Chapter 4
2754 Words
I settled down on one of the two sofas and waited.
“You start?” he invited me.
“Okay,” I chirped before taking a deep breath of air. “When I was bitten, I didn’t understand what was happening to me. Everything went so fast… Who was he? Did you see his face?”
Rucker seemed to be restraining himself so as not to let out his fury.
“Yes,” he said finally, his teeth clenched, “I saw his face.”
He stood up suddenly and walked towards the double door. So much so that I thought he was going to escape the conversation by simply leaving the room. Instead, he paced back and forth across the living room. I followed him with my eyes and waited for him to calm down.
“When the dark angels Pietro had gathered attacked the pack, many of them were killed,” he said. “The majority including Pietro himself.”
A veil of darkness fell over him. I waited until he finished to ask more questions, telling myself that in all logic, there was surely a connection with the one who had bitten me.
“The battle was fierce, Scarlett, and seeing my people being slaughtered like this by our worst enemies was very difficult for me. All the more so because I took part in it as well. Two of us died at my hands, two whom I knew well and failed to convince. They were recruited by Pietro and I had no choice but to defend myself. They were much younger than me, they didn’t stand a chance,” he said with undisguised bitterness.
Rucker always made me feel like nothing could ever get to him. I was wrong. In this story, I wasn’t the only one who lost something… someone.
Sadly, I understood that regret was that human emotion that Rucker had retained the most.
“Are you considered a traitor to have killed them?”
“No, I have chaired the Council of Dark Angels for almost a hundred years. I no longer have to prove myself. My people know what a struggle I had to face in trying to save St Andrews’ fragile balance. They didn’t approve of the deaths of those I killed, but they understood the stakes.”
“What is the Council for?”
“It’s a bit like a board of directors, that’s where the biggest decisions are made. For example, they decided to banish the three survivors and welcome you into the community, despite your relationship with wolves...”
“You say “they”. Haven’t you had your say?”
Rucker had approached the window, the one facing the edge of the cliff, to look through the glass, concerned.
“Not this time. I was way too involved. I stepped aside voluntarily.”
“Does that mean you’re no longer chairing?”
He turned to me, smiling.
“No, that just means I stepped aside.”
I nodded.
“Some dark angels fled during the battle; is one of them my attacker?”
He cracked his fingers nervously.
“Yes.”
“Why? Why did he attack me? I’ve never been the enemy of the dark angels.”
He sighed and looked extremely sorry.
“Because for him, you represent a symbol.”
“A symbol?”
“Of vengeance accomplished.”
“But… they had already taken a life. Julia’s...”
“I know, Scarlett, but whoever bit you wanted revenge of his own. Julia’s death brought him nothing.”
I shook my head. I didn’t understand anything at all.
“Explain yourself. If he wanted personal revenge, why didn’t he kill me instead of biting me? Didn’t he have time? And then, what did I do to make him target me personally?”
“He did exactly what he planned to do. Your death didn’t interest him. Ewan transformed you to avenge the death of Pietro, his creator. If he had wanted to kill you, he wouldn’t have bit you right in the heart before running away. He would have aimed at your throat and let you bleed out.”
“Ewan? If I understand correctly, this is the young vampire who was always with Pietro?”
“That’s it,” Rucker replied grimly.
“But why me? I didn’t kill his creator! What do I have to do with this?”
“Everything, Scarlett, because it was Elgin who took Pietro’s life.”
He sighed in annoyance.
“I told you that the creator and the one he made are very close. He couldn’t bear his death, especially because he has been a dark angel for a short time. He was loyal only to Pietro, swore by him.”
Incomprehensible images clashed in my head. I thought about everything at the same time. The only more or less coherent idea I could come up with brought me back to the confrontation.
“How did he know that it was Elgin who killed Pietro? He was after me while you were fighting.”
I remembered exactly what had happened, he was dragging me across the floor by my clothes, sneering at my ridiculous human weakness while Julia was being slaughtered.
“We’re not human. We don’t have to be a few feet away to understand what’s going on. Sharpness is a sense that we are constantly developing. He was with you, but he saw it all, understood it all.”
He paused for a moment to gauge my terrified face.
