Absolution

by Neha Yazmin

  “Potential?” Selma enquired, arching her eyebrows.

  “The future isn’t set in stone. It can alter due to millions of reasons.”

  “Her job?”

  “Even immortals have to work,” I sighed jokily before briefly touching on the topic of my employer.

  “The System?” the teen laughed. “That doesn’t sound very scary or exciting.”

  “It’s not meant to be either. The System is vampire government, only there’s just one party that governs us all, across the world, always. It exists to provide order and structure to our world, maintain the balance. But most of all, to keep our existence a secret from humans. Clean up if a vampire leaves a suspicious mess.”

  “And find all future vampires?” the girl probed, recalling what I’d said about Lydia’s responsibilities.

  “Not necessarily. I suppose I wasn’t quite clear before. One of Lydia’s roles is to keep an eye out for any vampires that will be beneficial for The System to have on its payroll. She hates it when I joke about this, but she’s like a head-hunter.”

  Selma chuckled. “So what’s your job-title?

  “We don’t really have titles but there is a hierarchy in place,” I answered. “Our European HQ is in London, Mac is the Head of European Operations. Me and Lydia are his… deputies, if you like.”

  “What do you do?”

  “I do a lot of things, Selma. Anything where my ability is an asset or necessity.”

  “You used to be a good spy… you could go unnoticed very easily… how did that gift manifest itself when you changed?”

  “Quite dramatically actually.” I gave her a grin and told her about my shield.

  “Wow. That’s pretty cool. I just don’t get how it works.” She sighed glumly.

  “Neither do I,” I shrugged.

  “You’re not doing anything to yourself or to anyone physically, because you’re still there and their eyes still see you. You just block the signal from registering with their brain.”

  “You do get it then.” I was impressed.

  “That part, yes,” she nodded thoughtfully. “But when you erase yourself from their memory, make them think you don’t exist, what are you doing then?”

  “I’m not sure what I do exactly, I just think of it as creating different types of blind-spots in different parts of their minds and perceptions.” I shrugged.

  “And you don’t even know these people, don’t know their minds. How can you just dig holes in them all at the same time?”

  “I don’t really know.”

  “But how do you approach it? What do you actually do?”

  “Same thing I do when I want to hide from one person. The thing is Selma, we’re all connected. Grouped by one thing or another. Species, gender, age, location, and even by our intentions. In our minds, we’re always categorising ourselves with those that share a certain common ground with us. I just find that link between people and treat it as one mind, one big lens.”

  “Elaborate…” She seemed to be getting my point. Smart girl.

  “Okay, you see yourself as a part of the student body that attends your college, right?”

  She nodded.

  “As does every other student there. In your mind, you’re all one, in the sense that you study at the same institution. It’s like a collective conscience, almost. For me, this links all your minds and I see it as one giant lens made up of all your little lenses. So, I can will my ink to splatter across this lens; in other words, on the minds of all those who go to your college. I don’t pretend to understand how it works, but it does.

  “Obviously mental blind-spots are harder to create than the visual ones, and the more minds involved the more I need to concentrate. It’s more difficult erasing myself from peoples’ memories, though it’s easier to do this with humans than with vampires, but how I approach it is the same.

  “My ink, their lenses.”

  Chapter 9: Enemies

  “Did Lydia have a vision of Ellie becoming a threat to you?” Selma asked me as I knew she would.

  “Sort of,” I sighed.

  “What did you need me for then?” Her face turned sad again as she whispered, “Why did you kill my parents?”

  Oddly, a wave of guilt rippled through me as I recalled what I’d done to her family, what I’d do to her after we finished talking. It was unnerving. I didn’t feel this way about my hunting activities. My victims.

  Talking to the teen hadn’t been a great idea.

  “I need a way to connect with Ellie,” I murmured eventually. Continuing our conversation was the only way to distract myself from the shame that was sprouting in my mind. “I need to gain her trust, so that she comes with me willingly. Her mother can’t find out that it’s me hanging around her, so I have to make it look like I am a normal human. A friend of a friend.” I gestured at her.

  Selma’s eyebrows met in the middle, eyes incredulous. “Does Mrs. Dalton know you or something?”

  “Kim and I go way back,” I answered dryly. “Though we’ve never come face-to-face, we know each other pretty well.”

  “This is all sounding too much like a movie.” She exhaled deeply.

  “And like a movie, the bad-guys, meaning me and The System, have an enemy that they’re out to destroy.”

  “What could Ellie or her mum possibly do to you? Ellie doesn’t even believe in the supernatural.”

  “No,” I agreed. “She is completely oblivious, which only makes my job easier.” I tried to feel smug about this but it wasn’t coming now.

  “Why is Ellie your enemy?”

  “She was born to slay us and so we want to slay her first.”

  “Are you trying to say that Ellie is some sort of vampire slayer?” Scepticism coated her tone. She shook her head, giggling at the thought of little Ellie taking on a band of indestructible demons.

  “No. She isn’t some sort of vampire slayer. Ellie is the Slayer.” I stressed on the word the, reiterating the fact that there’s only ever one Slayer. For every generation, anyway. “Her mother was a Slayer before giving birth to her, and soon it will be Ellie’s job. Once she turns 18 and gets all her powers.

