Forever Young The Beginning (54 page)

The place got quiet then. Ian started
looking around for a survivor to question. There were none. He
called out “Who else is hurt besides Wilhelm?” No answer.
“Marie?”

“
No.”

“
Henri?”

“
Just two small
cuts.”

“
Li?”

“
No, Sophia is hurt though.”
He was supporting her. She had a sword sticking from her chest
which Li drew out and flung away. He picked her up and went out
through the front door.

“
Deiter?”

“
Yes.”

“
Are you hurt?”

“
Nothing serious. Wilhelm
has lost his hand.”

“
Help me find it then.” said
Ian as he began to look. While searching he drank half of a flask
and immediately he could feel the familiar rapid healing of his
wounds accelerate. They looked for a while and neither of them
could find Wilhelm’s hand. Ian noticed a window on the side of the
house broken and quickly went out and began to look intently in the
dark. He finally located it some minutes later after they’d given
up looking inside. Deiter had helped Wilhelm to get out to where
they had left their rucksacks. Most were there already, taking
nourishment. Ian walked up to Wilhelm and said “Here sir. I think
you lost this along the way.” He knelt down and fitted the hand
against the stump of his wrist and held it until Wilhelm took hold
of it himself. It began to knit itself back together even as Ian
took a flask from his ruck sack and held it to his lips while he
drained it.

“
Thank you Ian.”

“
You’re welcome, sir. We did
well here tonight. Too bad we didn’t get to question
anyone.”

“
Oh, who cares? And you may
call me Willy from now on, Ian.”

“
Thank you,
Willy.”

“
No. Thank you Ian.” Ian
clapped him on a shoulder and walked out onto the porch where Li
sat holding Sophia. She was draining her third flask.

“
Li? Sophia?”

“
I’m better now. I should be
able to travel in ten more minutes. You’ve been stabbed
too!”

He grimaced a bit and then laughed a
bit shaking his head as he started back inside saying “Moreau got
me, but it was just a knife, not a sword.”

Marie came inside and walked up to
Ian. “You sure made a mess all over me Ian.” She was all wet,
having jumped into the horse trough to wash off the
gore.

“
Well is that the thanks I
get?” he said as he reached to put both arms around her and picked
her up from the ground with a hug.. He laughed and kissed her cheek
saying “What a tigress you are Marie!” She laughed then as Ian put
her down and Henri said “That’s the truth. She wanted to rip that
one’s head off when he made that remark about little girls.” He
then pulled her close and held her, kissing her.

“
Deiter and I will go clean
up the mess. We’ll search the house for any clues. There could be
others we can track down while we’re here. Why don’t you and Henri
go to get those children, Marie? You can question them to find out
where their families might be. We’re going to be ready to go by
then. Come on Deiter.”

Ian led the way back into the house.
Leaving Deiter and pulling his sword he descended into the cellar.
Looking about, he saw nothing of any importance, but then he
noticed that the cellar door to the outside was lying open. He went
out of it and attuning his hearing to its most acute he stood rock
still for a half minute or so. He could hear nothing out of the
ordinary. Getting down on his hands and knees he cast about for a
scent at the basement doorway. Finding one he followed it to a
nearby creek where he lost it. Unable to pick it up again, he
rejoined Deiter and they cleaned up the mess.

Later on, they all gathered together.
Ian spoke then and said “Do any of you recall if the cellar door to
the house was open?” No one answered at first.

Sophia said “It was closed.” Deiter
and Henri then said that they remembered it being closed
too.

“
I hate to say it, but
someone got away then.” He related what he’d seen in the cellar
regarding the door to the outside and that he had tracked his scent
to the creek. Everyone then agreed that one or more had definitely
gotten away. Several went to investigate and took up the scent only
to lose it at the creek. Consensus was that there was nothing now
that could be done about it, and that whoever it was didn’t
recognize them being that they all wore the black hoods. There was
nothing to do but to leave the place. The three children would be
taken to the city by Marie and Sophia since the children would
likely never see the two of them again.

The rest of them would change clothes
and make it back to the city on foot and then everyone would
rendezvous at Wilhelm’s’ home.

Arnaud Moreau, the younger
brother of Aldric Moreau had finally quit running. He rested on the
riverbank and reflected on what he’d seen and narrowly escaped
from. Just as he was coming from the cellar he heard pandemonium
break loose upstairs and had peeked out of the cellar door that
opened into the kitchen. He’d seen black clad figures armed and
ferociously attacking his brother and all of his companions and
they were even pouring into the fray through windows and doors. He
had fled back down the stairs and out of the cellar hatch into the
night and hadn’t stopped running. Using good sense he was careful
to make for the creek and to stay in it for a good distance to
avoid being tracked by these killers. To him it seemed that an army
of well-armed vampires had descended on the house. He knew without
a doubt that his brother and his companions were dead. Sitting
there he pondered it all.
Who the hell
were those others? Such a vicious and well-planned attack from two
directions at once! Lucky for me that Aldric sent me to the cellar
to look for rope. Had I returned a minute earlier I would have been
in there too, trapped with my brother!
He
sat on the riverbank in the darkness recalling the shocking and
violent event that had cost his brother his life and nearly taken
his too.

***

They stayed with Wilhelm for three
days. He came back with a newspaper which had a prominent story
about three missing children being returned and that Gypsies were
suspected. None were known to be in the area, but Moreau’s lie had
served a useful purpose after all. Earlier disappearances were
unsolved, but the return of three with a feasible explanation gave
a type of closure. The events would not grow into a widespread
official alarm, so the mission was a success.

