Bloodgifted

by Tima Maria Lacoba

  I smiled as Matt tucked my arm into his and led me to his waiting car.

  Chapter 2

  Surprise

  LAURA

  My parents had always wanted a large family as Mum had been an only child and Dad was the younger of two. Ever the optimist, he constructed a house to accommodate the family he and Mum planned on having.

  Sadly, it never eventuated. After having me, the doctors informed Mum she couldn’t have any more children. So I grew up in the biggest house on the street. The timber-framed two-storey building boasted six bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large living area spacious enough to accommodate a floor-to-ceiling Christmas tree. Needless to say, my parents encouraged me to have friends stay over whenever I liked. There was rarely a weekend when the house wasn’t filled with squealing girls all through my school life and well into my university years.

  Here we were and my devoted mother had created an amazing spread for the occasion. She would have made a successful chef and had seriously considered making it her life’s career, but she realised the pressure of working in a well-known restaurant with a volatile prima-donna of a chef while juggling a family at the same time, was probably too much for her.

  Instead, my mum, Eilene Dantonville, decided to go into business for herself, working from home. Over the years she has successfully supplied select restaurants and cafes with her own brand of designer cupcakes. Her mouth-watering creations have even been featured in Delicious magazine.

  She always shone at these family get-togethers, basking in the praise heaped on her latest offerings. Yet tonight she seemed strangely quiet and every so often I’d catch her casting furtive glances in Aunt Judy’s direction. I wondered whether to follow her into the kitchen and ask if everything was all right, when Aunt Judy caught my attention.

  She was still a striking woman, beautiful even, roughly my height with clear and alert lavender eyes. I knew this was a by-product of our shared biological inheritance for, apart from her and Grandad, no other member of my family sported that particular colour.

  ‘New dress, dear? It looks lovely on you,’ she said, in her delightful husky voice.

  I smiled at the compliment.

  ‘I’d like us to go for a stroll in the garden later this evening. There’s an important matter I need to speak with you about.’

  ‘So you said this morning.’

  She looked at the opals I was wearing. ‘From Matt?’

  ‘Uh huh. Aren’t they gorgeous?’ I smiled at him as he sat opposite me at the table.

  ‘Yes, they are.’ Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. If anything, she appeared concerned.

  ‘So how was your day, Baby Girl?’ Dad asked. It was his pet name for me.

  ‘It was excellent! Jen and I lunched at Coogee and… look.’ I fished the coveted tickets out of my bag and waved them around. ‘It’s to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. They’re actually here in Sydney in February,’ and casting a mock accusing glance at my bagpipe-hating boyfriend, added, ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe. Jen bought two. She and I are going.’

  Matt gave me a sheepish but relieved smile. ‘Tell her thanks for me.’

  I was glad to see that he’d been able to switch off from the day’s events. His deep grey eyes were bright with animation as he swirled the sparkling white he held in his hand. I noticed how the lights from the candles on the table illuminated the touch of gold in his brown hair. For a moment I had the impulse to lean across the table and curl some of it round my finger. Looking at him now I was again reminded what an attractive man he was. He’d already hinted at us making our relationship permanent, although he never actually came out and said it. I tried to imagine myself as his wife and played around with calling myself, Mrs Sommers—Mrs Laura Sommers—and I liked the sound of it. I was still musing on it when Matt waved his hand in front of my face.

  ‘Hey, where are you?’ he asked softly and gave me a dimpled smile.

  ‘Somewhere nice.’

  Just then, Dad chose to remember that the One Day Cricket was on—Australia versus Pakistan. Ah, the magic word: Cricket. My father suddenly had Matt’s attention as well as Clancy, our border collie. After giving me an apologetic look he and my dad left the table and sauntered into the living room. It was male bonding time. My birthday dinner was officially over. So much for leaving early and going back to his place!

  ‘Ready for that stroll now?’ Aunt Judy linked her arm in mine and led me through the now vacated dining area while my mum cleared away the dishes. I felt a twinge of guilt as I passed her in the kitchen and mouthed a silent apology.

