‘We must go now. You have to trust me.’ And she nodded.
With Lilah tightly in my arms I jumped from the window while she clutched at the sleeves of my shirt. She did not tremble but her eyes widened as we floated to the ground. It was another skill to make ourselves lighter than air. I ran then and carried her deep into the forest.
‘Where are we going?’
‘I am taking you to a place in Transylvania where you belong with your own kind.’
‘Will my parents be there?’
‘No.’
‘Are you my own kind?’
‘Yes, in a way.’
‘You killed a man by swallowing his blood – stories I have heard about – yet I could sense no wrong from you. It is a strange connection we have yet I don’t understand it.’
‘Our connections run through many generations. Something you will learn about but not from me. It is best to learn from someone who can teach you much more than I.’
In truth, I steered her away from the conversation. I sought to avoid answering questions about her past. This girl had extraordinary senses for someone so young and she would eventually see through any lies. With such potential, she would undoubtedly be taken into the coven. She may have trusted me but the question remained whether she would trust the one who had been seeking her for years.
Chapter 7
Lewis
‘Where were you last night? I sent you a message that you must come back to the castle.’
‘I like where I’m living.’
‘I’ve told you before that your liaisons at that house will get you in trouble. It is no longer safe. I suspect that the Brodnici knows it exists.’
‘I thought we wiped them out years ago.’
‘There will always be others and they are often crafty as we have seen. They have been a threat to our existence for centuries. As long as they breed, there will be others. We might have the upper hand at most times but while you are in that fickle way your brain is not thinking where it should. You should be careful, Gabriel.’
He was distant, thinking of that silly woman no doubt! I was aware that he had been spying and stalking her. If only I could cure him of such petty conquests.
‘She is human. They are never worth it.’
‘Does it matter what I do with my time?’
‘Yes, it does. If you spurn her she would think to give away our location and you will have signed a warrant for her death.’
‘I can read their minds and never once have I spied thoughts of malice…just an overwhelming desire to please me and an experience that matches no other.’ He smiled then, as he was well pleased with his charms.
Gabriel took his share of humans for servants, sustenance and enjoyment in equal measures. Most strigoi confined themselves to sustenance only; mainly because they could not control themselves around the smell of human blood. Lust could turn to something more. But Gabriel was different. He was skilled in the art of lovemaking and that above all seemed to overtake any other desires. Many of the female gender found it difficult to resist his attentions.
‘This is not about me. I thought you wished to speak about Lilah.’
Yes, the young witch. Gabriel had introduced me to her in the library briefly the night before. I had the ability to see a witch’s potential embedded in their skin, in the colour of their eyes, and sometimes just from the questions that they asked. It was an instinct only gained from someone as old as I. And this one had gifts far greater than her age, or that she knew. But the one attribute – or perhaps a flaw – which was different from most of the witches was her fearlessness of mortality. This skill alone could perhaps unsettle an adversary and not least make a conversion difficult. In time, this was a girl that others would fear.
‘Where has she been all these years?’
‘At a monastery.’
‘You knew she was there?’
‘Yes.’
‘You should have told me. I am supposed to trust you.’
‘I honoured a promise’
‘See what happens when you honour a promise like this! Eventually they will find their way here if I don’t find them first. It was wrong of you to do that. I should punish you.’
‘I brought her here remember.’
I accepted this fact begrudgingly, but wondered if he was capable of hiding other things. Though I trusted him above many other strigoi, I would have to watch him a little closer. It would not do to have a potential successor keeping secrets.
‘I can’t read her thoughts. How much does she know?’
‘Enough.’
‘Then she will no doubt convert to be one of us.’
‘I don’t think she would want that’.
‘You said that she was not frightened when she saw what you did.’
‘I have promised her that she will be safe here and she can go at any time.’
‘Another promise!’ I said, my scorn too great to hide. ‘I don’t think so. I will not so easily forgive the last one.’
‘We don’t force them to take the change.’
It was not unusual for Gabriel to dare me to question my own rules.
‘You humour me. The alternative is not a worthy option.’
Gabriel looked accusingly, and I despised that he had such a conscience. He knew my rules and I knew he did not agree with all of them. He had sometimes aired his thoughts in our private counsel, but fortunately not to the others. He had loyalty and discretion and would not risk unsettling the coven with his views.
‘And you know there are always those witches too weak of mind to leave and too weak to stay.’
‘You must consider another option for this one. She is worth saving for something else.’
Something about this comment alarmed me. Perhaps the potential to interfere with my decisions.
‘You mean for breeding? As your wife perhaps?’
He did not expect this turn of conversation and I saw slight regret for the suggestion. He forced a laugh. ‘No. I have my hands full. I was thinking more as yours.’ Though I was not convinced of his sincerity with such a statement for he did not meet my look. ‘She is much different from the others; more…attentive.’
