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Christina Strong - Tremere
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Memories
“When your breathing is the wind
And your crying is the rain
Well I know you will remember”
Lullaby – Concrete Blonde
I spent a few minutes talking to Cormac about Brenda, and trying to get their relationship back on an even keel. I had no idea what had started the animosity between them, but since they were both my siblings, I did my best to put an end to it.
When we had that settled as much as we were going to, I stood back and looked at my newfound brother. I tried not to be too obvious about studying him, but I don’t know how well I did concealing it. “If I’m getting too personal, just let me know,” I began softly. “But what’s going on between you and the girl?”
“Christina, please,” he said patiently. “Her name is Eliza.”
There was something in the way he said her name that was telling, but I wasn’t going to point that out to him. “Eliza.”
“When I figure it out, I’ll let you know,” he said dryly.
“Has she figured it out?”
“I don’t know.”
My brother Cormac, ever the font of information. “Where is… Eliza?”
“Ireland.”
That surprised me. “What is she doing there?”
“Waiting for me,” he said simply.
“Oh.” I wondered how long she’d wait and what would happen to him when he got there. She wasn’t exactly known for her regard of Kindred, I’d been asking around. “I know that she works for St. Stephens. Things should get interesting when you return to Salem.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “I am trying to figure out how to break the contract without…”
“Anyone getting killed or embraced,” I finished for him.
He almost smiled. “Yes.”
“Well, I should go,” I told him as I stood to leave. I had a couple of bodies to take care of.
“Christina, just a moment.” He picked up his bag and pulled out the book that had the secret compartment. He opened the compartment and dug through the papers inside, then pulled out a gold bracelet and held it out to me.
“What is that?” I asked softly.
“Yours.”
I walked slowly across the room and took it from him. It was a charm bracelet, and most of the charms had pictures of Robert and me on them at various ages in our young lives. There were also two gold silhouettes with dates on them. I assumed it was our birth dates; mine was in January.
“Where did you get this?” I demanded softly.
“From Dougal.”
I looked at him in surprise. “I thought Dougal was dead.” Dougal Galloway was the Kindred who had made both Cormac and I vampires. I’d been left alone in Vegas to fend for myself, but Cormac had stayed with his sired for many years.
“He left it for me in his things,” Cormac explained.
Dougal had left things for Cormac to find. I let the impact of that thought sink in before I let myself hope he had left something more for me. “Was there anything else?”
“Not for you,” he told me kindly.
I tried not to be hurt by that, but I couldn’t help how I felt. The Tremere who had embraced me hadn’t thought enough to leave even a short note for me. That really shouldn’t have surprised me, he’d cared so little that he’d abandoned me right after my embrace.
It was hard not to envy Cormac the relationship he’d had with his sire. Logically I knew that Cormac hadn’t even known I existed until a month ago. It wasn’t his fault Dougal had thought so little of me and I refused to let my jealousy come between us.
I shrugged off the pain I felt and looked at the bracelet. “Have you done the Spirit’s Touch on this?”
“No, I did not want to intrude on memories that weren’t mine.” When I shot him a skeptical look, he added, “If I don't have to.”
I cupped the bracelet in my hand and closed my eyes. It took just a moment to concentrate like I’d been practicing and an instant later the snapshot-like visions hit me.
Cormac was standing in a small bedroom holding an envelope and taking the bracelet from it. I could see a girl standing a few feet away watching him intently.
I was laying on a lace-covered canopied bed with Piston standing over me. He was looking down at the bracelet that was draped across his hand.
Robert was dressed all in black, looking very handsome and very sad. His hand was held out toward a much younger me, and I was reaching for the bracelet in his hand. Behind him I could see a casket being lowered into the ground.
I stumbled back into a chair and sat down hard. Oh, I’d had visions from objects before, I’d been practicing, but this was definitely different. These visions seemed to have sparked memories of my past.
Robert had given me the bracelet because mom had wanted me to have it. We had been standing by the grave at our mother’s funeral and both of us were trying very hard not to cry. I’d put it on and worn it every day after that.
Also, I could remember Piston picking up the bracelet from the bed in that room in Las Vegas. He’d looked at it for a long time and I remember not being able to move or talk.
“What did you see?” Cormac asked softly.
“I saw you take it from an envelope,” I said slowly, fighting to remember more, but with the headache I felt coming on I knew it would be impossible.
“Yes, that would be in Paris.” He was watching me closely.
“I saw Robert give it to me at my mother’s funeral,” I added softly.
I looked down at the bracelet, wondering if my memories of Piston could be right. I didn’t remember seeing any one else in the room. If that was a memory of my embrace, where the hell was Dougal?
