by Jen Pretty
I looked down at the biggest ruby I had ever seen. The surface sparkled in the sunlight. The band was gold and fit my finger as if someone made it for me.
“I really can’t...”
“Please? I won't try to give you anything else, just wear my ring as a sign of my devotion to you and your mission.”
Durga rose, casting everything into a red light. Nara took a step back and bowed his head. “Goddess,” he whispered.
“Thank you for this gift. Lark is young and doesn't understand the old ways, but I accept your token and your devotion.” She raised my hand and placed it on the vampire's head. “Be at peace, vampire, and maintain the balance, always.”
She receded to her place inside me. “I’m sorry,” I said.
Nara looked up at me with tears in his eyes. “Today I am truly blessed,” he said. He wrapped his arms around me and spun me in a circle, laughing. “Thank you!” his lips met mine in a kiss and I relaxed into his arms. All that time in the desert made me crazy. I should have pushed him away, but instead, I wrapped a hand around the back of his head and let him kiss me on that ancient wall in the beautiful city.
When he broke away, he was still smiling and giddy. “Come, I have so much to show you.”
He took my hand and walked us back to the gates of the fort, then through to the market. “You must try this,” he said holding up what looked like a small potato.
“What is it?” I asked. His enthusiasm was contagious.
“It’s a Langsat fruit.” He peeled it like an orange; only it looked tougher. Inside was a white almost translucent looking fruit. He broke off a piece and handed it to me.
I popped it into my mouth. Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn’t what I got. It was the consistency of jello and super sweet. There was a slight citrus taste to it, but it was mostly just sweet.
The surprise must have shown on my face because Nara smiled and pulled off another piece. He held it to my lips, and I opened my mouth and let him feed it to me. I wanted to give my head a shake. This was dangerous ground I was treading with this vampire. I needed to take a firm step back, but instead, I let him loop my arm through his and stroll me down the narrow path between the shops.
I had become a masochist. That was the only explanation.
“I wanted to show you where we keep the rogue vampires,” he said.
“You keep them?” I asked, confused.
“Yes, they must pay for their sins.” He said before turning down an even narrower street and knocking on a door.
The door swung open, and he held my hand, towing me downstairs and underground. A light flicked on, and mournful moans echoed through the long hall before me.
On either side of the hall were doors, dozens of them on each side. The rooms beyond the doors couldn’t have been any wider than a single door, based on how tightly packed they were.
Nara led me forward and swung open a door on the right. My heart raced as he flicked on a flashlight and what lay before me was worse than my worst nightmare.
CHAPTER FOUR
It looked like a skeleton. Much worse than Trevor had been when I saved him. This vampire could barely move. His fingers twitched, and his bared teeth clicked, but he had decimated otherwise.
“Oh, shit.” I stumbled back. “Why have you done this?” I asked, horrified.
“I am punishing them. They are rogue and murderers,” he insisted, his smile changing to confusion. He swung the door wider, and Durga rose inside me to look at the sad vampire laying on the floor.
“Today the suffering ends. This is not the way, Narayan. You do not keep the balance through torture.”
Nara’s gaze returned to the prisoner for a moment and then swung back to me. “I did not know. Forgive me, Goddess!” He fell to his knees.
“I have not made my will clear to you, but today, you end the suffering. Gather your men and kill all who dwell here.” Durga slid back into her place, but Nara remained on his knees.
“Please forgive me. I did not know.”
All I could see was Trevor. I missed his smiling face and silly giggles as we watched movies with Drew on the couch. “Can we go?”
“I am so sorry. Of course, Goddess. Thank you for your grace Durga, I promise I will never keep another soul here.”
“Sure,” I said, hurrying him up the stairs and back to the street. “Do you have a phone?” I asked. “I need to make an international call.” If I didn’t hear Trevor's voice at that moment, I was sure I would have to go back own there and make sure he wasn’t there. It was irrational, but I was irrational these days.
“Yes.” Nara pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. “It doesn't always have reception. There is a better phone in the house.”
I turned on the phone, and it had one bar, good enough. I dialled by heart and heard a scratchy ring, then a second ring. A soft voice came over the line.
“Hello?”
“Trevor?” I yelled, trying to make myself heard over the static.
“Lark?” he yelled back. “I can’t believe it's you! Where are you?” he asked, his words slightly broken up, but I could hear most.
“Jaisalmer, the middle of the Indian desert,” I said.
His laugh was a tinkle that made muscles relax I didn't even know had been tense. “It’s so good to hear your voice,” he said, but whatever he said next was too static to hear.
“I’ll call you back,” I yelled into the phone three times in case he could still hear me.
“Thank you,” I said, handing the phone back to Nara. He still looked depressed, like a kicked puppy. I took his hand, to get that look off his face and led him back through the city towards his home in the fort.
“Is Trevor the one you love?” Nara asked as we walked up the stairs to his house.
“No, he is just my friend. My very good friend who I miss a lot.”
“Is he a vampire?”
“Yes, but he is new. He had been starving himself when I found him and brought him home with me. Seeing your prisoners just brought back a lot of memories.”
