by Al K. Line
"Of course I do, I'm not a complete amateur." What a bloody cheek! Who did he think he was dealing with? Don't answer that, you're not seeing me at my finest.
"As you say. Please, continue, but be quick. They are there, Arthur, and you aren't going to like it."
"I bet I won't. Okay, look, Vicky, I don't live here, I live miles away, in Cornwall. By the coast in a tiny village called Mousehole. It's quiet, and it's safe. I'm out a mile from the village, and I really do live on a farm."
"But this is a two up two down in one of the worst parts of the city," protested Vicky.
"You'll see," I said, wishing nobody had to.
"This I have got to see," said Nathan. "There's only one way for this to be possible, and Cerberus have been looking for it for millennia. How'd you do it, Arthur? How'd you get it, find it?"
"Because I'm good at what I do," I replied testily. Honestly, I usually was.
"I know that. We would never have been using you all these years unless you were about the best there was."
Nathan wasn't paying me a compliment, he was stating fact. Not that being used like this made me feel better, but it was nice to get recognition. Yeah, The Hat had some real mad skills.
"Okay, let's go kill lots of vampires," I said with a sigh.
All I could think about was George. It was the middle of the night. Should I call her, just to be safe? No, why worry her? Then I whispered, "Screw it," and fished out my phone, smiling as my fingers brushed past the package still in my pocket.
I called. It rang and rang but she didn't pick up.
It didn't mean anything. She was just a heavy sleeper and often didn't hear the phone when I'd called in the night then rushed home in a panic only to find her safe and sound, sleeping so deeply a nuclear explosion wouldn't wake her.
She was fine, nothing to worry about.
I was worried as hell.
A Homecoming
As we got out the car, I forced myself to focus, to calm my beating heart. George would be okay. There was no reason for the vampires to go to my house, and they couldn't get in even if they'd wanted to.
I kicked myself in the ankle, hard, because I deserved it. Yes, they could. If they'd broken the wards on my front door here, they could get inside my house there. But why bother at all? Safety? Just to get away from Cerberus, make their life more difficult? It didn't make sense. I was missing something, but then a thought came to me.
There was something they needed, something they couldn't get here. There was no reason to burn down their house unless to eradicate any evidence of themselves, start afresh, or destroy something they no longer needed. However hard I tried, I could think of no logical reason for them to go to this amount of trouble to get away.
Were they after me? Was that why they'd vanished through my front door? No, as if they were this good they'd know where I was, and I believed they were that good.
What then?
My heart sank. More. It fell to the floor and got stomped on. Not wanting to believe it, I turned to Vicky.
"Listen, this is important. I mean the most important thing in the world."
"Okay," she said warily. "What is it? You're scaring me, Arthur."
"You finally figured it out?" said Nathan. "Why do you think I wanted to hurry?"
"Shut your fucking mouth! What is with you? Why don't you just tell me, rather than playing these idiotic games?"
"Because I'm in charge, Arthur, not you. This happens how I say, you do what I say. Understand?"
"Just shut up." I turned back to Vicky. "What did that professor say about the ritual? How they got it to work?"
"Something about a score of Children of the Blood, one for each century, no more, no less. That stuff about the circle and all the other rituals. The bathing, the cleansing, and everything. What? What is it?"
"Wait a minute, I'm trying to think." I hadn't paid enough attention when Vicky had read the stuff about the ritual to resurrect Mikalus, more concerned with how long it would take them to do it than anything else. The cleansing. The final cleansing before the ritual proper began. Before they resurrected Mikalus.
What had Vicky said?
"Ugh, I can't remember. What did they say about the cleansing? How they actually resurrected him?" I asked, almost shaking her in my panic.
"Something about pure ones. Being unsullied," said Vicky, looking at me with something close to fear in her eyes. Fear of me.
"And you shall be cleansed by the pure one, unsullied and touched by the universe," said Nathan.
"They mean a virgin witch, don't they? That's what the words mean?" I knew it was right, but wanted to hear Nathan say it.
