Chapter 24

24.

“You and I have unfinished business to attend to,” said Jack.

“Business?” Jime was all fake innocence.

“We need to clear some things, talk.”

“You’re fixated is more like it, fixated on talking, it’s like I’m the guy here and you’re the annoying little woman wanting to talk about feelings and crap. Give me a friking break! It’s been centuries! Centuries!” Jime was working herself up, to what she didn’t know, but she knew she’d better get over it if she wanted to keep Jack around by luring him with the promise of reconnection, but he always managed to somehow get on her nerves, so all she managed to do at the moment was strike a sexy pose while she rolled her eyes and flicked her hair exasperated.

On his part, Jack just calmed himself down and motioned for Jime to go inside in a very gentlemanly way, “please, let’s just sit down for a minute”, he asked with a little plea in his eyes, which was the perfect way to fizzle Jime’s mood and make her comply, as it happened.

“Nice decor, did your decorator graduated from the school of decrepit and nasty design?” she commented as she ran a finger on the surface of a little table next to the door and came up with it caked in dirt.

Jack looked at her strangely and cocked his head to the side, wondering, but decided to not mention anything too soon. Jime noticed this and wondered if she was missing something here.

They walked in silence through the little hallway and entered the west living room.

Here, Jime’s legs went straight to an old battered lounge and as she sat there she caught herself reclining; she suddenly stopped, unsettled. She felt she’d done this many times before but for some reason she didn’t want to remember it.

Jack was studying her actions intently, weighing his options, as he sat on a wooden chair he had dragged right in front of Jime.

She was overcome with a feeling of sadness, turning to look through the window outside but the grime glued to the glass didn’t let her, even though she knew there was a lemon tree there.

A few moments passed in silence.

Jack softly asked, “do you remember now?”

She did.

Now she knew where she was. This was the house where, for a blissful time, she and Jack had lived together in and spent decades loving each other, fighting each other (to keep themselves sharp, they used to joke) and generally having a grand old time. Around the 1800s, south of Chile, near Puerto Montt.

After centuries of struggle trying to separate herself from the Sinn-Jammer Vampire Clan, she had found a nice secluded spot in these mountains where to settle for a while.

Jimena had always loved the new continent, she had journeyed to it right after the Spaniards declared it “found”, one could say she was a conquistadora too, lured like everyone else in Europe by the many tales of wonder and the attraction of the unknown.

What she found made her fall in love with it all, land and people, everything.

But her shackles were always pulled and she had to go back to Europe to serve the King’s whims whenever she was wanted. Centuries had passed in this manner, every careful plan she concocted to escape was thwarted by circumstances or her enemies or just plain fate, until that time when the King disappeared and they were all suddenly free. Though everyone knew it was an illusion, that freedom, since the King wasn’t actually dead (all his children, among them Jime, could still feel his power over them) and could still come back to once again force and command them at any moment, but for the time being they would all take their luck and finally do whatever they wanted. So La Reina and her gang parted ways and she moved for good to the American continent.

She then traveled from top to bottom and back again, never growing tired of it all. This was actually when her obsession with the sun began; having free reign to follow her wishes gave her mind a relaxation that, like all things, had its good parts and its bad parts, causing her to become careless. All these new things that were to be found were so intriguing she started to wonder how it would all look in the light of day, also hearing artists and such going on about how the light was so different here from Europe and other parts of the world made her incredibly curious, and she also started to think about her family again, remembering good times, innocent times.

But by now she had Siti in her life, a witch she had met while serving the King and who had taught her many things, among them her trick on how to work the mind so Jime wouldn’t go crazy like some of the other vampires. She and hers had become Jime’s surrogate family, one that hopefully would last longer than her long-dead human one or her pseudo-brotherhood with her fellow assassin companions within the Sinn-Jammers.

Meanwhile Jack had followed Jime, he always seemed to find her no matter where she was. It was disconcerting, at the very least, and obviously made her very suspicious of him. He never explained himself though, until it became evident that he followed because he liked her for real.

But such a thing could not last, Jime had thought, since she knew from seeing and experiencing first-hand that all loves come to an end one way or another, but his perseverance little by little wormed itself into her heart and she finally accepted him and came to love him too.

This was not without its setbacks, for her dearest friend Siti, who had stood by her ever since they met was definitely NOT a fan of Jack.

Those two had often fought over everything, including Jime herself, but she let it be, she was so happy living her life the way she wanted that things seem to glaze over her and she found something to delight in everything, even the not-so-pleasant things. She was living in a cloud of her own making.

Jime could acknowledge now that this state of being had not passed without its consequences, because she recognized that maybe she could have done something more for Sage as the Darkness consumed him and she could have kept more in touch with Siti instead of letting her (and her family by default) drift away without fighting for their friendship.

The last time she saw Siti had been near this luxurious lodge that Jack had built for her on her old hiding place in the south of Chile.

And here came to the forefront of her memories the reason she had purposely forgotten about this place.

Jime could not suppress her tears but she stoically kept her face rigid.

Jack was shocked. All he had planned, wanted, was for her to remember the good times they had had together and he was baffled over her tears, he didn’t know what they were about, not a clue.

“All right, you wanted to talk, let’s talk,” she pinned him with her glare, her voice dripping with venom. “Be so kind as to tell me, why did you kill her?”, she asked.

“Killed who?” he genuinely didn’t know since he had killed plenty of people over his whole existence.

“Siti, you Bastard”, she spat at him.

Jack didn’t think he could be so shocked so soon, first the crying and now this? “I didn’t kill her.”

She laughed a mirthless laugh, “You think I’ll believe you just like that? I know you did! She was my only family!” Jime got up and furiously paced around Jack.

