A Quanta of Magick (Full Moon Series Book 4)

by P. Mattern

  “I know, I know. Blue my darling it will hurt…we can’t control what other people do or decide…but we must have faith that it is somehow for the best. Relationships take two devoted people, and if one of them decides that it will be no more then it dies as surely as a severed heart. I am sorry, but you will recover and mature from this. First Loves rarely last, but they are sweet and open the door to more lasting relationships, do you believe me?”

  Blue pulled back and nodded, his eyes downcast as if he were embarrassed at his tearful outburst. He took the handkerchief that Fress offered and blew his nose loudly.

  “I do believe you,” he said, a wan smile forming on his lips as he looked into her eyes, ”Somehow I do, though I lack faith in anything at the moment. I feel like crawling under a rock to tell you the truth, but I won’t do that either. Instead I am going to seek out Lux and Pierre, confess to them what I did and ask them to show me how to make a new table for you—and also how to turn the two halves into end tables. I think my Lady Fressenda should have a matched set for her salon. How does that sound?” he finished, sounding more like his old self and ending with a wink.

  “That sounds fabulous,” Fress replied, her heart more peaceful. She had her own set of worries-- concerning Charley. But knowing that Blue would be alright gave her at least a small measure of peace.

  Charley awakened the next morning to the sound of a key turning in the lock. He opened his eyes to the sight of a dark haired full breasted wetnurse clone carrying in a tray that held a few wilted vegetables and large decapitated rat, oozing a viscous stream of dark red blood.Outside the cage that Charley was in three guards stood impassively, their eyes riveted on Charley and the wetnurse clone.

  “My name is Sweet Clover.” The wetnurse said in a neutral tone,”Master Adrastos has sent me with some food offerings. And an additional offer: me. If you sleep with me he said afterward you may drink from me, though not too much. He sent these guards to monitor your feeding. What do you say to this generous offer Charley Rabbit?”

  Charley Rabbit immediately sensed that Adrastos’ purpose in sending the wet nurse was to tempt him into betraying Fressenda. Charley imagined that Adrastos would delight in hearing the sordid details surrounding a tryst with the wetnurse, and somehow make sure that Fressenda knew of it.

  “With all due respect,” Charley told the doe eyed female creature,”I must decline your generous proposal. I am sworn to my lady Fressenda. It is to her my affections belong.”

  The wetnurse immediately stepped forward and spat on Charley, turning in a swirl of skirts and the smirking guards opened the cage door and stepped aside sp that she might exit.

  As soon as his unwanted audience was gone Charley fell upon the dead rat and the vegetables, devouring them in scant minutes, then leaning back against the curved stone wall. Though his fare had been meager, he felt revived and suddenly invigorated, some of his energy restored.

  There were shards of quartz scattered around Charley’s silo-like cell, and he picked one up and idly examined it for a moment, then picked up another and began sharpening it against the first. The wall that he was chained up against was sandstone, a softer stone, and after sharpening one of the stone shards into a crude writing instrument he decided that he would amuse himself by composing a love letter to his family. He would write it from the heart, and when he was rescued he was sure that all of them, especially his mother Mitzi and Fress, would be touched by it.

  He couldn’t really climb up to the top of the wall, his electrified shackles prevented that maneuver, but he found that, if he stretched, he could reach upward to the height of eight feet or so. And so he began writing, in a flowing script,in the best fashion that he could muster under the circumstances.

  “To My Family,” he carved, steadying his hand so that the script flowed smoothly, then underneath he wrote,

  “To my mother Mitzi and my Eternal Love Fressenda: You are the most important women in my life and always will be. Your strength, tenderness and graciousness in the face of adversity has been amazing and inspiring. You both are truly the ‘wind beneath my wings’. You have made me the immortal energy I am today. I love you both beyond words.

  Cass, Lux, Pierre, Orry, Byron, Daniel, Celeste, Ariel…and all the rest of you guys and galpals, especially Merilee, You keep me grounded and I am proud to know all of you, proud to have fought with you shoulder to shoulder proud to be part of our tribe. Thanks for teaching me all you know and thanks for taking me down a notch when I get too full of myself. As long as we share a deep understanding of my awesomeness this will never be a problem.”

