The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 35

THE NIGHT THE VAMPIRES CAME

Chapter 35

I watched the rain pelt the airport windows in Rome as we waited for our flight back home. Sitting there with my duffle bag and beat-up high-tops, I thought of a story that my grandmother used to tell me.

Do you know where the rain comes from, xiao hai? There is a well at the top of that mountain. Ten thousand years ago, a dragon once cried and cried until it was full of tears. They say that he was once a boy who was transformed into a dragon by a spell. Because of his cursed form, he had to leave behind all those whom he loved. When the wind blows over the mountains, it carries the waters from the well with it. The rain that falls here are the tears of that ancient dragon.

Now, after everything that had happened, I learned that there was a grain of truth within the myths. Who was the Reaper? Or was his real identity that of The Weeper?

Jaduerial was only a harbinger of things to come. As long as the Reaper lay in the core of the earth, filling the underground waterways with his tears, this calamity will never end, even after it ceases to fall from the skies.

The incoming aircraft and night sky disappeared as the slanted shards of rain painted the windows. As I stared into the darkness, I felt like I was looking through a portal into an undersea storm.

Rain can't hurt us anymore.

All the same, sitting here with my father and Holly, in the safety of my family and friends, I felt the fear swelling inside the walls of my heart. It was rain, just innocent water that fell from the sky. It wouldn't turn us into monsters, not anymore.

I couldn't shake the sense of impending doom. Jaduerial had brought the Blight Rain to us, but he wasn't the source of it.

Deep inside the earth, I knew the black rivers still ran. As surely as the hole in Manna City had devoured that avenging spirit back into its depths, the darkness would return another day.

It wasn't over. It was just over for now.

No, Ailith, focus on the present. Focus on what you can control, like going home.

About two days ago, after a meeting with the Levanti leaders, my father decided to bring us back to Windflower Springs. It was about time, considering the world was returning to normal. We had been trapped on an island in the Mediterranean for the past week. The medical professionals there monitored our labs and vitals daily to ensure we hadn't been infected. My only knowledge of what was happening outside of that medical facility came from the television.

There were sporadic televised miracles of loved ones brought back from their vampiric state. These were few and far between. There weren't enough Lumins to go around for everyone, even those still within the 72-hour window of effectiveness. Holly and I both knew that the hope of ever seeing our friends and family back home was dwindling with each passing day.

Dr. Lemeris gave me a sleeping tonic to take as the plane took off. We flew back due west to Florida. I hadn't been able to sleep for days as I contemplated what could have become of my home. Sleeping in a medicated coma seemed like a good idea. The plane was sparsely populated, but it was busy enough that I could use all the help I could get to nod off.

As the jet took off, I drifted off into warm and fuzzy dreams even though my forehead was plastered against the hard airplane window. The medicine was so effective that soon enough, the sterile white shell of the passenger jet window became the knotted roots of an old willow tree. I suddenly became very conscious of my every heartbeat. It was as though my heart remembered this place even before my eyes opened. Even though it was a dream, I could smell the dirt and the woody roots. I opened my eyes and I saw tobacco-colored bark laced with lichen.