My throat constricted as I pictured a scene straight from a horror movie.
He got up from his chair and circled me where I sat. It was such a gracious, fluid movement, so like a predator, that for a moment I understood what a gazelle must feel like when stalked by a panther. A second later his hands were on the arms of my chair and he was leaning toward me, his eyes pale as near-luminescent orbs, the pupils narrowed into the vertical slits of a serpent.
I gasped and froze in my seat.
‘This is what I am and have been for nearly a century. Satisfied that I’ve been telling you the truth?’ His voice was like honey over ice; both seductive and cruel at the same time.
After the initial shock I gathered together my courage, for strangely enough, there was something about his close proximity that excited me. ‘If that’s all it is,’ I said, trying to keep the tremor, which had little to do with fear, out of my voice. ‘Then it’s not that scary.’
His eyes widened, even in that form. ‘You want to see more?’ He straightened up, ran his hand through his hair and went to lean against the wall behind me.
‘It gets worse?’ I swivelled around in my chair to face him.
‘Oh yes,’ he warned.
Ever since I was a child I was incredibly curious—wanting to know how everything worked, where things came from, how, why? I drove my parents crazy. I should have outgrown it by now, but hadn’t.
‘Show me!’ I said and hopped out of my chair to stand in front of him.
Alec appeared to be fighting some inner battle, for his eyes changed back into human form and then narrowed again as I watched. ‘If I do, you must not show fear. Do you understand, Laura?’
Before I could answer, a low growl escaped his lips and I found myself pinned against the wall, my hands held securely above my head. Long pointed fangs slid down from his upper jaw. I didn’t have to touch them to know they’d be razor sharp as well.
‘Scary enough for you?’ His voice hissed down at me. ‘Never bait a vampire, darling, it could prove fatal!’
If only I’d bitten my tongue earlier. My body began to tremble and I wanted nothing more than to break free from his powerful grip. The pressure of his hands on my wrists was starting to hurt. His alien eyes bored into mine, while his cool breath fanned my face and the fear which he warned me about, took hold. His nostrils flared and he leaned down toward my throat where I felt the merest brush of his fangs against my skin.
I screamed.
‘Laura!’ Matt’s voice echoed from the nave as well as those of other people, and the sound of approaching feet.
Alec growled, glanced in the direction of Matt’s voice then abruptly released me and in less than a heartbeat had disappeared down the ramp into the shadows. I remained pinioned against the wall just as he had left me. The realization of what had occurred hit me, my knees turned to jelly and I slid slowly down onto the cool stone floor.
That’s how Matt found me.
Chapter 5
Present and past
ALEC
From the darkness of the side-entrance ramp I watched as Laura sank to the floor, saw the room fill with humans and the young man who broke through them to sprint to her side. He lifted her into his arms and cradled her tenderly as her body shook with sobs.
I left the scene and walked through the darkened city streets behind the cathedral, where the homeless huddled in the doorways of the closed office buildings, and tried not to smell their fear. It didn’t help that I was still hungry even after that small bottle I downed at Luc’s. The days between Ingenii changeovers were the most dangerous, for I was at my weakest, and being so close to Laura tonight, inhaling her scent, hearing the power of her blood rushing beneath her skin was almost overwhelming. I could look, but not touch, nor taste. It was forbidden until the Coming-of-Age Ritual this coming Monday night. I was meant to have told her all that, but instead… I shook my head and berated myself.
Damn the girl! She had a curious streak which overrode her sense and in my present weakness, I made a near-fatal error of judgement, risking exposure of our world to human eyes. I had no choice but to leave her there when she screamed.
The blame was all mine.
I thought back to the moment she’d walked through the Cathedral’s glass-front doors. It wasn’t only her scent which gave her away—the potent richness of the Ingenii—but her incredible resemblance to her father, Luc. Only her hair differed, as she had Judith’s rich, golden-copper locks rather than his pale blonde. The dappled light from the cathedral’s stained glass windows caught it perfectly and illuminated its fiery depths. Would it feel as silky as it looked? I wondered.
