Golden Hue (8 page)

“She likes it up there she doesn’t like being around people very much.”

“How powerful is she?”.

“She makes my mother look like a weakling.”.

Cathy opened her eyes.

“Is she an empress?” I asked.

“No, she’s not even a queen anymore. She’s pretty much a loner.”

“Are you close to her?” I asked.

“I have only met her a handful of times, and she really didn't want to have much to do with me. She was much closer to my sister, June,” she said.

“Do we have any other enemies?” I asked.

“I know the witch is still out there,” she said. “She left Candace's body but we didn’t destroy her spirit.”

The waitress arrived and started to fill our plate with food.

“Let’s talk about all of this later,” Sarah said. “We need to eat and keep our strength up.”

The smell of the steak and ribs made Cathy perk right up. She reached for a knife and fork, and started to dig into her first steak. After smothering my porterhouse with steak sauce, I begin to dig in eagerly – I was hungry too.

For the next fifteen minutes the three of us ate together. Although we were all stressed, Sarah smile a few times as we talked about her role in our wedding.

“You know,” Cathy said. “If you wanted, you could come and visit us for a while on our honeymoon.”

“You wouldn't mind if she came by and visited us, do you?” Cathy asked.

“Not as long as it's not anytime during the first two weeks,” I said. “The first fourteen days you’re totally and absolutely mine.”

Sarah smiled, and I saw she was done with her ribs. Cathy and I had finished our steaks and side dishes. The table was littered with empty plates; I felt sorry for the waitress.

“Let’s organize this table a bit for the poor waitress,” I said. “It's a wreck.”

We began to neatly stack and organize the empty plates. In just a few minutes, the table looked much better and a moment later, the waitress arrived. She looked at the table in astonishment.

“You guys must have been hungry,” she said.

“I was starving,” Cathy told her.

“Thanks for helping with the table,” she said. “You didn't have to; it's my job.”

“No problem, honey,” Cathy said.

I leaned back for a moment and shut my eyes, and enjoyed the country music playing in the background.

“So what do we do now?” I heard Cathy ask Sarah. “Just go back to the mansion?”

“We’re expected to go back,” Sarah said.

“I really don't think that's a good idea,” Cathy said. “What if we just get our own hotel rooms in town? The empress can't be too upset about that, can she?”

Sarah looked frustrated. “I just don't know what we should do, but if I’m going to remain queen, I must attend my ordination.”

Looking around the dark room, I realized we were the only customers in the establishment. The waitress and two other employees were starting to sweep and mop the floors.

“This place is closing,” I said. “Why don't we take this outside.”

“Sure,” Sarah said.

We slid out of the booth, and left the restaurant.

“Thank you, come again!” I heard the waitress call out, as the door shut behind us.

The parking lot was nearly empty and the night was quiet. We walked to our car, and Sarah unlocked the doors. Before we were able to get it the car we were suddenly surrounded by six vampires. All but one of them was already transformed; and they were staring at us with black eyes. A couple of them begin to hiss and growl.

I instantly powered up and transformed into my golden form. Glancing at Cathy and Sarah, I could see they had their game faces on too.

Sarah then addressed the one vampire who was not transformed. He was a tall, big boned vampire with a leather jacket on who a lot like Albert.

“Step away,” Sarah said in a strong voice. “Call off your goons, Henry.”

I realized this was Albert's father.

“It's too late for that,” Henry said. “I was willing to talk yesterday, but that was before your son made a fool of my grandson.”

I stepped towards Henry.

“He was about to attack our queen,” I said. “I simply stopped him.”

Henry stepped closer to me.

“So you’re the one who killed Albert,” he said with a furious look in his eyes. “I don't know how you managed that, but I'm going to make sure you suffer for what you did.”

I raised my power level and my golden aura expanded.

“I'm sorry about Albert,” I said. “But he was out of control just like the queen was. If he hadn’t summoned the powers of hell and tried to stop us from rescuing a half dozen innocent pregnant teenagers, he’d be alive today.”

The hisses and snarls were growing louder behind Henry; there was going to be trouble.

“I don't care how it happened. My son is gone, and you’re going to pay,” he said.

I pushed harder and raised my power level even higher. Maybe if I showed them how strong I am, they’d back down.

“This is your last chance,” I said. “We’re getting in our car and driving away. If you do anything to stop us, be prepared to join Albert.”

I looked back at Sarah and Cathy.

“Get in the car,” I told them. “Now.”

They carefully got in the car and I turned to join them, but as I did so I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” Henry said.

Without a moment of hesitation, I turned around and slashed his face with my claws. Henry tried to claw me back, but I gave him a head butt to the nose which knocked him backwards.

Suddenly, another of the vampires rushed towards me. I focused and slashed his neck. Before he could try to stop the bleeding, I jumped in the air and kicked him in the face sending him onto the hard pavement.

Before I could turn around, I felt a set of claws scratch my face. It was Henry, back on his feet. Then two vampires grabbed hold of me, one on each arm and tried to push me to my knees.

“Get out of here,” I yelled to Cathy and Sarah.

The car didn’t move. Sarah was behind the wheel looking deeply shocked, and Cathy was next to her, crying.

“Go!” I said. “Now!”

Sarah sped off as Henry began to punch and kick me. As soon as the car was out of sight, I elbowed the gut of the vampire to my left and broke loose of the other vampire's grip, and punched him in the jaw.

