Crimson
I don’t know how long it was that I was burning, but it seemed endless. I couldn’t see. I had no limbs to move, nowhere to move to escape or alleviate the agony. Was this Hell? What sin had I committed to deserve this?
Then with a great howling in my ears that instantly fell silent, my eyes opened, and the pain was gone.
I still lay in the snow at the foot of the cliff. The same trees towered over me, the same snowflakes floated down to kiss my face. But they weren’t the same trees. They were infinitely more vivid than they had been. I could see with unparalleled clarity every branch and twig, every sliver of bark covering them, and I could feel the pulse of life radiating from within them. I could smell the pine so strongly it was almost overwhelming.
And the snowflakes, they weren’t the same snowflakes that had been falling before I died. They were far more intricately composed. From feet away, I could see the spidery crystalline structure of each one as if under a microscope. And when they touched my skin, the icy cold was crisper and more acute, but it didn’t sting as it had before.
One sensory revelation after another hit me, a rampage of wholly new sensations. Colors were brighter, smells were stronger and more complex, and the sounds, sounds of all the world, were available to me. I could hear with unrivaled precision everything. The hum of the trees as they breathed through their stems and sucked water and nutrients from the earth around their roots, the soft whisper of every snowflake joining its siblings on the ground, the rustle of creeping crawling things all around and the heartbeats of the owls as they stared down at me curiously.
And then there were the other sounds, farther away, the familiar voices shouting curses and escaping in pants and grunts in obvious struggle.
I sat up, and the motion was easier than it ever had been before. There was no strain, simply wanting to sit up and then sitting up. I looked down at my abdomen. The open gash that had been there was now closed as if the skin had never been marred, and what remained was stunningly beautiful flesh, like a peach had been coated with pearl dust, pale but blushing underneath.
I looked at my hands and arms, and they were covered with the same opalescent skin. My fingernails looked like glass, hard and sharp. I pressed my thumbnail into the skin of my wrist until it punctured and bled, and as soon as I pulled my nail away, the cut sealed, and the blood reabsorbed into my skin.
It worked. I was a vampire. The realization was a shock to my system.
But a voice cut through my thoughts. Nicholae was close and in need of help.
I stood in an instant, and without consciously deciding to move my legs, I zoomed through the woods in seconds and landed right in front of Nicholae and Kerrich wrestling to the death.
I yanked Kerrich away from Nicholae by the throat, then squeezed and crushed his neck in my hand, severing his head from his body. I stared at it, the head as it rolled away in the snow, the body only being held upright by my hand. I was amazed and horrified by my own strength. My stomach twisted, and my throat itched with the urge to vomit.
I dropped Kerrich’s lifeless body and looked at Nicholae.
He was still on the ground, staring at me with a mixture of fear, awe, love, and relief.
Then he stood up and threw his arms around me. I didn’t dare embrace him for fear I would crush him too.
He pulled away and looked me all over. I could hear a million questions dancing around his mind. “How?” he finally managed to ask.
“Delilah had me cornered,” I said, stunned by the magical sound of my own voice. But I continued to explain. “I managed to stab her in the heart with the weapon Caeler gave me and pushed her over a cliff, but she took me down with her and hugged me till the blade went through my stomach. I was rapidly losing blood, and I knew that I was going to die. But she was dying next to me, her blood just pouring out of her, so I drank it until there was nothing left. I died…but I came back.” The words came out very robotically, numbly. All I could do was state the facts as I experienced them, for I was in too much shock to process it emotionally.
He looked at me for a long time. Then he caressed my cheek. “You’re amazing.”
I managed a smile, but there was no emotion behind it. My lips were just going through the motions.
He took my hand, and we walked back toward the coven house. When we got there, the battle was over. Bodies were strewn everywhere throughout the snow, painting it disturbing shades of red and pink. Most of Delilah’s coven had been defeated, while a few others merely fled.
But it hadn’t been a complete victory for us. We had lost at least half of our militia. Most of Caeler’s coven had been killed, including Caeler himself, and so had five of Lolita’s concubines.
“I can’t believe he’s dead,” Myra wept beside Levy’s corpse. “I’m so sorry. I never got to tell you that I…that I…” She couldn’t finish. She cried more heavily, her blood tears joining the puddle of Levy’s blood.
Myra was the only one crying, but everyone was mourning some kind of loss. But when Nicholae and I appeared on the scene, everyone fell silent and gawked at me. Nicholae let it be known telepathically what happened between Delilah and me. I felt awe and reverence from the onlookers, but also fear. They had never seen anyone transform this quickly. The transformation usually took an entire night, and mine had apparently taken just shy of an hour.
Laramie, Lolita, and Nicholae went about cleaning everything up. The bodies had to be burned, the blood had to be washed away, and the wounded had to be cared for.
Looking around, I saw that I had lost the least of anyone here. It didn’t seem fair considering all of this happened because of me. Everyone had lost someone, but I hadn’t lost anyone I truly cared about. Nicholae, the one I cared about most, had survived. I had rescued him in the nick of time. Laramie had a few wounds that were slowly healing. Arsinoe was unscathed and frolicking about like she had just had the best night of her life.
But poor William had been brutally mangled, his left leg ripped off and his chest opened after his heart had nearly been torn out. Laramie tended to him, working to reattach the leg and seal his gaping chest with donations of blood from anyone willing. Nicholae and I stayed by his side until the procedures had finished and it was time for him to rest.
Benny had also taken quite a beating. He had chunks bitten out on his right calf, on the left side of his abdomen, and on his right shoulder. He was in pain as he slowly healed, but he was still able to move around. “Here’s the last one,” he said as he carried Delilah’s body to the pile.
Everyone looked at me, the whispers of their thoughts slithering in the air all around me.
I can’t believe this puny little mortal killed the infamous two-thousand-year-old vampire, stole her blood, and became the first Amarant vampire in a century, I heard from the mind of Roxanna as she shot daggers at me with her eyes. She had been Caeler’s right-hand woman, and now that he had been killed on my behalf, she hated me.
She went up to the mountainous pile, lit a match and tossed it. The whole of the pile caught fire almost instantly. We stood there around the funeral pyre, showing silent respect to those we lost, and saying our final farewells. Myra’s soft weeping was the only sound for miles.
I knew it wasn’t over. Now that I was a full-fledged vampire, and one that no one knew what to expect from, more would come for me. This victory and my defeat of Delilah would certainly scare the vast majority away. But not the old ones. Not the ones whom I should truly fear. But at least I had Nicholae. No matter what, we would always be together, and I had faith that our love could conquer anything.