Virgin Vampire Part 7

My senses pounded like wildfire in my head. I was surrounded by dozens of them – maybe more since I had lost count when my mind had become overwhelmed by their presence. In the pale moon streaked night they waited in the shadows, lurked in them, became them. Their unblinking stone cold eyes watched me with an eerie intensity, the burning scent of their venom coated teeth spilling across the atmosphere to fill my nose with its repulsive smell. With so many vampires in such close proximity, the air was plunged into a deep, bitter coldness that frosted the airways and bit at exposed skin. I shivered despite myself, knowing either way that this was to end badly. If Dimitri’s plan failed, then both he and I would be killed. If it succeeded then I would live but remain his prisoner. I did not know what was worse – death or life.1

A tugging at the edge of my mind told me more vampires had arrived, and clamping down on the warnings of danger that were screaming in my head I took in a deep breath to focus myself and steady my wild senses. Being in full view of them my instincts were to attack, but in Dimitri’s plan I was just bait – lashing out could complicate matters. I marvelled at the fact that I could draw so many with my scent alone. Although it was not something I particularly liked, there seemed to be a strange satisfaction in being able to cause such an effect. Above, the luminous moon shifted its position and beams of pale light filtered down through clouds and trees to light up the park, splashes of silver falling onto emerald green. My eyes trailed after the swirling rays, my mind whirring and hot rushes of adrenalin coursing throughout my body. This was the signal I had been waiting for. 2

Slowly and purposefully I exhaled, watching my warm breath turn into wispy tendrils as it made contact with the brittle air. I refrained from flinching when numerous dark snarls ripped across the landscape; echoes of anticipation and hunger fuelled by dim fires of thirst. I knew it was not long before the maddening smell of my mixed scent empowered them and they attacked, and briefly I wondered if Dimitri had roped in too much than he could handle for I had never come across so many. Something sounded in the distance, and I felt all attention that had been focused on me whip towards the source of the noise. Then it happened. 3

Moving at a speed that rivalled, if not outdid, a vampire’s, Dimitri burst into the clearing, sending everything into utter chaos. My eyes tried to see through the confusion of snarls and movements, but things were happening much too fast for me to comprehend, darkness causing everything to become moving shadows. Using my heightened senses like an invisible net, I flung them out in all directions, letting them be my eyes. Instinctively I whirled around and stabbed my athame into the vampire behind me, feeling it crack several ribs before it pierced a heart. Sharp buzzes in my head told me more were coming, and tightening my grip on the glinting silver I pulled it from the creature and ran forward, slashing and stabbing until my clothes were covered in black ash. I did not allow my eyes to linger on the events that were unfolding before me, guided purely by instinct and senses as I repeatedly ripped the athame from one and plunged it into another. Flames – billowing and black – shot up around me, flickering briefly before crumbling to dust as one by one they all vanished into oblivion. The world became a blur of black ash and silver light; I did not know how long I continued. They just kept coming, and I kept slaying until I was left standing in an empty clearing. 4

Breathing hard, I looked back at the sooty mess that I had just killed through, feeling the presence of the slayers in the far corner of the park. I focused my thoughts on running and as I started to run, the tainted venom in my bloodstream kicked in and I was travelling at breakneck speed. Willing myself to slow, I stopped before Dimitri and Jeremy, both of whom were killing with impressive accuracy. Watching them, I was surprised that I did not feel any uncomfortableness at seeing them slay other vampires, but then again I had not hesitated in killing my own either. It had always seemed natural that I took down those who were responsible for making me like this.5

From the back of my mind I sensed a streak of white flash towards me, and before it could slow down I brought up the athame and cleanly slashed open its chest. 6

“Nicely done,” Jeremy observed as he came towards me, coughing slightly from the billows of smoke that the creature had left behind. “Though I don’t know why some do that and others don’t.”7

“Do what?” I asked, surprised that he was being so nice. 8

I still had not worked out why his treatment of me was so different to how slayers were meant to treat vampires. 9

“Go up in smoke like that. Before tonight, I had never seen a vampire be engulfed by black ash before it died. Usually they just die and we burn the bodies.” 10

I frowned at his words, my eyes looking past him until they fell on Dimitri. A vampire launched itself at him and with a deft movement he brought up a glinting blade and stabbed it at its heart, howls of fury and pain ripping the air as the creature burned in brilliant tongues of black fire. The sight brought chills to my skin. There was only one way to truly kill a vampire, and from what I knew no slayer had this knowledge. No slayer should have been able to make a vampire die in flames, as that would mean they had been killed with Alder Merkstave and virgin vampire blood – my blood. So how had Dimitri known what my blood could do? How did he know something that no slayer – no matter how old or experienced – could know if I was the first of my kind and only blood like mine could kill a vampire in that way? 11

Fear and anger tumbled together like ice and fire within me, until fire reigned and I was left with a surprising anger fuelled by something I could not comprehend. With supernatural speed I ran towards him, slamming him onto the grass where I held him down with a grip that I never knew I possessed. Open surprise flashed in Dimitri’s eyes and he tried to throw me off, but this new bizarre feeling caused me to be a lot stronger than before. 12

