CHAPTER 4
As she did most mornings, Louise sat on one of the wooden benches surrounding the harbor and watched the waves sweeping back and forth over the shore. Today Jack had his very last sailing lesson of the season. Her hands fidgeted and her legs swung restlessly as she sat. She was eager to have him all to herself.
"There she is."
"Audacious little thing."
Louise turned to see where the not so subtle whispers were coming from and found herself facing a group of four well dressed women, all older then she.
"...had to come see the strumpet for ourselves…"
"...so selfish...ruining a good man's reputation…"
"...certainly won't be letting my son on that boat again, knowing what goes one there…"
They were looking at her, talking about her, but not to her. Louise felt her face growing hot.
"...so pathetic the way she waits here for him almost every day…"
"...the way she throws herself at him…"
Why did they care what she did? Was it true that she ruined his reputation?
"...filthy slut...whore...does he pay you?"
She gasped as a chunk of cold mud hit her cheek, sliding off to land on her shoulder. They laughed. Louise's head swam. The group of women turned and she watched them walk away, still laughing.
When they were out of sight, Louise stood from the bench, hefted her skirts, and ran. She ran all the way home, flinging the iron gate open and propelling herself up the stairs and into the house. She never stopped running. Once inside, she rushed to the door that led to the downstairs, pushed it open and kept going until she reached the place where Alex slept. Jumping into the bed, she held him and all the tears that she had kept in while those evil women taunted her came to the surface.
"Humans never live up to their own self-imposed rigid morality. I'm sure those dried up cunts are no different." He ran his hands over her head and through her hair. "They are no doubt jealous of your vitality. They are not worth your tears." Pulling her into his lap, he brushed her hair over one shoulder and spoke closely into her ear. "Never forget that we are better than them, Louise. They will be rotting flesh in the ground soon enough, but you and I will have eternity together. You will see and know more than their tiny minds can imagine." Louise felt Alex's breath against her neck like a comforting breeze. The anxiety and shame she had felt dissolved into pure contentment.
Alex made sure that she forgot all about those petty jealous women. He made sure she felt only the sensations he gave to her and, after hours in his bed, she could not remember what had made her so upset in the first place.
After she had a chance to bathe and eat, he built a fire in the yard. Louise brought them blankets and wine so they could sit comfortably around the fire together.
"Tonight is a good night for a story my love. I never told you about the day I was born."
1291 Acre, The Levant
"I had relinquished all desires and freedoms, my very name even, to fight with the Knights Templar. It was my duty to protect the Christian lands that Arthur had fought so hard to win back a century before. We fought back the Muslims all so that the Franks could keep their fortunes.
"Acre was our stronghold in Jerusalem. It was to be held at all costs. We were under siege for 43 days. When the towers began to fall, I knew we could not win. Suddenly Khalil was inside the walls."
Louise laid back on the thick blankets and listened as Alex told her his story. She stared into the fire and in the flames she could see the images as he described them: walls crumbling, soldiers aiming their bows, bodies falling to lie lifeless in the streets, blood and fire.
Using one sharp fang to pierce his right thumb, Alex pushed Louise's lips apart and let her drink directly from his body. The reality around her grew hazey and she sunk deeper into the memories he was sharing with her.
"After the sultan took the city we retreated to our temple. A group tried to flee to Sidon but one man moves easier alone, so I abandoned my brothers and was able to escape while they were found and slaughtered.
"I kept moving north, abandoned my uniform so that I was unrecognizable and eventually I was able to pay for passage over the Mediterranean to Europe. For days on the boat, my guilt ate at me. I even thought about throwing myself into the sea. But after so much time away, I was desperate to see home again, to see England.
"After barely a week on the boat we were assailed by a raging storm. Rain and wind pummeled us, flooding the boat and spinning us in circles. The sailors spent hours trying to steer us through, but their skill and prayers did not deliver us out of tribulation and we were slammed into the rocky shore.
"Abandoning the wreckage of the boat I climbed the slippery rocks away from the other survivors and laid on the wet ground, finally ready to die. An inky black sky would be the final thing I saw, as was fitting. A coward deserved not God's beauty.
