Chapter Ten
Sacha stared at the box in front of him. It had arrived that morning, and he couldn’t figure out how Alessio had managed to get the books shipped over so quickly. He’d expected it to take a week at least, not two days, but if Alessio wanted something doing, it got done.
He carefully sliced through the tape and opened the flaps, looking at the contents inside. Each book had been wrapped individually to protect it from damage and further protected by bubble wrap.
The box had ‘Handle with Care’ stamped all over it with the Marchesi brand stamped on the side. As he went to pull the bundle free, there was a knock on his door, and Alessio walked in.
Closing it behind him, he walked over to the table, rubbing his hands together, and peered into the box. “I see they arrived in good time.”
“What did you do, Father? Threaten someone?”
Alessio winked and helped Sacha pull the bundle free, knocking the empty box to the floor as Sacha carefully placed the bundle on the desk. He removed the bubble wrap and closed his eyes, smelling the distinct aroma of old books.
“Wow,” Alessio murmured, his hand running over the cover of one of the books. “It has been years since I last saw these.”
“Before you emigrated?”
“Oh yes, Sacha. Maybe even longer than that. These hold all our ancestor’s records and hopefully the answer to some of your questions.”
Sacha looked through the pile, pulling out what appeared to be a diary.
“A diary?”
Alessio gave him a small, sad smile. “Yes, la bisnonna.”
“I never met her.”
“No, she died before you were born. A beautiful, kind-hearted woman. My great-grandmother.”
“This is her diary, and she was a vampire, right?”
“Oh, very much a vampire. She didn’t want us to reveal our existence. She was afraid for her children, you see. Afraid we’d be hurt.”
“It wasn’t that bad, was it?” Sacha sat down and carefully opened the book in his hands, seeing the faded writing on the pages.
“Not as bad as we feared, but in some areas, it was horrendous. We were hunted down, tortured and murdered. But, others saw how we could be helpful and supported us. It was a slow, laborious process, but it was worth it. Look where we are now.”
“Two hundred years later.” Sacha smiled at Alessio.
Alessio pulled up a chair and sat next to him, his fingers touching the books gently. “I hope they hold the answers.”
“Should we start with the older ones first? When did mates become rare?”
“When I was younger, I think. We talked about them more back then, but as a young man, I don’t recall many matings.”
“So, the decline has been happening for a while. I wonder why?”
Alessio shrugged. “The only ones I know are yours and Donnie’s.”
Sacha tapped his lip with his finger. “Both with humans. Could that be it? Are we meant to take human mates? I can’t see that being the answer. Surely, we would have had vamp with vamp matings?”
“It could be any number of reasons. We are fewer in number, we are spread further out from the home countries. The mates I can remember were a vamp to vamp only, and they were older couples.”
“What if a human and a vamp had children?”
Alessio frowned. “I would assume vamp genetics would be dominant. We are stronger than humans. I would think that would be the case with our DNA too.” Shrugging, Alessio continued, “I’m no biologist.”
Sacha glanced through the pages, struggling with some of the words and phrases. It had been a long time since he’d spoken or written in Italian, but he knew enough to get started.
Alessio stood. “I have a meeting to attend. I’ll come back in after to see how you’re doing.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Sacha was vaguely aware of the door closing, engrossed as he was by the words in front of him. He spent the next several hours reading what he could and making notes, but by the end of the day he was left with more questions than answers.
Penina, his great, great grandmother, wrote about many things. Family, friends, disagreements. It wasn’t until Sacha was further in that she first mentioned that only a few had found their vampire mate. It was that phrase that caught his eye. Vampire mate.
Sitting back in his chair, Sacha frowned at the sentence. So far there hadn’t been any mentions of humans in relationship terms, and he had to think about the timescale involved.
Penina was born 1843 and died 1975. Humans would have known about vampires, but it would have taken years for all humans to find out. Plenty of time for stories and nightmares to be told.
To Penina, humans were a source of food, but also to be treated with respect. Sacha rubbed his achy eyes. All this reading was tiring, but he felt he was on the right track. If vampires had never mated with humans, even if they were mates, then the gene pool would have shrunk.
Their numbers had decreased, and maybe that was part of the reason.
He was an only child, and he knew his parents had tried for years to have him.
Flipping to the genealogy chart, he traced each mating, and in each one, the number of children dropped. Could it be that simple?
He lifted his head when Alessio came in. “Any luck?”
“Did you know that with each mating the number of offspring decreased?”
“What? Really?”
“It’s here in the records.”
“Can you see when the change occurred?”
Sacha scanned the tree. “Here it is. Late 1700s, maybe early 1800s.”
“Ah, the Industrial Revolution and the start of the human population growth. It was because their numbers were increasing that we revealed our existence.”
“Seriously?” Sacha stared open-mouthed at Alessio. “Their numbers couldn’t have been that high.”
“Records show they hit one billion around 1800, so it was enough. Today, we number around 250 million, and there are over seven billion humans. The time was right. Can you imagine what would happen if we chose to reveal ourselves now? In this climate we find ourselves in?”
Sacha shuddered. Yeah, maybe they’d made the right choice, but could the Industrial Revolution and the increasing numbers of humans have caused a decrease in their numbers?
It seemed so far-fetched, but it was beginning to look that way.
“Do you think...?” Sacha trailed off, not knowing how to finish the sentence.
