by Bre Faucheux
“Jayden thinks this mixture he has created will help us to heal faster. Lyndon and the remaining crewman are still too weak to consume meat,” she said.
Jamison was in the same state she didn’t remember being in. The weakness was the only thing his body catered to, and his eyes moved about rapidly, trying to find her. He closed them slowly, allowing her to pat away the sweat that was still dripping down his forehead. He was asleep within seconds. She sat on the other end of the tent for most of the night. She wondered how the other men were doing. She even considered going to their tents and seeing how they fared. But she remained close to Jamison. Her duty was to him right now. And when the time came, she would force him to drink the blood he required to survive. Better he not know until later.
He would do the same for me. He would place my survival above all else. He already has, several times.
Jayden was true to his word and came forth in a matter of hours. He had clearly stolen new horses from the natives as he rode one and led two others with three bodies strayed across their backs. She hoped that they would stay alive long enough to feed her brother. And yet, as soon as the thought entered her mind, she regretted it. She couldn’t rejoice in what Jayden was doing.
He carted each over his shoulder and tossed them not so gently to the ground. Taking an arrow that no doubt belonged to one of the men, he slit the wrist of one and dripped his blood into the jug that lay near the fire. He then continued with the other until the man was near death. Madison watched from outside the tent as Jayden took each man’s wrist, sliced it, and then squeezed it tight to drain what he could. Only a week prior the scene before her would have made her ill. The very sight of blood forced memories of the French having attacked her village. The brutality of what Jayden did before her struck her now not with disgust, but awe. She wanted to feel for the men who lay there dying, but having lost her own to what Jayden suspected they had done, she could no longer allow herself to feel pity for them.
Jayden went to Jamison’s tent first, and handed the bottle directly to Madison. His presence consumed her senses once he was within feet of her. He wasn’t proud of his accomplishment as she imagined he would be. Nor did he feel guilt or remorse any longer. It was simply a direct reflection of what he felt needed to be done. Determination to live; that was the only emotion she could identify. He was determined to give her brother his life back.
He took the other jug from around his shoulder and walked toward the next tent. She could only assume it was Lyndon’s, as he was their leader. Although she wondered if Jayden would insist upon having that position himself. Having sustained all their lives, she would heartily accept that he had earned it.
Madison walked inside the tent and knelt down to her brother. Surprisingly, he awoke almost instantly. His eyes jutted open and gazed at her with intensity.
“What is that smell?” he said.
“It’s a drink that Jayden has made for us. It will revive you,” she said, continuing her lie from before. She only wanted him to know that there was hope to live, not that this life came from death. She took the jug and leaned it downward to his mouth, and he drank it eagerly, swallowing in large quantities. She wanted to ask him how it tasted. If anything, just to assure him that it was good for him. But he continued taking from the jug. He barely breathed and his coughing didn’t resurface, not even after he had consumed the entire jug.
She took the empty bottle and placed it on the ground. Blood dripped from his chin down his neck and she reached to wipe it off. Before her hand touched his skin, he took it. She grinned noting the he was able to move better.
“What was that, Madison?”
“Something Jayden made. It helped me to recover,” she answered.
“From what did he make it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know for certain.”
“I’ve tasted it before,” he said.
“Jayden has been trying to feed it to you for days. He said you were too weak to take much.”
“No, before I got sick. I tasted it. It tastes like…” he stopped and his eyes penetrated hers.
“What?” She dreaded his answer. But she would insist on his continued taking of the substance regardless of whether he approved.
“It tastes of life. Of every desire or impulse I have ever had.”
She was silent, fearing that he would recognize it. “Perhaps that means it is helping you.”
“I have had it before… before all of this. I know I did.”
She stared at him, not knowing how that was possible.
His eyes shuttered at the realization. “What did you do?” he demanded.
“I did nothing. Jayden prepared it for us.”
“Jayden? How long has he been killing them?” he said, his voice growing louder. She couldn’t respond. She only looked at him, watching as his eyes began to take on a brighter shade of violet, growing slightly stronger as his suspicion surmounted. “He is, isn’t he? He is killing them,” he said. She thought it would be better to try and revitalize his memory.
“You remember the crewman, Jamie? The one I bite?” But then she recalled that he had been lying next to her. He had collapsed before the others.
“No, it was not him. The native you attacked. The one you chased. I followed you. I caught up to you, but I was too late.”
She felt a rush from her heart down to her legs. “You found me. Then you tied me to the tree, Jamie. You were terrified of me.”
“No,” he said. “I was terrified of the others. I wanted them to help you. I knew if they saw you up close, they would fear you. I needed to persuade them to help. But I didn’t know what you were capable of. I knew not if you would attack another.” He stopped, his eyes glancing away. “I was scared of myself as well, Madison, of what I might do to you.”
She stared at him even though he couldn’t meet her gaze.
