A Dance in Blood Velvet

by Freda Warrington

  “What upsets you, little brother?” Lancelyn said without emotion. “The nature of the Hidden Temple? Or the fact that I kept it secret? I didn’t tell you because I wanted to protect you.”

  “What the hell from?”

  “Oh, come on! You were always disgusted by sex. I’ve never known such a prude; you must get it from Father. For heaven’s sake, you were a virgin at twenty-three! You’d still be one now if I hadn’t set Holly to seduce you.”

  Ben was outraged. “Holly and I found each other without any help from you. I’m all for free will - but blackmail is the exact opposite! Your Hidden Temple is about nothing but corruption.”

  “The type of people who join are corrupt,” Lancelyn said smoothly. “Don’t they deserve what they get? The higher their status, they more they want to roll in filth. I tell you, I could bring down this government and the next with what I know. Now that is power.”

  Although Benedict was aghast, he felt an awful excitement. Firm ground to challenge Lancelyn at last. “Maybe so, but it’s not what we set out to do. Where’s Sophia in all this? What’s happened to Wisdom?”

  “Can’t you work it out?” Lancelyn said archly.

  “You’re playing games. You can’t wriggle off the hook by pretending there’s some higher motive. James and Deirdre - what had their deaths to do with the path to Meter Theon?”

  Lancelyn was immovable. “They knew what happens to Neophytes who break their oaths, but I didn’t kill them. I only played on their fears. How they chose to face those fears was their affair.”

  “I can’t believe I’m hearing this. How could I be so wrong about you? I thought you were noble, perfect!”

  “Well, I’m not.” Lancelyn leaned back his head and blew smoke rings. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “I’m going to take the Order away from you and put it back on the right lines.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “This sounds like a declaration of war.”

  “It is,” Ben said passionately. “It’s been undeclared for quite some time.”

  “My dear boy, I am the Order. Even if you seduced my neophytes away, which you can’t, I’d start another. The Temple of Meter Theon is where I am.”

  “Not any more. By the time I’ve finished, you won’t want to be magus of anything. You’ll want nothing to do with the occult ever again!”

  A long pause. Lancelyn seemed disturbed, at last. “These are bold threats, Ben. If there’s nothing to them, you’re going to look foolish - but if you mean what you say, I will win. And you’ll lose Holly for certain; she’ll come back to me.”

  “No,” said Ben, controlling his rage on a wave of conviction. “You’ve already lost her. But I ask one thing: leave the other initiates out of this. If there’s a war, let’s keep it between the two of us. A little cowardly to throw others into the firing line, don’t you agree?”

  Lancelyn looked surprised. Then his mouth spread into an unpleasant smile. “You’re quite right. Just the two of us; that’s only fair.”

  “But try anything like the tricks you worked on Deirdre, and you’ll be sorry.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. Nothing so crude.” Lancelyn drained his glass, flicked his cigarette end into the fire, and stood. “Well, I’ll be going. So glad we had this little talk to sort out our differences. And now, the Book, if you please.”

  “No,” said Ben. “It’s not yours. I’m keeping it.”

  “Something in it, is there?” Lancelyn winked knowingly. “I’m sorry about this, Ben - but not as sorry as you will shortly be.”

  Ben showed him to the door and watched him leave.

  Lancelyn mounted his bicycle and rode away whistling.

  * * *

  The garden was Holly’s refuge. She’d been on her knees all afternoon, digging up weeds until her hands ached; now, pulling off soil-plastered gloves, she sat on her favourite bench and watched the evening sunshine slanting golden-red through the fresh young leaves.

  Physical tiredness helped her relax. The house was full of unpleasant vibrations, and strong instinct warned her to stay outside.

  Nothing but trouble since this argument with Lancelyn began, she thought. I wish it were over, I wish I’d never been psychic or joined the Order.

  She loved both Ben and Lancelyn, but could not keep them from each other’s throats.

  The garden was lush and full of life, the only fragment of the world she could control.

  “May I join you?” said a soft voice. She started. Andreas stood gilded by the sunset.

