“Elijah.” Hassan followed him through the camp, but Elijah kept walking. “Elijah!” Hassan shouted and Elijah finally stopped. He turned and walked towards Hassan until the two were face to face, only inches separating them. “Don’t do this, Elijah.” Hassan’s voice was low but insistent.
“What would you have me do? This is the only way to find my father,” he yelled.
“Is it worth it, to kill hundreds of innocent people… to lose your soul?” Hassan asked.
Elijah’s jaws clenched; he looked at the ground and then turned and began to walk away.
“What could he have done to you, or taken from you, that could be worse than what you are about to do?” Hassan asked.
Elijah kept walking.
“You won’t come back from this, Elijah; you will be lost to the darkness forever,” he shouted.
Still, Elijah kept walking.
“In doing this, you become your father, perhaps even worse.” Hassan was now shouting at the top of his lungs, and Elijah finally paused, but for only a moment. Seconds later he was gone from Hassan’s sight.
Elijah walked to the base of the camp, where he could see the Khan’s bodyguard and the two vampires he was holding prisoner. Elijah stopped in front of the big man wearing the mask. His blue eyes were so bright they seemed to almost leap from the mask. Perhaps Roman wasn’t the man who had helped butcher Elijah’s family. Perhaps he was just another vampire lord, one unknown to Elijah, but he knew he didn’t like big bastard.
Elijah stared into those flaming blue eyes for a full minute. Those eyes stared back, but he didn’t say a word. Seeing those glowing blue eyes triggered memories of the last night he had seen Ayda, and the myriad of unanswered questions forever lingering in the back of his mind, questions about that terrible night so long ago, and about what it had made him become. His eyes could now glow, but he knew he was no vampire lord. He ached to find Ayda and question her; if he was like her, then perhaps she knew something that would help him understand.
Elijah turned from the masked vampire lord to the two vampires standing beside him. Anger consumed him. They were to blame for what he would have to do. His wrath fell upon them with blinding speed as he plunged his hands through their chests. In seconds they fell to their knees, absent their hearts. Elijah glanced back at the mask and the eyes. He roared with fury as he crushed the two hearts he was holding and threw them, blood and veins trailing and spattering at the big man’s feet. He stood there for only a moment more before making his way back to his tent.
Elijah entered his tent expecting to find Hassan, expecting, hoping his friend would try once more to talk him out of what he was about to do. But he wasn’t there.
Elijah sat for a moment and pondered Hassan’s words. For the first time in a great while he thought about Sara. He remembered how many times he had been the great and heroic prince, fighting against all of the wicked and evil forces their childish imaginations could conjure.
He thought about how many times he had saved her from fantasy nightmares, and how he had failed to save her when it really mattered. She had called him her prince, her protector; she saw goodness in him, he had seen it in her eyes. She was wrong; his goodness was nothing more than the reflection he saw in the eyes of those who loved him.
He realized Hassan was wrong. Doing this would not condemn him to the darkness. He was the darkness. There were no eyes left to which he could go; no eyes that could show him any remnant of goodness that might be hidden deep inside. Those remnants had all been ripped from this world long ago. He saw his reflection now, even in Hassan’s eyes, and he was worse than any horror he had pretended to fight in his youth.
Chapter 48
Elijah and his men could now see the town in the distance. Elijah gathered the vampire crew and instructed them to encircle the town, to insure no one escaped. He reached the town first; there was no wall and only a small number of sentries.
He and his men fell upon them like the horde of monsters they were. They cut down everyone guarding the town in seconds. Moments later he heard a scream from the other side of the town, and soon the place was in chaos. Screams of terror and despair filled the town like a demon wind.
Elijah entered one of the homes and was met by a sword shoved clumsily into his chest. The man left it there and walked backwards to stand protectively in front of his wife. Elijah looked down and stared at the sword still sticking out of his chest. Wrapping his hand around the blade, Elijah pulled the sword out. He looked up at the couple, who stared at him, their eyes wide with horror. He threw the blade to the ground and started towards them.
“What are you?” The man shrieked up at him from the floor where he had retreated in fear, holding his woman. Elijah didn’t say anything. “Please, take whatever you want, just leave us unharmed.” The man pleaded, as Elijah grabbed the woman by the arm and hauled her up off the floor. Taking the dagger from beneath his arm, he pressed it to her throat.
“Is there anyone else here?” Elijah asked.
“No it is just us, I swear. Please don’t hurt her.” The man begged. Elijah looked around and saw a table set for four.
“Are you sure?” Elijah slid the blade of his dagger against her throat, making a small cut.
“Please.” The man’s voice shook with fear. Elijah looked into his eyes and saw his own reflection; he saw his father holding Malaki and threatening death. He understood now. Hassan had been right, after all; this would now be what defined him.
“Stop, stop, I’ll tell you, just don’t hurt her !” The man continued to beg.
“No, John, no!” the woman screamed in spite of the knife at her throat.
“We have two small children in the cellar.” He moved a rug with his hand, revealing a hatch. “Now, please, just take what you came for and go.” Elijah continued to stare at him as he put the dagger back under his arm. “Thank you, thank you so much.” The man sighed with relief. Elijah stared at him for another moment and then snapped the woman’s neck.
