| |
She lay on the bed next to him, literally waiting for the clock to run out and praying she was going to get some kind of relief from all of this. She had fed Blake three times, walking him around the hallways of the hotel with Vincenzo walking behind her like a grim shadow, and there was still nothing else she wanted to do. She had blown twenty bucks in the vending machine and she was certain she was going to gain back all the weight she had lost if she didn’t start to pace herself.
She realized there was nothing interesting on TV and if there was, she wasn’t going to be able to focus on it. All she wanted to do was give up and get back out on the road, but the sun was still high in the sky.
It wasn’t fair and she didn’t know what she was going to do about it. Vincenzo seemed to take great pleasure in all of this and was watching her with a smile on his face as she looked up at the ceiling, listening to the melody of Blake’s bouncer that she’d brought.
She rolled her head and looked at him in frustration.
“What?” she demanded.
“You’re restless,” he chuckled.
“Aren’t you?”
“A little,” he shrugged. “There’s not a lot we can do right now. In an hour or two, we’ll load up the car and get back out on the road. We can get gas and something to eat and we’ll be ready to go. By tomorrow morning, we’ll be at the church and everything will be okay.”
“Everything will be okay?” She laughed at that. She wanted to spit in the idea that everything was going to be okay. Everything was not going to be okay and of that much she was certain. There was a lot of distance between them and anywhere and for all they knew, the vampire horde that was chasing them might be surrounding them.
From everything she could tell, they were probably out there in bodysuits, baking in the heat of the day. For all she knew, they were a bunch of crazy psychopaths who were willing to cook in the middle of the day and have the night bring a good old fashioned baby killing. What was wrong with them? The answer seemed simple. They were vampires. They were ruthless, bloodthirsty vampires.
“We’re not all that bad,” he assured her, reading her thoughts again.
She glared at him. She hated it when he did that. There was something obviously wrong about him doing that. She wanted him to know that in the future, she didn’t want him reading her thoughts under any circumstances. She didn’t want him thinking it was okay for him to just pop inside of her mind and have a look around.
There had to be boundaries with that sort of thing and rules he could respect and honor. If he couldn’t do that, then there were going to be troubles ahead.
“What does that mean?” she asked him.
“It means that not all vampires are bloodthirsty psychopaths,” he said with a shrug.
“Care to explain that one?” She rolled over and looked at him as she lay on her side, listening to the drone of the air conditioner and the melody of a baby bouncer.
“You swear you’ve forgiven me?” he asked her after a second of thought.
She looked at him with a curious expression on her face. Why did it matter to him? What was he worried about?
“Yeah,” she said honestly. There was nothing for her to hold against him and she knew there was nothing he needed to worry about.
“Fine,” he said with a shrug. “I’m going to tell you the story of Vincenzo Titus, but I don’t want it changing the opinion you have of me. I don’t want you to think I’m a freak or that you can judge me any less. I know what I am and I don’t expect you to change your opinion of that, just because I say I’m different.”
“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I won’t.”
“Good,” he answered. “I’m a vampire and that means I’m an evil spawn of Satan. There’s nothing good inside of here except that I’m trying to save your life from the predicament I got you into.”
“Agreed,” she lied.
“Fine,” he said. “I was born back when Rome was still something to be feared and the world bowed down to a man named Caesar. The truth of the matter was that we also bowed down to the Pope as well, but there was a scourge on the horizon. All of Rome was terrified of a plague that was coming our direction named Attila and his army was as vast as the eye could see and there was no stopping him.
“Everyone in the world knew that Attila was the Scourge of God and that he had come to destroy Rome once and for all. And he did. He arrived in Italy and I was just a young man when he arrived. I was working in the Roman auxiliaries as a mercenary, but when the raiding parties came, all order fell into chaos.
“I don’t know where the vampirism came from and in all of my travels, I have never been able to find its source. But I know that in Italy, it was brought over by the Huns and when I was turned, it was in order to fuel a vampire raiding party that had one goal and one goal alone. They were going to turn Rome into a nightmare.
“While I was conscripted into a dark army, more horrible than I could ever imagine, I knew I was never going to be like my captors, those who had turned me. I was never going to become a vampire that did terrible things to the innocent. For me, I was going to be a vampire who lived by his own rules and didn’t become a monster like the rest of my brothers and sisters that they turned.
“So, I wandered the countryside, killing any Huns I could find, stalking war bands, and eventually helping to drive them away from the shadows. Over the centuries, I watched as other vampires spread across the world, turning those they would use into their own servants and fellow vampires, looking to turn humans in order to have some sort of civilization and company.
