“It seems like lately everything I try to help her with…well… I just can’t. I don’t know why.”
“Gavin,” she said, “Rachel is not only your wife but she’s your progeny. You can’t forget that. She’s, in a way, growing up and won’t need you to help her quite as much. She’s becoming a fully formed adult and a fully formed vampire, and now she has to be a leader to all of us. To be fair I don’t think a lot of us who are older would have taken on that responsibility willingly, but it fell upon her after what she did and now she has to deal with it. She’s got a lot on her plate right now, and then of course there’s Ryan.”
“She knows I’ll do everything I can to find a way around that. It’s more important now than ever.”
“I know. But it’s not just that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m sure she feels a lot of guilt because she just can’t be here. She’s a mother and her children are not her number one priority. They can’t be.”
“But, we know they’re cared for. You and Duncan are family and we trust you to look after them as we would, if we were able.”
Holly patted his shoulder and gave a small, knowing smile. “Of course, and we love them like our own too, but, it’s not the same as having mommy and daddy around. Perhaps the way to make her happy at this time would be for you to spend all the time you can with Ryan and Jade.”
“Holly, she needs me. She almost died at the Chapel Island sanctuary the other day. It’s not the first time either. We’ve had a few close calls here too, but this one… This one was too close. There’s no way I’m leaving her alone when she has to feed them. Not a chance.”
“You’re a good man, brother,” she said, taking him in her arms now. “She’s lucky to have you, we all are.”
It was amazing how praise from Holly could lift his spirits. “Thank you,” he said.
“I’ll go see what’s keeping Ryan.”
As Holly ascended the stairs, Gavin turned back to the window and noticed Rachel was wiping her eyes as she sat there alone. If she needed her privacy, so be it. He wouldn’t push, not now, but there really was no way he would ever leave her alone with the orphans.
Chapter Nine
After having dropped Ryan at school with as cheerful a goodbye as Rachel could muster, she sat in the passenger seat and cried, quietly, all the way home. It took every modicum of strength he had not to reach out to her, but Rachel was lost in her own thoughts and he knew she needed solitude. He wanted to stop the car and hold her, or at least read her mind so he could know the right words to say, but in the end he decided against it.
After parking the car they made the familiar trek through the woods before coming to the sanctuary border, where they entered with their pendants. “Do you want to eat something first? Or would you like to feed?” he said to her finally.
“No. I just want to get it over with.”
Gavin agreed. This was a painful event, not just for her to go through but for him to watch and he felt the old familiar pang of anxiety rise up within him as they entered and made their way to her permanent quarters to get ready.
The room was immaculate as always, and the bloodstains that had littered the sheets from her last experience feeding the orphans here had disappeared. After the group had greedily torn multiple places on her body wide open, Gavin had carried her back here, lay her down and fed her with his own blood until both of them had passed out. He grew weary just thinking about it. There was, as well, always that fear that this would be the time she wouldn’t make it. This would be the feeding that one of them would be too fast for him to rescue her from and in a matter of seconds she would be nothing but ashes.
He feared it by day and dreamed of it at night when he was brave enough to will himself into sleep. Truth be told he only avoided sleep half the time because he needed the time to catch up on things, and the other half because he feared it. In his nightmares Rachel turned to dust as she slipped through his hands. Her voice called out for him to save her as she suffered and died, all just out of his reach. He shuddered.
“Hey,” she said, breaking the spell of his thoughts. “None of that is going to happen. I’m going to be just fine. You’ve always been able to protect me.”
“You read my thoughts just now?”
“Not intentionally.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean for them to escape.”
“I know. Sometimes it can’t be helped.”
She led him to the bed where they both sat, facing each other.
“You’re not still mad at me, are you?” he asked.
“Mad? No, I was never mad. I’m a lot of things right now but mad at you isn’t one of them.”
“Oh, Rachel. I feel as though I’m failing you. What can I do? I want to protect you.”
Gently she took his face in her hands, tenderly stroking his lips with her fingers, reminding him of the way she’d touched him on the night they first met. “You’ve always protected me, Gavin. But, now it’s my turn to protect you, and everyone else here for that matter.”
“But you don’t have to do it alone. I’m here, by your side, always.”
“I know.” Her eyes reddened now and she swallowed hard, attempting to keep her emotions in check. “Gavin if anything should happen to me, all you need to do is take care of our children. See to their needs as soon as the sickness passes, and let other people help you up. Also…”
“Also what?”
She hesitated, then she whispered, “Marry again.”
“No! I could never.”
“Listen to me, Gavin. You’re going to live a long time. Hundreds of years, maybe even a thousand like Duncan. I couldn’t rest in peace knowing you were alone. You’re the kind of man that needs to take care of someone.”
“Rachel, stop talking like this. I don’t want to care for anyone but you, and I never will care for anyone but you.”
