Final Days (28 page)

Keeping her neck against his mouth, she tightened her grip on him and began to move again.   Alisa rode him to a second orgasm while he finished his blood draw.
 

Once he pulled away
and he licked her to seal the punctures, he held her close as they slid down the wall and cradled into each other.

Neither one of them could speak for a while, they just lay against each other
and that was all they needed.

Eventually Alisa lifted her head.

“Wow, Koen, just…wow.”

Letting his fingers roam under the sweater, along her side, across her breasts, Koen nuzzled back under her hair again.

“I know.  It’s incredible.  I can’t wait until you can draw from me.  Even more important, I have your blood in me and I can be used to trace you if anything happened to you again.  Alisa, I love you so much, I can’t lose you again.”

Alisa pulled away to kiss him, her tongue moving aggressively inside him.

“Never.  I’m not ever letting anyone take me again.  Make me like you, baby.  Take me home, and make me a vampire.” 

TWENTY FIVE

Jacob slipped on a pair of the loose fitting harem-style pants he’d grown accustomed to since living in the village with the children of the moon.   It was home now.   He walked barefoot across the bamboo mats that covered his path from his bedroom to the baby’s room just adjacent.

Eras’s cooing had awakened him before Starla, so he went to him.

“What’s the deal, little guy?” he whispered, and lifted the baby into his arms.

Eras immediately reached
out, his dark eyes searching for Jacob’s.  The love in those eyes still astounded Jacob every time.  He curled his hand around the thick cap of satin-soft ebony hair that covered the little boys head.  He’d always heard babies lost much of their hair after birth, but Eras never did.  Anyway, he thought he was the most beautiful child that had ever existed.

“What do you want, young man?”

Eras made it clear, even without words he wouldn’t be able to use for many more months, but Jacob knew he wanted to be carried outside. 

Opening the back door into the enclosed garden behind their dwelling, Jacob carried him out and took a seat in a large rocking chair, leaned back with the baby on his chest and watched the sky, which was pitch black and crystal clear tonight with no moon. 

A few moments later, a brilliant flash streaked across the sky.  The baby lifted its head and watched.

“You wanted to see the shooting stars. 
Okay, although some day you’re going to have to let me in on how a baby only four months old knows these things.”

Adjusting his position, Jacob lay back with Eras on his stomach, both
now watching the sky.  Several more meteors streaked by as Jacob held his son. 

His son.
  As much as anyone else’s, and he would fight to defend that truth.  The baby had chosen him.  Although he had no genetic connection to this remarkable first blood child, he was father just as much as Ahmose.

This child was a part of his soul, his heart, and the woman he loved
. This life they’d built was beyond anything he ever expected, his destiny grander than anything he deserved.  But because of her, because of Starla, he was bound with powerful first bloods as guardians of the Mother Earth. 

He didn’t fully understand it, but Jacob knew that someday these special people would stand between the continuation of this planet, and all life upon it, and the final destruction they would fight so hard to prevent.   This child he held in his arms would be a soldier, a leader, the catalyst that would save a world.  

And somehow Jacob had become his parent and teacher.  He was overwhelmed and humbled.  And loved this baby more than his own life.

Warm hands slid down and curled around his shoulders, one dropping onto Eras’s tousled curls.

“What woke you?”  Starla asked.

“Eras wanted to see the shooting stars.  I just gave the little guy a ride.”

“Hmmm.”  Starla took a deep breath and came around to the front to sit on a low bench.  She was wearing Jacob’s favorite outfit, a see-through white robe that hid none of her perfect body.  She looked skyward as a flaming earth-grazer meteor left a path seconds long and covered over a quarter of the visible sky.

“Wow.  I guess it’s worth losing sleep.  The sun will rise soon.”

“We’ll be back inside long before that.”

“Okay, sweetie.
  I’m going back in, but if I’m asleep by the time you get him back to bed, wake me.  I have something I need you to do.”

His cock twitched.  He nodded as she ran a hand along his thigh and stopped just short of touching him where he wanted her to before she
leaned over to kiss the little boy on the forehead and disappeared.

