Lilah (41 page)

‘Gabriel, go away. Find Oleander,’ said Pietro
calmly. ‘This is not your fight. The witch cannot live. She would destroy the
coven.’

Pietro was one of Lewis’s oldest friends, and I
did not like this fight but if I was to choose between these loyal strigoi and
Lilah, it was easy. Lewis had always accused me of making decisions with my
heart and not my strigoi sense of honour. He was right. I was not meant to be
part of any coven either.

‘You can let her go,’ I said. ‘All she wants is
her daughter.’

‘It is Lewis’s daughter. There are some things
we cannot alter,’ he said. ‘Those rules were set up to protect us over the
centuries. We cannot change things now.’

‘And how would you explain Georgio?’ I asked.
‘The rules didn’t work for him either.’

‘Georgio will be punished for leaving,’ said
Pietro. ‘But it is also because of her that he left. She is the real cause of
this dysfunction. It is the division and the indecisiveness of the whole coven
that has shocked people into disarray and to look for other ways to protect
themselves. Witches must change to one of us when they come of age or they must
disappear. They are nothing but troublemakers otherwise. They already get
themselves killed by humans because they are ignorant and stupid.’

‘Pietro, they are so close to our kind,’ I
pleaded, ‘yet we do not treat them fairly.’

‘Gabriel, it is over. It is time to leave this
silly witch to her end.’

I concentrated on him drawing power around me
like a shield then punching my fist forward into the air to send a small ball
of fire in his direction.

It knocked him backward and when he stood I saw
that his hand was on fire but nothing more. It did not occur to me till now how
strong he must have grown over the centuries. He laughed and blew at his
fingertips like a candle, extinguishing the flames.

‘I guess this means our friendship is
terminated,’ he
said ,wryly
.

We charged at each other, and wrestled. With
our skill now exhausted, it became a battle of brute strength. I was born to
love and avoided
fist fights
even as a boy; a young
witch living in the Kingdom of Norway. I often reflected on the times I met the
girls from our village in secret behind the church, and if not for the skills
passed down from my mother, I might be buried in the very place where I
discovered unrestricted pleasures. The art of lovemaking was an easy contest.
But raw strength again my own kind was not what I had experienced before; I was
nearly outplayed.

I collapsed under Pietro’s weight and felt my
bones breaking in one leg, but in a final show of tenacity and the art of
surprise, I twisted his head until his neck snapped.

He gurgled to speak but his body slumped to the
ground. Renee had been circling us and she pounced once more. I took her head
and pounded it into the ground. I felt that she also had some strength I had
not foreseen and felt a burning within my chest. She was trying to kill me.
Then, in a flash, tiny fissures formed in her face and light poured out of the
cracks. I could see a roaring fire within her face and neck and stepped back as
the fire spread through her body. She clutched at her face tearing pieces of
flesh to stop the pain. And then suddenly the fire burst from her body, engulfing
the whole of her in one roaring flame. The screams were so loud they travelled
high above the trees.

I could feel the same happening to me before
discovering the source of this new power. But how was it possible? The
perpetrator was a reborn, not even born of a witch. Arianne had one hand on the
ground and one arm pointing at me. I felt the energy through the air and even
my powers were not able enough to block it. My hand tingled, itched then
burned.

Lilah’s head rolled from side to side. She was
returning to consciousness and this sign of life fuelled me to block the
assault.
But to no avail.
It had been several weeks
since I had fed, and without reserves I fell backward, the itching spreading up
my spine and across my neck. I was being cooked from the inside out.

And then Arianne released her unseen hold on me
to clutch at her temples.

‘No!’ she screamed, running further into the
forest.

I crawled towards Lilah, touching her arm and
feeling a touch of warmth spread into her body. I saw the blood bites on her
neck slowly close and the colour rise in her cheeks. As quick as the sun rose,
it was covered by grey cloud.

Lilah

I woke to see Gabriel lying beside me. Nearby
there was a pile of
smoldering
ash and the faint smell of sulphur. I
remembered much of what happened. I had seen Arianne at the edge of the
clearing and where she had run. I knew that Gabriel had healed me and it was my
turn to return the favour. The other strigoi who had fallen, the one known as
Pietro had gone. Perhaps to return to the castle to restore himself; he was not
a young strigoi and would be another to soon go to ground.

I kissed Gabriel on the lips and breathed my
health into him. I felt him stir beneath me and could almost see his dreams.
Without wakefulness, his guard was low. I had never healed a strigoi but sensed
that I was succeeding for I could feel his blood cooling and his burnt organs
flood with fluid once more. But it was all I could manage. Already I felt
nausea and must use whatever strength I had to follow Arianne and find my
daughter.

I must leave you now
, I whispered to Gabriel in my thoughts. You must
repair and find me once again. I left him, his face ashen and his body stiff,
appearing as if lying in a coffin.

Arianne was stricken although the nature of it could
not be determined. Her malady was apparent in her heavy tracks, which otherwise
should not have marked earth or snow. I wove between the trees and gusts of
rain lashed my body.

I came to trees where there were no spring leaves,
a spindly barren ground that seemed the most unlikely hiding place, but where
mists swirled low on the earth. Arianne walked among these trees holding the
tiny hand of my daughter, her hair flattened wet around her tiny face.

Oleander saw me at the same time. ‘Mama!’ she
called, but without fear and in the back of my mind this plagued me.

Arianne turned briefly then continued to walk from
me, leading Oleander away, who it seemed was not led with any force. She did
not tear herself to run to me like I imagined she would. She trusted Arianne.

I ran tripping over the small, sharp bushes that
were like traps beneath the low mist, stripping the skin from my shins. My
mortal body was failing me, the weight of the morning upon me. I prayed
silently to God to give me strength.

