Chapter 25: Chapter 25

PRESENT

CHAPTER 17: LOST WITHOUT YOU

It was already morning but Anastasia still hadn’t slept after Oliver’s murder. She sent a quick message to Diana to let her know what happened. It was a cold message but she knew someone had to tell Diana about it. She called Gualtiero. She was scared for the humans’ safety, but was also worried there was a newly turned vampire in town who still didn’t know how to cover their tracks. Gualtiero came over but he seemed not as concerned as she was over the whole thing. He seemed lost in his own world. He had been fumbling on his keypad for about an hour already.

“Is there anything wrong?” Anastasia finally asked. “I mean besides the fact that Oliver is dead.”

“Diana,” said Gualtiero bitterly. “I haven’t heard from her at all. I should have followed her to Romania. I am worried about her.”

“Gualtiero,” Anastasia said. “She’s just busy with her own thing. There’s something more to worry about here like who killed Oliver and where Zari is.”

“I still should go and check. Do you have an address for her family in Romania?” Gualtiero insisted.

“She won’t like that, you know?” Anastasia informed him. “That’s really so clingy of you. Even if she is your… girlfriend now, she still needs her space. Besides, she’s not a damsel in distress. I’m sure she’s fine and doesn’t need you to go swoop around and save her.” She almost choked on the word “girlfriend.” It hurt her more than she let on.

“I do not want her to not like me. I just want her around. I feel lost without her. But you’re the human, so I will listen to your advice. I called her. I also sent her a missive and said I am thinking of her constantly. Is that humanlike?” Gualtiero asked, genuinely curious.

“It is. Gualtiero, listen to me. I know it’s been a while since vampires like you were hunted and destroyed, but I am worried for you this time. Hunters are still around the corner, waiting for suspicious deaths like this to start hunting vampires again,” Anastasia answered. “By the way, I am curious, why didn’t you change your name? Why did you tell Diana your real name? It is very risky. You should be able to move from place to place without ever having a record of your existence that can be traced.”

“I just couldn’t lie to her. When I saw her, I just wanted to tell her everything about myself right away. She is fascinating. I am no longer thinking of running away to save myself from being hunted. My place is here – with her,” Gualtiero explained.

“You are like the cheesiest guy that ever existed,” Anastasia laughed. The laugh was short-lived as they both nearly jumped to the message alert tone from her phone. It was a text from Zari.

You have to believe me. I didn’t want to kill Oliver. I loved him. Something evil was controlling my brain. I know I’m not crazy. I can’t explain what happened, but it’s not my fault, Ana. You have to believe me. You have to help me. I have no one else to run to.

Anastasia took a deep breath, after reading this message. And then she typed: I’m on my way.

***

Jake and Dan have just been released from the police station after giving their sworn statements separately. They both said they didn’t think Zari was capable of murdering Oliver. The couple were together for quite a time already and they didn’t really have a history of vicious fights. Also, Jake and Dan didn’t really see Zari as someone capable of violence.

Everything about Oliver’s murder was bizarre. Although there were wounds all over his body consistent of an animal attack, just like what was found in Roman’s, Zari’s fingerprints were also found on it.

“Did you mention that guy Gualtiero in your statement?” Jake asked his friend as they were driving home.

“I thought of him. But somehow, there was some force holding me back from ratting him out. I feel so bad about Roman and Oliver’s deaths. I’m so scared that we’re next,” Dan responded. They both shivered at the thought. Jake has felt exactly the same way about Gualtiero. He couldn’t explain it, but he could feel something evil coming from the guy. Just thinking of him gave Jake so much chills.

“Watch out!!!” Dan screamed. Jake noticed it way too late. There was a guy who appeared out of nowhere and Jake wasn’t quick enough to stop the car. They heard a loud thud and they knew instantly that they ran the guy over.

Pure horror was evident in both of their faces. For a while, nobody spoke. They didn’t know what to do. Jake’s shock was greater. He just killed a man, he knew it. Following Roman and Oliver’s deaths, he couldn’t bear to see another dead body, especially not someone he had just ran over accidentally.

