by Anastasia,P.
“We all face this fear—we strong ones,” she said as she dragged me to the safety of a nearby rocky alcove. “We all relive the pain of the lives we took and the life we left behind,” she continued, pushing me to the ground.
“You have felt this way before? I don’t believe it!” I knocked her hands from my shoulders and shuffled farther from her, kicking a plume of sand into the air with my feet. “You’ve never felt pain. You’ve never grieved for anything.” My back pressed into the solid rock wall behind me.
“You know nothing of my past,” she snapped, raising her claws and readying to lash them across my face. She hesitated. “You know nothing…” she lowered her voice, and then her hand to her side.
She wiped a drop of spit from her chin and looked away from me.
“I, too, have felt the fear that haunts you now—the fear of those you have lost in life and those whose lives you have taken.”
“Then why do you not regard it?” I hissed, my body filled with sudden new strength.
“Because it will do you no good, Matthaya!”
“You lie!”
Ve’tani’s pupils grew huge; black swallowed the amber of her irises.
“It will do you no good,” she repeated. “You cannot deny your needs.”
“But I can resist them.”
“Hah! I’d dare you to try, but you would fail.” She crossed her arms. “I have lived a thousand years longer than you. I have seen others fail and die. You, Matthaya, are more powerful than any of them.” Her eyes traced the edge of my wing that poked out from the blanket draping across my hunched shoulders. “You are part of a new bloodline and one of the strongest, Matthaya. I will not let you die so easily. Fight it if you will, but our bloodlust is undeniable.” She stared down at me. “You should be proud of yourself. In my thousand years on this earth, I have not allowed another the strength that you have.” She scoffed lightly and smirked a half smile. “I only wish I had waited a few more years to take you.”
“I would not have let you touch me, then.”
Ve’tani laughed again. “Do you think you could have stopped me? You, a pitifully weak young boy, would not have been a match for my fury. And as for your little female—”
“I wouldn’t have let you near her.”
“She took her own life, Matthaya! Now, being what you are, you will never desire another to take her place.”
“Damn you, Ve’tani!” I tossed the sheet from my wings and leapt at her. She dodged me, easily, and then shook her head in disbelief.
“Oh, I thought I had trained you better," she said, “but you have much to learn. Perhaps you need some space. I will find you again someday and we will continue this confrontation.” She pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and chuckled. I followed her a few steps closer to the entrance of the cavern until she dashed out toward the sunlit beach.
“Ve’tani!” I lunged for her, but stopped as the sun’s rays stung my hands. There was no use chasing her. In the past, she had left me for days at a time and I had never been able to find a trace of her. She was invisible when she chose to be.
But we were connected always, and if I stopped looking, she would find me… in time. My ability to sense her presence grew sharper over the years, however, and some days I wanted nothing more than to escape her ever-watchful mind.
As I sat back in my chair, I realized that it was for this very reason that I feared making Kathera my own. If she were an incarnation of Kathryn, then we were fatally connected to one another throughout the threads of time. Making her like me would stain her innocent hands with blood.
Already, a day had passed. The hunger grew inside me as I tired of the wait. The taste of Kathera’s sweetness lingered on my lips and resurrected the desire for more. I had to sleep it off or it would only grow stronger.
It would take only another day, perhaps… I hoped.
Any longer of a wait would drive me to insanity.
The curse may have been alive inside her, but there was no denying the truth—she was dead. She was cold and still. The sound of her heartbeat no longer dizzied my senses, but the stillness of her body made my soul ache.
And then, there was all the blood. The scent was fading, but she was still covered in it. Though the bite mark had healed, her delicate white-lace top was sullied with rusty stains and her fair neck retained crimson traces of my sin.
All I wanted was for her to come back to me—to open her eyes and gaze into mine once more.
To speak.
To touch.
I wanted to know she was okay—that she would forgive me for it all.
I closed my eyes and willed myself to let go.
I had to sleep.
I had to make the cravings pass.
THE DARKNESS STIRRED AND A bolt of color invaded my thoughts.
Kathera!?
I could sense her mind stumbling back into consciousness even as she remained sleeping. It was faint, but it was there—the light sparks of memory and instinct awakening in her brain.
Another look at her body made me grimace.
Crimson painted her skin.
I slipped my hands beneath her and scooped her up into my arms. With only the moon to join me, I carried Kathera out into the night.
I would not let her awaken to so much blood.
I waded into the water until I was waist deep in the lake and then lowered her entire body barely an inch below the surface, letting a shallow ripple sweep over her face. Her mind was growing brighter and our link stronger with each passing minute. Like a pulse, her thoughts flashed in and out.
Reddish clouds drifted from her hair as darkened strands danced beneath the surface of the lake, and the stains in her shirt lightened, revealing a subtle hint of her skin tone beneath. I wiped a splash of blood from her throat and her lips parted.
Her eyes sprung open.
Fingernails pierced the flesh of my arms and her legs flailed and kicked violently against the water as I pulled her up. She thrust me away from her and the brilliant azure glow of her gaze left me stunned in a moment of regret.
