Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) (28 page)

“Mother, I am sorry to interrupt, but I didn’t think you
would want to miss the opportunity,” she said excitedly.

“Quite right, child.  Give me the boy.”  She reached out
for the infant, and the woman placed him in her arms. 

Gates watched as Mother dipped the infant into the still
pool in front of her, rinsing him of the birth fluids and blood.  She handed
the infant back to the woman and then checked the clamp on the umbilical.  She
lifted a small jeweled knife from the tray next to her and sliced off the
length of cord above the clamp.  She held the length of umbilical over the pool
and used her fingers to squeeze the cord blood out of it and into the water. 
He nearly jumped when he saw that the water, which had been clear seconds ago,
was now an inky black.  The water remained calm, but he could see oily slicks
of black fluid swirling under the surface, but it was hard to make out anything
clearly as the swirls were like black slime in black water. Mother placed the
empty cord on her tray of tools and ingredients and turned back to the woman
and child.  She put her hand on his forehead.

“Adam,” she said. The woman nodded. “Did the mother live?”

“No, Mother, she didn’t.” the woman answered.

“That’s a shame.  He could use mother’s milk.  Perhaps when
the next one is born, the mother will be able to suckle this one too.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“He looks like he’s getting cold.  Take him back to the
nursery and get him cleaned up.”

“Right away.” The woman hurried out.

Gates was watching silently, shocked and fascinated by the
little drama.  He looked at the water in the pool and saw that it was crystal
clear again.  Mother turned back to him.

“You are fortunate, Samuel. This offering will only help to
strengthen the potion we are about to create.”

He had no idea what she was talking about, but he nodded
anyway.  He watched as she dropped bits of dried things, he could not identify,
into the water.  She added herbs and drops of oil.  Finally, she called him
over, and with the little knife she pricked his finger and let a single drop of
his blood fall into the water.  She took a small vial from the tray and
submerged it in the pool.  She muttered words he didn’t understand low under
her breath.  When she pulled the vial from the clear water, it was filled with
a dark red liquid, like wine or blood, but he could smell neither when she
handed him the vial and a stopper. 

He tucked it in the pocket of his jacket and took her blue
veined hand in his, bringing it to his lips and planting a kiss on the thin,
translucent skin. “Thank you, Mother. You are always so kind to me.”

“You have the favor of the spirits, Samuel.” She patted his
hand and extracted her other hand from his.

Gates thought about the oily sludge swirling in the pool and
wondered if he wanted to be indebted to these particular spirits.  Too late to
turn back now, he had already agreed to give Mother a Vampire to sacrifice. 
What more could he do that was worse?

“One drop every day will give you a gentle but constant sway
over the recipient.  However, if you need to be more persuasive, you can administer
an additional drop that will have an immediate effect on the one who consumes
it. Come and see me more often, Samuel.  I would welcome a longer chat
sometime.”

Gates, who was not accustomed to being dismissed,
straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. It was clear that dismissal was
her intent, but he didn’t offer any protest.  He had much to do anyway.  He
offered his assurances of return and left.  The Vampire guard he left behind
seemed a little confused as to what his new duties would be, but he didn’t question
Gates’s order to stay and serve the witch.  

As Gates rode toward the front gate, he noticed several
women strolling around the grounds, taking advantage of a short break in the
increasingly drab weather.  He counted at least five that were extremely pregnant
and he wondered again about the baby that Mother called Adam.

Mother Zhukov closed her eyes and waited until she sensed
that Gates and his other Vampire guard were on their way.  He didn’t waste any
time in leaving, and she didn’t have to wait long.  When she opened her eyes a warlock
was holding the door open for the Chief, and when the scarred
Were
-panther
entered the Atrium, the warlock closed the door behind him. 

The Chief stopped at the edge of the pool, and she motioned
him closer until he was close enough for her to reach out and touch him.  She
pulled on his arm until he leaned over, bringing his ruined face closer to her
wrinkled one. 

