Biting Winds

by Shawna Ireland

  Despite her love for Sangio, what she heard spew from the demon child’s mouth confirmed her previous fear; what that child is and what Sangio had become, was born of a greater evil than Hannah imagined.

  That is precisely why Hannah rode into town, passed the medical clinic, and headed straight for the cathedral where she rang the bell unrelentingly for the minister.

  Chapter 25

  Thaddeus sat in his leather chair sipping his whiskey and taking long puffs of his finest Cuban cigar. He was not surprised when he saw tiny rows of flickering lanterns bouncing in the night, knowing they were held in the hands of angry riders.

  Thaddeus lived long enough to know that professed love does not overcome fear of the unknown, especially with possibilities as dark as the secrets his family attempted to hide. However, Sangio was right. He raised his boys to be honorable, and there was nothing honorable in holding a young lady hostage in their home, regardless of how well she was treated. This was the compromise Thaddeus brainwashed himself into believing, to ease his conscious, but deep down he knew he was wrong.

  Thaddeus gave Drake and Sangio the option of fleeing, but they were not willing to leave their father, and their father was not willing to leave his family home, so the men decided to stay together, knowing that there was no way out.

  Although Thaddeus hoped to reason with the townsmen, he was not surprised when the same men that sat next to him in church, prayed for each other’s farms, crops, children and wives, ascended his long drive. He was not surprised when the same men he paid salaries to for tilling his land, harvesting grapes, and pressing wine kicked his front door in instead of using the iron knocker. Thaddeus was not surprised when the men he poured his most aged scotches for, and doled out his finest cigars to, ran through the doors of his office, despite the fact that they were unlocked and the force was unnecessary, except of course, for effect. Though he was disappointed beyond belief, he was not surprised when his friends, with their sons and sons-in-law opened fire on the Danvonne men, with not a question asked, using the same guns they had gone hunting together with for years.

  Sangio regained consciousness as his wounds closed themselves, smelling the pungent fumes of kerosine and alcohol, hearing the crackling wood around him, and unable to fully focus his eyes. Realizing he was somehow moved into the the barn, he looked around frantically only to find his father and brother lying dead next to him, the three of them in a perfect row. Sangio considered dragging them out of the barn, but when he saw the unnecessary spray of bullet holes, and felt the large pools of blood they were laying in he knew there was no point. They were dead, and it was overkill.

  Sangio wept over their bodies, weakened as his body stole the last bit of energy he had to heal the holes that ravaged his body. He knew the girl was right. This was a curse indeed. He didn’t care though. All that he had ever loved was taken from him.

  He laid across the chest of his father, and waited to be consumed by the fire. He wouldn’t die from smoke inhalation as he had realized quickly that breathing was unnecessary for a vampire.

  “Please let me go free.” The girl choked momentarily as she was forced to speak, pulling the hot ash into her lungs. “I don’t want to burn. Don’t you know we will burn and heal at the same time? The pain will be so awful. Please let me go.”

  “Why should I care? You did this to us!”

  “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t have a choice either. I would not choose this curse!” She sobbed into her hands. Sangio did not respond, or make a move to save her, and she then became quiet, resigned to the torture that was about to incite them.

  “Lillian Jane Sumner,” she called across to Sangio.

  “What?” Sangio was annoyed, wanting to wallow in his grief undisturbed.

  “It’s my name. Lillian, but everyone called me Lilly. I never even told you my name,” the little girl, Lilly, said in a fading voice.

  Sangio knew then that this girl, Lilly, was no more a demon, or from the devil than he was, and she didn’t deserve to suffer anymore at his hands. While he blamed her for his current circumstances, for his devastating losses, he knew Lilly only attacked him as a means to an end, and ultimately, he would do the same. It was his nature now. It was essentially out of his hands.

  Sangio kissed his father and brother on their forehead, said his goodbyes. He took their jewelry to keep it from ending up in the possession of the dirty townsmen, who would likely wear it as souvenirs for their wicked deeds that they would profess as a battle that was won in God’s name.

