The Beasts: A Winter's Tale

Night work

Continued

She went down the hall. Marabeth didn’t really wish to think about anything else that had happened the night before. She would have to deal with it all, obviously, but for the moment the most important thing was to press on, and she was sure that there would be no real pressing on until she read the book. Or at least read more. She placed the journal on the bed and then went downstairs.She thought about going upstairs, but then imagined that Kris probably wasn’t there anyway..

She could hear the house waking up, and she wished she’d kept a coffee maker in her room like she used to. Before she had been afraid to go back to her lonely apartment, and now she wished she was there, didn’t really want to be with her family today. Joyce had brought her here, and right now Joyce was probably in bed with Peter, something Marabeth’s mind rejected every time she tried to imagine it. The trip back home was as simple as taking the Number 8 up Demming Street, and that might happen later, despite this cold.

But… Jason.

Not that Jason wasn’t worth it, but this wasn’t like her, and she suspected it wasn’t like him. She could still feel him, throbbing in her cunt and when she squeezed her thighs together they were wet for him. Marabeth had told herself that things like this were her brother’s department and she was aware now of how cold she had made herself for so long, of last night how debased she had been, filling her mouth with Jason’s cock, feeling his hand in her hair, his hips bucking, her mouth demanding. Her whole body tingled with it and she was filled with a strange pride, not shame. Remembering them fucking on the floor, the feel of his hot, long, strong naked body across hers, she wanted him again, wanted his rough kisses, wanted to be that out of control again. How soft his skin was! How soft and thick his hair, how tender his kisses, how tenderly and carefully he had made love to her, steadily fucking her, the dim cold light of the library making his lean, athletic body golden ivory in the night.

As he had made love to her, as she turned him over and rode him and his mouth opened in a surprised O, she had arched her neck to look up and see Pamela, looking less solemn, more as if there was a secret on her lips. She had turned, for just a moment to see her great grandfather on the wall before Jason had flipped her over, efficiently, but not roughly, and began to shuttle in her. She could not think of Jason without thinking of Pamela and Friederich and Hagano, and she could not think of any of them without thinking of the Book.

Still, thinking about him and last night was a distraction from thinking about the book which, as she sat, not on her bed, but in the old chair in the corner of her large old bedroom, Marabeth resolved to read now.

The book of pamela strauss

It was in Dusseldorf that I finally understood Germany. Far away from even Wurzburg, I never knew we were part of a large country, a country which had, in all fairness, simply been an idea until very recently. But in the great cities I understood what people meant by a nation that was separate from the land of mountains, hills and trees, of fresh and frozen lakes for wolf feet to run upon.

In Berlin I learned something even more important. It was there, first in my dreams, and then in the flesh, I met walking, and walking in the form of any other man, in a suit, Hagano.

“Did you follow me?” I asked him.

“I am you,” he said. “I am part of you. “Wherever you go, wherever your blood goes, I go.”

Friederich and I traveled in wagons and spent nights in crowded hostels, saving all of our money for the trip out of Hamburg. And from Hamburg we sailed around Denmark and through the North Sea, around England to Liverpool, the city of the two cathedrals, a wondrous port I shall never forget. There, all the nations of the earth seemed to be passing through this city, the main artery of the earth, and from that town, with a letter sent ahead to Frau Inga’s daughter, we set sail on the Mary Jane, a name so strange and sharp and British in my mouth, for America. By now I was in a state of constantly being dazzled, for I had thought Wurzburg the end of the world only to come across the great empire of Germany which itself had seemed unending. The sea had taken us further, to England, and now the ship left Liverpool and, in time was on an expanse of blue far greater than any journey I had yet known.

“We are going to a new country,” Friederich said, “where no one knows anything of us.”

“Yes.”

“In America,” he said, “you could be my wife, and we could have children.”

And now I will explain, and you will probably know, that there was nothing in me that found this morally repulsive. Friederich was my lover, and though I enjoyed Hagano, I enjoyed Friederich’s touch, thrilled to run my hands over the hair of his chest, and be enfolded in his arms, to have him inside of me. But I realized I would have that no matter what.

“You need a well off wife,” I decided. “We will do better if we are as we are.”

I still believe this was the most practical decision. We would be coming to America poor, and Friederich was still an attractive man. He would do better single and perhaps so would I, a young woman with opportunities.

Or maybe I simply did not wish to be married to my father.

I did not love New York.

