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We brought Lorin and Alastor to our campsite, far away from the city walls, and I began to tend to Alastor. He had several old wounds, particularly on his back and arms. Lorin explained that, because of his resistance to what was going on, the other vampires had punished him severely. “He'll be unconscious for a while, but he should be fine,” I surmise. “I'd recommend keeping an eye on his behaviour for a few days, just to be sure whatever was controlling him doesn't still have a hold on him. So tell me, just how did you two meet? And why wait until now to leave if the vampires have been plaguing your city for as long as Judas implied?”
“No one could leave, not even during the day. The vampires set these horrible creatures as guards at the gates, people can enter, but only those working in service of the vampires could leave. I'd been planning my escape for over a month now. The only use the vampires seemed to have for ladies was to trick unsuspecting men, chosen by the blood patrols, into the alleys so they could drink his blood. It's the only way to make sure you don't become a victim yourself, and even that's not for certain. The blood patrols change every night as each vampire needs blood, except for the higher ranking vampires who would just send for ladies to come to them and never be seen again. Helping them kill people was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had to try something. I approached one of their cronies, requesting work, and I was hired on the spot. I knew that if I got in their good books, the vampires would promote me to a messenger position. Unfortunately for me, I got attention from the wrong vampire. He'd noticed me on one of my assignments.
“Two weeks ago, there was a particularly... drunk man who wasn't too fond of the idea of being the next vampire victim. That's how I met Alastor; he was on the blood patrol that night and he was protecting me from the drunk man's wild attacks. It took a while for the other vampires to subdue him, but Alastor didn't take part in the blood drinking when it was done. I was hysterical, but he was trying to calm me down. His father was watching the whole thing from a low roof top and took a liking to me. He decided I should be one of his 'waiting ladies', as he called them. That's how I got these clothes.” I noticed that she was dressed rather finely in a gown of red and black with gold accents and long sleeves that ended in black, very uncommon to someone of her social status; it accented her raven black hair rather nicely, which was tied up out of her face with a silk ribbon. “I had no choice, no matter how much the idea disgusted me.
“Alastor knew what was going on was wrong and decided to help me escape. Turned out he'd been wanting out for a while as well; he just needed a good distraction to lure the guards away from where they could call the alarm when he knocked then out, then he could leave. We escaped as I was being led to his father's chambers tonight. I guess one of the other vampires must have gotten to him first, and that's why he attacked me tonight.”
The sun is starting to rise as Lorin finishes her story. The others leave the immediate area, either to prepare breakfast or find a place to keep Alastor out of the sun; I can ask Lorin what I've been suspecting since she first started speaking.
“You love him, don't you.” Okay, I state it as a fact rather than ask it.
She looks down at her bandages, her face slightly flushed. “Yes, I do. I know we haven't known each other very long, but I can just feel it's right; and I know he loves me too. That's why I didn't want you to hurt him, because it couldn't have been him that was doing that, but someone else controlling him.” I've never felt so sad to be right. A love like this always ends in tragedy one way or another.
Type A vampires can't go for very long without blood, and animal blood won't give Alastor enough strength to protect Lorin from other vampires, who will undoubtedly try to kill them both. Type As generally believe in 'purity', which basically means you only use a human as either a snack or a potential vampire mate, unless they happen to be experimentalists. Experimentalists tend to like to breed two different species together to see what they get, usually for slave/entertainment purposes.
“I was afraid you might say something like that,” I say sadly. “You will be in a lot of danger. We'll have to find somewhere safe for you two to stay, until things die down.”
Just then, Jana walks up, announcing that breakfast is ready. As we are eating, I announce my idea for finding a safe place for Lorin and Alastor so stay. “Why don't we take them to the haven for a while? We have enough spare rooms there. Besides we're going to have to wait for the extra defences on the city to be taken down.”
“I don't think that's such a good idea, Sapphire,” says Seth straight away. “We don't know how dangerous this vampire could be, and Lorin could easily stay with Judas; they are cousins after all.”
“If you really thought he was so dangerous, you would have tied him up. And the vampires will be going after both of them, so Lorin can't stay with Judas. They are very proud and won't want word to get out that a woman, even with help, managed to escape their clutches... at night! It's our duty to protect the people of the realm from the powers of darkness, and that includes vampires. If Alastor is as pure hearted as Lorin says he is, we should give him a chance to live.”
“You know,” jumps in Mella, “she's got a point. And if the vampire's at the haven with us, we'll be able to keep an eye on him and judge his character. If he turns out to be as evil as the other vampires, we can deal with him as you see fit.”
At this, Seth finally concedes, and we're on our way back to Yeste to tell Judas that his cousin is safe.
Alastor has to travel wrapped in a sleep kit, on a stretcher between Starlight and Jana's bay horse, Briar, as he hasn't awoken yet; this is most likely because it's morning. Lorin is sharing Mella's horse. As we travel onward, we start to see animals again. “It's strange,” remarks Lorin, “that autumn should come so early here and not in the north. It's never happened before.”
The sun has an almost golden quality to it, bright yet cold. Leaves of all colours cover the ground in a sheet, with hardly any grass to be seen. Squirrels and chipmunks mass on the ground in search of nuts for their winter stores. It all seems so peaceful, it almost makes me forget the horrors that must have been happening last night in Kierin city.
