The meeting

Dius watched those beautiful silver eyes stare coldly at him and felt nothing. Before those eyes had moved him, made him want more, but now as they stared almost lifeless from a face gone numb, he couldn’t help but wonder what he had ever seen there.

“You’ve decided,” he said, his voice traveling in the silence of his people. The pool room filled with various-sized pools, his people hovering just over the water with his help. They only stared at the red eyes of his people, just as numb as him. As the leader, they felt what he did, once he had thought she would bring back the emotions him and his followers had been longing for, and for a second in his long existence, she had, but now those feelings felt like a dream.

“Yes,” Mavery said softly.

“Must you go?” he said, as was the polite thing to say.

She smiled at the coldness of his tone, even though the words were meant to be nice.

“Yes, it is my dream I must,” she said back.

“A hundred years gone because of a dream?” he said, the last feeling left to him anger lifting. He pushed it down because he knew without a doubt it was Mavery’s existence that let him feel it in the first place.

She smiled wider now, even though the smile hadn’t reached her eyes. The silver now tinted with the red of his people. The change was coming for his Mavery. As a half-breed, it had only been a matter of time, but he had hoped she could withstand just a bit longer. Even knowing such a wish was selfish, he had uttered it into the silence of his existence. She had held out longer than she should have. He knew it was because of his wish, but even she could not stop what was coming for her.

“Yes, I must before the end of me,” she whispered.

“Being one of mine isn’t so bad, is it, Mavery?” he whispered back.

The smile wiped from her familiar yet unfamiliar face.

“I have never wanted anything else as I have wanted to be one of yours,” she said, walking forward. She was wearing her black leotard, dainty pink ballet shoes on her feet. The soft white skirt shifted and floated as she moved. She came forward in a dance-like walk, standing on tiptoe to caress his face with her cold hand. His beautiful dancer, he used his power to help her walk on the water of the pool where he stood, not wanting her to fall and wet her beautiful outfit.

“But I wish to feel one last time before my change,” she said softly, looking deep into his eyes. He understood, even wanted her to have this last feeling, yet he would miss her until he couldn’t anymore, and then a gray existence for him and his people again, including her. As vampires, they felt nothing unless through a familiar. And she had been his for far too long. She had traveled this gray world of his, filling it with color, so much so he had thought she was his mate, but looking at those two colored eyes, he knew he had only been fooling himself. Hundreds of years in search of an answer that would never come, but he could only feel this despair thanks to his mavery. So he nodded.

“I will wait until your return,” he said.

“I have a gift for you,” she said softly, just as hell broke loose in the entrance of his mansion. The yell of one of his vampires was heard as a woosh of brightness entered the pool room, three of his people turning to ash in seconds as a silver stake streaked through the air.

“Mavery, you lied!!” came the yell of a woman in all black as she rushed forward, as another of his vampires trying to stop her entrance went down.

“I did not pet,” Mavery said, turning from him.

“You promised not to turn,” the woman exclaimed, tears in her eyes.

Dius watched the extreme of the feeling with a sense of envy, such emotion in such a small package. She was almost tiny at five-two, to his six-three, she was childlike, yet he could see the beauty in that small frame.

“I promised to not turn for as long as I could... It’s been a hundred and seventy-five years, pet. I could not hold it off any longer,” Mavery said, holding up a hand to the rest of his people to stop them from attacking the small warrior that had come through the door as she walked towards the angry package. She had taken down five of his own, yet he could not fault her. They had attacked first, even knowing the little one was a friend of Mavery. It should have stopped the attacks, yet they hadn’t, and he understood it was Mavery’s way of protecting him. With the attack, Mavery had wiped out the worst of his people. Only the ones ready to rebel would have attacked.

“Why call me if you were just going to leave me?” came the despair-filled whisper of the little one as she stopped in front of Mavery, tears running down that emotion-filled face.

