In the Face of Darkness (Lily Culpepper Book 1)

by Sarah Dell

“Won’t you die if she takes your life force?” I asked.

  “My life force will replenishes itself. I’ll pay your price” he said.

  “Can you take my life force?” I asked. The fortune teller laughed.

  “You aren’t alive, so you don’t have a life force. If you had your own life force you wouldn’t need to drink blood” she said.

  “Just get it over with” Matthias said. She put her right hand just inches from his chest over his heart. Then she rolled her head in a small circle and closed her eyes. Matthias gripped my arm as I felt his body slack as his life force was being drawn from him. When she was done I felt more than heard him take a steadying breath.

  “How long will it take you to replenish?” I asked.

  “Not long” he said thru a strained voice. “Show her” he said to the fortune teller.

  “Come with me” she turned to walk to the back room where she met with clients. I reluctantly followed her into the small candle lit room that held only a small table and two chairs. The fortune teller sat in one of the chairs and she motioned for me to sit in the other. She rested her hands on the table with her palms up. “We have to be touching” she said as she motioned for me to put my hands on top of hers. She didn’t look like she wanted to touch me. I felt her flinch as our hands touched, but then I felt the power radiating from her.

  I felt the weight of waves crashing against me. I tried to call out, but the weight grew constant as I felt something pulling me down. As a vampire I didn’t need to breathe, but it was still an impulse my body did not like being taken away. I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper into the water until I was standing on the ocean floor.

  I felt the waves the creatures left in their wake before I saw them. I call them creatures because I have never seen anything like them. They were some type of fish with long bodies and curves like a woman. They looked like they were playing a game that I didn’t understand the rules to. I watched them play until I saw her.

  She was so still I could barely see her, but now she was looking at me with a deep gaze that bore into me. She sat on what looked to be a throne. She looked more human than the fish creatures, but she had a fish tail that was covered with gleaming scales. We didn’t speak a word. She just looked at me, but that look said more than words ever could. She was a part of me, and I was a part of her. Then I felt her telling me that I didn’t belong here. I was part of her, but I didn’t belong with her. Just as suddenly as I had traveled to the ocean floor I was back in the small room with the fortune teller.

  “What am I?” I asked.

  “You’re a vampire” she said.

  “Everyone else seems to think I’m more” I asked.

  “You were meant to be the descendant of the Water Elemental, but now you are a vampire and you can’t be both. You are choosing to be a vampire” she said.

  “I don’t want to be a vampire. How do I chose to not be a vampire?” I asked.

  “You believe you are just a vampire so you are just a vampire” she said.

  “How do I believe something that is not true?” I asked.

  “You have to accept that what you believe to be true is only true because you believe it to be” she said. “I’m tired, leave me now”. I walked out of the small room to find Matthias sitting in the same spot I left him in. He looked weak. He said that he could replenish his life force, but I wondered how long it would take. He had given of himself so that I could know what I am. But, I still didn’t know what or who I was. The fortune teller had said that I would be a vampire until I believed I was something else, but I didn’t know how to do that. I didn’t know how to be anything but a vampire.

  “So now you know what you are?” Matthias said.

  "I'm just a vampire" I said.

  “You’re the descendant of the Water Elemental” he said.

  “She said I couldn’t be both a vampire and the descendant of the Water Elemental” I said.

  “You’re being a vampire is unfortunate, but it doesn’t negate what you are” he said.

  CHAPTER 7

  As Matthias and I left the fortune teller shop, a circle of flames leaped up around us. “Fire witches” Matthias said.

  “What do they want?” I asked.

  “My guess would be to kill you as they’ve never been fans of the Water Elemental” he said. “Now would be a good time to use your water powers” Matthias told me.

  “I don’t have powers” I told him.

  “Well, now would be a good time to figure it out” he told me. Then I saw the witch. His skin seemed to glow with a fire that burned from within. He stared at me, and I felt as if his stare would burn me to the spot.

  “He only wants to talk” the man said.

  “We don’t want to talk” Matthias said.

  “Did you think he would just let you take her?” the man asked.

  I put out my hands and thought about water, but nothing happened. I tried pushing energy into my hands, but again nothing happened. A slow smile spread across the man’s tan face just before he shot a fireball at my head. My reflexes were fast and I should have been able to move out of the way before the fireball hit me, but my body felt like it was rooted to the ground. I felt the heat of the fire, but then a coldness filled me. It felt like something inside me burst. I looked down at my hands, but they weren’t there. I realized that my body was just a mist; then as quick as it happened, it was over and my body was solid again. I looked at the man who was no longer smiling. In fact, he was looking at me the way I would imagine any normal person would look after seeing someone dissolve into mist then reform. It felt good to have been the one to erase that smile from his face.

  “How did you do that?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure” I said as his smile returned. I could still feel the water flowing thru me like waves crashing against the beach. I closed my eyes and felt the water flow from my head to my toes then back again. I waited until the water was flowing up from my toes before I put out my hands hoping that I could make the water shot from my hands, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the water dripped from my hands, forming a pool at my feet.

  “That would be really scary if I was afraid of a puddle” the man said.

