by Trisha Baker
Jimmy wished to God vampires did sleep in coffins—then he wouldn't have to deal with seeing Maggie sprawled on top of that thing, her body intertwined with his. Of course, he probably raped her, but why wasn't she huddled away from him? Why was her head on his shoulder, one hand carelessly thrown across him, her bright red hair covering their nudity?
Jimmy was close to hyperventilating. He hadn't been this frightened the other times he killed vampires. But he had been healthy and done by noon—now he was trapped with vampires that could wake up at any second. He couldn't resist a morbid stare—resting vampires was a sight you could never get used to or fully describe to someone else. They didn't look real. In the light, they were like waxen figures in a museum—stunningly lifelike but no animation whatsoever. He found it hard to believe that the doll-like figure on the bed was Maggie.
Jimmy put out an arm to gently tug Maggie away from Simon, but she was like deadweight. He had to yank her hard to move her away, but she didn't stir.
He reached for Simon's hands, and his own hands were shaking so badly it took over ten minutes to tie the vampire's hands to the brass headboard. Touching Simon made Jimmy feel ill; every minute he expected him to suddenly yank his hands away and wrap them around Jimmy's neck.
There was no time to restrain his feet: 6:04. Jimmy took the iron stake (Maggie said why use wood when metal was so much heavier) and placed it in the center of Simon's chest. Jimmy raised the hammer, intending to drive the stake through his heart. But it was Jimmy's heart that stopped and his breath went out in a soundless gasp when those yellow eyes flew open.
The vampire easily snapped the ropes binding his wrists. Jimmy's hammer fell harmlessly to the floor, landing softly on the carpeted floor. Now one hand wrapped around Jimmy's throat Simon glanced down at the stake, and casually threw it across the room with his other hand. Then his mouth stretched in an evil smirk; Jimmy almost lost control of his bladder in his terror.
"Many stronger, smarter, more resourceful men than you have tried to end my life. You arrive rather late in the day to dispose of a vampire, boy. Could it be you are laboring under the illness my apprentice inflicted upon you?"
Maggie hadn't moved. Come on, Jimmy prayed, wake up and help me.
Simon laughed. "You came here to rescue the damsel in distress, and now you invoke her aid. It shall be my pleasure to feast upon your agony when you observe Meghann's love for me."
"She doesn't want you! "Jimmy tried to scream over the hand blocking his windpipe.
Simon held his eyes, and Jimmy felt the rage vanish beside the paralyzing fear that set in. The vampire didn't need to raise one hand against him; those evil eyes had entered his mind and Jimmy was hysterical. Before he passed out, he heard the monster say softly, "Meghann wants me as she has never wanted anything else. But I will not prove that to you—she will."
"Charles."
He looked up from the deed he'd found on the living room table. "Meghann, thank God!" He hugged her close, unable to convince himself she was real. She was wearing an ivory gown, but his attention wasn't drawn by the dress—he was shocked by the red punctures on her neck that were a ghastly contrast to her chalk skin.
Charles pushed her hair away, running one hand gingerly over the wounds. "Simon bit you?" What else did he do, Charles thought to himself. She looked like a wraith with her pallor, wild hair, and anxiety-filled green eyes. Charles also thought he saw deep humiliation and shame.
"That's not important," she said shrilly, and started speaking frenziedly. "We have to get back there; he's got Jimmy. When I woke up, I knew Jimmy was there; I felt him. Simon took him somewhere, probably thought he'd make me do what I did to Johnny 'cause he thought after last night—" Meghann broke off, and blushed to her hairline. Then she started rambling again in the same high-pitched, hysterical tone. "But I tricked him this time. He thought I was too weak, but he didn't know that ritual gave me power too. He thought it was all for him, but I was able to fly here and get you. I need your help; God knows what he's doing to Jimmy, but I knew I couldn't stop him by myself any more than I could stop him from killing Alcuin… Oh, Charles, he's dead. Did you know that? But maybe we can help Jimmy… damn it! Why did you send Jimmy to Simon's lair? He was in no condition to slay a vampire. It was a trap. Why couldn't you see that? How did you find his resting place?"
