Grave Obsessions
To fight evil you’ve got to use evil.
To fight evil you’ve got to use evil.
One
The puncture marks were deep, the flesh torn. The crimson blood had spilled all over the wound, running down the pale skin of my neck, making it look messier then it really was.
The thick poison was seeping through my veins, travelling at a painfully slow speed. Soon it would reach my heart, stopping it dead. It was burning its way through my body, slowly killing any and every human part of me.
The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt, my skin was burning, I felt like I was on fire, slowly melting apart with every passing second. My head pounded, my ears rang. I couldn’t even hear myself screaming, but I knew I was. It was so painful that I was being held down by two sets of arms, so distraught that I was fighting against my restraints, screaming so loudly my throat was dry, the sound felt like it was tearing apart my flesh just to get out.
That pain was nothing compared to the venomous liquid searing through my veins, burning me from the inside out, slowly destroying me, slowly taking away my life.
I was screaming so loudly I ran out of voice, I was in so much pain I had drawn blood from biting on my lips. My hands were bloody and sore from clawing at my skin, from pushing against my captors, from trying to escape.
All of my attempts to escape were futile. They had won, I was going to die, or worse, I was going to become one of them.
All the fighting I had done, my entire life, it was all wasted because of this very moment.
***
I sat bolt upright in bed, my head spinning, my body covered in beads of sweat. I ran my hands over my arms trying to extinguish the lingering feelings of the fire cursing through my veins.
It was a dream. It was only a dream. It all starts with a dream; everything always starts with a dream, a vision, a nightmare.
I ran my hands over my neck, feeling for any sign of the blood that had been trickling down it moments before, searching for the cuts, the puncture marks, the evidence. It was clean, there was no blood, no puncture marks, nothing.
It was a nightmare. It wasn’t real. It didn’t happen; there was no tangible evidence of me having even been touched.
I took several deep breaths, I needed to calm down, and I needed to clear the images out of my head. I needed to get rid of the feeling of the poison running through me, the poison slowly killing me, extinguishing everything human about me. It all felt so real, and the feelings were still lingering over me.
I ran a hand through my damp hair, trying to calm myself. My dreams were always filled with scary things, my nightmares always vivid, but they were never like this. They were never this real, they never felt like this, I could still feel the hands pinning me down. The scariest part of it all was that my dreams always meant something, I always dreamed things that were about to happen, or that were already happening. I was more than familiar with the feeling of ‘déjà vu’ or even ‘premonitions’. I didn’t consider myself psychic, more just intuitive.
I couldn’t shake the thoughts of that happening to me from my head. I had fought my whole life to stop that from happening to anyone, the thought of it happening to me made me feel sick. It made my stomach churn, and my mouth go dry. I was never going to become one of them; I will never let that happen to me, never. I would never become a vampire.
Vampires were the most filthy and evil things to roam this earth, they killed anyone and everyone. They had no morals, no ethics; they were simply evil creatures, damned for all eternity.
I had spent my entire life hunting and killing them, I had grown up loathing them. This life isn’t a normal one, especially for an 18 year old girl, but it’s my life and my destiny, I was called to live this life. I was one of the chosen few that had to live this life to protect everyone else. No one knows that while they sleep we roam the streets, protecting them and their dreams. While they sleep peacefully, unaware, we stop anything and everything from trying to harm them. We are the angels of the night, guarding them.
We are the protectors of the whole human race; we are the protectors of the good. We keep the creatures too evil for hell at bay.
I have seen more things in my life that you would never even know existed. I’ve seen things that would make you afraid to close your eyes again; I’ve done things that you couldn’t even dream about.
Why? Why do I do all this?
That’s simple. I do this because I was chosen; I do this because I am a protector, because I am an Infernal Guard, the slayer of the damned and the saviour of the innocent.
For centuries evil has plagued the earth, for centuries and you would have never known it. You would have never known it because of us, because we keep it from destroying your lives, we keep it from seeping into your life and destroying you. We’ve kept it out of history; we’ve kept it from your sights. We keep you safe.
I am one of the select few that are chosen to do this, one of the few who give their lives to protect the human race. I don’t know a life outside this, this is what I do, and this is who I am. This is what I was born to do. I am a protector of the innocent and a slayer of the damned. I know nothing else, I can dream of a life without this, but I don’t know how to live it.
This life is all I can remember, this lifestyle is all I know. I am trained to kill, I am trained to protect. My schooling didn’t consist of learning different mathematical equations, or writing poems, my schooling consisted of being trained how to fight, being taught history of evils you couldn’t even imagine, reading ancient stories. I know the history you know; only I know it better, I know more about it, and I know the truth.
I know all the same stories you do, all the same fairytales, myths and legends, but I know them better, I know the real stories, and I’ve seen more of them than you’ll ever know.
I know how to fight better than anyone you will ever know, I am stronger than you would think. Trained in combat by masters of the art, I can kill people with one hand. I know how to use weapons you didn’t even think existed.
We don’t use guns; guns are useless for what we fight. They are effective if you want to kill a human, a person with a heartbeat, but when you are trying to kill the undead they are useless. Shoot a vampire and nothing will happen, it would be like a scratch, healed within minutes.
