The Oldest Blood: A Vampire Paranormal Fantasy

by F. E. Arliss

  The bedrooms were simple. A double bed in each against a side wall, a long row of custom built-in wardrobes along the back and a comfortable upholstered Bergere chair and matching ottoman, each with a small black side table and lamp to read by, gracing both rooms. Crisp white linens and small black-satin roll-style pillows on the beds and in each chair were the only contrasts to the tranquility of the all white rooms. Heavy black-velvet curtains were pulled to one side of each low, French door that led to the narrow balcony. It looked like Six had managed to salvage those after all.

  The balcony held two small, wrought-iron bistro sets in front of each side of the salon’s terrace doors. The bedrooms each had comfortable woven loungers with thick cushions and matching small side tables in their sections of the terrace.

  She loved everything about the place!

  Six came to stand near her in the door to the second bedroom. “Stephane took the two paintings he had in the bedrooms home with him.” He nodded towards an inconspicuous nail, that had been painted-over with white paint. “All you have to do is choose a painting for each bedroom in your taste and it’s home. I don’t believe he left any kitchen things either, so that might take a trip to Ikea or someplace more upscale if you like. There’s a gourmet store a few blocks away. I could take you,” he suggested gleefully.

  Remi could almost see him licking his chops at the idea of decorating and buying household goods. Grinning at him, she nudged him with her elbow and said, “We’ll see. I’m not sure about accepting all this stuff. I need to speak to Kandake’s representative,” she sighed, a long wistful sigh “Though I do love everything about this place.”

  Six shrugged. “What’s that American saying that Two always reminded me off…”Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” I think,” he said, rolling his eyes at her reluctance.

  “Seriously?” Remi practically shouted at him. “Even you have to admit this is all very weird. Weird! Beyond weird!” She glared at him, hands on hips. “Right! Tell me that you don’t think this is a tad bit weird!”

  Six sighed, turned around, marched to the bed and flopped onto his back. “Ok, yeah. It’s weird. But perhaps not as much to me as to other people,” he added, looking up at the ceiling. “I mean - I’ve been seeing these weird goth-types come in to do business with our firm since I was a kid. Usually, they use the back door or come at night. Some of them are just the same as when I was eight years old. No aging. I think they’re vampires. Said that once to Two before he died,” Six said slowly. “He just patted my head and said I was the brightest of all his great grandchildren. I took that to be an affirmative.”

  “Most people wouldn’t believe it,” Six continued. “But I grew up with it. I know it’s true. So, no. I don’t think this is as weird as you do. Vamps gotta die just like anyone else I suppose. Who knows what happens to them...too much sun. Death by stake. Other vamps kill them. I don’t know. But I know they exist, and I know they do business with us. Ms. Impanula was one of Two’s favorite clients. He said she knew what was what. Trust me. From Two, that’s saying something. Four likes her too,” he added with a smile. “He’s just too crotchety to show it to you. Weirdly, I don’t think Dad has ever seen her. Not sure Six trusts him that much.”

  Remi sighed and flopped down on the bed next to him. They lay like that for a while. “Do you live at home,” she asked, mostly out of curiosity.

  “Yeah. It’s ok. But a little bit ghastly at the same time. I looked at apartments, but the ones I liked were really way too expensive for a clerk’s salary. Dad … you haven’t met my dad,” Six said, turning his head on the bed so she could see him roll his eyes. “He says I have to make my own way. So, yeah, I still live at home and that’s why I think you’d be nuts to not keep this sweet place.”

  Remi just sighed again and looked at the gorgeous old dark beams above her head. “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe.”

  Chapter Six

  The Safety Deposit Box

  That afternoon, after a nice lunch at a cafe in the park outside the apartment, Six took her to the bank again. Sliding through Paris traffic in a huge Jag was just not something Remi enjoyed. She tried not to look at Six’s driving and the myriad near-death accidents he seemed to easily avoid. Instead, she stared out the window at all the architectural wonders of Paris and tried to let her mind come to terms with what was happening. Hell, she didn’t really know what was happening, so it wasn’t that easy to settle one’s mind over something like this.

  At the bank, she was once again given the royal treatment. Then she and Six were escorted to a small conference room off of the vault that contained the safety deposit boxes. Producing her ancient looking key with its tattered red ribbon, she handed it reluctantly to the attendant. The man that took her into the vault was ancient, pale, bald, and had huge earlobes. She wondered briefly if he was part of Kandake and Saulaces’s clan, though his attributes - like the large bald head and long fingernails - weren’t as marked as theirs had been.

  Six hovered impatiently in the outer room. Remi murmured to her ancient escort, “I think a representative of Cleary Gottlieb is trustworthy enough to accompany me. What do you think?”

  “They do a good job representing the clans,” the old man wheezed rustily. “I’ve never known them to break the veil.”

  Remi had no idea what that meant, but nodded to Six to join them. He practically leapt through the doorway with anticipation.

  After inserting her key, and the ancient clerk, his, the heavy box was slid out onto the table. Remi was worried the clerk’s stick-like arms might break with its weight, but he turned out to be surprisingly strong and swung it easily out of its slot and laid it gently onto the conference table. Turning to Remi, he indicated that she take a seat. Six slid into the one beside her.

