by D. N. Hoxa
Mohg turned to me.
“Though you ended Doyen Everard because he harmed you and yours, you have done a great favor to our race. Finding something to replace the effect of human blood is something worth saving and fighting for. But do tell me, where are the boxes you mentioned?”
My breath caught in my throat, and I found I couldn’t move.
I had to replay his words in my head over and over again, just to make sure that I heard right.
What did he mean, to replace the human blood? How was that possible?
“Pardon me, Doyen. You’ve found something to replace the effect of human blood for vampires?” Hammer asked before I could.
“Yes,” Mohg said with a slow nod.
“Like, a vampire wouldn’t need to drink human blood to survive anymore?” I said, because I was too shocked to keep quiet.
“Exactly. A mix of weeds, no less. Drugs, like cocaine, that we’ve had under our noses from the beginning of time and never knew how to use,” Mohg said, shaking his head.
“Doyen, is it possible…” Hammer started again, as excited as I was, which got me even more excited.
I couldn’t believe it. What he said meant that I no longer needed to be a monster. To feel like a monster. Behave like monster. I could just be a cocaine junkie, and I wouldn’t have to kill another being in my entire life.
“It is, fortunately. We’ve managed to plant acres and acres of different weeds on the best soil we could find left in this world. Tests are being made, but with hope and hard work, I do believe that we will manage to find away to free ourselves from humans, forever,” Mohg said proudly.
I could have cried. I could’ve kissed him right that second.
“That’s fantastic!” I shouted. I didn’t care to hold myself in for a total of two seconds. That’s how long it took for me to realize that Mohg was watching me with an arched brow. I lowered my head again, but I couldn’t stop smiling.
“What is she, Doyen?” Hammer asked. I had completely forgotten about that.
“A mutation,” Mohg said.
“Have you met someone like me before?” I asked. Nothing he said from that second on could ruin my great mood. Finally, I could freely accept that I wanted to live and not want to kill myself all over again because of it.
“I have. Once. Not quite as naïve, but no older than you. It was in the early years of my existence,” Mohg said. It was weird how he said existence and not life.
“Not a happy ending and certainly not a long life, but I have met him. A vampire with a beating heart that can kill other vampires with a single bite,” he said dramatically. I would have rolled my eyes if I’d dared. But I didn’t, because for the first time since I became a vampire, it was okay to want to live. And I wanted to. By God, I wanted to live through eternity with Hammer.
“Do you know why, Doyen?” Hammer asked.
“Certainly,” Mohg said. “Nothing but a bad mix, I assure you.” And he gave that slight turn of his lip corner again. “Her heart pumps blood. The vampirism in her ruins as many cells as it can. It’s amazing how her body handles such a fight, second after second. But sometimes, only on very rare occasions, vampirism adapts. The virus itself adapts to the created environment, as long as it is convinced that the body is still a capable host, like in the case of Morta here. And when she bites a body overrun completely, controlled completely by vampirism, it transfers the mutated virus used to co-existing with blood cells. The next generation of vampirism, if you will, but something the brain and body of an ordinary vampire cannot handle,” he said, shaking his head. “Her virus tries to transform the existing virus in another’s body, but it cannot, and therefore, destroys it completely, leaving it naked and human again.”
It wasn’t like I couldn’t have guessed it…okay, I probably couldn’t have guessed it. But when he said it, the kid with an old man’s voice, it all fit perfectly in my mind. He left no room for doubt. His voice alone and its finality reassured you that there was no other explanation other than the one he gave.
I understood. Finally, I understood my fucked up situation.
“But it works so fast,” I wondered out loud. He had to see it in order to know how fast it really worked.
“It is supposed to,” Mohg only said with a nod.
No longer interested in the topic, since I was looking forward to getting the hell out of there and living happily ever after with a bag of weeds attached to my back, I moved on.
“Everybody’s chasing me,” I said. “They see me as a threat, which I only am if I have no other choice to save my own life—or that of someone I care about. I am told that no one but you can do something about it.”
It was maybe a bit straightforward and very unlike me to ask for help, just like that, but bright nights awaited me. I wasn’t going to let pride take the best of it.
“You will no longer be chased,” Mohg said. Like before, the finality of his words, his voice, they sounded like it was a done deal. Just like that. So goddamn easy.
I turned to look at Hammer, wanting to laugh, so badly, but then I saw his face.
