I watched as everyone left one by one. First the woman that was called Ilona. I recognized her from the T.V. the day of the revelation. She was the one that Portia went crazy about calling her the "Bride of Dracula". She was just as beautiful and captivating as she was on the television. She had long ebony colored hair and ever dark eyes against snow white skin. She was thin, very thin and carried herself very well. Supposedly her husband was Vlad the Impaler. I assume that was a very abusive marriage. Seriously, who would want to marry a guy who enjoyed killing people by impaling them with large pointed poles. The thought of it made me sudder.
"Are you cold?" Silas asked as he came back to the couch where I was sitting with Julius's head on my lap.
Julius had been sleeping. He hadn't stirred at all, not even when I lifted his head to sit behind him on the couch, my legs crossed and his head in my lap. I watched at his chest went up and down as his breathing started to regulate. He really was turning human. "No, I'm fine".
"Can I get you anything?" Silas asked as he stood up from his chair which he had been staring at the floor in since Portia and Ruben departed as well.
"Water would be nice," I said as I moved the hair from Julius's face and sweat began to form on his brow.
Silas nodded and walked into the kitchen. I followed him with my eyes. He seemed so sad. I turned back to look at Julius who slept there like a normal person would. I touched the line of his jaw and followed it down to his chin. Slowly visions kept floating in and out of my mind. They weren't recent memories, but past ones. A young boy, hair white as snow and curly holding the hand of a younger boy, with dark hair and light colored eyes as they ran through the forest. They wore clothes made from animal skins and they were tied around their small little bodies to keep warm. Their boots were made of animal skin as well and wood. They giggled and danced in the breeze of the air. They chases each other and threw sticks and berries at one another, giggling the whole way. A voice in the background called and the boys came running through the forest to a small village set in a clearing.
"Ani?" Silas asked, pulling me from my vision. His face showed concern.
I blinked a few times before realizing I was back in the cabin with Silas and a sleeping Julius in my lap. He handed me the glass of water and sat back down on his high backed wing chair that faced the roaring fire. "You've been close since you were children" I muttered.
"Yes" was all he said in response, which was choked with emotion.
"He's older than you, isn't he?" I asked looking down at the sleeping giant in my lap.
"He is," Silas kept his eyes on the flame before looking back at me, "Why do you ask?"
"I saw it. Him, holding your hand as you ran out of your village and into the woods. How you laughed with each other and played. You loved him very much," I told him of the vision, seeing the tears that started to brim his eyes.
"I love him very much, yes. He's been my best friend for five centuries." Silas looked down at the glass he was holding. No doubt a double shot of b-l-o-o-d.
"Well, the good news is, is that he's not dead. He's alive!" I tried to sound optimistic. Thinking that if I at least pointed out that his friend and cousin wasn't actually gone, just different from what he had been for the past five thousand years that it would lift his spirits just a bit.
"Alive and human. The very thing that we hunt. The very thing he asked not to be apart of anymore" Silas said solemnly.
"Why? I mean," I paused, not sure how to ask what I wanted to know, "who was the one that turned you? Couldn't his maker help him?"
Silas laughed, and it wasn't a funny, ha, ha, laugh. It was a laugh that had malice and sadness in it. "No."
"Well, how else were you made the way you were?" I asked, curious to learn more about them. Was it some really old Vampyre like in Anne Rice novels that turned him? The thought excited me thinking of a woman seducing him and biting down on his neck turning him in the heat of desire.
Silas turned in his chair, faced me and smiled. "I am the Original."
"What does that mean?" I asked, an Original. What the heck? Original what?
"Meaning, I am the first ever, Vampyre. I guess you could say that I am Julius's maker. And yet, my blood did no help to him."
I was a little drawn back by the statement. The first ever Vampyre. That sounded ludicrus. Someone had to make him a Vampyre. He wasn't simply born that way. "And how did that happen?"
Silas swirled the cup of blood he had in is hand and took a long swig of the thick drink. "Maybe a story for another night."
"No. I want to know. Please. Tell me." I begged as I took a sip of my own drink and sat it on the coffee table in front. I shifted Julius's head as it was causing a cramp in my leg. I moved slightly to get comfortable until Silas moved swiftly over and lifted Julius's body into his arms.
"I'll take him to his room. He can rest there, and if you like, we can talk." Silas said as he carried Julius's body that looked so lifeless in his arms away into a room in the back of the cabin. He looked so funny carrying a man that was twice his size.
I took my water with me from the table and walked around the house. I'd never been here before. I ran my hand around the top of the leather sofa that had horns that curved around the corners. Animal heads were decorated on the walls, many I didn't recognize. They had to be extinct by now. The clads of leather bound books that dominated the book cases and the glass enclosurses that held precious artifacts. One that held my eye, a large,round, Amethyst stone set in what looked like diamonds that were clustered on the top with a gold chain.
"It was a gift from Cleopatra herself. She was very taken with me for trying to help her" Silas whispered and startled me as I stepped away from the glass.
