The man smiled and walked around them looking them up and down. The inspection lasted only a few seconds. Tahlia couldn’t help but feel as if she were being stalked by some kind of predator—a wolf, perhaps. Lecrac’s head snapped up and he looked straight into Tahlia’s eyes and smiled. The moment lasted but a few seconds and in that time Tahlia thought she saw amusement and admiration in his blue eyes before he turned to look at the two older women.
“Yes, your daughters are perfect.”
“I mean no disrespect, milord, but will our children be safe with you?” Verandah’s green eyes were moist with emotion.
When Tahlia looked back at Lecrac, she was shocked to see the tender look that came over his handsome face.
“I assure you that they will want for nothing, madam. I will look after them as if they were my own. I will raise them with love and respect.”
Verandah nodded, walked over to her daughter, and hugged her tightly “If you can, one day, my child, come by so I can look upon your beautiful face one final time.” She moved over to Tahlia and kissed her gently on the cheeks. “You are the other daughter I never had. I love you like you are my own, and I pray that one day I too will have a chance to see you again.”
The doors swung open and Tahlia saw that the thin man was back. This time there were two other men, each carrying a small money chest.
“Here is a sign of my gratitude.” Lecrac gestured to the two others who had entered the room with him. “These two men are my loyal servants and they will travel with you to ensure that you arrive safely back home. They will also help you acquire a patch of land, cultivate it, and, once you have your first successful harvest, they will return to continue serving me.”
The two men bowed deeply to the two women.
“I will now give you a few minutes to say your farewells. Have a safe journey.” With that, Lecrac was gone.
After teary goodbyes, Grinolde and Verandah were lead to a coach and their journey back begun. For the two young women, their adventure was about to begin.
Chapter One
New York, August 1960
James Marsden was shattered. His red-brimmed eyes were resting on the pale face of his wife—the love of his life and his reason for living. Her cold hands matched the coldness in his heart. How am I ever going to survive without her?
“We need to take her away now, Mr. Marsden.” A chubby nurse, Mary O’Driscoll, with a shock of red curls and freckles was standing next to him, her green eyes soft and sympathetic. “Your daughter will love to see you, too.”
James looked away. He didn’t want to see the baby. Not while he was hurting so much. Jane used to reprimand him when he came home angry or stressed after a missed deadline, saying that their baby was very sensitive to both their emotions. She would then place his hand over her rounded abdomen for him to feel the baby moving restlessly in her womb.
“I am not ready to see her yet.” He swallowed back the tears, which threatened to flow.
“Could I get you something else, Mr. Marsden?” Mary asked
Yes, can you bring back my wife? James suddenly felt warm waves of comfort rolling over him settling deep within his heart that dimmed the pain a little.
James quickly looked up to see who was talking to him. The redheaded nurse had left the room. Deep broken sobs rocked his big frame, and this time he felt a soft pressure on his shoulder. It didn’t last long, but the touch made James lift his head. His handsome face streaked with by tears. “Who are you?” When no immediate answer came forth, he bowed his head again. His grief was making him hear and feel things. But the voice replied, making his head snap up again.
The voice was female and it sounded calm and confident. James instinctively knew—or maybe he was just desperate to believe in anything comforting right now—that she wasn’t making empty promises. He also realized that the voice was speaking to him through his mind. Once again he felt that gentle touch on his shoulder, and his gaze went to the pale face of his dead wife.
The words made James want to cry, and he quickly turned in his chair with his eyes piercing the empty space in front of him He hoped and wished to see his wife one last time. No one was there.
“Here you lay, after having made such a selfless sacrifice to bear our child and already I am chatting up strange women.” He let a weak smile cover his face. “I will always love you, my angel, and I promise to take care of our baby girl until she is ready to take care of herself.” He placed his hand on his shoulder where just seconds before he’d felt the soft touch. “Some bossy lady told me to tell you that she will be taking care of both me and our baby girl. I trust that she will do just that and that everything will be okay. Don’t forget about us, my love.”
As if on cue, Nurse O’Driscoll entered the room and he saw her stop dead in her tracks with her green eyes resting on him. James knew that she could see the change in him and knew he looked much better, calmer.
“I would like to go see my baby now, Nurse,” James said.
