The Dark Proposal (The Claire McCormick Trilogy) (25 page)

It was nearly 10 PM when they returned to the apartment. Claire began to open the boxes while Daniel got on the phone with Michel and Hilde. At first he spoke to them in medieval French, but he switched to modern English when he said, “She’ll be fine here, but if you want to keep an eye on her, you’re welcome to come.”

Claire froze at first, then she glanced up. Daniel was looking at her intensely. That was Hilde he was talking to, and he was asking to come over to watch her in case she ran away. What was this? Did Daniel really distrust her this much?

He continued the phone conversation in his favorite language for a few more minutes before hanging up. Running his hand through his hair, he said, “Michel and I are going out for an hour. Hilde already hunted so, she opted to come over and spend time with you. It’s not that I don’t trust you; I just feel you would want some company.”

“But she and I don’t really get along,” Claire said, still on the floor by the boxes. “Why would she want to hang out with me?”

He threw his hands up. “You got me. Hilde isn’t the most predictable person, so might as well get used to it.”
 

Claire thought back on the last time Hilde spent time alone with her, and cringed at the memory of kissing her while drunk. She vowed not to get wasted on wine this time so she could function well around Hilde.

Fifteen minutes later, Daniel buzzed the vampires up to the apartment and they were at the door in moments. As before, when they entered, they exchanged with Daniel friendly kisses with Daniel. When Michel approached Claire, who was standing next to Daniel, he leaned in to kiss her. At first she stiffened, but then responded to the kiss, albeit limply. Hilde simply gave her a peck on the cheek.

Hilde was quick to shoo away the two men so she could help prepare Claire for her transition. “I’m the oldest here, so I ought to have that responsibility.”

“Isn’t that my role?” Daniel didn’t look pleased.
 

“Yes, dear,” Hilde said, mockingly flirtatious. “But she’s going to need some female companionship. She’s not going to see those other two girls again now, is she?”

Those words stabbed Claire in the heart. She knew it was true all along, but wanted to believe there was hope.

The other two vampires left the apartment and Hilde locked the door behind them. She turned to Claire and asked if she wanted any wine.

“No thanks,” she said. “I’m still full from dinner.”

“Ah,” Hilde seemed defeated, but quickly said, “Shall I help you unpack?”

Shrugging, Claire allowed her to help with emptying the box she was working on. It was filled with books, and was not the only box which held nothing but them. Hilde asked her why she didn’t have an eBook reader.

“I can’t afford one,” she said as she started piling the hardcovers on the floor. “And my parents weren’t the type to spoil me.”

“Well, that will change very shortly,” Hilde pretended to examine the back of one book before setting it down. “After all, Daniel did pretty well for himself.”

“Yeah, I can tell, with his art work and that necklace he gave me.”
 

“Oh that is nothing!” Hilde laughed as she placed herself in a kneeling position. “He’s very smart, not just with writing and languages. He has a very sharp mind that he has kept hidden from you. But now since you’ll be one of us soon, you’ll get the idea.”

Claire slowed down from unpacking her books. She knew Hilde was right. Before he
 
revealed himself as a vampire, she thought she knew everything about Daniel; he was a lover of art, drama and reporting, that was simple. But after his revelation, she saw there was a lot more, besides his vampiric nature. There was a shrewd gleam in his eyes, calculating each and every move. Claire had especially seen it the other night with Casames around. The way Daniel answered to the elder vampire, the way he presented Claire and gave her the necklace, it was all done to show off to the other vampires in the room. As if to brag about his newfound status, something he said wasn’t given to many. She could see it now, that subtle proud tone, the way he smiled at her. Before, she was too tense from Casames’ presence and his story on how vampires were first created. But upon reflection, those gestures were bright and clear.

Hilde glanced up from taking a couple of books. She looked a little concerned, though Claire didn’t want to believe it was authentic, even when she continued to speak.

“I’m proud that Daniel is going to be a Defender of the Blood. He is loyal to the Five and obeys their laws, which aren’t many. He’s also a quick thinker and a good asset for all of us. He’s come a long way.

