Subtle Signs E-Book

Miss Black

• Herausgeber: Miss Black
• Kategorie: Erotik
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

From Spain in the Moors Era, to Scotland in the 15th century, from 18th century Germany to modern London, the lives of the vampires and the werewolves that we know have many secrets.
What is the connection between Tyr, the albino vampire and Eno, the African blood eater? Who was the Scottish woman who reminded Adrian of Sarah? How did Vlan and Myra become what they are? Is Anne, Harry’s bodyguard, only a faithful she-wolf? Who betrayed both species by handing over Sarah’s son to the Observers?
A long journey through the centuries and through the darkest shadows of passion, but also through timeless feelings that tie all beings together, whether they are human or not.
The final chapter of the Little Black Chronicles.
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EXPLICIT CONTENT
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He turned around. Anne was approaching him and it was clear she wanted to speak to him. He stuck his hands in his pockets and waited for her to reach him.
‘Sir…’ she said, stopping a few feet away from him, ‘…I smelt you out here and…’ Harry sniffed the air more attentively. Well, he was almost flattered that she was still turned on.
Anne blushed, taking a small step back. ‘Well, regarding this morning… and… I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t…’
Harry shrugged. ‘It’s her smell. She is intoxicating,’ he said. ‘And you are too,’ he added turning his back on her. He walked calmly towards the back of the house. Anne stayed where she was, obviously undecided.
‘It’s up to you,’ Harry specified, turning somewhat before carrying on.
He heard her footsteps behind him. There was no need to add anything else.
He entered the back door and hallway, which was rather bare. In a corner there was all the gardening equipment hung up on the wall and a cupboard that had who knows what inside. Stuff that his employees used, probably. Anne entered behind him and closed the door. She looked around, she looked at him, then she rested her elbows against the wall, pushing her bum outwards.
Her smell, now that they were in a small space was… significant. Harry got a slight head rush, while he approached her. Standing up behind her, he unfastened her trousers and he lowered them to under her buttocks.
She had a nice, firm behind, among other things. A really beautiful behind. All of Anne was rather appealing really, even if she couldn’t hold up to Sarah’s standards. Sarah was beautiful from the tip of her hair to the tips of her feet. Sarah made you hard even by just looking at a photograph of her.
Anne was… excited. And thus exciting as a consequence, for any other wolf. She was willing to mate.
She was… well, a human would have defined her as wet.

Leseprobe

SUBTLE SIGNS

1. The Jinn

2. Pierce the Mediator.

3. The stranger

4. The novice

5. Preferring death

6. The assembly

Miss Black

SUBTLE SIGNS

The Little Black Chronicles 4

Short Stories

From Spain in the Moors Era, to Scotland in the 15th century, from 18th century Germany to modern London, the lives of the vampires and the werewolves that we know have many secrets.

What is the connection between Tyr, the albino vampire and Eno, the African blood eater? Who was the Scottish woman who reminded Adrian of Sarah? How did Vlan and Myra become what they are? Is Anne, Harry’s bodyguard, only a faithful she-wolf? Who betrayed both species by handing over Sarah’s son to the Observers?

A long journey through the centuries and through the darkest shadows of passion, but also through timeless feelings that tie all beings together, whether they are human or not.

The final chapter of the Little Black Chronicles.

http://missblack1.wix.com/missblack

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1. The Jinn

Circa 960 AD, North Africa.

When Eno managed to reach the road, the sun nearly blinded her. After having passed two days locked in the house of al-Badr Shan, the sun hurt her eyes. She stumbled over the dusty terrain, holding her tummy with her hand.

She felt a dull pain, a pain that made her foresee only disgrace. Something inside of her had broken and all she could do was find a nice place to die.

She would have liked to see the savannah’s orange expanse again, but she knew it was impossible. She was too far from home.

Even if she had managed to get there, her family would certainly not have welcomed her back. But she didn’t care, because her family was probably dead or had been taken away like she had been.

