Embracing a new life

Chapter 16: May I introduce…?

River stirred in his sleep. A hand settled softly on his face and stroked his chin and neck. He pried one eye open.

Andreji sat on the brink of the bed, his upper body hovering over his fledgling. “Good evening,” he greeted the one that had just emerged from the realm of dreams with a low voice. “Do you have urgent commissions to take care of or are you free tonight?”

River raised himself up on one elbow and sleepily wiped some sand out of his eyes while he tried to figure out the answer to the posed question. The face River made in his drowsy aim for clear thought evoked a smile in Andreji. “Um, well, I need to put the finishing touches to one pic, but I guess that can wait until tomorrow. Why?”

Andreji shrugged, another small smile gracing his features. “You will see.”

They wandered over a night’s flea market, arm in arm. “Tell me what you notice about people,” Andreji prompted River.

“What do you mean?”

His companion pointed at a young woman. “Take her for example.”

River fixed his gaze on her and frowned. “Well… She’s… twenty to twenty-five, slightly overweight but adequately dressed. Though, regarding her shoes and such she’s not very mature yet. Plus she stands in front of a second hand book shop, so I’d hazard the guess that she’s a university student or something like that.”

Andreji smirked. “Fitting visual description and analysis of what you see, yet we are not here to test your powers of observation. I was referring to something else. Try once more,” he encouraged River.

The young man looked again. Their ‘practice target’ was accompanied by a male who appeared to be her senior. They had been conversing the whole time, but by then their exchange had grown into a serious discussion. “Dunno. She seems defensive?” River did not know what Andreji expected to hear.

His ‘teacher’ smiled benignly. “True. What more? Move closer; use all of your senses!”

So the blond did. When he was already in listening range – the woman was vehemently denying having lied to her friend perturbing her whereabouts of the previous evening – but still too far away to be noticed by either of them, an intense smell caught in his nose. He turned to Andreji who had followed behind him. “She’s sweating despite the chilly wind,” he observed. “And it doesn’t seem to just be… you know - usual sweat. There’s a strange note in it.”

Andreji inclined his head. “How would you interpret it?”

The half-Japanese furrowed his brows. “Unease?” he guessed into the blue.

“More. She is panicked, petrified. There is apparently something that she does not want her husband to know about under any circumstances.”

Husband? River glanced at their hands. Indeed, they wore identical wedding bands. So much for his power of observation. “How d’you know what she’s thinking? Couldn’t she be just as well afraid of him because he’s jealous without reason and has a violent temper?”

“With their posture? –I don’t think so. There is nothing violent or threatening in the way he is holding himself. He is hurt, angry, and disappointed, but not aggressive. Neither does she look intimidated, does she?”

River shoved a hand deep in his pocket. “Nah, you’re right. She doesn’t.”

“In any case, what I wanted to demonstrate is that through our vampire senses we are provided with additional clues that help us assess our opposite. Even if someone were a talented actor, his face a perfect mask, we could still smell his true emotions. It will take you time and dedication to develop the skill, naturally. Not every kinsman has the mind for it. Still, it does mean that it is harder for us to fool each other as well. Try to avoid outright lies to another vampire’s face. If you have to hide the truth, hide it behind half-truths or a cover story that explains your emotional state just as well.”

River snorted. “Yeah. You would know,” he teased his secretive elder.

“Indeed I would,” Andreji merely affirmed.

“Why all this scheming and deceiving though? D’you really believe it’s necessary?” River asked as they strolled on.

“It was either playing dangerous games of deceit or not being part of the vampire society at all. There was no comfortable, worn out path in between. For my part, I had been left out long enough to be sick of it.”

His fledgling did not buy into that. “Couldn’t you just have gone out of Murtagh’s way? With all your influential friends all over Europe surely that would have been possible, wouldn’t it?”

Andreji stayed ominously silent for a moment. Then a smirk flitted over his face and he merely shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“What’s with this Jawid, anyway?” River asked later that evening when they had left the market and were walking the night time streets of Edinburgh.

“What about him?”

River shrugged. “Why wasn’t he at the gathering, for example?”

“Jawid does not particularly care for the presently predominant attitudes and opinions in the Council. Therefore he chooses to stay out of politics.”

