Chapter Fifty Two
Darius
Having Caius in my clutches wasn't as satisfying as I had expected. It was good to finally be given the chance to avenge Sara but I couldn't help thinking of her and imagining her disapproval as I considered ways of torturing him, of making him suffer for eternity.
Sara had never been a cruel person, she loved everyone and always found the good in the worst of people. She would understand and accept that I needed to avenge her murder but she would never agree with torturing him. I could hear her sweet voice in my head.
"Darius, don't do this. It will destroy you and I hate to see you consumed by hatred. Live, do something good with your life, but don't destroy the good in you with bitterness and hatred."
The crazy thing was that her voice morphed into another familiar one, that of the little girl who had helped me gain my desire to catch Caius.
"Darius, hatred will destroy you. Have your justice and then go back."
Megan's voice followed, " You can't leave me like this. You have to come back."
I tried to shut them both out, to drive them away and reconjure the thirst for revenge that had driven me for centuries but it was no longer there or at least not to the same degree. Now, the most important thing was that he died, not how, or how long I could draw his suffering out.
Since I met Megan I had detected a subtle change in myself. I had been eaten up by my thirst for revenge, nothing else, no one else mattered yet now… Now it seemed the world was a less sinister place, the shadows had crept back a little and I could almost see a way forward for myself. I wasn't sure this was better. Earlier there had been no confusion, no questions in my mind. The world was a far simpler place made up of black and white with no shades of grey.
I had kept Caius in a specially constructed underground bunker that I had built centuries ago especially for him. The walls were solid rock, the chambers one hundred feet below the surface, where a fault line had caused interlocking caves to form. The small entrance to his cell was in the roof of the lowest cave in the complex and the drop was eighty feet straight down onto a stone floor littered with debris from its formation. There was no light, no comfort, nothing but the unending darkness.
I had listened to Caius as he tried to find a way out, even attempting the vertical jump to cling onto the bars that covered the entrance but it was futile. There was only one possible way out of here and none for Caius Volturi.
He had tried threats, then promises, but all to no avail. I didn't even answer him knowing that the silence would unnerve him even further. The monitor I had installed in a dark corner furthest from the entrance and hidden from view by a small outcropping showed me as his frustration and anger turned to fear and finally terror as the thirst began to build up in his throat torturing him in its own exquisite way.
Giving him back his tongue hadn't been merciful on my part. I wanted to hear him suffer, hear him beg for mercy, and wondered if he ever heard Sara's voice as she had spoken the same words?
By the time I eventually answered Caius prayers by speaking he was almost too weak with thirst to lift his head.
"I guess it's time for you to make your peace with whatever deity you believe in."
"None of this will make any difference Darius. Sara is dead, you can't bring her back and if you're waiting for me to apologize then forget it. She was asking for it just like every other woman on the planet. When are you going to wake up and smell the truth?"
"You have an hour, I suggest you use it wisely."
I tapped in a command on my laptop and heard a quiet whirring sound from the speaker in his cell as nozzles extended from their places around the wall and began to spray Caius on a thin film of chemicals which were highly flammable but burned very slowly. It was something I had created myself so Darius didn't die too easily or quickly.
He tried to hide from the jets but it was impossible. I'd ensured that the nozzles were able to cover every inch of the cell and pretty soon both Caius and every other surface of the cell was liberally coated.
Leaving him to imagine his death I went outside to get away from the gloom of the underground into bright sunshine. Walking over to my usual perch, a tumbled boulder atop a grassy knoll I sat down and stared up at the sun.
"Sara, if you can hear me, this is it. The moment I have waited for so very long. I'm sorry I couldn't get my hands on him sooner but at least now you can rest in peace. I guess I'm scared. Not of killing him, that was always my plan but of the future. Where do I go from here? I used to think I would join you once Caius was dead but I'm not sure that's really an option. I don't think I believe in a wonderful place where we meet up once more with those we have loved and lost. Any deity who conjured up such a place sure as hell isn't going to allow a creature like me inside to corrupt it. The trouble is that I don't see any future for me, living or dead. I'm afraid that life is all there is and I'm scared of launching out into a great unknown."
I wished I could hear her voice telling me what to do but there was only silence then the ripple of the breeze through the leaves above my head.
"Do you remember me telling you all about Megan? You'd love her, she's so sweet, so innocent, yet she saw something in me that made her want to help me. She reminds me of you in some ways. The tilt of her head, the smile that plays around her lips and her absolute conviction that she's right about certain things.
I know I can't go back to Boulder. The last thing that little girl needs right now is evil like me hanging around her. Yeah, I know you see good in me too but I'd hate to corrupt Megan's innocence and my hands are covered in the blood of the thousands I have killed over the centuries.
I should check my messages before I finished my business with Caius so I took out my phone and found there were only two messages but then as I'd wrapped up my computer business and had few friends there were only one or two people still keeping in contact.
The first was from the Major asking me if things were settled and what my plans were as Megan was still asking about me. He was asking me if I would send her a message of goodbye so he would have something to help him explain that I wasn't coming back.
The second was from Megan herself although how she had known my number was a mystery. That girl was way too clever by half.
I retrieved her message reading it hungrily as if it gave me a connection with the kid that I was sorely missing since I left.