The blood was dripping slowly down her legs, her face hurt and something had broken inside, she knew it. Her life was about to end but she wanted it to end far away from that house.

Al-Badr Shan and his friends would be asleep for another couple of hours, if the Gods were kind. The Gods or the God, the only God that she had been forced to love.

Eno didn’t love anyone. She was empty, injured and she felt death approaching.

She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t even sorry, not much anyway.

Along the road there were very few people, they moved slowly under the midday heat. Eno covered her face with her veil as best she could, hoping that no one would notice a dirty and beaten up slave. Walking was very difficult for her, but she wanted to distance herself as much as possible from the houses of that town of which she knew nothing about, not even the name, so she could lie down on the ground and die in peace.

She had the impression that several hours passed. Every now and again she would stop to breathe or just to simply lean against a wall.

Finally she put the last house of the town behind her. The sun seemed to have a thousand hands that were pushing her down towards the earth. Around her were low dry-stone walls and a few olive trees. She understood she couldn’t go there to die either. Someone would have seen her and chased her away. Or hit her. Or worse, taken her back to al-Badr Shan. She walked along the stone wall. She tried to walk further but her legs gave way. She leant heavily on her side, hoping that if she rested for a few minutes her strength would come back to her and she could continue.

She wasn’t losing any more blood, which wasn’t a good sign. Her blood had clotted, that’s all. She was still broken. She was still weak and shivering. She was still dying.

She heard some footsteps on the road, two by two. Not human footsteps, but the velvety tread of a dromedary. She stayed still, hoping no one would notice her.

Leave me alone to die in peace, she thought. I won’t get in anyone’s way.

It didn’t work.

The footsteps stopped and Eno heard the sound of the dromedary kneeling down behind her. Then the sound of human steps.

‘I’m sure you’ll get in someone’s way if you die on their perimeter wall,’ said a low and inexpressive voice.

Eno didn’t move. She didn’t ask herself how the owner of that voice could read her thoughts. Sometimes these things happened.

‘Don’t you want to be cured?’ that person spoke again.

Eno shook her head a little. There is nothing that can be done, she thought. I feel it coming. I pray to the Gods to make it painless, even if slow.

‘The Gods,’ repeated the voice of that man. ‘The Gods do what they want, you know. Look at me.’

Strenuously, Eno lifted her head.

The man was covered in a large black djellabah, which must have made him very hot, and even the shemagh that he wore on his head and around his face was of a very thick material, almost winter-like. The most impressive thing about him was his face.

His pale skin, white like a Jasmine flower. Eno was afraid of that skin and those yellow-blue eyes. Even in her race there were people like him. They said that they were ghosts. Or a curse. They said those light eyes could scrutinize all of eternity. But that man wasn’t of her race, she could tell by his facial features. He was one of the pink men she had seen in Cairo, slaves like her.

‘Do you fear me more than you fear death?’ the stranger asked.

Eno nodded feebly.

The man didn’t seem offended by her confession, but he didn’t seem pleased either. He looked at her with a curious expression.

‘Ah, I’m going to take you anyway,’ he concluded. ‘Wonder, not resignation, is the real gift of the Gods. I should know, since I’m one of them.’

He picked her up behind her knees and her back. He lifted her as though she were made of papyrus.

He then got back on the dromedary and the animal stood up. He fixed her properly on his leather and wooden saddle, leaving her bare feet dangling on the dromedary’s side.

Eno abandoned her head against his shoulder, too weak to protest.

She was thirsty and shivering with cold, in spite of the heat. She was also sweating. The man brought his hand to her mouth and placed his fingers near her lips. ‘Suck,’ he said.

Eno didn’t move and she felt his two fingers open her mouth and touch her tongue. She let out a little groan of pain, because her face was swollen and bruised. She felt something on her tongue, a few drops of a salty liquid. Blood.

