Forever

by Natalie J. Case

  Joy instantly knew Moira from my thoughts, and gathered her like a wounded bird into her arms. “Come, Moira, let us find a quiet place to wait. All will be well.” She cooed and persuaded Moira as I ran up the steps to the doors of the church. They were, of course, locked. True hunters wouldn't want anyone to see them at work. I circled the building, trying to hear beyond the cold stone walls. I found an open window at last, in a back office. I crawled through and slipped through the deserted halls.

  Leonard was too proud to cry out, even if he were to think anyone would come for him. I listened instead for the sound of men's voices, for the racing heartbeats and harsh breathing. My senses were heightened by my excitement and fear for the life of the man who had been like a son-in-law to me. I sniffed the stale air as I slid through the shadows beneath stained glass windows and sidled slowly into the sanctuary.

  Crouched there behind the last pew, I peered into the darkened sanctuary, and there I found them. For the briefest of moments it swept over me, the vision of a time past, and I felt my heart palpitate as Rebeka's face flashed in my mind. I blinked, and some part of me reached out to Joy. Her mind brushed against me like the familiar touch of a lover, and my thoughts cleared. There were three of them, modern images of a demon worse than that which they sought to kill. Pale images, I saw as I moved a little closer, for they seemed to have lost some of the truths about our kind once so preciously guarded by theirs. Two of them wore strings of garlic around their necks, along with their crosses. The stench of their fear and anger mingled with sweat and blood, raising the level of rage within me.

  Leonard was tied across the altar, the ropes stained with his blood where they cut into him. A crucifix lay across his chest, and smoke was beginning to rise from it as his skin reacted. His feet were burned from where they had found the sunlight and his long hair lay across his face. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, pounding uselessly against the cold marble slab of the altar. There was a low growl coming from him that I knew would have been a roar of rage anywhere else. It filled the air … or perhaps just my ears, for the others seemed not to notice.

  I called to him silently, pressing my presence close enough and strong enough that the tone of the growl shifted. He was too weak to respond in kind, but it was enough that he knew I was there and would do what I could to help him. The men seemed oblivious to all but the task at hand, and I let the Change come over me as I glided closer. Almost silently I moved in the flickering candlelight, closer and closer to them. The first of them died with a broken neck before the others even knew I was there.

  The noise of my anger filled the cavernous room, echoing off the hand-polished timbers. The Hunter closest to Leonard raised a wooden stake in preparation for the kill, leaving the third to confront me and keep me at bay long enough to finish their sacrifice. I had other plans however, and paid little heed to the one now charging at me, another stake in hand. Instead, I dove at Leonard, landing atop him and biting into my own wrist. I pressed the bleeding wound to his lips and reached out for the Hunter with my other hand.

  I caught him by the collar and pulled him close, snarling in his face as I bent him so that I could reach his neck. He smelled of his fear, his self-righteousness. His eyes went wide as he realized his error. I didn't give him time to regret it, biting harsh and deep, drinking quickly to replenish that which I was feeding Leonard. The blood was hot and fiery, slipping in and out of me with scarcely a thought. The third Hunter grabbed me by the hair and tried to pull me off backwards. I pulled my wrist from Leonard and snatched the stake from the lifeless hands of the first Hunter, scratching it across the face of the attacker.

  I dropped the all but dead Hunter and flung myself off of Leonard at the last of them. He paled and backed away, down the steps, holding a tiny silver crucifix between us. It gave Leonard pause, but I merely tossed my cloak to him and told him to cover his eyes. Then, my whole attention was on the little Hunter. He was frightened, all of his conviction and bravado gone in the face of a monster he had been unprepared to face. He began running down the aisle, but he was no match for the speed of my mother's people. He died before he could reach the doors, falling limply to the scarlet carpeting at my feet.

  I returned then for Leonard, who had gone to squat beside the remaining Hunter. He was still alive, but only barely so. I reached down to snap his neck, to finish this night, but Leonard stopped me and shook his head. I could read his intent and backed away. I couldn't have approved, but neither could I deny him the right to his own manner of vengeance. “Think carefully, Leonard, for this decision will surely haunt you,” was all I said in way of warning. Then I scooped up the limp body and carried him out into the predawn silence, Leonard following. Just off holy ground, I laid him in the grass and watched as Leonard hovered over him, then leaned in.

  Had I not done the same once, taking my revenge in the most horrific way I could see? For many, many years it haunted me, the Hunter returning time and again to mark me further in some way. Yet, it had also ultimately brought Joy to me completely. I had left the Hunter teetering at the brink of death. There was still a little further to go and the man I considered a son, took him there viciously, giving only enough back to make the Change begin. We watched as the transformation took place, and the hunger filled him, his eyes widening with horror as he realized what we had done.

  “Now, Hunter, taste the dawn, with that hunger in your belly, and that fear in your heart. Find shelter, if you have the strength, or die here knowing you are now that which you have hated the most,” Leonard growled at him and I pulled on his arm. The sun was coming quickly, and shelter would not be so easy to find. We hadn't the time to reach their home, or the hotel where Joy and I were staying. We had to find cover. We flew through the streets, climbing in through an open basement window to hide for the day. It was the first day since bringing Joy to me that I spent without her in my arms.

