When Sarah opened her eyes, she sighed. She was sitting in what appeared to be a Norse feast hall. Another one of Enid’s memories invading her dreams. There was a disturbance at one of the tables. When she focused on the source it was a girl who appeared her age but was a giant even amongst the Vikings around her. She was downing a massive tankard of what Sarah could only assume was alcohol. A man to her side said something she didn’t quite catch. She looked towards him.
He had long blonde hair. Blue eyes. And a long beard with braids. The man looked like he was well into adulthood. He had muscles for days. Overall, Sarah was in awe. He was motioning to the girl. He repeated himself.
“Tell me, Valkyrie can your daughter even get drunk.”
Sarah was staring at him with starry eyes. She mumbled an answer.
“I have no idea.”
The man laughed and pounded the sturdy table before him.
“She has the makings of a shield-maiden of legend!”
Sarah wasn’t looking at the girl. She could not take her eyes off of the man beside her. It was like she was sitting beside Thor. She bit her lower lip as the muscles of his bare forearms rippled when he wrapped his hand around a tankard of ale and downed it. He continued speaking in that gruff but warm voice. Honestly Sarah could listen to him talk all day. It didn’t matter what the subject was.
“Can she fight?”
“Sure.”
Sarah wasn’t really thinking clearly. Teenage hormones were a hell of a drug. Sarah wasn’t accustomed to looking at boys, rather men in this way. This being a dream she was likely to see just how far it was going to go. She was leaning over towards the man when she woke with a start. Her alarm was going off. She fanned herself as she sat up and glared at her holo-tablet.
“That was just evil!”
She saw Enid’s reflection in the mirror over her dresser. Her emerald eyes were sparkling. Sarah quirked her head to the side as she looked at her not so silent partner.
“You slept with him.”
Enid nodded.
“Over and over.”
“The girl… that was your daughter?”
Enid smiled.
“Hazel, she is a wolf-born.”
“I thought werewolves hated vampires.”
Enid laughed.
“Only in the movies. Or if they’re Pugmentia.”
Sarah’s eyes drifted to Serena’s still sleeping form.
“I feel bad for her.”
Enid shrugged.
“I’ve made my own mistakes. You just need to learn from them. Getting wrapped up in what you did wrong is kind of a waste of energy though. You need to get her on track and get Maria’s soul back in her body.”
“She’s in a bad place. She pretends to be happy but she’s hanging on by a thread.”
“Which is exactly why we need this done sooner than later.”
Sarah frowned.
“You really are heartless.”
Enid laughed.
“I’m a realist. You know when they tell you on the plane to worry about your mask first? That’s what you should be doing.”
“Have you ever done anything for anyone else?”
Enid’s emerald eyes narrowed.
“Everything I have ever done has been for others. For twenty-five hundred years I have served, I have served my three fathers, my children, vampires, and mortals. I have slain humans, vampires, gods, demons, angels and everything in between in the name of service. I have drowned the world in their blood. I am the watcher at the border between the mortals and the supernatural. I am the wall between reality and oblivion. I rewrote reality and potentially sacrificed everything I am and my family to stop the Black Son from doing what he did to Serena’s world to everything. Even now I do what I do to save your life. I have sacrificed everything for others. What have you done?”
Sarah blinked at the mirror. She’d never heard Enid so angry before. She stammered a few times before managing a response.
“That’s not what I see in your memories.”
Enid’s voice was low when she responded.
“That is because I have witnessed things that would break your mortal mind. I let you see the happy memories so I can keep the others buried in darkness, where they belong.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re supposed to be this bad ass…”
“You want to see more? You want to see the truth that hides in the shadows? The darkness in the hearts of men? Lay down and close your eyes. I’ll grant your wish.”
Sarah looked at her runners. She hadn’t gone for a good jog in a week. She sighed and laid down and closed her eyes.
