Chapter 32 I AM MY WORST ENEMY

He fired arrow after arrow, the tips of the silver heads glistening in the torch light before embedding itself in the creature.
It shrieked and growled as it was being assaulted. Syberus kept on coming closer as he fired and the creature was moving backwards on impulse with every arrow it took. I could see parts of it evaporating into the air around.
He got closer to me and I got to my feet.
"Thought I would leave you alone?"
I knew he'd always have my back.
"It's stronger Syberus, and it's the one that killed our parents."
He fired more arrows into the demon, firing with hate.
"Then let's kill it once and for all, let's kill for all Sybil, and the others, and for our parents," He said, sounding deeply hurt. He removed a small sword from his holster and handed it to me. I took it, gripping it tightly in my palm and he withdrew his longer sword. The demon was now on its knees, all the strength it had probably drained by the silver in its body.
We looked at each other and nodded. Moving at the same time, we charged at the demon, swords ready.
"No, wait..." The creature said, but we slashed at it from both sides. It squealed even louder and we Syberus slashed at its back.
"No, you wretches. You do not know what you—"
"Save it," I said as I stabbed my sword through the left side of its back, where the heart was.
It squealed even louder and I saw as the skin on its arms started to blister and burn. It was dying, it would die. The souls of our parents and all the others it had killed will finally come to rest. I wanted to watch it suffer as it came to an end.
Syberus walked to its front, his sword back in his holster. He looked at it as it squealed its way to its death and dropped flat to the ground. I walked to him and he turned around and faced me.
"We've done it brother, we've finally gotten closure for mother and father," I looked at him, a small smile on my lips.
A red glint, elongated fangs and devilish face that was burning away into the air appeared behind him. It was already close, too close.
"NEVER!!!"
I pushed Syberus to the side with all the strength I could muster. It gripped me with withered, bony arms and I felt the sharp pain as its teeth were driven into my neck.
"BROTHER!" I heard Syberus scream as the demon ripped away the flesh on the side of my neck. I heard the sound of silver against bone as Syberus drove his sword into the demons side. It shrieked again even louder than before and fell back to the ground.
I dropped to my knees, my right arm on the left side of my neck and I felt my blood gushing out of my body.
Syberus was beside me, he supported my head on his knees.
"No..." He was crying, his tears fell onto my face.
"I can't loose you too brother, you are all I have left..."
I didn't know why I wasn't dead yet, at this rate of bleeding I should have died as soon as the creature wounded me.
"K-kill me Sy-sy-be-rus," I muttered, my voice was shaky and
"I can't, I can't—" He was crying even more.
"I-I c-can't li-live like th-th-them," I struggled to say, "y-you have t-to use th-e sil-ver..."
"But why? Why can't life allow me have this one thing?" He asked himself in our despair.
"You mu-st kill me... It's the only w-way to justi-fy all th-e demons we've killed."
I felt tears at the corner of my eyes.
He withdrew his sword from his holster and held it above my chest.
"D-do it."
But even in my aspiration for death, I knew Syberus would never kill me. He would've let anyone kill me even myself.
He grabbed me and carried my body to the back exit of the building. And then he stopped suddenly.
"Who are you?" He demanded. I heard a low hiss.
"I am not here to harm you Syberus, my name is Jhan. You and your brother have helped us kill a dangerous rouge that had been acting outside the laws of our higher court."
"Stay away from me Demon—"
"Give him to me."
The voice was calm and I felt Syberus as he extended me into the arms of the stranger.
"Thank you, he would be seeing you soon."
The voice said, and I felt the wind against my face as I was lifted higher and higher into the air.
I woke up in a dark room. I looked at my hands, they were white as snow. I touched the side of my neck that I remembered was bitten away, but no wound or injury, not even the feel of a scar. I noticed someone beside me, a dark skinned young man.
"Who are you?"
"I am Jhan, you could not be around humans beings because the smell of their blood would awaken your urge, it will be uncontrollable—"
"Why? Why did you let me live?"
"It is not in my power to choose who does or who lives I am simply a messenger of the higher court, from which I take my commands."
"No," I said. There was no living without the ones you love, for how could one live a life without the love of your family.
"That is not true, we are not the demons you claim us to be, we are not the creatures you fear and therefore you kill and slay. We have a whole society, one big connected society of vampires, your life is not over—in fact, your life has just begun."
Over the next year I stayed locked in this room. The time passed by quickly and could sleep for whole months. Once he decided I was ready to come out I went back to my old town at night to see my brother.
The familiar environment hadn't changed much, it brought back old memories to me. I was stronger, faster, more agile. I quietly scrambled over the roofs of houses. I landed in front of my old house and I peered through the same window I had seen my brother through that night of my impurification.
I saw the blurry image of someone as they moved about in he house. I tapped the window a few times and waited. Soon enough I heard the unlocking sound of the door. The door opened and I heard the voice of my brother.
"And who may it be that disturbs—"
I stepped to his front and I watched as his face dropped. He looked at me through wide eyes, his mouth agape. He was so fast I didn't even see him raise his arms, but he seized me in a high so tight I was sure he would crush. He pulled me in and I stepped into the familiar parlour.
"I can't believe it..." He said, still hugging me tightly.
"I thought you died, we had a whole funeral and—"
"Died?"
"Yes, that other demon took you away and—"
"Syberus, I am one of them."
My words seemed to stun him. He looked at me and something flashed in his eyes.
"Can't you remember, I got bitten by that demo—vampire in the mill."
He didn't seem to remember.
"Syberus, what happened?" I asked him.
"Well after we killed that demon, you got injured in the fight the demon had injured your side and you were bleeding. I left to get the horse from outside because you could not stand up and your bleeding was becoming too serious. As soon as I got out the mill exploded, the dynamite our squad colleagues had put around it were set off somehow, you died in the... In the..."
He put his head down.
"No," He said slowly, "I think I remember something else."
"What do you remember?"
"Your neck was torn, and—and."
I looked at him, confused. Jhan had told me that he had had to use his minds eye to make Syberus accept to give me up, but he had also said that he had to make my brother remember the story in a different way.
"You were taken—by that man."
"I was bitten Syberus."
"Then why did I remember that?" He asked himself.
"I came back to show you that I am still living—well somehow living."
"That means that you are—"
"Yes Syberus, I am a vampire."
"No, you—you can't be... You were." And I saw realization flash in his eyes.
"You were taken by that other demon," He said, "I remember now, you were bitten, your neck was bleeding, I carried you out through the back, then we met that other one."
"Yes, but I am one of them now."
He looked at me, his brows furrowed.
"You are my brother, and the only family I have left. No matter what you become, I will always still be your brother and you will always still be my blood family."
My heart was torn by his words. We hugged each other and cried like children.
"But I cannot live with you, at least not here. I belong to a different world now brother... With others that are like me."
"Just promise me Jereum, promise me that you'll come to see me, once a month at least."
"I give you my word—"
"Okay... I think that's enough."
My own mind started to come back to me and I opened my eyes opened to see the green environment of the forest. Tears ran down my face, it all felt so real, like I was Jereum experiencing it all over again.