Bleeding Heart

The meeting would take place at Ben’s cliffside home in Coquille Point. Ben came to pick up Victoria and Daphne in his Rolls Royce, chauffeured by Kert.

“Where is Daphne?”

“She’s not coming.”

Victoria sat silently as Kert drove them to the coast. She could feel the piercing observation of Ben upon her.

As they neared their destination, the car made a right turn and lumbered up a long, steep, meandering road to the house. The house was a newer, three-story home. The rock walls mimicked the colors of the cliffs and the surrounding grasses. Daylight was growing dimmer in the patchy fog and setting sun.

When Kert shut off the engine, Victoria started to open the door when Ben gently took her by the wrist and motioned her to sit back. Kert came around and opened the door for Ben and then Victoria.

Mrs. Pallor greeted them at the door. “The woman is everywhere.”

Ben laughed, “She’s just here for this evening. Come.”

This place was fresh and modern with no shortage of windows. It had an open floor plan, the kitchen was exposed to a great room which had a stovepipe fireplace glowing in the middle. Victoria’s muscles relaxed as she gazed around the room.

“I will get the wine.” Mrs. Pallor retrieved a silver serving cart with the wine, which had been decanted into a Waterford Chrystal vessel.

“Do you like the house?”

“Very much. Actually, I love it!”

“Good, I bought it for you.”

Before Victoria could respond, Bela made his entrance.

“Ah! Brother! Still traveling through walls, I see!”

“And you, brother, are still hopelessly attached to your worldly possessions.”

For the first time, Victoria could see the man she remembered as her father. A nagging tear escaped down her cheek.

“Father…”

“Yes, Victoria. I am your blood.”

“Where have you been all these years?! Daph, mom and me; you just left us!”

“There was no other way. But I have been with you, with you and your sister. I have been with all my children. My girls are bonded with me, an inescapable bond of a soțul supleant, if you will.”

“Wait a minute,” Ben said, “You fucked your own daughters? Aren’t there enough suitable wenches for you to fuck… or have I been doing this thing all wrong?!”

Victoria stood, motionless, observing her father. There it was, The Rock, Alec Baldwin, Richard Gere, Shamar Moore. A cold rush of fury swelled in her body.

Bela met her gaze. She heard his words, though he did not speak, “It is our way, the way of your future and you will understand.”

“Oh, come on now, stop with the feels! Let’s talk about this thing you got going on here, little brother.”

“Where is Daphne?” Bela held his gaze on Victoria.

“Daphne doesn’t want…. Daphne had another important matter to attend to.”

“Apparently, my other niece wants no part of this. Her participation would have made things easier.”

“Then let’s get on with it, Ben.”

“Bela, you and I… all of us, we could dominate this town, this state!”

“Ben, I already have that capability. You see, I don’t need your help. I never have and that just grinds your pointy, little fangs.”

“Why must you always fight me?! I can offer you, offer all of us, wealth beyond belief!”

“I can get whatever I want, whenever I need it. I can travel to any time, to any place in this world.”

“How do you do it, damn it! We are both Strigoi, you and I, but you, you…”

The snake eyes on Bela’s watch began to glow. Victoria was wearing the hair comb that Bandia had found, it was tightening and pulsating in her hair. Her hair tumbled as she removed the comb. The eyes of the snake were gleaming.

“Well, I don’t have anything that glows…”

Bela reached out for Victoria’s hand.

“You are better than your uncle. Come with me, take my hand. Our survival, the survival of our breed depends upon it. We can eliminate the inferiors.”

“The inferiors?”

“Mankind, the human genome was a mistake, a tragic error. Even the Strigoi, they are a disease. We can make this planet what it was meant to be, a paradise, if you will.”

“Oh, stop this shit! You are telling me that you, you and she, are superior to me? What makes you so superior?”

Victoria took her father’s hand. Ben bounded at her with fangs bared. She and Bela departed through the wall and Ben came growling and spitting after them.

They were standing in the open air, on the cliffs and night had fallen; droplets from the ocean sprayed their faces. A phenomenal meteor shower was streaking the skies. An emerald aura had encapsulated Victoria and Bela and the honeyed scent of melon filled the air.

“Oh, because I’m not in the green bubble, I’m not special? I’ll bust that bubble post haste!”

“That’s right. Uncle. Ben.”

The color in Ben’s complexion turned an acidic rust, his eyes, veined with blood; his fangs, like a baboon’s; his nails, like an eagle’s talons protruded from his fingers. Victoria wondered why she ever thought he looked like Cary Grant. And he lunged at Bela.

Bela thrust out his hand and clamped it about his brother’s throat.

“One hand brother, one hand. I can snuff you out right now.”

Ben spit, howled and clawed at his brother. He left deep, ripping wounds in Bela’s arms but they healed almost as quickly as he could inflict them. He continued to flip and writhe like a trapped animal fighting slaughter.

A radiance so intense descended upon them as if the sun were plummeting from the sky. All became still with a deafening silence.

“What are you going to do with him, Bela?” A rich, baritone voice broadcasted from above.

“I should kill him. But I think that, really, is for you to decide, Khet.”

“Let him go, Bela. Look at him, he is your brother. He is still your blood. I will leave the decision to you. You have gained much knowledge and can come to an informed verdict.”

Ben gagged as Bela released him and he tried to muster a look of pity for his brother.

“Victoria, you are now my right hand. I will leave the choice for you to make.”

She wanted desperately to look up and see who was talking but her father held her gaze. She looked at her father for what Ben thought was an eternity. He tried frantically to get her to look at his attempt at an Al Pacino pout.

Finally, Victoria looked at Ben. She raised her right arm, her hand, clenched into a fist, slowly pointing her thumb outward. She then moved it to an upward position. Ben laughed hysterically.

“Ha! She chose me! She chose me!”

What looked like a bolt of lightning razed across Ben’s neck, leaving the remnants of his Al Pacino smile on the rocks below.

“Sorry, brother. If you’d read your history, you’d know that a thumb up never meant to go in your favor; that a thumb down would spare you. A thumb up; run him through. Learned and strong, she is my daughter, through and through.”

“What will happen to Daphne?”

“She will come around, she has to. But now, it’s time you met the Africanus.”