Radioactive Vampire

by Lisa Randall

  We all stared at Rai. “Was it a full moon that night, do you remember?” Alice asked, face pale. Rai nodded. Silent tears were now going down her face. I walked over to her and gave her a hug. Selena joined and we stayed like that until Alice was no longer crying.

  “They have to pay.” I said. I didn’t know how or when, but I knew these vampires had to die. I didn’t like the idea of more killing, but this was too much. What if they were still doing this to other humans? It had to end. Rai looked at me and nodded. He understood how I felt, and we both agreed that we would do what it takes to put an end to it. He couldn’t before because he was outnumbered and didn’t know about his powers. Now, we could probably put a stop to it with just the two of us.

  “If we get close to their city, Selena, Alice, you two would have to stay away from the city. I know the vampires there would love to capture and torture you both, just for fun. I don’t want to risk losing you two to such violence.” Rai said. I had to agree, for them to get anywhere near the city was dangerous. Rai and I had to do this ourselves.

  “Rai, how close are we?” I asked.

  “About a day’s run west from here.” He said. “If just you and I run, Helen. We can run faster than Alice or Selena.”

  “Okay, you guys keep going north until you find some shelter, and we will meet you as soon as we can.” I said. Something in me didn’t want to waste any more time teaching these vampires a lesson. It felt the same as when I fought Pandora. It was unexplainable, a strong need to provide justice against these cruel vampires.

  “Be safe, you two.” Selena said.

  “We will keep our senses open for you. I think after we find a place to rest, we should wait for you for two days.” Alice said.

  “Before we come to get you ourselves.” Selena added.

  “Sounds like a plan then. Until we meet again.” Rai said. We said all of our goodbyes, wishing each other safe for the next few days. Rai and I watched Selena and Alice walk away. Something about his story had bothered me. There was something he didn’t tell us. I gave him a look and he sighed.

  “I know I left something out, but I did it for Selena and Alice. I didn’t want them to know.” He said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Among the other humans being kept there, there were children. The vampires were breeding their prisoners like cattle.” He said. I shuddered at the thought. My need to get there as soon as possible was even stronger now. I took Rai’s hand and started to run in the direction of the city. I had the feeling that we were running out of time.

  *****

  We ran for hours. Neither of us wanted to slow down. Needing to get to the city as soon as possible. I didn’t know what Helen had planned, but I could feel her need to get there through our bond. It was important that we got there tonight, not one day later. Even I could sense that. I felt ashamed that I hadn’t fought for the human’s release before I left. Who knew how many more innocent people had been killed since I left the city. It feels like it could have been years ago, but I couldn’t be sure. Helen began to slow down, and adjusted my pace to match hers. Finally, she came to a stop, turning to me.

  “What is our plan once we get there?” I asked. She shrugged.

  “I’m not sure. I just figured we would go in there and kick some vampire butt.” She said. I gave a weak smile, knowing she meant it. I could see her picturing beating up faceless vampires in her mind.

  “It’s getting late, why don’t we take a quick rest? Don’t want to be too tired to fight once we get there.” I said. It was getting dark, and with the lack of a sun, darkness came fast. I could see Helen thinking it over and then finally agreeing. We sat down and tried to come up with a plan to get into the city in case they didn’t trust outsiders. Finally, after hours of coming up with a plan, we decided that we would go with as close to the truth as we could, without giving anything too important away. We were going to start running for the city again, when we both felt someone watching us. Looking around, we saw the glare of a pair of eyes in the distance. They were still, watching us in anticipation. Maybe this person needs help? Helen thought. I doubt it. If they needed help, they wouldn’t stop so far away, and we are somewhat close to the city by now, it’s probably another vampire. I said to her mentally. We stood and watched the pair of eyes for a few moments, and then they began to get closer. Slowly, an image came to view, it was a woman, and I could sense she was a vampire. She seemed familiar somehow, but I couldn’t place her.

