Immortal Confessions

by Tara Fox Hall

  The guard looked over at her uneasily, then back at me. “I have orders to let no one see the prisoner.”

  Anna handed him some coins. “Say he escaped.”

  The guard turned to her. “I can’t, I’ll be killed—”

  Here was the moment I’d been waiting for!

  I acted quickly, grabbing his neck and twisting sharply. The guard’s neck broke with a nice snap, and he collapsed. The guard outside the door took a breath to scream, but I was faster, yanking him inside the room, and stabbing him in the heart with a dagger I’d grabbed from the fallen guard. I let his still-twitching body slide to the floor, adrenaline running through me. Anna looked at me in horror, but I was already going through his pockets, getting back my one coin, and grabbing his small purse. Then I put his guard clothes on over mine, and his leather hat. It mostly covered my hair.

  “You killed him like it was nothing,” Anna whispered. “Like he was nothing.”

  I was about to tell her it was nothing, but I saw her face, and decided that was unwise. “Anna, we needed the money. I also badly need the blood, after what I did for your father.”

  Her eyes cut to me. “He tried to get you to change him?”

  “It didn’t work,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  “I knew he was going to die soon,” she said, grabbing hold of me, and burrowing close. “He’d been sick for years, and it was spreading—”

  “Shh, Love. Be strong for me, and watch the door.”

  She nodded, brushed away a tear, and moved to the door, peering through the crack down the hallway.

  I drank a few swallows from the guard’s wound, but then dropped him. I couldn’t bite him to get more, not without leaving the telltale marks on his skin. We didn’t need a mob on our tail with torches. It was already going to be hard enough getting away.

  “We must go,” I said, leading her from the room, glad the sun was setting. “Do you have all you wish to take?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  We made our way to the castle gate. We were unrecognized due to our disguises. It helped immensely that the guards were too caught up in gossip of the Lord’s death and arguments of which of his son-in-laws would succeed him to care about a guard and some peasant wench. We made it into the forest and were not pursued.

  Trouble again found us when Anna and I reached the stream. The gypsies were there with Maris, waiting for me. The bitch had betrayed me!

  “What is this?” Maris’s father said grumpily. “A ransom attempt? We already have the money—”

  “No,” I said smoothly, as I handed the reins of the closest of our horses to Anna. “I am just here to reclaim what is mine. Then I’ll be on my way. You can keep the treasure, and your daughter, too.”

  You can imagine how well my words were taken.

  “What?” Maris screeched. “You were going to marry me! I found the dress!”

  Stupid chit. “I never said that. You betrayed me.”

  “You betrayed us!” her father shouted. “Hand over your saddlebags, all of them, or we’ll kill you and your trollop!”

  My horse spooked, rearing, as I grabbed for the reins. “Never,” I said forcefully. “Leave, before I kill you all.”

  “I am not trollop; I am a lady!” Anna said scathingly, her hand resting on her saddlebags. “But it’s easy to see you’re a whore! You’ll never wear my dress!”

  Maris screamed again, my horse bolted, and the male gypsies dismounted as one, all furious. I faced them, and before the first one could throw a punch, I broke his neck. The others paused. I advanced, throwing the body aside.

  I lunged for them with bared fangs and they retreated, eyes white and round with fear.

  “Devlin!” Anna screamed.

  I turned back just in time to see Maris stab Anna in the side. I lost all reason, running supernaturally fast to them, snarling wildly. Maris screamed and let go of Anna, who had fainted.

  “Devlin, no, please!”

  I grabbed her by the throat, and in my rage, I crushed her neck like an egg. She collapsed bonelessly to the forest floor.

  I turned back to the gypsies, snarling in ire, but they were already riding hard, the hoof beats of their horses pounding the grass as they rode out of sight. Anna had let go of the reins when she fell and her horse was running with theirs. In a second, the trees had swallowed them.

  I knelt at Anna’s side. The wound wasn’t bad, but it was deep. I put my mouth over it, and bit down on my lip, wincing at the pain. I dared only give her a little blood, but it was enough to make the wound a shallow scratch.

