The Nightwillow

Chapter 7

Sophie awoke still dressed in her riding outfit. The mixed smell of dirt and her own blood wafted around her. She hesitated to move, because even just laying there was agonizing. She knew the moment she attempted to use one tiny muscle, she would feel the wrath of her overworked body.

Her head throbbed, and not just from the pounding it had taken. Memories of her father carrying her to her bed, tears streaming down her face and onto his jacket, came back to her.

As her head rested against his broad chest, Sophie tried to feel comforted. She tried to look for solace in every beat of his heart. The effort was futile. He couldn't protect her. Not really. He wasn't the one who saved her. He wasn't the one who turned he creature to dust.

She was.

What was she?

The force of her new reality smacked her in the face.

No human could do what she had done or lasted as long as she had. Vampires were fast, often moving at a speed faster than the human eye could follow. They had an almost unending reservoir of energy that should have been her undoing.

She should be dead.

And yet, here she lay, paralyzed by pain and fear in the comfort of her own room, because she had -

What had she done?

Vampires didn't just turn into dust. You had to kill them with a stake through the heart. You had to cut off their head. Or even bind them in silver or drag them into the sun. They would explode or melt or bleed everywhere...at least that's what the legends told. She hadn't ever seen it.

She still hadn't.

She managed to turn a vampire to dust with no more than the touch of her hand.

That was all it took.

A touch.

She squeezed her eyes tight as tears began to well up, trying to keep the dam from bursting. The memories of her terror and shock swelled up within her, and she was sure that, once the tears started, they wouldn't stop.

The creature had beens so close to winning, and he should have won. So why was she still alive? If she was able to defeat a vampire, did that make her not human?

Sophie knew her father was different. She knew what he had been and what he had given up to marry her mother. He became human for her. For all intensive purposes, she should be human and nothing more.

Now she understood. Really understood what she had somehow dismissed for so long. This was what all her lessons were about, even before the calling. Her father had never believed she was human, at least not fully. He was preparing her for a day like today - a day when she would realize that she was nothing like the people with whom she had identified her entire life. She was something else. Something different.

It all fit together, but none of it made sense. A big, nonsensical puzzle. How could she be human, but not human?

Sophie cracked open her eyes and stared at the ceiling. She would have to face the pain from her exhausted body. She would have to face what had happened with the vampire. She would have to face the angry eyes of her father.

She wasn't sure which one was worse.

"May I come in?" her mother's lyrical voice came from the doorway, concern blanketing her face as she made her way to Sophie's bed. Her mother's soft green eyes looked upon her with such sorrow as she brushed Sophie's hair out of her eyes. Sophie squeezed her mother's hand, and groaned.

"Oh, Sophie, what we've done to you," she cried, shaking her head. "I know it's going to hurt, but we have to clean you up," her mother consoled as she helped Sophie sit up. The pain was almost unbearable. Every muscle and tendon hurt. The blood rushing from her brain made her dizzy.