He knew how important family was to her; even though there were times when she didn’t act like it mattered, he supposed she didn’t mean it and he had come to think of her love for family as just one of her idiosyncrasies he had come to cherish. Although he could not understand it himself, the whole concept of family had become alien to him even before he was kicked out of Asgard.

“I do not lie, not to you, not about this. I did not kill her.” He replied with serious earnest.

 “She was surrounded by fire, in the woods, a mile or so left of here, I saw her burn”, Jime was crying again and almost talking to herself at times, “I couldn’t save her, and you know what she said to me as she died right in front of my eyes? She said your name, Jack, and I saw the anger in her eyes!”

“But I didn’t kill her!” He got up, enraged, with Siti, with Jime, with the whole situation.

“Then tell me, tell me where were you that night? I had just come back from helping Toren with his problem, it was spring, and you were supposed to be waiting for me here!” she yelled.

“I-”, Jack stopped himself, he knew where he had been, not killing Siti but in Asgard, giving his centenary report about the vampire race to Odin and the rest of the Gods, but he couldn’t tell Jime that. No way in hell will he ever tell her about that.

“Of course you can’t defend yourself, because you did kill her!” she sucker-punched, sending him crashing into the wall.

“ I DIDN’T!” He crawled out putting his hands up to punch back but a sudden flash of common sense mad him realize it didn’t help his cause if he fought back, so he dropped his defences and let her have it out on him.

Jime wailed powerful kicks and punches, landing each and every one, causing more damage than she ever rained on him (and the lodge) only noticing halfway through that he didn’t respond.

“Fight back, you murdering scum!”

“No, I didn’t do it,” he said, then murmured to himself “and you’re on to talk about murdering.”

“I don’t kill my family! I don’t hurt my loved ones!”

“That’s a lie,” said a shadow standing in the doorway.

“What?” Jime turned around. She and Jack snapped out of their moment to look at the sudden new arrival.

“You do hurt the people you supposedly love,” seethed Sage as he came forth. “I’m the living proof.”

“You-when-?” Jime started to ask when had he come that she didn’t feel it but dismissed it, she clearly wasn’t in her best at the moment. “Come off it, Sage. It was never my fault what happened to you, you can’t blame me for all the bad things-”

“Whatever, you heartless wench,” Sage cut her off, “just so you know, what the freak says is true, he didn’t kill mother.”

Jime froze, “what?” she asked softly.

Sage had waited for a long time to say this and he was determined to enjoy it, “She’s not dead.”

It was her turn to be shocked speechless. In a moment of uncharacteristic transparency, at least in Sage’s experience with his sister, her demeanour showed exactly what she was feeling consequently. Puzzlement, incredulity, looking for confirmation in their eyes which she found, then anger for the amount of deceit this implied but most of all a deep betrayal that disarmed her completely until she swayed on the spot, looking like a lost child.

Jack grabbed her and held her in his arms but she didn’t seem to notice him any more.

 Sage found himself not enjoying this moment as much as he thought he would but he nevertheless continued, “she’s not dead, she faked her death before you, she messed with your mind, your memories and lied to you, you think yourself so clever and powerful but you were played, she manipulated you, had been doing it always and still continues, but it stops now. You were just a puppet to her, like we all are-”

“Stop this.” Jack interrupted Sage, concerned for Jime, she had never looked this defeated, even in her darkest moments at the mercy of the vampire king, but then Jack supposed, this would be her darkest moment now.

“Stay out of this, you freak”, Sage spat at Jack, “It’s our family business.”

“This can’t be.” Jime mumbled.

“It is, and you need to know, Angelica had a vision, mother might make a move. Angie and I won’t stand for it, you hear me? We will protect Suri with everything, mark my words sister, if mother even looks Suri’s way like she did with my son, I WILL KILL HER.”

“Your son?” her eyes widened.

“Siti took him.” Sage could not hide the hurt in his voice, his face reflected his deep sorrow and Ire. Only a parent who has lost his child knows how Sage and Angelica felt. But Jime saw it, and even though she couldn’t understand it completely she felt this was real and she could no longer think about herself. “Suri’s in danger?” she asked him.

“Yes.” Sage replied.

Jime took her decision then. “What do you need me to do?”

********

Suri was soooo annoyed! She could NOT believe her luck! Once again she was kidnapped by the stupid disgusting mangy mutts. This had to stop now, she would not become a joke. If people heard about this she would be mocked for years to come. She rattled her hands once more but it was no use, these two sure knew how to incapacitate a witch. The tied her up perfectly, her extremities were turning a lovely shade of purple with the immobility, and her mouth was stretched so tight no sound at all could come out. She had found herself hanging over a lake in the middle of a cavern when she recovered consciousness, and the foul dogs had been necking each other by the lake side ever since. Disgusting oversexed mutts.

When she thought about it, this could all be put under her aunt’s feet. It was her fault they had gone and messed with the werewolves, it was her fault she was not in the security of the civilized world, a.k.a. anywhere were there were no werewolves, it was her fault Suri had done the stupid Hecate spell that backfired, thus sending her deeper into the dogs’ turd-list. Damn them All. She will extract her revenge, just wait and see, they will rue the day they pissed on Suri’s parade. No bones will be left uncracked. No skin will be left unpeeled. Slowly and painfully. She will rain hell on all their sorry ass heads, like these vermin deserve! And when they die horribly she’ll continue with their children! Yeah! Wait a minute! NOT yeah! Their children? That’s not fair, where did that come from? Suri loved children, and they are innocent until proven otherwise, what was wrong with her?

Oh,oh.

The Darkness. Ugh.

For all that it was good, or bad as it were the case, she could not free herself, so all that was left was to wait until her aunt figured out her absence and come to rescue her like a damsel in distress. How pathetic. Suri sighed internally. This was just not her day.