Angelina

Chapter 27

      Immediately, I went out to find them. It did not take me long to pick up a scent. I followed them out to a river that flowed freely at the end of our property. There was nothing after but more forest and the mountains. A crescent moon lingered high in the sky between two fir trees. I listened to the conversation between the young and old vampire as I stealthily approached.

     “Wren, do as you are told and stop your worrisome movements, stuff her mouth.” Frieda commanded in a fierce whisper.

     “I’ll do it.” Sophia offered.

     “Corinth is dead, we should leave, just the three of us.” Wren pleaded.

     “You saw how crazed her lover is he will kill us too, we need her if we want to stay alive.” Frieda told her.

     “I tell you again he does not care about us. He will kill us for taking her.” Wren insisted.

     “You spend a few nights in his bed and you think you know him well?” Frieda chastised Wren. “That’s right; she has been fucking your lover. Corinth gave her to him and he accepted. Vampires have insatiable appetites. No human can satisfy one so obviously powerful, just ask Sophia.” She said to Angelina next.

     I winced at her untrue words. It pained me to know what Angelina must think of me.

     “He was never faithful to me when I was his human lover.” Sophia confided. “It was only when I became a vampire that I truly understood why. Unless you are one of us, he will only get bored and tire of you fast. You should spare yourself that unbearable pain.”

     “It is from his kindness that I speak of him. Rogue has never been my lover; as much as I wanted him, he only wanted her. If we leave her here and run he will not come after us.”

     “Be quiet. You tell so many lies it is hard to believe anything you say.” Sophia sounded furious. “Tell her the truth now. Tell her what you told me, that he made you dance for him every night before he fucked you.”

     “I am not lying to you now, I swear it.” Wren pleaded in vain.

     I came upon them and saw Angelina sitting on the ground with her mouth tightly bandaged while Frieda guarded her. Sophia held Wren by the throat.

      “Release her!” I ordered.

     She whirled to face me still holding Wren. Frieda took off running. “I knew you would come.” Sophia said smiling.

     “I said; release her.”

     “No! Not until she admits to being another one of your lovers.”

     I caught Angie’s eyes then she looked a mixture of relived to see me and hurt. “She is telling the truth, Sophia.”

     “All she has to do is admit it and then I will release your slut to you.” She insisted, ignoring me.

     “Fine, I admit it, he is my lover.” Wren lied.

     Sophia released her. “There, was that so hard. See I told you, Angelina, he cannot be satisfied with just one human or vampire for that matter.”

     I made my way to Angelina and removed the bandage from around her mouth. She kept her eyes averted from me.

     “Your kind does not deserve to walk the earth, human or vampire. Don’t you agree, Angelina?”

     I heard a forceful swoosh and then a sputter. Then, I saw at the very same time I heard the thud of dead weight hitting the ground. There lay Wren’s body with a hole where her heart should be laying at my feet.

     Not even Angelina’s scream or that she took off running distracted me from the horror of this senseless death. Maybe because it was not the first one that Sophia has committed because of me. She killed every woman or girl I ever befriended over the centuries when she became a vampire.

     She is mad, obsessed, and I have driven her too it. I am just as responsible for all those innocent deaths. I ache for their lost. The thing I have been avoiding all this time stood before me in all her harrowing beauty; it must end now.

     “Why?” I demanded.

     “You know why. What is wrong with me, Rogue, why can’t I stop loving you?” She cried.

     I looked at her now, compassionless. I felt disgust with her and with myself for having once loved such a vicious creature.

     “Does Elliot even exist?”

     “Yes, but I could never love him. I have no room in me for anyone but you.”

      “I knew I should come here tonight. I am happy to know that my supreme intuition has saved me once again.” The stranger said.

     “Elliot!” Sophia exclaimed breathless by his appearance.

     The older vampire looked at the body on the ground as he came towards us. “A promising youngling lay there.” He said of Wren.

     Unsure of what to make of his sudden appearance I felt myself tense in preparation for another battle.

     “Premonitions, I have always had them even before I became a vampire some four hundred years ago. I am the reason Corinth came here. I told him it was imperative that he goes no matter what happens. When he asked if his journey would be a successful one I said he would find the thing he wanted most. What I did not tell him was that after he found that thing I saw only darkness. The darkness filled me in a way that could only mean one thing, death.”

     The elder vampire called, Elliot, was not what I expected. His creator turned him late in life; he looked to be in his mid thirties with clean-shaven head. His skin, the color of chalk, suggested that he has never fed on anything but human blood in all his existence.

     “I saw what you did to them. You did not even know your own strength, did you? Your creator carries a dark secret.”

     “Which is his alone to tell” I made clear I was not interested in knowing.

     He nodded. “I timed my arrival so that I would not have to participate. I detest violence of any kind but sometimes it is necessary.” He looked at Sophia then, my eyes followed.

     She shivered.

     “You, my love have used me to better yourself, I always knew but that is nothing to me. I can forgive lies said in love, but now you must be honest for I will know. Tell me, have you ever loved me, Sophia, do you care for me at the very least?”

     “N-no”

     “That is sad, for I love and care for you deeply. I have looked into your pass and I know why you really came here. Tell the truth my love; tell him why.”

     “I-I came to kill her.”

     “I had hoped that my premonition would change and she would come to realize her place was with me and come home but that never came. Now I must ask you to leave, your lovely young human needs you.”