Fate of the Vampire (26 page)

I started to scream, but then Daniel slapped me hard across the mouth. “Scream again and I’ll rip your pretty face off,” he warned.

“What are you doing
?” I demanded, fighting down the hysteria I felt building inside of me.

“I’m doing what I always do,” he informed me
. “Cleaning up after my brother. Protecting the family name.”

“How is kidnapping me protecting your family name?” I wanted to know.

“When you have an infestation of termites, you poison them,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice. “When a mortal manages to sink her claws deep into your brother’s heart, what do you think you do?”

I stared at him, opened mouthed. Everything suddenly made sense. The creature in the woods that always filled my dreams wasn’t Jessie. It was Daniel. “You killed Colette,” I finally managed to say.

“Of course, I killed her,” he said, not even trying to deny it. “Wasn’t that obvious? I couldn’t believe that Jessie never suspected me. You’d think I’d be the first person he’d accuse.”

“But why?” I asked
, trying not to draw attention to myself as I kicked off my other slipper. It was freezing out, especially up high in the air, but I wanted Jessie to have some idea the direction we were headed.

“Didn’t I just explain myself to you with the termites?” he snapped. “I didn’t want a damn mortal in the family. It’s so humiliating. Most vampires would just take a girl as a companion. But not Jessie. He has to go and offer to conjoin with the wretched creature. Have you ever heard of anything so absurd?”

I assumed his question was rhetorical, so I didn’t answer him. I was too busy scrambling around inside my brain trying to think of what else of mine I could drop to give Jessie a scent trail.

“I thought telling the Bishops about Viktor would have been enough, but no. They ruled in your favor. They even awarded you the honor of being turned into a creature of the night, but you somehow managed to avoid it.”

I tried to distract Daniel while I rubbed one foot against my other leg, trying to scrape off my sock. “So you’re the one that betrayed us to the Bishops. You’re the one that pushed for the inquisition.” I gave him a disdainful look. “You tattled?”

“I was trying to get rid of you in an honorable way,” he informed me.

“By tattling,” I repeated.

His temper began to rise. “I did not tattle. I
…” He paused and looked down as my left sock fell to the earth. “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“Nothing,” I insisted.

“It doesn’t matter,” he informed me. “We’re almost there.”

“Where?” I asked, trying to crane my neck around. We were flying above a bunch of trees.

“I thought it might be nice for continuity’s sake to suck you dry at the same place that I killed Colette. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Daniel had definitely lost it if he thought anything about what he’d just described sounded like fun. “Doesn’t it bother you to murder people?” I fired back at him.

“Not in the least,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever start to feel guilty, but I keep eating, and so far I never have.”

“So you
…” I tried to process what he’d just told me. “So you’ve killed more people than Colette? Aren’t you worried about people coming after you? Your family? Your mom?”

Daniel laughed. A high
-pitched, delighted laugh of a small boy who believes he has gotten away with something. “There is so much more to the vampire world than you will ever know.”

We started landing. I saw the tops of trees appearing before me. I shut my eyes for a moment and tried to think. I had no weapon. We were entering a small clearing in the woods
, so I could try to grab a tree branch or something. But given the lightning-fast speed of a vampire, that would involve me having a very good head start or quite a bit of luck. I had to stall Daniel as long as I could and just pray that Jessie figured out what had happened to me.

“How many people have you killed?” I asked, hoping he was in a mood to brag about his misdeeds before ending my life.

Daniel gave me a look of disdain. “I haven’t kept a list.”

As he set my feet on the ground, a thought occurred to me. “Did you kill Mervin?”

“That old taxi driver?” he asked. “No. That was Grandfather. He was used to killing with impunity.” Daniel released me in a very nonchalant way, confident that he could knock me to the ground before I could even run two steps. “If I don’t go to the hunting fields, I like to be more subtle when choosing my meal.”

“The hunting fields?” I asked, trying to appear casual as I reached under the sweater I had wrapped around my neck to grasp the silver pendant that used to belong to Colette Gibson.

“A place I’d love to take you,” he said with an evil smile, his gray eyes glittering with malice. “It would be fun to prolong this little encounter, but I’m afraid dear brother would come charging to the rescue and do his best to ruin everything.”

“So you’re doing this just to be spiteful to your brother?” I asked, filling my voice with incredulity.

“You might say that,” he said, grabbing me by the arm and jerking me forward so that we were looking eye to eye. “I very much enjoyed killing you once. Imagine my surprise when you showed up again. This time, it’ll be even better. I do so relish watching Jessie’s heart break. He takes such pleasure in his own grief.”

I knew what I had to do. I had to yank on the pendant so hard that the clasp would break. Then I would slam the silver into Daniel’s eye.

