“What’s wrong?” Roman asked.
“I was under the impression that we were going to fly somewhere,” I said.
“Well, that would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?” he asked. “What else is bothering you?”
I shrugged in the dark. “I can’t see anything.”
“Oh.” A moment later, the world opened up to me and I saw through Roman’s eyes. “Is that better?”
“Yes." Roman took the lead and I followed closely, unsure of what awaited me in the dark. If vampires existed, so could the boogeyman, right? So, I stuck close to him. The cloth of his shirt brushed against me as we hurried deep down into the earth.
“Where are we going?” I asked finally. “Why does the vampire council want to see me? What’s so amazing about me killing Lucretious?”
Roman took a moment to answer and I wasn’t sure I he would. “He was a vampire. You are a human. It’s not often that we find such courageous...vampire hunters.” He said “vampire hunters” like it amused him.
“I’m not a vampire hunter,” I said.
“No, but they don’t know that,” was his reply.
“Well, didn’t you tell them?”
He shrugged. It was strange, looking at him through my eyes which were seeing through his. It was like his vision was super imposed over my own. I was seeing in a sort of double vision and, now that I thought about it I was getting dizzy.
“Don’t think about it,” Roman said. “Vivian had trouble with it too. Think about something else.”
“Alright. Didn’t you tell them what happened? That I’m not a vampire hunter, I’m...vampire hunted?”
Roman chuckled. “Is that what you are?”
“Isn’t Perdita hunting me? Isn’t she going to ‘play with me before she kills me’?”
“Yes, I suppose she is.”
“Well?” I asked again. “Didn’t you tell them?”
“I would have, LeKrista,” he sounded frustrated, “but you rushed me off the phone too quickly.”
“Oh no,” I said. “You’re not going to put that on me. You were on my cell phone, which you stole. You read my text messages. I had a right to be angry. I still do.”
“Fine,” he said. “I was wrong. Does that make you happy?”
“No,” I said grumpy. “Pierce does that. I hate that.”
He shrugged.
“How much farther is it?” I asked. “Are we there yet?” I was starting to feel very, very tired.
“You’re tired,” Roman said unnecessarily. “I’m sorry,” and it sounded like he meant it. But he wasn’t going to do anything about it.
“You’re thousands of years old,” I said.
“Yes.” He kept his voice careful, not sure where I was going with my questioning.
“Are the vampires on this council older than you?”
“Not all of them.”
“Are they more powerful than you?”
“Not all of them.”
“How powerful are you?” I asked.
He hesitated. “Very.”
“So...should I be afraid?”
“No.” There was no hesitation then. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said what I was taught to say. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
“Why do they call you The Centurion?” I asked. That gave Roman enough pause to stop walking and turn to look at me. “You say you don’t remember your name, so you call yourself Roman. Were you a Roman Centurion?”
My abilities of deduction are astounding.
Roman regarded me with eyes I couldn’t read. He searched mine for something, I wasn’t sure what, and I’m not sure he found what he was looking for.
“Yes,” he finally said. “I was a Roman Centurion. I survived the fall of the Roman Empire.”
I frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me that before? It’s not so terrible a thing, is it?”
Roman’s eyes went dark and I was so reminded of Pierce in that moment that I felt a pang of hurt. “It is the things I did during that time that are so terrible, LeKrista.”
I tried to make a joke to lighten the intense mood. “It’s not like you crucified Jesus or anything,” I laughed.
Roman’s face looked stricken and utterly shocked as if I’d found out his deepest, darkest secret. I started, and took a step back. “Whoa,” I said. “Whoa.”
Please, God. Don’t strike me down.
Roman sighed a long, heavy sigh that said so much more than words ever could. “Yes, LeKrista, I did.”
I closed my eyes, trying to wrap my head around the fact that the man standing before me, the vampire, had crucified Jesus.
“Is that how you became a vampire?” I whispered.
Roman tilted his head to the side. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but yes is the easy answer for now.”
For now. That meant he would tell me more in the future.
“Can I see?” I asked.
“LeKrista, please. Please do not ask me to show you this. Not even Vivian...” He let the words trail off and I knew if he hadn’t shown Vivian he wasn’t going to show me.
I shrugged and let it go. “That’s fine,” I said. “We’re late.”
Roman regarded me for a moment. “You astound me sometimes, LeKrista.” He turned and we continued down the stone corridor.
When we finally stepped into real light, not just vampire eyesight, I was momentarily blinded. The room was so bright I had to shield my face from it.
I jumped when Roman touched my back. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That was my fault. You can open your eyes now.”
I knew this place. I’d been here once in Lucretious’ head. Torches lined the stone walls of the round room and my eyes were drawn to bright pink calla lily arrangements sitting in the center of the long, stone table that ran the length of the room.
“Eddy did these."
“Yes, he did. How did you know?”
“I watched him put some of them together.”
Roman chuckled in my head and it was a weird feeling to see him standing so stoic beside me but know he was laughing on the inside.
“You are late.” A strongly accented voice spoke from the other side of the room, sitting at the head of a large stone table.
