War of the Chosen

by Elizabeth Dunlap

  “James is right,” I conceded. “You find them and then what? They could move again before you get back here. We need to make explosives. Ultraviolet won’t hurt them now since they’re immune to the sunlight, but we can still set them on fire.”

  “Molotov,” Knight joked.

  “Bless you,” James offered kindly.

  “No, I mean.” Knight rolled his eyes. “Bombs with alcohol.”

  James looked like Knight had just tossed a kitten out of the window. “Why would you waste perfectly good alcohol like that? Lisbeth, your mate is horrifying. You are banned from the wine cellar, sir.”

  “Can we focus?” Olivier complained. “Explosions sounds good. We can mix something up.”

  “I’m a chemist,” Toni said from the fireplace. I twisted to look at her. “I can make the explosives. And that little sunlight potion. Easy.” She wiggled Kitty’s rattle for her, not looking up even though she was speaking to us. Glenda zoomed past her with a buzz.

  I stepped off my desk. “You can make the antidote?” She ignored me, but Arthur knew where I was going with that.

  “We can make more vampires,” he said to me, an excited look on his face. I wanted to high five, but now I felt awkward looking at him, and I didn’t want to feel that way. I held out my hand anyway, and he refused to high five me as he always did. I did catch his mouth curving up, just a little.

  “We can make more vampires to help the Hunters attack the turned army,” Castilla volunteered.

  “We will go with the Hunters to help,” Alexander added from the floor. “We’ll need him.” He nodded in Knight’s direction. My heart jerked.

  “I’ll go,” Knight told Alexander without looking at me and his hand glided down my arm to rested on top of my fingers.

  They talked about raiding hospitals for blood, recruiting people to be turned before evacuating the city so the humans couldn’t be used against us. It was do or die time. Preferably not die.

  Everyone had their tasks and left my office. I spun to reprimand Knight, but he was ready for me, and pulled me in for a long luxurious kiss, one that left me without higher brain function.

  “You can’t go,” I got out between kisses. He didn’t answer, just layered more kisses on my lips. Finally, he drew away and kissed my forehead.

  “I have to,” he insisted gently. He sighed and tugged me by the hand to where Kitty lay in her bassinette by the fire. “Look at her,” he commanded. I stared down at her pale smiling face and little wiggling legs. She cooed at me, her tiny hand reaching out. “I have to protect her, and the only way I can do that is by protecting you so you can protect her. The only way I can protect you is by slaying your enemies, and I can’t do that if I stay here sitting around looking adorable.” I picked Kitty up and held her close. “I’m going with the Hunters to plan this out. You’re staying here with princess face, and you two are going to bond while you recruit hapless humans and turn them into creepy monsters. Aren’t you?” he finished in a baby voice.

  “Nothing says mommy baby time like screaming and gore,” I said cutely.

  He kissed me again, gently, and folded us into his arms. “I will come back to you. I promise.” I looked up at him, noticed the angles of his face, the round curve of his cheekbones, his long black eyelashes, and the small laugh lines around his eyes. Details that would stay with me, no matter what.

  “Give them hell,” I told him.

  I was determined to never let Kitty out of my arms, and wore her strapped to my chest everywhere I went. Yes. Even to the toilet. Balthazar didn’t enjoy being kept from her, so he started following us everywhere. He couldn’t zip incorporeal anymore. Whenever he did that before, he was really going to the Bicus homeland and just reappearing on Earth wherever he wanted, and that wasn’t possible after being banished. It goes without saying that he had no patience for travel. Walking around the house was tedious and he whined constantly. I was very close to kicking him where it hurt.

  Marie and I were working on recruiting humans in the city to be turned. We were always very careful about selecting potential vampires but we didn’t have that kind of time now.

  ‘Are you down on your luck? Do you need money? Are you comfortable with needles? Donate your services to the local science emporium for three months. You won't regret it. Spots are limited, apply today.’

  “Marie,” I said as I looked at her idea for the recruitment flyer. It looked like a chalkboard wedding invitation, with six different fonts adorning it, and little ribbon graphics. “This is awful, and you should feel shame.”

