Chapter 288 - Last Rites part 19

I overtook him in the marshes. Threw him down. Held him to the ground by the throat. My other hand was poised to strike him dead, fingers clamped tightly together. I was going to drive them into his brain, smash the faulty machine that drove his polluted thoughts. I wanted to do it. I was going to do it! My entire body trembled with the desire. Kill him! Kill him and bide your time for the next one, I said to myself. I was thirty thousand years old. What was another hundred years? Another thousand?

"Why?" I demanded. "Why did you do it?"

He couldn't speak. I was squeezing his throat too hard. I loosened my grip and he coughed. "I… just wanted to see," he croaked.

"Don't you understand what you've done?" I shouted.

"What do you care?" he hissed. "You're going to be dead soon anyway!" And then he laughed in my face.

I lowered my hand. Released him and walked away.

"You idiot! You've made an enemy of a very powerful blood drinker," I said to him. "Yes, I'll be dead soon. And he is going to hunt you down and destroy you after I'm gone."

Lukas rose, rubbing his injured throat. He wiped cold mud from his clothing, pulled up and straightened his pants. "I'd like to see him try," he snarled, grinning fiercely.

I smiled back at him. "He will do it. Strength does not mean everything. He has been trained to destroy immortals. He hunted ghouls at my side for a hundred years. You are newly made, inexperienced, barely able to use your vampire gifts. Destroying you will be child's play for him."

Lukas stared at me, his grin fading by degrees. He looked suddenly fearful, and then petulant. "Let's go if you want me to kill you!" he said.

"He will do it," I assured him once more. I matched his foolish grin, mocked him with it, and then I returned to the abbey to gather our belongings.

They were in a heap outside the walls of the complex. I knew how to take a hint. I dressed, hefted our packs and departed.

Lukas was waiting in the exact spot I'd left him, scowling into the blazing heavens, fangs exposed, cheeks smeared with the living blood. I passed him without speaking and he fell into step behind me. We walked in silence for several hours, our eyes bleeding in the sunlight. We walked until sundown.

"So, tell me the rest of the story," he finally said, as the first faint stars twinkled in the east. "Might as well finish it. What else are we going to do to pass the time?"

"You made an Eternal of her," I said.

"Oh, yeah?" Lukas replied. He looked pleased. "That's cool. Now they can be together forever. They should be happy."

"Not every human being wants to live forever," I said. "She wanted to die, Lukas. Die and meet her creator. You've stolen that from her. And Justus is not an Eternal. He will perish long before she does."

"Oh… Well, that sucks. So, tell me the rest of your story. I want to know how you defeated Khronos."

I had to think for a moment where I'd left off with it. I was telling him of the Orda before I got sidetracked by Brother Justus and our adventure in the village of Getvar. It was always so easy to get distracted by Justus!

Where was I? I thought. Then: Ah, yes, we had just made the Orda into blood drinkers.

Zenzele had sensed that there was another group of Khronos's warriors in pursuit of us, so we fled east.

"We fled east," I said.