Circle of Death

by Thais Lopes

  “I came to see Semele.” My answer was dry.

  The vampire’s eyes narrowed, and her postured changed, showing she had been trained as a warrior.

  “The Master isn’t meeting anyone.” Her voice was ice cold, with no hint of the seduction of her greeting.

  “She will see me.”

  “Wait here.” She said, turning around and moving towards a door hidden behind the stairs to the dancers’ balconies.

  Without seeing any reason to start a fight before even speaking to Semele, I waited. Some vampires looked at me, probably trying to see who I was, but they wouldn’t recognize me. Few of the people who had really seen me before I left the vampire community still existed. Less than two minutes later, the same vampire came back. This time I didn’t wait and moved towards her.

  “The Master will see you.” She said, gesturing toward the door but making no sign that she would follow me inside.

  I entered a sumptuous room, a miniature version of the hall I had just left, but here there were only vampires. In the back of the room, in a raised dais, there was a divan made of dark wood, carefully sculpted, its padding covered by red velvet. I was surprised at seeing it – that divan was old, from when I had turned Semele, and only the velvet had changed. She had probably spent a fortune in preservation spells.

  A woman with long and wavy dark hair was reclining on the divan. Her skin still held an olive color, and she wore black corset and boots, and a short skirt, also in black but with purple details. Without turning around, she used one of her hands full of rings to tell me to wait, while the vampire who had his head between her thighs made her orgasm.

  Some people never change. That was an almost absolute truth for vampires and, especially, for Semele. With a personality that was strong enough to call my attention when I was still considered a god, she was the first female vampire to become a Master. It was no surprise that she was the one to whom many from my line had turned to after I disappeared. When I met her, she was a priestess of and extremely sexual tradition and, in her own way, she was still that, if that nightclub was an example. She and her subjects had been responsible, alone, for all the stories involving vampires and sex.

  With another gesture, Semele dismissed the vampire who had been servicing her. Only then she got up, adjusting her skirt, with that languid look and a teasing smile that were her trademark, and went down the steps to meet me.

  “Welcome, my lord Lucio.” She greeted, her velvety voice carrying more than a hint of irony when she stopped in front of me.

  “I see you haven’t changed, Semele.”

  “Why should I?” She shook her head, using the movement to toss her hair back. “But you… You disappeared. You abandoned us. I cannot stop you from going where you want to, even in my territory, but you are not welcome at my house.”

  “Don’t forget your place, Semele.” My voice was low, and I was sure she could recognize what that meant, as we had fought and hunted together, long ago. “I may have disappeared, but I’m still the one who made you. It’s not up to you to challenge me.”

  She smiled, showing her fangs.

  “Do you think that only because Pietro submitted to you I will do the same?” She laughed, a cold sound that caught the attention of every vampire in the room. “He was always the weaker of us, bound as he is by the rules he made for himself. And Pietro does not have my loyalty, has never had it; my loyalty is only mine, to myself and no one else.”

  “You’re mistaken. Your loyalty is mine.” I replied, already in a half crouch, ready for the attack I knew would come.

  “So predictable.” Semele said, with a savage half smile, her body starting to become incorporeal. “Then prove me you still deserve I call you Master.” She disappeared with her words, only to reappear on my left, hitting me with a quick movement and drawing blood from my arm before disappearing. “I am the strongest vampire after Seth.” She appeared on my right, and I blocked her blow. “I no longer need your protection.” This time she appeared behind me, and I let her slide a thin line down my back, keeping myself still. “Not even Seth comes into my territory” Semele approached, now speaking against my ear as I stared ahead. “Do you think this is because he despises who I am?

  She laughed again, and I felt when she stepped back before disappearing. With a quick movement, I held what seemed to be empty space in front of me. One thought was enough to have the vampire’s neck in my hand, her body solidifying again, and her feet more than four inches from the ground.

  “So predictable.” I used her own words, while I called one of the abilities that had made me feared a long time ago. Vampires are immune to pain, unless it’s a burn or this power, which activates all the nerves that had once been able to feel pain. “These tricks may be enough to impress your vampires, but you should know that, even with your full strength, I would see through the illusion. Starved as you are, then, you have no chance against me.”

  I threw her on the ground and she stayed down, curled into a ball. Her breathing was too fast, and I was sure she was holding any distressed sound she wanted to make. Semele didn’t care – much – about appearances, but understood that her subjects could never see her as weak. Right now, they already knew who I was and were staying a safe distance away. They would see I had beaten her, but they would also see that she wouldn’t whimper even before one of the firstborns.

  Semele stood up more than a minute later, something that would have been deadly if I wanted to kill her, and she knew it.

  “What do you want?” I could see she was forcing the words out, but her voice was steady, as if she wasn’t still in pain – and she was, I knew what I had done.

  “I want your vow back. But don’t worry, I don’t plan to disappear again.” I felt I owed her some kind of reassurance, as she had been one of the few vampires I had trusted in the past, one of the few I was sure wouldn’t betray me.

