The Demon's Pa

The thing about traveling is that it seems like it’s going to be one huge adventure and you’re going to have a blast meeting new people, exploring the world with your friends and seeing strange things.

The thing about travelling at inhuman speeds is that you don’t get the chance to really see anything or meet any people and that you are alone in a strange place with only a vague idea of where you’re heading. To top it all off I was being chased by the only man I’d ever loved who wanted to kill me because he was a demon.

Quite bluntly I’d have to say that the way I was traveling, sucked.

I knew exactly where I was going to meet up with Viktor and my nobles again, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get there. Was I fast enough to run across the ocean or would I sink like a rock? I shook my head, I wasn’t going to worry about that yet, I needed to get a certain blood thirsty demon off my trail first.

I doubted that a simple zigzag manoeuvre would have been enough to lose him… what I needed was something else… I wasn’t sure what yet… but definitely something else.

I was going home- not to my home in Africa, most definitely not since that would be the first place blood thirsty Alexander would go looking for me, if he hadn’t already- I was going to my home on Viktor’s land. I was going back to New York. I wanted to see my sister, Caleb and Paul again and since Viktor knew I had been planning to go with him and Lucy he would surely be able to figure out that I would go there to meet up with them again.

Of course that was what I was hoping for, but there was also the chance of Alexander catching up with me and tearing me to shreds like in my vision. I knew that I didn’t want to die before I’d somehow made up with my friends and made sure that my family -and the rest of the world of course- were safe, but I couldn’t help that think that dying at Alexander’s hand would be the best way to go.

I’d never wanted to be a vampire, but I’d decided to put up with it because I would have Alexander, but now… The Alexander that I had seen wasn’t the one I’d been prepared to accept being a vampire for, so what was the point?

I’d been running non-stop for four hours at full speed before I decided that it was time to put my plan in to action. I knew that Alexander would be tracking me by my scent, so it was either that I needed to get rid of it, or send him in the wrong direction.

I had a feeling that it wasn’t going be as easy as I thought.

I came to an abrupt stop when I realised that I was in a city called Timbuktu at the southern border of the Sahara desert.

A wide grin spread across my face, this was going to be perfect.

The Timbuktu residents all avoided me as I walked through the streets but I was too in awe at how the city looked to take much notice of them. The buildings and houses were all the same sandy colour of the surrounding area and there was little greenery, but the buildings were absolutely beautiful. My mind was absolutely blown at how beautiful the city was even though everything was such a dull colour.

I walked through the streets in search of a place where humans could buy food in hope that I could get one of them to talk to me and not run the other direction. All I needed to know was one simple fact, only one, I needed to know when the next sandstorm would hit. Going through one would surely scatter my scent everywhere and prohibit Alexander form being able to follow me any further.

My plan was ingenious but it was also really lame and I wasn’t very sure if it would really work or if I was only getting my hopes up. I was really hoping that it would work because it was the only plan I had.

I found a little restaurant on the corner and the people who walked in and out there seemed friendly enough. I hadn’t spotted a single vampire yet but I was keeping my eyes open because there had to be at least a few.

It came to me then, this was the desert and there wasn’t much shade throughout the day. Living here as a vampire must be utter hell.

My skin was already feeling prickly because of all the sun I’d gotten and I wasn’t even a common vampire whose defences against the sun were even weaker.

I took a seat at one of the tables in the restaurant and smiled at the waitress who brought me a menu. She returned my smile and started speaking in a language that I didn’t understand.

My smile dropped. What language did they speak here? Spanish? No wait… Spanish was in Mexico, wasn’t it? I wasn’t sure so I just settled on saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

The waitress frowned and said something else to me while I continued to give her a clueless look. What a moron I’d been, how’d I expected to speak to the locals if I couldn’t even understand what they were saying?

I sighed heavily, wishing that Zaiden was with me. I stood up, “Sorry to bother, I’ll be leaving now.” I paused, “Thanks, even though you probably don’t know what I’m saying.”

I turned around to leave but the voice of a man stopped me in my tracks, “Bother? You are our royal, you could never bother us.”

I spun back around to look at the man who had spoken, He wasn’t like any vampire I’d ever seen before, his skin was a lot darker and his eyes were alive. He was sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant- far away from the sun, I noted- with another man and three women. They were all vampires, but only of the common rank. I hadn’t even sensed them and they’d been so terribly close to me, how odd.

The waitress looked at me questioningly and realisation spread across her face. No later she was pulled away from me by the man who’d spoken. He said something to her in the same language she’d tried to speak to me in and she nodded and hurried away. He turned to face me, “I merely told her not to stand so close to you.”

