by Thomas, Ally
Grace and Lynn both swiveled their heads over at me.
“When did you learn their names?” she asked me, not realizing I had been watching their favorite TV show, The Walking Dead too.
“I thought television was beneath you. You only like movies, right?” Grace asked. “You told me that.”
“I never said that,” I qualified. “I get bored. That’s all. TV series go on forever. I lose interest. Besides, it’s research and actually I’ve discovered it’s rather calming. It slows my rapid thinking down.”
“Ahhh,” Lynn said as Grace glanced at me with an inquisitive expression on her face. Running her hands through her long pony tail, Grace cocked her head at me. “Mind numbing TV calms you down. Maybe I should try that too. I could watch old sitcoms. Those put me to sleep.”
We all laughed again. My friendships with Lynn and Grace had developed greatly since I had returned. Granted the friendships were different. A friendship with a human versus a vampire is going to be different. I could not ask Lynn to go hunting with me as I could Grace. But I don’t think Lynn really minded as long as we treated her with respect. Any creature, vampire or otherwise wants love, trust, and respect, right?
“Hey Lynn, what if we strike a compromise?” I asked, returning to the dreaded subject she had brought up earlier.
As I changed the subject, my movements blurred in front of them. My voice seemed to bounce off the walls as I approached Lynn. The bowl of popcorn she had been holding disappeared out of her hands. Instantly Grace stood at attention.
“Just because we won’t involve you in the zombie containment stuff doesn’t mean you can’t help us pick out some stuff. How about we all go shopping?” I flipped the DVD player off and deposited the bowl on the table again. “I think we need some fresh air.”
Grace bumped Lynn with her hip. “Go get dressed. You can help me pick out a sword.”
Lynn screamed with joy and jumped up in the air. “Oh my god! Really? Seriously?”
I raised my hands, motioning for her to be quiet for a moment. I felt my green eyes flashed a brilliant neon glow and then returned to their emerald radiance. “If we do see anything unusual, we’re going to be cool. Okay?” I paused for a moment, shifted my weight to the other leg, and continued. “You’re going to be cool and stay close to me or Grace at all times. Agreed?”
Enthusiastically, Lynn nodded. “Absolutely! Anything you say! Besides, we haven’t had any reports of sightings at night. We’ll be fine,” Lynn declared. “But you’ve got to grant me one request.”
Before she could finish her sentence, I answered her. “Fine. You get an outfit too. Just promise me you won’t keep bringing up the zombie fighting subject. Okay?”
“Agreed,” Lynn cheered, clapping her hands like a kid getting a puppy on Christmas morning. “If I look like a zombie killer, I can be prepared. That’s all I want! To be prepared before the shit goes down. Thank you!” She raced over to me and gave me a big hug. Gently, I pulled my human friend into my arms and held her still for a couple of seconds. It was like catching a china cup before it fell to the floor. When I felt Grace’s hand pat me on the shoulder, I opened my arms wider so the three of us could form a circle, a group hug as they called it.
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, either of you,” I offered. “Forgive me for being a bitch these past weeks. The stress with these zombies is too much sometimes.”
“We’re in this together,” Grace replied.
“Absolutely, we’ve got your back, Rayea,” Lynn added, smiling up at Grace and me as we separated from our collective embrace.
“No more zombie talk, okay?” Lynn asked, turning toward the hallway to my bedroom. “It’s shopping time, ladies!”
Grace giggled under her breath as we watched Lynn race out of the room. Then I heard Grace’s words, “Don’t you think she’d make an excellent zombie hunter?”
Chapter 3
Madness (Rayea)
***
“Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.” ~Allen Ginsberg
***
The second Lynn disappeared down the hall, I pointed to the balcony and snapped my fingers at Grace. “No, I don’t,” I snapped.
She rolled her eyes and grunted at me, a lot like I had often done to her.
The increasing stress I was under to eradicate the zombie sightings probably showed on my face. I knew it radiated off me. As I chewed on my bottom lip, Grace pulled me out onto the balcony so we could talk in private. Without any blood for the past four hours, her blood rage was racing in her veins too.
