Requiem of Humanity

by Catherine Stovall

  She spun to attack again and found Augustine standing three feet away, laughing quietly as he asked, “Not much of a morning person, my love?”

  He looked perfect in a dark gray t-shirt, blue jeans, and boots. His blond hair was hanging loose to frame his strong jaw, and his dizzying green eyes sparkled with delight. The crooked grin he wore was as insolent as her own. He was a masterpiece of masculinity and sex appeal.

  However, instead of instantly melting from his charm and good looks, Soborgne doubled up her fist and punched him again as hard as she could. The hit didn’t have quite the effect she would have liked. Augustine didn’t even flinch. Soborgne had put everything she had into the shot and he barely managed to look uncomfortable.

  “What the hell! Why am I in this dirty, dingy, concrete prison, and you look like you just stepped out of an All American ad?” She sounded more frantic than angry. She hated to hear the whine in her own voice, but she was filthy, scared, hungry, and confused.

  He stepped forward and in one languid movement swept her against him in an easy embrace. The weight of his arms at her waist anchored her to him more securely than shackles could have. Kissing her heavily for a moment, he left her feeling slightly unsteady. The electric buzz of his presence pulsed through her each time they touched.

  “You look stunning as always, my love, and you were here for your own protection. I could not just simply stash you away in a five-star hotel alone, with half the Vajdahunyad Castle and half a demon horde hunting for you. I had to prepare, mi amour, and I could not risk something happening to you while I was gone.”

  Nervously smoothing her hands over her mass of hair, she thought absentmindedly about how nice it would be to take a hot shower and fix her hair. Having automatic great hair didn’t seem to be one of the many benefits of being undead. Soborgne caught herself wondering why all the movies, books, and television shows had lied. They made being a teenage vampire out to be one great big gorgeous adventure.

  “Prepare for what? You haven’t explained anything to me. Promises and secrets are all you have given me, Augustine. I know I love you, but I do not know who you are. We must talk.”

  “We will, my darling, but first we shall dine.” Pretending to sniff at her, he added, “And perhaps we shall clean up a bit.”

  When he laughed, Soborgne could not resist his carefree sexy way. The entire world seemed to be a joke to Augustine, and he was always a step ahead of the punch line. Slapping him lightly on the arm, she let him lead her from the cellar. They passed through what appeared to be some sort of storage area before climbing a short set of stairs. When they entered into the structure above, Soborgne was amazed to find herself in a comfortable and cozy kitchen.

  The stainless counters, the lovely island, and the appliances were all sparkling clean. Everything looked so human that it almost felt like home. A heavy sense of homesickness washed over her and the tears welled in her eyes. This was her first time inside a real house since the morning that Belle and Matteo had abducted her outside of school. Longing for her home and parents was irrational, but she did so just the same.

  It felt luxurious to have the thick carpet under her feet as she sleepily stumbled from her bed. She remembered the smell of coffee and the sounds of her mother fidgeting over what tie would go best with her stepdad’s dress shirt. She missed the soft murmur of their voices rising up through the floors. If she had only known that she would never see them again, she would have done things different.

  She didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to her parents before she left. Jim rushed off to work with just a quick holler up the stairs, and her mother was chatting away to one of her friends about a new spa they were going to check out. Soborgne left without a word, like every other morning before. Later, her mom would have texted her to remind her about some sale and to say “love you.”

  Soborgne hadn’t thought this much about her parents since the beginning of this nightmare. She tried to forget them, but it hurt more to forget than to remember. She could never erase them from her mind, but she tried her best not to think about them. Listening to Andras had brought all the longing back again. His tale of her birth dredged up so many memories of the woman she had always thought was her biological mother. Now, being in a place resembling her own home was making her sentimental.

  Augustine saw the pain flash across her face and he wrapped her in his arms. The tingling sensation was there as always, a soft electrical current. The jolting sensation finally jogged her memory. She remembered why the electrical feeling meant something to her. She thought back to the night after she completed the full change, something Matteo had said to her.

