Secrets In The Bones: The Curse of Blood Bay

Thirty seven

I was surrounded by endless darkness–nothing but black as far as the eyes could see. No rocks or stone beaches, no coffin, and no lifeless Michael lying nearby. I sat on what I thought was the floor, but it was so black; everything blended.

No bullet holes or dried blood under my fingernails. I was alive, but normal. I felt like the person I was when I married Helen–the oblivious person I was back then. I didn't know about the supernatural, had no nightmares, and had very little memory of my childhood, as though I'd travelled back in time. The darkness threw me. Was I in hell?

I remembered everything until I got shot and watched Michael fall before the elder vampire taunted me, clutching Ellena. The moment made little sense. Perhaps I belonged in limbo, having to remember everything, knowing what had been set loose, dwelling on it in endless emptiness.

I slumped back, looking up, thinking through my life, especially about the recent stuff with the supernatural. I even questioned whether I would've wanted a do-over. If it meant Helen remained dead, I did not know what I was, and that part of me never woke up. Hand on heart, I would do it all again. I thought as my hand rested on my chest. Realising I had a heartbeat, another 'dot' that made little sense, like most since our arrival in Scotland–plenty of 'dots' with no particular connection.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be alive. After all, how could vampires be allowed to take over the world? First, Cruden Bay, then Peterhead and the surrounding towns before engulfing Scotland. They wouldn't stop there; the vampire numbers would grow in England and beyond.

Count Elias Diminescu would rule with Anna's reincarnation, Ellena, by his side. To think, all the nonsense we were told, caves and telluric currents, viruses and curses. Not to mention the handmaiden that wasn't. Ruth should've been straight with us; why say the vampires were in the caves if the Elder was buried at sea, and only someone of demon blood could find the coffin and break the seal? Was that the work of Jean Francis all those years ago?

The whole dynamic and story around him and Frederick LaSalle were odd. While Ruth claimed to be a witch who could make golems into people, the mysterious guy in the cave was anomalies that ... that... Holy shit.

It's too little too late. I put two and two together, coming up with four, and for once, the math worked. Barring the theory and reasons. But as I lay in darkness, I concluded that neither Frederick nor Jean was dead. Jean strived to fix, cure, and keep the town safe after they brought the vampire to town in 1725. He fell in love with a countess (Anna), and she got pregnant. With the town going to shit, Jean wanted Anna to travel somewhere safe with their impending child.

Meanwhile, Jean had turned bad, helping Count Diminescu rise again. The count formed a fixation on Anna but had to get through Jean first, so he turned Frederick against Jean, who attempted to kill him. By then, Frederick may have been turned and bit Jean, but didn't die. Instead, he vanished.

Why did I have to work this out after I was dead? At least the 'empty' was good thinking. While Frederick embraced it, Jean must have been working in the shadows, looking for ways to stop Diminescu. Jean couldn't risk exposure, and when Anna came back looking, they used secret ways to communicate until one day, Anna never came. Fearing her death, Jean sought to kill Diminescu and used his druid powers to desiccate and imprison the Elder vampire, not before the town was painted with blood.

Even to think it beggared belief–Frederick Lasille, armed with the same ability and turned, was Ruth. I mean, Frederick assumed the identity of a woman named Ruth to hide away until he brought Count Diminescu back.

A lot of good conjecture was doing me; now I was dead. At least I was working through some of the 'dots' that had hindered us.

The caves were details I don't see a way around unless the telluric currents were buried there. So Ruth concocted another way, enlisting local scumbags to dig tunnels, some being escape routes and places to hide bodies while making a way in. Amos and the others were also loyal to the count and had looked at ways to make a sustainable food source pending the count's rebirth. That's what happened to the town of Oxley.