by Aiden James
“While this is true, I can keep her safe in the vault below the palace—”
“We don’t have time for this shit!” I interrupted them, and headed for the door. “We need to find my baby before it’s too late!!”
Before I could take a full step, Chanson appeared in front of me, immovable as a granite statue.
“Txema, I agree that finding Alaia is our urgent priority. But you’re not coming with us!” she said, sternly. “You need to be kept safe, where there’s no chance of anything going wrong. Stay with Garvan—don’t force us to move against your will!...”
All of the vampires gathered in my room suddenly stopped, and turned their heads toward the northern corner of the island. I could tell that something happened in the nanosecond from when Chanson finished her upbraid to when they all stiffened, although my human senses couldn’t define what was different. For that matter, neither could Racco’s, although the look on his face told me that he had shared similar situations with his vampire colleagues.
“Ralu is here,” said Armando, quietly, as he moved to my side. “It feels like it did in Nashville, and we must leave now!”
I’m not sure which one actually picked me up, since I saw blurred glimpses of Chanson, Garvan and Armando as I flew through the air at incredible speed. I was vaguely aware of moving downstairs and then into the palace reception area, where we came to an abrupt stop.
Gustav and the others had traveled with us, and apparently every other vampire in the European alliance knew they needed to be inside the palace’s largest indoor room. The reception area and the attached corridor were filled with vampires—some standing, but most hovering in the air around us. I felt sick with panic since Chanson, Raquel, and I were essentially blocked in near the center of the room. A growing chill surrounded me, created by so many vampires gathered in anger and apprehension. They all were nervous. If I wasn’t so worried about my baby’s welfare, I might’ve considered how badly we were outnumbered, if Ralu had brought his entire army of thirty-two thousand Chupacabra vampires to the Maldives.
“Ralu has indeed arrived on the island and will be upon us at any moment!” Gustav announced to everyone gathered there. He presently stood on a large marble platform located between the two indoor waterfalls. Kazikli stood on his left side, and Koimala and Xuanxang stood on his right. In front of them all, and just below their feet, stood Koimala’s ‘family’ of warriors. Each one held a gleaming sword. “He has taken Alaia—which means we are now officially at war with him and his army! Do not spare the bloodshed of our former brethren, as we will take NO prisoners tonight!!”
As they had done previously in my room upstairs, the entire group of vampires gathered inside the palace abruptly turned their heads to the north again. But unlike before, I heard a noise this time. It sounded like a subtle rumble, like a distant thunderstorm…. But then it became much more defined under the narrow moonlight. An immense dark swarm sped towards us.
“There’s no time to hide Txema!” said Raquel, worriedly to Chanson.
When I looked around me, all of my personal protectors had formed an arc to guard me. Each one wore a sullen look; as if they knew assuredly that the carnage from the battle that night would involve victims from both sides. Tyreen wept while she clung to Franz, who seemed irritated. I had no doubt that he’d soon push her aside to engage Ralu’s warriors, and then her survival would be in jeopardy, too.
“Brace yourselves…here they come!” said Armando, just before he and Garvan drew swords concealed within their matching scarlet robes.
Chanson, Tyreen, and Raquel were dressed similar to me, and none of them carried any weapons. Sensitive to my deepening panic, Chanson told me the ‘girls’ would rely on their agility and strength to keep us all safe. Seeing my fascination with Garvan’s and Armando’s swords, along with similar weapons carried by the older vampires, she told me that they were dipped in mercury to allow easy penetration through another vampire’s body. But, using such weapons without hurting oneself took time and practice. Having a nubile vampire like Tyreen present, a sword could end up being used on us, if one of Ralu’s warriors wrested it away from such a young vampire.
Before Chanson finished speaking to me, the first wave of Chupacabra vampires invaded the palace, knocking over marble statues and gilded furniture as they arrived. Seeing these monsters brought back a memory of when Garvan rescued me from Massey Hall in Knoxville, where I witnessed my RA, Elaine Johnson, having her throat savagely torn open by one of them.
