We walked up to the back door of Marguerite’s in the alley, which had familiar smells of smoldering garbage. Marcus knocked twice. A young woman with an inviting smile and golden, captivating eyes opened the door. She took his hand.
“Marcus, it’s so nice to see you again. Come on in.” She spoke with airiness in her voice, and a desiring glance at him.
“Is Marguerite here?” he asked, moving aside and letting Millie and I go in first.
“Yes, she is in the front.” Millie got right in her face, making the young girl back up nervously.
“Tell her Millie is here.”
“Of course,” she said. “Please wait here.”
I took hold of Marcus’s hand and spoke teasingly.
“She’s seemed pretty friendly to you.”
“You have nothing to worry about. You’re the only one that has my heart”
“I know,” I said, and kissed his cheek.
Millie walked away from us, shaking her head.
“You two,” she said, going over to the table and pulling out chair.
“Millie,” Marguerite said, coming through the curtain with a questioning look on her face. She went over to Millie without even looking at us. Millie pushed the chair back in place. I sensed circumspection from both of them, as they looked at each other face to face.
“I want my baby.”
“I will bring him to you, but first there are questions that need to be answered. So, let me have a look at you,” she said, taking her hand. “Yes, such beauty and power now…” She paused for a second.
“But, I heard there is still some difficulty with your immortality.”
Millie looked over at me with a grimace of worry.
“Just in…”
She hesitated as if something had stopped her, and then said, “…controlling my thirst. But I think I have it under control well enough to see my baby.”
Marguerite let go of her hand.
“No, she’s not ready to see him yet.”
“You can’t stop me from seeing my son!” she panicked. “Alixia, please go and get him for me!”
I looked into her eyes, seeing her pain. She didn’t deserve this.
”Marguerite, why are you doing this to her? It’s her child!”
“Alixia there is no wavering when it comes to this. She won’t be able to control herself from taking her child. She is hesitant even now.”
Millie bared her teeth at her, bellowing explosively.
“You think you are ready? Let us see how good your control is.” Marguerite went to the shelf and picked up a gold handled knife and a small vial. Walking back, she inserted the knife into the cork, pulling it out. She placed the vial on the table.
“You know what this is, right, Millie?”
I leaned into Marcus, getting into his head.
What is it?
The blood of her child.
He wrapped his arm around me.
Just watch, and we will know soon.
I left his mind, and focused back on Millie. She just stared at the vial. I knew the smell of the blood coming from it was invading her whole being as she fought the urge, the thirst for her own child.
Marguerite spoke.
“Pick up the vial, Millie.”
Millie looked at her with unease. Reaching out, her hand started to tremble as she touched the vial. She stopped in frustration, and grabbed the knife instead, plunging it into the table violently.
“I can’t do it!”
“It’s okay Millie,” Marguerite said.
She removed Millie’s grip from the knife and pulled it out of the table.
“You will be able to see him again very soon, but not right now. Just understand that it all takes time.”
“It’s been too long already. I need to hold him in my arms again. Can’t you understand that?”
“I do understand. I had to wait to hold my child, Marista, too. But it was reversed. I was like James, having to be protected.”
Millie put her head down in desperation.
“So, how much longer.”
“I don’t know. It’s up to you. You’ll know when you’ve got control over it.”
“Okay.”
“It will be alright.” I said, sensing her hopelessness. “Let’s go back to the mansion.”
“Wait,” Marguerite said, putting the knife down and reaching for the vial to put the cork back in it.
“Take this with you. “
She stopped and walked over to the shelves, looking for something.
“There it is.” She came back with a small square box.
“Take this, too. Use the vial to get used to your child’s scent, and mix this powder in your palm and breathe it in. It will help you get through your urges.”
Millie stepped back, looking at Marcus and then at the box.
“Is this going to sedate me again?” she asked, throwing the box back on the table. “Well, I ‘m not doing that.”
“It will help you.”
“I will help myself. I will take the vial and use it to get used to my son’s scent, but nothing else.”
Marcus suddenly broke into the conversation.
“I agree, she doesn’t need to be sedated any longer. She has only gotten out of control a few times.”
Marguerite looked at him, furious.
“It only takes one time, Marcus, and it could be her child. She needs to be watched still. Not one Pure One should ever be taken by your Family.”
“I know, Marguerite,” he said with concern in his voice, but he knew she was being too harsh with Millie.
“She is strong, and you know that. No one in my Family, including me, ever passed that test the first time, as she just did. She kept control, and moved away from the vial.”
She looked at Millie and let out a long sigh of doubt, shaking her head.
“Okay. No controlling, but Millie will have to take the test again before we place her child in her arms. You have to accept that there is no choice here, Millie. You must stay away from the child.”
“She will,” I said, taking her hand and getting into her head.
Don’t fight her.
She let go of my hand and gave Marguerite an icy stare.
“I will stay away from my child.”