There were still thoughts that he didn’t say out loud. I left him there to seek Lilah in her room. Servants passed me in the halls with their heads down as was customary. This castle had been home to the strigoi now for two centuries. The slaves who had placed stone upon stone were rewarded by living to the end of their human years and their generations had continued to serve us.
The castle was far from everything. A haven for witches who had escaped persecution and to whom had been given the gifts of eternal life. These witches were known as the reborn. There were many of the elders here also, some currently in the ground; those from the early years, once forced to live in underground caves to hide from those humans who hunted them. After several hundred years of hiding our kind became legend only. With skill and disguise in the last few hundred years we were able to walk the earth without fear.
Our coven had three floors plus the basement, oak-panelled hallways leading to many hidden passageways, and rooms full of oriental tapestries and treasures stolen from the vaults of royalty and merchants. On a day of mist the castle was hidden except for the spires that reached into the clouds from their dome caps. The gargoyles at the front were built in honour of our ancestors who did not have the skills or knowledge to wear the skin of humans. Some had made it through, dug up from sleeping crypts to emerge as new again, while others fell victim to forest animals without the safety of a burial chamber, their bones scattered across the lands and an endless darkness for their souls. I shuddered when I thought how close it came to be my prison had I not uncovered, centuries ago, the ancient witch speak writings of rebirthing: disguising in the stolen form of humans while we replenished and grew in number. We safely returned to the ancient traditions of burial to replenish our youth and such body stealing became unnecessary and later banned from practice.
T
he coven was passed to me centuries ago and it had become a strigoi safe house. Hapless travellers sometimes stumbled upon our home after weeks in the Black Forest, thinking they had found sanctuary only to find that they had reached their end. They were taken by one of us as quickly as the wolves pounce on their prey: blooded and their bodies burnt to ash. Although some of these had committed no human crimes it was impossible to release them. Even the innocent had to be sacrificed in this instance. The task of transporting them elsewhere and removing their most recent memories was simple, but we could not erase their instinct or their sense of purpose. It is the nature of humans to return to complete a journey.
In certain cases where memories were erased many returned to their undertaking, experiencing feelings of familiarity without ever understanding why.
Lilah was given one of our best chambers. Just by the choice, it was clear that Gabriel thought her important enough. Her bed was large with tall shaped pillars and a cream lace coverlet. A thick fur rug lay in front of a fire. The girl sat by the window watching the first trickles of snow outside and she turned as I entered as if expecting me. She was slender and unassuming in the way she tilted her head, yet seemed to fill the room with light and force; so much so the intensity of it made me draw back momentarily.
‘Why am I here?’ It was clear she had been questioning our motives throughout the night, her face drawn and paled.
My bones creaked as I bent to sit beside her on the lounge. Age was not something I could do with self-healing. The battle with age could not be won – no amount of interfering could produce a cure except for sleep. My time for rest would be here in less than a decade but I had yet to name my successor. Gabriel was the obvious choice by most but he could be unreliable, his heart given to fancies in a moment of passion or whim as he had recently shown. An elder was a likely successor but that many were ageing also and would be seeking their time of rest not long after me. Along with the fact that many were not born to be leaders, too accustomed to the easy life of taking orders instead.
‘Such a direct question from someone so young!’
She looked away at this a moment to consider whether she had stepped too far.
‘I don’t understand why. Gabriel said I would be safe but I can’t help feeling that there is more to me being here than just a place to sleep.’
I could not tell her then of my plans. She was too young to cope with such and did not have the desperate fire in her belly like most who found me; those cast out from their villages with their ‘unnatural’ practices of healing.
‘You are a witch and you are now with family. We have blood connections going back centuries’
‘But I am not like you or Gabriel. I have seen what your kind is capable of.’
Her wide leaf shaped eyes did not blink when she said this. It was not reproachful in any way but full of questions and a desire for information. I could not read her but her energy was potent.
I had no weakness for pretty young witches but even I felt some of my own strength leave me as if she were leaching it from me; as if I was suddenly cut from thinner cloth.
She had powers that she was unaware of yet and with my help I would make sure that she reached the very height of herself.
‘What is it that you do here?’
‘We teach and live generously. We have an extensive library with books on witchcraft and books on history. We have meetings to discuss issues that might affect us and ways to better ourselves. Above all, we remain discreet.’
More recently, many witches, our weaker cousins, had been invited to learn and convert to our ways.
‘I know that you are something else and that we share some common blood, that you can take away life just as quickly as you heal, but I do not understand where I fit in all of this. Perhaps you can teach me more about that. I would like to help the poor and the sick. I know I cannot be a sister of the holy church… they do not accept what I am…but I can help in other ways.’
‘The church is full of bigotry and hypocrisies and in time you will share this view. Here, you will learn much that you do not wish to, and see things that you cannot take back. You must be prepared for what the strigoi do. It is part of who we are. Many humans would call us abhorrent but we are simply survivors like every other species. We are the top of nature’s ladder.’
She frowned a bit. ‘Where am I then, on its rungs?’