“But over the decades, I hunted down and killed my brothers and sisters and those that I found were vampires as well. I have never turned another into a vampire and I never will.
“The one who was hunting us, Flavus, was the last of my old companions who was turned when the Huns raided us. He is the last of the vampires I knew as a human and I am going to make sure he is killed and put to rest once and for all.
His war band is large, but they know I’ve spent the centuries killing and hunting vampires. They’re afraid of me and of what I can do. I know they’re afraid and they should be. They know what I’m capable of.”
“So that’s why they want to kill Blake,” she said, looking at their son and suddenly understanding everything that was happening. Vincenzo was some kind of anti-vampire who was going around killing those who were like him. He was trying to rid the world of vampires and this had made him a target for every other vampire in the world that wanted to make sure they were safe and that they had nothing to fear.
She looked at him and suddenly felt that there was more to him than she had ever realized. There was more to him than she had ever hoped to imagine. It was a strange feeling and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to make anything of it.
“That’s why they want to kill my son,” he said with a contemplative voice.
She could only imagine how tragic that must have been for him. That would be nothing more devastating to her than having to face the consequences of the good deeds she had tried to do over her lifetime.
She wasn’t sure that if she was a monster, she would have the ability to turn herself into something good. An eternity felt like a very long time not to have a companion to travel with or to enjoy the world with. He must have been so lonely over that vast length of time. He must have spent so many countless hours by himself, wondering if there was ever going to be an end to what he was feeling.
“Well then,” she said, sitting up from the bed and looking out the window. “I say that we make every one of them pay for what they’ve done and what they will do. They’re monsters and I’m going to help you stop them. After all, didn’t you say that true love was what brought Blake into being? We’ll both have to stick together from now on.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked her, looking at her with an expression that told her he was more than willing to let her go her own way.
Well, she wasn’t about to do that. She wasn’t about to let him have all the fun and leave her here to watch the baby. No, she was going to make sure he had someone there to watch his back through all of this and she was going to be that person.
“I’m more than certain,” she assured him. “You stay here with Blake and I’m going to load up the car and get some gas for us.”
As she headed out to the car, she carried her duffel bag full of supplies they had brought for Blake and she knew they wouldn’t be much longer. She didn’t know where the first church was that they were going to, but she was certain they would make it there by dawn and there was no way she was going to wait around for another second.
She pulled the car away from the hotel and drove across the street to the gas station, filling up and looking out on the interstate and beyond.
She never thought she would live in a world this strange and full of adventure and excitement. She felt like she was living in an alternate reality where everything was all messed up and wrong. How was she supposed to go back to the normal world after all of this? She was certain she wasn’t going to be able to. She wasn’t going to be able to go back to a desk and not think about all the things that went bump in the dark.
Her mind drifted to the thoughts of everything she had been listening to in the hotel room. She didn’t know history that well, but she knew that Vincenzo had been around for a very long time. There was a lot of history there and as she thought about it, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was all true. Had he been around for the fall of Rome and everything that came after it? Had he seen all of that? She shuddered at the thought of it. As she waited for the gas to pump, she wondered how long he would keep going. He was on a suicide mission, hunting down and pissing off vampires until he was either the last vampire or they eventually got to him first.
That was a grim thought and she couldn’t help but wonder if there was possibly something better for him to do with all of that rage and hatred. Maybe he could teach other vampires to be like him. She was certain that she wasn’t the first person to think about that and she felt like an idiot just thinking about it.
When the car was done filling up, she drove to the nearest fast food restaurant and ordered herself a chicken sandwich and waited while the people in front of her got their beverages and their meals. She was patient, watching as the sun was slowly sinking for the horizon. She wondered if there was more to all of this that she hadn’t been told. She wondered if there were any more secrets out there.
Were there other things that went bump in the night? Were UFOs a thing? Where did all of this end and where did fantasy pick up again? She realized that maybe she didn’t want to know about it. But there was one thing that she did know; the world was a lot stranger than she had anticipated and she decided it was probably a good thing.
While she was waiting for her chicken sandwich, she thought about the dream she had experienced, the vision, as Vincenzo had called it. She thought about how strange it had felt and how truly peculiar it had been. It had been so powerful and as she looked around, she was surprised there were no shadowy figures standing in windows, watching her like they had been at her apartment. She was surprised she wasn’t alone in a sea of hungry, ravenous vampires clawing at the car, lusting for her blood.
