I admired their courage. Not once did they cry out, even when they knew the last of their life force was being drained from their bodies. Women were a lot stronger than men in many ways, and our tolerance of pain — our bodies being designed for childbirth — was one of them.
Today’s body count — with the exception of the one I’d allowed to live to spread the word of she who kills — Helena fourteen, Vampires none.
I was so pumped I felt I could take on the world… and win! Egotistical pride? Perhaps. I’d accomplished so much in so little time, how could I not be proud of myself?
I returned to my starting place, smug in the knowledge there was only one group left — the seventh trail — from yesterday’s foray. There were five scents mixed in this final trail, which led north. I completed a series of shoulder stretches and side bends, limbering up and preparing myself for the chase, then ran.
After ten minutes, another scent joined the trail. It was one I recognised — the vamp I hadn’t killed. His trail went no further. There could only be two reasons for this — one, they’d disposed of him and his body, or two, someone was carrying him. I doubted they’d killed him. They’d want to know all the details of his encounter with me — every word I’d spoken, every move I’d made, and why I’d let him live. He was an important connection to me and they’d wring him dry if it suited their purposes.
I smiled and ran on, filling my nostrils with the smells of the forest and the creatures within it — those God had created and those Satan had defiled.
Another twenty minutes on and the trail split into five different directions. Clearly they’d decided they needed to ensure at least one of their group delivered my message — if not the surviving vampire — to Drake, or whoever was in charge if he wasn’t there. Which trail to choose?
Keep going north, I told myself. So north it was.
It seemed I’d run forever and the scent wasn’t getting any stronger. How much of a head start did they have on me? Three hours at most. As I began to scale a rocky outcrop the scent finally became stronger. When I reached the top, standing at the back of the ledge was a lone female vampire. Her fingers were seeking purchase on the sheer rock face in front of her. It was possible she couldn’t scale it — rock wouldn’t be as giving as wood. I didn’t think I’d be able to scale it, and maybe she was having the same doubts.
She turned around when she heard my footfall.
“I know what you are,” she hissed. “Freak!”
Come on, I thought, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?
I smiled and took a step forward. “What’s the matter, afraid?”
“Not of a common whore!” she spat.
Ouch! That was below the belt. I wasn’t a common whore and what did she know of me anyway?
“And what do you know of whores?” I laughed.
She pointed a finger at me. “I know what you used to be… don’t you recognise me?”
I looked closer. As far as I was concerned she was a nobody, a nothing.
“No, should I?”
“Before you came along and took him away, I was the plaything of the preacher — the man you eventually rubbed the wrong way, so to speak.”
“Shae?” The woman whom I’d ousted as the preacher’s number one girl — it had taken me a couple of years of hard work to do so — looked so different. Did I look different too?
“The one and only,” she bowed with a flourish. “And now Drake has his eye on you, the prize. I won’t be cast aside again.”
I beckoned her forward with my hands, challenging her.
“So come and do something about it.”
She leaned back against the rock, crossed her arms over her chest and rested one foot against the rock face. There was something cocky about that action, like she knew something I didn’t — something that would give her an advantage.
I walked towards her, ignoring the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was very wrong. What could one little vampire possibly do to me?
As I approached, she scooted around to the side. I heard the sound of many hands and feet climbing. In moments I was trapped in the corner, surrounded by fourteen vampires, including Shae.
They had lain in wait, far enough for me not to detect their scent, but close enough for them to clamber up the rocky outcrop to the ledge in time to catch me unawares. Shae had been stalling for time, the bitch!
How ironic — fourteen vampires to replace the fourteen I’d killed. Drake was nowhere to be seen. It was conceivable that he didn’t know what was happening here. These vamps seemed to resent me, perhaps because I’d killed so many of their numbers, and because Drake seemed interested in me, for whatever reason.
“What the fuck are you?” a vampire I recognised as Levi yelled out to me.
“She who kills,” I replied calmly. “Didn’t your friend tell you?”
“He told us a freak whose heart still beat had almost drained him dry.”
I smiled at them. “I’m hardly a freak.” I inspected my fingernails for dirt before casually continuing. “Call me the next stage of evolution. Your time is at an end and a new breed is taking over.”
Levi snorted. “A breed of one, hardly cause for much concern!” There was lots of laughter. “If you hadn’t noticed, you’re the one who’s outnumbered here, not us.”
“I was outnumbered when there were two against one and even three against one,” I said dismissively, “but I prevailed. You think you can take me? How many of you can fit into this tight little corner at once?”
There were murmurs among a few of the vampires. I was making them nervous. Maybe I wouldn’t need Danny’s help after all.
“Let’s get Drake,” one vampire said. “He’ll know what to do.”
“Yeah,” another replied. “I’ll go. You guys stay here and watch her. Make sure she doesn’t get away this time.”
“No!” Levi yelled. “We don’t involve Drake. He has his own agenda.”
“As do you, it would seem,” I said. A little dissension among the ranks would work in my favour.
