Redemption (Dawn of the Damned Book 1) (9 page)

“Anja?” She shut her eyes against his soft voice, unsure why exactly.

Maybe she was embarrassed at having being caught in so compromising a situation, for she was sure she’d just been on the verge of death. Or maybe she was embarrassed at having failed again at her attempt to kill herself.

Or maybe, maybe she was embarrassed at nearly having done this to him again. Ejner, her brother who always loved her. Who’d killed his father for her, and had found his mother starved to death from his actions. Yes, that played a great part in her current shame. He’d gone against everything he believed in for her, and here she was attempting to make it all for naught.

“I’m so sorry,” Ejner went on to say.

No Ejner!
She called out in her mind.
I’m sorry. I’m not worthy of you. I’m not worthy of anyone. I bring everyone pain..

“I can’t change the past,” Ejner went on to say. “I can’t make it all better for you. But I want you to know that I’ve always loved you. I’ve.. I’ve always thought of you. If that is worth anything, then please come back to me. Please say something..”

“Ejner,” she forced herself to croak, opening her eyes a crack to find him seated beside her bed.

“Anja!” His voice was filled with love as he cried out, reaching up to her, then changing his mind, remembering Jon’s instructions that she must not be touched unless absolutely necessary. She hated it.

“Ejner.. I’m sorry!” She managed.

“No.. no, I’m sorry,” he called, tears of blood staining his face that he didn’t attempt to wipe away.

“I should never have..”

“No, none of that now,” he rushed to say, curtailing her words. “You are not to feel any more guilt,” he instructed her, his eyes filled with so much love, dark rings burning bright against the bloody stains of his tears.

“You’re here now, that is all that matters,” he told her. “No more apologies, no more guilt trips, and most of all,” he said, his eyes holding hers firmly. “No more fear. I will instantly smite anyone that dares touch you.”

No more words were left to be said between them, only the large drops of bloody tears that rolled down her face.

It was weeks later that they were to leave the hotel they’d been cooped up in during her recovery period, her brother remotely conducting his governor duties from there.

She then followed with him, and six other draugrs under his command, two pure bloods, and four half-bloods, her niece with them, and boarded his private plane heading back to England, headquarters of Area Two.

Part of her had been glad, as well as sad, to not have said goodbye to Jon. She wished to see him again, because she still cared for him, however emotionally she knew that it’d do them no good. He would be feeling overly guilty that he’d left her to run off to die, and she’d feel equally guilty for making him think that. Theres was a doomed relationship from the start. He’d been right when he said that being in each other’s presence only brought them both pain.

It was better this way. Maybe it was her brother she needed to recover.

Ejner owned a home in London, close to his main offices, but he and Raven moved in with her into their country home, where she’d have acres of open land around her, and wouldn’t feel claustrophobic. Very considerate of them.

At first she’d been ill-advised on what to use her time on, severely desperate to reassure her brother that she was alright, but Ejner had remained patient and most understanding.

“Don’t worry.. don’t push yourself too hard. Just do whatever you want, whatever you feel like, even if remaining in your bed all day is what you wish to do. All that I ask of you, is to eat,” he’d said, his voice shaking slightly with concern.

Now she couldn’t deny him of that, could she? So she did just that, lay in bed all day and emptied her plate, as well as the glass of blood sent with it each time. Raven constantly asked her if she wished to have more, but she’d refused. She’d trained her body over her two centuries of freedom to feed on just that much that was necessary.

Raven would also often ask her if she wished to feed live, directly from a vein, but she’d refuse. She was perfectly okay with feeding from a glass. Her niece would look confused then, not understanding how anyone could refuse to feed live, but Anja had smiled at her. Not many could understand her way of life.

Raven seemed more concerned with nursing her aunt back to life than with getting back to her own life. Often she’d knock timidly on Anja’s door, then come in, a book in hand, wishing to read her something. Soon, niece and aunt came to be comfortable enough with each other to talk. First Anja asked surface deep questions, like about the weather.

