The King's Vampire

by Brenda Stinnett

  The snakes slithered in after her, and the glow of their red eyes lit up the crypt enough, so combined with her own keen eyesight, she could see where she was going. An old rusted iron casket rested in the corner of the room. Slowly, ever so slowly, she crept nearer to it with the snakes hissing alongside of her.

  When she tried to lift the lid, the metal buckled and flaked away, but she noticed a hole had formed in the lid. She lifted a large stone from the crypt floor and pounded viciously at the lid until the hole grew large enough for the pythons. She forced down panic as the snakes kept wrapping around her legs. Going on instinct, she knelt and shifted her gaze to encompass first one, and then the other snake, willing them into the casket.

  She shuddered as one of the snakes circled tantalizingly around her ankles before sliding toward the coffin. His enormous, silvered body eased up the rusting iron casket, which creaked in protest at the pressure of his weight until he slithered inside.

  “Bloody hell,” she said aloud. Would the other serpent ever get into the casket? She hummed the tune Amelia had been singing in order to encourage the basilisks to move.

  Once the first snake slivered into the box, she realized she’d lost half her light in the crypt, so even with her sharp night vision, it was difficult to see. She lifted the stone once again and drew closer to the casket, while still humming and mentally urging the other snake inside. After the second snake entered the box, she placed the heavy stone on top of the hole, praying it would keep both snakes inside.

  Now she’d have to wait until Darius and Amelia rescued her, stuck here alone inside the musty old crypt with only dead bodies and two pythons she prayed would stay put. With both snakes enclosed in the casket, the darkness was so complete, even with her keen eyesight, she felt enveloped in blackness. All she heard was the sound of her own ragged breathing and the sibilant hissing of the snakes while they rattled around inside the casket.

  She moved away from the snakes, but then bumped her head on the sharp edge of a tomb. Feeling warm blood trickle from her scalp, dripping down the back of her neck, Elizabeth froze where she was, afraid to move any farther. She felt trapped, buried alive. Sweat streamed down her face, her lungs constricted, her breathing labored, and her heart palpitated so fast it left her feeling nauseated. She tried not to listen to the snakes rustling restlessly around in their box.

  After only a few minutes, but feeling much more like a lifetime or two, she heard scratching and scrabbling and a dull thud. Someone had made it through the hole in the crypt. Suddenly, she saw the light of a torch glowing in the distance, and Darius call out, “Elizabeth where are you?”

  “Over here,” she shouted, and her voice cracked with relief at the sound.

  She saw Darius’s silhouette in the torchlight. He appeared to be carrying a bundle over his shoulder, while Amelia walked beside him. Elizabeth found herself gasping aloud when she saw her friend carried John’s head tenderly wrapped in her arms.

  “I wasn’t leaving him behind,” Amelia said defiantly.

  “I know that, of course I do,” Elizabeth said, her hand flying to her mouth. “He must have a proper burial.” She forced herself to stay calm, even though she could have sworn the rustling of the snakes grew louder.

  Darius stared around the crypt. “Where are the basilisks?”

  “I forced them into that old rusty casket over there, but I don’t know how long the stone covering the top will keep them in.”

  A rattling clap of thunder shook the walls of the crypt, and rain poured in from the hole, streaming down the walls.

  “We must hurry and get you women home before daybreak. We haven’t much time left.”

  “Let’s get this done then. Elizabeth is standing next to the Denham family tomb,” Amelia said. “We need to get John inside and then we can leave. How are we to open it?”

  “If you forgive me, Amelia, if my powers have returned, I think I can open the metal lock on this iron-gate, and we can get inside.”

  “Do what you have to, but please hurry.” Amelia tugged at his arm.

  He noticed that Elizabeth’s shirt was now stained with crimson. “You’ve been hurt.”

  “It’s all right. Open the tomb.”

  He tore off his shirt and wrapped it around her head, while the blood dripped down her shirt.

  Darius then lifted his arms, but only puny flames of energy flew from his fingertips. He drew in his breath, and beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. Elizabeth watched his jaws clench and his brow furrow as he raised his arms one more time. This time, orange flames hit the lock and it broke away.

