Chapter 40

Boiling

"This isn't going to be easy," Juliet said, slowly leading Darren down the winding path. She'd left straight away, not stopping to let Darren inform the other Princes. He'd barely managed to tell Harkat to spread the word before she'd taken off down the hall. Darren was surprised at how easily she moved, as if her injury was nonexistent. He wanted to ask her if she was okay but was afraid that she would get angry, and he'd much rather she save that for the Vampaneze.

The prospect of fighting the Vampaneze again made Darren anxious. He hadn't fared very well in his last encounter in the mountain, narrowly escaping with his life. He still had nightmares about that time. His first real kill. The death of Arra Sails. But he knew that this was not the time to dwell on that. He had a short sword with him, the only weapon Vanez had managed to teach him to use so far. When Juliet saw it he could see a question flash across her face before she concealed it. She didn't expect him to fight.

They reached the intersection she had warned the Vampires about, finding the tunnel completely blocked by rubble. Juliet cursed.

"There was a second way down there," she said. "But it looks like we'll have to go the long way…" she motioned for him to follow and they continued on. Juliet had taken out one of her daggers and stopped a few times to etch on the walls. She was leaving signs. She was optimistic they'd be able to get out.

Or she believed Darren would be able to get out on his own.

They walked and crawled for what felt like hours, and Darren tried hard to keep from complaining about the pain in his back and in his knees. He could only imagine that Juliet felt worse, having crawled down here earlier in the night and barely recovered. As they continued to walk he noticed her breathing had not gotten labored, her chest was not heaving in distress.

"How are you so calm?" he found himself asking.

Juliet paused in her movements, considering having a conversation, then she continued moving. "Stress techniques. I learned them in Tibet. How to calm the mind and body, to block out pain and focus on a task."

"You're in pain?" Darren gasped. Juliet shook her head.

"That's not important. I can block it out. I can focus. I can fight." Her words were final and Darren stopped his own words before he said them. He didn't want her to get hurt, not when she'd finally begun to accept Vampires for what they were, and not what people wanted to think they were.

They continued in silence, but Juliet could tell that Darren had more questions for her. "It's going to take a while to get there," she said idly, continuing to make the scratch marks on the walls. "We should talk. It will calm your nerves."

"How many Vampaneze have you killed?" Darren asked.

Juliet answered quickly. "Nine."

"Does it get easier?" He asked quietly.

"Taking a life isn't easy," she sighed. She could tell he'd asked this question before, and he was trying to get a consensus. "When you take a life you take away opportunity and possibility. It's something you have to be willing to do. A sin you commit to prevent more sins."

"All the Vampaneze you killed, they were confirmed killers?"

Juliet was silent, Darren couldn't tell but she was grinding her teeth. "The Hunters believe that all of you are evil by nature. That there is nothing human within you."

"What are you trying to say?" Darren became suddenly aware of her silence.

"I hope they were all killers. I hope they were all damned souls that had lost their humanity. But sometime I wonder if maybe they were just misguided. If maybe they just…. Picked the wrong side."

"Like you did?" Darren said, understanding.

"Yes." She nodded. "But honestly, I doubt they were free of crime. There were usually strings of missing persons cases in the towns and cities I found them in. It's hard to believe that is a coincidence."

Darren nodded, remembering Murlough, the crazed Vampaneze he had helped Mr. Crepsley take down. "You started… hunting to find Mika?"

Juliet nodded, barely perceptible in the darkness of the cavern. She wanted so bad to tell Darren of the rage and the pain and the uncontrollable need to hunt the man down. Things she knew would make her seem crazy, but somehow she knew Darren would understand. Somehow she knew he wouldn't question her. "I was happy." She said finally.

"You've told me that." He said, smiling sadly in the dark.

"And I mean it. I was happy. I had learned to live without strings. Without people, without connections." She sighed. "I'm sure you know how hard it must be to think about seeing old friends, and knowing they won't understand how you haven't changed."

Darren nodded, thinking of how it would be to see his old school friends now. They would be full-grown men, and he still looks like a teenager, even in his twenties.

"I tried it once, I went back to the bar I used to work at, some twenty years after I'd 'died'." Her voice was sad. "My friend owned it. Still did by the name on the sign. I asked to see the owner after trying the ales, brewed in-house," she began to smile fondly. "And it was him. Jens, my old friend. Someone I knew would care for me no matter what. He was a grandfather, and it suited him. I could tell by the smile he had on his face as he walked up to me. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw my face. I saw his fear and then it disappeared and she said to me 'you look just like my long lost love', before pouring me a free drink."

Darren's brow creased in sadness, feeling the pain Juliet must feel reliving that moment.

