by Jan McDonald
Nik had been quiet throughout the journey, brooding on his immediate future. What would his father be like? Would he, Nik, disappoint him? What plans did his father have for him? Did he even know he was on his way?
Santo had allowed him to dwell on these things, reading him, inwardly amused at the boy’s remaining doubts about his potential, unsurprised by his plans to leave his protection and seek his own destiny – the arrogance of the boy. There would be time to bring out in him that which would make his father grateful for his care and teaching. For now, the boy was hungry. He sensed it; not yet was Nik able to subdue the ravenous sensations that would only be satisfied by one thing. He had done well, bringing Nik to a peak and now the pleasure of the polishing would fall on his father, and that would earn him extra credit in his eyes. And there was his added bonus: the Anti-HVV didn’t work. Not in the way Gregori wanted it to, but it had properties that would propel Santo to his rightful place on the Council.
Each time it had been tried, it had failed dramatically, usually killing the victim within an hour. Gregori didn’t know that. But he would soon enough. When it was too late. And then he, Santo would take his place – and with a weapon such as the Anti-HVV, no vampire would be able to stand in his way. Gregori wanted the Anti-HVV to use for the good of the vampire world, to help them to integrate with humans and live side by side. Santo despised him for this. Humans were their food and nothing else. What Gregori proposed was blasphemy. It demeaned the power of the vampire and reduced them to weak copies of their full potential. But he, Santo, would use the Anti-HVV to rid the vampire world of the half-bloods and the Latents. Surely such a race deserved to be kept pure, its weaknesses eliminated. If Gregori was too old and blind to see that, then he had no right to wield the power that the Anti-HVV would bring him.
Nik brought him from the depths of his obsession to the present moment.
“When do we leave for Parthavos? I’m anxious to meet my father. When, Santo?” he demanded.
“Soon. I have already told you. There are still some basic skills that you need to master before I take you to him. I will not give you to him without completing the basics of your education. We are here in Thessaloniki because I can’t bear the thought of staying in the kind of places that Larissa has to offer. We are further away but it is worth the delay. ”
“Then let’s get on with it. How much more can there be? I know how to feed and not kill. I know how feed and take the life. I know how to …”
Santo cut him off. “I am aware that you know these things. Thanks to me. Remember; without me, you would still be a young punk cruising the club for the occasional meal and eventually falling foul of Andrei. He would have enjoyed you, Nik. He likes a challenge. Just as he has enjoyed your Mother.”
“Don’t keep calling her that.” Nik spat the words from his mouth as if poisoned. “She is not my mother. She is nothing more than a whore and he is welcome to her. I want nothing more to do with her or even to discuss her. I hope she rots in Hell.”
“Oh, I doubt she will be doing that. When I saw her last, she looked radiant; quite the most beautiful vampire I have seen in a very long time. Those eyes, and her smile, they will take her far in our world. Pity about the remnants of compassion that still linger, but that will change. In time. And Nik, time is one thing that she now has in abundance.” He laughed, amused at Nik’s obvious surprise at the fact that he knew so much of Kat.
“Oh yes, Nik. She has fed, and turned, and belongs to Andrei. For now. I doubt if he will be able to keep her when her full potential is reached. She’s quite something. In fact I intend to bring about a reunion. Mummy and Daddy, together again. How touching that will be, do you not think so?” His face darkened at the look of rebellion from Nik.
“What do you mean ‘reunion’?”
I mean, Nik, that I intend to take her from Andrei. I intend to take a double gift to Gregori. His son and his bride. I do so love a wedding, don’t you?”
“You’re mad,” Nik said quietly.
Santo was on him in an instant, no longer the benevolent mentor. The whites of his eyes flooded crimson, his canine teeth elongated and treacherous in a heartbeat. “Listen to me, and listen well. You have no say in what happens to you until I hand you over to your father. Do you understand? It was never my intention to bother with her; I thought she would be a distraction, that it would somehow dilute the gift that I would bring to Gregori in you. But now I see it differently. Now I see it as being twice the gift. And as I said, it will be a touching family reunion. Now sit down and hear what I have to say. There are things you need to know. Things that are about to change our world.”
