May 19 & 20

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Body Guard drove us back to London after Fairy and I had a shower and a breakfast. I had my little notebook out; making some notes on what we thought might be going on. What was the connection between the pale, dangerous Magister and this London Vampire? What was their motive in being in collusion together (if they were) against Sophie Anne? What was their story? I was excited to be working out the motives, seeing the clues come together, and creating a complete picture.

I wondered how much Eric knew or suspected. The Vampires all understood family trees, how they worked. In a way it was no wonder Bill had become something of a Vampire Genealogist. If there was one thing Southerners liked to do was be able to trace their family lines. Since Vampires had progeny but no natural children, the family trees of Vampires tended to be based on maker and makee, but Bill threw himself into the task and I admired his scholarship.

We finally came to the Great London Library. It was a huge Edwardian edifice, covered in aged limestone and granite with a grand staircase flanked by huge statues of Knowledge and Wisdom. The bare breasted goddesses stared serenely at passersby, Fairy, Body Guard and myself included. Like country bumpkins in the city, our eyes were huge as we took in all the sights of great hall and their mysteries bound up in books upon books, folios upon folios.

“We should start at the main desk,” I said. We walked up to the main desk and I waited to be noticed by a librarian.
“How can I help you?” said a thin, boney woman.
“Yes, we are visiting from America and we want to do some research about the court of Henry VIII. Genealogical research in the members of his court if that is possible,” I said.
“You will want to take the lift to the fifth floor. The books and folios are non-circulating, but you may order the facsimiles,” she said. She reached out for a piece of paper and wrote down the floor and room numbers and the name of presumably the librarian on duty today. “If you need copies, small books are 50p, large books a pound and folio five per sheet.” I nodded and accepted the paper and we headed up.

The lift was one of those beautiful birdcage brass and crystal glass structures that were operated by an elevator operator. We were let off on our floor and we looked around to see how the rooms were numbered and we headed to the left to find the stacks where we would hopefully find our answers. We finally found the room number, and went through the crystal paned French style doors and walked up to the desk.

“Can I help you?” asked an attractive young man. Though he appeared to be somewhat bookish, he was an attractive blond man. I kept looking at him and felt like I knew him.
“Yes, the librarian at the circulation desk in the main floor said you could help us. We are looking for the records of the court of Henry VIII and any genealogy you might be able to find in certain members,” I said.

“You are very lucky, we have most of the records of the court of Henry VIII,” said the young man. “As well you may know, this was during the time of the Reformation. Henry was trying to both cooperate with and circumvent the Roman church. He commissioned family trees on many of his court in case there were any issues of loyalty.” The young man went to the computer on a high podium sort of arrangement and called up a screen. “What was the name you were looking for?”
“Edward Markingham,” I said. He typed in the name and the screen turned red.
“He is a Vampire?” asked the boy.
“Yes,” I said. “I am preparing a historical profile on prominent Vampires in London and their historical experiences for a book. Is there a problem?”
“No, it is just that we keep two registries for Vampires of historical significance. Would you like to see the records for both?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said. “Is there a registry I can purchase on disk or a paper copy?” I thought what a wonderful gift of knowledge this would be for my Vampire husband.
“There is, but you have to have a Vampire purchase the book and they may do so on line,” he said. “But you can have certain pages printed out for your personal research.”
“Excellent,” I said.
“I’ll get your information then,” said the young man. He grabbed a cart and went into another room and Fairy and I claimed a couple of large tables and we took out our notebooks and pens.
“What a find, Aslinn,” said Fairy. “Bill will be able to cross reference so much with their data base and his.”
“It is a great find,” I said. I heard the rattling of the cart and looked over. The cart was stacked high with large leather bond portfolios, some as long as three feet. I looked at Fairy. “Apparently, we are going to be here a very long time.”