  She snatched it back with a pout. “It took me an hour to make this. Besides, it’s not like you made something.” She had me there.

  “Fine. We’ll use it. Also, science emporium?”

  “The humans have plenty of ideas what this castle is. I chose one.” Marie. I might’ve misjudged you. Maybe. “I’ll make some copies.” She looked down at Kitty sleeping against my chest. “She really is precious. It’s good that you’re exposing everyone to her. They can all get used to having a… what was she called again?”

  “Vipyre. And you’re not afraid of her?”

  Marie shrugged. “She’s a baby. Not only was she born with control like the rest of us, she can be taught to respect our kind, and only feed when given permission. I don’t see why she can’t be like any other baby vampire.” Except that she wasn’t. “I’ll make the copies.” She left, and the only thing I could hear was Balthazar smacking on his pad Thai noodles.

  “She’s kind. Kind but wrong,” he smacked.

  “You believe Kitty can never be accepted by vampires.”

  “She isn’t a vampire. You’re margarine, and she’s butter. Both are spread over bread, but honey, they are not the same.”

  “Lovely. You’re becoming cynical. And speaking of which, now that I have you alone, it’s time we talked.” I set my work down and came to sit across from him by the fire.

  “Talked about what? I’m eating.” I snapped my fingers to get his attention and pulled my necklace out from under my shirt. He swore and put his bowl down. “You. That.” He motioned with his finger. “How much do you know?”

  “I’m going to go with ‘everything.’”

  “So you know I loved your grandmother, and when I refused to put a vampire in her belly, she betrayed me. She found another incubus to give her a vampire child, and low and behold, she discovers she’s already pregnant from one of her human lovers. After consulting a vampire seer, she drank human blood to keep both babies alive, and gave birth to twins, one of which was, pardon me, your psycho mother?”

  Dumbfounded, I tried to not look surprised. “Umm. Okay. ‘Almost everything’ then.”

  “Damn it. You weren’t supposed to know any of that. The Countess would kill me if she were here. Sorry, my love,” he threw to the universe. “Gods above, I miss that woman. I spent every day with her when she was imprisoned, until she drew her last breath. She died for her stupid selfish daughter. No offense.”

  “I can assure you, I have no great love for Anastasia Bathory.” I kissed Kitty’s head to hide my sadness. I’d be lying if I said my mother’s approval didn’t matter to me. How long would it take, I wondered, for me to not care like the way I used to?

  He set his bowl down to lean forward and take my hand. “I’m glad there are no more secrets between us, pet.” A squeeze, and he dropped my hand. “If you’d like to hate me for never telling you, please do. I don’t mind.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Now that I know, I have to keep it secret too, so really it’s no different. I can think of much better things to hate you for.” I fluttered my eyelashes with a goofy grin. Of course I didn’t hate him. For the moment. Mostly because he’d stop complaining about having to walk.

  Someone knocked at the door and opened it as I stood up. Arthur entered, sidestepping Glenda and motioning for me to come with him. Kitty yawned and grabbed a strand of my curls, but didn’t wake up when we reached the kitchen. Toni and Cameron
had turned the large kitchen counter into a laboratory.

  “Oh, it’s you,” Toni said in disappointment when she saw me. What did I do to deserve the wrath of a succubus? Maybe she thought I was hotter than her.

  Cameron was happy to see me, at least. “Lisbeth! We invented something.” A crowd of little bottles with blue liquid inside sat on the counter next to a bowl with tiny red capsules. Toni was busy filling more bottles with liquid from a cauldron. Yes. She had a real cauldron. “It’s vials of vampire blood,” Cameron explained, picking up one of the capsules. “I know the tradition is supposed to be drinking from an actual vampire, but this will make turning a large group much easier. They just take the pill, and voila. They’re turned.” It made a meaningful ceremony into a pill pop.

  Changing with the times, I suppose. And one step closer to victory.

  CHAPTER 21

  That was one of the longest days of my life. I could hardly believe that only that morning, I’d been curled up in bed with Knight and the only thing I cared about was never getting dressed again.

