New Short Story that I will be publishing on my website soon!
Jacked In
By Katherine Rochholz

Felicia didn’t know why she did it. But a friend talked her into playing an online computer game. And suddenly it became her life… No matter what she had to play, she had to be logged in, it was like the air she breathed, like the water she drank. She had to play this game. As the game drained her life force her mind was trying to fight the control. She needed her life back. Her mind was fighting to not only save herself… but all the others who were jacked in…

Theodore just sat there, I didn’t try to get in to his thoughts, but it was hard not to see the image I placed there. I was wild, red glowing eyes, my fangs showing, my attack and murder of my best friend turned enemy.

“Kat, what was your real name?” Theodore’s question shocked me, I had heard his heart pick up, I had smelled the fear, but his heart was returning to normal and he just asks a simple question.

I was so shocked I just simply answered. “My name was, is, Katyla, daughter of Johan, High Priestess of Atlantis.”

“High Priestess? Atlantis?” Theodore was shocked.

“Yes, I was a ruler. As my father and his mother before him, I did not lie about my mother dying in childbirth, or the age I was, my father taught me everything I was his only heir. There use to be another part of my name when I was introduced while I was human it was Katyla, daughter of Johan, wife of Triremes, High Priestess of Atlantis, I removed the wife part after I killed myself. The way we became to be, was my fault.”

“But Atlantis, the real Atlantis, the myth?”

“Yes, we were becoming to advanced and if they kept that rate of advancement up, well it would have ended in war, and people were becoming to corrupt. So they destroyed themselves. The call to do so was made by my sixth cousin. Who took over leadership four hundred and seventy five years after I died; he made the right choice, it would have been the same I had made if I was in his shoes. So Atlantis, my home, became nothing but a myth, the land that it once stood on, was torn down by the last invention that I had made, I had hid the plans, it would cause a disaster so great it would kill whatever was in a hundred and thirty seven mile radius, the exact radius of our island. My cousin built it and set it off with a remote, as he rowed from the island the last living soul to leave. I left moments before the blast, I needed to come and say good bye and to collect my hidden books and plans. He only found the plans because I left it in my old desk for my family to find. I knew what was going to come what was going to happen, it was Marcus’s first vision, he was only a child, right after I turned, he was just two, so I waited and snuck back to the island and placed it in my desk that my cousin’s wife was using. I have everything but those plans, that device should never be built again, it would destroy this world. I made sure that the device destroyed itself and the whole island and everything we had every written everything we had ever discovered, most went over to Egypt after all they were very advanced, or to what is now Central America, with the Mayans and the Aztecs. The only proof we ever existed are my journals and my work from my human life, and those will never see the light of day.”

“Sorry Kat, but the REAL ATLANTIS, you were the ruler of a mythical country?”

“It is only mythical because of the lack of evidence we existed. But yes I was born into royalty. My father died when I was thirteen I took control, I married soon afterwards just before I turned fourteen, and my husband was twenty. I had Marcus when I was fifteen. After that my husband and I had separate rooms, I had my heir that was all I needed so I turned a blind eye to his affairs. I did not love him; he was the warrior of our community, similar to the top general in the military, so it was a marriage of convenience. When I was seventeen I died, and now my soul is stuck on this planet, I came back as a monster that can not die. Now vampires existed long before me, but we are a different breed, the original vampires, turn human only during the winter months they feed and kill then hibernate until the next winter. There are many branches of vampires, our branch was created by me, by mixing of blood both human, bat, and unknown.” During this whole story Theodore just sits and listens, I see a range of emotions flash across his face from disgust to confusing to what I would guess as acceptance. “Anyways in the end I changed the person who once was my best friend and now we are enemies.”

“So what were you besides a queen when you were human?” Theodore was suddenly curious about my human life.

“I was what you could call a doctor or a scientist. We were medical people. We, I mean Argos and I, were working on a cure that was destroying our people. It was very similar to the flu, except it drained the body of fluids within days of the symptoms starting, they could lay dormant for days, weeks, months, but they would show all the same.”

“What happened?”

“It burned itself out, about two years after I died.” I stood up then. I had some spells to do, and I needed to find a place full of wildlife to do them. After getting my supplies. “I have to go now; I have magic to do before the sun sets.”

“But it is noon, the sun is at its highest now is it safe for you?”

“There is a lot of cloud cover today, so it will be fine. And I will be out in the woods performing the spells. Then tonight I shall take care of those who allowed Gavin close to you and Marcus.”

“Can I come with you?”

“NO! I mean no, I will need a lot of blood after I do the spells, if you are near me…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence, though it flashed through my mind and it hurt me just to think of it. At that moment I heard Marcus waking up. “Marcus is waking.”

“Good then we can have a sit down and discuss some things before you go off and do what you have to do.” Theodore stated as he walked up stairs to get Marcus.

I sat down defeated. I knew that we would have this talk before Theodore let go of the crazy idea I turn him before I turned Marcus. I knew that having this discussion so soon after meeting them was crazy. Why was everything moving so fast? Another question was why was time feeling like it was moving so fast after living over six thousand years. I was about to yell up to them that I was leaving when I saw them coming down the stairs.

“You were about to leave weren’t you?” Theodore said coming to sit next to me on the loveseat.

“Well, yes. There is a lot I have to get done before tonight.” I answered honestly.

