I fail to exterminate more than three vampires. That’s all that I could kill. It’s all that I have been given to kill. And when you think that there are so many of them that will still remain... When you consider that there are so many of them out there to be killed...When one of those breaks my neck, I out an involuntary painful sound. And I could still recover myself. Only if he would not break my throat. My own blood muddies my face when thick vein bursts with it. It surprises me the smell of my blood. It's not pungent like that of vampires. It's not too tasteless, like that of hunters. I don't smell any of rust, as that of humans. My blood has a sweet smell, almost vanilla. My body is laying on the floor, doubled over. My head is almost detached from the rest of my body. A black mist envelops me. Strange, I always thought I'd see the end in sight when I'll be on death row. But perhaps that is a specific expression of humans. Someone with the same familiar scent leans near me, and as if I am touched on my arm. I hear a click when something is loosen from around my wrist, then a familiar voice in the dark which says like in a bad dream.
“You didn't just think you're the only one who bears weapons as jewelry, did you?....”
Cassiopia?!
Then, another voice.
“Our understanding ends here. You are free to go. However, if our roads will cross again, we will not forgive you.”
“Don’t you worry. Nor will I – you.”
Then another laughter…
My breath is becoming increasingly rare. My heart rate has decreased considerably, until it no longer felt at all.
It's not strange that my only regret is that I haven't lived enough to exterminate the vampire race?
And then, I feel my pulse very, very ...very ...slow ...and...
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick...
Tick-tick-tick-...tick...
Tick-tick-...tick...
Tick-...tick...
Tick....
....
CHAPTER SIX
...
...
...
Tick...
...
...
...
Tick...
...
...
...
„Come on, you can do it... I know you can!”
Tick...
„Stay with me!... No! No!...Ouch!”
...
...
...
„You are too strong to give up! Come on, stay with me! Can you hear me? Stay with me! Follow my voice! That’s it! Good girl!”
Tick...
...
...
...
„Damn! ...Where this all blood still comes out from you? The jugular has escaped me again! Look how I mess myself because of you! So you might as well help me with something more than with a small heart beat once in a while, ok?”
Tick...
„That’s it! I can't figure out what kind of animal are you yet, but your blood smells fabulous...”
...
...
...
„Come on, now, I wanted it to be a compliment! If I wanted to get my teeth into you, I had already done it so far!...”
Tick...
„There you go! It's better this way...”
...
...
...
„I better won’t rejoice before I’m sure of something, right? I shall give time to your body to recover now, ok?”
Tick...
„You are safe here. I shall guard you, don't worry! Those who have attacked you are pretty damn sure they have killed... Even I wonder that you have resisted until now... Anyway, I must go out to shrink somehow that smell of yours, that practically screams ‚Hey, here I am!’ And I'm not sure that I can cope with too many of them! But I’ll be back very quickly, don’t you worry!”
...
...
...
„I came back pretty quickly, didn’t I? Isn’t that what I’ve said?”
...
...
...
„Don’t tell me that you went off! I would be really pissed! Especially after how much effort we both put in! Lol! Or maybe I have something in my ears and can’t hear your heart beats!... Better make it classic, and put my ear on your breast!...Let’s see...”
...
...
...
„Nothing! Come on, girl, even a small flickering of your chest would be just fine right now!... And if I hear it, I promise not to make any more jokes about your poor heartbeats...”
....
Tick...
„Phew, finally! A promise is a promise! I'm going to keep my mouth...Hey, don't stop again!”
Now and then I hear something like a tingle. Slightly irritating, rather than really annoying. Then it's totally peace. A quiet cold, otherwise. The tingle comes with unimaginable pain, with burns in my neck, quite unbearable. So unbearable, that I prefer a thousand times more of that silence of ice, where I no longer feel anything, especially burns and pain. But whenever I think I’ll finally be left alone in this icy silence, I hear again this tingle that doesn’t allow me to rest.
I don't know how much time passed, but my hearing is as good as before.
„Get to look at these strong and regular beatings! That’s very cool! I knew that you are a survivor! Well done, girl!”
I know that the tingle is the voice of this irritating woman. Although I can’t still smell it, I can’t still see her, her voice sounds like this woman is always up to something, especially if frolics are involved. At the same time, I realize that she is not quite an ordinary woman. She is somebody who knows for sure that I am not a human being, but a strange creature. As sure I am that she is a kind of a creature, because a merely human being could not have kept me alive. To be honest, in fact, she had not only kept me alive, but basically she brought me back to life. And she did everything possible and impossible to maintain me in this state. Indeed, my heart beat very fast, especially because I'm not used to depend so much on somebody else, and due to the fact that the only sense that works now is that of my hearing. That's not just as perfect as it used to be because, although I can hear many inaudible sounds, I realize that I do not hear this woman's heart. Or rather, very, very slowly. I feel then how she opens my mouth, and she trusts in my mouth something that feels like raw meat. It is a heck of a taste. In fact, the meat that I’d eat right now is...
