History of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Castle Series Book 4) (2 page)

“That’s why we’re not moving to Manhattan,” our grandfather informed the family in general. My mother, Daniel, my younger sister Emily, and I were all sitting with him around our dining room table. “We’re staying out of New York altogether,” Grandfather announced.

“You have to be joking.” Daniel was incredulous. “Are we moving to the wild to live with the savages? I guess we’d better remember to ship the moat. We’re going to need it.”

“There’s more to America than just New York and the great plains,” our mother said in a calm voice that I knew she hoped was soothing. I suspected she had anticipated her father’s announcement to leave Budapest, so it didn’t come as much of a shock. “I’ve read that spots in the Midwest of America are quite developed now and can be remarkably lovely.”

Daniel flashed Mother a look. “You don’t always have to take his side.”

It wasn’t Mother’s habit to take her father’s side, but she did know how to pick her battles. This was one she probably knew she would lose, so she didn’t intend to fight. That or she had something else in mind and she was waiting to see how things played out.

“But there isn’t even any society in America.” Daniel was not giving up so easily. “At least not our kind of society.”

“There are more of our kind in America than you realize,” Grandfather informed him. “And there are more moving there every day. With Hitler grabbing for power, I think a great many of our kind will be leaving Europe in the next year or two.”

“Oh.” Daniel appeared mollified. “You didn’t say we were going to be moving to an undead enclave. If we have our friends around us, then that will be different.”

“I will not make our family a target by moving to an undead enclave,” Grandfather said flatly. “In fact, we’re moving to where no mortal would ever think to look for vampires.”

“You can’t be serious!” Daniel said again, even though our grandfather was not a man who tended to make jokes.

Laying both hands flat on the table, Grandfather looked Daniel square in the eye. “You are welcome to stay here,” he said. “But let me be clear about one thing. If you choose to stay, you will be cut off from the family without a cent.”

His threat did the trick. There was no way in the world Daniel would be willing to give up his share of the Vanderlind fortune. That wasn’t in his nature. There was nothing he loved more than wealth and the power it brought. I knew this without a doubt.

Daniel had been married once, not so many years ago, but when he was still mortal. His wife, Anna, had been a lovely girl who seemed to sincerely love him, for whatever reason. But she accidentally discovered our grandfather’s dark secret; the disease which he had methodically spread to his own children, accidentally killing one of his daughters in the process.

Anna had wanted to flee the castle with her husband. She was convinced it was better to live a life of poverty than to make a deal with the devil. But Daniel had other ideas. He’d only been persuaded to marry her in order to procreate while he was still a mortal. Grandfather put great stock in not letting the Vanderlind line dwindle. But instead of escaping from evil with his wife, Daniel dragged Anna before our grandfather.

I was barely sixteen, but I was convinced Grandfather would kill my sister-in-law. I went to confront him and did my best to save Anna, only to receive his disdain. “You’ve always been soft on mortals,” Grandfather told me, obviously disgusted by my compassion.

“I happen to be a mortal,” I informed him, with all the bravery and ignorance that a sixteen year old boy could muster.

“For the moment,” he informed me. “But your time will come, so enjoy your foolish mortal emotions while you can.”

I knew that transforming into the undead could easily twist a human from a being filled with compassion to a creature filled with hate. I sincerely hoped that fate would not befall me when my time came to be transformed.

Grandfather became a creature of the night at the age of twenty-four and he decided it was the ideal age for any vampire. So when each of his children turned twenty-four, he turned them, whether they wanted to be vampires or not. And he intended to do the same for his grandchildren; an event that Daniel looked forward to with great anticipation, but one that I dreaded.

Grandfather arranged for all of his children to marry into wealth in order to expand our already sizeable family fortune, but the spouses of his offspring were not considered worthy enough to be transformed into the undead. My uncle’s wife and my own father had both mysteriously disappeared soon after my mother and uncle were made. The spouse of my aunt who had died during transformation also disappeared under mysterious circumstances, but he took his luggage and quite a bit of my aunt’s jewelry with him.

After Daniel betrayed his wife, Grandfather decided to temporarily spare Anna’s life, although she essentially became a prisoner in the castle. She was to bare Daniel a few children before Grandfather would decide it was time for her demise. But Anna denied her husband any offspring by hanging herself from a chandelier a few months after her discovery of our family’s dark secret. Daniel was furious, but I admired her for her convictions.

My brother never took another wife. When his maker’s day came, he was still childless. This greatly displeased Grandfather, but he turned Daniel anyway, deciding it would be up to Emily and me to keep the Vanderlind line alive.

“Will our Uncle be moving with us?” my little sister screwed up the courage to ask as we all sat around the dining table, glaring at one another. She was madly devoted to our cousin Dorian, with that unique fervor of little girls.

“Your Uncle will finish up business here before coming over. That should only take a year or two,” was Grandfather’s reply.

But that didn’t exactly provide an answer to Emily’s real question. “What about Dorian?” I asked, deciding to help her out. “Will he be making the voyage with us or will he stay here and cross with his father?”

Grandfather made a small, guttural sound in the back of his throat. “I haven’t decided yet on the safest place to keep your cousin.”

Cousin Dorian was only a little older than I was, but he already had a keen eye for the ladies. It was all Grandfather could do to keep him from causing a scandal.

“I still say this is all nonsense,” Daniel grumbled. “This is a big decision and I think it should be open to family discussion.”

