“They’re harmless really. We disturbed their rest and they
merely want to go back to sleep.”
“Zombies?”
I asked curiously. I watched as Quintas lifted the skeleton and tenderly placed
it back into the coffin. He walked across the crypt and retrieved its head and
also rested the skull back onto the pillow of the coffin. He nodded curtly, a
sort of thank you, I guess, and then closed the lid.
“No. Merely
a skeleton. They are not cursed, like we are, or zombies. They merely want to
sleep. When a body has found its resting place and they are content they’ll
stay where they are. They are at peace. But if by chance, their rest is
disturbed, they will seek to return to where they were.”
“They’re
creepy,” I disagreed. “So how are zombies different?”
“Skeletons,”
Quintas said walking over to the next coffin. He tapped loudly on the lid and
without preamble lifted the lid. Zhivvah sat bolt upright and looked wildly
around, baring her teeth and hissing, “calm yourself,” Quintas said
unconcernedly. “They aren’t out to harm anybody. They just want to sleep,” he
repeated. “Zombies are reanimated corpses that are bewitched by somebody with
the express purpose of destroying their enemies. Zombies can be strong, they
can be fast, they can even be created from living creatures if the will and the
mind are weak enough. The thing with zombies is they are brainless, and
thoughtless. They seek only to fulfill its master’s wishes. That’s why they’re
so dangerous. They have no regard for their own safety, they don’t think about
what dangers might lie in their way. If you are their target… they will walk
through lava to reach you. That is their strength and their weakness. They will
stop at nothing… but that nothing might just easily kill them.”
Once
Zhivvah and Tavian were both awake and they had each returned their own
skeletons back into their coffins, we gathered all of our supplies.
“What now?”
I asked.
“We must
feed,” Zhivvah answered. “Have you eaten?” she asked me.
“I found water
but,” I shrugged embarrassedly, “I’m not really an outdoorsperson. I didn’t
even know where to begin looking for food.”
“Well that
should be our first priority,” Quintas said with a decisive jerk of his head,
“be ready for anything.” He shouldered his crossbow and then stepped into the
night.
Tavian had
no problem at all re-sealing the heavy door of the tomb and I wrinkled my nose
unappreciatively.
“Show off,”
I mumbled under my breath.
“Human,”
Tavian grumbled as he walked pass me.
“So you
have super human smell, super human hearing, your fast, your strong… why
exactly is it bad to be a vampire?”
“You mean
aside from drinking blood to survive?” Tavian scowled
“Being
hopelessly cursed,” Zhivvah chimed in
“No
sunlight,” Quintas said sadly.
“Oh… all
that,” I said weakly.
“Yeah,”
Tavian said bitterly, “All that.”
“But if
your good vampires… maybe you won’t be cursed,” I offered hopefully.
“We are
unnatural creatures derived from demons. There’s little hope that we WON’T be
cursed,” Quintas replied.
“What does
it mean to be cursed anyhow?” I asked naively.
“Let’s not
talk,” Quintas told me. “We need to feed and then we need to find your friends
and get back home. That’s what this is about. Right?”
I felt
sufficiently rebuked, even though he had been fairly nice about the whole
thing. So I clamped my mouth shut and holding my little poker out in front of
me I struggled to keep up with my thinner, and much faster group of vampires.
Eventually
I ended up being thrown over Tavian’s shoulder again. I just didn’t move fast
enough for their liking and we were several miles outside of town.
“Tavian,” I
asked tentivily.
“Don’t
worry about it, Syd. No human could keep up with us. It’s nothing personal. But
I can’t let you walk.”
“No,” I
said dismissively, “I… I’m not going to have to watch you eat… am I?”
“I thought
it was perfectly clear that we only brought you along so we didn’t have to
search for our food.”
My body
must have stiffened or something. Part of me knew he was joking. I wasn’t
really afraid of Tavian. But I didn’t really know him all that well either. He
must have sensed my terror. Or maybe the fact that Zhivvah stopped running and
was standing before the two of us growling, “You’re scaring the poor girl to
death,” she scolded angrily. “It’s not
funny, Tavian. You need to behave.”
“Well,”
Tavian mused, “My mother always did tell me I shouldn’t play with my food.”
“Tavian!”
Zhivvah cried.