"Sometime during the night I must have fallen asleep for the next thing I remember is being lifted by strong arms. When I was placed back on the ground, I noticed it was raining, the first hint of dawn was peering over the horizon but it was shrouded in thick clouds. I looked to the person who had brought me here, but they were shrouded from me as well. I had no chance to speak before their weight was on me and I felt the pain. It pierced my neck and the burning that I felt was almost unbearable. I truly believed I would die, if not pass out again. Then a strange thing happened - the pain became pleasurable and I felt myself growing light. I was not sure if I was alive or dead. I felt the creature at my neck, relentlessly drinking, sucking, until my body felt thin as one of your lovely nightgowns and then even thinner, like sea mist. I thought my body was surely dissolving and then something was put into my mouth and my instinct was to drink, drink deeply. I tasted the salty iron of blood.
"As I drank my body felt solid and alive again, though not quite the way it had before. I saw the shadow of the man walking away from me, retreating into a dark cave mouth. For a while I just laid there and waited to see if he would come out again. I was still unsure if I was alive or dead.
"The sun began to creep across the sky and I found I had an overwhelming instinct to rush into the cave and the cover of darkness. I followed this impulse and when I entered the cave I found the man sitting quietly in the shadows. I followed suit, mimicking his position, waiting silently as he did.
"After a time, I heard the voices of the others from the ship approaching us. I didn't just hear their voices, though. I smelled them, their flesh, their blood. I felt their individual pulses as the blood moved in their bodies. I salivated.
"The rain was coming down harder than before. They too were looking for shelter, a place to build a fire. I did not know it yet, but I would never need fire again, would never need warmth. Seven of them came to the front of our cave and they seemed to me to move so slowly. I took three of them easily and my maker took the other four. I bit into the place in the neck where that pulse is strongest, where the blood flows amply. It was the most satisfying thing I had ever tasted. We drained those bodies and the others that came looking for them.
"The more blood I consumed, the more powerful I became."
Louise looked up at him, finally understanding.
He smiled. "We will be so powerful together." Alex rose from the blanket and threw several logs onto their bonfire. It flickered to life and soon the yard was illuminated in the orange glow. He gestured for Louise to remove her clothing and she began to work the buttons of her blouse while he watched. When she was fully naked he reached out his hand to her, she took it and he positioned her in front of the flames. "That will not happen for some time. For now, I will enjoy your human form." He ran his hands over her flesh and she shivered despite the warm fire. He rested his hands on her breasts and abdomen for several minutes. "You're fertile Louise. And it is time we did something about that."
The next day Louise woke with the taste of blood in her mouth. She could vaguely remember her dreams. They were of battlefields and conquest and foreign lands, of death and prey and hunting. And feeding.
It was afternoon by the time she got out of bed, unsurprisingly since she had been up till dawn with Alex. Last night had been a revelation into the man he was and their relationship. She was both prey and mate, food and lover to this powerful man. That should scare her but somehow she felt closer to him than before. But did she really want to be like him? Did she even have a choice? And children… It was what he wanted of her, so she would yield to him as always.
In the kitchen, she found Cara preparing a late lunch. It had completely slipped her mind that she was working for them today. This was fortuitous. Louise had some errands to run but she had no desire to leave the house after what happened the day before.
"Good afternoon ma'am. I thought as you slept so late, you'd have an appetite when you woke," Cara explained as she set a plate before Louise. It was piled high with seasoned pork, carrots, and potatoes. "I'm surprised you weren't at one of your sailing lessons," she added nonchalantly.
Louise flinched at the mention of her "sailing lessons." Was Cara secretly thinking the same things as those other women? Quietly judging her? Maybe she was just maintaining friendly conversation, as Louise had been the one to instigate, and she was being overly paranoid.
"I'm finished with those," she answered plainly. "Actually I was hoping you would deliver these for me when you're done here. This one is for the messenger service, and this for the grocer." She placed two envelopes on the table. Cara saw that one was addressed to Jack Winchester, her young beau. The other was surely just a list of groceries they wanted delivered. She deduced that Louise must be calling off her little love affair, but why now, she wondered.
