Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Depth of the Eyes

Fear is only in our minds

But it takes over all the time.

Calm it, tame it

And you conquer all.

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My head was on fire. My mouth felt like I had spent two whole days sleeping with it open. I couldn’t decide whether my head or my body hurt more. Aches attacked me deep to my bone and I could feel caked blood over my lips and arms. My body… it felt like someone had twisted me inside out. I cleared my brain without opening my eyes and let my senses fill me. It seems that I had been dropped on the ground and left where I fell, my body sprawled face down on the dry, hard earth. At first, I thought I may have been left where I had been attacked but my smell and hearing kicked in, a little late after my sense of touch, and I could hear clinks of metal and murmurs of men around me. I could smell fire and dirt, sweat and blood. I was defiantly not where I was before. So obviously, I’d been taken by those vampyrs. I didn’t get a good look at them before I had to fight them but I knew they were not of these parts.

I had lost all feelings in my arms and legs and so had no idea whether or not I had been tied up. I really had no choice but to open my eyes and hope for the best. Squeezing my eyes shut, I drew in my breath. I let my breath out, opened my eyes and jumped to my feet in the same motion.

I hadn’t been tied up! Hah! Now I could escape! I jumped into the air and expanded my wings. But instead of the beautiful feeling of escape and flying, I felt myself crumple back towards the ground with a quick jerk of a hand on my foot. I landed, quite undignified, on my bum, shifted back to my human form and huffed. Looking up, a group of men stood to the side of me, having a heated discussion but with one eye always on me. How exactly one of them could have caught my leg at the speed I jumped up all the while in discussion was completely beyond me. Somehow, a feeling churned in my stomach, nagging me that this could not be a good place for me to be. Obviously… Tuning into the discussion, I could finally make out that it revolved around my predicament and I.

“I cannot be hearing you right. Against my better judgement, you convince me to leave you three on your own with a mission that needs twelve or more of the best men here to complete. And then, you end up with the mission failed and… this. Some girl you abduct of the road. I think I’ve misjudged you, Croc. It seems that you value your place on my team less highly than I thought.”

I wasn’t quite sure I liked being called ‘this.’

“Captain… I…”

“Am I wrong? I highly doubt there any reason for you to bring her here? Was there?”

“ Captain… she over-heard our talk. We couldn’t just let her go.”

“You could’ve killed her.” There was no emotion in that voice.

I looked at the man who suggested my death so calmly for such a stupid reason. He was tall, standing about one head taller than my full height. His skin had a light tan, the colouring like a glazed tart. He wore a sleeveless shirt made out of indefinable colour and that material gave me full view of the arms that hung by his side, fists clenched. Another other time, they would have impressed. A lot. They weren’t hugely muscled. The muscles were there, wiry and hard but not overly bulging. As much as I hated to admit it, they were extremely striking. A hard mouth and a high jaw completed his face and the messy black hair that overflowed from his head flopped over his eyes.

I didn’t like him. I didn’t like him at all.

“Captain. We’re good men. We don’t kill little misses like her. She didn’t do nothing but land at the wrong spot. She put up a good fight. Taught well, she was. ” I flicked my green eyes over to the man who was arguing for my life. That in itself recommended him to me.

He was dark. Dark as the darkest chocolate ever made by Willy Wonka. His hair was darker than his skin, black and shiny, the braids cleverly twisted barely able to be seen on his skin. They hung, multitudes of them over his shoulders, red and yellow beads adorning the ends of them, looking like a colourful strip curtain. He wore a leather top, the strange pattern making bulges on the material. Only a second later did I realise that it was made out of crocodile skin. The greenish black tinge almost merged into his skin. A single, gleaming white tooth hung of his neck. I assumed this was the man I heard called Croc.

I looked at the other two next to him. I recognised both as my other two attackers. I recognised the bigger one first. He was a man of mythical proportions with wrists the size of my hand. Muscles bulged out of each parting of clothing. His large ugly face was contorted in a sort of guilty grimace, large brown eyes squinting and small scars adorning every side. One side of his head was completely shaven and on the other side, his hair was allowed to grow wild and knotted, dreadlocks falling to below his shoulder. A massive paw, hung of a thick leather strap on his neck. If that was a wolf paw, it was bigger than any wolf I would like to meet. Next to him, the second man was dwarfed even though by himself, he’d only be of average height. This man didn’t have as much muscles as the other two or their ‘captain’. He wore brown clothes all over his body but the strange part of him was his hair. It was cropped short and his hairline was quite far back except for a V shape coming down onto his forehead. The rest of his hair was a dusty blond but this part was a bright and shining white, as if he’d dipped into a bucket of paint.