  She, Jenda, and Matteo were all in the car, on the run from Belle’s followers and the Dracul. She was listening while Matteo told them about what their lives would be like after the change. They were talking about the old ones and the Dracul.

  She could hear Matteo’s voice in her head: The Dracul are powerful vampires. Once you have developed your gifts, you will be able to sense them as well. It is an indescribable feeling. It is like standing to close to a power source of some kind.”

  Matteo had talked of fear and anxiety, but the trembling feeling she felt was neither. Her love for Augustine could be the bond, or it could be genuine—whatever it was, it was not fear. Nonetheless, Matteo’s description rang true. Standing near Augustine was an electrifying experience.

  Augustine pulled away and his eyes grew serious as he looked at her. For the first time, Soborgne could see his thoughts. They were not as clear as Jenda’s or the humans’ she read, but they were there. He was afraid—not of her, but for her. She tried to probe further, but he must have caught on. The images faded into nothing. She thought he might say something, might even grow angry as Patrick had. Augustine just smiled and walked towards the refrigerator.

  “First we snack, then you shower, and then we dine.” A mischievous grin spread across his face as he grabbed a few bags of blood from the fridge.

  Soborgne hated to see the smile fade when she asked, “When are you going to give me some answers? We have to talk, Augustine. I need to know, Augustine. You cannot keep me in the dark.”

  For an instant, she saw a flash of something in his eyes, but it was gone almost immediately.

  “Mon amour, I will tell you all you need to know very soon.” Taking her hand and brushing it against his lips, he charmed her worries away. “Forgive me for wanting just a little time for us without the schemes and ulterior motives of the rest of the world.”

  His lips, his love, and his charm made everything else unimportant. The only thing that mattered was that they were together. All the rest faded away like a colorless backdrop. She let him kiss her passionately then. When he touched her, it was as if they were the only two creatures on earth, the only tangible things in a land of gray mist. When the kiss ended, she was dizzy with desire. She tried to pull him close again, but he gently took her hands and placed a long stemmed glass in them.

  “You are hungry.” He nipped at her nose playfully with his teeth before adding, “We have as much time as you desire for other appetites, my love.”

  17

  Jenda sat in the chair watching the world go by far below her. She couldn’t sleep after the day’s events. She envied Matteo as he lay slumbering across the room in their mammoth bed. He had cajoled, teased, and nearly begged her to lie down for at least an hour, but she had refused. Her mind was twisted in knots and her heart was breaking with every breath.

  Sleep held no temptation for her. She spent the day in a near vegetative state, only moving to refill her glass of blood or retrieve more hot water. She drank so much that she had to request the servants bring her more. She was learning that the blood could be intoxicating. It numbed her just enough that she didn’t want to run screaming from the castle.

  That was a very powerful urge at one point in the early morning. When her mind was spinning wildly out of control and she could no longer hold the tears and sobs insi
de it, she came close to leaving. She thought of running. She wanted to run until her legs ached with exhaustion, her lungs threatened to burst, and her vision grew bright around the edges.

  Her freshman year, she was on the track team. She ran the quarter mile in the state finals. The pure pain and physical exertion was exhilarating. Her opponents were tough. The best girls in the state ran against her, and Jenda pushed herself further that day than any other in her life.

  She came in third place, but she never forgot the way she felt. She focused her mind and body completely on the race. It took away everything else. She had no worries, no fears, and no anxiety. The world faded, leaving just her and the track. The adrenaline and the race meant everything until she stopped.

  She wanted to run away, but too much held her there. The people here were her new family. They were the ones who could help her find Soborgne. She had promised them her help, and they had promised her theirs. She couldn’t leave them and wait for the evil to take over and destroy them one by one. She already loved them all too much.