He waited for Nik to sit next to him.
“Centuries ago there was no Vampire Council, just random pockets of our kind. Then the virus began to mutate and there were others, like us but not like us. Latents, born of humans but somehow carrying the dormant gene. Half-breeds that had the ability to turn when bitten and allowed to consume the blood of their sire. It weakened us, made us vulnerable. The Born, or the pure-blood vampires rose up against them and what ensued was a bloody war that brought about the deaths of thousands of our kind and theirs too. The result was the formation of the Code and the Council to administer and police it, allowing the vampire community to live alongside the humans. For centuries it has been a weakening force on the Born and now they are ready to fight again. This time they will not stop until there are no half-bloods left. And that would include you, my friend, and your mother – and, unfortunately me. Except for one thing. Gregori.
“Gregori is as near to the original of our kind as there is; a direct descendant of the source, just as you are a direct descendant of Gregori. Not one of us knows his true age, but he is considered one of the Ancient Ones. The only one left. He commands too much respect for you to be in any danger. Without his protection, you will eventually be wiped out. And without my protection you will get nowhere near him. So, you see, we have a mutually beneficial effect on each other. My price to Gregori for your return is a place within the Curia, and protection from the cleansing that is threatened.”
He carried on, telling the boy of dark times and bloody wars that no side won. He painted word pictures of such carnage and death that Nik sat motionless, shocked at the imagery.
“If the wars were so bloody, why doesn’t anyone talk about them? I never heard of vampire wars, and as far as I know they are in no history book.”
“They took place so long ago, Nik; predating written history, they only live on in the memories of the oldest of the vampire houses, families, if you like – the powerful ones anyway. They remain alive by oral tradition.”
“So why go there again?” he asked.
“Because this time we have something that will make the need for the spilling of all that pure blood unnecessary. This time there is a weapon. And I have it. And I intend to do what is always done with an item of value. I intend to sell it.”
Not for the first time did Santo’s sanity become doubtful in Nik’s eyes.
“Sell it to who?”
“Sell it to whom, Nik. To whom. Why, to your father of course.”
Nik ignored the jibe at his lack of refinement and education. “Why would he want it and why do you think that you have access to him if he’s so important?”
“You don’t need to worry your pretty head about that, Nik. Trust me. He will want it.” He hesitated, pondering whether or not to tell Nik the truth of his relationship with Gregori, and then made a sudden decision.
“I have access to Gregori quite simply because he was the vampire that made me. Along with your mother, he is my sire. Now, enough. There is an attractive young couple in the bar across the road, and you must be hungry. I know I am. Come, let’s feed.”
Nik’s head swam with new concepts and dark images that only served to fuel his hunger. He closed his eyes and allowed his senses to travel to the taverna opposite, seeking out the prey that Santo had already condemned. His inner sight came to rest
on a young couple, oblivious to all but each other, as should be with all honeymooners. He smiled, the energy of the prey already taking hold of his consciousness – love and lust and dreams of a happy ending that would never be. He would take their love and taint it, twist it back on itself until its narcissistic tendrils found their way into his own being, and their lust, unfettered by the emotion of love, would fuel his desire for the unsuspecting nymph on whom he would feed. He moved towards the door.
Santo held up a hand. “Wait Nik, I believe you are ready for your next lesson. They are sitting in a very public place, and to take them from there would lead to unwanted attention. So, what do we do?”
“Call to them? Plant a suggestion that they leave?”
“Yes, it’s possible. But we are going to go in and take them from there without being seen.”
“Become invisible? How?”
