by Amy Cross
“You'd do well to leave,” a voice said suddenly, “while you still can.”
Turning, Quill looked up the stairs and saw that there was a dark figure at the top, staring down at him. Her features were hidden by shadows, but he could already tell that she was young, perhaps just a teenager.
“To whom,” he asked, “do I have the pleasure of speaking?”
“There's nothing for you here.”
“Is that so?”
“I knew you'd come eventually,” she continued. “I heard the telephone ringing, and I almost answered once or twice, but then I realized that I had absolutely nothing to say to you. We're busy here at Raven's Briar and we have no need of interference from the outside world.” She took a step forward, still looking down at him from the top of the stairs. “You must turn around, leave this place, and never even think of coming back. Forget that Raven's Briar ever existed. You've already done so much harm here.”
He stared at her for a moment. “You still haven't told me your name.”
“My name is Camilla Perlaine,” she replied calmly.
“That means nothing to me.”
“Good.”
He paused. “Where is Ms. Eversham? Does she not want to come and greet me, or is she otherwise detained?”
“Some of the children are playing with her head in the dormitory.”
“I see.” Another pause. “And what about the rest of her?”
“Picked apart by now, although I believe I saw one of her hands in the dining room earlier. Most of the skin had been picked away, but a little remained.”
“Might I ask how she met her end?”
“There was...” This time it was Camilla's turn to pause, as she searched for the right word. “There was an incident.”
“Langley and the Le Compte girl showed up, did they?”
“We're quite alright now,” Camilla continued. “You needn't worry about us. With Ms. Eversham gone, we're starting to make Raven's Briar a more productive place, more in tune with our needs. A lot of the other girls perished, but a few of us survived and we're working to build something more sustainable.”
“The orphans have taken over the orphanage?”
“Something like that.” She began to make her way down the stairs, until finally reaching the hallway and coming face-to-face with him. “Ms. Eversham turned out not to have our best interests at heart. We had a little help in overthrowing her and now we'd very much like to be left alone to recover. I've been through her papers and I know all about the little arrangement she had with you. This is quite a plan you've been cooking, isn't it? Killing Edgar Le Compte is just the first stage, but you've clearly got your eyes on a much greater prize.” She paused. “Still, you need to leave us out of it. The events taking place on Thaxos have nothing to do with us or -”
“Nothing to do with you?” he replied, interrupting her. “Are you serious?”
“Thaxos is a long way from here.”
“You should be ashamed to say such things,” he continued, his voice filled with a slowly-growing sense of anger. “You're a cold-blood, like me. All the children here were cold-bloods, as am I. Don't you understand that I'm doing this for our species? I'm striking back at Edgar Le Compte because of what he did to our nests during the war!”
“The war was a long time ago now.”
“The pain lives on!”
“Not for us.” She paused. “With all due respect to you, if any is due at all... The war ended long before any of us were born. We recognize the horrors that took place, but we have no wish to extend the pain and suffering into the modern day. Cold-bloods and warm-bloods don't need to keep fighting simply because that is how things used to be. Maybe, Quillian, it's time for you to stop fighting and try to build something new instead.”
She waited for him to reply, but he simply stared at her.
“You should leave now,” she added finally. “While you still can.”
“You're right,” he replied, “but first, I should you apart and leave the pieces staked outside, so you can be burned by the afternoon sun. You're a disgrace to your species.”
“Perhaps. But if so, I shall just have to live with that fact, won't I? I don't have the stomach to get involved in a war that ended a long time ago, even if an old man is determined to keep it going.”
He stepped toward her. “If I have to hear one more word from your foul mouth -”
“Don't,” she said firmly.
“Or what? Do you -” Before he could finish, he heard a faint hissing sound from nearby, and he turned just in time to see that there were a couple of figures crawling through the darkness, making their way from the far side of the hallway. Hearing another hiss over his shoulder, he turned and saw a few more of the figures, and finally he realized that he had been surrounded by half a dozen cold-blooded children. He gripped his walking stick a little more tightly, as if he was considering making a move.