  Everything we’d planned had gone wrong. Anna was still unconscious, mostly I guessed from shock. We were on foot now, our horses gone. Worst of all, snow was starting to fall.

  I propped Anna against the nearest tree, and raced around, looking to see if anything usable had been left behind before it was lost in the snow.

  I found the remnants of the cooked deer. Most had been taken, but there was enough to cram into my pockets for a meal for Anna later. To my relief, my saddlebag had fallen off my horse when it had reared, so I had my coin from the dead guard, my knife, my water bag, and my few other things, though my instrument had been trampled, and was too broken to ever play another song. The bearskin was as I’d left it, along with the little food we’d had that I’d gotten for Anna. It was still in the tree, though some animal had nibbled at the cheese, and ruined a bit. The coveted purse of jewels, all the money Anna had brought with her, and her most prized possessions were gone. They were still on her horse in her saddlebags, and likely now in the possession of the gypsies.

  There was a light covering of snow on the ground by now. Anna had not regained consciousness, and there was a light dusting over her as well, melting into her thin clothes. I moved to her side and took her hand.

  This snowstorm in spring was a freak thing, likely to be melting in at most a week. If it had been just me, I would have bedded down under the bearskin. I’d thaw in a few days at most, sure as the sun would rise. But Anna wasn’t vampire; she would freeze to death without food, and more importantly, warm shelter.

  I debated for a moment on trying to turn her, to give her a better chance of survival. Without her permission, or even being sure of a decent chance for success, I decided I couldn’t risk it.

  I wrapped her in the bearskin, and shouldering the bags, I picked her up, and began to walk. It wasn’t bad, at first. That first mile the snow was light, and fluffy, and there was no wind. I could see enough of the stars to know I was headed in the right direction, towards the nearest small village.

  Soon, the wind began to howl, driving icy snow into my clothes. My boots rapidly soaked through, until I was chilled to the bone and exhausted. I’d also begun to feel the first telltale signs of freezing in my toes ears and fingers.

  I walked on. My exposed skin had been raw from the wind, and now it was numb. I couldn’t feel my feet, which seemed to be two blocks of ice. There was ice in my hair and encrusted in my ragged beard. It covered Anna in her bearskin, which I still held carefully in my arms. The snow came down harder and harder, obliterating everything, including the stars. My progress slowed with every mile, as the snow became deeper and deeper.

  We had to get out of the storm or Anna was going to die, because in another half mile I was going to fall and not be able to get up.

  I scented smoke and thought I’d had it, that I was delirious. Then I caught a light through the thick fir trees, and saw a rough cabin made of wood. Smoke rose from the chimney.

  I made it to the door, collapsing on my knees in the foot of snow near the doorstep.

  I set down Anna and rapped as hard as I could. “Please! We need help!”

  “Go away,” a mean male voice said. “Or I’ll shoot you.”

  God, couldn’t we have some luck? “Please, my wife, she’s dying. Please!”

  There was no answer.

  I looked down at Anna, touching her soft skin gently with my hand. Her face was flu
shed, but it was already far too cold for a human. And her heartbeat was very slow.

  She would die if she didn’t get inside.

  I looked up at the rough wooden door. Then I lunged hard, snarling, and put my shoulder through it.

  The door parted with a splintering of wood. A gunshot hit me full in the chest, making me yell in pain, even as I bore down on the figure facing me and ripped his throat out.

  Blood fountained over me. I drank it greedily, as fast as I could. I drank until there was no more, until even sucking hard wouldn’t give me more. I picked up his still warm corpse, tossed it outside, and grabbed Anna, bringing her in. I shut the door, and built up the fire as high as I dared, taking the bearskin off her and hanging it to the side to dry. I rubbed her feet and her toes. Slowly, some of the redness left them. But she was still far, far too cold, and she would not wake up.

  A noise came from behind me. I turned as a door closed fast.