The only way to effectively kill a vampire, in the quickest way, is to either chop of their head or strike him through the heart. Either way, when you are finished you have to burn the remains. If you fail to burn the remains then you probably failed to really kill the beast anyway. There are stories of people who forget to burn the bodies, forget to clean up their mess, most of those people go missing or wind up dead, and the vampire winds up killing more innocent people.
A vampire is hard enough to deal with, but a vengeful vampire is even worse. They have enternity to plot their revenge.
“Lilly?” I was snapped from my thoughts by a whispered voice shattering the silence. “Lilly are you awake?”
“Yes Marty” I replied, letting my body relax, letting myself breathe again. “I’m awake.”
“I thought I heard something” he said into the darkness, the need for whispering now gone. He flicked on the light at the wall, bathing the room with bright light. I let my eyes painfully focus and adjust to the new brightness of their surroundings. “A bad dream?” he asked.
Marty was always fishing for information from me. I was one of the only Infernal’s to get premonition like dreams, therefore he was always interested to hear about my nights dreams.
They didn’t always come true, my dreams, but more often than not they were a clue about something. They were always a starting point, or in some cases, an ending point.
“Something like that” I nodded, getting up out of my small bed and pulling on a jumper. I wasn’t in any hurry to replay this dream to him; I didn’t want him to get worried, or to start trying to get any big ideas about protecting me.
Marty was human, pure and simple. He wasn’t an Infernal Guard, nor was he a Guide to any Guards. He was simply a human who was caught up in our world. If it was my choice, I would have never let him get so involved in our world, but someone else did. He was 25, and he looked every bit his age. Years of pouring over books, staying indoors and worrying about friends had taken a toll on his appearance.
He was taken into our care after the brutal murder of his parents, which of course, the Guards had tried to stop. He was seven years old, the sole human survivor of the whole night. With no family left, and no idea about what he had just witnessed, Marty was distraught. He latched onto the only person he thought he could trust, he clung to one of the Guard’s there that night.
Ever since then he has been part of our world, studying everything we do. He wasn’t in any way physically strong like us, but he was smart, and he knew every myth, legend and book in our archive. He was, in many ways, important to us, as we were to him.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked me, his pale skin glowing in the light of the room.
“Not right now” I shrugged, I didn’t want to talk about it ever if I could have my way. “What’s the time?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“It’s a little after 5” he replied. “The sun’s set to go down at 6:39 tonight” he added.
The thing I loved most about Marty was the fact that he was like a brother to me, we had grown up here together, and we knew each other inside out. He was the closest thing to real family that I would ever have, everyone here was.
“It was time to get up anyway then” I replied, walking with him into the small kitchen. We all lived in a small house in the middle of town. We lived in a small town, where no one asked any questions. I attended the local high school, Marty worked at the local hardware store. We tried to make ourselves look as normal as possible, despite our anything but ordinary activities.
There were 6 people in total who lived in this house. Marty, myself, three other Guards; Tom, Phillip and Jessie, and our Guide; Isaac. I was the youngest in the house, and also the only female. It wasn’t unusual though, females were not normally called into this life. I was one of the few, if not the sole one.
Tom and Phillip were twins, and Jessie was their younger cousin. It wasn’t unusual for a family to have multiple members called up, it was pretty common. The Infernal Guard’s bloodline can be traced back to essentially come from three separate bloodlines, and only these three bloodlines. People outside these bloodlines were never called, they were never chosen, and they went about their lives oblivious to everything. This was embedded in our blood and our history. Every family has its secrets.
Most people who are chosen are orphans, like myself, but there are a rare few who actually still have living parents. Generally their parents know about the whole thing, they are generally part of the small order that works to keep everything secret and works towards keeping everything supplied and everyone housed. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to function; we wouldn’t be able to operate.
Marty put the kettle on and I sat down at the small table in the kitchen. Spread all over it was various newspapers, and books. Any hint of anything suspicious in the news and we would investigate it. Any hint of anything suspicious coming from our police contacts and we would investigate. We never took any chances.
One of the benefits from living in a small town is that strange news travels fast. If anything out of the ordinary happens, it always gets around.
“Hot chocolate or coffee?” he asked me. I scrunched up my nose at the thought of coffee; it was something I didn’t really like. I only ever drank it because I needed to be awake during the day, but I’d usually settle for any form of energy drink over coffee.
“Hot chocolate” I answered, letting my eyes skim over the papers in front of me.
“How was school today?” he asked me. I groaned, school was the bane of my existence. I had been trained from a young age, so my school with the Guard’s had almost finished, but my regular life schooling was still going. I was in my senior year. I only went to school to keep up the charade that we lived a normal life, to keep our existence secret. It was all just an act.
In truth, I didn’t pay attention in class and barely made any effort in any classes. I didn’t need to pay any attention. The things they were trying to teach me were of no value when I was out there saving the world. If I lived a normal life they might have come as some use to me, but I wasn’t.
I found the whole ritual of me attending school pathetic, everyone else found it amusing. They all loved the fact that I had to spend the majority of my days in a classroom while they got to sleep, train or do anything other than pretend they were learning. I had to complete homework while they got to play around with new weapons and toys. I hated school, so I guess in pretending to be a normal teenager, I fit in rather well.
