Arianne could spin a tale better than I, even revealing the exact faked names and locations of our ancestors. There was never any dispute and those who questioned too eagerly would wake up the next morning unable to remember the conversations from the night before. We socialised with government and church bodies, something I did find amusing, and Arianne carried it off effortlessly. In London, there was no shortage of blood from the most disturbed and vile humans. Our patrons unaware they shared their homes with creatures to be feared; unknowing of our predacious traits disguised in wealth.
For two years we enjoyed the status, and, even I, more accustomed to solitude, welcomed the distraction. But as time went on, high society life became too humdrum, and I began to yearn once again for my home in the Black Forest, imagining the howls of my wolf brothers, and the scent of pine.
We began our hunting separately and when we were together, arguments would ensue. Some nights Arianne did not come back until morning and I was not concerned and did not even care to ask. I became more distant, avoiding the functions she attended.
Although I succumbed to sick youths from time to time, to put them out of their disease ridden misery, another problem arose from my conscience, recalling the episode with Claude. In secret, I began to cure those children afflicted with minor ailments. To interfere with the nature of humans went against everything I was taught, not to mention a punishable offense in covens across the land. Lilah’s influence on me was strong, even from a distance, and I would often daydream about seeing her again.
One night, Arianne confronted me asking why I no longer found her desirable. How could she be that foolish! She knew that she was second in my attentions and looking back to those amorous months of our first encounters, she was perhaps this way even then. Lilah you see had always appeared so perfect and unattainable. And now I had lost her to another through my own doing. I had done those things that Arianne accused me of but it was for all the right reasons.
Arianne unexpectedly left one day and did not return and in many ways I was relieved with the burden of her control now lifted. I hoped that she would never make her way back to the castle. Since the night she caught me with Lilah, I had sensed an element of vengeance towards her former friend and pleased for the distance between the two.
I stayed in London for two more years, almost becoming a recluse; no longer accepting invitations to dine until eventually they stopped altogether. It was then that I considered returning to the earth. Although still young, I felt empty and wished to find peace again within my soul and to awake a generation later when perhaps all former hurt would be forgotten. Those plans did not eventuate.
One day, I received the calling to return to the castle. Lewis had released me from my exile and I was keen to once again find his favour to legitimately be reunited with my friends.
I traversed several countries quickly, no longer stopping to savour the arts and society we had relished on the way to London. The west was warmer than usual, something I did not care for, and the grasses dry. The seasons had become more extreme in recent years, with summers hotter and winters longer; ideal climates for death and disease.
But closer to my home, brooks flowed in gushes from the mountains and animals were still bountiful. I slipped into the rear of the castle grounds unnoticed and spied a little girl emerging from a courtyard. I had disguised my presence. Some like me are adept at such skill.
The child was the image of her mother and I could not contain a smile, but this happiness was brief as it also showed how far the void had widened between us.
Lively and curious, she ran from the courtyard and into the forest, expecting nothing to stop her from her goal. I could tell immediately that her temperament differed from her mother and was perhaps a handful for one as humble. She disappeared between the trees and I followed her a short while. Turning as if expecting me and quite unafraid, she eyed me curiously before holding out her hand to lead me back through the forest.
My heart skipped a beat as I caught sight of Lilah through the trees while she called for her daughter.
She was lovelier than ever; her face longer and the full cheeks had disappeared replaced by high angled bone down to a full mouth. Her eyes were the same as I envisaged each night: wide and golden. Her head was modestly covered with a piece of silk and fashioned into a tail at the base of her neck. Her hips had widened slightly and her breasts now full were pressed against the tightness of her bodice of French-blue linen.
Lilah was calling for her daughter then suddenly halted her step. She sensed me before slowly turning in my direction. I saw wariness and curiosity in her expression – but thankfully not disappointment – as I strode toward her. I believed that enough time had passed between us and she proved this by greeting me civilly.
‘Hello, Gabriel.’
‘Hello.’ I had the urge to touch her and lifted her hand gently from the folds of her skirt. As I bent to kiss the smooth skin, her daughter, clearly fascinated, was transfixed on our interaction.
‘You look surprised. Did Lewis not tell you I was coming?’
She shook her head.
Nothing had changed: Lewis was still a guarded man.
Lilah looked over my shoulder, her expression darkening slightly.
‘No,’ I said. ‘Arianne is not here. In fact I have not seen her for two years.’
‘Oh.’
‘She’s fascinating,’ and she followed my gaze to Oleander. ‘She is just like you.’
‘Yes, she is. But we are nothing alike.’ She was keen to change the subject and encouraged the girl back to the house with the offer of honey cake before the evening meal.
‘I see that you have a new cane.’
‘Yes,’ I said, holding up my English purchase: wooden with a silver head in the shape of a wolf.
