Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (62 page)

Finishing the reading, Aimee kissed the two
and closed the book as Marie asked Celeste if she knew if Ian had
made it to Boston yet.

“No. He’s going to go straight to Valley
Forge. I feel that he thinks James and Melissa will meet him there.
He has been on a rescue mission helping to get some people back
that another tribe kidnapped. It took so long and went so far south
that he is just not going to bother to go to Boston this time.”

“Well then, he can’t find Cosette’s note so
he can’t learn that she is there looking for him.”

“I’m afraid that’s so. James and Melissa
went to New York City with Cosette.

“This is so frustrating! Now it will be
springtime before Ian might return to Boston and find her
note.”

Liri spoke then saying “Poor Cosette! This
has been such an ordeal for her. She has been over there now for
what, four years, no… five? And she is no closer to finding him
than when she got there.”

Marie looked at Celeste and both shook their
heads as both of them thought
and when she does find him, her
heart will be broken.

***

June Stedman sat in their parlor, talking to
her husband. ”Why do you want to go on a mission like that alone?
We have our coven here to look after and even though I didn’t ask
to be a vampire, I like it and so do you. I just don’t understand
your obsession, Lester.”

“We’re loyalists, June. Our first duty is to
our King. Think about the blow we could strike for the crown with
this one act! I just know that I can do it. What human or even a
large number of them could stop one of us who is determined? Their
eyes can barely see our movements when we move as quickly as we
can. At night we have an even greater advantage being as we see so
much better than they do. I tell you, this will work and we will be
welcome in the palace itself when it is learned what we have
done.”

“I suspect that Yvonne will be quite upset.
She is adamant about the facts of our existence remaining hidden
from the humans.”

“Let her be upset. We have allowed them to
live here on our estate. Shall we ask permission for everything we
do?”

“She will tell Grundy and he is one to be
wary of, Lester.”

“All the more reason for you to come with
me. Can they kill both of us? No. Who would deal with humans all
around us who know us and who know that we live here? She would be
violating her own rules about not allowing humans to learn about us
if suddenly both of us vanished. It would be but a little time and
humans including some military figures would want to know where we
were. No, they won’t kill us. In fact, Grundy himself will like
what I am going to do. After all, was he not a British officer
himself? I tell you, he’ll support my decision to assassinate
George Washington.”

Ian and Moon Owl had retrieved their tent,
accessories, wagon, and oxen and had gone to Valley Forge and set
themselves up. This time they located themselves to the west of the
camp, just inside of where the pickets were stationed. They settled
into the routine of hunting and field dressing all manner of game
for the army and the days slipped by without a sign of Melissa and
James.

Ian shared James’ idea of buying a bigger
house with Moon Owl and the two had finally come to the conclusion
that they may have already bought another home and were getting
settled in it.

Game was plentiful being that it was early
winter and Darren Roberts and his hunters were having good luck
beyond the south end of the camp this year so Ian was asked to take
a dispatch from General Washington to the congress. The end of the
year was always a time of tension for Washington as many
enlistments expired then and he wanted to always be current on all
things pertinent to supplies and pay whenever that time approached.
Desertions overall were down somewhat this past year, but the
harshness of winter always was a time when they were the
highest.

He took a sealed package from Washington’s
adjutant to the Congress at Philadelphia and said hello to John
Hancock, Sam Adams, and John Adams while he was there. Hancock
introduced him to young Thomas Jefferson while he was at
Independence Hall that day and he had to wait for a while before a
sealed package was ready for him to take back. Hancock explained
that Jefferson and Adams had butted heads regarding the role of the
central government in relation to the states, Jefferson coming down
more on the side of the individual states having more autonomy in
the new government that would be formed. This had caused the two to
become political rivals and it was well known that Washington and
Jefferson did not even speak to each other, being that Washington
like Adams was a federalist.