I nodded, “Thanks.” After a moment’s hesitation I extended my hand for him to shake, “I am Ash Carson.”

He shook my hand with a smile, “I know, milady, it truly is an honour to meet you. I am Fihr Amiroez.”

I nodded awkwardly, “Uh, thanks.”

“May I ask that you join us at our table?” He offered politely.

I shook my head, “No I have somewhere I need to go, unfortunately.”

“Of course.” He watched me carefully and one of the females headed towards us.

“I’m sorry, but you look rather lost.”

I smiled gratefully at her for coming, Fihr’s gaze on me was a little intense. Was it going to be like this with every male vampire? “I am.” I admitted, “I currently have no idea where exactly I am or where I’m heading.”

She laughed, “I understand completely, will you allow us to assist you?”

“I would be very thankful.” I said.

“Where do you need to go?”

I hesitated, “I’m afraid I can’t tell you where I’m going since…” Alexander might force it out of them. I shook my head, “Anyway, right now I need to travel through a sandstorm.”

They were all silent for a moment before Fihr asked, “May I ask why?”

I looked him square in the eyes when I answered, “Alexander is after me, he’s trying to kill me and I need to get him off of my trail. Traveling through a sandstorm is the only way I can think of to lose him.”

The female seemed impressed, “You are so smart, milady.”

I snorted rather loudly, “I don’t think so and please, call me Ash.”

Fihr looked deep in thought, “I do not know of any sandstorms, but I think the best thing you can do is run through the Sahara until you stumble upon one. Those things are rather unpredictable if you don’t have the right equipment to tell you when one is coming.”

I was disappointed, I’d been hoping for a little more information than just that. “Oh, well, thank you. Then I’d best get going before Alexander get here.” I paused, “Watch out for him, he is a demon and he is bad, you have to try to resist him. No matter what he says, don’t listen. Please tell everyone.”

The female nodded, “Of course Ash, we know what happened, when he comes here we will try to stall him as long as we can and don’t worry, we won’t listen to him. You are our royal now.”

“One of your nobles arrived here that day before yesterday, I will inform him that you were here and what your orders were.” The male vampire told me with that same intense look still on his face.

“Thank you, truly thank you.” I said, “But please, don’t let him kill you.”

They nodded, “Take care Ash, we are ready to go to war against the demons at your command.”

That statement alone gave me a lot of hope. I was relieved that news of the war had reached even this far.

And so I set out in find of a sandstorm.

I frowned as I drew my fingers through my hair. Sand, sand and more sand fell out.

I really was not the sharpest pencil in the packet, I’d gone out in search for a sandstorm without even considering to get some clothing to protect me from it. Genius.

I’d run into the mass of fast traveling sand shortly after leaving the city and made my way through it as fast as I could. The wind and the sand would have spread my scent everywhere and yet nowhere at all. There was no way Alexander could track me after that.

I tasted sand and there was a ton of it in my shoes. It was sticking against my skin and I was pretty sure there was some sand in my right ear –the direction the wind had been coming from- as well. The problem was getting it out…

I shivered.

I’d stopped running at full speed so I could shake off all the sand and try to retain my dignity but I was failing terribly. I was just about to take off my shoe to pour the sand out when my left ear – the one that wasn’t clogged with sand- heard the sound of a heartbeat.

I froze and slowly turned my head in the direction the sound was coming from. I sniffed the air. Was it human or animal?

I took a step backwards when I heard the second heartbeat, much faster paced than the other one and without a doubt human. I strained my eyes to see the person standing on top of the next dune and then falling backwards as they saw the creature the first heart beat belonged to.

The lone hyena looked at the human enquiringly before curiously walking closer to inspect.

Suddenly the human took off in the opposite direction and after hesitating a moment the hyena followed. I frowned, wasn’t the first rule when surrounded by animals not to move?

The human was going to get herself killed. With a sigh I took off after the both of them and had outrun them in less than ten seconds. I pulled the girl that looked like she was about my age behind me and stood in front of her protectively as the hyena came to a stop.

I hissed loudly and after looking at me like I had lost it completely it turned and ran away. I let out a relieved breath, I wasn’t sure I could fight with an animal like that, I could kill it easily but I didn’t want that. I looked at the girl, “Are you alright?”

Her hands were shaking and she watched me with large frightened eyes, “Y-you saved me.”

