by J. C. Diem
Since I was also going to go ahead with it, I guess that made me crazy as well. Either that or I had too much testosterone in my system. Hmm, I have been infected with the blood of four male vampires, I mused uneasily. My subconscious snorted inside my head and quickly put an end to my fear. Don’t be a complete idiot for once. As if you could become more masculine just because of being infected with male blood. I winced, half expecting a mental slap to be delivered to the back of my head.
At last, I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep. I refused to acknowledge my fear that I might dream myself back into the First’s lair again. If I thought I’d be able to figure out where the cavern was from my dreams, I would have been asleep hours ago. They were the kind of dreams I had little control over so it would be pointless letting myself be dragged back to the cavern. You’re scared to face the First again because you don’t know what he’s capable of. There went my subconscious again, blurting out a truth I didn’t want to face. The last time I’d dreamed about the eight foot monster, he’d called forth multiple shadows from me. The next time we met in a vision, he might very well call forth my inner imp instead.
Chapter Four
Thankfully, my sleep was deep and dreamless. I woke to Luc’s hands and mouth in places that had me stifling moans again. His lips were cool on my breasts and his teeth were sharp on my skin. After four centuries as a sexual entertainer of the Court, he had refined the art of causing just enough pain for it to be pleasurable. His fangs never broke my skin but the threat that he could was there. If he did and swallowed my blood, he’d die horribly so it was more danger to him than to me. That didn’t stop it from being incredibly erotic.
When I could no longer hold in my moans, I grabbed Luc by the hair and mashed my mouth to his. Giving up on torturing me, he proceeded to make the bedsprings rock alarmingly. I wrapped my legs around him and when I came, the inevitable happened. Luc gave a shout of pain as several bones broke.
“What was that?” I heard Geordie ask groggily from the room down the hall as he rose for the day. “Did I just hear gunshots?” Being the youngest, apart from me, he was always the last to rise.
A muffled laugh came from Gregor somewhere downstairs. Igor cleared his throat, it echoed around inside the bathroom down the hall. “You heard nothing. It was your imagination,” he said gruffly.
Luc rolled onto his back as his bones cracked quietly back into place. “It was worth it,” he groaned. I spent the next minute or so laughing hysterically with a pillow pressed over my face. If I’d still been human, tears of mingled mirth and humiliation would have been rolling down my cheeks. If I’d still been human, I wouldn’t break Luc’s bones every time we got physical together.
Gregor had managed to regain his equilibrium by the time Luc and I made it downstairs. He only looked a little ragged around the edges after staying up all day. It was Igor’s turn to keep watch next. The Russian gave no indication that he’d heard our bedroom antics. Considering that he worked for the Court, he was probably so used to it he didn’t even hear it anymore. Yeah, keep telling yourself that and maybe you won’t die of embarrassment.
This time, we moved to the back of the house and gathered at the dining table to have our meeting. The table was a bit on the small side with only enough seats for six people. Igor took up nearly half of the battered old pine table with an array of weapons. Testing the edges, he sorted them into piles that needed to be sharpened and ones that were good to slice and dice.
Geordie stomped into the room and gave Luc a bad tempered glare. He dropped his knife onto the pile of weapons that required sharpening, clearly expecting Igor to take care of it for him. The Russian picked it up, rapidly ran the sharpening stone over it a few times then tossed it back to the teen. Geordie gave him a quick smile then sat diagonally across from me. His hair was a tousled mess that could use a wash. Everyone had found a change of clothes, mostly button up shirts, threadbare jackets and jeans. I was wearing a jumper and jeans that were several sizes too large for me. I’d also found a belt and had made a new hole so it would keep my pants from falling down around my ankles.
