0362: The Vampire's Daughter Book IV

The next evening, Vein woke up and quickly found Francis. “Is he here?”

Francis shrugged to say he didn't know and then went back to reading his book.

Vein closed his eyes and tried to feel Sabastian's presence in the house, even though he knew it was a pointless effort. He hadn't been able to sense Sabastian for months.

“There's a stain on the stonework outside,” Francis said. “I can't get it off.”

“Where Night...” he didn't complete the sentence.

“Yeah, where that female vampire burned up.”

“That doesn't surprise me,” Vein answered. “From what I've seen before, the process creates a great deal of heat.”

“Yeah, well, I don't know about that, but you should probably take a look at it.”

“Why?” Vein asked in a serious tone.

“Look,” Francis said, standing and walking to the door. He turned on a light and opened the door for Vein.

Vein walked onto the front steps and a smirk crossed his face. “This is probably just chance, but I doubt any overly zealous fool will see it that way.” He walked out and stood in front of the stain that was clearly in the rough shape of a cross.

“Step back,” Francis said.

Vein looked at him and complied. He looked again and his eyes went wide.

“Looks just like a body hanging on a cross,” Francis said.

“My God,” was all Vein could muster.

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up in a nut shell,” Francis announced before heading back into the house.

Vein watched him go back to the living room before turning his head back to the black mark on the ground. “Hello Thomas,” he said after a few moments. “Odd to see you travel without an escort.”

“Vein,” Thomas replied cordially. “I was informed that Night visited you last night and was curious about the discussion. I assume that this is what is left of her.”

“Fairly artistic, don't you think,” Vein answered, leery of Thomas.

“I assume that Sabastian did this to her.”

“Nope.”

“Then how did it happen?” Thomas asked.

“Self immolation. Pretty gruesome stuff, as I've heard you might be aware.”

Thomas ignored the jab and asked, quite seriously, “Does anyone else know of this?”

“Other than Sabastian and myself, I don't think so. But I don't really know.”

“I assume you'll run off and tell that whore child of mine.”

Vein smiled and said, “Probably.”

“I recommend we cover this in some way,” Thomas said.

“What are you afraid of?” Vein asked.

“Overly zealous fools, just like you.”

“I'll consider the recommendation,” Vein replied.

“It wasn't a recommendation,” Thomas said, walking over to a potted tree that Francis had added to the courtyard. He picked up the entire tree and smashed it over the stain.

At the noise, Francis came out and said, “Hey, I liked that tree.”

“Go back inside,” Vein said to him without turning to look. He complied without question or comment.

Vein looked at the mess of a tree that was on the floor and almost instantly fell to his knees to examine the pile of dirt. He noted that Thomas had begun to step back from him toward the wall separating the two courts.

Vein gingerly touched the dirt that had changed from brow to black in the exact shape of the underlying stain. The dirt was black throughout, but only where the stain was. The same was true of the tree parts and the shattered container.

Vein and Thomas exchanged a look, but neither said anything. After a few moments, Thomas left.

Vein, feeling that there was no point in trying to hide the stain, kicked the broken planter and it's contents aside. As the blackened debris left the stain, it changed back to its former color.

“I probably should have seen that coming,” he muttered to himself, realizing that whatever he was involved in was much bigger than even he had originally believed.



[The Vampire’s Daughter: An ongoing vampire story. Copyright Reuben Gregg Brewer, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. All rights reserved.]