The sun sets early, and Alastor finally wakes; we have already set up camp by this time. He sits up with a groan and starts asking,“Where am I? Lorin, where are you?! Who are you?” He sounds very panicked, but scowls at me when he asks the last question. The others are starting up a fire and finding things for supper.
“Don't worry, Alastor,” I tell him. “My name is Sapphire Elenhin. Lorin is safe; she's in the forest with Jana, gathering food for supper. And don't worry about the vampires; we're taking you away from them. You're safe now.” I don't know why I just told him who I was, it just seemed right to since he's a humin.
“No! We're not safe yet. We're still too close to the city. They'll catch us in no time. We must keep moving!” He clearly hasn't stopped worrying. “Wait! Did you say Elenhin? From the royal elf family? What are you doing here?”
“Yes, I'm the princess, but don't tell the others. They're not ready to know yet, the time has not yet come. I'm also a protector. It's my duty to defend the realm, that's why I'm here. Now tell me, what happened last night? Why were you attacking Lorin?”
This last question clearly stunned him. “I...I was attacking Lorin?! All I remember is I woke up at sunset as usual. I ate breakfast with the others. I was going to go about my nightly duties when my brother pulled me aside to speak to me. There was someone else there. They asked me many questions, but I don't remember anything of the conversation. Then I and three others were to escort Lorin to my father's chambers. Our escape plan started without a hitch; I managed to take out the escorts without the alarm being raised. But as we got to the wall, it all went wrong. One of the guards spotted me before I had the time to knock him out and raised the alarm. I didn't get hurt, but Lorin took some nasty scratches from the guards. We managed to escape over the wall easily enough, before any more guards could come; it's not hard to do that when you don't need a rope.” I assume this meant Lorin held onto his neck while he free climbed the wall. “We got a good distance away when I noticed the blood all over Lorin. Then it all goes blank. I can't remember anything after that.”
“You were attacking Lorin, giving her some new wounds. Your brother must have had you hypnotized so that you would attack Lorin when you saw her blood. I managed to snap you out of it, but you fainted right away. They must have known you were planning to escape all along. If that's true, we'd better get a move on.” I turn and call, “Seth! We might have a problem here!”
Within five minutes, we'd taken down camp and were off again, hurrying this time. In the distance I could sense the vampires chasing us. Alastor is riding with me; Jana's horse gets skittish around him and the others don't trust him enough. I would have let him and Lorin ride together on Starlight and ridden with Jana, but the others don't know about their affections for each other, and, again, don't trust him enough to leave him on his own on one of our horses.
All of a sudden, one of the pursuing vampires has caught up with us, and is trying to attack Starlight so he can pull Alastor off. I urge Starlight to run faster, not that she needs the encouragement as she eagerly tries to escape the monster. The other vampires are closing quickly. Seth leads us off the road and into the forest. Almost instantly, a thick fog rises up from nowhere, causing the horses to suddenly stop, throwing us all off in the process. Ethan's been knocked out by a tree, and Mella and Lorin are both trapped under her horse, Brook. Alastor is momentarily torn between helping to lift Brook off his beloved's legs and fighting off the hungry beasts that have accompanied the vampires, true werewolves. They are tall beasts that can walk on two legs, because they are normally human. Seth, Jana and I manage to get up in time to meet the onslaught of fur and claws.
“Werewolves!” I yell, “Don't let them bite you, at all costs!” One bite from these beasts and it's nearly impossible to remove the infection that is passed through their saliva. Seth is slashing with his longsword, felling any unfortunate beast that happens to run towards him. With no time to fire my bow or to cast any spells, I'm forced to also use my sword to fend off their massive jaws. One poor monster, running on all fours for added force, was unfortunate enough to run straight into my sword with its chest, its jaws stopping just inches from my face. It was far from dead, but also in massive amounts of pain. I draw my sword from his chest cavity and, with one mighty hack, chop its head off; it would be cruel to do otherwise. Jana is busy trying to lift Briar off of Mella and Lorin.
Alastor is attacking the werewolves, teeth for teeth, with no regard for the fact that if one were to bite him he'd be dead by morning; his only thoughts to protect Lorin from the wrath of his kin. They seem to be hesitant to attack him for some reason, but still try to get the better of him
A pile of dead wolf bodies lie before us, like a massive fur carpet, when the vampires finally show up for the fight. There are only four of the bloodsuckers, having the belief that the slaves would have finished most of us off by the time they appeared. I see the utter shock in their eyes before their stares become scathing glares and they hiss at us in the most menacing way possible before running back towards the city for reinforcements.
It was then that the sheer exhaustion hit me. The full moon was shining brightly overhead, about one hour from setting. I collapse to my knees, with a loud sigh, under the weight of what had just happened. My very blood aches. I just sit there staring, I don't know for how long, until Seth comes in front of me. “Sapphire, are you okay?” His voice seems so far away. I can just barely nod my head before the leafy floor rushes up to meet me and everything goes black.
 Girl of the Dragons · Mon Dec 20, 2010 @ 11:46pm · 0 Comments |
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