by Rue Volley
He ran through the forest at lightning speed, Lily hanging on as well as Jonah, both of them surprisingly accepting of the situation at hand. Joshua hissed and looked to Lily, who had bit into him slightly and shook his head at her.
“Behave or I will toss you.”
She stopped and looked to Jonah who nodded to her. Joshua then heard it, a screaming behind him of a woman scorned, that of Mikah… pursuing no doubt at a feverish pace. She mixed in as many flowery words to describe Joshua as possible and then he was stopped dead and lost his breath as an invisible wall of energy trapped him and had him hovering above the ground. Jonah and Lily fell to either side of him, impervious to this power and Sophia stepped forward and grinned with her hand extended. Holding Joshua captive but training her eyes on the two beautiful creatures. She could smell the blood on Lily but oddly enough not her scent, Jonah was the same and just to test it she rose her other hand and tried to capture Lily in a spell of energy as well but it was as if she was shielded from the power if it. Sophia grinned and looked to Joshua who moaned in the energy cocoon as it pulsated like water. Mikah skidded to a stop and stared at Sophia and then up to Joshua.
“He took them and ran.”
“I see this, you will not fail me again Mikah.”
“Yes my lady.” Mikah said as she grabbed Jonah and jerked him to her.
“Easy now.”
“But…”
“Things change.” Sophia said and with that she let Joshua drop to the ground, unconscious and having memory wiped clean of everything that happened.
“Will he die?” Mikah asked and Sophia grinned as she lowered and held her hand out to Lily. Lily hesitated and then Sophia quickly sliced her wrist and the blood filled the air with its sweet aroma. Lily sniffed at it and walked towards her as if she had no will of her own. Jonah tried to move but Mikah held him close to her and he watched as Lily took Sophia’s hand and then quickly drank of her as Sophia smiled and touched her hair.
“Good my pet.” She whispered to her and then Mikah rose the butt of her blade into the air and hit Jonah in the head with it and everything went to blackness for him.
He woke in a strange place, almost stinking of blood and yet it did not turn his stomach one bit. In fact it almost seemed to be normal. The first normal moment for him as if his needs and wants had merged into one. He sat up and looked at his hands, they looked bigger, he had grown. Grown for what reason and how he did not know but what he did know is he felt different in some way, as if the beast he had chained inside of him had been awakened. He sat up and then noticed the shadows in the room against the walls. It looked as if someone had piled fabric along it and in the corners but the smell was different, something almost known to him but he could not quite understand it. He then slipped his feet from the bed and almost fell to the white stone floor as his legs felt funny, longer, stretched and not quite in use yet properly. He looked up and saw a girl, swaying on her feet, long blonde hair, messy…stained clothing. She was a beauty and his heart skipped a beat when he looked at her lips and eyes. She captivated him beyond repair. He stood up and walked to her. Reaching out slowly at first and then she leaned in and kissed his lips. It was familiar as if it had happened before, perhaps many times and her familiar smell and touch made him feel normal, like being home and safe. Then she backed up from him and hissed as she looked past him and the sun bore through the window, rising across the floor and lighting up the scene before them, bodies, many…beaten, bloody and ripped apart, piled along the walls like trash needing to be taken out. The girl looked quickly as there was slight movement and she lowered to the ground and started to run like an animal across the stone, lunging into the air, along the wall and landing on top of the human trying to crawl to a safe distance. She screamed as she landed on him, tearing at his chest as he gasped for air and digging until she reached it, her prize, that of a beating heart. She took a huge bite of it and then turned, holding it up and chewing as Jonah watched on in a slight horror. The blood dripped as the last bit of beating rode out in the red vessel and the girl gladly took his distaste for it and ate the rest before it completely stopped moving. She stood up and looked back to him, licking her fingers and he found it slightly erotic in nature, although something told him he should stop, run…find a safe place to hide. He was mesmerized by her beauty as she stood there covered in blood. He ran to her and kissed her hard on the mouth as nothing else in his mind would allow him to do anything else.
Sophia paced the floor and then turned as the doors opened and her father stepped in. She held her hand out and grinned at him as he watched her eyes and studied her face as she often did.
“Father, we have them.” She said as she leaned up into his ear.
“Excellent news and how do they fair?”
“Well…” she said as she turned and walked to her window, gazing out into the beautiful gardens of Valon.
“They seem to be damaged a bit I fear.”
“In what way?”
“They have an insatiable appetite and they seem to have grown after feeding.”
“Fed on what Sophia?”
“Humans of course Father.”
“Ridiculous Sophia! They were to be taken care of as human children. Food Sophia, not blood.”
“Well I sent in food and they killed the help.”
