by Nick Stead
That last question I directed at Zee.
“I think so,” he answered. “The last thing I remember is the zombies overpowering us, then nothing – which must be the point where the necromancer took control of my mind.”
“Probably for the best if she was only down here to add to our torment for as long as she lasted.” I turned my attention back to Gwyn, growling “You still could have helped us and prevented me being split up from Zee though.”
“That was one secret they successfully kept from me. When we were trapped at the end of that passage and I was searching with Hannah for the way through to the next section; that was genuine.”
I supposed it was plausible that he might not have been given the chance to discover everything about the dungeon before David and his minions had learnt of his presence and trapped him in the room we’d first encountered his spirit form in. “And how is it you alone managed to follow me through?”
“The Slayers let me, I guess,” he shrugged. “Most of the zombies were called off more or less as soon as you fell into that other passage and the ones around us that kept on fighting were mostly focussed on Zee while the necromancer took control of him. I’m guessing that would have taken more of a fight than simply reanimating a dead body. I saw my opportunity and I took it. I was able to push past the few zombies that were left and slip through the hidden door you’d found. Sorry Zee, but there was nothing I could do for you at the time with the lights keeping me weakened, or Hannah. She’d already fallen somewhere in the chaos. I glimpsed her body laid among the bits of zombies writhing on the floor.”
“What about any doors between this dungeon and the main building where the Slayers are controlling things, did you see anything like that before they captured you?”
“Nothing useful, I’m afraid. There are such doors that give them access to specific sections without having to work their way through and risk facing us themselves, but even though I did see the location of a few I can tell you now we won’t be able to escape that way. The Slayers were very careful to design them so that only they could pass through. I believe they can only be operated remotely from somewhere within the base, or by using some kind of handheld device similar to the ones they carry to operate the doors on their vehicles, but only David and perhaps one or two others of his most trusted were given one.”
That obviously wasn’t the answer I was hoping for, though if it came to it at least it sounded like the knocker could point out to us a few possible escape routes, which we might find a way to break through with our combined powers. It sounded like that would probably have to be a last resort since it could well prove to be no more than another drain on our resources, but I thought it worth a try if our plight grew desperate enough. “So what would have happened if we’d let Lady Sarah drain you dry, would you have died?”
“Now we’re getting personal. That’s a need to know basis, and you other undead don’t need to know. I’ve already told you the basics of my curse; let’s leave it at that.”
I turned to the vampires. “Do you guys trust him?”
Lady Sarah appeared to have her own misgivings, judging from the look in her eyes, but Zee answered “He could have caused more harm than a little practical joking if he’d wanted to, and he has given us some help. I think we should give him a chance.”
“Okay,” I growled, and turned back to Gwyn. “But if you keep pissing me off then we’ll test whether you really can be killed whilst trapped in your human form or not.”
“No need for that kind of talk, matey. We already have enough enemies to contend with without turning on each other.”
I couldn’t really argue with that either so I just grunted. More weariness washed over me and my eyelids began to droop. I briefly wondered how he’d heard about me if he’d been down in the old mines since before I was bitten, but I supposed he’d probably seen online reports of the animal attacks assumed to be a rogue wolf, and no doubt he’d overheard the Slayers talking about me on more than one occasion. There was also the question of how he’d managed to get from the side of Selina’s chamber where I’d last seen him through to the other side and the tunnel where he’d reappeared when I was running to get the witch. I guessed there must have been another secret door or passage to take him through without the need to go down the trapdoor and along the same path I’d had to take, which he must have learnt of during the construction of the place. My tired brain was growing too sluggish for me to want to question him further so I let it be.
“Nick, you need to rest,” Zee said.
“I’m fine,” I growled, trying to fight it.
Quick as a snake striking its prey, Lady Sarah grabbed my muzzle in her hand and turned my head to face her. Without thinking, I locked eyes with her and immediately felt myself falling into the cold depths within as she spoke the words I had no choice but to obey. “There is nothing more you can do at present. Sleep now and recover your strength. You will awaken only when your body is fully rested, or when we call you back to the waking world.”
I was as powerless to resist the vampire’s spell as ever and with barely a conscious thought I found myself lying down, falling into a deep and dreamless sleep moments later.
My eyes snapped open to find Amy and Selina in the same state they’d been in before Lady Sarah’s spell had forced me to give in to my body’s need to sleep. Anger bubbled up to the surface of my mind as I stirred and looked around, though admittedly I did feel stronger and refreshed for the rest I’d just been granted. But that didn’t mean I was happy about the medieval vampire using her mind tricks to control me again, even if it had been for my own good.
