It was Annabel’s death that threw me off, hide the truth that was right before my eyes. And the wall was there between us although us three traveling together, depending on each other seemed to drop most of the barriers between Maurice and myself. Things had changed but I thought in many ways, we were stronger together. The closeness between them I thought was that of a mother that had lost her children only to gain new ones. For Maurice’s part, I still clung to the idea that he and Annabel had been first loves. Well, I’m sure it might have been for her. And for a time, I’m sure he was smitten with her. But that’s not why he tried to save her. She was a gift and a test. And a trap all in one.
You mustn’t think poorly of Maurice. He did none of that with malice in his heart, no true understanding of how his childish ambitions would play out. i’m not even really sure that he consciousness knew how all of it fit together. He was too close to it and reacted. He wanted to keep her with him. And as her child lay dying, in the way that our partly vampire minds think, he weighed so many variables. As we’ve aged, I’ve watched many other vampires, seen how they think, felt it. Perhaps it is another gift I have. It’s not quite telepathy. But I’ve been watching them for so long, I can feel their intent as it flows into their actions. It’s kept us alive, in the most dire of times.
But I suffered from nearsightedness, I was too close to it all to see it for far too long. I was also inexperienced; we had been children made and the interactions between men and women, while I would see them, knew of them, my young vampire mind did not understand. I had very much liked Lucas. But I had not loved him. I had not wanted him in that way. Maurice and I had agreed to take turns surveying any new area during the night, Caroline would do so during the day while helping to get us situated. But never for very long. West. She wanted us to move West.
The hints were small. They would tense when I interrupted them. Soon, I was taking most watches because I was better out sneaking around, becoming invisible. It was true but something in his intention when he suggested it…well, like I said, it took me some time to question it. Plus, I loved to go out into the night, watch how humans interacted, especially in the cities. They lived on, danced, played, celebrated, never acting as if their fragility mattered when it was always there, just a hand’s breath away. The actress, the courtesans always fascinated me. How little power they had in that man’s world but how much control they could possess. I watched it with fascination only to see it crumble so many times. The tools of their trade: makeup, perfume, clothes, manners, caresses, beguiling glances…I began to see it in her, began to see how she played him, how she whispered.
For awhile, it didn’t bother me so much to know. I love my brother. I didn’t begrudge him any happiness she might’ve shared with him. But as the years passed, I began to see her frozen in time. At first, she seemed to become ageless. And then, the fine lines began to disappear, the sagginess becoming taut and curved. Her years of laboring were falling away from her and soon, the arguments started. She was getting the sort of attention from all men that my brother must have lavished on her at night while I was away. And she liked it. They would have spats and he would take watch, unsettled, angry. Sometimes, he would forget to bring us fresh blood. Once, I was so starved I had to follow him to make sure he didn’t neglect us.
He had killed a deer. But he had not drank. After I took my turn, I held his hand and sat with him. The wall had started to crumble. He was afraid she would leave us. He didn’t know what she wanted any more. He was certain he’d never be able to give her enough. But I knew what he did not. Caroline had become addicted to the attention she received. And while at the time I did not understand how she was able to do it, she was regaining her youth, maintaining it through Maurice. I tread with care. It had helped him to talk some; it quieted some of the brewing storm. But the spats would happen, he would retreat, and I would comfort him. Little by little, he admitted what they had done together. The more contact with her he had, the more time seemed to turn backwards for her.
We had to stop the lie of her being our mother…she became our elder sister which made all of us uncomfortable. But she quickly got over it. So much easier was it to play the role of elder guardian than poor, widowed mother with two children. She might be emancipated from us. I was afraid it would break Maurice. His powers were growing as were mine and his needs, they were growing too. I knew I had to do something. To keep my brother, I would need to break the bond between them. I would have to find a way to make him choose. His lover or his sister.
He choose Caroline and so I left him to her. We were apart for a year and a day. Our reunion was bittersweet. He found me in Fort Shaw, Montana, where I was helping a blind priest named Nathaniel minister to the natives there. It was 1887 and he wanted me to travel back East to St. Paul to clean up his mess, to undo what he had unleashed. Caroline had changed into something neither of us could’ve predicted. Maybe it was his fluids, his blood as he had begun to share that with her too. Maybe it was that something was lacking as neither of us were quite mature yet. It didn’t matter. Enough had happened that he finally realized what she was and what, with my help, he needed to do.
We had to kill her, you see. We had to kill Maurice’s first love. She had become a succubus.
She’s staring right into his eyes, being the same height as him and while there’s fear there, it’s not the only thing I see in her eyes. As he leans in and she closes her eyes, it’s clear what he means to do and I feel all flustered and turn my head away, embarrassed. But I can hear it. And it goes on…for awhile…and gets louder…
Vampirony 