part 6

On Monday I saw the prince again. I knew he could see I was a wreck but he didn't say anything.

I began. "OK, we have an offer."

He waited as usual.

"I had a meeting this morning and here's what they want me to tell you. In exchange for the names and locations of the others, they will spare your life. They began by offering life imprisonment, but I just laughed at them. Assuming they are to be trusted, and I'm not assuming that, I didn't think you'd be particularly interested in spending several thousand years in prison. Then I told them I had no idea if you even knew all the names and locations. This came as a surprise to them, they just assumed you were all pals. I suggested some kind of permanent house arrest in exchange for some portion of the names but they didn't want to go along with that yet. They decided they want a few names first, before they grant you anything, as a show of good faith on your part. That's where we stand. They didn't make any threats with respect to your special rations. That doesn't mean they won't."

"Permanent house arrest?"

"It was all I could think of, I was just trying to have something to say. I know we're only stalling anyway, one cockamamie idea is as good as another. Next I'm going to propose you go to work for them in some capacity, I'd think they could find some kind of use for your special skills."

"I only wish I could be present for that exchange. But you're right, David, tell them whatever you like. Did you have an opportunity to make a record of what I told you on Thursday?"

"Yes, I did. It's in the safe right now along with some of your recent bank records I located."

He laughed. "I think it's wise to keep them all together. I expected them to be subpoenaed, but now there is no need."

"I have a question." I didn't wait for him to reply because I knew he would just wait for me to continue. "Is it my imagination or do your canines get longer every time I see you?"

He laughed again. "You are the only one to notice, no one else in this foul place can make me laugh. You see, I normally keep them filed down, but have no access to tools, so they are regenerating. It takes teeth longer than other tissues but mine are nearly full size again."

He opened his mouth wide and bared them. They were huge, he looked like a freaking baboon. It scared the hell out of me.

He continued. "My nails also grow into claws without proper care. When the straightjacket was removed the guards were quite alarmed. They have provided a crude daily manicure since then."

I was still thinking about the fangs. I shook it off. "I've been meaning to ask you how you manage to blend in. I didn't really know until just now whether the teeth were just part of the 'Hollywood Factor' or not. I assume you wear contact lenses, dye your hair, color your skin?"

"Precisely."

"Do you ever go out during the day?"

"Almost never. It can be done as long as we are protected from the sunlight, even short exposure can result in burns. It is more easily done in Winter, of course, but it is a nuisance so we avoid it as a matter of convenience more than anything else. Normally I rise after sunset, go about my routine, whatever it is. I am certain to return before dawn if I go out. I usually conduct whatever regular business is required during the morning hours, I am typically awake at this hour for example. I retire about noon."

"How often do leave the house?"

"Almost every night. I usually go out to eat, occasionally I'll see a movie or a play, or a concert. I like to hear live jazz. Nearly every night I walk in the forest around my home. The woods at night are peaceful and restorative."

"I suppose the world is a much louder place now than it was for most of your life."

"Oh, yes." he said.

"What about children? You haven't mentioned them since our first meeting, I assume that implies something about your capacity to reproduce."

"Once the transformation is complete, we cannot reproduce sexually. We are hybrids, mules, we can mate but we cannot procreate, either with humans or with each other."

"What happened to your daughter?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth I knew I shouldn't have asked this question.

He looked at me hard. I tried to back up.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that, obviously, it's none of my business."

"Then why did you ask?"

"I'm not entirely sure, I didn't really intend to, the subject was children and it just slipped out. I guess I've been wondering about it since you brought it up the first day. You know I don't have children, but I felt like a father once, for a little while. So it's been on my mind. Again, I'm sorry."

"I understand. You are just curious, it's only natural. Perhaps you asked because you wish to share your own experience."

I considered that. "You could be right. I haven't thought about it in years, but it's been on my mind again for the last few days. When I was married, my wife didn't want children at first. After several years she wasn't having much success with her acting career, and some of her friends were having babies so I guess she just felt left out. She convinced me she really wanted to start a family and I was ready. She conceived right away and it made me very happy. When she was about four months pregnant, she got a callback from some TV producer she had auditioned for almost a year earlier. He was working on a new project and thought he might be able to use her. She went in and talked to him and they really hit it off. He told her if she could lose ten pounds she could have the role. She decided to go on a starvation diet and have an abortion before telling me about it. I blew up when I found out, and to top it off, the asshole gave the part to somebody else. My wife took it hard after that, and I hung around because I loved her and she needed me, but that was the beginning of the end. For a few months I felt like a father and I've never gotten over that."

I knew there wasn't much to say to that, it didn't have anything to do with him. But eventually he spoke.

"I understand. David, I've only known you a short time, but you have worked hard and taken grave risks for me. You did not choose this responsibility voluntarily, but you have accepted it and acquitted yourself admirably under unusual conditions and with few tools to work with. You have earned the right to ask me anything. The story of my daughter is the story of my life. If you are truly willing to listen, I am willing to tell you."

I looked into his eyes and knew I had asked for more than I realized. But there was no turning back now, I was all in.

"I don't want to cause you unnecessary pain, Prince András."

"When you hear what I have to say, you may feel differently. It is a story I have not told in centuries. Perhaps it needs telling again. Perhaps you should hear it before you decide what you will do with the lives you hold in your hands."

He shifted his weight and closed his eyes. Then he began.

"Istvanis was a small place deep in the mountains, not really large enough to call a kingdom, but we did so anyway. We were remote, and not valuable enough for anyone to bother with conquest. My father was king. He was a stern man, but I have fond memories of my childhood and learned much from him that I still value.