“I’ll go check,” Dan said. He decided to be the braver one. Jake stayed in the car without saying anything. His mind was all over the place. Would he run? Would he take responsibility for what happened? But it was not his fault, was it? The guy seemed to have appeared out of thin air!

Jake was momentarily confused when he saw Dan checking the power tools inside the car. What was he doing? Why was he interested in the tools instead of checking if the man they hit was still somehow miraculously alive?

He saw Dan finally close the toolbox. In his hand were a knife and a tire chain. Jake started feeling uneasy, his panic rising to the maximum level.

“What are you – ” Jake tried to ask, but what he saw behind Dan almost made him faint. It was a guy about their age, with blood all over his face. He was almost good-looking except for the fact that he had fangs and it made him look monstrous and scary. He was behind Dan, but smirking at Jake. He seemed amused by the fear written all over Jake’s face.

“Put the chain on your friend’s ugly neck, as tight as you can, and slit his throat after,” the guy hissed at Dan. Dan looked possessed. He nodded and quickly wrapped the tire chain on Jake’s neck, then he tied it tighter and tighter

“No! Dan, no, don’t do this. Please. I’m your friend,” Jake begged, tears of terror all over his face. “What do you want? Who are you?” he yelled at the stranger. “You’re doing this, I know you’re doing this!” His face was turning white as Dan continued to smother him, but he still managed to choke out those words.

“I am from the Blood of Malkavian. My name is Kieran and I am here to seek revenge. Humans don’t deserve to live. But first, I need to destroy all the hunters’ descendants. Hall, Michea, I found where their living relatives are hiding now. I’m going to reign the earth; do you hear me human?” He spit on the ground upon saying the word human. “Not you filthy humans, not vampire hunters!”

Kieran kept laughing heartily as he watched Dan slit his friend’s throat. It was a glorious sight for him to see. Fresh blood was oozing out of Jake’s neck.

“You, weak humans, are such perfect servants,” Kieran said to Dan. Dan said nothing about the remark. He was compelled to do anything Kieran ordered him to do.

Kieran was bored at how easy it was for him to control humans. He decided to free Dan from compulsion to make feeding from him more challenging. Dan ran for his life as soon as he realized what happened but he was no match to Kieran’s speed. Kieran easily chased him and drained him of blood. There was pure horror on his face as he dropped to the ground, and everything went black.

***

Anastasia spent the rest of the morning with Zari. Zari has checked herself in a cheap hotel using a fake name to hide from the authorities. Anastasia listened to Zari narrate the atrocious things that have happened in her flat that led to Oliver’s death. Zari remembered everything, except the reason why she brutally murdered Oliver. She remembered hearing a noise from outside but couldn’t remember whether she ever found out what was causing it.

Anastasia would have wanted Gualtiero with her but knew it was not possible. Gualtiero opted to stay in her house, occupying Diana’s empty room temporarily while she was away.

Anastasia didn’t really know why Diana needed to leave so soon, right after Gualtiero proclaimed his love for her. She seemed to reciprocate Gualtiero’s feelings. What was the rush in leaving the country and spending time in Romania all of a sudden? More importantly, why was Diana not answering anyone’s calls or texts?

Zari slept all morning. She didn’t want to turn herself in. Anastasia knew she couldn’t risk Zari being interrogated by the police. Oliver’s death was already all over the news. What if the story alerted the vampire hunters? What if she lost Gualtiero to a vampire hunter?

She felt guilty for having all these thoughts. She had barely given Oliver’s or Roman’s demise a thought. She also wasn’t even thinking about what would happen to Zari. Ever since she met Gualtiero, he became her main priority. According to her parents, it was normal. They said his original familiar, Althaia, loved him so selflessly. Althaia, who also had uncanny physical similarities with Anastasia. What if it was fate? What if Althaia was reborn through her and Gualtiero had found her again so many decades later?

