Redemption

Chapter 4

    Olga sniffed as a tear fell onto the paper. This had been the first letter from her younger sister. The sister she had left to fend for herself at the tender age of just fourteen. Olga had been seventeen. She should have stayed and done her duty as the older sister - she should have married, had children, and tried to have a normal life with Alina living with her, helping to raise her nieces and nephews. Just having a normal life.
    But at that time Olga felt as if nothing could ever be normal again for her. Her parents had been brutally murdered by an enemy faction, and that knowledge alone would have been difficult to understand at that age. But to know that those enemies had been a part of their family was almost more than she could bear. She had been raised with some of them and they had turned on her parents. All because her parents had tried to live a more normal life, had settled into society with their children, had allowed their children to play with the other children in the village. The murderous savages had not been able to understand that her parents weren't turning their backs on the old ways, but they were trying to adapt to the change which centuries of time had created of necessity.
    But the old ones would not - dared not - adapt or change. They considered it the ultimate betrayal of their aged code. And because of that code her parents had lost their lives. Fortunately, Olga and Alina had been playing outside when the fight had initially began. Only when they heard the screams had they come running back into the castle, using the secret tunnel they had discovered which led from outside to a hidden nook beside the fireplace. The two girls had peered through the crack in the stone and saw the bloody form of their mother lying on the floor some distance away. Their father was kneeling over her, sobbing uncontrollably, and shouting at the attackers. He rose like a flash and threw himself at the man nearest him. Those were the last steps he ever took. The man's sword pierced his chest and then, in one swift motion, separated his head from his body.
    It was at that moment that Olga realized she had placed her hand over Alina's mouth to quiet her. They both recognized the man who had delivered the fatal blow - Uncle Adrian, her father's brother. Olga had then pulled Alina back out of the tunnel and they ran to their secret play place and then they listened - listened as the attackers searched the castle grounds for them, calling their names as if they were the best of friends, coming to take them home. The girls just sat and waited, for two nights they stayed in their secret place, not moving, just listening until at last the men mounted their horses and rode away.
    After that the young children just walked and walked until they came to Brasov. Olga stole some food a few nights for them, but one day she was caught. As the merchant reprimanded her vigorously, Alina had come from the woods like a devil, screaming and clawing at the man. And it was as if that small burst of pent-up rage exhausted her, and she literally fell motionless at the feet of the astounded merchant. Olga had had to tell her story so many times that she finally blessed the numbness that came with the familiarity of reciting the story over and over. And then one day, she could take it no longer. She took Alina to the market and asked her to find some food, and then Olga turned and walked away, never even looking back. She knew that someone would take her in and take care of her.
    And that was the last time she ever saw Alina alive, though Olga had received many letters from Alina over the years, and she had even responded to a few of them.
Olga had tried to live a normal life, just as she knew her family would want, and she had even found a man that loved her. They had married and Olga was the dutiful wife, but she knew what she truly was, and she knew that over time there would be questions. She didn't age as everyone thought she should, so she tried to make herself appear older, slumping her shoulders and moving more slowly. Her husband, Grigori, had had suspicions for a long time, and finally just asked her, assuring her that he would love her no matter what, that she had proven to him that she was not like her "kind", that she was different, that he would protect her. So after fifty years of harmonious, yet childless, marriage she had told him the truth: she was a vampire, a direct descendant of Vlad Tepes. She had lived her life by the precepts that her parents had taught her: never hunt humans, always feast on the abundant animals of the forests, and never leave a carcass behind. She would drain the blood from the animal, but then prepare the meat in a dinner for herself and Grigori, making sure she bought things from the market also, to keep things normal in appearance.
And her wonderful husband had kept his promise, keeping her secret until his dying day. Oh, how she missed him. But she had not aged hardly any at all, though the people around her couldn't really notice, as she constantly made adjustments to her makeup and hair to keep herself looking old. But she was asking herself, how long could she continue this farce? She needed to make a plan of escape before people began asking questions.
And then she had received the message about Alina's death - and her daughter.
