19/21 (300 Years of Sin)

by Cristina M. Sburlea

“Why?” asked the girl.

  “Because you are a human, you died a human in 1814 and you were born a human again and you are still one now, unlike any of us. And my powers only work on non-humans.”

  Rene was a witch, Mark was a draco, a creature who was cursed to feed on blood and who feels the pain of those it feeds on, and Jonathan used to be one too, but stronger. They were all beings very different from humans and their rules and laws worked on them, but not so much on a human.

  “You told me this would work!” said the blue eyed man in anger.

  “I said it might work. In all our existence we never had a human who fed on blood, we never had a human with her abilities. And when we finally had her, she was... she died”

  The thought of having been dead gave the girl the chills up and down her spine. She did not like the sound of that.

  They were all disappointed with the result.

  “So now we wait.” said Jonathan.

  “Now we wait!” replied Rene.

  “I just hope she won’t try to rip my throat again.” said Mark.

  There was a state of confusion, especially for the girl as she had questions but they were not answered by the two men and the woman.

  “You don’t answer, you don’t want to tell me what happened in the 1800s, you won’t even say what your connection is to me. This is torture.”

  “You have to remember by yourself.” said Rene. “It is the only way to stop this cycle from repeating. You dying and being born again, Jonathan having to look for you again, to try to stop them to no avail.”

  After a bit more arguing, the girl gave up questioning everything as she realized there was no way they would tell her anything.

  “That’s it! I need some time away from all of you. I need to clear my thoughts.”

  “You can’t be left alone.” said Rene.

  “Leave her alone. Let her have some time for herself.” said Jonathan.

  The girl then walked out of the hotel and wandered the streets alone, not knowing that someone was lurking in the shadows, watching her every move. She saw a back alley and headed in that direction only to enter another shady club. Inside she saw many who could serve as her meal, but she tried not to think about it.

  A song, Paradise Circus by Massive Attack, was being played through the speakers imbedded in the walls. The song was like catnip to a cat, she loved it and her body began to move to the rhythm. Pretty little thing she was. And they stared, eyes pointed sharply to her movement. Among the people looking was one who sat on a sofa. He looked and looked and he enjoyed what he saw more than he could say. It was Jonathan. The man had been in the shadows watching her every move, making sure she stayed on the right track, but now he was in sight. As the song went by, the girl noticed him looking and came close, took his hand and said “Come dance with me!”

  He tried to say no, but his legs moved in her direction and as she was dancing he kept staring, fascinated. It was the same woman he met in 1807, the same woman whose death he witnessed in 1814, it was his wife.

  As he went to get himself a glass of whiskey she disappeared into the crowd. He was only gone for a few seconds but, when he returned, she was nowhere in sight. He also noticed that a woman who sat on a nearby sofa was also gone. He then rushed to the bathroom of the club but there was no one there. He rushed out and there were only the guards and some people in front of the club. He then turned right and entered a smaller alley and he felt the smell, he heard the noises of a heart beating fast and of one getting weak. He walked fast and pulled the girl away from the woman, and he arrived in time, as the neck wound was not too deep and not too large.

  “Come on, let’s go! She is too high to remember who did this to her.” yelled Jonathan as he wiped the girl’s mouth of blood and pulled her away. Then they both ran and on the way he told a guard that he saw a junkie in the back alley and he should check her out. That way, Jonathan made sure the woman did not die.

  The two arrived back to the hotel room and the man went on a little rant: “You were supposed to stand still and you were supposed to listen to me.”

  “I have not fed in over two days, the pills I take can only make the lust weaker, but they do not suppress it. My hunger took over and she was a drug dealer just as she was a junkie. Who knows how many kids died because she shoved the drugs in their hands. She deserved everything I did and much more.”

  “Are you listening to yourself? You went from wanting this need to stop to justifying it.” yelled Jonathan. “This is not you; it is just the lust getting stronger. We need to make sure it won’t get out of control. You better get some sleep. Let’s see what it’s like in the morning. We’ll take it a day at a time.”

  “I am still hungry. I barely took a sip.”

  “You almost killed her. Here take my blood again!”

  “I don’t want it!”

  “Sure you want it! Take it!”

  She then bit the wrist and the same feelings of excitement and warmth took over her entire body again, they both were sharing an experience more intimate than anything else. What else could be more intimate than sharing the same blood? And even though his blood was not food for her, it calmed her mind and muscles and she did not have the same desire to kill. An hour after she fell asleep the man went down to the bar of the hotel where Mark was drinking whiskey.

  “Is she asleep?”

  “Yes.”