“You can think whatever you want,” Grandfather informed him. “But I’ve already purchased the land in America and the workmen will be arriving tomorrow to start dismantling the castle. I’ve already instructed Mrs. Denkler to oversee the servants while they pack up the household.”

“Where are we going?” Mother asked. “Where is it in America that we are all moving to?”

Grandfather leaned back in his chair, folded his hands, and smiled with some satisfaction. He was handsome, in a brutish short of way, and he appeared no older than his daughter, who appeared no older than her eldest son. “A nice little town in Ohio,” he assured us. “Right on the shore of the Tiburon River.”

Chapter 3

Colette

“They’re using only workers they’re bringing over from Europe,” my father grumbled from behind his newspaper as I sat down to breakfast the next morning. “I can’t believe that not one man from Tiburon is going to earn an honest day’s pay for that monstrosity they’re building on the edge of town.”

“I’m not sure that warrants calling it a monstrosity,” mother said, trying her best to coax him back into a good mood as she served eggs and toast. “I hear that it’s an entire castle they’re moving from Hungary stone by stone. That sounds very exciting to me. I’ve always wanted to see a castle.”

“I wonder why they’re moving here.” I couldn’t help but say aloud.

“Europe is getting to be a real mess,” my father informed me. “That Hitler fellow is starting to cause all sorts of problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if that had something to do with it.”

I was sure my father was right, but that wasn’t exactly what I meant. My question had more to do with why a wealthy family living in a cosmopolitan city like Budapest would then decide to move to the outskirts of a small town in the middle of Ohio. It wasn’t the first place I would choose to live if I had enough money to ship an entire castle all the way over from Europe.

Lilly came hurrying into the breakfast room and slipped into her seat. Papa glanced at his watch. “Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I had trouble sleeping last night so it was hard to get up this morning,” she told him.

That may have been true. I’d slept like a stone, so I couldn’t say for sure. But I also knew that Lilly had spent extra time in front of the mirror this morning, making sure her hair was perfect. She was going straight to her job at Zucker’s after school and I was sure she had plans for Walter to meet her there.

“You’re not coming down with anything, I hope,” Mama said, reaching across the table to lay a hand on Lilly’s cheek. “You’re not warm, but you look a little flushed.”

“I’m just excited,” Lilly told her. “Lettie’s agreed to go, so I’m going to have my first date with Walter.”

Papa gave me surprised look. “Is that true, Colette?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “Lilly talked me into it.”

“Oh,” Papa said with a frown. I got the feeling he had been counting on me not giving in and so his plan of keeping his daughters from dating had backfired.

“That’s very nice of you,” Mama told me, not glancing in her husband’s direction. “But we are expecting both of you to behave very responsibly on this date and not let it go to your heads.”

“We won’t, Mama,” Lilly quickly assured her.

As far as I knew, the date was just to be Walter and a friend escorting us to the diner for a soda and then home again. I couldn’t see how drinking a soda while sitting at the counter of Top’s Diner could go to anyone’s head.

Lilly had to hurry through breakfast or we were going to be late. Tiburon didn’t have anything as fancy as a school bus, so Lilly and I had to walk to the high school when the weather was fine. Papa would give us a lift if it was too cold or wet to walk, but it had to be awfully cold or very, very wet for that to be deemed necessary.

As we headed toward school, Lilly was practically dancing on air. She linked her arm through mine and skipped along. “Lettie, have I told you how much I love you?” she asked. “You’re the best sister ever.”

I had to laugh. “Would you be saying that if I hadn’t agreed to chaperone your date?”

My sister pretended to think it over. “Well, I would still love you, I suppose, but you’d probably lose the title of best sister.”

By the time Lilly came home from her job that evening and we’d all sat down for supper, things were practically settled with Walter. “He’s going to ask his friend Lev Wilson,” she told the family as we ate. “And if Lev is free, we’re going out on Friday night.”

I felt my stomach drop a little. It was already Wednesday. I didn’t think my first date with a boy would be thrust upon me so quickly.

“Lev Wilson,” Papa repeated, mulling the name over. “Didn’t he used to be on the football team for Tiburon High?”

“Yes, I think he was the quarterback or something a few years ago,” Lilly told him. “Walter said that he was offered a scholarship to Notre Dame, but that his father had a heart attack the summer before he was going to start so he couldn’t go.”

“I remember hearing something about that,” Papa said as he cut his meat. “Sounds like he’s a boy with good values; not abandoning his family like that.”

“I’m sure all of Walter’s friends are very nice,” Lilly was quick to assure him. I wondered if that was because things weren’t confirmed with Lev and Lilly didn’t want to jeopardize the date, if I should have to be escorted by another boy.

“The boat for the castle is arriving early tomorrow morning,” Papa said, abruptly changing the topic. He probably didn’t want to linger over thoughts of his daughters actually going out on a double date. “I just found out Bill Galler out of Akron is going to oversee the day laborers that were hired to help out.”

“We should all drive over early and take a look,” Mama suggested. “And then we could drop the girls at school.”

Papa rubbed his chin. “I would like to see what they’re up to,” he mused. “Bill says the pay is pretty good. Men are driving in from as far as Columbus.”

“Good,” Mama said, a small smirk playing across her lips that her husband was now interested in seeing the monstrosity. “It’s settled then.”