He struck again with the sword, this time snapping it in a blur across my face, slashing my face with a blade so sharp it took a split second for my brain to realize I’d been cut. He slashed it again, and I lurched to the side in time. The air hissed as the blade missed my face by millimeters.
I dropped and whisked my leg in a sweep, catching him at the ankle, and though he stumbled a bit, he didn’t fall. I lay on my back and reversed my sweep, lifting my leg higher to take him out at the knees. It worked, and he tumbled, but his quick reflexes got him back up and moving. I sprung from my back to my feet, pulled my bat, and swung. I went for his head and neck, and it was a good swing, but he moved faster than I’d seen him move before and was around me, fangs to my neck, in a blur of motion.
Rocko and Blaze rushed to help me, but with Pascal at my throat, they held off, not wanting to risk any sudden movements.
“Pascal,” I whispered. “What is happening?”
“My sister turned me when I visited her at the monastery, bringing me to the night and the torture of blood thirst. She deprived me of my friends, the rest of our family, but most of all, she deprived me of my work. My mind, once a vault of ideas that could see the world’s geometry, its natural beauty, and yearned to explain it, was blank. I questioned my faith and begged God not to abandon me, but what else could explain my new cravings for human blood? I was being tested, and failing. I was a monster, and yet…” He twisted my neck to look me in the eye.
“I loved your mother,” he hissed. “My sister, my master, was ashamed of me and my feelings.”
“Did my mom love you?”
“No. No. I tried to convince her that my feelings were real, but of course, I didn’t stand a chance.”
“Please step away from me, Pascal. We can talk about this.”
“No. Jacqueline wants you to die, and she’s made me see the truth. I’m a devil, an enemy, and you shall die by my hand, even if you do share my blood.”
I cried, trying to control my tears and my breath, but I couldn’t help it from becoming ragged and raw. I hoped I didn’t make things worse, but I had to know.
“How do I share your blood?”
Pascal drew back a tiny bit, enough that I didn’t feel his breath on my flesh. “Your mother was injured. She’d battled something, I never found out what, and she was bleeding out. My life would have been so boring without her. She made me feel alive. She made me feel something, after decades of ennui. Even when she hunted me, hated me, at least she was there, a part of my life.”
“And?”
“I fed her my blood. It wasn’t her choice. I forced it down her throat, making her swallow. I didn’t turn her, but it healed her. I’d hoped that she’d understand my gift.” The last dripped with regret, tinged with real anger.
“I’m guessing she didn’t.”
“No. She was furious, but my blood coursed through her veins anyway, and thus through yours. It’s why you’re fast. It’s why you’re strong. You have a touch of me within you, and it gives you an edge.”
Tears streamed down my face as I realized what he was saying.
The time I caught that softball that no one should have been able to catch.
The time I balanced on the thinnest wire, running across like a gecko on a pond, noticing my feet were steady, even though it should have been impossible.
The time I heard a ghost, something beyond human abilities.
Memories flooded through me. My coach saying my base steal was unbelievable. Ovid staring at me open-mouthed when I flipped a knife over my shoulder and hit the target dead center.
These abilities weren’t the result of training at all. I cheated, unknowingly, but true nevertheless, and now I had to question everything I was and everything I’d done. Was I truly a heavenly soldier on Earth? Or one of the bad guys who ate her own?
Screams of pain echoed across the yard, piercing my psyche. Blaze gasped as something hit him hard. A piskie dropped to the ground like a stone, and my blood curdled as the demonettes cheered the visiting team on, shouting encouragement. Shura bled from a wound in her side, and Rocko took a talon to his face, red blood spraying into the air.
We were getting our asses kicked. Jacqueline was too strong.
My friends were fighting my fights and dying for it.
It was all my fault.
I was a fraud. A fake. A phony. My pride had done this.
My mind cracked in two when Nathaniel, husband, the father of my children, dropped to the ground. I cried out, screaming his name. Blaze pulled Nathaniel away from the fight, and I fell to my knees, engulfed by doubt, my mind and body paralyzed. I was at the most vulnerable I’d ever been.