“What?”
“And when more went into see what was going on they died also, I vicious cycle I fear and with that they grew from children to adults, it was quite amazing honestly.”
“Take me to them immediately.”
“Father, it is not…”
“Sophia.” He said in his tone that spoke volumes to her. One he used seldom but when he did it was known his word was law and would not be swayed.
“Very well.”
“Where are they now?”
“The tower.”
“Why?” Why would you treat them as enemies and place them in such a place?”
“Father, I am a protector of Valon as are you and all vampire, these children, if you wish to call them that, may be a threat to us, you do not know.”
“What I do know is my intention was not carried through by you and it will not be forgotten Sophia, perhaps it is time for your brother to think of the council as it seems you may not have the maturity needed to lead it.”
“Father?” Sophia said as he left her standing there and then the anger started to well up inside of her. She had no intention of giving up power, in fact it would never happen and the council would be hers someday with or without his blessing. The only reason she returned with them to Valon was out of pure curiosity and a want to show everyone what animals they were. She would announce it, how they killed the entire circus and those in the tower, all of it a way to end their wretched existence once and for all. She could not feel them as she could detect everything else in the world around her so with that reason alone she knew they were dangerous. When Lily had fed from her she felt it, as she had had to pry the girl from her wrist as if vampires were the true meal to them, and perhaps not humans.
Jonah lay there with the girl against him feeling like he never had before. The stench of death in the room faded away, as well as his confusion to what was going on as she nestled against him and everything became clear. For some reason he loved her, he knew this to be true and the thing they had shared was something he did not know of but it was incredible to him and made him feel as if they were one. Then the door opened and they both sat up. The girl closing her dress up and Jonah raised his hand up as the light seemed brighter from whatever lay outside the doors. The two large men approached them and jerked them up, Jonah tried to fight and the girl grabbed his hand but was torn from him as they were dragged from the room and out into bright light that almost seemed to burn the skin. Jonah covered his eyes as if they were new and in many ways they were. He had grown from that of a child to the age of twenty one in 5 days and with it his body had not kept up with the changes. He slowly lowered his hand as f
igures came into view. Sophia sighed and then looked to her Father.
“It seems they are beasts as I told you.”
He held his hand up and stepped towards Jonah who lay on the floor shirtless but with his pants on, loosely tied with a rope.
“What is your name?” Menious said, and Jonah blinked at him.
“What memory do you have things prior to waking here?”
Jonah looked to the girl he had been with in the room as she sat on the floor a few feet from him.
“Tell me now.” Menious said. “Your survival depends upon it.”
Jonah cleared his throat and opened it to speak, the voice that came out was foreign to him, deeper and wiser then he remembered ever being and slightly laden with an accent, somewhere between British and Irish.
“Jonah.” He said and Menious stared at him.
“And what of where you have been?”
“I don’t quite remember, I mean…I woke here in the room with her and…”
The girl looked to him and smiled.
“And you?” he asked the girl and she stared at him and said nothing.
“I will only ask you once.” Menious said as Sophia smiled at Jonah and he almost remembered her for a split second but it faded as if his mind had been wiped clean of things and he was struggling to regain.
“Take her, leave the boy.”
Two men dressed in white robes picked her up and Jonah stood and screamed at them in a flash, finding his strength a bit of a shock to even himself.
Menious raised his hand and they paused as she struggled a bit.
“Jonah, I am fair and I will welcome you to Valon with open arms but your sister cannot stay if she is but an animal.”
Jonah stumbled and held his hand up towards Menious.
“My what?” he said as his voice cracked.
“Your sister, she seems to not be well and I cannot have her eating everyone in a city I am sworn to protect… you are the product of a vampire/human union. Something never seen before and I gave your Mother Calia asylum by allowing her to leave. I do not know….”
“Father, I killed her.” Sophia said as she looked at her hands and then up to him. Menious shook his head.
“You did what my daughter?”
“Calia was a traitor, she betrayed us all by creating these things you see before you and I will not allow it! The vampire is pure and humans are food, they are and always will be and you need to understand this now!”
“You sadden me Sophia, I no longer have a daughter.”
Jonah stumbled and then fell as flashes of his lips against hers infiltrated his mind and sent cracks through his brain that could not be mended. He threw up blood onto the white stone beneath him and Sophia rolled her eyes.
“He slept with her, Father.” Sophia said and Menious turned to her.
“No.”
“Yes, a few times as if they are animals as I told you they are, they need to be destroyed!”
Menious looked to Jonah, who wiped his mouth and began to sob. He looked up to Lily and reached out to her as they started to drag her away from him.
