Forever Young The Beginning (79 page)

“
Can you take us there now,
Tom?”

“
Yes sir. I’m ready when you
are.”

***

Aimee was aware that her captor was a
vampire so she forced herself to relax after she screamed. He ran
like the wind and eventually leaped high and landed on a roof and
after they descended three flights of stairs she found herself in a
well-lit cellar. She was taken to a cell and put down inside of it.
There was no chance to squeeze past the vampire and try to run, so
she stood there as calmly as she could. Then she recalled what Ian
had told her and she made herself tremble and backed away from him.
He said “What is your name my little miss?”

She said “Parlez vous Francais?” as
she faked a trembling, cowering demeanor.

“
Oh, a frenchie eh? Wonder
what you were doing on that street tonight little miss. Hmmm; I
think I know a man who won’t mind at all that you can’t speak
English. I’m sure that he’ll pay handsomely for one such as you, my
pretty.”

He locked the cell door and departed.
In minutes he returned and opened it, setting a bucket of water
inside and a small cloth bag. In it were two apples and some stale
bread. He locked the door and vanished up the steps in a
flash.

Aimee thought
good; he thinks I’m human
. Then she heard a sound from the far corner of the large
cell. Some thirty feet away a figure moved in the straw, moaning.
Aimee went to investigate and saw a woman lying there, obviously in
pain. She knelt down and speaking in English said “I’m Aimee. Who
are you?”

A very weak feminine voice replied
“I…I…I’m Jennifer. I am…am sick. He…he bit me.”

***

The group arrived at the
scene of the kidnapping. They thanked Tom then and paid the driver
to take him home. He wanted to stay, but Ian took him aside and
said “We have the situation in hand, Tom. If we can’t find them,
neither can the Constables. I want you to come to the
Hungry Eye
tonight and
we’ll meet you there. We may have to start looking there, but we
have some things that we can do tonight.”

“
I’ll never be able to sleep
at all. I’ll meet you tonight then, Ian. Thank you and good
night.”

As the carriage pulled away,
Ian turned to Henri and Robert and said. “I think that since there
are seven of us, we should split up and just walk the streets near
here and use our ears to see if we can hear anything out of the
ordinary. At this point, I can see nothing else that will help. If
we turn up empty, we can go to the
Hungry
Eye
tonight and see if anyone knows those
two or if one of them comes in.”

Robert said “I’m afraid you’re
right.”

“
Sir; do you know of any
other taverns in this area?”

“
I don’t get down here much,
but I recall two more within a mile.”

“
If we turn up empty handed,
we could split into groups. Some of us could go to each tavern
tonight and arrange to send one to get the rest of us if we spot
either of our targets.”

“
That’s a good plan. I think
that I’m going to get some people out of bed now and am going to
give descriptions of these two to them for a possible
name.”

“
This is your district, Bob.
I know that your contacts will be discreet.”

“
They’d better be for what
they are paid above their salary!”

Ian thought
and likely they have anonymous bank accounts too.
I wonder if they are in a Swiss bank.

The group split up then and Robert
headed off to roust some high ranking members of the London
Constabulary.

At dawn, they met at the same place.
They’d learned nothing the rest of the night within a mile radius
of where they were. Ian was frustrated and had a cold hatred
burning within him. “I’m for staying here all day and talking to
anyone we can around here. We can describe the two characters and
maybe we’ll get lucky that way. Anyone else have a better
idea?”

No one did, so they went to a secluded
spot between two buildings and took nourishment. Soon it became
apparent that it would be a sunny day and that no one but Ian and
Sophia could continue without hats and gloves. The others said they
would leave to get the necessary clothing and return.

After the others had gone, Sophia came
to Ian and said “We’ll find them, Ian. I just know it.” Looking at
her he said “I’m concerned that he’ll discover that Aimee is a
vampire. Do you know what he’ll do to her if he discovers that?”
Sophia’s eyes widened then as it dawned on her that Aimee would be
useless as she couldn’t be sold, so she’d have to be disposed of.
Ian said “We can’t fail her.” They braced themselves for a long day
as they split up.

Aimee knelt beside Jennifer and
dampened her brow with water from the pail. She knew what had
happened to her and spoke gently to her now that she was awake.
“Jennifer.”

“
Yes, Aimee.”

“
Listen to me Jennifer.
These men who took us are vampires. One of them bit you and you are
dying. You need vampire blood to drink or you’ll die.”

“
What…what are you saying,
Aimee? I…I don’t believe in such things.”

Aimee pinched her then. “Ouch! What
was that for?”

“
Are you awake,
Jennifer?”

“
Y…yes, I’m
awake.”

“
Watch closely now.” She
stood up then and leaped up to grasp the rough wood of the cell
wall some nine feet above the floor and dropped down again
effortlessly. She took off her dress, shoes, and hosiery and leaped
up to the highest point in the cell and began to crawl around on
the walls like a spider. She even crawled across the ceiling once
grappling the joists and beams overhead with her feet hanging. She
traversed the ceiling this way so fast that Jennifer could barely
follow her movements, and then she dropped noiselessly to the floor
as light as a cat beside her. She allowed her eyes to glow then as
she stared at Jennifer.

“
Aimee! How did you do that?
And….and your eyes! They glowed just now. I saw them
glowing!”

“
I’m a vampire too. They
don’t know that and we can’t tell them.”

“
Y…you’re a vampire Aimee? I
must be losing my mind.”

