Blindside

News of my cousin’s death was reported long before I left France. It was one of the incidents that made my decision easier. There is a tomb with his name in Condé with the simple epitaph - Patriot. Son. Friend. There are many graves of the fallen in our homeland with little or no remains. Still, the sight of my very alive cousin was both beautiful and unnerving. In the interim he had obviously done well for himself and the comfortable cottage that I now sat in felt personal. There was a fire roaring from the modestly ornate fireplace and I sat uncomfortably in a very plush chair facing it. There was little said between us on our way to his place and as he stood with his back to me, the reality of what he might be settled with me.

“I appreciate your words on my tomb, and I’m truly sorry about not reaching out to you before.” He finally said.

“Should I ask?”

“What I am?” He said turning to face me. “I think you know.”

“How?”

“I should be dead, I suppose. We were on the frontline, and we were outnumbered. Men were falling all around me. The injured and those of us still living tried to escape the blades and gunpowder, but all seemed lost. That’s when it happened. I felt the sharp pain of cold steel enter my side before being twisted and I could feel my life slipping away. On the brink of my permanent sleep I felt myself being carried by strong hands, by a powerful body. Before too long, I felt the warm sticky liquid being dripped onto my lips and into my mouth and I felt my strength which was all but gone, return slowly at first and then it was surging. I opened my eyes to this…this thing that I was feeding from and it filled me with terror. Then I slept, or maybe I died, I am not certain which but when I did open my eyes again I was not the same. I felt the presence of the entity that had changed my existence, only now he seemed to be the most beautiful human I have ever seen.”

“La Safer.” I whispered in contempt.

“Yes. He told me his name and said simply that he had given me the greatest gift that any one could. He didn’t only save my life, but he had given me eternal life. I had so many questions, but all he would say is that everything had a cost.”

I saw the pain in his eyes as he continued.

“I soon understood what this cost was, and I could not burden anyone, especially you, with what I had become.”

“I’m so sorry Louis. But I have always suspected that you knew that I too was remade into to what you are now.”

“I knew that you were changed. That was easy to see, more confident, somehow wiser. But I thought that you were just changed by all that you had lost and I still saw the pain in your eyes. Now I understand why.”

I stood up overcome by the emotion and hugged him. We held each other for a moment before I stepped back and patted his shoulders.

“It is good to see you Louis, circumstances be damned.”

“It is good to see you as well.” He said waving to my seat as he sat in an identical replica facing me.

“You are the oldest of our kind.” He said smiling grimly. “But there are many now. And La Safer is not pleased with your reluctance to assume control…to execute his plans. But then he is not to pleased with me either.”

“What did he ask of you?”

“He asked me to convince you of the wisdom in accepting your destiny.”

“Or?” I saw the discomfort and hesitation before he answered.

“Or you will never see your wife again.” He finally said, unable to hold my gaze.

“What? Sophie died from the plague Louis you know that. I buried her myself.”

“I know.” He said looking me in the eyes. “But, I have seen her and.” He paused.

“And what?”

“And your daughter.”

His words reverberated in the long silence that lingered and I no longer felt any warmth from the fire.