Sometimes even I didn’t know if I could live another minute with the level of vampire intensity I had gained after becoming a blood god. Grace felt her level of chaotic thirst too. I had turned her only a couple of years ago and she had told me about her difficulties in the beginning with controlling her emotions. Unfortunately, I had been missing in action as she dealt with it. That’s why I wanted to remain close now. Well that was one of the reasons. The other was I didn’t want anything to happen to Grace either.
Slowly, but surely, Grace and I had been working on keeping our emotions in check, especially when we were around Lynn. After thinking about it a lot, I had asked her if being a child of the vampire from Hell was too much for her. The fire power skills and everything that went along with being a vampire like me. She had replied that it was a blessing and a curse, but having me as her maker was the best gift she had even been given. Once she told me that, I didn’t question it anymore.
“Don’t tell me Lynn would make a great zombie hunter. Are you nuts?”
“I mean for a human. That’s all,” Grace replied.
Ignoring my frustration, she shrugged her shoulders. “Who was on the phone earlier?”
Without answering, I glanced at her and began pacing. Taking a few strands of my long black hair in my fingertips, I twirled them around as I walked.
“Rayea.”
Putting a hand on my hip, I stopped moving and stared out across the city skyline. The sun was setting behind the buildings. Being a vampire who could watch the sun rise and set always humbled me. I remained ever grateful for that gift J had given me. Now it allowed me to pass it on to others who I had made like Grace and Michael, my archangel friend who was too busy exploring the world to visit his maker.
“Rayea!”
As Grace’s words brought me back to reality and the frustration I was feeling, I hissed at her. Quite suddenly and violently, I whirled around at her. Flashing my fangs at me, Grace took a step back. “Shut the doors, would you?” I demanded under my breath.
Grace gulped in a few breaths of air. Letting them out slowly, I could tell she was struggling to calm herself as well.
“I’m sorry,” I finally said. I put my hand on her shoulder and gave her a side hug. “Caffeine isn’t going to do it for you forever, nor is the blood tea going to satisfy me. We really need to go hunting later tonight. We’re both starving.” Pulling a hair tie from my front jeans pocket, I gathered up my hair into a ponytail. Getting it out of my face as the wind continued to blow would only aggravate me more.
“How can we go hunting when we don’t know whose blood we can trust?” Grace asked. “I’m tired of just drinking from your blood supply. It’s a smart idea. I get that, but I miss the kill.”
“I know.” We stood in silence and stared at the amazing afternoon glow skyline of San Francisco. Feeling the cool Autum air on my face, I tried my best not to read Grace’s thoughts. But I knew what she was thinking. It was in my head too. The hunt. The kill. In the beginning, killing zombies had given us that predator outlet we needed. It satisfied our lust for adventure and calmed our thirst. Hunting with another vampire, especially one just like me, was unlike anything I had experienced before and I enjoyed it a great deal. Grace and I had developed our own synchronized way of fighting. We knew each other’s moves before they occurred. She’d take one zombie on as I’d fire bomb the other two or three. It was an unspoken
coordinated dance of destruction. The past dozen times we had gone up against a small group of zombies, we had slaughtered them. However, after the fight, the thirst remained. Until now, I hadn’t told Grace that. Really I hadn’t admitted that, even to myself or Blick. But it was true.
Finally I spoke. “We’ll play it safe for now. Okay?”
Grace shrugged her shoulders at me. “I’ll do my best.”
“I can’t stand the not knowing,” I began. “I thought he was dead. If he has his way, he will enslave every human on this planet. One way or the other.” Grace understood my radical shifts in conversation. The subject of my father was always at the back of my brain.
“He is,” she said. “Rayea, your father is dead. You ripped his heart out. How could anyone survive that?”
The absurdity of the moment hit me. I laughed at her words. Tossing my head back, I cracked my neck, a habit I did often when I was stressed. It was a habit Grace had seen far too often lately. “To answer your question from earlier, I called Eos. I had hoped when she heard my situation that she’d have an answer for me.”
“What did she say?” she asked. “Can’t the Goddess of Immortality solve this?”
“It’s my problem to clean up. That’s what she told me. I chose to return to Earth and mingle among mankind. It’s my fault this is happening. I’m fucked, Grace. Truly. I’ve totally fucked this up.” I turned around and faced her. Decades of insecurity rose up in my voice. “How do I stop someone who won’t die? How do I end this invasion my father has begun?”
