The Beasts: A Winter's Tale

“So whaddo you do?” Levy asked in the guest room, lying on his back while he played throw and catch with a glass ball.

“Me?” Dan said.

“There’s no one else in this room,” Levy said. “Unless there are ghosts too, and I can’t see them.”

“Uh, no,” Dan said. “To my knowledge there are no ghosts.”

“Well,” the boy said, “it seems like there’s everything else.”

Dan reached out and caught the ball Levy was negligently tossing. Because Dan was clear on the other side of the room, it looked like his hand had stretched all the way out and Levy sat up and blinked at him.

“Just quick movements,” Dan explained. “And you can’t walk into someone’s house and use their expensive shit as toys. Especially when they’re vampires.”

“But you guys are like… nice vampires.”

“Did Chris seem nice when he did what he did?’

“When he offed my mom’s boyfriend? Yeah. That was pretty nice for me.

“So,” Levy said, “are you all like in the movies? Nice, friendly. Misunderstood, But… you know?”

“We have a code,” Dan said. “All Drinker clans have a code for how and who is allowable to kill. Or else everyone would be dead, and there would be no morality.”

“There’d also be no food,” Levy said.

“Huh?”

“It’s not all just you being nice. If every vampire killed every person, then all the food would be gone. Or can you all drink other stuff, but you just like humans?”

“A drinker can only take human blood,” Dan said, straddling his chair.

Dan said, “I never thought of that. What you said. About the rules.”

“Well,” the boy shrugged. “People never make up rules just to protect other people.”

And then Levy said, “So what did you say it is you do?”

“I’m Kruinh’s Lieutenant. Or, as he calls it, leftenant.”

“I still don’t know what that means.”

“I’m his right hand man.”

“Right hand vampire.”

“I’m still a man. I’m just a man who’s a vampire.”

“It’s probably wrong to ask people how they became vampires.”

“Yes, Kid, it is.”

“But you weren’t always one. Were you?”

“No, I was just a normal guy. And I met Kruinh years ago. And then, later, when it happened to me, Kruinh and his family stepped in and took care of me.”

“And now here you are,” Levy turned on his side, looking at Dan.

“Here I am,” Dan agreed.

“Babysitting me.”

“Well, I guess so.”

“What are they all talking about?”

“I’m not really sure.”

“I thought you said you were the Lieutenant.”

“I’m the Lieutenant, not the secretary.”

“I think Kruinh just calls you that cause he knows you wanted a title. You don’t seem like a Lieutenant.”

Dan raised an eyebrow.

“I’m just saying. You seem like a nice guy who happens to be a vampire.”

“I can be tough when I need to be.”

“I bet,” Levy said. “So can I. But that’s not really the same thing as being a monster.”

Levy lay on his back and said, “I’m hungry. Can the Lieutenatnt take us to get something to eat?”

“Oh, yeah. Food.”

“I guess you all don’t eat.”

“I eat, but because it’s fun. Not because… I mean, I can forget about it for a long time. I’ll take you to McDonalds.”

“Is that the only thing in Chicago that’s open now?”

“That I’m willing to go to?” Dan said. “Yeah.”

Levy got off the bed and Dan stood up.

“So,” Levy said. “What’s more powerful? A vampire or a witch?”

“Honestly, Kid? Until a few weeks ago I thought witches were just teenage girls in tight uniforms who hated Catholic school and sat in their room wearing black and reading Tarot cards.”

“Then you didn’t know… about Lewis?”

“I think that’s what the meeting is about,” Dan said, at last.

Levy looked at him as Dan handed him his coat.

“I think there are a lot of things out there that people believe are just stories, and I think that up until now we all just thought we were the only story that was real, and now we’re sort of…. Matching up the folktales.”

“My Lord, Kruinh,”Lewis said as they were sitting in Laurie’s huge living room, “the person I am most curious about is Evangeline.”

“That’s interesting, Mr. Dunharrow,” Kruinh said, “because I would have thought the person you would be most curious about is your cousin Eve and how she knows Evangeline.”

Loreal did not speak, but Kruinh said, “This Eve is your sister, is she not?”

“Half sister,” Loreal said. “And if she knows anything, she knows it because of my grandfather, Augustus.”

“Augustus Dunharrow,” Kruinh murmured, “Now, that is a name I have often heard.”