“Jonah, this cannot be… it seems you will not be amongst the vampire, what you have done is a crime, you are pardoned to leave Valon and never to return with fear of destruction.” He said and with that two more guard grabbed him and he struggled at first and then stopped as Sophia pulled a short blade screaming “NO!” and ran to Lily and stabbed her in the stomach. Lily screamed and then the guard let her go and she stood there holding her stomach and the red welled up behind her fingers. Jonah then felt it, something welling up in his gut, deep and vile and useful he would have to guess. Hate, hatred for a city that rejected them, hatred for parents who did not tell them of what they were, hatred for a Mother and Father he never knew.
Menious stood in shock as his daughter dropped the blade and began to laugh the most evil laugh he had ever heard in his thousand year reign.
“Sophia… no.” he said and she turned to him and licked her hand, letting the rogue blood fill her senses and change her, racing through her genetic chains and ripping them apart and then shuffling them back together, the blood raced into her brain and she screamed and fell to the ground, light pulsating from her as her eyes shifted from normal to white then black. Jonah ran to Lily and grabbed her as she fell and then he stood up, picked up the short blade and with it in his grip he rounded the room, slicing through all four guards, in the blink of an eye…then stopping in front of Menious, head lowered, chest rising and falling and guards dropping behind him as if in slow motion. Menious swung his hand behind him to grab his blades and then stumbled as a blade came through him, cutting across the white tree embossed on his chest, splitting it and all hope for peace forever…
Jonah stepped back as Menious fell and Sophia rose, eyes black as night and black veins showing just slightly beneath her skin.
“Valon will know you as traitors and the killer of their King.”
Jonah ran to Lily, scooped her up and ran towards the large white tree in the center of the room, as he approached it he noticed it was surrounded in black water, moving slowly and jumped as Sophia raised her hands, screaming at the top of her lungs and struck the tree with her full power, Jonah and Lily sank beneath the surface of the black water as it began to ripple and boil and found themselves being sucked downward. As they looked up the white tree followed them, sinking into the water and Sophia watched in horror as the tree if creation sank before her into the black water. A tree they all came from, the source of their power and the heart of Valon. Then as Jonah and Lily started to lose consciousness they suddenly found themselves in a room. Small in size and as they pushed themselves up, wet and cold they saw a small girl writing at a table. She kept her eyes in the pages of the book and barely glanced up at them as she suddenly waved a hand towards the door to the left of her. They both looked and then back to her.
“Well, open it up… I have given you a way to go home.”
Jonah and Lily ran to the door and then looked back as the girl stood up, closing the book up and another door appeared on the opposite side of the room in light and beautiful symbols.
“Who are you?” Jonah said as the girl walked towards the door and with each step she grew taller, older, until she looked all of 16. She stopped at the door and touched the doorknob and started to turn it. She paused and looked back to them.
“My name is Rue, I am the author.” She said. “And it is time I join the story… I am sure I will see you again, but I would bet you do not remember me…” she said and with that she walked through the door of light and onto the white stone floor of the council tower as Sophia backed up and stared at her in horror.
Jonah broke the surface of the water and his teeth chattered as he reached below him and felt Lily’s hand in his. He jerked her upward and her head flopped back as he swam as hard as he could across the icy cold water and then felt mud beneath his feet. He drug himself and Lily onto the shore and rolled her back, crying as he rocked her and touched her face with a shaking hand. He moved her hair and she coughed a bit and he looked down at her stomach as it bled slowly.
He bit into his wrist and tore away a chuck of flesh, placing to her mouth and sealing their bond forever as she drank from him. He rose as her stomach healed and the bleeding stopped, her hair became shiny and dried itself, curling slightly and she rose up, a beautiful creature, more beautiful than Jonah could stand to look at so he turned form her but she approached him and tore into her own wrist and reached up with it bleeding in face, he turned and she smiled at him and raised an eyebrow and he took it and drank of her, completing the circle if their power and making them into something greater than they had ever been.
They traveled slowly across the land at first and then smelled it. The charring remains of flesh and burnt animal hair, wood and fabric. They both raced through the thick woods until they broke free and stared upon the remains of the circus they had called home. They walked through decaying bodies of h
umans and then reached the tent itself and entered the rubble, knowing it would be hard to see but necessary to find closure. Jonah looked down as bone crunched under his foot and then he watched as Lily ran across the mess of things and lowered to the ground. He followed her and stopped, starring down on two skeletons, one slumped over the other as if holding on. He knew it was Caleb and Maggie as did Lily.
Lily rose and then Jonah turned to her and grinned as she handed the top hat to him and he dusted it off and placed it onto his head. Lily leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and they stood in the death and decay claiming Will and Wonder as their own…