by K. T. Tomb
“If the old world MIs are using the Russian/Ottoman conflict to restore the Bulgarian Empire, won’t the Russians be more powerful?”
“The Russians don’t have enough power to hold that much territory, especially since any alliance with the principalities of Moldavia, Transylvania, Wallachia and Dobuhza is tenuous at best. Miko speculates, and we tend to agree, that the old world vampires are hoping that the inevitable stalemate between the Russians and Ottomans will create a power vacuum that can be filled with someone of their own choosing.”
“And who would that be?” she asked.
“That is what Miko is tasked with finding out,” Alfred replied. “Since the Russians have crossed the Prout River and the Ottomans and Turks have responded with a declaration of war, Her Majesty’s forces in the region are maneuvering to assist her allies. It’s only a matter of time before a leader begins to emerge as the old worlders’ hope.”
The mention of Miko and his assignment drew Nora’s attention back to Andrik. Had he survived the battle, too? Was he okay? She was still angry at Andrik for sending her to Bucharest and angry at the Duke and Alfred for ordering her back to London. “You’ve reassigned Miko, but what about Andrik?”
“He has been reassigned as well, but not—” Alfred began.
“You said he’s been reassigned, so that means he’s alive, right?” Nora interrupted.
“Of course he is.”
“You might have told me that up front!” she snapped. “I’ve been worried sick about him.”
“An oversight,” the Duke cut in. “You have our deepest apologies for that, please forgive us.”
Nora sighed. There was a sort of grandfather-like charm in the Duke that tended to balance out her Irish temper. “Okay, so what is this new assignment of Andrik and when am I going to finish my training with him?”
“Finish your training?” Alfred laughed. “My dear, the greatest part of your training was accomplished before you were ever recruited to MI-6.”
For the first time, Nora put all of the pieces together. Her role in MI-6 was to be the seductress. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that role and started to protest, but Alfred cut her off with something that stunned her even more.
“Your next assignment, Nora, will be with Andrik in Shanghai,” he announced.
“Shanghai?” she repeated in disbelief.
“Our war is never over, dear girl,” said the Duke. “Especially not for a vampire spy.”
“And what of the Count of Dracula?”
“We will worry about him, Nora.”
“But I had him dead to rights.”
“We know that. Next time, we expect you to finish him off. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“Now, you will be pleased to hear that someone is waiting for you in your room upstairs.”
She frowned at that, and made her way up the winding staircase and to her assigned room. Upon opening it, she saw a tall figure standing with his back to her, staring out the darkened window. She knew that form anywhere. “So,” he said, without turning. “I’ve heard you been worried sick about me.”
“Oh, shut up,” she said and rushed into the room.
Andrik turned, laughing, and caught her in mid-leap. It wasn’t long before they collapsed onto the bed, still in each other’s arms, kissing hungrily.
The End
The Vampire Spy returns in:
Vampire of the Realm
Return to the Table of Contents
VAMPIRE OF THE REALM
A novel by
K.T. TOMB
Vampire of the Realm
Published by K.T. Tomb
Copyright © 2018 by K.T. Tomb
All rights reserved.
Vampire of the Realm
Chapter One
Nora’s stomach was churning as she started down the long, dark hallway toward the small square of light.
She had felt the after-effects of an opium high before, but those days were well behind her. She hadn’t used opium in several months, she was sure of it, yet the same heaviness of her head and the lurching of her stomach was telling her otherwise. She moved toward the light, dreading the feel of it burning her skin. I’ll be okay, she told herself, I have the cream. Her hand went into her bag and she felt for the wooden disk which held the soothing salve, but it wasn’t there.
“What’s going on?” she murmured aloud.
She stopped and turned to look behind her, but saw only the velveteen curtain of the opium room and a sliver of dim light creating a small rectangle on the floor beneath it. She could hear the tick-tock of the parlor clock in the opium room. It was much louder than it should have been on that side of the curtain. The rancid-sweet, floral scent of the smoke on the other side of the curtain penetrated through the curtain and into her nostrils adding to the increased desire of her guts to turn themselves inside out.
After releasing a heavy sigh, she turned back toward the square of light at the end of the hallway and moved forward. As she drew closer, she shielded her eyes with one of her hands while she used the other to draw the flimsy shawl up around her shoulders. She knew the feel of the burning sun on her skin and she hesitated again before forcing herself to move through the exit and into the street beyond.
The street beyond was that of the Limehouse District in London’s East End. It had been an all too familiar sight to her for a very long time. She had seen it and felt the searing heat of the sun on her skin after a night of partaking in smoking the hallucinogenic poppy far too many times. Another heavy sigh left her throat as she turned and moved along the street in the direction of the house where she shared an apartment with Mary and Kate.