"Yes. They each have to take her blood, be cleansed by a witch who has, er, never known a man."
Half of me felt pleased that George had a boyfriend, and she was seventeen, and all girls that age had sex nowadays didn't they? Or so I'd heard. For once I really regretted not having "that" conversation with her, just so I could be sure. But teenagers lie anyway, don't they? She would have probably told me to shut up and said it was none of my business.
Or had she not slept with her boyfriend? Was she still pure? What a ridiculous way to put it. Pure. Unsullied. As if such a beautiful thing as sex made you dirty somehow. Guess the morals and attitudes of ancient vampires were different to the modern ones, although maybe not.
A witch was a rare thing compared to wizards. Don't ask me why. It's just the way it was. Sure, there were plenty, but I guess it had always been a bit of a boys' club. And virgin witches? You could count them on one hand as it took years of training and most couldn't even perform the simplest of magic until well into their twenties or thirties, often later. That went for men and women both. Maybe my daughter was the only virgin witch in the country. Maybe that's why they wanted me to get the ashes for them, because they knew all about me. Knew who I was and about my daughter, and wanted not only the ashes but to find out where George was as they needed her if this was to happen any time soon.
"Let's go. We are definitely going to spill blood this night."
I walked to the door and knew in an instant the wards had been tampered with. They were back, to a degree, but were off slightly. They'd surprised the vampires with the backups I had in place, and I knew there'd be a few bodies, but the rest had got through. These guys had some serious magic of their own.
"What, we all going?" I asked, turning to everyone crowded around me. I was answered with mute nods. "Fine. Here goes nothing."
I took off my hat, removed the small circular charm on the short silver chain pinned to it, and placed it over what looked like a keyhole but was for a unique kind of key. As the circle, with a personal and intricate shape inside touched the magic-infused silver of the recess, it sparkled faintly with an ethereal glow and the lock likewise. The wards drifted away from the door like idle thoughts and with a creak I'd put in place just because all mysterious doors should creak, the door badly in need of a paint-job eased open to reveal an ordinary hallway with a cheap carpet and a basic kitchen on view at the rear of the tiny house.
Plus two small piles of ash where the first to enter had tripped the backups.
"It's just a house," said Brains, looking curiously inside.
"I thought you said it was—"
"Just hold hands and walk," I said, interrupting Vicky.
With Brains first, then Nathan, then Vicky, and me bringing up the rear, we held hands and walked forward along the narrow, dim hall, lit only by a bulb I left on at all times, covered with a paper lantern thick with dust. I closed the door behind us, quickly put the wards back in place, although it felt rather futile, attached the charm to my hat, and said, "Just keep walking. You have to go under the arch."
Everyone stared from me to the rather oversized archway with two supporting pillars that blended roughly with the walls. It was plain, hardly worth a second glance. I'd plastered over it myself just in case of prying eyes, but beneath the plaster and the magnolia paint resided on
e of the most spectacular, amazing, downright incredible magical items in the history of humanity.
The Gates of Bakaudif. One here, its twin at the other end. Remind me to tell you how I got them some time, it's quite a story.
"Go, just go," I sighed.
Brains, only pausing for a second, shrugged his shoulders and walked. Vicky gasped as first he then Nathan disappeared and she turned to me, afraid. "Don't let go," I warned, "and keep walking."
She nodded, faced front, and I followed her through as she vanished.
My daughter better not be a virgin, was probably the strangest thought any father had ever had about his child. But right now I wished with all my heart that she'd got it on with at least somebody.
As long as he never set foot in my house because then I'd kill him. That's what fathers do, right?
No Car
"Bugger, they stole my car." I wasn't surprised, but it was damn inconvenient. "What, why are you all looking at me funny?"
"That was, without doubt, the most amazing thing I have ever experienced," said Nathan, face lit up like the vampires' old house.
"Awesome," said Brains, turning and peering at the narrow arched entrance we'd emerged through. It looked like a simple archway into a tiny room from the main part of the barn, but behind the rough plasterwork it housed the other of the only two Gates of Bakaudif still in existence.
