Hybrid - The Demon's Soulmate

Meet Up

Jamie started preparing to meet Tanya tonight. She was going to bring her supply good for a week and probably have some answers for her. The rays of the late afternoon glow spilled through the curtains of her temporary room, casting a golden hue over the walls. She hoped her friend could help her, even though her mothers and grandmothers would probably hang her for contacting Tanya and not them.

Lightshade.

Vampires, old and new, had a habit of picking names like that. Nobles like Knightley, Blackwood, and Bloodborne. The less prominent like Frosthorn, and Grimthorn. So Lightshade could be one. But she didn’t burn under the sun, she was not a vampire. Jamie would know if she was.

So, who and what was she?

She opened her duffel bag and pulled out a dagger. It was Elise’s gift for their first anniversary. Her fingers traced the blade, biting on her skin. The wound closed as soon as it opened. No matter how deep she cut, it always healed up too fast to cause any lasting damage. Elise had a weird taste when it came to gifts, but Jamie took everything she gave her. The love, the care, those weird weapons she stashed with her ashes as well as her cruelty, her abuse, the pain. Jamie took them all.

And in return, I took her life.

“What time are you leaving?”

“Jesus f*****g Christ!” Jamie exclaimed as she accidentally threw the dagger up into the ceiling, and the weapon dangled from it. Katie raised a brow at her then glanced up then back at her. She leaned at the door frame, her arms crossed at her chest.

“Gods, you scared me, Katie.”

The brunette tilted her head to the side, and Jamie saw her vein pulse. An unknown hunger crashed into her, her fangs involuntarily sprang, but she quickly retracted them. She noticed Katie's eyes flicked to her lips. Jamie sighed as she stood on the bed and reached up for the dagger.

“You’re telling me you’re a hybrid with enhanced senses of a vampire and a werewolf and I scared you?”

“You… I… I was thinking.”

“Clearly,” she commented as she walked towards Jamie. “What time do you need to go?” She asked again as she looked up at her. Her eyes were too damn enchanting. Those mesmerizing blue and green eyes gazed at her curiously. Jamie had to clear her throat before answering.

“Before the sun comes down, so I can meet her as soon as it sets.”

“Are you… gonna be gone the whole night?” She whispered as if she was embarrassed at the question.

Jamie tilted her head at her. “Uh. No, I’ll come back around midnight, I might run. So, you know, please don’t come down around that time to avoid… surprises.”

“It was a nice surprise,” she smirked. “Anyway, I still don’t have a spare key so I’ll wait for you then.”

The woman was confusing her. And making her… feel things.

“I, uh, you don’t have to.”

“I’m not gonna let you sleep outside, Jamie. No, don’t say another word. It’s final,” she cut off whatever Jamie was about to say when she put an index finger over her lips. Jamie almost shivered at the touch. She felt the tip of her ear heat up.

“Uhh.”

Katie chuckled. “I can’t believe you could actually blush.” Then she left. Jamie's heartbeat was relatively weak, close to none, but oddly, she almost felt it beat like it used to a hundred years ago.

Gods help me this human is testing me.

—

“Want me to drive you?” Katie suddenly asked beside Jamie, making her jump a little. She snickered at her reaction. Her eyes were gleaming, a wrinkle at the side of her eyes indicated that she was actually enjoying making Jamie jump her skin off. A familiar and unbidden urge bloomed on her chest as she stared at the woman.

How can I not feel her around?

“What are you doing? Trying to kill me with a heart attack?”

“Can you die?” She gave Jamie a curious look. Her different-colored eyes bore into Jamie's brown eyes.

It was an interesting question. Jamie did try months after she took Elise’s life, but she survived. Almost every day, she tried. She thought to herself how could she live without half her soul? Without the woman who gave her love? Who made her feel worthy of love? Her life went bleak the moment Elise’s heart stopped beating, yet she couldn’t stop her own.

“I’d get back to you when I did.”

Katie gave her a stern look. It went from playful to cold. “I was only kidding, Jamie.”

“To answer your question, I don’t know. I… tried, but I keep coming back.”

“So, you always respawn to the last save point?”

