Stevie Rae's child

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

The new adventure

Chapter 10

Erin

I moved to his side as quickly as possible, but before I looked I had to ask, " Is it one of those thingies?"

I cracked the door as he replied, " Take a look for yourself honey."

So I did what he had told me to do, and through the crack I could see maybe a six foot tall guy, but he was massive, like in almost as wide as he was tall, well six foot isn't really that tall, and I have to say he wasn't fat. He had long dark blonde colored beard, I have to say that because it was fully braided, I mean who braids their hair anymore, but the size of this guy, well I'm not going to tell him of his fashion sense problem. He reached into a leather bag that was hanging off the side if his motorcycle, and that's when I saw his mid back length hair in a ponytail. To describe his hair would be to say that I was that bleached look, I mean it could have been brown as far as I could tell, but all that time on the beach has bleached it out, I was paying so much time on him, I had no idea of what he got out of the bag. All I saw was how big his muscles were, and when he turned this time I saw his tattoo's, his big goggles he ware seemed to be for the bike, and as he took them off and replaced them with really cool sunglasses, all his moves seemed to have one smooth action to them. His tattoo was a strange one, I mean you could see the goddesses crescent, but it was within the main tattoo of a dragon, this very long, very oriental looking dragon stretched around hid eye's to the point of almost wrapping them, his eye's I mean. The head of the dragon was on his left cheek, and it seemed to have golden eye's, and before you ask, yes it was all sapphire, only the eye's were different, I had to wonder if he had them colored in himself.

I had always imagined a biker in all leather, but he wore blue jeans, his jean jacket had it's sleeves cut off, and under that he had on a dark blue T-shirt that was having a hard time covering his muscles. He seemed to have biker tattoo's on his knuckles, but I couldn't tell what they said, the only thing that really spoke biker were the boots on his feet, and the silver helmet on the rear of the bike, you know the type, I think they come from WW II. He then moved toward me, I think I was so scared that I couldn't move, he stopped just ten feet from the door, then in a very strong rough voice he said, " I have come for Erik Night, Send him out so we may start."

Ok, his voice was such that it sent shivers down my spin, and he knew Erik Night, I had to think about this as I said, " Do you think Erik pissed that vampyre off?"

Damien then sighed and replied, " Highly unlikely, I mean he's not been in the vampyre world that long, and he's been with us basically, and I don't see a fledgling pissing off a vampyre."

Damien was right, and I had to chuckle as my next thought came to my mind and said it out loud, " Do you think that's his mentor?"

He had to chuckle to as he replied, " If he is, man they're such polar opposites."

" Well what should we do?"

" Let me talk to him." the voice came from behind us and scared the bejesus out of us, we recovered to see Darius had just come out of the tunnels, well what was I to do, I did the obvious and said, " Darius he's big, I mean he's really big, big like stop a freight train big."

Darius smiled at me as he said, " Your confidence in my abilities is heart warming."

I gave him a nervous smile as I moved and put my hand out and said, " Ok, but it's your funeral if he kills you, and if he does I'm going to give my best big girl scream and run to the tunnels."

He kinda gave me a grown as he opened the door and peeked out side, as we watched him another voice came from behind us with, " Who's funeral is it?"

I knew Aphrodite's voice so she didn't scare me as badly, and I replied, " Darius's, I mean you should see this guy."

Well that's all I had to say for her to be right next to him at the door, I had to smile as I saw miss perfect hair with nappy bed head, I mean Aphrodite always had perfect hair, I could then imagine her drooling all over Darius, of course he would never tell us, I mean she was little miss perfect in his eye's. Darius then asked, " And who stands at our door?"

The man then stood proud as he replied, " My true name I tell no one, but these days I go by Growl."

I could see Darius's back get straight as he asked, " Growl, we were lead to believe you were dead?"

" Yet here I stand, and I am impatient for my charge, send out this Erik Night, we haven't much time left, he must save his first child."

I knew what he meant by that Erik was his charge, but what the hell did he mean by they must save save their first child, poor Erik he so wanted to not do this, now he would have to walk into a life that would condemn kids just like us. Every day he would wake up and his ritual would get longer. I mean he tried to hide it from us, but we all knew he was praying that his mentor wouldn't show up. He would pray long after breakfast, we could all hear him mumbling to himself, it was Zoey whom confronted him, and Venus whom told us what he was doing, yeah we all know the Erik painfest. Darius then surprised me with, " Yes. I understand, but I fear allowing him to go. Not that he doesn't need to start, but we are under siege here and have only four vampyres here."