  I had my shoulder through it in the next moment. A young woman who couldn’t have been more than sixteen cowered before me. Her eyes were huge, and terrified. She held a small hatchet in her hand, likely used for chopping kindling.

  She brandished it at me. “Don’t come any closer!”

  I looked at her, thinking about what best to do. I could kill her, but maybe it was better to make her disrobe and curl up against Anna, to try to get her warm? No, I couldn’t risk she might hurt Anna in some way...

  “I’m warning you! Get out!”

  Better safe than sorry. I lunged at her. She swung, but missed. Tackling her, I pushed her to the rough wooden floor, the hatchet clattering harmlessly away. Before I could drink, agony shot through me as a blade penetrated my back.

  Rolling off the girl with a shriek, I turned to face a determined young man, the bloody hatchet in his hand.

  “Run!” he cried, the weapon arcing down at my head

  I sidestepped, then launched myself at him, barely feeling the hatchet connect again. Burying my fangs in his jugular to the hilt, I began to drink him down. Too soon, I’d drained him completely.

  There was no sign of the girl. She’d likely escaped through the room’s one window in the melee. But as she’d have no better chance in the storm than Anna and I had, that could wait for now. I shuttered the open window, then tossed the young man’s corpse outside too, near his kin. I listened, but heard nothing but the howling of the wind, and Anna’s weak heartbeat. No one else was here.

  I bolted the fractured door, upending and sliding the large table in front of it, to keep out the wind. In the main room, I covered the few windows with furniture pieces and the tablecloth, to keep out the sun. Then I went back to Anna, again kneeling beside her, and putting more wood on the fire, so it was blazing.

  I touched her and almost cried, she was so cool. She was colder than before. Then I realized with amazement that Anna hadn’t gotten any colder. It was I who’d gotten warmer.

  It had to have been all the blood I’d drunk tonight. It had revitalized me, made me even more energized and powerful than the bear’s blood had a few nights ago. I’d never felt so strong. But I’d never had so much blood at one time before, rarely even half as much. In fact, I was a little sick from being too full.

  “Anna,” I whispered. “Anna, wake up.”

  She stirred a little, squeezing my hand. I took a deep ragged breath of relief, tears coming to my eyes. Then she relaxed again, her grip loosening.

  I curled up beside her, pulling a few blankets over us, and held her to me. Within moments, we fell asleep.

  * * * *

  The next evening, I awoke to find Anna tending the fire, and cooking something in a pot over its flames.

  She saw me open my eyes, and crouched beside me. “How do you feel?”

  “Revitalized,” I said, wanting badly to grab hold of her and make love with her. But I didn’t know if she’d seen the bodies outside yet. It was best to be patient.

  “You look almost radiant,” she said softly. “Your hair is longer.”

  “This is the length it was many years ago,” I said distastefully, pushing the just below shoulder length hair out of my face. “It always returns to this length, when I feed...um... a large amount.”

  “I found scissors and a straight razor,” she said, getting up. “I can help you shave, if you like. My sister taught me, as part of the preparation for becoming a wife.”

  “You don’t have to,” I said, getting up also. “I can do it myself. As I told you, that legend about mirrors is false. Likely, the bit about silver too, seeing as it’s supposed to be the silver backing in mirrors that somehow foils a reflection.”

  “And coins,” she said seriously. Then she grinned at me, and began mixing lather.

  I looked at her, and then told myself I was an idiot. I’d handled silver coins many times. They had never burned me, or been anything to me other than currency. “You’re right.”

  “What about werewolves?” she said with a smile. “Do they have a problem with silver? That book I found said they did.”

  “I don’t know, I don’t know any,” I said honestly, and then burst out laughing. Anna joined me, and I relaxed, happy she wasn’t horrified at what I’d had to do to save us.

  I shaved, and Anna trimmed my hair so it was again short. When she was done, she looked at me almost shyly.

  “What is it?” I said, giving her a curious look.

  “You are very handsome without your beard,” she said in that same shy voice. “This is the first time I’ve seen you without it.”