“Maybe I
should provide transportation for Miss Gerken,” Quintas said and I felt myself
being lifted and transferred to Quintas’s shoulders. Maybe because I was
accustomed to Tavian by now, or maybe because Quintas was so beautiful and I
felt very intimidated by him I wasn’t sure, but I actually preferred Tavian.
Quintas moved like a cat. Tavian was very careful to make sure I was
comfortable and he seemed very concerned about not making me too dizzy or
moving too fast. But Quintas didn’t care at all. He had a purpose and I was of
little consequence for him.
When we
finally stopped and he placed me on my feet, I staggered for a couple of
seconds before deciding that the churning in my stomach wasn’t just because I
was really hungry. I was… in a way… car sick… vampire sick? I wasn’t sure what
to call it but I ran to a tree and dry heaved for a couple of minutes. Now I
really wanted some food and water, just to get the sick taste out of my mouth.
“Are you
okay?”
This was
Tavian and I was grateful for his concern. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“You know I
was just joking around with you… right?”
“I just met
you yesterday,” I said a little coldly, “And until yesterday… I thought
vampires and zombies and all that crap was just… make believe. Now I’m half
starved and in 1408 in the company of vampires.
Maybe… at least until we know each other better… don’t joke.”
He sighed
heavily and nodded, “that’s what my mom said. I’ll try and I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,
you big lug,” I said offering a small smile.
“Mom went
to find you some more food. Then you should hunker down while we go feed.”
That
didn’t sound appealing to me. I hoped, that more like the Cullins than Count
Dracula, they had in mind a big fat juicy cow rather than a human feast but I
didn’t dare to ask them. I didn’t want to know about that part.
For a few
minutes while we waited for Zhivvah to show back up, both Tavian and Quintas
showed me how to more effectively use my weapon. Surprisingly, especially to
me, I picked up on some of the things pretty fast. I felt like I was getting a
pretty good handle on it. Tavian picked up his own poker and we spent some time
sparring. At first, I could tell that he was taking it easy on me. He danced
and spun and bantered quite a bit. I knew that he was putting forth a great
effort to keep things light and easy. No jokes about vampires or sucking my
blood or anything. Mostly about me being a slow and clumsy human.
But after a
few minutes he wasn’t talking as much. He was still a lot better than me, but
he had been doing stuff like this his entire life. The closest I got to
anything even remotely like this was when I was a play. Two years ago I had the
chance to play Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha. There’s a scene in the play where
a bunch of ruffian muleteers threaten the honor of Dulcinea. Don Quixote,
Sancho, and Dulcinea all fight them off. But it’s more a comedy of errors, not
actual sword fight and in the play, the whole thing is carefully choreographed
and executed. Other than beating the heck out of my little brother with a stick
when I was nine years old, I didn’t do stuff like this.
After about
ten minutes even Quintas was watching us with interest. Tavian’s face had gone
from playful and joyful to almost dark and intense. He started making mistakes,
I could tell, and I thought he was joking around again, to make me feel better,
but I was irritated. I let the poker fall to my side and I glared icily at him,
“Real vampires aren’t going to go easy on me, you know. I need your help,
Tavian!”
“I’m not
going easy on you, Syd,” he said with annoyance. He glowered at me in shock,
surveying me up and down. “I’m really not. You’ve been keeping up with me
stroke for stroke.”
“Whatever,”
I scowled and I picked up my poker and went after him with everything I had. I
wished he wouldn’t be so patronizing and that he would treat this situation
seriously. Emryl’s life was on the line after all and I was annoyed that he
continually was playing around with me. Fine, in many ways vampires are
superior, as he kept pointing out.
All of my
frustration and anger I focused on to Tavian. I hardly was aware of what I was
doing. I just kept up my assault with the poker, fully aware that Tavian was
faster, stronger and immortal and that of course he would have to go easy on
me, but I hated that thought and I kept swinging.
“Enough!”
Quintas cried suddenly and he was before me and had grabbed the end of my
poker. I narrowed my eyes and jabbed meanly at him, surprised that he went
flying and landed with a thud against a tree across the way.
Tavian
was on the ground panting, staring at me with wide, fearful eyes. His poker was
on the ground and he was cowering in a fetal position, whimpering slightly,
begging me to stop.
Running, jumping, shouting