Gregor ran us through the plan once we were all settled. He’d spent the whole day thinking it through and refining it. The least I could do was to pay attention this time and not succumb to the boredom that wanted to make my eyes glaze over. “This is what I propose,” he began. “Lucentio will park as close to the mansion as he can without being discovered by the guards. The two of you,” he indicated Luc and me, “will travel the rest of the way on foot and find somewhere safe to hide while you watch for the van. We three will be in our car not far from the mansion. Once you spot the van and determine which direction it is headed in, Natalie will contact me. We will take turns tailing the vehicle so it won’t be easy for them to spot us.”
As far as plans went, it was a fairly simple one that even I could remember without too much trouble. Besides, Luc would be doing most of the work, I just had to follow his lead. I nodded to indicate I was listening and kicked Geordie in the shin when he made no acknowledgement at all. He winced then reluctantly put aside his childish jealousy about my relationship with Luc. “What if they head to the airport?” he asked to show he’d been paying attention.
“That is unlikely,” Luc said. “None of the courtiers like to fly.”
“They’re still not used to indoor plumbing let alone something that can stay up in the air for hours at a time,” I said snidely. Geordie tried and failed to hide his snigger. Unbeknownst to him, I included him in the list of people who were sadly behind the times. A normal teenager would have been welded to their mobile phone or computer. Geordie didn’t own or have any idea how to use either device. Electricity had still been a new concept when he’d been turned into a monster.
Gregor had an answer for the kid anyway. He was a master when it came to planning. “If they do, Igor will board the plane. He is the best equipped at blending in with humans.”
I find that hard to believe. After a quick glance around the table, I revised that thought. Igor was the most ordinary looking vampire at the table. With his pale skin and dark, coarse hair, his black eyes didn’t seem to stand out so much. “The rest of us can follow on the next flight,” Gregor said.
“If I were kidnapping the courtiers,” Igor put in, “I’d transport them in an enclosed vehicle. I’d have a human slave for a driver so we wouldn’t have to stop for the day.” He finished sharpening the last blade then made his stone disappear again. He tucked the weapons away inside the worn woollen jacket he’d found somewhere in the house.
Gregor took the weapons that were proffered with a nod of thanks. “I concur, that is the most likely scenario.” Flicking his longish hair back, Gregor knew how well it framed his face but he was preening for an unappreciative audience. It was habit and just part of his rakish charm. “We will tail the van until it stops to transport the next victim to another vehicle. Once this occurs, we will then switch our attention to the new vehicle.”
“Why do you think there will be another vehicle?” Geordie queried.
“Because the van always returns in three or four days,” I guessed out loud. “I doubt the First is hiding anywhere nearby. He’d want his lair to be somewhere secluded and hard to find. If the van always returns quickly then that means they have another car to drive the mothers-to-be the rest of the way.”
Nodding his head, Geordie’s slightly confused look spoiled his pretence that he’d followed my logic. “If the van is due to arrive, shouldn’t we be on our way to the mansion?”
Gregor stood. “That is an excellent suggestion. Igor, Geordie, let’s go. We’ll move into position and wait for Natalie’s call.” With a nod at Luc and me, he herded the pair toward the door.
“I bet they’re going to have a quickie before they leave,” Geordie said sullenly. This time, it was Gregor who took a swipe at him. Geordie wasn’t quite fast enough to duck the blow. A meaty smack echoed down the hallway, followed by the kid’s whine of
protest.
“How about it?” Luc asked when the front door closed behind them. “Do you want to have a quickie?”
I was tempted by the offer but nowhere near in the mood for it. “Maybe later if we can fit it in while tailing the van,” I said distractedly. Luc hid his disappointment well and stood. I scooped the backpack off the floor and trotted to keep up with his longer strides as he left the room.
Our ride back to the mansion should have taken two hours but Luc floored it and had us there in an hour and a half. Just as Gregor had planned, we parked as close to the grounds as we could then went the rest of the way on foot.
Crouched between a pair of dense shrubs, we examined the mansion closely. It was just as impressive as the first time I’d seen it. Four stories high, the main building was made of sandstone. Two wings made of some kind of darker stone spread out to either side. The grounds were a landscaped perfection of neatly clipped grass and razor straight hedges. There didn’t seem to be a single blade of grass or leaf out of place.