“Pascal, if I die, will your sister let my friends and family alone?” I whispered this so no one could hear.
“She only wants your head, my dear Jess.”
“Then take it.” My voice rang out across the battlefield. “Take my head and leave everyone else alone.”
Chapter Twelve
My allies stared in horror, not sure what to do or how to help. Blaze lowered his head, made a keening noise I had never heard, and readied to throw his body across mine. I knew he was betting his bronze feathers could stop the coming blow. His feet pawed the earth like a bull ready to charge.
He pulled up fast as a hand pulled me to my feet and tossed me out of the way, and a familiar voice said, “Get away from her, you son-of-a-bitch.” I flew in an arc, landing hard on my side as my college friend took center stage.
I hadn’t seen Liam since Blaze and I left him at his apartment, at his urging, as he struggled to keep his inner vampiric instincts in check. He’d twitched with the effort, literally holding the back of his couch to keep from attacking us as bloodlust overwhelmed his humanity. This was a side effect the constant starvation Pascal made him endure, even though we’d fed him pints and pints of blood. He held on by the skin of teeth as Blaze and I ran for our lives. I hadn’t heard from him since.
Liam dove at Pascal, a whir of movement so fast that it defied explanation. Pascal leapt out of the way, but Liam was quick and had anticipated Pascal’s move. Again, and again, the two vampires, creator and created, swiped at each other, Liam even punching Pascal full-on in the face and his already broken, bleeding nose.
It didn’t matter. They were evenly matched. A part of my brain told me to get in there, help Liam. But a new voice said, No, you’re tainted. You can’t help.
Blaze shot forward and enveloped me in his wing, nudging me back, away from the dueling vampires. I held on, almost unable to stand on my own. Rocko hooted at me, a gentle reminder that he was there, a friend, someone else who knew what it was like to change who you are, deep inside. He petted my face and combed his fingers through my hair, a gorilla grooming motion meant to soothe me.
Pascal and Liam flew up into the trees, something I hadn’t known Liam could do. I realized I’d spent so much time worrying about Liam, feeling responsible for what happened, that I’d ignored who he had become. I’d spent too much time wishing he could go back to who he was.
That wasn’t possible for either of us.
Nathaniel came out the back door with an ice pack to his head, stopping short when he saw the pitched battle going on and me sitting helplessly on the stairs.
“Jess! Jess! What is going on? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Nathaniel patted my body to find wounds. He ran inside to fetch some disinfectant and wiped at the cuts on my face.
“Anything else? Anything serious?”
“No.”
“Why are you sitting here?”
“I’m no help to them.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
I told him what Pascal had told me. He dropped to the step next to me.
“You’re part vampire?”
I nodded.
He was silent too.
Ahem. The Buddha looked at me from the window. The battle receded from my mind, the sound muffled and far away.
Buddha?
Close enough. Partly.
The voice was Buddha’s, but it was more. It was a voice within a voice within a voice. It was a deep resonant tone and a high lilt. It was male. It was female. It rang in my head with the power of a thousand cymbals, a roaring ocean, an exploding volcano. It was as gentle as a mother’s hand and sweet as the slip of silk. It caught me unaware, but it was familiar. It was all of these things and none of them. I spoke to the voice.
“Here I am.”
Nathaniel, confused, looked around, his head swiveling to find out to whom I spoke.
You are the sum of your actions.
“I contain evil.”
You are the product of your intent.
“I’m not who I thought I was.”
Your fate is always your own.
The voice withdrew, and I was empty, deflated. Alone.
Until Nathaniel took my hand.
My blessings streamed back to me. My loving husband. My children. My ability to help others. My sense of humor. The love of my mother and my father. Ovid’s devotion. Rocko, Blaze, and Shura. The piskies who even now fought for us.