“A dry summer we are having,” Raven had answered. “Did you want me to open your drapes..?” Anja had shaken her head no. She much preferred the darkness.

Then Anja had asked Raven of her hobbies and talents. She liked to read, but the interesting kind of books, she’d rushed to add.

“Now which are those?” Anja had asked amused.

“Fiction, especially fantasy, supernatural or science fiction, as well as dystopian. Unlike father, I hate periodicals, philosophy, and all things non-fiction.”

“Escapism,” Anja had muttered under her breath.

“What?” Her niece had asked, leaning closer but maintaining her distance. No one touched her here, her brother had been true to his word.

“You wish to escape into your books,” Anja told her niece. “Why? You are yet too young and too protected to know the true horrors of this world.”

Her niece’s eyes had then dulled out, as meaning of her aunt’s words came to life, and she remembered that aunt Anja was like this for a reason. A very sad, disturbing reason.

“I just find them entertaining enough,” Raven had moved to explain herself, her voice small then.

“Then count yourself very lucky,” Anja had said.

That night, Anja scolded herself for dampening the child’s humour, and decided to be better company next time.

So when Raven next came to see her, Anja asked Raven to read her something of her choosing, from that fantasy genre that she was so much into. And she then hurriedly brought out what she termed as her favourite books of all time, and began to read to her about little men with large feet living at the center of the world, going on adventures with creatures such as man, elves, dwarves, wizards and goblins, meeting formidable unimaginable enemy creatures that left her both bewildered and perplexed. However at the end of the book, Anja was solidly and irreversible hooked, and quickly asked Raven to find the second book.

It was thus her brother often found them, both women in his life curled up in Anja’s bed, while his daughter read to his sister make belief stories set in make believe worlds.

Raven was the first person Anja willingly touched later that year, close to winter. She’d stretched out her hand from under her beddings and touched her niece’s rich dark hair, and the girl had smiled back wide, red tears balancing in her eyes, at what she knew was a great symbol of trust.

A few days before christmas, Anja ventured downstairs for the first time. Raven wished to play her the theme song for the movie that had been made from the Middle-earth books, and she’d been most interested to hear. Raven was a skilled pianist, and the musical piece had been so entrancing, that Anja had asked to watch the movie.

Compromising to watch it in the cinema room, where the sound system and the 3D full wall screen would provide maximum enjoyment of the production, rather than for the single screen and speakers Raven could bring into her room, Anja and Raven had spent a whole day and night in the cinema room, watching the well produced movies, discussing each movie as contrasted to the corresponding book in detail after it ended.

Anja soon came to realise that her niece had never gotten over her mother’s death, and was inadvertently looking for a mother in her. This both touched her, as well as inspired her to try some more to heal. This healing which everyone was so intent on wishing for her. She had no idea how exactly she was to heal, but she knew that paying Raven the attention she much needed, which her busy father couldn’t afford her, was a good way to start.

It wasn’t long before Anja was having meals with her brother and niece in the grand dining room, but only when there were no guests about. The servants of the large estate were rarely to be seen, under strict instructions from their master, or what they now call an employer, in this new-age.

As spring was ushered in, and the flowers began to bloom, Anja went for her first ride in nearly a century with her niece. The last time she’d ridden was with Jon back in Africa. They’d ridden wild zebras, galloping away happily, whooping out loudly, feeling as free as the wind itself, their whole future before them. Each time she thought of freedom, or wished to define it, her thoughts flipped back to that day.

Riding is a practice one can’t quite forget, like the humans say with cycling. Anja never learnt to cycle as she found the practice too tedious and slow. It was much faster and less cumbersome to just run, and she’d always been a fast runner. But riding, that she loved. To feel the powerful beast under her legs, to guide it with her gentle nudges, to be in commune with it, sailing through the air- that was true exhilaration.

Riding soon became a family venture. Her brother bought her a faster horse, the fastest in the world currently, and each morning, she joined him and his daughter in riding across his large property, and after they’d all be heavily famished, happy smiles on their faces.