“My fellow survivors,” Camilla told him calmly. “There are eight of us, if you were wondering. Eight left out of more than one hundred who lived here before. The rest were turned to ash by Ms. Eversham.”
“She would never do that,” he spat back at her.
“She did.”
“And who told you that? Madeleine Le Compte? You've fallen for warm-blooded propaganda.”
“I saw it myself. She acted as if she cared about us, but when push came to shove, there was pure anger and hatred in her eyes. She saw us as vermin to be exterminated, and she let sunlight into the orphanage. You have no idea how it sounded as they screamed and burned.” She paused for a moment, as if she was reliving every moment of that horror again. “She smiled as they died. I don't know how, exactly, but she took some pleasure from their deaths.”
“She really killed them?” he asked, ashen-faced.
Camilla nodded.
“Then she must have realized you were all weak! She was a strong, good woman, and she never would have done that without a reason.”
“Perhaps, but you're weak too, aren't you? That stick isn't for decoration. You're old now, Quillian. No matter how strong or powerful you were in the old days, now you're just another old vampire, and you've clearly exerted yourself recently. No matter how you try to hide it, you don't seem to be in shape for a serious battle.”
“I can still take you all on!”
“Can you?” She paused, before a faint smile crossed her lips. “You could absolutely kill most of us, but are you confident you could finish us all off entirely? Isn't there a danger that one or two of us might survive and strike a fatal wound that leaves you dead?” She waited for a reply, before taking a step closer. “Go ahead, if you think you can do it. I should warn you, though, that we shall fight for our lives.”
He opened his mouth to reply to her, but for a moment the words seemed to stick in his throat.
“Well?” she asked finally. “We don't have all day. What is your decision?”
Before he could reply, he heard a faint thump nearby, and he turned just in time to see Ms. Eversham's severed head rolling from the shadows. As it came to a rest near the door, he saw that most of the skin had been stripped from the skull, although the eyes were intact.
“What happened to Constant?” he asked cautiously.
“He's still in the oven,” Camilla replied. “We shall have to scrape him out at some point.”
“But he's dead?”
“Very. It's not a great loss, though. If he'd lived, we'd have driven him out. I don't think any of us would like to taste any more of his foul cooking.”
“I see.” He paused for a moment, before turning and leaning on his stick as he made his way back to the door. “I can see that there's nothing left for me here. You're all abominations of the highest order, but I don't have time to teach you the errors of your ways. In the old days, I'd have killed you easily, but you're right.” Stopping at the door, he turned back to Camilla as the other children gathered around her. “I'm an old man now. I'm weak and infirm,
and I might not be able to beat you in a straight fight. Fortunately, I have other methods at my disposal when it comes to Baron Edgar Le Compte, and I can assure you that once I've ended his miserable life, I intend to come back here and drag you miserable wretches kicking and screaming into the sun.”
“We shall be waiting for you,” Camilla replied.
“Just tell me one thing,” he continued. “When Madeleine Le Compte took Kate Langley away from here, was Ms. Langley in good health?”
Camilla paused. “She was unconscious. She had suffered an injury to her chest.”
“I see,” he replied. “Then it seems Ms. Eversham had completed the most important part of her task. The rest is an irrelevance.” Wincing a little with pain, he kicked the severed head, sending it rolling back toward the children. “When the cold-blooded vampire race rises again, it will be no thanks to your efforts. I shall come and burn you one day, but for now I must return to Thaxos and finish what I started. Edgar Le Compte might not realize it yet, but he is about to face his final moments.”
***
“Get her up there!” Jennifer shouted, as she struggled to lift Kate's limp body from the boat. “Grab her arms!”
