Wicked Rage of the Moon: Book Three of the Airendell Chronicles (29 page)

“Lovely!  You do not mince words, do you?”  Octavius smiles.  “To be specific; I mean you have no idea what you are meant to accomplish.  You have no idea of the destiny that you are meant to fulfill.”

“I have heard some rumblings about prophesies, new races, benefit of all mankind, and things along that ilk.  But all that I know for certain is that I have duties.  I will see to the duties to the best of my abilities.”  Morna exhales slowly and says, “Now, I assume that you are Octavius, Mordir’s friend?  I gather you also know Rodrigo?”

Octavius laughs and says, “Yes to both Madam.  Is your mate going to join us?”

“I am sure that he will be along after the healing rite.”  Morna says, noncommittally.  “Speaking of which, we should get started Rodrigo.”  Morna looks at the ancient one meaningfully.

Rodrigo clears his throat and looks a little nervous when he asks, “May Octavius observe?”

Morna looks at the ancient one again.  Her overall impression of the being is favorable, and she does detect some magic in him.  She looks at him pointedly and says, “Do you practice?”

“You mean magic?  Not exactly… I seem to use my small magical abilities to enhance my scientific knowledge.  Much like our friend Mordir.”

Morna nods.  She has suspected as much. At that moment Kylor and Kyle enter the room.  Kylor immediately goes over and shakes hands with Octavius.  Morna is surprised that they act like old friends.  Kyle is looking at him intently as well.  Morna asks him telepathically what is wrong.

“I have met him before Mom.  He was the recruiter from that academy in Rome that came to see me a week before the crash.  Do you remember me telling you about him?”

Morna nods and looks directly at the vampire.  “Octavius,” she interrupts his greeting of her oldest son.  “May I ask why you have made yourself known to my sons?”

“I have known Octavius for many, many years.  I learned much of what I know about healing, from him.  He is a brilliant physician,” Kylor tells his mother.

“Research mostly, Madam.  I am ever looking for a cure to my condition.  I know Kyle because I did try to recruit him for my academy in Rome.  But he has already told you that.”

“You listened in to our conversation?” Morna asks stiffly.

“Morna, it was Octavius who taught me how to control my ability to hear telepathic messages, even those not intended for me.”  Rodrigo says.  “Only he no longer has the ability to shut out the messages of others.   Once the ability is developed, it becomes stronger and stronger.  He has had the ability for over five thousand years.  Over the millennia he has reached the point where he hears all telepathic messages with in a ten mile radius.  He wasn‘t deliberately eavesdropping.”

Octavius chuckles, “I am afraid it is much like listening to several radio stations at once.  It takes a lot of concentration to sort through it all when I am in a magical realms such as this one.”  Octavius reads the obvious distrust in Morna’s eyes.  “Morna, I tried to recruit your son, not because I knew who you were, but because of his potential abilities.  He like his older brother has a brilliant scientific mind.  His test scores were off the chart.  But when I met him I realized that he also has significant psychic and magical abilities.  And according to prophesy, all of your children do and will” He says looking meaningfully at her enormous belly.

“I have read some of those prophesies and I am not at all certain that they refer to me and my children,” Morna says doubtfully as she rubs her belly protectively. 

“That is because you are a very humble woman.”  Octavius chuckles and says, “That’s in the prophesies as well.”

Morna snorts.  “It’s also because the prophesies say I have sixteen children.  That is simply not possible.”  She turns her attention back to Rodrigo, “Are you sure you want to finish this healing rite?  Perhaps the changes won’t be permanent if we stop now.”

“Morna that would be a tragedy.  I would revert back to the blood thirsty beast every full moon.  I have no wish to live like that, but have yet to figure out how to end my life.  If you do not wish to perform the last right then please retrieve your sword and decapitate me now.  That might end my life.” Rodrigo says very quietly.

Morna looks at Rodrigo with steely eyes and says, “If I finish the rite and it does not cure you and I can’t find another solution, I will decapitate you before I allow you to take another innocent human life.” 