“Laied,” Roman told me. “He is known as The Lariat.”
“Like The Phantom of the Opera with his Lasso?”
“You are good at this, LeKrista,” Roman chuckled.
“Like I said earlier, my powers of deduction, my dear Watson. And I’ve always been a good guesser.”
“I died,” I said out loud. There were three other vampires besides Laied and every head turned in my direction. I fought a giggle. Roman was a bit humored too.
“You died?” Laied asked, incredulous.
“Yes. And then I came back.”
“You came back? You are not a vampire.”
Is there an echo in here? Geez.
“No, thank God,” I chuckled. There was a sharp intake of breath from them and that did make me laugh. “No, I’m not a vampire, but I died and came back.”
“Is this the girl?” Laied turned cold, empty eyes to Roman who nodded.
“Yes, this is LeKrista, the young woman who killed Lucretious.”
Laied nodded and looked me over like he just couldn’t quite believe it. “Tell me, Centurion. How is it that this...this girl could kill such a strong vampire when you could not?”
“Is he implying that I can’t do it because I’m a girl? Or because I’m a human? Or both?”
“Both,” Roman sent back before he answered. “Lucretious was the most powerful of my creations, yes. He was also a great friend at one point in time. My hesitation to kill him did not stem from inability, I can assure you. Had I the choice or the foreknowledge of what LeKrista would do, I wouldn’t have let her kill him either. He supplied me with too much power.”
“Well, that’s dumb. That’s like saying-”
“Are you saying that you had no warning that this girl would commit such an act?”
I expected Laied to say “heinous crime” and then insist that I be put to death for murder. He didn’t and I relaxed a little, though I wasn’t quite sure that I wasn’t on trial.
“I thought you had the gift of foresight, Centurion.”
Roman shrugged. “You know as well as I do how weak that gift is. I have stronger, more important abilities than this foresight you all seem to think I should be better at.”
“Right,” the vampire said. “So you say. Does the girl have anything to say in her defense?”
I looked at Roman who nodded. “Well,” I said, “at the risk of sounding rude, ‘the girl’ has a name. It’s LeKrista Scott and I would prefer if you used it. After all, I’m human...too.” I stumbled over that last part as soon as I realized what I was saying, but Laied smiled like he thought it was funny.
“Yes. Go on,” he instructed.
I glanced up at Roman once more, who nodded again, and I continued on in my own “defense.”
“Lucretious was stalking me." I wasn't sure if that meant anything to him. “It was annoying at best, but then he started projecting unwanted things into my head. I don’t even know that he realized he was doing it at first-”
“What kind of things?”
“I don’t think that’s really important. Just that you know they were things I wasn’t interested in.” When he nodded and flicked his hand to continue, I did. “He tried to kill me, unprovoked. He drained the gas in my car one night so I wouldn’t be able to make it home and tossed my car down an embankment and into a lake.”
“But you survived.”
I nodded. “Yes, thanks to Roman, and...thanks to my boyfriend.”
“This boyfriend of yours, he was there?”
I shook my head. “No sir. He was at home. He saw it happen.”
He frowned. “How is this possible?”
“Lucretious had latched onto my mind earlier that day, and when I kissed my boyfriend, it connected us somehow. He saw Lucretious throw me into the lake and called 911.”
“For that alone you would have issued a death warrant,” Roman spoke up behind me.
“Silence, Centurion,” the vampire said. “The girl... LeKrista speaks.”
I was very proud that I kept from smiling. “Roman had a party a few nights later; I guess it was in my honor...” Laied frowned and leaned over to hear what the vampire on his right was saying. Roman tensed beside me, and I felt a stab of fear. “Lucretious crashed the party,” I continued. “He and his lover Perdita tried to kill me.”
“Tell us how,” the vampire instructed.
“Perdita, she was going...” I looked up at Roman. He encouraged me to go on. “She was going to eat me, so I kicked her.”
“You kicked her?” The vampire sounded dubious.
“Yes. With my stilettos. I staked her with my stilettos.”
The burst of laughter that came from the vampires sitting around the great stone table was both unexpected and startling. Roman put a hand on my shoulder when I jumped.
“They won’t be laughing when you tell them what happened to Lucretious so let it ride, my sweet.”
I did. Roman’s reminder of just how heinous it would be to them to hear how Lucretious actually died sent another shiver down my spine.
“Tell us the rest,” Laied instructed once the laughter died down. “Did you think your stilettos would kill Perdita?”
I shook my head. “No, I just wanted to hurt her. I wanted her to leave me alone and it was the only thing I had on me...” I let my voice trail, because that wasn’t quite true. Now that they sensed my uncertainty, they knew it too. I plowed ahead, because I didn’t want them to think I was holding anything back.
“I hooked my cross chain around Lucretious neck,” I said. I expected a collective gasp from the angry vampires. Instead, I was met with dead silence. They went still as the grave, and stared at me unblinking. There was no breath in their lungs, no blood in their veins. They’d gone cold and dead as only they could and they watched at me with death in their eyes. No, with blood in their eyes, because they wanted my blood for what I had done.