Had they really spent the entire day locked away, pacing back and forth while they were waiting for the sun to go down so they could finally be free of all of this? Were they really that locked away by the sun? Something told her they had to be able to have some mode of transportation. They should have surrounded them and been everywhere right now. It didn’t make sense that they were alone in the middle of nowhere without an army of vampires around them, baying for blood.
That was when she remembered that in the early parts of her vision, she had seen the vampires all around her. They had been watching her and they had even been trying to reach out to grab her and ensnare her, but eventually, when the cries of her child from the church drew their attention, they didn’t come after her any more.
They weren’t standing around watching her anymore. Instead, they had all turned and headed for the church and they had run with the kind of ferocity that made her think that right now, they weren’t coming for Vincenzo and her, but they were running straight for the church.
There was a sinking feeling in her stomach and she realized she had been wrong all along and that there weren’t any real dangers around them. The other vampires weren’t biding their time, pacing back and forth. They were probably already there. They had been running toward the church because it didn't matter if they caught up to Vincenzo or not, they knew exactly where he was going. They knew he was heading straight for the church and he was going to have to end up there if he wanted to save his child.
When Shantal paid for her food and took the bag, she sped off toward the hotel, fully aware that they had lost an entire day and there was going to be an army waiting them when they finally got to that church. Something told her that no matter how powerful and strong Vincenzo was, Flavus was going to be just as strong. Flavus was just as old as he was and he was the last of the cohorts that had been with Vincenzo.
They were going to be evenly matched and that meant it was going to be a true, old fashioned show-down and they were going to have to fight to the death. All she had to do was make sure Blake got into the church and that he was touched with the holy water to make sure everything worked and that they weren’t left alone.
Driving back to the hotel, she quickly got out of her car and headed back to their room. Vincenzo was waiting for her, holding his son for the first time since he had seen him and the moment she entered the room, he looked up and he suddenly understood that he had been foolish and had left a glaring weakness in their plan.
The look in his eyes told her everything; he was fully aware of every thought going through her head. The look on his face told her that he didn’t have a solution and there wasn’t really an easy way to get out of this one. She was going to have to help him and they were going to have to go into this with fresh eyes and a new plan.
“We need to go,” he said, looking to the window and turning back to her. “We’ve already lost too much time.”
He handed Blake to her with all the care and finesse she had ever seen him have and she took him willingly, handing him the keys to their car and letting him go for the driver’s seat. She watched as he stepped out into the twilight of the day and closed the car door behind him. There was a look on his face that showed he was ready for business and that he was tired of playing around. She knew the feeling. She knew it extremely well.
They were across state lines in less than an hour and as she ate her meal, she suddenly realized her appetite was diminishing with each thought that she had about what they were going up against. There was nothing exciting about this and nothing that made her think they could handle it in absolutely any way.
There was no way they were going to be equipped to take on this kind of a fight without any kind of backup or any kind of help. They should have had something to their advantage, and when they lost their distance, there was really no hope for them. They were going to be beaten and defeated.
“Don’t think like that,” he told her angrily. “They might be there right now, but we still have a chance. All that matters is that we get Blake into the church and get him touched by holy water before they can get to him. Once he’s blessed, there is nothing they can do to him.”
She nodded to him and wished she had more of a plan than she did to help him out. She couldn’t think of anything that was really going to help them. Vincenzo had been the one who had been training for years to defend their son and to make sure he was safe.
In all of that time, she hadn’t even been alive. In fact, she doubted that the majority of her dominant bloodline had been around. Right now, she was nothing more than the decoration coming along with him to carry the baby. For all her strength and independence, she had nothing to offer him.
––––––––
SHE KNEW HE COULD HEAR all of this, but she didn’t care. It was the truth of the situation and they both needed to come to terms with it. She was going to help out in every way that she could, but that didn’t mean it was going to be pretty or particularly useful.
In fact, she had the full understanding that what they were going up against was very real and there was a very serious chance she was going to end up dead. She looked at him when she thought that and she could see the hurt in his dark eyes.
He didn’t want that and she was grateful he didn’t, but wishful thinking wasn’t going to make her armored or competent against these people.
“I want you to be prepared when we get there,” he told her with a calm voice after an hour of silence with nothing but her thoughts to keep them company. His voice was startling and she was terrified by it for a moment, jumping at the sound of it. “The church is going to seem like nothing more than an old church. It’s not the first church to be built, but it’s the first church that vampires were destroyed in.
