Melabeth Forgive Me, For I Am Sin! (28 page)

I heard the sound of growling, I knew that it was the rest of the wolves. They were not heading in my direction so I turned and followed the sound. I walked taking in everything; the sounds grew louder as I closed the distance. It sounded as if someone was snapping branches. As I rounded a hill the wolves came into my line of sight.

The sound now made sense; the five wolves were gathered around a large oak tree. They were tearing the base of the tree apart with their jaws. Half of the mighty oak was already gone. My eyes followed up the tree to see Clyde standing upon a branch holding onto the tree trunk. He looked exhausted and past fear.

One of the undead wolves took notice of me and it brought a small smile to my face. I yelled out, “Come and get me puppy, puppy.”

Three of the undead wolfs broke free from the tree and rushed towards me. The big brown wolf that I shoved the rifle up his ass was one of them. The rifle stock still projected from the wolf’s ass which made me laugh.

Just as the first wolf approached I jumped into a flip, slicing my hand downward my claws removing the beast’s head.

Landing between the remaining two, I kicked one as I grabbed the other. I bit down on the brown wolf, taking his life, quickly turning to fight off the attack from the one I had kicked. It only took me a few seconds to finish him off, but that’s all the time needed for the one I had beheaded to put itself back together. It was short lived as the newly formed wolf turned to face me, I reached up and grabbed its head and bit its face.

The other two wolves came upon me next, but the fight was short lived as I was fast.

I stood there; I felt a little sick, like I had eaten too much. My dress was all ripped up around the bottom, and the sleeves had been ripped back to my elbows. The fact the dress still hung on my body proved it was magical.

Clyde had dropped to the ground and was now heading my way. It was overcast, and we stood under a canopy of trees; this helped him, but he was still straining to see. I moved in his direction; as we closed the distance, he was able to recognize me, “Melabeth… is that you?”

He froze as if there was danger, which made me react in a similar way. My second sight didn’t see anything, but Clyde was looking around; he was staring at me. His face looked twisted as if he seen a ghost. I asked, “What’s wrong?”

He looked as if he were about to bolt. His voice was full of disgust, “What are you? You’re the devil.”

I was taken aback by his reaction to me. I closed the distance and now stopped an arm length in front of him. I demanded, “Why would you say that?”

He spoke with fear in his voice, “You look like an evil monster…”

His body went slack as he dropped to his knees. It had hardly registered that I moved one step forward and swung my hand with all my force. My hand had been flat and my fingers spread out like a large blade. I had hardly even thought about it when I swung… now he was upon his knees and as his body fell backwards upon the ground, his head rolled free of his corpse.

As I turned to walk away, the muted sunrays finally reacted with his blood. I could hear the crackling of the flames as Clyde’s body burned on the forest floor. I couldn’t help but think; if he really thought I was the devil, why would he piss me off?  Oh well, some mysteries will never be solved.

I headed in my original
direction, back
toward the cabins. I came to a small pool of still water and stopped to look at my face. At once, I understood Clyde’s reaction. My hands were huge and monstrous and my teeth were even longer than usual, but that’s not why he called me the devil. My eyes looked even bigger; they looked like giant blue plates of glass. Behind the blue glass burned a fire; you could see the fire burning behind my eyes. I had seen these eyes before; these were Nicks’ eyes. I suppose I killed Clyde for no good reason, but I didn’t care.

As I walked and the shadows twisted around me, I noticed some of the shadows were now moving in a different direction. The shadows formed a large black curtain. It didn’t really surprise me when Nicks strolled up. He moved fluidly toward me in a dark red robe. His hood was drawn back and hung down his back. His black hair lay untied on both sides of his head.

He gave me a small head nod, “Good day Melabeth.”

“And a top of the morning to you,” I said with no emotion. We looked upon each other with still faces. I wasn’t even sure what he wanted, but I did know what I did. I broke the silence first, “It’s time for answers. I know you didn’t create me, that I was made from a spell. Who are you, and what are you to me? My eyes look like yours now, now that I have devoured death,
I
want answers
.”

Nicks’ face became dark as clouds of dark matter swirled around him. His whole body doubled in size as his booming voice filled the air. “I am no mere mortal… watch your tone with me.”

His power poured off of him as my body hair stood on end. The fear quenched my anger as I tripped over my words, “Sorry… it won’t happen again… ok.” I waited a second longer as his eyes flamed like two dancing fire balls. I straightened myself and said with real conviction, “Sorry, I mean it.”

Nicks became normal in a blink of an eye; once again his face was full of kindness. He walked up to me, and it was natural to fall in stride with him. We walked side by side through the forest. He told me, “You are wrong and right. You were wrong about being created by the spell. You were sent to me by the spell, and then I created you, but you are right that it is time to tell you how you have become. Or rather what you may be.”

“What I may be?” I asked in dismay.

Nicks gave me a kind smile, “You are full of anger right now; I can see that. Let me start as to why I have waited to tell you. I have feared that enemies will come against you when they discover what you are. Rather they will think they know what you are and destroy you out of fear. I don’t even know what you will become, but I have hope. My wishes were that you would become stronger or rather you would come to understand what you are before anyone else could, but the time for hiding you has ended.”

I kindly suggested, “Start from the beginning, I am ready.”

He nodded, “Good place to begin any story. I believe the beginning of our story started the night you were murdered. Alex had stolen a terrible magic book, containing dark Necromancer magic. He found a spell which would give him and his friend’s immortality, an escape from death. The spell called for a virgin to be defiled over the prepared magic circle. His spell didn’t work for many reasons; one was that you were no virgin. I believe he screwed up many other things as well and in doing so he created a new spell; one that cannot be repeated.

