Thirst

by Tapley, Travis

  “Very well,” Lilith replied. “I want a message to be sent to Seneca. You will send it in the morning when awake. You will find it all written in the note beside you on that table. Do as I ask, do not call the police and all will be fine, except for Seneca. He is the one I want.” She waved her hand and the couple was asleep.

  Chapter 15

  “When the Children Cry”

  Summer’s parents awoke the next morning and looked at each other in bewilderment. Had they both dreamed last nights occurrence or had it really happened. They both jumped from their chairs at the same time and headed down the hall to the children;s room. They look in stunned disbelief, they were gone. They ran back to the living room and just as this Lilith had said was a note on the table. They both started crying and felt a sudden rage that this man, or whatever he said he was had gotten their daughter into whatever this was that was happening.

  Lilith was smiling in her lair. She looked at the mortal children, the children of her sworn enemy. How had this happened? How had she gotten so lucky to be in a spot where they were when she had never known he had a family? How had she not known all these years, what were the thoughts from her father, ten years? She had them, now how exactly was she going to use them to get Seneca? To just kill them would bring out a rage in him she knew she had never seen. Even when she took Amaranths life, he had been too devastated in that moment to feel the rage. She had not seen him since until the other night. If anything could make him come to her, this was it, his children.

  The letter or note this Lilith had left simply said they were to stay silent for three days. Not to leave their home. She was watching at all times. It told them of the difference between her kind and Seneca. Why he was able to be in the sunlight. It was just as amazing to them as it had been to Summer the first time she heard it. How could staunch Southern Baptist wrap their heads around this? It was really more than they could handle. After three days they were to contact Summer and tell her she needed to come by at 7 in the evening, to not mention the kids. Any deviation from this plan would result in a death. It was whose the note did not say. They were a wreck. Worried sick about the grandchildren. Were they okay? They would have to wait to find out.

  Lilith looked at the scared faces of the children of Seneca. Well, well, she thought what to do with these little morsels of mortal flesh? She was getting an idea, a sinfully evil idea, one that would top anything she had ever done before. But which one? Maybe both. Either way she felt extreme power, she had finally gained the upper hand on him after all these many many tireless years. She had something that was almost as good as his blood, she had something that came from his blood and what would he do to get them back? She already knew it was going to be impossible for him to get them back, he might get one, but he would never have them both again.

  She did believe everything happens in its own due date and time, maybe not so much as in for a reason. She had waited for this, starved for it. Craved it. Now it was all about to be here’s, now where the fuck was that imbecile Michael? This was one time she actually had something she wanted to share with the idiot. She looked into the eyes of little Kelsey, the girl started to cry and so did the boy. “I want my mommy and daddy!” She cried out in fear.

  “Do not worry my pretty little one, you shall have them in due time. I will see to it that they have you again.” This did little to comfort the girl and she sobbed harder. Her brother was trying his best to be like his dad and remain strong but at such a young age it was hard to do. Lilith fought back the urge to laugh, this was giving her a joy she did not know she could have. She could hear that 80’s power ballad playing in her head by White Lion, “When the Children Cry.”

  Chapter 15

  “Vampires in the Vatican”

  Seneca had arrived at the Vatican and been escorted in by secret passage. The Cardinals had known he was coming. This day had been foretold a long time ago in the writings. It was now time for their chosen one to find it all out for himself. He was taken to a small candle lit room far and away from everything else. It was in this room that he would find all the answers he had ,longed to have. It was almost like a small library with row after row of books and scrolls. Everything in here was old including the people. He was about to find out something he had long suspected but was never quite sure existed.

  The Eldest of the Cardinals directed him to sit behind the desk, and pulled out a stack of old books and laid them in front of him. He then made a motion with his hands and all in the room faced the door and took to their knees in a bowing motion. The door opened and before him entered the Pope. He took a seat across from Seneca at the desk and bowed his head toward the door and the Cardinals rose and with hasty action made their way one by one out of the room. All that remained was Seneca and his Holiness or what the humans perceived as his Holiness.

  “Ah, Seneca, my child, my brother, it is so good to finally meet you after all these years. We have all waited for this day for a long time. Hundreds of years really, we have all been here waiting on this exact day for you to arrive. The fate of the world lies in your hands, not only the mortal, but the immortal.”

  “Well, sir,” Seneca started, it seems this day has been coming for a very long time. But I wish I knew why now. Why so many years to end this with her? Could this not have been done so much sooner than now?”

  “Perhaps my brother, but your mother, our mother saw this and once you read, you will understand.”

  Seneca looked at the man across from him with bewilderment. “What do you mean, our mother? I am her only child as far as I know.”

  Yes, yes, my boy, you are her only child, but she is also our mother. Everyone in this building was created by her for you. Once she had drank of the savior, it was all laid out for here. She created it all so you would have everything you need to finally defeat Lilith. Once you defeat Lilith, the others cannot exist. Please take a book and read. Start with this one…” The Pope slid a book his way and Seneca took it and opened it up. It was titled, “The Book of Sameal.”

