Lilah (17 page)

‘Be my guest,’ I said, and ushered him forward.

He nodded his thanks and in the blink of an eye
had grabbed the man and dragged him into the bushes. I watched the wretch have
barely seconds of fear before Pietro sank his extended incisors into the
thickness of his neck. The man trembled violently before suddenly stiffening,
his skin slowly shrivelling as the blood and life drained from his body. Pietro
stood up with the victim’s remains across one shoulder. He bowed his farewell
then disappeared into the night.

I travelled alone to a small hut on the edge of
the woods. Inside was a man near death, wheezing loudly. A child slept on the
floor beside him. I stepped stealthily inside the hut. Passing my hand over the
man I felt his grave ills. Time was running out and had I stayed another hour I
may have seen his soul float away without my help. Instead, I killed him while
he lay there, drinking only some of his blood to ease my hunger, and leaving
his soul to find another resting place. He had led an honest life.

Again, one might ask why I chose to kill and
not heal this man. But I do not think for a moment that putting an old man out
of his misery is in any way cruel. My healing of humans was cast aside when I
gave up my witch’s soul two hundred years earlier. Though, admittedly, in
certain cases, there has been a concession or two – something I do not
freely admit to others of my kind – when it has benefitted my cause.

Then what of the child you may be wondering? I carried
the sleeping child through the night. It would be my parting gift to the
monastery of Güs. For it was the last time I would visit the place.

I entered the building and headed up the stairs
to Arianne’s room to place the child on the bed. Of course, Arianne was no
longer there.

The snow fell in sheets and I liked the way it
caressed my face with feathery fingers. I glided quickly then, my feet barely
touching the ground to return to my house where the strigoi had recently
ambushed our would-be assassins.
This dwelling had been owned
by wealthy landowners
: large, with many chambers, galley, hearths and
rugs. Now dilapidated, with toothless window slats, it was my home and I had
always preferred its weathered state, the absence of life, glass and gold, and
the smell of wood as old as me. On entering there was a slight odour of blood
from Lewis’s last vanquishing, only detectable by a strigoi. I wound my way up
the broken, twisted staircase, which would have once been polished and
magnificent. Cobwebs brushed my shoulder and the rotted boards creaked under my
step. I opened the chamber door to find a blazing fire and the floor covered
with thick new rugs.

Arianne lay on the large bed, a newly acquired
piece of furniture. This room was in contrast to the rambling walls within the
house. It was decorated with artwork, lace curtains and silk coverlets all
thanks to the pestering of the newest inhabitant. I had scoured the land to
search for the best, stealing from only the wealthiest.

She lay seductively across the covers with just
a nightgown over her nakedness, one long white leg bare against the silk
sheets. Flaxen hair spilled over her shoulders likes waves in the ocean. She
was exquisite.

I swept her into my arms as I had done for many
nights now.

‘You are late,’ she said.

‘I’m sorry. I had some business.’ The blood had
revitalised me and I felt stronger and powerful. A feed on a full moon always
gave me more than the usual energy. At that moment, I could have run faster
than any living creature.

I bent down to kiss her and run my hand along
the curve of her glistening thigh. Her lips were soft and warm. I tried not to
think of another’s whose mouth was less ready, but just as soft.

Lilah

The knock at the door roused me from
a deep sleep. I was slightly
dazed
as I stood barefoot
on the cool wooden floorboards

Composing myself, I had a sense that it was
Gabriel on the other side and eagerly reached for the door, forgetting the
sheerness of my night attire.

As my hand turned the handle I could hear the
thoughts of someone else behind the door. 

Standing
there
holding
a candle was Gabriel and beside him stood Arianne gushing: ‘I am so happy to
see you. I have been dreaming of this meeting.’

It took a moment to get my breath before I realised
just how much I had missed her too. I held her to me. She entered and pulled me
to sit with her on the bed just as she used to do in her room at the monastery.
Arianne’s personality was such that she was hard to ignore. Just her very
presence made the room seem small while she described her journey through the
forest, exclaimed at the richness of my room and the magnificence of the
castle.

‘So, how are you?’

‘I am well,’ I said. ‘But what…how have you
come to be here?’

Her smile was girlish and wider than the one
she wore at the monastery.

‘I have left. I am no longer a sister.’

‘I don’t understand.’ This was indeed the
strangest thing.
Arianne who had dedicated her life to the
church, the poor and her children.
Perhaps I thought at the time that I was
dreaming. ‘What about your calling?’

‘You would not recognise the place. It is so
changed since you left, and orders from the Papacy have meant many changes.
People are welcome to come once a week to chapel and receive a small amount of
charity but that is all. They have halved the number of orphans being looked
after as a section of the building has now been dedicated to lunatics. Lunatics
are said to be possessed
by Lucifer and I feel that it
is more about experiments with exorcism than charity, and donations from
wealthy patrons rather than providing a safe house for unfortunate children.
Two more doctors and a priest have arrived to be paid for by the Papacy. The
whole thing is dreadful. It is good thing you had to leave. You would be deeply
unhappy there, Lilah. I am very glad I left before the changes.’

There was more news to hear. Sister Gertrude
had aged and seemed to be nothing but a pawn of the church unable to make
decisions unless first receiving written confirmation from Rome. Sister Nora
had suffered an unfortunate accident and fell from one of the windows.
Apparently she had been trying to shut the window when she slipped. She did not
die immediately but must have hung on to life, slowly bleeding to death and
possibly crying out in pain for several hours.

