Abira Shinde

Mira and Rukmini sat in the middle of the dune. Rukmini lay in Mira’s lap. Blair stood at their left. Parvati stood at their right.

Fear was in Mira’s newly-rubied eyes. Rukmini’s breath was harsh. Blair’s hands trembled.

All this Parvati observed with a distantness she didn’t know herself capable of. Her knowledge of vampire lore seemed the only reality in a fantasma. She knew the chemical reaction that would take place in a vampire’s mind and the agony of the one they fed from. And in this case, it would definitely be agony, for Mira was dispensing the Bite of Pain.

Rukmini had wholeheartedly consented. Neither girl wished for their earliest sexual encounters to be brought on by bloodlust and starvation.

Rukmini glanced in Parvati’s direction.

“Now?” Mira asked softly.

“Now,” Parvati replied, almost numbly.

For a second, Rukmini and Mira pressed their foreheads together. Then, Rukmini pulled away. Tilted her head back. Mira leaned down, and bit her neck.

For a second, nothing happened. If anything, Mira looked like she was dispensing a very gentle kiss.

Then, Rukmini screamed. At least, she tried to. It came out a suffocated, wet gagging, desperately trying to approximate a human’s cry for help.

And it was the sound of her sister’s anguish and terror that tore Parvati from her dissociative state.

Rukmini, who was strong enough to wrestle vampires, was rendered helpless by pain. Rukmini, whose bravery and love led her to face the feral undead, was terrified.

Blood was welling in Mira’s mouth now.

“We should separate them, shouldn’t we?” Blair rasped.

We should, Parvati thought, half-mad from guilt and fear. I have to make it up to Rukmini.

But her coolness had not entirely deserted her.

“It has not been long enough,” she answered steadily, ignoring Blair’s doubtful gaze.

Another second passed — another, and another — Mira glanced helplessly toward Parvati. Tears rushed from Rukmini’s eyes, and Parvati fought the urge to look away.

“Continue,” she said, soothing herself through the strength of her voice.

Mira’s hands flexed. Whether in anguish or hunger, Parvati didn’t know.

More seconds ticked by.

“That’s enough,” Blair said.

Parvati was about to agree, when Mira crushed Rukmini to her mouth, and slurped greedily.

Fear spiked Parvati’s veins like a toxin.

“That’s enough. You can drop her, Mira.”

But Mira, shoulders hunched, and mouth moving like a predatory animal, didn’t listen. Rukmini’s half-screams descended into full-on gurgles; she foamed at the mouth.

“MIRA!” Parvati cried.

Blair was now sweating bullets. “Separate them?”

Not trusting her voice, Parvati nodded.

She stepped forward. Ignoring the pain bolting through arm, she shook Mira’s shoulder as firmly as she could.

“Let her go,” she said, more weakly than she wished. “Please, let her go.”

Mira wrenched her shoulder from Parvati’s grasp, and continued draining the horribly feeble Rukmini.

And the dam that held back Parvati’s fear broke.

“You said you loved her, Mira Belizaire,” She snarled. “Loosen your hold!”

Mira’s teeth remained lodged in Rukmini’s throat. Her hands tightened around Rukmini’s arms and shoulders.

Abruptly, they loosened.

Mira stopped her sucking. Slowly, she dislodged herself from Rukmini’s neck and raised her head.

Her mouth and sharpened canines were a crescent of red. Blood dripped down her chin, and splattered against Rukmini’s collarbones.

Rukmini’s eyes were half-closed. She was a girl whose life was defined by movement, but she lay utterly still.

The blood-driven lechery faded from Mira’s eyes, and the gentle bookworm resurfaced.

She glanced down at Rukmini, and gave a slight cry.

“Rukmini!” she gasped, clutching the other girl to her chest. “I didn’t mean to — I’m so sorry —”

Parvati dropped to her knees, gently shoving Mira away. Breathing painfully tight, she checked her sister.

