by H. T. Night
Anyway, I was pleased to find a nice blaze burning in the fireplace upon entering my bedchamber. A thick terrycloth bathrobe had been laid out on my bed, along with a rose and a white envelope next to it. The rose was real…fresh. The envelope contained a short parchment note, from Racco.
“Txema, hopefully this will help cheer you up. If interested in picking up where we left off yesterday, meet me in the main foyer at noon. You will find a snowsuit and boots in the armoire. Be sure to wear them, as an excellent adventure awaits you! Yours faithfully, Racco.”
All the warnings from my vampire protectors evaporated as I read the note a second time…and then a third. By the time I immersed myself in a hot bath in the Jacuzzi tub, I had already made my decision.
I accepted Racco’s request for a date.
Chapter 17
I’m not sure when exactly I fell asleep that night. But I can say it was sometime after midnight…maybe one-ish. It was one of those blissful experiences of slipping out of a tired mind and into the world of wonderful dreams. I loved the way it started, where I ran through a field of golden wheat up to my waist, and Racco waiting for me, arms open wide and his muscular chest exposed within his unbuttoned long-sleeved shirt, white—like what the men in France wore two centuries ago.
But then something happened in the dream. Darkness descended rapidly from an ominous cloud above, and then Racco turned away in terror and ran. He ran for his life, screaming, while the darkness increased and filled my vision. Brisk, frigid air embraced me, and I felt the icy surface of a stone floor beneath the tips of my toes and the unforgiving contours of a primitive wooden chair under my butt.
“Well, how nice-e-e-e!” rumbled a deep, and unfortunately for me, familiar voice. “Txema, you decided to drop by for another visit-t-t-t!!”
“What?! No way in hell would I ever want to visit with you, you sick bastard!” I hissed, while part of me worried that my mouth would surely bring a quick and premature end to my life—regardless of the fact I knew this was a dream. A very real and terrifying experience, but a dream nonetheless. A frigging horrid nightmare, more like it. “Why don’t you get out of my head and go screw yourself, and then leave me the hell alone??”
The rumble deepened, becoming a guttural laugh. At the same time, the darkness lifted somewhat and I found myself sitting in the same damned room I visited in my last encounter with Ralu, the obvious leader of the ‘less fortunate’ vampires that Gustav mentioned at dinner.
“As much as I appreciate your discomfort with my presence, you are in no position to make such a demand!” he replied, his tone icy.
By then, I could make out the outline of his hulking figure sitting behind the primitive desk I had seen in my last dream with him. Unlike last time, the fire burning in the fireplace was a mere collection of smoldering coals that emitted short flames barely illuminating the room—this same chapel from my last ‘Ralu experience’, with ornate tapestries along the walls. But more than last time, streams of moonlight poured through the stained glass windows.
“There’s nothing you can do to make me become some defiled blood princess for you!” I shouted, in no mood to go through the same shit as last time. If this son of a bitch was going to slice my throat open again, I wanted him to do it right away so I could wake up and be done with this nightmare.
“It is the only way you will survive, Txema!” he retorted, allowing himself to chuckle sardonically before going on. “Otherwise, you will die when Gustav’s kingdom is overthrown. It is inevitable that my army, which is growing in numbers every night, will become too great a force for your measly protectors to resist. When they are destroyed, I will add your pretty face to my collection!”
I could feel the depth of his hatred as he said this, which made me wonder why in the hell he would even offer me a privileged place in his kingdom anyway. His chuckle grew steadily into a fit of laughter as he threw his head back, leaving no doubt that the thoughts in my head were all open to his discernment. His facial features looked more hideous now than I previously recalled, stretched grotesquely as his malicious joy reverberated off the stone walls and filled the air around me.
“I will leave you with two things to consider during the last days of your pitiful existence!” he sneered, once the laughter faded. “Gustav’s centuries of uncontested prosperity and tyranny will finally end before dawn, two days hence. That is the first thing to remember, Txema, and you can tell them all that the alchemist’s preferred residence will be nothing more than a charred pile of wood and rubble. My army of thirty thousand angry souls is on its way, getting closer to you each night.”
He waited for me to acknowledge his warning before going on, and I offered a weak head nod. The picture in my mind of an enormous mass of Nosferatu vampires storming the castle in the darkest hours of the night scared the holy shit out of me—which brightened the mirthful grin on his face.
“And here is something I’m sure will give you pause to think…to reconsider my offer if I am so inclined to extend it again in the near future,” he said, and in the next instant his shadow shifted, and I gasped when I found him standing less than a foot away. There was no escape from the decaying flesh scent wafting toward me. “Meet your cousins, Sorne and Nere!”
Before my mind fully understood what he meant, he pulled out two severed heads from his cloak and laid them at my feet. He made sure to position their horrified expressions to where I could see them clearly, bathed in the light from a slender moonbeam. They both looked so similar to me, with hazel eyes frozen in terror, and their mouths opened in the screams that must’ve taken place right before their heads were separated from their bodies. Not knowing which one was Sorne or Nere, one of them had their neck severed low enough to see the familiar birthmark.
I screamed.
