“Trouble? Listen, I am no thief, no robber, no murderer, and Mia and I can pack up and be out of here quickly, if you feel you have endangered yourselves.”
“Well, of course you can.” Pavlos, who had been quiet thus far said. “What would you pack? You arrived here with nothing. Can you understand the desire to know more, when a mother and child arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a few parcels, and yet she can rent something like this?” He swept his hand, indicating our current impressive surroundings.
“I see your point.” I said. “And what I will share with you, I probably would have told you anyway because you are fine people, yet I also must be careful with those who might know my secrets. But…” and I stood up, “let me begin with this.” I slowly pulled back my shroud.
All three sucked in their breaths as my hood lay back on my shoulders. The men remained speechless, but Cora gasped, “Oh, my child!”
33
I told them my story from my town, ravaged by marauders, to my escape from the river people, and finding Mia. I spared them the uglier parts of my confinement and mentioned nothing of my experiences with Hessa, Getagin, or don Lucido Del Rio. I said nothing of our stay the last week at The Square, but I knew sooner or later it would come up and when it did, I would tell them. I prepared myself to leave once that happened.
In the calm after the storm, or just before it, Mia and I played at the beach. I think perhaps doing that, washed away so many horrid memories we each held. She couldn’t get enough of the beach for two or three days. I’m certain some of it was the company of Mika, Catrina and Sera, who, although they had been around the shore most of their lives, seemed to have renewed interest, inspired by Mia’s excitement. The first few days, we stayed near the Costas’ home soaking in the feeling of safety, even though, deep down, I knew we weren’t. We stayed away from people when we could. The shoreline was busy with boats but the beach itself had few wanderers. And when someone did come along, Mia and I would find reasons to return to the house until they were gone. These were reminders that we were in hiding and there was no permanency in our stay. It was so tempting to venture out and explore our surroundings, to visit shops and investigate what was near. Those after us were relentless, in spite of the losses they incurred. In fact, my experience was that setbacks and losses only renewed their resolve and enflamed their hatred. I often wondered what I had done to earn this deep, cold, contempt, when I had given so much of myself to please them. They delighted in making me lowly and then despised me for becoming what they wanted.
As the week drew toward our last few days, Mia grew bored and hungered for changes in routine and location. It seems I was the last one to notice this, probably because I was reluctant to go out, but when Cora asked if she could take Mia with her to the marketplace, I just had to say yes but went along. It had seemed to me that the family conspired to make purchases that were helpful to our cause: food and snacks, articles of clothing to help us blend in better with the population, and items for comfort and personal grooming. We had arrived with nothing. I think Cora asked me about taking Mia, knowing I would not let her go without coming along myself.
The day was sunny and pleasant and people were milling around the shops and stands, bartering and purchasing. Mia loved the busy-ness of the area, and was attracted to other children, always eyeing goods for sale that caught her attention. I stepped back to watch the scene and Mia’s wonder…when I saw him. Hector Milan, Desmondo’s older brother, stood perusing the crowd and it was an active study. Perhaps he felt my eyes upon him, because no sooner did I recognize him did he shift his eyes to meet mine. It was with a great amount of effort that I did not duck or squirm, cringe or scream, bolt or show recognition in any way. That would have singled me out from the crowd and though I could feel the weight of his stare, I would not give into a reaction that might verify what might be only a suspicion. I tried to make my movements appear to be as most others in the crowd, ones of a buyer examining seller’s wares.
When I positioned myself to glance back at Hector, who I’d seen standing on some steps placing him above the crowd, he was no longer there. My heart was pounding. Had he seen me? I tried to meander through the crowd to Cora and Mia, but in my mind I pictured several others closing in on me rapidly.
I grabbed Cora’s sleeve. “I think I’ve been spotted. I need to leave. Please get her back to the house but don’t rush it. They don’t know you or her. I must go.”
I turned to go but Cora touched my sleeve as well. “Go to the docks. Hire a ride to the house. They won’t expect that. Go!”
Leaving Mia with Cora was not even a concern. Our bond had grown that strong in such a short time. Traffic was moving to and from the docks and I was but one of many. I hurried not, but kept with the flow. I obtained a ride to the Costas home from a lone boatman who attempted to make conversation during the trip, but my mind was all too consumed with an urgency he was not aware of. Though I had paid him before we had even started, I paid him again and said, “…for your discretion.” He gazed at the coin with a puzzled look and then backed away. He headed further from the docks, the same direction we had taken to get me to the landing of the Costas’ home. I barely paid attention to him any longer. My eyes scanned the edge of the cliffs for any sign that my boat trek had been followed or Cora and Mia were approaching. I saw no sign of either of those. I let myself in just before Demetrius had reached the entry from inside.
“What is wrong? Where are the others?” He looked past me eyeing the boatman through the window.
“I saw one of the men who have been following me. Cora has Mia”
“Did they follow you here?”
“I don’t think so but I can’t be sure.”
“I must send Pavlos for his mother.” Demetrius said. He turned and left me, but before he disappeared into another room, he stopped and turned back. “Stay close! Stay quiet! And stay inside!”