  Sangio limped his way to the bear cage, tearing the door off and releasing the shackles from Lilly’s wrists and ankles, using energy from rage because his starving and injured body produced no energy of its own. Together, Lilly and Sangio kicked away at the windows and iron bars that imprisoned them in this man-made hell, and helped each other over the sills, onto the limestone barrier, and jumped to the ground. Both were relieved that there wasn’t anyone watching the back side of the barn.

  They hid in the lush tree line, watching his father’s friends laughing, spitting, and throwing bottles of Thaddeus’ favorite whiskey, stolen from his office, as fuel for their already roaring fire. Once again, overkill.

  While the barn lay in heaps of ash and metal inside the stone barrier, Sangio watched with further insult as the men tore the aluminum cellar doors open, and stole bottles of wine, pressed from their grapes, for the road. Sangio could picture the gluttonous men drinking the wine, telling their wives and other townsfolk how they murdered the man whose wine they drank. Sangio felt an internal fire, roaring louder than the flame they set and burning hotter than the incinerator that brought his father and brother to ash.

  The thirst for blood that day was stronger than Sangio, which wasn’t saying much in his current condition. And though Sangio never drank human blood in his life, he expected it to taste as sweet as revenge, and he knew his first kill would be his sweetest.

  Chapter 26

  A light rapping on the door, consecutive with the beeping from the machine dripping fluids into Jessie’s arm brought Sangio’s attention back to here and now. Sangio was shaken for that was the first time he allowed himself to relive that day so vividly.

  “Mr. Danvonne?” Beth called softly through the door. “It’s time for her bandage change, and I need to tend to the IV."

  Sangio rushed to the door, beckoning the nurse in.

  “Come in, of course. I lost track of time.” He looked down at his watch surprised to see that two hours had passed. “Please excuse me!”

  Sangio exited the room as he glanced back at Jessie, broken but peaceful in the bed. He wondered if she too, would cost him as much as the last woman he trusted. But that was impossible. He had no one left to lose, except Jessie herself.

  Four days had passed from the evening that Sangio placed Jessie in the care of the two nurses, and everything had run more efficiently than Sangio had expected. That was until he was alerted by the commotion in Jessie’s room. Sangio raced to the room to see the nurses as horror struck just as the day they first laid eyes on Jessie.

  “What happened?” he demanded, probably a bit louder than he intended.

  “It’s just not possible!” Stacy stammered.

  "Obviously it's possible!" Beth snapped. "Just look at her!"

  Sangio followed her finger point to the bed, where Stacey was standing with a gaping mouth, holding the bandages she had just unwound from Jessie's head, exposing a flawlessly healed patient. He couldn't help but break a smile at the sight before him.

  Every bone was rightly in place, every bruise was gone, replaced by a smooth, tanned surface, just as the day he met her. A plastic surgeon couldn't have reassembled her nose or cheek bones to the masterpiece of the replication he awed at. Yes, indeed, there were times that being a vampire came in handy.

  "Taper her off the pain medication, and remove the IV and catheter. Summon me the moment she begins to stir, and speak nothing to her of her previous condition, o
r rapid recovery," he directed the nurses, still in shock, and even more so in shock at the fact that Sangio did not seem surprised by the miraculous recovery of their patient.

  The nurse’s shock turned to frustration as Sangio strode down the hallway, still smiling, without attempting to provide his staff with any sort of explanation as if there were one.

  "Nothing! Not a damn word about what happened," Stacey said loud enough for Beth to hear, but quiet enough that her employer would not hear her.

  "Come on, Stacey. You can't act like you have not heard the stories?" Beth inquired.

  "Stories? You mean the made up dramatics of the vampire who massacred the townsmen after they shot and burned his family? Come on yourself. Please don't tell me you believe that shit."

  "Then you explain it Stacey! You tell me how half of the townsmen were killed and drained of blood.”

  "Serial killer? Cult? Bored country folks? Inbreeding? I could go on and on. People did some sick stuff in those days." Stacey stood with her hands on her hips, obviously irritated by Beth's suggestion. "Unless you know something that I don't?"