Guards dressed in dark uniforms to help them blend in with the night, prowled the perimeter of the grounds. We spotted more guards inside the building through the windows on the bottom three floors. We’d stationed ourselves around the back, near the servant’s entrance to wait for the van to appear. From here, we could keep our eye on the guard’s barracks as well. It was smaller than the main building, only three stories high, and was made of the same dark stone as the wings.
Several hours later, Luc checked his watch for the hundredth time and frowned. “The van usually comes at midnight or close to it,” he murmured. It was two in the morning now. “I have the distinct feeling that it won’t be appearing tonight.”
Snapping out of the near coma like state I’d been in due to extreme boredom, I realized something had been bothering me since we’d arrived. “That’s weird,” I said quietly, surveying first the grounds and then the mansion in the distance. Lights blazed from the lower floors. The Comtesse and her fellow Council members slept on the fourth floor and their windows were permanently boarded up. They were paranoid about the sun burning them to death and also about being invaded by enemies. By enemies, I meant the Japanese vampire nation. Since humans didn’t know for sure that we existed, we had no other real enemies. Or hadn’t until the imps had begun to appear. Then, of course, there was me. Being Mortis, I had become the number one enemy of all possessed vampires pretty much by default.
“What’s weird?” Luc ran a hand up and down my back, sending a shiver up my spine.
“I could have sworn there were more guards a couple of nights ago.” The place had been all but crawling with them when Gregor, Igor, Geordie and I had set Luc free.
Turning his attention to the mansion, Luc studied it thoughtfully but made no comment. Maybe I’d just imagined that there had been dozens of guards the last time. It had been a pretty stressful situation so I might have exaggerated the number in my mind.
We gave up on waiting for the van to appear two hours before dawn. Luc phoned Gregor and suggested they head back to the safe house. Halfway back, we saw an opportunity for a meal. While I could last for a several days before my hunger began to bother me, Luc had to feed more regularly.
A car had pulled over on the side of the road and was listing to one side. Two flat tyres were the reason for the tilt. A man was hunkered down, changing the front tyre. A woman who I presumed was his wife nagged at him through her open window. “I told you we should have had two spares, Barry!” Her tone was shrill and tired and her accent was English. It was cold enough that her breath made tiny white clouds of mist with each word she uttered.
Hunching his shoulders, Barry muttered his reply. “Where am I supposed to keep the second spare, love? On the back seat?”
“What did you say?” the wife said sharply. Her tone went up a few more octaves until it was a high pitched semi-shriek.
“I said…” Barry trailed off when he noticed our car had pulled to a stop directly across the road. Relief coursed over his face. He was only in his forties but deep lines had already been carved into his forehead.
Nag lines, I thought and stifled a snigger as Luc opened his door. “Do you require assistance?” he called.
“What do you think, Sherlock?” the wife replied with heavy sarcasm. “Of course we require assistance!”
Barry sent Luc a look of apology and stood. He crossed the road, holding his hand out. They shook then moved to the back of our car.
Pissed off at being delayed, the wife glared at me through her open window as if I was somehow responsible for their circumstances. I stared back at her with a complete lack of expression. Her glare faltered then disappeared at my non reaction to her belligerence. She was used to bludgeoning people into submission with her horrible personality but I wasn’t about to be bullied. Even as a human, I wouldn’t have put up with it.
Disconcerted, she turned away and pretended to search inside her purse. I couldn’t see the purse but I could hear the objects shifting around inside it. Yeah, you’d better turn away. I’m way scarier than you’ll ever be, I told her silently.
At the rear of our car, Barry was murmuring quietly to Luc. “I really appreciate this, mate. As you can see, the wife is a bit stressed.” He laughed but it sounded more tired than amused. Amusement was probably sorely lacking in his life. “I’ll give you some money to pay for a new tyre,” he offered.
