The wind roared in her ears. They darted around corners at a mind-numbing rate and rocketed along so that every object nearby was a blur. Just as she thought it could get no more unbelievable, she was flying through the air in a mighty leap, landing on a roof two stories above the ground and was whisked through a window into a gloomy building. There she was taken down some stairs in one leap and then down some more in another leap and then down a third flight of stairs, ending in a cellar with several oil lamps burning. She was taken to a cell and stood on her feet. When the gag was removed she was able to make out the features of her captor. He was the man who had caught the tray when she had dropped it. She said “You! I know you. You’re the man who caught my tray when I dropped it.”
“Yes. And you’re Jennifer.” He pulled her to him roughly then and bending down he put his lips against her neck and took a small bite of her flesh, just enough that she bled a bit. She flinched and cried out and pushed against him to no avail. He let her go then and smiled saying “You taste good, Jennifer. You’re mine now. You’ll cross over.” Turning with no explanation, he stepped out of the cell and locked it, departing up the steps like windblown smoke.
Chapter 95
The next day the men got busy on the banking business. They made an unannounced call at the Bank of Edwards & Milliken. Henri’s fellow Supreme Council judge Robert Milliken was in his office at the time. Introductions were made and since the meeting was in private, Henri informed Robert that both Mustafa and Louis were going to be brought over in the near future. He was advised that the latest one to be brought over was Andre Amsler as he introduced him. He was introduced to Li also. Only Ian and Henri knew that Milliken was a fellow member of the Supreme Council. The others took him as an Adept who happened to be a banker. Tradition demanded that even the name of the Supreme Council not be spoken in public. After their business was done, Henri asked Robert if he might have a private word with him. The others waited outside in the main vestibule area.
“I just wanted to reassure you that I told none of my associates about you being my fellow judge on the Council. In fact, only Ian and Marie know that both you and I are Council members.”
“Oh I know that you don’t talk idly, Henri. Call Ian back in here. I like him.”
Henri stepped out and got Ian. They returned and Robert came to him then “Ian, it is good to see you again. Have you had any more exciting adventures then?”
“None that I can talk about, sir.” said Ian as he thought unless you’d like to hear about our child vampire?
Robert laughed then and including both of them he said “Do you want to stay at that same estate where you were the last time?”
Henri said “Well Bob, there are twelve of us this time.”
“That will be fine then. I’ll arrange it and have the staff sent in to open it and to stock food for how many humans?
“Six.”
“Will tomorrow afternoon be all right with your party then?”
“Why yes, Bob. That’s really nice of you and him. We enjoyed our stay there the last time.”
‘Think nothing of it then Henri. After all, did you not reciprocate by allowing him to use your suite in Paris last fall and me the year before?” It was common practice for well-connected Adepts to furnish each other lodging and other desired help when traveling abroad. “Are you in London for very long?”
“We can stay for a good bit. We may travel to Edinburg after leaving here. I do have a question though. Do you know of any good local investments that may be bought right now? I’d like to get my new protégés started out well in that venue. And I do want them to be more knowledgeable with dealings in Britain. I thought that having an investment here would help in that regard.”
“Let me consider that one, Henri. I have two people whom I might ask about that. One is my senior partner, if a senior partner who is only fifty seven years old can be senior to one who is three hundred and ninety years old!” At this joke Henri and Ian laughed heartily, and then Robert said with a twinkle in his eyes “Oh look at the one who is not yet thirty years old laughing at the jokes that old Adepts tell!” At that all of them laughed together.
“I will definitely snoop around to see what might be cooking and let you know.”
“Thank you, Bob. We’ll be going now. There are sight seers to please and to feed. Will you and Margaret be coming out to see us at the estate?”
“Definitely; she’s heard of several of you and wants to meet you. We won’t come unannounced though.”
They bid each other good bye then and the group rejoined the ladies in time for lunch at the hotel.
That afternoon was spent moving from the hotel to the estate just outside of London to the north. There was some seventy acres included and a lot of it was woodland. It was perfect for Aimee to have some wild time and several of them took her out to do just that around dusk. A daytime romp might be seen by a neighbor on an estate that small. Henri took that opportunity to keep Ian with him for a talk.
“You’ll recall several years ago when we first recruited that young fellow, Claude Rousseau of the King’s Gendarmes in Marseille?”
“Yes. It was after the vampires kidnapped two girls from Angels’ Care. You said that he was another ally in government and that there would be others.”
“Yes. There are more ministries in government than just the ministry of police affairs. There are eight other ministries.”
“You’ve filled those positions too?”
“Yes. The Gendarmerie position was the last one. We want these men to be moved to an influential post by the time we make our permanent move. In three years they’ll be in high posts, junior to others, but influential nonetheless. They’ll eventually become the heads or chief deputies of their respective offices.”
“How can you be sure that all will be promoted on time?”
“Who do you think appointed their superiors, and the superiors of those before them, and so on back for some two hundred and fifty odd years? Of course the names that I used were different. There was Leveque, Lefevre, and so forth going back over the generations.”