  "How the hell do I know what you know? I only know what I know, and that is what was in my great-grandmothers diary, and the stories she passed down from generation to generation, which is technically a historical document. Not only that, but why the hell do you think we are here?"

  "What do you mean, why are we here? We're nurses, and we were called to give aid to patient. Simple, end of story."

  "Suit yourself Stacey, but pretending you don't know, doesn't make it not true. Anyone who has been in this county for multiple generations know about the agreement to protect the Danvonne Estate." Beth stopped the flow of the IV and gently pulled the needle from Jessie's arm.

  "So, you're suggesting that Mr. Danvonne is a vampire?" Stacey asked, somewhat laughing, though now it was a nervous laugh. "And for your information, Beth, my mother married into this family and I moved here when I was fourteen. So, while I had a blast in high school, driving by the property with my friends and pretending it was haunted, I've heard nothing to make me believe it was anything but stories made up by old men smashed on moonshine they made in their cellars, to pass the time in their humdrum town. And where are you going?" Stacey asked as Beth headed for the bedroom door.

  "I'll be right back. Finish putting the supplies away. We don't want her asking why we had a crash cart in the corner of her room if our vampire boss doesn't want her knowing." She ducked out of the door as Stacey laughed and chucked a wet washcloth that she was intending to use to freshen Jessie's face up with.

  "Hogwash!" she said to Jessie, frowning. "Right?"

  Chapter 27

  Ten minutes later Beth came into the bedroom with two teacups steaming with citrus herbal tea.

  "Get comfortable Stacey. I have a history lesson for you while we wait for Jessie to wake up." Beth beamed with pride as she set the cups down and pulled an old, leather book out that she had hidden under her arm.

  "The journal!” Stacey grinned, eagerly opening the well read pages, slightly perfumed with a musty smell, and a hint of foxing along the edges.

  The journal was written with ink and a quill, making the writing look more like art than a journal. These days, most people compose their journals on a computer or tablet of some sort. The two ladies sat down and began their descent into the mid-1800's through the eyes of Beth's great-grandmother, Lisbeth, when she was a thirteen-year-old girl.

  Stacey's heart raced as she read Lisbeth’s account of fear and horror as the townsmen disappeared.

  "No one will tell us where the men are going. We just see the wives and mothers crying. Last night Anna's mother screamed into the night. We know they found something, but they will not say. Anna's father had not come home. I begged Daddy not to go outside anymore, but he says he is not worried. Adults are not always so smart."

  The next entry was dated a couple of days later.

  "If Mama reads this, I will surely get a licking with the switch, but I was going mad guessing what is going on.

  “I heard Father say that they had to find a way to make it right, and I think they're talking about the fire they set on Mr. Danvonne's land. I am not supposed to know that either, but the men argue loudly and expect you to stay asleep. Daddy says God is punishing the men for taking the law into their own hands, and drinking Mr. Danvonne's wine when he died. He called it blood wine. The other men yelled, and accused the women of having wild imaginations like the kids, and I think Mr. Barton cried. Everyone had ideas. Daddy agreed they should give him money and rebuild the barn, and it was just a start, but how do you put a price on a man’s father and brother?"

  “I think they killed someone. I think my daddy and his friends killed Mr. Danvonne because I haven't seen him, his sons, or any of his grape pickers. Why would he do that? He will go to hell for sure. The Bible is clear that you cannot kill other people. I do not want Daddy to go to hell. I prayed for hours and hours before bed."

  "Mama was crying when I woke up this morning. I thought Daddy must not have come back, like Anna, Grace, David, and Jacob's dads, but I saw his breakfast dishes and coffee cup, and they weren't there last night. The neighbors kept coming over, telling mama he would come back, so I thought maybe I was wrong.

  “Grandma was hanging clothes on the line and saying her prayers out loud. She was praying for Daddy too, reminding God that Daddy was her only surviving child and that she couldn't bear to live without him. She said that she had been a faithful Christian, and to find another way for Daddy to pay for his sins that didn't kill her. I couldn't stop crying, watching Grandma cry and drop to her knees like that. She cried into the good linen, and I knew this was bad.