  “Of course,” she said guardedly, moving along to make room. “Sit down. You don’t seem to mind the daylight.”

  “What do you expect me to do, catch fire?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never met a vampire before. I’m curious about people, so why should I treat you any differently? Is there a special way I should address you?”

  He half-smiled. “I hope not. Your husband makes me feel less a vampire than a zoo exhibit.”

  “Why don’t you leave, then?”

  “Nowhere to go,” he said. “I’m content here. I like you and Benedict, however infuriating he can be. By the way, his brother was here.”

  “When?” That was the feeling of unease she’d had! She made to stand, but Andreas held her back.

  “He’s gone. Stay and talk to me. They had quite an argument. Benedict shut me in the kitchen, but of course he doesn’t realise that vampires can hear through walls.”

  “What did they say?”

  Andreas told her. Holly shut her eyes and said, “Oh dear God. What next?”

  He went on, his voice soothing. “Lancelyn is like Benedict; he also has strange gifts, I could tell. I’ve never before met humans who recognise what I am, and hold power over me. Ben reminds me... There’s a vampire called Kristian who rules us, but Ben is different; not yet sure of his powers, whereas Kristian is overconfident... I wonder where he is? The last I remember is Kristian’s face gloating over me as he left me for dead in the Weisskalt.” Andreas shivered. “Now I learn it happened forty years ago. I am in a foreign country... and I don’t mean England.”

  “Were you always a vampire, or did you become one?” she asked softly.

  “I was human once. I was born in the eighteenth century. I planned to be a great poet, but Kristian came along and said that because I was so beautiful, he wanted to make me immortal... so I took his offer greedily, and found that when you enter the Crystal Ring, human ambitions such as writing poetry don’t matter any more. Then I knew which kind of immortality I would have preferred - too late.”

  Holly heard immense anger buried in his soft tone. “What is the Crystal Ring?”

  “It’s what your husband calls Raqia, although we never called it that. Kristian said it was heaven, the mind of God. It is our realm. That’s why I don’t understand Benedict’s ability...”

  “Do other creatures live there? Are there spirits, or angels?”

  “Oh, you can’t imagine the emptiness! I call it hell! Only vampires can enter... but then, Kristian claims we are angels of a kind, the bringers of God’s vengeance. Thankfully I had friends who rescued me from his madness. I wonder where they are?”

  “In our attic, perhaps,” said Holly. Andreas turned, staring so hard that she recoiled. “Did you live in the Crystal Ring or on Earth?”

  “Both. We enter the Ring to travel or rest. Otherwise it was France, Germany, Italy; we were always on the move. Hoping Kristian wouldn’t find us. But he did, and imprisoned us there in the ice... the Weisskalt, the highest level of the Crystal Ring. I can’t forget the cold and the light. Agony.”

  Holly had one of her unbidden visions. A sweeping plain of ice, scattered with figures like dark, bandaged mummies.

  “What else can you remember?”

  “I heard his voice, commanding me to wake and take revenge. For what, I don’t know. I floated in the Crystal Ring for months. I saw images and faces from the past,
but I was helpless. Then it went dark, and I was lying in a circle of mirrors with Benedict leaning over me. You were there too. You screamed, ‘Banish it!’ and I was thrown back into the Ring. I lay there, starving, until your husband saw fit to summon me again.” The glittering darkness of his stare had a strange effect on her. “I feel safe in your house. People, mortal or immortal, drive me mad, yet I need them. Here are two people who want me, although I don’t know why.”

  “It was Ben who wanted you,” she said.

  “Don’t you want me, Holly? I’m disappointed.” He stretched out a hand above his knee, spreading the long fingers. “I feel transparent. My hands are like white glass. Can you see through me?”

  “Almost,” Holly half-whispered. “I never thought a vampire would be so beautiful. I could never mistake you for human; you have no aura - or only a faint one, like the moon.”

  “Very few humans see such things,” Andreas said, echoing her soft tone. Sitting close to her, he pressed one hand along her cheek, turning her face to his. Cool, his fingers, and so gentle. She was leaning towards him... and he embraced her suddenly as if desperate for comfort. His arms were slender yet so strong, and he was hurting her now.

