Lou's Life Chap 14 " His Story Con't"

Quinn got up and walked back to our room. I followed. He did not speak and neither did I. With some sort of non verbal communication, we both silently got undressed and climbed into bed. Of course, we had no need for sleep, but laying together just seemed the right thing to do. I could tell Quinn was drained, emotionally tired. He laid down on his back and closed his eyes. I laid there, on my side and facing him, and thought about how I should handle what he had just told me. What could I say? "I'm sorry for your loss" just doesn't seem quite adequate. How do you comfort someone who has been through so much? There really is nothing I could say or do that would make the situation any better, or easier to deal with. On the other hand, I thought about how I had laid in the dirt after Marcus' death and longed for some comfort, a shoulder to cry on. Quinn had not given me any comfort then, so why should I give him comfort now? True, his story was worse, a thousand times worse than mine, but now that I knew his story it made more sense. He was a warrior, accustomed to dealing with things in the most masculine way possible. To show emotion was to show weakness, and Quinn was anything but weak. Weakness could get you killed. Maybe he did not want me to try to comfort him, maybe it really was like he said, he just needed to unburden himself from the terrible memories. Because I was unsure, I remained quiet and still, I waited for him to speak. "Thank you" Quinn said. "Thank you for being here and hearing my tale. If nothing else, now at least I do not feel so alone in the world" He turned towards me. We were facing one another, not touching. He reached out and pulled me close to him with a heavy sigh. As I snuggled in close, with my head on his shoulder, head tucked under his chin, in a position that was becoming strangely familiar, he continued the story.

"As soon as Marius released me, I was on the other side of the chamber in a flash. We stood there for a long time, me on one side of the room and Marius's coven on the other side, just staring and watching one another warily. I have never in my life had seen a more rag-tag group of people. It was still pitch black in the cave, no fire, no torch, not even a candle. Which I think, is very uncivilized, even if you do have the ability to see perfectly in the dark. They were all dressed in tattered clothes, no shoes, unkept hair, dried blood covering their faces and clothes. The chamber was littered with bones and half- rotten corpses, and the smell, Oh my God! don't even get me started about the smell. They had no sleeping quarters, no place for clothing, no place for study. They were little more than animals. Believe it or not, my reaction to being a vampire was similar to yours. I demanded to know what they had done to me and why. I will admit I was a little frightened by the fact that I could suddenly see them so clearly in the dark when before it was just blackness. I did not really understand had happened to me. They tried to explain but I could not understand their language. I found out later that the language they were speaking was Italian and most of them were from Rome. They had made their way to Ireland by following English crusaders back from Palestine. They had been feeding their way across Europe for the past 40-50 years and had stopped here to feed and rest for a while."

"Marius was the only one that spoke Gaelic, and it was obvious it was not his original language. His speech was like he learned the language from someone who had learned it from a really old grandmother. His communication skills were very limited, to say the least. He informed me that the main reason I was changed was simply because I was from this area and had wandered into their cave. He had some strange obsession with collecting vampires. I would come to find out he had a bizarre habit of finding a hapless victim in every country he found himself in and turning them into a vampire. He said that his goal was to populate the world with vampires. Marius was a very bizarre vampire. I totally disagreed with his philosophy on life as a vampire, but just as you were dependent on me at first, I was dependant on Marius at first to learn this way of life. We went back to the front of the cave and I rekindled my campfire. Marius left me alone, much the same as I did to you, he let me come to terms with my fate in my own time. I explained that I did not just wander into the cave, that I was here because I was hunting a group of bandits. I did not tell him about my family, or the grave just across the river, it was still to painful to talk about. He said when they found the cave it was empty, which meant the killers of my family was still out there."

"I was very anxious to resume my hunt for the bandits, and now I had the bonus of being a vampire, and I had the vampire friends who could help me in my search. It had been about a two weeks since we I had been turned, and I decide to do something to busy myself. Winter was approaching, and I did not want to go hunting for bandits in the snow without a horse, a sword and proper clothing. I was used to issuing orders, so using a crude form of sign language and Marius translating as many words as he knew, I got them started on cleaning and setting up some adequate living quarters. The first thing I taught them was how to make torches. I went back to my home in Kildare in the dead of night and stole the blacksmith's tool to fashion the wall holders for the torches and the spikes needed to mount them to the wall. While I was home, I also went to my room and gathered a few meager belongings and keepsakes. Once we got light in the cave, we began to clean it up. One woman went so far as to fashion a broom out of a scrub brush, and cleaned the hardpacked dirt floor before putting down fresh rushes. Most of the men had been farmers before joining with Marius, so they knew how to make their own furniture. I set them to work at least making chairs for the lot of us, so we weren't just standing around, we had a place to sit. As we worked together through the winter, I was learning Italian. Life continued at a happy pace for several months."

