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Chapter Seven
Inside Laura was screaming. This simply couldn’t be happening. Oblivious to her inner turmoil, Lamia continued with her speech, unaffected by the reflection of horror mirrored within all of their faces with eyes locked on the disturbing images on the screen.
“There are times when the human’s strength is able to overthrow the demon and hold on to its immortal soul. This allows some semblance of power over the demon, However that is not always the case. You three have managed to come out on top – but every now and then the demon will overpower you and you’ll be locked in a state of what we call the ‘haze’ or ‘bloodlust’.” The screen changed again and this time it was to show a recorded clip of the video footage that Darius had been monitoring throughout the week.
There, simultaneously, was Laura, Saadia and Zahra savagely feasting on the blood and flesh of pigs. They tore through the skin and ripped apart the poor animal with their bare hands. And the sounds they made … they were not natural. Not human.
Now she knew she was going to throw up while the room around Laura began to spin. She could hardly believe what it was she was hearing. It couldn’t be true! Vampires weren’t real! They were myth, stories…fiction! Inside her the demon, responding to the frenzied footage on the screen, coiled and snickered; swam inside her body like a slick eel, pushing around within her core. Laura fought the urge to be violently ill from the sensation. Saadia simply sat there, mouth agape and eyes glazed over with disbelief; Zahra had resumed crying uncontrollably.
Lamia simply observed them with mild disinterest and impatience.
“You’ll adjust to it in due course.” Sangard encouraged while casting Lamia a disapproving look for her callousness. His Nordic blue eyes turned to Laura and held hers for a beat before he reached out to take her trembling hand. “In time, you won’t even feel the creature when it moves as will the ability to ignore its cries. All will become second nature. We can teach you all how to adapt.”
There was a horrible screech building inside her head, with a groan Laura clamped her hands to ears until the worst of it faded.
“That’s not likely.” Her tone wavered with tears and confusion. “How could anyone ever get used to this? I don’t want to get used to it.”
“Well I’m afraid that you have no choice.” Lamia quipped as her head snapped in Laura’s direction. “Either you choose to live with it or end your life but there is no middle ground. At least if the prophecy is true then perhaps you might have a way out, as will the rest of us. Until that time, it will be up you to learn how to gauge and predict you hungers as well as learn how to master your emotions. Anger, aggression, hostility, jealousy, all these things feed into its energy and will help it wrestle you down into a state of unawareness which is dangerous for us and for you. Since I’m not prepared to take any risks with any of you, I suggest you make yourselves as comfortable as possible here in Hawthorne Manor. ” The finality of Lamia’s words sat in the air like a weight, smothering them with the severity of their circumstances.
At this point, they were too steeped in shock to allow any real emotion, other then depression, sink in to their bones.
“So what you’re saying … is that we can’t go home.” Saadia inquired.
“Exactly.” Lamia’s answer was both curt and final, leaving no room for discussion or debate.
“What Lamia means,” Darius offered, “is that it would be too dangerous for you to expose yourselves to humans and society. You are fledgling vampires and new to the hungers that come with the demon. You’ll crave for blood,” he began to list each of them off on his fingers while he spoke, “flesh, even sex and often the impulses, desires and urges will be swift and uncontrollable. You’ll be unable to stop yourself from acting in the heat of the moment and that makes you a threat to yourselves as much as others. Aside from that and as far as the world knows, you three are dead.”
With a flick of the remote a recorded clip from Toronto Pulse 24 filled the screen and relayed a segment nearly a week old, outlining the mysterious and savage murders of Laura McVey, Saadia Naseer and Zahra Alavi along with the kidnapping and suspected murder of Candice Faust.
Somewhere, deep inside of Laura a part of her shattered and the dull ache that formed as a result cut through her like a rusty blade when she beheld the distraught faces of her parents; the ones that followed of the other mourning families and friends.