“Yeah, sure,” Madeleine replied, leaning down to help. “Keep shouting at the blind girl, why don't you? It's not like I'm already doing my best. Jesus Christ, I need a drink like you wouldn't believe!” Taking hold of Kate's shoulders, she hauled her up and then began to carry her along the jetty. “Wow, Kate, you're actually slightly heavier than I expected. Maybe you need to watch what you eat from now on, I'm not sure how Edgar would react if you developed love handles. Then again, he's so love-sick, he'd probably find them cute.” Stopping, she sniffed the air. “Ah, the sweet smell of home, and...”
She paused, before frowning.
“A party?” she added finally, realizing she could hear people laughing and talking nearby. “A barbecue?”
“Is Kate going to be okay?” Anna asked as she and Jennifer hurried along the jetty. “Why didn't she wake up while we were coming home?”
“She's going to be fine, sweetheart,” Jennifer replied, her voice filled with tension. “She's just having a long sleep, but now we're back on Thaxos, everything's going to be just fine.”
“Said no-one ever,” Madeleine muttered, carrying Kate across the town square. “You've got eyes, so tell me. What's going on at the cantina? I smell meat being cooked, and I smell alcohol, and I smell sweaty humans, and I smell alcohol... Did I mention the alcohol?”
“It looks like some kind of celebration,” Jennifer replied, “but -”
“Typical,” Madeleine continued. “These peasants never do anything fun, and then as soon as I'm away for a while, they start having parties. If I wasn't so full of myself, I'd actually feel slightly offended. Fortunately, I'm not the kind of person who goes off and sulks. I think I'll dive right in and have myself a good time. I deserve that, don't you think?”
“We have to get Kate to Edgar,” Jennifer told her, as she saw that some of the party-goers had noticed their arrival and were staring in horror. “There's no time to -”
“We can chill for a while,” Madeleine replied, stopping near the door to the cantina and setting Kate down on the ground. “People get so caught up on things in this place. Okay, you just wait here while I pop inside and find out what kind of cocktails they do here -”
“Madeleine!” Jennifer said firmly. “We have to keep moving!”
“I'm thirsty!” Madeleine replied, wiping her hands on the sides of her trousers before reaching her arms out and stumbling in the general direction of the door. “I haven't had a decent drink since those mojitos in Parios. Will no-one help a blind woman who desperately wants to get to the bar? Is there not one person here with a conscience and a kind heart?”
“What's going on?” Doctor Lassiter asked, rushing past her and kneeling next to Kate. Pulling her shirt aside, he saw the thick wound over her chest. “My God, what happened to her?”
“It's a long story,” Jennifer replied, “but we have to get her to Edgar.”
“She needs a doctor,” he pointed out as he checked Kate's pulse. “She's barely alive, her...” Pausing for a moment, he frowned. “Her pulse is erratic, I can't quite make out the rhythm.”
“With all due respect,” Jennifer continued, “I don't think there's much a doctor can do for her. She's been weakening during the whole journey from Parios and no matter what we try, she won't wake up. Edgar can do things for her that no-one else can. We need to get her up to the mansion and hope that he knows what to do.”
“I'll fetch a cart,” said one of the other men nearby, before hurrying around the side of the building.
“It looks like she's been torn open,” Doctor Lassiter continued, running his fingers across the crude stitches that were starting to break apart. “This wound is infected, she could die from that alone if it's not treated soon. Who did this to her? I've seen cuts of meat in the butcher's window that have been carved with more care.”
As soon as the cart had been brought around, Jennifer and the doctor carefully lifted Kate up and placed her on the back, before climbing up to join her. Madeleine had already emerged from the cantina with and, after a little persuasion, agreed to go with them, helping Anna up in the process. Finally, as startled drinkers watched in horror, the cart was pulled across the town square and over to the dirt path that led up to Edgar's mansion.
“This is a deep wound,” Lassiter muttered as he continued to examine Kate's chest. Thick stitches ran across the wound and under her left breast, holding the reddened skin together but tearing in places and allowing blood to seep through. “It looks as if whoever did this, they cut all the way through her ribs, almost as if...” He peeled back some of the skin, to take a closer look. “My God, I can see her heart beating!”
