1885

The convent was bathed in sunlight. A church bell rang in the far off distance over the mountains that choked with forest. Inside Sister Agatha was eager for the older nun's tale to be over. She wanted to know all of it.

Sister Mary looked at her, and smiled as she continued in between her labored breaths.

1863

Fitz drank ale in the tavern. From the dark shadows, La-Freda came over to him and tilted her head and watched him in the soft light from the fireplace.

"You and the Captain have been here for 3 days, and yet you haven't found the Vampire?"

Fitz looked up to her icy eyes, "she is very elusive"

La-Freda chuckled and sat down on the low wood stool opposite him, "oh come now...how do you know this Vampire is a she"

Fitz swallowed down and wiped the froth from the bitter ale from his lips, "most are"

"Is that what the Captain tells you?"

Fitz downs the rest of his ale and pushed the tankard aside and stood up. She looked up at him in question, "you are going to bed?"

He nods, "I am tired"

La-Freda smooths a hand over the lacy satin of her cloak, "but such strength you have...like the other evening with your rumpus with Paulo"

Fitz shrugged, "What of my strength?"

La-Freda's face was all shadowy in the flickers of light, "Your heart is dark"

"My heart?"

Like unholy magic, La-Freda holds Fitz's gaze, "You and I are the same"

Fitz's head was fuzzy, he holds his stance, "the same...?", he uttered.

La-Freda nods, "your deepest desires are not yet met OR satisfied. Where did the Captain find you Wonder?"

Fitz shook him self out of her hold and moved to the stairs, "you are strange...you say I have a dark heart? Your mind is darker"

La-Freda was suddenly at unease, "why do you say that? How would you know?"

Fitz smiled and strode up the stairs.

XXX

Fitz was floating. It was all misty and vague. There were faces calling out to him. One was a woman who was a stranger, but was somehow, very familiar.

He tossed and turned in his bed, up in the tavern's top room in the roof space. He moaned in his sleep as a dark veil of darkness struck him.

Eyes so dark.

And a whisper.

He opened his eyes and sat up in bed. The sweat was pouring off from him. The wind had picked up outside as a low lying mist came from underneath the door and danced at the base of his bed.

And there it was. It formed from the mists. A hooded figure of a woman. She sung to him in his head. Like a siren of death.

Fitz clamped his hands over his ears and tried to shut out the song.

The hooded figure reached out a pale finger within the robes and pointed at him. Fitz jumped off the bed and tried for the door, but it was like the mists had glued his feet to the floorboards.

The figure seemed to float towards him. The face hidden in the darkness of the hood. The crucifix around the boy's neck then suddenly shone bright as the moon's rays came in through the roof windows.

The hooded figure gave out an unearthly shriek and bolted from the room. It turned back and Fitz could see the eyes.

They were ice blue.

XXX

The sun was rising as Fitz opened his eyes. Was last night a dream? He rubbed his eyes and sat up in the bed. Then got dressed and went down the creaky back stairs to the tavern below.

Captain Kronos was in the bar with the Inn keeper who was mighty upset. The big burly man stormed away in tears.

Kronos turned his head, and looked to Fitz, "Boy...the Vampire has struck again...the Inn Keepers daughter"

Fitz followed Kronos into the back room to see the dried up corpse of a girl on the couch, "the life has been drained from her like before"

Fitz looked up from the husk to the Captain, "It is her...it is La-Freda"

Captain Kronos tilted his head, he seemed to know what he was going to say, "La-Freda", he repeated back.

Fitz nodded as he scratched his head, "yes...there is something about her...I think I dreamed about her..at least I thought it was a dream"

Kronos stepped forward, "your senses are highly tuned...it's all apart of your make-up"

Fitz frowned at him.

"it doesn't matter...lets go and confront the girl"

XXX

La-Freda found the accusation laughable, "Me? How can you think that I could do that to a girl..."

They were outside on the cobbled street, La-Freda had just come back from the forest. There was soon a gathering around her.

"It's you...you are the tainted one", said Fitz.

La-Freda looked at him, "You accuse me...you say that I am the one...", she looked at Kronos, "...but YOU know who he is, don't you? You know who he is the seed of"

Fitz gave her a questioning look and then looked at the Captain, "What does she mean?"