“It’s holy ground and only a truly powerful vampire will be able to step foot inside of the church. That means, while I’m distracting Flavus and the rest of his freaks, you’re going to need to get inside the church as quickly as possible and use the holy water on Blake. It will be super obvious. It’s a basin right at the entrance to the sanctuary and all you have to do is dip your finger in it and touch it to his head. You don’t have to say anything or do anything more than that.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding to him. “But how do I get in there? Won’t there be an army of vampires between us and the church?”
“Leave that to me,” he said with a rather dark and confident voice.
She didn’t want to leave that to him at all. She didn’t want to leave any part of this plan to him, especially when he was being super ominous and grim sounding.
She needed to have information and details right then and him being like that was not really helping out her confidence any. She looked at him and wished that he would give her more than a mischievous smile and a confident look to help her rest at ease with him.
He was the kind of man who liked to keep her in suspense and she hated that. He wanted her to be impressed by him and while she was totally impressed by him, it didn’t stop her from worrying and feeling like she was going to have a heart attack at any moment.
The church they were looking for was on the outskirts of Boston and that told her it truly was old. As they drove past it, she could see the shadowy figures of men and women dressed in black standing among the tombstones surrounding the church on the west side of the little knoll it was on top of. There were trees surrounding the little hill and she knew it was the vision of the church given form.
This was the physical manifestation of the dream she had experienced and it was beginning to freak her out. Part of her wanted to tell him they should just come back during the day, but she knew there would probably be traps all over, waiting for her.
When they drove past, she was surprised they didn’t immediately rush the car or that they didn’t seem to notice he was there. She thought that it was strangely inobservant of them, for creatures that had been such great trackers up to this point. What had turned them around so much? What had made them so incredibly incompetent toward them right now?
“They can’t smell me because I’m in the car,” he said after a moment. “I’m guessing our motorcyclist friends didn’t get back to them with the description of our car. Or, they figured we’d ditch the car for something else.”
She was beginning to realize that this was going to be their dynamic from now on. She was going to say something and he was going to just read her mind no matter what. She knew there was going to be a point where he was going to have to stop, but she figured that right now wasn’t the time to argue with him.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked her.
“I think so,” she said, not sure what that meant, but she felt like she was about to throw up.
“Okay, good luck,” he said to her, leaning across the seat and placing his lips on hers and she didn’t realize that they were actually kissing until it was too late.
He was pulling away and she reached out to touch him as he headed off into the distance. She closed the door and slipped over into the driver’s seat, waiting for whatever signal he was going to give her.
She didn’t know what he meant exactly, but he wasn’t going to give her any more details other than that. She was truly horrified to think about what kind of signal he would come up with on his own. It would probably be something ghastly and obscene. Maybe the signal would be vanishing for another nine months.
She knew she was bitter and she looked back at Blake who was sleeping through all of this.
She didn’t like the idea of him being all alone out there, fighting an army of vampires by himself, but it sounded like this was what Vincenzo Titus lived for and this was the great final battle he had been setting himself up for. She wasn’t sure how she wanted to take that, but she had faith in him.
Close to the church, she watched as an enormous blossom of flame rippled through the sky and she thought this had to be the signal she was waiting for. He must have done something right, because the explosion looked like it was going to illuminate everything for a mile around the battleground. She looked at the glow of the church and the sudden appearance of all of the shadowy figures lit up by the explosion.
She wondered how many vampires had been caught in it and if Vincenzo was okay. Watching that explosion reminded her that she was working with the best and she didn’t need to be nearly as terrified as she currently was. There was room for confidence and she had to keep her faith in him.
With the ball of fire, she knew they were going to be fine and that this was going to be the day they saved their son. Faith was restored in her and she could feel the courage swelling inside of her, coming to life like a wildfire, igniting in the glow of the fireball.
Plunging the keys into the ignition, she started the car. She knew what her role in the plan was and they were both counting on her to make the most of his distraction. Whether Vincenzo survived this or not was irrelevant. No matter how painful of a thought that was, the only thing that mattered was that she had to get inside of that church and get Blake to that holy water. Everything else was expendable and that meant this car they’d been driving in was probably going to be the first casualty of this coming conflict.
Revving the engine, she looked over her shoulder at Blake. She hoped he wouldn’t see anything that was about to happen and she really hoped this wasn’t going to be something that scarred him too much. She wanted him to come out of this undamaged, with his mental stability. She was going to have a lot to explain to him one day, but right now, she just wanted her baby. She just wanted everything to work out for the best.
