“Honestly, Claire,” her mother began in a calmer tone. “You’ve only been dating Daniel for less than six months. Are you sure you’re ready for this kind of commitment?”
“Yes,” she responded. “Like I keep telling you, we’re ready for the next stage.”
“Are you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you looking away from me?”
Claire flinched when she realized her eyes were slightly downcast. She raised them to look at her mother and glance at her father, who looked at her suspiciously.
“Because I know you’re not happy about this and now you hate Daniel!” she said louder than she intended.
“We don’t hate him,” her father interjected. “We’re just don’t think this is a wise idea. Your mother and I were not happy about you dating an older man. Now that you’re moving in with him, we both think he is playing around with you.”
“You guys are just so old-fashioned!” She threw her hands up. “Please, let me be!”
“Maybe we are a little behind the times, but we can both tell you’re not that thrilled about moving in with Daniel,” her mother said. “Look at yourself. You’re snapping at us, you’re not even looking at us in the eye. Are you sure this was your idea or Daniel’s?”
Claire could feel her fear and pain rising, but she quenched and said, “We both agreed on this after we got back together. And there’s nothing you can do about it. We’re happy together, and that’s how its going to be.”
Her parents paused before they shrugged at each other. They had no use arguing with her. It was as if they could feel the lack of insincerity in her aura, but they had no way for her to admit it. She had won, or maybe Daniel did.
Her parents left a half hour later. As she was hugging them good-bye, she invited them to come to TriBeCa to visit her and Daniel. They declined, but before Claire could protest, they wondered aloud why she wasn’t letting them go.
“Honey,” her father said. “You’re almost crushing me.”
She let go immediately and blinked back tears. When he asked about them, she said she was upset. “I want to spend Christmas with you two, and you don’t want me to?”
“Why can’t you come see us?” her mother asked. “There’s a train from Manhattan where we could pick you up.”
“Well…” Claire struggled for answer before blurting out, “New York is the place to be for Christmas, not small town New Jersey. And I just can’t go out. If you won’t see me, then I won’t see you. How’s that?”
Stunned, her parents stared at her. Her mother was about to answer back, but her father stopped her. They then waved good-bye and left the apartment.
As she closed the door behind them, she hit her forehead against it a few times. How could she do that to the very people who brought her up? Never before had her parents been so precious to her, and never before had she been so mean.
Daniel had poisoned her with his vampiric blood already.
While she was feeling sorry for herself inside the apartment, Samantha was outside going through the mailbox. As the McCormicks’ walked by, she heard them asking themselves what had Daniel done to their daughter.
“I don’t know exactly what,” Samantha said. They turned to look at her. “But Claire’s been acting strange ever since she got back together with Daniel. It’s like she’s a different person now.”
Frank and Judith McCormick glanced at each other, and it was Frank who told Samantha, “If you can, keep an eye on her. Let us know if anything happens, anything bad.”
Samantha nodded. “I have your number on the refrigerator. I’ll put it in my cellphone just in case.”
For the rest of the day, Claire began packing up by sorting out her belongings. Surprisingly, Samantha didn’t protest and instead helped her. She even walked a few blocks to the mini-supermarket to get some boxes for the packing.
The two packed Claire’s clothes, and then moved onto to her jewelry, books, and photographs. When Monica came home, she also did her bit helping out. Claire knew her friends knew something was up, but had no way of telling them. She was simply going to enjoy these last few days with the girls she always considered to be her sisters.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
After dinner, she took the ferry into the city. Classes were over for Wednesday nights, so Daniel told her it would be a good night to meet someone very important, though he did not specifically say who. Claire didn’t have any idea who this person was nor did she care.
He met her at the terminal and from there, took a cab to Upper West Side. Their ride was mostly quiet, though Claire mentioned how upset her parents were about moving in with him.
“It really hurts that I won’t see them for a very long time,” she said.
He shrugged. “Not much you can do about that.”
As they got closer uptown, Daniel said softly to her, “You’ll be meeting Casames tonight.”
She frowned. That name sounded familiar.
“He’s the youngest of Brothers. He’s been living in New York for the past ten years.”
She flinched as fright struck her. One of the Brothers, someone who could make her a slave if he felt like it.
Arriving at the townhouse, Daniel was rather nervous. He was taking deep breaths as he walked up the stairs, Claire behind him. When he knocked on the door, he folded his arms and cleared his throat.
It was Michel who opened the door and escorted them into the living room. There, the rest of the vampires sat around, including Hilde, who’s eyes narrowed at the sight of her. When Claire stepped in, she saw, sitting on the couch, another vampire whom she had never seen before. He appeared to be about twenty years old, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He held an air of authority around him, one that made even Hilde sit quietly on one of the dining room chairs placed in the living room.
“Master Casames,” Daniel bowed. “This is Claire, the one I would like to join us.”
Casames nodded slowly, examining her. So this was one of the Five Brothers Daniel had mentioned. The original vampires, the ones who brought such creatures into the world millennia ago.
