The Tenth Dragon: Death Of A Youngling

Chapter 6: A Solid Promise

Jesse slammed his fists against the elevator door repeatedly.  He growled in frustration and yelled profanities.  Clarissa stood quietly at the other end of the elevator and watched him.  Over the years she learned that these tantrums were short lived and would end quickly.

“GOD DAMMIT!  What kind of hell have I walked into?  Rydar gave her virginity to another man, everyone praises the would be Satan as a savior, my brothers and father are all dead, and I’m the only one that can fight Azrael, but according to everyone in the world, I will die if I try and won’t even get any fucking help!” yelled Jesse.

He swung around to hit the wall again, but this time Clarissa caught his fist.  Her eyes were intense and focused.

“How much does Rydar really know about you?”

Jesse was caught completely off guard by the question.

“What?”

“Well, from living with Rydar for the past year, I’ve realized that she knows very little about what you went through in your life.”

“That’s not true.  We’ve already discussed this, she knows . . .”

“She knows about your human life.  Your parents separating, your drug use, and to a small extent she knows about your brief engagement to my sister.  She knows nothing about the lives you’ve ended, the nightmares you suffer from, your need for physical contact, or even about how your engagement to my sister ended.  Hell she barely even knows about our pack.”

Pack.  He always thought it was a funny way for Clarissa to describe their small group of friends.  There was only four of them, and only one of them was a werewolf.  Hardly a pack, even if he wasn’t human and didn’t know it, by numbers they were vampire dominated.

“Well,” snapped Clarissa, pulling Jesse from his thoughts.

“Well what?  It’s not like I can just say, ‘Oh ya, by the way, I killed hundreds of human and non-humans, with the help of other non-humans, because I lost my mind when fiance was murdered by her brother because I wasn’t there to stop him’.  I’d be lucky if the only thing she called me was a psycho.”

“Romeo, eventually she’s going to find out.  And she would hurt worse finding out by anyone but yourself.”

Where the hell was this coming from?  She has known that Jesse and Rydar were together for years, but she never brought it up before.  Hell she was just there to enjoy the ride and tempt him with her own body, just as she always had.

“Romeo, have you forgotten our pack already?”

Forgotten the pack?  How could he forget them.

Michael, was a werewolf and ironically named party animal of their group.  He was constantly going out to raves, shows, concerts, house parties, anything.  His life was filled with drugs, alcohol, and lost memories.  Thanks to him, Jesse had gotten into his first drug addiction, found the funs of alcohol, and had even learned how to work while hung over.  Although they all seemed like bad lessons to learn, which they were, he also taught Jesse some good lessons.  In his moments of sobriety Michael was a very wise man.  He taught Jesse how to deal with the loss of his first love, how to better handle his rage from his mother leaving, it was even him who ultimately taught Jesse to ween off of drugs.  He was like drug fueled older brother.

Clarence, the oldest of them all and older brother of both Clarissa and Noel.  He was a full fledged, blue blood vampire.  He was never big on partying but he always wanted to protect his sisters so he would always tag along.  Most of his time was taken by training and studying.  He was always working out, and teaching Jesse how to defend himself against non-humans.  Clarence was always trying to take care of them, like an older brother, even taking Jesse to the hospital when he overdosed the first and last time.  However he also taught him the most important lesson, trust no one.  That was solidified when he killed Noel on their wedding night. 

Noel, his beautiful former fiance.  Clarissa had introduced them a few years after she and Jesse had met.  She was reluctant at first but ultimately trusted Jesse enough to take care of her.  She was the same age as him and was an amazingly sweet girl.  Always dressing in punk rock fashion, with different color hair every other week, she was just as unique as Jesse was.  They had quickly fallen in love and much to Clarissa’s aggravation, they became inseparable.  Jesse fought to be a better person for her, and she tried to hep him deal with his past and anger issues.  Together they planned to get married and leave their pasts behind them.  However, thanks to Clarence and her father, that didn’t happen.

With Clarissa at the helm, leading their charge, they were an insane group that were well known for their insanity.  A reputation that only got worse with the death of Noel.  Jesse lost all sense of himself.  He became addicted to drugs, fighting, and sex.  His own life stopped having meaning, and he did whatever he could just to be alive.  Clarissa became a cold heartless bitch.  She would verbally and physically abuse and berate Jesse.  She would use him for sex, make him fight and kill for her, and stopped caring about him.  Michael lost himself to drugs and disappeared.

After a few months, Clarissa and Jesse decided that they were going to have one last night that would ultimately end their lives.  However, that day, Jesse had met Rydar at school.  Something about her was enough to pull Jesse out of his suicidal depression.  That night Jesse saved Clarissa’s life as well, and they made a promise to keep each other out of trouble.

“You haven’t answered my question,” said Clarissa, turning cold and folding her arms.

“Of course I didn’t forget.  The pack was a huge part of my life.”

“A part that you’re leaving Rydar in the dark about.”

“She doesn’t need to know.  She’d never look at me the same way if she knew the things I did, we did.”

“Like having sex multiple times with each other.  Even the night before you and her got together.”

Jesse starred daggers at her.  He hadn’t wanted to hide that from her, but he wasn’t sure what she would say or do.

“Why are you asking me this?”

“And you know I wasn’t around for the full five years.  She could have had sex with other guys besides him as well.  Think about it, you waited two years and she gave it up to . . .”

Jesse exploded forward and grabbed Clarissa around the throat.  He lifted her off the ground and slammed her against one of the walls.  The muscles in his arms were tight and his veins were pushing hard against his skin.  His vision was blurry and the lights were flickering.  The left side of his face felt stiff like someone had put clay on it and let it dry.  Smoke was coming off his skin, but he didn’t feel like he was burning.

To his surprise Clarissa was perfectly calm, just starring at him.  Regret and disappointment in her eyes.  A few seconds passed before his anger receded and Jesse was able to see clearly again.  Clarissa softly grabbed his arms and pulled them off her throat.  She fell to the ground and let go of him.

“That rage is going to get you killed.  It’s been there since the day I met you and it has lead to a lot of trouble for us both.  You and I have both seen the after math of your bi-polar episodes.  Now imagine that with these powers that you have.  If you went after Azrael now, with this monster sitting inside of you, you would only get yourself killed.  Now I don’t know what Origin said specifically, but he’s right.  We can’t rush this attack, you need to get a hold of yourself and we need to find a better way to control your Draco-human powers.”

She caressed his cheek and it returned to feeling normal.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t . . .”

“It’s okay Romeo.  I brought it on myself on purpose.  I needed you to see what I see, what Rydar sees.  And why we fear for you.”

Slowly she stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around him.

“I love you Jesse, I don’t want to lose the last person in the world who has ever loved me.  You are all I have left.”

With her chin resting on Jesse’s head, her face was hidden, but Jesse could feel the tears splashing on the top of his head.

“I won’t leave you alone Clarissa.  I promise,” said Jesse, returning her hug.