I blinked. These were the strangest looking vampyrs I had ever seen. I assumed they were vampyrs although none of them were in their vampyr form. They wouldn’t have been able to keep me down if they were not. Plus, vampyrs have a specific smell. These men, as vampyrs, would be a sight to see. Especially this ‘Captain’, of that I was sure. I wouldn’t be able to escape from the easily. Speaking of which…

“You can stop talking about me like I’m a piece of meat.” I called out loudly, getting to my feet and dusting myself off.

The Captain’s eyes swept over me dismissively and then back to his men. I might not have been there, for all the notice he gave to me. My eyes narrowed at the treatment. They darted to the other three who were joined by a group of other men, all moving up silently behind them and staring at the Captain, trying to avert their eyes from me and for some, failing. Their looks were motley, keeping in tune with Ciaran’s description. A jacket of animal fur here, a few feathers tucked into their hair, chains and silver collars and armlets and a pretty decent display of well-muscled flesh of different shades. They were really an extraordinary sight. My eyes then moved onto the setting we were in. We were on a flat patch of ground, somewhere in the wilderness. Large boulders and rocks were formed and moved together to make a sort of shelter. A stream ran across a few metres ahead and willows and thick bushes were spread out around the camp spot. I sighed inwardly. This place was so well hidden, even if you were right in front of it, you wouldn’t be able to see it unless you knew where to look. And the rushing stream drowned out the softer sounds. Seeing that we were vampyrs, we made almost no sounds if we were hiding. I gave up hope of Dmitri finding me.

Turning back, the Captain had moved in closer to me, holding a knife and I could see, just next to his pulse point, a tiger, fierce and perfect, prowling for its prey. I shivered involuntarily. The Shadow Daemon. I had stumbled into the lair of the daemon and his assassin band.

“She should not be here. Must I do what you all cannot?”

I lifted my gaze to the Captain’s face and immediately, I was drawn to his eyes. For one moment, his eyes stared straight into mine. They were a stormy grey, glinting in the dim light. They were so clear, so lucid. His black messy hair fell over his eyes making the grey look brooding and fierce. And then I realised what he was going to do.

“No!” A scream built in my throat but I changed it to a snarl, jumping back from him and placing myself in an offensive stance. I will not show weakness in front of this man. I will not.

The Captain’s brows raised just a fraction. His lips pressed together in a thin line and his eyes grew cool but no emotion showed in his voice. “You’re resisting?” His nostrils flared as if he found that amusing. “I would pin and kill you in a second.”

‘Arrogant bastard.’ I thought to myself, but out loud I issued a challenge.

“You wouldn’t! And plus, I am not going to stand there and let you kill me like a cow at a slaughterhouse. If I’m going to die, I’ll die with a fight.” I winced slightly at the cliché.

He took a step forward and lifted his knife slight but I would not be intimidated. My anger had risen and this man infuriated me! He had no respect for life or for person! But underneath the rage that pointed at him lay a shocking fear. A fear I hadn’t felt since I first became a vampyr.

It was growing dark and one of the men had lit a battery-powered lamp. Crazy shadows danced across the rocks and the Captain’s face. He lifted his lip and bared his teeth and at the same time, his vampyr filled his body. An aura flowed around him and his teeth elongated. But it was his eyes, his steady eyes that gave me the nightmares I had for a long time after that. The grey grew brighter and brighter until a feral amber colour filled them through. His pupils elongated and their colour deepened and deepened into a black in which there was no escape. He lifted his upper lip and let loose a low growl which, I swear to God, scared me to the bone. I shivered all over as I stared him is the eyes, which flashed in the dim light.

A man like this won’t best me though. It took all of my strength to stop my shivering and I let the wild side of me take over. My eyes flared up into a bright, insane green, my lips became redder and my teeth sharpened until one prick could draw blood. My nails grew slightly, becoming like panthers claws and I flexed the muscles in my legs, ready for a fight.