The back tires of the car began to whirl and hiss as she put the pedal to the floor. She knew she was going to be just fine when she made it there. She took a deep breath and looked in the direction of the church, letting go of the brake and speeding off towards it. She could feel the car lurching angrily forward, hungry to get some action. The whole car began to roar forward and it was going with the speed and ferocity of a wild animal, charging her enemies and going toward them with abandon and wild desire.
She could feel her heart pounding and she knew this was going to be terrifying. This was something she never would have imagined she was going to do in her life and here she was, driving like a reckless woman toward the heart of the action.
As the church drew closer and closer, she could feel her whole body shivering in nervous anticipation. This was going to be the most intense moment of her life and she couldn’t believe she was actually doing it. She couldn’t believe there was nothing between her and the church but an open road; there was going to be a horde of vampires there soon.
She could see the flickering light of the fire lingering from the explosion Vincenzo had caused and there was even more that was disturbing to her. She could see something truly intense happening in the cemetery and as she watched the shadowy figures dashing across the road, she could see a thick, dark cloud of gray drifting over the cemetery, creating a literal fog of war, keeping them from being able to see what was happening.
She looked at the cloud and felt her heart beat getting faster and faster. She knew it was only a matter of time before she passed into that cloud of ash and dust and she would be speeding toward the church’s front doors and there would be no way to see the vampires as they were darting across the road.
What was she doing? This was insane. She was going to hurt herself or Blake. This was not what good parents did and this was not going to be a good ending for this drive. She quelled the scream in the back of her throat and refused to give in to it. She wasn’t going to wake up Blake and she was going to make sure he was sleeping soundly through the majority of this. She wanted to make sure he got out of this unscathed and that he wasn’t worried about any of this when he opened his little eyes.
As she entered the thick cloud of dust, she looked around and couldn’t help but feel terrified for the fact that Vincenzo was out there. He was out in the thick of it, fighting for both of them to be safe. There were countless figures out there in the haze. She didn’t slow down for any of them, even if Vincenzo was one of them.
She was going to go through all of them if she had to; there was no stopping her now. She wondered what the explosion had been and she hoped that everything was safe and okay with Vincenzo. She didn’t want anything to happen to him, but she knew he would be fine. He was competent and strong. She had faith he would be fine.
There was a loud bang and it rattled through the car as she hit the gate leading to the church and she started to ascend the slope, feeling the car lifting up as they were heading closer and closer to the building that was going to be their final stop.
She knew this was the most insane thing she’d ever done and she was truly horrified of what might happen when she got out of the car. It wasn’t like she could just roll down her window and order some holy water.
She was going to have to unbuckle Blake, take him out of the car and up the steps to the church. She was going to try and put them as close to it as possible, but she knew there was really no getting past the fact that she was going to have to unbuckle her baby and get him out of the car, and that she was going to be extremely vulnerable in that position. There would be no one around to help her when she was alone in that situation.
The fog of the dust and ash began to clear and she saw she was rolling over the grass, heading to the top of the hill where the church was waiting for her. She could feel the terror inside of her growing with every passing moment. She wasn’t ready for this and she was afraid she wasn’t going to be able to make it. She wasn’t going to survive it, because there was a figure standing right in front of the church.
The vampire was a tall man with a body very similar to Vincenzo, the kind of build she had come to associate with vampires. He was standing there, his brown hair long and greasy looking, as he watched Shantal coming up toward him faster and faster.
She didn’t know what he was waiting for, but she knew nothing was going to stop her from plowing into him.
There was a smile spreading across the thin lips on his pale face and she could feel the scream building up in her throat. She knew they were going to collide and she was afraid of doing it. She was afraid of hurting him. But when she saw him standing there, holding up his hands like he was ready to embrace her, she knew she had no choice but to hit him at full speed. She was going to destroy him when she hit him at the speed she was traveling. She closed her eyes and felt the car lurching forward.
There was no saving this vampire and she immediately knew that it was Flavus. This was the vampire that had been hunting Vincenzo for all of these years and she was going to put him in the ground. Well, she was going to render him to ash.
The car hit him with all the speed that she was traveling. She applied the brakes so she wouldn’t run into the building, but there was no slowing down when she hit the vampire. Flavus was thrown away, hurled toward the building and there was nothing to break his impact except for the closed doors.
The doors of the church were flung wide and he vanished into the dark of the building. The impact was so powerful that she thought she may have killed him. There was nothing she could understand about him. He hadn’t turned to ash and all she could think about was that there was probably a reason for that. He was probably seriously wounded, but she didn’t know if there was any way he could have survived.