Socially I was an outcast, not that it at all bothered me. The few friends I did have at school were nice enough, and they didn’t ask any questions as to why I would miss random days of school every now and then. It didn’t matter if I wasn’t popular at school, my school life was really not all that important to me. I cherished the few friends that I had, but it was safer for them if I didn’t get too involved in their lives and in turn they in mine.
“It was long” I replied. I hated having to get up at 7 almost every morning to go to school and not getting home til 3. It made staying up late like I do really rather hard. That was the reason behind my afternoon nap. When you have to be up at 7 but really can’t go to bed until the sun goes down there really isn’t much time for sleep. The boys were lucky in the fact that they got to sleep during the day, I however had to attend classes and make it seem like we were normal people. Although, I managed to adapt to the lack of sleep rather well.
The idea behind our unusual situation was that Isaac was my father, and the boys were all my brothers. Although we all didn’t really look that much alike, the fact that we all acted alike made the lie believable.
“It was long and boring Marty, I really can’t wait to be done with it. They keep telling these muted down versions of history, sometimes I wonder what they would do if they knew the truth” I added, skimming my hand over the hard leather bound book on the table.
“You know they’ll never know Lil” he replied. “They can’t know.”
It was true, they couldn’t know the truth, and they wouldn’t know how to handle it. It would be like telling the world that their worst nightmare was true. They were better off thinking that terrorism was their biggest threat.
That’s why we worked so hard at keeping things a secret. Can you imagine what would happen if it all got out? If people were suddenly aware that all the things they had read about in stories, all the evils they conjure up in the darkest pits of their minds was all true?
The world would erupt into chaos. People would no longer be able to function. Fear grips people in different ways, some people would try to fight, others would try to become vampires, and others would hide. Ultimately, they would all die. Normal humans aren’t equipped to deal with the sorts of things that I’ve seen. We were bred for this; we were made to defend them.
The vampires also try to keep a lid on things. They also seem to have a hierarchy under which they operate. It seems even the most evil people can have rules to live by. They are in no way as careful as we are, but they are not going around proclaiming to the world exactly who and what they are. In some ways life might be easier for them, but the fun would be taken out of it. Life is a game to them, and having everyone in on the game would not be as fun. Hunting is a sport and we are all but pawns in their existence. Or so they think.
“I know” I nodded. “It’s just I am sick of hearing these watered down versions of stories. I mean...I hate having to hear about things that aren’t true or that never happened.”
“You’ll be done soon Lil, then you can forget all about it” he soothed, bringing over two steaming mugs. One contained coffee and one hot chocolate, both their aroma’s filled the air. It was a comforting smell to wake up to.
“Are the boys all sleeping?” I asked into my mug, letting the hot steam warm my face.
“Yeah” Marty nodded in response, pulling a paper in front of him. “I don’t know what you did to them last night, but they are all exhausted.”
“I didn’t do anything” I smiled into my mug.
In truth, last night we ran training drills. Things had been slow of late, which of course was unnerving. It was like the calm before the storm.
When things died down we ran lots of training drills to keep each other prepared. Last night it was my turn to be the ‘bad guy’, and the boys hate it when it is my turn. I always make them work hard.
“Sure you didn’t do anything” mumbled Marty. I just kept smiling into my mug, the image of Phillip getting hit in the face and falling flat on his ass just kept flashing through my head.
“Oh good afternoon Lily” smiled Isaac walking into the kitchen. He was older than all of us, probably in his mid 50’s. I never asked his age, and he never gave out that information. He was our Guide, Phillip, Tom, Jessie’s and mine. His job was just that, to guide us, sort of like a mentor. He trained us, kept us in shape, kept us connected to the rest of the Guard’s around the world, and he researched the things going on in the area. He was kind of like a babysitter.
Marty and Isaac together made a perfect team, they both fed off each other. Isaac was the Guard that saved Marty, and between them was a bond that none of us could understand. We didn’t go through what they went through that night, and they are both reluctant to talk about it. I never pressed for details, they were both smart, if I needed to know something, they would tell me.
The great thing about Isaac, despite his greying hair and failing eyesight, he was once a Guard. Not many Guard’s get the chance to retire, but when they do, they become Guides. Who better to train and guide the new recruits then the people who have been there right?
Isaac was once a very well respected and successful Guard, well respected in the right circles. The puzzling thing to me was that he gave it all up, just stopped. He didn’t even become a Guide straight away; he disappeared for years taking Marty with him. Around the time I was chosen he returned. He became my Guide, and later on, after I began my training and learning, the boys joined us.
He never talked about what he did when he disappeared, and neither did Marty.
Marty was there the whole time, in the background watching, helping. Ever since then we have been one big family, not related by blood, but related by situation and cause. We were all fighting for the same thing.
“Good afternoon Isaac” I smiled. In many ways, he was my father figure. Sometimes I felt like I clung to him as a father because I never had one.
“How was school?” he asked me. I rolled my eyes.
“Boring” laughed Marty. “She doesn’t like the human version of history” he chuckled. Isaac just chucked at me, he ran his hand through his hair and proceeded to get himself a drink.
“So what are we doing tonight?” I asked. “More training?”
