Everyone seemed to be in high spirits. The entire village hummed with energy and laughter. I could not have been more elated, either. I was finally on my way to having the life I’d recently realized I had always wanted — Teller and me surrounded by our children.
A scream rang out. All fell silent. I looked around to see where the terrifying sound had come from. There was a commotion not far from us. My family and I ran over to see. It was the missing farmer — he had returned and he was alive! He had stumbled into the feast and now lay on the ground. I searched for his name in my head. Luka, I thought. He did not look well. He had odd wounds on his neck and wrists that looked as if they had been cleaned and tended to. He was whey-faced and obviously weak.
“I escaped,” he said with a labored voice. “Monsters …” He trailed off, too weak to go on.
“Get him inside,” Father yelled.
Two men carried Luka into the tavern.
Sofia, the local healer, pushed her way through to Luka and sent out orders for fresh water and rags. “Give him some room!” she said as she shooed people away.
Ivan made his way closer to the ailing man. “Who did this? What happened?”
Luka’s eyes rolled back in his head. He moaned.
“Leave him alone!” Sofia barked at Ivan. “He needs rest. Let me see what I can do. You can get your answers when he is better.”
Ivan glared at the little old woman. He turned to the growing crowd and declared that the culprit might be near and a hunting party should head out immediately — led by him, of course.
I ran to fetch Sofia water. It was not long before a group of men headed out with whatever weapons they could find — swords, javelins, spears. A few merely had pitchforks. Teller and his father were in the lead. They headed in the direction from which Luka had come.
Father asked Josiah not to go but Josiah said he must help if he could. Father decided to see to it that the rest of the townspeople went home. We cleared the village center by telling everyone to get safely inside. We waited until everyone had gone home before we did the same.
It was well after dark and the men were still not back, I started to doze uneasily. Father coaxed me to go upstairs to bed. He said he would wait up for Josiah and the others to return. I tossed and turned in bed and woke at the slightest of sounds. I would sit up occasionally to see if Josiah was in his bed across the hall. The last I looked, he was not.
Chapter 18 Ludus 1260 A.D
In the hours before dawn, I woke with an eerie feeling. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck. A tall lean figure was hovering over my bed. I started to say, “Father, is that — ?” when a hand appeared over my mouth. The figure scooped me up and before I could even try to scream, we landed on the ground below my bedroom window. I was being carried through the forest so quickly that I could hardly make out the trees as they flew by.
There was enough moonlight so that I could make out my kidnapper’s face. It was Lord Chastellain. I started to scream and his hand came up quickly to easily muffle it. Through the wind in my ears I heard what sounded like a faint voice. This stopped the lord and Elijah appeared from out of nowhere.
“Father, what are you doing? Let her go!”
The lord set me down gently. I tried to run but his iron grip on my arm stayed me.
“What are you going to do?” Elijah asked the question as if he knew the answer and dreaded it.
“You know very well my intentions. I’m going to turn her into one of us.” The lord’s tightly lipped smirk was more terrifying than his words.
Turn me into what? I thought. I could no longer suppress the panic that was taking over. I did not like the sound of it.
“Father, please, why would you do that?” Elijah was slowly stepping toward us and the lord was moving farther away with every step Elijah advanced.
“For you, of course. You want her, do you not?”
Elijah’s hands were held in front of him as if surrendering. “No, no, I don’t. Not when she does not want me. You read her letter and we both know she loves someone else. It is done.” Elijah paused briefly, then tried another angle. “Please, we don’t have time for this. We must be leaving. The hunters will find us soon. Leave the girl and the rest of the villagers to live out their human lives.”
“We have time — unless you did not take care of the farmer?” the lord questioned.
“Of course I took care of him. The old lady got in the way. She is dead as well.”
“Dead! You killed Sofia and Luka? Why?” I could not refrain any longer. I fell to my knees but the lord supported my weight easily. Tears filled my eyes. What is going on? Why would Elijah hurt them?
“You see, Father? You think turning her will make her love me. She will only hate me all the more. Let her go and we will move on. It is only a matter of time before they find us,” Elijah pled.
“And watch you brood about for another hundred years or so until you are able to find another beauty like this. I don’t think so. I want only your happiness, Son. That is all I have ever wanted. The way I see it, you can either kill the boy she plans to marry or turn her. Is it not better to turn her and leave the boy alone? You will thank me someday for this.”
The lord did something surprising. He bit into his own wrist until blood flowed down his arm. I caught a glimpse of two long teeth. The lord had fangs like a lion’s. He pulled my hair, jerking my head back. I screamed as pain spread like fire across the back of my head.
“No!” Elijah yelled.
I choked on the blood Lord Chastellain was pouring down my throat. There was a loud cracking sound as Elijah threw his body into his father’s. Elijah swiftly caught me and gently lowered me to the ground. I tried to spit the blood out. My head was spinning. I looked for the lord but he was nowhere in sight. Everything went black.