La-Freda laughed, "YOU are the son of the devil himself...and HE knows it", she gritted, pointing at Kronos.

Before Fitz could ask more, Kronos held up the brass cross he was holding and stuck it flat across the girls forehead.

La-Freda screamed out in pain...the whole village gasped in horror as the young girl seemed to age a life time before their very eyes.

A withered died up old husk that collapsed to her brittle bone knees and broke in two.

A gale suddenly picked up and howled around them making the forests sway and bend all around the village, as if an unwelcome darkness had been finally lifted.

Captain Kronos looked towards the man who had first greeted them into the village, "Our work here is done..."

XXX

As the morning turned to afternoon, they had left the village behind and were on their horses trotting through the forests. Fitz still wanted to know what Captain Kronos was hiding, but the older man said it wasn't the right time to talk about it.

Talk about what?

As they came to a clearing, they both sighted a caravan of gypsies parked in the shade. Captain Kronos swotted a horsefly that was buzzing too close to him, in the shimmering heat. Fitz turned to him, "It's the gypsy circus"

"Your clan?"

Fitz dismounted his horse, "No...I do not recognise them...I should take a closer look"

Kronos jumped off his horse and grabbed the boys arm, "No! Can't you see what they have?"

Fitz could see a group of gypsies around a fire and they all looked like they had crusted warts all over their filthy faces.

"They have the plague, boy"

Fitz backed away.

"Yes...I can smell the stench of death"

This was not what Kronos had meant by 'look what they have got'. It was the warts and the boils...

"I smell nothing..."

Fitz knew what was coming because he had heard a lot of it from him.

"It's my highly attuned senses, I trust"

One of the gypsies looked up and spotted Fitz. He stood up with his braces hanging to his knees. His chest covered in red boils of the Great Eastern Plague that was now hitting these remote parts.

Fitz backed away and then heard the chimes in the late afternoon breeze. he turned around and saw movement in the trees. Captain Kronos tried to see the source of the boy's stance.

"What is it"

"A presence...watching me"

Kronos couldn't see the wood through the trees, "I see nothing"

Fitz pointed, "no...look"

Kronos looked up and followed the boys finger to the shape in the wood, a figure in a brown cloak, but it was unlike the one La-Freda wore. There were other shapes in the woods too.

"Who are they?"

Fitz shook his head, "I don't know...but I sensed them before...I think it was them who called for me to fall into the river before you rescued me"

Kronos turned his attentions back to the wonderful colorful caravans across the way, "maybe they have something to do with them"

"THE BOY IS CURSED!"

The woman was coming forward to them like the incense that gathered in the air.

Fitz felt like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. At first he was almost rooted to the spot, then instinct told him to run. He backed away and ran through the bracken. All was a blur around him. He could hear Krono's voice in the distance, "COME BACK!"

Fitz tripped and fell face down into the dirt. He was winded and as he lifted his head, a gypsy man dressed in traditional wears loomed over him with a gold dagger encrusted with precious stones. The gypsy was ridden with the plague.

"WE HAVE BEEN WARNED ABOUT YOU...THE WOMEN OF THE RED GYPSY FLAME HAVE TOLD US"

And he raised the dagger into the air that caught the rays of the sun. Fitz closed his eyes tight.

And there was a howling of the wolves and as he opened his eyes, the wolves had gathered around him...like some how they were standing guard over him.

The gypsy who would kill him widened his eyes at the spectacle. He shook his head in sheer disbelief as the wolves sat and looked at him.

He pointed his finger, "YOU ARE CURSED...ONLY THE DEVILS OWN HAS THE PROTECTION OF SUCH UNHOLY BEASTS!"

Fitz looked at the wolf nearest to him. The beast looked back at him, his eyes seeming to smile at him.

Fitz sat up and looked at the gypsy man.

And a voice came to the boys mind...a voice so distant it was as if it was crossing time itself...a voice dark, alluring, threatening...

"they are with YOU...all you need to do...is give the command"

Fitz blinked and swallowed down and stood up. The wolves all turned and looked up at him...like they were waiting guidance from him.

Fitz understood.

He looked at the gyspy man who would harm him and spoke a command.

"DO IT...DO IT NOW"

And the wolves all leapt forward and jumped up splaying their sharp claws, to tear and shred the gyspy from limb to limb.