by Aiden James
“Come, Txema!” Gustav called to me. “Come to me and bring Alaia with you!”
At first I hesitated, thinking about how much I loathed his presence and trusted his motives even less. But Chanson came over to me, still holding my daughter tucked safely in her right arm while she held out her left hand for me to take.
“I know what you’re thinking, and yes we can all hear your thoughts quite clearly once again, dear cousin,” she said, her tone milky smooth, and with as much compassion as anything else she had ever told me. “Trust Gustav as much as you have ever trusted me. Walk with me, and you’ll see…you are about to experience something incredibly wonderful. Alaia’s ‘sanctification de sang’ will mark the fourth era of our survival as a vampire race. Both of you will share in an event that has not happened in over three hundred years!”
Sounded important, sounded unique…but it also sounded ominous. I had figured that after Alaia was born, then we could work on the business of raising my child as normal as possible, surrounded by love and protection. Mainly my love and protection. Yes, there would be the eventual nocturnal ‘light feedings’ that would inevitably occur. But, my understanding was this would be handled on my terms to a large degree.
The way everything had been going since her birth made me feel more and more certain that Alaia wouldn’t have much normalcy in her life. She already lacked a daddy who was present in her day-to-day existence. Now it looked as if she might not have a mommy as much as a vampire committee who dictated what mommy had to participate in as Alaia’s guardian. This royally sucked!
“It’s not near as bad as you think, Txema, and you could do so much worse on your own!” said Kazikli from across the river, unabashedly picking up where my thoughts left off. “Alaia will always have my love and devotion, the same as you do. As for Gustav and the rest of our leadership, it’s the same for them—including Chanson, Garvan, and the other guardians who watch over you tirelessly each night. Some of them, you’ve not even met yet! And as for anyone else among us that doesn’t feel the same as me? Woe to them if they ever harm so much as a single hair upon either of your heads! It will be the last goddamned thing they ever do on this earth—I guarantee it!”
The entire group erupted into applause, with a few ‘Hear! Hear!’ responses from either shoreline. Kazikli walked out onto the river with Nora, and soon Xuanxang followed after her. Xuanxang bowed toward me, while the others standing on the water motioned for me to come to them.
“Hey, sister, you can do this—I’m coming too!” said Tyreen, from my left side.
“The rest of us are right behind you,” said Armando, his tone filled with playful glee. “I’ve really been looking forward to this—my second ‘River Dance’!”
Leave it to the jester in our group to make me feel more at ease. Snickering at the reality I had no choice but participate since I was completely surrounded, I took Chanson’s hand and we all moved toward the river.
Here is where this started to get really weird. If they had held me up physically, I would’ve assumed my vampire companions were the reason I was gliding just above the Kosi’s glistening waves. But it wasn’t so, as Chanson only lightly held my hand. Something like a powerful current of air beneath my feet lightly dipped and picked me up again—to the point it was hardly perceptible.
The only experience I can compare it too is how it initially feels when you’ve been walking along pavement or cement and then suddenly step into shifting sand. Only in this case, we went from the soft sand along the riverside and then stepped onto this bizarre energy field. But even that doesn’t do justice to what this truly unique sensation was like.
“Chanson, bring Alaia to me,” said Gustav, once we reached where he stood.
He was dressed in a crimson robe with gold sashes, and another of those garish papal hats graced his head—this one appeared to be made entirely from gold. Chanson did as instructed, while I looked on with my heart racing. I fully understood why she carried Alaia, since I dare say I might not have been so cooperative if I were the one holding my baby girl.
Gustav tenderly took her in his arms, and to my utter amazement, Alaia cooed and made more sounds than she had up until then. We’ve already discussed how these kids develop far, far faster than a normal human, and I had assumed that the way she acted since she was born was the extent of this speed. But, now my newborn child sounded as if she was trying to communicate with him. I was close enough to see her smile, and she kicked her legs and moved her arms, and even pointed her fingers toward his face. All the while, Gustav eyed her lovingly with a proud papa expression I’d not seen from him until that night.
