The Vampire Burns

by Amy Cross

  “Let go of me,” she whimpered, turning and looking over her shoulder for a moment, before turning back to me. “I mean it, they'll shoot me if I do anything wrong at all!”

  “Why did you mention vampires?” I asked. “Please, tell me you don't think there are actual vampires running around in the middle of all this.”

  “They wouldn't want any of this to be happening,” she said, still trying to pull free. “I heard Matthias himself say that -”

  “Matthias?” Shocked by the mention of that name, I let go of the woman's arm, which she immediately pulled back. “Did you just say -”

  “I've said too much,” she replied, getting to her feet and hurrying to the door. “Please, don't tell anyone what I just told you, or I'll be lined up against a wall and shot.” She stepped out into the corridor, and then – with nervous, fumbling hands – she took the set of keys from her belt. “This conversation never happened.”

  She began to shut the door.

  “Do you mean Matthias Bane?” I asked.

  She froze, with the door still half open.

  “I know him,” I continued, even though I didn't quite understand what was happening. “I mean, I sort of know him. It's complicated. But if he's nearby, if you can get a message to him, tell him that Chloe Carter needs his help.” I paused for a moment, as I realized that maybe Matthias wouldn't even know me. Not if I truly had gone back in time to before our first meeting. Still, I knew that I had to try. “Please, that's all I'm asking,” I added. “It's not much. Please, tell him that I'm here.”

  I waited, but after a moment the woman simply shut the door, and I heard the key once again turning in the lock.

  “Find Matthias!” I yelled, as I heard her footsteps heading away. “Tell him I need his help!”

  Chapter Twelve

  Matthias

  I could feel the pain. The death. The sorrow.

  Standing at the window in my apartmen, I stared out at the gray morning skyline. Rain was falling, and I could feel so much heartbreak drifting through the air. Sometimes, I considered moving on from Paris, but then there would always be moments that pushed the idea from my mind. This was one such moment, when it felt as if all the pain and misery of Europe was tangible. I wanted to breathe it in. I wanted the humans' war to last forever.

  And then, suddenly hearing voices in the distance, I turned and looked toward the door. I was unaccustomed to Hugo being around so early in the mornings. He usually waited until at least midday to come and chastise me for my drunkenness, but now I could hear him out there. I wandered over, telling myself that my brother's petty business was none of my concern, and yet this time something felt different. This time I could sense Hugo's concern.

  Once I was out in the corridor, I realized that I could hear two people talking in hushed tones, as if they were keen to avoid being overheard. I made my way to the hallway, and then – still not feeling quite right in the head – I stopped as I saw Hugo talking to his little human girlfriend Judith.

  As soon as they noticed me, they fell silent.

  “Brother,” I said with a faint, though probably rather feeble, smile, “what brings you here at such an early hour? Did the bombs keep you awake?”

  “Hugo,” Judith said nervously, “what -”

  “Nothing is wrong,” Hugo said confidently, clearly keen to keep her from saying too much. “Matthias, you look terrible. Clearly you either need wine or sleep, so why don't you go and find one or the other?”

  “I can look after myself,” I replied, stepping toward them. “What's going on?”

  “You've fed,” Hugo continued. “I can smell it on you. Were you out last night?”

  “I wasn't aware that I needed to update you on everything I do,” I told him. As I spoke, I looked at Judith and saw the guilt and fear in her eyes. She was hiding something from me. Humans are so painfully easy to see through, even if it is sometimes difficult to draw the details out. They hold up fairly well against torture. “What is the purpose of this meeting? Judith, if you have something to tell my brother, you can tell me as well.”

  “We were having a private conversation,” Hugo said firmly.

  “Is that right, Judith?” I asked. “Has this nothing to do with me at all?”

  She stepped back, slightly behind Hugo. Terribly shy as always, she could barely even look at me. I knew that something was wrong, but I also understood that I could not simply ask and expect an answer.

