“So how many of these are members of the Order?” asked Captain Grey.
“Six out of the eight. But if we go only after those in the Order, the Constantines might suspect that someone is after them and I can’t have that now.”
“By morning, they will all be arrested and charged with taking bribe. With William’s confession and his instructions on how to find the factories, Lord Tully and the other eight will be stripped of their offices in Parliament and of years of freedom, well with the exception of Lord Tully who will be hanged.”
“That is music to my ears.” said Tudor.
“Those bastards took my grandfather, turned him into a draco, then killed him and left my grandmother alone to raise four children. My father, being the oldest, had to work since he was twelve to help her raise his brother and two sisters. They would have still been scrapping for food now if you hadn’t helped them. You gave my grandmother a home and paid for the education of her children. My father was fifteen when you found him.”
“You father was a good man, a grateful man.”
“I remember him telling me stories of how you would help him with his reading as he was bad at it. He saw you as a father figure and I saw you as a grandfather. But it is impossible to see you as such now that we look like we have the same age.
“Well, I hope you at least see me as a brother”
“Brother, yes.” said Abraham smiling. “When he died in 1802 in Washington, I promised I would help you take them down. Now I finally am in a position to do that.”
“Captain of the London Police, the job suits you. Your father would be proud.”
Michael Grey suffered a horrible accident while working in a factory to help his mother put food on the table; he was only thirteen at the time. A machine fell and crushed his hand which was then amputated. He would not have had to work at such a young age if his father would have still been alive. Unfortunately, Michael Grey suffered a stroke in his sleep and he lost his life in 1802, when Abraham was only twenty four of age.
As soon as the last sentence was spoken by Lord Emery, a policeman entered the chamber and told the captain that the carriages were ready for them to live toward the factories. Then Tudor returned to the Mayflower he told Ava what had happened and, for a moment, Ava was taken aback by looking in his eyes.
“What is it?” asked the man.
“I just… no nothing.” added the girl and, in that moment, Duke Henry Burke entered the mansion. He witnessed the arrest of Lord Charleston, from his carriage. Ava told him that nine members of Parliament, including Lord Tully were going to be placed under arrest. She omitted, however, to tell him that it was Tudor, Wesley, and herself, who planned it. And then she was also taken aback for a moment while looking in his eyes.
As the girl was waking up, Jonathan was quite curious to see her reaction. “So, do you still feel like going full psycho on me and feel the need to stalk some people to hunt?” he added.
“No!” she said.
“Good, maybe this time you will be able to control it better.”
“No, I mean I don’t feel the hunger anymore. I… I can’t… it’s not there.”
“Are you sure?” asked Jonathan.
“Positive. Does this mean I am now passed the boiling point?”
“I think so.”
“You think so? That is not very comforting. Did something happen in that first life that gives you some uncertainty?”
“I can’t tell you anything about it, you know that.”
“I wish you could just tell me the whole story.”
“If I tell you it might affect your memory and you need to remember it with accuracy if we are to get through this.”
The two decided to go out for coffee and they stopped at a café two blocks away. Half an hour into their discussion, the girl went to the restroom and, in front of Jonathan, a tall man appeared. He was around sixty years of age, with grey hair, not too short, a moustache and a beard. He was wearing an expensive suit with golden buttons to his sleeves and his shoes had just been polished. It was Henry Burke, the same duke that lived in 1807, he was not dead, not reborn, simply alive. He received eternal life, or so everyone thought, in 1814, almost seven years after his daughter left London. Meanwhile the girl received a phone call from one of her friends inquiring about her wellbeing and whereabouts.
“Duke Henry Burke, it has been a long time” said Jonathan not happy to see him there and certainly nervous as he did not want the girl to meet him.
“Duke Jonathan Tudor, it has not been that long. Forty eight years in our lives mean almost nothing. Should I address you as Jonathan Tudor or a different name? I keep track of all the names you used since we met, Tudor Emery, Pierre Luis, Alan Durigo, and the list goes on. I prefer your real name however. So can I just address you as such?”
“Cut to the chase.” asked the man while texting Ava to return home through the back door of the café, but she did not reply.
“Where’s my daughter? Bodies have been found in London and they all were drained of blood. I know it was not you because you are now an ardenti and you would incinerate your victims right away. And I know those were not the work of dracos because they victims are all criminals and dracos don’t really discriminate when it comes to food. So it can only be my daughter and she is on a killing spree. Plus, there was a pile of ash found in a club where a man was seen going to the restroom with a girl who fits my daughter’s description, but the man was not seen coming out of there ever, it is like he vanished. All they found was the ash. You two always seem to find your way back to each other so where is she?
“I do not know where she can be, please let me know if you do find her, but I doubt she would want to see you. After all, you put her in the mess she is in.” said Jonathan while reading the text message from the girl saying “I will be home in ten minutes.”
Then he got up and, as he wanted to leave, Henry stopped him and said “If you continue to keep her away from me she is just going to die again. How much time do you think you will have this time? A day, like the first time, or almost ten years, like the last time? How many times does she have to die in order for you to stop looking?”
