The Elder Origins (8 page)

             
She was sure that by this time the man she had bitten told the others of what she had done. She would be killed for their own safety. Looking into Jamison’s eyes as they changed before her, she wondered if he had seen what she had done. But he was almost in a daze between gasps for air. She instinctively wanted to feel some kind of guilt or extreme remorse for having hurt the crewman. He had every reason to protect himself and the others against her now. But the thirst inside her, she couldn’t tell herself ‘no.’ The blood was there, and it was meant for her.

No one came over to her or Jamison. In fact, they seemed to disappear. P
erhaps the crewman had left to get more water. Perhaps Jayden and Lyndon were simply giving them peace to die near one another.

Then she heard the faint noise from just a few yards away. And within seconds, it was not
so faint anymore. Others were coughing nearby. The crewman, Jayden, and Lyndon, were all upon the ground gasping for air. The sounds of all their coughs seemed to permeate the valley and the hillside. Lyndon crawled to her on his hands and knees.

No illness could travel about this
quickly.

And just as she gained the strength to lift her lead weight arm to reach
for Lyndon, to beckon him forth, he rolled onto his back, heaving.

Wh
at have those people done to us?

With the sensation
of needles spreading through her neck, she managed to turn her head once more to Jamison, who reached for her hand with the only strength he could gather. She wondered for a moment if her eyes had changed in the same way his did before her. She had always looked to him and seen his blue eyes staring back at her. He didn’t even look like the same person with the violet that had overtaken those eyes.

She hoped that whatever this was, that it would take her quickly. She felt her eyes become heavy as they had been when Jamison found her. They were the only part
of her body she could move. Her limbs dug into the earth from the weight of the blood coursing through her veins. Her eyelids dropped over her sight and everything was dark. She could still hear the sickness overtaking everyone close by. And then, silence. She let the pressure within her body abruptly consume her as everything disappeared.

7

              A foggy haze blocked Madison’s vision as her senses slowly came back to her. Water rushed within hearing distance and she could sense someone moving. Something hard touched her lips. A hand put pressure on the back her head. Jayden was lifting her forth and brought her liquid from one of the jugs. She sipped it slowly getting a few sips down before she was placed back to the ground. Something soft was under her head. Jayden had tried to make her comfortable by setting his coat beneath her. With hesitation, Madison lifted her eyes to meet his as her sight slowly returned. Jayden peered into her eyes not with the spite or annoyance she was used to, but with genuine concern.

             
She began to move her eyes about with surprising ease. She was in the woods, surrounded by the forest she had become familiar with. Looking up, she saw that she was under the logged makeshift roof that Jayden and Lyndon had built by the stream. The large boulders beside its flowing water allowed for shelter. The stream sounded more like a strong river now. It rumbled louder than she remembered.

             
“How did I get here?” she asked.

             
“I carried you. You were far worse off than the others,” Jayden said softly.

             
“And Jamison? Is he still sick?”

             
“He is extremely weak. He can move slightly, but only to cough.”

             
“Why did you separate us? Why am I here?” she asked.

             
“Jamison asked me to bring you. Your coughing stopped and you slept for nearly four days. He hoped you were getting better. He wanted you separated from the others so you were not exposed to the illness again.”

             
She looked at him directly, no longer observing her surroundings.

             
“Do you believe it an illness now? Did I bring this upon everyone?”

             
He took her by the wrist and propped her upright, kneeling before her. She didn’t let go of him.

             
“An illness? If so, it is one of proportions that I have never seen. Men don’t behave in this way. Not even in battle have I seen this.”

             
“Seen what?” she asked. “Our eyes changed. And I felt my mouth, my teeth-.”

H
e cut her off. “Not that,” he said. He let go of her wrist and backed away from her, drinking the liquid from the jug and then closing it. He stared ahead at the stream. “I have never seen an illness that made men act like beasts. Nor have I heard a priest speak of a possession that did such.” He didn’t continue but only looked away. Madison waited for him to start again, knowing that there was more. “What illness have you ever known that made you want to dig into someone else’s throat with your bare teeth?” he said numbly.

Madison
flushed even paler than she already was. She assumed that he had seen the native man she attacked in addition to what she had done to the crewman.

             
“Do you think it was the natives? Did they make us ill, or did they possess us?” she asked.

             
“Either way, they clearly wanted us dead.” Jayden was still for a moment continuing to look away before bringing his eyes back to her.

             
She waited before gaining the nerve to ask what she had been wondering. “Is he alright?” she said tentatively. “Did I hurt him gravely?” she asked, referring to the crewman she bite. She regretted not knowing his name.

             
“Not as badly as Lyndon did. It was as if everyone turned to beasts, including myself.”

             
“What do you mean?” she said quickly. “What happened?”

             
“The same as I imagine happened to you when you saw that native in the woods.”

She had been right. He had seen what she did to him. Or Jamison had told him.
She hesitated, remembering the sensation she had before attacking. It was an all-consuming desire wanting release. It was as if she were not within her own body. There was something else needing to get out. She hadn’t even the time to react to the thirst’s desires before she gave into it.

             
“Lyndon attacked the crewman after you bite him. What illness makes one crave blood, mistress?” he said slyly. Jayden gazed at her, watching her eyes expanding in disbelief.  She gripped her dress in her hands, unable to fully comprehend what had happened.

“How are you not ill as well?”

“I was. But I recovered within a few days. I think two nights passed, but I can’t be certain.”

Madison shook her head and grasped her foreh
ead, trying her best not to reveal her inner most emotions before this man. She knew he would be unsympathetic.

“Like
every other illness, I suppose,” he said. “It affected everyone differently. If it takes the same course as it has with you and me, the others should recover soon enough.”

