The Vampire Pirate's Daughter

by Lynette Ferreira

  Later I dish up for Andrew and I, and the chicken is delicious. I eat it skin and all and the fat runs down my chin. I wipe it away with the back of my hand, when Herman apologizes to Andrew, “Excuse her, she is new at eating and we still need to teach her a few manners.”

  Andrew laughs through a mouthful of food and I glance up at him. He is so endearing. I forgot the warm mushy feelings he used to give me.

  The only awful thing about eating is that now I have to wash dishes. My family of vampires usually leaves the room after I am finished eating, because I refuse to let them help me. Later when the kitchen is clean and tidy, I will join them in the lounge. On the nights when they go out to hunt, I lock myself in my room or I hide in Callum’s cellar. I am scared after my experience with violence.

  Tonight Andrew stays with me and because he also ate, I let him help me.

  He asks me how it happened that I became human again, and I only tell him the bare minimum. He wants to know how I manage to live with vampires, and I explain that it is no different from when I was a vampire myself.

  Later we join my little dysfunctional family.

  The next day, Peter delegate jobs to Andrew and tells him that he needs to earn his keep.

  Andrew fits in well.

  *

  Andrew has been here a while and we have not really been alone. Subconsciously I avoid having a personal conversation with him, but one night, while we are washing the dishes he takes the plate I am washing from my hands. He gently turns me toward him and I look up at him anxiously.

  Softly he asks, “When will we get a chance to talk?”

  I shrug and start to turn back toward the basin, but he puts his hand on my shoulder and stops me. “I have come all this way to see you and it was not easy. I love you Susie. Always have.”

  I look down. I did love him once, before I met Callum. Am I only foolish though, still waiting for Callum? Callum has been gone almost three years now, and when he gets back the first thing he will notice is my humanness. The night Amanda gave Andrew, Callum’s room it felt as if she ripped my heart out of my chest.

  Humans have so many, many emotions. Although vampires have them as well, they are more powerful and painful as a human. They rip holes in your heart and shoot straight through the pit of your stomach.

  Andrew folds his arms around my waist and he pulls me closer to him. He brings his head down and his hand around and he lifts my chin with his fingers. Tears are running down my cheeks – humans cry so easily.

  He smiles sadly. “You don’t love me anymore?”

  I smile slowly. “I do. I really do.”

  He asks, “But?”

  I do not want to explain why there is a ‘but’, so I bring my lips to his. Softly I brush my lips across his and I kiss him. The familiar feelings I used to have for him, come rushing back. His kisses were always softer, alluring, whereas Callum was more certain and knowledgeable, but always tempting. Andrew pulls me closer to him, and his kisses are different, more mature, not the tentative nervous kisses of a few years ago.

  Claude comes walking into the kitchen and he clears his throat loudly. He says apologetically, but I can hear the laughter in his voice, “Do you kids need help in here? It got very quiet and I thought I would come and see what’s happening.”

  I push away from Andrew hurriedly and embarrassed I turn back toward the basin. I bang the plate against the faucet by accident and am relieved when it does not break.

  Claude says jokingly, but I can hear from his tone that he is serious, “Young man, let me just warn you before you start getting ideas. There is no going all the way until you get married. We are all very old-fashioned around here. Do you understand my meaning?”

  Andrew answers embarrassed, “Yes, sir.”

  Claude says, “Good. I am glad we understand each other.”

  Claude leaves the room and I say softly, embarrassed, “Ignore him.”

  Andrew laughs softly. “No way. You should have seen the serious look in his face. He means it.”

  I change the subject, “What did you mean? It was difficult for you to get here?”

  “I couldn’t get a Visa, because Mr. van Heerden refused to sign the documents, but luckily I found out that I have European ancestors.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes. I traced my family tree with the help of Mrs. Van Heerden. Although we found definite proof that my mom is dead, we could find no record of my father.”

  “Mrs. Van Heerden was always nice.”

  “I think sometimes, I miss her. I am glad though to be gone from there.”

  “I am sure you are. That Mr. van Heerden was an absolutely intimidating person.”

  Andrew laughs. “He sure was.”

  We finish the dishes and Andrew convinces me to go for a walk with him. We walk out into the night, and I walk him past the graveyard of my mom and Francois. I tell him the story of how my mom and William fell in love and how Francois attempted to kill my mother, but then William saved her.

  When I finish my story, Andrew sighs softly. “That must be the most romantic story I have ever heard.”

  We walk far and we talk about everything. He tells me about school at home, about Carmine, and what he had been up to since the last time I saw him.

  When he kisses me goodnight, his dark eyes look pensively into mine and the feelings I have for him are so unpredictable, maybe soon I will realize that Andrew is what I really need. The only thing I need.

  We spend every day together and at night, I lay against his chest while we spend time with my vampire family, or we would just lay there and stare into the fire. I avoid Callum’s cellar like the plague.

  We bottle our fist harvest and the wine has been aging in the wooden barrels for a while. The wooden barrels have pores, which promote some of the chemical process. It is a delicate process, because too much contact with air will spoil the wine. Our first harvest is now at its peak of its flavor and special care needs to be taken when the wine is bottled, so that it is not exposed to dust or too much oxygen.

