Chapter Fifteen

Jasper

I was dead and in hell, there was no other explanation for the pain I had endured and the visions I now saw. I was in a dark cavern with only flickering firelight to see by yet I could make out every inch of my surroundings. The walls were damp and covered in mold and something black that left streaks and drips. I could hear noises, the whimpering and screams of the souls in torment and knew I would be joining them soon.

I scrambled to my feet and looked around for some way out but the walls although stretching for yards in every direction were unbroken. The floor stained black in places and broken by fire pits that were the only illumination was covered in bundles of clothes some of which moved erratically and I saw a claw like hand grasping at the stone as if to dig its way out. My throat was on fire and my head whirled with the strangest thoughts. There was something I craved, something I needed, something that would ease the terrible burning that devoured me.

Suddenly one of the heaps stood up and I saw it was a man, a shambling wreck of a man with bloodied fingers. The scent of the blood made my mouth water, the beat of his heart although fast and erratic drew me closer and I found myself with my hands holding him by the shoulders not sure how I had moved so fast. I could see the pulse in his neck as his heart beat and couldn't resist the urge to feed on him. I found myself ripping his throat with my teeth in my eagerness to drink his blood and as he struggled feebly in my grasp my anger built until I pulled and his arms came off in my hands, a little blood staining my clothes but most had already gone down my throat and eased the burn but only a little. I needed more so I checked the bundles on the floor but they were only piles of clothes and I roared my thirst and rage to the ceiling.

There was a noise and I whirled round to see an opening appear in the wall, a way out! I ran and it took me into another cavern but this one was full of humans, full of the scent of human blood and my ears were buffeted by the sound of all the heart beats. Without a moments hesitation I started to attack whoever was closest. I went through them one by one ripping bodies and draining human after human until there were no more moving, I had killed them all. Blood drenched my clothes and hands, the walls were splattered as was the floor and I sank to my knees only now allowing the feelings of horror to overwhelm me. I had no idea what was happening but I felt crushed by the pain and fear of my victims, of those I had slaughtered.

I was left here for hours, long enough for the burn in my throat to build and become intolerable once more when more humans were sent in to my killing room and the horror started over again. This pattern seemed to repeat over and over again, each time the human specimens were a little younger, stronger, and fresher, they fought for their lives though they couldn't beat me and all died. As time went on I learned to be discriminating, I took the strongest, the fastest and drained them first and it came to a point when I finally left a human alive.

My thirst was quenched and I wanted someone to talk to, I had been alone for so very long. His name was Antonio and once he understood I was not going to kill him too he told me his story, how he and the others had been taken from a fiesta in Rome and transported here by a beautiful woman called Heidi who had promised them a feast. Little had they known they were to be the meal at this particular feast, my feast.

I felt my thirst begin to grow over the following hours until I could contain it no longer hard though I struggled and finally with no alternative I killed Antonio, drank his blood, and put his body to rest with the others. I had lived with a human without killing him at least for a while and I counted that a victory of sorts. It proved to me that it was possible to be amongst humans and not attack. The longer I went without feeding though the more my thirst grew and with it my rage. Smaller groups of humans were sent to me in this chamber of death and with each one I killed I began to control myself better. If I allowed myself to feel their emotions they almost destroyed me so I learned to shut my feelings away, to hide my ability to feel the emotions of others, to control it all until I found I felt nothing at all. I fed to keep me strong and stop the thirst and rage but I never killed in a rage any more, it was all cold and clinical, I had become a killing machine, emotions had no place in my body or mind, not any longer.

One day the door to my chamber opened but no humans came through, I waited and then made my way over to the opening and looked out. It led into another chamber but this one was lit by the sun through tall windows. It contained furniture, old and heavy looking and a shelf of books. I stepped through to explore and found it was a suite of rooms on the ground floor of a building, a building I had been living below for so long. Exactly how long I had no way of knowing.

Opening the door of the closet I found my bedroll and my spare clothes and then an inside tub and toilet, what was this place? Deciding to make the most of it I turned a faucet standing over the tub and warm water flowed in. I shut it off when the tub was half full and stripped off jamming a chair under the door knob to give me warning if anyone tried to get in while I was washing. My body was hard and pale, almost white, but other than that it was almost the same but the scar on my leg where I'd cut it open as a boy climbing a barbed wire fence was gone as was the bullet scar on my shoulder where Id been grazed by a shot at the beginning of the war. So I had a new body much like the old but unmarked.

When I'd washed and dried myself I went back through to the other room to find I was no longer alone. Peter sat waiting for me and got up with an uncertain smile when I appeared.

"Major? How ya feelin'?"

From somewhere deep inside me a snarl began to build and he held his hands up in surrender,

"It's me, your friend Peter. Aro sent me to see if you were OK, I think he was hopin' you could control yourself by now."

The snarl died and I walked to the window fascinated by the play of sunlight on my arm, my skin shone like diamonds.

"What do ya want Peter?"

"Your friendship again Major. Aro wants us to work together once your trainin' is over."

"Trainin'? How long has it been?"

"Six months, ya learned control really quickly."

"Six months? What more training is there? I can function among humans, what more does he want of me?"

"He wants you to do what you are good at...kill vampires."

"Kill vampires? Why? I thought he was the leader of the vampires."

"He is but there are rogues, a lot of them right now, and he wants ya to put them down."

"He wants me to kill vampires? Why should I?"

"Because ya have a talent for it and if you refuse... he'll kill you.