“But you have never met him,” Lewis guessed by Kruinh’s tone.

“No,” Kruinh said. “I have never had that distinct pleasure.”

“But,” Laurie said, “he seems to know everything.”

“Yes, he does,” Kruinh noted. “And I am eager to know how. He traffics with Drinkers. Apparently he knows werewolves as well. You should pay him a visit as soon as you can, Mr. Dunahrrow.”

“Lewis will suffice,” Lewis said. “And I remember him more and more, not in this life, but in others. I remember him as a boy, scheming and crafty, though this was centuries ago, for he is centuries old. How he made the acquaintance of vampires, maybe you can tell me, and how he came to know of the werewolves is beyond my reckoning. Lord Kruinh—”

“If Lewis will suffice for you, then Kruinh will suffice for me.”

“Very well. Kruinh, where did Evangeline come from?”

“She’s my sister,” Chris said. “You know that.”

“But you were not made at the same time. You did not even know she was made for two hundred years. How was she made?”

“Christopher was young when he was made,” Kruinh said. “In those days he said he had no knowledge of his family. I asked if he cared for any of them, to see any of them. He said… Or,” Kruinh turned to Chris, “would you rather?”

“I said I had too many brothers and sisters,” Chris said. “That I cared for none. And then I remembered Evangeline.”

“So you made her?” Lewis said. “For Chris.”

“No,” Kruinh said. “I sent others to find her, to find living members of Christopher’s family, to see how they faired. Not only the Drinkers I have made, but all those who are of the blood of my household are part of our clan. I asked all family members to find her. And so it was a niece of mine, Rosamunde, an English lady, found Evangeline. Either because she truly desired her or to spite me, she made Evangeline for herself. She knew that being my niece, but not one of my progeny, I could not truly harm her.”

Kruinh did not speak immediately, and then he said, “I harmed her enough, though. But she had separated herself from us, established her own clan, not of her blood, not a true clan, and she was already making Drinkers. Evangeline was the first of them. How she came to know your family only you can answer, and you must answer it, for it is beyond us.”

“I have asked it before,” Loreal said. “But not here.”

“Yes?” Kruinh turned to her.

“Is it possible my grandfather has some scheme, some plot, and that all of this knowledge he is building up is to do some final thing?”

“My dear lady,” Kruinh said, “he has already done the something. The knowledge itself is the power. He has, through the Strauss family, come back into contact with the wolf kind again, a kind which, though I have known it, I have not seen in many years.

“It used to be,”Kruinh said, “that shapeshifters were not rare. And not only of the wolf kind. In the north there were several such as the werebear, and it is said that the northern warriors, from whom your Strausses would be descended, in their dreadful battles could transform into their totems, bears, boars. Wolves. How it ceased, or where it went I do not know. Nor do I know from whence it came. The stories have been different, and they have been in all places. The most powerful of the Changers could change at will, but many I hear, are victim to the three nights of the full moon. Some maintain wits fully and others not at all. I imagine that your Strauss family is of this kind. Or maybe of several. If you could keep me informed, I would be grateful.”

“If I could keep you informed then your knowledge might fill in the gaps in my own,” Lewis said.

“This is what I was thinking.”

“I was thinking something else,” Loreal said.

“Yes?” Laurie turned to her.

“I have to go down south and see my grandfather. I have to figure out what is going on, but when this is all done, I think I want to go find Onnalee.”

“Onnalee?” Lewis said.

“You know,” Loreal continued. “The Maid. The white haired woman with the golden bowl, our cousin.”

Chris looked at Kruinh and because Lewis shared his memories had regained his life he remembered that the Maid and the Master had together called Kruinh to the islands in the days when Chris had been a slave.

“Were that maid and Onnalee the same,” Chris wondered. “For they looked the same?”

“It is possible,” Kruinh said, and if the Master is sitting with us now, then it would make sense for the Maid to be in our presence, or at least knowledgeable about what is happening.”

“But that is just the thing,” Loreal said. “See, I believe she is in our midst. Onnalee has no daughters. She said once that I should come to her, and my grandmother, before she died, placed all her power upon me and said I must complete my training and pass through full initiation so that I could truly be a priestess.”

“So that you could be the Maid,” Lewis looked at his cousin.

“Yes,” Loreal said, quietly. “I believe so.”