  After it is bottled, we move it to another section of the cellar and here it will stay in the cool, darkness where it will ferment even further.

  Andrew and I are perfect for each other, I convince myself, because we are both human. In the history of my ancestors, there has not been much luck in love. William’s dad was a vampire and his mother, my grandmother was human, then to complicate things even further, William, my dad, was a half-breed vampire who fell in love with my mortal mother. None of them could be together, they could not live together or spend their every living moment with each other. Their relationships were doomed, but here I now have an opportunity to fix all of that. I can have a normal relationship. Andrew and I can get married and we can even have children if we ever wanted them.

  Andrew takes me for drives on the empty streets late at night. I kiss his lips and when we are alone he is charming and loving. I do not want to be alone as I grow old and my small family remains young looking. If I was with Andrew, we could grow old together and experience things together.

  One moonless night we go outside after dinner and we sit on the steps in front of the house. I lean back on my elbows onto the stair behind me and Andrew joins me. I say reverently, “I used to do this a lot when I was little.”

  “Sit on the stairs?”

  I laugh. “No, sit here and look up at the stars.”

  He looks up. “There are a lot of them.”

  I smile pleased. “When the moon is new, the stars do not have to compete with the moon, so you can see them much better.”

  We sit out there for hours just looking up and later Amanda, Edward, Herman, Claude, Justin and Peter walk down the stairs past us.

  Claude says, “Behave yourself, young man. I know everything. I have vampy-senses.”

  Edward laughs loudly at Andrew’s expense.

  I watch them walk across the driveway and then across the lawn into the line of trees into the forest. They look formid
able and to be honest sometimes I do miss the excitement and anticipation.

  When they disappear into the forest, Andrew says, “Let’s go in, I am cold and the stars are not that fascinating.”

  I pretend to be offended, but I follow him into the house.

  We go to the den and start watching a movie. The flickering flames in the fireplace dimly light the den and I am snuggled closely into him under his arm when I slide my hand in under his t-shirt. I let my hand drift up and over his lean, muscular chest and slowly he slides down the chair from his upright-seated position. He turns toward me and then softly his lips touch mine. He whispers against my lips, “Susie, I love you.”

  He pulls me toward him and I move closer into him. He moves his lips to my hair, my forehead, my eyes, the tip of my nose, before pressing his lips to mine again. When our tongues touch, I feel my stomach drop. He moves his hands to my waist and then he slowly pulls my shirt over my head. With his fingers, he follows the chain he gave me down to the valley between my breasts where the golden heart still sat snugly. I feel the warmth of his hand travel with electrifying speed through my body and I moan softly. He turns my body and I find myself lying half under him. He pulls his shirt up over his head, his kisses become more demanding and when his fingers lift the cups of my bra, I welcome them. I sink deeper and deeper into the warm pool of ecstasy that flows from my shoulders to the tips of my smallest toe.

  Months of kissing and touching, pushing the boundaries a little more each time has now let me to this point from where I knew I could never return. This new body of mine feels everything so much more clearly and every emotion is so much more controlling over the parts of me that should be rebelling.

  When his fingers reach down and slip my panties down my legs, the realization of my nudity drives my excitement over the edge. I taste his tongue, his lips and while we are both whispering “Yes” softly, I open my eyes for a moment and see the shadows from the fire dance on the ceiling above us. For a second, I feel as if that very fire is consuming me. For a brief instant, I want to stop, but I also want it, I want it very much. I open myself to him and he lifts himself forward and inward. I hold onto his shoulders, pulling down on his back and join him in the irresistible wave that makes me feel as if we are one entity. It becomes a single extended kiss, a single extended embrace. Then he cries, “I love you, Susie. I love you,” while I muffle my own cry in his shoulder.

  We stop moving and hold onto each other while we wait for our pounding hearts to slow down.

  It all happened so quickly and there was no time for me to reconsider, and maybe I would not have gone back once it started. I welcomed him, the feeling of belonging, of love and tenderness, the feeling of being completely human, so when the tears run down my cheeks, I cannot understand the sudden overwhelming sadness that fills me.

  The next day Andrew makes breakfast, two fried eggs and crispy bacon. We eat and then we go for a walk. He takes my hand in his as we walk away from the château. We do not talk for the longest time, and when we eventually get to a grouping of trees on the edge of the river, we sit down next to the water.

  I used to dip my feet into the water, any season of the year, but now I fold my feet in under my knees, as I sit down cross-legged. Andrew sits down across from me, and then leaning over to me, he takes my hands into his. His arms are resting on his legs.

  He smiles warily and he says softly, “You know I was willing to change to be like you, I love you so much.”

  I smile up at him and we sit looking at each other.

  Andrew asks, “Remember when we were half way across the world, we promised that we would love each other always.”

  “I remember.” I smile softly and then I change the subject, “I have always wondered how it would be to experience the world as mortal and maybe you and I can do that together now. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

  He frowns briefly and then he smiles thrilled. “That does sound great.”

