But on this night when I rose, it wasn’t Nico who greeted me.
“Moll?” I asked, as the witch stood there waiting for me to arise. “Where’s Nico?”
“He’s gone to meet with an Irishman, an actor and aspiring author, who has come to the states. The man apparently intends to write a book about your kind. Nico believes it is imperative that he meet with the man, that the book he plans might help shape the public perception of vampires. He says you’ve done quite well—but he suggested I accompany you on this evening’s exploits until he returns.”
I looked at Moll incredulously. “The kinds of places we go… are you sure you’re up for it?”
“I have other plans, Mercy,” Moll said. “Your father has contracted with a peddler of goods. He arrives on the morrow to make a bid for your belongings.”
I shrugged. “I don’t have much use for those things.”
“Except for your wand,” Moll said. “It is imperative that we retrieve your wand. It is attuned to you and you alone.”
“Can’t we just make another one?”
“I fear not, Mercy. A witch’s wand is imbued with the powers of the goddess. Should you lose it, she will not be inclined to grant you another one.”
“But Nico said I mustn’t go back to my house… I can’t risk stoking my craving. The taste of my brother’s blood still tempts me.”
“All you need to do is sneak into the house and retrieve your wand, Mercy. I realize there are risks involved, but it is essential. Remember, you pledged your fidelity to me in exchange for this gift.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t know…”
“Don’t you trust yourself?” Moll asked. “After all this time, your cravings have waned, have they not?”
“A bit, yes… But Edwin… I don’t know if I can.”
“Of course you can, child,” Moll said. “Just move quickly. Use your speed to retrieve your wand. You’ll be in and out of there before you even have a chance to think about feeding.”
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll do it. But I don’t like it.”
“Think, Mercy. What will become of you if they discover your wand? If they realize you’d practiced the craft during your human life? There is only one thing they do with witches… even dead ones…”
“They burn their bodies.”
Moll nodded. “And as a vampire, if your body is burned in total you will not rise again.”
“Well, why didn’t you lead with that?”
“I’d hoped your desire to preserve your wand and continue to persevere in the craft would be motivation enough. But I see, now that you’ve changed, your desire has wavered.”
“It’s not that, Moll,” I said. “I do intend to advance further in the Craft. I just… you know… I’ve been a bit consumed with adjusting to this new… existence.”
“Then be grateful, dear, that I’ve come to remind you of who you are, and who you might become as both a vampire and a witch. The power you possess will be rivaled by none.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay. You make a compelling point,” I said. “Thank you, Moll.”
“But of course, dear. Don’t ever think I’ve forgotten about you. I have great plans for you.”
I didn’t have many fears, now that I’d become a vampire. But as we stood outside my old home, my chest tightened and my stomach turned. It wasn’t just the hunger—though I was due for another feed—but the prospect of entering my home again… the risk. But I had no choice. I had to retrieve my wand.
Moll lurked in the distance, watching me as I slowly pressed open the window of my former bedroom… Edwin’s bedroom, now.
I climbed inside. I could hear Edwin’s slow, rhythmic heartbeat thumping as he slept.
Resist, I told myself. Focus on the wand…
I slowly opened the closet, the door creaking on its hinges. I double-checked my brother; thankfully the noise hadn’t awakened him.
I opened my old footlocker and retrieved my wand. I could feel the power in it—more than I could before. I stepped out of the closet and carefully closed the door again. I glanced at my brother again—still asleep. His heart, still beating… calling to me. I couldn’t help but notice he looked ill—sweaty, sick. The same symptoms I’d had before. My gut wrenched. A combination of sadness… and the craving. My God, the craving… it flooded over my body like a tsunami. The next thing I knew my fangs were sunk deep into his neck. Yes… the taste… the blood… his soul… No, Mercy… you have to resist… you have to control it… you have to stop…
I pulled away, gasping for air as I licked his blood from my lips.
And then his eyes opened. He sat up. “Mercy?” Edwin asked. “Sweet Jesus… Mercy!”
“Shhhh!” I said. “It’s just a dream… Just a dream, brother. Back to sleep…”
“What were you doing to me? My neck… it hurts.”
The wound on his neck wasn’t healing… it must’ve been something to do with the consumption. His body couldn’t heal, even aided by my venom.
“Go to sleep, Edwin. This was just a nightmare…”
I was banking on the fact that he’d barely awoken. If I left quickly, maybe he’d believe what I’d said… Maybe he’d think it was just a dream.
I sped out of the room and closed the window as quickly as I could.
“Moll!” I said. “He saw me! Edwin, he saw me… I couldn’t resist and he woke up.”
Moll placed her hand on my arm. “Never mind that, Mercy,” she said. “I’ll take care of that. But did you recover your wand?”
“I did,” I said, twirling it in my fingers.
“Give it to me, Mercy.”
“What? No, it’s my wand…”
“Just for now,” Moll said. “I’ll return it to you soon, once you have better control of yourself. I’m afraid you’re too dangerous to use your wand in this condition.”
