The Greater Darkness

Chapter 31

Geoffry packed the last of his meager possessions into a duffel bag he'd used when he'd changed apartments and then felt his heartbeat soar nervously as the locks on his door rattled. I turned in time to see them rotate open, seemingly moving of their own accord.

The vampire wasn't sure if he was relieved it was Venice that had discovered his flight rather than Imastious. It made no sense, but he almost would have preferred Imastious.

“Changing apartments?” Venice's tone was casual, but the glitter in her eyes revealed she was completely aware of what Geoffry had in mind.

“You know that isn't the case.”

The slender vampire nodded and then folded her arms over her snow-white blouse. “I figured that you'd be contemplating something like this. Good thing I arrived in time to talk you out of it before you pissed away the goodwill you've just accrued with Imastious. He's really quite ecstatic about the coup he just pulled off.”

“You knew that his promise to let me go was worthless?”

Anger made Venice's pale cheeks flush for the first time Geoffry could remember. “Of course I did. You would have known too if you'd stopped to think for half a second about what kind of a person he is. I thought about telling you, but you were focused on exactly what you needed to be focused on. We couldn't risk distracting you when it could mean the destruction of us all.”

“Alexander knew too?”

Venice started pacing, apparently frustrated with his naivety. “Not all the details, but he saw the change come over you. We both knew anything less than your best effort might not be sufficient to save everyone.”

Geoffry was still glad Alexander's wounds hadn't been severe enough to kill him, but somehow it hurt as much as anything that the stocky vampire hadn't told him. I knew he was a vampire and probably subject to all of the darkness inside each of us, but I almost thought we were friends.

Shrugging Geoffry zipped up the duffel bag. “None of that matters now, you all did what you felt you had to, now it's my turn to do the same. I'm leaving.”

Shaking her head Venice positioned herself in front of the door. “Geoffry, Imastious owns you. Haven't you wondered about your memory loss? He did it to you. He destroyed or suppressed everything to stop you from plotting to take his position. While he was in there he conditioned you to make sure he could maintain control. How do you think we knew to find you in the church? It was a programed response to your trying to run away. You can't trust your impulses, they'll just lead you back to him again and again.”

It makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of that, or was that part of the conditioning too?

Seeing that her words had hit Geoffry with an almost physical impact Venice continued on hopefully. “If Imastious knew that I'd told you that he'd kill me, but there's another way. Alexander is the key. You and I aren't strong enough to take Imastious by ourselves, but now you're stronger even than you were before he wiped your memories. With Alexander's help I think we can do it.”

Geoffry shook his head, but Venice didn't give him a chance. “I know, Alexander could sell us out to Imastious, but he won't. After last week he all but worships the ground you walk on. Think about it Geoffry, we'd be free. No more Imastious to make you do things you don't want to do.”

“How long would it be until another Elder pulled us into his snare? Or until Alexander needed our help with something that was wrong? No, Melody was right. Fighting evil in the service of evil is still evil. The only true way to achieve good is to do it when you aren't under evil's thrall.”

Venice's eyes became unreadable. “Who is...never mind, it isn't important. I can't let you go. He'll kill me for not trying to stop you.”

“He doesn't have to know.”

“He'll know. For something like this he'll drag me in and rape my mind, and I won't be subject to that again. There's too much at risk now.”

Geoffry felt tears start to gather in his eyes. “You could run away too.”

Venice's laugh was a bitter thing. “You won't let me come with you, I can see that in your eyes, and I can't make it on my own. I don't have your ability to alter people's thoughts and memories to protect myself.”

She's right, if I let her come with me, eventually I'd be party to another murder. The darkness inside her is too strong.

Venice seemed to know that Geoffry had come to the realization of what she'd known all along. Eyes bright with unshed tears she drew her katana from the sheath hidden by her leather trench coat.

“There has to be another way.”

“No, Geoffry, there isn't any other way.”