“To the human eye, yes. In truth, our movements will be so quick that a human eye cannot track them. It means taking the couple out at the same speed. To other human eyes, one moment they will be there, the next – gone.”
“How is that possible?”
“By listening to me. Are you ready?”
“Oh yes,” said Nik.
“Now I am going to the lobby and you will join me. You must connect with your musculature and know that you can move faster than the human eye can detect. It takes time but time you do not have if I am to take you to your father tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Nik’s mood soared. He could do this. If Santo could do it and believed that he could do it too, then do it he would. He turned his consciousness inward and reached to his vampire musculature, sensing the connections and the synapses as his nervous system went into overdrive, then by concentration and every atom of his being he felt his body respond to his inner commands. Corridors and elevator blurred and passed in fractions of seconds and when the whirlwind of his movements stopped and his consciousness returned, he was standing next to Santo.
“What kept you?” he asked Nik. “Not bad, but the old lady over there in the armchair saw you appear from nowhere. You have to tidy the settling better. It looked to her as though you materialised from thin air. You have to learn to cloak yourself as your body stills. I have blanked her mind and now she just thinks she had another ‘episode’. But this time you will get it right. Shall we?”
They walked to the front door and Santo was inside the mind of the doorman instantly. He would not remember the salute to the guest in the Presidential Apartment and his young friend. He would not remember the hefty tip that Santo pressed into his hand as he clouded the curious mind.
“Are you ready?”
In tune with Santo’s cue they settled at the side of the young couple who were still exchanging whispered endearments and promises. Momentarily the young girl looked up and shivered; someone had walked over her grave, she thought. In that instant her mind disconnected from her new husband as Santo entered her consciousness and paralysed it of all thought. He nodded to Nik. “Take her,” he said. “Just grab her and take her. I will deal with the man.”
In a millisecond Nik had grabbed the girl around the waist and taken her outside the taverna and across the road to the front of the hotel. He stopped and smiled to himself. He looked up and concentrated on the light in the window of the apartment. He thought of the balcony and began to rise into the air as Santo had previously shown him, only this time he took his prey with him. He landed on the balcony with a soft thump. An instant later Santo was behind him, the young bridegroom limp in his arms.
They fed on the blood of the innocents and drained their bodies, Nik devouring the girl’s life blood without pause. His hunger was raging out of control and the blood wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy him. His eyes betrayed the lust that boiled within him and he knew that it wouldn’t be the last time that he fed that night.
Santo knew it too. He put a restraining hand on the boy’s arm. “Be careful Nik. All things that a vampire has to learn come easily to you, but it makes you careless. Remember, we are not truly immortal. We can die, and in this country that knows about our race we cannot afford carelessness. Go and roam the back streets of the city if you will, but leave no trace of yourself.” He nodded to the inert and bloodless bodies at his feet. “I’ll take care of this. We leave tomorrow for Parthavos.”
Nik left the apartment with a nod. There had been a young waitress in the lobby earlier who had smiled at him; he was about to become better acquainted.
Santo pushed the call button for the butler who appeared silently after only a minute or two and bowed in deference to him.
Santo prodded the body of the young man with his foot. “Alexi, will you clean this up please?”
“Of course, sir. Perhaps you would make yourself comfortable in the salon whilst I dispose of it for you. It will only take a moment. I have brought the laundry cart in anticipation of your needs. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Ah, Alexi, you always make my stay here so much more enjoyable. It’s good to know that I can rely on you. You will, of course, be amply rewarded.”
Alexi bowed again, “It is enough to serve your house, sir.” He returned to the corridor and wheeled a large laundry cart into the apartment and deftly placed the bodies inside it, covering them with a sheet. A glance around told him that further clean-up was unnecessary. As was always the case with Santo, he savoured his prey and spilled nothing, but the boy … Alexi had been certain he would have been careless, but he had obviously been too hungry to waste a drop. Satisfied that there was nothing further required of him he left as quickly and silently as he had arrived.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Michael Rabb held the telephone in his hands for several minutes before deciding to dial the Prelate’s number. It would be easy to reach him telepathically but that would mean opening his own consciousness to a vampire that he didn’t quite trust.
