My Love Eternal

by Liz Strange

  He looked up as we entered, and frowned when he saw the strange expression on my face. “Is something wrong?”

  “Not at all. Quite the opposite, actually. Why don’t you show Giovanni the book that we got tonight?”

  Sonny walked up to the desk with its sleek ebony finish and placed the book on top of the papers. He smiled shyly then pointed at the cover and said, “It’s a book about sailors.”

  Giovanni immediately turned in my direction and I thought as hard as I could, “Don’t spook him.”

  He must have understood, because he simply turned back to the boy and nodded in agreement. “I see that. Is this something that interests you?”

  “I like the water. I liked when we went on the big boat.”

  After that initial, inconsequential exchange we all sat to read the book that was the breakthrough. When it was done, he had many questions about the sea, boats, fisherman and sailors. We answered them all as best we could, promising to find the information we did not have.

  After a few hours, he grew tired and said that he wanted to go to bed. As he made his way out of the room, the new book in hand, he turned back and looked at the two of us with a powerfully serious face. “My name is Eli.” With that he left for his room.

  I threw my arms around Giovanni, plastering his face with kisses. I felt this tremendous gratitude and relief, finally reassured that taking the boy into our lives was the right thing to do. I believed he was finally allowing himself to be loved, and to love us in return. Any feelings of guilt or betrayal over letting others into his heart after the death of his mother were finally beginning to dim. I was certain then, that he would be all right.

  “What happened tonight?” Giovanni asked, incredulous.

  “Nothing. That’s what makes it all the more magical. We were looking at books, and for the first time he simply answered one of my questions. And a name! Finally, after all this time— Eli.”

  “Eli,” Giovanni repeated.

  “We should feed.”

  “Yes. Just let me check on Eli.” I gave a silly giggle at the sound of his name, but it was such a triumph after all those months of silence. I raced up the stairs soundlessly, and found the boy sound asleep with the book clutched tightly in his arms. I retreated and shut the door.

  We ventured by car down to the seedier part of town where we were able to secure a transaction with a few prostitutes. We drove them out to the city’s outskirts where we overpowered them and drank greedily from their fragile bodies. The young woman whom I took blood from couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, yet her body showed signs of years of abuse and neglect. She was unhealthily thin and a series of bruises covered her scantily clad body. The saddest part of it all was that she didn’t even seem surprised upon the realisation that she was about to die. We left the one girl at the side of the road, with a heroin-filled syringe in her arm, and the other we drove to a remote park area to be left to the elements. We were always careful and there were never any witnesses, nor evidence to tie the kills to us.

  On the drive home, Giovanni informed me that he had a surprise at the house. No amount of pleading would persuade him to give me any details, and he obviously enjoyed my frustration.

  He led me straight to his office and pulled out a small wrapped package from one of the desk drawers. He handed it over silently. I took it and sat in a chair opposite where he usually sat at the desk and ripped it open with delight. Inside was a small, very old volume of Japanese folklore.

  “Now it’s in Japanese, but I’ve had it translated, and the notes are inside. There’re some interesting stories, but I don’t know if they are going to be of any help to you. At any rate I know how much you like books.”

  “You never know. Thank you, it’s a beautiful book, and very thoughtful,” I said as I began to carefully turn the fragile pages. Inside were intricate, hand-drawn pictures, and stories in beautiful script. I looked to the notes for explanations of what I was seeing and I was regaled with tales of spirits, ghouls and monsters. There were several stories about vampire-like creatures, including the Gaki, a wailing corpse who thirsted for blood. They had the traditional pale skin, hollow features and lack of body temperature. Spectacular shape-shifting abilities allowed them to change into not only animals, but also look like other humans. They could even impersonate a living person.

  A story of the Hannya— usually female— spoke of a creature that had once been a truly beautiful woman who had become insane and possessed by a demon. She was transformed into a hideous creature that drank blood and ate children. I was intrigued by the many similarities I kept uncovering from culture to culture, but I was still no closer to understanding what we were or where we had come from. Perhaps I would never know. It was strange and frustrating to encounter these legends, which seemed so incredibly similar from culture to culture. Their origins must all have stemmed from some type of common truth.

  I made an internal decision that night to put my quest on the back burner. I had been blessed with many gifts and that seemed to be what I should be concentrating on. I would continue to evaluate information that came my way, and keep my eyes open, but I wouldn’t pursue answers with as much vigour as I had been.

  Shortly after that night, we began out trek back through Europe and onward to England. Along the way, we stopped in many of the northern European countries, both to visit, and to also acquire new identities and access funds for our new life. I kept my mind solely concentrated on my family, and the plans for starting afresh in England. I allowed myself the chance to see a few places of interest along the way, but nothing more.

  The final leg of our voyage was to cross the English Channel by way of the Portsmouth-Cherbourg ferry. We picked up a new car in France and we used this to make the last leg of our journey. Our furniture had been ordered ahead months ago, and had been recently delivered to the new home. Even the majority of our personal belongings and luggage were sent ahead, and we carried with us just a few changes of clothing.

