Valley of Dust (7 page)

L
UCIAN LOOKED DOWN as Selene passed out in his arms. He knew she had used too much energy and still did not have the strength to be out of bed. He knew her curiosity would bring her here, and he felt bad he had not been able to repair the garden before she got up. The gardeners had quite much work ahead of them, and ordering everything to replace two acres of land was hard enough on them. He wondered if he would need to hire more gardeners since Selene’s power was growing and he didn’t know that two gardeners were enough anymore. Lucian knew Selene loved the garden ever since he saw her out there under the willow tree in the grass. He hoped the orders to replace everything would come soon so she wouldn’t feel so guilty. As he was walking back to the door near the kitchen, he saw Carla still standing in the rain looking hopeless like she could do nothing for her friend. He felt guilty that she wouldn’t be able to help Selene with this. What could a mortal do to help? While carefully carrying Selene in his arms, he went over to Carla. “Carla, get some rest. Selene will get over the shock soon. I will take care of all the business matters for now. Would you mind staying here in the mansion? I am concerned about your safety, and I know Selene would be too,” Lucian said with a smile. “Thank you, Lucian, please take care of her. I don’t know how, but she saved me, and in doing so it almost cost her… her life. I owe her so much,” Carla said. “Carla, you being alive and well is all the thanks Selene needs. For the first time she has found a friend. Please continue to watch over her like you have and not because it is your job, but because you want to,” Lucian said. Carla smiled and said, “I never once thought watching over her was a job. I feel like I gained a younger sister. Thank you, Lucian, I will get that rest.” After she said her piece, she ran inside the house to her room.

Carla had surprised him when he found them in what used to be called a garden. She had awoken almost immediately, demanding to go with Selene. After such an experience, he was surprised she stayed by Selene’s bedside and never worried about her own condition. Though the doctors had assured Lucian that Carla was in perfect health, he could not help but wonder how Selene managed to heal her. No strigoi had the power to do that. Lucian was happy, however, that he chose Carla to be his assistant. Carla had taken to the job easily, and when she met Selene it was like instant friendship. After hearing Carla consider Selene family, he felt warm inside, something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He was happy for them both, and even though he had lost his brother, he felt like he gained a new family.

When he went to view the garden after putting Selene down to rest, he realized how powerful Selene was. The energy she consumed was two acres worth of lush garden. The aftermath was a desert of dust. He knew the dirt would have to be replaced. It was a true wasteland. Anton was nowhere to be found, and Jacques confirmed to him that he saw Anton charred as he fled the mansion. He felt bad for Jacques. Anton had used much force to get to Selene. When he saw his friend, he realized his body left an imprint in the wall. He knew Jacques would need to consume energy, and that killed a bit of Jacques every time. Jacques was a very rare undead in that he hated having to consume mortals to regain his strength. Lucian hoped Jacques would recover from this ordeal without any mental trauma. Knowing Anton was charred made Carla’s story more interesting. Carla had told Lucian how Selene had lit Anton on fire with just a glare from her eyes. This worried him a little bit. He was also interested in finding out how Carla was healed. Carla had said she felt a warm touch and then all the pain was gone. She had thought she was dying but then awoke to see gold streams coming out of Selene’s hands and into her body. Selene had healed a mortally injured woman, not to mention sparking Anton into a ball of flames. The place had been a wreck when he arrived. Everyone came out severely wounded, and he was lucky to have had his security force take the case before any outside police force got ahold of it. The investigation would go nowhere, like all cases dealing with strigoi did. He knew the culprit and Anton could not be touched for now. It took a week of contractors and a small fortune to get everything inside the mansion fixed up, but the garden would take much longer. The power of an elemental strigoi was amazing. She really gave the Gypsies’ definition of strigoi a run for its money. Live strigoi were stronger than the undead because they were born witches. They had powers that made them who they were. Some could change into creatures, others become invisible; there were many traits that still had not been discovered, and Selene’s was one of them. He knew she would surpass him soon in power. He suspected she already had more power than him. She just needed to learn to control her powers better.

