CHAPTER 36 Reconciliation
At sunrise, Jaklin and Mikhail, fully healed, were still too wired to go to bed. Jaklin kept asking about side effects and wanting to find someone to bite. They had to see what their relationship with the sun would be. They'd already tested for cross aversion, and found themselves immune. Then they stepped out onto the front porch and waited for the sun to break the mountaintop, leaving the door open so they could make a fast retreat. Helios flashed his rays, and Jaklin and Mikhail ducked for cover.
"I don't remember it being so bright," said Jaklin.
Mikhail hid his face at first but then peaked out from between his fingers. "I definitely prefer a dark room, but it appears that I can tolerate it. What happens to normal vampires?"
"The skin blisters almost immediately and starts to smoke. If they don't seek shelter, they burst into flame," said Catherine.
"I suffered a little from bright sunlight at first but built up a tolerance," said Alex.
Finally, Jaklin stepped out into direct sunlight. Nothing happened. "Guess I get to keep my day job," she said. "And here I was hoping to go on disability."
They still watched Jaklin closely. Although she appeared to be alright, she was erratic, her arms flailing at times for no apparent reason, and she laughed excessively and at the strangest things. When she did so, they'd stare at her, and she'd laugh again. They kept her away from the kitchen knives.
Alex said she needed to talk to Father Zosimos, and they immediately volunteered to go with her. Catherine, who'd been up before sunrise, flinched at the name Zosimos.
"My late husband was a Zosimos," she said. "Perhaps the priest is a relative."
"You should come," said Alex. "I want him to baptize Andra. Even at one day old, I want this behind me."
They left on foot walking downhill, Jaklin and Mikhail feeling a surge of energy, and Catherine wanting a daylight look at the Sinaia she'd once loved.
Jaklin called the ICC and told them she would have to take a couple of days sick leave. "They are not pleased," she said. "Ten-nation conference going on right now. Lots of dignitaries."
"What position do you have at the ICC?" asked Catherine.
"I represent the Bulgarian Consulate. Logistics, passports, visas. I'm a notary."
"We'll have to talk sometime. I'm a professor of international law. I used to teach at the University of Edinburgh."
Alex looked discouraged. "Lawyers. Seems it's a family tradition."
They entered the monastery through the wood gate, which had just been unlocked and swung inside, and walked on to Zosimos' residence. After knocking and getting no response, Alex worked the door latch and, finding it unlocked, entered, the other three right behind her.
"Stay here," she said, turning Andra over to Catherine. "I've heard he's not well. Let me see if I can rouse him."
Alex walked through an archway into a short hall that led to a bedroom. She saw no one inside. She entered the small chamber. It was cluttered with books left open and lying on chairs, shelves, the unmade bed, and a writing desk, which had several sheets of unfinished writing Alex recognized as Latin. She heard a whimpering from the closet, went to it, and pulled the sliding door aside. There was Father Zosimos cowering against a corner among stacks of both fresh clothes and dirty laundry. He shrunk away from her, hiding his eyes from the light. She wondered if he'd been turned.
"Father?" She wasn't even sure it was him. "Why are you crying?"
Finally, he opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Thank the Lord it's you," he said. "I was afraid they'd killed you. I've been accosted by a flock of angels, come to admonish me over my crimes. My dreams are torture. Forgive me, Alexandra. Call off the angels. Please!"
Alex helped him to his feet and into the desk chair. He sat holding his head in his hands. “I’ve come for my cross,” she said. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
“I’ve been hoping for an opportunity to return it.” With that he limped to the cupboard, slid open a drawer, and retrieved her cross still on its chain. “You wouldn’t believe the burden this has put me under. I’ve been chased by visions during the day and hounded by unholy demons in my dreams.”
“You brought this calamity on yourself,” she said. “I’m sorry it’s come between us.”
“Not you and me. Heaven and me. Kneel, child, and quit lecturing.”
She dropped to her knees.
Father Zosimos cupping the cross within both his hands like the precious object that it was, and with tears streaming down his face said, his voice cracking, "It is with great pride and humble awareness that I present this cross to you, child, in the Name of the One Who fell to it, our own Lord Jesus." He took a deep breath and a great sense of relief came over him. "In the name of Jesus Christ, the Child All Mighty, I do hereby grant you possession of this cross for eternity. Whomsoever shall attempt to relieve you of it shall be cursed until death." He slipped the chain over her head and let it fall to her chest.
Alex rose to her feet. "I've brought three others with me, actually four. I have a task for you," she said.
They left his chamber and walked back into the receiving room.
"You know my friends Jaklin and Mikhail. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Father, but I have turned both. I'm not proud of it, but it seems that is the way it is meant to be."
He raised his eyes to the heavens, and then threw up his hands in resignation. "I'll not question your actions, but accept these two young people as they now are." Still, he was overcome with emotion. He looked up. "Father in Heaven! What has become of the world? Do none of the old teachings hold?"
"I turned them myself, one through necessity, the other by choice," said Alex. "And they seem to also have a touch of the divine."
He closed his eyes and steadied himself. "So be it," said Father Zosimos. "Hopefully someday the Lord will reveal the nature of this new world to me." He took another breath and motioned toward Catherine. "And pray tell who..." he seemed to want to say what monstrosity but restrained himself, "...is this?"
