Blood of the Gods (The Vampire from Hell Part 5) (10 page)

“Why should I believe you?” I challenged.

Both Blick and J coughed at my idiotic question.  They pointed at the ashes still clinging to the rock floor.  “Mehen is no more,” J offered.

“He saved us, Rayea.  The black snake creature.  That was Mehen, Typhean’s daughter,” Blick added.

Impatiently I waved my hand at them.  “I know who Mehen is.  What do you mean she’s no more?”

“A gesture of my renewed faith in you, my child.  I thought a sacrifice was in order.  Mehen has taken things too far.  She, your father, and your sister must be stopped.  This ends now.  She enslaved most of the Ancient Council and turned Zeus into her whipping boy.  I’m sorry he’s gone, but I could not save him.  You freed humans and gods without even knowing it.  I thought it best if I stepped in and plucked this thorn from your bonnet.  Mehen deserved a death that only I, being her father, could give her.  If I said I was sad she’s gone, it would be a lie.”

“Thank you,” I said to the blood god.  “I regret that I didn’t meet her under better circumstances.”

Typhean brushed a few ashes off the lapel of his black suit and shuffled his feet.  Observing the ground for a few moments as swirls of debris drifted around our feet, he finally looked at me.  “I apologize for what I did to you,” he stated.  “I know how much Maia, my daughter enjoys your mother’s friendship and I couldn’t live with myself if I let you fall into danger.  If you ever need my services again, please ask.  I’m only a thought away.”

He smiled at me and the flash of his long fangs, long fangs like mine that reminded me of the Fanged community I had become a part of.  Snakes.  Dragons.  Gigantic wolves and lions.  I felt small in the presence of celestial beings.  Was I really a blood god too?  Was I really engaged to a wolf god?  The facts of my reborn life overwhelmed me.

Blick and J offered their condolences to Typhean and moved me in the opposite direction away from the blood god who had saved my life, more than once.

“You will call if you need my help, Rayea?” Typhean asked.  “Don’t make me be the one to come to you.”

Slipping away and making light of the situation was my first thought.  Instead, I walked over to him and offered him my hand.  “I’ll give my mother your hellos.  And if I find my sister, I may very well call upon you.  Is that okay?”

He smiled and pursed his lips together.  Delivering a kiss on the top of my hand, I felt one of his long fangs graze the skin.  If Typhean was a friend or not, it did not matter.  The closer I kept him to me, the quicker I could anticipate his next move.

“Until we meet again, my child,” he said as he stepped away from us, shifted into an enormous dragon, and flew away.

Lynn’s Notebook

***

“
Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.
” ~ Albert Camus

***

October 4
th
.  Apartment.

My life sucks and that is about it.  So, I’m writing in my journal until he notices that I’m not paying attention and leaves the room.  I know enough about Hitler.  Thank you.  When will this be over?  Will his new friends be here soon?  *eye roll*

Depressed
. 
Boyfriend is depressed again and watching the Military channel again.  He’s had six beers, two joints, tons of cigarettes, and now he’s trying some new wine his friend gave him, the friend he won’t tell me about.  Will this ever end?  Why must I sit with him and be depressed?  I thought things were going to be different.

Wrong.

I’m a passive aggressive drunk.  We have to drink, even though I don’t drink.  Even though I don’t drink, I have to drink with him.  Ugh.  My life sucks.

He is not.
  He is not my family.  But he thinks he owns me.

I am.
  I am an idiot.  I shouldn’t have broken up with Ashton.  Really?  Ashton Taylor?  THE Ashton Taylor?  You were dating an actor?  A sexy-ass actor?!  And you broke up with him?!

I did.

I’m an idiot.  I know.  I’m seeing now that I fucked up.

My alternatives now?

Hanging out with Mr. Waste of Space.  Or texting dead people who don’t answer.  The texts go unanswered!  What did I do to deserve this?  The paranoia raises its ugly head.  I think I need some wine too.  You know what?  Nope.  I don’t think I will.  I don’t want to be like him.

*sigh*

“Look how cool this bottle is, Lynn!”

Act interested.  *eye roll*

“Devilish Beasts.  That’s amazing.  Isn’t it?”

It’s not a question.  Now he’s drunk enough that he’ll tell me what he thinks of the bottle of wine.  A laughing skull with a top hat.  Bottle, red glass, was wrapped in red paper with pictures of singing skulls, dancing skulls, snakes, and the like.  Wine.  Dark and fruity.  The color of blood.