It was dusk when he arrived at the camp at
Valley Forge and he delivered his package to one of the adjutants
there, a young officer named Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton
remembered Ian from the battle of Trenton when he had carried a
wounded young lieutenant named James Monroe to his artillery
battery for medical attention. They talked a bit then about
different things that had happened in the war and Hamilton
mentioned that he had read a general letter from Benjamin Franklin.
It said Ian had put Franklin in touch with a man in France who had
helped in convincing King Louis to formally enter the war.

Hamilton was most curious about how a hunter
who was not even signed up for duty with the Continental Army had a
contact in France with that kind of influence. Ian told him a brief
version of how it was that he had been sent here to start a bank
and Hamilton was keenly interested in that, extracting a promise
from Ian to talk further about the subject. He was a most ardent
student of banking and banking methods and practices.

Having parted company with Hamilton, Ian was
about to go toward his tent when he heard his name being called.
Turning about he saw Darren Roberts coming toward him. Little did
he know that this and his short conversation with Hamilton were
both seemingly insignificant events that would have a far-reaching
effect.

The two men caught up on what they had been
doing and Ian shared a heavily modified version of his involvement
in getting the Seneca captives freed from the Shawnees.

Darren had met a lady who lived near
Philadelphia who was a young widow and he had fallen in love with
her. He shared his hope of building a home for both of them after
the war ended and wanted to show Ian some land he hoped to buy one
day to make that dream come true. The two parted then and Ian again
turned to go west through the camp to his tent. He was passing
through the area where the officers tethered their mounts, being a
crude ten-stall lean-to stable of sorts near to the center of camp.
It was not three hundred feet from Washington’s quarters and as he
approached the area it was quite a bit darker than the general camp
itself. No campfires were allowed nearby for fear of drifting
sparks starting a stable fire.

A tall officer approached on horseback as
Ian approached the lean-to when he suddenly felt an icy prickling
feeling at the base of his neck that chilled him to his inner
being. A vampire was looking at him and it surely was no one who he
knew.

Shrugging off his ruck sack instantly Ian
realized that the tall rider was General Washington himself, even
as he frantically looked about to find the vampire. In fact
Washington had decided to just leave his horse at the stable
himself and enjoy the luxury of a short walk to his tent rather
than hand his mount off to an aide for stabling.

A figure rocketed out of the gloomy interior
of the stable heading straight for Washington and without even
realizing it, Ian reacted. Taking a running leap and meeting the
hurtling shape in midair himself, Ian collided with the vampire and
the two landed in a rolling heap behind Washington. Ian shouted
“General, get away from here now!” The vampire rolled to his feet,
eyes glowing as Washington spurred his mount and galloped away. Ian
was between Washington and the vampire so he advanced like
lightning toward Ian with his saber drawn. Ian drew his hunting
knife in a blur of motion and flung it backhand at the vampire,
burying the knife to its hilt in his right shoulder. With a roar of
pain and rage the vampire advanced on Ian, eyes glowing and his
saber drawn back to deliver a mortal bow. Ian waited until the last
possible instant to dodge the slashing saber, and immediately he
darted in to close with the vampire before he could draw back for
another strike.

Grasping his sword arm in a grip of iron Ian
continued his momentum forward, driving a shoulder into the chest
of his opponent and throwing a leg behind the legs of the assassin,
bearing him down. As they fell, Ian gave a mighty thrust with his
legs, propelling them both into a rolling tangle and as Ian’s turn
to be on top came up, he doubled up into a tight ball while still
holding on to the vampire’s sword arm. Then he drove his knees into
his opponent’s stomach as hard as he could as he stood up, both
feet on the vampire as he twisted his sword arm violently. This was
a technique that his friend Li Hong had taught him over ten years
ago, and the two had practiced it often in those days. There was a
snapping sound as the vampire’s forearm was broken and he gave a
roar of pain. While still holding on to the mangled arm Ian began
to stomp his right foot repeatedly on the vampire’s face,
shattering his nose, jaw and larynx as the saber dropped to the
ground.

