François’s anger disappeared quickly after absorbing that information. He greeted Finn very respectfully and approached him.
“I never thought I would get the chance to meet you. You are a legend among vampires.”
What? François was looking at Finn with a veneration that resembled the mass hysteria of boy-band groupies. He may as well have asked for an autograph. What was with all this absurdity? Phoenix had told me that his master was powerful, but he hadn’t mentioned that Finn was also as famous and adulated as the Beatles. At the same time, seeing the man himself, I could hardly imagine him singing “Hey Jude” in front of an ecstatic audience.
François’s next statement made me tumble back immediately to earth.
“The Greats have decided.”
I knew the verdict already, but it felt like an enormous rock had dropped into my stomach.
“The date of the execution is set for July 17 at midnight.”
That wasn’t even two whole nights! Luckily I was already sitting down, for my legs refused to hold me upright after hearing that information.
“You are green, Samantha,” François said.
“I think I need air,” I whispered.
I mostly needed to be alone.
Respecting my wish, Finn and François left me alone as I went outside.
I sat down on the steps to the manor and began a breathing exercise to chase away the sobs that threatened to escape. It was really late, or really early according to your line of thinking, and I could see the first light of dawn. The two vampires who were waiting for me inside couldn’t delay sheltering themselves from the light, and I would have to give Finn a room.
Back in the parlor, I found François shaking. I looked at Finn severely.
“What did you do to him?”
As cool as could be, he said something that made me collapse to the ground, it was that unexpected: “I did not do anything, apart from saying that I am in a position to find Karl.”
“Let’s go now!” my musketeer friend shouted.
I was distressed by my friend’s heroism mixed with recklessness. “Go where? The sun is already rising. You’ll be burned up before getting even ten miles.”
Discouraged, François accepted my logic. There was nothing to be done for the time being.
“At last, I do not think it was so stupid on Phoenix’s part to hire you,” said Finn.
Finn’s insult was rather a compliment, but it didn’t give me much pleasure. All the vampires who knew about our partnership must have thought that I was a half-witted human in the service of a boss gone nuts due to overwork. Even if they changed their minds after meeting me, that didn’t make it any more agreeable.
“You’re too kind. Explain what you’re going to do to find Karl.”
“The oldest vampires who already have a power receive a second one after a certain period of existence. Mine is to find any and all members of my species, no matter where they are. That interested the Elders at one time, but I had no desire to associate with them. As a result, not knowing any other vampire with my ability, I could live discreetly.”
François and I had the same expression of amazement on our faces, and our jaws dropped. This Finn was a gift from heaven!
I remembered then Ysis’s words.
“Ysis! She knew you were coming. That’s why she forbade me from leaving the manor. She knew you would be the key to finding Karl, and to saving them all.”
I couldn’t get over it—so that Egyptian wasn’t just a crazy escapee from an asylum in antiquity. She really had the gift of foresight, and she had used it to help us save them. Loyalty is what will save us all. If we’d left despite her orders . . .
“Finn, tell me if I can do something while you sleep.”
“Prepare two guns for us, knives, and silver chains . . . in short, everything we shall need to capture this traitor . . . and arrange the basement so that when we bring him back here, he cannot escape.”
I nodded my head, heart swelling with a sense of hope that I thought I’d never feel again. Mentally taking note of the objects to ready, I let Finn and François figure out their parts in this mission.
When everything was organized, Finn spoke again: “I am going to need time to concentrate and find him. I shall get started as soon as the sun sets. Until then, we have to rest.”
“Follow me,” I said.
I gestured to him and walked ahead in the hallway after François disappeared into his own hiding place, and I led Finn down the hall to the office. There I went to the bookcase, pulled on Candide, and showed Finn the hidden room.
“I think Phoenix would have wanted you to use his room. After all he’s told me, the connection between you two is very strong. So I think it’s the best thing to do.”
After glancing around the room and flipping through the copy of The Lord of the Rings that was still on the nightstand (it was even on the same page as my last visit), Finn honored me with a gesture of respect.
“I am happy that my progeny has found a friend such as you. Do not despair. We shall see each other tomorrow.”
Then he activated the mechanism to close the door.
I made my way back to my room in a fog of exhaustion. To my great relief, my exhaustion won out over my anxiety; for the first time in a long time, I slept deeply and soundly.
The next day, I set to work as soon as I woke up. I went down to the basement and filled two bags with weapons that would be necessary to capture a vampire as powerful and wily as Karl without killing him. When I was sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, I tackled the preparation of a room that would be properly suited to our guest.
To put it bluntly, I was assembling a torture chamber.
Oh, that didn’t give me any pleasure at all, despite what Karl had tried to do to me . . . but we didn’t have a choice. Karl was the only one who knew who was really behind the blood trafficking, and ironically, the only one who could save Phoenix. Thus despite my disgust at the thought of what would happen in the room, with the hooks and silver knives that I’d set out on a little table, my conscience kept quiet.