“What is the matter with you?” Jeremy shouted as he came up to us. 13

I ignored him and kept my attention on Dimitri, tightening my grip on his arms.14

“I told you we couldn’t trust her,” he snarled, his face twisting into an expression of hatred. 15

Something snapped inside me and I snarled back at him with open vehemence, tension stiffening my body as I felt a mildly sharp pain in my gums. Two fangs, pearly and razor sharp, slid out, causing a trace of – could it be fear – to flicker across Dimitri’s eyes. 16

“Isobelle, you have to stop. Now.” 17

“How did you know how to slay a vampire like that?” I asked Dimitri, ignoring Jeremy’s voice. 18

The words came out hiss-like, because of the fangs. 19

“What the hell are you talking about?” He shot me a look of malice. 20

“You know what I am talking about. I saw you kill that vampire in a way that is not possible for a slayer to do,” I said evenly, my fingers digging into his shoulders. “Slayers injure the vampire enough so that they burn the bodies afterwards; they do not slay the creature on the spot. What you did back there… was not physically possible… Not logically possible. What did you do?”21

I watched the emotions in Dimitri’s dark eyes closely, trying to detect any fleeting hint of truth. But they remained guarded and cold, all traces of the fear I thought I had seen gone. I allowed silence to play its melody upon the atmosphere around us for a few more moments, then spoke again. 22

“Dimitri, tell me.”23

The words did not come out as I had hoped, echoing my grief rather than anger. I was surprised, even slightly horrified, to hear a deep, lingering sadness in them that stemmed from something within me that I wasn’t aware of. A resigned sigh escaped from Dimitri, and the tension seeped from his body. 24

“Get off of me first or you’ll make me do something that I’ll regret,” he said, the threat not reaching his words. 25

Slowly I climbed off him, the fangs retracting as my emotions cooled. I could not believe that he was so willing to answer my questions so soon, and watched him closely to make certain he would not try something on me. But he sat up and remained sitting on the emerald grass, the moonlight playing across his features so that they almost looked vampire-like, the sharp angles highlighted and his dark eyes washed with silver light. For what seemed to me like an eternity he just sat there, silent and unmoving, staring at something from the pools of his memory that I could not see. I was tempted to rouse him from his thoughts but refrained myself.26

“I never thought that I’d be saying this, and to you of all people,” he finally said, his eyes falling on me. “In fact I should not be telling you this at all if I wanted to keep my life… But you…” 27

He shook his head, seeming confused. 28

“Let’s just say I have a bit of history with them, and by telling you the truth I’d be getting even.”29

“Dimitri what are you talking about?” Jeremy asked, causing me to suddenly remember that he was still there.30

A flicker of annoyance passed Dimitri’s features.31

“There are many things in this world, in our world, which you do not know about slayer for a reason,” he snapped, his mood swinging suddenly. 32

It was apparent he disliked Jeremy almost as much as he disliked me.33

“And this is no longer some game that you can just enter and leave at your will,” he continued. “From here on this becomes serious and dangerous, and I’m not talking of danger like slaying a coven of Twelfth Wave vampires – which you could probably never manage or survive to begin with – but real danger. So if you don’t want your quaint little life to be disturbed and turned into a nightmare beyond your and even my darkest dreams, I suggest you leave. Immediately.”34

I waited for the reality of Dimitri’s words to sink into Jeremy, for even I was slightly concerned about what had just been said. Dimitri was not one to make empty threats or claims, and I knew that he had seen and experienced enough to know of danger to speak of it in such a way. If he thought that this – whatever it was – would make a confrontation with a coven of Twelfth Wave vampires seem like a stroll in the park, than he was most likely right. 35

Every century a new Wave of vampires emerged. I did not know where or how, I just knew that they did and so did the slayers. The older the Wave that a vampire belonged to, the more powerful and deadlier it was. I did not know much about it for my contact with vampires was minimal and their history did not concern me, but from the pieces that I did know, it seemed that vampires became weaker with every Wave – every generation. The Twelfth Wave vampires came about in the 20th Century and although were only a century before the vampires of today, were still considered as extremely dangerous. I had not ever encountered one, for with the emergence of the current Thirteenth Wave vampires, their numbers were dwindling as no new vampires of that generation could be created. 36

And so I was extremely surprised when Jeremy said that he was not afraid of whatever it was that Dimitri was intending on telling me. Perhaps he did not want to appear weak. 37

“Why do you insist on following me everywhere?” Dimitri muttered, giving him a frosted look.38

He merely shrugged his shoulders, and I wondered whether it was an act of pretence or whether he was actually foolish enough to try Dimitri’s patience.39

“It would be great first hand experience for me.”40

“Experience to get yourself killed,” Dimitri retorted. 41

“All the more better for you, right?”42

I smiled at Jeremy’s wit, thinking that it would be highly amusing to see him follow Dimitri around. 43

“It’s your death wish, slayer,” Dimitri said, then focused his attention back on me. 44

I tensed as I waited for what he had to say.45

“They – an elite group of slayers – have known about what blood like yours can do to vampires for a long time before you came along,” he said, speaking carefully. “And that information just happened to have passed into my knowledge.”46

“Wait… so Isobelle isn’t the first of her kind? There are more virgin vampires out there?!” 47