Once Awakened: Chapter 14

I opened my eyes and found myself, not covered in my blood with poison running through my veins, but with my head on Romulus’s chest and my fingers curled in a deathly strong grip on his wrist. I quickly removed my fingers and looked at his face, which seemed unaffected by my grasp, a grasp that would have snapped the wrist of any mortal. 1

“You never sleep very soundly, do you?” He asked me and I shook my head. The clasp that pulled my hair back, already loosened slightly from sleeping on it now let a few strands of my raven hair fall into my face but Romulus reached over and gently tucked them behind my ear. 2

I looked down at his wrist to see the damage I had done and gasped. My fingers had literally cut his wrist where they had been and the tiniest hint of blood could be seen where my nails had been. Needless to say I was horrified.3

“My lord!” I cried, “I‘m so sorry, please, I didn’t mean-“4

But he stopped me the way he always did when I was worried and calmed me down.5

“Sithandra, its fine, I’m fine” He said calmly and held out his wrist and I saw it heal as it always did. He turned his perfectly healed wrist showing me where the marks had I swiftly wrapped my arms around his neck before realizing how childish the action seemed, he didn’t seem to mind, however, and arms found their way around my neck as well and he buried his hands in my hair as he so loved to do.6

“You’ll have to go with her, you know. There’s no avoiding it, if you don’t mention it, she will,” Romulus murmured just above my hair. I knew he was correct. In my memory there has never been a time when he wasn’t correct. 7

“There’s no way out of it?” I checked, though I was quite certain what the answer would be and he confirmed it.8

“You changed her, my Sithandra; you have to teach her everything. You made the choice, and she may be your child but she is first and foremost your daughter and would never harm you, remember that.”9

Romulus lifted me up and kissed me. He whispered other things to, he always knew what to say to comfort me, always. 10

Eventually I was willing to go to her. Not as willing as I truly should have been considering she was my blood child, but I was willing to go to her. Though it seemed as if she had been coming to me for I met her exactly halfway between Romulus’s art studio and her room.11

“I bet I can guess, Narcissa.” I said and she nodded.12

“And who would bet against a psychic?” she replied approvingly. I saw she was already dressed the way she had seen me dress when going hunting, all black so as not to be seen, her hair was pulled back so she could see properly, thick clothing so the air on her would not affect her when she ran. She looked like any other vampire might when going out to hunt. 13

But that was not the only thing I noticed about her, I don’t know what it was exactly but she seemed to draw my eyes even when I tried to look away. I believe mortals have a word for it but I don’t know what it is. We call it an Attraction. And Narcissa’s mind and her Attraction were a very dangerous combination.14

“How did you know I was coming?” I asked, it was strange that she had expected me at this precise moment. You see, she could not get into my mind, and I knew that for a fact.15

“Your footsteps” She answered simply, I noticed a problem with that answer though.16

“I walk silently, Narcissa. We all do.” Try as I might I couldn’t keep the slightly triumphant tone out of my voice. I hoped she didn’t notice it, and if she did she did as excellent job of hiding it.17

“I don’t hear your footsteps, Marie. I feel the vibrations through the floor, yours are smaller then his.” Feeling vibrations, now that really was something. But I had other things to worry about, I remembered as I stepped into the cool night air.18

Finding victims was never hard if you weren’t picky. There were so many homeless people out in the streets and then there were so rich ones that were out all night that you would be fine even if you were picky. Personally I don’t care who I kill as long as they are at least as old as I was when I met the same fate. It seemed Narcissa had no qualms about killing either.19

I found both a man and a woman, wealthy by the look of them, wandering the streets. It’s never very safe to do that when vampires live close by but they didn’t know of us so I don’t suppose I could blame them for it. I turned to Narcissa expecting to have to say something, at least. Move swiftly, perhaps, or maybe tell her not to breathe. But she stood perfectly still beside me on her toes, looking for all the world like a cat about to pounce.20

No one could be still like my daughter; you would swear she was carved out of stone. She wasn’t breathing and the only particularly life-like thing about her was the look of cruel hunger streaked all over her face, no one could carve a look as evil and repulsive as that.21

Before I said a single word, telepathically or otherwise, she had grabbed the man and had her teeth at his neck. The woman didn’t even notice, not yet anyway. Narcissa had done something, don’t ask me what, that had blinded him and cut off his speech. 22

Now the woman noticed, but only because I had grabbed her, I did not waste time having a conversation with her as the last thing that I needed with someone like my daughter around was to get emotional. I did it quickly, sinking my fangs into her throat and draining her away. And I will not lie to you; I believe I enjoyed it. 23

I let her fall and looked toward Narcissa and the man she held. He was still alive though I was quite sure that by now he was completely numb. She drank from him slowly, savoring the taste. She had never had a mortal’s blood before, only mine. And vampire blood tastes very different from mortal blood. 24

