Breathless Ch. 06

There was a moment of quiet in the clearing. This listeners, almost as if part of a group mind, together realized that this moment had been one of the most important in history. If Sadie's . . . Eve's meager army had lost, then vampires would have ruled the world. And it was a secret that this one woman had carried alone for so long.

Sadie continued. "Adam had grabbed a young man and hauled him into the air. I saw that the human was terrified. I couldn't let him die . . . not like that. The wound in my back hurt so much, but I had to stop Adam. I launched into the air and grabbed the young man away from him. I protected him as much as I could while getting him to the ground, but Adam was in a rage. He tried to slash up my back, but I managed to evade. We fought in the sky as the battle went on below, and I knew that I was losing. He was so much stronger than I was. But he was distracted when he saw that the vampires had been backed up to the cliff. While I had distracted him, the humans had rallied. With his attention drawn elsewhere, I plunged the Thorn into his heart, then drove both of us into Solomon. I knocked Solomon down, but Adam and I went over the edge. Adam was dead and I was close to it. With Adam gone, Solomon fled the battle, and the rest of the vampires were killed and pushed over the cliff. That was how I finally died, bleeding to death under the corpses of my enemies." She could still taste their dead blood running into her mouth as she was unable to move, and the suffocating feeling of corpses piled up on top of her. The humans she had wanted to save thought she was dead, so she was left there.

"The bodies on top of me acting as my earth, and even as they charred and turned to ash above me, they apparently counted as protection. When night fell I . . . I got myself out of the pile of bodies."

Again it was Melissa who heard the part that had been left unspoken, but it was something that didn't need to be shared with the mob. She could taste dead flesh and feel it under her own nails as assuredly as if she had been there with Eve when it happened. Mel's creator had litterally clawed and chewed her way to freedom.

Sadie stared up at the night sky. "I was mad by the time I was freed, as in 'stark raving mad'. Everything that had happened . . . just too much. I fled into the wilderness, surviving as best I could off the blood of animals." Animal blood could do in a pinch, but it isn't healthy for a vamp to try and stay on it too long. It had probably kept her mind unstable for as long as it did. "I think I was lost for decades before I encountered a nomadic tribe. I found a young girl alone by a river and I saw her as prey, so I jumped on her and fed. But her blood helped bring my mind back, and I stopped before I killed her or Turned her. I released her and apologized profusely, but she didn't understand a word that I said. But she was unhurt and was curious about me despite what I had done and the very sexual reaction she had to it. I let her look me over while I tried to figure out some way of making amends for taking her blood. She took me back to her tribe, and there was someone there who spoke my language. They heard about what had happened and saw that I was powerful. They said that if that I served them for three years as a protector during the night, and they would protect me during the day. I was mostly immune to the sun by then, but I still needed to rest sometime."

"So you stayed with them?" Vlad asked.

"Yes. I think that's where my love of traveling started. I saw so much of that tiny world and was fascinated by all of it. Once the tribesmen and women realized that my bite had very pleasant side-effects, finding donors was not a problem. Everyone got a chance to donate before I would repeat anyone. I figured out that if I didn't immediately mix my blood with someone else's that it had magical properties all its own. It could be used to heal, but I had to be careful not to use it on someone whose blood I had recently shared. After seeing what had happened with Solomon and Adam, I swore that I wouldn't create any more like me." She looked at Mel and touched the girl's face. "I kept that promise for seven thousand years, but don't think I regret saving you. I hope you don't hate me for what I did."

"Why would I hate you?"

Sadie's eyes misted over. "I made you part demon. Except for myself, you and Solomon are closer to the source of our power than any other vampire."

Captain Grom looked perplexed and awed. "So with Lilith gone, your brother gone, and Solomon being one of your 'children,' then that means . . . good God, you're the mother of every vampire alive today in some way or another."

The crowd was hushed again. The rules of the world, both vampire and otherwise, had just changed irrevocably.

Vlad's face was almost unreadable when he asked, "Why didn't you go after Solomon? Why not take him out before now?"

