Tom took the spear in his hands, and with the chalice-bearer kneeling next to Alice’s cross, he thrust the spear into her side.
Black blood poured from her wound.
The chalice-bearer caught it and filled the cup to the brim. The chalice-bearer handed the cup to the second shrouded man, the one who’d stood in watch behind Tom and the rest of what was happening.
He took it in his hands.
“As is the custom, our Lord will drink of the blood and feast on the hearts of these wretched ones on behalf of our initiates.”
The man who held the chalice snapped his fingers.
Tom cocked his head slightly and approached the other man, who whispered something into his ear.
Tom nodded. “Our Lord has seen fit to bestow this gift upon one of our initiates. For blood and water poured from the Christ’s side. And today, one of our initiates is not of flesh and blood, but of water by essence.”
My eyes darted back and forth. Where the hell was Johann? I mean, if ever there was a time…
The second man approached me and put the cup to my lips. “Take and drink.”
The moment he spoke, I knew his voice. I cocked my head.
Then then man removed his hood.
Wolfgang…
“What the…”
Wolfgang smiled. The saliva on his fangs caught a glare from the candlelight. “This is a gift for you, Nyx,” Wolfgang said in a low tone. His words were meant only for me. “In gratitude for your fidelity and your aid in capturing this vampire.”
I cocked my head. So much started to make sense. His radical views—the ones Johann had mentioned—were reflected in the ritual that had led to this moment.
“Wolfgang,” I said.
“Your Lordship,” Wolfgang corrected. “I am the Lord of this Order. A personification of the Christ, here to bless the world with immortal blood.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know if I can…”
“This blood will return your abilities, Nyx,” Wolfgang said. “Albeit temporarily. If you wish to restore your abilities indefinitely, you will have to partake in her heart as well.”
At least we hadn’t gotten that far. I’d seen vampires drained of their blood before—it’s not pretty. But they can still be revived. They return with one hell of a craving, of course, but if they’re unstaked…
“Look at me,” Wolfgang said.
My eyes met his. And the moment it happened, I regretted it. When he spoke, it was as if I couldn’t resist. It was like something else had taken me over.
“Take and drink,” Wolfgang said again.
I opened my mouth and Wolfgang placed the chalice of Alice’s blood to my lips.
And I drank.
A cool energy filled my body. It was a sensation I had forgotten ever experiencing. But it was how I felt before…
Wolfgang pulled the chalice from my lips. “Look at me again.”
I tried to turn my head away. I didn’t want to allow him that kind of control, that kind of compulsion over me again. But I was tied. I was bound.
He grabbed my face by the chin and, aided undoubtedly by his vampiric strength, forced me to look him in the eyes. “Target me, Nyx,” Wolfgang said. “Make of me your next meal.”
The moment he said it, my body began to change. My waist thinned, my legs shortening until my stiletto boots were loose around my calves. And my hands softened. They became delicate.
Wolfgang looked at me. I could swear there was a tear in his eyes. Then he turned and retrieved a silver plate from the altar. He placed it in front of me. “Look upon your new beauty.”
I couldn’t believe it. I was a woman. Strikingly beautiful. My lips were full and red. My nose, almost like a button. My ears, tiny and delicate.
“Katarina,” Wolfgang said. “My long-lost Katarina.”
I cocked my head. “Who is…”
“She was my beloved,” Wolfgang said. “When I was still human. And now you have given me a great gift-—the chance to gaze upon her face again. Perhaps, if I changed your memories. Led you to believe you were my Katarina…”
I wiggled as best I could within my bindings. The ropes were looser now that my body was smaller, and I nearly managed to shake myself free.
“You are free to leave if you like,” Wolfgang said. “For now, at least. But you will never change forms again unless you consume Alice’s heart.”
I shook my head. “But I’ve targeted you now. If I’d targeted her as my prey again, I’d look as I did before.”
Wolfgang nodded. “It was temporary. But once the blood you’ve consumed is flushed from your body, your abilities will fade.”
“And I’ll return to my shape from before?”
Wolfgang shook his head. “You will not. For years I left this Order. I scoured the world looking for more of your kind that I might… experiment with this process. But never did I find one such as you who would target me as a meal. Then, to hear that Alice had succeeded in the same endeavor that had eluded me for years, I knew you were the answer.”
I glanced over at Devin. He looked back at me and, for the first time, his eyes met mine. He nodded.
“You see,” Wolfgang said, “even this one tells you that you have no choice. We must allow this ability of yours to fade. And now, when I consume the heart of Alice, your form will be bound to the one I desire forever.”
“No!” I said.
Wolfgang grabbed me by the face. “Silence.”
I struggled against my bindings. I could move a little, but I still couldn’t get loose.
“Give me the spear,” Wolfgang commanded.
Tom obediently handed it to him.
Brucie, I thought hard, tell Johann he needs to come now. Unleash the vampires!
But it was too late.
Wolfgang thrust the spear again into Alice’s body, and with its tip he cut his way across her sternum. Then he thrust it against her ribcage.
“No!” Wolfgang said. “Her heart. Where in the devil’s hell is her heart?”