His peripheral vision detected a shadow
moving rapidly toward him even as the icy prickling feeling grew
stronger, so he began to drop and spin away even as a sharp pain
burned his shoulder. Another vampire, eyes glowing and wielding a
saber had attacked. Owing to Ian dropping and spinning away the
blow struck against him was a glancing one, not doing a lot of
damage. Ian stopped his spin and recoiled toward the new attacker
unleashing a powerful side kick, catching her squarely in the chest
and lifting her as all of the air in her lungs came out in a
whooshing sound. She was driven up and back some thirty feet to
land on her back, her saber flying from her grasp as she cried out
in pain.

Ian whirled just in time to see the first
vampire on his feet and reaching for his sabre. Without thinking
about it, Ian dove toward him, bowling him over. Ripping his knife
from the vampire’s shoulder, he drove it through his left eye and
into his brain. As he thrashed violently about on the ground, Ian
snatched up the saber and decapitated him.

The other one was nowhere to be seen and Ian
heard men shouting near Washington’s quarters. By now soldiers
approached and Ian shouted and pointed east toward Washington’s
tent “An assassin! He ran that way, toward Washington’s tent!” The
soldiers reversed themselves and all ran toward the headquarters
area. Torn between wanting to pursue the other vampire and fearing
for a vampire corpse lying there to fall into human hands, he
regretfully gave up on pursuing the other one.

Bounding into the stables he grabbed two
horse blankets and at vampire speed wrapped the headless corpse and
the head and threw them into a cart made for hauling fodder.
Quickly adding his rucksack and the two sabers he tossed hay atop
the grisly cargo and pushed the cart away at vampire speed until he
reached the areas more well-lighted by campfires. Soldiers carrying
muskets ran past him toward the stables and the officer’s tents as
he kept pushing the cart toward the west. He looked as if he was
only someone carrying soiled straw and manure out of the camp. In
around fifteen minutes he was at the edge of the camp and soon
after he came to his tent.

At the tent flap he called softly “Moon Owl.
Come help me.”

She came to him, knowing by the tone of his
voice that something was wrong.

“Quickly! I killed a vampire and we have to
take him away from here now!” Shortly the two of them were
rocketing to the west, each carrying a grisly burden. Some twelve
miles distant they came across a rocky escarpment overlooking a
wooded ravine. There were no homes within sight of the place or
nearby so they left the remains in the middle of the bare rocky
area to burn up at sunrise.

“We’d best get back as quickly as possible
lest someone come by and discover us both gone.” In minutes they
were at their tent and Moon Owl quickly ducked inside, fixing both
of a small portion of the stew staying hot on the stove while Ian
took the cart away from the area. In fact some ten minutes after
that, Darren Roberts came to the tent flap and identified
himself.

Inviting him into the warm tent, Ian and
Moon Owl pretended surprise at the news as he excitedly told of the
attempted assassination attempt. Ian questioned him somewhat,
acting surprised that such a bold thing would be attempted. They
offered some of their stew, so he thanked them and filled a bowl
and sat down to eat.

Ian said they thought they heard something
going on in camp, but figured it was just a brawl between two
soldiers. Even now there was the sound of a lot of men moving about
and orders being shouted as the search widened. Some twenty minutes
later a platoon of soldiers came to the tent flap and one of them
called out. Moon Owl opened the flap and a sergeant came inside and
related the event, asking if they had seen or heard anyone who
might be the assassin.

All looked wide-eyed at him and Roberts
offered that he had just come to the tent and had himself just told
the McClouds what had happened. The young sergeant departed and
they could hear the platoon move on to return to the camp and start
searching another row of tents.

Later after Darren left, Ian gave the
details to Moon Owl who then asked “What does this mean?”

“I don’t know, but we’re not the only
vampires in the new world anymore. There is a coven of them
somewhere now, and they’ll soon know that they failed to get
Washington.”