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Chapter 4: The chamber of memories
Eva didn't move and looked at Freia with no consideration.
"The car will take you in two hours."
Freia couldn't believe what she'd heard. He was punishing her for doing what he'd asked her to do. She realized that the vampire wasn't prepared to face his humanity and share it with her. She stood up and walked towards Eva. She faced her with the same cold eyes.
"I won't leave the manor until your Master tells me in person."
Freia noticed a blink of surprise in Eva's eyes, but she walked down the hall and went upstairs to her room. Freia tried to keep her calm, but inside she was burning with anger. The coward! As she walked down the corridor, Vanessa came out of her room.
"Freia! Good morning!"
Vanessa's good mood made her forget for one minute the bad surprise. She went to her with a warm smile as she answered "Good morning Vanessa. How are you today?"
"Fine, thanks. I'm surprised to see you here today." She saw the astonishment in Freia's eyes and followed "I thought you'd left the manor with Josef this night."
"What? He left the manor?"
"Yes, late this night. He came to me… well, you know…to feed. And he told me that he'd leave the manor for at least one week."
"One week!?"
Vanessa nodded. "I thought you both were taking pictures somewhere else. But I'm happy to see you here."
Freia couldn't believe it. He'd left the manor and wanted her to leave. It was more serious than she'd thought. The first couple of weeks she'd tried everything to leave this place, but he'd been always there to remind her that he possessed her. Suddenly, when she finally began to do what he'd asked her to do, he'd pushed her away.
Freia realized that Vanessa was looking at her. "Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts." She smiled at her as an apologize. "I'll see you later, Vanessa." She went to her room, feeling the eyes of the freshie on her back as she entered her room.
The sky was grey outside; there would be rain today. She looked around and wondered what she would do here if her model was gone. She knew she had to stay, only to show him that she wouldn't give up. But Eva was there and she probably knew why she had to leave the manor.
Freia sat in her bed and stared at the floor. This situation was difficult and she had to wait one whole week.
***
Freia was reading in her bed when she heard someone knock at her door. Vanessa came in with a mischievious smile and Freia understood that she had something in her mind as she approached the bed.
"What are you doing?"
Freia showed her the book. Vanessa rolled her eyes and took the book that she put on the table.
"Josef has been gone only one day and you've stayed in this room the whole day. Come with me, I have a little surprise for you."
Freia didn't move but her curiosity was appealed. She'd stayed in her room and skipped the dinner and the breakfast for fear that she would meet Eva. Vanessa took her arm and pulled her out of the bed.
"Don't be stupid. Anyway Eva is gone today."
"Really?" Freia put her hand on her mouth and realized that she'd talked too quickly. She saw the smile on Vanessa's face and understood that it wasn't necessary to hide it. "How long will she be gone?"
"Only one day. She'll come back this night. So hurry!"
They went downstairs and reached the corridor that led to the terrace of the garden. As they walked, Freia noticed that Vanessa slowed down as the large black door drew near. Freia's heart beat faster and she understood what Vanessa had in mind when she saw her taking a key out of her pocket.
"How did you get it?"
Vanessa smiled and wincked at her. "Can't tell."
She insered the key in the lock and the excitement grew stronger as they heard the warm and metallic click of the lock. Vanessa put her hand on the knob and pushed the door. They were like two kids finding a secret treasure; mouth opened, eyes wide, they discovered the mysterious and forbidden room.
As they stepped inside, a smell of past caught them. The daylight pierced through the curtains and made the dust dance with the air. They looked around and saw many old paintings, vases and in the bottom of the room they noticed a high and large chinese chest of drawers. Freia walked towards it and admired the work. She delicately rubbed her fingers on the old red paintings. Vanessa stood behind her and looked at the red flowers painted on the black wood.
"It must be very old" she said.
Freia smiled. "Yes, it is indeed. I think it's from the fifth century. Look the paintings are handmade and all the flowers are different from each other. It's incredibly beautiful."
The top of the furniture had two doors that Freia tried to open. The age had drained the wood and made it difficult to open. Finally the doors gave up and the two humans saw many old pictures.
