your ideal of true justice among us gone? Why would you behave like this?” Andrew could feel Lazarus behind him. The immortal was almost quivering.

  “Wait! I have more to share,” he said. Andrew turned his head around to look at him. He was looking around the room. “Salem, come forward.” Salem seemed to be one of the ones who had come to the house to pick them up. He was shaking his head at Lazarus as if to warn him not to do this, but Lazarus didn't seem to notice. “Come and witness to those gathered, Salem.” Reluctantly, Salem stepped forward out of the crowd. “Tell the members of the council how Andrew almost endangered the secret of our existence on his way here.”

  “I apologize Lazarus, but he did nothing untoward for me to report.” Lazarus had been smiling up at the other three members of the council, but at this he whirled to face Salem. Salem blanched at the look on his face.

  “Nothing? Are you serious? Not even when the girl...” He stopped, but he had said too much. Tabitha was staring at him in confusion.

  “What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself Lazarus,” she demanded. Lazarus shook his head.

  “There is nothing to explain. I will have to speak to my informants. I was told that he attacked a young woman at the airport.” Johari raised her hand to get Tabitha' attention. There was a small smile on her face that to Andrew looked like a smile of victory.

  “I must report that something did happen at the airport. In the terminal here at Tel Aviv, we were walking to get outside when a young woman came at Andrew with a knife. At the time, I believed it to be coincidence. Now I am no longer sure.” Tabitha's eyes turned to Lazarus.

  “Lazarus?” Her voice was slightly higher and a lot more upset than it had been before. “Am I hearing this correctly? You had them bring a young Blood through a busy airport system before we had even had a chance to evaluate him? You should know better than that.” Her eyes widened. “You did it on purpose? To what end? What justice is there in any of this?”

  “But... I... He...” Lazarus sputtered. His face froze in stone. “She's mine.” He stopped as though he knew that those words would be meaningless for him here. He looked straight at Andrew. “You can't have her. They told me that I can have her if I kill you for them.” Then he was rushing once again. He swung his fist, faster even than before, but Andrew's mind clicked into the mode which made everything seem so slow. One of the things Andrew's parents had done when he was a young boy had been to make him join an Aikido class to try to overcome some of the darkness and maybe make some friends. Andrew had never been any good, but all of the motions were somehow now in his head.

  As his fist approached, Andrew stepped up and to the side. Then his right hand guided the fist past his face and then wrapped around Lazarus' wrist. Andrew's left hand came up just behind the elbow and used the force of his punch, which was quite a bit, shoving out in a throw. Lazarus flew and rolled, landing twenty feet away.

  The landing didn't seem to faze him and he was up and at Andrew again. He swung again and again and Andrew just guided and threw him away each time. It was easy to react to his attacks since Andrew could see each one long before it could connect. As Lazarus struggled in vain to land a strike, Andrew's mind put together the last words and figured out some of what must be going on here.

  Lazarus had to have fallen in love, or at least felt that he did, with Johari when she was on the council with them, or even before. Now he felt that she belonged to him and no one else. Andrew was just competition in the way, to be eliminated and then forgotten.

  What Lazarus didn't realize was that Andrew was a figure on the other side of an impenetrable wall that existed between Johari and himself. Lazarus believed that if he crushed Andrew, that the wall might disappear as well. He didn't understand Johari at all. All he would get by killing the one she loved was a wall that was even more impenetrable. No matter what he did, she would never be his.

  “She is not yours, nor will she ever be,” Andrew said to him, though he understood that in Lazarus' current, frenzied state, he would never be able to hear or to understand. “I hate to be an inconvenience, but I do not wish to harm him, and I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep this up without reaching that point,” Andrew said to no one in particular as he continued to watch Lazarus and counter the attacks. Tabitha's voice was laden with sadness as she gave the order.

  “Stop him,” she said. Eight robed figures converged on the flashing figure as he struggled to avoid them and to reach his goal. There was foam forming on his lips as he tried to fight off his new assailants. Sixteen arms that were not slow or weak themselves, were almost not enough to contain him. After a moment or two of struggle, they were at last able to grab him and hold him in place. “Oh Lazarus,” Tabitha said sadly, “Why have you given it all up? You know the duty we have. Why do this for a relationship that was never meant to be? She never did anything to give you any indication that she would be more than a friend.” She sighed with a look of such sorrow on her face that Andrew felt sorry she had to discover this treachery by her compatriot. “I'm truly sorry Lazarus, but I must vote to relieve you of your duties until such a time as the council finds you recovered enough to reinstate you.” She turned to each of the others at the table with her. “Gregorr, Elizabet, how do you vote?” Both stared at Lazarus with a similar, but somehow lesser degree of sadness, as if they didn't have the same personal connection to him that Tabitha did.

  “I a
gree that there is no other choice. He must be relieved for now,” said Gregorr with a nod.

  “Relieve him,” echoed Elizabet. Tabitha looked at the eight guards.

  “Please escort him to his room. Allow him to gather that which he can carry with him and then remove him from the grounds.” She looked at him. “It didn't have to be this way Lazarus. Return to us after at least a year has passed, if that is your desire when the time comes. We will hear you and decide whether or not you are ready to once again join us on this council. We don't often give second chances, but for all that you have done for the community of the Blood, you have one.” She waved a dismissing hand. The eight immortals, moving as one began to take their burden toward the door. Lazarus pulled back, resisting being forced from the room.

  “Come now and destroy these filthy vermin, but don't harm the girl!” Lazarus screamed out as he pulled back against the eight and managed to break free of their hold. It was then that Andrew noticed a tingling feeling crawling over the back of his neck. That had only happened a few other times, but he knew it at once.

  “There are demons here,” he yelled out in English before realizing that many of those here wouldn't understand. He repeated himself in Aramaic and the room erupted in chaos.