I did not love Ellis Island, which seemed less like the gateway to the Land of Opportunity and more like an humiliating rite of passage to get to the place we were headed. The less I say about delousings and check ups on things I was not at all sure about, the better. We were entered into the books as Pamela and Friederich Strauss, a father and daughter from Wurzburg, and from there we journeyed by train, through New York and Pennsylvania into Columbus, Ohio, which had a large German population. We stayed there in an inn, waiting for word from Frau Inga’s daughter. While there, Father went to work in the tannery. I thought he might work in the beer factory, but Friederich said the tanner’s was the closest he could get to the honest work he had done before. Meanwhile, I went to work in the inn as a maid, awaiting a letter from the daughter of Frau Inga. I thought that, at least for a time, we could make a home. Everyone spoke German. There were good schools, prosperous people, and we were respected. Everywhere you could see the homes of those who had come here more humble than ourselves and, in the end, done well.

But then one morning a letter came.

My dear Pamela, the child I held to my breast, can it be true you are a woman grown? Mama has sent me word that you are coming with your father. The house has been readied, and if you would like, I have room for an assistant, for I am a midwife and a healer as was Mama. Gregory my good husband is a woodsman, and would love to have your father at his side. All is in readiness. Enclosed are two tickets for a train from Columbus to Lassador. I eagerly await your arrival.

Yours sincerely,

Ada Keller

AND SO IT WAS THAT WE LEFT Columbus. We took the train, and at last we arrived in Lassador. We came to Williams Street, as it is called now, which was then called Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse, and arrived at the largest house I had ever seen. Painted in many colors, it was a many roofed and turreted old Queen Anne, that place which came to be called Keller House, but at the time was stilled called Nueberghaus, and a servant let us into the parlor. There a woman dressed severely, but kind in face, received us.

“Pamela, Friederich, welcome.”

And so Ada Keller brought us into her home, and our new life as the Strausses of Germantown began.

Meine liebe Pamela, das Kind, das ich an meiner Brust hielt, kann es wahr sein, dass Sie eine erwachsene Frau sind? Mama hat mir eine Nachricht geschickt, dass du mit deinem Vater kommst. Das Haus ist hergerichtet, und wenn Sie möchten, habe ich Platz für eine Assistentin, denn ich bin Hebamme und Heilerin wie Mama. Gregory, mein guter Ehemann ist ein Waldarbeiter und würde gerne Ihren Vater an seiner Seite haben. Alles ist in Bereitschaft. Anbei zwei Fahrkarten und ein Zug von Columbus nach Lassador. Ich freue mich sehr auf Ihre Ankunft.

Dein,

Ada Keller

“This was a long walk,” the boy now called Levy said.

“Well, the moment you showed up, flying ceased to be an option.”

“You can fly?” Levy said.

“He can,” Lewis pointed to Chris, who was walking ahead of them, touching the security door to the lavish apartment building, and then pushing it open and holding it for them.

“Why is that?”

“He’s a vampire. I’m not.”

“Really? How did he meet you?”

“I’m actually right here, guys,” Chris said.

The lobby was covered by black flagstones and shining under modern chandeliers. There was someone at the front desk who ignored them as they went to the elevators.

“Yeah,” Levy said, turning to Lewis, “but how did you guys meet?”

“At a club,” Lewis said.

“A vampire club.”

Chris touched the elevator button and, hands folded behind him, watched the lights play up and down each floor.

“A regular club.”

“Well, a gay night club,” Lewis said. “But as gay night clubs go, a pretty tame one.”

“You all are…” Levy put a hand over his mouth.

“I thought it might be a bit much for him,” Chris noted, still observing the light descending down the numbers above the polished doors.

As the elevator doors opened, Lewis shrugged. “He just saw you kill someone and knows you’re a vampire, but us being a couple be too much?”

“It’s cool,” the boy assured him. “I’ve just never seen that.”

“No one was asking your permission,” Lewis told him as they entered the lift. “And I’m sure you have seen it, even if you didn’t know it.”

The elevator raced up quickly. Chris turned to Levy and, nodding at Lewis said, “He’s a wizard.”

“What?” Levy’s eyes popped put.

“Really?” Lewis looked at Chris, witheringly.

“Well,” Chris shrugged, “I’m tired of him just staring at me. Now he can stare at you too.”

“So you can fly?” Levy said.

“It doesn’t even work like that.”

“He did ride the back of a giant wolf, though,” Chris said.

“You’re not helping.”