Now he was concerned about how Selene was mentally and physically. He arrived at her room and saw she was awake. He could tell she was still in shock. Her face was ridden with guilt and sadness; who wouldn’t be after what Anton had done to them? “Selene, how are you feeling? Do you need anything?” he asked. Lucian saw the despair in her eyes, and he wished he could make it go away. “Before you tell me everything’s okay, Lucian, it’s not going to be. I killed Anton. I don’t know how but when I saw him hurt Carla and I thought she was gonna die, I thought of him burning, and before I knew it he was running like a big ball of fire. I am sorry, he was your brother. I was never close to my sisters, but I could only imagine how close you two must have been.” Lucian was shocked she had willed Anton on fire. He now knew she could control the element of fire, but how well is what worried him. However, he knew for sure Anton was not dead. There had been reports that he somehow got away from it all. “He is not dead, Selene, though I am sure we won’t see him for a while. He will need to rest and heal. This takes time, and the burns he acquired will need much energy to heal properly.” “What are you, Lucian?” “Selene, I think what you mean to ask is what are we. The answer is a live strigoi. We are similar to what you call vampires but very different. We are the original vampires before even Dracula. Instead of taking blood, we drain life energy. We are not necessarily bad, but we do seem to have a habit of bringing misfortune wherever we go. You were born a live strigoi, it’s been that way since you were born. I am sorry,” Lucian said. “Take it back please, Lucian. I don’t want to be like Anton, and I don’t ever want to hurt someone. You saw the garden. I can’t control my power,” Selene said. “I cannot, Selene, we can’t even reverse an undead strigoi once they become one when they die. I am truly sorry. If we could live an ordinary life with no repercussions, I would find out how in a heartbeat, but sadly in my thousand years of life there has never been a release from this life we live,” Lucian stated.

In that moment he saw she had lost all hope. He knew the truth would be hard for her to accept; he wished he had told her sooner, but he never thought Anton would pull such a stunt. He knew she would no longer want to talk to him for now. The news was too great. She needed something to attach her to her old life, her human life. He called Carla in to take his place; he hoped she could bring back peace to her heart. He knew if he pushed her to accept who she truly was, he would only be pushing her away. He wished she could accept it, but even he could not accept it as he watched many people he cared about die because they were normal humans. That was always why he distanced himself from humans. The pain of attachment and loss is too great to bear repeatedly.

S
EVERAL WEEKS WENT by, and Selene was still keeping up the silent treatment toward Lucian. He knew she would, but he was glad she looked better every day he caught a glance of her. Thankfully, Carla kept him updated on how she was mentally. It pained him knowing that he was resented. He knew now that keeping secrets from people you love can only bite you in the back, and this one had bitten him big time. Carla and Selene had grown closer over the last couple of weeks. She was gripping on firmly to her humanity, which was what he had always wanted and feared. If she were to have fully accepted her fate as a strigoi, she might have turned into a person like Anton. He had always wondered how Anton had truly turned the way he was. Sometimes he wondered if it was that fateful day in Italy when they had met Sebastian. Sebastian was an ambitious strigoi and had risen high up on the council in the time they knew each other. He was almost as strong as Anton, and they bonded instantly. Sebastian was a power-hungry man, someone Lucian could never get along with. Sebastian never cared who he stepped on to get to the top, as long as he got there, and he lured Anton into his world and lust for power.

Now it was time to go through missing person reports. He knew Anton’s crispy body would have recovered by now, and he was likely on the lookout for women to satisfy his hunger. He knew wherever the most amount of women missing were probably was a good sign Anton may be close by. It was practically impossible to kill him; even the Gypsies might think twice. After they had realized they had been duped into cursing the wrong strigoi, they tried hundreds of times to find Anton and curse him. All Gypsies had learned to do was curse the live strigoi. They did, however, know how to kill the undead strigoi. Unlike live strigoi, the undead had many weaknesses. There were many ways to kill an undead; most rituals were done before they came back as an undead. The other way to kill an undead was barbaric, and he shuddered at the thought of how anyone could desecrate a body like that regardless if it was human or not. Some of the rituals were cannibalistic. Sadly for humans, most of the Gypsies’ knowledge was not passed down in this era. It was the curse the Gypsies gave him that made him the judge of the undead. Unlike his brother, the only way Lucian could get energy was draining the life force of an undead. It gave balance back to the Gypsies knowing one of the strigoi had to live off the energy of their own kind. He didn’t need to devour many undead to require enough energy to last him awhile. He had developed a justice system for the undead. Any undead who killed without covering their tracks would be his prey. They needed order to keep their society a secret. Especially if they wanted to hide from any Gypsies who kept with their old ways. Jacques was the only one he had ever spared. The look in Jacques’ eyes as Lucian was about to hand down judgment on him was not horror but joy. He saw in Jacques humanity, and he knew as long as Jacques was kept in check there would be no reason to kill him.

