Barb Hendee - Hunting Memories

Robert felt pity for Demetrio.

Still, the four of them drank red wine on the terrace and played at dice games and told stories to each other. Their times together were always pleasant.

But Robert's favorite visits always took place in a manor outside of Harfleur in France that belonged to a near-ancient crusader, Angelo Travare. He and Robert had a good deal in common and enjoyed each other's company. Although he, too, could be prone toward scholarly nonsense, his penchants tended to change upon whom he was with, and he played the old soldier in Robert's presence. Once Angelo decided to travel with them, and the three of them spent the better part of a year touring Spain. But Angelo was sometimes given to deep melancholy, and Robert often sensed the man was lonely-very lonely. Traveling with Robert and Jessenia did not alleviate this but rather made it worse.

"You two are good to me," he said one night. "But you only see each other. You only need each other."

Robert could not deny this, and the next night, Angelo left them to head back for France.

Three hundred years slipped by, and Robert found some pleasure, some wonder, in every single night. He and Jessenia traveled through Portugal and then Greece. They spent years in Austria and then Poland, and later found delight in Prague. They explored forests and beaches and mountains. Sometimes they found inns-or even rented rooms-for a longer stay. Sometimes they slept in abandoned hovels. Sometimes Robert camouflaged a black canvas tent in the forest, and he made them their own shelter for the day. Jessenia never questioned his decisions or his abilities, and he never once failed her.

The best thing about traveling in this slow, exploratory fashion was that after a hundred years, they simply went back to England and started all over again… and everything was different.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, they heard that Angelo had finally created a surrogate son for himself, a Scot named John McCrugger. Robert was glad to hear the news. Now Angelo would not be so lonely.

But he did not think long on this, as he was too lost in the bliss of his own constant companion, his lively sprite, Jessenia.

He believed their love and their journeys would go on forever.

Then, in 1820, everything began to change.

They had just crossed the border from Switzerland into northern Italy, and Jessenia stopped at one of her message outposts to see if she had any letters waiting. She did.

"Oh, look," Jessenia said with a smile. "It's from Demetrio. Let's find an inn, and I'll read you the news."

A half hour later, they were sitting at a table, making plans whether to take rooms or travel on the next night, when Jessenia opened the letter, and her expression changed. Her smile faded and her mouth began to tremble.

"What is it?" Robert asked in alarm. He had never seen her like this.

Her hand was shaking as she held on to the letter.

"Jessenia! What's wrong?"

"Angelo…" She was trying to speak and kept failing. Robert could not read Italian, so he waited.

"Angelo has broken the laws… several of them," she managed to say. "He made a second son, a Welsh noble, two years ago, and then a third one, French, only a year after. Demetrio says the Welsh one has no telepathic ability at all, and the French one is feral and cannot be trained."

Robert fell back in his chair. "That cannot be right. Is this something Demetrio heard or saw? I cannot think… Angelo would never…"

Three new vampires in the span of eighteen years?

"We have to go to Harfleur," Jessenia said. "We should leave tonight."

This was a journey without joy. Robert kept turning the possibilities over and over in his mind, but he could not think of how these last two vampires could feed without killing. Why would Angelo, the oldest among them, break laws set up for the protection of them all?

No, it had to be a mistake. Something had been mistranslated.

They arrived in Harfleur.

It was no mistake, and the scene Robert found was worse than he imagined.

He walked inside the stone manor and saw something moving stealthily up ahead. A figure emerged into the entryway, and Robert actually took a step back, holding his arm out to guard Jessenia.

The creature moving toward him barely seemed human. It was a man with long red-brown hair who might have once been handsome but who now wore the expression of a mindless animal. His feet were bare and he wore no shirt, with blood smeared across his face and chest. He snarled savagely.

"Philip! Get back!"

Angelo strode quickly up behind this creature and took his arm. The creature calmed somewhat, but Angelo did not look happy at the sight of guests.

"Robert, I was not expecting you."

Robert just stood there with no idea what to say. He couldn't believe the sight before them, and he continued holding Jessenia back.

"Forgive me," Angelo said. "This is Philip Brantй. Excuse his state of undress. He just came in and I must have his shirt laundered."

Judging by the blood smeared all over the creature's face, Robert could only imagine what his shirt must look like. And this pretense at a polite introduction was insulting.

"Send him away," Robert choked. "We would speak to you alone."

Angelo looked at him through cold eyes for a long moment and then turned to the creature. "Philip, my boy, you stay here. I need to speak with our guests."

The creature snarled again but moved to the side, half turning to expose what looked like a mass of round white burn scars across his shoulders. Robert cautiously drew Jessenia past him. They followed Angelo to the library, where Robert slammed the door.

"How could you?" Jessenia whispered. "Angelo, how could you? Demetrio says there is another one… who has no telepathic ability at all."

Angelo sat in a large wooden chair by a table. An open book lay upon the table near a bottle of ink and a wet quill.

"Yes," he said, "that is Julian, but I am working to help him develop his abilities. I believe it is only a matter of time. Philip improves each week. At first he could not even speak, and he now understands language quite well."

"Why?" Robert exploded, sick of this calm response from Angelo. "Why would you do this?" He paced along the length of the study. "They have to be destroyed. Both of them!"

"I will decide what is best," Angelo said slowly. "And I will take responsibility for my own actions."

Jessenia was watching him with sad eyes, and her countenance seemed to affect him much more than Robert's anger. Tonight, she wore a rich green skirt with a white blouse and silver hoops in her ears. Her beautiful face was a picture of sorrow. Robert felt sick.

Angelo walked over to her. "I wanted the company of men, as in days long past. One was not enough. I wanted sons again."

"It doesn't work that way," she whispered. "You know it doesn't. Why couldn't you have been happy with your young Scot?"

"I am happy with him. But he wasn't enough." He paused, touching her face with his slender fingers. "I will no longer follow laws I don't believe in, and I swear I will make this right. I just need time."

"How are they feeding?" Robert demanded.

Angelo did not answer.

"What are their names again?" Robert asked, "Julian and Philip? Have either of them shown any tendencies for mental power?"

"Not Julian. Not yet, but in all other respects, he is whole, and his gift is strong. I believe Philip's telepathy will surface quickly once I begin his training. But he has no memories of his previous life, and it is too soon to press him."

"Then keep him on a leash!"

"He is my son!" Angelo roared back.

"Angelo," Jessenia said, looking more composed. "If you won't train Philip now, right now, then he must be destroyed, and so must Julian if he does not develop telepathy. You know this."