It took a moment for that to click, “Oh, yeah, I guess I did.” The term ‘saved’ seemed to be thrown around here like it meant nothing lately, but maybe it was just like that for me because I didn’t need protecting against ordinary things anymore. Only certain demons.

“Thank you.” She watched me carefully. “Are you a vampire?”

“Yes.” How else did she think I managed to scare off the hyena? Was I really that ugly?

“Oh.” She said awkwardly, “Do you… want something in return?”

I waved her off, “Nah I’m good, just happy to be of assistance. What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere anyway?”

“Oh I don’t live that far away.” She turned her head to the side. “If you like you can come get cleaned up at my house since you look a little…uh…”

She really did think I was ugly…

“Sandy.” She finally said, “You look a little sandy. I take it you got caught up in that sandstorm that just passed?”

I nodded, “Yeah. If you’re sure that it’s alright I would be very grateful if I could get cleaned up.”

“Alright, follow me.” She started to walk away but then turned to face me again, “But no drinking any blood, got it?”

“Of course. I’m Ash Carson by the way.”

“Su Mort.”

“Cool name.” I commented and that was the last thing said between us. At least she could speak English and I there wasn’t some language barrier between us.

I followed her slow pace or about half an hour before a cave came into view. Just a random huge rock in the middle of nowhere with a hole in it, so not suspicious at all. “You live in there?” I questioned with doubt.

“Yeah, with my family. The rest of our clan live a way off.”

I was taken aback, “Clan?”

“Yeah.”

What was that supposed to mean? Clan? What clan? It then occurred to me that Myron had once referred to all the vampire hunters who lived together as a clan. Did that mean that Su was part of a vampire hunting clan? I gave her a long hard look, but I just couldn’t imagine her attacking anything, let alone a vampire.

No way, there was just no way.

She entered the cave and I followed without hesitation. What was the worst that could happen?

A narrow squeeze was required to get through the opening, but once on the other side I found myself inside a rather large room. “Cool.” I commented, “I really wasn’t expecting this.”

The ‘room’ wasn’t furnished as one might think a house would be, but there were blankets in one corner and a few rocks to sit on.

The two humans who were looking at us didn’t move even as we came closer. “Ash, this is my family.” Su said uncertainly.

“Hello.” I greeted them.

“That’s my sister, Rain, we’re twins,” she explained. “And my little brother Heli.”

It didn’t surprise me that they lived without their parents, a lot of us did because our parents had been killed by the vampires.

Heli as the first to speak, “Hello, are you a vampire?.”

I smiled at him, “Yes, I am but don’t worry I don’t drink human blood.”

The small brown haired boy grinned up at me, “That’s good.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “Yes, yes it is.”

The older girl –Rain- had an unreadable expression on her face, “Su, why did you bring her here?”

“She saved me.”

“You know what happened with that other vampire.” Rain said.

“What happened to the other vampire?” I questioned nervously.

She shook her head, “Don’t worry about it.” There was a moment of silence, “You look like hell.”

“Thanks.” I said dryly.

“That’s why I brought her here.” Su said, “To thank her for saving me I said she could get cleaned up here.”

Rain raised an eyebrow, “So that’s what you want?” She asked me.

I nodded, “I would feel much better.”

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but I was sure that a large bowl of water, a wash cloth and half a shower curtain wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. The shower curtain was barely hanging on to the pole that looked like it had just been wacked into the wall of the corner of the cave and I was starting to feel more awkward by the second.

“Sorry, but we don’t have an actual shower.” Su apologised.

“It’s fine.” I managed. Maybe I could find a better place to get cleaned up… After one look in the mirror, however, I knew that I didn’t have much of a choice, I had to get cleaned up as soon as possible because I really did look like hell.

So after I had washed most of the sand off of me, my right ear could hear again and I was dressed in my clothing that I’d merely shaken a little to rid it of most of the sand, I found myself sitting on the ground with the family as they ate what I assumed was supper.

They were actually really nice when they got used to you and they were sure you weren’t going to kill them all.

“So…Rain,” I said and she looked up for her eyes to meet mine. “About that vampire who was here, what exactly did you mean with ‘what happened to it’.”

She sighed and put down the bowl she’d been holding, “That vampire was crazy, he was here just a few days ago, saying all kinds of nonsense.”

Su laughed, “He said a bunch of things that didn’t make any sense, crazy thing.”

I didn’t laugh, “What did he say?” I asked.

Rain’s smile disappeared and she looked down, “He said that a vampire royal was my mate and he called me a Promise angel.”

Su laughed again, “Whatever that is supposed to mean.”

I stared at the both of them.

Well, that was unexpected.