by Devin Morgan
Richard spoke. “Queen Mariska has sent some of her Council to meet with DeMarco. She wants to discuss a treaty. Aris, we must move quickly. If they come to terms, the Queen and her troops will return to DeMarco. If our Immortals are there in the forest that surrounds the castle, waiting for her, we will take them all by surprise. It will be an advantage beyond words. They will have no time to organize. There will be two armies without cohesion. We will surely overcome the enemy.”
“Never think that it will be easy, Richard. And, we will lose some of our people. They will die at the hands of the miserable vampires of Spain.” Aris’ tone was somber as he spoke.
Richard spoke softly, almost a whisper. “What must be will be. Without the battle, our world and the world above ground will be devastated. Those who will be lost give their existence courageously, without fear.”
“Richard, our Immortals have never experienced battle. They have no idea of the horrors of watching their friends die around them, the remorse for dead comrades, and the self-recrimination because they have been left alive. This single battle will change our society for all eternity.” He watched as Gabriela corrected the newcomers, working tirelessly toward proficiency in weaponry.
Richard stood alone, the pavilion dark, quiet and empty except for him. Hearing the sound of the heavy door opening, he turned to find Sebastian searching for him in the gloom. As he touched the control panel on the wall, a soft morning light filled the room.
“Ah Richard. I hoped to find you alone.” The two friends found seats on the steps leading to the training floor. “I am concerned about Aris.”
“How so?”
“He worries about Sarah constantly. I understand his feelings for her, but I fear his thoughts for her stand in the way of our troop displacement. We must travel soon. Councilors of both Mariska and DeMarco are meeting to discuss reconciliation. We must move. Time is of the essence.”
“Sebastian, I know he has reservations about leaving her, but I do not believe that would stand in his way as a general. When he is sure we are ready, he will give the command to travel.”
“I only hope you are right. We have no time for his love to stand in the way of our victory.”
“Be at ease, my friend. Aris knows his duty and he will lead us to triumph when the time is right.”
“I hope what you say is true.”
“Come, Sebastian, a goblet or two and you will find peace. Aris is our General and we must stand behind him.”
“Of that, I am more than willing as long as he is moving forward, not standing still.”
Richard threw his arm around the shoulder of his friend as he led him from the pavilion and into town.
CHAPTER 23
Aris and Sarah were to meet Richard and Gabriela for an evening together. Aris had agreed after much deliberation to take her to a Sanguinaria, a blood tavern. He worried she would be disgusted by seeing the Immortals partake of their sacred drink.
Jane told Sarah about the taverns as she was describing life below ground to her human friend. Sarah tried not to think about it, but she knew the drinking of blood would be a basic part of her existence if she chose to change. When Jane explained more fully to her the blood the Immortals drank in the twenty-first century was a synthetic created by Queen Akira and her alchemy, Sarah felt she might accept it more easily. After the Queen came to cherish the human race as having intrinsic value and not simply a herd for feeding upon as she first thought, she spent centuries working with the scientists to create a substance in place of human blood that would satisfy her Immortals. Sarah knew that if she was going to accept the Immortal life, she would have to accept all of it with her eyes wide open. She held tight to Aris’ hand as they approached Richard and Gabriela. The couple was sitting at an outside table. She noticed immediately the pewter goblets in their hands. She had always known logically that they were vastly different from her, yet this was the first time she was confronted openly with their most disturbing difference.
“Are you sure you are going to be alright with this?” Aris worried that all of Sarah’s bravado would disappear when she saw her friends drink blood, synthetic or not.
“Well, we’re going to find out right now, aren’t we?”
Richard rose to hug Sarah and seat her next to Gabriela. Soft chamber music played by a string quartet could be heard coming from the open door and windows of the tavern. An attractive young serving man approached their table with two additional goblets.
“One only.” Aris spoke quickly, taking the cup from the server and motioning him away. “Please bring a glass of water.”
Sarah thought of the many times in the past Aris sat with her friends in Chicago with an untouched glass of water before him as the humans drank wine. Here, their roles were reversed. However, this time the “wine” the Immortals drank was something much richer.
The three vampires sat uneasily at the table. None wanted to be the first to drink in front of Sarah, but each knew if she was to accept them fully, she must see them as they truly were. Gabriela, knowing Sarah’s reaction to their drinking blood would be important in her decision to change, was the first. She raised her goblet toward Sarah as she spoke. “To our friend, companion and sister.” She tipped the goblet to her lips and drank. The men followed suit. When Aris placed his cup on the table, a tiny red drop rested at the corner of his mouth. Sarah reached to wipe it away then held her finger to his lips. As his soft tongue licked her finger, she shivered.
Cuddled alone in the palace Aris had created for her below ground, safe in her bed, Sarah thought about her evening. While she missed him, wishing he could be with her instead of drilling with the army, she was glad for a moment alone with her thoughts. She marveled at her complete acceptance of the Immortals’ existence, their way of life. Or way of death. Which was it? Her logical mind interrupted, spoke loudly. “You are a human. What is wrong with you? How can you contemplate becoming one of them?”