“Lamia.” Saadia’s voice broke through in a hushed whisper when the clip came to a pause. “Your name…I know your name.” The moment it clicked, Saadia’s eyes lifted to her face which had remained blank and expressionless throughout most of the briefing. “Lamia was said to have been the lover of Zeus in Greek mythology, a woman who went mad after the death of her husband and kids…she went crazy, killing women and children, feeding on flesh and blood. It was said you nearly tore Libya to pieces…” At hearing this Lamia simply rolled her eyes but the sigh that followed carried none of her earlier aggression, impatience and hostility, instead there was a weariness in her that none of them had seen up until this point. In fact, in that moment, she appeared almost human.
“The Greeks and their melodramatics…I could hardly be held accountable for all of the chaos that ensued. I wasn’t the only caged beast that the bastard unleashed that day.” Lamia cut her words off abruptly as if understanding what it was she was saying and was immediately appalled for having revealed any truth in the accusation. Her voice then turned bitter and harsh; with black eyes she cut through Saadia with a heated glare.
“Who I am, and where I come from is complicated and irrelevant. We are faced with a war, ladies. I can’t be tucked into a box and labeled as either good or evil when nothing in life is ever so black and white. I developed this organization with two goals in mind: revenge and liberation. My motives are selfish and I am driven by vengeance; I don’t care who gets hurt or potentially killed in the pursuit of my goals so long as the outcome is successful. One of you holds the key I need, and suffer no delusions I will not have anyone get in my way – anyone who does not side with me I will assume is siding with him. In closing, what I am is the lesser of two evils. So choose which side you wish to be on: his, or mine?”
Lamia rose from her seat and placed both palms flat on the table, arms spread wide she leaned forwards and stared at each face in turn to emphasize her point. “I have waited for over two millenniums for this opportunity and I will be damned if I have to wait two more. Whether you like it or not, everything you were before today is over. Finished. In the eyes of the world and those of your families, you are dead – a fact which is not entirely untrue. From here on out your lives begin anew and the people you see around you now are your only cause, care or concern. Is that understood?” The immediate bobbing of heads was her only response. Stepping back, Lamia offered a curt nod in acceptance of their compliance.
“Good. Welcome to the PACC.”
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Instead of being locked up in the cells below the manor, each girl had been shown to their own bedchambers, this time by Sangard who like Darius had been both kind and silent. The room was pitch black and Laura preferred it to stay that way since it suited her mood. Out of nerves and agitation she began to pace the confines of the room.
She was a vampire. A vampire! The more she thought about it, the more she heard the strange hiss and felt the subtle flow of the demon when it moved inside her, the more she began to come to terms with the fact that it could potentially be true. But that didn’t change the fact that she didn’t want to be here. She wanted to go home, and Laura would be damned if she was just going to comply with that surly woman’s demands.
Why should Laura have to stay here simply because that bitch said so? She had a family, she had a life. Vampire or not she deserved to live it. Peering carefully over her shoulder, Laura noticed that the camera was still off and the lens angled towards the ground. So they weren’t keeping an eye on her were they? Moving towards the window she lifted the glass panel and placed her hands on either side of the bars.
Vampires were creatures of power and strength, at least she hoped so. The hands that gripped the bars began to ache after giving it quick jerk. There’d been a slight groan but aside from that they remained rigid. It was hard not to allow her thoughts to drift towards defeat and so mentally she slapped herself out of it.
Come on Laura! She urged. You’re not thinking like a vampire. You have to try harder. You are not strong, but the demon is. Use the demon. Closing her eyes, she pictured the creature inside her like a black ball of energy which she gripped firmly inside her the way she held the bars. The energy pulsed and the voice of the demon whispered in her mind.
This time she pulled and as she did so she allowed the energy of the demon to flow through her limbs and through her fingertips. The bars began to bend and give way, when Laura opened her eyes there was a gapping hole in the barricade and two steps closer to freedom. Scenting fresh air, the demon struggled in her grasp like a wild animal, and so, like a rider mounting an untamed stallion, Laura allowed the creature a measure of control. She shot out through the window like a bullet, arms outstretched she took to the ground with a fluid roll and was on her knees, head tossed back towards the black and vivid nighttime sky.