Then Alice opened her eyes.
31
“ALICE!” JOHANN SHOUTED from the back of the room.
Five vampires charged forward, each of them diving on the closest human Order member they found.
Alice pulled her hands and feet from the cross, and the nails went flying across the room. She jumped down from the cross and approached Devin, quickly loosening his bindings. “Thank you, my faithful servant,” Alice said. “The craft runs strong in you.”
Devin nodded, then he looked at me and shrugged.
“A witch!” Tom shouted. “My son is a witch!”
Devin leapt from his chair and threw his robe to the side before he helped me out of my bindings. “Are you okay, Nicky?”
I cocked my head. “You called me Nicky.”
Devin smiled. “I know that’s what you prefer. I’ve known from the start.”
“But how…”
Devin winked at me, then kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll explain later.”
Wolfgang charged Devin, but Alice intercepted him, tackling him and knocking over Chad’s cross. His body remained fixed to it as it crashed to the ground.
“I must have your heart, witch,” Wolfgang shouted as he struggled to get out of Alice’s grip. “It’s the only way!”
“You’re a witch?” I asked as I removed my cloak.
Devin nodded. “A warlock, technically. My father already hated me for what he thought were unforgivable sins. I figured if I was damned already, I might as well go all the way, you know?”
I laughed. “That’s brilliant. But we’ll have to talk about it later. I think he wants your heart.”
Devin nodded. “Alice gave me her heart to consume at the funeral home. It’s why I was a bit out of it at the time. It bound her life—her existence, rather—to my soul. So long as I’m alive, she’s alive without a heart.”
I shook my head. “Just like what happened to Mercy Brown.”
Devin nodded. “
An old spell Alice picked up a long time ago. She taught it to me.”
I nodded.
The vampires Johann had freed were making their way through the Order, devouring the members one by one.
Screams filled the air.
And the stench. Lord, it was awful.
Alice and Wolfgang continued to struggle with each other. He was older than she was. I didn’t know how long, no matter how powerful she was, she could hold him off.
Johann joined her.
When she saw him, she hesitated for a second. “Johann?”
He smiled at her.
And in that instant Wolfgang took advantage, kicking hard and throwing Alice off of him.
I looked around. Where was Tom? Trying to fight off the other vampires. I quickly removed my shoes. My feet were so small now that walking in them was impossible. Besides, I figured I might need a couple stakes.
With one heel in my hand, I charged after Wolfgang.
He was fast.
He dodged my attack, grabbed me, and with a force I’d never felt, threw me into the only remaining cross.
The vampire whose name I didn’t know fell with it on top of me, and one of the nails gouged me in the stomach. Water poured out of my gut like a deluge.
Devin quickly ran to me. “Your hair, right?”
I nodded.
He yanked a strand of hair from my head. “I need a needle.”
“Use one of the nails.”
Devin nodded. As quickly as he could, he tied my hair to the end of the needle and in the crudest way possible jammed it into my skin around the wound and pulled it through the other side.
It wasn’t the best stitch in the world, and the nail gouges were huge, but it worked. Once my hair was thread through it the holes and the original wound closed in a matter of seconds.
I heaved, trying to push the cross off of me. But with the vampire’s weight, and my strength only starting to return after losing so much water, it was too much.
Devin grabbed the cross and, his face turning red, pulled it off of my body.
“No!” Alice screamed.
I barely got out from under the cross. One of my boots wasn’t far, and something caught my eye.
The crucifix.
I pulled myself over to it and grabbed it. Extending my arm, I tried to focus.
Use your emotions. All your emotions. Anything, Johann had said. I just had to tie my focus to something. Pain. Anguish. Maybe even love—or at least, infatuation.
“You can do it,” Devin said, looking at me. “I believe in you, Nicky.”
That was all I needed. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but it was acceptance… a chance for love, anyway. And that was all I needed.
A torrent of sunlight poured from the face of the crucifix and struck Wolfgang.
Wolfgang screamed as the sunlight boiled his flesh.
Then Alice, with one of my boots in her hand, charged him.
I lowered the cross in time not to fry her, too.
But with a fury, Wolfgang ripped the boot away and dove on top of her.
With their two bodies tangled up, I lowered the crucifix. Wolfgang’s flesh was already bubbling and scarred. I didn’t want to do the same to Alice.
The whole room was spinning—lack of water in my system will do that.
It was everything I could do to stumble my way over there. I picked up my boot from the floor and stumbled over toward the both of them as Wolfgang slammed Alice into the ground. He reared his jaws back, as if he was about to eat her heart right out of her chest—but that gave me just the window I needed. With a scream and the last ounce of energy I had in my body I thrust my nine-inch heel through the side of his rib cage and into his heart.
Wolfgang froze, his skin started to gray, and he fell to his side—aided by a forceful shove from Alice—only forcing my heel deeper into his body.
But in his hand was Johann’s charred vampire heart. He’d dug it out with his hands, and the sunlight I cast on him burned it.
Alice saw it and, clenching her fists, released a blood curdling scream.
I struggled back to my feet, all the room a blur.