Cara stood outside the Post Office and contemplated going inside. She had been here only a few days before when she sent her letter off to Marshal Hunter. Though she'd contemplated a telegraph which would have been faster, it would have only allowed her a few words and this was a complicated matter. So she waited for her letter to be delivered via a system of trains and stagecoaches, hoping it would make it without incident. In her letter to the Marshal she had spared the more supernatural details, only explaining that Louise was here, alive, and that the man who was keeping her had managed to tamper with her memories so that she did not remember her life out west or anything before coming here. She'd assured him that Louise was safe for now, but also warned that the man who had her was dangerous. She provided her own address rather than the Grayson's and instructed him to find her as soon as they could come to Boston.
The young maid could still picture Louise the day she'd found her smeared with blood and spouting flimsy excuses. She remembered the journals and Mr. Grayson's plans for her. Teaspoon Hunter was far from here, but Jack Winchester was closer, much closer. She pocketed the letter, determined to deliver it herself.
The harbor was not all that far and she dawdled as she made her way there, giving her time to think about what she would say. She remembered the name, The Plain Jane, and roughly where the boat was docked so it did not take long to find it. Jack was sitting on the deck, looking out to sea, when she approached.
"Excuse me," she called. "Mr. Winchester?"
He looked at her dully before replying. "Lessons are over for the season. Sorry."
"This isn't about lessons," she rushed on. "I have a letter. It's from Louise."
At Louise's name he jumped up from where he'd been sitting and quickly disembarked to stand with Cara on the dock. He looked at her expectantly.
"Well, where is it?"
"I think there's things you should know, before I give it to you."
Inside the boat, she sat with Jack and introduced herself properly, explaining how she knew Louise and Mr. Grayson. With Jack she did not hold back and explained the eerie nature of the Grayson home and the journals she had found. He was skeptical and she knew he thought she was just a superstitious Irish girl whose thinking was clouded by stories of fairies and banshees.
"Maybe you should read the letter," she prodded, curious to know what it said.
His clear green eyes glanced at the envelope sitting on the table between them. He was reluctant but, after a short pause, he picked the envelope up and opened it. The letter was short, not even a full page. His countenance remained stoic as he read.
"It's not from Louise. It's from Grayson himself." Jack placed the letter face up on the table and pushed it across the surface.
Winchester,
It is a travesty that we've yet to meet, especially since you are so well acquainted with my wife, Louise. I know that you've both enjoyed your time together. Join us for dinner on the second of November at 8pm. She looks forward to your company, as do I.
Alexander Grayson
"He wants you to go to the house?" She shook her head. "It's too dangerous."
"It's my only chance to see her."
After Cara left him, Jack studied the letter more closely. The dinner invitation had not been a request, more like an instruction. And the language made it clear that he knew exactly what he and Louise had been up to, but he knew that already. She had made it clear that she and her husband had made an arrangement. So what was the purpose of this meeting? It didn't really matter. It was this or lose her forever.
He brushed off the accusations of the maid. People around town knew that the Graysons were strange, insular. She must have let their odd behaviour affect her imagination. Still there was the possibility that the man was dangerous; and he had every reason to hate the person sleeping with his beautiful young wife. If he were to go into the belly of the beast, he would go prepared.
Jimmy kicked off his boots before entering the bunkhouse. When he took the deputy position, he didn't expect to be spending his time helping farmers collect their runaway hogs. He laughed. It felt strange to do so, after all this time, but he did. His clothes were covered in mud; it was better than blood. And chasing pigs was better than hunting criminals.
He pushed open the bunkhouse door, and froze. Kid's bunk was stripped bare, blankets and pillows piled at one end. It took a few seconds for Jimmy to get his wits back and then he ran barefoot to the barn. Katey was gone as well. He cursed and slammed his fist against the stall door. "Damn you Kid."
"He's long gone." Jimmy turned to see Buck and Ike leading their horses into the barn. "Been out there for hours," Buck told him. "He knows how to cover his tracks as well as any of us."
"Damn idiot's on his way to Virginia." Jimmy shook with anger. "I thought we'd talked him out of that foolishness. Is he really just gonna disappear, let us wonder, just like, like…" His fist connected again with the door, this time splintering the wood and bloodying his knuckles.
Over the next several days, Louise reverted to her old routines. She slept well into the day and when she woke, she occupied herself with her sketching and reading. It had grown too cold for gardening, but she would walk the yard, now covered in bright red and gold leaves. On rainy days she would light the fire in the parlor and spend hours curled up next to the hearth, reading. Cara joined her sometimes and they read aloud together, Louise sharing her favorite passages from her favorite books and gifting them to the girl who was once again her only friend.
