Blackwood Farm (55 page)

“The black man rose from his armchair and he came towards me. He was the taller of the two. I didn't stand up to measure my height against his. He reached through the bars and laid his cool hand on my head. He looked into my eyes. I hated him. It took all my self-control to remain still.

“ ‘You've done no wrong to anyone,' he said under his breath, as though he had read it from my mind. ‘And across the world she brings you for her blood sport.' He sighed. ‘Oh, Petronia, why the cruelty, always the cruelty? Why, my beautiful pupil? When will you ever learn?'

“ ‘You'll let me go?' I asked. I looked up at him. What a splendid being he was. His features were sublimely chiseled and his face looked kind.

“ ‘I can't do that, my child,' he said in an even voice. ‘I wish that I could, but I believe your fate is decided. I'll try to make your agony short.'

“ ‘Why does my life mean so little to you?' I asked. ‘I come from a world where every life is precious. Why is it so different for you?'

“The old man had approached by this time, walking in a sprightly manner completely out of keeping with the appearances of age in him, and he was peering through the bars at me too.

“ ‘No, you're not innocent, don't tell us that,' he chortled. ‘You're the Evil Doer in some guise,' he protested. ‘She wouldn't bring you here otherwise. I know her too well.'

“ ‘Not well enough,' said the coal black one. ‘She does what she pleases and it's never enough for her.'

“I stared at the old man. ‘The old man,' I said aloud, and then I realized it. ‘The Old Man,' I said again. ‘It's you. The portrait on the living room wall! It's Manfred Blackwood, that's who you are.'

“ ‘And who are you to say my name so boldly to me?' he demanded. He puffed himself up.

“ ‘You're demons, all of you. God, this is Hell.' I laughed. I felt the drug in me again. There was no escape. My words came in a rush. ‘If it weren't for Julien Mayfair, you'd be my ancestor. I'm Tarquin Blackwood, that's who I am. She took me from the Hermitage, the Hermitage you built for her, and that I refurbished for her. Blackwood Manor's in my hands now. Your granddaughter, Lorraine, is still living, living to mourn for me and tear out her hair that I've disappeared from Blackwood Farm. Didn't Petronia tell you what she was up to?'

“He went into a fury. He tried to shake the bars but he couldn't. He pounded upon the lock. Now he was an old man in all his parts, his jaw trembling, his eyes tearing. ‘Abomination!' he roared.

“The black one tried to calm him. ‘Now, let this matter be in my hands,' he said. ‘We have an order here of authority.'

“ ‘Do you see what she means to do?' the Old Man shouted. His jowls trembled. All of him trembled. His eyes were inflamed as he gazed at me. ‘Who told you about Julien?' he demanded, as if such a thing were important now.

“ ‘Julien himself told me. I'm a seer of spirits,' I retorted. ‘But what does it matter? Get me out of this place. Your granddaughter Lorraine needs me. Blackwood Farm needs me. I have flesh and blood that need me.'

“Suddenly Petronia herself appeared. Clad in a black velvet tunic and pants with a belt of cameos, she came striding across the long room and up to the two men, declaring as she did:

“ ‘What is this, the convocation of the cage?'

“As Manfred tried to seize her by the throat she threw him backwards, so that his body went yards across the marble floor and slammed into the wall, his head snapped back in a blow that would have killed an ordinary human and out of his throat came a deep and terrible roar.

“ ‘Don't dare to question me,' she said.

“The black one, as though nothing could perturb him, reached out for her and slipped his arm around her neck. He was taller than her by some inches. Probably he was my height. He brought her head down onto his shoulder and I saw her hand tremble as she let him do it, and he whispered to her,

“ ‘Petronia, my dearest, why, why always the rage?'

“He held her and she allowed herself to be held, and the Old Man wept as he collected himself, came forward, wounded, furious, helpless, shaking his head.

“ ‘My own,' wept the Old Man, ‘and your pledges to me are worthless, your bond is worthless—.'

