Chapter 36
Learning she could actually fly gave Ruthie back the hope she had lost after the murder of Reverend Williams. Being able to fly, bringing her closer to Heaven was to Ruthie a sign from God that He hadn't lost all faith in her. The freedom that being able to fly to rooftops and possibly beyond with the wind in her hair and the feeling of power and freedom revived her faith in God and the hope that when her judgment day arrived there was still a chance she may be forgiven and perhaps realize her lifelong dream of experiencing the glory of God in heaven.
Susie, who already relished her superhuman power, felt even more powerful knowing she could fly. She savored the thought of feeling superior to all humans and stalking them from above. She dreamed of flying like a bird of prey, swooping to the ground to attack her victims, carrying them up and away with her to some secluded area where she could slowly drink their blood in total absorption, savoring every long moment and every luscious drop without feeling the need to feed quickly and discreetly to avoid being caught in the act. Then, afterward, feeling full and satisfied, rise slowly and leaving the limp bloodless corpse where it lay instead of having to dispose of it to hide the attack.
Amy, although thrilled with her newfound ability, was more perplexed over the question of why Robert didn't tell her about such an important and useful skill. She couldn't bear to believe as Susie did that he intentionally kept the knowledge from her to maintain his superiority over her. As Ruthie pointed out Robert must have been aware of the ability and used it the night he came to her room to carry her away. No, Amy could not believe that Robert would intentionally deceive her by keeping such important knowledge to himself. She would rather believe he kept the truth from her in order to protect her somehow. Perhaps he felt flying was a dangerous activity and wanted to keep her safe by shielding her from the danger of it and protecting her by not teaching her the skill at all.
Reverend Horace Williams was not only thirsty for blood but also thirsty for revenge against the evil woman who transformed him into the heathen monster he now was. He remembered being attacked in an alley by a wild looking woman with gleaming fangs. However, his memories failed him from the time he was attacked until he awoke floating under a private dock toward the south end of the city. Panicking when he awoke to find himself in water he attempted to pull himself up onto the dock, but the fierce burning of the skin on his face and hands forced him back under the dock where he stayed until sundown when the excruciating burning sensation finally ceased.
Ever since that day he had been searching the city for the crazed monster who had assaulted him and abandoned him after transforming him into a blood thirsty abomination like herself. Only knowing his intolerance to sunlight and his lust for blood, he took cover wherever he could during the day and stalked victims at night for blood. Plenty of animals of all kinds could be found in a city such as New London where the busy shipping companies transported cargoes of livestock as well as textiles and lumber. Even more plentiful than livestock were small animals such as dogs, rats and cats, which he also found useful in quenching his insatiable craving for blood.
Reverend Williams was certain that the same woman who had attacked him was the same creature who caused all the other deaths in the city. He now was convinced that he knew the causes of the mysterious murders throughout the city that the overworked or uninterested authorities had labeled illnesses, accidents or attacks of rabid animals. Only tonight did he know for sure that she wasn't a lone attacker but had two equally bloodthirsty accomplices.
Rounding the corner onto Bank Street last night, he had glanced up quickly at the moon from beneath his hat and saw her standing on a rooftop, her cloak billowing in the wind, her dark hair escaping her hood here and there. Then two other cloaked and hooded figures joined her and he crossed the street and entered an alley to escape from their view. Fearing they would pursue him, he ran through the alley plowing into a lone woman passing by the exit. He was unable to resist the luscious aroma of her warm blood and impulsively attacked her but left a good amount of blood as a diversion for his pursuers. He was then able to quickly hide himself behind a pile of crates and other debris and study the actions of his stalkers. Now he became the stalker as he watched them drain the remaining blood from unfortunate victim and discreetly carry away the corpse.
Following them to the ferry slip and watching them scan the area for witnesses before dropping the corpse into the river he learned how he came to find himself in the river the day after his attack. Would that woman have the same experience? He remembered that she must have been completely drained of blood so couldn't possibly awaken again. If these mere women had the power to create more monsters from their victims, then he must possess that power as well. The realization renewed his anger when he remembered how until recently he had been a man of God working to deliver sinners into the way of righteousness with the word of Jesus. Now because of this woman, this hated replica of Eve, he was not only the most evil form of sinner but had the power to corrupt and create more blood thirsty murderers just like himself.