  Weary, and drained, I shuffled up the stairs in the early morning and almost fell asleep before I could get my door opened. Oh. The door was fixed. When did that happen?

  All of the corpses were gone, that was good, and the blood had been cleaned up. Almost every inch of the pale vanilla carpet was now a pale shade of pink from the stains. I wasn’t looking forward to getting it replaced. My furniture was trashed, my birds…were gone? Of course they were. How could they not be with what had happened in here. My bedroom was mostly untouched, however, so that was a plus.

  When I walked in, the room smelled like cherries and mint, and the bathroom door was open. Knight stood by the sink holding a fresh towel and looked like he’d just gotten out of the bath himself. The tub was full of hot water with the soapy suds of a bath bomb.

  “Have you been in here cleaning this whole time?” I asked him in wonderment. He’d disappeared at least five hours before, but I’d assumed he’d gone to bed.

  “No talking, only undressing,” he ordered, and I’ll admit, even as tired as I was, that brought a shiver up my spine. He checked behind me. “Where’s Kitty?”

  “She fell asleep in my office, Balthazar is with her.” Knight took a ragged sigh and looked down at me with a heated gaze. He nodded towards the tub, so I slipped out of my jumper and handed it to him. My skin was covered in crusted blood. It was in my hair, under my fingernails. I slid into the hot soapy water and moaned out loud.

  “Sssh. Stop making sexy noises,” Knight complained. He knelt by the tub and soaped up a sponge. I tried to take it, but he started cleaning me himself. The sponge wiped away all the grime, and stress. After my skin was done, he lathered up some shampoo and cleaned my long curls. The head massage made me even more sleepy, and I dunked my head underwater to rinse it off.

  Most amazing bath ever.

  My head back above water, I leaned it against the side of the tub. I was so sleepy, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Every attempt to open them again failed, and I drifted off to sleep in the tub.

  It’s not the best way to wake up, remembering where you were when you fell asleep and knowing you’re in a different place. I panicked and had to remember how to breathe at first, then I noticed the familiar things around me and knew that Knight had taken me out of the tub and put me into bed. I looked for him and smelled him in the living room. He’d dressed me in a robe that had come undone. I tied it and took stock of myself in the mirror. My curls were full of derp from drying while I slept. I twisted them into a bun on the top of my head, and put on a blouse and some capris with penny loafers.

  When I finally emerged, I found Knight and Balthazar laying on the stained carpet beside Kitty. I almost ran to pick her up so she wouldn’t be playing on blood stains, but they’d laid out a large blanket for her. Knight’s idea, I had no doubt.

  “Hey, you,” he greeted when he saw me. “I put out a blanket for her. I figured she might try to lick the carpet.” I smiled at him. He really knew me. “What? Did you want her to lick the carpet?”

  “Not particularly. Has she fed yet?” Balthazar picked her up and handed her to me.

  “Not yet,” he answered. “Everyone else is still asleep. It was quite a long day yesterday.” Judging by the sun, I’d slept half the day away already.

  Kitty gently beat her fist on my blouse, demanding food. I pet her curls and slid the shoulder of my blouse down until the top of my breast was exposed. She latched onto the skin with gusto, and drank until she fell asleep against me. I pulled her little fangs away from me, kissed her, and walked to place her in her crib.

  “Do regular vampire babies breastfeed?” Knight asked when I’d come back.

  “They do. She doesn’t. I tried, but she preferred biting into me, so she gets one feeding a day of my blood, and baby bottles the rest of the time. Speaking of which,” I pointed to Balthazar, “you’ll need to know how to do that. I’m not going to raise our daughter by myself.”

  “I will learn everything,” he promised. “I hope you don’t mind if I move into one of the spare rooms?” I assured him it was fine, so he disappeared into one. I smelled Merrick and Cameron in one of the others.

  I approached Knight with an apologetic grin. “I’m sorry I fell asleep last night.”

  He slowly moved his hands up my arms. “I’m only sorry I waited so long to try and kiss you. You were asleep when I made my move.”

