Page 51 of Sleeping With the Vampire

I could walk with difficulty.

Slowly, very slowly, I made my way to the door. I tried to remember the lay of the house, how I could get out as quickly as possible. I felt for my remaining knife, the silver dagger and suddenly remembered the fireball. With one hand holding my hand protectively over my stomach wound and the other rubbing the glass ball against my thigh, I edged my way out of the room and down the hallway.

My senses were heightened, aware of every movement in the house. At the top of the stairs I waited a while, but the house was deserted. I only wanted to get out of there but walking was proving to be harder than I’d thought. Each step I took sent shooting pain through my body and I was sweating profusely from the effort of dragging my body down the stairs.

On the landing, I looked around and tried to orient myself. It seemed different in the light of day, with several corridors leading off into rooms. I finally found the corridor to the back door and had my hand on the doorknob when I heard movement behind me.

“Leaving so soon?” Chakrat’s voice came at me and I swung around, throwing the fireball as I turned. There was no time to take aim and for one terrible moment I thought I had not pulled my arm back enough but he was coming at me and the fireball connected with him, exploding into flames. The force of the impact sent him flying through the air. I shuffled closer and took careful aim with my dagger, sinking it into his heart and pulling it out with a little twist.

I watched the surprise die in his eyes and with great satisfaction saw his body go up in flames. I had succeeding in killing Chakrat, my biggest goal in life, I couldn’t wait to tell my mother. I turned around towards the door and saw three vampires standing there. They had only just arrived. I could see them looking at Chakrat’s burning body on the ground and me standing there, clutching my stomach. The blood must have been appealing because the one in front moved fast, very fast.

“Well, well, well. What have we here?” he said, breathing into my face as I plunged my knife in his chest. But there were two others and I had no weapons or strength left. I was on my knees, trying not to think about how I had actually managed to kill Chakrat, but was going to die anyway.

“Hey, bloodsuckers! Over here!” a voice came from the other side of the hall. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size!”

I looked up and saw Costello come striding into the hall. The vampires turned to face him and I saw him throwing knives, striking down two in mid-air. Another came up behind him and I saw a blade penetrate his shoulder, with Costello stumbling andfalling down. I summoned all my power to grab my silver dagger out of the body of the closest vampire and tried to get to the vampire standing over Costello. He turned his back on me and I had a clean shot, sinking the knife into his chest. The vampire fell back but was only temporarily disabled, I hobbled over to check on Costello but he was still breathing.

“Come,” I said, “We have got to get out of here!”

I looked over my shoulder, worried that more vampires would be crawling out of the woodwork.

“I… can’t…go on…without me,” Costello said, there was blood trickling from his mouth.

“No! I’m not leaving without you!” I said, trying to pull his arm, but lacking the strength. Tears were running down my cheeks now and I didn’t care. Costello had come all this way to help me and I surely would’ve died if he hadn’t. But I had no doubt that if we didn’t leave now, we would not survive this place.

“Please, come!” I begged him but he could barely keep his eyes open.

Behind me the door banged and I looked around, expecting to see the next lot of vampires streaming in.

But I couldn’t anymore.

I could feel my legs giving way as I dropped to the floor next to Costello. The big man lay with his eyes closed and I tried talking to him.

“Stay with me,” I said. “Costello? Stay with me!”

But he didn’t move and a tiredness came over me.

I was unaware of the men that came into the house after that, coming in to check on me and Costello, picking us up and carrying us out of there. At some point, I must have woken up because I sat up and saw the house going up in flames. The heat from the fire reached us where we were lying on stretchers outside on the grass.

Glowing embers flew into the sky as the fire rushed through the rooms, the curtains billowing out the windows, looking like wings of gold.

For a long time then, I didn’t feel anything, didn’t know of anything. The darkness that I was plunged into was deep and soothing, like an ocean of tranquility. I didn’t want to wake up from that. I felt at peace and completely calm, floating on a giant ocean of stillness.

Someone was calling my name, “Izzy, Izzy!”

But I was too tired to pay attention. The voice was growing fainter and finally disappeared. I was glad. The silence felt good. It reminded me of a holiday that we had taken as a family. Micah was still with us, my parents had taken us to a cabin on the edge of a lake. We would go swimming in the water, which was freezing and Micah and my father would try fishing in the day.

I would sit on the jetty, watching the trees and listening to the wolves, howling at night. My mother came to sit with me and she looked so much younger then, she’d laughed and joked around with me, teasing my father about his inability to catch any fish. He later told me that there were no fish in the lake, the point had not been to catch anything, but to do something with Micah. It didn’t matter if they caught anything or not. I remembered being happy, completely at peace. None of the restlessness, the rebelliousness that came later in my life.

I liked being back there, at the lake, and the quiet stillness.

I didn’t want to come back to the world.

My brother’s sweet little face, him cut down so young. I wanted to be with him, to see my father and have nothing to do with the world anymore.

Chapter 18

Lucca

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