  They pushed open the iron-gate and stepped inside the mausoleum. Darius ducked to keep from bumping his head on the low, stone archway. Eight caskets nestled inside individual niches carved out of the stone walls.

  “Do you want him inside one of the caskets?” he asked.

  “The caskets are sealed shut. We haven’t time. Just set his body on top of his grandfather’s casket over in that corner.” Amelia gently placed his head on his grandmother’s casket. “Would you please say some words over him?” She looked at Darius while teardrops slid down her cheeks.

  He folded his hands and bowed his head. “We are lying to rest my good friend, John Ashley. Please may he rest in peace throughout eternity. He was brave and deserving of a restful sleep. Good-bye, my dear friend.”

  “I love you, John,” Amelia said. She gently placed her fingers to his lips. Elizabeth slipped one arm around her friend’s waist and drew her near, even while she clutched the other hand to her head to staunch the bleeding.

  Darius led them toward the opening of the crypt. When they drew near, they splashed through puddles of water caused by the rain. At the opening, Darius handed Elizabeth the torch and he leaped up, grasping the sides of the rock walls and pulling himself out of the hole. He reached down and held out a hand.

  Elizabeth held the torch, and motioned for Amelia to go next. “Go on, just be careful. I’ll go last.”

  Elizabeth gave Amelia a boost upward, when she heard a snap, a crack, and a thud. Next thing she knew four red glowing lights were coming in her direction. The basilisks hissed and rustled. They were headed toward the opening.

  “Amelia, I don’t want to rush you, but the pythons are coming this way.”

  Darius must have heard, because he yanked Amelia up so quickly stones crumbled and fell from the wet walls of the crypt.

  Elizabeth placed the torch she’d been clutching into a crack in the wall. She gripped Darius’s strong hand, and felt him pulling her up, but then a more powerful tug on her ankle dragged her back down. Her hand slipped out of Darius’s clutching fingers, and she fell to the floor of the crypt with a splash.

  She couldn’t see Darius, but she heard his voice call out, “Are you all right?”

  One python had coiled itself around her legs and the other tightened his body around her chest, constricting her lungs.

  “No,” she managed to gasp. “Don’t leave me. I need help.”

  She heard Darius drop back down the hole with a thud, just as her air was being cut off by the basilisk locked around her chest. She managed to choke out, “I can’t breathe. Please help.”

  “I’m going to blast the snake. No matter what happens, don’t move an inch.”

  “I . . . can’t.”

  “Be still. I’m going for his head. It’s not touching any part of your body.”

  Elizabeth was losing consciousness, but then she saw a dazzle of lightning strike the snake right between the eyes. He exploded into the darkness. Bits of his scales clung to her skin. She sucked in a gulp of air, before taking several more breaths. Her head started to clear.

  “Are you all right, Elizabeth? Say something.”

  “I’m fine. Can you get this other snake off my legs now?”

  “Don’t move.”

  She didn’t need to be told twice. “Just do it.”

  The basilisk must have been disturbed by the explosion, because he
was now crawling away in escape. Elizabeth watched another flame fire from Darius’s fingertips. The second python exploded into bits.

  Darius grabbed Elizabeth. She felt his warmth spread through her icy cold, wet body. “Are you all right, darling?”

  “Just get us out of here.”

  He nodded before clambering out of the hole. He reached down and pulled her out from the depths of the crypt. He gently wiped the bits of the pythons’ skin off her. Then, with incredible speed, he led Elizabeth and Amelia out of the cemetery without further incident.

  Amazingly, the hackney still waited for them outside the stone gate of the cemetery. Darius’s own carriage was gone. Julian must have taken it. In spite of the strange appearance of their group, the driver asked no questions once Elizabeth tossed him two gold coins.

  Amelia instructed him where she lived. “You two must stay with me for what’s left of tonight and tomorrow.”

