The Blood Painted Cage

The next few days I cleaned like there was no tomorrow. While there were plenty of rooms available for myself, Viorel, my maids and, after much dusting, Vincent, there was not a clean spare room for my guests.

The majority of the sixty-odd rooms in my stupidly huge house were unoccupied. I only used the library, one of the lounges, the kitchen, a dining room, a study for my work and research, and currently five of the bedrooms. I saw no need to use any of the other rooms so they had remained closed, gathering dust over the long years of neglect. However now that I had two guests coming over, getting two of the rooms cleaned and at a usable state was now needed.

I quite happily uncovered the wardrobes, chairs, beds, desks and bookcases within both neighbouring rooms and flung open the huge windows. Having the fresh spring air fill the musty dust covered rooms worked almost instantly. The air became clean but then rapidly became dirty again when I began to disturb the ocean of dust that covered everything in each room.

My maids helped me with this task as it was their job to keep the place clean however Viorel stayed in his room, working on helping the Elder’s in their hunt, and Vincent just leaned against the wall to watch, making no offer to help. Not that I minded. He had been quiet and in the grips of a bad mood ever since the news of my Pure blood friend was finally going to make an appearance. As long as he was out of the way then I didn’t mind what he did.

I was scrubbing down the dirty walls with a warm wet cloth when Vincent finally spoke after staring at me for god knows how long.

“Why don’t you use your abilities?” He asked thoughtfully. It was probably just his own musings vocalised but I decided to answer him anyway.

“Because I like doing things this way.” I replied contentedly.

He grunted in reply but didn’t argue and remained silent. He was like that sometimes. Sometimes he just randomly started asking me things and then accepted what I said even if it didn’t really make much sense or sound like much of an answer. Well, as long as he did not question what I was thinking about the other day while I was gardening, I was happy.

The only time I stopped was when Livia, who was on day duty with Vincent, came into the room with a bright happy smile plastered on her face.

“Lady, you have visitors.” She announced.

I glanced up at Vincent who shrugged his shoulders, silently telling me he had sensed nothing out of the ordinary and felt no threat.

“Go, just grab Viorel and make sure he was that loyal shotgun of his with him.” Vincent said and stifled a yawn.

I nodded in agreement and took the chance for a break. Not so much for myself but for him. He was tired and needed rest. If I was outside in the sun it gave him a very good excuse to sit down and get an hour or so of sleep.

I sent him a wave of warmth which he returned with an affectionate glance, before I left to follow Livia. I quickly poked my head into Viorel’s chaotic room when we went passed and indicated him to come with a sharp movement of my hand. He glanced back his work before he shrugged his shoulders, holstered his gun and followed me in long strides wordlessly. Livia bounded down the stairs, obviously excited at who came to visit me and came to a halt in the lounge when a chorus of cries filled the air.

Seven small children ran to me, crying out my name as they all tried to hug me at once. Happiness bubbled up inside me at the sight of so many familiar faces. These were the children of the neighbouring clan and the group that usually came to visit it before things became busy and quite dangerous. Eventually and after much laughter, I managed to calm them down and have them stand in front of me as still as they could.

“We have not seen you for a-a-a-ages Eva!” Nikolai cried.

I agreed, trying my hardest to wipe the stupidly large grin that was on my face. “I know Niko, and you’re grown so much.” I said in astonishment. The height of the children shocked me and made me realise how little of them I had seen.

“Can we go play, Eva?” Natalia asked me in quite a demanding tone.

I hesitated. I only had two days left before my guests arrived and I needed to get the rooms completed. Livia noticed my hesitation and stepped in.

“Go with them Lady. It has been a long time since you played with them. Dana and Sonia can work on it this evening and I shall work on it now.” She said happily.

That was all the persuading I needed. “Very well children. I shall go with you and play.” I announced.

Their faces glowed and I barely had enough time to say goodbye to Livia when two of the children grabbed my hands and dragged me into the great outdoors. We darted through my garden, which was now in full bloom and flourishing in all sorts of vibrant colours, and ran to the old great oak that stood at the top of the hill. It was here we always played. Under the oak I either told stories or we played games of tag or hide-and-seek.

For most of the afternoon, I watched as the children wrestled with one another, sometimes getting Viorel to ‘join’ in by clambering on his back when he refused to play. If Viorel was younger he would struggle against the children’s strength however now he was older he could just about match them and wrench them off of him so he could watch their surroundings for any danger.

My happiness bubbled away as I played with the children but it faltered when Nikolai, the eldest boy, made a comment.

“You’re happy.” He stated when he came and crouched in front of me, taking my attention from the insane game of charades the children had decided to entertain themselves with.

I nodded my head. “I am. It has been a while since I spent time with you.”

He shook his head. “You used to be sad though.”

My smile faltered. “What do you mean?”

He suddenly looked very thoughtful and leant his cheek in his hand. “Well you just seemed sad all the time. Like when you smiled, your eyes looked sad, like you wanted to cry.” He explained. “What has made you happy? Is it that man who moved in with you?”

My smile returned alongside a small blush, although my smile was gentle not the huge grin that had been plastered on my face while watching these energetic youngsters attack one another. “I worked out that I am a person, Nikolai, and that I didn’t need to be human to be one.”