“Xavier Blood Moon, you have had some trouble, I see.”  It
was just an observation. She didn’t expect an answer and so he didn’t give
one.  She traced the line of one of the scars with a finger, across his face
and down to the collar of the shirt he wore. “I sense a Four Walker,” she said.

“What is a four walker?” the Chief asked, careful to keep
his tone polite around the Mother.

“Not a what,” she said, “but a whom.”  She released his arm
and allowed him to stand straight again.  “I think it was, maybe, twenty years
ago or thereabouts that a
Were
, who’s name I will not mention, came to
me with a broken claw in his possession. He asked me for a tracking spell to
find the wolf that the claw belonged to.  The
Were
-wolf’s name was Four
Walker, Keith Four Walker if I remember correctly. I only know that Four Walker
was eventually found and killed because I asked the tracker to bring me the
rest of his claws and teeth as payment for the spell.  He found the wolf living
as a human and going by the name of Walker. He kept his word regarding the
payment, so I know that particular Four Walker is dead.”  She reached out and
touched another of the Chief’s scars, this one on his forearm.  “I well know
the feel of those claws and these are Four Walker claws, a brother or some other
relative without a doubt.”

“The one who gave me these marks, paid dearly for them. I
doubt he survived.  His rotting corpse is probably being consumed by wild
animals right now.”  The Chief sneered at the memory of the black wolf.

Mother looked introspective for a moment and said, “No. I
don’t think so…But,” she said becoming more animated, “that is not what I want
from you right now.”

“Ask me for anything, Mother.  I will do it.”  The Chief
pledged.

“First of all, how would you like your eye back?” she asked
brightly. 

∞∞∞

Daryl watched as the other two Vampires rode away.  Gates
had told him that he had an important assignment for Daryl and that he was to remain
and serve the old witch.  Daryl was unsure of what the important part was, but
he had only been a Vampire for a couple of years and he was grateful to have
the job with Gates.  He would never dream of questioning an elder.  He had
known his maker to tear the heads off of Vampire servants for less until he was
crushed beneath a luxury hotel during the earthquakes. Daryl had been lucky to
be one of the first Vampires to take shelter in Syracuse and so was put to work
almost as soon as Gates arrived and took over.  He turned from the front
windows, and one of the creepy bald guys came and escorted him back to the Atrium.

The Chief was standing silently behind Mother, and she
spoke to Daryl.  “Young man, tell me your name.” she said with a smile. 

Her teeth were yellowed and crooked and for some odd
reason, looking at her smiling, reminded him of a spider sitting in the middle
of her web.  “My name is Daryl, Ma’am.”

“Come a little closer, Daryl, my eyes are not as good as
they used to be.”

He obeyed her and was soon standing next to the pool edge
where she sat.  She craned her neck to look up at him.  Then she raised her arm
and the Chief took it and helped her to stand.  She was so short that she stood
on the ledge around the pool and was still no taller than Daryl. 

“You are a very handsome man, Daryl,” she said.  “You’re
eyes are so blue.  You must be extremely popular with the ladies.” 

Mother Zhukov was very close to his face, and it was making
him terribly uncomfortable.  He laughed nervously at her compliments.  He began
to wonder if she was going to ask him to sleep with her, when the creepy bald
guy behind him grabbed his arms and held them by the elbows behind his back.  He
tried to jerk away using Vampire strength, which wasn’t what it used to be, but
was still pretty strong.  The man smelled human, but Daryl couldn’t budge his grip
even a little.  “What are you doing?” he demanded, the fear audible in his
voice.  Another of the bald men approached him from the front and shoved a rag
in his mouth.  Daryl tried to squirm and spit the cloth out, and the man
grabbed the hair on the back of his head and held it perfectly still.  Daryl could
only blink his distress.  Mother brought her face within an inch or two of his
and peered into his eyes.  He could smell her sour breath.   She put a bony
finger to the corner of his left eye and pushed it into his socket, quickly
hooking out the eyeball and examining it as it lay in her palm.  He tried to
scream and thrash, but the two creeps had him immobilized completely.  The
Chief looked on with no expression whatsoever.