“After what you put the boys through last night?” laughed Isaac. “I don’t think so. Tonight we will patrol.”
I just mumbled an agreement. Patrolling was boring; it means there was no guaranteed action. For someone like me, who was trained to fight, trained to kill, a night where none of those events take place is a boring one. Patrolling didn’t satisfy that itch for action. It would be something similar to a soldier being trigger happy, itching for action, only I knew what I was doing.
While most people love going to work and having nothing to do, I hated it. When we had nothing to do it made me uneasy. It made me feel like something was coming, or worse, that something was wrong.
Two
I roughly kicked at the person in front of me. The force of my kick pushed them backwards, propelling them into the wall. I heard a small grunt of pain mixed with the impact of the body against the wall.
Before I had a moment to regain my balance two firm hands gripped around my body, jerking me backwards. I felt myself slam into the hard marbled chest of my attacker.
All the air left my body. I gasped for breath as the arms of the person behind me gripped my small frame tighter, firmly crushing against my chest.
“Little Lilly should stay in school” they taunted me, whispering in my ear. Anger and fear built up inside me, boiling as the lips of my attacker brushed against my neck. How did they know my name? It was not like I was someone well known, was I?
They weren’t supposed to know my name; in fact they weren’t supposed to know anything about me. We lived in secrecy; this was not something that was normal.
“Such a strong heart beat” they mused. “So strong and loud...”
They never finished their sentence.
I felt the body behind me go limp, the dead weight slumping against me. I pushed my way out of their now lose grip, untangling myself from their limbs, feeling the fresh air fill my lungs. The moment I was free I was thrown backwards. I didn’t know where the blow came from, but I slammed into a brick wall. The impact crashing through my body, the sound ringing in my ears and spinning in my head.
My body crumbled to the ground, pain shooting through my back. I rolled my eyes as I gingerly got up, gasping for air. I was going to be so bruised tomorrow, how was I supposed to explain that to anyone at school?
I looked up, locking eyes with the monster that had thrown me against the wall. He was tall and thin, his white fangs glistening with blood in the moonlight. It wasn’t my blood; it was the blood of the innocent girl he had tried to make a meal of. That was until we turned up.
His eyes were dark with anger; I could see the flames burning behind his pupils. They were all the same, blood thirsty villans.
Before he could even move towards me, his eyes widened in shock, his tall thin body falling forward hitting the ground with a loud thump.
“Took your time” I hissed at Tom, slowly pulling a piece of broken wood out of my tangled hair.
“Sorry” he replied, kicking the now motionless body of the dead vampire. “The girl kind of took a little more time than I thought...”
“Is she okay?” I asked, praying we got to her in time.
“Dead” he sighed. “We were too late; the venom had spread too far.”
“Fuck” I muttered. “How old was she?”
“16 or 17” he replied, picking up the body in front of him. I sighed and grabbed the other vampire, the one who had known my name. They weren’t supposed to know who we were; the fact that he had called me by my name had made me more than nervous and uneasy.
I followed Tom, dragging the body of the dead vampire behind me. This was the part I hated the most, as if it wasn’t enough to have to fight, you had to clean up after yourself and burn them. The smell of burning flesh is not one that is easy to forget.
“He knew my name Tom” I said as soon as we stopped. We had come to where the girl was, she looked no older than me, he hair tangled, her eyes wide in shock.
“What?” he asked, turning to face me. “He what?”
“He knew my name, he called me Lily” I replied.
“What did he say exactly?” asked Tom. “Tell me everything he said to you.”
“He said ‘Little Lily should have stayed in school’...and then he went on about my strong heart beat” I replied looking at him. If he was panicking in any way he wasn’t showing it. I, however, could feel my heart racing in my chest.
“Come on, we need to burn these bodies, and then we need to get back to Isaac” snapped Tom. The fact that he was desperate to get back to Isaac made me even more scared, it made me feel like there was something I was missing. How could they know my name?
Nothing smells as putrid as burning flesh, and nothing will ever erase that smell from my memory. Despite how many times I have had to do it, and how many times I have seen it done, the smell still shocks me; it still brings me close to tears. That of course was something I would never let anyone else know. In our line of work there can be no room for emotion, it gives you a weakness, something to pick at until you fall apart. I haven’t cried since I was three, and I refuse to let things make me cry. I will not be seen as weak, I will not show weakness.
When I was three, when I was first taken in by the Guards, I was beaten to within an inch of my life. This was my initiation. This was to prove that I was strong enough to be here. The idea behind the beating is to take you close enough to death that you don’t fear it. Being a protector of the innocent, and Guard, you can’t be scared to die. The beatings also happen for another reason, they make you stronger, mentally, and emotionally. They keep going until you no longer cry when you are hit; they keep going until you aren’t scared, until you can’t cry. They make you stronger, they make you better.
Tom and I jogged home in silence. There was nothing we needed or even could say to each other.
My mind was racing. How could this have happened? Did someone slip up? Did someone tell them about us? Was there a traitor amongst us?
No matter how many questions I asked myself I couldn’t come up with any answers. There wasn’t any explanation that I could give myself. My head was swimming with possibilities, but not with answers.