“Why did you think you weren’t a person?” He asked, tilting his head in confusion. “People are people. There are the Old people, like us, and the other people, like Viorel, but both are people.”

My grin returned slowly as his comment went to my heart. Children always seemed to be far wiser than any elder in my opinion. My hands shot out without warning, grabbing the child and pulling him into a tight hug, startling him.

“You’re so good Niko!” I cried happily, keeping him in the grips of my deadly hug for as long as I could before he broke free.

He grinned and laughed. “Eva being happy is good.” He stated before he darted back to his cousins and joined in with the wrestling match that had broken out.

Viorel came to stand beside me and I peered up at him from my place on the floor, pleased to see a smile on his face.

“He’s right you know.” He said simply. “It’s just as shame it has taken so long for you to work out what everyone else knew already.”

I nodded in agreement sombrely. If I had faced my fears instead of burying them, the revelation would have occurred sooner and my life would’ve been far easier to adapt to. I wouldn’t have felt alienated and alone in my strange pedestal above a race I felt were both unfamiliar and terrifying. I would never have felt the need to die either.

It was not long before the children had to leave and they fled back into the woods, running to the large house that was on the other side. I used to worry about them travelling by themselves however I had quickly learnt that vampire children were as fast and lithe as an adult, giving anything that tried to chase them a hard time.

Dutifully I returned back to the house with the sun stained orange and pink. There were few clouds so rain was unlikely which made me happy. Rain always dampened my mood and I didn’t want the bliss that was filling me damaged.

Viorel parted from me when we stepped inside, saying he had some things to do for the Elder’s in aid of their hunt. I smiled and wished him luck. He had been working hard but I was glad to see he was taking measures in making sure he got enough sleep. It took a weight off my shoulders that he was listening to my words as advice not criticism.

I flittered my way upstairs and darted down the large hallway and veered into the room that was to be home of one of my guests and came to halt when I found Vincent in there, wiping down the grey wardrobe to its original colour of oak brown.

I tilted my head when he carried on cleaning the wardrobe. He was aware I was there, I felt the recognition ripple in his mind, but he refused to speak with me.

“I thought you would be resting, Vince.” I stated after a few moments of silence.

He shrugged his large shoulders. “You seemed so intent on having this done so I thought I’d give a hand.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise before I smiled warmly. I tottered over to his side and reached up to take hold of his arm as I was too small to reach his hand that was working at the top of the wardrobe. His dark eyes turned to me, holding a small sense of puzzlement in them but also something warm that made me blush a little.

“Thank you.” I said quietly then forced the volume up. “You can sit down now though. You have been up in daylight hours for a while now. Take a nap or something.”

“And how will you finish cleaning this? You can’t reach up here.” He stated with narrowed eyes and patted the wardrobe’s surface.

I clamped my mouth shut, taken aback at his rough reply at my thoughtful request, but his large hand grasped my plaited hair and tugged it gently before ruffling the top of my head.

“Just get to work. I’ll stop when I am ready to and not before so wipe that concerned puppy-eyed expression from your face.” He said firmly.

I stared at his stern face for a moment longer before I nodded. Vincent patted my head then removed his hand and turned back to his work, letting me wonder off to start dusting down the remainder of the furniture.

After hours of dusting, vacuuming and washing the two of us finally collapsed on the vaguely clean sofa, admiring our work in the large room with the silver light of a full moon flooding in through the currently curtain-less windows.

There was still much to do just like the other room I had finished only a day before. The wood of the furniture needed varnishing and some of it even needed replacing having been attacked by woodworms and rot for too long. Tomorrow I would have to hunt about in the other rooms for something to replace it and repaint the faded walls. But for now I needed to rest.

I waited patiently for Dana, who had replaced Livia long ago on watch duty, to bring me my tea while I sat with my knees tightly pressed against my chest beside Vincent. He was sprawled out with his head flung back against the back of chair, obviously exhausted. I wasn’t surprised. He had been awake since early morning and refused to rest. Why he pushed himself so hard I didn’t quite understand but neither would I ask him. He would only cuff me round the head.

Silently Dana came striding into the room, easily keeping the cup from spilling. She came to stand in front of me, handed the cup to me and glanced at Vincent who hadn’t moved since she appeared.

“I suggest you retire for the night Lady.” Dana stated.

I smiled. “I know. I don’t plan to stay up much longer.”

Dana only nodded her head in approval then left to continue with whatever task she felt needed doing.

It didn’t take long for me to drain my cup and I sighed contentedly as I leaned back in the chair. I felt my eyes drooping and at first I tried to shake the sleep that was creeping up until I felt Vincent move. His hand cupped my head and guided it firmly to his shoulder, forcing me to use him as a pillow.

At first alertness took hold of me. My face became red and my heart sped up which only became worse when he shifted so his head rested on mine but eventually, after remaining in the position for a while and Vincent’s breathing became slow and gentle, indicating to the fact he was now asleep, did tiredness settle in rapidly.

Gently my mind switched off and I blissfully fell asleep curled up beside him with my head resting on his chest and his arm wrapped around me protectively.