Blood Mother. A Vampire Tale

Ch. 18 Calina

She spent her night hours swirling in thoughts. Trying to call back memories of her weak years. And calculating where she went wrong at ending her purgatory. She could no longer conjure up visions of her human past. Even her memories which lasted a while had faded to black. She sensed them somewhere locked away from the one she had become.

She concentrated on the fevered hum she felt coursing through her veins. A call? A warning? She only understood it as unrest. If she hadn't been banished and forgotten she would understand it. And this idea created more fury. When light finally entered the apartment she safely tucked herself away in her corner closet. She had no need for the resting that she had observed others taking part in during her brief time in the nest. They lay still and silent, recharging. For her the stillness never came. She wondered if she had stayed if it was something she would have learned. Or if even in this life she was flawed.

For her, day brought more excruciating hours to wait. Her eyes leaked red, as they sometimes did and she smeared the drainage across her scarred and rough face. She had a hint of a memory of doing this to the time when she was warm and living, but it ended in a flash, before she could hold on to it.

In frustration she held a growl that threatened escape. She quickly turned her thoughts to Luka. She remembered him coming to the nest. Arrogant and ancient. He had been called to the room where she stood with two others awaiting judgement. She remembered that period vividly because it drive her internal thirst for revenge.

Calina was put in the room immediately after trying to burn to ashes in the sun. The woman beside her had lost her restraint in her first step solo mission and had drained two dockworkers in the blink of an eye. The guardians were unable to react until it was over. The older recruits, a step above Calina were supposed to be able to walk unattended down the docks and back. This young vamp had shown no aptitude for self control and had been locked away with Calina for judgement by the ultimate leader here. The woman was wild and restless every moment she was locked in.

The man on the other side whose crimes were unknown to Calina was silent and statue like. She often found his studying her newly burned skin. Watching the paper thin sheets float to the ground and enjoying it. His gaze crawled upon her skin like ice dipped spiders, itching and painful.

Calina remembered everything about her living days then during her new changing period. She grieved silently, cursing herself and all her new kind for extending her pain and misery. She had some hive instinct then and somehow knew to stay away from the man without any explanation or communication. She wondered perhaps if he were only there to add to this hell. Surely he was evil.

When Luka arrived days or weeks later the three prisoners were starving and weak. The woman had begun drinking from herself and banging her head against the wall leaving smears of black and red. Her arms were clawed to the bone and her eyes constantly scanned.
As if she were chased from the inside.

When the judgement day arrived they were bound in chairs spaced several feet apart. The woman finally still, head hanging, waited for pardon. With only grunts and saliva escaping her ravaged dry lips.

The man to her right sat with his shoulders high. His dark black eyes holding on the door. In all the time spent in this holding he had barely moved. His restraint obvious, Calina guessed he was not new at all. She made no move to seem interested but stole glances only when she felt him deeply resting. Whatever crime he was guilty of Calina felt better not knowing. Based on the feelings she got, it must have been horrendous.

When Luka arrived Calina felt him before he entered. A steady singing hum filled her, like a heartbeat and she sensed power and a charge in the universe.

He walked in with two vampire men. Each of considerable size and an air of authority. They wore blank expressions and immediately walked to the woman who had begun grunting and screeching. Luka nodded and instantly her head flew across the room. A hollow thud was the only sound of the end of her existence.

At the view Calina straightened. Finally she thought. In the blink of an eye it will be over and I will hunt for my children in the after. She met Lukas' deep brown eyes and defiantly refused to look down although something in her felt it's necessity.

He walked up to her and looked closely. Taking in her burns, reading her black soul. He sniffed, and smiled.

"Someday, you could be useful. You have strength, and a bit of defiance that I find enjoyable. Resisting the pull of bowing is already a sign of skill in someone so young.  Tell me your name, and more importantly who it was that turned you."

Calina raged. She didn't want to be useful or strong. She wanted her head to thump against the wall. She wanted an ending. She hissed and lunged forward in her chair. Luka laughed. No sign of surprise or fear. The men at his side pounced. Luka lifted his hands and they retreated to their statue state.

"Loyal to a traitor are you?  Let's see if he's loyal to you. You are no longer welcome here. Not in this area, not under my protection or my worry. If you decide yourself worthy of giving me information I will reconsider. But until then you will live like an animal. And if I find you feeding on humans and being noticed, I will bind you in a cave for eternity. Chains your only sounds. Blackness your only sight. You will wish for your ending even more than you do now. Eternity is a very long time.  Perhaps we can speak again, when you've learned submission and the gift of the group. There are others like you out there, beneath the city. Like sewer rats. But they don't last long without a home or steady supply of food."

The men smiled and released her bindings. A bag was placed over her head and the next thing she remembered was waking up beneath the city. Dirty and with her throat burning from thirst. A drive to feed so powerful she drained dozens of rats before she could begin to process where she had went wrong. Her anger swarmed. And a desire for revenge burned deep within her matching the level she had felt in her throat. She had not deserved this. He had known she begged for an end. And in that moment she decided. Her ending would wait. He would pay for her misery. She would kneel, but only in the blood of a maker.  He may not have turned her, but instinctively she knew he was the river of death, the key to all who had killed and abandoned her.

Instinct told her evening approached. She felt renewed. This day had indeed refreshed her will. Ignoring the thrum of the hive coursing through her she smiled. Tonight's meal would be a celebration. Luka couldn't control what he had banished, she knew this because she couldn't understand the beacon of the hum. And a thirst for revenge was almost as sweet as a dear one.

Hello. Thanks for being here. I'm told people like notes so I'll do my best. I prefer to be silent in the background of books to keep it magical, but here it goes:
So most of this is written in a memory of Calina showing her hatred for Luka and why it exists. She's right. In this world Luka is the only one whose able to turn others. Him, or those select few he shares his blood with. Should be easy enough to catch the traitor right?  But what about Calina. Will Luka find her out, or will Hoyt and Tessa be the ones to bring her down?  (If anyone can) 😚

Thank you for reading and feel free to comment. It helps see where I'm heading and what I may be missing.