  I scarcely slept, the images of Rebeka and Joy mingling in my mind, the faces of Hunters long dead and the poor soul we had left to find his own salvation filling me with fear and dread. Leonard and I spent most of that day sitting and waiting for the sun to set. We spoke some, of the nights when we were together, of the years separating us, but nothing of the events which had just taken place. His deed was perhaps less bloody than mine, less vicious and cruel, yet I could see it weighing on him already. He had never given the gift before, nor taken a life with so much intent. As dark neared, I held his head in my lap and tried to soothe the trouble brewing beneath his dark hair.

  “You cannot take it back now. It is best to forget it.”

  “And leave such a creature to the night?”

  “Always so dramatic.” I sighed, brushing his hair. “Such a creature will adjust, or perish. It is not for you to sort out.”

  “You warned me against it, yet didn't stop me. Why?”

  I sighed and leaned back against the wall. “I could not make that choice for you. Besides, this Hunter was not as dangerous as mine. His mind seemed sound enough, he should adjust well, once he gets past the anguish of it.”

  He looked up at me with incredulity in his eyes. I smiled down at him. “I have not always been the prim and proper lady you think me to be, Leonard. Indeed, in our time apart I have been much different than I am today.” I sighed, and saw it before me, the life that seemed so distant and surreal. “I too took my revenge on a Hunter this way. It was a century ago … more than that perhaps. He took from me someone that I loved. It dawned the darkest day in my life. His name was Daniel and I made him one of us in the very confines of the holy mother church before an entire town. I released him into the night, but he never fully left me.”

  “What happened to him?”

  I thought about it, all the times we crossed paths, all of the pain we inflicted upon each other. “Ultimately, he died, while returning to me that which he had taken to begin with.” I glanced up to notice the light was fading in the distant window of our hiding place. “Come, let's s
ee if we can't discover how much damage we've done to the local level of hysteria.”

  When the sun had finally gone enough for comfort, we crawled back through the window and made our careful way back to the church. Moira and Joy were there already. Moira rushed into Leonard's arms, melting into him as if they were indeed one person. Joy's smile was all I needed to feel her relief at our safety. There was no sign of the Hunter, or his dead companions. The church was locked and bolted tightly. There was no word on the streets of the strange deaths and no indication that anyone else knew the truth about us. Someone had done a cleanup job on the whole affair, which indicated to me that this was not a town I cared to stay any longer in. Someone with power knew the truth, someone who was willing to kill, and cover up the blood when they were done. Moira and Leonard chose to move on, to find a new place to explore. For awhile Joy and I traveled with them, sharing stories of our lives, and the people who populated them. It felt nice, comfortable.

  It was only months later, in a middle-sized town in Middle America, outside an all-night diner that another piece of my life would fall into place. We had stopped for gasoline and to stretch our legs. Moira and Joy had ventured off into the night to explore the town's square. Leonard was talking with the station attendant. We had caught him just before he had closed for the night. I wandered away, toward the diner, catching the inviting aroma of pot roast on a slight breeze. I didn't truly see him at first, so adept was he at blending into his surroundings.

  It brought a smile to my face though when I did, and he smiled in return, holding out his arms to me. I went to him, laughing as he folded me up in his arms. “Ah, Dovan. I had wondered where you'd gotten off to.”

  He released me and swept his eyes up and down me. “You look as though you've recovered nicely. I was worried about you.”

  “I've survived.” I looked more closely at him, and noticed he seemed older, as if something inside his immortal frame had withered. He hadn't fed in a long time, and … I could almost feel his … hurting. “What is it?”

  “Justine,” He said simply, and I realized she must be gone. “Two years ago.”

  I touched his hand, trying to offer what comfort I could. He smiled sadly, a cold, distant expression that held no emotion. “I have been waiting here for you ever since.”

  “For me? What made you think I would come here?”

  This time his smile was genuine. “You are here, aren't you?”

  “I suppose I am.” I smiled too, letting him put his arm around me. “And, not alone. Moira and Leonard are here as well.”

  “And Joy?” He could sense her still, that faint perfume of her presence drifting our way as we approached the car.

  “And Joy,” I responded as we reached the others. I made the introductions of Dovan to Moira and Leonard, and Joy smiled and threw her arms around him as if seeing her own grandfather. Dovan invited us all to join him, an offer we accepted graciously. I had not realized how much I missed his quiet, paternal presence.

  His home was not exactly the most modest in the town, and once you penetrated the outer appearance, it was far more lavish and opulent than any would assume from the facade. It appeared to be a two-level house, with perhaps five bedrooms, and spacious living quarters, but once inside, and past the middle-class American veneer, the word mansion might have been appropriate.

  Six levels extended down from the main floor, housing a library to rival most national archives. The shelves in that library held some of the rarest texts in the world, including some in languages I don't even remember. Journals from various members of the Family, including some of my own, filled one corner, while newspapers, magazines and encyclopedias filled another. Crypt like bedrooms on the bottom most floor showed that we were not his first relatives to spend time with him.