“I had this dream while we were at the holding,” I told him softly. “It was so real. I was in a bedroom with dozens of lit candles. There was a canopied bed with a lace coverlet that I was laying on. There was a man with me, and he fed me from a chalice. It had jewels on it.” I knew I was rambling, but I couldn’t stop. I looked over at Cormac, more than a little confused.
“I talked to Antonio about it,” I continued in a hushed voice, “and until the whole Dougal thing came up, we thought that Kindred had embraced me. Antonio recognized him from my description; he was Piston, a Kindred in Vegas that was killed a few years ago. Just now I saw that room again, and Piston. He was holding the bracelet and standing next to the bed. I didn’t see anyone else.”
I looked back down at the bracelet and I could see that room so clearly it was almost like I was standing in it. “It’s so weird because the ritual Brenda did proved that Dougal embraced me. What did Dougal look like?”
The description he gave me rang a bell and I frowned thoughtfully. “He sounds kind of familiar for some reason. Did you guys ever come to Vegas? Do you have a picture of him?”
“The only time I know of that Dougal went to Vegas was to embrace you,” he told me. “I was not on that mission.”
He took a photograph from his pack and handed it to me. Dougal was tall and solidly built with light brown hair and blue eyes. I though that he looked like a favorite uncle would, if I could remember having a favorite uncle. I sat looking down at it for a few minutes before I finally remembered that I’d seen him before in the Vegas chantry.
“I’ve seen him before,” I told Cormac softly. “He was in Vegas once, a long time ago. I talked to him for a few minutes while he was waiting for Rebecca to find something in the library.”
He took a step closer to me. “When was this?”
I remembered him coming into the chantry library with Rebecca. He’d sat and talked to me while she’d looked for something. "About a year after my embrace give or take a few months,” I murmured. “I was studying in the Chantry and they came in. We didn't talk for very long.”
“Did he say what he was doing?” Cormac asked intently. “Where he was going?”
“Not really,” I told him. “Like I said, we didn't talk very long and it was six years ago. My memory isn't as good as yours, I don't really remember what was said.” Cormac had a phenomenal memory, it matched Luke’s, I swear. “He did say that he lived with his childe, I assume that’s you.” I don’t know what it was that made me feel worse, thinking about Luke, or knowing that Dougal hadn’t cared enough about me to keep me with him as he had Cormac.
“Yes,” he replied, his voice sad. “That was me. So, who is this Piston you were telling me of?”
I shrugged. “I never met him, but Antonio seemed to recognize my description of him from my dream. He was in the room when I was embraced, but I don't remember seeing anyone else. Antonio and Michael killed Piston a few years ago.” I added that last almost as an afterthought.
“For what?”
“According to my—” I was going to say ‘sire’, but I wasn’t sure if Cormac would take offense, “Antonio he had stolen some ancient texts from the chantry and taken off to Mexico.”
“Which texts?”
“I didn’t actually ask. Why?” He seemed a little inquisitive about this whole thing.
“Just curious,” he replied. “You said Michael killed him?”
I wasn’t sure about that. “It was one of them. I think they were in Mexico, and I believe Antonio was injured in this incident. You'd have to ask him about more details.”
“Hmmm. Were there any other repercussions?”
“I don’t think so.” I looked away and stood up. “Are you going to Ireland? You said th-Eliza was waiting for you.” I’d almost called her ‘the girl’ again.
“Yes, she should be there already. May I ask you something Chris?” When I nodded, he said, "I know that your sis-Brenda acts as a 'travel agent' of sorts for the clan, and also as an enforcer. Have you, umm, acquired a position like that as well?”
“Travel agent? No,” I told him. “If I want to go somewhere I call Brenda. So far I am playing enforcer with Micky, though. Why, you need somebody... eliminated?” I smiled a little, finally feeling a bit more like myself.
He grinned and it changed the whole look of his face. “No, not at the moment,” he assured me. “I just need to find a way to, um, get back in the good graces with the PTB.”
The Powers That Be. “Kinda pissed Ford off, did you?” I’d heard about that. He’d actually hung up on the Regent. “Well, he must like you or you'd be dead...er by now. Actually, the stories I'm hearing about Eliza make me wonder just how much he likes her. He seems to have quite a bit of patience with her for an elder.” Usually they just had people killed that pulled anything near what Eliza had done over the years.
“Oh?” He sounded very interested. “What have you heard?”
“Not a whole lot, actually,” I admitted ruefully. “Just that she has this habit of staking her contacts and there’s a rumor that she was somehow involved with a Regent's death in Vermont, though I tend to think that's something Ford wouldn't have overlooked. I've been asking some questions.”
“I'll ask her about that,” he murmured. “Exactly what questions have you been asking?”
