The Last Vampire Box Set

by R. A. Steffan

  The line crackled, but the other end remained silent.

  “Hello?” I asked, tentative. “Albigard?”

  Another pause, just long enough to make me think I’d made a mistake. Then…

  “Hello, demonkin.” Albigard’s voice made it sound like there were many other things he would rather be doing than speaking to me. “I had wondered if you might contact me today.”

  NINE

  “YOU… DID?” I ASKED. “Why? And how did you know it was me?” I’d expected to have to explain myself—how I got this number, why I was calling.

  “Your father has been transported to Dhuinne. No doubt the bloodsucker has been scrambling for a way to convince you not to do something foolish to try and get him back, even though he knows there is no safe way for you to reach him.”

  The truth of those words burned. “Something like that,” I muttered.

  “Did you wait until he fell asleep to sneak out and speak to me?” Now the barest hint of amusement colored the Fae’s tone.

  “Yes,” I told him, “I sure did. So, what can you do for me?”

  “Do for you? In what capacity, demonkin?”

  “Don’t play dumb. Can you get me into to Dhuinne? Can you get me to my father?”

  Albigard sighed. “Yes, and very possibly. But those are not the questions you should be asking.”

  I steeled myself, because I already suspected what the answer to my third question would be. So I asked a different one. “Can you get my father out of there, once they have me as a prisoner instead?”

  There was a rather long pause.

  “Well?” I pressed.

  “That… was not precisely the question I expected.”

  “That’s nice,” I snapped. “So what’s the answer?”

  “The answer is… perhaps.” Albigard paused again. “If your intention is truly to give yourself over to the Fae Court, it may be possible to negotiate your father’s release in exchange.”

  “Okay, great.” I stood up, pacing next to the tall wooden fence in an attempt to release some of the nervous jitters building inside me. “When can we leave? I’ll have to sneak out and call a cab or something so I can meet you, but I should leave before Rans wakes up and—”

  I stumbled to a halt, my words trailing off as a burning oval appeared in the air in front of me. Albigard stepped through, and the portal collapsed in on itself, disappearing. He looked… wilder and less civilized than I remembered, clad in loose pants and a soft shirt that exposed the dark web of tattoos climbing up his collarbones to stretch toward the base of his throat. His feet were bare in the brown-tipped summer grass of the suburban back yard.

  “Uh…” I began, staring.

  His sharp brows drew together. “Come. I am about to make an enemy out of an ally. I would prefer to gain some tangible benefit from the move before the inevitable battle ensues.”

  “How did you know where I was?” I blurted.

  His tone grew dry, and his expression sour. “You drank my mead, demonkin. You also tried to drink me.”

  “And that means you can track me down now, just like that?” I asked in disbelief.

  He gestured around us, as if to say, well, obviously. I dragged my thoughts back to the practical. Did it really matter, given what I was about to do? Pretty soon, every Fae in existence would know exactly where I was. I had to fight a shudder at the idea, my resolve wavering for the first time.

  I shoved my fear down and away. Don’t think about it. Just act. Think of Dad.

  “Fine. When can we go?” The longer I had to wait, the less I trusted myself not to have second thoughts.

  Rather than answer in words, Albigard swept his hand in a circle through the air, and a new portal opened in front of us. He gestured me through, and I forced heavy feet to step forward. To step through.

  I held my breath through the disorientation, unsure if I’d be stepping out into Dhuinne, or the basement cells in Albigard’s house, or what. It turned out to be none of those things. Instead, Albigard emerged to stand next to me in what must have once been a parking lot, before nature made a spirited attempt to reclaim it.

  Ahead, a large, square-cornered institutional building lay in ruins. It appeared to be from the 1940s or 50s. The windows were long gone, leaving dark, gaping eyes in the structure. Rusty, acid-rain streaks ran down the exterior walls.

  “What is this place?” I whispered, my voice feeling intrusive in the early morning silence.

