“What?” Johann asked. “I’m not your…”
“Like I said, no offense. It’s just an expression.”
“The world has sure gotten weird.”
“You have no idea,” I said, smiling. “But you’ll adjust eventually.”
Johann shook his head. “Before we go, I really think we need a plan.”
“I agree. I just don’t have any clue what we’re walking into.”
“As much as the world has changed,” Johann said, “the Order has probably changed more. I wish I had more insight into what this ritual is supposed to be.”
“We need a way to communicate,” I said. “Probably not with phones.”
Johann shook his head. “We don’t even know if they’ll have phone lines there.”
I grinned. “You don’t need phone lines anymore.”
“I know,” Johann said. “I’ve seen those little televisions that people are carrying.”
I chuckled. “They aren’t televisions. But yeah, I can see why you’d think that. But that’s not what I’m thinking. I have a… friend who might help.”
“A friend?”
“Hey Brucie!” I said, raising my voice a little as I called into thin air.
A few seconds later Brucie showed up, and perch himself on the handlebars of my bike. “Hey Nyxie!”
“You been watching us?” I asked.
Brucie smiled. “You two are amazing. But the vampire is right: you need a plan. And I want to help.”
“Wait… What the hell?” Johann took a few steps back from the bike.
“Johann,” I said, “this is Brucie. He’s a sprite. He can be our go-between.”
Johann tilted his head. “I was thinking I should start with the catacombs. Some of the vampires there might know me. Others will remember Alice. Those probably aren’t the best ones to unstake.”
“I agree,” I said. “Since we don’t know where their loyalties might lie, and we won’t have time to brief them.”
“Any we unstake will be hungry. They’ll want to feed the first chance they get,” Johann said. “But I know my way around there, more or less. Since that’s where I first came to.”
“Brucie,” I said, “can you pass messages back and forth? Like, if we need him to unleash a few vampires, can you get the message to him?”
A flask materialized in Brucie’s hand and he took a swig. “Of course I can.”
“You smoke and you drink, Brucie?” I asked.
“Small pleasures,” Brucie quipped.
“Wait,” Johann said. “How did you just pull that out of thin air?”
“Magic,” Brucie said. “I’ve got skills.”
I shook my head. “He can turn into vapor. And pretty much anything he touches he can vaporize with him.”
“Within limits,” Brucie said. “Small items. I can only carry as much as I can carry.”
“And he smokes, too?” Johann asked.
“Cigars,” Brucie said. “And only the finest. No Swisher Sweets for me.”
“Doesn’t turning it into vapor ruin the cigars?” Johann asked.
I tilted my head. “That’s an interesting question.”
“Not if I don’t allow it to happen,” Brucie said.
Johann shook his head. “I guess it makes sense. When I shift in and out of bat form, my clothes come with me, too. But I’ve never really understood why. Or how it works. Just a part of my ability, I suppose. Other shifters don’t have that luxury.”
“You’ve encountered other shifters?” I asked. “I mean, other than those like me… or like you?”
“Here and there,” Johann said. “Back when Alice and I were nightwalkers.”
I nodded. “I’d love to hear more about that. But It’s not important right now. We need to get to the ritual.”
“I agree.” Johann took his place behind me on my bike. “I’m sorry, this is just a bit… strange. All of this.”
I suppose Johann didn’t quite have the same flood of emotions, the same sense of majesty, that I’d experienced as we paraded through the plaza together in our dresses and heels. “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “What’s important is you look enough like me that if anyone catches you, they’ll assume we’re the same person.”
“I realize it makes sense that I’m the one in the catacombs,” Johann said. “Less chance that someone will notice our differences. But I really wish I was the one there to release Alice.”
I sighed. “Do you not trust me?”
“Not completely,” Johann said. “But I’m sure you aren’t completely certain you can trust me, either. But I wouldn’t have come to you if I didn’t need you.”
“From what I could see, you can be pretty elusive. At least if you shift into bat form.”
“I can,” Johann said. “If push comes to shove, I can fly out of there and come to your aid.”
“And I’ll be there,” Brucie said, “to make sure you know what’s happening.”
“Thanks, Brucie,” I said as my miniature companion returned to mist. I turned my key and revved up my bike. We were in a parking garage, and the acoustics of it gave my bike an impressive roar. By contrast, as we drove out onto the street the bike purred along the asphalt.
A few cars honked at us as we wove between vehicles trying to get out of the plaza traffic and back onto the open roads. I wasn’t sure if they were honking at us because we were so damn gorgeous or because we were ignoring the rules of the road.
Probably some of both.
Either way, we didn’t have time to waste.
29
I DROPPED JOHANN off about a mile before we reached our destination. He quickly shifted into bat form and beelined directly toward the church where the Order of the Morning Dawn held their rites.
I doubted he could fly as fast as I could ride, but without the constraints of roads, there was a decent chance he’d get there before I did.
Hopefully I wouldn’t need him. I mean, I probably would. There was zero-to-little chance that Tom or the rest of the Order would be keen on simply releasing Alice.