The young man went and retrieved cotton gloves and long thin ash paddles used by historians to flip the pages of historical documents and a couple of cotton dust masks.
“Always use gloves when handling the antique books and always turn the pages with the ash paddles. Wear the dust mask, the ink is very unstable and if you sneeze on it, your saliva would destroy the record. Do not lay anything on the book and do not mark on the book. If you see a page you want copied, write down the volume and page number. There is a loo and a lounge and you can help yourself to tea. There is no smoking in the building but you can step out onto the balcony,” said the librarian.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“Gerry, ma’am,” he said. “And yours?”
“Caroline,” I lied. “Caroline Compton.”

The first thing I wanted to discover was who the hell Markingham was and if he was married and who his kin were, regardless on the side of the sheets they were gotten. I carefully paged through the folios and found the time period. Apparently Henry wanted to know not only the present generation of any member of his court but the proceeding generations. Finally I found Markingham.

“Here he is, Chere,” I said to Fairy.
“What have you got there,” she said. She was looking at another massive folio on the other side of the table.
“Edward Markingham was the son of Phillip Markingham of Clewes, an Earl,” I said. Body Guard came over and stood by us. “Phillip claims seven legitimate children and six illegitimate children, three of whom were daughters. Two became nuns and died in convents. One was married to a lesser nobleman’s son whose family needed the money and would over look her illegitimacy to get the money. She died in child birth two years later. The three boys were had all over the world. Two French and one Spanish. The three of them were given to monasteries as young men, 11 or 12 years old. One went to Germany and was the personal aide to the holy Roman Emperor, so he lived to adulthood and died at sixty. Another went to Switzerland but he died at the age of 15 during a time of plague. The third stayed in Spain and it was as we thought, he is Jorje.”

“The Magister,” said Body Guard.
“Right,” I said. “He was big on the Inquisition and he advocated the most brutal methods of extracting information. He put everyone to the Question, which is basically, anything they wanted to know under duress of torture.”
“So what do we know about the life of Jorje?” asked Fairy.
“Well, it says here that he is called Jorje of Seville,” I wrote down his name and tore off the sheet and went to the desk. “Gerry, is there any biographical information about this man?”
“Human record or Vampire record?” he asked.
“Both if you can find it, and go on and make me copies, please?” I asked.

“Certainly,” he said. He took the paper and went to the computer data base. I came back to the table and noted the pages I wanted printed out and set the list aside. Fairy was looking in the Vampire book and Body Guard was looking at his laptop at Bill’s data base. I turned the page.
“Hon, I have found this in the Vampire registry they have here. It says that the Magister sired several human children before he was made Vampire,” she said.
“Any names?” I asked.
“No, but they were all sent to England to be educated,” she said.
“Wonder who the mothers were?” I asked to the others.
“This record said the Inquisitor had a habit of siring children on the local lower class noble daughters. Apparently, he would play good cop and bad cop with them and get them to have sex with them and he would get them pregnant and then hold them captive til they delivered and he would send the children away and he would put the mothers to the question, often hours after giving birth and then have them burned for whatever he made them confess to,” said Fairy.
“Body Guard, go on line and see if there are any records of the names of victims murdered by the Spanish Inquisition during the burning times,” I said. He nodded, one step ahead of me. Gerry came back with several gigantic facsimile pages and then around two hundred pages of regular sized paper. “Are you keeping tabs on my bill, Gerry?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “Would you like to know what you are up to?”
“Sure,” I said.
“120 pounds,” he said. “Would you like for me to bind these for you?”
“That would be great,” I said.
“It will only take a moment,” he said.
“Aslinn, the Spanish Inquisition kept really good records, sort of like the Nazis of WWII,” said Body Guard.
“How are they indexed?” I asked.
“By Inquisitor,” he said. “And Jorje was busy.”
“How many names?” I asked.