  She must also consider Matteo. She knew that if he woke to find her gone, then he would search for her. He would find her eventually. She couldn’t imagine seeing the pain she knew would be in his eyes. The questions he would ask she knew she wouldn’t be able to answer. The undeniable accusations of betrayal and abandonment would come from his beautiful lips. Therefore, she stayed.

  She couldn’t run away, she couldn’t sleep, so she did the only thing that she could. She drank bag after bag of blood, and she watched the world go by as she thought about her next step. The plan was forming slowly. She needed information, but she wasn’t sure how to find the library in the castle and Matteo was still sleeping. All she knew was that it was located in a different wing than their quarters. Jenda would have to wait until the sun set. She counted the moments, as the sky became a colorful palette of fading sun.

  She watched as the sun finally began its descent on the horizon. Her impatience was growing. She got up a few times to pace the room. She wanted desperately to put things in motion. At last, Matteo rolled over to his side and faced her as she walked back in forth in front of the window. The last rays of the sun caught in her hair, making it blaze like fire.

  His face twisted into a happy smile, and when he spoke it almost startled her out of her own skin. “Good morning, beautiful.”

  Jenda yelped and nearly toppled over the chair. “Oh my God, you nearly scared me to death.” She recovered quickly and leaped into the bed, excited to share her ideas with someone. She was so preoccupied she didn’t even notice that she cleared a six-foot distance in one effortless jump.

  Matteo was amazed at her agility and her uncharacteristic hyperactivity. “Babe, have you been up all day?” His voice was cautious and his look was disapproving.

  “You know, my love, just because you can spend your days awake does not mean you shouldn’t sleep. Especially after what you went through yesterday, you need rest. If you grow weak again, there is no telling what might happen. Not to mention, you just jumped halfway across a very large room. Your powers are increasing, but you can’t over do it.”

  Jenda was too excited to care. To silence his protective babble, she grabbed him by the face and kissed him hard on the mouth for a long moment. When she let go, he was staring at her with a look in his eyes that was somewhere between surprise and desire. She didn’t give him time to react before she began speaking. Even their love life could not quell her mission tonight.

  “I know what to do! I have been thinking and thinking. Well, at first I was just crying, but then I started thinking and I figured it all out. We can find Soborgne, we can leave tonight, and I know how to figure it all out. We have to get ready. Can you buy the tickets? Oh, I am not sure where we are going yet. I have to find that out.” Her words were rushing on top of themselves.

  For Matteo, it was like watching someone in fast forward. He was becoming extremely worried about Jenda as she continued the one-sided dialog disguised as a conversation. She was bouncing up and down as she spoke, with her hand flying in all directions to illustrate what she wanted, thought, and needed.

  Finally, he grabbed her wrist and forced her to look at him. “Slow down. Jenda, what is wrong with you? How do you feel? We can’t leave anywhere tonight. So just calm down some and we will go see Celeste as soon as the sun has finished setting.”

  Jenda grew impatient and frustrated with him. She nearly screamed, “I don’t want to talk to Celeste! Talking is not going to help Soborgne or me. All we do is talk, talk, talk. Celeste talks and you talk, but no one listens and no one does shit! I swear, if you do not help me, I will go on my own.”

  She was resolute, and he knew not to challenge her. One wrong word might send her flying out of the castle. He could stop her if he tried, but he had sworn never to touch her in impatience or anger again. He hated himself for the way he had hurt her, and for the way she had looked at him with so much anger. She had nearly tried to kill him because of it all. He didn’t mean to cause her pain their first day at Vajdahunyad. The situation, the exhaustion, and pure fear drove him to drag her away from the runes so roughly.

  “Jenda, I will help you, but we must take time to prepare ourselves. If you run headlong into this, it may prove to be a fatal error for Soborgne and us. I promise you, we will go after her very soon. Now, why don’t you try breathing and explain to me just what your plan is.” His sincerity won her over and she smiled apologetically at him.

