Blizzard Page 23

  Thedryk stared, gawking at me in his disbelief. “There’s no time for this.”

  “Don’t bother coming.” The jaw clenching habit was not his alone. I found myself repeating the motions. I felt a fool then. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum, but I meant my words. I felt he had strung me along. He had Jessa, he wanted me. Who else was there?

  “Neva.” He shut his eyes and cast his face down, reopening his eyes only to keep his gaze focused to the floor as his voice strained to remain civil. “What is it you think of me? What you saw, what you witnessed from our past, do you truly not understand? What you have seen since being transformed, have you learned nothing of me at least from that?”

  I stood silently, keeping my teeth clamped shut, biting down without relenting. Thedryk turned only his eyes up to mine, gauging my response. My body felt as stone, unmoving and unchanging, only weathered and lost of its vibrancy.

  “You know what? You are wrong and petty for thinking such things. Oh, I see Kareese here clearly, still very much an immature child underneath it all!” He was glowering at me, but his words only fueled us both to our heightened and bruised emotions. “I did, and have done, all I can to protect you, but here we are!” His voice was raised, shouting. “You taking on all the risks, the sacrifice all on your own because you cannot trust. Any-one.” He was jabbing his finger towards me, his figure and face burning into my memory as the light of the fire emphasized the blisters that remained. “Yes, I took Jessa. I had been with her for years, but at least she is not a jealous woman. She very clearly understood what you meant to me and had no qualms when I brought you back, what that meant between her and me. The worst part is, I know she loves me, yet I have loved you for centuries, and what good has that done me?”

  Words would not come to me, only tears threatening to well up along the bottom of my eyelids.

  “It kills me because I never forgot losing Kareese that day, the girl that would have become the woman I loved as no other would know in the history of Auria. Then, HAH!” Thedryk barked a dry laugh, one that hurt my heart. “I spent those centuries realizing just how much love there was to be but had to watch you live multiple lives with many men, watch you live and die over and over!”

  I felt a crackling sensation cover my body, bristling hot as he poured his frustration and loss into the words he had buried for I didn’t know how long.

  “No one else has my gift, no one else could identify you. It was always my task, my duty to watch over and protect you. The more I watched you, the more I loved you, but I could never have you. Eliza saw the damage; she suggested I find a companion, saying it would ease my suffering.” He was taking steps closer to me, though I refused to budge. I knew it was because I simply could not. “And it almost did. But then here you came, in this last life, and here we are.” He stood only inches from me, heat radiating from his body matching the intensity of the situation. “You hypocrite, I have every right. What right have you to berate me?” The words were honest, brutally so, but I knew they were not entirely fair, either.

  “I never asked for this life.” My chin was quivering. I had drawn my arms tight across my chest and was gripping my nails into my skin beneath the garb. “And in all that time you didn’t change me, though you could have. Don’t tell me your sob story when you and this precious Council left me to live an endless stream of lives so I now have memories that suddenly appear. Dreams where I suddenly remember without warning, where the pain in my heart and mind is real and leaves me sick and exhausted. If you know the lives I lived then you know those horrors I experienced, and I have barely even cracked the surface of those experiences myself! Yes, I do have some right here. Everyone else determined my fate, from the time I was born as Kareese to my death in this last life, now, as Neva. Not to mention, I was a child when I died as Kareese, a sacrifice made to save the world and even then, I did not understand what that meant. Foolish, naïve, and desperate, and since my change other vampires have conspired against me. My entire family has been murdered, my niece missing, and you are shocked by my present behavior?”

  Thedryk hadn’t stepped away, but his face revealed the conflict within.

  “I have accepted my fate, and I will find Lucy. With or without your help.” Containing the tears had apparently failed, though I did not feel them as they cascaded.

  Thedryk reached across and wiped them away, cupping my cheek in his palm and brushing his thumb across the river that flowed. I did not flinch, only matching his stare. Though his expression had softened, I was a wreck inside and knew my face was a contortion of pain and bitterness.

  “It would seem we have both been holding back on our feelings.” His voice had become soft, no anger, only sorrow. “I cannot leave you, not now and not ever, I think.” He dropped his lingering hand from my face and turned away, collecting his belongings once more. “Go change. I will be waiting for you.”

  His defeat took the steam from my own rising bravado, and I acquiesced in solemn silence. As I changed, I found my own blisters; though we had barely been in the sunlight, it had permeated the material and penetrated our skin. Painful blisters had formed across my skin, reddening my milky white complexion to rigid red rings and lines. I dug deep within my satchel to find the salve he had mentioned, a metal case with a lid firmly sealing its contents. Opening the container revealed a yellow, thick gel within, and the smell of honey, aloe, and the slightly pungent odor of other ingredients I did not recognize. Regardless of the smell, I happily, and quickly, applied the salve and found immediate relief. The majority of the burns were along my backside and shoulders; I recalled we had never directly faced the sunlight on our departure.

  That was his rush; he knew then the damage was occurring. What would have happened had I turned around or even started to turn? The possibilities sent a chill down my spine as I looked at my reflection in the standing mirror, marveling at the rapid healing already making progress. I wondered then how much the salve helped, whether in healing, for the pain alone, or both. In either case, I was thankful. I must remember to ask whom to thank.

