The Darkest Colors

by David M. Bachman

  The Countess looked genuinely surprised. “What do you mean?”

  “Exactly what I said! She needed blood so badly during her Change that she started slipping into a vampiric coma,” she explained. “I did the only thing I could to save her life. I drew a bunch of blood from myself and injected it directly into her veins.”

  “You what?” the High Court gasped. “You stupid, stupid girl! Do you have any idea at all what you have done to her?”

  “She saved my life,” Raina confirmed, standing close beside her dear friend. “If she hadn’t given me her blood when she did, I wouldn’t have lived long enough to be given more blood here at the hospital. I wasn’t keen on the whole idea of going here in the first place, because I knew it’d just make it easy for you to find me, but still…”

  “How could you? You willfully tainted the blood of the High Court during her Change? Are you mad?”

  “Mad at you for killing my Maker? Yeah,” Raina countered. Brenna nudged her with an elbow lightly. “I mean, one of my Makers…”

  “Does the Grand Duchess know what you’ve done to her?” the Countess asked Brenna.

  She shrugged. “I told her that I gave her my blood. She was the one that suggested it in the first place when I told her that Raina was dying.”

  “She ordered you to mix your own blood with hers?”

  “Well … not specifically, no,” Brenna replied with a bit of hesitation. “She just said to give her my blood. I couldn’t get Raina to drink it because she was so far gone, so I did the only thing I could do for her at the time.”

  Countess Wilhelmina suddenly appeared devastated, covering her icy blue eyes with one hand for a few moments and shaking her head in grief. It didn’t make any sense. Why did she even care? She hated the House of Fallamhain. She relished the act of killing those of the Fallamhain bloodline. What did it matter to her if Raina’s blood was “tainted” by a mix of High Court, Commoner, and human blood? So what if she was a mixed-race vampire? She had already been accustomed to being a mixed-race human before – half Hispanic, half Caucasian – and that had never been a particularly big deal to anyone.

  “Well then … it would appear that we have much more in common than I would have expected.” At last, she lifted her head and extended a hand toward Raina in offering. “You must come with me, Raina. As should you, Brenna. I will see to your safety.”

  Raina shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Not just no, but hell no,” Brenna added. “How stupid do you honestly think we are? You’ll kill both of us the second we step outside of this place.”

  “Quite the opposite, really. The Grand Duchess’s personal guard awaits you outside of this hospital,” she informed them. “They were too busy attending to claiming Duke Sebastian’s body and pandering to the media to notice my arrival. Again, it was only by God’s will that I was able to see you first. If you leave with me, I can personally guarantee your safety. If you leave with the Grand Duchess’s men, you will be surrendering yourself to evil.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Raina said. “Why would the Grand Duchess want to kill me? She’s the one that’s going through all this trouble to protect me … from you.”

  The Countess rolled her chilling blue eyes exasperatedly. “It makes perfect sense, my child. It’s completely political. The Grand Duchess wants everyone to think that she is a mother protecting her young. She has created a web of lies about me to cover her own deeds, and she knows that making herself appear to be the victim in this matter will buy her support from others in the Council, as well as from humans. The Council Elders are old fools, and many of them have completely forgotten the terrible things that the Grand Duchess has done to others in the past … including me.”

  “Oh, come on,” Brenna scoffed.

  Ignoring her, she continued to focus upon Raina as she explained, “The Grand Duchess has accused me of being a part of many terrible, horrific crimes that were committed during the Second World War … crimes which she was guilty of having committed herself. She believes that I swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party ideals, and that I was a believer in the creation of a so-called ‘master race,’ but it is she that believes these things. It is true, I was a subject of the experiments in Birkenau, but it was Duvessa that escaped with Doctor Josef Mengele’s men when the camp was abandoned, not I. She left me to die in order to save herself.”

  “Well, regardless of whether any of that is true,” Raina said dismissively, “what does that have to do with either of you wanting to kill me?”

