I got off Sabor and looked at Noemi, who, even though was sporting a busted lip, had a smile on her face, “I always feel better when I get rid of one of them, do you feel the same way about the demons?”
“I could kill them all and still wouldn’t feel satisfaction,” I said, “There are more than I expected, I’m going to be at this a long time.”
“At least you will be in good company,” Noemi said.
“Are you going to stick with me long?” I asked.
“Until the day I die, I’m glad we met, I’m glad we can get along,” she said.
“Same here,” I said, but a sad realization came to me that I’m either going watch her die in battle, or of old age. Derium and Mylicious could change people, give them the gift of immortality, but I didn’t have that ability, or I didn’t know how to do it at the time.
“I need rest though, do you not sleep?”
“No, I never have, I just watch as day slips into night, slips into day,” I said, in monotone voice.
I watched as she got a thick, fabric mat from the back of her horse and tossed it on the ground, she then used her clothes bag as pillow, “Can you at least come sit beside me, I won’t bite,” she said and patted the ground.
I walked over and actually laid beside her, she put her head on my chest and was soon asleep. I laid there for a while and then I noticed the animals started showing up. First there were birds and as the sun set, some nocturnal rodents, a few wondering pigs, then bats, they all gravitated to the area, they would hang out around me a bit and then take off.
I was lost in their presence, when I heard a scream from the village. Noemi shot her head up and I got up quickly. She got on her horse, I was faster without mine and we raced to the village, which wasn’t far off. There was vampire feasting off one of the villagers. I grabbed onto the vampire’s shirt and pulled them off. They didn’t, however, release their grip from their victim’s neck and in the process, they ripped out their victim’s throat. I threw the vampire back and they landed hard on the ground.
Noemi was quick to attack. I didn’t realize the vampire was female, her fingernails were extra long and she used them to attack Noemi, who was holding her ground, but was taking a beating as well. I fought dirty and grabbed the vampire by her, dirty, blonde hair and snapped her head back with suck force it caused her feet to fly out from under her. I then pinned her down with my knees to her arms and wrapped my hands around her neck. I squeezed and pulled, I heard an audible pop and pulled some more. The vampire tried to scream but I was tearing out her windpipe. Her head popped off with ease and I tossed her head into the fire. Noemi produced a long-pointed stick and shoved it through the middle section of the vampire, pinning her to the ground.
The shrieking had awakened some more villagers. One of them tended to the victim, but I spoke up, “There is no saving him, leave him there until the sunrises.”
“He is my nephew though,” the villager tending to him spoke,
“He’s already dying and has been bitten, as I said, there is no saving him. Let him go and if he has vampire blood in him, let him burn.”
“I shall pray for him, then,”
“If you think that’ll help, go for it,” I said and started walking away, the stupidity of the human was annoying, his nephew was practically dead already.
I felt an arm on my arm and was pulled around to face Noemi, “You might have a little heart when it comes to situations like this, the poor man just lost his nephew and is going to have to explain to his brother or sister, that their child is dead.”
“Well, Jehovah isn’t listening. I’ve been trying for years.”
“That’s your issue with Jehovah, not his,” she said, I could tell she upset with me.
She went back to the woods with her horse and I stayed around the fire pit a until dusk, throwing wood in the fire to keep it bright. Noemi returned and tended to her wounds. The vampire would move its hands and feet here and there, the other body never moved. I expected it to burst into flames when the sun came up, but it didn’t, unlike the other one. When the vampire body caught fire, it almost sounded like a short-burst tea kettle.
The villagers woke up and many stared at the body that was left as the vampire body turned to ash. The uncle to the nephew started sobbing when he saw the body still there, eyes open, torn out throat. He looked at me with hurt and angst in his eyes.
“Now you can bury him, I will help,” I said feeling somewhat, but not too much remorseful.
I dug out the grave, then picked up the body. The victim was a teen-aged sized male, with black, curly hair. I had managed to dig the grave just a foot short, length wise. So, when I put his body in there, his head snapped forward and rested on his chest, the Uncle gasped and sobbed.
“I have seen horrors, far worse than that.”
“You’re a monster,” the uncle cried as did some of the other villagers.
“There are for worse monsters than I, out there,” I said and handed the uncle a shovel, “I’m done here.” My remorsefulness was gone.
Noemi was watching and gave me hateful look, “If you can’t handle my actions, its ever too late to turn around and run home scared,” I said, getting tired of people’s attitudes.
“I don’t run from anything,” she sneered, taking offense to my words.
I laughed, “That’s good, because it’s going to probably get worse. I’m sure people have talked by now and vampires have spread word, they’re either going to fight or run.”
“I can handle it,” she said, running her fingers through her short hair, her bright-blue eyes filled with fire. I thought of kissing her then, she looking amazing all riled up, pissed off at me, but I knew better, I didn’t need her help, I wanted her help.
We saddled up, I put my glasses and facemask on and we headed out. The travel was slow but scenic and we didn’t come in contact with another village that day. About half way through the day, Noemi jumped off her horse and walked a little. She then stopped, went into the woods and used the bathroom and my nose caught the smell of something afoul. She re-appeared from the woods with her cheeks flush, “I’m sorry!”