River frowned. “Predominant opinion? The Council didn’t strike me as dictatorian… - every one’s entitled to speak their own minds, aren’t they?”

Andreji did not reply immediately. Eventually, his answer was, “You would do better to stay out of this until you are in more control of your skills, River. For a fledgling, meddling in these affairs can turn out to be very dangerous. Not to mention the repercussions that the one responsible for him would have to bear…”

Well, River did recognise a stop sign when it was placed directly in front of his nose. Yet that did not stop him from counting one and one together. Something larger was definitely going on here – and if it was about scheming, Andreji was the expert. There was no doubt that Mr. Secretive was involved. If he was close friends with someone who opposed the Council… - god, what had Andreji gotten himself into this time?!

His lover yanked him out of his thoughts by seizing him by the arm and pulling him into a side street. Andreji nodded toward a two-seater that was parked there.

River lifted an inquiring eyebrow.

“Well, I thought you might be interested in a little demonstration of what awaits you should you put your heart into following up in my steps…,” Andreji hinted as he swung the car keys into the air and smoothly caught them.

For a moment, River did not know what the other man referred to. Follow up in his steps? Then in it hit him and his attention grew noticeably. “Oh, we’re finally getting to the interesting stuff?! I’m all in for it!” He presented his companion with a winning smile.

Andreji shrugged nonchalantly. “An old man needs his time.” With that, he unlocked the car and slipped onto the driver’s seat.

His fledgling laughed out for a moment because the image of the old man was so unlike the athletic, self confident, and witty person in front of him. Yet when he took the passenger’s seat, he realised that perhaps there was more truth in his lover’s words than either of them wanted to admit. Andreji pretended to be thirty-something, but in reality he was… what? –thirteen, fourteen times that age! That number was surreal, impossible to grasp. No matter how good an actor Andreji was, he could not hide his true self from someone who spent as much time with him as River did.

The young man looked over to his lover and took in his features. A gentle warmth poured into his stomach, a renewed and enforced acceptance and appreciation of his companion’s character traits. He really cared about this man. River placed a hand on Andreji’s, which rested on the clutch control.

Andreji looked over to him, a foot on the break while the engine was already running. When River leaned over to steal a kiss from him, his features lit up, and he met him halfway.

River loved these soft kisses that they shared when it was clear that they would not lead to anything further; those kisses that were just for the purpose of demonstrating your affection for the other. They carried a layer of meaning that the lusty ones did not share.

Eventually they parted. Andreji engaged the gear, and they took off to wherever they were headed. For a while, they drove in silence, then River pressed the play-button of the CD-player. A pompous choir’s voices erupted loudly from the speakers, making River both hurriedly turn down the volume as well as break out in a big smirk on his face – right, Andreji and his strange fondness for sacral music. And that at this volume! He chuckled.

“D’you actually understand what they’re saying? D’you speak Latin?”

Andreji held up his thumb and index finger with a small gap between them. “A little.” He pulled up the drive way of what looked like an old warehouse. “There should be the key,” he motioned toward the glove compartment.

River opened it and rummaged in it. With a start, he wrenched his hand back. As he held it up for closer inspection, blood welled up from a long cut.

“You wouldn’t have some of your dressing material with you, would you?” he called after Andreji who was already getting out of the car.

The man turned around in puzzlement until his eyes focused on the wound. He lifted a brow in mild reproval. “The daggers were wrapped…” He reached into the inner pocket of his light jacket and pulled out the ever present supply of dressing material.

By then, a small red pool had accumulated in River’s palm. “D’you have some paper tissue?”

Andreji looked at him chidingly. Before River knew what was hitting him, his hand was wrenched upwards, and Andreji commenced licking the blood off.

Heat shot into River’s head, and a slight stab pierced his heart. “Andreji,” he blurted out in surprise, astonishment, and a little anxiety.

“Hm?” Andreji looked up at River while he licked the last remains away as if he did not know what unsettled his fledgling. A slight colouration of his cheeks, however, proved that the act had not left him cold either.

Still, the way he calmly dressed River’s cut hand gave no indication that the older man was aware that something special had just happened between them. Perhaps he was not? Perhaps River’s master was so used to drinking blood that it did not occur to him that this time was special for his protégé. The first time that Andreji actually tasted River’s blood.

