Free Aris Returns by Devin Morgan Page B

way you
     respond. If you want to change it.”
    “If I didn’t want to make it all different, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be out
     with my old home boys. I really do want a better life. Knowing Colleen and now you
     has proved that there really are good people in the world, people who care what happens
     to guys like me. I’ve never felt like that before.” He caught her eyes and smiled.
     “Why do I always feel better when I’m here? I guess it really doesn’t matter why.
     It’s just that I do.” He took a deep breath, relaxing into the comfortable chair.
     “Okay, take me down.”
    She used the usual induction to take him into state, then called on Aris.
    The voice and accent that answered her were of his older, wiser vampire self.
    “I am here.”
    Carlos lay peacefully in the recliner, his eyes closed and his breath even and smooth.
    “I find a certain solace here that I have not known for centuries, a peace that is
     without description.”
    “Aris, will you tell me how you came to being, how you were born?”
    “Yes, I will tell you.” His voice became so soft she was forced to lean into him to understand his words. “I am from the time of Alexander, the Great.”
    Sarah gasped. “But Alexander was B.C.”
    “Why does that shock you more than there is such a thing as I am?” He was silent a moment, then continued his story.
    “I was a young soldier in his army. I was brave and bold and did exceptional things
     to bring myself to the attention of my commander. Alexander was pleased by my heroics
     and my strange beauty.”
    Carlos turned his head toward her but his eyes stayed closed, his breath keeping the
     even cadence of hypnosis.
    “He took me as his dresser. Soon, I became someone he trusted and called upon for
     council. I was young but bright with a talent for battle. We became more than servant
     and master. And then, we became friends.”
    Sarah was mesmerized as the vampire told his ancient story through the voice of the
     twenty first century man.
    #
    CARLOS HAVARRO, transcript, session 6, March 19
    It was during the Balkan campaign while a battle raged that I was changed.
    Alexander called the battle at first light. There was a raging storm and the black,
     ominous clouds spouted lightening, the lightening created a thunder that stopped the
     beating of the heart. We fought near the top of Mount Haemus and located there was
     a shrine to the god, Dionysus. We battled our way toward the shrine. As the soil turned
     to mud mixed with blood and rain water, we slid and slipped as we wielded our swords
     yet we were victorious. Alexander commanded that all survivors were to be killed so
     we worked our way to the top of the mountain, our swords spreading death to anything
     that moved.
    As I neared the top of the mountain, I was drawn into a forest of strange, tall trees
     with their roots above ground, twisted into enormous knots. Trees did not flourish
     at this great height and I wondered at them. Moving through the unusual setting marveling
     at the sounds and smells, I came to a clearing. There, in the center was a unique,
     beautiful temple. I surmised from camp stories that it was the shrine of Dionysus.
     It glowed in the flashes of lightening looking as if it were appearing and disappearing
     at will.
    A huge bolt struck and the sky lit as if it were day. In amazement I saw the clearing
     was surrounded by women who were tall and beautiful with muscles of warriors. They
     wore wreaths of flowers in their hair. Living snakes wound around their arms. I knew
     from the campfire talks these women must be the maenads who protected the shrine and
     who fed those elite worshipers belonging to the cult of the souls.
    The stories told these women of incredible physical power searched out animals and
     even humans tearing them limb from limb. It was their task to find the blood used
     as a sacrament by the elite followers of Dionysus who came to them to worship their
     god.
    As I