"I asked him about her, about me, and it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do to reminisce with someone about moments I was present for and pretend I knew nothing about them. I wanted to scream, to shake him and say 'It's me! It's me! Please don't be scared!' but I knew that would be pointless." She sighed. "When I left he asked me if I would come back, that it was nice seeing me again. It was like he knew. I told him of course I'd be back, and I smiled and waved and left… and I never went back. It was too hard. I knew it would always be too hard, so I stopped trying to make friends. I stopped trying to fall in love. Instead I started learning to love life on its own, without people. The wonders of hiking through the Amazon with a single guide, or working in a restaurant and having someone compliment your food. Feeling the rain fall on the Serengeti. Writing and performing a song in front of a crowd of forty people and receiving a standing ovation. Things that you don't realize can make your life full.

And I was happy, I really was. I didn't think about Mika, or what I'd lost. In fact I thought about everything I'd gained. That fire had put me on a path I never would have imagined for myself. If it had never happened… if he had never left… I honestly don't know how things would have been, but I don't think it would have been what I wanted. What I've fallen in love with. This life. My eternally young life."

Darren listened to her tale, feeling himself understand Juliet more than he'd ever thought he could. She'd been a young girl in an impossible situation, but she chose not to dwell on it. She wanted to do everything she could to make her life feel full without involving others, without risking hurting them.

"So how did you end up here?" He asked.

"That's the damndest thing," she growled. "I have no idea. I woke up one morning and there was this voice in the back of my head. 'Find him' it said. 'Find him and make him pay'. That was ten years ago, and it's all been a blur since. I wanted to find Mika so badly, but I really had no reason to. I'd loved him in my twenties, I'm in my seventies now, and I've grown. I had no reason to seek him out. I harbored no ill will. But that fucking voice," she knocked her knuckles against the back of her head in emphasis. "Wouldn't shut the fuck up. It gave reasons, things I'd never even thought of. And suddenly I believed them."

Darren was staring at her, though she couldn't tell. He'd had a similar experience once, standing in the schoolyard as small bits of paper fell all around him. Hearing a voice in his head tell him exactly what to do and how.

"I just wish I'd been strong enough to ignore that voice." She sighed.

Darren nodded in agreement. "I understand…" he said. "But if it's any consolation… I'm really glad I met you."

Juliet smiled as they came upon a small blockage. "Remember that when you watch me fight. I'd rather you think of me at my best than at my bloodiest." She reared back and kicked the rocks inward, and light flooded their small path. The sounds of fighting and clinking metal could be heard.

"Where are we?" Darren asked, lowering his voice.

"We're on a small ledge a few feet up in the back of the room. This is how I would spy on them, I piled these rocks here and there's some moss growing that obscures it all." She leaned into the room and looked into the fray.

Mika was fighting three Vampaneze who were trying to distance him from his men. He had a few scrapes, but seemed to be holding his own. Mr. Crepsley was taking on two of his own Vampaneze, each of which were having a hard time dodging his lightning-fast hands, though he was standing on his leg awkwardly, and as Juliet focused on it she could see that his knee had been crushed. How was he still standing? The remaining four Vampires were tangling with their own small groups of Vampaneze, and she could see of the thirty that had been in the room, little less than half remained. But the Vampires looked exhausted some of them suffering injuries that Juliet could tell were impairing them, and there were Vampaneze just waiting in the back to jump in when one of their comrades was knocked down.

"Darren, I'm going in." she hissed, leaning out to jump down.

"Wait!" Darren said, grabbing her arm. She turned to glare at him. "What am I going to do? How can I help?"

"Your men look exhausted and they're barely able to stand. The only one not injured is Mika. I'm going to draw some attention and hopefully you can get them to you before they get killed." She motioned for him to look at the fight, right when a Vampaneze slashed one of the Vampire's hands, knocking off three fingers.

"I need to go now!" Juliet growled. Darren nodded.

"Be careful." He said, ready to gesture to his comrades. Juliet nodded and jumped gracefully to the ground.

The blur of motion caught Larten's eye and he watched as Juliet snuck up on a single Vampaneze that was watching his fight and take him down with a stab to his left kidney, twisting the knife in her left hand and bringing the one in her right hand to his throat, slitting it with ease.

She was brutal.

Juliet rushed to the group of Vampires that were being beaten by Vampaneze, round-housing the one that had chopped off another's fingers. "What's up ugly?" She mocked. The Vampaneze turned, surprised at the Vampire's reinforcements. When they're attentions were on Juliet, Darren motioned to the injured Vampires, ushering them to him.

As the Vampire's crept away, Juliet found herself surrounded by Vampaneze. She narrowed her eyes and twirled her daggers in her hands, ready for action.

"This is how it ends, not with a bang," she said, looking down at her hands. She smirked, feeling that red haze fill her vision, but she fought it back. This time Juliet would fight, not the madness inside of her. "But with a good ol' fashioned throw-down."

(A/N: I just wanted to apologize real quick for the random spoilers at the beginning of chapters! I tend to write chapter outlines so I remember everything I want to cover in a chapter, but it seems I've been forgetting to DELETE THEM! Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you all while reading. As always, please review!)