Tuatha's Children By Bert McKenzie Copyright 2011
Chapter 16
"This can't be good," Jeff said as he looked around, hoping there might be another escape from the cave.
"Andre, padrone!" a voice called from outside the cave. Suddenly one of the Italian group entered the cave. He looked at Jeff and Willow in confusion. He asked a question in Italian, but neither Jeff nor Willow could understand him. He asked again, appearing a bit angrier.
"Look, buddy. They vanished. It was fairy magic," Jeff tried to explain. "Hell, you don't even know what I'm saying."
The vampire turned and called over his shoulder. Another of the Italians entered. "Where is Andre?" he asked Jeff after speaking with the first vampire.
"The big fairy, he used magic and they all got transported away," Jeff tried to explain.
"Magic?" the vampire asked. He raised an eyebrow and looked somewhat skeptical.
"We followed them in here," Willow added. "But when we got in here they were all gone."
"Come on," the vampire said and he and his partner grabbed Jeff and Willow, pulling them out of the cave, none too gently.
"They are definitely human," Sharon was giving a report to Robin in one of the smaller conference rooms in the white tower. "Given enough time, they both should make a full recovery."
Robin seemed confused. "Recovery? Recovery from what?"
"Well the one was shot in the shoulder. I treated the gunshot wound. It was pretty superficial and I'm sure he'll be fine."
"But the other one was not injured," Robin said.
"I guess that was partly my fault," Sharon said, her face coloring a bright red. "I had forgotten about Italian men and their reputation."
"Continue," the king commanded.
"I was leaning over the one with the gunshot wound and the other one grabbed my...my backside."
"Ah," Robin said, as it all made sense. "And you attacked this man."
"No. You see, Rood was coming in the room at the time and he saw what happened." Robin sat back with a sigh. "He just has a dislocated shoulder. He'll be fine in no time. He was a bit surprised when he found he wasn't nearly as strong as Rood and couldn't get close enough to bite him. I explained to them both that biting was not acceptable as human beings. I'm afraid they are taking this transformation a bit hard."
Robin nodded. "As are we all. Have Rood and Craig made plans to return to the human world?"
"Yes, Craig was quite agitated. He is worried about his friends."
"As am I. We owe them a great deal. As soon as they are able to travel, I want those other two out of our kingdom."
Sharon rose out of her seat. "I think Rood and Craig will want to leave sooner than that. They don't want to wait around for Andre and his flunky to heal. They want to return at once to find Jeff and Willow. I think Willow's dad is willing to accompany them."
Robin shook his head. "I think it best if Rayel stays here in our kingdom. If you see Rood, and I know you shall, have him meet me in the wizard's chambers." Sharon nodded and quickly left, heading back to her halls of healing. Robin quickly returned to the royal apartment.
"Where is our son?" Robin asked as soon as he came in and found Scott sitting on the terrace visiting with Alex.
"He and Raven are in class," Scott replied.
"Class?"
"Alex suggested it. Jennifer is playing school teacher and she is teaching the boys about human history. Once they master that she will get Rowana to teach them Tuathan history. They are going to be quite the scholars before we let them have 'free time' again."
Robin smiled. "It is fitting punishment for the problems they have caused us. Although perhaps Lord Alex should be helping in their education."
Alex looked up in surprise. "Hey, I thought you wanted me to stay as far away from the two troublemakers as possible."
"Who left them to their own so they could be such troublemakers?" Robin asked. Alex quickly ducked his head again.
"Rood and I are going back to the human world," Robin said, quickly changing the subject.
"What?" Scott jumped to his feet.
"We cannot leave our other friends without help. And Craig is anxious to get back to his life as well."
"Then I'm going with you," Scott said as he followed Robin in to their chamber and began grabbing human clothes, tugging on jeans.
"No, you should stay here. That land is not safe."
Scott snorted at that comment. "It's safer for me than you."
Alex stood in the doorway and watched the two for a moment, then spoke up. "Scott, remember what I told you. Please tell Jefferson, and Willow."
Scott nodded and they walked out into the hall and descended the wide staircase.
A few minutes later they stepped into the wizard's chambers to find Rood and Craig waiting for them. They had two other sullen men with him. "Why are they here?" Robin asked in surprise.
"We go home now?" Sidonio asked.
"Yes, you will take us home," Andre said. "This fairy land is not for us."
"Here you are human. Are you sure you want to go back to a world where you are restricted to the night and a diet of blood?" Scott asked.
"Human? Bah, what good is being human? There I am immortal. Here I hurt all the time, I bleed and one day soon I will die. Please take us home."
"Yes, yes you take us home now, friend?" Sidonio asked looking up at Rood. His arm was still in a sling but apparently the confrontation earlier gave him a healthy respect for the tall blond guard.
