Bride of Blood:: First Kiss (19 page)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“What is it?” she asked.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I need you to go down to The Truckstop for me.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“The one off the highway?”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Yes, there’s a friend of mine that works there…”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I’m sorry, Anton,” she said, cutting him off.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Excuse me?” he replied with a bit of annoyance.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“It burned down a few weeks ago,” she said.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Oh God!” he said, almost dropping the phone.
 
“Was anyone hurt?”
 
He quietly pled with God that Shannon hadn’t been there.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I’m afraid so,” Chelsea said.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“What happened?”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There was silence for a few moments.
 
Chelsea seemed to be choosing her words carefully before she responded.
 
Neither she nor Alexander knew about Shannon because she was someone that Anton kept to himself.
 
But she was afraid of Anton’s reaction, nonetheless.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I don’t know all the details, yet.
 
No one does.
 
The fire started in a store room and just spread really fast.
 
Nobody was able to get out, I’m afraid.
 
After the restaurant caught fire, then the gas station did and then…”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton didn’t hear the rest of it.
 
Even when Chelsea told him that Shannon was one of those who perished, he didn’t hear her.
 
He didn’t want to.
 
He already knew that Shannon was gone.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chelsea went on for a few minutes about foam and the fire marshal and local corruption, but he heard none of it.
 
He just pictured Shannon and her beautiful smile.
 
He would never see her again.
 
He thought of her two children, and how they would grow up without their mother.
 
They would never know the only reason she stayed at that job and with their father was for them.
 
There were many times Anton considered defying Lady Bernadine’s order and making Shannon into a vampire.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After he somehow managed to mumble out some instructions to Chelsea, he hung up the prepaid cell.
 
With little effort, he crushed the phone and threw it as far as he could.
 
Then he walked along the boardwalk until dawn.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton really didn’t have much time to mourn for Shannon since he had decided to leave the city the next day.
 
He told Chelsea that he would travel by foot to visit some old friends before he resumed his quest to reunite with Velara.
 
He knew that he had to stay focused and alert as the attack on the boardwalk made him realize that a war between the two remaining vampire clans was on.
 
If Drago was willing to sacrifice three fledglings to attack a master vampire, then anything was possible.

***

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Later that night a lone figure walked down the Boardwalk.
 
Her footfalls made no sound as she made her way down to the beach.
 
The moonlight made her eyes sparkle under the hood that she wore.
 
Anyone who saw her would suspect that she was just a woman taking a leisurely, late night walk.
 
It was an uncommonly chilly night, so no one would think a woman wearing a hooded cloak was strange.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From beneath that hood, a large lock of red hair was sticking out.
 
Her hair shimmered in the moonlight as if it were highlighted with diamonds. As she passed a feral cat, she reached out a hand and the usually fearful creature walked up to her and rubbed against her leg.
 
She reached down and petted the creature and then shooed it away.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She walked on the dock that went out about 50 feet or so into the ocean.
 
When she got to the end of it, she pulled off the hood.
 
Her long red hair and the cloak whipped in the wind, making her appear like a comic book heroine.
 
She bent down and saw that the water was pretty high, it was barely a few inches below the dock.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She put her index finger into her mouth and bit into it.
 
A small trickle of blood appeared on it.
 
Closing her eyes, she whispered an incantation and dipped her injured finger into the ocean.
 
The salt water might have stung a mortal, but this woman was no mortal.
 
She was in fact Lady Bernadine, the Queen of Vampires, Order of Nepthys.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The water began to bubble and churn as if it were boiling.
 
Light appeared underwater like someone was shining a spotlight from the depths.
 
Bernadine stood up and raised both hands over her head and began to chant again.
 
Her eyes went totally white and her chanting grew louder as the bubbling became more violent.
 
As her chanting climaxed, three heads appeared out of the water.
 
All three of them looked as if they had been in the water for a long time, although they had only been in there for about a week.
 
Their skin was grey and was slipping from their bones.
 
Remnants of clothes still clung to their bodies and were covered with seaweed and other ocean life.
 
They were the remains of the three fledglings that Anton had killed.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Their flesh began to bubble and reform as if Lady Bernadine were healing them.
 
They all opened their mouths to scream, but only water came out.
 
They raised their bony hands to their faces.
 
The flesh began to return to their bodies as if it were growing like leaves on a tree.
 
They suddenly floated out of the water and were suspended in mid-air.
 
Lady Bernadine reached out to them and they came to her.
 
With a loud thud, the three bodies crashed onto the dock.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Each of them started to breathe and cough up more water.
 
The first one to stand up was Gaereth.
 
His face had been totally restored and the slash across his neck was gone. His eyes were bright and he began to shake from the cold.
 
The other two in turn stood up and looked at each other and examined themselves, as if they couldn’t believe they were alive.
 
Then they looked at Lady Bernadine.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The water returned to its normal state and Bernadine’s chanting had long ceased.
 
The three fledglings looked at Lady Bernadine, curiously.
 
Seaweed and other things still hung from their hair and their torn clothes still clung to their bodies with wetness.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She looked at them with an unreadable expression and spoke to them, “I have raised you from the death of your own making.
 
Now you will serve me or return to the abyss from which I brought forth.”
 
She paused and let the words sink in.
 
The three looked at each other and appeared to understand.
 
“Will you serve me and help bring about the destruction of your former master and his followers?”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The three nodded to each other and then fell to their knees in a deep bow.
 
Gaereth lifted his head again and peered through his long, wet hair.
 
He said in a croaking voice, “We live only to serve you, my Queen.”
 
She nodded at them and smiled.