by Zara Novak
This section of the tunnels opened into an underground viaduct. At the top of the large room, near its curved roof, there was a grid of hanging walkways, suspended in darkness. Ruth was on these walkways now, watching from the shadows, listening to the group of guards below her.
“Business as usual,” said a man with a graveled voice. “We need to find this fucking dog. Vangzali’s already pissed enough we’ve not got him yet.”
“She shouldn’t have let him escape in the first place,” a red haired guard said with a daring smile.
“We all agree on that one, but you be the one to fucking say it to her.”
“No thanks.” Red hair laughed. “I ain’t fucking bad-mouthing Vangzali's to her face. That bitch terrifies me.”
“She terrifies everyone in the Keep apart from the High Vistor. How do you think she got so high in rank?”
“There’s a meeting happening near here soon.” A thin limbed guard with blond hair said. “Vangzali is in it. It’s a big one. About destroying the families… that Draco guy. All the big stuff. The stuff they like to keep secret! They’re using the room under 3-G. We could use the grate underneath it and—”
“No,” Gravel voice said. “I'm not risking crucifixion just to eavesdrop some fucking meeting. That shit has nothing to do with us. We’re here to find this dog. Now go!”
The guards parted from the room, having agreed to meet back there within the hour. Ruth stayed in the walkways for a good ten minutes, making sure that no one was coming back. Satisfied she’d waited long enough, she dropped from the high ceiling, landing silently on the floor with her hands and feet.
Draco, Vangzali, 3-G…
Draco? She wondered if that referred to Ansel Draco, the vampire she’d met through her sister, Kat.
Ruth didn’t know much about him. Edmund, the vampire who turned her, had been hunting Draco—but they seemed to form an alliance at the end. Whatever that other stuff meant, Ruth got the impression that it would be worth her while checking it out too.
The large room had four doors, one on each wall, and each had markings painted on the side. She approached the door which led to section 3-G. A small thud came from the center of the room behind her and she turned on her heels to face it.
“You're thinking of checking out that meeting too then?” The stranger said.
Ruth clenched her fists, and her heart thundered in her chest. The crouched stranger stood from the floor slowly, lifting his head to look at Ruth with a smile. He wore the red jacket and trousers of the guards in the Keep, but his hair was long, blond and plaited in dreads. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. It was hard to tell from the low light and the distance, but he looked well built. The fabric stretched over his body, looking a few sizes too small—he'd clearly stolen the uniform.
“And who are you?” She asked.
“I’m the ‘dog’ the guards want.” The stranger stepped forward and smiled. There was still a good distance between them, and if she had to fight, Ruth was ready. She stared into his eyes, two circles of brilliant yellow, with a narrow black slit down the middle. They reminded her of an animal somehow.
“You’re not a vampire,” she said. “Just what in the hell are you?”
“An escaped prisoner, just like you.” The man took another step forward, but Ruth didn’t react. “My name is Logan Nash. You?”
“Call me cynical, Logan Nash. My mother always told me not to talk to strange men in sewers.”
Her skepticism pulled a throaty laugh from his chest. The casual warmth and timbre of his voice put her at ease a little. “Suit yourself Cynical. Should I call you cynical Cynthia, maybe? Maybe Synth… that would be a nice nickname.”
“Call me whatever the fuck you want. I won’t be around to hear it.” Ruth turned from the room, deciding that the man was harmless enough. She wanted to eavesdrop on this meeting and didn’t want to waste anymore time talking to this bonehead.
“Let me come with you,” Logan followed Ruth out of the sewer, walking a dozen paces behind her in the wide and shallow water trench.
“You’re not a vampire, I doubt you can keep up with me.”
A pocket of air clapped in the space on her right, followed by a horizontal sheet of blood red water. The sheet extended down the middle of the sewer ten yards in front of her, then it crashed to the floor again, the water gushing as it settled itself. There, stood with his arms crossed in the space before her, was Logan.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” he said while flashing an infuriatingly mischievous smile. She imagined he'd practiced that smile in the mirror for hours. It was a smile that hypnotized girls with low self-confidence, to Ruth it read: ‘I get what I want, because I’m good at manipulating people.’
“Just what the fuck are you?” She said, standing there with her mouth hanging open.
“Someone who has been following you for the last few days. I wanted to figure out if you we’re an enemy or not.”
“Days?!” Ruth said. No way that was possible. She had become a ninja of silence while down here. If someone followed her, she would have noticed it.
“Of course. From that abandoned maintenance room you’ve been using as a base, all the way to those fresh water pools you were bathing in earlier.”
Ruth’s face filled with red, this bastard had watched her bathe!?
“Well now I trust you even less. Watching a woman bathing doesn’t exactly lead me to believe you’re someone I can trust.”
“I wasn’t spying on you.” Logan said with a roll of his eyes. “I looked away when you were naked. Mostly.”
Mostly? Son of a bitch.
“Why are you following me then?”
“I told you, to see if I can trust you. I’m a prisoner here, just like you. Together, we might be able to get out of here.”
“There’s no way out of the Red Keep.” Ruth laughed. “Apart from the portals…” Portals that had 24 hour surveillance.
