Chapter 26: Sava

Ryan walked slowly up the path to his grandparents’ house, deep in thought. He never would have thought that such a dark beginning could have resulted in such a wonderful ending. He now had friends of a completely different variety than he was used to; friends who knew things about him he had never even known about himself until now; that, when the chips were down, he WAS strong enough to do the right thing and come to the aid of someone in danger. And it was a comforting feeling, because he had lived his life to this point, not knowing if he had what it took to do that. And because of it, he felt at peace with himself for possibly the first time in his life.

As he stepped up on the porch and took out his key, he felt a sudden chill, and turned around quickly. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. He saw nothing but the fading taillights of Mrs. Dawson’s car, but still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him from the darkness. Impulsively, he walked slowly toward the front gate, head cocked, listening intently for any sound that seemed out of place. There was nothing, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling. I’ve just got an overactive imagination, he thought to himself, completely understandable after everything that had happened over the last couple of days. He sighed, turned back and went inside. “Grandma, I’m home,” he called out. But he made quite sure the door was locked before he headed upstairs.

He slipped into his bedroom without turning on the lights and, stooping low, moved over to the window. The porch light illuminated the front yard and part of the street, although the tall shrubs along the walk cast long shadows, in which he could make out nothing at all, even in the bright moonlight. Too much contrast, he thought to himself. Just as he turned away, there was a sudden momentary dimming of the light, as though there had been a power fluctuation. It took him a moment to realize that something had passed in front of the moon, and he glanced up, expecting to see the lights of an overhead plane or a small cloud, but there was nothing. He lay back on his bed, hands behind his head, feeling vaguely uneasy. Normally, such things didn’t bother him; he had never been afraid of the dark, but now that he knew winged, nearly-invincible people existed in the real world, the door was suddenly open to all sorts of possibilities, and he had no reason whatsoever to think that they would all be as benign as the Dawsons.

§

Jonathan was nervous. He was exceedingly uncomfortable with the new interest Sava was suddenly expressing in the future of the Dawson family. He was beginning to regret having involved him in the pursuit of Marcus in the first place, even though he had fully agreed with the result and indeed had even encouraged Sava to do exactly as he had done.

But he also knew he had little control over this mysterious dark force, which had known and worked closely with his father for over three of his own lifetimes. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the two of them had their own agenda, formed and mapped out long before his father had adopted him because, although he never doubted his father’s love for him and dedication to him, he could never quite shake the idea that he was just a small cog in a much larger machine. His father had always been an enigma to him on some level. Although they shared, probably by assimilation, the same goals with respect to Eli, he had always thought his father had an even more distant and lofty goal than merely Eli’s happiness, no matter how important that was for him to salvage his family’s honor, and right a great wrong. And at a time when their secret was at a critical stage, and most fragile, Sava was becoming more of an unknown and had begun asserting himself in disturbing ways. He was becoming a loose cannon. Jonathan was determined to come to an understanding with him before it got even more out of hand. Too much was at stake.

§

Oskar stepped into Eli’s room at the ready, well-prepared, he thought, for the nightly ritual of the battle of the wills. He grinned at them. “Honestly, you two need to ‘expand your horizons,’ so to speak. You need to give other mythical creatures equal time on your pajamas. Aren’t you getting bored with fairies?”

“Not until YOU walked into the room, Oskar.” Hannah said, icily.

“Take my pajamas for example: Nice, sensible cowboys on bucking broncos; REAL creatures in a real world.”

Eli snickered. “I never thought you’d have the nerve to wear those, Oskar.”

Oskar feigned a look of surprise, “But Eli, my kindred spirit, my blood sister! My soul mate! You picked these out for me yourself!”

Eli and Hannah looked at each other. And in unison, almost as though they had rehearsed it; “Oskar are you besmirching our honor?!” They quietly slipped off either end of the bed and had him surrounded in seconds.

“What shall we do with him, my kindred spirit?” Eli moved up behind him.

“We need to make him pay for his insolence, my blood sister.” Hannah stepped up in his face with an evil grin on her own.

