CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After I had eaten and walked around a bit more I felt just fine, but it was a hospital rule that someone with the kind of burns I was admitted with be monitored for a minimum amount of time. I wasn't sure what the actual minimum was thanks to Dr. Morrison, who told me that he could pull some strings to help me get out by the next morning, which I thanked him for over and over.
Since I was stubborn and refused to leave my mother’s side until I was threatened to forcefully be taken back to my room by a couple of male nurses, I was also stubborn enough to be able to convince Dad and Arvin and Terra to go home and sleep in their own beds. Dad had a difficult time leaving mom's side and was only convinced to leave when Dr. Morrison assured him that, since they were wardcarvers, he wasn't going to be too strict with how early my dad could come back to be with mom again.
Jack had disappeared at one point during my family's reunion and didn't come back again until late in the evening, after my family had left and my mom had received a large dose of pain killers and was sound asleep.
"I'm doing fine, now. You can go do whatever you need to as the hero of Stevens Ridge," I told him when he came in.
"I wanted to tell you something. You won't like it. Before I brought you to the hospital, I checked on Dane and Cassie to see if the demon had killed them. They were both dead and I pulled them into the prop room in hopes that someone would find them in the cleanup from the fire. Official reports found Cassie in there, but not Dane. I went back to retrieve the sword, and it had also disappeared."
"I don't understand... is Dane still alive?"
"I have never before mistaken a live person for a corpse. My theory is that someone that knew about the chamber went in to retrieve the sword and took Dane's body. I do not know why they would want him, but I believe that his disappearance and the sword's disappearance are connected."
"I see. Well, thank you." I sat down on the edge of my bed and buried my face in my hands. I couldn't quite define how I was feeling at the moment. I was hurt because Dane had just used me for his own selfish, insane purposes. I had really, deeply liked him, but I guess he didn't feel the same, which made me angry on top of my hurt. But then there was the worry of not knowing where his body was, because even though I was hurt and angry, there was still a little part of me that looked back at how well I got along with him, and couldn't quite let go of him.
Stupid feelings.
When I looked up, Jack was walking to the door. "Where are you going?"
"I... didn't think you'd want me here. I was just going to sit watch."
"Don't want you here? What would make you think that?"
"You appeared to be grieving over the loss of your boyfriend. I... don't know how to console that sort of loss."
"Grieving? I dunno. Maybe. But let's not call him my boyfriend anymore, as he definitely would not be my boyfriend if he is still alive. Good rule to live by: boyfriends should not trick their girlfriends into summoning demons. Crap like that is harmful to a relationship. Anyway. The point is that I would rather have you in here than sitting in a folding chair right outside my door."
Jack didn't say anything. He just nodded and headed towards the big, cushy chair next to the window. But when he sat down it felt too awkward; I was probably still a couple of hours away from needing to fall asleep and he felt too far away.
"Do you wanna come sit with me?" I scooted back to the head of the bed and sat with my legs crossed, leaving plenty of room for him to sit in the middle of the bed and face me. He tentatively got up and sat across from me. I started telling him about some of the more trivial things that had happened to me in his absence, and soon he was able to relax and we were chatting away as though he had never left and I had never gotten angry at him.
About an hour and a half in we found ourselves sitting side by side, leaning against the headboard, Jack telling me about some of the more humorous of his adventures. "...so then she said that she wouldn't give me the jacket back until I made that noise again, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I tried all sorts of noises, but none of them were the ones she wanted to hear! I was just about to give up and hope that I could find a comparable jacket somewhere else, but she wasn't going to let me go until she heard that noise again. She ended up stepping on my foot and punching me in the gut at the same time, and I have to say, even at a young age the dragonkin are pretty strong and it hurt. Apparently the noise I made was what she wanted to hear, because she went into a laughing fit and gave my jacket back."
"So... you let a little girl beat you up to get your jacket back?"
"Hey. First of all, she was dragonkin. Second of all, have you seen my jacket? It is a really, really nice jacket."
"True, true," I agreed and giggled. Without thinking, I put my head on his shoulder. At the same time I realized that maybe this was too much and started to sit back up, he put his arm around my shoulders and rested his cheek on top of my head. I tensed up, and I know he knew it, yet he still kept his arm around me. I had a flashback to the night of the ghost party; how he kissed my hand, and how I didn't know what to make of it.
We just sat like that for a few minutes. I relaxed, and quietly asked, "Jack? You've mentioned before that you're cursed. What did you mean by that?"
He didn't answer at first. He gently squeezed my shoulder and said, "I'll explain it to you someday. You're weak and tired right now, though. Today is not the day."
"No. I'm only here because leaving so soon after being admitted for third degree burns is suspicious. Please, tell me. You know I won't let it go."
He sighed. "Yes, I know." He paused to collect his thoughts, took a deep breath, and started his story.
"First of all, I don't like talking about it because of the fact that it shakes the faith of humans. Are you a person of faith?"
I shrugged my one shoulder. "Kind of. I believe in a god. At least one, anyway. It's kind of hard to say."
"Do you believe in heaven or hell? In the soul?"