  She could barely breathe, and yet she felt languid. So lovely, this embrace, and natural. His breath against her skin made her shiver all over. She felt his lips against her neck, the tips of his teeth...

  At once she snapped back to herself, shocked awake by a fierce inner alarm.

  “Don’t!” she gasped, losing her voice. Then, more firmly, “Don’t, Andreas, please.”

  He pulled away from her, his face lengthening. He gasped and scratched at his throat. “Damn it. Verflucht! I can’t do it.”

  Her composure in tatters, she watched him, in shock at the danger she’d narrowly avoided... almost disappointed.

  Andreas leaned back with a mocking, angry smile. “I can’t touch you,” he said.

  “Why not?” She probed her neck where his fang-tips had left tiny imprints.

  “Benedict forbade it, you see, and I can’t defy him.”

  Her shivering grew worse. “Oh, because Ben told you? Otherwise you would have done it, wouldn’t you, whatever I said? What you are is a lie; charming and gentle, but all you really care about is blood - and you would’ve left me sick or dead, and not cared.”

  “Or mad.” Andreas gave her a chilling sideways look. “Don’t forget mad. Forgive me, Holly. I can’t help it.”

  “It’s Ben I’m angry with,” she murmured. “Once an occultist uses his knowledge for evil, he can’t go back. He knows the law, that wicked acts rebound on the sender with three times the force, but he won’t listen! I have to stand by while he and Lancelyn destroy each other, and there’s nothing I can do. Nothing.”

  Andreas put light fingertips on the back of her neck, gently stroking her. She didn’t object.

  “Poor Holly,” he said. “So we both are helpless. Shall we be friends in our helplessness?”

  Footsteps behind them, and she heard Ben’s voice, sharp and suspicious. “What are you doing?”

  “Talking,” said Andreas. But Holly turned, furious.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Lancelyn was here?”

  “I didn’t want to -”

  “Don’t lie, don’t say anything! Andreas told me what was said. And then he tried - he tried to bite me.”

  She stood. Ben, horrified, looked from her to serene-faced Andreas. “He did what?”

  “It’s all right, he stopped,” Holly said coolly. “But if you don’t banish the others soon, what do you think might happen?”

  Ben pushed a hand through his hair, angry and distraught. His handsome face was lined with strain, and his eyes had an unbalanced glint. “Try to be patient.”

  “Have you seen yourself in the mirror?” she exclaimed. “Gods, if there were anything I could do to stop this, I would!”

  With that retort, Holly walked away before frustration made her scream.

  * * *

  That night, Ben took Andreas along the tree-shaded street past Lancelyn’s big red-brick house. There were no lights, no sign of activity.

  “That’s where he lives.”

  “You’d like me to go inside and kill him?” asked the vampire.

  His bluntness stunned Ben. The thought of Lancelyn actually dying horrified him. “No, no, that’s not the idea at all! I want to prove I’m stronger. I want him to acknowledge it. I don’t want him hurt, only humiliated.”

  “Ah, a game.”

  “It’s not a game! The whole spiritual future of mankind is at stake!”

  At this, Andreas laughed so uproariously that Benedict was afraid someone inside would hear him. He pulled the vampire further along the street, but Andreas went on laughing until tears ran down his face and he could hardly stand.

  “For God’s sake, will you stop it?” Ben exclaimed.

  “But you people, you have such pretensions! Everything in the name of religion... You take yourselves so seriously!”

  “You don’t understand. I thought you would, but you are just -”

  “What, human?” Andreas snapped. “Hardly. Don’t be so touchy; I like to see people playing dangerous games that might destroy them. I approve. It’s... poetic.”

  “Very well, it is a game,” Benedict said grimly. “But it matters. Don’t you see? Your existence is proof that it matters!”

  * * *

  Holly was trembling as a manservant showed her into Lancelyn’s study. Her stomach felt small and knotted. Guilt prickled hotly over her.

