Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series) (17 page)

My mother must have read the expression on my face, for she didn’t scold me. She picked Shani up and took her into the kitchen. I followed, and Shani stared back at me over my mother’s shoulder. I felt the same sadness while dreaming about it as I had experiencing it. My mother sent me to get some rags and a sponge. I retrieved the items as fast as I could. She cleaned the blood from my sister’s arm and wrapped it with the rags to steady it. She then left the kitchen to get my father. Shani looked sad, but not for herself. She saw the hurt in my eyes and felt sad for me. Shani, even then and as always, was completely selfless. Tears had begun to well in my eyes as I turned to the counter that held the water pitcher and poured her a cup of water. She took a big swallow as I held the cup to her tiny lips, then she looked at me.

“Thank you,” she said. However, in my dream, it wasn’t Shani’s voice. It was the sweet and innocent voice of the young victim of the murdering fiend Eli, the voice of the girl I saved right before I took Eli away from the land of the living. Eli’s victim’s voice coming from my sister left an eerie feeling in me. The dream sequence faded as darkness triumphed.

Often my dreams would be saturated by countless thoughts and visions of Mynea. Between and throughout the disjointed sequences, she would appear and disappear. Sometimes she would speak and sometimes remain a silent observer. Sometimes I would dream of a woman who had Mynea’s voice and scent but different physical features altogether. This particular day, I heard a female voice that wasn’t Mynea but the voice of the one who told me to sleep. I saw Mynea’s visage, but it was another immortal’s voice instructing me to take her hand.

She took me to a place deep beneath the city walls and out of reach to most. There were candles and torches instantly lit, transforming the utter darkness into dancing shadows. This place didn’t resemble the castle I had called home for decades. There were no paintings on the stone walls, rather, the walls were covered in old dirt and moss. There were no furs along the floors and hallways; instead, cobblestone adorned the wet floors. No doors distinguished individual spaces. Running water trickled down the wall, creating a slight vertical pathway. There were no sheets of silk aligning the walls, simply natural cracks that had occurred throughout the ancient history of its existence.

This abode was in ruins. Mynea’s possessor took me to the primordial city of Ephesus, a city I had studied as a mortal. I recognized the Greek goddess Nike standing next to the goddess Diana, etched into marble. We were within the confines of the antiquated Library of Celsus, built in the tenth century before the Christ. Indeed, I was intrigued by this location. The rich Christian and Roman history of Ephesus had always enthralled me. Perhaps I chose this setting subconsciously for a reason.

Mynea began to speak in my dreams with the voice of the other vampire. The melody of the sound was soothing, but there was an ancient manner in her diction. There was a semblance shared by one other I was aware of, the immortal master of all he surveyed, the one with the eyes that pierced through me to arrest my soul while mocking my immortal existence. I would never forget his eyes, or the voice and tone that accompanied them.

During this vivid and surreal encounter, Mynea stretched out her right arm and summoned me to come to her side. I was lifted from the ground without the use of my own immortal gifts and brought to rest next to
her. She was unusually radiant, even for Mynea. Everything was exactly the same, save her eyes. Her eyes were smaller than I remembered and a slightly different color. With outstretched arms she drew me into her. I remembered this embrace. I needed her touch. I desperately wanted her lips, and then my want became my reality. Her lips found mine. This vampire was a princess by every measure of royalty; however, Mynea she wasn’t.

Her touch was as real as any other touch. I could actually feel her while I was dreaming. I could feel my skin feeling hers. I felt my lips kissing hers. She began to speak. “I’ll tell you what you wish to know. I’ll give you the freedom you seek, Aleron. I won’t hold anything back from you. You’ll learn everything about yourself from me. You’ll learn about us, the vampire origin. You’ll learn about the one whose eyes follow you in your dreams. Mynea was wise to keep you hidden from us. She knew of the master’s limitations. Clever for her to have chosen such a location to give birth. Her blasphemous betrayal of the master will spell her doom.”

I felt her lips touch my neck. I felt her fangs puncture my artery. I could feel her sucking my blood. I thought,
How could this feeling be just a dream?
I could feel the flow of my blood drawn by her throughout my entire body. How could this be a dream?

She only sucked for a short period of time, and in that moment of time I was reminded of ecstasy. I was reminded of a time when I was in love with a vampire.

The dream began to fade. Mynea’s face became insubstantial. I began to rise above the ruins of Ephesus, rising out of Turkey and falling back into the City of the Dead. I felt the reanimation of my limbs. My mind rapidly grew sharp. I began to hear rustling and my eyes sprang open. I looked around as I leapt to my feet. There was no sign of any intruder. Everything was as it was when I closed my eyes. I rationalized that the various sounds from my dream had originated from the inhabitants of the graveyard. Nothing more. Though I could still feel her touch, no scent was present that reminded me of a possible encounter with another vampire. It was simply too surreal to be real. I deduced it was simply a dream.

I removed the large stone blocking the entrance and looked up at the young night sky. The anticipation of the night’s offerings invigorated me. Before this night’s victim, I wanted to drink water, for I desired the coolness against my throat and the satisfying quench that only pure water could achieve. Even though I hadn’t walked as a human in decades, I walked in a perfect interpretation as only a vampire could imitate. There was a central point within the City of the Dead where pails of water for drinking were kept. I approached.

