inherit the earth

by Hunter

  Van Wyk’s heart hammered, and his body shook. He’d delayed the inevitable for as long as he could, but now the moment had come. The blooddrinkers truly were going to kill him, and just to make his demise even more galling, he knew it was because his solution was, if not entirely wrong, at least incomplete. Otherwise the vampires wouldn’t have rejected it so quickly and unanimously.

  As he summoned his aura and, despite himself, shrank backward, he suddenly had an idea, which in turn triggered another, and that, another, like a line of dominos falling down.

  “Stop! ” he cried. “I’ve just now thought of something! ” The advancing vampires paid no heed. The Blue Collar with the pierced nipples reached into the shimmering blue haze, and for some reason, the radiance didn’t repel him.

  His white, powerful hands began to close on Van Wyk’s forearm, and then Marvin grabbed his fellow vampire and spun him away. “Chill! ” yelled the caitiff, and psychic energy jolted through the air. It wasn’t as irresistible as Rand’s effort, but it sufficed to startle the blooddrinkers and make them falter.

  “You promised Doc he could have till dawn! ” Marvin cried. “And I want to hear this. Maybe he’s got the real answer now. ”

  “All right, ” said Polly. Van Wyk suspected that vampires didn’t actually need to breathe, but she was panting anyway. Perhaps it was a manifestation of her struggle to suppress her bloodthirst. “We’ll give him one more chance, but then it’s happy hour. ”

  “One more should suffice, ” said Van Wyk, allowing the aura to fade away. “Let’s take another pass at this problem. If Mr. Saraceno was neither suicidal nor under the psychic influence of an enemy, and no one entered this suite to effect his demise, where does that leave us? ” “Nowhere, ” said Rand impatiently. “You just eliminated every possibility.. ”

  “Actually, no, ” said Van Wyk. “As Polly’s friend Mr. Holmes would have anticipated, one improbability remains now that all the impossibilities have been eliminated. ” He noticed that the vampires were still bunched all round him, hemming him in. “If you’ll allow me to reenter Mr. Saraceno’s bedroom, I’ll show you what it is. ” The creatures made way for him. The crime scene was just as he’d left it, except that the remains had begun to smell. He picked up the severed head, examined it, and smiled, for until that moment, he hadn’t been at all sure that his final, fear-triggered chain of inferences — guesses, really — was correct. There was satisfaction in knowing that he’d uncovered the truth at last, even though it probably wouldn’t save his life. He displayed the grisly, dripping object to the watching vampires.

  “Plastic surgery scars, ” he said, pointing to the tiny white marks at the hairline and the underside of the chin. “I missed them before because I wasn’t looking for them. I imagine Mr. Saraceno’s transformation into a vampire preceded the invention of cosmetic procedures. I have something even more anomalous to show you, but to do so, I’ll need to borrow a knife. ” Polly gave him one of her leaf-shaped silvery blades. He set the head on a little round table, pulled back the upper lip, and began to cut.

  “I don’t know what sort of structure serves to extrude a vampire’s fangs, ” he said after a moment, “but notice, this specimen doesn’t have it. ” He sliced and pried until the bloody tooth came free of the bone and gum. “In fact, as one can see from the length, this isn’t a vampire fang at all, just an ordinary human canine. ”

  “I don’t understand, ” someone said.

  “It means that the dead man isn’t Mr. Saraceno. He’s a human pawn, surgically altered to resemble him exactly, and no doubt psychically compelled to impersonate the prince and ultimately to destroy himself. ”

  “But this is crazy, ” said one of the Executives. “We can tell who’s a vampire and who’s a mortal. ”

  “Generally, that may be true, ” said Van Wyk. “But what if the human was the exact duplicate, in speech and manner as well as appearance, of a vampire you were expecting to see? What if the substitution only occurred very recently, so that the deception didn’t need to bear scrutiny for very long? ” “It’s possible, ” said Polly, frowning thoughtfully. “None of us is the kind of vampire with super-sharp senses. We wouldn’t have heard the heartbeat. Besides, Rand and his crew are dumb as rocks. ”

  Rand’s mouth tightened at the gibe, but he opted not to respond in kind. “But who created the double and made the switch 7’ he asked Van Wyk. “And why? And where is the real Anthony? ”

  “I can’t answer all of that, “ the doctor replied. “But I suspect that your prince himself was behind the deception. You say he has the power to dominate a human mind, even, I would speculate, to the extent of replacing the original personality with a false one and imposing a suicidal imperative. He was certainly the ideal trainer to prepare a dupe to impersonate himself, as well as the only vampire who would experience little difficulty effecting the substitution. ”

  “Bravo, Doctor, ” came a deep, resonant voice from the back of the throng.

