by Marcus Brown
“He found his way back to her – surely even you know when two souls are forced apart, they always find their way back together again.”
“Then at least she has her brother. I’m pleased they’ve found one another.”
“Foolish creature,” she wheezed. “Your precious son is a Daywalker, and in time will become as unholy as you are. Your former wife has no idea -- the boy she thinks is your daughter’s imaginary friend is her stolen baby.”
“You lie to me, witch.” Eduardo could feel the anger building inside him.
“Go, see for yourself, if you dare, but heed my warning. Stay back and don’t alert any of them to your presence. The girl will suffer enough in the coming days, without knowing her father is a demon also.”
“I’ll kill you,” Eduardo roared.
He silently called forth the wind and flew at her, but she was quicker than he expected and held her hand high in the air, halting his approach.
He felt like he’d crashed into an invisible wall and dropped to the floor, unable to take flight again.
“You dare come into my home, beast, and try to silence the truth, the truth you asked for. You and your kind are powerless within these four walls – I have generations of power to call upon when I need it,” she said, raising her head as though proud of her heritage. “Never forget that.”
She lifted her hand slowly into the air -- he rose gracefully from the floor.
“I’ll kill you, witch,” he bellowed. “And I’ll make you suffer before you take your last breath.”
“Be gone from my sight, you’re no longer welcome here.”
The old woman waved her hand, as though dismissing him, and cackled as he was catapulted through the front window like a rag doll.
The neon sign dropped to the floor and shattered.
Selena walked across the hallway toward the shattered window, staring into the night. Feeling victorious, the little skirmish re-energising her, she watched as the wind carried him away.
She had a lot to do if she wanted to be prepared for the battle ahead.
Chapter Three
“It’s time to wake up, Chloé.”
Kyle had allowed her to sleep for as long as he could, but there were things he needed to tell her.
She stirred, but didn’t open her eyes.
Unable to allow her the luxury of more time, he whispered into her ear. “Chloé,” he commanded. “Open your eyes.”
Her eyes sprang open, and he watched as she shook off the disorientation and scanned her unfamiliar surroundings. “Where am I?” she said as she sat up on the stained and filthy mattress.
“I’m sorry for taking you in such a manner. I know you’re frightened, but the Benitez’s we're coming for you. I had to get you away from there.”
She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “My mom. Is she all right?” she asked, sounding scared.
“Your mom is safe. They’re not interested in her and won’t approach her in case she recognises them. My feeling is they’re gonna try to use you to get to me. They know by taking you, and placing your life in danger, I’d be more pliable to their requests, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“What the hell is going on, and where am I?”
“I will explain everything to you.”
“Where am I?” she demanded.
“Not far from Deer Lake Park,” he replied.
“I’m miles away from home.” She raised her voice. “How did we get here?”
“Why do you ask such stupid questions when you know the answers?” Since receiving the gift, he’d noticed how often humans turned a blind eye to things that should have been glaringly obvious to them. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“It feels like I’ve been sucked into a nightmare.” He watched as she looked around the room. “I’m standing in this filthy place, with a boy I hardly know, my mind conjuring all sorts of crazy thoughts. I’m fighting with myself – what I know to be real, and something that can’t possibly exist.”
“You know what I am, you just need to say the word.” Kyle needed to hear her say it.
“I don’t want to – the moment the words leave my lips is the moment the world I thought I knew doesn’t exist. Do you get me?”
He walked toward her, and watched as she stepped back. It hurt him. Never had she appeared afraid of him. “Don’t be frightened of me, I’d never do anything to hurt you. All this is because I left them to find you. Please believe me when I tell you, I felt exactly as you did five years ago when I first learned about you.”
She stared at him, he could see the curiosity eating away at her.
“I want the truth, Kyle, if that is even your real name.”
“I’ll tell you everything, but it won’t be easy to hear.”
“I just want to know what’s going on.” She looked desperately sad. “It feels like you’ve haunted my life for the last five years – at times I’ve questioned my own sanity believing in you.”
“I want to tell you everything. You deserve to know, but not here. Let’s take a walk in the park before the sun rises.”
“How long have we been gone?”
“A day.”
“A day,” she said, sounding alarmed. “I need to get back.” She appeared angry to have slept for so long. “My mom will be frantic.”
“Don’t concern yourself, everything is okay. Lara Beck is sound asleep in her bed and believes you to be safe in yours.”
“I’m not going to ask how you know that, but I actually believe you.” He looked on as she marched toward the door. “You’ve got exactly one hour and then I’m going home. I don’t know how I’m gonna get there, but I will.”
Kyle followed her out the door and led her out of the derelict warehouse and to the park.
Despite the rain, the park looked beautiful, the lamp lights enhancing the calming environment.