Eno tried to spit it out, disgusted, but they were just a few drops and they dispersed into her mouth.

Immediately she began to feel a warm and pleasurable sensation diffuse through her body. Her tongue was tingling and she felt this tingling sensation spread from her mouth, all over her.

She felt worried, she looked at the man’s eyes.

‘It’s not killing you, it’s healing you,’ he said. ‘Slowly, because right now you can’t drink too much.’

He didn’t say anything more and Eno didn’t ask. She abandoned herself to the rocking of the dromedary, with her eyes closed.

He could really be a God, she thought. A God she had never heard anything about.

Or a demon of the desert, a jinn.

She dozed off with this thought in mind.

+++

When she woke she was alone in the saddle. It was a desert nomad’s saddle, so it held her around her waist and prevented her from falling. The dromedary continued slowly forwards in a wave-like motion.

Eno looked around, confused. They were in a semi-desert area, on a caravan trail, the sun had just set. The albino was walking beside the dromedary, calmly guiding him.

So it wasn’t all a trick her mind had played on her: he really did exist.

In that moment she realised that she felt much better. She was still weak and beaten up, but she didn’t have that feeling that she was going to die at that very moment in time. After this realisation, came fear. Who was this being? Was he really a jinn, a spirit? Or was he a very strange human being?

‘That depends,’ he said, continuing to walk. ‘Is it important?’

‘Y-you… hear my thoughts…’ she murmured.

‘Yes,’ he admitted simply. ‘And I also feel that you are tired, that you are hungry and that you are scared.’

Naturally she was scared. He had saved her life, this was true, but now she belonged to him and she had no evidence that the situation had improved.

‘I don’t care about owning you,’ he explained, in a calm tone. ‘I don’t have any desire to be your master.’

Eno blinked slowly. So she could leave?

‘Of course you can leave. We are on the coastal trail. If you continue straight ahead, sooner or later you’ll get to Oea… what’s it called now? Near the oasis of Giafàra.’

‘I don’t know these lands,’ said Eno.

The other sighed imperceptibly. ‘If you turn back, you’ll get to Cairo in five or six days. Do you know that city?’

Eno knew Cairo. That’s where they had taken her, after having ripped her away from her people. There, they had sold her to al-Badr Shan. How much time had passed? She didn’t know anymore. When they made her a prisoner she had become a woman of ten moons. The time passed in a… strange way. Forcefully going forwards, infinitely… she didn’t know anymore. Maybe ten moons had passed, maybe more.

‘I think you are about fifteen years old,’ said the albino.

Eno didn’t know what that meant.

‘Do you know how to read?’ he asked her.

Eno didn’t know very well what that meant either. She knew it was when you looked at small curved symbols and they spoke back to you.

‘Yes, that’s right. That’s not the only alphabet that exists, you know? And you can learn as well.’

Eno didn’t see why she would need to.

The albino smiled to some degree. ‘I didn’t see the reason why I needed to either… a long time ago. We’ll talk about it again. Now let’s stop for the night. I have some food for you. Some water. I’ll finish healing you, if you wish.’

Eno nodded weakly. She didn’t understand, but she didn’t have the strength to ask for explanations.

The albino led the dromedary to a lonely fig tree. The animal knelt down and he took her under her armpits, pulling her out of the saddle without any effort. He placed her on the ground and Eno’s knees gave way.

‘You’re still weak. Stay sitting down.’

She saw him take a tent that was rolled up on the dromedary’s saddle and unravel it. Then she didn’t see him anymore. Or rather… he was still there and he was moving very, very quickly, like the desert wind. Maybe he had become the wind of the desert. The tent was pitched in front of her eyes by that supernatural power and it lifted in front of her.

Eno began to cry under her breath.

So he was a jinn. That’s what the men of the desert who had made her a slave called them. And if they feared the jinn and they were strong and hard, shouldn’t she also fear him?