“Dad wants you to turn him now.” Marcus blurted out. “If you turn him you should turn me!” Marcus wanted to be turned sooner rather then later.

“No! Look I know I don’t have the right to act like your mother, but Marcus I care for you and right now is not the right time to turn. You just need to be a bit older. Please. Finish high school at least.”

“How many times have you gone to high school?” Marcus asked.

“More then I care to remember, but you only do it as a human once there is so much to being a human. You don’t have to worry about losing control and killing your whole class. You can go out for sports. You can be a normal kid!”

“As normal as a kid can be, as a reincarnated vampire! Oh, and my dad wants to turn now before me! And you are older than the whole school put together, and you are connected to me as a mother figure because I am a reincarnation of your son.” Marcus paused for a second but I knew the question he was about to ask.

“Marcus, you would have remembered everything and everything would have happened as is, almost, if I hadn’t been here.”

“What do you mean almost?”

“Your friend would have died, your father and yourself killed by Gavin, he was Argo’s assassin.”

“What do you mean would have died? What happened?”

“Gavin showed up. He tried to kill your father that is where he got that scar on his hand. If I hadn’t been there it would have not ended as it did. And of course what happened last night. They would have figured a way out to get invited in, and they would have killed both of you without thinking. I still don’t know why Triremes is following Argos.”

“Who is Triremes?” Marcus asked, and I remembered I never told him who is father was, even back then.

“He was my husband.”

“Your husband?” Marcus was confused.

“My human husband. Argos turned him thinking I would want him around. Argos never married so he really didn’t understand the marriage of convenience that I had with Triremes.”

“So he was…”

“The other half I needed to have my son? Yes. Back then even though I was the ruler I still needed to have an heir. Which meant I had to get married. I never loved him.”

“Never?”

“No, he was the great warrior of our people, like the main general in the military today. I was the daughter of the late ruler who had taken control and was ruling a country since the age of thirteen. It made since.”

“Did you get a divorce?”

“I think death did that for us, there was no connection between us anymore.”

“Who was with him?”

“Kleopatra, the queen of the Nile, he had a thing for queens it seems.” I said with a kind of a sad smile. “I turned her for him. The other two I don’t know, I picked up on their names, but from what I felt, it seems Kleopatra made them only a couple of centuries ago.”

“Wow… So are you going to turn dad?”

“No. I will not turn anybody without them thinking this through.”

“You are going to turn me.”

“I have no choice. I wish I did. I don’t want this for you. I never really did. I was selfish when I let Argos change you. But if I don’t and Argos is allowed to control, then humanity is doomed.”

“Dad seems he really wants to be changed now.
“Will you stop talking about me like I am not here?” Theodore spoke up for the first time.

“We are having a rational conversation. He knows you want me to turn you I have to let him know where I stand.” I stated to Theodore, and then turned back to Marcus.

“Don’t get me wrong, if he wants to turn and he has thought it through then I will. But a new vampire is not able to be around humans very much. The need for blood is so strong in the beginning. And though I live on animal blood it never smells as good as human blood, nor does it taste as good. They can’t be in any type of sunlight. They would die.”

“But you walk in the sun.”

“But I do burn, just not as bad, after a while it will be fine for a new vampire to walk in the sun if that is what they want. Most vampires believe that the sun will destroy them so it does. It is all workings of the mind and of nature. I have only met a few other vampires that can walk in the day like I do.”

“So if you turn him…”

“We would have to leave. You could stay of course if you liked, as this is a boarding school. And it might be better if you allow your father to change before you. After all you are not turning until you are at least seventeen.” I stated with finality in my words.

“Well that is only about a year away. It is dad’s choice if he wants change now that is fine. I can stay here for another year.” I could tell that Marcus, my Marcus was coming out. The need for revenge. He really didn’t care if his father turned early. In his mind, even though he was just told that I was his soul’s mother and Triremes was his soul’s father, he only had one dad, and he wanted him around forever. I knew he had made up his mind about turning and he wanted his revenge against Argos. Though Marcus, this Marcus, loved his father, and he knew what was waiting if I turned him, he was okay with that, and with Theodore and I being an item. That last thought was a surprise. Such a surprise I almost missed the next words he stated. “Actually I think it is a good idea. Then I will have both you and dad to help me once I am turned.”

“See even he agrees.” Theodore said with a smug smile.

“That look does not become you.” I stated glaring at him. “This is forever, there is no going back. There is no natural death after this. And we would have to leave before I changed you. It would look very strange if both you and I left at the same time.” I was going to try everything to postpone the moment I would I would have to cause him his last moments of human pain.

“I will just tell the school I resign due to the fact I fell for a student teacher. That is against rules.” Theodore stated.

“Actually it isn’t, just sleeping with that student teacher and that hasn’t happened!” I was going to try any little loophole.

“They don’t know that.”

“You know you guys fight this out, I am going to up to play my X-box. Better yet, I am going down to Chris’s.” Marcus stated as he grabbed his coat and walked out of the door leaving Theodore and I alone.

“Now that we are alone we can have a serious conversation.” Theodore stated.

“No. I have to go get my supplies and then do what I have to do.” I stated and then bent down kissed him and then left before he could say another word.

