Forever Young The Beginning (77 page)

“
Yes. And you’re Jennifer.”
He pulled her to him roughly then and bending down he put his lips
against her neck and took a small bite of her flesh, just enough
that she bled a bit. She flinched and cried out and pushed against
him to no avail. He let her go then and smiled saying “You taste
good, Jennifer. You’re mine now. You’ll cross over.” Turning with
no explanation, he stepped out of the cell and locked it, departing
up the steps like windblown smoke.

The next day the men got
busy on the banking business. They made an unannounced call at the
Bank of Edwards & Milliken. Henri’s fellow
Supreme Council
judge Robert Milliken
was in his office at the time. Introductions were made and since
the meeting was in private, Henri informed Robert that both Mustafa
and Louis were going to be brought over in the near future. He was
advised that the latest one to be brought over was Andre Amsler as
he introduced him. He was introduced to Li also. Only Ian and Henri
knew that Milliken was a fellow member of the
Supreme Council
. The others took him
as an Adept who happened to be a banker. Tradition demanded that
even the name of the
Supreme
Council
not be spoken in public. After
their business was done, Henri asked Robert if he might have a
private word with him. The others waited outside in the main
vestibule area.

“
I just wanted to reassure
you that I told none of my associates about you being my fellow
judge on the
Council
. In fact, only Ian and Marie know that both you and I
are
Council
members.”

“
Oh I know that you don’t
talk idly, Henri. Call Ian back in here. I like him.”

Henri stepped out and got Ian. They
returned and Robert came to him then “Ian, it is good to see you
again. Have you had any more exciting adventures then?”

“
None that I can talk about,
sir.” said Ian as he thought
unless you’d
like to hear about our child vampire?

Robert laughed then and including both
of them he said “Do you want to stay at that same estate where you
were the last time?”

Henri said “Well Bob, there are twelve
of us this time.”

“
That will be fine then.
I’ll arrange it and have the staff sent in to open it and to stock
food for how many humans?

“
Six.”

“
Will tomorrow afternoon be
all right with your party then?”

“
Why yes, Bob. That’s really
nice of you and him. We enjoyed our stay there the last
time.”

‘
Think nothing of it then
Henri. After all, did you not reciprocate by allowing him to use
your suite in Paris last fall and me the year before?” It was
common practice for well-connected Adepts to furnish each other
lodging and other desired help when traveling abroad. “Are you in
London for very long?”

“
We can stay for a good bit.
We may travel to Edinburg after leaving here. I do have a question
though. Do you know of any good local investments that may be
bought right now? I’d like to get my new protégés started out well
in that venue. And I do want them to be more knowledgeable with
dealings in Britain. I thought that having an investment here would
help in that regard.”

“
Let me consider that one,
Henri. I have two people whom I might ask about that. One is my
senior partner, if a senior partner who is only fifty seven years
old can be senior to one who is three hundred and ninety years
old!” At this joke Henri and Ian laughed heartily, and then Robert
said with a twinkle in his eyes “Oh look at the one who is not yet
thirty years old laughing at the jokes that old
Adepts
tell!” At that all of them
laughed together.

“
I will definitely snoop
around to see what might be cooking and let you know.”

“
Thank you, Bob. We’ll be
going now. There are sight seers to please and to feed. Will you
and Margaret be coming out to see us at the estate?”

“
Definitely; she’s heard of
several of you and wants to meet you. We won’t come unannounced
though.”

They bid each other good bye then and
the group rejoined the ladies in time for lunch at the
hotel.

That afternoon was spent moving from
the hotel to the estate just outside of London to the north. There
was some seventy acres included and a lot of it was woodland. It
was perfect for Aimee to have some wild time and several of them
took her out to do just that around dusk. A daytime romp might be
seen by a neighbor on an estate that small. Henri took that
opportunity to keep Ian with him for a talk.

“
You’ll recall several years
ago when we first recruited that young fellow, Claude Rousseau of
the King’s Gendarmes in Marseille?”

“
Yes. It was after the
vampires kidnapped two girls from
Angels’
Care
. You said that he was another ally in
government and that there would be others.”

“
Yes. There are more
ministries in government than just the ministry of police affairs.
There are eight other ministries.”

“
You’ve filled those
positions too?”

“
Yes. The Gendarmerie
position was the last one. We want these men to be moved to an
influential post by the time we make our permanent move. In three
years they’ll be in high posts, junior to others, but influential
nonetheless. They’ll eventually become the heads or chief deputies
of their respective offices.”

“
How can you be sure that
all will be promoted on time?”

“
Who do you think appointed
their superiors, and the superiors of those before them, and so on
back for some two hundred and fifty odd years? Of course the names
that I used were different. There was Leveque, Lefevre, and so
forth going back over the generations.”

Ian sat, lost in thought as the
enormity of it sank in. It was masterful and all-encompassing. A
consummate plan to stay invisible in plain sight and to pull the
levers of governmental power as needed to stay that way. It was
true that unimaginable wealth was accrued this way, but he’d seen
how Henri and Marie had taken care of their human employees
everywhere. This thing benefited hundreds of humans too; people who
were completely unaware of its existence. He thought of the
orphanages then. Marie’s orphanages didn’t only take care of
homeless children. They also supplied reliable employees for the
furtherance of their goals. It was masterful as well as beneficial
and he was more than impressed. “Henri, I am again humbled by what
I’ve learned from you.”

He nodded curtly and then said. “We’ll
spend the necessary money to see to it that this Rousseau fellow
goes far, and I did find him a likable sort, didn’t
you?”

