“Good luck,” Tiberius said. “Be careful.”
Zechariah nodded and pushed the Cart to its immediate full speed. The wake would ruffle Tiberius on the way out, but he was in a hurry to make sure David did not do anything foolish.
As he raced across the plains as fast as his Cart could carry him, he thought about how much of a head start David would have on him, and what David would do with the time he had. David had to know they would find out, and that they would come after him. On a Chaser, David would have made Hauginstown in less than an hour, but whom would he see and where would they go?
He had to place that Chaser somewhere out of sight, and it had to be close enough to walk to Hauginstown. His mind raced with everywhere that he knew and everywhere that David had told him about where he could leave the Chaser unnoticed and provide a place he could talk with someone out of the ears of anyone else in town.
He prayed that David would be smart enough to stay out of sight, but at the same time, this was assuming the best of David in that he only returned to say goodbye and then leave. If that is all that happens, David’s actions would be more forgivable.
However, he remembered David’s continual talk about a girl he loved, and if he returned to see her, Zechariah feared where such a discussion would lead. People in love do things that a rational thinking person would not consider. Add to that the factor of never seeing each other ever again and Zechariah was easily able to put together a scenario that would not end well. He hoped for the best again in that David would leave after a few words, but God help him if anything else happens.
* * * * * * * * * *
Vladimir was not resting. His eyes were closed, but he listened intently to the conversations around him. Most were congratulatory regarding the battle where the enemy had all but surrendered. Some were concern over his injuries, which were superficial. The bruises looked much worse than they felt.
The most interesting to begin with was between Tiberius and Zechariah. It began with their discussion over how injured Vladimir really was. He let that go as it was in their nature to be suspicious of everything; it was actually one of their greater strengths. Throughout the years, the intuitive suspicions of Tiberius and especially Zechariah had uncovered all manner of potential problems for the Fempiror. That intuitiveness was one of the greatest losses for the council when it came to Zechariah’s discharge, but it was necessary for the future.
Then Ulrich delivered the news that David, Zechariah’s new Fempiror, had left the caves. Vladimir saw this coming from the moment he met David. The boy was ripe with unrest, and it was only a matter of time before he found a few minutes alone to swipe a Levi-Cart and return home. And of all things, the boy took a Chaser. He was smart in that regard, anyway, though he doubtless had no idea what he was getting himself into.
Zechariah performed true to his fashion when he left in a hurry to follow David to Hauginstown. That was remarkably lucky for Vladimir, who had a mission of his own outside of the Rastem’s goal to determine the truth of the Urufdiam Plateau. Zechariah’s departure gave him what he needed.
He listened to the Levi-Cart chamber for Tiberius to close the door and walk back into the main cave. Tiberius stood for a long moment at the door before he finally decided to close it. Vladimir turned over and watched the room. Tiberius walked to Yori and Kaltesh to let them know what transpired with Zechariah. They turned and walked away.
Vladimir stood up and walked to a nearby table that held his tunic, coat, and sword. He dressed quickly, keeping half an eye on the cave in case the other three Rastem returned.
“Where are you going?” Ghasta asked, coming up behind him.
“I’m feeling much better. Thank you,” Vladimir said without turning to him. Vladimir lashed his sword, which was the same design as Zechariah’s, to his back and walked out of the small area. Looking across the crowd, he made his way to the Levi-Cart chamber. He glanced back to the medics’ cave, and Ghasta was already moving on to other duties, not paying attention to him. He smiled and entered the chamber.
His Levi-Cart rested on its landing gear. It was newer and faster than Zechariah’s, so the worst he would have to deal with would be Zechariah to see him passing in the night, but now, Zechariah was not his first goal. He wanted to reach Hauginstown to see if David had really created any problems.
He opened the door to the outside, ran to his Cart, started it, and blasted out the door. It did not matter to him that the door was standing open. Someone would see it, and maybe they would investigate and find another Levi-Cart gone, but in the end, they could do nothing. They would await the return of whoever returned from Hauginstown.
Shortly before reaching Hauginstown, he saw Zechariah veering towards the mound he called his home on the distant western Hauginstown outskirts. Vladimir steered well around Zechariah to approach the town proper from the north. There, he would find out what he needed to know.
* * * * * * * * * *
Beth stared at the floor of the old mill. Her hands were folded on her lap. Her expression was frozen in an unreadable look. David looked at her and wondered what she was thinking about all this.
He had just finished explaining everything to her that had happened since he left her on her doorstep four nights ago. He had covered every detail he could remember from Zechariah’s nearby house to the Levi-Carts to the council meeting to the Urufdiam Plateau. He was beginning to wonder if he had not, perhaps, explained too much at once. He also considered how much time that explanation had cost him. Was the battle over yet? Was Zechariah on his way?
Beth had paid attention to him through the whole story. He was uncertain if she believed him or not because she only looked at him for the first part of the story, her expression only faltering at a few points of things, such as the concept of carts that not only moved without horses but also floated off the ground. He had considered whether he should take her down to the cave to see the Chaser, but since she had not moved since he stopped speaking, it was probably a bad idea.