But if I could remove the stake from her chest, there was a chance she’d wreak enough havoc on her own that we could both escape. And once that happened, if Johann could let a few more vampires loose who were eager to taste human blood…
It would give us a way out.
But I didn’t want Devin to get caught in the fray, either. Even more, I couldn’t let him get caught by one of the revived vamps.
I could give a message to Brucie to deliver to Johann when the time was right. But it wouldn’t work well in reverse. Brucie hadn’t communicated with me directly while in mist form, so he’d have to manifest if he had news from Johann to pass along.
But since he could read my mind, all I really needed to do was think something and he’d get the message to Johann.
It was the best we could do.
But I’d have to play it by ear once I found out what the Order had planned. I still didn’t have the slightest idea what this ritual involved. All I knew was that it ended with destroying Alice.
It was something I used to want. But not for her to die for the sake of eliminating a particularly threatening vampire from the face of the earth. I wanted her to die because it was personal. And I wanted my abilities back.
Now everything had changed.
The situation had evolved—and if the Order eliminated her without giving me a chance to eat her heart, I’d lose that opportunity forever.
But more than that, I had changed. It wasn’t about vengeance anymore. And if it was only about recovering my abilities, it would be selfish. Whatever the Order was up to… I had to find out.
My GPS took me down a gravel road, then another one. I hated taking my bike on gravel; I’d be covered in dust by the time I arrived. And I didn’t want to spoil my new dress. Not to mention my bike would be filthy.
Only a problem, of course, if I survived the night. Get out of here alive, with Alice, and I’d be lucky to have a chance to wash my
bike again. Besides, I still had to clean off the f-word that the quilters from the Order had sprayed onto it.
The roads got worse the farther I went. At first they were just common gravel roads, but these last few roads were also overgrown with weeds. Apparently this place didn’t get a lot of traffic.
The canopy of trees overshadowing the road lent an ominous tone to the whole journey. It was like driving through a portal to some other realm. A different world. Something separate from human civilization as I’d come to know it.
Eventually I reached a clearing. The road just ended, and a towering church stood there.
Johann wasn’t lying. The place looked like it had been taken right out of the heart of old Europe. Gothic architecture. Gargoyles perched on the top of the building. I imagined it had been erected here early in the history of westward expansion. I mean, Kansas City wasn’t nearly so old a city as even St. Louis, just to the east. And it was a lot newer, relatively speaking, than cities on the East Coast. And those cities had hardly any history at all compared to those in Europe.
But this church…
Who built it? New-world Catholics, perhaps? But that was questionable, too. This wasn’t exactly the part of the country were Catholicism thrived in the early days of the Americas.
As I looked at the building, I spotted words etched into the white stone that formed its exterior: Der Orden des Erzengels Michael.
The church not only belonged to the Order, it predated the Order. It was what the Order used to be… the one that Wolfgang helped establish in the Americas.
There wasn’t a parking lot, per se. This church was erected before people drove cars. But the cars of the Order members who’d already arrived were scattered along the tree line.
I saw Devin’s car. He was here. I knew he would be. But seeing his car… for some reason my chest tightened up. I was more nervous, oddly enough, about how Devin would get through the night. I mean, this was supposed to be an initiation into the Order’s inner circle.
But once I tried to save Alice…
Once the shit hit the fan…
He’d probably hate me even more than he already did.
I hated the idea of him hating me. But not as much as I hated the idea of seeing him get sucked into an Order that would never accept him, that would tie him to some kind of dark plot to do whatever the hell Alice had tried to tell me before Tom and the other hunter interrupted our conversation and Devin staked her.
I looked around. A man in a black cloak and hood stood at the entrance of the church. He had another gown draped over one arm.
Parking my bike next to Devin’s car, I approached him.
He lowered his hood. “I’m glad you joined us.”
The hood obscured most of his face, but I recognized his voice. “Thank you, Tom.”
“I need you to put this on,” Tom said. “It’s a part of our tradition.”
I sighed. All this work getting fabulous to just cover myself up with a black cloak? The thing looked like something a monk might wear. Or the grim reaper. Take your pick.
Let Johann know I’m wearing this. Tell him to be as inconspicuous as possible, I thought, hoping Brucie would hear it and pass the message along. I had no way to verify it. But this cloak did more than spoil my get-up—it had the potential to spoil any advantage we might have by him acting as my doppelgänger.
“Are you ready, Nyx?” Tom asked.
“I suppose. I mean, I don’t know what I need to be ready for.”
Tom nodded. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Wait.” I grabbed Tom as gently as I could by the arm. “What about Devin?”
“I’ve spoken to him,” Tom said. “He’s agreed to tolerate your induction alongside him, for the good of the Order, provided you respect his boundaries.”
I cocked my head. “Boundaries?”
“You and I both know what that means.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
Tom pulled the door open. It was probably six inches thick, heavy and made of oak. “Ladies first.”