She and Alex shared the nights. They would walk the city, not fearing the darkened passages or back alleys. During the crisp fall nights, he would build fires in the backyard and they would name the stars together, telling the stories of the constellations.
It ended, always, in Alex's bed. He liked to watch her undress herself, letting the garments slip to the floor as each bit of skin was revealed. He liked to touch her until her body hummed with need and she was begging to be filled with him. He teased, taunted, and finally fucked her until the stars burst behind her eyes and she passed out from exertion. Every night, the same.
Then, Jack came to call.
Louise watched the clouds darkening outside while Alex picked her outfit for the evening. He had bathed her and washed her hair, choosing to leave it free and flowing down her back. He forwent a corset, opting for a sheer cream colored slip that left her practically naked. He flipped through her dresses, looking for something tasteful but seductive. He settled on a lilac colored gown with intricate gold embroidery and sleeves that fell from her shoulders, revealing her delicate collarbones and an expanse of smooth skin. The dress had been tailored for her specifically and it fit like a glove, hugging each curve.
"I'm of a mind to take you myself." He ran his fingers through the strands of hair that framed her face, pushing them behind her shoulders. "But this night serves a different purpose."
He had explained to Louise that this night was special. She was at her most fertile in her cycle. All she had to do was let Jack make love to her as he had done countless times already. Nature would take its course. Alex had prepared everything for the night - dinner, champagne, roaring fires in both the parlor and in Louise's bedroom. The boy would not require much persuasion.
When Jack arrived, Louise was the one to greet him. He'd never seen her like this. She took his breath away and he fought the urge to grab her hand and make her run with him right then and there. Stepping aside, she smiled meekly and he entered.
"What is this about, Louise? Why am I here?" And why have you stayed away from me all this time?
She shut the door and looked up at him. "Let's sit in the parlor and talk."
Once Jack was sitting down, she poured them both some brandy and joined him on the sofa. He was about to ask where her husband was when a man entered the room. He was tall, over six feet, and pale skinned with long pale blonde hair. But Jack was most taken with the man's eyes. So blue and bright and they seemed to hold him frozen under their gaze. With one shaky hand he brought the liquor to his lips and took a large swig, the other went instinctively to his pocket where he hid a small revolver.
Grayson tilted his head and smiled slightly. "You're here to help Louise and I make a baby." Jack coughed and the brandy stung his throat. Alex was quickly at his side, between him and Louise. He put a hand on the young man and Jack felt suddenly relaxed. Alex took the gun from his pocket and emptied it of bullets. "I smelled the gunpowder when you entered. Don't worry, you are safe here. All you need to do," he whispered, "is take my beautiful wife. It's what you want."
"I do want her," Jack replied, his eyes turning to the woman next to them. He was burning with his desire for her.
At Alex's direction, Louise rose from her seat and took Jack by the hand, leading him to her bedroom. He followed her willingly.
Inside her room, Louise led Jack to the bed and told him to sit. She tugged on the ribbons that held her dress together and let it shimmy easily off of her, so that she stood before him in only the gossamer slip. Her lover's green eyes were dulled by Alex's magic and though she searched for her love reflected in them, she saw only the blind lust that her master had planted there. She swallowed, resisting the urge to cry and began to unfasten his belt. His hands were quickly on her, rough and demanding. Pulling her onto him without warning, he flipped her onto her back and thrust. He took her as though she were a task he was determined to complete. The slip she wore gathered above her waist. Jack, fully clothed, moved in her mechanically until his final thrust.
When it was over he rolled off of her and seemed to doze. Louise continued to lie on her back as Alex had instructed her, giving her body time to accept Jack's seed. She turned her head to look at the man sleeping next to her. After a time, she fell asleep as well.
She woke to a cool damp breeze, the rain misting through the window along with the scent of decaying leaves. Jack stood at the window, his back to her, looking out on the yard. He had covered her with a blanket, Louise realized.
"What was that?" he asked, turning to her, and Louise saw the dried tears on his cheeks.
Sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest, Louise wrapped the thick wool blanket around her body. "I'm so sorry." She hid her face in the covers and continued to mumble her apologies. She felt Jack's weight on the bed and then his arms were around her. He rocked her gently and then slowly raised her chin so she was forced to meet his eyes.