  Regretfull Charley noticed that he was running out of space, and added,

  “The best part of writing this is that I know that I will see you again, that you will find a way to get me out of here, as you always do , and then you can tease me unmercifully for writing such a gushy inscription. But you know I meant every word.’

  At the bottom he signed,”Charles Maximillian Rabbit the Third”, with hastily drawn rabbit ears protruding from the ‘C’ in Charles. He stepped back as far as his electrified shackles would allow to get a better look at what he had written, when the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him cause him to turn around suddenly.

  It was Adrastos. He had an amused look on his face as he surveyed Charley’s handiwork on the prison wall.

  “Charley Rabbit!” he said tsking, in a sharp, schoolmarmish voice, as two sentries opened the cell for him to step inside, ”Is this how you thank your host—by defacing the walls of Faquier Hall? I must say I’m rather alarmed. What in the world would your dear mother say? Leaving graffiti on the walls of your accommodations?”

  Charley snorted.

  “Accommodations? I don’t think so. More like the part of the castle Faquier Hall FORGOT.! It’s so cold and dank down here that even the rats refuse to stay…and what is a good prison cell without a rat?”

  Adrastos looked irritated.

  “We try to keep the pestilence down, actually.” He answered adding,”Oh look! I can almost count your ribs at this stage Charley Rabbit. I should think that you’d be the last person refusing fresh blood. Especially from one of our finest wetnurses. I wonder what possessed you?”

  “Maybe I don’t care for your sloppy seconds,” Charley responded tersely.”Maybe I’d rather starve!”

  “Then starve you shall!” Adrastos said in a cheerful tone. Leaning in more closely to the bars he said in a conspiratorial tone,”Though I must point out that you are completely off concerning the ‘sloppy seconds’ thing. Because the Lady Fressenda that you are ‘saving’ your affections for has been my plaything more than once. I have had her every way that a male energy can imagine having a female energy.

  So you see,” Adrastos concluded. “I’m afraid you denied yourself for nothing!”

  Charley startled Adrastos by jumping up from the stone floor and plunging toward him, though the electrified iron band around his neck both choked him as he reached the end of the chain that attached him to the walls behind and also delivered such a electrical shock that Charley immediately slumped to his knees.

  He sat there, dusty and disheveled, coughing and glaring up through his overgrown hair at his captor.

  Adrastos laughed shortly.

  “Calm down Charley Rabbit,” he advised, ”Why would you trouble yourself so for a strumpet? Let me give you some fatherly advice that you would have no doubt gotten from your own father had he lived: all women are whores. They are tantalizingly formed vacuous voids that we male energies may plunge into from time to time for our pleasure….or, to make more of ourselves so that we can have labor or servants or armies. Or to make more whores to pleasure ourselves with. And so it goes on, ad infinitum.”

  Charley jumped to his feet.

  “Laugh while you can Adrastos,” he advised, looking the regal velvet clad vampire up and down with distain, ”My tribe will be here soon,my mother, Cass, Fressenda, Pierre and Lux—even my younger brother Absolam--
and we will be toasting marshmallows over your burning, headless corpse!”

  Adrastos ceased laughing, his eyes glowing red from within. Turning his head he began a visual sweeping of the words that Charley had carved into the wall, causing the stone to melt in rivulets like candle wax over Charley’s carefully chosen words, all but obliterating everything that Charley had written.

  “There,” Adrastos said at last,”Much better!” Then, turning, he consulted in low tones with one of the sentries, who returned in less than a minute’s time with Umbra, Faquier Hall’s Chief Torturer.

  Umbra, wearing his square and studded leather mask, entered Charley’s cell with a large pair of what appeared to be scissors, though the blades seemed to be shaped like miniature scimitars.

  Both Adrastos and Umbra looked at Charley curiously as the guards pulled him to his feet between them.

  “I discern that you simply cannot keep a civil tongue in your head Charley Rabbit, and though I consider myself a patient man, I have grown weary of it. SO-the tongue is coming out!”

