Lou's Life Chap 13 "His Story"

We were walking hand-in-hand back to the cave. We had sat on the top of our hill and watched the sun come up. We had just sat in silence, me cuddled up beside him, with my head on his shoulder, and took in the glorious sunrise. Quinn had stopped crying, but now was very quiet and subdued. he still seemed so sad. "I'm sorry for weeping in front of you. I am embarrassed at the show of emotion. I was a manly man, a fierce warrior, we do not weep." was the only words he had spoken to me in the last hour. I did not know what to say. I was mostly surprised that this man, this vampire that I had once despised, had hated so fiercely, could come to mean so much to me in such a short period of time. From what I had come to understand, every time he let someone close they hurt him, they betrayed the trust he placed in them. He really was an honorable and noble man, it had taken time for him to let me in, to trust me with his heart. I felt so honored that he felt comfortable enough with me to let himself be vulnerable. I wanted to tell him that he had no need to feel embarrassed, that I appreciated him trusting me in that way, but I was not sure how to say it without embarrassing him further.

"I did not finish the story" he said as we got back to our Chamber and closed the door. He was sitting in the main room, staring at the floor. Now instead of seeing the sad, hurt little boy in his eyes, it looked like his entire body was screaming despair, head down, hair hiding his face, shoulders slumped forward, hands clasped before him. I sat beside him on the settee in front of his desk. I turned toward him and grasped his hand "Oh no, Mi'lord. Please do not continue. I am very sorry for my curiosity, because it caused you pain in the telling of it. You may think I have a right to know, and perhaps I do in some small way, but I care MORE about you NOT having to relive that terrible memory than I do about my right to know" I said. He looked down at my hand in his and covered it with his other hand. I could not see the expression on his face, his hair hung down and blocked my view. He just sat there for a moment, looking at our hands. "Have I told you I love you?" he asked suddenly. I did not know what to say, but I felt my mouth drop open.

He looked up and must have seen the shock on my face, because he hurried on to say "You are so sweet, your kindheartedness is the biggest part of why I love you. I knew as soon as I saw you, that very first day when Emilian dropped you in front of me, that there was something. There was just something about you and I knew you would be very, very important to me. Not because I created you, not because you would be dependent on me in so many ways, not even because you would be my companion. Simply because there was something in my soul that reached out to you. The first time I kissed you I felt something in my hardened soul crack and shift. You deserve to know my story because you have released me, freed me from my prison of loneliness. Let me get this out. For some reason I believe once I cleanse myself of this terrible memory, we will be able to move forward. I will be free to be happy with you by my side."

Now I was the one in tears. I did not know what to say. Quinn certainly had a way with words. Before I let myself go to far down that train of thought, I pulled my thoughts back, Quinn was speaking. " I can still see that day as clearly as if I lived it yesterday. It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and a cloudless sky. It was the end of Summer, the end of August, 1513, and Uncle, Emoline and I with the children, and a handful of my soldiers as escort were travelling to her family's home for her Mother's birthday celebration. It had been a very calm journey so far, and at noon that day we stopped to water our horses at Kilkea. Emoline decided we should have a small meal and set out a blanket on the ground under a tree, and was busy laying out wine, bread and cheese.

The children were running, chasing each other and laughing, happy to be released from the confines of the carriage. I was giving instructions to the footmen for the remainder of the journey. My men and my Uncle was taking the horses to the river to drink. Suddenly, I heard shouting, and heard splashing in the water. I turned towards the river and saw my Uncle fall to the ground. I turned to my left and shouted to Emoline to get herself and the children into the carriage immediately. Then I turned and ran to the river, pulling my sword as I went. Bandits were coming pouring out of the woods on the far-side of the river at an alarming rate. A battle quickly developed, we were quickly outnumbered and somehow in all the mayhem, I was knocked unconscious.

The next thing I remember, I was waking up laying on my stomach, with my head in some grass on the bank, my body half in, half out of the water. It was silent, no sound whatsoever. I remained as still as possible for a few moments and heard no sounds. The bandits were gone. I slowly turned over, sat up and checked my self for injuries, and found myself very lucky. Whoever had tried to kill me was a very unskilled swordsman, because he only ended giving me a flesh wound across my ribs. It burned like Hades fire, and there was pain each time I breathed, but I would live. Uncle was farther up the bank, I scrambled to him and found him still breathing. I ran all the way up the bank towards the carriage and saw---" Quinn had his head hanging down again, hands clasped. I started to speak, but he held up his hand to silence me.

I waited without moving for several moments while he composed himself. He released a ragged breath, and kept his head down. This time he spoke slowly, in a voice raw with emotion. "They were dead, they were all dead. My family, my soldiers, even the footmen. The carriage had been stripped bare. The horses were gone and all our trunks with all our clothing was strewn everywhere, like they had been ransacked. It was terrible and brutal, a sight I will never, ever forget as long as I exist." Quinn paused again. Now there were tears in my eyes. I did not say anything, I just scooted closer to try to comfort him with my presence. He grasped my hand and continued, unsteady but calm.