  “The Grand Duchess believes that the High Court is the true master race,” she replied. “She believes that humans, Commoners, and all other races are inferior to the High Court. The only use she has for others outside of her own bloodline is for them to serve her as slaves. If she learns that your blood has been tainted during your Change, she most likely will have you killed in secret and then publicly blame me. She will not accept someone of mixed blood in her House.”

  “But … why? I mean, as far as High Court vampires, it’s not like I really look any different or anything…”

  “It is the principle, Raina, that she would find objectionable. A High Court vampire that shares the blood of a Commoner and a human? She would see it as an abomination. She wishes to expand her bloodline, but she would never allow it to be tainted by the blood of other races. That is why it would be a foolish mistake to give yourself to her.”

  Raina considered the Countess’s bold claims in silence for several long moments, her gaze locking with that of the pretty but still very unsettling vampire. She wasn’t entirely sure who to believe anymore. It seemed that no one could truly say one thing without it somehow meaning another thing, or without having someone else saying an exact opposite to contradict the other person’s statements. If she were truly able to look at things objectively, she might have been at an absolute loss in deciding who was being truthful and who was a blatant liar.

  The sword she held at her side had been handed to her as a sign of peaceful intentions, but for Raina, it served better to remind her of the acts of violence it had been used to commit. How could she trust the killer of her own Maker? Given, the Duke had been a bastard for taking advantage of her, but aside from that – good grief, she was actually defending him, now – his other intentions had seemed to be genuinely honorable. He hadn’t entirely seemed to be an evil spirit, a malicious soul. He had been a loyal servant and dedicated lover to the Grand Duchess, all the way to his dying hour. He had practically thrown away his own life, willfully confronting a seemingly unstoppable opponent in what almost qualified as an act of suicide … and for what? As he had explained, the Duke had hoped that there would at least have been a chance of his success, for it was better to fight and lose than to not fight at all and sit idle as his entire bloodline was slaughtered.

  Countess Wilhelmina’s intentions could not be anything more than selfish, her only motivation being a thirst for power. She had made it quite clear that her intention was to become Grand Duchess of the IVC, and she meant to do so in the oldest and most brutal of ways: killing her way to the top. Even if her words were true, and even if she were actually a Fallamhain by blood, it was still inexcusable for her to kill as indiscriminately and as wickedly as she had. She was little more than a serial killer attempting to justify her own barbarism, a vampiric murderer that used the Code as her license to kill.

  As a tiny voice in the back of her mind chastised her, insisting that she was making a very, very foolish decision, Raina held out the sword she had been given and offered it back to the Countess. She said nothing, only holding out the sheathed sword and shaking her head lightly in silent rejection. The High Court vampire shook her head sadly.

  “If you could see the truth for what it is,” she told Raina, “you would join me without hesitation.”

  “Truth is a matter of perspective,” Raina replied. “From where I’m standing, I can see it just fine.”

  Cou
ntess Wilhelmina accepted the sword slowly and carefully, deliberately making no sudden or quick movements that might spook the security officers that stood ready across the hallway. She was old in age, surely, and she was quite tough and powerful … but she was not bulletproof.

  “Then let us hope for the sake of you and your friend that the Grand Duchess will be merciful upon you when she realizes what you are,” she told her. “I can understand that it is difficult for you to believe what I say. You know nothing about me but what others have told you. But you also know nothing of who the Grand Duchess truly is. You know only what she has led others to believe, and what she has told the media. If you knew of the terrible things that she has done, the countless lives that she has taken … and the daughter that she has forsaken … then you would not dare to take her side.”

  “I think you’ve made your point,” Brenna finally said, “and I think it’s pretty clear that Raina’s made her decision. So now, if you don’t mind … go fuck yourself.”

  The Countess narrowed her eyes at Brenna sourly. “Your boldness will someday be your death, Commoner.”