  “Rai? Is that you?” she said. Apparently I did know her, but I still couldn’t think of her name. She must have read my confusion, and seemed to get mad that I didn’t recognize her. “It’s me. Claudia.” She said. An image of the woman who had taken me to the city the first time came to mind, and I could tell Helen saw the memory too. Claudia was by no means an ugly woman. She was tall and had long red curly hair. The most notable thing about her that I remembered was the way she dressed. She always wore one of those dresses you see the women in western movies or TV shows wear when they worked in the bar. And in those times the women weren't bartenders. I could hear Helen mentally laugh at my description of her.

  “Hello Claudia.” I said. I remembered that she was one of the vampires who took great enjoyment of the tortured humans; she always ‘played’ with them while they were kept before the full moon.

  “Aw, don’t be like that Rai. Didn’t you miss me?” she said, getting closer to me, putting a hand on my arm. I didn’t have to worry about Helen being jealous, since it was obvious that I hadn’t missed her. Claudia seemed to get this, and began to pout. “I know I missed you.” She said, batting her eyes. She looked to Helen and gave her a stern look of disapproval. “And, who is your friend, Rai?” she said, her hand still on my arm.

  “Claudia, I would like you to meet my wife, Helen.” I could sense Helen’s surprise at the word wife. It’s better than telling people that we are soul mates. Everyone in this time knows about the prophecy. It would give us away. Anyways, if we had met in a different time, we would have married anyways. I said. I could tell that was a reasonable answer for Helen, and looked at Claudia to get her reaction, not giving away we had been speaking mentally. Claudia seemed shocked at first, but then seemed to brush it off. She still clung to my arm, even though Helen was right there. Helen gave her a look to back off, and she finally did, but not after they had a staring contest that seemed to last forever.

  “Augustine has been worried sick about you.” Claudia said. I doubted that. When I had questioned him about what they had been doing to the humans, he had laughed at how naive I had been. He told me to either join in or leave, and when I left he didn’t seem too sad.

  “Yes, I’m sure.” I said. I had no good feelings for the man, but Helen and I had decided that we were going to play the part of cruel vampire, just like the others, in order to get into the city. We wanted to see what had changed, if anything, since the last time I was here. If nothing had changed, we were going to put an end to it; but we had to find the humans and free them first.

  “So, what are you doing out here Rai?” Claudia asked, ignoring Helen’s presence again.

  “Well, Helen here has never met other vampires, and I wanted to show her the city.” I said.

  “Wow.” Claudia said. “How old are you?”

  “I hardly think that is any of your business.” Helen said, offended by the question. What woman wants to tell someone how old she is? She said.

  “Whoa, whoa. No need to get all offended.” Claudia said. “I just wondered how old you were since you never saw another vampire before. Couldn’t be too old, I should think. It’s hard to go very long without meeting another vampire in this day and age. Us vampires have to stick together, don’t we Rai?” I didn’t give her an answer, too focused on telling Helen the right thing to say, mentally. Just say what we rehearsed, Helen.

  “I was sleeping, if you must know. So it’s been a while since I could remember seeing another vampire. That’s all he meant.” He
len explained.

  Claudia’s eyes widened in understanding and she said “Oh, well, that makes more sense than, now doesn’t it. Come on, let me take you two into the city.” She began walking towards where we were headed, to the west. We followed her for about an hour before we saw some faint lights in the distance.

  *****

  I wake up on the hard stone floor of my room. It’s night again, and I wonder how long I was asleep. Or maybe I passed out. I can’t be sure of anything anymore. For a long time, I have been losing time during the day. Sometimes I will wake up to find days have passed, and I don’t know where I am or what I have done in that time. This is one of those times. I think it’s been about a day since I was awake, but I can’t tell. With no stars to read, time seems even more impossible to keep than before.

  There is a knock at my door and I stand up as it opens. The demon from the other night is there and I try to remember what he wants me to do. All I can think about when I see him is her. I can’t explain it, but every time I think of her, I get mad. I miss her so much. “Who are you?” I ask. I recognize the demon, but I can’t remember his name.

