Jack Kursed (3 page)

"Please, don't move any of them. I
know you need clothes, but I'll die if the sunlight finds
me."

John said nothing. He
stumbled away from the pile of bodies, heading toward the river. He
walked in up to his waist and immersed himself. The water was cold,
but not as much as it should have been. He washed the blood off as
best he could and scrubbed his hair.

"Sir!" the woman called. "I know
you're still there. Could I talk with you?"

John laughed and cried as
he left the river and sat next to the pile of bodies. Part of him
knew he should be more conscious of the fact that he was naked in
front of a strange woman. But another part of him knew that was the
least important thing happening.

"What are you?" she asked.
"I thought you were like me. But...normal heartbeat, immune to
sunlight. And was I seeing things, or did an ax and pitchfork do
nothing to you?"

John couldn't speak. He
tried to find the words, but found it impossible to talk to a voice
hidden in a mass of corpses. His neck and head were fine. There was
nothing to remind him of what Samuel and Alexander did to him. Only
his memory.

"I'm Victoria. What's your
name?"

"John."

"That's a good, strong name. Tell me,
how did you come to be naked in these woods?"

He laughed and stared into the mass of
bodies. He could barely see her eyes, looking at him from between
an arm and where Samuel's head used to be.

"I...I had an encounter with a
witch."

"You made a deal with a
witch?"

"No. She made me drink
something."

"You poor man. Who knows what she's
done to you. She's dead now, I hope? Witches are the most dangerous
creatures alive."

John shook his head.
Angela was the first person in years to show him kindness and
attention. But as he rubbed where the pitchfork struck his throat,
he couldn't help but feel she did something terrible to
him.

"She's dead," he said quietly. "And
what are you, exactly?"

"I thought you might have guessed. I'm
a vampire."

The fangs. The red eyes. The allergy
to sunlight. John remembered the stories his father told him when
he was younger, but he said the only thing he could.

"Vampires aren't real. They're just
stories."

"And yesterday at this
time, I'm sure witches and witchcraft were just stories,
too."

John was quiet.

Victoria shifted under the bodies as
more sunlight passed through the trees.

"You have to stay hidden until night?"
John asked.

"Yes. I'll sleep soon, but if anyone
finds and exposes me, I'll burn."

"I'll stay with you, watch
over you. We are the Devil's children, after all, and I no longer
have a home."

"Stop that nonsense.
Whether a witch enchanted you or not, we are who we choose to be.
But...thank you for staying. And please, don't be disgusted by
this."

John watched the bodies shift
slightly. There was a biting sound, followed by what sounded like
licking. Blood ran down Samuel's arm, disappearing into the
darkness under his corpse.

Victoria was drinking Samuel's
blood.

Vampires. Witches. The
legends were true.

"I think I might be losing my
mind."

"Don't worry. I'll help you find
it."

*****

Victoria continued to talk
as the hours passed. Ants marched in front of John. Birds sang in
the trees. It was a beautiful morning, a stark contrast to the hell
he'd been through.

John couldn't focus on Victoria's
words. She was telling a story of some kind, as if hiding from the
sun under dead corpses next to a naked man was completely normal.
Her voice was lovely and helped relax him somewhat.

But he couldn't shake the
dark thoughts.

The town needed to be
punished.

"John? Are you even
listening?"

He shook his head, trying to stop the
deadly daydreaming.

"I'm sorry. I'm a little
distracted."

"Of course you are. No, I'm the one
who's sorry. Sadly, killing men before they kill me is something
I've done many times. But let me try to help you. I'm familiar with
witches. You said she made you drink something?"

"Yes, something very
disgusting. I knocked it away from her before she could drink. She
said we'd be together forever."

Victoria laughed.
"Immortality. Something witches have been searching for since the
Black Death. Impossible, though, except for those humans
unfortunate enough to become vampires."

"How did you become a
vampire?"

"That's none of your concern," she
said sharply.

John was quiet. He ran the
blade of the ax he'd taken from the corpse pile down his arm for
the fifth time. It hurt only for a second as blood dripped from his
skin to the ground. The wound closed, not even leaving a
scar.

"Immortality," he
whispered.

"I have to sleep now, John. We'll talk
when the night falls."

The hours went by slowly.
John lay in the dirt by the river, hoping sleep would overtake him.
He wasn't tired in the slightest. Several times he thought he heard
horses in the distance, but they didn't approach.

He wasn't sure what he'd do if they
did.

John was tossing stones in
the river when he finally heard movement behind him. He turned to
see Victoria pushing through her way through the corpses, tossing
them aside. It wasn't night, but the sun had set.

"This was definitely a strange day,"
she said.

John rose to his feet and
approached her. He finally had a chance to study her, to truly look
at her.

Victoria looked human now,
no fangs, green eyes. Even looking as disheveled as she did, she
was a beautiful woman. Petite, not very tall. She moved with a
sense of grace and confidence. John could imagine her moving
effortlessly through her high-society gatherings, enchanting
everyone she talked to.

She smiled at John as she pushed her
hair back behind her shoulders. He turned away as she slipped out
of her dress and stood before him naked.

Out of the corner of his
eye, he watched her step into the river as he searched the dead
bodies for someone his size. He didn't like the idea of wearing a
dead man's clothes, but he'd been nude long enough.

