Tuesday, May 18
“You will be going too far Viking, if you align yourself with half humans,” said the Vampire. “It is bad enough that you have aligned yourself this far with Weres, it would be unconscionable if you overthrow your queen in the company of wolves. Kill her if you must Sheriff, but do it yourself. Vampires should only die at the hands of another Vampire.”
“I have not asked any were to make a move against Sophie Anne LeClerq,” said Eric.
“You did not say your queen is Sophie Anne LeClerq,” said Edward.
“She is indeed,” said Eric. “Do you know her?”
“I do know her,” said the Vampire. He stood up and looked into the fire. He reminded me of old woodcut prints of Dr. Faust about to conjure Mephistopheles to do his bidding, but at a price. “Richardson?” he said the name calmly and the man appeared from nowhere. I looked at Aolani and she took out her phone and texted me. I looked down. There was a single word: Familiar.
It was not uncommon for Vampires to create a familiar. They were not strictly human but they were not Vampire, so they could operate during the day. They were close to being something like a well preserved intelligent zombie, not like those magikal abortions we might see in Jamaica or Haiti, or in a George Romero movie. They were simply servants to whoever conjured them. I cleared the message and nodded my head at Aolani minutely. She and I would have to discuss this later.
“Richardson, fetch something to drink for our human friends and bring up my personal stock of blood donors for our fanged friends,” said Edward. The Vampires looked at one another. If they refused a blood meal, I knew I would not be drinking anything this man brought us.
“Thank you Edward, but we are well fed,” said Eric.
“Well, what of your friends, won’t you enjoy some wine or ale?” asked our host. If I were dying of thirst, I would not drink anything this man fetched me. It made we wish I had brought my mad stone, also known by Harry Potter fans as a bezoar.
We demurred and refused politely and Edward nodded by way of dismissal. He turned with his back to the fire and he was in silhouette against the orange red flames of the huge fire.
“How do you know our Queen?” asked Bill.
“I know Sophie Anne Leclerc because she turned my wife Vampire and stole her away from me. I became Vampire expressly to do whatever I could to ruin her,” explained the Vampire.
We were as silent as a Vampire’s grave, in shock with the revelation. Eric did not react, nor did Pam whom I could see out of the corner of my eye. I could feel the barest stroke of Bill’s fingers on the nape of my neck and I knew to be still. The rest of the group was quiet as well.
“Then you and I have similar experiences in our pasts, Edward,” said Eric. “I too nurse a vendetta, though not against Sophie Anne.”
“I see,” said Edward.
“We should say good evening to you,” said Eric. “We have a long ride back to our accommodations.”
“Are you staying in London?” asked the Vampire.
“Yes,” lied Eric. “And we have a long ride home.”
“Of course,” he said. “But my offer is this, whatever you decide to do, whether it is to go democratic or to simply kill your queen, I would be interested in helping you.”
“I will keep this in mind,” he said.
We all breathed a collective sigh of relief…well those of us who breathed that is. We loaded back on the bus and got seated and went down the highway a stretch before Eric stood up in the aisle of the bus and addressed us.
“What do you think of our English friend?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t trust him as far as far as I could fling him,” I said.
“Why not Aslinn?” asked Eric.
“Well, I just don’t think he would be so ignorant as to not know about you and who your queen is,” I said. “Barrister has been talking to him for some weeks now, and he knows Barrister is your human counselor. He would have his own Consiglieri sniffing you, seeing what’s under your fingernails; he would have a file on you, your area, your Vampires. He would also know about Sookie.”
“What do the rest of you think?” asked Eric.
“He seemed shocked that you would have access to witches. Thing is, he would have had to have paid a witch a great deal of money to make his familiar,” said Aolani.
“That is what was wrong with that guy,” said Body Guard.
“He doesn’t seem to like your kind much Body Guard,” said Eric. Body Guard just shrugged as if it were a small matter. “Were you able to plant the listening devices?”
“Yes, there are several around the room,” he said.
“So now what?” asked God Speed.
“We play a little cat and mouse, see if we can’t get two enemies to kill each other,” said Eric.
