Page 58 of Hunting My Vampire

I didn’t want to see. I thought maybe it was too late for us already. Perhaps we could flee the country, let Da Salle take over the country while we went to live somewhere else but Kaya shook her head.

“Leave my family behind? Pearl and Princess? And your company? Everything you’ve worked for? You would just let it go, just like that?”

“I don’t want to lose you,” I said.

“You won’t,” she said, with a confident smile.

I had lost so many loves over the course of my life, beginning with my mother and my sister. I thought of how, as a young man, I’d met Constance in Boston and we had becameengaged. It wasn’t the same kind of love that I felt for Kaya now but I was very fond of her. She’d come to the castle and my father had approved of her too. During our feud with the Fitzgeralds, we had been attacked one night and she had been killed. I had been devastated. Our relationship had been so young, I’d had so many dreams for us.

Just like now.

Da Salle was a far bigger and more dangerous enemy. I felt we should plan our approach together, I wanted to help Kaya but she was adamant.

“I will do it alone, working the way I’ve always worked. This is how it must be,” she said firmly. “I can feel it’s right. This is what I was always supposed to do.”

I thought of what Bee had said to me about Da Salle being too big now to be taken down. Was this the next cycle? Was Da Salle and his power circle going to take over the world, subject the world to misery again? If so, he couldn’t allow Kaya and the occillite to remain. They would have to be removed.

“Once he is out of the way, we can be together,” Kaya said. “But now, I don’t have a choice.”

I hardly recognized her, the way she spoke all of a sudden. She was like one of the ancient warrior women I had heard of. She put the pendant around her neck and it seemed to glow darkly as it came into contact with her skin. I realized this was who she was meant to become, what the medicine man had meant with her coming full circle.

I went back to the castle, my senses heightened by the threat of imminent danger.

I was so pre-occupied that I didn’t notice Simon waiting for me outside as I arrived.

“Hello, dear brother,” he said.

He was dressed flamboyantly, as usual, in an embroidered coat with a silk scarf around his neck.

“You’ve been difficult to get a hold of,” I said, wondering what brought him here. I had tried calling him over the past few days, never getting an answer from him.

“I’ve been waiting for the right time,” he said, slowly. I could hear the violence underneath his words. Finally, he was challenging me outright.

“And the time is now?” I asked nonchalantly.

“Indeed.”

He moved quickly, but I was faster, jumping out of the way. He came after me again and this time, he had me on the ground, his claws around my neck. His face was distorted with hatred and bloodlust. I could see how long he had been wanting to kill me and how badly he wanted to do it himself.

“Your time is over, little brother,” he spat at me. “Now, it is my turn.”

I couldn’t speak as he tightened his grip on my throat. He was so much older and stronger than me and I had little time left to outsmart him. Fortunately, I had Kaya’s t-shirt in my pocket. I had put on gloves to handle it, aware of the incredible risk I took but I’d had a feeling it could come in useful and she had not objected to me taking it.

I now took the t-shirt and rubbed it in Simon’s face.

He gave a shriek of horror and fell back, taking his hands from my neck as he tried to get the cloth with the traces of occillite off his face. I had very little time, grabbing my custom-made pistol with the silver bullets, pointing it at his heart and pulling the trigger.

Simon fell down, an expression of shock on his face.

He had not expected this.

“You won’t… win,” he muttered. “She… has to die.”

“What?” Did he mean Kaya?

“She is too… strong. Her child…rule…all worlds.”

These were Simon’s last words. I had to burn the body to ensure he was not able to regenerate. I carried Simon into the woods, then set fire to his body. I stood back and watched it burn, feeling the weight of my actions, the taking of a life, even though I’d had no choice.

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