A Child's Dream

Chapter 11 Promises

It all had to be a dream. A terribly cruel dream. In a fogged over haze she saw him, the one she wished with all her heart, she could call father. Then beside her was his woman. How she wanted them both to be her family. but it would never be. She was here, they were gone, perhaps never to return. She\'d stay this time, stay in this horrid place, and dream...dream a child\'s dram. For that\'s all she was, a child. She knew she wouldn\'t live to see her older years.

She winced sharply, as a bright light shone across her closed eyes. He was back, and she was too weak to fight him again. Perhaps if she pretended to be dead, he\'d berry her in the ground, where he\'d caught her digging. Death. Yes, to be dead and away from this horror seemed such a welcome thought. To rest forrnitrnity safe in the arms of her chosen family. she\'d be happy then. Yes. So happy.

Nothing happened though. No harsh words, no hard hands grabbing her...nothing. There were sounds. Ones she couldn\'t place. She could hear people talking nearby, aps aps if she called out, they\'d hear her, and take her away. But then what would happen? Would these strangers help her, take her away and treat her as their own? Or would she be in far worse danger than now? She couldn\'t help but whimper at the thought of no one helping her at all. The world truly was a cruel and heartless place. A place where such nightmares existed, and a child had nowhere to turn.

She felt movement beside her, as something moved closer. A cold wet nose sniffed closer to her cheek. A dog? What was a dog doing here? Her father hated dogs, and he barely tolerated the cats. The animal gently licked her face, washing away tears she hadn\'t realized had slipped silently down her face. Slowly she opened her eyes. Perhaps the dog was the one who\'d found her, and no one else. Maybe she could somehow get it to chew through her bonds.

But as she turned to face the furry creature, she saw she wasn\'t in the whole that would one day be her grave. Instead she lay in a soft bed, covered in warm blankets, wearing a long white nightshirt. Everything smelled so clean, even the dog. She slowly and stiffly, sat up, the animal scurrying aside so that the blankets gave way to her movements. She looked around her. The room was beautiful. White wallpaper, adorned with a pattern of green ivy, occasional white blossoms hanging down. The bed she was in had shiny brass ends, and the covers were pale pink, thick with down feathers. There was a nightstand with a lamp and timepiece, though she\'d no idea how to read the time. The sidebar, across from the bed, was decorated with flowers and figurines of fine china, and to the left was a curtain, drawn back so that she could see the cabinet beyond with the porcelain chamber pot and jug on top.

She looked to the other wall, to the window, hiding behind the veil of lace curtains. She pushed the covers off, calmly striding to the window. The sun was high, too high to be early morning. Maybe mid-afternoon. She pushed the lace aside and looked to the street below. It all looked so strangely familiar. Below the window was a modest garden of flowers, and a white picket fence. She knew this place, she was sure.

She looked to the street as a familiar sight met her eyes. It was them, riding side by side down the street. \"Mommy!\" she whispered, turning form the window and rushing to the door. \"Mommy!\" In her haste she had trouble turning the knob, finally she flung the door open ahargharged into the hall, gathering her trailing nightshirt so that she wouldn\'t trip. The dog leapt off the bed and followed. She charged down the hall to the right, only to find it a dead end. \"Mommy!\" she called louder, turning from the window, heading back, pushing passed the dog and a couple that stepped from one of the rooms. \"Mommy!\" Another couple appeared in front of her, and the woman gently reached out and stopped her.

\"Where are you going?\" the woman asked calmly.

\"Mommy! Mommy!!\" she repeated.

\"All right, she\'ll be here soon, little one. Come on. Back to bed.\"

\"Mommy!!\"

\"Come on kid,\" the man gently placed a hand on her shoulder. \"I\'ll tell you a bedtime story.\" Aceline screamed and threw off his touch. Quickly the dog grasped her trailing nightdress, pulling the child back to the end of the hall.

There he pushed her to the floor and took guard before her, growling and snapping at those who came near her. \"MOMMY!! MOMMY!!! MOMMY!!!\" she screamed over and over, never ceasing, the people of the lower levels coming up to see what the commotion was all about.

\"What\'s going on here?!\" called a stern woman.

\"Miss Delilah, it\'s the little girl from 2D. She\'s looking for her mother and...\"

\"Its all right Terry, I\'ll handle this.\"

\"But the wolf...?\"

\"Everyone please go down stairs. Terry, when they return, do not delay them.\"

\"Yes miss.\" Under Terry\'s gentle direction, the hall slowly cleared, the people returning to the lower level, and to their own distractions.

