by Jade White
“Everything will be okay?” She laughed at that. She wanted to spit in the idea that everything was going to be okay. Everything was not going to be okay and of that much she was certain. There was a lot of distance between them and anywhere and for all they knew, the vampire horde that was chasing them might be surrounding them.
From everything she could tell, they were probably out there in bodysuits, baking in the heat of the day. For all she knew, they were a bunch of crazy psychopaths who were willing to cook in the middle of the day and have the night bring a good old fashioned baby killing. What was wrong with them? The answer seemed simple. They were vampires. They were ruthless, bloodthirsty vampires.
“We’re not all that bad,” he assured her, reading her thoughts again.
She glared at him. She hated it when he did that. There was something obviously wrong about him doing that. She wanted him to know that in the future, she didn’t want him reading her thoughts under any circumstances. She didn’t want him thinking it was okay for him to just pop inside of her mind and have a look around.
There had to be boundaries with that sort of thing and rules he could respect and honor. If he couldn’t do that, then there were going to be troubles ahead.
“What does that mean?” she asked him.
“It means that not all vampires are bloodthirsty psychopaths,” he said with a shrug.
“Care to explain that one?” She rolled over and looked at him as she lay on her side, listening to the drone of the air conditioner and the melody of a baby bouncer.
“You swear you’ve forgiven me?” he asked her after a second of thought.
She looked at him with a curious expression on her face. Why did it matter to him? What was he worried about?
“Yeah,” she said honestly. There was nothing for her to hold against him and she knew there was nothing he needed to worry about.
“Fine,” he said with a shrug. “I’m going to tell you the story of Victor Titus, but I don’t want it changing the opinion you have of me. I don’t want you to think I’m a freak or that you can judge me any less. I know what I am and I don’t expect you to change your opinion of that, just because I say I’m different.”
“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I won’t.”
“Good,” he answered. “I’m a vampire and that means I’m an evil spawn of Satan. There’s nothing good inside of here except that I’m trying to save your life from the predicament I got you into.”
“Agreed,” she lied.
“Fine,” he said. “I was born back when Rome was still something to be feared and the world bowed down to a man named Caesar. The truth of the matter was that we also bowed down to the Pope as well, but there was a scourge on the horizon. All of Rome was terrified of a plague that was coming our direction named Attila and his army was as vast as the eye could see and there was no stopping him.
“Everyone in the world knew that Attila was the Scourge of God and that he had come to destroy Rome once and for all. And he did. He arrived in Italy and I was just a young man when he arrived. I was working in the Roman auxiliaries as a mercenary, but when the raiding parties came, all order fell into chaos.
“I don’t know where the vampirism came from and in all of my travels, I have never been able to find its source. But I know that in Italy, it was brought over by the Huns and when I was turned, it was in order to fuel a vampire raiding party that had one goal and one goal alone. They were going to turn Rome into a nightmare.
“While I was conscripted into a dark army, more horrible than I could ever imagine, I knew I was never going to be like my captors, those who had turned me. I was never going to become a vampire that did terrible things to the innocent. For me, I was going to be a vampire who lived by his own rules and didn’t become a monster like the rest of my brothers and sisters that they turned.
“So, I wandered the countryside, killing any Huns I could find, stalking war bands, and eventually helping to drive them away from the shadows. Over the centuries, I watched as other vampires spread across the world, turning those they would use into their own servants and fellow vampires, looking to turn humans in order to have some sort of civilization and company.
“But over the decades, I hunted down and killed my brothers and sisters and those that I found were vampires as well. I have never turned another into a vampire and I never will.
“The one who was hunting us, Flavus, was the last of my old companions who was turned when the Huns raided us. He is the last of the vampires I knew as a human and I am going to make sure he is killed and put to rest once and for all.
His war band is large, but they know I’ve spent the centuries killing and hunting vampires. They’re afraid of me and of what I can do. I know they’re afraid and they should be. They know what I’m capable of.”
“So that’s why they want to kill Blake,” she said, looking at their son and suddenly understanding everything that was happening. Victor was some kind of anti-vampire who was going around killing those who were like him. He was trying to rid the world of vampires and this had made him a target for every other vampire in the world that wanted to make sure they were safe and that they had nothing to fear.
She looked at him and suddenly felt that there was more to him than she had ever realized. There was more to him than she had ever hoped to imagine. It was a strange feeling and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to make anything of it.
“That’s why they want to kill my son,” he said with a contemplative voice.