I knew this without having to be told and hearing it did little to make me feel safer for Mia or Cora. As I stared down at what little collection of things Mia and I had put together during our brief stay and listened to Pavlos leaving in haste to find his mother, I fearfully wondered what danger I had brought upon this family and their home. They had been careful to let us stay but once we did, they brought us in like destitute family and shared my burdens.
It was dark before Pavlos returned with Cora and Mia. Mia ran straight to me and leapt to my arms, not leaving them until her bedtime. And when it was time to lie down, still she begged me to hold her and I did, needing her touch for reassurance every bit as she needed mine. I held her close, long into the night. Somewhere in that precious embrace I awoke and couldn’t seem to ease back to sleep. I was stiff from my clasp of Mia, or was too cold or too hot. I had heard something or I had not. But sleep would hide from me in clever places, so I got up and without a candle or lamp, I quietly climbed the stairs to make certain everything was alright. This was new for me, to venture into areas of the house that were beyond the floor we were renting. I had been coaxed by the Costas family to do so, but I had been slow to accept. They seemed to understand but remained hopeful I would grow more comfortable. Now I was silently ascending the stairs like a thief, not by their invitation but secretly.
The floor above ours was the place where most of the daily activities happened in the house. Cora and Demetrius lived and slept there, with Pavlos and his three daughters, one floor up. I stepped now into the room, one halted movement at a time. It was dark. Everyone had gone to bed. Everything seemed right but something had awakened me. I would be embarrassed to be found sneaking around their quarters in the middle of the night but still I would go through to the patio to give the darkened room a quiet scan. Once there, I stepped onto the veranda to check the sea for shadowy sources that may have wakened me with a thud or a splash, but I could not view much and what I could, revealed nothing. And then I caught a movement below me. A small boat, like the one that had brought me from the docks
earlier was tied up to the small pier right below me. Someone was crouched there, keeping the boat from floating away and I was fairly certain it wasn’t either of the men who lived here. There was something besides the time of night and how the dark figure held his body that implied secrecy to me. My heart leapt as I realized Mia was alone and unattended one floor below and nearer to the water. I pulled back and retraced my steps toward the house, not shouting out but preparing to wake everyone once I was inside. I was startled by something I had missed when first stepping out on the veranda.
Someone sat at the table located just outside the door. I feared being cut off from re-entering the house and I readied for a race to the entry but he looked too relaxed. I bolted. I had to get to Mia. But the sitter remained. Once I knew I could duck inside, I stopped half-way in to regard what I had successfully passed. A man sat there, watching me, unmoved. He was dead. I could see that, now. I also, even in this pale light, could tell that it was the boatman who had brought me from the docks. Blood leaked from a horizontal line across his throat. I raced into the house, grabbing a chair from the table as I went by, and sending it sliding and bouncing toward the bedroom entrance of Demetrius and Cora. I was careful on the stairs not to blunder into anything by taking them too fast or being loud enough to warn them.
My plan was to gather Mia and return up the stairs with her, but light came from our room and I arrived only to hear Mia scream and see her fighting to prevent being placed into a large gunny sack. She was losing the battle. Desmondo was in the room with his back to me, watching the struggle.
It is said that our fates balance perilously on the tip of a needle. For the moment none knew I was there in the darkness watching the scene. All my efforts to escape had led to several close, calls and here if I wanted to, I could turn now and disappear out the top exit, if it wasn’t being watched, or one of the doors out to the water...if those weren’t monitored either. I suspected that the man by the boat was stationed there for more than just keeping it quiet. He’d have a good view of the doors near him but not on the far side. But my journey had started with deaths and seemed to follow me along with the river people. The boatman, sitting quietly on the veranda was just the most recent, and there were three adults and three little girls who had risked helping me that might very well be dead, minutes from now….
“Stop!” I shouted from my darkness. “I will come with you. Let her go.”
They did stop, startled by the outburst from my darkness as I approached the room. Men with their backs to me, turned. Those stuffing Mia into a bag, stopped and looked toward the doorway.
“I want you to stop right now and let her come to me. I will go with you. You have me. Take me and go. Leave those who have given us shelter, to their lives. They are good people and not your enemy. Let’s leave while they sleep.”
I stood at the doorway and offered my wrists for binding.
Desmondo spun me around and forced my hands behind my back, whereupon he bound me tight enough to make me wince. “Is that a little tight for you, harlot? If my father hadn’t insisted on your return unmarked and unspoiled, I would rather have tightened this rope around your delicate neck and watched you struggle and die. I’d look right into your eyes as you faded, then pull your carcass behind a horse all the way back to the encampment so your little girl could see you peeled and scraped away to nothing.”
I didn’t give him the benefit of a reply. I sullenly watched as Mia was taken out of the sack they had wrestled her into. She ran to me and threw her trembling arms around me. They quickly covered our mouths and fast-walked us to the boat being held at the landing. As we pulled away, two men did not get in with us. Another boat glided up and Hector instructed across the water, “Silence them!”
