Blood-Born

Chapter XVIII - Visitation

"To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth."

- Voltaire

Fort Danna, Wyoming

The bodies found by the search teams were laid out in rows of eight beneath a tent erected to give Delilah privacy as she took her time in the removal of what clothing that they had worn for further inspection.

Six of the bodies bore clear Asian heritage while the rest appeared to the trained eye as similar enough to have passed for their native cousins but foreign enough to have further proved the theory that Delilah had proposed.

All bore the tattoos that possibly linked them to the idea of yakuza involvement except two who may have been their local commanders.

Pennington choked back his breakfast as he entered the tent and watched her.

"Breath through your mouth, eventually you will get used to it ..." She advised, "... just trust me on that."

The teams that had conducted the search were now busy with the burial of the regular Indians to remove the reminders and protect their people from disease.

"Wasn't them that bothered me. I was just thinking of that bathtub back in Liverpool." He offered with a wince as he took in the wounds each man had suffered.

"Now is not a good time for thoughts of fornication or soaped lubrication." She sternly chided him.

"I was only thinking of clean hot water, just goes to show why I am the reverend while you're mind jumped so quickly to thoughts of ..." He replied with a smile.

"Finish that sentence, I dare you ..." She mused at his expense, "... but yes we both are in desperate need of a bath and before you cut wise, never together at least not in the same tub."

"What will it be like ..." He asked solemnly, as he crouched to study the intricate detail of the dead men's tattoos. "When you speak with them, I mean will you even understand them or they you?"

She sighed as she rose and moved to a basin to wash her hands.

"When I make contact, we will be wherever they have found the most comfort. Because I am using their bodies to access their spirit, we will also have little problem understanding one another."

"Well that's good then, I suppose." Pennington observed.

"One side effect will be that I will have come to know their languages as well as they do even after we are done."

"The old man in Liverpool ..." He prompted.

Delilah smiled at the memory.

"We spent our time in their parlor. Several of his wife's needlepoints were framed on the wall alongside pictures of their children and grand children. She was also an artist with oils, from what he told me."

Pennington watched as she turned to look over the men.

"He never trusted banks and had buried his fortune. I was able to tell her where to find much of it before scavengers might have. There was also jewelry that he had invested in that was quite valuable as well."

He pulled out a chair and relaxed as best he could with the dead bodies around them.

Delilah stepped over to one of the Asian men.

"We start with him." She announced.

"Dare I ask, why?"

"The missing tip of his little finger ..."