by Jack Conner
“We have five minutes and then they kill us,” he said. It would have to do.
* * *
Ruegger waited at the head of the stairwell until he was sure Jarvick and his people were gone, then released his telekinetic hold on the entrance panel and descended into the sanctuary, where Danielle had already laid the mortal man and woman on the bed.
She stared sadly down at them. “I know they believed they were destined to die,” she said. “But like this?”
“I know.” He squeezed her shoulder. “If nothing else, we avenged them.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she nodded. Silently, they carried the bodies upstairs and buried them in the sand. Danielle said a short piece over their graves, and the two vampires stood silent vigil for a time. As they started to go back inside, Ruegger sniffed the air.
“Blood.” He moved into the wastes, then swore at what he saw, half hidden by a dune. Their camels had been led off and killed, but Ruegger had been too distracted to notice their absence till now.
“Jarvick did this,” Danielle said.
“He and his people will be stronger.” Ruegger scanned the dunes around them. “Let’s get back inside.”
They backed down the stairs and sealed the door after them.
“Why is there a hit out on us?” she asked.
To that there was no answer. They moved to the water basin, which was the size of a hot tub, and splashed their faces. Danielle's pale cheeks were shot through with pink, water dripping down from her eyebrows to her lips.
"Look, there's bottles down there." She reached into the water and pulled one out—fat, long, dark and frosty. "Chardonnay.” She stared at it, sighed, then lowered the bottle back in the basin. "I’m no longer in the mood.”
She was still grieving over the mortals, he knew. It didn’t surprise him. Her compassion was one of the reasons why he loved her so. She started going through the pantry, finding various foodstuffs and things, a radio and some batteries—and cigarettes. Apparently the pack of cloves she'd found earlier had been the only one of its kind, so she grabbed a carton and lit up.
"Dorals?" he sighed.
"It's what they've got.” She threw him a cigarette and turned her attention back to the room.
He lit it, grimacing. She moved over to the bed. Its cream-colored sheets were splotched in several places with something that had taken on the color of rust and, to Ruegger, still carried a heady fragrance.
"I guess our vision quest is over,” she said.
“We can’t continue it with death-squads after us. Besides, it's almost time for the sled race."
"We wouldn't want to disappoint Ludwig."
She sat down around a large blackened pit, which looked to be a sort of fireplace, and Ruegger joined her. Immediately, a flame came to life, and lusty smoke billowed from the fire. There didn't seem to be a vent anywhere, but then the pit was mystical. The vampires stared into the fire. The world grew red and violent for a while, but the odd flock stayed that way, holding hands and taking comfort in each other.
“We need to leave,” Ruegger said. “Jarvick could gather reinforcements or alert a more motivated team to our whereabouts—that’s if he’s not out there right now, waiting for us.”
She glared at the door. "I guess we can call a helicopter to get home—I mean, without the camels, and with Jarvick …”
She crossed over to the computer in the corner, booted it up and accessed the internet, which was surreal to have out here, but the suka didn’t skimp on providing for their gods. After she digitally summoned a helicopter, she checked their email.
"There's a message from Ludwig," she said, referring to Ruegger's oldest friend. Ruegger and Ludwig had met while still human and crossed over into immortality within a month of each other. Now Ludwig lived with his wife in their ice-encrusted compound in Northern Alaska.
"What's he say?" Ruegger asked.
"He says …” Danielle made a face “… there's a hit out on us and for us to get our asses up to Alaska for his annual winter solstice dog-sled race."
"We should check our email more often."
She considered. "The solstice is only a few days away."
"He knows we'll be there. We always are."
"How does he know we're on a black list, though? This message is three weeks old!"
"Strange. Maybe …” He frowned. “Could Ludwig know who's after us?”
Chapter 2
Ruegger stared out into the pulsating violet that surrounded them, sitting with Danielle on the floor of the plane that they'd sent for in Anchorage. Wrapped up in an orange patchwork quilt, the vampires jounced to the small plane’s rhythm as it tore its way north during the middle of Alaska's annual three-month night. Lightning flickered below.
