Return from Exile

Chapter 14 The Only Place Left

\"Either you help me,\" he warned, \"or get the hell out of my way! I\'ll crawl if I have to!!\"

Again Edward wrestled his brother back to his bed. It wasn\'t hard, Adrian\'s strength was barely that of a normal human, but his recovery was coming along. \"Adrian I\'m not going to tell you again. You can\'t get out of bed, because you can\'t support your own weight. Now stay put!\"

\"I have to see D!\"

\"You can\'t!\"

Adrian grabbed Edward\'s hair, hauling himself up. \"Give me one good reason why.\"

\"Because he\'s not here,\" he answered, trying to unthread his brother\'s fingers from his long locks, without much success.

\"What?\"

\"Something went on between you and Kale, he knows all about it, and so does father.\"

\"Oh god.\"

\"Fathaid aid something about dealing with you, but he just told me to make sure you got better.\"

\"D took Kale away?\"

\"No...He left her here. And when I say left her...I mean, he left her.\"

Adrian\'s eyes went wide. Never had he thought things could get so out of hand before he could explain. \"Where\'s Kale?\"

\"Sharing a room with the blue woman. She\'s...well...she\'s not good.\"

\"I have to see her!\"

\"Oh no you don\'t!\"

\"Edward Please! I have to put this right! It\'s all my fault!\"

\"I don\'t understand. Everyone\'s talking in riddles around here, and I\'m left standing in the cold, with the dumb ass brother look on my face. What the hell went on with you two?\"

\"Take me to Kale. I can explain everything.\" Edward wrenched his hair free of his brother\'s grasp. \"Please Edward. I\'m asking you to help me. If you don\'t, she\'ll find a way to die.\"

\"All right. Come here. Arm around my shoulders.\"

The blue woman with Crystal hair, whom Kale learned was named Tamika, retrieved the tray she\'d brought for Kale that morning. Again, for the second time, her breakfast was left untouched. Tamika shook her head. \"You really should eat you know.\" Kale never moved from her spot at the window. Another ship had launched, the fifth of the near 150 that had landed. They were all different shapes and sizes. Some showing the roots to the original space craft designs of the 20th century, that never got off the drawing boards of NASA designers. While others were obviously designed to blend in with a vampire\'s castle, to keep it hidden, yet available when needed. \"Kale?\" She didn\'t turn as the woman sat on the end of her bed. \"Kale, I have to tell you something. Ben isn\'t going to let you stay here forever. You aren\'t a Vampire, you aren\'t a mutant, you aren\'t even a Dhampire. You\'re not safe here. Kale? Are you listening to me?\"

Still the woman didn\'t move. Her green eyes just stared blankly out the window. Damp trails of tears down her cheeks were the only indication that she wasn\'t catatonic. \"Ben has said that you will stay, only until you can ride. He\'ll then give you one day, from when you leave the gates, to get as far from Barbarois as you can. After that, well...I guess you understand.\"

The woman patted Kale\'s shoulder as she rose to leave. \"Do you think...\" Kale began, her words trembling with restraint, her voice deeper from congestion. \"...they\'d care, if someone stood under their ships when they launched?\"

At first Tamika didn\'t understand. Both Vampires and Barbarois made sure the launch area was clear before lift off. Anyone under the ships would die, burned to a crisp. Then she understood. \"You can\'t mean that!\"

\"Yes, I do.\"

\"No...they won\'t let you near the ships. So don\'t even try!\"

\"My dear Tamika,\" the woman turned to see Adrian at the door, supported by his young brother. \"Would you be so kind as to leave me with my sister? I need to talk to her.\"

\"Very well. I\'ve work in the launch field. Try and get her to eat her lunch.\" She pointed to the tray she\'d brought when she came, and left with the untouched breakfast tray. Edward carefully set Adrian down where Tamika had risen from, then pulled over the vanity table stool, to be close should Adrian or Kale need help. \"Kale...\"

\"There\'s nothing you can do Adrian,\" she sighed. \"Just leave me be. I should have known it wouldn\'t last.\"

\"Kale listen to me please. All of this is my fault.\"

\"No its not...I\'m not sure what happened, but...I just have to face it. I was never meant to be happy.\"

\"Kale...what do you remember about the river?\"

Finally she turned to him. \"The river? What\'s that got to do with anything?\"

\"Please...just tell me what you remember.\"

\"Nothing really,\" she said after a moment of thought. \"Just...bits and pieces.\"

\"Please try.\"

\"Well. I did tie a rope around us in the water, at least...I think it was a rope...then...I pulled us out and...a fire. I remember a fire. But I\'m not sure where or how it came to be.\"

\"And?\"

\"I was cold...you were freezing. I do remember hanging our clothes up to dry. I\'ve tried to remember that in cold weather if you\'re wet, get out of your wet clothes as soon as possible, and into something dry.\"

\"You took his clothes off?\" Edward gasped, Adrian waved him quiet.