She smiled as one tear fell from her eye, and he reached out brushing it away with his thumb. “Whatever it was that pulled me to you, whether it was fate, or god, or destiny, I don’t know. But whatever it was is now pulling me toward something else. I think we both feel it”
She was right. His dreams were simply a nightmarish manifestation of what he suspected. He may lose her for real, and sooner rather than later.
“I think we’ve both known from the time I was turned that a long life as a vampire just isn’t in the cards for me, Gavin. There are too many reasons others want me gone and too many circumstances that present themselves to make that happen. The second we reach the one year mark, Jacob is going to call for non-confirma. He wants to challenge me.”
“I knew putting him on the council was a bad idea.”
“It makes no difference. If it wasn’t him it would have been somebody else. If I hadn’t the group that are against me would be plotting to kill me right now. I’d rather die in competition than execution.”
“You make it sound like there’s no way out. That’s not true.”
“I’m just saying, if it comes down to it, you might have to let me go, and I’ll sleep a lot better at night knowing that you can do that and still be ok. Just take care of Ryan and Jade. Take them away if you have to. Do whatever it takes for you to keep them safe. They’re the priority now. They have to be. From now on, you can be with me when I’m feeding the orphans, but the rest of the time I want you home. If they can’t have both parents they should at least have one.”
A soft knock at the door interrupted any other chance Gavin would have had to speak. It was just as well because all he wanted to do was to repeat himself. Even though he had expressed his feelings to her, he would have gladly said the words over and over again until she understood.
A young woman peeked in tentatively and Gavin recognized her as one of the sanctuary servants. Young though she may be in appearance, she was at least a few hundred years old. “Rachel,” she said. “Everything is ready for you. We’ve placed guards in the room to help keep the more
zealous ones in line, although they seem to be calmer than they were even a few days ago.”
Rachel reached out and squeezed Gavin’s hand. “That’s good news,” she said.
Gavin nodded in agreement and stood as Rachel did. She took off her clothes, her beautiful naked body exposed to both him and the servant in the glow of the warm candlelight, and slipped on a white silk robe. Now she was all business. With a tilt of her head that was almost regal she looked at the servant and said, “Let’s go.”
Chapter Ten
The feeding at Soldiers Cove sanctuary had been relatively uneventful. When two of the orphans had become feverish about Rachel’s blood, tearing into her flesh deeper than was necessary, Gavin had easily removed them and had them taken out of the room. They had left their marks on her stomach and right thigh. For a time it looked like an animal had attacked her, but with a good night’s sleep, his blood and the blood of a couple of donors – both of whom had given their lives – she was back to looking almost normal. The tell-tale signs that perhaps only he could see were the dark circles under her eyes and slumped over posture. If anyone else did notice, nobody said anything.
Now Rachel stood, leaning against the same pulpit Angus had used when addressing the clan. He had advised her to be seated as she spoke because he was afraid she was going to fall over before the address was done, but she insisted on standing. “Nobody else will be sitting and so neither will I,” she had said.
She called the meeting to order and the room fell silent. She may not have been as popular a leader as Angus, but when she spoke she spoke strongly and commanded respect, even without the trademark Gaelic they were all used to.
She cut to the chase right away. “I have spoken to the niads. They don’t feel they should have to move on and in lieu of taking the lives of more satyrs they are asking for vampire volunteers to complete their…um…mating needs.”
There was an uncomfortable shuffle before a familiar voice spoke up. “Do you mean to say that they want some of us to father their children in exchange for leaving the satyrs alone?” It was Leiv.
Rachel looked not only surprised to see him there (he hadn’t attended any of the previous meetings she’d called) but surprised at the confrontational tone he was using. Leiv was obviously not amused at the idea.
Rachel’s eye softened, but her voice became stern and steady. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s only voluntary of course.”
“And if we refuse?”
Holly interrupted before Rachel had a chance to answer. “If we refuse they go right on killing satyrs, and probably some poor unsuspecting humans too. They won’t discriminate.”
“Holly is right,” Rachel agreed. “So, we have a choice to make. Do we placate them until they can finish what they’ve started and then let them go back to sleep for a couple of hundred years in our pond? Or, rid ourselves of them now once and for all.”
“Yes, that’s the question,” Gavin agreed, “but is it really our pond? They don’t seem to think so, and I think they have a good point. We vampires are here, but we don’t own any part of Soldiers Cove any more than the humans do.”
“Technically that may be true,” Duncan said, taking a few steps forward until he was standing directly under the lectern. “But power and ownership belong to those who reach out and take it. They may or may not have inhabited that pond for as long as they say they have, but we’re the ones who will have to deal with the dead humans and dead satyrs. They’ll be sleeping for two centuries while we clean up the mess they made, only to wake up and make it all over again. If not for us than for whoever is in charge next time.”
A murmur of agreement ran through the crowd. Heads bobbed up and down in the affirmative as Gavin watched in fear. The consensus seemed to be to kill the niads off. He couldn’t let that happen.