“Wasn’t trying to,” Chris gave him a sickening smile as the elevator slowed and the doors began to open.

“I thought a male witch was called a warlock. Or a wizard,” Levy asked.

“Or a sorcerer or an enchanter,” Lewis said. “It’s all the same, but as for me, I just prefer to be known as a witch.”

“Is that because you’re gay?”

“No,” Lewis said, patiently as they traveled down the short hallway. “It’s because all witches are called witches. Wizards and druids are just witches putting on airs, and a warlock isn’t real. Well, they’re sort of real, but it’s a long story.”

Chris rapped on the plain door, but didn’t wait for an answer before entering Laurie’s apartment and, as the boy said, “Wow!” Lewis murmured, “Why were we always having him over to our place if his place looks like this?”

But his place was full of people, all men but for a sleepy eyed woman with straight, tea colored hair down her back, and they looked from Chris to Lewis to the boy and finally the one at the front of them with chocolate colored hair and wide brown eyes said, “Guys, what’s up with the kid?”

Lewis shrugged and murmured, “Christopher killed his stepfather, so he’s sort of ours now.”

“What the fuck?”

Levy stepped forward, grinning and extended his hand.

“I used to be L’varion, but now I’m Levy Matthews.”

Dan stared at him, and then shook his hand.

“Hey, kid.”

“This is Dan Rawlinson,” Lewis said, placing his hand on Levy’s shoulder,” and as an older man came behind Dan, he added, “and this is the Lord Kruinh, head of the House of Kertesz.”

“Pleased,” the boy held out his hand.

Kruinh seemed unfazed and shook it, nodding, “Pleased to meet you Levy. Levy, you seem to have not eaten or rested. Daniel is my lieutenant,” which Lewis noted Kruinh pronounced leftenant, “he can escort you to more comfortable places while our meeting is underway.”

“Oh,” Levy observed, nodding, “Grown folks business. I get it.”

“I gotta watch him?” Dan said.

“You have to watch him,” Kruinh insisted, mildly.

“Are you all witches too?” Levy asked.

“You don’t believe in keeping secrets do you?” Kruinh looked from Chris to Lewis.

“Under the circumstances it was sort of impossible,” Chris said.

“What were the circumstances?”

“He killed the boy’s stepfather in front of him,” Lewis said, this time loud enough for everyone to hear.

Kruinh looked sharply at Chris, but Lewis said, “In all fairness, the man was about to murder the boy. He saved his life.”

“Well, that’s different,” Kruinh noted. “Inconvenient. But different.”

Kruinh told Levy, “We are nosferatu.”

“What’s that?”

“Vampires,” Lewis said.

Even Kruinh looked taken aback by Lewis’s baldness, and the boy looked at Dan Rawlinson.

“You’re a vampire?”

“Yeah,” Dan said. “How’d you like that?”

“I dunno,” Levy shrugged. “You seem too goofy looking to be a vampire.”

Dan frowned and said, “Com’on, kid.”

The rest of them came into the living room, and Laurie walked forward and embraced them. There were others Lewis had never met, Sunny, and Kirk, which seemed awfully ordinary names, and then Rommel and Lemuel and, among them a woman called Anne, and Laurie said, “Now we can finally begin.”

But just then there was a knock at the door.

“Who could this be?” Chris frowned.

Laurie frowned and looked around the room, and the one called Sunny said, “I’ll get it.”

He moved to the door and opened it, and a moment later a new figure came in and it was Lewis and Laurie who said at the same time, “Loreal!”

“What are you doing here?” Laurie demanded.

“I’m here to be part of this,” Loreal said.

“From now on,” she continued, gesturing to a chair which, to Lewis’s surprise, one of the vampires brought her, “I’m here to be part of everything.”

Laurie kept staring at her.

“It’s alright for you to fly across the city into my room, but I can’t come here? It’s alright for you to be part of my family meetings, but I’m not part of yours? Either I’m part of you or I’m not. Make the decision. Now.”

Laurie kept looking at her, and then he turned to look at Kruinh who had seated himself in a high wing backed chair. The Drinker lord nodded regally and said, “Lady Loreal, be welcome into our number. Long have we been absent of witchly council, and now we have two.”

He gestured to Loreal and then to Lewis before saying, “Let the council begin.”

I will be gone for a few days, but this should not affect posting, though it may affect response time. Incidentally, Derek, if you are still reading, I would like to know how your journey through this story has been.