Sadie's face fell. "Communication wasn't the same back then. You could live just five miles away from someone for your entire life and never know they existed. Solomon had fled far north before suffering his first death, after which he had run even further. I later found out that he was terrified that he'd be discovered. I never formed a bond with him like I did with Melissa, so he and I didn't even know the other was still alive. It was a thousand years before I had ever heard of him again, and almost five hundred more years until I discovered that he was holed up in Russia somewhere. The people up there were suspicious of him, so he wasn't able to amass an army like Adam had tried to do. He had created some vampires and had them Turn others, then he killed his immediate children."

"Why?" Fitzpatrick asked.

Grom understood the basics here. "Let me guess . . . the closer to the original source of vampire power, the more powerful you are. He probably did it to make sure that none of his underlings could ever challenge him."

Sadie agreed. "That would be my guess. And fifteen hundred years was a long time to continuously hold a grudge. It would have taken a much bigger war to drag him out of his hideout, and the vampires those days were neither as fanatically obedient nor as violent as Adam's had been. Solomon was more obsessed with personal glory than conquering the world, so I decided it was best to let the vampire race make its own way. If Solomon had known I still lived, then there would have been another fight, and the known world would have had no choice but to take sides. So for the sake of everyone, I decided to disappear forever. I found a village shaman in Africa who helped me control my animal side, allowing me to hide my wings and keep my presence under wraps. I became just another vampire, including taking a new name." She looked at Melissa and gave her daughter a shy smile. "I've had about twenty. I started changing more often once the Book of Names was created." She looked back to the crowd. "I stayed away from my own kind as much as I could, staying off of the radar of anyone who might report back to Solomon. Finally, 'Eve' was nothing more than a distant memory in the mythology that Solomon had created, and I was fine with that. I didn't want to be Eve ever again." She laughed a dark laugh and said, "Fat lot of good that did."

"There's no running this time, is there?" Vlad asked.

"No. I could never just vanish again. I don't want to. I like being Sadie Hewitt. I like being here. And now that I know that Solomon wishes to follow in Adam's footsteps, I can't let him go."

Grom looked abashed when he said, "He may be an evil son of a bitch, but he hasn't actually broken any laws yet. How are you going to stop him?"

"Can you use vampire law?" Devlin asked.

Sadie pursed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"By vampire law, a child who turns against his or her creator or otherwise acts in a way that endangers vampires in their associations with the mortal races can be punished by their creator in whatever way he/she sees fit."

Sadie smiled. "You really WERE doing your homework weren't you.?"

Devlin blushed. "I had free time on my hands."

Sadie stood before the assembled crowd that had been hanging on her every word. She felt a profound sense of relief. She had born that cross of memories for a long time, and it was nice to finally be able to share some of the load. "The question is, do any of you believe me?"

There was an awkward silence that was finally broken by an unknown voice. A human male stepped forward and it took Sadie a moment to recognize him as the man she had saved in the warehouse.

"I do," he said softly but firmly.

"And you are --" Grom started.

"My name is Thomas Jervin." Thomas's . . . or Tommy's . . . eyes never left Sadie, and it was a look of admiration and a deep, soul-searching kind of love. "She saved my in that warehouse fire. I've been working up the courage to come here, but when I heard about tonight . . . You can't be a thing of evil. I had lost my mind as was on the verge of losing my life, and you saved both. Nothing evil would have done that. My thoughts are my own for the first time in years. You know what that means, don't you? When you recovered from your own madness, what was it like?"

She sighed. "Like life was beginning again."

"Yes, that's it exactly."

Vlad looked from Sadie to Tommy and back. "You used your blood? It wasn't a backlash of the spell at all, was it? You could've been discovered --"

"I couldn't let him die," she whispered, her eyes on the man in front of her.

Vlad walked up the stairs and stood next to her, drawing her eyes to him. He could see how badly she wanted to cry and break. "Tell the world, he said. "Let them know what Solomon is going to do. Don't the vampires have to follow you now?"

"If they believed me, then maybe. I'm the oldest of us, but changing a mindset that is this old isn't easy."

Vlad looked out to the crowd this time, drawing himself up as an alpha wolf and saying, "Who here believes her? Who believes what this woman has said?"

Almost every hand went up.

Vlad nodded. "Remember what Devlin said . . . the wraiths do not aid those with selfish motives."