“Don’t you think the humans would say the same about us if they knew of our existence?” The group silenced themselves once again. “Surely if people knew there were bloodsucking, murdering, fanged monsters masquerading among them that they’d get out their pitchforks and come to kill us. Come on, some of you are five or six centuries old. Tell me you haven’t seen that happen. Tell me you’re better than those who inflicted that behavior on you by inflicting it on another race. We can’t judge them. We kill for our own purposes as much as they do.”
Silence. He knew he had made a point very few could argue with and as such a good number of vampires lowered their heads in momentary shame, no doubt thinking of all the harm they’d visited on others over the years.
Holly sighed. “How many volunteers would they want?”
“At least eight or ten,” Rachel said. “In the event I decide this is the course of action I want to take, who among you would be willing to step forward and take this on?”
One by one nine males trickled forward and stood below the lectern where Duncan moved out of the way so Rachel could address them. They did come forward but not as fast as Gavin would have thought. Vampires were sexual creatures and if they weren’t in a committed relationship they were very prone to promiscuity. Even some who had lifelong mates were in openly adventurous partnerships. Apparently the idea of fathering a child with niads produced a fearsome reaction. Nevertheless the group before him seemed robust enough. They were physically young and ranged in age from perhaps eighteen to thirty-five when they had been turned.
“Good,” she said. “Tomorrow night we’ll head down to the pond and…”
Rachel’s knees buckled and Gavin jumped up onto the platform just in time to catch her.
Part Two:
Rachel
Chapter One
I sat straight up in bed, Gavin sitting there next to me as always. My devoted and caring maker and husband never left my side. The last memory I had was of standing in front of everyone at the meeting calling for volunteers. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand. “I have to get back to the meeting.”
“Easy,” Gavin said, lowering me back down onto the soft mattress. It felt so good under my tired and frail body but I wouldn’t succumb to it. I refused.
“No. I have to go.”
“You’re not going anywhere. The meeting was two days ago.”
Suddenly I felt even more tired than I had upon waking. “You’re telling me I have been sleeping for two days? Why didn’t somebody wake me?” I could feel myself getting angry on top of everything else. As if pain and exhaustion weren’t enough, and I lay back down under the weight of it all.
“Obviously your body needed it. Relax, everything has been taken care of.”
“The volunteers?”
“They did what you asked.”
“And everything is ok?”
“Holly examined each of them and said they’ll be fine. No harm no foul.”
Relief washed over me and I let myself sink back down into the mattress, feeling as if I could sleep again, even after having slept, apparently, for two whole days. “Good,” I said, closing my eyes for a moment. “Has anyone talked to Aries?”
“No. We can’t find them. They moved their camp like you told them to. They’re well hidden. I’m sure he’ll come out for you once you go looking.”
Even though Gavin spoke the truth and was stating a fact I detected a trace of resentment in his voice. The same resentment that always showed itself where Aries was concerned. I decided to change the subject.
“You look like you could use some sleep yourself. Why don’t you go home?”
I could see on his face that he didn’t want to leave me, but if he didn’t it might very well be him that would pass out for two days next time. “I can’t…”
“You can. Please Gavin. I’m in the sanctuary. I’m safe. The orphans are not anywhere near me and nobody is going to hurt me here, not yet at least.”
“We don’t know that.”
“They’re counting down the days. One day soon they’ll want to strike me down, but today is not that day. I want you to go home. I wa
nt you to sleep and spend time with the children.”
“Come with me,” he said.
I glanced in the mirror that was directly across from the bed and saw myself lying there, worn and emaciated. No wonder the humans hadn’t questioned my ‘cancer’ diagnosis. I certainly looked like I was dying. I needed more sleep and could feel my eyelids getting heavy.
“I don’t want the kids to see me like this. I’ll come home tomorrow after a few more hours of sleep. I should look more presentable by then. Please, Gavin.”
He seemed more willing but still hesitant. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Go. There’s no point to you sitting here pacing while I sleep. I’m sure there are guards outside my door, are there not?”
“Of course, but…”
“Then I’ll be fine. Go,” I said, opening my arms to him. He leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on my forehead.
“I’ll be back soon,” he said, stifling a yawn.
“I have no doubt about that. Now, get lost. I want to go back to sleep.”
He gave me a tiny smile, the first I’d seen in a long time, and kissed me again before heading out the door. Then, with a sigh I turned over and sunk back into the mattress and let sleep pull me under once more.
Sometime later I regained consciousness and before I opened my eyes I felt a tingling in my spine and goose bumps forming on my arms. Without even looking I could tell someone was in the room with me, watching. The air in the space was different and I could hear their low, shallow breaths coming slowly, one at a time as if whoever it may be was deliberately keeping the noise down so as not to awaken me.
I took one deep breath and bolted upright as fast as I could, hoping that if they were hostile I would take them by surprise. Someone let out a tiny yelp and as my eyes flew open I saw Leiv, sitting on a chair in the corner. I had startled him and he was trying to catch his breath now. I was so happy to see him there it didn’t occur to me that I had just scared the living daylights out of him.
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: Sacrificial Children Page 6