by Aiden James
Seeing the computers reminded me of how deprived and ignorant I had become in regard to current events, outside of what had been told to me by my vampire entourage and our alchemist host. In other words, except for the conversation with my grandmother and what Chanson shared with me, I didn’t know shit about anything going on outside of the castle and the ship that brought me there.
Around eleven, Chanson dropped me off at my room. The closest thing to a confidante I would find in my new world, I could tell she was growing to like me more and more each day, as well. Maybe it’s because of our shared ancestry, and the fact she often reminds me of me. I wondered if it’s the same for her.
I was pleased to find a warm 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 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. 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. Racco waited for me with his arms opened wide. His muscular chest was exposed within his unbuttoned, long-sleeved white shirt, 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 Racco turned away in terror. 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, 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 fucking horrid nightmare, more like it. “Why don’t you get out of my head and go screw yourself, and leave me the hell alone?”
The rumble deepened, becoming a guttural laugh. At the same time, the darkness lifted somewhat. I found myself sitting in the same damned room I visited in my last encounter with the demon vampire named Ralu.
“As much as I appreciate your discomfort with my presence, you are in no position to make such a demand!” he replied, his tone iced with contempt.
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 overcome. 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 in the first place. 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 fully open to his discernment. His facial features looked more hideous than I previously recalled, stretched grotesquely as his malicious joy reverberated off the 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.
“Here is something else that will give you pause 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. 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 quite 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 uncooperative,” he said, 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 my hoarse cries nor his gleeful cacophony stopped—not until the world around me went blank.
Chapter 18
The last time I had a dream like this, I immediately 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. The thing I remembered most, upon waking, were the bleeding heads of my cousins, as they laid lifeless near my feet.
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 that part 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 seemi
ngly endless demands for one item or another, the place was deserted. Only the echo from a door closing somewhere behind me, along the grand corridor, interrupted the stillness that surrounded me.
No sign of Racco. With a few minutes to spare, I didn’t worry about whether he stood me up or not. However, I started to consider that notion seriously once a large grandfather clock chimed when twelve o’clock 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. Also, 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. Great, we could both sweat like pigs. It would’ve really pissed me off if Racco had been 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’m sure you are hungry. If you can forego 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 ignored 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 dropped a pill into my palm. “This will take care of your hunger and anxiety, Txema.”
“What’s this?” I worried that 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? There was no way in hell I’d subject my body to that kind of shit!
“No, it is not a narcotic, or some other dangerous drug,” he assured me, after my panicked reaction. “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. As we ascended steadily, 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.”
He was right. I had never experienced anything like this. It would’ve remained the most unique event in my brief nineteen years on earth, if not for another amazing experience to come. In the meantime, I marveled at this incredible 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, this had to be 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, focusing my gaze on the giant peak we were heading toward. “Is that where we’re going?”
“To the very top,” he advised. Excitement danced in his eyes that seemed a few shades lighter, as blue as the clear November sky above us. “It’s 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 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 developed 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. What I mean to say, 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 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 and believe. Yes?”
I nodded in response, and yes, I could barely conceive how this was true. But, over the past week anything seemed possible.
“Simone just told me that 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?” Racco rose from the table and pulled his snowsuit over his powerful arms and shoulders.