"We just teleported!" Vicky clapped her hands together in glee and did a little jig. "Wait until I tell the kids."
I knew this was a bad idea. "Vicky, you can't tell the kids. You can't tell anyone, ever. Brains, I wouldn't dream of telling you what to do, but you cannot talk of this, understand?" I tried to be polite, but he still scowled and went rigid at my words.
"I won't, but not because you told me not to," he said, sounding like a petulant child.
"Whatever. Now's not the time to play gangster."
"I'm not a gangster, I'm a victim. Now I'm free and—"
"Bullshit, don't give me that. You and I both know that if you get out of this alive you're going to go run Merrick's business, like you already do. Spare me the excuses."
"As you wish." Brains wandered away down the straw-laden floor of the cavernous barn.
I bought the plot of land it stood on, and the barn, for a ridiculous price years before, part of my move to a safer place. It was very impressive. Huge vaulted roof, everything built without a single nail. Just expert carpentry and the sides filled in with brick, flint, anything the original builders could lay their hands on. It had stood for centuries and wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
Perfect for storing cars—I changed them constantly, both here and in the city, often forgetting what I owned or which one I was currently driving—and sundry items I might need when going to the city. But no car, and that was bad.
"We're like the first people to travel through a portal," marveled Vicky, looking so tiny and frail in the huge space.
I wished I hadn't got her involved, had thought she'd bail, but she really was loving this. But there was no time to think about that now, we had to get moving.
"Nathan, you got people coming to get the vampires, right?"
"Yes, but they'll be a while. We could have brought people with us but time is more important than number of bodies so let's get to this."
His veneer was cracking, the clipped tones getting sloppy, the words more relaxed. I wondered if he was anything like the person he presented, or someone else entirely.
"We're a couple miles from my house, so even if someone came through they still wouldn't know where to go. It's a long walk, so it'll be best to cut across down to the village, get a car, and drive. It'll be quicker."
"Let's go!" shouted Vicky, and marched through the barn, ponytail bouncing. Didn't this woman understand the trouble we were in?
With fear mounting, a sense of urgency overriding my ability to think logically and come up with a plan, all I could think of was get a car, drive home, and make sure George was safe.
I hurried to catch up with the others, all now waiting at the barn door.
"Wait!" I shouted, but it was too late. Vicky lifted the large latch, pulled on the door, then flew thirty feet backward as a dark shape darted out.
Then another, and another.
A Hold-Up
I ran back to Vicky while she was still bouncing along the floor, rolled up tight in a ball, head tucked in. Finally, she came to a stop and I got to her a moment later and said, "Damn, you've done this before."
"It's all the gymnastics as a kid, plus I practice with the girls." She smiled and sprang to her feet, seemingly none the worse for being thrown like a rag doll.
"That's my girl. Stay back here, but don't," I warned, "go back through the portal without me. You'll be fried to a crisp, understand?"
"Aye, aye, my captain."
I turned and ran back toward the three men blocking the doorway. The barn doors were wide open now, revealing a full moon high above the sea in the distance. Ghoulish moonlight reflected on the water like tiny spectral ships. There was the faintest hint of light pollution below the rise of the hill where the tiny village of Mousehole slept peacefully, unawares a battle for not only their future but that of humanity was ready to be raged above.
Oh, how I longed for this to be one of the days when I wandered through the village, breathing deep of salt-heavy air tinged with the tang of vinegar as tourists flocked to the fish and chip shop in their droves and batted at seagulls as they dove to pinch the steaming morsels right out their hands.
"You better not have touched her," I warned the three men blocking our way.
"She will be safe if you allow us to finish our work," said a man to the right. I turned my attention to him but it was hard to keep him in focus, so ordinary was he, so entirely forgettable. This was no Tenth or Twentieth or however far along they were now, this was maybe a Third, Fourth at most. The more removed from Mikalus, the more like real people they were, and this guy was far from real people, same as the other two.