Finn and François appeared in the parlor and checked that their bags were ready. All that remained was finding our man . . . I didn’t know how Finn’s gift worked, but I’d laid out a map of the region just in case. Maybe it would be enough for him to close his eyes and he would be able to point to Karl’s hiding place.
“Everything is ready. Is there anything you need to use your gift?”
“Maintain absolute silence until I tell you otherwise,” he said, stretching out on the sofa as though he were about to take a nap.
Sure . . . I would have thought it would be something more impressive, a bit like the Halliwell sisters on Charmed; his manner of telling me to shut up was a tad on the annoying side . . . I sat down on one of the armchairs, crossing my arms to wait for Finn to find enlightenment, or his give his first snore . . .
To tell the truth, I still had trouble believing that luck was finally smiling on us. It was a true miracle that such a powerful vampire had arrived just when we needed him most, with a gift we needed to save Phoenix. Moreover, all this business about gifts bothered me a little . . .
Indeed, even if the official position was without a doubt to hide from human curiosity, there was a lot to fear if these super-vampires ever decided to come out and make us their slaves. Who would stop them? For the moment, it wasn’t even a question, but one day maybe . . . I hoped that I wouldn’t be here to see it.
Finn wanted to work alone, especially to make sure he wouldn’t be used by the Greats for his gift. But after an hour, I wondered if he was leading us on. I couldn’t stand to wait anymore for him to open his eyes. Besides, what even guaranteed that Karl would still be where Finn saw him by the time he and François reached the location?
What was Phoenix thinking about in his prison cell? Knowing him, he didn’t fear his end, but I worried incessantly about him and I wished I knew how he was doing. I would have liked t
o share his mental tranquility, but I was too human and, as he liked to say, too emotional. It was true that since we’d met I’d had my fill of fear, pain, and despair. But friendship and the feeling of finally doing something with my life won out more or less over the rest. Friendship . . .
Since the other day, I’d felt bitterness over my friendly connection with my boss. Strange . . . did it have anything to do with the revelation that stubbornly refused to reveal itself to me when I knew it was so close?
“I know where he is, 21 Luis Pereza Avenue, in a villa in Drake Hill. Let’s go.”
Finn’s sudden declaration brought me out of my reverie. He’d abruptly opened his eyes and stood up at the same time. François didn’t utter a single comment; he leaped to his feet, ready to take action.
“Are you sure he will be there?” I asked, following them to the garage. All this time Karl had been nearby without even Kiro, however well-informed he was, knowing anything about it. For once, Karl had figured out how to be discreet.
“I never use this gift, but I do know one thing. It is infallible.”
François got into the driver’s seat, and the two of them squealed off at high speed toward our last chance to save Talanus, Ysis, and Phoenix.
Drake Hill was an hour away from Scarborough. My companions had left around ten o’clock; accounting for the possible difficulty that capturing Karl would entail, they wouldn’t be returning before one in the morning. Then I would have to help them get our hostage downstairs, where torture awaited him.
I wasn’t completely, totally OK with that. While looking through my boss’s weapons, I’d come across a several that seemed particularly suited to making recalcitrant vampires talk. Placing them near the table where Karl would be chained up with silver to immobilize him, I couldn’t help but feel deep disgust for what would happen in that room. In any case, I didn’t want to be present for it.
Yes, I wanted Karl Sarlsberg to die. Yes, I wanted it truly and deeply . . . but I wasn’t cruel enough to want him suffer as much as I was sure he would. In fact, I hoped that he would crack and reveal his boss’s identity as fast as possible to avoid torture, even if a little voice in my head whispered that that wasn’t his way. The entire time I waited for Finn and François’s return, I ruminated on dark thoughts and prayed that one day we’d be forgiven for the horrible act that we were about to commit. Well . . .
I watched out for my friends’ arrival, and my heart skipped a beat when the entrance gate opened wide and three figures entered, struggling against each other like superpowered gladiators. I was stunned by Karl’s strength as he fought against the two other vampires.
Suddenly, Karl smashed his fist into François’s face, and François went flying, landing near me. Karl didn’t have time to escape, for Finn had gotten out his gun and in a flash shot two bullets—one into each of Karl’s thighs. Karl fell to the ground as the silver bullets rendered his legs useless.
Recovering my wits as I saw my companions begin to drag their burden in the direction of the basement, I walked ahead of them to open the door. Of course, the entire trip was punctuated by the most abominable cursing and insults ever . . .
Karl was tied up such that he couldn’t even move a finger, and despite his anger, the fright in his eyes was clear as he looked at the instruments that were laid out near him.
“You can torture me all you want, I’ll never tell you anything!” he shrieked.
Finn approached and leaned over him, smiling like a benevolent father would when wishing his son good night.
“I am also very happy to see you again, my dear son. Have you forgotten the fifty years you spent with me? It seems that is the case, or else you would never dare to claim that you can resist the treatment I am reserving for you. Do remind yourself how effective I am in that regard . . . ,” Finn whispered.
Our hostage’s terror attested to his executioner’s words and made me even more nauseous about the prospect of what was to follow . . . Finn didn’t want me to leave and ordered me to stay there along with François. I’d protested at first, but the look he’d thrown in my direction dissuaded me from continuing. As for my musketeer friend, he didn’t seem bothered in the least, and it was then that his vampire nature truly showed.
