Jack Templar and the Lord of the Vampires by Jeff Gunhus Page B

no matter what, and we would discuss her joining me again at that time. Again, there was a coldness to her I didn’t expect as I left. I should have known then that something was wrong.
    “I traveled by foot to the oasis where the tribe would be camped. When I was human, the blistering heat would have made the journey impossible. But to my vampire skin, which you obviously know can be in the direct sun, it felt comforting. I missed Caroline from the second I left, but I looked forward to reuniting with my people. I had visions of introducing them to Caroline and taking her as my wife. Together we would look after the Shaouri and protect them for all time.
    “I smelled the fire before I saw the smoke. I caught the scent on the breeze and knew immediately what it was. There was more than wood being burned. My vampire senses could smell the unmistakable scent of human flesh.
    “I ran to the oasis, coming over the rise of the sand dune with a terrible feeling about what I would find there. But what I saw was worse than anything I could have imagined.
    “Every tent burned to the ground. Every farm animal not only killed, but ripped to shreds and its parts scattered. All of my tribe, every Shaouri man, woman and child, were stacked in a pile, dead. As I ran to them, out of my mind with grief, I saw the unmistakable signs left behind by their murderers. The djinn.
    In a moment of perfect clarity, I understood.
    Caroline had done this. She loved me as much as I her, and she was willing to destroy the only other thing in the world that would compete for my affection. In her world of cold reason, the only solution was to eradicate the tribe so that I could not be pulled back to it.
     “One by one, I carried the members of my tribe down from the pile, washed their bodies, and buried them. I grieved for a day and a night as was our custom and then set out to avenge my people.
    “Finding the djinn was easy enough. My new vampiric senses told me exactly where to go. My anger told me exactly what to do. Within a few days, I had killed every djinn within twenty miles. But there was one who I saved for last.
    “I found her standing on the crest of a giant sand dune in the middle of the desert. There were no footsteps leading to her. She had been there long enough for the wind to shift the sands and cover her tracks. She was waiting for me. Maybe she knew that if she stood in one place long enough, I would find her. When I approached, I saw that her eyes were closed and her face was tilted up to face the sun. Even then, with anger boiling through me, I found her beautiful.
    “She opened her eyes and looked at me with such longing that I knew why she had done it. I knew she loved me. But I couldn’t forgive her. I couldn’t forgive myself. It was my weakness that had killed my people every bit as much as it was her ordering her djinn into the camp.
    “But I also couldn’t kill her. This was the truth of it and I’m certain she knew it.
    “We didn’t exchange a single word. We looked into each other’s eyes and everything that needed to be said was said. I would spend the rest of my life hunting her kind, killing every vampire I possibly could to repay her for taking my tribe from me. That destiny would be both my vengeance and my penance, tied together in a murderous, bloody knot that could never be untangled. From that moment on, I left behind everything that I ever was—father, husband, leader. The name Ahmed el-Tayeb meant nothing to me any longer. I was Gregor the Vampire Killer.…”
    I didn’t know what to say. Even at my age, even though I’d never been in love, I understood the pain in Gregor’s voice. Ask any orphan if they know what it’s like to lose someone they love, and the look in their eyes alone will be enough of an answer. The image of Gregor and the Lord of the Vampires facing one another in the middle of the desert, still in love, but knowing they were to be enemies for the centuries ahead was almost