Aris Reigns (18 page)

Sarah began the hypnotic induction the same as she had for so many years during her career as a therapist above ground with but a single difference. She assured the Immortal that she would feel no human fear of anything that would surface, that she was an Immortal in complete control of any situations that presented themselves and could come out of hypnosis to return to the present simply by opening her eyes.

JANE HOWARD, transcript, Session 2

Sarah noticed that in her first session, Jane had been most comfortable speaking of Queen Elizabeth and so she began their second session questioning her about her time as maid-in-waiting.

“It is but a year that I have been waiting on the Queen. She tells me that my youth and innocence have made her love me very best of all the young maidens. Often she calls me to her privy chamber just to chat and play board games with me. She tells me she sincerely trusts me and so quickly feels as close to me as her beloved personal maid who has served her for many years.”

“Jane, tell me more of your Queen.”

“In this past year as I watched her reign over England, I saw her use her great wit to overcome the male bias of her Council. Time and again she won them over without them ever knowing they had been had. She would laugh as she told me of her victories. Her ability to rule her kingdom her way, without King, consort or any man to share her power, taught me to have the greatest respect for her. In private, she allowed me to see all the vulnerable sides to her and that taught me to love her.”

“Vulnerable?”

“Her Majesty was before the public all her life. In her youth, her fair skin and red hair were legend in all the courts of Europe. Her beauty and her pledge to remain a virgin married only to her people, to her England, made her worshiped almost as a deity by her subjects
.

“At fifty-four years, time and responsibility had begun to show on her face and she hated it. Each day as we prepared her for court, she would tell us of the time when she needed neither wig nor white lead and vinegar face paint. She needed not the vermilion for her lips and cheeks. She bemoaned her mirror each morning as if it had no purpose but to show the lines and wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, her yellow and rotting teeth. Many days she spent in agonizing headaches from the decay in her mouth. She admitted to me she was almost glad when her vision began to blur her aging image in the betraying glass
.

“She swore me to secrecy before she told me the worst ravage of age; at fifty four she desperately loved a lad of but twenty. It was Robert Devereux, the Second Earl of Essex
.

“Oh, I could see why. He was tall, long of leg. Chestnut curls surrounded his beautiful face and he courted her shamelessly. He even challenged Sir Walter Raleigh to a duel over who loved Her Majesty most. It was sad, but the courtiers laughed behind their hands at the Queen's manner in her dealings with the Earl
.

“She flirted and batted her eyes at him like a girl. She showered him with gifts, making him one of the richest men at court. She even gave him the tax on sweet wines, which alienated some of her dearest supporters. Essex was hated by the men, yet because of his great beauty and flirtatious complements, adored by the women
.

“He cavorted about moving from woman to woman, yet none had the heart or the courage to make his actions known to the Queen.”

“Jane, did he show affection to you as well as the other ladies of the court?” Sarah hoped to slowly and comfortably bring Jane's attention to the day of her changing and the role Essex played. The young Immortal paused a long moment before she answered.

“Yes, he did. On many occasions he approached me and on a few made physical advances to me.”

“But you never mentioned it to the Queen?”

“No. Her heart would have been broken to know he was such a treacherous knave. I avoided him as best I could, yet he seemed to be obsessed by a woman who would not succumb to his deceitful charm. Neither his beauty nor his allure could make me forget his supposed love for Her Majesty and I felt a hidden wickedness behind his insincere words. I only saw him when court functions demanded it, otherwise, I avoided all places he was known to frequent. And so, after a time, he began to search me out in the gardens hoping to find me alone.”

“And did that happen frequently?”

“Too frequently.”

Sarah spoke gently as she approached Jane about her personal relationship with Essex. “Jane, can you tell me about the first time Essex found you by yourself?” There was a long, silent pause.

“Yes.”
Again, silence.
“It was summer twilight as I walked in the Queen's rose garden. She sent me away while she rested in preparation for a masque ball in the evening. The clouds above were a soft fuchsia and gold as a gentle evening breeze brushed my hair against my cheek
.

“I heard the sound of muffled footsteps behind me. When I turned, there he stood, his head surrounded by a glowing halo created by the vanishing rays of the setting sun. I gasped as I realized who it was and quickly began to move away from him. He reached to grasp my arm as I turned. At that exact moment a huge white owl with an enormous wingspan swooped from an unseen spot in the sky. His talons tangled in Essex's curls and the Earl loosed my arm. I turned to flee without seeing the outcome of the encounter between the man and the gigantic bird. I rushed to the safety of the Queen's chamber and, gratefully, I reached it without further incident.”
Jane chose to breathe when she was in Sarah's presence to make her human friend feel more comfortable and her breath became ragged as she related her escape.

Even though Sarah had given Jane the suggestion she would feel
no fear during her sessions, she became concerned when she heard the change in her subject's breathing. Immediately she brought the Immortal to present time, safe at home in Sarah's rooms in the Catacombs.

“Sarah, I remember other encounters with Essex fully, yet I only remember the experience of the day of my change in bits and pieces. Must it have been so awful, so horrible that I will never remember?” She bowed her head in sorrow. “I must know what happened.”

