The Spark, The Flames and The Ashes

Digging Up The Past

None of us spoke a word for the next few minutes. I didn't know politics very well, but I knew full well that this was bad. If what the Thirst had said was true, then the Cardinal's opponents had been tense already. Jaques' execution could well have been the spark that ignited them into action. Our driver finally stopped shaking his head in shock and turned to face us, his expression sombre.

"Kier. This is... Serious to say the least. The two vampires that executed Jaques were British, that much we know. That means people are going to look to you to take care of them. I know you didn't intend for this to happen, but the rest of the world may not see it that way. You need to meet with their leader and discuss a treaty. Ideally we wouldn't negotiate with terrorists, but if they've discovered a new weakness to vampires we don't want to go in all guns blazing. We had no idea of the effect diamond has on us, but they certainly seemed to. It begs the question: What else do they know? Kier, only you can calm things down. If it doesn't, it'll bubble over into all-out war. How much do you know of vampire history?" We all shook our heads to indicate we didn't know much. The driver sighed.

"The only other time vampires have been at war with each other was right at the beginning. Before we had rules and leaders to enforce them, the vampire race basically had free reign of the planet. Then they became like squabbling children. You place a giant cake in front of twenty children and tell them to just help themselves, the bigger kids will bully their way into getting the biggest share. Then the younger kids might get fed up and gang up to take down the bullies. Now imagine the cake was the planet and the children were vampires. Now obviously the survivors of the war have been destroyed long ago, so all we have to go on is the legends, but apparently it lasted 500 years, to the point where they'd almost wiped out all human life." Ashley suddenly livened up.

"So what happened? How do you go about stopping billions of warring vampires from eliminating humanity?"

"That's where history is sketchy. There are two stories accepted about it. The first, the one that I believe, is that the remaining humans went into hiding until the vampires got too weak and basically starved to death. The other one is that the first three vampires ever created had special powers, and they eliminated the warring factions. I'm just expressing my personal opinion here, but I think starvation is a more likely explanation than a bunch of vampire gods." Without another word he stopped the limo outside the airport. As we boarded Jaques' private jet, I looked back at my family. Elizabeth gazed back at me, concern in her eyes. Victoria was looking at Ashley in the same manner, and Ashley kept his eyes locked on me. While Elizabeth and Victoria got themselves settled into their seats, Ashley pulled me to one side.

"So, what's the plan?" I sighed.

"It looks like we're going to have to research these vampire gods. It's probably nothing, but it's better than the alternative..." I pulled out my laptop. "I guess the first port of call has to be the vampire internet." He looked at me and raised his eyebrow.

"Vampire internet? You're kidding, right?" I shook my head.

"Most of the facts on the human internet are based on cover-ups of vampire activity; we need a way of keeping track of what we've done. Great Fire of London? That was actually a feud between vampire families that got out of hand. Jack the Ripper? That was actually Lawrence." I tried not to make my shudder too obvious. When the page loaded up I tried looking up the first vampires. Nothing. I tried special powered vampires. Negative. Finally I typed in "vampire gods". That was slightly more promising; it returned a page about something called the Church of the Eternal. However as I scrolled through it seemed that it was nothing but a group of religious fanatics raving about these god-like beings they'd never seen but believed in with all their hearts. I was about to close the page in disappointment when something at the bottom caught my eye. The bottom of the page was taken up with a photograph of the founding members of the church. And at the front of the photograph was most definitely the Cardinal.

When we pulled up outside the palace, I took Ashley, Victoria and Elizabeth into the living room to fill our wives in on the latest developments.

"...so basically the Cardinal is the leader of a religious vampire cult?" enquired Victoria. I smirked a little at the irony.

"Pretty much. Remember how we first thought that he was buying up all the churches for holiday homes? It turns out he was buying them to use as actual churches for his Church of the Eternal. Now, if I'm right, the Cardinal had aspirations of moving in here after his wedding. That means that he'd have moved his possessions into the Palace already. We didn't pay much attention, what with everything going on, but I wouldn't mind betting that Lawrence dumped everything in the cellar until everything was finalised. I'll take one half, Ashley can take the other, you two can keep an eye on the news and see if the Thirst make any more broadcasts."

As Ashley headed to search his half of the cellar, I pulled down a box marked "Momentos". If we were going to find information about the Eternal anywhere, it'd be here. Annoyingly, as I sifted through there seemed to be nothing of any relevance to us. In fact nothing in the box seemed to make any sense. I threw each item behind me as I pulled it out. All it contained was a cinema ticket dated from the 1920's, an empty bottle of black hair dye, an alternative fashion catalogue, several diamonds that I only just managed to notice before I touched them, a hospital wristband, a hand-annotated map of the world, and a poster advertising a concert. Nothing to do with "the Eternal" or indeed anything. Ashley tapped me on the shoulder.

"You should really pay attention to some of this. My mother had this on DVD, and Christina was in it. That hair dye was the one I used when I changed my identity. One of the models in this catalogue is Elizabeth. This wristband belonged to Victoria Davies. That's my Victoria's maiden name. Most obvious: look at the concert poster." 

I picked it up and looked at the band name. "Korze 4 Koncern". I vaguely recognised the name in the back of my mind, and as I looked down at the picture I stood, speechless. The other four men I didn't recognise, but the frontman of the group was unmistakeably me. Strangely I looked exactly the same as I did now. Ashley gasped and I span around. He held a single photograph in his hand.

"What is it?"

"I... I think it's your parents, your actual ones. Take a look." I took it from him and looked closely. It was of a man, a woman and a young child. I nodded slowly to confirm that it was me. As the memories trickled back I remembered that this was my birth mother. But it was the man who stood beside her that really threw a curveball into my heart. Because now I knew the truth about who I really was and where I came from. The Cardinal was my biological father.