Tearful Reign

by V L Friends

  A few hours later I heard the bedroom door slam shut. It must have been Sebastian. I was in the shower. I finished and quickly dressed. When I entered the bedroom, Sebastian was standing waiting for me, arms crossed over his chest and lips in a tense thin line.

  “How dare you give me such ultimatums? You are a guest in my home!” Seb said, as he waved the letter that I had sent him. It was now crumpled in his hands.

  “My apologies. But you must know it is time for me to go. I overstayed my welcome the second I walked through the door, so I figured you would not care one way or the other. All I care about is that my father is better. He doesn’t want me with him. I get it. It’s fine.”

  I stepped forward, holding a hand out for him to take. “Thank you so much for saving his life.” Sebastian just scowled, his eyes still flashing with anger.

  I turned and pulled my bag out from under the bed and began packing my things.

  “Where the hell are you going?” a voice from the now open door sounded.

  My eyes looked up to meet Julian’s. He was leaning on a cane but looked to be his normal self. He stood tall. He was no longer the shriveled, mangled body I last saw. It had been a week. My eyes began to water and I smiled at him. I hadn’t realized how much I would miss him if he had died.

  I leapt forward to him.

  “Julian!”

  When I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my head in his chest I let out my relief in the way of sobs. His arm closed around me as he sank himself into me.

  When I looked into his eyes they were full of tears.

  “You have to get away from me. I almost killed you!” he said hoarsely as he studied my expression and his hand stroked back my hair. “Why? Why would you save me?” The pain in Julian’s voice was unbearable.

  “I love you, Julian.” Instantly I felt a twinge of regret at saying this because I didn’t want to admit it to myself, let alone out loud. Plus, Julian didn’t like sentiment so I thought he would scold me, but he surprised me.

  His hands cupped my head and his thumbs, stroking my cheeks as he looked at me with such love.

  “You have to help me find a place for her. A place far away. Safe.” Julian’s voice deepened to Sebastian though he never looked away from me.

  I glanced in Sebastian’s direction to see him leaning against the wall, his jaw clenched and mouth pierced into a line, looking like he was about to be sick. I had never seen him display any emotion but anger, but he was affected by this.

  “She is so fragile as a human. It would be so much better if she were transformed to a walker. I can do this for you both. I possess those abilities,” Sebastian stated.

  This was a bit of a shock to hear this information. I knew that only the oldest walkers could transform humans to walkers so it really shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.

  Julian stepped back and I sat down on a chair.

  “If only it were that simple,” Julian murmured as he sat down and ran his hands over his face and through his hair. “There is no doubt Shane would murder me for sure if I allowed that to happen.”

  “Shane?” Sebastian questioned.

  “Her guardian angel,” Julian said, as if he wanted to forget. “And the general of the army of angels that tried to kill me. Anaya stopped them.”

  Sebastian’s eyes widened with question.

  “And do tell me, why would they want to kill you, Julian?”

  Julian winced and I could tell he did not want to tell his friend.

  “They were there to stop me from killing her in my rage. It was Louis; he put a spell on me. I never meant to hurt her. I can’t believe that bastard could control me! She pissed us all off, Seb. She is a Christian! She raises people from the dead and can transform walkers back to human! She has upset the balance of power. Goddamn it, she is my daughter and my spiritual enemy! What the hell am I going to do?” Julian was so hysterical and angry as he explained.

  All I could do was look away and curl my legs into myself, trying to be invisible to them both.

  Sebastian sprang up, knocking his chair over.

  “So are you telling me that you brought that into my home,” he said, pointing at me, “knowing that not only is every walker, witch, and shifter after her but even the angels are most likely hunting her and they will rain down fury on us if they find out we are holding her captive here?!” Sebastian was furious.

  “Wait, wait, wait… You are holding me captive?” I held up my hand to interrupt.

  “Silence!” Sebastian was terrifying so I sank back in my chair. But it didn’t last long.

  “Look, I will be on my way. No worries. Don’t fret about it, guys.” I stood up slowly and nervously started to move to my bag.

  “Sit down!” Sebastian pointed at me to sit. Of course, I complied. He was terrifying! “I need to think this through for a few days. Neither of you are going anywhere.”

  With those words Sebastian was out of the room, leaving Julian and I alone.

  My eyes met Julian’s.

  “Holy crap! That man is scary!” I said.

  Julian burst into laughter. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “Julian, I am curious about something. Why are you so upset about me being a Christian? You were with my mother for a time and you knew she was,” I asked.

  Julian shook his head. “And look at what that got her!

  “I am sure she would not see it that way,” I said.

  “Never the less, it wasn’t that way until she met Shane. That’s when everything changed for us. That’s when I lost her.” Julian’s eyes drifted to the ground in sadness.

  “No wonder you have it out for Shane.” I mumbled but sure he heard me.

  The following morning, I awoke to find Sebastian lying next to me staring at me as if he were studying a lab rat in a maze. I took a risk to find out what this was all about and stared back. The strangest thing happened when we remained looking into each other’s eyes for a long time. The world seemed to disappear. I felt different. My heart started to pound. Oh, how wrong I was!

