by J. C. Diem
I hunted through Igor’s bedroom and found a spare machete tucked under the bed. Rusty, slightly bent and dented, it was nowhere near as elegant as my lost samurai swords but something about its stark crudeness appealed to me. Climbing into the bed that I had previously shared with Luc, the scent of his shampoo still lingered on the pillowcase. Worry, fear and loneliness kept me awake for a long time. Clutching the machete, I closed my eyes at last and slipped into darkness.
I floated in a void but I knew I wasn’t alone. Death was all around me. Opening my eyes, I reached out and touched the dull silver wall. It was cold, as I had known it would be.
Just like the last time I’d had this dream, something bumped into my back. I was expecting it yet I still started in surprise. Floundering around in a half circle, I was faced with a wizened vampire that seemed familiar. A roadmap of wrinkles lined his face and grey threaded through his dirty blonde hair. This time, he didn’t croak a plea for me to help him. His stillness was as profound as it was disturbing.
Almost against my will, I touched his face. His eyes opened a crack, revealing a thin sliver of blue. The vampire who should have looked fifteen and instead looked at least a thousand years old silently beseeched me to end his suffering.
Sitting up, I forgot I was holding the machete and almost stabbed myself in the chest. “Geordie!” I whispered. I didn’t know how the wizened, seemingly ancient vampire could be my young friend but I knew it was true. This meant he still had to be alive. If Geordie is still alive then maybe the others are, too! I was torn between feeling excited that they might all still be alive and worried at the condition I would find them in when I managed to locate them.
Once the sun had tucked itself away for the day, I returned to the mansion. I ducked down each time a patrolling human came close and made my way around the outskirts of the property. Thanks to the First’s silent siren song, most of the courtiers, guards and assorted servants had been called to their deaths in Russia. The unkempt state of the grounds told me that no new servants had yet been made. If Gregor had been handy, he would have formed a theory about what was going on inside the mansion by now. I was clueless and I wasn’t sure why the soldiers were keeping the Comtesse and her lackeys under guard. It was difficult to tell if the humans were there to protect or to contain the vampires.
Four stories tall, the main section of the mansion was made of sandstone. Two wings, one on either side, were made of a darker stone. Another building nearby was a barracks for the guards and was made of the same dark stone that the wings had been constructed from. It was now inhabited by human guards, who probably worked and slept in shifts.
Completing my inspection of the grounds, I kept out of sight and waited patiently. I might not be a master strategist like Gregor but I’d come up with a plan that would hopefully allow me to obtain the answers I sought.
It was excruciatingly boring watching the guards go about their patrols but I’d decided to wait until just before dawn to launch my plan. As the sun drew closer and the night waned, the few remaining vampire guards inside the mansion began closing the shutters on the lower floors. Paranoid to a fault, the Comtesse and her fellow Councillor’s bedroom windows on the fourth floor were permanently boarded over. It was a toss-up whether they were more worried about the sun frying them to death or being invaded by their Japanese kin. Ishida’s nation of warriors had been vastly reduced after I had purged them of their damned. They had lost even more during our scuffles with the fledglings. What was left of the Court would no longer have to fear invasion from their enemies now that there were so few of them left to launch an attack.
After watching humans patrol both inside and outside, I knew the mansion doors were unlocked. I was also aware that the soldier’s vigilance would relax once the sun came up and most of the monsters died for the day.
With only seconds to spare before the first rays of killing light appeared in the sky, I slipped into the mansion through a side door. Padding through the halls silently, I heard the heavy footsteps of a human approaching. It was easy to avoid him as he made his way through the ground floor. Ducking into one of the rooms, I hid behind the door. Through the tiny gap, I watched the soldier glance briefly inside before continuing on his patrol.
Another soldier was bound to make his way through the mansion soon but I would have a few minutes to hunt down any vampires that were still awake. Now that the human was no longer clomping his way through the halls, I heard quiet whispers coming from the other side of the building. They spoke too quietly for me to make out what they were saying but their voices drew me down the main hallway and down another long corridor. Stopping at a door, I eavesdropped on their conversation.