  “Should you need me, madam, I will be just outside the door. There is a drinks tray to your left,” he rasped out, pointing with one long, spindly finger to the glass and gold art deco table to one side. It was topped with decanters of dark liquids. “May I get you one before you begin?” he asked, then added wryly “I believe you’ll both need at least one.”

  Remi smiled weakly at him, suddenly very glad for his presence. “I’m sorry, sir,” she muttered. “I didn’t catch your name.”

  “I’m Aegeus Bemus,” he said, smiling a bit to expose slightly lengthened canines, and bowed from the waist.

  “Thank you Mr. Bemus. I am happy to have a drink and I’m glad you are here with me,” Remi added, trying to convey how much his presence was fortifying her.

  “You are most welcome, Miss Remi,” the old man said, sloshing a good amount of something dark into two crystal tumblers. He set them gently on the table and then went out of the room, quietly closing the door.

  Remi picked up her glass and took a gulp of the liquid. Whiskey. Ugh! Always tasted like gasoline to her. Six did the same, then gasped, “Oohh, that’s awful,” he wheezed out. She nodded, but couldn’t be bothered to say anything through the effort she was making to catch her breath again.

  The time had come. Slowly, she reached out one hand and gently pulled the long metal lever off of the narrow hook that held the long box-lid in place. Flipping it back was harder than she’d imagined. The lid itself was heavy. Experimentally trying to lift the box, she realized that the long, narrow wooden box must be lined with lead. It was incredibly heavy. Even that fact was confounding. How had Mr. Bemus managed to carry the thing?

  Inside the opening lay an assortment of objects wrapped in black and navy velvet cloths and bags. Pulling the first one out of the box, she pulled the flap open and let the long cylindrical object roll out onto the velvet-lined tray Mr. Bemus had left for that purpose

  Beside her, Six gasped. Remi couldn’t breathe. The item seemed to glow with a life of its own. It was some sort of sceptre or wand. Remi wasn’t sure which it was. It was made of what looked like petrified wood. Inlaid with jewels and engraved with odd markings, it was encased in a heavily ornate cage of scroll work
gold. The item was tipped with a long jagged piece of what Remi identified as sunstone. It had a dark brown appearance and was dazzled through by glinting veins of sparkling, golden sediment. A palm-sized gem that glowed like iridescent moonstone, anchored the other end of the wand.

  Both she and Six stared at it. It had a mesmerizing power that seemed to pulse, writhe, and twist, causing the hair on her body to stand up and crawl. Tension knotted her gut and she suddenly felt ill. Looking at Six’s ashen face, she could see he felt the same.

  Quickly, she rolled the item back up and laid it carefully back along the side of the box. Remi and Six let out long sighs in unison, unaware they’d been holding their breath. Both took another slug of whiskey.

  One by one the items were laid upon the black velvet and though they both had supposed initially that they’d gasp and ooh over the contents, total silence reigned.

  A blue-ish glass chalice that looked made from liquid starlight; a small dagger encrusted with precious stones and archaic writing; a squat statue of some type of fertility goddess carved from dark stone; a padded leather roll that held an assortment of strange, thick, old glass vials full of dark liquids; and several heavily-engraved amulets made from various stones that Remi identified as amber, amethyst, carnelian, hematite, onyx, moonstone, and rose quartz, all came out of the box.

  Other items were scarabs and ushabti-like statues, carved from what might be alabaster, jade, or lapis lazuli - she wasn’t sure. Then there were the gold coins, archaic looking and lying in small piles next to bags filled with rough cut rocks in various shades. Remi suspected they were diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.

  The largest piece was something that looked like an ancient torc-type necklace. It had been made of gold and was twisted around another piece of petrified wood. It had seemed to grow larger and squirm in her vision’s periphery. She had hastily put it back in the box. Neither she nor Six could hide their revulsion to the piece.

  To her surprise, the rhombus shaped, diamond pave earrings, necklace and bracelet that she’d seen around Kandake Empundula’s neck that night on the bridge, had been placed in the box. Along with it was a black intaglio skull ring encircled with diamonds. The black intaglio skulls that hung from the ends of each shield-like rhombus on the necklace, earrings and bracelet, were even more intricately carved than she’d imagined. The skulls mouths were open in what appeared to be screams of grief. Just looking at them made her sad. She didn’t remember them being like that two nights ago.

  The last time she’d seen the skulls they had glowed like lightning from the neck of Kandane as she stood in the shadowed-light of the bridge where she’d been killed.

  Now, in the bright, overhead light of the vault’s conference room, she could see that the dark splashes of unguent congealed on the parure set’s surface was Kandake’s blood. Turning to Six, she whispered, “Please have Mr. Bemus bring a jewelry cleansing kit.”

  Six went without hesitation.

  Gently, between gulps of whiskey provided by Mr. Bemus, who had somehow ended up back in the room with them, Remi cleaned the necklace. She was unaware that tears ran down her face until a large linen handkerchief was stuffed into her hand.

