by Drew D'Amato
“I will make him feel that his latest attack on Malachi’s house has affected my resolve. I have nothing left to fight. I want to agree to a truce, I’ll tell him I want to do it at my old castle to make it official. That will get him to come back to Romania.”
“Won’t he think that it’s a trap?” Jericho asked.
“Maybe, but as long as he goes back home, that is all we are asking for.”
“What are you going to do next?” Pacami asked.
“Nothing, he will call me. We will take it from there.”
“How can you be so sure he will call?” Pacami asked.
“He will do it to get under my skin. The only thing he likes to do more than try to kill me, is to upset me.”
2
Vlad and Pacami went into Vlad’s office. Vlad took a seat behind his desk and Pacami took the seat opposite Vlad, as usual. Pacami was not scared this time like before. The vampires were starting to trust him, and he was starting to trust them too. Vlad took out a Cuban cigar from the wooden cigar box on his desk. He offered one to Pacami, but the priest refused. Vlad lit his cigar with his Zippo lighter.
“I had not planned on you being here, Father, but since you are, I think it’s time to tell you about the last element of this vampire situation—the Crusaders.”
Pacami took a pause to speak. “Do they know about you, or the coffer?”
“They work for the Vatican. They are not men of the cloth; in fact, most of them are men of the law. Cops, federal agents from countries all over the globe. Most of them kept their day jobs as either a form of cover, or to have access to information. They start out as regular officers of the law, but at some point they investigate something too close to discovering the truth about vampires. It is then that members of the Crusaders approach them and give them a choice to join their cause. If they refuse, they are silenced forever. If the Vatican had a CIA, this would be them. They also helped smuggle the Nazis through the ‘Ratline’ after World War II to help fight the communists. They take care of the unpleasantries for the Vatican Bank, handle all the dirty business, and also hunt vampires.”
Pacami nodded in understanding.
“You must realize, Father, they are the only humans who are a threat to us, because they know how we can die. They use lead bullets painted over with silver like we do.”
“How come you don’t just use pure silver bullets?”
“We use silver on lead bullets. Silver bullets actually are not that effective. Lead is more malleable and works better with the rifling of a gun, which allows it to spin better and give it a better trajectory, so they fly truer. They also don’t pierce half as deep as lead, and price wise they are about five dollars a bullet where as lead bullets are about 50 cents a round. Even though I am vastly wealthy, it would still be a waste of money on an inferior bullet. And we go through a lot of bullets. You still need silver to kill a vampire, but it is a minimum amount of silver, microscopic, it just has to enter the heart. Silver jewelry and real sterling silver flatware can also be used. This is why we use lead bullets, paint them with pure silver, and fire away. The bullets are really just a vehicle to carry the silver to the heart.
“The Crusaders also know fire and running water kills us. They also know the difference between Radu and me, in regards to daylight. But I’m not sure if they know about the armor-piercing bullets.”
“Armor-piercing bullets?”
“Think about it, Father, a bullet to the head does nothing to us, so why not just wear a bulletproof vest all the time and take away that threat? We did. Once bulletproof vests were created, it seemed like the vampire war would be a permanent stalemate. Every vampire on each side wore them. But then came armor-piercing rounds which every vampire uses in their guns. It is such a guarantee that a vampire will use this type of ammo that none of us bother with vests any more. They serve no purpose, and are uncomfortable. But I am not sure if the Crusaders use armor-piercing rounds, or were ever aware of this stalemate for a few years.”
“How did they ever even learn about you, nevermind your weaknesses?”
“They learned of us thanks to my brother, Vlad the monk. He felt while he was alive he was able to rein in Radu and me from doing too much damage with our powers. However, he feared what would happen to the world upon his death. He instructed an advisor under him while he was ruler of Wallachia to give a letter to Pope Alexander VI after his death.”
Vlad got up to pace around the room, puffing on his cigar.
“This pope, if you don’t know, was a blasphemous, fornicating, Pope—very deceitful and dirty. He was the main character of a series on Showtime and in Mario Puzo’s final novel The Family. In the book he makes his son sleep with his daughter to preserve family loyalty. Her own brother, he wanted her to lose her virginity to! And I can tell you, I’m pretty sure Puzo got it right.
“Putting aside his amoral views and that he acted more like a Don then a Pope, he was still the Pope, and shortly after my brother’s death he received this letter. The letter explained all about the Order of the Dragon, the Blood of the Betrayer, the Templars, Judas, what harms a vampire, and of course he told about Radu and myself.
“The pontiff did not immendiately discredit the letter, but he didn’t believe it too, so he sent some men to investigate led by his son Cesare Borgia. They found some evidence—bodies drained of blood—the work of Radu. He never cared too much about leaving a mess. He then decided to create the Crusaders before his death. In fact, his last words were ‘Wait a minute,’ but then he died. He may have been about to warn about vampires, but he did not get a chance. The Crusaders then spent two hundred years trying to find as much information as they could about us, carrying around drawings of Radu and me in our human years, but they could not dig up much.