"Don't you love the storm?" Danielle said, exhaling spicy clove smoke.
“Always.”
Mardi Gras jazz knocked its way up from the dusty speakers of the private room, mixing with the swirl of incense, hash, and cloves. Multi-colored lava lamps (red, orange, blue and green) swelled luminously from different pockets of the compartment, the only light except for a Chinese paper lantern that rocked from the ceiling. The lights cast strange and comforting hues across the interior of the plane as the vampires shared the cigarette and let their sweat mingle beneath the patchwork quilt.
Danielle sucked in another clove-flavored hit as she moved to the window and peered out, and the cigarette crackled as she inhaled. How she could tolerate those things Ruegger didn’t know, but he pretended to enjoy them for her benefit.
He watched as she made her way back to him, seeing her lean nude body, small firm breasts, ribs just visible, pubic hair damp and soft below her skinny stomach and the gentle slope south of her navel, where a single silver loop gleamed.
He held the quilt aloft and she slid smoothly in, her lips brushing his shoulder.
"Ahh," she sighed, tilting her head to better listen to Frankie Ford's fast-paced, steam-whistle-blowing rendition of "Sea Cruise".
“Reminds me of New Orleans,” she said. Turning to Ruegger, she said, “I bet you can’t wait to see Ludwig.”
"Good bet.” With every mile that took him closer to his old friend, the memories of their times together grew in him.
“Go on,” she said. “Tell me. You’ve told me so little about your past.”
And for good reason. “Well, we were joined at the hip for years, you know. Ludwig and I. I’ve told you that much. Back in the old days, we'd spend all our time together, just knocking about Europe without a care in the world, except what to fill our stomachs with. Mostly beer, as it turned out."
"You’ve changed so much it’s eerie."
He laughed. “We were vagabonds, wanderers, both still mortal at the time. Until we wound up in the French Revolution …”
“Yeah?”
In his mind’s eye he saw blood, and lots of it. A limp form dangled from long arms, and a cold face stared at him, blood dripping from its mouth.
“Another time,” he said.
She seemed about to protest when the cockpit door opened and a man wearing a snake-skin jacket stepped out. He didn’t seem bothered by the fact that the vampires were naked.
"We're beginning our descent,” he said, then hesitated.
“Yes?"
"It's just ... I don't know. We're getting some weird readings on the instruments ... and the weather reports don't make any sense. Strange cloud formations and wind patterns." He shrugged and returned to the cockpit.
“What do you think it means?” Danielle said.
“I don’t know.”
Wanting to see the odd cloud formations, Ruegger moved to the window. She joined him, and they watched the clouds give way to an all-consuming whiteness. Soon Ruegger could distinguish land features, then Ludwig's compound itself, an arc of large buildings against a very white nowhere; Ludwig called it Liberty.
"Damn," Danielle whispered. "Do you see that?"
One of the main build
ings along the arc appeared burned, almost as if it had exploded, and its debris was scattered over the snow. Ruegger had no idea what to make of it. Maybe some drunk revelers had bombed the building.
“Think it can have anything to do with us?” Danielle said. “That we’re wanted dead?”
“I don’t know, but keep an eye out.”
The float-plane dove for the iced-over lake as the vampires threw on clothes. Engines screamed and the winds howled. The aircraft shuddered to a stop near the peer.
A man on the outside helped Ruegger and Danielle open the door. They stepped down onto the wooden planks, where they were given snow-shoes. The ice-cold temperature didn’t bother Ruegger much, but he knew Danielle must be freezing, and he caught her checking the buttons on her coat. She said nothing about it.
“Some welcoming party,” she said, only stuttering slightly.
Those who’d come to greet them included five baggage-carriers, ten armed (but casually-dressed) shades whose postures were so straight they had to be soldiers, a werewolf named Damaini, who was the Chief-of-Security for and third-in-command of the compound; and Maleasoel, Ludwig's wife and vice-president of Liberty.
