The Lamentations of Ruth: Cain and Abel, #3

Chapter One

It was a relief to find the shores of this land. I sailed the Caribbean for years in search of Abel, my lost love. I became known as the lone lady pirate on the sea. I did not rob, but as a woman, I did have to defend myself, sometimes violently and I gained a reputation for being a pirate. But what I really was, was a lone wolf.

I followed an elusive trail of gossip and stories that I hoped would lead me to him. Sometimes I picked up his scent and that of the harpy who kept him for herself. I once heard of an attack on a native village, of a man who kept a few living people enslaved and imprisoned so that one by one, he could feed from their living bodies until they were dead.

I could not believe Abel was capable of such cruelty, at least I hoped he wasn’t, but I went to the village to see for myself. When I arrived on those uncertain shores, I anchored my tiny ship and after a long trek through the jungle, I was relieved and horrified by what I found. Yes, there was a man torturing the natives, but it was not Abel. When I came upon the monster, I recognized him immediately. It was Columbus, Cain’s friend, whom everyone thought was dead.

How are you alive? I asked as I stepped into the small clearing. You died. Cain told me so. He went to your funeral. He was heartbroken!

He didn’t seem surprised to see me and said, When you are immortal, you have to die once in a while and then reincarnate and start anew, he answered flippantly as he licked a piece of flesh from the tip of his finger that was fused to the others in a web. His hands were half-formed into flippers and a rip in the back of his linen shirt released a grey dorsal fin. Really, all this has been a great disappointment, he said waving his arms across his body. I was grateful to Cain for turning me so that I wouldn’t die. But what I really wanted all along was to be a vampire like him. As a wereshark, I am only my most powerful when I’m near the water. But as a vampire, well, power goes everywhere with Cain. Plus I can’t make any more weresharks. I don’t have that ability. Believe me, I’ve tried. And it forces me to be a loan freak. I don’t care for it.

Then my eyes took in the young boy hanging from a tree, a giant fishing hook impaling his chest and holding him just a few feet from the ground. He looked half dead, but his groaning told me he wasn’t. He had several bites taken out of his neck, arms, and thighs. Columbus was slowly killing him. Too bad, Christopher. I said. There will be no more vampires. You can never be one.

Not true, He waved a webbed finger at me.

Only dragons can make vampires and there are no more left.

Wrong again! He said.

I saw the last one die.

Poor ignorant Ruth, he smiled. I suppose you have not heard of The Smoke Dragon.

The what? I thought he might be just toying with me.

The Smoke Dragon. In all my travels, I have heard many tales of this creature. It is not a true dragon of course, but still has many of the same abilities. It can fly and it can make vampires. It is a wild thing though not of fire or ice, but of air and earth and it can make some very awesome vampires. Can you imagine the power of a vampire wereshark?

I have been alive a lot longer than you, Christopher and I have never heard of a Smoke Dragon, I said.

Well, they are very illusive and you haven’t mixed with the locals in the same way as me. You can learn a lot from tasting someone’s flesh. All their knowledge and memories are hidden there and as a wereshark, I have the ability to read them and learn anything I want. And after he said that, he turned to the boy on the hook and took another bite from his arm.

You’re a monster! I said to him.

From what I hear, Ruth, so are you.

Anger propelled me into my werewolf form. I became a dangerous wild animal with incredible strength. Columbus, in turn, completed his wereshark form. His gums receded to expose a double line of sharp teeth, like a great white; his eyes went dark and cold. Slick, grey skin ran the length of his body that continued on down to his legs, taking on a more human form, but with the sharp tail of a shark. I’ll make a meal out of you too, if you do not leave me alone! He snarled.

We circled each other, sizing each other up. You cannot do this, Christopher! I told him. I won’t let you. I won’t let you live to do it to others!

You can’t stop me! He laughed. You couldn’t even stop the harpy from taking your boyfriend!

At that, my quick temper got the better of my planning and I leapt at him, pushing him into the shiny, metallic frame the boy hung from. He shrieked terribly and bounded back to me. We tumbled over each other, snarling, biting, and scratching. I was determined to kill him, to correct this error that Cain had created. But he shoved me off of him and this time I flew into the frame. It stung my whole backside and I yelped. By the time I came to my senses, I caught sight of the back of him disappearing into the jungle. What was that? I asked myself looking up at the frame holding the boy. Silver. The metallic frame was made of silver. I shook off the sensation and took off after him at full speed. 

Using all four of my legs, I gained on him. A shark was no match for a wolf on land. He must have realized this himself. Racing through foliage and branches that whipped against my face, I thought I had lost him for a moment when his trail seemed to have stopped. It was then that he appeared from behind a tree swinging a long, heavy branch that connected with my forehead with a sharp crack.

I was stunned and nearly blacked out. When I cleared my sight, he was gone, but I could see the trail of broken foliage he left behind. I followed, but before I could reach him, he had broken through the jungle and onto the beach and I knew I lost him.

I reached the sand just in time to see him dive into the water and disappear. As I paced back and forth at the water’s edge, I saw him one last time. He was almost to the horizon and he surfaced just to wave at me before he leapt into the air and vanished leaving nothing but a huge ripple that spread, catching the moonlight in quaking ribbons.

