CHAPTER 8
A love I could do without
It wasn’t long before Remus was brought to my office, looking a lot less arrogant after some time spent in our cells being interrogated. He glared at me with undisguised hatred blazing in his eyes, and I looked back at him with indifference.
“So you remembered I exist,” he offered, and I made a small noise of amusement.
“I never forgot, Remus, I was just ignoring you.”
“And to what do I owe this...dubious pleasure?”
I remained quiet for a moment, regarding him coldly. I no longer felt like I had anything in common with him - The Order had been my family for the past couple of years, Tisiphone being the only surviving connection to the family into which I was born. Remus and I had never gotten along, and now he was just another reminder of why I left my old life behind.
“You’re going to do me a favour.”
Remus laughed humourlessly at me, as I expected him to. I kept on looking at him until he finished.
“I would love to hear why you think I’m going to do anything for you, little brother,” he said, his voice laced with disgust.
“Because something is coming which threatens both my people and the hunters. Because when it comes, you and I will both need all the allies we can get. And because you will have no choice.”
“And how do you figure that?”
He swore suddenly as Lorelei stabbed him in the arm with a hypodermic needle, filled with a blue-tinted fluid, and pressed the plunger.
“You’ve just been injected with Metachortizone-B, a funky little drug our R and D boys concocted in the wake of the hunter attacks last year,” I told him conversationally. “It will slowly unravel your DNA over the next twenty-four hours, unless you return here promptly having completed the favour I am going to put to you. If that is accomplished, you’ll get the counter-agent and be free to go away and never speak to me again. Fail, and you will be reduced to a very unattractive pile of mush.”
“Won’t be much of a change,” Lorelei added, and Remus swore at her.
“You want to go a few rounds, you fucking harpy? I swear I will-”
He was cut off abruptly as Lorelei’s boot was driven between his legs, and he collapsed to the floor with a muted squeak.
“That was harsh, sweetheart,” I told her, and she shrugged.
“It was funny though.”
“I’m certainly not disagreeing. So, Remus,” I addressed the whimpering form of my brother. “Do we have a deal?”
He whimpered an affirmative response, and I looked at my girlfriend.
“See? I told you he’d be co-operative.”
I told Remus - after he recovered - exactly what was required of him. He was to return to our father, and explain what I had already said - that something unpleasant was coming, which would cause problems for both the hunters and The Order, and I was proposing a truce of sorts. Hopefully even Tyr would see the sense in the old adage about the enemy of my enemy.
After Remus had been taken away again, Lorelei looked from the empty syringe to me.
“So...what did I actually inject him with?”
“Some water, a household flu virus and a dash of food colouring,” I told her, checking over a couple of reports. “Utterly harmless, but Remus never did benefit from an over-abundance of brain cells. He’d believe almost anything.”
“I can’t help but approve of that,” she told me, walking around my desk to wrap her arms around my shoulders. “So what’s next in preparing to face this crazy bitch?”
“I don’t know yet, hon,” I said after a moment of thought. “I think we need to try and find out what she’s planning, but that will be difficult. It’ll mean...I’ll actually have to talk to her.”
“Well we know what she’s planning,” Lorelei corrected, “it’s in that book. What we need to know is how she’s going to be doing it, and to what end.”
“Even so, it still means I’ll have to actually hold a conversation with her, and that is something I’d prefer not to do.”
“We all have to do things we rather wouldn’t, Eyathehn,” she told me with a gentle smile. “I’m heading to Ops for a bit, got a few things to sort out down there. If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you back at yours?”
I nodded my agreement, and she kissed my neck before moving away from me and heading to the door.
“Try not to kill the crazy bitch if she shows up again,” she called to me, before walking out of the room.
I had serious doubts I could have managed it, even if I tried.
As it happened, I didn’t see the mysterious woman for a while. I carried on with my work, occasionally looking up and scanning the room for any sign of The First, and every time - thankfully - I found nothing. There was no horrid stench, no strange black mist, and no comments being made from places where no-one was stood a split second before.
It was unsettling.
I finished writing a letter for George - who apparently disliked much of modern life, including the concept of telephones - and put that into my ‘Out’ tray, signed off a few more requests, declined others. It was business as usual.
Lorelei still hadn’t finished what she was doing by the time I closed the office, so I headed back to my quarters. I sent her a text message to let her know I’d see her there, and that I looked forward to seeing her. She replied by telling me I was a soppy idiot, but added a kiss and a smiling face all the same.
I sat down in one of my chairs, sipping the glass of ale I’d poured for myself, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration.
“Do you even realise you’re emulating your late wife?”
I knew it wouldn’t take long.
“Hello, Mother,” I told the black-clad figure lounging on my bed, and she sat up in surprise.
“Oh, so you’ve come to your senses, I see,” she said, the ghost of a smile playing about her lips. “Well that’s interesting.”
She vanished briefly in a cloud of black mist, only to reappear near the bed, standing straight. Why she didn’t just stand like a normal person, I didn’t know.
