Lord Taranas chuckled. “I’d hardly call the most prolific vampire hunter in all of history ‘innocent.’ Nor do I view most humans as innocent, for that matter. Or I should say, it doesn’t matter to me whether they’re innocent or not. All humans are puppets to be used at best and food to be eaten at worst. That’s a lesson you will learn one of these days, Tara, as your blood thirst grows.”
“Well, I have no intention of drinking human blood like you guys,” I said. I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m going to be a Pure. I’ll get my blood from animals.”
“You can say whatever you want, young Tara, but it won’t matter,” said Lord Taranas. He raised a finger to the ceiling. “Under my influence, you will do exactly everything I tell you to, up to and including drinking human blood. Your defiant attitude is something I will break one of these days, as I have broken the attitudes of many vampires stronger than you over the years.”
I had no idea what Lord Taranas meant by ‘breaking’ my attitude, but I doubted it would be anything pleasant. “Look, I’ll do whatever you want me to do, but let me avoid drinking human blood, okay? I don’t want to have that on my conscience.”
“The conscience is the first thing to go for most vampires,” said Lord Taranas. “But this is irrelevant. All I need you to do for the moment is wield the Vampire Sword once we gain access to the dimension where it is currently being kept. We can talk about the other things I need you to do later, after we have begun the process of overthrowing the Vampire Council and, eventually, the world.”
I was about to respond to that, when all of a sudden the door to the room opened silently and one of Lord Taranas’ minions appeared, who did not appear to be the one from before. “Lord Taranas, I have come to inform you that the ritual is complete and ready for practice as soon as you are ready.”
“Excellent,” said Lord Taranas. He looked at me and smiled that same insane smile from before. “What are we waiting for? Let us go, Tara, go and make the world tremble at the name of Lord Taranas.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The ritual that Lord Taranas kept talking about took place outside of the mansion in its backyard. I stood in the backyard of the mansion, still without Domination, staring up at a tall granite pillar which rose out of the center of the backyard like a sentinel standing watch on a city wall. The granite pillar was covered in a vast amount of ancient carvings and images that made no sense to me, though I noticed that one or two of them resembled bats while another one looked like a wand, but that didn’t help me understand what any of them meant.
All around me, vampires worked hard to put the finishing touches of the ritual in place. Lord Taranas had explained to me that the ritual required seven concentric circles of stone set up around the pillar in the center, the stones connected via lines of red dust which would help open the portal. That was the most basic way to understand it, but I felt like there was a lot more to it than Lord Taranas had left out. Or maybe I just didn’t understand magic enough to be able to figure it out on my own. It made me wish, once again, that Dad hadn’t hid my sorcery background from me for so many years.
As for Lord Taranas himself, he stood nearby holding a book in his hands that he was reading intently. The full moon was out tonight, but he probably didn’t need it in order to read, because like every other vampire in the world, including myself, Lord Taranas had night vision that allowed him to see in the dark as well as he could see in the day, if not better. His book’s cover was plain red leather, with nothing on it to indicate the contents or author of the book, yet Lord Taranas read it as intently as Dad read his thrillers.
I looked at Lord Taranas curiously. “What book are you reading?”
Without looking at me, Lord Taranas said, “An ancient vampire spell book, which describes the steps necessary to complete the ritual.”
“Why are you reading it now, just as the ritual is being completed?”
“Because I want to make sure I’m not overlooking anything important,” said Lord Taranas, not hiding the irritation in his voice. “It is a complicated ritual and one I do not intend to mess up.”
“How is the portal supposed to open in the first place?” I said. I looked at the pillar before us. “And what is so important about this pillar?”
“The Pillar of Blood is the most crucial part of the entire ritual,” said Lord Taranas. He closed the book and looked at me in annoyance, the same way my old seventh grade Sunday school teacher looked at me if I asked a bunch of dumb questions. “It acts as the ‘key’ to the dimension in which the Vampire Sword rests. Without it, we would not be able to open the portal and therefore be unable to get the Vampire Sword.”
“I see,” I said. “And where, exactly, did you get the Pillar of Blood?”