The guy whom called himself Growl then looked at Aphrodite to me then over my shoulder, so I turned my head to see Zoey coming out of the tunnels, she moved to beside Darius with a very smooth High Priestess walk. She mimicked Neferet's movements so well you might think she was her, but I could also see in Growl's face he didn't believe it, he then asked, " Whom is this made up to look the part of a High Priestess, yet still is a mere fledgling."

Darius then used a very strong, harsh voice, " Careful tracker, the vampyre High Council has recognized her as a High Priestess, and she has the bodyguard of a queen."

" Yet you don't have enough vampyres to release Erik Night?"

Then from behind us came, and by the way scared the bejesus out of us all, " Why do you seek me?"

Man, Erik was going to be an actor, he really needed to work on his timing, Darius then explained, " Erik, I believe this is your mentor, I have been trying to explain our lack of vampyres."

I thought it would be funny to see Erik's gorgeous face turn white, I have to say, not so much, but it was so cool to see how fast he recovered as he spoke in a smooth voice, " Yes, that would technically only leave two vampyres, we don't even know if red vampyres would even effect the normal fledglings, but we have two of them."

Darius then shook his head and asked, " Is it right to tell our secrets to a stranger, what if he is allied to Neferet, then where would we be Erik?"

Erik quickly put his head down and replied, " Well since the police know I thought I was safe in saying so."

Growl then pointed at Aphrodite and asked, " And whom is this very beautiful vampyre, I can feel how unique she is, but she seems to be a true vampyre."

Aphrodite almost glowed as she asked, " A true vampyre, Darius what's that?"

Darius then replied in an almost to harsh reply, " A true vampyre has no special abilities my prophetess, he is correct in saying that you are unique, but you are no true vampyre."

Growls eye brows went up as he asked, " And the Priestess's guard?"

" A temporary assignment by Sgiach herself."

Then it was as if he was trying to piss us off, I mean what he said next no man should ever say, " The bitch finally left her goddess forsaken island."

We were all taken a back by the brashness of his statement, Zoey was the first to speak, " Careful tracker, she is a friend of us all, and there are eight of her guards below."

Darius quickly said in a stern voice, " Zoey!"

Zoey as per usual snapped back, " Darius! What?"

Well then you can imagine the Mexican stand off we had, Darius and Aphrodite on one side, Zoey on the other. But it didn't last to long, you see Shawnee came up next to me and asked, " Twin what's up?"

Of course I replied, " Zoey just told that guy how many vampyres we have here."

Now her head turned with the realization of what she had just done, and she shook her head as she said in a low voice, " I'm a terrible High Priestess,"

Then we had a double cut off, first Darius started to cut her off with, " Well-" and I have to say I wish this would stop happening, a loud voice came from behind us with, " Growl you old dog."

Growl poked his head around as all head's turned to see Aros coming out of the tunnels, he then spoke to Aros more then to us, " This High Priestess must be worth a lot, Aros you old dog, so she had your price for service."

Aros was there in like two strides and they locked arm's in the traditional vampyre hand shake, then he said, " I haven't sold myself in over two hundred years, I'm in the service of, a well you know her by a different name."

He gave a deep heave laugh as he said, " So the bitch finally swayed you, how is the old hound?"

He smiled at us with a nervous smiled as he said, " Children you must know that Sgiach wasn't always the warrior queen, the four of us once captained a ship together, what was it Growl, three hundred years ago?"

" More like four or five."

" Well she was known by the name of Annie, we were the scourge of the west east Indies, well up until they found out that we were actually vampyres, as you know it's against the rules to do what we did, so the High Council shut us down."

" Well of course, we were having just to much fun."

I could see how Aros winced as he said this, I had to think that they had no love for the council of vampyres, I then asked, " But what of that Seoras?"

" Oh he was there, the old Gus wouldn't know fun if it bit him in the ass, when there was fighting to do he was always there though."

Aros had to laugh as he added, " Yes he was always the best of us when it came to a fight, but we were all forced to leave that life, and she never forgave you for leaving her."

" What was I to do, she had made her bed with Seoras, and he freely excepted it, you know me Aros, I've never been a hanger on."

" Well we did hear what happened to you, but what we couldn't figure out is why you kept it."

" In my life I've taken so much from them, I had made my mind up to give back to them, it is an honor to make sure that no human will die."

After what he had said only one word was spoke, and it was pretty much said by us all, well not exactly at the same time, " What?"