  On the ferry over, we stood on the deck to watch the dark sea, something Eli always enjoyed. As the three of us stood there, I began to experience the uncomfortable feeling of someone watching us, and for a moment panic overtook me. Then I turned my head slightly, to see that our watchers were an elderly couple standing not too far away. The woman looked at me strangely and pulled herself in more tightly to her husband’s side. While he seemed oblivious, she was obviously picking up on something from Giovanni and me Some people were very sensitive— psychic if one must call it something— but they noticed differences about other people. It was similar to the sensation of getting the “creeps” There was usually a very valid reason for this reaction. I smiled, but she wasn’t buying it. Then Eli turned his head, and pressed himself into my side. He gave her one of his wonderful, innocent looks and she seemed to relax a bit. After a few minutes, she even smiled back. There was something about a mother and her child that was universally appealing and reassuring.

  After the crossing, we spent the night in the town of Portsmouth, as not enough darkness remained to make it to our new house. Giovanni made arrangements through one of his contacts for our room to be made acceptable to us for the daytime hours. He also made sure there was a meal for Eli.

  We dropped off our belongings and settled Eli before heading out to feed. We made our way to a smaller town a few miles away and easily found two men passed out in an alleyway. The one man was elderly and, by appearances, had spent most of his life on the streets and in the bottle. The other man was much younger, but equally as addicted. He didn’t even flinch when I sank my fangs into him, and looked much the same in death as he had while sleeping.

  Tomorrow would be the start of a whole new way of “living,” in a new country, a new home and a new family dynamic. Eli had finally begun to talk, and it was the perfect opportunity to set him up with the best tutors money could by. There was not even a hint of the Desmarais on our trail since we had left our home by the sea almost a year previou
sly.

  I woke in a strange bed, alone and worried. I could see where Giovanni’s body had rumpled the sheets, but he had gone. I leapt from the bed, and went out into the main sitting room, off which our bedroom and Eli’s came from. I found them sitting at the dining table, engaged in a game of poker. Several dirty, but empty plates were piled on the nearby bar, and a half-filled glass of pop stood by Eli’s hand. They both smiled when I entered the room, and I gave them both a kiss in turn. Eli’s cheek was sticky with something he had eaten, and he was still in a pair a pyjamas.

  “Hello, boys. Having fun, are we?”

  “Yes, Giovanni’s teaching me to play poker.”

  “A valuable skill for all young men,” I teased.

  Giovanni placed his cards on the table. “I guess it’s time to take a break. You need to go have bath and get dressed so we can get going to the new house.”

  Eli left the room agreeably, and soon we could hear the sound of the bathtub being filled. Giovanni grabbed me by the arm and pulled me onto his lap. We kissed deeply and when we broke apart, he brushed my tangled hair from my eyes. “He’s quite a smart little guy you know.” I saw genuine pride in his eyes.

  “Of course I know. He’s our son isn’t he?”

  “I guess that he is. I have to tell you that I really wondered if we were doing the right thing by taking him with us when he didn’t speak for all those months. Ever since Japan, things have just gotten better and better, and here we are now, on our way to a new home and a fresh start. This is a wonderful time for us.”

  “I’m glad you’re looking at it that way and I’ve wrestled with this decision too. I’ve worried that being with us is not the best thing for Eli.”

  “Well, he seems very happy, and he’s recovering from the trauma he went through. I have the firmest belief he’s going to be fine— even better than fine. He’s very quick and I think there’s a bright future for him.”

  When we were all cleaned up, and had removed our few belongings from the room, we returned to the car for the end of the journey. The night was cool, with the bitterness of approaching winter nipping at its heels. As we pulled away from town, heading northwest toward our new home, the traffic thinned considerably. Soon it was at least thirty minutes before we passed another car. Eli sat quietly in the back, reading from a stack of comic books Giovanni had indulged him with before leaving town.

  Up ahead, much farther than the naked human eye would have been able to see, a bright light flashed. The closer we came to it, the more obvious it was that there had been some type of accident. We slowed as the rear end of an expensive sedan-type car became visible off to the side of the road. Streaks from the car’s tires ran across the narrow road, where the driver obviously attempted to avoid running into something. Giovanni pulled slightly ahead, and parked.

  I looked into the back seat where Eli turned to get a glimpse out of the back window. “Stay in the car,” I ordered before joining Giovanni outside.

  The car had smashed into an enormous tree that had most likely been standing since before the reign of Elizabeth I. The front end was demolished, crumpled to the edge of the front tires. Inside the driver was pinned between his seat and the steering wheel, though from the look of him, he was unconscious. Giovanni pulled at the door, easily prying it completely free of its frame. He peered at the man closely, and shook his head. The man’s face had been crushed beyond recognition, his clothing soaked with blood. His heartbeat was too slow— he was near death.

  “It looks like his passenger was ejected from the car.” He pointed to the shattered windshield. “Go take a look in the edge of the woods. They can’t be that far.”