As we climbed the stairs to Naras home, he nodded. “I am truly sorry for my misjudgment and the pain I caused you. My men are already clearing the prison and should be done by sundown.”
I nodded and left him standing in the large, well-appointed living room of his house. I found Singh laying stretched out on his back on the bed, and I curled around him. He purred as soon as I pet his whiskered chin. He rubbed his face on me, and I wished for a moment I could be the silly cat. His life was so much easier. If he didn’t like something, he bit its head off.
“Can I join your lion club?” I asked.
His tongue flipped out and caught my hand, pulling it back into his mouth where he held it between his teeth for a moment. When he opened his big jaws, letting me take it back, it was all drooled on. Gross.
I wiped my hand on the pillow on his side of the bed before tucking it back into my chest. The midday sun cast a pattern on the floor through the lattice covering the window. I felt groggy but remembered that someone was on their way with news of Mahishasura. I would leave here again soon. Probably not soon enough.
I must have fallen asleep because the next time I opened my eyes, voices were yelling.
I rolled off the bed, and Durga flashed my knife into my hand. That was my first sign that shit was going down.
I set the knife down and pulled on my shoes because no matter what, I wasn’t fighting barefoot. I grabbed up my knife and ran out the bedroom door to see what was happening.
Vampires filled the house — dozens of men and women with pointed teeth.
“What the hell?” I asked. Before anyone could answer, Durga pressed me to get moving. Evil was all over the city.
“Something happened in the dungeon. Our men are dead, and there are dozens of prisoners running free,” a woman's voice rang out from the other side of the room.
“Move,” I said pushing through the crowd until I found the source of the voice. It was the
woman with the white hair that had winked at me in the kitchen that morning. “Can you fight?” The woman was not much taller than me and wore jeans and a tank top instead of the usual women's clothing but had a long knife in a sheath at her hip. She also had a glint in her eye that made me wonder if she was crazy. Her muscles twitched like she wanted to go.
“Of course,” she said, unsheathing her knife and swinging it in a circle that had the men around her backing up — my kind of crazy.
“What is your name?” I asked. Durga pushed at me harder, but I wanted a team. A team of two would be fine.
“Pari,” she said.
I smiled and swung my blade too. “Let’s do this then, Pari.”
Her teeth flashed, and we ran out of the house. Durga pushed me to go faster, so I did. The woman behind me kept up, and a moment later we came to the first skeletal rabid vampire. He had already drained at least two people in the small tea shop. Others were huddled in the back corner as the vampire tore flesh from the human in his arms and ate it. Gross.
He hissed at us but didn’t drop his meal. I put a slight bend in my knees, ready to take him head-on. A blade flew past, sliding deep into his throat and he collapsed to the ground. I glanced over my shoulder, and Pari shrugged. I waited for a moment as she grabbed her blade and then we both ran, following the screams to a pair of rabid vampires who had cornered school children. The kids were crying and screaming as the monsters staggered closer.
“Hey!” I yelled. Both turned and hissed at me. Their eyes were blood red and teeth in a snarl.
I heard a chuckle behind me from Pari. I decided I liked her level of crazy in that moment as we faced down the nasty skeletal vampires. They launched themselves at us, and we went to work. My knife missed the first one's spine by a quarter of an inch. Instead, it took out his windpipe, so he gasped and bled all over the place but didn't slow. His teeth snapped next to my shoulder as I pushed him back to get a clean shot. Fallen vampires were strong even if they didn’t look it and I imagined this one was old and powerful before they locked him away.
In the scuffle, I tripped on the uneven footing, and his weight came down on top of me. He wasn’t that heavy in his current state, but it gave him the upper hand for a second and his teeth scraped my cheek, tearing the flesh. As he reared back to aim for my throat, I got my knife between us. As he came down, he impaled himself perfectly on my blade and collapsed. I kicked him off in time to see Pari nearly behead the vampire she was fighting with a strong slice that severed his spine.
She looked at me with blazing red eyes of her own. She was a scrapper, like me, and had taken a few bites to her arm.
“You aren’t so pretty now, are you?” she said with a laugh as her eyes bled back to normal.
I laughed and packed the flap of torn skin on my face back together so it could heal.
She reached out a hand, and I accepted it, letting her pull me to my feet. We took off again, the single vampires were easy to take down, but once we killed six or seven, a group of them sprung on us together.
They shouldn’t have been able to organize enough to attack like that, but here we were in the middle of a horde of feral vampires and fighting back to back. Our blades swung, killing with enthusiasm. More of the starved vampires came until they filled the small courtyard.
“Shit,” I said.
“Don’t worry, Durga. We can take ‘em.”
This vampire had a death wish. I liked it.
My blade cut through flesh and bone. Battle screams echoed from the city. I assumed other coven vampires were fighting the deranged ones too. It wasn’t just us out here, but I focussed my mind entirely on the fight. I kicked one vampire away as another arrived.
I saw a flash of white. Singh had joined the fun. I caught sight of him now and then with his teeth wrapped around some vampire's neck as he shook them violently. The group was dwindling as we took care of business. Bodies were piling up. That's when I saw a man with blond hair that I would recognize anywhere. He had his back turned, but he was swinging a sword with practiced ease. I froze, and the vampire I was fighting got his teeth around my collarbone, clamping down and shaking me like a dog. I screamed as my flesh shredded and the bone snapped.