More murmuring, and without another word, one of the vamps dropped off the ledge, presumably to fetch Drake to come and take charge of the situation.
“Shit, Levi!” Shae said. “Should I stop him?”
“No. We take care of things and finish it before Ross can bring Drake back.”
I licked my lips suggestively, my hands on my hips. “Bring it on Levi. After all, we have some unfinished business.”
I sounded so confident in my own ability that he hesitated. The others sensed the tables were turning and Levi was losing control of the precarious situation.
What a head rush, I thought. I wonder if I could command them to leave.
“You should leave now,” I suggested. “The same fate awaits you as those in the tunnels.”
“What do you know of the tunnels?” Levi asked.
I smiled, then fake-yawned before replying. “I know there are many entrances and many rooms, and some contain the now still bodies of a few of your friends.”
I could feel the tension in the air. It was thick like fog on an icy winter’s morning.
Shae and Levi stepped aside from the group and exchanged a few words. She stamped her foot on the ground and pouted. Levi shook his head and turned away from her.
“We wait for Drake,” he said, and the group became silent.
Shit, I thought. Do I call Danny now or do I wait? I decided to wait. There was still time.
I looked at the sky. Whilst I couldn’t see the setting sun, I could see the last trace of an orange-red hue it cast in the sky. As my eyes adjusted to the fading light I noticed I could see almost as well as I could in the daytime. This was something new to me, the result of getting stronger. How many more new experiences would there be in store for me as the result of being changed?
I was so wrapped up in the changes taking place within my own body, marvelling at the differences, that I didn’t notice anot
her fifteen vampires climb onto the ledge! It was quite crowded now.
“Hello, Helena, nice to see you again,” Drake said, stepping to the front.
Of course he’d know my name if he knew Shae. She’d probably informed him about my less than virtuous previous life.
“Hello, Drake. The feeling isn’t mutual, but I’m sure you already know that.”
He laughed. “You’ve given us a merry chase, and done some hunting of your own, so I’ve been told. A great pity. I won’t be able to keep you now. The others would not be pleased. That doesn’t mean we can’t share a final conversation before you die.”
Shae, standing directly behind Drake, smiled smugly. I smiled at her and winked. Her face dropped in doubt.
“Now, now, Helena. No need to tease poor Shae.” Drake leaned forward and whispered, “She has issues you know.”
I laughed. It sounded so funny, a vampire with issues.
“You have such a nice laugh. I take it that was your laugh I heard echoing through the forest today?”
“Yes, that was me.”
“Tell me, how did you come to be here, like this?” Drake asked. “Who created you?”
“Does the name Chris Jones ring any bells?”
“I guess that explains why he never turned up for the hunt. You killed him as well?”
I nodded my head. “He died as I lived. I don’t understand it myself.”
“Poor Chris. He was a good hunter. And why didn’t you kill Ray? What’s so special about him?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I presumed Ray was the sole survivor of today’s foray, up until now.
“Someone had to deliver my message. The first few I had to feed off. I almost didn’t let Ray go. It’s a very hard thing to stop once you start.”
“Yes, when you’re new to it the bloodlust can take over,” Drake agreed. “But your message, it was very interesting. I was only made aware of it when Ross told me there was a problem.”
Drake cast a glance in Levi’s direction. I was sure Levi would be disciplined later on for his disobedience.
Serves you right, I thought.
“Well it’s been ever so nice chatting, Helena, but I think it’s time we got down to business.”
Drake took a couple of steps forward and the others followed, closing the gap between us. He was only a few metres away, time to bail out.
“Danizriel,” I whispered, “you’d better get your butt here fast.”
11. A Shining Light
Danny appeared by my side, amazed at the numbers gathered on the ledge.
“You need to learn to pick your fights better,” he mumbled.
“Ah, Danizriel,” Drake said. They knew each other? “Always a pleasure to have you drop by.”
Danny held out his hand and I took it.
Drake raised his eyebrows. “Strange times indeed. Another anathema, Danizriel?” He chuckled. “Really you’re quite the bad boy, for an angel.”
“Get ready to run,” Danny whispered.
Where the hell were we going to run? There wasn’t enough room between us and them. I squeezed his hand to let him know I’d heard and he took one step forward, shielding me protectively. I had to lean to the side slightly to see what was happening in front of us.
“Sorry, Drake, hate to shoot and run,” he sounded apologetic, “but you know what it’s like, pressing angel business and all that.”
Danny held out his free hand — fingers splayed and pointing to the sky — with the palm facing the vampires. Some of them screamed in terror and they scattered in all directions, all except Drake, who stood his ground.
A brilliant red flame — a shining light — erupted from Danny’s palm and blazed forth, missing Drake by centimetres. It hit one of the retreating vampires in the back. He stopped mid-flight, his body enveloped in a fiery red cocoon. The vamp struggled against his prison, which was ablaze on the inside. In response to his actions the cocoon began to shrink, until he couldn’t move anymore, the fire continuing to consume him. His cremated remains fell to the ground and the cocoon faded until it finally disappeared. The wind picked up and the ashes began to scatter.