Slowly Aceline stopped screaming, but continued to call for her mother. \"Its all right Aceline,\" the older woman soothed, sitting down onto he floor. \"She\'s coming. Your father too. Hush now...you know, I don\'t usually allow animals into my estshmeshment, but your parents said he was very special. He obviously loves you a great deal to protect you so.\" Slowly the wolf eased, sitting down as the little girl wrapped her arms around his neck.

\"Mommy,\" she cried softly, but how could she tell this woman that the one she called for was a total stranger. \"I want my mommy!\"

\"I know, they\'re...\"

\"ACELINE!\"

\"Obviously here now.\" The woman stood aside as another rushed by her, pulling the little girl to her.

\"Its ok baby,\" she eased, carrying the child back to her room. \"Its ok. I\'m here.\" \"I\\"I\'m sorry,\" she offered the man behind her. \"She must have...\"

\"It\'s all right. It isn\'t your fault. I apologize, our task took longer than we thought.\"

\"Is everything squared away?\"

\"Yes. She\'s ours now. By human laws, she\'s ours.\"

Aceline once more found herself on the bed, held in loving arms, wrapped in warm blankets, soft music hummed by the one who held her floating in the room. How...? Who was this? Her birthmother never did anything like this for her. Never soothed her fears, never sang a note of song, never held her sense she was small. This couldn\'t be her birthmother, it just couldn\'t\' be.

Curious, she opened her eyes, to find a gold and silver cross, with a tiny glass ball, handing by a wire of gold. Tentatively she took it in her hand, turning it over to find four phrases written across the back. \"For my love, my life, my one, my wife,\" she read softly.

\"Your daddy gave me that,\" she said kissing her brow. \"And one day, you\'ll meet someone who will love you just as much.\"

Slowly she looked up to the woman\'s face. She couldn\'t believe it. The woman she\'d followed the previous fall; the woman who sh fou found in the snow; was holding her at this very moment, rocking her gently, calling her man; her husband; her father. \"Mommy!\" tiny arms laced around the woman\'s neck, a small frightened child pulling her close, her tears staining long locks of gold brown hair. Then another pair of arms appeared, pale hands, dark armored clothing, but she wasn\'t afraid. \"Daddy!\"

\"Yes baby,\" said his soft voice. \"We\'re here. Ssshhh. Sleep now. Sleep.\" She didn\'t argue, she was safe now. These two would forever protect her, what she believed a dream, was real. The nightmare ended. She was with her family, she was safe, she was home...at last.

Aceline sat up quickly. Refusing to believe anything she saw was a dream. Beside her, sound asleep, lay the brown haired woman. Her mother. Gently she kissed her cheek. There! What was that? She turned to the window where a tall man with long chestnut hair stood, gazing out at the night. \"Daddy?\" she whispered.

D turned slowly, his glowing blue eyes smiling at her. Gently he placed a finger across his lips. \"Sssshhhh,\" he asked gently. She nodded.

\'D!\' an urgent by gentle voice floated on the wind.

\'Yes father.\'

\'Thank the night. Are you all right?\'

\'I\'m fine.\'

\'Did you find Kale?\'

\'Yes. Oh yes, I found everything I was looking for.\'

\'What is that supposed to mean? D are you all right? If I\'ve interrupted some-...\'

\'No father\', D\'s thoughts laughed. \'You didn\'t interrupt a thing. I\'m just...very, very pleased.\'

\'At what?\'

\'You\'ll see. Where are you?\'

\'The far shore still, preparing to leave for the new airstrip. Adrian arrived only this afternoon. We\'re heading back to catch the next flight.\' Aceline stepped up and took D\'s hand in hers. Though he didn\'t look down, she could feel his acknowledgement of her being there in the way his fingers gently curled around her hand. \'D? What is going on? I sense something. You\'re trying to block me! What is happening!!\'

\'Nothing for you to be alarmed about father. Please, trust me. It\'s a surprise. Promise me you won\'t go poking around.\'

\'D, you know I hate surprises.\'

\'You\'ll like this one. Trust me. Please.\'

\'All right. My word, but it had better not be some god awful mutant, wishing to be of service to me. I hate it when they beg. Where are you now?\'

\'Chesapeake bay.\'

\'I\'ll see if they have a strip near there. I\'ll contact you soon. It\'ll be about three weeks to get to the strip.\'

\'Father? How did you get to the far shore so quickly?\'

\'I wish you hadn\'t asked. No it wasn\'t by plane, but...ah...we\'ll not discuss it right now...we\'ll be all night. This will be as short a trip as possible. I\'ve much going on over here, my son.\'

\'I understand. I\'ll see you soon.\'

Aceline could feel something leaving the room. Just what it was, she couldn\'t say. But as she turned back to her father, his eyes returned to normal. \"What was that?\" she asked quietly.

