Chapter Two

I came to my senses by evening and called Duncan’s cell phone.  No answer.  So, I tried his house phone.  Again, no answer.  This went on for days.   Thinking me disgusted and frightened by his true identity, he’d gone into hiding. It took almost two weeks for him to resurface.

I used this time of separation from my lover to study and research as much as I could about vampires.  I ran across a statement that stuck in my head and just kept playing over and over. God makes and loves all things and all creatures.  It’s man who decides what’s evil and what’s not. It was so true.  Sure, the vampires that attacked me and my group of muggers were bad, but so were the muggers.  There are good and bad in all species. I knew in my heart of hearts that Duncan was good.  If the truth was to be known; even if he was bad, it was too late.  I’d already fallen in love with him.

I felt Duncan standing in the hall before he gathered the courage up to tap quietly on my door.  He’d expected me to scream and refuse to open the door. Instead I’d surprised him with my wild abandoned welcome. I swung the door open and flew into his arms; kissing him wildly.  In turn, he surprised me by trembling from the sheer joy of my acceptance of him.  It was a powerful reunion.

We spent the next few days making love and baring the deepest secrets about ourselves.  I learned Duncan was turned just days before his wedding was to take place in the year seventeen-forty-five.  He’d never encountered supernatural creatures such as vampires, so he never thought to take heed of the stories or precautions while traveling certain roads alone at night. There were rumors that Lady Vivian Everhoust -the season’s most eligible debutant who was madly in love with Lord Duncan and made no secret of it- dabbled in witchcraft.  When she realized Lord Duncan planned on going through with the union with another woman, she assured him that his black heart would be devoured by one even blacker and he would live eternity in darkness and remorse.  Duncan considered her words the idle threat of a thwarted woman and paid it very little mind.

He never saw it coming.

After his change, he faked his death and moved away.  He confessed that, although he spent his time traveling and experiencing the world, the sadness of leaving that he carried with him over the centuries had, little by little, chiseled away at his heart. Lady Vivian had gotten her revenge.

He and his future bride were sweethearts since childhood. The marriage bands were read early in their life and were to be fulfilled when she turned eighteen and Duncan was twenty-five.   He told me the sadness only began to lift when he met me.  He couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me why; just that when he met me, he found hope for his future.  What type of hope?  He didn’t say.  Just hope.

I believed him.

I shared my own secrets. I told how I’d kept my abilities close to my chest for fear of being ostracized by my fellow man. Even though times were progressing, I still found myself uncomfortable admitting my true nature.  Look what happened on the street with those punks simply because I’d made a purchase at an occult shop. Surely that was sufficient evidence to support my hesitancy.

Duncan agreed.

Intrigued by my abilities and skills, Duncan pressed as much information from me as he could.  He’d met plenty of people with my “talents” over the centuries and was certain he could find someone to help me perfect them. It was such a twist to have support for my skills and actual encouragement to use and enhance them. I hadn’t really thought about working with them -nor was it really important to me to do so- but, if learning more about the arts of alchemy was part of the being with Duncan package, then I was willing to give it a shot.

He introduced me to an ancient witch named Isabelle.  When I say ancient, I really do mean ancient.  Isabelle was almost as old as Duncan; yet, she looked not a day over forty.  How did she accomplish this?  That was part of my lesson plan.

I could hardly wait.

Once I’d moved through the jealousy of discovering that Isabelle and Duncan were once an item, I was able to relax and actually enjoy her company, tutelage, and eventual friendship.  She confided that I was the first person Duncan ever asked her to instruct.  It pleased her.  I pleased her.  Apparently, she didn’t harbor my insecurities.  I couldn’t detect a jealous bone in her body from the moment we met. 

Her lack of jealousy bothered me enough to spend longer than usual in front of a mirror scrutinizing my looks.  Isabelle had porcelain skin, an oval face with a Vivian Leigh chin, dark dancing eyes, and thick black hair that traveled down her back like a sensual waterfall.  We couldn’t have been more opposite. Whenever my jealous monster raised his ugly head and insecurities reigned supreme, I reminded myself that without her magic she’d be a hag; or a skeleton, since she would have been long dead by now.

As the wisdom of the ages poured forth from my mentor, our friendship grew naturally.  It soon became clear that we had a lot more than Duncan in common.  Isabelle was impressed with the education I’d given myself.  It may have been limited, but it was thorough. She used this education as a platform to build upon. It wasn’t long before I was casting spells and transforming materials. 

It took the better part of a year of intense study for Isabelle to announce she felt I was ready to learn to teleport.  We started small at first.  I’d move a pencil or a book from one side of the room to the other.  Eventually I graduated to bigger items and greater distances.

During this time, I moved in with Duncan and gave up the waitress job I worked to support myself while I pursued a career in acting.  This allowed me to focus completely on my studies with Isabelle.  It was Isabelle’s idea, but Duncan agreed whole-heartedly. He took delight in watching me develop from a bud to a flower.  It was a corny phrase, I know, but I liked it.