He knew that turning you into a dark angel would be more terrible than death itself, for your loved ones, for Elgin.
“I would have preferred that he killed me!” I yelled in despair.
Rucker sat down next to me and slipped his hand behind my neck to hug me. I didn’t stop him, I suddenly felt so lonely. Alone with this injustice that made me what I was.
“Everyone should be able to choose what they want to become. I could never express how sorry I am.”
I still wish I could cry. Instead, it’s my heart that tightens in one of its human habits that viciously overwhelms me: suffering.
Rucker kept me against him for a long, long time. With my head on his shoulder, I kept my eyes wide open and couldn’t calm down.
It was swirling in my mind. Little by little, a new feeling took birth in me: hatred. For the first time since I was a dark angel, I wanted to kill the one who transformed me, rip out his guts and cut off his head.
My imagination was matched only by the violence of what I was feeling. Elgin had lost me because of vulgar revenge.
My turn! I didn’t say it out loud, but it was at that moment that a fixed idea assailed me: I will kill him!
My canines protruded as if animated by my anger. I pursed my lips so hard I furtively felt the taste of blood in my mouth.
Because my breathing had become irregular, Rucker gently pushed my face back to look at me. His was just inches away. He reached out his fingers and touched the tips of my canines.
“It’s not your instincts that rule your body, it’s your emotions. Is being a dark angel so horrible for you?”
Lost in my darkest thoughts, I had forgotten that I had expressed, just a few minutes earlier, that I would have preferred to die.
“Am I as close to my creator as Minah was to you?” I asked, my teeth clenched, without answering him.
“No, because you didn’t choose to be transformed. It’s not just a matter of birth, affinity also matters a lot.”
“You mean if something happened to this… Ewan, I wouldn’t notice anything? I could never find him as you did with Minah when you felt her death?”
“That’s not what I said. You would realize it and you would come to know where he is. You just need to learn to concentrate. It’s just that you don’t…. (He paused.) Wait… what’s on your mind, Scarlett?”
I turned my face away and made to stand up. Rucker leaned on my shoulders so firmly that he stopped me from moving. I felt the cushion sink a little more under my weight.
“Scarlett,” he said angrily. “What are you thinking about?”
I couldn’t speak, but without even controlling it, a growl came out of my throat. I was so surprised that I stuck my two hands over my mouth. My canines were still protruding, a sign that the hatred that boiled in me wasn’t about to fall.
Rucker’ eyes thundered lightning.
“Don’t go and find him for revenge, Scarlett! He would hurt you without effort! Especially since he isn’t alone, at least one of the banished dark angels is with him, if they decide to come together for you...”
“You know where he is!” I was mad with anger.
He narrowed his eyes but didn’t reply.
“You know where he is and you say nothing!” I yelled as if Rucker had betrayed me.
I tried to free myself, furious, but to no avail.
He grabbed my wrists and locked them against my body.
“Yes, I know. But you, you will keep still!”
I was wild with the news. With a force I never thought I could possess, I pushed Rucker away so violently that he landed against the fireplace, crashing full length through one of the pillars.
Far from calming myself down, and without any reasoning, I got ready to leave the house in search of my creator. Suddenly killing him was all I could think of, like an obsession, an indomitable psychosis.
I had barely stepped through the double door of the living room when Rucker pressed me to the ground, canines out.
In a rage, and in no way scared, I struggled like hell, trying to bite him. He avoided me every time. I thought I was out of options since he was so much stronger than me, but my fingers which gripped his shoulders provided themselves with formidable claws. It was the first time. They sank into Rucker’s hard skin and lacerated his back.
He gave a wild beast howl and went into a rage.
Before he lifted me off the ground by the neck with one hand, I had time to see the horrified faces of Morel and Corwin as they entered the hall.
“Get out!” Rucker yelled at them fiercely.
I heard their rushing footsteps. The boys were gone.
This interruption couldn’t calm me down. Suspended from the end of Rucker’s arm a few inches above the ground, I twisted like an eel trying to throw my feet in his stomach. I was screaming in rage that I couldn’t do it.
I was complete attacking the wrong enemy, I was out of control, as much as a newly born vampire can be.
