Supernaturals

22. He saw her

DECLAN

As many would expect, my new powers were a little too exciting and this excitement didn't come from me alone. Both Ashley and Rochu were very intrigued by my demon nature.

I guess telekinesis was a little more fun than we had thought. Come on, the powers were amazing. Telekinesis, black fire, flight—it was all mind-boggling.

We didn't know where to go and how to survive. Vampires needed blood to survive and so far we hadn't seen any animal. Of course, we were strong enough to last weeks before we would become too weak to move, but the idea of having nowhere to go wasn't really helpful.

Ashley had kept telling me that we needed a plan to end the vampire kind and I just couldn't think of a way. Demon power or not, there was no way I stood a chance against Landon and the thousands of loyal vamps that were around him.

“We need to find a way,” Ashley said as we walked. “This has to stop now, and it wouldn't if we keep sitting on our hands.”

“We are not exactly sitting on our hands, it's just that there's nothing we can do now.”

She shook her head in disagreement. “Declan, there's always something to do, the question is whether we are ready to do it or not.”

Rochu chipped in. “Maybe we should find a place to stay and rest.”

“Let's make that our number one priority,” I supported.

“What are you guys talking about?” Ashley thundered, her voice a little louder than usual. “We should keep walking and then make plans to end it all.”

Ashley was obsessed with ending the vampire kind. Funny enough, this obsession of hers didn't start now. She had always wanted this, she had always thought that the vampires were beings created by mistake, and had taken it upon herself to correct that mistake.

While she never admitted it, it was quite known to many that she had killed several vampires who attacked humans.

I held her and cupped her face in my hands. “I know this means so much to you and you know that I'm with you on this. But we have to be alive before we can do anything meaningful. Deep down inside of that heart of yours, you know that.”

Her eyes were becoming teary but she resisted it and fòrcéd a smile.

“I understand, let's keep going, we will find somewhere.”

It was because of the dèáths she had seen. I could remember how long she would cry as a kid whenever a human was fôrcéd into vamp territory. Many of us then didn't like it, but Ashley's hate for killing humans was way different. Dare I say, extreme. It was like everything she saw broke her from within. Slowly; one experience at a time.

Just as we walked, barely saying anything and listening to Rochu humming, we saw an old man.

He was sitting by the road, all weak and tired. The man was definitely in his eighties and seemed to have issues with his left leg that he clung to firmly. His skin looked very pale and the little tattered pieces of clothing on him were very dirty.

“Before you ask, let me tell you. I have no money, no food, no nothing. There's nothing to steal so you can all scurry away.”

Funny that he thought we wanted to steal from him. The world was where it was and stealing was still a pressing issue. How petty humans were.

“I don't think you have anything anyone would want,” Ashley told the man, barely even looking at him.

“Are we leaving him here?” Rochu inquired.

Ashley shrugged, almost acting like the man whom she talked about was present. “We have a mission that's more important than any one person. Of course, we are leaving him.”

“No, we are not,” I said, staring at the weak octogenarian whose voice was barely audible. “Just look at him, we can't leave him.”

“Yes, we can.”

“No, we can't.”

Ashley dug her hands into her hair in utter frustration. “Can't you see that our mission is so damn near to being impossible? Why the f*ck is this even something to talk about?”

“Because he's an old man who won't last one more hour by himself.”

“He has been quite well without us.”

“You call this quite well?”

“Declan, what's wrong with you? The man is old and probably in the stage where he doesn't care about dyíng anymore.”

I was not going to argue with Ashley. It was no use anyway. I will do just what I think is right, and now, that is helping this man.

“How did you get here and is there anywhere we can take you to?”

The man gave me a long stare and exhaled noisily. “Yes.”

“Where's that?” I asked.

“I know a kind young gentleman who stays with his younger sister.”

The old man went on to tell us how he had struggled to stay alive all by himself. From what I heard, it was like he had almost lost his life countless times. Living in this time was difficult for even Supernaturals, no surprise an eighty years old human had it hard.