  ‘It’s fine, Laura. You go.’ She abruptly turned away and began stacking the dishwasher.

  ‘Come on, dear.’

  Aunt Judy and I walked out the back entrance of the house and down the narrow brick-paved pathway that led to a low stone wall separating the house from the Council owned park on the other side. Opening the wooden back gate, she led me out and onto the quiet path that ran alongside the gently coursing Cook’s River. A gentle breeze sighed through the upper branches of the weeping willows that lined the sloping bank. It brought the sweet scent of a summer evening as it lazily drifted around us.

  She stopped, released my arm and turned to face me. ‘Laura dear…’ she looked at me pensively, ‘…I knew this time would come, but still it’s hard to know where to begin, especially as—’ she paused, her face flushed and her hands, which lightly gripped my elbows, shook slightly, ‘—you’ll have difficulty believing it. But nevertheless, all I’m about to tell you is the truth. Never doubt it.’

  Well, “curiouser and curiouser,” as Alice in Wonderland remarked. As a child it had always been my favourite story, that of an ordinary girl who suddenly finds herself in a strange and perplexing world.

  ‘What do you know about vampires?’ she said, her clear voice nudging me out of my revere.

  ‘Excuse me?’ For a moment I wasn’t sure if I heard her correctly.

  ‘Vampires dear. What do you know of them?’ she repeated.

  I looked at her dumbfounded. ‘From movies, books, popular folklore?’

  ‘Wherever.’

  ‘Well as far as I know, they’re mythological bloodsucking creatures, like overgrown mosquitoes, who ravish hormone-riddled teenage girls and go “poof” in the sunlight!’

  I laughed.

  Aunt Judy merely smiled. ‘Some of what you’ve said is correct,’ she replied.

  ‘Which part?’ Surely, she wasn’t serious!

  ‘Not the teenage girls, dear. They actually prefer the slightly older, more experienced individual of either sex. Nor do they, as you so succinctly put it, “go poof” in the sunlight!’

  Then it hit me—my aunt’s sudden withdrawal from many of our family functions after her fiftieth birthday and her apparent belief in vampires. She’d hit menopause with a bang and went nuts! So this was the payoff for enjoying delayed aging and longevity. I should have known something this good would have a serious drawback. Is this what my aunt’s trying to prepare me for? My run of sanity has come to an end? Somehow I doubted I’d be sharing this particular piece of information with Matt.

  ‘Laura, I haven’t lost my mind, contrary to what you’re evidently thinking right now.’ She looked at me sympathetically. ‘The look on your face says it all, dear. And I did tell you you’d find this hard to believe, let alone accept.’

  ‘Well, what did you expect?’ I replied. ‘It’s not something a sane adult seriously discusses. And what does it have to do with me anyway?’

  ‘Everything dear,’ she said with quiet conviction. ‘Let’s go for a walk and I’ll try to tell you as much as I can. The rest will come from someone else.’

  ‘You’re really serious!’

  ‘Yes dear, I am.’

  We looked at each other for a moment. She appeared completely sane. ‘All right, I’ll go along with this for a while and only because you’re my favourite aunt. Who is this someone else?’ I asked.

  ‘A vampire by t
he name of Alec Munro. A meeting between you two has been arranged for tonight.’

  She had to be kidding! I looked at her incredulously still willing to admit to the insanity theory.

  ‘Alec has been my Guardian since my fiftieth birthday. All those among the Dantonvilles who carry our rare gene have always had a vampire protector.’

  She stopped for a moment to gauge my reaction.

  I stood there, open-mouthed. ‘Guarded by a vampire!’ I eventually managed to say. There was now no doubt left in my mind, my dear aunt was completely nuts! I began to wonder whether I should be humouring her or having a serious talk with Dad about referring her to a psychologist.

  The expression on my face must have said it all, for Aunt Judy laughed and shook her head. ‘Laura, dear, when I was first told, I had the same difficulty accepting it as you. Now, I think nothing of it.’

  I couldn’t help asking—sceptically— ‘How long has this been going on?’

