This seemed to anger Aries. “Speak to them? Normally I’d avenge my brothers myself, but obviously they have a way of killing us en masse. When you and your people were in danger of being killed we took up our swords and fought alongside you. I hope we can count on you to do the same here on our behalf. There’s no
reason to kill dozens of us, especially unprovoked.”
“Are you sure you didn’t provoke them somehow?” Gavin asked.
As soon as the words left his mouth he was sorry he’d said them. Aries was on the verge of his breaking point and this caused him to begin screaming. “Provoke them? Up until last night we didn’t even know about them. What could we have done to warrant such cruel actions?”
Oh I can think of a few things. As much as Gavin wanted to say the words out loud he kept them to himself. “Sorry,” was all he uttered in response.
Their future could be Ryan’s future, he heard Rachel say inside his mind, via their telepathic connection. They rarely used it these days and so he was startled when he heard her voice in that intimate way. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to have her rumbling around in his thoughts.
I know. I’m sorry, Rachel, he transmitted back to her.
Now all of them turned back toward the pond to wait, watching the ice with steady unmoving eyes. Gavin could see the tension on each and every face and even Rachel herself was standing nervously with her arms crossed. Each time anyone exhaled their breath rose in tendrils through the cold winter air. The bright full moon was shining down on a newly fallen snow and under normal circumstances this would have been a beautifully peaceful night. A night any vampire or human would have been grateful to be out in. Tonight however, all this entire group wanted was to receive news that there was absolutely no evidence under the pond that the lives of the satyrs had been taken and to make their way back home.
“No matter what happens,” Rachel said, turning to Aries. “I want you to move your camp tomorrow. Move it as far away from the water as you can.”
Aries shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what difference it makes now. There are too few of us to repopulate. Only three of us are young enough to replenish the herd. It’s not enough.”
He was giving up. Something Gavin had a hard time wrapping his head around. He wanted to scream at him. How could he not at least try for the sake of his son? And were there not other boys close by that were going to turn. He remembered a rumor he’d heard and asked. “Aries, what about the DeCoste boy? Isn’t he one of yours?”
“He would have been…” was all the creature said before turning his head away and taking a step toward the pond.
“Is his father one of the ones who has disappeared?”
“Yes. What’s taking them so long?”
“I’m sure they’re working as fast as they can,” Rachel said.
A moment later there was a slight crack in the center of the ice. One that spread and widened until it became a small opening, then a pair of hands came through, pulling chunks down into the water to make a larger cavity. This was it. The moment they’d been waiting for. Instinctively Gavin knew it had to be bad. Whoever was coming up would not need a hole that big unless they had something to drag up with them. It was far too large for only one person.
Duncan’s familiar frame emerged in the darkness. Although he had taken on the appearance of a younger man in recent years, he still looked much the same. His skin, eyes and hair had all smoothed out and glowed with the intensity of youth, but his essence, the essence of a one thousand year old vampire, remained the same.
He hoisted himself up over the side, leaving his legs dangling in the icy water as he reached down, grabbing something…someone…by the neck and gave a large heave. Clutching the unknown person under the arms he dragged the lifeless being back to the shore and pulled him up to where the group stood, laying him down gently without saying a word. Then, he turned back to the pond and walked back to the opening where another vampire was surfacing with another body.
Duncan picked that one up and walked with him, laying him down next to the first. Aries collapsed to his knees at the sight and lay his head down on the first long haired, muscular giant who was already in a state of decay.
“No, no, no,” he whispered to himself over and over. “It cannot be. It simply cannot be.”
All of the satyrs now were gathered round the bodies, the old ones in shock, expressions of sadness and grief on their faces. The young ones shocked as well, but with a degree of righteous anger as their jaws and fists clenched in fury.
Duncan quickly made his way behind a tree, expelled the water from his lungs and went back to help the other vampires who were now taking turns bringing up bodies. One by one they came and over and over Duncan lay each one down on the shore, gently and with reverence until there were at least a dozen laying there. Some were almost skeletons, others looked as though they’d only been taken days ago and were simply sleeping.
When the vampires who had helped conduct the search were all back on shore, Aries finally spoke. “We must build them each a fire.”
This was the long standing tradition of the satyr people. Each would get their own funeral pyre where prayers would be offered and, if necessary, vengeance sworn. With a flick of her hand Rachel simply motioned to the others that that they were to help and soon everyone was gathering firewood.
Rachel graciously used her fire gift to set each of the pyres alight. Then the chanting began and Aries called out the names of each of the dead, turning them over to their gods one by one. After a time Gavin looked over at Rachel and discovered she was crying. He moved to her and put his arm around her waist as the ceremony continued. By dawn the dead were nothing but a pile of ash, and the pyres were all burned out. Any human that stumbled upon it would think there had been a peculiar series of fires here.
At last as the sun rose over the frozen pond, Aries approached Rachel. “Well?”
“Like I said, move your camp. Give me a chance to speak to the council and see what we come up with.”
