Gavin sat down on the opposite side of the bed and took my hand. “I’ll be right here the whole time,” he said.
I closed my eyes and began the process, something I’d done hundreds of times since being turned. Normally I could go down into the blackness easily and let my dreams pull me under, especially if it had been a few days. Not so this time. The burning was extreme and suddenly it seemed like it was going to kill me. Perhaps my fire gift was turning on me and at any moment I was going to burst into flames. I would be ashes and perhaps I deserved it for what I had done to the others. Rational thought left me and I began screaming.
“I’m going to die. Kill me!” I pleaded. “Kill me before it hurts too badly. I can’t stand it.”
I felt someone grab my head and begin to squeeze with all their might. Whether it was Holly or Gavin I couldn’t say because opening my eyes had become much too painful, any little crack of light causing a stabbing sensation like knives was penetrating directly through my eyes and into my brain.
“I’m going to die,” I repeated again.
“No, you’re not,” I heard Holly say. “You’re going to sleep for a while. Try to let go, Rachel. You need to relax. You won’t die, you are just going to feel like you are. Trust me.”
I did. I trusted Holly implicitly and felt a slight twinge of guilt that I couldn’t do what she was asking. I swallowed hard and tried again, just as whoever was squeezing my skull put their forehead against mine, forcing me down into willed sleep. When I woke a number of days later, any thought of a search had been forgotten.
Part Three
The Orphans
Chapter One
Rose
The small room she occupied in the Chapel Island sanctuary was bright and comfortable with light airy colors of yellow and blue donning the walls. It was a room designed to bring peace and healing to anyone who entered. Ironically Rose felt anything but.
Rachel hadn’t been back since the day another of the orphans had tried to kill her. She had been rescued by her maker and taken to a room just down the hall. Rose had heard the commotion and stuck her head out in time to see a battered and bloody Rachel being carried off into that room. Ely had joined them not long after.
Although she had felt somewhat bad for Rachel, she certainly understood where the blood addicted vampires were coming from, as it was not that long ago that she had been among them. When the screaming and desperate urges had subsided she had been put here, but what hadn’t subsided was the feeling of total anxiety that was with her day and night. The only time she didn’t feel it was when she was in the presence of Rachel and could drink from her precious veins. The vampires at this sanctuary understood that and so Rose was having a hard time understanding why she had suddenly been ordered to pack her belongings.
It could just be a room switch she told herself, but deep down she knew that wasn’t the case. All the running around and hushed communications in whispers made it evident that something big was happening and that she and the other orphans were at the center of it.
She had finished packing what little she had – a hundred and fifty years as a Buddhist vampire had taught her not to accumulate many physical possessions – and sat down to wait on the bed, a million possibilities as to what was happening turning over and over in her mind.
Finally someone came and got her, and she was taken to a room where she was asked to have a seat. Alone again, she waited. This room was more of an office with a large mahogany desk and many leather bound books on shelves placed all around. The door clicked open a few minutes after her arrival and she stood upon seeing Ely enter the room.
“Please, have a seat,” he said. “I’m afraid I don’t have good news.”
Rose sat down, bracing herself mentally for whatever he was about to say. She could tell by the way he walked, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, that it was something that was going to profoundly change her life. “Ely, what is it?”
He took a seat, not behind the desk but on the loveseat next to her. “I’ll just come right out with it. The orphans at the Soldiers Cove sanctuary are dead.”
Rose was stunned. “Dead? How?”
“I’m afraid Rachel felt the need to…”
Rose put her hand up not wanting to hear any more. “All of them?”
“Yes, all of them.”
Rose felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes and lowered her head. Although she only knew most of Angus’ other progeny in passing it was still a loss as profound as the loss of a sibling, and an emptiness crawled across her heart at the realization that they were gone.
“She had no right!” she said after a time.
“On that we are agreed, but what’s done is done and I’ve asked you to pack your belongings so that we can hide you and the rest of the orphans.”
“Because she wants to kill us next, of course.”
Ely rubbed his hands together and looked out the window for a moment before giving a sigh. “That would be the logical assumption, yes. But I have no intention of letting her do that.”
“Where are you going to send us?”
“We don’t know yet, but for now the sanctuary in St.Peter’s has agreed to hide you.”
Suddenly Rose was besieged with fear. “That’s the largest sanctuary on the island. Are you sure it isn’t too obvious? I mean, won’t she come looking or send someone to check it out?”
“Relax. She has no pendant for that sanctuary and neither does anyone close to her. I’m sure she’s on her way sooner rather than later so I’ll take the ones for this sanctuary, but it’s too dangerous for you and the others here now. They’ll require special care, of course, but you’re further along in your healing, that’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. I need you to do something.”
Rose had suspected as much, and as he had kept her alive and was now potentially saving her again she was in no position to refuse. “I’ll do whatever I can,” she said.
“Good. I had a feeling you would. I need you to keep an eye on the others and when things calm down I need you to organize them.”