The man appeared next to her and he lifted her up from the ground, taking her inside the magic tent. Eno closed her eyes, scared to death.

‘No, you don’t understand,’ the man murmured, placing her on a blanket. It must have been a blanket. It was too dark to see. ‘I don’t intend to harm you.’ Perhaps sensing that the darkness was scaring her, the albino turned on a small lamp. The light remained dim and yellowish.

He took off his grey shemagh,that he wore on his head and around his face, revealing some pale long hair, plaited in small braids and held firmly with bone clips.

He opened a saddlebag and he let her drink from a leather water bottle. It was warm water which was like nectar to Eno.

She stayed there, on that blanket, resting on one elbow, while he fed her. He gave her dates and figs, some dried meat. He gave her more water.

Eno ate from his hands, humbly. Even if it was true that he would let her go… where could she have gone?

‘Can I take your veil off?’ he asked.

Eno shrugged. When she was with her people she didn’t wear a veil. She didn’t even wear those long robes that the men who had imprisoned her had made her wear.

The man took a bone comb and began brushing her black frizzy hair, sprinkled with dust and sweat. His hands were delicate and gentle. He still scared her, but less than earlier.

‘Good,’ he said.

He never smiled, Eno thought, looking at his face. His sharp face, with a thin and strange nose, like that of the pink slaves.

‘Yes, I come from the north. From the true north, you know, but even there I don’t pass unnoticed.’ He styled her hair in a way that they wouldn’t collect dust around her head, with quick and expert fingers. ‘Now I’ll finish healing you. I’m going west. I’ll continue along the coastline, right until the end. Then I’ll cross the sea and I’ll go to the Iberian lands. To Al-Andalus… have you heard of it?’

Eno shook her head.

‘Hmm. Doesn’t matter. If you want to come with me, you need to be strong.’

She nodded.

‘Now don’t be frightened.’

The albino brought his hand to his mouth and Eno saw his teeth. Teeth like a lion. She moved back slightly. The albino pierced the tip of one of his fingers with his teeth, making a few drops of blood flow out. The wound healed immediately.

‘Lick,’ he said, putting his finger in front of her mouth.

Unsure, Eno opened her lips. The albino brushed her lower lip, depositing a few drops of blood there. Eno felt them on her tongue, tingling.

Much like earlier, the tingling sensation diffused throughout her body, giving her a pleasant feeling.

‘More,’ he said, biting himself again.

This time Eno licked the blood from his fingers.

The pleasurable sensation increased. The tingling invaded her completely, running through her like a shiver.

Eno closed her eyes. She didn’t want to let herself be taken by that feeling, but it was so pleasant…

‘More,’ his voice repeated and she opened her mouth.

More salty blood that burnt her tongue. The pleasurable sensation was growing and growing.

Eno discovered that she felt languid and stunned. Her nipple had hardened and she felt something humid between her legs. She was breathing quicker and she felt like she wanted something, but she didn’t quite know what it was.

‘Don’t worry, it will pass in a while’ he said.

‘It’s… nice…’ she whispered.

‘Good,’ the albino said, before turning out the light.

‘You… do you have a name?’ she asked.

He stayed silent for a few seconds.

‘Of course,’ he said finally. ‘My name is Tyr.’

+++

They had been travelling for ten days when she finally saw him feed for the first time. Up until that moment, Tyr had not drunk, nor eaten. He had made sure that she always had something to eat and drink, but he didn’t seem to need it.

‘No, no… I need to feed as well,’ he explained, when Eno had asked him. ‘But less than other people. And I don’t eat what you eat.’

That afternoon they had come to a small city along the coast. They had entered on the sly, leaving the dromedary at the walls of the city.

‘What if someone steals him?’ she asked.

‘We’ll buy another,’ Tyr answered. ‘I don’t want to leave you alone too long.’

That was another strange thing about Tyr. He had plenty of gold coins but often he didn’t need to use them. He looked at the merchant in the eyes and the merchant gave him everything he needed to him as a gift.

