by Maya DeLeina
“He remembered his name. His name is Ryan—Ryan Evans. Looks like we don’t have to name him after all.”
“Damn! I was so looking forward to a fine Welsh name to bestow on him to fit his stature and transformation.”
Steffan chuckled. “I thought we agreed to break from the Welsh name tradition. I mean, you and I are from South Wales, but Rhys is from Greece, Griffin is from Russia and everyone else is from here…America.”
“Tradition, I guess…from Idris,” Eilian said as he shrugged.
Steffan nodded in acknowledgment and rubbed his hand around his bracelet. How he missed Idris, his maker and his friend.
Despite their banter, Steffan remained plagued with anxiety. As the leader of the family, Steffan always masked any apprehension or doubt in front of the family members, but Eilian was different.
Eilian was his confidant.
They had been turned in unison by Idris and had remained side by side ever since. When Idris passed, they sought to form their own family, seeking a society that would uphold civility and pursue scientific discoveries that would advance their kind. Their connection allowed Eilian to pacify Steffan’s racing thoughts and Steffan to ignite Eilian’s intellectual capabilities.
“All right, so he remembered his name. His eyes turned black. So maybe his blackness is egotistically based,” Eilian announced
With his hands cupped behind his back, Steffan walked slowly down the row of bookshelves lining one side of the room “I think he has a slight ability to shield.” Steffan stopped pacing the room and rubbed his chin. “This is a very dangerous ability for someone with blackness.”
“Is that what worries you?”
“Somewhat.”
“Shall we rethink his purpose then?” Eilian voiced more of a solution rather than a question. “Have him train with Rhys so we can monitor the level of his ability?”
Steffan leaned back on the bookshelf. “No. We’ll stick to the original plan of why he was supposed to be here in the first place. He’ll just be like one of us now all because of that damn accident.”
“I still can’t believe that happened on his way up here. I mean, we were just talking about him earlier that day and making all of the necessary arrangements for his arrival and then…bam. He drives his car right off the side of the mountain.”
“This is what fate has dealt us.” Steffan sighed.
“Hmm…” Eilian sounded as he drifted in thought.
“What?”
“I was just thinking…can you imagine what you must’ve looked like that night, dressed all in black and with that hooded coat of yours, nonetheless? You probably scared the bejesus out of him,” Eilian explained.
Steffan smiled. “Yes, I believe I gave him quite a stir, especially when we took flight.”
Eilian chuckled. “I can’t believe I missed going out and getting in some air time with you and the guys. Catrin and I were…umm…busy.”
“Yes, we know. You would’ve loved to have seen Rhys teaching Brynne—it was quite amusing. But look, winter hasn’t even officially begun…there will be many more storms for you to join us in. I’m sure of it,” Steffan remarked playfully.
Then his demeanor turned serious.
“About Ryan, he recalls pieces of his human life that centered on him—his car, the house, his name, and most importantly, his career. His lust for material possession will actually serve our family well. He’ll be loyal and devoted as long as he’s rewarded with the possession he desires.”
Steffan moved to take a seat on the stool next to Eilian at the lab table.
“But with this retention, he’ll be eager to get back out there again. Eilian, he was high profile in his community and we’re too close to the action. I don’t feel like moving the family just for him. We’re not even ready with another suitable location. We’ll have to craft a story for his absence, make sure to plug any possible holes. We cannot put the family in danger of being discovered.”
“I know. I’ve thought about this, too. I’m figuring anxiety—a nervous breakdown with a little rehab stint. We can give the Tucson family a major discount on their next supply order in exchange for a patient entry record for Ryan.”
Eilian entered comments in the Tucson family’s record on the laptop.
“And I’ll make the necessary arrangements for the mass enthrall once we identify everyone who knew Ryan. Don’t worry. It’ll be taken care of.”
Steffan took in a long, deep breath. “All right, with our investments safely in the hands of family, you and I can concentrate on the serums.”
