They all huddled together looking at the note and photograph. “I thought he was dead!! You told me he was dead!” Eli was shaking.
“Eli, the research showed him as having died in the attack and subsequent destruction of his estate. His body was found burned to ashes. In exhaustively reading between the lines, I found nothing further that could possibly be described as vampire activity occurring in the area after his death – only before it.” Papa examined the signature more closely. “Let me get my original notebooks. I think I may have the answer.” He headed for the stairs.
Eli was frightened. She remembered his overpowering presence, his sadistic smile. His mysterious, almost magical way of …knowing things; knowing how things were going to play out before they even began. How he changed the dice to pick her when they had plainly picked someone else. She remembered how she had avoided looking into his eyes after that first time because of what she saw there.
Elaine took her in her arms and comforted her. “Eli, together, you and I have the strength to beat him if necessary, no matter what his intentions. But his note seems to suggest that he is … somehow grateful to you for taking the egg. How could that be?”
“I don’t know!” she sobbed. “He wouldn’t be! He couldn’t be!” She knew deep down inside that ‘grateful’ was not in his vocabulary. What could it all mean?
Papa came down the stairs with a smile on his face. “Eli, he is dead! Look at his signature more closely. Gudmund Törnkvist the Second. This man was his son, or grandson; or the first in the male lineage that was named after him. And look at the note. He is clearly thanking you for something he feels you have done for him. And that would certainly not be the attitude of your Lord Törnkvist. Let me do a bit of checking online.” He sat down at Eli’s computer. “We’ll track this fellow down, and hopefully at least get a better idea of who he is and what he may want of you. Remember, he knew who you were at least 13 years ago. If he meant you any harm, he had ample opportunity to follow through without alerting you to his existence.”
“I find it interesting that he included this particular photograph. If he could take this one, undetected by two vampires, he certainly could have taken many others. Why this one? What’s his message?” Elaine asked.
“Maybe he wanted to scare us,” Oskar volunteered.
“Well, it worked! I’m scared!” Eli put her arms around him.
“I don’t think that was his intent, Eli. This one photograph actually ties us all together, and tells us that he is fully aware of the connection.”
“What do you mean?” Eli looked at her, puzzled.
"Lord Törnkvist, probably this man’s father, knew the Other One personally – in fact he probably turned him. The Other One, of course, lived in the tomb in the photograph. I was his prisoner for 40 years, and you and I were about to learn a great deal more about each other at the instant the picture was taken.” She smiled at Eli. “And you lived with your Papa and Oskar. He must have known who you were, or else why the elaborate preparation of the egg base? So! He had to know ALL this beforehand, or else why would he have felt compelled to take this picture 13 years ago? I really can’t imagine which of us he was following that night. It could have been either of us – or neither of us for that matter. If it were me, why would your presence have made him take the chance on being discovered taking the picture? And if it were you, it just verifies the obvious fact that he is a vampire. No one else could possibly have followed you. And again, why would he have taken the picture? As I said before, he took the picture to prove that he knew we were linked together 13 years ago. And that he has been observing us all this time. ” She saw the look on Eli’s face and quickly added, “but he’s not your vampire, Eli. I’m certain of it.”
Elaine picked up the empty package, peeled off the packing slip, and unfolded it. “The itemized list of contents shows only the two eggs. It’s very specific. The weight of each egg is listed down to the gram, ant the total package weight is also indicated. Oskar, run get the postal scale from your Dad’s study.” Oskar headed upstairs. Elaine gathered up all the packing material, boxes and bubble wrap and placed it back in the original package, just as Oskar came down with the scale. Without the base and its box, the eggs and the packing material together matched the weight on the packing slip.
“We can be almost certain that the base was added to the package after the packing slip was attached. With the security surrounding a package with this great a value, how would that be possible?” she asked.
“Sounds like an inside job to me,” Oskar said in his Hercule Poirot voice as he twisted an imaginary mustache.