\"I guess. Our cloaks must have been already dried, cause I remember covering us with something. The only things like that we had would be our cloaks.\"

\"Go on,\" Adrian urged.

\"I don\'t know. I fell asleep. I didn\'t want to, but I did. But I was ok. D had found us.\"

\"Yeah, I guess he did...wait...you saw him?\"

\"No, not exactly.\"

\"Then how? Or is it just summation because we ended up here?\"

\"Adrian...\"

\"Please! It\'s important.\"

\"All right. He kissed me...and...\"

\"And?\"

\"It\'s none of your...\" "Kal"Kale!\"

\"All right! He...he made love to me. He said he was cold. And nothing warms a body like...well...he did. Then...\" her hand traced around the bandage of her neck. \"...then he bit me...normally he wouldn\'t, but it was cold out, and he had to have been wounded. There\'s no other reason. But it didn\'t hurt...I wanted him to. I guess I passed out, cause the next thing I remember is Castle and Tamika looking after you.\"

Adrian shook his head. She had no idea. And obviously no one had told her. \"Kale...what you remember, isn\'t entirely correct.\"

\"What do you mean?\"

\"Honey, D wasn\'t the one who kissed you...it was me. I had kissed you...I was the one who...seduced you...I was the one...who bit you. This,\" he gestured to her wound, \"is my fault.\"

She slapped his hand away. \"You?\" He nodded. \"And you told D!\"

\"No...no. D...found us...as you remember he did...but, his timing...he found me biting you, and...\"

\"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!\"

Adrian didn\'t even try to move as she slapped him, the full force of her recovered strength behind her hand. He sat there, waiting for her to repeat the movement, but she didn\'t. \"WHY?!\" He turned to her, unable to look at her he was so ashamed of what he\'d done. \"I remember being cold,\" he said softly. \"And someone warm next to me. There were many nights where I would sleep with a woman, I\'d hire, and I\'d let my instincts rule my senses. I think...that\'s what happened...\"

\"You thought I was one of your SLUTTS!!?\"

He nodded. \"Just as you thought I was D...but as your blood red med me, my senses came back. My first thought was that it was Castle that lay beneath me...then, to my horror, I realized it was you.\" Kale hid her face in her hands. It was no wonder Dracula was angry. Little wonder D had left. How could they look at her now...now that they thought...\"D charged at me, and threw me across the campsite.\"

\"Did you try to tell him!?\" she begged, lowering her hands to grasp his shirt col


\"I wanted to, but he wouldn\'t hear it. Then...then I got sick.\"

\"You don\'t get sick Adrian!\"

\"Well I did. I no sooner got my pants on, I was doubled over throwing up...Your blood, Kale, made me sick. That\'s what\'s been wrong with me the last couple days. I\'ve been recovering from poison blood.\"

\"D\'s had my blood before. Not a lot, but some.\"

\"I\'m talking about nearly all the blood in your body, Kale. What little you let D have may not be enough to affect him like it did me. But either way, your blood is poison to us.\"

\"Oh god...my D...he\'s out there thinking...thinking I\'d rather have you than him! How...how could I let this happen!!?\"

\"It\'s not your fault, Kale. It was mine.\"

\"Oh no...\" the two turned to Edward. \"I just realized. Kale...the other day, when Adrian was half out of it. You made him think you were Castle, in order to get him to rest.\"

\"So?\" she asked.

\"You said you loved him. And D and father were at the door. What if they didn\'t witness the whole of the conversation? What if they didn\'t appear until half way through? They wouldn\'t know...they wouldn\'t understand.\"

\"I made things worse!!!\"

\"No Kale, you didn\'t. It was a misunderstanding,\" Adrian went on, trying to comfort her. \"One I intend to put right. I want you to return to the far shore. Stay with father till...\"

\"She can\'t,\" Edward called. \"Father said he\'d kill her if she went there. He\'s furious.\"

Adrian shook his head. \"Maybe you can stay here and...\"

\"No Adrian,\" she sighed, drawing her knees to her chest. \"Tamika told me that Ben won\'t allow it. I\'m human after all.\"

\"Where will you go?\"

\"I don\'t know...\"

\"Well,\" Edward offered, \"wherever you go, I\'ll be with you.\"

\"No!\" she snapped. \"That\'s the last thing you should do. D thinks I\'ve cheated with is brother...what do you think he\'ll believe, if he learns you\'re staying with me?\"

\"She\'s right, baby brother...things are nuts enough as it is with just me in the picture. Let\'s just keep you out of it.\"

\"Then...what do we do?\"

\"I don\'t\' know,\" she answered.