“I am counting on that Morna,” Rodrigo says with a sad smile.

Morna nods, and tells her sons and Octavius to find a place to sit that is out of the way.  Morna looks then to Rodrigo and Mordir, “Are you both ready?”  When they nod she walks over to stand before Rodrigo.  She gently strokes his cheek and whispers, “I truly pray that this works, I am already very fond of you and your mother and son are like my family.”

Morna looks at her ‘audience’ and says, “No talking please, once I start with the prayers and songs.

Morna starts humming and reciting the words of the healing spell.  She places her hands above his head, and slowly moves them downward as she continues to weave the healing spell.  Once the entire spell has been woven and she rises slowly and unwraps the incision on the left forearm.  The wound has started to bleed freely again in response to the spells that she is weaving.  She utters a silent prayer and finishes with; “Rodrigo of the Gila Clan, accept my offering.  May our Lord God allow this to heal your body of this curse.”  She uses her right hand to stroke his face gently and says, “Drink friend, and God willing be cured.”

After Rodrigo has drank for a minute, Mordir starts administering the antibodies.  This time Rodrigo easily stops drinking her blood and offers to the clean the incision and wrap it.  Morna looks down at it and says, “No need.  The rite is finished and the wound has healed already.”

“May I?” Asks Octavius indicating the site of the wound.  Morna extends her arm to the ancient vampire he thoroughly examines it.  “Amazing.  Had I not seen with my own eyes how deep that it was, I would have thought it some kind of trick.  Do you always heal this fast?”

“Lately, I have been healing almost immediately.  However, when I first changed I did not heal this spontaneously or quickly on my own.  My mate treated me with his venom both times I fought with the Stone Cannibals.”

“Do you mean the troll/vampire hybrids?” Octavius asks.

“I do.” Morna says.

“Amazing! But you are not a true vampire, you do not truly crave to feed on blood, do you?”

“I do.  I nearly attacked my own son and two of my beloved godsons when I was thirsting.  Since that time I have been feeding on bagged human blood at regular intervals.  And since I began these healing rites I have greatly increased my intake.” Morna reports, “I have been striving to keep my antibody production high in order the meet my needs, my baby’s needs and the collect enough for research and to perform the rites.”

“What else have you been doing to increase the production of antibodies?” Octavius asks.

“Various types of stimulation.” Morna says evasively.

Kyle laughs and looks at Kylor, “Bro, we need to go talk to Aunt Breena so that Mom can speak more freely.”  Kylor nods and the brothers leave the room.

Octavius chuckles and says, “Your son is very wise for such a young man.  The empathic abilities help a lot I am sure.”  Morna nods her agreement.  “What types of stimulation?”

“Sexual.” Morna says plainly.

“And you have had your mate bite you?”  When Morna nods, Octavius continues; “But it proved too much for your mate?  He drank as well.”

“He drank at my urging.”  Morna says with a smile.

“Most vampires do not stop once they begin to feed from a human.” Octavius insists.

“Morna did,” says George.  “I saw it with my own eyes.  She ripped the throat out of her enemy, but did not drink a drop.”

“Impossible!” Hisses the ancient vampire.

George walks over to Morna and offers his arm, “Show him Morna.  It’s time this race learns that they can
choose
to control themselves.”

Morna weaves a spell to numb George’s arm and bites.  She immediately releases his arm and watches it bleed.  She wipes her lips on the back of her hand and looks at Octavius.  He is in full blood thirst.  “In case you are wondering why you can’t move, I am using what the Spell Weavers call a binding spell.  You won’t be able to move until I drop the spell.”  Morna calmly gets more gauze and saline to clean George’s wound and then weaves a spell that heals it immediately.  Morna looks at Octavius carefully.  When she is sure the blood thirst has passed she drops the binding spell.

“Amazing!  Madam, I could feel your need to feed on his blood, it was every bit as intense as my own need, and yet you did not.  That is truly astonishing!”  Octavius says.

