by Arden, Alys
I lie awake at night, thinking about the words Gabriel Medici spoke the night he killed Martine. His demands and his threats. He doesn’t believe me when I say I don’t know your location. So this is why you were so secretive about your journey, Papa? It brings me great sadness that you thought I could not carry this burden with you.
I haven’t told the other girls about his threats, for I feel this is a matter of family affairs.
15th August 1728
Sometimes I think Gabriel believes I am teasing him by not telling him the information he desires. Sometimes I think he is drawn to this game of cat and mouse. And sometimes I think his assumption that I have something he wants makes it safe for me to be around him. At other times, I wonder if he has just led me to believe that I have the upper hand.
16th August 1728
Gabriel said the most peculiar thing tonight. As usual, the hour was late, and he appeared to have drunk quite a lot, so I also attributed his chatty mood to the anise-flavored wine he is so fond of. As gentle as a man could be, he asked me if I like La Nouvelle-Orléans.
When I told him that I liked the city very much, he grabbed me with force and told me I had better start saying my goodbyes, and that if I haven’t revealed your hiding place by the time his brothers arrive, then I would be going away with them – that he would make me a Medici. The misplaced comfort I feel around him made me smile and ask him whether that was his twisted way of asking for my hand in marriage.
To which he smirked and replied, “Well, that would require me asking your father’s permission first, wouldn't it? No, I have a much more permanent idea in mind.”
17th August 1728
I just don’t know what to think about anything anymore. The world has gone mad. My head is too foggy and my hand shakes too violently to pen the events of this evening.
19th August 1728
The last days have been a blurry haze. Susannah has been feeding me strong medicinal concoctions for the injuries to my neck. They reek of fennel and left me fading in and out of sleep in a near hallucinogenic state. The pain was excruciating, and I began to feel infection setting in. In my state of semiconsciousness, I could hear the girls fluttering around me. There was a fierce debate amongst the circle – they seemed to be split on my course of treatment. In the end, Cosette strongly said, “Her temperature is too high. I am going to get him! He is the only one who can save her now.”
“We’re not letting you go alone,” her sisters yelled out the door, running behind her.
Before the triplets made it back, Gabriel was in my room, hovering over my head. “How did this happen?” he growled.
“Why don’t you ask your cousin Lorenzo!” Susannah spat back.
I will never forget the look in his eyes. The fear… mixed with this strange glimmer of hope. With angered huffs, he wiped my fevered brow. The chill of his hand sent waves of shudders down my chest.
“You bedda not do anything but help her, Monsieur,” Marassa said with threat.
He hissed at her and then cupped my face with his hands. Although I shook violently, his touch began to bring down my body temperature immediately.
I think every girl in the room was holding her breath as he removed the bandages, exposing the infected puncture wounds.
Susannah frantically asked him questions in English, which I couldn’t understand. He replied in her native tongue and then bit the fingernail on his right index finger so that it cracked at a sharp angle.
My eyes widened as he held my neck steady.
“Wha—” I stuttered.
“This is going to hurt, Adeline, but I will be quick,” he said, looking into my eyes.
Before I could even nod, he slit open the puncture wounds on my neck with one quick swipe.
I screamed in pain as his lips suctioned onto my neck. His left hand held me down as he attempted to extract the venom.
He released me for a moment, quickly spat into the basin of water next to the bed, and in a flash was reattached to my neck, and I was screaming again. I felt my eyes roll back in my head as he spat and sucked and spat.
“It’s not enough!” he yelled. “The venom is coursing too deep in her bloodstream. Why didn’t you call for me sooner?
No one said anything for a moment, and then Susannah screamed, “No!”
My eyes flipped back open to see Gabriel lowering his wrist to my mouth.
I clamped my lips shut just before his blood could enter.
“It’s the only way!” Gabriel said and then looked grimly at Susannah. “If she dies,” he said softly, “it will be on your hands.”
My head fell sideways, and the blood smeared across my face. All I could think was, if all that has happened had something to do with our family, Papa, then I deserved to die, not the others. Not Sophie, or Claude, or Martine, or Morning Star’s brother, and none of the nameless souls in La Nouvelle-Orléans.
Marassa rubbed my shoulder and said gently, “You gots ta do it, Addie.”
And then Cosette was by her side, squeezing my hand. “You have to drink it, Adeline! It will only be a few drops.” She shot a look at Gabriel. “Just enough to save your life, ma fifille.”
Tears fell from my eyes.
Gabriel distracted me by wiping the blood from my cheeks with one hand while parting my lips with his other. When his open wrist dripped blood onto my tongue, I immediately choked on the vile metallic taste. Cosette squeezed my jaw like a babe so I couldn’t shut my lips.
The blood slipped down my throat, and then suddenly, with animalistic impulse, I found myself pushing Cosette out of the way and clutching Gabriel’s wrist, pining for him. For his blood.
But no sooner had I started drinking than he was forcefully detaching himself from my mouth. “No more, cara mia.”
Panting, I looked back to him with begging eyes. He slipped underneath the blanket next to me and pulled me into his chest.
“Go to sleep, little lamb,” he said gently, scooping me so close my entire body pressed tightly against his.
