Blood And Fire

Chapter 62-Cosette's Back Story

CHAPTER 62

     Cosette stands in the center of the cobble-stoned street.  Brownstone residences sprout up smartly just beyond the sidewalks on either side.  A light mist is pervading the evening air and droplets of rain bead upon her pouty face.

     She looks on as her vampire minions infest the previously calm suburban neighborhood.  The shrill screams of frightened women ring out in the night.  The newly bitten flail about or fall to the ground, their human forms dying during the transformation.  Within this fringe of Aldin's metropolitan area – deep in the heart of the urban wonder, pillars of smoke rise to the saddened heavens, lit by the source of their production.

     Vlad had departed from Cosette only moments before to see how the destruction and chaos of the City of Aldin was progressing.  He left her to oversee the creation of new Bloodchildren around the outer perimeter of the metropolis.  Cosette knew the initial stages of her work would be slow going, but once her vampires had sunk their teeth into the residents of the first few streets, the process would snowball – increasing exponentially.

     Within an hour the circle would be complete and her new army of undead would advance upon the epicenter until every man, woman, and child was either dead, undead, or for those poor souls who had caught the plague from the zombies prior to transformation – somewhere in between.

     Cosette recalls her own turning from human to vampire as she watches a young woman with auburn hair and doe-like brown eyes fall victim to one of her fanged underlings.  The creature of the night had seduced the damsel with his hypnotizing eyes, much as Vlad had done to Cosette over two hundred years ago.

     It was a different time in the city of Aldin.  The former animosity between Cosette's native homeland and their old enemy, Finden, still lingered.  The real threat of vampires had caused a begrudging relent in the hostilities of the rival nations, but there still was no real love toward their northern neighbor.

     Much of the city of Aldin had been under siege during the height of the Finden/Aldin war.  Reconstruction had been a slow, burdensome ordeal and Cosette's father, Raul, was one of the construction workers in charge of overseeing the renewal of their own neighborhood.

     Raul was a large, jovial man with a bushy mustache and an ample waistline.  The long hours of work never put a damper on his cheerfulness and his crew's production reflected their high regard for him.

     He often would bring his men to the temporary encampment situated in the field adjacent to the neighborhood.  Cosette, her mother Sarah, and the other wives and daughters would bustle about feeding the workers and enjoying Raul's anecdotes.  Though the hovels of the camp were dreary and everyone was eager to return to their former residences, the aftermath of the atrocity had brought their community together stronger than before.

     Cosette would sit and listen to her father.  She would laugh and cry as he would spin his yarns to everyone's delight.  A tinge of jealousy would creep inside her occasionally as she would note the many eager faces about.  She was a young woman but Raul had always been the one to tell her stories at bedtime when she was a little girl.  Now, she had to share in the delight of her father's tales.

     As Cosette was of age, there had been many suitors calling to date her.  As was her father's nature, he welcomed them all.  But Cosette found them dull – even the handsome ones.  She needed someone that could captivate her attention – a man with experiences to share that she might delight in his stories.

     After some time, she had rejected every young man from not only her own neighborhood, but the others nearby as well.  Despite Raul's encouragement to find a suitor, Cosette could not bring herself to settle for less than what her heart desired.