  “There were more bombs last night,” Hugo said, in a terribly obvious attempt to distract me. “That means more suffering. I don't know how much longer the city can take this bombardment, Matthias. So much has been destroyed already, and the people are in agony. I truly believe that the tide of the war is beginning to turn against the Nazis in a way that might prove terminal.”

  “You say that as if it's a bad thing,” I replied.

  “Quiet!” he hissed, stepping closer. Hugo always worried that I might insult our hosts. “Don't say anything that would make them question our loyalties!”

  “I have no loyalties,” I reminded him. “Only for myself, obviously.”

  “I don't know which way the war will go in the end,” Hugo said with a sigh. “The arrival of the Americans has certainly changed the balance of power, but one never knows how things will develop. I simply fear that even if the Germans are victorous, the cost will be so very great. Paris itself might have been completely leveled by the time it's all over. And that's before you consider the rumors I've been hearing lately, about some of the bombs the Americans have been developing.”

  “You're always so dramatic,” I said, as I peered past him and looked at Judith. I wanted so desperately to know what she was hiding from me, but I knew that I would need to get her alone. Hugo would never allow me to enter the mind of his dear, pathetic little plaything. “Maybe you're right, though. Maybe I should get some sleep.” I yawned and stretched, which was perhaps a little too theatrical on my part. “Please forgive my momentary paranoia.”

  “I'll speak to you later,” Hugo replied.

  “Indeed.”

  I hesitated, before turning and heading back through to my apartment. With each step, I felt more and more certain that Hugo and Judith were hiding something from me, but I supposed that I could yet afford a little patience. Hugo would never break, of course, but I didn't need him to break.

  I merely needed five minutes alone with Judith.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chloe

  Suddenly a key turned in the lock, and I turned to see a silhouette in the doorway.

  “Matthias?” I gasped, stumbling to my feet and hurrying to the bars, convinced that it must be him. “I know this is going to sound crazy but -”

  Before I could finish, the figure stepped forward and I froze at the sight of Hugo Bane. He looked much younger than before, much less decrepit, but I knew instantly that it was him. When I'd first met him, he'd been a shell of a man, barely able to get about. This younger version, however, seemed so much stronger and more refined, even if the same dark eyes were staring back at me.

  Not knowing what to say, but filled with a growing sense of fear, I took a step back.

  “Hugo,” I stammered finally, “I...”

  My voice trailed off.

  “Interesting,” he replied calmly. “You know my name, but I do not know yours. I'm not accustomed to being in the dark like this.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I heard some interesting gossip about you. I pulled some strings and popped in to see you for myself.”

  “I asked for Matthias!”

  “Matthias is unable to come right now.”

  “Is he here?” I asked. “Is he nearby?”

  “He's not a million miles away,” he replied, “but perhaps you will permit me to be the one who asks the questions. You're clearly human, and my brother has tended to avoid dalliances with your kind. Tell me, then, how you know him.”

  “We met in -”

&
nbsp; I stopped myself just in time.

  “You're a witch,” Hugo said after a moment. “That's the story that's doing the rounds, at least. Zieghoff apparently believes himself to have obtained something rather valuable. You'll be pleased to learn, however, that I do not rush to judgment quite so quickly.” He walked slowly all the way to the bars. “They say that you arrived in a puff of smoke,” he added. “That, to me, seems rather remarkable.”

  “I...”

  For a moment, I had no idea what to say. Finally, however, I began to realize that at least Hugo might be able to help me get to Matthias.

  “This is going to sound crazy,” I said cautiously, determined to pick and choose what I told him, “but for me, 1942 is the past. Way in the past. I'm from the early twenty-first century. That's where I lived, until about twelve hours ago when something happened and I ended up here. And before I came back in time, I met Matthias in the future. I mean, in the present day. In what for me is the present day.”

  I waited, but he said nothing.

