Passing (Crusade)

by Viguie, Debbie; Holder, Nancy

  I pushed myself to my feet. Maybe the girl who had screamed wasn't really dead? I knew it was crazy to believe that, though.

  Antonio grabbed my arm to steady me. “Which side are you on? If it is not mine, then you should leave. Right now.”

  I stared deep into his solemn eyes. Why couldn't he have told me months ago how he felt instead of waiting so long? I should have been home, spending the night playing games with my family and laughing with friends. Instead I had chosen to leave, run away after a bad fight with my mom and dad. I had come to Spain because the Universidad took anyone who was at least sixteen. I was sixteen (barely) and I knew that my life was my own. My parents couldn't control me, not inside the halls of the Universidad.

  I took a deep breath. Running had gotten me here. Running again would probably just make everything worse. “I'm with you,” I pledged Antonio. But I knew I couldn't kill Jack. I still prayed he would survive. But the rest of his gang were fair game as far as I was concerned.

  Antonio nodded but before we could move a vamp came out of the darkness behind him, its face a contorted death mask of fangs and lust. And Diego had been right; the training took over. I knocked Antonio to the side, reached for a stake and plunged it into the monster's chest. It stopped it in its tracks.

  It was a moment before either of us realized I had missed his heart.

  Antonio regained his footing, just as I shoved a cross into the vampire's face. The creature lit up like a Christmas tree, flames licking at its eyes, making it look that much more demonic. The scream that came from it nearly paralyzed me. Antonio drew a short sword from beneath his robes and beheaded the creature in one move. The severed head rolled on the ground like some gruesome, flaming soccer ball. Before I could stop myself, I kicked it as far as I could. It sailed up into the sky, hanging for a moment as the flames danced upon the rolling fog.

  And that was when I saw the rest of them. The vampires were in a loose half circle, facing us. They had Anita and Marica. As I watched, the vampires, with sick smiles, slowly sunk their teeth into the necks of the two girls.

  “No!” I screamed, racing forward.

  Antonio grabbed me around the waist and spun me. “Run!” he hissed in my ear.

  The darkness pressed in and I did as he said. We ran for ten minutes, twisting our way in and around trees, climbing steadily upward, away from the Universidad. At last Antonio pushed me into a cave and followed, lighting a single match to show the way. I had never been this far from the Universidad and I stared toward the back of the cave. I couldn't see a wall, just a bend in the path.

  “What's going on?” I had so many questions but that was the one that crowded to the surface first.

  “Things have gone wrong,” Antonio said. “We were supposed to be hunting them, but instead they are hunting us.”

  “And at least three of us are already dead,” I said.

  “More,” Antonio said darkly.

  I desperately wanted to ask him how he knew, but I couldn’t really stomach the answer. I thought of all my remaining classmates and wondered how many of us would survive the night.

  “This cave is one of a network. We can move through them more safely than we can across the ground outside.”

  I looked doubtfully into the darkness which seemed deeper than the night. “I'm claustrophobic,” I mumbled.

  “Better terrified than dead,” he said. “Speaking of which, take a moment to bandage your wound.”

  Puzzled, I looked down at myself and noticed that some underbrush had scratched me through one of the holes in my jeans. I tore a piece of cloth off the bottom of my robe, pulled a tube of antiseptic from my pocket and bandaged the wound. Once the war had begun, they had started putting extract of garlic in the antibiotic creams in order to neutralize the smell of fresh blood. I had never been more grateful for the innovation. The one thing vamps could do better than see in the dark was smell a drop of blood miles away.

  “If we get out of this alive I'm going to have to apologize to my mother,” I said, making quick work of the bandaging. “And I'm going to have to thank her.”

  “For what?”

  “For this,” I pulled an unlit glowstick from my pocket. “She sent it in my last care package.”

  Antonio put away his pack of matches and cracked the glowstick alight. “I will thank her too.”

  “So, what's the game plan?” I asked, as ready to move into the confines of the cave as I would ever be.

  Antonio led the way and I followed him, forcing my eyes to stay on the glowstick in his hand. I'm not descending into dark, terrifying caves and fighting for my life, I told myself. I'm ten and it's Halloween and I'm just trying to beat the bigger kids to the best candy.

  “We have to find a way to take the vampires out without exposing ourselves.”

  “And hope that they are tracking some of the others, right?”

  “We won't be so lucky.”

  “Why?” I asked, scrambling to stay directly behind him and within eyesight of the light.

  He hesitated. When he finally spoke his voice was tense. “There's something I probably should have told you before.”

  So, I wasn't the only one keeping secrets. The revelation gave me a sense of relief and something else to focus on besides the fact that the cave walls seemed to be getting closer.

  “What is it?”

  “I am known to the vampires, and I have made many enemies.”

  I waited for him to continue. Nothing he had said came as any real surprise to me. The silence stretched between us and finally he went on.

  “I believe they will try to find us before they go after the others.”

  There was something he wasn't telling me. I thought about calling him on it, but I was still reeling under the weight of my own guilty secret. Where was Jack? Would we be bumping into him soon?