“It must be something in the family that makes you all so uncooperative,” he advised, seemingly unaffected by the screeching timbre pouring out of my open throat. “Well at least they will not be alone much longer…unless you come to your senses and join us, Txema—join us before it is too late!”
He laughed again, and this time he didn’t restrain himself. He gave in to an even bigger uproarious laughter fit, one that grew louder by the moment. All the while I screamed, and neither it nor his gleeful cacophony stopped—at least not until the world around me went blank.
Chapter 18
The last time I had a dream like this, I awoke in a panic, grasping desperately at my throat to make sure it was still intact. Not this time. Instead, I slumbered in apparent uneventful peace, although scientists insist we dream all night long. I just couldn’t recall anything other than my horrific second conversation with Ralu.
I awoke just before 11:00 a.m., which gave me an hour to prepare for my noon rendezvous with Racco. Even though I bathed the night before, I decided to linger in the shower, letting the soft jets and waterfalls pour over me. I guess I hoped to wash away the memory of my most recent nightmare while trying to savor the dream image of Racco’s bare muscular chest. I wondered if it was an accurate representation, and whether or not in a few hours I would find myself in a warm embrace, stroking the soft dark hair so openly displayed.
After dressing in the outfit left for me the night before, I headed downstairs to the foyer. Unlike last night, when I saw vampires frolicking throughout the castle during my tour, and human servants hustling about to meet the seemingly endless demands for one item or another, the place was deserted. Or, at least it seemed so. Only the echo from a door closing somewhere behind me along the grand corridor interrupted the stillness surrounding me.
No sign of Racco. But with a few minutes to spare, I didn’t worry about whether he stood me up or not. But I started to consider that notion seriously once a large grandfather clock chimed twelve o’clock had arrived.
Fortunately, the clock’s gothic chimes drew my attention to its glass case. Another envelope peered out through the door of the pendulum case. Smaller than the one left for me the previous
night, it bore my name in script cursive, and unlike last night’s invitation this one bore a red wax seal with a lion’s head pressed into it.
Of course I opened it without delay. Racco’s favored cologne drifted toward me from the note.
“My dearest Txema…. If you are ready for a delightful afternoon, step outside and allow Mercel to lead you to your seat next to mine. Racco.”
Intrigued where this latest invitation would lead, I immediately headed for the castle’s main entrance, slightly surprised when the heavy medieval door opened easily, perhaps enabled by an electronic sensor I noticed on the wall to my right near the doorway.
“Ah, Mademoiselle Ybarra! Right this way, please!”
Despite the temperature in the mid-fifties from what I could tell—or about thirteen degrees Celsius—he was dressed similar to me, wearing a full snowsuit. So, great, we could both sweat like pigs. I decided it would really piss me off if Racco was dressed in something more comfortable.
Mercel lead me past a pair of Jaguars parked in the circular drive in front of the castle, and at first I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice the large black helicopter idling nearby. The engine quietly purred, and the blades slowly turned. From inside, Racco motioned for us to hurry and climb aboard. Immediately the blades sped up, sending strong gusts toward me and Mercel.
“I am greatly pleased you decided to join me!” beamed Racco, speaking above the din. He helped me up into the spacious cabin behind the cockpit, where several leather chairs and a round cherry table were attached to the floor. Two servants stood by him—one carrying a chilled bottle of champagne while the other held three glasses. They, like Mercel, were also wearing snowsuits, although the tops were pulled down and tied at the waist.
Another servant, whom I hadn’t noticed, closed the sliding door behind us. An assault rifle was strapped to his side, and he nodded politely to me when we exchanged wary glances. Along with a touch screen computer and a large plasma TV upon one of the walls, the cabin looked like it belonged in some espionage flick.
How James Bond of you, Racco dear.
“Come sit with me,” he said, motioning for me to sit in the chair next to him. For a moment I thought he wasn’t wearing a snowsuit, and was simply clad in a white Body Armor bodysuit. But then I noticed he too had his snowsuit tied around his waist like most of his attendants. “I am sure you are hungry. But if you can hold off on breakfast, I will treat you to a magnificent brunch instead.”
I was starving. I didn’t think I could hold off eating, and would’ve foregone what was left of my cultured manners if something delectable had been placed before me. Suddenly, the helicopter rose into the air, distracting me for the moment from my raging hunger. When it cleared the castle walls it sharply veered toward the east.
“I have something to make you forget about food,” said Racco, chuckling at my white-knuckled grip on my chair’s arms as the helicopter sped toward the Pyrenees’ deeper remote wilderness. When the butterflies in my already unsettled stomach subsided, he held out a fisted hand, motioning for me to place my hand under his. He then dropped a pill into my palm. “This will take care of your hunger and anxiety, Txema.”
“What’s this?” I asked, wondering if the reddish oblong tablet was some exotic form of Ecstasy.
“It is a small dose of a powerful elixir that provides nourishment and energy like nothing you’ve ever experienced,” he advised.
So it was some kind of drug after all…. Perhaps a performance enhancer with an amphetamine edge? No way in hell would I subject my body to that kind of shit! He must’ve seen something in my reaction to uncover my unspoken worry, as he chuckled again, this time shaking his head.
