In Love With A Vampire Page 6

  Jesse waited for Lipton to emerge and reveal himself, but there was no response. He was as silent as a ghost.

  Jesse saw another feather, which was stuck between the leaves at the corner. Bingo! Lipton was probably behind those leaves.

  Jesse glided across the sturdy branch like a squirrel, ready to pounce on Lipton. With both hands, she shoved the leaves away, to reveal a dark figure crouched between the branches. Jesse gasped in horror when she realized that it wasn’t Lipton. It was … Catan.

  “Catan?” Jesse mouthed in disbelief. “But-but … I thought you were Lipton.”

  With a sneer on his face, Catan said with an evil chuckle, “Lipton was here … about a moment ago. But now … he is gone. Surprised?” Catan drew out his fangs, a playful grin playing on his lips.

  Instinctively, Jesse’s fangs protruded, a look of grim determination plastered on her face. She was going to get him for good, if it was the last thing she did.

  Jesse had been so positive that Lipton was there. She could still smell his essence with her vampire scenting ability, and even his presence. How could he have vanished so fast? Or did Catan set a trap for her by using Lipton’s feather as a bait? Questions whirled around Jesse’s head, but she had one clear focus in mind. She wasn’t not going to let Catan off the hook so easily, no matter how strong he was.

  Catan slowly glided across the branches toward Jesse, his eyes trained on her like a hawk.

  Jesse straightened her posture, bracing for a fight if it came to that.

  “I’m not letting you kill any more innocents,” Jesse threatened with fists clenched. “I’m not letting you spill innocent blood for your blood greed.”

  Catan cackled as though Jesse had said the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “Do you think you can defeat me? I’m centuries stronger than you. You’ll be squashed like scrambled eggs by the time we finish this little war.”

  Jesse’s heart leapt to her throat. Deep inside, she knew that Catan was supernaturally more stronger than her, and that she wouldn’t last in this battle. But she had to give it her all. The lives of those innocents whom Catan was intent on killing depended on her.

  Jesse launched upward to another branch so she was a branch higher than Catan. This would give her an edge over Catan position-wise, as making a strike from above gave the attacker more advantage. But Catan was smart. He leapt to an overhead branch, his head leveled with Jesse.

  Jesse knew that fighting Catan face-to-face wasn’t going to be easy for her, and the only way was to attack him from above. So she ascended one level up again, the leaves rustling against her body. And Catan mimicked her again, doing the same thing she did.

  The knot in Jesse’s stomach tightened so hard that Jesse felt as though she couldn’t breathe. Catan was making things harder for her, and she didn’t like it at all.

  Heart ricocheting in her chest, Jesse leapt another level up. But before her feet could touch the branches, she felt a force dragging her down. Catan had grabbed one of her feet, and yanked her down like she was some kind of a plastic toy.

  Jesse screamed as she plummeted through the thick branches, the sharp edges lacerating her flesh. But before she could completely plunge onto the ground, she quickly grabbed hold of one of the sturdy branches, and her fall was stopped mid-way. She did a bit of somersault and was able to lift herself back up onto the branches again, like a skilled gymnast, thanks to those vampire abilities.

  She saw Catan descending down the canopy in her direction, anger creasing his forehead. Before Jesse could think of her next step, Catan pounced on her with wild savagery and hauled her down. Both of them tumbled down from the arbor tree onto the ground, landing with a sickening loud thud.

  They rolled across the leave-scattered ground in a tug of war, clawing at each other’s face and biting each other in mad fury. Catan tugged at Jesse’s hair and managed to pull a tuft of hair from her scalp, drawing loud howls of pain from her throat.

  Jesse poked Catan’s eyes with her fingers, causing him to groan in pain. Catan retaliated and punched Jesse’s nose so hard that it practically flattened on the spot, and in response, Jesse landed a hard kick in Catan’s groins with her knees, drawing wild bellows.

