Revenants Abroad

by D. D. Syrdal

The next morning Anne-Marie woke to find herself alone in the bed, with no sign of Andrej. She hopped out of bed and went out into the apartment to see where he was. She noticed her communer lying on the kitchen counter, flashing an incoming message.

  “Good morning” Andrej’s voice said. “I needed to go out for a bit, but I should be back shortly. Don’t worry, everything’s fine. You can always reach me if you have to.”

  She set it back down. Where could he possibly have to go at this hour, she wondered. It was going on nine o’clock, and it wasn’t like him to be out and about in the morning.

  She walked back into the living room that had never been so quiet and empty. She had never been afraid to be alone since she had moved in with him but now with Paimon lurking about, able to simply appear and disappear at will without tripping alarms or even needing to use doors, things were different. She hoped wherever Andrej had gone he would be back very soon. The time stamp on the message was nearly an hour ago.

  While she waited she showered and dressed, more to keep busy than anything. As she came out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around herself, and her long damp hair hanging loosely down her back, she came face to face with Paimon. She stopped short and gasped.

  “My apologies for catching you at an inopportune time,” he said, eyeing her up and down, seeing the look of horror on her face, “but I thought you would like to know as soon as possible that the decision about you has been postponed, indefinitely.”

  She blinked, unbelieving. “What? Already? We weren’t—I mean—I wasn’t expecting you to come back with an answer so quickly.” She was so stunned that for a moment she almost forgot she was only wearing a towel and nearly let go of it. Paimon gave her one of his enigmatic smiles.

  “Whatever was said between you and Andrej last night apparently was enough to satisfy those in power that you are no immediate threat to us.”

  She didn’t appreciate that her conversation with Andrej last night had apparently not been private. Or maybe that was where Andrej had gone this morning, to talk to his creator and let him know she was willing to become a vampire if there was no way around it.

  “So that’s it? Are you going to quit haunting me now?”

  “Haunting? That’s an amusing way to look at it,” Paimon said.

  “Well how about stalking then? You show up here with no warning, just appear out of thin air, anytime you please and scare the hell out of me.”

  He started to smirk ever so slightly at this idea, but quickly controlled his expression.

  “Ok, whatever, I’m going to go get dressed. If that’s ok with you? Can I at least have a little privacy while I’m doing that?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Are you going to still be here when I get back?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you are not entirely safe here alone. Those people—what do you call them, Crusaders?—are still out there and could make a move on you at any time.”

  “You’re playing bodyguard now?”

  “For a time.”

  His answers were so infuriatingly clipped and minimal she had an urge to pound him with her fists. Instead she took a deep breath, turned around, and marched into her room to put some clothes on. If he was going to be hanging around she could at least have the dignity of being fully dressed.

  When she came back out ten minutes later, Paimon was standing at the plate glass windows overlooking the street with his hands behind his back. If he’d just fall out the window she thought. But wishing, it seemed, was not enough. She wondered where Andrej was and what was keeping him.

  “Andrej will be back when I leave,” he said.

  She bit her tongue to keep from unleashing a torrent of rage at him for reading her mind. No doubt if he could read her mind, he could now hear her very colorful thoughts. Nothing upset him at all. Even the vile thoughts of what she’d do to him if she could had no effect on his perfectly controlled demeanor.

  “I called him away this morning so I could talk to you alone,” Paimon said.

  “Why? Why can’t he be here? If you’re not going to force me to become a vampire, he deserves to know that, too. And if you’re not, what else do we have to talk about?”

  Paimon turned around to face her. He stood silently looking at her, and Anne-Marie thought now she knew what a deer felt like in a hunter’s crosshairs.

  “Since I am here to safeguard you for a little while, I thought I’d give you this opportunity to ask me some questions,” he said.

  Anne-Marie was ready to throw something. “I’ve been asking you questions, and you never answer them,” she said between clenched teeth. “Here’s a wild idea: Why don’t you just get the hell out of here and let Andrej come back so he can guard me, and then we don’t have to worry about talking about anything. At all. Ever.”

  Paimon smiled at her little outburst. “No, I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” He appeared to be trying very hard not to laugh at her. It was the first sign that he was anything other than a mindless automaton, which Anne-Marie was glad to see.