  “Then The Council, the organisation the Slayer works for, can return to their mission of trying to rid the world of vampires and bring down The System. They’ve tried for centuries but never managed it. Not even come close, actually. But with each new Slayer, they think they are that much closer to their goal of eliminating my kind.

  “In this new era we’ve entered, they have the daughter of a very talented magical witch and a psychic - Amber. This witch has turned out to be even more powerful than her parents. The Council thinks this is their time.

  “Our government though, was established to protect our kind from exposure and preserve our way of life. We had no enmity with The Council for hundreds of years. We never went after them, no matter how hard they tried to destroy us.

  “But there’s only so long an institution like ours remains… uncorrupted. Only so long before we adopt a new… agenda.

  “Ever since Mac took over The System’s European operations, he’s been obsessed with the Slayer, fixated on bringing about The Council’s downfall. He instilled this thought into so many others that the majority of immortals now think it’s their duty to kill the Slayer and every Council member they come across. And even though Mac recently stopped caring about our rival organisation, most of us still see them as our enemy.”

  The young girl just stared at me, open-mouthed. It seemed as though she was waiting for me say, Just joking! I made no such statement.

  Eventually she nodded and said, “I suppose it makes sense to eliminate the future Slayer before she makes it too tricky for you.” She sighed. “Still, I’ve seen how strong you are, would she really be that much of a threat to you?”

  “She’s got a few tricks up her sleeve,” I informed her.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, her blood could very easily kill me. You see Selma, the blood
of a Slayer is poison to my kind, lethal if consumed and allowed to burn us to ashes from the inside.”

  “Poison blood?” she gasped.

  “That’s the nickname we have for them, Poison Blood.”

  “But my blood has no such special quality,” Selma said sullenly.

  “No.”

  “It won’t kill you to… drink it.”

  “No it won’t.”

  The girl swallowed painfully. But she appeared much calmer than I could believe. Somehow, and in some strange way, during our lengthy conversation, she had come to accept what was going to happen to her.

  She was ready for her end.

  The question was, was I?

  *

  This time I will show myself to Ellie’s friends, I planned later that week as I went to meet Ellie for the second time. Just in case she referred to my presence while I was there. Or afterwards. No, there could be no afterwards. My flat was empty now and I had to succeed in abducting her this time.

  Take advantage of the fact that she had yet to mention me at home or to her friends.

  From what I’d gathered about her relationship with her mother, both through my discussions with Selma and my own spying activities, Ellie would rather swallow her own tongue than talk to her mother about boys. But why had she not gossiped about me with her friends? Girls her age rarely do anything other than gossip with their friends. Most likely, she was worried that the information would travel to her mother. Fleetingly, I felt for Ellie. To not be able to trust anyone…

  How different was she to me?

  Shrugging off the thought, I walked inside the café where Ellie and her friends were spending their lunch break. It was a medium-sized place with square tables, each with seating for four. The one next to Ellie’s group was empty so I sat down. I followed their conversations about teachers and exams before they quickly turned to television shows.

  That’s when I became bored and dropped my shield.

  As though the lowering of my guard had made an audible sound, Ellie’s head whipped to her left to spot me. Taken aback, she blurted out, “How do you do that?”

  “Do what, Elisia?”

  “Just appear out of nowhere…” She shook her head, bewildered.

  “I’ve been here all along,” I told her, equally bewildered by her assertions. “Alas, it took you this long to notice me.” I shook my head in mock dismay.

  Ellie was about to say something when the friend sitting opposite her rose from her seat. “I need to go to the bathroom,” the girl exclaimed. “Someone come with me?” In her eyes, it was clear she wanted Ellie to go with her. Interrogate her about me. The stranger that Ellie seemed to know already.

  This was exactly the kind of thing Ellie wanted to avoid. “I’ll keep an eye on your things,” she told her friends - they had all jumped up now. The whole group was intrigued and wanted Ellie to dish the dirt as soon as possible.

  I rose also, and went to the counter. I ordered a cappuccino to go. “I’m in bit of a hurry, I’m afraid,” I added with a smile, well aware that all ears in the hardly-packed café were straining to hear me. “I need to be somewhere five minutes ago.” I chuckled.

  The middle-aged woman behind the counter would have responded to this with some attitude if she didn’t think I was utterly handsome. She even seemed to make an effort to speed things along. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the girls, all apart from Ellie, heading towards the toilets.

  Even if Ellie wasn’t joining them, they still wanted to talk about me.

  After paying for the drink that I would not touch, I turned to see Ellie in her seat, watching me curiously. Certain that the waitress’s back was turned to me, I shrugged on my concealing cloak again, hiding Ellie within it, and went to sit before her.

  “I need to be somewhere five minutes ago,” she repeated what I’d said at the counter, narrowing her eyes at me. I laughed. “You said that to get your coffee as soon as possible didn’t you?” She shook her head in disapproval. “Hasn’t anyone told you patience is a virtue?”