Without further ado, Andreji got out of the car and fished a bag out of the trunk. River remained put, confused by what had just happened, until the door was opened and Andreji looked at him expectantly. Lost in thoughts, River left the car.

Andreji retrieved the key from the glove compartment; then he locked the car and walked toward the building. River followed along.

After some fumbling with the lock, Andreji wrenched open the big, heavy door.

“Is this your place?” River thought to ask.

“Hm,” Andreji affirmed. “An investment. The way things develop lately, this property will be worth twice as much as I paid for it.”

“That sounds like easily earned money.”

Andreji smirked. “For the one who has the patience, yes. I still have some properties that I bought decades ago for the same purpose. Yet, at this point, it is quite convenient – we need a place where you can exercise without disturbance after all. If you so wish.”

“Of course!” River assured immediately. “I mean, it comes a bit sudden, all this stuff about talking to ghosts and using them to your advantage, but it does sound very… intriguing as well.”

They stepped into the big, almost empty hall. Andreji dropped the bag. “Do me a favour, though,” he said. “Stop thinking about what I will teach you as ‘using ghosts’. It is much more complicated than that, and above all, it is reciprocal. People who attempt to take advantage of the spirits usually don’t have a very long life, if you get my meaning.”

“Aye, it’s dangerous,” River summed up Andreji’s lecture.

“It is.”

Andreji started placing small bowls and big candles on the floor. Into the bowls he poured oils and herbs. When he had finished his preparations, he rose and addressed his fledgling. “You best keep some distance. I do not usually hold a session with my spirits while in company, so I do not know how they will react to your presence.”

“Your spirits?”

Andreji inclined his head. “Every person who has the gift will build up relationships with a select number of loyal spirits – first weak ones, later stronger specimens. In the end, you will have to choose carefully on which spirit you spend your time and energy – strong spirits rarely suffer rivals.

“Amongst us gifted, there is always a silent contest of who manages to associate with the most impressive spirit.”

“And how do you know which one is the best?” River wanted to know.

“The other man smiled with a passionate gleam in his eyes. “Oh, they have different ways of manifesting their powers. Some can produce fire, others can exert a certain amount of force on manifest objects…”

River grew excited at the prospect of wielding such powers. Even if he did not yet have any clear purpose for them, the mere idea of playing with them thrilled him already. “What can your spirit do?” he asked.

“My main spirit can wield the winds, control the air. In fact, the wind spirits are sort of tradition in our line.

“However,” Andreji added, “I will not call him tonight. I do not ask for his assistance if it is not necessary. The benefit of ‘befriending’ a powerful specimen is that it attracts the lesser spirits. Direct rivals will be affronted that you did not choose them, but weaker spirits will regard themselves as honoured if you spend your time on them even though you have a much stronger partner at hand.”

“So you will call upon one of them for the demonstration,” River concluded.

“I will.” They locked at each other for a moment. When it grew apparent that River had no further inquiries, Andreji suggested, “Shall I start then?”

With a thumping heart, River nodded and stepped a few paces back.

Andreji knelt down and started mumbling in that strange language that River had first heard the night of their first meeting. One after the other, he lit the candles except for one; then he started burning the herbs. After a while of rhythmic murmur in which the scent of the herbs slowly filled the air, the one candle that had remained untouched suddenly lit all by itself.

River sharpened his senses.

Andreji’s voice changed hue. It grew warmer, as if talking to a friend. River had to think back to when he first had seen Andreji interact with a spirit. Or in that case: a wraith (whatever the difference was). The way Andreji had righted his clothes and bowed before he had entered the wraith’s lair. It seemed that wraiths, spirits and the like appreciated courtesy, liked to be treated with politeness and respect.

Somehow, it seemed to him as if the air grew more humid. Indeed, after some time, a big droplet landed on River’s nose. As he looked up, he saw that the humidity had collected on the walls and the ceiling. Another drop grew too heavy and was taken down by gravity.

“This is Rejn. He likes to make it rain indoors,” Andreji introduced the spirit that was causing the phenomenon without opening his eyes or turning to his fledgling.

