0321: The Vampire’s Daughter, Book Four

Mary's assessment of the vampire world was correct. Things were changing at a rapid pace. While the now broken trio were on their journey to Asia, Europe was quietly building to a head.

After having killed virtually all of her father's most trusted advisors and a significant portion of the army sent by the new kings and queens of Europe, Meredith had embarked on a journey with Sol and Gan, the assassin who had taken Sol in, to wake her father.

She was convinced that Sol was the one for which he had been waiting. However, she was also convinced that her father had been waiting to kill Sol so that he could stop the prophecies from coming true. She was not certain, but she no longer believed her father's heart was true to the Lord. Her heart, however, was pure and she felt an obligation to her father to give him the opportunity to prove himself, though deep inside she believed he would fail.

Meredith had drained herself when she killed the unbelievers in her midst and, wishing not to feed her way back to health, she slept a great deal. That left Sol and Gan on a train trip with little to do but talk.

“How do you know Meredith?” Sol asked.

“She is my queen and my sire.”

“She seems to be a great deal more than that,” Sol chided.

“Yes, yes she is.”

“But there seemed to be a distance between you.”

Gan looked at the floor, obviously thinking back in time. “I am not of noble blood,” he announced suddenly. “Meredith and her father were. So were the other kings and queens. I was a warrior in battle with the vampires when I met her. That's not quite right. I didn't meet her, I was sent to kill her. But I couldn't. I was there in front of her, and I couldn't kill her. I had never failed before.” He paused, thinking about that day so long ago.

“What happened?”

“I had secretly entered her chamber, which was no small task, mind you, and was about to kill her, when her beauty overtook me. There was something about her. I simply sat by the side of her bed and watched her sleep. When she finally awoke, she was shocked to see me and I was shocked enough to jump away from her.

“But neither one of us actually did anything. We just looked at each other. Eventually she asked if I was there to kill her. I said yes. And she asked why I hadn't. I said, perhaps for the same reason that you have not yet killed me or called out for help. I remember that she looked down and blushed deeply.

“She said, 'I've seen you before you know.' I didn't answer. 'In battle,' she said. 'You are a fierce warrior. My people fear you.'”

After a pause, Sol asked, “And what did you say?”

“I said that they should fear me. I was such an ass. I didn't know what else to say. I was young. She laughed at my statement. I remember feeling very hurt. But I didn't bluster, I softened because her laugh was so pure and gentle. She didn't mean any harm. I asked why she laughed at me.

“She said, 'Because.' That's all she said. I walked over to her and we kissed. It was our first and only kiss before the current incident began. After we kissed she said, 'Stay.' We looked at each other for a long time, saying nothing, before I bent my neck to her bite.

“When I awoke, I was in her bed. Her father was standing over me. She was at his side. They had a fight about me and my life. She demanded that I be in her personal guard. He wanted me dead. She forbid it. He told her she couldn't decide that. She said that she had decided it and that if he did anything to hurt me, that she would leave him. That she was tired of the war and that it was wrong. That there was no reason for it. That it would eventually ruin our kind and destroy our control over the world.

“She was correct over the longer term. She also saved my life. What she didn't say, and what neither of us could admit publicly or, for that matter, privately, was that we loved each other. I knew it the moment I saw her in her bed. She knew it the moment she awoke with me above her.”

Sol put his hand on Gan's shoulder, “It must have been hard to keep such a thing secret.”

“Yes. Yes it was. I was in her elite guard. Although I had complete access to her, I wouldn't dare act on my desires and neither would she. As the wars progressed, she began to ask favors of me. Favors that no one else would have dared to speak.”

“Do you dare speak them now?” Sol asked.

“There are some among us that are truly evil. That deserve to die. But they are so feared that no one dares.”


[The Vampire’s Daughter: An ongoing vampire story. Copyright Reuben Gregg Brewer, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. All rights reserved.]