The Vampire Pirate's Daughter (15 page)

She tells me to wait in the car, but I refuse
and together we walk up toward the beautiful old house.

She rings the doorbell and almost
immediately, the heavy door opens.

The door attendant invites us in and I
notice that it looks like a normal business premises. It does not
look Goth or spooky. The decoration is lavish, with antiques and
old rugs. Alongside the one wall, there is a big black board and in
elaborate cursive, each department is listed
alphabetically.

Amanda searches the list for the department
we want to go to and then I follow her deeper into the building.
This is the first time I have ever gone with her to get the
medication and I am astonished that everything looks so
commonplace. I should have known this, because we have integrated
so well.

The old house had been turned into a
functional office building and the large rooms with their high
ceilings housed different departments.

When we get to the right department, the
beautiful girl behind the reception desk asks Amanda for her
details. Amanda gives her, her name and surname.

The girl smiles and then taps on her
keyboard.

She looks up frowning. “You received your
year’s supply a little over a month ago. Who would the additional
pills be for?”

They regulated the drug carefully, because
although punishable with death, there are those who deal the pills
on the black-market, because it also cures man’s impotency. With
irritation, I think back to Ethan and I am sure he was one of those
who sold it illegally. If Amanda did not kill him, he would have
eventually been judged and found guilty without the benefit of a
trial, by the Four Judges.

The girl looks toward me friendly and Amanda
replies awkwardly, “We moved back to France two weeks ago.”

She nods her head affirmatively, while she
glances at her computer screen. They know our every single
move.

Amanda continues, “My mate died fifty two
days ago.”

The girl nods her head again and smiles
sympathetically.

I look at Amanda sadly. I did not realize she
was counting the actual days since his death.

Amanda continues explaining, “Anyway, when we
arrived at our new home in the historical province of Lorraine, we
discovered six men who do not have a clue of what has been
happening.”

The girl across the counter frowns.

Amanda hurriedly gives more details, “I then
decided that I would come and buy them each a supply and then
educate them into life as it is today.”

The girl smiles friendly toward us, and then
while she pushes her chair back, she says in a heavy French accent,
“Excuse me, just for a small moment.”

Amanda smiles friendly and I look at her
worriedly.

I see the woman talking animatedly with
another man, behind a glass window and then they both come walking
toward us.

The man addresses Amanda, “Madame.”
He leans toward her and I see
Amanda lift her hand, while he bends down toward her and fleetingly
he brushes his lips across her hand.

I smile nostalgic.

The man continues, “In these circumstances,
where members outside of the community are discovered, they have to
be brought in front of the High Court. You understand this does not
happen often and the Four Judges are always extremely interested in
meeting them.”

I feel dread fill me, but Amanda smiles
accommodatingly, while she says, “Of course. It is totally
understandable.”

The man turns toward the girl, “Please,
Sandra, make an appointment for Madame Von Wellich with the High
Court.”

The girl sits down behind the desk again. She
picks up the receiver of the red telephone on her desk and not long
after, she is speaking to the person on the other side in hurried
French.

When she ends the call, she turns toward
Amanda and the man. “The Secretary made an appointment for next
month.”

Amanda says, “Thank you kindly.”

The man once again leans toward her and
brushes his lips across her hand, while he smiles friendly in my
direction.

He turns toward the girl again. “Please,
Sandra, make the necessary arrangements.”

He walks back to his office and I hear
Amanda and the girl discussing the details.

We leave the office, walking through the
hushed atmosphere and over the soft, deep carpets. We walk out into
the sunshine and it feels as if a heavy load drops from my
shoulders. The feeling of dread fills me quickly though, because I
have never before had to appear before the High Court, and I do not
know anybody who has.

We get back into the car silently and then we
drive away from the sunset on our way home. We get home shortly
after nightfall and it is new moon. Amanda has kept our ritual of
only hunting when there is no moon in the sky. Although I feel
anxiety at the prospect of having to appear before the High Court,
I am still weirdly excited to go hunting, because tonight Callum
will be going with us.

Callum is surprised when he sees us. Herman
and Claude greet us excitedly. We have all clicked easily, and it
feels nice to be surrounded by so many people, after it was only
Shayne, Amanda and me for so long.

Amanda waits as always for midnight before
we are allowed to go. While we wait she explains to them what we
have to do so that they can get the pills that will help them to
eventually live in the light. She explains the High Court to them
and she makes it clear that they understand the etiquette required
when you attend the Court.

We leave at midnight, Herman convinces
Amanda not to take her car, and that we should run. I feel
exhilarated. It will be like in the olden days without the
convenience of cars. It has been so long since we have just run and
let the world rush past us in a haze. It has been too long since I
have hardly felt the ground under my feet, as I ran, because it
happened so fast.

We start running slowly, but soon it turns
into a competition. We reach the northern coast of France quickly
and then just outside of Calais we nourish ourselves.

There seems to be a deep bond between
Callum, Herman, Justin, Claude, Peter and Edward, that I have not
seen in the longest time. They laugh and joke, including Amanda and
me. Amanda walks separately from us though and I can feel sadness
radiate from her. This is only the third time we have gone out to
hunt without Shayne.

When we get home just before dawn, I am
exhausted, but satiated. I say goodnight.

When Callum says goodnight, he smiles at
me, his eyes holding mine for a moment.

I sleep late and when I wake up, I look
toward the couch opposite mine. Amanda, as always, is already up
and I get up to go and look for her.

She is inspecting the restoration jobs Callum
and his friends have been doing during the last week. I see her
smiling appreciatively while she looks at their work. When she
notices me though, her smile disappears.

