by David Page
Richard looked higher. The brightening sky allowed him an excellent view of Queen Anne Hill. To the left, several tanker ships rolled gently on the mellow currents of Elliot Bay. To the right, the dawn slowly crept towards the magnificent snow-peaked Cascade Mountains. The sky was so bright that Richard had to put up his hand to shield his eyes. In mere moments, the light would either kill him or he would survive as Colette had a thousand years ago. Unlike his ancient love, however, he would give himself yet another reason to survive. Percival had revealed a great secret to him during their last encounter.
“What are we doing up here, Richard?” Beth asked, oblivious to the view.
“It is hard to explain.” He continued to stare at the land around him. He had not seen any city in such bright light in centuries and never from a viewpoint this high up. Normally, he would be in his nightly resting place by now. He could feel the sleep of the dead pulling at him, threatening to draw him down into the deep well.
“Try me!” Beth pushed him with no mean force.
“When Percival’s blood did not cure Colette, he picked her up and deposited her in the clearing outside her hovel to await the coming dawn.” He sighed. “Frederick has inadvertently aided me by altering the original virus swirling in my blood. I must now give my body, my soul, and whatever it is that makes me a vampire, something else to focus on.”
Beth frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“Percival gave Colette’s body a more immediate threat to fight back against and because of that, in conjunction with the gift of his own blood, she was able to destroy the corruption the plague had visited upon her. Her power flooded back into her and she survived.”
“And you think that will work for you now?” Beth frowned.
“Exactly.”
“Oh, he’s gonna hate himself if this works.” She forced a nervous smile.
“I can only hope.”
The lift was rapidly approaching the huge saucer that was the restaurant and observation deck. He glanced up and fear spread through him. He was betting a lot on his visions and if he was wrong, he was not the only one who would suffer. Beth would be captured and imprisoned, possibly executed.
“So, you’re going to just wait for the sun?” Beth asked. “Even if it works, how will you get to a hiding place fast enough? You can’t fly and you can’t hide anywhere up here!”
Richard frowned. “You are right, I cannot fly, however I will be able to avoid the sunlight.”
“What if you’re wrong? You’ll be stuck up here when the sun rises and I doubt Frederick will lift a finger to help you.” Beth kicked the wall. “Maybe I could shoot the bastard for you.”
Richard shook his head. “No, Beth. You must take no hostile action. If this works, I will come for you wherever he takes you.”
The lift entered the saucer, passing the restaurant level and stopping as it reached the observation deck. Before Beth could respond, the doors slid open revealing the interior of the saucer. Richard hurried out.
The observation deck was a circular room that wrapped around the elevators. Large, thick windows provided an excellent view to whatever part of the city one wished to view while comfortable seats, tables, and a fully stocked bar provided visitors with all the comforts of their favorite pub. Various plaques and informational signs told tourists what they were looking at and gave brief histories of the Needle, the park below and sites in the city. Several doors led to the outer platform. Richard ran towards the nearest one. As he reached it, he heard the chime of the second elevator.
“They’re here.” Beth glared at him as if this were somehow his fault.
“This will work, Beth.” He was not half as sure as he sounded.
The early morning wind whipped against him, blowing through the metal grillwork that prevented people from plunging to their deaths and tossing his hair awry. He was suddenly glad he was wearing the sweatshirt. The October air was rather cold, even without the breeze. Looking east, he had to raise a hand to shield his eyes from the brightening sky. His limbs grew heavier as sleep cried for him.
“Move it, move it!” Someone barked from within the Observation Lounge.
Richard did not wait to see who they were. He spun around. Metal bars rose out of a short three-foot wall, curving slightly overhead to prevent anyone from jumping. Richard’s powers pressed against his viral shield as if in protest of what he was about to do. Metal cables formed a latticework across the gap above making it impossible to climb over the bars.
“What now?” Beth eyed the glass of the inner wall nervously. “We’ve got about thirty seconds, provided they don’t shoot us first. The sun won’t be up for a least a few minutes!”
Richard looked behind him at the lip of the top of the Needle. Another set of smaller bars prevented anyone from climbing there. “Damn.” He turned back to Beth. “If I can’t get out, this is all for nothing.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I must be able to jump.”
“Are you out of your flipping mind!”
“You must trust me. Now!”
Booted feet and shouts indicated that the men were nearly upon them.
Beth nodded, looked up, raised her gun and fired again and again until finally the cables snapped in several places opening a hole just big enough for someone to get through.
“Help me climb up the outer bars!” Richard pleaded.
“I don’t understand. How can-”
“Hurry!”
She chewed on her lip for a second and then her eyes narrowed. “Damn you! All right, step on my hands!” She clasped them together and formed ‘ten fingers’.
Richard put his foot there as requested and looked into her deep blue eyes, one last time. “Thank you for trusting me, Beth.”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled.
Richard stepped up, gripped the bars. He climbed as high as he could. Beth pressed up, helping him to go higher. He managed to push through the makeshift opening and swing his legs up over the protruding bars, flip himself up onto them and then hang down on the outside. As he did so, the glass knight slipped from his pocket, spinning end over end. He gasped, tried to catch it with one hand and nearly fell. He managed to grab one of the bars and hold himself in place.