“I’ve found out that you are The First, mother to all vampires-”
“No!” she snapped, and as her temper flared a glow of heat pulsed through her veins. “Not all! I am no more related to those thin-blooded weaklings than you are to a cat!”
I felt immensely uneasy talking to her, and yet I needed information. If I was to going to get what we needed, I needed to keep this conversation going for a while.
“Forgive me, I didn’t mean to offend you,” I told her, my tone more respectful than I felt. That at least seemed to placate her, and she relaxed visibly as she ‘looked’ around my room.
“It’s fine,” she said at last, pulling one of my book from my bookcase with a mere gesture.
“May I ask what brings you here again? It’s only been a few hours, after all.”
She looked towards me and gave me a chilling smile.
“Can’t a mother drop in on her favoured child when she pleases?” She grinned again and went back to looking at the book. I couldn’t tell which one it was from where I sat.
“I wanted to share an interesting fact with you,” she said, not looking up from my book. “Since I found you, I thought I would look into my other options - just as a back-up, in case you suddenly decided that you would rather, I don’t know, instigate a small war against me - and do you know what I found?”
For a moment I was deeply worried by what she was about say. Her comment and tone had me worried that she knew about what I was planning, but since I barely knew what I was planning I figured that was unlikely.
I shook my head at her, and she smiled again.
“It appears you are the last,” she said, with a hint of what sounded like sadness. “The others who could have been candidates are either dead, unwilling or simply unusable. In some cases they could be useful, but to prepare them would take another few millenia which I am not prepared to was
te. So, my darling child, you are my final hope.”
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be pleased about that.
“May I ask you something?”
She dropped my book and vanished again, appearing in the chair opposite me and regarding me with intent.
“Of course, my sweet, what is it?”
Her bizarre affection for me was severely unnerving. As the first vampire, she had to be immensely old and unbelievably powerful, and having an idea of what she intended made it all the more sinister when she spoke to me with such...love.
“Why me?” I asked, trying not to look towards her. “Why not George? He’s of the same bloodline, surely?”
“He is, but he squandered his power,” she told me, clearly disdainful of the man who now called me kin. “He gave up what he had when he decided to be an idealist and try to live up to the myth of being a ‘saint.’ The bloody fool, he had the world by its throat and he let it all go to waste. You better not go the same way.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I settled for saying nothing. I didn’t want to give away what we were planning by asking what she was intending to do, so I had to try and get the information slowly, by pieces.
Probably across several conversations. I didn’t like that prospect.
“You seem nervous around me, my child,” she said softly, cocking her head to one side. “Why is that?”
I had to think for a moment. I had to think of something to say that would answer the question, but that didn’t seem false. Then, I figured out the best way to do that.
Be honest.
“I’ve seen some of the things you’ve done, what you’re capable of. It worries me, but I’m also sick of being used and manipulated by other people for their own ends.”
“Who said I was manipulating you?” Her tone was hurt, as if she thought someone else had been slandering her. “I don’t want to manipulate you, my darling. I want to help you grow, to claim what is rightfully yours. Is that so bad?”
Yes, I thought, when that involves subjugating an entire planetary population.
“But what about the girl I saw in Oxford?” I asked instead. “Driven mad by you turning her, scrawling on the walls in her own blood. Is that what you want for me?”
She rose in a hurry, possibly the first time I’d seen her move without her bizarre teleportation. She genuinely appeared to be hurt by what I’d said.
“It wasn’t my fault she lacked the strength to handle my gift,” she said defensively, almost pleading with me to believe her. “The same goes for those other vampires, the ones who were so weak my blood burned them alive. You will be strong enough, I know you will, and no matter the strength of people I must continue to turn them. Giving you a crazed army is better than giving you none.”
She wanted to give me an army? That was new. And unexpected.
“An army? For what?”
She looked at me - or towards me - once again, and her sinister grin returned.
“To claim this world for your own, of course,” she said, spreading her arms wide. “I can’t be at your side all the time, I can’t be everywhere, so I will give you an army to fight for you. These people,” she spat, using the word as a curse, “these other weaklings that you’ve surrounded yourself with, they are not worthy of you.” She crouched in front of me, holding my hand in an excited grip and looking up at me with an expression of rapture. “And when the time is right, my sweet, you shall take my gift, and we shall put all of them to the sword.”
I hoped my rising horror wasn’t obvious to her. She spoke so casually of mass slaughter. She must have been severely unhinged.
“Even Lorelei?” Of course I asked about Lorelei. The woman was dear to me. Far more than I dared to contemplate.
The First simply smiled at me affectionately, and something in that smile chilled me far more than anything else she had said before.
“You can keep your little fling for now, my darling,” she said softly, “but eventually she will have to go too. You won’t need anyone else by then,” she added, stroking my cheek tenderly, “you’ll have me.”
A horrid shudder slithered down my spine at her caress, knowing her intent, knowing how she viewed me. It was the worst sensation imaginable.
Or so I thought, until what happened next.
“I have to go now, my sweet child,” she said, in a tone that dripped with saccharine sweetness, “but I shall see you again soon. Be sure of that.”