Part II Chapter 19 Ludus 1260 A.D
When I came to, I did so slowly and everything was hazy and confused. I sat up and studied my surroundings. I was lying under a makeshift lean-to, which was shading me with leaves and branches. Elijah was sitting against the trunk of a nearby tree. He was as still as a statue, not moving to look at me.
“I’m very sorry. I did not want this for you. I tried to stop Father.” With a sad smile, he added, “I did not even want this life for myself.”
My last memories came flooding back and my heart began to race. There were so many questions running through my mind. In a flash, Elijah was at my side. I jumped at his sudden closeness. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears.
“Shhh,” he said, “there is much you need to know. I will help you.”
“Get away from me!” I ran out from under the lean-to and doubled over, covering my eyes. It felt like there were knives in them. I was virtually blind. An agonizing scream escaped from me and Elijah pulled me back under the lean-to.
“Please, listen to me! Let me explain and then you can go, I promise. Well, actually, once the sun has set you will be free to go,” he corrected.
“You killed them,” I stammered. It was all I could think about — all I could manage to say — all that mattered. I was trapped who knew where, with the killer the village men had been looking for. The memory of the baker’s blood-soaked body on the forest floor appeared in my mind. “Emil! You killed him?”
“Well, not that I suppose it matters but my father was the one who killed him.” Elijah said this as if it were a normal occurrence.
I felt ill. I wrapped both arms tightly around my stomach. “Is that what you are going to do to me?”
“No.” Elijah sighed. “What Father did to you is worse.”
“Worse? Worse! What could possibly be worse?”
“Remember, you asked. You are in transition. Over the next day or so you will become a creature of the night, like us — Father and me.”
“What does that mean? A killer — a demon?”
“Of sorts. We have been called such things. We refer to ourselves as vampires.”
“W
hat in the world is a vampire?”
“Where to start? Perhaps I should start with the worst of it. We need human blood to survive and the sun is no longer our friend. We are creatures of the night and the shadows. The sun’s painful effect on the eyes fades after a couple of decades but you will always prefer the more comfortable shade and darkness.”
It felt as if the earth was spinning. “You are out of your mind! How long have I been here? I have to get home!”
“You have been here since last night. I’m afraid home will no longer be safe for you or your family.”
I could only take so much. The day was growing old. “Father will be worried half to death. I must go!” I tried to rise but Elijah grabbed my arm to stay me.
“That is not possible now and yes, they will be out looking for you. That is why we must move quickly, as soon as it is dark.”
“Move quickly to where?”
“You are going to need to feed soon and I don’t suppose you will want to do that to anyone in your village.”
“I can’t leave my family — my friends.”
Elijah took a deep breath. “Look, what I am saying is, your old life is over. You have a new life now — an immortal one. It will be safer for everyone you care about if you leave the village. Father and I are leaving for Denmark. We have a home near Copenhagen where it is easier for us to go unnoticed.”
“You mean so you can kill people more inconspicuously?”
“Please, listen to me! It takes time to learn to control your need for blood. Come to Denmark with us. We can help you adjust to this new life.”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. There is absolutely no way I am leaving with them.
He tried another angle. “It was my father who killed my mother.”
This did get my attention. I could not help asking, “Why?”
“He, like most new vampires, thought he could control his thirst. He knew that he would not hurt my mother or me. Now she is dead. I saw him turn into a monster and drain her of life. Father disappeared. He later said it was because he did not want to hurt me. From that point on I was raised by a handful of servants. John, my father’s most faithful servant, became like a father to me.”
I was captivated by the story. “How did you become … like this?”
“My father returned eight years later, when I was of age. Like you, I did not have a choice.”
Could it be true? No. I thought of his mother’s large room. That could have been her room — a long time ago. Some of the pieces fell into place. “You were from here? Originally, I mean?”
“Yes, the manor outside of town is largely where I was raised. Father preferred that I be brought up in a safer rural area. He spent a lot of time away on business when I was growing up. This is the first time in many years that we have returned to Ludus for any length of time.”
“How old are you?”
“Well, as I said, I stopped aging when I was about eighteen or so. I have been on this earth for almost seven hundred years — give or take. One tends to lose track after a handful of centuries pass.”
My lips parted in amazement. “So that would be the good side to being a … vampire — eternal youth?”
“Yes, immortality, strength and speed. We are many times stronger and faster than any human. We are well suited to this earth. We can move quickly across land, sea and air.”
A hysterical laugh escaped. “You mean to tell me you can fly?”
“Yes and I will teach you, if you want me to.”
It was all too much. I shook my head and fell silent for a time. I stood and slowly stepped out into the sun. Once again, my eyes felt as if they were on fire. I stepped back into the shade. Well, I’m not going anywhere if I can’t see. I sat down, exasperated.
“What am I to do? I can’t leave Father to wonder about me. It will tear him up. He will search endlessly. And Teller…” My heart started to ache. Would I never see them again? My thoughts strayed to Mari. She had been such a dear friend. Tears started rolling down my face and Elijah wiped one away.
“We will think of something. We will send your father a letter saying … I’m not sure … some story.”
Some story. Father would have to be content with ‘some story’. Anger surged to the surface. Slapping Elijah’s hand away from my face, I stood and moved as far away from him as I could without the sun burning me.