“Sounds like a great plan. But, I can still feel you harboring something. What is the real issue here?” Eilian asked.
Steffan latched on to the red jasper that sat in his pocket, allowing little bits of lightning to penetrate him.
“It just angers me. He has no recollection of their love. He speaks of no woman…anyone, as a matter of fact. I enter his mind and find emptiness. Absolutely nothing! Not an image of a woman, a scent of a woman, or a voice of a woman. I never turned anyone before, and the one time I follow my heart, I’m dealt a bad case of blackness.” Steffan released the jasper and balled his fist in his hair at his forehead as he leaned his elbow on the table. “I made the choice of this life for him. I based my decision on what he said that night, what came out of him effortlessly, above the pain and anguish he was in. I mean, if there’s nothing there, what in the hell was he referring to as needing her?”
Steffan released his hair from his fist and grabbed the edge of the table with two hands. “When I first saw the black, I should’ve stopped it, but I didn’t.”
“Look, you did what you thought was right. You can’t compare what happened when Rhys turned Dominic.”
Steffan pounded his fist on the table. “How can I not make the comparison to what happened with Dominic?”
Eilian jumped back in response.
Steffan combed his hand through his hair. “What have I done? Money, power, greed—this is what Ryan was all about. We knew it. I knew it. It was exactly what we wanted for our human feeder who controlled our investments. He was supposed to still be mortal, damnit! But I turned him, knowing full well that deep down he could’ve turned black! Eilian, I ignored my better judgment all because that damn second of hope he gave me. And he’s one of us now. An eternity’s worth of material possessions and sexual conquests, that can’t be enough to satisfy him. He’ll eventually want a mate, and then what? I mean, we can teach him about the mate claiming, but the blackness in him could cloud his judgment. He could even view the claim as a simple possession in itself. The blackness can overpower him. It could be embedded from the transference of his human existence so deep that it’s purely innate, and all of our teachings could just fall on deaf ears. Worse yet, he could select a mate for the wrong reasons and face depletion and suffer an agonizing death from a blood-claim rejection. How could I live with myself if that happened?”
He paused and frowned.
“And if he can’t find a mate, he could go completely mad. I am responsible for him. I am responsible for everything that happens to him.”
“You are responsible to a point, Steffan. Don’t do this to yourself. And who knows, he could surpass all of it, understand and embrace the theory of the claim that we teach him, and come out of this all right,” added Eilian.
“I don’t know. I just fear it’s going to be another Dominic,” Steffan explained. He bit down on his pinky, deep in thought.
“Look at it this way, Steffan, you haven’t found your mate and you haven’t gone mad. At least…I think you haven’t gone mad.”
“Number one, I don’t have the blackness inherent in me. And number two, I have other interests and endeavors to occupy my time. If I had a mate, how would I have created Ambrose Heights, oversee our lair, or come up with the possibilities of Defender or Consumption? ”
Steffan headed toward the metal door, and Eilian followed closely behind. The door had no handles. No locks. S
teffan balled his hand and tapped the silver disk embedded in the wall with the side of his fist. The metal door rotated on its center hinge, allowing Steffan and Eilian to freely pass through. They walked side by side through a long corridor system that had been carved out of the solid earth. A few dim overhead lights and wall sconces washed down the meandering path that lead to a freight elevator.
“You know, you may have been the one behind the theory of our supplements, but I am the scientist who had to develop the synthetic counters for the serums all the while having my mate. Are you saying I didn’t bond long enough with Catrin during our claim ritual?” Eilian’s tone was sharp and stern. “Or maybe, you think my interest in my mate is overshadowed by my love for science!”
Steffan stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.
“What is it, Steffan?” Eilian asked.
Steffan remained still, fixed on the long tunnel behind him.
“You forgot something back at the lab or something?”
“No. I…I thought I saw something,” Steffan explained.
“Like?”
“I don’t know. Something white caught the corner of my eye.” Steffan’s voice was full of confusion.
“Well, there’s nothing there,” Eilian said as he evaluated the space.
