Authors: Melanie Tomlin
I laughed. “We’re —
they’re
— a pretty inventive bunch, mortals.”
Being able to use my hands to kill was very handy indeed. It meant I could hold a conversation and not be rude by trying to talk with my mouth full.
The struggling abated and the vampire went limp.
“That was fun, working together,” I said, laughing again. “Maybe we can do it on your
days off.
”
Danny smiled. “I can always rearrange my schedule to accommodate you, Helena. There’s no issue there.”
“Cool,” I replied. “Shall we be off again?”
Danny nodded and we headed to the entrance of the cave. A figure appeared in the dim light. I could tell, from the sickly-sweet smell, it was another vampire.
I ran forwards, sidestepped and came up behind the vamp, clamping my arm around his neck, but not touching his skin with my hand. There was something else I wanted to try.
“Wait here, Danny. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“No,” he called out, but I was already gone.
I concentrated on recreating the lights — not on actually going anywhere — and it worked, though the colours were a dim reflection of what Danny could produce. The vampire struggled and I let him go. His arms flailed wildly for a moment and then he simply disappeared. Panic set in.
“Shit, where’s he gone,
where’s he gone?
”
What if he returned to our point of origin? Danny would be caught unawares and might fall prey to the vamp. What a fool I’d been to try something so stupid! I quickly returned to the cave, to find Danny standing over a pile of ash.
He grabbed my arm and shook me. “
What did you do?
”
“I let him go,” I said. “I recreated the lights — well,
my
version of the lights — and I let him go.”
“What would you do that for?” Danny asked.
“To see what would happen.”
“I’ve told you what could happen if you let go.”
“You only told me what would happen if I let go, before I could transport myself,” I reminded him, “and even then you didn’t know if the same rules applied to me as did to the angels. A vampire is different again. I had to see.”
“Then you learned nothing. You needed to be on the receiving end to witness it. You should have asked me about what happens to vampires, I could have told you.”
“Okay, okay,” I put up my hands in surrender, “I’m sorry. So what
does
happen?”
“They come back crazed beyond belief, savage and uncontrollable. The only instinct that remains intact is the need to feed, and this drives them to kill
everything
they can — mortal, monster, angel and animal alike.”
“That’s nasty!” I said.
“Very. That’s why we only use the light for transportation.”
There was a rustling outside the entrance to the cave.
“This must be party night,” I mumbled and turned to see who or what was coming.
It was another vamp, a female this time.
“
I found you!
” she said excitedly. “I’ve been tracking your scent for hours. It was easier when the rain eased off, your scent didn’t wash away so quickly.”
Danny was about to raze her to ash when I placed a restraining hand on his arm. He looked at the vampire, sighed, and let his arm drop to his side.
“Helena, don’t you remember me?” the vampire said.
I peered into the face. There
was
something familiar about it, but I couldn’t place it. She couldn’t have been one of the preacher’s girls — she was much older than he preferred.
Then where did I know her from?
“You really don’t recognise me, do you?” her voice was tinged with sadness.
“I know your face, but I don’t remember where from.”
I looked to Danny, who had seen all my memories. Perhaps he could shed some light on who she was. His face was a mixture of sorrow, pity and disgust — a strange combination.
“Danny, what is it? Who is she?”
“Oh, he knows. I can see it in his face. Tell her, or I will. Your lips or mine, the choice is yours.”
Danny sighed. “She’s your mother.”
I looked more closely at her face, the dimples and freckles, all still there. The colour of her eyes, the colour of her hair. She was shorter than I remembered, but to a child all grown-ups are giants. I shook my head in disbelief. This could
not
be true. My mother had disappeared, presumed dead.
I turned to Danny. “At least now I know what that vampire meant about Drake having someone he thought I might be interested in … but my mother disappeared the night my father was murdered. She was presumed dead.”
“Do you remember the night your father put you in the blanket box?” she asked, trying to convince me she was who Danny said she was. “Did we save you only to condemn you?”
“She’s not like you,” Danny replied. “She’s not corrupted, not evil. She kills
your
kind, not mortals.”
“This is not the life of my choosing,” she said sharply. “I never asked for this.”
“Nor did your daughter,” he said angrily.” She at least does not feed off mortals.”
“Do you think I want to? I
hate
myself every minute of every day.” I could hear the loathing in her voice.
“Then you know what to do about it!” Danny said sharply.
“Yes,” she mumbled, “but I can’t bring myself to do it. The instinct to survive is too great.”
“You’re just like the rest of them.”
“Shut up!” I yelled. “Both of you just shut up, and let me think.”
I sank to the ground and rested my head in my hands. Danny stood beside me to make sure my mother did not try anything stupid — to ensure this wasn’t a trap. She fell to her knees in front of me. Danny placed a restraining hand on her shoulder.
“Let her go, Danny. It’s two against one if it comes down to it,” I said.
“I watched your father die,” she whispered. “He was involved in matters he didn’t understand. Neither of us did. He was blamed for snitching, which was bad enough when we thought we were dealing with the mob. When it turned out to be vampires, that was worse.”
“You expect me to believe that my father was killed by vampires? That you were taken and
changed
by them?” I asked, shaking my head doubtfully.