"Wow" Vanessa couldn't hold her surprise. "Look it's only portraits of people. They must have been his friends."
Freia barely nodded, she was too absorbed by the smiling faces on the pictures. She stared at them and noticed that there was something commom with all of them.
"They're all humans."
Vanessa turned her face to Freia and looked at her astonished. "How can you tell that?"
"Look at their eyes; there's a vivid light." Freia turned to face the whole room. "Look at the paintings, their faces, their eyes. There's no life, nothing, they're empty. I'm sure they're vampires." She walked to one of the paintings and recognize Josef on it. There was something special on his face. He had the same apparence of age, but his eyes showed a strange light that mixed sadness and wisedom. "Look" she said. "It's Josef. It must have been done before he was turned."
Vanessa stood next to the chinese furniture, still looking at the black and white pictures. "How can you tell that?"
"I don't know. It's in his eyes." She suddenly realized that she'd seen this light only once, in the library.
Vanessa suddenly turned to Freia. "Look!"
Freia came next to her and looked at the pictures inside the chinese furniture. "What?"
"Look at this picture." She showed her the picture of a smiling woman from the fifties. The picture had one drained white rose on the side. The woman's face was shining under her smile that underlined her happiness. This woman was in love. "I know her."
Freia stared at Vanessa. "How can you possibly know her? It must have taken in the early fifties."
"I do know her. She was Josef's fiancée, Sarah."
Freia's heart jumped in her chest. "Really?"
"Yes. You must never say that I told you that!"
"Tell me what? We are in the forbidden room. He'll kill us anyway or Eva will!"
"That's right." Vanessa took a deep breath. "I know her because I was there when she died." She looked at Freia and understood that she had tell more. "Sarah was Josef only true love. She was a human as you guessed on the pictures. They fell in love and he tried to turn her." She made a pause to calm her breath down. "But he failed."
"What do you mean he failed? Did he kill her?" Freia's face was completely shocked.
"No, he didn't kill her. It was worse. She was turned into a vampire but her soul was lost between life and death. She was in a coma."
"Oh my god." Freia looked back at the picture and felt sad as she saw the happy face of that beautiful woman.
"Josef couldn't let her die so he kept her alive. He took care of her and hid her in his townhouse in New York."
Freia's heart beat fast. It was the city where she'd meet him. She remembered that he was drunk that night.
"She was a sleeping vampire. It had been like that for more than fifty years, until she began to weaken. Her state went worse and no one knew why. Finally she died, five months after I began to work for him. I still remember his face when the phone rang. He broke down in front of me and I didn't know why. He left L.A in the minute and the other freshies told me what happened. Sarah was dead."
Freia heard the words that echoed in her mind. The face on the picture began to be more than only a memory, it was an open wound. Sadness filled her body as she understood why Josef was so cold.
"When you came to the manor, it was one day after the date of her death."
Freia looked at Vanessa completely shocked. He'd been drunked because that night was the date of her death. Tears filled her eyes and she hid them from Vanessa.
"From this day, Josef has been cold and sad. He's still very good with the freshies, but something has been broken." Vanessa's voice was shaking. Her fingers rubbed the dusty picture. "You know, he was all alone at her funeral. It was at midnight and it was raining. We were all waiting for him in the townhouse in New York. He showed up two days later starving and completely drunk. We'd never seen him like that, even his best friend from L.A. One week later he left New York to this manor. Seven months after that, Eva showed up."
A sad silence filled the room as the two humans stared at the dusty picture. Freia turned around and realized something. Josef had told her that he wasn't living in the past, but this place was an altar in the honour of his memories. She understood that all those things, pictures and paintings were who he was, they'd made him. She saw him in every part of this room and the most sad part was all the pictures of the humans he'd kept. Josef wanted to be pictured as a human because he wanted to feel like one and forget that he couldn't die. Freia looked back at Sarah's picture and asked Vanessa.
"How was Josef before Sarah died?"
