Book Three, Chapters 0241 to 0250

The Vampire's Daughter
Book Three

Chapters 0241 to 250
-----

0241
After a few minutes, one of the twins came back into the living room. "My sister won't be bothering us anymore. At least not tonight," she said.

"Which one is this?" Jaime asked Sol.

"This is Car," he answered.

The little girl smiled and sat on the couch across from the fireplace.

"Carmalinda, do you know who that woman was that arrived when we were in the tower?" Sol asked.

"No."

"You aren't telling the truth," Sol said.

"Even I could tell that," Jamie added.

"I do know, but I'm not allowed to tell you," Car responded.

"Is she staying at the castle?" Sol asked.

"Yes."

"May I meet her?"

"Not yet."

"When may I meet her?"

"When Gan decides you can meet her."

"Has she been here before?"

"Not that I know of."

"So you do not know her?"

"I didn't say that. I just said that I wasn't aware of her ever having been at the castle prior to tonight."

"So you have met her before," Sol said. "Where did you meet her?"

"In Sweden."

"Is she nice?"

"To whom?"

"In general?"

"She can be, but then there are times when she isn't. It's all relative."

"Is she a friend of Gan's?" Jamie asked.

Both Sol and Car looked at Jamie with a mixture of surprise and indignation.

"What?" Jamie asked.

After a pause, Car said, "They are well known to each other, but I don't think the term friend is appropriate."

"I could sense that she is quite powerful," Sol said.

"Oh yes, very," Car responded. "She is also very interested in meeting you."

"Then the interest is mutual," Sol said.

"I guess two out of three ain't bad," Jamie injected, "because I just want this whole mess to be over and done with."

At that Car's eyes went wide, she looked at Sol and she started giggling. "Didn't you explain the magnitude of the situation?"

"I'm not certain of the magnitude myself," Sol said.

"I'm quite aware of the magnitude of a blood hunt," Jamie said indignantly.

"The blood hunt?" Carmalinda asked rhetorically. "I'm not talking about the bloodhunt."


242
"Then what are you talking about?" Jamie asked.

Car turned her head to the side while looking at Jamie, then smiled and said, "Nothing." She got up and walked out of the room.

"What was that all about?" Jamie asked Sol, who shrugged to say he didn't know. "If I weren't madly in love with you I'd..."

"You would what?" Sol asked.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't be here."

Sol laughed, causing Jamie to smile. Just at that moment, they both looked up to the doorway where the woman from earlier was standing.

She was impossibly tall with ghostly white features. The three just sat looking at each other for a very long time, before Sol said, "Hello."

The woman turned her attention to him alone, but said nothing. He could feel her trying to probe his mind, which he defended as vigorously as possibly. Eventually he lapsed into thinking of children’s songs to distract her.

She tilted her head in an almost birdlike fashion before concentrating on Jamie.

Jamie stumbled back into a chair and sat down. At that point, Sol attempted to read what the female vampire was thinking.

She turned her attention back to Sol, but this time she attacked his senses. She shot back at him the children’s songs he had used to defend against her probing.

It was a deafening sound inside his head, causing him to fall to his knees and hold his head between his hands. He made no sound, but focused all his energy on blocking her thoughts.

Eventually the sound stopped and he looked up. Jamie was still in the seat, dazed, and the lanky white woman was gone, replaced by Car.

Car tilted her head and asked, "Are you OK?"

"Yes," answered Sol. He wanted to ask about the white vampire, but knew Carmalinda would say nothing so he didn't bother. "Do you have any idea when Gan will be back?" he asked, as he stood up and walked over to Jamie.

"When he gets back," Car answered.

Sol shook his friend, who, startled, snapped back into reality. "What the hell was that?" Jamie asked.

"I'm not sure, but she was one of the most powerful vampires I've ever met."

"I feel violated," Jamie said.

"You were, in a way. I'm sure she walked through your thoughts without the slightest hindrance or care."

Jamie looked down and said, quietly, "I'm tired."

"Come," Sol said, taking his friend by the arm, "let's go back downstairs and call it a night. It's almost dawn anyway."

The two went down the dark stairwell behind the fireplace with Sol leading the way. He laid Jamie down on the bed when they got to the room. Sol sat at the edge, thinking about the vampire.

He had never seen her before and was stunned by her power. He wondered how much information she had drained from Jamie and how much he had given up himself. Sol, too, was tired, so he lay down and shut his eyes.

Almost instantly, he began to have vivid dreams.


0243
Sol's dream started when he was an apprentice sculptor. He was chiseling a piece of marble in an open court when he saw a woman watching him.