Liam’s friendship and how he labored to be a force for good even as a vampire. Darth Elf, born of a race I thought incapable of good, who only wanted to learn to read and was lonely, struggling to find her place in the world.
My allies, who were right now fighting for their lives without me. The ‘hawk was in my hand at that thought. I leaned over and kissed Nathaniel’s worried face.
“I’m going in.”
“About damn time. Kick some ass.”
Chapter Thirteen
I strode forward, held up a hand, and commanded, “Stop!” I was shocked when everyone did, but I didn’t question it, just rolled along.
“General Gothskie?”
“Ma’am?”
“Gather the wounded. Shura, Rocko, Blaze, back away.”
They did as I bade them, every one of them hobbling, bleeding, and bruised.
Jacqueline didn’t look like she’d done anything more than drink a cup of tea.
“Bitch! You and your mother stole my brother from me. You made him weak.”
“We did nothing of the kind.”
“You ruined him.”
“I’m thinking we might have saved him.”
She hissed. “I’m going to kill you like I killed your mother.”
I wasn’t even surprised. It all clicked into place. Didn’t mean I wasn’t mighty pissed off, though.
I threw Blaze, Shura, and Rocko a look, flicking my eyes to the garage. They trotted off, knowing what I needed.
“You caused my mother’s car crash?”
Jacqueline sneered, showing me her fangs. “Of course, stupid child. My brother had given her his blood, and that ungrateful wretch spurned him. It was enough that he loved her, but to then throw that love back in his face? She was an arrogant piece of crap, and you take after her.”
I went to work with my bat in one hand and my tomahawk in the other.
Slash! Slash!
I dodged an attack to my right by juking to my left. I dodged the follow-up attack by rolling to my right. I sunk into the fight, not thinking, not planning, and moving only on instinct.
The demonettes, cheering from the sideline, started something new.
“Jacqueline has the spirit! So, let’s hear it! Goooooooooo, Jacqueline!”
My enemy disappeared, flickering in and out of existence like a star, one minute there, one minute gone. I spun in circles, trying to find her. I’d seen her brother disappear before, and I’d never figured out if he was really gone, or just invisible. Wait. Vampires couldn’t be invisible. They just seemed that way because they moved fast. Gotcha, bitch.
I holstered the bat, withdrawing the jump rope, moving as swiftly as possible. I turned in a reverse circle, using the jump rope as a whip, snapping it at every angle. I could hear something move as I swiveled, one step ahead of me at every snap.
I whirled faster, reversing direction again, changing my velocity and range, moving a couple of steps in and a few steps back. I took the rope high and low. I oscillated the rope like a live wire, pulling on the vampiric speed I knew I had to pirouette and gyrate the rope at the same time.
Eventually, I hit pay dirt, and the most beautiful screech hit my ears. Breath caressed my face and I leapt back, snapping the rope once again, gaining another yelp. Forgetting about what I could see and concentrating on only what I could hear, smell, and feel, I harried her with the wine-soaked jump rope, wearing her out, frustrating her, hoping she’d make a mistake.
She did. She lost control of her speed and fluttered into my line of sight several yards to my right. I noticed her from the corner of my eye and chucked the tomahawk right at her.
My ‘hawk caught a ridge in her armor at the elbow, and the blade buried itself deep within her arm. Her intake of breath told me it hit true, and after a split second, her blood flowed in long, thick drops, staining the grass. She jerked back, but the tomahawk stayed with her, and as I observed, it wiggled itself in deeper, working its way through the joint. She screamed and screamed, tearing at the tomahawk, but it had her and wasn’t letting go. I stared in horror and fascination as the blade worked its way through, until her forearm fell to the earth, amputated at the elbow. The tomahawk fell to the earth, too, but I knew it would be back in my hands as soon as I needed it.
Jacqueline stared at her left arm and let out a roar of defiance. “Pascal! I need you! Hear me and obey, my brother!”
“He’s having trouble hearing you, Auntie.” Liam’s voice came closer as he walked from the back of the yard, up the small incline to where we stood. He dragged Pascal’s body behind him, and I thought Pascal was dead at first, but the twitching in his legs told me he was still alive.
