This all made me dream of Gascoyne—never had I dreamt more of him. He was so real I called out.
Ramet told me I did when I woke. “You reached out and cried, “Beloved, come to me!”
I smiled but it was a sad smile as sad as I was. “When will we go—for we must find him, Ramet!”
He understood. “We will go as soon as we can, Justine. But we must be well.”
****
I was still weak, if I thought I wasn’t, I was wrong. I would need more rest.
Ramet was adamant about that. “You will stay there and not move. I will return with food.” He left with one warning backward glance.
I lay back and closed my eyes. It was then that I heard voices. I had no idea who they were or what they were, although from their scent I could tell they were vampiric and as there was no sour smell I knew they were not ill with the plague.
The voices sounded familiar. When they began to echo I knew they had entered the cave. The female called my name and I shouted back, “Lore! Here I am!”
Lore and Jeph rushed to me. I could see by their faces how horrified they were at my wounds. “You were nearly...”
“Destroyed but Ramet has saved me.”
I could see they thought I was far from saved. When Lore’s eyes filled with tears, I knew something was up. She tried to speak but could not go on.
It was Jeph who told me. “We have brought someone to see you, someone you long to see!”
CHAPTER 52
“Gascoyne!”
He started to rush toward my arms but stopped. I saw he was looking at my wounds. I called his name again and he came to me. There were no words—there was only our emotion.
Lore and Jeph left us alone. The moment was too precious to share. He spoke first and when he did, his voice shook with emotion. “You are strong...you always have been.”
Too strong sometimes, but that seemed a distant memory. Now, I was far from strong.
“I know what it is. I saw the burnt pyre. And then you were attacked.”
“Yes, and Ramet killed him.”
His face brightened for a moment. “My friend, Ramet.”
“He is a friend to us both now Gascoyne and always shall be.”
He knelt beside me and took my hand to kiss. “The last time I saw you...” His eyes brimmed with tears. He shook his head so he could go on. “I really tried to fight, I did fight, Justine... so you would not be taken from me.”
“Ramet told me...but he feared you were dead.”
“Yes, I nearly was. The beatings were awful. I was bled too as punishment. I was weak and ill after it...” He smiled for a moment. It was such a sad smile. “I came close... I suppose it was something of a miracle. There was a woman there...a mistress to the owner... She felt sorry for me. He was going to have me destroyed she said but she pleaded with him if she might take me away. She told him I’d be of use for some friends, aristocrats that enjoyed shows and unusual entertainment.
At first he refused she told me, but then he relented. It seemed to amuse him. He told her to do as she wished. Apparently he was very busy with his show and acquiring new exhibits.”
I was watching Gascoyne’s beautifully shaped lips as he spoke. I was understanding what he was saying but I was staring at him as well for I could not get enough of him.
He realized and smiled. “There is more... I was ill for a while, the woman was kind—not at all like her lover. She let me leave when I was able to and in fact she encouraged me to find you. She said she was a believer in love, even in beings like us. It was funny because it sounded like a left-handed compliment.
This time was the most difficult for me. You were gone, I knew you were...she told me the agent had taken you and Ramet and others by ship to Morocco. I planned to go there! I really did. I don’t know how I would have arranged it, but I’d have thought of a way. But then I became ill. My illness didn’t last. I recovered but was weak. Time passed as if in a dream—there was so much illness around...the taint plague they call it...”
I told him I had heard of it.
“I went from place to place. Years passed—barely noticed. I sickened again and again. Eventually I grew so ill that I needed a place to stay, actually I was searching for a quiet place to die, somewhere I’d be able to just slip away... Someone brought me to Lore and Jeph... they cared for me and when I recovered I went in search of you. It was when I had searched for the longest time that I sought out my old friends. All of their ill vampires had died and they were getting ready to move on. When they saw me, they said you had been there! I couldn’t believe it and so here I am!”
Lore and Jeph came in just then and we all wept for there was so much emotion in that cave. Love and relief, and pain too—all of it just bursting forth.
When Ramet returned, he just stood as though thunderstruck. The two friends embraced. “Gascoyne!”
****
Gascoyne had the most questions. His attention was the most ardent. He stared and smiled then touched my forehead. He said I felt feverish and when he said it he looked worried.
Jeph and Lore felt my face too. “It is not the plague,” they said. “It is worry and weariness. But she will endure!”
That, they all agreed with.
There reached a point when we stopped speaking, we were all thinking the same thing—what did the future hold? How much worse would this plague get and most critically, where would we go?
Lore and Jeph said they would head back to London. Before Gascoyne could say anything they advised against going to the Continent. “It is still bad there. Before our last vampires died they confessed they had recently come from there.”
Gascoyne looked sad. “I shall never see my homeland again I think.”
It was such a troubling thing to say. I tried to comfort him but saw I could not. “Perhaps someday,” I said. “All things pass in time.”
Ramet surprised us by saying, “Not all things, some things get better but some get worse.”
