Chapter 66 – Epilogue

October 10, 2004 = Sunday

~Mira Giovanni~

"Yukie," I asked as I looked through my bags. "Did you see my makeup kit?"

"In the kitchen," was her reply, and I sighed. Why in Purgatory's name were we stuck in fleabag hell when we now had access to five star accommodations at the golf club?

"It's where all the makeup was stored," was Samantha's disinterested reply as she cleaned out the closet of all the various articles of clothing, mostly skimpy lingerie that gave me serious questions about the former occupant. Who needed so much skimpy clothing? A hooker?

"I was just curious, was all," I replied as I tried to avoid an argument. Lord knows I didn't need a fight right now. "Speaking of curiousity, that's what the third armfull of lingerie you've pulled out of the closet? Who was Meredith before she was turned?"

"Fourth, and she was a stripper Eliza ghouled so she'd have an income source before she got bribed with millions," Samantha told me as she looked at a bustier on an ever growing pile of clothes. "She used to have another stripper but she was killed by the Sabbat."

"I guess I forget who she was before I met her at my uncle's mansion," I said as I watched her throw it back on the pile.

"You didn't know her then," Samantha told me. "I've known her for years."

"Do you think..." I began to say when Yukie screamed. It was accompanied by earth shattering boom and when we ran into the main room saw the remains of someone on the floor.

"Oh my god," Samantha said as she knelt next to the corpse. There wasn't much left to it but a ribcage and skull with some muscle organs and tendons holding it together in a gooey mess. Where the arms and legs were supposed to be were shattered bones, and the teeth were bloody...were those fangs?

"Is it her?" I asked as I knelt by Samantha.

"Who else do you know teleports around?" Samantha snapped as she panicked. "Yukie! Get over and here and bleed for your master!"

"Wait!" I said as I turned the gooey mess onto its back. "Eliza was a Methuselah, she needs kindred blood."

"Methus..." Samantha said as I bit a chunk out of my wrist and spit the meaty mouth-full back out as I let my blood fall in my sire's mouth. "She's only a month old, at the least! Methuselah's are centuries old!"

"Yukie, get me a blood pack! Get me several," I said as I felt myself drain as my blood flowed. The ghoul rushed to the fridge, filled her arms with the red bags of salvation and hurried over to dump them at my knee. I grabbed one and drank, letting myself act as a conduit to the body I was sure was my sire.

I remained silent, drinking the blood as fast as it poured out of me, but the most startling thing was watching the body knit itself back together. Bones that were once fragmented shards smoothed over and stretched, regrowing to full size. Tendons stretched and contorted and muscles flowed back over the alabaster supports as Samantha lended a hand with her own powers as her own purple hazed hands assisted in the healing of the person who saved our lives.

Then, as if we hit critical mass, Eliza surged back to life by sinking her teeth into my flowing blood, the draw of her eager mouth causing my world to yellow. My hands searched eagerly for a blood bag, but Yukie forced one into my mouth and I drained it.

"Mistress?" she said once Eliza let go of my arm with her fangs.

"I'm here, Yukie," Eliza's soft voice said.

"What happened?" Samantha asked her as she healed my bleeding wrist. I didn't even notice that she had done something but apparently she had as my own wrist was in perfect condition but still bleeding profusely.

"It was a trap," Eliza said, then took in her nude state. I didn't look, as it was embarrassing, but I was the only one who seemed troubled by it. "The sarcophagus was a bomb meant to blow up whoever opened it."

"Which with all the hubbub about a Methuselah sleeping in it, it was bound to happen to the most powerful person in the city," Samantha stated.

"Why not go after you?" I asked and Eliza chuckled.

"No body really knows my status as a Methuselah, and it needs to stay that way," Eliza told us with a frown. "In fact, no one needs to know I survived."

"But..." Samantha began to protest but Eliza put a finger to the woman's lips to silence her.

"I'll still be in your bed every day," she promised her. "It's just that, you've seen what this city will become for the chance to have power like mine, and I can't hold off everyone forever. Only the people in this room need to know I'm alive. Everything I do from here on out, will be through you."

"But we're not you," I told her. "How do we make this city listen to us?"

"They don't have to listen," Eliza said as she regained her feet. "They just have to leave us alone. I still want a place to fade to, just now, no one besides us will know the true secret of this city."

"What if someone figures it out?" Samantha asked, but Eliza smiled.

"Then we send in a hunter," Eliza said, turning to Yukie. "And we burn their house down with them in it."

"So what do we do first?" I asked, and Eliza turned back to me.

"There's a church near downtown," she told me. "A Catholic church with a priest who was once a hunter. Inform him of my passing, but that you are going to carry on the convent in my name."

"Still going with that idea?" I asked and she nodded. "If you're going to remain hidden in the shadows, who's going to run it?"

"You are," she told me. "You seemed to like the idea before, so it's your baby now. My penance for causing the deaths of my former ghouls prohibits me from making more, but I'd suggest you bind those who get close to the truth under your blood."