His face was a mess, and Liam looked worse for wear as well. Pascal’s ears were mostly torn off, and I was certain Liam had a broken cheekbone. The two of them had really gone at it, fighting tooth and nail, and it appeared that Liam had come out on top, barely.
I hated Pascal. I hated him for what he’d done to my mother, for what he’d done to Liam, and all the people he’d killed and sucked dry.
I felt a little sorry for him as well. He was a vampire who felt something he called love. Who was I to judge whether what he’d felt for my mother was love as I knew it, or as one would love a possession, or how one worshipped an unattainable goal? He was a vampire who’d felt something passionately. I was certain that was not an easy road to travel.
Pascal crawled to his sister, who looked at him with contempt, but helped him to his feet.
“Pascal.” I called to him.
He looked at me through swollen, tired eyes.
“You still have choice.”
“I have nothing.”
“Not true. Don’t listen to her. She made you a vampire, but she can’t change who you are inside. You’ve done wrong, but you have eternity to make up for it.”
Pascal shook his head.
A stab of disappointment lanced my body. In the end, like all of us, Pascal was the sum of his deeds, the product of his intent, and his fate was his own. Liam must have come to the same conclusion because he charged Pascal, fangs outstretched, grasped his maker by the throat, and bit down with enough force to break Pascal’s neck. Still connected, it lolled to the side with an audible crack. He didn’t die, but a vertebra or two weren’t in the best of shape.
Pascal scratched at the air, his wide eyes begging his sister to help him. Liam had Pascal locked in an embrace poisoned by hate, anger, and months and months of resentment. Pascal had almost convinced Liam that he had no path to follow but one of degradation, and now Liam delivered payback. Jacqueline could no more rescue her brother than step into the mid-day sun. Liam had surpassed his master.
After sucking Pascal down, Liam dropped him to the ground, where Pascal lay limp, but not dead. I was proud of my friend for stopping short of killing Pascal. It was yet another choice that
informed his future and his fate, and it was a good one.
We are a sum of our actions, the product of our intent, and our fate is our own.
Liam swayed on his feet, and I was surprised to see him so spent after having consumed Pascal’s blood. It should have strengthened him, but however much energy he’d used to fight Pascal was barely replaced by his maker’s blood. It made me realize how little Liam must have been eating and how vulnerable he was when he’d attacked Pascal. It was a wonder he had won.
Jacqueline stared at her brother’s form, shocked. The demonettes quieted.
Big sister screeched in fury and leaped toward Liam, who tottered back to avoid the new onslaught. He swung a clawed hand in her direction but didn’t find purchase, and he stumbled. She stalked him, one foot, then the other, as he scrambled backward.
I jumped on her from the rear, yanking her away from my friend, but I was unbalanced and fell on my butt, my arms around her in a wrestling hold. We grappled on the ground, me thrashing around trying to flip her on her back. She was too strong, however, and more trained than I thought. She placed precise pressure on the joints in my wrist, an Aikido move that I recognized but couldn’t counter. I released her, and she overturned, grabbing at my torso to keep me down. My baseball bat pushed into my spine, and while holding Jacqueline off with my right hand, I tore the bat from my holster and shoved it in her mouth, pushing her from me with as much strength as I could muster. Blaze scooted in and pulled my jump rope, throwing it to Rocko, who wrapped it around Jacqueline’s neck and pulled.
The vampire did not need to breathe, but she could feel pain, and having your trachea crushed makes it hard to concentrate. She lunged in reverse, head-butting the gorilla, who lost his grip and fell, letting out a roar of pure silverback rage. He leapt in the air and caught one of her legs. Blaze caught the other, and I grabbed her remaining arm. We strained with all our might, holding her aloft by three limbs, stretching her as if she were on a rack.
She gasped in pain but wouldn’t give up, using what was left of her strength, which was still considerable, to fight us.
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