Let it also be known who I am, for I am the angel of death, the grim reaper. It is I who reap the lost souls of this world and bring them to death. I have been called many names over the centuries, but I prefer Nicks.”

I froze in my tracks as my mind tried to wrap around this information. He made sense, but it meant that I was the daughter of death. I asked the first question that popped in my head, “The library?”

“It is the doorway to death, the entrance between this world and the next. Many people have called it by different names, the River Styx, purgatory, that is but a few names for the library. In all my long life it has been my job to collect the dead, and I grow tired. The world becomes more and more populated and there is never enough time to collect all the dead. I do not know what lies in the land of death, but I can tell you this much, they will not send me any help.

I longed for a child and for many centuries I searched for a way of creating such a thing, but alas, I have found nothing. That is until you… you must understand that I have a physical form like you, but unlike any creature that has ever lived, I am the only one who can travel between life and death. Spirits can travel back and forth, but they have no physical form. I can send spirits to their final rest, and so can you. That is what you did with the wolves, their spirits were trapped and you freed them.”

“I watched
the movie they killed me in, and in the end my body melted. What happened to it?” I was trying to make sense of this.

Nicks smiled, “It was the first physical body other than mine to enter the library. The night they cast the spell, I felt the call. I came to witness the end of your earthly existence. I followed your body to the land of death, and, most importantly, your soul was still attached.”

“My whole body went to the land of the dead?” I remarked.

Nicks continued explaining, “Yes and every time you have visited the library, so has your body. If anyone would have checked your bed they would have found it empty. Still there was a problem the first time you arrived in the library.”

“What?”

He simply said, “You were dead.”

I didn’t understand the part he played or how I became a vampire, but I was about to find out. I couldn’t hide my curiosity as I asked, “Then how did you bring me back?”

“Not being the first person I tried to give my gift to, I did have an idea of how this might be done. Starting with blood, I then added fairy blood and finally my own blood. Your body was too damaged and needed to be healed. Once there lived a magical creature that could heal all things, disease, injury and even aging. To harvest this power, you had to kill the creature. The magical animal was hunted down until none were left, but I had the last of the creature’s blood. I added it to you and your body repaired itself.”

I asked, “And what creature was this?”

Nicks looked like he was thinking about whether or not to tell me. He finally answered, “Unicorn.”

“REALLY?” I asked in disbelief.

Nicks gave me a small smile, “Well, it only half worked. It repaired your body, but when I carried you back to the land of the living; you were still dead. I came up with an idea; I had no idea if it would work. I found a vampire and asked for some of his blood. He was only a little bit disagreeable, but after a small talk he donated. After adding the vampire blood, you came to life, and I had great hope. I noticed that once your body took life, it began a quick change, and I knew that you would die and arise as a vampire. I decided to take your body
and lay it to rest in a quiet place, so I called upon some spirits to prepare your new resting area.”

“I remembered them; I thought the girl was rude.”

Nicks nodded, “She was. Still we made you a casket, and there I laid you to rest. I was forced to kill you again, but I’d rather do that than watch you die slowly while the change happened. Still I had no idea if any of it would work.”

I remembered something Nicks told me that night, “I thought you found me in a dumpster?”

“I had not the time to explain all things to you. You were barely in your right mind. I was not trying to deceive you, but rather give an easy explanation so that you may rest in peace. I always knew if you survived the change I would get my chance to set the record straight.”

His words rang not only of truth, but of concern and love. I smiled at him, “I never think of you as someone who is trying to deceive me. I just want to understand; tell me more about the magical creatures. I obviously know of vampires and the Unicorn, but what about the Elfin and Fairy?”

Nicks looked around, “I can’t stay long; they will have to be short explanations. I have one other matter we must council on before I leave.
The Elfin are
very magical people; their ability to manipulate energy has always made them powerful. Their weakness is they live long and produce few and over time their numbers have decreased. They mixed with man and a new race was born, mage. Now there are many mages and only one full blooded elf left; their race is all but extinct.

Fairies are rare, but they still exist in forests around the world. They live in self made glamour, for that is all they do. It’s much like Alice’s power; this is why legends of fairies are so varied.”

I asked, “Do they mix with humans as well?”

Nicks laughed, “They’re three inches tall. Not sure how that would work.”

I laughed as well. Clearing the mental image from my head I said, “That makes sense.”

Nicks added, “It also makes sense of where you get your other sight, for Fairies glamour everyone, including each other. For that reason they use sonar, like a bat, so that they don’t run into things.”

“Is that where it comes from?” I commented in wonder.

“Before my time is up, we must speak about what you are to become.”

“And what is that?”

Nicks’ face held no humor, “An angel of death, like no other… but before I let such great power arise, I must know that it is good.”

Defensively I snapped, “I’m good… well sort of.”

Nicks smirked, “You have good in you, and are capable of good. On the other hand, you have evil as well. I have watched you; not all of what you have done is good. Know this, a path lies before you where this will be tested. Kill the innocent and I will strike you down.”

What he said rattled me, “Oh… ok, well I’ll try to watch out for that.”

Nicks smiled tightened and his eyes narrowed, “Try hard… one more thing.”

I wanted to say, Oh great, but all that came out was, “Yes.”

“I love you,” and with that he took me into his embrace.