by Dani Hoots
I watched as he stared up at the moon and stars, taking in the beauty as he probably did every night. I started to see a different side of him, a side that wasn’t a monster that I feared him to be, I saw him as someone who could help me through this. Maybe that was the vibe I was getting from him all along, and that was why when I was near him, I began to calm down.
Or maybe there was something more to it.
Shaking away the thought, I tried to take in the moment and clear my head. I needed food, more specifically blood, and I would have to hunt to do so. It wasn’t that I had never hunted before, I had hunted many times with my camp, but that was with weapons. This was completely different, this was one-on-one, and I didn’t need to kill the animal since Radu explained to me that we couldn’t kill every creature for their blood. There would be none left to survive on after a while, especially with all of Petru’s other, less responsible strigoi scattered about these woods. We needed blood every night and blood from an already dead creature wasn’t as satisfying as blood taken from a live animal. For some reason, it didn’t turn animals into strigoi as it would a human. They had some kind of immunity to the blood curse.
I spotted a young buck as he glided through the forest, heading back to his home. I quickly approached him and with Radu’s help, I knocked him onto the ground and quickly bit his neck. The warm nectar filled my mouth. I could control it this time, I didn’t need more than what was needed to appease my thirst. Once I was finished, I let the creature go and it galloped away, as if nothing had happened.
Wiping the blood away from my mouth, “why don’t strigoi just drink the blood of animals instead of humans? Wouldn’t it be easier and not attract suspicion?”
“Humans give off a lot more energy than animals do. I am not sure why, but it is a lot more satisfying...” he seemed to let the word linger as he drifted into a thought. He shook his head. “But luckily you didn’t have enough human blood to begin with.”
I remembered the feeling when I took the blood from Jack. It did feel like I gathered a lot more energy from him than I had from drinking the blood of the dead carcass that was stored in the butcher tent. I didn’t realize until now that there had been a difference, that Jack had given me more energy. I hoped I would never feel that again.
The night felt wonderful to be out in. I felt more alive than I had ever felt before this night. I had thought I would miss the supposed thriving life of the forest during the day, but night was far more interesting and was lively in its own unique way. At night, you were able to see more features of the forest than you could ever see during the day. Nighttime was when a lot of animals were still active and roaming about the woods—the owl, the wolf, the fox. It was a beautiful sight that I had never witnessed before this, never having the chance to really be out in the middle of the night with these profound new senses.
Radu noticed my surprise and laughed. “It is lovely, isn’t it? The nights like these when there is nothing to worry about. It’s just you and the life that has come out to play here.”
I nodded. “Yes, I could learn to love it. But...” I began and stopped.
“But you miss your family and friends?”
“Yes, I can’t stop thinking about how I am the cause of all this, that their death was because...” I began and stopped before the tears came rushing back.
He placed his arm around me. “It’s alright; it’s not your fault. Just remember that they shouldn’t have chased you away but rather helped you through this. You weren’t going to harm them yet they treated you like a beast. I am here now; you can trust that I would never hurt you like they did.”
He was right, I had just needed help from those in my camp, yet they took me by surprise by being prepared to kill me. The people I grew up with, the people who raised me—they would have destroyed me if I hadn’t run from them and Radu hadn’t helped hide me away.
It felt strange to be in Radu’s arms. Even with my few hours of being with him, I felt as if I knew him. It also left an ache in my chest, that I could get this close to a man after Jack had confessed his love to me that very same day. Was I really that fickle? Or was there something about Radu and him being in the same situation as I that made me feel safe and secure? Or maybe it was because Jack had turned on me so quickly when he found out I was a strigoi that it had broken my heart?
I was still the same person, I knew. I felt normal enough, besides the heightened senses. I thought I would feel a lot more different, I thought I would feel as if everything would be changed to the point of no longer being able to identify myself quite as clearly, as a rational human being. But I didn’t. I felt like me.
“What was it like for you when you first were changed? When you became a strigoi?” I asked as we headed back to Radu’s make-shift cave. I had more energy now that I had fed, but I still didn’t feel as powerful as I did after I drank Jack’s blood. I wanted more human blood, I had to admit, but I didn’t think I could bring myself to drink it ever again, not after all that heartache and angst caused by that incident.
Radu shrugged. “I guess I had the same feeling as you. I was wondering what was going on, why it was happening to me. Petru, though, didn’t let me go as he did you, so I had to face it, while locked away in that castle for a while. He kept me there until I was very weak and hungry so that I would attack the first person I saw, once I left the castle. He found joy in it, I suppose. But I got away in the end and have been on the run ever since.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up,” I began.
“It’s fine. I never saw my family again though, although they probably would have had the same response as your family and fellow tribe members had, not wanting to deal with me and any ilk like me. They probably would have killed me the first chance they had as well.”