Vanessa stared at her, surprised. "Well, he was the kind of vampire to be proud of being one." She watched Sarah and add "Sarah's death took this part away from him. Now he just lives his immortal life like a depressive vampire. It's so sad to see him like that and not be able to help him."
Freia slowly closed the chineese doors and let the picture back into the darkness. They silently walked out of the room and as they closed the heavy door, they both realized that it would still be opened in their own memories.
They walked back into their rooms without saying a word. Vanessa understood how much Josef was unhappy and Freia began to realize what kind of man and vampire he was. She left Vanessa and went to her own room. She sat on her bed and saw how Sarah's death had obviously changed Josef's vision of humanity and immortality. He'd asked her to take a picture of his human part. It wasn't only a dangerous deal with a vampire, he'd asked her for help, because he needed to believe that he could be like any humans.
A strong sadness grabbed her. All this time, she'd thought he was a monster, but Josef only needed help to mourn and move one. Now he was gone and she didn't know if he would come back.
***
The master of the manor had been gone for a week now. Freia had tried to avoid Eva as much as possible and the car was still waiting for her in front of the manor. Freia had made her clearly understand that she'd leave only if Kostan asked her. Strangely Eva hadn't said a word to that; she'd ignored her presence and laid the table for both of the humans.
Freia and Vanessa hadn't talked about the chamber since that afternoon. Vanessa was most of the time in her room and Freia tried to learn more about Josef. She'd been in the library almost everyday and discovered his passion for orchids. When she wasn't reading his books, Freia was in Vanessa's room and discovered the magic and mysterious world of girls. She'd learned how to make her hair glitter, how to paint her nails and how to make her face up. Vanessa told her how beautiful she was and tried to take some pictures but Freia wouldn't let her.
It had been one week and Freia began to wonder if he would come back. She stood in front of her window in the dark blue dress that Vanessa had given her and looked at the park. It was the evening and she'd put her luggages on the bed. They were opened, waiting to be filled, but before that, Freia needed a sign. She didn't want to leave the manor without seeing him, but he wasn't back and she had no reason to stay. She turned around and went to the cupboard and took out all her clothes. As she filled the luggages, she felt her heart pounding hard in her chest. She liked to be here and as strange as it was, she liked to feel him around. But she'd made her decision; she had to leave. He wouldn't come back. He'd made it clear enough and she would respect his decision by leaving in the early morning.
When she was ready, she went silently outside her room and walked slowly down the corridor. She wasn't prepared to say goodbye to her new friend and before she had one last thing to do. When she arrived downstairs she walked to the livingroom and opened the terrace's door. As she stepped outside, the fresh air of the evening hit her body. She closed her eyes and walked on the cold grass.
As she walked, she remembered her first day in this very park, discovering the wonderful lights during the day, the evening and under the moonlight. This evening, the sky was clear and the moon slowly appeared behind the trees.
She found the way she'd taken the night she'd followed the three freshies. That night she'd felt a strange sensation, watching him biting them, the same feeling that she'd felt when he'd bitten her. Freia realized that she'd always been attracted by his dark side, but it had taken time to accept it.
She now stood in front of the grey temple. The night was all over the park and the stars were watching the human walking inside the forbidden place.
Her steps echoed in the silence. She knew she was alone; she'd seen Eva in the dining-room. She went downstairs and looked around at the tropical trees and the sleepy butterflies. She arrived next to the other stairs and lifted her face. The glass roof let the moonlight enter and lighten the tropical garden. She looked downstairs and realized that it was completely dark. She tried to find something to give some light, but found nothing. She took a deep breath and went downstairs. The marble echoed in the darkness and her eyes slowly began to see in the shadows of the night.
She arrived downstairs and walked to the black door; the two candlelights were put out. She pushed the heavy door and saw that the moonlight was enough to lighten the room. It was completely different without the vampire and the three freshies. The bed was in the middle, empty and surrounded by the voiles in white silk. Her fingers rubbed the delicate material and they began to dance behind her steps. Her hand touched the cold grey marble of one of the five beams which surrounded the bed. The contact made her shiver and reminded her of his cold eyes as he saw her in the shadow, watching him.