“How long will we have to stay imprisoned like this?” one of the men complained.
“Forever,” was the sour reply that came from his colleague. “The Comtesse bargained for our survival and remaining inside the mansion was one of the conditions she agreed to follow.”
“We can’t leave the grounds, they expect us to drink animal blood, we might as well be dead!” the first to complain hissed and was immediately shushed by the others.
The Comtesse made some kind of bargain for their survival? I wonder who she made the deal with? Even as I asked myself that question, I knew the answer: Colonel Sanderson. Anna-Eve may have been the mouthpiece to offer the deal to the Americans but the praying mantis had been the brains behind it.
Sanderson probably thought the soldiers could actually stop the Comtesse and her people from leaving the grounds. I doubted any of them knew about the catacombs that had been dug out beneath the mansion. The vamps could sneak out any time they liked and their human guards would have no idea how they had managed to escape. Frankly, I wondered why the vampires hadn’t fled yet. Maybe the Comtesse was so used to the comforts of the mansion that she couldn’t bring herself to leave it. Somehow I couldn’t see her squatting in the sewers like the vamps I’d met in London.
With the task I had ahead of me, stealth was going to be essential. It would be unwise to leave the vampire guards free to wander about the lower floors. Turning the doorhandle slowly, I pushed the door open a crack and peered inside. As per the rest of the mansion, the furniture in the small sitting room was antique and exquisite. A chandelier hung high above, casting crystalline light on the four occupants of the room.
A human sneezed somewhere outside, startling the guards into staring at the window that was covered in thick drapes. They were only distracted for a few seconds but that was long enough for me to act. Hefting my machete, I leaped into the room. As I landed, my weapon burst through the back of the closest vampire. It then sliced through the chest of the next closest guard. I’d moved so quickly that half of the guards had been reduced to puddles of ooze before the remaining pair even knew I was there.
Before they could scream, I stabbed the third guard through the heart then sliced the other across the neck. The wound wasn’t fatal and the lone vamp staggered backwards with his hands clasping his throat, making pained gargling noises. Black blood dribbled out from between his fingers but the cut would heal eventually. I wasn’t planning on giving it a chance to heal and the machete bit all the way through his neck this time, chopping through his hands as well.
Luckily for me, the carpet was maroon and was dark enough to hide the stains of the fallen, at least from a human’s eyes. Bundling the deceased’s clothing and weapons into a pile, I hid them behind one of the sofas. I then made my way to the staircase that would carry me to the upper floors.
Halfway up the second flight, I froze momentarily when a sound echoed down the stairwell. Someone moaned and it was still hard to tell if it was due to agony or ecstasy. I was pretty sure it had come from somewhere on the fourth floor.
I encountered two more guards on my way to the top floor and they met the same fate as the previous four. Surprised to see a strange vampire in their mansion, they were slow to react. My machete made sure they couldn’t rouse the alarm and bring the so
ldiers to investigate. My mission was to confront the mistress of the mansion, not to kill the humans. I would have little choice but to defend myself if the soldiers turned up and began shooting at me.
The moaning had finished and quiet conversation came from the far end of the hallway as I reached the top of the stairs. Sneaking down the corridor, I listened intently at each door and heard only silence from within every time.
As I’d guessed, the low conversation came from within the Comtesse’s suite. I had hoped to find the praying mantis alone but someone else was in the bedroom with her. For a wild moment I actually hoped that she had recaptured Luc and had forced him into her bed once more. But the voice was deeper than his, if slightly familiar. The pair spoke in a whisper that was too quiet for me to overhear even with my ear pressed up against the door. When their whispers stopped, I assumed they had relinquished their consciousness and had sunken into slumber.
