Hadrian's Wall (67 page)

We made our way back to her
room in silence. Thank God, we didn’t encounter anyone along the
way. I wasn’t able to maintain a normal conversation now. The
questions were popping into my mind, but I couldn’t organize them
in order of priority.

I slammed the door behind me, harder than I
intended. Delilah scowled at me and I automatically apologized.

“Why did Keyra allow you to
bring a coffin here? After all, if they really are vampires as you
say, you’re exposing them that way.

“It wasn’t my intention,
believe me.” She grimaced. “At the time I hadn’t thought about the
consequences. I just wanted to please Stephen, but on second
thought... Well, now I know why Mrs. McPherson chuckled when she
saw the coffin. She said something like ‘humans are so
funny.’”

“Oh! See! They can’t be
vampires because if they were, she’d have been furious with
you.”

Delilah pursed her lips.

“You can call them
anything you want because you don’t like
the vampire’s name
, but they won’t
disappear or cease to be what they are. And you know what? ‘Somber’
is a horrible
name too! Vampire is more
fashionable.
”

I rolled my eyes.
How ridiculous is this? We’re arguing about
monsters’ names!

“How could she be worried
because of a coffin?” Delilah finally decided to answer my
question. The other residents would never believe my theories. And,
deep down, they know that humans ignore or pretend to ignore
everything that
provokes
their fear.

Like me, when all the clues were piling up
right in front of my nose—each fact, each piece of evidence, I
spitefully reject them.

“So, vampires don’t care if
they walk among us. I even think they have fun with our
reactions.”

“By chance, Delilah, do you know who the
yellow mantles are?”

Her eyes widened. “Where have you heard
about them?” She definitely wanted to know.

I still didn’t trust her
enough to tell her about the codex. Moreover, Mr. Cahill Senior
recommended that I keep its contents safe from the “gossip”
around.

“I think I read it somewhere.”

“Where?”
For her seemed impossible that the name could
appear anywhere.
Shaking
her head, she commented, “I told you. For me,
Hadrian’s Wall is the fortified town of them—my vampires or your
somber. Well, I believe that vampires do not live apart from our
world like films and books tell us. I’ve closely watched them at
the university, in McPherson House, on the street. It’s obvious to
me that some humans are aware of their existence and even take
advantage of it. I also think there’s a pact of coexistence...with
rules that must be followed so that the world as we know it remains
calm. “I think the yellow mantles are the ‘other side of the
equation’ from Hadrian’s Wall.
They are
humans responsible for regulating the vampires’ actions with regard
to humans and humans’ acts with regard to vampires...if you know
what I mean. If a human being violates the rules, it’s up to the
mantles to clean up the dirt. After all, if vampires take on the
task to punish humans, perhaps they be tempted to drink the blood
of the violators or whatever.”

“What do you mean by ‘cleaning up the
dirt’?”

She imitated the gesture of someone’s throat
being cut.

“I still think they aren’t
vampires. They can’t be. They have a history that’s too precise—the
script’s too perfect.

“Don’t you notice how
Adrian Cahill, the founder, looks identical to the now firstborn of
the family?”

Hmmm... it seems Delilah also thinks the
script is too perfect.

“Yes, but Adrian has a father and
mother...”

Vampires have no father or mother. Do
they?

“So what? Don’t you know
their age, nor how they are...”

No, I don’t
know
…

“Senior could well be a mummy—a giant
mummified bat wrapped in disgusting strips...

“Ugh! Stop it! Charity told
me that he’s old and sick, and that he never appears in public, but
he was a brilliant doctor.”

“Oh, yeah, like Charity Cahill is a reliable
source of information, right?” Delilah said sarcastically.

“Adrian’s mother died of a
blood disorder...
Died!
” I emphasized the word. “So she cannot be a vampire. In
fact, none of them can...because they get old, they die, and they
don’t kill for blood.”

“Who said that vampires
can’t die? And who says they don’t drink blood? And have you seen
the face of Adrian Senior to know whether or not he’s getting
older?”

The answer to all three
questions is “No,” “I’m not sure,” and “I haven’t seen
him.”

“In case you haven’t
noticed...I’ll show you. If my idea of a vampire is really flawed
because they supposedly get older, then your idea of a dark god or
somber is also flawed for the same reason.”

She looked at me triumphantly.

Damn!

Delilah was right. I
couldn’t argue. Their own codex told about blood and more blood. I
had to recognize the facts as they presented themselves. Dr.
Hannibal Lecter said it well, “Each thing in its simplicity.
Clarice could not see—what she needed to find the location of the
killer was right before her eyes.

I also was not
seeing...because I didn’t want to see
.

“Well, whatever they are,
and I’m ready to admit that they are something non-human, we cannot
tell anyone, otherwise, we’ll be exposing them.”

Delilah nodded in agreement.

With my thinking cleared by
the logic of the most famous psychopath from the movies, I
continued. “If I understood everything you told me and from
situations that I’ve observed myself, this is the principal rule:
Do not expose them. That’s Stephen’s biggest worry. I just don’t
understand how they hide the secret. Apparently they have no
‘expiration date’ so people should note that they don’t get older
over the years. The aging factor is something too important to be
ignored.”

“It’s so easy to deceive
humans,” she argued. “In fact, I believe that the town is used for
that too—to camouflage the vampires. It’s their own town. Here,
they can get it. If they lived in the outside world, they’d have to
move constantly. But here, they can travel and then return as if
nothing had happened. Most students here more or less go away they
have their diploma in hand. They’re not here long enough to monitor
the
“no-aging” of
vampires
. Don’t you realize that
the human residents
wear
strange bracelets?”