*sigh*

“I’ll be in the other room, if you need me, Steve.”

“Hey Lynn, what do you say to a woman with two black eyes?  Nothing! You've already told her twice.”

Hysterical laughter.

Leaves room.

Later.

“Hey Lynn, you dumb bitch.  The phone is ringing.  Get it!  Will you?”

Fucker.

“Hello.”

“Lynn?”

“Yes.  Who is this?”

“It’s me, Ashton.  Can you hear me?”

“Just barely.  Where are you?  Siberia?”

“Almost.  New Zealand.”

“Oh.”

“Who are you talking to?!”

“Look, Ashton, I have to go.  Have a great life, okay?”

“Lynn, wait.  Wait!  Don’t hang up.”

“Who is that?  Who are you talking to?  Give me the phone!

“Who is this?  Who are you?  You can’t talk to my girlfriend, you fuck!”

Silence on the line.

“You hear me?  You fuck!  I know who you are.

“You leave her alone.  She doesn’t love you!”

Phone drops.  Line still functioning.  Being recorded.

“Steve, don’t!  Please.  Don’t.”

“Oh no, you aren’t getting away with this.  Come here.  I’m gonna make you regret the breath you pull into your filthy lungs.  You would be nowhere without me.  You came back because you need me.  Not him!  I’ll show you what you need.  You need a good beating.”

Furniture smashing.  Screams.  Thumps.  Bumps.  Smacks.  Slaps.  Cries for mercy.  Fabric ripping.  Bones cracking.

Back in Black (Rayea’s Journal)

***

“A kiss? The renunciation of the heart when one is no longer alone.” ~ Unknown

***

10/22.  My homecoming was miraculous.  I was happy, happier than I had been in my life.  It was obvious, quite literally actually.  At first, I hadn’t thought anything about it, but when I discovered that my vampire fangs no longer retracted, I freaked out.  But Blick and Ra reassured me that it was okay.  I could learn how to hide them when I spoke to humans and things would be fine.  I stressed about it some more.  The realization drove me nuts for several days until I finally decided just to accept it.

“It is very freeing to be comfortable in your own skin, whatever type of skin that may be,” Blick had said to me.

He should know
, I told myself.  He had shifted into many forms, just in the time I had known him.  A hellhound puppy I found by the River Styx, a large and raging werewolf when the shit hit the fan, a seven-foot tall angel, a wolf god, and my fiancée – those last three shapes being human of course.

After reading my book that Grace and Lynn published, my mother told me I should be proud to be who I was.  “If people can’t handle the fact that you have fangs, then that’s their tough luck,” she had said.

Blick’s explanation I got.  My mother’s, no so much.  It pretty much came down to me adjusting, yet again, to a new me.  Vampire from Hell, child of Satan, dragon shape-shifter, all around nice person if you don’t fuck with her.  That was how I thought of myself.  Oh and add, silly girl in love.  That summed me up.

Finally, I stopped pouting about my protruding fangs and my self-image, and moved on to making up for lost time with those in my family I loved.  And yes, that did not include my father and sister who I forced out of my thoughts as often as I could.

Maybe I was selfish wanting to spend time with my mother and stepfather, Ra, but I justified it.  I needed time with them.  I needed things to be as normal as possible.  Really, I just wanted to be happy.  Period.  Blick and I were inseparable as well.  Maybe I was the clingy one, or maybe he was.  I don’t know.  We were in love and I did not care who knew it.

It had been weeks since our return from Valeria.  Things there had quieted down and J had told us the region had been abandoned.  No one, especially those who had been imprisoned there by Mehen, wanted to return to the place.  The Ancient Council had been turned over to G and Max, and a few others like J and Demetri who consulted here and there.  Blick and I stayed out of the politics, at least for now, and concentrated on things closer to home.  However, G had told me that I was welcome to join the hierarchy anytime I wanted, even if it was simply through consulting.  I had graciously acknowledged his offer and politely declined.

I did not tell anyone, even though I knew Blick understood my decision, but I understood after Mehen’s stunt that I had to keep some distance between me and the other celestial beings, the ones who were my friends and the ones who weren’t.  I needed to do that for my own sanity or their protection, or both.  It may not work out in the end, but at least I had to try.