He had to be dead. She looked into the church, her headlights shining straight inside and she couldn’t see a thing. She couldn’t see any sign of him. Her palms were sweaty and her face was flushed as she tried her hardest to get her breath back.
She tried to get a hold of herself. She was still here and he was gone. She figured there was no way he was still alive and she had to get out of here. She had to get Blake inside.
Struggling to open the car door, she had to sneak out through the tiny crack in the door because it banged against the wrought iron railing that led up the steps she had crashed into. She finally got out, went around and opened the back door to get Blake out of the car. She tried her hardest to block out the snarls and shrieks coming through the cloud of ash that was growing stronger and bolder with every passing second.
She knew Vincenzo was still out there and that he was still putting up the fight necessary for them to keep their child alive. He would never give up.
Blake seemed like he was entirely unaware of everything. He was still asleep and she gently unbuckled him, pulled him out of the car seat and took him from the car. All she could think about was that they were standing out in the open, surrounded by vampires.
They were so close and she needed to get him to that holy water; first she needed to find it. She looked back out at the cloud of ash and there was lots of movement, but she couldn’t see anything.
Heading into the church, she made sure the car was still on and the lights were shining inside for them. Taking the steps carefully, she headed inside the church. She knew that they were safe, finally safe, the monsters were outside and there was nothing she had to worry about. They were going to be safe inside the church, which was what Vincenzo had told her. She just needed to make sure they found the holy water.
The basin was waiting for them and as she approached it, she didn’t think it was anything special. In fact, it didn’t look like much at all as she stood in front of it and stared into the clear pool of water standing by the hallway.
Shantal had never really been a religious person, but she had seen the movies where people dipped their fingers in holy water and did some kind of gesture with it. She didn’t know the specifics, but she thought she could figure it out. As they walked into the church, she could hear the insanity continuing outside.
The basin was cold to the touch as she adjusted Blake in her arms. He was starting to wake up and she was seriously beginning to wonder how they were going to get out of here. They had talked about getting him blessed by the holy water and that had been it. There had really been no talk about them getting out of this place and that was really starting to get at her. She didn’t want to be locked in here for the rest of her life. She wanted to get Vincenzo and run.
She thought they would be able to get to the car and be able to drive out of here. They might still have a chance, but she had banged up the car pretty badly hitting the steps of the church and ramming into Flavus.
She was no car expert, but she was fairly certain things were seriously messed up with the car and there was no escaping the damage she had done to it. She took a deep breath and kept her fingers in the water, wondering if it was safe to touch him right now.
If there was one thing Shantal knew about herself, it was the fact that she was not a religious person. No matter how hard she had tried to get into the movement over her life, she had constantly been a disappointment to her parents and to herself when she tried to believe in something beyond her that existed in a metaphysical world.
She felt like it was all fairy tales and when she thought about it now, it seemed so foolish that she wouldn’t believe in God or anything like that. Right now, she was surrounded by vampires and they were trying to kill her child. She needed a chance to believe.
In those moments, holding her son, she knew she was going to pray and she did with all the emotion and all the passion that she could muster for herself. She couldn’t bear to think about a world without her son or where they were constantly running from vampires.
She didn’t want that and she didn’t want to run away from everything. She wanted the life that she had prepared for them and she wanted to be able to say that she had given her life for everything she could. If she couldn’t count on some unseen father figure to give her a chance here, she hoped there would be a chance that maybe she would be wrong. She hoped the cynicism and the bitterness would melt away for once and this would truly work for her.
Touching her wet fingertips to Blake’s head, he hardly reacted and nothing happened. There was no swirling and swelling moment where she thought she would be able to feel some holy connection that meant they were safe.
There was no golden light shining down from the heavens; nothing like that. She could feel nothing, but the exact same feeling she had felt again and again for every day of her life.
Terror seeped into her and she dipped her fingers into the water again and she touched his forehead one more time, just to make sure she had done it right. As she looked at Blake, she expected something to happen. How did she know it had worked? How did she know they were going to be safe? Her heart began to race as she heard clapping from the far side of the sanctuary.
Flavus didn’t look so good. He was the kind of man who was clearly a vampire and there was really no hiding the fact. His face was pale, blackened and bruised from the beating her car had given him. As he walked, there was a limp in his step which might suggest that her car had been a little more powerful than she had expected, but the fact that he was still alive alarmed her.
“Did you really think that would work?” he asked her in a cold, vicious voice.
His voice sounded like it was coming from another planet, like it wasn’t really a voice any human should ever have. She took a step back, clutching Blake and feeling the terror welling up inside of her.
