The Blood Talisman

by Kim Culpepper

  Sol finally spoke up and said, “Give me the talisman, Father, or you will lose another child.”

  “You no longer exist as my child. I fear no one and you are no exception,” the Immortal said in a majestic voice.

  “Father, I am here for whatever you need,” Selene said.

  “I know, my child. There will come a moment in your life when you will want to forsake me as well, but your verdict has eluded my sight. I cannot see free will,” he answered.

  “Hyperion, you must choose a successor. Let that be your only son,” Ram said to the Immortal.

  “Your kind should have never been created,” spat Hyperion. “My former wife thought it would be a good balance for my wolves to have vampires as their companions. We cannot always be correct in our decisions and hers was a tragic mistake. You have no right to speak with me.”

  “Father, this will not end well for you. I shall have the talisman. It is my birthright,” Sol declared.

  Sol raised his hands in preparation for battle but was quickly quelled by his father. With the snap of Hyperion’s fingers, Sol was gone. Ram stood in silence and Alex simply stared. John stood in the darkest corner of the boardroom, trying to be invisible.

  “Where did you send him?” Selene asked.

  “Back to the Sudan. He will have a much more difficult time of returning. I have a multitude of wolves there that wait for him.”

  Selene hugged her father. Hyperion kissed both her cheeks to wish her farewell. He backed away from her and began to fade.

  “I will not speak to you again. I will go into hiding and the blood talisman will be safe. Keep these abominations at bay, my only daughter. You have the power within you. You always have had.” Just as he had come, he faded away until all the grey energy was gone.

  Selene stood there without her father, sister, and brother. She stood in silence and in quiet tears. Alex walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back and for a moment they felt alone in the room.

  “Well, that was a complete waste of FUCKING TIME!” Ram yelled as he picked up a chair and threw it across the room. Alex and Selene both jumped as it hit the wall behind them.

  John ran over to stand the chair up. Ram looked at him with a frustrated scowl.

  “What are you still here for? You’ve been worthless to me! Do I not have anyone I can trust?”

  “What are you still here for? You’ve been worthless to me! Do I not have anyone I can trust?”

  Ram stomped over to John and picked him up by his shirt and flung him across the room, like he’d done with the chair. He landed just shy of the table, knocking over a few of the chairs. Ram then turned his anger to Alex and Selene. He stomped towards them and got within a few feet when Selene pushed her hand out in front of her. Ram stopped in his tracks, unsure of what she might do. John picked himself up off the floor and scurried away.

  They gazed intensely at each other. It reminded Alex of a tennis match as he flicked his eyes back and forth between them. Ram grabbed Selene by the neck and tightened his fist. She grabbed his hand and small boils started to form on his skin. He pulled it back from her quickly and held his infected hand close to his chest.

  “You should have killed him while you had the chance. You will tell me where he is and you will kill him, or your brother will find you and kill you and your father. I will have immortality, even if it means I have to kill someone every thirty minutes, starting with Alex,” Ram said to her.

  “You can’t kill him. He is important to this entire situation. There are things you don’t know. It has to be handled correctly or all of humanity will suffer for it,” Selene explained.

  “That’s exactly what I want to know. Why is he so important?”

  Alex looked at them both, waiting for an answer. Selene knew she had said too much but Ram had to be stopped. If he knew the truth, maybe he would quit his threats against Alex.

  “He is the fourth wheel, so to speak. When the blood talisman was forged it was meant to be a truce between all supernatural creatures and humanity. Vampires and werewolves threatened to end humans and create a world of supernatural creatures. Their blood thirst was greater than ever, and since nobody knew how to end an immortal creature then every human would suffer until the entire population of the world was either a vampire or a werewolf. A king in ancient Greece made a pact with my father that could only be forged in innocent blood. My siblings and I were children at the time, so it was our blood and that of the king’s son that forged the blood talisman. Alex is a descendant of that king and only the blood within him and my family’s blood can destroy the talisman. If you kill him then you kill your chances of ever becoming immortal. My father sent me to protect him. To protect our legacy.”

  “Well, now that Sol is missing, you will kill Hyperion,” Ram demanded.

  “I’m not killing my father.” She laughed sarcastically.

  “Then Amalia will die,” Ram said, as he looked back at Alex. “I should go and check on her status,”

  Alex watched as Ram left the room. Ram looked like a defeated animal, running away to lick his wounds. As much as he hated to admit it, Ram was right. Alex had just sworn to Amalia’s nearly lifeless body that he would do everything that he could to keep her on this earth, and that was a promise that he had to keep at all costs.

  Selene reached for his hand but he resisted. He walked a few steps forward then stopped. He turned back to look at her and filled his lungs to speak but released the air with no words. She began to walk to him but he put his hand up to stop her.

  “Stop right there, Selene. We can’t touch anymore. Amalia is my wife and hers is the hand that I should be holding right now.”

  “But I need you too. Do I not mean anything to you at all?”

