by Lisa Emme
Simeen had lost her head, and died the true death, for being in league with DiCastro. She had helped him orchestrate my kidnapping right under Salvador’s nose. I knew that she was dead for sure, because unfortunately, I had seen her head. It was pickled in a jar and sitting on a shelf in Salvador’s private lounge. Salvador really didn’t like traitors.
“Well, well, well, who do we have here?” The Simeen look-a-like took another step out into the hall in front of me. Two others followed closely behind her. A door opened behind me and a fourth vampire stepped out. I was surrounded.
“I don’t know Sabine, isn’t that the Magister’s little pet?” chirped one of the lackeys. The rest tittered with laughter. My hand itched to draw my katana that I had strapped to my back. It was the perfect fashion accessory as far as I was concerned. Personal safety matches everything, so these days I never left home without it, if I could help it. I held off drawing the blade. No point announcing that I had a weapon too soon. The ‘no-see-me’ spell I had placed on it would prevent almost everyone from seeing it, as long as the blade was in the scabbard at my back. Once I drew it, all bets were off.
“Yeah, it’s his little pussy,” crowed another.
Ha ha. What a comedian. I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet so I would be ready to move if I had to.
“More like his bitch,” Sabine replied.
“Takes one to know one,” I said with a smirk.
“Silence! You don’t talk to me.” Sabine hissed at me, her fangs descended.
“That dominatrix crap won’t work on me,” I said, ignoring the threat of her fangs. “Speaking of dominatrixes, has anyone ever told you that you look like Simeen?”
“Don’t you say her name!” Sabine took a step towards me. “Simeen was my sister.”
“Wow, twin vampire dominatrixes. Does Ripley know about you?”
“You bitch. You killed her. You will pay for that.”
“I killed her? I didn’t force her to become a traitor. She killed her own damn self.”
“If it wasn’t for you, she wouldn’t be dead.” Sabine hissed at me again, taking another step towards me. “I will tear out your throat and gorge myself on your blood.”
“Ah, fuck it,” I said, rolling my eyes. Sabine looked momentarily surprised. I don’t think that was the response she was looking for. “I don’t have time for this shit.” I reached behind my head and pulled out my katana. The blade rang as it cleared the scabbard and I brought it in front of me in a quick chopping motion. The vamps, including Sabine, all took a step back. The one at my back retreated into the room he had exited, closing the door behind him. I guess I wasn’t the easy pickings they thought I would be.
I looked at Sabine. She was clearly not prepared to go up against a blade and someone that obviously knew how to use it. “Are we going to do this or what? I have an appointment and you’re making me late, so either let’s get to it or you can go take a flying leap.”
As one, the vamps all decided that the game wasn’t fun anymore. Sabine hesitated for a moment more, then followed her friends into the room and shut the door. Score one for the girl with the big sword. Yay me. And not a drop of blood on the dress.
***
I didn’t think I could take another minute of listening to low level Vlads whining about not getting promoted or visiting vamps petitioning to move permanently to the area. How did Salvador stand it? I was almost nodding off and if it wasn’t for the sneer on Tomas’s face every time my head bobbed, I would have succumbed long before now.
The next petitioner stepped up to the dais where Salvador sat like a king on his throne. Tomas, as his second, stood just behind him to the right. A chair had been placed to Salvador’s left for me, unfortunately reinforcing the opinion that I was his pet.
The petitioner was a particularly greasy looking Vlad, a low level vampire, that looked rather portly. He had obviously fed well as a human and continued to do so as a vampire. His skin was flushed and he had that freshly fed glow that comes from a recent blood meal. What really got my attention though, was the young girl he dragged with him up to the dais. The girl couldn’t have been older than fourteen. She was dressed in what looked like a school uniform. Her neck had two fresh fang marks which only further lowered my opinion of the creep standing before me. He could have healed those marks easily, but chose to leave them to scar. Not to mention the fact that he shouldn’t have been feeding off a child. I sat up straighter in my chair, giving his petition my full attention.
