Forever Young The Beginning (78 page)

Margaret began to laugh with her then,
saying “Now that is something that I’d never have thought of!
Fighting to the death with rogue vampires to make your love life
better! How absolutely insane! And yet it is beginning to make
sense to me in the vein which you’ve explained it.” She sat a bit
with her friend, as they looked at each other and both began to
smile and then to laugh softly.

Suddenly Margaret said “Oh my God! If
I can see why this is working for you two, what does that say about
me?” At this she threw back her head and laughed uproariously as
Marie joined her. Marie said “Oh, Margaret! If you could only have
seen your face as that dawned on you just now!’ Margaret then
shrieked with laughter as Marie joined in. Sophia and Alandra came
running into the kitchen to see what was so funny. Margaret pointed
toward the two women and the look on their faces fueled a fresh
outburst of laughter; so much so that Marie joined in yet again.
The two of them laughed themselves to the point of
tears.

***

That evening the newlyweds went out
sightseeing with Aimee. Along the way their carriage driver became
very sick. They took him to his brother’s home and agreed to pay
for his horse and carriage to be taken care of by their hotel in
London if they could just keep it to get themselves there. As fate
would have it, London was foggy that night.

Mustafa was driving with Aimee in the
seat beside him. Her vampire vision gave her a decided advantage at
night, even in foggy conditions. It became evident that they were
lost after a while with no hope of finding the Hotel. They couldn’t
even find the Thames to get their bearings. Suddenly the carriage
lurched radically to one side. Something rolled past them at the
same time gaining speed since they were on a slightly down sloping
street. It was the left rear wheel and it disappeared into the fog.
Eventually they heard a clatter as it hit something maybe two
blocks away. Mustafa climbed down and Louis came out from the
carriage to take a look. Aimee jumped down easily from the seven
foot height and walked around to the back of the carriage. The axle
was almost on the ground, but wasn’t broken. The retaining pin had
broken or worked loose and fallen out. They could see that by the
light of a street lamp some forty feet away from them.

Aimee said “If Liri and Celeste will
get out, I’ll see if I can lift the carriage.” The two men stood a
moment, and then they realized that it was likely that she could do
it easier than they could. Liri and Celeste got out and little
Aimee took a blanket and wrapped it around the end of the axle and
tried to lift it. It came up pretty far, and Louis was able to help
her and get it up to the right height. They let it back down then.
Aimee said “I’ll go get the wheel and roll it back here. I can find
it.” She and Mustafa set off down the street to retrieve
it.

They found it at the end of the street
where there was an intersection. The street went to the left and
the right, with only darkened storefronts straight ahead. The wheel
was lying in front of a shop where it had stopped when it hit the
curbing. Mustafa couldn’t see it until Aimee led him to it. He
righted it and began to roll it back up the street towards the
street lamp where Louis, Celeste, and Liri waited. They got within
thirty feet of the street lamp when out of nowhere a shape came
from behind and grabbed Aimee and bounded toward the others. Aimee
let out a loud scream and the shape slowed a bit to cover her mouth
as it streaked past the others. In that instant they got a glimpse
of a bald man in a striped shirt clutching her to his chest running
at an unbelievable speed. Louis gamely stepped into his path and
tried to grab both of them. He was knocked over like he wasn’t even
there as the figure rocketed away into the dark foggy night. He lay
there stunned as the two women began to scream “Aimee, Aimee!”
Mustafa ran vainly up the street toward where they had vanished and
then there was only the sound of the two women crying as the horror
of what they had seen sunk in.

***

The tall husky uniformed butler
returned to the foyer and walked to the couple waiting there. He
said “I regret to inform you that the Marquis cannot see you
tonight. He is busy with pressing manners. Perhaps I could take
your names and make an appointment with you?”

The man with one arm replied “Please
tell him that we have information on the fire that took his
brother’s life in Lyon. We’ll wait until you return.” The butler
raised his eyebrows, and then turned and left them. In only two
minutes he returned and beckoned to them to come to a large double
door which opened to a cavernous parlor. He showed them to a sofa
and bid them sit and asked if they would like some tea.

In under a minute a slender
well-groomed man entered and walked straight to the pair. “I am
Donatien Francoise, the Marquis de Sade. I understand that you have
information regarding the death of my older brother?”

The one-armed man stood saying “I am
Stefan Devrie and this is my wife Yvonne.”

Francoise nodded curtly to him and to
the red headed woman on the sofa and sat down in a wing-back chair
across from the sofa. He signed to the butler for tea and fastened
his gaze on the man, saying “Proceed monsieur, but please don’t
waste my time on this matter.”

“
Very well then, monsieur
Francoise. Both of us were there the night your brother’s home
burned down, and I can tell you that it was no
accident.”

Francoise put his finger to his lips
as the butler was heard returning with the tea service. After he
had poured a cup for Francoise, he left the room closing the double
doors behind him. He gestured to the pitcher of hot tea, raising
his eyebrows. Stefan and Yvonne both shook their heads, murmuring a
‘thank-you’. Francoise then looked narrowly at the pair and nodded,
suddenly understanding that their habitual drink was blood and not
tea. It didn’t alarm him since his butler was a vampire himself and
could deal with these two if need be. He said “Please
continue.”

Stefan related the incidents of that
evening as far as what he saw as Francoise sipped his tea in
silence. His eyes traveled to the silver hook where Stefan’s hand
should have been and he concluded that the hook may have been a
result of events of that night. He waited until Stefan was done,
then he looked at Yvonne and raised his eyebrows.

She leaned forward and related what
she’d seen; leaving out that she was severely burnt. Astutely,
Francoise observed “My, but you were fortunate to have escaped
intact, Madam Devrie.”

“
I was burnt, but have since
healed, Monsieur Francoise.”