“Speak to the council? You disappoint me little one. You seem to forget you’re the one in charge. We need to kill these things.”
“Yes, but we have to find them first. None of the vampires who pulled the bodies from the water saw any of them. They simply found bodies. We need to come up with a plan.”
This seemed to placate the satyr for the time being. “Very well. When can we expect to see you again? However they are getting to us we don’t seem to be able to stop them. I don’t know how so many of my brothers were able to be murdered. With strength and cunning such as theirs these creatures, these naiads, must have something that can bewitch us.”
Gavin caught himself thinking: kind of like pheromones, but did not dare say it out loud, as much as he wanted to. As sad as the whole night had been, on some level it seemed very much to Gavin like deserved retribution if indeed they could seduce these creatures to the point where they were lured to the water that was to be their grave.
“Stay close to one another. Don’t separate,” Rachel said. “Come to the border of the sanctuary grounds tomorrow. We’ll figure out what to do from there. I need to call a meeting.”
Chapter Six
Soon it would be time for Rachel to feed the orphans at the Soldiers Cove sanctuary. It could only be put off for so long, but for now the meeting was going to take precedent. As things were called to order and the council seated themselves around the table, Rachel folded her hands and leaned forward, preparing to speak. Gavin couldn’t help but be taken back in time in his mind to the first time she had ever set foot in this room. She had been on her knees, basically begging for her life after having fed on and killed a human. Now, here she was, leading them.
“I’m sure you all know why we’re here. I want your thoughts and opinions on what move to make next concerning the naiads.”
After a few moments of silence Gavin’s father spoke up. “I think we should talk to them. Perhaps, we can convince them
to move on. They will be going back into hibernation soon and we need them to go somewhere else, otherwise we’ll face this again in a couple of centuries. They’ve all but wiped out the satyrs here. If the naiads come back the satyrs may never have a chance to repopulate themselves.”
“Is that what we want?” Jacob asked. “Do we want the satyrs to repopulate themselves? They themselves can do a lot of damage in their own way…but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”
“Can the innuendo,” Rachel said. “I’m looking for real solutions here and I won’t hesitate to have you thrown out on your ass if you don’t contribute.”
“Just making a point,” he said with a smile, knowing he had gotten under her skin.
Rachel shot back. “How’s this for a point? You can be replaced.”
“Point taken,” he said as he leaned back in his chair, looking around the room and waiting for someone else to speak up.
“I say we kill them,” Ellie said. “They are a nuisance. Yes, the satyrs do things we don’t agree with, but they’ve never been violent. If the satyrs can’t protect themselves from being dragged down into a watery grave by these things, how are the human males supposed to survive an encounter with them?”
Gavin had to agree. “She’s right,” he said. “I know they are doing what comes naturally as much as the satyrs are but there are lots of innocent humans who might get caught up in their ritual. If people start disappearing here it’s going to be a disaster. The place will be crawling with cops and news media. In a small area like this it wouldn’t take much to create a panic. Rachel, we can’t take that chance.”
Rachel nodded. “I see what you’re saying, but I don’t want to jump the gun and start a feud with these creatures if that can be avoided. How do we know that if we kill them they don’t have others of their kind somewhere willing to come and retaliate? I’m not sure that we should forgo diplomacy now in order to give us a solution that may only be short term.”
She had a point and everyone around the table, even Jacob, seemed to know it.
“It might be worth one conversation,” Duncan said. “I’m all for extermination but if a more peaceful solution could present itself first I don’t see why we shouldn’t explore that.”
“Thank you, Duncan. Does anyone feel otherwise?”
“Just one,” Ellie said. “Just one meeting and if they don’t give you any indication that they’re going to move on from our territory than I want to see them gone.”
Rachel nodded. “Ok, how about we put it to a vote so everyone can go on record. Everyone who is in favor of seeking them out for at least one conversation before turning to the idea of extermination, raise your hand.”
One by one each hand around the council table went up. It was unanimous.
Rachel rose to her feet and as she did everyone else unseated themselves as well. “I’m going to let Aries know what the plan is. I suspect he might want to partake. I’ll call another meeting as soon as I’ve spoken with them and we’ll go from there.”
With nods all around Rachel turned and left the room, Gavin following behind. She made her way down the hallway and out the front door to where Aries and his now small herd were waiting for an answer. A quick count in Gavin’s head told him something was off. They were minus one more. The young one, Ramsay, was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Ramsay?” Rachel asked, picking up on this as well.
“He’s gone,” Aries said, shaking his head. “We’ve searched everywhere but when we woke up this evening he was nowhere to be found. For the love of the gods, little one, please, tell us what you’ve decided.”
Rachel looked at Gavin for a moment as if trying to silently ask him how she should go about telling Aries the news. Surely he would also want the naiads to be killed, but that hadn’t been the outcome of the meeting.
“First things first, we should help you look for Ramsay.”
“Yes,” Gavin agreed. He led the group to the edge of the sanctuary grounds and holding on to their pendants made their way to the other side of the invisible barrier.