She could only imagine how tragic that must have been for him. That would be nothing more devastating to her than having to face the consequences of the good deeds she had tried to do over her lifetime.
She wasn’t sure that if she was a monster, she would have the ability to turn herself into something good. An eternity felt like a very long time not to have a companion to travel with or to enjoy the world with. He must have been so lonely over that vast length of time. He must have spent so many countless hours by himself, wondering if there was ever going to be an end to what he was feeling.
“Well then,” she said, sitting up from the bed and looking out the window. “I say that we make every one of them pay for what they’ve done and what they will do. They’re monsters and I’m going to help you stop them. After all, didn’t you say that true love was what brought Blake into being? We’ll both have to stick together from now on.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked her, looking at her with an expression that told her he was more than willing to let her go her own way.
Well, she wasn’t about to do that. She wasn’t about to let him have all the fun and leave her here to watch the baby. No, she was going to make sure he had someone there to watch his back through all of this and she was going to be that person.
“I’m more than certain,” she assured him. “You stay here with Blake and I’m going to load up the car and get some gas for us.”
As she headed out to the car, she carried her duffel bag full of supplies they had brought for Blake and she knew they wouldn’t be much longer. She didn’t know where the first church was that they were going to, but she was certain they would make it there by dawn and there was no way she was going to wait around for another second.
She pulled the car away from the hotel and drove across the street to the gas station, filling up and looking out on the interstate and beyond.
She never thought she would live in a world this strange and full of adventure and excitement. She felt like she was living in an alternate reality where everything was all messed up and wrong. How was she supposed to go back to the normal world after all of this? She was certain she wasn’t going to be able to. She wasn’t going to be able to go back to a desk and not think about all the things that went bump in the dark.
Her mind drifted to the thoughts of everything she had been listening to in the hotel room. She didn’t know history that well, but she knew that Victor ha
d been around for a very long time. There was a lot of history there and as she thought about it, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was all true. Had he been around for the fall of Rome and everything that came after it? Had he seen all of that? She shuddered at the thought of it. As she waited for the gas to pump, she wondered how long he would keep going. He was on a suicide mission, hunting down and pissing off vampires until he was either the last vampire or they eventually got to him first.
That was a grim thought and she couldn’t help but wonder if there was possibly something better for him to do with all of that rage and hatred. Maybe he could teach other vampires to be like him. She was certain that she wasn’t the first person to think about that and she felt like an idiot just thinking about it.
When the car was done filling up, she drove to the nearest fast food restaurant and ordered herself a chicken sandwich and waited while the people in front of her got their beverages and their meals. She was patient, watching as the sun was slowly sinking for the horizon. She wondered if there was more to all of this that she hadn’t been told. She wondered if there were any more secrets out there.
Were there other things that went bump in the night? Were UFOs a thing? Where did all of this end and where did fantasy pick up again? She realized that maybe she didn’t want to know about it. But there was one thing that she did know; the world was a lot stranger than she had anticipated and she decided it was probably a good thing.
While she was waiting for her chicken sandwich, she thought about the dream she had experienced, the vision, as Victor had called it. She thought about how strange it had felt and how truly peculiar it had been. It had been so powerful and as she looked around, she was surprised there were no shadowy figures standing in windows, watching her like they had been at her apartment. She was surprised she wasn’t alone in a sea of hungry, ravenous vampires clawing at the car, lusting for her blood.
Had they really spent the entire day locked away, pacing back and forth while they were waiting for the sun to go down so they could finally be free of all of this? Were they really that locked away by the sun? Something told her they had to be able to have some mode of transportation. They should have surrounded them and been everywhere right now. It didn’t make sense that they were alone in the middle of nowhere without an army of vampires around them, baying for blood.
That was when she remembered that in the early parts of her vision, she had seen the vampires all around her. They had been watching her and they had even been trying to reach out to grab her and ensnare her, but eventually, when the cries of her child from the church drew their attention, they didn’t come after her any more.
They weren’t standing around watching her anymore. Instead, they had all turned and headed for the church and they had run with the kind of ferocity that made her think that right now, they weren’t coming for Victor and her, but they were running straight for the church.
There was a sinking feeling in her stomach and she realized she had been wrong all along and that there weren’t any real dangers around them. The other vampires weren’t biding their time, pacing back and forth. They were probably already there. They had been running toward the church because it didn't matter if they caught up to Victor or not, they knew exactly where he was going. They knew he was heading straight for the church and he was going to have to end up there if he wanted to save his child.
