"Jessenda?" she asked.
Jessenda took a step toward her and sniffed. "What is that?" Jessenda asked.
Victoria was confused. "What?" she asked.
Jessenda stepped closer and sniffed again. "Why do you smell like wolf?" Jessenda asked.
Victoria started for a second. She felt the need to brush herself off, as if she had dog hair on her dress. "Wolf?" Victoria asked looking at herself. "What are you talking about?"
"I smell lycan," she finally said. "It's coming from you."
"What?" Victoria laughed nervously. "What are you talking about?" she asked again, turning to walk nonchalantly away.
Jessenda reached up and grabbed Victoria by the arm and flung her around. She held Victoria close to her face and she sniffed her again. "You smell like…like that boy!" she exclaimed letting her go. "You helped him escape didn't you? Into the woods."
"I did no such thing!" Victoria protested.
"Ha!" Jessenda retorted. "Then how did you…no," she realized. "No, you have been near the boy, but you have been much closer to a lycan. Did you find his body and go wailing into the woods?" she laughed.
"Something like that," Victoria mumbled as she removed Jessenda's hand from her arm and walked away.
"Wait," Jessenda started to say, but when Victoria's sleeve slid out of her hand, a fine, smooth, almost slippery dust was left on her fingers. Jessenda looked at it and rubbed her fingers together. "What is this?" she asked, looking at the substance. "Ash?"
Victoria's heart began to race and she backed farther away from Jessenda. She had no idea how Jessenda would react if she found out the truth, but it wouldn't be good.
Jessenda put her fingers close to her nose and smelled the strange powder. A look of terror fell over her face and she looked up at Victoria. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Victoria mumbled. "I don't know what happened."
Jessenda stepped toward Victoria as Victoria continued moving back. "How can you not know?" Jessenda demanded. "Is this Sebastian's remains?" Her voice quickly rose with each word she spoke.
"You must be quiet," Victoria said. "We are not safe."
"You mean not safe from you!" Jessenda quickly moved forward and grabbed Victoria by the neck. "What have you done? Tell me!"
"Stop, Jessenda, please," Victoria begged, trying to remove her hand. The two struggled and the stake Victoria had in her belt fell out and hit the floor. Jessenda looked down in disbelief.
"You killed Sebastian," Jessenda muttered.
"I didn't mean to," Victoria tried to explain.
"You could have killed me with that," Jessenda continued.
"I would not have hurt you. Sebastian was trying to kidnap me. He wanted to take me away without Father knowing." Jessenda still held a firm grip on Victoria's neck and Victoria was having difficulty breathing. Jessenda tightened her grip at the mention of Vincent.
"Don't for one second pretend you care about your father, you worthless whore," Jessenda said. "You never wanted to marry Sebastian. You probably killed him because you saw the chance to blame it on the hunter."
"No, please, you have to believe me."
"Believe you?" Jessenda scoffed. "How can I believe you? You are not one of us. You probably killed Tessa, too! And now you have gone to the wolves for help against us. You traitorous trollop!"
"Who are you calling traitor," Victoria asked as she struggled to breathe. "I know you slept with Xavier." Jessenda's eyes widened in disbelief. "Xavier told me everything about the villagers, the deal you made with him to kill me. If you could smell lycan on me from across the room, I don't know how Father didn't smell it on your naked skin!"
"Silence!" Jessenda said as she slammed Victoria back into a wall. Victoria's head hit the wall with a force that should have knocked her out. She cried out in pain. "That is all a lie!" Jessenda claimed. "Xavier is no friend to us. You are a fool for believing him."
"Maybe we should ask Father what he thinks about the possibility that you might have slept with Xavier," Victoria said.
"Maybe we should ask him how he feels about you killing Sebastian," Jessenda retorted.
"I am sure that this knot on my head will speak volumes."
Jessenda paused for a moment. She knew Victoria was right. She was undone. If Vincent found out about Xavier, he would kill her with his own hands. There was only one thing she could do.