All of Ralu’s warriors were pale creatures devoid of any body hair, with glowing yellow, blue, or green eyes and sinewy bodies mostly exposed by the scant soiled tunics they wore. Barbaric in their aggression, their teeth were a jagged mess except for the uniform sharp fangs protruding from their mouths, slightly longer than my companions’ fangs. But, each one’s lips were deformed, and their faces and bodies bore numerous weeping boils.
I should also mention that these vampires stunk like hell…like a horde of dead skunks that had been thrown into our midst. But their determination in battle defied their obnoxious odor and appearance, as they fought as if their lives would end at any moment.
For many, that became true. As soon as the fiends reached our gathering, our ‘civilized’ vampires met them head on—each one ripping through several Chupacabras at a time. Blood that was almost black in its rancid state flowed from Ralu’s warriors, quickly covering much of the white marble banisters, railings, statues, columns, and floor. Not to mention, the pristine water of the pool was quickly defiled. A Chupacabra head rolled toward me from where Armando had decapitated its owner. The body shuddered as a fountain of black cherry colored plasma spurted high into the air.
“Armando, watch out!” shrieked Tyreen, just as an unusually tall enemy vampire snuck up on him from behind. If she hadn’t warned him when she did, his head might’ve been rolling next, as the fiend swung a gleaming machete that barely missed Armando’s neck.
“Get on the floor between my legs, Txema!” Chanson ordered. She motioned for Tyreen, Raquel, and Nora—who had worked her way over to us—to form a protective circle around me. Meanwhile, I saw Franz join Garvan and Armando in their quest to push back the ever-increasing army of Ralu. Hundreds of these vicious aggressors swooped in repeatedly as they sought to find a weakness to exploit. “If worse comes to worst, since we have no immediate way to get out of here, we all will cover you to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good—the survival of our kind and your sacred bloodline!”
“No, you need to take care of yourselves and let me find Alaia!” I urged, wanting to flee desperately from that place and try to rescue my baby girl.
But I had no clue where to start my search, since vampires were literally everywhere. By then, a sizeable portion of Ralu’s army had seeped into the palace. Outside, it was impossible to see past them, and the moon’s light was effectively blocked by their presence. I couldn’t believe how endless his vile army seemed to be. The allied warriors of Gustav had slaughtered hundreds of his brother’s forces, but now the first casualties on our side occurred…and began to multiply.
The gore and severed body parts soon included pieces of vampires I had come to be familiar with, although none were close friends. But unlike the smoldering foulness of Ralu’s warriors in hastened decomposition, the European version of the undead merely disintegrated once the blood drained from their violated bodies.
Seeing this not only heightened my fear to near hysteria, but the nausea made me wretch where I lay. Chanson offered neither comfort nor a rebuke, as she fought off a horde of attackers that repeatedly lunged toward her and the rest of the quartet defending me as I lay prone beneath her.
For the first time, I considered the real possibility that we might lose this battle.
“We need to get the fuck out of here!” I screamed at her. “Pick me up, and let’s all fly to someplace safe!!”
“It’s not as easy as that!” she shouted back at me, while deftly avoiding
a flying machete aimed at her head. “We can’t leave here until we have regained the advantage, and have defeated Ralu himself!!”
Great. Just fucking great. We hadn’t even seen Ralu yet. With the way things were going, I wondered if he might’ve turned everything over to his wicked minions while he snacked on my precious daughter’s remains. I had to find a way to block such images from my mind, but at the moment felt powerless…until I saw Gustav, Kazikli, Koimala, and Xuanxang join together to form an impenetrable phalanx.
They moved together in tandem and soon swirled as a unit. I only caught glimpses of the four vampires that had become a small cyclone, ripping through hundreds of Ralu’s warriors at a time. As the enemy weakened, many of our enemies looked around warily when one moment they fought side by side with a Chupacabra partner, only to find a diced-up corpse an instant later.
I started to feel hopeful, and wanted to announce what I witnessed as an encouragement to Chanson and the other females protecting me. But their attention was drawn to a sudden explosion and a new gaping wound in the palace’s northern wall. Within it soon stood an enormous vampire…one I had seen only in my nightmares.
