Ah, the prayer of a vampire.
****
I was concerned about where we would sleep. Ramet said he was given an address by Eco. “It is a haven for our kind,” he assured me.
We set out at once for the place. It wasn’t that far. It was near the waterfront, not the best of places, it looked shabby but we didn’t care about that. It stood on a deserted street, one among many poor looking properties. I wondered if Destroyers knew about the place and asked Ramet.
“Not recently, Eco assured me. However, we know it’s best to move on sooner than later.”
Vampires must be cautious creatures.
A man greeted us. He was vampiric and he didn’t let us in right away, but had us walk toward him. It seemed he was examining us rather closely. At last he waved us through and I was relieved. The house had a strange odor to it, not only the scent of blood but something else.
A woman, also vampiric, asked us where we were from. “Have you come from abroad?”
Ramet told her we hadn’t. We explained about the Circus of Delights and she nodded. Clearly she had heard of that hell.
“You are welcome to stay here. But I must warn you, do not stay longer than you have to. There is illness here...”
I asked her what she meant.
“It is a disease of the blood. Something has happened, something bad. It is rampant on the Continent, hence my question to you. Humans catch it and become vampires. Vampires catch it and die. We have had many deaths.”
So it was happening again!
Ramet thanked her for telling us. “We will just stay until it is dark. Then we will leave.”
We were shown to the cellar to find many like us there. None of them seemed ill. There were males and females, old and young among them. They lay about in groups and singly. Many of them stole wary silent glances at us. What a sad world we inhabited.
CHAPTER 49
I remember nothing after that. I did not wake for some days. I was feverish as well which caused those around us to suspect I was coming down with the plague. When it was clear that I wasn’t, only then was I no longer stared at.
Ramet had remained by my side constantly. He would tell me later he felt I was in grave danger and might be destroyed just in case I was ill.
The suffering was all around us. During the time we were there we got to witness how horrific this plague was. Those afflicted screamed in pain. Many pleaded to be destroyed and were. Yet, most were too insensible.
The reason they weren’t all destroyed when it was obvious they were ill was because some did recover from it. Their numbers were not great but at least they survived.
Those ill with it were frightful to see. They threw up blood, spluttering and coughing until they were nearly unconscious. There were huge boils that appeared all over them which leaked blood and pus so that one saw rivers of red and white trailing down their sick bodies.
Lore and her husband Jeph were in charge. They had been married in life and were created long ago—within a few minutes of one another. “We are ancient, Lore said—though not as ancient as your friend.” She smiled. “You are a good and loyal friend to your lady. I have seen your devotion and it is to be admired.”
Ramet smiled, I have rarely seen him smile and it was good to see. “I am her friend forever,” he said.
She told us about herself and her husband. “Jeph has always helped me. We have had a number of covens and many vampires in our care. All have perished. These you see are those we took in, poor things.”
Jeph, the husband let his wife do most of the talking. He only said that Ramet would be safe as his blood was ancient. “Still, you will have to be careful.”
This he said before leaving to care for some of the gravely sick. Lore agreed. “You might be one of the lucky ones that never sickens.”
She asked us where we were bound for. She feared for us to go abroad.
I explained we would be staying in London at least for the present. I began to cry for I had thought of Gascoyne. “I am sorry,” I said.
“No mind. It is good to cry for the sadness...where do you come from now?”
I told her. She had heard of it. “It was good that sin-ridden, horror-filled den of suffering of the beasts and vampires is no more. But that was not the only sideshow like it. There were others...many others all over the city hidden away. They are all gone now.”
I asked her about the Hall of Wonders.
She sighed. “It is all gone now, cursed it would seem by its own evil.”
I began crying and calling out for Gascoyne then. Lore was watching us carefully. “I know that name,” she said. “He is French. He was here for a time. He was one of the lucky ones, the illness passed and he left.”
