Chapter 5

Life to Life

October 31, 1910

Roanoke, VA

Olivia shivered, engulfed by the cold air that permeated the one room schoolhouse. The heat from the wood burning stove had long since burned out. The stack of wood had to be reserved for her students when they attended during the day. There wouldn't be another delivery for two weeks. She pulled her woolen sweater closer around her neck and continued writing the twenty-third psalm on the chalkboard in cursive. Tomorrow, her primary students would have a penmanship exam during which they would copy down the passage in print and manuscript on their slates.

Olivia stood back to check her work for scribal errors, a double article or missing word. "There…all good," she said aloud to herself before packing up her belongings. The sun was quickly setting and she needed to get home soon. She had to get the children to bed. The family she boarded with was 5 children strong, ranging in age from 2 through 10. Even though the school council paid the Leland family for her room and board, Mr. and Mrs. Leland expected her to help with chores and look after their rambunctious brood. Olivia didn't mind since she knew the situation could be much worse. She'd heard quite a few horror stories of teachers boarding with families in much worse circumstances.

She didn't usually stay this late at school, but she had squandered most of her weekend mixing a healing poultice for Mr. Leland's skin rash. Olivia was a teacher by trade, but she had always wanted to be a healer like Mama Sabine who ran the orphanage where Olivia had lived since she was a baby. Mama Sabine was the only family she knew. Boarding with the Leland's gave her a small taste of what it might have been like to have a mother and a father. Looking after them all could be hard, but she liked feeling needed and part of the family even if she gave a lot in return.

Olivia walked by the window and caught sight of the large moon. She got the sudden urge to practice casting. She'd witnessed Mama Sabine casting so many times over the years. Olivia began taking notes then and in no time she was dabbling when she could find time alone. She didn't dare tell anyone for fear of their reaction. She pushed the urge away and decided to go home. The children would be eager to tell her about the fun they'd had on this sacred night. It was Halloween.

Outfitted in a secondhand coat, hat, and scarf, Olivia grabbed her satchel and blew out the lantern. After locking up the school, she bounded down the stairs and along the path. The cacophony of sounds were like a symphony of nature to Olivia. The cicadas, owls, and rustling leaves made her feel at home. Suddenly the sound of footsteps behind her caused the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She slowed. Under normal circumstances, she would have been afraid, but inexplicably she wasn't. She swiveled around just in time to see a flash of an inky black something disappear behind a tree.

Olivia walked over to the tree. "Please come out so I can see you," she called. Everything had fallen silent as if the night itself with all its creatures were watching the scene unfold. "You've been following me for a long while now. It's about time you let me see you. You're my spirit guide so I should see you up close. I'm not afraid. You can stop hiding." There was a plea in her voice.

Olivia froze when she heard what sounded like laughing. It was deep and echoed through the air. She frowned and then her heart sped up with fear. Her spirit guide wasn't supposed to be male. She didn't know for sure, but she knew that couldn't be right. This was either a real flesh and blood person who had been following her or something else more sinister.

Olivia began to run in the opposite direction, hoping to get away before whomever the unidentified laughter belonged to recognized she was escaping. Before she realized what was happening everything went black and she was carried through the air wrapped tightly against something solid. Within seconds she was back on the ground and looking into the most piercing eyes she'd ever seen. They glowed a deep green. The internal struggle began. Good sense told her to flee, but she couldn't look away.

"Olivia, darling…" he said. His voice caressed her ear like a tickle. She shivered with a feeling she didn't want to name.

She could barely catch her breath so screaming was not an option. Would someone planning to cause her harm laugh as he just did? Why hadn't he attacked her? "Who…What..who are you? H-h-how do you know my name? Have you been the one following me all this time? You are a man? You can't be my spirit guide! Why are you so pale?" She was unable to stop the questions that poured out of her.

"Olivia, darling, it's me…"

"Why were you laughing?" she said, pushing against him. He released his hold on her but she was still trapped against him.

"Please forgive my rudeness. I'm just extremely happy to be this near to you. I've wanted to reveal myself before now, but you were too young. Now that you are the age you were when we first met, I've still hesitated because I was certain you'd be afraid of me. I was too clumsy tonight. You heard me. Why aren't you afraid?"