“It happens, I’m lucky I don’t experience that.”
“Yes, you are.”
The weather was annoying, Noemi was sweating, and bugs filled the air, the horses were panting, and I was just trotting along. After a few more miles, I spotted a small pond about fifty-yards off to the side of the path we were on. I turned Sabor towards it, then Noemi followed.
“Be a nice place to rest,” she mentioned, I could tell she was tired, “I’m hungry as well, are you any good at catching fish?”
“Yes, I am,” I chuckled, as we approached the pond.
“I will make us bedding for the night if you want to catch us fish?”
“I will catch you fish, I am fine,” I said and got down off Sabor and tied him off near the pond. The two horses started drinking up the pond water. Then Noemi got down and started lapping up some of water with her hands. She then got a leather canteen off the side of her horse and filled it up. I took off my glasses and face-mask and rolled up my pant legs. I looked around and found a long stick, that I sharped to a point. I walked knee deep in the pond and waited. Noemi took off with a hatchet and started cutting down small trees and grabbing what sticks she could.
I stayed focused on the fish. As usual, they started to swarm around me, and it didn’t take me long before I had ten fish on the bank. I speared my last fish, I turned around and started to head in and saw Noemi on the bank, staring at the fish. These fish were long and silver in color, with black and red tails, they don’t exist anymore though, nothing much from that time does except me.
“I’m going to eat good tonight!’ she said with excitement in her voice. She wasted no time fileting the fish, tossing the guts back into the pond. I walked over and started a fire up. It was difficult to do back then, just hitting two rocks together luckily, I didn’t tire and got it going. I kept a little oil with m
e and covered the sticks with it and then in a matter of minutes the flames were off. Noemi went and gathered up some long sticks, making sure two of them had Ys at the end. She then took another long stick and set it in the Y’s of the other two sticks. She took the extra fish and hung over the long stick in the middle. I’ve seen it done before, but since I didn’t eat much, I never needed to so it, so I asked her.
“What are you doing?”
“You caught a lot of fish and I don’t want them going to waste. This will draw the moisture out so I can carry them for a while. Dried fish takes a while to get used to but it’s food.”
I nodded, humans had to do what they had to do I guess. I watched as Noemi produced little spice bags and seasoned the fish. She skewered them on a stick and set them on angle towards the fire. After a few minutes a nice aroma hit my nose. Noemi knew how to cook well for the time period. She rotated the fish and was soon snacking on them. She had eight sticks of fish and after four, she offered me one. I was going to refuse but she took pride in her work, so I took it. It was delightful, the flavor, the texture, everything. I felt it absorb into my body. It was weird how my body worked.
After a few hours, Noemi threw her clothes bag under her head and patted for me to join her. I told her, not at the moment, she shrugged and produced a small cover made of fur. She covered herself and was soon asleep. I stayed up of course, the temperature dropped and I noticed Noemi shivering. I got up and went and laid next to her, she instantly threw her arm around me an pulled me close. It wasn’t but a few minutes later she shoved her hand down my pants. I was startled but she was sound asleep, and I didn’t want to wake her. She went no further than that and stayed that way until the sun started rising. When she woke up, she yanked her hand out of my pants and looked horrified, as if I put her hand there while she was sleeping.
“Gross!” she said and smiled.
“You did it!” I said and moved, slightly offended.
“Awe are you upset?”
“No,” I said but I lied, I was upset.
“You don’t lie well.”
I got up after that and walked over to Sabor, I scratched his head and patted his side, “I’m going to keep following the trail, see if we come across any more vampires,”
“Sounds great, I’m going to wash up before we hit the road,” she said, she got up and started to strip. She was naked before I knew and ran into the pond, she stopped when the water touched her lower butt-cheeks and turned her head back and winked at me, she knew I was watching. She then dove in and swam around a little, then asked me to get into her bag and toss her the Szappan, so I tossed it too her, but I over threw just so she would have to turn around and dive for it, just so I could see her backside once more. I probably should have washed up myself, but I didn’t feel like it. I did take extra precautions to make sure my clothes didn’t get dirty.
After she got out of the pond and got dressed, she took the spit she made and burned it, putting the fish in waxy cloth and tucking it away in her pack. She watched as the fire burned up any evidence we were there, then she doused the fire and smeared the ashes around with her foot. We then, got on our horses and headed back on the trail.
We rode for a few miles before she had to use the bathroom, then we continued on our way. At some point and time on the trip, I looked over and Noemi was sleeping on her horse. I laughed, but didn’t try to wake her.
We soon came to a place, now known as Budapest, that place was massive, there were large huts everywhere. The place was big enough to be a town, instead of a village. In the center of Budapest was large, mutli-story building, made of wood and mud, the width and length of two football fields. I was in awe at the building when Noemi spoke.
“It’s called a temple, much like what I had in my village, but as you can see, this is bigger,” she said.
“I can see that,” I said.