“Cool, isn't it?” Madeleine said with a smile. “That's not all, either. You'll faint if you see what else is in there.”
“It's a miracle she's still alive,” he continued. “I should have stopped at the surgery to pick up my medical bag.”
“Don't worry,” Madeleine told him, “Edgar's got loads of stuff like that. Blades, drills, metal plates... You name it, he'll have it somewhere in one of his toolboxes. Of course, it might need a little clean first. He tends to put things away dirty.”
“Can you save her?” Jennifer asked, turning to the doctor.
“I...” He paused for a moment. “I honestly don't know. With the best facilities and with some assistance, I might have a chance, but -”
“Relax,” Madeleine replied, interrupting him as the cart rode over a particularly bumpy section of the path, “you don't have to do anything. In fact, you can jump off and go back to your wedding celebration, you're completely surplus to requirements here. There's only one person on Thaxos who can do anything to help Kate, and I think we all know who that is. I'll give you a clue, though. He's moody, a little grumpy, and he lives in a big house that looks like it was built to compensate for something.”
“You're drunk!” Jennifer hissed at her.
“I know. Jealous?”
For the next half hour, as the cart continued along the bumpy road, Doctor Lassiter continued to work on Kate, more out of a sense of duty than because he actually thought he could help. Madeleine, meanwhile, finished her drink and then began complaining that she was out, while Jennifer tried to console Anna and tell her daughter that everything would be okay, even though she didn't believe that for one moment. Every time she glanced at Kate, in fact, Jennifer couldn't shake the feeling that in normal circumstances they'd already be too late.
“What in the world is wrong?” Jacob asked when they eventually reached the mansion. Hurrying to the cart, he took one look at Kate before turning and running back to the door, calling out for his master.
“That old man cracks me up,” Madeleine muttered, jumping down from the cart before it had quite come to a stop. “I need a glass of brandy. Who else wants one?”
<
br /> Ignoring her, Doctor Lassiter and Jennifer carefully maneuvered Kate off the back of the cart and began to carry her to the mansion's main door. Once they reached the hallway, Jacob and Nixon arrived and guided them along one of the corridors until they reached the main study, where Nixon quickly cleared the desk and helped set Kate down. His eyes wide with horror, he stared down at Kate's damaged chest.
“Can you help her?” Jennifer asked.
“I...” Pausing, he checked Kate's pulse. “She should be dead.”
“She's clinging on somehow,” Lassiter pointed out.
“I know,” Nixon continued, “but... This is beyond anything that should be possible for her. No human should be able to survive this much trauma!”
“She's a strong one, alright,” Madeleine said, stumbling into the room with a drink in her hand. “Almost suspiciously so, in fact. If one were of a suspicious mind, one might start wondering whether there's something else going on here that merits closer inspection.” Smiling, she took a sip from her glass. “One might wonder,” she added darkly, “what Edgar has been up to, and why he hasn't told any of us.”
“Fetch him!” Nixon shouted, turning to her. “We need Edgar here right now!”
“He's on his way,” Madeleine continued, stepping closer, “but before he gets here, perhaps you'd like to know what's lurking in that ribcage of hers.”
“I don't have time for your games,” Nixon told her. “I have to work out how to fix this.”
“Look,” Madeleine replied, reaching past him. Before anyone could stop her, she pulled Kate's shirt aside and then dug her fingers into the wound, tearing the ribs aside and exposing Kate's beating heart.
“Stop!” Lassiter hissed, trying to pull her away. “Are you insane?”
“Yes,” Madeleine said firmly, setting her brandy down. “As a matter of fact, I am. Honestly, Doc, you're a little late to this particular party.”
“Don't look,” Jennifer told Anna, pulling her daughter away from the horrific scene.