“Good, then,” she said, picking up the small box on the table. “Don’t disappoint me.”
Circumspect
“Don’t!” I squealed, as Marcus picked me up and jumped into the water fully clothed. His arms wrapped around me as we floated back up to the surface. I pushed away from him with a splash.
“Really Marcus, just because I said I was hot?”
“But you’re cooler now, right?”
He grabbed for me again, bringing me back his in his arms for a wet kiss.
“Yes, but we’re not out here for a swim. Marcel, remember?” I turned from him smiling, and swam back to shore.
Standing up, I could feel the cool Mississippi mud squish between my toes as I got out of the water, wringing my dress out. Marcus came up behind me. His arms wrapped around my waist.
“Come here, you,” he said, moving my hair gently to the side and kissing the back of neck. I turned into him, hungrily finding his lips. He picked me up in his arms, took a step and stopped. I sensed them, too. I slid out of his arms.
“There are two, right?” I said, moving slowly and looking into the moonlight.
“I think so.”
Suddenly, they appeared, a young man and a woman. They did not advance at us when they saw us. They just fell to their knees at the water’s edge, in a submissive position.
We made our way to them cautiously, but there was no threat, just fear.
She was like the rest: beautiful, with dark hair and ebony skin setting off her blue icy eyes. He had light skin with the same blue eyes, and they were a couple. I could sense that in their thoughts.
The young man spoke first, looking at us with his cold eyes.
“We’re not here
to fight you, Marcus. I’m William, and this is Sarah.”
“Get up,” Marcus said, taking a step back and readying himself. They both stood. The young woman suddenly stared at me in terror, and they went to each other in their minds.
“I can hear you both. You don’t have to run. Marcus, they want your Family’s protection.” Then I looked at the young woman. “And yes, I’m an Ambrosine.”
She stepped back.
“Let’s leave, William. Please. This isn’t right.”
“No,” he said taking hold of her. “We have nowhere else to go. We must trust them.”
Marcus moved up to both of them. William quickly pushed Sarah behind him.
“Stop!” he yelled, as Marcus put out his hand to him.
“I’m not going to fight you. I’m just curious why you would come here for protection?”
“Lucida told us to come to you.”
“What?” I said stepping up to him, questioning everything now. “My mother told you to come here? Why would she do that?”
Their faces took on a stunned look.
“Lucida’s your mother?” William asked.
“Yes,” I said, watching them absorb my answer in disbelief.
“She’s your mother?” he asked again, in nervous disbelief.
“Yes, she is. So answer my question. What she has to do with this?”
Sarah moved forward, becoming a little bolder.
“She wanted to help us.”
“Help you from what? Why would she send you here?”
She hissed her words, sensing my distrust now.
“Because Marcel is hunting us. Lucida sent us here for protection. She said he would help us.”
Marcus and I looked at each other, having the same thought, but Marcus said it.
“You are being hunted?”
“Yes,” William said angrily. “I fought him and got away. But he has slaughtered many of us that received free will from Lucida.”
“She gave you free will?”
“Yes, that’s why Sarah and I, and others, have been tracked by Marcel and his Family. Anyone that has been changed by her, he has gone after with a vengeance. He is retaliating against Lucida for betraying him.”
He wrapped his arm around Sarah, looking at us with questioning eyes.
“Will you help us?”
Marcus had a slight smile of pleasure on his face that they had actually fought Marcel and got away.
“Yes,” he said. “We will give you sanctuary.”
Another thought entered my mind.
“Come with me,” he said, “and we will go to Marguerite’s. You will be safe there. ”
I stood back as they walked away.
“Alixia, are you coming?” Marcus asked, reaching out for me.
“No, you take them to Marguerite’s. I have to find my mother.”
He walked back to me.
“What are you up to?”
I put my hand to his face, feeling the smooth coolness of his skin.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything reckless. I just need to find her. We have to know where Marcel is, and she will be the one who can tell us. It’s time for us to come together.”
“You’re right.”
He brushed my lips with a soft kiss.
“Set up a meeting.”
The Meeting
Sitting around the table at the restaurant, I fidgeted with my silverware and watched Phillip and Marcus having a stare-down contest with each other. They didn’t say a word, but I was hearing thoughts that weren’t very favorable to each other as we waited for my mother.
The waiter came to the table and asked if we needed anything else.
“No, we’re good,” I said, moving the plate away.
“Alixia, are you sure she is coming?” Phillip asked again, tapping his fork on the table.
“She said she would be here.”
The band began playing and I turned to see the singer. She was a full figured woman, wearing a tight, revealing red dress so that her breasts poured out of the low-cut bodice. She held the mike stand as if it were her lover, getting lost in her own blues, swaying to the lyrics of an Etta James song.
“Do you want to dance?” Phillip asked me, looking across at Marcus. Marcus looked at me.
“No, I’m dancing with her,” Marcus said. “I remember the last time I let you have that privilege.”