“I’m certain that you’re correct, Oskar.” She smiled at him. “This man, or whatever he is, clearly has connections in the right places.” She thought a moment, “So we can infer that the second set of crowns has been in his possession all this time; probably from the beginning. And the base, which we know to be old, was designed to hold them. But for what purpose? Did he envision this situation over 100 years ago? Did he somehow know that his ‘Elias’ would be able to solve the puzzle and find his note? If so, HOW could he have known? He also must have known that only someone who knew the puzzle intimately could know how to align the eggs properly. In other words, he knew that you were the only one, Eli, other than himself, who could ever hope to solve it. You had the only egg that still had the crowns in it. He had the crowns for the second.”
Dawson interrupted, “If this article is correct, Gudmund Törnkvist the Second was born in 1855. This was within a year of the destruction of the Törnkvist Estate. He was the son and direct heir of your Lord Törnkvist. The fact that he seems to be alive now is certainly an indicator that he is also a vampire, although the article shows him as having died in 1915. Unless, of course, he’s lying to us.” He thought a moment. “Unlikely though, if Elaine guessed right and he was following you that night, Eli.”
“That presents us with an intriguing question. He must have been conceived after Lord Törnkvist was a vampire. Does that mean vampires are fertile and can successfully impregnate humans? Or other vampires? Who was his mother?” Elaine sounded puzzled. But it seemed unlikely to her that vampires could be fertile, since she didn’t get pregnant during her 40 years in the Other One’s ‘care.’
“Mom, does that mean he was born a vampire?” Eli asked. She was feeling a bit more at ease now that they were discussing him more objectively.
“Not possible, Eli.” Elaine suddenly realized, “This is a grown man. If he had been born a vampire he would have stayed one day old forever; or perhaps only a fertilized egg. Another argument against vampires being able to procreate. Someone turned him as an adult, but we may never know how or why, unless he chooses to enlighten us. But be sure of the fact that he means you no harm. Oskar, you need to be on the alert a bit more than usual, in case he feels the need to get close to us again.”
Oskar nodded. “Don’t worry, Eli. If he gets anywhere near us, I’ll know.”
“Another puzzling thing about the base is the fact that it could not have been made without the two eggs being together when it was designed. Its entire operation as a puzzle depends on the eggs fitting perfectly into it. When could this possibly have happened? The eggs were never both in Lord Törnkvist’s possession. You always had the black one, Eli, until we sold it. And that was only 14 years ago. The base appears to be much older than that. Is there ever a time when you didn’t have the egg?”
“No. I’ve always had it.” It’s been with me every day of my life since I … found it. At least until I sold it.” She was puzzled. How could this be?
“I don’t know Eli. It’s a real mystery.”
“How about when you were hibernating, Eli? When you were hibernating with me, I could have taken anything away from you and you wouldn’t have known. I could have even cut your hair short and dyed it, and you wouldn’t have known until you woke up.” Oskar quipped.
“But no one took it! It was always there!” she protested.
“Unless someone borrowed it and returned it before you woke up. In fact, I really think that’s the answer. It …fits somehow.” Elaine said.
Eli’s eyes got big. “Don’t say that! Don’t even think that! That would mean he saw me, that he could have … touched me, or killed me.” She trembled.
“Well, I’m not convinced,” Papa said, “That sounds pretty far-fetched to me. Why would he have gone to all that trouble to prepare for a future event he couldn’t have predicted? There must be another explanation.”
“Remember what Sherlock Holmes said,” Elaine said sarcastically, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
“The logical flaw in that statement is that there’s no way to know when you have eliminated all the potential ‘impossibilities’” Dawson retorted. “A basic flaw that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never acknowledged.”
“Logical to a fault, as usual,” she said snidely. “Meanwhile, Eli is left without a definitive answer to a very important question.”
“One we may very well never have an answer to, sadly.” He said solemnly.
