majestic brightness I, after much trouble, finally fell asleep.
A BEGINNING OF THE END
I awoke with a start as the darkness consumed me. Lifting my hands to my face I felt the smooth velvet above my head and stopped. I let my hands feel across the top and then down the sides as panic set in.
"I'm in a coffin! Let me out!!!" I screamed as I pounded and clawed at the velvet.
"Oh I'm sorry baby. I should have warned you that we sleep in coffins." Dine said as he lifted the lid of the coffin. I bolted up and took deep breaths as he rubbed my back.
"I'm claustrophobic." I gasped as Dine walked over to a closet and pulled out a long purple corset dress.
"Try it on. I got it just for you my raven haired beauty." I looked at Dine before climbing out of the coffin. Catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror I realized I was Tanya. I had to be in her memories now. Having no control of my actions I put the dress on and looked at myself in the mirror.
"How can I see myself? Vampires don't have a reflection."
"Oh Tanya," Dine chuckled, "you don't believe everything you read do you?" I turned to Dine and kissed him feeling the warmth of his lips. When I opened my eyes I was in my dark closet. Flinging the door open I crawled out and into the shower. The hot water felt good on my skin as the events of the pass few days swept through my mind clearing away any dust of sanity I had left. When I got out of the shower and walked into my living room Eraina was already there sitting on my couch.
"Forgive my intrusion Devilynn. I wish to speak with you without the influence of the others. Their type of truth is hard to comprehend."
"That's alright Eraina. I wasn't sure who to speak with first. My instincts tell me to go to Mortakie but my heart leads me to you and Helena and I can't figure out why." I said sitting down on the sofa putting my head in my hands.
"Do not cry Devilynn. I know this all so overwhelming but it will be clear some day."
"Will it Eraina?" I asked but Eraina could say nothing to comfort me as I looked up at her. " Everything is so screwed up. I see visions of other people, I feel strange things...I will be the end of you guys. I should have let Tanya kill me then everyone would be safe."
"Devilynn no one is safe. To this day I am not allowed to travel without Mortakie or Helena or the twins by my side. They are so afraid that my Aunt will come for me."
"Your Aunt?" Eraina nodded before she began her story. Ariana is Eraina's aunt and has been trying for centuries to bring Eraina to her side or kill her. Ariana knows that there is a strange power that emanates from Eraina and if Eraina ever figured out how to use it, Ariana would be dead.
"To this day I am unsure of what that power is or how to channel it. No one knows, it just happens. You turning into a demon last night was because of me. The goodness locked within me brings out the demons inside a vampire."
To the best of Eraina's knowledge her power is very important to the survival of humanity. Every millennium a child of light and a child of darkness is born and these two children keep the balance so the war between good and evil is a fair one. If one child is destroyed and the other lives, the balance would be broken causing complete chaos. According to Eraina, Ariana and Erica were the chosen children. Erica walked into the sun after Eraina was born to keep the balance. Ariana's destiny was to do the same but she never had a child.
"I thought Ariana was a witch?"
"That is how we explain her powers. No one knows what she truly is."
"So if Ariana had a kid there would be an unusual balance of evil right. So why doesn't she have a bunch of kids rather than trying to destroy vampires and half-breeds?"
"She does not wish to give up her powers. If she had a child the power would transfer over and she would become a weaker version of her former self. I know all this sounds strange and impossible to believe. I myself still don‘t understand it, none of it."
The disadvantage to Eraina was the she had no idea how to use her powers, Ariana does. She tried for many years to figure them out but to no avail.
"Why not ask your mom?"
"Like everything in life it is a mystery that has to be figured out on your own to truly understand it. Those were my mother's words to me about thirty years ago in a dream."
"Wow everyone talks in riddles about self-awareness. I feel like I'm in an AA meeting." Eraina only smiled as she rose to leave.
"Wait! I still have so many questions."
