The Blood Talisman

by Kim Culpepper

  “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that he had done so much to make you do his evil bidding.”

  John drove in a circle and parked in an empty, dark parking area. The wind blew and sand immediately dusted the black car. They got out of the car and stood watching the ocean as it gently swashed the shore.

  Selene slipped her shoes off and threw them on top of the car. She skipped over the wood fence surrounding the parking area and went running barefoot through the sand. John and Alex looked at each as if they were wondering which one of them should go after her. John motioned his head for Alex to go, and did so reluctantly.

  Selene was all the way down by the ocean, letting the water cover her feet. She stood there staring out at the ocean and Alex took a mental picture of the beautiful view. Her hair was gently blowing in the breeze and her clothes flapped in unison. He felt at peace for a moment. The pull of the relaxing sounds of the ocean made him feel at home with her. For a second she looked like Amalia from behind, but he blinked his eyes and the image in his mind of her was gone.

  He walked up to her and stood next to her gazing out at the water himself.

  “Just beautiful,” he said aloud.

  Selene looked over at him and the comfort on his face. He looked relaxed and peaceful. It was a much needed change from the depressive and distant looks of a few days ago.

  “Let’s walk up the beach a bit. Give us a little distance from John,” she suggested.

  They both looked back at John. He was leaning against the sand-dusted black car, lighting up what was left of his cigar.

  Selene grabbed Alex’s wrist and pulled him to follow her. He freed his arm from her grasp but followed, a few steps behind her, avoiding conversation. She stopped suddenly and turned back to look at him.

  “Why are you distancing yourself from me?” she asked.

  “I’m not.”

  “That’s bull crap. C’mon now. Spill.”

  “I don’t wanna do this right now. Let’s just keep walking,” he said and strode ahead of her.

  She ran after him.

  “What did I do to deserve this?” she yelled out to him.

  He stopped in his tracks and put his head down, looking at the sand. She caught up with him and looked into his face. The depressive look was back.

  “I can’t love you anymore,” he said softly.

  Her heart broke a little inside.

  “You can’t help who you love,” she said.

  He looked up at her, into her eyes. His eyes were glassy from the tears she was trying to hold back. She grasped his face and kissed him passionately. For a moment, they were the only two that mattered. They were the only two in the world. He ran his hand down to the small of her back, pulling her even closer to him. His soft tongue sent electric shocks all the way to her toes.

  She broke the kiss for a moment and looked deep into his loving eyes. He couldn’t quit loving her no matter how hard he tried. He kissed her again, tenderly stroking her face and hair. He brought her down to the sand and lay on top of her, kissing her passionately.

  She pulled off his dark t-shirt and rolled over on top of him to pull off hers, but Alex stopped her suddenly. The look on his face told her he wasn’t doing so because he didn’t want her. He turned his head and sat up with her still on top of him. She admired his chest but he paid her no attention.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, softly stroking his pectoral muscles.

  “I hear something,” he said.

  She remembered a wolf’s hearing was exceptional. He was hearing something far away. Something that she couldn’t hear.

  He decided it was nothing and returned his attention to Selene. He brushed her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He leaned in to kiss her again but stopped just shy of her lips. He picked her up off of him and placed her softly onto the sand. He stood up and began walking farther down the beach. Selene sighed in frustration and stood up, stomping the sand behind him.

  “What’s your problem?” she asked.

  He shushed her and kept walking. His steps became faster and faster until he was in a full out sprint. She struggled to keep up, wandering the whole way what was going on. Then suddenly she knew.

  Before them both sat a dying man. He looked to be in his early forties and was extremely distressed. Tears covered his face and blood his arms. He stared up at Alex in fear. Selene tried to pull Alex back from the weird guy covered in blood, but when he turned and looked back at her, his eyes were wolf yellow. The wolf within him had arisen again. He must have smelled the blood and heard the cries of the desperate man.

  The dying man lay back down onto the sand as every drop of blood he had remaining within him continued to leave his body. Alex dropped to his knees beside him and picked up his bleeding wrist. He licked the blood dripping from his arm.

  One taste was all it took for him to change. He achingly changed into the wolf and bit into the man’s fleshy arm as he lost consciousness. Selene backed away quietly. She didn’t want to watch as he destroyed the man. It was truly horrifying. The sound alone was unbearable. She closed her eyes as she stepped backwards, only peeking every few seconds to make sure he didn’t notice her leaving.

  He growled and grunted as he tore flesh and bone. Selene felt sick listening to it all. She cupped her ears with both hands and kept creeping backwards, blindly.

  He stopped eating his meal and turned to see Selene backing up the beach with her hands over her ears and her eyes shut tight. Blood and strings of flesh dripped from his dog-like snout. It covered the hair on his wolf chest and it was caked beneath his wolf nails.

  She glanced at him again to see if the madness had halted. His sights were now set upon her. The wolf stood and charged towards her. The sand seemed to only help him gain speed. She turned and ran away from him. He pursued her like prey.

  She ran as fast as she could but fell and he quickly gained on her. He jumped on top of her, blood dripping off him. He smelled her skin and she turned her head towards the ocean waves. His rough hands held both shoulders to the ground. The force pushed her deeper into the sand. She whimpered and prayed silently for him to not tear her to pieces.

