The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

"DAMMIT, LIVET!" Joseph screamed, pounding on the door to the cockpit. The plane was dropping and gaining altitude like a demonic yoyo. I made my way back into the main body of the plane, holding onto the walls for support. Holly ran over to me and gave me her hand to hold.

Holly screamed as the lights of the main cabin flickered. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and to tell her to calm down. As I stared at the prospect of my own death, a strange peace came over me. I didn't know how to explain it; it was as though this was all predestined. This storm — it was coming for me.

The airplane swayed from side to side, and Holly crouched down against the wall for support. Her caramel-colored hair was covering her whimpering face. Wordlessly, I did the same. I didn't blame her. This was like being on a roller coaster, except this plane was taking us straight to hell.

The cockpit door opened, and Livet appeared. The formerly staunchly put-together man was now noticeably disheveled. He was busy unsuccessfully stuffing a sweat-stained handkerchief into his shallow jacket pocket.

Joseph gave up all semblance of courtesy and seized Livet by the lapels of his fine jacket.

"WHAT is going on, Livet?" Joseph demanded, the artery in his temple was bulging, and his face was turning red with fury. "You promised you had everything under control."

"Well, it's obvious that's bloody well changed," Livet snapped and shoved Jack away. He stumbled over to one of the oval windows and stared out into the black night.

Shakily, I left Holly's side and approached Livet. The slender man's chest was heaving. He was breathing so rapidly and noisily; I was worried he was in the midst of an asthma attack.

"Stop, Sebastian," Livet closed his eyes and whispered almost in prayer into the dark night. "This isn't you. Please, don't do this."

"Iain isn't here anymore," I muttered. Iain was the name of the black-haired boy with the green eyes. He wasn't in control anymore. Jadueriel was here and he wanted this plane to crash. Did he want to kill me? I didn't know. What did he want from me?

"Can you do anything?" Livet asked me with a sudden hopeful tone in his voice. "Can you help us, Orienne?"

"Livet! We've lost the right engine. We need to land!" A voice came from the door to the cockpit that was flapping with the intense turbulence. The sound of the metal banging against metal broke me out of my trance. I shook my head at Livet and backed away.

"Livet?" Joseph screamed as the plane started to descend at a steep angle. "Livet! Dammit, Do something!"

I felt my stomach jump into my throat as we fell out of the sky. The light of the main cabin went out, and only the emergency lights along the aisle were left. I fell onto the floor and crawled toward my chair. I grabbed ahold of a safety belt and hung on for dear life.

Out of the three of us, Holly was the only one who made it back into a seat and had a seatbelt over her lap. Joseph was knocked off his feet by one last attempt by the pilot to turn the nose of the aircraft back up toward the sky. I saw him slide across the front of the cabin, and his head banged roughly against the far wall.

I thought I imagined it, but I heard a crack.

In the final moments of that plunge, Levett threw himself on me. He grabbed ahold of the armrests with both hands and held me against the back of the chair.

The plane touched the ground with an explosive jolt. My head snapped back, and I wasn't sure what happened after that.

*

I woke up beside a lake. My clothes were wet from the rain. As I sat up, the aircraft was nowhere in sight. Was this a dream? I felt a dull ache all over, but I didn't see any scrapes or bruises. I was just hopelessly damp all over. Then I remembered, it had been Blight Rain that took down the plane, and I immediately wiped my palms on my jeans.

"Those waters can't hurt you," a voice said from behind me. I turned to see a man standing behind me. He was barely more than a shadow and try as I might — I couldn't make out any of his features. Wherever I tried to focus my eyes, his features would shimmer ever so slightly. It was as though he wasn't really here, and it was just a hologram of him. "Do you remember me, Orienne?"

"You're the one they call Jadueriel," I said carefully. "You and Orienne were lovers once, a long time ago. I don't know why you are calling me Orienne. I might have these KoRi cells in my heart, but I don't have her memories."

"Then, do you remember this place?" The figure asked. "You and your silly flowers. Do you remember our son? Or did you choose to forget that wretched creature as well?"

"Our son?" I asked and scrambled to think. I didn't recall any of the stories mentioning that Jadueriel and Orienne had a child together. I thought Orienne's legacy to the world was the rain clouds she weaved. Jaduerial's part in the story was the flood he created from them.

"We had a son," the shadow said. "Five thousand years ago. I forgive you for forgetting. It has been a long time, hasn't it, my love?"

I grimaced at his words. In the fog, just beyond the morning mist, I saw a tree appear. Its branches swayed gently in the wind; purple leaves drifted into the pearly blue waters. What was this place? Was it even on earth?

"You'll remember," the shadow said. "Soon, you'll remember everything."

"Where am I? Am I dead?" I asked as I knelt down and took a handful of the waters in my open palm. The water slipped through my fingers like the memories that I couldn't quite hang onto.

"This is Tahil lake," the shadow said. "The Reaper can't find you here. Even if you are his mother."

"His mother?" I asked and spun around. Beyond the weeping willow tree, in the distance, I saw the white roses. Just beyond them, I knew the chrysanthemums grew wild overtaking all else in my small garden — even the Winter's Jasmine.

Even more important than the flowers that grew there, there was something else in that garden. There was someone there waiting for me.

Someone small and helpless; someone this lake was created to protect.

"Yes, Orienne, you bore the most wicked demon in all of hell. You're the creator of the Blight that has eaten humanity," the shadow continued. "But I see, you're thinking of someone else. Someone you dearly love. A child you bore with another man while I was away. While I was trapped in that hole for thousands of years."

"No," I muttered. "I remember no such thing. This is just a dream!"

"Oh, but you must remember. There was once another little lost boy who called you mother. A boy who even now lingers close to the protective light of this lake. A river made of a mother's love, perhaps?"

I backed away from the shadow. I knew what he was about to tell me even before the words left his lips. Still, I resisted. I fought the past with every fiber of my being.

"No, stop. Stop it!"

"Why should I, Ailith?" The spirit of Jadueriel asked mockingly. "For a soul who had been reborn so many times, you have had so many names. Why the last time we spoke, it was in Manna City, where I was imprisoned. Your name back then was quite pretty. It suited your cold hard soul."

"Stop it I don't want to r-remember."

"Do you, Odette?"