“What do you think you’re doing?” cried Cosette. “Get away from her! Get out of the bed.”
“Precautionary measure,” he told the girls, his sturdy arms wrapping me into his chill. “You are going to want me around if she drank too much.” His voice was solid, but I could sense his worry. “Not that I really care if she rips off all of your heads, if that’s what she wants, but I’d rather avoid an encore of Martine's performance. I’m here for the night, just in case.”
“Just in case?” Cosette yelled, fuming.
“When it comes to death,” he said, “just as in life, there are no guarantees.”
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Susannah said, pulling the blanket away.
In a flash, Gabriel rolled over me and grabbed her tiny waist. “If you think a blanket is going to keep me from taking anything I desire tonight, then you are an even sillier little girl than I thought.”
“Remove your hands from her,” I heard Cosette say from behind me.
And, just like every other man, Gabriel did as Cosette commanded.
But then Gabriel had the final word: “You have two options. Leave… or settle in with us.” I could tell by the inflection on his last word that he was smiling.
Cosette then picked up the blanket, pulled it over us, and crawled in next to me.
“You’re going to be okay, ma fifille,you will always be one of us,” she said, burrowing against my back.
Her close proximity to the vampire made her sisters gasp, but then they, too, lay down at our feet. Marassa settled onto the sofa at the edge of the bed, and Susannah curled into a chair in the corner, keeping a sharp eye on Gabriel.
“Well, I’m no stranger to the ménage à trois,”Gabriel said, “but I can honestly say that seven is a record for me.”
In her goddess-disguised, femme fatale voice, Cosette replied sweetly, “Don’t make me sew your mouth shut for the night, because I will.”
He stroked my hair. Even throug
h the numbness of the vampire venom and medicinal concoctions, I could feel his blood coursing through my veins, fighting the infection.
“Go to sleep, Adeline, and don’t even think about trying to get seconds. If you bite me again, you’ll end up stuck with me for the rest of your immortal life.”
His words made me shudder.
Pressed up against him, even though I was barely lucid, everything about Gabriel Medici made me shudder.
(cont.)
When I awoke the next morning, atop his chest, I hesitated before opening my eyes, allowing myself a brief moment to be held in his arms. He knew I was awake; his heart had flickered the moment my consciousness returned. I remained still for just a few more seconds, lingering in his scent.
Then I screamed for him to get out of my bed. To which he replied, “Are you sure you don’t want to lie with me a little longer?” His gaze burned straight through my thin gown.
“Get out!” I yelled once again, pushing him up.
The other girls woke, and quickly they were making a fuss over the status of my health. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Gabriel pulled on his boots and stretched his arms into his jacket, shielding his eyes from the sunlight that pierced the cracks in the drapery.
He stood and took my hand as if to kiss it goodbye, but instead he pulled me to my knees, just long enough to whisper in my ear, “This doesn’t change anything, mademoiselle.I am still going to drain your father.” He discreetly kissed the lobe of my ear and was gone.
“I despise him,” I said, as Cosette pulled me back down to the bed. And I meant it. I despised the way he made me feel about him.
She unwrapped the bandages and examined my neck. “It’s perfect,” she said and kissed it.
“He is an ass,” Susannah said with a clenched jaw. “Their time is near.”
Lisette giggled. “He is an ass who saved Adeline’s life.”
“Gabriel Medici did not save me… Louis saved me.”
“Louis, the dog?” asked Lisette. “Adeline, Louis has been missing for weeks. You must still be feeling the effects of the tea Susannah made you last night.”
“No, it was Louis! I swear to it! He attacked Lorenzo; that is how I escaped.”
I explained to them that I had gone out for a stroll to shop for new ribbons, when someone whipped past me, not at all trying to hide his supernatural speed despite being out in broad daylight. Lorenzo Medici made no threats, no demands; he simply pulled me into an alleyway and snarled, “I want to leave this hellhole!” And then he sank his teeth into my neck. I tried to fight back, but he was drinking so quickly, it was like the magic was draining from my body with my blood.
Then a giant dog sprang from nowhere and attacked him.
“That’s all I remember,” I said.
Cosette took my hand and gently explained how they had found me, near death, on the curb two blocks away from the estate.
“There was no one else in sight. Animal or otherwise,” she said.
I sprang from the bed. “We have to find Louis; he might have been hurt saving me!” My boots were not even laced as I ran down the stairs to the front door.
“Adeline, come back! You are not well!” Marassa yelled.
But she was wrong. I was never better. Footsteps rattled as the five girls filed behind me. They could hardly keep up with me, for I now had Medici blood coursing through my veins. I didn’t stop running until I was back in the alley where Lorenzo had dragged me.
“Louis!” I called over and over again. The other girls began to peek through the rubbish.
“Sacrebleu!” cried Lisette.
“He’s badly hurt!” said Minette.
To my surprise, Lisette had been right: the animal we found wasn’t Louis, the furry friend who had been following me for weeks. This wolf-dog was a shiny gray color, unlike my black-haired companion. There was a silver star tied to a piece of leather around its neck. When I slid the ornament around to show the others, Susannah shouted, “We must bring her back to the house at once!”