„I should be grateful if you'd keep away your imagination from my plates.” I hear her lively voice again.
Perhaps my venom fell out of my mouth uncontrollably, when I thought of a vampire. A very old, almost unknown feeling, invades me. It looks very well with uneasiness The woman wipes my mouth like I am some sort of a toddler, and then she continues to feed me.
„I know that's not quite a delicacy, but what I’m giving you here is what I eat for myself. You just get used in time.”
Again, my thought leads me to think about the taste of a vampire. I hear a high-pitched sound, such as pile on metal. Then I hear the noise of my sharp claws when they came through my nails.
„Wow! Look at those fangs! I wonder how can I make you a manicure on those little claws of yours...”
That voice that has no face yet, makes me feel embarrassed, again.
„Can’t you just do something with these deadly weapons-? I don't have any solution for this... and frankly, I would not want to accidentally cut myself into them while I must feed you...”
Deliberately, I try to create another mental image, and slowly, slowly, my fangs and claws withdrew. Although the taste of food is not pretty good, I realize with some surprise that I feel satiated. At least for now. Because I get hungry in a fairly short time. But not the hunger itself is the problem. Like usual, I am used with hunger. I don't know why I feel and know this, how that hunger is a very well known thing to me, but this is it. I can very clearly feel and hear her presence, like she is all around me. She moves with great speed, kinda like a...
„Now don't get upset, and d
on’t jump, okay? I’m going to look at your wound. I will not do to you any harm, okay? If I wanted to hurt you I would have already done it, or I would not bother to bring you here and to take care of you...”
Her tone is gentle, joking, but easily scared at the same time. Not necessarily scared, but more nervous. She does something in the area of my neck, and I slightly jerk when I feel this strong, burning pain, as if my neck would have been boiled, on the outside, and on the inside, at the same time.
„Oh, shit!” She says, in her own and colorful way to speak. „Although it still looks pretty bad, I assure you the wound is much better. At least we know now that your hearing is back! I hope that your other senses will return, too. Although it would be good for them to come back with time...”
Her last words sounded as if they were uttered more as for herself.
I do not have the notion of time, so I cannot appreciate how much time has passed since my hearing is back. All I am aware of is that since then, it seems to me that this woman is speaking continuously, without ceasing. And because she keeps cluttering, I can't figure out when it is day and when it's night. So I realize that she is not sleeping. At all. She needs no rest, as if she is...
My fingers involuntarily tear, with a noise that imperceptible for human ears.
„Don’t tell me! You motor function is restoring!! Hey, but that's a wonderful thing!”
As from nowhere, the woman appears next to me, like a very light breeze. She probably moves with great speed, as I've already noticed. She touches me on my hands. Her skin is very cold. Through my head, a terrible image passes. I deliberately cast it. The very short moment of straining, if you can even call it short moment, goes unnoticed, fortunately, by the female. Because I have also noticed that she sees the smallest details. Nothing escapes her. But my fleeting postures.
„Come on, you try to move. Can you move altogether?”
After a few quite hesitant tries, I realize that I'm moving from all the fibers of my body. I would probably move with the same celerity and speed if I had the visual sense restored, too. Or maybe not. However, I realize that I'm not at my peak capability.
„That will certainly be a change for the better, now that I don’t have to feed you by myself. You do understand, right? If there weren’t for those your fangs of yours who can appear without you even give me a fair warning before... And I must tell you that I care for my hands enough to not want to see them riddled with your powerful canines, adding the fact that these hands are also attached to my entire nice body....”
Her joyful teasing makes me feel quite uncomfortable, again. I do not remember such a feeling, but as with hunger, something in me tells me that I had this feeling before, that, even if very, very long time ago.
While I consciously shovel the food into my mouth, the taste like cardboard of the dish makes me ask.
„And what is this crap, after all?”
It passes a full second of silence before the woman starts screaming.
„Haaaaaaay, that is so cooooool! You can talk!”
Honestly, I just now realized that my mind was spoken aloud.
„You can really speak! That is so great!”
I feel the airflow around me, a sign that she moves again very quickly around me. I would like to ask her a question, but I'm afraid of her answer. Not now. I'm not ready yet.
„That is so great! You are almost yourself again!”
Her joy is obviously heartfelt. I can't imagine why. I am a foreign to her, and maybe I really am..
„I am glad from the bottom of my soul that your voice has also returned! Now I can talk to you about my troubled love life, and tell me what you think!”
She is so serious and enthusiastic in what she says, that I do what I haven’t done for so long, that I even forgot how to do it: I laugh. It's a rusty, rumbling laugh, but it's nevertheless a laugh. I am so amazed to hear myself laughing, that I suddenly stop.
„Yap,” the female voice then says, seeming slightly pissed, „I didn’t think either that my love life is something to be laughed at.”
This time, my laugh comes out easier, more spontaneous, even if just as rumbling.
„You're not really friend with common sense, right?” she asks me.
