The Scarlet Heron

by Sharilyn Skye

  After the Hundred Year War ended, we took a break from fighting and traveled the lesser known and smaller countries of the time until we came to America, We fell in love with the majesty of the place and began to make a home with others of our kind. Grania knew of my plans to further our People and she did her best to help me with them. I challenged those who stood in my way and ended their lives, using as little of my skills as necessary, so that my strength could be kept secret. Grania supported these efforts and helped in any way she could, often challenging lesser vampires when she could to take the pressure off of me. I treated her like what she was, a princess. I spoiled her and indulged her every whim. Nothing was too much. If she wanted a pony I bought her ten. I could never make up for what I had done and in my trying, I created a sweet, dangerous, moody and barely contained teenaged brat with the strength of a hundred men who never grew beyond that. I wonder what has happened to her now. She will have gone mad by this time, for her, it only takes hours away from me. I never fostered independence in her as I should have and as I did with her brothers and sisters. I have done my daughter many a disservice, but perhaps the most egregious one was not letting her go. I kept her so close to me that she cannot function alone. Perhaps even now, she has died from the breaking of our bond. As a parent, my job was to teach her independence and strength. Instead, I fostered complete dependence in her. She goes almost nowhere without me. I never thought that something like this would happen and she will pay the ultimate price for my hubris. In my defense, I did it out of love. I could not bear to let her go and now, unless someone found a way save her, she has likely died. I only hope that she did not destroy her sisters and brothers in my House as she went. She is strong and they often discount this, but she is the strongest of them all. Perhaps the Goddess, in her wisdom, will allow us to be together again in the afterlife.

  Grania, as mentioned, was an excellent fighter and I made her part of security team, I thought, too late, that it might give her some measure of independence. She is a skilled swords person and an accomplished archer, not that there is much call for archers these days, but there is no style of fighting at which she did not excel, although hand to hand is her favorite where the sword is mine.

  As my security officer, she went with me everywhere and only left me to go to her Source, Paul. She loves him and he is deeply in love with her. They met in New York some twenty years ago and he has never left her since. He is devoted and kind. He has aged and never once asked her to turn him. He understands us and does well with our kind. He will be devastated if she dies. My guess is he will not survive it. He has been devoted to her despite our close relationship and his lack of privacy. He gave up ever having a child or a normal life to be with her and I can see him following her into the unknown of death.

  I believe that we are not destined to nothingness after death. Something awaits us and there, we will be as we are intended to be, whole again and together, all of us. I gave her the best that I could and she has lived well and long. She was happy in the big house in the country and happy to have a friend in Lara, I hope it was enough for her and that her life was complete.

  Lara, being good with broken things, took an instant liking to my child and I hope that she will not take her loss personally, for there is nothing she could have done.

  Grania taught Lara as best she could and for that I am also grateful. No one can ever be ready for complete immersion in the supernatural world, but Grania believed Lara was close and that time was running out and that was good enough for me Lara has a unique flexibility that affords her the ability to simply roll with it, as Grania says. I do not know if this is a trait of all nurses, but it is certainly a trait of Lara’s. She has the ability to handle things in the now and deal with them more thoroughly later. She finds ways to cope like riding her horses and working on her farm. When I see her with a dark look on her face, furiously pounding nails into a fence, then I know that she is working something out in her mind and I try to leave her to it. Same with her horse rides, as much as I would like to go on all of them with her, I know this is the time she uses to readjust her world internally. Someday, when time allows, we will ride more and think less.

  Chapter Six

  Mikolosi did not agree with Grania’s assessment that Lara was ready to join our world, but then I did not agree much of late with Mikolosi. From the moment he met Lara, I saw the wheels begin to turn in his mind. He has only been with me about thirty years and is also quite young, as he was Turned in his twenties. Grania and I came across him in Hungaria while traveling through. We were already living in the US, but continued to travel widely, visiting others of our kind, making treaties and solidifying plans. Mikolosi’s maker had had his fill of the cocksure young vampire and felt that more structure would do him some good. Mik is one of those rare young vampires that transitioned with a fair amount of inborn power and his maker could no longer deal with him. My initial thought was to bring him with me to the US and groom him to be master himself, even if he was so young. My plan had been to place him on the west coast as possibly a Governor or representative of one of the larger territories as those areas are not as settled politically as the rest of the country. He had enough presence to pull off that type of assignment, only Mikolosi proved to be valuable as my second and chief of my security team. He is a skilled spy and even more skilled with a computer and gathering intelligence online. He has proven invaluable in those areas and much of my intelligence comes from him and him alone, but he also proven that he is a poor decision maker and a worse leader. He functions as he thinks a vampire should and not what he could be as an overall leader of our people. He attempts to make himself appear older and instead of embracing the change that is coming to us all, he pretends to be Vlad the Impaler or some old world Faerie tale, of which I am the only one. It was a bit of a failed experiment. I still planned to make him a master, as he would grow and learn with age, but I had planned on making him the representative of Pittsburgh, as that city has a large Hungarian population, a smaller number of vampires than other cities of the same size and was close enough for me to keep an eye on him.