  “Of course you do, but you can’t, not right now. I have to get you out of my head. Amalia’s dying and, as much as I hate saying this, Ram is right. You are the key to all of this death to end and I don’t know which path you will take. I can’t ask you to help us find your father and kill him. That’s just not who I am. I refuse to be a monster like Ram. I’m not going to ask you to kill your father so that Amalia can live. One life for another is unethical by any means, but you father has lived for centuries. He has seen things in this world change, and Amalia was only thrust into all of this either because I got bitten or because I am a descendant of the bloodline that keeps all creatures from being immortal. She doesn’t deserve to be dying right now but I can’t be selfish. This is a decision you have to make. Your brother wants the talisman but he isn’t the most upstanding person. I would rather you have it as opposed to him but, like I said. I’m not asking you to kill your father.”

  “This isn’t a race to the finish line. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can be with me. We could be happy.”

  “But it is, isn’t it? Sol will never stop. He feels it’s his birthright to possess the talisman. And Ram will never stop because he wants immortality. Your father will die and one side has to lose. It’s up to you to choose who the losing side is. I do care for you, but I also love my wife. I took vows and while that might not mean much to some, it means everything to me. If I can save her then I will do what it takes to do so, but eventually you will have to choose. Choose now, while I can still save her.”

  Alex left the room and disappeared down the hallway. Selene folded herself down into a ball and wept into her knees. She wept for the loss of her sister, for the banishment and betrayal of her brother, and for the decision she must make. Alex wasn’t leaving her much of a choice. Either kill Hyperion and claim the talisman and its power as her own, or watch Sol do it and destroy the world around her.

  The tears poured into her lap like rain and nobody was there to stop them. Her father knew that this was coming but he could not see the choice that she made. Even Selene herself could not see the choice that she would make. She felt sick to her stomach, afraid of what might happen with either choice. Would Alex resent her for the rest of his life
for not choosing to kill her father? Could she actually take her father’s life and become the new Immortal? Where would Sol be in all of this? He wanted the power of immortality so badly that he would kill anyone standing in his way. Would she need to murder her own brother as well?

  The questions kept flooding her mind but there were no answers. She wiped her face and looked up into the boardroom where her brother had killed her sister. Rose had protected Selene most of her life. Neither she nor her father had ever wanted Selene to see this side of the world. It was ugly and cruel, exactly as they had warned her. It was time to grow up and make a decision. She needed to be alone and think.

  She noticed a small ring laying on the floor in the area where Rose’s body had fallen. She leaned over and picked it up. She held it up into the light. It was tiny and silver. It had little blue and rust colored markings. Selene recognized it immediately: it was the ring that Ben had given Rose as a token of the love they shared. She remembered that it was the first piece of jewelry Rose had received from him. Selene cupped it into her hand and held it to her chest.

  She could see visions of Ben opening a tiny black box and the ring lying snug inside. Rose’s mouth gaped open in surprise and he lovingly placed the ring on her finger. They hugged and the vision ended. Selene smiled and placed the ring onto her own finger. This sudden vision of Rose comforted her. She knew Rose could be happy and at peace. Ben had died too and maybe she could be with him now. “Wherever they are, they are together now,” she thought.

  With this new-found reassurance, she stood up and cautiously went out into the hallway. It was empty. Not a guard was to be seen. She crept through many corridors until she found a door that led outside. She opened it only slightly and saw that it led into a peaceful-looking garden that had no exit, apart from several doors, like this one, that led back into the hospital. However, it looked to be a wonderful spot to stop and think. She made her way to the tall fountain that stood solemnly in the middle of the bright green shrubs and freshly mowed grass. Exotic flowers shone a light of hope between the stone benches that encircled the fountain.

  She sat on the stone and rubbed her hands together between her knees. Rose’s silver ring felt warm to the palm of her hand. She twisted it round and round her finger in contemplation. She pondered the fact that if Sol had chosen Rose to keep alive, she surely would have even been tempted to kill their father. Sol had picked cleverly, although possibly unintentionally.

  She looked up at the windows surrounding the garden. Most of them had blinds or curtains covering them. Only a few stood open and empty. She would see a person pass by every so often. A door behind her opened and a maintenance man came out and lit up a cigarette. He looked nervous at first but the cigarette seemed to calm his nerves.

  Instead of focusing on her surroundings, she knew she had a decision to make. The metaphorical little devil on her shoulder thought the decision was easy. Let Amalia die and claim Alex as her own forever. But she knew she couldn’t live with herself knowing that she could have prevented his eventual sorrow from the loss of his wife. She would happily sacrifice her own happiness for the ones she loved but not at the expense of ending her own loved one’s – her father’s – life.

  Being at an impasse did not suit her well so she stood and filled one hand full of water from the tall flowing fountain. It bubbled in her hand and drained out through her fingers. She shook her hand off and wiped the residual water onto her pants. The water was almost hypnotizing as it bubbled and splashed before her.

  She came to the realization that this was a decision she could not make alone. She needed to talk to Alex again. Maybe she could convince him to give up on Amalia and be completely hers, but she knew this was unlikely to happen.

  “Who am I kidding?” she said aloud to the fountain.

  “Yourself.” A familiar voice spoke from behind her.