Zee also appeared to be taking advantage of the time to rest, his body in the same corpse-like state I’d witnessed Lady Sarah in through the daytime hours. I wondered if that meant it was daylight above ground or whether those kind of rules didn’t apply while the vampires were in constant darkness. From what little I understood of their kind they did have some need to rest – Lady Sarah had said as much on the morning after my first transformation, when I’d first met her – but how closely that was tied to the rise and fall of the sun I had no idea. I knew they couldn’t enter direct sunlight which made the daytime the most logical time to rest, and usually I guessed they did have some sense of when night had fallen as Lady Sarah had always seemed to wake after the sun had gone down, but in the eternal darkness below ground it might throw whatever inbuilt sense of that they usually had. Zee hadn’t been able to tell me how long he’d been imprisoned in the dungeon which seemed to back that theory up, and I made a mental note for future reference. With the prejudice I faced from so many of the vampires, it was good to learn as much about my enemy as I could. It might just save my life someday.
“Oh, look who’s back in the land of the living,” Gwyn said as I got to my feet.
“Shut up, Gwyn,” I growled. “I take it there’s been no change?”
“No,” Lady Sarah answered. “They will either come back to the mortal realm, or slip away into whatever lies in wait for them beyond the veil.”
“Why’s it taking so long? How long do we have to wait?”
“I doubt even Selina would be able to answer that.”
Angry thoughts crossed my mind but I had the sense to keep them floating in my skull instead of starting a fight with the vampire. Patience had never been one of my strong points as a human. I tried to draw on the predatory patience of the lupine side to my nature but with my sister’s life hanging in the balance and my rage burning so closely to the surface, I was soon pacing with frustration, silently willing Amy to wake up, miraculously healed and full of life like she was in my memories. But the minutes stretched by with no further change and my fiery impatience only grew, made worse by the knowledge that there was nothing I could do but watch and wait.
“I’m sure Selina knows what she’s doing. Both your sisters’ lives are in good hands; keep positive and try to think of something else while we wait,” Gwyn said.
“Like what?” I snarled.
“The knocker speaks true. Fretting will not make this go any quicker.”
“Fine, how about you explain what exactly has changed after you healed from the holy water?”
I didn’t really expect the medieval vampire to give me a straight answer. She had shared plenty of information with me before when it came to some of the powers vampires possessed in general and even some of her own, and had been happy enough to recount tales from our bloody history when it suited her, but for whatever reason she seemed set on keeping this a secret. Her reluctance to open up yet again irritated me though, and I felt compelled to keep pressing her for answers. But even if she had felt inclined to shed more light on what had happened to her, Selina began to stir and saved her the trouble of answering.
Lady Sarah rushed to her sister’s side, kneeling beside her in such an unusual show of emotion that she almost appeared human again, as she once had been so many centuries ago. New hope swelled up at the sign of life from the witch and I looked expectantly at my own sister, but Amy remained as still and apparently dead as she’d been since we’d first reached the chamber. I turned back to the witch, anger rising up once more.
“Why isn’t it working?” I snarled. “We had a deal. I went through a lot of pain to get your sister back and this is how you repay me, by letting Amy die?”
“Careful, wolf. Remember who you’re talking to,” Lady Sarah said, icy fury lurking just beneath the surface of the apparent calm with which she spoke.
“It’s okay, Sarah,” Selina answered wearily. “He has every right to be angry, though I swear to you, Nick, I have done everything I can for Amy. If Death won’t release her from his clutches then there is nothing more any of us can do.”
“I can’t accept that,” I growled. “You’ve come back.”
“Yes, after having to fight my way back and that was with the aid of my witchcraft, limited though it currently is without my tools. And the reaper’s hold was less over me, since I wasn’t mortally wounded when I willingly entered into that state on the very edge of death. Your sister, on the other hand…”
“But Lady Sarah said you’d gone into that state to bargain with him so surely there’s something we can give him. How much can he possibly want just for one human life?”
“I told you before, Nick, not all lives are equal,” Lady Sarah reminded me impatiently.
“And what the hell does that mean?”
Selina was quick to answer before her sister could say anything else, probably sensing the fight brewing as our angers fed each other and grew to new heights. “Think about it this way. Some lives are much shorter than others, and your sister is young and perfectly healthy. The immediate sacrifices available to us would be any of the Slayers in this place we could lay our hands on, who are all bound to be older and possibly fated to die much sooner due to the nature of the lives they choose to lead. Why would Death accept one of their lives in return for your sister’s, when they could well be his in the near future anyway?”
“So we offer him them all,” I growled, then shouted out to the apparition I fancied was near but couldn’t physically sense. “Is that what you want, Death? Dozens of lives to save Amy?”
“It doesn’t work like that, Nick. We have to reach the Slayers first and many may well be fated to die as we attempt to escape, if not all of them. In which case, Death gains nothing.”
“I won’t accept that,” I snarled, then roared at the reaper I imagined was watching silently from my sister’s side with that macabre grin. “Have I not already given you enough? All those massacres I’ve committed, all those human souls I’ve doomed and dragged from the mortal coil into your domain, and you can’t spare this one life in return?”
The room was silent. I was vaguely aware that Zee had awoken, but Amy still hadn’t moved. I got the feeling the others were trying to decide what to do with me, probably all too aware of the damage I could do if I completely let go of my self-control and gave myself over to my rage and the dark need to kill that still resided in the human part of me.