The vampire screamed in pain, releasing me to rid himself of the metal that was sizzling into his skin. Allowing me the few seconds I needed to turn and run.

It felt like I was running through water. My legs were pumping and my arms clawing at the air, but I wasn’t moving very fast. Not in comparison to the speed of a vampire.

“Oh, good,” I heard Daniel call. He must have already rid himself of the silver. “I love it when they run.”

I knew it was winter
; I knew there was snow on the ground; but I didn’t see any snow; I didn’t feel any cold, at least not the cold of late December. Things were missing. I knew I had dropped something, but I couldn’t think of what. Something I was carrying? I told myself it didn’t matter. I had to keep running. I had to try to elude Daniel until Jessie could find me. I had to try to hide from the beast.

The moon hung high in the sky, shimmering and pale like a drop of water beading on a window pane. I hadn’t realized it was a full moon. I’d lost a shoe somewhere as I ran
, so I limped along with just one. My lungs were burning as I gasped for breath. My hat was gone, and so was my luggage.

Where was Jessie? Where was my love
? My foot caught on a tree root and I fell, barely able to keep a shriek from escaping my lips. My ankle throbbed and I couldn’t catch my breath, so I crawled over to where a tree had fallen to shield my body.

My brain felt fuzzy. It
was all real. It was all very real. But also like a dream. Like a memory I desperately wanted to forget. My neck burned, and I wondered if I’d scratched it against the branch of a tree as I ran.

A chill began to creep through my body. I tried to wrap my dress around my legs but found I couldn’t move my hands. I thought about Mama and Papa. I wished I’d never left them. I wished I was still cozy and warm in my bed with Lily breathing softly in the bed next to me. I wished I could tell Jessie goodbye.

I was having trouble focusing. The burning in my neck had spread down my right arm, and I was beginning to feel it in my chest, shooting down my spine.

I wasn’t lying on the ground. I was upright
, and snow blew around my ankles. I couldn’t move. I was locked in an iron grip. I had Colette’s silver pendant in my hand. I could still kind of see it out of the corner of my eye, but Daniel was clenching my wrist.

I hadn’t been fast enough. Daniel had sensed my feeble plan to escape. The beast had sunk his teeth into my flesh. He was draining me. The silver pendant slipped through my hand and dropped to the ground.

Every vein in my body throbbed with each gulp Daniel took from the punctures he had made in my neck. I had been so stupid. I would love Jessie to my last breath, but I had been so very stupid. My whole body was on fire. I knew without a doubt that I wouldn’t last much longer. I was going to die.

I heard a sound like a flag flapping in a strong wind. Daniel must have heard it too because he looked up from his feast, my blood dripping down his chin.

“Jessie,” he said, immediately releasing me and letting me slump to the ground. “You’re too late again, I’m afraid. Your little mortal is almost dead
.”

Just knowing Jessie was there made my failing heart pump a little stronger. I could just make him out from where I lay. He was staring at his brother with a look of complete horror. A word formed on his lips. “Why?”

“Why?” Daniel exclaimed as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “Why?” he repeated. “I did it for the honor of vampires everywhere. I did it to save the family name. I did it for what is right and true and honorable.”

“You’re insane,” Jessie told him.

Daniel laughed. “I might very well be. But it’s the right kind of madness. The noble kind of insanity.”

Then Jessie came at Daniel so quickly I couldn’t even see it, there was just a blur. He sent his brother flying through the air and smashing into a tree. He crashed to the ground but was instantly on his feet again. “Is that all you’ve got?” Daniel wanted to know. “I killed the love of your life twice
, and all you can do is give me a little shove?”

“At least I know what it is to love,” Jessie said before lunging at his brother again.

Daniel had been concealing a branch behind his back. He must have somehow grabbed it when he fell. He tried to stab Jessie with it, but thankfully Jessie managed to twist his body out of the way just in time. Daniel was off balance after his lunge, and he staggered a little, giving Jessie the opportunity he needed to kick the branch out of Daniel’s hands.

I flinched as the broken limb flew past my head. It landed a few feet away from me. I wanted to leap up and grab it and help in the fight, but my arms and legs felt so heavy. I found it difficult to even turn my head.

I knew I was dying. I had lost too much blood to live. But Daniel couldn’t win. I had to help. I had to find a way to at least save Jessie. Inch by inch, I dragged myself over to the broken branch as the two brothers fought and crashed through the woods around me. They were causing so much destruction to the trees, I couldn’t understand how they both weren’t already dead. It must have been their vampire reflexes.

The wood was in my hand. I could see it there, if I couldn’t exactly feel it. I felt so disjointed from myself. It was truly frightening. My efforts had exhausted me
, and I closed my eyes to rest a bit while Jessie and his brother fought all around me.

