“Cassandra?” she whispered. I tried to get the boy to say yes. But he just continued to cry. Artemis sighed and kissed him on the top of his head. “There, there child. I will take care of you wherever we go. They will not stop us leaving. We were considered gods once, and the general will respect that.” She had said ‘we,’ and I hoped that meant Apollo was with her. I thought of the flash of golden hair I had seen amidst the fighting. It was over eight hundred years by then since our paths had crossed. I still believed my cousins were better away from me, and yet I could not help but long to see them again. Once more I tried to get the boy to speak.
“Cassandra,” he croaked. My heart leapt with joy.
“Yes, child,” I gasped. “Tell her I am here. Tell her to bring you to Egypt,” I begged.
“What did you say?” Artemis leaned in close to him. He sniffed and closed his eyes again. I felt him drift back into a deep sleep.
Try as I might in the days, weeks, even months that followed, I could never reach the boy again. And then Alexander came and Egypt was annexed into the great Hellenic empire.
Had the vision been a warning? Perhaps. But Egypt did not fight. Indeed she welcomed the Macedon with open arms. The people made him their saviour, for Egypt had not fared well under Persian rule.
As months drifted into years, and then decades, I considered searching for my cousins or the child, yet I did not go. Instead, I remained in Mn-Nefer running Sekhemet’s business for a further three centuries. It was only when Cleopatra's guards came to my door that I understood why I had connected with that child and witnessed the infamous siege of Gaza.
Arsinoe
When siblings fight and worlds collide
The people in their care must decide
Who they choose determines who will win
But the one who is left is driven to sin
Book of Darkness, C1000BCE
chapter 16, paragraph 1
Fists hammered on wood. The door rattled violently, threatening to break free of its hinges. The sounds thumped rudely into my dreams. At first, I thought it was a storm outside and so I turned over and tried to ignore it. But then I heard my serving girl calling from outside my room.
“Mistress, wake up. There is a soldier at the door.”
It was around midday and I had been entertaining much of the night. I was tired, well-fed, and not in the mood for dealing with some pointless questions about my business activities.
“Tell them to come back later,” I mumbled, pulling the blanket over my head and closing my eyes again.
“Sorry, mistress. But he is insisting I fetch you.”
I sighed,
“Very well.” I lifted away the warm arm that lay over my stomach and climbed off the bed. Irritated I swept past my serving girl towards the stairs. I noticed the look of unusual concern upon her face. She was used to seeing men and women coming into the villa for ‘The Donor Club.’
Ever since Delphine, the busty Vampyr owner of the brothel at Mn-Nefer, had decided to move north, I had taken over part of her business: the part that involved the exchange of the more colourful bodily fluids anyway.
It was a useful way to avoid the hunger and keep the rumours of my immortality as suppressed as possible. Club members included three other Vampyr and at least two-dozen donors. I call them donors for that is what they were.
They came for sexual pleasure, but it was the giving of their blood that made it exquisite. Many members were prominent in the local society, and in good positions to laugh off and make excuses for the never-ageing appearance of the Vampyr. They were reliable for they did not want their club membership to be revealed. From time to time, however, the local guards were sent to the villa to check upon my business activities.
Not the legitimate ones related to Sekhemet’s family business, but for that which they knew, yet could not prove were in operation. Prostitution would not have been an issue, but the trade in blood, however, was one that many considered to be in league with some kind of demons or dark underworld.
“Yes officer, how may I be of assistance?” I said as I walked towards the door without really observing my inquisitor.
“Good afternoon, mistress. I am here to inform you that your villa has been requisitioned by the crown.” He handed me a papyrus scroll. I did not open it.
I looked at the young man standing in my doorway. He was dabbing his face nervously with a cloth and trying not to look me in the eyes.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“Her majesty requires the best property in Mn-Nefer for her soldiers to…”
“Her majesty has no right and no business to any such thing,” I interrupted and began to close the door in his face. He put his foot in the way.
“I am very sorry mistress, but her majesty can do as she pleases and…”
“Cleopatra has no right to the crown, and no right to my home, now get out!” I barked, giving him a light shove backwards.
There had been a great deal of civil unrest in the previous few years, ever since the mysterious death of Pharaoh Ptolemy XII. In his will, he had passed the crown jointly to his eldest son and daughter. The boy, not trusting Cleopatra, had his sister exiled at first. But then Cleopatra had used her sexual guile to seduce the Roman emperor. Caesar fell for her charms and placed her back on Egypt’s throne. Literally getting into bed with Rome had been a dangerous decision.
There had not been a day gone by since then that neighbours had not disagreed with neighbours, husbands had not disagreed with wives, and children had not fought with their parents. No one could agree who should be Pharaoh, nor how much influence Rome should have upon a crumbling Egyptian Empire. There had been several bloody battles, especially in the capital of Alexandria in the far north. I did not care for politics, but I could not condone this cruel and manipulative woman at the helm of the country. And I did not need my visions to see how she would stop at nothing to get her way.