\"I need to see father. Maybe if I get him to understand, he\'ll let you stay.\"

\"He hasn\'t been in the best of moods lately,\" Edward warned.

\"Either way, I have to talk to him. He believes his son betrayed his brother, and the same of his daughter-in-law. This whole mess is my doing. I will set it right, or die trying. The real test will come from Castle and D. Weather or not they will forgive me.\" He reached over for Edward to help him up, only to find Castle was standing at the door. \"You heard?\" he asked, as his eyes locked with hers.

\"Every word,\" she replied quietly, wiping tears from her face. Slowly she crossed the room to the blond man, gently brushing her fingers across his flushed cheek where Kale had struck him. \"I knew you wouldn\'t do it...not willingly or consciously. There had to be a reason.\"

\"Can you ever forgive me?\"

\"Yes. But not right away.\"

\"I\'ll wait,\" he pledged, \"I\'ll wait till the end of time if I have to.\"

\"You can\'t face Dracula yet. He\'s angry, he\'ll kill you.\"

\"That\'s his usual punishment for breaking the law.\"

\"Father has a law about this?\"

\"Yes. When he taught them to me as a boy, he told me he was sick of seeing humans marry, betray their vows, get caught, and never REALLY punished for it. Divorce, I think is what he called it. He said it happened a lot of times, were the families would be split apart, children would suffer, but still he didn\'t think the guilty pair were properly punished. So when the war was over, and the surviving Vampires and Dhampires immerged from their hibernation, father wrote the Vampire laws. In which Dhampires are subject to, just as the laws of humans. To marry, the pair had to do it in front of father and at least one witness...\"

\"Christmas,\" Kale whispered.

\"Yes. And if they wished to part, they had to ask farther, give their reasons, and have it all overseen by either the same witness, or another. If not,...death when caught.\"

\"Do you think he\'ll understand?\" asked Castle.

\"I hope so. Father never considered this kid of situation, I\'m sure of that. He\'d have to listen to reason.\"

\"What about D?\" asked Edward.

\"He\'ll...take a little more time. And I should really be the one to handle him.\"

\"Not till you can stand on your own!\" Castle insisted. \"Come on. You both need rest if anything is going to happen. So lets go Adrian.\"

\"We\'ll set this right Kale,\" he said, squeezing her arm. \"I prom...\"

\"DON\'T!!\" she sked.ked. \"No promises. They\'re never kept!\"

Adrian nodded. She and D had made promises to each other to last their whole existence, and in one stupid act of weakness, he tore them all apart. She\'d never broken a promise to him, or to D. In fact she didn\'t even seduce Adrian. In her mind, there was only D. He had to put this right. \"I\'ll do all I can, and I won\'t stop till he\'s back with you.\"

\"He won\'t look at me,\" she sighed. \"He won\'t do anything. If I go after him, he\'ll end up hating me more. I can\'t go to the far shore, there\'s no place there for me. I can\'t stay here...what do I do?\"

\"We\'ll think of something,\" Edward whispered, kissing her brow and draping a blanket around her shoulders. \"Lets just confront father first. He\'s the biggest obstacle right now. Get some rest.\"

Alone once more she turned her gaze back outside, watching as another ship rose from the ground. The thunder of the engines vibrated the room, rattling the bottles on the vanity table. She envied those vampires. On earth or in space, there was always a place for them to turn. A place to call...At once she rose from the bed, settling at the vanity. She found paper in one of the drawers, and pencils in a cup. She then set to work, doing something she hadn\'t done in years.

She wrote a letter.

\"SILENCE!!!!\" Again Adrian warownrown to the ground. His blood pouring from his mouth where his teeth cut his lip. The secondary court yard had been chosen as Adrian\'s court. Here he would make his stand, speak his defense, and pray his father would listen. \"You expect me to believe these LIES!!!\"

\"Its true father!\" Edward screamed.