  The carriage clattered away. Darius pulled Elizabeth closer to him, and pressed his shirt more firmly against her head until the blood stopped flowing. Exhausted, neither of them had the strength to argue with Amelia, or even to comfort her in her great loss.

  Chapter 23

  Although exhausted, Darius gently stripped the bloodstained footman’s clothes from Elizabeth’s body. Amelia had thoughtfully left him a medicine bag in the guest chamber. In the bag, he found clean linen strips of cloth to wrap around her head. The gash from the stone tomb gouged so deep it had left a flap of skin that could be lifted from her scalp. The blood dripped into a basin and so he continued to press bandage after bandage to her head.

  At last, the head wound stopped bleeding. He wrapped it with a clean linen bandage, knowing even though the wound was nasty it would heal quickly with her vampire healing powers.

  Darius carried Elizabeth to a marble tub of water set in the middle of the bedchamber. He gently placed her into the tub, and then tossed a fox robe over the tub to allow her some privacy.

  Amelia and the servants raced to and fro, bringing warm pitchers of water and pouring them over her body and hair, washing the blood away. She moaned softly when they got too near her head wound.

  “I’m sorry, darling, did we hurt you?” Amelia asked.

  “No. I’ll be fine. It’s just my head is still sensitive.”

  Darius motioned the others to leave. He continued soaping Elizabeth’s alabaster skin and let the wet cloth trickle against her body. She shivered when he touched one satiny breast, and then the other one, rinsing her body in the process. Her nipples hardened at his touch, and he felt his loins tighten at the smooth feel of her skin.

  He stood and picked up a towel, holding it out for her. She stepped from the tub. Gently, Darius rubbed her body dry from her taut, raised breasts to her trim waist, all the way down to her silky legs.

  He sat her at the foot of the four-poster bed, and then pulled down the satin coverlet before placing her beneath the covers. He gently caressed her cheek. “How does your poor head feel?”

  Wincing when she touched her scalp, she said, “It’s already healing.”

  She gripped his hand, seeming to fear he was leaving her alone. “You’re not going, are you?” Her body still quivered from his caresses, and the last thing he wanted was to leave her feeling fearful.

  He made an effort to keep his expression veiled. “I must go. You need rest, and there’s much that needs doing. I didn’t have time to bury the two vampires we’d taken to the cemetery. I must give them proper burial.”

  Elizabeth stared at him. “Are you angry with me? Did I do something wrong?”

  He turned away from her. She traced the outline of his face with her fingertip, forcing him to face her.

  “How could I be angry with you when you’re so brave? What I need to do is thank you for saving my life. If it hadn’t been for you and Amelia, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

  She put her hands up to him, palms outward. “You saved me from the crypt. I wouldn’t have escaped without your help. You destroyed the pythons.”

  “Let’s admit it, Elizabeth. I haven’t been much help to anyone. You were in the crypt because you were trying to save me. I’m supposed to be a demon slayer, and yet Julian’s still in control. I let him trap me like any novice warrior might have done. It feels like when I was a young child, and my father sent me to the monastery because he thought I’d be worthless as a warrior.”

  “That’s not true. You’re the bravest warrior I know.”

  He continued on, ignoring her words. “I had no calling for the religious order. I could never be obedient, and the monks thought I lacked humility.” When he looked up at her, he thought he saw the trace of a smile. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing,” she said quickly. “I guess I’m just not surprised you had trouble with humility. But tell me again how you became a warrior.”

  “Charlemagne, my liege, was always pious and visited the Benedictine monasteries as often as he could. He found me there when I was twelve, and he chose to train me.”

  “Then he must have seen something in you to make you a warrior, and he definitely sees something in you now, or he wouldn’t have made you a demon slayer.”

  “What of your soul, Elizabeth? Tonight is winter solstice, and it’s only four days until Christmas. I haven’t been of any use to you in regaining your soul.”

  “We can’t give up now. Believe me, Darius, I know what it feels like not to have people have faith in you. My parents insisted I marry Sir Michael when I was but ten-and-six-years because they didn’t think I’d ever have another opportunity at marriage. I was never half so lovely as my sister, and my parents always let me know I wasn’t the beautiful one, or the intelligent one.”