“You don’t know he’s the one producing that wine. It could be your sister, Stephanie. We don’t know for sure yet.”
I sighed and returned to gaze at the gleaming lights of the city as they began to appear. Those moments between when the sun went down and the evening darkness began were my favorite to witness. I enjoyed wandering around the city in the day, basking in the sunshine if we were lucky enough to have sunny weather instead of overcast days. But that didn’t really compare to the night life of San Francisco. That’s when the city came alive.
“I know it’s him,” I replied to her, pushing away my admiration for the city I loved. Keep your mind focused, I told myself. “Grace, I feel it in my bones. Trust me. Satan is back and he’s behind these people falling into madness. We have to stop this zombie shit before it flows into the streets. I won’t let my father do this, not now, not months before my wedding. Not after everything I’ve been through, every bit of torture I endured at his hands. I won’t let him finally win.”
After a few more moments of silence passed, Grace asked me another question, the dread question I didn’t want to think about.
“What is Blick’s take on this?”
I chuckled under my breath, and then clicked my tongue against the back of my fang. I’m sure Grace had grown accustomed to the snapping sound I lately made out of disgust or frustration.
“He doesn’t believe you?”
“Blick thinks I’m overreacting,” I said. “They haven’t found anything, so he and Demetri are headed home. He sent me a text earlier.”
“Rayea, I think it’s safe to say that if we hadn’t seen Steve come back from the dead maybe we would be suspicious too. But we didn’t see him consume the wine. What if that part was only a coincidence?
I glared at her.
“Okay, okay,” Grace said, raising her hands in peace. “Fine! I’m sticking with my blood pills and your remaining blood supply. Doesn’t that prove I think you’re telling the truth? I don’t want to drink human blood from anyone who could be infected with what Zombie Steve had. No way.”
“I agree. I’m sorry. It’s just…”
Grace wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Let’s talk about this later, okay? For now, let’s do what Lynn suggested. No more zombie talk. Besides, I miss happy Rayea. Where has she been?” she asked.
This time I rolled my eyes at me again and smirked her way. Lynn called out to us from the kitchen. I looked back at Grace. “We good?” I asked.
“Fabulous. Let’s put our happy feet on and jump off into some shopping fun.” Grace did a quick hopping step in my direction, and then bowed at me.
Pulling her by the arm as I almost doubled over in laughter, we burst out laughing.
“How is that wedding dress coming along by the way?” she asked as we left the balcony. “Do you have another fitting soon.”
I threw up my hands. “I’m being too picky, aren’t I?”
“You,” she sang out. “Never!”
“I just want it perfect. Okay? So what if I keep asking my mother to find another designer? You don’t get married but once.”
“Screw the dress. Just wear this.” She pointed at my t-shirt and stretchy jeans.
It had become my normal attire.
“Suggestion though. Scrap the boots and wear some of those adorable glittery white Converse tennis shoes with the pink shoe laces.” Grace winked at me as she leaned in, threw her hands on her hips, and tapped her foot at me.
“Shut up before I smack you,” I replied.
“Just checking.” She rushed past her, playfully popping me on the back of the head before I could react. Over the past few months, her vampire speed had steadily been increasing and I had taken notice. Grace was more than a fledgling to me. She was my sister in blood, the only family I had besides Blick. I’d defend her, and my friends, from the likes of my father or my evil sister with every fiber of my being, or die trying.
Chapter 4
Suffering (Stephanie)
***
“There's a natural law of karma that vindictive people, who go out of their way to hurt others, will end up broke and alone.” ~Sylvester Stallone
***
“I think this chic Rayea is hot,” one of Nathan’s friends said. I didn’t recognize him.
“She’s hotter than the cunt here. That’s for sure,” T offered.
T, Nathan, and the other guy laughed at me. I had seen this devilish evening play out in Nathan’s apartment over and over. I knew where it was going and I knew how it would end. Some nights it didn’t keep me from responding. Other nights I remained as lifeless as a robot.