Growl then had to smile at all of us as he gave what could have been a general reply, " Yes. Well kiddies, what we have is genetic, the discovery of the new world was see as unseemly in the old, and the High Council went right along with this belief. So no one came to the America's, besides me I think there were only seven vampyres, and in their own way they were all outsiders like me."

" Wait," all eye's turned to Zoey as she asked, " do you mean seven vampyres for both north and south America?"

" Well that's what I mean, but you have to understand, the America's were discovered from the center out, so there were four in central and three in south America."

She then said not trying to hide her disbelief, " None in North America."

" Of course, the council saw the north as a pagan land and not needing the help of the council of vampyres at all."

" So all the vampyres or should I say fledglings just died?"

" Yes, but you have to understand that there weren't any vampyres in North America, and as new vampyres came over then they would rejected the change and die as you said, well basically as they do now.'

" Growl that's really terrible, it's as if they didn't even care about them."

He sighed as he said, " Some times it can be worse."

Aros then said in a low tone, " Jamestown."

" Aye Jamestown, those Indians never knew what hit them."

Zoey then gave a look of concern as she asked, " Jamestown, what happened in Jamestown?"

He had to take a heavier breath and shake his head as he replied, " Seven vampyres happened, the High Council had to take steps to remove the problem, they weren't here officially, I was officially the eighth vampyre in the America's, and as I was then marker a new I became sanctioned."

I could hear that he really didn't want to talk about it, but I had to ask, " Sanctioned, what does that mean?"

His looked changed, it was as if I had hit upon something that he was glad to talk about, then he smiled at me with such a nice smile, I could see him as an almost normal vampyre if he just wasn't so big. Then he replied to my question, " Well fledgling, to do anything in the vampyre world many things have to be taken into consideration. Like what your impact could or would cause to the local people or populace, during the dark times vampyres lacked this control, and in their own way they sought to control entire countries as feeding grounds. As you can imagine this caused great distress in these lands, we may have been their rulers, but as they could they would rebel, and in the end this almost brought around our extinction. We needed the High Council, of course they had been around for a long time, but by that time they were more of a figure head then a governing body, it took a lot of youth to change them and force them to come around."

Zoey then asked, " But they are all so old and wise now?"

" Yes little High Priestess, you see as then you have the norm, and this stagnation is what has to be fought against, you see you can be the most wise and still be caught up in the trap, in a sense it was this that almost undid the vampyres."

I quickly interjected, " What are you saying that we were almost destroyed?"

Aros nodded his head as he replied, " That is why we call it our dark time, some see it as our golden age, we ruled the human's, but they always rebelled, and in the end we would have just another dead vampyre, and since it takes such a long time to raise another vampyre, well we were dying out. In the end we had almost created our own genocide, you see nothing would stop the gene, you see meant no fledglings surviving the change, no fledglings would have meant a lot of good kids dying for no reason."

Growl then said in contemplative tone, " For the good of the kids."

" Yes old friend, for the good of the kids."

Zoey then asked, " If it's for the good of the kids, then why does the High Council treat us as outsiders, I mean they did confirm me as a High Priestess, but while I was there I can tell you there was no love lost?"

" To save face of course, what do you think the normals would think if they knew your mortality rate, say if they actually knew how many of you die."

What I was thinking was what Zoey blurted out, " What they don't know how many of us die, how could they hide something like that?"

Aros had to chuckle as he replied, " And what would we say, Hello we're here to save your children, but in seven months there's a ten percent chance they'll be dead, but yet even if they get past this they still have a twenty percent chance to still die, and even the change could trigger rejection. The world would surely step in trying to do the right thing, you would become lab experiments to doctors and scientists, and since it was our fault that no one knew about the bane of your existence they surely wouldn't allow any vampyres near you. Then the one thing that they are trying to avoid they will cause, in the end you would reject the change and just die."

Erik then asked a question, " Earlier you said, you wanted to save the kids, what did you really mean by that?"

Growl nodded his head as he replied, " Human's receive the gene no matter what, some may take to full adulthood to make the change, so we are sent to prevent this from happening, as you can see we can be a little early for some, and others we can be late. So it is the mark that we put on their skin that helps control the change, without it, they could make the change hours or days, even as long as years, we do this for the ones that only have hours, with what we can do we can save the lives of those so they can make it to a House of Night."

" But I didn't think you would change unless you were marked?"

" The mark isn't our to give, it is the goddesses to give, we just re-sight the words, our duty is to recognize those about to go into the change, then we pick them out and inform them of their change."

I snorted as I said, " Yeah right, my tracker just touched my head and then he was gone."

" But you knew of the mark correct?"