“ ‘Leave me alone, you fool,' she said, raising her eyes and turning her head to look at him. ‘I've kept my pledges to you ten times over. I've given you immortality! What in hell do you want? And then on top of it riches undreamt of. This boy is nothing to you but something sentimental, like the photographs you keep of your precious Virginia Lee and your son William and your daughter Camille, as if these people were anything to you in the dust of time. They are not.'

“The Old Man sobbed. Then he spoke, blubbering.

“ ‘Stop her, Arion,' he said. ‘Don't let her go on. Stop her.'

“ ‘Wretched, miserable, old man,' Petronia said. ‘Old forever. Nothing could give you youth. I despise you.'

“ ‘And that's your reason for what you've done to me?' I asked. It would have been wiser perhaps to say nothing, but in some way this case was being tried before Arion, the black one, and I had to make some effort or die full of regret.

“Petronia looked at me, and, as if seeing me for the first time, she smiled. And as always happened when she smiled, she looked serene and lovely. She was still in the arms of Arion, and Arion was stroking her loose full hair. It was utterly loving the way that Arion held her. Her breasts were against him, and he seemed to adore her.

“ ‘Don't you want to live forever, Quinn?' she asked me.

“She slipped gently out of the embrace of Arion, and she took from underneath her black velvet tunic a gold chain, and on the end of this chain was a key, and with this she unlocked my handsome prison.

“She opened the door. With the meanest fingers imaginable she grabbed my left arm and yanked me from the couch and out into the room, slamming me up against the bars. It sent a shudder of pain through me.

“Arion remained close, staring at me, and the Old Man was some distance away. He had taken a small picture from his coat and he looked at it piteously. I wondered if it was of Virginia Lee. He was whispering to himself insanely.

“ ‘Are you prepared to fight for immortality?' Petronia asked of me.

“ ‘Not at all, not one wit,' I said, ‘nor for my life. Not against the bully that I know you to be.'

“ ‘Bully!' She mocked me. ‘You call me that? After you had your familiar attack me with flying shards of glass?'

“ ‘He did what he could to protect me. You were in Blackwood Manor. You meant to do me harm.'

“ ‘And why isn't he here?' she asked.

“ ‘Because he can't be. You know this,' I said. ‘I'm no match for you. I saw what you did to Manfred a moment ago. You play an unfair game with me. You always have.'

“ ‘Stubborn,' she said as she smiled, cruelly this time, and shook her head. ‘Always your way. Pride, that's your sin.'

“Arion reached out for me and took my head in both his hands, and I felt his soft silky thumbs against my cheeks. ‘Why don't you let him go?' he asked. ‘He's innocent.'

“ ‘But that's the best kind,' said Petronia.

“ ‘Then you mean truly to do it,' said Arion, stepping back, ‘not merely to kill him?'

“ ‘I mean to do it,' she said nodding, ‘if I find him fit for it, if I find him strong.'

“Before I could protest, before I could mock, before I could sneer or plead or whatever might have come into my head, she picked me up and threw me, as she had done with Manfred, against the far wall. The blow to my head was terrific, and I thought, This death is not going to take very long.

“At the same time I became enraged as I always do by such hurt, and, falling down on the floor, I sought to get up immediately, and I flew at her, missing her and falling on my knees.

“I heard her cruel laughter. I heard Manfred weeping. Where was Arion? I looked up and caught a glimpse of the two men seated in their chairs at the table. And where was she?

“She slipped her hand under my shoulder and yanked me to my feet and slapped me hard on the left side of my face and then threw me across the floor. I went sprawling. It was pointless to try to fight. It was everything to keep to my word. To give her no sport at all. But I couldn't keep to it. Again, I tried to get up.

“Now, I knew nothing of fighting. Or I should say all I knew of it was what I had watched in boxing, which was my favorite spectator sport. And there was no way to apply what I knew in this situation, and I had never acquired any skill at fighting myself.

“But as I rose to my feet this time I saw Petronia standing right before me, and it seemed commonsensical that if I ran low at her I could topple her, and so I did this, tackling her right below the knees, and over me she went.

“The men laughed at this, which was unfortunate. I would rather have had cheers. But spinning round I came down on her before she could rise, and I tried to put my thumbs into her eyes. She caught me around the throat with both her hands, and now, fully enraged, she threw me over and back on the floor and then dragged me across it until she had come to the balcony, at which point she grabbed both my wrists in one hand and slung me over the white railing and asked me if I would like to be dropped to my death.