Li and Ian gave both Deiter and Willy
some basic instruction on hand-to-hand combat and both firearms
instruction and swordsmanship as well. Henri persuaded Ian to show
his skills with a pistol, shooting aerial targets. Willy and Deiter
were speechless, having never seen nor heard of such accuracy. They
never knew that a pair of keen vampire eyes watched from a tree a
good way off, however Ian’s prickly alarm went from prickly to icy
a few times as they sparred. He took it to be due to the fact that
he was sparring with Deiter or Willy and paid it no mind at the
time.

***

Arnaud Moreau only managed to hear a
couple of names. One was Ian and one was Henri. He filed that away
for future reference. He had arrived after hearing the gunshots
cease. Seeing the skills displayed there in fighting hand to hand,
he guessed that this had to be a part of the party who had invaded
the house. He knew that his older brother Aldric was dead even
though he had been well-connected among Adept vampires. Arnaud also
knew that a very powerful, important and well-connected vampire
lived in this estate. His brother had told him that much more than
once. That had brought him there, hoping to learn more.

He resolved to learn more about the
group that had destroyed all but him. He had no doubt it was in
retribution for the kidnappings, and he was filled with dread even
as he pondered how they could have found their location. From what
he had seen, he had nothing but the utmost respect for this group,
whoever they were. Even so, now being alone in the world he was
becoming more resolved to avenge his brother’s death.

***

While Ian and the others were his
guests, Willy shared some lucrative information concerning an
upcoming purchase of firearms from a manufacturer in Prussia by the
Austrian government. He advised them to invest in the firm before
it became known that this would happen. He offered to buy a share
of the company in their names if they would accept that as a token
of gratitude. They did so, Henri and Marie saying to buy the shares
in the names of Li, Sophia, and Ian.

They said their goodbyes and
departed, taking the same route back but taking seven days
returning. They had no human contact the entire time and all were
glad to be home at the chateau. They unwound from the rigor of
their travels with the usual past times including spending lots of
time with Louis and Mustafa. Ian realized again just how much
returning to the chateau and being with his family meant to him. He
pondered all of that.
Just look at how
this clan has become a substitute for my family. My life has become
a strange one, but not a bad one at that except for losing
Cosette.

***

Ian had taken Celeste to Scotland
again to visit his family. Alyssa hadn’t been able to accompany
him, but he had stayed at her place while in Paris. He had truly
enjoyed Alyssa’s company. Her bubbly personality help to offset the
more grim happenings in his life like the incident in Vienna. He
had confided a bit of the purpose of his trip to Vienna to both
Alyssa and to Celeste. Alyssa was most appreciative that Ian felt
close enough to her to share such things, and she told him so.
She’d gotten some international notoriety with her visit with the
Royal Family of England and her business had really taken
off

Ian had long since made a
point of killing Claude LeBlanc, the brother of
Red Dolphin
former owner Erin
LeBlanc. One of the ledger books of the Satanist Francoise had
yielded information regarding how to find him. He had been a part
of the Marseille kidnapping ring. The authorities said that it
seemed he had fallen down some stairs at his home near Lyon and had
broken his neck. It was surmised that he was drunk at the time of
his death. After finishing the last of the LeBlancs, Ian used his
ledger book and tracked down the two men who had been hired to
transport the girls to Lyon for the LeBlancs. They lived above a
warehouse that they owned in Marseille and Ian killed both of them
the night after he killed LeBlanc. He simply slit each one’s throat
and ransacked the place to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.
Every member of that kidnapping ring was now dead.

Word came for a request to perform for
the most influential family of the Canton of Bern in Bern itself.
Ian readied his schedule to accompany Celeste there. Alyssa would
accompany them along with Marie, Henri and the boys. Celeste was
eighteen and her schooling was finished. Although she still lived
with Caryn, she could come and go as she pleased and spent an equal
amount of time at the Chateau as well. It was an idyllic time for
both Ian and for her.

At Bern her performance was preceded
by her sharing of the story of her humble beginnings. She thanked
Marie and Henri who she asked to stand while the audience
applauded. The audience was told that she had been taken in at one
of several orphanages that the Lafayettes operated in France. She
also thanked Ian McCloud for saving her life and being her best
friend, asking him to stand up. He stood awkwardly for a moment as
everyone applauded. Ian hadn’t known that was coming and just
turned to his right and left briefly and nodded to the
crowd.

In the audience was a lady with sandy
hair done up in a tight bun. She had clear beautiful blue eyes that
were riveted on Ian. She kept her Italian-made opera glasses
trained on him nearly throughout the performance. Noticing the
sheer joy on his face while watching Celeste she noted that he was
in the company of a stunning petite brunette who clung to his arm
nearly throughout the performance. He raised the woman’s hand to
his lips once near the end of the performance and turned to smile
lovingly at her as she smiled at him in return and leaned her head
on his shoulder. She saw Henri and Marie and the two boys, Louis
and Mustafa and noted how they had grown.

Later that night at her suite Anna
Fellman broke down in tears and just couldn’t stop crying. Andre,
the younger brother of her personal maid Liridona came to her part
of the suite when he heard her sobbing. “Madame Fellman, what is
it? Shall I get Liri?”

“
No. She can’t help me with
this.”

“
Madame, you sometimes don’t
eat. I’ve found you crying like this at times. This reminds me of
when you sent Ian away. I’m worried Madame.”

“
Oh Andre, I’ll get through
this all right.”

“
Madame, I’ve stayed healthy
since I got better from the Wasting Disease. I made a promise to
Ian to keep a secret. Now that I’ve lived and not gotten sick, I
can tell you. Ian didn’t mean to spill the blood,
Madame”

She lifted her head and fastened her
gaze on him “What do you mean by that, Andre?”