I nodded, recalling the scene with my mother. She wanted to kill me; to destroy what she thought was a curse on the camp. If she just listened, she would have realized it was still me. Given a little to get used to these strange new senses, I could have handled it, and maybe then, none of this would have happened. I would never have had to run into the woods and I would have never found Radu.
The sun began to rise in the distance and we quickly went back to the hideaway. Radu was right, though, none of the sunlight entered his little cave. It was pitch black, yet I could see perfectly fine, with my more nocturnal-refined eyesight
“We should probably get our rest. We must be prepared to end that bastard’s life once and for all, that damn Petru” he hung up his coat. “We will attack at twilight.”
I nodded and he gave me his bed while he slept on the floor. For once in my life, I felt strong enough to do something by myself.
Twilight came and we went over the plan once more. I was to get to the room with the scroll in it as Radu made a distraction to detain Petru. Easy enough, but I still wasn’t sure what type of spell breaking this curse would involve. Although my mother had taught me a lot, I didn’t think I was strong enough. I didn’t know if it would involve any ingredients that I would need. It wouldn’t be that easy to have to go back out and get those ingredients and then come back. I didn’t have anything with me and I doubted the strigoi would have any of it, especially if they thought it was all part of some concoction to kill them.
I did feel ready for this overall, as if my life up to this point was preparing me for this. It didn’t seem possible and it felt out of place, but the feeling was there, as if someone was whispering just how to feel about the impending battle in my ear. It was strange, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all a preordained plan, and that someone was guiding me along the way. I believed it was the spirits of my ancestors helping me defeat this evil, and that is what gave me the confidence I needed.
The moon was out, bright and full once again. I knew that this was our only night to enter the castle for a month and we would have to get it right. If there was any screw ups, then the castle would never be destroyed, since I was the last in my
line with any innate magical potential.
The castle was a lot more eerie than I had remembered. The darkened stone, the broken and cracked windows. A couple of bats flew overhead. It was horrifying.
And almost perfect, in a way.
It felt as if someone had set it up this way to make me afraid, so it would seem like I was going into a place where I might not ever return from. I was a smart girl, at least I thought so, and I felt this strange foreboding, out-of-place feeling, suddenly, about all of this. Where was that heroic stride, of feeling like everything was preordained and that all was going to be fine?
The feeling didn’t matter; I knew I had to do this. I had to get rid of the strigoi once and for all. Even if it meant my demise, I had to try. I had to avenge my camp’s death, if not to seek vengeance for the creature Petru had made me into.
So we entered the castle.
I expected to hear the violin playing, but there was no sound whatsoever, only silence haunting our every step. I looked around for the shadows that I had remembered the night before, but there were none. We seemed to be the only two in the entire place.
“Now, you remember where to go. I will distract him upstairs. Be quick or he will figure out what we are trying to do.”
I nodded and started toward the room, fear making my body want to turn around and leave. But I couldn’t, I had to be brave.
This was my one shot to finally subdue the leader of the strigoi. I couldn’t mess this up.
The room was exactly where Radu said it would be. It was dark throughout the entire castle, but it didn’t matter now. I could see perfectly fine. I was surprised that I hadn’t seen anyone out yet, but I had no idea how many strigoi there were altogether. For all I knew, it could have been just Petru and no one else, while the shadows I thought I saw were simply shadows and not any strigoi skulking the corridors around where the book was to be found.
I looked all over for the book that Radu said would be there. I checked every nook and cranny of the area, but it wasn’t there.
“Looking for something?” I heard a voice ask.
I spun around to find the man of the other night smiling, holding Radu by the throat. His blue eyes were full of satisfaction for he had caught us in the act. His century-old attire seemed perfect, as if he didn’t even have to put up a fight against Radu, whose clothes were torn and ripped now. Even Petru’s hair looked perfect, not a piece out of place.
“I’m sorry,” Radu said.
I gulped. He held up the book. “Seems you were after this, weren’t you?”
I didn’t say a word; I was shocked into silence by the sight of Radu being strangled by this impressively-sized, rather formidable strigoi. Petru was a force to be reckoned with.
He threw the book on the table. “Funny, my son forgot to mention to you that nothing can get past me and your plot to destroy me would fail miserably no matter what you did.”
Son? Did I hear him right?
He raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t mention that part either, did he? This is my son Razvan, and I am his father Petru. We have been living in this castle for centuries, until a curse was placed on us by your kind, one which we have suffered through for all these emotionally-numbing centuries. It was your people who did this to me. I never wanted to be like this.”
“Why?” I squeaked. “Why would they do this to you?”
