World of Azglen (Full Moon Series Book 1)

by P. Mattern

  “Yep” Lux confirmed, ”It’s actually private land that belongs to our family. You’ll like it - plenty of trees and a brook” Lux paused to speed up and pass a large truck, barely making it back into the driving lane before an oncoming car whizzed past-and causing some of his passengers to gasp involuntarily.

  “Lux!” Fressenda said with irritation in her voice,” That was too close!” “No kidding!” Charley echoed, ”I swear you vamps can’t drive worth a – darn. Let me drive!”

  Lux chuckled, ”Charley my man you only just got your permit. And also, though I admire your candor, you sort of hurt my feelings with that misplaced remark. I think you have me confused with Cass - the poster boy for remedial driving classes.”

  Cass was instantly alert, ”Whaaaaat?” he yelped, bristling, ”I beg your pardon? Who got the last ticket? Twas YOU dear brother, as I recall. Something about going 75 in a 45 mile an hour zone?”

  “Oh, that. ”Lux responded,” That was just the case of a quota hungry cop on the prowl. It was at 7 in the morning, I was on my way to Chicago, and the traffic was nonexistent. Anyway Warsaw is just a speed trap. Everyone knows that.”

  “Apparently dear bro’ - everyone except for you!”

  “Well” Lux continued, slowing down a little, ”Who was it that totaled the ’58 Chevy on the way to an Elvis concert because he was playing “chicken” with two chicks in a convertible?”

  “Lux, dammit, only YOU would go back an entire generation and a half to dredge that up. You know I’m a better driver than you are. Ok - if you want to play that game, who struck another model T with HIS model T going down a country road too fast when there were only 20 cars on the road in the entire state BECAUSE HE REFUSED TO YIELD? Who exactly was that?”

  “The other driver should have yielded, ”Lux grumbled.” I had the right of way. And there weren’t technically any rules of the road then. Anyway - truce?” he said brightly, flashing a smile toward the back seat.

  “Ok - truce. As long as you remember not to cast aspersions on my formidable and accomplished driving record now or in the future.”

  After 25 more minutes of traveling (a little too fast for Mitzi’s comfort) deeper and deeper into the countryside, Lux turned onto a narrow dirt road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. From there on Lux sounded the car horn enthusiastically and periodically, explaining that the road was so narrow and hilly that a meeting with another vehicle might end up in a head on collision without a “heads up” barrage of honking.

  But the group met no other drivers on the road. Suddenly the road, which had been carved deeply into the countryside like a tunnel, with exposed tree roots growing out of the embankment that hugged it, spit the travelers out into an open expanse of meadow bordered by a pond. Two ancient looking willows flanked the water, and sunlight shimmered on the grass. Lux pulled the car off the road and parked near a lone redwood picnic table that looked singularly out of place in the frowsy, untouched natural surroundings. As Lux turned the ignition off, a hush fell over the group, finally broken by Mitzi when she breathed, ”Oh Lux, it’s beautiful here!” Lux brushed his blonde hair away from his brow with a self-satisfied air. ”I knew you guys would appreciate it. What do you think, Charley my man?”

  Charley jumped out of the SUV, and, shading his eyes with one hand, scanned the horizon. ”Very cool. Especially the wildlife-pheasant, grouse, all manner of indigenous and exogenous waterfowl. Was this ever a preserve, Lux?”

  Lux nodded, “Of sorts. Cass knows more about the history of it than I do - Cass?”

  Cass called back over his shoulder as he muscled the picnic basket and other paraphernalia toward the redwood picnic table. ”Can we talk over lunch? I am starving. Something about the open air. Help me lay out this magnificent feast.” Checkered tablecloth spread, the group dined on the picnic offerings amid grunts and groans of pleasure from Charley and the twins. Mitzi glowed with satisfaction from the ambiance of the gathering and the appreciative comments. After the group had eaten, she sat on an old quilt with her back against a willow, watching the younger people play Frisbee. Cass showed off tricks with a boomerang he’d brought along. Eventually, the rest of the group, panting and complaining of thirst, joined Mitzi under the willow. Charley, Lux and Cass grabbed paper plates, smaller ones this time, and munched on leftovers.