“My lord, I humbly request permission to give my faithful servant the eternal kiss,” his voice was high-pitched and nasal sounding. The eternal kiss was code for making someone a vampire. “This is my first such request, but I feel the time has come for me to grow my household.” He bowed slightly.
The girl stood beside him without appearing to register anything. She was either stoned or glamoured. Either way, she was totally out of it and incapable of consenting to such a request. I watched Salvador closely. Surely he wouldn’t grant this petition?
“How old is the child?” Salvador asked.
“Sixteen, my lord, but she looks young for her age.” Sixteen, my ass; that was a total lie. I was sure of it.
“And how did the child come to be in your service?”
“Oh, it’s a very sad story my lord. Her mother was a dear friend of mine….”
Lie.
“…and she was unfortunately killed in a car accident several years ago…”
Lie.
“…I took the poor waif under my wing. She has been such a devoted servant and she has been begging me to gift her with the kiss….”
Another lie. Every word out of his mouth had been a lie. I knew it. I don’t know how I knew, I just did. It was like I had developed a vampire lie detector to go with my supernatural power meter.
“And you, child,” said Salvador, addressing the girl, “do you consent to receive this precious gift?”
The girl stood there, heavy-lidded, apparently unaware that Salvador was speaking to her. The greaseball hissed something at her and she flinched.
“Y-yes, m’lord” she whispered her gaze never leaving the floor in front of her.
“Oh come on!” The words were out before I could think to stop them. I slapped my hand over my mouth. Tomas glared at me. He wasn’t the only one. It felt like every eye in the room was suddenly on me. I heard a distinct snort from off to the side of the platform and turned to see Nash standing there shaking his head. I wasn’t even surprised to see him. For some reason, I knew he would be there.
“You have something to add, my dear Harry?” Salvador purred at me. “Please, share your thoughts.”
Well, it was too late to go back now, might as well go all in. “You can’t seriously be considering granting this request? The creep is clearly a pedophile. And if that girl is older than fourteen then I’m the Queen of England.”
“You have no say in this matter,” the greaseball shouted at me.
“You’ve been lying from the moment you started talking,” I replied, coming to stand beside Salvador’s chair. “Tell the Magister the truth. All of it.” I gave my words a little push.
“I-I-I like to fuck little girls,” he sputtered and then slapped his hand over his mouth in shock. “T-t-t-the girl is thirteen. I bought her when she was t-t-ten.” He continued speaking even though he was clearly struggling to stop, but my compulsion over him was too great. “S-s-she’s getting too old; I prefer little girls. I can’t afford to buy a new girl. It’s cheaper to just turn this one so I can keep her as long as I want.”
I stumbled back, grabbing for my chair so I could sit down. I felt sick. That poor child, raped repeatedly by a vampire pedophile. My hands itched to hold my katana. He didn’t deserve to live.
“Well,” mused Salvador. “Now isn’t this an interesting predicament.”
“Predicament? What predicament? He’s a pedophile. If he was human he’d be in jail.” Of course, as soon as I said it, I saw the predicament. You couldn’t put a vampire in jail. “If nothing else that girl needs help, physically and mentally.”
“Of course. She will be given the best of care.” Salvador waved his hand and two vampires came out of the crowd and took the girl away. She didn’t even seem aware that she had just been set free. Two more vamps stood beside the pedophile, clearly on guard duty. “But what do we do with you,” Salvador addressed his question to the greasy vampire.
“Please my lord, I have done nothing wrong.”
Huh, he totally believed that as the truth. Salvador must have seen the surprise on my face because he said, “You must understand Harry, that the age of consent was once much younger. It was not uncommon for a man of twenty or thirty to have a bride of twelve.”
“Yeah sure, in 1600s England, when the average life expectancy was only thirty-five.” I looked at him incredulously. “Welcome to the twenty-first century where we think it’s wrong to rape little girls and use them as your personal snack bar.”
