Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) (18 page)

Reginald looked a little relieved, but only nodded. 

“Reginald,” Alex fixed his gaze meaningfully. “We will not
be speaking of these things to anyone, including other Vampires until I’ve had
a chance to meet with the elders.”

“Of course not, sir,” Reginald agreed solemnly. 

Alex saddled one horse and freed the others while Reginald
buried the three men in a shallow grave.  Alex knew it wasn’t much to conceal
their movements, but he didn’t think it was wise to leave the bodies to declare
the presence of Vampires willing to kill humans. 

He did not have a problem slaughtering the enemies of the
Vampires, but he and the other elders had spent the last two centuries seducing
most of the human population into happily becoming the Vampire’s willing food
source.  Humans were convinced of their safety in this and the violent deaths
of any people including Hunters might bring about a distrust that had to be
avoided. 

Alex watched Reginald filling in the last of the dirt and
brushing leaves and other debris over the grave to conceal it from the casual
eye.  He hoped he would be able to trust the other Vampire with his secrets. 
He had no intention of sharing more than necessary, but he decided to find out
as much about Reginald as possible. 

Now that they were both well fed, they had the energy to
travel day and night, stopping for a while now and then to rest the horses and stretch
their own muscles.  During one such rest, Alex asked Reginald about his past. 
It started out as a harmless question about his creator, then Alex skillfully
drew out the entire tale. 

Alex’s curiosity about Reginald’s creator was valid. 
Creating Vampires was not easy nor was it done lightly.  It was a process that
took days and was not successful more than 60-70% of the time.  Alex did not
know the exact figure; he hadn’t tried to turn anyone since he created Aurora
in 600 AD.  Alex guessed that Reginald was around 400 years old, which was
getting to middle age for a Vampire.  A large portion of Vampires succumbed to
the melancholia and walked into the sun somewhere between the ages of 800 and
1200.  If a Vampire was older than that, he was an exception.  Most of the
elders were at least 800 as it gave others confidence to know that they were
stronger than the depression.   Alex was almost 2000 years old and had already
battled the depression at around 600 years.  That was when he met Aurora and
his life forever changed.  He turned her, and their love had cured his desire
to give in to a final death.

  In the last 300 years, Alex had only met one Vampire
older than himself, and that was in Europe, and he did not know if that Vampire
still existed.  There were also the rumors of ancients that slept in stasis,
never rising and never dying, but no one knew where they supposedly rested, and
Alex doubted that there was any truth to the myth. 

Reginald seemed unusual to Alex because, in the time of
Reginald’s creation, he must have been near the end of his life.  People died
much younger than 60 in the 1600’s, and if he looked like a robust 60 now he
was probably even older than that before he was turned. 

“Would I know your creator?” he asked Reginald, genuinely
curious. 

“I’m not sure, sir.  He walked into the sun nearly 300 years
ago.  Funny…I wonder how a Vampire is supposed to kill himself these days? I guess
the ones I saw in the ocean were pretty dead, so there must be a way.” 
Reginald had a tendency to drift with his own thoughts and Alex certainly
didn’t want him thinking about those dead Vampires.  It was something he did
not want commonly known just yet.

“What was his name?” he redirected.

“Oh, yes. Sorry.  Charles Mason Devereux was my creator.  I
was his man servant for nearly 54 years as a man and another 108 as a Vampire
before he…well you know.” 

“I didn’t know him, but I believe I had heard his name
mentioned before, most likely to do with council business.”  Alex pushed on.  “So
how did Devereux come to turn an older manservant into a Vampire?”

“Seems a little odd, I know,” Reginald nodded lost a little
in his own memories.  “I don’t really know why he cared a whit about me.  I
know he took me in when I was a boy after my mother died.  I never knew my
father and my mother was the laundress at Devereux’s manor.   I never saw her
body, I was told that she drowned, and I never thought to question that for
years, but you may see what I’m getting at.”  He looked a little uncomfortable
voicing even a vague suspicion against his creator.  “I must have been around
eleven then, and I worked every position in the manor until I was Master
Devereux’s personal valet and manservant.  Of course, it became obvious when
Devereux did not age, and I grew older and older, that there was something a
little supernatural about the whole thing.  He entrusted me with his secret,
and I was his closest friend for many years.  I think maybe I was his only
friend.  He seemed so sad much of the time.”

Alex nodded. “The melancholia.”

“Yes, he suffered the sadness off and on for years.  We
moved away for nearly 30 years when I was a man of about 32 or so.  We
travelled extensively in Europe and then returned.  No one knew him, or me, for
that matter, when we came back.  He became a nephew, named for his uncle and we
took residence again at the manor near Boston. 

I was 71 years old when Devereux was visited by a council elder. 
It was 1692 and the witch trials had just begun in Salem town.  The council had
a pact with the original witches, and the elder was of a mind to go and get a
particular witch and bring her back.  Most of the accused were just midwives
and herb women, but the older ones consulted with and brought information to
the real witch, Mother Zhukov, I believe she was called.  The Vampires were
afraid that the women would talk under torture, and they wanted to get the
Mother out of the area.  So, they went to fetch her, and that’s when the real
trouble started.” 

Alex’s brow was furrowed, and he rubbed his chin
thoughtfully.  “I think that I may remember something of this story,” he commented. 
“Wasn’t there a
Were
involved somehow with this witch?”

“Oh, yes. That is how it began.  There was a
Were
clan, wolves, not too far from Salem.  They had a whole settlement, like wolves
and Lions are prone to do, secluded but still close enough to have dealings now
and then with the humans.  Well one day a
Were
cub wandered off from the
settlement, and Mother Zhukov, who also lived in seclusion near Salem, found
the little guy while she was out in the woods collecting who knows what for her
craft.” Reginald paused and shook his head sadly.  “The little toddler just
followed along with her and made no fuss.  I guess you know how the original
witches are always going on about the auras of creatures and the life forces
and such.”