True enough, more and more drops fell to the ground.

River observed, though, that the ‘weather’ was localised. The back of the hall remained dry. The front, meanwhile, was soon one big puddle.

“He takes great pleasure in dumbfounding people with this little trick, but it also has its uses,” Andreji commented.

The rain lessened until it finally stopped completely. By then, River was soaked through, which made the following event rather unpleasant.

Just like in so many fantasy and horror tales when ghosts entered the scene, the temperature dropped. Eventually, the puddle on the floor turned to a smooth sheet of ice. Had River been in warmer and above all dry garments, he would have wished for a pair of skates.

“This is Thor’s doing. I am sure you can imagine what chaos this could cause in, say, the morning traffic,” Andreji pointed out.

“Hm,” was River’s only response while he hugged his arms to his own body in a futile attempt to warm himself.

A bright flash of light took him off pondering his discomfort. In fact, it was a lightening bolt that crashed into an accumulation of broken furniture in a far corner and set it afire. The fire was blazing within instants, its flames several feet high. River had half a mind to go over and warm himself up if Andreji had not told him to be weary of the spirits.

As it turned out, his decision to stay put had been the right one. Another shower went down; this time not where he was standing but in said far corner.

When the flames were extinguished, the rain ceased for a second time, and Andreji rose, He bowed lowly. Then he turned to River. “Give them a hearty applause, will you not? After all, they have put up this show just for you…,” he invited him with a smirk.

River felt a bit awkward applauding someone he did not see, who was not even existing in the physical world, and that in his soaked state, but he did clap his hands in what he hoped resembled an emphatic fashion and put up a smile that was for all that he was only doing this on Andreji’s orders and with great discomfort quite sincere. It had been an impressive first encounter with these unknown forces. If Andreji said these beings needed this kind of recognition, it was what they got. How spirits could see and hear, though, without a body, was beyond his grasp. Could they answer when someone spoke in that strange language to them?

Andreji blew out the candles. “I might add at this point that of course there is no need to hold a session like this every time you need their assistance once you have established yourself with them.”

“I see; just for demonstration purposes this time.”

Andreji nodded. “Nevertheless, it is essential that one keep in close contact with them. Ideally on a daily basis. You have to fully realise: nothing comes without a price. What works in your favour can also work against you,” he averred.

“You mean once they’re aware of us, it lies with us to propitiate them,” River supplied.

A smirk. “I see you are quick to follow. As expected.”

River savoured that compliment. In his own way, Andreji was a charming man, but he did not dish those out in the dozens. “So, how long, do you estimate, will it take me to ‘establish myself’?”

“With your first spirits?” Andreji said while he repacked the bag. “That should not take too long. You should get familiar with some basics of spirit communication first, but you need not learn all at once-“

“Right,” River chipped in, “You gave me enough homework to do in the beginning of our ‘relationship’ already, if one could call it that at the time.”

A chuckle. Andreji took up the bag and went over to his fledgling. “I did that mainly to divert your attentions from making escape plans.” He put his warm jacket around River’s shoulders.

“Didn’t work too well, did it?” River mocked while he hugged the garment to himself.

Andreji stepped close, a smile combined with a cold, calculating look on his face, and gently caressed his young fledgling’s face. “Oh, I am sure you could have come up with a much more apt plan than the one you carried out. Things worked out exactly the way I wanted them to.”

River made a face and slipped away from his master. Of course he was aware that Andreji had played with him, yet to get rubbed in that you had been manipulated by your lover was still not easy to stomach.

They went back to the car in silence.

“As to your initial question,” Andreji continued their conversation as he steered back onto the main street, “I believe you could be in acceptable control of your first spirit in six to eight weeks. That would be a weak one, naturally, one that could not severely harm you if it suddenly turned against you. The reasonable course of action would be to stick to the ‘weaklings’ for a time, so you can study how spirits tend to react to your actions – what angers them, how you can best motivate them to do your bidding and so forth.”

“I see,” River replied quietly. In his mind, the events of the night were replaying. “Are you taking us back to your place, now?”

“That is what I had in mind – unless you would rather I let you off at your place?”

“No, that’s fine. I just need a few moments and a quiet place to myself to sort through this new information. And I need dry clothes.”