They entered the city and they disguised themselves among the people in the souq. Tyr bought her new clothes. He accompanied her to the hammam so she could wash.

Then when it was almost sunset, he took her by the hand and he took her through the narrow stone streets of the city.

‘Don’t be afraid, I don’t want you to be here but I don’t know where to leave you,’ he said.

‘I won’t be afraid,’ Eno said. She had been with him for ten days now. If he wanted to hurt her he would have done so already. She didn’t know what Tyr was – he definitely wasn’t a normal person – but Eno was no longer afraid of him.

They went through random streets, until Tyr found what he was looking for. A young man leaning against the entrance to a house.

Tyr approached him, without letting go of Eno’s hand, and he looked at the young man in the eyes.

‘Follow me,’ he said. The young man took on a dazed look that Eno now recognised quite well.

The young man followed them humbly into another alley, which was completely deserted.

‘Stay close,’ Tyr said, letting go of her hand.

Then he turned towards the young man and he lifted his chin with his hand. The other didn’t fight it. Tyr bent over his neck and Eno realised that Tyr was biting him. The young man leant on the wall of the house behind him while Tyr sipped at him. It was as if… yes, Eno was sure he was drinking.

The young man closed his eyes and began sighing. Disconcerted, Eno saw his loose trousers swell up at the front. She knew what that meant. It was what would happen to al-Badr Shan before he…

Scared and disgusted she took a step back, but then she stopped. Tyr had told her not to be afraid. Tyr had told her to stay close.

As if she were frozen, she kept staring.

Tyr drank and drank and the young man stuck his hand in his trousers. Tyr didn’t seem to notice. Eno saw the young man touch himself and move his hand up and down, until he didn’t let out a louder groan and a wet patch appeared on his trousers.

Tyr moved away slightly. From the other’s neck two thin streams of blood were flowing down his neck. Tyr licked the wounds, which at that point healed.

He moved away a bit, letting the young man go. He stumbled. Delicately, Tyr pulled his hand out of his trousers. He lifted his chin again.

‘Forget me,’ he ordered.

Then he turned towards Eno.

‘We’d better go now,’ he said.

+++

‘What happened?’ Eno asked, when they had set up camp for the night. They were in complete darkness, so she couldn’t see him, but he could probably see her. He could see in the dark. She was sure of it.

‘I need to feed too,’ Tyr replied in an soft tone.

Eno thought about his answer. ‘And is that what you eat? Blood?’

‘Not quite.’

Eno remained silent. She was only curious, not worried or scared. She was a little shocked for what that young man had done while Tyr was drinking him.

‘Not only blood… but also feelings, you know. Everyone has its taste. It’s hard to explain.’

‘But why… why…’ she added, and then she stopped herself. She didn’t understand, but she wasn’t sure she could ask what she wanted to ask.

Tyr sighed. ‘Do you remember when I cured you?’

Eno remembered it perfectly. She remembered the pleasant tingling and she wanted to… well, she wanted to try it again.

‘Mmm,’ Tyr said.

‘It’s true,’ she whispered, with certain urgency. ‘It was so beautiful.’

‘I had to heal you,’ he cut her short.

Eno asked herself why he was so reserved about this. Why had that young man begun touching himself? For a moment she was afraid that the man would have wiggled away from Tyr and that… but of course it was impossible. Tyr would never have let him reach her. He would never have let him hurt her. She didn’t understand why that pleasant feeling she had experienced became ugly when she saw it in that young man.

‘It’s not ugly, per se,’ Tyr said.

Eno remained silent.

She remember what al-Badr Shan and his friends had done. They also had that part of their body straight and hard. And they had hurt her with it. It couldn’t be something beautiful.

‘No. That’s true. That wasn’t beautiful.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Eno murmured.

‘You’ll understand with time.’