"Maybe," whispered Jessenda, "but there is no knot if you are dead." Jessenda turned her head and looked at the stake on the floor that had been kicked away while the two had been struggling. Victoria glanced at it too.
"You wouldn't," Victoria said. "My father would rip you limb from limb."
"I am not stupid, child," Jessenda said as she walked toward the stake, dragging Victoria along with her. Victoria was woozy from the hit to her head and stumbled along as Jessenda led her by the neck. "It will be easy enough to blame Calmet for your death."
Jessenda had a firm grasp on Victoria's neck and Victoria was too weak to free herself. There was nothing within reach for her to grab to defend herself. Jessenda reached down to pick up the stake, but she had to bend low enough to grab it. Her face was about at Victoria's knees when Victoria took a chance. She kicked Jessenda in the face as hard as she could with the toe of her shoe. It was not very hard, but was a sharp enough kick that Jessenda instinctively let go of Victoria and put her hands to her face.
As soon as Jessenda let go, Victoria took off running. She opened the door and ran out into the hall. She heard Jessenda growl behind her, so she screamed as loud as possible as she ran down the hallway. She didn't care who heard her. She did not want to die by Jessenda's hands; it would be quite a painful way to go. As she neared the other end of the hallway, she was running out of doors, out of ways to go. She burst through a door on her left and saw that there was no way out. She ran to the other end of the room and picked up a vase. She held it up to throw as soon as Jessenda entered the room.
Jessenda entered the room fully transformed and full of rage. The vase flew at her. Jessenda easily dodged it as it smashed into the open door. Jessenda laughed and crept toward Victoria. Victoria picked up a small, wooden chair and held it over her head to hit her enemy. When Jessenda got close enough, Victoria swung, but Jessenda grabbed the chair and ripped it from Victoria's grasp.
Jessenda laughed. "You can't win," she confidently said. She bared her fangs and leapt toward Victoria.
Victoria turned to the door, hoping to make one last desperate dash, but when she looked toward her only means of escape, Vincent entered.
"Victoria!" he yelled. "What is the meaning of this?"
Victoria and Jessenda froze when they saw Vincent. Jessenda dropped the stake and she and Vincent watched as it rolled slowly across the floor. Vincent stared at the stake on the floor as it continued to rock back and forth before coming to rest against the edge of an unlit fireplace. After it stopped, he looked up at the hopelessness and fear that had replaced the anger on Jessenda's countenance. Her form had retaken its human shape. Vincent reached out for Victoria's hand and led her behind him. He walked toward Jessenda.
"My lord," Jessenda stammered, bowing her head in submission. "Please have mercy."
"I cannot let this stand," Vincent said.
"My lord, it was only for fear. She killed…"
Vincent held up his hand to silence her. "I did not ask for an excuse," he said calmly. "I cannot let this stand." He stood right in front of her and held up her chin. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up into his eyes.
"The others…they are all gone," she said.
"I know," he replied.
"Can we not…just go back to the way things were?" she asked. "Back when we were alone and happy?" Vincent sighed and looked at her affectionately, stroking her face and her hair.
"It is too late for that," he replied.
Jessenda knew this was her end. She could never escape or fight Vincent. Though she didn't think she wanted to fight him. He had o
ccupied her every thought for hundreds of years. She had given him everything. Did she want to spend the last moment of her life in defiance of him? "It's never too late for us," she said. "Unlike them, we have forever. It's not too late to abandon this ambition, leave, and just keep living. You promised me forever."
It was true. When Vincent first decided to bring her into his world, he told her that they would be together forever. She had been loyal, never wavering in all that time. Could he really take her life, after all she had done for him?
Vincent bent down and kissed Jessenda passionately. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around him and held him close to her. He kissed her forehead, her ear, her cheek, her neck.
"I love you, Vincent," she said softly.
He did not respond with words, but held her tightly as he bit into the supple, tender flesh of her neck, just as he had hundreds of years ago the first time he took her life.
