Enlightenment

Part 16

It didn’t take him long to return, as he walked back into the room and placed the box down on the table behind me. He opened it slowly and took some things out. I glanced over my shoulder,

“There is no need to clean it, it won’t get infected.”

“Oh… ok. Can you get ill?”

I shook my head “No.”

He stepped slightly closer, “you need to, um…”

“Oh, right” I shrugged my coat off and dropped it on the table next to me, before removing my dark shirt, which was soaked in a surprising amount of blood for the small size of the wound. This left me sitting there in my jeans and a black tank top.

He inspected the wound and whistled, “God that looks painful.”

“I’ve had worse” I muttered.

He frowned suddenly, “Am I allowed to say God around you? Or does it offend you or something?” I silently hooked a finger under the chain around my neck to lift the cross up for him to see as it sparkled in the light. “Oh… ok, well there goes another theory down the drain then. So you believe in God?”

“I’m not sure, I believe that there is most likely some sort of God… although I highly doubt he is a big fan of me.”

 He remained silent for a moment. “Huh,Well… I’d better get started then.”

“Yes”

At first he seemed unsure of where to start, but eventually he picked up a pair of tweezers and very carefully began removing splinters. He stopped when I accidentally let out a hiss of pain as he pulled out a particularly large one.

“Sorry!”

“No it’s fine. You’re good at this. You’ve had training?”

“Yes, we’ve all had to… it comes in useful in our line of work.”

“Yes, I suppose it does.” We lapsed back into silence as he continued. I didn’t let myself make another sound until it was over.

Once he confirmed he had removed all of the splinters I thanked him and stretched both of my arms out, as I resisted the urge to scratch as the wound itched faintly. He stared in amazement,

“It’s already beginning to heal!”

“Well it was only made with wood. Silver takes longer.”

“Of course, that’s why we use it in our weapons. But why is that?”

“I don’t really know, there is just something in the way our cells are structured that makes them incompatible with silver. Some are slightly worse than others. I know for example, the older you get, the more you are able to tolerate. I suppose that is why you were able to kill the younger ones… for someone who is supposedly some elite vampire hunter, you know very little about us you know.”

“Yeah you keep telling me that.”

“Well I’m going to keep telling you until it sinks in.”

“I think that some of it has sunken in all ready.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” I stared at his stubborn face for a moment before deciding to drop it for now. “Anyway, you keep telling me that some vampires are not bad, but what about the ones that are? We’ve been tracking one in the town for ages, trying to find it. We have good information that says it's killed a lot of people.”

I frowned, that sounded slightly familiar, I gave him a full description of the one I had met in the park, his eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in suspicion; “that sounds a lot like it yes. I suppose he’s your BFF or something then?” I snorted

“Not quite no. we had a small… disagreement in the park ages ago. I took care of him.”

“And what does that mean?”

“I killed him.”

He looked shocked at the blunt way I stated it. “You killed him? Why? He’s your own kind!”

My eyes narrowed, “He was nothing like me! I found him with the body of a young girl; he confessed to me some of the others he had murdered. I told him that it was not… nice to kill, and like I said; we had a disagreement.”

He stared at me with a new found respect. It seemed he was finally starting to believe that I was not some mindless animal.

“Who are you?” he whispered to himself. I don’t think he intended for me to hear but I answered anyway.

“Jadeine Elizabeth Montgomery, it’s nice to meet you.” I said sticking my hand out. To my surprise he actually shook it, and I was startled to find that he didn’t even flinch when meeting my icy skin.

"Jamie Westwood."

            I stood up and stepped away from him, unsure of how to react to this slightly more accepting version of him. Then I thought what did I have to lose? He already spent most of the time hating me anyway.

I met his eyes. “You asked who I am? Fine then I’ll show you.” I walked towards the door and after only a slight hesitation he followed me.

I led him up the stairs and through the library, until we reached a door in one of the back corners. It took me a moment to unlock the door and push it open as it creaked with age.

He gasped as he followed me in. It was a fairly long narrow room, but every available wall space was covered in paintings, and later photographs.

Settling myself in one of the small dainty chairs in the centre of the room I watched as he wondered around, taking in every image of me, my various friends over the years and of course, William.

He paused on one close to the start. A portrait of me, when I was still human. I looked very similar to what I did now, apart from there was slightly more colour in my naturally pale skin, my cheekbones were not quite as sharp and angular, and my eyes seemed warmer, less feline.

Then he looked at the name and date at the bottom and pulled in a shocked breath. I felt a wistful smile play on my lips,

“Yes, that’s me, when I was human. In about 1584 I believe. I was changed around a year after that was painted.”

“That means you must be over… 444 years old!”

“Yes.”

It took him a moment to reply “wow… that’s really-“

“If you say old I’ll rip your head from your body right now!”

He laughed “I don’t believe it! You are actually sensitive about your age!”

I glared, “I am not.”

“Yes you are!” I chose not to dignify that with a reply.

He continued to wander around the room, staring in fascination. He occasionally paused on certain pictures, but did not comment.

He eventually stopped on a painting of William. “This your boyfriend?”

I was silent for a moment. “Husband, actually.” I thought he might think it was a bit dramatic if I called him something deeper, like the love of my existence, or soul mate. “He died.” I was unable to prevent my voice from almost breaking at the end, although he probably already knew that depending on how much he gathered from my mind before.

“I’m sorry.” He actually sounded sincere, for which I was surprised and grateful.

I stood and shook my head in an attempt to rid myself of all the unpleasant emotions swirling in my head.

"Right," I muttered, "I think you have seen enough. Come, you need to go and get ready. We leave tonight".