"As a prince, I led a life of privilege and excess, for I was young, and only a man. But in time I fell in love, and married and within a year she gave birth to a child, an heir to the throne, my daughter, whose name I cannot speak, even now. She was as beautiful as the day, as bright as the sun, and all were enchanted by her aspect and her spirit. There were problems with the birth, her mother nearly died. She recovered but was barren after that. Some were disappointed I would not sire a son, but my joy in my daughter was all I could have wished for, and shared by all who knew her."

"When she was nine, Osvard came against us with an army. He was prince as well, and near my age. He had a thirst for conquest, and his father gave him Istvanis on which to sharpen his claws. But we were fierce in our defense and in spite of heavy odds against us, we held our ground. Still, the casualties were hellish and many suffered terribly. Then, during a truce, Osvard kidnapped my mother, my wife, and my daughter. His terms were this: disarm and surrender and no one would be harmed. We would be reunited with our women and exiled.

"We had no choice. The war would destroy the kingdom and thousands more would die. He would likely win in the end anyway. The country and our people would be better off if we agreed. We did so. At the appointed time and place my father and I and selected officers surrendered our weapons."

He paused. He was breathing heavily, his eyes still closed. But he went on. "My father and I were tied to stakes and our officers were put to the sword before us. The women were brought out, and my daughter, and while Osvard's soldiers held our eyes open, lances were forced down their throats and driven the length of their bodies. Before they could bleed to death, they were turned on spits like cattle, roasted alive over fires."

By now he was shaking, his breath coming in gasps. Gradually he gained control and then he continued.

"My father and I were left tied to the stakes. The others withdrew to take possession of their conquest, with orders that anyone who touched any of use, living or dead, would suffer the same fate, as would any who dared ever defy him. I called to my father but he did not answer.   After that I remember little, I was deep in shock.

"After dark, I heard someone approach me from behind. I felt my bonds being cut and then I was lifted up and carried deep into the forest. I could not move, I was numb. The one who did this was Ferenc, a drinker of human blood.

"He had come in the dark and was sickened by what he discovered. When he saw that I still lived, he freed me and carried me to his home where he cared for me until my mind could function again. When I could speak I told him what had happened. There was little he did not already know, the signs were not difficult to read. Then he offered me the only thing in life that remained for me to seek: Vengeance. He offered me the gift of power, the gift of fear, the gift of blood. I lived again in hate.

"I remained with him many weeks. My physical transformation was complete quite soon, but there was much he had to teach me. How to obtain the source of life without taking it. How to prey upon the living that they would not remember. These lessons were for another time.

"I also made a study of my enemies before I sought to act against them. Osvard had promised portions of our lands to those who lent him troops. All became my enemies.

"I began with the mercenary officers who had returned to the farthest cities and the monarchs who had sent them. I was not subtle by design. I came at night, beginning with the guards, tearing their heads from their shoulders. Then I killed them in their quarters, ripping their bellies open and gorging on organs and blood, spilling their entrails and drenching the rooms in red. I left alive whoever shared their beds, left them with the nightmare they had witnessed and a message, 'Tell Osvard I am for him!'

"When my work beyond our borders was done, I began with Osvard's retinue. But now I killed their bedmates while they watched, as overture to their own butchery. They massed the guards, who fled in terror when I appeared. My lust was intoxicating, I shed oceans of blood. There was no escape, though many tried in vain, all were found and all became my crimson sacrament.

"I found Osvard in the cabin of a ship, bound the next morning for Constantinople. His riches bought him passage, but they could no longer buy him allies. When I appeared on deck, the hands would not meet my gaze, and all went silently below. I came to him in his chamber, awake and soiling himself with fear. He had no heart to break, there was no one he loved for me to rend before his eyes. So I found other ways to give him pain, all through the long winter night. Before first light I left him in a pool of his own blood and excrement."

After a time, he raised his head and looked at me. I could not meet his gaze.

"I did not count the souls that I have torn from bodies with these hands or with these jaws. They were many.

"When my task was at an end I returned to my benefactor. I asked him to take my life but he would not. I told him I would drink the blood of men no more, and I would die. And he told me this. 'Your crime is great, but it is my crime also, because I gave you the power to carry it across these mountains and into the lives of men. You were my instrument as well as your own, and many who died at your hand deserved a death less swift.

"'But your death will profit no one nor will mine. You have found Hell in living. I will sentence you and you will sentence me. Though our lives reach to the end of time, we will do penance together, to see that brothers of the blood take the lives of men no more.'

"And I charged him as he charged me and that is how I have lived for nine hundred years. It was he who sought the brotherhood, he who was first, founder of the Order.

"After he first found me, paralyzed with shock and grief, and carried me home, and placed me in his bed to rest and heal, he returned at once to the grisly, awful place where my father and our women still remained. He added the king's body to the pyre and stoked the fires high. When my lust for revenge took me away, he returned and gathered their ashes. He carried them high into the mountains above the place where all of us were born and strew them in a mountain stream. This water feeds the fields of the valley where Istvanis lies. He thought I would be pleased that what remained of them would help to nourish for all time the land they loved. It was wise.

"Within a week of our pledge I left the land of my family. I have never returned.

He shifted in his chair and lifted his head.

"My daughter sleeps now, deep within the soil of a place that I will never see again. She is one with the land of our birth, one with those who live upon that land.

"A thousand years of life has still not shown me what may lie beyond the door of death through which so many now have passed at my insistence. But I cannot think that God, if he exists, would find it just that she and I should share the same reward.

"That is my story Sifter. What will you do with me now? Would you still, see me walk the world of men once more?"