“You ask too many questions, you know that?”
I shrugged. “What else am I supposed to do? Just stand around and say nothing? It would be even more awkward than all of these questions I keep asking you.”
Lord Taranas sighed, but said, “I stole it from the Vampire Council’s Vault. That’s where they keep all of the most dangerous and ancient vampire weapons and magical artifacts, the kind which they don’t want the rest of the vampire population to have. It wasn’t easy, however, but it was well worth it, because with the Pillar of Blood in my possession, nothing can stop me now.”
I was about to ask what, exactly, the Pillar did when one of Lord Taranas’ minions walked up to us and said, “Lord Taranas, I have finished surveying the backyard, as you ordered, and have found that the ritual is ready. I have also set up guards at every corner of the backyard to ensure that no one interferes with the ritual once it starts.”
I looked at Lord Taranas. “Expecting company?”
“No,” said Lord Taranas, “but I’ve learned from the last person who tried to open the portal to the Vampire Sword that it is better to be safe than sorry in this situation. With any luck, by the time anyone knows what we did, the Vampire Sword will be in my possession and no one will be able to stop me.”
Lord Taranas sounded very confident, which made me feel afraid, because if Lord Taranas had the foresight to set up guards around the ritual, then I really couldn’t expect someone to save me. Not that I really did anyway, given how Lucius had basically abandoned me back in the hospital, but now it really was just me. Well, me and God, I suppose, but I didn’t even know if God was with me or if he was just going to sit back and let me suffer like the soulless beast I was.
“Now,” said Lord Taranas, turning to face me. “It is time to officially begin the ritual.”
I stepped back, unsure of what Lord Taranas was going to do, until he suddenly looked back at the vampire standing nearby and snapped, “Get the sorcerer we captured.”
“Yes, master,” said the vampire, bowing at Lord Taranas.
The vampire disappeared into the shadows, but then reappeared a few minutes later with a sorcerer tied up with rope. The sorcerer he had brought was a man in his thirties who was completely bald. His face was cut up and scarred in several places, while his clothing was ragged and torn, especially the shirt, which was just barely hanging on his body. His head hung on his chest, which made it hard for me to tell for sure if he was dead or just unconscious.
“Who is this?” I said, staring at the sorcerer with uncertainty. “A prisoner?”
“Not merely a prisoner,” said Lord Taranas, “but a sacrifice.”
I looked at Lord Taranas in alarm. “A sacrifice? You mean a human sacrifice?”
“Certainly,” said Lord Taranas, again without any hint of disgust in his voice. He gestured at the Pillar of Blood. “In order to activate the Pillar, I need to smear its surface with sorcerer and vampire blood. Therefore, I had my minions kidnap a sorcerer a couple of weeks ago in order to have easy access to as much human blood as needed.”
I grimaced. “Couldn’t you just use my blood? I’m a half-vampire, after all. Wouldn’t my blood count for both?”
“You would think s
o, but that isn’t how the Pillar of Blood works,” said Lord Taranas. “It needs sorcerer and vampire blood separately from one another. You can’t even mix the two on its surface. Besides, I would rather not inflict even the tiniest wound on you, because I will need you to be my efficient killing machine for the coming war.”
I hated the way he called me a ‘machine,’ but I was more distracted by the implication of how close we were to the opening of the portal to the Vampire Sword. Once Lord Taranas got the blood he needed, the Pillar would open and I would be forced to take the Vampire Sword. This would have been the perfect opportunity to behead Lord Taranas. Unfortunately, Domination was still back in the mansion, where I had no access to it whatsoever. I wished that Dad had taught me a spell to make objects appear in my hands from nowhere, though I wondered if such a spell even existed in the first place.
Lord Taranas glided over to the sorcerer and raised his head. “Wake up, human. The dawn of a new era is upon you and you shall be the first human to witness it.”
The sorcerer’s eyes flickered open, but they were strangely blank. “Who’s there? Why … why can’t I see anything?”
“We blinded you, of course,” said Lord Taranas with a low chuckle. “Part of the torture process we put you through. There was no real reason to do it, of course, but I’ve never been one to turn down gratuitous violence against humans.”