She pulled her hood up. He could hear her thoughts -- she didn’t like her hair to be wet.
Once they were off the path, they crossed the large expanse of grass and stood by the huge lake.
“It’s beautiful, even at this time,” she said. “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.”
“The world looks much better to me at night, well it does now.” He longed to see the sun rise again, but it took all his strength, and days to recover afterwards.
“And there you go again, speaking in riddles. Tell me something, anything, that is true about yourself.”
“I’m scared that once you know, I’ll lose you again.”
“What do you mean, again?” They looked at one another, a confounded expression across her pretty face. “Just tell me.”
“I’m not the same as you, Chloé. You know that already. Five years ago, we were the same, but I was given a gift that changed my life there and then.”
“What gift could possibly change your life that much?”
“The gift of immortality.”
Chloé’s thoughts whirled around her brain – he could hear it. He picked up the words he needed to hear. She knew what he was, but struggled to say the word.
“Vampire,” she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You’re… not alive.”
“Don’t be afraid of me, I’ll never hurt you, but there is much more to my story than what I am, the reason why I’m here with you now.”
“You want me to be like you, you want somebody to share this journey you’re on, is that what you want?”
Kyle grabbed her hand, the coldness of his own hand making her flinch. “Never, never, would I wish this life for you. No matter how much you pleaded, I wouldn’t condemn you to living this life, watching those you love, grow old, die before they fade into dust.”
“Why me?”
He could hear her thoughts and knew she was closer to the truth than she realised.
“Because our souls are bound together.”
“Hocus pocus,” she said, sounding dismissive. “Stop trying to sugar coat everything and
tell me who you really are.”
Chapter Four
“You know who I am,” Kyle said.
“I know who you tell me you are. Your name is Kyle, but I don’t know anything else about you.”
“My name is Kyle Benitez and…”
“Benitez,” she interrupted. “Why do I recognize that name?”
“The gypsy caravan parked on your street a few nights ago.”
“Constance and…” She had forgotten the man’s name.
“Romeo,” he added helpfully.
“How do you know them?”
“She’s my mother, for all intents and purposes.”
Shocked by his admission. “Your mother,” she said, appalled, “but why would you attack your own mother like that?”
“Constance raised me, but she is not deserving of the title Mother.”
“You didn’t answer my question, Kyle. Why did you attack her?”
“To protect you,” he said angrily.
Chloé felt her mouth drop open, “But, I don’t know her, why would she be a threat to me.”
“Because of who you are.”
“Is she some sort of jealous mom, or something?”
He chuckled, infuriating her. “No, it’s nothing like that at all.”
“I’m glad you find me so amusing. You’re telling me my life’s hanging by a thread and think it’s something to giggle over?”
“I never meant to offend you and don’t find any of this amusing. I’m sorry, but you’ve got it all wrong.”
“Hmmph,” was all she offered.
“Constance loves me more than anything else in this world, and wants me to be happy. I think that’s why she told me about you.”
“You’re not listening to me, Kyle. I have no idea who she is.”
“There’s no reason you should, but she knows who you are, and that’s why she, and Romeo, have travelled so far north to find me. I made a huge mistake calling her, but I was distracted by Selena Buckland and mentioned her to Constance.”
“Madam Selena,” she asked, confused. “What’s that old hag got to do with what’s happening here?”
“I don’t have the answer to that yet, but she approached me in the town square and told me she knew what I was and who my parents were.”
“You can’t take what she says seriously – she’s a mad old woman.”
“You underestimate her, Chloé. My kind can always sense the supernatural, and whatever she is, she doesn’t belong to the human world any more than I do, I’m certain of that much.”
“It’s just mumbo jumbo – she’ll say anything for money.”
He appeared to ignore her warnings about the old woman. Looking at her, he said, “Selena must be known to my clan. It’s the only way my parents could have discovered my whereabouts… I asked my mother about her and they suddenly know where I am, even after I covered my tracks so well.”
“What does it matter if they’ve found you anyway – they’re your parents.”
“Because finding me allowed them to discover who you are.”
“Who am I?” she said impatiently.
“You’re my sister.”
Chapter Five
“You’re lying to me, I don’t have a brother,” she shouted, not wanting to believe what he was saying, running away from the lake and across the damp grass.
She felt the wind rush past her and stopped dead, her mouth agape as she watched him hovering in mid-air, just in front of her, his glossy black wings outstretched, the moonlight reflecting from them.
“I wish that was true, but you are my sister and because of my selfishness, I’ve led you into terrible danger.”
Hearing the truth seemed to unlock the floodgates -- something in Chloé had seemingly changed, allowing him to hear her thoughts clearly for the first time.
Too much for her to take in, she couldn’t control her thoughts and everything suddenly became jumbled, a garbled mess whirling around her brain. She reached forward, grasping for anything to keep her from falling, but it was too late.
