Lucius - Thousand Year Old Vampire - Part 13

31.1 Fabia’s visit had dazed me. I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t the real Fabia. In my heart I knew that it to be real, the Gods had intervened and plucked her from another time to give me another chance.

Another part of me cursed the Gods as cruel. It would be better if she was the granddaughter. To start fresh. Did Fabia have some deep memory of me killing her?

What if Quintus would tell her the truth? How would Fabia react if that happened? Would she look at me with horror in her eyes? Would she look at me at all?

Octavia saw how I brooded, how my mood changed. She told me that her child bearing days would be coming to an end and asked me if I wanted her to find someone who could get her with child. That Octavia’s son or daughter could continue to serve me.

She also wanted me to turn her. Octavia said that she didn’t want to be an old senile vampire like Claudia. My response to her was always the same. Later. I needed to think, but was too tired to focus.

I needed to find Fabia again and talk to her. Perhaps destroy Quintus first so that he wouldn’t expose me. I needed to figure out where Quintus had his lair. Fabia would know.

Thoughts were spinning around in my head relentlessly. Always the same questions. I never had any answers. I lay down to rest and let sleep take me.

I fell into a deep slumber. At first the outside world played at the edge of my mind. From afar I could hear shouts and screams. Occasionally, the entire dream world shook. There were still too many sensations, I pushed them away, reaching for a point where I could focus.

Colors faded. I felt close to serenity, but I pushed further wanting to block out it all. Then the world grew dark and silent. Dreams stopped coming. I stopped being. There was nothing.

Pain. Dull at first. Then searing. My eyes shot open, everything was too bright. I was blind. Pain radiated from my side and my neck. Two figures were holding me down. They noticed me moving.

I could hear them talking but their words escaped me. A deep growl emerged from my chest but came out as a cough. The silhouettes lessened their grip on me.

Sahylina had her claws deep in the wound at my side. Claudia had bitten me in the neck. Octavia was nowhere in sight.

My instinct told me to fight them, but I could barely move my arms. I felt weaker than I’d ever been. After my coughing stopped they helped me up to sitting.

Claudia looked different in some way, her eyes a bit sharper. Sahylina’s hair had changed. I tried to speak but my throat was too dry.

Sahylina began to wipe away my blood from her hand, I could still feel echoes from the pain it had caused. Claudia had a cloth and cleaned me with it.

“Where’s Octavia?” I croaked. They shared a glance and I could see that they hesitated. Claudia was about to speak but then remained silent.

“I told you once that I’d ask after a hundred years if you still felt joy,” Sahylina began. “This isn’t what I meant. That conversation will have to wait, this sleep does count.”

I just looked at her and then to Claudia, who hugged me. “Oh, Lucius, you fell asleep. Octavia died many years ago. She tried to wake you during the first few months and years. Throughout the years I’ve tried countless times. You were dead to the world.”

What she was saying made no sense. “I need to talk to Fabia,” I told them.

“She is dead,” Sahylina said. “You’ve been slumbering for a hundred years. Any mortal you knew have passed away, it’s the way of their kind. They come and go.”