Hera

Chapter 6
“Ulrick, where are you from?” Hera asked me, resting against my chest with her back towards me, and sitting in-between my legs, sharing a long white beach chair with me near the waves.
“I’m from here in Miami, you know that silly.” I responded.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” She shook her head.
“Well what do you mean then?”
“I meant your family heritage. Where did your family begin?” She asked, gazing up at the stars, and they never seemed so beautiful back in Harrisman than they do here in the sands.
“Oh, well, my family goes back to the late Renaissance when Absolutism came into play after the reformation. We are of French descent, and then my great grandfather and great grandmother immigrated over into the United Stated as a child, and now here we are.”
“Maybe he was on the same boat as I was.” She smiled, lifting her hand into the air with her pointer finger out, tracing out constellations in the sky.
“Actually it is possible. He’s in his nineties so he would’ve been a kid, but I doubt he remembers that far back.”
“Mm.” Hera hummed. We sat there quietly for a couple minutes before I asked a question that was bugging me for a while.
“So how exactly do you pay all of your expenses if you don’t even have a job?”
“Thousands of years of saving can go a long way, especially when people find out the real value of gold and I certainly had a lot to begin with.”
“How much do you have now?”
“Well over a couple million.” She closed her eyes, dropped her arm, and started to doze off.
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“Ulrick.”
“Yes Hera?”
“I’m positive that Alex is a VA.” This caught me off guard for a moment.
“What makes you say that?”
“Interrogating me in front of your whole class, asking about my personal life, but what really hinted his nature was asking me if I needed an invitation to enter your house. You would figure I wouldn’t need an invitation after what I shared to your class.”
“Yes, but Alex is just an ass like that, he was probably trying to embarrass you for stealing all of the attention from him.”
“Sounds like a real character, but I don’t know Ulrick. He just gave me that look…”
“Was it a lustful look?” I chuckled.
“No, it was a look of suspicion.”
“I’m sure he’s harmless.”
“If you say so, but if he is a vampire assassin, I will not hesitate to kill him.”
“Hera, you promise me no more killing.”
“Of innocent people Ulrick!” She interrupted, “The VA agency is full of non-innocent people. They tore my family away from me only to live with a life time of grieving, and I will see their blood on my hands and in my veins.” She turned to me with vengeance glowing in her eyes,
“And if you think of getting in my way… I will not promise you’ll live either.” I didn’t break eye contact; I don’t even think I was breathing when she gave me her gaze of revenge and devotion. My focus on her eyes rendered me completely oblivious to her claws gripping deep into my arms in burning fury, freshly tearing open four clean lacerations into my upper arm.

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“H-Hera you’re hurting me…” I winced from the stinging pain and the fear that followed. Her anger slowly faded, and her claws released themselves from my arms with blood staining her nails.
“I-I’m sorry!” She quickly jumped off of my lap and backed away in terror. I placed a hand on the cuts and applied pressure to slow the bleeding despite the blood already trailing down the full length of my arm.
“Ulrick I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it…” She hastily wiped my blood of on her shirt, continuing to back off, “I didn’t mean to hurt you I swear…”
“Hera just calm down, it’s ok”. I chuckled a bit through the sensation.
“No it isn’t…” she shook her head in guilt.”
“Let’s go inside and treat it then okay?” Hera slowly nodded, not making any sound except for the guilty breathing lazily exiting her lips, and lifelessly gazing at the ground. She went through the first aid kit once we got inside, which was assembled in a vacant cupboard to the far left wall. When we took a step inside, something switched in her mind and it was like her mission to treat me. It honestly took me by surprise. She sat me down in a dining room chair, cleaning the wound with a wet rag and disinfectant spray, which burned worse than her claws tearing me open. I squeezed my eyes tight from the spray, making my eyes slightly watery. Any help I tried to offer with the treatment was followed by my hands getting slapped away. She treated me either out of care or guilt, most likely wasn’t both. At the end, she spritzed a pad of gauss fit enough to cover my tears, and taping it over, wrapping it in white medical wrap for the finishing touch.
“We’ll change your bandages in the morning.” After her brief message, she led me upstairs to her room.
“Here, you can sleep in my room tonight okay?”