“My mate is astonishing,” says Luca from the doorway.  He walks over to Octavius and shakes his hand, “You must be Octavius.  Lucian Michaels. “

Octavius returns his attention to Morna, “Did you use magic to resist your blood thirst?”

“No.  How could I possibly do that?  I can’t use my magic on myself.  I choose not to be a monster.  Plain and simple.  My mate had made the same choice for over five hundred years.”  Morna says gently.  “It is not easy, but it can be done.  He has fed solely on animals and rarely, bagged human blood.”

“But you are both magic.  I suspect that those who are not could not resist.”  Octavius says quietly.

“Sir, there is young vampire in the other room who is not magic, but who feeds on animals.  He fed on humans, as he was taught, until he decided to listen to his conscience and started feeding on animals.  He has not had a drop of human blood since.”  When Octavius looks skeptical, Morna continues.  “There are others as well.  There are two entire covens in the Northwest part of the United States that feeds only on animals.  I have not met them, but we have heard of them from a reliable source.  A vampire that my mate and I have known for over two hundred years.  She is not prone to exaggeration or dishonesty.  She may be fond of drama and have an exaggerated sense of retribution but she is honest.”  Morna shrugs and watches the ancient vampire.  “I was under the impression that you do not feed on humans.”

“It has taken me three thousand years to get to the point where I could resist the scent of human blood.  You and your mate are both babies by comparison.  Especially you Madam.  I am humbled.  I was quite impressed with my efforts until today,” Octavius says with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, our magic may make a difference.  We really are not one hundred percent sure,” Morna says gently.  “Our culture as Spell Weavers certainly makes a difference.  Our mission in life is to protect humanity, at all costs.”

“How does that explain the young man you told me about?” Octavius asks.

“He is simply an exceptional young man.  I can’t explain him, other than to say, he chose the course and has stuck with it.”  Morna smiles with pride in her friend and bonded protector.

“I assume your spell protected George from your venom?” Octavius asks.

“I am not venomous,” Morna says simply.

“Like the female human/vampire hybrids.  Interesting.”  Octavius nods and looks at Luca again, “Have you eaten real food yet?”

“Yes, I had venison steak, boiled potatoes, steamed vegetables and lemon cake last night for supper.  And a mushroom omelet before I came over here this morning.”

“Ah, I remember venison steaks and omelets.  I am not able to eat like that yet.  I basically eat a raw gruel of blood and meat.  But I can survive on it.” Octavius says.  He turns and smiles at Morna.  “You madam are still very human.  Your revulsion at the thought of consuming my sustenance was very strong.  But your mate was also put off by it, just not to the same extent.”

“Sorry,” Says Morna with a wry smile.  “I like my food to taste like food.  Have you tried milk?”

“Yes, I tolerate it quite well and actually enjoy it, almost.”  Octavius says with a chuckle.  “Madam, would you consent to collecting antibodies for me to be treated.  I want to be more human like.  I have hated what I have become ever since I woke up after being bitten over five thousand years ago.”

“I would agree to that.”  Morna says quickly.

“Morna…” Luca begins.

“Luca, I will consent to antibodies only.” Morna says with a smile.

“That’s not what I was thinking about.”  Luca says with a grin, “But thank you.  I was wondering if you should collect more antibodies this close to delivery of our child.”

I will be collecting antibodies until I stop producing them at this accelerated rate.  Breena will probably need more if further complications arise in this pregnancy.  I must keep her healthy.”  Morna says quietly.  “And if we can develop a way to help other vampires resist human blood, I want to do it.”

“Thank you Madam.  I am most desirous to have a beating heart again, just as your mate does,” Octavius says with intense feeling. 

Morna nods and says, “If we really want to help your kind, you should focus on Looveig’s research on nanobots.  I probably won’t be able to harvest antibodies forever.”

“Mordir had his intern email some of Looveig’s preliminary research to me.  It is indeed quite promising.”  Octavius says.  “Madam, you look tired.”