innocent eyes.
The
illusion of innocence lasted only an instant and then I took in the
devastation she'd left in the room. The occupants were dead, gone to
feed the vampires and fill half a dozen blood bags that currently sat
in an open cooler at her feet.
"What
are you? Can you even talk?"
My
lips pulled back, revealing enough fang to make most normal people
shake in fear, but the vampire just stood there expectantly.
"You
know what I am, you pillaged enough of my memories and thoughts to
have at least a basic idea."
Another
layer of the illusion was stripped away as her eyes took on a
self-satisfied, sadistic look. "You're right, I know what you
are. I'm astonished that you've managed to keep your existence a
secret for so long. I never would have expected that level of
sophistication out of mere beasts."
"Better
a beast than a soulless monster who murders innocents."
There
was another flicker of emotion on her face. I'd just told her
something that she'd needed to know, but I didn't see how she'd taken
any kind of advantage out of what I'd said.
"I
thought you'd deny being a beast."
"I
would have, but I don't actually care what you think. I'm just here
to end you."
She
looked down at the sword in her hand, another long rapier, and then
shrugged. "You might find that more difficult than you expect it
to be, but that's not what I want to talk about. I expected you to
deny the fact that you're an animal; I was prepared to prove
otherwise. Your mind was too alien to be human. I suspect that's why
you were able to shake off the sleep construct in the first place.
Even when I invaded your mind I still had a hard time understanding
most of what I saw there."
She
was stalling, but I didn't know why. I needed to end this so that I
could go back down and get Ben. We needed to disappear before anyone
woke up and called the cops. I moved forward, testing her defenses,
but she stepped back, smoothly keeping herself out of range.
"I
can save him, you know, but if you kill me you're going to have a
very difficult time keeping him alive."
A
chill ran up my back and lodged in the base of my skull. "Who?"
"Ben.
That's his name, isn't it? He's going to just continue getting
weaker. It won't matter what you do. Put him on antibiotics and his
liver will fail, or his kidneys. Put him on dialysis and his heart
will stop beating. You're fighting his own body now, it doesn't want
to continue living."
It
was the only thing she could have possibly said to stop me from
pouncing. I opened my mouth and this time I was the one who was
stalling for time. "How do you know that?"
"I
was in your mind. I've seen everything about you. You've loved Ben
for years. He was taken by vampires and when you saved him he dropped
into a coma."
"You're
lying, there's no way that you could have pulled all of that out of
my mind that quickly."
She
shook her head. "You're nothing more than a child, you haven't
even seen two decades come and go, and you'll be dead in another
sixty years. I've lived for thousands of years. You're fortunate
really, there are only a handful of vampires who can save him and
you've stumbled into me, someone who can help you."
I
let my hands drop slightly and did my best to look confused. It was
only partially an act. Most of my attention was directed inwards,
searching, scouring my mind for something I couldn't feel, but which
I suddenly knew had to be there.
It
took less than a second to find them, a network of clear threads
inside of my psyche. They'd grown through the seams in my wall where
the blocks butted up against each other. They were so tiny and
blended in with their surroundings so well that my beast hadn't been
able to distinguish them as being alien, as being something that
needed to be destroyed.
Her
probes had buried themselves in nearly every part of my brain, but
they hadn't penetrated the section where my beast was anxiously
pacing back and forth. I looked out at her and knew just how
precarious my situation
The
illusion of innocence lasted only an instant and then I took in the
devastation she'd left in the room. The occupants were dead, gone to
feed the vampires and fill half a dozen blood bags that currently sat
in an open cooler at her feet.
"What
are you? Can you even talk?"
My
lips pulled back, revealing enough fang to make most normal people
shake in fear, but the vampire just stood there expectantly.
"You
know what I am, you pillaged enough of my memories and thoughts to
have at least a basic idea."
Another
layer of the illusion was stripped away as her eyes took on a
self-satisfied, sadistic look. "You're right, I know what you
are. I'm astonished that you've managed to keep your existence a
secret for so long. I never would have expected that level of
sophistication out of mere beasts."
"Better
a beast than a soulless monster who murders innocents."
There
was another flicker of emotion on her face. I'd just told her
something that she'd needed to know, but I didn't see how she'd taken
any kind of advantage out of what I'd said.
"I
thought you'd deny being a beast."
"I
would have, but I don't actually care what you think. I'm just here
to end you."
She
looked down at the sword in her hand, another long rapier, and then
shrugged. "You might find that more difficult than you expect it
to be, but that's not what I want to talk about. I expected you to
deny the fact that you're an animal; I was prepared to prove
otherwise. Your mind was too alien to be human. I suspect that's why
you were able to shake off the sleep construct in the first place.
Even when I invaded your mind I still had a hard time understanding
most of what I saw there."
She
was stalling, but I didn't know why. I needed to end this so that I
could go back down and get Ben. We needed to disappear before anyone
woke up and called the cops. I moved forward, testing her defenses,
but she stepped back, smoothly keeping herself out of range.
"I
can save him, you know, but if you kill me you're going to have a
very difficult time keeping him alive."
A
chill ran up my back and lodged in the base of my skull. "Who?"
"Ben.
That's his name, isn't it? He's going to just continue getting
weaker. It won't matter what you do. Put him on antibiotics and his
liver will fail, or his kidneys. Put him on dialysis and his heart
will stop beating. You're fighting his own body now, it doesn't want
to continue living."
It
was the only thing she could have possibly said to stop me from
pouncing. I opened my mouth and this time I was the one who was
stalling for time. "How do you know that?"
"I
was in your mind. I've seen everything about you. You've loved Ben
for years. He was taken by vampires and when you saved him he dropped
into a coma."
"You're
lying, there's no way that you could have pulled all of that out of
my mind that quickly."
She
shook her head. "You're nothing more than a child, you haven't
even seen two decades come and go, and you'll be dead in another
sixty years. I've lived for thousands of years. You're fortunate
really, there are only a handful of vampires who can save him and
you've stumbled into me, someone who can help you."
I
let my hands drop slightly and did my best to look confused. It was
only partially an act. Most of my attention was directed inwards,
searching, scouring my mind for something I couldn't feel, but which
I suddenly knew had to be there.
It
took less than a second to find them, a network of clear threads
inside of my psyche. They'd grown through the seams in my wall where
the blocks butted up against each other. They were so tiny and
blended in with their surroundings so well that my beast hadn't been
able to distinguish them as being alien, as being something that
needed to be destroyed.
Her
probes had buried themselves in nearly every part of my brain, but
they hadn't penetrated the section where my beast was anxiously
pacing back and forth. I looked out at her and knew just how
precarious my situation
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