The Children of Arnborg: the Prophecy by Rene Barry	Arnborg: the Prophecy Chapter 1, part 1 Chapter 1, part 2 Chapter 2, part 1 Chapter 2, part 2 Chapter 3, part 1 Chapter 3, part 2 Chapter 3, part 3 Chapter 3, part 4 Chapter 4
Chapter 2 part 1 of 2

“Why me?” Stuart demanded. He had not left Emma even when the rest of The Coven had disbanded. “Why spare me? I know Tom’s dead. If he’s not already, he soon will be. So why spare me? You know damned well this is all my fault.”

“It’s funny: he failed to show you the same loyalty thirty minutes ago.” Emma noted. She pulled her trench coat tighter around her. Something bulged under it, and she drew it even closer, away from Stuart’s curious stare.

“Well, I guess people do unexpected things when they’re desperate,” Stuart said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, yes. I forgot. Stuart Morrow, the district attorney who’s seen it all,” Emma quipped.

“I wouldn’t quite put it that way.”

Emma turned to him. “I would.”

“You know damned well he had no choice,” Stuart charged. “Raines called for a dismissal, and given everything I’ve been telling him, it’s a wonder I haven’t been committed. Grant had all eyes on him. If he’d ruled the wrong way...”

Stuart stopped, looking beaten and frustrated. “Look: the fact is he left the door wide open for the D.A.’s office to haul Woolsey before the bench again.” He looked at Emma, but she remained unmoved. He grimaced in disgust at her, taking some time to collect himself. “Where is he?” he whispered earnestly.

“Let us worry about other things,” Emma replied. “Thomas’ purpose is almost served, but you are here, and you are what matters. Come with me?”

Stuart frowned. “What? Why?”

“There’s something I want to show you. Come with me.”

He gazed around, shuffling uncertainly. They were both standing like ghosts in the light of the street lamp several feet away from the underground stairway that led to The Coven’s hideout. The Boston night streets were populated as usual with passers-by throwing their indifferent gaze at the pair every few minutes or so. A vampire and a lawyer! Who would have guessed it?

Stuart nodded. “Fine. Whatever.” There was a fatalism in his voice now, a voice of one who had lost everything and was wearily resigning himself to the probability that things could not get any worse, and should they, he simply would not care. “Where are we going?”

Emma stood and measured Stuart strangely. “To the courthouse. Where else?”

* * *

The black sedan glided swiftly down the freeway against the backdrop of the Boston skyline, which glittered like a constellation in the city’s night sky.

The wind whisked past Stuart like a cool blanket, and he watched it playfully tug at Emma’s cropped blond hair. “You gonna tell me what’s going on?” he shouted over the rock music blaring from the radio.

“You sure you want to know?” Emma asked.

“No more games, Emma. We’re taking the freeway. Means we’ve got a ride ahead of us. Spill it. What’s your deal?”

Emma nodded. She switched the radio off. “Fine. How’s your history, Mr. Morrow?” she asked. “Particularly Germany, 1530 to 1650?”

He peered at her.

“Ja, I know it’s a while back,” she laughed playfully, “but to me, to Joshua, hell, it was just yesterday. But you know how it is, vampire and all.” She almost cackled in her amusement.

The car picked up speed suddenly, and Stuart noticed her pushing the accelerator a little harder.

“You know most people blame the Inquisition, put it squarely on their shoulders. But we know better, Joshua and I.” She shook her head, annoyed with herself. “No, no, that’s not a good place to start. Not good at all. Let me see... Ah, 1545! We’ll start there, the year of my birth.

“Oh, by the way, Albruga Guschke, that’s my name. Guschke. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Morrow. And Joshua? He’s not my lover. He’s my brother, and his name was Hrodrich Guschke. Thought you would’ve seen the resemblance by now!”

“Brother?” Stuart gasped.