They always say that when you’re dying, you
r life flashes in front of your eyes. I knew I must have been near death because I could remember everything. I could remember my whole life. Going barefoot on sweet summer days. Finding a silver dime while planting a pine tree in the side yard. The bright smell of freshly cut lumber. Blossom and me racing down the sidewalk on our bikes to try to catch the ice cream man.

I remembered we were all out at Grandma’s farm when they announced the end of prohibition. The adults got all excited and Grandma broke out a bottle of her “medicinal” wine from the root cellar.

I remembered when Mom found out that Dad was cheating on her with a girl who was almost still a teenager. And I remembered that girl calling my mom a bitch so I chucked a cup of butterscotch pudding at her head. That memory made me smile.

I remembered everything so clearly
, and it made me both happy and sad. I didn’t want my life to be over. But it made me understand things that had been bothering me ever since I could remember. Because it wasn’t just my life I was remembering. I was remembering everything from my previous life, too.

I finally knew why I instantly felt about Jessie the way that I did. I finally understood the connection. When I first saw Jessie
, it was like I had a metal string running through my body and someone had plucked it. The string had never stopped vibrating ever since that very first moment I laid eyes on him. And I finally understood that feeling. I finally realized the cause of all my crazy dreams and nightmares. They were all messages from my past life. They were memories from who I used to be.

I was startled out of my reverie by a loud noise not far from my head. Jessie must have hurled his brother against another tree because there was the sound of wood cracking and then Daniel came crashing to the ground. “You can’t win, Jessie,” the vampire snarled as he le
apt to his feet. “The longer we fight, the closer your darling draws toward death. And even if you do manage to stake me, mother would never forgive you.”

“After your dealings with Grandfather, I think our mother has figured out that you’re a mad dog that needs to be put down,” Jessie told him, taking a swing but missing.

“Our grandfather was a visionary,” Daniel all but shouted. “He knew how to truly be a vampire. He understood how things should be. No more cowering in the shadows. No more keeping our powers secret from the world.”

I wanted to hear more, but trying to listen to them made me tired. My arms were dead weights
, and I couldn’t feel anything below the middle of my back. I knew that couldn’t be a good sign. My great grandmother had been right. I was never going to see her again. With all her near misses in fortune telling, she’d finally seen the future clearly.

An idea occurred to me. If Grandma Gibson did have some kind of supernatural gift, maybe I could reach out to her. Maybe if I concentrated
, I could let her know how I died. I knew it wouldn’t make my disappearance and presumed death any easier, but at least she would have some idea of what happened.

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. “Grandma,” I shouted in my head. “Grandma Gibson. It’s me, Aurora. This is me. I’m here in the woods
, and I’m dying.” I didn’t know if there was any chance she was picking up on my thoughts, but I kept going anyway. “You were right. I couldn’t stay away from the vampires, and now I’m dying. I’m never going to see you again.” I felt hot tears welling in my eyes. “It wasn’t Jessie, though, who killed me. And it wasn’t Jessie that killed Colette. It was his brother, Daniel. He’s the one that caused you so much suffering. He’s the one that killed us.” The tears started rolling down my cheeks, and I couldn’t even lift my hand to brush them away. “I love you, Grandma Gibson. I’m sorry I couldn’t listen. I just loved Jessie too much. Please tell Mom that I love her, too, and that I wanted to say goodbye.”

I opened my eyes again. At first
, I thought the woods had become foggy, but then I realized it was just the world starting to fade. Daniel and Jessie were still fighting. I wondered how much time had passed. And how much time did I have left?

Something deeper in the woods caught my eye. There was a strange glow. I tried to focus, but my eyes were growing quite bleary. It was moving. I couldn’t quite make it out. A person with a lantern, maybe. A vampire wouldn’t need a light. I wanted to call out to them
, to warn them to stay away.

A moment later
, I saw a glowing figure standing between the trees. It moved, and I was able to see a little better. It was a woman. I could tell that much, but otherwise I couldn’t quite make her out. It was hard to discern if she was young or old. But she was definitely surrounded by an unearthly glow. “Aurora,” I heard her call. “You have to try.”

“Grandma Gibson?” I whispered. Had she somehow heard me?

“You have to hold on,” the woman told me. “You have to try.”

“Colette?” I asked, confused.

“Please, Aurora. If you can’t do it for yourself, then do it for him. You have to try,” she said. Either she was fading, or my vision was getting worse. “Please try.”

“I will,” I whispered. “I promise.”

My left hand felt a little warmer. I hadn’t been able to feel it at all just a moment earlier, and now there was some sensation. I shifted my eyes and saw that just inches away from my hand was the silver pendant Grandma Gibson had given me. It was glowing, just like the woman in the woods. And it was there, within my grasp.

