51.
Spielberg stood up holding
the cane. It was a hard decision for him. Was he to save his daughter or end
the saga with the witches? Was he cursed to be associated with the witches?
“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been
cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! Isaiah 14:12.” Those
words swam in his mind. Was he cast by God to be there?
“Rudolph, please.” Lissa
called him by his nickname. She once told him Rudolph suits him better in name.
She told him that the name means "famous wolf. He was to her the prime
wolf that leads the pack. Just like when he led the regiment colors, he was the
leader.
“Save your daughter.” Lissa
spoke to him. “We came far and wide to be with her. She will carry our legacy,
and the coven will be ... established and ... famous.”
“Famous like Rudolph.”
“Spielsdorf, she speaks the
truth.” Annabelle added.
“Betrayals are inevitable,
but great devastation will come to the one guilty of betraying others. It would
be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled
into the deepest sea than to face the punishment of betraying one of my dear
ones! Luke 17:1-25.” Spielsdorf said while looking at Lissa. “Was I betrayed?”
“Did you ever feel love? We
took oaths to cherish, to hold, to …… undergo all the events together. Yes, you
left my side earlier, but I carried you in my heart. Did you?”
“Yes, I do. I have always
watched over you and Lauren.” Lissa replied. “Love knew no boundary.”
“Did it? You bound yourself
here to …… Say it out, Lissa.” Spielberg was angered. “We travelled to find the
one who caused you to leave us. Did you ever know?”
“Yes, the coven matters to
me… above all else.” Lissa sighed. “Carmilla, in her anger, made me lose my
humanity and crippled our daughter, but now she has repented of her errors.”
“For that, all is forgiven,
huh?” Spielberg looked towards Carmilla. “You destroyed my family, and now you
are asking me to give my daughter……. What? A new life?”
“Yes, Spielsdorf. A new life
to her. A new life to all of us. A new life to the coven. Lauren will be the
…”… Carmilla cried out.
“No…….” Spielberg shot
Carmilla from the concealed revolver. The bullet impacted on the lady’s chest.
She was slammed back to the back of the seat.
“Spielberg, you……” Carmilla
held up her hands over her wound. “I……”
“Sister …….” Lissa rushed to
Carmilla’s side with Lauren.
“I am dying…… I will soon
be…… dead.” Carmilla sighed. “The beginning and the end are nexus in the
journey of life. Mine will be over. I am glad that Lauren has taken over that
responsibility from me.”
“I can save you, Carmilla.”
Lauren approached the lady. “I have the means……”
“Silly lady. You have more
things to accomplish than to save my life. My journey ends and yours… is soon
to take place.” Carmilla smiled. “With my death, the vampire war is over. The
coven war is over.”
“No, my love. Please do not
…… leave me.” Vlad, still stuck to the wall, called out. “Let me see you once
more.”
Lauren released the vampire
from the wall. He fell to the floor and then stood up.
“Dignity is mine.” Vlad
stood up and then walked towards Carmilla. He went on his knees and took her
hands.
“I do love you, Carmilla
Karnstein.” The shrieks of the other brides echoed on the walls.
“Vlad, I do it for you, but
we were never meant to be. I am a witch, and you are……”
“A lover for you.” Vlad
smiled. “I loved you as mine, and not because you are…….”
The echoes of the brides
were louder, and then the swarm of bats flew away.
“I need to go. Dead is not
my favourite event. I may cry at the weddings, but at death, I have to say…….”
Vlad's tears flowed. “I dislike deaths.”
Vlad stood up and walked to
the door.
“Lauren, I will be back.”
The vampire then dissipated. Carmilla Karnstein took her last breath.
“Spielsdorf, give me the
blood jewel.” Annabelle said. “It may save Carmilla.”
“No!” Lissa intervened. “The
blood belongs to Lauren. It was to be Carmilla’s gift.”
“She is our sister.”
Annabelle cried out. “We have to save her.”
“It is not called anymore.
It is Lauren’s.” Lissa looked at the younger lady. “If you give her the blood,
you will be incomplete. The paths before you will be…… dangerous if you are not
complete. You may lose it all.”
“I ….” Lauren, in the short
time, has become a witch when just days ago, she was an invalid on the bedding.
Her transformation was intense, and she had not come to grips with her new
personality and powers.
“Rudolph, please give her
blood.” Lissa begged," “She cannot be…… incomplete.”
Spielberg held hard on the
cane. He was unsure of the action to take.
His daughter or her coven?
“I must save her.” Annabelle
rushed towards Spielsdorf. The latter had raised the cane and leveled it at the
witch. The sharp end of the cane pierced the witch at the throat. The blood
from Annabelle spurted out, and some landed on Spielsdorf face. Her form
dissipated then.
“Annabelle!” Lissa called
out. She embraced Lauren as if to shield her.
“You killed Annabelle. She
……without her powers, she was like any mortal. You killed her.”
“No, Lissa. I did not.
I…...was protecting myself.” Spielberg said.
“As you had done years ago.
How many innocents died on your hands, Rudolph? Thousands or millions?”
“Lissa, I told you before. I
am a military man.”
“No, Rudolph. You are a
monster.” Lissa glared at him. “If she stays with you, she will be one soon.”
“I am not a monster. I am …”
Spielberg defended his action. It was then he recalled the image of the monster
at the lab.
“Yes, the monster dwells
with you, yet you could not see it. You cannot, for you are one with them.”
Lissa said. “Your monster dealt with the demon that was to attack your
daughter. Not that day, but one day soon.”
“I am……” Spielberg looked at
the cane he held.
“The witch shall not be
complete.” The voice reverberated in the mansion. “I am the Supreme One.”
Spielberg felt force on the
cane, and he gripped it harder with both hands. Lissa pushed Lauren towards the
father.
“Take the cane, Lauren.”
Lissa called out. Lauren jumped over the table, kicking away the feast there.
She leaned forward to reach her father.
“Father!” Lauten called
out," Spielberg heard her call and rushed to the table. He felt himself
held back by some invisible force, and Lauren sensed it. She grabbed the
athame, the carving knife on the table, and called up the spell. It propels her
forward to her father, and with the knife, she slashes at the invisible force
holding her father.
Spielberg felt the force was
off him, and then he moved towards Lauren. He pushed out his left arm towards
her. Lauren grabbed the cane and swung the head of it towards her. She jabbed
the cane with the blood jewel into her chest, and then she screamed.
Her screams echoed in the
mansion, and the stillness prevailed.
“Lauren, are you good?”
Lauren, lying on the table, looked at the face of her father. She looked pale
then.
“I am ……fine.” Lauren pushed
herself and then got off the table. “It was a ……. Where is Mother?”
Lissa was missing.
“It took her.” Lauren said.
“Who?” Spielberg asked.
“Beelzebub.” Lauren said.
“Master Ernest Frankenstein summoned the demon. The portal door is now open.
The demon took the mother. We must find her.”
“How?” Spielberg asked.
“I do not know. I was with
Carmilla, but I must learn from Mother or Aunt Annabelle. My …… training was ……
not complete.” Lauren looked at the father.
“The blood jewel is an
empowerment, but the training was to help me use it……fully.”
“Oh, God. What have I done?”
Spielberg sighed.
“We must find Mother. The
war is not over.” Lauren looked at the contents of the table. “I need to find
the means to complete my training.”
Lauren called on the spell
to rearrange the contents on the table. She picked up the wand and cauldron.
“Carmilla told me of the
ancient books here. There are some at the other mansion. Aunt Annabelle
entrusted it to Ernest. We need those too.” Lauren looked around the mansion.
“We also need the help of
the undead.”