“Over a thousand,” he said. He book marked the page and then began to scroll down the names. “Holy Shit!!!!”
“What?” I came over to see what he was looking at. There was a name: Arte de Cuervo. “So?” I asked.
“It’s Spanish, loosely translated it means…..” he looked at me.
“Oh shit!” I said. “Make a note of that.” Gerry came in and handed me the permabound book with a sticky note on it with the cost. I sat down and began to read through it.
“Jorje made quite a career for himself,” I said. “Both as a Vampire and a human.”
“Did the brothers know one another?” asked Fairy.
“Yes, there are documents that show they were in constant contact,” I saw a familiar name. I jotted it down and gave the paper to Gerry. “Can you find documents for this family, starting around the same time as the other two?”
“During the reign of Henry?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” I said.
“Just a moment,” he said. “Copies of the record as well?”
“Yes, both human and Vampire if they exist,” I said. He nodded and went to search.
“Who is it?” asked Fairy.
“Just let me check something, but if I am right, it isn’t the queen they are after….they may not have much love for her, but it is someone else they want,” I said.
“Who?” she asked again.
“Wait and let me check to see if I am right,” I said.
“It is close to sundown,” said Body Guard.

“I am aware of that,” I said. “Start packing everything up.” I began staking the ancient books on the cart and gathering up my note books and pens and shoving them into my bag. Gerry came in with another handful of pages, these in a large clip with another post it. I sat down and began skimming the pages and found the name of someone we knew. He was the bastard child of the Inquisitor but he was valuable to the brothers because he had been adopted by a very wealthy noble family and his great granddaughter was actually betrothed to marry another wealthy man who owed something to the Vampire brothers when she mysteriously died of consumption.

“We need to get back,” I said. I jammed the papers into my bag and headed out. It was nearly sundown. When we left the archives, Gerry picked up the phone and rang a number.
“M’Lord, there were humans here looking at the records. I think they have found you out,” said the handsome librarian.
“There was nothing you could do great grand nephew,” said Edward Markingham.

We stopped at the main desk and paid for the copies, the money Eric had given me. I grabbed the receipt and put it with the remainder of the money he had given me and jammed them in my pocket. We got into the car and I settled back and opened my bag and pulled out the record. Fairy looked anxious. “What is it?” asked Fairy.

“It is simple,” I said. “Markingham and the Magister are half brothers. The she they are referring to is not Markingham’s wife as he said. It was who she was related to.” Fairy made an impatient sound and I waved at her to be still. “Jorje went to Spain to be church elevated, the only recourse really for bastards. Jorje then decided to create his own dynasty of sorts by getting bastards on the poor wretches that he called in and put to the question. He sent the children to be raised by Catholic families. And not just any families, but prominent families. One of those families was the grandson of Edward Markingham, and it was a very prominent family. They adopted the male get of the Magister and he married into another prominent family and eventually sired a girl child who was to be married. That child is the key stone to the plot.”

“Who is it?” asked Fairy.
“If I am right, it is not Sophie Anne they are after, though they would very much like it pinned on her, or her to get in the middle of it,” I said.
“Who is it Aslinn?” she asked.
“Body Guard showed me a name and my very rusty Spanish kicked in,” I began. I told Fairy everything and her eyes widened in absolute terror.

We got to the house and I raced inside. Bill and Renee looked up and saw my face and the stricken look on Fairy.
“What has happened?” demanded Bill.
“Where is Eric?” I said.
“He said he had to go and see someone we were to meet later this evening,” said Bill
“Call him and tell him to get his ass back here,” I said.
“Why?” said Pam.
“They aren’t after Sophie Anne….They are after him….” I said.
“Who?” asked Pam.
“Markingham and the Magister,” I said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because he made you Vampire,” I said.

To be Continued…..

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Bill cursed under his breath and took out his cell phone and called Eric. Pam grabbed me and pulled me around to look at her.