\"Stay out of this Edward!\" Adrian warned. \"You\'ll only suffer my fate! Leave me to this!\"

Castle took Edward by his arm and pulled him back to the crowd. Adrian had recovered well over the last 36 hours, and wouldn\'t wait another day before confronting his father. And that\'s just what this was. A confrontation. To Dracula, Adrian and Kale had broken his highest law. He\'d already dealt with Kale. He couldn\'t kill her because of his promise to D, banishing her from his home, under pain of death should she disobey, was all he could do. Adrian however, was another matter entirely. Once more the boy stood, and faced the ancient King. The crowd of Vampires baring witness to his trial, and possible execution. \"Draw! Or I\'ll strike you down again!!\"

\"I will NOT draw on you father. What I said is the truth! She didn\'t know it was me. She thought I was D! She didn\'t know!!\"

\"Liar!!\" Again Adrian was on the ground. \"I heard her speak her love to you. With my own ears!!\"

\"Father, you heard wrong!\" Edward shouted. \"I WAS THERE!!!\"

All the vampires turned to the youngest prince. \"Tell us,\" said one. \"What did she say?\"

\"She didn\'t mean what she was saying,\" Edward began.

\"But she did tell Adrian Tepes that she loved him?\" asked another vampire.

\"Yes and no.\"

\"Which is it!\" snapped his father, \"It cannot be both!\"

\"Adrian would not lie still. He wanted to see D, but he was delirious. Kale was there, in Castle\'s place, trying to get him to take in some blood, but she wasn\'t having much success.\"

\"What did she do?\" asked a lady Vampire.

\"She pretended to be Castle, Adrian had been calling for her, but she was sleeping in another room. She was tired. So Kale made Adrian believe, that she was Castle. In his half conscious state, it worked. When Kale told Adrian that she loved him, she was trying keep up the illusion. To Adrian, Castle was sitting with him, professing her love to him, not Kale. Just as Kale believe that it was D who loved her that night, and not Adrian.\"

Dracula grabbed Adrian\'s shirt collar and lifted him to his feet, what few vampires knew was Dracula\'s full extent of his mental abilities. Savagely he dove into his son\'s memories, pushing away his guilt, and self-recrimination, searching for the memory of that night. Through the haze he\'d seen clouding his mind, he could not see Kale\'s face clearly, but names and reference thoughts of many women flashed through his son\'s mind, even Castle\'s. Then as Adrian\'s memories became more coherent, he saw her, nearly lifeless beneath his son. \'What have I done?\' was his question, and then of a struggle, and the image of D\'s fearsome appearance across the fire. Then the view of blood, being expelled from his son\'s mouth. The thought of it made him ill.

Dracula dropped the boy to the ground, his thoughts falling back into place. \"He speaks the truth,\" he sighed. Though he could not show it, he was greatly relieved. \"Judgment on you shall pass. My Expulsion of Kale is lifted.\" At once a roar of praise erupted across the vampires gathered, and many went to the elder prince\'s aid. \"Go. Find Kale, tell her to come home. I will seek out D myself and...\"

\"No father,\" Adrian spattered, whipping the blood from his face with an offered kerchief. \"This was all my doing. I shall go.\"

\"He will not be pleased to see you.\"

\"I know. But it must be. I WILL put this right, and deliver D back into her arms where he belongs, or I will die trying.\"

\"You promised this to Kale?\"

\"No. She wants nothing more to do with promises. They\'ve all been broken. I swore this to myself. And I will see it through.\"

\"As you wish. I don\'t know where D has gone. He has not answered me, and his presence goes fainter by the day as the distance to him increases. He will not listen just yet. His heart is still raw.\"

\"Then I will find him, I will stay near, and when he is ready. I will be there.\"

\"Go then. I\'ve work to do here.\"

She pushed the barn door open, looking once more over her shoulder to the gathered vampires. Adrian\'s trial was happening, and Castle had insisted that she stay away. Her sentence was already handed down, and if she appeared to support Adrian, it would only be worse for him, and Dracula may not listen at all. Not wanting to bring more harm to her younger brother, she did as Castle asked. Besides, it would give her the opportunity she needed. Max pushed his head over his stall door, nickering happily to see his mistress well again. Quickly she saddled him and gathered her saddlebags, and weapons from the lockers. Then took the silver steed from the stall. \"Leaving already?\" She turned quickly, almost throwing herself off balance. Unlike Adrian, sadn\adn\'t recovered as quickly, and could barely stay on her feet for more than an hour. Behind her at the door, was the little stone man. He was returning to the barn with several bails of hay, on a cart behind him.

\"You startled me, Hadwin,\" she gasped quietly, as she could hear Dracula faintly shouting beyond the barn door.