  I departed, my mind no less troubled than when I had entered the room. The argument from before was playing on a constant loop, which would randomly jump around the different comments from us both. Though our time apart was brief, it was plenty for me to feel embarrassment at how quickly I had judged Thedryk. Neither of us had been entirely in the wrong, and perhaps we each were right in our own ways. That didn’t change how we had finally aired the trapped emotions.

  When I headed back down to the first level, I found the fire still blazing, a single cup waiting for my presence on the table, and I could see the outline of Thedryk’s shadow beyond the front window. This time I worked on ignoring any pieces that became perceptible in the muted voices between him and Jeren. After I finished the drink, Thedryk popped in through the doorway, peering in at me with an anxious expression.

  “What’s wrong?” Intuition sparked and engulfed my nerves from the look on his face.

  “We must leave, now. It appears not all of the creatures have been collectively moving together. Word has reached us that the village between us and Helsing is under attack.”

  “How long?” Thrusting the cup down, I snatched my satchel and threw its strap over one shoulder, crossing the long strap across my chest. The weight was nothing as I moved without thought, only knowing we had to save as many as we could.

  “How long for what?” Thedryk had turned and headed out the moment my cup reached the tabletop, taking the reins of two of the black stallions that had gotten us across in our journey.

  “Until we are able to get to the village?”

  There was a moment of silence from Thedryk, though his hands did not stall in their quick work of checking the saddles and reins one last time before turning to me. “Half an hour on horseback…”

  I gave pause considering how he left the words hanging. “And not on horseback would be?”

  “On foot. For the distance, it would make
sense for us to simply run. We can get there in half that time if we run.”

  My surprise was evident from the silence that followed, my mind a jumble of questions. Yes, I had understood becoming a vampire made me stronger and faster than the average person, but faster than a black stallion? At full gallop? Thedryk instead kept the reins he had begun offering me, exchanging those for my sword he, or Jeren, had secured to the horse and guided the horses around the back of the cabin. Thedryk’s spear was strapped to his side, collapsed and looking awkward with its large, sharp tips and shortened staff.

  “How is that possible? If we are that fast, why not run everywhere then?” Following his lead, I accepted for the moment we would be on foot, realizing I had not yet truly tried to run at my full speed. I had not previously considered what that would require or even mean.

  “It’s only for so much distance that we can manage such a feat.” Thedryk guided the stallions into their stalls, giving them each firm strokes and pats as he closed the gates behind him. “But there is of course risk. The more energy we use, the more blood we require. Being a vampire is a give-and-take system, and blood is the price for almost all of our actions. Too much energy expelled can force our bodies into a type of blood lust, where hunger and necessity take precedence and our self-control disappears. We push our abilities to their limits only when absolutely necessary, and this moment is such an occasion.”

  Processing his words, I gathered his insinuation: hunger. It could starve us, but I had not ever worried about starving. It also means when we get to the ravaged village, a village with people massacred, some still very alive or on the brink of death, there will be an excess of blood. A supply of still supple life for us to indulge… I was able to control myself before, but that was when I had not been fully pushed to my limits. I weighed the pros of getting there before all the villagers had been made a meal, possibly stopping the spread of whatever disease the creatures carried. Could it be spread? I wasn’t sure. The only victims I had known, that had previously survived the transformation, were injected and purposefully exposed to the change. The cons were we would not get there in time on horseback to save any lives, and even if we did I alone might make a feast of the remaining victims.

  “Time to go, Neva.” Thedryk had left me with my thoughts and the horses, heading towards a small dirt path that was barely visible beyond the other stable entrance.

  I fumbled to move, considering the need to put on my belt and sword, still sheathed in its scabbard. “No way around this I suppose.” My statement was weighted with the iron consequences, which Thedryk did not miss.

  He took up my hand as I reached his side, kissing the back and staring relentlessly into my eyes. “You will not be alone, Neva. I have enough discipline in this for the both of us, trust me.” His words were more a plea than a command, and I recognized I had to no matter our previous tiff.

  The world around me became a strangely definitive blur. The speed we traveled left me nearly breathless before we reached the village, before we slowed and the smell of fresh blood crippled me. I saw each stone, tree, frozen blade of grass that had not yet succumbed to the winter freeze. The snow dancing down from above was microscopic to my vision, and I imagined it was how God viewed us. Every finite detail open to scrutiny and appreciation.

  None of that remained my focus any longer, as finally we came to a full stop just a few hundred feet outside the village and my hunger for the exertion nearly knocked me sideways. My body swayed and Thedryk reached over, steadying me. Dropping to his knees, he removed his satchel and pulled two canteens from his bag, handing me one which I eagerly took and emptied within seconds. I recoiled, the aftertaste imploding on my taste buds, and black and white stars filled my vision.

  “Good…” Cough-cough-cough. “Dear God, Thedryk! What the hell was that?”

