Eternal War Rising to the South: The Beynok Vampire Series (2 page)

The werewolf lunged at me with all its power. I fell back, placing his neck in the V of my two swords as he flew over me. I pulled my two protectors apart, slicing its neck from both directions. The werewolf landed on its stomach, but was still alive. I hadn’t take the head completely off.

I walked over to the beast and said, “The end has found you first beast.” My sword came down and finished it off.

Nickolai asked, “Since when do werewolves talk? That’s a first for me.” Yuri waved his hands and said, “Really, Nickolai, are you surprised about anything we see out here? One day these bastards might wear suits and use a damn toilet. Come on, I’m going to the truck to get the gas to burn this place down.” Ambrose followed behind Yuri.

Great, I was left with Nickolai and Nadia. They always have a moment right after a fight. It looks as if they leave this world and fall deep into each other’s eyes. Nickolai wrapped his arms around Nadia, only leaving enough room for them to look at one another. They never kissed in front of any of us, I guess out of respect. I’m not sure. It must have been hard for them, having to enter battles all the time, not knowing if the other was going to come out alive. Part of me yearned for a connection like that. The other part told me it would do nothing but weaken me.

During Nickolai and Nadia’s second rise, they lived in Russia together. Nickolai was killed in a battle by an Ahriman witch, a witch sent by Satan. It’s hard to think anything could kill Nickolai. I just can’t picture it. Anyway, a few days after Nickolai passed, Nadia passed. Vladimir once explained to me that the bond we have with our partners is a spiritual and emotional one. We need our partner during our first three risings for strength because our spirits are not whole. Each time we rise to a different direction, we gain a bit more of our spirit, giving us more strength. Our partner rises in the opposite direction for balance.

Therefore, whichever of the two, Nickolai or Nadia, falls first, the other is shortly to follow. Then they will have their fourth rise. We rise in our adult bodies and never age. Once we are full-spirited, we start to show our age only in our maturity level, and it’s almost impossible to kill us, but it can happen.

Vladimir has had his full spirit now for almost two hundred years. If full-spirited Beynoks lose their partner, the partner’s spirit is placed inside of them and will never rise again. I had to ask Nickolai about Vladimir’s partner. He told me Vladimir had lost her about hundred and twenty years ago. None of us knows exactly how. Vladimir never shows his emotions to the others, just to me, sometimes. I wonder if we are able to love another if we no longer have a partner on earth or if our hearts feel whole because the partners’ spirits are placed inside of us. All this is just too deep for me. I’m still working on trying to understand my second rise.

I realized that Ambrose and Yuri would be back soon, so I walked around making sure all the werewolves were dead, and by the time I finished, Yuri and Ambrose strolled in with the gasoline can. “You guys finish up the rest. I’m going to the Suburban,” I said. I could sense we were no longer in danger, and I wanted a moment to myself.

The warehouse was up in flames by the time Nickolai pulled the Suburban away. Conversation was slim to none on the way back to the helicopter. They had all noticed the werewolf saying, “We have destroyed one of your clans.” The thought put fear into all of us, and I didn’t need my gift of sense to know it.

The scout was waiting for us by the helicopter when we returned to the field. He looked okay to me … and he felt the same to me as he did when we left, but with added relief to see us. Even so, something was strange … different from before. Something oddly familiar was hidden in the field, something that was not present when we first left. I couldn’t put my finger on the source of the unsettling sensations that tingled and bounced around inside of me. My team jumped out, closed the doors, and walked over to the scout. I remained in the passenger seat, sealed in the suburban. I closed my eyes and concentrated, opening myself up to the surroundings. The emotions pulsing through me were oddly comforting yet painful at the same time. “I don’t understand,” I said aloud. I placed the presence of my team and the scout in my head. The emotions were most definitely not coming from their direction. I opened my eyes and slid out of the suburban.

It seemed darker than it had been when we left. Clouds covered most of the stars, and the only light was from the half-moon above us. A tall, almost perfect circumference of thin trees lined the open field. As my eyes followed the barely lit tree tops, I started to feel claustrophobic. A sharp pressure in my chest came on suddenly. I could sense something watching me. No one from my team was paying any attention to me. Nickolai was confirming the hunt with the scout because sending the results of the hunt to Russia was another task the scouts did for us. The others were talking among themselves. I took advantage of everyone’s lack of attention and walked far out into the field. I stopped when I could no longer hear my team talking. There I stood alone and closed my eyes. Everything seemed to vanish in my head, except the tree line and me. I spun slowly trying to pinpoint the location of the emotions now over taking my body and running through me like rocket fire. I felt close to the source.