" As spring came, I taught them to hunt in groups, using the same attack strategies I had used many, many times in battle. We figured out the best people to rob are peddlers because not only do you get a meal, they generally have wagons slammed full of all types of goods, everything from clothing to occasionally weapons. They are useful in more ways than one. Once our group started working well together, I started sensing serious hostility from Marius. He began to become very envious of my position in the group. I had never come out and openly challenged him for leadership of the group, I had never even hinted that I completely wanted to be the leader. It just happened gradually that anytime a member of our family had a question about what they should do, or needed advice, they came to me for answers instead of Marius."

" One day in early April, things came to a breaking point. There had been a break in the weather and it was a bright sunny day. I suppose it was a good time to travel. One of my fellow vamps was out hunting deer and had come across a gypsy caravan, including a peddler. He rushed back to get the rest of us, and reported there were 15 humans, more than enough for all of us to feed. I immediately started giving orders to get ready to go to attack. I thought of the needs of the group, I knew we were all hungry. Through the winter we had all been feeding on animals, and if we came across a traveler, we took turns to who was allowed to feed on human blood. As the men and I were discussing tactics, we were all squatted down and I was drawing lines in the dirt. Suddenly Marius came up on us. "You are not going to attack the humans are you?"

I looked up. "Of course we are, we have all been hungry of weeks on end and there is more than enough food for all of us." I went back to discussing with the men what we were going to do.

You cannot do it, I forbid it!" Marius said forcefully, glaring directly at me when he said this.

I stood up. At this point, I was calm. I was willing to listen to his reasons why we could not go on this expedition. "Why ever not? What is troubling you Marius?"

"There are too many of them, we would be outnumbered. They may have weapons, traps, any number of ways to injure us or possibly even kill us. Some of us could be captured and taken away, taken to a town, burned at a stake. One human could escape, make it to a town, and bring back a magistrate or soldiers to hunt us down. Any number of things could happen that would put us in danger. I have kept us alive this long by staying away from large groups of people, away from cities and towns, now you not only want us to expose ourselves to these humans, you want us to fight and kill them." Every eye in the room was on Marius as he said this. By this time, I understood enough Italian that he no longer had to speak in Gaelic for me. So I knew everyone had heard and understood every word he said. Every head turned to me to see what my response was going to be.

I had to choose my next words carefully. " Marius, I am a vampire. In the time I have been with you I have learned so much about what it means to be a vampire. Before, when I was human, I considered myself to be intelligent, confident and physically strong. I was in command of my world and I had men twice my age that looked to me for guidance in battle. Since I have been a vampire I have discovered that I am stronger, faster, smarter than I ever imagined myself to be, all my senses are heightened and enhanced. If we were ten humans going up against a band of 15 gypsies, I would be inclined to agree with you. It would be foolish and dangerous. But we are vampires. You know as well as I that we can easily take these humans. They are sheep and we are wolves."

Every eye turned back to Marius. He basically said if I wanted to take risk it was up to me, but I was going to do it alone. If I killed the gypsy's, I could come back and get them to come feed. Otherwise, he said I should not come back at all.

I heard several people gasp. Everyone looked back at me. I felt my own anger starting to rise. I took a stand and said that he should let each individual decide for themselves what they wanted do. If Marius was correct, and doing this was a risk, then rather than Marius TELL them they cannot go, or for me to command them to follow me, it should be up to each individual to choose to assume that risk.

Marius and I were locked in a stare. Around me I heard shuffling of feet, and within moments all nine vampires were standing behind me. We just stood there and waited for Marius reaction. At this point it could go either way. Instantly, before I could react, Marius had me by the throat, lifting me off the floor. All the other vampires backed away and watched. This was between Marius and I. I had not necessarily wanted it but he had made it about supremacy. I kicked him, my feet were at the level of his knees, the force of the blow made him drop his arm a little. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I pushed him off me and was surprised at the amount of force behind the shove. Marius flew halfway across the room. I did not particularly want to battle with Marius, but he left me little choice. The battle raged for a good while. I am not sure how long of course because I was somewhat occupied. I lost track of time. We were evenly matched, strength for strength, and the battle could have went on forever since neither of us could ever get tired or seriously hurt one another.

Finally, as we were on either side of the room taking a moment from the fighting, I said "Enough, I've had enough!" I told Marius I would rather bend to his will than continue with this folly. He just stood there, looking at me dumbfounded. Without saying another word, I went to my sitting area, gathered my meager belongings and left Marius and my "family" behind. No one said a word or tried to stop me as I walked out of the cave. I never saw any of them again.