Her eyes, she could see so clearly all of a sudden. Even through the veil of clouds she could pierce through to see the glow of stars. The smell of earth and the faint rot of leaves buried under the mounds snow; the silent whispers of the breeze and various other things she could barely decipher. In that moment Laura’s senses were alive beyond anything she’d ever experienced. The creature within her shivered with delight at having finally tasted freedom. It pushed her down with greedy hands, eager to explore the world under its own terms.
No! Laura argued internally. We need to get out of here! The words seemed to echo not within her mind but rather inside her body.
<We do as We pleases.> A shiver made its way down her back, desperately Laura tried to claw her way forward within her own body, the way one would at water after having been sucked under by a powerful current.
No! She yelled again but her exterior revealed none of her internal angst. The demon was in control now.
Awake and ready to play.
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It was rare for a vampire to experience any symptoms of illness or emotional stress, such trivial issues were usually things that only mortals had to contend with. But tonight, Lamia found that her head was throbbing terribly and with each dull ache she thought it was eventually going to drive her to madness. She needed rest, but how could she when there was so much more to do?
The debriefing had not gone as smoothly as she had hoped, but then again she should have expected no less. It wasn’t like she was dealing with grown adults, women who had lived life and had seen enough of the world to know there was a darker element lingering underneath. No, instead she had three children on her hands, who were undoubtedly at this point, sobbing away miserably into their downy pillows like infants.
And while once upon a time that might have tugged on a maternal heart string, Lamia had come to see more and more of late that she had been so busy and so focused on pushing aside such mortal weakness as human emotion, that she now felt estranged from those who did. It was possible that she no longer possessed the ability to love or be loved as result. Sure, she cared for Darius and Sangard, as much as she could allow herself. But always, always in the back of her mind she knew she had to keep them at bay. For their protection as much as her own.
Emotions only complicated decisions, interrupted ones thoughts and in almost all cases, ruined everything. She’d been a slave to her emotions once. It would not happen a second time. The room in which she stood in was dark save for the single light from a lamp alongside the bed. Candice lay there still and motionless and were it not for the shallow rise and fall of her chest it would be easy enough to believe that she was dead.
Movement near the window caught Lamia’s attention. There, standing in the shadows, her figure outlined by the silver light pouring through the window, was Pale Moon. There was no telling how old she was, Lamia had never made a point to ask, but she’d known the old woman for the better part of a millennium, and in all that time she appeared almost as she did now: small, withered, hunched over and relying heavily on the use of her wonky shaped wooden cane. She had a head of flaxen silvery grey hair that flowed around her shoulders in pin straight locks; down her curved back framing a kind face and a pair of eyes that had once been grey but were now blue and useless for sight.
But Lamia knew, as did anyone who had the great fortune to be in Pale Moon’s presence, that she didn’t need her eyes to see or to know what was going on around her. Such were the blessings of being an Oracle and as far as Lamia knew, she was the last of them.
“Mi Ko’wota.” Pale Moon spoke in a voice rasping with age and wisdom. She very rarely took to calling Lamia by name, instead was addressed as ‘my beloved child’ in the ancient tongue spoken by those of magic or shadows, demons and witches and everything in between. At first it had always made Lamia feel slightly panicked and uncomfortable, now instead it warmed through the icy cold fingers that had permanently latched themselves around her heart.
“How is she?” Lamia nodded her head in Candice’s direction. Despite relying heavily on her cane, Pale Moon moved with minimal trouble, a slight hitch in her step as she made her way towards the edge of the bed.
“She still burns. Longer this time. I can still smell him on her…in her. You were right Mi Ko’wota. He had bit her again.” At hearing this Lamia cursed. Now she had the body of another young woman on her hands, and this one would act as a homing beacon on Hawthorne Manor. An Archaic vampire as old as Luther would have minimal trouble in establishing their whereabouts.
