by Aya DeAniege
“Turn me, please.”
Her mouth opened, and, as she bent to bite me, she was jerked to the side, a startled little ‘meep’ coming from her as she fell over.
Helen, having tackled Bau away from me, scrambled to grab the mace. She laid hands on it as Bau seemed to realize what was going on. Bau stood, but Helen already had the mace up and turned, swinging it like a baseball bat.
Not how a mace should be used, in my opinion, but a body in motion was bound to cause damage when it was that heavy.
The mace caught Bau in the chest. There was the sickening crunching sound of bone being crushed under a heavy weight. The teeth of the wolves on head of the mace would bite into her flesh, causing unfathomable pain unless she had subjected herself to it over the years to acclimatize to it.
There was a flash of a flare.
That’s a stupid way to describe something.
Growling, I sat up as Helen brought up the mace and slammed it back down.
“Good.”
Smack.
“Bitches.”
Smack.
“Stay.”
Smack.
“Dead!”
Smack.
“I think she’s dead,” I said.
“Not yet,” Helen growled, pausing to swing the mace towards me.
It caught her off balance, she stumbled to the side and made a startled sound as it hit the ground. Huffing as she put her weight on the mace as if she meant to do that, she motioned to me.
“So help me, if you describe that as ‘smack’ I’ll smack you.”
Then she picked up the mace with a grunt and slammed it back into the bloody mess that had been Bau.
“I really think she’s dead.”
“No, she’s not, I’d know,” Helen snapped.
“How?” I asked.
“There’s still afterworld all over the place. She’s not dead yet.”
Well, that was one way to know if she was dead, and a very obvious one at that.
We just had to keep her down and out of the way. If there wasn’t enough body to make function, she’d be harmless enough.
We just had to scoop up all the bits and put them in separate boxes and then keep the boxes near each other so that she couldn’t heal herself or reform. Although, humans had made stronger and better boxes. We might be able to separate them. A body that grew busted a box at the seams, and I wasn’t certain I wanted to risk the regrowth.
Not like it’d be the first time we did that.
“We have another problem,” Wraith said with my mouth.
That was not a part of the deal.
“Deals change,” he whispered back before raising his voice. “Seems Quin is mortal.”
The mace paused over her shoulder, which caught her off guard again. Again, she stumbled, this time dropping the mace and managing to get her feet back under her before she hit the weapon or the ground.
“That’s not a good thing,” Helen said slowly, looking me over. “Fine. Fine. We’ll just go old school, that is the saying, no?”
“Old school?” I managed to wheeze out.
She turned and reached down, removing the remains of Bau’s head from her shoulders.
“Hey, no scavenging!”
“You want her dead for good, or not?” Helen asked.
“That doesn’t kill a vampire.”
“Does if I do it.”
Puzzled, I stared at her.
Isn’t there a memory…
Off Wraith went, but I didn’t need the memory to know something else was going on. That it wasn’t Helen inside of Helen. It was something or someone else. Someone who had a great deal more knowledge than either of us.
“Death.”
“And so, to kill a vampire in the month of harvest, one must then make a harvest of the vampire. Want her dead, or not?”
“Dead,” I said.
The response was a sound right before Bau’s head was slammed into the asphalt.
I struggled to get to my feet. Every breath burned through my chest. Just keeping myself upright took all my effort.
“I don’t remember how to be mortal,” I said.
“It’s only while this,” Death made a motion around us. “Is here. You can’t unmake an immortal in the world of the living, just kill them.”
I scanned across the parking lot.
If she had been bringing the afterworld into the living one, or vice versa, that would explain how I had become mortal once more. In a twisted way, it may have explained the mutilated visions that were rising up from the ground. If that were the case, then in order to be immortal once more, I simply had to make it back to the stable land.
The affected area was spreading even as I watched. With my body aching the way it was, the land of the living seemed awfully far away.
Poor Peter seemed to be arguing with the hands as they reached for him.
Up by the road, a vehicle was stopped. I saw someone get out of the vehicle, and I swore.
“Would you just eat her already?” I demanded.
“You want a bite?” Death asked with a chuckle. There was a sound, then a little moan. “You know, it tastes like sparkles.”
“How much has to be eaten?” I asked.
“Mind and soul. So, brain and heart in modern terms.”
“All of it?” I asked with a grimace.
“The ways of murder are not meant to be easy, boy.”
“It’s creepy. You in her body calling me boy,” I said.
“That’s a cop,” Death said. “And your precious child is covered in blood, eating another woman’s brain. How well do you think this will go over?”
Not to mention the horror show sight that was spreading across the parking lot. I could get away with murder while acting as hound for the Council, but I wasn’t certain how they’d feel about our being caught by humans. Powers, magic, other races, and the inner struggles were still meant to be kept private.
I swore under my breath and forced myself to move. It was slow going, but thankfully, once they got an eyeful of what was in the parking lot, they came almost to a standstill, even backed up as it continued forward.