====
Oskar heard Eli screaming all the way upstairs in his room. He rushed down quickly only to find her, back against the wall, at the front door. “Eli! What’s wrong?” He put his arms around her just as Papa and Elaine came rushing in.
She knelt down and picked up two large black-and-white photographs and a padded envelope off the floor and handed them to Papa. She was trembling so hard he had trouble taking them from her. “These came in the mail, addressed to me.” She said in a small, frightened voice. “And there’s another for Oskar!”
They looked at the first photo closely. It was a new print, but the image had the slight graininess and texture that indicated it was probably made from a very old negative, or possibly a positive, of some sort. It was a picture of a young girl lying on her side on a straw bed against a heavy stone wall of some kind. Her dress came to just below her knees and her bare legs and shoeless feet were pulled up to her chest. Her arms were together beside her head and her hands, next to her face, were tightly gripping strands of her long black hair. She seemed to be staring directly into the camera. Next to her head was a small wooden box, with several familiar objects just visible inside. A dirty blanket lay at her feet in a heap.
They gasped simultaneously as they recognized Eli’s beautiful face.
Dawson immediately picked up Oskar’s envelope and laid it on the table. “Don’t open this yet, Oskar.”
Papa quickly handed the photo to Elaine and looked closely at the second one. He felt a sudden chill. The wooden box had clearly been moved. So had Eli. She was lying on her back, her black hair neatly brushed and her blanket pulled up under her arms and over her chest. Her eyes were closed and one arm was at her side. The other was wrapped around a stuffed bunny. The shadows and lighting for this one were subtle, but there was no mistaking the photographer’s intent. Eli’s face was bathed with a soft light, enhancing her natural beauty in a most remarkable way. Whoever took this was an excellent photographer. He gasped suddenly as he spotted, next to her head just inside the circle of light, the two eggs, side by side, on the black ebony base. He glanced at Elaine as he realized she was right again; he had underestimated her uncanny ability to sense the feng shui in Eli’s otherwise dark life. “Eli, do you remember when you owned this dress? Do you remember where you were?”
“Yes Papa. It was the cellar of an old outbuilding on the ruins of an old estate near…the castle. It was soon after I found the egg, within 10 years or so, but before I went to England. I went through two hibernations there, but the first one was when I had that dress. That means he knew where I was both times.” She had tears in her eyes. “Oh, Papa! I’m afraid!” she put her arms around him.
“Eli, look at this second photo carefully. What do you see?”
“What do you mean, Papa? He moved me! He brushed my hair, just like the Other One did!”
“No Eli. It’s not the same. Whoever did this cared a great deal about you. He closed your eyes. He symbolically kept you warm. He gave you comfort.” He pointed to the stuffed rabbit. ‘You still own this rabbit. I’ve seen it in your box. This…man cares about you, whoever he is. And look at the eggs! Elaine was right and this tells us even more about this man. The eggs are positioned next to your head, one white, one black, inside the circle of light around your face. See how the base is turned slightly but deliberately, the white egg closer to your face, the black one closer to the camera? I think he did this on purpose; I’m not sure why, but it looks deliberate. Yet they are irrevocably bound together, symbolized by the base. And for whatever reason, these eggs are clearly instrumental in his deep interest in your welfare. ”
“Wait a minute!” Elaine interjected. “We’ve assumed that he was born as per the article you found! We know the date of his death was wrong. Why not the date of his birth too? He couldn’t have been born in 1855. That would have made him around ten when these pictures of Eli were taken. Very unlikely, I think. The logical explanation, when we eliminate the ‘impossibility’ of him being conceived by a vampire, is that he was born BEFORE Lord Tornqvist was a vampire and turned when he was an adult – in plenty of time for him to have been an adult at the time the photographs of Eli were taken. Elementary, my Dear Watson.”
