Lilah (28 page)

‘Untrue!’ she exclaimed. ‘If you are so
superior, why hide like hares in the forest?’

She had grown into her anger. When once she was
just curious, questioning and open, she could sometimes be tempestuous.

‘She has everything here but in order to have
her freedom, and to know she is safe there is only one clear window.’

‘And what if she chooses to live amongst humans
and not practise her magic – will you stop her?’

‘My rules are clear, but regardless she would
not restrict herself as such. It is obvious that she has no limits.’

Lilah looked at me and then away, defeated. She
knew that Oleander would follow her instincts. We both did. Oleander had
already made leaves flutter from the trees with a wave of her hands, or
surrounding herself with butterflies. She was unaware of this – her
thoughts spontaneously embracing magic. Most witches did not know their power
until they reach their womanhood.

I sat beside Lilah. There was no show of public
affection between us. It was not something that came easily to me nor did I
think it necessary. Our closeness had made her tense slightly.

‘Oleander will make the choice,’ I said.

‘With your encouragement.’

‘Possibly, but I do not think she will need
much. The only way you can control this is to lock her in the dungeon. Is that
what you want?’

When Lilah looked at me then I felt tightness
in my chest that can only be described by humans as devotion. If not for what
happened later, I would have spent my last remaining years trying to please
her.

Gabriel

It was four years since I had seen
the castle. Most of those years were spent in London where disease and murders
were our allies, where the most notorious villains filled the streets, where
leprosy touched the lower classes, and where many rose up among the filth,
their pockets filled with gold. It was the safest place to hide since we could
do what we liked with so much
squalor to hide
our hunting. It was also the best place to keep Arianne for she did not cover
her tracks well, and, in this period of debauchery and lunacy, it suited us
well.

Arianne was difficult to live with, but it was
my cross to bear for she was, in effect, my creation. Yes, I could have
destroyed her any time but for the guilt I felt. Yes, I had lured her. Yes, I
had wanted her. I had enticed her with my stories of riches and places where we
could travel to faraway places.

I had loved her for a period. She was engaging
on every level and the thrill of luring her from the monastery had stayed long
after we were together.

Had I left her in human form we may have had a
good relationship but
the change
had altered her in ways I found hard to
bear. The strigoi did not aim to make humans suffer longer than was needed but
Arianne had other ideas. Like a cat with a mouse, she played with her prey as
if in a game. It was said that some return from their brief death with a
different soul, one from the underworld, but all I saw was abuse of her
endowment by her already damaged soul. Though humans would argue we are all
from the underworld.

We left a few weeks after
the change
.
Lewis asked us to leave informing us that he would take care of Lilah. There
was no reason to disagree. She wanted nothing more to do with me. There was
much I had to tell Lilah about my relationship with her father but she refused
my attempts to see her.

Arianne clung to me as if I were some sort of
prize she had won. But she was perceptive, knowing that my heart was no longer
beating hard for her.

Dressed like wealthy travellers, we stayed at
inns sometimes just to observe and sometimes to find our prey. Arianne fed more
than me. Her hunger did not lessen with time. The constant need for blood was
something that even I found repugnant. Arianne preferred the young blood,
something that could not so easily be controlled outside the coven.

Arianne drew many gazes in the town, preferring
the attentions of dressmakers and young men. We would stay long enough for her
to have a new dress made, her bodice and sleeves tight. Sometimes we would rent
accommodation and stay longer parading as aids and messengers for the Vivoide.
Arianne would hire young servant girls and it was there that I would have to
watch her closely that she did not take more from these girls than just their
services.

On a perfect spring day, we arrived in England
met by a horizon of purple iris stretching tall towards the sky, and a carpet
of pink and white apple blossom to line our entry. We did not waste time in the
lush green fields of English countryside, instead hiring a charming house on
Fleet Street in London. It was not my idea. I would have preferred some modest
home in the remote north but I indulged Arianne further, mainly to watch over
her. We became a distant cousin of Hungarian royalty. From our generosity, high
number of servants, and ability to buy whatever we wanted, there was never any
question of our social standing and we were soon invited to many events.
Eventually, we hosted our own afternoon teas and extravagant dinners.

We attended stringed concerts at the manors of
nobles, listened to choirs, and were treated to lavish balls. One concert was
so good Arianne hired the musician exclusively for Saturday evenings.

One of our neighbours, a renowned master
builder, commissioned to restore St Peter’s Abbey, would often invite us to
dinner.

Our servants cooked stuffed goose and spinach
with cardamom, fish soup and peaches with honey for desert. We went to
functions and were served pigeon pies and mustard, baby fowl, pears and
chestnuts, cakes in the shape of fish, wine and ale. Arianne developed a strong
friendship with the master builder, who we discovered was a witch, and much of
the time was spent in his company. I did watch her though, that there were no
feelings of blood. Sometimes her hunger urges were far greater than her bedroom
lusts. And ashamedly, there were times when I would have to clean up after her,
disposing of the husks into the murky Thames, burning bloodied sheets, and
cleaning blood splattered walls before the servants awoke.

Arianne could spin a tale better than I, even
revealing the exact faked names and locations of our ancestors. There was never
any dispute and those who questioned too eagerly would wake up the next morning
unable to remember the conversations from the night before. We socialised with
government and church bodies, something I did find amusing, and Arianne carried
it off effortlessly. In London, there was no shortage of blood from the most
disturbed and vile humans. Our patrons unaware they shared their homes with
creatures to be feared; unknowing of our predacious traits disguised in wealth.

