Torn Asunder

Keeping track of time when you are no longer boundy by mortality is... frustrating. I learned the hard way that the first thing to go with vampires, was their need for haste. What's the rush? You're going to live forever anyways. I wanted to take off like a bat out of hell, and slammed the hotel room phone down so hard, I didn't just crack the plastic, but also the marble table top it was resting on. I need to remember that I am no longer bound by mortal constraints.

Valentine wasn't home. Mom and dad had done exactly what I feared, and drove her away with their incessant nagging and harping. My twin was.... deceptively vulnerable. She has this outer shell of snark, attitude, bravado and awkward arrogance. Like a baby tiger that thinks its so badass but it's just a cute and fluffy kitty still. If she cares about someone, then that person's opinion means EVERYTHING to her. She will bend over backwards to try and make you happy, because Valentine is just that kind of girl. And for the longest while that meant she lived to prop me up, make me seem to be some kind of golden boy while everyone over looked the real hero in their midst.

Because it was Valentine who had actually been the one pushing everyone. I can remember my parents redecorating the guest room. Dad had been having an on again- off again affair with the flu, mom and tools together is just asking for a trip to the hospital and I was.... off doing something or someone. Valentine just stayed up all night and got the room done. And when mom and dad asked about it, she didn't even bat an eyelash when she said that the two of us had done it overnight. So they would never know I had snuck out. And how she is with her friends... everyone I know who knows Valentine all say the same thing. When you're around her, you just feel happier. She exudes this air of relaxed content that's contagious. Though when she gets a bee in her bonnet, as our grandmother used to say, she's hell on wheels until it's completed.

Something my parents said or did drove her back to her friends at school. The Sentinels, a biker gang, seem more accepting of her than our own parents. God I just hope they keep her there. With all hte crap she's been picking up from me, she has to be frantic.

A strange tumbling sensation rippled in my gut. No other vampire needed to breathe, save me, and hte air wooshed out of my lungs as I was hit with a wave of vertigo that collapsed me over my knees. Inside my head I was rocketing over the continent, zooming towards a beacon. My mind's eye opened when it found my twin, and for the first time in days I felt the pain inside ease. I hadn't even noticed it was there until it wasn't anymore, and I could relax a little.

But Valentine wasn't safely away. She was here in Europe. Oh god and whatever it was she had done to pull me here was summoning other things towards her. I could feel them, like off key echoes chiming out across the distances between.

'RUN!' I tried to warn my twin. 'They're coming for you RUN!' There was no acknowledgement from her though. She couldn't even tell I was here with her. And then I could feel, something locking around her, forcing me away.

My eyes opened back in my own body and I felt the blood racing through my veins, the Hunger simmering just under the surface. My twin was in danger and it was my fault. A shuddering started to rack my body, the Hunger pushing past my control, filling me with the need to lash out, protect what was mine.

I could see the last rays of sunset staining around the edges of our heavy curtains. Wherever we travelled, Isa always had these blackout curtains she could pin over the windows, just to ensure our security during the deadly daylight hours. I was still sitting on the chair next to the cracked table and phone, and Isa was stirring from her sleep. Now that my body was only half dead, I didn't get the corpse sleep that the others were forced to endure during the sun. I... just slept, as if I were still a normal person. I dreamt, I sweated, I got normal hunger pangs and I survive by drinking blood. An abomination for both species....

"Isa... do you feel that Isa?" I ask her softly, not sure how to describe the summons my twin had done. I could still feel an echo of it, like the lingering details of a dream, slowly fading.

The beautiful vampire that made me blinked her eyes slowly, taking a moment to re-orient herself back into her body. A part of me is absurdly greatful to no longer have to experience that kinds of sleep. It's more than a little disturbing to realize that you've speant the whole day dead. "Can you describe what you feel?" Isa asked me, voice delicate and curious.

I felt my lips curl in a smile the Hunger inside me stirring at just the sight of her. But I had to push that down, concern for my sister always stronger than my lust. "It's... a pull. Like I can see the light from a lighthouse on a foggy night. I want to go towards this... beacon I guess." I shrugged, not knowing how esle to explain it. I felt like I could just stop resisting, float up into the air and speed towards whatever it was that was calling me.

"It's a Call." Isa said the words with a mournful tone in her voice. Why would she sound so sad? "I'm guessing your twin is experiencing the side effects of having her twin turned." she said the words casually, as if they meant nothing.

