Within the Cards (15 page)

Now I understood why he got under my flesh. I was his maker. How many times had I wanted to kill him, but I didn’t think I could. What if I had killed him? Ouch, then I would never be able to get my memory back. According to Dee, I would have protected him with my life. I had protected him with my life, but I don’t remember it. I had to remember that part of my life, but where do I start. I never learned the ways of the witches from my past. Yes, I could disappear and stop time; things like that, but to cast a spell I wouldn’t know where to start. Why had she given me this damn book? I looked at the book and opened it. Hmmm, they just look like words that rhyme.

I said my goodbyes to Dee. She kissed my cheek and told me she would be near if I needed her. It’s funny that witchyres aren’t supposed to love each other, but Dee and I had always had a compassion for each other. I knew I could count on her. Even though, she had kept this secret from me for so long I knew she was concerned about me, which was strange for our kind.

I returned to my dorm, which was the place where I last saw Daught. His scent was still lingering. Why did I have such a hard time believing this was genuine? Now I knew why he was so familiar and that it was true. I certainly was his maker. I had actually done this forbidden act. I must have been tempting death to do such a thing. I would surely be killed if they found out I had done such a disreputable thing. The Lords would kill Dee and me because Dee concealed my indiscretions from them. Suzy would be dishonored and expelled from being the wife of the three. If the Lords didn’t find me, Suzy would find me and make me kill Daught for the pure pleasure of it. I couldn’t do this to Daught. What was I saying? He was a vamp, why would I care what happened to him? I sat on my bed still shocked by what I had found out about my life.

Damn it, I now knew why I cared. I had changed this vamp. I was his maker, and he belonged to me. Oh my God, I was insane. Daught had infected me with his mental illness. I threw my head on the pillow and buried my face. I knew I might as well wait for Suzi and the Lords to show up, so I could accept my fate. I knew I was going to die. Oh, wait maybe not. This could be fun.

My thoughts couldn’t help but go back to Trish. She had a need to have the attention of Daught. Now I know why this thought irritated me. I smiled to myself. I had to see him now. I had to see Daught. Why did I feel so enlightened about seeing him? What the hell was wrong with me? I knew his derangement had rubbed off on me. I headed for his dorm room. I hoped he was at home, so I didn’t have to wait on him. What was I talking about? He never went anywhere. Of course, he would be at his bland dorm. I remembered my conversation with Trish the other night. She complained of him never going out at night to mingle with the other students. If she only knew, what he undoubtedly did at night. It surprised me that he had not at least tried to suck her blood. Of course, the sound of her voice would make him want to comment vampire suicide. I tried to imitate her giggle, but even I couldn’t bring myself to make that sound.

I made my way to the building where he lived. It was across the campus from the female dorms. They thought separating the sexes would keep them apart. Like, separation was going to keep men and women apart. Humans were so ridiculously complex. They over thought the simplest things. Males and females, no matter what the race or mortality, were always going to find a way to get together. They may as well just deal with it and stop trying to act like these college kids were in kindergarten. My thoughts went back to Michael and his friends. Never mind, I understood why the college elders thought the way they did.

Chapter Twelve

HUNTING

Hunting helped me to clear my mind of the things that obstructed my visions from what might happen, or what I wanted to happen. The vampires and witchyres drew the boundary lines of their hunting grounds clear and precise. All races of immortals saw me as a hybrid vampire, so I had to stay within certain lands to feed. When I was hunting with Ellie, I was able to hunt closer to home because she would scan the area to make sure no witchyres were nearby, but now not even she would protect my trespassing. My strict diet of feeding on people that had recently died or were in the process of intimate death made it harder to feed in the lands designated for hybrids. At times, this could cause enormous stress. I had to search for these humans.

I searched through my visions and read the minds of the almost dead. I traveled north to the Chesapeake Bay area. There had been an accident, an overturned semi-truck. The driver was clinging to life. His right leg was amputated as well as his right arm. The blood smelled sweet and inviting. I hadn’t fed in several days. I had been trying to stay within Ellie’s thoughts, and I had neglected my need for nourishment.

The rescue vehicles hadn’t arrived, and I knew I needed fresh blood. It was a two-car collision. The semi driver was close to death, but I could tell the two humans in the compact car had already passed. I would feed on them first. My hopes would be while I nourished myself on the blood from the two mortals in the smaller vehicle, the driver of the other would die before he had to endure the fear of my feast. There was no saving this driver. He wouldn’t survive. He was merely food for me now.

As I reached the smaller car, my fangs had already descended. I drained the two mortals that were no longer with the living. Now I had to take my third mortal. I headed to the large towering overturned truck. I climbed up on the side and peered into the window. The driver was still barely holding on to life. To my surprise, he smiled when he saw me looking into the cab. This wasn’t a pleasure for me. I knew the fear that would be in his eyes momentarily. He thought I was there to help him. He didn’t realize I was going to help him, but in a different way than his mind allowed him to believe.

Humans didn’t allow themselves to believe in my kind. I was but a fairy tale to them, an untruth. Unfortunately, for this human I wasn’t a fairy tale. I was a tangible immortal being that was going to drink his blood. I was the monster that was only factual in his nightmares. He looked at my eyes with hope of being rescued, a rescue that wouldn’t materialize in time. His eyes held the hope of seeing his family once more, the hope of correcting a life that he had many regrets and unkempt promises, the hope of just one more chance.

At once, his expression changed. He saw the blood around my lips. Then he saw my fangs that dripped with blood. This blood remained from my previous feast on the victims of his metal beast that wouldn’t stop when they entered its path. He knew his fate.

