CHAPTER 8: THE SEARCH
Melissa ran around the city with the sunset-coloured pendulum in her hand. She looked around frantically for her half-succubus friend. Raziel followed her around, secretly detecting Judith’s aura using his powers. He and Melissa practically walked down the whole city and the next, but still no sign of Judith.
“We are getting nowhere, woman,” Raziel said and sat on a bench at the bus stop. “Why can’t you just let her go?”
“There’s still hope,” Melissa also joined him on the bench. “I’m not giving up on her. Not now, not ever.”
As soon as she said it, her pendulum started to glow and point to somewhere in the east. Melissa’s eyes filled with hope as she got up in a thrice to go where the pendulum was taking her. Raziel stayed at his seat for a few moments before following suite. He seemed like a relentless stalker, always on Melissa’s trail, only that Melissa knew his existence and didn’t seem to bother about it. The pendulum led the duo into a double-storey house that had a touch of English in it. Melissa sneaked into the house by climbing through the gates. Raziel passed through the gates with ease.
Their presence alerted the dog of the house. It was a German Shepherd, and it barked furiously at the duo. Melissa cowered, muttering “Nice doggy, nice doggy” to this protective dog which didn’t seem to buy that act. Raziel came close to the dog. The dog whined and lowered his head, obviously afraid of Raziel’s deathly aura. He growled when Raziel reached over to touch the dog’s head. He covered its eyes with his three-fingered claw and muttered something behind his scarf. The dog whined a little, yawned and fell into deep slumber. Raziel let his hand go and walked casually towards the quite amazed Melissa.
“Great work, vampire!” Melissa complimented. Raziel shook her compliment off coolly.
Melissa sneaked to the back door and tried the doorknob. It was no use. The door was locked tight. Melissa groaned in exasperation. Raziel just stood there and watch. He didn’t want to have any part of it and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it now. Melissa gestured him to the door.
“A little help here please?”
Raziel let out a sigh of defeat and walked through the door without any complication. He then opened the door from the inside and let Melissa in. Melissa didn’t wait another second. She tiptoed upstairs and searched every room. The pendulum glowed brightly when she reached a small room. She pushed the half-closed door open and saw that it was the children’s room. All five of the children were fast asleep. Melissa hushed Raziel as she walked slowly into the room. Raziel rolled his eyes; he had always been silent in doing things like this. He didn’t need to be told to do so.
Then, to Melissa’s horror, she saw a huge dark figure with wide bat wings hovering over a small girl. It was beginning to lay its lips on the sleeping girl’s lips. Melissa rushed towards the figure and pulled it away from her. They made quite a noise as Melissa and the figure fell onto the solid marble floor. The children were beginning to stir.
“Judith, don’t do this! You don’t have to do this! This is not right! You’re also kin to the humans!” Melissa urged.
“Let me go, you bitch! I’ve made my decision and that’s that!” Judith struggled from her grasp.
Suddenly, the whole room was filled with screams of horror and fear as the lights were turned on. The five children who seemed to be in between 5 to 10 screamed in high-pitched voices when they saw the bat-like Judith and the freaky-looking vampire Raziel. Melissa tried to hush them but it was useless—they were too scared to stop screaming.
“Who goes there?!” A man’s voice was heard. The click of a gun was heard. The trio turned around and saw in horror that it was the man of the house carrying a big, long shot gun. The man and his wife looked at the trio in trepidation and, with shivering hands, the man pointed his gun at the trio.
“Don’t you dare make any false move or even touch the hair of my 5 kids or I’ll shoot you! I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it!”
Judith made a dash for it. She ran at top speed towards the window and crashed out of the house, fleeing out into the night sky. Raziel wanted to go over and make a dinner out of the couple but Melissa stopped him.
“Are you crazy?! Think about the kids! Let’s just get out of here!”
Raziel growled when Melissa grabbed his hand and urged him to go. The man gave chase when the duo headed for the smashed window and fired a few shots. The wife screamed in both horror and anger as she yelled about not to end up shooting the kids. The man popped out of the smashed window the duo jumped out of and fired another two shots. One of the shots went through Raziel’s calf. Raziel let out a small cry before hobbling along the rest of the road with Melissa propping him on her shoulders.
