Chapter Fourteen
The walls of the library were black with silver vines with gold leaves painted on the black. The tall, oak bookcases stood against the walls and books of various sizes and colored covers, scrolls tied with ribbons or leather bindings and rolled up maps sat on the shelves. There were a few skulls, one of two of them human, a small dream catcher and what looked like a shrunken head on the shelves as well and three, long table sat at the center of the room, spaced evenly apart. Several, cast iron chandeliers hung from the ceiling by iron chains and the large window at the back of the room cast a gloomy light.
"It looks a bit Goth," Cassandra said as she walked by one of the bookcases and jumped when she saw the stuffed raven sitting on the shelf. She looked back at Peter as he smirked then walked into the room and sat on top of the first table.
"This is from years of searching through dusty old book shops and…" Peter said when Jane held up a cardboard box with FED EX on it and Peter sighed, rolling his eyes. "Ok, I got most of them off E-bay."
"Is this a real shrunken head?" Charlie asked as Peter hopped off the table, took a sip of Midori and walked to him, looking at the shrunken head.
"Nah, I bought that when I spent a week working at Disneyworld's Pleasure Island. Thought it would give the place a little charm," he said with a smile and ruffled Charlie's hair. Charlie flipped him off as Peter shrugged then watched Cassandra standing near the bookcase with the unicorn statute sitting on the middle shelf and sighed.
"What's going on with you two?" Charlie whispered and Peter gave him a blank look.
"Nothing is "going on" with us!" he said and Charlie arched his eyebrow with a hint of a smile on his face.
"Yeah, right," Charlie teased and Peter slightly glared at him. "You like her."
"And what makes you think that?" Peter asked with a smug tone in his voice and Charlie smiled.
"I may have only met her a few times, but you never looked at Ginger like that," Charlie said as Peter sighed then softly laugh, shaking his head.
"You got that right," Peter sighed and scratched the back of his neck.
"So you admit that you like her."
"Ok, yes, I do like her," Peter said with wide eyes and walked off, heading for Cassandra. She was chatting with Jane while they looked through some of the books when Peter stood behind them and placed his hands behind his back, winked at Charlie then leaned over, placing his chin on Cassandra's shoulder. "No talking in the library."
Both of them jumped as Charlie started laughing and they turned around, seeing Peter standing behind them with a grin on his face.
"You're a shithead," Jane said as he shrugged and she walked off, leaving a slightly ticked off Cassandra looking at him with anger in her eyes.
"Sowwy," Peter said with a childlike tone to his voice and Cassandra sighed, rolling her eyes. "Did you find anything?"
"No, and we would have if SOMEONE wasn't acting like a jerk," she teased and he nodded, looking at the books on the shelf in front of them.
"What we need is some clue to when this De'Avante was first sighted. If we can find that, we can figure out where he's from," Charlie said when a cold chill moved through Peter and he pinched his eyes closed with his fingers.
"He's French," he said softly and they looked at him.
"Are you alright?" Jane asked as she walked closer and placed a hand on his back.
"Yeah, I'm ok," Peter said with a nod of his head and sighed.
"Well, I figured he was French," Charlie said as he looked through the books on the shelf in front of him and ran a finger over the spin of a book covered in red leather. "What we need to find out is where in France and what tribe of vampire sired him."
"Some vampires aren't sired," Peter said as they looked at him and he walked to the table, sitting on top of it. "There is a misconception that vampires cannot have children. True, there are some tribes that are sterile, but most tribes of vampires still can reproduce. That is why it is necessary to wipe out the entire blood line or they would over populate the world and we humans would be nothing more than cattle to them. It might be possible that he is either the last of his family or is just one of the kids out hunting for food to feed his brood."
"If that's true then we're facing a much bigger problem," Charlie said and Peter nodded his head, sipping on the last of the Midori. Suddenly Cross flew into the room while they watched the falcon sail to the empty space on the shelf of the last bookcase and Peter slowly got off the table and walked to the bookcase. Cross looked down at the tall book with the black leather cover as it started pecking at the book and Peter reached up, removing the book from the shelf. Cross hopped onto his shoulder as Peter walked to the table and Jane, Cassandra and Charlie walked to the table, standing next to him. "How did he…?"