“Let’s go to the pond,” Rachel suggested. “If naiads are the reason for his disappearance we’ll find out what’s going on there.”
“Agreed,” Aries said. “Now, tell us what you’ve decided as we walk.”
Rachel took a deep breath, steadied herself and began walking in the direction of the water. “Aries, we’ve decided to try diplomacy first. I need to talk to them and see if we can’t convince them to move on for the sake of everyone involved.”
“Move on? Why? So they can murder people someplace else?”
Rachel swallowed, uncomfortable. “Essentially, yes.”
“I want you to know I don’t agree with this. I’m going to…”
Before he could finish his thought a giant splash came from the direction they were walking in, followed by a scream that was cut off mid burst. Without another word all of them broke into a run. Gavin and Rachel left the satyrs much farther behind as they zipped to the pond, using their vampire speed. Gavin stopped himself just before reaching the water’s edge. It had been an unseasonably warm day and the circular hole in the ice that had been made by the search party the night before was still a pool of open liquid. In the middle of that pool was Ramsay, being held tightly by two naked women, their skin as white as the snow surrounding the banks of the water and their eyes glaring at him, cold as ice, while they held him in their grasp.
The young satyr was frozen and although he hadn’t been taken under the water yet, he was unable to move a muscle due to the physical shock his body had received upon hitting the bitter water. Also, the women seemed to be freakishly strong and were holding him in place between them.
“Stop!” Rachel screamed. “Let him go.”
The two women looked her over, ran their hands up and down the satyr’s torso, and then laughed as hard as if they had heard the greatest joke in all the world.
Undeterred, Rachel continued on. “Who are you? What are your names?”
Again, they laughed, continued to caress the satyr like he was some kind of valued prize which they were not willing to give up, and disappeared under the water leaving him to stare, helplessly at them on the shore.
Just as Gavin moved to run out and rescue him, something seemed to tug at Ramsay from underneath and he slipped under the dark frigid water with only a small yelp.
Aries and his men came along just in time to see this happen.
“Ramsay!” Aries screamed as he shoved past Gavin to try and get to him. The rest of his group caught him, however, and held him back. Gavin turned to see the struggle between the satyrs and as he did another splash was heard from behind him. Rachel was gone.
Chapter Seven
Without a second thought for himself, Gavin headed for the opening in the ice and dove straight in after Rachel. The feeling of his body hitting the cold liquid was unnerving in so many ways, not the least of which was that the last time he had been under this pond was when Ian had put him here to hide him. Something of which he had no memory. He only possessed the memory of waking up, groggy, in Holly’s home with Rachel keeping watch over him.
A quick glance around revealed Rachel in a struggle with the two naiads. One had her by the neck, attempting to twist and the other was holding her hands in an effort to keep her still. Rachel broke free however and grabbed the naiad who’d held her arms by the throat, ripping a portion of the fatty flesh out with her fingers. These naiads were strong, stronger than satyrs, but still no match for vampires.
Gavin grabbed hold of the one who had been restraining Rachel by the neck and shoved her down onto the seaweed covered pond floor. Next to her he saw Ramsay, struggling as his lungs filled with cold water. Gavin grabbed him quickly and headed for the opening in the ice, Rachel following him as the naiads quickly disappeared from sight. Once they found the opening Gavin shot up with Ramsay in his arms and lay him down on the ice in an attempt to perform CPR. Gavin prevailed and Ramsay
choked out some water before beginning to breathe again.
Then, both Gavin and Rachel expelled the water form their own lungs before dragging Ramsay further up onto the shore.
Each of the few satyrs who were left huddled around him and inquired as to if he was ok. When they were finally satisfied that he was, Aries turned to Rachel once again. “You still want to go down the road of diplomacy?”
Rachel opened her mouth to form some sort of answer. Nobody would ever know what it was, however, because just at that moment the sound of moving water and ice filled the night air and a form rose from the pond, walking as if gliding, feet not touching the ground, over to where the group of them were.
Instinctively the satyrs backed up and took their soaking wet brother with them, helping him to his feet as fast as they could. Rachel and Gavin stood directly between them forming a barrier if need be, but given the strength they possessed if this one was joined by others they would only be able to hold them off for so long.
“Go,” Rachel said to the satyrs without turning her head, never taking her eyes off the woman. The rustle of snow and branches sounded behind Gavin as the satyrs ran scared into the night.
This woman, unlike the others they had seen, was wearing a long white dress and her icy blue eyes stood out against her pale skin and white blonde hair. The water on her dress was already beginning to form ice crystals and her voice had an eerie vibration in it as she spoke.
“Please,” she said. “Forgive my daughters. They are…over anxious to mate and are young. They are still learning. My name is Zarah and these,” she said motioning behind her to where a group of naiads emerged to stand on the frozen pond, “these are my daughters.”
Gavin gave a quick count and noted that there were about twenty in all. “Is this your entire group or are there more of you?” he asked.
The woman glanced behind as if to make certain of her answer. “This is all. I do apologize for tonight’s incident.”
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: Sacrificial Children Page 4