“Well done! You’re right, of course! Which means he was an adult when Eli stole the egg, and fully aware of the circumstances. Which means he probably knew of the episode on the road when you stole the egg, Eli. The accounts of the men who were bringing them to his father, and the condition of the two dead men would have been known to him. Which, in turn, means he was almost certain you were a vampire, and a small one. Depending on how long and how often his father got away with slaughtering innocent children and turning some of them, it may not have take him long to narrow down the list of possibilities. Church birth records would have quite possibly given him your name.” He hesitated, “But I have no idea how he found where you hibernated; how he made that final connection and was able to physically locate you.”
“If he cared about me, why didn’t he help me? Why did he stand back and let me live alone for another 100 years? And only after I was happy and had a new life, did he … start scaring me.”
Elaine and Papa looked at each other, “Eli, I can’t answer that one.” Papa said. He took her in his arms. “Perhaps he’ll tell us someday. He certainly seems to have decided to begin a dialogue with us.” He was beginning to think he was wrong about this man’s identity. This man is clearly not the one described in the article. Too many things didn’t fit. So, if he isn’t that Gudmund Törnkvist II, who is he really?
Dawson looked at the padded envelope. No return address. He started to put the photos back into it when he noticed there was a small flat package at the bottom. He pulled it out quickly, and unwrapped it, revealing an elongated oval cameo about 10 centimeters wide, carved in two interlocked pieces of jade, with two familiar profiles facing each other. Oskar and Eli! The images were perfect down to the finest detail; there was no mistaking them. Eli’s profile was in white Jade; Oscar’s in black. The oval frame was half black, half white, in contrast with the color of each profile. He turned it over and read the inscription etched on the back. “The secret of your strength lies in your differences.”
“What does that mean, Papa?”
“I’m not sure, Eli. Perhaps it means you and Oskar complement each other; that together, you’re stronger than both of you are separately. That the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” He handed it to her.
“I like that, Papa.” She put her arm around Oskar.
Dawson realized that, at least in this case, she seems to have completely forgotten the fact that the son of her worst nightmare had clearly been very close to Oskar physically at some point. And Oskar hadn’t sensed him.
“Oskar? May I open yours?”
“Sure Dad, go ahead,” Oskar stepped back.
Dawson carefully felt the envelope, then opened it carefully. He pulled out several large photos and laid the first on the table. It was a picture of two children standing very close to one another on top of a jungle gym in an apartment complex courtyard. It was Oskar and Eli. He recognized her clothing immediately. Oskar’s hand was brushing Eli’s cheek. And his face had that look on it that he had seen hundreds of times before, every time he told Eli he loved her. Eli’s eyes seemed to be staring past him, her head slightly tilted and her mouth open just enough for him to see…fangs.
Elaine, startled, looked at her mouth more carefully. She realized immediately that Eli’s fangs were clearly retracting. Oskar had been in real danger, she thought to herself.
Oskar and Eli gasped simultaneously. Eli was wide-eyed as Oskar took her in his arms. “He was there too! How could that be? And why? Why is he doing this to us?”
“Oskar, when was this picture taken?” Elaine asked.
“The…the time that Eli almost…but she didn’t! I felt so sad for her, that she didn’t know her own birthday, that she didn’t get any presents. I just wanted to hold her, but I was afraid, but I had to do something so I…”
“You had just met her?”
“We had only known each other a few days. She had taken a bath for me, because I was rude to her and told her she smelled bad.”
“I took the bath because I was going to…” she stopped and looked down at her feet.
“You wouldn’t have!”
“Should’ve, Would’ve, Could’ve! At least we’re all in agreement that this was a pivotal moment in your future lives together, to say the least. This is no coincidence” Elaine said decisively. She took the second photo from Dawson.
Eli, with Oskar in her arms, running out of the side door of the pool in Blackeberg, steam rising from their bodies in the cold night air. Eli, covered with blood, had a terrified look on her face. Bloody footprints stretched from the door into the snow behind her. Dawson shuddered as he remembered the newspaper accounts of the incident.
