The Rumored Half

Burn Baby Burn

                                                   CHAPTER 12

Saying that they took it badly was an understatement. They wanted to leave. Now. In fact, they flat out refused the first time I asked. When I said that I had a plan they wanted to hear it. The little problem with that was that if they did hear it, I was almost certainly never going to permission to do it – mainly because it was practically suicidal. But it was the only plan I could think of.

“For God’s sake, give me one good reason why I can’t do this,” I said stubbornly. I was almost whining, I hated that but I couldn’t help it at the moment.

“I can give you a hundred, the foremost being that she’s insane by even our standards and she hates Halves,” Gabe was adamant.

I can’t believe this, both Nash and Gabe were finally in agreement, and it just had to be against me!

“Look, just give me five minutes to talk to her, nothing is going to happen,” probably, I thought warily, but made sure my face showed none of my uncertainty, “And why does she hate Halves in the first place?” I’d wondered about that for awhile now actually.

They looked surprised, as if I’d asked them something obvious like does the sun rise in the East? Or is grass green?

Gabe told me wait a soft voice, as if he was afraid of being overheard – which actually was a possibility, “She had a human lover who she eventually turned. But he was ….. Violent, demented, didn’t have much time left. Towards the end, he started having fits of rage and unstable mentality.”

Oh. I was starting to feel sorry for Sasha and beginning to understand why she hated Halves so much.

“What does her lover going rabid have to do with her animosity towards Halves?” Is it because she resented the fact that they survived and her lover didn’t?

I could vividly remember my encounter with that rabid in my family’s graveyard. I tried to imagine what it would be like if someone I loved turned into that, and I couldn’t – it was much too painful. They were all dead and that was painful enough but imagine killing them myself – that I don’t think I could live with.

“He didn’t turn rabid exactly- not at first, he went mad slowly,” Gabe’s face turned distasteful, “His personality completely changed suddenly and he …… well, and he did some unfortunate things.”

“Like?” I encouraged when he stopped at that.

“What the Vampire is too squeamish to say is that he became a sort of whore. He’d gotten addicted to bloodlust – as well as just plain lust - and would have fallen to that of a rabid in a few days’ time.”

 At this, I felt ambivalent. Disgust, pity and horror raced through me as I imagined their situation. I could remember bloodlust – it seemed to take over your mind completely.

For the first time, I wondered why it wasn’t as strong as the first time when Gabe gave me his blood. I suppose it was because I was unconscious – after all, it’s hard to feel lust when you’re bleeding to death. But still, I filed that thought away and forced myself to listen to their tragic story.

Nash continued, “Sasha knew that but she was also in love with him, and to his credit, he was obviously in love with her as well. But he couldn’t seem to help his compulsion and slowly he became more and more violent. His partners – or victims, in this case - were found massacred one night. Bodies literally covered the ground. He denied everything of course, like he had previously, but not even Sasha could save him this time. Killing humans – during feeding or otherwise – is looked down upon. It attracts too much attention. Drake finished him off after he heard about that incident and well … Sasha went crazy after that. She hates all Halves and has a very strong grudge against the Vampire King now. Though she can’t admit to the latter very openly, she is very subtle in her rebellion. It’s ingenious actually, since everything can be passed off as temporary insanity.” Nash seemed amused by the thought but I wasn’t.