  “It's true,” I added. “All of it. I swear.”

  He paused, and then he sighed.

  “I have seen some remarkable things in my long lifetime,” he said. “I've been to Sangreth. I've completed a pilgrimage to the ruins of Gothos. I've encountered ghosts and werewolves and Flesh Weavers and all sorts of creatures. Even, yes, a few witches. I've visited the family home of my distant relatives, the Le Comptes, and I've walked along the edge of the gas mines deep in the Underworld. I've looked into the eyes of the gene baby. What I'm trying to explain is that I've seen and experienced things that you could not possibly imagine, and yet the idea of time travel has always seemed rather absurd. Rather hard to believe.”

  “Believe me, I know what you mean,” I replied. “I still keep telling myself that this is all a dream.”

  “You and me both,” he muttered.

  “I know Matthias in the future,” I explained. “He might not know me here, in the past, but I need to talk to him. If there's even a chance that he'll help me, I have to try.”

  “Fascinating,” Hugo replied, “and why do you not consider asking for my help?”

  “Because -”

  Again, I fell silent for a moment.

  “I saw the look on your face when I walked in,” he continued, “and you were not pleased to see me. You recognized me, so I'm assuming that we too have met in the future. In which case, I fear that perhaps we were not on good terms.”

  “I want to talk to Matthias.”

  “And I want to know what the future holds.”

  “Please, just bring Matthias here.”

  “Why are you afraid of me?”

  I took a deep breath, and then I swallowed hard.

  “Will you perhaps allow me to enter your mind?” he asked. “I could learn so much more, and so quickly. I am not like my brother, I do not enter minds without permission. Not even the minds of humans. I have far too much respect for your species. If you deny me permission, however, I will be forced to assume that you are hiding something from me.”

  “Please,” I replied firmly, “I just want to talk to Matthias.”

  “I know you do, and I want to know why. The real reason.” He hesitated. “My brother is... different, in some ways. I don't mean to denigrate him, but I do have to look after him. He's still recovering from a rather traumatic experience and I try to filter who and what gets to see him. Out of love, you understand. Usually, I wouldn't bother when it comes to a human. I'd let you meet him, and he'd almost certainly drain you of your blood. On this occasion, however, I have some concerns, so I will ask you again. Let me into your mind.”

  “I want to talk to Matthias,” I said again, through gritted teeth.

  He stared at me for a moment, and then he tilted his head slightly.

  “No,” he said finally.

  “But -”

  “It's out of the question. I won't allow him to be destabilized in any way, not when he's so close to making a full recovery. We immortals have little need to get involved with the lives of humans. As for you, Ms. Carter, I can only assure you that your time with Klaus Zieghoff will be brief. He rarely keeps his subjects alive for too long.”

  With that, he turned to walk out of the room.

  “I've seen Matthias die,” I said suddenly, before I even had time to consider whether I was making a mistake.

  Hugo stopped in the doorway, and then slowly he turned to me.

  “I've seen him die,” I continued. “In the future. In my present. I've seen Matthias die. I know how it happens, and when, and why. Now are you willing to make a deal?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Matthias

  Water sloshed in the metal pail as Judith stood at the workbench. She had been there for a while now, getting on with the task of cleaning some sheets, and nobody had been through to disturb her. How a human could work so long, and so hard, without interruption was something of a mystery to me. Still, I had noted in the past that Judith seemed content in her solitude. She seemed almost to prefer working alone.

  And she had not noticed my presence.

  I was in one of the adjoining rooms, watching her from a distance. I had chosen a spot in the shadows, and I had remained entirely silent as I reached out and picked at the edges of her thoughts. I could have stormed in, of course, and taken everything I wanted from her. Instead, however, I sought to sneak into her thoughts and get what I wanted, and I intended to slip unnoticed between the sentries of her mind.

  I had never been so subtle before, but I felt confident that I could get in and out without being noticed. In fact, so far I was rather impressed with myself.