I went to my contact here for my supplies. When I walked in I knew something was off. “Stephy? What is going on?” I walked in and found her sitting in front of her tarot deck; her long light brown hair was a mess, her make-up running.

“The cards they state that my ancestors have betrayed someone. This betrayal brings death.”

“Stephy are you relate to the Salem coven?” I asked.

“Distantly, but yes.”

“I need to do a truth spell. I need to know who betrayed me.”

“What happened?”

“Someone who shouldn’t have got though the concealments did get through.”

“Here are the candles, feathers, oils, and other supplies that you need.” Stephy stated she grabbed all the required ingredients needed and put them in a bag. “Don’t kill him please.”

“If he was not involved his life will be spared.” I stated, and then left before she could respond again. I could not know if her love was part of those who betrayed me but I knew he was much more closely related then she was, that is why she was going to be able to live.

It was two o’clock by the time I found an empty bit of woods, which had plenty of wildlife. I set up the alter and put out the bowl of water, the candles, the feathers, the athame and the herbs of the earth. I called to the heavens to show me the truth and suddenly I was standing and watching the betrayal.

“I shall not kill you if you allow me in to the school.” Gavin was stating.

“I don’t know how you found out about this place!” Franklin was stating.

“The other witches in your coven told me, but they stated you placed the final protection of the spell in place and only you can break it. Do so or I kill you and it breaks anyways.” Gavin responded.

“I shall never betray those who showed loyalty to my ancestors!” Frank said and Gavan, then at that moment drained him and dropped his body. Breaking the spell that protected my loved ones, and I now know the truth. Stephy’s love was killed because he refused to betray me, but the other witches of his coven gave the information to betray me, they would die tonight.

After I had hunted and filled up, I waited for dusk. Once dusk came I went to the coven. “I, Katyla, promised to protect you as long as you never betrayed me. You have broken your oath for that your death is called upon.” I started to do my worst, I tried to shut off my feelings, and I could barely feel the fire and the knives they threw at me. When it was done, I could barely look at what I had done. I cleaned up and left a letter for Stephy, as this was all hers now. I also told her about Frank.

Then I went back to my dorm to clean up. By nine that night I was back in front of Theodore’s and Marcus’s home.

My phone was ringing when I got back to the dorm, I was very reluctant to pick up the phone but I did. “Hello.”

“Katyla, that was not very nice to run out on me.” Theodore was on the other end.

“I know, but I…”

“Look, I don’t want to rush you, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable around me, I will let you decide when we go any further then we have gone.”

“I am afraid…” I didn’t know how to tell him I was afraid of killing him.

“Nothing to fear, I told you I will not rush you.”

“It isn’t being close to you in that way….” I struggled on how to explain it. “It is being close to you in that way and losing control that I fear, I could kill you, even though I don’t want to.”

“Is it the smell of my blood?”

“No, it is because of my strength, if I allowed myself for one second to lose control, I might kill you and I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.”

“Then turn me.” Theodore demanded.

“I don’t want to cause you that pain.”

“You will turn me someday. Why not now, today?”

“We would have to leave, you would be so new, you will want to feed all the time, and animal blood is not as tempting as human.”

“Then we leave, I have no contract here.”

“But Marcus must be in school.”

“He can go to school, we will just move somewhere else for a while. Marcus can finish his schooling anywhere.”

“Look we should discuss this in person and with Marcus.”

“So come back home.” Theodore called his place home, and I couldn’t believe how good that sounded.

“Let me grab some things and I will come back over.”

“Good I will leave the door open for you. See you soon.”

“Bye.” With that I hung up the phone and slide to the floor. For the second time in my existence seriously thinking about turning someone for my own selfish needs, like with Marcus, I wanted Theodore forever. What was I going to do? It was only a few moments but it seemed like forever before I moved again. I was lost in my thoughts; did I really want to turn Theodore because of my selfish wants? Would it really be worth making Marcus move to a new school again? In the end as I grabbed a shower and a change of clothes, I decided, no it was not worth it. I would just have to be strong enough not to hurt Theodore, no matter how far we went before I turned him. Just fifteen minutes later I was back at Theodore’s house, and even though the door was unlocked I knocked. Theodore immediately opened the door.

“Katyla,” he said my name like he was getting relief from pain just by seeing me. “Come in, I told you I would leave the door open.” What did I do to become worthy of a soul mate, I knew they existed but I have done so much evil why would God give me a soul mate? And I knew now that was what Theodore was to me.

“It is just polite to knock before entering.” I wanted to make sure he wanted me there, for the first time I really feared rejection.

“Okay,” he rolled his eyes, and took me into his arms. I tensed, I wasn’t gone that long but I had changed clothes and washed his scent off me, so the smell of his blood hit me like a wrecking ball. “What is wrong?” He was confused, he started to pull away.

But I held on tight. “Nothing, nothing at all, I was just away from your scent for too long, it hit me strongly like it did the first time.”

“You were gone only about twenty minutes.” Theodore didn’t know what it meant that I was away from him too long, but he liked the sound that twenty minutes was too long.

“I took a shower, I changed clothes, and your scent was no longer with me at that point. So my system just took a shock and I tensed.”

“You tensed up the first day in class. Was it my scent?” He kept a hold of me but moved backwards towards the couch.