“And how many more times does she have to remember what you have done and feel a hate for you far greater than anything else she felt? You exchanged her chance at a normal life with an eternal life for you. She is what she is because of you. I was not able to kill you until now, but one day, I will find a way to do it.” And then Jonathan left and made sure no one was following him.
In 1786, before Ava was born Duke Burke made a pact with one of the priests of the Order of Constantine. He was not a member of the Order at that time, but his older brother, George, asked for his help and he could not say no to him. He could not say no to the man whom he owed his life to.
“The more your child will kill, the more years you will receive. I cursed the baby inside of your wife’s belly. She will start killing since childhood. If, by any means, she will stop, tell me and she will be cursed again so she will resume the kills. The only way she will stop taking lives will be if she forgets her past kills, but once even the faintest memory comes to her mind she will resume. But you must not interfere with her memories in any way. Interfere, alter the story and she will not resume the killing.” said the priest. “And do not worry; she will not be harmed in any way. The Order will keep her safe, will hide her every kill.”
“I will only do as you say.” said the duke.
“Then you must use all your years and stop the first draco. That creature liberated the other dracos and even one is dangerous on its own, but twenty are a plague. And now we see dracos emerging out of nowhere. Dracos are creating others of their kind; we now know that if they bleed humans dry and then they give them their own blood, people become like these beasts. Soon we might face an army of them. The vermin can’t crawl onto these streets.”
But the duke, after Ava’s first kill, felt remorse after seeing the child cry and scre
aming for her mother to wake up: “Please mommy, please wake up. I am sorry, mommy, please, please, I did not mean to do it.” And, indeed, the girl did not mean to do it, the need for blood took over her and Henry was devastated to see her as such. He went to Amara to ask for help and when he realized the witch did not know what to do to stop the curse he promised himself he would not let his daughter go through that again. He forced the witch to perform a spell to make her forget the previous events, in spite of Amara’s concerns. He then took her in all his travels and, after years of trying to create fake memories in her mind, he was convinced she would never be able to remember the truth. He kept telling her that the lion attacked them and that she got very scared and that is why she forgot everything. The duke remembered what the priest said: “Interfere, alter the story and she will not resume the killing.”
Until 1807, the duke did not fear that the Order would ask him to put his daughter in a situation in which she had to kill again. But in August that year, a draco arrived, it was one of the dracos the Order knew about. They had been trying to find him and they were surprised when he came to town.
Lord Tully was arrested and sentenced to death in a public execution, and the other members of Parliament were stripped of their offices and titles, they had to face jail and pay large fines. But, during the trial of Lord Tully, two members of the Order were found dead on the streets and the Constantines began to suspect that someone was targeting them. That is when the priest cursed the girl again and the duke was terrified that his only child would have to go through the horror of her childhood again. At that time he had already ordered Lord Tudor out of his home and had forbade Ava to ever see the man again. But he found himself asking him for help as he realized that Lord Emery might be the only one who could keep her safe. But how is it that they ended up being at odds?
The day after Ava and Tudor spent the night together was very busy because of the execution of the plan that brought the demise of Lord Tully. In the morning, they changed the bed spread so as to conceal what had happened. Ava threw the bed sheet in the garbage bin outside of the home, but the butler’s wife noticed what she did and became curious to why she had thrown it out. The woman also noticed some of Tudor’s lady friends come to his room and, after noticing that he became quite close to Ava, she started to be suspicious of his intentions toward her. Right when the girl left, she went and opened the metal bin and she had the proof that their relationship was not just cordial anymore. She took it out and, when the duke returned home, during the next day, when Lady Jane and William left, she showed it to him saying he must banish Lord Emery or else he would continue to take advantage of the girl. Duke Henry Burke was outraged and quickly went to Tudor, punched him in the face, then yelled that he is no longer, nor will he ever be, welcome in the mansion or anywhere near his daughter ever again. Ava pleaded, but Henry was in no way to be swayed.
“I will leave and I am very sorry I got you to the point of being so angry, but know this: I love your daughter, it was not my intention to cause a scandal, nor will it ever be. I would do anything to keep her safe and happy and I will prove this and if and when she wants to, I will give her my name.”
The duke did not speak to Ava for a week, he understood young love, but he did not agree to what had happened and he certainly would not let his daughter marry a man whose life was in the New World, not in England, a man who would take her away from him. He intended to name Ava duchess as he had no sons whom the title would go to and he already began the paperwork to leave her everything he owned when he died, so in no way would he let her leave with Tudor when he would return to North America.
In August 1807, Raj Pradesh, an Indian draco arrived with ten more he had turned into creatures like himself. Raj was special in that he could convince anyone of anything even before he was turned into a creature of this kind. It was not difficult for him to persuade the other dracos to follow him to London and help him get revenge. Raj knew the duke was a member of the Order that turned him and tortured him for over two years. The draco was bent on killing anyone in his way. Raj was turned into a draco in 1804 and he was kept in a basement cell in Bengal while two scientists of the Order conducted many painful experiments on him and the torture took away his sanity. After he escaped he found out that those two and Henry were returning to London so he turned several others into dracos and took them to exact his revenge on the three men. He killed the scientists in the same night and the news of their death spread like wildfire between the members of the Order. Henry rapidly realized who killed the two as the news that foreigners were in the city also spread like wildfire. Their looks gave them away and Henry realized Raj was looking for revenge and that he would try to kill him. But Raj, being a young draco, was wild and who knew who else he would kill. Still, he was more experienced than the ones he created so it was easy for him to manipulate them.