As he lowered his arm, Danny urged me forwards. We ran towards the precipice. Before we reached the edge the lights appeared briefly and we skidded to a halt, back at the cottage. I thought I’d heard Drake yell out See you soon, no doubt and laugh as we left, and a feeling of dread crept over me.
“How do you know Drake, and what was that about anathema?” I asked.
“Drake and I go back a long way…”
“Anathema,” I said, tapping my foot on the floor, “anathema.”
“Don’t you know what it means?” Danny asked.
I snorted. “Of course I do. What did Drake mean about another anathema?”
“It refers to something from a long time ago, after Satan fell. It’s not important. Drake was trying to stir up trouble.”
“Is he that old?” I asked, suddenly filled with a weird kind of awe, bordering on respect, for a vampire that could have survived that long.
Danny laughed. “Not quite, though he is old, and clever. You have to be to survive for so long.”
I shook my head. How little I knew of this world. The world ordinary mortals didn’t even know existed, yet was so closely entangled in theirs.
“How did you manage to get yourself cornered?” Danny asked.
He may have had life eternal to perfect his hunting skills — I was very new to it. I had a lot to learn and I knew it. Danny would need to come good on giving me some sort of education on what to expect out there. I’d forgotten the word he’d used. It sounded vaguely like terror.
I thought back to the vampire I’d let go — how cocksure he was and the bravado he’d displayed. I was just as bad, way too overconfident. Never again would I forget that things didn’t always go according to plan — err on the side of caution. Expect the unexpected!
I sighed. “Just plain bad luck.”
“You travelled a good distance. Did you run all the way?”
“Yes. I ran all day. How far was I from my starting point?”
I’d lost count of the number of times I went back and forth, hunting and killing.
“Four hundred kilometres, give or take. You had entered another angel’s territory. It’s a good thing you didn’t attract his attention.”
How was I to know that I’d crossed the border? It wasn’t like there was someone standing there asking to check my papers.
“Where exactly are your territorial boundaries?”
Danny produced a map and we sat on the floor to study it. The boundaries of his territory flared and I looked at the scale of the map to get an idea of the size of the region. I figured it was roughly five hundred thousand square kilometres. That was a pretty impressive area for one angel to patrol!
A third of his territory was covered in forests and national parks, and I noticed my old home town was one of the many cities he would’ve patrolled. That explained how he would have happened across me — across Chris — if he was patrolling his territory at the time.
“That’s a huge area to cover,” I said.
“It’s not that bad. I have eyes and ears that report to me, which helps.”
I tapped the map with my finger. “So where’s the cottage and where was I today?”
Danny pointed to the two locations. They were much further apart than I’d anticipated. Even at the speeds I’d been able to run it would take me a good three or four days of solid running to get back to the cottage from where I’d been.
“Does that mean the night you left me in the forest — the night I upset you — I was on the edge of your border?”
“Yes.” He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “I did not want to be responsible for having to destroy you, if it came to that, so I chose the easy way out — to let you become someone else’s problem. It would have been so easy to leave you there, and not look back.”
“Oh,” I replied. I could understa
nd his reasoning, but it didn’t explain why he came back. “So what made you change your mind?”
“I realised that I’m better than that. I take care of my own problems.”
I gaped at him and he held his hand up to stop me from speaking.
“I’m not saying you’re a problem anymore, provided you can leave mortals alone and only focus on vampires and the like.”
“Nice to know you have such faith in me,” I mumbled, continuing to study the map.
We talked about what had happened during my day, the things I’d seen and found out about the vampires, about how both my hands were weapons that didn’t need the catalyst of a bite, how my fingers were assimilated into the vampires’ skin, and how I’d taken on three at once.
Danny was amazed at my resilience and cunning, and the tactics I’d employed to draw them in. Of course my faux fear wouldn’t work anymore, not now they knew about me. It had been my intention to gain full strength in one day, yet that was not to be. I’d need to employ different tactics to get what I needed — what I wanted.
I asked about the high their blood gave me. Danny had no answer for it. Blood should not do that, but being unique as I was, as far as Danny was aware, who knew? There would be lots of unanswered questions about me. I was new territory, to be studied and charted. At least that’s how it felt sometimes, when I caught Danny looking at me in a decidedly odd way. Sooner or later I’d be written into the angelic histories — I had no doubt about that — but what they’d say about me, and how accurate and unbiased they’d be, was an unknown.
“Did you happen to hear my new nickname at all?” I asked.
“What’s a nickname?”
“It’s kind of a name you give someone to describe them, when you don’t want to use their real name,” I explained.
“No, I didn’t hear anything while I was patrolling. Why, what is it?”
“She who kills. Pretty cool, hey?”
“They gave you that name?” he asked, surprised.
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