The House on Blackstone Moor (The Blackstone Vampires) (33 page)

“I will not come!” I shouted.

The voice stopped then and I felt a great blast of cold. I recalled Kana’s words telling me of the plane of the lost—the frozen abyss where lost souls dwelled forever. This was my father’s eternity.

I know that now.

I looked to the light that still shone upon my family, yet now that beautiful light began to grow dim. As it did, I heard my mother again call my name. “Rose, please come! Come to me!”

She kept calling until I could hear her voice no longer. I realized then that the world my family now occupied was closing itself off to me, for I was not wanted in heaven and never would be—hell was to be my destination.

I knew the reason for that. I had willingly forfeited my life in order to save two vampires because I could not see either Ada or Simon perish.

But I was glad for that and resigned myself to this truth.

Louis’ voice called to me from somewhere far away.

It was then that I saw the demons—hordes of them, hundreds upon hundreds of monstrous demons rushing toward me, reaching for me, “Come now Rose, you will like it there. It is where you belong.”

I could see the flames of hell beyond them and their frightening figures silhouetted against those blood-red flames.

“I will not come!”

They kept coming closer until I could smell their stench and sense their corruption.

I screamed.

Just as they reached out to touch me the most amazing thing happened, for I felt myself being pulled by some powerful force.

They cried in rage as I was pulled still further away.

Louis’ voice grew more distinct until I could make out every word, “Rose, I command you to rise from death, death shall claim you not!”

His voice called to me, summoned me from Hell’s very grip! With each word of his incantation he was bringing me home to him.

Home!

But there was the dark to pass through first. On I went, faster and faster, until suddenly, like a baby at birth, I emerged into a bath of light so bright I felt it would destroy me.

I know now it was sunlight.

“Drink this.”

Was that Ada’s voice I heard? I couldn’t be certain until she spoke again. “Please!”

It hurt to open my eyes but I did and beheld her sweet face. “What is that?”  I knew before I asked. It was the wolfbane tea which I would always have to drink.

“Please, Miss Baines.”

Surely there was no reason to call me by my surname. I was one of them now, one of the undead, and should not be accorded any of the niceties of my living life.

She held the cup up to my trembling lips. Its distinct smell no longer bothered me and I smiled. “It’s not so bad…”

She nodded. “Please.”

Yes, of course. She wanted me to take it, to finish my initiation into this most unusual of societies.

I took it—my first swallow of wolfbane tea. The hot liquid was indeed herb-like, a bit bitter but not at all bad tasting, for it had been sweetened.

“Is that…”

“Sugar, so you’d like it better!”

Someone touched my hand. “Rose?” I turned to gaze into Simon’s face, Simon with his luminous green eyes and his engaging smile. “You must drink it now as we all must.”

Ah yes, even Louis. “Louis?”

“I am here Rose, and always shall always be.”

I hadn’t seen him standing off to the side, watching and waiting. He looked handsome but tired.

But it was his eyes that troubled me the most for sadness was all I saw there. Sadness, grief, and perhaps resignation, too. He was resigned to how things would be now, as this was the after of my living life.

It was all clear to me. I understood everything then. I had passed through death, so close to Hell I smelt and saw its demons come to carry me off.

But I saw other things as well. I saw too the family I loved in another place, the place I knew to be Heaven, a place not for me.

I closed my eyes as all truths began to reveal themselves to me, every question I ever had about God or Heaven or humanity. I knew God was good and people were supposed to do with their lives the most they could.

And even as I was undead I still did know what truth was. I understood that to be separate from God for whatever purpose was not to be desired, yet one great and fundamental truth was this—that evil exists because good exists. It is the great balance to everything.

“But I am undead and therefore evil now, aren’t I?”

Louis’s gentle voice answered. “We are what we are, condemned by fate to exist as we must, to exist as best we can and to challenge that which is worse evil than ourselves.”

I nodded for I understood that, as I understood the reason Louis took me in his arms to tell me how deeply he loved me.

But most remarkable of all was, I
felt
that love for the hollow, soulless part of me was filled with its memory.

*

The children hadn’t seen their friends’ destruction at least.

“We won’t see them anymore, not our aunties nor the doctor, will we, Papa?”

How very sad Ada and Simon
looked. Simon nodded
to himself,
his face bleak,
for he had liked Dr. Antor very much.

It seemed to me he was determined not to give in to tears. Louis spoke with both of them before herding them away so that he could perform his final task.

He had already removed the mutilated remains of our friends. As for Eco’s vampiric monsters they were but a pile of stink-filled ash.

“We will bury the ash and put our friends in the cottage; they would have wished it so. Then we shall burn it all down, for there is purification and dignity in those flames, Rose.”

He poured kerosene all around the beautiful cottage and lit it. There was a boom and a great burst of flames as a conflagration came to claim those we had loved.