We pulled in to the estate and stretched out in the parlor and chatted with the Vampires through the night. Chris and I busied ourselves at making a record of our visit. I got into the Vampire data base and looked up our friend.
“Bill, honey, is there any way we can find out if Edward was really married?” I asked.
“I am not sure,” he said. “You might go to the London Library and look for him.”
“Fairy girl, come here a minute,” I said. Fairy came over. “Can you do an internet search while we go to the library tomorrow?”
“Sure,” she said. Fairy whipped out her phone and typed in the Vampire’s name and added it to her day book list. “Look up Sophie Anne’s profile on Bill’s database.” I did. There was a picture of the beautiful and ruthless redhead and there was a listing of her Vampire Statistics.
“Lord, look at all the children she sired,” I said. “There are about 20 of that time.”
“Vampires did not live very long back then, it was very rare for Vampires to survive their first few days much less their first year,” said Bill.
“How come?” I asked. Everyone gathered around to hear this. It was just one more speck of knowledge for us in our wealth of Vampire knowledge.
“Well, the world was less populated. When Eric was made, there were very few people and hunting was a catch as one can proposition. And when you are a very young Vampire, you are constantly hungry. There were many times I hunted and fed and killed when I didn’t mean to, simply because I was so hungry. It takes a long time to learn when to stop,” said Bill. “You have to have a very old maker who can teach you when to stop so you don’t end your meal with a dead body to clear away. And then there was the fact we were monsters to the rest of the world. We had to stay away from large human centers.”
“Now you guys, you don’t have that…hunger anymore…I mean you do, but if you had to go several days without blood, you could do it, you would not starve,” I said.
“Yes, after a few decades you learn to conserve your energy and you replenish whenever you have the opportunity but even before we came out, I fed every evening but no more than maybe…two or three ounces,” said Bill.
“Eric? How much do you need to stay healthy and energetic?” I asked the Viking behind me. I could see him reflected in my computer screen.
“A sip here, a sip there. The older you get the more discriminating you can be,” said Eric. “I like to feed on passionate people, or people who have fear in their bodies. The heart races and the breath rushes out and you can smell their fear. Very tasty.”
I made a mental note not to ask Eric Vampire questions again. He is always so direct it borders on creepy. And Sookie thought Bill was a little too Vampire from time to time. I sat there and stared at Edward’s picture. Then a thought occurred to me.
“Bill, is there a way to call up two files so they are side by side?” I asked.
“Yes, click on file pairing and the prompt will come up asking for which two files you want brought up,” said Bill. I clicked on the tab and wrote in Edward’s name and was stumped on the other name.
“What is the Magister’s name?” I asked.
“Just put in Jorje-Magister-NA,” said Bill. I did as I was told and both files were open on the screen. Even the Vampires seemed to draw a sudden breath.
“Not father and son,” I said. “Brothers?”
“Where did he get the Spanish name?” asked Minnie.
“Jorje is George isn’t it?” I looked at Vi and Lina. They nodded. “And they are both Catholic.”
“But why no last name?” asked Renee.
“He’s illegitimate,” said Fairy. “It was common for illegitimate people to go by a single name.”
“But how could he have been an inquisitor? Didn’t the Church have views about legitimacy?” asked Linzy.
“Sure,” said Violet. “But there were even bishops and popes that were illegitimate. Some were even father/son teams, like a king and a prince, when the pope died, his bastard would be made pope by the conclave.”
“We don’t know about this for sure,” I said. “But I think we have been set up.”
“By the Magister and this man?” asked Butter.
“Yes,” I said. “That was why the Magister was so open handed with Barrister and Eric and willing to talk about everything Barrister asked. They have been in cahoots.”
“Cahoots, dearest?” asked Eric.
“They are in on it together,” I turned to make sure Eric understood and he nodded. “To what ends?”
“Perhaps the same end,” said God Speed.
“Why would he take up the cause of his legitimate brother?” I asked.
“Maybe because he loved her too?” asked Scarlett. “Maybe the brothers loved the same woman and they are sworn to get her revenge.”
“It is nearly dawn,” said Bill. “We should go to our rest.”
Fairy and I did not have that luxury, we were heading out back to London to go to the library to check on Edward’s story of his wife and perhaps dig around in the Markingham Family Tree.