She was tall and pale, but it didn't seem to be the woman from the castle. He felt that she was his sire, Elizabeth.

In fact, even in the dream, he knew he was reliving the first time he had met Elizabeth. When that realization struck, however, the scene swirled around him and he was in a crowded bar filled with artists.

He saw Jamie sitting across the room, dressed in a suit just like any businessman of the time would wear. He walked over and started talking only to realize that Jamie was the tall, pale woman. At that the scene shifted again.

This time he was sitting in a courtyard in an English castle. Beside him sat John Paul, who was telling him about God. Sol looked up into the night, then returned his gaze only to find it was the woman again.

The next scene was Jamie and Sol's cottage. Jamie was yelling at Sol, telling him that he wasn't being true to himself. As Sol started to explain the he loved Elizabeth, too, Jamie changed back to the woman.

This time, though, the scene didn't change, because Sol's eyes shot open. He sat up, breathing heavily. He was dazed, but knew that she was attacking his mind again. Attempting to hit him at his weakest moment, hoping to gain his trust and then use that trust against him.

He looked straight ahead with his eyes wide. He was afraid to turn his head and look to his left because he knew he was not alone in the room. She was there.

Eventually, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and turned his head toward the chair beside the bed. He opened them to see her sitting, perfectly still looking directly at him.

He said nothing, watching as she stood up and walked out of the room. After the door shut, he lay back down and fell into sleep.

The next night, he was dazed and tired. He clearly remembered the prior night's events, but wasn't sure what to think. If she had wanted to kill him, she could have. There was no question about that. She wanted information, nothing more.

Jamie was still asleep, so Sol went alone to the tower. He sat there alone for hours watching Gan's assassins train. About midway through the night, another car arrive. Out of this vehicle stepped two vampires, one tall and the other short.

The woman came out to greet them. The seemed to be making small talk, when the woman turned and pointed up at Sol. He stood defiantly and proud as they looked at him.

He could see that the trio wasn't talking, but still seemed to be communicating. He sensed that they were discussing him.

Sol stayed in the tower as the three went into the castle. Shortly afterward, Jamie came up.

"Here you are."

"Yes," Sol said.

"Why are you hiding?" Jamie asked.

"She tried to get into my mind again last night. She was in our room."

"What?"

"You heard me. And just now two more arrived," Sol said. "I had a hard enough time defending against her, I'm not sure I can block my mind from three of them.


0244
Sol's concern about having to defend his mind from three or more powerful vampires proved to be unfounded. In fact neither he nor Jamie saw the trio over next few days. And aside from watching the nine other arrivals over the next month or so, Sol saw no outward sign that anyone other than he and Jamie were in the inner castle.

Both Belinda and her twin Car made frequent visits. Belinda to see if she could hurt or kill Jamie, which she nearly accomplished a couple of times, and Car to stop her and ensure that her two wards' needs were taken care of.

It was actually a pleasant time for Sol, as it allowed him time to think. So much had happened in so short a time that he hadn't sat down for any stretch of time to just review. Jamie, meanwhile, offered a pleasant distraction.

One thing that constantly drifted into Sol's mind, however, was that he was, for the first time, truly on his own. He would live or die based on his own actions because no one was there to save him.

His entire life as a vampire had been in the shadow of someone more powerful than he: His Sire, Thomas, Sabastian. He no longer had that protection. Jamie was a good friend and the love of his life, but not someone that could help to protect him. Sure Jamie was relatively powerful on a one on one basis, but not when compared to the types of vampires that were showing up or to a hoard of even young vampires that might attack Sol as a result of the blood hunt.

Sol spent a good time contemplating this topic in the tower before Gan arrived. His black limo pulled slowly to a stop and was quickly swamped by his men. Sol was surprised to hear them actually cheering their master's return. It was almost a battle cry.

The driver got out, walked around and opened the passenger door. Gan stepped out of the car and put his hands up to silence the crowd. He said some things that Sol couldn't hear, then, looking up at Sol, he waved and walked into the inner court. Since dawn was approaching, Sol headed into the castle, too.

A loud buzzer shocked Susan awake. She shot up in her bed, looking around at the other girls with whom she shared her room. It had been a month or so, and still she wasn't used to the boarding school's schedule. Not too surprising given that her mother was a prostitute and heroin addict, for whom time wasn't really a material issue, and her current guardians were, on the whole, mostly vampires.

Of course she didn't share that with the other girls, they wouldn't understand. Susan didn't really understand, either, but she knew it was as it should be. She also refrained from talking about her frequent evening guests and private lessons, privileges that her bunkmates weren't allowed.

Susan got up and followed the other girls to the bathroom. As was the custom, the headmistress stood at the bathroom door watching each girl enter.

