Grave Danger (16 page)

Clarissa watched the quick exchange of words, but
she could not hear what they said. She knew it was because Cyrus
was aware that Clarissa could listen in, that he was able to block
her out by putting a barrier between them. In fact, he had made it
a point to keep on guard against her since he had seen her walk
into the meeting room with Eleanor. It made her suspicious as to
what this powerful man had to hide from the world.

“
We begin the town meeting at precisely seven
o’clock,” Cyrus’s voice bellowed throughout the crowded room. A
wave of silence washed over the chamber as voices stopped and
bodies became still in their seats or standing against the walls.
“Close the doors so that we may continue further.” The double doors
leading from the antechamber into the meeting room were pulled
closed with a heavy thud.

Bringing a heavy bronze bell down the open aisle, a
man came to stand in front of the raised platform where the council
members now all stood up from their seats. Cyrus nodded to the man
and he turned around to face the crowd. Striking the ancient bell
he spoke.

“
With each chime of the bell we remember the
souls that have fallen. With the sound we remember their kindness,
their generosity, and love of our community. Let their memory
remain in our souls forever after. Let us pray that they find rest
in the next world as we pray for our own.” He struck the bell
again.

“
We remember Cynthia Walters.” Clarissa heard
the added whispered prays throughout the room, hushed words coming
from bowed heads. Most heads were bowed in reverence except for
Cyrus Cercopoly whose face remained forward as he starred off into
nothingness.

The man continued, striking the bell a third time.
“We remember Grayson Rogers.” A short cry was heard in the room.
Clarissa followed the sound to see Leah Moon who quickly covered
her mouth. She was sitting several rows behind Clarissa with her
mother and grandmother. Her grandmother put her arm around her
granddaughter in solidarity to her loss. Clarissa reached out
finding the information she sought. Grayson Rogers had been Leah’s
closest friend since childhood. His death last evening had come as
a shock to her, having only found out about it a few hours before
tonight’s meeting. Her grandmother and mother had thought it best
to keep the information from her.

The bell chimed again as another name was called.
“We remember Lauren Adler.” More whispered prays for the deceased
filled the room.

“
We remember Mary-Ann Gills.” A woman sitting
in front of Clarissa sobbed into her hands. She was an S.S. member,
her name tag reading Candice Snow in cursive lettering on her
sweater. Mary-Ann had been her sister.

“
We remember Nancy Burn.” Michael Burn sat
next to Candice Snow. Taking her hand he held on tight, squeezing
her skin until it turned white, but neither noticed, so caught up
in their deep grief. His wife’s death several weeks ago was still a
raw and aching wound on his soul.

The bell was struck a final time, resonating
throughout the room as it was carried through the atmosphere to the
world beyond. “We remember our friends and loved ones, let the
spirits of the past guide them home.”

The man’s arm fell down to his side, the bell
silenced. His own face was turned down as he whispered a prayer
that only he and Clarissa could hear. “Let their deaths not be in
vain. Let us rid the world of the monsters that took them from us.”
Then he raised his head, his eyes finding Clarissa’s. He was a
living human, but he must have suspected that she had overheard
him, because he quickly looked away. He took his seat in the front
row as the diplomats took their seats.

The meeting continued. Specters and livings alike
stood before the council airing their grievances and giving their
opinions on the solution to these unfortunate deaths. As Clarissa
heard each of them speak, she became more angered against the
creatures who had taken these peoples friends, sisters, and wives
so viciously. Watching as several of them fell apart before they
ever made it to the podium to speak, broke Clarissa’s heart. Death
was always hardest for those left behind to pick up the pieces. She
was more adamant now than ever to see that these creatures pay with
their own lives.

The meeting adjourned several hours later, no closer
to a solution than they were at the beginning. All were in
consensus that something must be done. But like so many political
reforms for change, it would take them forever to draw up anything
concrete. The Eidolon community was still at the same disadvantage
they were at thirty-eight years ago. There was no one capable of
standing up to and controlling these creatures.