I did not answer until we were seated on the couch, his arm around me. “Yes, I must have thought of a million ways to get you alone to drain you, and then I heard you speak. I wasn’t paying attention until you said my name. Then it was like the sound of your voice was the only thing in the world. And the war began the vampire and woman fighting against each other. The war rages on, I don’t know who will win at times, I just need to be honest with you.”

Theodore remained quiet for a couple of minutes, his cheek against my head, at first I thought maybe he had fallen asleep, his heart beats were steady and calm, and then he spoke.

“Katyla, why won’t you turn me?”

“I told you.” We just had this conversation, why was he asking again.

“Those are excuses. Marcus was uprooted once and he is doing fine. I am sure he will understand leaving again.”

“But now is not a time to uproot him again. Especially with Argos after him, somehow Gavin was able to get past spells that could keep back the most powerful witch.”

“You said that you didn’t do very many spells, maybe they were weaker than you think.”

“I didn’t place them. There is a local sect of witches, they have generations of power behind them, and they are some of the most powerful in the world. I had them set them. They are loyal to me. I speared their ancestor.” I didn’t want to say the words out loud that the only way for Gavin to have gotten past the defenses, was if one of them betrayed me. I thought of the agreement I had made with their ancestor and updated each generation. If they betrayed me and I found out about it they were to die. Their death would be that of a traitor. Which for a witch is to be burned at the stake, people forget they did that to traitors and witches. For a witch to be called a traitor and burned at the stake is a great hit to the family name it will take centuries to repair.

“Could they have undone the spells, let this Gavin in?” Theodore was thinking what I could not bring myself to think.

“I don’t know, I have trusted them for so long. I don’t trust easily, and I am bound by a contract with them to kill the traitor. I don’t know if I want to kill anymore, but I will have to find out. I can’t have Marcus and you in danger.” I knew all I would have to do is perform a truth spell it would show me what happened then I would have to burn the witch at the stake. And to keep those I loved safe I would kill the traitor and their family to make an example of what happens when you cross someone as powerful as me, I lied to Theodore, that I don’t have a strong witch’s power, I do, but don’t use it as it requires more and more blood to regain my strength.

“How would you prove something like that anyway?” Theodore asked as he twisted my hair in his fingers.

“A truth spell, if I do that spell and I find the traitor I will kill them Theodore, I am going to warn you now, the death will not be pretty and nobody is going to point fingers at me, but all witches will know who and why.”

“Why not let them get away with it? I mean like strip their power and let them live or something like that why do you have to kill them?”

“They… it is something I can’t really explain. If I had betrayed them I would expect them to try to punish me. Not that they would have succeeded but I would have expected them to try. I will perform the spell and take care of it while you sleep. This is not something you will witness.”

“Like hell! You are not going to put yourself in danger without me around!” Theodore thought I could get hurt!

I sat up though he tried to keep me against him; I easily stood up and looked straight in his eyes. “Theodore, I cannot be injured, well I can, but mere mortals will not cause my demise. You will see the news what is going to happen and I will not allow you to see me like that. I hate taking human life, in fact I haven’t killed in over two thousand years, and today I may have to destroy a whole generation of people. You will not bear witness to that! So we can do this the easy way or the really easy way!” I was not going to let them use him against me.

“Okay let’s see my choices are you go alone kill a bunch of very powerful witches who could hurt you, and I just let you. Or you make me let you and then we have our first real fight.” Theodore was mad I would even threaten to use mind control on him.

I sighed and sat down on the coffee table, and took his hand in mine. “Theodore, there will be blood, there will be screaming, they will try to stop me, they will hurt my physical form, none of that bothers me. But with you there as a mortal they will try to kill you to hurt me. If I put you in that danger and you were hurt, or…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word. “No you are not going, I won’t use my mind control on you but I can prevent you from leaving this house and I will use the spell if I need to do that. In fact I need to place a spell on the place to prevent the other vampires to see inside or to find the place.”

“They have already been here, and if you are hired the witches before how are you going to be able to do the spell without them?” Theodore was confused about my saying I would do the spell.

“I am powerful in the spells I know, it is the need for blood afterward I need that prevents me from performing the spells myself. And I can make it so they can’t find the street again; they will be turned away from this section, not able to sense a spell or us.” I stood to leave, to get my materials for my truth spell.

“Kat, if it is not the witches you hired, but another group what will you do?” Theodore was sure of the answer before the question finished forming in his mind.

“Nobody and I mean nobody will put those I love at risk and live to tell about it any longer.” I knew I was going to kill whoever it was that allowed Gavin in the school, who allowed them to almost kill Theodore.

“I still think I should go with you, you can turn me then I won’t be killed.” Theodore was going to push the issue of being turned until I turned him.

I sat back down on the coffee table and took his hand again and looked him straight in the eye. “Love, you will be dead for three days before you return as a vampire for one, and for two a new vampire is very weak, they burn in the sun, they are effected by the slightest bit of light and can be killed in almost any way that stops the brain from working, so you see you would not be much use to me in this battle, will it help in other areas yes. But, love, we can’t be selfish.”

“Why not, why can’t you turn me for our own selfish needs?” Theodore really didn’t see how bad it could really be for a new vampire.

