The Vampires of Soldiers Cove (23 page)

We were all sectioned off in our respective clans when the
satyrs began arriving. A hush fell over the crowd. Gavin had told me that the satyrs preferred Soldiers Cove but he didn’t know why. They were known to show up anywhere of course, but for some reason you were more likely to see one here. Most of the other vampires had never met a living, breathing satyr, and the reactions varied from amusement to shock.

Aries came in first
.  Even if you had never met him before it was obvious he was their leader. All of them were equally handsome with rich and exotic sounding names that I was sure I’d never remember. There were about fifty as he had promised. Brunettes, red heads, and blondes. It would have been a male model photographer’s dream if they could have only seen them from the waist up, and come to think of it, the neck down. How would they get around the horns and ears?

One tall blonde
satyr was quite striking. His name was Hermes and he extended his hand to me. Aries shot him a look and then he seemed to remember an earlier warning. “Oh, of course girl. You must be the one they call Rachel. Lovely to meet you.” He walked away as fast as he could as if he was leaving before saying or doing something he’d regret. I wasn’t sure but he seemed slightly embarrassed.

“My apologies,” Aries said to Gavin.
I didn’t think it was Gavin he should be apologizing to but I said nothing. “My dear brother is a good fighter, but he lacks a decent memory. I did inform him of your situation with the female, and I’ll see to it he minds his manners.” I wasn’t feeling the familiar drug like pull that I usually felt toward Aries, and I was guessing that his pheromone faucet was shut off for the evening. This was good news because I really didn’t need any more distractions. I needed to learn to fight, at least a little bit.

How much could you possibly learn in one evening though?
Gavin was right; if I was going to be turned at all it should have been done months or years ago. Angus had dragged his heels in fear of the political backlash and now I might actually get my head chopped off for it.

Finally everyone had arrived
and Angus made his way to the center to address the group.  “Thank you, friends, for coming. I know this is a highly unorthodox gathering, perhaps the first of its kind. But as I’m sure you will agree, we all have a common interest in keeping Samuel from releasing his army of revenants on us, and especially on our humans.”

“We have to know Angus,” said one of the vampires from St.Peters, “
is there a political shift in your ranks, or is the perceived threat really as bad as you say it is?”

“I want you to know,” Angus was booming for all to hear, “that there is no political turmoil in this clan.
We have been very happy here for centuries. I was happy to address this matter with just ourselves, however, the threat as one here has seen, is vast. She has read Samuel’s thoughts and seen him coming with an army of at least one hundred mutations. In the last few days he may have added to those numbers.”

A hush fell over the other
vampires. Angus was nothing if not a brilliant speaker, and if there had been any doubt as to the severity of the situation it was gone now. Just then a vampire who had been standing guard outside the sanctuary appeared and motioned to Angus. He left the circle and the young man whispered something in his ear. When he finished the guard gave him a questioning look and raised his eyebrows awaiting an answer.

Angus nodded and the v
ampire disappeared to the outer grounds. “It seems we have some more volunteers.”

“More
vampires?” Gavin asked.

“No, and I must ask for much restraint among some of our guests.
They are not vampires or even satyrs.” He turned to the group of satyrs who were all standing together and addressed Aries directly. “Your men can show restraint for the next few hours, correct?”

Aries seemed insulted
, “Of course!”

Just then the young man appeared again and with him were four young and astoundingly beautiful women.
The satyrs caught a glimpse of them and a few literally began drooling. Any straight man would have probably sold all of his belongings to spend a night with one these women.

They were tall and slender, their long flowing hair done up with flowers.
They seemed to be floating, and upon closer inspection in fact they were. When I got a glimpse of their backs I saw what can only be described as butterfly wings, with a thousand colors that were ever shifting.  They were captivating.

The women made their way into the center of the circle.
“I am Nina,” said a woman with long flowered blonde hair. “My sisters and I have heard about what’s coming and we humbly ask for a chance to stand with you and fight. This is also our home, and we would like to defend it with you.”

“Oh no,” Gavin whispered to himself.

“What?”

“Nymphs,” he said.

“Those are nymphs? They look nothing like the paintings I’ve seen.”

“They sure don’t.”
No wonder Angus had asked if the satyrs could control themselves. They were all beautiful, female, and fertile. Everything satyrs look for in a woman. I didn’t think I had to worry about Aries anymore.

“We would be happy for you to join us,” Angus said to Nina.
The other nymphs were oblivious to this little piece of diplomacy that was going on. They were eyeing the satyrs too. The other three sisters had already picked out specific males and were talking to them with their eyes and body language. Something told me there was going to be some baby making going on in the woods of Soldiers Cove tonight.

“Excellent,” Nina said
as the three sisters pulled their swords out of the sheaths strung on their backs at once. “We are ready to begin whenever you are.” Nina took her sisters to the side of the circle opposite the satyrs and awaited instructions.

“Ok,” said Angus, “
so it looks like we’ve got a good size group here. It could be much less than Samuel is coming with but revenants are not known for their intelligence, so with all of the experience in this circle it shouldn’t be a problem for some of you to pick off one, two, or even three.” Angus motioned for James to come forward.

“The most important thing,” James began
, “is not to let them enter sanctuary ground. We are going to give you all temporary pendants to get in and out, please knot them tightly and guard them carefully.” Another vampire had already begun handing them out.