  “I didn't even know I passed out until I woke up on the kitchen table with mom and Grandma putting cold rags on my face, and Anna's mommy came in with Dr. Klas. I swear, and I know I shouldn't swear, but people looked at me as if I had leprosy or something. They kept asking me if I saw anyone besides Grandma. I told them ten times that I was trying to holding my breath so Grandma didn't hear me crying too, and when Dr. Klas told them just like I did, that I simply passed out, everyone started kissing me and crying, and then they went looking for their own kids to kiss.

  “You would think I was the first person to pass out around here. Mama passed out this summer when she was baking for the 4th of July picnic at church, but her and Granny laughed about it later. Even Emilia passed out at school from a fever, and they were worried and put her to bed, but no one cried and they definitely didn’t plant slobbery kisses all over her.

  “Mama yelled 'Fix this!' to Dr. Klas and he left with his head down. I know she wasn't talking about me because Mama wouldn't call me an ‘it’. Mama asked me to go to my room, and she would talk to me in a little while. I hope she stops making me guess what's going on."

  "I promised Mama I wouldn't tell anyone what she said, and she never said I couldn't write it down. I can't even talk to Anna. Mama said Daddy and the other men from town went to Mr. Danvonne's because they were scared of something that was happening at the house that no one understood. Sangio Danvonne was sick and instead of doing the godly thing, which is to help thy neighbor, Daddy and his friends acted out of fear, and people got hurt.

  “I know she was afraid to tell me, so I told her I heard Daddy say Mr. Danvonne and his son were dead, and she cried and covered her mouth for a while before she could talk to me again. She said that Daddy was not a bad man and that I had to believe that all the men thought they were protecting their families. They truly believed they were doing what God wanted them to do, but they forgot to spend time praying about it first, so they didn't fully understand God's message, but now they were pretty sure they got it wrong.

  “I asked her where Anna's daddy and the other men were and she said they were dead too, but that Daddy didn't have anything to do with it, and they weren't sure who was doing it, but that they are pretty sure it's because of what they did to Sangio's family. Mommy was tr
ying so hard not to cry, making little choking sounds, and so was I.

  “I asked her if Daddy was going to die and she said she didn't believe he would, but her eyes didn't say the same thing. You can tell when a person is lying by their eyes. Mommy said that this time she and Daddy did a lot of praying and asking God for forgiveness, and asking God how to fix their mistake, but I told her it wasn't her mistake. She said it was. She said she and the other moms were scared, and they told their husbands to fix this. That's what she told Dr. Klas! So, the husbands did it, but it's because the wives forgot to pray for answers first.

  “I asked her where my daddy went, and she told me he went to make peace with Sangio Danvonne. She said Daddy would humble himself at Mr. Danvonne's feet and beg for forgiveness. I asked her who was with Daddy, to protect him if Sangio didn't forgive him because I don't think I could be near someone who killed my daddy, and Mama slammed her fists down on my bureau, and her whole body got stiff. Nobody was as brave as my daddy, she told me. No one else was man enough to face their mistakes like my daddy was.

  “She held me, and we cried, and she told me how much she loved my daddy, and how much my daddy loved his ladies. That included Grammy. Mama said that I already knew too much, and was smart for my age, and nosey, but that it did no good to lie. She said she can't promise me that everything will be okay, or even that my daddy would come home, but she could tell me that she believes God will do good by us because the Danvonne's have always been upstanding Christians and because Grammy was Mrs. Danvonne's midwife when she had her sons.

  "Mama keeps throwing up, even though there is nothing in her stomach to bring out. It's almost bedtime, and daddy's not home. Mama says we have to be daddy's strong girls, but I can’t. Neither can Grammy. We just cried all day, and people brought us baskets of baked breads and muffins, and casseroles with potatoes and meats, and spice cakes. It's the same stuff they brought Anna's mama when her dad didn't come home.