“Who brought you here?”
“A warden. Igo Kasper.”
Logan nodded. “Jago Vangzali brought me here. Have you heard of her?”
Ruth shook her head and took a step forward. “Only what I heard from those guards just now. Should I?”
“Vangzali is one of the worst fucking vampires in this place. She makes the High Vistor look like a kitten. She brought me to the Red Keep as a slave after betraying me back in the real world. I escaped her clutches a month ago, and I’ve been down here ever since then. Now I’m trying to get back to her.”
“Why?”
“You’re right that the only way out of the Keep is with the portals. Mostly. As it stands, a few senior vampires have personal keys that can get them in and out at any time. Vangzali has one, I know that for sure. She keeps it in a locket around her neck.”
“So we go to this meeting, kill her and use the locket to escape?”
Another hearty laugh came from Logan. “Fuck no, that would be instant death. If you understand one thing about Vangzali, understand this: she’s the most dangerous motherfucker I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting, stealing her locket will take planning and stealth.”
“And what does this have to do with me?”
“You want to get out as well don’t you? I figure we can work together on this.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“I’ve been watching you all this time lady. If I wanted to kill you, I could have. The fact of the matter is, I noticed something peculiar about you the other day… and I think we can use it to get Vangzali’s locket.”
“You noticed something about me? What do you mean by that?”
“I’ll explain later. The important thing now is that we get to this meeting on time. Any stray tidbits we can get out of Vangzali’s mouth will help us. You coming?”
Ruth stared into his curious yellow eyes as she considered her options. Trust was the one thing she was running low on right now, and teaming up with Logan called for every spare ounce. She reali
zed she didn't have that many options, pushed her fears to the back of her mind and nodded. “Fine. But if you try anything funny, I swear I’ll drop you faster than a cannon ball.”
Logan held up his hands. “Hey, I’ve seen that tight body of yours. It’s clear you’ve got the muscle to defend yourself.”
“You ever been hit by a girl?”
“Many times.” Logan smiled. “What’s your name anyway Synth?”
“Ruth.” She said after a moment’s apprehension.
Another megawatt smile. Logan stepped forward and held out his hand. She grabbed it, feeling a rush of warmth up and down her body. “Welcome to the team Ruth, now let’s go crash this meeting.”
4
The train stopped a short while later at Sanguis 11. The vampire settlement was a small, dusty and dirty looking town. As it was night, Ansel and Edmund took a walk around the streets. Kat went along with them as she knew she would be safe in their company. Rubago remained behind on the train, deciding she had to learn more about the prophecy. She was on her way back to her bedroom when the conductor, Milo, crossed her path.
“Ah, Miss Rubago.” He said with a wide and warm smile. “I trust you are well? Does the lady not fancy stretching her legs and seeing the sights?”
Rubago could only chuckle. “I wouldn't like to spend too much time here Milo, judging by the sights from this window.”
Milo peered out the window and looked upon the scene. Featureless square buildings crumbled into streets of mud. A gaunt beggar lay on the station floor, his eyes heavy with fatigue. The creature looked as if he were starving to death.
“What happened here?” She asked, while looking into the hollow eyes of the man on the platform.
Milo’s warm smile dropped. “The plague, the famine… it hit the town three months ago. Things haven’t been the same since it started.”
“Plague?”
“Yes. It's contaminated the humans. The vampires here are starving.”
“Humans don’t just die, modern medicine makes sure of that. What is this plague called?”
“People call it… Black Fang.”
“And it's killing humans?”
“No, vampires kill infected humans, to stop the virus from spreading further. The plague itself doesn’t harm humans, it turns their blood into a toxin. It’s undetectable, and once the vampire has ingested it, it is too late. They starve from the inside out. Look at their teeth.”
Rubago looked out the window at the starving man. His teeth were black like coal.
“Why?”
Milo shrugged. “A consequence of the thirst. Once they drink from contaminated humans, they starve to death in a week. No amount of blood is enough to sustain them.”
A group of travelers walked past the man, giving him a wide berth. “As far as we can tell it's not contagious, but it’s becoming more problematic with every passing day. At first it was one or two, but now I hear of a dozen cases every week.”
She took one final look at the starving vampire. A chill passed down her spine, and she hurried back to her room. Once she was there, she slammed her door shut and locked it with a sharp twist of her wrist.
A plague? What on earth? Disease didn't affect vampires, and she'd never heard of anything like this before now. Was it possible this had something to do with the prophecy?
“I’ve had enough of not having answers.”
She stripped and dropped her gypsy dress to the floor to reveal her nude mocha skinned body. She climbed onto the bed and knelt on her calves while summoning her cards over to her in the air. With a few calculated moves of the hand, the cards whipped around in a spiraling figure of eight pattern. As their speed increased, she saw the vision of her Elder Queens opening, until they were there in front of her, almost clear as day. The cards continued to circle in the air vertically, bordering the vision like a frame. In the picture were the three hooded witch queens.
“What is it you want child?” A voice asked.
“The prophecy. I need to know more.” Rubago said. “Let me see the hallways of prophecy. I want to know what I’m fighting here!”
