The Stirrings of a Cold Heart Ch. 19

Standing only a few blocks from Covent Garden, Ryuu watched the blaze. He already knew his small coven was dead. They had brought it on themselves, it was true, but that did not make the beast within himself accept it. They were still his family and he had warned 'Le Coeur Noir' not to cross him ages ago. Stoically he watched as the smoke billowed towards the sky as he silently vowed to himself. Since 'The Dark Heart' had destroyed his family, so too would he eradicate him and his. An eye for an eye.

Arriving at the docks, Erik found himself at a loss as to which way he should go. He had no idea what ship Aidan was on. Was she still at the dock or had she already sailed out to sea? Dawn was only a few hours away so he didn't have time to search every vessel. He wanted to reach out with their telepathic bond and touch her so he would know where she was and where she was going, but he couldn't. In his frustration he pondered how easy it would be to set fire to every ship moored in the harbor and force her out of hiding, but it would only be a pointless act of destruction. Deep down inside himself he already suspected that she was no longer in port. He roared her name to the sky trying to relieve his heartache, but it was useless. He had to find her!

Movement out of the corner of his eye suddenly caught his attention and he turned to find a man staring at him. It was an older man with grey eyes, smooth bald head and salt and pepper goatee. He had no idea who this man was although something about him brought to Erik's mind the vague recollection of his own human father. That, he knew, was an impossibility and he immediately dismissed it. Believing the man to be of little importance the vampire started to turn back to the problem at hand, but suddenly he realized that he had seen the man before. He was the hunter Aidan had met at the church. He knew that face from when he had shared her thoughts.

"Where is she?" The vampire growled, taking a leap at the hunter. Alex immediately brandished a cross stopping Erik in his tracks and forcing him back with a hiss. "Your trinket won't hold me back forever."

"No, but I have other means at my disposal that will end you here and now if you continue to behave like an animal."

"You steal from me then call me an animal." He wanted to tear the old man's head off both for his audacity and his unwanted interference.

"I stole nothing. If Aidan has left you, then it is of her own free will and because she wanted to." Not convinced, Erik started to come at him again, but this time Alex brandished a vial of holy water and splashed the vampire with it. The liquid seared the skin on 'Le Coeur Noir's' face causing him to cry out and back down. He put his hands over the melted skin, but never took his eyes off the hunter. Alex never flinched and instead crossed his wrists and leaned back against the wall, the vial still in his hand at the ready. "Now we can fight or talk as men. Which do you prefer?"

"Why?!" Erik demanded. "Why did she leave?"

"Her reasons are hers alone and she can tell them to you on the day when the two of you meet again." He had chosen his words carefully, opting for 'when' rather than 'if' because something told him that the two could no more stay apart forever, then you could make a fish breathe air. Their souls were too tightly bound to each other.

This was not a satisfactory answer to the vampire and he gave a low snarl and took a step forward, Certain that he had gotten his point across Alex swept his coat back and slipped the bottle of holy water back into his pocket. As the hunter's waistcoat came into view so too did his watch chain and the ancient bracelet hanging from it. Erik's eyes returned to their normal grey color as he stared at the bracelet. He recognized the shape and stone and even from where he stood he could see the symbol of life that was carved into it. It was the piece of jewelry he had bought for Athanasia. All this time he had assumed that it had been stolen or that she had been buried with it.

"That bracelet," he began , pointing at the piece hanging from the watch chain. "How did you come by that?"

Alex looked down at the bauble then back at the vampire. How could he possibly know anything about this one piece of insignificant ancient jewelry? Erik stared at the aged hunter and thought again how this man's face had made him recall his own father's. The idea was impossible. Erastos was dead and probably had been since that attack on the road. This man probably came across the piece by chance in an antiquities market or stole it from a museum somewhere.

"This?" The hunter traced the gold circle with his finger. "This was found on me as a baby when I was discovered by my adopted parents. According to my mother I was chewing on it. I carry it now as a good luck piece." The vampire shook his head softly in disbelief. Whatever he was contemplating, wasn't true. This man was not his lost son and he could prove it with a singular question.

"Where and when were you born?"

"I couldn't tell you the year or the exact location, but I was raised in a small village not far from Delphi Greece more than two thousand years ago." Alex answered, not at all certain why 'Le Coeur Noir' would be interested in such trivial details. Erik could only stand there, his eyes wide in disbelief. He tried to speak but nothing came out. What could he say? A moment ago he had been ready to kill this man without even a moment's hesitation. This man who was quite possibly his own son. He stepped backward overcome by his emotions.

"I bought that bracelet for my wife." he finally managed to say softly.

'What?" Alex stepped forward, certain his ears were playing tricks on him.

"It was when I was human." He looked at the man before him then closed his eyes and pictured Athanasia as she had appeared in his dream. "She was murdered and my son was taken away."

This time the hunter was thunderstruck. There had been times in his long life that he had wondered who his real parents were, but he had never imagined this. He wanted to believe it was a lie and for a moment he almost yelled the very accusation at the vampire, but stopped. He looked at the face of the man before him and even disfigured by the holy water he suddenly realized that could see his own eyes looking back at him as well as his nose. This was not the picture he had painted for himself as a boy. He had daydreamed that his real parents were important people with powerful positions. Sometimes he had contemplated the idea that they were poor and had simply abandoned him because they loved him and couldn't give him everything he needed. What he had never contemplated was that his father was a vampire and not only that, but one of the worst on record.

Erik opened his grey eyes and the two men stared at each other. What could they say? There was no familial feeling between them, only shock edged in fear for one and disappointment for the other. Fate had placed them on opposite sides and for a brief moment both had been ready to kill the other. Oh how the Moirai must have laughed as the three of them spun, measured and cut the threads of life for these two men. No doubt it was a great joke to them, but neither hunter nor vampire could find any amusement. Finally it was the vampire who managed to find his tongue again.