His powers did come in handy, especially for the council. They used him to put down criminals who had chosen to disobey their laws. Laws to keep their secrets, to keep them hidden. Selene was different; she didn’t need humans. She was what Gypsies feared most. She would be considered a plague on earth if kept unchecked. Absorbing the elements could be detrimental to crops and life on earth. In mere seconds she had dissolved two acres of his garden into a wasteland of infertile dirt. This was the power that would need to be kept in check the most. Destroying land was much harder to cover up than missing people. He sometimes wondered if the ancient scriptures in holy texts were in context to Selene. One who will bring death through the destruction of crops like a plague. He shuddered at the thought of Selene being as wicked as that. Her heart was true and just. She had lived a hard life with parents who didn’t think fondly of her, and yet she always seemed to smile and make it on her own.
She would be different
, he thought.

Lucian got a call from his security team. They had a criminal in possession and he needed to be sentenced. He knew only one sentence was really ever given, especially if they were brought to his home. When he got into his basement, he saw two undead officers holding another undead down. “Charges,” Lucian asked. “Sir, this traitor went on a rampage and nearly got caught by local police forces. He had over a dozen missing cases on him in the last month,” one of the officers said. “Hmm, interesting. Were the humans mostly women? Have the cops found his hideout yet, and have we taken control of the investigations for those missing people?” “Yes, Lucian. The victims were mixed of both sexes. The cops did find his place, but we immediately took jurisdiction through a higher chain of command. What would you like to do with him?” “Isn’t obvious,” Lucian said. He gazed at this undead male in front of him and saw no humanity in him. “What a waste,” Lucian said, and with that Lucian held the traitor by his neck. The eyes of the traitor looked startled yet cold, but it would be over quickly. He focused on the traitor’s energy and started to siphon his life force out of him. He knew this scared the guards; after all, this could be their fate too if they ever disobeyed. The energy flowed out of the traitor’s mouth: it came out black. It was always this color, like flies exiting their host. This guy’s energy comprised way more than a dozen people. This traitor was truly a monster; he could feel the power course through his body. He wouldn’t need to replenish his energy for a long time. Lucian looked at the frightened security guards. “That will be all, please leave quietly.” It took only a few minutes for them to vanish out of his sight. There was no more left of the undead traitor but dust in his hand. That’s what they all turned into after he drained them. He hated his power and himself. He really knew how Selene felt. The pain of doing this for eternity was difficult to bear; maybe that is why most strigoi abandon their humanity.

T
EN WEEKS HAD passed since I moved in, and most of it was spent ignoring Lucian. I hadn’t had a dream since Lucian had carried me to my room. Carla had tried to bring him up in many conversations, but I always sidetracked us on to something else. Carla and I were eating lunch like most days when we decided to have some girl fun. We had decided to try on all my formal clothes and act like royalty. I was forbidden for now to go outside because of my powers, so finding things to keep us from getting bored was tough. We had drained through all the movies we had, and the garden only brought bad memories. I would have done art, but when Carla was around I felt like I needed to be more inclusive, and art was something I enjoyed by myself. As we began rummaging through my wardrobe, Carla asked if I had any tampons. My face shot pale. Ten weeks and I had not once had a period. I cursed to myself, and that’s when Carla spoke. “Holy shit, Selene, don’t tell me you didn’t think it was odd not having a period for ten weeks. Are you crazy?” “No, Carla, I thought it was stress, or maybe being a strigoi meant I didn’t have to suffer like mortal woman do.” Carla laughed, and with that she took her leave to buy some tampons. I was jealous she could go outside. It had been so long since I really had been outside. I was still learning how to control my powers. It felt like hours had flown by when the chef had brought dinner to my room. How long was Carla gonna take? That’s when she came into my room. She had a bag in her arm, and she grabbed a box which I presumed was tampons. She flung it over to me, hitting me right in my face. “What the hell, Carla?” “It’s a pregnancy test. Take it now, and let’s see if it’s nerves or pregnancy. Remember, if it is positive, no more wine for you.” Carla giggled. “Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll take all three just to prove you’re wrong and I am right.” I took the box to the bathroom and shut the door. Carla had bought the digital tests. I secretly praised her for knowing I would have no idea how to read them otherwise. I started to take the test; oh how I hated to wait. I counted to 125 seconds and almost passed out when all three tests said pregnant.
What would I do?
I thought. I was only twenty-three years old. I was unmarried, had no job, and the baby was from a one-night stand with that psycho Anton.