Ralu. Ralu the demon vampire in the flesh…and whose eyes were fiery coals that burned with more rage than I’d ever seen from him.
My skin crawled in repulsion, even though he was nearly a hundred feet away from me.
“Face me alone, Gustav!” he roared. “This battle should be between you and I, and the winner’s kingdom takes all!”
He stood and waited while the swirling cyclone dissipated. Stepping forward with an air of confidence and regality, Gustav motioned for the other three to remain where they were. He accepted his brother’s challenge.
All of the vampires in attendance—both mongrel and human-like—became spectators for the only fight that now mattered. Enough space was cleared amid the slippery gore and overturned furniture. Then we all nervously awaited the outcome.
Ralu produced his jeweled scepter from inside his robe, and Gustav produced his, as well. Then the two approached each other, each one cautious as if awaiting the initial move in this ultimate match for supremacy. I expected Gustav to be the gentleman between the two, despite my unease when around him. I wouldn’t have been disappointed if he had chosen a more aggressive role in this confrontation, and perhaps he should’ve done just that.
I thought for sure he would die that night after Ralu made the first move, sending a white-hot lightning bolt from his scepter toward Gustav’s midsection after suddenly pointing it at him. Gustav didn’t move until the very last moment, barely escaping the attack that lit his ceremonial robe ablaze.
Unlike me, our European king has no vanity—despite the unabashed love he has for the finer things in this world that beauty and power over the living have yielded for him. He threw off the flaming garments, and dressed only in a loincloth he moved stealthily toward Ralu, sending his own lightning bolts toward him from his scepter.
Ralu responded in kind, while their entire audience shrunk back to avoid being hit, after several vampires on both sides exploded into flames. The bolts became more sustained as Gustav moved in on his brother, and while the deeper hatred of Ralu seemed to give him the early upper hand, the tide eventually turned in Gustav’s favor. The lightning bolts locked onto each other to form one solid beam of plasma energy. When they did, Gustav yanked hard on his scepter, and the one held by Ralu flew out of the fiend’s hands and fell harmlessly at Kazikli’s feet. No one touched it.
“It’s over, brother,” said Gustav, evenly, and with enough volume to be heard by everyone. “I should have killed you long ago, certainly as you intended to kill me tonight.”
“Please…have mercy!” begged Ralu, dropping to his knees and holding his trembling hands out before him. A hushed murmur swept through the room. “I am terribly sorry for my misguided actions…I foolishly thought it was my time to rule the vampire world. But I now see how wrong I’ve been, and I can’t begin to express how horribly I feel for the terrible things I’ve done!”
He started to cry. But I knew better, and prayed everyone else—including Gustav—could see through such a shallow sham, this stinking load of horseshit.
“You disgust me, and have no right to ask for mercy!” Gustav sneered in response.
He shook his head and turned away, moving toward Ralu’s scepter to retrieve it. Before he could reach it, however, the scepter lifted and flew through the air, landing in Ralu’s hand. Ralu pointed it at his brother’s back, wearing a contemptuous smirk.
It all happened so fast, I believe no one could’ve anticipated this horrible turn of events—despite the disgusted hisses and taunts from the European sector for Ralu’s pitiful performance as a contrite soul. Surely we all thought Gustav would die in the next few seconds. I could almost hear the disheartened gasps among the vampires who had come to protect my daughter and me, and I think we all felt the uplift in our enemies’ spirits.
But Gustav became a king long ago for good reason. Before his brother could send a cowardly death blow as intended, he whirled around with his own scepter pointed at Ralu’s head, sending a fiery bolt that ripped off half of Ralu’s face, and the upper portion of his carotid artery. With a look of stunned surprise on his face, Ralu fell to the ground, writhing while his blood poured out and mingled with the gore that had already stained the once beautiful marble floor.
“He’s dead! Gustav the Mighty has killed him!!” shouted Franz, while the horde of Chupacabras retreated en masse.