“Getting sleepy, little guy?”
Jacob asked.

On a hill several hundred yards away, a granite stone lay on a fresh grave.  The grave would see the moonlight and feel the heat of the sunshine during the day.  Perfect for a first blood’s final resting place.  

The granite had a simple
inscription carved in ornate letters:

W
INDARI

Who lost her
Way 

Returned to the Mother

For Forgiveness.

Ahmose had wanted her there, near the village, because she
was
one of the children of the moon, and he thought that maybe somehow he had failed her.  He himself had lost his way and nearly hurt someone who meant the world to him now.

He couldn’t judge.  But she was a danger to his family and to this community, and she could not be allowed to hurt anyone again.  She was too powerful.  So, a committee of her peers, her first blood family, had decided her fate.  The first bloods asked the Mother Earth and sought the wisdom of the moon, who agreed that Windari had completed her path on this earth.  Her end had been merciful and painless.

Ahmose had been shocked to see Tamesine, who accompanied Windari back to the village to keep her restrained while they transported her. 

Tamesine,
Windari’s twin.  Dead for eight hundred years.    Ahmose had been close to both of them at one time, but that was a lot of years ago, and she looked at him as if he were a stranger.

He would have hugged her, but she stepp
ed away, closed to his embrace.  Jacob told him she had been damaged and was only now beginning to be able to cope with her life again.  It was the additional information about  Windari’s attempt at murdering her own sister that had swayed the committee that Windari must be killed forever.

Even his invitation to Tamesine that she was always welcome to return to this community, to that which had been her home all those centuries ago, had been dismissed.  When Eillia left to return to France, Tamesine had
left with her, wordlessly. 

Ahmose’s
heart hurt for what she must have endured.  Someday, he hoped she would come home.

This village had such joy now.  His son thrived with love from three parents, and an entire clan of first bloods who
treasured him.  The child of Ahmose’s destiny, as beautiful a soul as ever existed.

And within the next year, they would journey back to France for Starla to receive another gift of
Ahmose’s seed so that the second first blood child of their community would begin.  He hated that such joy walked hand in hand with tragedy, but that was life.  But it was the dark that defined the light, pain that defined pleasure, and death that walked on the other side of birth. 

This early morning, just before sunrise, Ahmose couldn’t sleep, and wandered up to the top of the hill near
Windari’s headstone to watch a brilliant meteor light the sky before the sun did.  In the old days, it would be an omen.  He wondered, just for a moment, if that could still be true.  And he wondered, if it were, was it a good omen or bad?  It wasn’t his skill to know, and at this moment, he thought that he didn’t want to.  Let life unfold as it should.

TWENTY SIX

Alisa tried to stay behind Koen as they entered this enormous villa that had amazed her as they approached.   But she was pulled forward by a stunningly beautiful redheaded woman who took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes.

“Hello, Alisa.  I’m Park, Koen’s daughter, and I can’t begin to make you understand how thrilled I am to meet you.  You have made my father so happy.  May I hug you?”

The room had filled up with large, gorgeous people.  If she hadn’t known they were vampires, she would have wondered what the hell was going on.  Nodding, she felt Park’s love for her enter her when they touched, and she found herself hugging back, clinging to this woman she did not know.  Yet she knew that she would, and would love her just as much.  These intense feelings were alien to Alisa, who, as a child, was rarely ever touched by her parents.

Koen pulled her away.

“Are you okay, baby?   We can be overwhelming.”

Alisa released a long-held breath.

“No, I’m fine.  Just, give me a moment to adjust.”

Eillia, carrying Caedmon, came around Park.

“I think we should just introduce ourselves, and let Alisa have a chance to do just that.  I am Eillia and this is my son, Caedmon.  My husband, Daniel.”

A large man behind her smiled and nodded at her.

Eillia continued.  “I’m a first blood, and I’ve known Koen most of his life.  He is like a brother to me.”

She smiled at them as Park spoke.  “This handsome man and gorgeous little girl are my husband Bas, and our daughter Cairine.”

The little girl started to race forward and Bas grabbed her up.