Charles grabbed her shoulders firmly. "Meghann!" He had to cut through her hysteria; she wasn't making sense. He settled her on the couch and handed her the pint of blood he'd started to drink when she appeared. "Feed, Meghann. You're starved for blood and hysterical." He overrode her protests. "You can't help Jimmy like this—now take that blood."
Meghann tore into the plastic bag with her blood teeth and drank greedily. Charles watched the pallor fade from her face as she demolished the entire pint. The shaking stopped, and she looked up at him with a much calmer expression.
"I didn't mean it," she said to herself. There was no mistaking the relief in her eyes.
Charles took her hand. "What didn't you mean?"
Meghann leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for making me feed. You were right—I wasn't thinking clearly. He didn't let me feed."
"Of course he didn't Now, what didn't you mean?"
"Last night, he gave me this potion. Blood mixed with other things. He likened it to a truth serum—said I wouldn't be able to lie about my feelings for him." Meghann laughed bitterly. "And I was foolish enough to take his words at face value, to assume Simon Baldevar would tell me the truth about anything. It was no truth serum—more like the date-rape drug. Anyway, after he made me drink it, we performed this… ritual."
Charles did not want to press her for details about the ritual—the dull flush on her face was enough for him to guess what was involved. He took her hands and told her, "Meghann, the past two nights have been sheer hell for me—not knowing if you were still alive. I do not care what you had to do or say to save your life."
Meghann gave him a slight smile. "You're right, Charles—all that matters is that I'm here—able to fight that bastard to save Jimmy. I wasn't able to see that until you made me feed." She felt so relieved—Charles thought he'd been in hell? What about the torture she'd gone through since she told that despicable bastard she loved him? The whole thing seemed unreal now—she could almost pretend she'd imagined it. And what did it matter if she did say she loved him? She only said it because of the damned potion.
"Meghann."
She looked up from her reverie.
"Did you say Simon has Jimmy?"
She scowled at him. "Of course he does. You sent him there during the day, didn't you? Why did you do it? How could Jimmy possibly attack Simon in his weakened condition? What were you thinking?"
"Meghann, no! I didn't send Jimmy… Look at this, though." He handed her the deed.
She read it quickly, frowning. "Where did this come from?"
"It must have come yesterday… during the day, when I slept It's from that agency you hired."
"No, it's too much of a coincidence… Jimmy finding Simon's resting place. This came from Simon… somehow."
"There's more involved. Jimmy shouldn't have been able to keep that information from me… He had help."
"Oh, God." Meghann sighed tiredly. "Simon must have used his power to shield Jimmy's thoughts from you. Why couldn't Jimmy see it was a trap?"
"He was worried for you… sick, not thinking clearly."
Meghann started to nod in agreement and then she let out a chilling howl that made Charles's bones tighten with fear. "He's torturing him!" she howled. "Oh, my God, no, don't—"
Charles shook her hard to bring her back to her senses.
Meghann got to her feet, and yanked Charles up. "Come on, we have to go now!"
"Meghann, how can I fly there? I've never been there."
"Yes, you have," she corrected. "Simon took me walking last night… It's the Gold Coast! Do you remember that huge mansion we saw in Hempstead? Simon's estate is only a
few miles from there… If we fly and then walk, we can be there in ten minutes! Come on!"
Charles spoke softly, knowing how upset she was. "Meghann, you just asked me how Jimmy couldn't see that he was walking into a trap. Well, he's mortal, but you're a vampire and even you can't think clearly right now with all your fear for him. Simon wants us to just blunder onto his property."
Meghann knew her friend was right. But how could they help Jimmy?
"Tell me everything that happened since you encountered Simon on the beach," Charles told her.
Rapidly Meghann told him of Alcuin's death, the dream she'd had the night before, her own failed plan to bring Simon to his knees with the love he claimed to have for her.
Charles's eyes lit up. "You were right!" He smiled at her.
His sudden cheer surprised her. "What do you mean?"
Charles grasped her hand again. "Meghann, Simon's love for you does make him vulnerable… and that is the one advantage we have right now." He pulled her up. "We have to make you more presentable for your lover."