His anger and desire for vengeance consumed Reverend Williams so much so that he denied himself any acknowledgment of the superhuman strength or the invulnerability to the frigid weather or even the fact that he survived the attack at all. Nor did he acknowledge or even wonder how he survived the entire night after his attack unconscious in the river. All of his attention was focused on the fact that he was attacked and overpowered by a woman, then discarded and left for dead by that same woman. Because of this wretched, evil woman his life was irrevocably transformed from what he thought to be a life devoted to the Lord to a life in the service of Satan. Even though in the Reverend's mind all women were evil for being descended from Eve who was the original evil woman for blatantly defying God's command, taking the side of the serpent and seducing poor innocent Adam to do the same, this woman was the most evil woman of all. The Reverend swore he would find her and satisfy his need for vengeance and thereby prove his allegiance to the Lord and atone for his sins. While searching for his sire, he restricted himself to taking only females as his human victims believing God would forgive his sins if only committed toward lowly women.
Now he stood in the churchyard staring at the cellar door he had watched the vicious women enter. He saw them turn to thin streams of fog and slip under the door, but he could barely believe it. He tried the knob and found the door to be locked from the inside. How dare they defile the sanctity of this church by entering it in such a satanic manner? How dare they enter it at all! He felt unworthy to enter it himself, but he must if only to cleanse God's holy house of these evil trespassers. If they could transform themselves to fog then he should be able to as well. He stared at the door and concentrated on becoming a thin mist and moments later found himself inside the dark musty scented cellar. He opened his eyes wide and strained to hear any movement but could not hear or see a thing. For a second he became disoriented and began to panic wondering if he even was inside the church or perhaps in some unknown location. A dog barked outside and the wind whistled helping him regain his composure, assuring him of his location as he reached back and felt the inside of the door behind him.
He slid his foot an inch or two in front of him and felt the loose dirt of the floor underfoot. Slowly and carefully he moved to the right keeping his back to the wall until he reached the corner, then just as carefully began to move forward along the wall toward the front of the church. As he inched his way forward he noticed a dim slit of light from under a door but didn't leave hold of the security of the wall as he continued forward. When he reached the furthermost wall he moved more swiftly toward the slit of light, but before he reached the door the light went out and he stopped walking and stood silent and still. He wondered if they had heard him sliding his feet in the dirt toward them, turned out the light and were waiting in the dark for him to approach. The Reverend stood as still as death waiting for a sound or a sign from within the darkened inner room as he stared
at the space under the door that was now as dark as the rest of the cellar. It seemed as though a long time passed and nothing could be heard except for the wind and the barking dog and a few other dogs that occasionally answered. Beginning to move toward the now darkened doorway he felt along the wall as he passed the first two doors of the other storage rooms along the front wall.
Soon he was standing in the blackness facing the door that separated him from his hellish attacker. He entered the room as mist and materialized just inside. He stood still once again listening for movement. He was blinded by the darkness but could smell the smoke from the recently extinguished candles. Moving forward even more carefully than before, he walked into what felt like a velvet curtain or at least a large length of fabric hanging from the ceiling and slowly pushed it aside as he passed. The smoky smell grew stronger as he blindly took tiny steps holding his hands out ahead of him. His coat brushed against something, perhaps a piece of furniture. He dropped his hand cautiously to feel the smooth wood and ran both hands along it to discover a coffin!
He gasped at his discovery and became confused not realizing the significance. Continuing deeper into the room he found another and finally a third before the answer formed in his mind. He had found them. One casket for each means they must be inside. He could kill them all. Vengeful joy and the feeling of success flooded over him as he imagined strangling each evil demon one by one. He almost laughed in triumph, barely stifling a sound in his throat as he slowly raised the lid on the first casket.