  Adrastos turned and said to one of the sentries on his way out of the cell,”As soon as the tongue is removed, take it to chef to prepare for me for lunch. I’d like it blanched and then sliced and served cold, on a bed of parsley please, with those little white English crackers. Hurry now!”

  Adrastos began whistling as he sauntered down the hallway, stopping only when he heard behind him a shrill scream that ended abruptly in a muffled, gargling sound.

  After that there was silence, and he continued, still whistling, down the corridor.

  Fressenda sat up, a scream on her lips, and her chest heaving with panic. It had been days since Charley had gone missing, and as she wiped away tears that she had been crying in her sleep, she saw the beautiful and concerned face of Mitzi Rabbit peering down at her.

  Fress immediately sat up and threw herself into Mitzi’s arms. She found that she couldn’t speak.

  “Was it Charley?” Mitzi asked, smoothing Fress’s long dark hair and patting her on the back,”Were you dreaming of Charley again?”

  Still not trusting herself to speak, Fressenda nodded. Then, recovering her voice, said,” Oh Mitzi it’s not well with him! I can feel it!”

  Mitzi continued to hold Fressenda, making comforting noises in her throat.

  “Fress we will go to him and find him, do not be concerned about that. It’s really ME that Adrastos wants anyway!”

  “But WHEN?” Fressenda said in a frantic tone. She knew that she didn’t dare share the substance of her dreams with Mitzi, but the scenes of cruelty and torture that had surfaced in her dreams had alarmed and unhinged her emotionally. She knew that she had to tell someone…Cass and Lux and Pierre at least…immediately.

  Fress kissed Mitzi on both cheeks and jumped off the straw filled pioneer bed at Mitzi’s cave home that she had taken to sleeping in. Cass was busy with the concrete canvas that Dante Febere had loaded onto several cars of the train creating modern homes and rooms inside the many caves available in their remote location. Mitzi and Cass, Absolam and Natalie were residing in one of the largest spaces, and Cass had constructed several bedrooms, as well as other spaces that could be set up for meeting rooms, libraries and salons. The concrete canvas had been a relatively new innovation, and how Dante had managed to get his hands on such a supply of it was a miracle in and of itself. The material came in squares and though it had the appearance of sheets of canvas, when dampened the sheets were able to be formed into stable and strong concrete walls, ceilings and floors.

  Fressenda was unable to sleep in the cozy cottage that Cass and Lux had fashioned for the couple since Charley’s disappearance. When she did sleep there were nightmares, nightmares from which she inevitably awakened either screaming or weeping. She’d been staying at Cass and Mitzi’s the past few nights, grateful for their support.

  At the moment she still felt an urgency to find Cass and Lux and Pierre and tell them about her dream. It had been the worst one yet, and somehow she knew that it was going to come true.

  Throwing a soft green hooded cloak over her shoulders and tying it by the tassled strings she told Mitzi that she didn’t feel like eating breakfast and slipped quickly out of the arched front door.

  The day was warmer than she expected and overcast and she was grateful that her cloak was keeping the slight drizzle off of her. There were indications that spring had arrived—even the air seemed softer and more oxygen infused. She stood still outside of Mitzi and Cass’s cave home for a moment to get her bearings, using her enhanced vampire auditory abilities to hear the voices of Cass. Lux and Pierre. Finally she discerned them at some diatance away. They were apparently helping finish building a dwelling on the far end of New City, so she hurried there.

  The new dwelling looked a bit different from the stone fronted dwellings that had been hastily constructed in the middle of the city. With help from humans who had worked in architecture they had been able to use the concrete canvas to create structures that resembled attractive adobe homes. Fressenda was instantly impressed.

  She walked up to the trio of vampires who were involved in a discussion with two human males. Fress realized that she was starving as she picked up the scent of their blood bouquet…she was surprised at her reaction. Just as Cass, Lux and Pierre noticed she was there she could feel her fangs starting to descend.