“I drank from him,” he said softly. “You drank from that native man and I threw you from him. I tried to stop you, but… the smell of him.” He turned to her again. She had blacked out from Jamison having thrown her off. She sensed the memory of what had occurred. He was replaying it in his head, and she could feel his emotions radiating the air around her. She had struck a tree behind her when he thrust her away. Her head had cracked against the hard surface and she plummeted to the ground feet below her. His strength had sent her through the air above him. He then turned to the bleeding man lying on the ground, and reached for his neck. His teeth penetrated his skin and there was nothing the man could do to stop him. He came to his senses and left the man to die. Wiping the blood from his face and mouth, he had walked to Madison on the ground. Her head healed before him and her eyes slowly opened. That was why he had looked at her in such a way. Disgust of what he had done. Amazement of how she healed miraculously in front of him. And he had gathered her in his arms to lament what he had done to her.
She remembered everything, but only faintly, and not as clearly as he did. Yet his emotions truly were within her mind.
“You will continue to drink, Jamie. I don’t care how adverse you are to it. I will not let you die here. We are not meant to die here. I have grown stronger, and so will you.” She laid his head back down.
“We were not meant to survive this,” he said solemnly.
“Your God no longer dictates what is meant for us. Only we can do that. It is out of his hands.” She stood and walked towards the flap of the tent and looked back to him. “We make our own way now.” With that she walked out and left Jamison on his bedding to rest. She wouldn’t be dictated by his sermons on morality. It was only his survival she had any regard for.
Madison saw Jayden standing by the fire, sipping from the remains within a jug. She stood just a few steps away. His emotions were still permeating the air around her. She almost resented that his presence was so staggering. She doubted her own was as potent.
“The others took their fill?” she asked.
“Enough for now. I will go to gather m
ore tonight.”
“They will grow suspicious if too many of their people disappear, Jayden.”
“I must collect as many as I can. I will go into their settlement if necessary.”
“Why tonight?” she asked.
He looked at her with a stern expression. She could feel him trying to tell her with his emotions, but all she felt from him was an awareness of what lay ahead. Something dangerous was approaching, and it had him on edge. He wasn’t frightened by it. Quite the opposite. He seemed eager for it.
“You will help me move the others to the stream and small fortress Lyndon and I built. We must get them there and properly fed before dawn tomorrow.”
“Why Jayden?” she said stepping forth. “What happens tomorrow at dawn? What did you see?”
“They are desperate,” he said, almost smiling. “Their plans to kill us failed. We are all that is left, and we figured out how to survive this poison they fed us through the stream. We were not meant to discover how to endure it.”
“You said before that they wanted us to consume one another.”
“Yes, and we would have,” he said. “The morning you awoke and attacked their man in woods, they had come to watch us awaken and finish one another off. But when you chased after them and killed that man, you found the one way to survive they never wanted us to find. You channeled your thirst toward them, not your own.”
“You felt this through their emotions?” she said.
“So you have caught on. What emotions did you gather from Jamison, then?” he said proudly.
“Answer me, Jayden. What did you learn from them?”
“The poison in the stream, it was meant to be a sort of reflection of what they saw us becoming. And they did see us coming, long before we arrived. But strangely, we were not the ones they were expecting.”
“You speak of magic now? Some kind of foreshadowing?”
“Is it really that difficult to believe after all that has happened?” he said.
She shook her head in response.
“A reflection of what, Jayden? Please tell me without expecting me to immediately know your thoughts. Remember I only just discovered this new perception,” she said bluntly, tired of constantly trying to decipher his meanings. She wasn’t up to the task of constantly meeting his challenge of wits.
“I meant exactly what I said. They saw us coming, but it wasn’t us. They saw our people coming and invading their lands. Forcing them from it and bringing inevitable bloodshed. Which we surely will once more migrate here, but it wasn’t truly us. We were an individual group that only desired to make a home for ourselves. They assumed we were the former. Our people were not meant to inhabit this land until future centuries. And that poison they created,” pointing to one of the jugs that still held water from the steam, “was meant to reflect the nature of the people who would take and rape their lands of everything they hold dear. It was meant to destroy us, but instead it made us stronger.”
“You sensed this?” she said.
“Yes, they discussed it to no end with their elders. They decided that we were the enemy. They hoped that our destruction would keep others from arriving after us. They didn’t realize that we were not this great coming of white men that they foresaw. Their emotions were easy enough to read. And their memories were completely clear with their intent.”
“They truly saw our journey here? They knew we were coming?” she said, with more curiosity than a true desire to hear the answer.
“Yes. They just got the timing wrong.”
Madison stepped forward and sat with Jayden, allowing him to tell her what he had encountered. He sensed everything that had passed between the Elder’s warriors. They had channeled the ocean and winds to bring their small village to the ground. They had channeled the fires to burn the remainders to the ground. And they forced the sea’s strength to take their dead to sea so that they may serve as warning to others not to sail near their shores ever again. It had all been meant as a warning to the white men not to come to their lands. But they had been wrong. There were no others coming, at least not for a lengthy period of time. There were no others to warn. They had yet to be born.
“You learned all of this from the emotions of those you just killed?”
“Yes. They consider themselves warriors for what they have done,” he said.
