Chapter 18:
I sit in the small room waiting for someone who is supposed to help me with all this armor. I have never worn armor before. The short distance, I lugged it from the front of the building; I would guess it weighed about 30 pounds. Wearing it is one thing, but protecting myself at the same time, well that is another thing. Maybe I won't have to fight up close; at least it will stop an arrow from a distance or an unnoticed swing of the blade.
I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. I've never fought before, I've never killed anyone. Should I do this? Or, should I just walk away? It's so hard to figure this stuff out. If my mom were here she would know just what to say, and I knew it was always the truth.
Bliss opens the door pulling me from my thoughts, "May I come in?"
"Sure." I reply.
She has clothing hung over her arm, "So, what do you think of your armor?" Bliss asks.
I take a deep breath, "To be honest with you, I can't see myself being able to wear it. It's extremely heavy. I could barely drag it to this room from the front of the building."
She smiles, "Sorry. As vampires we can lift just about anything. We forget about humans, and how they aren't the strongest of species." She says matter-of-factly, and somewhat insultingly. "Anyway, I thought you might not like it." She pulls a piece of clothing off of her arm, and hands it to me. "This is chain-mail. It will go from your neck to the bend of your knees. You may still have to protect things like limbs, and other important parts, but this will protect vital organs, so they don't get?poked." She smiles at herself. She takes an old shirt and jeans off of her arm also. "This is what you will be wearing. You just put the chain-mail on under these clothes, so that it isn't noticeable. If they see it they will try to strike you where it doesn't cover, if they don't see it then they will think that they are aiming for organs, and they are more likely to do so. Don't screw up. We lose you, we lose everything."
"What's wrong with the clothes I'm wearing?" I ask.
"Do you want blood all over that pretty little shirt, or those designer jeans?" She asks defiantly.
"I guess not." I say.
"Exactly," She turns to walk out of the room, but stops at the door. "I want you to stop."
I look at her confused. "What are you talking about?"
"You need to stop whatever you are doing to my brother." She says.
"What am I doing?" I ask defensively.
"You're going to get him killed if you keep trying to make him fall in love with you. It's literally against the law. If you get him killed, I will kill you. And, I'll love every minute of it."
"What are you talking about? I'm not trying to make him fall in love with me! I think you're delusional."
She picks me up by my neck and pushes me up the wall. "I am the only vampire in the world who can read minds. So, you can't lie to me."
I grip at her hand around my throat, but she won't let go. I close my eyes, and concentrate on her letting me go. Hoping I have some weird power that will get her off of me.
I open my eyes again, but I don't feel like myself. I stare straight at her. Her eyes get bigger in fear. I push my thought of her letting me go out at her. I keep thinking over and over, "Let me go." Her hand comes off my throat, and she flies back and hits the wall out in the hallway, which cracks under the force. But, I don't hit the ground. I stay propelled in the air, but now by my own accord. "You really should learn that you're no better than any human. I am stronger than you will ever know." My mouth moves and these words come out, but they are not mine. I lower myself to the floor. I'm not really sure how, but I am doing this. It just feels so unreal. I close my eyes again, and when I open them I fall straight to the floor. I feel so weak.
Bliss hasn't moved from where I threw her. "You're eyes?" She trails off.
"What about them?" I ask.
"They were black. I thought you were going to kill me." She says.
"I was seriously thinking about it. I think you forget you need me, I don't need you. But, I'm not trying to make your brother fall in love with me. And, what do you mean it's against the law?"
"Well, he is either way. And, I mean when Aldric first became leader of all vampires he was happily married, with two little children. Then since Aldric stopped working with Skylark, Skylark made an example of Aldric's wife and kids. He murdered them publicly. Or, he made them kill each other. He stood there and stared at them, and then they started trying to murder each other. Anyway, Aldric was torn apart. He made a law where no vampire could have relations with a human, because we are supposed to be allied with them, and there could not be more cases like his. I think he was just hurt, and wanted everyone to hurt with him." She explains.
"Wait, you said 'stopped working with Skylark'. Aldric worked with him?"
She nods, "They were best friends for a while before Aldric was turned into a vampire. They were part of Hagar's troops together. Skylark killed Katrina two days after Aldric became a vampire. Aldric says Skylark never told him about his plans, but I'm not so sure I believe him."
I shake my head and slowly stand up. "Will you go away, and let me get ready?"
She nods and without another word, walks away. I close the door, take off my clothes, and slip on the chain mail. The clothes she gave me are old, but they do fit really well. I put them on and step out of the room. There is no one in the hallway, so I am on my own. I take turn after turn, but I can't find the way to the door. Finally I hear voices, so I turn towards the sound. It is Aldric. He is having a very tense conversation with Allison. I stop behind a wall and listen.