  “I know you are hoping she was going to wake up with all her memories, but you can’t get your hopes up and be disappointed. I know this must be painful for you”

  “Do you think I hope? My hopes have been crushed time and time again. I would pray to all gods, if they would exist, to make her remember. Do you think it is painful? Tell me, have you ever loved someone so much that you were willing to wait entire lifetimes just to see her once? I would kill babies at their mother’s breast if I knew for sure she would remember me. So no, you do not know, because you have not seen your wife through her best days and you have not seen her give all to you, you have not seen her die, you have not seen her be born again and live a life without ever knowing who you are. Four times I found her after she died in my arms, and four times she died again. The first time she grew in a family in France, I found her only to see her being killed the next day. I ripped the heart out of the man who murdered her. He was a hunter of the Constantine. The second time she grew up in Italy. I spent four months with her, but she had no lust for blood so I knew there would be no way she could remember me. I spent 4 months and she was falling back in love with me. And then she was kidnapped by a Constantine and killed. I tracked him down and after a year I found him and ripped out his tongue so he could not scream while I took parts out of him. The third time I married her again and we lived for 10 years together. We settled in New Orleans. She had no idea about our past lives until one night when a burglar entered the home and she rushed to his neck; it was the ninth year into that marriage and she began to have some recollection of the past. A few months later, Constantines found her again. She was teaching in a school and she was taken from there and killed. The fourth time, I found her while being married to a man. Her father, an American businessman forced her to marry him so he could advance his business and political motivations. I killed that wretched husband of hers and the devil that was her father. She then took over the business and we lived together for a year until she was again taken away from me.”

  “I… I am sorry, I should not have said that.” said Mark, truly regretting his words.

  “We have not crossed ways in almost two centuries, you do not know all that happened and you have no fault in this. All I want is for this cycle to break.”

  “What happens if it does not work this time either?”

  “I’ll just keep going. We keep finding ways back to each other. But this time, this time the Order will be destroyed. I called you here for a reason. I created a way to get into the Order and you will be the one to do it.”

  “Why me?”

&n
bsp; “Because you owe me your life and the time came for you to pay your dues. And for Constantine time has come for reckoning. Also, they do not know you are a draco.”

  “Good point, but how many dracos tried to get into the Order and destroy it from the inside? They all died as the entrance will capture any draco and will immobilize him. They will realize what I am as soon as they ask me to enter the cellar.” said Mark clearly taken aback with Jonathan.

  “I would do it myself, but until she remembers everything I am not a draco, I am an ardenti and I would burn when trying to enter the cellar. I need you to do this. Until she remembers it all I will continue being an ardenti and as such I am too weak to pierce through the entrance veil. I found someone like Rene, but more powerful. She can connect you to the entrance veil and it will not harm you in anyway. I am not saying it will not be dangerous to be in the Order, but I am saying we have a possibility to finally destroy them and free ourselves, I am saying the entrance veil will not have any effect on you as the connection will protect you. And damn it man, I would do it myself if it would be possible, you know it.”

  “If you say I won’t be discovered as a draco by the Order, then I will do it. There is nothing that would give me greater pleasure than to destroy it. After all, they are responsible for our existence, they are responsible for all our misery.”

  The two kept talking for an hour and then each went to their rooms. Jonathan closed the door behind him to see the girl still very much asleep and he lay next to her, watching her while she turned and dreamed.

  It was right after 1 at night, Henry Burke was out of town for two days, on business, and Ava went to Clara to spend those days there. Tudor was still very much awake and not alone in his room; Lady Mary Harrison kept him company, in the most pleasant of ways. Mary, naked, was lying on the bed, face up, and Tudor, also naked and on top of her, kissed her like an animal. While temperature was going up in the bedroom, the front door of the house opened and Ava barged in, angry at Clara. The two argued about whether women should take a more active role in the politics of the empire. Ava was very adamant in explaining how women should be given equal political rights. She gave her aunt’s book to Clara and encouraged her to read it. Mary Wollstonecraft was famous for advocating in favor of equality between men and women. But Clara said that politics is not a woman’s matter as it is boring and that involvement in it would just take away precious time that a woman can use for other things.

  “Not all women are born rich like you and I. Those women do not spend their time with trivial things such as non-stop fun, those women have to survive. If you say that women should not have any say in politics you are just helping making the life of those who are not privileged, as you and I, more difficult and dependent on the whims of men.” said Ava. And then she took her things, barged outside of the room and rushed toward her house.

  “Ava, it is late at night, where are you going? Come back here!”

  “I am going home, don’t try to stop me!”

  Lucy’s house was only three buildings away so Ava arrived to Mayflower in a matter of seconds. But as she entered she could not stand still and paced around the house angered by her friend. They were friends since they were three and yet they were so different. Then Ava stopped as she heard noises coming from the east wing of the house, weird noises, and they stirred her curiosity. But as she got closer to the source she began to walk slower and she noticed a door half-opened and, behind it, was the source of the noises. As she got close to it, she peaked inside and saw Tudor with Lady Mary. And right when she looked inside, Tudor turned his head and looked straight into Ava’s eyes. The girl then ran into the kitchen, flustered. She drank a glass of water and, as she turned, intending to go to her room, she saw Tudor standing in the door and then she froze for a second.

  “Ava, I am sorry, I did not know you would be home tonight for if I knew I would have paid more attention to closing the door” said Tudor with a grin on his face.