“Life spark,” Alex offhandedly corrected.

“Yes, that’s it.  I didn’t know much about it back then,
but I guess those witches were actually sacrificing creatures for the life spark
to power their spells.  They weren’t supposed to be doing this with sentient creatures
according to the Pact.”

Alex knew that Reginald was referring to the agreement that
was made between most of the non-humans regarding keeping their existence a
secret from mankind.  It outlined behaviors that were frowned upon as a risk to
discovery.   This was also the same pact that the Vampires blatantly
disregarded and violated when they began consorting with humans and now held considerable
influence in human society, as a result. This was a strong point of contention
with
Weres
and Witches, who were the other primary non-humans involved
in the agreement. 

“Are you saying the Mother sacrificed a toddler
Were
for a spell with an entire settlement of wolves nearby?” Alex was Incredulous. 
 

“Not only did she do just that, but the ritual was
performed in the woods with ceremonial markings and such.  The remains were
left there to power the spell, so when the body was found, there was no
mistaking the work of the Mother.  The
Weres
didn’t want to move against
a Mother directly, but they are the ones who casually started the rumors in
Salem town of practitioners in the area.  They figured it was only a matter of
time before one of the Mother’s followers among the herb women and midwives
gave her up to the human questioners.” 

Alex listened to Reginald’s tale with interest.  He did
remember something about a protection agreement with the Mothers, but couldn’t
remember if he ever knew any details of this incident.  “So all those human
women that followed the witch, were tortured and executed in her stead.”

“She nearly got hers,” Reginald replied. “Devereux and the elder
were on their way back with the Mother when the
Weres
caught wind of
it.  A whole group of them waylaid the travelers.  If the Mother and the
Vampires hadn’t been so old and powerful, I doubt they would have survived.  As
it was, they came tearing into the gates of the manor, just before dawn. 
Devereux was horribly injured and his body was healing as quickly as his
remaining energy allowed, but it was obvious that he was starving and needed
more blood to fuel the healing.  He was half out of his mind and ravenous. 
When I took his reins as he came through the gate, he fell off the horse onto
me and viciously attacked me.  He fed on me to fuel the process.  I was already
dying when he regained his senses and was nearly well again. He was beside
himself.  I had been his companion for many years, and he looked at is like he
was responsible for killing me in a reckless moment, which was true actually.  I
was nearly gone, and he rushed me to the manor and began the process of trying
to turn me.  The first draining was already done, so he went from there and you
know how it goes and how long it takes and that a lot of people don’t make it
through.  I guess that’s why there are so few of us gray haired Vampires around. 
I don’t think most older folks have the stamina for the transformation.  I
guess I was lucky.  Anyway, the elder and the Mother didn’t expect I would
survive, and they left long before the process was completed. But, they were
wrong, and I did turn.  I spent over 100 years with Devereux, learning to be a
Vampire before he finally gave into the sadness.”

“That’s quite a dramatic beginning,” Alex offered.  “A good
lesson for not involving one’s self with witches if it can be helped.” 

“I agree with that, sir.  I’m no witch-lover,” Reginald
answered as they moved on after the long break. 

Twenty
-three

Ryan went out on his own to go hunting.  He had been
teaching both Sara and Aurora the bows in a clearing by the cabin.  He wanted
them to be able to shoot if the need arose and he wasn’t just thinking of
hunting.  For now, he just wanted the quiet to stock up a little and leave
plenty of food for Sara while he was gone. 

He figured he could get to the
Were
settlement in a
day and a half and it might take him a little longer to hook up with the
lieutenant, but he seriously needed information. 

The settlement was in a particularly secluded part of the Adirondacks
and a lot of the
Weres
in the pack lived there all year long.  Others,
like himself, came and went and had lives outside of the pack in the human
world.  For most of the last couple of years, he had been scouting for the
pack. Growing up as a teen, full time in the pack, he learned survival skills
and woodcraft.  He came to pack life late, but there were others that had lived
among the humans too, and he wasn’t entirely alone or even considered unusual. 
The only unusual thing was that he had not been prepared for the change by his
parents ahead of time as most
Weres
had been. 

For those that lived full time with the pack, the children
stayed with their mothers until weaned at around two years and then they were
given over to a communal life, where they were cared for, taught and trained by
pack members, usually young, unattached adults and elders.  The system made for
a tight pack. No one was required to live this way, but pack dwellers were
encouraged to support the communal lifestyle. 

For Ryan, the L.T. trained him along with several others in
military combat skills, firearms, explosives and hand fighting.  The L.T. had
been a Lieutenant for the Navy Seals in his life with humans, and now he served
the pack with the skills he learned. Ryan and the others couldn’t actually be
considered a military unit and some were more involved than others, but Ryan
tried to keep his eyes and ears open and report back as much info as he could
get in his travels. He was anxious to talk to the L.T. and the others.  Too
many odd things were happening, and he hoped to find some answers. 

When he returned to the cabin, Aurora and Sara were
stocking wood and other supplies, preparing to settle in for a while.  The snow
would start to fall in a couple of months, and it would be impossible to
predict how long they would be able to get out before they were pretty much snowed
in for the season. 

Sara looked up from stacking wood.  “When do you have to
go?” she asked Ryan.  She hated feeling so needy, but the others were so powerful
that she was feeling a little helpless.

“I should leave tonight and travel for a while by
darkness.  I don’t think I’m likely to run into anyone up here, but I would
rather not take any chances”