Lilah (11 page)

‘Don’t be afraid,’ I said.

‘I don’t know what you are but I am not
afraid.’

It took me seconds to catch Evie and bring her
back to the room before she had reached her mother. She struggled and I covered
her mouth with my hand. With my other I touched her temple and she relaxed in
my arms.

‘What have you done to her?’

‘Put her in a sleep. All that happened in her
room this evening will be forgotten. Her father will have disappeared and
no-one to explain the disappearance, but his enemies will agree that sooner or
later he had it coming...’

‘She should come with us.’

‘No. She is safe here now. There is no-one to
hurt her.’

‘And what of her mother?
I believe that Lady Köszegi saw
everything that happened outside.’

‘I can sense that she is asleep from the drugs
she takes to fight her own demons. She is no harm to anyone except herself.’

In a piece of linen, I wrapped the remains of
the father – little more than a husk – and took Lilah by the hand
to leave by the bedroom window that faced the forest at the back of the villa.

‘But Emil?’ she asked.

I shook my head. ‘He died the moment you left.
In those final moments he did not suffer. You would not have had the strength
to fight this.’

I saw tears enter her eyes. ‘Arianne must know all
this. She must know that at least her youngest sister is still alive.’

‘We must go now. You have to trust me.’ And she
nodded.

With Lilah tightly in my arms I jumped from the
window while she clutched at the sleeves of my shirt. She did not tremble but
her eyes widened as we floated to the ground. It was another skill to make
ourselves
lighter than air. I ran then and carried her deep
into the forest.

 ‘Where are we going?’

‘I am taking you to a place in Transylvania
where you belong with your own kind.’

‘Will my parents be there?’

‘No.’

‘Are you my own kind?’

‘Yes, in a way.’

‘You killed a man by swallowing his blood
– stories I have heard about – yet I could sense no wrong from you.
It is a strange connection we have yet I don’t understand it.’

‘Our connections run through many generations.
Something you will learn about but not from me. It is best to learn from
someone who can teach you much more than I.’

In truth, I steered her away from the
conversation. I sought to avoid answering questions about her past. This girl
had extraordinary senses for someone so young and she would eventually see
through any lies. With such potential, she would undoubtedly be taken into the
coven. She may have trusted me but the question remained whether she would
trust the one who had been seeking her for years.

Chapter 7

Lewis

‘Where were you last night? I sent
you a message that you must come back to the castle.’

‘I like where I’m living.’

‘I’ve told you before that your liaisons at
that house will get you in trouble. It is no longer safe. I suspect that the
Brodnici knows it exists.’

‘I thought we wiped them out years ago.’

‘There will always be others and they are often
crafty as we have seen. They have been a threat to our existence for centuries.
As long as they breed, there will be others. We might have the upper hand at
most times but while you are in that fickle way your brain is not thinking
where it should. You should be careful, Gabriel.’

He was distant, thinking of that silly woman no
doubt! I was aware that he had been spying and stalking her. If only I could
cure him of such petty conquests.

‘She is human. They are never worth it.’

‘Does it matter what I do with my time?’

‘Yes, it does. If you spurn her she would think
to give away our location and you will have signed a warrant for her death.’

‘I can read their minds and never once have I
spied thoughts of malice…just an overwhelming desire to please me and an
experience that matches no other.’ He smiled then, as he was well pleased with
his charms.

Gabriel took his share of humans for servants,
sustenance and enjoyment in equal measures. Most strigoi confined
themselves
to sustenance only; mainly because they could not
control themselves around the smell of human blood. Lust could turn to
something more. But Gabriel was different. He was skilled in the art of
lovemaking and that above all seemed to overtake any other desires. Many of the
female gender found it difficult to resist his attentions.

‘This is not about me. I thought you wished to
speak about Lilah.’

Yes, the young witch. Gabriel had introduced me
to her in the library briefly the night before. I had the ability to see a
witch’s potential embedded in their skin, in the colour of their eyes, and
sometimes just from the questions that they asked. It was an instinct only
gained from someone as old as I. And this one had gifts far greater than her
age, or that she knew. But the one attribute – or perhaps a flaw –
which was different from most of the witches was her fearlessness of mortality.
This skill alone could perhaps unsettle an adversary and not least make a
conversion difficult. In time, this was a girl that others would fear.

‘Where has she been all these years?’

‘At a monastery.’

‘You knew she was there?’

‘Yes.’

‘You should have told me. I am supposed to
trust you.’

‘I honoured a promise’

‘See what happens when you honour a promise
like this! Eventually they will find their way here if I don’t find them first.
It was wrong of you to do that. I should punish you.’

‘I brought her here remember.’

I accepted this fact begrudgingly, but wondered
if he was capable of hiding other things. Though I trusted him above many other
strigoi, I would have to watch him a little closer. It would not do to have a
potential successor keeping secrets.

‘I can’t read her thoughts. How much does she
know?’

‘Enough.’

‘Then she will no doubt convert to be one of
us.’

‘I don’t think she would want that’.

‘You said that she was not frightened when she
saw what you did.’

‘I have promised her that she will be safe here
and she can go at any time.’

‘Another promise!’ I said, my scorn too great
to hide. ‘I don’t think so. I will not so easily forgive the last one.’