  The vampires spun around. At first Van Wyk was unable to see through them to what they were gaping at. Then the crowd automatically gave way to let the animate counterpart of the bloody, headless form on the bed stroll forward. Presumably he had been eavesdropping out in the hall.

  “And here I thought my little subterfuge would fool everyone, ” the real Anthony Saraceno continued. “That damn ridiculous blade. I suppose I should have killed my twin with my own hands, broken in through the window or something. But I thought it would be nice for him to die in a sealed room, with his loyal bodyguard oblivious to his plight. Murders are more disturbing when they’re thoroughly mysterious. More aesthetically pleasing, as well. ”

  “I don’t understand, ” said Rand, “why would you do this? ”

  “Perhaps this will explain, ” said the prince, and then, in an instant, he changed.

  He grew so tall that his head nearly brushed the ceiling, so gaunt that he resembled a stick insect. Every trace of hair, even his eyebrows and eyelashes, vanished, while the brown eyes turned black and sunk into his skull. His handsome suit became a dark, musty-smelling robe as dingy, ragged, and shapeless as an old shroud. He gave off a palpable feeling of both great power and extraordinary age.

  The vampires gasped and cringed backward. Van Wyk resisted an impulse to do the same, his curiosity even stronger than his fear.

  “I’m afraid I still don’t understand, ” the doctor said, “at least, not entirely. How have you been creeping around spying on us undetected? ” Saraceno smiled. “I designed the alarm and sentry system. ”

  “And exactly what manner of creature are you? ” “Ah, of course, you wouldn’t know. I’m one of the oldest surviving members of my race. Perhaps you can imagine how tedious such a life span can

  become. To pass the time, my fellows and I conceived a game, We started playing when Babylon was a village of mud huts, and are likely to be at it still when all of you are dust. It’s a contest of murder, conquest, and intrigue, and our progeny, and their get, serve as our chessmen. ”

  “You’re saying that you created the identity of Anthony Saraceno, established a family and a principality, and finally faked your own murder, just so you could foment trouble between the two subspecies? ”

  “Not exactly, ” said the ancient vampire. “When I began, I didn’t know how I would choose to end my tenure. However, when I discerned that circumstances would soon oblige me to move on, I assessed the current disposition of the game and decided it would be advantageous to leave the locals in a state of conflict and confusion. To that end, I created my doppelganger, transformed Billings, refused him his heart’s desire, and all the rest of it. But please don’t ask me to explain how hostilities here advance my overall strategy. It would take hours.

  “Now you’ve spoiled my trick, ” Saraceno continued, “but perhaps all is not lost. ” He turned toward Rand. “I’m still your prince, and you detest Polly Donovan and her ilk. If I command you to fight them, will you do it? ”


  Rand had to swallow before he could find his voice. “If you had seen fit to deal fairly with us, we’d still be your loyal vassals. But you tried to trick us into fighting and risking our lives for no valid reason whatsoever. We don’t owe you a damn thing now, and we’ll never do your bidding again. ”

  Saraceno chuckled. “Well, perhaps not tonight. But I created this family’s policies, alliances, and portfolios. I surreptitiously sculpted your very personalities. Rest assured, in the long run, you will have no choice but to further my schemes, without ever knowing that was the true purpose of all your striving.

  “But enough about that, ” the prince continued. “You’re naughty children, but even so, I don’t mean to demoralize you. ” He pivoted back toward Van Wyk. “I’ll just chastise this meddler, then take my leave. ”

  Backpedaling, Van Wyk wasted a second trying to summon the aura before remembering that he’d used it only a few minutes before. It wasn’t available yet, hadn’t recharged or whatever it was that it did. He stared Saraceno in the face and tried to freeze his bare, white feet to the floor. The ancient vampire laughed, exposing a mouthful of teeth grown long and pointed as stilettos, and advanced. His nails lengthened into black talons.

  The other blooddrinkers watched huddled in the bedroom doorway, the dread in their pale faces a testament to their elder’s might.

  Van Wyk grimly evoked yet another of his new talents. He knew it wouldn’t save him, not from this threat, but he might as well put up as good a fight as possible.

  Saraceno lifted his hand to claw at him. The doctor sensed that a jump backward or to the right would mean death, but a sidestep to the left would leave him unscathed. He dodged, and the strike missed. The vampire immediately followed up with his other hand. Now a step into distance, perfectly timed, was the only way to avoid being gashed from throat to groin.

  Three more attacks, three more desperate evasions. Then Saraceno sucked in a deep breath and blew out streamers of darkness, which rapped themselves around Van Wyk’s head.

  Fortunately, the doctor’s superhuman perceptions allowed him to see perfectly in the dark. He avoided the next attack, and Saraceno hissed in frustration.

  Van Wyk noticed that the audience of vampires looked astonished and in some cases even excited. But if they thought he had even the slimmest chance, they were mistaken. He had nearly exhausted his preternatural ability to choose the right move, and when it stopped working, he would be at Saraceno’s mercy.