  The portal closed behind us with a wave of Albigard’s hand. “Abandoned hospital. It’s positioned on the ley line that leads to the Hill of Tara.”

  A small shiver ran up the length of my spine. “Is this where my father was transported from?”

  “No. That was further west of here.”

  I remembered the series of dots on Derrick’s map, and wondered if the Weekly Oracle crew had EMF detection equipment hidden somewhere on the premises. Certainly, the place looked like vacation paradise for ghost hunters.

  Albigard was already striding toward the front entrance of the derelict building, and I scrambled to follow him. “So,” I asked, catching up, “how does this work? Another portal, this time all the way to Ireland?”

  I’d never been out of the country before, I realized with a small pang. Never even left the small, bi-state area comprised of Missouri and Illinois until Rans had jetted me to Atlantic City a few days ago…

  No. Don’t think of Rans right now.

  Albigard threw me a dark, side-eyed look. “Not exactly.”

  He strode deeper into the decaying building, as though following an invisible trail. Then we were descending a questionable looking staircase, and—seriously, what the hell was it with Fae and basements? But the answer became clear a moment later, when we approached a patch of dusty light, the beam filtering in from a high, narrow window in the outer wall. It illuminated an area where the concrete floor had been dug up in chunks, revealing bare, dark earth beneath. I thought I could see worms and pill bugs crawling around in the damp dirt.

  “A moment,” Albigard said, before closing his eyes and murmuring in that unfamiliar language he sometimes used. He gestured down the length of his own body. The loose sleep clothing he’d been wearing dissolved, replaced by soft buckskin boots that laced to the knee, fitted breeches in a shade of dark forest green, a shirt of unbleached linen in a loose weave, half-unlaced at the throat, and a buckskin vest. His loose, blond hair wove itself into intricate braids as I watched, open-mouthed.

  “Okay,” I managed. “That’s… handy.”

  Damn. I hadn’t been too far off with my Legolas comments when we’d first met. His presence still grated against my nerves, but it was clear that for the first time, I was seeing Albigard as he was meant to be seen—not as his kind tried to present themselves to fit in on Earth.

  “Come.” He took me by the upper arm, ignoring the way I stiffened, and pulled me to stand on the exposed dirt.

  I clamped my jaw against my need for him not to be touching me, knowing he didn’t mean anything untoward by the gesture. Indeed, once I was where he wanted me, he let go as if he were no more pleased by the contact than I was.

  He crouched next to me, placing one palm flat on the damp earth. A faint glow spread outward from the contact until it surrounded both of us. With a few murmured words, our surroundings faded out, leaving blackness shot through with streaks of color that hurt my eyes until I closed them.

  It was like stepping through one of his portals, but… worse. Or rather, it was more, somehow. I wasn’t really falling, but I felt like I should be. I desperately wanted something to hang onto, but there was nothing, and I refused to grab for Albigard’s arm like a frightened child. The sensation of blinding movement lasted way, way too long. But then I was… elsewhere… staggering in surroundings even more dimly lit than the hospital basement had been.

  “Where—?” I gasped, catching one hand against a damp stone wall.

  Evidently our tentative agreement hadn’t g
iven Albigard any more patience with me than he’d had before, because he only growled, “Where do you think?” and led the way deeper into the darkened tunnel.

  I tried to remember what Rans had said about the gateway between Earth and Dhuinne. It was in County Meath, on the Hill of Tara, in the Mound of… something or the other?

  So, this was Ireland, then. Apparently. It was too bad I wouldn’t get a chance to see other parts of it that were less… underground. I tried to focus on my surroundings, because the alternative was to focus on how close I was to the point of no return with a plan that would most likely end in my death.

  Albigard stopped in front of what appeared to be a dead end. The light filtering through from the tunnel entrance behind us barely illuminated primitive symbols marked on the wall. I saw spirals and simple line drawings, the whole thing giving me a vaguely Celtic vibe.