"What is he Louise? What did he do to you? To me?"
"He's a vampire Jack." She looked at him with damp eyes and stroked his cheek with the tips of her fingers before taking a deep breath. "And I'm his. He used you, compelled you. And I'm sorry for that. So sorry."
"I felt him in my mind, driving me. I wanted, God, all I wanted was to cum inside you, to make a baby. God, Louise!" He ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms. She saw he was shaking. "I can't believe I took you like that -"
She shushed him from speaking further. "We gave him what he wanted, Jack. Now he won't hurt you. He'll probably make you forget." Louise explained that Alex had the power to compel and to wipe one's memories away. He had washed her whole self away making her new for him.
Jack wanted to kill the thing that had done this to him, for the things it had put Louise through. But he found his anger would not last. It came only in fleeting thoughts. In its place was the strong urge to follow Louise's lead, to let her direct him as to what to do next. That is how he found himself sitting down to dinner with the woman he loved and her vampire captor.
Alexander sat at the head of the table, Louise to his right, and Jack across from her. There was chilled champagne to celebrate the hopeful conception. There was steak, vegetables, and fresh bread, fruit and cheese. Jack and Louise both ate hearty helpings of all of it, washing it down with the bubbly alcohol. While the two of them feasted, Alex talked. He told them about the moment he had caught her scent. How, upon seeing her, he chose her for his mate. He thanked Jack for his important contribution to their future. Inside, the young man seethed. His body twitched with inexpressible anger at the condescension in Alex's words.
After dinner, he was allowed to kiss Louise goodbye. Her lips were wet and salty. Alex walked him to the carriage that was waiting to take him home, whispering in his ear all the while. He arrived home well after midnight. He tried to remember where he'd been coming from. He could not. He thought of Louise. He tried to hold the idea of her in his mind. He could not.
It was now mid-November and the weather had grown cold. The trees were bare of their leaves and it seemed to rain more often than not. More and more of her time was spent indoors - reading, drawing. Alex had purchased a piano and placed it in the ballroom where she now practiced that skill as well. He had mastered the instrument ages ago and, while he claimed to have not touched one in many years, it came effortlessly to him. So he was her teacher in this as in all things.
Louise concentrated on her body. Though it had not been very long, she hoped for signs that she was with child. She rested, abstained from alcohol, ate healthily, and took long night walks with Alex. She sometimes thought of Jack and their days together, but pleasing Alex was her priority.
She was relaxing in the large marble tub of her water closet, on a particularly cold and rainy afternoon, letting the warm bath soothe her while Cara washed her hair. She didn't notice the blood until after Cara had left her alone, when she was rising out of the sudsy water. It spread and hung like a red cloud in the basin of lukewarm bath water. Her failure.
Louise hated to feel inadequate. She strived to please Alex in all things. Yet, in this most important function, she had failed. She feared that he would replace her with another, a more worthy woman. After all, so many women fall pregnant all the time. That they had taken such pains to procreate at her most fertile and still had failed, must mean that she was unworthy. Or deficient. She wanted to be fruitful. She wanted to give him what he wanted.
By the time Alex rose for the evening, she was completely distraught and apologetic. She waited for her punishment - a stern berating, or worse to be left alone for the night while he fed elsewhere. To her surprise he only comforted her.
"It is the way of humans that they fail many times before achieving their goals. Do not fret over it. There will be other chances," he had told her. He assured her that the deficiency was not with her. It must have been with the boy. They would find a more suitable candidate and try again. She sank into his embrace, assured of his continued favor.
Cara watched Jack from a distance. She had tried the harbor and seen that his boat was neatly tucked away for the season. Only by sheer luck had she bumped into another man on the docks, one that knew Jack, knew he had taken a job at a nearby hotel for the winter. He was out of place in the overly ornate lobby, amongst the even fancier guests. From where she spied on him, she could see his unease. On his boat, he was in command. Here, he was just a lowly servant, same as her.
Louise had been quite shaken when her monthly came and only then had she confessed that she had been hoping for a pregnancy. It was not hard to deduce the timeline and the reason for Jack's invitation. She knew that whatever Alexander Grayson was, he was not a man, and Louise could not conceive with him. Suddenly his tolerance of their illicit affair made much more sense to the inquisitive maid.