“Ah Harry, your perspective is so refreshing.” Salvador smiled at me. “So, whatever shall we do with our friend here?”
“You’re asking me?”
“Of course. You uncovered his guilt, you must decide his fate.”
Crap on toast. How do I get myself into these messes? Oh yeah, my big mouth. The crowd, which had begun to lose interest, suddenly was all ears. Great. More reasons for them to hate me. I looked around the crowd for Isaac. I knew he was there somewhere, but he always kept it low key whenever I visited Salvador. He was worried his presence as my bodyguard would draw too much attention to me. I wished we could still do the whole mind to mind speech like we did a month ago. But that had long since worn off. He would need to feed from me in order for that to happen again.
“You should just give him the girl and forget about her,” Tomas said, scowling at me. “What do you think will happen now? He’ll just go out and find another victim.”
“It’s true. I will. Eeep!” The vampire slapped his hands over his mouth and looked at me in horror. I guess the truth compulsion was still working.
I had known that Tomas was right, even before the creep admitted it. If we didn’t do something to prevent it, the greaseball would just go out and find another girl or girls.
“Perhaps we could castrate him?” Salvador asked as if he was wondering if we should have tea. “Isn’t that what the civilized humans do to pedophiles?” As if humans couldn’t be just as barbaric as vampires. No offense. “And we could pull out his fangs so that he can no longer feed,” he added gleefully. It was all just a game to him.
“I call challenge.” This came from the greaseball, quiet at first, but then as the realization struck him, he shouted it. “I call challenge! It is my right.”
Salvador sighed as if bored, but his eyes had a cold calculating look. “Yes, of course. It is.”
“Challenge, what’s challenge?” I asked. The crowd had begun to murmur in excitement.
“Any accused vampire has a right to challenge their accuser and decide his or her own fate,” Tomas replied a slight smile on his face.
“You mean me? He’s challenging me?”
“You did accuse him of being a pedophile.”
I looked at Salvador. He shrugged as if to say it was my choice, but his eyes were eager. He wanted this. For all I knew, he had planned the whole thing.
“What happens if I don’t accept the challenge?”
“Then he will be free to do as he pleases and take another girl I suppose,” Salvador replied unconcerned.
Fucking wonderful.
“Fine. I’ll do it. When?”
“Why, no time like the present,” Salvador replied.
I looked down at my new dress. Of course it would be now. Fantastic. “Great. Let’s get it over with.” As I passed Salvador on the stage, I added, “This totally counts as dinner, even if we didn’t eat.”
Salvador smiled, “But of course, Harry. Of course.”
I stepped down from the dais. The crowd edged closer, packing together to ring us in. There was a commotion to one side and I saw Isaac. He had a hand on Nash’s arm and was speaking quietly but urgently to Nash. I suspected he was probably saying something like Nash couldn’t interfere and I had to take care of the situation myself. Isaac had seen me train. He knew I could fight. It was Nash’s problem if he still thought I was totally helpless.
I kicked my shoes off and drew my katana. The crowd gasped. Obviously the no-see-me spell had done its job. No one had realized I was armed.
“Why Harry, you are just full of surprises,” Salvador said. He was enjoying the show.
The two guard vamps stepped away from the greaseball, who was now looking a little less sure of himself.
I turned back to Salvador and asked, “What happens if I kill him?” I really didn’t see any other way out of this whole mess without killing him.
“Why you had better, Harry, because he will most certainly be trying to kill you.”
I turned and faced the vampire. He was standing about twenty feet from me. He snarled, his fangs descending. His fingernails had grown into claws. He didn’t look like the greasy, butterball he had before. Now he looked like a predator.