  “I wasn’t just saying it,” I answered as smoothly as I could. I leaned towards her over the table and she sat back. “I did need to be somewhere.”

  “And yet, here you are.”

  “I needed to be here, with you,” I told her seriously.

  Swallowing nervously, her brown eyes flicked over the half-empty plates of pasta, burger and chips and the red cans of fizzy drinks on the table. As she continued to avert my gaze, I could smell her blood heating up as it rushed to pool in her cheeks.

  Making the most of her uneasiness, I leaned further forward. “So you didn’t tell me the other day, Ellie,” I began in a charismatic tone. “If I chased you, what would you do?”

  “I’d run,” she replied before I even finished my question, finally settling her gaze on me.

  “I don’t think you could outrun me.”

  She appraised me for some time, clearly wanting to say something. Probably a lot of things. I waited eagerly for her response.

  I don’t know how she does it. I don’t know how I do it. But when she said, “I’ve lost my appetite,” and walked out of the café, I didn’t do anything but stare after her.

  Once again, I tried to tell myself that it wouldn’t have been the best time to kidnap her, during the middle of a school day, when her disappearance would lead to an immediate search of the vicinity.

  Deep down however, I knew it really wouldn’t matter who searched where. I could deal with Ellie swiftly and leave town before they even ventured into the street I’d been staying. Before they even located the flat I’d all but wiped off the face of the earth with my shield.

  Truth was, I still wasn’t ready to take her life.

  Chapter 10: Parentage

  “Ellie!” called Kim for the third time in a row. “Ellie!” Fourth time.

  Though I’d been surveying the house from afar for a short amount of time, Kim’s tone seemed to bug me as much as it did her teenaged daughter. That night, it seemed overbearingly annoying, as it must have done to Ellie. I could hear the deep sigh the teenager let out as she scrambled up to a sitting position on her bed.

  “What?” Ellie finally answered, annoyed to have given in.

  I imagined her placing a bookmark in the novel she must have been reading whilst lying on her bed. It was Wednesday evening, five days after we’d had that brief chat in the café near her college, and Ellie hadn’t been speaking to her mother since Monday. They’d argued about Ellie’s plans to celebrate her upcoming 18th birthday by taking a road trip to London. Kim had refused outright and her daughter was fuming.

  “Ellie, come down here,” her mother instructed sternly.

  “No!” I heard the poutiness in her tone. It made me smile. I was easily amused by her. Strange.

  “Yes. And now!” This time, Ellie’s mum sounded infuriated. I could imagine her face going red.

  “Fine,” huffed Ellie. “Whatever!” I could almost hear the roll of her eyes. I chuckled to myself as deliberately slow, grumpy footsteps made their way down the stairs to the living room where Kim stood waiting.

  “Glad you could join us,” her mother said to her when she finally entered the lounge. “Sit down.” I heard the shuffling noise that meant Kim had sat herself down.

  “No!”

  “Yes.”

  Ellie exhaled noisily and dropped to the sofa. “You want to forbid me from a few more things, do you?” she asked acidly. “No road trip, no birthday party-”

  “I never said no party,” Kim interceded. “You don’t like parties-”

  Ellie spoke over her. “Maybe you’ll ban me from having a birthday, having a life. Just coz you don’t have one.” There was harsh accusation in her tone. Parent and child had spoken to each other this way in the few days I’d been spying on them, but tonight it was even more emotionally charged.

  Sensing that their frustration with each other was at boiling point, about to overflow, I knew I had to get closer to t
he house, the action. Something big was about to go down tonight, and I needed to be in the same street as them, not a good couple of miles away.

  Call it intuition, or an instinct for my prey, but I had a feeling that my moment was coming.

  Edging closer towards the barrier their witch Amber had created with her powerful spells, I could feel the warmth of her magic. On the doorstep of the protective wall which surrounded the entire street, I could almost taste it on my tongue.

  “Now that’s enough young lady!” I heard Ellie’s mother scold her, her tone hard. “I didn’t bring you down here for the regular quarrels you seem to love-”

  “I love?”

  “Yes you! But like I said, I don’t want to argue. I just want to have a nice chat.”

  “About what?” Ellie snapped. I imagined her folding her arms across her chest stubbornly.

  “You’re going to be 18 soon,” Kim started, her voice firm yet maternal. Then she had to speak up a bit because her husband Jake turned the volume up on the TV. “You have to start being more responsible. You’re almost 18 love, you can’t keep acting out like this every time something doesn’t go your way.”

  “Every time you stand in the way of my happiness,” Ellie threw back at her.

  “That’s not what it is,” Kim urged, tone softer than before. “You used to be such a good girl. And you’re so smart. Your teachers always said the nicest things about you. If there were parent-teacher meetings at college, then I’m sure your lecturers would sing your praises too. But you’re always fighting with me.” The frustration spread through her tone now. “Why are you like this with me?”

  “Why are you like this with me?” Ellie asked in return. I chuckled at the whiny ring to her voice. It was sort of cute, I suppose.

  “Oh this is pointless! You say I’m always shouting at you, lecturing you, well I can’t get through to you any other way can I?”