by Tim O'Rourke
“So it was decided that the werewolves would live far away from the humans in caves and in mountains while the vampires were to live in secure encampments on the outskirts of the towns and the villages where the humans lived. The humans took comfort in the knowledge that, although the vampires and werewolves were supernatural, they also had their weaknesses. For as you know, Calix, the vampires and werewolves fed the humans lies. They told the humans that the vampires were really no threat as they could be killed in their sleep by driving a stake through their hearts, turned to dust by being forced out into the sunlight, blister and burn when drenched with holy water. And the werewolves convinced the humans that they could be killed by a single silver bullet. But, of course, all of this was just fantasy and lies to lull the humans into a false sense of security and empowerment.
“So I suspect, just like in this world as in mine, the werewolves, the vampires, the wicce and the humans lived apart. As I said before, tensions between the different species always rumbled beneath the surface. The werewolves were unhappy that they had been banished to the mountains, and that in some way, they were being treated like animals. The vampires grew restless in the encampments at the edges of the cities and towns occupied by the humans. The humans were always on guard and suspicious of the Beautiful Immortals. As for the Wicce, well, we tried to stay out of it – not to get involved – and that’s why it was forbidden for me and my kind to get too close to the Beautiful Immortals.”
I paused to gather my thoughts, and in that moment Calix spoke. “So if mixing with the Beautiful Immortals was forbidden for the Wicce, how you did end up falling in love with one?”
Looking at him once more, I said, “As I’ve already explained, curiosity burnt deep inside of me and those flames just wouldn’t go out. So on the day I eventually strayed into one of the vampires’ encampments, I met a vampire named Theo. He was my age, and just like the name that these creatures had been labelled with, he truly was very beautiful. It wasn’t long before we became friends and then lovers. It wasn’t just the fact that he was an exceptional lover that drew me to him so deeply, but because he was a rogue, too.
“Theo wasn’t dangerous, nasty, cruel, or anything like that. He was more mischievous than anything else – we both were. We both enjoyed larking about – having some fun. But it was that fun and stupidity that caused so much trouble,” I said, lowering my head, feeling ashamed all over again as I remembered what I’d done.
“What happened?” Calix asked me. From the corner of my eye, I could see that he was staring at me again, completely absorbed by my confession. But the worst was yet to come.
Still unable to meet his gaze, I stared down at my hands, which were folded in my lap, and continued. “We had this game we would like to play. At night, me and Theo would meet at the edge of his encampment and make our way through the woods to one of the nearby roads. As the vampire encampment was someway from town, it was at times a busy route for supplies and busy enough with traffic for us to have fun with. Hiding in the hedges at the side of the road, we would wait until we saw approaching headlamps in the distance and the sound of a revving engine. Creeping from our hiding place, I would lie dead-still in the centre of the road. The driver of the approaching vehicle would see me and, believing that I was injured or unwell in some way, would stop his car or truck and get out to find out what the matter was. It was then that Theo would spring from the darkness, eyes ablaze and fangs out, so as to scare the unsuspecting driver. I would spring to my feet and we would both stand and laugh as the unsuspecting driver would run screaming back to his car in fear. Such a game sounds so cruel now, but at the time we meant no real harm to anyone. Both Theo and I were young and immature. But perhaps if we thought more about the consequences of our actions, we might have foreseen what would happen next.”
“And what did happen?” Calix asked me.
This time I did turn to look Calix and meet his stare. And in a voice so low that it was barely a whisper, I said, “Death, that’s what happened next.”
“Did Theo die?” Calix said.
I shook my head. “No, not Theo.”
“Who then?”
“Like so many nights before, I was lying flat on my back in the centre of the road,” I continued. “I could hear a car coming toward me. It slowed and stopped. There was more than one person in the car as I could hear them talking over the sound of the music they had playing from the radio. With my eyes screwed shut and holding my breath so as not to give the game away, I heard the driver’s door swing open. The sound of footsteps over gravel came ever nearer, and then just as planned, the driver leant over me to make sure that I was okay. Theo then sprang from the nearby hedgerow. His face was as white as the moon, eyes blood red, and fangs glistening. But instead of running and screaming back to his car, the driver pulled out a gun and shot Theo in the chest. Screaming, I sprang to my feet. Theo lay bleeding in the middle of the road. In the light of the headlamps, I could see thick streams of black blood gushing from a hole above his heart. With my hands to my face and screaming, Theo suddenly sprang into the air, driving his claws into the driver’s throat. Through my fingers, I watched blood jet from the driver’s neck as he dropped to the ground. Thrashing his arms from side to side, the dying man lay gargling and choking on his own blood. Whoever else was in the car had seen what had happened and the vehicle suddenly shot forward.
