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Authors: Kelly Varesio

Insperatus (22 page)

BOOK: Insperatus
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The piano began to play a tune of its own; it was a loud and carefree tune.
Traith turned and built up an authoritative voice. “Stop it!” he swore heatedly. “
Stop playing
!”
Something crashed down onto the piano keys, and a cowering shriek sounded from it. Laughing chaos roared from the mouths of the surrounding people as they watched Traith fume.
He took Rein’s hand and jumped into the air, and Rein realized that she was no longer in the lobby hall but in the air above the deck.
The downpour had subsided into a slight mist. There was no more thunder, but the sky was dark with ominous clouds. Traith looked down at her, his expression hard to read. She wasn’t pulling away from him.
Was he
flying
?
She closed her eyes tight. She pretended she was alone in a bed, having a dream. But she would face reality soon enough.
She gazed up at him again.
He was. And he was holding her.
But by the way Traith was looking wildly down at himself, Rein knew something was terribly wrong.
He
was confused.
“
How can I…? Did I…?” he stuttered to himself as if a miracle had occurred.
To her, one had.
He landed with her on the deck. He looked ill. He had dark rings around his eyes. He looked dead. She wanted to cry, but she was out of tears.
The more she thought about her situation, the more she felt like she was going insane. There was no such thing as a vampire. In fact, one could probably be institutionalized for even speaking of such fallacies. But it wasn’t a fallacy. She was a vampire, now. A
vampire
. She tried to think about that fact. She tried to think about how she would cope with herself for…for eternity?
She saw the port door. It looked more menacing now than it ever had. “That door…” she spoke with a gentle voice. “From there you got blood, didn’t you?”
“
Rein—”
“
Traith,
Saria
! God
,
help me, I need to find her
, now
!”
“
Please, Rein, wait for a moment. We’ll get her; she’ll be all right.”
“
Traith, he said she was dead!” She was utterly distraught.
“
Why so sad, little girl? Traith can’t kill me for you?”
She looked up. Traith tensed and turned to stare with a vision most piercing. It was the captain’s voice.
“
What are you?” Rein asked with a quiver, her eyes sodden with tears.
“
A ghost, my dear,” he answered, still out of sight. “Didn’t you notice why Harker never succeeded in attacking me? He can’t harm me. I can make his grasping fist fall right through my chest if I want.”
His white eyes were the first things she saw when he came out of the blackness of the vault. He was mimicking Traith’s fist by putting his own on his chest and letting it fall down, limp, to his side.
“
So, you think I’m intimidated by
you
?” he asked her. He snickered and looked at Traith. “You are quite the scientist, Harker,” he gurgled with laughter.
The stooped figure paused and walked out of the blackness, circling Traith. Traith was clenching his teeth hard; his eyes followed the man’s every move, every step. The man tossed him a small bottle like the one she had seen Traith put in his coat pocket the last time she was on the deck. Like the one the captain had dropped at the ball.
Traith caught it and looked down, and with a sudden ferocity, he crushed it in his fist. Blood spilled everywhere, from both his hand and the bottle.
“
You son of a—”
“
That was a perfectly fresh bottle of blood for your beloved, Harker! I
try
to be hospitable on this ship, and you resent me! You never minded accepting one of those before! Is it because you’re already full of
her
blood?”
She stared at Traith, and his eyes were as angry as they had been the night the captain had poisoned her.
“
Oh, by the way, how’s she coping? Not too well, hmm? You’ve finally decided to reveal and pass on the truth you so immensely despise? Bravo, boy, you’ve done it! Now don’t you feel
disgusted
with yourself?”
Rein continued to sob without realization. She watched Traith in his torment but noticed his body beginning to become transparent.
“
Yes,” he replied.
Her heart was wrenching.
His eyes suddenly faded, as did the rest of him. He slowly became less and less visible.
The captain tilted his head to the side sarcastically. “Oh, don’t try that.”
Traith spun around, becoming completely invisible.
Or had he disappeared?
At that point, she was beyond shock, so she just watched, numb. She was scared. She didn’t know where he was, but it appeared as though only the captain and she were standing on the deck.
He raised his hand to her, and that twisted grin formed on his ghastly face. He was going to hurt her. Could she get hurt? It didn’t matter. She was frightened. It looked as though something was sparking off of his fingertips, and she nearly felt a wave of pain…
But then she saw a piece of rope lift itself off of the ground. It glowed red with energy, as did…a fist? Traith’s fist—the only thing about him perceptible was his fist. The captain looked at him wildly but was too slow to retaliate.
The sparks stopped.
The bodiless figure wrapped the rope around the man’s neck, and then let go. It exploded, and Traith suddenly became visible again, standing next to Rein. She ducked from the blast. Traith was standing directly in the way of the noise. After the echo of it ceased, all was silent.
When the smoke cleared, she looked up and saw Traith standing tensely, and, somehow, perfectly unharmed.
There was no sign of the captain through the lingering smoke. There was nothing but dead stillness and silence for a moment. Rein saw Traith watching her. She still refused to say even a word. She was hardly lucid.
“
Rein,” he stumbled to say. “It isn’t what you—”
A sizzle, like something about to spark, cut him off. The hissing crackled as it grew louder. It cracked, and a boom rang in her ears. She managed to see the captain with his hand out, his fingers pointed straight. Sparks spewed from his fingertips again, and a bizarre, lightning-like flash came from them and hit Traith.
That could’ve been her. It all occurred within an instant. She didn’t know where he had come from. She heard herself call out Traith’s name. It was the first time in her life she had ever seen someone hit so hard.
Traith was jolted and forced backward. He’d been struck by lightning. He slammed into the side of the deck, grunting in a near yell. His back smashed hard into the deck flooring, and he collided into the rails. The rails bent and nearly broke in half with the force of his body.
Then he was still.
A blaze of fury swept through Rein. She still didn’t know what she was feeling. She was numb and removed from what was going on around her, and humanity seemed so distant. She felt pretend.
In her anesthetized thoughts, she approached the laughing captain. He immediately threw her back into a pile of storage crates with only a nod of his head. No arms, just a nod.
Pain seized her body, but she forgot about it in a single instant. She felt the fury continually rising and heating her skin. Her hands formed fists underneath the broken crates.
She saw Traith roll limply onto his stomach. He managed to push himself off the ground, but before he could react to anything, pieces of crate panels and nails shot through the air.
She was doing it.
She was angered beyond words. She didn’t know how or what she was doing, but she didn’t have time to think.
Traith quickly stood up, trying with great effort to dodge and duck to escape the debris. A single nail did meet with his arm, piercing it and lodging into his flesh. Another impaled his side. However, the captain simply became intangible like a true ghost, causing the crate pieces to sail straight through him.
She glanced down. Fear spread throughout her, but she couldn’t control whom she hit. She couldn’t control what she was doing. But there was so much power in her hands.
A soft, bluish glow shown around her fists. The captain’s eyes were wide. He was shocked. He and Traith both. She was, too. But fear of what she had done overruled any of that. She had hurt Traith. She had driven nails into him.
“
This isn’t p-possible,” Rein heard Traith utter, trying to stand straight despite the nails lodged into him.
She lifted her hands out toward the Captain. Silvery rays came from his somewhat transparent body, and into her hands.
He looked down at himself, cowering, his sunken eyes as terrified as she had ever seen them. His body was slowly fading into nothing, and his mouth was moving wildly trying to speak. She had him restrained. A small and silver orb with a burning center radiated from within the captain’s body. Rein’s energy yanked it out into her hand, and she crushed it. The captain’s body disintegrated and instantly disappeared, his voice echoing in the silence.