Oleander’s red skirt faded in and out of the mist
and my line of sight, like a flag waving in the breezing. I stayed fixed to the
flashes of red so as not to lose them but their steps were as fast as mine were
slow.

They suddenly appeared like apparitions in front
me: my old friend and my daughter and I wondered whether it was my mind
deceiving me. I reached for Oleander through weeping, wretched whimpers
fighting the desire to run to her, which could spell my death. I had seen what
Arianne was capable of: the magic she had used –  raising strength
from the ground – was from my own notes.

‘Lilah, if you don’t stay away I will be forced to
kill you,’ she said, though with some difficulty and her speech was slurred.
‘You must not follow.’

Arianne turned to leave once again

‘Please,’ I begged, slipping on the waxy earth and
collapsing on my knees, my dress soiled and sodden. ‘Do not take my daughter!’

‘I have promised her to another,’ she said, as
other shapes emerged behind her. ‘It is too late.’

Several soldiers on horseback stepped forward
their faces hidden behind black armour. They carried weapons and at first I
thought they meant to harm Arianne but she did not turn to face them. She had
been expecting them.

Arianne lifted Oleander onto the back of one of
the horses. She squirmed uneasily and looked to Arianne for support.

‘King Laszlo has been promised her, and him to
me,’ she said. ‘I have allowed him the chance for strigoi gifts as well as your
daughter so that he may harness her potentially powerful gifts. In exchange he
will bestow on me the position as Queen of Hungary. Laszlo has already felt
other benefits. He is even richer than before with gold from Lewis’s loot
filling his own dungeon rooms.’

‘You would sacrifice my daughter and others for
the sake of power?’ This was not the Arianne I had grown up with. This was
someone who was diseased.

‘From what I have heard, he is loyal to no-one. He
will betray you.’ I shouted above the rain. Laszlo had been in my dreams. He
was nothing but a villain to his own people. They were two minds alike in their
madness, but there would likely just be one winner at the end.

‘He knows what I am capable of. He would not
dare.’

At this she grabbed her stomach and fell forward.
Then in an unusual display she began waving her arms at the air around her.

‘Leave me,’ she shouted. I could see nothing above
her. She continued shouting before one of the soldier’s hollered: ‘We should
go!’

Arianne collapsed on the ground and I went to help
her up but she shook my hand away and spat in my direction.

‘Arianne,’ I said. ‘We were friends once. I don’t
know what has happened but I believe somewhere deep inside is still the girl
who took care of me and so many others.’

‘That girl died a long time ago. That girl should
never have been born. This is who I am,’ she said, but her voice was frail and
she was pressing her temples so hard I thought she would crush her own skull.
When she released her hands her face was now muddied grey. She stood up then
and brushed down her damp crumpled skirts.

The soldiers were becoming impatient and the
horses tapped at the ground uneasily.

‘If it is a witch’s craft which Laszlo wants then
take my daughter to a safe place and let me go instead.’

‘I can’t Lilah,’ she said, though this time it was
without the vehemence she had used before. ‘Goodbye!’

‘One more thing, please…’ I begged. ‘If you take
my daughter promise me you will take care of her like you took care of me.’

Arianne, who was about to climb on to the horse
behind the other soldier, stopped then and walked toward me. She took my hands
in hers and looked into my face. Even dishevelled, her face smeared with earth
from when she fell, she was still beautiful; possibly the most beautiful girl I
had ever seen.

Something changed then. I saw the shift, the
softening of expression. Her shoulders slumped, wearing something close to
defeat, and replacing the arrogance she had previously carried on them. She
closed her eyes and touched her forehead, the gesture so graceful. Memories of
her kindness came flooding back.

When next she looked up I saw only sadness. ‘So
much pain for nothing,’ she whispered. I went to embrace her but she drew back
slightly.

‘Oleander,’ she called behind her. ‘Come and say
goodbye to your mother.’

The soldier cursed before letting the girl down.
Oleander approached me but no sooner had she walked several feet that the same
soldier was engulfed in flame, and the other one was struck from his horse.
From the shock on Arianne’s face this was not her misdeed. Gabriel stepped beside
me.

Arianne and Gabriel faced each other locked in
shared thoughts.  I saw Arianne’s chest rise and fall with heavy breaths
then moments later she broke the connection, her eyes closing.

‘I thought you’d never come, husband,’ said
Arianne. ‘It is thanks to you that we all stand where we are now.’

‘I didn’t mean for any of this. If I’d known…’

‘What,’ she said. ‘You would have killed me.
Perhaps if you loved me, things may have been different. I would have stayed
with you if you’d asked me.’

Gabriel could not find the words to respond but
there was no need. Arianne and I had both come upon the same realisation.
Gabriel’s crime was that he was in love with the idea of love itself, something
perhaps unattainable by a strigoi, and it would always be his folly. He was a
dreamer and love-maker forever searching for something he could never truly
feel himself.

In what can only be described as a macabre twist,
Arianne moved to the other solider as he stood up shakily from the fall, only
to bite down on his neck. He clutched at the air before his body went stiff in
her arms.

Oleander watched curiously as if she had seen this
all before. I grabbed tightly to her hand and pulled her towards me, and a
sense of relief engulfed my chest.

Arianne returned to us and I could feel the heat
rise in Gabriel’s body, ready for further battles.

‘My friends,’ she said, though it was without
emotion and I saw that blood was seeping from her eyes.

‘You are sick,’ I said. ‘I can help you.’

‘Always so hopeful,’ she said, condescendingly.
‘I cannot be saved you poor ignorant girl. Nothing can remove the demons from
my soul. I am dying. They are coming for me. The same demons made me powerful
but it was in exchange for my soul. I did not know I was even making a pact.
Lewis knew. It was always his intent to kill me but only after I had endured
this torture.’