“Can you still walk or something?” Melissa asked as soon as they were out of the house’s range.
“A little cut won’t hurt anybody,” Raziel groaned a little before adjusting himself to the pain. He had long trained himself to be immune and become one with the pain if ever he gets hurt. “What was that weapon he used on me?”
“It’s called a gun. Kills you anytime, if it doesn’t leave you with a serious injury. That is, if you’re human. Now let’s go find her again. We can’t just let her go on like this!”
“Did you not just hear what your succubus friend has said? She had already made her decision. Don’t stop her anymore. You have no right to change people’s decision.”
“Yes, I know. But I have no right to let her die in the hands of the hunters either,” Melissa said sadly as she took out her pendulum and began her search again.
“You are the most relentless human I have ever met,” Raziel said as he hobbled slowly behind her, using his wings to help him hover a few inches off the floor now and then to ease the pressure of his calf.
“You don’t call me a witch for nothing now, do you?” Melissa smiled at the Soul Reaver.
Judith panted as she sat herself on a skyscraper. She was this close to satisfy her hunger but Melissa has foiled her plans. She had to suck the energy of a sleeping security guard to get into this skyscraper building. It had made her quite relieved to actually taste human energy again but it wasn’t enough. She came into that English house and had set her eyes on those five children. It was like a feast lay out before her. And yet, Melissa and her vampire friend had to ruin everything!
“There you are, Jude!”
Judith spun round. Melissa and her vampire friend were there behind her. Her purple eyes glared venomously at them.
“I was so close to having those kids!” Judith snarled at them. “What did you think you’re doing?”
“I was trying to save you,” Melissa replied. “Don’t do this, Jude. There has got to be another way out of all this. You can still be human. You don’t have to give in to your succubus side.”
“I’ve made my decision,” Judith looked away indignantly. “I am not going to lie to myself anymore. I am more succubus than human. I am the seed of my father. I am not going to let myself suffer again.”
“But Jude…”
“I can’t live like this anymore, Melissa, don’t you get it?! I cannot hang on to myself any longer! Those crap you gave me, all the incantations, all those scrolls. It’s not enough to suppress my powers! It’s not strong enough to be the perfect power-limiter! It broke as soon as I went into one of my fits! Your stuff is useless to me!!”
“There is always a new and stronger power-limiter. There will be!” Melissa begged, coming closer to her friend. “If you would give me some time, I can find it…”
“I don’t want any of your help anymore! I am what I am! You can’t change me!”
“You are what you choose to be, Jude! Don’t do this to yourself! They are going to hunt you down and you’ll be a bigger target to kill! I can’t let you die!”
“Let them get me! I’m not afraid!” Judith crossed her arms. “It’s better to die than to live and become someone that I’m not! You’ll join me too sooner or later, if they catch you! Why should you care?”
“You’re my friend, Jude. I cannot let you die.”
“Enough talk!” Judith raised a hand to shut her up. “If you don’t want me to kill, then I might as well die now!”
“NO! No, you can’t!!!”
Judith walked up to Raziel bravely and said, “You, vampire. You suck blood, right? Would a succubus’s blood interest you?”
Melissa rushed towards Judith to pull her away but Judith activated a force field of her own. Melissa flung backwards like a cannon ball. Judith then turned back to Raziel with flourish. Raziel was quite amazed at how Judith easily defeated Melissa.
“So? What’ll it be? Succubus’s blood or me?”
“I have evolved enough to be rid of this kind of primitive consumption. But your soul would be tantalizing,” Raziel replied as he materialized his silver sword. “How can I be sure that I will not be flung away by your force field?”
“I won’t do anything to harm you, and I assure you, my force field only works on people I choose to work on.”
