by J. C. Diem
“Where is she?” Ishida asked from the room I’d just vacated on the second floor.
Igor broke the news to the teens. “Lucentio is gone.” The grief in his voice brought a fresh lump to my throat.
“What do you mean, ‘he’s gone’?” Geordie asked with foreboding.
“He’s dead,” Ishida clarified. “He was unable to heal himself. Even with our new abilities, he could no longer sustain his flesh.”
“Where is Natalie?” Geordie asked, voice quavering with fresh sorrow.
“She has left us,” Igor said. His apprentice burst into sobs and was comforted by the other two.
I turned and walked away before I could be tempted to run inside and beg for their forgiveness. I’d been cursed to bring death to our kind and they would all be far safer if I just left and never returned.
I walked until dawn neared but I had no particular destination in mind. The safe house was the closest thing I’d had to a home since I had left my mortal life behind. Moments before the sun rose, I became a swirling mass of molecules. Leaving my blood stained clothing behind, I rose into the air and allowed the wind to carry me away.
As a consciousness without form, I drifted aimlessly for what might have been a week or more. I didn’t realize I’d had a destination all along until I reformed my body and found myself standing in a familiar cemetery. It had been spring in the northern hemisphere and it was autumn back home in Australia. Any normal vampire would have been cold but the chilly air had no effect on me at all. I was numb both inside and out.
Naked and alone, I walked through the darkness, picking my way around the graves. I unerringly found the mausoleum where my life had been so cruelly stolen from me. The door creaked when I pushed it open. It was dustier and dirtier inside than I remembered. A faint trace of the sludge that had once been my maker remained in the middle of the cement floor. A filthy, threadbare blanket lay in one corner. I remembered stealing it from an old dog that had to be long dead by now. Picking it up, I shook some of the dirt out of it then wrapped it around my bare body. Four stone sarcophagi contained mummified corpses that were well over a hundred years old. The dead would be my only companions from now on.
Dull and tarnished, the cross that I had speared through Silvius’ heart still lay in the middle of the puddle that he’d left behind after burning to death from holy flames. I picked it up and sat it back on the sarcophagus that I’d accidentally broken it from. Its twin, which I’d also accidentally taken from one of the other stone coffins, had given me my holy marks. It was probably still in the abandoned mine somewhere in Romania.
My new home was dank, cheerless and seemed very fitting for someone who had almost caused the entire extinction of her own species. After Luc’s death, I had no right to attempt to seek any form of happiness. I deserved to be alone and to suffer for what I’d done.
I had only one goal left now. I knew my task might very well be impossible or would at least take me a very long time to accomplish, but time was the only thing that I had left. Lying down on the cold, hard floor, I closed my eyes and proceeded to will myself to die.
Note from the Author:
If you are like me, your time is valuable and I am very glad you enjoyed this novel enough to read it through to the end. As you no doubt know, reviews are an excellent tool to help new readers find my work and decide if the book is for them. I would very much appreciate it if you would take a few moments to click on the link below and leave a review on Amazon:
Death Returns
Also by J.C. Diem in the Mortis Series:
Death Beckons
Death Embraces
Death Deceives
Death Devours
Death Betrays
Death Banishes
Due for release in June 2014: Death Conquers