  She walked over to the sofa and sat down, glaring at Paimon. “So now you want to play twenty questions? Ok, I can play. What are you?”

  Paimon wrinkled his brow and puckered his lips in an expression of disapproval. “How about something more basic?”

  “What could be more basic than that?”

  “Well, what I am and what I do are two different things. You’re looking for one answer to both questions.”

  Anne-Marie put her head in her hands. “This is beyond belief,” she muttered.

  “I should think most of your life is beyond most people’s ability to believe,” he observed drily.

  “Animal, vegetable, or mineral?” she said. If he wanted to play a child’s game, so be it.

  “None of the above.”

  “I see what you’re doing,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

  “Do you?” he said pleasantly.

  “You’re trying to drive me mad and make me kill myself.”

  Paimon sat patiently waiting for her to decide if she was going to continue.

  “Ok, how about this? Are you corporeal? Do you have a physical body, or are you some kind of energy mass that just coalesced into this shape?”

  “I think you’ve been reading too much science fiction,” he said, still sounding amused.

  “That’s not an answer either.”

  “Yes, I have a physical form, although it’s not this one. I fear my true appearance would frighten you.”

  “You mean more than you already have? Not likely.”

  “I take this form to make it easier to interact with you.”

  “What for? I thought we were done. You said, and I quote, ‘the decision has been postponed, indefinitely.’ So why are you still here? You don’t need to protect me, if you’d let Andrej come back…” and she trailed off, her heart catching in her throat. “What have you done to him?”

  “Nothing has happened to him,” he said. “He was asked to stay away until I tell him he can return.”

  She wondered where he was, what must be going through his mind while all this was taking place. Unless Paimon had again blocked their ability to contact each other telepathically, he would be sensing her anxiety level, and knowing him he wouldn’t be taking it well. He was used to being in control of any given situation. Finding himself now subservient to another was a position he was not going to like.

  “Shall we continue? You wanted to know what I am.”

  Anne-Marie raised her eyebrows and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to go on. When he didn’t, she said, “Well, what are you? Angel? Demon? Vampire?”

  “To oversimplify it, demon would be closest, but even that’s not entirely accurate.”

  Anne-Marie waited a few seconds before asking, “Would you care to expand on that?”

  “Not just now. I can’t.”

  Anne-Marie decided to go out on a limb, risky as it m
ay have been. “Who is Andrej’s creator? What is he? What’s his name?”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” she said incredulously. If Andrej didn’t even know after all these years it was unlikely Paimon would simply give her the information for the asking, but it was worth a try.

  “I think you already know I can’t tell you that. To name a thing is to gain power over it.”

  Anne-Marie heaved yet another exasperated sigh. “This is pointless, you won’t tell me anything.”

  She made one final attempt to wrest control of the conversation away from Paimon. “You said you wanted to find out if I was a threat to you. Why now, after I’ve been with Andrej for three years, is it suddenly a problem?”

  “You cloud his judgment, you put him at risk.” Paimon shifted a little in the chair and crossed his legs. “Andrej is unique. There are very few who survive as long as he has, most of them never had the opportunity to reach the age and state of grace that he has.”

  “So? Even with me around, he’s still able to keep his cool and stay in control. I don’t see a problem,” Anne-Marie said.

  “I don’t think I’ve explained this well enough,” Paimon said patiently, like someone explaining a simple concept to an intellectual inferior. “Andrej is a favorite, and as such, anything concerning him is of great concern to the progenitor.”

  Anne-Marie thought about that for a minute. If this thing, whatever it was, that had converted Andrej looked on him like a favorite son it wasn’t so surprising that it would take great care to safeguard him.

  Paimon suddenly looked out the window as if something had drawn his attention. He stood up and said, “I must be going now. Andrej should be here momentarily.” He turned and walked down the hall towards the front door, but Anne-Marie never heard the door open or shut. She got up to see if he was standing there in the hallway, but once again there was no sign of him. However he came and went he didn’t want her to witness it.

  Less than a minute later, the lock on the door clicked open, and Andrej walked in. They stood and looked at each other for a moment as Andrej appeared to be taking stock of her, and see how she had fared after nearly an hour spent in Paimon’s company. Anne-Marie waited silently for Andrej to say something, needing to hear his voice, his assurances that everything was all right. Instead he walked to her and took her in his arms, stroking her hair, as if to satisfy himself she was all in one piece.