‘Witches, like you, have continued our line and made our covens stronger.’
I could see that she was having difficulty with this – she was not ready to learn her future. I had not told her that witches were one step away from their true form, the strigoi.
‘I struggle to think that I am called a witch, something related to the devil.’
I laughed at this, confusing her. ‘Human superstition only. For centuries I have seen them accuse their own of such: poor wretches without any sort of skill but just different; lunatics, touched in the mind by misfortune. Such ignorance! A witch is a higher being than those with whom you have been associating. You should be proud of what you are.’
‘Then I would like to learn, to observe and take my knowledge to others, so that they may not be so ignorant. I want to show others like me, that they do not need to fear or hide, that they have choices. That they deserve to fit into society, to pray at church, and not outcast like vermin.’
Choices! She was indeed candid. From this statement I could see that she would not be so easy to master and I was disappointed that this one would take some time to convert. She had been exposed to a heinous crime by human men yet still remained faithful to Christian ideals. Only a witch with little experience among humankind could be so trusting.
Lilah may think she coped with the shock of seeing the act of blood-taking but despite her curiosity she would not cope with the other secrets of the strigoi – not yet. It was too early. Perhaps it would have been wise to set this girl adrift to learn more hardships. Understand better the pettiness of humans until she despised them, greatly desiring something more: to be closer to her own kind. She was deluded in thinking that freedom was benevolent. Freedom was a curse. Coven boundaries meant protection.
‘You can stay here for another night then I must ask you to leave.’
‘What?’ She stared for a moment than a loud breath of air escaped her. ‘I don’t understand. You were to show me how best to use my skills. Gabriel promised…’
‘Gabriel is impulsive. He bends many of the rules to suit himself but I disagree with him this time. I do not believe you are of an age to be here yet.’
‘But I am a fast learner. I need to understand myself. I know nothing of my past and I have nowhere else to go.’
‘One day you can return. I will have the servants pack a bag for you to help you on your way. Perhaps you are better off with humans.’
She twisted the tips of her fingers nervously. ‘Can I not stay here a while longer? I know what you do but I am not afraid…I promise you that. And I am older than my years.’
I paused a moment, for effect only, and Lilah followed my gaze to watch a brown hawk swoop and land gracefully onto the low thinning tree, the branches bending from the weight of it. Its head twisted, catching sight of something on the ground before it swooped again to take a baby squirrel in its shears. The hawk shook the life out of it until there was nothing but blood and fur, then it flew away over the tops of the trees, its wings gently rising and falling. It had all the time to enjoy its feast, fearful of little.
Lilah shuddered slightly and I could see her wondering where she would find a home before winter.
‘Will you not show me how to be better at my craft? ’
It had been my intention all along to dangle the idea of knowledge in front of her and make her beg. I needed to stay in control of her.
‘If you stay you must study all about your craft. A year of learning but you must do as I say at all times.’
‘Yes, of course. And then when I have learnt enough I will not take upon y
our kindness any longer.’
‘Very well. I will assign a servant to take care of you.’
‘Is she…’ She found it difficult to finish.
‘No. She is human. All the servants are human. They are guaranteed safety from us, as well as from their own pitiless kind, while they live under my roof and do as I ask. They will cook for you and serve you meals in your room for now.’ I stood to leave.
‘May I ask what that is on your arm?’
I showed her my wrist and the small purple-inked circle. ‘It is a symbol of our coven, of those who have sworn their loyalty.’
‘Oh, I see. It is quite unique!’ There was an air of detachment in this comment as if it was in no way relative to her. She would soon learn that there would be nothing else so important.
Lilah
Lewis stood up to leave. He was tall with a long neck and his black hair, streaked with grey, hung loosely around his shoulders. He would have been handsome when he was younger but the puffed darkened skin beneath his eyes told of many years before mine.
Inside, my body was trembling at the thought of being cast out of another home, even if it was temporary, and even among creatures stranger than I. The thought of starting again without bed and without direction was again like staring down into a black hole from where I would never find a way out.
I did not mention to Lewis that even worse than having no home to go to was perhaps not seeing my rescuer again. I was so drawn to him. It wasn’t so much what I felt for Emil, but that I felt no fear of anything when Gabriel was near. From the first moment that I had met him in the forest, from that first look in his eye, I knew somehow that I was safe, that nothing could harm me while I was in his company.
I had said my silent farewell to Emil several nights ago. I still felt his presence about me as if he had never left the earth. It was because of me that Emil’s brother and father died in the most violent of manners. And I felt shame that it was also because of me that he died. There were moments at the beginning of the journey that I imagined bringing him back to life so that I could be forgiven. But these were selfish indulgent thoughts. There was a point to death. Death did not only mean an end to mortal life, but a new and brighter beginning in another place far greater. That was perhaps why I was unafraid and why I did not feel as saddened as I should at Emil’s death. Fate would not have us together on Earth and I accepted this.
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