The Vampires' Birthright (20 page)

My precious angel had an added glow to her countenance that had to have come from the ceremony. She seemed so peaceful and radiant, and I watched her until my eyes grew too heavy to keep open, fully knowing she’d need to be fed again within the next hour or so.

The comfort from Gustav’s proclamation that she would be safe from Ralu’s reach until she got significantly older was one I clung to. Although, there seemed to be a painful, albeit inevitable, separation from me at some point to ensure her survival.

I silently cursed that my invisible cloak, which came from the spiritual protection of the Sakya clan and my ability to hide my thoughts from prying vampires, had somehow disappeared in a matter of a few days. I felt more vulnerable to impending disaster at that moment than at any other time I could think of.

For Alaia’s survival alone, I made up my mind to cooperate fully with my vampire guardians. I’d have to ignore the ominous feeling that my defenselessness was as poisonous to my daughter’s safety as it was to my own. This included my ultimate fear that if Ralu carried out his threats to kill me, my daughter’s ceremonial protection would prove inadequate to save her, the very last of our bloodline.

Instead of dwelling on the terrible things that could happen, I decided to pull upon the knowledge I’d gained from Yangani and Suddhodana, to meditate for a positive outcome according to my most cherished thoughts and practice what I’d come to call the Sunfire Aura. That seemed better than trying to remember the Hail Marys from my youth.

The dawn’s light steadily approached. I knew Garvan, Chanson, and Tyreen would soon be leaving for the nearby cave that had been their ‘hotel’ for the past few nights. I was pretty sure Armando and Raquel had already gone back to the cave, since there was very little in the village to keep them entertained.

It was in this context I drifted off, thinking I’d rest for a little while and snap back awake when Alaia became hungry.

My departure from such an uncertain world and arrival into the realm of dreams must’ve been immediate. I was even in one of those lucid states of awareness that it could be a dream, although there were aspects that felt far too real to be a concoction from my subconscious mind. I sat up in my bed, not overly surprised that I was still inside my hut, and that my baby girl slept soundly at my side. But a fire raged outside.

The smoke floated inside, carrying an acrid odor of burnt wood and flesh, and stung my eyes. Alarmed, I picked Alaia up and headed for a small window, hoping the fire hadn’t spread around back. It was free from flames, so I climbed through after gently setting my baby on the ground outside. Seconds after I picked her up again, the flames engulfed the thatched building, which collapsed in on itself, sending a flurry of sparks and tall flames into the air.

I scurried away from the intense heat and flames, shielding my face from the fire that seemed on the verge of spreading out of control. Terrible screams of men and women echoed beyond the flames, and I thought these poor people had been caught in the fire without a means of escape.

As I looked for a path to safety, sudden movement drew my attention, coming from low within the fire. The heads of Yangani and the midwives who had delivered my child rolled toward me. An enormous figure emerged, carrying a bloody sword.

“Well, well… what have we here!” the hateful fiend roared, before adding a boisterous laugh to go along with his menacing words. “If it isn’t the last two vampire lovers… ‘
Les Amantes de Vampire.’
Txema and her little vermin heir. What name have you chosen for the creature?” Ralu stuck out a long serpent-like tongue, as if tasting the acrid air. “Ah, yes, the smoke tells me, Alaia!” The fiend had ripped her name from my mind and I despaired at keeping her safe.

I wrapped my arms tightly around my daughter, who was now awake, cooing again rather than crying like me. Ralu had finally found me. Dressed in the deep crimson velvet robe he favors, he looked even more frightful than I remembered him from previous dreams. In those visitations I only had dim firelight to define his features, from the bowels of the dilapidated Byzantine cathedral he had once called home. Not this time. I got to see him in all of his hideous glory as the fire threatened to rage out of control in the minutes before daybreak.

Like bloody pools of fire from the depths of Hell, his eyes sat further apart than they should, giving him a reptilian visage. The rest of his appearance was much worse than what I’d previously gathered. In addition to the double set of fangs that I had learned reveal an ancient status, his lips were partially rotted away, revealing sharp, jagged, and rotting teeth. Huge boil-like lesions covered his neck and part of his face, although the rest of his bald head and pointed ears looked the same as with any other Nosferatu. The lesions trailed down to his blood-soaked hands, each of which was capped with thick predatory talons revealing the blade was an affectation as much as a tool of slaughter for him.

In his other hand, he carried a jeweled golden scepter, similar to Gustav’s, an item Ralu had always brought with him in dream visitations.

“Please leave me alone, Ralu!” I wailed, crouching before him since there was nowhere for me to escape. “My baby and I just want to go back home to America and get away from all of this vampire shit! Then you and Gustav―along with all of the other vampires―can work out your problems without us interfering.”

“How lovely, indeed!” he shouted, then laughed uproariously again. “That would suit me perfectly… except for one little thing. Can you guess what that would be? Hmmm?”

Nothing good. That’s all I knew. This wasn’t a creature given to mercy and fairness.