She noted just then that the movements within her arms just a moment before had come fluently, and without pain. She could move her arms and legs. Lifting herself up, she was able to stand.

“Did you run for that man?” he said.

“What?”

“The man you killed, the native in furs. Did you run for him?”

She nodded in response. “You found him, did you?” she asked.

He smiled. “And he was running by horse, correct?”

“Yes,” she said quickly, and without thinking.  Had he seen how swiftly she had moved?
Her face was stern, revealing nothing.

“You caught up to him then,” he said.

“Yes. It felt as though I had left my body.”

He smirked and
inched closer to her. His eyes gleamed with delight in a way she hadn’t seen before. This man had never been gleeful or in the least bit pleased unless it was with himself.             

“Indeed, I know,” he
said looking directly at her again, forcing her eyes to meet his. He wrapped the leather strap of the jug around his shoulder and across the length of his back. He then stepped back away from her. “Care for a confirmation?”

“What?” she asked.

“Well, more of a demonstration,” he responded, once again with a grin upon his face. She saw that he meant something more mischievous than his normal pretentious manner.

With only the sound the air moving about him, he ran away from her. He did so with th
e same speed and agility she possessed. Shock crossed on her face. She knew that was what he had hoped for. Only a second later, she darted away into the woods behind him. She chased him for the long mile back to the camp. The feeling of creating a wind and the caress of the air about her gave the sensation of flight. She could hardly even feel the ground beneath her. It was as if she were floating above it rather than touching it. The uneven patches and the scattered trees didn’t affect her ability to move through them. Her body knew how to respond to every blocking tree or broken branch on the ground. She moved around them as though they weren’t even there.

She came up behind Jayden and felt herself slow almost instantly. She stood beside him. Their camp had significantly improved since she had gone under.

“Where did you get these things?”

“W
here do you think?” he challenged her. He continued to look at her with ultimate gratification in his eyes. She knew he was proud of what he had accomplished.

“You found where the natives settle?”

“That and more,” he said. “There are pathways through the woods, another stream, and a large river with a waterfall. Even bigger creatures than the deer graze in the valleys. There is more to this land than we ever imagined. Perhaps your brother was not so misguided.”

Madison looked at
the camp, away from his eyes that seemed to pierce through her. There were skins layered over branches that were buried into the ground forming tents. Furs for blankets over the others who remained ill or asleep, fire rings for warmth, and… bodies. Five bodies of the native men who had been watching them lay motionless on the ground.

“Are those them?” she asked, pointing to the natives
in a pile near one of the large fire rings.

“Yes, I will burn those.”

“Burn them?” she nearly screamed. “What have you done?”

“You really have no authority to speak, Madison. They have been sustaining us, all of us. Including you.”

It occurred to her that it was blood he had fed her from the jug by the stream, not water.

“They are why you recovered so quickly,” he continued. “The only reason I did was because they came to see what had become of us. I managed to overtake one of them. We must continue feeding, or we will become weak. Their blood is now our water.”

“You fed me their blood while I slept?”

“Of course I did,” he said. “Would you rather have died?”

She scoffed and nearly continued to speak before he overtook the opportunity.

“I only knew to do it because of what I saw them doing to us. It is their fault this happened to us to begin with, now their blood is their penitence.”

“You keep speaking as though I should know your meaning already,” she said, becoming more agitated as he spoke.

“They laced our waters with their blood, Madison. We have been drinking it since we first arrived. The stream was littered with
it.” She looked at him with even greater disbelief. “It is like I told you. We are not ill. We are not possessed. We were poisoned. They did this to us. And I would imagine that they did it in hopes of us destroying one another. They were not expecting us to survive it.”

Madison held her stomach as though her insides were about to fall upon the ground.

“They meant to make us ill so we would consume one another,” he said, his face hardening.

“You can’t possibly know that,” she said.

“Yes, I do. I saw them putting blood into our waters as if it were venom. They were afraid of us, Madison. They are even more fearful now, which is why they were watching. They hoped to watch us decline just as they hoped the fires and waters would consume us all.”

“What do you speak of now? You still think those fires from the grasses appeared from nothing?”

“No, not nothing. From them!” His frustration was growing.

“How can you know these things?”

“You didn’t feel their emotions resonating from them?”

“What
madness do you speak of now?” she demanded.

“When you saw them watching us and ran for them in the woods, did you feel their emotions? You did, I know it. That was why you ran for them in anger. You knew they were there to watch us die. You knew they hoped we would all perish. You can f
eel beyond your own emotions, Madison, as can I. I can sense what they are feeling. I know their intent every time I look upon them.”

She remembered her
anger during those moments when they stared at her from the tree line. She had felt rage for them not having helped them. She knew they wanted to watch what was left of them die away.

“If you have not yet experienced it, you soon will.” He said taking her shoulders in his hands. She could see his teeth as he gleamed at her, the few at the sides sharpened as Jamison’s had become, like small daggers. His eagerness for her to understand and grasp what was happening permeated through the air around her. His scent overwhelmed her senses and she felt it. His desire for her to recognize and appreciate what was happening. She knew as w
ell that he was aware of her self-doubt.

Gripping her shoulders tighter, he looke
d into her eyes. She could see their violet hue.

“I will show you everything, and then you will help show the others,
” he said. “You have no idea of what you are capable of, Madison. Our bodies will heal instantly, our speed is insurmountable, and we can sense others around us. That is how I know of what they have done to us. I need not speak their language to know their intent. And neither shall you.”

Before she could respond, he stepped back from her and walked the small remaining distance to their camp. Her mouth fell open, but no words came
out. She only felt that soon she would come to value what had happened to her, and that she would relish in it. But then, she realized it was not her own mind speaking to her. The knowledge and emotion of that truth was spilling from another.

Jayden.