‘We don’t force
them to take
the change
.’

It was not unusual for Gabriel to dare me to
question my own rules.

‘You humour me. The alternative is not a worthy
option.’

Gabriel looked accusingly, and I despised that
he had such a conscience. He knew my rules and I knew he did not agree with all
of them. He had sometimes aired his thoughts in our private counsel, but
fortunately not to the others. He had loyalty and discretion and would not risk
unsettling the coven with his views.

‘And you know there are always those witches
too weak of mind to leave and too weak to stay.’

‘You must consider another option for this one.
She is worth saving for something else.’

Something about this comment alarmed me.
Perhaps the potential to interfere with my decisions.

‘You mean for breeding? As your wife perhaps?’

He did not expect this turn of conversation and
I saw slight regret for the suggestion. He forced a laugh. ‘No. I have my hands
full. I was thinking more as yours.’ Though I was not convinced of his
sincerity with such a statement for he did not meet my look. ‘She is much
different from the others; more…attentive.’

There were still thoughts that he didn’t say
out loud. I left him there to seek Lilah in her room. Servants passed me in the
halls with their heads down as was customary. This castle had been home to the
strigoi now for two centuries.
The slaves who had placed
stone upon stone were rewarded by living to the end of their human years
and their generations had continued to serve us.

The castle was far from everything. A haven for
witches who had escaped persecution and to whom had been given the gifts of
eternal life. These witches were known as the reborn. There were many of the
elders here also, some currently in the ground; those from the early years,
once forced to live in underground caves to hide from those humans who hunted
them. After several hundred years of hiding our kind became legend only. With
skill and disguise in the last few hundred years we were able to walk the earth
without fear.

Our coven had three floors plus the basement,
oak-panelled hallways leading to many hidden passageways, and rooms full of
oriental tapestries and treasures stolen from the vaults of royalty and
merchants. On a day of mist the castle was hidden except for the spires that
reached into the clouds from their dome caps. The gargoyles at the front were
built in honour of our ancestors who did not have the skills or knowledge to
wear the skin of humans. Some had made it through, dug up from sleeping crypts
to emerge as new again, while others fell victim to forest animals without the
safety of a burial chamber, their bones scattered across the lands and an
endless darkness for their souls. I shuddered when I thought how close it came
to be my prison had I not uncovered, centuries ago, the ancient
witch speak
writings of rebirthing: disguising in the stolen form of humans while we
replenished and grew in number. We safely returned to the ancient traditions of
burial to replenish our youth and such body stealing became unnecessary and
later banned from practice.

The coven was passed to me centuries ago and it
had become a strigoi safe house.  Hapless travellers sometimes stumbled
upon our home after weeks in the Black Forest, thinking they had found
sanctuary only to find that they had reached their end. They were taken by one
of us as quickly as the wolves pounce on their prey: blooded and their bodies
burnt to ash. Although some of these had committed no human crimes it was
impossible to release them. Even the innocent had to be sacrificed in this
instance. The task of transporting them elsewhere and removing their most
recent memories was simple, but we could not erase their instinct or their
sense of purpose. It is the nature of humans to return to complete a journey.

In certain cases where memories were erased
many returned to their undertaking, experiencing feelings of familiarity
without ever understanding why.

Lilah was given one of our best chambers. Just
by the choice, it was clear that Gabriel thought her important enough. Her bed
was large with tall shaped pillars and a cream lace coverlet. A thick fur rug
lay in front of a fire. The girl sat by the window watching the first trickles
of snow outside and she turned as I entered as if expecting me. She was slender
and unassuming in the way she tilted her head, yet seemed to fill the room with
light and force; so much so the intensity of it made me draw back momentarily.

‘Why am I here?’ It was clear she had been
questioning our motives throughout the night, her face drawn and paled.

My bones creaked as I bent to sit beside her on
the lounge. Age was not something I could do with self-healing. The battle with
age could not be won – no amount of interfering could produce a cure
except for sleep. My time for rest would be here in less than a decade but I
had yet to name my successor. Gabriel was the obvious choice by most but he
could be unreliable, his heart given to fancies in a moment of passion or whim
as he had recently shown.
An
elder was a likely successor but that many were ageing also and would be
seeking their time of rest not long after me. Along with the fact that many
were not born to be leaders, too accustomed to the easy life of taking orders
instead.

‘Such a direct question from someone so young!’

She looked away at this a moment to consider
whether she had stepped too far.

‘I don’t understand why. Gabriel said I would
be safe but I can’t help feeling that there is more to me being here than just
a place to sleep.’

I could not tell her then of my plans. She was
too young to cope with such and did not have the desperate fire in her belly
like most who found me; those cast out from their villages with their
‘unnatural’ practices of healing.

‘You are a witch and you are now with family.
We have blood connections going back centuries’

‘But I am not like you or Gabriel. I have seen
what your kind is capable of.’

Her wide leaf shaped eyes did not blink when
she said this. It was not reproachful in any way but full of questions and a
desire for information. I could not read her but her energy was potent.

I had no weakness for pretty young witches but
even I felt some of my own strength leave me as if she were leaching it from me
;
as if I was suddenly cut from thinner cloth.