Vampire Storm (Volume 1 : The Hurricane Journals)

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  They traveled through the swamp for many miles, taking many turns and crossing over many land bridges to avoid the deepest parts of its mysterious wonder. And along that journey not many words were spoken, only questions brought forth by Jade that the vampire simply could not answer. This left her to believe that he was a fraud. He, on the other hand, was growing tired of her strange words, and truly did not care what other names she created to call him. He did not know what a vampire or a fraud was, but he had just found out that apparently he was both. And all the while, he wanted ever so badly to just find out what it was she tasted like. But something beyond his comprehension was preventing him from reaching that point of rage. It was something that pulled ever so gently at his curiosity, forcing him to follow without question. He had no idea who she was, or even what a witch was. He could find no good reason to even trust her, but still this strange feeling persisted. His instincts could find no good reason not to trust her, either. And he trusted his instincts, something he had learned along his journey, so he was hoping they were leading him in the right direction once again.

  They finally began to slow their pace, crossing over one final wooden bridge. This bridge was much different than all the others, and obviously built by someone’s hand. It lifted up high enough to see through the trees and into the waves of a large body of water to their left. The vampire’s eyes became fixated on its beauty, its subtle waters relatively calm beneath the night’s moonlit sky, with far off land surrounding it on all sides that could not even be seen.

  It was… majestic.

  “The natives call it Okwata, meaning Wide Water.” Jade informed him as they kept walking. “But we like to call it the Lake of Pontchartrain, because it reminds us of home.” She seemed to lower her head upon saying that word… home.

  Reggio was not sure what that was either, home, so he asked, “And what is that?” Instead of any normal response, though, as he kept on admiring the view of the lake’s churning waves, he heard her footsteps stop. Then he heard them hurrying back in his direction.

  “That,” she yelled into his face, “That is not for you to worry about, vampire!” She then turned and walked back down the bridge. “Now hurry up!” She called back to him. “We are nearly there.”

  Reggio followed behind her, angrier with her than before, but still he could not bring himself to attack her. He just needed to know where ‘there’ was.

  After stepping off the bridge she disappeared into some foliage beneath a large tree, but quickly reemerged with long vines and thick moss in hand to fling it off to the side, revealing a large hole in the tree’s trunk. Jade then waited on side of that hole for Reggio and the two freaks following behind him to get there. Once Reggio got close enough to the hole he could see steps leading down into the ground beneath the tree.

  “We are here.” Jade told him.

  “Finally,” Reggio told her with a sarcastic grin, not afraid of offending her anymore. “Sure took us long enough.”

  She shook her head without even a grin, “Just follow me and keep your mouth shut.” She said before leading the way down the stairs. “Your very life could depend on it.”

  The four of them then made their way down the long set of stairs and entered into a large room lit with torches hanging from the walls above them. Upon entering, Reggio could feel all the attention turn towards Jade, whispers of her name being thrown across the room. Then they shifted to whispers of the stranger that stood next to her… him. And he became even more hesitant to enter after seeing the light, the hanging torches bouncing it off the walls, but he felt no burning upon his skin from the flames that lit the room from upon each wall. All the eyes, though, and the constant whispering, it was all beginning to hurt his skull. He could physically feel all of them upon him, watching him, talking about him, questioning him from afar, and suddenly he felt incredibly outnumbered. The words that Jade had spoken before entering began to echo in his head.

  ‘Your very life could depend upon it.’

  And he began to think. What if she had brought him there for no other reason than to kill him?

  He was not sure if he would be able to prevail against so many foes all at once. And as his mind began to scramble, being overcome by all the noise, he saw an older man approaching Jade with a look of shock across his face. Reggio quickly calmed down and forced all the other voices away, focusing only on the voices of Jade and the old man that approached her. But it was very hard with all the commotion.

  “What in fury are you doing back here? You should be out there awaiting that storm.” The old man said to Jade. “We sent you out there for a frening reason, to assure our safety. You knew the significance of this storm, now closer than I have ever felt it before, and you are not there to protect us in any way!”

  Jade looked at him with tired eyes. “You can stop now, Caffin. You sent me out there to die… and you know it.” She shot back at him. His eyes opened wide with insult, but his response became muted out by all the other voices, and Reggio could only refocus in time to hear Jade say, “Well, whether or not you wish to believe it, despite your excuses, I found your damn storm.”

  “What!?” The old man asked in confusion. “What do you mean? How could it… you mean it is already here? But it isn’t even raining outside.”