I bit my lip, nodded, and handed it to her.
“Come now, child. Let us get you back to your grave. It seems you’ve already fed, and I have work to do… steps that must be taken to protect you in the light of what has occurred.”
We rushed back to my grave and I climbed inside my pine box. “Moll, you promise you’ve got this? I’m afraid.”
“Do you trust me, Mercy?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then whatever happens… you mustn’t resist me, do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Even if it seems I might be against you, I assure you I am not. You must promise me, Mercy.”
“I promise… I do. I trust you, Moll. Just please, do what you have to do. Make this whole thing go away.”
“Sleep now, child. Moll will take care of everything. Morning will come before you know it.”
I AWOKE TO a stabbing pain in my chest.
I opened my eyes. Moll was standing there with my father… and with the preacher.
I tried to move, but I couldn’t… bulbs of garlic surrounded my body. I gagged at the smell. My eyes widened. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t even do that.
What was Moll doing?
A knife. She was cutting through my flesh… breaking my bones…
“Are you sure this will do it?” I heard my father ask. “Are you sure this will kill the demon that has overtaken my Mercy?”
“Indeed it will,” Moll said. “It is the only way. We must burn her heart and liver and feed the ashes to your boy if you hope for him to recover.”
“I don’t like this,” I heard the preacher say. “This is witchcraft. It’s of the devil!”
Moll glanced at the preacher even as she continued to cut at my flesh. “Tell me, preacher. Does your faith have prescriptions for how to vanquish a vampire?”
“No, ma’am. But this…”
“Proceed,” my father directed. “We can repent of these sins in time. But we must eliminate the demon! We need this to heal Edwin.”
I looked at my father’s face with loathing. I couldn’t b
elieve he’d do this to me. And Moll, she said to trust her. But this… I couldn’t help but feel she’d betrayed me, too.
I struggled again to move. I felt my arms start to squirm.
“More garlic!” Moll shouted. “She’s strong. I must complete this before she rises…”
I screamed out loud. This time they could hear me, and my father was taken aback. “Daddy! Please stop!”
“It’s okay, Mercy. Your soul will be free from the demon soon.”
“Fuck you!” I screamed.
“It’s the devil within her speaking,” the preacher said. “You mustn’t listen to it.”
“It’s not the fucking devil! It’s me… It’s your daughter!”
I could see tears welling up in my father’s face before he turned away. “Make it quick,” my father said. “I can’t bear to look.”
“Moll, you bitch!” I shouted.
The witch looked at me, empathy in her eyes.
“How does my daughter know your name, witch?” my father asked.
“It’s the demon speaking,” the preacher interrupted. “You mustn’t believe the lies.”
Moll reached her hand into my chest. I saw my own heart in her hands as she placed it in a bowl held by the preacher. Then she cut again… and pulled out my liver. I continued screaming as my organs were ripped from my body.
“Burn them,” Moll said. “And do not let any of the ashes escape. The boy will need it all.”
I shrieked in agony. I could feel the flames as they consumed my organs. “Stop!” I screamed. “You’ll be damned for this, all of you!”
And then… my vision faded into a blur and everything went black.
7
I WAS IN a dark place, cold, but I didn’t have a body at all. I flew through space… other creatures, other vampiric spirits surrounding me.
“Where am I?” I thought out loud.
“You’re in hell, of course,” a familiar voice replied. I looked at the man who stood there in the darkness, a red glow from his eyes providing just enough light that I recognized him. His tuxedo… his top hat…
“Baron Samedi?” I asked, not sure how I was speaking. I didn’t have a body, but he’d heard me, no less.
“Indeed,” the baron said.
“This is hell? Where are the flames?”
“That is not the part of hell where you reside. This is my domain, the place where my children, my vampires go when they cease to be.”
“Please send me back,” I said. “I’m not ready for this.”
“Come now, Mercy. If you’d but been staked, all that would have to happen is for someone to remove the stake from your heart and you’d revive.”
“But my heart… they burned it.”
“Indeed they did,” the baron said.
“So I’m stuck here… forever.”
The baron smiled, took a swig from his flask, and looked at me curiously. “Typically that would be the case, but your witch has made other arrangements.”
“Other arrangements? What are you talking about?”
“Your father has been deceived to believe that by consuming the ashes of your heart Edwin will be healed… but that is not the case.”
“What’s going to happen to Edwin?” I asked.
“He will take your place, here,” the baron said. “And you will be revived.”
“What?” I asked. “No, I won’t do it. I won’t damn Edwin here. That’s not fair…”
“The matter is not in your hands,” the baron said. “When you revive, you’ll be something of a force. A vampire without a heart, unable to be staked. Surely this was your witch’s plan from the beginning.”
“Her plan?” I asked. “Her plan for what?” Then, “But Edwin… he’s innocent. He doesn’t belong in hell!”
“Be that as it may,” the baron said, “he will be joining us soon. And when he does, you will revive.”
“What is Moll’s plan? Tell me what she intends to do.”
