Judas and the Vampires (49 page)

Before my mind fully understood what he meant, he pulled out two severed heads from his cloak and laid them at my feet. He made sure to position their horrified expressions to where I could see them clearly, bathed in the light from a slender moonbeam. They both looked quite similar to me, with hazel eyes frozen in terror, and their mouths opened in the screams that must’ve taken place right before their heads were separated from their bodies. Not knowing which one was Sorne or Nere, one of them had their neck severed low enough to see the familiar birthmark.

I screamed.

“It must be something in the family that makes you all uncooperative,” he said, seemingly unaffected by the screeching timbre pouring out of my open throat. “Well, at least they will not be alone much longer…unless you come to your senses and join us, Txema. Join us before it is too
late!”

He laughed again, and this time he didn’t restrain himself. He gave in to an even bigger uproarious laughter fit, one that grew louder by the moment. All the while I screamed, and neither my hoarse cries nor his gleeful cacophony stopped—not until the world around me went blank.

Chapter 18

The last time I had a dream like this, I immediately awoke in a panic, grasping desperately at my throat to make sure it was still intact. Not this time. Instead, I slumbered in apparent uneventful peace, although scientists insist we dream all night long. The thing I remembered most, upon waking, were the bleeding heads of my cousins, as they laid lifeless near my feet.

I awoke just before 11:00 a.m., which gave me an hour to prepare for my noon rendezvous with Racco. Even though I bathed the night before, I decided to linger in the shower, letting the soft jets and waterfalls pour over me. I guess I hoped to wash away the memory of my most recent nightmare, while trying to savor the dream image of Racco’s bare muscular chest. I wondered if that part was an accurate representation, and whether or not in a few hours I would find myself in a warm embrace, stroking the soft, dark hair so openly displayed.

After dressing in the outfit left for me the night before, I headed downstairs to the foyer. Unlike last night, when I saw vampires frolicking throughout the castle during my tour, and human servants hustling about to meet the seemingly endless demands for one item or another, the place was deserted. Only the echo from a door closing somewhere behind me, along the grand corridor, interrupted the stillness that surrounded me.

No sign of Racco. With a few minutes to spare, I didn’t worry about whether he stood me up or not. However, I started to consider that notion seriously once a large grandfather clock chimed when twelve o’clock arrived.

Fortunately, the clock’s gothic chimes drew my attention to its glass case. Another envelope peered out through the door of the pendulum case. Smaller than the one left for me the previous night, it bore my name in script cursive. Also, unlike last night’s invitation, this one bore a red wax seal with a lion’s head pressed into it.

Of course, I opened it without delay. Racco’s favored cologne drifted toward me from the note.

“My dearest Txema. If you are ready for a delightful afternoon, step outside and allow Mercel to lead you to your seat next to mine. Racco.”

Intrigued where this latest invitation would lead, I immediately headed for the castle’s main entrance, slightly surprised when the heavy medieval door opened easily, perhaps enabled by an electronic sensor I noticed on the wall to my right near the doorway.

“Ah, Mademoiselle Ybarra!  Right this way, please!”

Despite the temperature in the mid-fifties from what I could tell, or about thirteen degrees Celsius, he was dressed similar to me, wearing a full snowsuit. Great, we could both sweat like pigs. It would’ve really pissed me off if Racco had been dressed in something more comfortable.

Mercel lead me past a pair of Jaguars parked in the circular drive in front of the castle, and at first I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice the large black helicopter idling nearby. The engine quietly purred, and the blades slowly turned. From inside, Racco motioned for us to hurry and climb aboard. Immediately the blades sped up, sending strong gusts toward me and Mercel.

“I am greatly pleased you decided to join me!” beamed Racco, speaking above the din. He helped me up into the spacious cabin behind the cockpit, where several leather chairs and a round cherry table were attached to the floor. Two servants stood by him—one carrying a chilled bottle of champagne, while the other held three glasses. They, like Mercel, were also wearing snowsuits, although the tops were pulled down and tied at the waist.

Another servant, whom I hadn’t noticed, closed the sliding door behind us. An assault rifle was strapped to his side, and he nodded politely to me when we exchanged wary glances. Along with a touch screen computer and a large plasma TV upon one of the walls, the cabin looked like it belonged in some espionage flick.

How James Bond of you, Racco dear.

“Come, sit with me,” he said, motioning for me to sit in the chair next to him. For a moment, I thought he wasn’t wearing a snowsuit, and was simply clad in a white Body Armor bodysuit. But then I noticed he too had his snowsuit tied around his waist like most of his attendants. “I’m sure you are hungry. If you can forego breakfast, I will treat you to a magnificent brunch instead.”

I was starving. I didn’t think I could hold off eating, and would’ve ignored what was left of my cultured manners if something delectable had been placed before me. Suddenly, the helicopter rose into the air, distracting me for the moment from my raging hunger. When it cleared the castle walls, it sharply veered toward the east.

“I have something to make you forget about food,” said Racco, chuckling at my white-knuckled grip on my chair’s arms as the helicopter sped toward the Pyrenees’ deeper remote wilderness. When the butterflies in my already unsettled stomach subsided, he held out a fisted hand, motioning for me to place my hand under his. He dropped a pill into my palm. “This will take care of your hunger and anxiety, Txema.”

“What’s this?” I worried that the reddish oblong tablet was some exotic form of Ecstasy.

“It is a small dose of a powerful elixir that provides nourishment and energy like nothing you’ve ever experienced,” he advised.

So, it was some kind of drug after all…. Perhaps a performance enhancer with an amphetamine edge? There was no way in hell I’d subject my body to that kind of shit!

“No, it is not a narcotic, or some other dangerous drug,” he assured me, after my panicked reaction. “Here, I have one, too. I will be the Guinea pig!”