******
Enid pulled the hood of her cloak over her voluminous red hair. London in this century was far different than it had been while England was under the rule of Edward the third. Soot and coal smoke choked the air and the distant thud and hum of massive machines of steam had replaced the smell of human excrement, the latter was still here, she would have loved it if it were the only aroma. The pollution of the mortal’s new technological monstrosities burned her vampiric senses. If she cared for mortals at all she’d wonder what it was doing to them. A silver-tipped cane had replaced the mythical blade she would have carried openly in that bygone era of armored kings and knights. Bloodseeker would taste no blood tonight. The bobbies would take exception to a woman of any class carrying a bloodstained silver long blade. She had no wish for further mortal interference in the affairs of vampires this night.
Sarah felt like a passenger in this memory. She was carried along with Enid. The vampire’s thoughts drifting into her own mind. They were intermingled here, more closely than they had been before.
Enid could hear the hurried footsteps of her prey ahead of her. The hard soled boots echoed off the walls of the factories that surrounded them. The one she hunted was moving quickly. Perhaps in her youth she would have felt sorry for the woman, the vampire, but she was long past such moral quandaries. For two millennia she’d enforced the laws of her father, the emperor. Why should this one be any different?
Sarah wondered who Enid was hunting that was so dangerous, or important.
Enid didn’t hurry her pace. She could smell the Pugmentia. They had a peculiar scent compared to other vampires. The same aroma of sweetness mixed with the putrid smell of the corruption that birthed them. Her crimes were many. She had what vampires called a thirst for innocence. She fed exclusively from children. Always killing them afterwards. Enid frowned. How far gone must a vampire be to do such things?
Sarah was disgusted as images of the remnants left by Enid’s prey leaked into her thoughts. Children drained of blood and left in different poses. Disgusting poses. She wanted it to stop now but apparently Enid was not going to listen.
Enid was almost on top of the vampire she hunted. She heard a strangled cry for help from one of the many dark alleys in this part of London. Her emerald eyes scanned her surroundings and saw a group of men standing over a woman. Blood seeped from the woman’s side. She closed her eyes. She glanced in the direction of her prey, then back to the unfolding rape and murder. Mortals, she thought, it wasn’t her place to interfere. A memory long buried surfaced of her father, a large, bearded man. His cheeks flush with rage. He stood over her bloody knife in hand. The things he had done to her. Murdering her was the least of them.
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Sarah wept silently as the abuse Enid had suffered as a child leaked between the thin membrane where the latter ended, and the former began. The things she’d gone through. Now it would be forever etched in her own memories. There were monsters in the world and most of them were humans…
Enid reached down to her cane flicking the hilt, so it separated the blade from the sheath slightly. The silver glowed in the pale moon light. Her prey was already dead, whether that was now, or an hour from now. She’d hunt another group of monsters first. One of the men noticed Enid. He sneered and tipped his hat.
“Move along boy.”
Enid moved towards him. There was a time calling her boy would have ended with her in a rage. She was over such things now. She stepped closer keeping her head low. Her eyes began to glow yellow under her deep cowl. The darkness of the night evaporated. It was like the sun was shining brightly. No detail would escape her. The man motioned to her cane.
“Give that here boy, looks too expensive for the likes of you.”
Sarah knew the men were about to die. She could sense Enid’s anger. She recognized her body’s reactions. They were the same as hers. Enid was preparing to strike.
Enid seemed to sense the attack before it came and sidestepped a blow with a club that would have cracked her skull if she were human. She spun around pulling the silver sword from its sheath. The blade stabbed upwards into her attacker’s throat. She pulled it out swiftly flicking the blade. Blood splattered across the pavement. The man who had tried to hit her from behind held his throat. He made gurgling sounds as he began to drown on his own blood. Enid turned her attention to the other three men and made a come at me motion with the hand holding the cane sheath.
The man who had initially spoke to her pulled out a knife. He lunged towards her. Enid saw the attack coming before the man had begun to move. She stabbed upwards through his jaw with the cane hilt. The silver tip rammed through the bottom of the man’s jaw. If Enid were a mortal woman that is where it would have stopped. She was no mortal, so the point smashed through his upper jaw, into his brain. When she let it go, he fell forward, and the silver tip exited the top of his skull when he hit the ground.
Sarah was horrified. She knew how to do all of this. Now it was like she had. This dream was visceral and even though she was seeing it through Enid’s eyes she felt the sword in her hand.
