Penned on the flight to Tokyo…

This is not the first time I have tangled with the Supernatural Order and it will not be the last. I spoke those words to Victor as we headed to Toronto, albeit with more humor in my voice than I currently would impart upon the declaration. Still, it is a reality I have occupied for over twenty years now. It seems my fate has been interwoven with their existence.

The simple explanation could be summarized by noting I am a seer. I was born to be a vampire hunter and somehow, wound up becoming an immortal instead. Throughout the twenty-seven years I have possessed fangs, twenty-two of them have been spent walking this earth with psychic abilities. I managed to avoid the stern eye of the cosmos for the past sixteen years. And now, my respite from my calling has come to an unfortunate end.

One could be very quick to remind me this is not my fault. In these sixteen years, I have been a rogue, but without any duties from The Fates I have been shirking. Oh certainly, I could have been in servitude to the Order had our last meeting not gone the way it did, but even if I had not been warned to stay as far from Seattle as possible, I would not have been of the mind to help them. Not after they stole John and Lydia and stripped me of one of my abilities.

Correction. Blocked one. That, however, is a story for another time.

Whatever the matter, in those years, I both mourned and healed, both came to lose everything and gain so much more back. I lost love and found love. I watched the woman I adored turn to dust; held the hand of the man for whom I would die and exchanged vows. The first time I looked at Victor and beheld my new husband, I saw the future within his chestnut colored eyes. I knew it would be filled with both good times and bad ones. I never realized, though, how soon the tide was to turn in the world around us.

It started with the videos, and turned into the summit we attended with distinguished members of his bloodline. I recall being introduced to kings and queens, dukes and members of the class to which Victor belongs, the Primael. I listened to a man named Mitchell Livingston declare to us this threat could be the single worst problem immortal kind has ever had to weather and saw it in the eyes of each immortal gathered that this was truth. On the other side of this tempest would either be our victory or our destruction. There was no way, however, that vampires could remain underground for much longer.

And yet nobody seemed to have the answers.

Truly, I should have walked out of that meeting knowing what happened. Nobody else has the resources or the will to launch such an underhanded attack against us. No, it is the Order who are both entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the natural order and the engineers of its collapse in recent years. They were behind the slaughter in Europe I ended and now, it would seem the Fates have chosen us to be the ones to stop its latest enterprise. At the same time, I find myself wondering about the cost.

By now, John and Lydia have made it into the Order’s Seattle Headquarters and heaven only knows what happened the first time they sat down with Wallace Alexander. I still remember being held down and screaming in agony as his hands touched my head and his will shoved my ability to turn mortal into the tightest closet ever manufactured. I remember that distinct emptiness at losing it all sixteen years ago, an emptiness which almost resulted in a successful suicide attempt. Knowing he is now supervising my children brings with it no measure of comfort for me.

Beyond this, though, I know the moment he looked at Lydia and saw I had turned my daughter into a vampire, I might as well have signed my death warrant. John approached Victor and me prior to leaving for Seattle, asking us to seek shelter somewhere far away from Philadelphia for this very reason. In order for he and his sister to figure out why the Order is recording Victor’s bloodline in the midst of feeding and distributing those videos, he needed to know we would be safe. We spirited away to Toronto and then, departed for Vancouver. As we waited with Delilah and Robin for our final flight to Tokyo, I watched my brother and his bonded suffer with anguish over what might happen to John and Lydia. My eyes fell to Victor as we boarded the airplane, and my demeanor faltered despite myself.

I could no more leave him to such a fate than Delilah and Robin should have been asked to do for John and Lydia. Indeed, wherever Victor goes and in whatever danger he might find himself, I would be right there, facing it beside him. Still, there was no way any of us could accompany John and Lydia without weapons drawn and all of us ready to face our deaths. We would slay as many as we could. Our ends, however, would be imminent.

In not doing anything, though, I still find myself in trouble. Two master seers have visited Allen’s coven and threatened my old friend. We are half a world away, bound for the residence of Victor’s old friend Nathan, but I still see the storm clouds on the horizon, the familiar harbinger of danger about to engulf us. The sword I carry with me once again hums with the familiar resonance of duty waiting, a threat riding on the wings about to descend like a drove of hawks. What we are about to face, I do not know. I only know one thing for certain.

