Lengths For Love (10 page)

“Why?” Jenny wanted to know.

“Because she’s pregnant.”

Kristine’s eyes widened as she came down to the stables with Jenny right behind her. Alexis took a step forward, but stayed away. She just kept her eyes on me as the other two went to look at the horse. Jenny gingerly stroked the mare’s mane and smiled. Kristine shot me a look of approval and I think the male seemed to like me as well. He didn’t feel the urge to urinate on me, so I saw it as a good sign.

“So Penny’s going to...” Kristine began.

“Yeah, she’ll have a baby. Now I’m not an expert at this yet, but you can bet it’ll happen,” I promised. “If Mr. Augustin asks, just tell him the truth. He can come to me if he needs proof. I doubt he’ll be horseback riding anytime soon. The male doesn’t seem to want to leave Penny’s side.”

“So!” She let out a sigh of relief. “Christian is in love with Penny. I never would have guessed.”

“Why is it hard to believe?” I asked. “And are you sure he’s the father?”

“Well, Christian doesn’t get close to any other mare but Penny. Likewise, I haven’t seen her approach the other horses. Mr. Augustin was asking about them, but I told him that I hadn’t seen anything strange,” she chuckled. “I guess they won’t do anything if someone looks at them. But when no one’s watching... the magic happens.”

I turned to her. “You believe that?”

She pointed to the horses. “I doubt she’d get pregnant with us watching.”

Jenny kept smiling at the horses, feeding them and stroking their manes. “I can’t wait till the others see this!” Then she frowned. “But that means we can’t feed from them, can we?”

“It’s probably not a smart idea to do that,” I agreed. “Let her give birth and recover. As for him... I think he wants to be by her side.”

“It’s romantic.”

“I guess so. Don’t forget to tell Vince about this, though. As their owner, he has a right to know.”

“I will.”

Kristine stood next to me and looked at them. “I hope he’ll be in a good mood when he hears about this. He hates it when his horses aren’t ready for a ride. And judging by the way Christian looks, I don’t think he wants to leave Penny’s side for anything.”

“Well, he’ll just have to accept that Christian isn’t ready to ride. He probably won’t be until the foal is born.”

She looked worried, but nodded. “I suppose he can understand that. You’ll just have to explain it to him in a way that won’t upset him.”

“Won’t upset who?”

It was Vince, smoking a cigarette and looking dapper in his black suit. He stared at the two horses and then back at me. “Is something wrong with them?”

“No, it’s just the mare is pregnant,” I explained. “I had to check up on her since she didn’t seem to be her usual self.”

“Oh.” For some reason, he did not seem excited by the news. If anything, he looked saddened by it. “I take it we can’t ride her for a while?”

“It would be best not to. And I don’t think your horse wants to leave her,” I explained. “Although if you would rather have a vet look at this...”

“No, I believe you.” He held up his hand, still looking rather depressed. It was the first time I saw him this way. He was like a little boy, fragile and sad that he wasn’t going to ride the pony anymore. In a minute, I expected him to start crying. This was not the same man pulling out a piercing and snarling like a bull in my direction. He looked his age for a change and I appreciated it.

“Just keep a good eye on her,” he told me. “I’ll admit that I’m going to miss riding them, but I guess it’s for the best.”

“Really, I can have a vet double-check. I’m just a student.”

“But you’re brilliant. You can get someone to double-check if you feel like it, but I don’t think you’re wrong.” He started to turn back to the house. “I’ll see you inside. And please, Ian. Please make sure my horses are fine throughout this.”

I swallowed when I saw how pale he had turned. Obviously, he was upset over more than just not being able to ride the horses anymore. “I will.”

“Thank you. I just didn’t think this would happen. I shouldn’t have kept them together,” he frowned.

“Hey, people fall in love and so do horses, apparently. You can’t keep anything from falling in love. And besides, it will be fine. I’ll make sure she’s okay,” I promised. “I’ll check up on her regularly and report anything strange. Whatever I can’t figure out, just give me the number to a vet and I’ll have them look over it.”

He nodded, his voice hollow. “All right. Whatever you need.”

“Hey!” I tried to make him feel better. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll be back and riding on them before you know it.”