“How else do you think I came to be like
this?
”
“But my father was hit on the head — blunt force trauma. He wasn’t
bitten.
” I scoffed.
“Biting people isn’t the only way to kill them, Helena,” She chided me. “Hasn’t he,” she pointed to Danny, “taught you anything?”
“You leave
him
out of this,” I warned her, waving my finger in her face.
If vamps killed my father, why not her as well?
I was confused.
“Why didn’t they kill you?”
“Female shortage, plain and simple. I became a prostitute of sorts, unpaid, but a prostitute all the same.”
“Must run in the family,” I mumbled.
She grabbed my arm. “
What did you say?
”
I shook her arm off. “I said it must run in the family.”
She looked from me to Danny and back to me again.
“Damn perverted angel,” she hissed.
I slapped her face. It just happened. Without thinking, my hand struck out of its own volition. The sound of my palm striking her face resounded throughout the cave.
“
He is not perverted!
” I yelled. “If anything, I’ve perverted him. He has done nothing wrong. Danny has helped me and protected me ever since I was changed.
Don’t you ever say anything bad about him!
”
She rubbed her face and said, quite simply, “You love him.”
I looked at Danny’s face and my heart fluttered. “Yes, I love him.”
It was the first time I’d said the words out loud. For a moment the rest of the world disappeared and I saw my love reciprocated in his eyes and smile.
“Well, if not him, then what do you mean about prostitution running in the family?” she sounded impatient now, like I’d deprived
her
of eighteen years of my life. I ignored her question for the time being.
“Didn’t you ever try to find out what happened to me after you’d left?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I couldn’t. I wouldn’t have been able to trust myself,” her voice quivered with emotion, “and you were the last thing I wanted to hurt.”
Damn her emotions to hell!
I thought.
“I was stuck in
that box
for at least thirty hours. When they found me, I was delirious. I was sent from foster home to foster home, a problem child no one wanted. Eventually I was fostered to a last chance couple. Do you know what that means?” She shook her head. “It means that if I’d have set one foot wrong I would’ve been sent to an institution where they’d have locked me up in a room slightly bigger than that box each night. I
hate
confined spaces. I couldn’t go back to a box.
“Do you want to know what atrocities happened to me there — with that last chance family — and how by the time I was fourteen I’d had
two abortions?
”
“Stop, please,” she pleaded. “How could I know? What could I have done about it, being what I am?”
“You couldn’t have done a thing,” I sneered at her. “The past can’t be changed. I don’t even know your first name.”
“Michelle. My name is Michelle.”
I narrowed my eyes, suspicious of her motives. “Why are you here? Did you think to catch me or trick me into going to Drake? Did you think the fact that you’re my
mother
would sway me?”
She shook her head. “No. Drake doesn’t know I’ve come here.”
“Then what? To relive old times, times I had no recollection of until recently?”
“No,” she replied, crying softly now.
I rubbed my temples. “So
what
then?”
“I came to warn you.”
“Of what?” I asked.
“Drake has rallied a number of clans and they’re on their way here.”
So the vampires were having a big get-together, big deal! It meant I’d have less distance to travel to do my job.
“And that concerns me
because?
” I asked impatiently.
“Because the sole purpose of the gathering is to hunt and kill
you,
” she blurted out, “and the angel who runs with you … if possible.”
Was this some sort of trap, a plot within a plot?
I eyed her suspiciously. “Why would you want to
warn
me?”
She reached out and stroked my hair. I pulled back reflexively. The intimacy of her action repulsed me. I fought to keep the revulsion off my face.
“Because I still love you, no matter what you’ve become, and despite what I’ve become.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“What can I do to prove it to you, Helena?” she asked.
I looked at Danny, but he offered me nothing. I was on my own here.
“We need more information. When are they to arrive? Where will they meet? What are their numbers? Do they have any particular strengths or weaknesses? What’s their plan of attack?” I stopped to take a breath. “If you don’t want to see me dead you need to provide us with more than just a warning — that’s not good enough.”
She sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you what I know.”
I pulled at Danny’s pants, encouraging him to sit down. He refused to sit, but crouched down, ready to spring into action should the need arise.
“Five of the eight closest clans are on their way. Drake contacted them four or five days ago. He received word early this morning that they’ve agreed to come. They should arrive in another three days. They’re travelling great distances — all on foot.”
“What numbers are we looking at?” I asked.
“I don’t know exactly which clans have elected to come to Drake’s aid, but their numbers vary from twenty to eighty-five. Potentially you could be looking at about another three hundred vampires in this region.”
I looked at Danny. “Is that a lot?”
“For a vampire gathering, yes. To meet in such numbers is very rare. Add the fifty odd that are already here and it’s a sizable force.”
I turned back to Michelle. I couldn’t think of her as my mother. “Where do they plan to meet?”
“The temple is too small —”
I interrupted her. “Where’s the temple?”
“You should know, Helena, you’ve been there a few times. It’s where the trees have been moulded to form a type of shelter.”
“I know the place. I just didn’t know it had a name. We,” I pointed to Danny, then myself, “refer to it as … something else. I agree that it can’t accommodate the numbers you’re suggesting are on the way.”