  “I’m going to kill you once and for all!” Catan raged, using his might and strength to paint bruises all over Jesse’s body. Jesse wriggled on the floor like a worm, agonizing pain flooding her body as Catan inflicted punches and kicks all over her. Jesse felt so weak, so helpless. Catan was overpowering her, and he was slowing taking the lead.

  No, I mustn’t give up, Jesse urged herself mentally, tears streaming down her cheeks. I mustn’t lose. Catan must not win.

  But her vision became blurry as her body weakened drastically. She had been consumed with so much pain that she didn’t have the strength to recover, get back to her feet, and fight again. She couldn’t even move an inch of muscle, and it felt as though every single bone in her body had been fractured badly.

  Light was fading from her sight, replaced by the threatening darkness. In the last ribbons of light, she could see someone holding a wooden stake. She could see Catan raising the stake up high, ready to strike. Even in her semi-consciouness, Jesse realized what was going on. Catan was going to kill her for good. He had pulverized her to a state of helplessness, and now he had all the chance to finish her off with the stake in his hand.

  Jesse closed her eyes tight, ready to embrace her fate. Ready to accept the true death … of a vampire … by a stake.

  Any second now … she’d die at the mercy of Catan’s hands.

  Then, complete blackness shrouded her vision, and she was gone.

  5. Newborn

  Jesse jerked her eyes open, a vision of mists greeting her. Drowsily, she tried to sit upright, feeling the ache in her back. So this must be what death felt like. She had died, and gone to the other side, or The Other World, as they all called it. She’d finally died as a vampire. She was turned into a vampire when she was sixteen years old, by a vampire who had stormed into her house one night and attacked all her family members. In a bloodlust rampage, the vampire killed all her family members and her, tasting their blood like there was no tomorrow.

  But for some strange reason, the vampire decided to turn Jesse into a vampire. So after he killed Jesse, he immediately injected his blue vampire blood into Jesse’s system, making the blood seep into every part of her.

  Two days later, Jesse mysteriously woke up from her death, and soon after realized that all her family members were dead … except her. She also painfully realized that she’d been turned into a vampire, and had to live the rest of her life as this supernatural creature she’d feared and despised since she was a little girl.

  And after ninety years since Jesse was turned into a vampire, she finally met the true death. She was finally able to move on to The Other World and leave her painful vampire past behind.

  Jesse coughed in a spasm as she got to her feet, faltering as she tried to move. Swirls of cool mist shrouded her, and she squinted her eyes, trying to see what was beyond the cottons of mist. Then, she saw something that looked like a house. Was this where the dead went after they had died? Jesse had heard about needing to pass through a portal to get to the other side of the world. Maybe this house was disguised as a portal which would lead her to The Other World.

  Jesse trudged toward the house-shaped silhouette, her eyes blinking against the cool mists blowing in her face. When Jesse neared the silhouette, she thought that it looked vaguely familiar. Wait. She’d seen this house before. Now where had she seen it?

  As the mists began to part like drawn curtains, the silhouetted house became clear. Jesse gasped in shock and confusion. It was her house! The house standing right in front of her was her own, and she’d no idea why her house was still there.

  Jesse whirled around, scanning her surroundings. She realized that the mists that had pooled around her were actually the night fog. It had been a very cold and breezy night with the occasional th
understorm. Fog and strong gales had been threatening the streets throughout the night.

  Her mind went into a puzzled mode. Wait … did she really die? She thought that Catan had killed her. She didn’t believe for a second that Catan would even have a shred of human decency to spare her life.

  Jesse retraced her steps and went back to the same spot where she had lay, just a few meters away from the arbor tree. She spotted something on the ground. She bent down and picked it up … and gasped. It was a white feather … again. It lay on the ground a few inches away from where her body had been. Why was there a white weather on the ground?

  She recalled about the other white feathers she’d discovered earlier that night when she’d gone out of her house to investigate the mysterious shadow lurking outside, which she believed was Lipton.

  Another feather again? Weird traces of Lipton were painted all over this mysterious incident. But if Lipton’s feathers were there … then where was he all along? Jesse believed that Lipton must be in the vicinity of her house, and he’d unintentionally lost a few feathers from his wings as he flew around.

