The Vampires of Soldiers Cove (28 page)

I scanned the group for someplace I could be useful but saw that everything was under control for the moment.

Turning back around I came face to face with James who was standing in front of me holding an armload of wood.  “You saved my brother,” he said. “And I hear Angus too. Is it true?”

“Yes, I managed to warn him to get into the tunnel before Mariah could kill us both.”

“Thank you,” this was the most sincere I had ever heard him sound, but it certainly didn’t erase what he had done.  Then he added, “But your services are no longer required.” And faster than my eyes could see he dropped the wood, took his sword from its sheath and ran it through my body. He had pinned me to the tree only missing my heart by about an inch. I tried to scream, but hot thick blood filled my mouth. I choked and spit trying to cry out and panicking in an effort to remove the blade. My strength was gone however, I could do nothing.

Reaching
into his jacket he produced a small wooden stake.

“You were never a proper
vampire,” he said, “but don’t worry. I’ll see you get a proper vampire death.” He raised the stake high preparing to plunge it into my heart. I turned away waiting and hoping for a quick and painless end once again. Nothing happened.

“Why?” I heard Gavin screaming.
When I turned back Gavin had James with his arms clasped behind his back in one hand and his neck in the other, stake fallen to the ground. James was beginning to pull free of Gavin’s grip and so Daniel quickly darted over and helped restrain him.

“I’m only thinking of you.” He was choking on the words.

“I know what you did,” Gavin said.

“She’s a lying bitch. Whatever she told you isn’t true.”

“She didn’t tell me, I saw it for myself. I saw every disgusting thing you did to her, and now I’m going to make you pay.” Gavin reached down and picked up the stake, aiming it at his brother’s heart.

“
No!” I screamed. I could feel myself starting to lose consciousness, but I had to finish this. Gavin and Daniel stopped in stunned silence. “Hold him still,” I wheezed between spitting out mouthfuls of blood.  

“Now, you will suffer…a
nd I will enjoy it.” The two men put their arms around James’ waist and neck as he twitched in an effort to get away, but it was no good.

“You would let her kill your own brother?” he said.

Gavin’s eyes were both hardened and sad.  “You’re no brother of mine.”

He was still for a few seconds, which was all I needed.
I pictured the fire inside his body. I could see by the horrified look on his face that he was beginning to feel the burning, feel it from the inside out. His knees buckled as Gavin and Daniel let him go, falling down into the mud and snow that had been kicked up by the battle. He was writing on the ground now, screaming and choking in agony. His skin turned black and tiny cinders began flaking off his skin, and then were carried off by the breeze.

I was screaming as well.
It was taking everything I had but I had no intention of stopping until he was dead. I had resolved to give him what was coming and the longer he burned the more satisfied I felt. He twitched and contorted until the flames burst through his body completely. Then at last, giving one final scream, he doubled over on the ground and was consumed. The fire burned brightly for only a moment and then went out seconds later leaving only a pile of ash.

Weakness
overtook me and black spots began floating in and out of my vision. I could hear Gavin’s voice through a haze. He was a million miles away, somewhere cold and distant.

“Rachel! Rachel!” he was pleading.

“It’s so close to her heart,” I heard Holly say. “Gavin you’re going to have to pull it out. Daniel and I will have to hold her steady to make sure she doesn’t move while you do that. If it even touches her heart we’ll lose her.”

I saw Gavin’s tear stained face directly in front of me as he put his hands on the bloody handle of his dead brother’s sword.
Holly grabbed my shoulders and pushed me so hard against the tree I thought I was going to become part of it. Daniel did the same with my legs.

“Alright we’ve got her,” Holly said.
“Slowly Gavin, easy does it.” Gavin gave a tug on the sword and began to carefully ease it out. The pain was unreal. I heard myself screaming and cursing, willingly pleading for death. The pulling of the sword seemed to last for hours. Finally it was out but my chest was now hemorrhaging large amounts of blood onto the ground.

“She’s not healing.
Why isn’t she healing?” Gavin was saying.

“Oh no,” was the last thing I heard Holly say.
I looked up at the night sky, so many stars lighting up the dark, so bright and beautiful.  A wave of peace washed over me as I thought about how happy I was that the last thing I was seeing was something beautiful. Then the stars winked out one by one, and only the blackness remained.

The blackness turned into morning light and I was being lifted up, up, up.

Over the clouds and flying. Below me I could see trees and lakes, mountains and fields. Suddenly I was standing at a clearing on top of a lush tree covered highland.

I lay on the ground and looked up at the blue cloudless sky.
Next to me I heard the cry of a lone crow.

When I turned my head he was standing to face me. Then, reaching out, he extended his wing and gently stroked my cheek with his feathers.

I woke with a start feeling like I had not taken a breath in ages and gasped desperately for air in the blackness. I tried to open my eyes and then I realized they were already open.

There were voices all around me talking in low concerned tones, but I was too panicked and confused to process the things they were saying.

Finally, catching my breath, I sucked in deep drawing as much air into myself as possible. Over and over again I drew in heavily, feeling the pain as my lungs expanded slightly more each time.

Then the
agony began. The awful gnawing in the stomach, and the familiar violent urge to kill. Rising to stand up in the blindness my only thought was to hunt, to murder. Someone grabbed me by the shoulders and ordered me to lie back down. I tried to fight them but they were too strong. I began screaming and thrashing around in desperation to feed. I needed blood. I needed it…
now
.