  I had begun to think lately that his aspirations were larger than Pittsburgh and possibly as large as my House. During the Winter Conclave, I was almost surprised that he did not add his challenge to the long list. Many lesser vampires found bravery that night, thinking that I am old, ineffectual and weak, they jumped into the fray only to learn how wrong they were. Mikolosi, I assumed, would join them, but he did not, despite the desire I saw on his face to do so. Lara has that effect and many who mistook my civility and kindness for weakness, learned their final lessons that night. So Mik stayed and I could feel his dissatisfaction growing by the day. I began to tell him less and less of my plans and began to systematically end his time in my House. Had I not been taken, I would have announced my plans for him at the Spring Conclave. He could have refused to go to Pittsburgh, but that would make him appear weak and I do not think he is that foolish. I began distrusting Mik even more the night of Lara’s poisoning by Daniel. In my darkest moments, I believe he worked in conjunction with my enemies in an outright act of betrayal. Best case scenario he is just a scavenger, looking for a way to the top without having to put in the work for it. I find it odd though, that Lara’s attack was timed to near perfection, as to catch me at the most vulnerable possible point when I could not come to her aid. My fear is that the timing was too perfect to be chance. A phone call to Daniel, or the vampire strong enough to take him from me, made more sense and it is only lack of proof that kept me from killing Mikolosi on sight. As the leader of my people, I must follow the rules I have set forth, for if I do not, why should they?

  So I watched him. I did not worry about Lara, she may have appreciated his looks, but I could tell she saw something in him that she did not trust. Whether it was gut instinct or something that happened between them, I do not know, but she had no interest in him. He, on the other hand, saw Lara as many do, a stepping stone to
great power and constantly tried to woo her to his side. Lara has abilities that she does not understand yet, no one does, but having her at your side as a supernatural would make you the strongest pair on the earth, in this plane and possibly any other. I had enough power of my own to not care about her magical strength, but there are others who would do anything to have access to it. Winter Conclave proved that.

  Chapter Seven

  Grania and I have travelled the world extensively and lived in many countries before coming to America. It was before the Civil War that we made our way stateside. After landing in New York, we traveled to the middle of the New World, but found it not to our liking. We stayed for a few decades, making alliances with some of the older American vampires that lived here at the time. Most of those have since ceased to exist because their resistance to the plans I had for our kind was too strong. It was here that I met Aiyana for the first time and was smitten. There were so few women of strength during those hard lived days and she stood out among them. We became friends and then lovers for a short period of time. She agreed that life out in the open would be much more convenient, but as they were still burning people at the stake they suspected of witchcraft, we knew the wait would be long.

  Grania and I left the midwest not long after, heading back east to the more tamed and civilized parts of the country. We tried New York for a brief stint, but found the place already crowded and so filthy at the time as to not be liveable. We stumbled upon Baltimore as we travelled through, heading to Richmond and possibly points south.

  Baltimore is a very interesting city that has somehow grown by leaps and bounds, but has also managed to maintain its southern roots and old world simplicity. Baltimore was growing daily when we arrived, marshes were being filled and buildings spreading, but it remained beautiful and largely untamed, with all the Chesapeake Bay’s fingers threading through the place, lending it even more charm. Often sneered at by its more imperial neighbors Philadelphia and Washington DC, Baltimore boasts more beauty and ingenuity than those cities combined, if you ask me. Nowhere else can you find new world refinements mixed with old world charm coming together in a socially rich and diverse environment. When Grania and I landed there the first time, we knew it would become our home. Only recently, when my House had become so large that living as one unit there became impossible, did we consider moving into the suburbs. Although I have kept my buildings and offices downtown, as I love the beauty that surrounds me while I work.

  Grania and I picked a gorgeous row home in Federal Hill that still stands to this day, although I no longer own it and began to put down roots. We continued to travel, but once we began to feel at home in Baltimore, we travelled less and stayed gone for shorter amounts of time as it was finally nice to belong to some place.