The baron took another swig from his flask. “The Order of the Morning Dawn,” he said. “Do you think that vampires alone are the enemies they seek to destroy?”
“I don’t know…”
“It was they who were responsible for the witch burnings in Salem, too. Surely that is your witch’s plan.”
“To use me as a weapon… against the Order?”
“It’s simply an educated guess,” the baron said. “But I must confess, it is rather brilliant, is it not?”
“What will become of my brother?” I asked. “And his soul…”
“I’ll hold his soul and ensure he receives the best treatment that hell can offer. Alas, he’s consumed the ashes. Young Edwin’s arrival is imminent, as is your revival.”
A bright light flashed in my line of sight, and the next thing I knew I was back in my pine box.
I clutched at my chest; the wounds were gone. My body had healed.
I busted out of my box with all my force—I was even stronger now than before.
I leapt from my grave and surveyed my surroundings. It was night. The moonlight illuminated the skies. And then I saw her standing in the distance, clutching her cane.
I sped over to her, grabbed her by the hair, and bit her. Or I tried to. Something shocked me, a magic… a spell that protected her.
“Come now, Mercy… is that any way to show your gratitude?” Moll asked.
“You damned Edwin to hell!” I screamed.
“I did what I had to,” Moll said.
“So you can have vengeance on the Order of the Morning Dawn?”
“Clever girl,” Moll said. “But it is not merely vengeance I seek, girl. I seek their elimination. It is the only way to ensure the safety of witch and vampire alike… And now that you are both of these things, there is no greater abomination to them than you.”
“But, Edwin! It’s not right…”
“The cost of one soul for the sake of us all,” Moll said. “It was the price that had to be paid.”
“My father… he’ll kill you for this. When he realizes you deceived him.”
“Mercy, dear. I’m but an old lady. And I cannot extend my life forever. It is better to die ensuring a better future for all witches.”
I shrugged. “You could become a vampire, like I did.”
Moll laughed. “If I were younger and still had a youthful body, perhaps I would consider it. But who wants to live as an old hag forever?”
“You’ll burn in hell for this.”
“Child, come now. I’ll simply be reborn. I’ll have another life… but I am not dead yet, my dear.”
“I’m not your dear,” I said. “Where’s my wand?”
Moll reached into her robes, retrieved it, and handed it to me. I took it and gripped it tightly. “Use it wisely,” Moll said. “When I am gone, it will fall to you to protect witches and vampires alike.”
“By executing members of the Order?”
“Think of it, child. With the Order out of the way, you’ll no longer have to hunt discreetly. You’ll be able to feed however, whenever, on whomever you desire. No one will be able to stop you.”
“I didn’t ask for this!” I shouted.
“But you did pledge your fidelity,” Moll said. “And this is what I require of you in exchange for your immortality. Now come, dear, we must tidy up your grave. Your brother’s death will certainly suggest to them that my… potion… failed. But if they suspect you’ve risen, too, it will only expedite their resolve to attack.”
I shrugged. “Let them.”
“She’s right,” a voice said behind me. I turned, and Nico stood there staring at me, his eyes wide in wonder. “If they think you’ve risen, they’ll come after more than the one witch they think is responsible. They’ll come after all of us.”
“Did you know this was her plan?” I asked.
“I did not,” Nico said, turning and glaring at Moll. “But what is done is done. We must use this situation to our advantage.”
“I’m not goi
ng back in that pine box,” I said.
“Of course you aren’t,” Nico said. “But we must rebury it no less. Let them think your mutilated corpse now decomposes in the earth.”
“But if they dig me up and they see I’m not there…”
“Good point,” Nico said, stepping over to another grave. He plunged his fist into the ground and tossed away the earth. “We’ll simply have to put another corpse, one too decomposed to recognize, in the place of yours.”
WE REDRESSED THE emaciated corpse of another woman in the clothes I’d been wearing when they reburied me. Thankfully, her hair was dark, nearly black, like mine. We had to cut it a little to approximate the length… but all things considered, had my body decomposed as a normal corpse might, it could have been me.
“Say they dig up the body tomorrow,” I say. “And they see her like that. Surely a body wouldn’t decompose so quickly.”
Moll shrugged. “They’ll simply believe that with your heart removed, and you no longer a vampire, the decomposition your body would have endured over these last two months has caught up with time.”
I nodded. “Alright. Where do we go now?”
“Go with Nico,” Moll said. “You’re due for a feed, I suspect. And then, I should ask that you both retire with me. I have a small place with no windows, hidden in the woods. It’s just a matter of time before the Order comes after me…”
“And you want me to come there so I can kill them when they do?” I asked.
“Of course,” Moll said, grinning widely.
I shook my head. “I’m not a killer.”
“You weren’t a killer, child. But think of all the lives you’ll save, witches and vampires alike.”
“They haven’t done anything to me yet,” I said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, child.”
“What do you mean?”
“When they arrive, I can assure you, you’ll have more than enough motive to ensure that the job will be done.”
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 77