  Brenna appeared ready to spout another insult, but Raina silenced her with a firm hand upon her shoulder. To the High Court vampire, she said politely, “Please … just leave us alone.”

  Countess Wilhelmina von Reichenbach met Raina’s gaze for a few moments, again glanced to Brenna, and then nodded with reluctant acceptance. With another graceful, sweeping prelude of her right hand toward her left side, she gave them both a formal bow, a very old European sort of gesture. Without even thinking, Raina bowed as well, although more in the Japanese style she was accustomed to using in a dojo.

  “I will allow you to meet your own fate, as you wish,” she told them, “but remember that you will never truly be alone.”

  “Thank you,” Raina said with a nod before gently taking Brenna’s hand and leading her away from the vampire she had once been led to believe would be the certain bringer of her death. As they walked toward the three elevator doors around the corner, Raina half expected to hear the High Court’s sword clearing its scabbard a fraction of a second before feeling her blade being thrust into her heart from behind.

  * * * *

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was not unusual for the Change to bring out the strangest of personality quirks in a person, but Raina seemed not to be herself at all. That stupid kiss had been a foolish risk, Brenna could admit to herself, but she hadn’t expected Raina to have reacted even remotely in the way that she had … or with such sudden contradiction. In one instant, she had felt her giving in at last. She had even opened up for that kiss, welcoming it. And a second or two later … bam! She had shoved Brenna away into the door hard enough to make her see stars.

  Before, she had been sold wholeheartedly on the idea that Countess Wilhelmina von Reichenbach was on the warpath. The first time they were unlucky enough to meet her in person was surely going to be their last. Curiously, though, Raina had been the one to hold her back when Brenna had been ready to put her life on the line to protect her. At first, she had believed that Raina had only been doing so because she believed – and perhaps rightfully so – that Brenna’s rather limited fighting skills would have been no match against a vampire that had single-handedly killed almost the entire House of Fallamhain. Brenna could defend herself against an empty-handed attacker, especially a human one, but all that kung-fu samurai ninja sword stuff was totally out of her league.

  However, she could tell the sad truth of the matter was that Raina seemed to actually believe some of the lunacy that her would-be killer was spouting off. Raina was no dummy, and she was actually quite stubborn about things once she had her mind made up about something. So, why should she now appear to be so impressionable? What, just because some high-ranking High Court vampire had shown up in nice business-like clothes and handed over her sword, Raina suddenly believed that the bitch didn’t still want to kill her? No, of course not! Was she really that easily blinded by a celebrity’s appearance?

  Raina was a Fallamhain vampire, now … and a Douglass, as well, now that she thought about it. The fact that she was a relatively innocent bystander caught up in the whole High Court feud shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to a homicidal nutcase like the Countess. She had seen it for herself on television just the other night. That psychopathic blonde thought nothing of killing people that were even associated with the House of Fallamhain. In fact, Brenna was surprised not to have found herself hacked to death, perhaps even more readily than Raina, simply because she was a Commoner and, thus, a lesser being in the eyes of a self-righteous killer like Countess Wilhelmina. The fact that the Countess had pretended to exhibit such restraint and forgiveness towards them both, extending such an incredulous offer for “protection,” should have been setting off alarms in Raina’s mind. The bitch had just been feeding her a line of nonsense to earn her trust. The second she got them both out of the hospital and out of the public eye, they both would have been looking at their own decapitated corpses from a ground-level view.

  The way that the Countess looked after them as they stepped into the elevator car was downright creepy. She wasn’t glaring at them with a look of hate or menace, but rather with what she could only describe as a look of pity. It was the kind of face she would have expected to see upon someone that was watching a kitten being euthanized. For whatever reason that Brenna could not even imagine, Raina was worth more to the Countess alive than dead. More than likely, she was not dreading Raina’s decision to go to the Grand Duchess as a prelude to death, but rather a missed opportunity to take advantage of her in some way that would have saved the Countess’s ass from some sort of serious trouble.