  “I am Baal, and you will do as I say!” the demon said.

  “I don’t know what you want of me. Please let me go. I need to see her.” I say. I know she is out there, waiting for me.

  “See who?” Baal asks, confused.

  “My beloved. I just saw her earlier. I need to see her.” I tell him.

  “She doesn’t want to see you.” Baal says. “She said she will only see you once you obey me.”

  “I will do anything, please!” I beg him. He stares at me for a moment before he gives a small smile. “I need to know how to keep the portal open. Permanently.”

  “What portal?” I ask.

  “Do not mess with me!” Baal shouts, charging into the room, putting his finger in my face. I wonder why he is mad at me. He stays like that for a moment before he finally seems to realize something, then he begins to back away and calm down. “Come with me.” Is all he says, walking out of the room. I follow him, down the hallway and around a few corners, down a flight of stairs and into a large, open space outside. There are buildings all around us, but in the center is the portal he is talking about, and a man is on the ground next to it, chanting something. Whatever he is saying seems to be keeping the portal open, but I’m not sure how I know this. I don’t remember anything about magic, but it seems my body does. The portal is large, about ten feet wide and almost twice as tall, as if it’s a door for a giant. It pulses with waves of power, and it has a slight purplish red color to it. “Is that a portal to hell?” I ask, jokingly. It looks like something from a movie, and I get a bad feeling when I look at it.

  “Yes. It is.” Baal says. He seems to think this is all real. It must be a dream. I look from Baal to the portal and to the man still chanting on the ground. Baal seems to take my reaction like something he’s seen before. As if we have done this many times, but I don’t remember seeing this portal before. But then how could I know what it was? I thought. None of this was making any sense. I wanted to help this demon, if only to see my beloved Hecate again. I wondered how she was doing. I looked at Baal again and he seemed to be getting mad again. I think he is just mad at everything in general. He seems to get mad at anything and everything. It must be tiring. I wonder again what I’m doing here. Oh, right. I’m supposed to know something about the portal. All I can think of is that portals need a blood sacrifice to stay open. But every portal needs a certain type of blood from a certain type of person. Like how a portal to the faerie world needs the blood of a witch and the blood of a vampire to open it, but it eventually closes. I can’t remember how I know this, but the information comes to mind, somehow. I wonder if I have amnesia. Because sometimes I know things without knowing that I know them. Like someone has messed with my memory or something.

  “Well?” Baal asks, getting even more impatient.

  “Um.” Is all I can manage to say. I couldn't tell him more about the portal, since this is my first time seeing it. “Sorry.” I say. He seems to get even angrier, if that were possible. By now his face was a deep red and he was grinding his teeth, but the rest of him looked calm, which was a little disturbing. It looked like he was about to snap, and I didn’t want to be the one he snapped at. I had a feeling it would be deadly. He looked like he was going to hurt me, so I told him what I kind of remembered about portals, and about the blood. This seemed to calm him a bit. Like he was thinking. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I think it was what he was looking for. In a way.

  “So, can I see her?” I asked. I had helped him like he asked. Why couldn’t I see her?

  “Yes. I will send her to your room in a few moments.” Baal said. He looked distracted, but I didn’t care. I basically ran to my room to wait for her. It took what seemed like hours before there was another knock at my door. There she was, just as I remember her. “Hecate!” Was all I managed to say. She was of average height, had long brown hair, and beautiful bright hazel eyes with a silver center. Absolutely enchanting. “Hello Viktor.” She said, coming into the room. We started talking like no time had ever passed since we last saw each other. This seemed like Heaven.

  Chapter 17

  We were walking towards the vampire city when I got a horrible headache. I asked to stop for a moment and Claudia made some comment about how weak I was. My head hurt too much to worry about what she thought of me. I found a rock and sat down. Rai sat down next to me and was holding me as I passed out.