Oh, my God
. The rocket fire quickly turned into lightning bolts, hitting my core. Its emotions doubled, tripled within me, forcing me to the ground. I felt my palms clam up, and small drops of sweat ran down the back of my neck. It was not hot outside. Why was I feeling hot? I managed to push myself up and open my eyes. My dream … This was my dream. I located a small breach in the tree line. The path was dark inside, masked by hovering tree branches. I could barely make out a silhouette standing a couple of feet inside the opening. I couldn’t see the face just the reflections of light off the eyes. The width of its shoulders and the height had to make it the male silhouette from my dream, no question. The black figure didn’t move, nor did I, but I knew we were observing one another.

My breathing became heavy and the lightning crashed into me again and about took me to the ground, but I was more prepared this time. I pushed at my chest to slow my heart from pounding and tried to focus. The desire radiating off him and sadness contradicted one another. Familiar warmth and a sense of comfort came rushing in soon after.
Who or what is this?

I had an overwhelming surge of desire to go to the silhouette. A fight broke out between my heart and mind. My heart said,
You are safe, go. You dreamt this moment would happen.
Follow the dream.
My mind said,
No, what are you thinking?
Call your team and attack.
I needed to see what the figure looked like. I had to know what it was and why it had stalked my dreams.

The desire in my heart won over the logic in my mind. It echoed out from the core of my body and willed me to go to the unknown figure. My movement in the field must have caught the attention of the others because I heard Nickolai yell, “Anya, is that you? What are you doing?”

I turned to my team, who were still standing by the helicopter. They were in their fighting positions, ready to take an order if I gave one. “I’m fine. Everything is fine,” I called back to them.

When I turned back to the small opening in the tree line, the black figure had vanished, along with its emotions. I stood there alone, staring into the empty pathway. My mysterious silhouette’s emotions, replace with leftovers, me... I was left to feel the bottomless pit of my loneliness. My eyes filled with unfamiliar liquid. For the first time, I truly know how alone I am and how bare my soul is. Having felt the fire inside powerful enough to take me to my knees makes me question everything about myself. Why? Was my imagination winning a battle between reality and deception?
No. He was here tonight.
I felt him. His emotions were strong enough to overpower my body. No question. This was not a dream of a story line from a fairytale or a nightmare. It was real. As real as the tear running down my cheek.

I walked back toward my team instead of the direction my heart wanted to take me. They were on alert and waiting for me. Yuri’s nose was in the air, and he had a disturbed look on his face. He didn’t say anything, but I could see the curiosity in his eyes. Understanding his gift of smell, I wondered what he thought the silhouette was. For some reason, I didn’t want to hear his theories. I definitely didn’t want anyone to know the type of emotions I had pumping through me at that moment, and the best way to avoid any conversation was to act as if nothing had happened. I could only hope Yuri would keep his mouth shut.

“I’m ready to go home,” I said. They all looked confused, but worn-out, so no one questioned me. “Nickolai, are you finished with the scout?” I asked. With a quick nod from Nickolai, everyone climbed into the helicopter.

4 – I Found Her

*** Sorin ***

The moonlight spotted her perfectly in the middle of the field, outlining her face and body, detailing every feature I remember painfully well. It’s her, it’s Anya. There she is after all this time…all this searching. I have wanted this moment to come for years, counting every tormenting day as it slowly passed.
Why am I feeling hesitation to go to her?
My natural instinct tells me she is the enemy but my core deep within wants nothing but to go to her and take her from this damaging world. But still there is the hesitation that has my body captured in this moment.
Why?

Look at her. I can’t move…the sight of her after all these years is paralyzing. Every memory and emotion I have pushed and blocked away came barreling back and eroded my body. She doesn’t even know how beautiful she is. Her face…her eyes. The pain that has stained
my body caused by not being with her all these years…How can she love the monster I have become? How can the monster I have become love her the way she needs to be loved…the way I used to love her?

We used to fight by each other’s side…sword to sword. Now we fight opposite and she would use her sword against me. We used to make love like the day would never end. Now she would never think of even touching her lips to mine.

The idea that we belong together has become the sole purpose of my undying existence. I should move past the unfeasible idea of her wanting to be with me but I can’t. She will know as I do, that we don’t belong together in this world but I will fight for both of us, to make us believe.

Look at her out there, she is vulnerable all by herself. She still harbors strong bravery like I remember. Always putting herself in danger before anyone else. I can tell she senses me, she is fighting against what she’s feeling. Her instincts, her mind, and her heart are going to battle greatly over the emotions I cause her body.
I wonder which one will win?
Tonight was the first battle but soon there will be many more. Now that I found her and locked on to her, I can find her anywhere. Tonight was not the right time to engage her for the first time with all of her team around. I have waited this long to have her and I can wait a little longer. Soon I will know how great of a battle it will be to claim her as mine.

