Coraline's Orange Roses

1885 until now was mostly a blur of going back and forth between America and France for Coraline, never wanting to be in one place for too long but she had a newly discovered soft spot for her rose garden in Egypt. The house seemed to have a soul and peaceful breath of it’s own only one of the immortals could understand. Even from the first time she had seen it, the life of its walls captured her heart. It was as if a sculptor had taken modern day Egypt with old Victorian France, in a tiny two story villa with its tanned square frame and dark wood trims. Those long square windows that seemed to stretch on and on. It added to the fact the property was right on the Nile though and took a very bumpy ride with guides to reach. Remote and beautiful.

The home may have only been two stories on the surface but it also had a few underground levels where she kept her exotic and poisonous plants. It was only a few rooms compared to what she missed and yearned for. Still it was her own and for that she was proud. It was also how she made her income most paid in cash… On occasion she was known to trade in a plasma or two for an offer of exotic poison or two for those with the right credentials. The best and rarest forum of payment was in Mortal Ash however. This small little home was in the less populated area of Aswan it stretched out over one acre that her heart did find solace in the quiet of her ‘new’ life. No one but family or very close friends would ever see this place and even when she did business it was in town at the local Vadenhill for trading ‘freshies’ or (humans) for the higher class.

It was nothing like her vast castle of plans and treasures in France but a place of her very own none the same. Things back home had indeed decayed away some time ago and it was better to start new than try to restore the past in her eyes. No matter how deeply her heart yearned for it … or hated change. To be immortal meant constant change, even the kind that had a way of coming in and punching you in the face. Until only recently all she had known was the wars in the Americas between the locals and the newcomers from mostly Spain or Britain. Even those like herself from France had taken advantage and marred culture that should have stood tall. Still now she had a reputation as a war priestess whom helped with the massacre of over 300 men to try to save the natives territories.

It was a losing battle, one that mercilessly wounded her tired heart. Losing many immortals along the way. Good ones full of love and life. Coraline was only here now as the natives had begun to lose and vampires had started to get beheaded. Leaving her kind at risk of exposure. There was a temporary cure in her brother’s care, but she was not allowed access to it as some of the plant needed for the compound was extinct. The locals knew her as an Americanized French woman. Coraline Duvall did not fit in with the locals here and the French foreigners that came to study the lands and tombs just saw her as too far away from her home to socialize with

Today as the Sun God of the land rays rose into the sky. The horizon was a shimmering soft orange going into pink and light hues and green. The orange was so vibrant here… Coraline stood on the second story balcony that led into a large room that always had blacked out with curtains during the day. She was still in her silk and blue laced Cadolle lingerie with lilly print that reached her knees yet hugged every curve her body held. Even now in the last few centuries Coraline always stuck to the same brand and had everything tailor made. Here in Egypt if it wasn’t orange it did not belong in her croft of roses.

There was one rose that was kept away from this round collection of plant families in the courtyard. By her little fountain and back porch swing that was, her favorite of them the grand Lady Of The Shallot. It was the only one she had harvested ready to be braided into her hair when she went out and about in the town. Or for a day of travel. She even spent extra time with them and watered them herself by hand. Not allowing the staff to go near them. The last staff whom had made that mistake had lost an eye for it. Coraline did not just favor each one for its rarity or even how hard it might have been to get here and thrive. But rather the fact that orange meant dreaming of what true happiness could be like for her in her life and manifesting it into the flesh. The rest of the collection consisted of Julia Child Rose, ’Amour de Molène, Ring of Fire, Lady Emma Hamilton , Double Easy Oranges, Tangerine Skies and Beetrose Brothers Grimm.

Her wild raven’s curls had been put into a braid and the Lady Of The Shallot roses, she grew separate from the rest of her roses lay bruised from the night’s age in her hair. Tired was an understatement. She had only returned from a night of chaos helping her older brother Yves fix a mess with a human girl he had made. I wonder when I will ever free myself from family obligations? Cora pondered as she let herself soak up the first parts of the sunrise. When the mood suited her she prayed but prayer work to Mother Maria was hard anymore. Not with the way men even waged war on not only themselves but the written words of worship.

Being a creature of habit she liked her alone time in the mornings before the sun’s rays became too powerful for her body to withstand. The river shore was never far off, one could smell it in the air even if mortal. For those like her it held a richer scent. The very scent of life between the breath of the flowers around her to the river nearby. The sunshine here even felt alive. Right now her eyes gazed from this highpoint at the very end of her garden. To her knowledge she had the largest collection surviving the last six years for the region of Aswan. Still it’s not like Coraline’s kind of money was common. Coraline was very particular even here in the way she liked things done. Coraline was very particular about what she allowed into her life, as well as her gardens. For far too long she had done what her brothers sought as good for her instead of herself.

Standing here for sunrise was always such a wonderful thing to see before making her way inside to sleep in her ice bath the staff would bring up. Buckets and buckets of little differently shaped cubes were brought up to her daily. Yesterday there had been little sunflowers. She wondered what it would be today. As the sun stretched out higher she could feel the boiling heat on the top of her skin. Regrettably it was time to go inside Coraline turned from it making her way inside and drawing back the black out curtains.