  I was experiencing that dreamlike state like I had the other night when I saw those men talking about a portal. This time I was watching the man that had gone crazy last time. It was like I was his shadow, I followed him around wherever he went, and he didn’t seem to notice me. I learned his name was Viktor and there was the demon from last time there too. His name was Baal. Viktor was talking about seeing someone, but Baal wouldn’t let him until he did something for him. He took Viktor to see a portal, which turned out to be the portal to hell. The one the demons had been coming through. Magnus was on the ground, chanting to keep it open. He looked like someone had been torturing him. Viktor told Baal something about needing blood for the portal to be stable, and was allowed to leave to his room and wait for the girl he wanted to see. As the girl came into the room, I noticed she looked very familiar. Viktor had called her Hecate, whoever that was. They began to talk about the last time they saw each other when the vision ended.

  “Helen. Helen! Are you alright?” Rai asked, still holding on to me. Talk to me. He asked quietly. I replayed the vision I had and he seemed as confused as I was. I noticed my headache was gone as well. I went to talk aloud about what I had seen, but he shook his head. I guess we couldn’t really trust this Claudia, no matter how close they used to be.

  It wasn’t like that, Helen. He said. She always tried to seduce me, but I never wanted her, which made her try even harder. I could tell that was true from the memories Rai showed me of him and Claudia whenever they were near each other. I tried not to laugh out loud about how ridiculous Claudia seemed to always be throwing herself at Rai, who didn’t want her.

  Claudia narrowed her eyes at me, probably thinking this was a trick to show her how much Rai cared about me. I didn’t care, I was just glad my headache was gone. I was wondering about that vision, and why it had come while I was awake this time, when Claudia cleared her throat and asked “Are you quite done? Good, then let’s keep going.” She began walking and we both stood up to follow her.

  We walked towards the lights we could barely see in the distance, until they got bigger and brighter.

  As we got closer, I could tell the lights were not from a fire. Judging from the lack of technology that seemed present in this time, it was a shock to see the streets of the city lined with electric lights.

  I tried to keep the surprise from showing, not wanting to give Claudia anything she could use against me. I had a bad feeling from this place, and we had just arrived.r />
  As we got closer to the city, I noticed there were no gates or walls. I expected them to at least have some kind of protection from everything else in this world. I looked to Rai and he just shook his head. They don’t need any extra protection. Everyone in this time knows this city belongs to the vampires, and won’t dare come close. They also have gargoyles for any extra protection they need. He said.

  Gargoyles? I thought. All I could think of was the stone statues I used to see in cities before I took the big sleep through the wars. I thought they were just a myth, like everything else. I knew I still had a lot to learn from this world. Even if Rai explained everything to me and showed it all to me from his memories, I knew I would have to see things for myself for them to be real.

  Rai gave a slight nod, hiding our conversation from Claudia. Even though her back was to us, we didn’t know who or what else could be watching. Gargoyles have served the vampires since the beginning of the human wars. Some vampire managed to get their loyalty somehow, and their alliance made them very powerful in the supernatural world.

  Before either of us could say any more, Claudia stopped walking. We were standing in what looked like the town square. In front of us was a building that looked like a city hall. I looked at the buildings around us, and I noticed that they all looked untouched by the wars, or acid rain, or anything. All of the buildings looked brand new. I wondered at this until my eyes found a statue at the very top of the city hall building. It was a huge statue of a gargoyle, and its eyes were watching us closely. I couldn’t sense anything bad about the creature, and wondered how and why they helped the vampires.

  A door opened and Claudia walked up to the person that emerged. She knelt before the person, who looked like the city mayor. It was a man, and he was somewhat average in height, he had long, dark hair, pale skin, and purple eyes. He was dressed in an antique looking suit and tie, along with a top hat, and he looked so far out of his time, he could have been a time traveler. He gave Claudia a slight nod and motioned for her to stand. Looking at us, he said “My name is Augustine. And who are you?” his voice sounded like it had a British accent to it, which also didn’t seem to fit this time and place. Claudia introduced us, never keeping her eyes from Augustine. She looked like she was a huge fan of him, but he looked disinterested in her. He ignored her and kept staring at us. It was beginning to make me feel uncomfortable.