The Vampire King's Mate

by T. S. Ryder

  Taliga dropped to a knee, timing his strike. His heart hammered in his chest as Kulog came at him. The other T'shav shouted as he brought his weapon down at Taliga at the same time as Taliga thrust his dagger forward. He first sliced Kulog's left arm, the then his right, pushing his attack off course. Then the weapon drove into the man's chest.

  There was a moment when everything seemed to hinge in silence. A look of surprise flitted over Kulog's face, followed by anger and finally fear. He stumbled back, taking Taliga's dagger still embedded in his chest. Taliga got to his feet, looking grimly at the other T'shav as he fell to his knees.

  "Nobody harms the human while I live," he growled.

  Kulog looked past him. A feral smile twisted his features. "Are you sure?"

  Taliga whirled as Vanessa screamed. A dozen of the Wytsian priests melted out of the tall grasses. They grabbed Vanessa, throwing her to the ground. Taliga roared as he started forward, but one of them rose a blaster and let loose a blast of energy. It hit him square in his chest. A numb feeling spread from the spot, making his muscles spasm.

  "No!" Vanessa screamed. "No, don't kill him!"

  "I am not going to kill him," the Aphrosian priest said, stalking over to the T'shav. "Not yet, at least. He rescinded on his deal and he tried to help a false human escape justice. He will be taken to witness the sacrifice."

  Vanessa struggled as her hands were tied behind her back. Taliga tried to get his muscles to obey, but they wouldn't move. The priest picked his blade sword off the ground. As Kulog spluttered, the priest drove the sword through his chest and smiled. Kulog gasped, then was still.

  "This will make the perfect blade to make the sacrifice with."

  "I'm human! Why won't you believe me? I'm human, I'm from Earth—"

  The priest turned on his heel. "Then you will be happy to go back. Get them to the ship."

  Chapter Seven – Vanessa

  The cell, if it was really a cell, the Wytsian priests put Taliga and Vanessa in was painfully bright. The walls were all white, and the light reflecting off these surfaces hurt Vanessa's eyes. It was also far too warm. Sweat beaded her skin, made all the more unbearable from the cold that had penetrated deep into her bones on the planet. No water was provided.

  Vanessa wanted to curl up next to Taliga's side, but it was just too warm for close contact. Still, she sat as close to him as she could.

  The thought kept flitting through her head that she should never have stopped him when they were kissing on the planet. They were going to die, and she had never experienced that connection with another person. She had longed for it, dreamt of it, but was always frightened from engaging by the way she had been raised.

  And now she would never have the chance.

  If they were alone in their cell, she would have asked Taliga to hold her, to crush her in his arms as they made desperate love. But they weren't alone.

  The Suesue that crouched in the corner, his purple-pink skin paler than Vanessa had ever seen one of those aliens, wore the robes of a Wytsian priest, but they were tattered and torn. Two of his three horns were broken off at the base. It must have been a terribly painful process. He hadn't spoken a word since Vanessa and Taliga had been thrown in here. Neither had Taliga.

  "Are you a prisoner as well?" she eventually asked, unable to bear the oppressive silence.

  The priest shifted, pale eyes locking on her. "Yes."

  "But you look like one of them."

  "I have been sentenced to death beside you for daring to question the teachings of the high priest. I believe you are truly a human and it is a terrible crime to kill you or any other human. I do not believe that there are false humans created to deceive us." The Suesue smiled calmly. "And so I will die."

  Vanessa's stomach cramped at the thought. So they were willing to kill members their own order for questioning their beliefs? Taliga was right. This wasn't a religion. It was a cult. How many other Wytsians believed as he did, but were too frightened to speak out?

  She swallowed hard. That was one thing she was always grateful to her mother for. Even when Vanessa bluntly told her that she didn't believe anything she was taught, her mother never condemned her for it or turned away. It had disappointed her, that was obvious, but she had accepted that Vanessa needed to find her own way.