  “Seb, what is going on?” I finally said.

  “Anaya, I don’t want you to panic or get angry. Just remain calm and know that this was for the best. Last night I turned you into a walker.”

  “What?! How?! When?!” I yelled, jumping to my feet.

  “You were asleep and I, well I drained your blood from you and then replaced it with mine,” he said. “Stay calm. You are not officially there yet but you are transitioning…”

  “How could you?!” I was getting dizzy and had to sit.

  I started to panic. This had to be a nightmare! I got up and stumbled to the door. The hallway was so dark and everything seemed a blur.

  “Julian! Julian!” I called out, trying to remember where his room was.

  I stumbled into what I hoped was his room and was relieved when he reached for me in shock.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Did you tell him to do this to me?”

  “Do what?! Seb, what did you do?!” he yelled frantically.

  Sebastian was at the door. “Understand that it was for the best, Jules.”

  “What did you do?!” Jules got up and grabbed Seb by the throat.

  “I had to change her!” Sebastian said.

  “No, no, no!” Julian shook his head, horrified.

  Something felt very wrong. I felt hot and my head was throbbing, and the next thing I knew I felt my heart pounding very quickly. I grabbed my throbbing head and discovered that I was crying tears of blood. Then I noticed the bandaged wound on my neck. It must have been where Seb drained my blood. I also had a Band-aid on my arm where there used to be an I.V. This must have been where he pumped his blood into me. These wounds all had blood coming out of them.

  “What’s happening to her? She has blood coming out everywhere!” Julian said, trying to stop the bleeding.

  “Maybe she is rejecting my walker blood.”

  “You are killing my daugh
ter, Seb!” Julian was yelling as I lay there bleeding out.

  “I will make this right, I swear!” Sebastian grabbed me up and started yelling for his staff.

  I lost too much blood to stay conscious for long, but as I was fading I heard Sebastian tell Julian that he would save me.

  When my eyes opened I thought I was in heaven. I was looking at every kind of flower and I could hear the voice of a child.

  It was Dylan’s heart-shaped face looking down at me.

  “Yes! I just knew it would work!” I heard him cheer.

  “Welcome back, sleepy head,” he said cheerfully. “I hope you are not allergic. I took the liberty of filling your room with flowers to welcome you back to the world.”

  “Where am I?” I tried to say but discovered that my throat was too dry to make much sound.

  “You are still at Sebastian Crane’s home. I don’t know if you remember anything but you mostly died and Sebastian brought you to his hospital down below his home to revive you. It sure is a good thing he still had the human blood here so he could give you a blood transfusion. Well, anyway, that still was not working so that’s when I suggested that we contact the pastor friend of mine that lives in the village below. Anyway, he brought some people to come and look after you and pray for you. It caused quite a commotion. Most of Sebastian’s other guests couldn’t stay here with Christians in the house so they split, but that’s okay with me. It saved your life. I knew it would! Once Julian told me you were a Christian, I knew exactly what to do.” Dylan seemed very pleased with himself.

  “I wouldn’t get up if I were you. I have to go run and get Sir Seb and Mr. Jules. You stay right there and don’t move, okay? You have been unconscious for a week so it will be awhile before you are okay to get up.” He trotted out of the room.

  Julian was out of breath when he got to my room. He had worry in his eyes the likes of which I had never seen before. I had heard his voice talking to me when I was unconscious. I recalled that he wished I had never come into his life. He had given me nothing but pain, he said. He was deeply troubled at how much I sacrificed for him and yet he couldn’t stop being this horrible dark creature. He said he doubted if he would ever understand how I loved.

  Sebastian came in but maintained this sense of professionalism. He started explaining things to me about what he had to do and what my estimated recovery time would be. He began checking my vitals.

  “Everything seems normal,” he announced.

  “Are you really going to act as if you didn’t do this to me?” I was not too ill to be furious at him, and him acting like everything was okay was inexcusable.

  “Excuse me, would everyone please leave Anaya and I alone for a few minutes?” Sebastian asked everyone.

  Dylan and the other nurses in the room all left, but Jules remained there and leaned up against the wall with his arms folded.

  “Whatever you have to say to Anaya, you can say to me too,” Julian said stubbornly.

  Sebastian sat back on his doctor stool and sighed deeply.

  “I am sorry; I didn’t know this would happen. At least we know now that you are a rare form indeed. It is not possible for you to become a walker,” he said and seemed sincere.

  I wasn’t letting him off that easy.

  “I think I have you figured out now, Seb; you thought you had this great opportunity to use me as an experiment. You are the worst kind of doctor; you have no empathy or heart for anyone or anything. We are nothing more than your subjects that you can play with. Here you are trying to do good and help your kind but you really are one of the worst walkers I have ever met! The worst part is that you have yourself convinced that you have done this for our good. You’re just another dark tyrant that cares nothing about what you do to anyone! You can’t stand humans but yet you are ten times worse than them.”

  My words seemed to cut him because he just sat there glaring at me. I could see that vein throbbing on his forehead again. Finally, he looked down and said, “Well, I guess I deserved that.” He let the door slam shut when he left.