It was then that Oskar noticed for the first time that they each had one hand behind their backs. Uh-Oh! He barely got the thought out before his head was sandwiched for an instant between two water balloons. He involuntarily gasped at exactly the wrong part of that instant, and inhaled what seemed to him to have been a full liter of water. What was left of his dignity disappeared as he slipped and fell on the wet floor and landed on his butt with a now-soaking-wet smack, hacking and coughing.

Suddenly his eyes got big. “Eli! There’s a vampire. In the front yard!”

“Sure there is, Oskar.” She took his hand and helped him up. “Nice try though…He’s right, Hannah! There is!” Oskar scrambled across the hall to his room, threw on dry clothes, and headed down the stairs, with the girls in their pajamas and robes, right behind him. They all stopped short at the foot of the stairs just as they heard Papa say, “Of course you can come in.”

Eli gasped, “Papa! Who is he?!”

Sava looked at Hannah, then at Eli, stony-faced. “Dr. Dawson, I believe you and I have some very important things we need to discuss. Important only because we have a common interest in Eli.” She could feel his piercing eyes examining her intently. And she knew with a certainty that he could tell the difference between them with no effort whatsoever.

“Indeed we do, Sava. We particularly need to discuss your erroneous notion that the end justifies the means.” He turned to Oskar. “Oskar, would you and the girls please go up to your rooms now? And I would greatly appreciate it if you did not listen in on our conversation. I am fully confident that Sava will be completely truthful with us.”

The three of them backed halfway up the stairs to the first landing before they realized how stupid they looked. They turned quickly and scurried past the landing out of sight.

They went silently into Eli’s room, where Eli and Hannah pulled Oskar down between them on the bed. He hardly had time to kick his shoes off before they had pulled the blanket up over them all, slid up against him, and locked their arms together behind his head. They lay there quietly on their backs, staring up at the ceiling, straining to hear any part of the conversation taking place in the living room. But even Eli wasn’t able to pick up much.

§

“Doctor, please enlighten me. If the end doesn’t justify the means, what on earth does? Religious dogmatism? Blind patriotism? Sanctimonious proselytizing? The superego?”

“Don’t play your word games with me, Sava. You’re older even than Eli, and you’ve lived all your extended life as an adult. Don’t waste my time trying to justify the cold-blooded murder of a human being.”

Sava leaned back on the couch, with his hands behind his head. “I’m absolutely certain you haven’t the ability to understand the darkness of my life, Dr. Dawson; a darkness which has given me real insight into the meaning of ‘light.’ You, in your naivety, think you understand what evil is, and have convinced yourself that darkness is merely the absence of light. I’m here to tell you, not convince you, that you’re wrong. Over the years I’ve come to recognize the futility of trying to convince men like you that evil exists as a force. Thus, all we can do is agree to disagree.” He leaned forward until their knees were touching and all Dr. Dawson could see was his golden eyes. “But I’ve seen it firsthand, Doctor. I saw it in the eyes of Gudmund’s father and countless others throughout the centuries I’ve been cursed with this disease. A disease I acquired, ironically, via an innocent, much like Eli, but weaker.” He saw the surprised look on Dawson’s face. “Did you really think that Eli was the first and only one of her kind? Eli is unique, a special jewel, a most perfect one, but not the only one. There have been many others who, without the help of men like you, and men like Gudmund, have perished, alone and unknown in the world, their potential never reached nor realized. The unborn children of men who have died in battle before they were conceived; the children of the poor, who died the silent death of starvation and never became the great men and women they were capable of becoming. So many have been lost before they were ever found. The ones we are fortunate enough to find have to be protected at any cost. At any cost, Dr. Dawson!” His eyes got a faraway look in them. “For Eli is the product of a Perfect Storm. And Oskar is the catalyst without which even Eli might have faltered, and missed her mark. And Hannah? Hannah is the promise of generations to come.”

Dawson realized the normal rules didn’t apply to Sava. Being closely involved for over a century with a man who could see the future, he had clearly redefined what was meant by ‘the end justifies the means.’ If the end result could be seen clearly, then human fallibility wasn’t an issue for Sava. Even now, when it should be.

“No one has the right to wantonly destroy something they can’t create. As soon as you have the ability to create a human being, and understand fully all the complexities and nuances of his life and his life experiences, then perhaps we can revisit your position.”