"Wow. You knew Cleopatra? What did you help her with?" I looked into his eyes. They were beautiful. I didn't need to touch him and see visions to see his whole history. They were told right into his eyes.
"Do you know that texts suggest she was killed by an asp bite?" Silas stated. "Well, actually she wanted immortality. So I gave it to her. She had hoped to be a long ruler of Egypt, but when her son had taken the throne when they suspected her dead, she decided to end her life by meeting the sun. No one ever knew what really happened to her."
"Wow" I breathed and looked down at the marvelous necklace. "You got to see a lot of things in your life, didn't you?"
Silas smirked, "Yes, I've been around for a very, very long time." He started to walk away and he gazed upon the books on the shelves, "Julius could tell you much more. He prefered to be a solider in most of his days, killing on the battlefield. Meeting men face to face. That was his thrill. I was more the politician, which is why Julius was always my second. He head of my guard for almost five full centuries."
I walked over to him, his back was turned to me and I felt drawn. I wanted to be closer to him, especially with what just happened. Even if Julius was a human, that didn't sway me from wanting to be with Silas, no matter how long he's lived or what he is. I touched his shoulder and he turned to look at me. "How were you turned?"
Silas was silent for a few moments and then he let out a small smirk. "We were young men. I had a family, a wife, three children. Julius was the rebelious one who didn't want to settle down no matter how much Fader would press him to marry. See, back then, to marry, you had to spend money. You had to make ties with families. Marriage wasn't about love. I was just lucky enough to have both since my wife was from a very land rich family and we had known each other since we were younglings. Julius didn't want that. He wanted love and he made that known with just about every maiden in the village."
I looked at his face, and it had a far away look to it, sad even. "What was her name?"
"Olina" he barely whispered as he picked up a delicate piece of cloth and held it in his hands. "This is the cloth she made for our last child, Hedda. She died at birth. So did my wife."
"I'm so sorry" I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his back. He wasn't stiff, but he wouldn't move. "What happened to your other children?"
"Thor was my eldest. He was seven when his moder died. He looked much like the mighty god that many revered. Rolf was his younger brother. Mischeivious and had a wonderful sense of humor. Much like Julius. I had teased him endlessly how I swore that Julius had bed my wife and bore Rolf as his child since they looked so much alike." Silas laughed, thinking of the memories. I laughed at the story as well. "And there was Catrine. She was my little princess," and his face fell.
"What happened to them?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the end of the story. I was much more keen on staying in the happy memories.
"It was a few nights after my wife had passed, we had set her off to drift into the ocean two moons ago. I heard a voice while I slept. It was her. Olina. She called to me."
Silas walked over to the couch and sat down, propped his legs up on the table. I sat next to him and kept my hands in my lap, making sure not to disturb him any more and he continued.
"I left my hut and walked down to the river. There, standing in the moonlight she was just as I left her. Her cotton gown billowing in the wind and her hair, which had been braided and twisted on top of her head was fraying in the breeze. She reached out to me and I embraced her."
He stopped and took a sip of his drink and I was engrossed in the story. "It wasn't her was it?" I asked.
"No" Silas shook his head, "It wasn't Olina. I know that now, but I didn't know that then. She tricked me. She told me that she was my lost wife, that she wasn't dead, but had a new way to live."
"She was a Vampyre?" I asked trying to find the connection.
"No, she was Lilith. The decietful woman who was tempted by the snake. She was a cursed woman who was forced to roam the earth and never sleep. She fed on children and seduced men. I curse the day I met her." He said with such loathing.
"What happened?" I asked, shaking. I hated to think that someone he met would seduce him and then kill his children. What an awful way to live the end of your human life.
"I thought she was my wife. I took her back to my hut where I lay with her." Silas said matter-of-factly.
"But what about your children? Did they sleep in the same hut as you? Did she hurt them?" I asked, wanting to know so badly how the story ended. I was like a child eagerly waiting for their parent to finish the story.
Silas smiled at my eagerness, "Yes, they slept in the same hut, and the children were fine. It was I she bewitched." Silas turning on the couch, with his leg up on the cushins and I facing him, he placed his arm along the top, "You have to understand, back then, we had large huts, big enough for huge families. Everyone stayed with their family. So not only did my children sleep next to me, but so did my Fader and Moder, Julius, his Fader and Moder which were my Aunt and Uncle and my other siblings."
"Sounds crowded" I admitted as I tried to take another sip of water and realized the glass was empty.
"Do you want more?" Silas asked reaching out for my glass.
"Yes, please" I gave him the glass as he stood to go back into the kitchen. I heard a few clattering and the refridgerator door open. I got up and walked into the kitchen as Silas popped a plastic bag into the microwave. He turned and handed me the glass with my water in it. I walked around his kitchen island and jumped up on the counter as the microwaved beeped. "So, what happened when you took her to your bed? Did she bite you or something?"
Silas let out a great laugh as he drained the bag into his glass. "No, no. She didn't do anything of the sort. She simply gave me a drink. A drink I suppose was tainted with her blood. I don't know. All I do know is that from that night on, I had this craving for blood. Food and normal drink would make me sick and suddenly my own children seemed appetising."
