He looked at her as he cuddled Aimee against his chest and replying in English as well he said “What could possibly be good about this?”
“She was brought over only two nights ago.”
***
Liridona stood in the parlor of the suite of Anna and Lukas Eschmann. They and their two daughters were all seated. She said “I wanted to tell all of you this together. Andre is staying with the Lafayettes. Monsieur Lafayette has offered him an apprentice position as an assistant property manager to care for their properties. They have offered me a position at their home near Marseille. I do want to stay with you, but I want to stay near my brother too. He’s the only family I have. I do want so to thank you all for staying longer in Paris than you intended. I can return to Lausanne with you and work there until you find a replacement. So when you’re ready to leave, I am too.”
Anna looked at Lukas and then at Liridona. “We both hate to see you leave, Liri. I do understand that you want to remain near to Andre though. We’ll manage without you, but we’ll miss you too. We do hope that you’ll at least visit us if you ever return to Lausanne.” Here she rose and stepped toward Liri and held out a leather purse. “This is a gift for you and Andre for all of the years of loyal service to me.” Liri took the purse and was surprised at its weight. She looked inside and saw only gold coins.
She drew in her breath in a sharp ‘oooh’ and tears came to her eyes. “Thank you, Madame Eschmann! Thank you Monsieur Eschmann!” She curtsied as Anna came to her then. She took her into her arms and said “I love you, Liri. Don’t be a stranger. You’ll always have a home with us, both you and Andre. Never forget that. Since the two of you are leaving though, you couldn’t have made a better choice than to go with the Lafayettes.”
Crying a little now, Liri said “I’ll never forget, Madame.”
“I’m not Madame, Liri. We are Anna and Lukas to you.” Liri got down on her knees and the two little girls came to her with tears in their eyes to say goodbye too. After a bit, she got up and came to both Anna and Lukas and hugged them both saying a final goodbye.
Chapter 86
Ian and Andre had parted company with the others at the hotel after he had cautioned Andre against telling his sister what had happened regarding Aimee. The others headed for the old house near Angel’s Care for Aimee’s imprinting. Ian and Andre came to Henri and Marie’s suite and unlocked the door. The five came running when they entered. Ian kissed Alandra and held her wordlessly. She finally pushed herself back so as to look him in the eyes and said “Ian, what’s the matter?” He said “Oh, it was a really long night and I guess I’m just feeling it now. Everyone is fine though. It went well.” He said as he reached out one arm to include Celeste and Louis, and the other to include Mustafa.
Andre then left with Liridona to give Ian a chance to talk to the others. Ian turned to them and related a condensed version what had transpired. When he told them about Aimee, their eyes widened in disbelief. Alandra said “What can be done then?”
“We’ll try to make her a responsible member of our family. She deserves that at least.” He then sat and put his head in his hands. “How could anyone do that to a child? What chance has she at all but for us?” As the harsh reality of it washed over him again, the two women saw him hang his head in sorrow, a look of complete defeat in his eyes. Louis and Mustafa were stunned, but sympathetic at the emotion which had overcome Ian. Within the hour though, they were all in a carriage heading toward the same old house where Andre had gone through his imprinting.
***
Marie had bought a new copper tub and had brought it to the old house and set it up out in the back yard in the shade. A fire was built under it and the water heated to just the right temperature. It was child’s play for two vampires to then lift the tub off of the fire and set it upon four stones. Marie, Sophia, Celeste, and Alandra bathed Aimee and burnt her grimy clothing. They dressed her then, selecting a dress from several that Marie had bought, and brought her around to the front porch where the men were gathered. They proudly presented her to the group as a flaxen-haired beauty with deep blue eyes and a rosy complexion. She was wearing a brand new navy blue dress, trimmed with a white collar and broad white sash. With it were white shoes, white hose, and long white gloves, with a broad-brimmed white hat that had a long white ribbon hanging down from its back.
The men all stood there, mouths agape at the sight of her. Ian gave a big smile and came to her and said “Aimee, you’re a vision of beauty. Look Henri! Look everyone! Look at our pretty Aimee!” Little Aimee smiled radiantly and turned about so that everyone there could see her new clothing. Then she ran to Ian and leaped up into his arms, kissing him.
Her imprinting was relentless. No adult vampire ever got such intensive training. She never got an unsupervised moment or a break in her training. It soon became apparent that she would imprint as one who needed sleep. That took every one of them by surprise. The imprinting process seemed to be incorporating sleep as a part of her new makeup since she was at an age where she needed a lot of sleep. The group discussed that while she was sleeping and decided that while unheard of in vampires, it was a good thing for her not to be awake at all hours of the night, thinking about the realities of being a child forever. In fact as Marie pointed out, it would help keep their home routine more like normal. She was right. Aimee’s regular sleep patterns came to be counted as a blessing. She was allowed to sleep whenever she felt like it. Marie and the others kept after her to control the glow of her eyes. When speaking to Aimee about that facet of her training, Marie began to refer to that universal vampire trait as her eye-lights.