He rose to his feet and stuck his hand out. Claire hesitated and then limply shook it. Casames looked a little annoyed but brushed it off and said, “Claire McCormick. At last we meet. I’ve heard quite a lot about you.” After that, he sat back down.
Michel brought over two chairs for Daniel and Claire, and they sat down. Everyone waited for Casames to speak.
He folded his hands at his chest, eyes downward for a few minutes before raising them and saying, “As we all know, we are to soon have a new member of our kind. It’s been a long while since we’ve created a new one like ourselves, so this is to be a major event.”
He cleared his throat and continued. “Deciding someone to be like us is not easy. There has to be something special about that person, something that would say this human is willing to leave behind his or her previous life as he or she knew it. Therefore, the one who proposes a human to be transformed must be trusted with making such a request.
“We all remember what happened with Henry, how he wasn’t an appropriate choice from the beginning, but we thought that would all change. Well, it didn’t, and Henry became undisciplined, not obeying our laws and doing as he pleased. Perhaps it was best that he destroyed himself before we did him.”
Casames looked at Daniel, who was sitting beside Claire. “I believe you are trustworthy, Daniel. I have known you for many centuries. You’ve never proposed someone to be like us, so for you to ask Claire to join means you know full well what it takes and that you have taken her into careful consideration.”
“I have, Master,” Daniel said.
“You also realize we cannot have a repeat of Henry, who almost destroyed all of us?”
“Master, I believe Claire is an exceptional person who would make a valuable addition to our kind,” Daniel answered. “I would not fail where Henry’s maker did.”
“Good,” Casames nodde
d, looking at Claire, who was stiff in her seat. She was trying to relax, but being in the presence of one of the leading vampires terrified her more than the night Daniel revealed himself to her. She knew Casames could see her fright, and she wondered why he wasn’t mentioning it. Maybe he was delighting in it.
“But before I formally ask Ms. McCormick if she wants to be one of us, I believe she should know who we are.” Casames paused, his head directed at Claire, but his eyes were distant, as if going back through the many years he has been wandering the earth.
There was a shift through the room as everyone seated got themselves ready for the head vampire’s story about how he and his four brothers began the path to immortality.
They were born five millennia ago in what today would be called Marseilles, their tribe located just on the precious blue waters and golden beaches of an area that had near perfect climate all year round. The waters were abundant with fish and the land was arable. They and their people were blessed.
Their tribe numbered about fifty people, living clustered together in small huts. The men hunted and fished while the women took care of the crops. Girls were groomed to be mothers and good wives, while the boys were trained at an early age to be men. There were priests who oversaw the spiritual practices of the tribe, and a chief who oversaw everything else.
The chief was their father, yet most of them had different mothers. The chief, named Antolos, had a couple of wives and several concubines, in order to produce as many sons as possible. Life was uncertain in those days. Pregnancy could spell death for many women, and children were lucky to survive their first years. Even though he was elected to be leader of the tribe, Antolos needed as many sons to secure his tribe and his status as chief. His people needed to see his strength and have many future warriors to protect them.
Over the course of five years, Antolos sired a eighteen children. Some were girls, others did not last long. Once the five years passed, there were five boys he could call his sons. Their names were Vorternon, Elleso, Azuelo, Gosheven, and Casames. Each boy was physically strong and quick at their hunting. Some were capable of gaining great knowledge in governing, while the others knew how to strike fear into the tribespeople and make them obey their father.
Eventually, it was time for them to be obeyed. When they were late in adolescence, Antolos died of illness. As sons of the deceased chief, they all stood a chance to be elected to become the new leader of the tribe. Debates were held among the elders and the priests. Hunting and fighting contests were held. After nearly a season, it was decided the eldest, Vorternon would be the chief. It was no surprise. He was tall, wise, and fair in his judgment. Although he was the leader of all, the young man, who was only eighteen at the time, treated his brothers as his closest advisors. He had them by his side at all times, and not out of fear. All five of them were together and believed as long as they were, their tribe would succeed.
That belief proved true. In the years following Vorternon’s election, the tribe had an abundance of crops, perfect fish gathering, and won many battles against other tribes. The tribespeople had the brothers to thank for their lack of rivalry did not tear them apart, and they regularly honored them.
Soon, those honors became more and more frequent. The people would part paths, bow or even grovel before Vorternon and his brothers. The tribe was at its zenith, and nothing could stop it. The tribe completely believed the five brothers were godsends.
But then, within two years of Vorternon becoming chief, strange disappearances began to happen in the tribe. At first, it was the criminals or prisoners of wars, who would be tied up in a hut one day and be gone the following morning. It was odd but the people weren’t too worried as long as they did not come back.
Then more disappearances occurred, and they were that of the elderly or young children. Soon, healthy adults were vanishing. The people were frightened.
Turning to their chief and his brothers, the tribespeople were told by Vorternon that a demon must be haunting the tribe and prayers to the gods must increase. He told his people to ask the deities to give him and his brothers strength and power to deal with the demon. When the priests warned him that meant being as strong and powerful as the gods, the chief insisted that was the point.