He pulled out another tablet similar in shape and color to the one he gave me. Smiling confidently, he swallowed the pill and chased it with a drink of champagne.

“While we are not close enough companions yet, for me to reveal the exact recipe inside the pill, I want you to know that it holds key ingredients that are part of what has kept me in vibrant health for many centuries,” he advised, before motioning for me to join him by ingesting my serving.

Sex sells. At least it did right then. If it had been Elmer Fudd sitting across from me instead of this incredibly sexy hunk of a man, immortal or not, I could’ve easily dismissed the offer and not given it another thought.

I swallowed the pill before the rational side of my brain could try and talk me out of it again. Even before the champagne chasing it reached my throat, a strange sensation began to flow through my entire being. A combination of surging energy and an incredible sense of wellness overwhelmed my body. Even weirder was the sense of ‘oneness’ with everything around me that followed.

“You like?”

“Yeah…
yes
, I do!” I enthused, as the effect continued to flow through me, soon reaching the very ends of my toes and fingers. Even the nerve endings upon my scalp tingled.

“Believe it or not, I have not shared this with many people down through the years,” he said, glancing out the window nearest to him. As we ascended steadily, the last vestige of green foliage below gave way to an immense blanket of snow that seemed to stretch for many miles. “You feel alive—really alive, for the first time in your life. At least, that is what it feels like to me. It gets me through the lonely times, and is the only experience the vampires and I share that is truly similar. What you feel right now, is nearly the same thing they feel when they feed on fresh blood…fresh
human
blood.”

He was right. I had never experienced anything like this. It would’ve remained the most unique event in my brief nineteen years on earth, if not for another amazing experience to come. In the meantime, I marveled at this incredible feeling that washed over me in waves.

Was it better than sex, you might ask? Maybe in some cases…it depends on the partner and depth of connection.  Compared to sex with most men, this had to be a better deal. But, I could only imagine what this feeling would blossom into when held tightly by a man like the one eyeing me intently right then.

“That’s a tall mountain,” I said, focusing my gaze on the giant peak we were heading toward. “Is that where we’re going?”

“To the very top,” he advised. Excitement danced in his eyes that seemed a few shades lighter, as blue as the clear November sky above us. “It’s not the tallest peak in the Pyrenees, like Pico del Aneto. But, the skiing is better here, especially since it is in the very heart of the mountains.”

“Ah, so we’re really going to hit the slopes, huh?”

“Absolutely! You should be ready to show me your Alpine champion moves, now that Chanson has taken care of your ankle. Right?”

I smiled shyly, surprised and a little embarrassed that he knew this about me. Growing up with a father whose passion for skiing didn’t take to my brothers, I had no choice but to come along when he ventured to upstate  New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont several times each winter. My incentive was to spend time with him, which wasn’t always easy to do, since Papa often traveled on business trips up and down the east coast. Over the years we grew close, and I developed a knack for slalom racing—good enough to receive an offer to join the University of Colorado ski team. If not for UT’s closer location to Richmond, and Pat Summit’s tenacious recruiting skills, I might’ve chosen CU instead.

For a moment, I wondered how this crazy adventure might’ve turned out had that been my collegiate choice.

“We will be arriving at our afternoon destination in less than ten minutes from now,” Racco advised, snapping me out of my daydream. “How are you feeling?”

By then, the powerful euphoria from the pill had reached every cell, muscle, and capillary in my entire body. The hunger had disappeared, and I felt enough energy to envision several trips down the mountain, if that was how our skiing experience would unfold. I also felt invincible—like nothing could hurt me in any way. It made me broach another subject I’d been thinking about for the past few minutes.

“What makes it possible for someone to live in a youthful human body for so many centuries, as you’ve done?”

I hoped he was flattered by the youthful remark, yet he seemed unaffected by it, as his expression grew serious.

“Luck is part of it,” he said. “Luck, and a body that continually stays young. What I mean to say, my cells are always reproducing themselves in perfect replication. There is no aging, and healing—even for severe injuries—happens quickly. For me to die, the injury would have to be quick and severe, in order to supersede my body’s effort to protect and recreate the original tissues…. I can tell by the look on your face that this will take time to understand and believe. Yes?”

I nodded in response, and yes, I could barely conceive how this was true. But, over the past week anything seemed possible. 

“Simone just told me that we will be landing in a moment,” Mercel advised, smiling nervously while he pulled up his snowsuit over his arms and shoulders and zipped it up. The other servants did the same.

“Is the equipment ready for us?” Racco rose from the table and pulled his snowsuit over his powerful arms and shoulders. 

His suit was darker than all the others, a blue shade that was almost black. Everyone else’s suits and mine were purple with gold stripes—similar in some ways to tapestries I’d seen hanging along the castle’s corridor.

“Yes,” said Mercel, motioning to an area beyond my line of sight, near the cockpit. “We will drop you off at the top, in the area you prefer, my lord. Simone has already verified with Louis that the snow is stable enough for us to land the helicopter.”

“Very good!” Racco enthused, and then he turned to me. “The initial grade should be easy enough for you to keep pace with me. But, once we reach the first of the steep slopes, you will want to follow my lead, so that you won’t inadvertently fall into the chasms along the way.”

I felt a twinge of panic despite my euphoric state. The chasms sounded dangerous, but the excitement dancing in his eyes made me reluctant to voice any concerns about safety. Am I an expert skier? Yes. But isn’t it a bad idea to ignore perilous obstacles when racing down the side of a steep mountain never visited before? 

Although I said nothing, I’m sure my facial expression revealed my fears. His latest playful smile faded a little, and he started to say something else. The helicopter’s sudden descent onto the mountaintop distracted us both, but our landing was smooth.