“Tell me everything,” said Pam.
“If you would take your hands off me and sit down I will explain everything,” I said. “The Magister and Markingham are half brothers, the Magister being a bastard. They have been in on many an intrigue together as humans as well as Vampires.”
“Who turned the brothers?” asked Linzy.
“That is a very good question, one we may have to investigate further, but this is the thing and this is why Eric has a big effing target over his heart,” I pulled out the family tree of Markingham on one of the large folio sheets and Body Guard turned on his computer and immediately downloaded the page he had book marked. “Pam, you are the great great granddaughter of the Magister and you were going to be married.”
“I don’t recall being told I was to be betrothed?” said Pam.
“Eric beat them to you,” I said. “It is what the Magister was doing in his human life. He would pick out moderately well to do families and he would arrest the daughters and hold them as prisoners of the Inquisition and get them pregnant and when the child was born, he would send them out to families to be adopted or to marry into families that they thought of as lucrative. If you dig around in the Markingham finances or the Magister’s, they have vast wealth and most of it from some of the wealthiest families in Europe. Your Great Grandfather was the adopted son of the Ravencrofts. But they were not always English. They were Spanish. They were actually Cuervos, The Ravens, and they were a famous artistic family. They became friends with the Magister and he was something of a patron. But they were converted Jews…under suspicions of the Inquisition and very wealthy. When he could no longer protect them, he sent them to England where they would be safe and they called themselves Ravencrofts. Your family.”

“So, when the Magister became Vampire?” asked Pam.
“He continued to show patronage to the Ravencrofts. The heir apparent of the fortune was childless so, the Magister told them he knew where he might be able to procure a baby. He was already Vampire but before he was turned he got one more woman pregnant. She had a boy and she was done away with quickly and the boy was sent to England when he was strong enough to survive the voyage. Over the generations, they worked with the brothers, never knowing they were brothers,” I said.
“Did they know they were Vampire?” asked Westexan.
“Unknown, though I imagine they thought something was up when the benefactors never got older and never died,” I said. “At any rate, you are born and you grow up and you were very wealthy and from what I gather, you were to marry this man.” I showed her the pages of the book that had been bound. “He was a lord, if you can feature that. Italian, been married twice, both wives died in childbirth. He was hoping for an heir out of you and had paid the Magister a great deal of money for you, well, to arrange the marriage. But then you went out that night and Eric caught you on your way out and the rest is history.”

“What happened with the Italian?” asked God Speed.
“He got his money back,” I said. “It was sizable.”
“So, the Magister and by association this Markingham, is gunning for Eric over money?” asked Renee.
“Get between a couple of Vampires and their money and they can be savages,” said Bill.
“Have you heard from Eric?” I asked.
“He is on his way back,” said Bill. Suddenly, he became tense. Pam looked around.
“Barrister, turn out the lights,” said Bill quietly.
“All of them?” he asked.
“Yes,” he said.

Barrister went into the main pantry of the kitchen and flipped the switch. The lights went out all over the estate. “God Speed, you and Barrister take the women downstairs where we rest. Jessica go with them.”
“Fuck that Bill Compton, we stand together,” hissed Fairy.
“Do not argue with me, go with God Speed and get down in our secure place,” said Bill. Bill’s phone chimed softly he looked at it. Eric texted: Secure the women, bringing reinforcements. “Eric says for you to go now.”

We all headed downstairs, Barrister helping Butter down the stairs in the dark narrow stair well. The large room was a warren of smaller rooms, each containing a large bed. There was a sitting room and fireplace and a bathroom. I went and lit some of the candles.
“Stay here until one of us comes back for you,” said Body Guard. He was checking the ammunition in his gun. “No matter what you hear, don’t come upstairs.”
Barrister came over to me and kissed me. “Be good little girl.” I nodded. “There are guns on the rack of the wall of the back bedroom. If you have to blow their heads off,” he said.
“Okay,” I said. “Be careful.”
He let me go and God Speed, holding a deer rifle, went out and Linzy threw bolt on the door. I went to the back bedroom with Renee, Scarlett and Fairy and we picked out a weapon and loaded them and brought the ammo and other rifles with us and armed the girls.
“Jessica, if they get through that door, take Butter into the back bedroom and bolt yourself in,” I said.
“What do you think will happen?” asked Jessica.
“I don’t know,” I said.

God Speed and Barrister and Body Guard joined Bill and Pam. Body Guard handed Bill his gun and undressed and became a wolf. He was like any wolf, sleek and beautiful with a wild intelligence and wide wolfish grin. He was excited. He yipped a little and began to move around the main floor of the estate. There was a knock at the door. Bill went to the door.

