In Love With A Vampire

by M. J. Stevens

  “He cannot be killed, remember?” Maggie broke in, and both Lipton and Jesse flicked a quick glance at her. “You saw what happened, Jesse. You saw what happened to Catan when you tried to kill him. He sprang back to life remember? And you actually staked him? Yes, staked him? In the history of vampires, there has never been a reported case of a vampire coming back to life after he or she has been staked. Staking a vampire is the surest way to ensure his or her death. But you saw what happened, right? Catan beat against the odds, and he sprang back to life. There is an immense shield of power which protects him from even the gravest of deaths, even by staking. I don’t know what kind of power he yields, but I can assure you that it’s one of the most deadliest power he possesses. He cannot die …. he’s bound to stay alive for eternity. Nothing can stop him. Not even the most powerful spell in my book can stop this dark power he holds …”

  “You mean Catan has some kind of dark power which is more powerful than all the good powers combined in the universe?” Jesse asked, plunking down onto the stool again.

  “Yes, I can sense that Catan is protected by some form of dark magic, though I’m not sure what it is. We need to trace the source of that power and destroy it … so when we destroy it, Catan wouldn’t have this kind of supernatural advantage anymore …”

  “Then we have to find this source of dark power which protects Catan from the real death! How are we going to find this? Can you locate it?”

  “I’m not sure what this source is … but I suppose it’s hidden in a remote place far, far away … somewhere which Catan would call his secret place, his lair, or territory. We have to break into his secret lair and find that source of power and completely destroy it. Once it’s destroyed, Catan’s powers will be substantially reduced to the point that it would make him an easy prey to be hunted and killed … for good.”

  “Then lets’ find this place! Let’s finish him once and for all!”

  “But I don’t know where his secret lair is … He’s probably shrouded in some magical veil, making it hard to locate …”

  Jesse threw her arms out. “Well, you can locate it with magic too, can’t you? Use your powers to find him!” Jesse looked so hysterical that she almost seemed as though she’d just dashed out of the asylum.

  Maggie sighed. “Even if I wanted to, it wouldn’t be so easy. I’m pretty sure that Catan has protected his secret lair with dark magic, preventing anybody from finding it. It wouldn’t be easy …”

  Jesse gave Maggie a pleading look. “You can do it, can’t you? We need to find Catan’s secret lair and destroy the source of his immortality, his immeasurable powers …”

  “I’ll try, but I can’t promise you anything. Fighting against his dark magic with my powers may …” Maggie trailed off, and swallowed a lump down her throat.

  When it dawned upon Jesse what would happen to Maggie if she pursued this search for Catan’s lair, she let out a gasp. “You mean you’d … die?”

  “It’s a possibility,” Maggie admitted, her voice shaking. “When Catan was here earlier, I could sense the immense magnitude of his powers, something which I’ve never felt before in my entire life as an Enchantress … it’s something so dark and deadly that you wouldn’t want to tread upon it if you could help it.”

  Jesse was shaken by the thought that things could go much worse that it already had, and she didn’t want to force Maggie out of her own will to do this if she didn’t have the heart to do so. After all, it was Jesse would have gotten Maggie into all this in the first place, and so far, nothing had turned out well as she’d expected.

  Lipton placed a hand on Jesse’s shoulder, feeling the depth of Jesse’s frustration, pain and agony. Of course, Jesse had not endured the kind of pain he’d to endure for centuries, living with this damned curse, and he’d never want her to endure that. He didn’t care if he died, if it meant killing Catan for good. But the problem was … he couldn’t die, and Catan was invincible because he had a strong shield of unknown dark magic to protect him, even from the real death.

  Jesse was enmeshed in her turbulent thoughts, and she couldn’t see any ray of hope in them. She was drowning deeper in her hell of thoughts, and she knew that she wasn’t closer to resolving the situation at hand. There was possibly no way to locate Catan’s secret lair but by magic, and Maggie seemed to refuse to get involved in finding the lair because Catan’s dark powers might overwhelm her and kill her. Maggie was her only last hope in getting to that lair … but now it all seemed futile …

  “I’ll do it,” Maggie said, breaking into Jesse’s thoughts and momentarily suppressing them to the back of her mind.

