Esther's Progeny (2 page)

Esther heard shuffling coming from the upstairs and moved
excitedly, wanting to greet her future progeny. She flew up the stairs with Vampire
speed and then opened the door, sitting down on the bed silently as the girl
began to waken. She groaned, and then rolled over, struggling to open her eyes.

She then saw Esther sitting at the end of her bed and she
squealed, backing up against the headboard in her attempt to get away.

“Please, just let me go. I don’t want to be a Vampire-Seer
cross, I don’t even want to be a Seer! Please, just let me go, you don’t even
know what will happen to me when you turn me!” She said knowingly.

Esther was once again taken aback by her knowledge of the
future, and then asked her a daunting question.

“Do you know what will happen after I turn you?” She said.

The girl looked at her questioningly, and then closed her
eyes, trying to focus on something. She opened them and shook her head.

“No, I can’t see anything beyond you choosing to turn me. I
am sorry,” She said quietly.

Esther wondered why she couldn’t see, and then realized that
maybe she simply didn’t know. According to common knowledge, the crossing of a Vampire
and a Seer had never taken place, so maybe the outcome was simply
unpredictable.

She felt her excitement growing once again. It wasn’t every
day that she was faced with mystery. After 200 years of alone time, she had
learned everything there was needed to know and then some. It was rare that she
would come across something new, and her need for knowledge was tantalizing.  

“You know what I am going to ask you, then?” Esther said,
testing the girl’s abilities.

She nodded nervously.

“You are going to be disappointed, though,” the girl said,
not meeting her eyes, trembling with fear.

“What do you mean?” Esther said, her curiosity burning
inside of her.

The girl shook her head.

“I don’t have any answers for you. I was adopted.”

Esther’s curiosity peaked upon hearing those words, her determination
to discover the truth about this girl almost incomprehensible. She watched as
the girl before her shuddered.

“My parents died a few years ago, and I don’t know anything
about my adoption or where the paperwork might be.”

Esther then decided, the rush of the unknown filling her
with passion.

The girl looked at her, knowing her plan.

“Really?” She asked.

Esther nodded.

“We are going to find your real parents, and figure out
where you came from.”

The girl’s name was Katie. She was a Seer, and knew nothing
of her background or her family lineage. Esther sat in the recliner in her
pristine living room, sipping on her scotch as she pondered the mysterious
girl. She closed her eyes, listening keenly as Katie moved in the room above
her.

She could hear her heartbeat as it raced, and Esther smiled.
She was probably trying to come up with some sort of escape plan, but Esther
could sense her indecision. Her inner battle was intense, and Esther could
practically hear the girl’s thoughts as she argued with herself. The way she
moved roughly through her room, the way she paced across the floor. She was
frustrated and confused.

She wanted to know who her parents were. And she had every
right to know, Esther mused. Her deep seeded curiosity would make the whole
process easier. Esther took another sip of her drink, her own curiosity boiling
within her.

They were going to travel to Katie’s hometown, which was on
the other side of the country. After her parents had died, Katie had applied
for colleges as far from their memory as she could get. She finally ended up
here in the hot, vibrant city of Los Angeles.

Esther had already booked their airline tickets, and they
were set to leave in a few hours to board a plane to Salem, Massachusetts.
Esther smiled at the irony of the girl’s hometown. Growing up where the line of
Seers was originally eradicated. Upon learning of the girl’s hometown, she had
only been even more curious, wondering if maybe the line wasn’t eradicated,
after all.

Maybe, just maybe, someone had escaped the flames of the Witch
trials and ended up secretly continuing the Seer’s blood line. Or, maybe it was
simply a really odd coincidence. She sighed, feeling impatient for the first
time in centuries as she listened to the girl upstairs.

Suddenly, she heard Katie sigh deeply and flop down onto her
bed. That was what she was waiting for. Her resignation. Katie had given up on
her escape plan and finally decided to go with her. She got up, climbing the
stairs quickly and quietly and slipping into the room, sitting next to her on
the bed.