I’d stood back in the shadow of the alcove and watched as she’d walked the length of both aisles, looking around the interior and stopping to listen to the choir at practise, totally oblivious to the effect she was having on some of the younger male choristers. The poor choirmaster had been forced to stop a few times to restore their concentration.
As she came closer to where I’d waited, the subdued cathedral lights subtly highlighted her ivory-fair complexion—not a hint of a tan. Her skin was smooth, creamy, flawless and the long dress she wore draped itself around her slim body revealing enticing feminine curves. Her long flame-coloured hair swayed as it lapped at the edges of her waist. She was, indeed, a beauty and combined with her Ingenii scent, it was proving to be an alluring combination.
I thought further back to the last time I’d seen her. She’d been a baby, barely three months old. John, Judith’s brother, and his wife Eilene, were expecting their first child at the exact same time as Judith was expecting hers. Both women gave birth on the same day, in the same hospital.
Sadly, Eilene’s baby died of SIDS three months later. Fearing for Laura’s safety, should the Brethren community learn of her unique bloodline, Luc used the unhappy circumstance to swap their living baby for the dead one. They hoped our world would believe Judith’s child dead, thereby giving Laura a chance to grow up in the relative safety of John’s family.
The Ingenii blood was coveted for its powerful properties, but combined with Luc’s blood, she would be like catnip to any vampire. Any who sought to overthrow the Principate in order to abolish the rule of law and instigate their own murderous regime, had but to gain possession of the current Bloodgifted and no one would be able to withstand them. Even though her infant blood would have none of the strength of a mature Ingenii, simply having her in their control would ensure Luc’s—and the other Elders—co-operation. They could then feed on humans indiscriminately.
It was a fearful scenario.
So Laura grew up inconspicuously unaware of the parallel world to which she belonged and never knowing her true parents, although they were there all the time, hovering, watching, protecting.
That was fifty years ago. Now everything was about to change for her and I suspected for me, also. I didn’t know what to expect when I met her, but she’d surprised me—smart and sharp-tongued that expressed precisely what she thought. What’s more, she wasn’t intimidated and that impressed me. It had been a long time since any woman roused my curiosity and, I had a suspicion, Laura was going to test my resolve to maintain an emotional detachment during my time as her guardian.
It wasn’t far to my Pitt St apartment. Within fifteen minutes I was pressing my outstretched hands against the glass of the wall-to-wall tinted windows of my penthouse suite, blindly staring out at the city panorama spread out before me. The spectacle of the myriad office lights playing in the still harbour waters usually had me enthralled, but not tonight.
Instead, I saw another Dantonville—Doctor Owen Clarke Dantonville—Laura’s grandfather and the man responsible for my being in this position.
* * *
The year was 1916. I’d enlisted following the death in childbirth of my wife and newborn son. The army sent me to northern France to serve at the 3rd. Australian Field hospital at Abbeville as it was close to the frontline. That’s where I met Owen, the
leading physician and Ingenii, although I didn’t know it then. What I did notice about him, were the unusual colour of his eyes—a striking shade of lavender.
Owen had signed up in 1914. As he enthusiastically told me, ‘I have to be in it,’ worried it would all be over by Christmas and he’d miss the adventure of his life, no matter that he had a wife and child—a six-year old daughter, Judith—at home. He later confided to me that he had fallen in love with a local girl, Marie Deschesne. Her father ran a popular café in Villers-Bretonneux much frequented by the troops. I knew the place and the girl and couldn’t entirely blame him. She was very pretty, with dark hair, large doe-like brown eyes and a complexion resembling fine alabaster. He wasn’t the first to fall for her. Lonely men, away from wives and families, were prone to such temptations, but they eventually wore off. I hoped Owen’s fascination with her would go the same way. I was wrong.
‘I’m not going back when this is all over,’ Owen declared one day, late in 1918. ‘I’m staying to help rebuild. They need doctors and hospitals.’