What happened? Had she merely dreamt that she had been transformed into a mortal/immortal, what she’d come to refer to as MI, or had she been rejected and cast back into her old world? Did she no longer work as a special agent in a secretive organization of Her Majesty Queen Victoria? Why was she back in Limehouse and leaving the very same opium den where she had so often gone before?
Her heart thundered in her chest as she felt the sun's rays burning her skin. Remembering something of her training, she leapt forward, hoping to cover the distance between Emma’s Opium Emporium and her home as quickly as possible. To her surprise, it worked and she covered a block at a time as she moved forward in that manner. Too late, she remembered the imperative to “blend in,” which had been drilled into her mind during and after her training.
Realizing that someone might have seen her hopping along in the manner she had, she quickly slipped through the door of the house and scrambled up the stairway to the second floor. She fumbled for her key, found it, unlocked the door, shoved it open, hurried over the threshold and then realized that as an MI, she had just violated a major rule of etiquette. What would be the result of her oversight? Would she instantly deteriorate into dust and be blown away by the first breeze to pass over her? She waited for the inevitable to come. Nothing happened. Perhaps it wasn’t true or maybe the rule no longer applied to her.
“What’s going on?” she murmured once more. She called out to Mary and Kate but received no response from either of them. That’s odd for this time of day. They’re always here.
She decided to try Kate’s room first. She tapped softly and called out her name, but no response came. Concerned, she pushed the door open slightly and repeated her call through the crack.
“Please, come in, Nora.” It was a familiar voice, but certainly not Kate’s. It was the voice of Andrik. Andrik in Kate’s room? What the hell is going on? She pushed the door open, expecting to find Andrik and her best friend in bed together, but no horror was even close to what actually appeared before her. She attempted to jump back and close the door, but it was impossible. Some force was drawing her into the room; a room teeming with thousands of rats. The disgusting creatures covered the entire floor, scurried over Mary’s bed, the dressing table, the chair and even up the walls. Nora screamed in terror as she turned to ru
n from them.
As she started running, it became obvious that she was no longer in the apartment she had entered but was in a long, dark hallway with a small square of light at the other end. She ran toward it as the rats pursued her. The hallway was either endless or she was not moving, she couldn’t tell. Nora had only one thing on her mind: escape. She remembered that she could leap long distances and attempted the same feat in the hallway. She moved forward a very long distance and glanced over her shoulder, hoping that she had left the rats far behind her.
She shrieked again as she saw the rats transform into pale-faced zombie-like MIs hopping toward her and coming quite near to reaching her with their outstretched clawed hands. She leapt again, but the MIs regained the distance instantly. She put all of her efforts into another great leap and was certain that she had put her pursuers well behind her, but they continued to keep pace with her. She could actually feel their claws beginning to rake her fair skin.
The hammering in her chest created an acid-like taste in her mouth. They’re going to kill me. The moment the thought entered her mind, she saw a form in the small square at the end of the hallway. It was the silhouette of Alfred Covington. She instantly realized that she had broken the rules of etiquette as well as the imperative of her training. Andrik’s voice echoed inside her head.
“As a vampire slayer, he is the best. Know this, you do not want to get crosswise with him. Mortal or not, his instincts are perfect and his skill is second to none. You are dead if he decides it to be so.”
With Covington in front of her and the hopping, zombie MIs scratching at her flesh from behind, she had nowhere to go. I’m going to die. The thought increased in volume inside of her and her heart was ready to burst through her chest.
“Nora! Nora!” Covington’s voice repeated with some strength.
She shrieked as she felt the zombie MIs closing in around her and taking chunks of flesh out of her…
She awakened to the sight of Alfred Covington standing over her. She drew back from him momentarily as she began to sort out her surroundings. She had awakened in her own silk bed inside of the stone sarcophagus.
Chapter Two
“What you’ve experienced is referred to as a night terror,” the Duke of Cambridge explained.
“I thought dreaming was something that we MIs no longer did?” Nora asked.
“In general, my dear, you are correct. What you have experienced is either a flashback to your former existence, a prophetic look into your future or a combination of the two. They are often quite terrifying in that they are extremely realistic and quite confusing. I’ve had them a time or two as well. They don’t come often, but when they do, they are, indeed, quite terrifying.”
“There were a lot of elements in my past mixed into it,” Nora responded. She was still disturbed by the dream in spite of the fact that she had been awake for hours and had just been allowed a meeting with the Duke. Neither Andrik nor Covington had been much help in relieving the sense of panic which still lingered.
“It would do you some good to tell me about the nightmare, Nora,” the Duke said in that comforting tone which so often reminded her of her grandmother. “Perhaps I can help relieve some of your anxiety. A portion of it will never go away, though it will fade away greatly over time.”
“I had awakened back in the opium den where I used to go in Limehouse,” Nora began.
The Duke of Cambridge sat back in his chair and remained focused on her without interruption as she recounted her entire nightmare to him. At various times throughout her narration, he frowned as though he was making a mental note, but continued to listen to her and take in the entire story until she had shared it all.
