Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) (21 page)

“Allow me, sir.  After all, I was a valet for more years
than I would imagine many could boast.” He held out his hand for the razor, a
folding blade with a mother-of-pearl handle.

Alex had a brief flicker of doubt, but handed the blade to
Reginald and sat on the vanity stool.  Reginald’s strokes were even and quick. 
He didn’t exaggerate when he bragged of being well practiced.  When he
finished, Alex toweled off his face and ran his fingers across the smooth
planes of his jaw and cheeks.  He found no hint of stubble.  Reginald had found
a clean shirt in the closet of the guest bedroom, and he brought it, holding it
up for Alex to slip his arms into.  Alex was bare-chested after cleaning up,
and he slipped into the clean shirt with a sigh. The fit was not exact, but it
made Alex feel like a new man.

He and Reginald were in the sitting room when Gates arrived. 
 Alex had sent a man to fetch him.  It amused him to irritate Gates, but he
tried not to push it too far.  A Vampire elder was no enemy to have.  Alex
asked Reginald to repeat the Tsunami story, as well as the Hunter encounter, to
Gates and then dismissed him to see to the horses so that they might leave when
he finished his business there. 

“I take it from your silence that you were already aware of
the things that Reginald just spoke about.” Alex commented when the Vampire
left the room.

“Yes. I’m aware. Needless to say, we’ve tried to keep a lid
on the true numbers of Vampire deaths, but it’s become difficult when the
bodies keep washing up on every beach on the east coast.” Gates sat back and
crossed his legs.  He scrutinized Alex for a moment before he continued with,
“Despite the fact that you haven’t mentioned it, I assume you’ve noticed a
marked decrease in your strength and healing abilities.” Alex gave away
nothing. “Well it seems to be common to every Vampire we’ve had contact with. 
The evidence suggests that Vampires are no longer immortal.  It’s not as if
there weren’t ways to kill a Vampire before, but now it appears to be a good
deal easier and nobody even knows what this means to our aging process or lack
thereof. The ability to withstand the daylight is the most pronounced change
but certainly not the most significant by far.” 

Alex became more intrigued in spite of his aversion to the
other Vampire elder. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“You should know that no one who has tried, has been able
to create any new Vampires.  We thought it prudent to try increasing our
numbers in light of the deaths, but not a single person has been turned.  Not
just the thirty or forty percent failure rate, but one hundred percent
failure.  Every candidate has died.  Even the few elders, including myself,
have been unable to turn a single subject.  I don’t think it’s too early to start
being concerned that we may be endangered as a species.” Gates leaned forward
to impress upon Alex what he believed to be the most dire of the events that he
had to report.

Quietly, Alex inquired, “How many people did you kill for
this experiment?”  Alex hadn’t turned a single Vampire since Aurora, and she
had never even talked about trying. 

“The number is unimportant,” Gates snapped angrily. “Do you
understand that this could be the death of our race if we are unable to reproduce?”

Alex nearly choked on a harsh laugh. “Reproduction, is that
what you’re calling it? Do you understand that we are already dead? We live
false and unnatural lives. We kill people to create more twisted creatures to
keep us company, and if they die in the process, we shrug and move on.  There is
no species to become extinct. We are merely humans that have become monsters.”

Gates sneered. “Well you’ll have to forgive me if I place a
higher value on the perpetuation of our kind than you seem to.  I wonder what
you might say when your choices hit closer to home, when what you choose to do
may save or sacrifice your precious Aurora?”

Alex paced in agitation. “Aurora would agree with me,” he
said coldly. He was angry that Gates would dare mention his wife’s demise even
in such a vague and veiled way.  It made him feel threatened, and he knew this meeting
was becoming unproductive. “There is much more, I wish to be informed of, but
it is getting late.  I would like you to send me the best people to answer my
questions tomorrow then we will meet again in the evening to discuss options
for the direction we will take.”  Alex pronounced his judgment curtly and
excused himself to join Reginald outside.

