Strange Delights (15) end

(copyright Tristan Alexander all rights reserved)
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Shadows Past

It was the night of the first of May, Bealtaine, when Valantene found the toy. It was battered and half burnt, wedged in a crack in the stone wall of the coal bin where he slept. The shape of the small carved wooden horse's head stuck out just enough be seen by his keen eyes. Gently the Vampyre removed the loose stones that held it in place and soon stood holding a piece of the past. It was very familiar to him yet it took some time for his mind to register it's significance.

"Valantene, are you all right?" The Vampyre nearly dropped his treasure. For the first time in his preternatural life he had been startled.

"Beloved, I did not notice your approach, forgive me." Valantene said, not understanding how this could be so, even as he said it.

"What's that?" asked Joshua, noticing the small object in the Vampyre's hands.

"An answer to a riddle as well as a sad memory." Valantene answered, gently touching the toy and looking a little pained. "Do you recall how I told you that my kind cannot enter a home without invitation and how I some how did just that on the first night I feed from you?" Joshua nodded. "Well, I was able to enter your home because of this." The Vampyre said, holding up the toy so that the boy could see it. Valantene could see that his human lover was confused as to how this little piece of wood could be so significant.

"When this town was not much more than a few farm houses I was here." "I became intimate with a family that lived on one of those farms." Shaking his head and brushing a pink tear from his eye the Vampyre continued. "This toy belonged to the youngest boy of that family." "A family that died because of me!"

Seeing the shocked look on Joshua's face, Valantene realized what the boy must have assumed and quickly continued. "No! No. I did not kill them. I would never have harmed that sweet family." "It was the ignorant bigots from the town who murdered my friends."

to be continued

(Readers, at this point the story ends for now. I am sure at some point I will write more but I am not sure when. Hope you enjoyed it so far and like how I solved the mystery. TA)


(Oh night thou was my guide, Oh night more loving than the rising sun, Oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one, Transforming each of them into the other. Upon that misty night, In secrecy, beyond such mortal sight, Without a guide or light Than that which burned so deeply in my heart.) Dark Night of the Soul ,St. John of the Cross/Loreena McKennitt