“You are a murderer. I want nothing to do with you or your wretched father. He did this to me. I will never forgive him!” I’d hoped this would offend him but it did not.
Elijah said nothing. In fact, his expression did not so much as change. He still looked … sad.
This calmed me a bit. “You mean to tell me that you have forgiven him for everything he did to you — to your mother?”
“It is my life, so I have grown accustomed to it over the years. Sometimes I still feel anger toward him, leading me to believe that I have not fully forgiven him. Now he has done it again — trying to control everything. Making decisions for me and making a mess of things.”
I plopped back down, still as far away from him as possible. “Is there nothing to be done? There must be some way to undo this. What if I do not drink … blood?” I swallowed hard on this last word. “Would I go back to … normal?” I had a horrible feeling about the answer to this, yet there was still a touch of hope. That small bit of hope was all I had left.
“No. If you don’t feed, you will die.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone! I do not want to be a … killer.” I racked my brain; there must be another way.
Chapter 20 Ludus 1260 A.D
“What about animal blood?” I asked.
“I have experimented with drinking animal blood,” Elijah explained. “It apparently only prolongs our downfall. After several months of consuming only animal blood, I was too weak to hunt. Father saw to it that I fed properly, of course. So, my next experiment has been trying not to kill the people whom I feed from. I am getting better at it. Luka survived. The problem is that keeping humans prisoner is no better than killing them and if I let them go, then humans will discover that we exist and hunt us. We’ll have to relocate more often. I have been searching for alternatives my whole life. So far, I have not found any good ones.” His voice was monotone and the gray storm raged in his eyes.
“You hate what you have become, don’t you?”
“At times, I do find happiness. It is not all bad.” I could tell he was only trying to make me feel better.
“Then I will not feed. I would rather die than become a killer and have to live with that for all eternity.” Such a life sounded like the definition of hell. That is it. That is the best option — the only choice. I closed my eyes and let the tears come freely. I would not even get to say goodbye to the people I loved. It was better than killing them. It had to be done. After a long while, I opened my eyes.
“Do you really mean that? You would rather die?” He looked … impressed.
“Yes and if you do actually care about me, you will let me die.”
He did not say anything. He looked disturbed.
“I’m serious, Elijah. You said you did not want this life for you, let alone me. Don’t interfere with my choice.”
“I wanted you to have a choice between a human life and a vampire life. Death, while you were still so young, was not one of the options I had in mind. Besides, it is not going to be easy. Your urge to feed will be too strong; it will change you.”
My throat was already so dry I felt I could drink the entire Mures River and that would not be enough. I rubbed my throat, hoping this might help somehow.
“You see? This is only the beginning; your thirst is going to get a great deal worse. Let’s hope you can last until dark and we can get you to a neighboring village.”
“I’m not going to drink someone’s blood!”
Elijah shook his head. “At sunset, you need to run with me far away from here. I have nothing here strong enough to restrain you when your
thirst gets too powerful. I don’t think I alone can stop you — even if I truly wanted to. If you are not going to feed, we must run far into the forest, away from any people.”
“Do you promise to help me?”
“Aye,” he said with reluctance. He put his arm around me and this time I let him. I needed to be comforted, as the sun was getting low in the sky. I cried into his shoulder for a long while.
When the sun was setting, I pulled myself together. “Will you take my body to my father? I want him to know what became of me and not hold out hope for my return. That is the least I can do.”
Elijah nodded. “Of course.”
The light was fading. It was dark enough for us to run. He clasped my hand and we sped through the forest away from Ludus. The trees were flying by in a blur. I could not help myself; it was exhilarating to be able to move at such a speed. I could duck under or jump far over fallen trees with ease.
Though I had not thought it possible, the thirst was getting worse. I felt myself slip away. A crazed new feeling rose from deep within. It was unlike anything else I had ever felt. A raging monster was taking over. I fell to my knees and screamed in pain and frustration.
“I need a drink; get me something to drink!” I yelled at Elijah. A searing pain spread through my jaw. I covered my mouth with my hand and screamed again.
He stepped away from me, shaking his head no. I did the most unexpected thing. I lunged to attack him. My body was out of my control. A hungry beast was in charge now. I did not know if it was anger or frustration, or if I was trying to feed from him.
In a split second, he changed into something else entirely, a creature I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams. His skin was like stone. It was gray and cracked. His face turned into that of a monster, with long fangs and glowing yellow eyes. Enormous bat-like wings unfolded behind him and he took flight swiftly and was soon safely out of my reach.
My irritation came out as a roar. It was a sound I had never made before. I desperately looked around for something, anything that might help to stop the pain that had started in my throat but now spread through my entire body. I took a deep breath though my nose and caught the faint scent of something sweet — something I needed. I ran in its direction. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the large, dark figure in the sky following me. It was not long before the scent grew stronger. I spotted the glow of a distant light. Within a few moments, I was at the doorstep of a lone farmhouse.
Of Lords and Commoners: Book 1 (Lords and Commoners Series) Page 8