“We need to get rid of her.” Lamia released as weary sigh. “He’ll find us, all of us, if he hasn’t already done so. We could have his followers putting us under surveillance as we speak.”
“Darius would know if there was anyone dead or alive within three miles of the property.” Pale Moon soothed. Bracing both hands on her cane, she turned her gaze towards the bed, able to see Candice in her mind quite clearly. “Besides, we need her. More then I realized.” Lifting her hand, she held it palm upwards and fingers spread wide. Candice’s chest bowed, her mouth parted in a gasp but it wasn’t pain that gripped her, it was a flood of light and warmth that shimmered from her in searing blue waves.
The glare grew bright and hot, it was becoming too bright to behold. Lowering her palm, the glow settled into Candice’s body, and she slipped back into dreamless sleep.
“What was that?” The heart that had always been so steady inside of Lamia’s chest was now beating loudly in her ears.
“We have a witch in our midst. Young and untrained, it’s possible she doesn’t even know of her gift.”
“A witch is a dime a dozen.” Lamia argued. “Hardly worth taking the risk of holding on to in her condition and –.” Very rarely did Pale Moon show any signs of frustration, annoyance or anger and so when she lifted her hands to silence Lamia in an aggravated gesture, she immediately took note and paid attention.
“If she were some ‘dime a dozen’ witch then I would not have bothered to bring it to your attention. What we have here is something I didn’t even know existed. I have never felt…never sensed her birth…” Lamia turned her attention from Candice back to Pale Moon; there was a wistful gleam in her soft blue eyes while she spoke.
“There is light in her. Light and water. She is a witch and an elemental. Her magic is raw and undiscovered but it is Old Magic, Mi Ko’wota, magic that has been around since the beginning of the dawn. She is the mother of Water, sister to the other elements. We have a Light Witch in our midst. Her value is infinite. We must protect her as we must protect the prophesized, the Key, at all costs. She could be of vast importance to our cause. With her, we can find the missing three elements and complete the circle.” Lowering herself on the edge of the bed, Lamia rubbed her hands over her face while she struggled to think it all through.
So Candice was valuable. They needed her, just as they need one of the three girls locked away within the Manor. A Light Witch and a Key to undo the curse of a vampire. This was all starting to become far more complicated then she would have liked.
“Very well. Tomorrow at dawn we’ll have Candice taken away from the Manor. Perhaps to the Chateau in France or the Castle in Glasgow, with the distance it should make it harder for Luther to zero in on her whereabouts. I doubt he’d follow her to Europe, his main concern is going to be to find me.” Pale Moon shuddered at her side; her eyes rolled back in her head.
“She’s gone.” Her breath was forced from her in heaving bouts as if she’d just run a mile in three seconds. “She’s gone from the Manor. So far from here.”
“Who?” Already on her feet and racing towards the door.
“The Key!” Pale Moon called out. “The Key, the time of revelation has come – they follow her Mi Ko’wota, tonight she could be lost to us forever!”
********************
Lamia found him asleep at the console, his head against the desk, arms wrapped around while his body shuddered with each heavy breath. Damn him. Kicking Darius aside she began keying in codes to unlock the computer while he sputtered in a rage.
“What is the password?!” Lamia roared, silencing his protests. “Why are the fucking cameras off? Turn them on at once, I need to see –.” Darius’s fingers flew over the three sets of keyboards and in two short minutes he had everything up and running, Lamia scanned the video footage. Saadia was fast asleep in her bed, covers drawn around her. Zahra was no where to be seen but there was audible sobbing coming from the bathroom where the light was on and the door flung open. But the third room was empty, the window opened wide and the iron bars pried apart.
Running from the room, Darius was at her side while she barked orders.
“Fetch Sangard, we go on full alert. She could be in the immediate vicinity but see that you’re armed in case of company. We have eyes on us and a tag on Laura. No one is to return to the Manor until she’s found.”
Sorry it took me so long to get to this. I’ve just been so busy with everything… but anyway, hopefully this review helps!
