Each crystalline gaze followed his trail. Soon, one by one, all the Vampires marched out after him.
Charlotte blinked back at Sarah expectantly. “Tell me. I don’t know.”
“Really? Valek’s never educated you about the way our government works?” She sounded tired again, her eyes drooping as she frowned at the radio, a jingle about Shifter Soother now blaring: Take the backache out of shifting! She rushed to switch it off completely.
Her question sort of made Charlotte feel like an idiot.
“Well…the basics. I guess he figured there were more important things for me to know.” A small surge of anger rolled through her. “I suppose he didn’t want to discuss a system he didn’t much agree with.”
“Doesn’t mean he should have made you ignorant to it.”
Charlotte grimaced at the floor.
“The symposiums are huge events that happen during the winter and summer solstices every year. Leaders of Occult orders all around the world meet for this great big conference. It always takes place in a different country.”
“So, it’s like the United Nations?”
“The what?”
“Never mind.”
It occurred then to Charlotte that Valek probably wanted her to know more about her own world than his. Maybe he’d always anticipated her leaving once she reached adulthood. Maybe he’d expected her to venture out into human society to attempt a normal life. Maybe…he never wanted her to be a permanent fixture in his life at all. Just temporary. Just a pet. The idea stung and sounded absurd in her mind.
“Go on.”
“Of course, this year, the winter symposium is to be held in Prague. It was supposed to be hosted by the Regime’s new lord. But we’ve blown that plan to smithereens, haven’t we?”
She pulled her sewing needle from her skirt and, chanting something in an undertone, whisked it through the air. Pots, pans, and cutlery began to gather in mid-air and stow themselves away in various wooden crates. She was already starting to pack up the house.
“From what it sounds like, the Regime, or what’s left of it, doesn’t plan on missing a single step,” Charlotte grumbled, her guts sloshing with the thought of leaving home again.
Back on the run. Back in hiding. Never safe.
“The show must go on, as they say.”
“So, what happens during this conference?”
“They discuss things—mostly topics that bore the snot out of me. World finances, various laws, the status of current leaders and their positions on this, that, and the other thing, blah blah….” Sarah yawned wide. “Most years, nothing changes. But this one was supposed to be a tad more exciting. Aiden would have made some great speech, introducing himself to the other orders as the youngest Occult leader ever, or some such boastful nonsense.”
“And now…this woman…Cinder…she will take his place?”
“Cinder Price is Aiden’s aunt by marriage. She and her late husband, Aiden’s uncle Fallon, ruled over the Western European Magic Court in Norway. But thanks to our upset, now the Regime needs a face. Or, rather, to save some face. Cinder Price is perfect for the job,” Sarah huffed. “She is positively stunning. She puts on her princess mask for the press and the public, but don’t be fooled. The woman is ruthless—less of a princess and more a wild pig, I’d say.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Word travels fast among Witches. One of my second cousins works as a magical consultant for the Court. Dot tells me Cinder Price is positively horrid.”
“So, she’s acting like a spokesperson?”
“Yes. Something like that.”
Charlotte’s mind turned over. “So…she’s a threat.”
“A big one. And not just to us. Cinder Price has always been ambitious, even when she was coming up in the ranks as a young Elf in the Court’s guard force.”
“The guard force? A woman?”
“Especially a woman.” Sarah’s eyes bulged. “Are you joking? Men would underestimate her power so much they wouldn’t have time to blink before she lopped off their heads…or other parts.” She shivered. “I remember it well. Another crusade against the leader of the Dark some centuries ago in Romania, when Cinder was a lot younger. The Weekly Cackle had a field day with her. There is even a national holiday for her in her district. One thing’s for sure, the presses can’t get enough of miss Cinder Price.”
Just then, Charlotte heard a harrowing roar come from the front of the house. And then a crash. She and Sarah exchanged a quick horrified look before sprinting down the hall and into the foyer to find the others standing between the library and dining room.