  After talk of sports, and the latest political events, the conversation turned to the recent series of volcanic explosions in several countries across the globe, the recent solar flare activity that had been observed, and how scientists were ascribing changing weather patterns worldwide to these occurrences.

  Fressenda shivered, even in the temperate heat, and shooting a look to both Cass and Lux said, ”Oh no - could it be happening again?”

  Charley tilted his head and frowned quizzically, ”What do you mean Fress? Can WHAT happen again?”

  Fress was quiet for a moment, her eyes seeming to focus on a distant spot on the horizon. For once, both the twins were quiet at the same time, avoiding her gaze as she turned to each in turn and said, ”Boys, I think we should share some of our history with Mitzi and Charley - are you on board with that?”

  Lux shrugged, Cass looked around the group almost shyly - for once his perpetual smartass smile was absent. ”Okay, ladies and gents - or rather ‘lady’ and ‘gent’ - get out your hankies, it’s a tear jerker.”

  “Not entirely” Lux objected, ”It has a happy ending - n’est - ce pas?” Ignoring him, Fressenda said ”I’ll start.”

  She cleared her throat. ”The year is 1816, the place is coastal New England, U.S.A. Strange weather of (at the time) unknown origin has descended on the East Coast of the United States, as well as on other countries in the world, though we had no way of knowing the extent of it. News traveled slowly and world news even more slowly at that time, especially to the small towns - and most of the towns would be considered miniscule by 21st century standards. Cass and Lux were living in Dennysville, Maine, right on the bay. I was living in Vermont. My parents were part of a religious sect that had settled in New England. We lived quiet lives farming or fishing. And then that summer came. And the fog.”

  “What sort of fog? You mean a horror movie type mist?” Mitzi queried.

  “Not white but reddish - “the rust” we called it. And it became very cold. The fog was so thick it was blocking the sun. Crops were dying. Many people thought it was a judgment from God, or that it meant the end of the world. And the odd part was that it did - or at least the end of the world that we had come to know. I was a young woman at the time. My parents had arranged for me a marriage with a much older man, which I was very unhappy about, because he already had two wives… this was allowable and even encouraged by the precepts of our religion you see…”

  Lux interjected, ”Cass and I were the sons of a widower. We had one older brother and worked from an early age growing oats, tending livestock, digging clams, and doing all the other ‘House on the Prairie’ stuff. When the fog came in we lost 2/3 of our crops. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to survive the winter and feared we wouldn’t survive the summer… because it was summer, and it was snowing. We were running out of food, and although wild game had been plentiful, we could scarcely get by, even with our traps and rifles… it was as if the animals had sensed what was coming long before we did and had migrated away. My father and older brother became sick. Cass and I were teenagers at the time and did our best to care for them and also tend to the farm. Many of our neighbors had left the area by then. One morning there was a knock at the door of our cabin. When we opened the door we thought that we were dreaming, because standing out in the falling summer snow was…”

  “ME!” Fress interjected enthusiastically.

  “That’s right!” Cass said, jumping into the conversation.” Our own snow angel. At least that was our impression. We hadn’t seen that many young women - get together with the neighbors were few and far between - but we didn’t recognize her as one of the locals. S
he asked if she could come in and warm herself, said she was traveling and her horse had bolted or something. She was dressed like little red riding hood .Lux and I both fell instantly in love with her.

  While we explained our situation she got busy, tying on an apron she took out of her carpet bag - and barking orders at us after she checked on the condition of our father and older brother. The first thing she made was an elixir from some herbs she had - she made our sick relatives drink the medicine. Then she fixed a proper feast out of the limited foodstuffs we had available. Even a dried apple pie…”

  Lux commented fondly, ”I loved dried apple pie.”