There was no more pursuing to be done. He was gone, slipped from death once again. Then I remembered the boy on the hook and knew I had to return to him. I could not leave anyone to linger and suffer like that, so I retraced my steps as the pain in my forehead began to throb. A slight trickle of blood fell in my eye.

He was still alive when I returned. I looked over him carefully and with great effort, his eyes followed my movements. I could hear his heart beating. It was slow and faint. I could feel his shallow breaths move through my hair. I looked at his wounds and knew he would not recover from them. He would die, but it would take many hours, possibly days. I looked at him with sorrow and pity for his suffering and although he couldn’t speak, his eyes asked me to relieve his suffering and fear.

As gently as I could, I stroked his cheek, trying to convey some comfort. I placed my furry hands upon either side of his face then, before I could think about it anymore, I snapped his neck. There was a moment of shock on his face, but it passed in a fraction of a second along with his life. It was what I had to do for his sake. And because his death should be for something, I decided to make him my next meal.

I was hungry and began to devour him. And as I ate, pictures came into my mind:

Out on a raft with a spear in my hand, I caught a fish and held it up proudly to show my father. My tribe around a fire. Our healing man in a mask to summon the God of fertility.My mother coming out from our hut with my newborn sister in her arms. The death of my grandfather at my side. The appearance of the man shark as he snatched me from the bush.

These were the boy’s memories. I could see them as I ate from him. I ate his memories! I knew things about him this way.

I did not hear them approach. It was his people, on a search party, looking for their missing son, brother, friend. I recognized them all from his memories.

What they saw was a half woman, half wolf eating the body of their beloved, hanging from a hook. They lifted their spears with a guttural scream of horror. For a moment I froze in fear and shame. I saw myself as they did: a monster feeding on their friend.

I ran. Their spears flew and missed, but for one that caught the back of my right leg. I kept running, hearing them as they pursued me through the jungle. But in all my strength and speed, I soon left them far behind. I was leaving a trail of blood for them to follow, so they were not giving up, even after they lost sight of me.

I reached the beach and my tiny anchored ship long before them. By the time they broke through the jungle and onto the wide open shore, I was far out onto the water as I rowed with all the strength I had. I left them in anger and anguish, yelling and cursing me from the land. I felt like a murderer leaving the scene of the crime. I felt like the monster they saw. I drove my shame into my arms as they took me away from them with furious rowing. The only way I could make it up to them, even though I could not convey it, was to find Columbus and kill him. No more people, living their lives on their land, once safe from invaders, would fall victim to a man who came to their shores to make them his meal and his plaything. I would find him. I would kill him.

So now I searched the globe for two men: one I loved and one I hated, but strangely enough, they both led me to the same place.

When I left Cain in his little castle, he was happy and content to stay with Esmerelda and her kittens. We agreed to meet again in 1000 years just like before, but now we wouldn’t be so disconnected. Now we had the mermaid web to send messages back and forth across the oceans. Andrea has been a special confidant especially once she learned that I was not interested in Cain romantically. She is a possessive mermaid, but helpful none the less.

She was the one who brought me the sad news from Cain that his beloved friend Christopher Columbus had died. Yet despite his grief, he too felt it might be the best for the world at large. Cain saw Christopher’s bloodlust and regretted turning him into the wereshark he became. But still, he was as close to Cain as Abel was at one time. I would have to send word to Cain that Christopher was still alive. And I would ask the mermaids once again if they had seen or heard anything about Abel the vampire and Carlotta the harpy. The answer was always, No.

It was as though they had disappeared into thin air. The more I explored this strange world, I believed anything was possible, even vanishing, dematerializing into nothing.

I had almost given up all hope of finding Abel and began to steer my ship back to Portugal to see Cain. Abel could be there as well as anywhere else, so could Christopher. But on my way, I found an island, tiny and remote and uninhabited. At least that is what I thought.

I tossed my anchor and waded onto the shore, thankful for some steady ground, hoping to find some prey. After catching my breath, I decided to look around. I walked to the north, pushing my way through the underbrush, growing tightly together when I saw some movement up ahead. It was beyond the foliage and on the shore: I could only make out some movement of feathers. I put my nose to the wind, but it was blowing the wrong way. So I moved closer, trading my shapely female legs for the stealth of my full wolf form. Just before I came to the clearing, I saw what, or rather who was on the beach: it was the harpy.

She was preening, nibbling at the outer feathers on her wings. And she loomed over a body that at first I thought was dead, but as I crept closer, I could see it was the sleeping form of my love. Abel, I gasped before I could stop myself.

The harpy whipped her head around and her eagle eyes spotted me through the bushes. She let out a terrible scream that caused Abel to wake with a start. Abel, I called to him as I burst out onto the open beach and he looked at me confused, not understanding what he saw. But he was given no more time to consider me because Carlotta the Harpy snatched him up in her talons and lifted into the air. I tried to call to him again as I ran along the shore, but she let out another scream so ugly that drowned out my voice.

As I stood in the water watching them disappear into the blue, I asked myself why he did not run to me, why he did not call back to me. And then I caught by reflection in the sea, which reminded me that I was in my full wolf form, not my human form. He did not know me this way and again he slipped out of my reach. I lifted my voice to the current of air and let out a mournful howl, but in return, I only heard the distant scream of the harpy.

I had to snap