“Organize?”
“Yes. You see, I’m the one who installed Rachel as leader of the Soldiers Cove clan, and I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake. As such I see it as my error to undo. She’s ruling with fear as opposed to respect. I told her to come to me when or if she needed help, but she hasn’t done that and she’s turned to murder as a way to control her people. She’s a threat.”
“I see what you’re saying, but what can the orphans do about it? She’ll be looking for us the first chance she gets.”
“Yes. I’m not asking you to carry this out next week or next month. Those other vampires will be sick for a good long time now and without her blood it will probably take years for them to recover. Honestly, most of them won’t make it. The temptation to end their own misery will undo most of them. So I’m asking you to bide your time, and when the opportunity presents itself we’ll right the wrongs of today.”
Rose couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Ely, I could be wrong but are you asking me to kill her at some point?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, dear girl.”
Chapter Two
Audrey
It seemed like every day a new sibling disappeared, which was quite a switch from when she’d first arrived. It had been the opposite in those early days. When Audrey had found herself drawn back to Cape Breton she never imagined the sheer volume of orphans that Angus would leave behind. She had been one of the first to arrive, and also one of the sickest.
As a human she had struggled with addiction and since becoming a vampire had been blessed with the most unbelievable gift. She had been able to let it go. Audrey had never been addicted to human blood per se. Rachel’s blood? Different story. One swallow of it and it had been like that first drink of alcohol all over again, or that first shot of heroin. Now she was being told that she would never be able to experience it again, or at least not
for a very long time.
Audrey felt herself on the verge of tears as Ely spoke to them, telling them that soon all six of them would be loaded into a van and taken to a sanctuary in another town in order to hide them from Rachel. It made no sense. Even though Rachel had apparently murdered a slew of orphans in Soldiers Cove, Audrey was willing to take her chances. If it came right down to it she’d break open Rachel’s neck and suck dry every last drop of blood the bitch had to give before staking her through the heart to finish her.
The need mixed with anger was something more than the normal instinct to kill the one who had killed your maker. There was a reason she was here, a reason Angus had turned her, and that reason was that they had been in love. In the summer of 1810 they had met and he had turned her. It had been the greatest love of her life and although he had cast her aside for someone else, as he tended to do, she never stopped hoping that one day she would see him again and he would finally realize that they had been meant for one another. Although looking around at the mostly female crowd of siblings she suspected a good number of them had been turned under similar circumstances, and most of that group were the ones who remained the sickest and the longest at both sanctuaries.
Audrey only half listened as Ely spoke. They were going to St. Peter’s. They would be comfortable there. When the time was right they would be moved to another sanctuary further away but for now this was what had been assessed to be the safest move.
Another orphan, one who was in much better shape than she, was brought in after the announcement. Audrey spied the tall red haired beauty, obviously of Irish descent, and she was introduced by Ely as, Rose.
Audrey recognized her as someone who had been in the throes of suffering with the rest of the group until not long ago. She looked much better now and was going to be a sort of go between for them with Ely until things improved or until, one by one, they would go back out on their own. Audrey knew she was a long way from going it alone once again and hated the thought of being dependent on all of these people. Since her turning she had not associated with either vampire or human, preferring to keep to herself and nurse her broken heart. She realized now how foolish that had been but nonetheless she still craved solitude. Being with others, no matter how much she needed them, was always uncomfortable.
With introductions out of the way Ely and Rose left them and they all returned to their respective corners of the large room. All of them were housed here together to better keep an eye on them. Blood addicted vampires were a dangerous crew and Audrey knew she was no exception. They were allowed very few luxuries and only permitted to clean themselves up once a week or so until they were deemed civilized enough to join vampire kind again.
The room was dripping with the scent of desperation mixed with the smell of unwashed bodies. Audrey hoped they would at least let them shower before leaving the Chapel Island sanctuary, but that was not to be the case because no sooner had they settled in again than three large males came in and ordered them outside.
They were escorted to the edge of the sanctuary border and then each taken past the invisible barrier in turn, and loaded into a large eight passenger van, white with tinted windows to protect the eyes of the ones who still might be experiencing some light sensitivity.
Through it all Audrey wondered where Rachel was, what she was doing and if she was actively looking for them so she could put an end to them as she had done to the first group. Anger began to creep across her heart and she decided that if Rachel was going to see fit to kill her she would not allow it. She would fight back and perhaps when she was well enough she would hunt her down first and kill her before she could even know what hit her. Kill or be killed, she decided.
The van roared to life and Audrey stared out the back window as they left what looked like a vast empty space in the middle of the woods behind. She was leaving Chapel Island after almost a year and would spend god knows how long somewhere else. She watched as Ely grasped his pendant and disappeared back behind the barrier, not without some sadness.
Then, she looked ahead, staring straight out the front window, lost in her thoughts. Maybe Angus had loved her and maybe he hadn’t, but that wouldn’t stop her from avenging his death.
