Tim stood aside to allow Edwin access to the door.
“Can I help you?” Edwin asked warily. The old woman’s grey eyes bore into his blue ones with such an intensity, he felt unable to move; as if mesmerized. When he was finally able to gain control of his senses again, he said, “I’m Edwin Jacobson.”
“Then, ye are the one I seek,” she said firmly. “Please, come with me.”
Edwin was so taken aback that, at first, he simply stood staring at her in disbelieve with his mouth open. When she was half-way down the steps, she turned to face him with an expectant look.
“I’m sorry, lady, but I have no clue who you are, how you got here, how you knew I’d be here, or why you want me. What I do know is that I have no intentions of going anywhere with you,” Edwin said as he surveyed the grounds for what might have brought her to the cabin.
The caretaker had yet to plow the drive and the snow was far too deep for a horse to trek through. That left walking or a snowmobile. Not only hadn’t he heard a snowmobile approach, but there was no sign of one. To his recollection, the nearest dwelling was a few miles down the road. As feeble as she looked and sounded, he doubted she’d have been able to walk through the deep snow that far.
He studied her thick, rustic looking cloak. The hem was relatively snow free. He wasn’t an expert of cloth, but something told him that, had she trekked through the snow like his buddies just did, her cloak would have a coating of snow along the hem, if nowhere else.
“’Tis imperative that ye come with me, lad. Time is short,” she said with urgency.
“You’re not making any sense,” Edwin said as he monitored her closely. A psychiatrist by trade, he immediately shifted into working mode in order to assess the strange woman. “Please, come inside and we can discuss this further.”
The old woman eyed him warily before heaving a deep sigh and climbing back up the steps.
“Seems ‘tis the only option,” she muttered as she boldly slipped past him.
Once inside, she quickly removed her cloak and hung it on a hook near the door. After which, she made her way to the fire and extended her hands toward its warmth.
The three friends remained motionless - as if in shock- while they stared at her in disbelief. She’d entered as an old, almost crone-like female, but, little by little, as her body was warmed by the fire, her appearance reversed in age. By the time she turned to face them, her long grey-streaked hair was a rich, dark auburn, her steel grey eyes were a softer grey, her wrinkled skin was as smooth as porcelain and her carriage was no longer bent. She’d gone from looking like a crooked and gnarled ninety-year old woman to a lithe and beautiful female in her mid- twenties.
“What the hell just happened?” Mark asked in a hushed tone.
“I.. have.. no.. clue,” Tim stammered in an equally hushed voice.
“My name is Agatha Cooper,” she said in a clear, crisp voice. “I have very little time to explain things, so I require that ye listen carefully.” She waited to be certain she had their attention before continuing. When no one objected or even uttered a sound, she said, “I am a witch come to the future to help save a lass from a wicked vampire.”
“What the hell, Edwin? Is this one of your patients escaped?” Mark snapped.
“Ye have patients? Ye are a physician?” Agatha said with a twinkle in her eye. “’Tis good to know.”
“I am a psychiatrist,” Edwin explained patiently. “A doctor of the mind.”
“Ye think I am addled?” she asked firmly. “Do ye not believe in witches? After burning so many women for being a witch, ye now think me addled because I claim to be one? ‘Tis not I who needs a doctor for the mind.” Her voice was filled with disgust and her eyes with a mixture of urgency and anger. “I have no time for such nonsense. There is an evil vampire on his way. We must free Kira and flee before he arrives.”
“Where’s the whiskey?” Mark asked as he started from the chair to fetch it. To his shock and surprise - as well as that of his friends- Agatha raised her hand, swirled her fingers, and said something in a language they didn’t understand. Mark was immediately frozen in place. The only thing he was able to move was his head. “What the fuck?”
“I did not freeze thy mouth, young man, as I need all minds to focus on what to do, but if ye insist on such foul language, I will do so,” Agatha warned. “Now, please pay attention. Time is short.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I come from the year 1692. I am a witch. A vampire turned a lovely young lass who was my friend and my protégé, into a vampire. She escaped him before he was able to complete the claiming of her and came to me for aid. I have done what is possible to protect her, but now I require thy assistance.”
“I’m confused,” Tim mumbled. “Agatha, is it?”
When she nodded, he said, “Please forgive me, but this is a lot to take in. Do you know what year it is now?”
“By the look of thy attire, I assume I am in the future,” she said boldly. “Pray tell. What year might this be?”
“It is the year two-thousand-seventeen,” Edwin said softly.
Agatha emitted a low whistle. “’Tis no wonder my shield weakens. Curse these vampires for their longevity of life.”