"Did you suffer?" he asked this gently, almost afraid of the answer. Perhaps he had not been imbued with a sense of fatherly regard or tenderness towards the man before him, that chasm was far too wide to bridge. Even so, he wanted to be sure that his son never had to bear the scars of what had happened to his mother or be pained because of his accursed father.

"No. I had a wonderful childhood and my parents loved me as their own. this life is not what I would have wished for, but I have always been taken care of." he answered. Erik nodded, satisfied to know that. "Have you suffered?" Alex asked back, his heart already knowing the answer to that.

"Every moment of my existence. At least that was until . . ." he stopped, his mind going back to Aidan. He looked at the hunter pleadingly. "Please tell me where she has gone. Don't deny me what little light I have ever known."

"It is not up to me to decide that," the hunter answered, his heart ached with pity for the man before him, but he would not take away Aidan's chance to find herself. "No more than I can say why we were asked to live as strangers and forced to be enemies all these years."

"Your mother," a hint of tears appeared in the vampire's eyes at the memory of his lost wife. "Would be proud that you did not fall as I did."

"What was she like?" he asked, genuinely curious to know.

"She was one of the fairest flowers that ever bloomed, gentle, and she had a large heart. Aidan is cut from the same fine cloth."

"Then that is all the more reason to let her go. She needs to figure out who she is and not just be a copy of someone long since dead and buried."

"I have never asked her to be anyone but herself." Erik snapped, his eyes flashing red for a second at the implication. "I asked nothing of her, took nothing from her except that which she was willing to give."

"While hiding everything from her," the hunter countered. Whatever these two might have been to each other for an all too brief moment in time made no difference. They were two very different creatures and the chasm between their philosophies and ideologies was too wide a gap to be bridged. Alex couldn't imagine the levels of cruelty that must have formed the brute before him, but he could see John Milton's words thriving in the undead flesh. 'Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.'

"You idiot!" the vampire snarled. The beast inside of him once more showing itself in the red glow of his eyes and extended fangs. "Do you have any idea what you're unleashing? Without her, do you think I would give so much as two pence for your precious humanity?" He waited but as expected there was no answer. "If I must suffer, then so will they."

This was no threat but a promise and one that Alex took seriously. He grabbed for his gun, which was loaded with a silver bullet, intent on wounding the beast so he could put an end to him. He was just raising his pistol to fire off a shot when Erik vanished into smoke and was gone. The hunter could only stand there, cursing himself. What fresh hell was about to be unleashed on the world?

Indeed, even as storm clouds formed overhead and thunder rumbled in the distance, so too did it seem that all the demons of hell were straining against their chains and ready to break free. Erik was not the only one prepared to rain down pain and suffering. Ryuu was walking the streets of London still licking the wounds of his losses. Yes, Rabon and Madirakshi had been fools who had poked their noses into a hornet's nest, but they were his coven, or at least Rabon was. The exotic beauty had been merely pretty window dressing that gave pleasure and entertainment. Never once did he dare trust her, but she had still belonged to him and as such, her behavior as well as Rabon's should have been brought to him to deal with. Honor was important to Ryuu and he would have kept them in check.

In his eyes 'Le Coeur Noir' had no honor and now he would make him pay for it. Calmly walking down one of the dark streets in Whitechapel he found a woman huddled in a corner trying to keep warm as she slept. He leaned in close and was about to sink his teeth into her neck when laughter caught his attention. He turned to see a man slumped behind some barrels cackling away as he swung a partially drunk bottle of liquor.

"You're one of them. One of those creatures," the man giggled then took a drink.

"What do you know about me?" Ryuu asked, turning to the man.

"I know you're a vampire just like that other wanker," the man answered, before taking a long swig from the bottle.

"What other?" the vampire asked.

"Erik Ambrose is what he calls himself." The man rose and crawled over to the creature and smiled. "I used to be the toast of London. Emile Claudel, the great opera tenor. I was rich and at the top of my field with women at my feet. Then he walked into my life and destroyed it all."

"Do tell." Ryuu found the man's assertions regarding his wealth and adoring women a bit far-fetched, given the look of him now. He did believe he had worked in the opera, but only because he recalled passing the place and seeing a poster and the name Emile Claudel on it.

"I had finally chosen a wife. Not one of great beauty and breeding mind you, but she stood to inherit a fortune. He swooped in and destroyed everything in one night. He ended my career and destroyed my fortune. He even stole Aidan from me then, as if that weren't enough he killed my mother. I swear I'll make him pay one day. You'll see. I'll drive a stake through his black heart and then though hers too.

"Tell me more about this Erik Ambrose," the vampire prompted. He could recall hearing Aidan's name from that night in the assembly hall, but he had not known what moniker 'Le Coeur Noir' was using. Without hesitation, Emile regaled him with everything he blamed Erik for. It was a grand mix of truth and fiction, but Ryuu was familiar enough with 'The Dark Heart' to have a reasonable idea of what was real and what was imagined. Knowing that dawn was fast approaching he leaned in close to Emile and smiled. "Why don't you come back with me to my hotel. I can order some food and drinks for you to enjoy throughout the day and when night comes again we can discuss how best to catch this Erik Ambrose."

"Why should I help you?" He started to lift the bottle to his lips, but in the flash of a second Ryuu had buried his fangs in his throat. He barely managed a slight gasp, before the vampire released him after taking just enough to sate his need. He then smiled a dark smile at the tenor.

"Now, I can finish you off right here and now, or you can join me and my race and together we will get the revenge we both want."

"What do I have to do?" Emile managed to say, smiling at the prospect.