  In this book just like the mortal Bible were many more books. Seventeen in all. He was glad he was a vampire at this point, he could read them all in no time at all. There were so many thing he didn’t know, no one knew, things only the men in this building knew. Things that had been hid for centuries. His mother had told him of the Dark Council, but he was never told all the names that were on it. It seems they had their own power structure and realms they controlled. It was all quite astonishing. He knew Lilith and Michael reported to them even though they could see and knew what they did. They were the strongest of the strong, only Lilith was stronger. The only question he ever had was how did Lilith get there to meet with them in there other world and did that somehow hold the key in defeating her. Now he was starting to question why he had to be the chosen one. Were the mortals right? Was everyone and everything just a puppet in a game? It seemed to him that everyone and everything met the same demise at some point in time, one way or another.

  The Pope slid him another book simply titled, “The Books” He was somewhat surprised to see within the contents, the Books of Seneca I and II. His mother had taken great care to lay all of this out, to make sure he had everything he needed before he went into battle for what was without question, the last time. He stared at the Pope who looked at him knowingly and said, “I know my son. We have all wondered at some point if it really matters. I guess you now understand that we are not mortals, we never have been except for those moments many years ago. We were made before you and for you, for this day. These walls have sheltered us and protected us all this time. No one outside these walls know we exist except you. And you had no idea until you arrived. As hard as it is for you to understand it all, this would have been over many years ago had your mother not fallen at the hands of Lilith. But she knew that was her fate. She was not strong enough to defeat her. No one has been. There is one thing that is certain, the human writings in their Bible and the books you have read in this room al
l hold one truth. There will be the final battle between good and evil. The difference in the books? The human one leaves no doubt it will be good that overcomes evil. In yours, you know how to defeat her, but can it be done?”

  Seneca did not respond, he flipped back through page after page and read the words over and over. He did have that one question that kept lingering, it always had, “Father may I ask, and I know it is a rhetorical question, one I have asked myself many, many times. Why now? Why is this the time to end it all one way or another?”

  “My son,even though you are thousands of years old as we all are, you had to experience certain things. We all grow stronger and wiser with age. Also, the time is right because the world is advancing too fast. Technology is becoming so advanced at such a rapid pace, that the mortals are thinking of themselves as God or Gods. The dark ones are using this technology too. And now at this time, it is the right time simply because of the numbers. Everyone thinks the world is overpopulated, that all these people cannot survive much longer. Little do they know the numbers only grow because of our kind.” The Papal Vampire reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, unfolded it and laid it on the desk in front of Seneca. “This, this is what the numbers really are. The population is growing, but as you can see, it is not the human numbers that are growing, it is the dark ones. The number of dark ones are catching the number of humans that exist on this planet. Hard to believe that 40% of the population is dark ones. Then there is us,, we make only 15%. As you know, we do not kill to just kill, we kill to survive. I guess so do the dark ones, but we have seen a trend over the last 5 years in them creating more and more children of the dark. So, the numbers tell you that only 45% of the people left are mortal.”

  The light came on in Seneca’s head, “So, there will come a point that the human numbers fall below vampire numbers and eventually we all wipe ourselves out anyway. Unless, I can destroy Lilith.”

  Yes, Seneca, that is correct. She is like the queen bee to a hive. Without her, the hive dies. It is going to be an apocalyptic day all the way around if you succeed. The humans that believe in a rapture will see one. There will be a darkness over the world. And if you conquer her, there will be bodies falling to ashes wherever they may be. The dark ones will come out to see this glorious battle and to cheer on their queen, confident in her abilities to defeat you. But as you have read, you will have a trump card she has never seen coming. It will either be her downfall or we all perish.”

  Chapter 16

  “Michael’s Revenge”

  The books foretold his story and the story before his story. Things he knew and did not know were in those books. His mother had been an even more knowledgeable being than he had thought she was. It was a hell of an accomplishment for her to have had all of these writings done, created this region, this belief that the mortals have followed for centuries and to have all these secrets tucked away, stored in this place, this most holy of places according to the humans. They had no idea. Even though he had heard it said among some of his mortal friends that the Vatican was hiding something. Boy were they ever.

  He knew time was important here but there was one thing he had to know. “Can you tell me Father, how have you kept this charade going for all these years?”

  “What do you mean Seneca?”

  “Well, every so often, there has to be a new Pope and there is this show of white smoke Pope, black smoke, nope. How do you go about establishing a timeline for it and what happens to the outgoing leader?”

  “Ah, okay, it is very easy. You have already discovered many truths. There is one more little secret. Your mother was a great prophet. Everything was revealed to her on that day. She left us with this,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out another leather book. “It is all right here. Your mother saw every Pope that was to be. These is a list in this book of everyone of us. Of course we do not die in the mortal definition of the word, we just pretend we do. Being children of the light it is easy to put on this facade of death and let the humans mourn. We then gather in that room for however long we feel is needed and then we select the pre-selected one to lead. Your mother was a very special woman.”