“In 1666, when I returned from Israel and had thrown the coffer overboard, I returned to my castle to get some things to set off for the new world. To my surprise I found a Crusader waiting for me. They were led by a man named Larz Van Helsing. He was a great warrior and actually got the drop on me. He had a crossbow loaded with a silver arrowhead. Facing my death I told him about the new conflict with Radu, that Radu was the real threat, and if he killed me he would never learn what Radu’s true intentions were. With a mix of the powers I have over a man’s mind, and seeing the honesty in my face, he lowered his guard. Then I got the drop on him. I grabbed the crossbow from his hands, and turned it on him. I decided against killing him in an effort to show mercy. An example of good faith, you could say.
“I told him I was going out west to the New World and that I would not be an issue for him. If he wanted to, he could tell the rest of the Crusaders that he did in fact kill me, and that vampires do not leave a body. Something that once a Crusader ever did kill a vampire would be proven true. I told him what Radu’s aims were and to be on the look out for him. That Radu would probably return to his homeland.
“He then asked about the Dark Bible and the Blood of the Betrayer. These had been referenced in my brother’s letter, and he wanted to get his hands on them so the Crusaders would have something of a guidebook for vampires, and something tangible to show the rest of the world. I laughed and told him I had secured them both in a coffer and thrown them over the side of a boat in the middle of the Dead Sea. In the 17th century a human or a vampire did not think that man would eventually be able to search the depths of the sea.
“Before I left, I told him it would be best for both our interests if he spread the word that he had killed me. Fooling Radu that he was the only vampire on the earth might get him to slip up and expose himself. Van Helsing became sort of a folk legend to the Crusaders; telling all how he killed Vlad, where the coffer was, and that Radu was still out there. Over in Europe the Crusaders hunted Radu and I lived in peace in the New World. Then came the French and Indian War.
“The war started in 1754 over in North America. But he did not come over to participate in the bloodshed of a war. Most battles occurred during the day s
o Radu and his men couldn’t come out and play. Radu left Europe because everyone in Eastern Europe was looking for vampires.
“Radu had whipped Eastern Europe up in a frenzy since he heard of my supposed death. Just what Van Helsing and I had hoped for. The 17th and 18th centuries were the worst time for the vampire scare. There had been reported sightings, grave diggings and stakings. Government officials had gotten involved. In 1746, a respected French theologian published a treatise about vampire attacks. It was moving from superstition to an accepted reality. Even Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician to Moravia to investigate these vampire claims in 1755. It wasn’t just the Crusaders that were looking for vampires now, everyone was. Radu had learned the downside of not staying in the shadows.
“Then one of his top underlings—this vampire named Gabriel who was from the Holy Roman Empire—recommended going over to the New World. The land was wide open. And sure they couldn’t take part in the battles during the day, but Native Americans were also fighting in this war. The vampires knew the white man would not care about what happened to these savages, even if it occurred at night away from the battlefield; nor take seriously any of their superstitious claims.
“It was a great idea, and to honor Gabriel, Radu said they would help the side of the British, since back in Europe Britain was fighing on the side of Prussia—Gabriel’s homeland—in the Seven Years War.
“So Radu and his men set sail for the theatre in the North American colonies. He traveled over to the ocean with his men as cargo in boxes. He didn’t want to have to explain why he and his entourage were never found awake during the daytime. They landed and searched out major strategic locations to attack the French. But then they heard about what happened at Fort Duquesne.
“Now during this time, I decided a war was a great place for a vampire to be, and I could fight during the day. But I choose my side with a sense of morality, and even though I was a patriot during the American Revolution, I fought on the side of the French for this war.”
“Why,” Pacami asked. “Because they were Catholic and the British were Protestants?”
“No, I couldn’t care less about that. The truth was the French treated the Native Americans much better then the British did. The British were barbaric in the way they acquired land from them. The French treated them closer to equals. They traded with them and conducted fair business. History books themselves show the French were kinder to the indigenous population, and when you live through it, the choice is more obvious.”
“But you settled in Philadelphia when you landed, why not Quebec or Montreal?”
“There was more money in the British Colonies. Also, we’d rather feast on the British than the French or Indians. It was easier to find people who deserved to die, when you picked out of a population comprised of ruthless slave owners. The point is that Jericho and I—he was the only vampire I made up to this point—decided to fight at Fort Duquesne.
“For Duquesne would eventually be captured by the British, and rebuilt as Fort Pitt, and the surrounding area would become Pittsburg. Now you can see why we were at this location, it was only 300 miles away from Philadelphia. I am unsure what Radu and his men did when they first got to the Colonies, probably just checked out the New World, or maybe they feasted on some other battles. Whatever the case, they eventually heard about the disaster at the Battle of Fort Duquesne in September of 1758. Over 100 British died, only 8 on the French side. History reports it that the Indians used the forest to their advantage. It was in this thick foliage out of the light of the sun that allowed Jericho and I to do most of the damage.
