Chapter VII : The Kiss

Kane sat on the ground, holding Maeve in his arms. Sinbad and Doubar knelt beside them. The beautiful sorceress was pale as death. She weakly struggled to breathe. Her wounds had stopped bleeding, and her lips were turning blue.

‘’Isn’t there anything you can do ? Anything you’ve read in your science books ?’’ Sinbad asked Kane. He sounded desperate.

They heard Maeve sigh, but realized she was in fact exhaling her last breath.

‘’No !’’ Sinbad protested. ‘’Do something !’’ he yelled at Kane, grasping the vampire’s arm harshly.

‘’Sinbad…’’ Doubar said softly, putting his hand over the captain’s shoulder. It broke his heart to see how devastated his little brother was.

‘’You can’t let her die, do you hear me ? You CAN’T !’’ Sinbad scolded angrily.

‘’She has willingly sacrificed herself’’, Kane replied.

‘’Damn it Kane ! She’s your friend too.’’ Sinbad’s voice was broken. His blue eyes started watering.

Kane gazed at the sailors. Their emotions fascinated him. Pain, anger, worry, sadness, grief. He couldn’t remember what it felt like. He glanced at Maeve.

‘’She was a white magic sorceress, wasn’t she ?’’ he asked them.

Doubar nodded.

‘’Maybe there’s something I can do after all’’, Kane said.

He laid her down on the ground. He leaned over and kissed her mouth.

‘’What the hell are you doing ?’’ Sinbad bursted out as Doubar grabbed his shirt to hold his brother still.

They were both startled when Maeve’s eyes opened, and even more taken aback when they saw yellow flames flickering in her eyes.

Kane broke the kiss. Maeve sighed and closed her eyes. They saw her chest moving as she started breathing again, and her fingers moved weakly, brushing against the grass. Slowly, she slipped back into consciousness. She opened her eyes, still feeling weak and somewhat sleepy. Her eyes met Kane’s first. She glanced at Doubar and Sinbad, wondering why they looked both so demolished and so relieved.

‘’What happened ?’’ Maeve frowned.

‘’Maeve, you were … dead’’, Sinbad told her, as if it didn’t make any sense.

‘’Dead ? Really, that’s … Oww !’’ she cried as she felt her injured neck throbbing. She cursed. ‘’That bastard, he bit my throat !’’

‘’How ? How did you reanimate her ?’’ Doubar asked Kane.

‘’Let’s say I gave her a sample of what evil tasted like’’, Kane answered.

‘’Of course … Kane, you’re brilliant !’’ she exclaimed, her eyes bright with gratefulness.

‘’Am I the only one who doesn’t understand ?’’ Sinbad asked, glancing at his brother.

‘’Remember the Griffon’s Egg ?’’ Maeve asked them.

‘’Of course. Pure goodness meeting pure evil, thus producing some kind of violent … reaction…’’ Sinbad was dazed as he started to understand what had just happened.

‘’Exactly. Well, this is it, at human scale,’’ Maeve smiled.

‘’Vital energy, the one that runs through your blood, leaves the body first when you die. But magic stays as long as your soul hasn’t fully disincarnated,’’ Kane explained.

‘’But the Griffon’s Egg … goodness won over dark forces, but the stone was destroyed. Why didn’t he kill you when he kissed you?’’ Doubar asked.

Maeve smirked mischievously. ‘’I guess I’m not as pure as the stone was’’. They all laughed when Doubar proudly exclaimed ‘’That’s my lass !’’

‘’Can you stand up ?’’ Kane asked Maeve.

‘’I think so,’’ she answered as the vampire helped her to get up. ‘’Was the girl able to escape ?’’

‘’Yes. But Xander and Crimson walked away’’, Sinbad answered. He reached for her arm when she lost her balance, she was still feeling dizzy. They started walking toward their camp.

‘’They went back to the castle. And I should too,’’ Kane declared, staring at the horizon. The skyline was pale yellow. He nodded as a way of saying goodbye, and he ran away.

‘’That’s it… Maeve, that’s our solution,’’ Sinbad declared.

''What are you talking about ?'' Doubar asked.

‘’The sunlight destroys them, doesn’t it ?’’ Sinbad asked Maeve, ignoring his brother.

‘’Of course it does’’, Maeve replied. ‘’But they will never leave the castle under daylight, so forget about it.’’

‘’What do you have in mind ?’’ Doubar asked Sinbad when he noticed his brother was grinning.

‘’That’s quite easy, Doubar. If they don’t come to us, we’ll go to them’’, he answered confidently.

‘’Now, you’re the one acting suicidal’’, Maeve mocked him.

‘’And you, obviously you don’t care for nice architecture’’, he smirked.

‘’Oh, and I suppose you do ?’’ she asked sharply. ‘’And what does this even have to do with what we’re talking about ?’’

‘’Everything, Maeve. Think about it. Have you ever been in a ballroom that had no windows, no stained glass whatsoever ?’’ Sinbad asked. ‘’I haven’t. But when we visited the castle, there wasn’t any to be seen. The ballroom is where guests are entertained, where they are expected to spend their evening. Any rich man, say Crimson, would have certainly made sure his ballroom looked luxurious enough to impress his guests, and that usually goes hand in hand with huge windows and decorative stained glass’’.

‘’Yes, the for living rich men’’, Maeve conceded. ‘’But we’re talking about vampires. Of course they’re not going to have windows where they live’’.

‘’Crimson lived in that castle before he turned into a vampire, didn’t he ? And how did that pigeon get there in the first place ? If it had entered the castle with us, we would have seen it, or at least heard it flying above our heads.’’

‘’What are you suggesting ?’’ Doubar asked.

‘’That there are in fact several windows in that room, and that our blood-sucking friends have somehow barricaded them’’.

‘’Makes sense to me’’, Maeve nodded.

‘’If we can get the vampires in that room and find a way to uncover one or many windows, then we could destroy them by pushing them into the light’’ Doubar said.

‘’Exactly’’.

Doubar tapped on his brother’s shoulder. ‘’I’m in’’.

‘’Me too,’’ Maeve said, ‘’as long as we’re not hurting Kane in the process’’.

‘’Agreed’’, Sinbad nodded. ‘’Now let’s get back to the camp and tell the others’’.