by Brandon Hill
“Compliments to the chef?” I asked, “Well, that is, if you could talk.”
Amelia laughed around a mouthful of grape leaves from the Greek-Lebanese portion of the table spread. “It’s really good!” she said in a food-muffled voice.
“Have as much as you like.” I could not help but smile back at her. “It’s free to all.”
“Oh, I will,” Amelia said as she happily piled spaghetti with garlic and herb seasoning onto her plate, and stole a bite of another grape leaf. I had been about to suggest the spring rolls when I noticed that she had become oddly still. In the midst of her feast, Amelia had stopped, standing as immobile as a statue. The plate slipped from her hand, and I caught it.
“Amelia?”
My alarm subsided when her thoughts betrayed no sensations of illness. Nevertheless, her mind was as frozen as her face, her thoughts numbed with the shock that was evident in her expression. I placed the plate upon the table’s edge and looked into Amelia’s eyes, and then followed her wide-eyed gaze towards a nearby chair near the wall opposite the table.
Elisa was kneeling on the armrest, feeding from a nondescript middle-aged man in a green business suit, his eyes closed in the throes of the euphoria of the drink. I had been about to change my mind as to how well Amelia had taken the sight of so many being fed from, but then realized her shock was towards him alone.
The man sighed and opened his eyes slightly. His gaze shifted our way…and then his eyes went completely wide. He gave a start, which nearly bucked Elisa off of him. It did jar her from her feeding, however, and hurriedly, she licked away the blood from his wounds and sealed them. The reproachful look she cast at her host soon melted into confusion as she noticed his expression.
His voice quavered in stupefied horror as words finally came from his lips. “M…Miss Grayson?”
“Wally…?” His question had at last evoked a response from Amelia.
As Elisa shifted her now-blank gaze from her host to mine, Wally’s face quickly became as white as my daughter’s. And then his thoughts came clear: a torrential rain of surprise, confusion, and shame. For several seconds, he sat unmoving. At last, he leaped from his seat and fled in panic, knocking Elisa soundly to the floor on her backside. The front door opened and slammed shut in the background.
Elisa, having nothing but her dignity hurt, righted herself and winced at the brief pain her fall had caused. Licking away the excess blood from the side of her mouth, she gave Amelia a withering look. “Bugger all! And I was enjoying him, too.”
“Now you know it wasn’t her fault,” I said, having now grasped the connection between Amelia and Elisa’s host of preference.
“I know,” Elisa said, my words having stripped her of most of her short-lived anger. “It was just damn inconvenient, not to mention unhealthy for my bum.”
I stifled a laugh, and turned towards Amelia, whose shock had abated only somewhat. “You know him, don’t you,” I said.
“Bradley Wallace,” Amelia said with a vague nod. Her thoughts, still mostly nonplussed, were a war between confusion and outright disgust. “We call him Wally; he teaches fifth grade at my school. He was always a bit of a oddball, but…children?” She shook her head ruefully.
“I’m not a child,” Elisa retorted. She strode boldly towards Amelia and sized her up with a cursory gaze. “In fact, I’m quite possibly old enough to be your great-great-great-gram, you know.”
“Amelia, this is my daughter, Elisa,” I said, gesturing cordially between them both.
“Your daughter?” Amelia gasped, even more shocked than she had been a moment before. She pointed at Elisa, who sighed with saintly patience. And then, recognition awoke in her eyes. “Oh, wait. I remember you now! You were in the room when I woke up that first night. I knew there was something strange about you! So you were a child when you were turned?”
“Yes, I was,” Elisa said, having had to endure the same inquisition from all newcomer humans. “But I don’t remember it. And no one knows who did it. Not even Father. He found me.”
“So he took you in,” Amelia concluded, and looked my way, her emotions draining into exhausted understanding. Clumsily, she reached for her tray of food that she located on the table, her attention shifting back to me afterwards. A new welter of love came forth from her heart and I smiled despite my refusal to reciprocate her feelings earlier. I knew she was still hurt from that. “I’m sorry, Talante. I didn’t know.”
“It’s all right,” I said, waving dismissively. “You’re still new here. You’ll learn all of our ways and means before long.”
“I’d better go find Wally and calm him down,” Elisa said as she started for the door. “That was a right scare you put on him, you know.”
“Well, I mean, you were…feeding from him,” Amelia said falteringly, “and I know how it feels when you do. I…you know, couldn’t help thinking something wrong.”
“Actually, it feels different for every person and every vampire,” Elisa said, taking the initiative to explain before I could. “Sometimes it’s sexual; other times, it just feels very good, like eating your favorite food, or getting a massage.”
“Oh.”
“You intend to stay with us, I gather?” Elisa said.
“I…I think so.”
Elisa glanced at me, giving a sly smile, and then shifted her gaze back towards Amelia. “Then try to keep Father in line.”
“What?” I said.
Elisa giggled, and then curtsied before vanishing. The front door slammed just as loudly as before in her departure.
“Vampires sure are weird,” Amelia mused. “Was she always like that?”
I chuckled good-naturedly. “Would you believe that she has actually mellowed over the centuries?”