“What interested Radu about this battle was a small detail that was eerily familiar to him—heads impaled on pikes. I had instructed the Indians to do it. It was a tactic I used when I was a prince. From the moment they met us, the Indians had much reverence for us. They felt something, they called us great spirits; but the French thought nothing more of us than nobles from Eastern Europe who knew how to fight. We were willing to volunteer to help so they let us, but we weren’t anything special to them. Until after they saw how Jericho and I chopped down the British in that battle in the woods, then they took our counsel more serious. I gave them the idea of putting the heads on the pikes. It was good for psychological terror, which helps win battles, so the Indians did it to all the Highlanders who turned and tried to flee before we finished them off.
“So when Radu learned of these heads on pikes he had to investigate. In November of 1758, Radu and his men attacked at night, and they found me. I ordered the French and Indians to leave. I did not want any of them to see an all-out vampire battle. I also ordered them to burn the place to the ground, willing to sacrifice myself as long as it took Radu along too. But, obviously, both of us lived. The English took the fort the next day, found more decapitated Highlander heads on pikes, built Fort Pitt off the ashes of Duquesne and the rest is history.
“In my escape that night I found a soldier who I had seen fight feroiciously during the battle in September. He was brave and he did not flee the fort. He saw Jericho and me fight a spectacular battle with Radu using our powers. We had no choice of what to do with him. We made him a vampire. You have met this French soldier father, he is Michael.
“Radu and his men fought me and my men until practically the end of the war when in 1762 where we had our first semi-centennial meeting. It was agreed upon then that Europe would be Radu’s land and North America would be mine. Radu returned home and in his absence the vampire scare had started to die down. In 1768 Gerard van Swieten—Empress Maria Theresa’s physician—published his book Vampyrismus and pretty much settled the vampire controversy by explaining they were nothing more than superstition, fear, and ignorance, but no actual facts. Nobody took vampires seriously anymore—except the Crusaders.
“Now Radu realized since he had been mistaken about my death surely the Crusaders were too. So he felt why have the Crusaders just look for him and not his brother too? So over some time he decided to indulge in a bit of propaganda and in 1897 Bram Stoker wrote a now famous novel.”
“Wait,” Pacami saw where this was going. “Dracula?”
“Yes. Don’t be surprised, Father, let me ask you; you see Vlad Tepes the vampire stand before you. Now ask yourself which is more believable: that someone played the role of his muse and told him all about me, or Bram Stoker without any insight got most of it right. He even had a character named Van Helsing in it as a vampire hunter. Stoker was researching Eastern European folklore concerning vampires and in his travels ran into Radu. Stoker kept this secret to the grave—probably out of fear for his life—but when the book came out Radu sent me a copy of it and a letter explaining it. It was his plan to get the heat off him.”
“Did it work?”
“Well I started running into Crusaders ever since.”
“So these men are really determined to see you die?”
“Yes, and along with killing vampires, they have also always been looking for that coffer at the bottom of the Dead Sea. Well after all this time, they finally accomplished one of their goals.”
“So now, you expect them to just hand over this coffer to you after they found it?”
“No, I expect them to use it to trap me. I simply have to keep my neck out of their noose.
3
Up on the fourth floor, while Vlad entertained the Father on his impromptu visit, Jericho spoke on the phone with “the source”—Detective Inspector Robert Peterson. Like Vlad had told Pacami: Crusaders were cops or special agents, and most of them kept their day jobs.
“How is the translation of the codex coming along?” Jericho asked.
“Henderson has cracked the codex and has begun translating it. He should be done in a week or so.”
“And you will be able to get us both the codex and the blood still?”
“Yes, the two will be together before we travel back to the Vatican. Will you still be able to make me a vampire?”
“
Of course.”
“A vampire made by Vlad?”
“You know it really doesn’t matter.”
“But I know that it does. I know the weakness in lesser generations. I want to be second. Be happy I don’t want to be first and drink the blood myself.”
“Then why didn’t you just do it when you had the chance?”
“Surrounded by Crusaders? I wouldn’t have lasted long. Besides if I got away from them, how much longer would I have lasted with you and Radu around? I need to align with one side, might as well be yours. But I want to be a direct descendent of Vlad. He better be there or no deal.”
“He will be there,” Jericho agreed and hung up.
It sounded to Jericho that Peterson was really excited about becoming a vampire. But it also felt to him like a noose was being tightened.
THREE
1
The students of St. Mary’s Catholic School for Girls from Montreal sat on their beds next to the windows of their cottage looking out at the pure white landscape in front of them. This was their fall semester’s ski weekend in the Laurentides region of Quebec. The snow fell against the windows. Tomorrow they would hit the slopes of Mont Blanc. They had just finished dinner and after their share of conversations regarding who liked which boy and who did what with which boy, they noticed the sun setting from the one big window in the room.
The girls ranged in ages from fifteen to eighteen. Any girl from the school could go if they could afford it, but only the first twenty to sign up got to go. These girls not only went to an expensive school, but came from very wealthy parents. Their parents endowments to the school no doubt also helped bumped these girls up the line. The tab for this expensive school was just a drop in the bucket to their parents. These girls were also attractive for their age. They were princesses.