  “Actually, it has been pretty sporadic for a few hours now.” Jade corrected him. “You may have already known that if you cared to step outside. But that isn’t the storm you sent me to find. The northern storm has nothing to do with any of that.” As he listened with intent, she went on, “The storm I found was not one of wind or rain, not at all… but one of flesh and bone… and that is because it was not a storm at all that you and the others felt approaching.”

  “What are you saying?” The old man asked her.

  “What, are you deaf?” Jade asked in agitation as she began to explain in more detail, calling Reggio ‘The Vampire Storm’, but as soon as she began, another face had caught Reggio’s eye and drew his attention away.

  This face was staring right at him from across the room with a look of complete bewilderment, shock and surprise and maybe even a hint of delight, all streaked across her face. She seemed a bit older than Jade, but not by much, and had a gentle figure that almost pulled at him, much as Jade had, but in a far different way, and her flowing black hair seemed to dance behind her without even a breeze around, But her eyes were wide and her lips seemed to be quivering.

  After a moment Reggio was able to pull his own eyes away from the woman and turn his attention back to Jade and the old man, only to find the old man staring back at him in almost the same way as the woman was. The only difference between the two stares was that he could actually feel the fear emanating from the old man, whereas he could feel no such thing coming from the other female. That was when he really began to feel strange.

  As Jade turned to walk back over to him, he heard the old man speak again. “You should never have brought him here.”

  Jade’s reply barely moving her lips at all, “He arrived here all on his own, and that’s exactly where I intend to keep him.”

  Reggio lowered his head as she returned, trying to act as if he was paying no mind to them.

  But before she got back to him, the other woman that had been staring at him stopped her. Reggio listened as they spoke beneath their breath.

  “Where was it you found him? Has he told you his name?” She asked Jade with intrigue.

  “He claims to be the vampire known as Reggyo.” Jade replied, seeming bothered by the intrusion. The woman seemed to shiver at the mention of the name, but hid it rather well. Jade never noticed, though, and kept talking. “But I cannot believe him. He can’t even pronounces his own name right, and he doesn’t seem to know anything of his own kind, and even though I’ve never seen the true Reggyo before, the way this vampire looks, it seems nothing like him at all. The real Reggyo, the Dawn Slayer, was responsible for…”

  “Hello,
vampire,” A soft and mellowed voice came from beside him, interrupting his focus.

  Reggio turned towards this new voice to see a short and slender female, younger than the other two, with bright yellow hair and sky blue eyes that he found himself suddenly lost within, staring up at him. “Are you really the legendary vampire warrior known as Reggyo, the Dawn Slayer, himself?” She asked him, her voice bordering on excitement.

  He took a moment to escape her gaze, shaking and rubbing his head as he did, then responded, “Yes, yes I am.” He then tried to ignore her as he went back to listening to Jade’s conversation.

  “Have you come back for us, then?” She asked persistently, interrupting his focus again, and sending a strange chill through his entire body at the same time.

  Reggio turned back to her curiously, never having seen this girl before and not even knowing who she was. He had no answer at all to give her or any idea what she was talking about. And as he stared back at her with a blank look upon his face, her lips lifted up into a smile.

  “You did,” she said softly, raising Reggio’s eyebrow.

  “No, no, I …” The vampire stumbled with his words, her eyes giving him that same confusing feeling that Jade’s had. “I never said that.” He finally got out.

  “Don’t worry.” She said to him, almost in a whisper, with a shortened smirk smearing her lips. “No one else has to know.”

  Then Jades voice boomed from behind him. “Tereshka, leave us!”

  Reggio glanced back to see her then back at the young girl, only to find her already scampering away. He shrugged his shoulders and turned back to Jade as she approached him with the other woman at her side.

  “Do not pay any mind to that insolent little brat.” Jade said with a chuckle before motioning to the witch at her side. “This is Jane Saint Marie,” she introduced him to the woman that was staring at him moments before. “She will be showing you around, as I have some much hated explaining to do. So, I’ll let you two get acquainted, and I’ll see you later, vampire.”

  Jade then turned and seemed to glide away as this new witch stepped into his view in turn.

  “You don’t have to mind her either. She’s just a spoiled little witch anyway.” The witch, Jane, said to Reggio with a smile, and he began to laugh along with her, the first time he had truly done so.

  “And never mind me, too. I just… can’t believe what I’m standing in front of.” She added with another giggle.

  But Reggio could do nothing more than smile back at her, having never been so drawn to anyone ever before. It was a strange feeling that filled his ribcage, making him take a step towards her. It was much like the feeling that Jade had given him, only he didn’t seemed forced to follow her like he did Jade… with this witch, he wanted to. Her voice made something inside of him crave her, and not in the way he was used to craving things. This was something different… very much so.