  Head bent, she blew her nose, wiped her eyes and whispered, “She was so magnificent. You should have seen her. Her skin glowed like pearlized coffee. Her little tophat with its red feathers and netting sat on her beautifully-shaped head like a crown. The necklace and earrings glinted out like lightning strikes. Her eyes shone topaz against the whites of her eyes and she embodied the very essence of a pagan goddess.”

  She had no idea that Mr. Bemus smiled and gently wiped his own eyes.

  Finally, cleaning the last of the blood off the set, she began replacing each piece gently into the tattered, red velvet lined, rosewood box she’d found them in. “I don’t remember the intaglio skull’s crying out like this,” she said, gently touching the crying-out carved skull of the ornate ring with the tip of her finger. To her amazement, the intaglio skull seemed to slowly morph before her eyes and the gaping mouth, in mid wail, slowly closed, settling into the jet material as though it had never screamed out in grief.

  Six gasped. Remi froze. Mr. Bemus cleared his throat.

  Remi, as though coming out of a trance, looked at him questioningly. “Might I suggest, Miss Remi, that you wear the ring in her memory,” Mr. Bemus murmured.

  Remi nodded. Hesitantly she picked up the ring and slid it gently onto her forefinger.

  Normally a set of jewelry with skulls on them would not have been her thing. She did like her pearl-studded biker boots, but usually she was just into things that were either very simple or simply sumptuous. This set, she supposed, was both.

  Sliding the heavy gold ring over the knuckle of her first finger, she was shocked to feel it tighten until it fit snugly around her forefinger. Gasping, she lifted her eyes to Mr. Bemus, who nodded reassuringly. The ring was beautiful. The skull did not seem grotesque or threatening now, but rather reassuring and powerful, as though it embodied Kandake Impundula’s strength. Later, she would find out that was exactly what it did...what all of these items did.

  Thanking Mr. Bemus, Remi allowed him to remove the box and return it to the safety of the vault. Standing, she had no idea why, but she went to the old man and hugged him, whispering, “Thank you,” in his wrinkled ear.

  ‘You’re welcome, dear. Ms. Kandake would be pleased,” he added, then turned away to return to his duties.

  Remi and Six said nothing. He dropped her off at the hotel and drove away in complete silence. Remi hoped that the experience had been as life-changing as his great grandpa had guaranteed. She knew it had been for her. She could feel the power radiating off the ring.

  That night, as she tried to remove it for bed, it finally came to her that there would be no taking the ring off ever again. It was welded to her skin as though it had been born into place there. Somehow, this didn’t upset her as much as she’d thought. Having permanent jewelry might have been bad if it hadn’t been so darn fabulous. Solid gold, glowing with rough-cut diamonds in two colors, and an intricately-cut intaglio of unmatched skill - it was a piece of glorious workmanship and history. No, she was fine with it not coming off. That night she slept the sleep of the dead. Oddly, the ring didn’t bother her as she slept.

  Chapter Seven

  A Break from It All

  Two days later, Remi decided she needed a break. This had all been just too strange and she wanted to get away from it to something peaceful and simple. Letting Six know that she was taking the train south to Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, Remi packed a small satchel and rang the hotel desk for a cab.

  As she stepped outside the hotel, expecting the bellman to indicate her cab, Remi was surprised when the Cleary Gottlieb Jaguar with Six behind the wheel slid quietly to a halt in front of her. Six jumped out, frowned at her and said, “No way are you rusticating at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat without me. I’m driving. Four said I could go,” he added with a grin. “Five was furious. Mom loved it.”

  Remi rolled her eyes, familiar with family drama. The bellman opened the door of the long black sedan for her and she simply gave up and got in. It would be better to have Six with her anyway. He was fun. And understood. She hoped he didn’t want to talk about all of it.

  He didn’t.

  He’d had a vague understanding that other types of beings existed in the world, but Remi had been clueless. It had been a hard week for both of them. Vampires, striga, strigoi, moroi, or whatever you wanted to call them.

  When Remi Googled it, there had been reference after reference to vampires, witches, werewolves, and any number of strange folk tales. No one really knew for sure what they were, where they came from, what they ate, and on and on. It was just too much to handle all at once. They needed a break.

  The drive to the coast was long and leisurely. They stopped several times for lunch and drinks, chatting about beauty, fashion and design, and whether they would ever mean as
much again as they had before the pandemic. Remi and Six both agreed, they would all mean something to the haves - those with enough money to purchase such luxuries.

  It was interesting to see that the prices had sky-rocketed at the fine-dining establishments they stopped at. She supposed that was how it would be from now on. Businesses had to make a living and now with fewer customers allowed in their premises, they had to try to make their overhead costs somehow. It was simple. Fewer customers meant higher prices. It would drive the wedge between the have and have not classes in the world even further apart. It was scary and sad, all at the same time.

  When they finally pulled into the tree-lined drive to the hotel, Remi was ready for a nap. It was beginning to turn to dusk. After a check-in that lasted all of fifteen seconds when she mentioned her name - they were escorted across the marble-tiled lobby with its white furnishings and high ceilings and down a long winding path to the pool suite she’d booked.