“It’s Eric,” said a low voice. Bill peered out and saw the big blond standing there and he opened the door. “Where are the women?”
“Secured,” said Godspeed. “And armed.”
“Good,” said Eric. “What have you discovered?”
“Aslinn, Fairy and Body Guard found out they were after you because you robbed them of Pam. She is the Magister’s great great granddaughter,” said Bill. Eric smiled at his child.
“I had a feeling you were going to be high maintenance,” said Eric.
“Never stopped you before Eric,” said Pam.
“Who have you brought with you?” asked Bill.
“About a hundred weres,” said Eric. “Apparently, Markingham has been squeezing them. They were hungry for the fight.”
“Did you sense anyone out there?” asked Bill.
“There are wolves and about six Vampires and some humans,” said Eric.
“Do we wait or do we take the fight to them?” asked God Speed.

“We wait,” he said. His phone rang and he opened it. “Hello?”
“Northman,” said Markingham.
“How did you get this number?” asked Eric.
“I have my ways,” said Markingham. “Would you like my terms of surrender?”
“I would like your black heart in my fist,” said Eric calmly.
“Well, that, you may not have. Give me my niece and 70% of your wealth and you and your humans will be free to go,” said Markingham.
“We are at an impasse then, because you will not get anything from me, my child or my friends,” he said.
“We have you surrounded Eric. When I get to you, I will teach you about pain. I will eat all of your humans and I will make you pray for final death,” said Markingham.
“I would like to see you try,” he said.
“This house can burn,” said Markingham.
“I am not alone,” said Eric. “It is I who has you surrounded.”
“Do you?” asked the Vampire.

As if in answer to his question, there was a chorus of howls outside. Body Guard whined and trotted to the door, making his desire known. Pam went and let him out.

“I see,” said Markingham. “You once again have aligned yourself with wolves.”
“You are not above dealing with wolves; in fact they tell me you are a hard man to deal with.”
“They have not seen hard yet,” said Markingham. There were the sounds of something moving stealthily around the house. Barrister looked at the ceiling.
“They are on the gables and roof,” said Barrister.
“Vampires cannot get into your house can they?” asked Bill, tracking the sounds on the roof.
“No, only our Vampires can get in,” he said, tracking the sounds as well.
“That is something,” said Eric.

“What the hell is going on up there?” said Fairy. Jessica was looking at the beams and ceiling work of the room.
“They are still up there,” said Jessica. “I can feel Bill in the house and they are talking to someone on the phone, Eric I think.”
“Eric is back? He is safe?” said Fairy.
Jessica nodded. She put her hand up and continued to listen. “I can’t hear anything.”
“Damn it, I am so daft,” said Aolani. She grabbed her bag and opened it and took out a small receiver. “Len and I were testing the bugs and we left one in the kitchen.” She sat down and tuned it carefully like Body Guard taught her. We could hear Eric’s voice.

“I recommend that you leave the property. We have no desire to fight with you,” said Eric. “What was done is done, Pam is my child.”
The sounds were getting louder on the roof. Bill looked at Barrister. “Will they really burn the house?” Bill nodded.
“Eric, they won’t hurt me, give me to them and they will go away and you can get me out,” said Pam.
“No,” said Eric.
“They will burn this house and everyone in it,” said Pam. “Let me go out to them and go with them.” She looked at Eric. Eric went over and kissed his child. God Speed was shocked at the way they looked at one another. It could not be anything else but love and pride in his child.
“Stay safe and stay calm, we will get you out,” said Eric.
“Don’t worry about me,” said Pam. “You were a good maker, I know how to stay alive.”
“Go then,” said Eric. He put the phone back up to his ear. “She is on her way out to you. Call off your minions and you can have her.”
“And the money Northman?” asked Markingham.
“We will treat for the rest of the agreement. But know this, you harm my child and I will not rest til I drain you dry,” said the Viking.
“Send her out,” said Markingham.

To be Continued