“I remember when I first met him, back before the Black Death,” she said in a wistful voice. “He was so lost and unhappy. He was in a miserable marriage and had no place in society. I pitied him and wanted to give him the chance to be free from all that. I could tell when we talked that he wanted to fight against his place in the world. Being a bastard, even that of a nobleman, was inexcusable. No one cared that it wasn’t his fault who his parents were. He was born out of wedlock and he was destined for hell no matter what. That made him angry, that he didn’t stand a chance with anyone, alive or dead. Boy, did he want to fight that. I think that was what made me attracted to him, his fighting spirit.

“Anyway, when I made him a vampire, he soon realized he was free from that world and could be treated equally among us. He relished in his freedom, spending decades and decades enjoying happiness for the first time in his existence. He had no more fears, he was no longer sneered at. He was free.”

Claire nodded. “Yeah, he told me that. He really emphasized how unhappy he was before he was made a vampire, and how free he felt.” She paused. “I understood a little. I mean, I had a strict Catholic upbringing and when I went away to college, I made a huge effort to forget about all I was taught. It was all done to manipulate and terrorize people. Once I realized that, I felt liberated.”

“Perhaps,” Hilde twisted a piece of blond hair around one finger distractedly. “But I don’t think you’ll ever understand what life was like for a bastard in the Middle Ages. You are from freer times where illegitimate children are not looked down upon. I think it will take you years to absorb and understand what Daniel went through before he was transformed.”

Claire paused and nodded again. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She had to agree.

Patting a book that was resting on her lap before sliding it onto the floor, Hilde had a faraway look in her eyes. For once, Claire had a feeling she was being honest with her. The way she fingered her hair and stared into space made her believe that maybe this vampire was willing to finally be welcoming towards her.

Unless, of course, centuries had allowed Hilde to master the art of acting and manipulating mortals.

The vampire stopped twisting her hair abruptly and looked at Claire with a hard gleam. She had heard her thoughts and was visibly annoyed. There was silence between the two, as Claire waited for Hilde to make the first move.

Lowering her hand from her hair, she took a deep breath and said, “You know that I never really trusted you. I wanted Daniel to make sure he was making the right choice with you. That’s because I’d known Henry for quite some time. You know, that vampire who didn’t obey the rules, was almost caught by detectives and nearly ruined everything for us?”

Claire gestured her to continue.

“Well, Henry was a big mistake. He was irresponsible before he was made, and he got worse with his newfound freedom and powers. It was all bad judgment to choose him. Since there has always been people hunting for vampires since the Five Brothers, we all had to be careful around the detectives, police, you name it. We used our mind tricks to get many to believe that vampires really don’t exist, but there were just so many people. Those that slipped the cracks became hunters.

“As you probably know, there are secret units with many police departments in major cities all over the world. New York has had one since the turn of the 20
^th
century. They were on our case by the time the new millennium came because of the damn technology that made tracking down killers easier. And also because of Henry. He was from London and madeby
 
one of us in the 1800s. He was about nineteen. For decades, he stayed with his maker, being obedient, traveling the world with that person as new vampires are supposed to.” Hilde emphasized her voice at those final words.

“But then, in the 1970s, he wanted his freedom. The whole world had changed and it was more free than it had ever been. Sex was more out in the open, music became more fun, partying was available for all people. Henry wanted to take part in it, instead of observing it from the outside. It made perfect sense to all of us because we noticed the change. Before, we had hedonism all to ourselves, but now the world was like us in many ways. I guess religion mattered less and there was no stopping anyone anymore. It was time to have fun.

“So, Henry begged to be on his own. He wanted to mingle more with mortals to absorb this new world. But his maker refused mostly because the Brothers give the final word on who gets to be on their own, and they didn’t like Henry’s suggestion. But he kept fighting with his maker until eventually it wasn’t worth it anymore. The two split and he went out on his own. That was about twenty years ago.

Claire was confused. “If the Brothers give the final word, how did they split?”

Hilde curled her lips inward. “Sometimes it just happens. The Brothers don’t like it when a maker and its progeny part ways without their knowledge, but once it happens, they can’t do anything about it.