“You think the superstitions of a thousand year old tradition is actually anything more than people making themselves feel good? You think Vincenzo knows anything about our people? I’ll give you a hint, little girl, he has no idea. No one knows a thing about our people and that’s what makes us so terrifying to everyone. We’re enigmas. So holy water and a little hope isn’t going to save your child.”
He reached out, his hand stretching so he could almost pull Blake toward him without even touching him. It was a horrifying gesture, but as Flavus reached out to point his hand at Blake, they both watched as his hand began to smoke and she realized that her prayers had come true.
Shantal watched the disappointment and the horror spread across Flavus’ face as he realized that the blessing had worked for her child and there was no way he was going to be able to touch Blake.
Withdrawing his hand, he looked at it, smoking and smoldering and she watched a smile spread across his face. It was the dangerous kind of smile that said to her that in his defeat, he was going to be trouble. In his defeat, he was thinking about how he might go down in glory. She didn’t like the look on his face at all. There was something about it that was venomous and lethal. She wanted to smack him and tell him to behave, to accept his defeat with humility.
But there would be none of that.
“Vincenzo wins again,” Flavus chuckled at the sight of his hand. “I can’t say I’m surprised. For centuries, he has been roaming the earth, hunting our kind. He has yet to accept what he is, but one day he will. He can’t kill every vampire, but I think I’ll show him the trouble of dealing with mortals and trying to make them part of his life. I’ll show him the futility of it, so that he can better understand his folly. It’ll be an education of sorts.”
“You can’t harm Blake,” she said to him. Shantal dug in and knew there was nothing she had to worry about when she was with her son. He was going to be just fine.
“I know,” he said with a grim expression on his face. “That’s unfortunate. But, I know Vincenzo cares about you. He wouldn’t have gone through all of this if he didn’t truly care about you. I think I’ll kill you and let him know he still has weaknesses. It’ll be good for him to see that even the great Vincenzo has his weaknesses.”
Flavus walked toward her and she realized that her child was only helpful for her if Flavus had intentions with him. There was nothing she could do holding him. She realized that her holding him was putting him in danger. He could kill her and she could accidentally drop her child. That would be the doom of Blake.
She set him down softly and she reached out, grabbing a piece of wood that had broken off the doors when Flavus had been hurled through them. She was going to defend herself to the very end. There was no way that she was going to go down in this fight.
There was no way she was going to die. She was adamant that she was going to live to see another day and defeat this creature, or at least, keep him distracted until Vincenzo could show up and take over.
“You cannot win this, human,” he snarled at her, just inches away from her and moving calmly, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
She felt nervous, like this was the end of everything she had worked for. There was no protecting her son now.
Shantal wasn’t going to be able to save him from this.
“When you’re dead, I’ll burn this place down around your child,” he told her with the utmost confidence. “There won’t be anyone to save him.”
That was it. He had struck a nerve with her and she wasn’t going to give him the chance to threaten her and her child like that. He had gone too far and she was going to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him. Gripping the piece of wood like a spear, she knew she was going to put this piece of wood through him and turn him into ash.
Taking a deep breath, she snarled at him and let out a war cry, charging at him and trying her hardest to remember what Vincenzo had told her. He had said ancient vampires had bones that were like stone and the only way for her to kill him was to slip a piece of wood or metal between his rock hard ribs and pierce his heart. The thought of it was something that was going to make her wish she had never thought about this before. She was going to do whatever it took.
As she aimed the piece of wood and charged, she watched him dance aside from her strike and grab her, throwing her down the aisle between the benches and pews like she was nothing more than a child’s doll to be played with.
She let out a cry and felt herself flying through the air, everything slowing down and making her feel like she was floating through the air for a second. Her thoughts were clear and she knew she was going to hit the ground hard. She could feel the panic welling up inside of her. She wasn’t ready for this.
Hitting the ground as hard as she figured she would, she landed on her shoulder and she was fairly certain she had bruised the bone and the muscle around it. She was going to be feeling that pain tomorrow and weeks to come, of course, if she survived this. Gritting against the pain, she looked down the aisle to where Flavus was looking at her child like a fox who couldn’t quite get to the hens. She glared at him, highlighted by the lights of her car.
“You should give up,” he said with a wicked voice, enjoying every second of this. “I have lived a thousand lifetimes and I’ve seen more than you could possibly comprehend. I’ve killed more people than your entire bloodline. I’ve done more horrors than you could possibly imagine.