The bed creaked ever so slightly as she sat, and Katie
jumped, startled by her silent entry. Esther smiled, always keen to impress
someone with her Vampire powers.

Katie had a pillow on her face, and quickly removed it,
looking at Esther with shock in her eyes.

“You scared me,” She said.

“I do that,” Esther replied, amused.

“So, we are leaving soon, then?” Katie said, sounding
defeated.

Esther nodded.

“We will swing by your place and pick up some of your things,
first. So we have to leave early, after I feed,” She smiled, looking at Katie,
waiting for her reaction.

Katie stared at her, and then gasped.

“No, don’t do it, the poor woman!” She cried.

“Well, I can’t let her go,” Esther said, grinning at the
tears brimming the girl’s eyes.

Katie sobbed, obviously seeing what was to come.

“Be ready in an hour,” Esther said before leaving the room.

She went down into the cellar, opening the door where the
woman lay on the ground, broken. She looked up at Esther’s arrival.

“It’s time again,” She said quietly.

Esther moved into the room, kneeling down beside the woman
and grabbing her by her chin, looking her in her eyes. The woman stared back,
ready to be Glamoured before she was fed on.

Esther smiled, staying silent as she moved the woman’s head
to the side, exposing her neck.

“What are you doing?” She said desperately, struggling to
break free.

“I don’t think a Glamour is necessary this time, my love,”
Esther said wickedly.

The woman struggled beneath her, as she felt Esther’s teeth
get near her exposed neck. Esther felt a sick, animalistic satisfaction as she
smelled the woman’s fear.

“But…no! NO!” The woman began to scream.

Esther moved back, looking the woman in the eyes again.

“Don’t you scream, you little bitch,” Esther snarled.

“Just for that, I am not going to bite you. You won’t feel
my venom, only the pain of being sliced open and bleeding to death,” she said,
using her nail to slice open the woman’s neck.

The woman screamed, blood filling her mouth as she gargled
and sputtered, trying to say something with her dying breath. Esther kissed her
neck softly, sucking the blood gushing from the open wound. She felt the woman
shuddering and struggling beneath her weakly, and she relished the moment.

As her movements became weaker and weaker, Esther drank
deeper, resisting the urge to sink her fangs into the woman’s smooth flesh. She
wanted her to die painfully.

Finally, the woman went limp, her life force leaving her
body. Esther felt the rush of death as she drank the remaining blood from the
woman’s body, and sighed, the feeling almost orgasmic. She sat up, satisfied,
and then moved to a cupboard on the far side of the room.

She took one last glance at the woman’s lifeless body before
dousing it with gasoline. She then left the room, throwing a match through the
crack in the large, solid, metal door before closing it, allowing everything
inside to burn to a crisp.

As they pulled up to the airport, the sky was dark and
covered in clouds. They stepped out of their cab, pulling their bags from the
truck and stepping into the airport. Esther went straight for the terminal, ignoring
all of security as Katie followed close behind. She felt Katie’s wonder as they
moved through the airport almost undetected. She smiled once again.

As they reached the gate, they simply walked onto the
boarding ramp without checking their tickets, moving with the crowd completely
unnoticed as they took their seats on the plane. Once seated, they seemed to be
in their own little bubble, completely ignored by the rest of the passengers in
first class.

As the plane began to fill up, a flight attendant moved past
them. Esther reached her hand out, grabbing the woman roughly by the arm, and
looked deep into her eyes.

“A scotch, please, and whatever you have for the in flight
meal for the lady, here,” Esther said, nodding towards Katie.

The flight attendant nodded, looking dazed, and quickly
retrieved their order.

Katie shifted uncomfortably next to Esther.

“What’s the matter? Eat, come on, you haven’t eaten since
yesterday,” Esther said menacingly.

She watched Katie tremble, once again enjoying her fear.

Katie nervously nodded, and began to eat. Esther sipped her
drink, wondering about the strange girl next to her and pondering what they
might find in Salem.

The flight was uneventful,  and as they stepped off of the
plane in Boston and walked through the airport, Esther looked at the clock,
realizing the time. It was almost morning here on the eastern side of the
country, and she quickly pulled Katie with her. They exited the airport and
walked across the street to a hotel, booking a room to stay for the day.