“Richard!” Beth reached out too, her fingers brushing against the figurine’s glass surface, but she only managed to knock it away. It sailed out into empty space.
Richard watched it fall until it disappeared from sight. It would shatter when it hit the earth below, nothing could survive such a fall, or, he hoped, almost nothing. “I no longer have need of it.” He turned, allowing his legs to dangle over the open air for a moment as he repositioned himself. It would be so easy to let himself drop, but he was not yet ready. He planted his feet on the lower wall, between the bars, and clung for dear life as the wind sought to tear him away.
The inner door burst open and five SWAT men poured out of the door, their assault rifles leveled.
“Don’t move!” They fanned out across the outer deck and covered them in a line. One of them motioned to a dark shadowy form within the lounge. The figure tilted its head forward and moved towards the door. As he drew closer to the window, his identity became clear.
“Frederick,” Richard spat the name.
His nemesis opened the door and limped out onto the deck, taking up a position behind his men.
“Well, Richard, Miss Bryant. This was not exactly how I pictured things would happen this morning.” He tipped his hat towards Beth.
“Bite me.” She glared at him.
“That is very funny, but very impolite.” He wagged a finger at her. “Richard, come back inside and I will let Miss Bryant go.”
Richard laughed. The sun was seconds away from cresting the distant ridgeline and already the light was hurting his eyes. There was no time for him to wait. He met Frederick’s dark stare.
“Come back now, Richard.” Frederick pulled a huge revolver from under his overcoat and pointed i
t at Beth. “There is still time to get inside.”
“So I can die tonight? I think not. I choose my own destiny.”
Frederick pulled back the hammer and pointed it at Beth’s chest.
Richard had no time to wonder if he was bluffing. They were both dead if this did not work. He smiled again and a look of fear crossed Frederick’s arrogant features for the first time in a decade. His eyes widened as he realized that Richard was serious.
“Good bye.” Richard let go, allowing the wind to take him off the Needle and fall out into the empty air.
“No!” Frederick turned towards him and ran to the bars to watch. “Damn you, Richard!”
***
Richard barely heard Frederick’s curse as the winds tore around him in an unceasing fury. The observation platform fell away fast at first, but then time seemed to slow. His entire life flashed before his eyes, his childhood in the Saxon Manor, becoming a knight, his victories and defeats, the death of his parents at the hands of his enemies, and then Colette. Although he could not remember when or how, she had made him what he was. And now, somewhere in the present, she lived still and needed his help. He could not abandon her. Long lost friends flitted through his mind, people he had helped, others he had harmed, and others he had loved. So many friends had passed through his long life; so many had been lost. If he died now, there would be others added to the list; Beth, Dan, Modin and even Ray. He had to survive, if not for himself than to aid them.
The sky spun above him and a ringing filled his ears. For an instant, he understood the pure thrill of skydiving as adrenalin surged through him. His powers flared beneath the shield. He shook and sweat beaded on his forehead and as the knowledge of his certain death filled him, something happened.
The shield expanded as his powers pushed outwards through his soul. His life and the lives of those he cared for hung in the balance. It was time to take back what was his, time to be who he was meant to be, time for the glass to become as stone. He shut out the wind, the pressure in his ears and the world.
The shield pulsed, as if trying to hold his powers at bay. A spasm of pain ripped through him and the wall shattered utterly as the Department viruses were destroyed. Power flowed into him like a flashflood filling every corner of his being to near bursting as his essence expanded beyond what was possible. He glimpsed the structure of the Space Needle and knew that the ground was fast approaching. He called the mists with more force than he had ever used in the past. It poured out of the very earth beneath him, its icy tendrils writhing upwards towards him. He stretched his will outward and away from him. The mist materialized everywhere, covering the field below and making it impossible for the police officers on the ground to see anything. He tasted their fears, even as he felt Frederick’s frustration and doubt on the platform far above.
The sun peaked from behind the distant ridgeline, its bright beams hitting the top of the Needle. It was now or never.
He closed his eyes and pulled the mist around him and through him, feeling it, tasting it, becoming one with it. He felt lighter, cooler and freer. And then it happened… His body vanished altogether, leaving his consciousness free-floating in the very fog itself. He sent his will outwards, pushing one image, one thought, into the minds of all who were watching. Each Department mind protested, the drugs they had ingested to protect them from the mental powers of a vampire offering a brief resistance, but his will, imprisoned for so long, was like a runaway train. He wrapped himself around their minds, caressed them and planted within their memories the vision of him being destroyed by the sunlight as he fell. They would remember his death and in their hearts they would know it had happened. Only Frederick resisted his power, only he had enough hatred and inner strength to push him away. Richard diverted his attention, knowing it for a lost cause, and finished by reaching into Beth’s mind.
“It worked, Beth. I will find you.”
