Condemnation & Redemption Pt. 06

“You are very individually you. L’Comptesse was, for her time, very bold. She was intelligent, but not educated. She was kind and generous, but also naïve. She would have been a wonderful woman for the man that I was back then. We would have had a gentle, simple life together, with few demands.

“But you are a modern woman. You are HIGHLY educated; you have high expectations. I feel more as if you are a partner with me. In Louis’ court, a woman could never have been the ‘equal’ of her husband. And believe me, you have a very different personality. L’Comptesse was barely more than a girl and had the impatience and demands of a girl. You are a mature woman who, I hope, can even be patient enough to know me, even if it takes us a lifetime.

“In addition, I do worship your body and I want to fill you with children and have a family together!” I laughed.

She had another question for which I did not have an answer.

“Will you remain young while I age, become old and eventually die? Is there any way for you to extend my life?”

I was honest with her.

“I haven’t really tried to pass on my ‘gift’ or ‘curse’ as the case may be, but I have given my blood in small quantities to some of my servants. It has given them temporary pleasure, but doesn’t seem to cause any long-lasting physical changes. Perhaps that is because I haven’t given them enough — something that could be very dangerous — but I think more likely is the old stories about a ‘vampire’s blood’ turning another into a vampire as well are probably just old wives tales. So the answer is at this time: yes, it is likely that you would naturally pass before I would. But believe me, if we marry, I would seriously begin trying to find a way to enhance your lifespan as well.”

Her final question was regarding my current lifestyle.

“Christian, you know that you would have to forego having sexual relationships with your servants who provide you with fresh blood? Especially that little minx working as your nurse.”

“Yes my love, I do understand and just for your information, I have not engaged in sex with any of my servants (or anyone else for that matter) since you came into my life. And while that has been something that was mutually enjoyable, I think that I can provide them with alternative sources of pleasure. I will pledge you, on my honor (and yes, I have a great deal of honor) that I will not betray my vows to you.”

That seemed to satisfy her.

We spent the rest of the week together, but only on my last night before returning to Nashville did we enjoy again the joining of our bodies. It was then that I introduced her to that sexual stimulation that a drop of my blood could induce. I know it was unfair and unethical of me, but I was desperate.

The next morning she confessed to me, “My love what you did to me last night lets me understand how your servants can become addicted to your charms!”

She also told me of her plans for the immediate future.

“Christian, I am obliged by my contract to stay here for the next two weeks. I think that will be a good thing, because I need some time to reflect on ‘us’. I am almost certain that I want to be with you for the rest of my life; but I want time to be sure. And then I will be returning to the U.S. to my new teaching position.” She left that hanging, looking at me with a slight smirk.

“Okay, I’ll bite. Where are you going to be teaching?”

“Funny you should ask,” replied with a laugh, “It is a small university in Nashville. You may know of it. It is called ‘Vanderbilt’.” Now she was laughing at the look on my face.

“Are you surprised? I applied to the History Department there for an open position in European History even before I had completely finished my PhD. You see, I was already planning on marrying a physician on staff at the hospital there.”

“Well, that is nice to know,” I replied, and then I reached into my pocket and pulled out a ring that I had been carrying since before she had run away.

“Then perhaps you would accept this ring from me as a token of our love and plan to be joined at some time in the future in Holy Matrimony!”

There came from my lovely woman a high-pitched squeal and a quick, “Yes, yes, yes!”

I placed the ancient ring on her finger, a ring that had been given to me by my dying Aurora 325 years before — gold encrusted with precious stones all around the diameter and a diamond in the center. Frankly priceless.

“Now, don’t lose this. It once belonged to the Comptesse d’F… and is precious to me. I had saved it for the day when I would find another deep and precious love. I feared that I would never give this to another woman and then you entered my life.”

We took each other in our arms and held each the other as if we would never be parted. But I had to return to my mundane life in the States and await her there.

~~* XIX Nashville Redux *~~

I arrived back in Nashville once again a whole man; my soul back from the tatters and in a single piece. I was content and everyone around me recognized it. Especially Maria.

“Well I’m glad that you are back and have your head out of your ass! So give me the details! You found her, right?”

So I shared my good news with Maria.

“Doc, I can’t say that I’m not a little disappointed that you and I won’t be getting it on anymore, but I’m glad that you managed to patch it up with your lady love!”

“I guess you’ll have to make due with Gary,” I replied, “but I can still reward the two of you with some of my blood to… ahem, enhance your experience!”

“Thank god for small favors!” came Maria’s sassy response, “Speaking of which: do you need some blood from me, boss? It’s been quite a while…”

After Aurora’s contract was complete, she indeed returned to Nashville as well, stopping over in Chicago to see her parents for a day — only to find out that we had met in her absence while I desperately searched for her. Just a little embarrassing. She promised that we would all meet again in the near-term future.

She moved into my house and into my bedroom. She was as firm in her commitment to me as I was to her.

So, naturellement, we got married and lived happily ever after, non? Non.

Why is life never so simple?

Aurora and her parents were Catholic (as was I, at least nominally) and desired a church wedding with the Mass and all of the accouterments. I wanted to avoid a Catholic church wedding — especially some of the details such as doing a confession in order to receive the sacraments. My experience with such things were, as one might recall, revolting.