  Thinking of her mother made tears burn in her eyes. If she was here… Well, if she was here, she wouldn’t give up without a fight. Her mother had been a brave strong woman, and Vanessa always tried to be just as brave and smart.

  There was only one way out of this mess, and it was if the high priest decided to spare her and Taliga. If she spoke with him, maybe she would be able to convince him she really was human.

  Vanessa got to her feet and marched to the door. For the first time since they were put in here, Taliga stirred. His gaze followed her. When she started to punch and kick at the door, he jumped to his feet. The condemned priest stared as well.

  "I know you can hear me," she shouted, eerily reminded of when she had kicked and pounded on the door of Taliga's ship, trying to get him to release her. "I demand to speak with the high priest at once!"

  "They won't listen to you," the priest said.

  "Yes, they will." Vanessa rose her voice. "Talk to me or I will strangle myself with my own clothes and then how will you perform your sacrifice?"

  Taliga jumped forward, reaching for her. "Vanessa, no. I think I have a way—"

  The door opened, revealing a tall, winged Odap. The alien grabbed her arm and yanked her from the room. Taliga charged at them, roaring, but a second guard pushed Vanessa aside and let loose a blast of stunning energy. The T'shav went rigid as he collapsed.

  Vanessa pulled against the Odap, crying out, but the guards were already pulling her away. She forced herself to calm down. He was just stunned. And she was getting what she wanted, to speak with the high priest–would it do any good?

  The two guards dragged her through the overly-bright, overly-warm ship. Soon she was shoved into yet another burning room, and they closed the door behind her. Vanessa stood where she was, her heart hammering uncomfortably in her chest.

  The high priest sat in the middle of the room on a pale lilac rug. Behind him was a bed, or rather just a mattress. There were no blankets to be seen, and he had shed his robes, leaving him in only a pair of white pants. The blue of his skin contrasted starkly with all the stark whiteness of the room he had surrounded himself with.

  "You wished to speak with me. It is our custom that the condemned be allowed one audience with a priest to confess their sins. Sit."

  Vanessa came a little further into the room and folded her limbs beneath her. She eyed the Aphrosian wearily, all too aware of the memory of Kulog in her mind. Would this priest want the same thing that the T'shav had?

  "Confess your sins," the priest said.

  "I don't have any sins to confess." Well, maybe that wasn't true, but she was hardly here to play into his delusions. "I am human."

  The Aphrosian stared at her stonily.

  Vanessa gulped in a deep breath. This was her only chance, so she pledged ahead with it. "I was born July 12, 1989. I grew up in a big city called Toronto. When I was eighteen I moved away from home, to further my education. When I was twenty-one, I came home for a visit for a human religious festival called Christmas. It was snowing out. My mother and I went to the tree lot to find a conifer for our festival when there was this bright light. The next thing I knew, I was in a stasis pod, and my entire life was gone. My home was gone. My planet was gone."

  The priest shifted ever so slightly. "It is as I suspected."

  "What is?" Vanessa's heart hammered. Could he believe as the priest in the cell did, that they were actually human? Her hopes rose. He was going to let them go.

  "I believe you are speaking the truth. You really have those memories, and you believe you really are human."

  Relief broke over Vanessa. She leaned forward. "I am. So there is no reason to kill me or any of the ot
her humans—"

  "You are not human."

  Vanessa froze.

  "You believe you are human, but you are not. Humans died out hundreds of thousands of years ago. They evolved into all the species that live today, and their spirits guide us. They were the first to live, there were no others before them. It is impossible for your tale to be true. If it was, then there would have to be a species that preceded them, to put them in stasis pods and on lightspeed ships."

  "But it is true. You just said you believed me!"

  The priest gave her a stern look. "I said that I believed that you think you speak the truth. But your words simply confirm what I have thought from the start. You are cloned from a human source. The warlord Zon must have found an ancient ship that had a human body–or many–preserved inside it. He used the DNA inside to create his humans, to build his own strength and power."