  “You’re all right, then?” he said.

  “Yes, yes, I’m fine. He’s just so… odd. It’s almost like talking to some kind of zombie, or robot. It’s like his dial is permanently set to ‘creepy’. If he only knew how much he creeps me out.” Anne-Marie shuddered thinking about him.

  “I think he does understand, I just don’t think he cares.”

  “Was he ever human?”

  “He told me no.” Andrej shook his head. “I had never talked to him before all this started. I’d seen him, heard about him, but never had any reason to talk to him. From what I’ve heard, once he shows up, someone’s been marked for a transition.”

  “Transition? To become a vampire?”

  “Living to dead, human to vampire, vampire to something else… hard to say. He’s like an advance scout, he reports back to the creator with whatever information he wants.”

  “So he’s like the servitor to this thing that turned you into a vampire?”

  “Yes, exactly, but with a lot of power in his own right.”

  Anne-Marie chewed her lip for a few seconds, thinking about something Paimon had said. “At one point I asked him what your creator is, what its name is. He wouldn’t say, but he did say something strange.”

  “What was that?”

  “He said to name a thing is to gain power over it. What does that mean?”

  Andrej nodded. “It’s an old magical precept. Once you know something or someone’s true name, you can work magic against it. For instance, the ancient legends tell of Lilith, the first wife of Adam, who was able to learn the secret name of God and escaped from Eden, freeing herself from subservience to Adam and God. It’s the same reason magical practitioners, Witches and the like, take special Craft names, and use only those in ritual, and often even their own covenmates don’t know one another’s real names. And beyond that they will have a secret name that they use in private in addressing their gods and goddesses. If he had told you the name of the creator, it would have weakened his power over you, and me.”

  “But you think Paimon knows it?”

  “He must.”

  “So, if we could find out its name, is there a way we could, say, shield ourselves from it?”

  “I don’t know. I guess it’s possible, to some degree, but it would take some very powerful magic, and the likelihood of ever learning its name is pretty slim.”

  “You never told me you knew about magic.”

  “Sure I did. Remember I said I’d introduce you to some witches I know? I learned a thing or two from them over the years.” He grinned, remembering her skepticism at hearing there were witches, real witches.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So when do I get to meet them?”

  “They’re a cagey lot, especially these days. They don’t like to come out of the broom closet unless they have to. It’s always been kind of an underground thing, they don’t like to advertise.”

  “How do they ever find others?” she asked. “I mean, at some point you have to say something to someone, or the whole thing would just die out, wouldn’t it?”

  “They know how to find each other.”

  “I’d still like to meet some of them,” she said. “They might be able to help us.”

  Andrej considered that. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible some of the more adept might know something, but I’ve never heard of my creator being mentioned in any of the ancient magical tomes I’ve read during my lifetime. It’s unlikely there’s any direct knowledge of it, although if someone was very creative, and fairly powerful in their own right, they might be able to come up with something.” Then again, even with all Andrej’s strengths and abilities, he was completely at the creature’s mercy whenever he had been in his presence. To find someone who could counter that power would be no small feat. And even if they could for awhile, in the end Andrej knew he would have to face him, and whatever punishment the creature felt he deserved for his defiance.

  “I’ll see what I can do, if I can reach any of them quickly enough. But you have to understand that if we try, and fail, the consequences could be far worse.”

  Anne-Marie recoiled a little at that. Andrej still hesitated to tell her what his creator had done to him. The memory was so sharp that he gritted his teeth as if bracing for the pain to start up again.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, frightened by the way he looked.

  He snapped back to the present and forced himself to give her a little smile. “Yes, I’m fine. I was just remembering my last audience with him.”

  She frowned. “I get the feeling you’d rather not see him again if you can help it. What happened? Was it bad?”

  “Let’s just say it was unpleasant.”

  “Andrej, you can’t shield me from this. I have a right to know, if I’m going to have to meet him, answer to him. Before that happens, I need to know everything. Please.”

