Immortal Earth (Vampires For Earth Book 1)

by Warden, Sarah

  See, it’s just an arm, like any other arm, and he is just a man, like any other man, Isi told herself.

  “So, show me Mr. Ford,” Isi said, “show me what all of this is.”

  “Hah,” Henry laughed, “this is perhaps a monument to my greatest folly. Clara’s father has given us forty acres to farm, but I can’t draw myself away from here, tinkering with these machines.”

  Henry sighed, and wrapped his arms around himself.

  “Folly, isn’t it? All of it?” Henry said. “The idea that a machine could be built that could travel faster than a horse. I mean, even if it can be done, even if I can build it, how could I possibly make enough of them, sell enough of them, to truly transform things? If only me, and a few other fellows, are driving them, it’s nothing more than a toy – a glorified version of the little train prototype that I’ve built. Bah, people will stick to horses.”

  Henry shook his head and looked at Isi, “Folly, all of it, probably, but what if …”

  “What if it works?” Isi said, and put her hand back on Henry’s arm. “There’s no telling what our minds can achieve. Look at your mentor, Thomas Edison – he is literally illuminating the world. Perhaps you will be the one to move the world, to help us all move ourselves from place to place more quickly. It is possible Henry … I think, sometimes, that so much more is possible in this world than we can even begin to imagine. But we must begin to imagine it …”

  Isi frowned and looked down at her hands. “That’s why the liquor trade is so unsatisfying to me, I suppose. There’s no real room for innovation – vodka is vodka, after all. But you … I envy you Henry. Your life is a Geppetto’s workshop of wonder.”

  Isi let go of Henry’s arm and walked around the workshop, while her eyes scanned the floor and the worktables.

  “Tell me where it is,” Isi said.

  “I’m sorry,” Henry smiled at her, “where is what Isidora?”

  “The train, of course! Your little prototype, I have the dearest need to see something whimsical like that,” Isi said.

  “There are many days when I have the need to build something whimsical like that, as well. I understand completely,” Henry said.

  “Well then, where is it?” Isi said. “I don’t even see a track set up in here for it.”

  “There is no track,” Henry said, his grey eyes sparkling. He quickly walked over to one of his worktables, and picked up a black, cast iron miniature locomotive. Still left on the table were a miniature bicycle, and a toy carriage missing its horse. Henry handed the locomotive to Isi, who immediately flipped it over to see how it worked.

  “Hah! Wonderful!” Henry said.

  “What do you mean?” Isi said, and turned her attention back to him.

  “I’ve shown this little prototype to a few people, and only Thomas Edison himself had the same response as you,” Henry said.

  “How do you even know what my response is, Henry? I’ve not said a word of my opinion to you,” Isi said.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Isidora. I know because you did not carefully examine the outside of the prototype, just like Tom you immediately flipped it over to see how it works. And, just like Tom, you saw the wheels and tested them to see if there was resistance and a winding noise, which would have announced the presence of a kinetic mechanism, as the source of the train’s ability to run. Once you and Tom saw that there was no way to power the train conventionally, you both looked at me with the same quizzical expression,” Henry said. “Yes Isidora, I noticed all of that … you, my dear lady, are a true scientist at heart.”

  “Thank you, Henry,” Isi said. “Now, do tell me how it runs.”

  “Hah! Marvelous again,” Henry said. “You do realize that I just paid you a compliment, that I just might even be trying to court you, just a little bit, and all you are concerned with is how this train works,” Henry said, took the locomotive from Isi’s hands, and brushed his fingertips over her wrists as he did so.

  “Look, right now the train can’t move,” Henry said, “but if I attach this, off we go.”

  Henry picked up a cumbersome black box with wheels from the workbench, and hitched it to the front of the train. A light bulb on top of the black box lit dimly when Henry flipped a switch on the side of the machine. The train moved across the floor of the workshop. Henry then picked up another, smaller, wooden block and manipulated the metal pole in the middle of it. The train made a right turn, and Isi gasped.

