Taboo (A Tale of the Talhari Book 1) (5 page)

“I think you need some background,” said Trina. “This world that we live in isn’t the peaceful little place you think it is. There are things that exist in this world that we’re taught as children not to believe in.”

“Everything you were taught isn’t real, is real.” Joshua met Sydney’s gaze and held it. “Like they said, vampires, werewolves, zombies, yeti, and that’s just scratching the surface. There are things out there that we don’t even know exist until we come across one on a case.”

“Yeti?”

“Yes.”

Sydney’s head felt like it was about to spin off her shoulders.

“You’re throwing too much at her,” said Alaric. “Let’s stick to bloodsuckers.”

“Why do you call them bloodsuckers?”

“Because bloodsuckers suck their victims dry. They kill their victims. Not every vampire does that.”

“Really? I would have thought they were all the same.”

“They’re not. Our issue is with the bloodsuckers. The others we leave in peace.”

“What are bloodsuckers, then? Where do they come from?”

“I guess you could say they’re similar to zombies in that they were once human, but that’s where the similarities end. Vampires are ancient, but their creation can be tracked to a certain point in history. How good are you with Biblical history?”

“Pretty good, I went to Sunday school, I go to church, I read my Bible, but I’m no theologian. I’m a historian so I’m probably better than most.”

“Are you familiar with the Old Testament story of Saul and David?”

She thought of her article. “Yeah. Saul was king but he displeased God, so Samuel the prophet anointed David king over the Israelites, while Saul was still king. If I remember correctly, Saul had a history not obeying God. The last straw came when he fought the Amalekites. God’s instruction to Saul was to completely destroy them and everything they owned. But Saul chose instead to take their king and many of his people as hostages. He also kept many things of value. God actually tells Samuel that it would have been better if He had not made Saul king.”

Nobody said anything for a while, then Alaric said, “Keep going.”

“Let me see. It’s a long story. You have Goliath, a Philistine, who was humiliating the Israelites and challenging them to fight. But he was large and nobody could defeat him, until David. David had faith in God and he trusted God enough to face down Goliath with nothing but a sling shot and five stones. And David killed him.”

Sydney paused again to look around the room. Giving someone a chance to say something, but everyone was silent.

“You know I’ve read that a stone shot from a sling has the force of a bullet,” she said. “Not so shabby a weapon to have at your disposal. I personally think I’d prefer it over a sword.” She stopped again to fast forward in her head. “Saul was plagued by an evil spirit, so David was hired to play music for him on a harp. The music soothed Saul and made the evil spirit leave…for a time. It always returned. Then David began to serve Saul as a soldier, fighting in Saul’s army, killing so many more of their enemies than Saul that the people began to sing songs about David. Saul couldn’t have this, so he decided to kill David.”

“Didn’t Saul have a son?” Rhonda asked.

“Yeah, Jonathan. He was Saul’s son and David’s best friend. He warned David of Saul’s intension to kill him, so David fled. For years he lived on the run. Twice David had an opportunity to kill Saul, but refused, leaving it to God to handle however He saw fit. The trust in God thing always comes back into play with David and Saul.”

She looked around the room again and was surprised to see they were all still listening. “David trusted God. We know he had times of despair by reading the Psalms, but he was on the run for—some believe—close to twenty years. That’s an incredibly long time to put your faith in God without any evidence that what you were promised would actually come to pass.”

“I couldn’t have done it,” said Paul. “First chance I had Saul would have been dead.”

“Yeah,” Joshua laughed. “I’m sure you would have sliced off his arm or something. Let him bleed to death.”

Paul shrugged. “Decapitation seems to work best. Think of how much trouble David would have saved us if he’d just done it.”

Everyone nodded.

Sydney wondered how Saul could cause anyone any problems anymore.

“Please, go on,” said Alaric, before she could ask.

“So Israel was at war with the Philistines and it wasn’t going well,” Sydney said. “Legend has it that Saul threw himself on his own sword. Another story says he had one of his men kill him. Shortly after that, David became king.” She looked around the room, but nobody said anything. “I’ve simplified the story. I’ve left a lot of details out.”

“This is what you know about Saul and David off the top of your head?” Rhonda asked.

“I’ve been working on an article about the life of King David.”

They looked at each other. The room suddenly seemed to hum with energy.

“What?” Sydney asked.

Paul regarded Alaric, an eyebrow raised. He snorted. “Not bad. That’s more than Quinton told me when I joined the group, Alaric.”

“I know.”

“Who is Quinton?” Sydney asked.

“One of our former historians.”

“A historian. What happened to him?”

“Personality conflicts, so he was transferred.” Alaric, still serious, turned to face her. He didn’t look unhappy, only thoughtful. He stared for so long gooseflesh popped out along her arms.

“I have no idea what Saul and David have to do with vampires,” she said.

“What history leaves out,” Alaric began at last, “is what happened before Saul threw himself on his sword.”

“This is where we come in,” Trina added, rubbing her hands together.

“By this time, Saul had gone mad. He’d been replaced by David, who he could truly find no fault with, except that God had anointed David and removed Saul’s……” he searched for the words.

“Grace,” Sydney said. “God removed His grace from Saul, His anointing.”

“Yeah, and Saul knew it. He was jealous of David, but as much as he tried, he couldn’t get the best of him. David always managed to elude him. And Saul knew that it wasn’t David eluding him, it was God protecting David. It was God protecting his newly anointed one. And Saul knew he was no longer God’s chosen. He’d eventually have to give up his place as ruler, the power, the wealth, the glory, and the thought of that filled him with rage.”

“Even seeing his life in hindsight and knowing all the mistakes he made, his feelings are understandable.”

