Cazi's Journey Ch. 03

Cazi stepped out of her Thames Street apartment and looked around. Her eyes had no trouble picking out the details of the people walking up and down the street. Her thirst was a nagging sensation, but not as bad as it had been when Aelfric had first turned her. She could skip a day now and then if she had to, but she would be famished the next day if she did not feed daily. Aelfric had told her it would ease as time passed. She sighed as she thought of her sire. Where are you, Aelfric? I miss you. She had delayed her returning to her house in Kensington, waiting for Aelfric's return. She had heard nothing from him in the three weeks since he had left her sleeping.

Cazi woke late, her hand reaching out for Aelfric. When she opened her eyes, though, he was gone. She sighed and looked around the room. The shutters were open and the lamp was burning, its flame turned down low, on the table. She saw a piece of paper laying beside it. She rose and walked over to the table and picked up the paper. The writing on it was in a bold hand that she guessed was Aelfric's.

Dearest Cazi,

I have already left to answer Cadeyrn's summons. I should have left last night but I wanted to see you again first. I will return as soon as I can. Until then, keep practicing what I have shown you. I hope to see you again in a day or two. I hope that you can forgive me for leaving without a proper goodbye.

It was signed 'Aelfric'. She sighed again and put the letter back down on the table. "Of course I forgive you, Aelfric," she whispered to herself. She closed her eyes as she felt the thirst stirring within her. She could hear the thoughts of the people passing by. She dressed as quickly as she could and left by the front door.

Cazi straightened her dress unnecessarily and, after a moment's thought, turned to make her way towards Whitechapel. As she walked she thought about her friend and servant Amina. She decided that once she fed she would leave Aelfric a note in her apartment telling him where she was and she would return to Kensington. With a small smile she thought that that would be fitting. He had left her with a note and she would do the same to him.

As Cazi walked she opened her mind to listen to the thoughts of the people walking by. She had been practicing every night and it was much easier now to pick out individual thoughts and trace them back to their source. She almost laughed out loud as she caught the traces of a couple's thoughts as they were getting ready to go to bed. She smiled and sent some encouraging thoughts to the woman's mind as she crossed the street and turned towards a theater that she had patronized a couple of times.

As she stepped up to the booth to buy her ticket the man inside spoke. "Local show tonight, miss. Only a thrup'nce for admission tonight."

Cazi smiled at him and reached into her purse for a three pence coin. She laid the silver coin down on the counter and took her ticket from the man. She followed his directions into the theater and, as she entered, saw that the show was going to be lightly attended. She took a seat at the front and waited for the performance to begin.

As she waited she reached out into the semi-lighted theater to find the thoughts of the people seated. She picked them out with increasing ease and smiled, proud of herself. The light dimming in the theater signaled the beginning of the show and she turned her attention to the stage. For a moment she had a feeling like someone was watching her but she shook it off as the curtain opened.

When the curtain closed, Cazi rose to make her way out of the theater. As she waited behind those leaving in front of her she closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her stomach. The thirst was stronger now and she fought off the urge to grab one of the theater patrons and assuage the hunger within her.

The streets of London were lightly populated as the night grew older. She revised her original plan to find someone in Whitechapel and turned instead towards Charing Cross. She again had the feeling that someone was watching her but, looking around, she could not find anyone. She opened her mind to see if she could pick out the thoughts of whoever was watching her but again found nothing.

She kept to the main thoroughfares as she reached Charing Cross but sent her thoughts down the side streets and alleys, searching for a likely candidate. After an hour or more of searching for just the right one, she decided to just take the next person she came across. The feeling of being watched came over her a couple of times as she waited in the darkness of an alley but each time she could find no one thinking about her so she just ignored it.

The next person to come near her was a young woman walking tiredly. Cazi reached out to touch the woman's mind. As she read the woman's thoughts she began to grow angry. Cazi picked out an address to her house and sent a thought towards her mind. Loiter a bit, Anne. Walk around the park before going home. She watched as the woman turned towards the park before leaving the alley. She was fuming as she made her way through the back streets to the address that she picked out of the woman's mind.