‘You sure this has nothing to do with Marie?’ I ventured.
He paused. ‘She’s pregnant.’
‘Well, that complicates things.’
‘Henrietta’s family is wealthy. She doesn’t need me. Marie does,’ he stated.
‘What about your child?’
‘I’ll have a child here as well and little Judy won’t remember me,’ he said.
‘Owen, all I’m asking is that you think carefully before committing yourself to this decision.’
He laughed and shook his head. ‘I’m already committed, Alec. I love her more than I ever loved my wife.’
It was pointless arguing as he had clearly made up his mind. Then he suggested I stay as well. ‘What do you have to return to Sydney to? Your wife and child are dead.’ I learnt quickly he lacked even an iota of sensitivity important in a medic. It grated with the other staff and didn’t exactly endear him to the patients. ‘Stay here, with us. You’re one of the finest doctors I’ve ever worked with,’ he said.
Owen had been my only confidant and so knew the real reason for my being there. My sudden enlistment in the Medical Corps had nothing to do with national pride or adventure nor wanting to play toy soldiers. It was simply an emotional escape. But he was right, what did I have to go home to? An empty house loaded with painful memories? I could certainly do without those.
‘Stop blaming yourself, Alec. From what you’ve told me you did everything possible to save them. There was nothing more you could have done.’ He placed his hand on my shoulder. ‘Let them go.’
‘The way you’re letting go of your wife and child?’
‘I’ll let that pass. You’re still grieving.’ He left me to do the rounds and we didn’t cross paths the rest of that day.
The next evening I decided to check some of the medical stores in the supply depot, a short walk from the main building. This was usually the nurses’ responsibility, but I needed to get away for a few moments on my own.
I opened the door to discover Owen and Lucien Lebrettan sitting in close proximity. Both jumped up at my intrusion. Slightly embarrassed at what I believed I had interrupted, I was about to turn on my heel and leave when Owen called me back. Lucien politely excused himself and walked past me out into the night.
That’s how Lucien—or Luc as he preferred to be called—and I met. Owen had introduced me to him not long after my arrival. They had enlisted together when the war broke out. Luc had been employed by the government as a photographer to accurately portray life at the Front. He regularly visited the hospital and took pictures of the wounded and dying, and his blonde head would occasionally pop up from beneath the black camera veil to adjust a lens before taking the shot.
What struck me about him were his eyes—they were identical in colour to Owen’s. The coincidence struck me and I began to wonder if perhaps they weren’t brothers, yet they looked nothing alike. And unlike Owen’s slightly bombastic nature, Luc was amicable, although somewhat aloof and rarely spoke to anyone except Owen. He never joined the rest of the hospital staff at meals.
‘Alec, it’s not what you think,’ Owen said light-heartedly.
‘Look, it’s really none of my business.’ I went over to the shelf which held the bottles of ether and took down two.
‘Luc and I are family and, there was something we had to discuss—privately,’ Owen explained.
Well, that explained the similarity in their eyes, I thought. But, I noticed him rolling his shirtsleeve down over his right wrist. I automatically scanned the morphine levels, but nothing seemed amiss. It was not uncommon for doctors to become addicted to drugs in the course of their work.
‘You don’t need to explain to me.’
‘I don’t want you, of all people, to be under the wrong impression,’ he said.
Luc had left the door open after his hasty exit and we heard one of the nurses urgently calling for us.
‘Doctor Munro! Doctor Dantonville!’
Nurse Alice Marsden came from Melbourne. She’d signed up not long after her brother joined the Light Horse. I enjoyed listening to her reading his letters out loud to us at supper as it was one of the few times when we could all sit together. The patients were usually asleep and letters from home were lovingly devoured.
‘Stores Depot, Marsden. What’s wrong?’ Owen called out.
‘Stan’s been killed.’ Her teary face appeared in the doorway.