“There was knowledge of good and evil, even then. They knew also that to reach out to God, you pray. They also knew how to reach out to demons.”

Sydney shivered. She didn’t like where this story was going.

“He conjured the an-yaka, a high level demon, who had tormented him for so many years and begged it to help him destroy David. He explained that God would be saddened by the death of his chosen one and proclaimed that such a thing would be a victory. The an-yaka asked if Saul would agree to whatever means were necessary to defeat David. So filled with jealously and hate, he was, he agreed without considering what this could mean. In truth, he would have agreed to any terms. So Saul didn’t fight when the demon came into him. Not initially, at least. But the moment he allowed the demon in, he knew it had been a mistake. He knew he’d gone too far. He tried to expel the demon, but could not. So he called on God and begged God for mercy. But God had no mercy for him. He cursed Saul to live eternally with the demon inside of him—a part of him from that point on. He would never be allowed to see the sun again. The touch of the sun’s rays on his skin would kill him. And he was no longer allowed to enter holy places or touch items consecrated to God. To do so would cause his skin to burn. He was cursed to be a dead thing upon the earth, alive but not alive, dead, but animated. And because he was a dead thing and the thing within him was evil incarnate, he would live on blood.”

Sydney didn’t say anything for a while, she sat and considered all they’d said. “I don’t understand why vampires are so powerful?” she asked at last.

“Saul was an ordinary human, but the demon inside of him was a supernatural being. It had never been human. It was a supernatural creature with supernatural abilities. That is how it is for bloodsuckers. They’re part human and part demon, and the demon within them is strong.”

“How did the curse spread?”

“We’re not sure about that.”

“But there is a legend,” said Trina. “It tells of how he fell in love with a woman. He watched her, but she was a righteous woman so he was afraid to go near her. He feared she’d sense the evil in him and hate him. So he began writing her letters. Love letters. This went on for months. But she was a beautiful, vibrant woman who had her pick of men. And eventually she fell for one. Enraged and feeling betrayed, Saul attacked and killed her and her suitor. But once she was dead, he regretted what he had done. He cried blood tears over her body and some of those tears went into her mouth. When she began to twitch he realized his blood had the power to reanimate the dead. So he gave her more blood. And thus, the second vampire was created.”

“And she hated him for it,” Rhonda added. “She didn’t want to live without her love or as something unnatural, so she killed herself. But he didn’t stop with her, he made more of them, but only two survived. That was enough, though. Those two made more. And so on.”

“That thing last night barely looked human, but it drank Cora’s blood, just like a vampire would.”

“It’s how the curse works. The more generations that are created, the less human qualities the vampire has. Any vampire created by Saul himself will be a sentient creature, as Saul himself is. You can go perhaps four, maybe five generations and still have a sentient creature, but as the generations increase, the purity of the blood is diluted. It would be possible to get something that behaved as the thing you saw last night behaved.” He paused. “You’re shivering.”

“Am I?”

Alaric turned to Rhonda. “Can you get Sydney something hot to drink?”

Rhonda stood. “Sure thing. What would you like? We have coffee, tea or hot chocolate.”

Sydney smiled gratefully. “Coffee, please. Thank you.”

“Cream, sugar?”

“Lots of cream.”

“I love cream, too. We have pumpkin spice. It’s yummy.”

This was all so surreal, Sydney thought. Were these people for real? Did she just hear the story of vampires? And these people were walking around like it was nothing. I guess when your job put you face to face with vampires, zombies and werewolves you got used to it. But she didn’t think she could ever get used to a thing like that. And worst still, now that she knew what was out there, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to return to her normal life again. How do you behave normally when you’ve come face to face with evil? How do you exist when you entire world has been turned upside down? Life, as she knew it, was over.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” said Alaric, “but if you want to help us this is the minimum of what you need to know. We still haven’t discussed werewolves or zombies, or anything else.”

Rhonda returned with an oversized mug of steaming coffee. The smell was wonderful and wonderfully normal. It anchored her to the real world. Right then, she needed that.

She took the offered mug gratefully and had a slow sip. The coffee glided down her throat, the delicious flavor nearly making her sigh.

A little cup of normal. This had been exactly what she needed.

“You okay?” Alaric asked.

“I will be.”

“That’s the spirit.” Rhonda patted her shoulder. “They’re more afraid of us than we are of them.”

Sydney looked at her, hopeful. “Is that true?”

Everyone busted out laughing.

“No,” Rhonda said, “not even a little. But it sounds good.”

“So how do you kill a vampire…bloodsucker?” Sydney asked.

“Same way you kill any supernatural creature,” said Paul. “Cut off its head.”

Sydney stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“You cut off its head.”

“But I thought—”

“The whole stake through the heart thing?” said Joshua. “That only works in movies. Vampires are dead. Their hearts don’t work.”

“But their brains do?”

“Yes.”

“Fire also works,” said Alaric.

Joshua walked to the kitchen and poured himself a mug of coffee. “Yeah, nothing like roasting a vamp till it’s nothing but dust. Like decapitation, fire kills everything.”

“Garlic?”

“Just a Hollywood thing,” said Alaric. “Never try to ward off a bloodsucker with garlic. But you can use crosses and holy water.”

“Okay. Good to know.” She sipped from her mug, nearly sighed again as the delicious, creamy liquid glided down her throat. “What do you know about these bloodsuckers?”

“That’s just it,” said Trina. “I’m not convinced these creatures are bloodsuckers. They don’t look like any bloodsucker I’ve ever seen, and none of these things look alike. Some have feet, some have hooves, some have wings, some have muzzles, while others have mouths. There’s no rhyme or reason.”