In the darkness I felt nothing, no body, no time, not even any train of thought. I just kept slipping form realizing I existed to even more nothing then the nothingness.
Time had no meaning at all. I didn’t know how long the moments of awareness lasted, hell it could have been a million years, or it could have been fifteen seconds. Hell, now that was an idea. If there was a hell I knew I belonged there. So maybe this is it an eternity of boredom. That would be just fan-fucking-tastic. Slowly after a million years or so, my thoughts became more defined. Instead of just images and feeling I remembered words. I could form a clear thought. ‘I hope Carmen’s okay.’
In another million years give or take, remember I am without a watch in my little black hell, lights started showing up. Voices sometimes accompanied the lights, though I couldn’t make out what they were saying. But just as the feeling of awareness would come and go so would the light. Sometimes the light was so bright that the black nothing would become a glowing white nothing. If the difference between heaven and hell was the color of the nothingness I’d take the blackness of hell, heaven just ended up giving me a fucking headache. Yes, it did take me another millennia to put together that if I had a headache I must therefore have a head. Somewhere. Logic would, at this point, enter my mind that having a head must mean I had other parts. So I set out in search of my other parts. In doing so, I rediscovered pain. When I found my body, in its whole and entire state, it hurt.
So I was dead, drifting between light and dark, aware and unaware, in a painful existence. Being dead sucked. I did continue to hear voices, but I could never make out what they were saying. It would seem that I’d be so close to understanding them just before I slipped back into the unaware state of death. I thought about my friends. Thinking to myself that they, even the immortal vampires, must after all this time, be in their own empty death nothingness.
I was becoming so frustrated with the nothingness I let out scream of annoyance. And much to my surprise I could hear myself out loud. As soon as I let out that cry the light came back with a shit ton of voices clamoring about. I felt something cold on my chest and shook to get it off. Whatever it was wouldn’t go away! I was being tugged and pulled on from every which way. Amid my fight to remain comfortable in the nothingness my eyes, which I didn’t know they were shut, flew open.
I wasn’t dead, or at least not dead anymore. I was lying in a hospital bed. Surrounded by doctors and techs, I kind of freaked out a little and hit some guy across the face.
“Mr. Black!” the doctor trying to hold my arm down barked. “Calm down before we put you back into a coma!” Hey, can you blame me for thinking I was dead?
“Vince?” It was Carmen. She’d made it out alive. “Vince it’s me.” I never really understood that. The ‘it’s me’ is a reminder for someone who has forgotten right? How would leaving out your name help the said forgetful person? No matter.
“You’d better let her over here or I’ll knock you all out,” I said to the doctor who’d threatened to place me back into a coma. The smart doctor did what I said. And people say they are only book smart. “God, I’ve missed you,” I said to her.
“You’ve only been out a week.” She was smiling ear to ear with relief.
“It’s seemed like so much longer.” I got funny looks from everyone in the room. “I’ll tell you later.” I said as I tried, painfully, to sit up.
The head doctor, or at least the only one that had spoke to me, cleared his throat. “Later seems like a good idea. Miss Piper, would you please excuse us for a little while? Now, that he’s not punching out my staff, I’d like to run an examination and make sure everything is as it should be.”
“Yeah, no problem,” She said, “I’ll go call everyone let them know that you’re not dead.” I hated to see her go but the doctors needed to do their doctoring thing.
For the next thirty minutes or so I was poked and prodded in every way imaginable. “Everything seems to be working just fine; your injuries are healing fast. Now it’s time for you to get some rest.” Before he closed the door he told me Amun had a lot to catch me up on. The thought that he knew about Amun took me back for a second. But, I just didn’t really care. I think it was the pain meds, but I’d never fallen asleep that fast before in my life.
A few hours later, I was awoken by a room full of familiar faces. Amun, Seth, Michael, and Johnny were there with Carmen. I also learned that Tarja and Alexander were waiting just outside the door. Carmen was curled on the edge of the bed with me. I figured they didn’t want to leave Amun out of their sights again. I wasn’t so vain to think they were there for me, well maybe Tarja.
Everyone that was alive when I died, which I had been dead for a few minutes, was in the same state. For better or worse, I’d saved everyone I could. I’d missed the funerals for Terry and William. That was just one more thing to add to my list of regrets.
I was about to apologize when Amun said something straight out of left field. “You should be dead.”
“I know. But why point it out?”
“You haven’t been told how bad your injuries were?” He inquired.
“No?”
“Your throat was ripped out. You healed like one of us, but you are not.”
I looked at each of my friends trying to read something from their faces. “What are you talking about? You’re making no sense to me, Amun. I’m a vampire, but I’m not?”
“What it comes down to,” Seth said, “when you connected your energy with Khnum’s you did something that has never been heard of. When he died you took some of his power with you.”
“I do have a question for you,” Amun spoke again; “you told Khnum that you were a necromancer.”
“Yeah.”
