Savia's Heart [Sequel to Bastian's Song] [HIATUS]

[ 16 ]

[ Auron ]

Blood stained Savia's dress around the gaping knife wound in her chest, but not as much as he would have expected. It looked like the wound was dripping blood rather than pouring it all over her front and it didn't make sense. Nothing made sense to him.

The wagon swayed along the road, rocking them both in a gentle manner. Savia's hands gripped the reins as she looked down the road ahead of them. Auron dug his fingers into the loose cloth of his tunic until he couldn't bear his feelings anymore.

"You can't just go around getting stabbed, Savia!"

She barely looked at him. "Why not?"

"Why...why not?!" The anger inside of Auron grew to a white hot rage. He knew it was because of how helpless he was, but he didn't care. "Because you're my friend! And that's a ridiculous question. How would you feel if I got stabbed?"

"Angry."

"Exactly! You can't just do what you don't want me to do and then not expect me to get mad about it. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Savia smiled. "I'm not hurt, Auron. I told you, I'm stronger than you think I am."

"That's not the point, Savia, and you know it. Why did you pull me out of the way?" He wasn't dumb. A knife would have hurt him a lot, but he trusted in Savia's skill. Auron would not have died while she was near. But if Savia were injured gravely, he had no power to save her.

Savia sighed. She leaned back casually on the bench but her knuckles were nearly white from how tight her grip was on the reins. She was afraid of something, but she didn't want him to know it. "Because I knew the knife would not hurt me, and I didn't want you to be hurt."

"How did you know?" Auron knew he had no right to demand answers, but he wanted them anyway. The scene kept replaying in his head. The expression on her face when the knife embedded into her chest was branded in his mind: her resignation was a darkness in her eyes that he never wanted to see again.

"Auron, vampyres are as different as people can be, but we all share the same weaknesses. A vampyre can only be killed by sunlight or if their heart is destroyed." She lifted one hand to rest over the wound in her chest. "My heart isn't here anymore."

"What?"

Savia shrugged. "I don't have my heart, Auron. I have no idea where it is now, either."

"How is that possible?" Auron wasn't convinced, but he was willing to listen to her at least.

She lowered her hand back to the reins. "May as well start from the beginning then." Savia took a deep breath. When she spoke, it was with a distant voice, like she was talking about someone else. "Do you know how vampyres are created, Auron? Surely you've been curious about it."

He bit his lip. How could he not be? "I asked around a little," he admitted. "But the stories don't line up much. Some say you have to be bitten by a vampyre to become one. Others say you have to be born without a soul and then die. I even spoke to one woman who said that vampyres were people who were killed violently and traded their soul to Aides to come back for revenge."

Savia laughed, two short barks that held no humor. "Well, the reality of it is this: to be a vampyre, you just have to die in the right place at the right time."

Auron waited, holding his tongue so that she could get her thoughts in order.

"I was just a normal human, born in a place far away from here." Savia looked up to the sky now, trusting the wagon to the horses. "A plague spread one year--sudden and quick--and before I knew it, most of my village was already dead. My mother was a healer, and she tried her best, but she fell to the sickness as well."

Auron's heart ached. The memory of his own mother surfaced in his mind, though it was still hazy. Her hair had been dark, just like his, and she had loved him dearly. He'd felt it in the way she had wrapped her arms around him, tender and protective. What had killed her? He couldn't remember. Auron only knew she was gone and he longed to be in her arms again.

Savia continued. "My best friend was the only one who escaped. She had run to another village to get help. But when help arrived, all they did was cut off access to our village. No one in or out. They wanted to starve the sickness before it went farther. The fact that she was alive was enough for me, though. I already knew by then that I was going to die.

The sickness was in me. It ate at my strength. Still, I worked as long as I could. When I wasn't tending the sick, I was burying the dead. Then, one day, there was no one left to bury. Everyone was dead but me. I crawled into my bed and closed my eyes. I knew I was going to die, but I'd done everything I could. I was content."

Her lips quivered and Auron wondered if she spoke the truth. Dying alone sounded like the worst way that anyone could die. We all die alone. The voice surfaced in his mind, masculine and stern. Auron tried to hold it, tried to imagine who the voice belonged to, but it slipped away. He tightened his grip on his tunic.

"I felt death creep into my soul, Auron. I have never felt anything so warm since then. It was almost a relief to die, but just as I came to the doors of the underworld, I was pulled back." Savia sounded bitter as she said it.

"Pulled back? By who?" Auron asked.

"Ambrosio and Artemis." She hunched over, like she was trying to protect herself. "They mixed their blood and fed it to me. With their power, I was reborn as a creature beyond death. Every vampyre is born this way."

"They...made you? But why?"

Savia frowned. "They told me that they had been watching me. That I had been chosen as worthy of their power because of my actions. At the time, I was grateful. I had a second chance to do all the things I'd never done. Ambrosio even taught me how to live as a vampyre and how to access my new abilities."

"But how does that explain why your heart isn't in your chest?"

"Part of the rebirth is that the heart is pulled from the chest. It turns into a sort of jewel in the process, but it still beats. Ambrosio never really told me why, but I think it has to do with Artemis. I wore my heart on a chain around my neck for many years."

"And then what? You just lost it? Forgot where you put it?"

"Ha ha, Auron. You're so witty."

"Answer the damn question."

Savia glared at him. "You get mean when you're upset."

Auron crossed his arms over his chest and glared right back.

"My heart was stolen, Auron. By my best friend." Savia looked away from him. "Because I killed her husband and her children."

Dun dun duuuuuun. Now you know how Savia became a vampyre! And now Auron does too. They must be really good friends if she's finally opening up to him. I wonder how he'll react to this news of his friend being a murderer?