About a year after the first criminal disappeared, a novice shaman witnessed Vorternon and his brothers alone in the woods one night. They were saying odd prayers and performing unfamiliar rituals around a fire. Then a young child, which had been wrapped in a black cloth, was brought forward and stabbed in its belly. One by one, the brothers took turns drinking from the boy until there was no more blood to drink. Horrified, the novice told his superiors, and one of them approached Vorternon the next morning.
The head priest, who’s name was Hatagos, confronted Vorternon as he ate his morning meal in his large hut. Two of his brothers, Elleso and Casames, were there eating with him. The priest knew questioning the chief in front of his two bully brothers was not going to be easy, but blasphemy had been reportedly committed and there needed to be answers.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” was Vorternon’s response.
“My lord,” Hatagos tried again. “My novice who is very honest and loyal to me, told me what he saw out in the woods when he went to meditate. The young man is not a liar or I would not have accepted him as a novice.”
“Are you accepting the words of a boy who has no status over the words of your chief?” Elleso asked. “Where do your loyalties lie?”
He, Vorternon and Casames glared at the priest, who bowed in his head in surrender and walked out of the hut.
But Hatagos, his novice, and other members of the priesthood were deeply suspicious. They watched the brothers carefully for the next several weeks and whispered to the people of the demon haunting the tribe. The priest, not the chief and his brothers, had to be told if anything bizarre happened for it was they that could rid the tribe of the demon.
Finally, in the middle of a summer night, a young man raced to the head priest’s hut, woke him and told him about the demon who had tried to take his wife’s mother. The demon was described as a tall, muscular man dressed in black.
Hatagos ran to Vorternon’s hut, but there was no one there, save for his two sleeping wives. The neighboring huts that housed his brothers were also empty. Hatagos had his answer.
Gathering the able male members of the tribe, he led a hunt for the brothers. His novice was the main guide, even though it had been weeks since the young man saw the forbidden ritual deep in the woods. But the novice proved to be worthy guide.
There in a clearing were the brothers, all naked and wearing the heads of wolves and deer on their heads. They were gathered around a fire and each had large bowls at their feet. Vorternon was carrying a large knife, which the tribesmen could see had been used often. His brothers, Azuelo and Gosheven were beside him, one holding the old woman they almost failed to get. The woman was bound and gagged. Vorternon was chanting about the gods giving him and the others their strength and power.
The tribesmen at first were stunned that their chief and his brothers were performing such a ritual for unknown purposes that involved the killing of their own people. But then one of them stepped on a twig, setting off a loud snap that halted Vorternon’s chants. Then the action began. The men charged toward them, hurling their spears.
But they did not know how quick and strong the brothers had become. The spears were either caught in mid air or they stepped casually from the volley. One of the spears stabbed the bound woman. The brothers then took the other spears, turned them around and threw them back at the running men. The men were fatally pierced.
Hatagos stopped just a few feet from the brothers. Anger and fear were in the eyes of the priest, and he did not know what to do. Slowly he stepped forward.
“My lords,” Hatagos said in a carefully controlled voice. “Stop this madness at once. This is blasphemy and against the will of the gods. Never have they told me of such rituals,
and I am the closest to them -”
“You are wrong,” Vorternon said, knife still in hand. “We are closer. We have been getting closer for some time now, and tonight, we’ll be closer than ever.”
“How is this so?” Hatagos tried to ignore Vorternon’s slow, dangerous tone.
“The blood of our people is giving us eternal life,” the eldest continued. “Just as we want it. They are also giving us powers you’ve never dreamed of.”
To prove his point, Vorternon began darting around the clearing in literally a blink of an eye. He first appeared by the priest’s side, and then behind his brothers. He stopped when he appeared in the spot where he stood before.
Hatagos was aghast. He along with the tribe had spent nearly three years exalting these five, believing they were blessed by the gods. Now they were, but it was as though they were being blessed by something like a demon.
Hatagos struggled to speak and the brothers were amused. Finally, he got his words out.
“My lords, this cannot be the work of the gods. The gods would not permit a mortal to be like them. They never had and they never will.”
“Never?” Vorternon smirked. Turning to the others, he asked them, “Brothers, would you say this old priest is envious of the gods favoring us so that they are allowing us to be their equals?” They laughed or nodded in agreement. “Perhaps then, he should see for himself.”
Before the priest knew what was happening, the chief and three of the brothers were standing front of him. They grabbed and dragged him to the fire, where they all encircled him.
Standing over him, Vorternon turned him over and stripped him.
“Brothers, this is our chance. We’ve wanted eternal life. We’ve wanted to be like the gods. Now we have the perfect sacrifice to them, one of their servants. Let us make the offering to our gods - those who are pleased with us - and may it signal to them that we are ready to be like them.”
The Dark Proposal (The Claire McCormick Trilogy) Page 17
