The House on Blackstone Moor (The Blackstone Vampires) (21 page)

Instead of being horrified, I was sad. Sad and moved for it was so tragic.

“But Dora…”

Louis embraced them both. “Dora will always pine for a baby
. T
his poor child Dora found abandoned, cold and forgotten in death as it was despised in life was given the only gift Dora could give.”

“Oh Dora!” I cried, for now I
did
understand.

Louis asked if I was ready to hear more and I nodded.

“Tom and Molly have asked me to tell you their story.”

They were sitting there with their heads down. It was obvious they wished to be there, but they were clearly shy of telling me about the end of their living lives.

Louis began. “Tom had been a farmer and Molly his wife. When their farm failed they sought work in London.  They had taken rooms in a disreputable house but how were they to know that?

“One day while Tom was out looking for any sort of work, a man had his way with Molly. When Molly rebuffed him, he killed her, but not before torturing her to death. Her death was prolonged and painful. She had been stabbed numerous times. Tom arrived just as she died.

“Drenched with her blood, he was soon arrested for her murder. What followed was hardly a trial. He was hanged publicly of course in front of a wildly excited crowd. You may have already guessed that I was present. I was very active in those days, meting out justice as I saw fit.

“Needless to say, I raised him as soon as I was able to. It was my intention then to go to the pauper’s grave to raise Molly. It was a difficult task. Tom was one of the few vampires who ever begged me to destroy him.

““Please sir, I do not wish it. An eternity without my Molly? No. it is an unnatural thing you do, despite what you say. I cannot abide such an existence.”

“I explained I had often felt the same way, adding that I was indestructible but he was not as all vampires were not. That calmed him down.

“When I told him I would raise his wife too, he wept with joy. “She will be in the potter’s field,” he said.

“I knew it would be a mass grave, which it was, one third full.

“Tom knew her at once. “She lies there!” he cried.

“I did insist on removing the shroud for I wished to see what she looked like. There was very little decomposition that had taken place as the weather was cold. Of course, when the dead are raised by me, all things are reversed
—
funereal preparation as well as decomposition, if it is not too bad.

“Come forth!” I called. “Release her, Satan!” Just as I said that the corpse moved slightly. I then called her forth from hell.

“When she opened her eyes, Tom gasped. “She has changed, Master!”

“Where Molly had once been a loving woman bare of malice she was now changed, for she wished revenge on her killer. Suffice it to say Molly made short work of her killer.
”

Molly nodded shyly. “I have no hatred in me now. We are a family Rose; whatever our differences we are united by one thing.”

“Yes,” I replied. “Eternal night.”

I knew who knocked even before Louis opened the door. It was Eve. She asked if she could come in and Louis said no, but I said I didn’t mind, whereupon she came in slowly.

“I wish a word. Rose, I know, we are parting soon and forever.” Her eyes swept sadly over Louis. And in that look, brief though it was, I could see she still loved him.  “I have brought about my own fate.” She nodded to Louis.

Louis motioned for her to go on
.

She couldn’t speak at first through the tears but at last she did. “I summoned a demon—I broke a pledge.”

The others were shown out of the room so that now only Louis and Mrs. Darton remained. She nodded when Louis bade her continue.

“There was a witch craze in France, in 1571—my children and I were caught up in it. They didn’t accuse us of witchcraft. It was an outgrowth of that hysteria. You see Rose, any persons who stood out were suspected—I had lived with a woman you see and for that, we were hanged.”

“And Louis?”

“Raised us up. But as all things, there was a beginning, a start in this world, when untainted living blood flowed through my veins. I am from Paris. My father was a wine merchant. He had little time for me
or for my baby sister for she soon died after our mother. I had a good, kindly mother who drew her last breath after giving birth to my sister.

“A neighbor had to suckle the new born she left. But that baby sickened and died, too. I had pictured them together in heaven, until one day my father took me to my mother’s tomb.

“You foolish child, do you think they are in paradise? There is no paradise, only decay and hideous corruption. The worms have feasted on your mother, consuming that which once knew a loving touch; a child’s hungry mouth seeking milk has become food for maggots. Shall you want a look for proof I can easily lift the lid and you will see them both!”

“No!” I screamed. “Father please, no!” But he lifted it, drawing me near so I would see.

“Rose, it was awful. I will never forget it. I think that is the last time we spoke to each other. Some years went by, but I left as soon as I could. Needless to say I never saw my father again. I found myself in a small village in Normandy where I lived with a widower. He was kind enough but he drank himself to death, leaving me with two young children, babes really. I was still young and considered pretty. I begged for food and bartered my body, too. It was no way to exist. One day, I was taken in by an elderly lady and her servant and brought to a fine house
,
the only such house in the village. The woman was kind and I began to enjoy living there. I did sewing and was able to look after my two children. There was another woman there, a young girl who did the cooking. I became like one possessed by her. It wasn’t long before the old woman died and we found ourselves alone. One day a lawyer came with the old woman’s relative. Some sister had made a claim on the house and we found ourselves homeless. We had no choice but to leave. We arrived in a village on the outskirts of Paris. This was the time of the great persecutions when many elderly and those who didn’t fit in were being accused of witchcraft and sorcery. A wave of intolerance and suspicion was sweeping throughout Europe and France was rife with it. People were arrested and charged with all sorts of ridiculous offenses.