I asked Susannah what was wrong, but all she did was repeat herself and use wind to lift the animal and support its weight. The five of us huddled around the giant beast regardless, pretending to lug her so as not to arouse suspicion. When a gruff man offered to help, all six of us yelled, “No!” at once.
“On the bed!” Susannah yelled when we burst through the door of my bedroom.
“Why is the bed necessary?” I asked as I closed the door behind us, thinking only of the garbage heap the animal had been lying in. Simultaneous gasps answered for me. When I rushed back to the bed, there was no more wolf but a young native woman.
“Rougarou!” gasped Marassa.
“Loup-garou!” yelled Lisette.
“Because she’s not a dog, Adeline. She’s a lycanthrope,” Susannah said. “A wolf-charmer.”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but when I pushed the girl’s hair from her face, I knew exactly who she was: Morning Star, the daughter of the chief and sister to the boy who had vanished without a trace. And that’s when I made the connection over my missing dog and the chief’s missing son.
Morning Star had been badly beaten but did not appear to have been bitten. Marassa, Minette, and Cosette quickly went to work healing her injuries.
“How did you know, Susannah?” asked Lisette.
The girl on the bed answered for her, in broken French: “Because she has the power of wind beneath her wings.”
We all looked back at Susannah, but she wasn’t there. In her place was a magnificent red bird. And not just any red bird – the pirate captain’s red bird.
Cosette yelped in glee. “You were with us! You’ve been with us all along!”
“It’s about time you showed your true self,” said Marassa.
But then the daughter of the chief interrupted the strange moment of truth with the question I fear the most.
“Why are they after you?” she asked, staring straight at me. “They stalk you every night. That’s why my brother always stayed close to you. He feared for your life. What do they want with you?”
I stammered, put on the spot for the first time. “I don’t know. Something to do with my family.”
“We are your family, Adeline,” all three triplets said at the same time.
“And this madness must end once and for all,” I said and watched the smiles spread across all of their faces. “We are six, and they are three. We can beat them.”
“No, they are four,” said Morning Star. “The one who killed my brother is a woman called Giovanna. She is the sister of the one who attacked you. They are four, but we are seven.”
28th August 1728
There was no time to waste. Not only because of the chronic threat of death the monsters plagued the city with, but also because I was afraid of myself. That if I waited too long, I would lose my strength. After all, I had already passed the chance to rid the world of them at sea.
Mother Superior had taken action the day we set foot in La Nouvelle-Orléans, demanding nine thousand nails be sent from the Holy Pope himself, all the way from the Vatican in Rome. I admired the immediate action taken by the Ursuline sister, but I knew that not even a million nails from the papacy would contain this group of undead.
Our coven was complete. Our circle was cast. And together, a plan was devised. It was hurried and risky, but it made good use of each girl’s unique skills. We outnumbered them, but they were physically superior and more experienced in the art of deception. We could only hope that they would dismiss us – a group of silly girls, barely able to communicate with each other. What they didn’t know was that we each had a story, a destiny, a raison d’être.
I wish I could say our plan was perfect and the execution was flawless, but nothing is ever perfect.
On the night of our attack, I sat perched in a tree under the full moon, the perfect vantage point to see through the attic windows. My heart raced, knowing the lives of others would soon be in my hands. A lul
laby attracted my attention; it meant Cosette must have been close to luring them into the convent, and soon it would be my turn to act.
Moments later, I watched the vampires file into the attic behind her. By the way they moved, I could tell their senses had been dulled, thanks to Susannah’s herbs. It all happened within seconds, but it was exhilarating.
I launched a stake into the air, and the first set of shutters snapped closed, secured forever by the bewitched metal stake. The second set also closed without notice.
The slam of the third set made Martine DuFrense turn her head.
Then the Medici boys perked up as well—their heads turned towards me—realizing it was a trap. I sent another stake sailing, and the fourth set of shutters snapped closed.
As they rushed the window, Lisette and Minette ran to shut the attic door, and then the vampires lunged back towards them.
My heart pounded, and a preemptive smile spread across my face when, just as we planned, Cosette jumped out the last window. She landed on the roof, and I threw the last stake into the air, but then… I saw the horrors unfolding inside. I screamed and tried to pull the stake back. Its speed slowed, but it was too late to stop it. There was just enough time for a woman to jump out of the window before it snapped the shutters closed, muffling Minette’s bloodcurdling scream and veiling the image of Gabriel’s fangs ripping into Lisette’s throat – an image that will forever be branded in my memory.
There was no time to react, because Cosette was hanging from the roof with a blonde woman, who was screaming in Italian, attached to her waist. I could only assume this was the vampire, Giovanna, whom Morning Star had spoken of. They dangled in the moonlight, and then the vampire began to swing their bodies back and forth. Cosette clung to the ledge. If they both fell, I was sure that only one might survive.
I yelled for Susannah and Marassa, but it was Morning Star’s deep-throated growl that answered first. Without hesitation, she leapt through the air, and her jaws tore into the waist of the living corpse. The dangling vampire was an easy target for her animal form.