  Ava knew she was not supposed to have gone in that direction and she was definitely not supposed to have peaked inside so she felt like a cat who spilled the flowerpot and got caught in the act.

  “I am sorry, I did not mean to intrude.” Muttered the girl and moved toward the exit. “It shall not happen again.”

  She went straight to her room thinking of what a cocky bastard the man was. Using a woman for his whims like that, not thinking of Lady Mary’s reputation. Yes, he would be gone in a few months, but Mary would have to continue living in shame here if anyone found out about the affair.

  The next morning, she avoided eye contact with the man, much to Tudor’s amusement.

  “Do I amuse you sir?”

  “Yes, I mean no, not even a little.” said the man, clearly entertained by the situation. “You are exceptionally educated and very bold in your opinions and yet you cannot look me in the eyes today because of what you saw last night.”

  “I have seen a naked man’s body before, so you do not embarrass me at all.”

  The man laughed and asked “Really? You mean those corpses you dissect at university?”

  “Yes! It is the same thing. I’ve seen many of them and I have performed dissections myself on them.”

  “It is not the same! You saw them dead, not alive, it is not the same thing. You are young and innocent now, but one day you will understand the difference.”

  “A body, is a body dead or alive.” interrupted him Ava, angrily.

  And right before she could say anything else, Duke Henry returned from his trip. He asked if something interesting had happened in his absence, but both people standing in front of him said nothing. Since he returned to London, the duke did not have too much time to spend with his daughter so he decided to take Ava away for two days to their summer house in the country, while Tudor was left alone.

  The hotel ceiling seemed to close in on him, the lack of sleep of the past days took their toll and Jonathan feel asleep, remembering days long past.

  After Ava and her father went to their country house, Lord Tudor received a guest in the library of the house.

  “I see you have grown accustomed to the new home.” said the Irish.

  “The house is comfortable and beautiful but it hosts a monster as its owner.”

  “It hosts a monster as a guest.”

  “And here’s the third monster, the short lived guest.” said Tudor, referring to the red haired Irish.

  “I met with Jack Smith in Rome, he convinced the brothers to confess. The Scots are willing to help us to the fullest of their capacity.” said the Irishman. “Both brothers are willing to testify to seeing the duke at the scene of his wife’s murder and to seeing Lord Tully ordering his butler to release the lion from the circus. They are willing to say the lion was set free after the duchess was murdered.”

  “Good, that is exactly what I wanted to hear. Now, tell me Wesley, when will the Scots be arriving in London?”

  “No later than a month from now.”

  “Good. Then we shall have all in order by then. The day the Scots arrive, it shall be the end of Duke Henry Burke. One by one, the Constantines will meet their demise. I have waited for over a century for this and there is nothing that will give me greater pleasure than to see their fall.”

  “We destroyed the Constantines in Rome, we destroyed those in Washington. Now we get to destroy their very head, the ones which orchestrated this all.”

  In the other hotel room Mark and Rene were unable to fall asleep.

  “What happens if this fails again? Two hundred years have passed and we did not manage to destroy the Order. It seems that no matter how hard we tray they keep surviving.” said Mark looking toward the sky through the window. “They turned me into what I am now, then they experimented on me for months. They kept going no matter how much I begged and I screamed. I screamed and begged. I never did that before and never thought I would do it, until they turned me in this. When I finally escaped that basement I ran as fast as I could and
there was no way for me to know that what would happen next would be worse than even the torture they put me through. The hunger was more than I could bear. I killed hundreds until they found me and subdued me. I killed for them then. It was only when he freed me that I was showed how to control my appetite.”

  “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but I want them destroyed just as much as you do. I watched my sister being murdered by their hands. I was only five and she had told me “Don’t make a sound!” She knew they were coming and she knew there was nowhere to run. Right after she said to stay hidden they entered the house and she went to the living room. She tried to stir them away from me. I crawled next to the stairs and I watched from up how they shot her in the chest. I ran through the back to my hiding place and they left. It took me a whole hour to come out. And when I went back to the living room there she was, lying in a pool of her own blood.”

  “You never told me how she was killed.” said Mark turning toward Rene.

  “My sister never told them about me. She knew that, if they found out I existed, they would try to kill me too. A descendent of Amara is the last thing they want roaming around this Earth. They thought my sister was the last descendent. Amara was the one who knew how to reverse the curse.”

  “How does it work? No, I know better than to ask about what you have to do, but how is the secret communicated from Amara to you?”

  “From mother to daughter. Amara, with her thoughts, sent the message of how to lift the curse to her two daughters right before she died and they sent it to their daughters when they died. The Order tried to kill every descendent of Amara, but in every generation there was a girl who survived just as I am the one who survived now.”

  “You have no children so if you die, the resolution is lost.”

  “Yes!”

  “Then we have to make damn sure you live.”

  “Yes. And we have to make damn sure the girl remembers who she is, completes her transition and turn Jonathan back into the most powerful draco that ever existed. The first draco that ever existed. He is now over 300 years old. He reached the limit. If he goes back to being a draco, there is nothing that will stop him.”