The flesh-eaters had kept to the rules for this
long. Why the increase in deaths? And to attack the humans closest
to the Eidolon community was a smack in the face and a blatant
disregard to the treaty. These deaths could not go by without
retaliation and it seemed in Clarissa’s opinion that the future
would bring war down upon the oldest city.

Chapter 9-

“
It is a full blood moon tonight,” Eleanor
remarked as they walked home after the town meeting. Henry, who had
been gone most of the meeting, had come up to them at the closing
of the meeting to take Richard into the secret chamber behind the
high council table. The men had bid the two women goodnight and a
safe travel home.

Eleanor walked beside Mrs. Connors, Clarissa
following closely behind the two older women. Slowing her step,
Clarissa gazed up at the full moon in the dark sky. She remembered
a little saying about changing patterns of the cool bright orb.

The New Moon rises at sunrise

And the first quarter at noon

The Full Moon rises at sunset

And the last quarter at midnight

Clarissa didn’t have a watch, but it was likely some
time after eleven. Under the new ordinances, no one was to be
roaming outside their homes or places of business past the midnight
mark on the clock. To ensure that everyone returned safely to these
places tonight after the meeting several Eidolon members were
chosen to patrol the streets and to escort lone souls to their
destinations.

“
A fine night for mischief making, I think,”
Maddy said with a chuckle. She danced down the street, acting like
she was twenty years younger. The woman seemed to have more energy
than Clarissa and ten-times the exuberance that a respectable woman
her age should possess. “If I were only a few years younger, I
would be out this night, living it up.” She stretched her arms
above her head, closing her eyes. “I would be the moon mistress
again.”

“
You mean you would be running down the
streets, bare-ass naked to the world and getting arrested for
indecent exposure. Not to mention the riots you’d cause with your
candle dances.” Eleanor danced around Maddy, throwing her hands up
over her head in imitation. “I am the moon mistress,” she cried out
to the night.

“
You know nothing about being a moon
mistress,” Maddy said, piqued at Eleanor’s mocking. “Besides we
were not naked – we wore shoes and a robe.”

“
That was gossamer. So you might as well have
been naked.” Eleanor laughed as she remembered the first time she
saw Maddy and her ladies group in the forests together.

Eleanor had just arrived to the area and she had
never seen this new religion, though it held beliefs similar to the
older pagan faiths of Western Europe. The practice of feminist
Wiccan, which spread out across the states in the mid-century was a
branch of spiritualism that embraced feminine values and created
autonomy for women disappointed with patriarchic religions. Maddy
herself was not a Wiccan, her faith stemmed from a practice much
older.

“
That is beside the point,” Maddy argued. “Our
clothing was perfectly appropriate for the time period.”

Clarissa listened absently as the two women
continued discussing Maddy’s youthful activities. She didn’t feel
like joining them in conversation and so lagged farther behind them
as they made their way back to the house. Eleanor was planning on
staying overnight at Mrs. Connors. There were plenty of spare
bedrooms and Clarissa would have someone to talk to if she got
lonely during the night.

“
Clarissa, stop dawdling back there. You have
the slowest walk ever.” Eleanor turned her head to look back at
Clarissa. “Is there something the matter?”

Yes.

“
No,” Clarissa answered. “I’m just naturally a
slow walker, that’s all. You two can go on ahead if you like. I’ll
ketch up with you at home.”

Eleanor and Maddy slowed down, both turning to face
Clarissa with disapproving looks on their faces.

“
You’re not going to walk home all by
yourself, Clarissa. Don’t you remember what they told us?” Eleanor
thought to grab hold of Clarissa and pull her along, but just as
she was about to make a go at it, Clarissa stepped out of her
reach.

“
I’m a grown woman and I know how to take care
of myself.” They stood in the open streets, now empty of
pedestrians. Occasionally the headlights of a car would graze past
them. It was almost deathly quiet in the streets of the old
city.