“Suffer not a witch to live!” someone shouted. It was Tom, and he had a gun pointed right at Devin.
“Her heart is bound to you, son?” Tom asked.
Devin nodded. “It is.”
Tom’s hand was shaking. But there was a fury in his eyes. Pure hatred. “Then you leave me no choice, son. With one bullet, I’ll send you both to hell.”
I had no weapons. Nothing I could use. But I had a friend… and maybe he could do something.
“Brucie!” I shouted.
A flash of blue appeared over Tom’s hand.
He squeezed the trigger, and his gun just clicked.
He squeezed it again.
It clicked a second time.
Brucie appeared in his regular form on top of Tom’s gun and blew a puff of cigar smoke into his face. “Firearms. Funny thing, they don’t fire when they’re wet.”
Practically tripping over my own feet, I grabbed Devin, holding onto him for dear life as we fell into one of the pews.
Then Tom screamed as the five vampires, having finished off the rest of the room, piled on top of him.
“I can’t believe he was going to shoot me,” Devin said, shaking his head. “He was supposed to love me… He was my fucking dad! He was supposed to sacrifice everything for me…”
I squeezed Devin with whatever strength I had left. “You’re right,” I said. “He should have.”
He hugged me back, crying into my shoulder. His dad was awful. Despicable. But he was still Devin’s dad. Seeing him die like that…
I can’t imagine.
I never had a dad. No one who was supposed to love me. I could only hope that, maybe, Devin would. And if not him, then someone.
Love is a funny thing.
It wasn’t just Wolfgang’s crazed religious beliefs that had made him a monster. It was lost love. He did what he did to me for nothing more than a chance to have someone at his side, someone I was sure he’d intended to control with his compulsions, who looked like a woman he used to love.
Love can make us into monsters.
But it can also make us better. And I had to believe that most of the time, that’s what would happen.
Just sitting a moment helped me regain some of my strength. I walked over and put my hand on Alice’s shoulder as she knelt beside Johann’s body.
“I had no idea he was still alive,” she said. “I thought he was gone. And then he came back to me just to…”
“I’m sorry, Alice.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Alice said. “What I did to you… I mean, it’s not that different than what Wolfgang did. I turned you into the image of one I loved…”
I nodded. “But you’ve changed. You didn’t let those deeds make you into a monster.”
“I don’t know,” Alice said. “The things I’ve done…”
I looked around the room. Several snarling vampires stood there.
“They won’t come after him,” Alice said. “Not with my heart bound to his. His blood, it’s… not consumable.”
I nodded. “You might have been a monster before, Alice, but there’s one thing that the Order was right about. Even if their view of it was, well…warped.”
“What’s that?”
“Redemption,” I said. “These vampires, look at how they’re looking to you. I don’t know what your plans were, but if you were really hoping to lead vampires differently, if you were hoping to create a clan that does good in the world, that guards justice, I think these vampires could use your guidance.”
Alice nodded as she stood up.
Then I felt a chill strike my body. “No,” I said. “This form… I want to keep it. I…”
Everything about me changed. My legs grew longer. My hands larger.
I ran and grabbed the silver plate I’d had before. “Damnit!” I screamed. My shape from before—e
verything was back the way it was. Even that… thing between my legs. A tear fell down my cheek. “I was perfect…”
Devin looked at me and shook his head. “Alice’s heart is in me, and her blood is in you. But I think it’s me you’ve now targeted. You’ve become, again, the form of the one I desire the most.”
“But I’m not Nick,” I said. “It was Nick you wanted…”
“It was never Nick I wanted,” Devin said. “It’s you, Nicky. I’m crazy about you, just the way you are. In my eyes, you couldn’t be more beautiful.”
32
ALICE SPENT A good twenty minutes speaking to the vampires that Johann had “resurrected.” They were well-fed at this point, courtesy of the inner circle of the Order of the Morning Dawn. She sent them away.
Trying not to eavesdrop too much—but since these were vampers and it was impossible to know how long this little alliance of sorts would last—I couldn’t help but listen a little. In short, she told them that if they wanted to learn a new way to live, to exist as vampires, then they should meet her at her funeral home.
“Are you sure they’ll take you up on your invite?” I asked.
Alice shrugged. “If not, I know a good hunter who can take them down.”
I smiled. “Need my number?”
Alice shook her head. “Not really big on technology. I suppose when you grew up in a time before portable phones, picking up the technology is hard. But I know where to find you. I’ve always known where to find you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You did?”
“After your admirable attempt to take me out at the asylum, I knew I’d underestimated you from the start. Let’s just say I’ve been keeping tabs on you. It’s a lot easier to hide from someone looking for you if you know where they are.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry about Johann. I never would have… If I knew that Wolfgang had dug out his heart…”
Alice put her hand on my arm. “It’s not your fault. You did what had to be done. And if I’d been the one holding the cross at that moment, if I knew, I would have hesitated. And with Wolfgang, you can’t hesitate.”
“We need to burn his heart.” I looked down at Wolfgang’s charred and staked body and held out the crucifix, offering it to Alice. “Would you prefer to do the honors?”
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 112
