by Londyn Lenz
Thing is she couldn’t track them down because she didn’t know who they were. How the hell is it a person can’t remember their family? It made me more curious as to who she was. I had her searched and nothing came up. No birthday, address except for the one she had now. No social media and not even a social security number. It was as if she didn’t exist which out of my hundred-something years being alive I have never seen.
“No, it’s driving me crazy. Did you come up with anything in the search?”
“No not yet but as soon as I know you’ll know.” I lied to her about not finding anything because I didn’t want her to freak the fuck out. I needed to get to the bottom of this and to the bottom of myself. I had a whole woman at home, one who I can’t live without. Yet I’d been secretly watching Alicia even without her knowing. It wasn’t anything sexual but I needed to see how she moved.
It took me seven days, seven days of me sneaking out and hovering over her for me to determine the truth. Alicia was Willow there was no question in my mind. The thing is, how the fuck was this possible. Now I’m living proof that the unknown, the supernatural, the darkness is true. But this is a whole other level, at first I thought it was just certain characteristics the two of them had in common. I was with Willow for six-years, she was my first love and I knew her better than I knew myself.
Every thought, emotion, her habits, the way she slept, ate her food. I knew all of it and Alicia did everything on the nose just like Willow. That’s why I’m drawn to her so tuff. You see Willow killed herself because of me, I turned her into a vampire. We fought all the time because she didn’t want to learn control. Willow turned being a vampire into a weapon. The power we have and the fact that we were top of the food chain made her full of excitement.
Willow didn’t know me without humanity and once I got mine back. I swore to never go down that road again. Me and Andreas were monsters, worse than the boogie man or anything you’ve ever seen in movies. I tried my best to teach Willow my new ways. But she didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Any state or country we went to she left bodies behind. Finally, I got tired and started taking my emotions out on women.
At first it was just feeding off of them then I eventually started sleeping with them. Willow found out and was heartbroken to the point where she took her daylight ring off and stepped in the sunlight. It fucked me up on so many levels. To lose someone with no closure and knowing you hurt them is devastating. Now all I wanted to do was prove in some way that I wasn’t crazy. That in a way that can be explained could tell me that she was indeed Willow.
“You know you don’t have to keep coming here to see me Duke. I mean I do have a house.” Oh trust me sweetie I know you do.
“I know but I don’t mind seeing you this way.” She smirked while hanging up suits.
“Oh so that means your girlfriend doesn’t know about you helping me?”
“No she doesn’t but I’ll tell her soon.” That much was true, I planned on telling Faye once I found out for sure Alicia was Willow.
“So can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” I leaned against the counter waiting for her to ask.
“Why are you helping me? I mean you don’t know me and yet your risking a lot.” My phone rung and I took it out looking at it.
“I need to take this call but to answer your question. You just remind me of someone I knew. I’ll come back up here later or tomorrow.” I told her walking out the store. We didn’t exchange numbers or anything because I didn’t need Faye finding out anything. I would sound like a crazy ass creep if I had to explain this. I needed proof and that’s exactly what the person on the phone was going to provide for me.
“Can you meet up with me?” I spoke as soon as I was out the mall.
“Wow, three years and out the blue you call.” I laughed and so did she.
“Giselle can you meet or not?”
“I guess I can, come to my house. I’m sure you remember the address.” Laughing again I hung up and headed for my Lamborghini.
**
I knocked on the door and as soon as I did it opened fast as hell. Next thing I knew I was staring at a crossbow in the middle of my face.
“I should send this straight between your eyes you fucker.”
“Naw, you wouldn’t fuck up my pretty face. Now, invite me inside woman.” I took my dark tint Tom Ford sunglasses and she lowered the crossbow with a smirk on her face.
“You’re a cocky son of a bitch. Come on in.” Both laughing I gave her a hug then she closed her door.
“Long time no hear Giselle, how you been?” I looked around her house chuckling because it was still the same.