"This young woman, Catherine..." Alex paused searching for a characterization, "...is a relative of mine."
"And human, so it would seem?" he said, greatly relieved.
"Yes, very much so," said Catherine.
Alex took the child from her. "And this is my daughter, Andra. Although less than one day old, I wish her baptized." She paused for a second. "And in case you’re wondering, she’s healthy, human, and not a child of Satan."
He did seem to be leery of the child, taking a step back as if afraid they’d ask him to hold her. "I’m sorry I questioned her virtuous and noble state of being."
They heard running footsteps outside, and a young man burst into the room. He was rather tall, gangly, with unruly black hair.
"You're up, and seeing people," he panted. "What's happened?"
"The cause of all my concern has returned alive," said Father Zosimos. "Or at least present in this world. You're just in time to help with a little officiating." He turned to the others. "This is my grandson, Daniel Zosimos," he said.
"But how did you recover so quickly?" asked Daniel.
"Heaven has chased off the Hounds of Hell," he replied. "At least for now."
A squeak came out of Catherine. "Oh," she murmured and collapsed like rag doll. Alex and Jaklin were on her in an instant. Catherine tried to struggle to her feet but didn't make it.
"Sit for a moment. Regain your strength," said Alex. "What happened?"
Father Zosimos retrieved a bottle from a cupboard behind the desk, opened and poured it into a glass. "Holy water," he said. He offered it to Catherine, obviously wishing to test her.
Catherine seemed afraid of it at first, then drank a little. She rose partially and slumped on the sofa. She was crying. "My late husband was named Daniel Zosimos," she said. "He was from Sinaia. But it's not so much the name as his appearance. I would swear that he's my husband come back from the grave."
"This is not possible," said Father
Zosimos, obviously relieved that he'd finally found something he could comfortably be contrary about. "I would know of another Zosimos living here. My grandson was named for a granduncle of mine who died at the age of thirty."
"That would have been him," said Catherine. And then she told them her strange story of being turned by her aunt ninety years ago. She ended her story with Alex turning her back human. She then said, "I am the illegitimate daughter of Queen Marie. I was born in eighteen ninety-seven. I am the great great grandmother of Alex's little girl."
Mikhail seemed to wake from his trance. "This is a strange world I live in," he said. "Last evening I was killed and resurrected as a vampire, and yet here I am in a room with two priests and a woman who is one hundred and fifteen years old, and yet looks to be no more than twenty. And she was once a vampire but now human, again."
"I have been a priest but a year, and I'm confronted with... with... this," said Daniel. "Grandfather! Tell me what to make of it."
Father Zosimos shook his head but restrained himself. "All in due course. Accept the situation as it is for now, and we'll try to come to terms with it together another time."
"And this child I hold in my arms," said Alex, "is the first human born to a vampire in three millennia."
Father Zosimos had them each grab a chair, and form a circle. He shut his eyes, hummed quietly, and when he finally had control of himself, spoke. "These are indeed profound times. I've been tried and broken, but I can tell now that the good Lord has brought us all together for a reason, the extent of which, none of us yet realize. Let us have faith in one another as we have in our Lord Jesus that we might accomplish these profound tasks sent by Divine Will."
And they all joined hands in the center of their circle, and Zosimos placed his left at the bottom of theirs and the right at the top while he said, "Let us form a covenant of trust with one another and work to fulfill Divine Will." Then he said a prayer for them, and they all said, "Amen."
"Please. I need you to baptize my child," said Alex.
"So it will be then," said Father Zosimos but then hesitated. "However, Jaklin and Mikhail can't witness the ceremony."
"But they have to," said Alex. "It wouldn't be right to exclude them.
"Alright then," Father Zosimos said. "But they'll each have to wear a cross to prove they're not totally hostile to the Church."
"Not a problem," said Mikhail.
"Which would you prefer, a new shiny one or something old?"
"Ancient," said Mikhail. "Something orphaned by an unbeliever."
"And you, my child," said Zosimos turning to Jaklin.
"The smallest you have, to remind me that I have so little faith."
"And for you, Catherine?"
"I'd have the one I wore ninety years ago, taken from me when I was ostracized."
"Take this for now," he said. "We'll have to look into our stack of repossessed ones later."
They all walked to the baptismal chamber in the Old Monastery, where Daniel filled the ancient stone font with holy water while his grandfather put on his robes. They gathered about the font. Father Zosimos said, "Ordinarily we'd hear from the child's godparents at this time."
"I would like to be her godmother," said Catherine. "I cannot imagine another."
"I would like to be her godfather," said Daniel. "I am so taken with these young people and this child that I would like to play a role in her life."
"Let it be so," said Alex.
Father Zosimos, who now appeared to have overcome his fear of the infant, took the sleeping child from its blankets, submerged her three times within the holy water while saying the words, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Little Andra shivered and cried at the first dunking but remained quiet at the following two. He placed a tiny cross about her neck.
After the christening, Alex requested that Father Zosimos help her make out a Last Will and Testament, wherein, if anything should happen to her, she could leave everything she had, the Estate and money, to Andra, and Andra would be in Catherine's charge until the age of eighteen.
When all was complete, the four started to leave the monastery, but Daniel requested that Catherine stay a while. "To see if we can locate your cross," he said.
And so she did.
Father Zosimos seemed relieved to have the vampires leave.