Saints of Evil | Trepidation Trilogy | The Empty World Sequence

Sixteen

Everything was spinning, still.  Mara had her arms around him, but she felt cold to him.  And Thierry was no where, he was gone.  Thierry had done it then, that was the only way it could have happened. And his disappearence was evidence to that.  Trip looked up at Merideth.  He had loved her, thought her wonderful, and she had kept his son, his son that was also his nephew, locked up for eight years!

     "Verdammte Scheiße!" Trip swore under his breath.  "Why?  Why the Hell did ya do it?"

     Meri shook her head.  "I thought that you had done it?"

     "What? And never came to me?  Meri I didn't know!"

     "I can see that!"

     Now Trip was shaking his head.  So Meri had been the only one who understood.  When Salome had died it had not been by chance, the baby had not been premature, it had been a vampire.  And Meri hadn't wanted Trip blamed for Salome's death, and she hadn't wanted Alaric to find out what had been done to the girl he had wanted to marry...

     "Oh, fuck," Trip said, "Fuck is this all messed up!"

     "Trip.  When we went back to the ranch that one time, it was right before we came here.  Thierry must have planned it all.  First with you and I...and then he does the same thing to your half-sister."

     "Fuck!  Mara, my sister!"

     Elzbieta was there, her daughter under her arm.  "Meri, Astoric bit Claudia...and then Sadi took him somewhere."

     Merideth held up her hand to quiet Elzbieta.

     "He bit Claudia!"

     "All right," Meri said, "Let us deal with this.  Go look after her cut."

     Elzbieta's skirts brushed Trip's face as they passed.  He closed his eyes.  Sadian had him.  He felt sick.  Mara would know for sure, he hoped Mara knew, but also hoped for her sake she didn't really, but Thierry had always had a thing for his own half-sister. This was something to do with old Egyptians or Sumerians, or something, they'd marry their father's daughters, purposefully inbreeding the line to strengthen rights to inherietance and various physical traits.  But they avoided marrying their mother's daughters, because important things were passed down the maternal line, mitochondria for example, and they were wary of messing with such things by inbreeding. 

And, when his half-sister was gone, Thierry just went and cloned her!

     "Mara?"  She glanced at him, next to him, looking off into darkness.  She knew. 

     "Do you think she knows?" Trip asked.

     Mara nodded, "She's been hiding it, but Sadian knew all along Astoric wasn't just her cousin.  She must have known what Thierry was up to."

     "Known. Mara, they're both my children.  It's been his plan all along, we should have seen it.  The traits might actually die out breeding with humans, in time we might be only as strange as the part angels, but if they are actually able to have a child, then the traits are only reinforced.  The whole master race scheme, That's what Thierry's been telling us all along!"

     Mara turned so that they faced each other.  She kissed Trip once, quickly, on the brow.  "What do we do?" she whispered.

     Trip shook his head.  "Mara, they're my children.  I can't hurt them."

     "Hurt them?" she asked, "Did you actually imagine that as an option?"

     "Oh, I can imagine a lot of horrors," Trip said, "you see a lot of bad movies growing up with Vampyres."