An End in Ice by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford [Ford, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

I sat, shaking and weeping, by the lifeless stag. I had drained him, only a few minutes before, of every bit of blood, and then, in a frantic bloodlust, licked the errant droplets that escaped off the nearby bramble and snow on which they'd fallen.

Now, with the warmth of that creature's life coursing through my veins, I felt horror seize me. I understood, finally, how I had changed so effortlessly the night before into a bat: it was a mark of the monster. And I was a monster. This poor, lifeless thing beside me attested to that, as no fierce condemnation from Bishop Luca might ever have done; as no fearful glances, no subtle crossings, had ever indicated. This, this was something that I had done. This was a crime that I had perpetrated. I had sunk my teeth into that creature's throat, and drank his blood like it was water. I had heard the beat of his heart as a song, beckoning me to rip open his veins and feast on his very life. I was a monster.

At length, I picked myself up and walked on. I could feel the cold now, and pulled my cloak tighter around me to preserve the glimpse of warmth I’d sampled.

The fatigue was gone now. There was no agony in my veins, no constriction in my heart. My blood flowed, and pumped, as it had ever done in my human days.

My human days! In time I would accept that they were lost to me forever, but it was a strange thought to me then to think of my life, my young life, as split between my time as a human and my time as a monster.

As I walked I tried to remember all the legends I had heard of vampires, for that was the type of monster that I had become. I knew that they drank blood – God, but I knew that. I knew that they could become bats and other creatures; I tried to recall what they were, but without any success. I knew that they were damned; there was no question of that. I knew that they could not walk in sunlight. “But I have walked in sunlight.” This, then, was a poser. Was the legend wrong, or had I not yet fully become a monster? Would I, on the morrow, evaporate with the mist, or burn up as God's pure light engulfed me and delivered me to an eternity of Hellfire? I did not know.

At length, I sat down. My idea was to wait until morning. In my heart, I think I hoped that the legend was true, and that the morning sun would destroy what was left of this mortal relic. Somehow, amidst such thoughts, sleep came.

The morning sun did not destroy me. It would my first lesson in the half truths of the legends that surround my kind. We can walk at will in the sun, and without suffering any unpleasant consequence. It does not limit our strength or injure us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.