When she grew faint and hurt from the changes happening within her body, she sometimes would cry from the pain. There was always someone there to hold her, soothe her, and give her nourishment. If Ian was there, he’d do it. If not, any one of the other vampires would hold her and rock her until it passed. The humans were not allowed to do it for fear of her making a violent move in response to the pain and hurting one of them. Aimee was encouraged by the others as to how brave she was and all of them telling her how hard it had been when they had imprinted. She had constant moral support and they were all a bit surprised at how resilient she was. Never did she grow angry or discouraged but likely that was only because of all of the love, support, and encouragement there at all times of the day or night.
They drilled her endlessly using the exercise of tossing eggs back and forth until she could catch and toss them with perfect control. When she mastered that she would giggle as they would do it faster and faster. She developed a perfectly controlled sense of touch. Mentored constantly she was admonished to never ever give in to the least impulse when in the company of humans and especially when she would get to accompany the others out in public.
Given a toothbrush on the first day she was exhaustively drilled on the proper technique of brushing one’s teeth. Like many she had never even seen one before. Marie and Sophia were relentless in making her repeatedly brush her teeth with salt and water. When the two women finally pronounced her to have a clean mouth, she was given lilac blossoms to eat. There were lots of the bushes around the old house and they were blooming. She had to consume two or three handfuls of them daily and the bushes were stripped after her imprinting was done to preserve dried blossoms for her to use all year long.
Loving everyone there, she dreaded the thought of even disappointing one of them for the least infraction. Recalling only too well how she had lived before, she’d taken it to heart when they had told her on more than one occasion that her perfection was the key to her staying with them forever. It was unfair, but the consequence of a single careless act in public could be catastrophic, so it had to be done for her sake as well as for the sake of all of them.
It was revealed to her that she would be killed if certain of their kind knew that she existed. She had done so well on her blood fast, th
at she got to where she could do five days without blood and no one but Ian could do that.
Finally she was told that she would never grow bigger but would always be their special little girl. Ian was the one who was picked to tell her that. She sat in silence after hearing that and it broke Ian’s’ heart to see her reaction. He hid his feelings with a great effort even as the others came to her and began to tell her how glad they were to have such a special little girl as her because they could never have children of their own. They all told her that they were so very thankful that she had come to live with them and to fill the emptiness in their lives. In large part, this was very true. She began to feel like a valued and special member of this family and was assured that her status would never change, and that she was unique in the world because none of them had ever even seen a child who was a vampire.
After she was reassured, Ian then took her and sat her in the midst of them all and knelt in front of her, taking her beautiful face between his hands. “Aimee, I want to show you something that you can do that is very special. It is one of the things that humans can’t do. It will hurt a little bit, and then the hurt will go away really fast, like it was never there. He then showed her his dagger and said “Aimee, do you trust me? Do you trust us?”
“Yes Ian. Show me.” He took the tip of the dagger and asked for her hand. He turned it to where the inner part of her forearm was exposed and delicately made a small cut about an inch long. She squinted and distorted her features somewhat, but didn’t make a sound.
“That was very brave, Aimee. Now watch what happens.”
He took a towel handed to him by Marie and wiped the blood away and the wound closed up right before their eyes. Aimee’s eyes widened and she broke out in a radiant smile. Her beautiful eyes swung up to lock with his. “Oh, it’s gone, Ian! Look, it’s gone!”
“That’s how we heal if wounded. Humans take days to heal from a thing like that, and it leaves a scar forever. See how special you are? Now let Marie show you something else that doesn’t hurt. It is special too.”
Marie took her to a window on the back porch and told her to look at her reflection. Her wavy flaxen hair cascaded alongside her angelic face, framing it beautifully. Marie stepped close to her and took a length of it on one side of her face, cutting off enough so that it was noticeable. Aimee turned to her with a question on her face.
Handing Aimee a flask she said “Drink now and watch what happens to your hair.”
Aimee drank and turned to face her reflection in the window. Her scalp tingled in the area where her hair had been cut and she sucked in her breath in surprise as she saw that particular place where her hair had been cut growing back to its’ former length before her very eyes.
In minutes she turned to everyone and said “Why, it’s grown back already!” She held her hair out from her head and said “Look everyone, it grew back!”
“Yes, Aimee, our hair will always grow back to the length it was when we imprinted. We could shave it all off and you could regrow it in minutes.”
She put both hands to her cheeks and her eyes widened as she suddenly smiled. “Oohhh! That is sooo special!”
She had developed a tolerance to sunlight for short periods, not exceeding an hour at best. It was concluded that it may have been because her imprinting time was five weeks instead of three. Being taken on runs in the woods she was told that after they got to places where no humans were around, she could exercise her vampire powers. Loving it when she could ride on Ian’s back in Alandra’s sling, she would shriek or giggle uncontrollably when he would leap into or out of a tree. She absolutely loved the time spent that way and was perfectly content to be a perfect little lady at all other times.
Being allowed to be the child she truly was worked like a safety valve of sorts, allowing any built up anxieties or frustrations to be released. Publicly she moved about as a tiny adult, never skipping or jumping out of a chair or anything that children normally do. After her imprinting was done, Alandra, Marie, Sophia, and Celeste took her to Paris in her new navy blue dress to visit Caryn. Marie said “Now Aimee, we shall see if you can pass this test, and remember now, always control your eye lights.”
