Raven and Ejner had watched as Maria grew older, but even then, Ejner had always loved her. He loved her even as she drew her last breath, and moaned her death long after, his daughter the only one reminding him what life was all about. Their beautiful daughter is the spitting image of her mother, except for her height and her eyes. Those two things she’d undoubtedly inherited from him.
“Father!” Raven now called, approaching him with great haste, cutting across the large hall in less than a second while getting off her phone. “Michael just called. There’s an abandoned church just North of here..” He barely waited for her to finish the sentence, but she wasn’t surprised. This was the seventh day since her aunt had disappeared. Chances were she was already dead, but if not, on the very verge of death itself.
Raven got the address from her father’s subject, and hurriedly typed it into her phone to get the directions.
Various police cars with loud sirens were chasing after them as they cruised across the small city, so she got onto the phone and called her Governor, Kjeld, asking him to have Derek pull the police off their heels. Derek was the current secretary of homeland security, plus he had many people in his pocket, those whom he couldn’t directly order to do his bidding.
Finally the police tailing gave way just as they pulled up at the said church where Michael and his colleagues were busy scanning the perimeter.
“She’s here!” Is all her father said before rushing out of the car, barely before it finally stopped, leaving her behind to jump into the driver’s seat and park it safely, before rushing after him. He would need her support either way.
Please don’t be dead, she silently prayed as she rushed after him, finding his finger’s bleeding as he attempted to dislodge a heavy stone door under the dusty pew area.
She immediately dropped to her knees, helping him lift it up. She could barely hear a heartbeat, but there still was an air of Draugr life around them, though very faint. Too faint, soon to be gone.
The stone cover finally gave way, and with all her might she helped him throw it to the side, tearing after him into the steep staircase leading into a dingy basement.
“Sister!” Her father cried with despair upon seeing her dried up body. She wasn’t really living anymore, just dried skin hugging her thin skeleton, eyes dried out and hollow, nose gone, head bare of any hair- a living skeleton mere minutes from dust.
“Don’t touch her father!” Raven called out with concern. Her aunt would crumble away at a touch. She was too far gone, Raven would have now said, if only she didn’t mind hurting her father.
But Ejner was not about to give up, not even upon seeing her current state. He tore open his wrist and held it over what had been her mouth, being sure not to disturb her body in any way, and let his blood seep in through her weathered away lips.
Most of the blood only rolled down her crisp skin, but some drops made it between her tightly clenched jaw. But those drops were only enough to buy her a few more minutes.
And so her father proceeded, bleeding himself nearly dry for just those bare drops that made it through her lips.
“Let me try, father,” she now said, pushing his weakened body away, and tearing at her own wrist. “Go feed and then come back stronger. I’ll keep her alive.”
And thus they proceeded, until her aunt was reluctantly forced to start healing, her body reacting to the new supply of blood. They went on in this fashion for days, sleeplessly, not stopping, until her flesh began to fill out, and her skin came alive yet again. She was yet too brittle to move. Her body would have to be strong enough to fight against crumbling or breaking before they could move her.
Every one of them had turns now in forcefully feeding her, and as she regained consciousness, she began attempting to revolt. But even then, they kept force feeding her, until she was finally strong enough to be moved into a better place.
They first went into a hotel, putting her on a strict diet of at least a liter of blood each three hours, until her aunt was back, physically at least.
Raven had never met with a broken spirit before, but here was definitely one. She watched as her aunt kept been forced to feed. Raven had also never met a Draugr that could resist their blood lust, not when fresh pumping human blood was right before their lips. Even when she was most satisfied, Raven could never resist an offered wrist or neck of still pumping human blood. But here was her aunt, her veins severed and still healing, leaking off most of the blood she was being fed, which meant she was still ravenous hungry, yet she had the mental strain of keeping her jaw locked tight, needing to be wrestled into opening it, and sometimes they failed, and had to put her on a drip just so she wouldn’t starve.
She’d never met anyone with as strong a will as aunt Anja’s, and she also knew she’d probably never meet with another in the future.
XIII
“Anja?” She shut her eyes against his soft voice, unsure why exactly.
Maybe she was embarrassed at having being caught in so compromising a situation, for she was sure she’d just been on the verge of death. Or maybe she was embarrassed at having failed again at her attempt to kill herself.
Or maybe, maybe she was embarrassed at nearly having done this to him again. Ejner, her brother who always loved her. Who’d killed his father for her, and had found his mother starved to death from his actions. Yes, that played a great part in her current shame. He’d gone against everything he believed in for her, and here she was attempting to make it all for naught.
“I’m so sorry,” Ejner went on to say.
No Ejner! She called out in her mind. I’m sorry. I’m not worthy of you. I’m not worthy of anyone. I bring everyone pain..
“I can’t change the past,” Ejner went on to say. “I can’t make it all better for you. But I want you to know that I’ve always loved you. I’ve.. I’ve always thought of you. If that is worth anything, then please come back to me. Please say something..”
“Ejner,” she forced herself to croak, opening her eyes a crack to find him seated beside her bed.