Silas leaned on the other side of the counter and I had my hands pressed against the edge of the one I was sitting on, leaning closer as if I could hear him better if I leaned in closer. "Well, then, how did Julius become who he was then?"
"We were turned at different times. I was turned nearly five years before him. Before anyone knew. They thought I was just getting sick, I had gone pale and thin. Especially since I wouldn't anything. I would hunt at night and kill deer and rabbits. I hated myself. I wanted to leave. And one night, I packed my things. Julius was coming back from a great hunt in the woods when he spotted me. I nearly killed him."
I gasped. I couldn't help it. I knew that Julius was somehow made the way he was, but it still didn't stop the shock of what he was telling me. "Did you attack him?"
"Nearly." Silas then took a sip of his drink and savoring the taste before swallowing. "I was blinded with blood lust. I had survived for five years on what was I guess you could say a vegetarian diet. It wasn't sustaining enough. I wouldn't dare take animals from my people when they needed to eat, I would roam far out into the woods where they wouldn't hunt. However, Julius startled me that day. He wanted to know where I was going and what I was doing with my things bundled in my hands."
"But Julius was like you, he could walk in the sun, where Portia can't. So did the woman come back?" I asked.
"Yes, she did. I had eventually told Julius what I was. He was scared for me. I was like his little brother, we were very close. He swore he would run away with me. Since he had no family of his own, he was not tied down to anyone. I didn't want him to come. I was actually leaving to find Lilith, to see if she could change me back. Julius was the one that convinced me that I had been chosen to do great things with this new me. I was convinced to find Lilith and have her change me back or kill me. Julius persuaded me otherwise." Silas continued.
"So he went with you?" I asked anxiously.
"Yes, he did. He came with me in search of Lilith" Silas smiled.
"I take it you found her?"
"Yes, we did, but it took us quiet some time to get to where she was. Where we lived is what is modern day Norway. I guess you could say we were Vikings, but the earliest of the settlements. We traveled all the way across Europe and found her in Judea. She was on a search for Eden, where she said she was banished from." Silas stated.
"What did she do when you found her?" I asked curiously.
"She was shocked. I finally saw her for what she was. And believe me, she was beautiful. She was made in God's image. Before Eve, there was Lilith, but she would not bow to Adam's control, she wanted to be her own person and God abhorred that, which is why she banished him and plagued her. She was breath taking. Julius was instantly enthralled with her. As my maker, so was I. We both lay with her that night."
"Eww" I said. "You had sex with the same woman and Julius? So you like...gang banged her?"
Silas laughed again, "Yes, I guess we did."
"So, she made Julius like you the same way then?"
"Not right away." Silas sighed as he took another long sip of his drink and took a hard look at me. "Are you really finding this all so interesting?"
"Actually, yes. It's interesting to know how you're different." I admitted as I looked at him. He was still as breath taking as he was I assume when he was turned. "Come here"
I held me hands out to him and he came near. As I sat on the counter, my face was at the same level as his as he stood between my legs. I wrapped my arms around him and just held him close. I didn't ask anymore questions, he didn't elaborate in any more stories, we just stood there, embracing each other. He held me stiffly until he finally sighed heavily and rested his chin on my head, holding me tighter. Nothing else needed to be said. We just simply stood there and held each other.
"This is nice," I said finally against his chest. He smelled good regardless of the blood that had dried on his clothes.
"Yes, it is," he said stiffly.
I looked up at him in the face, "Can we not make this complicated and just stay like this?"
"I wish we could, but your bond with my cousin makes this complicated." Silas said as he pushed away.
"It's not like it was my choice!" my voice raising. How could he hold this against me?
"I know that. I don't mean to make you angry or start an argument, I just think that until we figure out if the bond is broken or how to break it, that we should just stay our distance, regardless how either of us feels." Silas said as he turned away and picked up his glass, gulping down the last bits left.
I had to respect that. I knew how he felt about me, he had told me so. I heard Portia telling Silas how I felt about him, so he knew as well. Plus, he was right, we would need to stay apart at least a bit longer until we could figure out how to be together. "That's fair."
Shocked, Silas turned and looked at me. I don't think he expected me to actually agree with him. I suppose he expected me to act like I did in the bar. Like a hysterical, crying woman. "That's fair?"
"Yes, that's fair. I know how you feel about me and I'm pretty sure you know how I feel about you. So, with this stupid bond that we don't know if it's been broken still intact, it's probably a good idea just to stay a distance," I said, not liking the words that were coming out of my mouth because though I may have verbally agreed to them, I didn't want to mental agree with them.
"Ani..." he started to say before I cut him off.
"No, Silas. You're 100 percent right. We can't be together fully until this thing is done. And now with Julius being human, it puts a whole new spin on everything." I jumped off the counter and walked towards Silas, pinning him against the counter, "So, as much as I would rather take you into the living room now, strip your clothes and have my way with you, it's probably not a good idea." I ran my hand down his muscular chest.
Nothing else was said. He simply looked at me with new realization before he pushed me back and kissed me passionately.