She looked at the woman incredulously. “Did… Did you just make a video game reference?”

Katie grinned at her. “I used to play a lot of games before. Kinda missed it, though.”

Jamie couldn’t believe her ears. This woman just keeps getting better and better. She was a huge gamer in her previous life before she died the first time. And it was a bit distracting. She knew she shouldn’t feel that towards her host. A woman she barely knew yet… felt familiar.

I really should stop thinking about her that way.

“What do you usually play?” She found herself asking.

The woman looked at her with a smirk. “Mostly open-world games. Wann play with me sometimes?”

“I…” she paused, unsure of what to say. Jamie had been a drifter since Elise died. No ties to anyone she had interacted with. No one ever tried.

“I’ll wait for your answer someday,” Katie suddenly said. “Here, take my car. I don’t have plans tonight. So you don’t have to run to the city and then back home.”

She handed her her car keys, taking her hand and putting it in them.

Home. Where is my home?

“I…”

“No. Stop refusing my help.”

“I don’t want to take advantage of your hospitality.”

Katie smiled warmly, her dimples showing. “You're not alone, Jamie. I want to help. Accepting help won't hurt you,” she said as she patted Jamie's shoulder before heading back inside the house. With a final glance, Katie added, “Come back to…” she cleared her throat, “here, okay?” She watched as Jamie disappeared behind the door.

Jamie let out a sigh. She almost said ‘Come back to me’.

Living with her is going to be interesting.

—

“Cute car. Tired of running around?” A woman said as soon as she stepped out of the said car. She was sitting on the hood of her own car, cigarette in hand.

“It’s not mine,” she nodded briefly, gesturing at the stick. “Thought you’re quitting?”

The woman scoffed. “It’s not like it’s gonna kill me, you know?”

Tanya’s answer made her laugh. Her gray-blue eyes gazed at her curiously. Her wavy, dark brown hair tied neatly in a bun, her pale face with an amused look. She never really came from her mothers, but whenever Jamie would look at her, she was both the women’s image. It doesn’t help that she had the same red shade of lips despite not wearing… or lacking blood for that matter.

Tanya was a good kid, though she was sure the woman would skewer her with her long sword if she heard Jamie refer to her like that. And she was an excellent tracker. She was able to find her even after she changed almost everything about her—hair, clothes, name, even where country she lived—yet she managed to find her. And it took a lot to convince the vampiric heir apparent not to tell her whereabouts to her parents and grandmothers.

“You’re staring, Jamie. And a little bit brooding.”

“I’m not.”

“I would have believed you if I didn’t just catch you,” she smirked. She then tossed a backpack to her. “There, unless you find your housemate a suitable… source, it would last you a week.”

She glared at her but the woman only laughed at her and slung her arm around Jamie’s shoulder.

“Did you actually find anything about her?”

The woman smirked. “She’s pretty.”

Jamie shoved her away, making Tanya laugh as she flicked the but of the cigarette at the nearby trashcan. She glared at her again, but she waved her hand dismissively at her.

“I’m stating a fact, it doesn’t mean I’m gonna jump her bones.”

“Aren’t… Still not mated?”

It was the woman’s turn to glare at her, the playfulness in her eyes gone. There was an anger in them, but not directed to her. To something, to someone.

“My mate is a rude, entitled, homophobic bitch.”

“You’re mated with a woman?” Jamie was not able to hide the surprise in her voice. Sure, a vampire with a human soulmate was not uncommon, as well as two women being mates but it would still shock her sometimes.

Tanya looked at her in disbelief. “Oh, come on. Jamie. From my grandmothers to my parents, to you, y’all mated to a woman.”

At the mention of that, she remembered Elise. She felt a stabbing sensation in her chest, in the same place she drove Jean’s sword into her. She caught her chest, clutching at it, at her clothes. Suddenly, she felt a heavy weight on her heart, a boulder crushing her.

Elise’s image flashed through her eyes.

Blood.

Her body going limp in her arms.

Blood gurgling from her mouth.

Her eyes, even though they show no pain of betrayal, were wide in shock, slowly turning to their original shade—white.

