by Aya DeAniege
Did you name him Androgen?
Androgen goes by many names. While lover, one may call him by his real name but must play his game. Sasha uses Androgen while I am about, and now you, because that is the name I gave him. With other vampires, they use another name.
Anyhow, I learned very little yet a great deal over those few days leading into the preparation for the battle. I ran with a few Devils but stepped back at the point of breaking the Council’s rules.
Despite all else, I was in the Council faction by that point.
I spent many quiet moments with my lover. We showed each other the sights and he laughed at my jokes, even the ones mortals didn’t think were funny. We fed and bathed together.
Sometimes it happens for vampires. Sometimes someone comes along, and you can’t help but get lost in them. Mortal and immortal alike.
The day of the battle fast approached.
If it were a true battle, we would have been separated almost immediately. All hell would have broken loose because we were sleeping with the enemy.
As it was, when his superiors came to chide him and kidnap me, they took one look at who was involved, stiffened, and walked away very quickly.
I don’t know if it was his reputation or mine that saved us, but no one else ever brought up the fact that we were toeing the line. Not even in later years, when the Devils got together to drink some and relive the olden days. No one would bring up that line which we crossed. They’ll talk about others, even about Sasha crossing Council lines for Androgen, but nothing about my mute lover.
The night of the battle there was a full moon, for us to see by. We went to the field and took our sides. Because of the circumstances of that particular battle, we weren’t concerned in the least.
No one would be seriously offended.
Frankly, it was a romping good time. George and Gerald were there. It was how Sasha met Androgen. Even Margaret loved being there, and her usual prey were children. We smashed and slashed and all the rest.
Someone tried to rape Sasha. It did not end well for him. The Devils ripped their own man apart.
The battle was one that would be spoken of for some time. We still debate going into the less populated areas and doing it again. Devils against Devils, somewhere that is difficult to reach, where no mortal goes.
It’d be fantastic.
In the aftermath of that battle, I fell in with my mute lover once more. We spent the night together, then headed out towards his stock and base.
On the way, I received a summons from Lu.
I sent a response back. There was no way I was going to see him when I had just found a lover, though that wasn’t what I told him.
My response was carefully chosen and respectful. I do have rights to my body and life, damn it.
Two weeks later I received another summons, this one stating that he had made me and therefore owned me. I was to report immediately.
Again, I declined.
I had a feeling that Death was chomping at the bit. No word had come from the Council, but he did work without their permission in the past. There were little illnesses that they were all but unaware of, which were caused by Death.
Frankly, I wasn’t interested in it at all. Lu had supported himself before me. He should have supported himself after as well.
That was my response back that time.
This was before the Black Death but not so far back. About my mid-life. I had never denied a summons before, but Sasha and Lucrecia had been encouraging me to take a stand and say no. They believed my relationship with Lu to be abusive, and it is, and I know that fact.
You try saying no to the man.
You just yelled at him.
I’ve decided to... how to mortals put it?
‘Fuck it.’
Lu, for whatever reason, has weakened. He’s incapable.
I believe Wraith’s attack on Death did as great deal more damage than he believes. I might even believe that Death is now missing a part of himself that was relieved of him.
The part was burned in a fire. It should have grown back within months of it being taken.
Wait, like someone cut a chunk out of him?
Yes, Wraith did, with the tool. Perhaps due to the power of the tool, it was a permanent removal. The Great Maker supposedly used the tool to remove a vampire’s tongue, and it never grew back.
If I can find the tool, I can castrate Lu. That would solve a lot of problems for the world over. It would also make me feel better about the whole of my life, I think.
That summons, however, was the first time I tried to say no.
Lu was at full strength. Death was more than capable of taking my head, killing my stock, and razing the world to the ground.
And now they’re begging for you to side with them.
Why would the strongest known vampires be doing such a thing? If they were capable of doing it on their own, surely they would have by now.
So, I said no again.
Weeks went by, and it was a glorious time. I was beginning to believe that I may have found my immortal partner. We just meshed so nicely, in a way that I had never experienced before.
One night there was a knock on the door. He answered and returned a few minutes later with Lu in tow. He, of course, was puzzled. I had never told him that Lu was my Maker.
I said my Maker still lived, that we were not on good terms. He had no idea what Lu’s youngest Progeny looked like, though he may have met my older siblings.
He certainly knew who Lu was.
There was a fear about him that couldn’t be hidden. You’ve seen Lu at work. In public, with strangers, he plays the part of weary old man. He makes others see that I am the abuser, that I am negligent.
In reality, he may have appeared fragile, but there was a strength to him that others didn’t see until it was far too late. He would lure victims in with that frail act.
Like he did with my parents.
I’ve seen him do it a hundred times since then. I knew what he was doing, and my mute lover played along quite well. There was still no hiding the fear.