  Alone together in the elevator as the doors closed, Brenna sighed, “That was intense.”

  “We’re not out of the fire yet,” Raina replied. “We still haven’t met the Grand Duchess yet.”

  Brenna turned to face her directly as the car began its descent from the fourth floor. “Are you serious? You really believe that crap she was feeding you?”

  Raina shrugged, admitting, “There’s always two sides to every story. I didn’t trust her well enough to just say, ‘Okay, let’s go.’ But, y’know … she does kind of have a point.”

  “About what?”

  “I really don’t know the Grand Duchess,” she answered, also turning to face her. “Pretty much all I know about her is what I’ve read about her in books and on the Internet. She’s just another celebrity, as far as I’m concerned. The only difference between her and, like, some movie star or even the President, is that she’s got fangs and that she’s pretty handy with a sword. For all I know, the Grand Duchess could turn out to be an even more sadistic freak than the Countess.”

  “You mean the German chick with a British accent? Don’t you think that’s a little bit fishy?”

  Raina shrugged. “Maybe there was at least a little bit of truth to what she was saying…?”

  “C’mon, that crap she was telling you didn’t make any more damned sense than her having a fake British accent. Look, don’t take this as an insult, but you just came out of a freakin’ coma not too long ago. Your sense of judgment might be a little … eh, y’know … impaired,” Brenna said, shaking her hand in the air between them.

  “I feel fine, really,” Raina insisted. She considered that for a second. “Actually … to be honest, I’m scared shitless right now, so I guess I shouldn’t say I’m totally fine. But physically, I feel okay. I’m not dizzy or tired or anything. I don’t know how, but honestly … I feel pretty damned good.”

  Brenna shook her head sadly. “They must have been giving you some really good drugs through that IV, my sweet.”

  “Well, what am I supposed to do?” she demanded as the elevator car came to a stop at the first floor. “I can’t just wash my hands of this whole deal and walk right on out of here like I’ve got nothing to do with any of it. I’m a friggin’ High Court vampire! Hell, I’m a High Court and
a Commoner! And I’m still a little bit human, too … I think…”

  The doors of the elevator opened to reveal the empty hospital lobby. Because the front entrance of the hospital was always closed after nine o’clock in the evening, it was no surprise to find it completely empty. Brenna stepped out of the elevator, glanced both ways up and down the hall, and turned to face Raina.

  “Tell me I’m doing the right thing, Brenna,” Raina said. “Tell me I’m not making the dumbest mistake of my life right now by trusting the Grand Duchess.”

  Brenna’s lips parted to speak, but she caught herself. She reconsidered her response for a moment, and then she shrugged.

  “Life’s all about taking chances,” she finally replied. “If nothing else, at least the crazy woman upstairs did say one thing that I agree with, too.”

  “What?”

  “You’re not alone,” Brenna said with a smile. “I’ll be right beside you every step of the way.”

  The elevator door began to automatically close, and Raina stopped it with her hand, only then taking notice of the hospital identification bands on her wrist. She met Brenna’s eyes with those gorgeous dark brown eyes of hers, so dark that they were almost black.

  “What if I’m wrong? What if the Countess is right about the Grand Duchess?” she asked. The fear in her eyes was so very plain and raw now. “I mean, she said a lot of things that didn’t make sense, but … but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s lying, does it? If it turns out that she’s right, and the Grand Duchess does decide to kill me because I’m some crazy mixed-race hybrid freak of a vampire, then…”

  “Then she’ll probably kill me, too,” Brenna interrupted, “because there’s no way in hell that I’m gonna just stand around and let that happen while I’m still alive. And y’know, I’m cool with that.” She paused for a moment, laughing. “Hey, the Grand Duchess already hates me for getting an attitude with her over the phone, anyhow, so she’s already got a reason to kill me.”