  “If you like that, watch this,” Henry said, and the train moved in a figure eight pattern.

  “So, can it run infinitely, or just trace the infinity sign?” Isi said.

  “Exactly! It can run as long as the power charge lasts, from that battery that Tom built. The Edison battery has to be recharged every half hour, and it needs to charge for five hours before it can be used again. Not very practical, is it? As I said, this is just a prototype Isidora.”

  “How are you controlling it? That little black box in your hand clearly does something, I just can’t figure out what it is,” Isi said.

  Henry laughed, “Yes, this does something. It’s really just a simple bit of telegraph communication, but I’m communicating with that box there. Tom is the one that figured out this remote control part of it. It’s not necessary for the real horseless car that I hope to build, obviously, but it does make the prototypes a fair bit more fun to play with, don’t you think?”

  Isi smiled and touched Henry’s arm again. He was holding onto the remote control box with a grip so tight, that she feared he’d break it. Henry Ford had all of the excited self-assurance of any confident inventor, but his body was on edge, and he waited for Isi’s response. Her touch on him had not caused his muscles to relax – his jaw quivered, a bit, at the corner, and his lips pulled apart, but Henry stayed motionless. His frozen look followed the movement of the train around the workshop, but refused to meet Isi’s eyes.

  “Oh, the remote does make this fun Henry! Now, do you just power this with the battery that Thomas Edison built,” Isi said, “or do you have an alternative? The battery is adequate but, as you said, it just doesn’t last very long. That’s fine, in this prototype, but in the real world, a lady would rather not be stranded for five hours, after traveling for a mere half-an-hour.

  “Quite the case, Isidora,” Henry said. “I have developed two alternative sources of power, but they both have their drawbacks. There is, of course, the good old-fashioned steam engine, but one would need to carry a large amount of water around. The more water you carry, the heavier the horseless car becomes, which means that you need more power to make it move, which means that you need even more water – a vicious and unfortunate circle. And then there is the combustible gas-powered engine that I’ve been working on. Too many problems with it, right now, to name, and I swear Clara will have my head if I ever try to start it up in the house again, especially in the kitchen, but it has a lot more power than the steam engine, or the battery, so I’m pretty sure that I’ll be sticking with it, and focus on working out the kinks.”

  Henry stopped talking when he finally looked up to meet Isi’s eyes, and saw the stricken look on her face.

  “You think this is a bad idea, Isidora? Is there a different engine that you think I should use? I truly value your opinion,” Henry said, “that is why I asked you out here today, dear woman.”

  Isi reached out her hand, and touched Henry’s arm.

  “No, the engine sounds wonderful Henry, all of the engines, it’s just … well, it’s just that I keep letting myself forget that you have a wife, and when you say her name, when you describe her reactions to your experiments, I remember – I remember, and I know that you will never be all mine,” Isi said. “That another woman will always hear the news first, of whatever you are currently working on, that another woman will tell you where you can build your machines, that you may not use her kitchen for experimenting, because that is where she cooks you dinner. I remember that another woman will nurse you when you’re
sick, wake you up in the morning for work, and lie down with you every evening. I remember all of that, and it tears away a little piece of my soul, every time I think of it, because life is supposed to be like this, like us, like what we have. A free and unselfconscious exchange of ideas, and a spark that …” Isi stopped, caught her breath, and wiped a tear from her eye, “a spark that could power any damn motor that you could build.”

  Henry Ford took one step toward Isi, and reached his hands out to cup her face. He bent down to her, his lips on hers instantly, silencing them both. Henry slid his hands down Isi’s back and cupped her behind. Slapping her gently there, Henry retook her hand and guided Isi over to a horsehair mattress in the corner of his workshop.

  “I am going to take you Isidora, here, in this place where I am building so many things that I have only dreamed of, I am going to let myself have one moment with the one dream that I cannot build, or control – the one dream that simply exists. Outside of reason, beyond logic, may we just have this moment, you and I?”