If he could have spoken, I think his voice would have given him away. His eyes, when Lu’s back was turned, would go to the pack which Lu had brought with him.
I saw it, I knew.
I tried to send him for food. Lu insisted I go instead. Of course, I refused. The switch flicked and the moment it did, he bolted. Lu didn’t even say anything. Didn’t move either.
I knew when Lu didn’t chase after, that I was so screwed. Instead, I followed my lover. I came upon him as Lu drove the tool through his skull.
Wait, what?
I screamed, the moment the tool enters the brain, it kills the victim. Death may put on a show, but it takes relatively little work once you know how. The body slumped, all life gone just so fast.
What just happened?
“Your whores are not more important than I am,” Lu said.
Fury overcame me. A cold had come over my limbs, penetrating me to my very core. I swear my heart stopped beating, the whole world seemed to grow distant.
I pulled the tool from its place and walked back to where Lu was, in the other room.
Again, what? What? Are you telling this right? Oh God, is Death Lu’s twin brother?
What? No.
Twin brother, really? That’s the best explanation you can come up with for him being in two places at once?
I’ve never actually told you Lu’s power.
He may not be the one creating the disease or carrying it. I still think the tool does that. He says it’s imbued with the power of every vampire it kills.
You use it right, and you can do transference.
Their fear and rage over being killed are what makes it so lethal to mortals. Its use in over a thousand executions is what makes it lethal to immortals if used correctly.
According to wording that is presently used, Lu is capable of astral projection. His body is in one area. His soul goes somewhere els
e. That projection is capable of lifting objects and is excluded from many restrictions because there is no physical form behind it.
It cannot be attacked or killed. To do so doesn’t even revert the projection back to Lu. It feels absolutely real, is capable of morphing shape and size.
I’ve yet to find a way to stop him from projection outside of creating so many electronic waves that it confuses him. His home is supposed to be enveloped like that. The Council discovered that in the modern world he became unable to leave his body as quickly or for as long.
Astral projection is the power that Lu is known for.
While like that, he can pick up the tool and use it as a weapon of murder. To transport it, however, he needs to wrap it.
And it still weakens him.
Yes, he is its keeper. He is free to use it as he pleases, because who could stop him?
That is how he was in two places at once, in our home. His pack which he had with him in the other room was empty, or near to.
I attacked, but he had seen me through the projection. He was stronger than I was, freshly fed. Someone else must have transported the tool there. Every moment it was in my hands, I felt the burning fury burrowing into my being.
It drained me even as I tried to attack him with it. He wrestled it from me, kicking it to the side.
Then he beat me mercilessly. All the while going on with his verbal vomit, I don’t recall much of it. Most of what I recall was about whores and ungrateful bastards.
He raped me, then bled me dry.
When I woke, we were somewhere I had never been before. Far away from most mortals. Lu was served by stock, his private stock that’s not registered with the Council. An abandoned castle in the north of some place.
I was chained to a wall.
I thought it was bad before...
Lu’s rage knows no bounds.
He hadn’t just transported me. He had moved the body as well. It was hanging by the neck against the far wall. Lu had rigged something up so that I couldn’t move my head.
I had to look at the body as he did things to me.
We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.
He cannot leap into my apartment or my car. You are safe.
I’d be dead already, so I guess it’s not me that I’m concerned about.
Your concern is noted but would change nothing.
Lu kept me there until the body was nothing more than bones. Vampire bodies take a long time to break down.
By the time he was done with me, I was completely submissive again.
He made me burn the bones and dump them in a river so that I’d have no place to go to mourn. Then he took me back to the castle and had me pick up the tool.
It had no effect.
Holding the tool should have burned me, it should have drained the life force from me as it had to every other vampire who touched it. My nerves should have been on fire, exploding in agonizing pain the longer I held it.
He had me hold it, and it did nothing. I knew the danger, holding it sparked the fury and rage once more. But I also knew that I was too weak to use it properly.
I faked it.
The pain, the agony, the weakness.
Those powers that Lu boasts about me having? That’s the only time I’ve ever felt like it might be true.
I was not a very good actor then. However, he believed that I had picked it up in anger, that my strong emotion was what allowed me to hold it momentarily.
He then drained me and had me transported back to the exact building he had taken me from. I stumbled home to Lucrecia and wept my tale to her.
She, of course, was horrified. She found Sasha and Androgen, holed up somewhere, and told Sasha what happened, who then told Androgen.
Which for some reason ended in Androgen seducing me.
And explains you getting so emotional when Androgen left you.
Maybe... anyhow, we were taken before the Council, and I had to explain myself. The entire incident was covered up. Someone besides Death wielding the tool is not something that you spread around. The file was closed, so to speak, and the mute vampire was all but removed from our history.
Anything to keep others from finding out that one of us died so easily.
“I’m not hungry,” I said.