“I guess there’s comfort in that,” he agreed. “Okay, Ian, I’ll leave them in your hands. Just take care of them.”

I smiled and felt much better about myself. I had something to do besides putter around Vienna and Vince had been humbled.

Two birds, one stone. I had done it.

“You should have seen his face,” I murmured. “It’s like I told him he couldn’t have any ice cream. I thought these big tears were going to roll down when that happened. Has he ever reacted like that about anything before?”

“Mr. Augustin? Not that I’ve seen,” she muttered. “Color me shocked as well.”

“That’s another thing. Everyone here calls him Mr. Augustin even though you are supposed to be older than him. Is it just to be formal?”

“Formal?” She let out a bitter laugh. “Wow, you know absolutely nothing about this family, do you? Did you just come here because your girlfriend told you?”

I knew she was taunting but she was right. “I’ll be honest. I’m not a fan of vampires.”

“I figured you weren’t. But at least you’re harmless, unlike the people here.”

“The people here?” I looked up at the painting. The man in it had some of Vince’s features, though was much older. “The Augustin family? What’s so great about them, anyway? How did they get to be this rich?”

Kristine looked up from polishing the brass. Then she said only two words that answered all my questions.

“Through fear.”

I followed her as she sat down on the sofa and looked up at the painting of Vince’s ancestor. His eyes were unnerving. It looked like he was empty inside. Granted, it was a work of art, but I always felt some life with artwork. When an artist made me react, that was when I knew I loved the art. But this art, while I was reacting to it, did not make me love it. It made me want to crawl up in a ball and die.

“The Augustin family used to be made of vampire slayers. That’s what I meant by brutal killers,” Kristine began. “For a long time, they’ve hunted our kind down and we’ve fought back. Eventually, I’m not sure who or how or why, we came to see that it was leading us nowhere. Both parties were running in circles so we struck a truce; we’d leave them alone if they did the same for us. The Augustin family went one step further. They built this home,” she put her hand on the wall, “for us vampires to live in and be safe from those who wanted us dead. And believe me, there were plenty that wanted us dead.”

“So that’s why you live here,” I noticed.

“Things were going smoothly in the beginning. Some of the members of this family were kind to us. They treated us like we wanted to be treated. But there were others out there who were anything but. They made rules that were hard to follow and some vampires would end up being abused.”

“Like Rose,” I realized.

“Trust me, what Mr. Augustin did to her was very tame.”

“Tame?!” That was the last thing I expected that to be called. “The guy ripped out...”

“I know, I know,” she sighed. “But he could have done much worse. He has done worse to others.”

I grew worried then. “How much worse?”

“To the point where he kills them.”

I knew it. “You... You can’t be serious. I mean, he can’t have killed anyone! If that were the case, then he should be in jail! The guy’s a murderer!”

“A lot easier to say he belongs in jail than to put him in one,” she clucked. “This family has so much control over everyone. The police would never believe us. He could easily turn the story around and put the blame on me. So it’s best never to open up about that.”

I understood what she was saying, but I didn’t agree to it. “Are you telling me he gets away with killing?”

“He’s not alone. Everyone in this family has killed a vampire. They do it as a form of punishment. Anyone that dares to disobey them will get a strike. After three strikes, they will take you out of the mansion and they will kill you. You think no one has tried to run from here? Oh, a lot of tried, but that doesn’t mean anyone succeeded.”

“And you never thought to fight back?”

“The hold that this family has on vampires is tight. There are a lot of vampires who have tried, but failed to get out of the door. Vince just staked them before they could take a step. I never bothered to escape. I had seen so many of them die this way. You can barely get out of it and, if you do, expect to be caught in chains again,” she explained. “That’s why I wondered why your girlfriend would come here of all places. We don’t live here just to turn sick people into one of us. You know what would happen once she was turned? She’d be stuck here. Mr. Augustin would make her a member of this place.”

“Well, he’d let her go to school, right?”

“She’d have to go through a long process for that,” Kristine lowered her voice. “And she’d need approval for it.”

“Approval?”