Rukmini’s chest rose and fell, albeit shallowly. She wasn’t bleeding anymore, and the two fang marks at her neck were already scabbing over. Vampires had mild healing power over those they drank from. But her pulse was slow.

Very slow.

Dangerously slow.

“Rukmini?” Parvati said quietly. “Can you hear me?”

Rukmini’s eyes fluttered open, and she nodded weakly.

Parvati could have wept with relief, and that relief deepened when Rukmini said:

“Don’t worry, Parv. And you don’t worry, either Sparkles. Or Mr. Blair, I guess.”

Parvati’s heart swelled. Drunk on happiness, she threw her arms around her sister. Rukmini feebly hugged her back. And then, Mira was hugging them too, careful not to put weight on Parvati’s bad arm.

Parvati could hardly bear to leave the gaggle of arms and hard-won joy, but she had two last jobs to do.

She pulled away, and stood, then gestured for Mira to do the same.

Mira rose, supporting Rukmini.

“Step into the moonlight,” Parvati said.

Mira did. The silvered moonbeams illuminated her now-full face, and gleaning, healthy skin.

“Did it work?” Blair asked.

“Wonderfully,” Parvati said, her joy and confidence swelling again.

Mira giggled, twirling around. She scooped up Rukmini. When she set her down, Rukmini was grinning, and strong enough to stand on her own.

Parvati gave them, and herself, and Mr. Blair (who was sniffing and wiping his eyes) a minute.

Then she coughed.

Everyone turned to her, gazes so happy she deeply regretted pulling their minds back to the shadows.

“Mira,” she said, “I’m really sorry about this, but I have a question. It’s not a pleasant one, but it’s definitely important and it will be the last.”

“What is it?” Mira asked warily.

“I need to know how, exactly, you were turned. It’ll help us catch the perpetrator.”

Mira’s shoulders slumped. “I get it. Should’ve told you first thing, but well — I don’t like thinking about it.”

“It’s important,” Parvati urged.

Mira waved her off, and began. Her voice failed to affect nonchalance.

“I was walking — wanted to meet Rukmini — when this lady waved me over. She was sitting in a car, and asked me for directions. There were some hints at her vampirism, I think: she was wearing sunglasses, but since it was really very sunny, I didn’t think anything of it. Then —” she stopped abruptly, face darkening.

“It attacked you?” Rukmini asked.

“Dragged me in the car, and put a napkin over my mouth,” Mira said. “I woke up in a completely different room. It had these art deco style lamps. The wall presenting the TV was soft teal. A little like a hotel, but it didn’t have windows. I — I was wearing a nightgown. Frilly, and white, a touch Victorian. The only way out was through this dark hallway.”

“And in the hallway, the vampire Sovereign attacked you,” Parvati said.

“She hunted me,” Mira said softly. “She drove me out of the hallway, and chased me around. We were in this banquet-hall looking place. There was a dead deer, and so much blood…”

She closed her eyes now, and, hugging herself, leaned against Rukmini.

“That was where the vampire turned her,” Blair finished. “Used the Bite of Pain, I think. When she first talked about it, I figured she’d dreamt up the pain as a trauma response to the, um, other Bite. Afterward, she was thrown to the street.”

“When I got my wits back, I went to the old mall,” Mira said softly.

Parvati closed her eyes, gathering her thoughts.

“Do you know why the vampire attacked you?”

“It tried to tell me something,” Mira said, “but I was too busy fleeing it.” She brought her hand to her blood-crusted fangs. “Not that my running helped.”

“Do not blame yourself for being frightened while somebody tries to kill you,” Parvati said firmly. “But this vampire — what did she look like?”

Mira looked up sharply. “She?”

Parvati explained, as best she was able with all the pieces missing, her grandmother’s connection to the vampire, as well as Jules’ assumption of the undead’s femininity.

Mira tilted her head. “I guess the vampire could be female, and the connection to Jules makes sense. I just always assumed, because of its thoughts, that it was male.”