Part of Geoffry wanted to argue, wanted to find a way that didn't involve someone dying, but the rest of him seemed to act of its own accord. Before he knew it his weapon was unsheathed and ready his thoughts trickling out to probe Venice's defenses.

Venice may have attacked first, or maybe Geoffry had wormed a probe far enough past her defenses to preempt her action. In the end it wasn't important, The battle whirled by in a flurry of flashing metal, with neither side gaining the advantage. Geoffry's limbs soon moved with wooden slowness, executing techniques with nothing resembling his normal ability as exhaustion and Venice's gift robbed him of grace.

The only thing saving Geoffry was the crack he'd created in Venice's mental defenses. Now a flood of memories poured into him from Venice. For a second he thought it was an unusual defense meant to overwhelm him and limit his ability to predict her actions.

His sense of self had nearly vanished under the assault, but he manged to hold onto his identity, and even counter her attacks. The flood slowed to a trickle, picking up in vibrancy what it lost in volume. Pictures of a dark, brooding figure flashed across the link as Geoffry parried a high attack and shuffled back out of the way.

Somehow they'd begun the practice pattern Venice had begun Geoffry's training with. Weapons flashed with increasing quickness through the set techniques as the feelings and thoughts of the young woman that Venice had been when she was turned to a vampire settled into his mind.

The incredible loneliness and fear that her cruel master inspired had been offset to some extent by the aloof fellow slave's actions. If those actions had been sometimes tinged with malice and oftentimes been unpredictable and hurtful, they still represented the greatest kindness shown to Venice in her entire life.

The exchange of blows had reached the third practice pattern now, each technique coming without conscious thought, as Venice shared the events that led her from the innocent she had been to the hardened killer she'd become, and then suddenly her blade wasn't where it was supposed to be. Geoffry's stab caught Venice in the chest, parting soft flesh in an action that couldn't be taken back.

The scream that burst from Geoffry as Venice's weapon fell to the ground was something made terrible by the loss of innocence he'd just witnessed, and he caught her as she crumpled to the ground.

“It was for you.” The words came out as the barest shadow of a whisper, but they bubbled to the surface of Venice's mind where Geoffry could see them, so it didn't matter. “It was all for you.”

“I know, I know it was.”

“You and...”

The tears that Geoffry had somehow been storing since the day that Venice had been turned spilled out in a hot flow, and he held her until long after eyes that had regained some of the innocence they had lost long ago, dimmed.

The train was just like any other headed west. The passengers were eminently normal, all restless to be done with the endless series of transfers, all wishing they'd already covered the countless miles to their destination. There was one passenger with the faintest aura of different about him, but he went unnoticed as he moved about his fellows, stopping for a while here and there before moving to the next car with feet that seemed to grow heavier as his journey progressed.

Despite the remarkable company, the trip was something from a storybook. Passenger after passenger found tears in their eyes as they remembered old friends they'd lost touch with. Others contemplated estranged family members, and remembered all the things they'd personally done to contribute to the hatred now walling them away from their loved ones. In another time and place, surrounded by strangers, it might have seemed odd to make the call required to apologize and reconcile. Today that somehow didn't seem important. Maybe because those same strangers were in the middle of patching marriages that had been on the verge of collapse. Watching relationships come alive once again with shared purpose and mutual respect, it seemed only natural to heal their own flagging friendships.

The barriers that we all create to shelter our vulnerable parts from each other came down that day, and strangers somehow became fast friends.

Nobody noticed when a weary figure stumbled off the train at a routine stop, but they all felt a change. It was universally dismissed out of habit, but the nagging feeling that something important had just happened wasn't quite so easily forgotten. “It really was an amazing day, one filled with an incredible array of coincidences, but no less amazing for all of that.”

Acknowledgments:

I'd like to express thanks to all of those who helped in the process of cleaning TGD up for web publication. I've had great feedback from a variety of friends and strangers all of which is appreciated. As always, special thanks goes to my wife who makes it all worthwhile.

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