She gasped with a mix of pain and euphoria. "No," she whispered, but she didn't have a choice. She closed her eyes and gave over to him completely and finally. Her arms slid down from his shoulders and fell to her sides. She went limp in his arms and he let her slowly fall to the floor. He stood over her for a moment, looking at her beautiful, lifeless corpse. He wiped her blood from around his mouth.
He turned back and looked at his daughter. Victoria felt so overwhelmed. As much as she feared and disliked Jessenda, she could not believe she was dead, and at her father's own hands.
Victoria had often heard about how her father and the women lived happily before she was born. She had wondered it her mother might have lived a happy life had Vincent not wanted so desperately for a child to be born. She imagined how Ethan might have found a good wife and had children had she not appeared at the village edge that day. Or maybe he would have entered the priesthood and would have faithfully served God in this life and in the next.
She wished she had not been born. She did not necessarily want to die – so many had died because of her and she did not want them to have died in vain. There had to be a reason she existed, but she did not know what it was. All the pain and suffering that surrounded her could have been avoided had she never been born. She felt weak and sank to the floor.
Vincent approached her and pulled her back up by the arm. "Now is not the time to be sad," he said, looking down at her.
"How else should I feel?" she asked him.
He put his arm around her and held her. "Tomorrow, when we are safe, we will mourn all of them together."
Her tiredness finally overwhelmed her and she lost consciousness.
Vincent held her in his powerful arms. He rubbed his hand over her soft hair and was startled when he felt a warm, wet sensation on the back of her head. He looked at his fingers and saw her blood running down them. He looked back at Jessenda and realized that he had made the right choice. His daughter was hurt and exhausted. She needed sustenance. He picked her up and carried her out of the room, back into the darkness.
22
After leaving the incredible sight of Victoria slaying one of the male vampires, Ethan wandered around the castle in disbelief. He was looking for Calmet, but only half-heartedly. He was so unsure about what he should be doing. The road, right or wrong, did not seem clear. The lord of the castle and the women seemed to be quite evil, but what about Victoria? She was one of them, so she too must die. Why did this basic truth hurt him so much? Why did she kill one of her own kind? Was that the man her father had wanted her to marry?
He wished he had not thrown that amulet into the ravine. In spite of everything, a part of him wished that at the end of the night, if the lord and women were all dead, and he and Victoria somehow survived, they could be together. Even after all this time, he still carried the pretty fantasy of a life with her around in his heart. But after what he did, how could she ever forgive him? He could not even forgive himself. It was too cruel. How could they be together anyway? She was a progeny of evil and had to be destroyed.
How evil was she? No one was ever entirely good. All of the men at the monastery that Ethan had met were good men, but most were there out of some sense of repentance for past wicked deeds. Even Ethan had led what most priests, even Father Andrew, would call a sinful life after he left the village. But Father Andrew had assured him that God had forgiven him. He had said God's forgiveness was infinite. Why couldn't Victoria be forgiven? Were her sins even hers? Or her father's?
Ethan walked up and down the halls, in and out of the rooms. He was not sure what he was looking for or what he would find. He did not have the sixth sense that Calmet seemed to possess. Any door he opened might open on a vampire and his own death. But that did not seem to worry him much anymore. He was so tormented, if it all ended, he just hoped it would not be painful.
He walked down one corridor and thought he heard the faint sounds of a scuffle. He mustered up his courage and continued walking toward the sounds. Grunts and groans came from a room to the right halfway down the hall.
"Come on, creature," he thought he heard Calmet say. "Let's have it!"
"In a hurry to die?" a male voice asked.
As Ethan reached the door, he heard a piercing scream echo throughout the entire castle. He jumped at the sound. He quickly looked around, the sound seemed so near. As the echo faded, he realized that it had come from much farther off, and that it was not the screech of a vampire.
"Victoria," he whispered.
He turned and headed back down the hall toward the scream. He ended up at the grand staircase and looked up and down, not sure where the scream came from. He was about to run upstairs, but he felt an ice cold chill run down his spine. He looked back and saw a figure moving toward him.