Oops!
Her comment meant one thing: the bracelets weren’t the same
type as her father wore; otherwise, Delilah would have mentioned
this. I thought about asking to see it, but I feared it would
arouse her curiosity. I didn’t want to provide any more information
and ultimately ignite a fire where there were already many
sparks.

“The bracelet,” she
continued, “means that they were
started
in this knowledge. Yeah,
they’re the guys that serve the vampires. They know what they are
and take care of the town. In return, these humans enjoy their
protection. I discovered that before anyone can move to Hadrian’s
Wall to permanently reside, they must request authorization from
the town council. Why is that? The excuse is usually that the
townspeople want only good people as their fellow
citizens."

“And that farce of a
museum! Oh, don’t misunderstand me. It’s a wonderful museum,
but...
In general, people
are satisfied with the saga of the Cahill family and the details of
how the town was built,
but I do not buy
any of it.”

“And what makes you so
sure that things are not as they seem?”
I
asked.

“I can’t explain it. The
facts are there, documented and proven, including photos, but I
feel that behind the curtain it’s hiding something fantastic. For
me, the history of Cahill is another... What is displayed in the
museum is just a clever strategy to appease the humans’
curiosity.
But it doesn’t satisfy all
humans, like us and Joe Verano.”

Distracted, I leaned on the
windowsill, gazing out at the pansies. I realized hers were more
lush than mine—another problem to be solved, but at another time.
Now, the matter was more serious. First I had to recognize that I
was dealing with people outside the norm. Once the penny dropped,
the time would come when I’d have to decide whether I will get
involved with one of them, in particular.

Dating an immortal...he’ll
see me getting older and then he’ll trade me in for a younger
girl.
Big problem
. In fact, nothing favored our relationship—from the social
class difference to the difference in species. Adrian’s immortality
explained the strange maturity that I saw in his eyes, despite the
young façade...
My God!

“You know
wha
t?”
Delilah
said abruptly, not realizing my inner turmoil. I don’t care what
they would or wouldn’t be. The only thing I want is to be with
Stephen. I’m in love. Game over.”

We stared at each other for a long time. It
was enough for her...but, was it enough for me?

“I just don’t know what
else to do to make sure the relationship with Stephen deepens or
happens at all,” she complained, setting her hands in her
lap.

I crossed my arms,
recalling Adrian’s words during our first kiss. Then it occurred to
me what I should say. “I’ll tell you what to do. First, you should
be yourself. Have your own interests and cultivate them.” She
looked at me very surprised, but I ignored it. “The more fuss you
make about Stephen’s lifestyle, the more he chases you away. He
needs you to be discreet. So prove to him that you can be mature
and reliable.”

“I don’t understand. How?”
she asked, confused and offended at same time.

I turned to look at the hidden door.

“Have you ever thought
about what if someone discovers your secret room? The next day,
everyone will be talking about it, about you. If they think you’re
crazy and inevitably they will, you will have exposed Stephen!
Maybe he’d have to disappear because of it.”

“No!”

“We must get rid of that mural,” I said as I
squeezed myself through the narrow space to enter the small room
again.

I started pulling the rolls
of the mural off the wall and throwing them on the floor, all the
while think, ‘Would be better to use a shredder or make a good
fire? No, a fire will invite attention.’

Delilah stood in the doorway, stunned, her
mouth open, but not saying a word.

“If you don’t mind that
Stephen is what he is,” I said, destroying the photo of Asia
Chadwick, “then you don’t need all this proof.”

“I just wanted to understand...” she
argued.

“You need to understand
what he’s ready to tell you...when he tells you! We can investigate
his life, but without leaving tracks around, right?”

She nodded, while reluctantly helping me
pull the photos from the mural.

“This room would be much more useful as your
future studio.”

“Do you think this will be enough?” she
said, pointing to the papers at her feet.

“No,” I said, looking for a
wastebasket to put it in. “We have to get rid of your coffin too.
Furthermore, I doubt that Stephen sleeps in something like that. I
told you, I don’t think they’re vampires. The biggest proof is that
they walk around in broad daylight.”

She blushed and confessed in an impulse, “He
laughed his head off when he saw the coffin for the first time. He
said I had a tremendously bad taste and I thought that would please
him,” she said with a sorrowful voice.

“That’s the problem! You
don’t have to please him. He must like you for who you are.
Otherwise, you’ll be projecting a false image about yourself.” I
bent down and started to pick up the papers from the floor to throw
them in the wastebasket. “A relationship that begins like that
never works. Not that I’ve had enough experience to validate this
hypothesis, but that’s a strong personal conviction. You need to go
back to being yourself, Delilah. Go back to wearing the clothes you
like and do something that you like to do. Then if it doesn’t work
between you and Stephen it won’t be because you don’t please
him.”

“Do you think so?” She persisted.

“Get real, Delilah! If he’s
a different creature, as we both believe he is, that in itself is a
big hindrance. We must face the fact that our ‘worlds’ are against
us. I also like Adrian. That is...” Finally, I confessed it. “But I
know that there will never be anything between us.”

She put her hand on my shoulder. “Moreover,
Asia Chadwick is in the game,” Delilah said solemnly, intending to
comfort me.

I could have gone all day
without hearing that remark. “Yeah, yeah,” I agreed vaguely. “But
the best way I found to prove to him that I’m reliable is not to go
around asking or talking about his family. Get it? You’re acting
like that will scare Stephen away.

After we finished cleaning everything, we
went looking for a paper shredder.