\"That was a call. A vampire\'s call. From my father. Your grandfather.\" Together they sat down, D pulling the child to his lap.

\"Is he like you?\"

\"No. My father is a Vampire. Just as your true father was, and you, like me, are called a Dhampire. We are of both races. Bound by the laws of both.\"

\"What will happen to me?\"

\"You will stay with Kale and I. You are our child now, Aceline. Right now, legally by human laws. Before you call my father, grandfather, we must all stand before the King of the Night, and declare you ours.\"

\"And who is that?\"

\"My father.\"

\"Your daddy! Is a King!\"

\"SSSHHH, you\'ll wake your mother.\" He loved saying that, and this time, no human could take that away. \"He\'s not just King, Aceline. He is the first Vampire. Cursed by deities that seem to have long been forgotten. He is the one who sired many Vampires after him, and myself and my two brothers.\"

\"You have brothers!\" she exclaimed quietly, then grew very quiet.

\"What\'s wrong?\"

\"If you become my new mommy and daddy, does that mean I can\'t say that Peter was my brother?\"

\"No. He will always be your brother. That will never change.\"

\"Oh good. Daddy?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"Is mommy like you and me?\"

\"No. she\'s human. But she\'s different. Like me, and you, she will never age. Never grow old like humans do.\"

\"Why not?\"

\"Well. Long ago, some very misguided people hurt your mother. They tried to make a system work that would save peophey hey wanted to save through the great war. But they used people, like your mother, to test it. When they failed, they tried another means. We\'ll discuss that at another time. The outcome was that your mother survived the great war. She is over ten thousand years old, just like me, just like your soon to be grandfather. And just like us, she will never grow old, she can only die if someone hurts her and she doesn\'t get help in time.\"

\"You mean she can only die, if someone or something kills her?\"

\"Yes, that\'s what I mean.\"

\"Then we better make sure nothing happens to her.\"

\"I will. Don\'t you worry about that.\"

\"What about me?\"

\"You, will need to just be a kid for a while. Go to school, learn things. And you will also be learning what it is to be a Dhampire. You won\'t be alone.\"

\"Daddy?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"I want to ask you something, but I don\'t know how.\"

\"Just say it.\"

\"Ok.\" She pulled D\'s left hand around, and faced the palm. The symbiote had long retracted form the surface of his skin, at the moment it was quietly listening to this quite interestingly sweet conversation. But when it felt Aceline\'s fingers trace over the palm of D\'s hand, it began to wonder. \"What\'s wrong with your hand Daddy? If feels funny.\"

D at once snapped his hand closed, a strange sullen look across his features. \"Never ask that again Aceline. Please.\"

\"But...\"

\"No sweetie, please. There\'s nothing in my hands that will hurt you, what is there is something very dark, and I don\'t want it to be known. Your mother doesn\'t know about it. Please don\'t ask her either.\"

\"Is it painful?\"

\"Hardly. But it is...discomforting.\"

\"Then get rid of it.\"

\"I wish I could. Sometimes I wish I could just cut it off. But then, I\'d die. And I don\'t want that.\"

\"I don\'t want you to die either Daddy.\" Her little arms came around his neck, her head resting across his collar bone. \"Daddy? If I tell you something, do you promise not to get mad?\"

\"There\'s something I have to tell you first. Your mother doesn\'t make or take promises lightly. If she makes a promise, she keeps it. She\'ll go out of her way to do so. And she expects the same of others. So don\'t ever make a promise you can\'t, or don\'t intend to keep. Aht?\ht?\"

\"Ok.\"

\"There, now that, that is settled. I promise I won\'t be mad.\"

\"I lost the knife you gave me. When he came after me, I stuck it in his leg, but he pulled it out and threw it away, I couldn\'t\' find it. And he hurt me daddy, he wouldn\'t let me be...\"

\"Sssshhhh, don\'t you worry about the knife. I\'ve plenty of others. Hush now, don\'t cry.\" Gently he held her close, her tears running form her face down his shirt. He didn\'t mind. He\'d waited so long for this. He wouldn\'t miss a thing.

Slowly another pair of hands rubbed the little girls back, she turned to see Kale sitting with them, and slowly left him to hold onto her. This was getting confusing. She wanted to hold them both, but she was too little. How could she show them both she loved them just as much, but still be held? \"Come on baby. It\'s late,\" Kale eased, as the three returned to bed. Quietly D, shed his armor and boots, and lay down, Aceline between he and Kale. They stayed like that the rest of the night. The family that they were.

(To be continued...)