Blood In The Water (Phan)

{11} Patience

Those who say patience is a virtue have it right. Time seems to pass in years instead of moments when you're waiting for something to break. Seconds morph into centuries, wearing thin on your resolve until you're frayed around the edges, only fragments of your patience left. And it seems like ages until things move properly again.

I've learned patience over the past few days. Waiting at the hotel where Phil was finally returned to, by his side, just waiting for him to be okay again. Even his normally soft pink lips are pale, barely any breath coming from his lips. Though we don't need to breathe often, it terrifies me and I keep having to remind myself of that fact, that even if he doesn't look alive, Phil's okay in there.

Piling clothes into my bag, I turn my head slightly to look at Jim across the room, playing some game on his phone. We're due to get in a private jet back to London in a few hours now that Phil's cleared to at least be transported. It's a step in the right direction, Tanya tells me.

"Hey, Jim?" I finally ask, zipping up my bag. He pauses his game, lifting his head to look at me. "You seemed very determined to take out Marcus. Can I ask why?" I know the pasts of vampires aren't always as simple as mine was. Phil's, for example, was anything but a blessing. His life was torn from him brutally. Jim passes a hand through his hair, crossing his ankles and sighing softly.

"I used to work with Marcus. Being able to hide ourselves was something admirable, useful. Tracking is more common than some powers, so it wasn't hard for people to know we were coming for them. With me around, we could have the upper hand and attack without prior knowledge from the target." The way he speaks now is so different to his usual carefree, light tone. Even the language shifts into something resembling militant views that sound unfamiliar coming from his lips.

"It was a several decades ago now, when the laws weren't as clear, where things were muggy. I had just come back to London, having left to travel as a nomad for several years. Felix hadn't yet been placed in charge and Marcus had taken his position as head of the law. Thinking I was doing the right thing to help protect my people, I volunteered into the position of his right hand man. I didn't know what I was committing to.

"Marcus was just as reckless and dangerous than as he was now. Recently, he'd been getting bored since Felix and our other governors across the world had placed new laws and restrictions into our lifestyle. It put a stop to a lot of things Marcus would otherwise occupy his time with. Unfortunately, I came around prior to those laws." Jim shudders and I sink onto the side of the bed, listening intently to him.

"Marcus has always been ruthless. Our job was horribly unclear, which meant essentially, anything Marcus said, went. No one knew how wrong and critical that could become. Caspar and Joe weren't around yet, and we'd just found Alfie a decade or so after I began working with him. For a long time, it was just us.

"We'd follow our current events almost religiously, picking up on anything that could be considered wrong or without reason. Then, we'd travel all over the United Kingdom to take these people down. Obviously, without Alfie, things often got...messy. It was terrible, to have to hurt all those people blindly, I never really understood, but when Marcus told me to trust him, I was naive, and I did." Jim smiles sadly at me, his eyes far away and I can sense a shift in the story at this point. A time where maybe, his path changed.

"We had just settled a job outside of Norwich and we were heading out for some food. And I saw her. Normally, I would never have dreamed of it, of hurting a human, it wasn't in my nature. Tanya was beautiful, even as a human, and she was walking back home from her job as a nurse. She'd recently finished school, I'd later learn, and was top of her class. So smart, so young and had so much ahead of her." I swallow thickly, emotions running through me. I was Tanya, in this scenario, yet I'd been destined for this. She'd had a life, dreams, a future. She'd been meant to be a human. And now was destined to live forever as something dangerous, lethal.