The last two men were becoming very hesitant. Enid lunged at the nearest, her silver blade pierced his gut. The other one decided now would be a good time to run. Enid didn’t bother chasing him, she just reached out her hand and clenched her fist. The man was yanked backwards by an unseen force. She motioned towards a wall. The man hit it with such force the bricks of the wall cracked. He fell to the ground, every bone in his body broken. He was still breathing for the moment. The only sound he could make was a low whine. Enid held out her hand and the silver tipped sheath popped out of the man’s skull and lept to her hand. She leaned down and began to clean the viscera off of the sheath and her sword.
Enid inspected the wound on the one she’d stabbed in the gut. She’d cut him in such a way that he would bleed out in a few minutes. There was no surviving the injury. Satisfied she stood up and walked towards the woman who was holding her side. The woman crawled backwards. Enid kneeled down and pulled her hood back. The woman’s eyes went wide.
“You’re a girl.”
Enid nodded. She moved closer and lifted the woman’s hand off the wound. She pulled a poultice from her pack and put it over top of it. She took the woman’s hand and put it back over the injury.
“Go home. Hold it there for an hour. You’ll be sore but you’ll live.”
Sarah was shocked, as cold as Enid pretended to be, it seemed she had a heart. She’d never seen it before in the memories.
Enid stood up and pulled her hood over her head again. The woman looked at Enid.
“Who are you?”
Enid looked down at her.
“I’m the monster that other monsters fear, go home and forget you saw me.”
Enid spared no more thought to the woman. She sniffed the air and picked up the trail of her child-killing prey.
******
Sarah blinked a few times. Her eyes drifted to the mirror. Enid’s eyes were filled with sadness as she looked back. Sarah wanted to be a vampire so badly at this moment, but the sun was streaming down on her. It would make no difference. The shared memories roiled in her head. It had been a short ten minutes of Enid’s life. The entire thing was horrific. Violent and brutal. Enid had been right. They were memories that were best left forgotten. If she multiplied those ten minutes by the span of twenty-five hundred years. She suddenly realized just how much Enid had been through. Sarah whispered.
“I’m sorry.”
Serena was stirring and mumbled a response.
“For what?”
“Sorry, was talking to myself.”
Sarah wiped away the tears that were now dripping down her cheeks. As much as she wished she had never seen any of the memories, she now felt a deep empathy for the vampire who shared her body. How was Enid still sane? How did she want to go on? How could she trust men after what her father had done? Sarah shuddered. The sins of her parents against her were nothing. They were literally nothing compared to the sexual violence perpetrated on Enid as a child. The man had branded his own daughter. She would never be able to forget it, she’d lived a brief instant of it but she’d never forget it now. Serena rubbed her eyes and looked at Sarah.
“Sarah, why are you shaking?”
Sarah wiped what remained of her tears away.
“Just a memory of Enid’s that I wish I had not seen.”
Serena frowned.
“We need to get her out of you as soon as possible.”
Sarah nodded. Serena rushed over and hugged Sarah tightly. Sarah’s tears started to soak Serena’s nightshirt. Serena patted her back gently.
“It was her memory, not yours. Just keep telling yourself that.”
Amee appeared in the doorway. She quirked her head to the side looking at Serena.
“I don’t know you. What did you do to Sarah?”
Serena looked at Sarah then to Amee. Sarah pushed Serena away and stood between the two.
“She’s my friend, I’ll explain everything just… give us a minute please.”
Amee crossed her arms.
“This had better be good otherwise I’m going straight to Carly. Been in enough trouble lately over your antics Sarah.”
Amee wandered off, leaving the door open. Serena looked at Sarah again. She whispered.
“How does she know?”
Sarah shook her head.
“She has cybernetic ear implants. She can hear leaves blowing twenty kilometers away whispering will not help. I don’t know she’s filled with alien cybernetics. Maybe there is a shield or something against thought alteration. I should talk to her.”
Sarah shoved off the bed and walked to Amee’s room. Amee looked up at her.
“What thought alteration?”
Sarah made a shh sound.