“Why Dr. Dawson! I didn’t realize you were a religious man.” The sarcasm in his voice wasn’t lost on Dawson.

“You, of all people, should realize that religion has absolutely nothing to do with my position, Sava. It’s born of the realization that, even to an atheist, there are ideas bigger than oneself and one’s individual survival. Belief in the sanctity of life is not a religious position; it’s a human one. It existed long before organized religion existed in any form. It was born long ago in the unconditional love of a mother for her child, and reciprocated by the love of that child for its mother. It was shaped and finally solidified by millions of years of evolution and burned into our souls by the countless premature, meaningless deaths of our loved ones over the dark centuries during which we slowly rose to the top of the food chain, alone and with no help from the Divine. Religion is merely a means of codifying what man already knows in his heart.”

“Interesting points for future discussion, Doctor, but ultimately, a waste of time for those of us who have already settled into our own comfortable dogmas. What can I do to fix this?”

“Under no circumstances are you to murder anyone else for Eli’s sake. No matter what difficulties arise as a result. And in your case, self-defense obviously isn’t an excuse either.”

“I can’t promise you that. But I will let you know ahead of time when I may be considering such an action. That’ll give you a chance to talk me out of it.” He smiled at him. “You do realize that if Marcus had lived, his entire church would now be involved. And they are a dangerous bunch, as are all religious zealots.”

“If you’re so certain that Hannah is the ‘promise of generations to come,’ then don’t you think the negative effects your involvement in this death will have on her is reason enough to take pause?” Jack was becoming angry at Sava’s arrogance. “She’s not Eli. She’s a sweet, kind, 14-year-old girl who still prefers to believe in fairies. Yet she would give her own life for Eli. She’s proven it already.”

“Then she’s in good company, isn’t she, Jack? Okay, I take your point. But I believe you underestimate her inner strength. In fact…”

“And Eli would give hers for Hannah. Don’t you ever forget it! And because of that fact alone, she could present a danger even to you.” he said, sternly.

“And you’ve only postponed the inevitable, Sava. Your actions have given us possibly a few more years of anonymity; nothing more,” Dawson interjected.

“You don’t have to thank me, Doctor,” Sava said sarcastically, “I did it for Eli, and will continue doing these things for Eli. And what’s more, I will do them with, or without, your approval if I think they are necessary. I’m being frank with you because I have the greatest respect for you – and Elaine. You have made her happy AND secure for the first time in her life, and for that reason alone I am in your debt. And I pay my debts, Doctor. That’s the only reason I’m willing to compromise as much as I have. Gudmund and I were always on the same page with respect to Eli. How else did you suppose two curmudgeonly vampires had gotten along so well together for over a century? ”

“But Gudmund was righting a terrible wrong perpetrated by his father. How did you get into the game?”

“I have my reasons, Doctor. Reasons not so much different from Gudmund’s.” He stood up abruptly. “Until next time then, Doctor. Jack.” He bowed to each of them. “If you feel the need to contact me, talk to Jonathan.” He stepped into the hall and opened the front door. “Oh, and tell Elaine not to worry about Den Sjätte. I was the mysterious night flyer stalking the girls that evening. One can’t be too careful you know, especially when all the precious eggs are in one basket, and one of them not yet hatched.” he flashed them a quick smile and sprinted into the darkness toward the stream, just as Elaine rounded the corner and pulled into the driveway.

§

“He’s gone.” Oskar said, to no one in particular. But of course they all knew. But they didn’t know what he knew. He hadn’t been able to help it. He saw Marcus’s death in vivid detail. He hadn’t meant to; he had reached out because he was curious, and it played out in his mind in all its stark, ruthless, vengeful glory. And Oskar was very thankful that this darkness was on their side.

He tucked the memory of it away in a place he had found in his mind where Eli never seemed to look.

After Oskar assured them that all was well, Eli and Hannah snuggled up against him and they went quietly to sleep together, sharing dreams as they had done so many times before, and would continue to do for a much longer time than would have seemed possible – but, after all, these were special children, not old, no longer young, and deeply in love with one another.

