The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

I followed Livet into the forest. He wandered a fair distance away from the airplane wreckage and collapsed against one of the trees. I saw an imprint of his bloody smear left by his hand against a wet tree trunk.

I felt strangely numb to the scene unfolding around me. Maybe I was in shock, maybe it was the chill in the night air, or maybe I was awakening to what I always knew.

The cells implanted in my heart were the cells of Orienne's body. She was a woman who lived more than five thousand years ago. The Levarsi scientists cloned her cells from pieces of Orienne's bones and hair about fifty years ago. They had been implanting her cells into human subjects to see if Orienne could be resurrected through a human host. Her cells were malignant, vicious, immortal; they devour everything in their path. Only select humans could live with her cells in their bodies. The cells in my heart have been dormant until now.

Ailith Ying, the blond woman in my vision, and countless others were hosts who received KoRi cells. The real Ailith Ying was dead. I, Orienne, became Ailith when she underwent that surgery when she was six. The woman blond woman must have suffered a similar fate as a child. But who was to say this body isn't rightfully mine? I had been the sole occupant of these cells for the past decades and a half.

A strange peace came over me as I walked through the forest. I couldn't be turned into a vampire because I was already one. My body had already transformed to host a soul that wasn't its own.

"There, there, Livet," I said and patted the young man on his sweat-drench back. He turned to me and began wiping his forehead down with a silk handkerchief. I decided not to point out to him that the handkerchief was stained with blood, and it was making a mess on his face. He was more in shock from all of this than I was. He couldn't help it; death was alien to him. He reminded me of someone, someone I once knew very well. "Livet, that name sounds familiar. Have we met before?"

"No. Though, a long time ago, you were a close acquaintance of my mother," Livet told me with a broad smile, as though he was finally regaining his wits. "Do you remember her? You called her Bree. If not, perhaps you recall my grandfather, Lichtus. Your name back then was Odelia Winter. You never did change your name, not even after you were married."

"I'm sorry, I don't know any of those names," I mused. Odelia Winter, that was the name of the blond woman in my visions. And yes, I was correct, she was dead. She had probably been dead for decades. I saw Livet's face drop as though he had momentarily hoped he was talking to someone else, someone much more knowledgeable than me. Though his features were sharp, his blue eyes were calm and wise. It reminded me of a home I had never known. Then I shook my head. No, Holly was my home now. My parents, or rather Ailith's parents, were likely dead. Holly was all I had left.

"Let's go find Miss Xu," Livet said as though he was reading my mind. "We should make our way away from the crash site. There's no telling when the wreckage might go up in flames."

*

Together, we found Holly nearby. She had heard us talking and had made her way toward us. She looked cold and scared, but unlike before, now she kept her distance from me. I wonder what she had overheard of the conversation between Livet and me.

Perhaps, now she was starting to suspect that Livet and I had a relationship she knew nothing about. I wanted to assure her that we were not in cahoots with each other, but at this point, I didn't know if we truly weren't. Despite the darkness of the forest, Livet saw me shivering in the cold. I don't know what it was that gave me away, maybe it was the sound of my chattering teeth.