“I am very sorry, but if you do not vacate the premises within the week, you shall be removed by force.” The young man was visibly shaking. I could see from his expression that he did not agree with his orders almost as much as he was scared of facing me. I rubbed a hand over my forehead and sighed.
“Then send in the army, for I shall not leave willingly.” With that, I slammed the door shut. My serving girl was standing at the bottom of the stairs. She too was a donor, though not to me.
“Where will we go?” she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. It was not as simple as finding another home. Leaving the villa would likely mean the end of the Donor Club, at least for a while. The villa was not only the largest in the city but also afforded a relatively secluded position at the edge of town. I shrugged and placed a comforting hand upon her slender shoulder. I called her a girl for that is what she had been when I took her on, but she was in fact by then somewhere around the age of fifty. She had lived a long life for a human at that time, and she was very well set in her ways. I knew I could not take her with me.
“I do not yet know. But they shall have to force us out first.”
A bird chirped from the orange tree in the courtyard, and I wondered how nice it would be to have such a carefree existence as it enjoyed. But then I thought of all the predators it might have in its short life and decided I preferred my own.
“Will you call upon the other Vampyr and fight,” she asked.
“Very likely,” I replied, knowing that it would be futile.
As I climbed back into my bed my companion opened her eyes and legs. With a seductive look, she pulled me down on top of her so that my cunny rested upon her mouth and my tongue at her clitoris. She smelled of rose oil and sex. My body ached with longing as I slid my fingers inside her. She was wet with desire. I bit down on her thigh.
After the ecstasy, we both slipped back into slumber. But my sleep was restless. I dreamed of our departure. How the soldiers would come at dawn seven days hence, armed and ready to drag me from my home of more than three hundred y
ears.
I considered doing as my maid had suggested, but in the end, I saw little point. Instead, I gave her enough money to retire, and found her a new position with one of the other club members, for that is what she wanted. Then I waited for the guards to come. You may wonder at why I did not leave of my own accord since I knew in advance that I should not win. But there was a sense of loyalty to Sekhemet and her family’s legacy that I could not shake. I could not just walk away without some kind of protest, even if it was just me and the cat.
On my final night, I had a farewell party for the Donor Club. I had intended that they should all be gone home well before dawn. There was a subdued mood initially, but as the night got underway, spirits brightened and a good deal of pleasure was enjoyed. There was a small pool in the courtyard. I’d had it installed some years before, not long after the club began.
Ponds had become most fashionable for wealthier homes, but mine had no fish or birds. It was regularly refilled with fresh water, and with the heat of the sun could be a most pleasant temperature, even to humans. That particular night, however, I had a wild idea to fill it with wine. The humans were considerably more intoxicated than the Vampyr, but there was certainly no one entirely in control of their faculties by midnight. I recall little after the height of the moon myself, other than the sight of naked cavorting.
I awoke the next morning to the tingle of sunlight upon my skin and the sound of heavy knocking at my front door. The hard body of a young man was pressed against my back, his semi flaccid cock resting on my ass.
I forced open my eyes and pushed away my companion. Glancing around I realized I had lost my gown somewhere else in the house. I scurried into the shade of the orange tree and called for my serving girl.
When there was no response I yelled, “Just a moment!” at the door.
There was a momentary grumble, and then the knocking began again. “Yes, in a moment,” I bawled, frantically scanning the lewd scene before me for my gown. There was a tangle of humans scattered around the courtyard.
Some covered in blankets, but most were as naked as the day they were born. One woman was draped over her male partner, her hands resting upon his morning glory. Another had her face still buried between the long slender legs of a Kushite girl, where they had clearly both passed out before the fun was complete. I wondered what the guards were going to make of such a scene and could not help but giggle.
“Looking for this?”
My heart skipped and I spun around to see the most familiar, yet unexpected of faces. I tried to cover my cunny and breasts with my arms. She laughed at me.
“Cassandra, I know it has been a long time, but truly, I did not imagine this would be how I would find you.” Her disapproval was passed with a wry smirk and laughter glinting in her eyes. “You are certainly not the innocent little cousin I spent all those years on board ship with.” She handed me my gown. I grabbed it and tugged it over my head. It was not sufficient to protect me from sunlight, but it was better than nothing.
“What are you doing here?” was the first question to tumble from my lips.
“I shall explain later, but now we must go.”
She grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the back wall of the villa. I was still a little drunk, and though alcohol does not cause hangovers in Vampyr, the intoxication does affect our ability to function. I tripped over the leg of a snoring man and realized he was the high priest of Ptah. Funny how no one looks so grand or important when they haven’t a stitch on.
“Quickly,” Artemis dragged me past the pool and up to the wall. “Jump,” she urged. But my motor functions were still impaired. I crashed into the brick about a cubit from the top, smashing my knees and skinning my elbows. The sun was beginning to scorch too. My hands and arms were starting to blister and my face felt as though it were on fire. I scrambled up after her and dropped over the other side into a heap on the hard ground.