“You’re quite an evolved species yourself,” Raziel held his sword tight and raised it above his head, ready to strike. His calf was throbbing with pain but he didn’t pay much attention to it. With this succubus’s soul, his calf will heal in no time. Within seconds, he brought his sword down onto the succubus…
Suddenly, she wasn’t there anymore. He knew he had cut something but it wasn’t her. He looked up and saw Judith in the arms of Kent, the back of the small boy’s shirt cut in half. Judith blushed terribly at the sight of him.
“Whew! That was close!” Kent swept an imaginary sweat off his brow.
“Kent! Wha…What are you doing here? How did you get here?” Judith was surprised and shocked.
“I followed you here. I’ve been on Melissa Celestial and that weirdo’s tail for quite a while. You don’t call me an outlaw kid for nothing if you don’t have biker men for friends,” Kent replied, then turned to Melissa and said, “You knew all along that Lavender was my crush, and you knew all along that she’s a succubus. Why didn’t you just tell us everything? We wouldn’t be so shocked right now!”
“Please, Kent. I told her not to tell you guys. I’m sorry, Kent, but I really cannot live normally like the rest of you. I have to have energy. I need energy to survive. I’ll go crazy, like a madwoman if I don’t do this. I’m not…human. Not anymore.”
“You don’t have to hide from us,” Kent scowled at his girlfriend. “We could’ve accepted you earlier, and we could help you out on your problem. What are friends for?”
Judith shook her head. “No, I cannot let you into this. Death is the only way.”
She advanced towards Raziel who was still holding his sharp silver sword. Kent rushed in front of Judith and blocked her, his front facing Raziel, saying, “Then you will have to kill me first.”
“Kent! Get out of the way! Don’t do this!” Melissa and Judith said almost in unison.
“Listen to them, mortal. Get out of the way,” Raziel said, his yellow eyes seemed menacingly evil at night. “It is your mate’s choice. I’m just doing what she asked me to do.”
“No. I am not going to let her die. If someone has to die here, it’s gonna be me.”
“Why are you doing this, mortal? I don’t understand you humans sometimes.”
“Of course you don’t understand! You weirdos don’t know anything about human love! Our love exceeds all boundaries, even through heaven and hell. When you are in love, you would do anything to save your loved ones, even if it means sacrificing your own life! I had a crush on her ever since she came to this school, and now that I have her, I will not let her go that easily! Bring it on, you weirdo! Let me show you how human’s true love works!”
Raziel was quite confused. Why would humans do such a thing? Don’t they care about their lives anymore? Is it that easy for them to just give up their lives just because they want to save someone else’s life? The succubus wants to end her life willingly and she had every right to decide about her life, but these two humans thought that she had no right to be killed or to be willing to sacrifice her life, yet they thought it was right to sacrifice their own life just to save hers. All this thinking and contemplating made him suddenly conscious about his throbbing calf. He let the sword that was raised high above his head go and held his calf. The sword missed Kent about a few inches. Kent sat down abruptly.
“That was really close!” Kent gasped in panic.
“Kent, you could’ve gotten yourself killed! You idiot!” Judith hugged him from behind, bursting into tears.
“Well…I suppose I have to make it up to you then,” Kent smiled sheepishly as his lips came closer to Judith. Judith back away in horror.
“No, I can’t! I’ll end up sucking your energy!”
“Then so be it,” Kent replied nonchalantly as he kissed her deeply. Judith wanted to let go before she kills him but his kiss was so deep, so passionate and so full of love that she was reluctant to do so. She was even reluctant to suck his energy altogether. They shared their 3 minutes of love and passion together.
When they finally parted, Kent said, “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? I can help you, Lavender. We can all help you. Trust me on this one.”
Judith nodded and flung herself into his warm arms.
Melissa walked proudly towards Raziel and said with a smug, “Now aren’t you glad that you didn’t kill her in the first place, hmm?”
Raziel didn’t reply. His calf was aching quite badly. All this goings-on made him unable to be one with the pain. Melissa noticed and took one of his arms and propped it on her shoulder, supporting him as they left the skyscraper before the police came and saw them and end up being accused of murdering the sleeping (now dead) security guard.
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