Elise dying in her arms.

She was hyperventilating. Her weak heartbeat became erratic, pounding on her chest. Her werewolf claws emerged uncontrollably from her hands.

“Hey, hey. Jamie, look at me,” a voice called. Two hands wrapped hers and pulled her. “Listen to my voice.”

She closed her eyes as her body shook.

“Listen to my voice, Jamie, it’s me, Tanya, your surrogate niece, remember?” her voice coaxing her out of her panic. “Here, you feel that? That’s my hands. Come back to me.”

Come back here, okay?

Then two-hued eyes stared at her curiously behind her lids. Her warm blue and green eyes and smile emitted a sense of peace to her. The beating in her chest slowed, the burden being lifted. She opened her eyes and two clear blue eyes stared at her.

“You okay?”

She let out a breath. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.”

Tanya looked anxiously at her, then smiled at her. “I wasn’t the one who pulled you back, am I?”

“What?”

“Your eyes… turned white. I know they only show whenever you’re emotions are high. And whenever you’re thinking of her. You just had a panic attack, and the brief glow of your veins suggests you thought of her, too.”

“I…”

“She puts you in panic and takes you out.”

“No.”

“No?”

“She was not the one to pull me back. It was… Katie.”

She took note of the flash of surprise that crossed Tanya’s face. Who wouldn’t? Even Jamie herself was puzzled about it. Katie… was an acquaintance. She couldn’t even call her her friend because… they simply weren’t. Sure, she was her host, she offered her home to Jamie, but, to pull her out of one of the darkness at the back of her head was something.

Jamie was aware that she was intrigued about Katie, a certain pull she couldn’t understand. But that’s not enough to pull her out of her… suffering.

“Please, tell me you found something about her?”

Tanya didn’t sigh, she couldn’t, she didn’t breathe anymore. But she could tell from the way her face contorted that it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

“It was… Jamie, there was very little to almost no trace of them. They kept hidden to themselves. Sure, if you ask the underground, they’ll say they’re this rich, secretive family. Some even connect them to Elizabeth Bathory, but of course, nothing concrete. That’s just it. Rumors.

“I tried asking Grandma Camille, but she just glared at me and asked me why am I asking about such nonsense. I don’t know, there was something about them. You need to be careful.”

“You know I am.”

Tanya squinted her blue eyes at her. “You have at least two suicide attempts every year.”

“I haven’t… this year.” Somehow the thought never crossed her mind the moment she started staying at the hotel where Katie worked.

“Yet.”

“Tan, I need to know something. There has to be… something, anything.”

“I’ll keep looking. But why are you so adamant about her?”

“There was something about—” she was cut off when a crossbow bolt pierced her square to the chest. The impact threw her back from the hood of the car.

“Jamie!” Tanya hopped from the hood and was already at her side, checking on her. The woman then pulled her behind the car. Jamie gripped the shaft of the bolt and groaned as painstakingly took out the bolt. It had a silver tip. She snarled as she stood up and noticed the wound hadn’t closed up. Blood kept oozing from the wound. A searing pain came from it, making her howl. There was something in it that kept her body from healing.

“What the f**k did you shoot me with?!” Jamie screamed as she raised her head. She a figure in a hood, an empty crossbow in their hands.

“The Shattered Brotherhood sends their regards.”

The burn intensified. Her body spasmed. She gritted her teeth from the anger.

“Who?” Tanya looked at her as she asked the assailant. The vampire put her hands over Jamie’s chest, putting pressure on the closing and opening wound.

Still writhing in pain, she propped her elbow to her side, peering over the car. But there was no one. She clenched her jaw as crawled to pick up the arrow.

Her chest still burned. She looked at the tip. It was certainly laced with something. Something that counteracts Elise’s and Hadriel’s angelic blood in her. Something that prevents her from killing, but not entirely killing her.

Mixed with her blood, she noticed the pale blue liquid that seemed to cover the silver tip of the crossbow bolt.

What the f**k is this?

“Tanya…” she clutched the woman’s arm. “I can’t drive. Get me home.”

“What? Where?”

“Katie. Take me back to Katie.”