Forever Young The Beginning (18 page)

Naked but for a towel, she tiptoed
back into her dormitory and pulled the covers over her head,
feigning sleep and wishing it would come. Eventually her exhaustion
won over her fear, and sleep came.

In the dark of their room in the
caretaker’s house Cosette asked “Ian, shall we go for a swim again
this morning?”

“
Yes. Mmmmm… I have fond
memories about swimming with you.”

Her indescribable husky laugh warmed
him in the intimate darkness as she said “I’ll go and get our
rucksacks.”

After the swimming and after they’d
made love, they both vaulted onto their mounts and took an
hour-long ride bareback. Cosette led him to places east of the
chateau that he hadn’t seen. From a hill, he noticed an all stone
house sitting on a small shady hill. He asked Cosette about it and
she said it belonged to the Tremblay family and that the last
surviving owner had died recently. They both admired the look of
the place.

Later at the Chateau Ian approached
Henri and suggested that he consider allowing him to teach all of
them the use of firearms. He was able to convince Henri by
describing the details of how Cosette had saved him from the
vampire attack. The thought of what could have happened to her was
more than enough to convince the three of them to learn not only
basic firearms and swordsmanship skills, but also hand to hand
self-defense skills.

That day they practiced with the
pistols, muskets, and wooden sabers. Ian had shown a remarkable
skill at hitting pieces of firewood in mid-flight. He seemed to
have natural talent for shooting accurately. Cosette, Marie, and
Henri were very good by the time late afternoon came, which
impressed the three humans greatly, especially being as the two
women had never had instruction with firearms. Ian said “I’m more
than pleased by what I saw today. A few days of this and you will
all be skilled indeed. Tomorrow, Li and I will show you some basic
moves in hand-to-hand combat.”

They all had fresh apple cider, and
then went for a horseback ride all around the estate, a different
direction than before. Toward evening, they were all sitting in the
parlor after supper, the servants having left for the night. Angus
asked “does anyone know the origin of vampires?”

Marie looked to Henri who nodded. She
said “None of us are sure of that. There are legends. Henri and I
have discussed this more than once. I think that the first of our
kind were the result of the “fallen ones” referred to in the
Bible.”

“
Fallen ones?”

“
Yes. The Bible says that
there were giants in the land in the days before the flood and also
afterwards. King David killed one centuries after the flood. The
word “giants” is correct because some of their offspring were
giants, but the Hebrew word “nephilim” also means ‘fallen ones’,
being those angels which left heaven to follow Lucifer in the
rebellion.”

Angus spoke then saying “That is early
in the book of Genesis.”

“
Yes. In that same part of
Genesis the Bible describes the earth as ‘filled with violence and
continual evil’ before the flood. I have come to believe that the
first vampires were offspring of the original fallen ones who mated
with human females descended from the line of Cain.”

“
That’s a fascinating idea,
Marie.”

“
Remember, in the sixth
chapter of Genesis the Bible tells us that the fallen ones, the
sons of God, took wives from among humans and
procreated.”

Angus said “But were the giants not
all drowned in the flood?”

“
Yes, but the Bible doesn’t
say who the three sons of Noah were married to. After the flood,
the Bible does show that all of the giants recorded after that were
descended from the line of Ham, youngest son of Noah. I’ve long
thought that maybe the wife of Ham might have come from the line of
Cain. She might have been descended from one of the fallen ones and
became the means by which the seed of the giants made it through
the flood. She might have been a carrier of the vampire seed some
way. There are several references to giants after the flood, in the
time of Moses and in the time of King David too.”

Angus nodded, saying “I’ll have to
read all of that again.”

“
It may be that the first
vampire was born to someone descended from Ham. As I said, all of
the giants are recorded as descendants of Ham.”

There was silence as everyone thought
about that and then Angus spoke. “You know, it may be that after
the flood there were changes in the air. People didn’t live as long
as they did before the flood.”

Marie said “Maybe that is when
vampires began to burn when exposed to direct sunlight. It might be
that there was no direct sunlight before the flood? There are three
verses in the first chapter of Genesis that say the firmament was
called heaven and that the firmament separated the waters above
from the waters below. That was on the second day of the creation.
I have wondered if there was a layer of water surrounding the
earth, maybe a layer of permanent cloud cover. That would have
dissolved as a rainfall lasting forty days when the flood started,
and not to mention that there were great underwater reservoirs that
burst forth to add to the flood of rainfall. The truth is, none of
us knows the answer to the riddle of our true origin.”

“
What of the stories such as
that you vampires can’t come into a building unless invited?” asked
Armando.

“
Nonsense.”

“
What about not being able
to see your reflection in a mirror?”

Primping her hair and making as if she
was combing it and straightening her collar, Marie said with an
impish look “Mon Dieu! A fate worse than death! However would I
stay pretty enough to keep Henri happy?” At this all laughed
heartily, especially Henri, who said “You’d be beautiful to me if
only wearing a feed sack.” At this she leaned over on the sofa to
kiss him tenderly. Then she continued “And you can put away all
that other nonsense such as having fangs which suddenly appear. We
are quite strong enough to easily bite to feed if we don’t have our
knives and bowls handy. And forget about wearing garlic to keep us
away, or raising a cross to repel us, or that we can be killed only
by driving a wooden stake through our hearts.”

Armando said “that one was always a
favorite of mine” as everyone laughed.

“
There are other tales too,
such as that we can’t cross running water. Those are fables and old
wives’ tales. However, such silliness has its usefulness. It makes
us all the more unbelievable, and that is one key to our being able
to remain unknown.”

“
Is it really necessary to
be so secretive though?”

