Chapter Fourteen

Leaving

I touched Jove's face carefully, staring at every hidden mark on his skin and watching his face shift with each emotion crossing through him. There was a near invisible scar under his left eye from where his father had broken his eye socket with a swing of a fist. I touched it gently, causing him to close those beautiful green eyes that were beginning to increasingly enthrall me.

We were currently in a twisting embrace as lovers reunited in the safety of another room in another place far from the VaMoS headquarters. There was a song of words silently twisting between us, feelings being amplified by our bare touch and the unexplainable bond that had become such a part of me that I wouldn't know what to feel without it anymore. I traced my touch over Jove's cheek and into his soft hair, feeling him enjoy the warm touch of my appealingly human skin.

"Don't leave me," Jove whispered as I leaned closer into him, resting my forehead against his. I let my feelings talk for me through the bond, continuing to memorize every part of Jove I could. "You can learn your full potential, I can help you. Just don't leave me."

"Come with me," I responded softly, his pain and mine beginning to seep into the warmth like a slow poison. We could be so happy, I knew, if I didn't let the fate of the world bother me. It would be Jove and I, free and together, but the fact remained in my heart. My blood was out there and it was making more like me. People would suffer, humans would find real terror, and it would be because of me.

"I won't," Jove said what I already knew. Anger sparked in his chest at the request. "I won't help you die." Not that we knew if I could even die. To find death, one would have to have some form of mortality. But Kyler's statement remained in my mind repeatedly telling me 'Immortality is a lie'. If so far everything labeled as Immortal that I've seen has actually been able to be killed, perhaps something could kill me as well. And if I died, no more monsters could be made with my blood.

Jove thought of a pitiful idea; to capture a newborn made with my blood and figure out to kill one like me that way, in order to kill all made like me. I immediately shot it down; nearly appalled at the idea, but something about meeting someone created by my blood also frightened me. He again suggested we run away and hide together, but again I pushed the idea away.

"Then it's settled," He said aloud, his pained chest aching through me. "You're leaving me."

It was one time I wished I could physically cry again; release the raw emotions of pain clawing at me. But nothing filled my eyes and I only set my face in a sad line of realization. Jove wouldn't help me for once, not with this. It was set in his mind. I almost expected him to push me away and run from me based on the turmoil of emotions going through him; the loss, pain, and anger.

Instead, he tightened his grip on me and pulled my torso against his, wrapping his arms around me almost desperately. I tilted my head, nuzzling my face into his neck and shoulder with the pain eating away at my insides. Jove pressed his lips against the bare skin of my shoulder, pressing his cheek against me with eyes closed.

"If you ever change your mind," He whispered, his voice hitching in his throat before he could finish the words 'find me'.

"I know," I responded, almost wanting to change my mind right then and there. "I love you, Jove Silverstone."

It was pointless saying it, behind the warmth in the truth of the word, it only hurt more. I moved my head back, crashing my lips against Jove's openly which he only met just as desperately. And then it was the end. I felt it coming and greeted it with a whimper against Jove's cool lips. He only responded with a pained growl before he was gone. At first it was only physically, leaving me alone in the room with only the scent of him around and in me. And then he blocked me from his mind just as I closed him from mine.

I wanted to curl into a ball and concave into myself forever. But Jove could lose his will to keep moving away and if he came back for me, I had to be gone. I couldn't go through a second attempt of goodbye. I feared I would lose my resolve and decide to let the world burn all out of love. Selfish, my mind scolded me.

I pulled on clothes within a single breath and was gone.

~…~

Five Months Later

Another attempt at finding information that would probably lead to nowhere. That's where I was at the moment. I entered yet another building, this one being in a pub within Louisiana after a French clairvoyant had told me what I needed would be here. She hadn't been the first clairvoyant I had found, but was the first to not automatically feed me some random information in order to get me to disappear from her life as soon as possible. This one had given me a proper reading, enough so that I could feel her faintly within me if I wanted to find her again.

The pub was quiet and loud at the same time. The noises within seemed to complement each other, so that it wasn't so bothersome. I looked around carefully, looking for a clue to what I needed. When nothing automatically jumped at me, I settled into a seat at the bar.

"Nobody under 21 is allowed in here, Miss," The bartender, a built but relaxed man, said to me with confidence that told me he didn't seem the type to throw out girls who appeared to be stuck in their teens. I blinked at him, amused. He was a vampire that much was easy to tell. "I'll need an I.D."

I bent forward easily, speeding up my speech so as to be unheard by human eavesdroppers before I said, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." The vampire hesitated, tilting his head as he took a closer look at me. Then he bent forward, resting his hands against the bar to address me directly.

"You're a vampire? You look human." He spoke quickly, his words fast enough to sound like a wisp of air to a random human, but still too slow to me.