Nearly everyone from our side—excluding Gustav and Xuanxang—joined in the celebration. For the first time in nearly an hour, I was allowed to stand and move about freely. My immediate concern was to locate my daughter, and when the vampires assigned to protect me saw me frantically scanning the room for Alaia, they joined my search. Meanwhile, Gustav approached his brother’s stiffening corpse across the way. I barely noticed this during my search, but heard Xuanxang advise they needed to decapitate the body to ensure Ralu remained dead.
Right after he said this, suddenly three of Ralu’s warriors flew over to his body and hovered protectively. Gustav pointed his scepter at them, and when they didn’t budge, Xuanxang produced his own scepter and pointed it at the three while shouting an incantation in Chinese. I knew I was losing valuable time in the search for my daughter. But, as I headed for the passageway that led to the garden and lagoon outside the palace, I turned my head back to them in time to see the three warriors transform themselves into Huangtian Dadi and two other vampires from his court.
Chanson and Raquel were near me when this happened, and we all gasped in surprise. Even Xuanxang seemed stunned to find his former lord standing across from him, and covered in gore from European allies they both once shared. Gustav rebuked Huangtian Dadi and told him to move away, but instead the Chinese vampire emperor and his cohorts instantly shifted into their dragon forms. I’m not sure if Gustav could have killed any of them with the power of his scepter. By the time he pointed it toward them again they had picked up Ralu’s remains and flew out through the gaping hole behind them and into the night.
Logic told me that they would take Ralu’s body back to China, even though it would remain a mystery as to why. Would it be to somehow revive the corpse, as Garvan suggested? Or, as Chanson and Armando later stated, was it something in Ralu’s blood that remained inside the corpse, like a rare protein, that Huangtian Dadi coveted?
Only time would tell. All we knew at that moment was the hostile expulsion of our group from China had just taken on a more ominous meaning. The trio’s presence while fighting for the enemy broke any previous treaties between the Europeans and their former Chinese friends.
Xuanxang seemed to understand this and prepared to pursue his brethren in further battle, until Gustav stopped him from leaving. I wish I had lingered long enough to hear their conversation, but I’d already stepped through the alcove on my way to the garden and lagoon outside. Thankfully, the entire enchanted area was
set aglow by tall gaslights that had escaped the destruction inside the palace.
“Alaia!... Alaia!!... Where are you, my baby?!!”
The weakness had returned to my knees, and I thought for sure she was dead. Yes, I hadn’t gone very far yet, but I had a sinking feeling she had already become a blood meal for some vampire. Especially since the society that needed us—Alaia and me—had been brought to the brink of anarchy. In that moment, where surely most civilized vampires believed they would be on their own soon, why wouldn’t a disloyal stray vamp drink enough of our sacred blood to look fucking fantastic for a century or two?
That’s what I pictured, and I couldn’t pull my focus away from such images in my head. Even as I wanted to help Chanson, Tyreen, Garvan and the others, I couldn’t do it. Just before I collapsed near a coral tree, Racco caught up to me.
“Don’t give up, Txema!” he whispered harshly, as he picked me back up and brought me close to him. “We will find her, and she will be fine!”
He sounded so confident. Meanwhile, the others called out to Alaia as they searched the garden and lagoon.
“But, she’s not here…so how can she be safe?” I said, bursting into tears again.
“You’ll have to trust me…sometimes I can feel things,” he said, his gentle tone and confidence unwavering. “Sometimes—hey, did you all hear that?”
“Hear what?” said Armando, his tone irritated. He was searching for my daughter among the bushes next to a palace wall that had also escaped damage from the attack.
“Wait…I think I hear something, too!” said Tyreen, sounding hopeful. “It’s coming from….”
She turned toward the lagoon, and pointed toward the table where I usually ate breakfast with Racco.
“Found her!”
Raquel called out joyfully from across the lagoon—near the harp stand and directly across from the table I mentioned. The vampires flew by us as Racco and I ran to the water’s edge. As we did, I heard Alaia’s giggles and baby talk. But I also heard a young man’s voice.