From what Olga had been able to glean from her letters, Alina had travelled much when she become of age, moving from village to village to keep people from discovering her secret. But about five years earlier, Alina gone back to Brasov and had fallen in love with a man from the village, one Pietre Vnelsig.
Olga fumbled with the batch of letters she held until she found the last one, the one had saved her and given her a new life, a new purpose.
    Honorable Olga Grigocea,
     I am sorry to report that your sister, Alina, and her husband, Pietre, were attacked and killed by brigands a fortnight ago. There was a child, a daughter named Amalie, who was left in my care as I was the nanny for the sweet thing. However, I am unable to keep the child to raise as I have my own family of five children, and I must be about to find more work in the village. An immediate response is required to inform as to your intentions regarding the child. If you choose not to raise her, she will be sent to an orphanage in the village and mayhap they may find her a good home with good parents to love and raise her.
    I await your quick response,
    Sarai Florescu
    Short, concise, and very to the point, this letter had given Olga a new path, a new direction. She could begin a new life in a new village and perhaps gain another fifty or so years of a safe, normal life. She did wonder about the child, for if Pietre was a mortal and Alina was an immortal, well, she just had no idea what new challenges that might bring for her and the child. But she would work it out as she went, and try to find a balance for the child's appetites and other things that might arise. And that is exactly how things had been for the last eighteen years. The child had aged at the appropriate rate so far and had not shown any cravings for the blood of humans, so Olga had never felt the necessity to share with Amalie the strange links of her past.
    But this new development of her surviving the Plague - well now, that sheds a different light on the subject. For now Olga knew that Amalie was an immortal, like herself, and yet she still possessed some mortal qualities. Perhaps now was the time to reveal her lineage to her. She should know she is royalty and that she is different. Perhaps she may even be able to obtain a marriage proposal from the handsome Marius Lupescu, son of the wolf.
Oh, yes, Olga said to herself, I thought there was something different about that young man.
    And she saw the way he looked at Amalie. Amalie's beauty was unsurpassed, and she had had several suitors vying for her hand of late, though she wanted nothing to do with any of them. She only wanted friendship from them.
    "They're such boys, Aunt Olga," she would say. "How am I supposed to consider a marriage to someone who doesn't appeal to me in that way? They are so immature and childish to me."
    Olga knew the same wouldn't be said of Marius. She knew of the Lupescu clan, and knew them for what they truly were: werewolves, with the ability to change at will. Though in human form they emitted a polite and controlled persona, in their wolf form they were savage hunters, brave and fiercely loyal to each other. Olga smiled to herself as she remembered how attractive the young Marius had been. That was one of their finest qualities: sex appeal!
    She chuckled quietly and wrapped the twine around the letters once again. Just because she was almost eighty years old didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate the male species that had been placed on this earth. She was truly glad that she had made the move to Brasov to raise the child. It had given her the opportunity to be young again - no more makeup and false aging, at least for a few years. In truth, without her makeup and other old-age progression tactics, she still looked to be in her early twenties. But she knew that she must pay attention and she had begun the aging process again, for Amalie's sake. She wouldn't do anything to make things uncomfortable for her.
    She rose from her chair and made her way back to the trunk, gently placing the letters inside and securing the locks. She needed to prepare dinner. As she walked back into the room where Amalie lay sleeping, she smiled and made her way to the girl. Moving her hair aside, she placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, noticing how much she looked like her mother.
    Olga retreated to the kitchen and began her simple dinner preparations. She hummed a lullaby softly as she did so, a lullaby that her mother had sang to her many times. The tears came suddenly as she remembered her mother and father, and the times they would all spend as a family on the estate they had occupied for centuries before that ill-fated night. And then came the anger toward her Uncle Adrian and the others that had ridden with him that night on his murderous rampage. She would find them one day and she would exact her revenge, and Alina's. She had thought about this for years, but had never acted upon it because she had someone to love her, and now she had someone to love. But she vowed that as soon as she knew Amalie was safe and protected with a good husband, she would begin this new chapter in her life of hunting down her parents' killers and making them pay for what they took from her that night.
Oh, yes, she told herself, they would most certainly pay.