Part 10 (1/2)

”He almost didn't. His entire family was ga.s.sed at Auschwitz. You disturbed a major demon. You know who he was?”

”No.”

”A child prodigy, a celebrated pianist.”

”I see.” Remembering Jean's advice, he took a deep breath and did an unaccustomed thing. ”Listen. I'm sorry if I was less than sympathetic last time we met. I'm an insensitive b.o.o.b sometimes- a lot of the time. You've taken great risks in coming here and I understand that this work is very important to you. I hope we can continue.”

For a split second her mouth dropped open and eyes widened in surprise, then just as rapidly, she shrugged it off and took her place. ”It's ok. Let's go.”

He pulled out his notes. ”You left off where Ethan made you a vampire. What happened after that?”

”Well, the first year was kind of a training period for me. We lived in Ethan's home in Virginia. It was a large, red brick house built along graceful Georgian lines. I'd spent my life in small apartments and now he brought me to this mansion. By day, I'm sure it was lovely, surrounded by huge old oaks and a vast green lawn, but that first night the shadows lent a gothic aspect to the place, making me uneasy, like some Bronte heroine.

This sudden urge to flee overtook me, and I might have if Ethan hadn't held his arm firmly about me. If you could say anything for Ethan, he inspired confidence. As situations go, it was very bizarre. Here I was with a man sprung from my dreams, who vowed to love me for eternity, but it still wasn't quite quite all I'd dreamt of. One teensy little fact I couldn't get past; he was one hundred and twenty, and drank blood to survive. No s.h.i.+t, I s.h.i.+vered standing in front of my new home. all I'd dreamt of. One teensy little fact I couldn't get past; he was one hundred and twenty, and drank blood to survive. No s.h.i.+t, I s.h.i.+vered standing in front of my new home.

He sensed my apprehension. ”It's very strange to be uprooted from the only life and place you've ever known. It'll seem so for a time. Once I teach you what you need to know, we may mingle more freely in human society, and you'll appreciate the world far more than you did before. I will always be at your side to protect you.”

Again, I asked myself- from from what what?

The finality gave me that queasy Jane Eyre-ish feeling in the gut again. I depended now on his sufferance for my very survival. No longer part of the mortal world, I'd no earthly, or should I say unearthly, idea of what the vampiric one would bring. Clutching him tightly, I burst into tears.

Ethan, extremely moved, comforted me. ”Hush now. Let's see the house, shall we?”

He unlocked the front door and switched on the lights. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was still the twentieth century.

He toured me about the house, pointing out works of art and architectural features with great pride as I clung nervously to his arm.

”Gee whiz, I'll never get used to the fact that you're over a century old!”

Ethan smiled at that. ”Wait until you meet one from another millennium.”

Now I was truly appalled. Creatures from societies that burned people alive, sacrificed virgins and kept slaves? Slavery? Slavery? Oh boy, I hadn't even considered this question. Obviously, it was part of Ethan's past. Oh boy, I hadn't even considered this question. Obviously, it was part of Ethan's past.

”What about the vampire who- I didn't know the lingo yet- did this to you?”

He kind of snapped at me, ”We call ourselves Immortyls Immortyls. Vampire is a vulgar term.”

”Sorry. So who did it?”

His face tensed. ”I really don't wish to discuss it.”

I quickly changed the subject as we entered another room. ”Wow, what's this place?”

”The drawing room.”

”Oh Ethan it's so pretty!”

Delicate furnis.h.i.+ngs were swathed in bright silks and tapestry. Richly patterned rugs of blue and yellow wool covered gleaming wood floors. A huge chandelier sparkled overhead. My breath caught in wonder at the glitter, like the stars, like Ethan.

”I could stay here forever!”

The most splendiferous object was pleased, lifting and twirling me around. I laughed, the glittering lights and motion making me giddy. Little did I know when I spotted the notice for the play that I was to glimpse a world about to dawn!

He set me down and pulled something sparkling from his pocket, an art nouveau b.u.t.terfly pendant set with star sapphires and tiny diamonds. ”To commemorate your emergence from the chrysalis.” He did the clasp around my neck. ”Your journey is just beginning, my b.u.t.terfly.”

Just where would it take me? To the end of the earth and back- this particular act, I was confined to the Old Dominion- a Bird of Prey in a gilded cage, if you will.

Well, it all took some getting used to. Not just the liquid diet, the whole darn shebang. The lack of sunlight really got to me. The sun was in my blood and I'd always found the winter depressing. I was used to New York crowds and my raucous theatre chums. Ethan's house, however, was isolated from the rest of the world and I had no human contact. Even the two elderly servants worked while we slept and then went home.

I was also curious about everything having to do with my lover, but Ethan wasn't exactly forthcoming with information. As loquacious as he could be, there were periods of brooding silence that went on and on, when he would peevishly wave me away. I'd back off, hurt and bewildered, but the night my fangs finally came in, he demanded we share essence immediately. And I learned a curious thing.

I eagerly tore into his throat for the first time, embracing the glowing pulse of his heart within my own. Then the screen lit up inside me, and I saw the tall blond man of my nightmare, his long hair blowing in the wind, standing in a snowy landscape with arms outstretched. A searing climax rocked us both, as if this person willed it. I tried to probe Ethan's memory deeper and find out who this man was, but my lover abruptly pulled away and the vision vanished. We lay there panting and gasping for breath.

”Ethan, can we read minds?”

He pulled himself over me, eager for round two. ”Really Mia.”

I opened my thighs to admit him. Every evening started this way, not that I objected. I was more than happy to oblige him.

”I sense things about you sometimes... ”

He didn't miss a stroke. ”You're simply reading the language of the body, the timbre of the voice. Trust me, the less hocus pocus you believe the better. It clouds the mind.”

”How do you explain the visions when we share essence?”

He pulled out abruptly. ”Visions?”

”I saw a man with long blond hair, standing in the snow. Who is he?”

He rolled off of me. ”No one- you saw nothing! A hallucination brought on by ingesting blood, nothing more!”

”Seems to me, you know him well... ”

He ignored my questions and got up to dress. ”Get dressed. You have reading to do.”

Ethan had peculiar ideas about our place in the world and thought it his duty to instruct me nightly in the drawing room. ”Mortals are lesser beings,” he said calmly, as he laid out his nightly game of solitaire on the inlaid card table. ”You've undergone a metamorphosis. Your flesh is no longer mortal, and now you must shed the vestiges of the puny human psyche. Open your consciousness to new possibilities... ”

I struggled through the dusty old tome he'd a.s.signed me, scowling. This philosophy of his was, in my opinion, simply a case of some animals being more equal than others, but it was seductive when offered by the epitome of male beauty. To Ethan, after living thirty-three years at the apex of human development, it seemed only natural that his new form took on divine proportions. It really isn't hard to imagine how he'd come to this conclusion. One look at Ethan would have made a believer out of the most hardened skeptic.

Ever the curious little cat, I put down the book he'd a.s.signed me and thumbed through a very old leather bound photo alb.u.m on the table, to a picture of a girl, fair, very slender, in her late teens. Her eyes stared out of the old daguerreotype like a plea for help. No one ever smiled much in those old pictures but she looked positively scared to death. ”Ethan, this is your wife?”

An annoyed look came over him. ”Yes- that's Sally Anne.”

I couldn't help feeling jealous. ”Did you love her?”

”We were ill-suited. I married her out of duty. My father was afraid he'd die before seeing any grandchildren. She was the least objectionable choice.”

I felt another more severe stab. ”You had children?”

A pained look briefly crossed his face. ”Two sons, Robert and Joseph,” he said, quietly turning the leaf to show me.