"Of course you do but time passes fast even for an immortal and you must be on your way to find the answers you seek. Besides the twins are waiting downstairs to take me to Mortakie who will begin to wonder where I am. Seek the answers Devilynn but the truth is in you." Eraina finished as she disappeared from my sight. I laughed and shook my head.
"You always see the good in all the bad."
"Yes Rick," I said turning toward the bedroom door where he stood, "That's why we dated as long as we did."
"You are snappy tonight. I was hoping you would be as loving as you were yesterday."
"Don't hold your breath." I said throwing myself on the sofa as I closed my eyes.
"I know it's hard baby but that's the price you pay for eternal life."
"I'm not a killer!" I sobbed pulling my hands away from my face. I was kneeling on the floor with a young girl dead before me. I stroked her hair as the tears streamed down my face. "I am not this evil, Dine. I never was."
"You will get used to it. Ariana promised us great power and eternal life where we won't be hunted by the slayers. Don't you want to be with me forever?"
"I do but the other names on that list. Some of them are my friends and relatives."
"You won't have to kill them I will." My eyes snapped open to see Rick standing over me. These visions I was having had to be from Tanya and it made me feel sorry for her even if she tried to kill me. Rick and I sat for some time debating on what we should do. The elders said we had to go out and seek answers for ourselves but where would we even begin. Rick suggested looking around the village and talking to various people. Shrugging I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door. It was a breezy night and the wind whipped at my coat as I struggled to close it around me. We turned left on Eight Street and headed to the west side. The night glistened in all its beauty before me. People passed us by and their thoughts floated through my mind like a gentle breeze. We entered a club on Third Avenue. The loud thrashing music poured from the stage where a punk band was playing. Rick looked around and spotted a young man in a dark corner smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer.
We walked up to him and the guy looked at Rick with wide eyes before bolting out of the club. Rick took hold of me and rushed out of the club. We flew into the clouds and hovered over the black shadow that tried to run from us. The wind whipped through my body as people and lights passed in a flashing blur. Rick released me as the shadow stopped in an alleyway, trapped. I jumped to the ground and gained my composure as Rick grabbed the guy by his throat. The man hissed baring his fangs trying to intimidate Rick.
"We have some questions for you my friend."
"I know nothing."
"You are one of Dine's men. You must know something of Ariana's plight?"
"He knows nothing Rick." Rick turned to me as his eyes glowed red. I also turned to see Ariana standing right behind me.
"Devilynn get over here." Rick commanded. I tried to run but Ariana grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back making me cry out in pain.
"She goes where I tell her. You know much about me child but not enough. I give you fair warning now. Stay out of my way or I will kill you." Ariana whispered in my ear before pushing me away.
"Stop it!" Eraina screamed as she jumped at Ariana and sank her fangs into her neck. Ariana screeched as she tried to pull Eraina off of her. A light began to radiate from Eraina as it consumed Ariana bathing her in white. Ariana fell to the floor motionless as the light
engulfed her disintegrating her body. Eraina fell to the floor shaking. I knelt down beside her and held her.
"All these centuries and it was I that had the power to stop her. So many lives could have been saved so much sorrow." Laughter rang out through the ally as Ariana appeared to Rick's left.
"Eraina. You should know that I am not that easy to kill. I am a force of nature. I choose when I die and pass my powers on to another. I thank you for dispatching of the last person on my list." Ariana said laughing as the darkness covered us in a thick blanket. The smoke choked us as it cleared away. The man and Ariana's double were gone.
"I have killed another innocent. Oh the light within me is not enough to stop that woman's treachery!"
"Eraina it was not your fault. You were trying to save me and many others."
"There are no more. All but two on her list were destroyed. The war will be unbalanced, evil will have its way."
"What two? Who are they? If we find them then they could help us." I said shaking Eraina. She looked up at me with tears in her amber gray eyes.
"You and Rick were the ones she was after. Your parents were of a very powerful line that ruled much of Spain from the dark ages until now." Eraina sobbed before disappearing.
"No! Eraina you can't leave. You hate treachery, well I hate bullshit and that's all everybody is feeding me! Shit!" I screamed as the tears streamed down my face. Rick ran over to me and held me tight as I shuddered in his grasp.