“We all know when this one was taken. Clearly another pivotal moment in your lives. This man has an uncanny way of being in the right place at the right time.” Elaine said. She picked up the last picture. Puzzled, she showed it to Oskar. “Who are these boys, and what are they doing to you?”
Oskar remembered that day clearly. It was autumn, and it had just stopped raining. Jimmy and Jonny Forsberg had ambushed him just outside the playground after school. He had stayed late in the library, hoping they would get tired of waiting for him. No such luck. Jimmy had grabbed him from behind and Jonny was forcing mud in his mouth and smearing it all over his face. He had said something to Jonny in school earlier; he couldn’t remember now what it was. It didn’t matter. But this was the result. Something like this was always the result… he looked up at them startled. “This happened way before I met Eli. Way before she lived next door. He took my picture before I met Eli.” He was more intrigued than frightened.
Dawson looked at Elaine, “This adds a whole new dimension to this mystery. Isn’t this one of the ‘impossibilities’ Holmes would have eliminated?” He stared at the picture again, “Oskar, are you sure?”
“I’m sure. See that hat I’m wearing? They took it. I never saw it again.” He picked up the envelope and searched inside, hoping there might be another cameo or something else neat. At the bottom of the envelope was a flyer, advertising a lecture series at Karlstad University. Dr. Dawson’s picture was on the cover. “Dad, this is just like the flyer I found in our mailbox in Karlstad. It’s what gave me the idea to come and talk with you to see if you could help us.”
Dawson took it from him. “Oskar, these were never sent out en masse. They were only distributed through channels at work and sent out to other colleges throughout Sweden. They were never mailed to the general public. I have no idea how it could have gotten in your mailbox. It looks like Eli’s mysterious ‘benefactor’ even had a hand in our meeting and subsequent relationship.”
“The bottom line is, the ball is still in his court. He has proven that he knows a great deal about all of us. We still don’t know what his intentions are. And we can’t hide from him.” Elaine said.
“That about sums it up. All we can do now is wait.”
======
November 29, 1995, 8:30PM
Oskar and Eli were waiting nervously in the living room when the bell rang. They heard Papa as he greeted Jack and Henry at the door, then led them quietly to the couch, where they both sat down facing the two of them. Eli glanced nervously at the ice chest next to Papa’s chair. Elaine came in, sat down next to Papa and put her arm around him.
“Happy birthday, Eli,” Henry smiled at her. “Although, in your case, I’m not sure what that means.” Henry had grown up into a slim young man, 6’4” tall, and full of the devil. At 23, he was already famous for his on-campus pranks. His intelligence, disarming smile and sense of humor had allowed him to get away with things he could easily have been held accountable for. And he was well on his way towards a PHD in Nuclear Physics.
“Dr. Dawson said you have something important to tell us, and that you had picked your birthday because you thought it was an appropriate time to ‘spill the beans’ as you put it. Now what could you possibly have to tell us that makes you so obviously nervous? Are you going to tell me how you always managed to get that last penny?” Jack smiled at her. Jack, with Papa’s support, had just completed his PHD in Molecular Biology, and had begun work in the lab. He was a bit shorter than Henry; only 6’2 and a bit stockier. When Henry passed him up at 15, he had never heard the end of it.
“I always got the last penny, because I always could. I could have gotten them all if I had wanted to. It’s all a part of my … secret.” She smiled at him coyly.
“I almost forgot. It’s your birthday, so I thought it would be appropriate to turn this back over to you after all these years.” Henry handed her the trophy the two of them had won together in the inner-tube contest.
Eli was delighted, “You kept that all these years?”
“It was the first time, but by no means the last, that I ever beat my ‘little brother’ at anything.” He slapped Jack on the back. “Now! What this secret of yours? Can we guess first?”
“If...you want to.” Eli said, a bit confused.