  Vanessa shook her head, searching for the words to protest. That was utterly ridiculous!

  "He cloned you, and as he grew your body, he planted in false memories in your brain to make you believe you are truly human. But you're nothing but a flesh shell programmed like a robot."

  "No."

  "Some day he will pay for what he has done, but the sacrifice must be made. When you were cloned, the human spirit that had been made free from mortal confinements was chained to your false flesh. It will be freed again through the sacrifice."

  "I am not a clone!"

  "How do you know that?"

  Vanessa opened her mouth, but there was no way to prove a person wasn't a clone. Nothing she would have said would make a difference, either. She knew that. Her chest ached as fear flooded her. She was going to die after all. There was nothing she could do to save herself or Taliga. But she had to try!

  "What about the children we have? Even if we are clones, the children aren't. They are their own beings. That child is fully human, produced in a natural way. Are you going to kill them, too? It's not their fault who their parents are!"

  The priest narrowed his eyes. "I received a message from Zon's Sanctuary just before I sent for you."

  Vanessa's heart sunk lower. Zon was her last hope, but from the look on the priest's face, she knew he didn't consider him a threat to his plans. "You did."

  "Yes. The warlord has offered me a substantial amount of money to have you returned. And he said if I don't give you back to him, then he will destroy me."

  "But it's not going to change your mind."

  He smiled. "He fears the power I have, now that I have you in my hands. If he kills me, he will create a martyr and thousands will flock to the cause. And you will be the rallying cry. Soon, the true believers will take a stand and destroy Zon and his perversion of our history."

  "You're insane," Vanessa whispered. "Utterly insane."

  "I will protect my people. I will take no joy from ripping your still-beating heart from your chest, but I do what I must. Make peace with whatever false gods Zon planted in your mind, girl. Your perversion will soon be cleansed."

  Chapter Eight – Taliga

  Taliga growled fiercely under his breath. His hands clenched as the leftover shocks from being stunned ran through him. The pain alone was almost incapacitating, but he dragged himself closer to the door. He wasn't going to just lie here and do nothing when Vanessa was out there with those animals. Who knew what they were doing to her?

  They wanted her unmarked. They won't do anything that might jeopardize the sanctity of their sacrifice.

  The door slid open before he got to it. Vanessa stumbled in. She shook a little, but otherwise looked no worse for wear. She let out a little shriek when she saw him stretched out of the floor and hurried to him. He tried to sit up on his own power but found her pulling him into her arms instead.

  "Are you okay?"

  She was asking him if he was okay? He tried to support himself on an elbow and brush her hair from her face. While he was able to get his arm in the right position to take some of his weight off her, a spasm hit him right as his hand touched her face and it jerked away like she had burned him. Taliga let out an annoyed grunt.

  "I'll be fine in a moment, as soon as these tremors stop," he told her. "Are you? Did they hurt you?"

  Vanessa shook her head. "Didn't so much as touch me. Just rubbed in how much he wants to kill me. He thinks I'm a clone."

  Taliga pushed himself upright, groaning. The leftover effects of being stunned would pass soon enough. "I think I found a way to save you, Vanessa."

  It was a crazy, desperate plan, but it might just work. He had been thinking about it ever since they had been taken as prisoners, searching through his scant knowledge of the Wytsian Order. At last, he remembered something he thought might work. But he couldn't tell Vanessa exactly what it entailed. She would never accept it.

  Hope lit her eyes, and he knew that it was the right course of action. He couldn’t risk her life. It didn't matter what happened to him, as long as she survived this. Vanessa clutched his hand, but he pulled it away. He didn't want to accidently crush her delicate bones.

  "What do we do?"

  Taliga pushed himself upright. The tremors were subsiding. He took a deep breath and glanced at their fellow prisoner. The priest would know what he was doing the moment he started to explain it. Hopefully, he wouldn’t say anything.