She belonged to the immortal race of the jandrow—winged creatures that fed off of human hearts, though another animal could do in a pinch. Long black hair cascaded down her back, and bright green eyes blazed from her beautiful face under a sharp black beret. Her wings were hidden within the thick folds of her coat, which was part of a clothing line designed and tailored especially for jandrows. Of course, she didn’t need to hide her true nature here of all places, but the outfit kept her wings warm.
She embraced Ruegger and Danielle both. "Welcome back to Liberty, my friends. Come with me. My associates will get your bags and Damaini will accompany us. Would you like your old room?"
"That would be great," Ruegger said.
They all followed her as she set off, moving between two buildings and emerging on the inside of the arc, an area referred to as the Commons. Soldiers patrolled in large numbers, and a well-organized crew tended to the remains of the gutted building, apparently trying to repair the extensive damage. Burn marks stained the walls of the buildings to either side.
“Dear gods,” Danielle said, and pointed.
A line of ten or so immortals lay on the cold ground, stripped naked and bound by heavy titanium chains. Various spears and blades stuck through their midsections, making the victims writhe in pain.
Ruegger suppressed a shudder. "What's with the Inquisition?"
"Dissidents," Maleasoel said.
Ruegger frowned, prompting her to continue.
"They destroyed that building over there, one of our barracks,” she said. “It's disrupted some of our activities and made sleeping accommodations rather awkward. Also ...” Her voice lowered. “Some of them were involved in a plot to kill me a few days ago. I took it personally."
Danielle indicated several shades that sat on stools beside the dissidents. "Who're they?"
"Our strongest mindthrusters. They make sure that the dissidents aren't able to use their telekinetic abilities to get free."
"Right." Danielle arched her eyebrows at Ruegger.
He shook his head, trying to light a cigarette against the wind. Now wasn’t the time to talk.
"Where's Ludwig?" he said.
"Attending to something of vital interest, I'm sure." Maleasoel laughed. "This whole place has gone to hell. I remember twenty years ago when we had it built, we were so full of shit then.”
Ruegger had thought so, too, but at least their intentions had been noble. The dissidents and something about Malie’s tone suggested something had gone terribly wrong, however.
“What’s happened?” he said.
“Well, you know,” she said. Her wings ruffled under her jacket. “We wanted to raise an army of immortals and take over the world, ‘not to enslave humanity but to set it free’. Ludwig’s words, not mine. Thought mortals were destroying the world and themselves in the bargain, and we could do a better job of it, help them out.” She sniffed. “Shades taking over the world! It's been tried before, I guess, and it'll be tried again. Well, we've got over two hundred soldiers now in this compound alone. There’s three smaller compounds you may not know about; two in Europe and one in Antarctica. Just enough Libertarians to set some of our plans in motion. And now, when we’re finally ready to do something, Ludwig's starting to falter—not that I blame him, really. My enthusiasm's diminished, too.”
Her face flushed with anger. “What right do we have to enslave humanity? For God's sakes, we're just as human as they are, in our own way. This whole compound was built on arrogance and it needs to be destroyed. But these dissidents ... they're mad at Ludwig for not wanting to go through with his plans, for remembering his humanity. They'd like to depose him and continue on with his plan. They constitute a large faction, and their numbers are swelling."
Ruegger won his battle with the wind and lit his cigarette. “Doesn’t sound good,” he admitted.
“What’re you going to do about it?” said Danielle.
“I don’t know,” Malie said. “It’s up to Ludwig. All he really wants, you know, is to fight the system. Not even that. He just likes to talk about it. When it comes to bloodshed, his enthusiasm dries out in a hurry. Me, too, for that matter.”
Ruegger nodded. "The happiest I remember him being was back during the French Revolution. He loved the energy, the conspiracy, the aura. That's what he was trying to get back when he started this place. He's always held a special place in his heart for anarchists, you know."