“I need to spend time among living people, or I might just become unstable,” Quin muttered. “That is a brightly lit, twenty-four hour a day diner. It’s clean, has food and beverage, and is a classic example of where mortals gather when the darkness encroaches.”
“Are you talking about metaphorical darkness or the pre-dawn that’s going to be starting in like twenty minutes?”
“You’re a smart ass.”
“And you’ve been lying by exclusion.”
Quin seemed to consider that for a moment. Then he tipped his head. It was the only acknowledgement that I received.
After nodding, he climbed out of the car.
I followed him, looking over the side of the black car. I knew there was blood there, so I thought I could see it all wiped down the side, the fingerprint on the door handle itself. In the darkness of the parking lot, there was a pretty good chance that no one else would realize that there was anything wrong with the vehicle.
“Won’t someone notice?” I asked.
“I said the inside was brightly lit. The parking lot is a clear example of Hell on earth. I’ve personally watched someone overdose in this parking lot.”
“On drugs you gave them, or just someone you stumbled upon?”
He seemed to mutter something as he walked away. The muttering only emboldened me. I followed, letting off a string of anti-drug information as I went.
At the little greeting desk in the restaurant, Quin glowered pointedly at the restaurant’s lit up logo.
So, I continued with random statistics that I made up as I went along.
The moment I spotted the waitress headed towards us, I stopped talking. I saw him smirk as he told her we wanted a table for two. He was still smirking as he sat down.
I started prattling again.
It was wonderful to see him flustered and frustrated. I honestly couldn’t believe the restraint he showed as I proceeded to chastise him for giving drugs to an addict.
Water was brought for both of us.
I paused to stick the straw in the water and sipped. Quin visibly relaxed, taking a moment to put his straw into the water, and to spin the ice in his glass idly.
When I sat back and opened my mouth, I saw him flinch.
At least I was getting through that thick skull of his.
“You eat and drink for the pleasure, not the sustenance.”
“That is correct,” he murmured, eyes on his glass as the ice spun around. “You mortals take so much for granted in modern times. Clean water and ice delivered to the table without question. That’s something that is still very new. Yet rather than spread around the good fortune, you hoard it for yourselves and sell to companies who turn around and sell it to those in need for exorbitant prices.”
“Uh-oh,” I said. “Is Mr. Fedora being a moody pants?”
The startled look I received made me laugh. I put a hand over my mouth, trying to stop the laughter as tears came to my eyes.
“What’s so funny?” he demanded.
“You sound like an old man,” I said through giggles.
The surprised look turned to that of a ruffled, annoyed cat. Stubbornly, Quin picked up his cup and sipped from it. His nose scrunched up in distaste. The grimace only brought my laughter back.
“You can’t lecture me on taking advantage of water and then make that face while drinking it.”
“My mouth is watering,” he growled. “It mingling with the iron of the pipes is much like sucking on a dirty penny.”
“Oh, Quin, why are you being so cranky?”
“I think that might be the first time you’ve called me by my name,” he said.
The waitress approached and took our orde
rs. A combo for both of us. Mine was small since I had eaten in Quin’s car on the way to Lu’s place.
My stomach felt tight, almost queasy, but it occurred to me that Quin might have been feeding me because he enjoyed watching mortals consume things.
Maybe vampires tasted things differently than mortals did, I’d never know first hand, however, and I wasn’t certain Quin would be able to answer that question. Did anyone know how much the flavour of food had changed over the last hundred years, let alone the last fifteen hundred?
Probably. They’re probably writing an angry letter as I write. Research and adjust accordingly.
“Still writing?” Quin asked. “Really?”
“Need to get paid for this job, for starters,” I said.
“It was likely Lu who trashed your apartment, I will speak with the Council, and you will be compensated for anything that was broken.”
“What about the cats?” I asked.
“Them, and you, can stay with me as long as you like.”
“I meant the ones who died. The body count so far is four cats, three vampires, and one mortal. If we ignore everyone who died before tonight, that is.”
“If you prefer, I will speak to the Council about the cats as well. I do suppose, the poor woman’s pets would still be alive, if not for Lu.”
“And besides the destruction, why do you think he did it?” I asked.
“There is a unit in his home which emits the waves that prevent him from projecting his being. That was what I went looking for while I was there. I told him it was for an item.”
Quin bent back and dug into his pocket. He pulled something out and set it on the table. I leaned in, peering at the misshapen silver ring.
“You’ve never mentioned a ring before,” I said.
“My mute lover had it made, along with this one,” Quin raised his hand and pointed to the gaudy gold ring on his finger.
The one I had made fun of in my introduction.
Remove comment about the gold ring, for the love of God!
“Yeah,” Quin said. “Lu kept it all these years, I’m surprised. I found it on the unit that emits the waves. The unit was unplugged. It’s a warning.”