She had no answers to that question. Nor did she need any. She knew, after their evening at the blood tavern, without any shadow of a doubt, exactly what she wanted. She wanted to become one with this exceptional society, to learn all they knew, to discover and live in a new, a better world. She wanted to live in harmony with these amazing beings. She wanted to stand with them against the Spanish coven, against all adversity. She wanted to love Aris, not just with her heart, but with her soul, with her body, to be able to free the heat and passion she felt that she held back from him, to be with him for all eternity. She knew, without a single doubt or fear, she desired to become an Immortal, not for Aris, but for herself. Kitsuko would find her a very willing adversary for his love.
At complete peace with her decision, she fell asleep with a smile on her lips.
Sarah was out of bed and dressed before Jane appeared with her breakfast tray. She ate leisurely, telling Jane of her experience the previous evening in the blood tavern. Yet she kept secret her decision to change. Aris would be the first she would tell and as soon as possible. She wanted to begin the three day ordeal so she could be ready for the vampire war in Spain. She wouldn’t allow Aris to leave without her and the time was short before his departure.
“Sarah, do you think we could do another session this morning? Is it too soon after the first one?”
“No, it isn’t too soon. Let’s do it.” She moved the tray aside, and sat on the chair next to the sofa. “Here, lie down and get comfortable.”
Jane rested on the sofa, the white wolf curled on the floor next to her. Sarah took out her notebook and pen. “Are you ready to begin?”
“Yes.” Jane closed her eyes, sighing softly.
Sarah began the hypnotic induction the same as she had for so many years during her career as a therapist above ground with but a single difference. She assured the Immortal that she would feel no human fear of anything that would surface, that she was an Immortal in complete control of any situations that presented themselves and could come out of hypnosis to return to the
present simply by opening her eyes.
JANE HOWARD, transcript, Session 2
Sarah noticed that in her first session, Jane had been most comfortable speaking of Queen Elizabeth and so she began their second session questioning her about her time as maid-in-waiting.
“It is but a year that I have been waiting on the Queen. She tells me that my youth and innocence have made her love me very best of all the young maidens. Often she calls me to her privy chamber just to chat and play board games with me. She tells me she sincerely trusts me and so quickly feels as close to me as her beloved personal maid who has served her for many years.”
“Jane, tell me more of your Queen.”
“In this past year as I watched her reign over England, I saw her use her great wit to overcome the male bias of her Council. Time and again she won them over without them ever knowing they had been had. She would laugh as she told me of her victories. Her ability to rule her kingdom her way, without King, consort or any man to share her power, taught me to have the greatest respect for her. In private, she allowed me to see all the vulnerable sides to her and that taught me to love her.”
“Vulnerable?”
“Her Majesty was before the public all her life. In her youth, her fair skin and red hair were legend in all the courts of Europe. Her beauty and her pledge to remain a virgin married only to her people, to her England, made her worshiped almost as a deity by her subjects.
“At fifty-four years, time and responsibility had begun to show on her face and she hated it. Each day as we prepared her for court, she would tell us of the time when she needed neither wig nor white lead and vinegar face paint. She needed not the vermilion for her lips and cheeks. She bemoaned her mirror each morning as if it had no purpose but to show the lines and wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, her yellow and rotting teeth. Many days she spent in agonizing headaches from the decay in her mouth. She admitted to me she was almost glad when her vision began to blur her aging image in the betraying glass.
“She swore me to secrecy before she told me the worst ravage of age; at fifty four she desperately loved a lad of but twenty. It was Robert Devereux, the Second Earl of Essex.
“Oh, I could see why. He was tall, long of leg. Chestnut curls surrounded his beautiful face and he courted her shamelessly. He even challenged Sir Walter Raleigh to a duel over who loved Her Majesty most. It was sad, but the courtiers laughed behind their hands at the Queen’s manner in her dealings with the Earl.
“She flirted and batted her eyes at him like a girl. She showered him with gifts, making him one of the richest men at court. She even gave him the tax on sweet wines, which alienated some of her dearest supporters. Essex was hated by the men, yet because of his great beauty and flirtatious complements, adored by the women.
“He cavorted about moving from woman to woman, yet none had the heart or the courage to make his actions known to the Queen.”
“Jane, did he show affection to you as well as the other ladies of the court?” Sarah hoped to slowly and comfortably bring Jane’s attention to the day of her changing and the role Essex played. The young Immortal paused a long moment before she answered.
“Yes, he did. On many occasions he approached me and on a few made physical advances to me.”
“But you never mentioned it to the Queen?”
“No. Her heart would have been broken to know he was such a treacherous knave. I avoided him as best I could, yet he seemed to be obsessed by a woman who would not succumb to his deceitful charm. Neither his beauty nor his allure could make me forget his supposed love for Her Majesty and I felt a hidden wickedness behind his insincere words. I only saw him when court functions demanded it, otherwise, I avoided all places he was known to frequent. And so, after a time, he began to search me out in the gardens hoping to find me alone.”
“And did that happen frequently?”
“Too frequently.”
Sarah spoke gently as she approached Jane about her personal relationship with Essex. “Jane, can you tell me about the first time Essex found you by yourself?” There was a long, silent pause.