  “Oh, Matteo, I am so sorry. I know I am being impossible, but I just know this will work and I just want to have Soborgne back. Every minute she is gone, I become more afraid that I will never get her back. I fear that she will be swallowed up by the darkness and no longer be herself.” Her eyes turned as hard as stones then. In a grave voice, she said, “I am afraid I will have to kill her, as the prophecy says.”

  As soon as she spoke the words, her eyes went from hard emerald gems to liquid pools of green fire. They burned with the red tears that washed down her face. Jenda sobbed against Matteo’s chest. She was a broken and lonely girl again. His eyes grew misty as he realized the tremendous pain that she felt.

  Mateo had almost forgotten what it was like to know that with every passing day. certain death grew closer . The death may not be Jenda’s own physically, but Matteo knew that her soul would die too if she must slay Soborgne. He held her and tried to give her comfort. No words could soothe that kind of pain. The wound of Soborgne’s betrayal was too fresh, too deep, and it bled the sisterly love the girls had shared for so many years.

  The sun was completely down, and if Matteo thought the emotional breakdown would drain her of some of the energy, he was wrong. Jenda stopped crying almost as quickly as she started.

  “I will never cry again.” Her voice was flat and emotionless. “I am a vampire, not a weak human. I am a woman, not a child. The time for crying is over. I’m going to be strong now.”

  This was the first time Matteo saw Jenda so serious and so frightening. The monotone and expressionless speech was so uncharacteristic of the vibrant bubbly girl he knew and loved. Before Matteo could try to reason with her, Jenda left the bed and went into the bathroom. The door shut softly behind her and Matteo heard the finality of the lock clicking.

  Not knowing what else to do, he went about getting dressed for the evening. The people of Vajdahunyad would have much to discuss tonight. They would decide what their next step was in retaliation and protection against the Dracul. He knew that this act of treason and terrorism would not and could not go without retaliation.

  Fifteen minutes later, Jenda exited the bathroom. She felt better now that she had showered and fixed her lovely red tresses in a long braid down her back. Her clothes were modest and designed for comfortable travel. Matteo could see that she was doing everything in her power to let them know in her subtle way that she was beginning her journey, one way or another.

  Even in the severity of her fashion, he found her irresistibl
e. He longed to undo the meticulous braid and let her slightly damp and shampoo perfumed hair tumble down onto him. Her strength and her weakness caused him to want her more than he had ever wanted anything in either his human or vampire life. He was finding it more and more difficult to remain the gentleman when she was so delectable all the time.

  Jenda spoke first. “I am not going to see Celeste tonight. I want to be on my own. Tell her that I am sorry, but my duty is elsewhere right now. If she wishes to see me, I will come to her as soon as I find what I need.”

  To Matteo, she sounded more grown up than she had just the day before. She no longer spoke each sentence as if she were asking. She quietly made her demands, leaving no room for argument. A woman’s mind and a woman’s heart lived inside her.

  Knowing he could do nothing but agree, Matteo conceded, “As you wish, my love. I am sure Celeste will understand under these circumstances.”

  He was sure Celeste would not understand, nor care in the least about Soborgne. To her, Soborgne had been a nuisance before the battle, and now she was a threat. Celeste did not tolerate threats to herself, her home, or her followers. She would not be pleased with Jenda’s refusal to keep their daily appointment. She would especially not appreciate it on this day, when discussion and decisions must be made.

  Jenda could feel his apprehension stretching out before him like a tangled web. It wrapped itself around her and she began to feel guilty. Since the first moment the idea came to her, she had forgotten to consider Matteo and Celeste. She was purposefully avoiding the pain it would cause them. She was hell-bent on doing this her way and her way only. She let his feeling slip into her like breathing in invisible smoke.

  This was the first time that she had let the sensations really take hold of her. All her defenses were down when she pulled his thoughts to her, and there were no walls up to prevent the overwhelming flood. She could feel his tension, his worry, and his love. She could sense him in every aspect of his being. The power of it made her swoon as her own emotions faded to the back and his took over.