  As she worked, she was thinking of a place far away. A childhood home, but one that still stood and a place that she wished one day to return to. I wanted to push past these thoughts and get to the meat, although I knew that to do so would mean making her aware of my presence. That is why I forced myself to linger at the edge of her thoughts, enduring the tedium of her daydream, as I waited for her mind to turn to other matters.

  And, oh, how truly tedious her thoughts were, for one such as myself.

  In her mind's eye, she was in a field near a farmhouse. She was remembering what it felt like to be happy, before the war, and she was thinking of one person in particular. A man was talking to her, but he was an older man, perhaps her father. Sure enough, after a few minutes I heard her imagining a conversation with this man in which she referred to him several times as 'Papa'. She was telling him that she had no choice but to go to the city, and she wanted him to tell her that he understood. I was not sure whether this was a memory or an imagined encounter, but I could feel a sense of great regret in Judith's thoughts.

  As bored as I was by the whole thing, I at least began to understand the little peasant girl better. Not that there was any need for that, of course. My brother might have inexplicably become attached to Judith, but I had always found her dull and rather pointless. Like all humans.

  Eventually the scene changed, and Judith imagined herself standing close to the edge of a river. The scene was idyllic, with light sparkling on the surface of the water, and I got the sense that she was thinking of some perfect time in her life, of a time that she missed a great deal. She was imagining the sounds, too, and I soon realized that she missed the peace of the natural world. She was trying to get away from the awful sounds of a city at war.

  She was still scrubbing the sheets at the workbench, as if entirely lost in her daydream.

  Soon enough, Hugo's presence intruded in her thoughts, and I felt mildly disgusted by the love that she felt for him. There had been no doubt for a while that Judith was truly passionate when it came to my brother, and that she imagined some happy life for them both in the future. I had teased Hugo mercilessly about such things, and he had rather risen to take the bait. How pathetic, I noted, for a vampire and a human to plan for a life together. Indeed, I was surprised now to realize that Judith felt the same way as I, that she too
knew that there was a sad inevitability about the whole thing. She simultaneously hoped for the best and expected the worst. In some ways, she was more realistic about the whole situation than my brother. Yet there was some romantic part of her that just couldn't face the cold, hard truth.

  Before that moment, I had never realized that human minds could conjure such complexities.

  And then, without warning, she began to think of her earlier conversation with Hugo, and it all came out. How she felt pity for a woman in a cage. How she had spoken to that woman, and feared she might be found out and punished. How she wanted to help the woman but did not dare. Finally, I realized that the woman had given Judith a message, she had made a request that Judith had felt compelled to try to meet. She had gone to Hugo, but he had taken control of the situation.

  “Don't tell him,” Judith remembered him saying. “Let me speak to this woman first. Most likely, she's some kind of charlatan. Regardless, I don't want my brother getting involved.”

  Me.

  The woman had said something about me.

  I felt my interest stir. If some strange woman had shown up and attracted the attention of the Germans, and if she had mentioned my name, then I wanted to know why. Even if she really did turn out to be just a human.

  Suddenly Judith turned and looked this way, and I stepped back just a fraction of a second before she would have seen me. At the same time, I unthreaded myself from her thoughts, and a moment later I heard her getting back to work. My first thought was to slip back into her mind, but in truth I was already a little shaken by what I had discovered, and I felt that it would be too risky to try again. In such unsettled times, the last thing I needed was to draw my brother's ire. At the same time, Judith seemed to know little more than I had already learned.

  Yet a strange woman had arrived in Paris, and she had asked for me. I had to find out why.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chloe

  “We are immortal,” Hugo snarled, from the other side of the bars. “We live forever. We have lived already for longer than you can possibly imagine. We cannot be struck down or killed by anyone. Yet you, a pathetic little sack of blood and bones, dare suggest that you have seen one of us die? And my own brother, at that?”