  “Please let me tell the story. ”Cass said in a peeved tone.” She was a wonderful cook. We didn’t have much space in the cabin but we felt she deserved her privacy and converted a storage area off the kitchen into a room for her. That night Lux and I had the worst brawl we had ever had in our entire lives-over her. Being gentlemen, we took it outside of course, but she heard us fighting anyway…”

  Lux smirked and finished Cass’s sentence”… And came outside, furious, and dumped a pail of water on us as we rolled on the ground, pounding each other for all we were worth!”

  Fress laughed at the memory, ”They looked so surprised. But I had to set them straight. I told them that a suitor was the LAST thing I wanted - and that frankly neither one of them would do in the least! I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves, wasting their energy, and they’d better knock it off and get ready for chores the next day.” Suddenly a look of sadness crossed her face, ”It was too late for their father - but their brother recovered. I stayed on to help until nearly 10 months had passed. Eventually the fog lifted and the temperature normalized and it seemed as if things would return to the way they were before. Their brother took to wife a girl from a neighboring farm. At that point I felt that it was time for me to go. What I HADN’T counted on was these two fools wanting to leave WITH me.”

  Cass chortled. ”You didn’t take much convincing, Annie Oakley”.

  Fress sniffed, ”Annie Oakley was LATER, thank you very much.” She turned to Mitzi and Charley. ”They wanted to come with me to protect me, you see. But it ended up quite the reverse.”

  “Let me tell this part.” Lux interjected. At Fress’s nod he continued their tale, ”We really thought we were going to protect her. And I think we both thought that she would change her mind - about us or at least one of us. We had no idea who she really was - or what she’d become before we even set eyes on her. If we had we would have hightailed it in the opposite direction. Because…”

  “Fress was already a vampire.” Cass said quickly, shooting his twin a superior look.

  “Dammit Cass I hate when you do that!” Lux complained.

  “Do what? Beat you to the punch? I would think you’d be used to it by now. I can’t help it if you’re slow” Cass retorted, studying his finger nails nonchalantly.

  Lux shot him a scorching glare and continued. ”So we were on our way west - we had heard that the middle of the country had been spared the ravages of ‘The Year Without a Summer’ - that crops were plentiful and the land was fertile. We were crossing a forested area between towns in Ohio when a mountain lion jumped down from a tree right onto my back. Cass threw himself on the lion, trying to gouge its eyes out from behind and get the beast off of me. But the first bite had severed my jugular vein, and I quickly started to bleed out, losing consciousness. Cass had managed to blind the animal, who released his grasp of me, but in the process Cass had been wounded as well. Suddenly Fressenda appeared. She’d been walking a short distance behind us, picking herbs, and in a second lifted the wounded mountain lion with one hand, smashing it against a tree trunk with such force we could hear its bones shatter. Then she ran to me, saw that I was dying and shouted at Cass, ”If you want your brother to live there is only one way to save him-you have to trust me.” She proceeded to make me a “once bitten”. The old fashioned way. She totally fanged me.”

  Cass jumped in, ”Of course I was totally freaking. The woman of my dreams. A vampire. I had only heard of such things as myth, folklore. But at the same time I was watching my brother regaining consciousness - watching a huge bite wound heal right before my eyes, like a time lapse photography visual. At that point I began to feel my own wounds-the deep scratches felt as though they were on fire, and I was losing blood. I started to speak, then fell to the ground. Fress flew over and caught me and ‘initiated’ me also. The next thing I knew, I was wide awake and watching my own wounds heal before my eyes.”

  Fress sighed, deeply, a slight smile playing around her lips, her eyes focusing on some far off memory.

  “And that’s how we became a “tribe”. It wasn’t easy - those were dark times in which to be different. People watched each other very closely and with suspicion. Superstitions were repeated as fact. And it was a good 50 years before the V-Net - our worldwide underground civilization was established; it was a very primitive time. Often if you were one of our kinds you had to go it alone.

  Not everyone handled it well. Some went crazy, attacking humans in broad daylight and then getting hunted down and burned. Usually after angry mobs, frantic at being confronted by a blood lusting monster had dismembered them or driven a stake through their hearts.”