  Isi nodded, and pulled Henry down onto the mattress beside her.

  NINETEEN

  September 1888

  Detroit, Michigan

  Afon stood on the lawn and looked up at the windows of the house that he was renting with Isi – the windows with the curtains drawn tightly shut. His nostrils flared, his hands balled into fists at his side, and Nanook and Harland did not dare to approach him.

  “He was just here, I can still fucking smell him,” Afon said. “Days … we were gone for only a few days, and still she …”

  “Look brother,” Nanook said, “Isi was doing what she is supposed to do, what we all agreed that she should do.”

  “She doesn’t need to throw it in my face like this, though,” Afon said. “Invite him over to our house … She can do her damn duty elsewhere, she doesn’t need to sully our home with it.”

  “Afon, listen to yourself,” Nanook said. “Sully our home, is it? While I’m sure that mimicking current expressions will help us all to blend in better, I don’t think that we need to mimic the current attitudes toward women. I’ll say it again, Isi is just doing what she has to do, it’s no reflection on her love for you brother.”

  “What is all of this trouble over anyway, chaps?” Harland said. “I’m not sure quite why we’re standing around out here, when the Countess is in there. I’ve been dying to see her again, even before I knew who you all really were. And now, well, now I just can’t wait to see her!”

  “You and every other man,” Afon muttered, but he followed Harland, reluctantly, across the lawn to the house.

  Upstairs, Jian Hu had heard their entire exchange. Excited as he was to see Harland, he was now more concerned with Afon.

  Thankfully, Henry Ford had left the house, rather quickly, about half-an-hour before. Ford had been relaxing in the parlor with Isi, had, in fact, just been served tea and finger sandwiches by Jian, dressed again as a butler, when Isi had jumped off of the settee and stared, wide-eyed, out the window. She’d instructed Jian to draw the shades, and then she’d told Henry that she’d just realized that Count Solovyov was due home soon, and Henry had to make himself scarce.

  Henry had made his exit, but not with the tail-between-the-legs shame of an adulterer. No, Henry had Isi walk him across the lawn to his horse, and he’d taken her face in his hands and boldly kissed her, for all the world to see, before he set off for his home, where his own wife was waiting for him.

  The day’s dew had clung to the grass in the spot where Henry had kissed Isi, encapsulating their moment in the protective embrace of condensation, their scent sealed onto a blade of grass. Afon could still smell both of them.

  Afon pulled open the front door of the house with such force that he could have easily torn it from its hinges, but Nanook caught the door halfway through its violent arc, and grabbed Afon by the shoulder.

  “Calm yourself before you see her,” Nanook said. “We’ve got some great work ahead of us tonight, and this planet doesn’t have time for your jealousy right now.”

  Nanook held Afon back for only a second, and then he rushed forward, running up the stairs in a blur, almost toppling over Isi on the landing. Nanook was right behind him, ready to quell any violence he was sure Afon would regret later.

  Harland Fergusson was at the bottom of the stairs, oblivious to the intricacies of the situation developing above him.

  “Countess, is that you up there? So wonderful to see you again,” Harland said. I do believe that you are the only one, of this here lot, to not owe me an apology. You’re not a drainer like us, are you my dear, so I’m sure that you played no part in my transition.”

  Isi smiled charmingly back at him.

  “Apparently, you all chose just the right time to add a new member to your little group; you’re trying to do too many things at once, you are,” Harland said. “Save the world in the past, and travel to the future to kill this dictator of yours, Mortterra, that the boys have mentioned – well, I’m glad to see you Countess, but I think it’s quite possible that you are just as glad to see me. One of those times when you truly cannot have enough help.”

  Isi nodded in agreement with Harland, and avoided all eye contact with Afon.

  “Yes Harland,” Isi said, “it is very good to see you. We can move ahead with the second part of our plan now, if you’re on board?”

  “I must admit, I’d feel a bit more settled with all of this assassination business, if I had a better feel for how evil this man Mortterra is,” Harland said.