“That will not be necessary,” Luc demurred. We’d have our payment but it wouldn’t be in the form of money. Liquid nourishment was what we craved.
Luc hefted the spare from our boot. Pretending it was heavy, he carried it across the road to our meal’s car. The wife did a double take when she saw his face and unconsciously patted her hair into place. I knew it was necessary but I didn’t like the idea of Luc snacking on her. I was afraid her bitterness might spread through him like poison.
I waited until the second tyre was in place before opening my door and leaving the car. Barry turned when I touched his arm. All the weariness and unhappiness left him when I caught his gaze. Luc bent to look into the open window and the wife was captured just as easily. She stepped out of the car with unseemly eagerness when he crooked his finger.
After filling up on blood, I led my victim to the driver’s door and he clumsily climbed inside with a carefree grin still on his face. It gave me a glimpse of the younger, happier man he’d once been. That’s what he looked life before he married his shrew of a wife, I surmised.
Luc finished up with the wife then sat her down. “Be nicer to your husband,” he admonished her gently. “Your life could be a lot worse than it is.” Even through the hypnotism, the wife frowned heavily. Maybe the idea of being nice to Barry was too foreign a concept for to her to grasp.
A minute later, we were on our way again. Feeding had put me in the mood for sex so I suggested we pull over for the quickie I’d put off earlier. The back seat of the car turned out to be pretty comfortable, if a bit squishy.
Crouched in a different shrub the next night, Luc frowned at the few guards prowling the perimeter and interior of the mansion. The usual sounds of merriment from inside the building were muted. “I think you might be right, Natalie,” he said after midnight had come and gone without the van showing up at the usual time. “There are fewer guards on patrol.”
Again, the van was a no show and we headed back to the safe house before the sun could appear and barbeque us to death. I opted to keep watch during the day this time. I was too worried to try to sleep. Is the First somehow aware of our plan and has sped up his plan to clear out the mansion? I didn’t see how he could know what we were up to. Not unless he had a prophet of his own hidden somewhere in his cavern of doom.
For the third time in as many nights, Luc and I approached the mansion after parking our car at a safe distance from the property. Reaching the outer boundary of the estate, we didn’t bother to hide this time. Not after taking a quick look at the grounds and buildings.
Luc
pulled out his mobile phone and called the rest of our team. “Gregor, you might as well join us.”
“Why?” I heard the older vampire ask. His tone was laced with dread. “What has happened?”
“They’re gone.” Luc tried and failed to hide his fear that we had run out of time. On some level, I’d known something was wrong but I hadn’t trusted my instincts. It looks like my hunch was right. In future, I’d pay greater attention when I felt something was off.
“Who has gone?”
“Everyone,” Luc replied bleakly. “The entire Court appears to have been evacuated. The mansion is empty.”
Chapter Five
We didn’t bother to wait for the others to join us before heading inside to search for clues. As far as I could tell, the place was completely deserted. The possibility that this might be a trap crossed my mind but it was doubtful. Luc agreed with my hunch that the building was ok and approached the stairs.
Since the front doors were standing open, we accepted the implied invitation and entered. I’d been inside the mansion a couple of times but was momentarily stunned again by the sheer opulence. Soft lighting from crystal chandeliers in the high ceilings illuminated priceless paintings. Highly polished antique furniture made of some kind of dark wood had been placed in aesthetically pleasing positions. Dusky pink wallpaper with rose patterned highlights covered the walls. Thick maroon carpet graced the floors. From memory, the Comtesse’s mansion in the UK was even more breathtaking with its white marble everywhere and gold accents. Still, this building was a far step above anything I was used to.
Luc and I climbed to the fourth floor to begin our search. We encountered the subtle signs of battle during our journey. The ooze of the fallen imps I’d killed a few nights ago had been scrubbed away. Despite the clean-up job, I could still see the faint traces in the carpet and on the wallpaper of the hallway. The smell of undead blood still lingered and would take time to fade completely.