“Pardon my ignorance,” Edwin said, “but, by vampire, you mean a blood sucker with fangs. Right?”
“Did thy family not educate thee on thine history?” she asked with surprise.
“I’m sorry,” Edwin said. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. Why would my family history have anything to do with vampires?”
“The vampire we seek to avoid is thy long lost relative, Lord Malcolm Jameson,” she said matter-of-factly.
All three men gasped in disbelief, after which, it turned quiet enough to hear if a pin dropped on the braided oval rug beneath their feet.
“This is insane,” Mark grumbled as he struggled to get his body back into motion. “What’s happening, really? Tim, did you hire this woman as a magician to pull a gag on us?”
“I wish that was the case,” Tim said with remorse.
“Do you actually believe this insanity?” Mark asked with surprise.
“You were immobilized by the flick of her hand and a few indiscernible words,” Tim offered. “She turned from an old crone to a young beauty before our very eyes.”
Agatha gasped at Tim’s mention of her being a crone, only to smile and almost purr when he referred to her as a young beauty.
“Do you believe this shit too?” Mark asked Edwin.
“I don’t know what to believe. She did show up out of nowhere asking for me,” he replied. “How did she know about me? Why aren’t you able to move? How did she go from old to young? There’s something out of the ordinary going on here. Something inexplainable.”
“I have hidden Kira beneath ground, but, with the shield weakening, he will be able to locate her soon. There is also the matter of getting her out before the shield depletes,” Agatha said with emphasis.
“What?” Tim bellowed.
“Are you saying you buried a girl?” Mark exclaimed.
“Dear god,” Edwin said as he grabbed his coat from the back of a chair and put it on. “We have to dig her up.”
“That is what I have been trying to say,” Agatha grumbled.
She assessed the men as she released her hold on Mark and he fell back onto the chair cushion. A scowl of annoyance consumed his proud, aristocratic face. Of Nordic descent, Mark was the largest of the three friends. He stood six-feet-four-inches with strong, muscular thighs and a big barreled chest. When he wasn’t working at his law practice, he was in the gym lifting weights. He had a comely face with a square jaw. As symmetry goes, his hazel eyes were just a little too close together. Yet they somehow looked perfectly set over his straight nose.
Tim was the shortest of the three. Measuring five-feet-eleven inches in his stocking feet, he was trim and muscular, yet limber and strong. Always up for an adventure and not prone to shying away from danger, he’d suffered his fair share of injuries. Fortunately, the scars he sported were on his body and not on his face. Although, more than once, he’d stated that a scar or two might add character to what most considered an average looking face. His brown eyes, brown hair, normally arched brows, straight nose, and slender lips did nothing to make him stand out in a crowd. In fact, he blended in quite nicely. This may be desirable to most, but to a stuntman and aspiring actor, it was anything but.
Edwin was by far the handsomest of the three. With sandy hair and brilliant blue eyes, he stood tall at six-feet-two-inches. His face was full, but not fat, with distinctive cheekbones and a jaw that was almost -but not quite- square. His slender lips displayed a set of perfectly straight teeth and his nose matched the thickness of his face. His broad chest and shoulders were accentuated by his narrow hips. She could see his well-formed muscles as he twisted his body to pull on his hunting parka. She believed Kira would be pleased to discover that he was a Jameson. At least, she hoped she would.