She stopped in the alley running across the back of the building and looked up at the window. Reaching out towards it with her mind she picked up the thoughts of the only person in the dwelling. ... If that tart does not hurry up and get home she is out. I do not care what excuses she has this time. I am tired of her lazing around when she should be out making money.

A grim smile crossed Cazi's face as she heard the thoughts in the apartment. She knew she had the right place now. She wondered for a moment how to get up into the apartment. Then she remembered how Aelfric had been entering her apartment. I guess it would not hurt to try it, she thought as she concentrated on the open window. She concentrated on moving quickly and took a step.

The alleyway blurred around her and she felt exhilarated as she moved almost through the air towards the window. Then she caught her foot on the sill. She cursed to herself as she stumbled into the room. She caught herself just inside the window, stopping and listening to see if he had heard her. She kept her mind open but picked up no sign that he had heard the clunking in his back room.

Cazi wrinkled her nose at the smell in the apartment and looked around. Her eyes picked out every detail of the little room she was in; the dirty clothes, the reek of the bedding on the small bed, the sound of rats moving through the building's walls. Remembering the girl she sent walking about the park, she straightened up and made her way to the partially open door.

The thought of her impending feeding brought her fangs out. Carefully she kept her mouth closed as she opened the door slowly. Stepping into the room with the man her nose again wrinkled, this time with the waves of odor coming from the man himself. "Anne will not be home for a bit." Cazi said quietly.

The man spun around, surprise on his face. "Who are you? Where is Anne?"

Cazi smiled slightly. "She is walking around the park before coming home." She began walking towards him slowly, trying to ignore the odor coming off of the man. "As for who I am; you can call me Cazi." She stopped a few feet away from him, her eyes cold as she looked at the man. "For the few minutes that you have left of your life anyway."

She moved with him as he tried to get away, fear replacing surprise on his fat, jowly face. "What are you doing here? How did you get in here? What do you mean for the few minutes that I have left of my life?"

The room blurred around Cazi as she suddenly lunged across the room, her arms wrapping around the man, one hand gripping his hair to yank his head to the side. She almost growled as she said, "How could you?" She tightened her arm around him as he struggled to get away. "Whoring out your own daughter to pay your gambling debts. Yours is a life that no one will miss." Despite him being much larger than her she kept him in her grasp easily as she lowered her fangs to his neck, almost feeling the racing beat of his heart as a solid sound within her.

Again life exploded within her as her teeth brought the man's blood flowing across her tongue and down her throat. The stench of the apartment also became clearer to her as she drained the man's life from his body. More and more his struggles became weaker as she continued to drain him. She felt connected to the beating of his heart as it became weaker and weaker.

Pulling her lips from his neck she carefully cut open the tip of her tongue. Wrinkling her nose in disgust she muttered "no way" before bringing one of her fingers up and putting a few drops of blood onto the tip of it. She smeared the blood across the wounds the way Aelfric had shown her. She smiled as the wounds dried up and closed in front of her eyes.

She dragged the man's body into the back room and over to the window, his blood coursing through her veins like fire. She looked out the window and saw no one, though she again felt the sensation that she was being watched. She held the man by the back of his neck and the back of his pants and pushed him out of the window. Leaning out she saw the man had landed head first in the alley. His head was bent at entirely the wrong angle and she smiled to herself.

Reluctantly she turned back into the apartment and walked into the front room. She left the contents of her purse on the table, only about twelve shillings all told, and turned to leave the same way she came in. She looked at the mouth of the alley and, with a blurring of motion was standing there. She stepped out of the alley without looking back at the crumpled body laying on the ground behind her.

She made her way to a carriage house after a quick stop at her Bond Street apartment and rented a small carriage to take her back to her house in Kensington. As the carriage lurched into motion Cazi leaned back against the seat, closing her eyes. As the carriage bumped along the road she just relished the feeling of the blood moving through her. She also found worry creeping into her mind as she thought of facing Amina for the first time since being turned.

Cazi paid the carriage driver and turned to look at the house that her husband had left her. It was home but did not quite feel the same as it once had. She had no trouble at all picking out Amina's face in an upstairs window seeing who the carriage had dropped off. She took a deep breath and walked towards the door as the curtain twitched and Amina's face disappeared.