“Are you alright Hera? You’ve been acting a bit funny since the incident outside.” She made no sign of response, turning and walking into the bedrooms’ bathroom, and shutting the door. Without answer, I stripped into my briefs and tank top, and then climbed into bed. I was quite surprised by how comfortable her bed was. Sleeping on a
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cloud wasn’t an appropriate metaphor for it; it was more like floating in space or something along those lines, however the fact of my arm being ten times sorer than it already is in the morning wasn’t very thrilling to think about. She stepped out wearing a black night-gown with white straps, taking her place next to me, and closing her eyes, not giving me any words.
“Hera.” I said. Her eyes opened, but didn’t look at me.
“Goodnight.” I said, followed by no response. She simply closed her eyes.
As she stated that night, Hera changed my bandages, with was disgustingly caked with blood on the edges, but the wound was still pasted with wet blood. Hera let it air out a couple minutes before wrapping them back up. She even set out an outfit for me to wear, a white T-shirt, a pair of loose fitting jeans which hung onto my waist and my grey tennis shoes. I took my morning shower, keeping my one arm out of the water’s splash zone because in all honesty, I didn’t want any hot water touching my wounds. I dried off, got dressed, and tucked my bandages away under my shirt sleeve so they remained hidden.
“Hera?” I called, with no response in return. I had an impulse thought that she ran away out of guilt, but a quick trip downstairs revealed that she was quietly watching television on the couch.
“What are you watching?”
“Shh!” She silenced me. She had the local news playing with a story that made my stomach churn.
“Six-teen miners in Crete are presumed dead after a catastrophic incident due to mechanical failure. A government agent who was over-seeing the operation tells us that explosive intended to clear a mass of rock pre-maturely detonated creating a massive collapse in the tunnels; however, in the after math of it all, hidden away in the debris, a search party for fallen minors has found a perfectly preserved skeleton with an un-known origin. Here in the Island of Crete, who knows what stories this person could have told us. After studying this find, it is believed the skeleton will get its own spot in the Smithsonian of New York.” Hera shut the television off in mid-broadcast.
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“There is no doubt in my mind that that could be Ares.” She whispered.
“Wait, wait, wait… Why is he a skeleton? I thought your kind was immortal, I mean, he was only buried.” I examined.
“He isn’t dead is the thing, but there isn’t any avoiding thousands of years of burial decay attacking you.” She got up from the couch and ran upstairs, and retrieved her bags she packed early this morning while I was asleep.
“We have to leave now. If he is at the Smithsonian, we can’t waste our time standing here.” She made her way outside to the Jeep and loaded up her luggage. I stood at the front door and watched. She walked past me and back inside with my keys and put them in my hand.
“Drive.” She ordered. Something new was off about her. She definitely wasn’t over her guilt of my wound, but something in her eyes was wrong. She wasn’t really her anymore, but what I did see was that her eyes were blind by a new mission to retrieve her long lost brother. It was like I wasn’t anything to her when she was like this but a tool.
“Hera, that story was about a day old. It may take weeks before he even reaches New York, let alone be displayed in the Smithsonian. He is all the way in Crete.” I reasoned.
“I can’t wait weeks Ulrick.” She said.
“You’re going to have to; other than that there really isn’t anything else we can do except that.” I shrugged.
“Whatever…” She sat in the passenger seat of the Jeep and crossed her arms. I knew she was going through a rough time not having her family for centuries, and I know what it felt like to not have such an important figure to be with you through your endeavors.
“Hera, I know you want your brother back, but if you want him back so bad, you would do anything for him, and in this situation we just have to wait, simple am I right?”
“But I’ve waited so long for him!”
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“Then what do you propose we do Hera?!” I shouted back at her, and she responded with a hiss, caught a glimpse of my bandages, and then instantly settled down. I took a few steps closer, but she turned away.
“Hera, ever since you hurt my arm-
“I’m sorry…”
“You’ve been acting so different since then. You’re caring for me and doing things for me. Last night you wouldn’t take your eyes off my bandages. Seriously, what’s the matter?”
“I don’t want to be alone anymore.” She answered.
“I’m here though. You’re not alone.”
“But for how long? I was so worried you were going to run away on me last night, moreover, I’ll just outlive you anyway and be alone all over again.”
“You’ll have Ares though. What’s not to say you’ll run away on me when he comes back?”
“I’m not going to run away on you, but you don’t understand where I’m coming from with this. Sure Ares is my brother, but I want someone for myself.” She became all bashful.
“And you’ll die…” She then started to cry.
“Hera,” I placed a finger on her chin and turned her head towards me, “Let’s just enjoy New York okay?” I gave her a smile, and she shyly returned one in response.