  He had told her the worst already, surely this was more bearable. He realized then he did want to convert her, to be able to have her with him through all the years they could then face together. Maybe it was the fact that he had finally faced his guilt over Sara and felt released from it that he was able to feel a desire for someone else. But the walls would come down slowly after three hundred years. Some of the mortar holding them in place was crumbling here and there, but they hadn’t toppled yet.

  They stayed up talking most of the night, and Andrej told her about his trip to Slovakia while she had been out of town. Mostly she just listened, curled up, hugging her knees to her chest like a
child. She asked few questions while he talked. Andrej decided to tell her about the parts of his life that he had tried so hard to hide from her for the last three years, and she was almost afraid to say anything as if speaking would break some spell. She listened as he recounted the torture he had endured, and the fear that he was at last truly dying, then to his victims that had provided him with renewed life as he had nearly sapped theirs. When he had said all there was to say he sat back against the sofa. His shoulders sagged as if his entire being had been cleansed. If confession was good for the soul, it seemed it was no different for those who had relinquished their souls.

  Andrej rested only a moment before rising to his feet, and walking over to the balcony and slid the door open. In the glow of the streetlights he lit a cigarette.

  Anne-Marie followed him out after a moment. “Paimon said something else weird. He said he was here to guard me while you were gone.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.” He looked down at the street. At first it was just a mass of humanity, some walking, some riding in vehicles, some on bicycles. As he stood there watching, he saw Paimon. He was near a group of men who were sitting at a small table outside a café. As they got up to leave Paimon also rose and casually started down the street in the same direction as the men who Andrej could tell were more crusaders. He knew Paimon was going to kill them all—quickly, cleanly—but kill them he would. That was what he’d been sent to do, and Paimon was the perfect soldier in this war. He walked back in off the balcony, still lost in thought as his communer lit up and he saw an incoming call from Neko.

  “What timing you have, my friend,” he said as he answered.

  “Why? What’s going on?” Neko asked.

  “Too much to go into on link. Are you back in town?” Ever suspicious of being monitored he didn’t like to say too much on the air.

  “I should be back tomorrow. All right if I come by?”

  “Of course, you know you’re always welcome.” He could almost hear Neko smile at the other end.

  “Excellent. I should be there a little after eight, if that’s all right.”

  He closed the link and put the device away. Anne-Marie was standing in the living room watching him.

  “Neko will be back tomorrow,” he said, and waited to see what her reaction would be. She started towards him, and coming up to him, took hold of his arm.

  “Then I want you to take my blood. Tonight. Now.”

  He looked at her in surprise, but he could tell by the look on her face she was dead serious. “Why? Are you still afraid of him?”

  Anne-Marie shook her head but didn’t say anything. He hadn’t expected this after what had already passed between her and Neko.

  “What is it?”

  “Please, I just want you to…” she began. She struggled for words, opening her mouth to say something once, twice, and closing it again. “I just want you,” she said in a rush, closing her eyes, but maintaining her hold on his arm.

  “I can’t, you know I can’t. It’s only been a few days since Neko did, it’s way too soon.”

  He waited, knowing something she hadn’t spoken of was driving this request. “You have to remember that my life will not change, no matter what happens between us. I’ll still do what I have always done, what I need to do to survive,” he said gently.

  She nodded. “I know, I know.”

  “Look, don’t worry about Neko. He knows he can’t touch you again yet, he won’t even ask. He may be smitten with you, but that will keep him from doing anything to harm you.” Even while he reassured her, he thought about the drugged wine Neko had given her. He hadn’t intended to hurt her with it, just make her cooperative. He was a vampire, after all, used to getting his own way.

  “I think he’s going to lay low for the day. He’ll be here around eight tomorrow evening. If you’re ok for now, I’m going to get some rest as well.”

  Anne-Marie assured him she would be fine while he retreated to his room for the day. Since Paimon had already been there she didn’t think he’d be back that day.

  That day and the next did pass quietly and uneventfully, for them. She kept wondering though what Paimon was doing to the crusaders, if he was finished and had moved on, or if he was going to stay in town to thwart any reinforcements they might send. Andrej was powerful, but for Paimon to take on all of them by himself must mean he had powers far beyond anything Andrej possessed. Anne-Marie shuddered a little at the thought.

  Chapter 26