Ramet was to tell me I became incoherent, all I did was shout Gascoyne’s name over and over. They had me rest. Ramet carried me to a pallet. It was his voice I heard just before I fell asleep. “You will see Gascoyne ... we will find him as soon as we can!”
I slept and dreamt of him, only now the dreams were pleasant because I had hope. When I woke Ramet and I spoke with Lore and Jeph.
I asked them if they knew where Gascoyne was headed for. Lore shook her head. “He didn’t say. He only said he was going to look for his love.”
That did it. Once again, I burst into tears. Ramet held me.
Then she smiled. “Do not waste time crying! You must begin your search! But be careful of Destroyers and of the plague!”
Lore left us then so that I could be alone with Ramet. He spoke quietly to me, in between crying his own tears of joy. “Do not be afraid of joy, little one.” Ramet kissed my hand. “Nor love either. Before you know it, you will be reunited with your love you will see!”
****
We would leave the next night. Lore gave us an address. “Go to the house off Flower Street. It only looks abandoned. Be vigilant though for the Destroyers are about. We will be moving from here shortly.”
I knew what that meant. She meant when the last ill vampire dies.
I took her hand. She was kindly and would not destroy them but would gamble with her own existence and her husband’s.
They wished us well when we left. “Walk amongst the shadows and listen for your own safety. And most importantly, do not take tainted blood.”
Yes. That was the most important bit of advice. Tainted blood had a different smell. And if we were tempted by a human to feed and that person’s blood was diseased, we’d know before we bit into their flesh. Our keen sense of smell would detect the sickeningly sour odor of that blood.
We made straight for the house. We were in need of feeding, although we did have some sustenance in our recent haven. It was blood we knew was without taint.
Ramet said nothing as we made for our new refuge. I think he was too excited to speak as I was. Several times we ran down cellar steps or hid in alleys. Then at last, we found the street. How dark it was, dark and dreary. The building and shops were boarded up. There were signs posted on doorways.
CLOSED BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL
That translated to mean Destroyers had been there. Ramet led me inside. We were immediately surrounded by vampires and both of us were subdued. Ramet, despite his strength, was knocked to the floor and held there. I was easily taken down. We did not protest. Ramet called out, “Wait we will have our turn to speak.”
“Yes you will,” someone answered. I could not see who had entered though I heard footsteps. I also smelled blood. Whoever was going to speak, had just fed. That was obvious.
“Stand them up.”
We were raised up roughly. A very tall vampire regarded both of us. The way he sniffed the air, I could tell he knew what we were. At last he spoke. “Who sent you?”
I said Lore had. He regarded me suspiciously. “Lore—told you to come here? Why?”
“She said we could stay here...I am searching for someone...”
“Who?”
“Gascoyne...have you ever heard of him?”
&nb
sp; He did not say anything. He only stared at me in such a way I felt certain he would tell me the worst.
CHAPTER 50
“I do recall that name,” he said. “He was with others. None of them were ill, although...!”
Ramet pleaded with him to go on because I could not speak.
“Frankly, they looked too pale. The pallor is one of the early signs of the illness.”
Ramet kept pressing him, asking him where these vampires went. But he did not know.
“I cannot say. They stayed here but not for long. Many were sickening at that time. They still are. You should not stay here either. So far we have been safe from Destroyers, but not from the illness.” His hand shook and he smiled ruefully. “I fear my own health is giving way.”
A female suddenly appeared when he said that. “No! You are not sickening!”
The feeling between them was obvious. The female glanced at me with pity in her eyes. “You are searching for your loved one?”
“His name is Gascoyne...”
She glanced at her male.
“Yes,” he said. “I told them...”
“Perhaps I know more than my man. This Gascoyne said he was going to the woods. He mentioned caves and said Destroyers would not find them. He had quite a number of vampires with him. He was their leader.”
Yes, I thought. That sounds a lot like Gascoyne. Ramet and I would go from here. But we would have to leave the next night as it was already turning to light. We were offered sustenance and assured it was safe. The female sat and spoke to us and we discussed the plague.