  Jesse’s eyes gleamed all of a sudden, and her heart filled with a ray of hope.

  “Really?” Jesse gushed, shuffling toward Maggie and looking her in the eye. “You mean you’d take the risk to find Catan’s lair? I don’t want to force you if you don’t want to. After all, everything we’ve done seemed to have pointed to a dead end …”

  “We can’t just give up like that, can we?” Maggie said with a positive tone in her voice. “There’s a silver lining in every cloud. I’m banking on that silver lining. And who knows? I might defeat Catan. After all, I’m the Enchantress. I’ve never uncovered the deepest potential of my own powers. I may be even stronger than Catan. I may not know the full extent of my powers unless I try.” Maggie ended her sentence with a smile, and it sent positive waves in the air, drawing smiles on both Jesse and Lipton’s faces.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Maggie.” Jesse gave Maggie a tight hug, feeling as though she could cry with joy at any moment. Hope was not lost. She was willing to fight to the end with Maggie by her side, and maybe Lipton too, and she was going to make sure that they would all triumph over the evil Catan had unleashed in their midst.

  When she finally disentangled herself from the much needed hug that rekindled hope within her again, she turned to look at Lipton. She padded over to him, flashing him a smile which drew a smile on his face in return.

  “Everything will turn out in our favor,” Jesse declared, feeling more confident that she’d ever felt before. “You wait and see.”

  “I still think it’s very dangerous for Maggie to attempt this,” Lipton said tentatively. “She could end up dead. You know who we’re up against. Catan is far more powerful than any being I’ve ever known.”

  “That’s because he’s protected by a magical source which we have to find and pulverize it for good.”

  “I hope all things will go well for us …” Lipton tried to pump the confidence into his voice, but his eyes betrayed his words.

  “It will!” Jesse assured him, wanting so much to jump into Lipton’s arms and bury her head in his chest, enveloped in the warmth of his love.

  There was a moment of silence as Lipton and Jesse gazed into each other’s eyes.

  Then, Lipton finally said, “I have to go now.”

  “Why?” Jesse asked, her heart aching at the thought that Lipton would even dare to think of leaving her at this crucial moment.

  “I really must go. I’m a threat to both of you and Maggie right now, as long as I’m bound by this curse. Catan could manifest at any time, and I can feel his wrath burning inside of me, and he’s fighting to manifest and trying to suppress me. So I cannot stay here any longer and be a danger to the both of you.”

  The weight of Lipton’s words literally crushed her. She wanted to stay longer with Lipton, but yet, she knew that it wasn’t possible because Catan was lurking within him, ready to materialize at any time.

  “Sure, Lipton,” Jesse said with a heavy heart, and without even knowing it, she leapt and wrapped her arms around him, so tight that she never ever wanted to let go. Lipton caressed her hair so gently that it was impossible to fathom that this man was a warrior, a survivor and also a martyr. Lipton amazed Jesse over and over again with his gallantry, stoicism and kindness. He was the perfect combination of everything Jesse had ever wanted in a man. And now, she had to part with him, if o
nly for a moment … but a second without him was like darts to her soul. It pained her to be away from him, to be cocooned in his tenderness and love, despite his tough built.

  Lipton tilted his head backward, and gazed into Jesse’s eyes once more, and said with the softest voice Jesse had ever heard, “Hope all will be with you, Jesse. I’ll be back again, I promise.” And with that sad glaze in his eyes, he retreated a few steps, and turned around so his back faced Jesse.

  He headed for the door, and even though he wanted to give Jesse one last glance, it pained to even see her. He couldn’t bear to look at her face, because he knew that if he did, he wouldn’t want to be apart from her. So he had to muster all the strength that he had, and boldly walked out that door, his wings starting to flip, signaling his intention to fly into the skies, away from Jesse, away from here.