“No, it is not a narcotic, or some other dangerous drug,” he assured me. “Here, I have one too. I will be the Guinea pig!”
He pulled out another tablet similar in shape and color to the one he gave me. Smiling confidently, he swallowed the pill and chased it with a drink of champagne.
“While we are not close enough companions yet for me to reveal the exact recipe inside the pill, I want you to know that it holds key ingredients that are part of what has kept me in vibrant health for many centuries,” he advised, before motioning for me to join him by ingesting my serving.
Sex sells. At least it did right then. If it had been Elmer Fudd sitting across from me instead of this incredibly sexy hunk of a man—immortal or not—I could’ve easily dismissed the offer and not given it another thought.
I swallowed the pill before the rational side of my brain could try and talk me out of it again. Even before the champagne chasing it reached my throat, a strange sensation began to flow through my entire being. A combination of surging energy and an incredible sense of wellness overwhelmed my body. Even weirder was the sense of ‘oneness’ with everything around me that followed.
“You like?”
“Yeah…yes, I do!” I enthused, as the effect continued to flow through me, soon reaching the very ends of my toes and fingers. Even the nerve endings upon my scalp tingled.
“Believe it or not, I have not shared this with many people down through the years,” he said, glancing out the window nearest to him. We still ascended steadily, and the last vestige of green foliage below gave way to an immense blanket of snow that seemed to stretch for many miles. “You feel alive—really alive for the first time in your life? At least that is what it feels like to me. It gets me through the lonely times and is the only experience the vampires and I share that is truly similar. What you feel right now, is nearly the same thing they feel when they feed on fresh blood…fresh human blood, that is.”
He was right. I had never experienced anything like this—and it would’ve remained the most unique event in my brief nineteen years on earth, if not for another amazing experience that we will eventually get to, dear reader. But in the meantime, I basked in the glow of the amazing feeling that washed over me in waves.
Was it better than sex, you might ask? Maybe in some cases…it depends on the partner and depth of connection. Compared to sex with most men, probably this was a better deal. But I could only imagine what this feeling would blossom into when held tightly by a man like the one eyeing me intently right then.
“That’s a tall mountain,” I said, turning my gaze toward the giant peak we were heading toward. “I take it we’re heading someplace near it?”
“To the very top,” he advised, excitement dancing in his eyes that seemed a few shades lighter, as blue as the clear November sky above us. “It is not the tallest peak in the Pyrenees, like Pico del Aneto. But the skiing is better here, especially since it is in the very heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.”
“Ah, so we’re really going to hit the slopes, huh?”
“Absolutely! You should be ready to show me your Alpine champion moves, now that Chanson has taken care of your ankle…right?”
I smiled shyly, surprised and a little embarrassed that he knew this about me. Growing up with a father whose passion for skiing didn’t take to my brothers, I had no choice but to come along when he ventured to upstate New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont several times each winter. My incentive was to spend time with him, which wasn’t always easy to do, since Papa often traveled on business trips up and down the east coast. Over the years we grew close, and I happened to develop a knack for slalom racing—good enough to receive an offer to join the University of Colorado ski team. If not for UT’s closer location to Richmond, and Pat Summit’s tenacious recruiting skills, I might’ve chosen CU instead.
For a moment I wondered how this crazy adventure might’ve turned out had that been my collegiate choice.
“We will be arriving at our afternoon destination in less than ten minutes from now,” Racco advised, snapping me out of my daydream. “How are you feeling?”
By then, the powerful euphoria from the pill had reached every cell, muscle, and capillary in my entire body. The hunger had disappeared and I felt enough energy to envision several trips down the
mountain—if that was how our skiing experience would unfold. I also felt invincible—like nothing could hurt me in any way. It made me broach another subject I’d been thinking about for the past few minutes.
“What makes it possible for someone to live in a youthful human body for so many centuries, as you’ve done?”
I hoped he was flattered by the youthful remark, yet he seemed unaffected by it as his expression grew serious.
“Luck is part of it,” he said. “Luck and a body that continually stays young. By that, I mean to say that my cells are always reproducing themselves in perfect replication. There is no aging, and healing—even for severe injuries—happens quickly. For me to die, the injury would have to be so quick and severe in order to supersede my body’s effort to protect and recreate the original tissues….I can tell by the look on your face that this will take time to understand. Yes?”
I nodded in response, although the image he sought to convey remained cloudy in my mind. I could barely conceive how this was true, but over the past week anything seemed possible.
“Simone just told me we will be landing in a moment,” Mercel advised, smiling nervously while he pulled up his snowsuit over his arms and shoulders and zipped it up. The other servants did the same.
“Is the equipment ready for us?” asked Racco, rising from the table and pulling his snow suit over his powerful arms and shoulders.
His suit was darker than all the others, a blue shade that was almost black. Mine and the others’ suits were purple with gold stripes—similar in some ways to tapestries I’d seen hanging along the castle’s corridor.
“Yes,” said Mercel, motioning to an area beyond my line of sight, near the cockpit. “We will drop you off at the top, in the area you prefer, my Lord. Simone has already verified with Louis that the snow is stable enough for us to land the helicopter.”