I had mentioned to Ra that we should return and wipe Valeria off the map with a little firepower, but he had told me it wasn’t worth it.  Being a dragon shape-shifter as well, Ra was the only one – other than Blick - who reminded me when I was getting too big for my pants.  I told myself to calm down, the little inner dragon in me now wanting to kick ass as often as possible, and instead took comfort in the fact that many supernatural creatures were safe and happy, living a life of their own somewhere remote.  Demetri had yet to figure out where most of the creatures had vanished to after I freed them, but he and J were sorting it out.  I decided to let the topic drop and turned my attention to my life on Earth.

Since Blick and I could not agree if we should buy a home before our wedding day or not, we opted to stay at my mother’s home in Sausalito.  My mother and Ra insisted and I loved being near them.  My mother and I chatted often about my wedding plans and future house decorations and visited with her friends.  Having teatime with her knitting circle as they called themselves was a blast.  I learned a lot about the history of the Fanged community from Maia, Typhean’s oldest daughter who was my mother’s best friend and a powerful sorceress in her own right and of course Eos, the goddess of Immortality when she popped in.

Being a long time healer, Maia had become fascinated when she learned that my blood had healing properties.  I was asked to provide samples of my blood more often than I liked because it interfered with my drinking my mother’s wonderful blood tea.  After Maia pricked my fingers, I had to sit and smile nicely as I held cotton balls on my fingertips and attempted to balance my cup of tea.  It was ludicrous, but I was certainly not in a position to tell an ancient sorceress who had been around since the beginning of time ‘no’.  Some days, I could not get over how my daily life had changed.  Breakfast in bed with Blick, lunch and shopping with my mother, teatime with the goddess ladies (as I called them), a quick hunt in the evening, and then a midnight swim in the ocean with Ra.  My days rolled one after the other into blissful oblivion.

Being near the water again satisfied my inner dragon spirit.  Ra and I would shift into our dragon form and travel out pass the Golden Gate Bridge to the other side of the bay.  Being a dragon, swimming in the water was a completely freeing experience and I loved exploring the depths of the ocean at night. Blick and J had reconciled, and thankfully Blick had let go of his jealously.  Blick had feared that because J was a vampire now like me that I would forget about him.  Me forget about Blick?  Never!  I dismissed his fears instantly and limited spending time with J.  If J has any questions about being a vampire, he can talk to Michael,” I had told Blick.  For the time being, that seemed to have satisfied Blick.

As my thirst for blood grew less and less, my mind turned to domestic delights.  The wedding day was a year away and would be here before we knew it.  We both had a lot to do.

It was very unlike me and unlike that of a vampire’s nature I suppose, to worry about planning a wedding, shopping for a home, and so on.  I did not let that bother me.  I was enjoying life, probably for the first time ever and I had my routine down.  After I had some down time, I contacted Grace and we started going hunting a couple of times a week.  I logged back on to my social networking sites, deleted my posts on Deadit.com, just for security issues, and started a new journal.  I reconnected with my friends online and finished my homework, which was reading the published version of my previous online journals.  One last thing to do was to find out where Lynn lived because she had stopped responding to our text messages.  It was not like her at all.

A few weeks earlier, Grace had alerted me about not knowing where Lynn was.  I had told her to find out where she lived and we would pay her a visit.  When Grace talked to Ashton, Lynn’s boyfriend and discovered she had broken up with him, Grace and I became alarmed.  It was a sudden decision and with no real reason, or at least one Ashton could understand.  It was not like her.  Ashton was an actor and drop-dead handsome.  Granted he had been filming a lot lately, he said, but the long distant relationship hadn’t seemed to bother either one of them.  That was Ashton’s story.  But I knew Lynn.  She would not do such a thing like that without some big reason.  Grace decided to locate where Lynn lived and let me know what she found out.  I made a note in my iPhone to make a few calls in the meantime to see if anyone else had heard from her.

When I checked the clock on my phone and saw what time it was, I shut down my computer.  I wanted to make dinner for Blick before he got home from his meeting with Demetri.  I did not care so much that he had been working a great deal with Demetri to track down Beelzebub’s brothers, the remaining princes of Hell.  I disliked being away from him now and just as important, I did not want to know what he would find.  I knew some evil demon would show up on my doorstep soon enough.  I knew the brothers were out there because I could sense it like something you know you need to do but can’t remember what it is.  That was the creepy feeling I had churning around in the back of my head, an overpowering thought of dread.