His downward momentum slowed. He glided the last quarter of the way on the wind itself, hit the ground and spread out his consciousness until he filled the entire field, mingling with the thick mist he had called into being. Above him, the sunlight had moved halfway down the Needle and was getting closer. He concentrated on the ground beneath him, searching with his extended senses for a place to sleep out the day. He found it a few blocks away.
He moved, though he was not sure how, southwards into the city, pulling the mist with him. The sun soared higher, its beams moving towards the ground. As he crossed several streets, he became aware of the steady drone of automobiles racing past in the Battery Street Tunnel beneath him. He probed the earth with his non-corporeal arms and found a small gutter leading down. He pulled himself into it, narrowing his fog-like form into the tiny space and sinking into the earth. He slipped into an old forgotten access tunnel, its worn metal door half blocked by debris.
As he squeezed the last of himself into the small room, he focused on his body, picturing it as it had been. He reformed, causing the mist to vanish just as the sunlight struck the pavement above him. He grew dizzy and the darkness of the dead over took him.
He fell face first into the dirt and slept.
34
“Special agents on the scene told us that the renegade vampire, one Richard Saxon, cornered and out of options, chose to leap from the Space Needle. He was destroyed by sunlight as the rays of light struck him mid-fall.” The news reporter on the television screen ran a hand through his dark hair and smiled to the woman next to him. “Well, Paula, it’s been a while since we’ve had vampires in the news. I understand that the anti-vampire movement is having a field day with this.”
Richard sat at a long polished oak bar at O’Toole’s Tavern. Located in downtown, it was in the heart of the shopping district, near the corner of Fifth and Pine, an area that until two days ago was off limits to him. Now, he sat there with a dozen others looking up at the television. The camera focused on the woman, Paula.
“That’s right, the head of the Citizens Against the Undead, Bob Mckormick announced today his group would be launching yet another campaign aimed at stripping vampires of their rights.”
Richard turned away and smiled. They could do whatever they wished now. As soon as he found other vampires, he would begin to set them free…at least those he deemed worthy. Of course, Frederick would try to stop him, but his superiors thought Richard was dead and would not support an Agent that did not agree with that assessment. He made sure of that.
The heavyset man next to him grunted. “Damn vampires. We should have killed them all when we had a chance. Sooner or later, they’ll all go crazy.”
“I’ll drink to that.” The bearded man beside him held up a glass of lager. “Down with the devils.”
Richard resisted the urge to flash his teeth at them. He had to keep a low profile, at least until he could cure more of his brothers and sisters. Now that his blood was pure, he would most likely be able to use it to bring them back to their former glory. Failing that, there were always the more drastic measures such as he had used. He was not certain, however, if he would share with them all he had learned. As far as he knew, he was the only vampire who could become mist since Percival. Such an ability would be a good way to maintain an edge over the others. Not all vampires would welcome his leadership and they would need to be unified now more than ever.
He deposited a twenty-dollar tip onto the bar and slid off the stool and spun, his dark overcoat swirling behind him. The bar area consisting of a dozen or so tables stretched before him. At 10:35 on a Saturday evening, it was crowded with people. He could feel their beating hearts, sense their desires, and taste their blood even from where he stood. He knew their souls and could have any of them he chose. So far, he had fed on several people to help rebuild his strength. Of course, he had used his powers to prevent them from remembering anything, and he had not taken so much blood as to be dangerous to their health.
He pulled his coat tightly against him, made his way through the crowd and out onto Pike St
reet. The first thing he had done upon waking in the tunnel the prior evening was to wire himself some money from one of his Swiss Bank Accounts. He had purchased a pair of nice black slacks, some leather boots that smelled like fresh cow to him, and the heavy overcoat. Beneath, he wore a black satin shirt that felt excellent against his pale flesh after years of wearing cotton. He closed his eyes for a moment and felt the strength flow through him. When he had awakened in the tunnel in full control of his power he had cried long and hard. His plan had worked and because of that, he would save his friends and eventually the woman he loved….
A steady drizzle spattered his face with water droplets, but he ignored it. Neither cold nor rain could harm him now, even without his warm coat. He breathed out, his first breath in nearly an hour. It was nice, to have his vampire’s metabolism back to its old efficient self. His heart rate was nearly as slow, beating barely once every half an hour.
He turned south on Fifth Avenue, very close to where he had leapt from the bus on his way to call Stan. Since he had emerged with his powers, he had discovered that true to his word, Stan had disappeared with his money. He was glad. He hoped the kid had a long happy life, free from Department involvement.
He glanced down at his gold pocket watch. It was nearly eleven; time to make his move. He strode down the street, found an alley and walked in without fear. When he was sure that no one was watching, he called the mist to him and faded into it.
***
Richard materialized in the narrow hallway just beyond the bars of the cement holding cell. “Would you care to leave this place?”
Beth stood up from her bunk, eyes wide with relief and excitement. She still wore the dirt-stained black jeans and sweatshirt from the prior evening’s adventure, but had at least been able to wash the grime from her face and hands. Her hair was matted and uncombed. Despite her worn appearance, she was a welcome sight. Richard had been very worried that, by now, Frederick would have hidden her away in some secret Department holding facility.