“Yes.” Again, silence. “It was summer twilight as I walked in the Queen’s rose garden. She sent me away while she rested in preparation for a masque ball in the evening. The clouds above were a soft fuchsia and gold as a gentle evening breeze brushed my hair against my cheek.
“I heard the sound of muffled footsteps behind me. When I turned, there he stood, his head surrounded by a glowing halo created by the vanishing rays of the setting sun. I gasped as I realized who it was and quickly began to move away from him. He reached to grasp my arm as I turned. At that exact moment a huge white owl with an enormous wingspan swooped from an unseen spot in the sky. His talons tangled in Essex’s curls and the Earl loosed my arm. I turned to flee without seeing the outcome of the encounter between the man and the gigantic bird. I rushed to the safety of the Queen’s chamber and, gratefully, I reached it without further incident.” Jane chose to breathe when she was in Sarah’s presence to make her human friend feel more comfortable and her breath became ragged as she related her escape.
Even though Sarah had given Jane the suggestion she would feel no fear during her sessions, she became concerned when she heard the change in her subject’s breathing. Immediately she brought the Immortal to present time, safe at home in Sarah’s rooms in the Catacombs.
“Sarah, I remember other encounters with Essex fully, yet I only remember the experience of the day of my change in bits and pieces. Must it have been so awful, so horrible that I will never remember?” She bowed her head in sorrow. “I must know what happened.”
Her friend stood to take the vampire’s hands in hers. “Jane, you will. It will be slow and perhaps painful, but you will remember.”
The white wolf whimpered softly as he rose, placing his cool muzzle in the hand of his mistress.
CHAPTER 24
The air was humid and warm as he maneuvered the small boat on the underground river. All the delicate tendrils of blond hair around Sarah’s face tightened into tiny spiral curls, wet with perspiration. Aris had planned the day just for the two of them. Showing her some of the beauty of the Catacombs, not just the battle preparation, had been on his mind since their arrival and he was grateful to Sebastian for taking over his duties so he could spend the afternoon with Sarah away from talk of war.
“Aris, why is the air so damp in here? Normally, caves don’t feel like this.”
Aris smiled as he maneuvered the energy-powered craft silently through the gently flowing current. “You will see. Trail your fingers in the water.”
“Is it safe? I mean, there’s nothing in the water to bite me?”
He laughed long and loud. “You worry about a river creature biting you when you’re holed-up in a city of undead, Immortal vampires who drink blood? You are quite a strange woman, Sarah.”
She realized as soon as the words left her mouth, how silly they would sound to him. She obviously no longer feared the Immortals of the Catacombs, yet something living in the water? Well, that was another thing all-together.
“Go ahead, trail your fingers. There is nothing there to harm you.” Alien lighting globes illuminated the river from below as the boat skimmed soundlessly against the current.
Above their heads was thousands of years old solid iridescent rock. The cavern through which the river flowed was dark except for the golden lights shining from beneath the water. Lit from below, Aris looked strange, even frightening. Sarah wondered how she appeared to him. Hollows for eyes, shadows for lips. She thought she might look like one of the vampires from the old black and white 1930s movies.
She let her fingers dip into the water as it slapped gently against the sides of their craft. It was warm, almost hot to the touch. No wonder the air was humid. “Why is the water so hot? And where does it come from?”
“There is a great deal of water underground. Surface water seeps down through the rocks creating subterranean lakes and waterway
s. This river is one of them. There is a small underground volcano located west of the Catacombs several miles below our city. The ground water trickles all the way down to the level of the molten rock, is heated by the magma then escapes upward toward the surface. Our hot river water is a result of the surface water and the volcano.”
“Oh, I see.” She continued to let the warm water flow sensuously through her fingers. Her mind drifted as they floated in an unearthly silence, day-dreaming she and Aris were explorers trapped in a tropical rain forest, their only means of escape this river of no return.
She smiled as she imagined him pulling the boat onto a jungle river bank covered in reeds and grass. Closing her eyes, she could almost feel him taking her hands, drawing her to him as he stood on the river’s edge. In her imagination his body was warm and powerful as he pressed into her. She melted into him, the contours of his muscular thighs against her. Feeling his manhood swell against her, tortured by her need for him to take her, her fingers reached to unbutton his shirt.
“Sarah?” She heard his voice as if from a great distance.
Her vision continued as he stood nude before her, his smooth firm body glistening in the sultry air.
“Sarah? Are you alright?”
Startled back into the present. she thought, “Just when it was starting to get good.” She replied out loud, “Yes, I’m fine, just thinking.”
“I want to warn you, it is going to become very dark very soon. The underwater lighting will be extinguished for just a moment and we will be in an extremely confined space. There is no need to be frightened. There is nothing to harm you in the darkness. There will be light again shortly and a vision like none you have ever experienced before in all your human life.”
As he finished his sentence the tunnel grew black. She lifted her hand directly in front of her face and still could see nothing. She felt the walls pressing in on her. The sound of her breath was loud and strained. It was the only sound she could hear other than the gentle lapping of the water as they moved forward. She reached to find his hand only to have him touch hers first.