To their credit, they handled it very well. I could see them talking into their shoulders, communicating back with… where ever it is police were attached to.
Okay, so I don’t know how most modern government services work, so sue me.
I shuffled across that line in the parking lot, and there seemed to be a shudder through me. Bits and pieces righting themselves as I put distance between me and the puddle of afterworld spreading across the asphalt. My physical being was still damaged, but everything else was going to where it belonged. The nerves dulled and I could make myself breathe again instead of being constricted by the confines of my damaged body.
“Officers,” I said with a curt nod.
When in a tight spot, vampires usually did two things. The first was to lie their asses off, safer that way. The second was to act like they belonged.
I was told that was a part of social engineering, and maybe it was. Few vampires I had met would go so far as to manipulating the world to get whatever they wanted, how they wanted. We tended only to do it when we had to, otherwise things got boring fast.
“You’re not familiar to us,” the one said.
“Vampire, Quintillus,” I said. “I am a Council vampire. No, uh, civil strife happening here.”
One of them motioned past me, then squinted toward the center of the puddle.
“Is that woman in trouble?”
“No, sir, she is not. That is my Progeny.”
“What about the other woman?”
“There’s only one woman down there, my Progeny. I apologize if anyone was awakened, sometimes baby vampires, they… you know.”
“Oh, you’re that guy. What, uh, how do you explain this in normal terms?”
I looked back at the mess in the parking lot, looking over Helen as she ripped into Bau’s chest. With a grimace, I turned back t
o the officers. I wasn’t quite certain how to proceed. I knew how I would have handled things before—eating them both for breakfast—but that was no longer an option.
“It’s an illusion,” I said finally. “I wouldn’t suggest getting closer. See, one in five vampires has power. It just so happens that my Progeny can cast illusions. Those illusions might suck a human in and seem very lifelike. We were only out here practicing, I apologize if we frightened anyone.”
“Copy that,” one of them turned away.
“For curiosity sake, if you hadn’t come out?” The second officer asked with a little shrug.
“Can’t eat you as of recently, but before that, yes, I’d eat you,” I said, looking him up and down. “Thousand years ago, I might have even turned you.”
It was meant as a compliment to turn his attention towards me. As long as he was focused on me and not on what was going on behind me, he was less likely to figure out that I was lying.
Another vehicle pulled up. As it came to a stop, I swore.
“Sir!” the second officer called, headed for the road. “Sir, get back in your vehicle!”
“Blimey, what’s this?”
His accent was heavier, and Balor gave a little stumble like he had been drinking that night. Which was a stupid thing to do when the vehicle he had stopped in front of was marked as belonging to the police.
“Balor,” I called out. “It’s just my Progeny using her power.”
Both officers relaxed. Balor was a known Council Member and may have been schmoozing with local government in the previous months to make his stay in the city a little more comfortable.
I’m not saying he paid them off or anything of that sort. Just that he had made himself known and was familiar with them. He made certain to play friendly with the local authorities, as any Middle Council did with local folks.
“This is why modern humans turned vampire are so dangerous,” Balor said as he approached, showing his hands to the officers. “Back in my day, you lost your power, so to speak, and it took forever to get it back again. Not randomly going off all over the place.
“You said you were going for a quick walk. We have to get to the interview soon.”
“Sometimes she just needs some time,” I said.
Balor walked up to me, his eyes roving up and down before he leaned to one side and looked over my shoulder. A shudder ran through him as he straightened and met my eyes.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing, her brother showed up.”
“Sir? Sir! Stop where you are.”
“That’d probably be Peter,” I said, slipping to Balor’s side to face the second officer. “I think he took something. He was rambling and acting all out of it. I don’t know if he has a history of this sort of thing, but he’s real, he just needs help.”
“So you let him wander away?” the officer asked.
“Quin, we’re not supposed to do that anymore,” Balor said in the chastising, reminding tone.
Get two vampires caught in a spot together, and we began to improvise. The odd thing was, even with strangers, I had always been better with a partner. Our back and forth kept others from figuring out what was really going on, and if one of us got stuck, the other jumped right in.
I swore and lowered my head as if I were ashamed. “I’m sorry, I’m not used to doing it that way. A guy goes cuckoo. You let him go off.”
The world rumbled behind us.
Yes, as we carried on a semi-regular conversation, Death had continued at his gruesome task. Bau died rather quietly considering all her rage and anger in life.
There was a force, a feeling, almost, of an outward motion and then it suddenly sucked inward. The very air moved, and the officer’s eyes grew wide as he looked around us.
“See?” I said as I turned around.
“One dead body.”
“Oh, that’s right,” I said.
The officer frowned at me and looked like he was about to start asking hard questions fast. I didn’t blame him, considering the fact that I had just told him that Helen was the only one down there, that she hadn’t been touching another body.
