Whaling City Vampires: Love Beyond Death

  Chapter 4

  Robert was terrified when he awoke to find himself locked in his coffin. Who had found the lair? He needed to protect his beloved Amy but was frustrated and powerless and as he lay trapped in what was intended to be his safe hiding place from the lethal sunlight and human predators. He feared for Amy's life as well as his own. Was she also trapped in her coffin? Who had found them and what were their intentions? He thought it unlikely that his family could have tracked him from Florida, but if they had would they harm Amy? In his overwhelming fear for Amy's safety and longing for her, Robert momentarily forgot about his own safety and thrashed so violently that the chains that held his casket closed rattled and the casket itself thumped and rocked. He stopped struggling when he heard someone unlocking and loosening the chains. He was poised to attack the moment the lid was raised but his keeper was prepared and loosened the final chain only enough to allow the lid to rise a few inches preventing Robert from initiating any kind of physical attack.

  "We meet again, brother," Robert recognized the familiar mocking voice of his older brother Raul as he struggled in vain to push open the coffin, "don't waste your strength. It has taken me five long years to find you and I've taken every precaution to prevent you from fleeing again."

  "Raul!" Robert growled, "What is the meaning of this?"

  "You're coming home with me to finally fulfill your family obligation," Raul explained, "Lisa still awaits her groom and our family still craves the peace that your marriage will bring."

  "Never!" Robert exclaimed.

  "Then you will spend eternity locked in your coffin," Raul replied, "I'm confident that one day you will finally agree to the marriage. Eternity is a very long time and father and I are prepared to wait."

  "How did you find me?" Robert asked. He wanted to know about Amy, but didn't want Raul to know how deeply he loved her fearing Raul would hurt or destroy her if his feelings were known.

  "It's been a long and exhausting search," Raul explained, "but a worthwhile one. I've been traveling by cart at night with two guards protecting me by day."

  "Where are we now?"

  "We are far, far away from your former lair," Raul replied, "we've been traveling most of the day, side by side, just like brothers were meant to do. My guards were instructed to load you into the cart and drive home as quickly as possible. We've only stopped now for the guards and the horses to rest."

  "Raul," Robert seethed, "I will never marry a woman I don't love for any reason. I told you that five years ago and my feelings haven't changed!"

  "Eternity is a long, long time, Robert," Raul said sternly, "I'm confident you will change your mind. Now I must feed. Conserve your strength because you won't be feeding for quite some time. It's a long trip."

  The coffin slammed closed and Robert heard the chains being tightened and fastened. Raul's sneering attitude of superiority and his cruelty enraged Robert as he lay trapped and helpless vowing to someday escape and return to his beloved Amy. He felt his heart breaking as he remembered Amy's adoring glance as he would enfold her in his arms feeling her silky golden hair against his face and her arms lovingly around him. He longed to be safe and happy once again in her embrace isolated from the world in their dark lair. He feared what she must be thinking of him, now that she was suddenly alone. He feared that she was thinking that he abandoned her intentionally. After all the years of love they'd shared, could she really believe that he would leave her by choice?

  It had been a long time since Robert thought about the family he had left behind in St. Augustine more than five years ago. He had found such happiness in New London with Amy that he had put his past out of his mind and focused solely on the present. Now as he lay in anguish wondering how Amy would take care of herself and what she would think when she woke to find Robert gone. He had made her what she is and she never had to fend for herself without his help and guidance. He hoped he had taught her enough to survive on her own.

  After several nights of imprisonment Robert spent his time refreshing his memory of his past before he met Amy in an attempt to stop worrying about her and fearing the worst. He recalled arriving in St. Augustine from Spain with his family in 1820, the last year of Spanish reign in Florida. He was the youngest son of an accomplished coffin maker who brought his wife and family to Florida where his uncle was already prospering in the lumber business. When Spain relinquished Florida to the United States Robert's father decided to remain in St. Augustine along with many Spanish families who had made St. Augustine their home. While Robert's older brother Raul was expected to inherit the family business, Robert was more interested in hunting and exploring the less developed parts of the region and visiting with the natives.

  During one of his many hikes through the woods, Robert was found overcome by fever and unconscious by a group of nomadic people traveling south. They cared for him until his apparent recovery several days later. When he relapsed and worsened the leader of the group, an escaped slave woman, offered to find him the only cure that would save him. In his state of near delirium, desperate to be well again, he accepted her offer. After an absence of several hours into the night she returned with a large bat in a wire cage. She set the cage on Robert's chest and raised the trap door just high enough to allow the bat to sink its teeth deeply into Robert's throat, draining his blood while simultaneously excreting its own poisons into Robert's blood stream.

  When he woke the following evening cured of the fever the woman explained to Robert how his life would be forever changed and told him how he must now sleep in the day and, in order to survive, drink blood at night as a vampire. She explained to him that he would never be ill again and that he was now immortal so long as no one drove a wooden stake through his heart, severed his head or exposed him to daylight. Although happy to have survived the fever, Robert lamented never being able to enjoy the daylight and his days hiking and hunting in the woods ever again.