“I've been trying to be discreet, so I haven't actually been asking specific questions,” I told him. “I’ve just been kinda feeling out what people have to say about her. She really hasn't been in Salem that long, just a couple of months. I heard she helped Corrine move here in late May or early June, just before the Regent was killed.”
“As I said, I may ask her about the Regent. You may want to cease with the questions though.” He gave me a level look. “They could be hazardous to Ford's health, and that would lead to a shit-load of problems.”
“From what I understand about her contract, it prohibits questions about her past before she signed it, not afterwards,” I reminded him. “But I agree, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to Ford, Elvira would be livid.” That was putting it mildly, Elvira thought very highly of her sire.
“Yes, She would be very upset,” he agreed with a glance at his watch. “About that ‘job’.”
I frowned. “Which job?”
He smiled slightly. “Mine. You remember, getting back on the good side of the PTBs?”
“Yeah. Got any ideas? Anything I can help you with?” He was my brother, after all. Granted, I didn’t know him all that well, but blood was blood. Plus, he was Tremere, and we tend to stick together.
“Well, did you say you were helping out with security?”
“Yeah, but I don't see how that will help you get back in Ford's good graces.”
“It may well prove my loyalties truly lie with the Clan,” he told me. “At least to Ford.”
It was my turn to smile. “Are you saying your true loyalties don't lie with the clan? Maybe they lie elsewhere?” Like with Eliza, or Corrine, his daughter.
“No,” he assured me. “I am trying to prove that they do lie with the clan to Ford and the prince.”
I don’t know why, but his answer disappointed me a little. Which was strange because being Tremere, I knew the clan was supposed to come first, always. Not that it always did with me. “Okay, what do you have in mind?”
He shook his head and put a hand on his forehead. “Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“I’m thinking yes.”
“Security,” he told me. “You want me to get along with Brenda, what better way than for us to work together some more?”
He wasn’t playing fair. “You want to work security.”
“And it would give us a chance to get to know each other better,” he added.
“Which would be a plus,” I admitted.
“And prove myself to the clan.”
“Although, you and Brenda with large guns together in the same room,” I said dryly. “I’m afraid.”
“We’ve had large guns together in the same room several times,” he reminded me with a smile. “They’ve never been pointed at each other.”
I had to laugh. “Just at me.” Not that Brenda had meant to shoot me, it had just happened.
“I’ve never pointed a gun at you,” he said firmly.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I told him, ignoring that comment. “I’ll talk to Micky.” We were getting along pretty good, even though he was keeping me busy every minute of every night. In fact, he was probably wondering just where I was right about now.
“How’s his car running?” Cormac asked dryly.
“Fine,” I said, trying not to laugh again. “He’s still confused as to how he has two sets of keys that are identical.” We’d taken the other Micky’s car in the alternate Salem and Cormac had brought his keys with him to our world.
“You were there,” he reminded me.
I smiled. “That doesn’t mean I told him.”
He rolled his eyes and looked down at his watch. “Well, I believe Jax should be landing any time soon and I should be on my way.”
I wondered if Jason had waited by the car like I’d asked or if he was off scouting the area. “And I have a package to deliver.”
Cormac chuckled and we both headed for the door
“It’s really weird how everything has turned out,” I murmured.
He looked down at me. “How so?”
“Well, you know,” I said as we walked toward the stairs. “Us being related, and Jason coming back unugly.”
He shrugged. “Chalk it up to some divine interference.”
I smiled a little at the idea. “Do you believe in destiny, Cormac?”
He didn’t answer, and when I looked at him he seemed to have spaced out a little. “Ah, what was the question?” he murmured.
“Do you believe in destiny?” I repeated.
“I’m not sure,” he said slowly.
“It’s just really strange how things worked out,” I told him. “Like fate, you know?”
When it was clear he wasn’t really listening, I asked him if there were a problem. He said no, but I could tell there was something.
“Okay, you just seem out in the twilight zone a little bit,” I murmured.
“I’ve got a lot to think about.” He opened the door to the street for me and we walked toward the van.
“So you’re going to Ireland,” I said softly, “and you’ve got another week.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll talk to Micky and see if I can make arrangements by the time you get back.” That should be plenty of time to work something out.
“Say goodnight to the boys,” he told me, a hint of humor in his voice.
I laughed and looked toward the van where my men were waiting for me. “Yeah, it’s been interesting if nothing else.”
He glanced at the van, then looked down at me sternly. “Don’t remove the stake.”
We took the bodies to the chantry and Micky insisted I spend several hours studying Latin. Apparently it wouldn’t do for any Tremere in Salem not to speak it fluently, and since I didn’t know more than a few phrases, he was determined I learn.