He wasted no time with irrelevancies and spoke out as soon as he heard the Prelate’s voice. “Prelate, I thought I would reassure you that the matter of the Patriarch has been dealt with. It would appear that there are to be some changes within the Council. I believe it would be in your interests if you can come up with the Anti-HVV that you have long promised us.”
“Michael, so nice to hear from you. The Anti-HVV is in fact ready, but there is one more test I wish to carry out before I hand it over to you.”
“Prelate, the Born are uneasy and there are rumours of another war. I cannot stress the importance of this to you. You know that the Anti-HVV will ensure my position as the new Patriarch, and you have my assurances of your own position once that is confirmed. As allies we will command the balance of power within the Council, and I am certain that I need not explain what will happen if you double cross me now. The Anti-HVV, Prelate; I want it within the week or our alliance is cancelled and I will assume that you prefer to be considered a threat rather than my eventual successor.”
“I am sorry, Michael. But the final test is crucial; you wouldn’t want to hang your banner on the promise of Anti-HVV that doesn’t work? I will get the Anti-HVV to you in one week.”
“Good, I wouldn’t want to have to discount you as a friend, Prelate. There is too much at stake. With the Patriarch and his outdated principles and codes no longer obstacles to us, it is time to take the places on the Council.”
The Prelate frowned but did not hesitate in his reply. “I assure you,Michael, you have my full support and I know that I can persuade many others to stand behind you. The Anti-HVV will be in your hands in one week. It is an honour to be able to assist you, Patriarch.”
“Thank you, but a little early to address me that way. Have a caution, Prelate, that your enthusiasm for rebellion and change don’t bring our plans to the attention of those who would thwart them. In one week, then.”
Michael Rabb cut off the call before the Prelate could reply. He still didn’t trust him and, once he had the Anti-HVV safely in his hands, the Prelate’s s
hort and illustrious career on the Council would be brought to a swift conclusion. He didn’t have a taste for constantly watching his back, and he sensed that would be the outcome of allowing the Prelate further power and his support.
Rabb frowned as he filtered the information that his senses relayed to him. The Prelate was not in the country. Images of the remote monastery screened themselves on his inner eye. He was going to Gregori.
Lane and Beckett left the Sanctuary in grim silence, neither of them underestimating the enormity of what was to come. If they found Kat in time, it was unlikely they could do anything to save her from the fate of what she had become and, it was highly likely that Andrei would still be with her. There would be plenty more blood spilled before the nightmare was over and the chances of it being their own, were high.
Lane had left her car discreetely out of sight of the Sanctuary and as they approached it, Beckett groaned. She followed his line of vision.
“Shit!” she yelled. Every one of her tyres had been slashed. This was no time to be victim to vandals. They would have to waste time calling a taxi to take them to the airport.
“Care for a lift?” Darius stepped from out of the shadows.
“You little bastard. You do this?” demanded Beckett.
“I’ll pay for new tyres when we get back. That is, if we get back. You didn’t think you were going without me did you? Nice job, Doc. I thought he was a goner for sure. How’d you do that? Or maybe it’s best if I don’t know.”
“Shut up, Darius. Before I forget it was you that called me in time to help him. It’s a stupid and dangerous game that you’re playing, but I believe we are going to need all the help we can get from here on in. You up for it? Is there a slayer in you after all? Because if not, stay away, you’re likely to get yourself killed. Or worse.”
“I deserved that, I suppose. But I’ve already told Beckett; maybe not as a career move, but I intend to kill Andrei. Then I’ll see. Meanwhile, we’re wasting precious time standing here arguing. My car’s just here, engine running, and there’s a flight to Athens in four hours and I have three tickets waiting at the airport.”
