Claws of Eternity ✔️

Chapter 23: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

JACK

The sun was blinding, colours of spring danced before Jack's eyes as he tried to sharpen his vision. Jack let the smell of flowers fill his nostrils and the warmth of the sun caress his skin. Somewhere underneath, a dreadful idea that this wasn't real emerged, but Jack pushed it down hard. He recognised the place, he pulled it out from his memory.

"As I was saying, Hugo Capet let her stay in Avignon, until we figure out how to install her at Cardona." The voice belonged to Roberto Faliero, the brother of the king of the underground.

Jack always thought Roberto was a decent man, unlike his brother.

"That is very kind of Hugo." Jack murmured as he had all those years ago. They walked through the sunny pathways of colourful gardens of Avignon.

"Antonio isn't happy about it, but he said he would help." Roberto smiled. He was made a little while after Jack, but where Jack was twenty-six, this fellow was only twenty. The childish hopefulness still shone in his bright blue eyes.

"I assume your brother still hasn't let go of that awful business." Jack guessed. Where Roberto was kind and open-hearted, Antonio was ruthless and cruel.

"No, underground is everything to him. You know how stubborn he is. Now, I'm afraid I have some business to attend. But please, make yourself at home and my servants will summon you when the dinner is served." Roberto excused himself and Jack was left alone to look around the beautiful gardens.

Jack walked through the terrace covered in stone, decorated in moss and ivy growing through the cracks. Pillars adorned in sculptured flowers and abstract shapes stolen from Greece, followed Jack as he walked. Sun shone so brightly; Jack almost didn't notice the somewhat eccentric man in front of him. The man sat on a bench, a piece of paper in his hand and his eyes watching something in the gardens.

Perhaps, Jack was in a good mood that day, perhaps he felt like meeting new people, but he stopped to see.

"May I ask what you are doing?" Jack asked and the man looked at him, a wide smile across his plain face. His eyes seemed lost somewhere, but his smile remained.

"I saw the most beautiful lady in the entirety of this world. The beauty that immense needs to be carved into eternity." The man lifted a piece of paper and showed it to Jack.

The man was a poet. Jack smiled.

"I am so sorry to disturb you. I'm Jack O'Neal." He introduced himself and offered a hand to the man. The man's smile was childlike.

"My name is Francesco Petrarca. And anyone that appreciates poetry may disturb me anytime."

Jack nodded and excused himself as he lifted his gaze towards the lady Petrarca described.

She was walking through the gardens with other ladies. Sun lit up her dark red hair and it went so well with all the flower in the background that Jack stood there awestruck. She laughed at something one of the ladies said and the sound rang through Jack's ears like a beautiful melody. Underneath the laughter and the shining eyes, Jack saw a tortured expression that attracted him.

Unable to help himself, he waited for the ladies to disperse and then approached. She was a vampire, he realised, and he was so thoroughly glad. Jack made sure no one watched as he got nearer to this God-sent creature.

"Good morning, Milady." He said. The lady lifted her gaze, her thick eye lashed throwing a shadow over her eyes making them seem darker green.

"Good morning." She said smiling and offered her hand. Jack readily took it and politely kissed it. She smelt like lavender.