She didn't speak to any of the other girls, but as Susan passed, she asked, "Did your tutoring go well last night?"

"Yes Headmistress," she answered.

"Good, we want to make sure you catch up with the other girls as quickly as possible. We want all of our girls to be prepared for life, even you."

"Yes Headmistress," Susan said, walking past her groggily. She could hear the other girls chattering about her and her private lessons.

Susan felt more alone than ever before.


0245
The first week she was at the school, an older girl asked, "Why do you need private lessons? Are you stupid?"

Susan didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. In fact she said very little to anyone other than her tutors, Mary and Mina. Mina also happened to be the school's main benefactor.

The school, called Our Lady of Penance, though it had no religious affiliation, had been around for over a hundred years. Mina started it to help save street children from ending up as prostitutes, or worse. It was sort of a pet project that took on a life of its own. They knew her as the great granddaughter of the founder and treated her with a great deal of respect.

Mina also routinely deposited children in the school. Kids she picked up on the streets and personally transported to England. This was, however, the first time she remained to oversee a child.

Mina remaining put the headmistress on edge, which made her just a little meaner than usual. She didn't show that side of herself to Mina, though Mina was well aware that it existed, and, instead, took out her frustration at being watched on the kids. Particularly her newest pupil, Susan, who was obviously to blame for the increased scrutiny.

Susan never said anything to Mary or Mina about how she was being treated. Nor did she talk about how much she missed Claudia. She did tell them that she often dreamed of Sabastian, and that he was O.K., but not good. Neither really knew what to do with that information.

The lessons Mina taught weren't your typical school drills. She was teaching Susan to meditate and to control her thoughts. Mary, meanwhile, taught her to fight.

At this particular night's lesson, Susan asked, "Why did you bring me here?"

Looking at Susan, Mina said, "Because you are special."

"How do you know?"

"There is no point playing games, Susan. You may not know what you are destined for, but you know that it is larger than you. There is greatness in your eyes, your words, in what you know even when there is no way that you could know it.

"I don't know for certain where it comes from or where you are headed, but I feel deep within that I must help."

"Even when it requires you to disobey your sire?" Susan asked.

"Obviously."

"Your sire thinks I'm here to destroy you," Susan said.

"Yes," responded Mina.

"What do you think?"

"I think... I think you are here to destroy some of us. And I'm hedging my bets by helping you," Mina said before asking, "Why do you think you're here?"

Susan shrugged and went back to her exercises.

As she meditated, Mina went to Mary and said, "It's amazing that she can know so much and yet so little." Mary didn't reply, as she often thought that Susan simply didn’t wish to divulge how much she really did know.


0246
Susan found that working with Mina was much harder than learning to fight. It was fun to jump around and hit things, but thinking required too much effort.

Her mind was so full of thoughts that it was hard to quell them. It seemed that only in times of great importance did she have a clear understanding of what needed to be done.

But fighting was easy. She was young and small, but she was good.

In fact, the fighting lessons proved to be quite valuable a month or so into her stay when an older girl started to pick on her. She stood her ground, resulting in a shove that she deftly redirected, sending the other girl to the ground with an undignified thud.

Before the other girl could get up to continue the fight, both girls were hauled off to the headmistress.

Susan sat quietly in a chair across from the headmistress with a somewhat vacant expression. Her attacker was in a chair next to her, glaring at her own shoes.

"Margaret," the headmistress started, "why don't you begin."

"I don't know what happened, we were talking and she just threw me to the ground," Margaret said.

"Susan?" the headmistress asked.

"She's lying," is all Susan said.

"I'm not sure what things are like in The United States, but that accusation is very serious here. Are you sure that is the response you wish to give?"

"It's the truth."

"Well then, why don't you explain to me what happened," the headmistress said.

"I was eating when she came over to me and started to call me names. I stood up and told her to stop. She went to push me, but I moved out of the way and she fell to the ground," Susan said.

"No!" her attacker yelled. "That's not what happened at all. She's lying. I went up to her to invite her to sit with me and she just got angry and attacked me." Margaret stopped talking as the headmistress put up her hand.

She looked over at Susan, tilted her head and raised her eyebrows as if to say, "Well? What do you have to say about that?"

"She is lying."

"You have only been here for a month or so, now, and if this is the type of interaction we can expect, I'm not sure that this arrangement is going to work out," the headmistress stated coldly. "Would you like one more chance to alter your statement."

"Why? I've already told you the truth. You don't want to believe me so you won't," Susan said, looking the older woman directly in the eyes.

The two locked eye to eye for almost a minute, when the headmistress finally looked away. "Margaret," she said, "You may go now."