“I’ve been good still in school even though I already graduated. You know me, it’s never an ending in my field.”
“Don’t I know it, practically bored my ass to death talking to me about all the weird shit you studied.” I teased and she smacked her lips laughing as well.
“You want a beer?” I nodded my head yes. Giving me a cold Heineken we both sat down at her dining room table.
“So I know you didn’t call me to reminisce, what’s up?”
“You study anthropology, right?” Taking a swig of beer she said.
“Yup, got my PhD. Now I’ve been on folklore and mythology. Oh goodness, what have you discovered Duke?”
Let me briefly tell you me and Giselle history. We used to fuck, hard, long and anywhere we wanted to get it in. No commitment, no drama and we got along good. When I tell you this woman was so smart in her studies and career. I didn’t slip on what I was and neither did Andreas. We didn’t broadcast what we were to a soul that we didn’t turn ourselves. Giselle studied all things supernatural, other religions, rituals, cultures and all kinds of meanings to life.
In other words, some way she discovered what I was. It blew me because she didn’t even ask me. Instead she put me to the test by pretending she cut herself cutting up vegetables. I usually can control myself but when she touched me with her bloody hand. My fucking fangs popped out. Now how the hell could I explain that shit away? Anyway, she showed me all her facts she’d dug up on me.
Starting from the symbol on my daylight ring. All the assumptions of the possibility such a thing exist dating back to the 1930s. I ended up telling her the truth and she was fascinated. From then on we fucked and she would listen to all my stories of me first turning. I told her the basics and although she wasn’t a witch or anything, she knew more than any other human I knew.
“I had an ex named Willow. To sum it up she was my first love, I turned her, she got crazy. I cheated and she killed herself.” Giselle gave me a sympathy look.
“Damn how long ago was that?”
“Twenty-years ago.” I admitted.
“Ok, so what can I help you with?” I finished my beer and thought about how I was going to word my next sentences.
“Is there a possibility of someone who is dead to come back to life. But not in their own body?” She sat back in her seat.
“Like reincarnation?”
“I guess so, I know you think I sound crazy as fuck----”
“No, no I don’t. Wait here.” She got up and went through her long black hanging beads that lead to the back of her house. I needed another beer so I got up and helped myself. My phone rung and it was Faye calling me. I just let it ring because if I sent it to voicemail she would flip out. As soon as I sat back down Giselle came out with a medium size chest.
“I spent a year in Haiti on studies of witchcraft and voodoo. Africa was more beneficial, but I discovered something more in Haiti.” When she opened it she looked at me and said,
“This is how I found out about vampires and witches.” The Prud’homme family is the start of the supernatural of both species.” She pulled out some photographs that she took. It was printed out on 8x10 black and white paper. “The symbol on your ring is in every single one of my pictures. It’s like their signature which I later discovered is the heart and sun collided into o
ne.” I looked at the picture of the couple. A black woman and man named Mirlande and Evens. The photo was old and dated back to 1610.
“Who are these other two men in the photo with them?” I asked her.
“One of them I have no idea. I’ve researched for so many months and cannot trace him in any records. No relatives or anything, I know he is way before your time. But do you recognize him?” I looked closely and his long beard and hair all over made it hard. His eyes looked familiar though but I still couldn’t place him.
“No, never seen him before, is he dangerous?” Giselle laughed as I gave her back the picture.
“Duke the four of them were at the time the most dangerous people in the world.’ She showed me another picture which was drawings.
“I visited the ghetto in Citi Soleil where Mirlande and Evens lived with their three daughters. The man who is unknown lived next door to them. The other man who I discovered name was Peterson and he had a son who was supposed to grow up and marry the Prud’homme eldest daughter Robin.”