 

Chapter 28

 

She had fallen to her knees on the deck. Misty wind blew through her hair and blew it around her. She was getting wet in the dark, watery breeze. She was cold. She smelled the salt, and it made her sick.
What had she done? Something as terrible as what Traith had done. Worse. She had killed someone—someone who had killed her. She had driven large, rusty, near hand-length nails into the man she loved—the vampire, who was standing speechless. The wind rang in her ears. She couldn’t speak. Her throat was swollen in fear.
“
Oh
my
God
,” she finally heard him murmur beneath the wind.
She tried to stand but couldn’t. She absolutely couldn’t; she was completely drained.
Then she felt that grasp on her arms. Traith pulled her up to her feet. She heard him let out a single whimper of pain, but he tried to make no more noise after that. He had pulled her up with a nail sunken into his arm.
She forced herself around to face him and saw that his arm and side were now bleeding heavily. He did not meet her watching eyes, but yanked out the large, rusted nail from his forearm.
“
Traith, forgive me,” she rasped. “I don’t know what I did; I didn’t mean to—”
“
I know,” he replied.
Rein still gazed at him as he wrenched the other nail from his stomach. She had been responsible, and her heart sank when she heard the noise of his muscle being tugged as the nail was pulled out. She saw him bite back the pain.
The silence was ended by a slam of an iron door. The vaulted, entrance door. She glanced up and, through watery vision, saw a swarm of passengers flood out. She thought she was going to lose consciousness, but she never did, and she stood waveringly.
Traith slowly bent and touched the base of the deck. A reddish glow pulsed out like the glow on the rope.
Was it going to explode?
“
Rein,” he said. “Quickly, come here, please.”
His feet lifted from the ground. His hand was out.
She did not respond.
The ship lit. Blinding. She couldn’t see anything. In one second…
She was grabbed by the forearm and yanked into his hold, just before the ship completely detonated. The flash was the last thing she saw, even through her eyelids. She felt herself being driven forward into the smoking air. Traith was clutching her tight and somehow shielding her from the blast.
His back was being burned. She heard his light moans in biting back the pain. He was being hit hard by the fiery explosion.
The force of the detonation drove them in a whirling of light into the air. Then the glare turned black. She opened her eyes.
Stars were out tonight; shining, peaceful, untouched. The blackness of night covered all, except for the flames from the ship as it sunk to the watery depths of the Atlantic.
She was right; his embrace was divine. He was holding her close and tight. He was so strong. After a lingering moment, she could feel him loosen his hold. They were slowly dropping from the air. Was he losing consciousness?
He was
.
So protecting. Gallant. Chivalrous. He had saved her life. What happened wasn’t his fault.
It
wasn’t
…
The peacefulness she longed to feel in his arms was suspended.
She never did get a chance to see his face above the water.
The next thing she knew, she was standing before a woman in a white room.

 

Chapter 29

 

She was an old but angelic woman, dressed in a cream and lavender dress that sparkled brightly. She stood in the center of a white room that was so intensely lit that Rein could hardly see her. In the far front of the room, there was a table where three others sat.
BOOK: Insperatus
7.42Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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