As Esther pulled shut all of the blinds in the hotel room,
she looked at Katie, wondering if she might try to escape.

“You know that I will find you if you leave, right?” She
asked.

Katie nodded, still trembling.

“Just in case,” Esther said as she moved across the room.

She grabbed the door handle, ripping it off with a quick
motion, and then pushed on the door, making certain it was secure.

She then locked the deadbolt, and pulled the handle off,
leaving it stuck in place as well. She held up the handles, grinning.

“There,” Esther said wickedly.

“Now you can’t escape.”

Katie looked devastated as Esther pulled herself into the
bed, preparing to sleep. She smiled, glad that the girl was still frightened of
her, before falling into darkness.

Esther opened her eyes, waking from her slumber, and
realized that the girl’s scent was gone. She shot up, looking around, only to
see the room around her empty. She looked over towards the door and saw it
ajar. She moved to the door swiftly, smelling the air around it.

She could smells traces of cleaning products and dirty
linens. Housekeeping must have stopped by and opened the door from the outside,
she realized. It couldn’t have been long since the door had been opened, and
Esther quickly moved down the hall, following Katie’s scent. It led her to the
elevator, and Esther got on, heading down to the lobby.

As the doors slid open, she smelled Katie once again, and
this time the scent was stronger. She looked around at the people milling
around the lobby, searching for the source of the scent. She spotted Katie,
sitting at a small table in front of a coffee stand.

Esther moved with Vampire speed through the crowd, lightly
taking the seat opposite her. She glared at Katie, who didn’t seem surprised by
her arrival.

“I was starving, and you were practically dead. I tried to
wake you, or rather, I was going to try, but then I saw that it wasn’t going to
work so I called housekeeping to come open the door for me.”

Esther looked at her angrily, trying to instill the fear in
her once again, but saw only a flicker in the girl’s eyes. Something was
different, something had changed during her slumber.

“What happened?” She asked curiously.

Katie shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee.

“I guess I just…accepted my fate,” She said before returning
to her food.

Esther felt her anger sizzling inside. The girl was no
longer afraid of her, which pissed her off immensely. She sat back, almost like
a child, crossing her arms in frustration.

Since the discovery of Katie, she had felt more emotions
than she had in as long as she could remember. She was fascinated, curious,
passionate and intrigued, feelings she had rarely experienced. There was
something else, though. This young woman had a way of getting under her skin,
and she didn’t like it.

Normally, she would have immediately bitten her prospective
progeny, and been done with it. But this human, she came with so much baggage.
Esther needed her to remain human until they figured out the answers to her
many burning questions.

She sighed, frustrated that this girl was causing her so
much duress. She watched the mortal eat and felt something else stirring inside
of her. There was something she couldn’t get out of her head. They way she kept
pushing her bangs back from her eyes as she ate. It was a little quirk, but it
bothered Esther for some reason.

She couldn’t figure out why it bugged her so much, and
suddenly found herself angry. She imagined ripping the bangs right out of
Katie’s skull, and then sucking her dry without a moment’s hesitation. Of
course, even in her fantasy, she found herself hesitating. She once again let
out a frustrated sigh and then spoke.

“So, we need to find out where you were adopted from. The
agency would be a start. Where do you think we can find that out?” She asked.

“My house,” Katie replied sadly.

“You still have your house?” Esther asked, surprised.

Katie nodded, gazing down at the floor sadly before
speaking.

“I haven’t touched it since my parents died.”

“Well, better late than never,” Esther said.

Katie finished up and they left the hotel, heading for her
old house.

***

As they stepped up to the porch, Katie hesitated, reluctant
to go inside.

Esther pushed past her, rolling her eyes at the girl’s
sentimental and naïve attitude, and ripped the door open.

She glanced back angrily, before gesturing for Katie to go
inside.

She stood on the porch as Katie stepped inside, shifting
impatiently. She immediately followed her, placing the broken door back into
place behind them.

