Love Loss

Chapter 15

   Avary had explained everything in detail, of how Candice had found Mina, hurt and suffering from blood loss. Candice had helped her by bringing her some of her packs cattle to feed from, and showing her how to get back home. Just for Mina to return with small pack of rogue vampires, evil little yearlings, I started to wonder if she had turned them herself. She had been torturing a young man when Avary had found her again, he was begin for dead but they all kept kicking him around, tearing bits of flesh from him. So Avary stopped them, killed one of the youngest turned during the fight, but Mina returned with more, and began take their pack members, one or two at a time, at night. At one point I had begun to feel sorry for him. Mina has gone too far, she has to be stopped.
  "So what's the plan? They'll be coming soon. We can't let them take anymore! We hav-" Avary's voice burns with emotion as he starts to rant, but quickly i cut him off.
  "No, they have too take more. We have to find out where she's taken your pack members. Maybe they're still alive. So while we've been talking, Corvin has been out, distributing a small discreet tracking device, to all your remaining pack members." I say as i walk over too the window and see Corvin in his human form, walking back up the garden path. "Once they have taken them, i shall follow them, you guys will follow a little further behind, but I will need too give them atleast a ten minute head start, you'llneed to give me five minutes before following me. Any longer, they could find the tracker and kill them all. It's a risk, but we can't risk them finding out we're following them. Questions?" I say as Corvin approaches me from behind, the instant he's within reach my blood starts too heat beneath the surface of my skin.
  "Why are you going on in front? Mina knows your scent, it could be dangerous for you." Corvin whines softly into my ear, I can feel the anxiety in his voice.
  "Yes, but Mina is thinking normally, she acting irratic and making stupid decisions, plus they are all currently used to the scent of lycans, so it's our best bet." I say confidently, trying to mask my own worries, so I don't worry Corvin more.
  "Why did you leave her?" Candices voice drifts from stop the stairs behind me, causing me to spin around to her, guilt covering my face.
  "It's difficult to explain without being in violation of multiple rules the Vampire High Council enforce, but what I can say is, at a certain age, certain vampires will be approached by them to... as they put it 'Continue The Bloodline.' My Bloodline is an ancient one that dates back to the beginning... and I'm not exactly a new born myself, we must turn atleast 10, within a certain amount of years, Mina was my eleventh. It was always part of the plan to leave her. She knew this, but..." My voice catches in my throat, as a dam of emotions hidden deep within myself, threatens to burst. I hear Coop's claw tapping lightly on the wooden stairs, as he walks down the stairs and over to me, I can see in his eyes he understands my pain. I pick him up from the floor and hug him close to my chest, he rests his head on my shoulder as I hide my face in his fur, I hear a soft whine release from him, and Corvin at the same time.
   I glance up slightly to Corvin, to see that he can see my pain just as much as Coop, but as I gaze deeper into his eye's I can tell he feels it more than he can see it.
  "I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, it's fine." Candace says softly with a small smile.
  I tear my gaze from Corvin's, and return her warm smile.
  "It's fine, I'm sorry it's just been awhile since I've thought about her." I plant a soft kiss on Coop's head and put him back down. "Of all 10 of the newborns I turned, each one showed incredible potential, the Council loved this. They said due to my success they believed I could chance one more. You see with newborns, there is always the high chance that they turn out feral, and nobody wants a feral Vampire. They're worse than rogues. Mindless killing machines, half the time they don't even kill due to hunger." I paused again, feeling my throat start to dry up, it's like my entire body didn't want to relive it.
  I walked over to the table and grabbed the decanter of clear liquid,"Is it vodka?" I ask, relieved as Avary nodded, quickly I poured myself a large glass and sat on the sofa, where Corvin quickly followed, squeezing in between me and the male lycan sat on the other end. I smirk as I take a big gulp then continue. "The first few weeks with Mina where perfect, she seemed a little clingier than the others, but I had also never saved any of the others from death before. She was sick you see. She was with a man aswell as Coop, sleeping in the park, robbing people so they could eat. She didn't even know how sick she was. Anyway, after the first few weeks, she started to feel the hunger more often, it was becoming a problem."
  I took another quickly sip of the vodka, hoping the burn of the alcohol could burn my vocal cords, that way I could never revisit this time of my life. Yet, I continued.
  "We where pretty settled in this nice little apartment in the city. Nice neighbours, i had a connection in the local bloodbank, so we didn't need to kill, it was perfect." I pause again remembering the awful night when everything started to go wrong. Coop tapped his way across the floor and jumped up onto my lap, and licked my face once, urging me to continue.
  "You see... Mina had never divulged the urges she had been having. She never told me how bad the hunger was getting. So the night she finally got a job, we was excited, happy, wanting to celebrate..... Mina was the one who thought of bowling. It seemed like the perfect idea, the fun, the games, the laughter, not just ours, everyone's. It was like they where celebrating with us." My voice broke slightly, so I cleared my thought to disguise it, took a quick sip of my drink, before staring down into the clear liquid, sloshing around in the glass, and began to describe the nightmare that unfolded that night.
   " We showed up around 6, it was the beginning of winter, so the sun was just setting. 'BOWL-ARAMA' It said in big letters out front, so colourful, I couldn't wait. In all my years I had never been bowling. It had always looked fun, but I hadn't really been asked to go, and it was never really something I thought of.
  "The moment we opened the door, it's like a wall of sound hit us. Claw machines played fun little melodies and songs in the entrance. Children and families laughed as their parents or friends knocked over some pins but not all of them. People cheering whenever they got a strike, or spare. It was all new to me, but I feel the excitement in the air, it was contagious." Itook a sip of the liquid and glanced around, noting that everyone was waiting patiently, silently for my next word.