  A sudden rustling sound ahead caused us both to freeze in our tracks. I had my hand on Antonio's arm and I could feel the play of his muscles beneath the skin. He shifted slightly so he could press his back against the cave wall and I did the same, my heart beating uncontrollably. I don't want to have to fight in here. I don't want to die in here. There's so little room, it might as well be a coffin. My coffin.

  I shook my head, trying to clear it. Focus, focus, focus!

  I heard a soft whooshing sound and then a bat flew right by us, its wing brushing the tip of my nose. I jerked, slamming my head against the cave wall. All the stories I had ever heard about vampires when I was a kid flooded my mind.

  “Vampire!” I gasped.

  Antonio laughed, low and deep, and the sound cut through my terror. “You know vampires can't change into bats.”

  And he was right. I did know that. I had spent the last two years studying vampires, not the fictional kind, but the real, just-as-soon-kill-you-as-seduce-you kind.

  We continued moving forward, slightly faster now, which was a relief because it required more attention on my part not to twist an ankle. We wove through several different tunnels, which branched off into smaller and smaller corridors until I knew I could never find my way back.

  “You know I love you,” Antonio said, breaking the silence that had once again fallen between us.

  I didn't know how to respond. It was a statement, not a question, like there could be no doubt that I knew he loved me. I had managed to avoid the topic for two months. As I contemplated how to sidestep it now though, a couple of things occurred to me. First, I'd much rather talk about it than think about the caves we were walking through. Second, one or both of us would likely die before morning. Suddenly talking about it seemed like a really good idea.

  “I'm not sure that I actually knew that,” I said, grimacing. I was grateful he couldn't see my face. It was my intention to let him down easy. Still, there was a part of me that had actually wanted to hear him say the words.

  “I don't know how I could have been more clear. I love you, Jen.”

  All girls dream of having a guy say that to
them. When I was younger I spent countless hours imagining hearing those words, visualizing who would say them, where we would be, how I would feel. But in my wildest dreams, I couldn't have pictured a guy quite like Antonio. And although at least once or twice I had thought I might hear those words one New Year's eve, I could never have anticipated hearing them in the middle of a cave while engaged in a battle with vampires. And I certainly had never anticipated having such a mixed reaction to the words themselves.

  The moment he said them out loud I knew that I still had feelings for Antonio. I had so wanted to keep my heart shut up and stay detached, but maybe that was unrealistic. “I didn't let myself care for you in that way because it seemed pretty obvious to me that there was no chance,” I admitted.

  “It was…important…for me to stay focused on why we were here.”

  “I know that vampires killed your whole family. I thought that revenge was all you wanted.”

  He laughed, a hard, bitter laugh so different from the one before. “Yes, you're right, revenge was all I wanted.”

  “And now?”

  “I've already told you I love you.”

  “I think…I'm in love with Jack,” I admitted. There, I'd said it. I held my breath, afraid of what his response would be.

  “No, you aren't,” he said so softly I barely heard him.

  That was one response I hadn't expected. “Why would you say that?”

  “He's a vampire.”

  “That doesn't mean that I can't love him.”

  “I'm not saying you can't love a vampire, just that you don't love that one.”

  “I'm not following you,” I said in frustration.

  “He's mesmerized you.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. Antonio took a few more steps before turning around. The light from the glowstick threw shadows around the cave in bizarre patterns, and they danced across his face. I wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that it was a lie. Somehow I asked instead, “How do you know?”

  ”I just do. Stop and search your soul. You know it, too.”

  Everything seemed to slow down, like in a nightmare. Where my obsession with Jack had flamed and burned, something icy and cold walked over my grave.

  I gasped. I hadn’t been myself. He had used me.

  As awareness rushed in, I began to shake and cry. In two years I hadn't shed a tear for the dead, or the pain. Now it all seemed determined to be released at once.

  “What’s happened to me?” I asked Antonio.

  When he pulled me close and held me, he was shaking too. “I think Jack mesmerized you to get at me,” he whispered. “I'm so, so sorry. Just remember that as long as you're aware of it, his mesmerism is broken.”

  I pulled away and wiped my eyes on my sleeve. But…but it had been so real. And now--just another vampire lie. They hadn’t come in peace. Jack didn’t come for love.

  “Jenn,” Antonio said. “I am sorry.”

  “We should keep moving,” I said stonily. “We've got vampires to kill.”

  He nodded and took my hand. As our fingers interlaced I felt a peace I had not known for years. He turned and began to move through the caves at a half run. I kept up with him, grateful to be doing something at last.

  Winding through the caves, I lost track of time. When we finally emerged from them, I was surprised to see the moon directly overhead. We scrambled up a rocky slope for about a hundred yards before emerging in a clearing.

  The vampires were already there. The sick feeling in my gut told me that they had been waiting for us.

  And there was Jack. He stretched out his hand toward me exactly as I had pictured him doing the last several, sleepless nights. His grin was wide, no longer as playful as I remembered it, but simply arrogant. His eyes were laughing and cruel. I could see everything that had been hidden to me before. He had mesmerized me. Damn him. He had tricked me.