We had the children with us, for they were witnesses too. And when the cottage was nothing but a blackened ruin we knew it was time to move on.

Ada looked tired and Simon little better, as they were still in a much weakened state, but their chests were healed for my blood had done its work.

“I shall put them in the wagon and cover them,” Louis said. And I heard him ask them to please close their eyes and so they would dream. “Dream of love, children, for you do remember it and always will.”

I, for my part, could not wait to hurry from the smoky place.

Louis put his arm around me and pulled me close. “We will soon be past it, Rose, you will see.”

I was glad for I could not stand the smell.

“Everything is so different now…”

He knew what I meant. “Yes,” he replied sadly. “It is very different for you for your senses are far sharper and always will be.”

I recalled then that other sojourn of mine, that brief time when my senses were this sharp. “Yes, I remember.”

“You will see it is not unpleasant,” Louis replied and I smiled for indeed it wasn’t. The world was different now—I picked up the scent of animals and birds and bats, too. I heard insects as they flew and buzzed. I heard the sound of their wings, the quiet hum of their very being.

I heard the sound of every creature that called the moors home. I could detect the sounds of life I didn’t even know existed and if I once had an inkling of this great power, it was nothing compared to what it was now.

Louis kissed the top of my head. “You will grow accustomed to it, Rose.”

Where we were bound we did not know, though Louis assured me if one place was not suitable then we would go on, wanderers forever, travelers always seeking a new haven—a place to rest.

“We shall not go back to Blackstone House, Rose.”

I must say I quite expected that. “It is an accursed house on haunted soil. I have torn it down. It is gone now as Eve is and all of her evil. It shall never be our home again.”

“But I should like to see it one last time.”

We passed it then and I saw it was but a pile of broken mortar and little else, a ruin to stand for an indeterminate time, until oblivion removed any trace that it ever existed at all.

“And what of the altar stone on the moors?”

`Louis nodded. “That is gone too, smashed into dust as well it should be.”

I nodded. “Will we see Eco again?”

“Evil never dies, Rose. It hides itself only to come back with what seems to be greater potency.”

I understood that as I understand all that had been.

And now I ask a favor of you, so please, stay with me just a moment more. I will not trouble you much longer. Remember when I said I would tell you my tale first?

This I have done. You have heard it from my lips.

So I ask you—what do you think of me now? How do you judge me? I leave it up to you for now you know everything there is to know.

But before you answer I shall leave you with one thought only and that is my belief that destiny is the sentence of every man and woman, a sentence that cannot be overturned for its power is irrefutable.

We
are
ou
r fate, and I have become mine.

t
o
p

Bonus Material.
The first two chapters of Unholy Testament, book 2 in The Blackstone Vampires Series
available from

http://carolegillofficialauthor.blogspot.com/

I am what I am for I have become a creature of the blood
; a being who dwells in the world of the undead and always shall.

He knew I would make the choice to save the children who are also creatures of the blood. He knew it for he had orchestrated it, like the maestro that he is, Eco an immortal like my own beloved; both of them born of fallen angels and human women. But whereas Louis is good, Eco carries the seeds of Hell within him—Eco our worst enemy; Eco the destroyer of our friends, the fiend who had ravished me and would have married me in Hell, before Satan himself; Eco who haunts my dreams and always shall.

He had staked the children, my children now for it is my blood that flows within them. In order to save them I opened my own veins that they should drink.

“Drink, my loves, for it is the only gift I have for you.”

I gave up my living life for them and gladly, too. But because of my act I saw the flames of Hell and felt Hell’s horrific heat.

Yet, Hell left no mark on me. I passed through it and was raised. The one who loved me drew me forth. No demon touched me, although they tried. Hordes upon hordes of them reached out to pull me back, back into their master’s domain.

Yet just as they reached for me, I felt myself snatched away. They shouted in rage as I was pulled still further and further away.

And then, I heard a voice, a voice I knew. A voice, it seemed, my heart always dreamt of.

“Rose, I command you to rise from death for death shall not claim you!”

His voice called to me, summoning me forth—the voice of my love, my Louis.

And then, like a baby being born, I emerged into the bright light. I know now it was sunlight. Someone touched my hand. It was Simon. My child now for I had perished giving him my own life force.

And so I was reborn. My transformation was all embracing. All secrets were revealed as the truth of all worlds was shown me. Every question I ever had about God or heaven or humanity was revealed.

I knew God was good and people were supposed to do with their lives the most that they could. I knew about damnation and loyalty to Heaven so that I better understood exile from that kingdom of light. Though undead, I still did know what truth was.

I understood that to be separate from God for whatever purpose was not to be desired, yet one great and fundamental truth was this—that evil exists because good exists. It is the great balance to everything.

And so I left one world to enter another—the world of the undead, that place where I would dwell forever.