The Vampire's Rival

Fixing the future being the only use of the past

Walking out of Jamila's tent to go search for the Scavengers had a disturbing finality to it. The feeling was unexpected in how hard it hit me. Outside her tent, the Wildlings were packing up, getting ready to leave in a few minutes. According to Kade, they would reach the place they called "The Caves" in less than a day. I didn't know anything about these caves, this Wildling sanctuary that Kade assured her no vampire had ever breached, let alone knew the location of. Maybe this was the reason for what I was feeling. Once Jamila and the others arrived at The Caves, it would mean that they were finally truly safe, but it would also mean that I wouldn't see them again. Wouldn't see Jamila again.

Maybe that was the reason for this blanket of melancholy wrapping itself around my shoulders.

Or maybe it was because Jamila was yet another human who had stolen pieces of me that I thought I'd been ferociously guarding, and with unnerving ease. Maybe I couldn't stand the thought of this being our goodbye. Maybe that was it, but I didn't have time for this.

I had to find the Scavengers.

Had to find Hadley.

Had to find my Fledgling!

This situation was a lot worse than I would have liked. A vampire can only release Ambrosia once a year before enough of the precious liquid builds back up. I no longer had the option of walking away from Hadley and just finding another human to Turn for a year. If any harm befell her in that time, if the Scavengers killed my only Fledgling before I could save her, it was now guaranteed that my mind would snap, and I would transform into a Venom ghoul. But that all that faded into the background when I thought about the real reason I couldn't let what the Scavengers did stand. The real reason nothing would keep me from finding her.

I had come to care for this one human in a way that I thought had been lost to me for the past eighty years, which was when I last felt anything close to how I felt in this moment.

So, while it killed me to leave Jamila, there was no other choice for me.

I had to save Hadley!

The darkness of the rainforest was a welcome embrace as I disappeared into it, running at full tilt. However, as I followed what I hoped was Hadley's trail, I didn't feel like myself. Hadn't felt like it for weeks now. The Venom was too reserved. Too quiet. Reticent and weak. And I despised this new reality. I loathed the effort it took to call upon the Venom and was starting to realise just how little I had appreciated the ease by which I could tap its power before. I stopped running and took a moment to clear my head. To reach for the Venom. It had always been the other way around. I had lived my whole life holding back the Venom.

I needed to feel it again. To know that I was still me.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on reaching for the one thing that had defined my whole life. However, in this hyper focused state, I didn't find the Venom. Instead, I heard an unexpected, alarming sound filtering through the trees.

Screams!

And they were coming from Kade's Wildling tribe!

My breath hitched and my heart crashed into my ribs at the sound. I had barely left the tribe! Had the Scavengers been watching and waiting for me to leave before coming back to finish what they'd started? All I could think about was the absolute certainty of what I was going to do next. They obviously wouldn't have doubled back with Hadley in tow, but even if Hadley was mere meters away from me in the trail ahead in the hands of a seperate Scavenger group, I couldn't ignore those screams behind me for the same reason that I had broken well-established vampire rules and healed Jamila's wounds after the horrors of Mrs. Smith and after the Scavenger attack just a few moments ago.