I was close to giving in to the bloodlust, a part of me all too tempted to throw all caution to the winds and rampage through the rest of the dungeon until I either faced Death myself (and not for the first time), or beat the ‘game’ and escaped into the main part of the base, where I would at least be granted my revenge. But that would mean completely giving up on Amy so instead I growled “You never answered before. You were supposed to be bargaining with the reaper, so what was his price for letting you and Amy live?”
“It doesn’t matter. The cost was too high.”
“What did he want?” I snarled, moving closer to her. Lady Sarah bared her fangs in warning, ready to defend her sister while she was still recovering from the near death state she’d just been in.
Selina couldn’t hold my burning gaze, casting her own eyes downwards in defeat. When she answered, her voice sounded so tired and older than her physical body, as if she’d seen too much horror and death and had just reached the point where she could take no more. There was almost a frailty to her in that moment which I’d never have expected to see in someone with her power, but I was only concerned with the fate of my sister and so my anger demanded an answer.
“You, Nick. He wanted you.”
Chapter Eighteen – Between Life and Death
Her words should have hit me with enough force to send me reeling, or fed my anger when, after everything I’d been through, I was now being asked to give up my life just like that. But I felt nothing. My anger was still there, smouldering away at the very centre of my being, and yet it was as if the words just hadn’t reached it. Or maybe I was just numb to them. I supposed it shouldn’t really have come as a shock though. I’d thought I’d seen the reaper for myself on a couple of occasions after I’d almost died out on the moors, if Selina hadn’t have intervened and somehow saved me from what should have been a mortal wound to a werewolf. For a time afterwards, I’d felt like Death was stalking me, no doubt feeling cheated of the life which had been within his grasp. Whether I had truly seen him or he’d just been another hallucination was debatable, but even if he had merely been the product of my tortured imagination, it didn’t necessarily mean he hadn’t taken an interest in me after I’d slipped through his grasp.
“Okay,” I growled.
“No, you’re too valuable,” Lady Sarah answered for her sister.
“Why, because of some destiny she thinks she’s foreseen? I already told her – I make my own destiny. And if this is my destiny, so be it.”
“Are we sure there’s no other way?” Zee asked.
Selina shook her head but seemed to have lost the energy to do much more.
“She’s my sister and it’s my fault she’s in this mess. Do you really think I can live with myself if she dies?”
“Family’s family. It’s Nick’s decision to make,” Gwyn said.
I dipped my head in acknowledgement of my gratitude to him for taking my side, then motioned for Zee to hand me his blade. The vampire pirate was reluctant to pass it over but he did as I wanted. I raised the sword to eye level, intending to drive it right through my skull and into my brain so there could be no mistakes – I would be guaranteed instant death. “Just promise me the four of you will do everything you can to get her out of here alive and in one piece.”
“Wait,” Selina managed, with some effort. She looked like all she really wanted to do was sleep while her body recovered its strength. “Not like that. I can put you in the same state between life and death that Amy’s still trapped in, then you are free to bargain with the reaper yourself and at least you have a chance of saving her without having to give up your own life. Perhaps you can convince him to release her in return for someone else.”
“I guess it’s worth a try,” I answered.
“It’s definitely worth a try,” Gwyn agreed. “And if Death won’t settle for anyone else, don’t let him take you without a fight, fluffy
.”
I narrowed my eyes, more suspicion creeping into my mind. “What do you care?”
“Hey, joking might be in my nature but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. It’d be a bit of a shitty way to lose the last living werewolf. And some might call us kindred spirits so you know, I can’t really be all cold and heartless about what happens to you. Well I could, but then I’d be even more alone if I let you get yourself killed trying to be the big dumb hero, and I’d rather not see that happen. I’ve got your back, matey.”
“Kindred spirits because we’re both the last of our kinds and we’re both a type of shapeshifter?”
“Something like that, fluffy. Make it back to the mortal coil and you might find out more,” he winked.
As irritable as he made me, I couldn’t help the curiosity that stirred within. Was there even more to this strange being than what we’d just learnt before I’d been forced to sleep by the vampire’s spell? Yet again I was left wanting more answers, but yet again I knew it would have to wait. There was no telling how much longer Amy had left before Death decided to take her, and as patient as such a being could no doubt be, the offer of my life for hers was probably only ever going to be a limited time deal. I felt certain he would only wait so long before allowing nature to take its course and delivering her to whatever afterlife she was destined for, if any.
“Let’s get this over with,” I growled at Selina.
She beckoned me over and I laid down beside her. With Lady Sarah’s help, she sat up and placed a hand on my furry chest. Her sister was clearly not happy with the way things were going but she stayed quiet, maybe out of respect for Selina or maybe even out of respect for me.
“To put you in that same state as Amy, I’m going to have to stop your vital organs. Think of it as being cryogenically frozen like in all those sci-fi movies the modern world are so fond of. You will be physically dead for as long as my magic holds but when I release the power, your body will return to the state it was in before – in your case, back to full health. If I were to release Amy, she would die from her wounds. But if Death takes you, willingly or not, your body will remain dead and there will be nothing more I can do. And if you succeed in persuading him to let Amy go, she will awake and her body will have the chance to recover.