“Killing
revenants,” he continued, “is the same as killing vampires. The things that work are staking, decapitation, and fire. You won’t have much of a chance to use fire, we only have one fire starter,” he said gesturing to me, “so you will want to use your sword. Go for the head or heart. The limbs will grow back quickly.”

“Is it true you had an attack by a
revenant on your grounds a few days ago?” an anonymous voice said from the crowd. James was angry; he looked around to see who had spoken up. Angus placed a hand on his shoulder letting him know it was ok.

“Yes,” Angus admitted
, “we don’t know how it got in, or who created it, so we must be extra careful. Samuel seems to have some sort of unheard of control over them. We’ve never seen that before, he may have sent one on ahead as a warning. He may have given the creature his own pendant to enter the grounds.”

He was covering his ass like a true politician.
He knew damn well there was a traitor among us, and more than likely that was how the revenant came to be on the grounds of our own sanctuary. The crowd seemed satisfied with his answer however, so James went on.

“We are going to divide you up into two teams to start off with.
One group will be revenants, the other non-revenants.” He went on to explain the particulars of this exercise and we were then divided into two teams at opposite ends of the courtyard.

Ga
vin spoke up, “I’d just like to remind everyone that this is an exercise. Don’t get too aggressive, everyone here is at a different skill level.” The crowd nodded in agreement. James went to the center of the field and held his sword high over his head.

“Remember,” Gavin said, “just defend yourself with what I showed you, try to stay behind me and low to the ground.”
I nodded.

“Ready,” James yelled, “Begin!”

The two groups charged at each other at full speed. It was painfully obvious I was the odd man out here, but I held up my sword and as vampires, satyrs and nymphs came at me I clumsily knocked them all away. They were going easy on me. After a few blows they could see my lack of confidence. I dropped my sword a few times and if this had been a real battle I would have been dead ten times over.

Sandra came at me and I hesitated to raise my weapon.
She saw my fear and I saw her anxiety. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” she said in a matter of fact way.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I yelled back over the clanging of swords all around us.

“When were you made?”

“Maybe two weeks ago.”

“It shows,” was all she said before moving on to her next target. Sandra had always been a kind and supportive friend before but she certainly did not help my confidence now.

Next up was the blonde
satyr, Hermes. He had seen me try to fight off Sandra and came at me carefully. “Don’t hold back,” I shouted, “I won’t learn anything if you do.” With that he hit his sword against mine so hard that I lost my grip on it as the weapon went flying into the woods. We got off to the side and peered into the darkness of the trees trying to spot it.

“I’ll go look for it, my lovely,” he said as he began to trot off.

“No, that’s ok.” He turned back around. “I think I see it. I need a breather anyway, you continue on with the exercise, you still have your sword.”

“As you wish,” he said and reverted back into the mock battle.
I really didn’t see it but I wanted to get away from the scene. Looking over I saw Gavin in the throes of the exercise. He seemed like he was actually having a good time, obviously a master of the sword. I hadn’t done a good job of staying behind him like I’d promised.

No matter.
I was coming to the realization that if I actually got in on the fighting there wasn’t going to be anything he could do for me in that situation; so I ventured into the trees to try and spot my lost weapon. It had made a long and hard ascent and I walked in the direction it should logically have landed in, but it wasn’t there.

I kept walking until I realized I was far away from the noise.
It was somewhat peaceful where I was standing now and so I took a moment and leaned up against a tree. The full winter moon was shining through the tree tops and the stars twinkled in the chilly night. Placing my head against the trunk I felt the cool bark with my hands, breathing in the tree’s scent I began to relax a little.

Then out
of the corner of my eye I saw something silvery, shining as the moonlight was glinting off it. It was my sword, stuck in the ground by its point. I was about to walk over and pull it from its place in the earth when a hand reached for it.

“Looking for this?” a voice asked.
He pulled the sword out of the ground and placed it next to his hoof.

“Aries, you scared me,” I said.

“I’m worried for you little one. Your vampire lover has not taught you how to defend yourself very effectively.”

“Well I’m sure if he’d had some more time I’d be much better at it.”

“Of course,” he said as he walked toward me leaving the sword on the ground behind him. I gripped the tree as he came closer, and then I felt it. The drug like rush of pheromones. It was too late for me to run because I hadn’t realized he’d released them until it was too late.

Suddenly I was experiencing time as if in a dream.
Aries began circling me like a shark, getting closer with every rotation. His voice, soft and far off, was the only thing I could hear.

“We could have many fine sons,” he whispered in my ear.
He was very close to me now but not actually touching me yet. I tried to draw out my fangs aware that something bad was happening, although through the drugged out haze I wasn’t sure what. It didn’t work. I was helpless out here alone against him.

“A vampire mother and a s
atyr father would be a very strong combination. You could give me a son every year if I wanted.  And once we’ve mated I could always have you.”

“I know you’re, sensitive, to me.
I know you are not so much a vampire yet that you can resist. I know you want to touch me.” He was right; I was in another world, a world where all I wanted to do was touch and mate with this creature. I began to feel very sexual, and as he let a long breath out on my exposed neck I felt a surge of hormones, like a train roaring toward me at full velocity. I was ready and willing to do anything he wanted, and he hadn’t even laid a hand on me. He drew deep breaths in and exhaled slowly over and over on the back of my neck.

I turned my head to look at
him just as he was reaching out to touch my shoulder. He was going too slowly. “Touch me,” I begged. Just as his fingers were about to reach my skin someone knocked him to the ground. Gavin was there wrestling around with him. He overpowered him and grabbed him by the horn.