“Sorry, Phillip,” I said. He put on a half-cocked smile, shaking his head.
“Me, too.”
Marcus took me in his arms, one hand on the small of my back, moving me in even closer so that every sway of his hard body against mine sent out a rush of burning hunger for him.
Keep control, I kept saying, but I was getting lost in the music as he nuzzled into my neck with his cool lips, torching me with seduction.
“Alixia.”
“Yes,” I said, breathing him in and enjoying a fantasy in my head that had the two of us…
“The music stopped.”
“Oh, it did? Okay then.”
He smiled.
“Nice images.”
I felt my cheeks redden. I forgot I let him into my thoughts for tonight.
“Come on, let’s just get back to the table.”
“Anything you say,” he said as he kissed me. “I can’t wait for our wedding night.”
“Marcus!”
“Okay,” he laughed, guarding himself from my look.
Phillip wasn’t at the table.
“Wait here, Marcus.”
“Alixia,” he said, hearing my thoughts. “He knows were getting married.”
“I know. I was just thinking…”
“You were thinking what?” Phillip said, coming up behind me.
“Nothing,” I said, shaking off my thought. “Where did you go?”
“I was telling Gabriel to come in and watch the front entrance.”
“Oh,” I looked over there. “Where is he?”
“He will be in shortly.”
“How is he doing? I haven’t seen him since my grandmother’s death.”
“He could be better. He just got back from the West Indies and he is still tortured about her being gone.”
“I’m sorry. I know how much they cared for each other.” Marcus pulled out my chair for me.
“You know,” Phillip said, “you should talk to him. He would appreciate it.”
“I will, after we finish here tonight.”
He nodded at Gabriel as he appeared by the front entrance.
“Phillip,” Marcus said, putting his arm around my shoulder and getting his attention. “I know you are here because Alixia asked you.”
“Yes,” he said smiling at me. Marcus furrowed his brow, noticing his glance.
“Well, I was going to ask you…”
He stopped suddenly, and we all looked at her coming toward us.
“Phillip, keep control of yourself,” I said, sensing his feelings for her now.
“I will.” He gritted his teeth, trying to compose himself before she reached the table. He was remembering the bites he received in the West Indies.
The men stood up as she approached.
“Alixia.” She bent down and kissed my cheek, leaving coldness on it. “Sit, you two,” she said, taking a chair for herself and folding her hands on the table.
“So, Phillip, it’s nice to see you again. Last time we met, I think you were trying to kill me, right?”
Phillip kept a straight face as he bantered back.
“Yes, but I think the feeling was mutual.”
She sat back in her chair, staring at him and knowing he was right.
“But tonight, we will work together. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, of course. Tonight we come together, but I have a question,” he said with hesitation in his voice.
“And what’s that?”
“Alixia told me you wanted to return to the grave, after we take Marcel?”
She looked over at me
with a tranquil smile.
“Yes, that’s what I want, and hopefully my request will be carried out.”
“Oh, it will be,” Phillip nodded, leaning forward with assurance. “I will make certain of it.”
There was a quiet pause at the table for a second as she glared at his eagerness to put her back in the grave. She let out sigh of distaste for him, and turned her attention to Marcus.
“Anyway, back to why we’re here. Marcus, before we start, I want to thank you for giving sanctuary to William and Sarah. Marcel would have killed them if you hadn’t.”
“You’re welcome, he said squeezing my shoulder and giving me a quick smile. “So, William told me Marcel has been killing the ones to whom you gave free will.”
“Yes, I gave free will to six, and only William and Sarah are left now.” She bared her teeth slightly and her voice went to a deeper tone.
“And he will not destroy them.”
“I agree,” Marcus said, focusing on her. “How can we lure him out?”
“With you.”
Now she had all of our attention.
“No. This is insane!”
“Alixia, quiet down, they are all staring at us. Keep your calm.”
I looked around. She was right. Half the restaurant was looking at us. I lowered my voice.
“You are not using Marcus as bait, Mother.”
“Let her finish,” Phillip said a little too eager to hear her out. Marcus touched my hand.
“It will be okay. Go on, Madame Cavelier.”
“Thank you.” She looked at me sternly, “No more outbursts.” I didn’t respond. I just took a tighter hold of Marcus’s hand. She gave me a disapproving look.
“As I was saying, we will use you, Marcus, to bait him. I started a rumor that I am going to join Marcus’s Family, and I am sending anyone I change to Marcus, to fight against Marcel. He will not tolerate that. He will come and find us. There is no doubt in my mind.”
She smiled wickedly and her eyes went a little darker at the thought of finally ending him.
“Are you sure, Mother?”
“Yes. If you could kill two birds with one stone, wouldn’t you?”
I guess…”
Marcus and Phillip jumped in, asking her questions. I sat listening as all three discussed the details.
She wants them to be the bait. It was crazy. Marcel won’t fall for it. He will know it’s a trap.
Path of Descent: Ambrosine Page 12