Ian sat, lost in thought as the enormity of it sank in. It was masterful and all-encompassing. A consummate plan to stay invisible in plain sight and to pull the levers of governmental power as needed to stay that way. It was true that unimaginable wealth was accrued this way, but he’d seen how Henri and Marie had taken care of their human employees everywhere. This thing benefited hundreds of humans too; people who were completely unaware of its existence. He thought of the orphanages then. Marie’s orphanages didn’t only take care of homeless children. They also supplied reliable employees for the furtherance of their goals. It was masterful as well as beneficial and he was more than impressed. “Henri, I am again humbled by what I’ve learned from you.”
He nodded curtly and then said. “We’ll spend the necessary money to see to it that this Rousseau fellow goes far, and I did find him a likable sort, didn’t you?”
“I did. I’m going to have to learn to think a decade ahead about some things if I’m to become as successful an Adept as you and Marie are. I take it this isn’t my last lesson then?”
“It’s not your first, and it’s definitely not your last. I can tell you that it occupies a fair bit of my time, but there are years where I just coast along too. The most work comes when a generational move is made, such as the one we’ll make in the near future.
“You know Ian; the raids we made on those covens have been a welcome distraction from the…sameness of what I’ve been doing for centuries. Marie feels the same. Now don’t take me the wrong way concerning this. We both hate the things that have happened to those children, but are grateful that we’ve stopped it cold wherever we found it. We have you to thank for that in part. It has mostly been fun for me, truly, and I speak for Marie too on this subject.”
Laughing then Ian said “Henri, you have an
unusual sense of what is fun. May I include Alandra in what I’ve learned?
“No. She could be taken and made to talk however unlikely that is. In the future we will have more family meetings about the move when we are closer to the time for it. I’ll bring the others in on some of it then. However, the Council, the various ministers of government we control, and our network of trusts must all be kept secret at all cost. Regarding the generational move, I can use your help.”
“May I presume that there are orphanages in the name of the Laforges in the Swiss Confederation and elsewhere?”
Laughing then, Henri said “You may indeed. There is one near Bern and one in Luxembourg. They were started some eight years ago. As yet, we have had no direct contact with the supervisors running them. They’ll meet us as the Laforges after the move. We’ll have lots of young adult humans desiring work as couriers, domestics and the like furnished by those two orphanages by the time we make our move. By the way, we’re quietly and anonymously buying some small farms very near to the estates we bought near Zurich and Lausanne. The next group of domestics and couriers will be living there rent free as they now do across from the chateau.”
“Can you be sure to buy the ones we want in time?”
“Likely, yes. Price is no object. We’ll pay what we must to buy the right properties. After all, we can afford to, can’t we?”
Laughing then Ian said “Yes.”
“The Angels’ Care orphanages will be funded in the future. There is already a trust set up to do that, through Banque de Lafayette. At some point an interest linked to the Laforges will appear to take over the operations of those after the Lafayettes officially pass away. Our cemetery plots are already reserved in Luxembourg.”
“You’ve prepared your next official gravesite?”
“Yes. We’ll have proper grave markers made and all of the necessary paperwork has been prepared, needing only a date and an official stamp. The Laforge takeover will be a good eight to ten years after the move to Zurich.”
“So it is to look like the Lafayettes sold their holdings in their old age?”
“Yes. Banque de Lafayette will itself change its name to Laforge over time. As you may remember, these things must be artfully phased in so as to appear to be a part of the ebb and flow of normal human economic cycles and normal birth and deaths of heads of families. When done properly, no one will ever suspect that the same people are still running the same banks, manufacturing facilities, charities, shipping, trading, farming, and import-exporters. Nor would they ever suspect that the same people are putting allies in all governmental posts generation after generation.”
“That’s easy to see the way you’ve explained it.”
“Notoriety is a burden to any sane Adept. Speaking for Marie and myself, anonymity is our desire, but not isolation from humanity. It would be simpler to isolate ourselves from humanity but it would be so very dull!”
“Speaking for myself, I couldn’t stand it.”
“We try to strike a necessary balance in the way we manage our affairs. As you know, we do try to make life as good as we can for those in our care. We’re far more interested in our name being notable than our person. Being widely recognized in public is not a good thing for any Adept who would be successful. This approach has been successful and has made it comfortable and profitable for us to live wherever we wish for centuries.”
“Once again, Henri, I can’t thank you enough for sharing this.”
Chapter 96
A day passed then and they received word that Robert and Margaret Milligan would be coming to the estate to see all of them that evening. Marie arranged for a nice dinner and it was decided that the four newlyweds could take Aimee with them and stay out for the evening. They were to spend the night at the hotel suite to keep the Millikens from seeing Aimee. All were agreed that there was nothing to gain from them seeing her and a possibility that they might guess her secret if they did get to spend enough time with her.
Later the Millikens arrived. Robert was in the parlor with all of the men while Margaret was with Marie in the kitchen and she approached her pensively. Marie sensed that she wished to speak privately, so she shut the door.