5 – New Death

I knew the helicopter was close to home when the reflection of the moonlight on the Pacific Ocean became visible. The location of our house is perfect; it’s almost a small piece of heaven. From it, I can smell both the salt of the ocean and the pine of the forest. The ocean is no more than a stroll away, and our backyard is practically a fairway of shrubs and wild flowers that leads to the outskirts of a mountain. The house itself is very modern, forest green in color, with clean-cut square lines. The space is very practical with five bedrooms, all with their own bathrooms, a large kitchen, and a basement used only for working out, weapon practice, and sparring. We lived very comfortably at Yachts.

The ride back seemed longer than the ride to the fight. The night was ending, but we were all concerned about the answer to the big question of the night:
Why had we been sent on the hunt instead of Misha’s team?
I knew I was the one who had to ask the question, and I didn’t want to hear the answer I feared most. After the werewolf’s comment, “We have destroyed one of your clans, and many more of your kind will soon see the same destiny”,
I sure hoped he was not talking about Misha and his team or any other Beynok clan for that matter.

Thinking of what might have happened, I turned to look at Ambrose in the back. Sacha, his partner, was on Misha’s team. Ambrose and Sacha don’t live together, but the bond they have is strong. They found each other eight years ago when Vladimir and Misha’s teams were on a hunt together, before I came to Yachts. They are both on their third rise. It was written all over his face now; he was scared. I could see his hands shaking a little. He felt my heavy stare and looked up at me.

“Anya, I know it was them. I can’t feel Sacha anymore. I knew something was wrong this morning, but I ignored it. My heart is empty. I know I’ll see her again, but when? How long will it take next time?” He looked back down, and with agony in his voice, he said, “I guess I’m not ready to leave.” The lighting from the helicopter platform lit Ambrose’s face allowing me to see him clearly. His eyes were small dams ready to overflow any second. His hands and legs were trembling. He looked back up at me, but his stare went right through me off into nowhere, as the thought of Sacha’s death consumed him.

What could I say? I’d never been good expressing my feelings, so I came up with something stupid. “You don’t know for sure. You could be mistaken. What if you’re reading your feelings wrong?”

Ambrose glared at me and asked, “What do you know about how it feels to have a partner? You haven’t even found yours to make a connection. What do you know?”

“I’m sorry, Ambrose. You’re right; I don’t know. I was just trying to help.”

After a hunt, we always meet in the kitchen to report to Vladimir. We sat silently around the large, ancient, wooden table for a while. Usually this part of the mission was the easiest. Review, strategize, and most of the time, enjoy the winning results. That night, I would have rather been back at the warehouse fighting werewolves.

Finally, I hesitantly said, “We all want to know why we were sent to the hunt instead of Misha’s team.” That’s all it took to turn Vladimir’s face from emotionless to full of regret and sorrow.

Vladimir slowly turned to Ambrose and said, “I’m sorry, Ambrose, but I think you can already feel what has happened to Misha’s team.” Ambrose just nodded his head and left the table. I heard him leave through the backdoor.

Vladimir continued, “It happened late last night while they were asleep. The scout you met tonight found them this morning in their home. After he called it in, he tracked the pack of werewolves to the warehouse you went to tonight.”

No wonder the scout felt nervous,
I thought.
He was thinking there was a good chance he was sending us to our deaths.

“He found them in their home?” Yuri asked. “Werewolves don’t track us. Werewolves have never done that before! They’re not intelligent enough to form a plan to invade one of our homes and kill a clan as large and as experienced as Misha’s team.”

I believed what he said was true. Werewolves had never been the most intelligent creatures we hunted, but they were definitely extremely dangerous scavengers. Our kind had never come across an organized clan with a purpose other than feeding.

Vladimir interjected, “Times have changed. We’ve watched other creatures evolve. I read the report the scout sent to Russia while you were on your flight back. It says one of them talked. I’ve heard them talk before, but this one sounded more intelligent than the others.” He paused with a look of heavy thought. “A Team is at Misha’s house now.”

I felt a little bit of hope flutter in the air.
Were there any survivors? There had to be.
Misha and his partner and eight other hunters lived there. Ten is a large clan for our kind, but Misha covered a big territory, so his team was larger than most.

“When the team arrived at Misha’s house, they found the bodies of nine Beynoks and twelve werewolves,” Vladimir said. “A youth in her first rise named Elizaveta was spared, most likely spared to convey the slaughter. None of you have met her because she was recently sent as a trade from Russia. She’ll be arriving in a couple of days for a permanent place on our team.”

We all knew the meaning of “permanent place.” Ambrose would be falling in a day or two. It’s what our kind does if they lose their partner and have not yet received their full soul.

“That’s nice. I’m already being replaced. I’ll go clean my room out and wait to fall,” we heard Ambrose’s voice strain from behind us as he started to walk up the stairs.

We hadn’t heard him come back inside, being too wrapped up in the conversation to pay attention to anything that was happening outside of our discussion.