“
I did. I’m going to have to
learn to think a decade ahead about some things if I’m to become as
successful an
Adept
as you and Marie are. I take it this isn’t my last lesson
then?”

“
It’s not your first, and
it’s definitely not your last. I can tell you that it occupies a
fair bit of my time, but there are years where I just coast along
too. The most work comes when a generational move is made, such as
the one we’ll make in the near future.

“
You know Ian; the raids we
made on those covens have been a welcome distraction from
the…sameness of what I’ve been doing for centuries. Marie feels the
same. Now don’t take me the wrong way concerning this. We both hate
the things that have happened to those children, but are grateful
that we’ve stopped it cold wherever we found it. We have you to
thank for that in part. It has mostly been fun for me, truly, and I
speak for Marie too on this subject.”

Laughing then Ian said “Henri, you
have an unusual sense of what is fun. May I include Alandra in what
I’ve learned?

“
No. She could be taken and
made to talk however unlikely that is. In the future we will have
more family meetings about the move when we are closer to the time
for it. I’ll bring the others in on some of it then. However,
the
Council
, the
various ministers of government we control, and our network of
trusts must all be kept secret at all cost. Regarding the
generational move, I can use your help.”

“
May I presume that there
are orphanages in the name of the Laforges in the Swiss
Confederation and elsewhere?”

Laughing then, Henri said “You may
indeed. There is one near Bern and one in Luxembourg. They were
started some eight years ago. As yet, we have had no direct contact
with the supervisors running them. They’ll meet us as the Laforges
after the move. We’ll have lots of young adult humans desiring work
as couriers, domestics and the like furnished by those two
orphanages by the time we make our move. By the way, we’re quietly
and anonymously buying some small farms very near to the estates we
bought near Zurich and Lausanne. The next group of domestics and
couriers will be living there rent free as they now do across from
the chateau.”

“
Can you be sure to buy the
ones we want in time?”

“
Likely, yes. Price is no
object. We’ll pay what we must to buy the right properties. After
all, we can afford to, can’t we?”

Laughing then Ian said
“Yes.”

“
The
Angels’ Care
orphanages will be
funded in the future. There is already a trust set up to do that,
through
Banque de
Lafayette
. At some point an interest linked
to the Laforges will appear to take over the operations of those
after the Lafayettes officially pass away. Our cemetery plots are
already reserved in Luxembourg.”

“
You’ve prepared your next
official gravesite?”

“
Yes. We’ll have proper
grave markers made and all of the necessary paperwork has been
prepared, needing only a date and an official stamp. The Laforge
takeover will be a good eight to ten years after the move to
Zurich.”

“
So it is to look like the
Lafayettes sold their holdings in their old age?”

“
Yes. Banque de Lafayette
will itself change its name to Laforge over time. As you may
remember, these things must be artfully phased in so as to appear
to be a part of the ebb and flow of normal human economic cycles
and normal birth and deaths of heads of families. When done
properly, no one will ever suspect that the same people are still
running the same banks, manufacturing facilities, charities,
shipping, trading, farming, and import-exporters. Nor would they
ever suspect that the same people are putting allies in all
governmental posts generation after generation.”

“
That’s easy to see the way
you’ve explained it.”

“
Notoriety is a burden to
any sane
Adept
.
Speaking for Marie and myself, anonymity is our desire, but not
isolation from humanity. It would be simpler to isolate ourselves
from humanity but it would be so very dull!”

“
Speaking for myself, I
couldn’t stand it.”

“
We try to strike a
necessary balance in the way we manage our affairs. As you know, we
do try to make life as good as we can for those in our care. We’re
far more interested in our name being notable than our person.
Being widely recognized in public is not a good thing for
any
Adept
who would
be successful. This approach has been successful and has made it
comfortable and profitable for us to live wherever we wish for
centuries.”

“
Once again, Henri, I can’t
thank you enough for sharing this.”

A day passed then and they received
word that Robert and Margaret Milligan would be coming to the
estate to see all of them that evening. Marie arranged for a nice
dinner and it was decided that the four newlyweds could take Aimee
with them and stay out for the evening. They were to spend the
night at the hotel suite to keep the Millikens from seeing Aimee.
All were agreed that there was nothing to gain from them seeing her
and a possibility that they might guess her secret if they did get
to spend enough time with her.

Later the Millikens arrived. Robert
was in the parlor with all of the men while Margaret was with Marie
in the kitchen and she approached her pensively. Marie sensed that
she wished to speak privately, so she shut the door.

“
Thank you, Marie. May I ask
you something personal?”

“
Of course. What is
it?”

“
How do you and Henri keep
your relationship, your love so fresh? I see you together, and I
can’t help but notice that you two are so much in love.”

“
Why thank you, Margaret.
She paused and gathered her thoughts, then spoke to her long-time
friend. “We’d gotten to where our life was becoming a repetition of
like events. Our love was strong, as strong as ever, but the
sameness of our everyday existence had become stale in and of
itself. We vampires live such long lives and all.”

She then told Margaret about bringing
Cosette over and then how Ian came into their lives and had taught
them all to fight. Ending with descriptions of some of the earlier
raids on covens, she fastened her eyes on Margaret’s eyes and said
with a gentle smile “I think that the knowledge that either of us
could be killed at any time during one of these events served to
heighten our senses to…enjoy or to embrace all of the good in our
lives. I can tell you for sure that it has definitely added spice
to our love life!” Here she laughed as her friend’s eyes
widened.