  This time he did not catch me as I fell back, landing hard on my bottom. He only offered a wry smile in return; he knew what was going to happen. “No time for explanations. Your thirst should be gone entirely and your energy fully restored. We must move—”

  Screams came from the village; some people were indeed still alive, but not for much longer. Thedryk was gone, one moment kneeling in the brush surrounding the woods’ edge, the next he was almost to the village. Though only a few seconds behind him, I found he had already freed his spear and made good use of it; a trail of twisted vampiric bodies led the way to where he had gone. A door stood ajar, light pooling out from between the frame when another scream rang out from the house. A head came rolling out. It was one of the creatures, its skin faded to an ashen appearance, hair thinned. Perhaps it had been a woman once, an ugly one, but I could only assume based on the one remaining earring. Her other ear had been partially chewed off, and I assumed the earring with it.

  Sounds of movement creaked out all around me, as an undulating serpent wrapping its legless body around its prey. Pulling my sword from its sheath, I tried to count how many surrounded me. I could hear Thedryk telling the woman to hide with the children. Children, my heart sank. What had they witnessed here? There were so many of those monsters, far more than I was expecting. Twenty, perhaps thirty?

  Thedryk stepped through the doorway, his shadow upon the ground towards my feet. “We may need to be more meticulous for how we dispose of these creatures and the bodies they leave behind.”

  “What are you planning?”

  Thedryk walked out into the middle of the courtyard, the heart of the small village. Banners had been strung; some celebration had ended in horrific death for a currently unknown number of people.

  “Dismember, then after we finished them all, burn and bury what remains.”

  I had continued to monitor the movements that remained out of sight, but his words stopped me to regard his candor. There was no hint of doubt, no remorse, simply a statement for what had to be done. This was a side of Thedryk that was new to me, confident in a different way than that which made women, including me, swoon. The confident leader that I had not yet met stood watching the shadows. His eyes reflected the movements I could only discern by the audible traces; I could see their auras reflecting within his pupils.

  “Shall we begin?”

  The assault came, my ears deafened by the shift of movements, though none moved as a whole. The creatures came out in groups of three to four, sometimes only one or two, making them easy targets between Thedryk and me. His spear, arcing wide above and around, caught most at their distance, cutting through their shriveling bodies as though they were only water. Those that managed to get within arm’s length met my blade through quick jabs and thrusts, clean cuts and arcs that severed limbs and disabled movement. The eradication took only minutes, but as our movements played out, our shadows looked as practiced dancers, partners in sparring, in perfect sync. A sense of quiet awe fell over me as I counted the bodies where they lay.

  “Twenty-eight.” A subtle fact from my lips.

  “We should gather the people who are alive, get them somewhere safe for the time being.” Thedryk stabbed his spear through one of the creatures that tried to lurch away. My sword had severed the Achilles tendons but not completed the job when I pressed my blade through his chest cavity.

  “Terribly resilient, aren’t they?” I mused a moment. “No wonder Zachariah had so many created; he must have expected us to perish by volume of sheer numbers.” I was gritting my teeth.

  Thedryk said nothing in response. He simply returned to the house he had first entered and collected the woman and children hiding within. All the survivors congregated at the church.

  “What are those things?” A woman, one of the elders undoubtedly, sat in one of the pews, petting the hair of a small girl she had covered with a spare blanket.

  “He warned us.” The young blonde woman, the one Thedryk had rescued earlier, spoke up. Her eyes stared in the emptiness between them all; only an uncomfortable shifting of bodies identified a shamed silence.

  “Who warned you, and of what?” The
dryk stepped closer.

  The woman followed his movements as she turned her gaze to him with her hazel eyes. “A man came to the village a few weeks ago. He had companions with him. He warned us to clear out, that there were unknown enemies coming and we were not safe.” The woman lowered her head, sorrow overtaking her. “Only a few listened and left the village but most stayed. Then, over the last week, our men began disappearing from the forest and fields while working. We were a hundred and fifty strong here in our little village.” A sob hitched the woman’s shoulders and chest. “Now look at us, barely even half of that!”

  “What was the man’s name?” I pressed.

  “He didn’t say.” Her lips pulled down at their corners, quivering. “Just that they would come, and if we had ‘any brains’ we would heed his warning. He left shortly afterwards, the men of the village nearly running him and his companions out. We were fools.” One of the children began crying softly, wrapping tiny arms around the woman’s waist as if pleading for her to stop.

  I turned to Thedryk. We both knew only Helsing could be so blunt and crass. Murmuring had started to spread, words easily identified: “how were we to know” and “who would have believed.” The creatures might not have been smart enough to come up with a better plan to annihilate me and Thedryk, but they had been clever enough to take out the men steadily over time. To cripple the village’s only defenses.

  Thedryk separated the remaining able-bodied men, as able-bodied as men in their later years could be, and we began the process of clearing the bodies. Wailing mothers, wives, sisters, and cousins could be heard from the church. They protested over the cleansing of the bodies when Thedryk shut down proper burials, telling them it wouldn’t be long before those very same loved ones awoke and became one of those creatures they abhorred. More heartache was to be endured, though, as the men came upon family and friends alike that had disappeared, changed, and mutilated. The cacophony of pain spread across the open night sky, siphoning my heart of its remaining composure.