One time as she handed back the reins of her stallion to her brother, her fingers accidentally brushed his. Her brother immediately pulled back his hand alarmed, a contrite expression crossing his features, but she’d smiled at him instead.

“It’s alright,” she’d baffled them all by saying. “I mean, I think it is, otherwise I’d have been paying better attention to not touch you.”

Anja can count the number of times she’d seen her brother as happy in her company as he was right then. Probably only back when she’d yet been a child, and he’d visit her under their father’s roof. Before all the darkness began.

“I think I’m healing,” she now said to him and his daughter, who was battling against her tears and losing, staining the white sleeves of her riding gear.

“I think you are,” is all her brother had said, his voice greatly affected.

“There’s to be a general assembly this year,” Ejner said, his eyes meeting hers. “In my area, as I’m hosting it this time,” he went on to add, his voice sounding slightly burdened, unsure of her reaction to it.

“Must I attend?” She asked him.

“I’m afraid you must,” he said warily. “General assemblies are compulsory for all.”

“I’ll stay with you the whole time, and punch out anyone that attempts to talk to you or touch you,” her niece rushed to say. Anja couldn’t help it but smile to the beautiful whelp beside her.

“Thank you, love,” she said lovingly, overwhelmed with emotion at so much love. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so loved in her life. Only by her mother. Even when she was with Jon, and she knew he’d kill, or die trying, anyone that attempted to harm her. However she was always overburdened with the guilt of that which she couldn’t give him, and feared that she might never.

“But- must I really, brother? My condition of freedom was to report to a governor each month. I have satisfied that this past year, living with you,” she said with a smile.

“Yes, but attending the general assembly held each decade is compulsory. You yourself know it to be true. It is what had you in trouble in the first place. Just attend this one, and in the next decade, you don’t have to think about it again.”

His words were most welcomed, the thought of hiding away here for a decade sounding heavenly, and so she agreed.

“However..” he started, the uncertainty in his voice having her unnerved again. “Over this past half of the century I’ve had a long standing tradition with Jon and his half-brother, to host then in my home during the assemblies held here in my area, and they do vice-versa for Raven and I..”

“No matter, father!” Raven rushed to interrupt him. “Aunt’s well being is most important now, and not your political affiliations..”

“It’s alright,” she surprised them both by saying. “I think I can handle it.. I know I can, and if I feel in anyway overwhelmed, I have my own wing.”

“Exactly,” Ejner jumped in to say pleased. “This is your home. And you don’t only have your own wing, this is all your home,” he said, gesturing around them. “The moment you feel ill at ease, all you have to do is ask them to leave. Like Raven insinuated, politics is nothing compared to family.”

And so it was that Anja and Raven began to order around the staff in preparation for their guests. The guest wing was opened up and made ready, in preparation for Jon and Pendo, and Kjeld who would be in the company of Xiu, as Raven had deducted.

“Kjeld and Xiu had something. At least they used to fuck,” her niece had brazenly informed her a while back. “I don’t think he holds her in especially high regard, not as much as I could deduct, though Xiu is undoubtedly head over heels taken up by him,” her chatty niece had informed.

“I tried to seduce him once,” Raven had surprised her further by saying, causing her to choke on her late afternoon snack. “Just so that I could convince her that he held no high regard for her. I pulled off my ma’s old trick, that she played on dad. Dad thinks I don’t know of it, but mom kept well detailed journals, so I know exactly how she’d seduced him. However Kjeld had runaway instead of giving in to my blood, which he clearly hungered for.”

Anja let out a heavy sigh of relief right then, unclenching her fists, knowing in her heart that she’d have torn Kjeld’s heart out herself, or died trying, if he’d dared feed off her beloved niece.

“Maybe I just wasn’t beautiful enough..”

“Nonsense!” Anja had rushed to say, snaking her hands around her niece, holding her close. “You are the most beautiful sight my eyes ever beheld.”

“You are saying that only because you’re obligated to, as my aunt..”

“That’s not true. I’m saying it because it is the absolute truth.”

