Avalon Revisited (26 page)

“To end like this,” I said, sinking back into a seated position against the stone wall, feeling defeated. “And you. You’re so young.”

“How old are you?” she asked. I sensed a hesitation in her voice, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. There was no sense in lying. Not anymore. Perhaps this would serve as a deathbed confessional for us both. Perhaps she knew this. Perhaps that was why she’d put her fear of what I am aside. After all, what else was there to do in this cell but to talk?

“Over three hundred,” I answered honestly. She gasped, surprised.

“But–you look so...”

“Young,” I finished for her. “ Still in my late teens when I was turned. Fortunately, I did look a little more mature for my age, but still quite young. Yes. Although in my time, it was not all that young. I was already married, and we were trying to beget children. That was the
duty
part of it, but we did so joyfully.” My mind filled with images of Catherine in her rosy youth, laughing, running, rolling in the grass with me on the royal grounds. She was indeed my queen.

“Tell me,” she said softly. A story of my woes to help her forget hers. I can certainly oblige her that.

“Her name was Catherine, and she was the love of my life. I adored her. Believe it or not, I was to be the King of England. I was the eldest son of Henry VII.”

She sharply drew in her breath at this. She knew exactly of whom I spoke.

“Arthur Tudor,” she said.

“At your service, m’lady,” I said, with a flourish of my hand, feigning a proper bow.

Renaissance style. She must’ve been well read to have even heard of me. Everyone knew my brother, of course. My notorious, fat, smug brother.

“But Catherine, she--”

“She married Henry, yes.” She knew her history well. How I loved this woman. So like Catherine. So unlike Catherine. So perfect for me. May she never cease to amaze me. “But we get ahead of ourselves. Catherine and I were so in love. I did play the young braggart with the court. All that nonsense of being ‘in Spain,’ as only something that immature and crass would survive all these years, but I adored her and she me. That fact has been lost in antiquity. It was actually something quite unheard of for a royal marriage. Normally, it was duty, and love possibly grew over time. Marriage was something that was endured, especially a royal marriage, as my brother made quite clear to the world. But it was not so with Catherine and me. We spent afternoons riding and we’d find a meadow away from everything–court, duty, my father–and make love there. Just the two of us. No pressure. No obligation. Only each other and our love. I suppose we were like many young couples in love, blind to what was around us.”

Avalon sat in rapt attention, listening to my story. I had never told anyone this. I had carried it with me for centuries. But my love deserved the whole truth, and it was time for me to unburden myself of this dark weight.

“A sickness was spreading throughout London,” I continued, “so the officials of my father’s court had me and Catherine whisked away to Wales. After all, I was heir apparent. The future of the country depended on my well being, but it didn’t help. We both came down with the fever, and it looked as if we would both die. It was a horrible sickness, killing thousands. Then the night of my own death came. Catherine was asleep next to me; her fever soaked the bed sheets, but I was already feeling cold. I knew death was nigh. It was only out of my great love for her that I did not wake her to say goodbye. She needed her rest if she were to survive. I prayed to God to save her, and in the middle of my prayers, a strange woman entered the room, dressed in all black. I thought her to be the angel of death.

I crossed myself repeatedly as she approached me. I remember trying to act as was expected of a future monarch, fearlessly. Such a foolish child. Yet this woman was beautiful. Unearthly.

Unlike anything I have ever seen. Her skin seemed to glow, and I was certain she was an angel.”

Avalon’s eyes were wide with interest, but she listened quietly.

“She, as you might’ve guessed, was no angel. I was too weak to protest when I saw the fangs, let alone fight back. My only thought was of Catherine, but I could do nothing. Paralyzed between my frailty and my horror. She bit me, but not on the neck, on the underside of my arm. I felt so useless, so worthless, my arm hanging loosely above me, as she fed on my blood. I was so feeble,” I said, burying my head in my hands. Reliving this night, even after so long, was taking its toll. Every detail came careening back to me with all its torment.

To my great surprise, Avalon moved over to me and put her hand on my shoulder. She was comforting me! She knew I was a monster, yet she was comforting me. Oh, my love!

“Go on,” she said tenderly. Her kindness and her love gave me the strength to do so.