“Because they didn’t agree with the way we had ruled this land. They didn’t want me as a ruler anymore so they cursed me and my family to roam this land for an eternity. But then they realized their mistake in doing so and trapped me in this castle. It is their fault I am this way, it is their fault that they left me no choice but to live on in this depressing castle.”
I shook my head. “I won’t lift the curse. I won’t let you leave this place.”
He pulled up his son, making his grip tighter around his neck. Razvan started to gag.
“Don’t hurt him!” I exclaimed. He had been the only one to help me through all of this, even though he had lied about who he was, although I could understand. I don’t know if I could have trusted him knowing he was the son of such a horrible man. No, I felt that for once I could trust someone even though he had lied to me.
“Why would you care? He must be punished for defying me.”
“No, please don’t. It isn’t his fault.”
“Oh, I highly doubt that,” he squeezed harder. Razvan looked like he was in so much pain.
“Please stop! I will look at the spell. I will see if there is a way to undo it!”
He stopped and smiled. “You would betray your entire family just to save someone who lied to you?”
“Don’t do it, Amalia. Please, don’t let him out of here,” Razvan gasped.
Petru squeezed tighter. “Shut up, you fool. Let the girl make up her mind on her own,” he turned to me. “Well, what do you say, darling?”
I glanced at Razvan. He was suffering because of me. And for once in my life, I would be able to end someone’s suffering. Even if I destroyed this castle and all the strigoi in it, it wouldn’t bring back my camp or my family. They were all gone and I had no one left.
Except for Razvan.
“Yes, I will, but I will need to study the writings. May we go somewhere a little better so I can look at them carefully?”
He nodded. “Yes, let us go up to my parlor,” he gestured to the stairs. “After you, my darling.”
I went up the stairs, my heart racing as it had before. I did see shadows this time, racing around me. There were others here; they were just hiding so they could capture us when we were distracted.
We made it to the top of the stairs and entered the parlor. It was exactly how I remembered it, the fireplace was going as it was before, and the furnishings were clean compared to the rest of the castle. I wondered why that was.
“Now,” Petru threw down the scroll with the text of the spell on the table. “Get to reading.” He still had Razvan in his grip.
“Let Razvan go.”
“Not until you undo this spell,” he said.
“I want to know that you won’t hurt him.”
“I won’t unless you don’t hold up your part of the bargain. Now, as I said, get to reading.”
I sighed and unwound the scroll. The spell went into great detail as to what had happened years before. Petru had slaughtered so many innocent lives, and that was before he was a strigoi. After that, he had killed many more, including many in my camp and the cities surrounding it. The more I read, the more I realized I couldn’t let this man live.
I had to destroy him once and for all. I found the part of the spell that went into detail as how to do that. It was simple enough; I just had to repeat one sentence three times.
That was it? I couldn’t believe it, there had to have been a catch. The method of ultimately freeing him had to be harder than this. To do the spell, I had to gather a candle and a gold candle stick, chant a prayer, and pour the wax on my hand.
“Alright, I am ready,” I said. “I need a candle and a gold candle stick.”
Petru gave me everything needed to work the spell, so I slowly lit the candle, beginning the task of doing my first spell on my own. Although the circumstances were horrible, I did feel a sort of excitement as to see whether or not I could perform such a power spell on my own. I knew I shouldn’t have felt like that, but I couldn’t help myself. The power that was accumulating in the air was overwhelming.
I waited for the wax to start to slowly melt, so I could appear to be getting the spell ready. My plan was to act like I was preparing for the spell to lift the curse when at the last minute I would repeat the words to destroy the strigoi for once and for all. I presumed Petru knew what I needed to do and I had to act like I was doing it until the last moment.
Razvan looked at me sadly, wondering what I had to be thinking in order to actually pursue this. He still thought I was going to bring the barrier down so that his father could hurt the surrounding land, and wreak havoc o
n the villages. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Cum lumina Lunei pline și Stelelor de noapte, așa peretele nu va mai fii[2].”
That was the first step. I felt a slight breeze go through the room. Razvan was shaking his head not to do this. I gave him a wink, letting him know I had it all under control.
“[3]Prin voința mea și viața mea, aceste creaturi vor fi praf!”
“No!” Petru shouted. “That is not what you need to be saying! Stop or I will kill him!”
“Prin voința mea și viața mea, aceste creaturi vor fi praf!” I threw the candlestick at him, but he ducked and it shattered into the mirror.
Everything went silent and darkened. I glanced around to find the room darkened with dust and decay. The mirror in front of me was shattered and I didn’t understand what had happened. Nothing in the room seemed the same, but everything was ripped and shredded. The fire was no longer going and the only window in this darkened room had shattered into small pieces of broken glass.