Her friend stood to take the vampire's hands in hers. “Jane, you will. It will be slow and perhaps painful, but you will remember.”

The white wolf whimpered softly as he rose, placing his cool muzzle in the hand of his mistress.

CHAPTER 24

T
he air was humid and warm as he maneuvered the small boat on the underground river. All the delicate tendrils of blond hair around Sarah's face tightened into tiny spiral curls, wet with perspiration. Aris had planned the day just for the two of them. Showing her some of the beauty of the Catacombs, not just the battle preparation, had been on his mind since their arrival and he was grateful to Sebastian for taking over his duties so he could spend the afternoon with Sarah away from talk of war.

“Aris, why is the air so damp in here? Normally, caves don't feel like this.”

Aris smiled as he maneuvered the energy-powered craft silently through the gently flowing current. “You will see. Trail your fingers in the water.”

“Is it safe? I mean, there's nothing in the water to bite me?”

He laughed long and loud. “You worry about a river creature biting you when you're holed-up in a city of undead, Immortal vampires who drink blood? You are quite a strange woman, Sarah.”

She realized as soon as the words left her mouth, how silly they would sound to him. She obviously no longer feared the Immortals of the Catacombs, yet something living in the water? Well, that was another thing all-together.

“Go ahead, trail your fingers. There is nothing there to harm you.” Alien lighting globes illuminated the river from below as the boat skimmed soundlessly against the current.

Above their heads was thousands of years old solid iridescent rock. The cavern through which the river flowed was dark except for the golden lights shining from beneath the water. Lit from below, Aris looked strange, even frightening. Sarah wondered how she appeared to him. Hollows for eyes, shadows for lips. She thought she might look like one of the vampires from the old black and white 1930s movies.

She let her fingers dip into the water as it slapped gently against the sides of their craft. It was warm, almost hot to the touch. No wonder the air was humid. “Why is the water so hot? And where does it come from?”

“There is a great deal of water underground. Surface water seeps down through the rocks creating subterranean lakes and waterways. This river is one of them. There is a small underground volcano located west of the Catacombs several miles below our city. The ground water trickles all the way down to the level of the molten rock, is heated by the magma then escapes upward toward the surface. Our hot river water is a result of the surface water and the volcano.”

“Oh, I see.” She continued to let the warm water flow sensuously through her fingers. Her mind drifted as they floated in an unearthly silence, day-dreaming she and Aris were explorers trapped in a tropical rain forest, their only means of escape this river of no return.

She smiled as she imagined him pulling the boat onto a jungle river bank covered in reeds and grass. Closing her eyes, she could almost feel him taking her hands, drawing her to him as he stood on the river's edge. In her imagination his body was warm and powerful as he pressed into her. She melted into him, the contours of his muscular thighs against her. Feeling his manhood swell against her, tortured by her need for him to take her, her fingers reached to
unbutton his shirt.

“Sarah?” She heard his voice as if from a great distance.

Her vision continued as he stood nude before her, his smooth firm body glistening in the sultry air.

“Sarah? Are you alright?”

Startled back into the present. she thought,
“Just when it was starting to get good.”
She replied out loud, “Yes, I'm fine, just thinking.”

“I want to warn you, it is going to become very dark very soon. The underwater lighting will be extinguished for just a moment and we will be in an extremely confined space. There is no need to be frightened. There is nothing to harm you in the darkness. There will be light again shortly and a vision like none you have ever experienced before in all your human life.”

As he finished his sentence the tunnel grew black. She lifted her hand directly in front of her face and still could see nothing. She felt the walls pressing in on her. The sound of her breath was loud and strained. It was the only sound she could hear other than the gentle lapping of the water as they moved forward. She reached to find his hand only to have him touch hers first.

“Rest easy, it is only moments before there is light.”

As if he conjured it, a blinding light encompassed them, a light brighter than the sun. She blinked rapidly, shutting her eyes tight against the visual onslaught. After a moment, she carefully opened them a little at a time. She found they were in an enormous underground cave; a cave so large the river disappeared into a tiny speck as it flowed to a vanishing point in the distance. The bright light emanated from above them, yet it was so brilliant, Sarah couldn't look at it long enough to find out how tall the ceiling actually was.

She was experiencing sensory overload as Aris steered the boat to the river bank. As she gazed at the landscape on either side of the canal, her breath stopped. Tall monoliths surrounded them. Some appeared at least ten stories tall. They reminded her of the
enormous monument stones in the deserts of the Southwest United States. With one radical difference: these mountains of rock were of astoundingly brilliant shades of primary colors layered one on top of the other like ocean wave over ocean wave. She was reminded of Petra in Jordan. Once she had watched a documentary about the Nabatean's two thousand year old colorful hand-carved rock trade center in the middle of the desert. But this cave was even more brilliant and appeared to be older. She had never before seen such intense reds and yellows, oranges and blues of every shade and greens of every hue.

Aris helped her step out of the craft and onto the stone dock. The boat idled quietly in the water, waiting for their return. As Sarah looked around, she found it hard to believe the rocks were such bright colors naturally. Surely they had been tampered with by Akira's alchemy.