While I know Victor can more than hold his own, indeed he has lived for four centuries on this mortal coil by his own recognances, I still fear for whatever might come for us. The twisted hand of fate has never spared me my sentiments as it has brought its weight upon my shoulders and knowing the Order will have me in its sights causes me to fear for my maestro, my husband and lover. Whatever may come, I know we can face together as we have faced every trial we have endured thus far and made it to the other side.

Still, I would feel that much better about it if I knew what to expect.

His immortal poet, forever and always,
Peter

Posted via web from from the poet’s pen

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No, this will definitely not be the first time I have traveled abroad. It is the first time, though, that I will have the chance to actually stop and admire the scenery. That I shall share it with somebody I love with every measure of my heart and soul. I dare say, the idea of having such a companion makes me all the more excited about the prospect.

But here, we linger for the time being.

Tying up loose ends has taken on various forms, from arranging the methods of travel to ensuring we have all we might need for these days (weeks? months?) to follow. I have made several phone calls in search of former members of my old employers at the Supernatural Order and Victor has looked into matters in the political realm. Together, we have done everything from procuring new wardrobes to hunting and feasting on the local fare. One particular jaunt to a local country club left me scratching my head at the reaction one mortal woman inspired. Perhaps some of Victor’s quirks spilling into me through the conduit of blood shared?

Which brings up a very fascinating event which occured just the other night.

I padded into the bathroom while Victor slept to shower and dress for the day. Such is not the unusual occurance, I sleep very little — always have and perhaps always shall. Dawn drags me under into quiet repose, but my lids lift again far before sunset. As such, I write, read, and fiddle around with Victor’s sound system while waiting for my lover to rise some time afterward.

Back to the point. I walked into the bathroom and was forced into a double take as I passed the mirror. As I mentioned before, my bloodline might be able to imbibe mortal drink, but we lack a reflection. My supernatural abilities granted me a few years spent in mortal form again, and such is the only time when I have ever been able to gaze at myself through a literal looking glass since being turned.

What I saw was not my reflection, per se, but I swear, from my perephery I caught the glimpse of a shadow passing on the other side. As I whipped around to face the mirror, I caught a faint ember of… something. I cannot tell for certain just what it was. It was enough, though, to inspire quite a wide grin on my face the longer I stared at the absence of a reflection.

Might the blood passed from lover to lover be granting me the gift of a mirror image of myself once more? Heaven only knows. It might be wishful thinking on my part, but still, I have found myself gazing more intently at the place where I should be whenever I find myself in the bathroom. If the cosmos smiles upon me, perhaps one of these times I shall see the vampire I once gazed upon appear before my eyes. I know this sounds horribly conceited to speak aloud, but I assure the world, it is not for my own sake that I wish this to transpire.

Indeed, I shall be at my happiest on the day when somebody can snap a picture of my lover and me, standing arm in arm one of the places we venture to on our travels. Now… this is why I speak prayers to whatever gods might be listening to a creature such as me.

Enough of that for the time being. Time for me to see if Robin has returned my call.

Fare thee well.
Peter

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Actually, I think I finally understand why Robin is so enamored with the idea of putting his experiences down on paper. For the first time in my life, I find myself looking ahead to the future instead of backward to the past and his words resonate inside my ears the more I look to the horizon and see the things to come. “I wish I would have jotted this down while it was happening,” Robin has said to me. “I would have loved to have captured the moment like a snapshot.”

Sadly, I have no reflection for photographs.

I imagine that sounds odd to hear somebody lament, but it is an honest matter of frustration for me. With everything I know is going to transpire in the weeks, months, and years to come, I wish I could pull out a camera and ask some tourist to snap a photo of Victor and I in whatever locale we happen to be at the time. I would only be a ghost in the picture, though, and would only become more vexed at this peculiarity within my bloodline that forbids me from having a reflection.

But I have words with which to capture my experiences. So, consider these my photographs and postcards.

Victor and I left San Francisco the other night and landed in Las Vegas, Nevada, where we are right now. While this is the commencement of the journey, it is merely a place we are sojourning while we tie up loose ends. From here, the globe becomes our playground and where we roam is wherever we desire to be. I become more and more excited for the things to come the more I consider tomorrow and each day from this point forth. Love truly is a wonder and having another soul to share such experiences a blessing and a gift this immortal poet never fancied he would receive.

So, with this first pen stroke on a fresh journal, I say…

“… It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me… and I’m feeling good…”

Peter

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