Aris Returns (21 page)

Their companions felt shame at taking human life even if the beings were primitive
and dull. A decision was made to return to the planet of the three moons. Preparations
were made for their departure.

But Akira and Khansu refused to leave. They were deep in research and cared little
for human life. They stayed on alone, continuing their work and feeding from the human
species. On their new planet, they were eternal; they neither aged, grew sick nor
died. They became as gods. They were worshipped and founded an advanced civilization
with the learning they brought with them. Akira named the civilization Atlantis after
one of the moons of their home star. There they lived for many, many hundreds of years.

Sebastian told that they would never speak of the fate of their first civilization.
But once Khansu mentioned to him the earth opened and destroyed all they had built,
water covered most of the land. For centuries, they traveled from island to island,
desiring to build a new Atlantis. They would spend a few hundred years to see if a
civilization could be developed. If they found it could not, they moved on. They
came to England more than two hundred years before I was brought to London and still
they stayed on with hopes of a future.

We came to rest in front of the entrance door to the chamber, our audience ended.
I was filled with questions and begged Sebastian to stay with me, to tell me more.
He agreed.

We left the Catacombs. It was bitter cold yet Sebastian and I strolled along the Thames
as if it were mid-summer. I was grateful he agreed to walk with me. There were so
many questions that he could answer. I asked him to tell me more about the coven.
How many belonged to it? How did it come to be?

He told the story of his own birth. Akira found him, wounded by a boar in the forest.
She nurtured him to a new kind of health, a perfect vampire health. He was the first
of their children and the oldest. Akira embraced having more of her own kind near
to her so she began to create a family. Slowly, one after another were made. Akira
was careful in her choice of mortals. To give eternal life and vampire powers to any
depraved mortal would have been an unforgivable sin. To set such an undead on an unsuspecting
world could create only chaos. Those humans she chose were of the highest morals,
having great beauty, and celebrated learning. Soon, the Catacombs were a bustling
hive of the undead. As in any family, some of the children left home, going out into
the world to find their own way. They in turn created more of our kind. Our species
thrived. And as in any family, some of the first came back to their home and some
of the new born came as well. The population in the Catacombs varies from century
to century it seems.

I asked about the wild coven that created Richard and Gabriela.

He shared an ancient legend. It tells the story that many hundreds of years ago, a
new born fell in love with a witch. She was young and beautiful and evil. She tricked
him into telling her of the Catacombs and the old ones, all of their truths and legends.
She told him she loved him. She wanted to share eternity with him. She begged him
until he agreed to change her. Once changed, her first act was to stake him and burn
him.
From her, the story says, a second breed of our species sprang. The evil ones. They
are few. Most are unable to control the frenzy of the blood, killing their intended
victims instead of turning them. He said the Italian coven that turned Richard and
Gabriela was known to the Counsel as well as others in distant places.

I was enthralled with stories of our kind. Being one of the King’s men, I had little
time to spend in the Catacombs. It was freeing to be able to speak the truth of who
I was and what I was.

Sebastian told me one day the star voyagers would return. He waited patiently. He
prayed he would be allowed to go to the home planet of our species, to find a life
of normalcy for our kind. A place where he could live without the self-hate of being
a murderer just to sustain his existence. His memories of his human life were very
clear to him. He had been a poet and a scholar. He loved and had been loved and the
thought of a vampire draining his mortal family drove him close to starvation more
than once. He did his best to live from animals but there were times when the bloodlust
could be answered only by taking a human life.

I was amazed at his compassion. Did a lion have pity on his dinner? I thought not,
yet here was a bloodsucker with a conscience. Did I have a conscience? Did I ever
have a conscience? I felt no remorse for killing when I was a warrior for Alexander.
I am not sure that I am repentant even now.

He sighed.

Sarah, I can think of nothing I would rather do than give you the gift of the venom
to bring you into my eternity. And it would most certainly be without apology.

“Sorry or not, it is an impossible thought.” Sarah spoke to Aris but in her mind she
was glad it was not a choice she would ever have to make. His world confounded her,
enticed her, drew her into it. He was so much more than any man she had ever known.
“And he’s not real. That’s why.” She grabbed control of her thoughts, managing the
session once again.

“Aris, it’s time for Carlos to come back.”

“Are you afraid of me, Sarah, or afraid of yourself.”

She ignored his statement and continued on, “In just a moment, I will begin to count
you back. One, two, three…”

#

“So the blood drinkers came from outer space? Honestly Sarah, I think this is a story
for Hollywood. Sounds like a bunch of crap to me.” He slouched in the chair and drank
a soda from the can.

“Then you need to be the author. If this is your imagination, it’s beyond anything
I could come up with.”

Carlos smiled a cocky grin and winked. “Yeah, I’m just born to write sci-fi.”

S
arah was happy to be able to open the windows in her condo and let the fresh, spring
air wash away all the stale, enclosed heat of winter. She and Colleen sat on her deck,
watching the twilight clouds roll by, pushed by a soft spring wind.

“What a great day.” Colleen sipped her wine. She dipped a chip into the carrot and
dill dip Sarah left on the table. She popped it into her mouth. Surprised, she swallowed
as she reached for seconds. “Hey, this is pretty good.” She scooped another helping.
“Don’t look so proud. I didn’t have lunch today and just about anything would taste
great.”

“Thanks pal,” Sarah laughed as she moved the dip to her side of the table. “That’s
what I get for trying to help you get healthy.”

Colleen shuffled in her chair, “Speaking of healthy, how’s the boy doing?”