“If you cross that threshold…one of us will most assuredly kill you,” Valek whispered to the frantic mortal woman.
She looked maniacal, panting, her eyes bulging, one hand gripped to the doorknob.
Charlotte couldn’t believe how different her appearance was from just a few nights ago. Her skin was yellow and considerably paler. Her eyes were so sunken, the seemed closer to a grave-walking ghoul. Her cheeks were cavernous, her arms skeletal. The only thing keeping her up was pure adrenaline. There was also, most notably, a bright red crescent marring the skin at her throat. It was nasty looking over a massive, purplish bruise—so large, the bottom of her jaw swelled and made her face look misshapen.
“Don’t come near me!” she rasped with one hand outstretched. “If you take a single step, I swear I’ll—”
But the rest of the coven just cackled and guffawed. She was of no match to the rest of them. Charlotte knew all too well how this was going to end.
“Let her go!” she wailed.
“Get her out of here,” Valek whispered.
“NO!” Charlotte struggled as Sasha worked to restrain her. “Valek, she’s done nothing! How could you do this? Please! I know what I said before, but this isn’t worth it! Let her go!”
Sasha didn’t wait for another order. He began to drag her up the stairs as she kicked and fought with all her might.
“RUN! WHOEVER YOU ARE! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! THEY WILL KILL YOU!”
The woman tore open the door. The last thing Charlotte saw before being locked in Sarah’s room was the woman bulleting out into the night…
And Valek running out after her.
Dead, Dead, and Dying
“Francis,” Valek whispered somewhat to himself, “you’ve got to help me. I cannot accomplish this alone.”
Valek hadn’t seen his creator—his friend—in months. He’d gone to Abelim, a place that existed mostly in myth. So, whether Valek’s prayers to Francis could be heard or not was up for argument.
Sarah entered the room in a huff, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Valek.” Her normally musical, little voice was now shrill with fury. “You’ve got to end this experiment now. We need to leave this place as fast as we can. Charlotte is furious with you. The girl is dying. You promised you weren’t going to hurt her! I think you should go in there and have a look. I can’t take any more of this horror show!” She stomped her foot.
Valek exhaled slowly through his nose. After the woman attempted to escape, Valek made easy work of restraining her in his office again. But it was not without revealing more details of his horrific experiment to Charlotte who was now outraged and sulking upstairs.
“It is too late for her. This was the experiment. It proves my theory. That woman is Charlotte. She represents, on a faster timeline, the process that Charlotte’s body is going through. I’ve tried everything.”
And it was true. He’d even fed her Vampire blood, which, without her being almost completely drained, wouldn’t have changed her in any way. He hoped it would have only made her stronger. But it didn’t. He’d never felt so tired in his century of existing.
Sarah’s eyes glittered as they filled with water.
“You meant to kill this person?”
“Sarah, I mean to kill a lot of people. If you haven’t noticed by now, it comes with the real-estate.”
Valek smoothed his hair and adjusted his ascot. “I didn’t know it would ultimately culminate in death. I was hoping there would be another option.”
“She is on her last breath, Valek.”
“I’ll judge that. She is my patient.” he sighed stormed past the Witch.
“She’s not your patient, she’s your victim!” Sarah grumbled after him.
On his way out of the library, Valek noticed a gaunt-looking Charlotte standing stiffly by the staircase. Her face held a sort of green tinge now. She already seemed like a ghost to him, the indigo circles under her eyes nearly swallowing her irises whole. She glared at him, a deathly look he’d never seen before.
“Will you finally tell me,” she seethed, “What kind of monstrous experiment you are working on in there?”
Her large eyes flashed angrily. Though the volume of her voice didn’t rise a single decibel, this was the most furious Valek had ever seen her.
“W-what is it you want to know, exactly?” He straightened, readying himself.
“Everything.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
More garbled screaming resonated from the back of the house.