"Well, I've seen ghosts, and the Eldraif. Obviously there's a soul. I just assumed that once I died I'd become a ghost. I'm not too happy about the idea of continuing on forever, but I can deal with it. So I just assumed that there wasn't a heaven or hell."
"I see. Well, then, maybe you don't want to hear this just yet."
"What? No! Of course I do!" I poked him in the side, nudging him on.
"Fine, then. I did warn you. Now, as you’ve seen a vampire’s soul is very, very evil and very, very corrupt. While many of them are clever, there really isn't a lot of thought behind what they do. They want to instill as much evil in the world as possible, and whether that is through hatred or anger or grief, they'll do whatever they need to in order to spread corruption. Because of that, once a vampire's body can no longer house a soul, the soul goes to hell. The longer the vampire lived, or the more corruption the human had in life prior to becoming a vampire, the deeper into hell the soul goes.
"A half vampire is a wholly unique being in many, many ways. We are everything that vampires would be if they had any sort of life to them. Vampires are resistant to injury, and combined with the human ability to heal, we become very difficult to incapacitate indeed. We live for a very, very long time, and have an extraordinary amount of strength. We have the ability to discern where magic is and perform a bit ourselves.
"This all seems like a great gift, but none of it matters. I have the corruption of a vampire in me, and I have to deal with those consequences. Many cultures in the magic community treat me like some sort of pariah, not wanting me to be near them for fear of corrupting their own. When I die my soul will go to hell."
I sat straight up at that and turned to face him. "No! There's no way! Your father should have nothing to do with where you go! You do so much good, protecting everyone and killing vampires! You must have it wrong!"
He shook his head sadly. "It's the truth. You don't h
ave to believe it, but the fact of the matter is that once I die, my soul will be spending the rest of eternity in hell."
"No... no! You're wrong! You have to be wrong! Can't you just become a ghost instead?"
"Ghosts are the souls of people who don't believe in heaven or hell, or are too afraid to move on. I am aware of what lies beyond death, and I have come to accept it. The best I can do is spend my life doing good in hopes that I can spend time on the outskirts of hell. That's the goal of all half vampires - attempt to redeem ourselves to minimize our punishment. This is why we spend our lives traveling around, slaying vampires and other evil beings."
I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his chest. “No… no… I won’t let you. I’ll find a way to get you to heaven.”
He put his arms around me. “Don’t worry. It won’t be for a long, long time. You won’t have to worry about it by then. “
“But… what if I go to heaven? I don’t want to go to heaven if you’re not there!” I gasped a little and buried my face in his chest again, embarrassed I had let that slip.
He said nothing and kept his arms around me. Soon he started stroking my head and playing with my hair, sending shivers down my spine. I looked up into his eyes, trying to read what emotions he was feeling. I always had such a difficult time telling what he was thinking, and this time was no different. Up this close I could see that his eyes were actually a blue color, not the grey they had always looked to me. He put his hand on my cheek and gently stroked my face. He finally allowed emotion to show through – he was sad and confused, and he looked at me as though he were looking at something very precious to him.
“Kenna,” he whispered, “you are so unique. I’ve never met anyone I can talk to like I can with you. You’re charming, funny, and so beautiful…” He leaned in closer, our faces almost touching…
The door handle clicked open. In a flash Jack sat up straight and righted me as well, a decent way away from him so it looked like we were both just sitting, instead of nearly laying with each other. Dr. Morrison walked in, a nurse trailing close behind, and looked up from the chart he had in hand.
“I’m sorry, Jack, but I’m going to ask you to get off the bed. Those beds are really only made for one person, and right now that person needs to be Makenna. Up up up.”
Jack slid off the bed, turned to me and said, “I’ll be sitting just outside if you need me.” Before I could protest, he hurried out the door.
“I’m doing my final rounds before I leave for the night. Are you in pain? Have you experienced any changes since I last checked in on you?”
“Yes… I mean no! No. I’m fine.”
“Good. Rebecca is going to check your vitals and let you go to sleep, then, okay?”
I nodded. The nurse checked my temperature, breathing, then put the blood pressure sleeve around my arm.
“You nervous, sweetie? It’s not a test, you know.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Don’t worry about it. Most people get nervous around nurses and doctors. You’re blood pressure is a little high, that’s all. I’ll come back in a few minutes to recheck. Do some deep breathing exercises until then, mmkay?”
I nodded, still feeling a little dazed. She left, and I flopped back on my bed and breathed out a long breath. Well, that answered my question about how he felt about me. How did I feel about him? He was my best friend; that had been established many times over. He was entirely too old for me, that was also for certain.
It still didn’t change the fact that I was going to let him kiss me.
When the nurse came back my blood pressure was almost back to normal. She told me to make sure I was drinking enough water, and left me for the night, switching the lights off on her way out. I waited at least a good half hour before getting up again. I wandered over to my door, tiptoeing as quietly as I could. I leaned against the door, resting my forehead against the cool wood. All I could hear were the normal sounds of a hospital. Of course Jack wouldn’t be making any noise. He had trained himself better than that. I reached for the door handle, then stopped myself. What was I going to do? What was I going to say?
I drew my hand back and went back to bed. I slept restlessly that night. When I was woken up in the morning to be checked out, Jack was nowhere to be seen.