by Kailin Gow
“Don’t move,” Max whispered. “Wait until he’s distracted them.”
“I’m going to give you a chance,” said Mal, “at saving your own life. Do you understand me? I’m going to give you a chance to get out of here – no harm done! And I’ll forgive you for that nastiness about you trying to kill me. I’ll keep the girl. I’ll keep her mother. And I won’t come after you. Your lucky day, Octavius – to avoid meeting the fate of your friends.”
“I hope,” Octavius’ voice burst into a roar, filled with pain and rage. “That one day I will die as heroically as my friends. I will never live a coward’s life. And I will never let Kalina suffer. No matter what the costs. I am not the sniveling, squalid sycophant that you once were, Mal, before the Life’s Blood gave you unearned powers. I am not afraid to die; I am not ashamed of my actions.”
Leonardo bared his fangs at Octavius, hissing with anger. “You think you’ll last a second against us?” Leonardo took a step forward, his fangs still dripping with Max’s blood. “I’ve just fed on a Carrier – a moment of blood, no more, but yet more than enough to…”
“Kalina…” Octavius turned towards Kalina, his eyes clouded with worry.
“I’m fine!” Kalina forced the words out. “Not on me – on…”
“Her mother!” Leonardo crowed triumphantly. “Although I am looking forward to tasting the girl, too!”
“Not today,” Octavius said. Before Kalina could take in what was happening, Octavius had vanished, transforming into a shimmering blur moving in a whirlwind directly towards her. She felt the thrust of arms wrapping about her waist, a telepathic voice telling her to grab the other one! Octavius’ voice – and Octavius’ arms, lifting her into the air.
She grabbed hold of Max’s hand, but it was too late. Leonardo had leaped forward, grabbing Max’s waist, dragging her back down to earth, and Kalina, sped on by Octavius, tried desperately to hold onto her mother’s hand.
“Let go!” Max shouted!
“No!” Kalina tried to scream back, but before she could get a better hold, Max had pried Kalina’s fingers from her hand – falling back with a crunch that made Kalina’s blood run cold onto the earth, into the clutches of Leonardo and Mal. Her mother – was it her mother? – had sacrificed herself to save her! “No!” Kalina called at the falling body, but suddenly it had vanished – all of New Haven had vanished – and she and Octavius were hurtling through the skies, over oceans that frothed and raged, as black as the night sky above them, and then she smelled the salt and spray of the sea, the cool night air racing against her skin. Land, sea blurred into white until she felt the ground again, all at once, striking at her knees.
“Ow!” Kalina tumbled to the ground as they stopped short. The stones in the earth seemed to poke and prod at her injuries, and for a moment Kalina felt dizzy – ill – nauseous. “What’s going on?” The world seemed to go blurry again, spinning around her.
“I’m sorry…” Octavius whispered. “Humans aren’t used to vampire speed – it’s going to make you feel a little sick for a while.”
“What?” Kalina had flown with Stuart and even Jaegar before, but never like this…never so fast and so powerful. It was Octavius’ strength that powered the teleportation at such warp speed. Kalina still felt as if she were spinning – colors and stones and shapes whirring all around her. “What’s happening?” She gave a soft moan as she felt her gorge rise.
“We need to get out of here soon,” said Octavius. “Get indoors before the sun rises.”
“Sun rises?” Kalina coughed. “What are you talking about?” Even taking into account the frenzied events of the evening, it couldn’t be later than one in the morning…
“With the time change…” Octavius knelt down beside her, taking her into his arms. Kalina gratefully let him scoop her up, trying to make sense of his words.
“Time change?” And then Kalina looked around. The shapes and colors had begun making sense to her now; they were familiar to her. She had seen this fountain before – with its marble splendor. She had seen the smooth pink facades of the palazzos. She had eaten in these very cafes. The sun was just starting to rise, casting golden and rose-colored shadows all through the square.
This was the Piazza Navona in Rome.
Chapter 13
The sun was creeping down upon them, and so Octavius swiftly led Kalina to a café nestled in the side-streets of Rome, covered in layers of ivy and shaded by awning. “You can have breakfast here,” he said, stroking her cheek. “Then I’ll rush to teleport us back to the villa. But you need some sustenance first.”
Kalina looked around the café – the Bar della Pace – which Octavius had taken her to once before. In decades gone by, he had told her, this was the most celebrated place in Rome, where celebrities and aristocrats went to drink wine and mingle with highly placed vampires, like Octavius. How it seemed to have changed! Last time she was here she had been so happy – dressed in the black velvet and pearls Octavius had purchased for her on Via Condotti, sipping her freshly squeezed orange juice and staring into his eyes. Now the place seemed strange to her – as vaguely familiar as a place known only from a dream. Had she really been there before – had she really been with Octavius before? She stumbled as Octavius led her to her seat, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Her mind was still rattled by the teleportation, and soon – as Octavius held a cup of cappuccino to her lips – images began coming back to her: a savage-eyed woman, Stuart collapsing under the weight of a stake….
“Oh, God!” Kalina jumped up as realization hit her. “She’s still there – Max! My…my mother!”