“
Go on without me. I’ll be fine,” Clarissa
strongly insisted as the two women looked to each other, wondering
what they should do.

Should they allow Clarissa to roam the streets
alone, knowing full well that the beasts that walked the St.
Augustine streets no longer held to the rules of the treaty? Could
they stop her from this decision even if they wanted to? The answer
was no to both questions.

“
Let her go, Elle, she is clearly a capable
person.” Maddy said after a few seconds of deliberation.

“
But she can’t – she isn’t capable of – we
can’t leave her out here alone.” Eleanor stuttered. Eleanor was
deeply horrified over the possibility that Clarissa could come to
harm from the night creatures. Even she, who had lived with them
for decades, wasn’t foolish enough to believe she could match wits
with these otherworldly creatures.

“
It’s her decision, Elle.” Maddy spoke in a
reasonably calm voice, unlike Eleanor. “Isn’t that correct,
Clarissa? If you think you are capable of walking the streets by
yourself then who are we to disagree?”

“
Fine,” Eleanor concede defeat in the matter.
“But do not stay out too late or I will send Henry out to find you
and bring you home,” she threatened.

As they continued down the street, leaving Clarissa
behind, Maddy turned her head to look back. “Remember what they say
about getting what you ask for.” Then she turned back, following
Eleanor as they continued on home.

Maddy had had a look in her eye when she had made
that rather cryptic remark. Clarissa wondered if the woman knew why
she was waiting out in the dark streets, and what she hoped to
find. All evening she had mulled over what she could do; how she
could help her people and the community. Clarissa had yet to figure
out her purpose in this existence until now. Perhaps she was being
rash or reckless, but tonight for the first time she would come
face to face with the other kind and would find out for herself the
true nature of the flesh-eater.

***∞***

It was close to midnight and high on the old bride,
The Bridge of Lions as it was aptly named because of the stone
figures that flanked it, standing guard over the city, stood two
still figures. In the darkness their presence went undetected by
the few vehicles that crossed over the bridge at night. As the
light slipped away from the world and night descended the solitary
creatures of the underworld took to action, coming out of their
daytime havens to venture into the city for sustenance and perhaps
a little fun.

Corrigan LeMoyne had once been a man, a living
person who had spent thirty-one years on this earth before falling
under the spell of death. His name, Corrigan, was all that was left
of his humanity. He was cursed, like his brothers and sisters, into
an existence that thrived on the death of others. No one who lived
as they did could count on any reprieve from the unrelenting desire
for the taste of human flesh and blood. For some, it was like a
madness; controlling their every fiber of being. But for others,
like the LeMoynes, who had adapted a measure of self-control, this
existence was almost bearable. They only took what was needed,
nothing more.

“
It’s a blood moon tonight,” Corrigan uttered
into the still night. “I smell death on the wind.” He inhaled the
cool air breeze as it blew against his skin.

Folding his arms across his muscled chest, he leaned
against the bridge railing. Standing at close to six feet six
inches without his shoes on, Corrigan was not a man who by any
means should be able to hide easily in a crowd. His added girth of
muscles didn’t help either. But he was like a wraith in the night,
almost inconspicuous until the last moment; the moment before he
took a life. By the very nature of a flesh-eater, they were not far
from the wild animals in the swamps and surrounding forests. Like
the beasts of this world, their bodies were designed to be strong
and fast, cunning and resilient. A total contrast to the zombie
characters of folklore.

His iridescent blue eyes focused on the man standing
a few feet away from him. Corrigan noticed that Chas was completely
caught up in his own world. His brother hadn’t heard a word he had
said the entire time they’d been standing on the bridge.

Chas LeMoyne liked to point out on many occasions
that he was the token black man of the family. In the LeMoyne clan,
family meant people who were of agreeable minds, not shared blood.
Though they did share blood, just not their own.