When Shawna paid for her food and took the bag, she sped off toward the hotel, fully aware that they had lost an entire day and there was going to be an army waiting them when they finally got to that church. Something told her that no matter how powerful and strong Victor was, Flavus was going to be just as strong. Flavus was just as old as he was and he was the last of the cohorts that had been with Victor.
They were going to be evenly matched and that meant it was going to be a true, old fashioned show-down and they were going to have to fight to the death. All she had to do was make sure Blake got into the church and that he was touched with the holy water to make sure everything worked and that they weren’t left alone.
Driving back to the hotel, she quickly got out of her car and headed back to their room. Victor was waiting for her, holding his son for the first time since he had seen him and the moment she entered the room, he looked up and he suddenly understood that he had been foolish and had left a glaring weakness in their plan.
The look in his eyes told her everything; he was fully aware of every thought going through her head. The look on his face told her that he didn’t have a solution and there wasn’t really an easy way to get out of this one. She was going to have to help him and they were going to have to go into this with fresh eyes and a new plan.
“We need to go,” he said, looking to the window and turning back to her. “We’ve already lost too much time.”
He handed Blake to her with all the care and finesse she had ever seen him have and she took him willingly, handing him the keys to their car and letting him go for the driver’s seat. She watched as he stepped out into the twilight of the day and closed the car door behind him. There was a look on his face that showed he was ready for business and that he was tired of playing around. She knew the feeling. She knew it extremely well.
They were across state lines in less than an hour and as she ate her meal, she suddenly realized her appetite was diminishing with each thought that she had about what they were going up against. There was nothing exciting about this and nothing that made her think they could handle it in absolutely any way.
There was no way they were going to be equipped to take on this kind of a fight without any kind of backup or any kind of help. They should have had something to their advantage, and when they lost their distance, there was really no hope for them. They were going to be beaten and defeated.
“Don’t think like that,” he told her angrily. “They might be there right now, but we still have a chance. All that matters is that we get Blake into the church and get him touched by holy water before they can get to him. Once he’s blessed, there is nothing they can do to him.”
She nodded to him and wished she had more of a plan than she did to help him out. She couldn’t think of anything that was really going to help them. Victor had been the one who had been training for years to defend their son and to make sure he was safe.
In all of that time, she hadn’t even been alive. In fact, she doubted that the majority of her dominant bloodline had been around. Right now, she was nothing more than the decoration coming along with him to carry the baby. For all her strength and independence, she had nothing to offer him.
She knew he could hear all of this, but she didn’t care. It was the truth of the situation and they both needed to come to terms with it. She was going to help out in every way that she could, but that didn’t mean it was going to be pretty or particularly useful.
In fact, she had the full understanding that what they were going up against was very real and there was a very serious chance she was going to end up dead. She looked at him when she thought that and she could see the hurt in his dark eyes.
He didn’t want that and she was grateful he didn’t, but wishful thinking wasn’t going to make her armored or competent against these people.
“I want you to be prepared when we get there,” he told her with a calm voice after an hour of silence with nothing but her thoughts to keep them company. His voice was startling and she was terrified by it for a moment, jumping at the sound of it. “The church is going to seem like nothing more than an old church. It’s not the first church to be built, but it’s the first church that vampires were destroyed in.
“It’s holy ground and only a truly powerful vampire will be able to step foot inside of the church. That means, while I’m distracting Flavus and the rest of his freaks, you’re going to need to get inside the church as quickly as possible and use the holy water on Blake. It will be super obvious. It’s a basin right at the entrance to the sanctuary and all you have to do is dip your finger in it
and touch it to his head. You don’t have to say anything or do anything more than that.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding to him. “But how do I get in there? Won’t there be an army of vampires between us and the church?”
“Leave that to me,” he said with a rather dark and confident voice.
She didn’t want to leave that to him at all. She didn’t want to leave any part of this plan to him, especially when he was being super ominous and grim sounding.
She needed to have information and details right then and him being like that was not really helping out her confidence any. She looked at him and wished that he would give her more than a mischievous smile and a confident look to help her rest at ease with him.
He was the kind of man who liked to keep her in suspense and she hated that. He wanted her to be impressed by him and while she was totally impressed by him, it didn’t stop her from worrying and feeling like she was going to have a heart attack at any moment.
The church they were looking for was on the outskirts of Boston and that told her it truly was old. As they drove past it, she could see the shadowy figures of men and women dressed in black standing among the tombstones surrounding the church on the west side of the little knoll it was on top of. There were trees surrounding the little hill and she knew it was the vision of the church given form.