“You will be going too far Viking, if you align yourself with half humans,” said the Vampire. “It is bad enough that you have aligned yourself this far with Weres, it would be unconscionable if you overthrow your queen in the company of wolves. Kill her if you must Sheriff, but do it yourself. Vampires should only die at the hands of another Vampire.”
“I have not asked any were to make a move against Sophie Anne LeClerq,” said Eric.
“You did not say your queen is Sophie Anne LeClerq,” said Edward.
“She is indeed,” said Eric. “Do you know her?”
“I do know her,” said the Vampire. He stood up and looked into the fire. He reminded me of old woodcut prints of Dr. Faust about to conjure Mephistopheles to do his bidding, but at a price. “Richardson?” he said the name calmly and the man appeared from nowhere. I looked at Aolani and she took out her phone and texted me. I looked down. There was a single word: Familiar.
It was not uncommon for Vampires to create a familiar. They were not strictly human but they were not Vampire, so they could operate during the day. They were close to being something like a well preserved intelligent zombie, not like those magikal abortions we might see in Jamaica or Haiti, or in a George Romero movie. They were simply servants to whoever conjured them. I cleared the message and nodded my head at Aolani minutely. She and I would have to discuss this later.
“Richardson, fetch something to drink for our human friends and bring up my personal stock of blood donors for our fanged friends,” said Edward. The Vampires looked at one another. If they refused a blood meal, I knew I would not be drinking anything this man brought us.
“Thank you Edward, but we are well fed,” said Eric.
“Well, what of your friends, won’t you enjoy some wine or ale?” asked our host. If I were dying of thirst, I would not drink anything this man fetched me. It made we wish I had brought my mad stone, also known by Harry Potter fans as a bezoar.
We demurred and refused politely and Edward nodded by way of dismissal. He turned with his back to the fire and he was in silhouette against the orange red flames of the huge fire.
“How do you know our Queen?” asked Bill.
“I know Sophie Anne Leclerc because she turned my wife Vampire and stole her away from me. I became Vampire expressly to do whatever I could to ruin her,” explained the Vampire.
We were as silent as a Vampire’s grave, in shock with the revelation. Eric did not react, nor did Pam whom I could see out of the corner of my eye. I could feel the barest stroke of Bill’s fingers on the nape of my neck and I knew to be still. The rest of the group was quiet as well.
“Then you and I have similar experiences in our pasts, Edward,” said Eric. “I too nurse a vendetta, though not against Sophie Anne.”
“I see,” said Edward.
“We should say good evening to you,” said Eric. “We have a long ride back to our accommodations.”
“Are you staying in London?” asked the Vampire.
“Yes,” lied Eric. “And we have a long ride home.”
“Of course,” he said. “But my offer is this, whatever you decide to do, whether it is to go democratic or to simply kill your queen, I would be interested in helping you.”
“I will keep this in mind,” he said.
We all breathed a collective sigh of relief…well those of us who breathed that is. We loaded back on the bus and got seated and went down the highway a stretch before Eric stood up in the aisle of the bus and addressed us.
“What do you think of our English friend?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t trust him as far as far as I could fling him,” I said.
“Why not Aslinn?” asked Eric.
“Well, I just don’t think he would be so ignorant as to not know about you and who your queen is,” I said. “Barrister has been talking to him for some weeks now, and he knows Barrister is your human counselor. He would have his own Consiglieri sniffing you, seeing what’s under your fingernails; he would have a file on you, your area, your Vampires. He would also know about Sookie.”
“What do the rest of you think?” asked Eric.
“He seemed shocked that you would have access to witches. Thing is, he would have had to have paid a witch a great deal of money to make his familiar,” said Aolani.
“That is what was wrong with that guy,” said Body Guard.
“He doesn’t seem to like your kind much Body Guard,” said Eric. Body Guard just shrugged as if it were a small matter. “Were you able to plant the listening devices?”
“Yes, there are several around the room,” he said.
“So now what?” asked God Speed.
“We play a little cat and mouse, see if we can’t get two enemies to kill each other,” said Eric.
We pulled in to the estate and stretched out in the parlor and chatted with the Vampires through the night. Chris and I busied ourselves at making a record of our visit. I got into the Vampire data base and looked up our friend.
