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Thessa woke up the day after she had decided to get rid of the blood feeders and reluctantly leave Gaelyn behind. Ready for action, she was determined to stop Danton from creating anymore blood feeders somehow. Cassany may have tricked her, but she was going to end it no matter how hard Sarren said the job would be. Thessa remembered what it was like to be a vampire, hiding in the shadows and forced to kill out of necessity. She would simply keep her experience in mind when she had to destroy them, not let them go. She would not look at it as a negative. She would think it of it as a merciful endeavor.
She was deep in her thoughts of finding the blood feeders that she was startled when there came a knock on her door. Even Sarren jumped off the window seal and headed beneath the bed. The knock came again, and Thessa stood there in a moment of hesitation.
“Thessa, are you in there?” Came a lid whisper through the door. “It’s me, Gaelyn. I don’t mean to intrude. I will go if you are uncomfortable with me being here.”
Thessa opened the door, “I am not uncomfortable. This is just unexpected. What are you doing here?”
“I thought you should know that I have to be leaving this afternoon and in case I didn’t see you, I didn’t want you to think I just up and disappeared.”
“Come on in.” She opened the door wider. He entered. “Where are you going?”
He sat in a chair Thessa indicated, “Some of the dock workers were chosen to travel by ship to Riverview to the south to help with the unloading of a river barge.”
“I am sorry to see you go. I appreciate you stopping by to tell me. I would have been wondering where you had gotten off to if you had of just left.”
“I know you would.” He paused, “I really like you, Thessa, and I would like to see more of you if that is at all possible. I should be back the day after tomorrow sometime in the evening. Perhaps we could have a meal together again the day after I return?”
Thessa met eyes with Sarren, who was still under the bed and softened. She wanted to tell him she could not see him anymore, that she was also planning to leave Emlestra, but Sarren’s gaze made her rethink her decision.
There is a way for you to check on the blood feeders from here. What would it hurt to stay around here for a few more days? You have never had someone to care for you like this man obviously does.
“I would like that, Gaelyn. I had planned to leave soon as well, but I suppose I could stay around for a few more days.”
Gaelyn stood and took her hands in his, “That’s wonderful. I was so afraid you would not be here when I returned.”
“Why would you be afraid of that?” She asked.
“Because, you are staying in an inn and you are not from around here. I thought if I disappeared you might think I had not cared for you and left as well.”
“I will stay until you return. I promise.”
“That’s good news.” He went for the door, “you promise?”
She giggled awkwardly, “I do.”
He grinned and left the room. She heard a cheerful bit of whistling as he made his way down the corridor to the stairs.
You have made him very happy.
Thessa was worried, “Yes, but why wasn’t I strong enough to tell him I am leaving?” She furloughed her brow at Sarren, “And why are you trying so hard to convince me to stay here when last night you were ready to help me find the blood feeders?”
When I saw how much he liked you, I remembered you can keep tabs on the blood feeders with your mage powers. I will show you. Also, even if Sir Danton creates ten more of the creatures while you wait here, they will be just as easy to kill as the first ten.
Thessa nodded, “Yes, you’re right. The odds of all the fiends being together all at once are slim. I can still round them up, regardless.” She became thoughtful and changed her tone, “Just out of curiosity, how do I sense them?”
We wait until dark so we have the shadows to hide us and I will teach you.
“Do you think there might be one in Emlestra?”
Possibly, we will find out tonight. If there is one out there, it will not be active until dark, anyway.
The rest of the day moved along without incident. Both Thessa and Sarren had a nice meal of fish for lunch and beef for supper. Thessa took advantage of the inn’s steam room and bathhouse. She had never seen a steamroll before. It was a large wooden structure next to the baths with a bunch of fire heated stones in the center occasionally doused with water to create the steam. She didn’t really she the use for it but she tied it, anyway. The Bath was soothing.
When night fall finally came, Thessa and Sarren ventured out into the streets of Emlestra.
The way you sense the abominations is to clear your mind and search with your feelings for something living but not alive.
“What? That makes no sense.”
You know it does. You were one and your mother bought you back to the living.
“Right, I remember the feeling. She searched out into the city. She had a difficult time at first, but then suddenly she zeroed in on something, “There is one in the city!”
Good, now use your magic to see the trail of the thing. You should concentrate on it and the path will be revealed.