I was getting glared at, even though I was covered up. Noemi got just as many stares as I did, but she didn’t seem to care. I spoke up, “My name is Roldian, slayer of vampires, have you….” I went to speak and then got hit in face suddenly. Whatever hit me, knocked me off Sabor and I landed on the ground. I looked over and not too far from me was a rock, with my blood on it. It had been awhile since I had seen my blood and it made me mad, there was werewolf around, I could sense it, but it never showed itself to me
I shot up only to see a group of people armed with pitchforks, slings with rocks in them, spears and bows and arrows. Those were new to me, not saying they started out over there, it was just the first time I had seen them.
“Who are you and what do you want?” one of the towns people asked.
“I was getting there, right before I got hit in the face with a rock,” I straightened my glasses the best I could and made sure my facemask didn’t come loose.
“We don’t take kindly to strangers,” another one said.
“I’m here to help,” I said, “I take it you’re being plagued by deaths and vampires?”
“Yes, too many and to trust an outsider wouldn’t be in our best interest.”
“So be it, I can go on my way and leave you to the hands of the vampires,” I said as I mounted Sabor. Noemi and I started trotting away.
“WAIT!” I heard someone shout behind me, I turned around to see a little old lady, pushing herself through the crowd, hitting people with her cane, “These vampires, took my daughter and grandbaby. If you say you can help, can you?”
“I can help, I’ve helped many before,” I said.
“I can’t trust someone, whose face I can’t see,” she said.
I took my glasses off and got the same response that I normally get when people saw my eyes, then took my face mask off. Noemi got out from behind her horse and stood beside me, “I’ve seen it, he knows how to kill them for good.”
“Have you any graves that have showed up just beyond here?”
The crowd grew quiet, then the little old lady spoke, “No, not beyond it, in it,” she pointed with her cane to the temple, “They come and go at night, when the sun goes down, we all go in our huts, silver keeps them away,”
“Silver?” I asked.
“Yes, I found out by mistake. I was burying my daughter and put two silver coins on her eyes, and she woke up screaming. So, after that, we each made silver medallions to wear around our necks.”
It was then, I remembered Derium mentioning not being able to handle silver, it was one his favorite things. I just never put two and two together. I felt dumb but said nothing. I turned around looked at the temple in all its massiveness.
The door to the temple was boarded up by means of heavy boards and spikes and decorated with silver here and there I wasted no time popping the boards off. Noemi was hesitant, but I opened the door and walked in. The temple, even though daytime, had about two hundred torches lit inside. I wasn’t happy with what I saw either, as far as my eyes could see, I could see upturned soil. Graves upon graves, there wouldn’t be enough time in the day for me to dig them all up, even if I used my abilities. Once inside I was in awe again. It was wide open in the middle with a walkway on the second story, that went all the way around the inside of the building.
“I need a shovel,” I said and one of the townspeople handed me a really nice shovel. It had a smooth shaft and was pointed, the shaft had carvings of roses and thorns Then I began to dig, I instructed the townspeople to tie rope to their horses and around the feet of the vampires, then when I said, send the horses running.
I dug my first temple vampire up, tied his ankles to a rope and yelled, the rope went taut, then the vampire took off. I heard the screeching and watched as the body caught fire. Some of the people pitched in and even with their help, we were only a quarter of the way through when the sun started to set. Some of the people helping stopped and left, some of the braver souls stayed. Noemi brought out two small hatchets and took stance. I took stance with the shovel I had in my hand. I didn’t need it, but I sure would use it.
W
e waited with anticipation as the sun finally set, a great wind came through and blew out half the candles. I saw hands appear out of the graves, then heads and whole bodies. Some flew out of the graves and attacked some of the people there. One flew at me and I swung the shovel, smacking her square in the face. She cartwheeled into the side of the wall, then fell the to floor. I placed the point of the shovel on the back of her neck and pressed down, hard, popping her head off.
I turned around and was witnessing an onslaught of the townspeople. Noemi was holding her ground but quickly losing it. I watched as the vampires started to gain the upper hand. I dropped the shovel and picked up an axe that one of the townspeople were carrying and used my speed to start chopping away. I chopped faces, hands, arms, legs, heads. I sent them all flying up in the air, and yet, it didn’t seem to help. I look down and saw a few silver medallions on the ground. I picked them up and launched them into the crowd of vampires, just to try to disperse them a little. Once again, besides a few screams, nothing really happened. My mind was racing on what to do.
The torches had little canisters with oil in them, so I grabbed one that was out and tossed the oil out over some of the vampires, I then used my speed to grab a few more and toss the oil on some more vampires, but they could fly. I raced to grab a torch that was lit, up high but a vampire grabbed onto my ankle and tried pulling me back. I grabbed onto the wall with one hand and reached out for the torch with another, I just had to free it and drop it. I felt myself being pulled down even harder, I looked down and there were two vampires trying to pull me down. I strained with all my might, my knee caps popped out of socket, but I still pulled. My fingers started wrapping around the torch, when something unexpected happened. The log I was holding onto, gave way and not just that log, but the whole side wall, I was hanging on to.
The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning Page 10