Kathera’s fangs flashed beneath the moonlight; watery reflections bouncing at her from all angles left her frenzied. She hissed and bared her teeth at me with a snarl.
“Kathera!” I called out to her as she waded frantically toward the shore and trudged out of the lake to get away from me.
The hinge claws at my shoulders unclipped and my wings flung open with a powerful flap. I used them to propel out of the pond and to the shore, but she was running on full adrenaline, and at break-neck speed. I was losing sight of her fast.
Her bare feet dug into the ground, pushing her body ahead of me as each step kicked dirt and grass up into the air. My wings made me swift, but there was no way I could catch up with her even with their help. Kathera was lean and agile and the curse had made her fast.
“Kathera!” Again, I called out, but this time, only to darkness. I’d lost sight of her already, even as my mind continued to throb with her crazed hunger. She was out of control and on the hunt. There was nothing I could do to stop her. I wanted to go after her, but something told me she wouldn’t be in the mood for reasoning.
My coat had nearly been lost in the scuffle of her escape. I lifted it from the shore and gave it a hard shake to loosen the sandy remnants from the fabric, sweeping a hand down the back a few times to smooth the wrinkles. My wings retracted and folded into themselves and back into place on my back, snapping their top claws together into the indention between my shoulder blades. I tossed the jacket over my back, shrugged my arms through the sleeves, and then buttoned the center button.
I headed back toward the city streets. As I walked, I could feel her moving through the night. The flashes of her consciousness were fragmented and inconsistent. She was confused and driven by desire. She was near and far at the same time—running, trying to get away from something or someone—probably me.
I had
stopped killing years ago, but the transition had been difficult for a while. Surely I could train her to do the same, but at this point, she was rabid with the infection and I had no way of knowing how to get through to her.
All she wanted to do was kill. I knew the feeling well and it was an impossible temptation to ignore. Humans are so easy to find.
Flashes of blinding white light skittered through my brain and I cringed, wrapping my fingers around my head and growling in response to the sudden intrusion. A piercing scream filled the night air and I was quick to head in the direction of it, following the echo through the alleyways and straight to its source.
I found Kathera.
My arrival drew her attention away from the young girl within her grasp and her eyes flickered with contempt. I wasn’t there to steal her prey, nor to pick a fight with her, but our bond was still too new for her to sense that.
Ve’tani had accepted and even praised me when I had started killing, and the blood from Kathera’s victim had already begun bewitching my taste buds. My instincts were churning to get a piece for myself and my will was being tested.
The girl was no more than fifteen—still a child. I should have guessed that Kathera’s first would have been an adolescent. The purity of their blood is apparent to our heightened senses. The younger you are, the cleaner your blood. Ve’tani had trained me well in the art of blood tapping and Kathera was following in our footsteps against my will.
It was screwing with my head—all of the blood. How was I supposed to control her when I couldn’t even control my own wretched desires?
Kathera ignored me long enough to dig her fangs into the girl’s throat and put an end to her cries for help. The struggle was brief. Her lips dripping with the young one’s life, Kathera turned to me again and froze.
“Come…”
It was as if her eyes were speaking the words her mouth did not.
All of the blood… She wanted to share it with me.
My instincts begged me to take part in her madness.
I couldn’t.
My silence made her furious and she clenched her teeth and hissed as I tried to approach.
“Stay away from me,” she growled, finally speaking in words again.
“Kathera!” I reached out to her.
Her head cocked to the side and her eyes narrowed.
“I am not Kathera,” she replied with a scoff. Her voice was thickly accented old Irish. She stood up from the corpse and straightened herself. “Stop following me.”
That voice…
It was Kathryn.
The teenager’s body was limp on the ground and Kathera nudged a stray arm with her foot so she could walk past.
“You can have what’s left, if you wish,” she snarled.
I was at an utter loss for words. I stretched my fingers toward her and stumbled over myself trying to form a sentence.
“Ka-Kathryn?”
It was all I could manage.
She had already turned her back on me, but she stopped in her tracks and I noticed her fingers twitch.
“If you cannot gain the courage to join me as what you are, then do not follow.” Her voice resonated with unmistakable hatred.
“You have to stop. Kathryn, please!” I set off into a fast walk to get to her, but she noticed my movement and growled furiously.
“I am not yours to command!” She turned her head just enough to shoot me another sinister glance of piercing blue.
“Do you not remember me?” I said, raising my voice enough to cover the distance between us.
This time, she turned completely to face me.
Her lips were stained with blood and her shirt, again, soaked with fresh patches of deep red.
“I remember you,” she said. Her tone was spiteful. “And I remember very well what a coward you are. You are weakened by your need for human blood and yet you avoid it. You are covered with the stench of the animals whose blood you choose in its place.” Kathera’s eyes narrowed again and she lowered her head slightly in confrontation. “Do you enjoy the struggle? Is it worth it, Matthaya? I can feel you inside my head—your thoughts pressing me to resist this hunger.” She wiped the back of her hand across her lips and then rubbed it clean on her jeans. “I will not. Why not give in to it and join me in embracing the rage you are truly capable of?”