‘Come,’ she said to me. ‘We must find my husband.’
Perhaps unintentional, that title still hit me hard in the chest, and unfathomable that Lewis had ended up with this girl instead of me. But then, I could not forget they were together because of me.
As we walked through the castle, I watched her gracefulness with her daughter skipping beside her. The little girl would turn often to view me over her shoulder.
‘Why did you name her Oleander?’
‘It was Lewis’s idea and his rarely-seen sense of humour,’ said Lilah. ‘to repeat the name I gave to a poisonous plant discovered in this very garden. She is just like the flower; beautiful, enchanting, and seductively deadly. Though I did not agree to it at first, in the past two years she can be somewhat of a challenge and now I find it suits her.’
Lewis stood in the library waiting and had probably heard most of our conversation. There was no need to tell him details of my time away; he had probably been sending spies to check on us both.
‘Thank you for coming, Gabriel,’ he said ‘No, don’t leave, Lilah. I would ask that you stay too.’ Lilah frowned. It was rare for her to join a strigoi meeting. Several of the other strigoi had followed us in and I was surprised at the number attending; the large library now full of both elders and the reborn. Meetings were not often open to the latter. Some greeted me with a hug and I was warmed by their friendship; something distance had not broken. Though it was obvious from their disregard of Lilah they were wary of her, even threatened in some way. I would need to learn more.
‘I am afraid to say that we have heard that there is a village several days’ journey from here. Someone has leaked .our location and these people are believers. They are Brodnici who know us better than any other race, and as some of you know, have attempted to cull our numbers. A strigoi recently took the blood of a vagabond and thus learned of their plan. How they know our location is still a mystery but it is understood that they will arrive when the moon is less than half. They know this is when we are not at our full strength.’
‘Then we capture one in the meantime to find out where the rest are.’
‘No, we wait and read their thoughts as you ta
ke their blood. Tracking them has never been successful.’
‘I do not understand,’ said a reborn. ‘How do they know about us and why have we not found out about them before?’
‘The Brodnici is another reason you are taught to be clever and cover your tracks. They have been tracking us since the dawn of our existence but it has been half a century since we last encountered them to such an extent that they could outnumber us. It is still a mystery how they know of us or how they are able to track us. They are cunning yet not so much that our own strigoi did not learn of their plan.
‘Though I have no proof, those villagers we killed several years ago may have been recruited by the Brodnici and sent to test our numbers while they prepared their own people and regrouped. We will always have enemies, and many clever enough to mask their person and their thoughts as ignorant townspeople. The Brodnici come and go and change their race. We must never become complacent.’
‘Why not find their source and completely destroy them?’
‘They cover their tracks as well as any strigoi to avoid being found by us. They are nomadic. Should you scout and return with a location, it is unlikely they will be there for us to find, and never do they stay together but spread themselves across towns. They are vast in numbers across the east, living amongst townspeople and grouping in secret, sending coded messages between their various locations.’
‘So we travel – all of us – in the dead of night and we find them one by one and kill them.’
‘Just finding one will unlikely lead us to the rest. We could hunt for weeks and still have nothing.’ said Lewis. ‘The only way to reduce their number is to wait for a hundred men to come to us and then we kill them. When they don’t return it will send a message that we continue to remain formidable. This may not deter them but it will take them years to regroup for another attack.’
‘That does not sound so difficult,’ said another.
‘They carry no magic but I can tell you that there have been casualties in these uprisings in the past. They are usually twice in number and not all of you are powerful. Your manual strength can ride against them but if they choose to come at you with fire while you are distracted with another, you could die.’
‘So we just have to wait then,’ said a frustrated strigoi.
‘Yes. This will be the second attack within years. First the villagers and now the Brodnici. It is unusual and I hope that the betrayal has not come from within the coven, whether by carelessness or whether intentional. If I hear of the one who has done this, then that person will be cast to the darkness.’
There were looks between them, some eyes settling on Lilah, which I found disturbing. I would tear out their throats if one so even voiced her name. Lilah felt this too. I could not see why she was much hated among the strigoi but it was important I learn the reason. Only Giorgio my friend greeted her with any civility and she responded with a genuine smile that reached her eyes.
We left and agreed that at dusk we would take our places around the castle.
Lilah left us. She was thoughtful now, her face frowning. I knew this was not what she wanted, that she would go to any length to avoid this even suggesting to Lewis that they find a new place to live instead of killing.
With everyone gone Lewis sat down to examine me.
‘I heard that you lost your wife.’
‘It is ended. You can no longer call her my wife.’
Lewis nodded smugly. ‘You have always been impetuous and impatient and look where it got you. With a mad strigoi too enticing and wild to be any good to anyone, not even herself. I warned you that this would not go the way you wanted. You should kill her before I do.’