“Theo spun up into the air, cartwheeling over and over. The car came to a juddering halt. I stood weeping and terrified in the glare of the headlamps. Springing once more to his feet, Theo dragged the other occupants from the vehicle and out into the night. I watched in horror and fear as Theo slaughtered each and every one of them with his jagged claws and pointed teeth. I begged him over and over to stop but he wouldn’t or couldn’t – I couldn’t be sure. He seemed to be enraged and I’d never seen him like that before. In the distance, I could hear the sound of police sirens approaching. Flashing emergency lights lit up the night sky in strobes of blue and red as they raced toward the scene. Terrified that I might get caught, I staggered backwards and away into a nearby ditch that ran alongside the road. From here, I watched as the police officers, on seeing the slaughter that had taken place, chase Theo back into the woods. I heard the sound of gunfire over the deafening whoop-whoop-whoop of the police vehicles that had been left abandoned on the road.
“Terrified and unable to think straight, I staggered from my hiding place and into a nearby field. Traumatised by what I’d just witnessed, my legs gave way beneath me and I fell to the ground, striking my head against a concealed rock. It was just before dawn when I woke, muddy and cold in the field. I dared to look back at the road once more. In the distance, I could still see the glimmering flicker of the emergency lights attached to the vehicles that had flooded the scene. Unseen by any of the emergency workers, I crept away and back toward home. Such a thing was impossible to keep from my parents. They had waited up all night for my return, fearful that some disaster had befallen me. But even they could not have imagined what truly had taken place.
“Breaking down in my father’s arms, I confessed all to him. Fearing what might happen if it was ever discovered that I – one of the Wicce – had been involved with a vampire who had killed humans, my parents hid me away. They studied the news channels and newspapers for hours looking for any whisper or clue about the deaths that had occurred out on the road that night. It was soon reported that the vampire who had been responsible for the murders had been shot dead by the police as he’d fled into the woods and away from the scene of his crimes.
“My heart was broken on discovering the news. And however hard my parents tried to reason with me that the deaths of the humans was not my fault, I knew that was not true. My parents wanted to believe that I’d in some way been ensnared by Theo, brainwashed by him, but I knew that was not the case. I had been a willing participant in the relationship that I had forged with Theo. Theo’s death was a tragedy to me, as was the death of those humans.
The events of that night haunted my dreams and still do today. The murder of those humans did little to build trust between the vampires and humans, and once more the Wicce tried to heal the fragile relationships between them.
“My parents kept my secret, although I suspect not to protect me, but themselves. As I’ve already explained, my parents were high up on the Wicce council and if the Elders had found out that their daughter had been involved in the events which had nearly broken the peace between the humans and the vampires, they, like me, would have been banished. So to protect themselves, they sent me away, telling me that I should put the events of that night behind me and never turn my mind to them again. Once more my parents wanted me to take up a noble and honest profession and it was then that they decided I should become a teacher. Grateful to them for protecting me and keeping my secret, I felt I couldn’t dishonour them again, so I agreed to become a teacher like they had suggested and I was sent away to do so. I took up a post in a small school some miles away from my home. It was here that I taught young Wicce children how to cast magic and conjure up spells.
“For a time, my life seemed to settle down and take on some sense of normality. As my mother and father told me to, I tried to push away thoughts and memories of what had happened between me and Theo out on the road that night. But what little peace I’d started to feel in my life was shattered once more.”
“How?” Calix asked me, dragging me out of my memories.
“Desire – that need for excitement and devilment in my life never really fell quiet,” I said, looking away from Calix and out across the field. “I’d been living my new life for less than a year when I met Pariac.”
“And who was Pariac?” Calix said. “Was he a vampire, too?”
“No Calix, he was a werewolf, just like you,” I whispered.
Chapter Nine
“So there’s hope for me then?” Calix smirked.
I looked somewhat startled and said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, if you’ve mixed with a werewolf before, then perhaps…” he started.
Before he’d had a chance to finish, I jumped to my feet. “I knew I should never have told you… I knew I should never have opened up to you… told you my secrets. Do you think this is some kind of joke?”
“Who’s laughing?” Calix said, standing up beneath the tree. Seeing that he’d got my back up again, Calix lost his grin and said, “Look, I’m sorry, Julia, it’s just that…”
“Just what?” I snapped at him.
“You’ve surprised me, that’s all,” Calix said as if trying to find the right words to explain himself. “Up until now, you’ve seemed so… you know… a right miss goody-two-shoes… like your shit doesn’t stink just like everybody else’s does. You’ve shocked me.”
“Shocked you, how? Good or bad?” I asked him.
“I don’t really know,” Calix said, scratching his head. “One thing’s for sure, though, you’re not so different from the rest of us.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That you’ve got feelings,” Calix said. “That you fall in love, that you make mistakes, and that you get scared just like the rest of us. That isn’t such a bad thing.”
“No?”