The two men, knives in hand, re-entered the Costas’ dark house. I screamed into my muffled mouth and strained at my bindings, sending warnings I could not deliver. The boat pulled away and the fate of those still in the house became an unanswered shadow in the night, a shadow that pulled away from me with every pull of an oar or gust of wind. And as it did, fate wobbled on the point of the pin and mine was to become a prisoner again. Yes, I had been hounded. Yes, I had been chased, and as it is with so many victims who are singled out from the herd, I had been pursued until I was tragically tired and ready to relent to the sharp teeth of the hunters. I gave myself up. They had me and kept me docile and cooperative by having Mia in their possession. And they used me…and used me…and used me…eventually dangling me before others of great means who desired a pretty pussy to pet and drool upon…and defile with their stink.
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It began to grow darker inside Veria’s clever tent. She clung now to the shadows where it was difficult to see her face. This I think was not by accident. Her tale had taken most of the day to tell, and I could see there was so much more to it.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“I will never be alright peasant boy, ever again. I am so much less than alright, and so much more.”
There was a period of silence in the afternoon as she slept some hours. She was after all, a creature of the night and her habits had been interrupted on this day. She leaned against me at first but then as she slumped, I held her, excruciatingly with her head in my lap, and then eventually I lay beside her in an embrace as spoons might fit. Later, I awakened to find the hint of Veria sitting nearby and the greenish-yellowish glow of cat eyes appraising me from her darkened form.
“I feel like I am being considered for the next meal.” I mused.
“Every day, and many times a day, you know not, peasant boy.”
“Well, that makes it easier for scheduling the future.”
“Michael, it is dark enough to leave the shadows of our veiled castle. Would you walk me inside? First though, I must ask you for the Beating Heart. It is time for you to return it to me.”
“Ha, ha, very funny. I cannot give to you what I do not possess.”
“But you have it.”
“Then search me. I cannot find this marble you say I carry.”
Veria stepped to me and ran her hands slowly and thoroughly through my hair.
“No, it is not there.”
I raised my eyebrows, amused. But, she continued, tracing her hand on either side of my face and then my neck, along my shoulders and down each arm, coming back along the arms interior and feeling along my ribs at the same time.
“No, nothing there.”
She stepped into me and put her arms around, her hands gliding over all of my back.
“Hmm, still nothing.”
Now her touch traveled to my front and she felt my shoulders, chest and stomach. Her eyes slowly rose to mine and were half-lidded. “We’re running out of places.”
Then her hands pressed against my manhood as she maintained eye contact.
“Here are two that might be the marble I am looking for.” She cupped me from underneath. “There is certainly something in there, hard enough. Maybe I should have a closer look.”
Veria kept her hand there in a soft caress, and kissed my mouth as I was about to say something. My arms enclosed her, with one hand going to her hair and the other to her back, pulling her closer. I returned that kiss with everything I had and she met my passion. And when the kiss ended, her hand left its explorations below and went to her mouth, where she withdrew a crimson, marble sized orb. There was movement within it… it throbbed.
“Oh, there it is.” She held it in her palm before me and closed her fingers upon it. When she opened her hand once again, it had disappeared, and Veria looked to me with feigned mystery.
“I want you.” I said.
Those damnable eyes rose slowly to mine again. “Let’s see what we can do about that.”
She looped her arm in the crook of mine and moved us toward the house. I was in a state of excitement. My desire for her ran high…and hot. We walked through the kitchen and into the main room. I became aware that we were not alone, and she unhooked her arm, s
tepping away from me. I glanced around and saw that I was encircled by vampires. I knew most of them.
Don Lucido was there and he spoke. “Michael, you have asked to become a vampire in the house of Del Rio. We consent. From this point forward, there is no turning back.”
I was surrounded and they closed upon me.
Part Two
“Michael, what happened to Veria, Don Lucido and Beatrice? All of those from the house of Del Rio? Where are they now?”
34
Constantine was huddled around a candle in a passenger cabin he currently shared with the rest of his band. Normally, that would have been a crowded affair, but all that was left of his private army was Heinrik, who had been second in command. They were approaching the midway point in their journey to the new world, and it had been a rough trip. The weather had been ghastly, and they were still reeling from a turn of events which had resulted in their rather trimmed-down journey. They were vampire hunters and had been about to eliminate one they had tracked down, when one of the great vampires had appeared and killed every one of his command but himself and Heinrik. Never had he seen the tables turn so fast. They would have lost their lives as well, but an interrogation had taken place, and somehow, Constantine’s services had been hired by this vampire to hunt another vampire. He had never seen so much money in his life, all in one place. They had been destroyed, all but two, hired and funded and given passage on a ship bound for the new world, all-expense paid, plus funded for a year. But Constantine wasn’t sharp with the details on how this all happened, and neither was Heinrik. But they knew one thing; this powerful vampire, the vampire Lucido Del Rio had visited twice to make certain they were on the ship and on course. When he appeared, terror grew in their hearts. This is why they both jumped when the door burst open and the stranger walked in…uninvited.
The Blood In Between (The Safe Haven Trilogy Book 3) Page 19