A Kiss of Life (Bk2)

Chapter 22

I carried my books and walked undisturbed to my locker. My silver hair soft and unbound about my shoulders. My flawless skin vibrant with blushing health and my eyes violet and aglow with power. I should have felt the stares of every male and female of within a five mile radius but I did not. I have taken on to wearing another type of cloak now. No... not the cloak of invisibility. Nope this was the cloak of indifference brewed by myself from my own indifference.

It was not very difficult. Infact it was very easy. My new found powers made everything easy. I would use it now to solve a problem I had created and left behind.

I walked up the winding staircase. My stillettos not making any sound as I shifted across the long corridor to the room at the very end.

She met me there. At the door. I knew she had been watching. As soon as I entered the school she had fluttered to me. I could see now all the more clearly than I could have before. My powers strengthened more as each day passed. Michael's love making had done that. Gently easing me into my powers rather than having it come on all at once. Avoiding the full blast of total annihilation altogether was always a blessing. I was ever grateful for Michael's assistance.

I have not seen him since that day when I left him at the mouth of the caves. I have been hiding. Drifting in and out of various planes. Discovering the universe. It was during one of these impromptu trips into oblivion that I recalled one unfinished business.

So here I was back at school facing the ghost of my making. I nodded for her to let me pass. She hesitated but then did as I bid. I used a brush of power and the door before me swung open. I went to peer at the body beneath the mounds of blankets and staring at the frail emancipated face. I knew it was time. I knew too what I had to do. I reached out a  finger and scrapped a nail across her forehead.

She died on the spot. Her  heart stopped and stilled. It was finally over.

I turned to look at the terrified face of Meredith, my once best friend. She hovered before me. Shaken and fearfull. And then I felt it the pleasure from her fear pouring through me like a rush of the purest narcotics. The seed of the addiction was planted. Only one pleasure had surmounted this. And having had that ultimate pleasure in Michael's capable hands I could draw on it now. Draw on those blissful two weeks to ground me, protect me against the rush. Against the need to chain Meredith to me.

Then William was there. Coming towards me. He looked at the deceased body and then to Meredith's unfeathered soul floating before me.

"You took back the life you gave her," he whispered softly. I turned to stare at  him. Tearing my eyes away from the feast that was Meredith's tainted soul.

"Yes," I said. "She needed to die."

I saw the hesitancy in his eyes then. He was uncertain. He didn't know how I would react. He didn't know me.... no longer knew me.

"Shall I take her?"

The question was clear. The answer was not.  It hovered uncertainly sizzling in the air between the three of us. Meredith rightfully belonged to mother. Heaven would never take her. To leave her here amongst mortals would be dangerous for them for she would strengthen in her visceral form. Her corporeal self would draw in strength from the life and laughter around her.

But was I willing to let mother take her. She was my friend. Or more accurately, I was her friend.

I turned to face William shaking my head softly," I will keep her."

So far, I was the lesser evil of the two. Will that always be so? I didn't know. Also, there is that need for sustenance that she would provide. I leaned in close, my lips nearly brushing against her translucent neck and I breathed her fears in already feeling vastly rejuvinated.

I turned to William and smiled.

He took a step back... then another before he caught himself. He gave me a rigid bow before he left.

I sighed. Not entirely happy with what just happened. What I have done and what I will now have to do.

I will have to go visit mother in the very bowels of hell.