“Then how could he resist me?” The darling child sobbed in her arms, staining her favourite dress.

“Let me tell you something child. Even with your overshadowing beauty, nobody would be stupid enough to cross your father. Kjeld might be a pure-blood too, but he is younger than your father, and Ejner would chew his bones if he ever found out that he’d laid his hands on you.”

“Oh!” Was all her loving niece had uttered in answer.

“Yes, oh,” Anja had responded, kissing her brilliantly dark head.

“Do you harbour great feelings for him?” Anja was to ask her days later.

“For who?” Her niece had furrowed her forehead as she concentrated on a stitch. She’d bet a servant that she could more expertly repair a hem by hand, and was determined in proving it. So interesting a character was her niece, and was why Anja found it so easy to get along with her, love her.

“The Governor, Kjeld?”

She’d wrinkled her nose then.

“No!” She exclaimed resolutely. “He’s handsome and all, but I find him too old for my liking. I only tried to seduce him because I wished to steal his attentions from Xiu. She’s always acted so entitled, as though she thinks herself better than me. And now I’m to play hostess to her!”

“Don’t let such matters bother you. Just remember in your heart that no one is better than anyone else. There’s no need to be. And regardless, only our actions, not our stations, can raise us above others.”

“You sound too philosophical at times, auntie,” Raven had said then, biting her lower lip on concentration. “But you are right, and I thank you for reminding me that.”

Every spot of the large mansion was cleaned out, drapes changed, new linens, draperies and upholstery replaced old ones, furniture rearranged, old paintings and sculptures dusted, gardens manicured, in preparation for their most distinguished guests, the two most important men from Area One.

That first Friday, a great banquet was to be held, where Area One and Two’s small council were invited to her brother’s home, and it would be the first time she’d be seeing Jon and Kjeld again.

Anja kept herself busy all day, not wanting to think of what lay ahead. By the time their guests began arriving, she was too exhausted to weigh herself down with her thoughts. She remained by her brother’s side, between him and his child, who greeted their guests as they came in, but made sure to step in should any of them attempt to stretch their hands her way.

As much as she dreaded it, Jon and Kjeld did eventually arrive, their plus ones on their arms, servants rushing forward to take their bags into their quarters.

Drinks and appetizers were served in the living room, as light conversation was made, low laughter dotting it as the guests broke out into groups, everyone making sure they had a chance to talk to everyone. Everyone in this case included her, as much as Anja would have wished not. And eventually, Jon and Kjeld did make it to her.

“You seem well,” Jon began.

“I am,” she’d said in answer.

“That’s great to hear.” She’d nodded to this, then an uncomfortable silence had fallen over them.

“I saw the piece in the hallway,” his halot, scratch that, his mate, went on to say. “A most beautiful piece of Tolkien’s world as I haven’t seen it represented before. Did you paint it?” And with that, Anja knew she couldn’t hate her even if she tried.

“Yes, I did. Blame it on Raven. She introduced me to the fantastical middle earth, and I couldn’t hold back from drawing it my own way.”

“Were Tolkien alive, he’d have been very touched by your piece. It is most attentively done,” Pendo went on to complement her farther. “Maybe you wish to exhibit it? I know the world would be pleased to..” She drew off here, for Anja was shaking her head resolutely.

“No thank you. The last thing I want is to draw more attention to myself than I have already,” she said in explanation, to which Pendo seemed most understanding.

“Of course.”

Jon and Pendo had then drifted away, Jon’s eyes sad and searching before they lifted away from hers. Kjeld had then stepped in, in his arms the chit her niece was supposedly jealous of.

“You’re well,” he stated questioningly, his piercing blue-ringed eyes haunting.

“I am,” she answered. “And you.”

“As well,” he’d promptly answered, clearly in great discomfort. “Thank you, for receiving us,” he went on to say.

“It’s my brother’s house, and you’re his guest,” she rushed to remind him, wishing him to keep in mind that it wasn’t exactly by choice.

