The sky could not get any darker. The moon light could not be any dimmer. Linden shook his head as he sees the open door and wet shoe prints on the lawn. "Ferfaen. I told you to stay away from those boys." He spoke softly through his gritted teeth. "Damn you Hartford for sending me your angels."
Quietly he stepped out of the boarding house and called gently for the young girl under his care. He knows that she would not go far. She was alone and afraid. As independent as she might have been, she was very dependent on him since her adopted parents sent her there. He could not find one possible or even reasonable reason for them to take her in the first place but they did anyway.
Paolo looked at the passenger seat beside him. The little frail angel securely strapped in her baby carriage looking up innocently at him. The resemblance of her and her mother was uncanny. Gently he placed his hand on her as he caressed her red hair softly.
"If I ever leave her alone in this world, please care for her like she is your own…" Paolo said as he handed the little baby into the younger man's arm. "You are all she has left, Linden. Her mother left us." He spoke as his eyes tearing up and his hand fiddling with the wedding band that was still on his ring finger.
Linden smiled as the little one touched his face playfully. "Nothing shall happen to you, son. Veronica loved you and I know she will not want anything to happen to you as she is not here to take care of her child on her own anymore." He spoke with such manner and grace that only possessed by men in the olden days.
"Veronica told me about you and what happened. She told me such monstrous stories about you but I think she was just in too much pain to even know what she was talking about. I trust you and I know you will care for her as she and I would have." Paolo said softly.
"Ferfaen, dear. Come on home, love. There is no use for you to stay in the cold wallowing in your sadness." Linden said softly as he saw the young girl rocking back and forth still hugging her knees and weeping softly.
She has been afraid to be touched by anyone. He respected that but he had not the slightest idea of why would such thing even happen. The last time he touched her was when she could not even say a word and had only one teeth in her mouth.
Ferfaen shook her head lightly between her knees. "This will be my home. This will be the place I want to be rested in. I have no home and I have no one. You're going to leave like everyone else. You're going to let me be alone as everyone has." She spoke softly.
"Ferfaen, you need to come inside. It's getting colder and you are still weak." Linden said as he lowered himself into a squat to be at the same height as she was. "Come inside where it's warmer and safer, Ferfaen."
"I'm not safe for anyone." Ferfaen said as she looked at her guardian. "Not here, not anywhere."
Linden sighed. "That is not true, Ferfaen." He said softly. "You're safe with me. You can never harm me." He knew exactly what she was saying. Her nightmares terrified her. Her last guardian did not make it any easier memory for her to remember.
"I killed both my parents and my sister, Linden. I killed them all." Ferfaen said as her tears rolled down her cheek. "I deserved to be hated by Ma and Pa."
Linden shook his head gently as he stood up and offered his hand. "Come on, inside where it's warmer. We can talk about your parents. Your real parents. And your cousin Aveline." Ferfaen just stared at his hand not knowing what to do. "You won't kill me by touching my skin, Ferfaen." He smiled as he spoke softly. "I need to get you inside." He said. "I'll tell you everything. But I need you to come inside."
Slowly Ferfaen rise on her own, declining Linden's helping hand. She crossed her arms around her body as she walked towards the house. Linden took his jacket out and wrapped them around Ferfaen's shoulders. She looked up at his bright green eyes. There she found only pity and sympathy. The anger that resides there was no longer seen.
Ferfaen stopped in her trail as she looked up at the older man beside her. There was warmth in his eyes yet a cold fog overshadow the warmth and trapped them in. "Why are you being kind to me, Linden? Why are you taking care of me?" She questioned.
Linden just shrugged as he smiled softly at the young girl. "Why wouldn't I be? You are not well and you have my blood in you." He spoke softly. "Come on now." He said as he pulled out a chair at the dining table for Ferfaen to seat in. "You have to have some food in your stomach before you eat your medication. Here." He said as he pushed a bowl of soup and a loaf of bread towards her.
Ferfaen shook her head. "I'm not hungry." She said quietly. "Why do I have your blood in me?" She asked naively. "I mean, how?"
Smiling, Linden spoke. "Only if you have your dinner. I'll tell you then." He coaxed. Ferfaen looked away. She hated to be told what to do and when to do it. "Ferfaen please eat something. I know you don't like to be asked to do, but please have something to eat, dear."
"Tell me how, Linden. Tell me…" Ferfaen demanded.
"Ferfaen, there is no need for the self torture, dear. The past is history, love. And for every life it was promised death. But none are to be self torture and suicide." Linden spoke with a low voice. "Ferfaen, I would leave you as you please, but I once promised your father to care for you as my own."
Ferfaen stood up and turned away from the table. "Don't speak of him as if you know him. And don't speak of those things that you don't know of, Linden." She snapped. "If I were to have your blood in me, then why did you gave me to hell? And why the shame of even touching my hair?" She screamed.