“Not now, little sprite.
  We’re going to let Alisa breathe.”

The child’s bright green eyes flashed from her father to Alisa with a frown, but then a moment later, she smiled and
it reminded Alisa of Koen’s smile.

Another woman stepped forward, petite, lovely, with lush dark hair.  Alisa stared at her, and then the tall man behind her. 

“Do I know you?” she asked, because she thought she might.  They looked very familiar, but she couldn’t place them.

Cherise touched her arm.  “Is this familiar?  We met briefly in Cairo after you met Koen.”

The woman who told her that she had a different path than she thought she did.  Yes, she remembered.  Especially because her husband had reminded Alisa so much of the gorgeous man she had left behind in Paris.

“Yeah, it is.  I remember now.  I met you in Cairo.”

“You were in Cairo when we were?”  Koen asked.

“I read her,” Cherise said.  “Her lifeforce called to me.  I didn’t know until this moment that you were the woman Koen was in love with.  I just knew
I needed to tell you that you were going to be okay.”

Koen stopped it all by taking Alisa’s hand.
  He was worried this really was going to overwhelm her.

“Let me get her upstairs and let her settle in.  We’ll join you for last
meal in about an hour.”

He moved her up the stairs just slightly quicker than normal speed and pushed past a large door into a huge room.   Wide French doors allowed a breeze into the room, long chintz curtains waving gently from a
roomy balcony beyond.

“Oh, Koen, it’s so lovely.”

He lifted her up into his arms.  “It’s your home, Alisa.  I hope you’ll be happy here.”

“
You’re
here, Koen.  I will be happy.”

“Are you tired from the flight?  Do you want to rest?”

“Would you mind?  I’m exhausted and I really would like to lie down.”

“Anything you want, of course.  I’ll let the others know.”

“Can someone bring up my luggage?”

“I will.  But look over in that closet.”

Across the room, two wide mirrored doors covered most of a wall, so she did as he asked and went over to push back the pocket doors.  They slid aside to reveal a walk-in closet nearly as big as the room.

Racks of clothes covered both sides.  One side looked like men’s clothes and the other side looked like women’s.

“Park and Eillia filled them for you.  It’s all in your sizes.  Nightgowns are in the drawers there.  Everything you need is already here in the room.  I’m a man who likes to be prepared, and since I want to give you the world, I thought I’d start right here in our own bedroom.”

“You are going to spoil the hell out of me.”

A knock on the door interrupted them. 

“Come on in,” Koen called out.

The door opened and a champagne bullet flew in.

“Samson!”  Alisa called out.

They’d sent him on ahead to acclimate to the house before they arrived.

Bas poked his head in.  “He’s a handful.  Cairine and Caedmon love him.”

“Thank you, Bas.  Bas, would you let everyone know we’ll see them tomorrow night.  We’re going to turn in.”

“I understand. 
Of course.  Alisa, welcome home.  We’ll show you around the area tomorrow.  I’ve arranged for one of our human blood-bonds to let you tour the village in daylight so you can really enjoy it, before…  Well, you know what I mean.”

Alisa nodded and tried to keep her breath under control.  She did know what he meant.  Before she became a vampire and couldn’t go out in the daylight again. 
It felt too odd, suddenly, and Koen was right.  She was feeling overwhelmed.

“Hold me, baby.  Would you hold me all night?” she asked.  He took her in his arms and carried her out onto the stone balcony.

“Breathe.  It’s going to be wonderful.  I promise you, Alisa, you’re going to love this life.”

“I believe you.  I’m just…adjusting.”  That had become her go-to word to describe her unsettled emotions.

“It’s been a hell of a year,” she said suddenly.

“I know.  Let’s get you into one of those silk nightgowns and let you sleep.”

Alisa nodded.  Sleep. Yes.  Tomorrow would be time enough to adjust to her new life.

Minutes later, curled up against Koen, with her nearly grown puppy pressed against her legs, her breathing calmed.  As she began to fall asleep, she thought of the strange journey her life had led her on the past year. 

All she could think of was what a shame it was that she couldn’t write the story.