Thirst No. 2 (49 page)

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) memory. No doubt I made other mistakes with you as well."

"Yes. But I am puzzled. Why did you give me the clue of the Medusa's head?"

"It was necessary. For you to be totally mine, you had to be warned by me in advance.

Free will operates on both paths, the right and the left. When you intentionally killed that girl, then and only then were you made ready to meet me here."

"It was all just a set up? The whole thing?"

"Yes."

"And had I willingly given you my blood, I would have completed the third step?"

"Precisely. Then your blood would have been of the most use to me."

I sigh. "Well, I guess now you're not going to have it."

He stares at me. I see him clearly now, his supernatural beauty, even the faint tendrils of black that crawl around the field above his head. Yet I realize he still has leprosy.

"You are wrong on that point," he says softly.

I take a step back. "You are still about to die. You need my blood to live even a few more days. Your evil invocations really did give you leprosy.

He takes a step in my direction. "That is correct. The work has its price. But I need your blood to sustain this physical body, and continue my work in this third density. But unlike last time, I will now be unable to pass my blood onto others. You can no longer be convinced to be my initiate and undergo a shift toward negative polarization. Still, your blood will be useful to me for a long time." He removes a dagger from under his dirty shirt. It is the same one that the maid stabbed me with. It is stained with my blood. "There is no point in trying to run from me, Sita, or in trying to harm me. My psychic powers are beyond yours."

I find it impossible to turn away from him.

Indeed, I cannot even move my arms or legs

The Medusa. My body has turned to stone.

"It doesn't matter what you do to me now," I say, thankful to be able to use my tongue. "I have defeated you and the rest of your kind. In the future there will be no army of invincible negative beings to confuse humanity. Your cancer has been cut from society.

The harvest will go forward the way it was intended. You have lost, Landulf, admit it."

He steps to within two feet of me. He brushes my long hair with his knife. Then he licks the tip of the blade, the dried blood, and smiles sadly.

"It is not my nature to admit anything," he says. "But I will say that I would have enjoyed your continuing adoration almost as much as your body, and the immortal blood that pumps through it." He scratches the skin below my right eye and a red drop runs over my cheek. The sight fills him with pleasure. "A vampiric tear, Sita. Cried for me? I must still be your hero."

I am defiant, and no longer afraid.

The stain on my left hand has vanished.

"My only regret is the tears I cried for you," I say. "Other than that I have none. I am at peace. And you are still a monster. One day you will be forced to look in Perseus' mirror, and you will see your own reflection, and see just how foul you are to behold. And on that day you will turn to stone, Landulf. You will die and rot, and the world will be relieved of a great burden." I stop. "Kill me now and get it over with. If you have the nerve, you disgusting creature!"

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

I spit in his face. He does not like that.

He wipes the saliva away and raises his knife.

"I was going to kill you quick," he says. "But now, Sita, it may take all night."

He moves to slit open my side and then pauses, puzzled.

I am confused as well, for a moment. My body has begun to glow. The pond shines as well, with the light of the heavens. It is as if the constellations in the sky have been awakened, and been inspired to send down their light to Earth. The white light that fills my body comes from the direction of the pond as well as the sky. Landulf seems to recognize the transformation I am undergoing and is filled with dismay. But this stellar current fills me with euphoria. I have experienced it before, just before I rescued the child from the Setians. Landulf is like one of those creatures, I see, only worse. He struggles to cut into my flesh as I grow brighter. His frustration makes me laugh.

"I guess you're going to have to remain a leper," I say in a voice that grows faint. "But don't take it too hard. You're not going to be around much longer. Yaksha is still somewhere on this planet and you might try to find him, but I don't think that you'll get to him in time. As far as you're concerned, I am the last vampire. Your last chance, Landulf.

How does that feel?"

His rage is incredible to behold. The fair face of the god is transformed into a demon. The all but invisible serpents above his head hiss poisonous vapors. They surround him in a noxious cloud. It is as if his whole body has been swallowed by his leper's sores. He tries to grab me but his fingers pass through me. Seeing his efforts are useless, he strains to regain his pleasant demeanor, to make one last stab at my soul. But he still has the knife in his hand and in either case I will never be fooled by him again.

"Sita," he says. "Our offer is still good. We can grant you powers unimaginable. You have only to join us, and we will rule this world together."

I am practically a ghost but I can still laugh.

"You shouldn't have mentioned the togetherness part," I reply. "I can't think of anything more dull."

17

There is a brief moment when I am lying on the floor of the interstellar craft. I feel Alanda and Gaia close. It is possible Alanda even calls my name. She must know I have successfully completed my mission. She must be waiting for me, to smile at me, to take me to other worlds, into a glorious future.

But my battle with Landulf has taken something from me.

Finally I am tired of such adventures.

As Yaksha finally grew weary, I also crave a change.

Before Alanda can call me back to the present moment, I focus my entire being on another page of history. I return to the first vampire, the strange night Yaksha was born, five thousand years ago in India, when I was a girl of seven years. The Aghoran ceremony has ended and the evil priest has been killed by Amba's animated corpse. The corpse finally lies down but there is movement inside Amba's belly, which is still swollen with the nine-month-old fetus she was carrying when she died. My father takes his knife and goes to cut

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) out the unborn child trapped in the womb. I leap from my hiding place behind the bushes.