  I know, believe me, I know.”

  He was floored by the one bit of information he found in one of the books. His mother had never told him of her lineage, anything about her family. He knew his father, Felix was a mere mortal and had assumed that his mothers family had been also before her bite at the hands of Alexandria had made her a dark one. He was correct in that thought, but what he had read took him back to his days in Rome with her. He had asked her those famous words of the Roman judge, Pontius Pilate, “what is truth?” He never thought that Pilate could be or would be her father. Maybe the mortal Bible made a little more sense to him now other than as a story to fool the dark ones. But both stories, the ones he had just read and the ones in the mortal book were intertwined in so many ways it made his head spin. She he had been a vampire before the Christ was born, before Jesus set foot on this earth. Maybe it is why her mother begged her father to not have the Jesus put to death. The pain of a mother in losing her own child to darkness was too much for her to see this man that was innocent die for nothing. But it was not for nothing, it was to be the salvation of the vampire world. A new species was born, and it was a necessity that Jesus die so that his mother could be saved.

  “It is all rather mind blowing, is it not, Seneca?”

  “Yes, yes it is.”

  “Seneca, you know what must be done, but we have something else you need to see before you go. It is very important that you give Summer that bit and let her drink of you. But we are about to help you along in your quest to conquer Lilith.”

  The door opened and the all of the Cardinals entered the room. They asked him to stand and follow them, they led him out of the room and turned left. Heading down a narrow dimly lit passageway, the Pope came to an old arched top door and looked at Seneca and said, “The biggest piece of your puzzle to winning this battle is behind this door. You are about to have help in more ways than one.” He opened the door and sitting in a chair with his back to him, he could see the outline of a man, the room was not very well lit, but he knew that outline. It couldn’t be. No way in God’s creation could it be but he knew it was. It was Michael. He all of a sudden felt sick. Was he being set up? Was this a trick, a joke? Why would a centuries old enemy be here to help him? This was Lilith’s most trusted confidant. The books had told him there would be help from a source he would not understand, but this was so far out there he could not wrap his brain around it.

  Michael spun the chair around and said, “Hello Seneca, good to see you, did not expect to see me here did you?”

  Seneca was at a loss for words. All he could say was no.

  “Seneca, I have felt the burden your mother felt. I want out of this wretched body, out of this darkness. Out of the path of Lilith. Do you believe me? I cannot take her wrath any longer. That night in the French Quarter when I let myself be known on the streets and attacked, it was my plan to piss her off so bad that I would have to leave. I need you to bite me and let me drink. I need to become a child of the light.”

  Michael, we do not know what will happen there, it has never been done.” Seneca spoke still not sure if he believed what he was hearing and what was happening.

  “You know Lilith wants your blood, but she has no desire to drink of you. She is hell bent on bearing children of the dark. She wants to have her own demon seed. She is tired of the process of making them with her bites, they are not what she wants to call her children any longer. Alexandria is the only one that has ever felt like her child. She thinks if she injects your blood into her cold womb her eggs will come back to life and then she will be done with me. She also thinks your blood injected into the lifeless ball sack of a male will do the same and she can mate and have her own little morsels of evil. It all sound great does it not? At least to her. She has not thought that because of the light in you it will chang
e her eggs into light bearing ones. But I do know one think, she has her own group of scientist waiting for your blood. She is not stupid. She wants it genetically broken down, explored. She will find out exactly the consequences it will have on her before it is done.”

  “You are telling me all of this and yet you say you want me to bite you and let you drink. Have you not thought of the consequences of my bite? What if it does not do what you think it does and you see the end of immortality?”

  “That is a chance I am willing to take. But if it works, I can help you end this.”

  Seneca looked at the other men in the room as if to silently say help me. What do I do. They all remained silent.

  “Very well Michael. But I promise you if this is a trick or ruse by you, I will kill you. You know that.”

  “Yes, I do” Michael pulled the collar of his shirt to the side and bent his neck to the right exposing the vein. “Please Seneca, I beg of you, end my dark plight one way or another.”

  Chapter 17

  “Summer Finds Salvation”

  As Seneca bit into the cold flesh of Michaels neck and started to pull the black nectar from his veins. He felt his head spinning. Michael started convulsing violently, uncontrollably. Seneca felt a blackness entering into him. He pulled away and immediately felt the light come back into his veins. He cut his wrist and stuck it to Michael’s mouth, “Drink, drink of me now.” It was impossible, he was jerking and foaming at the mouth. “Fucking shit.” Seneca yelled, “I knew this wouldn’t work.” He pulled his arm away and held it above his mouth, let the blood drip. But he kept having to cut himself because the wounds kept healing up. After what seemed like forever but in truth was only a few minutes. The dark vampire Michael stopped moving.