  I smile wistfully. “I would like to experience everything with another mere human. Someone who would feel the same fear, when standing on the edge of a cliff, and know that if you fell down, it would all be over. To feel that overall exhilaration that you could never get if you knew you would never die.”

  He smiles mischievously. “I could certainly attempt to give you those thrills. While we become adventure junkies, we could also look for my father.”

  I start to feel excited. There is no use for me here at the château, because my dysfunctional, extended family has everything under control, and most of the time I feel like a hindrance, instead of an asset.

  I say, “Let’s leave next summer.”

  “It sounds great. Are you paying, though, because as you know I am just a poor orphan boy?”

  “You have been working on the farm haven’t you and everybody who works here, and becomes part of my family, gets a share of all the profits, so poor orphan boy, you can very well pay for yourself.”

  He frowns briefly. “I get paid?”

  I look indignant, while I laugh. “This is not a slave farm, you know. The wine you have been working on so hard to produce is a part of you as well - sweat and toil – literally. We are not as fortunate as the others not to secrete certain bodily fluids. Sometimes I consider the farm to be my little treasure island and we are the pirates. Instead of stealing though, we build our fortune ourselves.”

  “That is why you want to go and live on the edge, purposefully look death in the eye and see how far you can push the grim reaper. It is the pirate in you.”

  “I always knew I could not stay in one place for too long, but when you do not live in one place long, you always want to. I always used to think it was my adventurer spirit, so you could be right.”

  The light starts to disappear from the sky, and the chill settles in my bones. I rub my hands together and then I push myself up from the ground. He gets up with me and I say, “Lets race.”

  I start running and I hear him call from behind me, “You are cheating! I had no warning!”

  Running even faster, I cannot help laughing loudly.

  I beat him and reach the stairs ahead of him. It is nice to put in my full effort and to win. I do not hold myself back anymore. I have to fold over and rest my palms on my knees though, because my lungs are burning and I can feel the wild beating of my heart in my temples.

  Out of breath, Andrew complains, “You cheated!”

  I laugh. “Whatever.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Amanda insists on celebrating my birthday. Everybody conveniently forgets the two hundred or so years in-between my sixteenth and now my seventeenth birthday.

  Embarrassingly I give in and we all go to Paris, where Herman takes us to a Ballet performance. I enjoy dressing up again in eveningwear and we stay at the Ritz Hotel for the night, before driving back to the château again the next morning.

  I cannot really enjoy myself though, because I feel desperately tired and ill.

  Amanda asks me worriedly, “Are you okay, Susie. You are looking very pale these days?”

  I try to smile. “I am fine.” I do not tell her that I have been vomiting every morning for the last two months. I do not tell her that I am always tired. I do not tell her that my breasts feel sensitive or that I feel bloated. I do not tell her my suspicions.

  In the car back to the château, I lean my head against Andrew’s shoulder and I fall asleep restlessly. He cradles me gently to him.

  When we get home, he walks with me to my room and when I fall down onto my bed listlessly, he lies down next to me. He gently draws me into him and when I start crying, he rubs my back softly. When my sobs slow down, he asks softly, “What’s wrong, Susie?”

  I look up at him, from where I have my face hidden in his chest and I say softly, scared that someone might hear me, “I think I am pregnant.”

  The shock on his face, makes tears burn behind my eyelids again and I feel another sob escape my lips.

  He asks urgently, “Are you su
re?”

  I nod my head, yes, and then I say forlornly, “Pregnant and only seventeen. Before, years or age never bothered me, but now that I am here in the proper seventeen, I feel as if I have disappointed everyone, especially Amanda. The last time I was sixteen, being pregnant out of wedlock was immoral. I would have been shunned by everybody I knew and I cannot help it if I still have the same notions and believes.”

  He says softly, suddenly excited, “We’ll get married soon, before anybody notices.”

  I laugh sarcastically. “Do you propose we tell everybody that the healthy baby was born three months too early?”

  He holds onto me tightly, whispering in my hair, “Susie, stop worrying about everybody else. I love you and we will be together always. The initial shock was great, but now when it has sunk in, I think I would like to have babies with you.” He laughs softly. “Lots of babies. It does not matter what everybody says, and I am not going to allow you to turn something beautiful between us into something ugly.”

  I cannot help when I start crying again. He continues holding onto me silently and eventually I cry myself to sleep.

  When I start showing at five months, I am the centre of attention of my little family. I think amused that the child I am carrying in my womb will have six fathers - five immortal. I laugh at the look on Amanda’s face when I tell her jokingly that soon she will be a grandmother. I felt such dread when I had to tell them that I was pregnant and I was unexpectedly surprised when they laughed happily at my scandalous revelation. Justin, Herman, Claude, Edward and not so much Peter, fight for the privilege to touch my stomach tentatively and when I cry out in amazement when the baby kicks me from the inside, they rush toward me. Amanda reprimands them to be careful in case they knock into me. I am permanently pampered and coddled by them all as if I could break and I am not allowed to work in the vineyards, although Andrew and I go for long walks every evening. Every night I cuddle tightly into the arms of Andrew and I am content.

  In my seventh month of pregnancy, while Andrew and I are preparing supper, I look over toward him. He does not look well.