"Before you come with us, we need to make some preparations," Craig said.
"What preparations?" Rood asked nervously.
"They will require blood as soon as they get to the other world. I think we better have some on hand so they don't decide to go after the first humans they see, which would probably be me and Scott."
"Good point," Scott admitted.
"Very well," Robin replied. "You may return and we shall wait here for but a little while. Then we shall come after you."
"Give us an hour," Craig said, pulling the wardrobe door open. "You come with me, big fella'." He indicated that Rood should accompany him.
"We'll have to guess," Scott answered. "No clocks around here and watches don't seem to want to work in Tuatha."
"Whatever. We'll hurry to that butcher shop and have some bottled blood standing by." With that he and Rood stepped into the cabinet and pulled the door closed behind them.
"Why he go in closet?" Sidonio asked. Scott reached over and pulled the door open to reveal and empty box. Sidonio and Andre looked at it in surprise, and then stepped around the back to examine it and make sure the two hadn't just stepped through a back door.
"More fairy magic," Andre said with a smile.
At the villa Jeff and Willow were treated a bit less cordially than before. No one seemed to be in charge with Andre missing. No one seemed to know what they were supposed to do now that their leader was gone. They weren't sure if this mission he had committed them to was finished, a success or a failure. And they all seemed to blame Jeff and Willow. Simone stepped in and tried to take authority. She and one of the male vampires continually argued. As most of it was in Italian, Jeff and Willow didn't know what the arguments were about. But as their names came up occasionally, they assumed it had a lot to do with them. Unfortunately they couldn't tell which of the two vampires was on their side and which was blaming them for their leader's absence.
"When the sun comes up, you have to make a break for it," Jeff said quietly to Willow.
"What are you talking about," the boy asked.
"They can't go outside in the sunlight. You can get out of here. Otherwise I'm not sure that this won't end badly for us."
"I'm not leaving you here alone."
Jeff shook his head. "I can take care of myself."
"Against fifty angry vampires? I don't think so."
"Just don't worry about me. You've got to get out of here before they decide to do something drastic like have an early lunch."
"I thought you said I was protected. Hello, remember, fairy blood here. Poisonous to vampires."
"You know that and I know that, but I'm not so sure they know that, and I'm not so sure they would listen if we told them that. It sounds like a convenient excuse to save your life."
Willow sighed as he looked toward the heavily shuttered window. "Jeff, they have a lot of human servants who are fiercely loyal to Andre. If the vampires think we are somehow responsible, the humans aren't going to let me out of here or off the grounds either."
Just then the cell phone in Jeff's pocket rang. He had forgotten he had it. Craig had given it to him before so they could keep in touch if they were separated. He pulled it out and looked at it in surprise. "Well, answer it," Willow said anxiously.
"Hello?"
"Thank God you're okay," Craig's voice said.
"Where are you?" Jeff asked.
"In Illinois. I'm making arrangements to get back to Rome."
"Are Andre and Sidonio with you?"
"Yes. Give the phone to whoever seems to be in charge and I'll put Andre on."
Jeff looked up to see several of the vampires standing around glaring at him. He held the cell phone out to Simone. She took it and spoke into it. She listened closely and her eyes widened in surprise. She nodded a few times and said a few words back. Then she handed the phone to the other vampire with whom she had argued. He took the phone gingerly as if it were a deadly snake. He held it to his ear and listened. In a few moments he handed it back to Simone who gave it to Jeff. She had a smirk on her face as if to say she had been given an official promotion in Andre's absence.
Craig was back on the line. "We'll be there as soon as we can. We have to get another plane and identities for these two Italian vampires without passports. We'll see you in two days."
For the next two days Jefferson and Willow were treated like royalty. Apparently Andre made it clear they were not to be harmed, but treated as honored guests. Cardinal Compelli even made a visit one evening to speak with them. He wanted to get a first hand update on what happened to the child. He seemed genuinely concerned. Meanwhile he told the pair that Father Stephen had made a hasty retreat back to America. Apparently he was deeply concerned and committed to the notoriety he would get from the Church by proving vampires existed and his organization was serving a worthwhile purpose. But he wasn't nearly as concerned with reconciling with the Church over his apparent falling away from the fold, being a priest who no longer performed any priestly duties, nor answering to the Vatican. Father Stephen also did not want to explain how he managed to live for so very long. That was still a major concern for the Church and one that Cardinal Compelli was doing his best to try and bury. He said he was doing a bit of campaigning to convince the authorities that Father Stephen was not the same as the priest from so long ago, although he assured Jeff and Willow that indeed it was the same man and he would love to find out what this man's secret was. He just didn't want the Church finding out on the chance that they would find out a lot more things, like how long-lived the cardinal was as well.