I reached for it
; my hand was clumsy and awkward, but I was still able to pick up the pendant. I could feel the silver in my hand.

Jessie was knocked to the ground a few feet away from me. I parted my lips and breathed out, “Jessie,” hoping he could hear me. I thought he glanced in my direction
, and I moved my hand, trying to draw his attention to what I was tenuously clutching.

The little clearing where we were had been devastated by their combat. Both brothers looked tattered. It was true that they started to heal as soon as they were struck, but that did nothing for their clothes. Jessie’s coat had been torn from his back. His shirt was in shreds. Daniel had fared no better. His face was smeared with dirt as if Jessie had literally tried to pound him into the ground.

“You can’t fight me forever,” Daniel said, his breath ragged. “The longer you waste, the closer your little pet draws toward death.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Jessie snarled, rage seething off of him. He punched his brother in the chin and sent him sprawling.

Daniel was instantly on his feet. He released a loud laugh, but it didn’t sound very natural. Even in my weakened state, I could tell that it was filled with bravado. “You might as well say goodbye to your little pet,” he said. “You’re not going to kill me. You’re too soft. You don’t have the guts.” He took a wide swing, and much to my surprise, the blow connected, sending Jessie tumbling over to my side.

Jessie snatched the pendant out of my hand, his face only reacting faintly to the searing pain it must have caused him to have silver in his palm. He got to his feet and turned to face his brother. “You’re right about one thing, Daniel. Aurora is dying
, and I need to tend to her.” He lowered his fists. “But this isn’t over, Daniel.”

His brother gave a disdainful laugh, also lowering his guard. “Typical,” he said. “I will never understand why you prioritize this human over your own kind.”

“Because I love her,” Jessie shouted, simultaneously thrusting his open palm toward Daniel’s face.

Daniel was not expecting the blow
, and he definitely wasn’t expecting to be burned with silver. He let out a yelp of pain and clawed at his cheek as the silver seared his skin. Jessie grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him at a broken limb jutting out from a tree. Daniel had been completely distracted by the silver. He tried to contort his body to avoid the tree, but it was too late. The wood pierced his flesh, plunging deep into his chest.

Daniel looked down, appearing more surprised than in pain, confused about the piece of tree protruding from his torso. “You can’t,” he exclaimed. “What will Mother say?” A look of fear crossed his face as the wood started to work for whatever reason wood ended the existence of the undead.

I closed my eyes and turned my face away when Daniel started screaming. I didn’t need to see another vampire wither and disintegrate from the stake. It was enough just to know that Colette’s killer was dead. My killer was dead.

“Aurora?”

I had heard Jessie say my name, but I didn’t open my eyes. I was so tired. So very, very tired.

“Aurora,” he said again, his voice filled with despair as he gathered me up in his arms.

I forced open my eyes. “Jessie,” I said, my voice sounding feeble, even to my own ears. “I remember everything.”

“I know,” he said. “And I’m so sorry.”

“No,” I whispered softly. “I mean I remember my life.” Jessie gave me a confused look, his beautiful gray eyes brimming with pain. I explained with, “I remember the day you proposed. I remember the suit that you wore. You had a red flower in your lapel.” I took in a long, shuddering breath. “I remember the first time you kissed me. It was under the apple tree in my parent
s’ backyard.”

Jessie’s eyes went wide with wonder. “Colette?” he asked. “You’re saying you’re Colette?”

“No,” I told him. “Not now. I’m Aurora. But I remember everything. I remember her whole life. I’m Aurora now, but I know I was Colette once, too.”

“Jessie,” I heard a woman’s voice call. “What’s going on here? Where’s your brother?”

“Leave us alone!” Jessie shouted, cradling me in his arms. “Daniel’s dead!”

“What?” Mrs. Vanderlind exclaimed, hurrying forward. “What happened?”

“He killed Colette,” Jessie growled, clutching me to his chest, “and now he’s killed Aurora.”

“Aurora’s dead?” Mrs. Vanderlind asked, stepping even closer, her dark hair hanging loose, framing her beautiful face.

“She’s dying,” was Jessie’s reply, his voice ragged.

Mrs. Vanderlind frowned. “We have to do something. We have to take her to a hospital.”

“No,” I protested, my voice only coming out as a faint rasp. “Too many questions. They would ask too many questions.” I shivered, unable to feel anything beyond halfway down my chest. “And besides, it’s too late now.”

My peripheral vision began to narrow. Mrs. Vanderlind faded from my view. The only thing I was still able to see was Jessie’s beautiful face. “Please tell my mom,” I said, my breath catching in my lungs. “Please tell her so she doesn’t spend the rest of her life wondering.”

“I will, my darling,” Jessie assured me, clutching me to him. “I am so sorry. Aurora, I’m just so sorry.”