“You do not have enough energy to offer us.” A second voice said from under a dark shroud. “You know what you must do.”
Before she could protest, the cards fell to the bed and became instantly lifeless. The hallways of prophecy required a significant magical tribute, if she wanted to enter, she needed to offer more. Rubago had been trying to summon the power within her naturally, harboring and saving her force—but it still wasn’t enough. She knew what she had to do.
After a short walk down the train to visit Milo Prince once more, Rubago requested he delivered a male blood servant to her room. Her request confused Milo, and he failed to understand why a witch needed a blood slave, but he was more than happy to oblige upon receiving payment. Slaves were slaves after all.
“He’ll be through in a minute.” Milo said. “Are you sure you don’t want to pick one yourself?”
With a shake of her head, she made her way back. It didn’t matter who the slave was, the only thing that mattered is that he had a dick. It was on her way back down the carriage that she spotted the mysterious hooded vampire who had been sharing the train with them all this time. The man sat in the dining carriage alone at a booth, his body spread across two seats. There was a short glass of blood on the table in front of him. As she neared, she saw the luminous red glint of his eyes from underneath his hood. Power. He was the only other vampire on the train with strength and speed like Ansel and Edmund. His twinkling reds focused on her momentarily. The scent of earth, blood and something else altogether wafted through the surrounding air.
Back in her room once more, she closed the door, but didn’t lock it this time. She didn’t have to see the bright red eyes of that vampire to know he was a Super. Power radiated from the man in raw sheets, thrusting the air out around him and projecting into every corner of the carriage. Whoever he was, there was an air of importance about him. She also sensed he shouldn’t have been there. There was something wild about him, something feral. There was also a deep and mysterious magic.
If the hooded man kept to himself, then so would she.
Her slave arrived a few minutes later, a tall and muscled black man in his early twenties. Any man would have done, but a smile curled at her lips upon seeing his handsomeness. Milo had picked well.
She locked the door behind the servant, pulled his robe from off his shoulders and dropped it to the floor, dropping her dress along with it. They both stood naked, and she stood in front of him.
“You want to drink Miss?” The slave asked.
“I’m no vampire, slave. I merely want the pleasure of your company.”
She kissed him, rested her hands on his shoulders and moved them down his chest, brushing her fingers over his hard muscles. The slave stood motionless, with his arms at his side.
“You are free to touch me,” she purred into his ear while cupping her hand around his growing cock. “You are free to do whatever you want.” She looked him in the eyes and repeated herself to make sure she was absolutely clear. “Whatever you want.”
To gather the right amount of energy for her elder Queens, her sexual foray had to be as uninhibited as possible. Thankfully, the slave seemed to be a natural hedonist. As soon as she voiced her permission, his eyes came alive and his hands wrapped around her. His thick soft lips pushed back against hers, and she slipped her tongue into his mouth, breathing sounds of pleasure as his hands explored her body. A thumb brushed over her breast, teasing her nipple into a hard point. He slid his hands down around the small of her back, squeezing her tight and pulling her crotch against his.
His cock was solid now, standing up erect, burning into her belly like a branded iron. She was tall for a woman, but the slave was taller. He brushed a hand up the inside of her thigh while their lips entwined and warmth sparked between her legs. She grabbed his cock, pumping her hand up and down the shaft.
“Anyth
ing you want,” she repeated. The boy had made a good start, but his inhibition still shackled him. Her second permission was as good as the first, and the animal inside of him came alive. He dragged her over to the bed, thrust Rubago onto her front and pulled her ass up into the air.
“That’s it honey.” She purred as she squeezed her breasts, toying with her sex, building her pleasure. This was nothing more than work for her, but that wasn’t to say she couldn’t enjoy it. Her sex was wet with want for the slave. He was behind her on his knees, his mouth between her thighs, lapping at her cunt generously. She answered with long and wordless moans, bucking her hips back, longing for his penetration.
It came a second later, with his hands on her ass, spreading it apart. He pushed his cock inside of her pussy and slid inside of her all the way until he bottomed out. The servant possessed the gift of great size, and it stretched her with a pleasant warmth.
“Yes honey,” she purred again as he rolled his hips against her. The slave was an experienced lover, starting slow and working up to a speed and passion that was unbearable. Several orgasms blossomed and exploded inside of her. His cock tightened more than once, threatening to burst, but she made him hang back, trying to make him last as long as possible. The longer it went on, the more energy she could harbor, the more she could give to her Queens.
They changed position and she straddled him, rolling her hips up and down his shaft in a sensual rhythm. The slave’s eyes were black with the empty focus of carnal pleasure. He stared up at her in adoration, with the eyes of a man that had fallen in love.
Love is good. She thought. It means more energy.
Had her servant ever fucked a woman of her caliber? Had he ever had a mocha temptress straddle him and ride him with unparalleled expertise? Another spark of fire erupted inside of her, and Rubago threw her head back while crowing in pleasure. The room had grown hot from their love, and sheets of sweat were forming on their skin. The slave curled his hands around her hips, took a tight hold and fucked her hard. He was close, she could tell.