CHAPTER 53
Now passed a time of quiet reflection and hope, hope we dared not have for so long. It was decided I would have to fully recover where I was. Eventually Lore and Jeph left, they said they would first return to London to see if they could find old friends. I knew what that meant. They wanted to see if any of them had survived. We cautioned them and they promised they would be careful of Destroyers.
It was sad seeing them go—and I wept. What human being, I wonder, would know just how much emotion we have, but vampires differ from vampire to vampire.
By early spring, it was time for us to make plans. Gascoyne and I by that time, had taken many walks in the woods, we kissed in the moonlight and were serenaded by wolves. I was beginning to feel as I once did so long ago. Love recalled is a magical thing that causes more love to be shown. We were happy to show our feelings to one another.
We coupled in the soft glow of moonlight. His touch was magical and when he gently fed, I felt my passion rise. I remember thinking all the feelings I had ever felt for him not only returned but were greater.
“I will love you for the rest of time...”
I said the same, but my voice broke—for I was too emotional. There in the woods, under a star-filled sky he took me and I felt renewed and newly created by his love—if I thought of those early distant days of our affair. I felt now it was different. Our feelings had if anything multiplied to the point where I knew if I ever found myself apart from him again I would destroy myself.
“I will never be parted from you again, Gascoyne.”
He looked into my face. “Nor I.”
And so it would be—for however long we existed. Gascoyne and I had been reunited in the best way possible, we shared our love once again, love not lust—I had come to know the difference.
As for the future, in a way I was fearful of leaving. But Ramet said no vampire ever puts down roots. “No accursed being can call any place home for too long...”
He cried and I felt badly. I kne
w he was remembering love.
Love and life are to be regarded as the most precious things—I knew too that despite being what we were, we would love one another in the way that we could.
“We are what we are, but our love will give us comfort and make us feel less damned...” Gascoyne’s words became my truth.
Eventually we left the cave and as our friends Jeph and Lore did, we journeyed back to London. We walked among the shadows and fed when we could and went without when we had to. We rested in abandoned buildings and closed shops, keeping to ourselves and trying not to feel in danger.
Despite outbreaks of the plague not recurring for a while, we were apprehensive. Vampires spread the disease and there had been many reprisal attacks, that mass burning at our cave was just one.
We worried that we looked out of place. In retrospect I am sure we did look odd. We began to frequent poor areas—where our shabby clothes would not draw undue attention. Those sorts of places were good as there was a mix of immigrants and Ramet did not stand out as much.
Many parts of the city were being developed, old hovels were torn down and replaced with new buildings. There was much construction going on. Entire neighborhoods were being developed.
As the work was done during the day, we found it to be to our advantage at night as no one was about. We didn’t bother about the incomplete buildings, we were better off staying in those structures that were coming down. Cellars were perfect for us and that was where we stayed.
We’d go out at night in search of sustenance but it wasn’t easy. We’d only take enough to exist, no voracious feeding for us.
We were surviving but for how long? Gascoyne said it would be best to seek out a coven. He made the point we’d feel protected and less at risk. There were a few addresses we went to, Gascoyne knew of some. None of the covens were there. We knew why. The plague either killed them off or forced them to seek other locations. We began wondering if it might not be better to leave London altogether. Where to go was another matter.
Then because each of us was worried, we started to argue. One night Gascoyne insisted on feeding alone which annoyed me. When he left I told Ramet I was furious and Ramet laughed. “You are lovers, you love and fight and feed. It will always be like that.”
Lovers’ passion he meant. And though I argued with Ramet, I knew he was right. Ramet and I spoke of our living lives when we were alone. He spoke more of Anat the princess he had suffered for. He told me of his dreams, of how sad they were.
“I have never stopped dreaming of my past—not so much of the suffering, my death and turning for it is too awful. Yet, it is there and always will be. What cannot be changed must be accepted.”
Ramet’s wisdom I thought.
Gascoyne returned with his bounty, some small animals—poor creatures. They looked so helpless. I took one in my hands and drained it, feeling its frail body slump finally when death claimed it.
I felt quiet and saw Ramet and Gascoyne did as well. There was nothing to say—nor any reason to say it. Plans had to be made and I think we wished to put them off.
Something rustled—we all sprang to our feet, each of us waiting. Our worst fear was that it might be Destroyers.
“Do you think...?!”
Gascoyne quieted me just before he sprang into the bushes. Someone cried out. We looked to see a man begging not to be harmed.
“No! Please! I am of the blood too!”
Ramet leaned over to sniff him. He nodded. Ramet’s senses are even keener than ours.
The vampire was in a bad way. He was sick with plague that was obvious as was the real possibility that Gascoyne and I could succumb. So far we had been lucky. Ramet, being ancient was not at risk, still it was Ramet who shook his head. The meaning was clear. We should not help the poor creature.
That was not something I could do. I insisted on helping him. “Ramet please let me have some of your blood.”
Gascoyne nodded for him to obey. He was standing by me. Ramet gave him some and the man began to look better. At last he was fully conscious and able to speak.