"I found a spade and a hatchet in the tool compartment of the carriage. I buried my wife and children together under the tree where she was setting up our meal. I checked my Uncle, and found him still alive, but very weak. He had been shot with an arrow through his upper chest, there was a significant amount of blood loss, and he was unconscious. I whistled for my horse and miraculously, he came trotting out of the forest to me, still alive and unharmed. Luckily, I had rode him into battle many times and he knew to hide himself until I called for him, and would run away from anyone but me. I used the hatchet I had found and was able to make a makeshift travois using the blanket from our picnic.

As slowly and carefully as I could, I gently placed him in the stretcher and transported him back to Kildare. It took extra time to go so slow, and it was six days before I got home. Towards the end, I was very thankful for my smart horse, because I do not remember coming through the gates. I found out later that when we arrived Uncle was already dead and I was close to death. Being on horseback for that long had reopened my wound, I had lost a serious amount of blood and by the time I fell off my horse in the courtyard, I was unconscious again and had a raging fever. The clan healer was called, but there was not much that could be done except wait for me to either mend or die. I was so ill, it took me two months to completely come out of the fever and I was an invalid for another three. It took me six months before I could sit a horse and wield a sword as before."

"While I was in bed, all I could think of was revenge. It started with unreasonable anger at myself for my weakness. After the fever, I was so weak, I could not walk across the room to the chamber pot without assistance. I could not lift a mug of ale to my lips without the mug shaking. To be so strong and robust, then to be brought so low was depressing to me. Then the anger turned into an insane desire for vengeance and revenge for my Uncle, for Emoline, especially for my children. I trained like a madman day and night to get myself back in fighting shape, and pushed my garrison to the limits of their endurance. At night when I was not training, I planned exactly what I would do, and how I would do it. It was a year, almost to the day, I took every soldier under my command and rode out of the castle. It took us three and a half days to get to the river.

As I set the first watch, I spent the night sitting under the tree beside my family's grave. The next day we rode and searched the woods, we could not find bandits anywhere. Time and the elements had destroyed any tracks or prints we could have followed. We did find a cave, found some discarded blankets and cooking pots and knew they had been here, but there was no way to find them now. I felt an overwhelming sense of failure. The soldiers retreated across the river to our camp. I stayed in the cave, for some reason convinced I would catch them when they came back. The solders stayed a week at their campsite and then they gave up and went home. I was obsessed with finding the bandits, I could not give up, I stayed on in the cave."

"I lived in the cave for three weeks. I stayed near the entrance near my campfire, keeping vigilant watch for the bandits and had never ventured farther into the cave. It was pitch black and I had no torch. One night as I was drifting off to sleep, I felt hands grab me. I had heard no sound, had not sensed anyone enter the cave. I was instantly awake and tried to struggle and fight. It was completely dark and I could see nothing but black. I felt at least four hands on me, two clasping my hands above my head and two holding my ankles in a vice-like grip. The more I yelled, struggled and kicked, the tighter they clamped down, and it quickly became apparent that it would do me no good to try to fight until we reached wherever they were carrying me and they released me a little bit. Suddenly I was thrown on the ground, much like you were, but it was in pitch darkness and I was instantly swarmed by bodies. I have no idea how many.

They lashed me with rope and tied me with my back to a stalagmite that seemed to be in the middle of the room. At first I was angry. I yelled and screamed at them until I was hoarse to turn me loose, come out of hiding and fight like a man, to my face with a sword in their hand. I struggled against the rope, scraping it against the rock over and over until my arms and wrists were bleeding. All I ever heard was whispers. Whispers in the dark that seemed to come from different directions, all around me in a language I did not understand. As more time went by the more frightened I became. I do not know how long I stood there, it could have been hours, it could have been a year. Occasionally, sheer exhaustion would consume me and I believe I lost consciousness a few times. I broke down, I cried, I begged for my life and still all I heard was whispers. I felt I was going insane and there was nothing I could do about it. Finally, I just reached a point of acceptance. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen and there was nothing I could do or say about it, nothing I could do to prevent it."

"Just as I had reached this point, this point of giving up, someone spoke to me. It was a man's voice, I could feel his breath on my ear. He whispered to me in Gaelic 'Are you ready?' I said nothing. I did not move. I waited. The voice came again. 'I shall give you the Dark Gift, you shall accept it and you shall become one of us.' And with that I felt the searing pain in my shoulder. The black void of oblivion almost seemed like a blessing after my recent torment, and I easily surrendered to it. The next time I opened my eyes, I was a newborn vampire and because of our enhanced visual abilities, I could finally see my tormentors. There were ten of them, six men and four women. They were watching me as warily as I was watching them. One man came forward, walked behind me and started to untie me. As he did this, he whispered in my ear, in a voice I will always recognize 'I am called Marius and I welcome you to our little family".