Eno leant her chin on her crossed hands, pensively. She looked at the darkness where she knew Tyr was.

She couldn’t work it out.

‘I’m happy you don’t have that part,’ she said, finally.

Tyr grunted. Then for the first time ever, Eno heard him laugh.

‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I also have that body part. But for the most part I don’t use it. Now sleep and don’t worry, okay?’

Eno, obediently closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

She wondered what that part of him was like.

+++

Al-Andalus, that’s what that place was called. And that city, the city in which they had stayed for almost a year was called Córdoba. For Eno this place was magnificent. The caliph, ‘Abd al-Rahmān III, was a great man, who not only had built the imposing Madīnat al-Zahrā outside the city, but he had also encouraged the culture.

Tyr and Eno had rented a place near the Jewish suburb, in an old but still-solid building. Tyr pretended to be an eccentric scholar. Eno didn’t know how he had managed to convince everyone to leave him in peace. He had probably paid them. Also, in truth, they didn’t get in anyone’s way. They didn’t have a social life. Only Tyr, sometimes, met some other scholars, Muslims and Christians.

They were a species that Eno had learned to recognise, even if in the city there weren’t many of them and mostly they kept to themselves.

After all she had learnt many things.

She had learnt to read and write, in both Arabic and Latin. She had learnt three new languages, even if she didn’t speak Catalan very well. She had learnt to cook (Tyr pretended to eat).

For everyone, she was Tyr’s daughter. People, however, would still make strange expressions, when one of them explained this.

‘You must get used to it,’ Tyr explained, when she asked him for an explanation. ‘People usually marry people similar to themselves. I’m too light for both Christians and Muslims, you are too dark for them. When you say you are my daughter, they imagine that I married a woman as dark as you and they don’t like it.’

‘Why don’t they like it?’

‘Because… well. For many reasons. For religion. They think that I’m Christian and they think that a black woman cannot be Christian.’

Eno smiled. ‘Well, I am Muslim, at times.’

‘I’m also Muslim at times. It’s difficult not to choose a side. But in the long run this will be a problem. We’ll have to go, you know.’

‘Oh, Tyr… but…’

He looked at her for a long time. ‘We’ll have to leave when you become too old to be my daughter. And we’re almost there.’

‘Well, we can say that I’m your wife.’

Tyr laughed under his breath. ‘We can say that, but somewhere else. I think we should go south again.’

‘But I want to see the north! I want to see France. I want to see England. I want to see the places you come from!’

Tyr stroked his chin, thoughtfully. ‘Eno, it could be complicated. The further north you go, the lighter people’s skin is. You could be my slave, but that would also be scandalous.’

‘Why?’ she asked exasperated.

He snorted. ‘Damnations. You’ve read all of this. You’ve studied. You know what the Christian way of life is like. Why would a wealthy man who can afford a servant, have only one servant? A young and beautiful one? Black as ebony? And no wife?’

‘Well, they’d think that you do to me… what you do with other women, no? I know what you do with them. I’ve seen it. It’s nothing serious.’

‘I know you’ve seen it, even if I asked you not to look. And for Christians that is considered a sin. Or rather, the fun part is a sin, the feeding part is an abomination worthy of being sent to the stake, probably.’

Eno looked at Tyr badly. ‘They wouldn’t be able to catch you, ever,’ she said in a confident tone.

‘We still cannot go there. There are too many… issues. I’m not the only being… who is like this. Or maybe yes, I don’t know. But there are other blood eater as old as me. Or younger, it doesn’t matter. For you it would be dangerous. And in the north there are wolves as well.’

‘Wolves?’ Eno smiled. ‘Where I grew up we had lions.’

Tyr stroked her cheek, almost touched. ‘One day I’ll show you the snow, I promise. Soon though… we will have to go back to the sea, to the south.’

Eno resigned herself, she tilted her head and she enjoyed the touch of his hand.

+++

Balarm shone in the night, while Eno walk [...]