  My finger trailed up his chest. “I’m sure I’m lucid enough now. How about you try again?”

  He did. And it was glorious. With nothing immediate requiring my attention, the only thing I needed to do was stay in bed with my mate. Everyone needed a day off after the battle, to rest for things to come.

  We awoke the next morning ready to begin our plan of attack. We got dressed, grabbed Kitty, and went downstairs. I went to my office to begin my work on getting volunteers while Knight joined the Hunters in the bigger drawing room to work on their plan.

  Marie’s flyers had surprisingly turned up good results, but it was probably because we were offering a lot of money to the humans. We had at least one hundred from the town that wanted to offer their bodies up for science (‘science’ wink), and that was after Marie had narrowed the volunteers down to ones that would end up stronger vampires or had combat skills. Most of them were men, some women, and all skilled warriors prepared to help us defend our species.

  We needed to evacuate the town and claim the one hundred recruits had been infected with a deadly virus that would spread if the town’s occupants didn’t leave. After that, the volunteers would be moved into one of the correctional facilities. It was the only building we knew could contain the newly turned and had the space.

  I arrived in town with as many vampires as possible after the humans had been evacuated. Marie was wearing a fake CDC contamination outfit, as were a few others that had come along to assist. She took off her helmet and smiled at me, then finger waved to Kitty strapped to my chest.

  “That was fun. The humans are on their way out, we have the Lycans helping with that. The volunteers are at the prison.”

  Neat and tidy. That was Marie.

  I reached out to high five her. “Best assistant ever,” I praised. She looked surprised, and high fived me. “Come on, assistant. The real work is starting.”

  We led dozens of vampires to the prison. Every window had been covered to protect the newly turned before they could take the potions Toni had made. Olivier was there overseeing everything, and Cameron was helping pass out the little pills he’d made as another vampire came behind him passing out some of the blood we’d stolen from the town hospital. The humans stood crowded inside one of the cafeterias, each holding a pill and a pack of blood. I came to stand in front of them.

  “Welcome, volunteers. By now you have been told what exactly you volunteered for. Immortality. With our new formula, you will walk in the sunlight, something turned vampires have never done before, and after you
help us fight our war, you are free to go and live your immortal life wherever you like. There is nothing that can stand in your way now, not even death. But, I won’t lie to you. Becoming a vampire is a long, and torturous process. You will feel pain like you have never felt before. We try to restrain the newly turned in coffins to prevent them from hurting themselves, but today you will be locked in empty cells. With the extra space, you will try to hurt yourselves to escape. Some of you will die. We will not let you out until your screams have passed, otherwise you can never learn to control your thirst. You all agreed to be fed from, then we will put you in your cells and lock the doors. You take the pill. You drink the blood. And then you survive. If you can. Anyone who would like to leave, you are free to go.” Not a one moved a single muscle. “Good. Then we can begin.”

  My people were starving. I won’t deny the guilt I felt being fully fed and seeing their gaunt hungry faces. One by one, they drank from the humans, until every vampire had fed and every human had been bitten.

  “To the cells,” Olivier shouted, her voice echoing off the metal walls. Kitty whimpered against me and I kissed her head to comfort her. Finally, I gave the nod for Olivier to lock the cell doors when the humans had all gotten inside.

  “Take the pills,” I repeated loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Drink the blood. Survive.”

  Olivier pointed to the exit. “Get the baby out.” I left just as the screams began, and the brief exposure to it left Kitty screaming along with them.

  “It’s okay, baby,” I soothed while I rocked her. “They must feel pain to become strong.” I could still hear the screams as if I was standing right up against one of the cell doors, but they were less chilling in the air outside.

  Olivier came out to join me. “Lisbeth, I have a request. With turned vampires back in our midst, I was hoping-”

  “Renard can come home,” I interrupted. “And I’m sorry I made him leave.”

  She nodded. “We wanted to become bonded.” Bonded? A Born vampire and a turned vampire bonded for eternity. It had never been done before. Maybe it should. The start of something new.