“No! What are you doing? I don’t understand. What do you want?” the man cried out. Tears were streaming down his face.
“I came here for you.” Elijah drew his sword and plunged it through the man’s heart. Sheathing it, he pulled up the hatch and saw two young girls staring up at him. Elijah reached down and pulled one girl up, snapped her neck, and dropped her on the floor.
Then he reached for the other one. As he grabbed the second girl child, she looked into his eyes. She placed her hand on his and gently pushed it away. Elijah loosened his grip and the girl walked steadily up the stairs. He saw no fear in her eyes as she came to stand directly in front of him.
She was strong; she made no sound nor any attempt to flee while Elijah reached out and placed his hands on each side of her tiny little head. For a moment she reminded him of Sara and his hands dropped to her shoulders. He fell to his knees and cradled her small face. She was now looking slightly down at him.
As a tear trickled from his eye, she reached out and gently wiped it away.
“Here.” She reached out a hand clutched with a piece of braided leather. “I was making this for my father.” Elijah accepted the token and stared at it for a moment before stuffing it in his pocket. “Thank you.” He stared at her for a few moments more and then dropped his chin to stare at the floor.
When he looked back up at her, he once again saw his father’s reflection in her eyes. He was overcome, perhaps in shock over what he had done. No, he had to find his father, and this was the only way. Still, he had never truly considered himself a monster until this moment.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as he looked around the room at the bodies. He took a deep breath and quickly snapped the girl’s neck, then gently laid her body on the floor next to her sister.
As he left her home, he looked back at the girl’s body one last time. He clutched pity and caressed his guilt one last time and then let them go.
He was left with nothing but an unholy rage that engulfed and c
onsumed him. His bones ached momentarily as fire seemed to erupt throughout his body. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a vampire who was just beginning to string up a body. Rushing over, he grabbed the vampire from the back and spun him around. The vampire swung his extended claws at his face but Elijah caught his arm and held it.
“Oh, it’s you. My apologies, my lord.” The vampire’s voice rattled. His eyes were wide with fear as he gazed upon Elijah’s face.
“I need you to do something for me. Go back to camp and inform the Khan we are going to need twice as many barrels.” Elijah tempered the anger in his voice, but still the vampire stood for a moment and stared back at Elijah in confusion.
“Go!” he shouted, and the vampire snapped into action and ran back towards camp. Elijah watched until the vampire was out of sight and then slowly turned back towards the town. The screams had died down. The streets before him had only moments ago been filled with screaming men, women, and children. Now there were only monsters and bodies piled one upon the other.
Elijah saw a vampire draining blood from the hanging body of the little girl he had just killed. He could no longer hold in the madness erupting from within him. He could feel the fire in his eyes as he reached down and washed his hands in the dry dirt and rock beneath his feet. Unsheathing both of his swords, he stalked towards the group of four vampires who were hanging headless bodies by their boots, or feet, or however they could, on tacks and hooks they had driven into the brick wall of a small mosque. Blood raced through his veins as fiercely as the darkness walling his soul as he approached from behind the short and muscular vampire who had taken the girl’s head. The vampire turned around as Elijah approached. Without a word, Elijah used his swords like scissors to slice through his neck.
As the vampire’s thick frame fell, absent a head, the other three paused for a moment, stunned. In the pairs of eyes staring back at him in fear and bewilderment he saw what he had become, his true form, a monster among monsters. He had completely given into his anger and guilt, and it swallowed him whole.
The vampire to his left was the first to make a move. He swung his sword, and Elijah spun beneath his arm and swung the blade in his left hand outwards. A rush of relief eased his frustrations when blood sprayed all around him and the vampire’s head rolled off of his back.
The other two immediately came at Elijah, one from the right and one from the front. The vampire to his right looked burly and strong, his muscles knotted as he swung his blade at Elijah’s neck. At the same time, the one in front of him scythed her blade straight down. Leaning back, Elijah maneuvered just under the swinging blade, allowing it to pass him and block the blade slicing down at his head.
Elijah kicked the vampire in front of him, slamming her nearly through the brick wall directly behind her. The burly one stepped forward and swung his sword once more. Elijah took to the wall. Pushing himself up and out, he quickly spun in the air and fell on the vampire now at the end of his swing, plunging swords through both sides of his neck. Elijah then yanked his swords from the vampire’s neck and forced him to stumble backwards. He swung his sword once more and took the vampire’s head before he turned back to the one against the wall and sank a sword deep into her forehead before taking her head.
He looked further down the street and noticed a large group of vampires swarming toward him. They flooded the street and the tops of the buildings around it. Elijah charged them. Two vampires were out in front of the rest, and he slid feet-first beneath their blades and removed a leg from each of them. Keeping up his momentum, he threw himself to his feet and quickly leapt forward, tackling a vampire and plunging one sword through his chest and another through his head.
He rolled over his shoulder, onto his feet, and continued forward, toward the thickening horde of vampires. With each swing of his sword he was free, all the madness inside him spilling out through his blade into his victims, emptying him and freeing him from its terrible weight. But only for a moment; it left him hollow and void, an empty vessel into which the darkness would pour itself again and again.
