0280: The Vampire's Daughter, Book Three

“Some vampires would try to kill you for making such disparaging remarks against their sire,” Sol said, sliding down the tower wall and sitting on the floor.

“Ah, but not you,” Henry said, as he sat next to him. “You have lived so long outside of our culture here in Europe that you don’t really know what it is like to be a vampire in the Old World. And when you moved to the New World, you were thrust into a role you probably didn’t want.”

“Yes,” Sol said. “But that isn’t why I’m not defending my sire’s honor. I simply don’t think she really knows herself.”

“That could be true.”

“I think she is too much of an intellectual to believe the stories. In fact, I think she is too much of an intellectual to believe in anything. I’ve been so caught up in it, that I guess I simply followed her lead,” Sol said.

“Yes, that was her problem, she always thought too much. Never liked to listen. It’s why she and Thomas always fought, but it is also why he holds a special place in his heart for her,” Henry stated.

“I don’t know if you know the history or not, but Thomas was the head of the knights for many years. He butted heads with your John Paul over religion and the prophecies of the demise of our kind.

“Thomas lived by the blade and if he couldn’t touch and feel something, it wasn’t real. Well, when John Paul convinced the kings and queens of the day that he was to be the seed of our destruction, they locked him up and killed all of his offspring.

“After many years of captivity with nothing to prove that he was the one that would bring the end of times, they let him go. By that time, the court was changing and new blood was starting to take over the court. John Paul was discredited in the minds of the newer royals, and the last remaining of the old group were slowly fazing out. Thomas was able to gain back some, if not all, of his former stature.

“I reported to him for a time before he was stripped of his command. After he returned, I was shifted to head up the personal guard that protected the royals. Which was one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had. The new royals are, well, not quite as classy as the old crew. But when the opportunity to move to the New World came up, Thomas jumped at it. I think he thought he could make himself a king in the New World, something he could never have attained here. What happened from there, I think you know.”

“All too well,” Sol added, leading Henry to a big laugh.

“After Thomas left, I asked to take on my former post. Thomas and John Paul, who followed him over the New World to keep an eye on him, faded. Science took over where faith seemed to have failed. The end of the story is that the new kings and queens, much like your sire, don’t believe the scriptures and they have, thus, fallen out of the minds of most of our kind.”

“Most, but not all,” Sol said.

“Yes, most have forgotten, but not all.”

“Do you believe?” asked Sol.

“I try to, but it’s hard.”

“The old royals?”

“Yes, they believe, but they have been closeted away for years and haven’t seen the world change.”

“The old royals, they are the ones that are here?” Sol asked.

“Most of those here are old royals. Some are close confidants of John Paul,” Henry answered.

“Is the Keeper here?”

“No.”



[The Vampire's Daughter: An ongoing vampire story. Copyright Reuben Gregg Brewer, 2005, 2006, 2007. All rights reserved.]