  Lux was the first to notice her discomfort and he quickly flew to her side, putting his arm around her and walking her a safe distance away from the others

  “Fress, darling sister, I am surprised at you! When was the last time you fed? You almost freaked out our human construction experts! Down girl!”

  Lux’s tone was teasing and light but Fress could hear the underlying note of concern in his voice.

  “I’m sorry you’re right…It’s my fault…I haven’t been able to feed for worrying about Charley. Lux I’ve been having…are you listening to me?”

  Lux had left her side and wandered over to what appeared to be a wooden crate a few yards away fom the construction site. After rummaging around he straightened up and handed Fress a familiar glass bottle of Sanguo, the carbonated blood soda that had been a part of V-net culture for the past 5 decades.

  “For YOU milady,” he said proudly, ”Possibly one of the last few in existence, although I highly suspect that Cass has a stash hidden somewhere.

  And by the way…” he told her, fixing her with a mock stern look, ”Whatever you need to tell me is waiting while you drink it…the ENTIRE bottle please! We can’t have you randomly fanging our workers!”

  Fress sighed and took the proffered beverage, downing it in long gulps. Instantly she felt refreshed and in control of her bloodlust.

  “Thank you,” she told Lux as she handed him back the empty bottle.

  “Sure,” Lux replied, looking at her curiously, “And what did you come all the way out here to tell us I wonder?”

  Fress took a deep breath.

  “Lux I can’t tell Mitzi but I am sure that Charley is being tortured…I had terrible dreams last night…I think he is being starved, and—“ Fress broke into a sob and Lux put his arm around her again as she continued, her voice heavy with grief, ”I feel like he’s running out of time!”

  Lux looked deeply into her eyes.

  “I believe you,” he said,”But I want you to do me a favor. Do NOT tell my brother! You know how impetuous Cass is—he’d try to go there immediately and rescue Charley, if only for Mitzi’s sake, even if it meant his demise…you and I both know that his going to Faquier Hall would be a disaster!”

  Fress gave Lux a fierce look.

  “I may go myself! Why aren’t we taking action? What are we waiting for?”

  Lux put both his hands on the tops of Fress’s small shoulders.

  “Stop pretending that you don’t KNOW why, Fress. You always known the V-net rules of engagement with an enemy…”

  “There is no V-net Lux. Maybe that simple fact has become the ‘elephant in t
he room’—I never here it acknowledged or discussed. By now all of our leaders are refugees like ourselves…or captured by the government for military applications. We are the only organized remnant that exists. I don’t think any V-net rules are relevant.”

  “While that may be true,” Lux told her, his eyes flashing, “It’s all we have right now when structure is of tantamount importance. We can’t have everyone running off in different directions—and that includes YOU Fressenda! Going to Faquier Hall by yourself is a really bad idea, bad enough to decrease Charley’s chances for survival. Promise me that you will not do this! Mitzi is slated to leave with Jaxon as soon as he arrives ‘on loan’ from Dante Febere. Mitzi is a tribite and is certain that she will be successful. You are not needed here my sweet sister! You have nothing to prove. And besides all that Charley would skin the rest of us alive for allowing you to go!”

  Fress looked both indecisive and tortured for a few moments.

  “If I don’t go…if I don’t go…will Charley still be allright?” she asked plaintively.

  Lux smiled, but his smile was without warmth.

  “Fressenda you know as well as I do that there are no promises. Sometimes we plan and calculate and in the end Fate has the upper hand and makes fools of us. But I can tell you that, in spite of your bravado, it has become apparent that Adrastos has emerged from his months of paralysis much stronger, with new forms of weaponry. And you cannot take a chance that he would be able to use you as a pawn to torture Charley into asking his mother to stay at Faquier Hall. There are so many ways to go wrong here.

  But the bottom line is…the less of us that go, the better.”

  Fress finally sighed.

  “I will stay…not only because of what you’ve told me, but for other reasons that I can’t explain right now. Please Lux…just tell me that there is hope. I need to hear that.”

  Lux looked at her fondly.

  “There is always hope Fress. Our hope has power of it’s own, and it is nothing that anyone can take from us,