In a last-ditch effort, I managed to reach his lower abdomen. The brutality of the shock made him let go of me. Without wasting a minute, I rushed outside. Immediately, the smell of wet dog attacked me violently and froze me in place. Before I knew anything else, Rucker slammed me down to the floor again, covering my entire body with his, locking my hands above my head.
Still filled with that smell, I didn’t move.
The tension eased slowly, I breathed a little more normally as Rucker’s breath was still ragged, his mouth a few millimetres from mine.
A tingling in my gums and fingernails warned me that my teeth and talons were retracting on their own. The image of Ewan had fled, the smell of the dog too, I could only feel Rucker and his fresh breath on my lips. Mine parted. I was waiting.
He was still on his guard, his teeth still protruding, his breath short. His chest sticking to mine with force every time he breathed.
Imperceptibly, his fingers became less pressing around my wrists. Finally, he released them to lean on his forearms.
“Scarlett…” he whispered against my ear. “You’re a real fury. You drive me crazy…”
He jumped up nimbly and held out his hand to me. I grabbed it and straightened up, disturbed by the way I had acted for the second time in two days.
“Rucker…” I tried to apologize. “I don’t know what took over me. I was in a mad rage. I wasn’t in control and I...”
“A contrary reaction would have been even stranger. A seizure once a day is a decent average for a very young vampire.”
I still had a hard time digesting such behaviour.
Rucker dusted off his clothes, pulled a rubber band from his pocket, and tied his hair up.
“When Minah was transformed, I spent whole days trying to calm her down. To the point where sometimes I wished I hadn’t done it. She had a mind so tortured that all the violence that was in her was expressed tenfold. You, Scarlett, have a healthy mind. You will quickly learn to calm down if you do as I tell you. Besides, the lessons start today. The holiday is over!”
“Holiday?” I repeated, bewildered, as Rucker already turned back towards the house.
“To begin with, you’ll apologize to Corwin and Morel, I think you scared the hell out of them. Then you meet me in front of my car. In twenty minutes!” he cried without looking back. “And dress like you’re going to roll in the mud.”
Sheepishly, I went indoors and climbed the stairs with exaggerated slowness.
When I got to the boys’ room, I didn’t know what I was going to say to them. Before I even knocked on the door, it opened.
“Come in,” said Corwin gently.
I entered while Corwin ran to join his brother who was kneeling on the ground. He was running a long electric train, like the ones every kid in the world dreams of.
I settled down next to them and straightened a tiny tree that had fallen on the rails.
“No!” Morel objected. “That’s to make the train derail. Then we’ll bring in the firefighters to help save lives.”
“Oh, sorry,” I stammered.
I put the small tree back in place across the track.
“Boys, I’m very sorry for what you saw earlier. I beg your pardon for having acted so badly.”
Without even looking up at me, Corwin replied with disconcerting maturity.
“It’s only natural, Scarlett. When you have a little more experience, you will control your impulses and you will be able to overcome all challenges. Decide to trust Perceval, he will help you.”
Perceval… For them, Rucker would always be Perceval.
Morel stood up and came to wrap his arms around my neck. I was quite emotional.
“We know it’s difficult, Scarlett. For us, it was a long time ago. But we always remember it. Isn’t that right, Corwin?”
Corwin answered him with an amusing grimace.
At the same time, the train passed over the plastic tree and, as they had expected, it derailed. Tipping all the wagons.
Morel jumped up and imitated the sound of a fireman’s siren.
“Keep calm, people,” he cried. “Help is coming!”
He rolled a beautiful fire engine alongside the track and mimed a controlled skid just before arriving in front of the train.
“Uh…, can I help you save lives?” I asked timidly.
The eyes of the two boys twinkled. Corwin handed me a tiny stretcher, an emergency car, and took on the role of a doctor.
We were in the process of attempting a very delicate resuscitation on an injured man who had both legs cut off (yes, yes… that’s what they had decided!), when Rucker cleared his throat behind us.
I got up immediately, confused.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized, “I didn’t see the time go by.”
He snorts through his nose.
“With kids, we always have a lot of fun, eh? Are you ready?”
“Thanks, boys!” I said before rushing out to change.
- Writer
