Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Mrs. Birchtree took over. Her voice was old, but commanding. "Daughters, bring the deer to the back and skin it. The hide will make someone a good coat this winter, or maybe two coats for the twins. Butcher the meat and put some on to simmer overnight in the largest pot. The rest can go into the freeze house."

"What about the blood?" asked the younger Mrs. Birchtree, Sam's mother.

"Bring it into the kitchen. I think we should welcome our guest properly, if he's up for one of our customs. The children haven't had any in so long; they'll be forgetting what it tastes like. I'll get the vinegar."

Sam was unloading the car. He had the white container pressed against his chest, but when he heard what his grandmother had said, he looked at her without speaking. She lifted her chin. "Of course," she said in his direction. "I'll just stir it and warm it up a bit." Sam continued into the house with it while the women carried the deer carcass between them.

I carried our coolers and my overnight bag. "Come along, Mick," Mrs. Birchtree said. She walked me inside, down a short hall to the kitchen allowing the door to close behind us. Through the kitchen window, I saw the children, men and women walking to the back to watch the skinning and to carry the chunks to the stove. It was a kitchen that spoke of warmth and togetherness. There was a table long enough to seat twenty or more. It seemed Mrs. Birchtree's big family all lived and ate together.

Sam preceded us to set the gallon tub on the table. "The container has a plastic bag for a lining. The blood is clean enough, but strain it if you want. Stir it first."

"You don't have to tell me how to prepare blood," she said. "Go take care of your guest. Come back when he's settled in."

"Okay, Grandma. Mick?" I followed him, carrying my cooler. Sam's room was in the back of the house. He had been expected. The bed had been freshly made. When we got inside, Sam closed the door and turned to talk to me. "We'll be up most of the night with the family. As for sleeping…" He opened the window and a chill entered the room. "It won't feel like spring around here until late May." There was still snow piled on the ground and there was little sign of a thaw. "I'll use my sleeping bag under the quilt. Will you be okay in here if I put a clean sheet on the floor? Or would you rather have the bed and I'll move to the floor? You're my guest."

"I'm used to hard surfaces. Won't your family wonder about the chill factor in the room?"

"This room is in the back of the house. I'll roll up a wind catcher to put under the door. Are you ready?"

"Not yet. From the words and looks between you two, I'd say your grandma and you can communicate without speech. What about the rest of your family?"

"No. My mother has a little skill and one of my cousins has a lot, but he's untrained. Grandma can tell there's something different about you, but she's not sure what. I told her no vinegar in your cup. You aren't the first musician I've brought home for a visit." He gave me a crooked grin.

"Am I the first Vampire?" I mouthed the last word in case anyone was listening. The grandmother might have picked that up, but Sam was sure she could be trusted to keep a secret.

"Yes, you are. Francis never had time to visit, but Grandma knew about my connection with him."

"No objections?"

"She trusts me not to take up with someone I can't trust."

I nodded. "Okay." For some reason, I felt like I had stepped into the Looking Glass or Wonderland, but hey; I was on vacation. That didn't mean I could change my habits. I guess being what I am makes me a little paranoid, but being careful goes with the territory if you want to survive. There was something more on my mind. Sam was about to open the door to return to the kitchen, when I took his hand to prevent him from moving. His pulse sped up and he gave me a tentative smile. "No," I said. "Just stand still and listen to me." He nodded and I released him.

"You said you invited me because you saw us together in a dream. I can see why I needed you at this juncture in my life, but I haven't figured out why you needed me. There has to be a reason, doesn't there?"

"I think so," Sam said. "Dreams can be messages or hints of the future. We have to follow their direction if we can."

"All right. I'll assume there was a reason your music affected me and made me decide to come here with you. I have to find out what that reason is before I can be directed by it. I'll do whatever your custom says guests are supposed to do unless it's something that I can't do, like eat. I may have to lie. You will back me up."

"Of course."

"I want to know everything that's going on in this village or rez, or whatever you like to call it. Did you get a normal call or did your grandma send you some kind of mental message, to tell you to come here now?"

"She called me on my cell a couple of days ago. She said it could wait until I finished my gig and could take a few days off, so it wasn't that much of an emergency. I think things will come to a head pretty soon though."

Several thoughts sped through my mind. "Don't open your window wide. Just leave it unlocked so I can get back in if I need to. Before I go, you'll have to tell me how to block my thoughts in case there are more mind-listeners like you out there."

"Picture a sealed barrier around your mind. Place it there for protection. My gift won't work against anyone who knows that. If I have enemies here, they know that. I won't be able to hear them."

I nodded, taking his instruction to heart. A lot might depend on it. "Listen," I said. "I'm going to walk the periphery of this town when the rest of you go to bed. I can hear whispers behind closed doors. I know how to blend with shadows. If there's some intrigue going on that involves you or your family, I want to know about it. You said in the really old days, vampires and people lived symbiotically, to the benefit of both groups. How did you mean that?"

Sam pressed his lips together, trying to remember how it had been told to him. "Your people weren't called Vampires yet. That word is middle European, and only a few centuries old. Back a couple of thousand years before the Common Era, people who knew them called them Protectors. Giving blood to them was a form of worship. In return, the Protectors used their great strength and speed, and their other abilities to help their worshippers. They were advisors to the kings, leaders in times of war. The oldest sons and daughters of the royal family were made devotees to the Protectors, and later, if they were near death at a suitable age, they were brought over." He stopped.

I took a deep, unnecessary breath and let it out, struck by how my people might have lived in those days. Too bad I was several millennia too late to be a 'god'. I can only imagine that the responsibility must have been overwhelming and humbling. I couldn't help but wonder what we had done wrong to make it change so badly for us. It was a lot to ponder, but I think the modern religions might have had something to do with it. The one invisible God might have had something to do with it, especially after the next religion to make an impact. The influence of the acolytes concerning their favorite god who had been executed on the cross, the one who rose to walk again, might have been a death knell to those who thought of Vampires as gods. I wondered if he might have been one of us. That gave me another cause for speculation, but I had to admit my musings were not going to answer the world's most fundamental questions. It didn't matter in any case. We were what we were. I continued to live to do whatever good I could do to make up for what I was.

"Whatever people thought, I hope you know we were never gods in the first place. I can see how more primitive people could make that mistake. The immortality. We don't age, but we can be killed. Gods can't be killed; not real Gods."

"I guess not," Sam responded, but he still looked at me as if he wasn't ready to let go of some of his theories.

"In any case, I'm here now and you know what I'm capable of," I reminded him. "I might be able to do something that can help you and your grandmother; be a Protector, if that's the word you like. Let's go to the kitchen. Your grandma is waiting for us. I'm ready to meet and greet your family properly."