“And they are going to attack. They mean to kill our sick before they can completely recover,” she said. She felt a connection as if her emotions and Jayden’s were merging. “Jamison must complete his recovery so we can fight back. You have to find more so we can feed them,” she said, her voice now strong and as assured as Jayden had been.
Jayden smiled as he looked at her.
“So now you see,” he said, very pleased that she had come to the same conclusion. “We must prepare. They plan to attack at early dawn tomorrow.”
“Leave one of the horses so I can move the others deeper into the woods. We must take more shelter,” she said.
“You don’t need the assistance of the horse, mistress that I can assure you.”
She felt him snickering without his face ever having moved.
“Fine, go then. No sense in waiting then. Go now and gather more of them. I want my brother fully recovered before tomorrow. You take the horses and bring back what you can.” The realization of what she just said struck her instantly after she stopped speaking. She had just condoned the order to kill innocents to keep her brother alive. Something she wasn’t certain her brother could or would have sanctioned.
“Do not have pity for those who wish to harm you, Madison,” said Jayden, leaping onto his horse with one swift movement. He was still sensing her emotions from feet away. “For they took no pity upon you.”
Jayden left promptly leaving Madison surprised that he had actually followed her request. She almost wondered if he was looking for her to give him her blessing before setting out. But a man such as Jayden, she knew, held no regard for how others felt about his actions. She suspected that he only took pleasure in the fact that he had persuaded her to follow his revolting plan.
Madison moved in the fleeting manner she had learned and placed her hands under Jamison’s legs and neck. He weighed little to nothing. It was as if she were picking up a small animal rather than a man. He didn’t wake entirely, but he placed his arm around her back. With rapid movements she carried Jamison to the stream. She could maintain a fair amount of her original speed, but she was still running with her loved one in her arms. She carefully navigated the woods, making sure no part of his body struck a piece of forest. Jamison could feel the air move quickly about him. But he only thought it a strong breeze sweeping through his tent flap. The movements and the speed were becoming more natural as she ran. She felt as though her body grew stronger with each step. It was adapting more as she gained speed. She hardly needed to tell it how to move. It already knew, almost as if her limbs had always known of their capability, but never had the aptitude to make use of it.
She placed Jamison softly on the ground and laid him as comfortably as she could. Standing above him, she quickly expanded her mind as best as she knew how. She sensed nothing malicious nearby, not even a tender forest animal. She ran the mile back to their camp moving faster than before, faster than when she had chased after Jayden. She gained speed and power with each step, gently leaping over any forest debris under her. The power of creating such a strong current of air as she moved stimulated every nerve on her skin. She felt outside the confines of her body once more.
She carried each man just as carefully as she had Jamison, knowing that their lives were potentially at risk should she not watch her step with such speed beneath her. A few men coughed along the way, although none of them stirred enough to awaken. She imagined that they were in the same state that she was in. She lined them up next to one another and then headed back to their camp, watching over them as best she could with her senses.
Just as night began to fall, Jayden returned, wit
h only two bodies on the horse trailing behind him. The sight of them hanging over the horse he trailed immediately made her insides churn. Her throat ran dry and she fought with everything she had to bring about words rather than a growl. She needed their blood in that instant.
“What is this? This can’t be all,” she said impatiently. “This is not enough for everyone to recover by morning.”
“Listen to you, telling the hunter that his job was not done properly,” he replied, a cavalier expression creeping upon his face as he looked at her. “Here,” he said, tossing her one of the jugs. “There are two more in the woods. I drained them before I came.”
She looked at him in disbelief. He had two jugs. The one he gave her, one remaining on the horse, and two spare bodies, undoubtedly still alive… barely.
“You actually managed to bring enough,” she said.
“Your gratitude is overwhelming,” he said grimacing as he dismounted the horse. “Take a few sips, it will keep you strong. You feed your brother and Lyndon; I will get the crewman.”
“The crewman has a name, does he not?” she said sarcastically.
“Of course he has. Damned if I know it.”
She took a few sips of the blood within the jug he handed her. The feeling as it saturated her tongue and eased down her throat nearly caused her to lose all sense of where she was. There was only the substance in her hands. It was as if it moved throughout her entire body before ever reaching her stomach.
“Only a few sips, now. Your brother needs most of that,” said Jayden looking at her. He had one hand behind their one remaining crewman. He stirred briefly to take the drink, yet he still wasn’t completely awake.
She went to Jamison and did the same. She brought him to her knee and gently woke him. Bringing the jug to his lips, he reached for the bottom of the jug to hold it firmer to his mouth. His body recognized its needs before he had time to regard the contents. He didn’t hesitate to drink the entirety of the jug before letting go. Jayden came from behind and handed her the other jug. He had already drained the other man still on the horse. She gently laid Jamison down and did the same for Lyndon, propping him up on one knee as she knelt down. Holding him up, he seemed slightly stronger than Jamison. She assumed he had taken more of the blood than Jamison had prior to now. He drank with his eyes closed, also partially asleep.