"How is it that no one in the Church has noticed that you've been around for so long?" Jeff asked when the cardinal admitted he was about four hundred years old.
"I have seen quite a number of enclaves in my lifetime," the cardinal admitted. "But not always as a cardinal. In fact, Cardinal Compelli," he tapped his chest, "this is a fairly recent incarnation. I will live for a time in this persona, and then I will appear to die. And I will start my life over again in a number of years as another bishop somewhere."
"But won't there be records? How do you just start in the middle of life as a bishop?"
The man chuckled. "I find a bishop somewhere who has never been to Rome, or who is fairly unknown and unremarkable. Then I just replace him and begin my climb up the hierarchy again."
"How do you just replace him? Surely he must ..." Willow began to ask, then suddenly grew quiet. He realized what the cardinal was saying when he said he would replace someone. He undoubtedly would replace the existing man by dispatching him.
"It's not always pleasant, but I am sending a good man to his heavenly reward or a bad man to his just punishment."
"That does bring up a philosophical and religious question," Jeff said. "If you are a moral person, how do you rationalize taking a life in this fashion? Wouldn't that cause you to be a bad person worthy of that same eternal damnation?"
The cardinal shrugged his shoulders. "God made me as I am. And who am I to question His wisdom?"
"But he didn't make you as you are," Jeff countered. "Some other vampire made you as you are."
"And we cannot condemn the sick because they have a disease. We must show them compassion. The same could be said of our kind."
After the cardinal left Jeff shook his head. "Why are you so worried about this?" Willow asked.
"Because he is turning a blind eye to the death he doles out. At least I have only killed when it was necessary to protect myself or someone I cared about. I never just murdered someone to prolong my own existence, no matter how badly I've wanted to."
"That just proves you are a better man than him," Willow said, wrapping his arms around his lover.
"I'm not a man at all," Jeff said with a snort.
"I'll be glad when we can get out of here," Willow replied quietly. "I think this place is making us all on edge."
The next morning Francois left early in the limousine and returned around noon. He drove into the underground garage and quickly jumped out to open the passenger doors. The car was crowded with a number of people. Andre and Sidonio quickly climbed out to be greeted by several of their friends. Craig, Rood, Robin and Scott all got out and were quickly escorted to a sitting room to find Willow and Jeff.
Craig gave his friends a quick hug while everyone greeted each other. He explained that he had all their papers and everything was ready for them to return home. Jeff then took Andre aside. "Why did you come back? You could have had a human life in that other world."
Andre looked at him in surprise. "Why would I want to be human? I am immortal. Here I have friends and family. I have a world to rule. What do I care about a human life? I would age and die."
Jeff looked over at Sidonio who shook his head and looked at Andre. "What he say," he replied.
"What I do not understand," Andre said, "is why you would want to be human. What you are is so much more."
Jeff thought a moment, and then answered. "My life was taken from me. I never really had a chance to live. And now I have someone in my life who will eventually grow old and die. I don't want to outlive my mate. I want to grow old with him."
"He is part fairy. He may live a very long life," Andre consoled him. "And as for living, you have every chance to live your life now, on your own terms."
"We'll see," Jeff replied.
"We'll need to be at the airport shortly after dark," Craig said.
"But you should stay a while," Sidonio said, clapping Rood on the back. "I show you the sights. I show you wine, women and much more."
Rood had a wicked grin as if he almost wanted to take his new friend up on the offer, but Robin just shook his head. "Sadly, I have someone waiting back in my land for me," he told the vampire.
Sidonio winked at him. "Yes, the lady doctor. I know you get mad at me again, but she does have nice ass."
Rood just laughed and slapped Sidonio on the back in return. "That she has," he agreed.
The limousine was ready to leave the villa shortly before sunset. Andre hugged Jeff and Willow, kissing them on the cheeks in traditional French style. "Have a good life, my friends. I would hope to see you again if you ever choose to come back to this world. But I don't think I will be visiting your world. There is just too much sun for me." He laughed at his own humor.
The humans, fairies and Jeff climbed into the back of the limousine and Francois drove out into the evening. In a short time they were at the airport and climbing onto the private jet that Craig had waiting for them. It would make a quick stop in London to refuel, and then they would be off to New York. Robin leaned back and closed his eyes to meditate as Scott sat tensely in his seat. He felt he needed to talk with Jeff and Willow, but was delaying the discussion he knew he had to have. Eventually he got up and walked over to Jeff's seat and asked if he could chat.
"Sure, what's up?" the vampire asked.
"I don't think you should return to Tuatha."