“Henry and I have talked about this for years now, Eli.” Jack said, “No offense, sir, but your explanation as to why the three of them haven’t aged didn’t seem right to us. Our dear mother, bless her heart, has always believed everything you’ve told her, but we were more skeptical. One of them, maybe, but two of them, clearly unrelated to each other genetically; extremely unlikely. And Elaine appearing out of the blue like she did, pretending to be Eli’s sister didn’t add up either. She looked nothing like Eli, and no offense, Doctor, but your relationship with her didn’t come across to us over the long term as a father-older daughter relationship. You treated her as though she were an equal partner in your family. The second year into my studies I became more and more certain that there was something you haven’t told us about them. There is no genetic mutation that caused this, and I suspect you know exactly what did.”
“You’re right, of course,” Dawson said. “Now that you’re working in the lab, Eli, Elaine, and I thought this would be the right time to come clean with you about their condition – and, in a way, my own condition, as well as Oskar’s.”
“I knew it! You’re in much better shape than you should be at 65, even with good genes. You haven’t changed since the first year the two of them came to live with you.” Henry said, triumphantly. “And Elaine! She was the deciding factor in our suspicion about some funny business in the Dawson household. If she had the same genetic problem as her ‘sister’ why did she age to her mid twenties before she stopped?”
Dawson smiled at them, “First, I want to thank you both for your patience, AND your trust. I’ve known all along that you suspected something, but, out of deference to my family, have said nothing. As Eli has told me repeatedly, you two are their best friends in the world. I think you’re going to find the explanation well worth the wait.” He sat down. “Eli, tell them how old the two of you are.”
Her voice was a little shaky as she began. She hoped they would understand, but would they be able to be her friends any longer after they knew the whole truth? “Well – Oskar had just turned 13 when you met him, so he’s now your age, Jack” she hesitated. “I was born around 1750, in Sweden. I don’t know my real birthday; Papa gave me this one.” She watched as their mouths opened in astonishment.
“But…that’s impossible! How have you survived all that time? Your allergy to sunlight! How could you have not died …” Jack’s voice died away as he became lost in thought. “But when did you stop aging? And why?”
Eli took a deep breath as Papa came over, sat down beside her and took her hand. She had insisted that she tell them herself, in spite of Papa’s willingness to do it. “I … I was 12 years old. And it was because I was infected by a bite. Right here.” She pointed to her neck. I stopped aging, became allergic to the sun and … other things. I can’t eat food.”
“That’s not true! I’ve seen you eat. You made cookies for years at our house. And we had dinner at your house after swimming hundreds of times.”
“But Jack, you never saw me eat, did you? Take my word for it; I can’t eat food.”
“But how do you survive without eating?” he was completely incredulous.
“Do you want me to take over Eli?” Papa asked softly. She looked at him gratefully and nodded. “She does eat, Jack. She eats…this.” He reached into the small ice chest and pulled out one of Eli’s bags.
“But that’s blood! She can’t eat that.”
“But she does, Jack. And therein lies the truth of what Eli really is. And why she’s allergic to the sun. And why, if she had wanted to, she could have beaten you easily at any game in which strength or speed were a factor. And why she can do…this.” He nodded at Eli. They had thought this part through carefully. She could show them her eyes, but that would probably just confuse them…as it did him so long ago. Her claws or talons could frighten them or, as Oskar put it, ‘gross them out.’ No, it had to be her wings. With her wings, she would still be Eli to them, and the truth of what she was would be impossible for them to ignore or brush aside.
She stood up quickly, “Jack, please, please don’t hate me. Henry, I’m sorry I’ve had to keep this a secret from you both. You don’t know how many times I wanted to tell you.” She took off her sweater, and before they could say a word, put her arms at her sides, and raised them slowly, revealing, amidst the now familiar cellophane crackle, a pair of velvet-black wings.
They both sat stock still for a full minute; then Henry began laughing, “You mean I won a diving contest with a Vampire as my partner? It hardly seems fair, does it? Does that mean we have to give back our trophy?”