Linden stood up quietly as he step closer towards her as he shook his head. "It was never out of shame, Ferfaen. It was never out of shame." He spoke softly. "I never gave you up as I was never listed as your legal guardian. I could not be. I search for you as soon as I heard. But it was not soon enough for me to get to you."
Softly Linden placed his hands on her shoulders as he gently spun her around and lowered himself to her height. "I'm never ashamed to touch you, Ferfaen. I'm just afraid I might lose you again. I'm afraid you might run from me." Linden spoke as he pulled her nearer to him. "I would not have nurse you if I were ashamed of you. I would not have protected you from those men if I didn't love you. But I needed you to be near to me."
"Who are you?" Ferfaen spoke through her sobs. "Who are you, Linden? Who are you to me?" She questioned. Linden squeezed his eyes shut as if he was shying away from pain. "You said you would tell me." She said.
Linden scooped her up and brought her back to the table. "As soon as you are medicated, love." He said as he lowered her onto his lap as he shreds a little piece of bread from the loaf and feed it gently to her.
Never has he ever asked for eternity of torment. Living in the world forever. He was a fine young man of twenty nine and almost married. His only mistake was to believe in true love. The only lady he had given his heart to, but only to have them betrayed in return. Though he had his share of living and fathering a son before giving up on his life. For a hundred years he lived his life in tormenting himself for being blinded by love.
For years after he repented for the sins he had done along the way. Soon he found that his son had fathered a son and daughter and they had children of their own as well. Finally at peace with his fate he moved across the sea to the new world. Keeping abreast with the news of his heir that he had never knew.
It was more than ten generations later, he gotten to know that his granddaughter married an Italian aristocrat and removed themselves to the new world. He was nearer than ever to his descendants. Years after, he was close enough to them only to hear the bad side of himself that have been passed through the generations.
"He fell into the fire of hell as Satan engulfed on his soul. He feed upon other souls just to be walking among the living." Linden heard Veronica said in a giggling voice. "That was the story my father told me if I would not sleep at night or if I was naughty. But I don't believe him. I think grandpa Linden will be my guardian angel when I join him in heavens." She spoke as she handed her husband a sketch of what her grandfather of six generations before her to suppose have looked like.
Paolo's smile turned into a sad frown. "Harold Grimwald." He said.
"No. His name was Linden Vane." Veronica spoke.
It was the he told Paolo about his life. About the mistakes and the evil that had consumed him once before. Paolo did not run. He did not pity nor did he show him sympathy. He sat there and listened. He listened and he weighs the side of the story that he never had heard before.
Long after the time he had told him the story, Linden removed himself to a secluded boardinghouse which he bought over in Mystic Falls, Virginia where no one cared to ask for his history. He kept about the move quiet, only to have told about to Paolo.
It was not two years later he heard that they had a daughter and his granddaughter had ended her life story soon after giving birth to the beautiful red headed daughter. Paolo came to him and showed her to him. Never once had Paolo mentioned about his family to neither him nor his wife. He was an aristocrat. He was rich but he gave everything up just to marry Veronica who was yet to be of age. He was denied of his inheritance but he moved on.
When he was on his way back to California from meeting Linden in Virginia, he failed to control is car and the legal guardianship of his little girl automatically fell into the hands of his elder and only sister Frances.
For years Linden began to track both Frances and her husband to claim his heir, but he failed. He failed miserably until he saw the face that was seared into his brain of a baby called the 'devil's child'. His little angel.
"I came to know about Aveline from a man called Stefan Salvatore. A man I had seen many times that I was here. A man that was also on the run as I am." Linden said softly as he caressed the young girl's red hair as he rocked her in his creaking rocking chair where he finds solace. "Stefan said his brother had feed upon Aveline till the extend of her death and soon after turned her into them and sent her home."
Ferfaen leaned her heavy head against Linden's shoulder and looked up to him. "Why couldn't she touch me?" She questioned.
Linden smiled. "Because you're special child. Because you were blessed and cursed upon when you were born." He said. "You were conceived with the aid of a herb called Vervain. Your mother was poisoned with the same herb to put her in early labor. And now you are fed with the same thing to heal your inner wounds."
"Ferfaen." Ferfaen uttered. "I was name after a poison. I am the poison." She trembled as she spoke.
Linden shook his head. "Only to vampires. Only to them that feed upon your blood." He said. "I think that's enough, for one night. Rest as you will have another long day tomorrow at school."
"You are also…" Ferfaen trailed in the midst of her sentence. Linden nodded absently. "I could be a poison to you." She spoke as she struggled to get up.
"No love. I feed you the medication. If I were to be poisoned, it will be by my own doing." Linden spoke. "Now rest your mind, and have a well dream for this lovely night."