"Allison, you just need to calm down. You will get your chance."
"How can I get my chance when all of you are only interested in her?" She fires back.
Aldric is sounding more like her authority, "You will stay here, and that's final. She is the one with power. I don't know why, or how, but you have yet to get any power. That makes you unimportant. So, stay out of my way, or you will be put in a little room with a white jacket on." I'm guessing he meant a straight jacket. "You called me here to help you. I dropped everything for you. Don't waste my trip." I can hear her storming toward me, so I turn and act like I'm going toward Aldric. We run straight into each other. She huffs, and looks at what I'm wearing. "What threw up on you?" She asks.
"Looks like something out of your closet, right? I know, I was thinking the same thing." I say defiantly.
She pushes through me, and down the hallway. Aldric stands there and watches us, when she is far enough down the hall he smiles, "She's nuts."
"I thought you might say that by the comment, 'put you in a little room with a white jacket'." I mock his authority voice. He chuckles. "So, can I ask you something?" I ask him.
He nods, "Sure, shoot."
"Why didn't you tell me about the law or you working with Skylark before you were a vampire?" I ask.
He sighs, "I didn't tell you because it doesn't matter. The past is the past. Can we leave it there?"
"Okay, but what about the law? That's why you said it was wrong after you kissed me isn't it? That's why you didn't want to explain it to me. It matters doesn't it?"
He nods, "It matters, but I couldn't figure out how to tell you."
"Well, 'Hey, I made a law that forbids me to be with you' would have worked."
He pushes me back into the wall behind me, and kisses me again. But this time it is different. It isn't a burst of emotion; it is one emotion only, sadness. He pulls his head back, but doesn't back up away from me. "Why is everything that makes you feel so happy, always illegal?"
"Because you made it illegal."
"They will not fight for us if I break my own laws."
"Then change it."
"It's not that easy." He says.
I think of Jett, "You know what, you're right. We shouldn't break laws." I push away from him, and start down the hallway opposite of the way I came from.
He sighs and catches up to me, "Let's talk about something else. Have you
been presented with the question yet?"
I shake my head, "No, but I did do something crazy."
He looks at me suspiciously, "What did you do?"
I explain what happened to Bliss, and what she had said about my eyes.
"So, basically you are stronger than you were yesterday, and you threw my sister." He says, and I nod. "Hmm, okay. That's good, use that today when you fight. Speaking of that, we need to get out there pretty quick."
I nod again, and try to keep up with him all the way to the door. We step outside; there are men and women lined up close to the edge of the brush. "Are they the ones going?" I ask. He doesn't answer, but walks to the front of the crowd.
"Okay, men and women. Your orders are this, we go in, and we wait and see what happens. I will let you know when to pull back. Your one and only priority is to not let Ren?e get hurt. You fail to do that, then you fail to serve us, and you will die." He takes a deep breath and steps over to me, "Look at me." I do. "Be careful out there. Wait, where's your armor?"
"I have chain-mail on." I whisper.
"Why are you whispering?" He whispers back.
"Because, I don't want these people to know about it. I want them to actually be worried if I get stabbed." I explain.
He nods and smiles, "Well, considering we are mostly vampires, we hear everything."
"I forgot about that." I say quietly. "So, how are we going to do this? Do we even have a plan?"
He looks around, "Around here we don't know the meaning of the word 'plan'. If you think twice you may miss your chance."
"So, we are just going to run and attack?" I ask.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"What if he stays there, and doesn't run for cover. You said he can control people. What if he turns our own people on us?"
"I?I don't know. This is all we can do."
"No, what you can do is get all of your people ready to fight, not just twenty or fifty of your best. This is going to be the last battle, not just the first. This is not an experiment just for me. This is the determining factor of your little revolution. You can't ignore that he wants us gone, and he will do anything to kill you or I. This is going to be a war not a battle."
"You're right. Okay, point taken. Let's get everyone ready. It may take a little extra time, because everyone still needs armor, the new ones anyway."
He stands back up in front of his people, "Okay, listen up everyone!" People start gathering around listening. "There has been a change in plans. Yes, we actually have a plan now. This isn't going to be a battle, this is a war. I no longer believe Skylark will run away when we come. I think he will try to get in our heads. If you feel the least bit different it is your duty to get away from your people, because he will try to have you kill us.
Now, as for the new plan, we have over a thousand people of all different species. We will all surround the mansion. We can try our best to go unnoticed, but if we can't, that's fine. The only thing is if we do get noticed, then he will have more time to get ready for us. So, let's try to be completely quite.