‘Did you really need me to come back for this?’ I said both offended and tired of the reminder of my folly.
‘We would probably succeed but many of the reborn do not have the strength of you and the elders, and I need your support. Despite our differences I know I have always been able to count on you.’
I nodded. I did not like the situation as it stood but Lewis had taken care of us for many years. We owed him this service, all of us.
‘I would prefer to stay at the castle afterwards if you approve.’
The house that Arianne and I had shared was now soaked with distasteful memories.
‘Your loyalty will always earn you a place here.’
I had known Lewis a long time. Always serious, always studious but there were subtle differences to his character that were not there when we last spoke. His gaze was less intense, and despite the looming massacre he seemed weary and distracted, and anxious to attend to his daughter. It appeared to me that the safety of his daughter might be above that of his beloved coven.
As I retreated for several hours of sleep I encountered Giorgio. I felt I could trust him and asked why the strigoi seemed so hostile toward Lilah.
‘I don’t personally have any issue with her in fact she is good company. But many dislike the way she refuses to have anything to do with us and views us as if we are all infected. When she counsels the other witches here she refers to our immortality as a curse: a devil’s affliction. We are not superstitious but many are saying it will not do any good to have her around.’
‘Does Lewis know?’
‘Yes, of course. But he does not care. He is happy that he does not share her with anyone. It matters not to him whether she despises us.’
I did not like the sound of any of this but I understood from Lilah’s point of view. It was not her choosing to live her days here and she may still hold bitterness, believing that it was a trap from the beginning. I thought of the unhappy existence she would have had here alone if not for her daughter. Despite our torrid history, I still felt the need to repay the debt to her father.
‘I would do no harm to her, but should Lewis ever depart I would not trust some others here. They fear the child. One born of such a powerful leader will no doubt be their master one day. Even worse is the idea that Lilah may be her advisor. There are several who vie for such a position of supremacy.’
This filled me with dread. I was shocked, believing all the coven members were loyal.
‘Some say they may even wish to challenge Lewis’s authority.’
‘Then they are stupid for there are few who could match him.’
Lewis would kill them sooner or later if he learned of such talk. I decided not to mention this. Many strigoi have talked themselves up in the past and I did not want my friends blamed for careless banter. Giorgio himself may even be implicated. He was a strong strigoi, stronger than many but no match for Lewis or myself. And Lewis was not known for long trials, preferring to settle matters instantly.
Giorgio patted me on the shoulder. ‘I am hunting now. Perhaps you will join me.’
‘No, Giorgio. There will be enough blood later on.’
‘But this blood will build your strength. You will need it for the fight.’
There was truth in this. I was tired but this new information had fueled my mind and sleep was now once again beyond me. I joined him and we roamed beyond the forest to the borders of the north. Our prey was easy – simple minded scavengers far from their own country with such feeble minds they were easy to read. We would both have been killed and stripped of every possession, had we been human.
After the kill, my body felt invigorated. It was true that with each passing decade I did not feel the need to hunt as often, and one feed could often sustain me for nearly a month. Lewis could go for months, as for all the elders who had stronger blood than the reborn would ever have. These fresh young strigoi hunted weekly, sometimes more. Like Arianne, they were unpredictable at times. I did not trust some of them and wondered whether it was necessary for Lewis to grow the coven. I believed that we would be better protected by blending into human society like our German friends, and as we had done in London.
If the books in Lewis’s library were to be stolen and our secrets and weakness exposed to Brodnici or to other human hunters, our s
kills alone may not be enough to fight our enemies. I did not think that our history should be taught to witches and the reborn – such books and secrets would be safer buried deep in the ground.
It was important that we never took our gifts for granted; becoming so arrogant as to believe we were fallible. Our fallibility was something that only a rare few knew about, and even less cared to admit.
Chapter 14
Lilah
I could not sleep. Lewis told me to make sure Oleander stayed asleep and did not leave my side. He also instructed me not to watch from the windows but my curiosity was too great. I heard their shouts as they exited the forest late that night arriving at the clearing and taking various positions around the castle. I counted forty at the front and knew there were others unseen surrounding the castle. Lewis had posted his strigoi in various parts of the forest in readiness for ambush.
At first I was frightened. The faces of the Brodnici looked fierce behind their fire torches. Their skin was darkened from the elements, their beards coarse and hair matted underneath fur hats. They were crudely dressed in leather vests and fur lined boots wound with string for the long trek through forests and sodden earth. They had walked for days. There were no villages close to the castle – not close enough for human steps anyway.
They came in mass, roughly two hundred in number and walked towards the castle. I began to feel fear and wondered why Lewis had not begun his descent.
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