He had had four days to let all of this sink in, but he had condensed it for her into barely thirty minutes. He figured she probably had trouble believing him, but he had told her he could prove it if she had any doubts. She had only shaken her head at that.
He glanced back at her, and she was looking at him again, her expression still blank. Behind her eyes there appeared to be a combination of anger and sadness, but he could not pick out which was stronger.
“So that night we found Ben, you got changed into a,” Beth said, trailing off, wanting the word he had used to describe himself.
“Fempiror,” David answered.
Beth nodded slightly, staring at the floor again. She opened her mouth to speak again, but apparently, her words were failing her.
“And,” she began, “there is no way to reverse it?”
David looked at her, fighting back the emotion that was trying to bring itself forward. He shook his head. She nodded and stared back at the floor. He knelt at her feet to where she could see him.
“But I don’t want to leave you,” he said looking into her eyes that had shifted to his.
“And I don’t want to lose you… again… but,” she started, but her voice broke on the last word, and she was unable to continue. He was able to finish this sentence for her. It was what he wanted least from this conversation, but was the entire point he had come for.
“…but there isn’t a choice,” he said. “Abraham proved that to me when he tried to stop me from seeing you.”
“I know,” she said, wiping a tear away. “I don’t want to accept it.”
“I don’t want to either,” he said, “but we must.” She was looking away from him again. He touched her face, turning her eyes back to his. “I just wanted to say goodbye.”
Beth stood up in front of him. He stood before her, and she looked into his eyes again. “I don't want to say good-bye,” she said.
“But we cannot be together,” David said, forcing his voice to st
ay level as he spoke. She touched his face gently, running her warm fingers down his cold cheek. It pained him to never feel that touch again.
“Then let me remember you as my husband,” she said. “Let us have the wedding night we never will.”
He looked at her without a twinge of surprise or fear. He knew she had given herself to him in heart and mind already, and it was only in body that they had never been together. Under any other circumstances, his upbringing would never have considered it, but this would be that last time he would ever see her, and the idea of remembering her in every way possible had not occurred to him. Now, it seemed perfect and even logical.
He took her in his arms, carefully holding her close –- the heat of her body so close to his melted through him.
“Me and you, right?” he said.
“For all eternity.”
“No matter what.”
Her warm lips pressed against his, and nothing else in the world existed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Choices
Abraham shook off the fog that clouded his mind. He tried to remember what had happened, and with a shock, he remembered David. But it was not David anymore. David was dead. David had said he was changed, but changed into what? He needed to see Beth. He needed to make sure she was all right.
Abraham pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, his head still swimming from what David had done to him. He heard footfalls approaching from the west. He turned to look, lost his balance, and ended up sitting on the grass staring at a tall, clean cut old man dressed in black. Abraham squinted to make out his moonlight-shadowed form.
“Who are you?” Abraham asked. The man knelt down.
“My name is Vladimir, and I’m a friend,” Vladimir said. “What happened to you?”
Abraham shook his head. “I don’t know if you’d believe me,” he said. “I don’t even know if I believe me.” David’s story still ran through his head about being something else. And what was that word he used? Vladimir put his hand on Abraham’s shoulder in comfort. Abraham looked up into his sharp, piercing eyes – eyes that seemed to hold a lot of wisdom behind them. Abraham sighed and decided he would be no worse off if this stranger thought he had lost his mind.
“We buried my friend, David, three days ago,” Abraham said, “but tonight I saw him.” He looked at the stranger’s face. Vladimir was nodding thoughtfully. Abraham continued, “He was going to see Beth – that’s the girl he loved – and I didn’t think that was a good idea. But he attacked me and left me here. I don’t think he’s the same. He said he had changed, and he was cold to the touch.”
“Did he say what he was called?” Vladimir asked. Abraham thought very hard about this. He knew the word, but he was unable to place it. It sounded familiar, though. It sounded like…
“It sounded like vampire,” Abraham said.
Vladimir’s eyes raised in surprise. He leaned forward. “You’re certain of this?” Vladimir asked.
Abraham shrugged. “Not fully,” he admitted. “I know that wasn’t it exactly, but it sounded that way.”
“No, that’s enough,” Vladimir said standing. Abraham climbed to his feet. “Did he seem stronger to you?” Vladimir asked.
Abraham nodded. “He threw me against the statue,” he said.
Vladimir gave a “hm” and tapped his mouth with one finger, thinking. Abraham watched and wondered what was going through Vladimir’s head. He turned back to Abraham.
“There is only one explanation, and it is what I feared. It is why I came. Have there been unexplained deaths here?” Vladimir asked.
Abraham nodded.
Vladimir nodded as well. “Then here is your answer,” Vladimir said. “Your David has been changed into a nosferatu, the walking dead. His corpse lay in the ground for three days, and he rose again to seek among the living for blood to satisfy his insatiable thirst. He is no longer your friend, and the girl is probably gone. If she’s lucky, she’s already dead.”