I raced around the kitchen with vampire speed to see if I could drive the feeling away.  Of course, it did not work, so by the time I had cooked up Blick’s favorite meal which consisted of a steak (medium rare), salad, mashed potatoes, and garlic bread, I poured myself a glass of red wine and headed down to the cellar to find a vial of blood stored in my mother’s cellar.

Being a blood god with connections to people in high places, Ra kept a large supply of essential nourishments stocked in a walk-in freezer that connected to the wine cellar.  I had never seen so many steaks and bottles of vintage wine in my life.  When Blick and I had moved in, he had installed a vacuum-sealed vault for my needs.  He had told me to select any type I liked and I had been sampling various bloods of the gods that they had donated to ‘my stash’ which was the name I called the vault.  I asked Ra what was the catch and he replied, “I think it’s their way of thanking you.  Besides what vampire turns down blood of the gods?”

I could not disagree with Ra on that point.  The blood was delicious and once I got over the fact that it reacted well with the wine, I enjoyed drinking it that way.  I tried to push out the memory of my father using wine as the delivery system to turn me into a vampire.  His blood had been in the wine and that’s how it had triggered my change.  A nagging thought, however, remained in my head.  Using any type of liquid, water or wine or whatever, to poison someone was rather effective.  The person would not realize it until it was too late.

Next to hunting, the best way I enjoyed getting my dosage of blood was through Grace’s blood pills.  The blood freeze-dried method Demetri and Blick had designed while I was away.  Of course, I loved Blick’s blood smoothies but I had to agree with Grace, grabbing a few pills to go was easy and certainly did the trick.

I was glad Grace and I had started hunting a few nights a week.  I needed to stay in practice and on the alert.  I did not want to become complacent just because I was enjoying life and taking it easy.  My life had never been calm and uncomplicated.  I knew it would return to being chaotic soon enough.  Anything could change at any time so I wanted to remain mindful of that and be thankful for every blessing I had already received during my second chance at life.

As the evening wore on, I got a text from Blick saying he had gotten tied up with Demetri and they were figuring out another sighting of Asmodeus, one of Beelzebub’s brothers.  I groaned and replied, “I’ll try to wait up, dear.”

He thought that was hilarious because, as he knew, I had not been sleeping a lot.  I got maybe two or three hours a night and that was it.  I was at work on another book and had been writing up practice chapters on my new blog.

***

10/23 – 6 am

“What are you doing still up?”  Blick hovered over my computer, resting his hands on my shoulders.  It was the best feeling in the world to have him so close again.

“Reading my story again,” I laughed as I sipped on my cup of blood tea.

“Eos hasn’t given me my copy back yet,” he grumbled as he caressed my shoulder.

“I’m sure she’ll get it to you when she’s done.”

“I’m sorry I was gone all night.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

Blick did not say anything for a few moments which worried me.

“Blick?”

“Demetri’s looking in to it.  I thought I would come home, get a shower, and meet him later.”

Concerned, I swiveled around in my office chair.  “What’s going on?”

“Weird stuff.  It may be nothing, but Asmodeus showed up on J’s new detection system so I agreed to go with them and check it out.”

I rolled my eyes at him.  “I’ll go to then.”

“Rayea.”

I glared at him.

“I’ll take my phone with me and text you often.  Okay?”

“Fine,” I agreed, trying not to show the worry I felt growing inside me.

“Do you regret your book being shared with the world?” he asked, growing more serious.

Lately, I had enjoyed hanging out with the carefree Blick, the one who did not worry about work.  Here at 6 am in the morning, serious Blick had returned. Seeing him like this was a bit of a downer.

“What if your father is still out there somewhere and reads it?  I mean…”

I reached for his hand and held it to my cheek.  I listened to his heart beat in time with mine.  Ever since he had restarted my heart, it had been like that.  It had become a favorite past time of mine, simply listening quietly to the sound of our hearts beating as one.  I didn’t fully understand it, but I love it just the same.  Finally, I spoke up and startled him.  “I'm tired of being afraid, Blick,” I said.  “That was the old Rayea.  I won't be afraid anymore.  I have you by my side and as long as I have you, and my friends, I will not yield to my fears.”  I glanced up at him.  “Blick, I’m not going to let my father or my sister destroy my future, our future.  I want us to finally move on.  I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.  My father and sister may be out there still, but I won’t let that dictate how I live my life.  Not anymore.  I don’t care what snaky shit they throw at me.”