“You and Alaia would still be alive!” He sneered. “And the bloodline that I so loathe would still be feeding those whom I despise most of all!”

He leapt over the flames and landed less than a foot from me. Before I could scoot further away, he pinned my robe to the smoking ground with the sharp point of his scepter. He leaned down, our faces so close the smell of rotting flesh was greater than that of the burning village. Alaia whimpered as if she finally understood Ralu’s malice or that she had encountered the first creature in her life that didn’t immediately fall in love with her. I instinctively pulled her to my chest, and turned away in order to protect her. Whatever my fate, I was determined to fight to the death to try and save her.

“How touching,” Ralu said, sending a blast of his foul breath into my face. The urge to hurl up everything in my stomach was damned near impossible to hold back, but somehow I managed to keep it all in my throat. “But why prolong the inevitable? I will win, Txema, and you and your kind will soon be no more. Then, all of your vampire friends will have nothing to fight for, little to live for, and only me and my kingdom to
kill
for!”

He threw his head back and let out a thunderous roar of triumph, and lifted his sword to smite us. There wasn’t time enough to escape the heavy sword speeding toward my head. I did the only thing I could think of, and wrapped my body around my baby girl.

I awoke with a start.

Alaia was crying. At first, after I realized it was a hellish nightmare and not reality, I thought her cries were from early morning hunger. But, the sheer terror in her innocent face convinced me otherwise… so young, and yet not at all like a typical newborn. There was knowledge in her expression, like an old soul bringing keen understanding to a new lifetime.

“My precious Alaia… I’m so sorry,” I said, gently rocking her in my arms while gasping to catch my breath. My heart raced as if I had just finished sprinting around the village. “I’m so, so sorry.”

She continued to cry despite my efforts to soothe her, and would not calm down enough for me to feed her… at least not until full daylight arrived and Yangani and the eldest midwife entered my hut. She smiled as soon as she saw these familiar faces were very much alive and well.

As she cooed contentedly in Nagira’s arms, I realized what I’d previously feared as a possibility had, in fact, been proven true.

Alaia had experienced my nightmare with Ralu.

spent the entire day sitting on pins and needles. I hated saying goodbye to Yangani, Nagira, and Suddhodana at dusk, and I truly dreaded being on the run again, but after my dream last night and the violence our continued presence guaranteed, I knew we needed to leave as soon as possible. Knowing things would be much more dangerous this time since I carried a helpless newborn ratcheted up my anxiety.

Despite Alaia’s rapid development, she was still far too young to be traveling anywhere yet. Kazikli disagreed, and was quick to point out that instead of an infant only three days old, she seemed as if going on four weeks if her rate of growth and overall development were taken into full consideration. I was having an internal struggle―the village had accepted her as one of their own and I knew that any of them would die trying to protect her until she could physically run away from danger on her own without being helped or carried in some way. She wasn’t ready to leave the village. But I knew that faced with even the least of Ralu’s Chupacabras,
all
of them would die trying to protect her, and she would likely still be taken.

Kazikli was the first vampire to arrive that night, dressed for the modern world. He seemed unusually tense, as if he wanted to get things rolling instead of waiting for everyone to arrive.

I should’ve known then that something had happened—some new unforeseen development. Our previous plans discussed last night had already been changed.

“You’re looking dapper,” I said, both as a sincere compliment and a way to ease the tension he brought with him into my hut. “Since I know there isn’t a fancy nightspot within a hundred miles of us, and this doesn’t seem like the usual garb I’d expect from a vampire guarding his Indian fortress, what gives?”

I tried to sell my question with an impish smile, as in no way did I wish to needle him.

“You’ll be changing into something more cosmopolitan than we originally planned, too, Txema,” he said, indirectly answering my question. I knew the rest of the puzzle would begin to flesh out at any moment. “One of Racco’s 737s is awaiting us in Kathmandu.”

“What? I thought we were supposed to take a small caravan of jeeps to the hills south of the Nepal border!” I said, unable to mask my surprise. I started to worry. “We’re not heading to your castle in India, are we?”

“I’m afraid not, Txema.” He glanced at my doorway before motioning for me to sit on the bed with him.

I was dressed in my favorite ceremonial robe—my most cherished tricivara—and one that Nagira had made especially for me. I wanted to wear it that night. Not to mention Yangani had spent more than an hour fixing my hair for the trip. Even my makeup was perfect, and in line with what is acceptable among the blended cultures in the region.

“Ralu’s armies made much more progress than we expected overnight,” he said, once we both sat together. His brow seemed more furrowed than I’d seen it before, and I took it as the heaviness of the situation he carried upon his shoulders. I got the distinct feeling he handles far more responsibility for Gustav than is generally known among his vampire peers. “One enormous army has managed to cut across India undeterred since Alaia’s birth three nights ago, and will soon reach the castle. We spent the last hour hiding anything of value and evacuating everyone—human servants and vampires alike.”