  He then opened his mouth as if to say something, but found no words to say at all. He was left in absolute awe of her beauty, one much more radiant that Jade’s. Jade never smiled like this witch did, like it seemed to be melting Reggio into the floor in front of her.

  “So… Reggio, is it?” She asked him, speaking almost awkwardly. “The vampire storm?”

  Reggio seemed to lower his head in near humiliation. “Yes, I believe so.” He told her, not able to look her in the eyes.

  “Yes, well, we will speak about that soon enough.” Jane told him, being much more straightforward with her words now, as if something he said lifted a weight from her shoulders, or lock from her lips. “For now, though, I must show you around. Everyone else is busy worrying about the other storm right now, the real one, so we should have much of the night to ourselves. But first… I must introduce you to someone, before we move forward. Come, follow me.”

  Jane then led Reggio through the crowded room. “You know, you really picked a great time to stumble in here.” She told him. But as Reggio looked at her with that puzzled look, she retracted her statement. “I don’t mean that seriously, of course.” She told him, not sure if he understood sarcasm.

  They walked towards another woman, shorter than Jane, with blonde hair laced with orange wrapped around her left shoulder, scrapping the peaks of her breasts. She was speaking with a younger man, short brown hair hidden beneath a dirty brown cloak, and as they approached her, whatever she was telling him seemed to trail away as her eyes found the vampire walking beside Jane. “Forget everything, Jaxon… forget it all,” her lips could be seen saying as she stepped away from the hooded man, looking at the vampire as if she were staring at a ghost.

  “Reggio, I would like you to meet Chelsia.” Jane introduced the woman. “And Chelsia, this is Reggio. He is what came to us from the north.”

  Chelsia seemed extremely nervous, and shocked, but not fearful, not at all. The smile that broke across her lips seemed genuine, just like Jane’s. But she couldn’t wipe away the look of complete amazement that had been slapped upon her face… which seemed to be a common greeting to a vampire such as himself. After a moment of silence passed between them, she reached out and touched Reggio’s cheek, stroking it ever so softly.

  “You are a vampire.” She spoke with both surprise and awe as Reggio tried not to flinch at her curiosity. “That is… just frening amazing.”

  Jane then stepped in between them, putting her arm around him. “Yes, he is a vampire.” Jane confirmed as she looked nervously back at him. “But the truly amazing thing is that he is right here, standing with us now. Because, of course, a vampire living alongside witches is absolutely unheard of. Our fortunes have surely risen on this night.”

  “Risen indeed,” Chelsia commented, still not able to break her eyes away from him.

  This all made Reggio feel more confused than ever, still not being sure what a vampire even was. He just smiled and nodded his head, though.

  He wasn’t really sure why he trusted Jane so much after only a few minutes… it just seemed to be a gut reaction. But as he looked around the room at all the other faces glaring at them, he quickly came to realize that she was definitely different from all of them. While they looked on in fear and paranoia, Jane looked at him with something else, something different, something that he could not recognize, yet seemed so familiar.

  He was learning how to trust.

  “Chelsia and I have known each other for quite some time.” Jane told him. “It feels like it has been millennia.”

  “That is because it has been.” Chelsia cut in, smiling widely.

  “Yes,” Jane nodded before continuing, “So she is my most trusted friend, and she may be for you as well if you decide to stick around. Everyone else around here is just so paranoid right now.”

  Chelsia laughed, still not able to take her eyes off of Reggio. “I just cannot believe that you…”

  “Well, it has been nice talking with you, Chelsia.” Jane cut her off and spun Reggio around. “I just wanted to show you what I found so we can make him feel more welcome, since everyone else around here is so busy, you know. They need to slow down.” Jane was looking straight back at her, motioning with a nod of her head.

  “Oh, right. Yes, of course. So… I guess I’ll get back to work, then.” Chelsia said after a moment, making her voice overly obvious. “Don’t mind me, though. I’ll be getting things done, productive things.” She kept rambling on as she backed awkwardly towards the right hallway, “Because of the storm, of course. But it’s nothing for anybody to worry about… or pay attention to… nope.” And that was a good thing, because no one was.

  Jane had proceeded to lead Reggio off through the crowd to the other end of the room, where Chelsia glanced over at them as they disappeared into a long hallway to the left, and Jane gave her one last glare. But as Reggio exited the room with her, someone else was entering through the other hallway, passing Chelsia right up as she left, and looking only to find Jade.

  Chapter 3 - Warwalker