§

Sava hovered over the city at the extremities of Oskar’s consciousness, skating slowly back and forth around the edges, but never getting quite close enough for Oskar to sense his presence. He had done this often enough to know exactly when the right moment would present itself to him. Finally, Oskar’s flickering light winked out, signaling his descent into the first stage of non-REM sleep. Sava smiled to himself as, for a brief moment, like the ethereal flash of green light at sunset, he saw Oskar clearly, lying on his back with Eli’s and Hannah’s arms intertwined across his gently rising and falling chest. He banked purposefully toward the Dawson home and picked up speed. He sensed Oskar drifting in and out of his light sleep, and took care to keep his thoughts light and emotionless, lest he be startled awake again. He knew Oskar had read him earlier in the evening, and would recognize him instantly if he awoke.

Ten minutes had passed since he first fell asleep. Sava could feel Oskar’s heart rate slow, his body temperature begin to decrease slightly, and breathed a sigh of relief. He was safe now. Oskar had slipped into the first of the deep delta sleep stages.

He landed on the sidewalk next to the cobblestoned path by the copse where Hannah’s bike had died an honorable death, retracted his wings and hurried up the street toward the Dawson home. He heard high-pitched squeaks, and looked up as several bats passed overhead, paused, circled about in confusion for a moment, then got their bearings and headed toward the clouds of insects that regularly hovered over the still water of the duck pond next to the stream. He moved silently across the street, up the sidewalk in front of the Dawson house, stepped up on the porch and stood at the front door for a moment until he was confident that all in the house were sound asleep, then gently put his key in the lock and eased the door open. He gently closed the door behind him and stood stock still, taking in the smells of dinner, lavender, and roses and listening to the soft breathing of the family, mentally checking them off one by one as he recognized each of them. He softly and fluidly moved up the stairs past the second floor landing and paused briefly on the top step of the third floor landing. Oskar was in the deepest of sleeps. He would not be a problem.

Sava eased the door open and move very slowly across the room to their bed. He reached across Hannah and Oskar, and lightly touched Eli’s hand, sensing immediately that she too had fallen deeply asleep. He knew that, with her hearing, she would have already been aware of his presence otherwise. He was quietly thankful that the dark days of hibernation, when the parasite reasserted its dominance over her, were a thing of the past, for her at least. He carefully removed a small leather wallet from his pocket and opened it up on the edge of the bed, next to Hannah’s still form. He carefully removed an ancient glass syringe from its loop and laid it gently next to Hannah’s arm. Then he moved up, slid his hand gently under her head and even more gently, tilted it back, exposing her slender neck to him. He had seen its duplicate hundreds of times, he knew; every time he and Gudmund together had watched over and protected Eli all those years in hibernation. He tilted her head back just a bit more and gently placed his mouth over her jugular. He could sense the blood coursing through her veins, feel her heartbeat, so near and yet so impossibly far away, and he trembled instinctively, reveling in the feelings generated by the strong urge to bite, to break through the thin layer of delicate flesh separating him from that which he desired the most at this moment, and the power of the primordial force driving him -- and the deep peace he felt, knowing it could never happen because he was, and had been for over a century, the captain of his fate, and the master of his desires. All except one.

He gently grew his fangs, taking care not to press them against her neck, lest she awaken. Instead, he moved his moistened tongue against them and lightly massaged her neck with their numbing excretions and waited patiently for them to take effect. Reluctantly, he retracted his fangs and moved slowly back, uncapped the syringe, and in one fluid movement, plunged it into her jugular and emptied it. She twitched slightly, and he froze for a moment, watching her face intently, willing her back to sleep. Then he carefully recapped the now-empty syringe, methodically placed it back in the wallet, and slipped it into his pocket. He leaned across the three still forms on the bed and lightly kissed Eli on the forehead, just partly in remembrance of his dear friend and their shared goals, then rose up and departed as quickly and silently as he had arrived. He had already closed and locked the front door when the tiniest of drops of blood welled up over the small pin-prick on Hannah’s neck. She reached up in her sleep and gently brushed it way, then turned toward Oskar again, put her arm around him, and drifted off into an even deeper sleep than before, as her heart dutifully circulated her blood and its new emissary to the furthest extremities of her body over and over and over again.