CHAPTER 30 Conversations with the Undead
While dreaming the first night after her initiation, Alex discovered that Millennium Road had changed. It wasn't quite so dark and everything was more vivid. She noticed something she'd not seen before: a flaming pentagon in the distance, toward which they were all traveling.
"I saw that in my initiation," she said. "Or at least another manifestation of it."
Cosmina was pleased to hear this. "Not everyone can see it," she said. Alex took the symbol to imply that movement along the Road was toward perfecting the race of vampires. Cosmina had been correct about Alex's relationship with her fellow travelers. They could now talk to her and seemed coherent. She also felt more awake while there in this vampire psychic space. Her dreamscape now seemed almost as real as her waking state.
Alex also saw something else that had not been there before: a glow far in the distance to the right off Millennium Road. Vampire activity off-Road had been to the left, as was the edifice where she'd been initiated, and the area to the right had been barren, deserted, and had an ominous feel to it. She mentioned the glow to Cosmina, but she didn't know what Alex was talking about, nor did she know anything about the area to the right of the road. Alex didn't press it. She'd have to investigate alone once she became more acquainted with vampire psychic space.
Alex was still reflecting on what had happened to her during the initiation. She realized that nothing had happened in the real world, but she was still bothered by the female tenderness and male serial ravishing and could not fathom why she felt so guiltless about allowing it, if not all-out embracing it. But the violation had made her feel that she belonged to the race of vampires. She'd forfeited any remaining innocence. She wondered if the ritual had originated in prehistoric human civilization. But the ghastly creatures... She didn't think she'd ever be able to come to terms with being consumed by them.
Cosmina set up Alex with her own living space that would serve her special needs. She now occupied a recess in the Cathedral wall but outside the main activity. Her biggest problem was that she was perpetually cold. Vampires didn't need much warmth, but Alex was an exception. She reasoned that being pregnant caused her to be different. Her compartment had no amenities, and she had to scrounge for herself what fixtures and storage facilities she needed.
Few vampires lived in the cavern, most having jobs and lives outside the vampire circle, so they placed little value on having their own space. Practically all vampires who did put up permanent residence inside were involved in some sort of administrative function serving Alu. When told this, Alex smiled, realizing that even the society of immortals had need of order and direction, and she wondered if it involved paperwork. Cosmina had a good laugh.
Alex heard rumors of a lower chamber to the cavern, one beyond Xanadu, but Alu permitted no one down there. Legend had it that a vampire got lost there in the deepest of all darkness, and could not find his way out. He had neither nourishment nor blood, and was lost for a hundred years, suffering the agonies only a vampire could suffer.
Several times, and by several vampires, Alex had been invited to Shadowrise. But she declined. Her face had been on television. She was the only one who would not venture outside. Left to her own devices, she set about learning why others spent time there in the Cathedral. Some locals came for the intellectual stimulation, and some came from far away to meet friends who lived in other parts of the world and at times passed through Sinaia. Others came from all over the world to attend vampire conferences. They told of colonies in far off places, other countries. Many sought advice and spent hours in consultation with Alu or another of the ancient vampires. A few came to recruit for their clan from the more recent inductees.
Alex listened in on the philosophical discussions and learned that some of the younger-appearing vampires were in fact among the oldest. Looks in the vampire world could be particularly deceiving because vampires didn't mature physically beyond their conversion age, and that created a curious phenomenon where some of the youngest, but the longest lived, were the more wise, and some of the oldest but more recently turned were the most naive. Every permutation was represented: young-old, old-young, young-young, and old-old, and all shades between, each grouping with predictable characteristics and multitudes of exceptions.
In spite of the categories, they all had great affection for one another and valued the diversity, although each group would laugh at the weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of the others. Cosmina it turned out was a millennium old although she would never admit it. At first the quiet got to Alex, but after being there a while, she seemed to hear the thoughts swirling in vampire minds, like milk in a butter churn.
After familiarizing herself with the cavern and its social strata, Alex waited for a time when she could investigate the mysterious glow off to the right of Millennium Road. She'd talked to no one concerning it since she'd mentioned it to Cosmina. She waited until she was particularly satisfied with her living situation, and then one night, she went to bed early.
Once on Millennium Road, she stepped off to the right and turned toward the glow. The uneasy feeling she had about the terrain returned, and she saw a scorched landscape where previous dwellings had been decimated and left in ruins. It used to be an old battlefield and now possibly a demilitarized zone. Off to the right and in the distance, she saw the dim outline of a ravaged mountain that must have previously been much larger. Some explosion ripped it apart. Now all that remained was a jagged hill of obsidian with an even darker depression in the middle that extended to the ground, obviously an entrance to an underground chamber now blocked by debris. All had not gone well in vampire psychic space sometime in the past. She experienced great fear of the place and walked on toward the light in the distance.
Although Alex walked for what seemed an eternity, the glow got no closer, but then, rather abruptly, it rose up before her, a small opening in the firmament above the horizon. At the center, she saw the framework of a structure under construction and a flurry of activity on the ground and in the glow above it. As she approached, she realized that all the shapes performing the activities were winged. They came close and fluttered about her like human-sized butterflies, or perhaps seraphim with three pairs of wings. They had soft pastel coloring with some light green, others of pale pink. They bowed to her, and seemed to solicit her opinion of what they were doing. Such a structure out in the middle of nowhere made no sense. Telepathically she got the idea that it was called the Chateau. She tired of watching, and, believing it had nothing to do with her, she left.
One night, Alex startled awake. She'd not fed in a couple of weeks, and after feasting on the policeman she was not yet close to the time when she would have to, but she knew the time would come in perhaps another week. She talked to Cosmina about this. Cosmina said it wouldn't be a problem, that she'd bring someone to her when the time came, but Alex realized that when she fed off that person, the donor would be immune. The person could not know this but should have no plans to become a vampire. She had to keep it from Cosmina. Alex thought that this might also be best for the baby, so Alex asked Cosmina to find someone for her who had never been tasted.
A week later, Cosmina brought Alex a local girl, heavyset with short black hair. She spent a couple of days with Alex, the two of them talking continuously. Those who knew of such things had screened her, and the girl had been sworn to secrecy and paid a substantial sum. The girl, whose name was Gail, was a little spooked over the whole thing, when it came right down to it, having never been bitten. Alex hadn't been that close to a human since she'd come to the cavern, and immediately her craving ignited. She restrained herself.
Gail presented a severe disposition at first, a false goth front similar to that donned by Jaklin when they first met, but Alex could tell she was quite pleasant underneath. Gail's grandparents were both very old, and she lived with and took care of them. This kept her too busy for a full-time job, but she could be away for hours and certainly needed the money. Alex pro
mised her more, if she'd save her blood for her exclusively. "Plus, you'll get a little non-monetary compensation that I'll tell you about after I have the baby."
When the time came for Alex to bite her, Alex learned that it was customary to bite a donor on the wrist. She took Gail's arm and was amazed at how warm she was, positively hot, and though her blood was sweetly satisfying, it came slowly from the wrist, and Alex longed to take the girl into her arms and sink her teeth into her throat. With her bulk, she must have enough of it, and nothing like great gulps from the jugular quenched a vampire's thirst. But Alex restrained herself, and a bond formed between the vampire and the human. Gail even liked to snuggle while Alex fed off her, which was not surprising because vampire saliva was an aphrodisiac.