Dhampir of Kalika

১৯.‌ mystery uncoded

He shall follow her like a loyal shadow.

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Manihar's eyes were something Maya couldn't pull herself away from. The eyeballs bulged out, like someone had scooped out half of it. From bursted red veins came out blood, the little that was left in his body. His bluish lips were sucked in. The pasty complexion of the vampire now looked even paler, like the embodiment of fear itself. Marks of Raktim's fang covered his body.

Maya closed her eyes and shivered. "You are a monster."

Raktim sat on a big rock, his hands soaked in blood. He wiped it from his lips using his cloak. The fangs were visible now, glinting in the light of the sputtering fire. "You can think me anything you want. I am a monster, yes. I was born a monster. An ugly, unwanted child who killed his mother upon birth." Warm tears washed away his sins. He looked at Maya with earnest eyes. "Tell me, isn't there beauty in death? I kill for love. I kill to protect Khatra. I find it beautiful. Alas, I am running from the daylight. I have to hide who I am."

His face glowed like the full moon, akin to the remnants of some dark fae lord carved from the imagination of women lost in fantasies.

It slowly was sinking in Maya's mind, the very magnetic depth of it. This was a case very simple. A man, for a cause holy, takes up the duty of a villain. But she had questions. "Did you kill them only because you want to avenge the death of the girls? I believe you enjoy it." Her hands quivered as she hurled at him, horror conquering her body. "You have every reason to despise them beyond the logic of what is just and what is cruel."

"Don't you pity me at all, Maya?"

"I don't think you deserve pity."

"Oh, definitely not!" He hysterically laughed and ruffled his hair, blood sticking to his midnight locks. "You would assume I find pleasure in killing my own. I do find pleasure, I accept."

"Would you have killed them even if they didn't harm the girls?"

"I could have resisted the urge. But their sins gave me the strength to be a better sinner. Don't misunderstand me though, my intentions have purity. I will go far for Khatra."

He stood up and walked closer to Maya, who suddenly traced back her steps. He stopped abruptly, hearing in silence the shattering of his scarlet heart. "You hate me now, don't you?"

Maya heaved a sigh. The eyes of the doctor sparkled in tears. Indeed, he was both Chandrasekhara and a Pisach. He was a being worthy of being worshipped as a god and a demon. "I don't hate you. No, I don't."

"I have told you enough times, I won't harm you ever. You are here for the same reason as me. Just that you are noble and fair, and I am not what I seem."

"You need to understand that for a woman like me, however brave or astute I may be, this moment is very frightening. I won't be able to forget how Manihar looks." She spared a watery glance at the vampire's body. "His death-struck face makes me feel a hollow inside. I know he was bad, but an abyss awakes in my soul when I realise he was killed with such brutality."

Raktim chuckled coldly. "Maya, it is our destiny." He brought out a silver blade from his pocket. "See this thing here. I created this to kill vampires. But it wasn't enough. You have to burn their heart and drink its ashes along with the blood. Only then it's ensured that the soul of the vampire gets liberation and doesn't return to haunt." He closed the distance between him and Maya, towering above her and peering into her enticing pair of eyes. "If you are truly kind, pray he may never have to become a vampire again. Immortality as this is painful, Maya. I have to live with the truth that I must see my loved ones die, my dear ones fade away from history, only to rot in solitude. I will have no one to accompany me."