“Anja!” His voice was filled with love as he cried out, reaching up to her, then changing his mind, remembering Jon’s instructions that she must not be touched unless absolutely necessary. She hated it.
“Ejner.. I’m sorry!” She managed.
“No.. no, I’m sorry,” he called, tears of blood staining his face that he didn’t attempt to wipe away.
“I should never have..”
“No, none of that now,” he rushed to say, curtailing her words. “You are not to feel any more guilt,” he instructed her, his eyes filled with so much love, dark rings burning bright against the bloody stains of his tears.
“You’re here now, that is all that matters,” he told her. “No more apologies, no more guilt trips, and most of all,” he said, his eyes holding hers firmly. “No more fear. I will instantly smite anyone that dares touch you.”
No more words were left to be said between them, only the large drops of bloody tears that rolled down her face.
It was weeks later that they were to leave the hotel they’d been cooped up in during her recovery period, her brother remotely conducting his governor duties from there.
She then followed with him, and six other draugrs under his command, two pure bloods, and four half-bloods, her niece with them, and boarded his private plane heading back to England, headquarters of Area Two.
Part of her had been glad, as well as sad, to not have said goodbye to Jon. She wished to see him again, because she still cared for him, however emotionally she knew that it’d do them no good. He would be feeling overly guilty that he’d left her to run off to die, and she’d feel equally guilty for making him think that. Theres was a doomed relationship from the start. He’d been right when he said that being in each other’s presence only brought them both pain.
It was better this way. Maybe it was her brother she needed to recover.
Ejner owned a home in London, close to his main offices, but he and R
aven moved in with her into their country home, where she’d have acres of open land around her, and wouldn’t feel claustrophobic. Very considerate of them.
At first she’d been ill-advised on what to use her time on, severely desperate to reassure her brother that she was alright, but Ejner had remained patient and most understanding.
“Don’t worry.. don’t push yourself too hard. Just do whatever you want, whatever you feel like, even if remaining in your bed all day is what you wish to do. All that I ask of you, is to eat,” he’d said, his voice shaking slightly with concern.
Now she couldn’t deny him of that, could she? So she did just that, lay in bed all day and emptied her plate, as well as the glass of blood sent with it each time. Raven constantly asked her if she wished to have more, but she’d refused. She’d trained her body over her two centuries of freedom to feed on just that much that was necessary.
Raven would also often ask her if she wished to feed live, directly from a vein, but she’d refuse. She was perfectly okay with feeding from a glass. Her niece would look confused then, not understanding how anyone could refuse to feed live, but Anja had smiled at her. Not many could understand her way of life.
Raven seemed more concerned with nursing her aunt back to life than with getting back to her own life. Often she’d knock timidly on Anja’s door, then come in, a book in hand, wishing to read her something. Soon, niece and aunt came to be comfortable enough with each other to talk. First Anja asked surface deep questions, like about the weather.
“A dry summer we are having,” Raven had answered. “Did you want me to open your drapes..?” Anja had shaken her head no. She much preferred the darkness.
Then Anja had asked Raven of her hobbies and talents. She liked to read, but the interesting kind of books, she’d rushed to add.
“Now which are those?” Anja had asked amused.
“Fiction, especially fantasy, supernatural or science fiction, as well as dystopian. Unlike father, I hate periodicals, philosophy, and all things non-fiction.”
“Escapism,” Anja had muttered under her breath.
“What?” Her niece had asked, leaning closer but maintaining her distance. No one touched her here, her brother had been true to his word.
“You wish to escape into your books,” Anja told her niece. “Why? You are yet too young and too protected to know the true horrors of this world.”
Her niece’s eyes had then dulled out, as meaning of her aunt’s words came to life, and she remembered that aunt Anja was like this for a reason. A very sad, disturbing reason.
“I just find them entertaining enough,” Raven had moved to explain herself, her voice small then.
“Then count yourself very lucky,” Anja had said.
That night, Anja scolded herself for dampening the child’s humour, and decided to be better company next time.
So when Raven next came to see her, Anja asked Raven to read her something of her choosing, from that fantasy genre that she was so much into. And she then hurriedly brought out what she termed as her favourite books of all time, and began to read to her about little men with large feet living at the center of the world, going on adventures with creatures such as man, elves, dwarves, wizards and goblins, meeting formidable unimaginable enemy creatures that left her both bewildered and perplexed. However at the end of the book, Anja was solidly and irreversible hooked, and quickly asked Raven to find the second book.
It was thus her brother often found them, both women in his life curled up in Anja’s bed, while his daughter read to his sister make belief stories set in make believe worlds.
Raven was the first person Anja willingly touched later that year, close to winter. She’d stretched out her hand from under her beddings and touched her niece’s rich dark hair, and the girl had smiled back wide, red tears balancing in her eyes, at what she knew was a great symbol of trust.
A few days before christmas, Anja ventured downstairs for the first time. Raven wished to play her the theme song for the movie that had been made from the Middle-earth books, and she’d been most interested to hear. Raven was a skilled pianist, and the musical piece had been so entrancing, that Anja had asked to watch the movie.