When she said that name my eyes enlarged. I knew that name from Andreas. Robin is the one who turned him. I didn’t know the details just that he hated her but she was obsessed with him. I’m not gone lie, I’ve definitely fucked Robin a few times. Andreas knew and didn’t care. He just told me to be careful which I was. Then Bella came into his life and Robin flipped the fuck out. Kidnapped Faye in the process so for me the bitch had to die.
“But they were in the middle of a refugee war.” She pulled out two other pictures of drawings again with a lot of red going through them. “I looked up the symbols that I found in Africa and compared them. They were no match, African symbols were of something else. Something that I haven’t discovered yet. These markings and symbols are sent from hell.” I looked confused.
“How can a spell be sent from hell, I mean I know all things supernatural come from that source but how did they even know of it?”
“The war made them desperate. Desperate to save themselves and their kids. You see these symbols that look like a halo and the blood coming from it?”
“Yea.”
“That means blood from the innocent. They wouldn’t sacrifice their own kids so they sacrifice themselves.” If my eyes could grow any bigger, they would’ve hit her glass table.
“How the fuck could this shit be if they killed themselves? Someone had to be alive to complete the ritual. None of them were vampires, right?”
“No they weren’t. Mirlande and Evens betrayed the other two. They didn’t die so they completed the spell and sacrifice two innocent souls to satan for everlasting life and magic. They had all the formula they needed from the devil himself to create any kind of being they wanted to. The teaching that was taught to their children was the same. Only the three of them were linked together so to be that powerful they would have to work as one.” I looked at all the evidence Giselle was showing me. I knew Andreas and Annabella went to Haiti to dig up her roots. I had to show them all of this if they haven’t already been told this.
“I have a picture of the three sisters.” Giselle took it out the chest and gave it to me. I spotted Robin out immediately because they were older. I also recognized Annabella’s mama as well but I didn’t know the third sister.
“Who is this fourth woman?” I asked Giselle putting the picture closer to my face. As soon as I did it was as if the woman eyes met mine. Her mouth was forming to a closed mouth smile and she looked like she was pointing at Annabella’s mama. Shit made me drop the picture and jump out the chair.
“What?! What’s wrong?” Giselle asked me and I picked the picture up and looked at it.
“Nothing, finish telling me the story.” Sitting down I turned the picture right side down.
“Ok, um the oldest daughter Robin became power hungry and killed her parents. Soaking up all of their power. Basically, she was unstoppable.”
“I know the rest of this story. Robin meets Andreas, falls in love but he doesn’t feel the same. She turns him, kills his wife and child then pretty much stalks him. It gets her ass killed in the end.”
“How do you know that?” Looking at me with curiosity she asked me.
“Because he’s the first vampire so I originate from his blood. I’m just trying to put all of this with Willow.” We both looked at all the pictures again.
“I don’t know but it connects, look at this.” She took out a bunch of newspaper clippings. “Seems Mirlande and Evens did some damage before their deaths. Haiti had a string of murders that lead to false arrests.” I flipped through some of them.
“And?”
“Duke there are witnesses who saw with their own eyes some of these people being killed. Thing is, the names that they mentioned to the police had been dead for years. The authorities thought the whole damn community was either crazy or possessed. I have evidence of soul swapping, all the names of the dead graves had been tampered.” She had pictures of that as well. Damn girl spent her whole life on her studies and proven what many think are unreal.
“Soul swapping, how the fuck is that possible?”
“I know there is more to it but the basics is a live vessel and the dead corpse. I just don’t know how they get the dead soul in the live body.” I ran my hand down my face. This was all a lot.
“The woman has no memory of herself. I looked her up and nothing came up, no social security number, school records or anything. How the fuck…… Then I can’t stay away from the damn girl…. If Faye finds out…… I fuckin’.” Shit I was like a tongue-tied retard right now.