“Your mother?” Octavius’ eyes crinkled in confusion. “Yes – Mal was saying…but I didn’t understand…”
“Mal said she was my mother and she – she didn’t deny it!” Kalina felt the tears coming, harder and hotter than they had been before. “I don’t know…”
“I can go back,” Octavius whispered. “Try to find them…see what’s happened! I tried to get you out safely – the other woman, too, but I cannot deny you were my priority. If I had stopped to get this…Max…I would have been unable to save you, too.”
“Don’t go back!” Kalina touched Octavius’ shoulder, and she saw him wince where she had come into contact with his wounds. “You’re injured – you need to rest, to recover.” The teleportation, too, had taken a toll on him, and Kalina could see that he looked even more exhausted than before. Kalina wanted to hold him, to wipe away the dark lines on his face, but she could barely hold herself together.
“She is your mother?” Octavius looked at her with questioning eyes, so full of warmth, trying to understand, trying to help her cope with this pain. Kalina could have melted at his kindness. But she didn’t want to remember. She didn’t want to understand – who Max was, why she had staked Stuart. She only wanted to forget, to curl up in the drowning shroud of slumber, to let her mind cloud over with the exhaustion that was now pulling at her bones.
“What happened, Kalina?” Octavius’ voice was soft, but firm. He wasn’t going to let her sleep yet – her safety, the safety of Life’s Blood, was paramount. She needed to deal with what happened.
“Justin…” Kalina mumbled softly. “Jaegar…” What had become of them – what would become of them? If Mal and Leonardo managed to capture and kill Max, which of the people she loved would be next.
“You need to tell me what happened, Kalina!” Octavius put an arm around her – his skin still so cold, but comforting even in its coolness. She let herself cleave to him, wiping her tears on his jacket – feeling for all the world like a silly little girl in the face of the man she loved. She could feel his muscles tight beneath the linen: his strength, his power. He would protect her. He would help her through this. She had to remember. She had to stay awake, stay conscious.
“Stuart captured me…” Kalina’s voice was shaking. “The Life’s Blood – it made him crazy. I thought…I thought I loved him enough that if he drank from me,
it would save him. I tried to get him to drink, but he wouldn’t! He wouldn’t! I think he was scared…of what if it didn’t work!”
“Stuart was there?”
Kalina clapped her hand to her mouth! How could she tell Octavius that Stuart was gone? How could she put him through the torture of losing one of the vampires he had made?
“I felt…something,” said Octavius. “At first – that Stuart was in trouble. I am his maker, after all. But when I came and saw nothing…saw only you and Max and the vampires, I thought I had been mistaken; that it was your Life’s Blood, with Stuart’s blood mingled with your own, that was calling me.”
“Max showed up,” said Kalina. “Just as Stuart was about to drink from me – as I was about to save him. She was trying to get me out of there in a hurry – demanding that I go with her. I didn’t know who she was, or what she wanted, so I refused…” Kalina sniffled back tears. “And Stuart tried to stop her – there was a struggle – she had a stake…” Kalina’s tears were flowing in full force now, and she knew there was no use in stopping them. She could see the pain register on Octavius’ face: shock first, followed by spiraling agony. He had lost Aaron; now he had lost Stuart – who had served him for centuries. His closest companions, his beloved offsprings, all dead. Because of Life’s Blood. Because of Kalina. Kalina’s body shook with guilt, pain, and agony as she shared Octavius’ anguish.
“Octavius, I’m sorry,” Kalina whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.” She couldn’t stop herself; she reached out to touch him, caressing the soft part of his face, feeling the rough prickling of his stubble on her fingers. His eyes were closed, and he was leaning on her now, to take away his pain, just as a moment before she was leaning on him. “I know we both cared for…we both loved him.”
“Why did she stake him?” Octavius’ voice was hoarse and ragged. “This woman – your mother – why did she do it?”
“She didn’t know he was good,” Kalina stumbled on her words. “I mean, he wasn’t good – he was dangerous, but I could have saved him! If she’d only given me a chance! But she wanted to save me from any vampire in my path; she thought he was a threat; he was stopping us from escaping. She did it for me!” The now-familiar guilt swept through Kalina like a fever. “And I refused to leave. After she killed Stuart…I wanted to stay with the body; I wouldn’t listen to her! I wouldn’t run with her! And then they came – Leonardo and Mal – with their fangs out, and they told me she was my mother, and she didn’t say anything! If I’d gone with her at the beginning, if I hadn’t resisted, she wouldn’t be…” She couldn’t bear to say it, couldn’t bear the thought that her mother, too… “Stuart wouldn’t be...”
“It’s not your fault,” Octaviusvoice was shaking. “You didn’t know who she was; you couldn’t have known!”