I needed to Priest to intercede for me because I knew that I was irredeemable and without forgiveness. God had turned his face from me.

Aurora argued with me. She pleaded with me. She nagged me. In the end I couldn’t turn her down, so I found myself in the office of the Parish Priest.

Of course I couldn’t actually tell him the entire truth, because he would believe that I was delusional or a pathological liar.

“Are you sure that you want your fiancée present while you give your confession?” Father Lopez asked.

“Yes, she knows everything about me — my sins, my virtues. She is one with me.”

“So, first, whoever told you that you had committed unforgivable sins?” Father Lopez asked me.

“I don’t remember his name, but it was long ago, during my youth. In France,” I replied.

“Ah!” the Priest said quietly. “There are some, shall we say, some Priests, especially in Europe — mainly Germany and France — who cling to almost medieval interpretations of scripture. But he was wrong.

“God in his wisdom will always grant grace and forgive your sins, so long as the sinner sincerely regrets the sin and will not just use grace as an excuse for continuing his sinful ways.”

“So what is the sin that is supposed to be unforgivable, in the eyes of this Priest?”

I was about to answer, probably in a most undiplomatic way.
Instead, Aurora interjected herself into the conversation.

“Father, Christian’s so-called ‘sin’ is the result of a medical condition. It was not something of his own doing or of his own desire. It just happened, and if he wanted to live, he had to continue engaging in the practice, as he still does today.

“Father, he survives almost solely on blood — and the most effective is human blood.”

At that the Priest raised his eyebrows and looked at Aurora.

“Honestly? Vampirism?”

“I guess you could call it that,” I said, re-entering the conversation.

“How did it come about?”

“Once when I was very young, I was deathly ill and only began to recover when the Doctor treating me began feeding me blood. And since that time, I have had to consume blood for my sustenance.”

That somewhat shook the Priest. But he didn’t out and out reject the situation.

“Unusual,” he finally admitted.

“Have you been taking this blood involuntarily? By force? Have you murdered to get it?”

Clearly he had been influenced by the movies and bad literature.

I lied about the very early days when I had taken blood by force — but that period hadn’t been very long and, in truth, I had actually confessed those sins to the Priest in Paris.

“No, I’ve never needed to.”

I explained how easy it was to obtain blood. Not in detail, mind you. He knew that I was a physician, so he took my word that it would be easily obtained either for money or that friends would volunteer their own blood.
After I explained that, he leaned back in his chair and pondered for a minute.

“Well, I can understand how some of the older, more traditional thinkers in the Church might look upon this as ‘taking another’s life’ by drinking their blood. But there is a grave theological difficulty with that: the miracle of transubstantiation! As Priests we transform the bread and the wine into the body and blood of Jesus and then drink it — how could we condemn someone for drinking blood?”

He laughed a short laugh. I looked at him perplexed.

“I was just thinking — you know that one of the Roman’s accusations against the early Christians was that they were cannibals! They were eating the body and blood of Jesus. That resulted in early Christians being, as it were, thrown to the lions!

“More seriously, though, the Church does not object to people receiving blood transfusions if they have medical need for it, so how can one distinguish between taking blood orally as opposed to having it placed directly into the veins?

“I don’t think that your ‘affliction’ by itself represents a sin at all. It would only be sinful if you sinned in how you obtained it.

“So, let’s be done with that. Now, tell me what other sins, mortal or not, have you committed?”

I felt a relief in my soul, my very being, from a guilt that had been hanging over my soul for seven centuries! I could bathe in God’s grace and redemption!

And had not God facilitated a miracle at Versailles when my long-lost love reunited me with my wife to be?

I did tell the Priest that I had led a somewhat debauched life involving a great deal of sex, of many varieties, with many women.

He didn’t perceive that to be major problem as long as it was now my past, and with Aurora at my side I gave up my licentious ways.

The penance he assigned wasn’t onerous, and now Aurora and I could be joined together within the Church.

Aurora was happy, her parents were happy and I was happy.

~~* XX Finis *~~

The wedding was small, but glorious. Aurora had family with her and a few old friends from the University. I had mainly work colleagues. The Adams attended, as well.

We continued to live in my house in Brentwood.

Aurora and Maria eventually became very good friends even though Maria continued to give me blood on a regular basis.
Aurora gave me blood as well until she became pregnant with our first child — a son. And a year after his birth she was pregnant again with a daughter. We had decided to have the children as quickly as possible. We were still undecided whether we should have more children or, if we decided to, how many.

You see, after we were married I began to consider how I could potentially pass on my super-longevity to Aurora as well. But I suspected that it could be dangerous to her health, so we would have child bearing over first before we began experimenting.

I have been researching possible ways.

I already knew that giving blood in small quantities didn’t have that effect (although over the years I’m sure that some of my submissives have had such a hope.) But perhaps a bone marrow transfusion could cause the change; another possibility is the use of my stem cells.

We will try and we will succeed. I must! Because without my Aurora at my side my life would end and there would be no hope left to keep me alive!

But for now, I live each day in joy with my dearest love, my children and my hope of keeping them with me for centuries into the future!

Wish me Bon Chance!

Christian Blackhart

Finis

~~*~~