Clemetis Random Legacy: Chapter Fifty Three

Miralys had been unable to make any further headway in tracking her sister down, but a few days after her initial investigations Aquarius stopped her as she was leaving work.

"We think we may have a lead on your sister, don't get too hopeful and don't let your family know yet, but make sure you keep your phone on and I'll be in contact as soon as I have any further news."

Later that evening, as she is exercising in front of the tv, she gets a phone call from Aquarius telling her to make sure her parents are home as Menolly has been found and he's bringing her back in the company of the police officer who found her.

When everyone is gathered in the living room, it is clear that a lot has happened to Menolly.

Aquarius begins by introducing his colleague "This is Auburn Mitchell, she's an officer from Bridgeport and she's the one who found Menolly."

After some general conversation, Menolly went upstairs to her room and Auburn took Tamara into the kitchen to speak to her about what had happened.

"We'd been alerted by the Dragon Falls police that your daughter might have been heading for Bridgeport and when we circulated her picture some staff at the theatre recalled seeing her as did a bartender at one of the smaller bars, but the trail went cold there. We kept the file open but I have to admit we didn't think we'd find her, the last we knew she'd left the bar with some bloke she'd met there and we had no further leads."

"Until that is something a little strange happened. I came into work one day to find a note on my desk with an address and a few lines saying that if I went there I'd find something important. There was a search warrant too which was a little odd and the note was very old fashioned, on thick creamy paper and when I read it I could have sworn I could smell woods and flowers which is insane in a place as heavily built up as Bridgeport!"

"Anyway, since I had a warrant I thought I might as well check this address out. It seemed a perfectly ordinary house in the upmarket end of the city and no-one was in, or at least I thought no-one was in. However when I was searching the house I chanced upon a secret door which led down to a large cellar. Most of the cellar was taken up with a very fancy bedroom and that was when I discovered that someone was in after all, a male vampire attacked me as soon as I entered the room - fortunately it was during the day so he wasn't as strong or powerful as he would have been during the night and I was able to defeat him, although I did have to kill him to do so. Once the fight was over I looked around the room and found another secret door which led into, well, a dungeon I suppose, and that's where I found Menolly."

"I'm afraid she's been through a lot, you'll have noticed she's pregnant, but she wouldn't talk about it. I'd strongly suggest you either get her to talk to you or get her some counselling."

Meanwhile, in the living room, Aquarius was bringing Miralys up to date on the search for her sister, where she had been discovered and how.

"So do you have any idea where this strange note came from? It would appear that someone knew where Menolly was and wanted Officer Mitchell to find her."

"I couldn't say for sure, but I recall that when we fled Hidden Springs and came here, there was a woman who helped us, Star Shue, she was the adopted sister of my aunt's husband and she taught my aunt the spell or whatever it was that Aunt Sofia used to bring us here. I don't think she was entirely human although I don't know what she was. I wonder if she had other reasons for helping us..."

Tamara went outside for a while to think about how to deal with her returned daughter and Shimmer came up to her as she thought about what to do. As he nuzzled her, Tamara heard a voice in her head saying "It is time for me to leave you now, but I leave my filly to keep an eye on you"

With that, Shimmer pointed his horn at Tamara and dazzling light shot out to surround her. When the light cleared she realised he had gone.

The next morning, she sat in a chair next to Menolly's bed, waiting for Menolly to wake up.

When she did, Tamara asked her how she was feeling "I know a lot must have happened to you while you've been away, I can see that you're expecting a child and I hope you'll feel able to tell me what you can. If you can't or don't want to talk to me we can find you a counsellor to speak to if you'd prefer"

In a halting voice, Menolly began to tell her mother what had happened to her, pausing frequently to grasp what little courage she had left.

"I was held captive by an evil vampire, I should have listened to you about them but I thought your fears were foolish. He gave me a drink in a bar and I don't remember anything between then and waking up in a cellar somewhere.

"He used me for food, he kept telling me how much better my blood tasted because I was descended from vampires and he, he made me do things..."

Her voice trailed off for a while and Tamara just sat there waiting for her to be able to talk again.

"He wanted to use me to breed a whole set of children for him to feed off, he thought it would make him stronger. He must have realised I was pregnant before I did because then he left me locked up in the cellar and just left food for me while I was asleep. I used to watch in fear while I was awake to see if he was coming for me, but he never did."

"I don't know how long I was there for but one day the door cracked open, I was terrified thinking it was him but instead the lady police officer who brought me home came in."

"She unlocked the gate and comforted me, for ages I was too afraid to leave, even though she said that he wouldn't trouble me again, but eventually she persuaded me."

"When she took me through his bedroom I realised why she'd said he wouldn't trouble me again, there was a pile of ash and bones on the floor - she must have killed him to rescue me!"