  Lancelyn stood up behind his desk as she entered, all smiles. “My dear, how delightful to see you. I thought you were avoiding me. Sit down. So, how is everything?”

  “Not good, actually,” she stammered. This was so difficult. The atmosphere of the house filled her lungs, familiar yet unpleasant; musty, damp, redolent of bare linoleum and dust-heavy cobwebs. She’d often sat here in the past, performing secretarial duties for the Order. Not for some time, however.

  He resumed his seat with the aloof air of a doctor. He prompted gently, “Does Benedict know you’re here?”

  “No.”

  “Ah. Naughty girl.” She looked away in discomfort. He added, “I’m only teasing. I’ve missed you, Holly; I haven’t asked you to work lately in order to avoid embarrassment, but really, you don’t need Ben’s permission to see me, do you?”

  She gasped, “I’m in an impossible situation.”

  “Impossible? How?” He spoke with an insouciant, mocking smile.

  “I want to be loyal to you both, but I can’t. He’d be horrified to know I’m here. But I want no part in your so-called war; I’m here to ask you to end it. Please.”

  She folded her hands in her lap to stop them shaking. He regarded her with something close to admiration.

  “Ah, my little peace-maker. Perhaps you should address your appeal to your husband. I’m terribly sorry you’re upset, but conflict seems unavoidable.”

  “Nothing is unavoidable,” she said, quiet and fierce. “I’m worried for both of you.”

  “Am I in danger?” He raised his thick eyebrows.

  He was too perceptive, reading into the slightest remark. She tried to repair the damage. “I mean I don’t want you to hate each other. What are you trying to do to Ben?”

  “Nothing. He listens to rumours and jumps to wrong conclusions, I fear.”

  “Then can you look me in the eye and tell me Deirdre’s letter was a lie? That you had no involvement in her death?”

  He leaned back, gazing at the high ceiling. “James and Deirdre lost their nerve. Fear killed them. These aren’t gentle powers that we deal with; lose courage, and you’re done for. Holly, I’m sorry you learned about the Hidden Temple. I never wanted you sullied by the darker side.”

  “Why not? If you hadn’t concealed your extra activities, I might not be so convinced they’re bad.”

  “The sin lies in the secrecy, eh? Come now; with your talent, what could
I possibly keep hidden from you?”

  “That’s not fair.” She steadied her voice. Confronting Lancelyn was infinitely harder than arguing with Ben. “You made me take an oath never to use my gifts against you.”

  “And knowing what happens to Neophytes who break their oaths, you’ve been a good girl. But supposing I released you from your vow. Look at me and describe what you see.”

  She gazed. Just a man, as beloved as a father despite his faults. Then, for a moment, there were great winged shapes flapping all around him, coal-black yet only half-seen. The shadows of his soul, towering above him, capering on the wall...

  In her poor eyesight, Lancelyn was blurred but so were the shadows, which meant they were real. Horror thrashed inside her and she looked away quickly. When she dared to look again, the shadows had gone.

  “Well?” he said. “What did you see?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Indeed?” He stood and came to lean over her with his hands on the arms of her leather chair. She shrank away. She couldn’t avoid his sparkling, mischievous eyes; felt herself slipping towards a trance out of habit. “I think you saw something. Let me hypnotise you, Holly. I want to know what you saw.”

  “No!” If she let him, he’d drag Ben’s plan out of her, and Ben would never forgive her. In panic she tried to duck under Lancelyn’s arms. He clutched her shoulder, holding her petrified with one hand.

  Then he released her and moved away. “Why are you frightened of me?” he said sadly. “You know I’d never hurt you.”

  “I don’t want you thinking I’ve turned against you,” she said, her voice small, “but I have to stand by Ben.”

  “You were with me a long time before you met Ben.”

  In distress, she gazed at the stocky, solid figure who’d offered the kind acceptance denied by her parents. The risk of losing his approval filled her with terror. Defying him was agony.

  “I’ll make a deal,” she said with all the control she could gather. “I’ll tell Ben nothing about you, but I won’t spy on him for you, either.”