“Rattle that door one more time, Cunt and I’ll put you in the hole. Do you want another night in the hole, you worthless piece of shit? We’re busy here! Do you get me? Be quiet!”
“Teach her another lesson, Nate. Teach her good.”
“T, shut up. We’ll fuck her when I’m good and ready. Go jack off in the bathroom if you cannot wait.”
When I saw T adjust his jeans, I let my head sink in submission. The silent treatment would be my only salvation tonight. I had no way out, no escape from the Hell my life had become. Twelve months. It felt like an eternity. I sighed.
After I pushed my naked body to the other side of the cage and pulled my legs up to my chest, I sat and pouted. There wasn’t much else I could do. I didn’t care that I was naked. I had gotten used to that after the first month. The rest of it? Never.
When the anger finally rolled over me, I wrapped my arms around myself in a fetal ball position and slowly rocked back and forth on my hips. Eventually, my anger left me. It wouldn’t do any good to be angry at Nathan. I knew that. He had tried to teach me that. But it still hadn’t set in. I had been in his care as long as I could remember. He said it had been a year. It could have been longer. I hated him more and more each second I remained imprisoned. Especially on nights like this, I hated him. I boiled with rage silently in my own skin, in my own cage of suffering. Every evil action I had given to the others in my past life was now reaping itself upon me. Was this to be my fate?
I suppose I should be thankful that Nathan had saved me that night in the bar when I had killed Rayea, my sister. I had ripped her heart out of her chest, just as she had done to my father. She too was dead now. My father, Lucifer. Dead as well. Me? His youngest, only obedient daughter? I wished I was dead. I was alone now. Worse than alone really. I was some slimy human’s pet, on di
splay in a wire cage no more than four feet high by six feet wide. I could not stand up. I only could sit or kneel or lie on my back, stretched out, like I was in a coffin. I wish the bites I had sustained from my sister, the fucking Vampire from Hell, had killed me. They had not. Instead, her blood had “healed” me or rather had reversed years of bloodletting I had shared with my father, Lucifer. I thought our blood bond was invincible. I thought I would be the New Medusa forever. My long flowing locks of snakes my hair had transformed into. Gone. My glistening green snake skin. Now creamy white. My demon teeth. No more. My radiant green eyes that I accentuated with my favorite outfit of high leather black boots and a shiny green latex bikini. Dirt brown. My parade of my snake demon minions who would do anything I desired. Destroyed. My existence as the New Medusa, the prodigy of the Ancient Snake Goddess, Mehen. Evaporated. A faded memory. Blown away like ashes in the wind.
When Nathan’s gaunt, chalky-white face loomed before me and I saw his mouth moving, I realized I had not been listening. My mind had taken me to that place of temporary peace. It was the only escape I now had from him and his twisted friends.
“How was it? Getting fucked by your father, Cunt?” he asked, slamming the cage with the paperback he was reading. “Here in her book, your sister refers to it as his ‘loving his children.’ I’m sure she hated it. Miss goodie two shoes. But you? I bet you got off on it, didn’t you, Stephanie?”
As Nathan hissed out my birth name, a compassionate gesture he saved for these moments when the humiliation was about to begin. A wave of disgust hit me. Nathan always brought this subject up when he was ready to have his way with me. It was his type of foreplay. He and his friends sat around reading Rayea’s book, The Vampire from Hell. When Nathan was finally aroused, he would come for me. This time, I gritted my teeth and refused to speak. My father had never hurt me. So what if he was my lover? Being with him had been all I had known until now. Nathan and his friends didn’t understand. My older sister, Rayea didn’t get it. When our father took Rayea on her ‘training sessions’ as he called them, she had fought him and had never won. My approach to the love my father wanted to provide was different. I welcomed it. I turned the pain inward and it strengthened me. I embraced the evil rhetoric Satan had preached to us and I had survived. I drank his blood as if no other liquid could quench my thirst. Of course, I turned dark. Of course, I turned into a vile snake-looking demon creature. Of course, I lost my human features and changed into something unimaginable. I had no other option. Looking the way I did, I was feared. I was powerful. I was invincible. No one dared fuck with me, except my sister. I was my father’s youngest child, his baby as he called me, and I knew he loved me above all others.