Since we met, I’d found François to be more human than all his fellow vampires. He liked chatting with me and was interested in many things. Besides, his increasing love for Angela and our friendship had almost made me forget who he really was . . . But seeing his steady hand when he handed Finn instruments of torture, his impassibility when he heard the screams of our enemy, his old friend, and saw his blood spattering all over us as well as the walls . . . I had to face facts. There was nothing human about him . . . and I didn’t have a place with them in that hell.
I had just enough time to run to a bucket before vomiting, unable to hold it in with that atrocious spectacle before my eyes.
“I won’t stay another minute in this room! Strangle me if you must, I can’t watch this!” I yelled at Finn. He looked at me with exasperation, clearly forgetting that humans still had a conscience.
Once I got upstairs and slammed the basement door closed behind me, I breathed in great gulps of air as if to wash out my lungs from the waves of absolute suffering emanating from Karl alongside his cries of agony. Cries that still reached my ears despite the distance . . .
Nausea overcame me, so I ran to the bathroom to purge myself again of this nightmare. Lifting my head from the toilet bowl, I saw traces of red on it: I was so covered in blood from head to toe that I’d left marks on the seat.
I frantically took off my clothes in a rush to get rid of my stained garments and take a shower. I wouldn’t care one bit if either of the vampires came upstairs and saw me half naked; I put my things in a plastic bag, which I threw in the trash, before heading upstairs to shower.
I must have stayed in the bathroom for an hour, sobbing and trembling despite the hot water running over me. I hoped that my tears would wash away those ignoble images of torture forever. I took a sponge and rubbed at my skin so hard to remove all traces of Karl’s blood that my skin became red and painful. It took me a long time to resolve to leave the bathroom, but I managed eventually. I didn’t want to return downstairs, where the echoes of Karl’s screams would continue to assail my ears, so I stayed in my room, on the sofa, waiting for news.
I waited a long time . . . a very long time . . .
I’d fallen asleep when François finally showed up. He woke up me gently, which didn’t prevent me from jumping, and I appreciated the fact that he’d had the decency to change his clothes before coming to speak to me. He seemed tired.
“I came to give you the news before going to rest,” he said, letting himself fall onto the sofa next to me.
“Did he talk?”
“No, and that is what worries us. No one has ever resisted Finn before during a torture session.”
“What does that mean?”
“Finn thinks there is only one explanation. Karl is protecting his creator.”
“I thought his creator abandoned him. At least, unless you mean the vampire who adopted him after he left Finn, but Karl said he was dead.”
“No, not his adoptive father. The connection could not be as strong in that case. The only answer is that Karl has reconnected with his long-lost creator.”
“That’s completely crazy. I thought that the obedience connection had to go away after a hundred years because of the risks of the progeny rebelling.”
“Not necessarily. If the creator never took the step to set the progeny free, the younger vampire can stay connected to the creator for an indefinite amount of time. The limit of a hundred years was adopted to avoid a master-slave relationship between the two, or to avoid jealousy in the case of multiple progenies.”
“So the person we’re looking for is the man who transformed Karl into a vampire . . .”
“And if he was ordered not to talk, even under the worst torture, it will be ext
remely difficult to get his creator’s identity from Karl before Phoenix’s execution.”
“That’s horrible,” I murmured, almost sympathizing with the man who was undergoing great torments downstairs, to the utter indifference of the man who had never intended to act like a respectable father to his undesired progeny, who had abandoned him and left the duty of educating him to Finn and someone else, two complete strangers . . . only to reconnect with Karl now and force him to protect his identity at any cost.
We were silent for a few moments, united in our horror about the situation and the despair that despite everything we were trying, Phoenix’s execution was inevitable.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It is already day.”
“Oh?”
“We have closed all the shutters to protect us against the sun, and we are taking turns with the, um, festivities downstairs. I will continue to torture the man I thought was my friend for more than three hundred years while Finn rests.”
I placed my hand on his knee in a gesture of support, drawing from him a meager smile.
“I do not think that will be enough to save him. All that we are gaining from this is a butcher status.”
At the very least, I knew that even if François was perpetrating some of the torture and tolerating the sight of Karl’s blood on the walls, he wasn’t any less disgusted by it. That was reassuring. I couldn’t stand to be shut up in the manor anymore, just waiting for Karl to finally give us what we needed, so I made a decision.
“I’m going to go search that villa.”
“What?”
“Knowing you, you were expedient enough when you went to retrieve him that the police or the neighbors wouldn’t notice and come sniffing around. I’ll go. I’m in no danger during the day, and maybe I’ll find something that will help us find his creator. I can’t stay here just twiddling my thumbs. I’ll ask Angela to help me.”
François considered my proposition for a second, then nodded.
“You are right, we have to put all the odds in our favor. Especially when we have a lot going against us.”
Samantha Watkins: Chronicles of an Extraordinary Ordinary Life (Samantha Watkins Series Book 1) Page 35
