Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Damned ❯ The End ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13: The End
“Cassandra!” I heard a shout, it was my sister.
“Mindy! Stay back! Rogue vampire.” I felt so weak I could barely shout.
“Bind him.” she said.
“He is bound. I just. Stay back.” I couldn’t formulate thoughts.
“Cassandra. Menoch is dead. Him and the blonde one got into a fight amongst themselves!” she was excited and I tried to feel the excitement with her, but I was too hurt.
“Perfect.” I smiled for her benefit. “I’ll be back in the battle in a second, I just need to-” I trailed off.
“Okay, hurry up. We could still really use your binding skills.” She flitted off back to battle. I gathered my composure.
I stared into the shimmering brown eyes of the vampire. I watched him, kneeling below me, face uplifted toward the sky, ready to die. In books I had read so many times the vampire huntress would drop her weapon, tell the vampire he was misunderstood. She would love him and they would live forever as outcasts. I looked at Connor, at the destruction around me.
“Cassandra…” he began, his breath seemed labored, “are you really going to kill me?”
He wasn’t begging or pleading, but there was something in his voice. A kind of finality. As though no matter what the outcome he would be at peace.
“Menoch is dead.” I stated, vying for time. I had never killed before. It is difficult.
“I realized that.” He seemed so relieved.
“And the girl –”
“Medea.”
“Yes. She’s dead too. You’re clan is abolished.”
“A clan I stuck with to the end, as I had vowed.”
I towered over him; the binding spell seemed to be holding. I raised the stake, “Enough talking.” I had to do this before I lost my nerves. “I just want to know one thing,”
“I will assist if I can.”
“Why did you use me? Why our coven?”
“Because your coven was a threat. And you, Cassandra, were naïve.”
“Did you ever feel anything Connor? Sadness? Remorse? Regret even?”
“I am a hunter, much like you. It is not in my credo to feel.”
I looked into his soft brown eyes and three things happened simultaneously: tears burst from my eyes uncontained, my heart melted with emotion for this creature, and my hand struck; straight through the heart, just as I had been taught. I watched as Connor writhed in pain, as the infection from the venom on the stake slowly melded into his body. Connor looked at me with the softest expression I had ever seen on anyone, human or vampire. He gave a light smile, and whispered “Thank you” before flailing and dying.
I collapsed to the ground in a heap of emotion. Tears poured from my face, my body wracked with sobs. I couldn’t handle this. I imagined all I knew of Connor. He was strong, brave, lonely, scared, and troubled. He had tricked and deceived me; played with my emotions… hurt me. I folded my knees up to my chin and fixated my eyes on the spot where his body once lay. I couldn’t stop the tears from brimming in my eyes and tumbling over in a cascade of sadness, no matter how much I tried to justify the end. I knew what had been done was the right thing to do, but I couldn’t justify it, even to myself. I took one last look at his body, lying peacefully in the dirt, I had to get away. I had no strength, but I couldn’t be there any longer. Grandmother’s words echoed in my mind “you protect the clan and you run”. Through the weakness and the pain I ran.