***
The room was eerily dark; it smelt like years of decay. Everything about it was frightening. He moved quickly in the dark, unwilling to linger and waste time. In this day and age, time was something that they couldn’t afford to waste, not any more, they had wasted too much of it already.
They had found her, for so long they had been searching, but now they’d found her. He’d been waiting a lifetime for this moment and now it had come. It was almost painful to have to think about the few more months he might have to wait. He had made it this far, he could make himself wait a few more months.
He’d been dying to meet her, this girl who was supposed to be something so special. What could possibly be so special about her?
She was human after all, it’s not like they are really good for much, except for possibly a meal.
His footsteps echoed in the empty halls, filling the silence. It would be stupid of him to assume that he was alone right now, there were always people watching you in places like this. People could so easily blend in with the stone walls; watch you from the shadows unseen. This is why they were so secretive about everything they did; you never knew who was watching.
He pulled his jacket tighter around himself, as if to protect his body against the cold, wet, damp air of the dark rooms, but he didn’t need really need to be protected from anything.
He hated this life, living in the darkness, fighting every day to stay alive, it wasn’t a life. He hated that he was dead, but yet here he was still living some form of life. He hated that he had been reduced to this creature, to behave like such a monster to survive day to day. He hated that he was existing in this form of limbo, not really dead, but not even close to being alive.
He was an outcast to his own kind, and a demon to the humans. He was everything that was hated in this world, all of that was about to change though. It was all about to get better. They had found her, Lily Evans, the girl who would save them all. She was the one that would bring him his freedom or at least his freedom from them. He was stuck in this life, stuck in this form of living, neither dead nor alive. He just existed. He wanted to be free of this burden; he wanted to either be dead or alive. He wanted to have a soul, to know what it felt like to hold someone in his arms, to have warmth flood through his body, he wanted to know what it was like to be human again.
All the hostility he had towards humans was just jealousy. They didn’t know what it was like for him; they lived their perfect privileged lives while he suffered in the dark. He had gone centuries without feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin, with the moon as his constant companion. He wanted so badly to be human again.
She was supposed to help them; she was supposed to be able to defeat him, to free them from the monstrosity that their existence had become. He didn’t know how, he didn’t care how, all he knew was the she was the one that they needed. She was the one that he needed.
They had to act fast though; she was highly wanted in his world, highly wanted for reasons very different to his own. They wanted her so they could be saved; the others wanted her so that they could doom the world. She was like a key to a hidden treasure.
It was hard to think of an 18 year old human girl as a saviour, but right now she was their only hope to end this suffering that had haunted them for a lifetime.
“Alex” a raspy voice said as he reached the doorway. Inside the room was bathed with light, inside the room were two other people. ‘People’ wasn’t really the word, they weren’t people anymore, they were vampires.
“Marcus” nodded Alex. “Sophia” he added, acknowledging the other figure. “She’s the one” was all he said to the two slim figures. They stood there motionless, emotionless, blankly staring at the younger vampire.
“Are you sure?” asked Sophia, her hard pale face studying the younger male’s.
“Yes” he replied coldly. “She’s the only female left, it has to be her. She’s our last hope in defeating Viktor.”
“Then we must act now” nodded the older male, Marcus, his hand touching Sophia’s. “We must help keep her safe. We must get her on our side.”
“She’s not as weak as you might think” smiled Alex at his older companion. “She easily killed one of Viktor’s men earlier tonight, her partner killing the other and a girl too far gone to save.”
“Where is she now?” asked Marcus.
“Back with her Guide, Isaac” replied Alex. He himself found it hard to believe that a girl so small was capable of defending herself, let along killing a creature as strong as a vampire.
“Good” smiled Sophia. “Isaac is an old friend; I have much faith that he knows how to keep his charges safe.”
“How do you know him?” asked Alex, slightly intrigued at this new information. The older guide was a mystery to him; he had studied him for days but had no idea why he did what he did. He clearly was not as driven as any other the other Guide’s. His goal wasn’t to help his charges kill and protect, it was simply to train them, to keep them fit, healthy and above all safe. He wasn’t worried about the number of kills they had or any of the other trivial things that seemed to be slowly taking over the other Guards.
“We’ve had our run ins in the past” smiled the older woman. “I can promise you he won’t have forgotten me.”
“Enough reminiscing” interrupted Marcus, cutting the topic off before it had begun, Alex tried to read his expression but it was hidden too well. “We have to move now; the sun will be up in a matter of minutes.”
Both Alex and Sophia nodded, in silence the three of them moved, easing gracefully from the well lit room into the darkness, desperate to get to their goal. The sun was completely harmless to them, but it was easier to remain in the darkness of night, safer for them to travel and the best way to stay hidden. Movement during the day was so easily tracked and traced.
***
“What do you mean calm down?” asked Tom. He was more yelling at Isaac, but it was question nevertheless and I didn’t care so much about how it was delivered. I wanted to know the answer too. How did that vampire know my name?
Jessie was sitting at the table watching Tom pace around the kitchen. Marty was quietly and calmly reading a book, and Phillip was leaning against the wall watching Tom, nodding along with him as he yelled around the room, also making sure the older boy didn’t lunge forward and wrap his hands around Isaac’s throat.