The door opened as she reached it, Amina replacing it in the doorway. "Miss Cazi, I have been worried to death about you. Where have you been?" Heedless of whether it was proper or not, Amina gathered Cazi up into a tight hug. Cazi felt safe as her maid's arms wrapped around her and she returned the hug. She had not thought about how much she missed her friend until she heard her familiar accent. She opened her mind to hear Amina's thoughts as the woman's fingers caressed her cheek, a worried expression on her face.

Cazi wondered why she could not read Amina's thoughts as the Indian woman stiffened and looked at her, her eyes narrowing. "What are you? What did you do to Miss Cassandra?" The woman stepped back from Cazi and she sighed quietly.

"It is me, Amina, Cazi." Cazi stepped back closer to her childhood friend and fought back tears as Amina again moved away from her.

"You are not Cassandra. Rakshasa!" Amina cursed and spat on the ground as she said the word. "What did you do with her? You could not look like her if you did not take her. Where is she?"

Cazi shook her head and tried to step closer to her again but again Amina moved away from her. "Amina stop it! I am Cassandra Bevington. Mistress of this house and your employer ever since before I knew I was your employer." She stepped closer, anger beginning to rise through her. "Your parents served my parents. When I was born, your mother volunteered you to become my maidservant, hoping that we would be friends."

Amina's mouth opened in shock and Cazi stepped closer, taking hold of her hand. "When we were children, we were more than mistress and servant. We became friends. So much so that when I became engaged and later married to Henry, I insisted that you come with me. When Henry sent me back here after I got pregnant, I pleaded with him to send you with me because I did not want to be without my Amina."

"Miss Cassandra?" Amina breathed, her eyes locked on Cazi's.

Cazi took a deep breath and continued, "And when Henry died, you spent the entire time with me, even sleeping in the floor in my room until I caught you and made you get in the bed with me. Remember? That first night we cried ourselves to sleep. Me because of Henry and you crying because I was crying."

"Cazi," Amina whispered. "What happened to you, my Cazi?" She reached up and again caressed Cazi's cheek lightly. "You are not the same."

Cazi tilted her head into her maid's touch. "Let's go inside before I tell you that, Amina." She squeezed Amina's hand and they went into the house and to the parlor.

Amina started to go and get some tea but Cazi stopped her. "No need for that Amina. Sit down, please." Amina sat down in the chair beside her mistress and just looked at her, concern in her eyes. Cazi did not know where to begin. Fear of Amina's rejection kept her from starting the tale.

"What happened to you, Cazi?" Amina asked. "Talk to me."

Cazi whispered, "I am scared to, Amina," looking down at the floor. "What if you leave me too?"

Amina reached out and raised Cazi's face. "I am not going to leave you, Cazi. Just tell me what happened to you."

Cazi took a deep breath and started speaking softly. "I was in London looking for some fun. I went to a showing of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and I met a man." She ignored Amina's disapproving look, knowing she would likely get a talking to about that later. "His name, I thought, was Alfred. We went back to my apartment in the city and a few hours later, he bit me and I became a vampire."

The disapproving look on Amina's face was replaced by concern and fear. For an instant, Cazi thought that she might get away from the dressing down Amina was sure to give. "You took him back to your apartment in the city after just watching a show together? Miss Cazi, I thought you were not going to do that anymore. You know how dangerous that is."

Cazi sighed and nodded to her childhood playmate. "I know, Amina. I know. It is not dangerous anymore."

"This is like that book you gave me is it not?" Amina said. "The one about the man and his wife?"

"You mean Dracula," Cazi said shaking her head. "It is kind of like that. But not exactly." Cazi took a deep breath and looked Amina in the eye, her voice soft. "If you want to return to India I will understand Amina."

The look on Amina's face cheered Cazi up immensely, as did her words. "Cazi, I have been with you for almost as long as I can remember. You need me now. I am not going to up and go back to India now. I am going to stay here with you."

Cazi leaned forward and hugged Amina tightly. "It could be dangerous, Amina. I just did not want you to get hurt because of me."