Eli blushed, then broke out into a wide grin. “Oh, Henry! I thought you would both hate me. I was so afraid.”
Jack looked at Dawson, then back at Eli, with a solemn look on his face. He quietly stood up and walked purposefully towards her. She put her arms down and backed away, suddenly afraid of him, afraid that he was angry or disappointed with her; but she moved too slowly. He grabbed her, put his arms around her and hugged her. “Eli, I can’t imagine what you must have gone through all those years alone. And living with…what you must have had to do to survive before your Papa took you in. And Oskar! You must have known or you wouldn’t be here. My God! The questions I have! Eli? Can I touch them?”
She smiled at him, “Sure!” she raised an arm and held it out to him hesitantly. He took her hand in his and ran the other one down her arm, his fingers probing the intersection between her skin and the soft velvety web. She jerked a little, then giggled.
“Tickles a little, does it?” he grinned at her, then took both her hands in his. “Eli, I always knew there was something special about you, but I had no idea how special.” Finally he sat down with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, and just looked at her. “Eli, I have absolutely no idea what to say.”
“I do!” Henry interjected. “I hope you’re not hungry. There’s a lot of really healthy blood in this room right now.”
“If I were, you’d be my appetizer,” she scowled at him.
Dawson stood up, “Ok, Eli. I think we’ve made our point. You can put your sweater back on now. Any questions?”
Henry raised his hand. “Can you fly faster than a speeding bullet? Leap over tall buildings with a single bound?” Eli nodded as she smiled at him. “So does that mean that Elaine is also a vampire?” He looked at her with a new respect.
“Yes, Henry, she is.” Dawson said, “And, like Eli, she was turned against her will by a monster who is now dead.”
Dawson became more serious. “There was another way we could have told you all this, but Eli wanted you to hear it. But the rest is more complicated, so I think we’ll try something else. But first, I want you to know that Oskar is responsible for bringing us all together. He knew and loved Eli long before I ever met her. They’re not brother and sister. They’re soul mates who have saved each other’s lives, actually and figuratively, many times over. They love one other deeply – very deeply. Now, I want you each to take one of Oskar’s hands. You are about to experience one of Oskar’s unexpected gifts.” Dawson had insisted that the details of Elaine’s experiences were to be off limits to them. He felt strongly that her wounds needed more time to heal. He felt ever more strongly about Eli’s past, but she had insisted. ‘They’re my friends, Papa. They need to know,’ She had told him.
Oskar stepped over to them and held out his hands to them. Eli sat beside him, put her arms around him and kissed him lightly on the cheek; then they all went on the dark journey together.
No one said anything for a long time. Finally, Jack turned to Dawson. “Sir? What can I do? I have to do something. I can’t just…” there were tears in his eyes. Eli’s dark side made him extremely uncomfortable as the reality of thousands of people having died to keep her alive sunk in, but somehow, vividly reliving her horror and turning as an innocent 12-year-old boy still made her the ultimate victim in his eyes – and all her victims were ultimately victims of Lord Törnkvist. No, Eli was STILL an innocent in his eyes, because he knew her and had known her for 14 years; and he loved her.
“I can’t believe all these things happened to you! And some of the worst of them happened right under our noses and close by,” Henry said slowly, “I always wondered why you had spent so much time on your trip to Sweden, and why you were back so suddenly. We really missed you, you know; especially Jack. Near the end, he was afraid you weren’t ever coming back.”
“Me too,” Oskar said, shuddering. “But that was the last time she ever hibernated.”
“So you were once Elias. That explains a lot to me. Some days I would simply adore you; other days, you were my best friend. I could tell you anything as a friend, but there were some things I was afraid to tell you, because you were a girl. When we got a bit older, and Dr. Dawson told us your disease made you stay small as well as young, I was protective of you both, like I had been towards Henry when he was small. I thought of you as my little tomboy sister, and I would have beaten up anyone who made fun of either of you for being so small for your age. Now? Now you are once again my best friend; my little tomboy friend.” He hugged her again. For a brief moment he saw her as he had seen her that first day when they all swam together; sweet, pretty, and mysterious. His first love.