Coraline had a large bathtub in place of the bed in her room. It even had solid purple velvet theater curtains that wrapped around it to trap out the light like a princess post bed when she was human. Everything else was what you might have found in her rooms back in the 1700′s. Her knack for old fashion never did leave much and she always kept literature from around that time up to modern times on endless shelves. Today the staff had brought up little seahorse shaped ice cubes. The new Centrifugal Refrigeration Compressor that would later be replaced by air condition units had been turned on by staff to make her room cooler and the ice last longer. How she loved technology aiding her in staying old fashioned.

Emerging into the icy waters and drew back the velvet curtains to surround herself in darkness. Many vampires in modern times slept in iceboxes Coraline refused, stuck in her old ways as an elder. It was only a few hours later into the day to the abrupt noise of Eleigha’s face looking at her own in the darkness. Coraline was a little shocked as she gathered in the woman’s heart shaped face accompanied by rosey cheeks. Her own hair was also black and there were times when two could have been out and about and others would mistake them as sisters though they shared no relation. The woman’s accent was thick and urgent; changed by the century spent in Australia, but still French at heart. “Oh , Coraline thank goodness I found ya’ I really need your help.”

For a moment she looked like only an ambient floating head until the velvet theater curtains were drawn back. Bathing the other elder vampiress in light she was still beautiful and all curves and legs. It looked though as if she had highlights placed into her raven colored curls that had begun to grow out despite the fact the woman had curled it trying to hide it.

Coraline kept looking up at her with her big doe shaped violet orbs in disbelief. Coraline had not seen her in about six years, a blip for immortals she stretched out in the ice sitting up little cubes overflowing and pittering to the floor with a gentle sound. The two had often run her greenhouse together when they were still Fleur-De- Lis and shared the shame brand of courtesan on their shoulders. They had a long rich history, many shared secrets. It was just Coraline still loved the fine arts and traditions where her counterpart preferred modern times and updated show lights. “How did you get here?” Eleigha laughed in a breathy soft sort of way shaking her head leaving her curls to bounce with her movements.

“Leave it to you, Mademoiselle Le Doux, to ask how and not why.” The woman rolled her muddy oak hued eyes at her friend. Coraline rubbed her eyes trying to fully wake herself up. So much for my beauty sleep. In truth she could not hide the excitement at seeing her old friend and she smiled. As her eyes adjusted she saw the woman in a rather low cut sundress that had no undergarment layers that had been the rage at the moment abroad. “I go by Duvall now, I am trying to make a name of my own free of my brother’s regime.” It had been one of the prettiest valleys in America she had seen. Her heart was still with the Oglala Lakota somewhere. “ I have even found a new vampire… one who runs a coven called Raven-Hall. We Correspond through letters by raven. I commission paintings off her and she in turn buys my poisons as well as provides me a level of privacy here… to a degree, Guillaume is accompanied by Yves at the moment as was the rule of two asleep and the rest awake proceeds. He had planned to rest with Viktor, only a fight was made and now … he’s switched places with Lance.”

Everyone knew why Lance was still sleeping at the moment but no one was talking about it. He had tormented quite a few ancients in his last round of being awake. He was sick and twisted from his visions. Was he punished in the catacombs? Of course not! No, he was allowed an extra slumber in a the ritual blood baths. One of the many reasons her heart longed to be as free as the wind. “Mòde nan demand ou a mwen pral.” ** Alright, I shall bite on why you are here** Coraline told her old friend as those emotions glittered within her own voice. Eleigha pulled her friend from the icy water and helped her put on a light lilac silk robe with lace at its ends.

“This had better be good enough to wake me Eleigha.” Coraline spoke with a subtle sternness as the two settled into a creamy love-seat near her makeup table. At first Eleigha had paced around like a trapped bird, playing with Coraline’s foundation brushes or even eye compresses she had bought off the locals. After some time she settled in breathing slowly and sat next to Coraline. There was a lovely bird of paradise plant between them and the love-seat that stretched nearly to the ceiling in full bloom, the orange defiant to the darkness around the two vampiress’s that sat together. It had an even smaller glowing embers bush at the root of it making it look like an art sculpture with the dark leaves and orange flowers at the base of such beauty.

“I promise.”

The woman said as she plucked one of the glowing ember buds and began to play with it in her hands with nervousness. Coraline sucked in a little at the abuse of the plant but held her tongue sensing her friend’s distress knowing there had to be a reason to be a reason her dear friend was here all the way from Australia.

“Coraline, I have always trusted you to be a fine woman. A good woman with morals who could keep those in need safe even if not herself under the thumb of your brothers.” Coraline felt goose-flesh at such blunt words her eyes went wide in stillness now.“I have come to beg for your trust and for a task… I think only you can handle…” The elder shifted further back into the creamy seat looking her friend up and down. “ What do you mean Eleigha?”

The woman’s eyes wandered away from Coraline to the plant; she began to chew her lip as she felt the inner turmoil that had brought her all the way here. “ Adrian … and I have had to flee Australia for our lives…” Adrian was a mutual friend they had who was well known in the immortal community as a very high ranking elder within overseas covens. The image of Adrian flashed in her mind 600 years old looking freshly 30 with a romantic visage. Black hair, gray eyes that met a rectangular jawline. Made sometime in the 15th century no one knew quite where he was from and even more so he held a strange accent that was not from Europe or local to places she had been. He had lived in the bush away from others so long. “What do you mean?” Coraline demanded. He was also known as a kill to hire for those who seemed hard to exterminate.

“Let me explain, ″ Eleigha breathed with fervor.