Carla came inside the bathroom with me on the floor. “Wow, Selene, I was only joking about the test, but damn, is it Anton’s or could it be someone else’s?” Tears welled up inside me. I was so easily seduced by that psycho, and now my first time would also be my first pregnancy. “It’s Anton’s. He was my first, Carla. What do I do? Carla, is it too late to fix this?” “Selene, I am a girl who believes if you take the risk you should also be able to handle the consequences.” “Carla, he almost killed you, are you saying that you want me to bear this man’s child?” “Selene, I don’t know much about strigoi. I am just mortal after all. You have to tell Lucian, he needs to know. Maybe he can find a solution. After all, he is like you.” “Carla, please can you ask? I can’t face Lucian. I have been so rude to him. It was not his fault that I was a strigoi, but I took it out on him. It was so much easier to cling to my mortal life with you than to be a part of something I didn’t know I wanted to be a part of.” “Selene, Lucian is a part of both the mortal and strigoi world, you can have both. I’ll try to be discreet, but I’ll ask Lucian what we should do. I won’t be long I hope.” She had left to go tell Lucian the news; the dread of waiting for her was agonizing. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I jumped onto my bed and covered myself with blankets. I knew hiding wasn’t the right thing to do, but right now it was all I could think of.

I could hear my door opening. I was too ashamed to look at Carla. I had forced her to do my dirty work; maybe she would be mad at me. I should have done it myself. My blanket started to be pulled off me, and that’s when I saw it was not Carla but Lucian. Lucian was looking at me obviously distraught, but he tried to keep it hidden. “Selene,” he said. “I won’t keep it, Lucian, don’t worry. I just need to know how to see a doctor for this,” I said. “No, Selene, I refuse to allow you to hurt this child, there is already too much death in this world already. In addition, this is no ordinary pregnancy. I doubt you could abort it even if you tried,” Lucian said. “Lucian, I never wanted his child, it was all a mistake. I never loved him. I got caught up in the moment, and after all that had happen…” Before I could finish, Lucian interrupted me, “You don’t have to explain this to me, Selene. Biologically it is Anton’s, but that can stay between the three of us. I will take full responsibility for you and the child in Anton’s place. So please, Selene, do not cry.” The thought of even trying to kill something that was a part of me was too much, I knew. It wasn’t what I wanted, but nothing in life turns out the way you plan. I just didn’t want the child to be biologically Anton’s. When Lucian had offered to care for the unborn child and me, I felt lost for words. Lucian felt increasingly like the dream guy I had always envisioned. Though the thought of moving on to another man was too much for me to handle, even if I did have feelings for Lucian. I was too fragile. I needed to take everything one day at a time. “Lucian, I can take responsibility for myself and this child, but I would also like to hide who the biological father is, so I would like to say yes to your request to be its father.” After I said that, I saw Lucian’s face brighten up. He smiled and kissed my forehead. “Selene, you will have the best father figure for that child, I swear on it.” I felt something warm in my chest, and with that Lucian was gone. I fell back down onto the bed and wondered why he would be so happy. After all, it was his brother’s child. I felt so guilty using him to play the father, but I had no other choice. After Anton nearly killing Carla, I had never wanted to see him, let alone have him in my life again.

I went to sleep that night with so much confusion. I ended up back in that horribly cryptic dream world again. This time, however, I had a little girl with black hair and blue eyes greet me. “Good evening, mommy, please follow me.” Shocked at what she called me, I followed her. She looked so familiar to me; I wanted to know more about her. There was something different about this place; it was not the usual dream place. Now standing before us was a lake house, and there sitting down on a rocking chair was the other me. She gave me the chills just looking at her. She spoke to the child first, “For once you can do something right. Now off with you. I do not wish to see you anymore.”
What a bitch
,
I thought. She looked at me and smiled, “So you think me horrid by the way I treat my daughter.” I looked shocked; how she could read my mind? “Don’t be shocked, my dear, after all, I am you.” That’s when I woke up.
Oh my gosh
,
am I having a girl?
I thought.