“What in Hades…”
She clamped her hand over my mouth. I glared at her.
“Shhh, not so loud. Zeus! How much of that pool did you drink?”
I rubbed at my burning skin and pushed her hand away.
“Shit! We had better get to shelter before we both frazzle.”
She grabbed my hand again and we ran, across town towards the narrow shaded streets of the inner city. Weaving behind market stalls, dashing past homes until finally, we slumped behind a low row of houses to catch our breaths.
My mind flashed back to Troy when we had unwitting killed a young prostitute. We had sat there until dawn, watching and waiting for her to wake up after our attack. Of course, she did not. That had been the first time we had understood our nature on earth. I turned to look at my cousin. Her features were smooth and handsome, her eyes and hair bright as polished silver. She looked back at me and grinned,
“Lord Zeus, what was going on back there?” she asked, highly amused.
“They are… friends… It is a club for… Really? You are asking me questions! Are you not going tell me why you are here?” My brain had still not fully reengaged from the wine puddle in my head, and quite frankly I needed to understand what had brought her to my door after all these years, at that very same moment when Cleopatra’s guards had come to requisition my house.
Artemis put her hand over mine as it rested on the dusty ground. In the building behind us, a baby was crying, and there was a rather unpleasant stench of something rotting nearby. I closed my eyes and rested my head back against the wall.
“The guards were not just coming for the house. They were coming for you. Cleopatra heard of your gift. They were coming to take you to her.”
I stared at Artemis.
“But how? Why would she not just ask for my assistance instead of taking me by force?”
Down the street, a dog barked and a child yelled at it to shut up. Artemis sighed.
“You saw what happened at Gaza did you not? You saw through that little boy’s eyes?”
I gawped at her then. I had near forgotten that vision it had been so long ago.
“That little boy was the son of a general. His father had been killed in the first battle of the siege and his mother was raped and kidnapped by Alexander’s men. The boy was left in the care of…” she hesitated long enough to raise suspicion. Her expression showed a hint of something she was afraid to tell me. I narrowed my eyes at her.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“Nothing, I was only thinking of what Ajax did to you.”
I felt sick at the very sound of his name. I shuddered and pushed the image of that night back into the recesses my mind.
“Forgive me,” she said with a sad smile. “You must prefer not to recall.”
I replied by gesturing for her to continue the story. She complied with a short nod,
“The child was around three years old. He had been left in the care of a local…man…who took in orphaned and street children.”
I ignored the pause, hoping it was merely her way of telling the tale.
“When the man’s home was destroyed, he and the children moved to a stable nearby,” she continued. “But the Macedon came, and many of the children were killed or taken as slaves. David was the only survivor.”
“And you were living there also?”
“I had been living in Tyre when it fell to the Greeks and was taken with them when they moved west.”
“As a prisoner?” I asked, astonished that anyone could take Artemis by force. She shook her head and threaded her hands together.
“Not exactly. I allowed them to take me, for I had heard my brother was fighting with them.” She saw the question upon my face and answered it without my asking. “We separated when he fell in love with a Persian prince and turned him.”
“Why would he do such a thing?” After what had happened when he turned a young dancer back in Troy, I was most astounded to hear he would try such a thing again.
“He believed he would survive,” she exp
lained. “After all, the prince had known what we are and how we lived since he was a child.”
“But he went mad?” I asked sadly. Artemis shrugged,
“I cannot say. I am ashamed to admit it, but we fought and I left before I could find out. I could not bear to watch.” There was a hint of jealousy in her tone too, but I chose to ignore that. I looked up and noticed the sun was beginning its daily descent. “Anyway,” she returned to her story, “I had not seen Apollo in almost a century and had heard he was with the army heading for Gaza. So I let soldiers take me with them, in the hope they would lead me to him.”
“You found him?” I asked. Artemis lowered her eyes.
“No. He had already moved on. At first, I was told he had gone west to Egypt. Then another tale said he was north, in Gaul. Other stories came that he had gone east along the silk route toward the land of Chin. After I escaped at Gaza I tried looking in many places, but wherever he is, all I am certain of is that he is still alive.”
“I am so sorry,” I whispered, slipping my arm around her shoulders. “And you came to ask for my help, to see if I could find him in my visions?”
She lowered her eyes.
“I have not seen him in my dreams or visions for many years,” I continued, “But perhaps now that you are here…”
“That is not it. We have more pressing matters,” she cut in, “I must tell you about Gaza.”
“All right.” A cat wandered past us. I smiled and reached out to pet his sleek striped body, but he just looked at my hand in disdain and continued on his way. Artemis laughed.
“You are still trying to get along with such creatures.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed,
“Please, what happened to the boy?”
“Yes.” She glanced up at the clear sky above and thought for a moment. “David was found badly hurt in the rubble, but I think you knew that?”
I nodded.
“I had taken refuge in an abandoned house,” she continued. The…man…found me there and asked me to take care of the boy. We planned to leave together, to head for Egypt but…”
The Dark Evolution Chronicles Page 18