“The two combined caused irreparable damage?”
“Has it?”
Alessio sighed. “Maybe not.” Then quieter, “Maybe not. What if some of our mates are human? Interesting.”
“Are you going to take it to the Council?”
“I’ll speak to them. Whether they do anything with it is another matter.” Again, Alessio shrugged.
The Vampire Council didn’t appear to involve itself in the day-to-day lives of vampires like it used to. They seemed more interested in arranging deals with humans and furthering their own prosperity.
“Keep looking, figlio mio.”
“I will.”
Sacha looked at the book in his hands, and with a deep sigh, began reading again. He would find an answer.
❊❊❊
The rain hammered down, bouncing off the equipment and hitting the ground around them. They’d been called in on a missing persons case. They’d worked together with the local law enforcement and were now searching the surrounding fields and forests.
The missing person was a young African American woman, back home from college for the weekend. No one knew why she’d disappeared and her family was frantic.
It had been five days, and Jared could see the locals and the police losing hope. Still, he and the rest of Rescue Inc carried on, never giving up. She was coming home one way or the other, Jared just hoped the outcome was that she made it home to her family alive and well.
He trudged through the wet and muddy fields, adjusting the first aid kit he carried on his back. He glanced to his left and right, seeing the line of people that stretched out alongside him before looking ahead again.
Staring at the mud, he grunted when his boot got stuck and had to pull it free.
“Shit, the weather’s worsening,” Ale muttered beside him, and Jared nodded in agreement.
They had to find her soon. In this weather, she wouldn’t last much longer if she was alone, injured and exposed to the elements.
He heard muttering to his right and looked over at Miguel Gomez, who looked as miserable as he felt. Miguel was new to the team, coming in to cover for Kerrie, but he’d fit right in.
Strong and compassionate but with a will of steel, when Miguel set his mind to something, it was hard to change his mind. His bleached blond hair lay flat to his head, the strands dripping water to soak the coat he wore.
Everyone was wet, but they continued regardless. They had to find the missing woman. Jared pushed his discomfort aside and reached for Sacha, needing his mate’s soothing touch.
Sach.
Have you found her?
No, not yet.
The news said it’s getting worse out there.
It is. I don’t know how long we have before they call the search off.
They wouldn’t.
They would if they think it’s too dangerous to risk our lives.
Her poor family.
I know, Sach. I just needed to hear your voice.
I’m always here.
Speak later. Love you.
Love you.
Jared continued until they reached the edge of the field and then gathered on the road. The officer with them was talking on his radio, and from the look on his face, Jared knew they were being called home.
“Shit,” he muttered, running a hand through his soaked hair and shaking the water off it.
“It was to be expected with these conditions,” Miguel said in a low voice. “I don’t like it. Don’t like her being alone.”
“Me either, but it’s their call.”
Jared shifted his bag again then decided to take it off. Shrugging it free, he dropped it to the ground and with his hands on his hips, he twisted his back, easing the ache in the muscles.
They’d been there for two days helping with the search, and when Jared had first boarded the plane, he’d had high hopes that they would find the missing woman quickly.
The local police had been grateful that they had come and when he saw the search area, he understood why. The area was so vast.
The town had fields, valleys and forests surrounding it, so there were multiple places she could be, as well as numerous empty cabins. Each one had to be searched and cleared.
They’d split up into search teams, with Jared, Ale, and Miguel working the fields and valleys, but the task was huge. There was no denying that, but still, he thought with the locals helping who knew the area that they would be successful.
Yet, here they stood two days later and five days since she’d been reported missing. Hope was disappearing, and it was disappearing quickly.
The officer turned and shouted, “We’ve been called back. The weather is deteriorating. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
Jared heard Ale talking behind him, and one glance at his face told him that Chester’s team had also received the news.
“They been called back too?” Miguel asked.
“Looks like it.”
With a heavy sigh, Jared lifted his pack onto his back, grunting under the weight, and walked back towards the approaching vehicles.
“Where are Tank and Dodge?” he asked Ale when he caught up with them.
“Still with Chester. Kicking up a stink about being pulled back.”
Jared grunted. “Sounds about right.”
“Chester’s pissed. They had almost crossed off all the abandoned properties on the list, and he wanted to have that completed before returning.”
“Makes sense. You could start at a new location rather than returning to an old one.”
“Well, he’s telling them what he thinks.” Ale gave him a vicious grin which Jared returned.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be on the end of one of his tirades.”
“Bad?” Miguel asked.
“Volcanic,” Jared said. “He’s slow to blow, but when he does...” Jared lifted his hands and mimicked a bomb going off.
“Ouch.” Miguel grinned. “I wouldn’t want to be around for that.”
“Me either.”
They walked on in silence until Ale’s cell rang. He answered it, frowning the longer he listened. “When?” There was a long pause before he asked, “How? How didn’t you know?”
Both Jared and Miguel stopped walking, and the three of them stood in a circle as the other searchers walked past.
Ale raised his eyes to Jared and mouthed ‘shit.’
“What,” he whispered, but Ale shook his head.
When he eventually finished the call, he said, “Don’t ask me for the details because I don’t have them, but one of the abandoned properties wasn’t empty. The woman wasn’t missing either, she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend.”
“She still alive?” Miguel asked.
“Unknown at this time, but her kidnapper is still there.” He sighed deeply, shaking his head. “He has Chester.”