  In a flash, Lipton shot up into the air, and was out of sight, leaving Jesse standing frozen there, who was unable to bear with the fact that Lipton was now gone.

  “You know that you’ll see him soon enough,” Maggie said comfortingly, draping an arm around Jesse, and in an automatic reaction, Jesse did the same to her.

  “I really hope so,” Jesse said, her heart praying fervently that Lipton would return to her in the shortest time possible. “So much has happened, and I just don’t know where to begin. I’ve just uncovered Lipton’s darkest secret … I still can’t believe that he and Catan are both the same person. I really can’t believe that. I wish that this is all just a nightmare which I can wake up from and it’s all over … but I can’t. It’s hard to accept the truth … it really is.”

  Maggie squeezed Jesse’s arms, trying to assure her things would turn out fine. “We must face the truth head-on, Jesse. And instead of running away from problems when they seemed to get more difficult by the moment, we must run toward them and tackle them before they get worse.”

  Jesse nodded her head, agreeing with Maggie. “Are you sure we’re going to be able to find this secret lair? The place where Catan’s most darkest magic comes from?”

  “I’ll try my best to find it using every magical options I can think of … but it won’t be easy. I’ll need to consult my Enchanted Bible.”

  “Enchanted Bible?”

  “It’s a bible which is an Enchantress’s encyclopedia on everything magic. It contains information about supernatural entities, spells and everything magic. It’s been passed down in my family line from generations to generations. I’ll try to look it up and see if there’s anything I can use in there to help us locate Catan’s secret lair.”

  Jesse felt like giving Maggie the tightest hug she could come up with, but she refrained as she felt physically tired, and needed a repose to regain the energy she had tremendously drained in the past hours.

  But she managed a tired smile at Maggie, and said in a grateful voice, “Thanks, Maggie. I wouldn’t know what to do without you, without the help of magic.”

  Maggie grinned. “Don’t mention it. As long as we can nail Catan and put a stop to his killing rampage for good, I can quickly retire from the world of magic and resume my normal non-magical life.”

  Jesse gasped, looking slightly shocked as she thought that Maggie had changed her mind about being an Enchantress with intention on reinstating her magical life, and embracing the fact that she couldn’t run away from her destiny as an enchantress.

  “I’m just kidding, Jesse,” Maggie said as she gave a playful slap on Jesse’s shoulder. “Of course I won’t shun away from my destiny as an Enchantress. Lighten up. Enchantresses need some humor in their lives too, you know?”

  Jesse gave a weak chuckle. It was glad to hear that Maggie still had some sense of humor in her even after such a horrendous experience had occurred just a few moments ago.

  But it was time for her to hit the sack. Jesse dashed up to Maggie’s spare guest room, and collapsed on the bed, the world around her suddenly becoming black.

  16. Amnesia

  Rellie drained the last blood of her female victim, and watched her collapse on the streets, completely lifeless. She felt immensely good after drinking human blood, but deep in her heart, there was a stinging pain, making her feel slightly bad. But of course, she couldn’t discount the fact that the blood consumption made her feel like she could conquer the world, fueled by this overwhelming energy coursing through her body. Rellie felt that her conscience was screaming at her, but she chose to ignore it. Why should she give up something so intoxicating such as human blood? She hated it when the guilt stabbed her inside, trying to bring her mood down. She fought against her conscience, and vowed to feed on more human blood, not caring if her victims ended up dead or not.

  Rellie didn’t understand what was going on with her. She didn’t know who she was, and how she’d ended up as a vampire. She didn’t know who her friends were, or whether she had any family at all. It was as though she’d woken up one day with amnesia, and didn’t recognize anyone at all. She knew that she should try to figure out who she was, where she actually lived … but the problem was … she couldn’t recall.

  From the dark corners of the streets, she watched as passers-by walked by, wondering if any of them was related to her, or could be her family. But every time she looked at the humans, she was tempted to pounce on them and feed on their blood. Rellie had been randomly attacking her victims these past few days, and it was a reckless rampage which she couldn’t control. There was this feral desire within her, exploding with such ferocity that it completely blinded her judgment, her compassion.

