Snowfall

My mother made a speedy recovery and felt better than she had in years. I was amazed by this previously unknown property in our blood. Time went on and Mother and Alin eventually went into to town to visit the markets and to go to church. Soon the stories about the fields and her health spread through the town. Father John seemed to have spoken up to quell some of the gossip and I heard one man in a tavern explaining that he heard the priest to say that no doubt it was some of the fellow farmers looking after the boy.


Time marched on for my family. My brother grew up and found a girl to marry. She was a pretty thing, black haired with large brown eyes. I managed to catch a glimpse of her once as she headed out to check on one of the animals who had fallen ill. Quit tender and yet strong. She reminded me a great deal of mother, who had those qualties of both gentleness and strength of spirit.

They soon had children of their own and Amar and I were no longer needed to watch over them. We began to travel, Amar showed me the most wonderous places across the world. He could tell me things about them that people had forgotten and remember buildings that had long ago fallen. I marveled at the knowledge perserved in one person.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before I eventually met more of our kind. This happened in Ireland of all places;so close to home despite us having roamed through the deepest darkest jungles of Africa and mingled with the many people of India and Asia. Amar and I were sitting in a local pub nursing drinks while discussing some of the things we had seen. The hunt for tonight would involve two fellow drinkers that we\'d strike up a conversation with, we\'d swap our drinks for theirs in the course of the conversation so that all the mugs were appeared to have been drunk and our tipsy friends were having a grand old time a bit more drunk than they thought they were. Not a difficult plan, it didn\'t call for a lot of finesse but we were in the mood for something quick so that we could be on our way. It would get us a little rosy as well. Amar was fond of admonishing not to be cheap when buying your mark a drink for you would be drinking it later, yourself.
I saw my companion tense and was about to ask what was the matter when I saw him for myself. Long deep copper hair pulled back at the nape of the neck, blue eyes as hard as ice. He was casually scanning the room with a bored expression and I knew in one glance that he was not human. It was written in the way he carried himself, his grace that was just a little more than it should be and his alertness to details no human would notice. He was a vampire, there was no mistaking it.

\"Come, Mon Cher, I think it is time to leave.\" Amar stood and pulled me by the wrist. Had I been other than I was his grip would have cracked the bones, he seemed not to notice. Amar lead us towards the door but a voice stopped him cold.

\"Brother, leaving so soon?\" Clear, elegant, educated and so utterly emotionless that it sent a chill through me. He was a predator, this man, and only that. Even others of the same kind were wise to be wary of him.

\"I have no wish to speak with you, Keenan, we have nothing of use to say to each other.\" Amar did not bother turning around, his own voice was quiet and without waver but it held a note of tension to my ears.

\"Your kind always were barbarians. I suppose it should be no surprise that you would not even introduce me to your new friend.\" I looked back at him then and he smiled. In that smile was the promise of power and mystery, no doubt many victims had fallen willingly to it.

Looking back at Amar, I found he too had turned around but he was not watching Keenan, he was watching me. \"Albin, this is Keenan Drefan. We are brothers of a sort. Stay away from him, Drefan, or you will find out just how barbaric I can be.\" My lover\'s eyes burned with that inner light and though he never raised his voice it was obvious that he was deadly serious.

I turned once more to the stranger but he merely shrugged as if he no longer cared and turned his back on us both. Amar pulled me out of the pub then and I had little chance to contemplate the strange scene.

He led us straight to Silhouette and set off towards the north. He rode the mare near into the ground which said a great deal for his unease. We boarded a ferry heading further north and landed on Norway. Amar continued moving us nightly northward. I thought for sure he was losing his sanity.
He gave us little time to feed before we were traveling again. One night I simply refused to move any further until this madness was explained. I had no doubt he could bodily throw me over the horse and carry me off anyway, in fact he seemed to debate the idea for a moment, before sighing.

\"Keenan Drefan was made by the same crazed soul who created me. He is as unstable as his maker. Though you would not know it by looking at him. He is dangerous. Albin, I cannot stress to you how dangerous.\"

\"Why should he care about you? I don\'t understand and why should he care about me?\"

\"Our maker seemed to enjoy making monsters out of religious men. Keenan was one of the very first Irish Christian priests, he converted in Rome back when the Empire still claimed England and was looking towards her neighboring island. Keenan was on fire with his new religion and he sought to take it back to his people. The druids did not hear his messages well, they scoffed at a God that would put mankind over the animals and told Keenan that his ways were flawed. He needed to come back to the Goddesses and the Gods that worked with the land and who had been with his people for ages on end. Keenan was angry and after a while he was cast out. The druids had no cause to harm him but they would entertain his notions for only so long. The young Christain set out upon the road to convert farmers and other people to his new path. It was on this road that he met his maker and I don\'t mean your God. I have no idea what kind of torture, mental or physical that he might have put Drefan through, what I do know is that Keenan came out of the experience a vampire with an intense hatred of druids and a determination to wipe them all from the land.
Which is how we met. I had heard of attacks upon druids of the region I was in and requested to stay with them and watch for what was being done. Keenan had never met another of his kind. I should have killed him while I had the chance but while I had him wounded I asked him why. He told me his story and I knew it matched me own. I explained our maker\'s insanity but Keenan would not believe that he was a monster like me. He said that he was appointed by God to purge the land of infidels. I took him away from the druid encampment and left him weakened on the coast of France. I should have had the mercy or wisdom to kill him, but I gave him the slim chance to survive. That he did, while I traveled he continued his self appointed mission. The church agrees with him, and druids are scarce these days.

Why do we run? Because he knows what I am and he will hunt me, for myself I would not worry but he will hunt you too. I will not risk you.\" He came to me then and put his hands on my shoulders, his eyes pleaded with me to understand. \" Come with me, Albin, please don\'t argue for my sake.\"

I nodded my assent and we continued northward. The night grew shorter and shorter and I was beginning to wonder again at his ability to reason but I had to trust that he knew what he was doing, he had never led us astray so far.