"What?" she questioned while he pulled her up the stairs. "What are you up to? I told you, trying to use his feelings toward me didn't work last night—"
"But that's because you were alone, Meghann. Of course you couldn't handle him on your own, but now we'll defeat him together. Alcuin was right—love will be your weapon." Charles explained the rudiments of his plan while they hurried up the stairs.
Meghann thought his plot had a small chance of working, but her own eyes lit up when she thought of a way to refine it.
"Yes!" she said excitedly while Charles hastily filled a bag with items they would need to rescue Jimmy and destroy Simon. "This can work, but I have a better idea. Something Lord Baldevar will never suspect. I'll explain to you while we walk to the estate."
Jimmy Delacroix regained consciousness when he felt an icy hand on his throat and heard a steely voice command, "Awaken."
He tried to jerk away from the cold touch, but he couldn't move. His arms and feet were tied down. No, not just tied down—the ropes were cutting into his skin, stretching his limbs to the breaking point.
"Your limbs ache? You are lying upon a rack—one I have owned since the sixteenth century," the same steely whisper told him.
Simon Baldevar! Jimmy's eyes snapped open. Everything came flooding back: Jones, seeing Maggie sprawled on top of the vampire, and his failed attack. Where was he? Jimmy felt a cold block beneath his head, propping him up. He raised his head as much as he could to get a better look at his surroundings.
What he saw made him think he had traveled back in time to the Spanish Inquisition. The dark, dank room was a torture chamber, lit only by a few candles attached to iron holders in the stone walls. In the center of the room, Jimmy saw a large wheel-like structure hanging ten feet off the ground, an iron casket, chains attached to the walls with iron spikes in the necks, and a long stone table littered with a variety of torture implements. There were thumbscrews, needles, pincers, daggers, and some other medieval-looking objects that Jimmy couldn't identify.
Simon followed his glance, and picked up one curious object that looked like a clumsy scissors. "You don't know what some of my little toys are, do you? Don't fret. Before the sun rises, you shall know the name of every object on this table and its use—intimately."
"What are you going to do to me?" Jimmy croaked.
"Whatever does my consort see in you? She certainly did not select you for your intelligence or resourceful nature." The vampire applied a bit more pressure to Jimmy's throat and the mortal gagged. "And I made it so easy for you, young man. Threw open the walls of my estate to see if you could damage me. Removed every barrier to finding my resting place. Of course, you failed miserably."
Jimmy cursed—he should have known the whole thing was a trap. But he'd wanted to help Maggie so badly, get her away from this monster. And where the hell was she? Hadn't she woken up yet? What had the monster done to her?
"I have not done anything to Meghann. She chose to leave my estate."
Maggie was gone? Why? She wouldn't just leave him here and save her own neck, would she?
Simon made the thumbscrews fly off the stone table and into his outstretched hand. While he attached the device to Jimmy's right hand, he spoke to him in a light, almost casual tone. "Although it would give me no end of pleasure to watch you wallow in the notion that Meghann cravenly deserted you in your hour of need, I far prefer to point out that you know remarkably little about a woman you claim undying love for." The screws were tightening; Jimmy felt a sickening wave of nausea and unbearable pain in his right hand. He screamed out and the vampire kept chatting in that same lighthearted tone, like they were having tea together. "That sweet child is not yet capable of turning her back on you. Poor girl… What she must suffer through because she is too stubborn to listen to her master." Snap—the screws went through Jimmy's bones and his right hand was broken.
The agony was worse than anything Jimmy had ever felt—it seemed like the pain shot waves of torment through his body. Hating himself, Jimmy screamed, "Stop! Please!"
Creak, creak, creak… Jimmy heard something behind him creaking. How was it moving? Simon was standing in front of him. The pain slammed into Jimmy as his limbs were stretched farther and farther apart.
He was drenched in sweat, moaning incoherently. God, he prayed desperately, let me faint. But he didn't pass out and his agony grew with each insidious creak of that damned machine behind him.
"You will not find any escape in oblivion, young man. For even if you did faint, I would revive you. I would not remove your pain… I would increase your awareness of it. What a sight you will make for my Meghann."