Steffan sighed, turned around, and continued down the corridor. He turned around for one brief second to do a last assessment of the area.
Nothing was there.
By all accounts, he and Eilian were alone in the tunnel passage.
Steffan raised the cage that surrounded the elevator car. He picked up a mechanism attached to a long silver coil and pushed the red button that sent the car upward at a slow pace.
“Eilian, about your earlier ranting, relax. All I meant is what I know about myself. I wouldn’t have my mind on anything else but her. That’s all.” As they ascended in the elevator car, Steffan sighed. “By the way, I will have to tell Ryan today that the house will not be his.”
“Oh yeah, that’ll go over really great.”
“I’m going to let him pick the spot he wants to build a new home on and will let him design it how he wants. That should appease him, and I won’t have to worry about him getting into it with the owner who inherited the property. I’ll call Richard later this evening.”
“Yummy. Richard always had a good taste.” Eilian licked his lips.
“Indeed. But he’s also growing old. On our next feed with him, remind me to add something extra to his enthrallment. I believe his daughter is mulling over the prospect of taking over his development business. I never had the pleasure of tasting her, but I’m sure it’s equally as exquisite.”
The freight elevator stopped.
Steffan lifted the cage, and he and Eilian stepped out. Steffan pushed a button on the wall, powering down the grid that supplied the electricity to the underground passages.
Slowly, mechanisms embedded in the house began to move with precision.
A pocket door slid out of the wall and covered the opening. The power grid recessed into the wall, and another apparatus slid through the wood paneling and covered the power system. The china cabinet ascended from out of the wood flooring and settled into the center of the wall that masked the underground passage entrance.
With the single push of a button, the room was carefully returned to its formal dining room setting.
Eilian turned around to enter the home’s three-story foyer. Drops of black blood covered the marble floor. Bloodied fingerprints smeared across the entrance door, the doorknob, walls, and the roman shade that sealed off the window.
“Steffan, looks like you have something roaming in your house—something that tried to get out.”
Steffan came up behind Eilian to assess the damage his recovering patient had left behind. “I gave him his first injection of Defender before sunrise.” He looked up at the grand staircase and the catwalk that extended through the length of the foyer.
No blood. No damage.
He scanned the remaining areas of the foyer. “Well, he is not back upstairs where he should be.” Steffan sighed and pointed to the blood-smeared wall that led to his great room.
The great room’s floor-to-ceiling windows that flanked the entire length of the house were darkened with blackout Roman shades. The ceiling soared three stories high. In the middle of the room, a natural rock formation rose from the wooden floor.
There, on the rock, sat a naked man with his hands folded in his lap. A black robe lay next to him on the rock.
“Ryan, you need your rest. It’s only 11:00 a.m. Why are you up?” Steffan said slowly as if talking to a child.
“I got hungry. I think I drank too much of the supply you gave me.” Ryan was shaking. He hugged his legs as he pulled his knees into his chest.
“Why do you say that? What are you feeling?” Steffan probed.
“I feel terrible. My body hurts, and I feel as if I am going to faint.”
“And why then are you naked?” Eilian reached for the robe as he spoke and handed it to Ryan, motioning him to put it back on.
Ryan rubbed his arm with one hand. “My skin…I felt so hot, so I took off my robe and sat on the cold rock.”
“And you feel better now?” Steffan asked.
“A little.”
“You tried to open the door and window, didn’t you?” Steffan continued.
“Yes,” he admitted with a look of defeat. “I was curious. The house was so dark that I assumed it was—”
Steffan interrupted. “Never assume anything. The shades are on a timer that black out the house and protect you. They will rise once it is safe.”
“Why didn’t I burn then? You said that we burn in the sunlight.” Ryan stood up, exposing himself to Eilian and Steffan as he slipped his robe back over his shoulders. Ryan’s body was chiseled and well defined, but next to Steffan, he was still slight in his stature.