  Not ten feet into the forest’s edge I found the first piece of the passenger— a woman’s lower leg, complete with a silver, lace-up stiletto lay in the low brush. A few feet farther, I found the rest of her. She had been badly injured, both from the shards of glass that had ripped at her body and from the impact of being thrown from the vehicle. Incredibly she was still conscious. She was blinking rapidly and was emitting a horrible, ragged panting.

  “Found her,” I called out.

  She looked toward the sound of my voice.

  “And?” Giovanni asked.

  “Same.”

  “Do it.” He didn’t need to explain. I knelt and suddenly the woman grabbed my arm. The movement caused blood to slosh from the tear across her throat.

  “John, John,” she said in a thick, wet-sounding voice. “I think I forgot to lock the back door.”

  She was beyond help. Her mind was already drifting away. I lowered my mouth to the wound on her neck and drank the last of the blood remaining in her body. There was just enough to satisfy my thirst.

  When I emerged, Giovanni was already standing by the back of our car. He replaced his cellphone in his pocket, and looked to me. “I called in the accident to the authorities. We’ll be long gone by the time they arrive.”

  “How can you tell where we are? It’s looked the same for miles.”

  “You forget that I’ve been to England many times. In fact, I once owned another property not to far from here. These woods are very old.”

  I was about to speak again when I realised Eli’s face was pressed against the back window, peering out at us. He had a strange expression on his features.

  “You don’t think he saw anything, do you?”

  “It’s too dark.” Giovanni frowned slightly. “We should go.”

  As soon as the doors closed shut Eli spoke. “Are they dead?”

  I gave Giovanni a pointed look. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, honey. Giovanni has called the authorities and they’re on their way now.”

  Eli’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What took you so long?”

  “We were just looking around. Making sure that there wasn’t anything that we could do.”

  “So they are dead.”

  Giovanni cut me off just as I was about to speak. “Yes, they’re dead. It was a bad accident and sometimes these things happen.”

  “Okay,” he answered and settled back to resume reading his comic books.

  Giovanni squeezed my hand, but I wasn’t certain that that was all there was to it. I tried to get something from Eli, but his mind was shut tight. Sometimes he did that. I don’t know if he was aware of what he was doing, but it was often impossible to get any sense of his thoughts or feelings. It was as if he had a way of locking away things he didn’t want to deal with or acknowledge.

  About forty minutes later, a small town appeared, and we stopped to get Eli something to eat. He chose an inexpensive restaurant then gorged himself on burgers and fries. He never commented on the fact that Giovanni and I never ate with him. I imagined there was a lot of information stored in that bright, young mind of his. Sooner or later there were bound to be questions.

  Giovanni made a call to his contact and was assured that the house was ready. The cleaning staff had been through that day, and the landscaping crew had been by earlier in the week. I gained the impression that no one had lived at the property for quite some time, and Giovanni had spared no expense or effort for it to suit our needs. A new, top-of-the-line security system had been installed and tested. The kitchen was stocked with all of Eli’s favourites and a cook would be available to prepare dinner six nights a week. The only thing missing was a family.

  I glanced up as he snapped his phone shut. The grim look from earlier had been replaced by his irresistible smile, and inwardly I felt relief. He returned to the table where Eli and I sat, and smoothly slid into the booth beside me. He planted a soft kiss on my cheek, and Eli grinned with a mouth full of French fries.

  “Everything is set.”

  “Is it a big house?” Eli asked with unconcealed glee.

  “It’s not just a house, it’s an estate. There are over forty rooms, stables, garages, a pool and tennis court— everything you could ever imagine.”

  “Wow! Seriously? Are there going to be horses?”

  “I�
�m sure we could arrange for that, and lessons too, if that’s something that interests you?”

  “Yes. I’ve never ridden a horse before.”

  “Well, there are many new things that are going to happen once we get settled in. Whatever interests you, you can try. We want you to be happy.”

  “I am happy,” he said shyly. I reached across the table to take his hand in my own.

  “We’re all going to be very happy here,” I agreed.

  About an hour later, we pulled up the half-mile long drive. The house loomed over the car, the lower floor alive with light. God, it was enormous.

  As we stepped through the front doors together, I knew Giovanni’s words were true. We were going to be happy there.

  Chapter 16

  Consequence

  Eli ran about from room to room in ecstasy for twenty minutes upon entering our new home, before calming enough that we could regroup in the kitchen. A note had been left with all the “need to know” information about the house. Eli pulled open cupboard after cupboard, while we reviewed the instructions for the security system, and the schedules for the cleaners, cook, driver and others.

  From there we took a tour of the interior of the house where I counted a total of ten bedrooms, and twelve baths. There were grandfather clocks, paintings that appeared to be hundreds of years old and chandeliers made of gold. Words such as opulent, grandiose and elaborate sprang to mind. My mind was spinning with thoughts of what the upkeep of a house such as that would take.

  Beautiful fresh vases of flowers were strewn about the house, and I was just lowering my face to one to take in the glorious aroma when Eli appeared and began to tug anxiously at my sleeve. “There’s a dumb waiter! Did you see? Did you see? Can we look outside now, please?” I laughed. His enthusiasm was infectious, and I could not refuse.