longer. I have always hoped the sky was the limit, but only Time can be the judge of that. Time we might not have.
Brid did not see me coming. I knew he had thought to be amusing by sneaking up on me while I was preoccupi ed, but I was far from so. Vampires are not like Humans. A Juvenile Vampire will never be a match for an Elder. No matter the training he receives, no matter how much he trains, practices, drills or disciplines himself, he can never be better than an older or especially Elder Vampire. It is capability which is lacking. I was at his throat before he knew I had moved. I took his body into my embrace and buried my teeth into the flesh around his jugular, but I did not penetrate. I held back.
Hardly faster than a Human did Brid ’s awareness follow the progress of the chain of events. To me it seemed nearly an eternity before he snapped to cognizance of his predicament. He thrashed once, mightily, against me, and then lay still, like a bird in a cat's mouth, saving its energy for the one chance it hoped it may receive. His shock was great and as a Vampire I savored the fear, letting him know how tenuous was his place, should I care to divorce myself from any feeling of parental obligation. I released my lock on his throat only slowly.
“Have I grown so addled in my old age that I would so ineptly send one of my own children completely unprepared out into the world?” I asked, my mouth next his skin. Skin that to a Human would seem as strong as steel was to me soft, rubbery and weak. I could tear it by merely rolling it between thumb and forefinger, had I wanted. I decided then that I had been too soft on Brid. The others of his brood had not been as rebellious as he, had adjusted better, but I had failed Brid in not raising my discipline level to his need. By not disciplining him better.
“I meant no harm!” Brid floundered. The fear in his mind fo r me was a new thing. It was a feeling to which he was unaccustomed in our relationship. If I had done my job as a father better he would have known to respect his Elders. I wondered how I could have failed so miserably.
Then I felt Sonafi's presence. I had been foolish of my own account, letting my attention be drawn by my sky-watching so that I had failed to note Brid's approach, surreptitious though it had been. If it had been an Elder bent on killing me, I would now be dead. I released Brid and threw him to the deck of the roof. He did not resist. He remained where I threw him.
Sonafi stood in the doorway of the roof access-way and stared in mute annoyance. It was not annoyance with me, but with Brid. She knew what it took to rouse me to such anger, but that, I thought, was exactly where I had gone wrong. I should have been a lot harsher.
“Get up, Brid.” Sonafi said, reading my mind. Our minds intermingled, sharing the memories in mental images of when and how we had raised Brid. Where I had gone wrong. Where Sonafi had gone wrong! She showed me. Showed me where she felt she had gone wrong. There had been many little instances where she had chided me for being too harsh and where she had coddled him far too much. I wanted to deny it, but I could not. As Brid rose, Sonafi snatched him from his feet and began to choke him, thrashing held in the air in front of her.
He tried to resist, tearing at her hands, but he may as well have been scrabbling at a concrete statue come to life, for all the effect he had upon her. Immovable, she continued remorselessly to choke him. He kicked and thrashed and struck her across the face as, slowly, suffocating, he grew frantic and desperate, but there was no dislodging her hands and his face began to change color as he starved for oxygen. He thrashed monstrously as his desperation reached a crescendo then fell quiescent as he blacked out. Limply now, he hung in Sonafi's
Chris Mariano, Agay Llanera, Chrissie Peria