Henry grabbed my throat; and began to squeeze it with all his might. I looked at his face and peered into the molecules. Using my psychokinetic abilities, I accelerated their motion. In only a couple seconds, the skin of his face started to burn and char.

I focused harder, and his entire body burst into flames causing him to scream and let go of me. I turned around, but to my surprise I saw a man in a robe looking at me. He was chanting and holding up his palm towards me.

Looking carefully at the man, I realized it was Pastor Demetrius from Juanita’s church. I was stunned, but before I could say a word I felt my power level drop. My aura faded out, and I could feel my abilities weaken.

“What are you doing?” I asked, as two vampires grabbed me.

Pastor Demetrius continued to hold out his palm towards me. On it, I could see a glowing symbol, or sigil. It was red and was casting a ray of light in my direction.

I tried to break free from the grip of my captors, but I’d been severely weakened. Although I didn’t like the idea of doing so, I decided to take extreme measures.

As soon as I saw an opening, I bit into the neck of the vampire to my right and ripped out a chunk of flesh. Blood started to spray out of his neck, and as I turned towards the vampire on my other arm he let go of me and jumped backwards.

I then looked at Demetrius; he was continuing to chant and point the sigil at me. Before I could hurl myself in his direction, I felt something hit me in the back of the head. I fell face first to the ground.

Rolling over onto my back, I felt my power level drop further. My claws and my fangs had retracted and I was in my human form.

Looking up through blurred vision I saw Henry – his skin on his face and hands now blackened from burns – standing with a bent metal baseball bat in his hands. As I looked at him sole of his boot crashed into my face. I was knocked out, cold.

Waking up, I could feel a throbbing sensation throughout whole body. I felt like I’d been tossed through a meat grinder. I couldn’t tell what condition I was in because the room was completely dark and my night vision was not kicking in.

I managed to push myself into a sitting position on a the cold hard floor. Reaching out with my hands and trying to feel what was around me, I discovered I was surrounded by vertical metal bars -- I was in a cage.

Shutting my eyes I tried to power up. If only I could make my night vision kick in I could get a look at my surroundings, but all my power was gone.

I sat in the dark cage for what seemed like hours until a door opened unleashing a blinding light. The door quickly closed, and the room became dark again. But I could hear footsteps in the room.

In the midst of the darkness, I began to see a shadowy figure light a number of candles and in the faint light I recognized Demetrius.

I was furious at him. Why would he side with a bunch of vicious vampires to attack me?

“Do you know who I am?” he called out.

“Yes, you’re Pastor Demetrius. Some pastor you are.”

He walked towards the bars of the cage and sat down on a small chair.

“I have never come across a creature like you before,” he said. “I'm told you’re part griffin.”

“What the heck do you care what I am?”

“My order investigates all damned creatures,”

“I'm not damned,”

“Yes, you are,” he said. “Your very soul is hexed with a curse. When I kill you, your soul will burn in hell for all eternity.”

I thought about his words and then asked another question.

“So are you some kind of vampire hunter?”

He laughed.

“I guess you could call me that,” he said. “We prefer to consider ourselves as Knights of the Lord Jehovah.”

I managed to stand up, but I was still weak. Leaning against a wall, I tried to point out an obvious, glaring contradiction.

“If you’re some kind of holy warrior of God, why do you align yourself with foul monsters like Henry and his thugs?” I asked.

He remained silent for a few moments before answering.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “He’s providing me with information I need.”

“About what?”

“The vampire order.”

“What do you want to do? Take out the empress?”

He became quiet again.

“Let’s just say that my order wants to refocus our efforts where they will do the most good.”

“Look, I'm not some kind of monster. I’m actually a Christian. There are bad vampires out there, but there are also a lot of sick humans as well.”

He stood up and looked at me.

“Don't you dare call yourself a Christian,” he shouted. “You may have attended my church or even accepted Christ at some point in your life, but now you’re nothing more than an abomination.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I know your kind,” he said. “Maybe I don't know a lot about your griffin heritage, but I know about vampires. All of them, at their core, are bloodthirsty beasts. They may pretend to be civilized or even go around doing good deeds, but in their heart they seek violence; they desire to kill.”

“I'm not like that,” I said.

He didn’t answer, so I decided to ask another question.

“How did you weaken me?” I asked. “I feel like all my power is gone.”

He walked up to the bars of the cell and looked at me once again.

“The symbol on my palm is a sigil of heaven that drains your power,” he said. “When I activate it with the power of my soul, the red light makes you no stronger than any of us.”

He held out his palm and the sigil started to glow. I could feel the red light weakening me once again.

“You may accuse me of being a monster,” I said. “But you seem more like a witch than a preacher.”

“What I do is not witchcraft!” he said.

“It seems like witchcraft to me,” I said. “I've never met a preacher that knew how to cast spells.”

“I learned my skills through intense study of the ancient texts,” he said. “My gifts are from the spirit of God, not Satan.”

He stopped shining the red light at me, and I managed to walk to the bars of the cage.

“How do you know the gifts you have are from the spirit?” I asked. “What if they aren’t from God or the devil?”

“What if there are more powers in this universe than God and the devil?” I added. “Not everything we don't understand is evil.”

“Your new age propaganda won’t work on me,” he said. “There’s one God, and his name is Jesus Christ.”