Our Guide was being less than helpful, he was just listening to Tom go off, watching the tall boy walk around the room throwing his hands around wildly.
I didn’t understand how everyone else was being so calm, here I was sitting down, my hands white on the table as they talked about me as if I wasn’t in the room. They were talking about vampires that knew about where I lived, knew how I was living, and knew who exactly I was. That was something that was never supposed to happen. We were supposed to be almost unknown, even to our own people. Not many people in the order could list any others in the order other than the people they directly interacted with. We never had large gatherings and kept to ourselves, we remained secret to protect ourselves.
“Isaac, how did they find out?” I asked quietly, interrupting Tom’s passionate ranting. “How and why do they know who I am?”
“I can’t be 100% sure Lily, but I do know that it means that you’re not safe anymore” he sighed, breaking his silence. “I haven’t always been honest with the three of you, and for that I am sorry but it was in your best interest, and you must believe me when I say that I never really thought that this day would come. I never believed in the myths or legends...”
“What?” asked Jessie, looking up from the table. “What day? What myths? What legends?”
“This day” replied a dark figure from the corner. He stepped into the light, followed by two other people. My heart instantly began to race as I recognized the distinct features, the sharp teeth, and the pale skin. They were here for me, I knew they were and it sent a shiver down my spine.
The boys made a move to defend themselves against these intruders, but Isaac silenced them, I didn’t hear or notice much of the commotion. My eyes were fixated on the youngest of the three of them, the tall, pale, handsome boy with piercing blue eyes. He stood there, straight and tall, staring right back at me. I felt as if he were looking right through me and into my soul, I felt bare and exposed to him. I quickly diverted my eyes and looked at Isaac, greeting these three vampires with what seemed to be open arms. I was more than confused.
“Who are you?” I asked the oldest of the three of them. He seemed like the logical person to ask, he had this aura of being in charge, he held himself with poise that suggested he was in charge.
“My name is Marcus, this is my wife Sophia and that is my son Alex” he replied graciously, his smooth voice seeming to calm the volatile atmosphere in the room. “I am sorry to interrupt your morning, but we wouldn’t be here unless we thought it were completely necessary.”
“I understand” nodded Isaac. What exactly was going on here? Why were there three vampires standing in my kitchen? Was Isaac friends with these blood sucking animals?
“Isaac what is going on?” demanded Phillip, stepping forward into the light of the room. He looked angry.
“It’s a long story Phillip” sighed Isaac, seemingly unwilling to divulge any more information.
“Well start at the beginning old man” demanded Tom. “Because this is getting ridiculous. There are three unannounced vampires in the kitchen, Lily’s life seems to be in some kind of danger, and you are rather calm about this whole situation.”
“These vampires are nothing to be worried about” replied Isaac calmly. “They are friends of mine, old friends, and they are very much on our side.”
“Our side?” interrupted Jessie. “How can you be sure? Last time I checked there was no such thing as a good vampire, and I didn’t really know that vampires and Guard’s had a side.”
“They are on our side, these people are my friends” replied Isaac firmly. “They are here because time has apparently run out.”
“What do you mean time has run out?” asked Phillip. I sat silently watching the exchange between all of them, wishing I knew what was going on. My head was filled with questions that I knew better than to ask. All the while I could feel the eyes of the youngest vampire Alex on me, he made me uneasy.
“I was hoping it would never come to this” he sighed. “The reason I took the four of you on as charges was to protect Lily. I knew that if I could train you all together, if I could make you strong as a team; make you aware of the world around you, of each other’s strengths and weaknesses that when the time came, if the time came, everything would be okay.
Then other females started getting called into the order and suddenly Lily wasn’t as special as they had originally thought, or so they concluded. I was still sceptical. So I stuck with you all, after all, I had grown rather fond of you, I started to think of you as my own children.
Females are not supposed to be called to duty; it was never the way it worked. They were the people that worked behind the scenes, looking after anyone who got hurt, researching, bearing children; they were never actually supposed to fight. We never wanted to send them into battle; we never wanted them to get hurt. We have this innate instinct to protect them, to care for them, and they for us, sending them into battle never seemed a feasible option.
Then, occasionally a woman would get called into the order. At first the order tried to ignore it, tried to put the woman in the corner and pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But then more were called, until they finally decided to train them, to let them do what they had been called to do. Lily’s grandmother was one of the first women to be trained by the order, she was a better fighter than most, stronger, faster, it was almost as if she knew things before they happened. She retired to have a family with another Guard.
For years not one other girl had been called up for duty. The order was sure that there would never be anymore called up.”
“Let me guess, then Lily was called?” asked Tom dryly. He seemed to think everything was a sick joke.
“Yes, then Lily, three year old Lily, small and innocent Lily was called into the order” continued Isaac. Why had he never told me any of this?
He always said that there were other women like me; he never told me that there were barely any other women.
“For three years the order trained her within its own walls, never letting anyone see her, barely even letting people within the order know of her existence. Only the most important people were aware of her existence.
I myself came back the moment I heard about her. I of course couldn’t prove that the whispers of a female Guard were true, but I knew that no one else was allowed to train her, that I had to guide her. Then you three were called, and I knew from the moment I saw you that you were meant to help her. Call it whatever you want, but I believe it was something similar to devine intervention.