  But I was free now. And he didn't know it.

  I gave Antonio's hand a squeeze, hoping he understood what I was going to do. I walked forward, a smile on my face, heart pounding out of control.

  “Beloved,” Jack said, when I was just a few steps away.

  He had called me that before, but this time I blushed out of embarrassment instead of excitement. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see the other vampires. They wanted me dead. I could feel the hatred coming off of them in waves. More than that, though, they wanted Antonio dead. I understood it all now. I had just been the bait.

  If I could kill Jack before they could stop me, then Antonio would have a fighting chance. An owl hooted not that far off, and I did my best not to turn my head. None of the vampires seemed to notice, but I knew that it wasn’t a real owl --it was our classmate, Jamie. It was a message: You are not alone.

  And I smiled even more broadly. Jack had his grupo and I had mine. This then was the final lesson. We were not alone, not just single hunters against many vampires. We had friends who would fight and die with us, and for us. It was something not talked about in the Universidad because it was something that they couldn't teach. It was camaraderie built out of shared pain and adversity. I understood everything now.

  “Did you miss me?” Jack purred. I came to stand before him. He reached out to me, wanting me to take his hand. I kept my face turned coyly to the ground. When I finally raised my eyes to his, he was still smiling, confident I was still under his spell. Bastard.

  I ripped the stake free of its holder in a flash. “No, I didn’t!” His eyes suddenly widened as I raised the stake and ruthlessly drove it straight through his black vampire heart.

  His eyes flickered in surprise for a moment that suspended me somewhere humiliating and shameful. I would never let anyone use me again. Never believe in a vampire’s lies again.

  Then he was gone. I spun around to ward off the next, nearest vampire, but it threw me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me. Then it leapt in for the kill. Its fangs brushed my throat.

  This is it. This is how I die.

  Suddenly, something grabbed my tormentor from behind, and he went flying thirty feet through the air. The only thing strong enough to do that was another vampire. And as I struggled up onto my elbows, that was exactly what I saw.

  Antonio turned toward me. I knew it was no trick of the light. The fangs he was baring were real. I gasped and he smiled sadly at me. Then I understood exactly what he had meant that first day at the Universidad when he had said the vampires took everything from him. His family, his friends, his life. No wonder he hated them. And no wonder they hated him--one of their own kind who hunted them.

  Jamie and Skye burst into the clearing. Antonio turned as another vamp came running toward us. Eriko and Holgar emerged into the battle, bloody and brutal. Vampires turned to ash around us. Our ferocity knew no bounds. This time we would take them all out! Jamie ran toward us, now covered in the blood of the vampires he had recently staked. He skidded to a halt when he got a good look at Antonio.

  “Something new?” Jamie asked warily eyeing Antonio’s fangs.

  “No, something old,” Antonio said.

  ”Bloody hell.” Jamie lunged to stake him.

  But I stepped in his way.

  “No. He saved my life,” I heard myself saying. I was trembling. “He’s…one of us.”

  I want to say that then and there, we became a team. Five crazy humans and one vampire. But it took a long time, and we were tested over and over again as the nights unfolded.

  But as we stood together on New Year’s Eve, I turned and saw another half dozen vamps emerge from the trees. Their long teeth gleamed in the moonlight, and they were hissing in anticipation of the kill

  “I don't remember Jack having a group this big,” I said.

  “Looks like someone's been recruiting.”

  “Building his own little army,” Antonio added.

  I grabbed a stake in each fist. “Good thing we've got a vampire of our own.

  “Let's get this party started!” Eriko shouted.

&nbs
p; Antonio spared one look at me, and I felt a strange mix of horror and excitement. Antonio was a vampire. He’d said he loved me.

  And I knew it was not a lie.

  The knowledge propelled me into battle. I moved like whirlwind, fighting as I had never done before. I was almost crazy, I was so fierce. I felt my stake slam into vampire chests, taking vampire lives.

  Miraculously, it was over in under five minutes. Even more miraculously, we were all bloodied but still standing.

  “Everyone bandage up.” I set to work on my own wounds. Antonio stood a safe distance away, and by his stance, I knew he was trying to regain control over his vampire self. I had so many questions, but they could wait. When I killed Jack, his power over me had vanished completely. At that moment I remembered that before I met Jack I had loved Antonio. And not as a brother. Jack had twisted that emotion for his own ends. He had made me forget who I was for a moment. But that was all over now.

  I had loved Antonio, and I loved him again. The idea was strange, and new, and yet it felt old. I thought of my parents and my grandparents, and felt a dizzying connection. Was I going somewhere in my heart that they had never been? Or were the hearts of humans and vampires more alike than different?

  I had other questions. Some were for my classmates. Except for Jamie, they seemed fine with the idea of a vampire as comrade. I had fully expected them to turn on Antonio after we had dispatched the rest of the vampires.

  I cleared my throat. “Are we going to have any problems?” I asked my new grupo.

  “With Antonio?” Jamie frowned.

  I nodded.

  “He's okay with me,” Holgar said. But Jamie said nothing.