Gates sat and stewed in his resentment for some time after
Alex left.  He would make his own inquiries and do what needed to be done to
protect the Vampires, no matter what Alex and Aurora Lake decided. 

Reginald knew that Alex’s expression meant that he would
not welcome conversation.  They followed the messenger on the bike to a lodge
style home within the community, but about a half-mile from Gates. Alex took
care of the horses while Reginald lit fires and lamps in the house.  He fell
comfortably into his role of valet, and he felt useful.   Gates’s men had not
left any other servants to assist, but the house was clean and Reginald managed
easily for the two of them. 

In the morning, a guard arrived with a young, blond woman.
“She’s a volunteer donor,” he said not bothering with introductions or
courtesies.  The girl smiled a little coyly at Alex but didn’t say a word.

Alex was not expecting Gates to send a human donor and he
was unaccustomed to feeding live except in intimate or, lately, violent
situations.  He had no intention of getting intimate with this woman, but he
did need to feed so he bit her wrist and drank the blood that flowed from her sweet
flesh.  He forced himself to calm even though he wanted to rip the clothes from
her body and bite her in places that would make her scream and beg him for
more.  He shut it all out and passed her off to Reginald.  Reginald took Alex’s
example to heart and fed delicately from the girl who was clearly disappointed
with the two serious Vampires. She totally dropped the shy girl act.

“That’s it?” she asked. “Don’t you like girls?”  She was
still drunk on the bite euphoria and somehow thought that provoking a Vampire
was acceptable behavior.  She turned her back on them and waggled her round bottom
in their direction. “Maybe you got a thing for each other.”  She seemed to
think she was pretty funny and laughed out loud.

Alex was behind her in an instant.  He grabbed her wrists
pulling her arms behind her and clamping both wrists in one powerful hand.  She
squeaked in pain.  He loved this position because it always made the breasts
jut out and up with just a little tug on the arms. He was tall enough to peer
down over her shoulder and see that hers were straining to pop from the top of
the low-cut, tight blouse she had no doubt chosen to entice the Vampires. She
whimpered, and he reached around to grab her throat with his free hand, cutting
off the puling instantly.  He squeezed just enough to cut off her air, but not permanently
injure her.  But, he
wanted
to hurt her.  He could smell her fear, and he
was getting excited.  He struggled to think rationally.  His lips were hovering
at her ear, his breath tickling enough to make gooseflesh rise on the back of
her neck.  He let his fangs graze her skin lightly, and she began to shiver. 
He released her throat to let her breathe.  She pulled air into her lungs in great
gulps, her chest heaving with the effort. He watched the fascinating rise and
fall of her generous bosom and he ran a finger along the low neckline of her
top, dragging a Vampire claw across the tender skin, but not breaking it.  Her
heart was pounding in fear, and she shook, making the soft mounds that he was
toying with, quiver.  Suddenly, he was back in the cellar with Sara, seeing her
pretty breasts straining against her lacy bra.  Sara, a human that he cared
about and who liked to play his Vampire games with him. This girl was scared,
and unlike Sara, she didn’t have a safe word.  He was casually contemplating
the torture of an unwilling human. 
Jeezus! All this killing and live
feeding is turning me into a savage!
 

“I think you should consider, carefully, the company you
are keeping,” he growled into the girl’s ear.  He released her wrists and instead,
gripped her upper arm and escorted her to the door of the study they were in. 
He pulled open the door and startled the bored guard waiting in the corridor
when he shoved the girl at the man.  She turned and glared daggers at Alex,
mascara running down her tear streaked face.

“Fuuuck youuu!” she wailed clutching at the speechless
guard.

“Get her out of here.” 

As the guard escorted the sobbing girl down the hall, Alex
noticed a young, female Vampire sitting on a hard, high-backed chair that was
up against the wall of the wide hallway.  Her eyes were large and startled, and
she clutched a leather folder to her chest with both arms. 

“Well?” he asked

“I have a report for you,” she offered meekly.

By the time several Vampires and even a few humans,
finished delivering sobering reports of the conditions of the world after the Solar
Storm, Alex’s mood was even darker.  He learned that the reason for the weather
changes, altered coastlines and earthquakes, was a subtle shift in the earth’s
magnetism.  Three scientists, together, had come to explain.

