Chapter 7
1547 Words
7
Basileus led me along the veranda as the setting sun played as background to our stroll. His face took on a contemplative expression as we passed through one beautiful grotto after another.
“Eric Haldor is a very… complicated figure,” he mused as he clasped his hands behind his back. “Many call him the Lone Wolf because of his desire, even for his kind, to seek refuge in solitude.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Have you known him for very long?”
Basileus inclined his head. “Yes. Most of my undead existence, in fact. We met in Paris a very long time ago. It was at the opera. I recall it was during the winter, as the operas could not be performed in the heat of the summer before you ingenious humans invented air conditioning.”
I snorted. “I have a hard time imagining him being at the opera.”
A strangely playful and yet thoughtful look slipped onto his face. “I believe his focus was less on the music, and more on the performance backstage.”
I blinked at my host. “The performance backstage? You mean trouble?”
He chuckled. “I see you have already grasped the pattern in his existence. Yes, I believe there was some trouble, though what it was I could never decipher. I was… younger then, and my master would not risk losing me just so I could satiate my curiosity.”
I furrowed my brow. “Does he come with the baggage, or follow it?”
Basileus sighed. “I fear even I have yet to decipher the intricacies of his existence, try as I might. Eric is a reclusive man who has built a very thick wall to keep prying people from his life.”
I swept my arm over the walls that surrounded us. “But you invited him to your house. Does that mean you trust him?”
My host pursed his lips as he led me along the passages. “That is a difficult question to answer. I believe Eric is a good man, but that a shadow hangs over him. His past seems ever to follow in his footsteps.”
I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and couldn’t help but look down at my shirt. In my hurry from the room, I’d forgotten to remove his turtleneck. I pinched a bit of the soft black cloth between my fingers and rubbed the fold together. My thoughts drifted back to the previous night and the fight I’d witnessed. “Shadows…”
Basileus leaned down to catch my eye and revealed a smile on his face. “I fear I have given you the wrong impression of our acquaintance.”
I shook myself of my reverie and shrugged. “Have you?”
“While I admit I am lacking in the personal background of our friend, I have always known him to show compassion to those who deserve it, and swift justice toward those who don’t.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Swift justice? Like last night?”
He inclined his head. “Yes. The serpent creature you witnessed had invaded my property and attempted entrance into the house.” A bemused smile teased the corners of Basileus’ lips. “Eric was merely acting as my guard dog.”
“Is that why he’s here?” I persisted.
Basileus’ good humor fell away as he stared ahead of us. “I can see you were listening quite intently on our earlier conversation.”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t-”
“Lies won’t do, Miss Adi. I could hear your heartbeat quicken as you awoke.” I hung my head a little. He stopped and turned to face me where he set a hand on my shoulder. “But perhaps I’ve spoken too much. The one who has all the answers to your questions is in the garden.”
It was then I realized he’d led us around the house to the side entrance into that lush greenery.
Basileus lifted his outstretched arm to the exit. “He awaits you, I believe, in the nook deepest in the shrubbery to the left.”
A lump formed in my throat as my body froze with uncertainty. I don’t know why, but my hands trembled.
Basileus leaned down and whispered a few words into my ear. “Fear not the stranger that walks in deep shadow, but that which would fight against his might.”
I blinked up at the vampire. “Say what?”
Basileus straightened and gave me a toothy grin as he set his hand on the small of my back. “Good luck, Miss Adi.”
He gave me a light push but being that he was a vampire the force sent me careening through the open doors. I stumbled into the railing some thirty feet away and spun around to give him a talking to. The pasty devil had already vanished.
Vowing vengeance on him later, I turned my attention to the thick mess of shrubs that lay to my right. Though the sun still had an hour left of life, heavy shadow already covered that part of the garden. A long, narrow archway led into the wilderness of green, and the darkness was so dense that I couldn’t see the end. I swallowed the lump in my throat and ventured into the menagerie.
All was quiet but for the rustle of the leaves against a small breeze. I ducked around low hanging vines and skirted tumbling flower boxes before the tunnel opened into a hidden grotto. Vines covered all the latticed walls to my left, but the right opened onto a secluded balcony that looked out over the tiered gardens and lapping waters of the bay.
A small bench had been placed not far from the balcony, and here it was where I found Eric. His bent elbows sat upon his thighs, and his hands were clasped together. He leaned his chin against his intertwined hands, and he stared directly at me. In the dim light his eyes gave off a slight yellowish glow.
That lump was trying to form again in my throat. I tamped it down and cleared my throat. “Um, hi.”
He continued to stare at me without blinking, and it was only then that I detected not malevolence in his look, but… what was it? Regret? Sadness?
I cleared my throat and took a step toward him. “So, um, I was asking Basileus about you, and he said-”
“You hear it, don’t you?”
The question was so sudden that I jerked to a stop, and I blinked at him. “Hear what?”
He dropped his hands, so they dangled between his legs, but didn’t break his eye contact with me. “The voice.”
A cold chill ran down my spine, but I brushed it off and strode over to him. “Listen, I’ve got a lot of voices in my head, and one of them is telling me to ask you questions, starting with what happened last night.” I lifted my shirt and pointed at my stomach. “How come I don’t have any marks from that scratch? It was bad enough that you had to throw my shirt away.”
Eric lifted an eyebrow at me. “Then you don’t hear any voice?”
My face drooped and I frowned at him. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here, but I’m kind of more worried about the lack of a scratch on me than a voice.”
Eric dropped his eyes to the stone paved ground and ran a hand through his hair. “I was sure you’d hear him by now…”
I threw up my arms and rolled my eyes. “Alright, I’ve been hearing a voice. Now will you answer my question?”
Eric studied me with a sharp eye before he stood, keeping that intense gaze on me. “Are you just humoring me, or have you really heard a voice?”
My shoulders drooped and I sighed. “I’ve been hearing… something lately, but why is that so much more important than this?” I stabbed a finger at my stomach.
Eric turned his face away and I detected a hint of that sorrow again. “One isn’t more important than the other. They’re the same question.”
I blinked at him. “Come again?”
Eric closed his eyes and his whole being seemed to sink into his sigh. “If there had been time to find another way, I would have gladly chosen that path for you.”
My pulse quickened as I slid around to stand in front of him. “Why is it so bad that you saved me? What did you do to me?”
He turned his face away to avoid my accusing eyes. “I prevented you from dying, but your life is no longer your own.”
Panic overtook me. I grabbed his arms and gave him a hard shake. “Tell me what you did to me!”
He has given you a chance at being something more.
- Writer