Then I felt a draft of air
, as if a door or window had been opened, and someone grabbed the back of my head pressing it into something soft, something beautiful. The smell was overwhelming, it was intoxicating. I knew that smell. It was human flesh, with human blood throbbing and flowing just below the surface.

“Drink,” someone said.
I opened my mouth and drew out my fangs letting out a cry as I did. The fangs, sharp as razors, felt as though they were cutting me for the first time. “It’s alright,” the voice said. “Just drink.”

I pressed down lightly on the flesh and heard someone give out a horrified cry. Smelling the panic in the blood I pressed harder, breaking the skin. I tasted a little bit and as I did my fangs ran out all the way.

The pain was gone
now and so I bit down hard. The blood ran like a fountain and I found the lost drops as best as I could with no eyesight. Then I pressed my mouth firmly around the wound and sucked hard. The human’s heart slowed, I tried to stop. I pulled myself away for a brief second and let out a scream of anguish as my need for blood wrestled with my desire to spare whoever I was feeding on.

“You can keep going,” the voice assured me.
That was enough to turn my conscience off and continue to feed. The blood was rich and full and there was lots of it.

Finally the heart stopped altogether
silencing the cries of the donor forever.  I felt strength slowly seeping back to me and for the first time I wondered if I had lost my eyesight for good.  I didn’t remember getting any type of injury to my eyes.

“Sleep now,” the voice said.
I felt a hand stroking my face as I drifted off. I wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead, and didn’t have enough will yet to care.  Sleep then came again.

Upon opening my eyes the next time I could see, although only hazily.  It seemed I had my sight back and so I took a moment to be grateful for that.

Looking around I realized I was in my room at the sanctuary. Gavin was staring down at me. He looked like hell. His eyes were tired and he was gaunt and drawn, but smiling wide none the less.

“Good morning,” he whispered.
I tried to sit up. “No, don’t move. You’re hooked up to a lot of stuff,” he said motioning to the other side of the bed.

He wasn’t kidding. I was hooked up to about four bags of blood and some kind of white liquid. I had IVs in places I never knew they went. I was still feeling a pain in my chest, but certainly not as bad as the last time I had woken up. It was duller now but breathing still required a bit of effort.

“What’s going on?” I said.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” he said gently brushing the hair off my forehead. I felt like I needed a shower very badly all of a sudden.

“I remember dying.
James killed me,” I said.

“No, he tried to.
You killed him though.” Then the memory came flooding back. He had tried to stake me but Gavin and Daniel had held him while I turned him to ashes.  I smiled at the remembrance of his suffering contorted face twitching during his last moment of misery.

“He’s dead,” I said.

“Yes, after he died we took the sword out of your chest,” he continued, “you should have been able to heal yourself right away, but Holly said the fact that you’re not full blooded and that you used your fire right after he attacked you made you too weak.”

“How am I still here then?”

“You came very close to meeting your final death. We got you inside and put you in the death sleep to see if that would heal you. After that all we could do was wait.”

“Death sleep?”

“Yes, a very deep sleep. Vampires can put themselves into a sleep almost like death for many years if they choose. For some that’s how they’ve stayed alive so long. Between Holly, Daniel and I we were able to get you there after you passed out. We had to keep feeding you our blood so we could will you into it. Normally we only will ourselves.”

“Did I feed?”

“Yes, that was yesterday, but you’ve been in the death sleep almost two months.”

“I killed a man didn’t I?” Gavin looked reluctant to tell me the truth.

“You did. There was no other way. You needed to take a full body’s worth of blood to live.”

“Who was it?”

“Someone who the world is better off without. Trust me. Don’t fill your mind with those thoughts right now.” He smiled again, “I’m just so happy to have you back.” He leaned down and put his head on my shoulder for a few moments.

A soft knock at the door interrupted our peaceful moment.
Holly poked her head in the door. She raised her eyebrows in surprise to see me awake.

“Welcome back,” she smiled
. “Angus, look who’s awake.” Holly came in followed by Angus who towered over her. He was smiling as well.

“About time,” he said.
“How are you feeling?”

“A little fuzzy about everything.
Gavin was just filling me in on some of what happened after I passed out.”

“There’ll be lots of time for that later.
I’m glad you’re awake; I have good news for you two. I’ve decided to lift your guardianship. Gavin is no longer your official keeper.” Gavin was smiling so wide now I thought his face would crack.

“Now that doesn’t mean you stop guiding and teaching this young lady.
Understand?”

“Of course,” Gavin said.

“Well you better hurry up and get on your feet then,” Holly said. “So many things to do. Wedding dresses to try on, plans to make.” She seemed to be making a dozen mental lists in her head all at once.

“Holly loves to plan a party, and she hasn’t done it in a while.
We might be in trouble here.” Gavin was teasing her.

“Congratulations you two,” Angus said, “I look forward to performing the ceremony.”
I wasn’t aware he could actually do that, but it sounded good to me. “Oh Gavin, don’t forget the council meeting tonight.”

“I’ll be there,” Gavin nodded.

“We owe you a debt of gratitude little missy,” he said, and then turned on his heel and left.

I turned to face Gavin. “Council meeting?”

“Yes. With the other two members of the council gone I’ve taken one of the vacant spots.”

“Imagine
,” I said, “me married to a politician.” Holly found the referral of her brother as a politician very funny and began to laugh hard.

“Nobody will spit in your direction anymore,” he smiled.

“Well that’s good to know. So I assume people are more ok with the idea of an Acadian as a vampire then?”