Within the Cards

by Donna Altman

  Chapter Two

  ELLIE ARRIVES

  The thoughts of the hatred that ripped us apart shocked me back to this morning's event. Just moments before I smelled her scent, I sat and waited for my second class of the day to begin in the large partially filled lecture hall. The class was Government 1220. I knew this class would end up being the same as past government classes, but with updated history. I had already heard many of these lectures. I could recite many of these impervious documents. After all, I was at many of the signings of these documents throughout my time on earth. I continued to sit and wait for this new class of old material to start while the other students filed into the room. They took their seats while they mumbled conversations to one another that I tried to ignore. Their self-absorbed egos bored me. However, I never thought within a few minutes as I sat in this room, I would find showing up for class would change the misery that had become normal for my existence.

  The lecture hall I sat in was a large room with seats that descended down to a stage. On the stage sat a small desk and a lecture podium that reminded me of the time I waited for an audition for a part in a play. There were no windows in this dull, drab room. It sat nestled in the middle of the large white stone building known as Jefferson Hall. This room was a replication of the theaters that presidents of the past sat in as they watched and laughed at plays, as well as one of the presidents was murdered.

  As the students continued to enter the room, my nose caught a scent. Then it hit me. I couldn’t believe what I was about to encounter. It had been one hundred years since I saw her face, one hundred years since I heard her voice, one hundred years until now. This was the day my existence began the whirlwind of my future. Although I celebrated the sight of Ellie, I knew she was different, and I knew this would prove to change my existence forever.

  The minute the door opened, I smelled her scent: roses, lilac and lavender. This scent brought the memories of her back as if a tsunami crashed in to the brick wall that surrounded my existence and washed the mortar of the barricade I had built away. All of a sudden, time reversed and it felt like I saw her yesterday, but then reality set in and I realized it had been a century.

  I sat in my seat frozen as a mortal freshman scared to speak or move for fear of upper classmen laughing at me for some stupid reaction I might have. I didn’t turn around to look at her. I didn’t have to because when I closed my eyes I could see the things that were behind me. This, along with reading minds, was one of the several mystical abilities transferred to me during my change. I remained frozen in my seat as I waited for her to realize she was not the only immortal in the room. If I were human, I would rub my hand down my arm and feel the texture of my skin. I would have goose bumps all over my body, but I wasn’t human so my already chilled body sat there frozen like some stupid paranoid statue.

  She moved through the aisles as if she floated on air. Her hair was brilliant black. It was short, about neck length with wistful spikes that stood out against the pale cream skin of her face. Her eyes were a light gray. They looked like the ice on the side of a glacier. They were clear and refreshing. She was petite, a small frame that looked frail to those that didn’t know her strength. This beautiful being was no more than five foot two inches tall. She was light on her feet and held her head high with her nose slightly tilted upward. She never looked down. She was sure of her steps. With her jacket thrown over her shoulder, the black long-sleeved shirt that formed to her body and exposed every perfect curve of her torso moved with her footsteps. The black jeans she wore were low cut and tight enough to compliment the hourglass shape of her body. She wore a familiar belt that she had worn in the past. It was made of black leather with what most would think were tiny, cheap pieces of glass stones that sparkled when the light caught them as her body moved down the aisles. I knew these stones were delicate diamonds that waved around her tiny waist. They ended at a buckle encircled with this precious stone. In the center of the buckle was a Celtic cross that symbolized her heritage. It was made of the same sparkling jewel, which completed its brilliance.

  Her beauty made the entire room stop and take notice as she flowed down the aisle. The males in the class turned to catch her entrance. She entered the room and floated down the aisle with the grace of a model on a runway. The females were in reverence of her beauty, but were resentful of it in the same glance. None of them would ever match the elegance and grace of her flow. Her alabaster skin only enhanced her sophistication.

  I heard every thought in the room. I could hear every thought from everyone, which in my world could even drive a vampire insane. These inconsiderate males wanted to “hit that”. I wanted to tear the heads off these males for the thoughts they had of my Ellie. Their thoughts were sick and perverted. The females smirked with insecurity. One of them, whose voice drove me into a demented state, had thoughts that were louder than the other females in the class.

  “What are they looking at? She doesn’t look better than I do. Does she?” This squeaky voiced female thought. She looked Ellie over and turned back to the males in the class with a disgusted look as she rolled her eyes and extended her bottom lip into a pouting stance.

  Ellie paused at the row of seats where I sat and with her nose slightly raised, she sniffed the air. She knew her immortality was not alone in the room. She glanced down the row as her eyes met mine. With a millionth of a second, she glared at me. I hoped for a brief recognition in those icy eyes, but with that time gone, I saw the proof that her memory no longer existed. I was glad my heart didn’t beat, because it would have stopped with that one glare. She hissed at me once to warn me that she knew what I was and that would be my first warning.

  The playful, happy, quick-witted love of my life that left me so many years ago was gone. She was as evil and as cold as the eyes that stared back at me. This scared even my immortality. She was my maker, and I knew from the look in her clear eyes, she wanted to take me out of my misery. She didn’t realize how easy that would be, and I was glad she didn’t because if she had it would be over before she had a chance to remember me.