“If you know people, why not stay with them?” Rochu asked.

It was a solid question. Why stay alone since you know you are old and have very little chances of fighting zombies or running away from danger?

“The world's very hard already, nobody wants an extra mouth to feed, especially when that mouth belongs to an old man who can't do sh*t to help.”

Good point.

“Can you walk? Good. We have to continue moving.”

Ashley held my shoulder and whispered into my ears. “You are not taking this seriously.”

“We take him somewhere safe and then continue our mission.”

She frowned at me. “You can't be serious.”

“We take him somewhere safe and then continue our mission," I said, saying exactly what I said earlier.

“You do know that time isn't—”

I cut in, repeating myself—again.

“Sorry, but you would have to carry me. My legs are too weak to move.” The old man said.

I smiled at the old man, bringing my hands before me. “Who said anything about carrying anyone?”

While flying with Ashley, Rochu and the old man, we got to the house the man was talking about in no time.

It was weird to see that ‘flying’ was a normal thing for me now.

The house that the old man was talking about had several fences created to prevent the zombies from entering. It was like an anti-zombie measure, not efficient for stopping humans or Supernaturals.

Then I felt her. She had been here. Perhaps it was because of my demon nature because I could feel that the witch I saved that day was here. At least, she had been here at some point.

It was easy to express it but I managed to tell Ashley what I felt as we got into the house. Since I awakened my demon powers, it was like I got to learn something new about myself as the days passed.

“She's the only one you ‘sense’?” Ashley asked, not sure if I had my senses intact.

“Yes, and it's a little disturbing because I don't understand why,” I said as I wondered what exactly was happening.

Ashley plopped down on a couch. “This is disturbing in more than just one way.”

“Ashley, I'm going to track her down, I think she's close.”

Ashley brows were raised as she spoke. “What the hell is wrong with you? How does that help our mission? The idea is that we make plans on how to end the vampires. So far we have done nothing.”

Ashley was right but there was no way I was considering not going in search of the witch. If she was close, I was going to see her no matter what.

Ashley didn't bother to argue with me, lately, she hadn't been having much success doing that.

“Ashley, I'm going, I'll be back soon.”

“How soon?”

“A few hours at most.”

After saying this, I broke into a run out of the house and jumped into the sky. I would get back to Rochu and Ashley, who stayed with the old man for the meantime.

I hadn't gotten the hang of this demon power stuff but I was sure she wasn't too far away. And if that was the case, I would find her quickly because the gift of flight, if not anything else, was a time saver.

I wondered whether the witch was after me. There was no reason to say that but it wasn't unwise to have it in mind that she was probably on a mission to kill me. She said so herself.

She didn't stand a chance anyway, especially now that I was way stronger than ever. Even as just a vampire, she wasn't much of a match.

It took me fifteen minutes of flying around—though not knowing where exactly to look as the feeling of the witch was getting fainter by the moment—before I spotted some figures down.

I launched down but kept my distance from them.

There were about four adults and a little girl standing beside the fence of a very big fenced settlement. I recognized three of the adults—they were the friends of the beautiful witch whom I saved the other day.

This meant she was close.

The guy that I didn't know was human, just like the little girl whose hands he held. Humans weren't particularly easy to see these days so it got me wondering what exactly was happening.

It hit me. I was getting weaker. My breath became increasingly unstable and my sight blurry. I couldn't help myself as I fell to the ground, struggling to get air in my lungs.

Nothing else could cause this but vervain. I wasn't sure how but it seemed whatever species lived in the settlement weren't taking any chances at all. Somehow, they had managed to bury vervain everywhere. Probably made sprays because the odour was killing.

If not that I knew better, I'd say that I was dying.

As I lay on the ground, barely seeing anything beyond my nose, someone hit my head with something. Whatever it was, it was big and heavy because it knocked me out in seconds.