\"You should not leave so soon. You\'ve barely recovered.\"

\"I have to Hadwin. Ben only gave me till I could ride again. I can, so I must go. I know I\'ve no right to, but I have a personal favor to ask of you. I\'ll pay you what I have if you will carry it out for me.\"

\"The Barbarois do not hire out to humans,\" he stated flatly, \"But I will do this for you. What is it?\"

\"Give this letter to D, when next you see him. Don\'t go looking for him. But if he should return here, please, privately, will you give it to him?\"

\"If the other Barbarois find it, how do I explain it?\"

\"You can\'t. It\'s in a dead dialect that only myself, D, and a handful of others know. Please?\"

Hadwin looked over the letter she handed him. It was folded, and sealed on its edges with wax. A calligraphic \'D\' on the face of it. Quickly he took the paper and hid it in his clothes. \"The wax may be cracked when he gets it, but it will be unopened by handhand but his.\"

\"Thank you Hadwin. Now I must go.\"

\"They will hear the gates opening. Come with me. I\'ll show you a back way, if you are determined to leave unnoticed.\"

\"Lead the way.\" She followed Hadwin across the courtyard, ducking behind pillars, keeping Max, head on to them, so that he too was hidden, should someone turn. Around the next open area, the vampires had gathered, watching their king\'s trial. She could make out Edward\'s voice, but couldn\'t hear what he was saying. Hadwin pointed to a large open tunnel, leading down, large enough for a wagon to pass safely.

\"It leads to a path along a cliff. Go quickly. No one will notice.\"

\"Thank you Hadwin. I\'ll not forget this.\"

\"If I am asked, what do I say?\"

\"Tell them, I have gone to the only place left to me. That is all they need to know.\"

\"But...\"

\"...and that is all I will say.\" Hadwin nodded, and waved her on, watching for anyone who may turn. Just as she disappeared completely into the tunnel, the vampires cheered, and he saw them rush to help the young prince.

\"Go. Find Kale, tell her to come home.\"

\"No Max,\" she commanded, noticing the steed lifting his nose to the air, trying to find his mistress\'s mate\'s scent on the wind. \"We go East of here. East, do you understand? East and then North, along the shore.\" The horse threw his head around, not wanting to go back, the scent of her mate wasn\'t that way. Harshly she pulled him around by the bit. \"THIS WAY! MAX!\" she shouted. He had no choice but to go. But the dangers along the route where many, and he could only hope she was strong enough to handle them.

\"East, then North. Back to the only place left to me,\" she said, looking to the crushed cross she still had. \"You\'ll find me. If you still want me. I know you will.\"

\"What do you mean she\'s gone?\" Adrian demanded, his face almost healed form the wounds of his trial.

\"She left. She had no desire to remain,\" Hadwin repeated. \"She said she goingoing back to the only place left to her.\"

\"Nothing else?\"

\"Nothing that would lead you to her.\"

\"When did she leave?\"

\"Some time ago sir. Before sunrise.\"

\"Thank you. You can go.\"

\"What now?\" Edward asked, dropping the blanket back on Kale\'s bed. She\'d piled the pillows under the covers, to fool any who passed the open door into thinking she was sleeping. Hoping it would buy her time to get away. It had worked. Tamika, had stolen away after the trial to see Elwin at the airfield. And Castle had gone to the room to find Kale. But seeing \'the girl\' asleep, she left her alone, blowing out the only candle in the room.

\"I go oo fio find D. He\'ll know what she meant.\"

\"And if you don\'t find him?\"

\"I will. I must. This whole mess will be cleared up before the end of next year. That I swear.\"

\"Father is going to stay till the last of the ships take off. Maybe I can help you find Kale.\"

\"No. She believes she has no family left to her. She\'ll disappear for a while. She\'ll turn up, when she\'s ready. D will know how to find her. He always does. She has a little money, she left this in my room, in side one of my spare boots.\"

\"What is it?\"

\"Money. A note saying she\'ll repay the rest somehow, someday. I had paid for the repairs to Max, when I found him in the Airomat repair shop. It was the only way the mechanic would let me take him out to find Kale. I just hope she can find a way to make more money. I don\'t think she has much left. What little money they had, D took care of. Making sure each of them had a small enough portion to get them by, but securing a larger amount inside Nightmare\'s security compartments.\"

\"I hope she\'ll be ok.\"

\'Me too,\' he thought, climbing into his saddle. \"Open the gates!\" The huge chains of the gates pulled taut, and the doors slowly swung open. \"I\'ll keep in touch through father. Be well little brother!\"

\"Good luck Adrian! Bring them home!\" The blond man disappeared through the gates, galloping his black steed, across the desert tundra. Dracula said that D\'s presence was strongest in the west, and that\'s where he would go. And he wouldn\'t stop. Not till he and D stood once more, face-to-face.