  She returned her focus on her intended destination. She continued to glide down the aisle as she found her resting place. This beauty of my past sat two rows in front of me. Her scent was so strong it over-powered my ability to pay attention to my meager surroundings. I was a rancid dog in heat, unable to focus on anything, but the need for her. The scent of roses, lilac, and lavender blended in the right proportion radiated through my senses. I smelled this scent many times. It was one I lavished in during our long hours of holding her in my arms. This was the scent I longed for, and one I would not let leave me again. That was at least if I survived her hatred until she could remember me.

  She had to remember me. I would make her remember. Little did I know the journey to return her memory would be the hardest odyssey I attempted in my mortal life and my immortal existence. Nevertheless, I wanted her in my arms again, and I could not think of anything else. I wanted her to remember me, and I would do whatever it took to accomplish that task. I no longer wanted to exist without her. This nightmare of an existence was monotonous and isolated. However, with Ellie’s return I was sure I would find the rest of my existence would never be monotonous or isolated again. Although, I welcomed a little excitement, I feared I was in for more than I wanted to know.

  My attention remained on her. My eyes continued to follow her throughout the time it took her too settled in her seat. She was aware I was watching her. I knew her abilities better than anyone. She knew her surroundings and paid close attention to anyone she thought was a threat. How could she think I was a threat to her? I loved her more than humans loved the air they needed to breathe, even more than the skin that covered my soulless body.

  I knew they took her memories from her, but I could feel her powers were still as forceful as they ever had been. Including the power, she had over me. She knew my every thought. She read minds and could change the attitudes of anyone. She controlled the fo
ur elements of the universe: earth, air, fire, water. She was more powerful than I was in many ways, but the love I held for her was stronger than any power she maintained. My mind focused on her thoughts.

  “Dear God,” she thought I was insane. I couldn’t believe it. She thought I was a mental case. The sound of my non-beating heart became worse than the eerie silence it normally maintained it was deafening. How could she think there was something wrong with me?

  My mind drifted to thoughts of our past life together. I was the only one of my kind. I wasn't a pureblood vampire nor was a Witchyre. Ellie did use her vampire abilities to bite and change into an immortal, but she wasn't a true vampire. She told me I was the only one of my kind that existed. A human being was never before changed into a vampire by the witchyre heritage. This was illegal. She had no reason to lie to me. After all, fabrications were not one of an immortal’s flaws. They were not like that of the human kind. Immortals were brutally honest. Perjury was a learned human quality, and witchyres never learned anything new. They didn't feel the need to learn anything, because they felt they were perfect. Now, my Ellie with her attitude of perfection was telling me she didn’t know who I was. Not to mention, she thought I was crazy.

  She didn’t realize I was reading her mind. She thought I was an ordinary vampire. With her memory gone and not realizing she was my maker, she didn’t know she transferred some of her abilities to me. These abilities were what made me different from any other vampire. I had exceptional strength and would live forever, but I also had abilities that an ordinary vampire didn’t have. That was if you could ever call a vampire conventional. Nonetheless, when she realizes I could read her thoughts, she would be shocked. I had to let her know I knew what she was thinking. She had to know I wasn’t just a normal vampire.

  I was different. I wanted her to know she changed me. I wanted her to remember telling me that this change made a dove of a man turn into a soaring Eagle. This tender dove was what humans saw as the spirit of the soul, and the representation of a new horizon of life everlasting. However, when she changed me, I manifested into an eagle. This eagle was full of strength and insight to the spiritual world. An eagle that was quick and deadly unlike the dove. My change was so fast that the eagle inside of me engulfed the dove. It swallowed it whole and gained its spirit. My strength now suffocated the soul of the dove, and with the eagle's insight on the horizon, my life, as I knew it was no longer just, as the dove no longer existed.

  All I knew was I, Daughtry McRyne, was a vampire and Eleanor Valeness, the love of my immortality, was my maker. I wanted her to remember me, and I would do whatever it took to make this happen. I loved everything about her; her beauty, her laughter and her strength. She had the physical strengths that would make a grizzly bear blush, and the magical abilities of her ancestors the witches and wizards.

  My creation was strange, but Ellie's heritage was even stranger. The Witchyre race came about when Ellie's grandfather, which was a vampire and her grandmother that was a witch, came together to create offspring. Their offspring was a combination of both races. They were no longer a pure race of either side. This created the Witchyres.

  Each witchyre, as with all witches and wizards, had unique powers. Some powers were stronger for one than another, but they all had unique abilities. The witch side of their heritage had abilities that enabled them to cast spells, read the minds of other races, and to vanish in a blink of an eye. A witchyre differed from pure witches and wizards in that they were as with me, a vampire. They had all the wants and the thirst that I had as well as eternal life. A hybrid vampire didn’t have magical abilities. I was the lucky one that held that lone title. In essence, I wasn’t what other immortals thought. I wasn't a true pureblood. I wasn’t a true vampire or a true witch. I wasn’t even a true witchyre.