Claude became sick again. It seemed I had not
cured all the disease and the doctors said it was in his blood, and though they
had leeched him several times, they could not remove all the poison. Was this
God’s way of telling me that I had meddled too far; that perhaps it was
Claude’s time and not even my healing could prevent this? But even as I thought
it I did not fully believe it. If I had the chance I would attempt to cure
Claude once more.

Arianne paused to catch her breath. It was during
this moment – a chance to observe the pair together – that a
strange thought crept in

‘Arianne. You still haven’t said how you came
to be here.’ Arianne looked into her lap and then to Gabriel who gazed
admiringly at her and it was no wonder why. I had never seen her in common garb
before. The bodice of her dress was low, and puffed sleeves from below her
shoulders revealed much of her exquisitely creamy flesh. Her hair cascaded
freely around her bare shoulders. I had wondered what was different about her
and now I knew. She was breathtakingly beautiful without her nun’s attire.

‘You look so shocked,’ she said, grasping my
hands and squeezing them.

‘It is because I am,’ I said cautiously. ‘What
did Sister Gertrude say when you left. She must be very sad!’

‘I did not face her but left her a note saying
that I would not be back. I think she understood that I had outgrown the
place.’

I shook my head. ‘I still can’t believe it. Who
is taking care of Claude?’

‘The doctors are taking care of him, though I
believe it is only temporary and he will be returned to the streets. One day I
plan to find all those children cast out of the monastery.’

‘And take them where?’ I asked, for such a plan
excited me.

She seemed flustered by the question and I
could tell she had not put any thought into it. ‘I will have a house, Gabriel
will see to that.’

Gabriel met my gaping look of confusion. He was
smiling but it was carefully arranged and I found he could not hold my stare
this time. I remembered our kiss earlier and wondered if he was thinking about
that too.

‘How did the two of you meet?’

‘First, how is my family? Gabriel has told me
his version of finding you there and the rescue but I would like to know about
my brothers and sisters.’

I told her briefly about what I had encountered.
She nodded, occasionally closing her eyes as if remembering, but she did not
seem upset that her brothers and father were dead.

‘I am so glad that Evaline will never endure
that again and I feel somewhat guilty leaving my sisters to their fates.’ I
wondered at the depth of these words for I could already hear her thoughts were
jumbled and her mind engaged with other thoughts I could not yet translate.

‘So, you haven’t told me, how you…did Gabriel
come to find you on my behalf?’

She then told me the story of meeting Gabriel
at the markets and how she knew immediately that they were destined to be
‘friends’. But the word was accentuated suggesting they were more. My heart
dropped and I felt a sudden pain in my chest. She told me that they had spent
hours together and while she spoke, images flashed in my head of the two of
them, bodies entwined. It was unbearable and in an attempt to be free I stood
up suddenly to move to the window.

Arianne followed me. ‘Are you alright?’ She
sounded concerned for me despite her own distractions, and I was fortunate that
she could not see the image I had of Gabriel earlier that evening.

‘Yes, I am fine,’ I lied.

‘Perhaps we should not have disturbed you so
late,’ said Gabriel. ‘But Arianne can be insistent. She had to see you.’

Arianne giggled playfully and touched Gabriel’s
arm. Suddenly I was overcome with nausea.

‘It is wonderful to see you,’ I said without
conviction. ‘But I am very weary. We can talk more in the morning.’

The pair left and I wondered whether they would
be spending the night together. Although I was no longer considered chaste I
was still innocent of the experience of being touched with hands meant for
loving. Those images of the two of them stayed with me and I found I could not
sleep. Until the previous day I had never imagined that Gabriel and I might
have some sort of future together, but the tension in my body and my
fast-beating heart told me that I had been hopeful.

It was still dark when Gabriel reappeared in my
room without knocking.

‘You are having trouble sleeping?’

I did not answer but kept my eyes closed.

‘I know you are awake. Will you talk to me?’

I sat up then and he saw my face.

‘What upsets you so?’

‘Nothing,’ I said.

‘I’m sorry if I hurt you. I should have told
you about us. I did not realise that you had such feelings until tonight.
Although I can sense you, I cannot read your thoughts.’ This fact alone told
that she was much stronger than most witches, more often weak and born from
humans.

‘Then you must sense that I have no feelings
for you.’

We faced each other and I hoped that my lie
would work. ‘I am upset for Arianne for I am thinking of all the children she
has left behind. Who will take care of them?’

I do not know whether he believed me but he
played along with the reason I gave. ‘They are safe for now.’

‘And what of Arianne?
She is a human. She should not be
here. She will be in danger from the other strigoi won’t she?’

‘No-one will touch her. They wouldn’t dare.
Though I expect she cannot stay here in the castle. Lewis will be angry. He
does not like humans here unless he has bought their loyalty with their
services, or unless…’ He does not finish and I closed my eyes hoping to block
out unwanted images.

‘Then she cannot stay in the castle.’

‘She will be placed somewhere safe.’

Gabriel was often missing from the castle. It
was at these times I guessed the pair
were
together.
The feeling that I had lost two friends turned to anger to replace the grief.

‘Does she know what you really are?’

‘Yes. She knows that I have extraordinary
powers.’

‘But does she know what you are capable of?
That you extend your life with the lives of her kind?’

Gabriel looked away at this. It was the first
time I had seen him less confident.

‘I will show her, Lilah, before I make any
commitment.’

‘But it is too late. You have made a
commitment. She has left the order for you. It is wrong.’