His voice, so strong even in its sweetness, called to her, bringing back her old feelings, her old pain. Last time they sat together in this café they had been so happy, so in love. She had been confident that he loved her, then. But then he had left her, refused her offer of love, of her Life’s Blood. He said it was for her safety, but she couldn’t bear the doubt – the idea that he saw her as a silly schoolgirl, an idiot child in love. She caught a glimpse of her tear-stained face, reflected, warped, in the coffee-spoon, and could have kicked herself! How could a vampire as sophisticated, as smooth as Octavius, ever love someone as young and as innocent as Kalina? Someone stupid enough to let Stuart and Max die over her own mistakes? Someone who couldn’t fight or risk her life, as Octavius had done, to avenge those that he loved?
And Stuart was dead. The reality of it, nebulous before, came crashing down into her the moment she had said the words aloud. Stuart, kind, noble Stuart, whom she had tried her best to love, was dead, and he had died for her. And she had been unable to save him. Octavius held her tighter, his grip secure, comforting, somehow. But she couldn’t bear his kindness. She had to know if he still loved her, if he still felt something for her. She had to know…
She broke apart from his embrace and looked into his eyes, her gaze square with his. She could see his pain, his fear, the intensity of his stare speaking to his care for her, his desire…could it be his love, too?
Before Octavius could stop her, Kalina leaned in, touching his lips with hers. She couldn’t breathe; she couldn’t think. Her whole body had been subsumed by her desire for him to kiss her back. The moment she felt his lips upon her, she felt alive – alive at last – her blood meeting its twin, its desired other; she felt fully and utterly like herself: the Kalina she had always meant to be, fulfilling the destiny she was always meant to have. She couldn’t contain her joy.
And then he pulled away, and in an instant the world was gone from her; the shadows in which they sat in the café, hidden away from the windows, seemed to expand and fill the whole horizon with their darkness. She couldn’t bear it – bear the sad, sorry look in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Octavius whispered. She could see his reserve, his strength – see how he was struggling so hard not to kiss her back.
And then she kissed him again, harder this time, and more persistent, letting him feel the full force of her desire for him, her love for him. Her fingers ran through his hair, pulling his closer. She wanted him, and she wanted him to know it, to feel it in his blood, feel her Life’s Blood coursing through her veins for him. Only for him.
And she felt him succumb, at last; felt his lips open beneath hers, felt his hands twine together behind her neck, stroking her hair, pulling her closer to him. This was not the passion she had felt with Jaegar, nor the frantic desire for power she had experienced with Stuart. This was measured, controlled – even beautiful in its gentleness. Octavius was kissing her with such reverence – as if she were the most precious thing in the world, and he was in terror of breaking her.
When at last they broke apart, Kalina could see the embarrassment, the fear on Octavius’ face. She could see his love for her, buried beneath regret. He had sworn to give her up – that it was the only way he could protect her – and yet he had broken this promise, succumbed to the temptation she laid before him. “I have to show you something,” he said softly. “I found it at the Supernatural Library in Paris – when I was chasing Mal’s men. We need to go back to the villa. Are you ready to teleport again? Are you able?”
Kalina nodded as Octavius led her towards the door. She wanted to savor the feeling of his hands on hers – a feeling she had longed for during so many lonely months. In an instant they were outside and then rushing through the sky again. Kalina felt a bit less sick than she had on their first voyage; the feeling of speeding through space was less nauseating than it had been. But when they landed at Octavius’ door, pushing quickly through it to avoid the heat of the sun, she was glad to be on her feet again.
“That woman we saw tonight…” said Octavius. “I thought I’d seen her before. But it only just came to me – where…” He led her to his dressing-table, a magnificent piece of carved oakwood, and opened a hidden drawer with a key. The smell of centuries-old must – of books and papers – filled the room. From the drawer Octavius pulled out a photograph, tinted with age, blurry in sepia. “I need to show you this.”
Chapter 14
Octavius’ expression was heavy as he handed her the photograph. What could be so important, Kalina wondered, as she took the sepia-tinted photograph, feeling her hands shake as she brought it up to her face, squinting to make out the figures – nearly indistinguishable from one another.
“It wasn’t the best-preserved photograph,houaid Octavius. “It was in a file in the Supernatural Library.”
“Mine?” Kalina looked up. “But we looked through my file, we didn’t find…”
“Not your file,” said Octavius. “The file of your parents. Your…adopted parents.”
Kalina winced. The memory of David and Joan – Mom and Dad – still weighed heavily upon her, and she hated the reminder. As she looked down at the photo, she felt her heart sink. There th
ey were – looking younger, happier than she’d ever seen them, bouncing with a baby in their arms, a baby with the same coloring and features Kalina recognized in herself. They were in a richly decorated courtyard of some palace with distinctly Ottoman features – lush gardens dotted the background, interspersed with intricately carved fountains and the elaborate balconies at the end of the courtyard. Where was it? It could have been Venice, or perhaps Istanbul? Kalina looked closer at the photograph. There she saw another woman – Kalina’s heart sank as she recognized it. Her twin – her double – looking just like her, even here, but somehow different; somehow no younger here than she had appeared to Kalina just hours ago. Max.
“I don’t understand,” said Kalina. “What’s Max doing here – with my parents? They said they found me in an orphanage in Nepal – that they’d never met my mother. But here they are sitting next to her, with me! And I don’t know too much about architecture, Octavius, but this is definitely not Nepal.”