Henri replied “Wide-scale exposure of
our existence would eventually result in human carnage on a scale
not to be believed. It would result in the worst war in history,
and one that would never end.”

Armando asked “Why is
that?”

“
Once it became known among
our kind that we were targeted for extermination, vampires
everywhere would begin to make humans cross over by force to swell
our numbers. Those of us who customarily shun human contact might
begin to kill humans. It would be a world-wide nightmare without
end.” Angus and the others exchanged somber looks, shaking their
heads.

***

Eduardo Vasquez sat with his wife on
the portico, overlooking Barcelona and the Mediterranean. They
discussed Alandra who hadn’t eaten, and was content to lie in bed
all day. She rarely came from her room and had little to say to
either one of her parents. Even Celita couldn’t comfort her it
seemed. They were distressed. Eduardo still believed that keeping
the facts of Ian’s being found alive from Alandra would be best for
them all in the long run. But it was hard to cope with his wife
being so grieved too. He dared not tell her, for fear that she
would tell Alandra, who was headstrong enough already. If she knew
for sure that this Ian fellow was alive and well, she would move
heaven and earth to get permission to travel to Marseille. He would
have a hard time refusing her as he knew from
experience.

Considering the options there seemed
to him to be but one. He would hold to his original plan. Taking
his wife’s hands he said “I think we should proceed with the
beginning of the betrothal. We should take up where we were before
all of this happened. The preparations for the trip and the change
of scenery will work to help distract Alandra from her miserable
state. She’s bright and naturally curious and loves to sail
now.”

His wife looked tiredly at him, and
agreed. They would send word to the Rodriguez family and reschedule
their visit. The Rodriguez family had to come to their place too in
order to conform to custom, so it would be best for all concerned
to proceed as soon as possible.

Eduardo sat thinking
Best we be away as soon as possible because news
of Ian McCloud’s being alive and well might be spoken of where
Alandra would hear of it. Almeria is much further away, closer to
Morocco than to France. The further away from this McCloud fellow
the better
he thought
. The sooner Alandra is betrothed the better.

He felt better already, having made
the decision and getting his wife behind it. Things would soon
improve, of that he was sure.

The buildings with an occasional
lighted window blurred past at an astonishing speed. Mimi was
terrified, but bound and gagged. Tears of fright streaked her face
as the wind roared in her ears. Suddenly she was aware of a sharp
turn from the road and shortly after that, a sudden leap upwards to
land softly. The gable of a house loomed overhead in the darkness.
She was stuffed through an opening and then dropped a short
distance to a floor in a darkened attic.

The vampire picked her up quickly and
leaped down a flight of stairs. Taking a key from a pocket, he then
unlocked a door and leaped down another flight of steps to land in
a dank basement. An oil lamp sat in a corner on the floor, giving
off a dim light. He carried her to an iron-barred partition and
dropped her on the dirt floor. Fishing a key from his pocket, he
opened an iron barred door and then picked Mimi up and sat her down
inside of the cell. Producing a knife he cut the cords binding her
and removed her gag.

He turned and in a flash had reached
into a basket sitting in a corner and returned with several apples
which he tossed into the cell. He then locked the door and flitted
up the stairs like wind-blown smoke. The door at the top of the
stairs was slammed and the key could be heard turning the lock.
Then it was silent, except for her breathing.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she
took stock of her surroundings. Mimi sat staring at a huddled shape
in the corner. The shape moved, separated. She recoiled in terror
as chills ran down her spine. A sweet voice said “Hello Mimi. Don’t
be afraid. I am Celeste.”

***

Two days had passed after Angus and
Armando had gone to Marseille. Ian had had two spells where he felt
faint and his bones seemed to ache. They were less severe than
earlier ones had been. Li had said something to Ian one day at the
breakfast table that stunned everyone. He had suggested that Ian
try to learn to do as many things left-handed as he could while he
was imprinting. There was silence for several seconds after he said
it. Eyebrows were raised, and then Ian said “By heaven, why didn’t
I think of that?” Henri, Marie and Cosette then chimed in
enthusiastically.

Ian had started doing things
left-handed that very day, and had gotten good at some things
already. He resolved to especially train himself at both
swordsmanship and firearms operation from then on, but would do as
many things as possible with his left hand, including handwriting.
He was surprised to see how rapidly he was able to make the
transition

Ian and Li had been teaching Kung Fu
principals to Cosette and Henri. Both had taken well to it. Marie
participated now and then, but was preoccupied with arranging the
wedding. Henri wisely kept out of that unless specifically asked. A
good deal of time was spent on how to defend against a knife when
only the enemy has one. Li was thorough and Ian did the drills with
Cosette and Henri. In this way, Li couldn’t be hurt. An added bonus
was that all techniques could be done at vampire speed.

Even though he had now become somewhat
accustomed to seeing unbelievable things done by vampires, Li was
still stupefied at the blinding speed displayed during practice. He
thought long and hard about how it would feel to have such
superhuman speed and power. He weighed not being able to be in
sunlight and having to always conceal his vampirism. It occupied
his thoughts a lot that day. Ian could sense that Li was distracted
by something. He resolved to hold his peace until his friend came
to him.

Marie would come and partner with
Cosette at times when she could get away from her planning. She had
let some of her correspondence pile up due to the press to get so
much done in the time leading up to the wedding.

Li asked Ian privately one day if he
could be brought over to become a vampire. Ian was stunned, talking
with Li about it for the rest of that day, probing him. He was
adamant, saying he had no family and could not expect to return to
what was considered a normal life in China as long as the Triads
were looking for him. Ian finally agreed to put it to Henri and
Marie that evening.