"Mama Sabine has a spirit guide, and I should have one too. You must be it, but why are you a male, so pale with green eyes?" she said, less afraid now.

"Olivia, I'm not your spirit guide. I'm your…beau. We are lovers, Olivia-"

"How dare you speak that way to me? I have never been with a man! Move away before I hurt you!" Olivia tried to fight, but she was no match for his strength. It was peculiar to Olivia how she responded to him. She wasn't afraid, and this man felt strangely familiar. Before she could think of what to do next, they were in the air.

Tomas welcomed the pain that radiated through his body. It was the only indication he was still alive. He was in agony and shock. How could he be alive after that savage attack? And it had been quick, so quick. He and the High Priestess had been standing over her daughter waiting for her to awaken. She was grilling him about key parts of Olivia's life with Byron. She was stressing how important it was for him to block out the 'scourge of evil' from her memory.

He had felt a rumble and then something, a mass of black flung through the window, breaking the glass. When all the shards settled, he stood there outfitted in a black robe like covering glaring at the High Priestess with a palatable fury in his peculiar red eyes. There had been no fear in her eyes. Tomas had never seen a vampire before. He looked normal but for the ashen hue of his skin and the red eyes.

"You won't have my daughter. I will never allow it," she had said, her eyes darting to the bed where Olivia rested. She had raised her hand as if to block him, but he never looked at the bed or at Tomas. Escaping at the moment may have been possible, but Tomas had been frozen in place like a statue. As if in answer, the vampire had flown into the High Priestess and they were out of the window leaving Tomas alone with the sleeping Olivia. He hadn't had time to figure out where they were. He knew he couldn't defend the High Priestess against the vampire, but he could save her daughter. He broke out of his stupor and rushed to the bed. Before he could reach it, he was lifted off his feet and thrown to the ground. The vampire had him pinned and was on top of him. Tomas wailed when he saw the vampire's fangs descending. His neck was burning and then he thankfully blacked out.

Tomas didn't know how long he was out. He didn't know where the High Priestess was, but he was sure that Olivia was gone. He tried to speak, but he couldn't form a sound. He couldn't move but he could feel wetness all around him. Am I bleeding to death? Death was certain wasn't it since he was paralyzed. Who would be looking for him? Anjel maybe? But he wouldn't know where to start looking. Was the High Priestess dead? No one was coming for him. He would die here, alone.

Fitzgerald exhaled. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against her warm, soft cheek. He breathed in her scent, giving himself an infusion of pleasure and peace. Since he met her, he never felt as settled as he did when she was with him. She equalized him. He pulled back knowing that things were still unfinished. While he had neutralized Maya, it was only temporary. After Maya took her, he'd lost his mind for a brief moment. He'd been unable to think so he had acted, guided only by his predator instincts. This had led him straight to Olivia to rescue her before Maya had a chance to conjure up some new scheme.

"Brother…" said Francesca, entering the room slowly.

Fitzgerald moved quickly, blocking her from the bed. Francesca narrowed her eyes at him. "Surely, you can't think I'd try to harm her."

He regarded her for a long time and then returned to the bed now sitting in the chair next to it. Francesca took his place on the bed staring at Olivia.

"I'm worried about you, brother. Why hasn't she awakened yet? Was Maya able to stop her transition?" she asked.

"No on both accounts and there is not need to worry about me. There was nothing Maya could do to stop it. I don't know what she and her minion were planning, but that is inconsequential now," he said.

She turned away from Olivia to stare at him. "Brother, what did you do? You didn't kill…you can't kill..Tell me what you did?" she said.

"Ever since I realized her mother hated me and disapproved of our union, I've never...I've always been…" he said stopping to find the appropriate word, "deferential to her. I foolishly believed Maya would accept us if she knew I hadn't forced or coerced her daughter into making this choice to be with me—"

"Your obsession with Olivia…a witch…I'll never understand it. It has blinded you completely. You know her hatred of us has little to do with you and everything to do with Father and his dalliances. Maya is a woman scorned because our Father used her and tossed her aside. She would never accept you, Brother. Can't you see that?" she said, standing now.

"Stop lecturing me, Sister. I'm not going to let anything else block us from being together…her family, my family…spells, curses, be damned. She is the only one who has the power to end our union," he said, forcefully.