“Are you ready for us, sire?” Xuanxang, demurely, motioned to the rest of us gathered around him upon the water.
“Yes,” he said softly, without looking up from Alaia. She continued her antics as if fascinated by his powerful presence. Or maybe it was those kaleidoscope eyes that prompted her response—sort of like a preternatural baby mobile. “Go ahead and create the circle.”
Chanson retook my right hand and Tyreen grabbed my left. Armando took Tyreen’s right hand while Garvan held Chanson’s left one. On the other side of the circle, Xuanxang, Nora, Kazikli joined hands with four other vampires—two of whom I recognized, including Suddhodana.
We all stepped forward and once the circle was complete, Gustav stepped into the middle and raised my daughter toward the moon. Then he began to chant, and it reminded me of what I’d sometimes hear when I joined Momma at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart’s Sunday mass in Richmond. The words were in Latin, but spoken so quickly and fervently that I couldn’t quite catch anything beyond ‘sangui’ and ‘sanctus’.
While Gustav continued to chant, the crowd around us rocked back and forth on both banks of the Kosi River, and the vampires in the circle began to walk around Gustav. I followed suit, praying silently I didn’t fall and somehow disappear into the river’s swift current. I noticed the vampires in the circle were making a low humming noise, and as we picked up our pace around Gustav, the humming grew louder, until they all began to vibrate.
That’s when I started to freak out. This was more than a little strange…. But then, what did I expect in this already insane world of the undead, right?
Well, try adding this to the crazy scene that night. Amid the chanting, humming, and swaying, weird vibrations caused me to lose my grip on both Chanson and Tyreen. Suddenly, the moon started to distort. Now, I fully understand this had to be some kind of illusion—had to be. The physical laws of the universe can only be stretched so far. My pragmatic mind ceased in trying to figure it all out.
As the moon distorted, its light suddenly narrowed and began to drift down toward us. It was as if our little vibrating circle was pulling the light. Meanwhile, Gustav was shouting, and I thought my baby might be crying. I started to panic, but I couldn’t stop moving. It was like I was somehow forced to continue the rapidly increasing pace, and I was literally running to keep up. I would’ve tried to move into the middle of the circle and take my child back from Gustav, but at that very instant, the distorted and stretched light of the moon touched Alaia. Once that happened, a whirlpool suddenly formed under our feet, and all of the water was sucked down into this enormous hole that seemed to stretch endlessly. I say that, on account of the moon’s weird light flooding into this whirlpool-hole. It looked like a giant bottomless drain.
I was screaming by then—screaming for it all to stop. I felt increasingly dizzy and knew I was about to pass out. Right before things went black, and I was about to fall into the enormous hole to nowhere beneath my feet, I looked up at Gustav and my baby. They were both smiling, and glowing brighter than even the moon…then I fell into the hole.
I would’ve assumed that I died at that moment. I even felt the incredible Gs sucking me down to the earth’s core that had somehow been exposed by the strange magic I had witnessed. But, just when I thought my face would be torn from my skull by the sheer wind force of falling so fast, the e
ntire experience abruptly stopped.
I awoke on my back and quickly sat up. Somehow I ended up next to the fire pit where Kazikli and I had chatted for hours that first day in Nepal back in January. Someone had laid blankets upon the bench beneath me, and the fire’s soft flames illuminated the faces of my protectors. They all watched me. But instead of the worried looks I normally received, they looked at peace…happy.
“It’s over now,” said Chanson.
“W-what’s over? Where the hell am I??”
I felt incredibly disoriented, and my head swam from the barrage of craziness. I looked over at the river, and it was empty of the horde of vampires I had seen earlier. Only Kazikli and Gustav were near the river’s edge, and they walked toward us. Gustav still held my baby. Yet, even from where I sat I could see she was unharmed. By the time they reached me, she was smiling and cooed softly.