  She turned, hoping to look into Alex’s beautiful eyes, but she saw Ram instead. Her smile quickly faded to a grimace.

  “I wasn’t asking you.”

  Selene began to push past him but he caught hold of her arm. She frowned at him.

  “Easy. I’m here with an update. Amalia’s better. Well, she’s actually the same, which is good news. She must not have drunk all that much of your blood or she would be dead by now. The doctors are going to attempt to bring her out of the coma to see if she can survive on her own. This wasn’t possible with Ember. It’s a good sign.”

  Selene’s eyes feverishly searched back and forth in his to find some lie that he might be telling, but she found none. He released her arm and she jumped happily into his arms. She never thought she would hug any vampire, much less this one. She leaned back from him and held his shoulders. Her grin faded into a worried half-smile.

  “Why didn’t Alex come to tell me?”

  “He wanted to make sure that he would be in the room when the doctors brought her out of the coma. They are about to do so now,” Ram said.

  “Okay. Let’s go see,” Selene smiled.

  They both left the garden and hurried to Amalia’s bedroom.

  Chapter 20

  Selene was inside the basement of the hospital once more. She was tired of being in this depressing place. Ram was directing her with his fingertips on the small of her back, turn for turn. She had never been down this way and it didn’t seem that they were going to see Amalia. Just when she started to feel betrayed, she recognized the door to the room where she and Alex had made love. Her face turned red at the memory.

  Ram stopped a little further along and unlocked a different door. Selene stared at him in confusion as he waved his hand for her to enter.

  “Come in… please,” Ram said.

  “This isn’t the right room. It’s over there.” Selene pointed across the way.

  “I must show you something first.”

  Selene rolled her eyes at him but walked in, to appease him. It was a room with wall to wall monitors but nobody sat in front of them. Ram’s guards seem to be dwindling away as her stay became longer. She guessed it was difficult for him to keep them, knowing how many evil games he had played up to this point with her and Alex.

  Ram locked the door behind them. This made Selene even more nervous. She now knew he couldn’t kill her, but there was no telling what kind of emotional torture she might have to endure.

  He pointed for her to look at a small screen towards the middle of the array. It was Alex leaning over Amalia as she lay unmoving in bed. He was caressing her hand lovingly and occasionally stroking her face.

  “Why are you showing me this?” Selene asked.

  “Because you need to see what she means to him. If you truly care about him, this big decision that you have to make doesn’t seem so large. Do you really want to hurt him that way?”

  “I already know how much he loves her. It doesn’t make my decision easier because this just proves that he doesn’t love me with his whole heart. I’m not even sure if I should be here anymore.”

  Ram clicked the screen off and leaned against the monitors.

  “Do you think that this is easy for me? I care for her too. She watched Ember die. Ember was my wife and…” He trailed off. He paced across the small room a few times and stopped suddenly to finish saying, “I have grown fond of Amalia. I want her to live and be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for all vampires.”

  Selene looked down at her hands as she picked at a torn cuticle on her index finger. She hadn’t thought of it like that. She had no idea that loving someone could be so complicated.

  “I didn’t know you felt that way,” she said.

  Ram crossed his arms. His navy blue dress shirt pulled tight against the muscular outline of his biceps.

  “I don’t express my emotions to everyone. I have a reputation to keep.”

  He smiled coyly and Selene returned the favor with her own uncomfortable smile.

  “I still can’t kill my father. He is really all the family that I have left,” she said. “Sol doe
sn’t count.”

  “You have a new family. It may be a bit dysfunctional but it is a family nonetheless. A family is not necessarily blood. It’s the people you love and who love you in return. Alex loves you. He just can’t show you right now.”

  “Let’s get one thing straight,” frowned Selene. “A few flirtatious smiles and some heartfelt banter don’t make you my family. You and your minions helped my brother destroy my sister. That doesn’t go away. I will never forgive you for that. I will never forgive for destroying my family and setting in motion something that has been prevented for centuries.”

  Selene stood up to exit the room. She jiggled the locked handle but Ram stopped her short. His face sat within inches of hers and it intimidated her. She could feel his vampiric breath on her neck. It made her nauseous.

  “How about this then. You either help us find and kill Hyperion or I will kill everyone on the first floor of this hospital while I make you watch. I will kill as many humans as I need to until I get you to do what I need you to do,” he threatened.

  “I knew the evil bastard within lurked somewhere,” she sighed. “I’ll do it. I’ll help you find him.”

  “And when we do?”

  “I’ll do it. I will kill my father to spare lives but when I do… expect no mercy from me.”

  She looked straight ahead at the door. Tears of anger welled within her eyes. He smelled along her neckline and pushed her hair back with his nose. She could feel his lips on her neck and she wanted to vomit.

  “Let me go to him,” she said.

  Ram released his hand from the door, unlocked it and she jerked it open and left. He crossed his arms again and smiled, satisfied with her response.

  Chapter 21

  Selene silently slipped into Amalia’s room. Alex glanced over to her and then focused his attention back onto Amalia. She watched him as he continuously stroked her forehead and her arm. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek then stood up from the bed. He rubbed his weary face and motioned for Selene to step outside of the room with him.