“Quite,” was his simple answer, and the young woman in his hands then rushed to greet her then, the haughty expression on her face clear.

“Miss Anja..” she began, stepping forward, reaching out her hand, but before she could strike out in defence, Kjeld pulled her hand back, the reserved force of his motion nearly ripping her arm off its hinges. Any pain she’d felt she quickly swallowed, the yellow glint flashing in her eyes the only evidence of it.

“Don’t. Touch. Her!” Kjeld ground at her under his breath, and the very firmness with which he spoke sent chills across the room.

“Apologies,” the girl went on to say, curtsying instead, and once again the rest of the room resumed their conversations that had momentarily stopped.

“It’s alright, child,” Anja said. She added the child as an afterthought, letting Kjeld know what she thought of his sleeping partner.

Kjeld said nothing, but there was no doubt that he understood her insinuation.

“I’m ninety,” the girl rushed to say defensively.

“Good for you,” Anja said condescendingly, turning away then, as the butler had arrived right then to let them know that supper was served.

“You’re a most accomplished painter,” Aedan, Ejner’s second in command, was saying.

Anja had been enjoying the dinner, seated beside her brother and glad for the lively conversation going on before her until now.

“Thank you, Aedan,” she said kindly. “But if I knew how much attention it’d draw, I’d never have drawn it. Now Ejner won’t let it hang anywhere but on so prominent a place, and everyone seems intent on commenting on it.”

Aedan looked a little confused at this, unsure on whether she could be joking, or if she was infact peeved by his having admired her piece of work. An air of unease hang over the rest of the dinner party, so she decided to try make light of it again, to repair her mistake.

“I’m joking,” she said, with an aggravatingly forced smile. “Thank you.” He looked back at her hesitantly, but soon returned her smile, upon convincing himself that every artist was pleased with a praise of their works, and she had no reason to react differently. However, everyone else made sure to steer clear of all matters to do with that painting thereafter. Blessedly!

They entertained late into the night, feeding after a most scrumptious dessert, many puzzling over her choice to drink from a glass rather than from a wrist. Xiu went as far as to think it might be because there weren’t enough humans to feed on, and so suggested to let her feed off her own meal, still feeling a little contrite from her earlier mishap.

“No, thank you,” Anja had answered her. “I prefer my meal in a glass,” she’d surprised the guests by explaining.

But their surprise had only lasted that single moment, for soon their blood lust had taken over, and they’d stopped all semblance of thought and began to enjoy the best part about Draugr suppers.

After their meal, they’d all gotten up and headed into the drawing room, where Raven had been more than happy to entertain them with her playing and singing, and Xiu had promptly joined in an attempt to outshine her.

The rest of the guests had continued with polite conversation, being sure to stay away from any talk of politics, which is what the general assembly would be about. First there was to be a census, which was the main reason the general assembly each decade was to be attended by all, and then as any assembly of the High Council members, there were to be trials and resolution courts to be held. This could last anything from three days to weeks on end, depending on the number of disputes to be resolved. Anja hoped that this time it would only last days, because Kjeld and Jon would remain here as long as the general assembly lasted. After the courts, came the legislation part, where contentious laws may be revised, or new laws may be made, and Draugr members were to vote on them before the final celebratory ball was held, and then the general assembly would be over.

As was typical to whenever Area Two played host to the general assembly, it was located in the main property in Northumbria, a large property owned by the Draugr Area Two public, that was also commonly termed as Central Two. It boasted sprawling classic manors that now acted as exclusive hotels, though this time their doors would be closed, opening only to the Draugr population.

The council members were to reside in, and hold court from the center most building, an impressive victorian castle. Kjeld and Ejner were the only council members that would not be staying at the property, but their property was not too far from Central Two, and allowed for more privacy from the over watchful Draugr society members.

The dinner party finally drew to an end, and rows of long dark sedans began to drive their guests back, leaving behind just Anja’s family and their guests.

A sense of doom fell over her as she turned around, and realised just how few were left, and a sense of panic gripped her as she realised that she’d now be forced to
entertain
.