I laugh softly. “Amanda, when are you going
to stop being so angry? I was watching you and I know you think
they are doing a great job. There is nothing wrong in acknowledging
it.”

She sighs. “I don’t want them here, although
I agree they are a great help, because a construction company would
not be able to recall from memory what it is supposed to look
like.”

“Why don’t you want them here? I think it is
nice to be so many, because it does not seem so lonely
anymore.”

“
I am scared. They are savages and when
they get desperate, they might notice that you are not like them.
They will notice that your skin is softer and they will realize
that you are half-human. In a moment of uncontrolled hunger, they
could bite you.”

I say determinedly, “No, they
wouldn’t.”

She says, “Just be careful.” She looks at me.
“I am serious, Susanna.”

“Yes, Mom.” I smile.

She laughs. “Go on. Get started on the
ballroom. The cornices need scraping. That should keep you busy and
your cheeky mouth quiet.”

I walk toward her and I hug her tightly to
me. I say softly, “You know, I love you?”

She says, barely audible, “I know and I love
you too.” I pull away from her and she says, “Thank you for doing
this. If I did not have this to keep me busy, I do not know what I
would have done. I doubt I would have wanted to continue living and
like the mother you accuse me of being, you are now my
purpose.”

I smile at her, but I suddenly feel nervous
to have such a huge burden on me. “I am glad you are so concerned
about me, where would I be if you did not look after me?”

She laughs. “Exactly. Now off with you, time
is wasting.”

I turn away from her, and say across my
shoulder, “See you later.”

“I will come and help you just as soon as I
see what has been done already.”

“Kay,” I call from the passage.

The ballroom is the biggest room in the
château and I have always imagined the parties that were once held
here. Francois never held any social gatherings when I was little,
so I have never experienced the true splendor. I could imagine the
French women with their hair piled high onto their heads, their
powdered faces and arms. I could see them in my mind dancing and
twirling to the music. It must have been so spectacular.

I start scraping at the cornice from one end
of the room, so that I can work myself around. My mind is blank and
I am focused on what I am doing.

As the room gets darker, I look up toward the
large windows. The sun is touching the tops of the trees and I
still wanted to go to my mother’s grave, before it got dark,
because when it is dark, I want to spend every moment until
midnight with Callum.

Dropping the scraper, I rush out of the
house. I walk into the conservatory and I look for a hand shovel
and shears. I want to clean up the two graves a little as well
while I am there. I find the tools in a corner under a lot of
rubble.

When I reach the graveyard, I greet my
mother, as if she can hear me, as I have always done. I kneel down
onto her grave.

I start cutting the long grass with the
shears and I do a good job. Half the grass on the grave is already
neatly cut and I did not notice the sun settle behind the horizon,
as my eyes adjusted to the change of light.

Startled I look up when Edward says my
name. I turn around and see him smile down at me. “William really
loved Susanna.”

Shocked I ask, “You really knew him?”

He laughs and sits down across from me in the
grass. “I knew him very well. He used to captain the pirate ship I
was a crew member on.”

“He did?” I ask surprised.

“We never knew he had your mother hidden in
his cabin after we attacked The Majestic, because we never took
anybody alive. We always killed everybody on the boat and only
taking the gold, silver and jewels. We were surprised when he
announced that we were going to our secret island.” He smiles. “You
will forgive me, if I do not tell you exactly where it is?”

I chuckle. He is such an easy person to like.
“What happened next?” It is nice to have someone tell me about
William, the man who is my biological father.

“We sailed to our island and stashed our
loot. We could not understand why he wanted to leave the rowboat on
the island, but he was the captain and in those days, you did not
question the captain of a pirate ship, unless you wanted to meet
your end. Days later, he ordered us to sail to Calais. We only
found out decades later that he actually left the rowboat for your
mother, so that she would be able to get off the island.”

I interrupt him, “That is where we went the
other night, to feed?”

“Correct. William disappeared and Charlotte
was very agitated. Charlotte was your dad’s mate, before he met
your mother. You could not even speak to the woman, never mind look
at her or she would growl and attack. She sat in the mast every
night. The rest of the crew enjoyed the short reprieve from
pirating and we pillaged Europe for a time.”

“Did William come back?”

“We started talking about mutiny and leaving
France without him and Charlotte, because by then Charlotte left to
go after him. Then one night he climbed over the hull of the ship
and we sailed away from France. William was never the same though
after that and at first I thought it was because Charlotte did not
return with him. Years later, he made me captain of the pirate ship
and he left us. He was running away from his feelings for your
mother, but little did he know you could not run away from love, it
follows you like a dark shadow.”

“How do you know he loved my mother?”

“Francois set fire to this house after he
locked your mother in her room. He had decided that if he could not
have her, then no one could. William came to safe her even though
it was day. He saved her, but in the process, he sacrificed
himself.”

“But I know Francois loved my mother a lot. I
lived with him and for sixteen years I witnessed his sadness and
despair.”

Edward smirks. “I am sure he was suffering
from despair. Your mother chose him, but he treated her badly and
he thought she was his possession. The love he felt for her, he
never showed.”

“Some people find it difficult to wear their
hearts on their sleeves,” I insist.

“No, Susanna. If you truly love another, you
cannot help but show that person they are indeed the most important
person in your life.”

I insist, “I know he loved her.”

“
I am sure he did, but she was his third
wife and he was a pompous, arrogant man.” I start to interrupt him,
to defend Francois, but Edward holds up his hand to still me and he
continues, “I am sure that after Susanna and William died, your
father did feel remorse for the hand he had in her eventual death.
She mourned William until the night you were born.”