Chapter 2
I was... I was struck dumb. There were no words to describe what Leandra Cullen looked like in the sunlight. It was if actual diamonds were embedded in her skin, yet it was still as smooth as marble. She stood there in the light, glittering like a red-haired angel made of crystal.
"Have I frightened you?"
"Well,I-"
She giggled. "I have struck you speechless," she said. "Our appearance in sunlight frequently has that effect on people."
"Ye..yeah, I bet it does."
She giggled again. "Perhaps I should tell you how I came to be this way. Will that make you more comfortable?"
I didn't answer. It seemed that my tongue had glued itself to the roof of my mouth. She giggled a third time and lowered the curtain on the window, throwing the room back into shadow. She moved to a chair opposite of me and sat down. She now looked almost completely ordinary, despite the fact that she had been sparkling like a disco ball no more than a few seconds before.
"I should start at the beginning, shouldn't I? For without a beginning, there is no ending. I was born to the name of Bridget McDougart on the 1st of May in the year 1112 A.D."
"1112 A.D.?!"
"Yes, Mr. Lentz. You heard correctly. My human birthday is May 1st, 1112 A.D."
"But that would make you-" I made an attempt with my rusty grade school mental math.
"897 years old, as of this past May."
I stared at her, dumbfounded. "You're 897 years old?"
She nodded; with a very amused grin on her face. "I look pretty good for my age, don't I?"
"Uh..."
She laughed. "I shall continue. As I said before, I was born in 1112 A.D., in a small village in what is now known as County Clare, Ireland. My family was part of the upper class of society. My father was the chief of the village, in fact."
"Did you have any siblings?"
"Yes, I did. I was the second born of three children. I had one older brother named Larkin, and one younger sister named Nola. Larkin disappeared in the forests surrounding our home on a stag hunt when I was four years old. They never found his body; just pieces of his shirt and blood stains. That left me to inherit my father's position of chief. My sister Nola grew up and married the local innkeeper."
"And what about you? What happened to you? Did you become chief?"
"Headwoman is the appropriate term, Mr. Lentz. But no, I did not. My husband did."
"Your current husband?"
"No. My current husband, Henry, I met much later. I was married off to a local horse breeder named Hoyt. I was 14. He was 46."
I stared at her with surprise. "Your first husband was 46 and you were 14?!"
She looked at me as if I were completely stupid. "Yes, Mr. Lentz. It was very common in those days for a girl to marry a man who was much older than her. Shall I continue or do you wish to make your half-formed thoughts audible?"
I shook my head.
"Good, than I shall continue. To answer your unspoken question, yes, I did produce children by Hoyt. We had three children within the first four years of our marriage. I had one son and two daughters. Their names were Larkin, Moira, and Isleen. They were the one bright light in the dangerous darkness of it all. For you see, Hoyt was an alcoholic and had a very short temper. Not a very good combination. Whenever he was drunk, angry or both, he would take it out on me, usually using his belt or his fists." Leandra's hands had curled into fists as she had described her late husband's vices, and it almost appeared as if the very bones were about to break through her skin.
"Then when did you become a vampire?" I still had a bit of trouble saying that word.
"Well, it all started six years after I first married, Mr. Lentz. It was on the evening of
May 1st, 1132 A.D. It was May Day, and I had sent the children to stay at my parent's home overnight, for I didn't want them there when I confronted Hoyt. I'd had enough of him and his drunken fists. I told him that I was leaving him and appealing to my father to have our marriage annulled on account of his drinking and his abuse of me. He had been drinking as I told him this, so he didn't take it too well."
"How did he take it?"
"He took it by taking his dagger and stabbing me in the gut."
I had been writing her key answers down in a leather-bound notebook that I always carried around for such things, and as she said this, I accidently broke my pencil in half and stabbed part of it into my hand. It broke the skin. Her eyes lighted on my hand, and then in less time it took for me to blink, she was at my side, my wounded hand in hers. I stared at her, both terrified and amazed as she cleaned and dressed my injury.
"You're frightened," she said softly as she worked on my hand. "You're thinking that I was going to kill you for shedding blood in my presence."
"Well, uh-"
She looked into my eyes, and smiled a wry smile. "Don't worry. I haven't tasted human blood in several centuries, and I don't plan to do so anytime soon."
Then she was back in her seat, and my hand was bandaged. She had moved so fast!
"I think we should continue the story. Don't you agree, Mr. Lentz?"
"I... I... I definitely agree. Uh, where were we?" I gathered my notebook and papers together. "We were at your uh, argument with your husband."
(WILL ADD MORE!)
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