"That is where we have to go Devilynn. We will find the answers by tracking your ancestors in Spain."
"Rick. I never knew my parents. They died in a fire not long after I was born."
"Your guardian must know something."
"She was killed in a car crash when I turned eighteen. There's no one left to give me the clues I need to track my bloodline."
Just like that the game was over. Ariana made sure that she erased any ties that would lead me back to my ancestors. It seemed that Mortakie and his crew were the only good vampires left. Eraina had powers she was unsure of and Rick and I didn't know much about our new generation of vampires. I had a strange feeling that evil was going to win this so called war. I pulled away from Rick and ran back toward the subway station. I headed underground and searched the tunnels trying to find Belinda or any of the other werewolves. Some one has got to have the answers. Rick appeared in front of me startling me half to death.
"What are you doing here?"
"Listen anything we do we do together."
"I can't trust you Rick. You haven't told me shit about your time in Europe and if what Eraina said is true then your parents were vampires too. Who are they really and who are you?"
"You are right. I owe you an explanation." Rick said turning me around. As we made our way back to his basement apartment Rick filled me in on everything he knew. One day Rick got a letter in the mail asking him to come to England for awhile because someone had information on his mother. Rick never knew his mother growing up because she died in childbirth according to his father. He thought the letter was a joke until Rosella and Miranda paid him a visit in a club one night. They told him to come to England to meet with Mortakie and learn about his birthright. Rick thought the girls were on some serious drugs until they showed him a picture of his mother that was taken close to three hundred years ago. Intrigued Rick was on the next flight out with Miranda and Rosella. They took him to a club where there were many vampires, where Rick would be safe. Him and Mortakie sat and spoke for quite some time about Seline, Rick's mother.
She was the first vampiric child to be born after the last war they fought in. Seline's father died fighting on the side of evil while her human mother carried her in her womb. Her father, Marcus thought his vampiric evil would be passed on to his child because his entire bloodline was tainted by evil but Seline was saved from a life of evil when Leviticus turned her. Between the goodness in her mother's heart and the mixing of pure vampiric blood Seline was saved. She aided Mortakie and the others in tracking down half-breeds and turning them toward the side of good. Ariana was unhappy with this and planned an attack on Seline. The others were warned by an apparition known as Kasandra and fled to America before anything could happen.
A few decades later Seline met Samuel and the two were married. A few years later they had Rick. Word came from England that the half-breeds they turned were being annihilated at a rapid pace. Mortakie and the others headed back to England leaving Leviticus and Athena to look after Seline. Rick was almost a month old when the slayers attacked Seline while her husband and child slept. They drove a stake through her heart and dragged her up to the rooftop where she was burned by the sun. Leviticus and Athena were also attacked that night by slayers but they managed to fight them off and rush to Seline's home to find out that she was killed. Samuel was in tears as Athena spoke to him, she entered his mind and created the story that he told Rick. Samuel never knew what his wife was or what his son would become. Mortakie and the others returned to England to keep Ariana busy by sending her mixed signals about the locations of the other half-breeds all the while masking the fast growing generation of half-breeds in the United States.
It worked for awhile but then Ariana caught on when Mortakie and the others returned to the states to check on Leviticus and Athena. She had them ambushed and they fled back to England once more. Leviticus and Athena stayed behind to keep Ariana from tracking the new half-breeds. They ran out of time when Ariana created a new legion of vampires to track them down and kill them. Once they became werewolves they were able to find others that lay dormant for so long. Athena sent word to Mortakie that Rick was in danger. Mortakie brought Rick to England to turn him and protect him.
"So why did you come back two years later Rick?"
"Mortakie had said that there were others in danger and needed our help. I never dreamed for a moment it was you. Mortakie saw you one night and fell in love with you. He's the one that asked me to bring you to the cafe and keep you safe. He said that Ariana would go through you to get to me."
"So he didn't tell you I was a half-breed?"