“The poles are shifted.  The earth’s axis is approximately
one degree different.  Magnetic North is no longer where it was. Everything has
moved by about 70 miles,” one said. 

“The weather changes may well be complete climate changes,
we won’t know for a while yet,” said another.

“Fault lines are all changed, and volcanoes will move with
them,” the third added.

They gave him a lot more technical information, but he
didn’t need to know those things. 

He sat and discussed everything quietly with Reginald after
everyone had gone for the day.

“The gist of it all is, no communications, very little
power, At least 75% population loss by the spring.  Illness and accidents are causing
a lot of death among the survivors. Hunters are an armed presence on the roads
and are getting closer to the villages.
Weres
are pretty much outed.  But,
people aren’t panicking about it because their lives can’t be much stranger or
more dangerous at this point.  There is no human government and the Vampire
council is scattered and probably pretty decimated.  Oh, don’t let me forget
that Vampires don’t seem to be immortal any longer, we walk in the daylight,
and nobody knows if we are aging.   Does that about cover it?”

Reginald felt sympathy for the elder.  He rose and poured
blood from a flask into a glass.  He managed to acquire the blood through one
of the messengers after the morning’s excitement.  He handed the glass to Alex
and moved around behind him to rub the tension from his shoulders.  “Sir, I
know you are feeling responsible for all of these people, being one of the few
remaining council members.  But, I also know you have a wife to get back to.”
He felt Alex stiffen at the mention of Aurora.  He paused not wanting to cross
the line.  “I hear plenty from the working class around here,” he said. “You
were very well known before all this and people like to talk.”  He felt the tension
ease a little, and he continued to work at the muscles under his skilled
fingers. “I understand she is an elder too, and she’s going to want to know
what’s happening.” 

“She argued that she was a council member and should come
with me when I left to find information, but I wanted her to be safe.  I don’t
believe she would have willingly stayed behind if she was only considering my feelings
in the matter.”  He was thinking about Sara again, for the second time that
day.  He could feel that Aurora and Sara were getting very close, and he felt a
twinge of jealousy and wasn’t sure he knew which one he was jealous of.  He
didn’t share any of this with Reginald, even though he was honestly beginning
to like the old valet.  “I think that I might need to bring her here if this is
where we are going to convene a new council for the time being.” 

For a few days, Alex met with every Vampire he could in the
area.  He decided to appoint three of the Vampires to a temporary council along
with himself and Samuel Gates.  They ranged in age from 562 to 748. 
That’s
at least mature, and someone besides Gates needs to help make decisions around
here.
 Aurora would also have her spot on the council when she came to
Syracuse.

Reginald had managed to put together a small, but
practical, wardrobe for Alex as well as packing some things for Aurora and Sara
after Alex asked him to. 

“Really? This is the best you can do for sizes?” Reginald
asked as he imitated Alex’s hand gestures in an hourglass shape.  Alex
demonstrated again.

“Aurora is about this tall.” He held his hand to just under
his nose.  “And Sara is this tall.” He lowered his hand to his chest. 

Reginald took out a notepad and started scratching with a
pencil. “Hips?” he asked.

Alex put his hands out in front of him in a circle as if he
was holding Aurora’s hips.

Reginald glanced up and made a note. “And Sara?” 

Alex lowered his hands, but they stayed close to the same
circumference. 

They repeated the process for waist size.  “Bust and cup
sizes?”

Alex held his hands out in front of his own chest as if
cupping breasts the size of Aurora’s.  Reginald made more notes. He seemed to
hesitate for an extra second or two before he asked, “And Sara?”  Alex pushed
his hands out a little further and spread his finger’s a little wider,
encompassing Sara’s larger figure.  Reginald raised an eyebrow and smiled as he
scratched on his notepad.  Alex gave a little laugh as he walked out and left
the old valet to it.  “A little too proud of yourself, me thinks!” Reginald
called after him.