  “Hmmmmm. Sounds like vampire extermination was trial and error” Charley commented thoughtfully. ”Was it hard for you guys to blend in to society at large and not be detected?”

  Lux shook his head, ”Not really - Fress would work as a seamstress, teacher or nurse - multitalented that one! Cass and I usually found farm work - which, I might add, I despise to this day.”

  Everyone chuckled at the thought of Cass pitching hay or weeding a garden.

  “You were good in the garden” Fress reminded him. ”Your sweet peas won best of show in the 1924 4-H Farm Fair” she teased.

  “Well there wasn’t much to excel at in rural America” Cass answered. ”But it got lonely - we seemed to be the only ones of our kind and we had to travel into the cities to feed. We could travel by air then - no radar. Most of our kind lived in cities and fed on the poor.”

  Mitzi didn’t want to ask the question but her innate Southern bluntness won out. ”How did you feed?”

  The others exchanged significantly awkward glances. Lux put his head down and studied an ant that had crawled up on the picnic quilt .Fress answered quietly.

  “Hospitals… and mortuaries, when there came to be more of those. Transfusions and stored donor blood were unheard of then. Before that it was even harder - mostly the elderly or injured - that was during the Civil War - at the moment of passing, a nanosecond before death. It had to be timed precisely or…”

  “You ended up making more vampires.” Charley finished for her.

  “Exactly”, Fress confirmed. “It was a very difficult time - and a sobering one. ”She was silent for a moment, then continued,” These are truly the best of times. Getting human blood, prepackaged and prescreened no less-is simple.”

  “Fress I love it when you use words like ”truly”. So anachronistic and old fashioned. No one says that but you” Charley gently teased.

  The group was silent for a moment. The summer skyline was streaked with gold, pink, and plum brushstrokes. Fireflies floated on the air at the tree line, surrounding the group with hundreds of tiny soft glowing lights.

  Mitzi looked over at Charley and Fress and noticed that their hands were intertwined.

  Lux broke the interlude by yawning loudly and stretching. ”Well gentle folk, looks like it’s time to pack up and call it a day.”

  And moving slowly and quietly as if they didn’t want to disturb the ethereal beauty of the evening, they packed up and headed for home.

  * * *

  Chapter 09: Room 222

  She opened the door with the key card he’d left for her at the front desk. It was a nice hotel, less than 5 star but still the ambience and the décor were tasteful - a cut above most local establ
ishments.

  When the door swung inward she did not enter immediately. The interior was in semi - darkness, the only light emanating from a pink shaded lamp in the far corner of the room. The room appeared to be vacant. She entered hesitantly and then started as the magnetic door clicked shut behind her.

  His face was half shadowed by the strange semi light and he seemed much taller than she remembered. She felt, rather than saw, him gazing down upon her.

  “I’m glad you came.” he said quietly, adroitly helping her out of her coat with an almost paternal gesture. ”I was afraid that you wouldn’t”

  She could feel her heart beating in her ears. ”After you explained, I had to. I - I can’t go on like this. Will it take long?”

  “No” he replied,” But are you completely convinced that this is what you want to do? There will be no going back you know.”

  She answered by shrugging her shoulders and tilting her head back slightly to better expose her neck. Closing her eyes she said, ”Okay. I’m ready.”

  Although he never made a discernible sound, she could sense a quiet chuckle, as if she had amused him in some way.

  “There are other options you know. Your wrist, your thigh…” his voice trailed off, and she felt herself blushing warmly, grateful for the low lighting in the room. In a voice that sounded very small she said, ”No, this will be fine. Just hurry and get it over with.” She became aware that her breath was becoming more rapid, also aware of the rising and falling of her chest.

  “Whatever you say”. He said lightly. It seemed an ocean of time before his last words and the first searing press of his lips on her flesh. Her mouth involuntarily formed an “O” as the pressure between his lips and her neck increased. She had the sensation that he was somehow drawing her into himself. His arms encircled her, rocking her ever so slightly, and in spite of herself she fell languidly back into them. There was no pain.