“Duke, relax. Let me start doing what I do best and we will get to the bottom of this. Give me some time and I will have more for you. Meanwhile, this sounds like someone is targeting you. I don’t wanna plant anything in your head but I doubt Willow was a random choice. I can help you with this but if you have anymore information on Andreas or Robin that may help, tell me now. I’ve kept your secret for years and plan to die with it. You know I won’t tell a soul anything you tell me.” I knew Giselle wouldn’t, so I told her about Annabella. I asked her if I could takes the photo with the three sisters and the strange fourth woman in it with me.
“Before you go I want to give you one more thing.” She got up and went to the back again. I needed to talk to Andreas about all of this first. I figured if he can decide if Annabella should know all of this.
“Here. I found this in the Prud’homme house when I was in Haiti.” Giselle gave me this bronze colored chest. It was Victorian style antique and looked of value.
“What’s in it?” I asked her and she shrugged her shoulders.
“Don’t know, I cannot for the life of me open it. I have tried every damn thing.” Vampires had the strength no human had. We can lift a car with one hand if we wanted to. I attempted to open the chest and nothing. There was a lock on it so I used my index finger, grew my nail out long and sharp and tried to unlock it.
“That damn chest is like Thor’s hammer, only a worthy person can open it.” She joked and I chuckled.
“Nerd ass.” I cracked to her.
“It needs a key, what kind of key is beyond me. I’ve tried many and none of them work. Maybe you can find a way. Might be something in there to help you.”
“I appreciate this so much Giselle, anytime you need me you know the number.” I put the chest in my trunk and the pictures and other stuff in my front seat.
“Yea, yea, yea. You just bet not get wrapped up in your back from the grave ex. Faye is beautiful and you love her. Don’t be a dick head.” I laughed when she said that.
“I promise not to be a dick head.” Before I got in my car she said one more thing.
“If Alicia is really Willow one of the ways to help with her amnesia is to trigger something from her past. A place or a certain time that you know is special to her. I don’t know how affective that will be but it never hurts to try.” I never even thought of that but right then and there I knew what to do. Driving I called Faye twice but she didn’t
answer. I didn’t trip because she wasn’t ignoring my calls. Probably at work or busy with Annabella. I decided before I had home to stop at the grocery store for a bite to eat. Funny thing is, I wasn’t talking about food.
Faye
“I’m going to Taylor Burgers, can I get you two anything?” Luna asked me and Bella. Business just died down and she was on her break.
“Sure, I’ll have the rib tips with loaded potatoes and a slice of lemon cake.” Bella gave Luna her order and some cash.
“Don’t worry about it, my treat. I already know what Faye wants. The grilled shrimp, cheese rice bowl and some peach cobbler.”
“You know it.” I smiled as she zipped her coat up and headed out.
“So uh, kiss ass much?” I looked at Bella lost when she said that.
“Uh?”
“Luna, she keeps her head up your ass.” I almost choked on my water.
“What?! No she doesn’t, she’s friendly to both of us.” Me and Bella always did this. I hated sharing her and she hated sharing me so I wasn’t surprised she felt this way.
“No Faye that’s not friendly and you know it. Ugh I just wanna drain her completely.” Bella had me laughing hysterically especially when she paced the floor and her fangs popped out while she continued ranting. “I know what Faye likes. Oh my God Faye we are wearing the same color. Twinsies!” She put on a fake imitation of Luna’s voice.
“I just wanna….. Ughh!!” The bell dinged letting us know we had a customer. I cleared my throat at my best friend and she popped her fangs back in. The face was familiar to us.
“Good afternoon ladies.”
“Good afternoon. Gabe? I apologize if I’m wrong.” I said because I am terrible with names especially if you are not part of my everyday circle.
“You got it Faye and Annabella, right?” Gabe was handsome. He reminded me of the models in men section of catalogs.
“Yes it is. I was meaning to tell you how amazing you played at the grand opening. You’re very talented. Have you been playing your whole life?” Bella asked him and as he talked and told her his love for music. I noticed how his eyes would roam her every time she would talk. Mr. Gabe indeed had a crush. One that if he knew what was good for him, he would never let get out.