Rachel, she decided, was going to pay with her own life.
Part Three:
nine YEARS LATER
Rachel
Chapter One
The small plastic tube wound its way down, down, down into the deposit bag which was now beginning to fill with the crimson liquid. One quarter of a bag at a time only. Once a week, one little bag, over the last six months hadn’t seemed to cause any harm.
Jade lay on the bed as I stroked her other arm, Gavin going about his work with the blood, me keeping her calm under a blood influence. Her tiny frame was not robust to say the least. She had barely grown in the last year and was the smallest of her class at school. We had to be careful, and thus far, we were.
Gavin pulled out the catheter and let the tube run the rest of the precious liquid into the bag as we watched. He then left the room to take the plastic receptacle out to the locked fridge which we’d been keeping the rest of the blood in. Over time our little mini fridge had become full. Ryan was about to turn fifteen in two weeks and so we were coming down to the wire as to finding out whether or not the whole plan would work.
It had to work. We were out of options. We had renewed our search once the obstacle of the orphans and questions about my leadership worthiness was out of the way, but had come up empty again and again. This, unfortunately, was the only solution we had ever come across.
Jade blinked furiously as I released her from the blood influence. The room was darkened and she looked up at me, her big blue eyes shining in the gloom. “What’s the matter, honey?” I said, pretending I had just come in and sat down. “Did you have a bad dream?”
She nodded. “My tummy hurts.”
She always said this after coming out of a trance where we had taken blood. She was hungry and I had her favorite snack all ready to go. “You want some of this chocolate ice cream?”
That got her attention. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and took the bowl of partially melted ice cream in her hands and began eating greedily. After a few moments she finished and lay back down. “Feel better now?”
She nodded again, rolled over and went straight back to sleep. I stroked her long black curly hair in the darkness, feeling the guilt I always felt during this process, well up inside me. I sat there for a few minutes until I heard the front door open and close, signaling that Gavin was back in the house.
I picked up the bowl and headed downstairs.
“Another one down,” he said when he saw me. “We’ve got almost an entire body’s worth. One or two more bags and the fridge won’t hold any more.”
“Good. I can’t stand putting her through it for much longer.”
Gavin came forward and opened his arms to me. I sunk into his chest like I had a million times before, the familiar feel of him comforting me. “She barely knows it even happens. Always thinks it’s a bad dream and mommy is always there to make it better.”
“Yeah. I wonder what she’d think of mommy if she knew I was the cause and not the solution.”
“I know what you’re saying. But you overthink this. She’s nine and hasn’t shown any ill effects at all from what we’ve done. It’s happened so slowly over time that her body doesn’t even react. We’ve been careful. It’s ok. Holly says she’s healthy and strong.”
“I know. It doesn’t ease my guilt though.”
He rubbed my back up and down in smooth, soothing motions. “I know it doesn’t, but right now we have the bigger problem to worry about.”
He was referring to Ryan’s birthday. “I don’t know how it happened so fast,” I said. “It seems like only yesterday I was holding him in my arms.”
Ryan was a tall, long haired, muscular fourteen year old, who looked more like he was seventeen. He had a fearsome appearance, looking almost exact
ly like a younger version of his biological father. Lately he was eating like there was no tomorrow, which Holly said was a sign of his impending transformation, and he spent a lot more time alone in his room. Not unusual for the average teenager, but for Ryan, who had always been very social, it seemed strange that he was suddenly so withdrawn.
If he wasn’t in his room you could always find him roaming the woods behind the house. Walking, walking, walking. Trekking as if he was looking for something. When we’d ask why he spent so much time walking through the woods, no matter the weather, he simply replied with, ‘I don’t know.’
Of course he didn’t know, but his body seemed to know, his satyr brain seemed to know, and Gavin and I certainly knew. There was no denying it, with each passing day he was more and more lost to us and seeing it broke our hearts a little more all the time. The little boy who was so filled with energy and wonder, who loved to talk and play and create had been silenced. Often I pictured him, not as himself, but as a different being, a creature of the forest, running alongside his natural father, fulfilling his destiny as a satyr.
“That’s not going to happen.” Gavin had broken into my thoughts and had undoubtedly seen what I had just been picturing. The annoyance in his voice alone and the tension that suddenly filled his body told me that.
“Won’t it?”
“No. Rachel, this is going to work, there’s no reason why it won’t.”
There were lots of reasons why it wouldn’t, but Gavin’s denial, in the last year especially, was remarkably strong. Along the way we hadn’t encountered anything that told us it would, but by Gavin’s reasoning we hadn’t encountered anything that told us it wouldn’t either.
Not wanting to get into an argument I simply nodded. “It’s late,” I said. “You going to try for some sleep tonight?”
“God yes. I’m exhausted. How about you? Are you coming up to bed?”
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: Sacrificial Children Page 11