My heart began to pound as I realized the danger I was in, giving me away. I backed into Roman who gripped my shoulders so tight it hurt, and I tried to pull away from him, but couldn’t.
“Stand still,” he ordered. “Stand your ground and show no fear. I will take care of this.”
Out loud, he said, “I gave LeKrista the cross when I knew how much danger she was in, and whom she was in danger from. So, in essence, the cross was meant specifically for the event in which she used it.”
“Crosses are to be used as a defense only,” the head vampire said.
“And that is what she used it for. A defense. LeKrista is under my protection,” he said, and the vampires finally stirred, albeit angrily. “Lucretious and Perdita would have defied that authority, though they both answered to me. I couldn’t have that. Lucretious’ death was necessary, and Perdita’s will be also. She threatens the life of one who is under my protection. I cannot allow that to go unpunished.”
“You give this girl your protection?” Laied asked enraged. He stood, towering over the table. He was very close to seven feet tall. His chest and shoulders were so broad he blocked the light of several torches. Even if he was human I wouldn’t want to make him angry.
“What is she to you?” he stormed at Roman, who took it all in without a blink. “What is she to us? What can she give us that we sacrifice our strongest for?”
“She will help us,” Roman said. “Specifically, she will help me. She has abilities. She will help in our plan to rule the humans.” And he was completely confident in that misguided assumption.
I blinked. He truly believed I would help the vampires rule the humans. The Council was quiet for a long moment, and Roman seemed to realize he’d messed up because he added, “Lucretious told her this secret before he died. He didn’t intend for her to live long enough for it to matter.”
“And you expect us to allow her to live with this knowledge? No. This secret alone will-”
“What difference does it make?” Roman asked. “What can she do to stop it? She’s one person. She has no resources, no friends who can alter the plans we’ve set in motion. The takeover is too close at hand for anything to stop it now, let alone one girl.” He spat the word girl like it tasted of dung, but in my mind, he said, “I think more highly of you than this.”
I kept quiet and wished I could melt into the wall with every look the vampires sent my way. I thought about what Roman had said, and what the man told me in that hazy place where I'd died not half an hour earlier. The Lady Xiomara had asked for a gift in return for her help. I have no earthly possessions or money enough to pay for such a big thing, but I do have Roman. I have information. If I could swallow my pride and go crawling back to her and her people, I might get them to help me. If I fed them information on the vampire’s takeover they would have a reason to keep me alive. If I could swallow my pride.
Pride goes before destruction...
I knew this was the pride that would get me killed. I needed protection from Perdita, protection that Roman couldn’t give me, if I was to survive.
I knew what I had to do, but it didn’t make the decision any easier. The thought of going back to Lady Xiomara’s council and begging them to help me after I’d already told them what horrible people they were made me sick to my stomach. It made me so angry that I crossed my arms over my chest and audibly humphed before I realized it. The vampires all turned to give me curious looks.
“What is it that has you in such bad sorts?” Laied asked, daring with his eyes to interrupt their all important “end of the world” conversation. I only had a moment
to come up with something that didn’t have to do with vampires, mages, or the end of the world as we knew it.
“No offense,” I said, “but you’re not exactly the kind of person I want to take advice from.” That got me the looks I expected and I fought not to smile.
“Vampires, you mean?” and the question dripped with malice and hatred.
“No, males. Men. Forgive me, but why would I want advice from men on a man problem? It just doesn’t make sense.”
They stared at me stunned, as if they didn’t quite understand that my mind had been working on a problem so completely human.
“Perhaps, it is men you need advice from.” He was so curious! It was cute in a twisted sort of way and I wondered when was the last time he had to deal with a simple human matter such as a relationship.
I paused and pretended to think about that. “Perhaps. But you wouldn’t be interested in helping me...would you? I mean, you have the end of the world to plan, and everything. I wouldn’t want to be a bother.” In my head I was quoting The Princess Bride. Again.
I have my country's four hundredth anniversary to plan, my wife to murder…
Roman found it quite amusing.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, as if he had all the time in the world, and maybe he did.
I jabbed a thumb in Roman’s direction and said, “Him. He’s the problem. My boyfriend found out about him and wouldn’t speak to me for two weeks. Then, he calls me up out of the blue and wants to go to breakfast, see a movie. He acts like nothing happened. What am I supposed to do? Just ignore that he left me? He expects me to be angry, but he acts like he doesn’t understand why. Did he leave me as payback, or did he really just need some time to think? And what about me? Am I supposed to take him back?” I sighed. I’d gotten myself all worked up over it, and I wasn’t pretending anymore. “Sorry,” I said to their tolerant, yet astonished faces. “I guess when you’ve been around as long as you have things like this just seem so inconsequential.” I screwed up my face and looked at Roman, “I’m thirsty.”
Roman laughed. It wasn’t a humored laugh or a loud hysterical laugh, it was one of those chuckles that you give when you don’t quite know what to do. It’s funny, but you’re confused, so you “heh” and then wonder why you did it.
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