Her eyes widened; she slammed her mouth shut.

“Soldier Vampires often hear the thoughts of their maker,” Parvati said. “You don’t have to be ashamed of that. But this vampire — you didn’t see them?”

“I saw her,” Mira replied. “I didn’t get a good look at its features, except that it was pale. Supernaturally pale, with shark-like teeth.”

“And its thoughts?”

At this, Blair stiffened. Mira shuddered.

“I try to block it out,” she said softly. “But sometimes, when it’s very angry, or — I want to say horny and hungry, but that’s not messed up enough — I feel its thoughts. It really likes looking at its skyscrapers, and businesses, and wants more. It likes to frequent high-class, um, strip clubs. Likes women, but in the way creepy guys like women, y’know? And it hates — no, not hate, its emotions are way more complicated than just anger — your grandmother.”

“Can you, um, explain its feelings?” Parvati asked.

Mira shrugged. “Not well, I think. I’ve never experienced them. But there’s this greediness, and fondness even. Very deep fondness.”

“Is that all?” Parvati asked.

“That’s all,” Mira said.

Parvati fell deep in thought.

So, the vampire was predatory, likely sadistic. Very unfortunate, but unsurprising, given everything else.

As for her supernatural appearance…

Vampire sovereigns — and sovereigns exclusively — took on more animalistic traits. Horns, fangs, claws, reptilian eyes and insect-like limbs. It came from engaging in the cruelest, base forms of bloodlust. There was an evolutionary explanation for it: Feral vampires’ bodies changed to reflect their feeding habits.

To Parvati, it was the result of forgoing humanity. It was the consequence of rejecting compassion for selfishness.

But this change took at least a century to occur. Bluewood’s vampire sovereign was old, old enough to have faced Jules and lost

And yet, Jules hadn’t got her.

And the vampire had, once, liked Jules.

“I don’t get it,” Parvati said. “Grandma is a legendary vampire hunter. This vampire is the worst of the lot. How could it be fond of her?”

Rukmini shrugged. “Why is Frollo obsessed with Esmeralda? Why does Toga chase after Uraraka?”

Parvati stared at her sister, wondering if tonight’s stress had gotten to her head.

“Pardon?”

“They’re nemeses, Parv,” Rukmini said. “This bloodsucker is the Doro to Gran’s Anyanwu.”

Mira’s eyebrows shot up her forehead. “That is… an alarmingly accurate description.”

Blair sidled to Parvati and whispered, “is this a side effect of blood-drinking?”

“If it is,” Parvati replied, equally baffled, “I’ve never heard of it.”

Rukmini groaned. “Parv, you’re telling me you’ve never heard of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed? Or My Hero Academia?”

“I’ve heard of Butler’s works,” Parvati said defensively. “I’ve just never read that one. And what the heck is My Hero —?”

“It’s a shonen battle anime,” Mira said. “The characters Uraraka and Toga are from it.”

“I had to read Butler’s Kindred for High School,” Blair interjected. “Depressing as all get out. But better than that other thing you referenced — the one about that big French cathedral?”

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame?” Mira asked, lifting an eyebrow. “One of the most famous works in the French literary canon?”

“Yeah,” Blair said.

“I was thinking of the Disney version to be honest,” Rukmini said, a bit sheepishly.

Mira elbowed her lightly, and the girls continued joking.

But Blair looked at Parvati, and beckoned her over.

Parvati approached, tipping her head in a silent question. Blair’s brows were drawn up; his dry-cracked mouth smiled; resignation bled through his eyes.

“You’ll have to take Mira home, won’t you?” He asked. “I mean, I know you’ll have to — she misses her folk like anything. I’m sure they’ll want her, too.”

For some damn reason, this rational, kind sentence sent Parvati over the edge.

Losing Blair would hurt Mira. Losing Mira would tear Blair apart. If they separated now, they might never meet again.