  “Lily, use the mist” Matthias said.

  “I don’t know how it works” I told him.

  “Try running towards him” he said.

  “What, are you crazy?” I asked him.

  “Just do it” he said. The man sent another fireball at my head, and my body was again transformed into mist. I did what Matthias said. I ran towards the man as fast as I could, which was pretty fast since I'm a vampire. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when I hit the man, but what happened was more than I could have imagined. Once I enveloped him in the mist, I could feel the heat rolling off of him. Then I heard him yell out in pain. I forced the mist to become colder and colder until he collapsed onto the pavement. I moved away from him and reformed.

  “How did you know that would work?” I asked Matthias.

  “I didn’t, but your powers seem to work differently since you are a vampire so I thought it was worth a try” he said.

  “You thought it was worth a try” I repeated.

  “It worked didn’t it” he said.

  “And what if it hadn’t worked?” I asked.

  “But it did work” he said. “We have to go; he won’t be out for long”.

  “Why do the fire witches want me dead?” I asked Matthias when we were back in the truck. “When are you going to tell me what is going on?”

  “The fire witches don’t need much of an excuse for a fight, and they hate water witches. You are not only a water witch, but a direct descendant of the Water Elemental. No Elemental has had a child in almost a century” he said.

  “The water woman the fortune teller showed me is my mother” I said.

  “Yes, she is” he said. All my life I had wondered about my mother, and now I knew the truth. My mother was a mythical creature
who either didn’t care I existed or was incapable of being a mother to me. It wasn’t like I thought I would meet my mother one day and we would become best friends. Maybe I had that fantasy when I was a child, but now that I was a vampire I hadn’t thought about my mother at all.

  “How much do you know about witches?” He asked.

  “The four clans can each summon one of the four elements of nature” I said.

  “That’s all you know?” he asked.

  “They don’t like vampires” I said.

  “Witches are the offspring of what we call elementals” he said. “There are only four elementals, one for each season, and back in their hay day they each sired many children with humans. These first generation witches were more powerful than the witches around today. The first generation witches saw that their offspring couldn’t control their powers, causing many great natural disasters. The elementals retreated into their realms and were not heard of until your mother surfaced and lived with your father for one year. This one year was long enough for her to give birth to you” he said. “You are a first generation water witch” he said. “Becoming a vampire masked the powers from you, but now that you have found them there is the chance that they will overwhelm you. You may not be able to control them” he said. “That’s why it is important for me to get you to the Island” he said.

  “And I will be able to control my powers on this Island?” I asked him. It was good to finally know his motives. He didn’t care about saving me, he just wanted to isolate me on this Island so that I couldn’t hurt anyone. He thought I was dangerous.

  “You won’t have to worry about your powers on the Island” he said.

  “If first generation witches were so dangerous why would my mother risk creating me?” I asked.

  “We don’t know” he said.

  “Who’s we?” I asked.

  “I’m part of a Brotherhood sworn to protect the world from those who would harm it” he said.

  “You want to protect the world from me” I said.

  “Just the powers that you can’t control” he said.

  “The powers are a part of me” I said.

  “No, they're not” he said, and I didn’t argue with him. It didn’t matter; we would never get to the Island. Endora would find me, and I would go back to just being a vampire. I would control my water powers. I had lived my entire life without using these powers, and I would never use them again. I didn’t worry about the water powers controlling me. I worried about Endora controlling me. I now knew what Endora and Castor meant by me having potential. I imagined that Endora had thought I would be unstoppable and destroy all her enemies. I didn’t know what she would do when she found out that I wasn’t unstoppable, and that I wouldn’t use my powers for her, but then I didn’t care. The worst she could do was kill me, and I should have been dead ten years ago. I didn’t fear death because I was already dead.

  “So where are we going?” I asked.

  “We are going to visit my family before we go to the Island” he said.

  ***

  The sound of a shotgun made me jump. Matthias had driven for the rest of the day to get to Lake Charles. “Maybe you should wait in the car” Matthias told me.

  “It’s not like a gun can hurt me” I said.

  “Just wait in the car” Matthias said.

  “No” I said. I was done taking orders. All I had done for ten years was take orders from Endora.

  “Matthias!” a young pretty woman in her mid-twenties came running from the house. She wrapped her arms around Matthias’s neck.

  “It’s good to see you too Megan” Matthias hugged the woman back.

  “Are you…?” the woman trailed off. I wondered who this woman was to him. I hadn’t seen Matthias in ten years. I realized then that he could have a girlfriend or even a wife or kids. Why would he have kissed me if he had a wife?, I thought, but then he wouldn’t be the first husband to kiss another woman.

  “I can only stay the night” Matthias told her. I guessed that he knew what she was asking without her saying it. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was feeling jealous of this woman that Matthias was clearly close to. I shouldn’t feel this way. Matthias had not been mine for ten years. I shouldn’t care who she was to Matthias, but I did anyway.

  “Megan, this is Lily” Matthias said. “Megan is married to my cousin Bryce” Matthias told me as if he had read my mind.

  “She’s a vampire” Megan said.