  At least he achieved one instant of satisfaction before the end. An evasive maneuver worked so well that he was actually able to strike back, lunging in close, pinking the vampire with Polly’s knife, and jumping back again.

  Saraceno roared. His clawed hands began to whirl in a complicated martial-arts pattern, blindingly fast, the way the Blue Collars could move. Van Wyk’s ability to sense the right option abruptly cut out on him, and he knew that when the antediluvian vampire attacked again, it was going to be like getting caught in a threshing machine.

  “Fuck it, ” said Polly from the other side of the room. “If Saraceno’s having trouble killing a human, how tough can he be? ”

  “We have him outnumbered twenty to one, ” replied Rand. “Let’s do it. ”

  The Executives and Blue Collars surged forward. Caught by surprise, Saraceno hadn’t quite finished turning around when the attackers at the head of the pack slammed into him.

  Winded, his powers ineffectual or spent, Van Wyk scrambled into a aimer, then watched the battle in awe. The center of the room was a maelstrom of darting, leaping, reeling forms, of shining eyes and teeth. Vampires moved faster than the eye could follow, or struck with bone-shattering force. Psychic forces hammered through the air until the doctor’s head pounded, and his nose bled. Saraceno blew out ragged sheets of darkness to blind his assailants, and conjured bursts of yellow flame to bum them.

  At first, the younger vampires fell one by one, ripped to pieces, charred black, or stunned by bolts of mental energy, until Van Wyk was all but certain that Saraceno would succeed in defeating them all. But then someone — the doctor didn’t see who or how — landed a telling attack. The prince reeled, fell to his knees, and at once the other creatures swarmed over him like rats.

  Saraceno fought on for another three minutes, but never quite managed to shake his attackers off. At the end, he gave a long, ululating shriek and then stopped moving.

  Van Wyk expected that would be the end of the frenzied struggling, but instead it continued without a pause. The surviving vampires had all had a taste of Saraceno’s blood, and for some reason, they couldn’t get enough of it. They madly bit and sucked at the corpse, fighting one other for the spots on the long, gaunt body from which gore could most easily be extracted. Occasionally one of the creatures lifted his crimsoned face and wailed in mindless ecstasy.

  The doctor was appalled. Over the last few hours, he had imagined he had gained a new understanding of vampires, had come to know them as creatures whose intellects were largely human. But there was no humanity apparent in the rabid creatures guzzling from Saraceno’s body. They were like animals, or something worse.

  Van Wyk noticed the vampires’ human attendants withdrawing. Evidently they didn’t care to remain in their masters’ presence when the blooddrinkers were in this condition. And if they were leaving, so could he, for there was no one left who appeared to be paying the slightest attention to him. He tiptoed around the feeding monsters and out into the hallway.

  The elevator was the old-fashioned kind, meant to be run by an operator. Van Wyk pulled the brass lever and started down. It seemed to take the rattling cage an eternity to reach the ground floor.

  When the doors opened, Polly was waiting outside. In her current condition, face twitching, fangs extended, no one would think her attractive. She was covered in blood, her own and Saraceno’s, reeked of it, and swayed as if intoxicated. When she spoke, her voice was an almost unintelligible growl.

  “Bet you don’t know how I beat you down here, ” she rasped.

  . “Considering how fast you are, ” replied Van Wyk, “and how slow the elevator is, I imagine you simply ran down the several flights of stairs. ” “Smart, ” she said. “That’s why I like you, like you so much I chased you down here. ”

  “I trust it was just to see me off, ” said Van Wyk, not believing it for a second. “You all promised to let me go if I solved your puzzle, and you told me that however your compatriots may behave, you at least are a person of honor. ”

  “But maybe honor only applies between one vampire and another, ” she said, leering. “Or maybe it’s just too dangerous to let you walk out of here knowing what you know. Or maybe the beast is so strong in me that I don’t give a shit right now. I’ve been craving a taste of you all night. ”

  Van Wyk tried to paralyze her with his stare. Nothing happened, and he wasn’t surprised. He was too tired. He’d exhausted all his strengths, including the mystical ones.

  “If you mean to attack me, do it now, ” he said. “Otherwise I’m walking out of here. ”

  She stood and thought for a moment, then laughed. “You know, you’d taste like piss compared to what I was just drinking upstairs. So I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a ten minute head start. ”

  Van Wyk shivered with relief. If his car was still where he’d left it, ten minutes ought to be enough. He gave her a nod and walked briskly toward the exit.

  Table of Contents

  The Treatment of Dr. Eberhardt

  Credo

  The Names of the Dead

  Closure

  Antibody

  Some Faerie Tales are Real

  The Frailty of Humans

  Lucimal's Heart

  Unusual Suspects