“Captain.” Croc was the only one brave enough to speak up.

“Quiet! You’re going soft Croc. You bring a fool of a girl here, to our place of secrecy, risking everybody’s lives and you expect me to do nothing. Where did you find her? She’s got a tongue on her, no arguing about that.” The Captain’s attention never wavered from me.

“Why do you have to kill me? If you are afraid I will go off and prattle to everybody I see” – which is exactly what I’d do if I ever get out of here – “why don’t you just keep me here? Just keep me here under the protection of your watch-dogs.” I indicated his men behind him. It pained me to say things like this but if he let me stay alive, I may be able to figure out a way to leave. If I were dead, I could not. I hate it that we can still die. I thought we were the undead for crying out loud!

“Why?”

“Why not?” I snapped back. He wanted mouth? I’ll give him mouth.

“Because – argh! I have no time to stand here debating insignificant things like this with you. I have no idea where you came from and I have no inclination or need to be enlightened of it, but here you are a nuisance and a distraction. This is no place for a woman.”

Oh now I’m a woman and not a girl huh? “Believe me! I’m not here by choice. But since I am here and I survived this far, I think I deserve a chance to prove my worth. And I’d rather not die, thank you very much.

The Daemon brushed a black strand of hair that had fallen over his eyes to the side.

He narrowed his feral eyes and stood very still for a moment. His hand slipped the wicked knife back into its sheath at his side and his eyes and teeth changed back to its normal look. I let out a breath I had been holding knowing that I had won. For now.

“Deserve a chance to prove your worth ey? You may well have a chance to do that. I’ll let you live. But you must go under my orders and do what I say. I won’t have you disrupting our missions and training and endangering all our lives.”

What does he think I am? Stupid?

“Just stay out of my way and the men’s until I figure out what to do with you. I don’t know if anyone will take you, rude as you are. As for the rest of you,” he faced his men, glancing around at the group of them. They fell silent the moment his stare touched them. “- This woman is out of bounds. I don’t even need to tell you this, but I’m telling it to you anyway. Touch her, and you’ll have extreme difficulty picking up your weapon the next day. She’s going to stay here, with a guard at all times. If I hear even a breath of any breach, the ones responsible will be painfully aware of it.”

I shifted nervously on one foot and shifted back into my human form. The three that I had ‘met’ first came forward while the rest filed back to their various jobs at a nod of the Captian’s head. I shook my head, slightly weak and motioned that I was going to sit down. I took a step forward and the three took a step forward too. I looked at Croc, wrinkling up my nose and furrowing my brow. I took three more steps forward and they did the same. I sighed and walked slowly to the wall of stone and slid down to sit on the dusty floor. The three were not even a step behind me. They sat in a semi-circle in front of me, each a careful three metres away. The Captain followed at his own pace, seeming to enjoy my slight discomfort. Dickhead.

“Name’s Croc.” Croc flashed a smile, his teeth a brilliant white in contrast to his skin.

I gave a small smile and turned my head to the other two, silently motioning at them.

Croc got the gist. “ This here’s Wolf.” Motioning at the large shaggy one with the wolf’s paw. Obvious. He gave me a nod. “This one’s Fox.” The white-arrow-man spared me a small smile.

“What is your name?” I asked the ‘Captain.’ “I refuse to call you Captain. I’m not your soldier or one of ‘your team.”

“Call me what you will. We have no other names here.”

I thought about it for a second. What to name this arrogant, ruthless, horrible and insanely confident vampyr? I rolled my eyes and thought back to all the people I had known and all the stories I had been told.

‘Vampyr history is a very important part of your training. How well you will be able to full in your seat as third-in-command will be determined by your strength, personality, character and your ability to communicate and trade with other Vampyr Lords. You’re going to have to do that without insulting everyone we know with your lack of knowledge on our history……… War, human history and stories merged together make up Vampyr history. Stories humans think are merely fairly tales are also part of our history… … … Kaleb the Great. Also know as Alexander the Great. Conqueror of most of the known world at that time. Humans of course thought he was one of them. But no one can be that great, go into that many battles and come out unscathed. He was ruthless, confidant and arrogant in battle. But outside, he seemed to be quiet, reserved, a great protector and friend and all the while still exhibiting that confidant air of a man who knows he cannot be touched. His father too was a great leader, but sadly had a gene in his make-up that made him prone to insane fits. Humans believe that Alexander was poisoned and died in Babylon. But our history knows different. Kaleb decided he had had enough conquering and wanted to see the world as it is, without the ruin of war in it, without his rule. As an ordinary vampyr. And so he left, staging his death. I believe he quite enjoyed himself. He travelled all over the world doing and seeing everything, just like he had when he was General except now he saw the more beautiful side of the world. He died eighty years ago in one of the great Vampyr wars where he was called back to do service. His throat was slit in the dark of the night.’