Running through my plan again, I decided to revise it. I hadn’t expected to find most of the remaining Councillors and their lackeys asleep. Even their ruler had apparently gone down for the day. I’d figured I would be forced to fight my way through fifty or so courtiers and guards before reaching their leader. It seemed an epic battle wasn’t going to be necessary after all.
Stealth had worked for me so far and I hoped it would continue to do so. I crept back down the hallway, checking each room to determine whether they were occupied or not this time. I’d only had brief glimpses of the occupants but I recognized all seven of the remaining Councillors. I also found Anna-Eve in residence. Unlike the others, she wasn’t alone. An off duty guard lay beside her. I recognized him from the group that she had brought to Africa. It seemed the Council had relaxed their rules enough to allow the courtiers to mingle with their minions. Either that or she was deliberately flouting their laws, which wouldn’t surprise me at all from the little I knew about her.
It only took a few minutes to determine that every vampire on the fourth floor was dead to the world. Backtracking to the Comtesse’s suite, I tried the door and was mildly surprised when it was unlocked. The hole I’d made when I had rescued Luc had finally been repaired and only a faint hint of varnish fumes remained. Just like the rest of the bedrooms and general décor of the mansion, the theme inside the suite was blood red. Heavy, dark furniture scattered around the sitting room gave me the impression of great age as well as great expense.
Uninterested in the furniture, I headed for the door to the left. The red theme continued in the carpet, wallpaper and bed linen. The complete lack of motion from the pair on the gigantic bed told me the praying mantis and her latest toy were down for the count.
Even without seeing his face, I knew who she had chosen to be her bed partner. I’d only met one vampire who looked like a contestant for a body building competition. Nicholas looked almost ridiculously oversized lying next to the dainty form of the Comtesse.
I had to admit that I was stunned for a few seconds to see the heavily muscled ex-courtier in the sack with my arch nemesis. The betrayal just gets worse and worse. Studying Nicholas’ face, my brain whirled in circles, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. My subconscious took pity on me when it became apparent that I would remain clueless. Nicholas was a double agent right from the start, it explained. The praying mantis sent him to infiltrate your group. He tried to seduce you and when that failed, he tried to kill Luc.
Being undead, blood was unable to rush to my face in a combination of embarrassment and rage at being duped so easily. If I had still been alive, my face would have been scarlet. I’d never trusted Nicholas and should have listened to my instincts and killed him instead of allowing him to join our group. Everyone had wanted to kill him. Even vampires who he had just met hadn’t liked or trusted him. The next time an opinion was universal, I would act on it and save myself and my friends from possible hassle.
Stepping over to the crimson coloured bed, I used the no doubt expensive coverlet to clean the black ooze from my rusty blade. Naked beneath the silk sheets and layers of blankets, the Comtesse looked deceptively vulnerable. The stump of her left arm was covered by a red glove. It had been stuffed with something to give it the shape of a hand and was strapped to her wrist with a red ribbon.
With two stabs of the machete I could end their lives but that would be far too easy. Staring at the pair coldly, my lips began to curl upwards as I altered my plan yet again. The Comtesse had made Luc’s life a misery for centuries. She had also done her best to kill me several times. It was about time I had some payback.
When the praying mantis woke for the night, she was going to get the greatest shock of her lengthy unlife.
Chapter Seventeen
I had a busy but productive day as I executed my plan and made sure it was as perfect as I could make it. Everyone was in place well before nightfall and all I had to do was wait for them to rouse.
Two of my prisoners came awake within seconds of each other, which meant they had to be roughly the same age. Since the Comtesse was Anna-Eve’s maker, she must have been older but maybe only by a few hundred years or so.
Anna-Eve woke, realized she was lying on the floor and moved into a crouch. Her nakedness was mostly covered by her long blonde hair. She stared at the bars of her cell in confusion then became aware that she wasn’t alone. Her gaze moved to her master then to me and comprehension slowly dawned.
The Comtesse had grasped the situation immediately when she’d woken a few seconds before her minion. Standing unhurriedly, her wide-set eyes had narrowed at finding herself in one of the prison cells where their food had once been kept. The look she gave me was full of contempt but it couldn’t quite mask her shock at being held captive in her own dungeon.