“Alaia is yours to cherish and raise as you see fit,” said Gustav, as he stepped up to me. He offered the same loving expression to me that he had given Alaia. My own brief foray into reading other’s thoughts might have ended, but I could truly feel the love emanating from him to me. I felt somewhat guilty for my earlier reaction to him and the mean things I’d recently said and how I’ve felt toward him. Not that I didn’t believe at least some of it was still true.... Yet, I had new information to modify my overall assessment of our vampire king. “She is now safe from Ralu’s reach until puberty, when she will be ready for the next ceremony.”
“So, that wasn’t a dream just now?”
“No, dearest Txema, it was not a dream,” said Kazikli, whose smile was now more of an amused one. “It was an experience that contained moments of truth and moments of fantasy. It’s not the same for everyone, and each time we do this it is an entirely different experience from the last ceremony.”
Great. That made me feel so much better. I’ll be guessing forever as to what was the real part and what was the fantasy. What a mind fuck!
“Exactly!” Raquel chimed in gleefully, letting me know she was right on top of my silent musing. No doubt the others were too. “I told you that it would be fun!”
I was about to say something sarcastic in return, but Chanson stopped me.
“Save your strength and let your mind rest,” she said. “Because as of tomorrow you will need to gather your things and say goodbye to your Sakya hosts.”
“But, Gustav said that Alaia is now protected from harm for a long time,” I said. Granted, I didn’t want to stay in Nepal forever. I just wasn’t quite ready to rush back into the twenty-first century. “Why so soon?”
“It’s not Alaia we’re worried about. It’s you,” she said.
“What about me?”
“The ceremony that protected your baby girl has also alerted Ralu and his minions as to your present location,” said Kazikli. “He’s coming soon. Very soon!”
Chapter 11
I slept with Alaia in my arms that night, reluctant to let go. I’m talking about both her and the tranquil world of the last few months I carried her within my womb.
My precious angel had an added glow to her countenance that had to have come from the ‘la sanctification de sang’ ceremony earlier that night. She seemed so peaceful and radiant, and I watched her until my eyes grew too heavy to keep open, fully knowing she’d need to be fed again within the next hour or so.
The comfort from Gustav’s proclamation that she would be safe from Ralu’s wiles until she got significantly older was one I clung to. Although, I worried it might involve a painful separation from me at some point to insure her survival. That seemed inevitable, if I was still fair game for our archenemy. After all, the only reason we had to leave was on account of Ralu’s knowledge of my whereabouts, after six months of peace.
I silently cursed the fact that my invisible cloak—which came from the spiritual protection from the Sakya clan and my ability to hide my thoughts from prying vampires—had somehow completely disappeared in a matter of a few days. I felt more vulnerable to impending disaster at that moment than at any other time I could think of.
For Alaia’s survival alone, I made up my mind to cooperate fully with my vampire guardians. I’d have to ignore the ominous feeling that my defenselessness was as poisonous to my daughter’s safety as it was to my own. This included my ultimate fear that if Ralu carried out his threats to kill me, my daughter’s ceremonial protection would prove inadequate to save her, the very last of our bloodline.
But, instead of dwelling on the terrible things that could happen, I pulled on the knowledge I’d gained from Yangani and Suddhodana, to meditate for a positive outcome according to my most cherished thoughts. That seemed better than to try and remember the Hail Mary’s from my youth.
The dawn’s light was steadily approaching, and without looking at my hut’s door I knew that Garvan, Chanson, and Tyreen would soon be leaving for the nearby cave that had been their ‘hotel’ for the past few nights. I was pretty sure Armando and Raquel had already gone back to the cave, since there was very little in the village to keep them entertained.
It was in this context that I drifted off, thinking I’d rest for a little while and snap back awake when Alaia became hungry….
My departure from such an uncertain world and arrival into the realm of dreams must’ve been immediate. I was even aware that it could be a dream, although there were aspects that felt far too real to be a concoction from my subconscious mind. I sat up in my bed, not overly surprised that I was still inside my hut, and that my baby girl slept soundly at my side. But a fire raged outside my hut’s door.