She dropped the man’s cold corpse when she finished him off and glanced at him before looking up at me. 25

“Surely you don’t just leave them here? No, I would imagine you just do this.” 26

She looked at him and suddenly the man burst into flames. I almost screamed, playing with the flames of candles was one thing but this, this was entirely different. She had not only controlled fire with her mind after only a day of being immortal she had produced it. She threw a withering glance at the body of the woman and that body burned as well. And in a matter of seconds the flames died down and the only evidence that the two mortals had ever even existed were the powdery ashes which caught a breeze and swirled up around my face. 27

“Narcissa,” I gasped, “We’re leaving.” 28

I didn’t have to tell her twice, she was at Romulus’s castle before I was. I didn’t pause to see where she went after that I ran to where Romulus was when I left, where he spent most of his free time. I burst through the door without knocking and stopped dead.29

My eyes were on the picture Romulus had been painting, the one of me. But it was not me alone. Narcissa was in the picture and, though my eyes were painted away from the viewer, Narcissa’s eyes looked directly at me. And, for a moment, her eyes seemed to flash red and look directly into my mind.30

I knew it was an illusion but it weakened me greatly. Perhaps it was what I seen her do tonight but I fell to my knees again as I had last time I had been with her. Again, before I hit the ground Romulus was there holding me and I wrapped my arms tightly around him. 31

“She can control it more so then I can, my lord.” I whispered, “I won’t go with her again, you can or she can go alone. She’s far beyond proven she needs no help from me. My god, I’m terrified of her, my own daughter.” 32

Romulus turned me so I couldn’t see the painting and kissed my forehead gently, “Sithandra,” he said softly, “I would never let her harm you but I don’t think I would need to interfere, I don’t think she can harm you.”33

I looked up at him in surprise, “You’ve seen my nightmares, my thoughts, and you see the power that she has. My love for her means nothing, she is going to kill me I have seen it in her eyes. She wants me dead!” I admit I was exaggerating, I had seen evil in her eyes but I had no hints that it was pointed at me.34

“She has the power to do it but I doubt she has the strength to turn that power on you. Why do you think it’s so rare for a child to destroy their sire? It’s known but very rare. Very few of us have the strength to turn on the one who made us. There are instincts hardwired into us when we are changed, instincts that cause us to protect our sires at all cost. For newborns the instinct can be so strong that they could be on the other side of the world and if they sense they’re sire is in danger they would be unable to help rushing to their side immediately to defend them. It takes over a thousand years just to be able to ignore those instincts, if you were to attack her now she wouldn’t even be able to defend herself against you, that’s how powerful it is. If I wanted to, and if he were alive, I might be able to turn on Morpheus now but I doubt it. I worked for many years to be able to resist him. Do you remember when you brought Narcissa back from Teirma with you and Ahmano sent his fledglings to attack us?”35

I listened raptly to what he said and I did remember that night.36

“Yes my lord, I believe I do. Now that I think of it, something made me go to you, some push in the back of my mind that I could not ignore even if I had wanted to.” I had never thought why I had been forced to go to him, I never thought to question it because I never regretted it. 37

“I thought you would. Yes, that was your instinct that brought you to me. And I thank you, had you found a way to resist it I would be dead. I remember the times I ran to Morpheus’s aid, I never wanted to but he lived for the battles and often fought those whose abilities were stronger then his. When he did that then his children would run to him, many times he simply left a battle and let us fight. I was the only one who ever learned to control it. When I found you my instincts, old as they were, began to change and I sense when you’re in danger now.” 38

I knew he was talking, not only to educate me, but to get my mind off of my daughter. It was working and I let him go on though I was growing tired. Being in her presence seemed to drain me of my energy every time I was with her. Romulus lifted me up and carried me to where I had slept the previous night but this time he did not hold me to him. He simply laid me down and kissed me softly, the chill of his lips relaxed me because it was so familiar.39

He continued with his story but his voice grew more gentle as he spoke, “But because you did not sire me it is weaker with you then it was with Morpheus. Like I’ve explained it was almost impossible to ignore with him.”40

“When they took you away from me I lost you completely and I thought they killed you. I don’t know why but I couldn’t hear you anymore. It nearly drove me insane. I stayed in this room for years, leaving only to feed. I stared at the pictures I have of you, trying to hear your voice. I didn’t even know where they had taken you or I would have gone after you my self and killed them with my bare hands. When you came back I thought I was dreaming, I thought it was an illusion or perhaps I had acted without thinking and had gone into the sun and I was with you again. It was only when I touched your face I began to think it might be real and when I saw her I knew it was. Because had I been dreaming, my dreams would not have created someone I had never seen.” His voice faded as I slipped deeper and deeper into sleep and I barely heard the last sentence before I was completely unconscious. 41

“And it was only after I had you back that I truly began to enjoy this life once again.”