  I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, trying hard not to think of Rans and how he would react when he woke to find me gone.

  “What will the Fae do to me?” I asked. “I mean, exactly? Do you know?”

  “I’ve no idea,” he said, placing a hand on the central symbol. “These days the Court can barely come to agreement on the simplest issues. No doubt the Unseelie wish you dead, while the Seelie may well prefer to study you first in hopes of determining how you came to be.”

  I clenched my fists to hold in a shudder. “How do they execute people in Dhuinne?”

  Albigard shrugged. “Beheading, generally. It is quick and relatively painless when performed skillfully.” He paused in whatever he was doing to glance down at me, his green eyes luminous in the low light. “I must say, your decision to pursue this course surprises me, demonkin.”

  I tried to ignore the way my heart was pounding like a drum. “Yeah? It shouldn’t. I’m not a fool. Your people are going to catch up to me sooner or later. Probably sooner. This way, Rans won’t be standing in front of me when it happens, and I have a chance of helping my father. It’s only logical.”

  “That is the part which surprises me,” Albigard said, still studying me like I was a bug who’d stood up on its hind legs and started doing calculus.

  I glowered at him. “Could you maybe not insult me when I’m preparing to go to my doom?”

  He flickered an eyebrow and returned his attention to the symbols. “My apologies.” A glow began to spread out from his hand where it pressed against the wall, similar to what had happened at the old hospital. “In case it isn’t clear,” he continued, “as soon as the gate opens, you will be my prisoner. I will take you to wherever your father is being kept, unless someone with more authority stops me. At some point, you will be taken away from me, but you have my word that I will attempt to leverage your capture to gain your father’s release.”

  “And how much authority do you have, exactly?” I couldn’t keep the wariness from my tone.

  Green eyes flashed at me. “That, unfortunately, is a very complicated question these days.”

  I nodded, trying not to think about Rans’ words earlier.

  There are areas in which I trust Albigard, and areas in which I don’t. Sending him to deal with the Court face-to-face on your behalf falls firmly into the latter category.

  “What’s in this for you?” I asked.

  “Renewed standing with the Court,” he said without hesitation. “Access to people who may be of use to me in the future.”

  “And that’s worth making an enemy of Rans?”

  I was stalling now, and I knew it. But I’d still feel more confident going into this if I could get a better understanding of Albigard’s motives up front.

  He paused for the barest of moments. “That remains to be seen. It is… a calculated risk, given current events. We are embroiled in a dynamic situation, in which unexpected developments require immediate responses.” He shot me a final look. “You are correct, though, that the Fae would have found you in fairly short order. And, from what little I have seen, you are also correct about the vampire’s likely actions in the face of your imminent capture.”

  “I just want to minimize the collateral damage as much as I can,” I said quietly. “There aren’t many people in this world I give a damn about. I don’t want those people hurt because of me. Not if I can help it.”

  “There is honor in that, demonkin,” Albigard said.

  The glow was spreading across the entire wall now, becoming bright enough to hurt my eyes. I blinked rapidly, trying to see through the sheen of tears that had formed across my vision. What lay on the other side of the wall was… not Earth. Panic tried to rise, tried to pull my feet away from the vision of elsewhere.

  I was looking at Dhuinne, the place that had spawned these beings whose presence I could barely stand. I was giving myself over to them. Placing myself in the hands of creatures like Caspian Werther. Once I stepped into that world, it was very likely that I would never see this one again.

  I stumbled back a single step before I caught myself.

  Stop.

  Dad’s freedom.

  Rans’ safety.

  Have you ever played that stupid hypothetical game where you try to decide if you would sacrifice yourself for your loved ones in a crisis? Almost everyone convinces themselves that they would be a hero during an emergency… but when the rubber hits the road, most people don’t run into the burning building. They don’t jump in front of the active shooter, or dive into the freezing water to save the drowning victim.

  They save themselves instead.