  When Robert returned to his father's house in need of a coffin, he found his father suffering from the deadly fever that he himself had just overcome. Kneeling in anguish beside his dear father's sick bed, Robert offered his father the same cure and the day after becoming a vampire himself, Robert transformed his father into a vampire one as well. As the fever reached epidemic level it swept through Robert's entire family motivating Robert and his father out of desperation to save the lives of their loved ones to cure them the only way they could. Eventually, Robert's entire family, including his uncle, aunt and cousins, was transformed into vampires.

  Robert's father, Carlos, relieved that his family was finally well and safe, anxiously paid a visit to his good friend Juan who lived on the far side of the town green with his own family. Carlos and Juan had become friends and business associates when Juan became Carlos' varnish supplier. Carlos' anxiety turned to despair when he arrived at Juan's house and learned that Juan had already lost a son and his parents to the fever. Juan's four daughters and two remaining sons were sick while he and his wife were beginning to experience symptoms as well.

  Grateful that his own family was not only alive and well, but immortal, Carlos was overcome with feelings of despair and anxiety over his good friend's suffering. He returned home to retrieve his own family with a plan to rescue his good friend Juan and to prevent him from suffering the loss of any more of his loved ones. Carlos' family sympathized with him and they rushed to Juan's house in a sweeping mass and hungrily descended on the suffering family to cure them of the devastating fever.

  Carlos, Robert and the rest of the family were shocked when Juan's reaction wasn't one of gratitude, but of anger and hatred at being transformed into murdering beings of the night. As Carlos, Raul and Robert explained to Juan the benefits of immortality and the end of sickness and disease forever, Juan responded with anger and accusations of evil and betrayal. Juan didn't perceive Carlo's act of love, friendship and sympathy as Carlos had intended but as an act of selfishness, arrogance and cruelty.

  Carlos returned
home feeling confused and sad, grieving the loss of his good friend and their former life together. Hoping that Juan would become less angry and eventually forgive Carlos and resume their friendship, Carlos sent gifts of plush caskets for each of Juan's family members. However, as time went by Juan's anger never faded and his thoughts eventually turned toward vengeance as he plotted to behead Carlos' children. The brutal beheading of Robert's youngest sister was the beginning of the feud between the two families irrevocably changing Juan and Carlos from best friends to mortal enemies.

  Carlos, in the throes of anger and grief, retaliated by murdering Juan's youngest daughter. Juan sent a message to Carlos written in blood that he wouldn't rest until every member of Carlos' family was dead. As a result both families retreated into hiding and aggressively recruited guards, enslaving humans to keep their lairs secure during the vulnerable daylight hours as they rested. Now the two families crept stealthily through the city looking for blood at night without leaving a clue of their existence or a trace of their movements.

  After years of this fearful and prison-like existence, Robert's brother Raul became exhausted with the constant watching and fearing for the lives of his loved ones and decided to take a bold initiative and purposely seek Juan out and attempt a truce. It took Raul years of careful and discreet investigation to find Juan and obtain several meetings with him. Although years of acclimation to the vampire lifestyle had somewhat diminished Juan's anger toward Carlos, he still retained his hatred of his former friend and felt Carlos had blatantly disrespected God's will by transforming his family into vicious cursed monsters.

  Raul explained again to Juan how Carlos had regarded his act as one of benevolence and that God had bestowed vampirism as a cure for death and disease that he wanted to share with his best friend. Juan vowed he could never consider becoming a deathless killer as a gift from God, but he did eventually agree to find a way to live peacefully in the same town as his mortal enemy. Since living in fear of being attacked was as tiring for Juan's family as it was for Carlos' family, Juan offered a plan that would not only make peace between the two families, but also make Juan's daughter Lisa happy as well.

  Lisa had been only seventeen when she became a vampire. Before falling ill with the deadly fever, she had been dreaming of finding a loving husband and having a family of her own when, in one night, her hopes and dreams were destroyed leaving her to live eternally in hopelessness and despair. Juan agreed to a promise of peace if Raul would find Lisa a husband. If she couldn't have children, she could at least have a husband.

  Returning to his father with Juan's request Raul suggested Robert as Lisa's future husband. Everyone was thrilled with this plan except Robert. Although Lisa was a beautiful, loving girl, Robert didn't love Lisa and had romantic hopes and dreams of his own. The families being so relieved and optimistic over the plan didn't notice Robert's lack of enthusiasm and were completely taken by surprise by his sudden disappearance.

  Carlos, angered by Robert's disobedience and lack of family loyalty and responsibility, sent Raul and two of the human guards in search of Robert. Carlos sorely missed his former relationship with Juan and, for the first time in years, felt there was a strong possibility that the marriage of Robert and Lisa, the relationship would be mended and the families could live together in peace instead of fear.