  To become a true witchyre, you had to be born into the race. You couldn’t be turned as I. They were never normal mortals or immortals. Their body temperature was warmer than mine, but not as warm as that of a human. They didn’t have a conscience. They knew no fear or sorrow. They had no compassion for humans. This was with one exception; Ellie was different.

  As I brought my thoughts back to the class where I sat with the one person in my entire existence that I loved beyond the boundaries of life and death, I reminded myself she had no recollection of our life together. I concentrated on reading the thoughts that lingered in her mind. This was easy because I found it hard to concentrate on anything except her wonderful, beautiful mind. She was doing the same with me. We were carrying on a conversation that no other in the room could hear.

  “Why are you looking at me Vamp, and why do you assume to know me?” Her mind snarled several questions in my direction. I felt the hatred of her thoughts.

  She didn’t realize her thoughts were not her own. I slightly laughed to suppress the horror at the change in my beautiful angel. Her clothing style was the same as the other females in the class, which was definitely different from the last time I saw her. Her thoughts still came across with the French Canadian dialect from a time far in the past, and her voice was the same as I heard the sounds of her thought. However, I heard the roar of darkness that echoed in her thoughts. Her tone was full of hatred, and I sensed something evil about her.

  The misguided humor of my thoughts made the venom of hate overwhelm her taste for blood. I knew she was angry when I heard her hiss in my direction. If she had the nonexistent aqueous fluid we both craved flowing through her veins, it would reach the temperature of boiling as she looked at me. I had to be careful.

  “You don’t remember me at all, do you?” I thought as I felt myself sink in the chair I once sat in with anticipation. I hoped she would have some recognition of me with the sound of my thoughts, but I could tell she thought I needed nothing more than commitment to an immortal insane asylum.

  “If you had slithered through my thoughts in the past, I would have remembered the smell.” She snapped as she turned and shot ice shivers in my direction with her eyes.

  Although, she didn’t realize I could hear her thoughts, she lashed them back at me. Hatred and evil bolted out at me with every thought from her beautiful head. She wasn’t the same Ellie I remembered. Her evil tone shot lightning bolts at me as if I were her worst enemy. As long as she thought of me as a purebred vampire, I was her enemy.

  Her thoughts were driving me crazy, and I needed to know more about them. My next thought pushed her further.

  “Awe, but I have my dear many times even in your bed,” I gloated as I sat up straight and taller in my seat so she would know I was directing my thoughts to her. I knew this would irritate her, but I wanted to hold her interest. My gloating response would have made the Ellie I remembered smile and become more playful, but this was a different Ellie. This wasn’t the Ellie of my memories. However, I hoped she was somewhere in the clone that reincarnated itself in her physical form.

  She continued to lash hate in my directions and thoughts of my instability. My mind began to wonder about my own sanity. Perchance, her thoughts of me were right. Perhaps, I had gone crazy. For a few seconds, I almost convinced myself I was hallucinating, but then I realized what she was doing. She was using her powers of persuasion to convince me I was mentally insane. She had developed a cunning way about her. She almost convinced me the insanity was real. She began to smile, an evil smile. When she realized I knew what she was doing her smile turned into a grimace. That wasn’t the only thing she realized. She knew I could read her mind, and this puzzled her.

  “I would never lower myself to your kind. I am above the lines in which you crawl.” She returned with a hiss. Again, the daggers of ice froze my physical form.

  “Oh my dear, what little you have remembered. Of course, I can thank your family for that,” I stated. The thought of her sisters made the venom that dripped from my fangs engulf my mouth. I felt the heat in my ice-cold body as it rose.

  Her return response was to hiss in my direction. She again turned and pierc
ed me with her eyes. I knew this was my second warning. I would not get many more warning before she turned this class into a blood bath, and she removed anyone that could repeat anything that happened. It would simply be all out war. I backed off from infuriating her because an immortal’s maker was the only one that could end their eternal life. Before today, I dreamed of such an ending to my miserable existence, but now that I had seen her again I would not tempt fate. She did not remember she was my maker, and I wouldn’t give her the opportunity to kill me by accident.

  I went from a suicidal, companionless vampire to a preposterous pansy in a few minutes. I shook my head because it began to look as if I were developing some lunacy for real. Love was a powerful thing, and I wouldn’t give up on Ellie.

  My attention turned to the professor that suddenly addressed her. When he called the roll, you could tell he was somewhat dyslexic. This professor named Mr. Dundford was a small framed man. His height was no more than five foot-four inches tall. I heard many of the female’s thoughts of him being a “mousey little man”. His tone showed him as an unhappy depressed man. He was partially bald with graying hair. His unsightly ragged clothing dated him as still being in the nineteen sixties. He dreaded coming to class. He hated his uneventful job of teaching such ungrateful students. His thoughts were of violent actions against these spoiled rich bastards that felt he owed them a substantial grade. Their meager attempts at learning their nation’s government outraged him. He was a strange man. If anyone else could read his mind, he or she would know this professor could flip-out any minute.

  Ellie had the same thoughts as I did about this man. I began to worry he might have a gun and was ready to use it. The only problem with this was I would want to drink the blood that he spilled, and I would no longer be in hiding as an immortal. Of course, Ellie would be in the same situation as I was, but I was quite sure she would enjoy it.