Freia walked to the empty bed and laid in the white satin sheets. She laid on her back and looked above her; a glass roof opened to the night. It made her feel like she was between the stars and slowly fell in the peaceful contemplation of the sky.
She suddenly felt a presence in the room and lifted her back from the bed. She saw no one, but the voiles were slowly dancing in the air. Then she noticed a shadow move to the side and heard the voice broke the silence.
"Eva told me you wouldn't leave the manor."
Freia could distinguish a smile on his face.
"She said you wanted to hear it from me."
She distinguished his hand through the thin material and saw him come to the bed. Her heart beat heavily in her chest and she could feel her blood rush to her cheeks. He was now standing next to her and she couldn't move. They looked at each other; she recognized the same look as the one in the library and understood that he wasn't afraid anymore. She tried to stand up but felt his hands on her shoulder. He slowly leant over her and put one knee on the bed. She felt a cold hand on her warm cheek and shivered from the tender touch. He approached his face towards hers and let his cold lips caress hers. She felt his lips and pulled her arms around him. The kiss became more intense as his tongue stroke her lower lips. She abandonned her body to him and his cold tongue danced with hers. The sensation became stronger as he laid her down. He was now upon her and she could feel the heaviness of his body on her. For the first time, she wasn't afraid to be under his power and caressed his legs with her feet.
His kiss became passionate and Freia felt his fangs under her tongue. The feeling aroused her as her hands went under his shirt. She touched his muscled back and responded his intense kiss by clawing his naked shoulders. She suddenly heard a loud growl and he broke the kiss. Her lips were burning. She looked at him and saw that his eyes were like to stars in the night. He was different from that night in the shower. This time it wasn't to scare her; he wanted her as much as she longed for him. She lifted her back and kissed him as she pulled his shirt down. He threw the shirt and put his hands on her cheeks as he kissed her back and laid her down. He broke the kiss again and looked at her body. He slowly caressed her and his fingers drew the form of her body. He leant over her legs and pulled the dress up. Freia arched under his touch and felt his hands moving up with the satin material of her dress. He pulled it over her head and threw it away. He looked back at her and kissed her intensively while his hands caressed her breast. She was moaning under the pression of his hands. She surrounded his waist with her thighs and pressed them against him. She felt his respons with a strong move between her legs. Her feet went slowly down his legs and he growled in her mouth. She broke his kiss and let her hands slowly go down onto his belt as she looked at him in the eyes. She saw a flame burning in the ice of his eyes when she opened the button and let her hands down. She felt him hard and ready for her. He pulled her down and threw the rest of his clothes. He leant over her and kissed her neck. He felt her body slowly move under him as he kissed her breast and down to her stomach. His hands followed until they stopped on her pants that he ripped up. Freia pulled her arms around his chest and her legs around his waist; she felt him hard against her and arched for him.
She heard a low growl next to her ear and her skin shivered under his cold body. He took her buttocks in his hands and lifted her as he slowly entered her. She loudly sighed and she felt him moving deep inside her. She pressed her thighs hard against him and followed his rhythm. He leant and kissed her passionately. Their tongues were dancing and caressing each other as their body moved faster. He felt her warm sweat cover her burning body. She was close and moaned louder under his thrusts. She pierced his flesh with her fingers as she felt him moving deep inside her. The growl followed his stronger moves. He began to see the small blue veins appear through her skin and licked her neck. She pulled her head on the side and pressed him hard between her thighs. Her breath went louder and she moved faster under him. Suddenly she felt his fangs pierce her flesh and her warm blood filled his mouth. He pumped her blood as deep as he moved inside her. Her body began to burn under his moves and exploded under him. She heard him growl and stop inside her in a last deep move.
He licked the small drops of blood on her neck and looked at her. She was smiling and he saw for the first time happiness in her face. She looked back at him and noticed something changed; his face was peaceful. He laid next to her and pulled her tight against him. The stars and the moon were shining in the dark sky as the human slowly fell asleep in the vampire's arms.