Vlad. Oh how I missed him and his lessons. Not that I’ll say that in front of him but still… Somehow, his stories seemed to stick in my head and the name was the one, strangely enough that stuck in my head. Kaleb

“Fine.” I realised they had been staring at me, waiting. “I’ll call you Kaleb, after the Kaleb the Great. I’m assuming you know the story of him.”

The man I had newly christened as Kaleb shrugged and looked away. He blinked and looked back at me. “What is your name?”

“I thought you said we had no names here?”

“You said you were not one of us. So those rules cannot apply to you.”

I wondered about giving him my human name but so tired I was, my name slipped out. “Tryniti. Or Tryn.”

Kaleb blinked and then turned to Croc. “Bring her to a private spot for her to sleep in. Not too far away. We need to see her.”

“Yes Captain.”

Croc and the other three got up and motioned for me to do the same. I groaned and dragged myself to my feet. They brought me to a shaded niche a little way away from the stream. With practised efficiency, they unrolled a thick blanket, turned on an electric lamp and brought a bowl of food and placed it next to me. I sat on the blanket while they sat, again three metres away facing me in a circle.

“Sorry about the whole attacking thing back then.” Croc was the first one to break the silence.

I grabbed the bowl and spoon and dug into the stew. It was filled up with meat and potatoes. I wasn’t going to ask what type of meat it was. I thought t might be better to not ask. I swallowed a spoonful and surprisingly, it was actually quite good. They must have gotten proficient at providing for themselves. “That’s ok… I guess. You guys knocked me pretty hard though.”

“Didn’t expect you to fight, small little thing you are. And you were going to run. Can’t have that happening.” Wolf’s deep voice rumbled around me. Obviously I’d be small to him.

“Caught us in a bad time, you did. Just then we were panicked and jumpy. Then you come streaming along and listen into our conversation and we thought we were gonners. Didn’t know what to do.” Fox’s voice had a nice tenor ring to it. It almost reminded me of Will.

“I didn’t mean to listen in. I didn’t even hear anything!”

“We know lass. Hope you don’t think too badly of us. We don’t usually hurt little miss’s like you.” Croc’s brown eyes were soft in the light. It has funny to think murderers like this had a soft side.

“It’s alright. Which one of you was the one who slammed me into the rock? Cause that kills!”

Dog put his hand up sheepishly and grinned slightly. “That’d be me. I said I was sorry!”

I grinned. “Its ok. I just need something for my head. It’s killing me.”

Croc nodded and jumped up. By the time I had put two spoonfuls of stew in my mouth, he was back holding a wet cloth, some antiseptic cream and a flask.

“Here.” He gave the three to me and went back to his spot on a rock three metres away.

I took the cloth first and wiped of the caked blood on my lip and head. What a sight I must be. Then I squeezed the white anti-septic cream on my finger and rubbed it onto the cuts I had all over me. Finally I opened the flask and sniffed. There were herbs and other medicinal items in it I could point out from my uni classes and work. I raised my eyebrow at Croc.

“Me mam was a famous herb doctor long long ago.”

I nodded and took two gulps of the liquid. It burned down my throat but as soon as that passed warmth filled me through and the throb in my head died down. I gasped and passed the flask back to Croc and then passed the antiseptic cream around to them. I pointed out their cuts and scratches I had given them and they smiled.

“We’ll be right lass. Don’t worry about us.”

But I persisted until they oiled some on to appease me. Then they bid their goodbye and let me sleep.

Sleep. That’s exactly what I need right now.

Sleep should come.

It should come to everyone who needs it.

Sleep is healing

Sleep is peace

Yet it cannot erase the fears of tomorrow.