“Centuries?” Again, her reaction was something that was not unexpected.
“Well, she did say that she was old enough to be your grandmother three times over,” I said.
“So exactly how old is she, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Around two hundred.”
“I’m sorry,” Amelia said, shaking her head and blinking. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Your reaction is no different from anyone else’s,” I assured her, “and she’s quite used to it. There is no need to be embarrassed.”
“So…do you know how she came to be that way,” she asked, “seeing how you’re the leader and all?”
It was a question that I hoped she would never ask, but I had been foolish in my hope. Amelia would have most certainly asked it, having seen my adopted daughter. My long silence unnerved her slightly, and when I at last spoke, I instantly regretted my words. But I knew that there was no other way to say them mildly.
“Amelia, know that I would do anything for you, and would do whatever you ask of me…all but that. I beg of you, please, do not ask again.”
So many emotions roiled within her: confusion, hurt, compassion, and love. My heart nearly burst from the assault of it all, and the desire to confess my true emotions raged within me stronger than my thirst. But like a rider desperate to subdue a rampant bull, I kept my emotions in check.
“All right,” Amelia said in a small voice. Unbidden, my hand went to her soft cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I said, holding back the tears along with my emotions. I had told no one of Elisa’s origins, and would never do so. Nothing would force me to divulge that dark page in my history. Desperate to change the subject, I resumed speaking of her colleague.
“He’ll be back, you know,” I said. “Your Wally was just surprised, and certain that you had gotten the wrong idea about him and Elisa.”
“Well, I kinda did,” Amelia said, recovering from her disappointment. It seemed she respected my silence about Elisa, but I could still feel her curiosity. “But I’m guessing that not everything is as it seems with vampires?”
“Exactly.” My smile had returned.
* * * *
I punished Roland by forbidding him from seeing A
iko for a year. She had been away on business in our Osaka village, and so I sent word to extend her stay while I arranged for Roland to arrange for temporary room and board in another hidden village near Chicago. Roland wanted to hate me; I felt it as I pronounced the sentence, but he could not bring himself to do it. He was dearer to my heart than all my children, and I was just as dear to him. Despite his chafing at my orders, he knew his punishment was deserved. I had only hoped he would now learn to be more discreet amongst humans.
Amelia was never without questions for me when I brought her to the village, and I answered as many as I dared. Nevertheless, I could not help but feel some reservations about revealing so much to her. She had hoped I was unaware of her vague sense of uncertainty, but in vain. I had bonded so deeply with her, and so quickly, that her mind was an open book to me. What I saw in her deepest fears unsettled me.
The ensuing three nights ranged from uneventful to news of sporadic attacks upon the members of my clan who chose remote, monastic lives over the safety of our villages. They came quickly, as either messages sent via courier, or new arrivals to our villages who just barely escaped the carnage. Unnerved by the goings-on, my clan began to evolve a palpable tension in our ranks.
The fact that my relationship with Amelia was now known to all did not help matters between me, Elisa, and Justin. The closest to me among my advisors, they became the most concerned over my actions, and had indirectly made their disapproval known. Justin was the first, coming to me one night as I sat beside the hearth in my sitting room. Amelia had been sleeping in my bedroom after we had made love.
“This is a crucial time for us all, Master.” he reminded me. “We’ll need your guidance more than ever.”
“I know this well,” I replied.
“Ought we not to purge ourselves of concerns for possessions and relationships?” Justin asked. “As I see it, these will only create emotional baggage, should we lose what we love.”
“You and I have both lost what we love,” I said pointedly. I knew this would sting us both, but I held my emotions in check. “Many times over, in fact.”
“But this is different,” Elisa entreated, appearing at my side. Her small hands clung to my frock. “I’ve never felt such feelings from you, Father. I’m happy for you; I truly am, but what will happen if Amelia is lost to us? What will happen to you? If this truly turns out to be a time of attrition, what will you do?”
“Enough, both of you,” I said. Despite my understanding of their concerns, I could not help but feel a seething frustration. “I will keep my own council on whom I choose to start a relationship with. And how can I not know the dangerous time we are in? I’ve fought this war for longer than both of you have lived–-and survived. This will be no different.”
Justin and Elisa were marginally pacified by my words, but were no less concerned. And I must admit that at this time, I began to doubt my own convictions. After all, the few others with whom I had shared my bed throughout my long existence had merely been trysts and divergences to ease the monotony and hardship of my life.
My relationship with Amelia, however, had progressed quickly, but for the short amount of time we spent together, our rapport was deeper and our bond stronger than even mine and Nandi’s had ever been.
She became my trusted confidante and compassionate lover. I poured my heart out to her, and she gave herself to me in blood as I fed, and in flesh as our sweating bodies twisted and conjoined in passion in my bed.
Chapter Nine
A month after the incident at the club was when it happened. Several of my children had arrived at the Lair that evening, gravely injured, but victorious after having been ambushed by several of Lothos’ clan. Their wounds were severe, and some were maimed, but none had been lost.