  “Justine told me that out of all of my children, you alone would appreciate this place,” he told me as we stood alone in the library.

  “She would be right.” I felt so close to him, and yet distanced by something. It was something he wanted, but was afraid to ask for. I decided not to push.

  “I've kept track of Francis since you last left London. I thought you might like to know.”

  I smiled, surprised, and yet not quite, that he had thought to do such a thing. After all, she was his great-granddaughter, as much as she was my daughter. “Of course I would.”

  “She is well, as are the children. For a woman her age, she is incredibly well kept, or so the gossip says. Amanda is a proper lady, engaged herself. She has many of your talents, your quick wit. Jesse has entered university. He is studying to be a doctor.”

  I exhaled sharply. “Has it been so long?” I glanced to Joy. We had last been in London for Jesse's twelfth birthday.

  “It has. They miss you.” He turned toward me. “You should visit.”

  “I will, someday soon.”

  “Promise me?”

  I smiled softly. “Of course, I promise.”

  “Good. Your family is very important.”

  We were quiet then for a time. He led me to the room where he spent his days. It spoke of him, authoritative and sparse, and yet somehow comforting and home. A painting of Joy and Francis and I hung there above a fireplace. “Justine painted that herself, as a gift to me. It was the last thing she did.”

  “How did it happen?” I finally asked, not wanting to tread on the obviously painful wound, but genuinely interested in knowing.

  “There was an accident, she got hit by one of those vehicles, like yours. She was enough like us that she would have recovered, but they took her to the hospital and left her exposed to daylight. She was enough like us that it killed her slowly.” He withdrew a little further into himself. “I was away when it happened. When I made it back, she was nearly gone. There was nothing I could do.”

  I touched his hand, and we sat silently for a moment. When he stirred, it was to kiss my forehead lightly. “I have sat here, in this room, every day since then waiting for you to come.”

  I knew then what he wanted, what he had waited for. Our eyes met, and he seemed to ask it without speaking. I nodded slowly, accepting what I knew would be my final role in his life. I climbed up onto the bed beside him, sinking into the banks of pillows that softened his dreams. He came to me, lying against my chest. I folded my arms around him and for a long time I didn't move. My heart slowed, my breathing softened. He stilled beneath my touch, as I raised one hand to gently glide it across his face. “I do adore you, Dovan … Grandfather.” I whispered, more into his mind than his ear. His hand touched mine.

  He had already gone, in so many ways, but the cursed gift that his own brother had forced upon him held him to this body, compelled him to remain long after his will for it had fled. With no other thought or sound I brought my lips to his neck. My first touch was more a kiss, the second barely more. My teeth were gentle when at last I Changed, piercing the skin tenderly. I closed my eyes, sipping lightly of the cool blood that was all that was left of him. His mind slipped further and further from me, unlike that of a human dying. My fingers were unconsciously stroking the side of his face, as if to comfort him. My other hand held to his, long after his hand had ceased to hold mine.

  I sat then, with his fading body in my arms, feeling his presence fade from the room. When at last I opened my eyes, Joy was there, watching and waiting. The tears came then, tears for everything we had shared, and all that we might have had he remained. She came and held me until they passed. “May we all have so quiet an end, when the end has come,” she said softly as we closed and locked the door to that room behind us, leaving little more than dust to mark where he had been.

  “Indeed.” Was all I could think of to say in return.

  The home, with all its secrets, had been left to me, perhaps as he had intended since he had bought it. Joy and I took up residence there, finding an easy place within the quiet town and soft memories. Moira and Leonard stayed a while, but eventually moved on, promising to return from time to time.<
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  I wrote to London, to Francis and Amanda and Jesse. I journeyed back for Amanda's wedding and Jesse's graduation. Francis had aged remarkably well, but time had caught up with her as well.

  Dovan had left us a sizeable fortune, the remainder of the Family wealth, with which we continued what he had begun, filling the library with the rarest books available on any market. We emptied out my various storehouses of precious history and secret stashes of valuables from the many decades of my life, sorting through it all and selling what I could stand to part with. As I worked on the perfecting of my life's writings, Joy set about telling the true history of the Vampyre. In the dawning of a new age, I was content to sit out awhile, to let the others play the games of life. Dovan had opened the house to those of the Family who remained, on a few conditions of course. It became a haven, a place where those with the inclination could withdraw from the world at large. Joy and I continued that tradition, trading room and board for tidbits of their life stories, typed on hand-return typewriters or scrawled in leather bound journals.

  Someday it might make interesting reading. Forever is a long time, filled with lifeless moments and ridiculous truths. If we are lucky it is punctuated a time or two with wonderful people and incredible adventure. I have come this far, finally understanding my place between the world of man and the dark, between the killer and the mother, between the lover and the demon. For each of us there is an ending, and one day I will find mine … the day will come when forever will seem impossible to me, as it had for Dovan … but for now I remain … forever, Amara….