They were shown into Caryn’s busy office. She greeted them all by name and when she was told that she was to meet a new family member, Aimee was brought out from behind Alandra, and was introduced. Caryn stood mouth agape, staring at the angelic vision standing before her. “Oh my, Aimee! Did anyone ever tell you how pretty you are?”
She curtsied and smiling sweetly she said “Thank you, Madame Rochelle. You are too kind.”
Caryn turned to the others and put her hands on her cheeks and exclaimed with a broad smile “What an enchanting and lovely child! And such a well-bred little lady too! I must beg you Marie; may I have her do some modeling for me? Oh, please do say yes!”
Marie looked at the others who all smiled broadly, nodding. “Yes, you may.” Then looking directly into Aimee’s eyes she said “But only if one of us is with her.” Then when no one was looking at Marie, she pointed two fingers to her eyes, warning Aimee not to let her eyes glow.
“Splendid! Magnificent! Oh I’m showing some children’s clothing tomorrow. It is a private showing. May I get measurements for clothing for her now?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, wonderful! Just wonderful! Thank you so much Marie!” Walking out to the work floor, she picked up a servants summoning bell and rang it repeatedly. Soon the entire shop was busy making seven different outfits which would be finished before the next day. Caryn begged Aimee to let her have her sun glasses for the afternoon. She dispatched a seamstress to a nearby jeweler to have a gold chain fitted to the ends of the ear pieces so that they could hang fashionably from her neck or be worn when she modeled.
The next day, four wealthy clients came to view children’s clothing. There were sounds of ‘Oooh’ and ‘Aaah’ when Aimee would come out with her sun glasses on and then take them off and let them just hang around her neck. She did that while modeling four of the seven outfits. She would always smile sweetly and curtsy to the small group after each showing and would then walk back to the curtain and turn and wave prettily with another smile before going back behind it to change into another outfit.
They desired to talk to her afterward so Caryn arranged for that with Marie there of course. Little Aimee was absolutely impeccable in her diction, courtesy, and the tone of her voice. The four women were stunned at her maturity and refinement. Soon all of the wealthy elite of Paris would hear of Caryn Rochelle’s stunning child model.
Chapter 87
The Supreme Council closed session meeting was gaveled to order by Heinrich Von Steuben. “I believe that Henri has a report from Paris. Henri?”
“Yes, Heini I do. Esteemed colleagues we had an incident in Paris recently in which thirteen rogue vampires were successfully killed without a report even being made to the King’s Gendarmes.”
“Thirteen you say? Good Lord Henri, that sounds like it was a real fright!” The assembled judges murmured among themselves, shaking their heads.
“Well, it had the potential to be a real flare up, but thanks to my team, it was contained. We don’t know how many were killed before we learned of them. There had not been a report made on any activity in that part of the city. It is a very poor and dangerous area. A young protégé who we recently brought over stumbled onto it, by happening along just in time to drive away one who tried to attack some people who had gotten lost.” He thought will they believe this version? And then he resumed “Luckily it was just the one and it was well after dark. No one in the carriage saw anything.”
“That was a stroke of luck!”
He then filled them in on the raid, leaving out any reference to Aimee, and concluding with Ian sticking his pistol halfway down the throat of one before blowing his brains out.
Some laughter followed then. “Ian is one re
sourceful fellow. He has become quite an asset and we want you to be sure to thank him for all of us, Henri.”
“I’ll be sure to do so.”
“Did anyone in the carriage ever try to contact the fellow or try to find out what had happened?”
“No. They saw nothing and it was very dark. My new protégé had just finished his imprinting and had gone that way as a shortcut to somewhere he wanted to be. I think he was on his way to see some young tart.” He thought another lie, and a good one if I do say so myself. They’ll believe it.
Much laughter erupted around the tables. Since there was no one called to testify, the Council had just pushed the two tables together and were all seated around them. “It was pure luck that he was there at all when it happened. He never even asked their names, but he did direct them how to get to their destination.”
Vassily, the Russian judge quipped “If not for Henri, Paris would be as bad as the Balkans.” Everyone laughed as Judge Nikola good-naturedly laughed at his own predicament. They discussed an incident in Poland then and finally Heinrich asked Nikola Saigat about events in the Balkans.
“Oh Heini, I knew you’d get to me!” There was a little scattered but sympathetic laughter. “I think that those bastards are having a territorial dispute right now. That’s good because they are killing each other for once.” There was more laughter this time. “I’d like to keep our assets there, but I know that there is the Polish question and that I’ve kept the assets we have for too long now. I yield to the majority of the Council on this matter. Esteemed colleagues, you may pull our assets out if you like for now. I take it that Ian was approached about going to the Balkans then and refused?”
Henri said “No, Niki. He now lives in Spain and has to literally live there in order to secure our banking initiative with at least one bank in Spain and one in Portugal. It is impossible for him now. You know, if it builds up again to where we have to put assets back in the Balkans, we might just all think about contributing to a purse and using bounty hunters for the problem.”