“Because, like a mirage, it tricks the senses,” said Blake, tapping the side of his head. “By constantly changing its layout, it confuses anyone who enters without knowing what they’re getting into. Even if you’ve been here before, it can still be tricky to navigate, because it requires knowing the Maze’s soul.”
“What soul?” I said. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing you need to know, of course,” said Blake. “All you need to know is that you and your vampire boyfriend are doomed to wander this place for as long as the Mistress sees fit and you will never find Jane again.”
“So you work for this ‘Mistress’ lady, too?” I said. I looked over my shoulder at the waterfall. “And that frog thing?”
“Crog is just an inhabitant of the Maze, though he’s been forced to serve the Mistress anyway,” said Blake. “Not that he understands, given how he’s an Amphibia, that is to say, a frog man. He’s barely more intelligent than a cow and operates mostly on instinct.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” I said.
“It wasn’t supposed to be,” said Blake with a snort. “Anyway, I thought I’d take this moment to confront you, given how you’ve made it this far. When I first kidnapped your friend Jane, I didn’t think you would be able to track me down. But somehow, one way or another, you’ve figured out where I am and where I am going. You even have an idea of what I’m trying to do, though I doubt you’ve managed to piece together the actual truth of what is going on here. I thought you deserved a reward for that.”
“I’ll just take my friend back, thanks,” I said. “Oh, and maybe leave the Vampire Flame alone, too. It’s important.”
“Sorry, but I’m not going to give up on my goals just because you asked nicely,” said Blake. “Besides, the Mistress wouldn’t let me. She’s quite the strong woman, definitely not one to mess with, that’s for sure.”
“Who is the Mistress?” I said. “We know she’s a witch, but we don’t know anything else beyond that.”
“Again, I’m not telling,” said Blake. “Maybe if you survive the Maze long enough, you’ll eventually get to meet her yourself. But I doubt it, because I’m here to make you an offer—the reward I mentioned earlier—I know you won’t be able to refuse.”
“And what would that ‘reward’ be?” I said. “You aren’t going to ask me to join you, are you? Because I’ve already dealt with two guys who’ve tried that and—”
“No, of course not,” Blake interrupted. “I have zero interest in working alongside a half-vampire. You’re an abomination in the world, a creature that should not exist. By all rights, you should have been eliminated a long time ago, yet you’ve somehow survived longer than most half-vampires. I’d be interested to find out how you did it, but then, I doubt you’ll tell me your secrets so easily.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m not going to tell you a thing about me. Now, why don’t you drop the illusion and come and face me yourself? Or are you afraid of a little girl like me?”
“But you haven’t even heard my offer yet,” said Blake. “Will you at least hear it out? I promise I won’t waste too many words, because I understand you’re a busy woman who doesn’t have a whole lot of time for sales talk.”
“You sure talk like a salesman, though.”
“That’s because I have experience in sales,” said Blake. “And I’m very good at it, though I had to leave the field for greater things, such as the Vampire Flame, for example.”
I thought about whether to hear him out. I really didn’t want to hear anything Blake had to say. Lucius was still stuck underwater, no doubt fighting for his life against the Amphibia. If I jumped into the water, Blake wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. And because Blake technically wasn’t even here, I couldn’t just fight him, either.
On the other hand, I had to admit I was curious to learn more about Blake’s offer. Maybe if I spoke to Blake for a little while longer, he would give me some useful information about who his Mistress is. At the very least, I might be able to trick him into telling me where Jane is, which would be worth listening to whatever offer Blake was going to make.
“All right,” I said. “Make your pitch. Better make it good, because I’m a pretty uninterested customer and don’t particularly like the company you work for.”
Blake smiled. “Of course. I’ll make it short and sweet: If you agree to leave the Maze and stop chasing us, then my Mistress will turn you back into a normal human again.”