"Oh, I do.” Maleasoel’s hardness cracked a little. “Sometimes he asks me to wear my beret to bed.”
Danielle laughed. They made their way through the Commons toward the smallest building along the arc, a four-story bar and nightclub that ran twenty-four hours a day during the three-month winter night. Here they could see more of the "civilian" element of the immortals here, those shades who'd come a long way for Ludwig's annual dog-sled race, which historically was one of the wildest party-going activities in recent times. Hard rock blasted from the building amid screams and shouts, and Ruegger could see a few shades already passed-out in the snow, where the faint smell of vomit hung in the air. So much for Gothic.
Maleasoel stopped before the bar's entrance. "Well, I'm afraid I must leave you here, for now. Things to see and people to do. Ludwig said he'd meet you here when his chores were done. Half of these guards will stay with you at all times; the rest are mine. I hope you don't mind the inconvenience." She turned on her heel and marched off, Damaini and five soldiers right behind her. The other five stayed with the two vampires.
Danielle looked at Ruegger skeptically.
He gestured toward the entrance. "After you.”
They squeezed into the nightclub’s main room, a large, buzzing place, escorts at their heels. After unfastening their snow shoes, Ruegger and Danielle moved to the bar, and it wasn't long before he recognized a familiar woman fending off admirers.
Sophia—the so-called Ice Queen—had won the sled race seven years in a row and was expected to win this one, too. Supposedly her title had sprung up long before her mastery of sled-racing, though. Still, she was the immortal daughter of one of Ruegger’s friends, and he figured he should say hello.
“It’s good to see you,” he said, giving her a hug, which she shrank from.
“Too good, possibly,” she said.
“Evening,” said Danielle.
“Yes,” the Ice Queen said dryly. “It is.”
Ruegger hid a sigh. “How’s your mother?”
“She lives in New York. Ask her yourself. Oh, that’s right. You two can’t really return there, can you?”
“We can go anywhere we want,” Danielle said.
“Bullshit. You’re wanted dead, and guess what nice death squad lives in New York?”
Ruegger spotted another familiar figure sitting alone at a booth, drinking a Bloody Mary.
"Hauswell!”
Ruegger bid goodbye to Sophia, who was only too happy to see him go, and, with Danielle, moved over toward the Vampire Hauswell, one of the most powerful crime lords in America, basing most of his operations out of Las Vegas. At one time, he and Ruegger had been very close. Now, only decades later, they weren't much more than casual acquaintances. Even for us, time is the enemy.
Hauswell smiled at Ruegger and Danielle and invited them to take a seat. "I was wondering when you'd spot me," he said. In a tailored suit, he looked to be a sixtyish gentleman, hair mostly gray but showing some faded red in his sideburns and at the edges of his medium-sized mustache. His English sounded very American, but he was a German from way back.
"Why didn't you come over, then?" Ruegger asked, sitting down.
"I'm trying to keep a low profile, not attract any more attention than I have to. I'm glad I found you two, though; you're one of the reasons I've come here."
"Where're your guards?" Danielle said.
"Oh, don't worry, they're around. Can I buy you a drink?" He lifted a finger, and a waiter approached. Danielle ordered a Ramos Gin Fizz and Ruegger a martini.
"So what brings you to Liberty?" Ruegger said.
Hauswell sipped his drink, waving his other hand impatiently. “I wanted to see this place while it lasts. The dog-sled race has become legendary among the Community. Sadly, rumor has it that things aren’t going so well in fair Liberty.”
“So we’ve heard.”
“I’m going back to Vegas after the race. Truth be told, I’m not looking forward to it. I wanted to get away for awhile. Every shade in the world who holds a position of power seems to be in jeopardy, lad. We're being systematically killed off.”
Ruegger remembered what Jarvick had told them. “The Scouring.”
“That’s right. I’ve heard that even Vistrot's gone underground to avoid it. Though still in New York, of course. He and that city are symbiotically linked, I think.” He paused. “Word has it that you were off in the desert again. Remind me, what is the purpose?"