 Actually, finding out his true age and era of birth did wonders for us both.  It allowed us to relax with each other.  Duncan was no longer forced to monitor his style of speech and often slipped back into an antiquated pattern of speaking.  For the first time in years, he was able to be himself; with no fear of judgment or chaos. With a natural curiosity and desire to perfect my dialect for my future career in acting, I delighted at every opportunity to mimic him and query him on words and their meanings.  We were an ideal couple.  He felt it, I felt it, and much to my surprise and delight, Isabelle voiced it.

Now that I was learning from Isabelle, the fear of Duncan outliving me no longer cast a shadow on our relationship.  What did, was his sadness for being a creature of the night.  Being a sensitive can be difficult at times. Some days I could hardly bear the sorrow that I picked up from him.  It was almost crippling.  I discussed this with Isabelle and we came up with a solution.  Isabelle would anchor me to the present while I went back in time and stopped Duncan from being turned into a vampire. Then, I would bring him back to the future with me where Isabelle would work her magic on him to prevent him from aging. After which, we would live happily ever after. 

What a great idea!

We approached Duncan with our great idea.  He surprised me by opposing it.  Apparently, he was far more informed on the rewards, perils, and pitfalls of magic than we gave him credit for.  He was fully aware of the risk both Isabelle and I were taking by sending me back in time.  He would have no part of it.

“It warms my heart that you love me enough to want to do this for me,” he said to us both, “but I cannot let you go through with it.” He took Isabelle’s hands in his. “It is my understanding that you must do more than simply anchor Jane.  She is not yet developed enough to do this on her own. You will have to use much of your own magic in order to make this happen.  I am correct with this, am I not?”

Isabelle looked away while I gasped.  This was a bit of information she’d neglected to share with me.

“Is this true?” I asked quietly.

“Yes, it is,” she whispered, “but I have no doubt you will be able to succeed, dear Jane.  It is worth the risk to me.” She looked Duncan in the eyes, “I have loved you for so long, but my love has never given you the joy I see in your eyes and feel in your heart whenever you are near Jane. If we can find a way to remove this blackness that burdens your heart and make you whole again to live and love, I want to try. To see you happy... truly happy... would bring me the greatest pleasure.  If you ever cared for me, you won’t deny me this.”

“What will happen to you?  What risk are we talking about?” I demanded, more than asked. 

It was all fine and dandy that Isabelle chose this moment to act out some scene of a romance novel and sacrifice herself for her love, but if it meant her life... well, I wasn’t that selfless.  I’d grown attached and a little dependent on Isabelle as a friend and a tutor.  I wasn’t all that eager to give her up. 

“She risks losing her magic,” Duncan stated flatly.  His eyes never left Isabelle’s.

“I won’t,” Isabelle protested.

“How can you be so sure?” I interjected. “If you lose your magic, what happens then?”

I already knew the answer, but I still needed to hear someone say it.  It was Duncan who did the honors.

“She turns to dust,” he said flatly.

“But, it’s your era.  You were born then, how could you turn to dust?” I asked with confusion. “Is your magic at risk if you help me from here?”  I demanded, “Be truthful.”

She nodded slowly.

“I did not simply travel through time to get here.  I used magic to live through time.  Because of this, my cells have matured and would remember that I should be long dead if the magic that keeps them alive leaves me,” she said sadly.  “It would be risky for me to teleport back to the time when I was born.  My cells might reject the magic of the future.  I would have to help you from here.  If you run into trouble and I have to stretch across time with my magic, it is possible I would have to use too much of it without being able to replenish it.”

“In which case she would turn to dust,” Duncan interjected.

“Oh, hell no!” I bellowed.  “Duncan, I love you. You know I do. I feel really bad about your sorrow about being a vampire. I want to help you. I do.  But… I can’t risk killing Isabelle in order to do it.”

“Nor can I,” he stated passionately.

For a brief moment I forgot I’d worked through my jealousy over those two having been a onetime couple as I watched them look into each other’s eyes and basically reminisce of days gone by.  My psychic abilities were working overtime.  I was able to witness what they shared in my mind’s eye.  They’d been together in an era far more romantic than the times we lived in now.  The romance and chivalry was wonderful. I felt cheated. It seemed so unfair that I’d never be privy to experiencing a life of privilege and romance of this magnitude. 

I struggled to subdue the green-eyed monster that threatened to creep up on me.  Duncan loved me body and soul.  There was no mistaking it.  He had a history with Isabelle.  He loved her, true, but in a way far different than he loved me.  She was no threat. Furthermore, she was my friend.  For what seemed like the hundredth time, I mentally chastised myself for my insecurities.

“Is that the only danger?” I blurted out, forcing them to return to the here and now”.

“No,” Isabelle sighed. “There is more.  When you work against nature and time, like we desire to do, there is always danger.”

 “Tell me,” I said as steadily as I could.

“She did tell you there’s a chance you could get stuck there, did she not?” Duncan asked.