"Father!" I cry, as I reach for his hand that holds the knife. "Do not let that child come
into the world. Amba is dead, see with your own eyes. Her child must likewise be dead.

Please, Father, listen to me."

Naturally, all the men are surprised to see me, never mind hear what I have to say. My
father is angry with me, but he kneels and speaks to me patiently.

"Sita," he says, "your friend does appear dead, and we were wrong to let this priest use
her body in this way. But he has paid for his evil karma with his own life. But we would
be creating evil karma of our own if we do not try to save the life of this child. You
remember when Sashi was born, how her mother died before she came into the world? It
sometimes happens that a living child is born to a dead woman."

"No, " I protest. "That was different. Sashi was born just as his mother died. Amba has
been dead since early dawn. Nothing living can come out of her."

My father gestures with his knife to the squirming life inside Amba's bloody abdomen.

"Then how do you explain the life here?"

"That is the yashini moving inside her," I say. "You saw how the demon smiled at us
before it departed. It intends to trick us. It is not gone. It has entered into the child."

My father ponders my words with a grave expression. He knows I am intelligent for my
age, and occasionally asks my advice. He looks to the other men for guidance, but they
are evenly divided. Some want to use the knife to stab the life moving inside Amba.

Others are afraid, like my father, of committing a sin. Finally my father turns back to me
and hands me the knife.

"You knew Amba better than any of us," he says. "You would best know if this life that
moves inside her is evil or good. If you know for sure in your heart that it is evil, then
strike it dead. None of the men here will blame you for the act."

I am appalled. I am still a child and my father is asking me to commit an atrocious act.

But my father is wiser than I have taken him for. He shakes his head as I stare at him in
amazement, and he moves to take back the knife.

But I don't give the knife to him.

I know in my heart what I must do.

I stab the blade deep into Amba's baby.

Black blood gushes over my hands.

But it is only the blood of one. Not thousands.

The creature inside Amba's body stops moving.

Alanda turns to Gaia after studying her friend's body. They are not in a spaceship, but stand in the desert at night beside a clear pond. Many stars shine overhead.

"She is not breathing," Alanda says. "Her heart has stopped."

"But she stopped him," Gaia says, who actually can speak in his own way. "The path is now clear for many."

Alanda glances down at her friend. There is sorrow in her voice. "But she was coming back to us," she says.

Gaia comforts her. "She always went her own path. Let her go this way."

Yet Alanda later sheds a tear as they slide her friend's body into the pond. For a moment her friend floats on the surface of the water, and the reflection of the stars frame her figure. And when Alanda glances up, she sees the same outline in the heavens. For a

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) moment her friend is constellation and it gives her a measure of comfort. But when Alanda looks back down, her friend has sunk beneath the mirror of the water and is gone.

"It is like she never was," Alanda whispers.

"It is like that for all of us," Gaia says.

One moonless night, when I am twenty years of age, I am awakened by a sound outside.

Besides me sleeps my husband, Rama, and on my other side is our daughter, Lalita. I don't know why the sound wakes me. It was not loud. But it was peculiar, the sound of nails scraping over a blade. I get up and go outside my house and stand in the dark and look around.

For a long time I stand there, expecting to meet someone.

But there is no one there.

Finally I return to my bed and fall asleep.

The next morning I am playing with my Lalita by the river when a strange man comes by.

He is tall and powerfully built. In his right hand he holds a lotus flower, in his left a gold flute. His legs are long and his every movement is bewitching. I cannot help but stare at him, and I am delighted when he comes and kneels beside me on the bank of the river. For some reason, I know he means me no harm.

"Hello," he says, staring at the water. "How are you?"

"I am fine." I pause. "Do I know you, sir?"

A faint smile touches his lips. "Yes. We have met before."

I hesitate. He does seem familiar but I cannot place him.

"I am sorry, I don't remember," I say.

He finally looks at me and his eyes are very blue. They remind me of the stars at night; they seem to sparkle with light from the heavens. "My name is Krishna," he says.

I bow my head. "I am Sita. This is my daughter, Lalita. Are you new to this area?"

He turns back to the water. "I have been here before."

"Is there anything I can do for you? Would you like some food?"

He glances at me, out the corners of his eyes, and I feel a thrill in my heart. There is such love in his glance, I don't understand how it can be so. "I was wondering if I could do anything for you, Sita," he says.

"My Lord?" I ask, and I feel he is deserving of the title.

He shrugs faintly. "I merely came to see if you were happy. If you are, then I will be on my way."

I have to laugh. "My Lord, I am not long married. My husband is a wonderful man whom I love dearly and God has seen fit to grace us with a beautiful child. We are all healthy and have plenty to eat. I cannot imagine being any happier than I am right now."

He nods briefly and then stands. "Then I will say goodbye, Sita."

But I jump up. "You came all the way here just to see if I was happy?"

"Yes." His eyes are kind as he looks at me for the last time. "Your happiness is all that matters to me. Remember me, Sita."

Then he walks away and I never see him again.

But I never forget him. Krishna.

Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)