“Anyway, Henry traveled the world, being a total playboy. He mingled with rich and famous people, something he had yearned for since he had been a poor, street boy back in the day. He partied and slept with beautiful fashion models, bought yachts and sailed around the French Riviera - at night, though. He really put himself out there, and it was getting dangerous because the vampire hunters started to suspect what he really was. By the time the year 2000 came, he was being followed everywhere he went, and anyone associated with him was thought to be a vampire. And most of the time, the detectives were right.
 

“A few times, the Five Brothers called him to their headquarters in the Paris suburbs. They told him he had to go into hiding for a few decades until he was forgotten. Henry refused. He was having too much fun and didn’t want to go back being under the authority of another vampire. I guess being told what to do angered him because he started to rebel against more of the laws laid down by the Brothers. That was when he began to drink women dry and toss their bodies into dumpsters not too far from whatever hotel in whatever city he was staying in. How immature! Shows you can be 130 years old and still never grow up.

“Eventually, the worldwide vampires began to find ways to capture him. He - and anyone around him - knew that there was a plot to get him. You could be walking the streets with him and be followed by a detective. And this time, we could not kill that detective, like we did with that guy who called himself NYCHunter. Because unlike that one, these detectives were a team and Henry was their main target. They knew he was vampire, no doubt. It was just a matter of time before they got him.

“A few years ago, I came to New York to start a new life. I met with Henry several times to try to knock some sense into him. But I could tell he was ready to give up. Not because he was sick of being hunted, but he was sick of being a vampire. He wanted more of the mortal life, including being out in the sun. He wasn’t ready for that because he was too young. He wanted the best of both worlds, but couldn’t have it. I told him he had no choice but to be a vampire, because at the time, there was no other choice.”

Hilde got quiet and paused. She then continued softly, “I didn’t realize how much he wanted out of the vampire life. Maybe because I enjoyed the life that I couldn’t imagine not wanting to go with it. Like I said, Henry was immature and remained so all his vampire life. That’s why it was a mistake to make him one; he didn’t have the right mindset to grow up and accept limitations.” She started twisting her hair again.

Claire watched her. “He took his own life, right? Daniel told me he went out into the sun one day.”

She nodded slowly, eyes averted. “Yes, he did. I take it he decided that this was his way of not only escaping the police, but also us. The Brothers were coming after him. They were sending out their guards to capture him and lock him up for decades. They had dealt with similar vampires before in centuries past, but not like this. Not with the Internet, photographs, and all the technology used to track us down. They moved too slowly, misjudging how times had changed.
 

“But Henry was ahead of them and had made his plan. He didn’t tell anyone about it, not even me. But all I remember was feeling that painful jolting feeling in my body when he died. It was like my insides were tearing apart. It was midday one bright summer day with no cloud in the sky. I was in my apartment here, and Michel was with me. We had the Swedish drapes blocking the sun, and we were watching a movie we had rented. It was supposed to be a quiet afternoon for us, until we started screaming and twisting. The pain was so awful. I had felt it before when vampires died in wars, such as being bombed to pieces during the Blitz in World War II. But this pain was different. My vampire senses knew who it was that died. I knew it all too well. Henry had killed himself; no one had to tell me.”

Hilde continued to look down, her eyes still having the faraway look in them. It now was impossible to comprehend that those big blue eyes could also have a fierce glare in them.

Which was why Claire hesitated to gently, yet slowly, reach out and pat Hilde’s hand, the one resting absentmindedly in her lap. The touch registered slightly with the vampire, causing the corners of her mouth to raise a bit, so Claire took a deep breath and asked cautiously, “Were you Henry’s maker?”

Hilde blinked slowly, inhaled heavily, and nodded. She looked at Claire. “I guess you would’ve found out somehow. But yes, it was me. I was the one who thought he would make a good addition. He was so much fun to be around, and I figured he would make a good companion. Since back then he obeyed to everything I told him, it seemed like he would grow and mature. But his childishness was dormant for many years until the 1960s when the sexual revolution started. At first, he watched it from the outside like all of us, but within ten years, he wanted to be part of it.”