For a moment, I forgot all about Lucius and his underwater struggle with the Amphibia. I forgot about the Vampire Flame and the fact that Blake was after it. I even forgot about Jane. My entire focus was on Blake, who was still smiling as widely as ever, his hands clasped together like he was eagerly awaiting my response.
“I didn’t just hear you say that your Mistress could make me a normal human again,” I said. “Did I?”
“You heard correctly,” said Blake, nodding. “And I’m not lying. My Mistress is a magically powerful woman. She could be the Supreme Sorcerer if she wanted, or, I should say, if the Origin would choose her. Then again, the title of Supreme Sorcerer would actually be a step down from her current position, not a step up.”
“But it’s impossible to restore a half-vampire’s humanity,” I said. “No one has ever done it before. Even magic can’t do it.”
“A sorcerer can’t do it, I agree,” said Blake. “But my Mistress isn’t a sorcerer. She’s a witch, and witches are far more powerful and trained in the obscure arts than sorcerers.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Aren’t witches just sorcerers who’ve become bad?”
“That’s not what a witch is at all,” said Blake, shaking his head. “A witch is a sorcerer who, through the power of the Darkness, has become more than a mere sorcerer. You want to know why sorcerers have traditionally despised witches? It is because they are more powerful than them and pose a bigger threat to the Supreme Sorcerer’s authority than normal sorcerers.”
“But even if that’s true, that doesn’t mean she can heal me,” I said. “Your Mistress can’t be that powerful.”
“Oh, she is,” said Blake. “And she’s even more powerful than that, if you can believe it. With a simple spell, she could turn you back into a normal human, or at least a normal sorcerer. You would never need to worry about losing control of your blood lust and harming another human being ever again.”
Blake sounded so sincere that I had a hard time doubting him. He didn’t seem to be lying, but on the other hand, I wasn’t sure I could trust him entirely, because he was still a servant of an evil woman and had every reason to lie to me if he thought he could benefit from my running away.
“That sounds nice, but I don’t buy what you’re selling,” I said. “If there was a way to reverse my transformation, I would have found it out at some point. I believe that.”
“But don’t you want to stop worrying about the state of your eternal soul?” said Blake, leaning forward slightly. “I know it’s something that’s been on your mind. You wonder if vampires can go to heaven or not. You wonder if being turned into a half-vampire has caused the golden gates of paradise to be locked before you. You wonder if God himself has turned his face away from you, leaving you to burn in hell for the rest of eternity. My Mistress can make all of that worry go away in an instant, if you would just let her.”
Okay, I have to admit, that was incredibly tempting. Out of all of the worrisome parts about being a vampire, the lack of certainty about the fate of my soul was the worse. Prior to becoming a half-vampire, I had believed in Jesus and given my life over to him. I had been baptized in my church by my own father and had spent almost all of my life trying to be the best Christian I could be.
But after becoming a half-vampire, of course, all of that certainty was replaced with uncertainty. Dad said vampires were soulless beasts destined for eternal punishment, but even he didn’t know if that applied to half-vampires like me. It stressed me out a l
ot. Not as much as it did at first, but that worry was always there at the back of my mind, worming its way into my head whenever I came home from work or tried to rest. I prayed to God a lot in order to make the worry go away, but it never really did, which sometimes made me wonder if God was even listening to my prayers at all.
If Blake was being even half truthful here, then this was the exact opportunity I had spent countless nights dreaming of. I’d spent a lot of time imagining myself as a normal human woman again, with the state of my eternal soul known and my future bright ahead of me. It was part of the reason I went with Lucius here, because if the Vampire Flame could cure me of my condition, then I would do whatever it took to get it.
“I can see the desire in your eyes,” said Blake. “Even from across the room, I can tell you want what I’m selling. You want it more than anything else. And, more to the point, you know that I can deliver, or rather, that my Mistress can, because my Mistress never fails.”
My fingers twitched. More than anything, I wanted to say yes. I could feel the word on the tip of my tongue, begging to be released from my lips. This was what I wanted more than anything else. I should take it.