“Theodore I am going to do something, don’t be mad but I am going to show you a new vampire.” I placed my hand on his head and transferred a memory of mine, my first memories as a vampire. I showed myself waking up, I showed myself burning in the sun, I showed him how when the smell of Argo’s hit me, I turned to an animal, turning him accidently. Then I stopped, placed my hand back on his and waited for him to tell me he didn’t want me that he could never be a monster and never be with a monster like me.

Chapter Seven

Theodore went to lift my head up so he could look into my eyes.

“No!” I didn’t want him to see the blood stained tears.

“Katyla, look at me.” Theodore just kept his hand on my chain.

I looked up. New tears started to spill, he was shocked.

“Your tears they are…umm… pinkish…” He was lost for words.

“Yes, they would be blood red, if I fed off humans. But since I don’t, they are pinkish, as are my eyes.” With that I dropped the spells I placed around me; they only hid my eyes.

“My God…” I could feel the shock go through him.

I turned away. “I never really wanted you to see me this way; I hid the color of my eyes.” I knew he saw the reddish, pinkish color of my eyes.

“Why are they that color?”

“I am a dead being, my soul is trapped for eternity on this planet, I have to survive on blood, and I choose animal blood.”

Theodore just looked in my eyes for a moment, and then did something that truly shocked me, he kissed me. It was a feather light kiss, just a brushing of the lips. “No more lies, Katyla.”

“No more. I promise you, no more lies to you, and once I tell Marcus the truth, no more to him.” I can’t believe he wasn’t kicking me out, yelling at me to stay away, he was holding me, and he kissed me.

“What are you going to tell Marcus?”

“Nothing, his memories are coming back to him, he may have a few questions about the last two thousand years, but he is remembering everything now. I must warn you when he comes of age and I turn him, he may start acting more like my Marcus then your Marcus, they are one in the same.”

“Let’s cross the bridge when we get there. So what have you done in the past two thousand years?” Theodore was curious now about the men in my life; that I saw clear as day. I laughed.

“I wrote books on Shakespeare, and other people of ancient time, Cleopatra is a vampire you know? Of course she is also my ex-husband’s lover, I changed her for him. She spells her name with a K now.” I rolled my eyes, I created her and she acts like she is above me. “Shakespeare was a total bore, and annoying. Other than that, the last few centuries, I have been going to school, high school, college; I even fought for the woman’s right to vote, Susan was a very interesting woman to be around. I have written textbooks, I have written fiction, I have forged documents, I have fought in wars. There are so many things, I was a famous artist, famous writer, an actress, but they all died under mysteries circumstances. But never once did I find someone like you.”

“Like me how?”

“Someone who smells so sweet, someone whose kisses I want more then their blood. I have only ever been with my husband and that was almost six thousand years ago and when Marcus was born, we had separate rooms, I had my heir.”

“What is this about me smelling so sweet?”

“Human blood is sweet, vampires crave it, and being around it is a huge temptation, when I was younger, I didn’t even try to stop myself until my son met his bride. We didn’t kill mind you; we messed with the memories of the humans, the majority of the time. But there were accidents, I won’t lie. I have barely been tempted in the last two thousand years, but you, I am torn between biting you and kissing you.”

“What would happen if you bit me?”

“I don’t think I would be able to stop, your blood is my only weakness, and you distract me, with more then just your scent.”

“Is that what attracts you to me, my scent?”

“At first, it was all I could register, but there is something about you, I think I would rather kiss you then bite you.”

“Well, that is something, I can help solve.” With that he bent down and kissed me again. This time taking it further then just a brush of his lips, the kiss deepened, until we were laying on the loveseat. Then I heard Marcus’s thoughts, he was waking up, I glanced at the clock, it was eight in the morning, and Theodore was moving down my neck.

“Theodore…mmm… Marcus is getting up…ohh…” Theodore moved, quite reluctantly, away from me, to the point he pulled us both into a sitting position, but kept me pressed up against him. When he touches me, I am thankful that I learned how to keep a handle on my strength around humans, I could so easily kill him, and I am beginning to think I will not be able to go much further with him, without changing him. He already distracts me to the point of insanity, if I ever lost full control with him, I would kill him.

“Marcus will know when he comes down?” Theodore asked as he laid his chin on the top of my head.

“Yes, this will make for a very interesting morning. At least there are no classes for another week.”

“Hmm… you know if we take you back to the dorm this morning, there will be lots of gossip, you should just stay here. I am sure Marcus will go back to sleep after asking you the many questions he is bound to have.” Theodore was sending some clear images of me and him, and we weren’t on the couch.

I looked over to him and he had a knowing smirk on his face. He had figured out what I meant by clear images. We heard Marcus coming down the stairs. We waited for him to sit down which he did, on the chair in front of the loveseat. We waited for him to talk.

“First question, do you know dad?”

“Yes.” Theodore answered.

“Are you okay with it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, Kat, you were my mother in my other life?”

“Yes, I was.” I was answering now.

“Argos killed me, Rae, and my unborn baby?”

“Yes.”

“He had you stung up with something, it looked like a cross but it was weird, like silver but not, you were dying. Why didn’t he kill you?”

“He wanted me in pain. He had me strung up with silver on a wooden cross coated with silver; it burns into us, if blessed by a holy person.”

“So vampires are evil now?”

“Not if they choose not to be, but some are evil, if it has been blessed, they will work, if the person who wields it believes in the power, if you believe a cross will keep me back it will; if you don’t, it won’t. It is all about beliefs, and Argos believes blessed silver will keep us bound. So it kept me bound. I had to watch.”