  ‘Over one thousand, eight hundred years,’ she said without hesitation.

  I felt my eyes widen. No nutter could possibly be that precise. ‘Anyone else in the family know about this?’ I asked somewhat tentatively.

  ‘Only your… parents.’

  This time my jaw dropped. My parents? I then recalled the way mum had kept glancing at Aunt Judy during my birthday dinner; the anxious look on her face; almost, fearful.

  An awful sense of apprehension stole over me. If all this was true, then why hadn’t they prepared me? Neither had dropped a single hint. ‘Why haven’t they told me all this? Why you?’

  ‘It could only come from me, dear. The person who has first hand experience of these things. There’s a lot they don’t know.’ Her tone was sympathetic.

  I shook my head. ‘I’m sorry, Aunt Judy. I just can’t accept this. It’s ridiculous!’ As I turned to walk back to the house, she grabbed hold of my arm.

  ‘Laura, please! I’m not crazy. John and Eilene know all about this and they also know why we’re out here tonight.’

  I stopped and stared at her.

  ‘Please, hear me out. Give me that at least before dismissing me outright.’

  ‘It’s not you I’m dismissing, but this… vampire rubbish!’ I didn’t want to listen, any more than I wanted to believe my aunt was going senile.

  ‘Let me show you something and then tell me if you still think I’m out of my mind.’

  The night crickets chirped as she waited for my answer. I exhaled and said resignedly, ‘All right.’

  She carefully removed the magnificent gold bangle that covered most of her right wrist and held it out for me to examine. In the dim light of the streetlamp, one of several along this walk, I could make out two distinct puncture marks larger than any mosquito could inflict. Satisfied she had shown me enough, the bangle was slipped strategically back into place. Yet I continued to stare at the spot as if my eyes could see straight through the metal to those distinctive marks.

  ‘That’s not possible!’ I exclaimed as my brain sought to find a rational explanation.

  ‘There’s no such thing. The world’s full of impossibilities.’

  I shook my head.

  ‘Don’t be afraid to say it, Laura. They’re bite marks and they weren’t made by an animal.’ She then did the same with the pearl choker around her throat. ‘Have a good look. Go on, touch them, I don’t mind.’

  I swallowed hard and gingerly let my fingers rest on the two slightly raised dark bumps on her neck. They seemed so real; felt real. Why on earth would she go to such lengths to convince me to believe in something so absurd? Either that, or—and my skin crawled at the thought—she was involved in some weird cult. Heaven’s knows there were plenty around. But I was surprised an intelligent woman like my aunt would get herself caught up in such nonsense. And at her age!

  I really needed to talk to Dad; perhaps he could get her some psychiatric help.

  ‘Aunt Judy, let’s go back to the house.’

  She sighed. ‘I see you need more proof. Give me your hand, dear.’

  ‘Why?’ Oh, now what?

  She held out her own hand and waited, so I obliged and placed my right hand in hers. As I watched, my aunt entwined our fingers and the gold snake-ring she always wore came to life before my eyes. It unwound itself from her finger, slithered toward my hand and wound itself three times around my middle finger.

  I yelped and drew my hand away, but by then it was too late. No matter how hard I tugged, it wouldn’t budge. The thing seemed glued in place.

  ‘Take it off! Take it off!’

  ‘It won’t hurt you, Laura. You’re its owner now. Stop trying to remove it.’ She placed both hands on my wrists.

  ‘What is it and why can’t I take it off?’

  ‘It’s called the Serpent Ring—for obvious reasons. It was mine for fifty years and now it’s yours.’

  I gazed at it in horrified fascination as its two blood-red eyes stared back at me. Whether they were either garnets or rubies I had no idea, but they looked alive, almost as if they knew me. It was the oddest sensation.

  ‘It’s the symbol of the Ingenii or Bloodgifted—the name by which we are known,’ my aunt said.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Exactly as I’ve told you. That’ —she pointed to the ring— ‘was no trick. I’d never deceive you, Laura. This is just too important and you mean too much to me.’

  ‘No, no… I can’t…’ There’s no such thing as vampires and magic rings, my poor brain was telling me. Pity the rest of my senses weren’t listening.