He wasn’t happy. His brows were curled, and his lips pressed. He stared only at his shoes. His hands were behind him, and I saw his muscles move. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, because all we’d gotten until now was good news. But I thought too fast.
“That is a promise, and in return, I expect you to be at my command, every night of every year,” Mohg concluded.
My eyes almost popped out of my head when I turned to look at him. What was he saying? At his command? Like, he could order me around like a dog? Like Everard thought he could?
“With all due respect, sir, I will help whenever I can, but I don’t plan to stick around here. I will not be around these parts for much longer,” I said.
I was going to Asia, with Hammer. He wasn’t going to stop me. Shit, I hoped he wouldn’t stop me.
“If traveling is what you want to do, by all means, go. But when you return, there will be no more excuses,” Mohg said, and he didn’t look very happy about it.
The incredulousness in my voice was evident.
“I don’t want to travel. I want to live on the other side of the world. For now, at least.” A few centuries, at the very minimum.
“Live?” Mohg asked. “By yourself?”
“No, sir. With Hammer,” I said and wrapped my hand around Hammer’s arm.
I felt his muscles clench as soon as my fingers wrapped around his. I could’ve heard his body working if I wasn’t so concentrated on Mohg all the time.
“Hammer?” I asked.
Why wasn’t he saying anything? Had he changed his mind? A hole the size of a mountain formed in my heart.
“You should not make oaths you aren't sure you can keep,” Mohg said. And then it dawned on me.
The promise Hammer made to kill me, if I helped him find Everard.
We found Everard. I killed Everard. I had been so consumed by the news Mohg gave us, that I’d put that detail in the corner of my mind somewhere.
“I love her,” Hammer said.
It was so sudden, that every cell in my body reacted to the three words. My heart, my mind, my breath, even my eyes got a little glossy. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My knees almost gave up on me. I wanted to tell him I loved him, too. I knew it wasn’t the right time, or place, but I couldn’t wait to get out of there and tell him.
“Oaths cannot be broken,” Mohg said.
“What happens when they are?” I asked, looking at Hammer. He refused to turn his eyes to me. I tightened my fingers around his arm. “Hammer, what happens when oaths get broken?”
“I am deeply sorry, dear boy, but seven days have passed,” Mohg said, and he stood up.
Hammer finally looked at me. His eyes were glossy. Why was he crying? I started to shake my head at whatever news he had for me. He couldn’t turn into a monster, could he? He said he wouldn’t. And why seven days? What seven days?
“I will come b
ack for you, Morta,” Hammer whispered.
“What?” I whispered.
“I will come—” he started again, but I’d already heard him the first time.
“No! You’re not going anywhere! You can't just leave me! Where the hell do you want to go?!” Had he completely lost his mind? Didn’t he just admit that he loved me? “What 7 days? Where is he going? You can't take him away!” I shouted at Mohg next. Screw him and his energy. Hammer wasn’t going anywhere.
“Seven days is the time a vampire has at his disposal to complete his oath. Hammer’s time has passed,” Mohg said calmly.
He took another, bigger stone from his shelf, and threw it on top of the other, smaller ones, on the red fog. The color brightened, and the fog spread wider.
“Hammer, please! What is happening?” I cried.
He grabbed my face in his hands.
“Listen to me, Morta. I will come back for you, you hear me? I will come back for you, no matter how long it takes.”
“Hammer, please. What are you saying? Where are you going?” I pleaded. Tears streamed from my eyes, but I didn’t even notice them.
“I have to. Just wait for me, amor. Wait for me, and I will come back to you,” he said, and wiped my tears with his thumbs before he rested his forehead to mine.
“Don’t go! Please Hammer, don’t leave me. I don’t know how…please,” I cried.
I didn’t care that I sounded like a little girl. I didn’t care that I was crying in front of Mohg. I couldn’t imagine a single day without Hammer. I didn’t know how to breathe without him.
“Trust me, Morta. I will come back for you,” Hammer kept repeating and gave me a kiss on my forehead. My eyes squeezed shut, and I held onto his wrists tightly. I wasn’t going to let him go. I shook my head, over and over again. I didn’t care. He wouldn’t move unless he wanted to take my hands with him. I wasn’t going to let him go.
But then, I simply couldn’t touch him anymore. Reality turned to nightmare.
