Chapter Twenty-Six: Winifred Drake
The Year 1515
Pee Dee Settlement, NC
"Winifred! Open up!" Zaif continued to pound on the door of Winifred's cottage.
It wasn't even daybreak yet, but his cousin had informed him that Sorcha and Lana were missing. Omar was already helping Henry to form search groups that would split to cover multiple areas. A few witches were spared to support with the search due to rumours of vampir in the area.
"Gabriel may be in danger, please open!"
At these words, Winifred finally opened the door.
Zaif wasted no time in telling her what happened. "Lana – the girl who lives with Sorcha – I advised her to speak to Gabriel yesterday, and now both her and Sorcha are missing. You have to locate them. Gabriel would have been the last to see Lana alive, but I can't find him either. I need to know he hasn't hurt them."
Winifred was disgusted at his assumption, but waved him inside regardless, closing the door behind him. "My Gabe would not harm either of those girls, you know that as well as I do."
"He used to feed on humans," Zaif reminded her. "If he's given in to his bloodlust –"
"I satisfy his need for human blood," Winifred disclosed authoritatively. "When he feels no longer able to sustain himself on animals, I permit him to feed on me, so don't you dare come in here speaking of him like he's some savage animal." She rolled a map open on her table, starting to prepare for the tracking spell. "Give me something that belongs to one of them."
Zaif stuttered, "I don't – I didn't realize I needed –"
Winifred narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, aren't you woefully unprepared?" She released the map, which rolled back in on itself, and stormed around her cottage, trying to find an alternative she could use. Finally, from a wooden storage box, she pulled out a silver amulet containing three teardrop amethysts set in a Y-shape within a Celtic-patterned pendant. "Gabe gave me this necklace when he first confessed his feelings for me. I hated myself for feeling the same, so I used it to perform a spell against three of my sins: my lust for a vampire, my envy of his immortality, and my wrath towards my infertility. But I did not complete the spell. In the end, I came to terms with how I felt, so I returned it to him. After our first night together, he left the necklace for me, even though I could not accept it because I no longer considered my love for him to be a sin. Such a change of heart would have corrupted the spell. But it remained with me regardless. Hopefully it will be sufficient enough to locate him."
It took a moment for the tracking spell to be performed, with Zaif holding open the map and Winifred's blood trailing along it in order to find him. It snaked throughout the woodland areas, eventually stopping at a location in the forest across the river, not too far from a wooden makeshift crossing.
"That's where Henry is planning on heading," Zaif informed her.
"Then we need to get there first," she replied, heading towards the door.
They rode on the back of one of Zaif's cart horses towards the river where they had to dismount. The rickety, handmade bridge, consisting of timber planks supported by a log trestle base, was barely wide enough to walk across and certainly wasn't strong enough to ride across. They made their way along it as quickly as they could, with Zaif shouting out for Sorcha, and Winifred shouting out for Gabe. After deciding they would cover more ground if they split up, Zaif headed northwards while Winifred went south.
It took only three minutes of walking before Winifred heard a noise.
More specifically, a whispering.
Winifred hid behind a tree, watching a slim figure kneeling, their upper body draped over a dead animal.
"It's not enough, it's not enough, it's not enough," the voice of the girl repeated softly, sadness filling her voice. She pressed her hands into the blood coming from the dead fox in front of her, sliding them inwards towards her face that was covered in blood. She rocked back and forth as she continued her desperate chant, drapes of long, thick dark hair falling over her head, sticking to her face and neck. Then suddenly the girl screamed, "Stay away from me!"
For a moment, Winifred thought she had spotted her, but then she saw another girl come out of the woodland, stepping closer to the bloodied figure.
"Sorcha, no!" Winifred screamed.
Sorcha's head whipped around for an instant, but her eyes immediately returned to the girl who stood up sharply. Sorcha held out two arms, palms outwards – one towards the girl and the other towards Winifred – signally to both of them not to make any sudden movements.
"She won't hurt me," Sorcha explained, taking a slow step towards the girl, her long skirt tugging against the weeds and broken twigs below. "It's just Lana." She took another step closer. "It's still Lana."
Lana began to sob, her tears leaving pale streaks through the blood on her skin. "I wanted this. I wanted this to protect her, and now I can't go near her."
"It's okay," Sorcha reassured her softly. Another step closer. "I know what you are. We can figure this out together."
"I made him do this to me!" Lana screamed, the sound travelling across the forest. Her voice finally gave out, turning into little more than a croak. She slumped back down to her knees. "I just wanted to be powerful to protect her."
"I know," Sorcha said. Only one more step closer. "We both want to protect Cecily."
Suddenly aware of the short distance between them, Lana flung her legs in front of her, kicking off of the dead animal, digging her bare heels into the ground, shuffling backwards until she was blocked by the trunk of a tree. "I forbid you to come any closer!" she screamed, her anger only returning to sadness once she saw Sorcha stop. Lana staggered to her feet, her back still pressed against the rough tree bark. "He said he would come back with blood for me, but I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to feed, Sorcha, but the animal blood isn't enough."
Hearing the screams, Zaif suddenly appeared beside Winifred, distracting Lana just long enough for Sorcha to charge towards her, one hand pinned against her shoulder, the other cupping her face. Initially startled, the unexpected comforting gesture was soon enough to relax Lana. "I will give you the blood you need, but not here. You see, there are people looking for us, Lana, we must leave before more arrive."
Lana's eyes flicked between Sorcha and the two strangers. She nodded, her body trembling. She cupped Sorcha's face in return, her other hand stroking the hair behind her head. Suddenly, Lana was drawing Sorcha's face towards hers.