His face turned to an expression of intrigue, “Have you discovered something you would care to share with the rest of us?”
“No, I just fucking lied.” Despite the pain I was feeling I tried, unsuccessfully, to swallow the shitfaced grin I felt emerging.
“You lied? To one of the Lords of the Council?” Eh. Why bother? I stopped even trying to hide my grin. You make a multi-millennia old vampire and his flock look surprised and not feel a little smug.
My head was hurting. Too much thinking. I didn’t want to deal with any of this, but I didn’t have a ‘get out of jail free’ card. So, I got to lay there bedridden and listen to them try to explain something they didn’t even begin to have a clue about. “Let me guess. This has never happened before and no one has any clue what it is going to mean, right?” As if I was in a room full of bobble heads everyone acknowledged my statement. “Fan-fucking-tastic.”
“I think it’s time we gave him some time to rest,” Michael said. I couldn’t get over how everyone wanted the guy that just woke up from a coma to go back to sleep. But I didn’t exactly like the idea of being alone either.
“Mind if I stay?” Carmen asked before leaning over to kiss me. Of course I didn’t mind. The room quickly emptied save the two of us. She crawled into the bed with me, carefully so she didn’t pull out an I.V. tube or something like that. Curled up on her side she snuggled up to me. Her head on my shoulder and her fingers twirling in my hair she spoke softly, “I miss my Dad.”
“I know,” I managed to say. It wasn’t the words that made me shallow around a lump in my throat. Something had changed, fear and love radiated off of her as we lay there together. I was too tired to question it. We went to sleep.
That would be the last time I’d see her in the hospital. She was gone long before I woke the next morning. I spent another three days in that damn room. I did learn that all the doctors and nursing staff were lycans; the emergency staff for the furry folk of London. I did get the company of a few of my friends that weren’t dead. Unfortunately, none of my visitors knew why Carmen had disappeared.
On the fourth night Johnny was there to pick me up and take me back to The Guild, only to get my things. I’d decided to stay with Amun and his coven until I got everything set
for my return to the States. I didn’t hear anything from Carmen and she would not return my phone calls. I couldn’t blame her for being angry with me. I felt responsible for what happened to her father and our friend Terry.
When we arrived to collect my things, the gate guard let us in without issue. I wanted in and out; I didn’t want any problems while I was there. Johnny waited in the car while I ran inside to collect my belongings. I went straight to my room and began packing my stuff. Then the knock came. Carmen poked her head into the room. “Do you have a moment?” she asked.
“It’s your house. I’m just here to get my things and I’ll be gone. Out of your hair.” I didn’t want to be so cold toward her but I felt it would be easier to go our separate ways if I played the asshole.
“I don’t want you out of my hair,” she said as she pushed the door all the way open and came into the room. I got the feeling that she wasn’t going to make it easy to be an asshole. “I didn’t mean to leave you and not come back to the hospital. I just…I don’t know.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I understand.” I started to rush my packing. I really did understand.
“Do you?” She asked.
“Yeah, I blame myself too.”
She took the shirt I was folding away and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Oh god Vince, no, I don’t blame you. And, you shouldn’t blame yourself. They both knew the life they chose.”
That was not what I was expecting. “Then what’s wrong?” I knew something was.
“I love you.” Again, not what I was expecting.
“And that’s a bad thing?” I asked her still locked in an embrace.
She kissed me before she answered me. The kiss was deep, full of passion. It was the way she’d kissed me a thousand times before, but something wasn’t right, there was something sad to it. “Yes,” was her response. “Yes, it’s a bad thing. I don’t want to. I don’t want to worry over you. I don’t want to love you. But, I do. Damn it I love you.” Before I could react she kissed me again. I could feel a single salty tear between our lips. And then she darted out of the room.
And so she was gone. “You too,” I said to the empty room. I took my things and left. I really needed the cigarette I lit on the way out.
I did get one last thing from Carmen before I left town. She gave me use of The Guild’s jet to get home. Of course she didn’t tell me about the favor, Johnny passed along the message. It was another two days to arrange the flight plans and all the other odds and ends I needed to wrap up on my way out of England.
I had to, on more than a few occasions; assure Amun and his people that I wouldn’t be gone forever. I had too much I needed to learn about this new set of powers I had. Strength, stamina, healing, all kinds of new vampire tricks were mine to learn.
I got one more visit just before climbing on to the plane. “You might just survive; at least for a while.” It was the Messiah, his voice in my head.
There is the story of how my life got turned upside down. I am no hero, I’m not the good guy, I didn’t get the girl but this has been the story of how I became a piece of the war between human and vampire. So much blood has been shed already in the time I’ve been part of this goddamn war. My blood, the blood of my friends, and the blood of my enemies, the blood is not done being shed. This is going to be a hell of ride.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
An artist in as many ways as he can find. Kristopher Norris isn't happy unless he is creating. He lives just outside Omaha, Ne. with his daughter. Keep up with Vincent and Kristopher
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