  She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain, when a pop in the distance made him fall to the sand beside her. She opened her eyes in sudden relief and fear at the same time. She was happy that he wouldn’t be having her for desert but fearful that he had been shot.

  She stood on her knees in the sand and crawled over to him. The wolf within had quickly dissipated and Alex remained. He was completely unconscious. She wiped what she could of the blood from his face and chest. It left mostly a bright red stain on his skin. A small needle with light blue feathers stuck out from his arm. She ripped it out and started slapping his face to awaken him.

  “Alex?” she cried.

  “He’ll be out for a while,” John’s voice yelled from the distance. “I heard all the commotion and thought it might be worth checking out.”

  He hurried over.

  “What did you do to him?” she gasped.

  “For at least two hours.”

  She sighed and stroked his chest.

  “How can you be so forgiving? He just tried to eat you?” John reminded her.

  “It wasn’t him. He can’t control what the wolf wants. He can’t kill me anyway.”

  “Why didn’t you do some of your magic and make him get off of you?”

  “It doesn’t work that way. My father controls death and pain. I can’t hurt a wolf, and in return they can’t kill us. It’s why we have so many wolves that love us. We are the only ones who can’t be killed by them.”

  “That’s a little discriminatory, don’t you think?”

  Selene stood up from Alex. She got right in John’s face and said, “Those sneaky bloodsuckers deserve nothing but death and pain. They try and control us and they do control wolves. They are the most conniving and controlling beings that have ever walked this earth. How can you even say that?”


  “You’re right,” he admitted and lowered his head, ashamed.

  “Can you drag him to the car? I’ll clean him up there,” she said.

  She paced herself, walking back to the car. She wanted to get away from what had happened. It was never pleasant watching a wolf feed, but, if she had to witness it, then she would rather it were Alex.

  A ring sounded from John’s left jacket pocket. Selene looked back at him briefly and kept walking.

  “Hello?” he answered.

  “Did he take the bait?” Ram quietly asked on the line.

  “Yes sir,” John looked back for Selene. She was stepping into the car. When the door slammed he said, “He ate the guy that you sent for him and almost tore into Selene.”

  “You should have let him. She would have been fine. A little mangled but, still fine.”

  “Anything else, sir?”

  “That’s it for now. They seem to have built up a rapport with you. Good work.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Take them back to the plane. We will be there shortly.”

  “Yes sir.”

  John clicked his phone off and kicked Alex in the side. His limp body lifted from the sand briefly and plunked back down. John heaved him up into a fireman’s lift and carried him back across the sand to the black car where Selene was waiting.

  Chapter 25

  Selene cradled Alex’s head for the whole car ride back to the plane. Their prospective night of fun had ended as quickly as it had begun. Her goal had been accomplished, but not in the manner that she had wanted it to be. Once he awakened, she knew the guilt would set in and his estrangement from her would prohibit the progress she felt she’d made with him. He would have nobody to blame but her.

  She cleaned him up as best she could, and pulled a t-shirt out of his book bag to dress him with. He started to come to as they pulled into the airport. He squirmed a bit and moaned out Selene’s name. She felt this was a good sign. Maybe he wouldn’t blame her after all.

  “I’m right here. We are back at the airport. You can rest on the plane,” she whispered to him tenderly.

  He moaned and shook his head yes. He blinked his eyes and attempted to sit up in his seat. She helped him up but he immediately pulled away from her. He rubbed his face with both hands. He felt powerful again. He felt like he had been through a night of partying but had woke up ready to face the world instead of being in a hung-over stupor. He had been in a cloud for the past few days and it felt nice to see things more clearly.

  He could hear things better again. His smell perception was wonderful, yet unpleasant. Selene smelled heavenly but John smelled like he hadn’t bathed in days. Everything was bright again. Even the stars in the night sky glowed so brightly they made him flinch. Selene stared at him with a worried gleam in her eye. He took her hand and kissed it, banishing her wary look.

  Her doubts of him blaming her were immediately flushed away. She smiled a crooked smile at him and he squeezed his grip tighter then released it. She dropped her hands back in her lap. He stared out at the night’s sky through the window of the car door until it opened. John stood on the other side, holding the door for him.

  He climbed out of the car, quickly followed by Selene. They held hands as they walked into the airport terminal. Ram and his crew were waiting patiently inside next to the loading ramp. They all boarded the plane with not so much as a word to each other.

  Alex buckled himself in right next to Selene. She smiled at him. He had finally come back to her. She wondered why his feelings of guilt weren’t displaying on his handsome face.

  “Are you okay?” she asked him.

  “Of course, never better,” he responded.

  “Do you remember what happened?”

  “Yes, we made out on the beach and rekindled some feelings. Undoubtedly they are the right feelings, because I couldn’t be better.”

  He turned and looked back at Ram who was cautiously watching Alex’s every move. He quickly turned his gaze elsewhere when Alex looked at him.

  “You got a problem?” Alex asked to him.

  Ram looked back at him and pointed at himself. “Me?” he questioned.