“But he tortured you; he killed Rae and the person I was quickly.”

“He made you watch your bride die, he made you watch the torture I had to endure, then he killed you, and cut my throat and released the chains and left. The worse thing he ever did was to not kill me after what he had done. You and Rae and that unborn child of yours, was my whole existence.”

“Okay, so what now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you turn me again, do we fight Argos again?”

“No you have to find Rae first. She was the power behind you. Yes, you can see past lies, and see the future, but Rae was the other half of your soul. And you finish high school first. I will keep Argos and the others off our tail for the next two years, you concentrate on school.”

“The watch you gave me you made that for me six thousand years ago?”

“Yes.”

“You made that!” Theodore was shocked.

“Yes, I have made a lot of things, I have had centuries to do so, but the watch I made for Marcus in his first life, was when he turned sixteen and became a man. Back then he was a man. Today he is still a child.”

“I am not a child!”

“Marcus, I don’t mean mentally, I mean physically the world sees you as a child. Even the nature of vampires has changed. Vampires can have children, and the child is born human, and once it reaches adulthood the body turns itself. It used to be around age fifteen or sixteen, now it was around seventeen or eighteen. As society grows and changes, so do the laws of nature. Mentally you are an old soul. Your soul is almost six thousand years old. Look at me; do I look like an adult? People see me as one because of the age I say I am. I was seventeen when I died. I was fifteen when I had my son. Today that is considered way to young. Back then that was considered waiting, most girls were married at eleven or twelve and had their first child by thirteen. Today that would be married at around age twenty five and first child a year later. My age at fifteen would be considered waiting until after I was thirty. So as you see the world changes, and so does the laws of nature.”

“So you are saying we are going to have to wait until I am older to turn?” Marcus was not sure about that, with what he now remembers about Argos, waiting may not be a good idea.

“Yes, you really don’t want to be fifteen forever do you?” Though all this Theodore sits, thinking, I am not sure about what, he knows most of my whole story.

“No, how about my dad are you going to turn him?”

Theodore speaks up “if you decide to turn I will be turned.”

“But won’t that mean we will never meet mom again? No offense Kat.”

“No offence taken, Marcus” I answer back to him. I know I will never be what I once was, a mother.

“I have to tell you something…” I could see Theodore was going to talk about the divorce.

“Marcus,” I interrupt, “your mother, in this life, may be reincarnated, but we don’t know how or even when. I had to wait two thousand years for you.”

“Oh… Dad, are you hoping to turn to wait for mom?”

“No, your mother and I grew apart. We were visiting a divorce attorney that day. We were trying to figure out a way to tell you. But I love your mother, just not in a way a husband loves a wife. I love her because she gave me you. So no, I am not going to be turned just to wait for your mom.”

“So you were splitting up? Why?” Marcus was upset now.

“Your mother had a boyfriend; she fell in love with someone else as I fell out of love with her.”

“So you are going to be single from now on, or how are you going to date if you are…” Something in Marcus’s mind clicked. He looked at his father, he looked at me, he looked at how we were sitting now and remembering how we were sitting yesterday. “No… really? Kat?! She is my friend! You are falling for her? Why?”

“Marcus, I am falling for your father as well. It is not something I have planned, I have never felt like this in all my existence, you should know I never dated, even after your death, I was alone. So this courting with you dad, is not something I am taking lightly.”

“And we are going to take it slow, allow you to get used to it. We were not going to tell you until we knew if there was something to tell.”

“Are you okay Marcus?”

“No, yes, I don’t know, okay, I will think about everything, later, I am going back to bed. Oh, and Kat, really not cool with the spell you did to help me back to sleep.”

“Sorry, but I needed you to remember before explaining.”

“And the spell with our memories?”

“I did not want to tell you this early. I will not lie. I did not want you to know about your life, until you were older.”

“Fine, but no more spells, well…” Marcus paused, thinking of Argos, and the other unexplainable things, like Jacob’s arm, it had been bleeding horribly, then after Kat looked at it, the bleeding almost stopped. “No more bad spells.”

“Promise, Marcus, now why don’t you walk back up stairs and get some sleep.”

Marcus walked back up the stairs; I waited to speak until I heard his thoughts drift into a dreamless sleep, about a half hour. The whole time, images from Theodore’s mind was breaking into my conscience; we would have to talk about that.

“Kat, we should talk.” Theodore’s voice brought me out of my focus.

“Yes, I think we do.” I didn’t know what to expect, at least not anymore.

“There is something growing between us, you feel that and I feel that.”

“Yes, we do, but not tonight I can’t talk anymore tonight.” With that I leaned into him and kissed him, with that I left his house, before he could even open his eyes.

Chapter Six

“MOM!” Marcus was screaming. I was at his bedside before Theodore knew what was happening.

“Marcus, wake up!” I was worried about the images I was seeing in his dreams, his originally turning, his death, his bride’s death. I lived those moments, he had lived those moments. Now we were living them again. I had to wake him up. “Marcus, WAKE UP!”

It took five more minutes to get Marcus to wake up, of course Theodore was on the other side of the bed, not really knowing what to do; his son had never had nightmares.