Since learning about Mr. Grayson's origins, she had done her best to feign ignorance and go about her normal duties, never staying in the house after dark, and not asking too many prying questions of Louise. She prayed that word from Marshal Hunter would come soon. Until then, Jack was her only potential ally in helping her mistress.
Finally she saw her opportunity when Jack stepped outside for a break. She followed him into the alley beside the hotel entrance and found him lighting a cigarette.
"I didn't know you smoke."
"I quit. Picked it up again for some reason." He looked questioningly at the pretty girl who seemed very familiar with him. She didn't look like a guest. "Do I know you?"
"You know me. I work for Louise."
"Sorry, I don't know the guests by first names."
"You don't remember Louise? Grayson? Our talk on your boat?"
At the mention of The Plain Jane, Jack gave her a second look. He'd had a few women on his boat here and there, but she didn't look like any of them he remembered.
Cara saw him trying to work out how he knew her. He really didn't know. "It was only a short conversation. You really don't remember Louise, do you?" He shrugged and before he could form an apology, she went on, "I must be mistaken. I must be thinking of someone else." Cara excused herself and hurried out of the alley. She was on her own.
December 1861
Jimmy glanced up at the sound of the door to the marshal's office swinging open. Expecting to see Teaspoon, he was instead greeted with the lanky frame and smirking face of Jake Colter. "Great," he thought to himself. Just when he'd started to find a rhythm to things again, in walks trouble.
He swung his boots off the desk and stood up, squaring his shoulders as he appraised the troublesome bounty hunter. As usual, he was greasy haired and dirt stained. But Jimmy knew how it got on the trail; he couldn't judge. Shrugging, he cracked a smile.
"What brings you to Sweetwater Colter? Tell me you ain't chased a bounty here."
"Nope. It's the darndest thing," the other man grinned as he took a seat on the opposite side of the desk. "I guess I just missed ya."
"You need a job or something?"
"Nah. Already doing yours, actually." He pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket and tossed it on the desk between them. "Mail for the marshal."
Jimmy glanced down and saw the letter addressed to Teaspoon Hunter. "Where'd you get that?"
"I know a guy in Omaha, gets the letters when they come off the train. Happened to see that one in the mess and figured I'd deliver it personally. It woulda taken another week easy, if I hadn't volunteered."
"You stole mail? I can arrest you for that."
"Come on Hickok, don't be that way. I was just perusing the mail, looking for a lead on a bounty, and happened to see that there letter. I did y'all a favor. 'Sides, I was bored in Omaha."
"Sweetwater ain't any more exciting."
"That can't be true. Wild Bill Hickok's here, after all."
Jimmy winced at the name. "If that's your only business, you can move on."
"After I came all this way. I'm curious to see what this Cara has to say. Coming all the way from Boston."
Jimmy took a second look at the envelope and noticed that it did in fact come all the way from New England. Teaspoon had never mentioned any Cara Kelly. He was a bit curious himself.
The letter wasn't really any of his business, and certainly none of Jake's, but he knew that it was the quickest way to get the unwelcome visitor off his back and, hopefully, out of town. "Fine. Let's go see the marshal."
They found Teaspoon sitting at the counter in the new cafe. Jimmy wasn't at all surprised. Polly, the old man's former wife, had moved to Sweetwater and opened a European style coffeehouse. At first Jimmy wondered why on earth anyone would choose Sweetwater for such an endeavor, but it had grown popular with the younger folks in town and eventually even some of the old timers. Not to mention, Polly and Teaspoon were rekindling whatever they'd had in their youth.
"You been holding out on us old man?" he asked, sliding the envelope across the counter to rest in front of Teaspoon. Polly was busy with another customer, so he leaned in and whispered, "seems they're crawling out of the woodwork these days."
Teaspoon looked questioningly at Jimmy and Jake. "Colter, what brings you to these parts?" he asked, picking up the envelope.
"Just doing a friendly favor," Jake answered him.
Teaspoon mumbled something that sounded like disbelief and picked the envelope up off the counter. He studied the handwriting and then the name and return address of the sender. "I had me an Irish wife once, but not by the name of Cara Kelly."
"Maybe it's another long lost daughter," Jimmy offered, taking a seat at the counter. Teaspoon gave him a sharp glance before tearing open the envelope.