Abraham stared at the stranger. Beth is dead? David killed her? But it was not David anymore, was it? It was something inhuman. The stories were true. David was no longer normal.
“Wait a minute,” Abraham said. “David was burned to death, like the other man in town who died. We buried…” Abraham swallowed hard as he recalled the description of what they had found east of town that morning. “…his charred remains. How is he whole again?”
“Who can know how the dead work? Who can know how he can be unrecognizable one day and then whole the next? But you did bury him right?”
Abraham nodded.
“And you knew it was him tonight, right?” Vladimir continued.
Abraham nodded again.
“Then what is there left to ask?”
Abraham did not know what to believe. What this Vladimir said made no rational sense, but then, what David said made no sense either, and what he knew to be true outside of these two failed to work out with it as well. He saw no other choice but to find out where this led, and he would assess the truth for himself when he could.
“What do we do?” Abraham asked. Vladimir gave him a grim look.
* * * * * * * * * *
Abraham had moved quickly to awaken the town and gather them all together. Vladimir told him that if they could face the creature in a vast number, then they had a chance of defeating him. He cautioned Abraham, though, that they had to move quickly or the creature would move on past the town and terrorize other places, and they could not allow that.
Abraham had trouble convincing some of the people to come, but once the crowd started gathering, he had the support he needed to move against David. Vladimir had also asked him where David might have taken Beth since the mind does retain some memory of safe places, especially if he were seducing her. Abraham had explained the old mill to him since David had let slip once that he and Beth had gone there before, and Vladimir agreed that it made sense as a location.
The town gathered quickly with torches to light the way. Since the creature feared light, according to Vladimir, the torches would help protect them. When Abraham returned to the town square, Vladimir stood calmly within a wide circle of townspeople, waiting for him.
Vladimir looked at him when he returned to Vladimir’s side, and then glanced to the standing crowd, who all waited for them to speak.
“Well?” Vladimir said to Abraham. “You should introduce me before I speak. It helps to set them at ease if one of their own starts.”
Abraham nodded. He looked at the frightened and curious eyes of the town. “Um, everyone,” he began nervously, “this is Vladimir. He’s a hunter of the type of creature that has terrorized our town and killed our people. He’s here to help.” He looked at Vladimir, who nodded.
“It was as soon as I heard the horrific stories of this town,” Vladimir said dramatically, “that I came as fast as I could because I knew the cause.” The town was already muttering amongst themselves. Some of them were clearly skeptical.
“He’s telling the truth,” Abraham said. “Only tonight, I saw David Taylor.” He glanced at the Taylors, who watched the assembly intently. Their faces were inscrutable. Did they believe him? Did they hope for David to be back? Would they help or hinder the deed Abraham and the rest of the town needed to do?
“He was alive and claimed to be something else. He was going after Beth.” Abraham looked at Beth’s parents. Patrick Carpenter held his wife, and they both looked frightened. “And she’s gone, isn’t she, Mr. Carpenter?”
Patrick nodded. His wife buried her face in his shirt, sobbing.
“This person is not your David,” Vladimir declared. “Not the one you remember. He is now a possessed follower of Satan, bound to do his will. His soul cannot be saved. Tell us, Abraham Barber, where would they be?”
“There’s only one place they would be,” Abraham declared. “It was their secret place in life, and now I believe he would take her there again: the old mill.”
“My friends,” Vladimir called
out, “do you want to free yourselves from this menace?”
The people nodded all around. He was getting to them. Abraham was caught in the moment.
“He’s going to take Beth away from us! Do you want that?” Abraham shouted.
Shouts of “No!” emanated from the mob gathered around them.
“Follow me then!” Vladimir declared. “I will rid your town of this pestilence forever!”
They had done it. The townspeople cheered and were ready to do whatever it took. They knew as well as he did what had happened to David, and that his presence was impossible unless it was something beyond the ordinary. Abraham led Vladimir and the rest of the town out south towards the mill.
Before they got too far away, Abraham glanced back. The Taylors had not moved. Jonathan held his wife, and their other two sons watched the crowd solemnly as they marched away. He did not think they would come. When they saw David, they would not be able to act against him. He was too real. He looked too normal. But Abraham would be able to act. David was different, and he had Beth. That was enough.
* * * * * * * * * *
David was euphoric. He and Beth stood in the mill, their lips locked in a long kiss before they had to depart the mill for the last time. Part of him struggled with the idea that he could not return and planned to find another moment to return to Beth when he could. He knew Zechariah would not let him out of his sight for some time after this, but Zechariah could not watch him forever.
The feel of Beth’s warm body against his was too much to pass up forever. He did not realize it would be this hard to go, but he would never forget her beautiful and perfect form before she dressed. He would always want to see her again. Now more than ever, they were one soul in two pieces, separated by circumstances.
The Awakening (The Fempiror Chronicles Book 1) Page 23