"No!" Zaif shouted.
But then Lana's lips were on Sorcha's, kissing her, her hands trailing through her hair and across her neck, smears of blood covering Sorcha's mouth and skin. Sorcha gave in to the kiss, stroking her back tenderly.
"See," Sorcha whispered, her lower lip pressed between Lana's, continuing to kiss her.
Suddenly they were yanked apart by a force they couldn't even see. Lana, pushed aside, fell to the floor, her arms skidding within the mud, her face, hair and clothes now heavily soiled with blood and dirt. When she looked up, Gabe stood between them.
"Lana, I told you to wait," Gabe snapped, heading towards her and grabbing her by the arm. "You're coming back with me now."
"She wasn't hurting me!" Sorcha screamed, rushing towards Lana, tugging at Gabe's unyielding grip, trying to get him to release her.
"There are others coming across the river now, I can hear them approaching," he tried to explain to Sorcha.
Sorcha wasn't listening. "You did this to her! Let her go, let her go, let her go!" she continued to scream, hitting at Gabe with both fists.
Winifred looked behind her, seeing a gathering of men through the trees in the distance, heading towards them. She dashed towards Gabe, successfully urging him to release Lana. She shot a pained look into his eyes. It was one of fear and betrayal but, most of all, love. "Run!" Winifred demanded. Lana was transitioning, there was nothing that could be done for her. She was either going to feed or die. But nobody could ever know that he was the one who turned her. It was too late to compel them all, the men were too close. He had to leave. "Run," she repeated.
Gabe immediately understood. He would be named. The witches would execute him. As the founder, Winifred might be the one forced to kill him, or be killed herself for refusing. He had no other choice. "I will come back for you," he told her. Then, with vampire speed, he disappeared just before the men approached.
"There they are!" one of the men shouted, stopping in the clearing in front of them. It was then he noticed the blood. "Wait!" he instructed.
The other men surrounded him, taking in the sight before them. There was the dead fox, its flesh torn open, its insides spilling out. The two girls, both with blood around their mouths, across their skin, in their hair, down their clothes; one looking wild and barefooted, barely recognisable from the amount of blood and dirt covering her.
"Vampir!" the same man suddenly announced ferociously, causing an uproar amongst the others.
Another man charged between them until he was in front of the crowd. It was Henry Pagan. His eyes immediately went to his niece, regarding her with horror as she held onto the girl beside her. Both had blood around their mouths. Both had clearly fed. This was his fault for not taking care of her, for allowing her this independence when he was the only family she had left. The reason for his niece's recent secretive, reclusive behaviour suddenly made sense. But how long they had been this way did not matter. They were an abomination that needed to be dealt with. "They are part of the vampir!" Henry loudly declared. "They must be executed!"
As cheers of agreement filled the air, Zaif and Winifred both shouted out in protest. "No! They have not turned!" was Winifred's cry. "They walk in the daylight!" was Zaif's.
"Check them for daylight stones," Henry commanded his men.
But as soon as the men stepped forward, Lana planted herself in front of Sorcha, screaming and baring her sharp teeth at them until they backed away in fear.
The sight of Lana's fangs shocked Zaif. He had no knowledge of how humans became the vampir. Had Sorcha been infected? It didn't seem possible. No kiss could have turned her. No bite could have turned her, not that she claimed to have been bitten. She had to still be human.
"We humans are not safe to handle them," Henry continued, urging his men behind him. "We will give them over to the witches for trial and punishment." He stepped aside, letting the few amongst them who were witches come forward.
"I lead the witches," Winifred reminded him. "They will not conduct a swimming trial on them when they fled those trials themselves."
"Those trials were always meant for the immortal vampir," Henry reminded her. "Unlike witches, they cannot drown." He then walked towards Winifred, all the confidence of a male figurehead leading a mob of apprehensive humans, and whispered closely in her ear. "The trials will commence under my instruction, and if you command the witches otherwise, I will announce you to be the witch who provided these beings with daylight stones. That will not end well for you, Winifred."
As Henry stepped back to look Winifred in the eyes, waiting for her reaction, Winifred knew that nothing could be done. The trials would take place either way. If she resisted, she would meet the same fate. "Very well," she conceded, stepping away from the two girls.
"What? No, Winifred, you can't," Zaif begged her.
Immediately, the witches within the mob thrust the girls onto the ground with their powers, allowing the humans to tie their hands behind them. The ropes were not strong enough to hold Lana though and she escaped, running into the arms of Winifred. "I have a daughter," she told her. "Don't let them kill us, please!"
The mention of her daughter touched something in Winifred. She studied Lana, imagining how easy it should have been for her to have a child of almost her age. But for reasons she didn't understand, a miscarriage at eighteen left her never to bleed again. "I won't," she promised her before uttering the spell, "Parum somnum" causing both her and Sorcha to fall unconscious.
"What have you done?!" Henry snapped.
"Made it easier for you to transport both of them to the settlement," Winifred explained, stepping around the unconscious girl and grasping Zaif by the arm.
"The trial could have taken place right now," Henry protested. "We can't throw two unconscious girls in the river!"
"There will be no trial without a majority agreement from every witch in the settlement," Winifred said. "I will pledge the girls' innocence, but should they side with you, then the trials will go ahead. You will call the meeting at noon, Henry." Her fingers tightening on Zaif's arm, she started leading him back towards the bridge.
"I won't leave her!" Zaif snapped, breaking free of her grasp.
Winifred leaned in to him, whispering. "If you want to save those girls, you will do exactly as I say. That starts with taking me back home."