“We had taken up modest lodgings, but our house was soon stormed. We were put on trial, all of us, even the children. Antonia did admit to “holding with unnatural practices on the devil’s behalf.” This she admitted to after days of torture—she had her fingers cut off and some of her toes. She was carried out and set on fire, sitting for she could not stand! I saw this. I not only saw it… I smelt her burning flesh!” She started to weep then, and couldn’t speak for a while. 

“When they said I was to be hanged along with my children I begged but to no avail. The rest of the memory of that horrendous day in which we died is a blur of only shouts and pain and blackness. But then I saw a man. I thought at first he was an angel, but then I realized what he had done. We would live again but at a terrible price…”

“He gave you damnation.”

Eve sighed. “Yes, that is true. But the children do not understand that, surely you know--you have seen the way they are…Rose, I am sorry for harming you, for all that has happened to you. I am sorry Louis listened to me. But you were the very image of Antonia. It was as if she had returned once again to me! That is the truth, Rose. And I am sorry.”

She left then to return to her room and her dying.

I was changing even more with Louis’ blood
. I dreamt of his life as I had Eve’s but I dreamt more of his. I know the reason. I wanted to.

I saw his mother’s face looking down at him and weeping; and I saw her body or what was left of it after her people punished her.

I saw too his father’s face, so like his own, smiling down upon him.

There was a great rush of images, of times of terror and joy, of death and also of life or what seemed like life, but was unending existence.

I saw the dead raised to walk once more upon the earth, but I was also learning that he could not raise those that had received last rites.

“I can only raise those I can…”

I understood that now. None of his coven had been given a blessing to ease their passage into Heaven and so they could be raised.

As for raising the dead, it seemed to me his motives were never evil, but were based on what he saw as the murder of the innocent. In some weird way he had become an avenger.

And what of me during this time and of my becoming? For I was changing. Louis explained that I was different, my blood, my organs, all that I am had changed. “And you will feed…”

That frightened me for that was something I found abhorrent and I told him so. “Only this morning there was a sparrow that came to seek shelter from the rain and I wished to kill it!”

He nodded sadly. “You are very close now Rose, nearly one of us.” He paused then for he could tell what was in my heart. “You don’t really wish it though, do you?”

How I cried and protested. “No, I have decided. I wish to be with you and the children, Louis. You know it is what I wish.”

“But?”

I looked up at him. “But I know truly, that had my father not done what he did…”

“You would still be human.”

I tried to elaborate, but there were no words to say so he left me sitting and mourning for my loved ones and for myself.

That is when I began to pray. At first I honestly think it was innocent, I was purely drawn to pray for my mother and sisters and brother…but then something else happened—a thought of mine leading to another thought, an incredible thought!

Perhaps if I prayed I should be pulled back and brought fully into the human world.
Yes!
I shall pray and refuse the blood. I shall do this.

And then I remembered what he’d said about dying in agony, but I realized I didn’t care. For the truth was, if my father hadn’t done what he did, I would not be in this position.

Yet I loved Louis, deeply, heartily, and the children, too. I loved them while their mother still lived…but she was fading fast.

Louis kept telling me. “It won’t be long for her now, Rose. She is in great pain.”

I felt sorry for her. I don’t know if I should have but I did.

“And what of the children,” I asked him. “Do they know their mother is ill?”

They did know, he explained he had told them and they were sad, for they still loved her.

They did come to see me nearly daily. And my heart broke for them, for I was already a traitor to their love and my promises since I knew I wanted my humanity back. I was already praying for it!

I had reached nearly twenty years of a human existence, with neither church nor prayers, yet now—I felt maybe I was being punished for it.

Heavenly Father, please deliver me from evil!

I knew not one prayer, not even the Lord’s Prayer, just some of it, so I made up my own.

“I have sinned yet, I do beg your forgiveness. Through no fault of mine I have come to dwell with demons, for they were—each of them, even the children—even Dora’s tragic little monster—demonic undead creatures all of them…oh, please pray for me!”

I was praying on my knees, leaning on the bed—knowing full well that when Dora came with my tray I would no longer take Louis’ blood.

“Upon my oath, my word, dear God in Heaven I will not take his blood!”

That’s when Louis saw me.

“Rose! That is the worst thing you can do!”

I shouted and screamed so much, Dr. Antor was summoned. “What have you done? It cannot be achieved that way—it is too late!”

Even as he said it I screamed at him, yet, even then I longed for the taste of Louis’ blood because it was too late.

And then finally the agonizing pain that suddenly coursed through my body made me understand.

I heard Dr. Antor’s voice before I passed out. “The pain is because you are no longer human and you prayed…”

*

And then
they
came.

At first I thought it was a mist-filled dream, a dream and nothing more. My mother and sisters and my brother were standing and looking at me. They smiled and called my name.

“Mother? Mother is it you?”

“We are coming, Rose!”

I spread my arms to receive their embrace, but Louis stormed in. “Get away from her!”

What was wrong with him? I pointed at their golden light, their warm glowing love. “I see their love. It is all about them, Louis!”

“It is a façade and nothing more. It is how they pretend to be.”

“You’re wrong!  Please, they have come for me. They want me with them. How can you say no?”

“They are not your loved ones. They have been corrupted by their hatred. Hatred like love never dies; they took that with them. Don’t you understand?”

“Please!” I cried. “I want my mother!”

If they were mist before, they seemed to change in mass now, growing larger until they merged into one tremendous shape.