*
He watched as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, her knees buckling as she fell face forward. As fast as lightning, he caught her before she hit the ground, scooping her up into his arms and swooping high into the air.
*
Kyle set down gently on the balcony outside Chloé’s room and projected his thoughts, willing the door to unlock. Seconds later, the lock clicked and the door slid open.
He stepped through and lay her gently on the bed, removing her shoes, and allowing her to rest.
All he’d wanted was to know his sister, and now he was going to lose her all over again – she seemed to be terrified of him.
Should he give up and go home with his parents, disappear from her life and accept the fate decided for him so long ago? He was torn in half, not knowing which way to turn.
Chloé stirred on the bed, but he knew how much of a toll learning about him, and who he was, would take, and decided it best to allow her to sleep.
*
Eduardo watched as he set down on the balcony, the outstretched wings folding against his back and disappearing.
He couldn’t peel his eyes away as his son carried Chloé into the bedroom, lying her gently onto the bed before closing the doors. The boy cared deeply for his sister, that much was plain to see.
His feelings were confused in that moment of time -- horror that his daughter was mixed up in his world, or happiness to be looking at the son he believed to be dead, for the first time in seventeen years.
“My children,” he whispered. Blood tears running down his cheeks.
*
My children
Kyle caught the words and quick as lightening, spun around, his face pressed against the window.
He didn’t know where the words had come from, or who had spoken them, but he knew what he’d heard.
He opened the balcony doors. “Who’s there?” he whispered back into the night, but no answer came.
*
Eduardo took to the skies, soaring towards the stars, putting as much distance between him and his son as he possibly could. The wind flowing through his long dark hair, the sense of freedom he felt so exhilarating. He didn’t do this as often as he should – it was one of a few advantages of belonging to the dark.
He’d been foolish and should have realised his son would hear him.
It wasn’t the right time for them to meet, but he knew the time would come, and soon.
He set down on his roof terrace, rushing towards his spacious bedroom.
A large oil painting of The Last Supper hid a wall safe, home to the precious few reminders of the life he once knew. He lifted it away from the wall with ease and leant it against the queen-sized bed. He input the security code, waiting for the green light to flash before opening the door.
Inside was a metal box containing his most prized possessions.
He turned the key and lifted the lid – pulling out a stack of photographs, he clutched them tightly to his chest.
In the last five years, he’d only looked at photographs of happier times with his family once – unable to stand the torture of looking at their faces and not being able to be with them.
The only way he could deal with losing them was to stay as close as he could, but keep his distance and ensure they were never aware of his presence.
The amount of times he’d wanted to knock on the door… but he couldn’t do it to them, and even if he did, there’s no way he could trust himself to stay.
He reached into the box and pulled out a tiny baby blue woollen bootie, all he had left of the son he’d loved so much. He pressed the booty to his nose, inhaling deeply -- the scent of his new-born son still clinging to the fibres after seventeen years.
He couldn’t stop the tears from flowing and through mortality, and immortality, he had prayed for answers about where his son was.
Finally, he knew where his son was and vowed to discover who had stolen
him all those years ago, setting him on the path to immortality. He would exact his revenge upon the person who’d turned his child to darkness.
.
Chapter Six
Carlo stepped out of the black limousine and looked around the densely wooded area.
He was feeling more smug than usual following a tip off from one of his spies – they’d sighted the Benitez’s a few hours before, heading to the woods and was certain they were still there – lurking somewhere just out of view.
“Romeo. Constance. I know you’re there,” he called out. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
They didn’t answer, but he was fairly certain he was being watched.
“Kane is on his way to Vancouver as we speak” he shouted. “And you really don’t want him to come out here to look for you himself – after all, he’ll find you much quicker and easier than I ever could.”
He heard the rustle of bushes in the distance and rubbed his stubby hands together as Romeo and Constance stepped into view and walked toward him.
“Constance, you’re looking more beautiful as the years go by,” he said, addressing the stunningly beautiful gypsy lady. He lunged for her hand, planting a wet kiss upon it.
“And you still don’t stand a chance,” Romeo spat. “Have more respect or Kane will find you chopped into tiny pieces, ready to dine on.”
“Now, now, Romeo, there’s no need for any animosity. I am merely here to ensure everything is running to plan.”
“If you thought it was, you wouldn’t be here,” Constance added.
“Beauty with intellect – what a wonderful combination,” he said, sounding smarmier than usual.
Romeo stood, his fists clenched, grinding his teeth audibly.
It pleased Carlo to have such a threatening effect on the handsome, muscular giant of a man.
“Flattery will get you nowhere, I’m not a gullible romantic you can sweet talk into your bed – now tell us what’s going on, or I might not be able to stop my husband from tearing you, limb from limb.”