With my ultra-fine hearing, even if I don't see it, I hear, however, as she pulls out her tongue at me.
I laugh for the third time. Her laughter, more melodious, simpler, more natural, mixed with mine.
„My name is Slim.” she tells me.
She does not have a voice who invites making confidences. Maybe if it were so, I would not have responded. She is just a natural, spontaneous, warm, open being.
„I'm Patricia.”
Then I add, as a creature who has remembered something long ago forgotten.
„But I always liked to be told Pat.”
I don't know where that comes from, but it's a certainty anyway. I feel that I have always preferred to be told Pat.
As if the woman nods.
„Anyway, I think it suits you better.”
She grabs my hand with hers. It's as cold as I felt it the first time. But my body temperature is as cold. It's a pretty gratifying sign that my instincts don’t dominate me.
„Probably, it would have been preferable to introduce myself at the beginning,” she says, „but I have not considered it appropriate giving the circumstances. I had far more important things to do. And anyway, I wanted you to know that you are safe here with me... I didn't want you to be preoccupied, and I had to take care of you...”
I imagined the woman delicately shrugging. I almost don't remember when someone was so much concerned about my safety, since someone has taken care of me... Kyrya... No! I toughened myself up, immediately. I should no longer fall into the same trap, the trap of affection because, at the time that everything is fine, suddenly, something, or someone, will come up ne to take that happiness away from me! The thought of my dead creators that passes through my head, sends through my veins the same huge wave of hate against the vampires’ race. And suddenly, my body temperature rises up to the boiling point, my mouth is invaded by venom, and my canines sunk in my lower lip. My nails become sharp claws. I feel another stream of air. She just made a jump backwards, that's clear.
„To understand that this is not exactly the best time for me to look at your wound, and change your bandage...” she says with a voice as friendly, but cautious.
I get embarrassed, again. What does this woman make out of me, by making me feel the most inappropriate feelings? I tighten myself to regain my control, though it's the hardest thing to do. With a short jingle, my canines are withdrawn, as the tide of venom in my mouth. My body temperature drops sharply. As my claws. I no longer represent the slightest danger.
„Sorry.” I apologize, as though these words rub the sandpaper on my throats.
„Don’t be.” She says with an understanding that humbles me even more. „It's understandable. I wonder that you could refrain yourself for so long.”
I pick up my head sudden, heading towards the direction of her voice.
„What? Did you think that I shouldn’t figure out what kind of creature you are?”
I imagine again a grimace on her face.
„At first, indeed, I found it difficult to figure out what you are. Your smell was different from everything I’ve smelled until then. Like a human, like a vampire, and still, like something less pleasant. So I was on the verge of declaring yourself an atypical vampire, until you drooled venom in my plates, and I saw your fangs.”
The idea that she would have thought me being a vampire makes me growl. The disgust I feel makes my hair stand on its end.
„Perhaps, if I am still alive so far, is because you are not yet fully rebuilt.”
Again, the idea of harming my benefactor, humiliates me. And what humbles me even more, is that she's right.
„Don’t you wanna know what I am?” she asks me after a second of silence.
Her question mak
es my blood boil, again. I shoot my head in all directions, as denials. No, not yet.
„No!” I almost scream at her. „I don't want to know! You shut up!”
Her silence confirms me that I have offended her. And what do I care about that, after all? I sink in the silence, and I sit impassive.
I have the same rigid attitude, silent, when she checks my wound, which equally burns me like hell. That's why I feel my pulse rate in my wound.
Time passes again, hard, distressful. What horripilates me most is the thought that I became so dependent on this woman, that I no longer talk to at all, although she continues to speak to me, always cheerfully, always urging me as to laugh. Can’t she see that I don’t care about the friendship she is showing me? Can’t she see that Ido not want it?
I eat mechanically, wondering for the umpteenth time, what crap I feed with. As I already said, it keeps me satiated, but for a very short time. It's not like I’d eat a heart of a vampire, for example. A wave of venom sprinkles my teeth. I shake my head, and I swallow. I was starving before, I know that. It's not necessary for me to give up now. I was just about to burn alive, consumed by the lust for this cursed flesh. Maybe it will come time to burn again, but certainly not now. The problem is that no meat, except that of a vampire one, can restore my diminished senses as fully and as fast.
„ I’ve already told you that it takes some time to get used to the taste.” her voice says, starting to irritate me with her cheerful tone.
As usual, I pretend I do not hear her.
„I saw that you grimaced. Your mouth is filled with venom, but at least you didn’t put out your fangs at me.”
Her giggle makes me gnash my teeth.
„Well,” she continues, „if one of my brothers was here, we would become friends easier...”
I'm too less interested in what she has to say, so I pay no attention to her.
„Lastly, as to clear you about what we eat, because I didn’t get to answer your question that you last time asked, I must tell you that it's a mixture of raw meat from different animals, but enriched with the shark’s, because let me tell you that, without the shark meat, the food would definitely be uneatable.”
The Huntress: Becoming a Huntress Page 7