At that she gripped my jaw, her hand like hot iron, and she pulled me down as she kissed me.
I tried so hard to pull away, but her strength was unreal. No vampire I’d ever met had strength like that.
The worst thing of it wasn’t that she was kissing me, when she thought of me as her child (of sorts). It wasn’t that she was kissing me when I was in a relationship, although that thought was pretty terrifying in its own right. It wasn’t even the closeness of that stinging chemical scent, the smell that made me choke every time.
It was the fact that the kiss burned. It was like someone was pouring acid into my mouth, as if my lips were corroding as they met hers.
And the taste...
I’ve already mentioned before that vampires I’ve kissed before tasted mostly the same as they smelled. Corvi tasted of cinnamon. Lorelei tasted of that odd scent I could never explain.
The First tasted of the same chemical reek, only much, much stronger.
Finally, blessedly, she released me, apparently unbothered by the fact that I instantly began retching as she stood up. She traced her fingers through my hair as I vomited, and once again she was gone in an instant, leaving only a wisp of dark smoke and that acrid stench in the air.
I spat trying to get rid of that vile taste, and I noticed my saliva was stained dark red. That was a truly worrying sign. I staggered away from the mess I’d brought up and into the bathroom, trying to get away from the smell and clear the taste from my mouth.
As I turned the cold tap on I heard my door open, and I swore internally. This was the worst possible time for Lorelei to see me.
The First always seemed to leave just before Lorelei got back to me.
“Dear Goddess...” I heard her breathe, shortly before she called my name in concern. A moment later she was at my side, stroking my back gently as I gulped down mouthfuls of crisp, cleansing water.
I spat some water back out, and it was still tainted red.
“Fuck, Deimos...what happened?”
“You don’t want to know,” I told her weakly. “Please...just don’t ask.”
“I’m guessing she was here again,” Lorelei said with painful understatement.
“Was it the stench or my current state that gave it away?” I spat more water again, and it was still red, but less so. I turned the tap off and attempted to stand upright, which annoyingly I needed some help with.
“A bit of both,” Lori told me, escorting me to my bed. “You look drained, hon,” she said stroking the side of my face. Memories of my dark mother doing the same caused me to flinch at Lori’s touch, but she continued in her gentle manner as if to reassure me it was her.
“I feel it too,” I said, and that also concerned me.
“Stay here then, Eyathehn,” she told me softly. “I’ll take care of this for you.”
I laid on the bed, feeling as if I’d just fought a horde of ferals. I was weak, nauseous, and my mind was spinning. I could still taste blood in my mouth, and I think instead of resting I simply passed out.
I awoke maybe an hour later, as Lorelei shook me gently and offered me a small glass of blood. Despite my dislike of the metallic taste of the stuff, anything was better than the vile taste still left in my mouth after-
- No. I was not going to think about that.
“How are you feeling?” Lorelei asked me softly, and I forced myself into a sitting position.
“I’ll be better after this, I’m sure,” I told her, and downed the entire contents of the glass. It helped, but less than
I hoped.
“So what did she say?” Lorelei asked afterwards, and I was just glad she agreed to my request from earlier.
“Well, apparently she doesn’t want to manipulate me like Sharriana did,” I replied, setting the glass on my bedside table. “She’s apparently wanting to ‘help me grow’, which is terrifying enough - but she also said she’s going to be making more of those crazies, like the girl back at Oxford.”
“Why?” Lorelei’s tone was disgusted, clearly hating the idea of more of those tormented people being set loose.
“To give me an army,” I said after a moment’s hesitation. Even though I wasn’t discussing that particular moment, just talking about the strange woman made me cringe and my skin crawl. “She’s obsessed with me, intent on helping me become...I don’t know. It’s as if she sees me as-”
I broke off as the realisation struck me. I wasn’t sure if it would help us or not, but I had a better idea of what she wanted.
“As what?”
“As the heir to her legacy.”
“What?” Lorelei was incredulous. “What the hell would that even achieve?”
“She talked about me...‘taking her gift’, I assume she meant giving me her blood. That, in turn, would probably give me her power, but...why?”
I couldn’t work it out. Why did she need me to be her heir when she could just do it all herself?
I asked the same question to Lorelei, and she lightly bit her thumb in thought.
“Maybe you need to ask her that,” she said, and I ran a hand through my hair briefly before stopping the gesture. I realised I was once again emulating Corvi.
“I was afraid of that,” I mumbled, before swearing softly in Vampiric. “It would help if I knew her bloody name.”
Lorelei chuckled, a sound which never failed to make me smile.
“I’m sure she’d tell you just to call her ‘mother’,” she offered, and laughed again.
“Just don’t,” I groaned, “I really don’t think I can take much more of her concept of ‘family’.”
She reached up and ran her fingers gently through my hair, and I almost flinched from the touch again until I convinced myself that it was not the same as being touched by my crazed ‘mother’.
Of Angel's Blood (Chronicles of The Order Book 2) Page 12