“I wanted to give you my greatest treasure, pet. No one else could care for it like you,” Mavery said.

“What is it?” the little one asked.

He felt his eyebrows lift as Mavery turned looking his way. The little one did the same, and he was finally able to see her eyes. Lavender— a deep purple he had never seen on a human before, marking her as a half-breed like Mavery.

“Dius. Will you care for him... will you be his familiar and save us all from despair, pet?” Mavery said.

He looked away from those hypnotizing eyes to the double tint of Mavery’s in surprise, a feeling he had thought he could no longer feel.

“Why should I?” came the anger-filled voice.

“Because I asked, pet. No other reason.... He has saved my life and kept me from turning. He is the reason I held out for so long. I know if I give him to you, you will clear my debt to him, and I can save myself in the process,” Mavery said.

“You’ve seen this, my Mave,” the little one said.

The surprises kept coming. This little one knew of Mavery’s future visions. Not something he thought anyone besides him and his own knew.

“Yes,” Mavery said.

Who was this deadly being his mavery had just bequeathed him to, and why did mavery trust her with their existence and her secret? He opened his mouth about to speak when one of his people launched at the little one, taking a bite from her waist. He watched in a trance as the little one’s body stretched up and back, her head falling back just a bit as her feet lifted on tiptoe. That’s when he noticed she was wearing ballet shoes like his mavery. She struck a pose of beauty, one hand up gracefully, the other on the back of the vampire who had bitten her’s head. He stared in rapture as he saw her absolute bliss before something came out of her sleeve, and the vampire was rendered ashes as the silver stake ran through that head she had just caressed one second earlier. Then a scream of pain.

“Son of a bitch!!!” the little one screamed as the euphoria of the bite left her, and the pain of stopping it and killing the being that had given her the pleasure tripled her pain. He watched as she took off her black long-sleeve shirt, looking around until she found a precious vase. He stared. She wouldn’t... sure enough, she went over and began vomiting black goo into a Ming dynasty vase that had been priceless before that little thing was even born, and now she was vomiting into it. He watched her purge herself of the virus in an almost fascinating mix of horror and anger at her unabashed use of one of his priceless things, then just as quickly, she pulled out a lighter and turned it on, letting it fall into the vase and stuffing her shirt on top, making sure the virus stayed in the vase as it burned. She was not only a half-breed but she had been trained in the ways of staying a half-breed, just like his mavery, and she was also wearing a black leotard under those clothes.

Mavery made her way over, putting her hand on the little one’s wound, then slowly a yellow light filled the darkness of his pool room. He stared in awe; his Mavery had kept a couple of things from him, it seemed. He watched as the little one let her head fall back on Mavery’s shoulder, a gasp of relief followed by deep breaths, then a whispered,

“That was cruel, Mavery.”

“Sorry, pet; had to make sure you were over it,” Mavery whispered back. He watched the little one’s face twist into something dark.

“I am not over it, and I never will be; such is the life of an addict. I cannot do what you ask of me, Mavery,” the little one said, pushing the hand off her wound even though he could see it was long gone. Mavery had probably held out to make sure any trace of the virus was no longer there, but he could see the little one had done a good job of purging it, even if it had cost him a priceless heirloom.

“You can; you’re stronger than even me,” Mavery said.

He looked around at the remaining twenty or so of his people as they stared, eyes no longer red but black, their hunger clear. But they would not move without his say-so. The sweet smell of her blood rose through the air, intoxicating even him, but he did not budge; if Mavery had brought the little one here to save him from his gray existence, he would not harm such a gift... but still, she was sweet-smelling, and it was his hundreds of years of control that stopped him from moving from the middle of one of his pools, his power keeping him hovering just over the water. The bottom of his bare feet were wet. He concentrated on that feeling as he battled his blood lust, the little one would be unable to stop the ecstasy of his bite, he was sure of it.

“You think too much of me, my dear sister,” the little one said, snapping him back from the edge.