" Yeah we were all taught about it, that doesn't mean he couldn't have said, ' hey I'm sorry that I have to mess up your entire life, oh and by the way, get to the House of night or you'll die.'"

Zoey then said, " Yeah I was kinda marked the same way."

Growl then in a very growly voice, " Being a tracker is more then that, but I fear that our sigma has made most of my kind not do what's call upon them to do, our duty is to guide the new fledgling to the right path, and get them going in the direction of a House of Night. It is our honor to save their lives, yet most new trackers do their job half heartily, it's the same with all the young, they either self en-vase themselves, or they believe they know better then what is tradition."

I then had to ask a question of my own, " Hey, if we die if there isn't any vampyres around, then how did the first vampyres do it? I mean how did they survive?"

Aros then replied, " We have lost a lot through the times, we have had records that have survived Egypt and Rome, but a lot has been lost."

Growl then said. " Yes, and my people were no help in that."

Zoey then had to go there, I mean this was getting like a class room. " Your people, just whom were they?"

" Dane Law, they never did like writing much, vampyres had no protection against such brutality."

Damien whom hadn't utter a peep until right then, " Dane law, just how old are you?"

Growl had to laugh as he replied, " I'm not that old boy, but you are right to think that was very ancient times, I am just under six hundred years old, not old enough to remember that time, but old enough to remember all the stories. Well no vampyre Norse man had been added until I was, and to say I was the first of a race is unusual to say in front of such a one, it has only been one hundred years now that the first of your race was added to our ranks. I have to wonder if there were more before him, the native American's have many stories of the strange, and this is what makes me think that we may have been to late for a few, but some of these stories are to old to be vampyres. So in a way Zoey I know the plight of your people, as one of the few of your race so I am one of the few of my race."

Shawnee then added, " Yeah like my race."

" Girl your race was among the first, as you do not look like an Egyptian, but I can see the spirit in your skin, you could say that in a way your race was the root of our race, the origin of your race is over six thousand years old." Then he took a hard look at her and added, " And I have to say that this modern garb leaves nothing to the imagination, I used to enjoy thinking of how I could get off a dress instead of a woman walking around in her under things."

Shawnee then quickly pull her robe tightly around her waist as Erik asked, " Well how long have you been a tracker?"

He was very good at defusing a situation as Growl replied, " Over two hundred, no I'm getting closer to two hundred and fifty years now, no one knows the time or place where you'll be asked to do the goddesses will, but our purpose is true. We are sent to avoid many unexpected deaths."

Zoey then asked a question, I mean I had to think we really did need to get back to what ever we were doing, " Are we to believe him just at his word?"

I think she was trying to be the good High Priestess at the time, and Aros replied to her, " My Lady I know of him, and through the word it has told me that he had truly became a tracker, so as it were this is truly Growl."

Oh my God, why did Aphrodite have to ask the next question, " Hey Growl, how do you spell that?"

He smiled as he spelled his name, " G-r-u-l-d."

Oh man I could keep my big mouth shut, " Hey that spells Groold."

" It's Danish, it's pronounced Growl." Then he looked up and asked, " Am I to waist away in this God forsaken sun light?"

Zoey then replied with a guarded smile, " No, NO! Come on in, we'll find you a place to sleep."

I had to laugh at myself at the golden opportunity that I almost missed as I walked up to Aphrodite and asked, " Hey Aphrodite?"

She turned and gave me her usual evil sneer she had for me, and that even made it better as I said, " Two words."

Shawnee then interrupted me and stole my fire, stole my fire, heeshees, " Bed. Head."

Aphrodite made it even better when she said, " Brain sharer's."

Oh I just couldn't resist as I said, " Seriously Aphrodite,"

and Shawnee ended what I was going to say, " You've looked better."

Darius then said, " Don't worry my beauty, we are going right to bed." then he turned to us and asked, " don't you two have duty to pull?"

Well I had to admit that we weren't at our post, but I just couldn't let him get away with that, so I said, " Twin I'm getting a Fuji, do you want anything?"

I could see her lips move as I heard Aphrodite ask, " My hair doesn't look that bad does it?"

And real quickly Darius replied, " It has looked better my beauty."

Zoey laughed as she said, " Darius bad move."

And as Aphrodite ran down the hall, Shawnee yelled, " DID YOU HEAR ME?"

I Finally yelled back, " NO WHAT?"

" I WANT A SPRITE!"

I then my the finger sign for ok and as we looked around we both felt like fools as the hall had emptied that quickly, so we gave each other embarrassed smiles and she went up the ladder as I went to the kitchen.