Then something weird happened, other females started being called again. Not many, but enough so that Lily was no longer deemed as important, as unique. Not to mention the fact that she was still the youngest out of them all. The order lost interest in her that is why they were willing to let me train you.”
“What do you mean willing?” asked Jessie, just as confused as me.
“I had fallen out with the order long before you four came along. It was around the time that I met Marty” the older man touched the younger’s shoulder.
“I had saved the young boy’s life, and spared that of the one vampire that was found at the scene” his eyes drifted to the only other woman in the room.
“I was exiled and I didn’t want to be part of the order anymore....but then Lily drew me back.
When they suddenly lost interest in her, they were willing to let me be her Guide. They were obligated to give me a charge, seeing as I was a Guard years before. Rules are rules, and we are all bound by them.” Isaac didn’t seem to want to go into details about his falling out with the order, or any great details about that period of his life, just like always. I wanted to press him for details, I wanted to know everything, I needed to know more, but I stopped myself from speaking. My hands just dug into the table as I tried to take this all in.
“Well then what about us?” asked Tom. “Why were they willing to let you have us?”
“You three I had to fight for, but they gave in” he shrugged. “There was no real reason as to why I couldn’t have the three of you, even if they thought that I was taking on too many charges. Most Guides only have one or two, and I wanted four. That baffled them, but I knew that if there was any truth to the myths and legends going around, any truths in the whispers that had brought us together, then I knew that Lily would need a strong family around her.”
“What myths and legends?” asked Phillip, looking intently at the old man.
“If I may?” stepped in Sophia, her graceful frame stepping into the light, unveiling her classic beauty. Isaac nodded.
“For centuries there has been a legend going around about a girl who could save us, and in turn the world” she started. “In simple form, she would save the world, but when you dig deeper into the stories and the prophecies, it gets a little more complicated and more and more ambiguous.
According to legend, one girl, stronger than any human, born into a world of men, would be able to defeat the dark master, the lord of the underworld. The legend says that she will develop bonds with people she was born to hate, and that a love stronger than any form of magic, and withstand all the challenges thrown its way, this love is supposed to be the reason that she can overcome the darkness she must fight.
Obviously the legends and lore’s are old, told from generation to generation, lost in translation. It is hard to know exactly what it is true, and what is going to happen and what isn’t. We do know that there is someone who will help free us of the evil bonds that this life is putting on us. We do know that there is a girl who can and will save us, and we know that it is Lily.”
“All that has ever been documented on the legend is lost, all the remains of it is one small portion of what was once an epic story.
The fate of the species and the human world will rest in the hands of one girl; she will be the only one strong enough to be able to defeat him. She will be chosen and born into a life of hatred, killing that which she will save.
From her destiny a love will be born, a love stronger than ever before, a love to save her life, a love to save the world.
Her sacrifice is our gift.
We believe that Lily is that girl.”
“How do you know it is me?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. All faces turned to me, as if just remembering that I was in the room, although one face had not stopped looking at me.
“Because you’re the only living female Guard” replied Marcus. “And because Viktor, the leader of all the other vampires and the underworld, is after you Lily. He wants you, and we don’t know why. We know that you are able to kill him, that you can succeed were so many others fail, but we don’t know why he could possibly want you. We fear he is after you to kill you.”
“To kill me?” I asked, the words causing me to choke.
“That is why we are here, between us all we can keep you safe” soothed Sophia. “If we work together, like the legend says, we can defeat him. We can free all the innocent people who are under his power; we can save the world from his evil.”
I shook my head in shock. This was not happening, this was not happening to me. I wasn’t some saviour. How did they have so much faith in me to save them when I was willing to kill them?
I had spent my life learning to hate them, learning to kill them, and now they all wanted me to turn around and save them.
Why didn’t the order try to tell me earlier? Why did they banish me off with Isaac? Did they not believe in this story? Did they not think I was ‘the one’? Was I ‘the one’?
I felt like I had been thrown into some nightmare, desperately hoping that it would end, pleading with myself to wake up. And what was all this about sacrifice?
Everyone was so willing to skip over that like it was some minute detail. Was I supposed to die? Was I supposed to just lose a hair?
These stupid things were so ambiguous and no one else knew what was going on. The fact that these questions swirling through my head at a hundred miles an hour were never going to be answered was even more frustrating.
It was taking every ounce of strength that I possessed to not scream, to not stand up and kill the vampires standing in front of me. I didn’t even know how they expected me to be able to work with them, for them, when I had been told my entire life to hate them.
***
He studied her carefully. She was pretty, innocent looking, but under all of it he could see the fierceness in her. She was a fighter, that, at this point could only be a good thing.
The three boys she lived with were protective of her, that was a charming quality really, but would they be willing to side with them?
It was hard to tell.
The old man was still somewhat of a mystery, he had a history with Sophia it seemed, and he had spared her life, at great sacrifice to himself.
Marty, the human in the room remained silent the whole time, it was unsettling how calm he was, listening to this. It seemed the horrors of the world didn’t seem to faze him, this entire situation didn’t seem to bother him at all, and he just sat there, unfazed. That made him uneasy.
