Immortal Part 21

Between Quintas and Tavian, I didn’t know what to think. If it was just Tavian I would have grown even angrier because I would have been sure that it was just a joke. But Quintas didn’t seem the joking type and he had been thrown with such force that I knew he couldn’t fake that. It was at that point that I freaked out and tossed the poker away from me, like it was hot or something unpleasant.

            I dropped to my knees next to Tavian and apologized profusely for whatever I had done to him. Although, even as the words came out of my mind, I was fully aware that I still didn’t quite know what that was.

            Quintas was limping as he approached us and for the first time since meeting him I think anybody would be aware that he was something other than human. His eyes glistened with anger. His face was dark and intense and he grabbed me roughly by the arm. I let out a small squeak as the pressure of his cold fingers squeezed my arm and I found myself being lifted off the ground with such speed and force that it took my breath away.

            “You’re hurting me!” I cried desperately. I screeched and instinctively I lifted my legs and kicked him squarely in the chest. His fingernails scratched me as he once again went flying through the air. I dropped to the ground. I wish I could say that I somehow landed gracefully on my feet, was able to sweep down and grab my poker, and be positioned ready for Quintas again, should he attack. I wish I could say that. But I crumbled into a heap of uselessness. I landed on my ankle wrong, I knew it and I let out another cry of pain. That wasn’t going to be good.

            By this time, Tavian had recovered and by the time Quintas had reached me again, was standing over me protectively. “She couldn’t have known, Quintas,” Tavian shouted hotly, showing his teeth and hovering over me like a tiger ready to strike.

            There was an unnatural frenzied fury in Quintas’ eyes like a rabid animal that has lost all control of its senses. For the first time since I had met him, I didn’t think Quintas was beautiful at all. He was a savage, ferocious beast and the terrifying noise, somewhere between a growl and an agonizing scream, that was coming from him, far from scaring me, incited within me a strange excitement.

            I glanced, satisfied at the gash in my arm that Quintas had given me with his icy cold grip and long, carefully sharpened fingernails that were like claws. It was the smell of fresh blood that was causing the transformation in Quintas. He was thirsty and the very thing I had been dreading all of the day was happening. The gushing wound in my arm was too much of a temptation.

            I should have been mortified. The thought of being attacked by a vicious, hungry vampire should have made me want to crawl into a hole and hide my head. But far from being frightened, I was invigorated. I jumped to my feet totally oblivious to the throbbing in my ankle. It didn’t matter.  I reached out my arm and beckoned Quintas forward with a taunting laugh, “Come get it, fiend!”

            The guttural threatening sound that Quintas directed at me would have, just a couple of days ago, sent me into a fit of horrified tears. What had changed I couldn’t quite say. I didn’t understand it at all but I laughed. A great mocking laugh. I didn’t wait for him to come at me. I lunged forward. But something hard knocked me to the ground and off my feet.

            “Syd!” a voice yelled.

            I was fighting something within me that I didn’t understand. All I wanted to do at the moment was rip Quintas’s head from his body and set his decrepit corpse into flames which I would finally quench with spit to show how disgusting and vile I felt he was.

            I wailed obscenities towards Quintas threatening to kill him and send him to the depths of hell where he belonged. I could feel the simmering rage searing through me and while Tavian had achieved preventing me from getting at Quintas originally, my anger switched to Tavian and somehow I managed to throw him off of me.

            “Syd!” he cried again, “Listen to me.”

            “Shut up you evil monster!”

            “You’re a glog, Syd!” Tavian cried out desperately as I had once again jumped to my feet and was aggressively seeking out Quintas, “A glog!” Tavian repeated, “A vampire hunter!”

            I stopped in my tracks then and spun, glaring at Tavian with confusion. “Like Buffy?”

            “More to it than that,” Tavian said backing away from my approaching figure. I really didn’t know what had come over me, or why it had come over me now, but I couldn’t control myself. I grabbed Tavian by a handful of his thick, dark hair and pulled him to his feet. I raised my poker again and with narrowed eyes I spat, “Explain now, Dhampir, why I shouldn’t just remove your head from your body and end your miserable existence now.”

            “Well that wouldn’t be very nice, considering we’re just trying to help you, dear.”

            I spun and saw Zhivvah approaching us. Her arms were full of supplies and a surge of guilt did pierce my heart. I let go of Tavian’s hair and a little bit of the real me came back to me. I was horrified by what I had just done. I gaped open mouthed at Tavian, who was now clumped on the ground in a heap and at Quintas who still had his teeth bared to me and who looked like he would like nothing more than to attack me, drink all of my blood, and then tear my head off, just for good measure.

            “Oh my gosh!” I cried in disbelief. “What just happened?”

            “Quintas, dear, dear friend,” Zhivvah said kindly. “There is a farm house just a few hundred yards away. Before you can’t control yourself, you should go feed. Remember… on this little excursion there is no killing. Just… a little bit. Tavian and I will feed after you’re through.

            “I don’t understand,” I muttered and I let myself collapse on to the ground next to Tavian.

            “Tavian, child,” Zhivvah said softly approaching her son, “I won’t have the ability to help her. Only you can do that. Mend her wound so that we can get on with things. She couldn’t help herself, you know that, right?”

            The hatred illuminating from Tavian’s eyes as he glared at me shocked me, almost as much as everything that had just happened, “I know it,” he grunted. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

            “It will help us in our quest,” Zhivvah pointed out. “And she probably doesn’t like it either.  Hurry.”

            “Are you in control?” Tavian asked me as he picked himself up off the ground and came over to me. When tears came to my eyes and I nodded his face softened somewhat. He reached out a hand and jerked me easily to my feat. I let out a soft cry when I put weight on my ankle. Now that I wasn’t psycho, angry, Syd, I realized that it really did hurt. Tavian glanced at my foot and grunted with disapproval, “Don’t be such a wimp.”

            “It hurts,” I whined.