The figure that stood before him couldn't be mistaken. His tan skin gleaming in the gentle glow of the room, Aubrey tried to hoist himself up on his arms but immediately regretted it when a pang of pain shot threw his chest. He could hardly remember a thing all he knew was the incredible thirst that he'd felt. A glimpse of a young girl; fear in her eyes, it felt as if the ground was moving underneath him. He tried to form a coherent thought. Every once in a while his body would seem to fly up a few inches. All the while Jager just continued to smile. Aubrey found his voice first. Pulling one of the many blankets around himself. Jager smiled at this.
"Where am I?" He met Jager's midnight gaze with his own.
"Don't you think you should rest?" It was more of question then a statement. "Instead of firing off your mouth, of course I wouldn't expect any less from you." Aubrey couldn't figure out if Jager's statement was meant to be a compliment or an insult.
Aubrey pulled the blanket around him even more. He was so cold he couldn't seem to focus on anything but how unbelievably cold it was. Surely Jager was freezing standing there in nothing but ridding pants.
"You'll get used to it."
"Used to what?" Aubrey shot back a little too sharply.
"Not a very nice way to speak to someone who's just rescued you from your own demise. And I meant you'd get used to being cold. We all do."
Aubrey ignored him, "Where am I?"
"A caravan traveling back to Cairo, Egypt, you can probably feel a little bit of turbulence." As if cue the large room like wagon hit a bump causing his body to rise a few inches off the floor again and come back down with a plop.
It was then he realized how dry his lips felt, and just how sweet and thick the saliva in his mouth tasted. He licked his chapped lips tasting the remnants of something bitter sweet. He licked them again more furiously it tasted wonderful. Like warm chocolate on a cold day.
"You could have tried to be slightly more graceful, we are after all the race of beauty. Course I don't blame you; you're new and were inches away from death. Poor Esmeralda though she never stood a chance." Aubrey looked down at himself as the horror finally sunk in he was caked in dry blood all over his bare chest, arms, hands it must have been what he had tasted on his lips only a few moments ago. This man Jager was a monster. And now so was he. He'd killed an innocent young girl. And it had felt so right.
"I'll send in Camilla to bathe you at the next rest point but for now sleep." He opened the door to the moving wagon and stepped out instantly his figure disappeared and the door slammed shut from the winds impact. The resting area was built for comfort pilled high with blankets of assorted fabrics like silk, and satin. Pillow stuffed to the point of over flowing with the softest sheep hair. It was hard not to sleep but as Jager had said sleep over came him in a matter of seconds.
When he awoke he could instantly tell that they had stopped moving. His senses more alert then they'd been in days. He could hear voices outside the room-like wagon. Drunken voices male voices, women severing them in whatever way possible. Although it was dark he could make out the room and its door, rising he didn't bother to put a shirt on steadying himself he stepped out into the surprisingly warm night.
What met his eyes was already what his ears had conquered; a bunch of drunken men dancing around a fire, flirting with women of all ages.
He was met with the familiar smile of Jager whom came stalking out of the darkness like the devil himself.
"Aubrey. It's good to see you've awoken at last. We should reach the city by late tomorrow. For now enjoy your youth." Jager laughed loudly. "But of course you will always be able to enjoy it am I right?" Before Aubrey could retaliate Jager vanished as silently as he'd appeared.
"Sire." Aubrey looked up to se a woman of at least 22 standing before him. She shared the coloring as Jager. Though her eyes were a crystal blue a startling contrast to her tan skin. She was small with pixie like features. She held a robe made of silk in her folded arms. She didn't look him in the eye when she spoke but starred at the ground.
"I've been sent to bathe you." Aubrey vaguely remembered Jager's speech and warning that he'd send a woman to fix him up after he awoke. But it could have been a dream.
"This way." She beckoned Aubrey to follow her. She walked down 3 caravans and opened the door to the last. In the center sat a bath which set low into the floor. It was full of water. Jager had to be a man of great status to have clean bath water and in the desert. Aubrey was beginning to wonder just how far Jager's power extended to. He slid out of his pants and in to the water it was hot.
"How is it kept warm?" He looked up at the woman whom was busy folding his pants and trying hard not to look at him.
"There is controlled fire under the base of the bathe. The bathe itself is made out of adobe, the adobe heats up heating the water up."
"That's quite ingenious." Aubrey stated in awe at home he used to bathe in the stream or a basin of cold water. It was rare to have warm water only those whom could afford to heat it up got to bathe in it. Which was no one where Aubrey came from, home he thought back it was hard to believe just a few short days ago he'd been chasing Elsie around the kitchen or flirting with one of the young village woman. And his mother what was she doing now. What was the horror they beheld as the came down into the kitchen to find their husband and father dead. There son gone with out a trace. No; that wasn't true there son was a criminal who'd fled town. What about Elizabeth was she dead for helping him? Had his mother and sister been exiled? He tried to suppress the terror that was beginning to rise within him. Now that reality was beginning to sink in.
"Sire?" He tried to focus on the voice which spoke to him anything to keep himself focused with the here and now.
"Yes?" He was glad that his voice came out unshaken. She sat beside the tub dipping a cloth in to the warm water. She rubbed it gently across his chest wiping away the dried blood. It felt so damn good. He looked down at his body it was the first real time he'd gotten to examine himself since the change. No more scars, bruises only pale ivory skin perfectly waxed like a statue. He was sure if he sat still long enough he would look just like one. But instead of testing this theory his stretched out. His muscles were much more, well defined now and his finger nails looked like glass. He looked up at the woman whom was trying very hard on cleaning the caked blood off his body even though the water was doing the job on its own. Aubrey could only imagine what he looked like to her. A god, maybe? If anything a sex god.
He didn't want to get out of the water but he knew he must there were things to do and the sun was approaching. People outside where packing away the night's fun and the screams of pleasure had quitted. A new kind of exuberance filled him now in only a few short hours he would be in a new town a new city. You can only imagine how excited he felt a little Greek boy whom had never gone any where in his life was now about to see on of the worlds oldest Empires. He had everything now, now he just need to learn how to work it to his advantage. And oh how he would learn to work it.