I couldn’t gather the sense to reply.
For a moment, I regretted the decision I had made to become her Sire, but there was no way to change the past. I didn’t know what to say. She wouldn’t even listen to me. How could I possibly save her from the darkness that was smothering her mortal soul?
I cleared my throat and tried to fight the dark imagery Kathera was projecting into my mind. She was mad with horrible, blood-drenched visions of death and power and I had to shake them before I, too, fell victim to the hunger again.
Kathera turned her back to me once more. I’d hardly uttered another word before her hand rose flatly against the wind in a gesture of disregard.
“Save your breath for the pigs you worship,” she said.
And before I could say anything else, she vanished into the darkness.
It amazed me how quickly she could move. I was nimble with my wings, but her speed on foot surpassed mine. I probably could have caught up with her had I really tried, but there was no use.
She needed help.
I needed help.
Was Kathera trapped inside her own mind? How could my innocent Kathryn have been possessed by the darkness so quickly?
Ve’tani could answer these questions for me, but I didn’t even know where to begin to find her.
Would she even help me?
To think that Ve’tani and I had been linked for hundreds of years and now, I couldn’t detect the slightest sense of her presence. It was odd, awkward, and unnerving, now that Kathera’s darkness swirled within me. I had hated Ve’tani for so long, but not even she had tainted my mind with such fervent impulses.
I had done horrible things in my first several years of the curse, but I had hoped Kathera would be different—that maybe she could have controlled it if I had willed her to.
I wandered alone in the night for several hours, accompanied only by the light of the moon and the horrible guilt that plagued me. I cringed at the strange rushes of color and sound as they pierced my mind, brought on periodically by splashes of blood being drawn by Kathera’s hands.
She had killed another…
My lip quivered with the urge to call out for help.
I had to try.
“Ve’tani!”
My voice echoed through the shadows.
I called out again.
Silence.
Having had no reason to stay, she was probably long gone by now in search of a new companion who could satisfy her discerning tastes.
The soles of my shoes clicked against the sidewalk as I continued to walk through a dimly lit alleyway. Each victim filled my mouth with tastes I had not experienced in ages. I wanted to escape them, but there was no way to shut her out.
“Having second thoughts?” A scratchy voice came from above and I turned toward it.
I looked up toward the roof of a nearby garage and found Ve’tani perched near the edge, the hem of her robe dangling down from the gutter as she bent over to meet my gaze.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Matthaya.” Ve’tani leapt off the roof and landed gracefully on the ground in front of me with a muted thump.
I was shocked she hadn’t left yet, and even more surprised that she had responded to my pleas. I was almost—God forbid I say it—relieved to see her.
Almost.
“You came?”
She nodded cockily and grinned. “I came merely to observe,” she replied with a nonchalant shrug. “It seems your little girlfriend is putting quite a dent in the population around here.”
“How do I stop her?”
Ve’tani laughed.
As
cold as ever.
“There is nothing you can do to bring her around,” she said.
“What? There has to be a way.” I clenched a fist. “Do not lie to me, Ve’tani.”
She crossed her arms. “You have to let her come back of her own accord. She has to find herself.” Her head tipped to the side and she scowled at me. “And even if I could help… you betrayed me.”
“You made me your slave!” I growled. “You stole me away from the life I had; you never asked me if I wanted this. If anyone was betrayed, it was her! Now she’s trapped!”
“You’re lucky you are a Sire,” she sneered, glaring at me with her yellow-gold eyes. “Else, she would be dead right now! You should be thanking me.”
“Damn you, Ve’tani!” I moved closer to her. “I’d kill you if—”
“If what, Matthaya?” Ve’tani hissed, her teeth bared, her lips saturated by a splash of bloody saliva. She licked her lower lip and then growled beneath her breath. “If you weren’t so weak, Matthaya? If you weren’t so… afraid? Go ahead and try!” she mocked, curling her fingers toward herself as her lips stretched into an excited grin. “You’ve forgotten something, Matthaya: I made you what you are.”
“And you’ll pay for it.” My fists tightened.
“I gave you your rage.” She smirked. “I gave you your fire. You would be nothing without the power I gave you!”
“That’s a lie, Ve’tani! This power means nothing to me. You ruined my life. You destroyed what I could have been.”
“Destroyed? Harsh words." She let out an uncalled-for cackle and pointed matter-of-factly at me. “I saved you from the tiny speck of a worthless existence you would have had without me.”
The edges of my folded wings scratched nervously at my shoulder blades and tingled with apprehension as I plotted my next move. With our connection finally severed, I wanted to end her right then and there.
“You never had a chance with that little Irish girl, anyway,” she added.
“Don’t you dare bring Kathryn into this!” I pulled off my coat and threw it to the ground, allowing my wings to break open unhindered. The joints snapping into place invigorated me, emphasizing my physical advantage over her.