Eilian and Steffan chuckled lightly like school boys at the sight of Ryan’s naked body.
“I just started you on Defender,” Steffan managed to get out as he smiled, trying desperately to hold back his laughter.
“What? Oh, very funny. I was a frightened by what happened, all right? And the rock was cold!” Ryan barked. He looked down at his endowment, which seemed to have shrunk from its normal state. “It is glorious under normal circumstances, I assure you.”
Eilian and Steffan burst into uncontrollable laughter at Ryan’s candid remark.
“Hmm, drahaus,” whispered Eilian to Steffan in a very heavy accent.
“Whatever. What? Are you guys like…hung? Is that it?” Ryan said as he watched the two men exchange comments in their native language.
Eilian and Steffan looked at each other in sheer amazement at what Ryan just asked. “I assure you, I am not about to pull it out and have some perverted measuring contest in my living room,” Steffan scoffed as he headed to a corner of the room.
“Ryan, Steffan can’t pull it out right now for you to see his glorious beast because it would knock you right off that rock there!”
Steffan retrieved his violin from its case and steadied his chin on the instrument. “You, knock it off,” he said calmly as he pointed his bow in Eilian’s direction.
“I’m just asking. I get it, you’re foreigners. So who knows what your countrymen are like. For me, I’m above average by my family standards,” Ryan said as he tied his robe tight around his waist. “Where are you guys from anyway?”
“Eilian and I are from South Wales,” Steffan said plainly as he started to perform one of his original compositions. The song was an unhurried blend of complementary notes in the key of E minor.
The melody was haunting and mesmerizing.
With his eyes still locked on Steffan, Ryan climbed down from the rock and walked over to the seating area where Eilian was situated.
“And who is Ambrose?” Ryan asked as he tugged tighter on the loops of his robe tie.
“It’s not a person,” Eilian stated
. “When Steffan started the development, he put a little of his humor in the name. Ambrose means ‘immortal’ in Greek mythology.”
“Cool. And your names, they’re not usual either. Do they have meaning as well?”
“Vampires sometimes do not retain much of their human life after their turning.” Eilian glanced at Steffan.
With caution-filled eyes, Steffan silently glanced back at Eilian as he continued playing his violin. Ryan’s state was fragile as he was in the infancy stage. He didn’t need to know everything about his inherent blackness right at this moment.
“It’s really different for each person. For Steffan and me, we couldn’t recall our names. So our maker, Idris, gave us names to match our destiny. He could sense what the future held for someone.”
Steffan chimed in as he took a momentary break from his music. “Actually, Idris followed in his mother’s footsteps. She gave all of the children in their family Welsh names. Idris’s father was Greek and couldn’t pronounce most of the names. When Eilian and I started this family, we took the tradition of Idris’s mother, to bestow family members with Welsh names and his father’s Greek heritage to designate our community in which we live. It’s all to pay tribute to Idris.”
“I was named Eilian. Eilian derives from the word eilio, meaning second chance. This was also the name of a saint who is said to have performed miraculous cures. Steffan means the chosen, the crowned king. Interesting, isn’t it?”
“Very interesting. I guess I was lucky and remembered my name, so I’ll stick with good old’ Ryan. I was told that my name means king as well, go figure.”
Eilian and Steffan looked at each other for a brief moment, evaluating each other’s unspoken thoughts.
Steffan returned to his music, this time, playing an upbeat concerto.
Ryan rubbed his skin through the robe. “So, he said that he started me on that Defender thing earlier. What is that?”
“Defender is the marketed name for sds360,” Eilian quickly responded. “Spectrum Defense System. You are on the 360-minute, six-hour serum. We are still trying to figure out the chemical balances needed in the serum to extend the coverage. You feel light-headed and tired right now because your body’s energy has been expended. It was trying to coat you with a protective barrier when it sensed you were near a natural light source. You will need several injections before you first enter sunlight. Your body needs time to recognize the compounds. They need time to safely merge and train your blood cells without expelling all of your strength.”