The Last Chance (sequel to A Hundred Lifetimes)

Two

“Miss Baker,” Mary whistled, sounding impressed as she lightly elbowed Chiara, “you didn’t tell us you were part of a cult, you nasty dog, you.”

“It’s because I’m not part of one,” Chiara whispered back, unsure of what to say as three women stayed still kissing the ground before her. “I don’t even know these people!” she frantically told Clarissa and Mary. Nevertheless, it wasn’t as if she could just leave these women kneeling outside of the gate. So, she cleared her throat and slightly leaned down. “Um, excuse me, but, can you, um, can you, like, stand up?”

“As you wish,” the lady in front said, and just like that, the three were up on their feet again with their heads hung humbly low.

“Um, I don’t really know you or how you know me, but, is there anything I can do for you?” Chiara reluctantly asked.

“We wish only for a moment of your time,” the woman said “May we come in?”

Chiara kept her mouth shut and turned to look at Clarissa and Mary with a questioning look. Her hesitancy was not uncalled for—after all, the last time she let a seemingly innocent woman who needed some help, she turned out to be a vampire who was aiming for Chiara's throat. Of course letting three unfamiliar people in—especially without Dorian around—was like asking for trouble.

The two women at the back glanced at each other knowingly then one of them whispered to the one at the front. The woman slightly nodded and kindly smiled at Chiara. “Are you, perhaps, hesitant to let us in because we might be vampires?” she asked ever so casually.

Chiara's and Mary's eyes widened, which was already an answer in itself. “We assure you we are not,” the woman lightly chuckled. “To prove it to you, we will come in even without your invitation.”

Just like that the women stepped in one by one, the crystals on their neck clink clanking as they had to slightly lower their heads. Chiara was of average height, but these women were a good foot taller than her that she reckoned this was how female Gandalf’s would seem like—with all the mystical aura that surrounded them, and their wise, knowing eyes.

As soon as the first woman got a foot in, Chiara could immediately sense Mary tense up beside her as she went into automatic battle mode. Meanwhile, Clarissa had to step aside in a sort of panic to get out of their way.

“Vampires,” Chiara muttered as the last woman closed the gate behind her. “You know about them?”

“We will explain further,” the woman assured her, then she glanced at Mary and Clarissa, “in confidence.”

Mary raised an eyebrow at that. “Chiara here isn't going anywhere alone with you crystal-clad weirdos,” she defensively said, but when Clarissa gave her a stern look, she rolled her eyes and begrudgingly added, “with all due respect.”

“Miss Chiara Baker?” the woman turned to Chiara, as if just deciding to completely ignore Mary. “Will you need more time to think about it? We have waited for you for almost one and a half centuries. A few minutes more will be of no consequence to us.”

Chiara turned to Mary with an awed look. “Okay, now I really have to listen to them,” she said.

Also intrigued but still reluctant, Mary muttered, “Fine, but in the garden so we can see if any of them attack you. We don’t need that Hannah crap happening all over again. You know how long it took us to scrub your blood out of the floors?” but even as she heard a mouthful from Mary, Chiara and the other women were still led to the garden where they had just been having their afternoon tea. Once they had all been sat, the women looked at Mary and Clarissa imposingly until they finally left the vicinity.

“I'll go get more tea,” Clarissa had said. Meanwhile, Mary stared them down and said, “I'll go keep an eye on you three,” which only garnered at most one raised eyebrow.

“Alright,” Chiara began as soon as they were gone. On a small square table, she sat at one of the edges, and in front of her were all three, just looking at her—observing. “So you obviously know a lot about me and even vampires. Are you going to tell me now who you are?” she asked, trying to make it seem like she didn’t find this creepy at all.

“We are part or an Order,” one of them spoke. “Our great-great grandmothers knew who you and your family were.”

Chiara’s eyebrows furrowed. “That sounds like a long time ago. And you kept tabs on me?”

‘We have tried to, but as soon as you were born, you were hidden away by your grandmother due to your parents' plea; and we never found you again until we caught wind of the vampire Callahan talking about a woman whose blood was different.”

“So, you’re saying,” Chiara frowned in confusion, “that you guys, you have been looking for me for more than a century? Since I was a child?”

“Every generation of our family, yes.”

They had answered it so simply as if that was already an adequate explanation. “But why?” Chiara couldn’t help but ask.

“Because you are the Chosen Vessel by the jade, born at the time of a passing comet, destined to live a hundred lives.”

Chiara didn’t know what answer she was expecting from ladies with a bunch of crystals and matching boots to answer, but it definitely wasn’t that. Unable to cover her surprise and amusement, she scoffed and then chuckled. “A Chosen Vessel. Are you kidding with me right now?” she couldn’t help but ask, but the women's expressions remained straight.

“You laugh, Miss Chiara, because you have no idea of the power and responsibilities that weigh upon your shoulder,” a woman said. “You have been isolated for so long, unaware of your potential—which can be unlocked once you join the Order.”

“Look, this sounds like you’re trying to recruit me. I don’t even know what the Order does—or what you want me to do,” Chiara argued.

“The Order is the one thing keeping vampires from making humans into stock feed, and a Chosen Vessel such as yourself is supposed to lead us into keeping those monsters in line.”

“You will have to come with us for we must not waste any more time,” another said. “You have been supposed to learn everything since you were fifteen years old but you were kept from us, and the results turned out disastrous.”

“You kept shifting into people without any control because you have not been trained. It is only by pure luck that you managed to get back to your original form after more than a century. If you lose control of your shifting abilities once more, it would be difficult to find you once again.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Chiara held her hands up to stop them all from speaking all at once. She turned to the last person who spoke. “Are you telling me that I still have more lives? That the reason I’ve been shifting and shifting all these years was not to fulfill a promise?”

“A promise? No, but a duty as the Chosen Vessel.”

Chiara was taken aback. All these decades, she had thought wrong. She had held onto the feeling that she had to tell someone something—which turned out to be Clara's secret from Dorian—and now these women are telling her that the only reason she had been living different lives was because she was an untrained Chosen something.

“So,” Chiara slowly said, as if trying to make sense of everything. “You want me to come with you to train? To keep vampires in line? What does that even mean?”

“We will go through the details of your training later. For now, we should make haste. The person who owns this mansion you are currently staying in is Dorian, correct? An old vampire turned right around the time you first shifted.”

“Yes,” Chiara dubiously answered. “What does he have to do with any of this?”

The women looked meaningfully at each other. “A Chosen Vessel living with their kind is unheard of and it is already a miracle he hasn’t killed you.”

“Before he speaks of your existence to the Council, we must get rid of him.”