The Vampire & Her Witch

Cossot lingered for only a moment, giving Roseen’s hand a final squeeze before she headed upstairs in search of Lady Heila.

Meanwhile, in the dungeon, Sybyll tottered on her feet, leaning against the cold iron bars of Ian Hanrahan’s cell to hold herself up as the impending dawn pressed down on her. Still, she refused to flee from the sun while there was still one last important matter to attend to.

”Ye don’a have ta’ pretend now,” Sybyll told Roseen, who stood stiffly rooted to the spot where she’d held Cossot, looking as if she wanted nothing more than to race after her departed friend to escape this place of darkness and death. ”I know ye’ve been forcing yerself fer her sake,” Sybyll added.

”You, you don’t look well,” Roseen said with a conflicted look on her face. She had other things she wanted to say, things she’d been bottling up, but when she looked at the powerful vampire knight looking so drained and exhausted, it was hard to focus on the maelstrom of feelings that swirled in her heart.

”I’m resistin’ tha’ pull of dawn,” Sybyll said with a bitter, self-deprecating smile. ”Me own fault fer takin’ me time wit’ me cousin. But if I leave things unsaid, ye may do somethin’ rash durin’ tha’ day, an’ I can’t have that.”

”It’s true fer ye too,” Sybyll added as she looked at the curvy young woman. ”Ye have things ta’ say ta’ me tha’ ye didn’a want ta’ say when Cossot were here, so say them now. I can see them all caught up in yer throat. I won’t hurt ye, no matter what ye say.”

”I don’t believe you,” Roseen said, refusing to move from her spot as she glared at the vampire. ”I don’t know if I even believe that you’re weak right now. You lied to Cossot to make her kill the old baron,” she said, pursing her lips together and clenching both of her hands into tight fists.

”I don’t believe for even a minute that you couldn’t swing your axe at him after everything he’s done to you,” the young woman said with hot tears forming in her eyes. ”You, you did all that to him,” she said, pointing to the broken, torn ruin of Ian’s body, twisted and tattered after enduring hours of Sybyll’s torture.

”You did all that, and you couldn’t end his life?” Roseen said in disbelief, her voice growing louder and higher-pitched with every word. ”He’d probably have died from his wounds if you just left him there for a while! She didn’t, she didn’t need to do that, but you lied to her to make her do it!”

”And now,” the young woman continued as she glared at the crimson-haired vampire. ”Now, you’re acting like you’re weak so I’ll lower my guard. You just want to manipulate me the way you manipulated her, to turn her into an Executioner like you! But she didn’t have to,” Roseen said as tears rolled down her soft cheeks. ”She didn’t have to...”

”Yer right,” Sybyll said, accepting most of the accusations without bothering to deny them. ”I guided her hand t’night b’cause I needed ta’ know if she were a woman who could kill a man tha’ needed killin’,” Sybyll said. ”If she’d refused, I’d have done tha’ deed meself. I never meant ta’ force her ta’ change her nature, but I wanted ta’ understand if she had what it takes within her ta strike tha’ blow.”

”And you think that offering to make her a knight makes up for what you did to her?” Roseen said, remembering the pale-faced look of shock on Cossot’s face after she dropped the knife and the way her voice shook as she stammered that she hadn’t meant to kill him. ”Is this all some kind of chess game to you? You’re playing with her life! Why would you do that to her?”

”I always intended ta’ take her in an’ train her as a knight,” Sybyll said, frowning as she realized how things looked to the privileged young woman before her. ”Ye think I’m like a rough parent, trotting out a fine doll ta’ make up fer doin’ wrong. But ye’ve got it backwards. I didn’a tell her I wished ta train her as a knight ta’ make up fer tha’ wrong I did,” she explained.

”I told her I’d train her up so she could dream of a future instead of gettin’ mired in what she did,” Sybyll said. ”I know I did wrong wit’ her,” she admitted. ”I’ll do wrong wit’ her again an’ again. But I’ll do wrong b’cause I’m tryin’ ta’ do right by her, an’ I’m tryin’ ta’ do right by many more people too. Just like I’m tryin’ ta’ do right by ye now,” she added.

”But I’m not deceiving ye about me weakness,” she added. ”An’ I’m runnin out of time. So help me ta’ tha end of tha’ hall. Me bed is waitin’ there, an’ I need ta’ return to it soon.”

”You, you really are weak?” Roseen said, taking a hesitant step toward Sybyll, realizing for the first time that her lustrous crimson hair now looked faded and dull, and the woman who had appeared to be in her early twenties now looked like she was rapidly approaching forty with faint lines appearing at the edge of her eyes and lips that no longer seemed as full and lush as they had just moments ago.

”Ye think it’s an easy thing ta’ resist tha’ sun’s rise?” Sybyll said with a faint chuckle. ”A vampire’s power isn’a free, lass. For all tha’ we gain in tha’ night, we lose tha’ day entirely. So, if ye want ta’ understand why I did what I did, I need yer help ta’ make it ta’ tha end of tha’ hall an’ me bed.”

”Otherwise, just like wit’ Ian, I’ll have ta’ do it meself,” she added. ”But I won’t be up fer conversation while I drag meself ta bed. So choose, an’ choose quickly. Do ye want answers? Or do ye want ta’ keep your distance?”

”Is this another one of your tests?” Roseen asked, pausing after taking half a step toward the vampire. She hated the idea that this powerful woman had manipulated Cossot into killing someone, and she hated the idea that she was being manipulated by the vampire even now.

And yet.. When she confronted Dame Sybyll about what she’d done, the older woman hadn’t denied it. Instead, she’d admitted that she’d done wrong and that she was trying to find a way to make things right...

”Life is a test, lass,” Sybyll said. ”Keep hesitatin’ an’ ye’ll fail it straight away. I know Cossot is braver than ye are, lass,” she added with a pointed look. ”But ye need ta’ show ye can be brave as well. Give me a hand, or go away, I’ve no more time ta’ waste on yer choosin’...”