Our main target in this is Skylark. If we don't get anyone else, we must get him. Once we're inside we are going to kill every soldier, unless they surrender. You are to not kill them if they surrender. But, be cautious because it could be Skylark messing with us if they do. He is in all of their heads. If you see any regular civilians then you get them to safety, but again be cautious. Everyone will be going, so prepare. One other thing, if you see any vampires, try to help them. You are dismissed, we leave in an hour. If you get left behind, stay behind." Everyone scatters and starts getting weapons and armor.
He looks at me, "That a good enough plan for you?"
"Sounds good. Kill Skylark. I can't wait." I say sarcastically.
"Happy birthday, Ren?e." He says and laughs.
I raise one eyebrow, "Ha ha."
The next hour we spend waiting on people to get ready. I mostly just watch Aldric telling people the same things about Skylark and his control over and over again. When the hour is up there is over three thousand people. But, Aldric keeps reminding us Skylark had maybe five thousand. He isn't going to take any chances.
Once everyone is in place he pulls me up to the front, puts his arm around me and smiles weakly. "Right when I start to run, they will follow. We won't stop until we are right at the back of his mansion." He takes a deep breath. "Please be safe. All you have to is try not to get killed. I think it is a bad idea to put you in battle so early. But?"
"Stop," I cut him off. "We'll make it out. Plus there would be no reason to go to war if I wasn't here right so, just calm down."
He nods reluctantly. I close my eyes, and then I feel him running. My heart is beating fast, saying it is okay and it actually being okay are two different things. We come to a sudden stop. I open my eyes; we are already standing on the edge of the woods by Skylarks mansion in the back. Aldric sits me down and hands me a long sword. "Use this to protect yourself." He tells me.
Every vampire around me can be so quite that every sound I make is amplified ten times. They don't even step on a twig, but I do. I step on many, which gets me many enraged glares. They will walk slowly then hide behind a tree leaving me standing there like a sad fool.
Once we get about half way through Skylark's giant field around his mansion, someone must have seen us, because hundreds of men come pouring out of the doors. I look at the vampires beside me, they are smiling, dangerously. I look closer, and their eyes are red. Then I realize what they have done, they didn't feed this morning so that they would have the lust strong enough to help them kill these men. The soldiers get closer. About a hundred of our men walk to the front of the rest of us, and start running toward the soldiers. Once they are close enough to the soldiers they jump high up in the air, and they turn into the different animals that they half look like. Hybrids. One man jumps right above a huge soldier, and turns into a lion. When he comes down he lands on the man's chest. I see his head raise and he bites into the man's throat killing him instantly. With a growl of victory he raises his head up again with the soldier's heart in his teeth. This is happening everywhere. Animals are tearing apart what humans they can get a hold of.
The hybrids hold the soldiers back, and then the vampires start after them. When the vampires clash with the humans you can hear screams of fear, and victory. I'm frozen with disgust, and fear. How can they be so ruthless? Then I think of my biological mom and dad, and my adoptive parents, and Jett, and even Chelsea. That's how. They've lost people they care about and they channel their anger and hatred into killing these people. I do my best to let go of what little fear I have left and run into the middle of the fight.
A small man comes up in front of me swinging a sword at my face. I move back just before it slits my throat. I do a full spin and catch the man's neck with my sword. He falls to the side. I look down at him disgusted, when I look back up everyone is frozen. But, I don't remember doing it.
I'm not the only person able to move though, there is someone walking toward me. It is a man, but he isn't dressed for a war. He is wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. He gets closer and closer, once he is close enough for me to see, I feel like I might faint.
"Jett," I whisper.
"Hey, how have you been?" He asks.
"How have I?.I think I'm hallucinating, or did I die?"
He walks up closer, and touches my face, "You're not hallucinating, and you're not dead." He assures.
"But, you're dead. I'm pretty sure you're dead. Aren't you?"
He nods, "Yeah, I am. But, I was told to come talk to you. I don't have long. You have power, and I'm supposed to ask you if you want to keep it, or something. They wouldn't give me any details, I'm not high enough on the food chain for that yet."
"I have to, don't I?"
He shakes his head, "No, not really. But, you will save many lives with this power. You can't even imagine how strong you are."
"I didn't save you. What's the power worth if I couldn't
save the only person I truly care about?" I look down trying not to cry.
"You did save me. You saved me the very moment we met. Do you remember? I was running from Skylark's men, I stole food for my family. You told them that I was with you the whole time, but we had never really met before. I would have been dead or worse if it weren't for you that day. Then you saved me every day after that. When he killed my parents, who stopped me from killing myself?"
"I did."
"Exactly, you saved my life by being with me. You saved me. The least I could have done was not give you to the enemy."
I laugh sadly, "But, who's going to save me now?"