“Wraith was here, wasn’t he?” Balor asked in a very grave voice. “Wonder who he caught this time?”
“Wraith is hunting in the city?” the officer asked. “Should we not have been informed?”
“No,” I said as Balor walked off towards Helen. “If we thought he’d do something that would endanger mortals, we’d tell you immediately. The problem with telling you is that it increases the chances of the target hearing about it.
“These are very dangerous vampires. We take execution as lightly as humans do. First rehabilitation is attempted, then and only then would we even begin to consider it.”
“And this one, who you forgot was down there?”
“Did you see the stuff she was making?” I demanded. “It’s easy to forget about a body when you see that.”
“It’d suggest that she created those images because she was looking at a dead body.”
“Good explanation,” I said, filing it away in my mind to use it later.
“The dead vampire, what did they do?”
“Created religions where she was the goddess, which isn’t much of a problem, except she insists on continuing the same thing in the modern age. She created some pretty dangerous situations, ignored Council law and tried to wipe out the human population on more than one occasion.
“Her Progeny was a child rapist, who she kept in food, knowing full well what his appetite was. She encouraged his behaviour.”
“Her Progeny, he has a name?”
“Lu,” I said. “Dead. Last week, didn’t you guys contact us about some bodies in a cemetery?”
“Vampires, cemetery, sounds like about half the calls we’re taking at the moment. Lots of kids emulating you guys. It’s a little taxing. We’ve still got the usual problems.”
“Unless they tell us we can start eating people, there’s not much we can do to help,” I said. “If they do allow it, we could scare the pants off those kids. But they know we can’t eat them, so they just don’t care.”
“Most of the people I’ve talked to think you’re still eating people. So why not just scare them anyhow? They don’t need to know they’re safe.”
“I get that, I do, but that would fuel the rumours and we want them squashed,” I said, turning as I felt movement behind me. “Ah, there you are. Hello, done with the illusion spell?”
“I’m feeling drained.”
I didn’t know who responded. It was hard to tell who I was talking to, but I had to play along because there were humans present.
“See, no problem,” I said to the officer.
He motioned down, to which I turned and looked. Helen had a firm grip on the mace. It seemed duller now.
Oh, and coated in blood.
“It was her weapon,” I said. “We have to take it back to Council Chambers. It’s law.”
“That is a weapon,” the officer said. “According to our laws, we have to take it.”
The mace was held out. The officer reached and almost grabbed it. Balor grabbed his wrist instead.
“It eats men,” Balor said. “That’s why she’s got it.”
A moment of hesitance, and then the officer withdrew his hand. He looked us all over, then sighed and pulled out a notepad.
“Copy that,” the other officer approached. “He’s been collected. We’re to report back.”
“Vampire laws are complicated, and we’re still learning things,” the first officer said.
“You’re just trying to keep everyone safe,” I said.
We watched the police leave. After they had pulled away, I leaned toward the mace.
“You get into Balor’s car. That thing goes in the trunk, not in the car. Any trouble and I’ll break your neck, and you’ll never wake again, understand me?”
“Yes.”
Balor stood beside me as… I don’t even know how to
describe it. The body of my Progeny was like that cat in a box. Surely Helen would have given me some sign that she was there.
“She demanded I call her Banshee and offered to ride my Irish rod to see if there was any truth to leprechauns. What are women saying about leprechauns?”
“No idea,” I said. “Death was riding her when I was there.”
“What in the hell was that? What happened?”
“I think it was the afterworld.”
Balor let out a string of curses in several languages.
“It’s done. It’s dealt with. She’s dead for good. Need a cleanup crew.”
“Your mess, you call it in.”
“How did you upset them?”
He muttered something, then pulled out his phone. “Lucrecia told me about your phone.”
As he walked towards his car. I followed along behind and slipped into the passenger seat as he went around to the driver’s side.
Sitting there, watching him make the call, I worried. I worried about the creature that we had in the back seat with Troy.
What creature might I unleash on the world out of pity?
A hand appeared between the front seats. Fingers snapped at me, then jabbed in an accusing fashion.
“What?” I asked.
“I think Banshee wants the tablet,” Troy said.
Well, there was a ray of hope, however faint it might be.
No, not Banshee. Fuuuuck, I just wish the world would stop spinning. It was like I had drank far too much alcohol. Everything swirled around and around and around. Then it just stopped, but only for a moment. And suddenly it was spinning the other way, around and around and…
Ugh, the whole thing made me sick. I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, and tried to get it all together. I swallowed several times, praying that I didn’t empty the contents of my stomach all over the back of Balor’s car.
The only thing that seemed to calm my stomach was the idea of sinking my teeth into something. I pried my eyes open and turned ever so slowly to Troy, sitting beside me in the backseat, unbuckled.
“Can I eat you?” I asked him.
“Do I look like a blood bag to you?”