Amina smiled and Cazi again reached out to touch her mind. She could detect a faint sense of worry, but she could not hear her thoughts. "You know that I will have to go out and feed every day, Amina." When her long-time friend nodded she continued. "I do not want this to scare you, Amina. I am still Cazi. I just need to feed. Aelfric, that is Alfred's real name, said that eventually I would not have to feed every day. He also said that I would eventually not have to kill when I feed." Cazi looked down and sighed. "But for now I do have to feed daily and I do kill when I feed."

"Where is this... Aelfric now?" Amina asked. "Did he just make you into a vampire and disappear?"

Cazi could not help but laugh at the mixture of protectiveness for her and a sense of being offended in Amina's voice. She shook her head, her eyes sparkling. "No, Amina. He did not just disappear. He had to go and see the one that made him into a vampire. He said he was going to be in trouble for making me. I have not seen him since. I hope he is all right."

Cazi could see that Amina was confused and patted her hand. "There are a lot of vampires in England, Amina. They are very medieval in their nature. They have their King. He is the one that made Aelfric into a vampire. And they have quite a few," Cazi tried to think of a term that Amina would understand and then just said, "Noble Houses."

Cazi could see that Amina was thinking, running all of it through in her mind. "So their King made this Aelfric. And Aelfric made you." She looked at Cazi and Cazi nodded. As soon as she did Amina laughed long and hard. When she finally got her laughter under control, she wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and said. "That makes you 'Princess Cazi'."

Cazi did not know whether to be offended or not as Amina fell into another uproar of laughter. After a few seconds she joined in the laughter and nodded. "I guess that does make me a princess."

"Yes, Cazi. It does sort of make you the Princess of the Dark Isles." A deep voice said from the doorway.

Amina and Cazi both spun towards the voice. Cazi felt fear grip her as she stood up. Amina stepped in front of her and she pushed the Indian woman out of the way as she looked at the man standing there. He was dressed in a dark suit and waistcoat, a silver topped cane in his left hand. She heard Amina say "Who are you? How did you get in here?" as she felt herself captivated by the near golden glow of the man's eyes. A sense of power and dread seemed to emanate from him.

"You are King Cadeyrn." Cazi said, almost in a whisper. She lowered into a slight curtsy, unsure of the proper etiquette.

The man smiled and nodded slowly. "I had seen that Aelfric told you about me before answering my summons." He began to walk towards Cazi and Amina. Cazi was still spellbound by his eyes as he seemed to glide across the floor with the lithe walk of an athlete.

"Your Majesty," Cazi began but was cut off by an upraised hand.

"I know that is the proper form of address for a king, but if you must call me something, call me 'Lord Cadeyrn'. Even after centuries, I still dislike 'your Majesty'." He said, a ghost of a smile touching his lips as he began to slowly walk around Cazi and Amina. "So you are the one."

"So you are the one," Lord Bevington said looking at Cassandra. "The one to catch my prodigal son's eye. You are a Colonial are you not? From India?"

Cassandra could not help the flare of anger at the man's condescending tone. "I am from India, sir. But I am still a subject of the Crown." She fought to control herself, not wanting to cause her beloved Henry any problems with his family. "But yes, sir. I am your daughter-in-law, Cassandra."

Lord Bevington, an older man dressed in an exquisitely tailored suit, looked at Cassandra with an air of disdain. "That is still to be determined, young lady. You may have married my son, but that does not mean you will be a part of my household."

Cassandra was about to speak when Henry put his hand on her shoulder. She could feel his anger through his hand as it quivered against her. "You would deny my wife her right to be a part of this household?" Henry said, almost shouting.

"I would and I will if I choose to." Lord Bevington said. He raised his hand and pointed at his youngest son. "And you mind your tone with me, Henry. I am still your father."

She felt Henry stiffen up, his fingers tightening on her shoulder slightly as he fought to control himself, almost as if he knew that she was also trying to control herself. When he spoke, his voice was as cold as death. "Cassandra is my wife. If you do not accept her as my wife, than you are saying that you do not accept me as a part of your household. And if you are not accepting of either of us as part of your household, then we will be leaving and we will not darken Bevington Manor with our presence again."