“Bill, honey, is there any way we can find out if Edward was really married?” I asked.
“I am not sure,” he said. “You might go to the London Library and look for him.”
“Fairy girl, come here a minute,” I said. Fairy came over. “Can you do an internet search while we go to the library tomorrow?”
“Sure,” she said. Fairy whipped out her phone and typed in the Vampire’s name and added it to her day book list. “Look up Sophie Anne’s profile on Bill’s database.” I did. There was a picture of the beautiful and ruthless redhead and there was a listing of her Vampire Statistics.
“Lord, look at all the children she sired,” I said. “There are about 20 of that time.”
“Vampires did not live very long back then, it was very rare for Vampires to survive their first few days much less their first year,” said Bill.
“How come?” I asked. Everyone gathered around to hear this. It was just one more speck of knowledge for us in our wealth of Vampire knowledge.
“Well, the world was less populated. When Eric was made, there were very few people and hunting was a catch as one can proposition. And when you are a very young Vampire, you are constantly hungry. There were many times I hunted and fed and killed when I didn’t mean to, simply because I was so hungry. It takes a long time to learn when to stop,” said Bill. “You have to have a very old maker who can teach you when to stop so you don’t end your meal with a dead body to clear away. And then there was the fact we were monsters to the rest of the world. We had to stay away from large human centers.”
“Now you guys, you don’t have that…hunger anymore…I mean you do, but if you had to go several days without blood, you could do it, you would not starve,” I said.
“Yes, after a few decades you learn to conserve your energy and you replenish whenever you have the opportunity but even before we came out, I fed every evening but no more than maybe…two or three ounces,” said Bill.
“Eric? How much do you need to stay healthy and energetic?” I asked the Viking behind me. I could see him reflected in my computer screen.
“A sip here, a sip there. The older you get the more discriminating you can be,” said Eric. “I like to feed on passionate people, or people who have fear in their bodies. The heart races and the breath rushes out and you can smell their fear. Very tasty.”
I made a mental note not to ask Eric Vampire questions again. He is always so direct it borders on creepy. And Sookie thought Bill was a little too Vampire from time to time. I sat there and stared at Edward’s picture. Then a thought occurred to me.
“Bill, is there a way to call up two files so they are side by side?” I asked.
“Yes, click on file pairing and the prompt will come up asking for which two files you want brought up,” said Bill. I clicked on the tab and wrote in Edward’s name and was stumped on the other name.
“What is the Magister’s name?” I asked.
“Just put in Jorje-Magister-NA,” said Bill. I did as I was told and both files were open on the screen. Even the Vampires seemed to draw a sudden breath.
“Not father and son,” I said. “Brothers?”
“Where did he get the Spanish name?” asked Minnie.
“Jorje is George isn’t it?” I looked at Vi and Lina. They nodded. “And they are both Catholic.”
“But why no last name?” asked Renee.
“He’s illegitimate,” said Fairy. “It was common for illegitimate people to go by a single name.”
“But how could he have been an inquisitor? Didn’t the Church have views about legitimacy?” asked Linzy.
“Sure,” said Violet. “But there were even bishops and popes that were illegitimate. Some were even father/son teams, like a king and a prince, when the pope died, his bastard would be made pope by the conclave.”
“We don’t know about this for sure,” I said. “But I think we have been set up.”
“By the Magister and this man?” asked Butter.
“Yes,” I said. “That was why the Magister was so open handed with Barrister and Eric and willing to talk about everything Barrister asked. They have been in cahoots.”
“Cahoots, dearest?” asked Eric.
“They are in on it together,” I turned to make sure Eric understood and he nodded. “To what ends?”
“Perhaps the same end,” said God Speed.
“Why would he take up the cause of his legitimate brother?” I asked.
“Maybe because he loved her too?” asked Scarlett. “Maybe the brothers loved the same woman and they are sworn to get her revenge.”
“It is nearly dawn,” said Bill. “We should go to our rest.”
Fairy and I did not have that luxury, we were heading out back to London to go to the library to check on Edward’s story of his wife and perhaps dig around in the Markingham Family Tree.
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