“This’ll do just fine,” Mother said.  She leaned in close
to his face again and peered into the empty eye socket.  She was satisfied that
his Vampire healing was adequate to stop the bleeding without assistance, and
she nodded to the warlocks to take Daryl away.

Tears were streaming from Daryl's remaining eye, and he
wailed as soon as the creeps released their hold on him and he could tear the
gag from his mouth.  They left him in a locked room that had no furniture in it
and boasted only a small rectangular window in the door to break up the
monotony of the white-washed concrete walls.  He sobbed and cursed Gates, but
no one heard him in the room designed to hold detoxing drug addicts.

Mother watched the warlocks lead the young Vampire out of
the Atrium. Missing one little eyeball would not change the effectiveness of
the sacrifice she planned for Daryl later.  She turned back to the Chief.
“Xavier, come stand in the water, in front of me.” 

He obeyed but not without a twinge of nervousness.  He had
seen things lurking in the pool sometimes when Mother was working her spells. 
He stood in the water that was less than eighteen inches deep.  He was near the
edge and was facing outward from the center.  Mother still stood on the two
foot wide ledge, making it possible for her to look him in the face.  She unwrapped
the gauze bandage from around his head and carefully pulled away the wad of
material that covered his empty eye socket.  Someone had already removed the
ruined eye while he was unconscious, but the bandage was stuck a little to the
dried blood and fluid on his face.  Mother crouched down and put the stained
gauze on her tray.  He briefly wondered what she did with all the nasty things
that she seemed to collect on that tray.  For instance, it looked as if there
was an umbilical cord lying next to Daryl’s eyeball and his own bloody
bandages. 

Mother picked up the eyeball and reached over swirling it
in the water next to the Chief’s leg.  She started chanting softly. He could
never understand what she said.  She stood again and faced him with the eyeball
in her hand.

“Close your good eye,” she said and when he obeyed she put
her empty, left palm over his closed right eye and spread her fingers to grip
and hold his forehead.  She then put her right palm, with the eye in it, over
his left socket.  She pushed the eye into his socket, and he felt the orb
turning and rolling around inside until it seemed to find a place to stop on
its own.  She was chanting again with both palms pressed against his eyes. 
Suddenly, he felt as if a dozen or more cold, wet hands were reaching out of
the water around him and touching his body.  They caressed him gently, but it
still felt sickening and unpleasant to him, and he shuddered.  When the
sensations went away and Mother stopped chanting, she removed her hands from
his eyes and told him to open them.

“What do you see?” she asked.

“I can see everything.  There is something just a little odd
about it, but Vampire vision seems to work about as well as my own panther
eyes.” He panned his gaze around the garden, testing his new eye.

“Excellent!” Mother exclaimed. “Now let’s talk.  I’ve heard
some whispers about pregnant Vampires.”

Twenty
-nine

By the time Gates returned to Syracuse and the compound he
created in the gated community, the three pregnant Vampires had arrived and were
waiting for him in a comfortable sitting room.  Two of the recently arrived
elders were speaking to them. 

He peeked around the door frame and then pulled one of his
men aside. “How long have they been here?” Gates asked.

“We brought the women in a couple of hours ago.  We used a
closed carriage, just like you said, and we didn’t say anything to anyone, but
the old ones showed up within fifteen minutes of our arrival.”  He cleared his
throat and looked nervous, “Sir, I think we must have a spy.”

“Of Course we have a spy, probably more than one.  Do you
think that elders are stupid? They would’ve planted informants the minute they
came.  If they were really smart, they would have sent them ahead and had them
in place.  That’s what I would have done.”  He smirked at the guard.  “We don’t
need to concern ourselves with a few rats.  I have everything under control.” 
He touched his jacket pocket to reassure himself that his potion was still
there. “Tell our guests that I will be with them shortly, and I will see to
blood for our refreshment.”