"Stop it!" Jimmy yelled through the pain. "Don't you say her name… Don't you call her yours!"
Simon raised his left eyebrow, and the rope around Jimmy's right ankle tightened again. It kept tightening until his kneecap popped. Jimmy vomited from the excruciating pain. He hoped he might choke on the vomit, but he couldn't with his head propped up.
"But she is mine," the fiend told him quietly. "She pledged herself to me for eternity before you were even born, worthless cur." Simon knelt by Jimmy's side and sadistically whispered in his ear. "Perhaps I did not need the rack at all. Which would hurt you more? Shall I introduce you to the pincers, or tell you everything I did with my inamorata last night?"
"Don't… you… call her… that," Jimmy hissed. "She… loves… me."
"In the same manner she would love a wounded animal she found on the street. Meghann has an unfortunate tendency to pity and empathize with mortals… one she will outgrow in time, under my tutelage. But I see by your bulging eyes and heaving chest that revelation will cause you more agony. So I shall tell you that last night I had her just as I desired… with her beautiful legs spread wide—"
"No!"
"To receive her master," Simon whispered smoothly, ignoring the interruption, "swearing love, telling me she belonged to me… but you need not take my word for it. You may see for yourself when Meghann arrives. That will be your last image of her, wrapped in my arms, Mr. Delacroix, calling me her master. And after that, if I feel merciful, I will end your worthless life."
Jimmy took a deep but shaky breath and forced himself to look right into the deranged yellow eyes. "You've got it wrong, motherfucker," he said without any break in his voice. "The last thing you're gonna see before we put you in the ground is Maggie telling me she loves me and telling you to go fuck yourself."
"I grow weary of your noise, wretch." Simon strolled over to the table and plucked a peculiar object from it. When Simon got closer to him, Jimmy saw that the thing looked like a dog collar with a double-pronged fork sticking out of the center. Simon attached it to Jimmy's neck, and the prisoner found he could barely breathe.
"This is called the 'heretic's fork.' Notice how one end keeps your chin rigidly in place and the other attacks your sternum. Speech is nearly impossible, but I am sure you will try to scr
eam in a few minutes."
Simon raised his hand, and a pincer slowly drifted off a coal brazier and spun in the air for a few minutes. Then it leisurely made its way over to Simon's left hand. He took the cool end in hand and attached the warm end to the thumbnail on Jimmy's ruined hand.
"Nngh, mmph," he tried to scream when the searing hot pincer ripped his fingernail out down to the cuticle. Jimmy was literally choking on his pain because he couldn't scream and he couldn't stop trying to scream.
When he thought there could be no worse torment, the vampire leaned down and started drinking from his neck… reopening Renee's wound. It wanted his pain; it was growing strong on the agony.
"By my estimation, my consort should arrive in about ten minutes," the hateful fiend whispered in his ear while he attached the pincer to his left hand. "I promise you, Mr. Delacroix, that shall be an eternity of misery for you. But it will be a pale shadow compared to what you feel when you see Meghann accept me as her master… and lover."
As they neared Simon's estate, Meghann's euphoria gave way to rising tension and doubt. "Are you sure this will work?" Meghann questioned worriedly. "Simon's not a fool."
"Meghann, what other choice do we have? Shall we pit our combined strength against him in a face-to-face duel for your lover's life? It should take all of five minutes for him to crush us both. If he could defeat Alcuin, what prayer do we have? And you're right… Simon is not a fool. But he is in love. He'll believe you, Meghann, because he'll want to believe you." Charles saw her skeptical expression and sighed. "I wish I could reassure you… and myself. There are no guarantees anymore, Meghann. We may very well be walking to our deaths."
"Your death," she told him quietly. "Simon won't kill me. He'll make me sit and watch while he slaughters you and Jimmy, but he won't murder me. He has better ways of making me suffer."
Charles gave her his hand, and she nearly crushed it. They were like two frightened children, holding hands to protect themselves from the evil things in the dark. "We're approaching the estate… Let's not give ourselves away by discussing this any further."