“It means you’re not perfect,” Calix said, coming toward me beneath the tree. “Julia, you can come across as a bit of an ice queen at times, like you’re better than us somehow. I think that’s the reason why Rea gives you such a hard time.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Because sometimes you come across as if you think you’re better than us – like we’re these savages that just wanna kill each other and know nothing more than war,” Calix said, sounding a little exasperated. “But you’re no better and you’re no worse than us. All of us are just trying to make our way through this mess in the best way that we know how. We don’t always get it right, but from what you’ve told me, neither do you. But that doesn’t mean you have to feel bad about it, you just have to accept it and make the best of a bad situation. You’re not the only one who is sick of this war – this constant fighting – the struggle that we have each day just to stay alive.”
“And that’s why it’s so important for me to find a truce,” I said. “I’m tired of fighting, too. I will try and make amends for what happened between me and Theo – between me and Pariac.”
“So what did happen between you and this werewolf?” Calix asked.
The first drops of rain began to spatter against the leaves overhead. Some of them broke through the canopy of leaves and splashed my face.
“Let’s go back inside,” I said, nodding back in the direction of the brick house. Without saying another word, I headed in the direction of the outhouse, Calix following close behind.
Once inside, I sat on the dusty floor, my back resting against the wall. Calix sat nearby, his legs crossed in front of him. Over the sound of rain drumming against the rickety roof above our heads, I said, “There were mountains near to the town where I’d taken up the teaching post. At night, I would often sit in the window of my small house and look toward those mountains and wonder what the creatures were like who lived on them.”
“The werewolves you mean?” Calix cut in.
“Yes, the werewolves,” I said with a brisk nod of my head. “And with the unquenchable desire that I had for the more exciting and thrilling side of life, on my next day off from teaching, I made myself a packed lunch and decided to picnic on the mountainside. I went several times before I met a Lycanthrope who called himself Pariac. And as quickly as I’d fallen in love with Theo, I soon developed feelings for Pariac and he for me. But I was more cautious this time about who I chose as my lover, despite the feelings I had for him. But I soon learnt that this Beautiful Immortal, and beautiful he was, didn’t have the same roguish qualities that Theo had had. Although a passionate lover, Pariac was gentle and kind and had no wish to hurt anyone. For a time, I felt happier than I ever had. Of course, I kept my relationship with Pariac secret. On my days off, I would head up into the mountains where Pariac and I could be alone. On very rare occasions and under the cover of darkness, Pariac would venture into town and come to my home.
“One night as it became dusk outside, there was a knocking at my door. Startled that Pariac had come to my home when it was not yet full dark, I rushed to the front door to usher him inside before he was seen by any of the townsfolk. But to my utter bewilderment and amazement, it wasn’t Pariac at my front door, but Theo.
“Throwing my hands to my face, I gasped as Theo grinned at me and said, ‘Surprised to see me, Julia?’.”
“I was more than surprised to see Theo standing at my door. I was horrified and dumbstruck. Brushing past me, he made his way into my home. I was quick to shut the door behind him just in case he was seen. I knew that he couldn’t stay as Pariac was due at any moment and I’d never told him about the love I had once shared with a vampire. I begged Theo to go and return another time so that we could talk then. But he refused to do so. He seemed agitated – angry with me. He accused me of running out on him on the road all those years ago and that I’d left him for dead. I tried telling him that I had been scared that night. I told him that I believed he was dead. Theo angrily explained that the police shot him, then buried him in the woods. But just as he was beautiful, he was very much immortal too, and although the police’s bullets has killed him – death had been nothing more than sleep to him – from which he had now woken from.
“Theo explained that since waking from the dead, he had gone in search of me – eventually tracking me down to my new home. And it was during this time that he realised I’d taken another lover and laid with another man. But this man hadn’t been a vampire like him but a werewolf. Theo seemed enraged by this and demanded that I end my relationship with Pariac. He said that the love we had once shared was eternal – immortal – just like him. And as I tried to reason with Theo – calm his anger – I saw him as I did that night out on the road –
the night he had attacked those humans – opening up their throats and disembowelling them with his claws.
“I knew then that I’d made a mistake and that I should never have loved a man like Theo. I knew that it was Pariac I was truly in love with and it was the love that I had for him that was immortal and not any feelings that I might have once had for Theo. Once more, I begged Theo to leave but he refused, stating that he was going to confront the werewolf I’d fallen in love with. Knowing that Pariac was due to arrive at my home at any moment, I became ever more fearful with each passing second. Theo grabbed me – shook me violently – insisting that I denounced the love that I had for the werewolf. I feared Theo and his anger. I began to feel wispy tendrils of magic swirl up from the pit of my stomach, entwine themselves about my arms, hands, and fingertips. But those vines of magic didn’t tingle, but burnt red hot.