"Okay," I said as I grabbed for my purse. "Be back in a flash."

I went out the door into the parking lot, finding my Mazda Miata where I left it. Hopping in, I followed Eliza's directions to the church and parked it in the parking lot. I didn't know how I was going to get in, but I figured the front door was the best option.

The door to the entrance area was unlocked, so I went inside to the vestibule to find it lit by candles. The dark area led deeper and I could hear two people talking softly. Looking into the nave, I found a man and a woman conversing on the front pew. I approached only halfway, stopping when I saw the collarino he was wearing.

I had to figure this was the priest Eliza sent me to see, so I waited. He seemed to sense my presence, as he turned to look at me before returning his concentration to the young blond woman he was counseling. They talked for a moment longer but the priest seemed to beg off as he left the sobbing woman on the pew to talk to me.

"May I help you, miss?" he asked as came to stand in front of me.

"Maybe," I told him. "My...my friend once told me she met a priest here, who gave her absolution."

"Yes, I know of your kind and your weakness to daylight," he told me. "Have you come for absolution as well?"

"Um, no," I said, then gave a chuckle. "She was recently destroyed, and she left me the convent she was starting."

"Ah," he said, then bowed his head. "I'm sorry for your loss. She was a unique woman, sharing in your kinds curse but remembering to honor God. I'm going to miss her."

"She would have wanted us to continue her dream, though," I told him. "She wanted to build a garden of healing, and, I intend to see that through."

The priest sighed, turning to look at the blonde woman again. "I could use a place like that," he told me when he faced me again. "There are so many who come through here, too old to be helped by the system, too young to know the choices they have made."

"Is she one of them?" I asked and he nodded.

"She came to us from off the streets, lost, wandering, alone," he told me. "She needs somewhere to go, some place that can help her come to terms with what she has done. I can no more condemn her than I can condemn myself."

"Eliza said you once hunted us," I told him. "Did she…?"

"She did," he said. "She was recruited, trained in the art of the hunt, and proved herself capable of killing the strongest your kind had to offer. But she loved as well, and when her lover fell from grace she was forced to kill him."

"That's...horrific," I said, bowing my head.

"It has forced her to make choices she wasn't ready to make," he reiterated. "Now, she's lost, alone, and confused. It's only a matter of time before she seeks answers in drugs, forcing her to become lost to our Father as they take their own toll."

"That's what I'm offering," I told him. "I'm going to make the convent in her memory, to help people from falling into the traps of the world."

"Then you have my blessing," he said, moving out of the way.

I gave him a nod as I passed, moving forward to the pew where the woman sat hunched over. I also took my first good look at the woman, appraising her as I approached. She was petite, well apportioned and muscular that suggested a rigorous workout routine that she had to practice daily. She was dressed in a dark brown hoodie and gray sweats with a gold plated cross hang from a chain.

She looked up at me as I sat down, but didn't move away which I took as a good sign. She also tensed, which made me wonder.

"So, what are you after, vampire?" she finally asked.

"To help," I told her. "I can offer you a place to live as you figure out your life."

"I know how your kind operates," she snarked as she finally got up and turned her back on me. "Charm her and she'll turn a blind on your debauchery."

"I'm not going to ask that you turn a blind eye to anything," I told her as I stood to follow her. "I want to help you."

"That's what he said," she sniffed as her back heaved in a big sob. "He wanted to help, but he couldn't overcome his demons."

"So you killed him?" I asked and she wrapped her arms around herself. "Sweetie, if he was using you he deserved what he got. I'm not asking for anything, but I'm offering you everything. Where are you going to sleep tonight? Tomorrow night? Where will you go? What will you eat?"

"There's places," she said with a sob. "People live on the street all the time."

"People die on the street, too," I told her. "I'm offering you the chance to live a better life. If you still want to hunt us, we can even point you towards the worst of us that even we think deserve to die."

"Why do you even care?" she asked me.

"Because, not all of us are monsters," I told her. "I want to build a convent that helps people overcome their problems, give them meaning in life again."

"A convent?" she said, turning around to show me her frown. "You want me to be a nun?"

"A sister, actually," I said. "You're free to leave at any time, but if things work out, I might even train more hunters. You could help in that. I hear you're good at it."

"I was told I was the one," she said glumly. "But they lie though. Stakes in the heart are meaningless."

"They only paralyze us," I told her, feeling that being truthful would help. "You have to do more to kill us."

"Why are you being so helpful?" she asked me.

"I want to be," I told her. "There's so much you can learn if you let us help."

"You really mean it?" she asked.

"I do. There's nothing wrong with being helpful."

"A sister?" she asked and I nodded. "I don't have to take a name like Sister Mary Clarence, do I?"

"Take whatever name you want," I told her.

She dipper her head as she sniffed, then nodded her head.

"Anne," she finally said. "You can call me Anne."