Chapter 25: Blood Poisoning
AN: Lala, my muse is back. Yes Crackpotjoe, I RESCUED MY MUSES. They are mine again. But they had some farewell presents for you (pelts crackpotjoe with yogurt, cheese, and milk bombs) Take that! Lactoselactoselactose. And some more lactose! WEEEEE (runs away)
Oh, and I have a new goal: I'd freaking DIE if I made it to 300 reviews. Geez, I'd have to write a special present for you guys or something. Please help me reach that dream and review!
I turned from Nonia's body dry-eyed. I had no more tears left to shed. The Vatican agent was helping Boris up from the ground, a sight that I was glad to see. If Boris had been taken too, I don't know what I would have done. I certainly didn't trust this strange man, for all that he claimed he was sent to help. It could easily be a trick.
Walking over, I saw that Boris had a hand over his right eye. Blood and fluid seeped around his fingers. Dracula's claws must have punctured his eye when he attacked him.
"Here Boris" I said, removing his hand. I was right; it was a splendid mess. But it was not a lost cause. "Let me heal it." Placing my own hand over where his eye used to be, I concentrated hard on a desire to have the injury mend. It was the first time I had ever healed intentionally and I wasn't quite sure how to do it.
Soft white light glowed briefly around my hand before it dispersed into Boris's skin. After a few seconds, I dared to take my hand away.
At this point, a little more blood on my clothes wouldn't matter, so I used my sleeve to wipe his away from the area. To my relief, there was scar tissue, rather than an empty socket. That would have been too much for me. Tearing a clean swath of cloth from my hem, I tied it around his head.
"There" I declared, stepping back. "Maybe in Kiev we can get you a patch, but this'll have to do for now."
"Thank you" said Boris gratefully. He frowned and looked at me. "You need to heal yourself though. Those aren't minor you know." But I just brushed the comment off.
"I'm a fast healer and I'll have time for that later. Right now we need to give Nonia a decent funeral."
Boris bowed his head and was silent for a moment. He looked over at where his sister's body lay and I could have sworn I saw a tear in his eye. But if there was, it was gone as quickly as it had come.
"She always knew she'd die in battle" he said with a sigh. "And she did, fighting Dracula himself. It's a family tradition after all." He tried to smile, but couldn't.
I laid a hand on his shoulder, though I had to reach up to do so. Everyone was always taller than me!
"If it helps any" I said gently"I saw her spirit right after she…died." I almost couldn't bring myself to say the word, as if not saying it would somehow bring her back. "She waved to me. I know she's with the rest of your family now." Boris smiled.
"She probably is." He looked at her body again. "The best thing to do would be to build a pyre. We don't have time to dig a grave."
And so we burned Nonia on the 'battlefield' where she died. And when the flames burned themselves out, we put her ashes in a flask and buried in by the pine tree where she died.
I turned to the man from the Vatican. "So. You fight vampires, build pyres, rescue people. All in a day's work for you? Just who are you anyway" And I fixed him with a steady, measuring look. He was tall, of course, with short brown hair and green eyes. The fact that he had a trustworthy face made me immediately suspicious of him, even though I knew he was probably genuine.
"My name is Damon. I serve the Knights of the Holy Order in Rome."
I tilted my head, considering the man before me, then giving him a curt nod I said"Good. Now you can help me track Dracula down." It took a few seconds for the men to realize what I had said.
"WHAT" Boris exploded. "Are you out of your mind" he grabbed my shoulders and shook them. "You are in absolutely no condition for another fight woman! He already killed Nonia. Do you want to die too"
I just stared as him, my eyes steady and blank. He released me and spun away, talking furiously.
"Damon, knock some sense into this girl! Destiny, you're going to Rome. The whole point of this trip was to run from Dracula, not seek him out on a suicide mission! Which is what will happen if you leave"
My hands on my hips, I challenged him. "And what, or who, is to stop me from leaving, pray tell? Last time I looked I was the only one with wings." A large gloved hand locked on my arm.
"I am" said Damon. "I'm not going back to Rome empty handed and if I have to tie you up and carry you the whole way, then so be it. And I have the better arsenal."
We glared at each other for a while, neither wanting to relent and admit defeat to the other. The throb of my wounds soon convinced me otherwise.