“Colleen, Carlos is anything but a boy.” She couldn’t believe what she heard herself
say. “I mean, his life has made him so much older than his years.”

“Yeah? Older than his years?”` She scooped such a huge amount of dip onto a chip that
it broke in two pieces. She piled one half on top of the other, then tipped her head
back, dropping them into her mouth. She smiled as her teeth crunched down and the
flavors
mixed.

“Has he ever told you about rehab?” Sarah watched as her friend demolished the plate
of chips.

“Naw, rehab is rehab. What’s to tell?” Colleen spoke in between mouthfuls.

“C. His rehab wasn’t five star. You know it was in Mexico. And it wasn’t to cater
to rich addicts. The goal was to clean them up, to send them back to society with
some respect for themselves and for other people.” She sipped her iced tea. “They
weren’t waited on and they weren’t analyzed. They were detoxed.” She paused as she
thought of the stories Carlos told her. “They grew up real fast.” She sat quietly
for a moment.

She stood, walking the short distance to the sliding glass door. “Ready for the soup?
It’s the parsnip and pear I was telling you about yesterday. It’s really great.”

“Parsnip and pear? I don’t know hon,” then Colleen decided she might as well be adventurous.
“Oh, all right. Bring it on.” She scraped the dip from the bottom of the saucer with
the last chip. She popped it in her mouth, licking the tip of her forefinger.

Following her friend into the kitchen, she spoke. “You know Sarah, somehow you built
a rapport with him that no one else has ever been able to accomplish. Do you think
it’s the hypnosis? Or just your super human compassion?”

“I think it’s trust.” Sarah gazed out the window as the sky changed colors, the crimson
sunset blazing over the rooftops. “Plain and simple trust. I would never do anything
to break that. It’s what guarantees the truth.”

The parole officer nodded yes, knowing full well that Sarah had hit it on the head.
The answer to most of the problems of life was divided into two main categories, the
inability to trust and the inability to be trustworthy.

#

Her cell phone rang just as the waitress placed her eggs and potatoes on the table
in front of her. She nodded thank you to her server as she reached for her phone.

“Sarah, I’ve got to see you.” His voice was determined. “Now, I’m dreaming this crap.”

She responded to the urgency in his voice. “I’m at Saul’s. Can you meet me for breakfast
and we can talk.” She wondered if his dreams were anything like hers. She certainly
hoped not.

“Yeah. I’m just leaving the house. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He sounded tentative.
“Would you mind waiting for me?”

“I’ll be here.” She would have to call Maggie to postpone her first client of the
day. “Hurry up. I’m booked all day.”

“On my way.” The phone went silent as he pressed the end button.

#

She never really noticed the power of his physique until he slid into the chair across
the table from her. He always wore a sweater or jacket against the cold winds of winter
and the rains of spring. It was warm this morning so his arms were exposed and golden
in his short sleeved tee shirt. His muscles were defined, powerful. He had the torso
of someone who was born strong and toned yet never had to do anything to maintain
it.

“Hey.” He smiled as he sat down.

“Hey.” She responded. Their waitress came by the table with the regulation mug and
coffee pot. He nodded yes.

“Thanks for meeting me.” He sipped the hot, black liquid in his mug. “Not bad.” He
nodded toward the cup as he placed it back on the table.

“This thing is just getting way out of hand.” He leaned closer, crossing his arms
as he rested them on the table in front of him. “It’s even taking over my dreams.”

Sarah shifted her empty plate aside. She wrapped her fingers
around her mug as she questioned him. “Last night?”

“Yeah, last night.” Looking down, he shrugged his shoulders. “But that wasn’t the
first time.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

He looked over her left shoulder to avoid her eyes. “I didn’t want to think it was
important.”

“And now?”

“Now, I can’t get away from this Aris character awake or asleep.” He began to shred
his paper placemat in long shreds, piling them in front of him.

“Last night I dreamed I… No. He was watching Anne. She was talking to some old hag
who had a huge leather bag over her shoulder. They were somewhere in a forest and
Anne was making some sort of deal with this old woman.”

“What kind of deal?” Sarah drained her cup.

“It was like Aris was hiding behind some bushes so I couldn’t make it out too clearly.”
He leaned closer to her. “Anne gave the old woman a small leather pouch that was stuffed
to the gills.”

“Yes?” Sarah met his posture as she leaned closer to him.

“It looked like the old woman gave her something in return but I couldn’t tell what
it was.”

“Then?”

“Richard, the vamp, came up behind me. He took my arm. He startled me. He scares the
crap out of me anyway.”

“What happened,” Sarah forgot everything else except the story that was being told.

“He led me away. I felt like I had no alternative but to follow him.” Carlos sat silent
for a moment. “He took me down to the Catacombs again, to the chamber that he and
Gabriela call their lair.”

“Lair?”

“Their home. Their condo?” He smiled at the irony. “Anyway, he took me to a place
where we could talk without anyone hearing
us.”

“What happened?” He had her complete interest.

“Richard started telling me all these weird stories about vamps being put to death
for disobeying the law. It was like he was warning me, uh, Aris, not to ever do anything
to piss off the high council.” He leaned forward in the seat. “This Aris is a pretty
tough character though. I mean, he doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything. In this
dream, he was way cool.”

“Well Carlos,” she said, “In this scenario, he’s already one of the undead so I don’t
think there’s too much that can be done to him.”

“Yeah, well, here’s the rub.” The waitress came to clear the table of dishes. He stopped
talking until she walked away. “It’s like I told you before about this council, these
vamps have the power and knowledge to destroy him.”