My lips retracted, and my fangs were more visible. The fear and terror in his eyes made my body shivers. I had seen this look many times. It was the look of seeing a monster. I would never get uses to their eyes. These eyes begged for mercy and told a story of never having the opportunity to correct the many unforgiving acts they had committed. It was quick and then it was over. The driver laid still. His eyes remained open, and they depicted the fear he felt moments before his last breath.

When the rescue workers arrive, they would see a man that was terrified at the time of his dead. They would assume it was from the impending crash. I knew this wasn’t the scene he carried to his death. He wasn’t concerned with the dead that lay only feet away from him. He was frightened of me. The truth of a nightmare had come true. I was his last thoughts. I was the last memory that would follow him to the heavens or hell, whichever he may travel. These thoughts were the realization that all the stories and myths he had heard for many years were truths, not fictions.

My feast left me full. If I could sleep as humans, I would lounge against the overturned truck and rest my gluten soul. However, I didn’t have a soul. I was the soulless immortal that drained the life from the mortal beings that refused to allow their minds to conceive that I existed. With my thirst quenched, my mind was able to focus on what I needed to focus on, Ellie.

My memories recalled the night Ellie first taught me to hunt. She was graceful in her reactions. She didn’t like to see the fear of humans. She would have rather waited until they die their natural death before she drained the liquid we craved. However, we didn’t have that opportunity to wait on death. We had to complete our mission before other humans arrived so our existence wasn’t exposed. Her feast was always quick. She wasn’t like the other witchyres, nor was I like the other vampires. We didn’t play with our food.

The norms of both clans were to taunt their impending prey. It was a game. They enjoyed the fear that exploded from the humans before their death. It was an adrenalin rush. They enjoyed the smell of fear. It sweetened the blood and enhanced the taste of their prey. The more fear one could impel on a prey the better the results of the meal. Ellie taught me this was wrong. She felt the fears of humans and knew this wasn’t acceptable to punish them for evils they were not guilty. Their mere crime was to die and to live in a world that immortals existed. Ellie was tender with her prey, almost comforting before she drained them. She would cast a spell to remove their fears, and they would invite her to drink. I couldn’t do this, so I had to see the fear left in their eyes.

The sires in the distant were nearing. I must go before they find these bodies only to list them as dead on arrival. They would assume their deaths were the results of injuries from a car collision. If only that were the truth, but it wasn’t the truth of the driver’s final heartbeat.

As I moved back toward Delmont, my last conversation with Ellie was reliving itself through my thoughts. Ellie was going to see her sisters. If Ellie, mistakenly without realizing, lets them know of my existence, they would hunt me. They would be ready to extinguish my existence because I wasn’t supposed to exist. I was a product of a forbidden act. I could stand my extinguishment, but I couldn’t stand the consequences Ellie would have to endure. She couldn’t tell them of my being. She didn’t realize the danger that I, as well as she would face.

I had to find a way to restore her memories of me. If she exposed me before she remembered me, we would both be in danger of annihilation. I searched the memories of the last one hundred years for any concept of a way to restore her memory.

It came to me. I remembered a woman that once told me love would conquer all. What had she meant? I loved Ellie from the depths of my nonexistent soul. What could I do to love her more? I had to find this woman again. The last time I recalled she was in New Orleans, Louisiana. This would be a long trip to make, and I wouldn’t make it back in time for class the next day. Would Ellie even be there after our last conversation and after my interruption of her plans? Regardless, it was a trip I had to make. I had to find this woman so she could help me understand how to restore Ellie’s memories. I had to hope Ellie would still be there when I returned.

I changed my direction and within a few hours, I was in New Orleans. My thoughts searched for this woman of my past. She was an old witch I came across deep in the bayou. She warned me I would have a significant change in my existence. She must know a way to break the spell of Ellie’s sisters.

My visions saw the old woman near me now. There it was the storefront where she resided. The sign painted on the window in front read ‘Anesidora’s’. As I entered the front door, a small bell chimed. The store was filled with the smell of incense. Fortune-telling devices such as tarot cards, magic charms to remove evil and voodoo dolls line the shelves. She was here somewhere I could feel her presents.

A tall, pale blonde haired male sat at the counter. He paid little attention to my entrance. He was busy looking at a small television screen.

“Excuse me, sir.” I spoke and cleared my voice.

“She’s in the back. She has been waiting on you.” He replied never looking in my direction.

He pointed to a doorway. A dusty, red curtain covered it. I pulled the curtain to one side and entered. The room was dark. A small candle flickered in the far counter. From the light cast of the candle, I could see a form. It was a petite frail form. I knew it was her. The memory of her smell rushed back. Her thoughts were loud. Without a word, she invited me to sit. I followed her thoughts on command.

The room was diminutive. For a human, it would be almost claustrophobic. The small candle flicker continuously as it illuminated the aged woman sitting in front of it. She had deep horizontal lines in her forehead with others that race vertical and diagonal across her face showing the many years of stress and punishment. Her face showed the challenge of living longer than one should live. She must have been several hundred years old. I knew it had been almost one hundred years since I last sat at her presents.

Lying on the table in front of her were the cards that I remembered from our last encounter. They laid spread in front of her. It appeared they had been in this position for some time. This was apparent from the dust that had gathered. In the dust on the table, I could see the light flicker, and it illuminated the pictures on each card. I knew these cards had been laid for me. She had written the name Daughtry McRyne on a piece of paper in front of them. This paper carried the same dust the cards carried. It was a reading she had been waiting to tell; a story that would open the future for what lay ahead.

“It took you long enough to get here my dear friend.” She said with a low-crackling voice. I didn’t have time to respond before she spoke again.