The rest of the hands went up.

Vlad smiled and once more directed his attention to the beautiful creature on the deck with him. "Let everyone spread the word that the true Mother of all Vampires has returned to correct the Lie of Solomon. Tell every vampire that their 'Blood Saint' has decieved them for his own ends, and tell every mortal what Solomon intends to do."

"That'll start riots in the street Vlad," Grom replied.

"No," Sadie said, "I won't allow that." She looked at Grom. "Solomon will be holed up with Lord Frost. Send him a message. I demand punishment of my offspring for creating a rift between vampires and the mortal races. Where would be a good place to meet?" she asked.

It was the human Tommy who was first to respond. "How about Downlands Park? There's a large field there, and it's not in West End."

"That sounds good," she said.

He smiled. "I'll talk to the media. My story should help win you support amongst the human population at the very least."

Vlad nodded. "And you've already got the support of the wolves. We've taken enough crap from Solomon's vampires that we're more than willing to stand with you."

This was the Vladimir Koloff that Sadie had longed to see. This Vlad had a power that was as potent and wild as an avalanche, and it was ready to be unloaded on those who opposed Sadie Hewitt.

Vlad wasn't done. "Todd, go home so that you and my sister can start a calling spree. I want every pack leader you can find to know about this and I want them keeping an eye on the vampires. I don't want them doing anything, but I don't want the vamps coming to Solomon's aid either."

Mary seemed calmer now. "We will make sure that Solomon doesn't flee," she said, her voice filled with ghostly promise.

"Can your wraiths control your hunt for long?" Sadie asked.

"Yes. Your need for vengeance is so personal that we can bury our hunger for a time being, but we will see that justice is served. Solomon will face you because if he doesn't, the wraiths will hound him for now until the end of time and from the gates of Heaven to the lowest of Hell's realms."

Vlad looked at Grom. "Captain, I advise a police presence at the entrance to Ms. Hewitt's property for a while." He turned to Frankie. "You think that you and your boys can patrol the area and discourage any unwelcome visitors.

Frankenstein grinned. "I think the boys might just have fun with that."

"Then everybody get moving."

As the crowd began to clear out, Sadie jumped down and caught up with Devlin. "Thank you," she said. "The things you said . . . the things you did --"

"I was a fool before," the young officer replied. "And you were right. I need to think about this a lot more now."

She looked him in his big brown eyes and said, "When you are done searching your soul and if you decide you still want it, I would be proud to bring you over."

Devlin blushed. "Letting you nibble on my neck? I'm not sure I'd survive."

Sadie smiled. "I hear its not so bad once the mind-numbing orgasm starts." She patted him on the cheek, then turned back to the porch only to find Tommy in her way. The handsome man looked at her with eyes as clear as a desert morning after a long rain. He hugged her and she let him. There were no more words to express what she had given him, and no need to tell him that she would do it all again.

Soon, all that was left was Sadie, Melissa, Mary, and Vlad. Everyone else faded into the woodwork to accomplish the tasks that the alpha wolf had laid out for them.

"I've made such a mess of this," Sadie said, her eyes looking towards the moon and the darkness that surrounded it.

"This isn't your fault," Melissa replied. "You can't --"

"I should've hunted that bastard down," Sadie interrupted. "Hell, we both should' have died on that cliff. The children of the Throne of Blood should never have walked the mortal world." She ripped one of the boards off her deck railing and hurled it across the yard. It was a pointless gesture, but it gave her something to do. "I'm cursed, and my curse has spread." She looked at Mel. "If not for me, you're living a nice, normal life. No one is trying to kill you."

"I don't want a nice normal life," Mel said, wringing her hands. "I don't think I lived a day of my life until you showed up."

Mary's eyes cleared for a moment as she controlled her deadly thirst. "I would be alone." She looked at Melissa with such hope-filled eyes that it pulled at Sadie's heart to watch. Maybe something good would come out of all of this, assuming they lived.

"I'd be stuck in a dead end marriage," Vlad added. "I wouldn't be who I needed to be."

"You couldn't be anyone else," Sadie replied. "You don't have to be doing this."

Vlad actually looked miffed. "Doing what? Guarding your ass? Actually, yeah I do."