I nodded. I wasn’t a girl who cared much about chivalry, and I knew Tom was being a little cheeky about it. But at least he’d acknowledged me as a female. I walked through the door.
The whole place was filled with smoke. Burning incense. It was sweet—almost enough to cut through the smell. Like when we were in the funeral home before, though this place contained a mixture of so many different vampire scents that I couldn’t focus on just one.
As I stepped into what looked like an old sanctuary, I saw why.
Three crucifixes.
Alice hung from the middle one, nails in her hands and feet, and the stake that Devin had lodged in her heart still protruded through her chest.
Two other vampires hung on either side of her in similar fashion. One was Chad, the vampire that Devin and I had staked before.
I didn’t recognize the third one.
There were at least two dozen Order members gathered and seated in the pews on either side of the center aisle.
“Where should I sit?” I asked.
“Right next to Devin.” Tom gestured toward two chairs situated at the foot of the two crosses. Devin was already occupying the one on the right. At least I presumed it was him, since Tom had said so. I couldn’t tell, since he was wearing the same cloak and hood as me. The chair on the left was still vacant—reserved for me. “You and Devin are our guests of honor.”
“I know Alice and Chad,” I said. Who’s the third vampire?”
“Devin was busy today,” Tom said. “Just another youngling he managed to wrangle a few hours ago.”
“Impressive.”
“We never conduct the rituals until we have three,” Tom said. “Again, it’s a tradition.”
I bit my lip. From what I’d learned from both Wolfgang and Johann, these rituals weren’t exactly a part of recent tradition. They were either something revived from a previous age or something brand new. By the way Tom was speaking, it seemed more along the lines of the former than the latter.
30
I TOOK MY place beside Devin in one of two chairs. I looked at him, but he didn’t acknowledge me. Even if he had, it would be hard to make eye contact given the oversized hoods covering our heads and half our faces.
With the hood, in fact, I could barely see the three crosses.
Vision was the sense I relied on the most as a hunter. But it wasn’t the only one. My sense of smell was unreliable due to the fact that multiple vampire scents were mixed together in the air. I’d have to rely on my hearing.
Then a pipe organ started to play.
I knew music, but the tune they were playing was unlike anything I’d ever heard. And it was so loud that I didn’t even hear the footsteps of the two cloaked men who appeared in front of us. Unless I really craned my neck, I couldn’t see them past my hood. And even then, their faces were covered even more than mine.
The organ stopped playing.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Tom said. I only knew it was him from his voice.
“Amen,” the whole crowd responded in unison.
“Amen,” I added, trying to play along. But I wasn’t quite in sync with everyone else. My voice stood out from the rest.
I didn’t know who the man standing beside Tom was. Presumably he was the same hunter who had accompanied him at the funeral home. He stood a few steps behind Tom, but was completely silent.
“Today, we welcome two initiates to the inner circle of the Order of the Morning Dawn,” Tom continued. “Our Lord bid his disciples that if any wished to save his life, he must take up his cross and follow him.”
“Amen,” the congregation replied, again in unison. “Praise be to you, oh Lord.”
“As such, these who would be disciples in the inner circle, followers of our Lord, must endure the path of redemption that our Lord endured on our behalf. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, the Lord declared in John th
e sixth chapter, will be risen on the last day.”
Again, the congregation responded, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
“When the morning dawned,” Tom continued, “they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate.”
I expected the congregation to respond again. But before I knew it, something fell across my lap. And then it was pulled tight from behind.
A rope.
They were binding me to the chair.
Devin grunted. Apparently they were doing the same thing to him.
Shit, I thought as they continued wrapping the rope around my body. What the hell are they doing?
They were binding me, like Jesus was bound… I could only hope that this was just a part of the ritual. But how in the world was I going to save Alice now?
Brucie, I thought, Make sure Johann knows what’s happening…
“Those who eat his flesh and drink from his cup proclaim his death until he returns!” Tom said.
“Amen! Amen! Amen!” the congregation replied enthusiastically.
“Remove their hoods that our initiates might gaze upon their salvation,” Tom said. “May these sins be bound eternally, even as our Lord was bound. And may they taste of the blood of life!”
“Amen! Amen! Amen!”
Someone—presumably the same people who had tied me up—pulled down my hood and Devin’s. I glanced at him, but he remained fixed on the sight of Alice.
“Present the centurion’s spear!” Tom declared.
Another shrouded figure appeared with a long item wrapped in purple linens.
Tom unwrapped it and retrieved a long spear. “This very spear was used to pierce our Lord’s side, calling forth blood and water,” Tom declared. “But these creatures of the night, these antichrists, have arisen from the pits of hell. They come wielding the power of resurrection, but their existence is a mockery of our Lord!”
“Amen! Amen! Amen!”
“But our Lord has taken what the devil intended for evil and has given us a great gift,” Tom declared.
Another shrouded figure emerged behind the three crucified vampires and retrieved a golden chalice from the altar.
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 111