The nurse led him to the nursery where she left him before quickly going to oversee the removal of his wife’s body
†
A long slender hand came up and wiped away a single blood red tear that was running down a pale cheek. Cloaked in an invisibility spell, Tahlia Dorotea Oliveira looked at the sad scene unfolding in front of her. It was more painful than she thought it would be. After spending almost seven months watching over the couple, she had come to admire their love for one another. It was the first time she had been privy to such an expressive love between mortals in all of her two thousand years. James had showered his beautiful wife with so much love; she, in turn, had channeled it all to their baby. Now, seeing the lifeless form of Jane and the broken spirit of James, she allowed herself to do what she hadn’t done often in many centuries—weep.
The moment she’d sensed the shallow and stuttering heartbeat of the newly formed life, she was resting deep beneath the earth of the castle in Romania. She was waiting for that small sound which would set her free from decades of acute loneliness, her constant companion as along with her ever-present hunger for human blood. As it was to be, it finally came—a shallow stuttering thud so faint that mortals and many of her kind could not detect it. Weak and starved for nourishment after being asleep for 90 years, she heaved herself out of the earth. She had covered all the continents in search of the two people who had conceived this great wonder and had found them in the United States. Just a few months prior to going to ground, she followed a silly impulse, and visited the Americas. Now she knew it must’ve been a sign.
James and the nurse left the room and Tahlia followed them. At the neonatal intensive care unit, the nurse went in and walked between the many bassinets. Tahlia’s black eyes already rested on the tiny bundle in the seventh row. She knew the baby and had visited her many times while she was in her mother’s womb. Almost every night after she had placed both her parents under a deep sleep did she talk and sing softly to the child. The nurse brought the baby closer, and Tahlia could once again feel the sadness well up in James.
Tahlia smiled when James looked around. It was evident that it would take a while before he became comfortable with their mode of conversation. James was a very strong psychic. That enabled her to enter his mind and talk to him at all times. His daughter inherited the gift from him.
She smiled tenderly when the tiny bundle moved and sm
all fists punched the air. Yes, my love. You will grow up to be a headstrong and at times an impossible woman who will give me hell, but still I cannot wait for you to become that woman.
Tahlia was shocked not only by the fact that James decided to communicate with her using their mental mode, but also by the question.
All of a sudden James grinned and Tahlia’s admiration for the human increased tenfold. He was very brave and one day his daughter would be proud of him.
Tahlia laughed softy. It felt good to be able to laugh again. She basked in the warm, easy-going atmosphere she shared with the human.
Tahlia and James shared a silent moment thinking about the woman who gave up her life for this tiny bundle in front of them.
Tahlia stiffened slightly and looked at James. She knew he wasn’t ready for the whole truth, but she could at least give him her name.
James nodded.
Tahlia frowned and looked at the tiny bundle. Right before her eyes lay the reason for her existence. Throughout the centuries, she had known the baby. She had watched over her as she grew up to womanhood. She had loved her completely and when her mortal life ran out, she had buried her. But never, not once, did anyone ask her to give the girl a name. Still, a name echoed down the corridors of her mind. A name she had already started calling the baby.
Tahlia stood by James in silence looking at the baby. .
Chapter Two
Tahlia’s head snapped up and she delicately sniffed the air. They were not alone in the room anymore. As quickly as she had become alarmed she just as quickly relaxed—Juan. Her voice had lost the teasing quality it had when she spoke to James and in its place was a hard authoritative tone. Tahlia looked at Juan. He could hide his presence from humans and lesser experienced vampires, but not from her…
Tahlia was one of the oldest most experienced vampires in existence. She was born in the first century of the first Millennium— 54 BC to be exact. In 32 BC, at the age of twenty-two, she became a vampire. Only two other royal vampires as powerful as she existed—Pierre Lafayette and Jonas Beydrenoff—a very long time ago, there was a third.
Their creator had decided that a woman warrior would distribute equal representation of power between the sexes. More female children were being offered to Lecrac, so the need to bring equality and harmony to the Race arose. Of the most worthy fighters of their time, only four of them became the chosen ones. To make them stand out amongst the other vampires of the nation, they fed on the blood of the First Vampire ever to walk the earth—Lecrac. He was as old as time and his blood were thick and potent. To ensure that no others like them existed again, Lecrac, tired of the emptiness of such a long existence, destroyed himself by meeting the dawn.
His self-destruction made the three powerful beyond their wildest dreams. Tahlia become the first Vampiress, a glorified warrior, and well-respected by her kind. Together they’d become known as the Royal Clan Vampires. They were the Rulers of all vampires and together ruled the nation, enforcing age-old laws to ensure that there was a balance between them and the humans. They protected the human race and, in turn, the human race unknowingly provided sustenance to their immortal protectors.