  But lately, she’d been thinking about someone in particular …

  Who was this woman whom she’d met a few days ago in the forest? This woman … whom she seemed to have known in a past life. She’d felt a strange connection to her, and honestly, she was overwhelmed by the temptation to attack and feed on her a couple of times … but something within her stopped her. Was that woman her family? How come every time she wanted to assault woman … she ended up resisting? How could this woman hold such a power over her? Instead, Rellie ended up saving her a few times from disaster … and death. Why would she even do such a thing? It wasn’t even part of her newborn vampire nature. She should have killed the woman when she had the chance … but she couldn’t.

  Every time she wanted to inflict some kind on torture on her, Rellie felt an overwhelming surge of feelings which made her heart feel as though it was compressed by tons of brick, making her feel guilty. Especially when she looked into the woman’s eyes, and saw an inexplicable soul through those windows, triggering a sense of connection, familiarity … even though Rellie couldn’t quite gauge what it was all actually about. It was as though she’d known this woman before, or from another time. But how come Rellie couldn’t remember who she was at all … even though she felt like she’d somehow met her before in some point of her life?

  Confusing questions stormed inside Rellie’s head, torturing the core of her soul. She’d fed on countless of victims since the day she turned into a newborn vampire, and she had no problem attacking them and sucking their blood. Whenever she laid her eyes on this particular woman, the resistance started to spring up like a brick wall, holding her back. Of course, Rellie wasn’t keen on sucking this woman’s blood, and she didn’t know why. The fact of not knowing why there was a wall of resistance whenever she encountered this woman was driving her berserk. She chased thoughts of this woman away, and tried to focus on other more important things at hand.

  In the cold of the night, Rellie dashed through the streets of Wallerton Avenue, hoping for a chance to savor her next victim. The streets were mostly devoid of any signs of life, except for the occasional mice scrambling past the trash cans or stray cats scavenging for food. From the end of the streets, Rellie spotted a couple of youngsters skateboarding near an alley, where the walls were sprayed with psychedelic graffiti. Maybe she should savor them. There were at least seven of them, and they seemed to be having the time of their lives. At this hour, most people would have alrea
dy retired to bed, but these youngsters were living it up as though it were daytime.

  Rellie grinned in spite of herself. Bad mistake. You guys shouldn’t be out here in the dead of the night. Now you’re signing your own death warrant.

  Rellie braced herself, ready to zoom across the streets and pounce of these innocents. Yes, she just fed about an hour ago, but the feral thirst within her exploded with such intensity that she couldn’t hold it back any much longer. She must feed her lust, or else she’d go hysterical.

  Rellie was ready to charge, but stopped midway when she saw someone else beat her to it. A mysterious man, whom Rellie assumed must be a vampire due to his behavior, suddenly popped up out of nowhere and pounced on the first male youngster he saw. He clutched the poor boy, immobilizing him and instantly fed on him, sinking his sharp fangs into the boy’s neck. The boy’s friends all burst into panicked screams, petrified by what they saw and were ready to flee. They knew that they couldn’t step in to help their friend because the vampire looked so domineering, so powerful, and trying to fight him was like fighting a lion in his den.

  But when the mysterious male vampire noticed that the other youngsters were trying to make a run for it, he howled in rage, looking like he didn’t want to let the other youngsters out of his sight. There were so many of them, so much blood for him to savor. He couldn’t let them slip from his hands when they were all in close proximity like trapped mice.

  He let go of his current victim and pushed him to the ground. In a split second, the vampire pounced on the nearest one to him, and sank his teeth into his victim, tasting the sweet human blood flowing from his veins. Not wanting all the other boys to flee the scene, the vampire shoved his victim and zigzagged to his other victims, carrying out the same pattern: pounce, attack and feed. The other boys had no time to escape because the vampire worked really fast. Eventually, all the boys ended up groaning in pain, drenched in blood, which drove the vampire crazy, as his face twisted with the eager desire to feed on them, and deciding which victim he should choose to feed on first.