“Then why … why did you say I’m going to be the first human to see your new era?” said the sorcerer. His voice was extremely weak.
“It was a figure of speech, you imbecile,” said Lord Taranas, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, are all humans this dim or did we happen to get unlucky and pick out the dumber ones?”
“Let me go,” said the sorcerer, struggling weakly against the vampire holding him. “I need to leave. I need to get back to my family. They need me. They—”
Lord Taranas slapped the sorcerer across the face. It was an incredibly vicious action, causing the sorcerer to spit out blood and gasp for air. I even thought I heard something crack, like Lord Taranas had broken one of his bones, but I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that I could barely stand to look at Lord Taranas’ gratuitous displays of brutality against the sorcerer. I wanted to stop him, but I still didn’t think it was the right time to strike. Again, I wished that I had Domination, but until I could get it back, I would have to figure out a different way to kill Lord Taranas.
“Quit your whining,” said Lord Taranas as he lowered his hand to his side. “Your ‘family’ will be joining you soon enough, as will every other human on the planet. For now, I need your help.”
“My … help?” said the sorcerer, whose voice was slightly slurred due to the swelling in his mouth where Lord Taranas had slapped him. “What do you mean?”
Lord Taranas leaned toward the sorcerer and said, in a harsh whisper, “Your blood, of course.”
Without warning, Lord Taranas slashed the sorcerer’s throat, causing blood to shoot out of his neck. The sorcerer’s head bobbed down and the vampire holding him dropped his corpse on the ground, while Lord Taranas stood up, shiny red blood on the tips of his claws. Even though it was just a very small amount of human blood, I immediately became hungry for it. I wanted to not only lick the blood off of Lord Taranas’ finger, but also suck all of the blood out of the sorcerer. It took most of my willpower to keep myself from jumping on the poor sorcerer for a feeding frenzy, and even then, the thirst didn’t go away, despite the fact that I had had monkey blood earlier that day.
“Newborn,” said Lord Taranas to the vampire holding the sorcerer. “I need your blood.”
The vampire nodded and craned back its neck, which Lord Taranas cut with one of his claws. Disgusting-looking black blood leaked out of the vampire’s neck onto Lord Taranas’ finger, who took it and held it up next to the human blood that hadn’t dried yet.
“Excellent,” said Lord Taranas. “Vampire and sorcerer blood, exactly as the legends say. Time to apply it.”
Lord Taranas glided over to the Pillar of Blood and smeared the vampire and sorcerer blood over the Pillar in two quick strokes.
As soon as Lord Taranas smeared the blood over the Pillar, the Pillar suddenly started glowing a bright, blood red color. The red light exploded outward, forcing me to raise my hands over my eyes to protect my vision. Around me, Lord Taranas’ other vampires also turned away or covered their eyes, while I heard the sorcerer scream, “What’s going on? I hear something, I feel something, I—”
Without warning, a huge energy beam exploded from the Pillar directly into the sky. The beam struck a portion of the sky about a mile above us and a hole appeared in the night sky, energy crackling around its edges.
And standing within the hole itself—visible to every eye in the area—was the Vampire Sword itself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Yes!” Lord Taranas screamed, holding his hands up toward the Vampire Sword. “At long last, the legendary Vampire Sword itself! Even from a distance, it is the most beautiful weapon I have ever laid eyes on. Truly, it is a masterpiece of vampire smithing, the pinnacle of vampiric genius and weaponry!”
I had no idea if any of that was true, but I wasn’t really paying attention to what Lord Taranas was saying. Because as soon as I lay my eyes on the Vampire Sword, I suddenly felt something deep in my soul calling me to it. It wasn’t a voice—at least, not a human voice—but it nonetheless called out to me, urging me to fly up and grab the Sword. It was similar to the blood lust I felt when Lord Taranas cut the cheek of that sorcerer, except this was in many ways even more intense and took even more of my willpower to overcome.