She finally fell asleep at noon, exhausted. She woke up with Zari shaking her awake. Before she even came to her senses, she could hear a news reporter talking in an alarming voice from the television. Two more bizarre deaths. A victim, identified as their friend Jake Morgan, had his throat slit and had suffered from asphyxiation. It was being debated whether it was his friend Dan Lennox who did it to him, because while Dan’s fingerprints were all over the knife and the tire chain found at the crime scene, Dan was also found dead, drained of blood, inches away from where Jake’s lifeless body was found. Dan’s death was another possible animal attack according to the reporter.

“Anastasia… I don’t know what is happening but I am scared,” Zari said, when the news report ended. “Where is Diana? Is she dead, too?”

Zari said it so nonchalantly Anastasia thought it sounded more hopeful than worried. “She’s in Romania. I haven’t heard from her. Anyway, I asked Gualtiero to come here. I can’t do this alone. This is crazy,” Anastasia responded.

Zari perked up at the mention of Gualtiero. Maybe Gualtiero was all she needed to forget all the awful things that have happened in the last twenty-four hours.

“I think that’s him,” Anastasia said. She could always sense Gualtiero’s presence nearby. It’s something that became so instinctive for her.

“Hey,” Gualtiero greeted in monotone, standing outside the door. He was busy with his phone and didn’t even look up as he spoke.

“Any message from Diana?” Anastasia asked.

“Nothing,” Gualtiero replied. “What do you want me here for? I do not really care for Oliver or Zari.”

“I can hear you,” Zari said, faking a smile.

“Your lover is murdered and so you need a babysitter?” Gualtiero asked, still standing outside the door, waiting to be let in.

Zari was shocked with his hostility, so Anastasia quickly came to the rescue.

“Gualtiero, be nice,” she warned.

“Are you just going to stand there all night? Come in,” Zari finally invited Gualtiero in. He stepped inside the threshold carefully.

“Thank you, Zari, but it is true what I said. How do you expect me to be nice to you when I do not remember you being nice to Diana?” Gualtiero said.

“Gualtiero, stop it. Dan and Jake are dead,” Anastasia reported, hoping it would make Gualtiero back off Zari for a minute.

“So are Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein,” Gualtiero answered coldly.

“Don’t mind him, Zari. He’s just grumpy because he hasn’t heard from his girlfriend for a while now,” Anastasia said, even though the statement cut her deep.

“So, you have a girlfriend, huh? Who is the bitch?” Zari asked, with a hint of amusement in her voice. “Diana?”

“Do not refer to Diana as a female animal!” Gualtiero yelled in rage. “Do you want to hear the truth? I do not even feel bad for Oliver being dead. I feel bad that you survived the attack.”

“Gualtiero, you did not mean that! Oh my god,” Anastasia exclaimed in shock. Her tears were forming from her eyes out of panic. Gualtiero was in a mood and she didn’t know how to calm him anymore.

“She was cheating with Oliver, you know?” Zari said. “I have read their flirty messages to each other. So yep, she is a bitch. She probably ran off to Romania to have an adventure with some other guy. I can help you get your mind off her if you want.”

Anastasia covered her mouth in shock. She was so sure this would not end well. Gualtiero was fuming. She could see it in his face. To her surprise, Gualtiero didn’t attack Zari. His facial expression seemed to have calmed down momentarily.

“How would you get my mind off her?” Gualtiero asked coldly,

Anastasia didn’t know what he was up to but she had a very bad feeling about it. Zari stood up from her seat and shamelessly sat on Gualtiero’s lap. “You’re such a guy,” she teased.

“No, Zari, don’t!” Anastasia yelled upon remembering the curse Gualtiero had mentioned to her.

But her pleas came a little too late. Zari kissed Gualtiero full in the mouth, and suddenly began to convulse uncontrollably. She fell to the ground, twitching and shaking and slowly began foaming at the mouth for about five minutes. Then she stopped moving, lifeless. She died by Lilith’s curse.