“What… Kat! You were there, you were hurt! They killed her! They killed him! What is going on? They weren’t human!” Theodore was confused, I picked up on that without really trying, but I wasn’t. I knew the images he got were of the past.

“Marcus you just had a bad dream.” Theodore stated, checking his son for a fever. “Slow down, do you remember what it was about?”

Marcus looked right into my eyes, and I knew he could see though my spell. He was seeing my reddish, pinkish eyes. My son’s power was to see though lies, and to view the future, I knew one of his powers was coming to light. And at that moment I knew he was close to knowing, he was fuzzy on the dream now, but he knew I was there in the past with this young man who had looked like him. He looked at my eyes, remembered the things he had seen, and then turned toward his dad. “No, I don’t really remember what it was about. Dad, can you get me a drink of water?” Theodore left confused about many things. “You where there, you are something else you aren’t human!”

“Marcus, what is it you think I am?” I was either going to have to tell him or I was going to have to play with his mind again. Neither was a good option. I was leaning toward just telling the both of them after all he was starting to see though my lies, my spells. Theodore was pulling strings on my heart I never knew I had, and Marcus was starting to remember his past, it was too soon. I waited two thousand years and I was thinking it was too soon, God did not.

“Don’t make me say it; I don’t really want it to be true. That would mean you are evil!” Marcus knew the word, vampire.

“Marcus, I swear to God I am not evil, I have done bad things, but for the last two thousand years I haven’t done a thing the God would hate me for against humans, against vampires, only when needed. Yes, I am a vampire; I have been for almost six thousand years.” I was just going to tell him, let him know the truth. I would have to tell Theodore as well, he was going to break my heart. “I have killed people, I have done some horrible things, but things change, I changed. I lost all those who I loved, I was shown the errors I had done, and choose a different path then the one I was leading. I am going to make up for the things I have done.”

“You are Wiccan, I heard the title in my dream, some guy with red eyes called Rae a filthy Wiccan?” Marcus was confused now, vampires are evil it is common knowledge, they couldn’t be out during the day, but Kat was, they couldn’t be good, but Kat had never caused them harm but of course it is also common knowledge that they are a myth.

“I am not, I am Catholic if you want me to put a name on my faith, I even spent some time inside the Vatican, I wasn’t even religious until my son and I had met someone, she showed us a different path, and he chose her way of life, I chose another after witnessing the birth of Christ, soon after meeting her.” I would tell him what I was but to tell him his own past at a quarter to five in the morning was not going to happen. “You can’t tell anybody about what I am. If you want me to leave I will and never return, but the choice is going to be yours. I will tell you everything at another time, please wait until you hear everything.”

“I believe you. I want you to stay. I won’t tell anybody. Why did I have that dream?” Marcus was sure there was a lot more of it, then what he remembered.

“I will tell you everything in the morning, I promise, for now you must rest. May the power of the elements, grant this child a peaceful night’s sleep, during which his past life returns, so mote it be.” With that Marcus fell back to sleep.

“Wow, he went back to sleep quickly.” Theodore walked into the room and set the glass of water on the stand next to Marcus’s bed.

“I am sure he will be fine. He has had a hard time lately.” I got up and moved to stand by the door frame.

“Yes I am sure you are right.” With that I walked down stairs, and Theodore followed me. “Katyla, what is it? You seem very worried.”

Before I answered I sat down on the loveseat, he went to his space right next to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I have something to tell you. You are going to hate me.”

“I don’t think so, but let me be the judge of that.” Theodore was confused now. I moved so I was facing him more, I kept my head down, knowing the tears would come; I didn’t want him to see the tears.

I removed the memory spell I had done, and told him a condensed version of everything, it took about an hour, and he sat there and listened to every word. When I was done I waited for his response. I was not going to look into his mind; I didn’t want to hear the hate before I heard it from his mouth.

“Katyla, why did you keep it a secret then, if we were always going to find out?” He wasn’t yelling!

“I don’t really want Marcus in this world yet, in today’s society he is just a boy. And the danger to the two of you, I thought if you didn’t know, you would be safer.” I looked down for the first time in almost two thousand years; I couldn’t keep the tears back.

“I just want to clarify something really quick; Marcus is the reincarnation of your son?”

“Yes, Marcus has been reborn. I have had to wait two thousand years for it to happen.”

“Is that why Sarah’s accident happen? So you could be his mother?” He was mad.

“NO! I would never have had something like that happen. I do not expect Marcus to ever call me mom, I had my son, and I had almost four thousand years with him. He is your son, but his soul is born from mine.”

“Is that why he is drawn to you? Is that why I am drawn to you?”

“He would be drawn to me, yes. But you, I don’t know why you are drawn to me, if you are. Your soul is new. I can tell it was created, this is your first life time.”

“If you turn Marcus, you will have to turn me, and then it will be my only life time.”

“I won’t turn anybody without them thinking it though. I sometimes wish I could undo it, but then I wouldn’t be where I am now. But it is long, and sometimes, I just hide out. I was not part of society until the last eight years. I was in isolation for fifteen years, because I couldn’t take lying any longer. I knew Marcus was born, and I knew that he would be here when he turned sixteen. I didn’t know the how or the why; I just knew I would be here. I came back as a high school student, then a college student, now a student teacher. Of course there are only a few more years before I have to move again, people will start noticing I am not aging.”

