Reincarnation

Rebirth

Elliot James Thomas

I still remember everything. My life ended in a moment of violence to protect a girl I had hardly known for a day. Her strange multi-colored eyes were glossy, red-lined, brimming in tears and locked in place in silent agony. Seeing what he was doing to her. It woke up this fire inside of me. I didn’t know the asshole would have a gun… It all happened so fast.

Tori was ripped apart in an inhuman instant. Blood. So much… In my anger, I recognized the voice that materialized in the darkness. It sounded familiar but created a throbbing sharp pain in my temples.

I had felt like I was losing my mind that entire day.

The fog made my rage so much worse.

“You’ve done well… Elios.” He whispered, a strange look in his dark eyes, as if he were reliving a memory.

Elios… Why did that sound so familiar…?

“You have no idea how satisfied I will be to do this.” His mouth spread into a disturbing grin. “I shall see you on the other side, with you knowing me as your master.”

Before I could even comprehend what he said, he continued: “You did well, your service ends here.”

After that, I felt a horrific pain in my neck. Swift. The rage never left me… Not even afterwards…

There’s not much I like to think about when it comes to coming back.

I woke up, that violence still inside of me. She had to be dead. Afterwards, my new master, who I came to know as Cross, personally, had a hand in my training. For a while, I didn’t even revisit my human life.

Months later, Cross became different. Some part of him didn’t even seem as enthused about serving The Master. Instead, with his new behavior, came a new scent that completely took me off my guard. A scent that completely overpowered everything inside of me, yet one that was attached to someone else. My master.

It was then I realized that she was alive. A whole world I didn’t even know about as a human, was suddenly the entirety of my existence. For a while, I kept it a secret, but with my refreshed anger, came the hunger… The thirst. For the longest time, I lived in a blood red haze. I fed and did so heavily. Afterwards, the guilt would set in, an echo of my lost humanity. I hated myself. I hated the world. And for a while, I resented her.

I thought my last unforgiving act was killing my ex-girlfriend.

Courtney…

No attachment lost, a side effect of my hatred and resentment. I thought by killing her I would end the torturous voices screaming at me.

Murderer.

Soulless…

I had no choice but to give in to my fate and serve The Master.

While Cross was led astray by what should have been mine… If I had never died and become what I am…

I served well, shutting it all out. My emotion was my weakness, as I was constantly reminded by those around me.

Very well.

I harnessed it and did my duty… That is, until I saw her again for the first time since my death.

Her startlingly beautiful eyes… Defiant, yet defeated. She was kept captive to be a sacrifice for The Master so he could drain her of her blood and be revitalized with immortality.

Yet, watching it happen… Her eyes had found me and the defiance came back. She silently pleaded with me and the electricity between us sparked full force, consuming everything inside of me. This was my mate. I could feel it… I was never so sure of anything before.

I saved her.

Not just once, or twice, but three times. Each new exposure to her scent, not just the rich blood pumping in her veins that pulled me in like a magnet, but something else entirely… Each time, it grew harder to fight. It took three times.

Of course, my actions did not go unpunished.

The Master’s sick idea of retraining a vampire that strayed… The burns on my body from the crucifixes still stung. Not dissimilar to Cross’s own burns…

When he died, I felt that connection between them snap as I felt the connection forge itself between me and her with ten times the steel. I felt her pain when he was killed… It confused me and made me more resentful.

If I had never gotten involved with her escape. If her f*****g presence didn’t shake up every single core guilt and shame and RAGE that I had…

No…

I still sought her out… Until I didn’t.

The painful memory I was left with… I had never wanted her to know who I was. I felt like if she knew, then there would be no escaping it… I would have nothing left except to fall into her deep warm embrace… The scent of her hair… Her neck… Her essence…

I was swimming with her in those brief moments, even though I knew that it could not go on much longer.

She was my enemy.

For the longest time after our separation, I was haunted by her in my dreams. Tasting her, claiming her… The agony of not being able to do so… I had to shut her out, so I gave into the red haze. I would kill her from my system if I had to…

Instead, I harnessed my anger once more and gained rank amongst the vampires. With Cross dead, I was my own master and I had his blood flowing in my veins. A righteous victory. My revenge.

That is until that one memory started to creep in…

You’ve done well… Elios.

Elios… I never did find out why exactly he called me that. I didn’t remember after I had woken up again. So why, all of a sudden, was this particular memory coming back?

Even during the day, when I still had no energy except to sleep… I couldn’t do so without dreaming of that exact moment… The moment it all ended and the moment my new life began.

Even now… Three years later, another sleepless day watching the sun disappear from the corners of my blacked out windows.

I sat up begrudgingly and decided to prowl the city streets looking for my next meal.

I didn’t even enjoy it… After tasting her blood, nothing ever tasted the same again.

I looked down at my prey and sighed before tearing into my wrist. Fresh blood weeping out of the open wound, I let it seep into this man’s mouth. When he wakes up, he will feel The Master’s call adding to our slowly growing ranks.

I left him behind in the dark alleyway to let him be reborn amongst the trash. Perhaps it will be nearly daybreak by the time he wakes, but if his instincts are strong enough, he should be fine. If not, then he was fodder to the sun… Never to be seen again, not even by humans.

Ashes.

I left him to it without even a pardoning glance. I had a quota to fill.