Francoise said nothing, only nodding
slightly, looking narrowly from one to the other of the pair.
Finally he said “Why have you come to me only now with this
information?”

Stefan said “We only recently learned
that our employer had a younger brother who may have been contacted
by a mutual acquaintance of ours regarding this.”

“
Who might that
be?”

“
I know Arnaud Moreau, the
younger brother of Aldric Moreau, and I’ve been looking for him
regarding the sharing of our experience on that night.”

Francoise had leaned forward then,
placing his teacup and saucer on the table between them. Placing
both hands on his knees he peered intently at the pair, saying
“Moreau was here, hinting that he might discover what had happened
that night. He was looking for two men in connection with it. I’m
sure that he connects them to the death of his brother in
Austria.”

The pair looked at each other in
silence, and then Stefan spoke, saying “We’ll assist him if we can
find him. Your interests and ours coincide, Monsieur. Do you know
where he might be?”

“
Yes. I suspect he may be in
England making inquiries about one Henri and another man called
Ian. Please wait here a moment.” He rose and left the room,
returning shortly with a small satin purse.

Tossing it onto the table between them
he said “That will help you get started. There is many times more
where that came from if you get hard proof of who caused the death
of my brother. You might start looking at the bank in London known
as Edwards and Milliken.”

It had been a really pleasant evening
and was late. Robert and Margaret were quite impressed with the
group. She had talked a long time with Marie, Alandra, and Sophia
away from the men and had enjoyed herself immensely. An attractive
easygoing lady, slender, of medium height with wavy red hair and
blue eyes, she was impressed at how easily the only human in that
room fit into the family. The love and trust they had for each
other was plain to see. She admired Alandra after learning of her
achievements in caring for the children of Barcelona.

The men had been listening to Henri
re-telling about the various raids they had made on vampire covens.
Some of this had been all new to Robert and to Andre. Now they were
all together being regaled by Ian’s re-telling of the storm that he
weathered in the crippled ship when there was a commotion at the
front door. Liri and Celeste came in weeping followed by Louis and
Mustafa who shouted “Aimee’s been taken by a vampire!”

In a heartbeat everyone but Alandra
was standing next to Mustafa, eyes glowing brightly as they asked
for details. Mustafa and the other three had gone up and down the
street beating and banging on doors for nearly a quarter hour when
some kind soul came driving his carriage down the street. They gave
him all of their money and gave him the address of the estate and
he had brought them here.

Ian said “Then he knows the way back
to where it happened?”

“
Yes. We told him that he’d
be taking some of us back to the place.”

Ian vanished in a flash but reappeared
in under a minute with several rucksacks in both hands. “Let’s go
now!”

Henri said “Wait a bit. All of you
tell me what you saw.”

Mustafa said “I saw a man running too
fast to be human, carrying Aimee. He slowed down when she screamed
so that he could cover her mouth. That was how I saw him under the
streetlamp. He was bald and had a tattoo on his forearm.” Liri
agreed and so did Celeste, who added “The tattoo looked like a
mermaid.”

Louis said “I tried to grab them both
but I was knocked down.” He still had a swollen lip, which Celeste
was trying to attend now that they were in a lighted
area.

Robert said “Go now. I’ll
take Margaret home. You know where we are if you need us. The
streets are dark and Henri can find our home on foot. I am going to
talk to several
Adepts
after I get Margaret home. One might know who this scoundrel
is. If you want, I can get some pretty important officials out of
bed and on this right now as well.”

Henri said “Let’s see what we can
uncover ourselves before we involve the Constables.”

Ian turned to Alandra and said “You
stay here with these four and we’ll handle this.”

Liri stood clutching Mustafa, still
weeping. Sophia was trying to help Mustafa comfort Liri. Celeste
came crying to Ian then, holding him tightly as she wept. He
comforted her and hugged her and turned to Alandra. Her beautiful
eyes showed the strain, but she was composed well for what had
happened. She embraced him and stepped back saying “Go and find our
little girl.”

***

They arrived at the place and saw the
carriage and the wheel lying some forty feet from it. Ian tried to
visualize the event based on Mustafa’s description. They decided to
go afoot to Robert’s house then. Sophia and Marie both got into the
carriage and changed clothes at vampire speed. The men just went
down the street to where it was darker and changed their clothes.
In a little over a minute they were racing through the night
towards Robert’s home. In eight minutes they were there. Soon they
were inside and saw that Robert was excited about
something.

He introduced the group to Thomas
Lawrence. “Tom, tell these people here what you told me.” Thomas
looked wide-eyed at the group before him. There were two strikingly
beautiful women with four men. All were dressed more like seamen
than what he would have expected to see at such an address as his
employers’ home. A tall one had frosty blue eyes that looked as if
they could see right through him.

“
I didn’t know what to do or
who to turn to. I was walking Jennifer home tonight and I was
knocked down by a man who grabbed Jennifer like she was nothing. He
ran away like the wind and I swear no horse that ever lived could
hope to catch him. I went to the nearest constable’s office and
reported it. They weren’t too concerned that a tavern wench had
been abducted but they made a report and said they would come to
look at the place where it happened in the morning.”

“
Do you recall what he
looked like?”

“
Yes. The one who took her
had dark hair pulled straight back and gathered behind his head in
a silver clasp. He was at the tavern tonight with a bald man who
had a tattoo of a mermaid on his forearm.”

The vampires exchanged meaningful
looks at that statement.

Henri said “Why did you come here then
Tom?”

“
I love Jennifer as if she
was my own daughter, sir. She is a fine person and she is not a
woman of loose morals, I can tell you that. I got a good feeling
the first time I ever met Mr. Milliken here. I just came hoping
that he could get the Constabulary more interested in
this.”