  She nodded, turning around and moving towards the divan, and I followed her. That was how things worked with Semele, at least when it was about vampire hierarchy: Tte law of the strongest in its rawest form, without any discussions or political interests. She used to say she had had enough of them when she was alive.

  She sat down and stared at me for a moment, before cutting her right wrist.

  “As soon as you are bound to me again, your vampires will be free of the hunger for blood, for a while.” I said, before making cutting my left wrist.

  Her eyes widened and she caught my forearm, without waiting for anything else before drinking. Almost smiling, I did the same, and felt that bond between vampire and subject come back to life.

  Semele released my forearm and narrowed her eyes.

  “It was Seth who did this, right? With the Nameless’ help?”

  She could be many things, but a fool wasn’t one of them.

  “Yes.”

  “Then it is finally time to face him. My vampires are better than Pietro’s. It is best if you use us when it is time to fight.” Semele’s words were cold, detached, but I could see her hate behind the words: she had a past with Seth, too.

  “What did you do to your vampires that they aren’t going mad?” I needed to ask this.

  She smiled provocatively.

  “It has been a long time since I made a big negotiation with Death. To my vampires, sex is also a kind of food. It’s not even close to what we need to really feel satisfied, but it was enough to save our sanity.”

  I nodded, not really surprised. Something like this fit her.

  Semele got up, making a sharp gesture with her hands, and the vampires still in the room approached.

  “Send the word to all of mine, I want them ready. We are about to fight Seth and the Nameless.”

  A couple of hours later, all the lesser Masters that followed her had sworn themselves to me.

  7. Kelene

  “How are we going to evacuate so many cities? We have nowhere to put all these people, even if we manage t
o get them out.” Avés said.

  I took a deep breath, trying to find a solution. We couldn’t leave all those people on Seth’s and the Nameless’ way. They would be killed, I had no doubts about it. But we had a simple problem: humans wouldn’t trust us. I was a nobody, didn’t have any influence, nothing that could be useful in convincing people to evacuate even the city I lived in, and I didn’t even want to think about any other city. Those from the Otherworld, at least, had already received warnings through the Witches’ Coundil and the Fae, and were now taking refuge and hiding in the old cities and ruins like the one we were in.

  That was it.

  “It will be complicated.” I started, knowing that Avés, Lilian and Death were paying attention to me. “Between the Fae and the witches, how hard would it be to create a compulsion to make all humans go somewhere?”

  “You mean, cover the target cities with a compulsion?” The sidhe asked.

  “Exactly.”

  “That won’t be complicated. But the repercussions after it’s over will be.” The Seer warned us.

  “That won’t matter if there are no survivors.” I raised an eyebrow, my words sounding harsher than I intended. “I’d rather deal with any repercussion than leave everyone for the Nameless.”

  Expressionless, Avés nodded. Lilian stared at me, as if she was searching for something in my eyes.

  “So be it.” She nodded. “But where can we take them to? We’re talking about millions of people.”

  “That’s where the trouble starts…” I sighed. “Our best bet are the ruins. We’ll have to coordinate with those from the Otherworld who are already there, choose those who will have only humans...” I faced Death. “There are more ruins and old cities hidden beyond the limbo, aren’t there?”

  “With some planning, they can hold the population we’re talking about.” She nodded.

  “It would be possible to open death’s pathways straight to the ruins we need to send them to, and then cast a compulsion to make them go where we want.” I said, not really questioning it, and Death nodded: it was possible.

  “And what will we do once they are there? Lock them inside?” Lilian asked.

  “Only if there is no other way.” I saw their surprise, as if they didn’t think I would consider doing that. But if it was necessary… Then I would do it. “I thought someone could be there, to explain what’s going on, but we can’t tell them the whole truth. We need to have something that works as an explanation, unless you’re willing to change all of humankind’s memory.”

  “This could be done.” Avés said, so naturally that I was sure he wouldn’t think twice about manipulating all humans’ memories. I had said that with the intention of sounding ironic, but that wasn’t how he understood. It was just a reminder that, even though he had always treated me as an equal, I was an exception. Humans were nothing to the Fae.

  “Only if there is no other way.” I repeated, even though I wanted to give a different answer. But if changing all their memories was the only way, I would let them do it.

  “So be it.” The seer said. “We will try to explain what’s going on, without revealing many details, only enough to make humans understand that there is only one chance of survival. The witches will take care of this, we are used to dealing with humans.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled at her, relieved. The witches were used to dealing with humans and the human authorities were used to hearing the Council. That was the best we could do. “Now we just need to decide how to distribute everyone across the ruins. If we could know which ones are already taken by people from the Otherworld…”

  “We need the map for this.” Death said.

  Without waiting, Avés and Lilian turned to leave the room we were in. I followed them, but Death stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

  “We can finish this without you. There is much more that needs to be done.”

  I was about to answer and say that I needed to be there, too, as I was the only human in the group that was deciding strategy, when I felt her touch in my mind. It had been years since the last time she had used that connection between Death and the White Hand, so long I had almost forgotten it existed.