Compromising to watch it in the cinema room, where the sound system and the 3D full wall screen would provide maximum enjoyment of the production, rather than for the single screen and speakers Raven could bring into her room, Anja and Raven had spent a whole day and night in the cinema room, watching the well produced movies, discussing each movie as contrasted to the corresponding book in detail after it ended.
Anja soon came to realise that her niece had never gotten over her mother’s death, and was inadvertently looking for a mother in her. This both touched her, as well as inspired her to try some more to heal. This healing which everyone was so intent on wishing for her. She had no idea how exactly she was to heal, but she knew that paying Raven the attention she much needed, which her busy father couldn’t afford her, was a good way to start.
It wasn’t long before Anja was having meals with her brother and niece in the grand dining room, but only when there were no guests about. The servants of the large estate were rarely to be seen, under strict instructions from their master, or what they now call an employer, in this new-age.
As spring was ushered in, and the flowers began to bloom, Anja went for her first ride in nearly a century with her niece. The last time she’d ridden was with Jon back in Africa. They’d ridden wild zebras, galloping away happily, whooping out loudly, feeling as free as the wind itself, their whole future before them. Each time she thought of freedom, or wished to define it, her thoughts flipped back to that day.
Riding is a practice one can’t quite forget, like the humans say with cycling. Anja never learnt to cycle as she found the practice too tedious and slow. It was much faster and less cumbersome to just run, and she’d always been a fast runner. But riding, that she loved. To feel the powerful beast under her legs, to guide it with her gentle nudges, to be in commune with it, sailing through the air- that was true exhilaration.
Riding soon became a family venture. Her brother bought her a faster horse, the fastest in the world currently, and each morning, she joined him and his daughter in riding across his large property, and after they’d all be heavily famished, happy smiles on their faces.
One time as she handed back the reins of her stallion to her brother, her fingers accidentally brushed his. Her brother immediately pulled back his hand alarmed, a contrite expression crossing his features, but she’d smiled at him instead.
“It’s alright,” she’d baffled them all by saying. “I mean, I think it is, otherwise I’d have been paying better attention to not touch you.”
Anja can count the number of times she’d seen her brother as happy in her company as he was right then. Probably only back when she’d yet been a child, and he’d visit her under their father’s roof. Before all the darkness began.
“I think I’m healing,” she now said to him and his daughter, who was battling against her tears and losing, staining the white sleeves of her riding gear.
“I think you are,” is all her brother had said, his voice greatly affected.
XIV
“There’s to be a general assembly this year,” Ejner said, his eyes meeting hers. “In my area, as I’m hosting it this time,” he went on to add, his voice sounding slightly burdened, unsure of her reaction to it.
“Must I attend?” She asked him.
“I’m afraid you must,” he said warily. “General assemblies are compulsory for all.”
“I’ll stay with you the whole time, and punch out anyone that attempts to talk to you or touch you,” her niece rushed to say. Anja couldn’t help it but smile to the beautiful whelp beside her.
“Thank you, love,” she said lovingly, overwhelmed with emotion at so much love. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so loved in her life. Only by her mother. Even when she was with Jon, and she knew he’d kill, or die trying, anyon
e that attempted to harm her. However she was always overburdened with the guilt of that which she couldn’t give him, and feared that she might never.
“But- must I really, brother? My condition of freedom was to report to a governor each month. I have satisfied that this past year, living with you,” she said with a smile.
“Yes, but attending the general assembly held each decade is compulsory. You yourself know it to be true. It is what had you in trouble in the first place. Just attend this one, and in the next decade, you don’t have to think about it again.”
His words were most welcomed, the thought of hiding away here for a decade sounding heavenly, and so she agreed.
“However..” he started, the uncertainty in his voice having her unnerved again. “Over this past half of the century I’ve had a long standing tradition with Jon and his half-brother, to host then in my home during the assemblies held here in my area, and they do vice-versa for Raven and I..”
“No matter, father!” Raven rushed to interrupt him. “Aunt’s well being is most important now, and not your political affiliations..”
“It’s alright,” she surprised them both by saying. “I think I can handle it.. I know I can, and if I feel in anyway overwhelmed, I have my own wing.”
“Exactly,” Ejner jumped in to say pleased. “This is your home. And you don’t only have your own wing, this is all your home,” he said, gesturing around them. “The moment you feel ill at ease, all you have to do is ask them to leave. Like Raven insinuated, politics is nothing compared to family.”
And so it was that Anja and Raven began to order around the staff in preparation for their guests. The guest wing was opened up and made ready, in preparation for Jon and Pendo, and Kjeld who would be in the company of Xiu, as Raven had deducted.
“Kjeld and Xiu had something. At least they used to fuck,” her niece had brazenly informed her a while back. “I don’t think he holds her in especially high regard, not as much as I could deduct, though Xiu is undoubtedly head over heels taken up by him,” her chatty niece had informed.
Redemption (Dawn of the Damned Book 1) Page 9