“Then, as I lay there on the brink of death, she opened her wrist and let the blood flow into my mouth. I remember that like it was a hazy dream, for I must not have remained conscious for long. The next thing I knew, I awoke in a crypt parched. I had never felt so thirsty in all my days, and I couldn’t quite make out what I was doing in a crypt. It was night. They hadn’t yet sealed me inside the tomb, so I merely sat up and looked around. I was in a small chantry, surrounded by marble statues and huge windows. Thankfully it was night. I stepped out of the tomb in the center of the ornate, marble room and recognized the inner chapel of Worchester Cathedral. The priests must’ve sealed my tomb empty the following day, fearing the king’s wrath if they had reported my body stolen. I made my way out into the darkness that would become my world.

“I could hear all life around me, and things looked”–I searched for the right word–“surreal. I could see perfectly, although there was no moon that night. I could hear life. The crows in the distance. The nocturnal creatures scrounging for food. Even the rats scurrying in the underlying catacombs. I fancied that I could even hear their hearts beating, and I felt driven to eat. To drink.

To somehow relieve this nagging thirst. I walked on until I came upon the River Severn, and I drank deeply of the water. But no matter how much I drank, the thirst did not diminish. If anything, it was increasing. So I drank more and more, until I became sick. The water was forced back up, like my body was propelling poison out of it. And yet the thirst continued.”

“Blood,” Avalon said in sympathetic horror.

“Blood,” I repeated. “It’s always blood. My first meal of my new life was a rat. There were plenty of those around. It was horrible and wonderful all at the same time. But at least its blood satiated me, if only momentarily. For within minutes the hunger returned with more intensity than before.”

I turned to Avalon, who was crying softly. Those were tears of grief, and they were for me.

She loved me still. I could see it in her eyes. In her face. In the way her hand stayed on my shoulder, comforting me. She finally understood that it was something I didn’t choose.

“The sunlight frightened me, so I kept out of it. I tried to see my Catherine, but she thought me a ghost or a trick of the devil. She was a greatly pious woman and seeing me distressed her.

Frightened her,” I said, remembering how the look on her face was so similar to how Avalon looked at me a short while ago. “So I stopped appearing to her. I watched her from afar and survived as I could. I won’t bore you with the details, as I’ve done some truly horrible things in my time. It’s my nature, but I never took a human life, no matter how much the thirst, the
need
, urged me to do so, not until my Catherine betrayed me. Denied me and our union.”

I stayed quiet for a moment, remembering. Hating him. Hurting again. Reliving the greatest betrayal of all. Yet Avalon waited patiently. She didn’t press me to go on, but she understood my pain. She waited.

“It was my father’s doing,” I continued. “He intended to marry Catherine himself, to save his political standing with Spain. I wouldn’t have that hard old man defiling my beloved Catherine.

The thought of him touching her... of having her...” I pushed those heinous images from my mind and continued, “He was already sick, coughing and showing signs of consumption, so I just sped up the process. In my anger, I killed him without mercy. The blood left on his body led the doctors to believe it was consumption, and so
my brother
”–I said through clenched teeth–“became Henry VIII that night.

"But I was a new man! My father’s blood filled me with power and ecstasy, unlike animal blood. The thirst didn’t return as quickly, and I was strong! For a time, I was enamored with my new powers. I explored them. Thoroughly.” I felt Avalon tense up, so I didn’t elaborate. No sense in drudging up those details. It wouldn’t do anyone any good. Ancient history, as it were.

“Still, the treaty father created stood, and Catherine ended up marrying my brother, who had loved her as long as I had. He had fancied her from when he was but a lad. To him, as to me, she was perfection. But he didn’t love her long after they married. He cast her aside, shaming her, for other women. Other wives. Well, you know your history.”

“Oh, Arthur,” she said. I could tell her compassion was at war with the horror she felt in regards to what I had done to survive. I was glad I hadn’t further explained my eating habits.

“And that’s how I’ve lived for three-hundred and fifty years. Taking women, food, as I needed. That is, until I met you. At first, you caught my eye because you look so very much like Catherine, but it was all the ways you were unlike her that made me love you. I haven’t touched human blood since, well, not until tonight. But I didn’t kill that man,” I said quickly in my defense. “It had just been so long since I had human blood, that I literally couldn’t help myself.