  “There is too much you don’t know, and you will need this knowledge before this is over. Talk to Ivan, this refuge’s leader. Tell him you need to learn about mental bonds.”

  “You’re right.” I agreed with what she had said aloud, and quickly told the others to go with her, without me.

  One second after they left the room, my arm burned again, too many scars being paid at the same time, and I leaned against the wall. The pain hadn’t stopped since that first moment when we had been beside the map, as more and more vampires joined us. This new big payment meant that Lucio had talked to the other vampire Master and convinced him… Her, I remembered.

  Wiping the tears from my eyes as soon as the pain went back to something I could deal with, I went searching for Ivan. My arm was red and I knew more scars would be crossed soon, and that meant more pain, but I couldn’t afford to wait. I didn’t know why Death wanted me to learn about mental bonds, as she could already get in touch with me anytime she wanted, even though she usually ignored that bond, and I didn’t have any other kind of metal bond with other people. But she had said she would help us, and I needed to trust her words.

  It wasn’t hard to find Ivan. With an annoyed expression, one of the few Fae who lived there told me where to find him, in one of the central buildings of the city, in front of the palace. An alpha werewolf, Ivan was tall, with dark hair and eyes, built with impressive muscles. He wasn’t wearing a shirt when I approached, and I could see the scars that covered him, as if he had spent most of his life fighting – which was probably true, considering what he was.

  “What do you want?” He turned around to face me, and his voice still held a trace of the wolf. He had just turned back into his human form, then.

  “I want your help.” I answered, not even trying to make small talk or pretend I didn’t have a good reason to go after him. I knew werewolves liked to be direct. “I need to learn about mental bonds and I was told you could teach me.”

  His eyes shone yellow for a second, the wolf too close to the surface, before speaking.

  “Who told you that?”

  “Death.”

  His eyes shone again, and then he turned his back, making a sharp gesture I imagined meant that I should follow him. Shrugging, I did.

  Ivan took me far from the center of the city, to the areas where no one lived and not even the ones who lived there visited. Looking around, he entered one of the small houses around us, and I followed him inside.

  “Why do you want to learn about mental bonds?”

  “I don’t know. Death only said I’ll need it, and I’m trusting her.”

  “You say you’re trusting her, not that you trust her.” He understood what I meant.

  “Yes. I don’t trust her, not fully, but there is too much at stake here and she needs me. That’s why I’m trusting her.”

  “Then maybe you’ll survive.” His words were grim.

  I didn’t understand what he meant, but wasn’t fool enough to keep questioning a werewolf when he spoke like that.

  “What do you want to know about mental bonds?”

  “Everything you can tell me.” My answer was quick. “I know nothing about them.”

  He nodded, sitting on the ground and waiting until I did the same.

  “With whom do you have mental bonds?”

  “If I have any bond with someone beside Death, I don’t know about it.”

  He was silent for a moment, and when he started speaking his voice sounded fully human.

  “Mental bonds are similar to what humans call telepathy. But telepathy is the capacity of mental contact with whomever the telepath wants, while a mental bond is a link between two people. Be it the bond you have with Death, the bond between a vampire and his subjects…or an alpha
and his pack.” This last sentence sounded bitter, and it wasn’t hard to guess why. Ivan was an alpha without a pack. I had no idea of what had happened to him, and wasn’t about to ask. “The pack bonds are different from any other, as the alpha has a link to all the pack members and all the packmates have links to the others through the alpha, who acts as a focal point. The bond between a vampire and his subjects is direct; a vampire has a link to his subjects, according to the hierarchy, but they don’t have contact among themselves. I imagine the Hands of Death have a similar link to her.” He stopped, staring at me as if waiting for an answer.

  “If there is a bond like this, I don’t know, I’ve never been taught…” I sighed, understanding. “That must be why Death told me to talk to you. If there is a bond like this, and I’m starting to think it does, it would be between the Hands and the White Hand. I would be the focal point.”

  “It’s pure logic to presume there is a bond like this. How would the Hands contact each other in the old times, before cell phones and internet, without it?”

  “There was no contact.” I whispered, remembering the first time I had been the White Hand. “Death only appeared and told me there was someone I needed to take. The White Hand’s Circle was just a name, a way of knowing which Hands were stronger, but we didn’t have any contact.”

  Ivan stared at me, his expression showing he had no idea of what I meant. And he wouldn’t understand, not without knowing I had lived before and been the White Hand a long time ago.

  “Nothing.” I shrugged, as an answer to his silent question.

  And I had just realized that if a bond like that existed, I would have contact only with the Circle, and they with the other Hands, following the hierarchy.

  “Can someone have more than one kind of mental bond?” I asked, seeing a way to free the White Hand’s Circle, who had been turned just before the Nameless escaped, from Seth’s control..

  It depends on what kind of bond. What usually happens, at least among the wolves, is to have two bonds, one with the pack, and one with his or her mate, a kind of bond where there is no focal point. I’ve heard of people with more bonds, but only when the person is the focal point of one and only part of the other.