“Yes, approval. She can’t just do whatever she wants anymore.” Kristine looked out the window to where the stables were. “You know, I remember that day when you asked me why I was here. If I was so strong, why wasn’t I anywhere else. Well, Vincent saved me. Before him, my life was a blur. I don’t remember much of my humanity. I just know what happened after I became a vampire. I was running through the woods, after I had been turned, and I was caught by him. There were vampire slayers after me and he convinced them not to kill me. I’m not sure how or why, but I was grateful to him. So I said I would do anything. He led me here and said I was to stay unless I got permission from him to leave.”

“Did you ever try to get permission?”

“Many times. His refusals quickly turned to beatings.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed me a jagged mark on her arm. It had faded but the scar had remained. “He slammed me into a wall once. I crashed into the fireplace and got this as a token of my questioning his methods.”

“Jesus!” I kept staring at the scar. “How long ago did he do this?”

“A few months before you came here. That would explain why this hasn’t faded like the others,” she said. “So that’s why I’m careful whenever he’s around. I do my job when I should and I do not question anything he tells me. If I disagree, I keep it quiet so it doesn’t enrage him.”

“But you’re stronger than him.”

“That’s true, but he’s also a killer. One wrong move and he will end your life,” she sighed. “I bet you regret coming here. I bet you wish you had stayed behind and taken care of her back home.”

“I only regret meeting him,” I confessed.

“You and I both. I’d do anything to have my humanity back and die like a normal person. It would be less painful than living this afterlife.” She put her hands on her lap. “You know what I love to do? I would really like to go to Paris one day. You think I would have gone by now, what with being from Europe and all. But with all that I’ve done in my life, traveling is the one thing I never had time for.”

“Me either. Though I have been to Paris. Great city. Good food. Beautiful women.” She blushed when I said that. “Okay, there’s beautiful men, too. All in all, I can see why people are crazy about it. It’s quite nice. Maybe if you get a chance, you should go. It’s somewhere you need to visit in your life or afterlife.”

She heard the skepticism in my voice. “You really don’t think I’m a vampire, do you?”

“I’m having a hard time believing anyone here is a vampire.”

“You think it’s all a myth still?”

“I’m here for my girlfriend, not for myself. I told her I would do anything for her. Even if it meant following something that was unreal.”

“How can it be unreal? You’re right here, aren’t you? You’re in this house and you’re listening to me and you see how brutal Vincent can be. That much hasn’t been a lie. And I think that the sooner you accept this, the sooner everything will make sense.”

Kristine chuckled. “So jaded, yet you believe you can change things. I wish I had your optimism. I don’t know very much of the outside world.”

“No? Then I guess I could take you to eat hot pots and you’d have no clue?”

“None whatsoever. But I’d go with you.” She nodded. “Even though I’m not sure what hot pots are.”

I grinned. “It’s a stew made of meat and veggies and all. Really good.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m serious. It’s quite delicious so if you’re ever feeling up to it... I can take you out for some. I don’t know if there’s a Korean restaurant here, but if you ever feel like leaving this place and coming with me, I can take you.”

“Come with you?” She gave me that look of disbelief again. “You would seriously take me out of this place to eat stew?”

“Well, not just that. If you’re not into it, we’d go somewhere else. I’d show you all kinds of stuff. We’d do whatever you wanted, try anything you feel like,” I suggested. “You’ve had to have dreams and desires. I know you don’t want to stay cooped up in here forever.”

She thought for a second. “I always did want to go to the States. Not to feed on anyone, but to see it. They show all these vampire shows airing over there and I can’t help but laugh. Not because they’re funny, but because there’s so much they don’t know. I commend them for writing about us, but I don’t think they understand.”

“Aha! So there’s a bigger truth to all this!” I snapped my fingers. “Come on. Spill it. What’s so bad about you guys? I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“I know you can keep a secret, it’s just...” She lowered her voice. “If I show you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even your girlfriend.”

Not even Alexis. I wasn’t sure if I could do that since Alexis trusted me. She knew I would always be honest. At the same time, I didn’t want Kristine in trouble. I remembered seeing what happened with Rose and my skin felt like it had dissolved. Vincent’s eyes scared me the most. It was almost like he had turned into an animal and felt no qualms about who he was torturing. Maybe Rose was all right, but that moment was going to haunt her forever.