"No. Helena said that they could not interfere with fate and had to let destiny take its course." Rick finished as we entered his apartment. Sitting down on his sofa I closed my eyes for a moment.
"I don't understand why the second one on your list is so important Ariana."
"Dine! If she ever found out who her parents were we are finished."
"Ariana, there is no one here to change her."
"No excuses! The daughter of Satan and a demonic vampire is very strong. She could destroy you just by looking at you."
"Now you're over exaggerating."
"Think what you may Dine. True a vampire cannot drain another but a demonic vampire can. The fire in a demonic vampire is enough to incinerate you. Trust me I have seen it done and it is not a painless death. You know nothing of why you are here. Just do as you are told."
My eyes snapped open as Rick stared at me confused. Ariana's words to Dine echoed in my head.
"I have to find a demonic vampire." I said bolting up from the couch and opening the door. I was thrown back by a powerful force and hit the wall. Shaking my head I focused through the blurriness to see about twenty vampires holding Rick down as they beat him and drained him. I got up to go after them and was grabbed by several vampires that bit at my arms and neck. Desperately I tried to wrench free as my eyes glowed and my fangs came out. My heart began to beat rapidly and my skin began to burn. Some of the vampires that held me backed away in fear as I transformed into a vampiric demon. Growling I threw the other vampires aside. I flew at the other vampires and began to snap their necks left and right. Those that bit me were torn to shreds and some were bled dry by the hunger that consumed my being. In a red flash of rage I managed to destroy thirty vampires. When the carnage ceased I turned back to normal and knelt down by Rick. He looked up at m
e and smiled. He was barely alive. Closing my eyes I reached out to Mortakie and the others but they never came as the minutes ticked by.
THE TRUTH HURTS
I knew I had to burn the bodies of these vampires or else they would come back as werewolves. I ran to Rick's kitchen cabinet and grabbed every flammable cleaner I could find. Dousing the undead in bleach, ammonia and lighter fluid I lit a match and let it fall. The apartment went up in flames as I grabbed Rick and carried him out into the cold. As I ran I could hear the distant sirens wail. Tears filled my eyes as loneliness consumed my heart. I went back to my apartment and laid Rick down on the couch. He closed his eyes as I lit a cigarette and paced.
"What fucking good are you guys if you won't come when I need you. Now that we are vampires you think we could fend for ourselves. Bullshit! We need you as much as you need us. Belinda where are you, I need you."
"All you ever have to do is call. I promised you that." Belinda said as she entered my apartment. I ran to her and held her tight.
"Where is everyone?"
"They are busy disposing of the bodies of the vampires that attacked them. Devilynn there were hundreds of them. We were called in to help them, there were many casualties, too many."
"Who's dead?"
"Almost everyone. Leviticus was burned to ashes. Helena was badly drained but she should be all right. Mortakie, Eraina, and Athena are well. So are both sets of twins. How's Rick?"
"They got us pretty good too, there was about thirty of them and I just lost it. I transformed again and ripped them apart then I set the place on fire."
"Ah. Yes I could see that from the rooftops as I was casting their ashes to the wind. That's when I heard you call my name and came running." Ariana was definitely making her presence known and her intentions clear. She wanted all threats to her disposed of so she could win this war and I definitely wasn’t going to let that happen. Belinda and I took Rick back underground where the others were. Eraina sobbed in the corner shoving away anyone that came toward her.
“She has suffered a great loss. Everyone she’s ever loved is dead now and she’s stuck in an existence she hates.” Belinda whispered in my ear before taking Rick over to Helena to be cared for. Taking a deep breath I walked over to Eraina and knelt beside her.
“I know exactly how you feel. My parents died when I was young and my guardian was taken from me a few years ago, Rick left me not long after that. It’s hard to keep the light inside you burning bright when all you are consumed by is darkness.” Eraina stopped sobbing and looked at me.
“You are absolutely right but I am unsure of how much longer I can hold on.”
“I know it’s hard Eraina but that’s exactly what Ariana wants to do to you. If she can break your will and