  The Civil War provided a great opportunity for us to deepen our roots and add to our fortunes as the city suffered greatly during that time and investments were needed to rebuild it into something even more grand than she had been before. That is when I began to think of Baltimore as mine and make no mistake it is mine. My city, my home, my life is there. I funded many areas of her rebuilding and put in place an infrastructure that would someday provide the foundation for all vampire Houses in the country. I began to organize. Naturally, this was done quietly and outside of the human eye, as the time was still not right for us to come out as a People. Vampires of my choosing began to infiltrate all levels of government and we began to put our plans into motion, so that when the day came, it would be as smooth a transition as possible. Grania and I thrived in Baltimore and built a House that none could rival, we also built a community that would spread nationwide and eventually lead to our successful emergence into polite society. I have made many strong allies and good friends during this process and I cherish those relationships, as I never shared anything similar until I came to Baltimore City.

  Chapter Eight

  The night of the conclave, when Lara arrived at my home wearing the color of my House I was stunned. Amazed. Speechless. Is there another word? Bewildered, I know that one now. I use it again, only ever for her. She was the most glorious creature I had ever seen and she did not know that she had just declared herself to be mine. She did not understand that, but I did and so did every other vampire in the room. And while I would not have held her to that declaration because she did not know, the others would not be as forgiving. The very old are often very rigid in their customs. She had known the color red was significant to me, but maybe not why. She wore it often in my presence and I quietly glorified in that. I know it to be one of her favorites so it is possible the entire thing was a coincidence. But that night, the night of her initiation into supernatural society, she wore my color head to toe like a flag and she draped over it the oldest and most magical of Faerie clothing left on this side of Faerie and all knew it. Everyone except her, that is. Her declaration was like the ringing of a bell, Loud, Clear and somehow Defiant A war broke out. Many lesser vampires died. Our rules of combat forgotten, as they challenged me again and again for the right to her, even though it was not mine to give. I would never presume to control a woman such as she. She is all her own person and I am not the kind of man to try to control a woman. Influence perhaps. Control never. I would have gladly died for her then and there because she had given herself to me, even if only by custom, even if she did not understand, but I could not die. I must live or they would take her, maybe she could defend herself from them and maybe not. I would not allow her to find out. She did not know what she had done and I will never tell her. It was my fault that she did not know to wear white, gray, or black. While gray is the color of Gregory’s House, it was neutral before he claimed it and is still considered neutral to this day. Had she chosen gray instead of red, no one would have thought she declared herself to be his. That was his choice and the AVA allowed it. As I have said, I am a horrible teacher. She sat bravely at the front of the room, spine straight and skin glowing, sending out quiet ripples of power in warning to others. She is like a lighthouse on a distant shore, unmistakable and bright, drawing others to her and dashing them upon her rocky shores when they focus upon the light and not the dangers that lie beneath the surface. The fight broke out and she was lost from my sight. I slashed and tore my way through challengers like paper walls, killing any who approached. Still I kept the majority of my Faerie power hidden from them, I did not need it to end their challenges. When the last challenger fell, most of my strength was gone. I needed to feed, but so did the others under my care. The fight had been long and bloody, there was not enough freely given blood in my house to feed the wounded so I waited, knowing time and rest would help until I could go into the city and feed again. Grania had also been injured severely and it was more important to me that she heal, so I laid on my bed and did what I could to find more strength.

  And then she came to me, by the Goddess she came. Paul had convinced her that I needed her and she came despite her nervousness. I would have been okay to wait, possibly, I worried though that the next challenge would come from one of my own and that, I did not have the strength for. She was afraid then, but not truly; it did not reach into her soul, just hovered on the edges of her mind. She came to me and lay at my side, heart beating like a little bird in her chest and let me take her lifeblood for the first time, placing her life into my arms. Something more precious than gold, platinum, or a thousand virgins. More precious than anything. The feel of my fangs piercing her skin for the first time was like nothing I had ever experienced and the taste of her blood on my tongue brought me near to completion. She tasted of the beach, salt water taffy, coconut, caramel and everything she should not. It was glorious and up until the moment that followed after taking her blood, the most satisfying sexual experience I have ever had. To be so sated from just a drink was exhilarating. After centuries of darkness it was like finding the light once more. I savored every drop that flowed over my tongue and restrained myself from taking her in truth, but just barely. She gave herself
to me that night and I became whole again. Truly whole. What powers I had lost in my Turning rushed back to me, the flame reignited in my soul. I was the Flame Keeper once more. I could let no one know. Her life was already at risk and this knowledge would be a death knell to her existence. Her blood had healed me. Not in the exact sense, I was still a vampire, but she had healed the broken line between vampire and faerie, heart and soul, merging me into one solid creature. Someone knew about my heritage and possibly guessed my power or they have chosen Silver instead. Silver will put a regular vampire in stasis. Whoever built this prison knew that silver would not touch me and guessed that cold iron would. If I escape this place, I will need to find a remedy for this and end the lives of those responsible. I have been so distracted of late that I did not take time to explore the possibilities the return of my Fire could bring. I have been too distracted that I did not see the immediate threat until it was too late. That has cost us all now.