  "We changed our shoes, was shown to our lane and picked out balls. I had never been more excited than I was in that moment, once we'd finished setting up the board, Mina turned to me with a smile and said 'You go first Zarr, you've never played before.' I was so happy I leapt up from my seat and grabbed the ball, almost forgetting to hold back on my strength." I chuckled softly at the memory, 'You can stop if you want my love? It looks like it pains you to remember.' Corvins voice fills my mind softly, warmly, trying to comfort me. I turn towards him and smile.
  "It's fine, I don't mind, it's just... it's just it's... been awhile you know, and yet... as I remember it, it feels almost... well almost like it happened yesterday." I grasp his hand in mine, and give it a squeeze, and flash him a small smile before continuing.
   "As i walk up to the lane, I glance to the left and see a young boy, 12 years old if his sparkly badge was anything to go by, he was celebrating with his family and a few friends for his birthday. I smiled and looked to my right, to see an older teen boy, trying to show his girlfriend how to throw the ball, their first date maybe? I font know, but it gave me a warm feeling as giggled at a joke he whipered in her ear. Further along was an elderly couple, taking their grandkids out for the day. They all seemed so happy. I copied what the boy had told the girl to do, took my arm back, swung it forward and as I released it, I watched as the ball struck the floor, and rolled along at speed to collide with the pins. To my surprise I was rather good at bowling getting my first strike on my first go."
   I stopped for a second to refill my glass, and cleared my throat again once I'd had a large gulp of the fiery clear liquid.
  "As the night progressed I got four more strikes, two spares and a three. I got distracted as the young boys parents had all the lights turned off so they could come out with a cake, singing 'Happy Birthday' they looked at him with such proud faces. Because we where supposed to be fitting in, we where drinking sodas. Mine had finally gotten the better of my bladder and I needed to run to toilet..." I pause, barely able to force the words out, "...That was my first mistake." I choked out the words before quickly gulping down the rest of the vodka.
   "I could taste the copper in the air, before I smelled it, before I heard the screams, before I saw the massacre that had started the moment I closed the door... She killed the boy first, didn't even feed from him, she gutted him with her own hands. Before the mother could scream she tore her throat out. Then as the boys friends and father started to run, she turned to the young couple, and the elderly couple with their grandkids. She never told me what exactly happened to the young couple, but they were in pieces. She had clawed out the old couple throats and let them bleed out, chokingnon their own blood... but when I came out. What she was doing, I should have killed her then. One of the young children she was feeding from, she had almost drunk him dry when, I spotted the young girl, cowering on the floor beside her. Staring at her grandparent's lifeless bodies..." I paused as i noticed a tear on my cheek, quickly I wipe it from my cheek, before forcing myself to finish.
   "When she spotted me, she just dropped the young boy, and stood yanking the young girl up so hard her shoulder almost dislocated. I just stood in shock and said, 'Mina, what the fuck did you do?' I... I couldn't think properly, I was frozen to the spot, in all my years I had never seen so much pointless death, she shrugged pulled the girl up towards her mouth just as she bit down, the young girl screamed so loud it sort off... I don't know... snapped me out of it... or something. Anyway, I ran at Mina and snatched the girl away from her... but... it was too late, Mina had bitten harder as I went for her and the moment I pulled her away, she ripped a large chunk of flesh from the young girls throat." I paused to take a sip before continuing, but Avery cut me off.
   "So why didn't you kill her? Clearly she was feral, surely the Council will have told you to kill her right?" I sneered at the response.
   "The Council stated, she was still young, stick with her. Show her the right way, you've never failed before." I slammed the glass down on the table, making everyone, including Coop jump.
  "The Council didn't care, and I cared too much. When I got her home she had told me, that she was just hungry and it wouldn't happen again. Over our first year together, we had a total of 6 moves. Each one because she lost control and massacred a bunch of people. Each time the Council consoled me that everything would be fine, if I stuck with her. She was still a yearly, she should settle down within this next year." I put my face in my hands and rubbed away the tears.
  "They were wrong everytime. You see, a maker always has a special connection with their creations, they tend to feel an almost maternal connection, atleast for the first few years. Eventually by year five, they've either matured enough to be left or they get the chance to see if they can make it alone. Either way by year five they are left to face the world alone." I take a quick glance around and settle on Candice's kind eyes before I regain a little composure and finish.
  "Last year was supposed to be my last with her, over the years we've had approximately nineteen moves, further away each time. Each move ending in a bigger massacre than the last. Eventually I couldn't take anymore. I sent word the the Council that she was not a year five of her life and still she is not learning she's like a conscious feral that can still remember who they are and don't care when the hunger takes over. I told them that it was their fault she had reached this ages, so they could deal with her from here on out. They responded quickly, by saying it was fine, they could use her, she wasn't a complete failure, just a partial one, and that I should still be proud." I laugh a dry forced laugh, before looking back down at the floor.
   "I gave Coop the choice to stay with Mina or to come with me, but he felt it was his responsibility to take care of Mina now that she would need him.... Anyway there you have it, I dont know what's wrong with her, i don't know if she can help it or not. All I do know is, if this is to end in her death, I can't be the one to kill her. I made her, I wouldn't be able to do that, it would kill something inside me." My voice trails of into silence as I stare at the floor, head filled with memories I'd rather not remember.
  "That's exactly why I'm here my love. I will do everything in my power to make sure you don't have to." Corvins says softly before planting a soft kiss on my temple. His arm slips around my waist and he pulls me up onto his lap, hugging me close to him. I begin to feel his warmth, and feel safe once more.