“Come on,” said Blake in a low, almost seductive voice. “What are you waiting for? Just say yes. It’s very simple.”
I opened my mouth to say that one word, but before I could say anything, something exploded out of the water behind me, splashing water all over me and shocking me due to its coldness. At the same time, something large fell on the floor between me and Blake with a rather sticky splat sound.
It was the Amphibia. It lay still on the floor, its throat slit, with its eyes glazed over in a way that told me that it was definitely dead. Blood leaked out of its slit throat, mingling with the water dripping off its body, creating a diluted red pool of water around its corpse. It stank of garbage and crap, though in comparison to how your typical vampire smelled, it actually wasn’t that bad.
Then a hand burst out of the water and grasped the edge of the pool. It was followed by another hand and then Lucius’ head came out of the water, his bandanna covering his ruined eye soaked, but still clinging tightly to his head. But he looked exhausted, clinging tightly to the edge of the pool.
“Lucius!” I said. “Are you okay?”
“More or less,” said Lucius. “Can you help me get out of the pool? My fight with the creature left me extremely tired.”
I didn’t even hesitate. I grabbed Lucius’ arms and pulled, helping him get out of the waterfall and onto the dry floor. He sat down against the pool, his clothes and hair dripping wet, but rather than making him look ugly, he looked even more handsome than before. At least, I thought so.
“You’re not injured or anything, are you?” I said to Lucius, standing above him and holding my hands together worryingly.
Lucius brushed his hair back. “No, I’m fine. The creature was tough, but it didn’t seem to realize that vampires don’t need air to survive. I have some experience fighting underwater, so once I got over the shock of being pulled beneath the surface, it was fairly easy to slit its throat and kill the bastard.”
I couldn’t help but be amazed at Lucius’ story. I knew Lucius was tough, but being able to defeat a creature that could breathe underwater all by himself? That was something else. It made me want him even more.
“Well, I’m just glad that you’re all right,” I said. “I was really worried about you there for a second.”
“It’s nothing,” said Lucius. Then he looked up at me with a frown on his face. “Why didn’t you jump in after me? Given how impulsive you are, I thought for sure that you might try to jump in after me. Not that I’m complaining, of course, because then I would have had to defend you as well as kill the beast, but it’s still odd that you didn’t do that.”
I looked back over at Blake. “That’s because I was …”
My voice trailed off, because when I looked at where Blake had been standing just a few seconds ago, he was gone. I whipped my head this way and that, trying to find him, but as far as I could tell, Blake was nowhere to be seen.
“What are you looking for?” said Lucius. “Was someone else in the chamber, too?”
I thought about whether to tell Lucius about my conversation with Blake. I should have, because he would have been interested to know that Blake was here for sure and that we were on the right track.
On the other hand, Blake’s disappearance deeply unsettled me, even though I was aware that he had been an illusion. Or had he been an illusion projected across time and space to this room? What if Blake’s appearance here had been nothing more than a mirage generated by the Maze to mess with my mind?
But somehow, I doubted that. Blake’s offer was too sophisticated for the Maze to make. Granted, I was no expert on the Maze, but that much seemed clear to me.
Still, I didn’t feel comfortable telling Lucius what I saw just yet, so I said, “It was nothing. I just didn’t want to get in the way of you fighting the creature. That’s all.”
Lucius nodded. “I see. Well, you made a good choice.”
I nodded in return, but at the same time, I felt bad about not being entirely honest with Lucius. He deserved to know the truth, especially since he was the one who had started this quest in the first place.
But I could not help but think about Blake’s offer to cure me. I still wasn’t sure what to make of that.
After using my heating magic to dry out Lucius’ clothes, the two of us left the room. We left the Amphibia’s corpse where it was, though I suggested tossing it back into the pool so it wouldn’t stink up the place. But Lucius pointed out that we weren’t coming back this way anyway, due to the constantly shifting nature of the Maze, and therefore it didn’t matter if the Amphibia’s corpse rotted away or not. I couldn’t argue with that, and besides I didn’t want to touch its slimy skin.