His expression turned from triumph to horror as two powerful arms shot upward from within to violently clasp his throat forcing his eyeballs to bulge from his face. As he flailed backward Susie's grip remained strong as she flew in fury from her coffin and forced him to the ground. The commotion rapidly brought Amy and Ruthie to her side and the three of them stared down in rage and horror at the intruder writhing and groaning under Susie's force.
"Reverend Williams!" Ruthie exclaimed after lighting a candle, "he's alive!"
"His face!" exclaimed Amy, "his hands!"
"May I finish him off?" Susie asked.
"How did he find us?" Ruthie asked, "No, Susie!"
"Put him in a chair," Amy said as she dragged a chair closer, "we need to know how he found us."
"Then I will kill him!" Susie said hungrily as she lifted him high with one hand and forced him into the chair as he glared in hatred at her.
"Amy!" a man's voice called from beyond the door, "are you there?"
Amy's expression of anger melted to joy as she fled past the drapery toward the door. Susie and Ruthie exchanged looks of confusion and alarm, "What is happening?" Ruthie asked. Amy's muffled sobs from beyond the old tapestry was the only response.
Amy's sobbing grew louder as she returned on the arm of a man, "Robert?" Ruthie asked in disbelief as Susie watched in annoyance.
"I followed this strange man here," Robert explained, "I have been searching for you, my love," he looked lovingly into Amy's tear-stained face as she remained enclosed in Robert's embrace, "I saw him following the three of you. Your disguises serve you well. I didn't know for certain that it was you but I hoped it was. I was going to return tomorrow evening to be sure, but I saw him enter the building and feared for your safety."
Susie, unimpressed by Robert's arrival and still holding her belief that men only return to former lovers as a last resort when they've nowhere else to go said, "As you can see we have the situation well in hand, but you may stay to watch him die."
"No, Susie!" Ruthie ordered, "He's our responsibility."
"Why are you here?" Susie asked the Reverend.
"To kill the evil being that attacked me and threw me into the river to die," Williams angrily replied.
"Oh, Lord!" Ruthie groaning fell to her knees, "we deserve to die! A man of God! I tried to save him, but look what he's become!"
Susie turned to Ruthie, "And if you hadn't tried to save him we wouldn't have him here now!"
"Oh, but Ruthie!" Amy pulled Ruthie up from her knees and hugged her, "if you hadn't Robert may never have found us."
Susie looked at Amy in disgust, "We need to rid ourselves of Reverend Williams - again. Please keep your mind on this problem."
"You are by far the most evil being on God's earth," Williams hissed at Susie, "your hostility makes the ultimate sinner, Eve, the source of all suffering of man, appear to be a saint! You don't deserve to be alive."
"Reverend Williams," Amy said, "the fact that you did not die in the river proves that Ruthie's desperate attempt to save your life succeeded. Perhaps you should be grateful to Ruthie rather than hateful to Susie. After all, she attacked you unaware of your identity until it was too late. It was then that Ruthie attempted to spare your life the only way she knew how, by transforming you into a vampire. You are one of us now, you must accept it."
"Vampire!" Reverend Williams exclaimed, "I am nothing more than one of Satan's minions."
"I'm so sorry, Reverend," Ruthie said.
"I refuse to believe that," Amy continued, "Ruthie was unable to read the Bible until after she became a vampire."
"That's true," Ruthie said, "the word of God became my own to read only after Amy taught me to read the Bible."
Robert looked at Amy with pride.
"I look around this room and see nothing but evil!" Reverend Williams spit out as Susie still held him in place, "women are evil by nature. Women vampires must be the most evil beings alive."
"What kind of Reverend are you?" Amy asked, "You harbor an unnatural hatred of women, Reverend Williams. Is that the reason you have only drunken street dwellers for a congregation? Is that the reason the authorities refuse to take your suspicions seriously? I understand men may become annoyed with women's inferior intellect or weak physiques, but I don't understand utter hatred of women simply because of their sex."
"Why do you think these men are drunkards forced to sleep in alleys and streets?" Reverend Williams replied "because Eve's evil acts in the Garden of Eden caused poor Adam and all men after him to be forced from the heavenly garden into the cruel world of difficulty, illness and torment."