Parvati glanced back at Mira and Rukmini, teasing each other, drunk on their happy, blood-touched reunion.

She remembered Mira’s love for Rohini and Noe, Noe and Rohini’s love for Mira. She remembered Mira’s fear of disappointing them.

She remembered the Vampire Spawn, Mira feeding off Rukmini, Blair’s addiction. John Doe (real name unknown), 21st_Century Minstrel, Gwennie Alabastor and Akbar Khan. Her promise to the park ranger: We’ll be back in an hour.

It had definitely been over an hour.

And Jules Dawns.

The world shifted, and suddenly Parvati saw her grandmother in a different light.

Jules had a non-hostile relationship with a vampire she later tried to kill. Jules had spent her whole life feeling guilty about a lie so brilliantly spun, nobody knew the whole truth.

Jules had lost her only child and his wife to the mundanity of a car accident, and taken custody of his kids.

Jules turned her back on the life that made her a hero, because— at least partly— she wanted to protect her grandchildren.

The realization of everything was so intense, the world fell away. Parvati was just a kid, and she was left adrift in the emotional storm of so many people she loved and could never wholly know.

“Miss?” Blair’s voice dragged Parvati back to reality.

“Y-yes?” Parvati said.

Blair studied her with a face of frank curiosity. “You started to stare out at the distance, and your face went pale. Well, it went lightly tanned-ish, but you get the point.”

“I was thinking through everything,” Parvati said. “I think — I’ve got an idea.”

Ignoring her aching arm, she waved Mira over. Mira slipped down the hill, swift and fluid as a folkloric sprite.

“More bad news?” Mira asked warily.

“Nope,” Parvati said. Honestly compelled her to say: “well, it’s better than the rest. We need to leave.”

Mira’s face fell. “I know,” she said. “Will you visit?”

Here was the difficult part: but Parvati had faced worse.

“You’re coming with us,” she said firmly. “You and Blair both.”

“What?” Mira said, blinking. “But I said —”

“We crashed our car escaping the vampire Spawn,” Parvati explained. “It’s lying here in a ditch, and the park ranger wanted us back like, thirty minutes ago. We went to find you — your vampirism is the only plausible explanation.”

“But what about Blair?” Mira’s eyes were wide with panic now. “He’s a druggie — he’ll get into so much trouble. And I can’t go home like this!” Her voice broke at the last bit.

The pain in Mira’s voice was so intense, Parvati couldn’t look her in the eye. She glanced aside. Rukmini was staring at her. Blair looked away.

Help her, Jules, Rohini had begged. Please, save our daughter.

“Mira,” Parvati said, “Think about what you’re saying. Your parents built their world for you. They’d rather have you fitting imperfectly than not have you at all.”

Mira stared at her. Her expression could hold a universe.

She opened her mouth.

Closed it.

“I want to go home.” Her words were barely a whisper. “But —”

Parvati held out her hand.

Mira continued stammering.

“But, Mr. Hector —”

“Sneak him outside the park.”

Blair glanced up, shock blinking through his gaze at that. Even Rukmini seemed surprised. Parvati pushed on.

“I’ll call your parents to come pick him up. Then, you return, and we’ll talk to the park ranger. We don’t even have to mention him.”

Mira looked to Blair; Blair looked to her.

“It’s a great idea,” he said, a foreign, almost hopeful note in his voice.

Rukmini touched Mira’s shoulder. “Let us go home, Sparkles,” she said fragilely. “I want to do normal couple stuff with you.”

Mira’s lips quirked.

A moment passed: she gazed at the stardusted heavens. She looked at the night-shaded earth. She closed her eyes, and briefly ran the back of her hand over her mouth and pink-shaded fangs.

She opened her eyes, and the emotion in them burned with the scarlet fire of a thousand suns.

Mira reached out, and took Parvati’s hand. Her hands were dainty, their grasp superhumanly strong.

“I’m ready to go home,” she declared.