  Isi cast a questioning look at Afon and Nanook.

  “Well Harland, why don’t we all go and sit down, and discuss this together. I’m sure there are a number of questions on your mind. It’s an awful lot to take in,” Isi said, and settled down on the couch that she had been sharing with Henry Ford earlier. “But you don’t need to concern yourself with killing Ignis Mortterra, Harland. I think it’s probably for the best if you stay here with me. Afon and Nanook should be able to take care of Mortterra on their own, but he’s already sent some of his goons after us, and I’m quite sure that he’s not given up, so we really need you here, to protect me.”

  “Oh … oh, I understand,” Harland said. “Of course, that would be the greatest pleasure and honor, to protect you Countess.” Harland’s face fell. “It’s just that I – well, not just me, but any one like me, I suppose, any man in my position would want, well, I don’t mean to sound the child, but …”

  “Oh Jesus, Harland, spit it out man,” Nanook said.

  “I would like, very much, to accompany the boys on their assassination escapade. I bear no particular ill will to the dictator you’re all after, but I would sorely love to see the future,” Harland said. “Even though the world is coming to an end in your time, still, I can’t even imagine how amazing the world must be. I mean, all we’ve come up with, in my time, is electricity, which is pretty fantastic, but you,” Harland gestured at Isi, Afon, Nanook, and Jian, “you all have made people immortal. You’ve made me immortal, and I’d like, very much, to see what else, what other miracles we’ve accomplished as a species.”

  Isi nodded, “Fair enough Harland, you will go with Afon and Nanook. You’re an unknown face in the future, and that could come in very handy, but I’m afraid that you won’t see anything all that magnificent. No matter what technology we invent, no matter how we elongate our lives as a species, there’s no surviving once the earth below your feet dies. You’ll see what we’ve done Harland, but it won’t make you proud, it will make you sick.”

  TWENTY

  After a first round of discussion sketching out their plan to assassinate Ignis Mortterra, Isi and Afon excused themselves from Harland, Nanook, and Jian, and headed upstairs. The sound of their arguing shook every pane of glass in the house. Here, a slammed door; there, a broken water pitcher – nowhere was there silence.

  “Would you gentlemen care to go for a walk? A breath of the nights air could do us all some good, I think,” Jian s
aid. He clasped his hands together, carefully composed, and directed them all outside with the turn of his body.

  Harland was on his feet, and out the door, before Nanook could even respond to Jian’s suggestion. Being around the sounds of any human passion made Harland uncomfortable, whether it be the amorous noises of a loving couple, or the ominous tones of loves undoing that he could hear in the argument that shook the house above, either way, Harland wanted no part of it.

  Nanook looked at Harland’s quickly departing form and said, “I guess he agrees with you Jian.”

  “We had better follow him. I’m not so sure that our long lost friend there should be left to his own devices outside, unsupervised,” Jian said.

  “Why? Did Harland say something to you?” Nanook said. “Afon and I had agreed that we should wait a bit, before talking to you and Isi about Harland’s activities, since last we saw him.”

  “No, he’s not said a word to me, but he doesn’t have to. It’s easy enough to guess what happened. Harland must have gotten hungry, and as a consequence, I imagine that there was probably an uptick in London’s murder rate,” Jian said. “In any event, he’s operating on a primal level right now, which will make him a potently lethal asset to have with you and Afon on your mission, but it also makes him someone that we should keep a close eye on.”

  “Don’t worry Jian, he’s not gone far,” Nanook said. “He’s only a few acres west of us, about to enter the tree line.”

  Jian turned his head in the direction that Nanook had indicated, and inhaled the air. “Ah, so he is. Should we go and catch up to him, brother?”

  “Oh that would definitely be a good welcome to the brotherhood for him,” Nanook said. “And it’s kind of fitting for him to experience what it’s like to be snuck up on in the middle of the night, since he’s certainly done that to enough women in London.”