Guess they'd drawn the short straw and been put on guard duty, but if all went well they'd still get their chance. Become true Seconds with all the power that entailed. Although, it was a little hazy as to what that might truly be.
"No way will I let you touch a hair on her head. She's my daughter."
"As I said, she will be protected. She will be safe. She will be free."
I didn't like the way he said free. Free as in free to go? Or free as in, "Look, I'm a vampire, and free of fear of death?"
"You mean you'll turn her?"
"She is the chosen one," was all he said. Cryptic bugger. I'd show him cryptic.
That did it, I reached for my wand but felt powerful resistance around my wrist as I did so. Brains held fast and, eyes doing a strange flickering thing, changing shape, blinking fast, said, "I will deal with these creatures and I will catch you up. You owe me, Arthur, 'The Hat' Salzman. I expect something in return."
I nodded, and watched as he carefully removed first his watch, placing it aside, then proceeded to strip.
Everyone was silent, mesmerized by the calm actions of a tall and skinny man with a very serious, almost plastic expression as he took off his clothes without any hint of embarrassment or concern.
Vicky gasped and put a hand to her mouth as his smart black shirt was removed, revealing a terrible corruption of scars across both his back and front. Brains was a mess, livid tracks of viciousness splashed across ghostly flesh. An abstract painting come to life. The marks were no result of knife fights or any kind of weapon. No, these were from entirely natural weapons. Teeth and claws. Over many years, he'd been slashed, gouged, chewed on and worse. His left pectoral was grisly, terribly malformed with a chunk off the side. A wild, raw, pink confusion of scar upon scar where flesh had knitted back badly.
Naked, Brains said, "So it begins," and stepped forward.
The vampires spread out. Nathan moved aside, and so did Vicky and I, leaving Brains in the cent
er of the barn, naked but for his black cotton socks. I was about to tell him, but figured it would spoil the moment, so remained silent as he lifted his head, turned to me, and said, "You're lucky this happened today."
Brains lifted his chin, closed his eyes as if in ecstasy, and the tight skin on his neck bulged as his Adam's apple grew and poked hard as if ready to burst through. A guttural rumble emanated from his stretched mouth, lips pared back to reveal teeth like ivory. Then he howled at the full moon, a primeval sound that made adrenaline surge and the hairs on my arms stand on end.
With a throaty scream like he was giving birth to a fifty pound baby, he fell to his hands and knees. His entire body spasmed then vibrated so fast he was nothing but a blur of white flesh then brown.
In a matter of seconds the change was complete.
The lycanthrope pounced.
A Rare Insight
The therianthropic creature was mostly wolf, but not quite. Although, to be fair, it was rather dark and Brains, or what was Brains, moved damn fast. Wolf-man, man-wolf, half-and-half, or whatever he was.
Old vampires were fast, and mightily strong, and these Fourths were good for their number, but one thing they were not, was man-wolves with the teeth and claws to go with it.
Brains made short work of them. It was horrifying to watch, but watch I did. These men threatened my daughter and I'd see them stripped of their flesh and faces. They deserved it, and worse.
The creature tore through the last vampire's belly with a sickening squelch. Vicky buried her face in my chest as the innards were snapped at with red and brown stained teeth. The huge, malformed jaw of the creature flung organs and muscle into the shadowy recesses, food for the rats and mice, then lifted its head, shook once, before tearing out the throat in one swift movement as he had the others. The vampire died.
Good riddance. Not because of what they were, we all had our faults, but because of what they'd threatened.
Vicky kept peeking from where she'd buried her head, disgusted yet drawn to the horrifying display of unbridled animal violence. I understood, had done it myself, seen it happen on many occasions. There was something perversely compelling about witnessing acts of violence. You felt sick to your stomach, wanted to heave and hide and run away, and your body shakes and your mind reels at the sights you ought never to see, yet you have to look. Like watching a horror movie when you know it will be scary but you look anyway, peeking between your fingers.