  Julian’s face was white and could not even look up from the floor.

  “Well, I will say this… You sure know where to cut him deep, love,” Julian said, shaking his head.

  “What? Like he didn’t deserve it?”

  “Maybe, but there are things about him that you don’t know. Things that make those words reach his tortured self, more than you could comprehend.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Sebastian was a highly feared king hundreds of years ago. He partnered with darkness to be the most feared kingdom in all the land. He made a deal to become a vampire. He is the only one I have ever heard of that walked away from vampirism. Something happened during his rule that shook him so deeply. He will have to share that with you. It is not my story to tell. All I can say is under his rule, his people, an entire city, were wiped out, and he still blames himself. In fact, he has vowed eternity to making up for the vast millions slain. That is why he has sentenced himself to punishment. That king is one tortured soul. When I met him, he was a monk living in an isolated mountain monastery. That story is for another time. My guess is that your words cut him so deep. There is no one who is more of a critic of Seb than himself, so I would just bet he is off somewhere in some kind of state of self-loathing right now,” Julian informed.

  I fell silent as I took in Julian’s words.

  It took a week for me to fully recover. Sebastian made himself scarce but on the day before Julian and I decided to leave he suddenly showed up.

  Julian and I had been sharing a room, and annoyingly so, he had barely left my side during my recovery.

  Sebastian knocked at our door and asked to come in.

  “I know I screwed up and I will do my best to make it up to you,” he said. “I am asking for a chance to make this right between us. Would you please accept my dinner invitation tonight?”

  “It’s up to Anaya,” Julian said stiffly. “I am out of here.”

  I was surprised to see the change in Julian as he went from my constant protector to suddenly ready to leave me alone with someone who was a past threat, as he walked out, leaving us alone.

  Sebastian was holding a large box.

  “Please,” he pleaded.

  “Okay,” I gave in.

  He handed me the box and left.

  The box contained the most beautiful dress. What was he up to?

  From the sounds of it, Julian and Sebastian had run into each other in the hallway. I could hear them yelling, then they stopped abruptly and turned to whisper.

  “Shh, she can hear us. We need to carry this conversation somewhere else,” Julian said.

  “Let’s go,” Sebastian said then I heard footsteps and no more. They must have left the house, no doubt to hide what was to be said between them.

  That evening, as I walked down the stairs, I saw there was the long dining table that Sebastian used for his larger dinner parties all set. The room was dimly lit with large candles lining the walls and a few on the table as well. Soft music was playing. Julian was standing by the fireplace staring into it, and when he noticed me he quickly looked as though he was being awoken from a trance and turned on a smile.

  “Look at you! You are so beautiful!” He pulled me into a tight hug. He seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders but at the same time he was trying to hide it from me. He wasn’t fooling me.

  During dinner Julian and Sebastian talked to me about what they had been discussing. Apparently, they made up for the most part, as they found common ground. Sebastian convinced Julian that it was better they work together to save me from Louis and protect me from other supernaturals.

  Sebastian and Julian seemed to have come up with this plan to protect me from Louis. Julian revealed to me that Louis had altered his plan from killing me and decided that I would be his wife. “He collects rare creatures,” Sebastian said. “And being that you are half walker, a Christian that wields po
wer, a friend of the angels, and a virgin, that makes you his number one prize to hunt and tame for himself,” Sebastian continued.

  “What does being a virgin have to do with anything?” I asked.

  “It’s just a thing he has about being the only one to have you,” Sebastian said but seemed nervous having to explain.

  I shrugged as I murmured, “Who ever said I was a virgin, anyway?”

  Julian’s eyebrow shot up as he eyed me curiously.

  Sebastian coughed as though he wished he hadn’t heard that.

  “Never mind,” I waved away the topic with haste. “Go ahead, continue with what you were saying.”

  Julian calmly explained to me that if I was married to Sebastian then no one would ever challenge it. “Sebastian is not only older but very well-known and feared among walkers,” Julian retorted.

  “Why would that make a difference?” I asked.

  “Let’s just say Sebastian has a reputation that no walker would ever challenge, including Louis,” Julian stated, but he gave no other details. “You will be safe.”

  My stomach had knots as I looked across the table at these two. I did actually care about them both but I could not help but feel railroaded. After what Sebastian did to me, I was not quick to trust him. I mean, just thinking about if he had been successful in what he had tried to do to me, that would mean I would be a cursed one. He had definitely acted rashly and I was not about to agree to anything he would suggest.

  “I need to think about this,” was all I could say.

  “Okay, well, I am going to leave you two to talk,” Julian said as he got up from the table.

  There I was, alone with Sebastian. This time I was very nervous. I had been alone with him many times and even shared his bed, but for some reason this was different. Maybe it was because he had just offered to be my husband or maybe it was the way he was looking at me right now.

  “Shall we move to the sitting area?” he said, getting up and grabbing both our wine glasses and waiting in front of me for my response. It was then that I noticed how handsome he looked tonight. He was wearing black slacks and a silk gray button-down shirt, and a button vest with a tie. His black wavy hair looked even darker with his all-white attire. This walker always looked perfect. My response was slow, as I was still trying to process everything.