"Why?"

He rolled his eyes.

Melissa looked at Mary. "This might be a good time for me to go check on the cats."

Mary smiled. "I'll go see how the rest of the wraiths are doing. Solomon has some impressive set spells protecting him right now, so all we are doing is holding him." She kissed Melissa and then vanished. Melissa hugged Sadie, drank in her mother's presence and then vanished into the woods.

Sadie looked back to Vlad, who was staring at her and tapping his foot.

"Let's start," Vlad began, "with the fact that you're defending all the mortal races, not just humans. That means the weres, which makes it my business. Let's not forget that because of you, I'm free. You finally made me see that Teresa was an albatross that I kept around my own neck. YOU, in you own insanely frustrating and highly confusing manner, have made life more interesting than it has been . . . ever!" At this point, Vlad was waving his arms wildly.

"Interesting? Vlad, I lied to everyone! I'm in the process of screwing an entire race's self image straight to hell, and I'm probably going to be put in jail afterward for lying to the Arbiter Bureau!"

Vlad raised one eyebrow. "See? Interesting."

She threw her hands up in frustration. "I just wanted a place to hole up for forty years or so before moving on. I didn't want this."

Vlad stepped forward. "Want what? You think that if you weren't here that Solomon wouldn't have tried this? You being here is the only reason we may have headed off a vampire take over."

"If I'd been a responsible parent, I would've taken charge of my children a long time ago. I never should've let it come to this."

"You already said why you let it go, and I can't say I would've made any different of a call. If you remember, I wasn't exactly willing to take control of my charges either, and I didn't have nearly as good a reason."

"You're pack had a good leader, just not as alpha as he should have been. The guy leading my race is a psychopath. And now, one of us has to die."

"Can't you just force him to admit what really happened? Make him back down?"

Sadie laughed a humorless laugh. "We are a proud people and Solomon knows this. If you just found out that the person providing moral and spiritual guidance to you for thousands of years was a liar and a crook, they won't just let you walk away. He has to kill me to keep the Lie going, and even then he'll have a small revolution on his hands. If I win, then people will be forced to accept my version of things. Besides, as long as I'm alive, the wraiths will keep after him. I've floating in a pool of vengeance for seven thousand plus years, and now they've all come to drink. I can't call for if I'm dead. Right now, I just have to figure out how he's coming for me. He won't wait for a fair fight or challenge. It's just not in his nature."

Vlad stepped up behind her and put hands on his shoulders. "Which is one of many reasons that he never deserved you."

She smiled a little. "A romantic sentiment from someone whose marriage I ruined." She felt his strong hands on her shoulders, spinning her around so fast she almost slapped him the face with her wings.

"Teresa ruined my marriage, not you. You just finally gave me enough to see that I couldn't ignore it anymore. Now, I feel more free and alive than I have in ten years."

Sadie couldn't deny how "alive" Vlad felt. This close to her, his scent was heavy and warm in her nostrils, and he practically glowed with his own power. Potent muscles rippling in his hands, his arms, and in that broad chest covered in a thin layer of flannel. She remembered what it had been like when she had fed off of him and how that entire body had been pressed against her. She had many a pleasant if somewhat embarrassing dream about that night.

Vlad hadn't forgotten that night either. "Now," he muttered in a deep, darkly-handsome voice, "I have something worth fighting for."

Sadie willed her heart to beat, though it didn't take much coaxing. If there was a chance that she might not live another night, then there was something she very badly wanted before this one was over. "So, are you just a fighter?" she asked, running her hands over that wonderful chest.

Vlad had resisted temptation for so long. Everything about Sadie Hewitt was perfect . . . not just physically, but for Vlad himself. She was wild, passionate, and wholly wonderful. Teresa had scoffed at his animal nature, while Sadie soaked it in and took comfort in it. Now, for the first time, there was no reason whatsoever to resist that temptation. He lifted her off her feet and kissed her like he'd wanted to for so long. He drove both of their bodies back into her trailer with a resounding thud, but Sadie hardly seemed put off. Rather, she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, kissing him back with a fever that he never would have imagined possible. Maybe for any woman less than Sadie, such heat wasn't possible.