  He caught her by the hand and drew it to his mouth, kissing each knuckle. “Your sister must have been beautiful, indeed, if your parents thought her more lovely than you. That’s hard to imagine. Besides, you’re the smartest person I know.”

  “The point is who we are has nothing to do with what our parents thought of us. You took care of me, and even cleansed my wounds, and I’m forever grateful you protected me in the crypt. Don’t you see together we are stronger than either one of us can ever be alone?”

  “But I couldn’t keep you safe, or John, for that matter. Now he’s dead, what will poor Amelia do?”

  Amelia walked in, looking lovely in a black dressing gown, appearing anything but defeated. “Poor Amelia has set up a meeting with Godfrey and the remaining vampires at the George and Dragon for the day after tomorrow at midnight. We’ve got to stop the psychic demons before they take control over all the vampires.”

  “You’re right.” Darius squared his shoulders. “We can’t let the demons win. I’m not sure you’ll be in any condition to go to that meeting. After all, your husband has just been killed. Perhaps Elizabeth might not be ready either because of her head wound.”

  Amelia spoke tartly. “We’re not the helpless women you seem to think. You can count on us, as we know we can count on you.”

  He flushed. “I realize that. God help any psychic vampire demon that gets hold of you or Elizabeth.”

  Elizabeth sat upright in bed. She brought her hand to her head. “My healing powers are strong. I’ll be ready for the meeting, but tonight I must get back to the palace by nightfall. I’ve got to speak with the king again.”

  Darius stiffened and studied her closely. “It’s always about the king, isn’t it?”

  “Surely, you’re not still jealous of Charles?”

  He looked away and then glanced back. “No, it’s not that at all. I’m just curious about the urgency in seeing the king after what we’ve been through.”

  She seemed to be considering her answer before she spoke. “I’m not quite certain either, but the king has reached a level of desperation. He knows the queen can’t give him an heir. He’s terrified what will happen to his kingdom if his brother James becomes successor. I didn’t tell you earlier, but he tried to force
me to make him a vampire.”

  “He knows you’re an immortal vampire? That could mean you’re in even greater danger.” Darius gripped her hands to his chest. “How did he find out?”

  “My former husband told him.” Bitterness gave an edge to her voice.

  “That was taking a risk. Why did he do that?” Amelia asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I think the Duke of Buckingham is persuading Michael to turn Charles into an immortal vampire, but now Michael is in the Tower.”

  “Sir Michael’s in the Tower? How did that happen?” Darius asked.

  Elizabeth averted her eyes. “I told Charles that Michael is a liar, and he would betray Charles just to gain his own selfish purposes the same way he betrayed me.”

  “From what you’ve told me about Sir Michael, that’s probably true. At least if he’s in the Tower, he can’t hurt you now.”

  “I was wrong, Darius.” She clutched his arm. “I encouraged Charles to send my former husband to the Tower because I wanted my revenge on him for making me a vampire. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  “It’s all right. What’s broken can always be fixed.” Darius pressed his lips to Elizabeth’s forehead. “Get some rest now.”

  “We’ll all rest until nightfall.” Amelia nodded and left in a swirl of petticoats.

  Darius hesitated for a moment and Elizabeth looked up.

  “I want you to know I think you’re the bravest person I know.”

  “Brave for a woman? Is that what you mean?”

  “No, just brave,” he leaned down, letting his lips press down upon her own. Her arms slid around his neck, pulling him close while they clung to one another. His lips slid along her jawline and then he sucked gently on her earlobe. He hoped to chase memory of all men, including the king, from her mind, to make her desire no one but him.

  Her breath quickened and she tilted her head back, leaving her throat and breast vulnerable to him. He kissed her throat then slid his mouth down to her breasts, where he felt the racing of her heartbeat.

  She broke away from him. “We can’t do this again just yet. With so much at stake, I’m afraid I’ll never be like you. Without a soul, I’m always two steps away from the darkness. Let me find my soul first while there’s still time.