“Excuse me. We will discuss this later.”
He bolted into his office, turning to lock the door before facing the stark, white room. The freezer door was open a crack. It was how he’d left it upon tying the woman up again.
He took a step forward, listening for thoughts. They were present, though very, very quiet.
He rounded the corner to peer inside. The woman lay there on the gurney. She was still, her breathing shallow, he fingers flexed into claws and she seemed to be staring death straight in the face. Dried blood clung to her hair and her torn shirt. An IV filled with fluids and antibiotics was inserted into the artery at her wrist. A bowl of Sarah’s truffles sat on a small worktable to the left of the gurney, Valek’s rolling chair just next to it.
He cringed slightly as he moved deeper into the room. There was still a slight chill, though he’d shut off the power so the mortal wouldn’t freeze to death. He needed her to last a little bit longer.
“Hello,” he murmured, seeing that her eyes were open.
She stared blankly upward, her skin a sickly shade of blue. Her lips were curled back over her teeth in silent agony. Valek put his hand on the side of her face, which was considerably cooler, though still warm according to his own unnatural temperature.
Slowly, her gaze shifted to his face. It wasn’t an angry one. There wasn’t much expression in it at all. She closed her eyes once and reopened them again as her stare moved slightly over the various details of him. He could see she was studying him, perhaps in an effort to remember what killed her when she finally went somewhere else.
He sat down in the chair, their gazes still locked on one another. Her breath formed in puffs of mist in front of her nose.
“Here,” he offered, removing his jacket and laying it over her body, tucking it under her sides.
She was attractive, as he’d noted earlier. Wholesome looking—with pin-straight brown hair and dewy blue eyes. Her skin was pale around her thin frame. Her coloring reminded him somewhat of a fawn: wounded, helpless, small, hunted. She looked much thinner than when she’d first arrived.
He sighed at his own horrible doings. Rubbing at the bridge of his nose, he spun around on his chair, reaching for one of Sarah’s truffles from his medical bag. He turned back to the woman, who continued to stare tiredly at him. He took mental note of how slow her pulse had become and wondered if she had family—a lover. He wondered how afraid they were for her, if they were looking for her. How many posters they’d plastered of her face all over their town. The next town.
“Open your mouth please,” he said.
She parted her lips slightly. He popped in a truffle and clutched her jaw, holding it closed until he was sure she’d swallowed it down. He turned her head to the side to better examine the bite area.
The inflamed crescent mark, identical to Charlotte’s, was raised at the side of her throat. What was more interesting was how the scar began to thread out, as if some odd creature had embedded itself into her skin and now its tendrils were growing deep into her veins. The infection was spreading. Ruby vines twisted up from her neck, growing along her jaw and the lower half of her face, and all the way down to the top of her shoulder.
Valek swallowed the hard lump in his throat as he watched the perspiration form on her brow. The yellowing color of her skin. He pressed his fingers to the artery that lived just under her jaw, feeling her pulse slowing further.
“Please, do it,” she finally whimpered.
Valek withdrew his hand and frowned at her. She turned to look at him again. Her eyes swelling with fresh, new tears. He tuned into her mind, hearing how much pain she was in.
“Do what?” His mind flashed instantly to the memory of Charlotte, begging him to feed on her. He never felt eviler.
Her lower lip trembled as she turned her face away. He could see then, just how the mark was swallowing the rest of her. Burning her from the inside. This is what Charlotte would become in just a few weeks. Valek and Sarah were running out of time.
The night he’d started the experiment, feedings had been administered together. More concentrated. There was a direct correlation with the addiction and how often each feeding came, and how often the human was healed again by Sarah’s magic. It was a certain way the body reacted to the biology of Valek’s infection. This woman had been the perfect subject. She was about the same height as Charlotte—the same weight. She was even close in age.
“I n-need you to d-do it.” Tears streamed down the side of her face. “I-I can’t be this way anymore.”