Time in their coffins and transfusions of blood would heal them, and their mutilated limbs would heal or grow back. In a time ruled by fear and uncertainty, it was our first victory, and despite its costliness, it set my clan, as well as me, in high spirits.
That was, until Justin confided in me several hours later, waking me up in my chambers with a mental alert.
“Master, we lost contact with the Seattle village,” he said.
“What?” I exclaimed, shaken from my bed, though Amelia slept on.
“I rallied some reconnaissance, and they said that it was burned to the ground. No survivors, as far as we know.”
“That was supposed to be our most secure area,” I said, too stunned to know how to feel. “It’s stood for centuries. How could he have—?”
“Perhaps that was what he was doing, Master,” Justin said. “During the last time of calm, perhaps he had been testing our weaknesses, or discovering more about our hiding places.”
“Yes, but he couldn’t send in spies,” I said. “We would smell them in an instant.”
“Maybe not. The Others have been known to distract thoughts; a few of them know how to do that, at least.”
“Yes, and if you combine that with their shape-shifting,” I mused, “then they might just be able to do it. But it would take a lot of effort, and they would’ve had to learn how to disguise their scents. Is that even possible?”
“Maybe Lothos is honing their powers in that manner.”
“That may be true,” I said. “But from what I’ve observed, those powers take years to hone, and the few that Lothos ever trained in that way never became as good as we were.”
Lothos and his clan excelled at shape shifting, while the mental abilities of our clan were our strength. But it was not improbable that during the calm, he could have been trying to hone those mental powers to their limit, as well as master new types of shifting.
I paused, ruminating over this supposition, and then at last giving voice to my thoughts. “I believe we shouldn’t leap to some wild conclusions.”
“Can we afford not to, master?” Justin said.
“It is a dangerous time for us,” I warned. “Though this hypothesis may well be correct, I’d rather not drive the others here to paranoia. Tell no one of this conversation, Justin. I will deal with things accordingly. You have done well.”
“Thank you, Master.”
* * * *
I believe it was a sense of paranoia growing within me that drove me to believe my children and I would no longer be safe in our Lair. Of course, the notion was ludicrous; there was no safer place for my kind. Since we moved to the New World over two centuries ago, it had been our home, and neither it nor the village below had ever been disturbed by Lothos’ kind.
With the utmost subtlety I had scanned the minds of all who entered or left our dwelling for the next three nights, yet found nothing to warrant suspicions. This settled me somewhat, despite the alarming loss of one of our villages. Such a thing had happened before, but with the recent upsurge of enemy activity, I had reason to be on edge.
At the same time, the feelings I detected within Amelia not long ago had begun to surface. I saw the change begin to come about in her, manifesting at first from within as an uneasiness that she hid from me on the outside. It was a growing feeling that even sex could not put aside.
Her silence had been a result of her tendency to forget about my ability to read her thoughts. Nevertheless, I waited until she felt ready to talk. She had been patient with me as I discussed the concerns and troubles of myself and my clan, yet I was cautious with her for reasons I could not explain. Fortunately, I did not have long to wait until she divulged her troubles to me.
We stood on the topmost balcony of the Lair when she confessed to me. It was a peaceful, full moon night. The sun had just vanished; it was now barely a pale maroon band on the extreme starlit horizon.
I was entertaining Amelia with my ability to see the goings-on in the village beyond. I revealed to her how I kept our home safe from intrusion by keeping it between here and there with a special technology kept in Jewels. These Jewels I bequeathed to our most valued colleagues. We had become silent for awhile, gazing at the stars, when I
heard her sigh. I felt Amelia’s contentment become overshadowed with sadness and uncertainty.
“Is something wrong?” I said unobtrusively.
“Not really,” she lied. I laughed in my way that exposed her deception.
“Oh, you!” she said in mild consternation. “I’ll never get used to your mind reading, I guess.”
“Many humans never do,” I said with amusement.
Amelia went silent for several long moments. She knew I was waiting, but I remained patient to hear what she was building the courage to say.
“It’s just that ever since the first time we made love, you know, when you told me it was probably the effects of my drink that made me love you, I just couldn’t shake the notion that…well…that maybe you might be right.”
So that was the problem, I thought. I had only meant to derail her persistence, but instead, I had inadvertently planted seeds of doubt in her mind.
“Oh?” I said, revealing nothing of my thoughts.
Amelia leaned in closer to me. We had not made love that night. She claimed she had been exhausted from work, and despite the falsehood, I let her be, refraining from even feeding from her. I had regretted this as the scent of her blood was especially strong, especially inviting, and I was especially hungry for her.
“As of late, it’s really begun to bother me,” Amelia said. “I’ve been with other men before you, Talante, but I’ve never been ‘in love’ with them. I’ve never felt the way I do for someone like I do with you. Vampire or not, you make me feel alive, like I’m truly wanted, and not quite as ‘boring,’ like my friends think I am. But when I think that the way I feel might be just because of you drinking from me, it makes me feel…”
Her hands clasped my shoulder tightly. She made no sound, but I could sense the roiling confusion within her. Nevertheless, a wave of determination came forward as she prepared herself to say what she did.
What she said, however, filled me with fear of my own.