Screams rose from the city once more while Elijah continued to rain down his terror onto the vampires who hadn’t yet fled. Then the cries rang out all over, all at once, as if the city itself was screaming, but as Elijah pulled his swords from the vampire beneath him he could see no one else left alive, no one left who could bellow forth such an awesome and terrible cry. As drops of blood fell into his open mouth and he was forced to swallow, he realized he alone was left screaming in the wake of his own madness.
Elijah fell from his knees atop the vampire and flopped to his back on the dirt. Releasing both of his swords, he bathed in the void, the freedom which came upon him only through slaughter and death. Closing his eyes, he could once again see Sara, Malaki, and his mother, alive and beautiful. In the emptiness, his mind was his to control. He didn’t see his mother’s dead eyes or have to watch his father break Malaki’s neck. Through death he could remember the good.
*
“Elijah, I thought you would be here.” Sara stepped out from the thicket of trees into a small opening where the waning moon shone through the treetops and lit the forest floor.
Elijah was sitting on the ground, leaning against the large tree that had toppled the year before.
“I waited for you; why didn’t you come ?” She spoke softly as she sat beside him.
Elijah was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know what to do, Sara.” He shuddered as he looked up at her with tears in his eyes. Sara tugged at his tunic, pulling him to her, and he fell over easily, his head onto her knee.
“Shhhh.” She gently wiped the tears from his eyes. “Everything will be all right, Elijah,” she said as she stroked the hair above his ear.
“Rest easy my love,” she whispered, “while I sing you a song. Let it carry your worries away.” As she began to sing, Elijah rolled to his back and gazed up at her face. In her he saw beauty and love; he knew grace, as if Venus herself had touched him. In her eyes was a strength and calm that somehow quieted the storm in his mind and stilled the raging tide of hopelessness that had nearly shattered his soul.
Until now, this memory had been completely lost to him. He had not remembered seeing Sara as a human after Solomon had so prophetically pulled her away from him and led her away from their special place in the forest, the one near the toppled tree.
Elijah closed his eyes as peace and warmth filled his soul.
Sara
1186—1190
“Do you want to kiss me?”
Chapter 49
Elijah and Sara had been the best of friends for as long as he could remember. Their mothers had both been servants of Lord Jeffrey and would often bring the children along to Rothber Castle so they could keep an eye on them while they cooked and cleaned. He and Sara had always been overjoyed to play out their fantasies of knights and wizards, dragons and princesses in a real castle.
Many times Elijah had to fight his way through hordes of evil knights, powerful wizards, and all sorts of magical creatures to save Sara, the beautiful princess who was trapped in the castle’s tower. The kitchen, where they were often confined, had served as an excellent tower. Once Elijah broke into the tower and reached the princess, the danger would grow by leaps and bounds; alarms would sound all over the dark kingdom as every wretched soul therein learned of the hero’s plight.
The beautiful Sara was a princess first, a real lady through and through, but when surrounded by danger, throngs of evil creatures too vast for Elijah alone to destroy, she would rise to the occasion and fight bravely beside her prince. He always enjoyed playing the game, but as he grew older, it was the deserving kiss the brave prince was bestowed by the rescued princess he most looked forward to. To Elijah, Sara truly was a beautiful princess. He imagined one day she would really kiss him, Elijah the peasant, rather than Elijah the prince.
Solomon was only a few years older than they were, but was always very mature for his age. He saw them as childr
en and treated them as such. He never joined in their games. When he wasn’t helping his father in the field, he spent his time reading, and occasionally taking walks deep into the forest, where he found solace at a small shrine and in the nature that surrounded it.
By Sara’s sixteenth birthday, she and Elijah had grown out of playing games in the castle. Still, when they weren’t doing chores and helping their families with the rigors of a peasant’s daily life, they spent nearly every moment together. They would walk through the forest and by the river. They talked about everything; they held no secrets from each other. Sara spent a lot of time complaining, but Elijah didn’t mind, he just enjoyed listening to her voice. That day she had been telling him about how her father had recently begun pressuring her to be more of a lady.
“What does that even mean?” she had demanded, extending both arms to keep her balance as she walked across a fallen tree. Elijah took her by the hand to help her down when she reached the end of the rotting log. As she jumped, her foot caught on a limb, and she stumbled into Elijah, causing him to also lose his balance.
As he fell backwards, he had no idea what perils might be beneath them, but he could see Sara’s genuine fear as she shrieked in alarm. Jerking her hard by the hand, he pulled her to his chest and wrapped both arms tightly around her, holding her in place as best he could as he fell backwards. Luckily they landed on a small bush that softened the fall. Lying on the ground, wrapped intimately around each other, neither of them rushed to get up.
“Thank you Elijah!” She kissed him on the cheek and then, placing her hands on his chest, pushed herself up. “I guess you will always be my prince.” She was still on top of him, pressing on his chest and looking down into his eyes as she spoke. Elijah could feel himself blushing and turned his head to hide it as he sat up. Lifting her by the waist, he gently slid her onto her knees beside him.
Apotheosis of the Immortal Page 20