“Then we will wait for Marcus to make a choice. But now I have some more questions. Why mess with our memories? Why not just tell us then?”

“Because, they are not nice, they would have killed you. If there hadn’t been four of them I would have killed them. I killed Gavin.”

“Who’s Gavin?” Theodore did not move, he froze, suspecting what was fact.

“He is the one who tried to kill you. I healed you, you were dying, and I couldn’t let that happen. I killed him…” I wasn’t making sense any longer, I was crying a lot now.

“Why not tell me then? I would have kept your secret!” Theodore was mad at me, just like I knew he would be, I was tempted to look into his mind but I did not.

“I didn’t want you to be a target. Argos, if he suspects a human knows he kills them, or in his case has them killed. I wanted to keep the two of you safe as long as possible. I don’t know why Gavin just didn’t drain you, I don’t know why he used his sword, and I don’t know why he let me save you. Argos is playing games, and I don’t know the rules.”

“That doesn’t make sense, if he was sent to kill me I was already a target!”

“I don’t know how he knew! I don’t! I tried to stay away from you! I tried to stay away from Marcus! Marcus kept seeking me out! But it was never, never outside of school! I have a protection spell on the school, vampires can not enter without invite, though it is a public place, and they can not see what happens on campus. I don’t know how Gavin got in; I don’t know why he attacked you. I don’t know why he gave you that message! He let me save you to give me the message!” Things were starting to click. “But he was angry that you lived!”

“How do you know that?”

“His thoughts told me, he wanted to kill someone else, because you lived. But Argos gave him specific orders to follow. But they included killing you. He must have taken your wedding band and sent it to Argos. Unless it wasn’t blessed, if it wasn’t I am sorry it would have turned to ash when I killed him.”

“You can read thoughts? Can you read mine or Marcus’s? And the ring wasn’t blessed.”

“I can’t read yours clearly, I have to struggle, and I don’t do that all the time, there are some clear… umm… images but mostly you are closed. Marcus’s thoughts I can hear. Sorry about your ring.”

“Who is Argos, your husband?” Theodore wanted to change the subject he didn’t really care about the ring, just that he wanted to keep it around for Marcus, so that he knew he had once loved Sarah.

“No, he was my partner. We were doctors, to use a modern term. Triremes was my husband. We died the bond broke. I never loved him, he was arranged to be my husband. Argos thought I would want him around, I never did, and I never wanted any of them to become what I became. Argos was an accident. I had just woken up, his blood smelled sweet, not as sweet as yours, but I attacked, he stabbed me, and my blood mixed with his, he became a vampire. I was just selfish when I let him turn Marcus at sixteen. I never wanted to be without my son. He was the only thing that made happy in my whole existence. I was the High Priestess of my land; I was responsible for finding a cure that never was found. The disease burned out only two years later. Marcus was my joy.” I knew I was jumping around, and not making sense but I couldn’t seem to control my thoughts and cry at the same time. It took all of my strength to continue to focus that humans were not food.

“Why didn’t you turn Marcus? Argos killed him?”

“I have only turned a couple people ever in my existence; I didn’t turn Marcus, because I didn’t want to be the one to cause him the pain of turning. And yes, Argos killed him almost two thousand years ago. We were going to change up the Vampire Laws, to where killing humans was going to be punished. The human you drank from was going to have to be willing. But the catch-22 with that was that our most important law was not to let our existence become known. We don’t need human blood to live, it just smells and tastes better, kind of like chocolate verse carrots.”

“Why not kill you if you were the ruler?”

“He wanted to punish me, he wanted to make me suffer, and regret my choice. He killed my son, his bride, and my unborn grandchild. I wanted to die. I tried to kill myself, but God would not let that be.” Theodore said nothing, then he put his arms around me and just held me; I turned my face into his chest and cried for the past, the present and the future.

Later that early morning an undercover FBI agent is on the road talking to a pro “you see anything strange going on around here?”

“Ya going to have to be more specific then that sweetie this place is always strange.”

“I hear a psycho is on the loose.”

“Nah just some johns is killing dumb newbies he is a mystery though and I am to smart to get into a car with no name.

“You said johns?”

“Yeah more then 1 one black car no plates one blue car no plates and the 1st one was a white mini van MN plates.”

“You have a good memory.”

“Yep know which johns pay good which to avoid.”

“You see the drivers?”

“Nah, really covers up well, the person was small would say it was a woman but picking up one of us is not a woman’s style plus no hair from the hoodie, woman can’t hide, this person can, so all thems was a male. Could have been the same man but different cars there were different places of death.”

“You said 3?”

“Yep cops don’t act as quick as word spread here.”

“You call the cops or give a statement?”

“Nah cops don’t listen to us, think we stupid or something its just no easier way to make money so we can live.”

“You could save a life.’

“Not mine but whatever you game or not john?”

“Not, but thank you for the info I am look out for my sister she works the streets I just wanted to make sure she is safe.” The agent hands the pro 100 dollars.”

“She new?” The pro asks taking the money. “New girls are not safe they make many mistakes.’

“No she has been here three years now, won’t come home but since new are the targets I am satisfied for now.” The pro walks from him and back to the corner. The agent drives off back to head quarters. Thank full he didn’t have to blow his cover but he calls in the lead that a third death may have happened.