Ethan backed away from the staircase and entered the first room he came to. He closed the door part of the way, leaving it open enough to see who was coming. The figure came into full view and Ethan was surprised at how the man was not really frightening at all. He was impressively tall, had pale, almost white skin, and long black hair. He was eerily calm, regal, and inviting. He practically glided as he walked to the stairs.
All these years, Ethan had only heard about Lord Vladimir from Victoria, Father James, and in stories and legends from the people in town. The night Victoria was tied to the post in town he was so far away from Victoria, the wolves, and the vampires that he could not get a good look at him. But now, he was in full, clear view and Ethan was strangely unafraid. Lord Vladimir seemed like any man of power and intrigue: larger than life, but all too human.
As Lord Vladimir turned to go up the stairs, he stopped for a moment and looked at Ethan. Their eyes met and Ethan felt threatened. As the two stared at each other, the lord's eyes changed from a deep sea of black to a piercing crystal blue. Coldness enveloped Ethan and he thought he could see his own shallow breaths appear in the air before him.
"The icy grip of death may feel like a warm blanket to someone whose heart is already frozen," Lord Vladimir said. "I will make your death quick and painless for the sake of my daughter." He turned and walked up the stairs.
Ethan waited until he was sure the lord was gone before exiting the room. He stood at the staircase and considered following him. Lord Vladimir had to be going to see why Victoria had screamed. Ethan knew the vampire lord was far too powerful for him to even approach, much less attack.
He remembered that the vampire had been fighting with Calmet. Did he leave Calmet alive so he could go save Victoria? He ran back down the hall and entered the room the two had been fighting in. It was quite dark. He could only make out vague shapes of furniture and windows.
"Calmet?" he whispered.
"Ethan," a raspy voice answered back. "Is that you?" Calmet hacked a phlegmy cough and Ethan made his way over to the sounds.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he found Calmet on the floor holding his sword in one hand and his other hand over his stomach. He groaned as he tried to stand up to meet Ethan. Ethan dropped by his side and tried to help him up.
&
nbsp; "Just a minute, Ethan," Calmet said. "Open a window, will you?"
Ethan got up and pulled back one of the high curtains to let in a little light from the waning moon. It would be sunrise soon. Ethan crouched back by Calmet's side.
"I'm very glad to see you alive, my boy," Calmet said.
"Are you severely hurt, sir?" Ethan asked.
Calmet took a deep breath and looked down at his stomach as he removed his hand. There was quite a bit of blood, and Ethan gulped. "It's not as bad as it looks, boy," Calmet laughed. "It's not too deep, just hurts like hell." Calmet tried to sit up a little more. "I gave you some gauze and some liquid stuff, didn't I?" he asked.
Ethan nodded and unhooked a pouch from the back of his belt. Ethan helped wipe away some of the blood to better treat the wound. It was not too deep, as Calmet said, but it was quite long, nearly from one side of his stomach clear to the other. He opened a little vial that was in the pack.
"Pour it directly on the wound," Calmet directed.
Ethan obeyed and Calmet groaned in pain as if Ethan had poured acid on it. "Sorry! Sorry, sir," Ethan said, surprised at the pain the liquid caused Calmet.
"No, don't worry, just keep pouring," Calmet instructed. "Make sure you get some of it in the whole wound."
Ethan nodded and made sure to cover every inch of the gash. After he was sure the wound was treated, he covered the wound with more gauze to staunch the bleeding and then wrapped gauze around the wound and Calmet's back to hold the gauze in place.
"How is that, sir?" Ethan asked.
"Damn fine work, boy," Calmet replied. He was obviously quite sore, but he was trying to look strong. Calmet made a move, but Ethan placed his hand on his shoulder to discourage him from moving just yet.
"Can we wait just a minute?" Ethan asked. "My nerves…"
Calmet settled back down. "You heard the scream, did you?" Calmet asked.
"Yes," Ethan replied.
"He had me, you know. He had me," Calmet lamented. "If it wasn't for that scream, he would have had me." He laid his head back against the wall. "I'm getting too old for this. A little flesh wound like this would not have fazed me twenty years ago, but now…" His voice trailed off.
The Vampire's Daughter Page 21