I took a guarded stance, holding my blade in my right hand. The vampire hissed at me again and then lunged, closing the distance between us with supernatural speed. I ran towards him. As we neared one another, he launched himself in the air in order to pounce on me and take me to the ground. Instead, I fell to the floor, sliding under him like a baseball player sliding into home. I’m sure the whole crowd had a great view of my panties, not to mention the fact that I was wearing stockings, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. The vampire flew over top of me with a snarl, landing with his back to me. I recovered from my slide and rushed towards him, my blade held in a two handed grip, high above my head. In one quick sweeping motion, I brought the blade down. The vampire had been in mid-turn to face me and he froze with a surprised look on his face. Everything seemed to freeze in fact, like some sort of horror movie tableau. The crowd had various expressions from blood-thirsty, to shock and disappointment. Salvador looked on in mild amusement, but his dark eyes glittered with something more. I stood with my katana at the ready, blood dripping from it. The vampire’s lifeless body crumpled to the floor in what felt like slow-motion, his now detached head tipping off his neck and rolling a few feet away. Arterial spray - contrary to what you may believe, vampires do bleed - had splashed across the crowd and me. Great another dress ruined. And then time sped up and the crowd fell utterly silent.
“Are we done here?” I asked quietly.
“It appears the matter has been settled,” Salvador replied. “Well done, Harry. Well done.”
I turned my back on him. I didn’t want his praise. I bent down and tore the sleeve off the vampire’s shirt, using it to clean the blood off my blade before slipping it back into the scabbard.
There was another little commotion and one of the vampires that had taken the girl away to get medical care approached the dais.
“I’m afraid the girl is dead, my lord. She became crazed a few minutes ago and took her own life.” He looked down at the decapitated vampire, his eyes widening in surprise.
“Ah, that is a shame,” Salvador replied, “but perhaps not a surprise in a case such as this.”
I felt totally numb at the news. I had to get out of there. “I’m going home,” I said to no one in particular.
Isaac met me at the limo, but was thankfully silent on the ride home. He had thought to grab my shoes off the floor. I’d be happy about that later, they were one of my favourite pairs. Henry had done a bit of double-take when he saw me approach, splattered in blood, but he had obviously worked for
Salvador long enough that he knew better than to ask questions.
Tess was there when we arrived home. She took one look and rushed over to me. “Omigod! Harry! What the hell happened to you?”
“I need a shower,” I said numbly. I set my katana on the table. I’d have to clean it later. I really needed a shower.
Ignoring Tess’s questions, I climbed the stairs to my room. I could hear her speaking to Isaac, who must have been filling her in on the evening’s festivities. I caught some of what they were saying, but I tuned them out.
“….challenged…”
“…must be in shock….”
I don’t know how long I had been standing in the shower. I had scrubbed and scrubbed my skin red, but I still felt dirty. I stood under the near to boiling water, sobs wracking my body as I gulped for air, trying not to hyperventilate. Suddenly the door was pulled open, letting in a rush of cold air. I was so numb, it didn’t really even surprise me to see Nash standing there. He reached in and turned off the water, wrapping me in a big, fluffy towel. I pushed at him, my hands balling into fists.
“Go away. You shouldn’t be here. You have no right to be here.” I pounded half-heartedly at his chest, tears running down my cheeks.
He scooped me up in his arms, towel and all, and carried me to the bedroom. “Shut up, Harry,” he growled. He dropped me onto my bed - I hadn’t made it that morning so the covers were already pushed back - and I curled into a ball. The bed creaked as Nash climbed in beside me, spooning himself around me, wrapping me in his arms and pulling the covers over us.
“No, go away,” I protested weakly. “Just leave me alone.”
“Shh, Harry. It’s okay. You’re okay,” he whispered into my wet hair. He took a deep breath. I don’t know if it was me that he was trying to convince or himself. Or maybe it was his wolf.
“I’m not okay,” I sobbed. “I killed a man and I don’t even know his name. And the girl, the girl is dead anyway. It was all for nothing.”
“Shh, shh. Hush now, little minx.” He tightened his arms around me, pulling me in close against his chest. I could feel his heart beating steadily. His breathing was slow and calm, a contrast to my sobbing, gulping attempts to breathe. “You did what you had to do Harry. It’s all right.”