  She grasped me by the shoulders. ‘My dear, dear girl, there are things in this world that are beyond explanation and we—you and I—are a part of that. This is something you can’t ignore or run away from and if you don’t accept what I’m preparing you for tonight, your life will be in danger and not even Matt will be able to protect you.’

  I pulled out of her grasp. ‘What do you mean, danger?’

  ‘Unless you have a protector, every vampire will try to claim you. Our blood contains a substance that enhances their already considerable strength and power, but above all, it gives them the ability to daywalk. For creatures of the night, this is a coveted gift.’

  I was shocked into stunned silence as my rational mind struggled to accept my aunt’s words. Yet there was no denying what I had just witnessed. The ring felt warm on my finger, its unnatural eyes gave off a slight glow in the slowly darkening sky.

  There’s no place to fit batteries, if it is a trick, I thought as I examined the ring from all directions. But my aunt would never play such a sick joke on me, that much I knew for certain.

  ‘It’s all true, Laura,’ she softly said. ‘I would never do that to you.’

  ‘You read minds, too?’

  ‘Your face, dear, and if it’s any consolation, I reacted exactly the same way when I was told.’

  ‘When was that?’ My throat constricted.

  ‘The age you are now—fifty. It’s known as our coming-of-age.’ She paused before going on. ‘I’ve rehearsed this scene a thousand times in my mind; exactly what I would say to you when the time came. You think this is easy for me, Laura? It’s not very flattering when my favourite girl looks at me like I’m an idiot or bordering on dementia!’

  I bit my lip for that’s exactly what I believed! ‘It’s just that… this whole thing…’

  ‘I know, I know. This doesn’t happen in the real world, but Laura dear, for the Dantonvilles down through the ages this has been our reality.’

  She paused momentarily, then as if speaking to a child, said slowly, ‘because we are descended from a vampire—an individual who was cursed into that form. His altered genetic structure has been passed down through the generations to us. That’s why our blood is unique. In the human world it’s not even classified, as you well know, and the reason we don’t age as everyone else.’

  Now I understood the term, being struck dumb! I had no answer to this latest revelation.

&n
bsp; ‘Our guardian,’ she continued, ‘is also descended from our ancestor, but in a different way—a parallel family line. But you’ll learn more of that when the time comes. Suffice to say, our blood also provides him with further enhanced supernatural qualities such as strength and more acute senses so he can protect us from others of their kind; those who would use us to wipe out their enemies and use humans as vampire fodder. He has striven to reign in the more bloodthirsty ones and impose laws to protect humankind.’ She paused in thought. ‘Almost like a kind of police force in a way. This is the price of our youth and longevity, Laura dear. It’s the only reason we have this inheritance. Did you never question why you were different?’

  It took a while to find my voice. Eventually I croaked, ‘Yes.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Of course I did, but… well, nothing like… this.’

  ‘Everything has a cost.’

  ‘Yes, but…’ The thought occurred to me, ‘Does that mean I’m—we’re—part… vampire?’ That last word came out in a whisper. I simply couldn’t say the word out loud as my rational mind rebelled against it.

  ‘No, we’re the human side of the family. The only thing we have in common with them is our eye colour.’

  I felt like pinching myself to prove this bizarre conversation was actually taking place, that I hadn’t somehow stumbled into the twilight zone.

  ‘I know how difficult this is for you, dear, and I do understand, believe me, but I still have so much to tell you and there’s not much time.’

  She quickly glanced around.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Tonight is very important—learning what you are and your meeting with Alec. So I’m asking you to bear with me and hear everything I have to say.’ She looked almost imploringly at me.

  ‘Tell me then,’ I conceded.

  She gave a relieved sigh. ‘As I said, it’s not just your fiftieth birthday. In vampire reckoning it’s also your coming-of-age. That means you’re entitled to know the full extent of your heritage and what will be expected of you. For the last fifty years Alec has been feeding from me. That ends this night. According to vampire tradition, you must now replace me—for the next fifty years.’