  “Then I’ll make sure always to be clean-shaven,” I said tenderly. “Thank you for the compliment, Love.”

  She cooked herself a meal of what appeared to be venison stew. Whatever it was, it smelled tasty and she seemed to enjoy it. Afterward, she led me to the bedroom and lay down with me, though our clothes stayed on.

  “I am not going to judge you for what you did to save us,” she said finally. “It was our survival or theirs. But I must know, Devlin, do you usually kill those you drink from?”

  “No,” I said honestly. “I mostly drink from animals, as they are easy, and they do not have to die, if they are large enough. But I do need to kill them once in a while, as I need enough to replenish myself.”

  “And humans?”

  “Rarely,” I admitted. “It’s too easy to be caught doing it, and villagers are a superstitious bunch. Even those of the upper classes, who enjoy more tawdry intimate adventures, balk at anything that involves blood.” That was mostly true, anyway.

  “All right,” she said. “We have a place to weather the storm, so long as it lasts. Where do we go from here?”

  It was obvious she was not looking for lovemaking, but a plan. “I scent horses faintly,” I said finally. “I will dress, and go see what this farm has to offer in its stables. Depending on that, we should stay here as long as we can, until we make sure there will be no more blizzards. Then we stick to our original plan to head to the biggest city.”

  “Which one would that be? Paris is in turmoil, there have been reports Napoleon is losing power—”

  Not likely, but she was right, it was better not to be where soldiers were fighting, if we could avoid it. “Probably Fontainebleau,” I said, thinking hard. “I’m not sure if that is nearest. It might be better to head east and out of Seine-et–Marne though. Your family will think us sure to remain in France, or at the most, head to Paris. If we head east, they may go in the opposite direction.”

  “We have no money,” she said dejectedly. “It was all on my horse.”

  I hugged her tight. “We have each other,” I whispered softly. “We will take everything of value here that we can with us and sell it, to finance our way.”

  Anna began to cry, great hitching sobs. I hugged her tight, a few tears leaking from my eyes, because she was so sad. It was my fault our plan had failed as badly as it had.

  “Please don’t cry,” I said in a cracked voice. “It won’t always be like this, Anna, we
will have a home of our own, a grand one—”

  “My wedding dress,” she sobbed. “They took my wedding dress, Devlin! It was my mother’s! And that whore is going to wear it!”

  “Shh,” I said, feeling awful. “I will do my best to get it back someday, Love, but it’s likely gone. But I promise you, I’ll have another one made for you, any kind you want—”

  “It won’t be the same!” she wailed.

  This was clearly one of those times to not talk, just to hold. I held her, and over time, she stopped carrying on. Then she wiped her eyes with a cloth, and hugged me. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I don’t mean to be foolish. It’s enough that we have each other. A dress is just a piece of clothing.”

  “You’re very brave, Love. Please, just lie here with me for a while. We have both come through an ordeal, and we should rest.” I really wanted to make love, but I thought it best not to say that.

  Anna kissed me softly, and my inhibition and reason dissolved completely into desire. Soon after she was moaning softly beneath me, as I cried out in the sheer pleasure of being within her warm soft body.

  I wanted to drink from her, and told myself no. Yet as I lay there with her after, I found myself kissing her neck hungrily, shaking slightly, and telling myself it would just be a little, it wouldn’t hurt her, she’d recovered quickly those other times with me...

  I bit down on my bottom lip, and stifled a hiss of pain. Then I used that pain to make myself get up, and get dressed.

  The first order of business was to look for warmer clothes that weren’t bloody. The guard I’d killed had leather armor, not good wool. Besides, he’d been on the short side. The clothes that the man I’d killed had were all too small also. But my own clothes were dry, and I put them on for now.

  Next, I looked for a weapon. After searching a moment, I grabbed the dead man’s gun from behind the front door. I puzzled over why it was there, where it would be hard to get to, and then determined that Anna had likely placed it there when she was tidying up the house. I said nothing to her, not wanting to upset her after she’d been through so much.