“No one knows where it is from or how it started, although there are numerous theories about it.”
I asked her if she thought it would ever end. We just looked at one another. Ramet tried to sound positive but could not. After a while, he just fell into the same thoughtful silence we all succumbed to.
We were shown a space in the cellar. I heard coughing and moaning. It seemed whatever was afflicting vampires was here too. It seemed no place was safe.
Sleep came, but it was troubled for I dreamed of Gascoyne. I kept calling out to him, he’d look at me and smile, but he didn’t move. He was trying to tell me something, but I could not hear what it was.
I am sure I called out in my sleep, as I felt Ramet’s reassuring touch and his soft whisper telling me all was well. Even in my sleep I knew it was not. I wondered if it ever would be.
****
The next night we bade our hosts farewell and journeyed forth—toward the forest beyond the city and the caves we were told about. There were few humans about because of the late hour. There had been a hellish rainstorm. We left during the height of it, knowing we would encounter fewer people.
Ramet shielded me from the downpour—as we ran along. When we were certain we were not seen, we flew from street to street. It was almost joyful and I laughed. Ramet laughed too. “It feels good now, doesn’t it?”
It did. It felt freeing to fly, to soar over buildings and gain distance quickly. We hadn’t done anything like that in ages. We certainly hadn’t flown together. We had during the course of our existence but not lately.
When we reached past the outer-lying districts and came in sight of the woods, we paused to rest. “It is hard work, this flying. We are out of practice,” I said and Ramet agreed.
The sky was starting to lighten and we knew we’d best find the caves. I reminded Ramet what Lore had said. “Look for the copse of fir trees and the old ruin. There are caves there. The ruin is of an old charnel house. Vampires have often stayed there. Just be cautious.”
She meant be wary of the Destroyers—they could appear anywhere. The plague had caused their numbers to increase as well as their attacks.
Ramet suddenly pointed. “Over there! See?”
I looked to see there within the forest, the ruins of a chapel. There was what looked like a broken Keep. At first glance, the ruins were hardly noticeable. The grey stone walls were overgrown with grass and weeds. I tried to picture how it must have looked in earlier times.
Ramet began to look worried. We both were feeling weakened by the ever-increasing daylight. “Hurry,” he said. “We have to find a cave.”
We did hurry—until I shouted that I saw something. I had seen the mouth of a cave. As we drew closer, we could see just how deep it was. We saw it had many levels. We explored it until we found a spot for ourselves among the darkest shadows. The scent of bat dung was all about us. It isn’t pleasant but it was more important to be away from sunlight. We lay down to rest and were asleep within moments.
Something woke us, a feeling of dread or perhaps the smell of smoke. I tried to speak but Ramet would not even let me whisper. We began to make our way to the entrance. It was then that Ramet pulled me back for there was a great fire burning. We felt the heat and heard the crackling of what was being burned and the stench too.
There was a great funeral pyre. At first I thought they were human beings being burned but Ramet disagreed.
“They are burning vampires,” he said.
And so they were. For now I recognized the scent. It was unmistakable. When the horror of it hit me, I cried but I made certain to cry quietly. We were witnessing a fearful reality. This is what our world was now. There was pestilence and death for us. Men shouted to one another—they sounded excited.
I wondered if they were Destroyers. We had slipped back into the deepest recesses of the cave where we would be able to speak.
Ramet thought they were Destroyers. “We cannot take the chance, Justine. Even if they are not Destroyers, they will think we are infected and will wish to destroy us.”
It was true and I knew it as humans could easily catch the fearful disease. There was nothing to do, nowhere to go. We would spend the next night hiding away and smelling the charred flesh of our kind. It was a fearful smell, one that I would never forget.
CHAPTER 51
We didn’t speak, only sat staring at one another. If we had spoken, I don’t think there was anything to say. As I sat there I thought of my past, not so much of my living life, but of my undead existence. I thought of Gascoyne, of the first time I had seen his face. He said I was wanton. Those were the first words I heard him speak.