He'd just fastened his
pants when Victoria emerged from the river. He blushed as he caught
another eyeful of her pale, perfect skin.

"This dress was expensive," she said,
slipping it on.

"Victoria, thank you. If you hadn't
freed me, I'm not sure what would have happened."

"You're welcome. You saved
me, too. I was low on blood, and that ax in your chest was useful.
It's been a long time since I had a day guardian."

John smiled and graciously bowed his
head. His expression turned angry as he turned and walked
away.

"Where are you going?"

"To kill the people in my
town."

Victoria said nothing for
a moment. She caught up to him and spun him around by the
shoulder.

"Are you serious?"

"Very."

"John, listen to me. I don't know
everything that happened, but your town killed a witch. That's a
good thing-"

"They tried to kill me,
too. They hated me and my family for years, and Angela was just an
excuse."

He turned to continue on his
way.

"Even if that were true, killing them
won't make you feel better."

"It might."

She spun him by the shoulder once
again. He pulled away more violently this time.

"My family was slaughtered
while we slept," she said. "I have no idea why, or how. I just woke
up, and I was like this. I've killed people, but only when I had
to. I don't let being a vampire change who I am. Whatever this
witch Angela did to you, don't let it change you."

John was quiet as he stared at
Victoria. Flashes of the town throwing rocks at him while he swayed
from a noose went through his mind. He killed Samuel in the moment
of defending himself, but he was not a cold-blooded
murderer.

"Fine. Maybe you're right.
But I do need to go back to town. There are some clothes and books
in my home. I'll sneak in to get them, and then...start over, I
guess."

She nodded and walked with him
side-by-side.

"I'll help you. I can put
you up for a while, help you find work."

"Why are you helping me? No one has
ever helped me with anything before."

"You saw me at my worst. Weak,
starving for blood. You could have chased those men, had your
revenge. But you stayed to help me."

John smiled and nodded.
They walked through the woods as night settled over
them.

On the strangest day of his life he'd
made a new friend.

*****

It took some time to make
their way through the woods. John couldn't see much in front of
him, and Victoria ended up having to lead. Apparently, as she
explained, vampires have better senses. They could see in the dark,
and Victoria would stop occasionally, listen, and then walk once
again.

"We need to hurry," she said. "I don't
want to get caught in the daylight again."

"I don't have much, just
some clothes. And there's a book or two I'd like to
take."

Victoria's nose twitched as a familiar
scent moved through the air. Burning flesh. She held out an arm to
stop him.

"John, maybe we should turn
back."

He saw the concern on her
face. He moved around her and broke into a jog.

The smoke touched his nose
as the forest opened up into town. The fire that engulfed his home
reached into the night. The fence, the vegetable garden, all
destroyed by fire. Nathan, who spent most of his time at the bar,
urinated into the flames, laughing and swaying.

Nailed to the side of his house was a
charred body.

John ran. He passed Roy
and his wife, who gave him a long look, as well as a stray dog. He
dropped to his knees as he drew closer. Several spikes held up the
messy corpse.

The word
witch
was written above
in blood.

Victoria grabbed him gently by the
shoulder, urging him to stand up.

"We have to go," she said. "Your home
is gone. I'm sorry."

"I was born in this house.
The few good memories I have were all here. And Angela, dear
God..."

John and Victoria were out in the open
for all to see. She looked around as the town organized. Her
sensitive ears picked up whispers, guns being loaded, blades
sharpened.

"Let's go," she said.

Victoria hooked him under
the arms and hoisted him to his feet. She only managed to move him
a single step when the shot rang out. The bullet went clear through
her shoulder. Wincing in pain, she fell to the ground, taking John
with her.

"Victoria!"

His concern was
short-lived as she smiled up at him.

"That hurt. But I'll be
fine."

John looked over his
shoulder at the line of people approaching. Henry, Alexander, and
Mark carried rifles. Michael clutched a Bible. Daniel had an ax
slung over his shoulder. Maybe twenty or so people in all. Heads
poked in and out of doors and windows.

"You're not welcome here, John. You or
your new witch. Come back to put a spell on us?"

"She's not a witch. Listen, we
just-"

Henry and Mark opened
fire. John pulled Victoria to her knees and wrapped his arms around
her, shielding her and turning his back to them. He'd never been
shot before. The worst accident he ever had was fishing with his
father. He caught a catfish, and it fought so much coming off the
hook that John poked himself.

Being shot felt like that. Tiny
pinpricks of pain, before fading into nothingness.

The firing slowed down as they stopped
to reload. John looked at Victoria to see surprise on her
face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I feel fine."

Victoria ran her hand down
his head and back, feeling no injuries. There were no hard lumps
under his skin where the wounds healed over bullets. It was like
the bullets never struck him. She finally noticed the bullets on
the ground at John's feet.

They both looked up at
Angela's corpse.

"What did she do to me?"

Angela's words
echoed in John's mind.
We'll live together
forever
. Victoria had said immortality was
impossible, except for a vampire.

She was wrong.

John stood up and spun
around, still making sure he was in position to cover Victoria. A
bullet struck his chest, and even his head, but did nothing except
rock his body slightly.