All around me, vampires shrieked and danced in happiness. I didn’t know if these vamps were as happy as Lord Taranas because they had been working toward this goal for so long or if they were happy because their mental connection to him made them that way, but I did know that the sound of happy, dancing vampires was one of the most disgusting sounds I had ever heard in my life. I desperately wanted to run away, but I couldn’t, because I knew that Lord Taranas or one of his minions would just stop me from escaping if I tried anything.
But Lord Taranas’ back was to me, and all of the other vampires were too busy celebrating to pay particular attention to me. While I didn’t have Domination, I could still conjure a fireball and lob it at Lord Taranas’ head. If I got lucky, it might kill him in one hit and then I could find a way to turn off the portal to the Sword. At the very least, I didn’t think Lord Taranas would react well to having his head set on fire.
Just as I raised my hand to cast a spell, however, Lord Taranas whirled around to face me. He pointed a finger at me and said, “You. Fly up to the Vampire Sword and pluck it from its plinth. Then we will conquer the world together under my glorious name.”
Lord Taranas spoke in a very commanding voice, but I didn’t move. I hadn’t summoned a fireball yet, but I also had no intention of actually grabbing the Sword.
So I looked Lord Taranas in the eyes and said, “Sorry, Taranas, but I think your plans for world domination are going to need to be put on hold indefinitely.”
A fireball exploded in my hands and I threw it directly at Lord Taranas’ face. The fireball struck Lord Taranas head on, making him howl in pain and stagger to the side, clutching his burning face and trying to put the magical fire out.
With Lord Taranas distracted, I rushed toward the Pillar, hoping to knock it over and close the portal, but then a loud shriek to my right was followed by one of Lord Taranas’ Newborns tackling me. We hit the ground hard and I gasped for air, but the Newborn closed its hands around my neck and slammed my head against the ground. It snarled and growled in my face, but I managed to summon another fireball, which I shoved into its face, making the Newborn screech and let go of me. I kicked it off me and, rising back to my feet, tried to make it to the Pillar again, but I only got a few steps toward it before the Newborn whose face I’d burned grabbed my ankle, causing me to trip and fall flat on my face on the cold, wet gra
ss.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the Newborn—its face now disfigured from the fire I’d shoved into its face—snarling and growling at me more than ever. I raised my hand and fired another fireball at it, hitting it in the face and making it let go of me. Once again, I jumped to my feet, but as soon as I did, I found myself surrounded on all sides by six snarling, snapping Newborns, their claws slashing at me from all angles and forcing me to dodge them as best as I could.
I was completely surrounded and outnumbered. I summoned fireball after fireball, firing them in every direction, but my aim was terribly off and I didn’t hit any of the Newborns. The best I managed was forcing them to keep their distance, but even that was not going to last forever. At some point, I’d either run out of energy and become open to attack or one of the Newborns would make it past my fireballs and attack me. It would just take one hit from them to knock me down and allow the rest of them to crawl all over me.
As I hurled another fireball to my right, my shoe caught on a stone protruding in the ground and I fell onto my hands and knees. The fall itself wasn’t jarring, but as soon as I stopped shooting fireballs, the Newborns moved in, claws raised and fangs bared. I raised a hand to shoot another fireball, even though I knew it was pointless at this point, before a loud voice shouted, “Cease your fighting!”
The Newborns all froze around me, and I didn’t blame them, because I recognized the voice. It was the voice of Lord Taranas, coming from the other side of the clearing. Panting and sweating, I slowly rose to my feet to see Lord Taranas gliding toward me, but in the light of the Pillar, he looked even worse than he normally did. I mean, normally Lord Taranas had that same kind of devilish good looks that Lucius had, but not anymore.
It was probably due to the fireball I threw in his face, because now Lord Taranas’ face was horribly disfigured. Though he had somehow managed to put out the fire, his skin was darkened and burned away in several areas, exposing the rotting skin and bone underneath. His bangs had been burned as well, while his lips were partially melted. The fireball I threw at his face must have been hotter than I thought, though it wasn’t hot enough, apparently, otherwise he would be dead.
The Vampire Sword (Vampire Sorceress Book 1) Page 14