“The Germans were in a panic by my twentieth year, I recall,” she rattled on, ignoring Stuart’s astonishment. “No different in my village, north of Rostock. They were busy hunting witches, you would imagine! I was a midwife by that time. Not much else for a girl to do. I had no formal education, as was expected, and my father had entrusted Hrodrich to a court scribe as his yes-man. But that pig wanted more from him than his entourage services. Poor Hrodrich would come home beaten and sullied from the waist down... if you get my meaning?” she glanced at him. “Of course, you get my meaning.”

Stuart grimaced at the implication.

“It was his looks I imagine,” Emma continued. “You’ve seen him. He’s as pretty as a man gets. Nevertheless, we did well enough. Babies came swift and relentless in my village, and I was paid well enough to attend the women. I said my prayers and tried to keep on the right side of the Malleus Maleficarum.”

“The papal bull,” Stuart chimed in.

“It was actually the fancies of two madmen the church disowned soon enough, but at the time those fancies and the Holy See seemed to go hand in hand to every ignorant peasant such as myself. But all that changed when Arnborg snatched me from all I knew. She took me from one darkness and thrust me into another.”

“Arnborg?” the former D.A. cut in again.

“Yes. She was the vampire that made me. She was another ragged hell-spawn from the Viking lands who had managed to stumble her way into Germany. She found me on the river bank late one evening. Damned near ripped my throat apart! She intended to leave me for dead, but I think it was my groaning that made her turn around, and with sheer savageness and brutality, she brought me over. Trust me, there was nothing romantic about it. I was twenty-eight by that time.”

“And Joshua?”

“My doing, Mr. Morrow. To make a long story short, as far as Hrodrich is concerned, he grew tired and I grew tired of that pig raping him night after night and then running off to consecrate himself just in time to help convict a heretic! I loved Hrodrich far too much to leave him behind. So I bit him, and I freed him...”

Emma seemed to be choking back something at the mention of Joshua, but Stuart declined to ask. He let her continue.

“Our parents never knew what became of us, and we didn’t stick around to explain. We were in the company of Arnborg in those days. She was the only other vampire we knew, but subtlety was not one of our strong points; how to camouflage our existence amongst our public, that is. We were uneducated scavengers just like Arnborg, and soon enough our misdeeds left a trail that was only too easy to follow. We became hunted, and it was one night, one kind twist of fate that accounts for our survival to this day...”

* * *

Joshua lifted the pale but still plump torso of Judge Grant over his shoulders. “Rebecca, we must go. Lady Emma waits for us, but there is a matter that needs to be attended to first.”

“Where are we going?” Rebecca inquired. She licked the blood off her fangs, but she looked dazed. “Did I just feed?” she asked, confused. “Who’s that man you’re carrying?” His head was laid against Joshua’s back, and she could not discern who he was. She cocked her head as though she had recognized a certain familiarity of his frame. She shuddered. She did not want to know who Joshua was carrying.

“We must go, darling,” Joshua insisted. “There is someone we owe a debt to, a promise that must be honored.”

Rebecca turned to follow Joshua, noticing he had not answered her question. Her head hurt slightly and she stopped, realizing that they were in a church.

“What is it?” Joshua asked.

“This place, it cannot hurt me? It cannot hurt us? This is a church!” Her voice echoed off the eaves of the vast sanctuary. The events of the night were slowly coming into focus, the blur wearing off and the nausea setting in.

“I saw what she did, Lady Emma. I saw her throw the Bible at Judge Grant.” She eyed the body slung over Joshua’s shoulder and shuddered again. “Her hands didn’t burn! I’ve looked after The Coven for years. I shot up with your blood to protect you, and I’ve been running from crosses ever since! On your advice! I believed I would die! Why? Why have you done this? You played me for a fool!”

Joshua sighed. “Rebecca, we did what we must to protect ourselves, our true strength. But, know this: you were never in any danger from us. And now you’re with us. No more myths, no more fairy tales. What you will learn tonight will bind you to us forever... and open your eyes to a truth you never knew existed.”

* * *

Proceed to part 2...

Copyright © 2011 by Rene Barry