  "Vanessa, the reason that these priests chose you for the sacrifice was because you were leading the dawn rites. Only a virgin can lead those rites. A virgin, like you."

  Her eyes widened. "But they didn't say anything about—"

  "I suspect that Zon knew that you were a virgin and didn't say anything about those requirements because he didn't want to embarrass you," Taliga bluffed. From the look on Vanessa's face, he could see that she believed him. The spasms were gone by this time, and he grasped both of her hands in his. "This sacrifice that these priests are planning to make is also known as wiping the slate clean. There have been other such sacrifices in the past."

  He glanced at the priest. The man looked a little disgusted but said nothing. Good. Vanessa, on the other hand, had that bronze flush in her face again. Her eyes were wide.

  "You want to… Here? But just because they won't sacrifice me doesn't mean they won't kill you."

  "They won't kill you at all until they know if you're pregnant or not. It will buy us some time, at least." He turned his face away from her eyes. She believed every word he said. But he couldn’t let that stop him. He looked at the priest. "This woman is my Starmate, and I will do what I must to keep her safe. But marriage before physical intimacy is an important part of the faith she was raised in. Will you marry us according to the customs of the Wytsian Order?"

  A look of understanding dawned on the priest's face, overcoming his previous disgust, but Vanessa grabbed Taliga's shoulder and turned him towards her, shaking her head wildly.

  "I can't. I can't have my first time with an audience. And it won't even ensure that they don't kill me. And what about you? They'll still kill you, even if they don't kill me. I wish I hadn't stopped it on the planet, but it's too late to go back on it now and I can't do it here. I just can't, Taliga."

  The T'shav pulled her in his arms, trying desperately to think of a way to convince her to do this. They had to marry. It was her only chance. The priest cleared his throat. Taliga cast him a panicked look. Would he reveal what Taliga was really after? Would he ruin it all?

  "Your Starmate doesn't have all the information, child," the Suesue said softly. "Yes, a woman who is pregnant may not be sacrificed, but neither can the father of the child. If you do this, then it is more than your own life you're are buying a little more time with. And I will not watch. I will turn my back and meditate."

  Taliga gave him a grateful look. The priest nodded at him as Vanessa looked up. Tears streaked her beautiful face, but the light of hope was back in her dark eyes. She looked between him and the priest, chewing on her lower lip.

  "You mean it? If we do this, then Taliga will be spared
with me until we know one way or another?"

  The priest nodded. "And if you do get with child, neither of you will be killed until after the child's birth. And given your T'shav's strength and cunning, I am certain he will find a way for both of you to survive."

  "But what about you?"

  "I am old and willing to die for my beliefs."

  Vanessa shivered but she nodded. "Then we will do this."

  "Marriage first," Taliga said quickly. "It's important to you."

  "I don't see how—"

  Taliga kissed her gently. "Please. I don't want to take this last bit of your culture away from you. We will marry first."

  Vanessa shrugged one golden shoulder. "I suppose… it was traditional on Earth to marry wearing a white dress. I'm in a white dress. Might as well get married."

  Her lip trembled all the same as they faced the priest. He directed them to their knees and used one of the scraps of cloth to tie the two of them together. Taliga's heart thumped in his chest. If they weren't able to get this done before they were interrupted, there was nothing else to do. Vanessa shivered beside him, not looking at him. He didn't know how to comfort her.

  "Do you swear your body and love to this man?" the priest asked Vanessa.

  She nodded.

  "What will you give to him to prove your devotion?"

  "Give?" she repeated.

  The priest nodded. "You must give him a treasured possession of yours to show he is worth more to you than anything you may own."

  Vanessa hesitated. With one hand she pulled her necklace with the pendant of two crossed bars over her head. She pressed it into his hand. "It's the last thing I have from Earth. The most treasured possession I have."

  Taliga held the little pendant tightly. He'd give it back before they faced their fate on the planet. The priest touched Vanessa's forehead and then Taliga's.