Hammer was nothing but a colorful shadow in front of me when I opened my eyes. I watched him fly away from me and toward Mohg’s red fog, and I couldn’t think. I couldn’t decide what the hell to do. I didn’t know what I could do. He watched me, his eyes said sorry to me, his mouth whispered that he loved me, and yet he was leaving me.
I’ll come back for you, he mouthed, and then he disappeared completely.
I ran towards him, screaming at the top of my voice, but I couldn’t reach him because someone grabbed me from behind. Steel hands held me. I tried with all my strength, but I couldn’t get close to the stone.
“What have you done to him? Where did you take him?!” I shouted at Mohg instead. I couldn’t think straight. Hammer had just disappeared in front of my eyes.
“I have done nothing, Morta Fox. You need to calm down if you want to know,” Mohg said.
At first, I didn’t care. I tried and tried to escape Gael’s grip, I cursed him and Mohg and every living creature on earth, but I couldn’t move away. They’d taken the only person I’d ever loved away from me.
But I was going to get him back. I was going to go after him, no matter what. I just needed to know where he was.
To know that, I had to calm down. So I made myself shut the hell up, stop cursing, and screaming. My heavy breathing moved my entire body up and down, but I didn’t speak. I didn’t make a sound while I watched Mohg. Begged him with my eyes to just speak already.
“Oaths, in our world, are sacred rules. When a vampire makes an oath, it connects to his soul. That is why we use them so little. Because when we fail to complete an oath, our soul is damned. We never knew why, but seven days after the first part of an oath is completed, the Red Dimension takes the soul without question,” Mohg said and dropped on his chair, looking at me like I was mad. But I was mad.
“What the hell is the Red Dimension? Tell me, where is he?”
I didn’t care where Mohg’s magic, voodoo shit took him. I would find him. I would go right that second, and I would find him.
“The Red Dimension is the vampires’ version of what humans refer to as hell. A second hell,” said Mohg. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to keep crying harder, but the impossibility of his words left me staring only.
“Take her, for now.” He nodded at Gael, who was holding me back from running straight into the red fog.
“No! No, I’m not going anywhere! Not until you tell me the truth!” I shouted.
“I already have, Morta. Hammer has gone to hell,” he said tiredly.
“When people die, that’s when they go to hell!” I shouted again. My throat hurt, but I was way past noticing anything but the face of a kid.
“There is a fine line between those who have died in death and those who have broken the sacred rules. The Red Dimension is for oath breakers, and it keeps them trapped forever. I do not have the patience to hear your shouting. We will talk later,” he said and waved his hand at Gael again. He started to drag me backwards.
“No! Please, take me, too! Take me to hell, please!” I pleaded.
“It does not work that way, Morta. You have many things to learn.”
Those were Mohg’s last words to me for the night.
But they shut me up. I cried tears like I never had before. I cried so hard that I realized that was the first time I really wanted to die. Before, I hadn't been a hundred percent into it. Not like that moment. Not like I wanted to simply fall out of existence, because Hammer wasn’t by my side.
Hell. A second hell. He had gone to hell. How many hells are there for vampires? How can a living being go to hell? Were they playing tricks on me?
But why would they?
Gael took me to some house. I couldn’t see, but I didn’t care enough to look, either. He said something. I didn’t care to listen. I found a corner and let go of my body. My eyes had forgotten how to blink, ever since Hammer disappeared right before them.
He said he’d come back for me. But how could he? How could someone come back from hell?
They couldn't.
I’d lost him. I had finally found something worth living for, something to make me want to embrace the option of living a life, and I lost it. He left me.
He left me, just as fast as he’d found me.
I couldn’t think clearly. All I heard in my head was hell. All I saw in front of me was Hammer disappearing.
It took me a long while to convince myself of what was happening. And when I did, I wanted to beat myself to death. He disappeared and left me in a world I had no idea how to live in, with people I had no idea how to behave around. Darkness was all around me, inside and out. I was broken. Through with everything.
I was alone again.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for sticking with Morta and Hammer to the very end. I can’t wait to hear what you thought of it.
Would you like to know how Morta’s house got burned down that night? (Hint: it involves fangs!!!). If you do, sign up to my mailing list here, and receive the short story for free on your email, as it isn’t published anywhere.
NEW: You can now purchase your copy of RECLAIMED, book two in the thrilling Morta Fox series.
Happy reading,
Dori