“Your death, it will pass as if nothing happened and I won’t even be able to recall your face when I think back to this moment. All I’m going to remember is making Vincenzo ache and making his heart break at the sight of you dead with your child.”
“He’ll kill you,” she told him sternly, watching him walking toward her, leaving Blake alone and shifting his full focus to her. His eyes were vicious and cold, like the eyes of a snake going in for the kill. “He’s killing your army right now.”
“Armies can be replaced,” he assured her with a grin on his lips. “Armies are cheap. All I have to do is find some fools who want to be my eternal slaves. That’s all I have to do.”
He was standing over her, grinning like he was about to deliver the killing blow to his oldest enemy, but she knew he was going to be sorely disappointed. There was no way he was going to survive this. He thought he was so powerful and that was his greatest weakness. He thought people were insignificant playthings for him.
“Go to hell,” she said to him.
Before he could laugh or he could say something funny to her, she slammed her arm upwards and drove the piece of wood in between his ribs, slamming it as hard as she could into his chest. She looked at him as his eyes widened just a hair, staring at her with a fixed gaze as he felt the alien object inside of him, unwelcome and no doubt going to kill him any second now. As she jammed the piece of wood into him, she didn’t feel bad about it. She didn’t feel anything inside of her dying or part of her soul changing. When she killed the monster in front of her, all she felt was a void inside of her.
It was a strange sensation, killing something. Shantal had gone her whole life without being violent toward another living thing; she hadn’t even hit a squirrel in the road. She was one of those people who let spiders out when she captured them instead of killing them.
She had gone an entire life without killing a single thing and here she was, twisting a piece of wood that was inside an ancient living thing, hoping it would be gone once and for all. As she twisted the wood, she gave it one more push and drove Flavus to his knees.
The other vampires had died so quickly, without any kind of ceremony or fuss, but when Flavus was on his knees, he just looked at the piece of wood that was jutting out from him and stared at it. He looked like he was wearing some kind of costume, like none of this was real. There was no blood and there was nothing to indicate it was anything special, but as he reached up and clutched the piece of wood in his pale fingers, she knew he was done for. There was no coming back from this and he was as good as dead.
He looked up from the piece of wood at her and she wondered if he could feel the weight of his years slipping off his shoulders and all of the horrors he had contained within him over the centuries of killing and slaughtering, whether they all came gushing out. She wondered how many ghosts were inside of him right now, clawing to be free finally.
“How is this possible?” he asked her, looking at the chunk of wood again. “I should have lived forever.”
“No one lives forever,” she told him and watched as his skin began to peel away, like embers drifting in the breeze, glowing and turning to ash as his whole body began to break and crumple, turning into nothing more than a heap of ash filling the sanctuary with the ruins and the wastes of Flavus.
She thought about all the people who probably died for this and how many had been hurt because of Flavus hunting her. As she watched him turn to ash, she didn’t feel bad for him. All she thought was that everything she had been through had been such a waste. Everything had been so stupid up to this point. How could they have been so foolish?
A soft cry rang out through the sanctuary and drew her attention. She turned and looked at Blake who was still lying on the floor and she ran as quickly as her legs could carry her to the little bundle of love and purity. She couldn’t believe that she had given birth to something so perfect and so precious. It seemed impossible that they were finally free of Flavus and his minions. She looked out at the sloping knoll of the church and she could still hear the sounds of the battle happening.
She thought it would be over by now, but it sounded like they were in retreat. Something told her they could tell Flavus was dead and that they were in trouble. With nothing left to fight for, they fled. They were safe for now and as she cuddled with Blake, she knew it was time to go home. It was time to set things right that they had lost. She was eager to start again and all she could think about was finding Vincenzo.
She hoped he was still alive and well. She hoped he would live to see his son grow up into an immortal who was all the great and wonderful things a vampire could be, but without any of those dark and terrible negative effects.
Now that they were free of Flavus and his kind, she wondered what his life would be like. Were there other immortals out there who would recognize him or sense that he was out there? Would there be other immortals who would come for him?
Honestly, she didn’t know, but something told her they were going to be just fine from this day forward. She rocked her son, looking at him with a smile on her face. She didn’t care what was waiting for them; so long as she had him with her, they were going to be just fine. They were going to be safe and secure with Vincenzo. She looked out at the cloud of ash, praying that Vincenzo was still with them.
As the cloud began to fade, she watched a single figure coming through, walking slowly with exhaustion weighing heavily on his shoulders. She smiled at the sight of him. Yeah, they were going to be just fine.
*