Susie laughed, "Then why has every difficulty in my life, every bit of pain and suffering in my life been inflicted by a man?"
"Because those men know that women deserve to be treated thusly," Reverend Williams explained passionately, "men are closest to God, created in His image, and they were simply exerting God's will. God's will be done!" He paused, "How do you women know about my holy work? How do you know about my dealings with the authorities in this town?"
"We read the newspapers," Amy replied, "your so-called congregation was our blood supply until you began complaining to the newspapers."
"My dear," Robert said, "I had no idea what suffering you've endured in my absence, but I'm so happy and relieved to find you alive."
Susie rolled her eyes at what she perceived as Robert's feigned concern, "We need to make a decision regarding the fate of the 'self-proclaimed' Reverend. He will only be a hindrance to our safety. We cannot trust him. He has no interest in acclimating to his new existence as one of us and only wants us destroyed. I say we destroy him before he learns how to destroy us."
"I must agree," Amy said, "Ruthie, now that you've heard the basis for his so-called religion and his opinions of women, are you still convinced he is a holy man of God?"
Ruthie turned her back on the Reverend, "No, I understand now why he didn't have a church of his own. He was just pretending to be a Reverend to spread his own hatred instead of God's love."
Amy nodded at Susie and as Susie enthusiastically turned her attention back to the Reverend and was about to eagerly tear his sun-scarred head off with both hands, he turned to mist causing her to lose her balance and fall forward onto the chair that she had him trapped seconds earlier.
Growling in anger Susie saw the mist quickly wafting toward the door and pursued it, pushing roughly past the three vampires who witnessed the scene and hastil
y followed after Susie in fear that she would allow her anger to cloud her reason and attract attention to them in her determination to catch and destroy Reverend Williams.
"Stay here where it's safe, my darling," Robert held out his arm to bar Amy from leaving the lair, "I will take care of this."
"No," Amy responded and noticed Robert's expression of surprise. She had never contradicted him before, "Susie is my responsibility. She will listen to me."
"Good Lord!" Ruthie worriedly exclaimed as she raced after Amy.
Robert regained his composure and followed Amy and Ruthie out of the lair and into the churchyard, "Then I will help," he offered, confused by the independent quality that seemed to have come over Amy in his absence.
"There!" Amy exclaimed while looking up.
Robert and Ruthie followed her gaze upward to find Susie flying to the church roof. Amy immediately took flight after Susie while Ruthie and Robert looked around for any neighbors or loiterers who might be out. Robert now watched Amy in awe as she flew to the roof before him. As he and Ruthie followed to join her and Susie on the rooftop he wondered how she had discovered her ability to fly when he knew he had not shown her.
"Susie!" Amy called a warning as they approached her, "be careful!"
Susie turned angrily, "He's escaped! By the time I reached the yard he was gone."
"It will be light soon," Ruthie reminded them.
"I will be able to find him from up here," Susie replied, "we can't wait another day."
"Susie!" Robert warned, but Reverend Williams had descended from one of the spires and knocked Susie face down on the cold stone of the church roof.
"Murderess!" Revered Williams called and he attempted to grasp Susie's throat from behind as he kneeled on her back, "I now see that I have the same physical abilities as you, so you will not overpower me, devil woman!"
Struggling to escape the Reverend's grasp, Susie rolled him off and over the edge of the roof where the four vampires heard his body hit the snowy ground below with a soft thud. Susie dove off the roof with the others close behind and pinning the stunned Reverend to the ground, tore off his head.
Ruthie turned away in disgust and Amy ran to Robert's open arms as Susie held up the Reverend's head and drank the dripped blood from the ragged edges of his neck in triumph.
"Good Lord, Susie," Ruthie managed to mutter, "please, let's get rid of the body."
"We must hurry," Amy said, her voice muffled as she buried her face into Robert's shoulder. In Robert's arms she felt as though her heart was whole again and life had finally returned to her aching empty soul.
"My guards can perform the loathsome task," Robert offered, "we need to take shelter from the dawn."
"Oh, Robert," Amy kissed his parted lips, "you'll never know how happy I am that you've returned."