"I'm a… different type of vampire."

The vampire's eyes widened in recognition. "I've heard of your kind, the sunwalkers."

"Yes, well, I'm the original. I'm looking for something… I'm not sure what, but I need to know if you've heard anything on how to kill someone like me."

The vampire bartender raised his palms from the bar, crossing his arms while peering at me curiously. "You're Hailence Draele?" He asked with amusement.

Typical; a skeptic.

"I can easily prove it," I responded with a smirk. "Do you know of anything or not?"

"If you're Hailence Draele and you're here looking for information, I'd say that's pretty damn coincidental," He told me easily, making my heart jolt within me. "There was a man in here just last night looking for you and based on what you're telling me, you're looking for him, too."

I hesitated. A man is looking for me? Jove? I thought about lifting the blocked bond, but resisted no matter how difficult it was. Why would a clairvoyant lead me here if Jove was searching for me here? Being together would cause the opposite of my death…

"Tell me more about this man, then," I ordered impatiently.

The vampire raised his eyebrow in amusement. "He came in here expecting I'd know anything about you or your whereabouts. Nearly killed me, but he let me go on account that I don't kill and lead a simple life here. Said he was looking for the one made by Evanen Draele," He told me, bending over again to get closer to me and lowering his voice, "He knew your name, see, but he said specifically: 'I'm looking for Evanen… Draele's… creation'. Like it wasn't you he was after, but Evanen Draele himself."

So it wasn't Jove. I felt a tiny bit of relief, but also renewed grief and longing. My curiosity loved every piece of detail, regardless of how it didn't help me any, but it was also growing impatient.

"I get that, now tell me about him," I hissed, annoyed.

With raised hands in mock surrender, the vampire continued, "Alright, alright. But you don't get it. This is the Nikolai Redmond I'm talking about here. A true vampire hunter, summoned by the light and all with his special gifts and a wicked attitude. I would say I don't think you'd want to mess around with this guy, but based on what you're saying you're looking for a cause of death for vampires and he'd be a good place to look."

A vampire hunter. I almost wanted to laugh to death. Which I guess would help me anyway.

"I'm sorry, but a vampire hunter?" I did laugh, dryly. "I've tangled with vampire hunters and they're just humans with fancy merchandise. They wouldn't know what to do with a vampire like me if I just walked into their dungeons, which I've done by the way."

"That's the thing," The man shook his head at my words, "There are loads of regular vampire hunters out there, but there's only a handful of true vampire hunters. They're blessed by the light or whatever. They have our speed, strength, and healing ability but they can walk in the sun, only sleep maybe twice a month, and are amazing at using their instinct to track us. Their only weakness is that they're mortal. Stab them in the heart, snap their neck, or whatever and they'll die just like a human. But getting them before they sense you is the hard part… if anything will know how to kill your kind, a true vampire hunter would."

A true vampire hunter. How could I have talked to so many people and not one person mentioned a true vampire hunter? I wanted to go back and start ripping out the hearts of the useless people I had gone across, but my morals kept me in my seat. At least I was finally getting somewhere.

"Tell me about this Nikolai Redmond. Where did he go after last night? Do you know?"

"He'll be nearby," the vampire told me with confidence, "He's been following you apparently ever since you've been made. No doubt, he'd been trying to find your maker before that, based on the way he kept mentioning him. And true vampire hunters, they're good at tracking, so if he's looking for you and he's already been here, he won't have gone far. Somehow he must have tracked you before you even got here. Weird, right?"

Something told me I knew how he knew I'd be here. Probably a specific French clairvoyant sent him a message informing him of a possible location on where I was heading. Not that I felt any malice towards the act. Obviously, she had been right. The thing I was looking for was here.

"Thank you," I smiled lightly at the bartender, "Be careful. Things might start changing."

"I'm assuming you're on a mission to fix those things," He winked at me. "You be careful yourself. Like I said, the man's got a terribly nasty attitude. Whatever his reason for looking for you is, it's personal."

I left the pub slowly, looking around at the empty street easily. So, I was looking for a hunter who was looking for me. In that case, I assumed I wouldn't have to do much looking as long as I was traceable. How does one become traceable to a hunter? Perhaps… by getting a lot of public snacks… during the day? I felt sick at my own idea, but I couldn't quite think of how else to get a hunter's attention.

Personal. Maybe I had killed someone the hunter knew. It was possible. I only ended one human's life before, but who knows? Maybe one of the human hunters from my visit to the rabbit hole had been related to him somehow. And maybe he blamed me for their death. Or, based on what the vampire had said, maybe it was personal towards Evanen. Now that Evanen was dead, he was coming after me.

It didn't matter. We would both get what we wanted.