Vampyre Blue (22 page)

Isis touched his arm.

'Are you ready Daen?' She asked, 'Ready to ascend with me?'

'Isis my lady, I think I am.'

The light from the energy bubble tingled and popped. It shone with such brilliance that even when Eliza closed her eyes and covered them with her hands it was still too bright. She threw herself to the floor. Blue and Pierre just kept chanting, their eyes squeezed tightly. Star's body bucked and writhed in the restraints.

Isis and Daen began to spin around one another in the centre of the bright sun-like ball, in the middle of the temple, faster and faster. Isis saw Eliza, Eliza had to know everything she knew. She called to her mind, much like Daen had done with Star without her knowledge.

'Eliza, Eliza Darling.'

Eliza lay half-conscious on the temple floor,

'Yes Isis.' She murmured.

'Eliza open your mind to me, so you can receive the gift of my knowledge. The prophecies are yet to be fulfilled and I my precious and Daen are nothing to do with them, this fight will carry on to further generations. You will all need to be prepared.'

'Yes Isis I am ready.'

The information hit Eliza like a bolt of energy, all of Isis's vast knowledge, it was overwhelming, Eliza received it all at once and then collapsed to the temple floor in a heap.

Once Isis had let Eliza go, the spinning got faster, Daen and Isis span around one another, faster and faster. The whole temple seemed to melt away into nothing, there was naught but one another. They both became brighter and brighter. Their skins glowing like the sun, every single particle, every molecule of themselves separating, vibrating and radiating energy. Then all of a sudden a massive burst of euphoric bright light and all of a sudden they were gone.

The temple was dark once more. The candles all but one or two had blown out.

'Oh my stars.' Eliza said as she woke up, she rubbed her head and got up. She went over to Blue, touched her shoulder, 'Hey honey, you can stop chanting now, it's over now. Are you feeling okay?'

Blue stretched and got up,

'Yeah, I feel fine. A little hungry if I think about it.'

'And you Pierre?' Eliza said as she touched his arm, she felt warmth, but thought nothing of it. He blinked and stretched.

'I feel quite strange to be honest.'

'How so?' Eliza asked.

'Tired, like I used to feel before I was a vampire, it's ever so unsettling.'

'You feel human?' Blue asked, she walked over to him and touched his skin, 'You're warm!'

'Really? I'm scared to go check for sure, I don't fancy bursting into flames if it's just some weird side effect from the ritual. Don't you feel any different?' He asked Blue, she just shrugged and shook her head.

Star stirred and woke, struggling in her restraints she screamed,

'LET US GO! LET US GO!'

Eliza, Blue and Pierre looked at each other,

'I'd say it was safe to say that Star is still of the undead variety.' Pierre remarked to the girls.

'I'd say that was a fair assumption.' Agreed Blue.

Star kicked, thrashed and screamed some more.

'So what are we supposed to do with her?' Eliza pondered.

'I don't know. But if we asked Cleo, she'd say chop off her head.' Blue smiled.

'It's fair to say she's no friend of ours any more, so leave her here? Kill her? Whatever we do now, you know it's going to bite our ass in the future.' Pierre concluded.

'So just let her go?' Eliza didn't really think that was an option.

'Not exactly.' Said Pierre, 'Blue, she's your friend I think you should make the call.'

'Was my friend, Okay.' Eliza and Pierre were in agreement. Blue walked over to the slab that they had strapped Star to.

'Star.' Blue said, Star looked up, her ferocious eyes burning into Blue's head, 'Star, I'm, well, we're going to let you go.'

'Get me out of this!' Star snarled.

'But before I untie you, you must know this. There are some ground rules, we will all move out of your house back in England, but you will give us one week from tonight to do so. You will stay there, and no where else. All of Daen's properties across the earth, including this temple of Isis now belong to us, that's Eliza, Cleo, Jayne and myself. If you come anywhere near any of us ever again I swear I will hunt you down and I will cut out your cold black heart. Is that clear?'

Star lay there thinking.

'IS that CLEAR?' Commanded Blue for the second time.

'Crystal.' Star mocked.

Then Blue added, 'So you can go back to your Mansion and your celebrity lifestyle. But if you turn any more vamps or do anything that would compromise your vampire status, I will come and find you and you will be no more. Okay?'

'Fine! Now let me go!' She pouted.

Blue grabbed hold of the restraints and flicked them like an elastic band, they snapped like candy.

'Well its safe to say you're still the strongest Vampyre in the world!' Pierre laughed.

Cleo and Brett walked into the temple as Star walked out. Brett looked a bit shocked,

'Whoa what happened to Star?' He asked.

'It's a long story, I'll tell you about it on the plane.' Said Cleo, 'We thought it would be safe to come out now.' She announced to the room.

'Yeah the drama is over!' Replied Eliza, who was brushing the dust off her robes.

'Can't we just go home?' Sighed Blue.

'Where exactly is home?' Asked Eliza.

'Well, for the next week it's getting out of Star's Mansion and for the foreseeable future Daen's, which isn't exactly far from Star's. So we can keep an eye on her.'

Eliza and Brett embraced, Brett piped up

'We need to secure a door to the Temple that looks like a rock face, so the other archaeologists don't come any further, it's going to take a couple of days to source that, so I'll catch up with you then? Is that okay with you Eliza?'

'I think that would be perfect.' Eliza grinned.

Chapter Twenty.

'What time did you get back?' Colin asked as he straightened up the curtains he had just opened in Blue's room.

'It's nice to see you too!' Mumbled Blue as she pulled the covers over her head.

'We got back at half three this morning.' Said Pierre.

'How are you not dead?' Colin asked Pierre, referring to the fact they were in a brightly sunlit room.