Nicholas was in the cell opposite hers and Anna-Eve was two cells down. I’d kept them close together, secure in the knowledge that none of them could escape from me and the punishment I had planned for them. I wanted them to be able to see the fate that befell their cell mates. Call me a bitch but I intended for all of them to suffer for what they had done to me and my friends.
Nicholas came awake and sat up with a start. Like Anna-Eve, he stared around in confusion, unable to understand why he wasn’t still in the crimson bedroom lying beside his ruler. His confusion turned to alarm when he spied me and he scrambled to his feet.
“So,” the praying mantis said, displaying admirable calm, “Colonel Sanderson’s plan to contain you indefinitely seems to have failed spectacularly.” Her black, soulless eyes darted to the makeshift crosses I had attached to the doors of their cages. They had begun their lives as candleholders but were serving a far more useful purpose now.
Ignoring her for the time being, I turned to face her lackey. Anna-Eve still cowered on the ground, darting terrified glances at the cross. “Did you tell Sanderson you were going to order your servant to shoot me?”
Sneaking a quick look at her ruler, the blonde sneered at me. “You can’t force me to answer your questions.” Despite being naked and defenceless, she was still as haughty as ever. It should have been difficult to look down your nose at someone who was standing over you but she managed to pull it off.
Swinging her cell door open, I stepped inside and pulled it shut again. Anna-Eve stood and backed away until she hit the bars. Her arms crept up and crossed over her chest but it was more for protection than from a sense of modesty. I brought the machete up until it was resting against her throat. Our gazes locked. “Did he know?” Her defiance slowly changed from puzzlement to fear. She tried to tear her eyes away from mine but couldn’t. Then her expression turned blank. I didn’t know how it was possible but I knew she was mine.
“The Comtesse ordered me to convince Colonel Sanderson that it would be in his best interests to ally himself with her rather than with you,” she explained. Her tone was as devoid of expression as her face.
“I order you to be quiet!” the praying mantis hissed, moving as close as she dared to towards her prison door. She grimaced
at the crude cross but didn’t back away.
“Tell me everything,” I countered and my new vampire slave obeyed me.
“I first spoke to Colonel Sanderson in the sewers. At first he did not want to listen to me when I told him how dangerous it would be to allow you to remain free. I had to order my servant to shoot you with one of their guns so he could see for himself that you had to be…disposed of properly.” Even deep under hypnosis, she was wary of angering me. “Once he saw you heal after being blown apart, he was finally convinced of the wisdom of becoming allies with the Comtesse.”
“What deal did you make with him?”
“We agreed to remain on the mansion grounds, not make any new servants and to drink only animal blood.” Even with her will sapped, her nose crinkled in automatic distaste at the thought of being forced to feed from animals. “As long as we continue to obey his rules, he will allow us to live.”
I doubted Sanderson had the authority to make these decisions alone. His government and the French government must have hammered out an agreement since the soldiers patrolling the area were all French.
While this was fascinating information, I was more concerned with what had happened to my friends and allies. “What did he do to Luc and the others?”
She shook her head with regret that she didn’t have an answer for me. “I do not know. I advised him to kill them all, especially the Japanese dogs.” Her upper lip curled slightly at the mention of her hated enemy. Thousands of years of rivalry were hard to shake. She and her merry band of misfits had fled before we had travelled to Bulgaria. Anna-Eve truly might not have any idea where the colonel had taken them.
Something flickered in the corner of my eye and I instinctively took a step back. The projectile hadn’t been aimed at me but rather at my slave. Snapping out of her trance, Anna-Eve looked down at the sliver of human bone that protruded from her chest. The blow hadn’t been a perfect hit but I was pretty sure her heart had been pierced. Gregor had once informed me that even a slight nick to our heart could kill us. It looked like I was about to see whether his claim was true or not.