"Darius listen to your heart and come back. Mommy and daddy are getting married in two weeks and we all want you there. I want you there. Megan xx"
I touched the screen and smiled, that girl sure knew how to hit the spot. The trouble was that if I did return what was I going back to, or for?
Sighing, I pushed my phone back into my pocket and got up taking one last look at the sky before making my way back into the caves and my nemesis.
Caius had dragged himself to the wall and stood swaying with weakness. I knew his thirst must be driving him mad but it gave me no joy to watch him. This was an evil monster who needed to die if others were to be safe. Only his enforced exile within the walls of the citadel had prevented more assaults and murders like Sara's, but now it was time to finish it once and for all.
I opened up the grating and threw it back to bang loudly against the rough stone wall setting off an echo that reverberated through the tunnels before finally fading to silence.
I jumped down into the darkness able to see perfectly well with my heightened sense of sight, although I didn't need that. I could smell the fear on Caius, fear and desperation.
"Here. You're going to need this."
I threw him a small flask of blood that I'd saved from my last hunt and he caught it awkwardly. Unscrewing the top he sniffed suspiciously and the smell of human blood almost overwhelmed him.
"What's this?"
"Blood. You see, I'm going to give you a chance at escape. There's an open door, all you have to do is to get past me and you're home free. The blood will give you a fighting chance."
Still looking at me suspiciously he wet a finger with the thick red liquid and licked it.
"It's just blood, Caius. If I'd wanted you dead you would already be a pile of ashes but that's not the way Sara would have wanted it. For her sake, I'm giving you this chance."
Gulping down the pint of blood from the flask he threw it into the corner and straightened up shaking his limbs to loosen them up.
"Not much of a chance, that blood was hardly enough to touch the burn in my throat."
"It's more of a chance than you gave Sara and a whole lot more than you deserve."
I had been expecting him to attempt to jump me and saw it coming being able to stand aside so he crashed into the far wall but he turned like a snake for a second attempt and this time he managed to grab my hand and pulled me close but it was an act of desperation. He knew he couldn't beat me on his best day, or my worst.
I admit to taking my time, to tearing him apart a little at a time and savoring it before I realized that if I didn't end this now I was no better than him. A man I despised more than anyone in this world.
Once he was just a pile of venom soaked chunks I took out my lighter and clicked it producing a yellow flame that seemed huge in the darkness. Kneeling down beside Caius' head I lowered the lighter to look directly into his eyes which were wide with terror.
"I want you to think about something as you burn. Think about my Sara and every other woman you abused and killed just to feed your own filthy desires. I hope they are all waiting for you in limbo, waiting patiently to make you pay for your crimes."
He opened his mouth as if to beg for mercy, but I just tossed the lighter, the mechanism jammed just as I had fixed it, and Caius flared up screaming in torment.
I didn't wait to witness his end, merely leapt up through the open hatch and rolled a boulder over to cover the iron hatch then walked slowly through the tunnels and out into the evening air.
Everything was very still, not a breeze to rustle the leaves, not even a bird call. It was as if the earth knew what had just happened and was showing its appreciation by holding a minutes silence for Caius' victims.
Bowing my head and closing my eyes I spoke once more to Sara.
"It's done and now I hope you can truly rest in peace. I thought I would be joining you, my love. I thought I only continued in this vale of tears to avenge you but something has changed. I hope you can understand that it doesn't mean I love you any less. You will always be in my heart and I will never forget you but if I am to live on and find any peace of mind I have to say goodbye now. I hope I have your blessing. I'm sure I do because I never knew a more understanding and compassionate woman in all my years on earth. Rest easy my love and watch over me because I'm pretty sure I'll make a complete fool of myself somewhere down the road."
I opened my eyes and felt a breeze caress my cheek and ruffle my hair. Smiling, I took it as Sara's answer and nodded before walking back to my car and starting the engine. As I drove away I heard a dull whoomp and knew the explosives had gone off burying Caius' pyre deep beneath the ground.
Turning on the radio I heard a song playing and for a moment the singer sounded just like Sara. I listened to the lyrics and decided that if it wasn't her in person then it sure as hell was a message from her for me.
You're gonna Be OK By Brian & Jenn Johnson
I know it's all you've got to just be strong
And it's a fight just to keep it together
I know you think that you are too far gone
But hope is never lost
Hope is never lost
Hold on, don't let go
Hold on, don't let go
Just take one step closer
Put one foot in front of the other
You'll get through this
Just follow the light in the darkness
You're gonna be ok
I know your heart is heavy from those nights
But just remember that you are a fighter
You never know just what tomorrow holds
And you're stronger than you know
You're stronger than you know
Hold on, don't let go
Hold on, don't let go
Just take one step closer
Put one foot in front of the other
You'll get through this
Just follow the light in the darkness
You're gonna be ok
Just take one step closer
Put one foot in…
When the song ended I felt a stab of grief, had it been Sara saying her final farewell to me? If so, I would do my best to make her proud of me whatever the future might hold.
For now, I had a decision to make and just possibly a wedding to attend, although I was going to be cutting it mighty fine if I was going to get there in time and not disappoint a certain young lady. If not... If not, I wasn't sure what I would do, not yet.