“And that was when I awakened in my own silk bed with Covington hovering over me,” she said, as she concluded her recounting of the nightmare.
“Certainly terrifying enough, my dear,” the Duke commented when she had finished. He paused a moment, frowning again as he organized his response.
“To begin with, let me assure you that your past is in your past. You will never be returning to Limehouse, well, at least not as you were, and you will definitely not be returning to the old lifestyle in the opium dens or your former occupation,” he began in a soothing tone. “That portion of your life would certainly be terrifying to return to at this point, but rest assured that you are quite above and beyond what you used to be.”
Nora smiled, receiving that bit of encouragement graciously, but she was certain that he had a great deal more to explain to her about what she had experienced and was anxiously awaiting it.
“It is good that your training stuck in your mind, especially concerning the imperative to always blend in, which you certainly did not do as you hopped down the street,” the Duke chuckled. “No harm was done in your dream, obviously, but it is a good sign that you know better, even while in the midst of a nightmare.”
“It was fairly well drilled into my conscious and subconscious mind during my training.” Nora managed a soft laugh of her own. “I doubt I will ever forget it.”
“Let’s hope not,” the Duke mused. His expression turned grave. “The consequences of forgetting that rule can be devastating and you would be severely reprimanded for neglecting it, but certainly not on the level imagined in your nightmare.”
“I hope not,” Nora replied. She was still a bit tentative concerning what might happen to her if she crossed the line and might have to face elimination by Covington. “But it did bring up a question that I hadn’t really considered before.”
“You mean, what sort of offense would lead to elimination?” Covington asked.
“That is the question precisely,” she responded.
“To set your mind at ease or as fair warning, such action of elimination to be carried out by Covington would only come as a result of betrayal of Her Majesty’s secrets or another such act of treason.” His face was pure stone as he delivered the statement and then it transformed into a bright smile. “I’ve no fear that you will ever face that possibility. Both Covington and I believe that your heart is purely loyal to Her Majesty.”
Her heart was purely loyal to Her Majesty and to her duty in MI-6. The fact that both the Duke and Covington believed her to be loyal certainly did set her mind at ease.
“Concerning the etiquette of passing over a threshold without being invited,” the Duke began, continuing to take apart her nightmare piece by piece in order to analyze it. “You will not disintegrate into dust if you pass over a threshold uninvited. That etiquette does not extend to any and all thresholds, by the way. It only extends to the threshold of a home, which is, in essence, the energy of the home. If you should pass over a threshold into a home uninvited, then you would have the use of none of your powers. You would be at the mercy of the being inside that home, the consequences could be devastating as you can imagine.”
“Basically, I would become like a mortal again?” Nora asked, clarifying what the Duke meant by losing her powers.
“Worse, actually,” he grumbled. “You’d be weaker than a mortal.”
“That’s certainly a good reason to ask permission then,” she responded.
“Indeed.”
There was a pause as the Duke considered the next portion of the dream.
“I was told that you are not very fond of rats,” the Duke laughed as he continued.
“They are disgusting creatures,” she replied. “It was all I could do to keep from vomiting when I had to transform myself into one during our last mission.”
“Andrik filled us in concerning that,” he continued, still smiling broadly. “And yet, when it was truly necessary, you put aside your personal feelings about rats and did what needed to be done. That is the sort of loyalty that is in your heart, my dear, and what gives Covington and me such great confidence in you. However, I am not surprised that the rats were present in your nightmare, given your aversion to them.”
“It is a great deal more than an aversion,” Nora responded
. Her face twisted into an expression of complete revulsion and disgust.
“One of the characteristics of night terrors is that your deepest fears and aversions often manifest in them. As we analyze it, it is clear that you fear falling back to the old lifestyle, being eliminated and you fear rats. The last portion of your dream, which included the hopping, zombie-like MIs, is a prophetic element.”
“I’m going to encounter rats which change into these creatures?” she asked.
“It is quite likely that you might encounter such creatures in Shanghai on your next assignment,” he responded. “They are a type of MI found inside of China, and they are called hopping jaingshi. In your dream, they were quite terrifying and I suppose that they are in a way, but they lack a great deal of the power that you have. Should you encounter flying jaingshi, however… well, that’s a different story.”
“Gee, that’s sure comforting,” she muttered.
“Fear not, my dear, you can more than handle yourself with them as well,” the Duke smiled.
Nora started to ask about the flying jaingshi, but was interrupted as the Duke’s butler came into the room to announce the arrival of Covington and Andrik, who were arriving for their briefing on their mission to Shanghai.
Chapter Three
“Did I overhear a discussion about jaingshi?” Covington asked as he entered the room along with Andrik and took his seat in the tall, wing chair opposite her. Andrik sat on the sofa beside her, but not too close, as though he hoped to maintain the secret the two of them shared.