For two years we enjoyed the status, and, even
I, more accustomed to solitude, welcomed the distraction. But as time went on,
high society life became too humdrum, and I began to yearn once again for my
home in the Black Forest, imagining the howls of my wolf brothers, and the
scent of pine.

We began our hunting separately and when we
were together, arguments would ensue. Some nights Arianne did not come back
until morning and I was not concerned and did not even care to ask. I became
more distant, avoiding the functions she attended.

Although I succumbed to sick youths from time
to time, to put them out of their
disease ridden
misery, another problem arose from my conscience, recalling the episode with
Claude. In secret, I began to cure those children afflicted with minor
ailments. To interfere with the nature of humans went against everything I was
taught, not to mention a punishable offense in covens across the land. Lilah’s
influence on me was strong, even from a distance, and I would often daydream
about seeing her again.

One night, Arianne confronted me asking why I
no longer found her desirable. How could she be that foolish! She knew that she
was second in my attentions and looking back to those amorous months of our
first encounters, she was perhaps this way even then. Lilah you see had always
appeared so perfect and unattainable. And now I had lost her to another through
my own doing. I had done those things that Arianne accused me of but it was for
all the right reasons.

Arianne unexpectedly left one day and did not
return and in many ways I was relieved with the burden of her control now lifted.
I hoped that she would never make her way back to the castle. Since the night
she caught me with Lilah, I had sensed an element of vengeance towards her
former friend and pleased for the distance between the two.

I stayed in London for two more years, almost
becoming a recluse; no longer accepting invitations to dine until eventually
they stopped altogether. It was then that I considered returning to the earth.
Although still young, I felt empty and wished to find peace again within my
soul and to awake a generation later when perhaps all former hurt would be
forgotten. Those plans did not eventuate.

One day, I received the calling to return to
the castle. Lewis had released me from my exile and I was keen to once again
find his favour to legitimately be reunited with my friends.

I traversed several countries quickly, no
longer stopping to savour the arts and society we had relished on the way to
London. The west was warmer than usual, something I did not care for, and the
grasses dry. The seasons had become more extreme in recent years, with summers
hotter and winters longer
;
ideal climates for death
and disease.

But closer to my home, brooks flowed in gushes
from the mountains and animals were still bountiful. I slipped into the rear of
the castle grounds unnoticed and spied a little girl emerging from a courtyard.
I had disguised my presence. Some like me are adept at such skill.

The child was the image of her mother and I
could not contain a smile, but this happiness was brief as it also showed how
far the void had widened between us.

Lively and curious, she ran from the courtyard
and into the forest, expecting nothing to stop her from her goal. I could tell
immediately that her temperament differed from her mother and was perhaps a
handful for one as humble. She disappeared between the trees and I followed her
a short while. Turning as if expecting me and quite unafraid, she eyed me
curiously before holding out her hand to lead me back through the forest.

My heart skipped a beat as I caught sight of Lilah
through the trees while she called for her daughter.

She was lovelier than ever; her face longer and
the full cheeks had disappeared replaced by high angled bone down to a full
mouth. Her eyes were the same as I envisaged each night: wide and golden. Her
head was modestly covered with a piece of silk and fashioned into a tail at the
base of her neck. Her hips had widened slightly and her breasts now full were
pressed against the tightness of her bodice of French-blue linen.

Lilah was calling for her daughter then
suddenly halted her step. She sensed me before slowly turning in my direction.
I saw wariness and curiosity in her expression – but thankfully not
disappointment – as I strode toward her. I believed that enough time had
passed between us and she proved this by greeting me civilly.

‘Hello, Gabriel.’

 ‘Hello.’ I had the urge to touch her and
lifted her hand gently from the folds of her skirt. As I bent to kiss the
smooth skin, her daughter, clearly fascinated, was transfixed on our
interaction.

‘You look surprised. Did Lewis not tell you I
was coming?’

She shook her head.

Nothing had changed: Lewis was still a guarded
man.

Lilah looked over my shoulder, her expression
darkening slightly.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Arianne is not here. In fact I
have not seen her for two years.’

‘Oh.’

‘She’s fascinating,’ and she followed my gaze
to Oleander. ‘She is just like you.’

‘Yes, she is. But we are nothing alike.’ She
was keen to change the subject and encouraged the girl back to the house with
the offer of honey cake before the evening meal.

‘I see that you have a new cane.’

‘Yes,’ I said, holding up my English purchase:
wooden with a silver head in the shape of a wolf.

‘Come,’ she said to me. ‘We must find my
husband.’

Perhaps unintentional, that title still hit me hard
in the chest, and unfathomable that Lewis had ended up with this girl instead
of me. But then, I could not forget they were together because of me.

As we walked through the castle, I watched her
gracefulness with her daughter skipping beside her. The little girl would turn
often to view me over her shoulder. 

‘Why did you name her Oleander?’

‘It was Lewis’s idea and his rarely-seen sense
of humour,’ said Lilah. ‘
to
repeat the name I gave to
a poisonous plant discovered in this very garden.  She is just like the
flower
;
beautiful, enchanting, and seductively deadly.
Though I did not agree to it at first, in the past two years she can be
somewhat of a challenge and now I find it suits her.’

Lewis stood in the library waiting and had
probably heard most of our conversation. There was no need to tell him details
of my time away; he had probably been sending spies to check on us both.