  Or maybe it was just all a deception set up by Catan. But it couldn’t be … it just didn't make any sense. Catan wanted her dead by the stake more than anything. So did it mean that someone had actually saved her life twice? Could that someone be Lipton? It made perfect sense, but there were still some missing pieces to this mind-boggling mystery.

  Jesse realized that she wasn’t dead, and that someone had actually saved her. Jesse whirled around warily, high on alert. Was Catan still out there somewhere? She wasn’t sure what had actually happened, but she decided to go upstairs to her bed and catch up on her sleep. She was extremely exhausted, and if she tried to think further, she felt as though her brain was going to explode.

  Jesse bound up the steps to her house, and flashed upstairs all the way to her bedroom, ready to collapse onto bed with her husband, who was probably still asleep, unaware of what was going on outside.

  But as Jesse neared the bed, she realized that something was wrong. The comforter was crinkled to one side of the bed, and Jesse realized that Ken was not on his bed at all! Alarm and panic started to reverberate through Jesse. Ken was gone! Where could he have been?

  Jesse whisked herself to the bathroom in lightning speed, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ken on the lavatory or something, but there was no sign of him anywhere inside the bathroom.

  Heart drumming against her ribcage, Jesse whooshed through the entire house, from upstairs all the way to downstairs … but still … there was no sign of him.

  A sickening realization dawned upon Jesse. There had been a loud commotion earlier during her scuffle with Catan, and it had probably woke Ken up. Ken must have gone downstairs to check … and if he came face to face with Catan, he wouldn’t stand a single change against the thousand-year-old vampire. Jesse must have blacked out by the time Ken had gone outside to investigate.

  No! No! Let Ken be OK … let him be OK, Jesse cried mentally, her eyes brimming with tears at the fear of losing him.

  Jesse dashed outside her house, quickly scanning around, feeling like a madwoman at that moment. She’d have rather died than let Ken die at the hands of Catan.

  With a quick sniff, Jesse could scent something coming from her right side. Whirling around, she caught a puddle of blood oozing from the bushes at the front corner of her house.

  Without hesitation, Jesse zipped toward the bush and shoved the leaves aside, and gasped when she realized that Ken was lying motionless on his back, blood pooling around him.

  “No!!!!” Jesse cried, hot tears bursting down her cheeks. She tried to feel for his heartbeat, but she couldn’t feel any. Please let there be a pulse … a heartbeat … anything, Jesse pleaded in anguish.

  Jesse sobbed as she gazed at Ken’s lifeless face, his eyes froze open in horror as though he’d seen the most terrifying thing in his entire life. There were lacerations all over his body, and his light blue pajamas was ripped and tattered. Catan must have done this to him. Catan must have assaulted him with sheer force. Unadulterated anger surged through Jesse when she thought of that. Catan won again. Catan had murdered someone whom she loved. She wasn’t going to let this all go without a fight. She vowed to avenge the murder of her husband.

  Jesse convulsed in sobs, trying to figure out every way to bring Ken back to life. She tried to give him mouth-to-mouth, even though she knew that it was a futile attempt. But she knew that she couldn’t just leave him lying there on the ground … dead as a duck.

  The howl of a dog pierced the silence of the night. Jesse gazed at the moon crescent in the dark sky … and her mind was blank for a moment. She had to accept the fact that her husband was now officially dead.

  ***

  Ken opened his eyes, his head throbbing with pain. Drowsiness overwhelmed him, and he felt as though he’d been sick for days, bedridden. He couldn’t recall what had happened to him, except some vague memories of a vicious-looking vampire attacking him mercilessly as though he was some kind of a play toy. He could remember the pain inflicted on him over countless and countless of times, and it was something that he didn’t want to endure again in his life … ever again.

  He knew that it was impossible for him to live through the savage attack. When the vampire had nearly pulverized him, Ken knew that there was no chance for survival. He knew that he would die, and there was no one to save him.