'What? Seeing as you just pulled the curtains on me and I didn't burst into flames?' Pierre smiled, 'Yeah thanks.' Colin stepped from one foot to the other and apologised most profusely.

'I don't think I'm a vamp any more.' Pierre told him, 'Something to do with the ritual we performed yesterday. I think Isis added other ingredients, but I think Daen switched the mix, I'm sure Isis would have wanted Star to become human again, I've not been human for such a long time.'

Blue dragged the covers from her face,

'Seems that I'm the same,' She began, 'Pierre is human, Eliza has all the knowledge from Ancient Egypt and Star is still a vampire bitch!'

'That simple huh.' Colin smiled.

Then Colin remembered why he'd come up here in the first place, a cloud came over his face.

'Blue I have to tell you something.'

'Oh Colin not you as well, there's too much bloody drama going on! I've got to get everyone organised and moved out of here, keep track of Star and her eating habits, the only good thing about that whole situation is that she is so famous everyone in the whole world knows who she is, but that's not even it...'

'STOP!' Cried Colin.

Blue looked stunned.

'What is it Colin?' She asked.

Colin was visibly becoming whiter.

'Oh, now you're starting to worry me.' She said.

'Blue...'

Blue was getting frustrated.

'What Colin? Spit it out!'

Colin started crying, this guy didn't buckle very easily. It was unnerving for Blue, she got out of bed and went to the window to comfort him.

'What happened Colin? What happened whilst we were away?'

He got himself together and let out a huge sigh.

'When you were away Jayne made me dinner one night.'

'Wow that really is news! She never cooks for anyone!'

'Blue come on, let him tell you.' Said Pierre as he lit a cigarette.

'She made me dinner and she drugged me, whilst I was slipping into unconsciousness she told me exactly what she was about to do.'

'Where is Jayne anyway? I've missed her and her melancholy self.' Colin's eyes watered again, his melancholy look made Blue's stomach sink.

'Jayne killed herself. She told me exactly how she was going to do it when she'd given me enough Rohypnol to knock out a wild animal. Then she went upstairs and that was that... I couldn't do anything about it. She didn't even talk to me, talk it through!'

Colin lost it again, started shaking with grief, he'd not talked about it since the police had left. He'd just gotten drunk until Valentino had been able to get there and clean him and the place up.

'I'm sorry I couldn't stop her.' He added.

Blue held him, they just sat there together crying on a huge settee beneath the huge window in Blue's room.

'Have you told Eliza?' She asked him after a while.

'Cleo told her just now.' He said between sobs.

'Cleo knew?'

'In Tibet, she knew with what you all had to do, that it would be best to be told when you were all back here together. So we could all make the arrangements.'

'IN TIBET!' Blue exclaimed.

'Blue, you know that you couldn't have dealt with it all then.' Pierre reasoned with her, 'Especially when Daen said all that about your parents, what kind of a heartless bitch would Cleo have been to have said, “Oh yeah, and one of our best friends has just killed herself because I killed her torturous girlfriend.” I can't even believe Cleo has kept herself together for this whole time, she's not broken at all, she hasn't even given away a tell. Nothing. Blue, that friend of yours needs some comfort too.' She sighed.

'I suppose.' Blue stroked Colin's hair and gave him another hug.

*

They all gathered in the dining room. Blue, Cleo, Eliza, Pierre, Valentino and Colin.

'Well, this is a significantly different line up to just over a month ago.' Blue announced, 'Jayne is gone, god rest her soul and Star is now a soulless day walking Vampyre, thanks to the paparazzi taking pictures of her in the bright Egyptian sunshine.'

'You couldn't write it!' Mocked Pierre.

'So keeping an eye on her just got twice as difficult!' Blue growled, 'How are you holding up?' Blue asked Eliza changing the subject.

Eliza still had tear stained cheeks, like most of them, they all looked grief stricken and in shock.

'I just never thought she would have done it. I was really shocked at first, I cried until I couldn't cry any more. Then I thought about how miserable she had been for a while and I thought, maybe she's at peace now. Well I hope she is. Amelia says that she isn't on her plain and she must have crossed over already. I'll feel better when Brett gets here.'

Cleo had snuggled up with Valentino, she piped up,

'I'll sort the funeral out, I'll arrange for it to be in the next couple of days. Then we've all got to get out of dodge before Star claims her home back. Since the tabloids have snapped her in Egypt, she's going to give us the week you told her Blue. But after that, well I don't want to be the welcome home snack. Once you've all moved to Daen's, Valentino and I are going to be heading back to Italy.'

*

It was a cold bright day in early December the funeral took place. Black horses with great plumage trotted in-front of the carriage carrying Jayne's coffin to the crematorium. It was late morning, Blue had put on her winter clothes, not that the cold bothered her. Pierre held her hand, he was freezing, he was trying to get used to being human again, no mean feat when you've been a vampire for almost three hundred years or so. Blue wore black vintage, Pierre said she would have suited the twenties, thirties and forties. He said she was born sixty years too late, she told him if that was the case then he'd have had to have got in line behind Gene Kelly. Blue couldn't believe Jayne was gone and now Star was her enemy.

The service was held in the chapel at the crematorium, they each had something to read out. They played her favourite music. They thought having her body burned rather than buried was more appropriate. As they didn't think it favourable to have her turn up in a few years, a half rotting zombie and it is also a cleansing ritual for the dearly departed. Everyone looked wonderful, then they all cried and ruined their make-up.

They went to the local public house afterwards and took over a corner for the wake, they drank to Jayne. They told each other stories, some made them laugh, some made them cry, but it was time to remember Jayne, just Jayne.