"That man right over there," He points to where Aldric is fighting someone. "He, as much as I hate to say it, will be the one for you. He will help you make it through everything, and you will greatly need it."
In order to change the awkward subject that's arising, I answer his question, "Yes, I want the power."
He smiles, "Good, then save our land with it. You have to save them now. Look around, these people are fighting for a chance to live. If you don't help them, they will not live. They will die. Do not let the people who have already died, die in vain. Avenge your mother, and father."
"But, how do I use this power?"
"I have no idea; you have to figure this out on your own." He looks behind him at something I can't see. "I have to go now. I love you so much." He kisses me urgently for what seems like forever. When he pulls back I can see tears in his eyes.
"I love you too. I'll make you proud."
"I know you will. You always do." He disappears.
When I look back people are moving again. They are coming from left to right. Aldric runs up to me, "Hey, you okay?!"
"I need you to help me get to Skylark! I can't fight through everyone!" I yell over the people. Someone tries to stab Aldric in the back, but he turns around and breaks their neck before they can get the blade too deep.
"Okay, stay close to me. If someone comes at you, tell me."
He starts fighting his way through, sending people falling to the left and right as Aldric kills them. A man sees us and starts toward me. I know Aldric can't stop, so I do the same thing I did to Bliss. I push my thought of him just dropping over dead out, he falls quickly. I take a breath of relief.
There is fighting going on inside the mansion also. "His room is this way!" Aldric yells.
I follow him, the vampires, shape shifters, and hybrids around us keep everyone away so we can get by. We open two big doors with Skylark's face in gold on them. He is just sitting there on his throne. When we walk in he smiles, "Well, well, what do we have here?" He mocks.
Aldric glares, "It's over, Skylark. Surrender and we will spare your life."
Skylark laughs, "Over? There's no such thing as over. Even if you kill me, I have many children. What will you do when one of my sons, rise to take his rightful place on the throne?"
"You are no king! You are a peasant in the chair of a king! Kings don't murder their people!" Aldric says.
"Yes, they do. Look at Della, people die by the hundreds every day. You think I'm bad, you've seen nothing." Skylark says.
"Do you surrender?" Aldric asks calmly.
He shakes his head, "One thing I will never do, is surrender."
He stares at Aldric. Aldric falls to the floor holding his head, like he has a headache, just like Skylark had done to Jett in the court room. "Aldric," I put my index and middle finger on his forehead, only because it feels like the right thing to do. From there I go on instinct. When I close my eyes, I can feel his pain. I yell and take my hand off of his head, "What are you doing to him?" I ask Skylark.
"Killing him," He states blankly.
He looks at me, but nothing happens. I smile and walk up closer to him, but for some reason I can't kill him. It feels so wrong. I'm not a murderer; at least I hope I'm not. Skylark smiles, and pulls out a huge knife. He swings it at my face, I lean back and he misses me by inches. I step back, so he will have to stand up.
He lunges at my throat, knocking me down with his hands cutting off my air. My sword slides out of my hands. "You should have just come to me when I first told you to, and none of this would have happened!" He yells.
Between breaths I try to speak, "Why?so?you?could?kill...more?people?"
He doesn't like that question, so he pushes his knife into my ribs. I groan, and looked into his eyes. "I want him to die." I keep thinking that, hoping it will work. He falls back on the ground, and I stand up beside him. I keep saying it over and over in my head. Blood starts coming from his eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. He holds his throat like he is being choked. I want to stop, but I know if I do he will kill me, and Aldric. His body completely disintegrates, leaving nothing but a pile of dust, just like what I thought he did to Jacob. I put my hand to my mouth; I can't believe what I just did. I look at Aldric on the floor, he is lying on his side, but he isn't holding his head anymore. I walk over to him and get down on my knees, "Are you okay?"
"What did you do to him?" He asks.
"I have no idea. I just?"
"Forget it. It's over." He says.
Chris burst through the big doors, "It's over! All of Skylark's men surrendered! Wait, where's Skylark?"
"I?um,"
"He's dead" Aldric says.
"Well, come on. Everyone is waiting for you guys" Chris says.
I stand up, and help Aldric up. He looks at me, "Hey, you're bleeding"
I feel my side, "Yeah, Skylark stabbed me, but the chain-mail stopped most of the blade."
"Oh, okay. So, is your neck though, we need to get it fixed again."
"I know. You almost got killed, and you're worried about my neck." I just shake my head.
We walk down the stairs of the mansion, and everyone starts clapping and cheering. Aldric puts his arm around me, "You did it."
I nod slightly, but I feel horrible. I just took at least three lives.
"Come one let's get you home. We can go back to camp tomorrow."