She concentrated and then opened her eyes. A trail of faint light floated just above the ground. “I see it!”
Follow it!
Thessa followed the trail until she came up on a young man keeping to the shadows. She followed the trail of the vampire with her abilities into a darkened street, through an alleyway and into the Main Street of Emlestra. The streets were mostly deserted at this time of night. She wondered if Gaelyn’s ship had come in safely and she thought she might go down the docks later and check to see if it’s moored there after she dispatched this blood feeder, of course. Realizing she was distracted, she concentrated on the fiend again and finally saw it again as it was lurking in the shadows near another one of the alleyways. She moved stealthily toward the alley when she spotted movement ahead in the street. Several men in sailor’s clothing carrying long sacks over their shoulders were disbursing in different directions. They had come from the docks. Thessa froze as the fiend was eyeing them from his place in the dark. She had to warn them. She took one step into the light and to her horror saw Gaelyn trudging up the street. She tried to move back into the shadows before he saw her, but it was too late. He called out to her.
“Thessa? Is that you?”
Thessa stepped out of the darkness, all the while keeping a wary eye on the blood feeder perched in the alleyway. “It’s me.”
“You came to see me home?”
He seemed so genuinely happy to see her she couldn’t say no. “Yes, but I wasn’t sure which way you would be coming into town, or where for that matter. Why don’t you stay there and I will come to you? Don’t you move.” She kept her tone calm and steady. His happy demeanor cut Thessa to the core. He began to move toward her again.
“No, stay there, Gaelyn. I will come to you!” He either didn’t hear her or he didn’t listen. Thessa watched as Gaelyn made his way to her, oblivious to the danger. The torch-lit streets were too dark and afforded many shadows all around. His smile struck her in the heart as she saw Danton in the darkness. He was maneuvering behind him, stalking him.
“Gaelyn, look out!” She called, and he stopped and faced Danton as he came from the shadows at a full, supernatural speed. Without so much as a thought, she lashed out with a purple tinged black ribbon of magic, the most powerful she could muster, at Danton. It struck him and knocked him far, fast, and hard against the nearby building. “Gaelyn, run to me!”
Gaelyn complied and took off in a sprint toward her, which is when ten other blood feeders came from out of the shadows. Lights began to appear in windows as the inhabitants of the houses and businesses lining the street were roused from sleep by the noise. Tanyth rose from the spot where he landed and moved again toward Gaelyn. Thessa tried to stop him, but Tanyth stayed behind Gaelyn, putting the man between himself and Thessa so she could not blast him back again.
“Move Gaelyn, get out of the way!” Gaelyn looked behind him and Thessa moved forward, knowing that when he saw Tanyth, Gaelyn would slow down enough for Tanyth to catch him.
Danton stepped out of the shadows and knocked Thessa to the ground as Tanyth caught up with Gaelyn and put his dagger to the man’s throat. “Resurrect this!” He the cut Gaelyn’s throat and let him fall to the ground.
“No!” Thessa pleaded, but it was too late. She reached him and held the blood gushing from his neck. He was not dead yet. She used what power she had and willed the wound to close, but it did not. A moment later she caught the familiar scent of her mother close by her. She looked up to see Hana beside her. Hana was controlling Gaelyn’s blood and making it flow back into him. Once the blood had returned, she pulled out a green vial and added a drop to the wound on Gaelyn’s neck. It closed up, and he gasped for breath.
Briefly, Thessa looked up to see Asleth using a force shield to send the blood feeders away, including Tanyth. Gaelyn shook his head, probably to clear it to what just happened, twisted his face into a visage of complete horror while looking at Thessa and Hana, and he began to quickly back away.
“Wait, Gaelyn, let me explain.” Thessa called after him.
He ran toward the alley where Danton abruptly leaped out of the shadows and sunk his teeth into his neck. Thessa could not believe her eyes. Tanyth smiled with satisfaction and took a final blow from Asleth before scurrying away into the darkness of another alleyway. Danton dragged Gaelyn into the darkness as Thessa ran toward them. When she reached the alley within seconds they had already gone, completely disappeared somewhere into the dark. She ran down the alley until it ended and turned onto the parallel street, but there was no sign of neither Gaelyn nor Danton.
She gazed at the shadow where Sarren had been hiding, “What do I do, Sarren?” There was no answer. “Sarren? Where has she gone?”