Anastasia could not believe what had happened. “You knew it would kill her!”

“I did not force her to kiss me. Do not blame me for her death,” Gualtiero shot back.

“No! You’re… you’re horrible. Diana would never approve of this. You really think she would still want to be with you if she finds out?”

“Diana ran off in Romania with some guy,” Gualtiero reminded her, repeating Zari’s word. “I am going to go to Romania and find her.”

“Can you just calm down?” Anastasia yelled at him upset. “You aren’t going anywhere. We are going to fix this. We are going to fix you. You are not a monster. I know you feel lost without her but she would never approve of this.”

Gualtiero thought of Diana taking care of the cat he had seriously injured, of being so emotionally wrecked when Roman died, and knew instantly that Anastasia was right.

“Maybe she ran off because she already knew about me,” he said bitterly. “I told her I am Romanian but she still chose to run off with some other guy. I could have joined her in her trip.”

“If you fix whatever needs fixing, maybe she will come back,” Anastasia said. “I know her well.” She was really making things up but she didn’t care. Gualtiero was a wreck without Diana and she needed to give him hope.

Later on, as Anastasia suggested, Gualtiero used compulsion to make it appear as if Zari had committed suicide at the hotel she was hiding in.

---

More days went on without Diana. At one point, Gualtiero already wanted to throw his phone to the bin. But he remained hopeful. He enrolled in the university as a med student. He studied human interactions on his spare time. He watched The Notebook over and over again but nothing healed his emptiness.

I know you ran off with some other guy, he typed, but I hope you will talk to me again. I am sorry for the death of your friends. I’m certain you have heard by now.

Did you put his picture on your wallpaper?

It was about a week since Diana left. He was already used to not getting a reply from her. This time, after he sent a message, he got a call from her.

“How did you know who I am with? Are you stalking me?” Diana asked over the phone, cold and distant. “I need to hear the truth, Gualtiero, did you have anything to do with the death of my friends?”

Gualtiero did not say a word. He thought about Zari. “I – ”

“Oh my god! Oh my god! My suspicions were right all along. You deceived me so you can kill my friends one by one. You made me trust you. I can’t believe I actually fell for you!” Diana’s voice was starting to sound hysterical. Everything was getting too much for her to take in.

“Diana, please listen to me. I am not a monster. I am a vampire, and I love you, and I am hoping you can accept me as I am, for even if we aren’t of the same species, I want to be with you for the rest of my life,” Gualtiero admitted. He could hear Diana’s sobs from the other end. He wished he could make her feel better. He wished he could make her hear him out through her shock and distress.

“I love you, Diana. My heart feels your absence very much. I – ”

“Shut up!” she yelled in agony. “And my parents? Did you… compel them to kill themselves?”

“What? No! I have never compelled anyone to kill themselves,” he answered. “Diana, I’m so sorry for all your pain.”

“I said shut up!” Diana said. “You’re a liar! You’re a monster and a liar. You killed everyone!”

“I love you,” Gualtiero said, for there were no appropriate words to say at the moment.

“You’re disgusting,” Diana snapped venomously. “You better be gone when I get back. Or I’m going to hunt you down, vampire.”

She hung up the phone abruptly. Gualtiero desperately clutched the phone and placed it on his chest.

What did he expect? Diana was right, he was a monster. He was already tired of existing on earth without a sense of purpose. If he lost Diana, there was really no sense in living for another week, year, decade or century.

He closed his eyes to feel the weight of Diana’s words. Maybe it was the purpose of them meeting each other all along. Maybe he was always meant to die in her hands. He tried to find peace with the thought, but a nagging, horrifying thought came to him instead.

If Diana’s friends are dying one by one, that means Diana isn’t safe. He realized he has one more purpose left, and that is to find whoever vampire aside from himself is currently in town committing all the brutal murders. He needs to destroy whoever it was, and maybe after that, Diana could punish him for all the terrible things he has done to humas by taking his life…