“Maria’s not here. What is going on?”
“Serena is… an angel? Goddess? She changed the past so according to the world she exists here and always has.”
“That’s why I don’t know her. I have temporal shielding; It protects me from changes in the timeline.”
Amee paused for a brief second as she processed the information she’d just been told.
“Wait, she’s a PL 21?”
Amee blinked a few times. Then she looked at Sarah with her magenta eyes.
“Who is Enid? Wait… is it Eyre’s mom Enid? The PL 21?”
Sarah shook her head.
“Enid is… I’m… it is really hard to explain but I’m basically using Enid’s intended body and she’s here in my head, sharing it. I need Maria to fix it, but Maria lost most of her soul two thousand years ago so Serena who is not Enid or Seraph… Seraph is like god god… its really complicated.”
“You don’t say. It sounds like you’re way out of your depth Sarah.”
Sarah plopped down on Amee’s bed and just nodded in response to that statement.
“But we can’t tell anyone. If MANA found out about Serena… I’m not sure they could do anything but they might try and I really need her help to get Maria back her soul. Then Maria can separate Enid and I, but we’ll need a body for that… I think there might be a clone of her on Earth 2.”
“Woah. Slow down. How is Maria alive if she has no soul?”
“Vampires are different. They don’t need… I don’t understand but Enid says it is what we need to do.”
“So, Enid is talking to you, in your head?”
“No… I usually see her in reflective surfaces when she talks to me.”
Amee took Sarah’s hands.
“Are you sure you’re alright? You sound a bit… crazy.”
Sarah yanked her hands back.
“I don’t need your judgment I need your help! I’m not crazy! I thought you learned that lesson!”
Amee stood up as Sarah started to rush from the room.
“I didn’t mean it-”
Amee sighed as Sarah stormed out before she could finish.
“That way.”
Sarah didn’t say anything to Serena as she gathered her things to shower and get ready for class. She just wasn’t in the mood for any level of social interaction. She stopped by her room for ADHD medication and skipped breakfast. Once her medication kicked in, she wouldn’t even notice she hadn’t eaten. It avoided any manner of interaction before class. Unfortunately leaving early left her vulnerable to another interaction she hadn’t thought of. She jumped when she heard Lucius clearing his throat. Her response was rather caustic in tone.
“What do you want?”
Sarah didn’t even look to where she knew he would be standing.
“Ouch, someone is in a mood.”
Sarah growled.
“Go away Lucius. Enid is not here at the moment.”
“Oh… so you know who you are now.”
Sarah turned towards him; Her eyes narrowed.
“I’m not her idiot. We’re just sharing a body.”
She could feel the frost that was starting to cover her heart evaporate when she saw him. She silently cursed the bond shared between him and Enid. Because their souls were intertwined, she felt the pull too. She never believed in love at first sight before but now she could see it through Enid’s link to Lucius. She clamped down on the feelings. She was supposed to be angry because of Amee calling her insane.
“Go away. Once we get separated you can have her back. I’m not her.”
Lucius made a hmm sound.
“You have her temper.”
“Only because dead people keep talking to me and then everyone thinks I’m insane! Fuck off!”
Sarah blinked. She was not one to swear. Perhaps it was Enid bleeding through. Lucius crossed his arms and his head leaned to the side slightly.
“I’ll be here if you need me. Sarah. The Roman legionnaries had a saying: Solus dies facilis hesternus erat.”
Sarah blinked as she translated it into rough English. The only easy day was yesterday. She had heard it before, but it was an American military thing. Her train arrived. She got on board, Lucius’s words echoing in her head. He had acknowledged her as not Enid with them. She looked out the window and saw him wave to her as the light rail train whisked her into the tunnels beneath the school. A memory haunted her of a legion marching through the mud against an army of fair skinned men with blue face paint at their head was a woman. She heard the name echo in her head, Boudica. Then she saw the image of the woman’s headless body lying at her feet. She closed her eyes and pushed it away. She realized it was one of Enid’s memories. It was getting worse. Sarah saw Enid’s reflection in the window of the train when she opened her eyes. Though the red-headed vampire said nothing to her.