"Thank you Head Mistress," Margaret said, getting up and walking out of the room. The headmistress watched her leave so she didn't have to look Susan in the eyes, as Susan's gaze hadn't wavered.

As the door shut behind Margaret, the headmistress stood up and leaned over her desk, again looking Susan directly in the eyes. She was attempting to gain power by her size and stature, but Susan didn't back down. She continued to look the headmistress in the eyes without looking away.

Susan was clearly calm during the posturing, which was obviously making the headmistress more and more angry.

Again the headmistress looked away, but, this time, said, "That is enough. I won't have a defiant little American pulling her childish pranks in my school. Tonight we will have a talk with Ms. Mina to arrange for your schooling elsewhere.

"Go to your dormitory and wait until I call you. You will miss both lunch and dinner."

Susan said nothing as he got up and walked out of the office.


0247
That night, slightly after dusk, an assistant teacher came to get Susan. They walked quickly to the Headmistress' office. As Susan walked in, the headmistress said, "You may sit down," pointing to an open chair between Mary and Mina.

Susan quietly complied, looking at Mina who was smiling broadly.

"Please Janet," Mina started, "explain the problem to me."

The headmistress asked rhetorically, "Where should I begin?

"This impudent little girl has refused to be social in any way with the other girls. She rebuffs all of their advances, and, in the most recent situation, actually attacked one of our kindest and smartest students. We cannot tolerate this type of antisocial behavior.

"You have brought us difficult children before, but none like this child."

Mina looked at Susan and asked, "Is this true?"

"No," the little girl answered.

Looking at the headmistress, Mina said, "There must be some confusion as to the circumstances of the situation. Susan would never attack someone unless provoked or attacked. I'm sure you understand that and we can forget about the whole incidence."

The headmistress blinked oddly, then said with a smile, "I can see that there has been a misunderstanding and we'll just forget about the whole the thing."

Susan looked at Mina with an empty expression.

"Good," Mina said, "I'm glad this is behind us. Will you please leave us now, so I can talk to Susan alone."

"I'm going to retire for the night. Please feel free to use my office as long as you like. Just pull the door shut when you are done." She then got up and walked out, closing the door behind her.

Looking at Susan, Mina said, "You know very well that you could have done that on your own."

"What you did was wrong," she replied.

"Why?"

"Because you had no right to make her think that way."

"Really? And who is the arbiter of what my rights are?" Mina asked.

"She has free will."

"So do I. And I willed her to think what I wanted her to think. Is it my problem that her will is weaker than mine?" Mina asked.


0248
"That isn't the point," Susan said.

"Then what is the point?" Mina asked.

"God gave her free will. You interfered with that."

Mina stood up and stepped to the headmistress' desk. Slowly she turned to Susan, leaning on the edge of the desk. "So I should have allowed her to expel you, even though I know her complaint is off base?"

Susan looked down at Mina's dark red open toe high heels. "I don't know," she said looking up at her benefactor.

"You don't know? Have I found the one topic you don't have an answer for?" Mina said sarcastically, causing Susan's face to flush in a mix of anger and sadness. She looked back at the high heels.

"Look," Mina said crouching in front of Susan and touching her face, "I'm being sarcastic, I know. I am sorry. But what would have happened to you, to us, if I didn't put an end to that situation?"

"I don't know, but I guess it would have been worse than what happened," Susan said, looking at Mina.

"That would be my guess, too," Mina said, "so I took steps to protect you and us."

"But it isn't right to make people think something different than what they think."

"Why?" Mina asked.

"'Cause God gave her free will."

"Oh please," Mina said with a wave of her hand. "You know what we are. How can you possibly believe any of that religious nonsense? Interfering with a person's free will is the least of the offences I commit."

Susan was silent for a few moments, and then said, "That's not true."

"Really? So I can kill humans, just not interfere with their free will?" Mina said with a smile.

"You don't kill humans, at least you haven't in a long time," Susan said, which caused Mina's smile to fade away. Susan looked her in the eyes and continued, "And when you do kill, you don't kill good people."

"And how do you know that?" the vampire asked coldly, as every word was true. In fact, Mina had often gone hungry rather than take an innocent life.

"I just do," Susan said.

Mary, who had been listening quietly up until now, asked, "Does that make up for her lack of knowledge before?"

Mina turned her attention to Mary and said, "I'm trying to have a conversation with Susan, if you don't mind."

"Oh, I don't mind," Mary said, "it's just that you're eating into my lesson time. Waste your own time on philosophy, I have to teach her how to hurt the other girls. Obviously, if she had an altercation with another girl and that other girl isn't dead, I haven't taught her well enough."