“I don’t have to invite you in?” Katie asked.

“Are you kidding? Of all the myths about Vampires, that one
makes the least sense. How would that even happen? We are not magic, we are
simply a different kind of being. Stop being an idiot,” Esther replied angrily.

Katie looked down, embarrassed, and Esther felt herself even
more irritated than before.

“Let’s just find the information we need and get out of this
dump,” She spat at Katie, who looked offended.

Upon seeing the hurt in her eyes, Esther felt something stir
within her, something she had long forgotten. She shook herself, shoving Katie
aside as she moved through the house.

They looked everywhere, from the kitchen drawers to the
filing cabinet in the office, only to come up with nothing. As Esther moved
through the house, looking in every nook and cranny she could find, she found
herself becoming more and more frustrated. Once again, she was feeling childish
emotions as she suddenly felt the urge to throw something across the room.

She took a deep breath, and the moved through the house at
top speed, stopping next to Katie, who was looking underneath her parent’s bed.

She was lying on the floor, struggling to fit underneath the
bed, trying to reach something. Esther sighed as she watched her try to squeeze
into the small space, and grabbed the bed with one hand. She lifted it up,
allowing Katie to scoot forward on her stomach and grab the old shoe box
sitting on the floor.

She looked up at Esther thankfully as she got up, moving
back as she set the bed back down gently. Esther glared at her, before
gesturing to the box in her hands.

They sat down on the bed and opened the box, spilling its
contents out onto the comforter between them. Katie sifted through the
paperwork, finally picking something up and handing it to Esther.

“Here,” She said.

Esther looked down at the paper and read. It was her
adoption paperwork, alright. And, it had information on her birth mother. She
was listed as deceased, died giving birth to Katie. She glanced up, seeing the
despair in Katie’s eyes, seeing that she already knew of her birth mother’s
fate.

As Esther scanned the paper, she found what she was looking
for. Her birth mother’s name. She felt her excitement brewing as she read the
woman’s last name.

“Abigail Corey,” She said breathlessly.

She looked up at Katie with wonder in her eyes, something
her cold, dark eyes hadn’t held in centuries.

“Do you have a computer?” She said.

Katie nodded and led her down the hall to the office. She
booted up the computer and Esther sat down, typing something into the search
bar before turning the screen excitedly towards Katie.

“See?” She said, pointing at the screen.

The page was about Martha and Giles Corey, a husband and
wife that were executed during the Salem Witch Trials. Esther watched as Katie
understood.

“The last of the Seers were burned during the Witch trials.
One of them was Martha Corey. Although she denied all of the allegations
against her, she was different. She must have had a child that no one knew
about…” Esther trailed off, her voice filled with wonder.

“So that explains it. The child must have grown up somewhere
else, not knowing of their history as a Seer. They must have simply survived by
keeping their gift secret for all these years, never knowing what they were…”

Esther sat back in her chair, amazed that a line of Seer
could have slipped through the cracks. She quickly typed in Abigail’s name,
finding her records with ease.

“Look at this,” She said, pointing at the screen once more.

“She had no family. Her parents died when she was young and
they had no siblings. It seems you are the sole heir in the line of Seers.”

Katie looked at the screen in awe, but not at the
information about Abigail, but at her picture. On the screen before her was the
image of a beautiful woman that looked a lot like Katie. Esther noticed the
tears welling up in Katie’s eyes and suddenly reached for her, wiping away the
moisture with her thumb.

Katie was shocked at the gesture, and looked into Esther’s
eyes, holding her gaze for a moment. Esther looked concerned, when suddenly her
eyes darkened and she stood, kicking the chair across the room before almost
vanishing as she ran away.

She left Katie standing there in shock as she tried to pull
herself together.

What the hell was wrong with her? She was feeling
everything, after being so bored with her life for so long. It was as if this
girl had broken the floodgates and all of her emotions were suddenly on the
surface. She was pissed, and once again imagined hurting Katie for bringing
about all of these emotions. Esther felt weak, and needed to feel strong again.

She needed to turn her, and she needed to do it now.