"Ouch. Oh great" I muttered, looking down at the damage. There was blood everywhere, some old and some new seeping still from the holes in my arms, the gash across my collarbone, and three parallel lines that raked across my back. Quickly, I knitted the skin and muscle back together.
It was dawn when we reached Kiev. I hated the city on site (AN: sorry if you live in Kiev. I need this opinion for my story). For a girl raised in the black wild forest of Romania, where mountains always reared their heads in the distance, this gray, hard city was utterly depressing. I stayed silent as Damon led us to a stayhouse.
It was a single underground room; dark and made of stone. In one corner there was a small table and a couple of spindly chairs. In another was a narrow truckle bed, clearly only meant for catching a few hours of rest, not comfort.
Damon locked the door after us and went over to start a fire in the small fireplace. "Don't worry" he said. "This chimney connects with another one so that the smoke exits from the same place. No one will notice it that way. We'll stay here through the night and then tomorrow at first light we'll catch a train to Rome."
I nodded absently and then shivered. It seemed to me that the fire wasn't doing anything to warm the room up. I shuddered again.
"Oh great" said Boris, sounding annoyed. "Please don't tell me you're sick." But he gave me his coat and sat me near the fireplace anyway, so I could tell he didn't really mean it.
"I don't think I'm sick. It's probably that I just flew too much in the cold and overextended myself fighting, or something like that. I'll be fine." But I wasn't fine. My body couldn't make up its mind as to whether I was too hot or too cold, and my head had begun to hurt. The wounds from Aleera ached abominably. I didn't even notice Damon feeling my forehead. He swore.
"Boris" he called. "She's got a fever." I head Boris swear too. Wondering why I was sick, I checked my injuries and stifled a small gasp. Angry streaks of red twisted their way outwards along my skin from each injury. It was as if I had blood poisoning or someth–
I did. I remembered after the fight how I'd been covered in Aleera's blood too. Her vampire blood. And because I'd stupidly waited to heal myself her blood had gotten into my system. The two blood types were fighting each other and my veins were the battleground.
"Shit."
"What"
"I have blood poisoning from Aleera. It's…um…at odds with my angel blood." That was putting it mildly.
I don't remember much of what happened next, or how long anything took, or who was there. Quite honestly I didn't care. I was too wrapped up in my delirium to notice anything around me.
I was standing in a ghostly hall. It was both dark and light at the same time and had a solid transparency to it. It was, basically, near impossible to describe. Another corridor intersected the one I was standing on. Something – no, someone walked along it. I followed them, running to keep up. At a dead end, that person turned.
It was a young woman. She stood around my height and she had a kind round face. Somehow I knew that if she were alive, she would have dark brown hair and mid-brown eyes, much like I used to have. In fact, we used to share a lot of the same traits.
She touched my cheek with a ghostly hand. "I knew I would see you some day. I just didn't think it would be like this" she murmured. It clicked in my head.
"Are you my mother" I asked. She smiled gently.
"I am. But you can call me Melinda. I know you never knew me."
I had never wondered about my real mother. Katrina had been all the mother I could have hoped for. But now that I had found her, I was filled with a million questions.
"How did you die so young"
Melinda made a face. "I was stupid. Not long after I got married and had a child, I went for a walk. It was too close to evening." She was absently fingering her neck. I glowered.
"Don't even tell me it was a vampire. I've had too many dealings with them lately."
Melinda gave me a sympathetic smile. "I have to go Destiny. I just wanted to see you." I gave her a hug. It was weird, hugging the mother who both more and less my mother than the woman who raised me. Then she was gone.
I looked down at my empty arms and was surprised to notice that the pendant Nonia had given me was shimmering. I looked up and jumped. Nonia was staring back at me, smiling.
"Scared you" I nodded, one hand over my rapidly beating heart. "Sorry about that. Well, actually, I'm not, but I can pretend to be."
I gave a laugh. Death had not changed her in the slightest. "What are you doing here Nonia"
"Looking out for you. Why didn't you heal yourself sooner" she demanded. "You've gone and gotten yourself pretty damn sick."
"I noticed" I said dryly.
"Well, don't take that thing off okay" She pointed to the necklace. "I can track you, make sure you don't pull too many stupid stunts."
I grinned. "Now what makes you think I'd do something stupid and reckless and dangerous"
"Hmph. Well, you have to be getting back now or you'll miss your train. And that wouldn't have good results." Nonia gave me a quick hug before I felt the darkness starting to dissolve.
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