The duke ordered to have security around and even inside his home and it was very difficult for Ava to do anything unnoticed, but that reassured the duke that she would be safe. However, that all changed when the priest told him he had cursed the girl again. The duke felt like his world had collapsed when he heard news of the disobedience after he had explicitly prohibited such an act.
The new dracos were indeed violent and unpredictable and six of them entered the house and killed the guards while Ava and the duke were inside. Ava was a good swordswoman as she had been exercising since she was five and Henry was even better, but they were no match for the six. But, before the dracos could hurt the two, Tudor barged into the mansion and killed four of them. Tudor had a rule: never kill an innocent, feed if you want, but don’t kill an innocent. And Ava was an innocent in his eyes. Also, he had an advantage over the others: he was over a hundred years old and, as time goes by, a draco becomes more and more powerful. Lord Emery killed one of them and Ava, seeing murder in the eyes of the dracos, jumped to the neck of one, stabbed him right in the artery and, with her hand, took the blood coming out of his neck to her mouth. Seeing that the girl was not scared, nor was she surprised of what she had done, he realized that she began killing long before the priest cursed her again the second time. It only meant one thing: she had accurately remembered what happened in 1795. But the duke made one more discovery: Lord Emery was a draco himself.
Tudor helped Ava get up from where she was sitting next to the body of her victim and then her father took a step back.
“Ava,” said the man “you…”
“I remember. I remember what happened and I also know you covered it up.” said the girl.
“This can’t be happening!” added the duke. Then he went on “I hoped this would never happen again. I tried to keep you away from this life. When you forgot about your mother, I promised to myself to never let you go through this again.”
“It is ok father, I can control it now.”
“Control it?”
“Tudor helped me.”
“He is a monster, just like those that attacked us now.”
“Not like them, not even close. Or you forget that we are alive now because of him? And if he is a monster, then what am I, father? And who is to blame for what I am today?”
The duke then understood that Ava, not only had started to kill again for quite some time, but she also found out how her father allowed for the curse to be placed upon her before she was born.
A few hours before the attack, Tudor found the priest responsible for the curse and tortured the truth out of him. Lord Emery tried to force him to lift the curse, but the priest said there was nothing to be done; the curse could not be lifted once the killings had resumed. Ava also confronted the priest and when she realized he was telling the truth she said: “I’ll show you what you created!” And then she bit him while being held on his knees by Tudor. The priest screamed “No, please, please! Forgive please!”, but it was all in vain. The red sticky liquid burst out of his neck onto his cloth and to the dust next to his knees. Ava despised the man who took away her control
and Tudor felt a sense of relief to see the damned priest go to the ground.
They buried the man so that nobody would find him and then they left, not knowing that Raj followed Ava, but kept himself hidden and witnessed the killing of the priest. He then dug out the body, ripped off the head, hands and feet of the corpse and delivered them, without being seen, to the homes of Constantine members. Tudor, on his way to Wesley, saw a body part on the steps of a Constantine’s house and realized that, once they realize it belonged to the priest, members of the Order would suspect Ava or Henry for the kill so he rushed to the Mayflower and surprised the attack.
“They will surely be here soon and we both know what will happen to Ava and you.”
Tudor was Henry’s only option to keeping his daughter safe, he had no choice in the matter, he had to ask to take her away.
“And what will you do father?”
“Do not worry about me, I will slow them down. I will tell them you left to visit your aunt Alexandra, in Spain. You left this morning. I will try to convince them that it was not one of us who did it.”
“Show them the dead dracos and try to convince the Order that it was them who killed the priest.”
Ava was not keen on letting her father there alone but Tudor took her away right before Constantines arrived at the mansion. They entered wanting to capture Henry but they found him standing between the dead creatures.
“The vermin attacked us all, we managed to kill them, but I lost all of my men!” said the duke.
Though it was hard to dispute what they saw there, the members still had their minds enveloped in suspicion. They had to question the duke. Constantines took him to the Cellar, the center of operations of the Order, a place hid deep beneath the ground. They asked where Ava was and the duke answered “She left to visit her aunt this morning. She must be halfway toward Spain at this hour.” Constantines asked and asked, they pressed for different answers, but the duke did not budge. In the end the members concluded that it was indeed the Indian draco who orchestrated the death of the priest. The duke showed himself to be outraged that the Constantines would suspect him but he agreed with them that it is better that they follow standard protocol to interrogate anyone, even a member if there would be any trace of suspicion so he congratulated them for doing a great job: “I taught you well. While I am not too fond of being interrogated like this, I am glad to see you are doing as you were taught. Duke George Burke would be proud to see you all today.”
19/21 (300 Years of Sin) Page 9