Stanley Blake had been our ambulance driver and a conscientious objector. His sweetheart had sent him a white feather ashamed he hadn’t enlisted immediately when the war broke out. But he was no coward. Actually, he was one of the bravest men I had ever known, crawling on his belly onto no-man’s land, risking sniper fire to bring back a wounded soldier. His faith as a Christian wouldn’t allow him to take a life. Instead he signed up with the Medical Corps and we were proud to have him.
Another pointless death, I angrily thought.
‘Now what do we do?’ Owen shrugged.
‘We can’t send any of the wounded,’ I said, glancing in the direction of the hospital.
‘I can drive!’ Alice chirped.
We both looked at her in astonishment.
‘No Alice, that’s out of the question!’ I said.
‘I’m going.’ And before the words were out of his mouth, Owen started heading toward the door.
‘Owen!’ I grabbed him by the arm. ‘What do you think you’re doing? We can’t spare you!’
‘So you stay. You’re a much better surgeon than me anyway. Someone’s got to bring the wounded back.’
‘Idiot!’ I yelled at him.
‘I can’t ask you to come with me, can I?’
‘What?’ I was temporarily stunned by his sudden about face. ‘Committing suicide is not my idea of grieving.’
Luc appeared, as if from nowhere.
‘Talk some sense into him,’ I said. ‘The madman wants to drive to the Front and collect the wounded—under sniper fire!’
Luc’s eyes narrowed as looked from me to Owen. ‘Owen, you cannot do this. You know why. I couldn’t stop you enlisting, but I forbid you now from taking this course of action.
His deep voice held unmistakable menace, so much so the hairs on my arms stood up. Who would have thought the man held such hidden power? Owen reluctantly climbed out of the vehicle, but his eyes showed a combination of anger and fear as they locked on Luc’s.
I turned to Alice. ‘Go tell the Communications Officer to contact the other field hospitals. Perhaps they might have a driver to spare.’
After a fearful glance at Luc, she hurried off. From the corner of my eye I saw Owen snatch his pistol from its holder and aim it at Luc.
‘Owen, put it down,’ I said.
‘No. Don’t tell me what to do!’ He swung towards me and pointed the gun in my direction.
I stiffened, Luc snarled, and quicker than a heartbeat snatched the pistol from Owen’s hand, but not before it had dischar
ged with a loud crack. I felt a thump in my chest, but no pain even as my blood oozed and spread out over my surgical coat. I staggered backwards and fell to the ground as a great weakness came over me. The bullet must have entered my heart. I barely registered Owen’s, ‘Oh shit!
‘Owen, you fool. What have you done?’ Luc’s voice cried.
‘I didn’t… didn’t mean to shoot him! Oh God! Oh God!’
‘Then why did you take the gun?’
‘I, I…shit! Just don’t let him die, Luc,’ he begged. ‘Please. Oh, God, it’s my fault. You can’t let him die!’
‘You have any idea what you’re asking me to do?’
‘Of course I bloody well do!’
‘I can’t simply transform a person because you want me to,’ Luc replied.
‘They’ll hang me, Luc. If he dies, they’ll hang me. Then where’ll you be without your Ingenii! You need me more than I need you.’
‘There’s always your daughter, Judith.’
‘She’s still a babe, and her blood won’t be at full strength till she comes-of-age. You know that. And what’ll you do till then? Especially as the daylight tolerance begins to wane? You won’t be able to hide that for long.’
I thought I heard a snarl.
‘If you weren’t Ingenii, I’d—’
‘Do what? Drain me? Then it’s just as well I am.’
There was silence for a while and I thought I was finally losing consciousness. My eyes closed of their own accord, but I was still aware of what was happening around me.
‘All right then, but think carefully,’ Luc said slowly in a calm, deep voice. ‘Do you really want me to change him?’
‘Yes!’ Owen sounded desperate.
‘Without asking his consent? Are you willing to risk that?’
‘Yes!’
‘Then there’s not much time. His heartbeat grows fainter. Help me remove his coat.’
My surgical coat and shirt were ripped from my body and one of them took hold of my left wrist. I heard Luc’s urgent voice. ‘No, too late. It must be closer to the heart.’
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