Lecrac’s Dark Gift came at a very high price. As soon as their mothers left them at Lecrac’s castle, they cautiously embraced the sudden luxury and freedom their new home offered. Servants and tutors alike treated them with the utmost respect and patience. Just as their mothers had dreamt, the girls learned how to read and write. They were well fed, and it wasn’t long before their bodies started filling out, forming curves and supple muscles. As part of their studies, they underwent grueling training on the art of warfare. Long hours of sword fighting and hand-to-hand fighting skills turned each into an individual finely-honed weapon of mass destruction.
After a quiet midnight visit by Lecrac, six months after their arrival at the castle, Tahlia had shed her mortal skin for a tough, sun-shy outer layer. Overnight, the heavy-laden tables of rich, savory dishes that greeted them upon every waking morning disappeared. In their place were gallons of thick red pigs’ blood. Human blood was still an elusive elixir for the newly-made. First, they had to be well-schooled in the Royal decree before they were allowed their first sip. Whilst cringing at first at the gruesome sight, a deep craving for the same thick soundless substance caught fire within her belly. It was a craving so great that to this very day it still tore at her insides daily. As if the burden of the ever-present bloodlust was not enough, the responsibility of her station—Protector—was the hardest for her to bear. It was like making a wolf the guardian of a helpless lamb. Hunger and duty, constantly battled each other for supremacy. Fortunately, for her, her deep-seated duty and loyalty to the cause won every time. Lecrac’s gift had made her stronger, faster, and rich beyond her wildest dreams. She was still lonely though, and felt as if love and life had deserted her.
For a while, her reign as Queen was relatively uneventful. Lecrac has chosen his ‘firstborns’ well. The need to coexist with their prey and defend mankind from rogue elements within their own circle took first priority with the Royal Clan Vampires. Still, rogues, though few, kept appearing from amongst their own. The lonely existence, the failure to control the constant bloodlust, and the need to feel something—anything—was what swayed the Royals to desert the Cause and break their Sacred Oath as protectors. One such rogue was Drake Calderoni.
A fourth generation fledgling and very promising, Drake had caught her eye almost at once. Highly cultured and eager to learn, she saw the future of a new breed of Royals in him. She could envision a more debonair breed of Royal vampires who could blend in completely and manage the many Royal investments and corporations. They would be a far cry from the heavily muscled warriors who were groomed to fight and protect. That also was her way of trying to give the younger vampires a sense of purpose—a sense to feel. She took Drake under her wing and patiently began to groom the young fledgling.
Drake disappeared four centuries earlier, which prompted an investigation into his sudden vanishing. It was around this time a rogue vampire started his own race and was turning untrained humans into vampires. These second class abominations called Renegades were spreading terror and death everywhere they went. The descendants of the Royal bloodline had to clean up after the renegades by destroying evidence to keep their existence hidden from the human authorities.
The murderous trail led directly to Drake. Fueled by anger and disappointment, Tahlia vowed to rid the earth of Drake’s vermin and sent out scores of Royal vampire slayers to find and destroy these brutal abominations. As much as they had tried to keep their existence hidden from humans, the presence and behaviors of the renegades put the spotlight on them.
Some humans, unaware of the difference between the two groups, found it lucrative to hunt any vampire. A century ago, a group of well-off humans approached her through a very well-placed source and offered to join the fight to rid the world of renegades. These humans formed a clandestine association dubbed the Consortium of Human Vampire Slayers. With their immortal associates sleeping during the day, the human slayers sought and destroyed renegade lairs. As the sun set, the immortals took over the duty. By using the shadows, they r
elentlessly patrolled the streets of every major city in the world diminishing Drake’s bloodthirsty creatures. Since then, the two groups engaged in mortal combat against the renegades.
Tahlia was shaken from her reverie when Juan suddenly shimmered to solid form before her. His dark eyes rested on her, as concern creased his brow. She gave him curt nod as a sign that he could deliver his message.
Tahlia picked the rest of the information from Juan’s mind and nodded. The past four centuries had been trying for their race as they hunted the renegades. Juan bowed low and disappeared in a burst of tiny molecular drops. Tahlia turned back to James. He was staring at his daughter with an expression akin to wonder. She knew that he would take care of the baby until she made her appearance again. For now, she needed to keep contact between her and her human charges to a minimum to avoid leading the renegades to them.
James nodded meekly and just when she was about to go, he spoke.
Tahlia smiled and looked at the baby one last time.
James looked up.
Tahlia dissolved into fine mist and streaked out of the hospital.
A Guardian's Touch Page 2