“Thank you, Marie. May I ask you something personal?”
“Of course. What is it?”
“How do you and Henri keep your relationship, your love so fresh? I see you together, and I can’t help but notice that you two are so much in love.”
“Why thank you, Margaret. She paused and gathered her thoughts, then spoke to her long-time friend. “We’d gotten to where our life was becoming a repetition of like events. Our love was strong, as strong as ever, but the sameness of our everyday existence had become stale in and of itself. We vampires live such long lives and all.”
She then told Margaret about bringing Cosette over and then how Ian came into their lives and had taught them all to fight. Ending with descriptions of some of the earlier raids on covens, she fastened her eyes on Margaret’s eyes and said with a gentle smile “I think that the knowledge that either of us could be killed at any time during one of these events served to heighten our senses to…enjoy or to embrace all of the good in our lives. I can tell you for sure that it has definitely added spice to our love life!” Here she laughed as her friend’s eyes widened.
Margaret began to laugh with her then, saying “Now that is something that I’d never have thought of! Fighting to the death with rogue vampires to make your love life better! How absolutely insane! And yet it is beginning to make sense to me in the vein which you’ve explained it.” She sat a bit with her friend, as they looked at each other and both began to smile and then to laugh softly.
Suddenly Margaret said “Oh my God! If I can see why this is working for you two, what does that say about me?” At this she threw back her head and laughed uproariously as Marie joined her. Marie said “Oh, Margaret! If you could only have seen your face as that dawned on you just now!’ Margaret then shrieked with laughter as Marie joined in. Sophia and Alandra came running into the kitchen to see what was so funny. Margaret pointed toward the two women and the look on their faces fueled a fresh outburst of laughter; so much so that Marie joined in yet again. The two of them laughed themselves to the point of tears.
***
That evening the newlyweds went out sightseeing with Aimee. Along the way their carriage driver became very sick. They took him to his brother’s home and agreed to pay for his horse and carriage to be taken care of by their hotel in London if they could just keep it to get themselves there. As fate would have it, London was foggy that night.
Mustafa was driving with Aimee in the seat beside him. Her vampire vision gave her a decided advantage at night, even in foggy conditions. It became evident that they were lost after a while with no hope of finding the Hotel. They couldn’t even find the Thames to get their bearings. Suddenly the carriage lurched radically to one side. Something rolled past them at the same time gaining speed since they were on a slightly down sloping street. It was the left rear wheel and it disappeared into the fog. Eventually they heard a clatter as it hit something maybe two blocks away. Mustafa climbed down and Louis came out from the carriage to take a look. Aimee jumped down easily from the seven foot height and walked around to the back of the carriage. The axle was almost on the ground, but wasn’t broken. The retaining pin had broken or worked loose and fallen out. They could see that by the light of a street lamp some forty feet away from them.
Aimee said “If Liri and Celeste will get out, I’ll see if I can lift the carriage.” The two men stood a moment, and then they realized that it was likely that she could do it easier than they could. Liri and Celeste got out and little Aimee took a blanket and wrapped it around the end of the axle and tried to lift it. It came up pretty far, and Louis was able to help her and get it up to the right height. They let it back down then. Aimee said “I’ll go get the wheel and roll it back
here. I can find it.” She and Mustafa set off down the street to retrieve it.
They found it at the end of the street where there was an intersection. The street went to the left and the right, with only darkened storefronts straight ahead. The wheel was lying in front of a shop where it had stopped when it hit the curbing. Mustafa couldn’t see it until Aimee led him to it. He righted it and began to roll it back up the street towards the street lamp where Louis, Celeste, and Liri waited. They got within thirty feet of the street lamp when out of nowhere a shape came from behind and grabbed Aimee and bounded toward the others. Aimee let out a loud scream and the shape slowed a bit to cover her mouth as it streaked past the others. In that instant they got a glimpse of a bald man in a striped shirt clutching her to his chest running at an unbelievable speed. Louis gamely stepped into his path and tried to grab both of them. He was knocked over like he wasn’t even there as the figure rocketed away into the dark foggy night. He lay there stunned as the two women began to scream “Aimee, Aimee!” Mustafa ran vainly up the street toward where they had vanished and then there was only the sound of the two women crying as the horror of what they had seen sunk in.
***
The tall husky uniformed butler returned to the foyer and walked to the couple waiting there. He said “I regret to inform you that the Marquis cannot see you tonight. He is busy with pressing manners. Perhaps I could take your names and make an appointment with you?”
The man with one arm replied “Please tell him that we have information on the fire that took his brother’s life in Lyon. We’ll wait until you return.” The butler raised his eyebrows, and then turned and left them. In only two minutes he returned and beckoned to them to come to a large double door which opened to a cavernous parlor. He showed them to a sofa and bid them sit and asked if they would like some tea.
In under a minute a slender well-groomed man entered and walked straight to the pair. “I am Donatien Francoise, the Marquis de Sade. I understand that you have information regarding the death of my older brother?”