Whatever I had been, I changed three times in my existence. Once, when I died and was brought back and twice more after it. I was never more wanton than I was at Joy House—but then there was Edward whose purpose in my existence must have been to change me. And he did as an awareness of what I had become began to surface. Yes, I would remain what I was—but I was different, I was less of a beast.
And when I saw Dia forgive a great wrong done to her, I changed yet again never would I take Gascoyne’s love for granted nor would I do anything to hurt him. My days of wantonness were over.
When Ramet whispered they were gone, we both stood up. He insisted on making certain first. He returned and motioned for me to follow him. As we emerged from the cave we saw it. The great pyre was full of smoking ash and charred bones and the terrible scent of burning flesh was still about. I felt I would always smell it.
Something moved and we both stopped. There were Destroyers about. If we weren’t certain before we were now. There was a cry as I felt myself attacked. There was great pain—I was losing consciousness. All I could hear were Ramet’s sobs and his pleas to me not to die.
But the blackness was closing in from all sides. I neither embraced it nor fought it—I only watched it until I could see no more.
Ramet whispered me awake it seemed, “Drink...please... drink...”
I did and saw flashes of his living life—Egypt and the world of his beginnings. I saw the face of a woman I was sure must have been his beloved princess. It was all dreamlike and pleasant but then there were angry faces. Those I thought must have been his murderers.
Then a different face appeared, the face of he who raised him, the sorcerer, he once told me about.
I had never seen Ramet’s living life before and it saddened
me. I know I wept.
He pleaded with me not to. “I know why you weep, but it is long ago. Those lives we lived are only in dreams now—they are the only fancies a vampire can have. Now, please I must see to your wounds.”
And so he did. From his expression and his silence, I knew they must be frightful. My neck hurt as I knew I had lost a great deal of blood. Well, they had tried to decapitate me!
It was difficult for me to speak. But after a while I managed to ask him questions. He assured me I would survive. I turned away from him then. All I could think of was Gascoyne.
Ramet guessed as much and assured me we would find him. “And when we do,” he said. “He will be well. I promise you.”
Ramet always said we must have hope—all beings must. I agreed that I would try. I promised him and he wept he was so grateful to hear my words.
“Our attackers are no more,” he said. I was not surprised.
****
I took long to recover. Some time passed, I don’t know how much. In the interim I thought Ramet had begun to look pale, his skin is the color of bronze and now it seemed to turn ashen. I feared the plague might be upon him, but he was adamant it was not. Besides, he reasoned ancients could not sicken from it. It was then that I knew what it was. He had given me so much of his own blood, he was paying the forfeit.
I pleaded with him to be strong and he smiled. “I will never leave you. By all the gods I swear this now!”
Although Ramet did not look well to me, he continued to care for me. Nightly, he went to get us feeds. Whatever small animals and birds he could find, he brought back. We’d feed quietly—and when the poor little beasts were drained, we’d rest. We had to. That is how tired we both were. Illness in a vampire is like that, the least excursion can be an ordeal.
Resting was paramount. We rested even during night hours, speaking quietly of our living lives. Most of what we recounted we had already told one another, still we spoke. I think we both knew it was better to speak and recall pleasant experiences than not to.
He began to speak once again of his living life.
“Yes,” he said. “I have not told you my act of adoration was consummated. Hence my punishment, I was a youth and a virgin,” he smiled. “Anat was beautiful, a natural seductress and I fell under her spell. Yes, that is love alright. Love and spells are one sometimes, and the magic they weave is the enchantment we feel ... the blissful magic of love which cannot be denied.” His voice was edged with sadness. His eyes too shone with tears. “We cannot help but love those we do, Justine—despite whatever dangers there may be.”
Voracious Vixens, 13 Novels of Sexy Horror and Hot Paranormal Romance Page 148