Mina laughed, which caused Susan to chuckle, too.

"Very well," Mina said, "you may start your lesson." Then, to Susan, she said, "I wish to revisit this discussion."

"We will," Susan responded, "many, many times."


0249
After they sent Susan to bed, Mina and Mary walked outside and got into their chauffer driven car.

After Mina directed the driver to take them to a club in the nearby city, Mary put up the privacy shield.

"Did you finish your conversation?" she asked.

"No."

"You know you won't win the argument no matter how hard you try."

"What do you mean by that?" Mina asked.

"She's an odd girl. In fact, she freaks me out sometimes. I stood and watched as she cowed my sire, Tobias. He was one of the cruelest and most powerful vampire's I have ever known.

"I know you are of the four, but he was an ancient. She stood her ground when even a vampire would have cowered. And she is only a little girl."

"Well, I hope she does stand her ground with me. I hope she always stands her ground. I'm not here to hurt her and I think the ability to handle confrontation is important," Mina said.

"You don't understand what I'm saying. She is special. It's as if she has powers like ours, but she is human. More than once I've seen her seemingly read someone’s mind or predict the future.

"Hell, I think Sabastian only let you live because that little girl said you were important."

"That may or may not be so," Mina said with a chuckle, "but it doesn't change my feelings on the matter. If she has some otherworldly power, which you know I believe to be true, I want to know what she sees and thinks.

"For whatever reasons we are both compelled to help her. There must be a reason. The only way we'll find out is to talk to her about it."

"While that's true," Mary said, "I'm almost afraid to know."

"As am I," Mina said, leading into a silence that lasted until they arrived at the club. It was an old factory that had been converted into a dance club. The pair had stayed until closing almost every night since they arrived in the country. In fact, they were such a fixture, that they were welcomed in by name, and before the line of guests still waiting outside for the chance to be admitted.

The music was loud inside and the lights flickered and gyrated to the beat, but the two vampires paid little attention. They simply walked into the undulating crowd and selected victims. Mary selected a man while Mina took a woman.

They brought their respective victims to a private room that Mina had booked for several weeks. There the vampires took the blood they needed, sending their victims back to the floor when they were done.

"It always amazes me how easy it is," Mary said.

"Yes, you would think it would be harder. But it isn't. If only more of our kind could control the blood lust, we might live more peaceably with the humans and each other."


0250
When Susan walked back to her room after her meditation session with Mina, Margaret, the bully with whom Susan had the fight earlier in the day, and her friends stopped her.

"So, what's your punishment?" the girl asked sarcastically.

"I wasn't punished," Susan responded.

"What?"

Susan didn't say anything.

"You know little girl," Margaret said, "I don't like you. No one likes you. And no one wants you here because you're weird."

Susan just looked at her.

"I'm going to make it my goal this semester to get you kicked out of school," the bully continued.

"Leave her alone," a girl's voice rang out from the crowd.

"Who said that?" Margaret asked, turning her back on Susan.

Pushing through the crowd of girls, a skinny, bespectacled girl about Margaret's age come out. "I did."

"Jane," Margaret said laughing. "No one likes you either. Why don't you just shut up and go away."

"She hasn't done anything to you, just leave her alone," Jane said.

"Shut up," Margaret said, lifting a hand to slap Jane only to find that Susan grabbed it before she could swing. She turned and looked at Susan with rage in her eyes.

"I won't let you hit her," Susan said, bending the hand in a way that sent Margaret to the ground in pain.

The older girl sat on the ground in pain without saying anything.

"Are we done here?" Susan asked.

"Fuck you...," Margaret started before wincing at a small shift in Susan's grip. "Yes, yes we're done."

Susan let go and walked over to Jane. "Thank you," she said and then walked to her room.

"Thank you," Jane said after her.

The next morning, when Susan was sitting alone eating her breakfast, Jane came over and said, "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last night, I'm..."

"Jane Smith," Susan said, finishing her sentence.

"Yeah. How'd you know that?"

"I just do. My mom's name was Jane."

"Was," Jane said flatly. "We're all orphans here. Even the headmistress and most of the teachers, too. They all came to school here before they became teachers.

"Isn't that cool?"

"It's kind of sad," Susan answered.

Jane looked at Susan and said, "You're right, it is kind of sad. You don't candy coat things do you?"

Susan smiled sadly and went back to her meal.

"Why don't you come join me and my friends?" Jane asked, pointing to a table with a few kids at it.

Susan smiled and said, "Sure."



[The Vampire’s Daughter: An ongoing vampire story. Copyright Reuben Gregg Brewer, 2005, 2006. All rights reserved.]