  Ken squinted his eyes, trying to focus. He could see the glint of wood above his head.

  So this must be what The Other World looked like. They had wooden structures which he had never heard about. He felt so weird, as though he wasn’t supposed to be here. He felt so claustrophobic, and was this the way he was supposed to feel after he died?

  Ken jerked his head from one side to the other side, his body lying in a flat position. What he saw made he gasp. There was wood all around him, and the surface glinted in the light, which he realized came from a wall sconce which hung to his right side. Why was there wood all over him? They seemed like wood panels, all closing around him like a box. Wait. A box?

  Ken heaved himself up, trying to sit upright, but his head knocked against the low ceiling overhead. He realized that he couldn’t get up. A horrifying realization set in.

  He was encased inside a wooden box!

  His heart pounded like drums which had gone awry. His mind screamed with an alarming pitch, and he couldn’t help but murmur in cold fear, “Wait … am I in a … coffin?”

  He tilted his head forward, trying to gaze into his front, and saw that his feet nearly touched the wooden end of the box … or coffin, if his assumption proved to be right. He could barely move inside the box, and when he tried to stretch his arms, they knocked against the wood.

  No wonder Ken felt claustrophobic. He was sealed in a box, with only a small light source to accompany him.

  But there didn’t seem to be any ventilation inside the coffin. There were no slits to let air in. How was he able to breathe inside? How was he able to survive in a vacuum?

  Ceaseless puzzled thoughts raged inside Ken’s head like a wild tsunami, making his heart beat faster than normal.

  He was extremely scared, alright. So scared that he had no idea where he was at that moment, and what was happening to him. He had felt drowsy and weak moments ago, but now … he felt a sudden change. His mind was mentally alert and he could feel inexplicable strength oozing inside his body in sensational waves. He felt so different, and he was scared out of his wits.

  Who had sealed him inside the coffin? Why would anyone do this to him?

  Ken’s inner defense shattered like bricks, and he began to tremble in fear, tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t think straight anymore. All he wanted to do was to get out of this hell of a box, and breathe in the fresh air outside. How he longed to be with his wife now, to feel Jesse’s warm arms around him … just to be with her.

  I need to get out of here! I just need to! I can’t stay a mi
nute longer! Ken bellowed furiously in his mind, feeling hysterical.

  Adrenaline pumped through him in tremendous amount, and involuntarily, he raised his arms up and punched against the ceiling with sheer force. The ceiling shattered in a loud rumble, sending splinters flying all over. Ken’s fists bled from the impact and cut, but strangely, the pain was only momentarily.

  He realized that the blood oozing out from his hands wasn’t … red. It was blue!

  Ken gasped in terror. He realized what had happened to him, and he couldn’t believe that he had been turned into a vampire! The blue blood on his hands dried up, and his wounds slowly healed. Ken was so shaken by the realization that he was a vampire that he convulsed uncontrollably.

  Now that the entire lid of the coffin had been broken apart, Ken sprang to his feet, his eyes scanning his surroundings.

  The familiar sight of the basement of his house greeted him. Old cartons and junks scattered the floor of the basement, with some broken furniture lying around at one corner.

  Ken was not dead. He was not in The Other World as he’d thought. No. He was a newborn vampire standing in his own basement like a freak. An overhead dim light cast creepy shadows in the corners, adding to the ominous atmosphere with the just-shattered coffin lying in the middle of the floor.

  He stood frozen there, unable to register the fact that he was a vampire … just like his wife. Wait. Did his wife know about this? Was he turned into a vampire by his own … wife?

  Ken roared in fury at the thought. She should have just let him die. Why did she have to go and let him live as a vampire? Ken was able to compose himself minutes later, as rationale thoughts started to seep in.

  But wasn’t he the one who had always wished to be turned into a vampire, so he could live eternally with Jesse? Yes, Ken had always wanted to become a vampire against Jesse’s wishes. But Jesse insisted that he remained a human until the time was right for him to become a vampire.