Whaling City Vampires: Love Beyond Death

  Chapter 38

  The wind of the previous night had died down and a fresh thin layer of snow whitened the old blackened coat beneath it. Michael obediently followed his master and his companions to a dark secluded area of the waterfront among the closed and quiet workshops. Robert had left his other guard, Ramon, to watch over the lair in his absence. He feared Raul would be close behind and find his new lair while he was away. Finding Ramon murdered outside of the lair would be the warning Robert would need to know that Raul had arrived. Ruthie and Susie watched Robert intently as he faced Michael and placed both hands on either side of Michael's head. He stared into Michael's eyes for a moment and when Michael's eyes fell away from Robert's face, Robert dropped his hands and took a step back returning to Amy's side.

  Looking at each of them one by one with a groggy perplexed expression, Michael finally achieved some orientation when he exclaimed, "Ruthie!" His eyes brightened with joy as he drew Ruthie into his arms.

  Happy and relieved to see that Michael's will was restored, Ruthie returned his hug feeling as though she had just returned to a beloved warm home after a long cold pointless journey, "Oh, Michael," she cried, "I'm so happy to see you."

  "But, Ruthie," Michael looked down into her tearful eyes, "what are you doing in St. Augustine?"

  The other vampires were slowly and silently moving deeper into the shadows of a nearby building to keep Michael from getting a clear look at their features as he became more alert.

  Not knowing how to explain the situation, Ruthie hesitated before replying, "Michael, this isn't St. Augustine."

  "I don't understand, Ruthie," Michael said, "I remember sailing on a ship with a load of cargo to St. Augustine. I remember helping to unload the cargo and walking into the city with some of the crew."

  "What else do you remember?" Ruthie asked.

  Michael thought as hard as he could, "That's all," he replied worriedly, "I don't remember anything else. Ruthie, we can't be in New London, can we?"

  Seeing Michael's look of confusion and hating to lie to him, Ruthie reluctantly affirmed his suspicions.

  "How did I get here?" he asked, "and why can't I remember the trip? What day is this, anyway?"

  Ruthie panicked over how to answer these questions without telling him the truth. She had painfully accepted the fact that they could never be together, even though he had vowed to return to her. She had made herself a vow to stay away from him so that he could follow his dreams-dreams that could never come true if he were to join Ruthie as a murderous creature rising only at night. She hated to have to lie to the man she loved but she knew she was going to have to think of something to explain that she couldn't see him again.

  "Ruthie," Michael looked concerned when she didn't answer him right away. He softly ran his fingers along her face and she felt her heart breaking again just as fresh as the first time she allowed him to sail out of her life. "You look as confused as I feel. Do you know how I got here?"

  Terror tore through Ruthie as Michael's body was violently pulled away from her and enveloped in a flowing mass of dark fabric landing hard on the snowy ground several feet behind her in the shadows where Amy and Robert stood together aghast at the speed and violence of Susie's latest impulsive act.

  "Susie!" Ruthie turned and flew at Susie who crouched over Michael's prone body drinking his blood. She grasped Susie by the arms from behind pulling her away from Michael, blood running from the corner of Susie's mouth and her eyes blazing with lustful triumph, "stay away from him!"

  Amy and Robert rushed to Ruthie's side when Susie jerked herself free from her grip and threw her against the dark wall of the building, leaving her momentarily stunned in the snow, her cloak falling around her and covering her face, "Ruthie!" Amy gasped as she knelt over her with Robert beside her, "Robert, will she be all right?"

  "She will be fine," Robert assured Amy and pulled the fabric away from Ruthie's recovering face.

  "Get her!" Ruthie pleaded to Amy as she pushed herself from the cold ground, "she's going to kill him."

  Susie had, indeed, returned to her position over Michael, but she had satisfied her need for blood and was now satisfying a different desire. She had already punctured her own arm with her sharp bloody teeth and was forcing the wound into Michael's open mouth.

  "No!" Ruthie exclaimed as she flew at Susie a second time, this time held back by Robert.

  "It's too late, dear," he murmured regretfully, "if we don't let her proceed now, Michael will die."

  Ruthie fell to her knees sobbing in agony over her failure to protect her lover. She helplessly watched him being transformed into the same wretched tool of Satan as she was by the wicked vampire who had done nothing but torment her since her own transformation. Amy slowly fell to her kenes and put her arms around Ruthie's sob-wracked shoulders.

  After a moment Susie stood wiping the blood fromher face with a corner of her cloak and turned to Ruthie, "You can have him now. I wanted the experience of transforming someone too, but hie's yours. I did it for you."

  "How can you say that you did it for me?" Ruthie sobbed and moved nearer to Michael, cradling his unconscious body in her arms, "you ruined him. He's a tool of the devil like the rest of us. He was the most innocent part of my life, now his soul is doomed to burn in hell like ours."

  "You can't honestly say that you didn't want to be with him," Susie argued, "did you really want to make that sacrifice twice?"

  "Yes," Ruthie replied, "I was going to send him away again. Of course, I wanted to be with him, but not if I had to give his soul to the devil. Now he's going to hate me forever."

  "Perhaps he won't, Ruthie," Amy tried to console her friend, "maybe he loves you so much that it won't matter, like Robert and me."

  "But now he'll never live his dreams," Ruthie hugged Michael, pressing her cheek against his.

  Amy turned angrily toward Susie, "If Michael does forgive Ruthie for withholding her true identity, it still does not excuse your wild and violent behavior, Susie."

  "I'm not asking for anyone to excuse my behavior," Susie answered arrogantly, "You never asked me to excuse your behavior when you transformed me. You killed my husband and made my children orphans. Now you scold me and criticize everything I do. I acted recklessly at the church when I didn't consider Ruthie's feelings in the sanctuary, then I accidentally killed Reverend Williams in the alley. I thought giving her Michael would make up for my past. Obviously, that was wrong as well."

  "You think that committing another murder will make up for the first one?" Ruthie asked, "Even if Michael forgives me and accepts his new cursed existence, I will always hate you for everything you've done."

  "Ruthie!" Amy exclaimed, "I never dreamed you would be capable of hatred."

  "Neither did I," Ruthie lifted Michael, partially concealing him under her cloak, "I need to carry him to the lair where he'll be safe."

  "We will escort you, Ruthie," Robert offered, "so that you won't be noticed. Then Amy and I must feed."

  Susie angrily followed the group back to the lair helping to shield Ruthie and Michael from the public. Once inside thelair Ruthie carefully laid Michael in her coffin, then lay along side him while Amy and Robert went out to feed. Susie, having had her fill of Michael's blood remained in the lair. Robert warned her to leave Ramon at his post and not attack him in any way.

  "Now I can't be trusted alone in our lair?" Susie muttered after they were gone, "I cannot abide by these extreme restrictions."