There were four pails of water, one of which no one was near. I walked to that one and grabbed the ladle inside. I dipped the ladle in and withdrew it. I drank from it while noticing my reflection cast by the dark water. As I finished the first drink and almost submerged the ladle again, I noticed dried blood on my neck. I examined my dark and vague reflection in the water. I could see the traces of two puncture wounds healing in the very spot where Mynea’s likeness had drawn blood from me. I raised my hand to my neck and felt the wounds. I wiped the dried blood and looked at the smear now on my fingers. I tasted the blood. It was mine!

CHAPTER 14

he vampire was with me while I slept, following me from town to town. She even followed me to al-Montaza. She knew where my father’s house was. The unknown danger caused me to take to the air. I didn’t care who may have seen me soar into the darkening night sky. Swiftly, I advanced toward my father’s home. I had to be sure my parents were safe.

Once in the area, I searched every neighboring street and alleyway, even the rooftops of the homes in the vicinity. Once inside and before appearing behind my father, I searched every inch of the house to make sure we were the only inhabitants present. And we were. I used my mind to scan the area. I also raised my nose to the air to pick up any familiar essence that may have told of her presence. I sensed nothing, only my mother resting and my father looking out the window in his study.

Aknon was not surprised by my return. He also knew I was there at that very moment. I could sense it in his thoughts. “Show yourself,” he
whispered beneath his breath. “I know you’re out there. Whatever you are now, you’re still my son, and I know of you.”

Aknon turned around abruptly to find me standing behind him. A little startled, he almost lost his footing. He braced himself against the table. “Aknon, I’m here for the last time. I’ll obey your wishes and leave your house, but before I do, tell me what you know of Shani’s whereabouts. Tell me where she has gone and with whom.”

“She mustn’t see you like this. She mustn’t look upon you as you are now. She’ll notice as I did that you haven’t aged. She’ll know you’ve changed into a demon. She knows what the Bible says about demons, and she’ll shun you. She’ll absolutely shun you,” he replied while shaking his head.

He was right, but I needed to see her nonetheless. He didn’t have to tell me through words. I knew if I posed the question, his mind would answer it, and it did. She had gone to New York. That was all I needed to know.

“I disagree with you, Father, but I won’t press you any longer. I’ll find her through other means. I do have one last request. I’d like your permission to see mother before I leave your house for good.”

“If I said no, would you listen? Could I even stop you?”

“No,” I replied.

“Then your question was out of respect.”

“Yes.”

Reluctantly he replied, “Come on, while she’s still asleep.”

Aknon went past me toward my mother’s room. I followed. Before he opened the door, a strange feeling came over me. I felt a presence similar to the one I had felt just hours before. I rushed past my father and pushed the door open. The force knocked it off the bottom hinge. Instantly there arose a disturbance in the curtain covering a once-closed window. My mother was awakened by the sound of the door crashing against the wall. I moved too fast for my mother to see me as I followed the presence through the opened window and onto the roof of the house.

Don’t worry, Father. I won’t return
, was the mind message I passed on to Aknon’s thoughts, as he struggled to comprehend what had happened. I knew I’d brought death to my parents’ doorstep. I had invited
a demon into his home and into my mother’s chambers. With the blood meal she stole from me, she knew all! I couldn’t let her get away! I had to find her.

I isolated the slightest sound of the treetops rustling in the windless night. I dashed through the air with fury in that direction. When I could hear calm breathing, I knew I was drawing near. I could hear footsteps quickening to vampire speed. I drew closer still, with sudden twists and turns through remote areas of the district. The vampire continued to elude my sight, but I could hear and smell her. I gathered all of my strength and flew faster.

I saw a black gown and black hair traveling incredibly fast just beneath the treeline and scarcely touching the ground. She moved like a cat. What happened next almost stopped me in my tracks. She turned around and looked directly at me and smiled! Then she vanished.

I slowed my progress and landed in an open area between the trees. I looked in every direction but saw nothing except darkness and the half moon. Neither sound nor thoughts that came from her lingered.

A sinister thought entered my mind. Maybe this wasn’t a chase but a lure. Maybe she knew the limitations of my speed and the lack of strength I suffered by not having fed before our encounter. Perhaps she allowed me to see her just long enough for me to descend on this very spot.

I looked around once more, and, by chance or a design unknown to me, I saw something on the ground. It glistened in the night light, and I walked over to it and picked it up. It was a ring. I recognized it, and it contained her scent. It belonged to my mortal keeper, Eliza, whom I left waiting in Cairo. The female vampire lured me here to show me this! She wanted me to know how much she knew. I knew I must return to Eliza, for I didn’t know if tragedy had befallen her.

Suddenly I heard a voice. The vampire had returned without detection. “Eliza is safe, Aleron. She’s being looked after.”

Before I could turn around, I felt her hand caressing my neck and back. I turned around instantly, and she was again gone. Then, right before my eyes, she reappeared, this time several feet from me, cloaked by the shadows of the great trees surrounding us.

I took a step in the opposite direction, then faster than the blink of a vampire’s eye, I had her! She struggled with such strength and power, yet my grasp was too much for even this powerful immortal.