The men rushed out of the cabin with the intention of driving the SUV to where the strange woman claimed she buried the poor girl. Tim’s hand was on the door handle when she beckoned him back to the center of the snow-laden driveway.“Hold hands,” she said briskly as she positioned them into a circle of which she stood in the center.It took her forcefully barking the order a few more times before they stopped giving bewildered looks and grabbed each other’s hands. Almost immediately, the world swirled around them until they could see nothing but particles of snow twirling past their heads at breakneck speed. When it stopped, and their vision cleared, they found themselves deep in the woods on what they guessed was a logging road.Mark struggled to keep a steady stance on legs that felt like jelly while he did his best to prevent his stomach from purging its contents.“Did we just teleport?” Edwi
Agatha rushed to place her hands-on Kira’s shoulders to prevent her from rising up out of the coffin while she shouted to Tim and Edwin, “Ye men need to stand back now. She is a vampire who has been without blood for several centuries. I must have a chance to be with her before she sees ye.”Tim wasted no time running to hide behind the trunk of an ancient oak tree, but Edwin didn’t move. Agatha warned him a second time before she turned her focus on Kira. He backed up, but didn’t hide. He might be crazy, but something told him he didn’t need to.He listened intently as Agatha reintroduced herself to Kira. She reminisced about the events that led up to placing her in the magical coffin and then explained the reason it was imperative that they flee as quickly as possible.A squirrel skittered up the tree next to him. With minimal thought or effort, Edwin caught it and walked toward the newly awaken
“Oh, good,” Agatha said as she watched Tim approach. “We were just coming to ye. It has been decided that we will go to Edwin’s family cabin on the Canadian border.”“Right now?” Tim asked with surprise.“Aye,” Agatha replied. “We must make haste.”“I don’t know about…,” Tim began before Edwin interrupted him.“You can hunt just as easily in New Hampshire,” Edwin said.“That cabin gives me the creeps,” Tim admitted.“It’s not creepy, it’s rustic,” Edwin said playfully.“When was the last time you were there, brave ass?” Tim grumbled.“It’s been a while, but it’s fine,” Edwin assured him.“I don’t have a hunting license for New Hampshire,” Tim pouted. “None of us do.”“We must leave,&
Kira stood in the middle of the cabin with a look of sadness. Aware of her every move and mood, Edwin was quick to ask her what was wrong.“I am reminded of home,” she practically choked out. “When I crept from the house before all were awake, it was with the intention of retrieving the cloth my aunt shipped from my homeland. It was my plan to surprise mother with a new dress. Little did I know I would never set eyes on her again.”“That’s horrible,” Edwin said in a hushed, emotional tone. “I’m so sorry.”“Ye are not bothered that I am a vampire?” she asked in a soft, gentle voice as she stepped nearer to him. “I am a danger to thee.”He’d been so engrossed in her natural beauty and the way she made him feel complete whenever they were in close proximity that he’d forgotten the fact that she was also a vampire; a reputed predator and danger to manki
Thanks to Mark’s stubbornness and generosity, the cabin was provided with enough modern amenities to make it quite cozy. He purchased a gas powered generator for electricity and a portable gas grill for cooking that had two burners on the side; making it possible to cook a complete meal on it. A dorm size refrigerator was also purchased to hold the necessities such as eggs and butter. Although both Kira and Agatha studied these items in wonderous awe, the table lamps he’d purchased caused the greatest curiosity. He questioned if the light bulbs would burn out before they ceased turning the lamps on and off.Tim concerned himself with the sleeping arrangements; purchasing several air mattresses and down filled sleeping bags.Edwin concentrated on making sure that they had the proper cooking and eating utensils, since his family had always taken them there and carted them away when they left. He also picked up a few heavy quilts for good mea
Edwin and Tim stood against the wall while they watched Kira and Agatha prepare themselves and the beds for them. True to her word about it being a ceremony of sorts, Agatha spread some type of herb on the floor around the beds before brushing it onto Kira’s naked body and then her own; all the while chanting in a language they couldn’t understand.“Have you ever done something like this?” Tim whispered.“I’m not sure I can,” Edwin said. “Not only is it a command performance, but it’s a command performance twice over and with an audience.”“There’s nothing I’d like more than to make love to Agatha. I find her hot as hell, but not like this,” Tim said. “I can’t say that I’m all that excited about sharing her with you and Mark either.”“Same goes for Kira,” Edwin said. “I hate the fact that you’re seeing her n
“They’re all settled out there. Are you sleepy?” Edwin asked as he returned to the bedroom.“I know not what I am,” she replied. “All of this is new to me. My body feels like ‘tis mine, but in a different way.”“That must be difficult,” Edwin said as he stood next to the bed.Kira took a moment to admire him in the candlelight. His bare chest had a thin layer of sandy hair. Broad and muscular, it tapered into tight, narrow hips. She’d had the opportunity to view his backside while they stood naked just minutes earlier, so she knew it was also tight and firm. If asked what the perfect specimen of a man looked like, she would have to say it looked like him.“Ye may come to bed if ye wish,” she said softly when she noticed him shuffling his feet as if not knowing what to do with himself.With a timid smile, he crawled into the only bed the cabin
Agatha listened intently to the muffled sounds of love making going on in the room next door with mixed emotions. She was happy to know that Edwin was protecting Kira by mixing his energy with hers, but she was also a little sad and, possibly even jealous, over the fact that Kira was being made love to while she lay alone in front of the fire. While it was true that she still had her maidenhead, she’d mentally prepared herself to lose it for Kira’s sake.Tim was the first man she’d set eyes on - -ever- who could tempt her to give up her maidenhead, even if she didn’t have to do so to protect Kira. She found him desirable beyond words and she sensed he felt the same about her. Although she was relieved when the ghost stopped the ceremony and prevented her from having to have sex with all three men, a part of her wished it had waited until after she’d been with Tim.She’d donned her shift for modesty’s sak