The smoke floated into the hut and carried with it an acrid odor of burnt wood and flesh, and it stung my eyes. Alarmed, I picked up Alaia and headed for a small back window in my hut, hoping the fire hadn’t spread there. It was free from flames, so I climbed through the window after gently setting my baby on the ground outside the hut. No sooner than I was safely through the window, and had picked her up in my arms again, the flames engulfed the thatched building and it fell behind me, sending a flurry of sparks and tall flames into the air.
I scurried away from the intense heat and flames, shielding my face from the fire that seemed on the verge of spreading out of control. I heard the terrible screams of men and women beyond the flames, and thought these poor people had been caught in the fire without a means of escape.
But then the heads of Yangani and the midwives who had delivered my child rolled toward me through the fire. An enormous figure emerged, carrying the bloody sword used to decapitate my Sakya friends.
“Well, well…what have we here!” the hateful fiend roared, and then added a boisterous laugh to go along with his menacing words. “If it isn’t the last two vampire lovers…‘Les Amantes de Vampire’. Txema and her little vermin heir, Alaia!”
I wrapped my arms tightly around Alaia, who was now awake…cooing again instead of crying like me, her mother. Ralu had finally found me. Dressed in the deep crimson velvet robe he favors, he looked even more frightful than I remembered him in previous dreams. In those visitations I only had dim firelight to define his features, from the bowels of the dilapidated Byzantine cathedral he had once called home. Not this time. I got to see him in all of his hideous glory as the fire threatened to rage out of control just before daybreak.
His eyes were the only things that looked identical to what my memory recalled. Bloody pools of fire from the depths of Hell, they were more offset than I remembered. The rest of his appearance was much worse than what I’d previously gathered. In addition to the double-fangs he enjoys because of his ancient status, his lips were partially rotted away, fully revealing his bloodstained, sharp, jagged teeth. Huge boil-like lesions covered his neck and part of his face, although the rest of his bald head and pointed ears looked the same as with any other ‘Nosferatu’ vampire. And, the lesions extended to his blood-soaked hands that tapered into predatory talons.
In his other hand, he carried a jeweled golden scepter, nearly identical
to the one Gustav carried with him in our meeting when we first arrived in China, and an item that Ralu had always brought with him in dream visitations before my Relance de sang.
“Please leave me alone, Ralu!” I pleaded, crouching before him since there was nowhere for me to escape. “My baby and I just want to go back home to America and get away from all of this vampire shit! Then you and Gustav—along with all of the other vampires—can work out your problems without us interfering.”
“How lovely, indeed!” he exclaimed, than laughed uproariously again. “That would suit me perfectly…except for one little thing. Can you guess what that would be? Hmmm??”
Nothing good. That’s all I knew. This wasn’t a creature given to mercy and fairness.
“You and Alaia would still be alive!” he sneered. “And the bloodline that I so loathe would still be feeding those whom I despise far more than I do either of you!!”
He leapt over the flames and landed less than a foot away from me. Before I could scoot further away, he pinned my robe to the smoking ground with the sharp point of his scepter. It swayed violently back and forth while he leaned down toward my face with his vile presence. Meanwhile, Alaia had begun to whimper, as if she finally understood Ralu’s malice or the fact she had encountered the first creature in her life that didn’t immediately fall in love with her. I instinctively pulled her close to my chest, and angrily brought my face up to meet his. Whatever my fate, I was determined to fight to the death to try and save her.
“How touching,” Ralu taunted me, sending a blast of his foul breath into my face. The urge to hurl up everything in my stomach was damned near impossible to hold back, but somehow I managed to keep it all in my throat. “But why prolong the inevitable? I will win, Txema, and you and your kind will soon be no more. Then, all of your vampire friends will have nothing to fight for…little to live for…and only me and my kingdom to kill for!”