  “She is also a water witch” Matthias said as that would make a difference, but the look on Megan's face said that it didn't.

  “Gran is not going to like this” Megan said.

  “I know, but I didn’t have a choice” Matthias said.

  “Well, come on in” Megan said with a too sweet southern accent as she turned to walk in to the small, run down house behind Matthias. Matthias nodded at me as if to say it was safe, and I sent him a questioning look that he only smiled at. I realized how mistrustful I had become since becoming a vampire. The house looked run down and ignored from the outside, but the inside was warm and inviting.

  “Where are Bryce and Lucas?” Matthias asked Megan.

  “They went hunting” she gave Matthias a look, and he gave her a look back, like they had some kind of understanding they didn’t want me to know about. “Gran is in back” she said. There was another gun shot. “Shooting” she said.

  “That sounds like Gran” Matthias said.

  “Gran, Matthias is here and he brought a guest” Megan said as she leaned out of the back door.

  “Guest? What guest?” An elderly woman walked into the kitchen through the back door. Matthias hugged her the moment he saw her. The top of her head only came to his shoulders and was covered in curly powder blue hair. She wore a dark blue dress and the lenses of her glasses were tinted light blue.

  “Gran, this is Lily” Matthias said. “Lily, this is Nola, my grandmother” Matthias said.

  “She’s a vampire” the old woman said as she glared at me.

  “She’ll behave herself. I'm taking her to the Island” Matthias said. I saw a small smile cross her lips before it disappeared into the lines in her face.

  “I don’t like this” she said.

  “I’m sorry. I wanted to see you. We can go” Matthias said.

  “Has she fed?” she asked, and Matthias looked at me as if he was remembering what I was. To be truthful, I think I had forgotten that I needed to feed. It had been three nights since I had fed. I could maybe go one more night, but then the urge was going to become too powerful to control.

  “No, but we will take care of that soon” Matthias said.

  “Take her into town, feed her, and then you can stay here. I’m tired. I’m going up to bed” Nola said. “She stays down here” she motioned towards me.

  “I’ll help you Gran” Megan said as she took Nola’s arm and helped her up the stairs.

  “What aren’t you telling me about the Brotherhood?” I asked Matthias when Nola and Megan had disappeared up the stairs.

  “I told you that the Brotherhood is a secret society that protects the world against those that would harm it, but what I didn’t tell you is they believe that all supernaturals want to harm the world. They have hunted down witches, werewolves, and more, almost to extinction” he said.

  “If they are so bad then why did you join?” I asked.

  “I was born into it” Matthias told me. “My mother left the Island when she was a teenager in search of a better life. She found my father. They were married and I was born soon after. My mother’s father was one of the founding members of the Brotherhood. He swore an oath that bound not only him, but every male in his bloodline to the Brotherhood. When I turned eighteen the bound in my blood was activated. They found me and took me to the Island. Once you are in the Brotherhood you can’t leave” he said. “The only time I’ve left the Island since then is when they send me out on missions. I’ve been on a lot of missions, and every time I try to visit Gran i
f only for a night. She is the only family I have left” he said.

  “I thought I’d make some tea” Megan said as she carried a tray with a kettle, tea cups, and frosted sugar cookies from the kitchen. I hadn’t heard her come down, but then again I hadn’t been paying attention.

  “Thank you Megan” Matthias smiled fondly at Megan. The tea was hot and had the soothing smell of chamomile. I took a cup out of politeness even though Matthias and Megan knew I would not drink it. Megan seemed to be one of those southern women who were polite to a fault. She smiled at me like she didn’t know I was a vampire, and it was nice to forget that I was different from everyone else; that I was a monster. I smiled back at Megan.

  “Ya’ll must be tired after driving so far” Megan said. “Matthias, you can have your usual room and Lily you can…” Megan broke off.

  “It’s ok, I don’t sleep so I’ll be fine down here” I said.

  “Come on, I’ll take you to town. You can feed there” Matthias asked after touching my arm. If I had enough blood in my system I would have blushed. Just when I was feeling normal Matthias had to remind me that I was a vampire.

  “I should go to bed” Megan said, and I realized that talk of me feeding made her uncomfortable. I couldn’t blame her, if I was a human I wouldn’t want to be in the same room as a hungry vampire.

  “You should sleep too. You don’t have to come with me” I told Matthias.

  “You need to feed; I’m going with you” he said.

  “Don’t you trust me?” I asked.

  “You don’t know the area, I can help you” he said.

  “I don’t want you to see me feeding” I told him.

  “Then I won’t look, but I’m coming with you” he said.

  “But, you really need to sleep” I said.

  “Then you should hurry” he said.

  CHAPTER 8

  We drove until we found a small dive bar. Matthias walked in a minute after I did so that no one would think we were there together. The seat I chose was at the end of the bar where I would have the best view of the other patrons. Matthias sat at a table in the corner of the bar as far from me as the small room would allow. I could feel his eyes on me. I knew I needed to hurry so he could get some sleep. I wished he hadn’t come with me; I wished I didn’t have to feed, but wishing didn’t change anything.