  “Yea. You’ve been watching me like a hawk since I’ve been back on this plane,” Alex said.

  Ram shook his head no but stood up from his seat and walked towards them both. He placed his hand on the back of Alex’s seat and leaned in to talk to them.

  “So where are we going to Selene?” he asked.

  “Greece. I told you already,” she answered.

  “No, you said Rome.”

  “No I didn’t,” she argued.

  “Selene, you’re a horrible liar. Come with me.” He held out a hand for her to take. Alex grabbed Ram’s wrist tightly as his eyes turned yellow with rage. Ram’s face darkened. “Don’t go there, wolf.”

  John stood up from his seat and placed the tranquilizer gun to Alex’s neck. Alex reluctantly released his grip and Ram grabbed Selene up by the arm, pulling her to the back of the plane. Alex turned to watch, ignoring the gun at his neck.

  She repeatedly attempted to release his grip from her but she would need to use magic to do so. He was just too strong physically. His blood buffet had made him extremely strong. She boiled the skin on his hand but it didn’t faze him. He thrust her down onto the floor of the plane and rubbed his hand gently. She landed with a thump on the hardened floor.

  “Did you know that vampire blood can do strange things to witches?” he asked, as he pulled one sleeve midway up his arm. “It does things to your memories and your abilities. Your brother Sol taught me that. You see, the love of his life was a member of my little community so we got very well acquainted over the years they shared the happiness that you took from them.”

  He took a silver blade from his pocket and cut his wrist open to let a little blood trickle out. One of the other vampires held her head back against the floor of the plane and forced her mouth open. The warm, red substance dripped slowly into her mouth. She carried on attempting to boil his hands off of her.

  He released his grip over her and she turned away from the dripping arm. He covered it up and helped her up from the floor.

  “Now tell me. Where is your father?” He stared deep into her eyes.

  “I don’t know,” she hissed at him.

  “Yes, you do. Show me through your eyes,” he said.

  Suddenly her eyes rolled into the back of her head until nothing but the whites showed and a map appeared on them. It quickly narrowed down to a graveyard with monumental tombstones. Angels and gargoyles filled the landscape. Her vision stopped at a gothic mausoleum with the word ‘Neighbor’ at the top.

  “I’ve seen this before. It looks like it’s in the U.S. Why would he be there? It’s too easy,” Ram frowned.

  Selene’s eyes rolled back down and the graveyard was gone. Ram’s face was one of confusion.

  “What? What did you see?” she asked him frantically.

  “Either he’s dead already or he is in a graveyard,” he said.

  Ram stood up from in front of her and pulled his gun. He aimed quickly and pulled the trigger at one of his vampire cronies, hitting him between the eyes. He fell to the floor, dead as a doornail.

  “Well, he’s definitely not dead. That’s for sure, or that vampire would still be alive.” He placed his gun back into its holster. “John, clean that up,” he ordered.

  John complied and hoisted the dead vampire up on his shoulders and toted him to the back of the plane.

  Ram leaned back down to Selene and said, “So where are we going then? Where’s that graveyard?”

  “He has to be where Mom is buried. That’s the only graveyard where he would be.”

  “And where is it?”

  “Mississippi. My home.”

  “Then that’s where we will go. That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

  Ram took his place at the back of the plane and Alex ran over to help Selene up off of the floor of the plane. She wi
ped the blood from her lips and Alex gave Ram the evil eye. They took their spots near the front. After being buckled in, their plane was off into the air.

  “Are you okay?” Alex asked.

  “I will be,” she responded.

  Tears welled in her eyes and Alex caressed her cheek with his thumb. Her face fell into his hand and then onto his shoulder. He placed his arm around her and stared forward.

  He could hear rustling behind him and whispering. He focused harder to attempt to hear what they were saying.

  “Do you think he knows it was you that sent that man out for him to feed on?” John whispered into Ram’s ear.

  “I don’t think he remembers anything. Let’s keep it that way. It’s more interesting,” Ram whispered in return.

  Alex became furious at this. The wolf within was difficult to keep under control but he held Selene tighter and attempted to focus on her. His anger would get the better of him if he didn’t.

  He closed his eyes to rest. He thought about Selene and Amalia. They were who he needed to focus on to get the anger out of his thoughts. It wouldn’t be very difficult at all for him to rip Ram’s throat right off his shoulders but that would not solve anything. Just more death and more murder and more guilt for him to feel. It didn’t keep him from feeling that Ram deserved it.

  His angry thoughts soon drifted away and his memory of feeding on the man at the beach filled his dreams. He sensed that Selene had watched it all. Every bone cracking and every blood splatter, she had watched it all in horror. His breathing got heavy and his moans became worrisome. They awoke Selene and she roused him from his realistic nightmare.

  The sun was rising as the plane landed back in the States.

  “I remember,” he said.

  “The beach?” she asked cautiously.

  He shook his head yes. She grabbed his chin and turned his face to hers. “It’s okay. You needed it and you couldn’t help it.”

  “It was Ram. He made this all happen,” he whispered.

  “What do you mean? The guy we thought committed suicide on the beach?”