We stepped out of the room into another hallway that was identical to the previous hallway, but at the same time, different. Here, the tiles were colored, alternating between red and blue tiles all the way to the end of the hall and around the corner at the end. It was an odd design, especially because the rest of the Maze was so bland in terms of its coloration, but perhaps the Maze was getting tired of earth colors and wanted something with a bit more personality to it.
As usual, Lucius walked ahead of me, his one good eye darting across the hallway, searching for any traps or anything which might pose a threat to us. The hallway was empty, aside from the two of us, but I didn’t complain. After the waterfall room, I was glad we had a moment to relax and not have to worry about being attacked.
My thoughts returned to my conversation with Blake in the last room. I had come very, very close to accepting his offer, which, if I had accepted, would have meant curing me of this condition once and for all. I would be able to return to being a normal girl, with the possibility of a normal life ahead of me. I might even get to marry a good man and be a mother, like I always dreamed of. And even better, I would never have to worry about my salvation in Christ ever again.
Indeed, the only reason I hadn’t been able to accept Blake’s offer was because Lucius had emerged from the waterfall at that moment. In some ways, that was probably for the best, but I still couldn’t help but feel disappointed—and even a little angry—at Lucius for doing that. If he had just waited a couple more seconds, then I would have been on the path to regaining my humanity again. Not that Lucius would understand. He seemed at peace with his own vampiric nature, perhaps because it was irreversible. I doubted he would understand why I would want to be a human again, especially given how long he had been a vampire himself.
But maybe it was for the best that I didn’t accept the offer. It would have meant abandoning Jane to whatever fate Blake had in store for her. And there was no way I could do that. Jane and I had been best friends since high school. If our positions were reversed, I knew she would be doing everything she could to save me.
Yet as true as all that was, I couldn�
��t deny that I felt like I had just been denied my heart’s fondest desire. I felt like Blake had dangled the one thing I wanted the most in the world right in front of my eyes, only to pull it away at the very last second. Of course, it hadn’t been entirely because of Blake. If Lucius hadn’t interrupted … who knows what would have happened?
“You’re quieter than usual,” said Lucius.
“What?” I said, looking at Lucius.
“I said you’re quieter than usual,” Lucius said. He smiled. “Not that I’m complaining. I prefer silence, myself. Part of being a vampire. I may be a Pure, but I’m still as much a vampire as the others are.”
“I was just thinking,” I said, hesitantly, because I still wasn’t sure I wanted to let Lucius know about my conversation with Blake, “have you ever wanted to become a normal human again?”
Lucius raised an eyebrow. “You mean get rid of my vampiric nature?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I know it’s impossible to reverse a vampiric transformation, but if you could, would you?”
Lucius was quiet for a couple of seconds as we walked, and then he said, “Three hundred years ago, when I was first bitten, I thought my life was over. I would never become a Powerless human again. My soul—my very existence—would be damned to an eternity wandering the earth, feeding on the innocent and clashing with sorcerers and vampire hunters who tried to take my life. The life of a vampire seemed nasty and brutish, if not as short as a human’s. I even considered suicide at one point.”
I looked at Lucius in surprise. “You did? Why?”
“What did I have to live for?” said Lucius. He put a hand on his chest. “As a vampire, I couldn’t have children, and relationships were out of the question, because vampires can’t really have the kind of monogamous relationships that humans have. Most vampires are bloodthirsty monsters who want nothing more than to drink as much blood—human blood—as they can. Sure, being a vampire gives you a lot of advantages, but it’s a depressing existence, one that takes away from life rather than adds to it. I completely understand why your father and so many other sorcerers have a fanatical hatred of my people. Truthfully, we probably don’t deserve to exist.”
The Vampire Flame (Vampire Sorceress Book 3) Page 8