“I could see the lights of the traffic far below on the winding road. I could also see the ocean boiling on the rocks just beyond it. I gave her no answer. I was dazed. I also thought I was doomed. I knew Manfred didn't have the power to stop her. And I didn't think that Arion would.

“That I had thrown her over only made things worse.

“Next I knew she had drawn me up and thrown me onto the floor again and was kicking me and dragging me about the room. I thought of her as a giant cat again, as I had in the Hermitage, and of myself as her prey.

“ ‘This is not the way to do such a thing,' Arion said to her. I heard it near me as though he had come up to her, but where we were in the room, I didn't know.

“Petronia said, ‘We choose our own way, don't we? We must do it the way we want to do it. In a fraction of a second, all his wounds will heal. He'll know the power of the Blood when that happens, and it will be all the finer for him. Let me have what I need.'

“ ‘But why, my darling, why do you need it?' Arion said. ‘I don't understand, my precious one, why the rage, always the rage?'

“They went on talking but they had switched back into Italian. I sensed that he was talking about the passage of time and that she had once been different, but that was all I could divine. The Old Man continued to cry.

“I tried to move and then I felt Petronia's foot on my throat. I was choking. She let up on the pressure and I saw her face above mine, her hair pouring down and tickling me as she drew me up to her with both her hands. My weight meant nothing to her. She came in close to me as though she meant to kiss me on the throat.

“I lay back on a couch, and she had her arms behind my back, and her mouth was open against my skin, and then I felt two sharp pinpricks on the side of my throat, and the world and all my pain went dim. I heard her heart beat.

“
Teach me,
she said.
I will not have my kiss be quiet.

“That she was sucking my blood from me I knew, and that I was getting weaker and weaker I knew as well. And it did seem that all my life fled from me, that image after image of childhood, young manhood and the last few years of love and ecstasy and wonder fled from me with my blood—uncontrollably, unstinting and pure. What this intimacy meant in the greater scheme of things I was helpless to understand, and then she drew back and I went limp in her arms. I sank down, free, onto the floor.

“Petronia had hold of my arm. She was dragging me again. I felt the sharp kick of her foot in my ribs. I could no longer see. I could hear the Old Man cry out. I knew it was for me that he cried. But she merely cursed under her breath. The marble felt cold beneath me. I lay sprawled against it.

“Suddenly the scene changed. I was no longer in my body but looking down on it, and down on all the occupants of the room. I was at the entrance to a long dark tunnel, and a roaring wind surrounded me, a frightening wind, and at the end of the tunnel there appeared a wondrous light, a light truly beyond description, and in that light, huge gold-and-white light, I could see the figures of Pops and Sweetheart gazing at me. Lynelle was also with them. I wanted desperately to join them, but I couldn't move. Some hideous fascination with Petronia and Manfred and Arion prevented me from moving. Some putrid ambition kept me from turning and reaching out for those I so loved. There was no clarity in me. There was only turbulence. Then, as suddenly as this vision had come, it was gone. I had made no decision.

“I was back in my aching and bruised body. I was on the marble floor again.

“ ‘You're dying,' Petronia said. ‘But I know you now, I know you from the Blood, and I won't let it happen, Tarquin Blackwood. I claim you as my own.' Again, her arms lifted me.

“ ‘Ask him what he wills,' said the black one named Arion.

“ ‘What do you will?' she demanded. She held me up on my knees in front of her. I could feel her velvet pants against me. ‘Speak to me,' she said. ‘What do you will?'

“Helpless and clumsy I fell against her crotch, grabbing for her leg and then recoiling, and near collapsing, as she jerked my shoulder and held me on my knees.

“ ‘What do you want!' she demanded again. What was I to say? To die? In this place, around the world from Aunt Queen, from Mona, from all I loved, to die without a trace?

“I raised my fist, trying to hurt her. I hit her but my fist had nothing behind it. I clawed at her velvet clothes. I tried to hit her again. I struck at her private parts.