"Tweety is very clever," Peter said as he scratched Cross' wing and placed the book on the table. They watched as he opened the book and the pages of the book creaked a bit from being closed for so long. The book had a slight dusty smell to it as Peter flipped through the pages then stopped and his heart thumped hard and fast against his ribs. Drawn on the page was a sketch of Jean-Phillipe De'Avante and his black eyes seemed to lock onto Peter's eyes.
London, England 1811
The carriage moved down the dirt road while Giacomo looked out the window and felt Constance's hand in his hand. He had to stop his mother from attacking Constance with a poker after she came back in and saw Roberto lying dead in Giacomo's arms. He could still see the hate and anger in his mother's eyes as she demanded that Constance be arrested for murder and Giacomo had the butler take his mother upstairs. He stuffed a few things into a small bag then had their family coachman take them away from the only home he had ever known and they had spent the last few nights traveling from one town to another.
Constance looked over at her love as her heart clutched in her chest and she sighed. She knew he was hurting, but she also knew that he would never allow any harm to come to her. They had been traveling to see his sister, Antonia, and he had sent word to his younger brother, Roberto, and told him to meet him there. She wasn't sure if his mother hadn't contacted them first, but she watched the countryside going by and prayed that Giacomo would have the strength to face what was coming. She couldn't see the future, but she had encountered vampires before and the outcome was never good.
The carriage pulled into the long path as the carriage headed toward the five story, gray and black stone home of Antonia's husband and Giacomo looked at the lush, green lawn and the large tress cast a shadow over the carriage. The carriage came to a stop when the coachman hopped down and walked to the door, opening the door. Giacomo nodded as he helped Constance out of the carriage and she looked up at the gray stone gargoyles perched on the edge of the roof.
"Terrible beasts," she whispered as they walked up the marble steps then stood in front of the door and Giacomo flexed his fingers over the top of the handle of the silver blade sword. Knocking, he slid Constance's hand into his and they waited for someone to open the door. Minutes passed while they stood at the door when Giacomo turned then walked down the marble stairs and Constance followed him. Looking around, he sense there was something wrong and frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Don't you think it's odd that we didn't see any servants while coming up the road? There should have been some gardeners about at the very least," he said as she looked around and noticed that everything seemed too quiet. Giacomo knew from his visits to his brother-in-law's home where the gardeners' small cottage was and he ran off to his left. Cross had been sitting on her wrist as Constance nodded her head and the falcon took flight, heading off to catch up with him. Giacomo stopped when he came to the small stone house near the barn and saw that the wooden door had been torn off its hinges and was lying on the ground in front of the house. A rotten smell came from the doorway as he slowly walked closer then stopped when he heard a loud screech and looked to see Cross flying toward him. Holding out his wrist, he let the falcon land then noticed that Cross was the only animal he had heard since coming to the house and blinked. "What is going on here?"
Cross shivered as the feathers rippled over its body and Gicomo slowly walked toward the stone house. The smell grew worse the closer they came to the house and he peered inside the stone house. His eyes widened as the sunlight bled into the house and he stood in the doorway, silently crossing himself.
"My God!" he whispered and a low growling sound bubbled from Cross' throat. Slowly he walked inside the stone house while looking at the slaughtered bodies of the gardeners and their families and covered his mouth with his hand. Coughing, he backed out of the stone house when he headed for the barn and stood in the doorway. The barn was a stone structure with a wooden roof and a hayloft. He slowly walked inside as the smell filled his nostrils and he felt his stomach lurching inside him. The animals had also been slaughtered and he backed out of the barn, heading for the bushes, After vomiting until he was dry heaving, Giacomo stood up and Cross flew down from the branch it was sitting on. The sun was going down by the time Giacomo returned to the carriage and Constance looked at him. He had found more bodies in the smoke house, the stable and the mill as he sighed and stood in front of her. "We must get out of here."
"Why?" she asked as he led her to the carriage and the coachman climbed up to the driver's seat. Giacomo helped her into the carriage as he followed her and pounded his fist on the roof of the carriage. The carriage moved down the path as he looked back at the stone house and sighed. Turning around, he slid his arm around her and Constance looked up at him. "What did you find?"
"They're dead. All of the ground's servants are dead," he whispered and she gasped.
"What about your sister and her family and the other staff?"
"I don't know," he said as he looked out the window and watched the sun slowly setting in the sky. "But we're coming back at first light to find out."