"You are headed down the path that Ambrogio tread. It will end in your destruction. I will stand beside you, through it all, Brother. I want to help you. Massimo, Giovanni, and Father feel the same way. Our Mother is coming around...Just let us help you," she said.

The sound of an exhaled breath and whimper stopped their conversation. He was by her side at once. "Fitzgerald…Fitz," Olivia said, waking up.

"I'm here, darling," he said, helping her sit up.

Francesca lifted the water from the bedside table to her lips. Olivia took a long draw on the water glass and pulled back. "What happened?" she said.

"What do you remember?" he said.

"We were at my apartment. Stacia was at the door. Then…my mother…I saw my mother, Fitz. Where is she? Where are we?" she said, looking around at the large room minimally decorated room.

"How are you feeling? Are you thirsty." Francesca asked, peering into her eyes.

"I was until you gave me the water," she said.

Francesca chuckled. "Thirsty for blood, my dear, since my brother changed you. Maybe it didn't take."

Olivia catapulted herself up to the ceiling in a blur. She looked back down at them crouched on all fours crawling across the ceiling like it was the floor. "I think it took, Francesca," she said.

Fitz looked up at her, adoration, wonder, and desire in his eyes.

"Well then," Francesca said looking up at Olivia. "Brother, remember what I said. Your family…all of us will help you. You're going to need it. I'll be back." She left.

Olivia returned to the bed, slower this time, perching on his lap. "Why doesn't Francesca like me? She's always tolerated me even from the very beginning, like I was some child," she said.

Fitzgerald didn't answer her many questions. He was too enthralled by her. Since Maya cast the spell, his time with her, really being with her when she knew who he was, was a rare gift. After he'd find her and through much effort and patience bring her to the knowledge of him and their connection, death would take her, differently each time. He was helpless, unable to stop it, its blessing and curse. Each passing brought her closer to the end of Maya's horrible spell, but also it brought their separation and his suffering. Now it was finally finished. She'd died her last death and was now beginning the life she would have, the life with him that they'd planned. Maya had tried to, yet again, separate them. He wouldn't allow it.

Olivia frowned at him. "Fitz, you aren't listening to me. Why are you staring at me that way?" she said.

"My apologies, darling, but I am listening. Francesca does like you. How much do you remember? How are you feeling?" he asked. He grasped her head with both of his hands, tilting her head back and forth.

"I'm feeling fine, actually better than fine. I remember us…meeting you when I was a young girl…everything from our beginning…my mother's curse. Of my seven lives, I only really remember this past one. But I had this dream. I was a teacher in one of those one room school houses. You were following me one night and I thought you were my spirit guide?"

He nodded and smiled while continuing his examination. Pulling back her tunic sleeves, he observed her forearms. "Oh yes, you were a young teacher in the early 20th century and you were the caretaker for all those children. I was with you for a couple of months that time because you thought I was your spirit guide," he said.

"Yes," she said, pulling his hands away, stopping his examination. "How did I die that time?"

"Measles. You contracted it from one of those children, but you didn't get sick until the day after you finally remembered me. It wasn't so much the disease as the curse," he said.

"So have I transitioned? Am I a vampire? I feel and look different. I can, er, move really fast, but I have no fangs nor a thirst for blood. Are we safe from my mother? Is the curse over?" she asked.

"I think you have transitioned, but you are not following the normal pattern. There is your lack of thirst and your eyes are back to their regular hue…" His voice trailed off and he walked away from her to sit in the chair. He wondered how she would take knowing what he'd done to her mother. He didn't regret it but knew she might respond negatively. They had so much to discuss.

"Olivia, darling we need to…there is so much we have to work out. Then we should visit a physician, someone I know and trust who can examine you—"

"Fitz, no," she said abruptly. She sauntered around the bed and stood in front of his chair. "It has been seven lifetimes since we made love as the Fitzgerald and Olivia who fell in love that first time so long ago. I can see it in your eyes, so many things swirling around in your head. There's still danger even though the curse is over. We can talk about all that later, but now I need to make love to you. You need to make love to me. That is my only thirst."

\o/ Hey, readers...it's been a long time...