As you said, I am a monster. I am
so
sorry you had to see that.”

She moved closer still and caressed my face.

“Arthur. Thank you for telling me your story.”

I leaned my head into her hand, feeling the concern emanating from her.

“So much pain,” she said, stroking my hair. “Such a tremendous amount of pain.”

“I love you, Ava,” I said without looking in her eyes, not wanting to see any sign of horror there. “I’ve loved you from the moment I met you.”

She leaned in close to me, touching her warm nose to my cheek and said, “I love you too.

Despite what you are. Despite what you’ve done. God help me, but I love you too.”

I looked up, surprised. And I saw the last thing I expected. The last thing I deserved. There was no fear in her eyes. No horror. Only love.

She kissed me then, and I lost myself in her.

The warmth of her mouth soothed me, and I didn’t care if I died. I kissed her deeper, and she parted her lips willingly, moving closer to me. I held onto her as if my very existence was held in that kiss. Other parts of my body were responding too, but I didn’t want to offend this sweet lady.

I desired her, but it was not the lustful desire that so often had filled my senses. It was
pure
desire. Love. Wanting to be one with her in love rather than lust. It was something I had not felt since I was still human, and that was just a romanticized memory of a memory; but this was real.

We might die tonight, but we would die in each other’s arms. Safe. Warm. Complete.

She climbed on top of me there in that cell, and wrapped her legs around me. Her soft warmth covering the entire front of my body contrasted the cold stone against my back. I held her tightly to me, never wanting this moment to end. Losing myself in her kiss. Then she began to lift her skirts.

“Avalon,” I whispered into her mouth, not wanting to separate my lips from hers. “Our captors are just out--” She stopped my words with another, deeper kiss. Coming up for air, she breathed, “I don’t care. Now. All we have is now.”

My love. My all. Here and now. She’s right, it was all we have. I lifted her up as I found my way to my knees, holding her against me still, and laid her gently onto the stone. She opened herself up to me willingly, but I was gentle yet. Her hands urged me on, encouraging me to continue, to steal this moment in time with her, and so I did. Releasing myself from my trousers, I eagerly filled her up. She was yet a maid, but she was ready for me. I slid into her gently, and she caught her breath at the new sensation, looking into my eyes with intensity and wonder. I moved slowly, not wanting to hurt her, and soon she found the rhythm with me. I kissed her again and again, rocking into her and catching her moans with my mouth. Moving faster and deeper, I pressed my pelvis tightly to hers as I thrust, massaging the place that would bring her completely to me. She lifted herself up to meet me, giving into the feeling until she came. She bit her lip to keep from screaming out, and I tasted her blood when I kissed her again. I lost all control at the taste of her blood and exploded inside her.

We lay there, breathless in each other’s arms, experiencing this wondrous moment. Our moment.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you, too,” she replied, smiling.

Just then, the door creaked open.

“Well, isn’t this interesting?” Cecil said.

I eased myself out of Avalon, who was mortified at being seen in such a position. I whispered, “Stay back and don’t look” before getting to my feet. Setting myself to rights, I stepped in between Cecil and Avalon, allowing her to collect herself and to protect her from this Judas. He held a crossbow aimed straight at my heart, and I wouldn’t just be paralyzed. I would be dust. He knew it. So, no sudden moves.

“Cecil. Be a good man, and bring me my tea,” I said, straightening my collar and smoothing out my waistcoat. I heard Avalon slowly moving to the back wall, and I was glad she had heard my instructions. I was prepared to give my life to keep her safe, but hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary. This was Cecil, after all, not all that bright.

“Very funny, m’lord, but there won’t be any tea this evening,” he said through a smug, crooked grin.

“I don’t suppose you would explain to me why?” I asked. I didn’t really care, as a betrayal was just that, whatever the reason, but I was stalling. Assessing the situation. Trying to find a way out. Behind him, I could see that Lacy was putting the contraptions aside and preparing a syringe, probably for me. No other opponent was in sight, but I could only see a little over half the laboratory.