He himself had stood in the shadows, studying everyone, particularly the girl. His eyes barely left her face, he was determined to never let her out of his sight. At the end of the day she was the only one they needed, so she was the one that drew the majority of his attention. There was also something about her that he couldn’t pinpoint, something that was alluring to her, something that made her more fascinating to him without reason.
The humans bantered between themselves, raising their voices in annoyance at the secrets, the lies, and the lack of communication, frustrated for not being able to understand. He didn’t get why they didn’t understand, it wasn’t a difficult thing to grasp.
Lily was someone they needed to help to save not only their own kind, but also his kind. She was the saviour of the world to put it bluntly.
“I need some air” said Lily, standing up quickly, out the door before anyone could protest. He glanced at Marcus, wondering if he should follow; it was dangerous to leave her alone. Marcus shook his head slightly, indicating for him to stay. He did as he was told, watching the door she had disappeared through.
Tom instinctively followed Lily, he was like a brother to her and his protective nature of her was shining through right now. The old man had clearly done very well in making them a close team; their loyalty would probably be almost faultless.
Compared to everyone else in the room, save Marty, she was the smallest, the frailest looking, but that meant nothing. The men all might have been taller, more muscular, but none of them could match her strength, not even Phillip, the biggest of them all. He knew that she was stronger than she looked, that she was a fighter. Her life proved that.
They all knew of her, everyone in their world knew of her in some way. Most assumed she was just myth, legend, but he knew otherwise. It was a weird feeling to think that the small girl that was in his presence a few seconds earlier was the same girl that people feared to even talk about.
“Will she be okay?” asked Sophia, looking at Isaac.
“I don’t know” he shrugged sitting down at the table. He looked exhausted, but relieved. He no longer needed to live a lie; he had no more secrets from his charges. His shoulders were slumped from exhaustion.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Jessie. Out of the four of them, he seemed to be the most inquisitive, the most logical. While the conversation had been progressing, he seemed to be thinking things over in his head, processing everything that was said. The other two boys were more tactical and muscular, built more for fighting, they instantly angered at the lies and deceit, not to mention the danger that Lily was being put in. Lily, well, she was something in her own right. She was also harder to read then most people he had ever encountered. He couldn’t tell what was going through her mind, but he could tell she was confused, angry and hurt.
“I didn’t know how” shrugged Isaac. “I also wanted to keep you all protected, especially Lily. I also knew if she didn’t think she was special, if she didn’t feel any pressure, she’d learn better...but then it just got to hard to say. I wanted to tell you all when she turned 16, but I just couldn’t bring myself. I wanted to believe that I would never have to. I tried to make myself believe that it wasn’t real, that she wasn’t ‘the one’.”
Silence followed the old man’s confession; it was almost as if he were confessing a sin.
“I can understand that” nodded Jessie. The young man turned to Marcus. “Why does this involve you three? Why is it so important to you to have her?” He smiled at his question, of course they would question the want of three strange vampires in this quest.
“Because we need her” replied Sophia. Marcus held up his hand to silence her.
“You think we are all evil, I understand that, it is what you are taught to believe” said Marcus. “The truth is that we are not, there are a select few of us who are not, as you would so easily call us, evil. We don’t exist to kill humans, to harm anyone. You have to remember that we didn’t chose this life.
We generally stick to ourselves, living in small groups, hunting at night. We try to stay out of human lives, and keep them out of ours.”
“I don’t understand” said Phillip shaking his head. “Then how do you survive?”
“We drink animal blood mainly, we try hard to not harm humans” replied Marcus. “You could kind of call it a vegetarian diet of some sorts. We only hunt when we need to, we rob blood banks, and we do everything within our power to be peaceful. With time, the urge to kill fades, and the desire for human blood becomes something small and manageable. We don’t need human blood to survive, that in its whole entirety is a myth, we can survive on very little of it, using animal blood as a substitute. This kind of lifestyle takes discipline, which is why there are so few of us.
We need Lily because we are threatened by Viktor’s existence just as much as you are. We are the outcasts of our species. To protect our world, and yours, we need her, and we are here to work with you to help, in whatever way we can.”
“Why wouldn’t they tell us about you?” asked Jessie. “I mean, if there are ‘good’ vampires out there, ‘good’ creatures, then why keep that secret from us?
We are trained to kill you, to never ask questions. As far as we are concerned you are not conscious creatures, you don’t think like we do, you don’t feel. Why then do you work so hard to keep humans safe?”
“Because for centuries the Infernal Guards have been trying to rid the earth of anything that is not human. It has been trying to wipe out vampires, werewolves, witches, everything and anything that threatens the human race” replied Sophia softly. “We need to go as undetected as possible.”
“Why?” asked Jessie.
“Everyone is afraid of that which they don’t understand, of that which is different” replied Marcus. “The easiest way to deal with something that is different is to reject it. The human race has proved itself to be very destructive in its time.”
Somewhere in the house he heard an alarm ring, it was a high piercing sound, and he cringed slightly. His sensitive ears didn’t quite agree with the sound.
Edited and re-worked in places. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Of course, like most things, it is very unfinished and very rough. Plus I am too lazy to add in the italicised things, seeing as blogger is getting fussy with me cutting and pasting from word.