  There was an important difference in this case, though. It seemed highly unlikely that I would be able to save myself. Even trying to do so would mean a life on the run, always looking over my shoulder, wondering every time I faced a new person if they would scream ‘Demon!’ and pull a weapon before trying to kill me.

  Rans thought he could put an iron dagger in my hand and teach me to fight the monsters, but I wasn’t at all sure I could live that life. I wasn’t sure I wanted to become that person. I did want Rans to be safe. I wanted my dad to be safe.

  I stepped forward again.

  Albigard’s hand closed around my upper arm, and I tried not to tremble.

  “Come, Zorah Bright,” he said. “Your father is waiting in Dhuinne.”

  He pulled me through the space where the wall had been. It was much worse than traveling by portal or ley line, and I nearly doubled over as my stomach tried to rebel at the strangeness of traveling between realms. Albigard hauled me upright, stumbling, and through swimming vision I saw a phalanx of guards blocking our way with swords, crossbows, and glowing balls of magic in their hands.

  “State your purpose, Wing Commander,” said the guard at the front. “Why do you bring this creature into Dhuinne unannounced?”

  With a jolt, I took in the features of the guards surrounding us. They weren’t human. Which seemed a ridiculous thing to realize when I’d just traveled to a different planet—but all the Fae I’d seen to this point had appeared human enough. I glanced at Albigard, unable to hold back a gasp at the sight of his face in profile.

  His hair remained the intricately braided mass of spun gold it had been on Earth, but those braids now exposed faun-like ears swept to a delicate point, along with dark eyebrows that would have made Mr. Spock from Star Trek jealous. His skin seemed to glow with some inner iridescence. It made him almost hard for me to look at.

  He stared down his nose at the guard who had challenged him.

  “I have a second prisoner from the Chicago overkeep,” he said in a cold, haughty voice. “She is to be placed with the other one that was brought in recently. The human. Where was that one taken?”

  The guard hesitated, as though Albigard had gone off-script somehow. I tried not to succumb to panic as the proximity of so many armed Fae made my instincts scream with the need to flee. Albigard only continued to stare down the guards like they were dirt on his boot.

  Eventually, the guard’s resistance crumbled, and he broke eye contact with my erstwhile
captor. “The human was taken to the eastern quarter, and handed over to the Recorder’s office.”

  Albigard’s fingers tightened on my arm—a convulsive twitch so brief I wasn’t quite sure I’d truly felt it—but nothing came through in his voice as he issued a curt, “Very well,” and strode forward, dragging me behind him.

  I held my breath as we approached the line of stony, inhuman faces, but at the last moment the phalanx of guards parted. Albigard passed through them like Moses at the parting of the Red Sea, with me still held firmly in tow.

  “I will inform the Court of your arrival, Commander Albigard,” the guard threw after us, and I was sure I hadn’t imagined the sting behind those words.

  But Albigard only waved the statement off carelessly with his free hand. “Yes. Do so.” The retort sounded positively bored.

  TEN

  I TRIED TO TAKE everything in as I was dragged away. There were buildings here—functional and laid out around the place where we’d appeared in such a way as to make me think it was a military encampment. That would certainly make sense, if this was really the only way into Dhuinne from Earth. It was also clear that Rans had been right—sneaking into Dhuinne had been a total pipe dream.

  It wasn’t the buildings and soldiers that held my attention, however; it was the world itself. Dhuinne was bursting with life. Or at least, this part of it was. Vines and flowers covered everything the Fae had built here. Trees arched over the buildings, grass tried to choke out the cobblestone walkways beneath our feet, huge leaves clustered at the base of every fence and lamppost. I could almost swear that when I stared at the rampant plant life for long enough, I could actually see it moving and growing.

  Above me, pink and white clouds sculled across a lavender sky. Rather than a yellow cast, the light from the sun was an actinic white. And… it was way up in the sky, too. When we’d left Chicago, it had been just past sunrise.

  Of course, then we’d gone to Ireland, which was several time zones ahead—