“I told you they would accept you, Eli. They know you too well for it to be otherwise.” Papa put his arm around her. “And working together, we’ll soon have a cure for you too. That is, if Jack wants to work on your antidote along with the aging vaccine.”
“More than anything in the world!” Jack said. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Their relationship had a whole new meaning now. She was actually older by far than he was, but she was still the same mysterious little Eli of his childhood. He couldn’t yet wrap his mind around it all. He thought back to the first time he saw her in her sunsuit by the stream; the way she exuded self-confidence; the way she handled Seth. He felt all the odd pieces of the puzzle falling into place in his mind. “And Elaine! You always seemed older and wiser than your age, and you still do to this day. I’ve always been a bit intimidated by you. There was always something about your intensity that frightened me. I guess my instincts were right.”
“I’m harmless, Jack. Just ask Richard.” She smiled at him evilly. “At least as long as I’m well fed.”
“Absolutely no comment!” Dawson said.
“And why have you two not married yet?” Henry’s eyes sparkled. “Your… ‘children’ call you ‘Mom.’ And your relationship with the good Doctor is hardly father-daughter. Based on what I’ve observed between you two over the years, it really does seem to be husband-wife” He paused, “But based on your real ages, it should be more like mother-son.”
“Gee! We never looked at it that way before! You’re right! I should adopt him!” She glared at him.
“What do you think, Elaine? The kids turned out okay. Should we get married?”
“Why Rich, I thought you’d never ask!” She kissed him on the cheek.
“Actually, boys, we’ve been ‘engaged’ for over 10 years. That’s why Eli and Oskar call her ‘Mom.’ She’s earned it.”
“Now that’s a long engagement! Just waiting until you’re sure?” Henry goaded them.
“Actually, Henry, we’ve talked about it for years. But Elaine feels she can’t marry me while she’s a vampire, and I respect her position on this – although I do try to talk her out of it occasionally.” He got a twinkle in his eye. “But she insists it’s for my own safety. She says she’s afraid she’d kill me.”
“Shut up, Rich!” she turned red. Henry and Jack roared with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Eli asked, puzzled.
“Never mind, Eli. It’s just geriatric gutter humor.” Elaine glared at them.
“Well, Jack, that should give you real incentive towards finding a cure for vampirism.” Henry said, chuckling.
“Not nearly as much incentive as I have!” Dawson said.
“I don’t know, Henry. Perhaps if I were offered the position of Best Man at the wedding…”
“Done!” Elaine said. She smiled at Dawson. I’ll get even with you later, she thought to herself.
======
Elaine put her bags in the trunk of the car. She rechecked her shopping list, making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, then slammed it shut and slipped into the front seat. She was on a painting kick at the moment, and had picked up some pre-stretched canvas, frames and some new oil paint. She had some new ideas about how to paint night scenes from her ‘unique’ point of view that she wanted to explore. This was the best time of the year for night painting, she thought to herself. The long nights plus the weather patterns this time of year were perfect. She looked forward to having Eli by her side, asking questions as she worked. Eli could see and at least partially understand why she picked the colors she did and how she blended them; and she could tolerate the cold winter weather. Rich, no matter how well intentioned, simply couldn’t see what she and Eli could see. She pulled out of the parking lot, lost in thought.
“Hello, Miss Bell. I have a few things I need to discuss with you.” his deep voice resonated in the closed space of the car’s interior. She slammed on the brakes as she realized there was a man in the back seat. How could she have missed him? “Just keep driving, Elaine. And keep your eyes on the road ahead of you. That would be safest for both of us don’t you think?” She stole a quick glance at him in the rear view mirror, just as he lowered his head and moved to the right directly behind her. It was Törnkvist. She recognized him immediately from the photo of the painting in Rich’s notebook.