Flipping my knife, I stabbed it towards myself, impaling the vampire and my shoulder with the tip of the blade.
A fire burned in my skin where my blade had cut me as the vampire fell away. My vision faltered for a moment. Another rabid vampire took that opportunity to attack me, but I got my knife up in time to sever his spine through his throat. He fell, and my vision shifted black again. It cleared, and I saw Vincent. His chest was heaving, but he had a look of concern in his eyes. His sword fell to the ground with a clatter, but I saw it like I was looking out at the world through the lattice on the windows of the houses here.
I licked my lips, trying to form words, but nothing was working. My legs were like Jell-o, and I swayed in the breeze.
“Durga!” Peri called, but I couldn't look away from Vincent. His blond hair and glowing eyes. It was a mirage. It had to be.
My eyes closed, and I felt my legs go out from under me.
Then there was just darkness.
CHAPTER FIVE
"Why isn’t she healing?”
“I don’t know!”
The voices seemed far away as if I was underwater. I tried to open my eyes, but they were too heavy.
“All her wounds have healed, except this one.”
I recognized the voice, but I my mind was so muddled I couldn't remember who it was. Then the voices faded away again.
“Please, Goddess,” a voice whispered. It was thick and full of desperation. “I’m sorry, Lark. I should never have left you.”
Who was that? Why was I in the dark? I tried to move but couldn’t. Was I paralyzed? I panicked and tried desperately to do anything. Was I dead?
The sound of a cat purring rumbled beside me. It soothed the fear, and my mind slowed, drifting me back into the dark peace.
“Lark. Wake up!” the voice was angry now.
“You may be the lord in your country, but I am Lord here. I say you let her rest and recover.”
“She's not recovering, though is she?” the angry voice said. “I am taking her back to the elves. They made the blade; maybe they know why she's not healing.”
A lion roared, and then someone lifted me. My muscles were loose, and my head lolled back for a moment before arms cradled me properly. “I will bring her. She is in there. She can’t find her way out.” This was a new voice. One I recognized. It was Singh. My mind settled knowing he had me. He would protect me — my will and determination. I let my mind drift back to the quiet place.
When I became aware again, the sound of an engine roaring filled my ears. I was being jostled and shaken.
“It’s ok Lark. We are almost there,” Singh said.
“Is she awake?”
I knew that haughty voice. I thought I had imagined him in the square — a mirage.
“She is aware, but she hasn’t opened her eyes,” Singh replied.
“I’m sorry Lark. Please forgive me,” Vincent said. “I’ll get you to the elves; they will fix this.”
“Watch the road,” Singh said.
A horn honked, and Vincent cursed. I wasn’t sure why he was here, but hearing his voice made me want to open my eyes and see him. I imagined him in my mind. Saw his features and they morphed into a child’s face. Elliot. The beautiful gap-toothed smile. Tiny fingers wrapped around mine as we walked down the street. Sadness came next.
“Don’t cry lark. Everything will get better.” Singh hadn’t spoken this much since we landed in India. His teeth must have gone back to normal. He was speaking clearly.
I drifted back to sleep, safe with these people. My last thought was of Durga. I couldn’t feel her at all.
“There is nothing wrong with the knife.” A squeaky voice said.
“Then why did it cut her and now the cut isn’t healing? Something is wrong.”
That was Vincent. It was his barely controlled rage voice.
“Perhaps she does not wish to continue. The blade abides her will. If she wanted to die, it would allow it.”
“She has been bleeding for three days and hasn’t died.”
“I imagine the Goddess is keeping her alive. They do not seem joined though,” the squeaky voice said.
“What are you talking about?"
“She no longer has the aura of the great Goddess. We can see the magic. It is fading from the girl. If she wishes to die that is her right. It is not for us to stop her.”
Something slammed.
“You must leave here! We will not abide your temper in our home. Be gone, night creature!”
Someone carried me again.
“You should take her to the temple. Maybe the Goddess will help,” I didn’t recognize that voice.
“If she does not wish to go on, perhaps we should allow her the peace she desires,” Singh’s voice was quiet, reverent.
“No,” Vincent snapped. “You will not die, Lark! You can’t die! You hear me?”
I heard a car door slam.
“He will not rest until you return, Lark,” Singh whispered. “I will be by your side until the end if that is what you choose, but think carefully on this decision.”
Someone jostled me, and the car door slammed near me, followed by another. Who else was with us? The engine rumbling and tires over gravel were the only sounds for a long time.
As the engine roared, I considered the words I heard. Did I want to die? I wanted to die in the desert. Vultures circled above me day and night, but they would not land, no matter how long I lay in the sand and begged them to take me. I thought of Elliot. Would he be there when I died? He was in my dreams. The witch showed my future but was my future death, and I would be with Elliot then? Or was she showing me a life I could have in this world? I didn’t know.
Eventually, the car stopped, and the engine died. The sound of car doors opening and closing proceeded Vincent's voice right beside me.