“
You’ll lose your life if
you don’t do what I say now, Jennifer. You’re dying. Whoever bit
you should have come back by now to give you his blood. He doesn’t
know enough to be doing this. I’ll give you my blood.”

“
I won’t take it. No. I
will
not
!”

“
Then you’ll die. I had to
take it when I crossed over. If not, I would have died.”

“
He…he said I’d cross over!
He said that! Oh my God! He
is
a vampire and so are you! You
are
real, Aimee! This nightmare is
all real!”

Aimee bit her wrist on the inside and
held it to Jennifer’s mouth. “Hurry, Jennifer before it heals and
closes!” She sucked in a little. Aimee bit herself again and held
it for her again. She took in some more as Aimee repeated that four
more times and then held her arm up close for Jennifer to
see.

“
Aimee! I feel better! I
feel warm inside. Your arm! It’s healed! You bit yourself and
there’s not a mark on you! How can that be?”

“
We heal fast.”

“
We?”

‘
I have a big family.
They’re looking for me now”

“
A family?”

“
Yes. They’re the best
family in the world. They’ll find me. They’ll never stop
looking.”

‘
You’re part of a family…a
family of…vampires?”

‘
Vampires and humans,
Jennifer.”

“
How…how can that be? You
all live together?”

‘
Yes.”

Jennifer was silent, trying to
comprehend what she was hearing. Was she dreaming this? Aimee
pinched her again, saying “Jennifer, do you hear me?”

“
Ouch! Yes, yes. I hear you.
If your family finds us, what will they do?

“
Kill him.”

She was silent for a bit, and then she
said “What will we do if there are more of them? I know that this
one has a companion and he’s a vampire too.”

“
No matter how many of them
there are, nothing can save them when my family comes for me.”
Jennifer looked closely at Aimee, seeing only a grim expression on
her beautiful face.

“
Is there anything we can do
until they come?”

“
Fool them. You have to keep
looking like you’re dying. You and I will make believe that we
can’t talk to each other. We’ll fool them together.”

She was silent for a bit, and then she
said “What will we do if there are lots more of them?

“
Nothing can save them
now.”

***

The others returned with the
necessary clothing and soon Ian and Sophia had on their hats.
Everyone’s fighting suit had been brought too, along with their
short swords and daggers. Henri had asked for Robert to get pistols
for them. He was surprised that Henri wanted two dozen of them.
“That is just for the six of us counting you. If you have
any
Adepts
that can
help us, please get them. Pocket pistols are best for size and
portability, but we’ll use what you can find.”

“
Is there a reason you think
we need more help?”

“
Yes. These rogues mostly
congregate in covens. It’s best to go in by surprise with enough
people and plenty of firepower.”

‘
I’ll get firearms and help
by tonight. The Constables are inquiring now about these two
characters. Likely you may see them today while you’re talking to
people around here. If they question you, just use my
name.”

Ian spoke then. “If we find the place
the coven lives, we want no one to escape because Aimee or the
other girl might not be there. We want to take as many alive as
possible for questioning. There could be a buyer for Aimee.” He
fastened his eyes on Robert then and said “If that’s the case, I
want his name and the names of his friends who are perverts too.
And I want your blessing to exterminate every last one of them,
sir.”

“
If there is such a group, I
want them all dead too. But we have to see how well they’re
connected first so as to plan a proper operation. I’ll take care of
that part of it if it goes that far. When it’s time to go in, I
want you to lead us Ian.”

“
Very well, sir. We might
just as well split up and start asking questions.” As Robert left,
the others divided the area into segments and went their separate
ways.

***

“
Aimee, tell me about your
family.”

Aimee sat with Jennifer holding one of
her hands and told her about each member and some of their
history.

“
So there are twelve of you,
but five are human?”

“
Yes. It’s their choice.
Some of us never had a choice. We were forced like you
were.”

“
How can you live together,
being so different?”

“
We love each other,
Jennifer. They rescued me from a life in a horrible place where
vampires fed on humans.”

“
Fed?”

“
We must have blood or die.
We live on animal blood, and there’s plenty of that
everywhere.”

“
So your…family helped you
when they found you?”

“
Yes. They all helped me
through my
imprinting
. Without them, I’d only be able to go out at night time and
would know nothing about how to live or behave
properly.”

“
Imprinting?”

Aimee explained imprinting
to her. “So I am
imprinting
right now?”

“
Yes. There is a lot to it
if you are to become a successful
Adept,
Jennifer.”

“
Adept?”

Aimee explained the concept to
her.

“
Aimee, you talk like an
adult.”

“
I only spend time with
adults. I like children, but they’re so immature and foolish that I
don’t want to be around them all of the time. Not to mention that
they’re always fidgeting.”

Jennifer laughed then and Aimee
laughed with her.

The day had been mostly fruitless, but
Li came back with some good news. He’d found two different people
who had seen a bald man with a tattoo on his arm around
three-fourths of a mile to the northwest of where Jennifer had been
taken. It was roughly two miles from where Aimee had been taken.
The group decided to concentrate their listening talents there and
just lurk about in that area until maybe a little after dark and
then split up and go to the three taverns.

Robert arrived with his wife Margaret,
and three young Adept males. He introduced them to the group and
caught up on what was being planned. The authorities hadn’t yet
gotten a name on either of the two, but were looking quietly
everywhere. They were watching the waterfront and were watching
major roads in and out of London, of which there were only seven.
Aimee’s description had been given along with the description of
her two kidnappers, but her name wasn’t given.