The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The three of us came to the main road at around dawn. I didn't know if it was the rising sun or the fact that I asked nicely, but the footsteps following us disappeared. As the golden rays of the morning appeared over the treetops, I saw how banged up the three of us really were. Poor Holly had a cut lip, leaves in her loose hair, and walked with a limp from her missing sneaker.

Livet was panting with each step as though he was going to collapse. The walk to the road had been all uphill, and he wasn't the athletic type. He couldn't even out-climb a girl with a childhood heart condition. After walking five miles straight, I wasn't even out of breath. Looking down at my hands, they felt warm and healthy. My hands were always cold, poor circulation they used to say.

Studying myself in the sunlight, I was once again overcome with dread. Even though I had inhabited these cells for the last 15 years, all of a sudden, this body felt alien to me. Whose hands were these? Were they Ailith Ying's, or did they belong to Orienne Tahil?

What happens when you lose your soul?

We are a product of our memories, our dreams, our loves when we lose all those — who do we become?

We are born, and from that moment on, we create memories, experiences that shape who we are. As I stared into the forest behind us, I thought about the Black Waters that erased all that. It returns us to a primal state of being where we only want, only hunger. They say it takes away your soul. But I don't know if that is true. Maybe in that hunger lies your truest self.

I loved Holly, that much I knew. Yet, I also felt a strange pull toward my past lives. They were like onion peels wrapping around a constant core — to Orienne and her destiny. I needed to remember what that was before Jaduerial found us. Hiding inside Ailith Ying wouldn't change the fact that Jaduerial was closing in on us.

Livet found an uprooted tree trunk to sit on. We finally came to the open road around mid-morning. The small, two-lane road was empty. Everyone who wanted to evacuate had long done so already. These forested roads wouldn't have seen much traffic even back before the toxic rain started.

Holly, being the go-getter, immediately untied her hair and used the scrunchie to tied up her shirt to show a glimpse of ab. She started to salaciously strut up and down the road practicing for our would-be saviors.

"Who do you work for?" I asked Livet as Holly wandered out of earshot. "You tell me your family knew me in another life, but why are you here now?"

"I'm here to help," Livet said as he rocked back and forth on the tree trunk. I didn't know if it was the warm temperature or if it was his nerves, but he was soaked in sweat. "Even though I was sent here to rescue you by a powerful man, know this — my loyalty is to you, only to you."

I wasn't reassured. Despite Livet having proven himself to be a worthy asset so far — I didn't trust anyone. There were too many pieces of this puzzle that I couldn't put together. Livet gave me a sympathetic look.

"You don't need to believe me, Ailith. When the time comes, you'll know what to do."

"You look familiar," I noted as I detected the vague scene of jasmine from the velvety material of the jacket he had wrapped around my shoulders. As I rearranged the coat around my shoulders, I noticed that the cufflinks on the jacket were of two snakes intertwined around a single rose. I didn't know what it meant, but it was reassuring.

"You were very close with my mother, in another life," Livet said as he noticed me tracing the snakes with my dirty index finger. "My mother was a servant in your house, and she followed you when you were married to an aristocratic man. The marriage was not one of love but of duty." Livet cleared his throat and looked down as though he was embarrassed to speak of this. "You and my mother had a sapphic relationship. That's why I am here. I'm here to help guide you back to your people. Not the man I serve, but the place where you belong."

"And where is that?"

"With the Levarsi." Before I could ask anything further, Livet stood up and waved for Holly to come over. "I think we have company."