Valek could see just how much her cheeks had hollowed out—how sunken her eyes were. He could sense how close she was to death—almost as if he could smell it coming.
“Please,” she begged again.
Valek pressed his mouth into a hard line, folding his hands together in front of his face. He closed his eyes.
“Tell me your name.”
A line formed in between her eyebrows as she frowned weakly at him.
“Eva,” she barely whispered.
“Eva,” he returned softly, “I am so sorry.”
Charlotte appeared in the doorway, though he didn’t bother to turn around to acknowledge her. He heard the familiar sound of her rapid little pulse, heard her stammered breathing. He inhaled her familiar tea rose scent.
“I’m so sorry for the things I’ve done,” he whispered, his eyes washing in a red that streamed down his face and stained the collar of his shirt. “I’m so sorry for the pain I’ve caused.”
Valek worked to free one of Eva’s small hands, and gripped it in both of his, pressing it hard, enveloping it.
“I’m so sorry to tell you that, yes, you are dying,”
He heard Charlotte gasp from behind him. Though he was unable to utter the truth to her face, she’d figured out to whom he was really speaking.
Suddenly, Eva cried out and threw a hard punch across Valek’s face with her free hand, though the crack he heard was not from his jaw, but from the bones splintering in her knuckles. It was a desperate attempt to escape.
She arched her spine and cried out louder. She shrieked in both fury and pain as her expression turned wild. Saliva flew from between her teeth as she struggled to get the rest of herself free.
“Kill me, then!” she cried. “Kill me or let me go, you devil! You demon!”
She spat at him, like she had the first night.
Calmly, Valek placed his cool hand on her hot face again as she continued to pant and seethe like a person possessed.
“I cannot release you, darling. You’re far beyond saving.” He launched at her at the same speed lightning would strike down a tree.
“Valek, stop!”
He heard Charlotte howl from somewhere behind him. Her voice cracked on her words. The sound of it nearly made him choke on the blood gushing into the back of his thro
at. He needed to drink it. All of it. He needed to kill her.
But Charlotte raced up on him, her mind flicking to something that glinted on his office table. What was it? He filtered through her garbled, desperate thoughts. A letter opener. His dead heart gave one lurch in his chest. What did she plan to do? Was she to save this person?
She ran up behind him, holding the blade high above her head as he heard her clear plan to plunge it down into the center of his back. Immediately, he released Eva’s throat, catching Charlotte’s wrist just in time with his firm grasp, stopping the plummeting knife in mid-flight.
“What in God’s name do you think you’re doing?” he roared, blood spewing out and around his mouth.
Eva arched and twisted against her restraints on the operating table, her life still ejecting from her open wound and onto the floor. She gasped and choked as some of it started to ooze from the side of her mouth as well.
Unadulterated fury rolled through Valek’s chest and launched itself toward Charlotte. He’d never been interrupted mid-feeding. Especially not by someone endeavoring to stab him in the back.
“What did you mean to do? What did you mean to do? Now she is going to die painfully and because of you! What has gotten into your head?” He demanded harshly into Charlotte’s tear-stained face.
She continued to grip the letter opener as she stared at him, the many thoughts zipping past her clouded gaze.
“I-I don’t…” she stammered. “I’m tired of it!” The words broke from her at last. “I’m tired of all the teeth! All the monstrosity! I told you, I just wanted you to let this one go! Why did you have to do this to her? I can’t take it anymore!” She clutched her stomach as if she was going to be sick. “I just wanted you to let her go!”
Valek narrowed his eyes at her, watching the pain contort her doll-like features. He peered into her mind again, hearing Charlotte compare herself to this unfortunate person –seeing herself go through the same agony.
The woman fell silent, her rigorous struggle gradually becoming limp and quiet. The drum of her pulse in his ears dimmed to the lulling sound of Charlotte’s quiet whimpering.
Of Blood and Magic Page 27
