Lucius - Thousand Year Old Vampire - Part 16

44.1 Alexandros protected me and Claudia from the watchful eyes of the mortals. Even I was getting better at blending in again under his tutelage. Alexandros seemed a master of their world. Not just that he still was a mortal, he had an eye for details understood the subtle whims of the modern humans. Still he missed the real danger, when an immortal came calling.

My brother Quintus stood over me as I woke up. Something awoke within me, I could feel the beginning of a smile on my lips. Then I saw his face. Quintus hadn’t come to reunite.

Alexandros lay still on the floor. I heard him breathing so he was just knocked out. I rose hesitantly. Quintus held my hammer, the tip of it dripped with oily blood. Claudia was in the next room. She was bleeding from the head but I saw her moving, trying to get up to sitting.

“You decided to finally wake up,” Quintus said.

I was going to say that I woke up a decade ago, but realized he meant for the day. Instead I swallowed and tried not to think about Fabia. My brother looked exactly like I remembered him. It must have been more than 150 years ago. He looked like the day before I mauled him and turned him into an immortal by accident.

Claudia, my second accident, was sitting up now in the next room. I saw her touch her head wound and then smell the blood. She tried to stand but was unable to get up.

“You know Lucius, I have watched you over the years. I am a patient man and have waited and waited to seek you out. Not a day has gone by that I didn’t wake up wanting to rush over and kill you. But that wouldn’t be right, would it. Do you have any clue why I waited for so long?”

I was on my feet now trying to find a way out. I didn’t want to fight my brother. Both because he was my brother but also I didn’t think that I’d stand a chance against him. I might be able to make a run for it, but that would mean leaving Claudia. Alexandros as well for that matter.

“You have a debt to pay me Lucius,” Quintus continued. Claudia was on her knees but fell over again. Alexandros stirred but it wouldn’t be of any help here.

“I have no coins,” I said.

“Gold? Do you think I’m here for gold?” Quintus screamed at me. “You murdered my wife and son. Love, your debt is that of love. But you don’t love anything, so there’s nothing for me to take.”

Quintus threw my hammer at me, I tried to dodge and at first thought he’d missed me. Then I saw my lyre, the hammer had smashed into it. Since I woke from my long sleep, it felt too brittle to handle. I’d seldom played in the last decade out of fear of ruining it.

The lyre was in pieces now, I’d rather have wanted him to strike me in the head with that hammer. I grabbed the hammer from the ruined lyre.

When I turned around he was there. He signaled the swing and I saw the fist coming. Still it came too fast for me to react. The blow struck me to the floor. He had destroyed my lyre. The pain grew, did he even understand how he’d hurt me?

“I can’t wait another hundred years for you to find a love that I will take. No, I’ve waited for too long already. It’s time to say goodbye once-brother.”

The rock hit him in the temple and knocked him into the wall. That Claudia had the aim and could throw something that hard shocked me. She shouted that I should run.

I am a hunter, but also a survivor. I ran for the streets. My body tensed until I heard him following me. I’d been afraid that he’d kill both Claudia and Alexandros when I ran. But he must have thought that I didn’t care about them, so he wouldn’t spare them a second thought.

As we ran I heard him get closer. Then I saw the river spreading out ahead of us. I jumped in and swam. With a few quick strokes I was heading down river. Quintus was in the water but didn’t seem to know how to swim. I was safe.

Later that evening I met up with Claudia and Alexandros at our house. The house burned and the fire consumed the buildings next to it as well.