Page 46 of The Diary of the Vam'pir Jacques

“If not, we’ll just take it,” Ami answered from my feet.

“We can’t,” Antonio said from a dark corner.

“Why the hell not?” Taran demanded vehemently. “You have done nothing wrong, and even tonight proves that. If you had attacked them, you would have killed some of them. Instead, you ran, showing more consideration than what they showed you. You should have fought back. If I were in your shoes, I would have.”

Julius softly stated, “That’s not who we are.”

“Why not? I have had enough insults and threats to last me a lifetime. Next time I’ll fight,” Tobais exclaimed.

Shocked, I stared at him.

“Tobias, we can’t. We are superior,” Eduardo reprimanded gently.

“So fucking what?” Nathan demanded, throwing my tunic in Eduardo’s face. “It’s time to make a stand. I’m with you, Ami; we’ll just take what we want and fuck them. Why should we bother to give them any consideration? They’ve shown us none!”

“Nathan’s right,” D’vid said. “Not all Kaltons pursued us, but a sufficient number did. Screw them all. I wouldn’t spit on a singleone of them. Let them have their petty, sick, little lives. The only reason I’ll have something to do with them is if they deny us blood. If they choose that action, I will go back and take it forcefully.”

Most of us nodded even though Julius and Eduardo, along with Seti and Curtan, looked decidedly unhappy, but it stood. If we were denied a single drop of blood, then we would take it.

The rest of the journey homeward had been filled with comforting the humans. They were very distraught, especially as the fact emerged that Anton had seen my former villa go up in smoke.

Mother took some considerable calming because, although she had missed most of what had happened, she was able to fill in most of the gaps. Sadly, Mother was beside herself in worry and fear. She had lost everything, home, friends (not that she had many left) and an identity.

We spent most of the time trying to reassure her she was needed by us.I am proud to say that all the Vam’pirs respected and admired Mother for her sacrifices. Plus, she’d also coped with the hate levelled at her in silence.

Mother hadn’t even moaned once that she was sick or scared for her family’s life. She was obviously ill, and Maryn, kind and gentle child that she was, gave her medicine. Maryn refused to leave Mother’s side and was like a little shadow if my mother moved. Clearly, Maryn had known the extent of the illness that had stricken Mother, but she, too, had kept quiet, not wanting to upset anyone.

I couldn’t blame her, after all, Maryn had been through her own nightmare. And Maryn was still having to deal with reoccurring dreams that frightened her at night.

She appeared happy that she was leaving Kaltos far behind. I overheard her say to Diana she was looking forward to beginning a new life.

Stefan, too, seemed quite pleased with himself and bragged how he had helped by putting out the fire. Julia nodded but added in an aside that she had kept her eye on him.I suppose that with two Julia’s in my tale, things are going to get confusing, so I’ll call my sister Ju. By the way, the other Julia didn’t appear to be bothered by the incident.

Julia just absorbed the situation into her system and ignored the repercussions of what happened. She had nodded her agreement to taking the blood by force and that was a surprise in itself. Later, though, Mera got out of her that Julia was deeply troubled by the height of feeling against us and worried after Kierran’s and her own families.

Ana promised to find a way to inform them about Julia’s well-being.

Julia replied that she only wished to know they weren’t suffering the same as what mine had. If they were, then would someone extend an invitation at them to come and live at Mora. But please, would the message stress, Julia didn’t want to see them.

And that was a concession in itself. It was comforting that Julia still thought of them and loved them. She wasn’t ready for visits, but it was the first time Julia had mentioned her family or even Kierran’s name. Ricardus asked if Julia wanted them brought over for her sake, but she just shook her head. It wasn’t much, but it was reassuring to know that Julia was aware of her surroundings.

Julia was not the only one to be concerned about relatives. Everyone worried apart from Inka, Diana and me. Diana only had her two children to worry about, and she later told us that she had seen her ex-husband amongst the crowd.

It also emerged that Inka’s parents and D’vid’s family had been present as well.

As far as D’vid was concerned, if he ever saw his family again, then he would kill them outright. D’vid had more than enough of the farce they presented to outsiders.

We reached Mora just before daybreak and had to rush up the hill to our home with the sun nipping at our heels. Not everyone made it to their coffin, and we fell into heaps on the floor. The important thing was we weren’t at risk from the sunlight.

???

The next night, as we woke up, there was our usual supply of blood and another family waiting for us.

Li’zel’s parents had come over, as they had been staunch defenders of their only child. Their home had been burned, too. We inquired if there had been any trouble getting the blood, and they replied no.

Marel had threatened the population with us coming back and taking it by force. When we asked for clarification, they grinned smugly and said Marel had simply left it up to people’s imagination.Clever bastard.

Amazingly enough, something that I didn’t realise till later that night was the fact that my shoulders were healing. The pain had dissolved into a dull ache, and the skin had started to peel, showing a pale white skin underneath. Marel had informed us we would heal quicker than usual, but I really had thought that I would have scars from the fire.

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