"What side effects?" I demanded, fear thrilling through my gut, provoking the Hunger. I snarled and curled over Isa, feeling the press of my fangs filling my mouth. But Valentine needed me. So I held that Hunger back, kept it aside.

Until I felt her pure terror flood into me. It was a flash and then gone, in place I could feel the Hunger eagerly leak out of me and into her. Horror tained me then, knowing that I couldn't stop this terrible Thing from possessing my twin. And it was my fault. Her fear, her pain and her struggle with the Hunger were all my fault. Because I had been turned.

"Dante!" Isa screamed at me, making me blink into reality. Somehow we'd changed positions. I now lay on my back with Isa over top me, trying to shake me back into reality. "Dante I need you to stay with me. You're going to want to go to her, but you can't. You cannot share her mind. No matter how hard she pulls, you need to resist, promise me you'll resist. DANTE!" I heard the words but didn't heed their warning. Even if I owed immortality to Isa, even if I loved her truely and forever. I picked Valentine over her, and I always would. Seeing what she saw, I could feel it but she didn't seem to.

My internal alarm rang out that something was attacking us and Valentine dodged us out of the way, the claws of the terrible creature cutting through the air where we had been a moment ago. I heard her call my name and wished I could steal my twin away from the monster attackhing her. It had bones breaking through it's fingers, strips of peeling skin flaking off. This strnage green ooze dripped out of his eyes, painting his face and I could taste death on our tongue as Valentine sucked in paniced gasps.

So I focused on that terrified part of my brain that I now guess I could label 'Valentine' and instead of trying to pull the Hunger back, I pushed it into her. I only hope to god this doesn't kill her, and helps her survive. Our eyes opened and there was no Dante, no Valentine. Only us and our Hunger. It was a terrible thing, so beautiful and deadly.

THe creature we faced was excited to see the Hunger, it wanted the play of pain and we would give it that. For scaring our twin, it would pay. For chasing our twin, it WOULD pay. For hurting our twin, IT WOULD DIE. We heard it sound happy that it got to play, and we are not a creature to be amused by. The last patches of humanity peeled away from our victim and we smiled, pleased to be able to tear into something worth while. We dropped to the ground as the creature lept at us, easily avoiding the tearing claws. The second attack we barely avoided, realizing almost too late that it was faster than us. This wasn't right, we should be killing it. But a painful burning was locked around our wrists, restraining us, holding us back. It burned and froze, a pain we couldn't force passed. We struck out at the creature with the painful cuffs but it caught our wrists and bite our forearm. It was hurting us and we couldn't let that happen. The Hunger pulsed hotter, harder and we tore free. We drove ourselved into it, taking it to the ground and tearing into it with our bare hands.

I could feel myself taking over Valentine, my Hunger driving her to rip gorey pieced out of the creature and lick her figners clean and I knew I had to pull it all away from her, or risk destroying my twin's mind. I'd let my Hunger drive us and it was her body that bore the wounds of the fight, not my own. I raged against the contraints of my Hunger, wishing I could push the part of the Hunger that would heal her through as easily as I could the violence. Instead of being able to offer my twin comfort and understanding, I was driven entirely into my own body by Isa.

My Master stood before me, watching me scream and writhe in pain. Her bright blue eyes shone with symapthy and her angelic face was etched with sorrow. And her delicate hands curled around the bottle that had caused so much indescribable pain. "I'm sorry my love. But you didn't obey me. I can't let you strengthen your ties to her." her vocie was wretched.

"What..." I tried to ask but another whimper of pain leaked out instead.

"Holy water my love. Not enough to kill you. But it brought you back to me." she dropped the bottlan and climbed up next to me. She kissed at my puckered and blistered skin, ignoring how her own flesh pitted and peeled away at the contact to the holy water. When she reached my lips, her fangs tore into them, coating her mouth with my blood and she kissed me deeply. The Hunger throbbed dully in my gut, no longer strong enough to take me over. I pulled my mouth away from ehrs, trying to organize my thoughts despite her deliberate beguilement.

Isa looked into my eyes, bloody tears on her face. "Oh my love. You don't understand. The stronger you tie youself to her, the harder it's gonig to be for you later."

"Why?" I croaked at her, surprised to feel the pain starting to fade. The blisters on my skin were slowly being reabsorbed, as if I were healing in moments instead of months.

"Because my Childe. For you to live, she has to die." Isa stated sadly.