He told us about himself, not of his living life—but of having survived this far. “I never thought I would, not that I think it important. I am much resigned to the last sleep.”
Gascoyne asked him if he had been ill long and he said he hadn’t. “I never should have left the coven...”
When he said that, we all pressed him as we wished to know where the coven was. We could stay there too, we thought. But he was unconscious once again, so we took him into our cave to sleep—and to be away from the sunlight. When we woke the next night he looked nearly well and Ramet gave him more blood. That was when he told us where he had come from.
“It is in the city—the master is called Raphael.”
Gascoyne asked him to describe him. He did and Gascoyne looked excited. “I know him—ages since. There is no sickness there are you sure?”
The vampire said he was. “None—I was a fool to leave, for it has returned.”
“But not near there?”
“No,” the vampire said. “The east is safe. Whitechapel ...”
Suddenly he began to cough up blood. He was gone in a moment, leaving us with an unanswered question—Whitechapel—but where?
****
We buried him. There was no other choice. He was put deep within the cave in the deepest recess we could find for him.
Gascoyne said we might as well be on our way. “If we are fortunate we will find the coven and I will see my old friend.”
We left the following night, expecting a long search. Between that and our terror at drawing unwelcome attention to ourselves, we were so fearful
I thought to look at remote places—there were streets that had been closed off, just on the edge of the district. Gascoyne didn’t agree—he said he doubted that would be the place for the coven but Ramet made the point that it might be. We headed for it—a square mile past London Hospital.
We passed through some vacant lots with signs about saying that the area was under development. There didn’t seem to be anything that looked right. It was Ramet who pointed out a building that looked abandoned. “Over there, let us see!”
We tried to hurry toward it. Gascoyne was the most excited. He darted so fast, he began to lift off the ground. We did too in order to keep up with him.
Suddenly he stopped. Just as he got to it he halted. “I hear him,” he cried. “I hear Raphael’s voice!”
****
A voice called out to us. We were asked to wait. I hadn’t often seen Gascoyne as excited as he was now. The figure of a man appeared. He seemed to have materialized from nowhere. He was tall and broad-shouldered, he and Gascoyne embraced. “Raphael, my friend it has been ages!”
An ironical thing for a vampire to say perhaps, yet it was said.
We were all introduced. Gascoyne told him then of the ill vampire that had died.
Raphael nodded sadly. “Yes, I warned him not to go. I don’t know why he did. I knew he would perish.
Poor fellow. We feel quite safe here. The place won’t be ours forever though but no place is. At least for now it is our home.”
The dwelling he warned us was quite dilapidated but what vampire can be choosy? None he said. He told us of his coven of his wench and two sisters. “That is all that remain. They have been with me for several decades now. Friendship is rare and to be treasured among our kind.”
His lover Sophia, a kindly faced female—dark and of middling height, greeted us first, motioning us inside. The rest of them—the two sisters did look alike. They nodded to us, friendly yet timid looking I thought. They seemed wary of strangers and I saw why, they were scarred. Down their necks and arms was proof of past attacks by Destroyers, such is our existence.
They were called, Julia and Lenore. They had been turned when young and hardly looked vampiric if one didn’t look too close. And as for Sophia, she was a fiery looking vampire with black hair and dark eyes.
Her v
oice was heavily accented. “Raphael and I met in Spain ages ago, did we not my love?”
Raphael agreed. “Yes, it was shortly after I left Gascoyne crossing into Spain...”
Ah the memories of a vampire. At least we have that, our only hold to the past.
Raphael embraced his wench. They reminded me of Gascoyne and myself—ardent lovers, capable of kindness and also whatever it took to survive, I saw that in their eyes.
Raphael hadn’t yet spoken with Ramet but he did then. “I knew you were an Ancient when I first saw you. I wonder if I didn’t know you in Egypt, yes,” he sighed. “That sadly was where I was turned—one night when I should have been more vigilant.”
We were all thoughtful after that.
There was one in the coven we had not yet met. Raphael said she was also Ancient. “She is quite an interesting female,” he said, glancing at Ramet. “You will like her I am certain, she too is from Egypt.”
Ramet had the strangest look on his face. It wasn’t joyful or even interested. It was just peculiar that is the only way I can describe it. He was quiet too. In fact he made no reply which I thought odd. When I asked him about it he said he didn’t know how he felt.
Gascoyne advised me not to press him, so I did not. Although I did peer at him when he wasn’t looking, I wondered what was worrying him. My dear friend—did not deserve to have an unhappy moment ever.
They were kind to us and we settled in. Then and by the second night, Ramet said he wished to hunt alone. I thought that odd, though I didn’t say anything. I knew Gascoyne didn’t wish it. As for the rest of us, a few went together but never more than three at time.
By the third night, Raphael had begun to worry as the missing vampire had not yet returned. I asked Gascoyne if he thought Destroyers had risen up again. He said he didn’t know what to think. Then it happened. It happened when Ramet came in one night shortly before dawn.
Voracious Vixens, 13 Novels of Sexy Horror and Hot Paranormal Romance Page 149