"Only if you're as happy as I am to have found you safe and have you back in my arms after all this time," Robert tightened his arms around her and kissed her again.
"Where are the guards?" Susie interrupted and tossed the Reverend's head in the snow beside his lifeless body.
"I've called them. They are close by," Robert looked toward the street as a cart pulled by two horses stopped in front of the church.
"You called them?" Ruthie was confused, knowing Robert hadn't spoken to anyone except Amy since he suggested his guards dispose of the Reverend's corpse.
"They're his guards," Amy explained, "they hear his call without Robert having to speak."
"Do you mean you speak in your mind and they hear you?" Susie asked expectantly.
"Of course," Robert replied as two men silently approached from the cart.
Ruthie's eyes grew wide in horror as the men came closer and prepared to carry away Reverend Williams, "Michael?" she said to the man closest to her.
Amy looked away from Robert's face, which she had been staring into adoringly when she heard Ruthie speak, "That is Michael!" she exclaimed, "Robert, Michael is your guard?"
"Well, yes," Robert replied in amazement and turned to Amy, "my dear, how do you possibly know Michael?"
Michael vaguely glanced at Ruthie when she called his name, but continued with his task.
"What happened to him?" Ruthie frantically turned to Robert and Amy while Susie watched the scene with intense interest.
"Michael has become Robert's guard, Ruthie," Amy explained, "he only answers to Robert and his memory is clouded by his enforced allegiance to him."
"No!" Ruthie exclaimed as she rushed away to catch up to Michael who was now helping his partner load the body into the cart," Michael! Don't you know me?"
Michael quickly looked at Ruthie again but showed no recognition and returned to the cart and tucked Robert's shrunken coffin under his arm and walked back toward Robert through the snow while the other guard climbed onto the driver's seat of the cart.
Ruthie ran back toward Robert following Michael, "He can't be a guard," Ruthie told Robert, "he dreamed of being at sea and buying his own land. Now he's just a slave again. He bought his freedom once. You need to set him free again."
Robert looked confusedly at Amy, "You know this man? Is what she says true?"
"Yes, Robert," Amy explained, "Michael and Ruthie were lovers but she let him go without telling him what she was so he could follow his dream."
"My mother acquired these two guards to help me escape my brother's prison in St. Augustine and find my way back to you," Robert looked at Ruthie and then to Michael, "I didn't inquire where she found them. He must have been a crew member on one of the ships in port."
"There!" Amy exclaimed happily to her friends, "I knew he had to have been taken against his will. Isn't that what I said all along?"
"Yes, it is," Ruthie replied while Susie still didn't trust Robert's word.
"Can you free him?" Susie returned to the subject of Michael with more interest in increasing her knowledge of her own powers than in justice and freedom for Michael.
"I could free him if I so choose," Robert replied, "or I could transfer his allegiance to Ruthie if I so desire."
"You must free him," Ruthie pleaded, "he deserves his freedom."
"I suppose I still have the other," Robert considered, "and I could find a replacement for Michael if need be."
Ruthie watched Robert's face expectantly hoping his decision would free Michael again.
"Fine, then, I shall free him," Robert relented. Ruthie smiled in relief, Susie smiled expecting to learn more of her new powers as she planned to watch Robert release Michael from his power, and Amy smiled in love and admiration of Robert's generosity and self-sacrifice, "However," he continued, "I won't free him until this evening. We now must hurry to avoid daylight and don't have time to explain Michael's situation before sunrise."
"He won't remember being a guard?" Susie asked.
"He will be confused and disoriented, once he regains control of his will and his mind and, no, he will not remember being a guard or knowing that vampires exist."
"Fine," Ruthie replied as she led the group back to the lair leaving Michael and the other guard just outside the door to the storage room where they rested.
While Ruthie and Susie returned to their coffins as soon as they entered the lair, Robert set his coffin beside Amy's before enlarging it just as they had them arranged before his abduction. Amy watched Robert perform this task full of happiness. She could barely restrain her desire to be back in his arms when he lifted the lid of his coffin and offered his hand, which she passionately grasped allowing him to lead her before him into his coffin.