“You are quite the Vampire hunter, Lottie,” he began again, tossing the letter-opener to the floor. “Did you mean to steak me through the heart, or just take me by surprise?”
Charlotte glowered at the ground, but said nothing. She looked to him in that moment like the little girl he knew so well –the one he used to comfort in the event of a Fairy attack or the occasional thunderstorm outside.
Charlotte could barely hold herself with the weight of knowing she was doomed. Her broken sobs crushed him as she wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing tightly for support.
Sadness weighed down his words as he leaned his emotionally-exhausted head against the heel of his hand.
“You tortured her for days. There was no reason for it,” she cried, wiping at her face with the back of her hand.
“I did it for you.”
“Nothing justifies how heinous this was! You did not make any grand discovery, did you? She died in vain. Nothing’s changed. My prognosis is the same.”
Valek grimaced, dropping his gaze.
“I am sorry for the suffering I’ve inflicted, but do not forget so quickly it is a God-honest fact I mean to save you, Charlotte.”
“You cannot speak about God after what you’ve done,” she said darkly.
The glare she cast him could not have been more sunken in hatred. It was enough to burn him worse than the morning sun. So, he was right. She did hate him.
“Charlotte, you could break me to pieces. Do you know that?”
“You think you are so powerful and so above us that you can use us simply as lab rats? Your test subjects?”
“You say us like you identify more with the mortals now than you do with me. I don’t remember you ever feeling that way before. To me, you were never one of them, Charlotte.”
“But I am one of them! You can’t see that? That’s why I’m breaking so easily now. Unlike you, I have a limit!” She turned to leave. “And you’ve pushed me to it!”
“Once again, I am sorry. I am going to fix this. You won’t end up like her, Lottie. You’re stronger. I made you into what you are.”
“You haven’t made me into anything! You refuse!”
“Charlotte, it’s because I love you. It’s because I would give anything to be warm living flesh again, like you. Aside from being with you, that is my biggest wish. To not be this abomination anymore!”
Charlotte’s temper quieted on that last note. Valek could see her whole chest collapse.
“Why did you ever take me in, Valek?” she cried quietly. “Why would you put your own life at so much risk?”
“Because I needed to redeem myself. It was a selfish reason, I know.” Valek struggled. “I’d taken so many human lives over the years, I needed to feel like I was redeeming my soul for extinguishing so many –for protecting and preserving at least one. That’s why I took you in, Charlotte. For my own selfish reasons. I just happened to fall in love with you along the way.”
Charlotte’s sad stare touched the floor. Tuning in to her mind, he could see she didn’t know what to say to him next. She loved him just as well. Perhaps more, if that was even possible, though her emotions in that moment were so conflicted.
She struggled to catch her breath as she looked up at him.
I do not want to talk to you.
With that, she spun on her heels and dashed out of the room and down the hallway.
Valek’s dead heart finally severed into two pieces as he heard her footsteps clamor all the way up the staircase.
There was nothing left to do. He needed to figure this out, and fast. He didn’t have time to talk Charlotte off a ledge and also devise his plan of action for leaving again. Where would they go now that Francis was nowhere to be found?
“I am going to solve this,” he declared adamantly to himself. Valek just needed to prove it.
The rest of the coven all huddled together in the library like a pack of savage wolves—behavior learned from so much time confined to Francis’ cramped basement.
“There is an entire rest of the house for you all to inhabit, I hope you’re aware,” he mumbled to the lot as he entered.
Jorge, the only one of the coven Valek considered to be anything of a friend, sipped a cup of one of his emergency blood packs warmed up by the fire. He scoured the thick Volume Two for answers to something, and did not acknowledge anyone as he did. Ana and Aneta scrimmaged over the other blood pack like a pair of vultures. Sasha was a statue near the window, peering out at the night, thick arms folded across his chest. Dusana was curled up in Valek’s armchair. She was worried. Worried about Lusian. Worried about everything.
“He’ll come back,” Valek murmured to her.
“I don’t know,” she grumbled back and whipped away a blood tear. “He was acting crazy before he vanished –overcome by something more than just the thirst. Power. Bitterness. I don’t know. I don’t have a good feeling, Valek.”
Her words were concerning, but Valek didn’t know what else to say. Instead, he made his way to the small Witch sitting cross-legged in the corner with her nose buried deep in her new grimoire.
She did not look up at him, but her brow gave a frustrated, little twitch.
“Sarah?”
“What?” Her response was biting. Maybe he deserved that.
He glanced around at those who remained of the coven –his mismatched family. Each set of glacier-colored eyes was locked on him, fishing through his thoughts –beseeching him for another way out of this mess. Coven leader. He never wanted the responsibility. He’d sought seclusion is whole life for this very reason, yet there he stood.
“I’m…thinking,” he sighed at them.
“Thinking will only get you into trouble. It’s doing that needs to be done,” muttered Sarah.
“And what do you propose?”
She still wasn’t looking at him, something in her book holding her focus. Valek attempted to tune into her thoughts, but they were rolling over some ancient, magical language he didn’t understand.
“Would you please accompany me outside?” he whispered down at her.
“No,” she snorted and dug her nose deeper into her book.
Valek gritted his teeth. “Yes. You will,” he insisted, hoisting her off the ground by one arm. It wasn’t much of a task.
Sarah dropped the book at once, squealing, and he let her arm go. She rubbed at it, shooting another dirty look at him.
“If that bruises tomorrow, I’m poisoning your blood supply!”
She smacked him hard on the chest.
“I’m sorry,” he said in an undertone, turning his back to the rest of the group. “Please. Accompany me on that walk, won’t you?”
His tone feigned politeness as he quickly linked arms with her, tugging her into the foyer.
“Where are we going?” she snapped.
“I need some air.”
“I cannot believe you’ve kept this from me! The Parliament? That is quite the secret, Valek Ruzik!”
He growled quietly. “I’m not proud of my past, Sarah. It was something Francis dragged me into a long time ago. I got out as soon as I could.”
“Jorge told me everything he heard in Lusian’s mind. I cannot believe you. What happens if Charlotte starts asking questions? She will never speak to you again!”
Hearing a meek, little voice call for him, Valek stopped and turned to look up the darkened staircase. There was Charlotte, standing on the last stair quietly with her hand gripped to the banister. Valek realized it hadn’t been her voice that called for him, but rather, her mind. It was like the violent roar of wind and hail assailing the top of his head, filling his ears. Deafening. He immediately released Sarah’s arm and the sounds stopped.
“We are devising a plan for leaving, Charlotte. You should spend time gathering whatever things you’d like to take. I don’t think…after tonight…we will ever be coming back here again.”
The admission tasted sour on his tongue, burning as he regurgitated it.
/> He continued pulling Sarah out into the night, ignoring Charlotte’s many mental questions burgeoning like a tornado, zillions of tiny voices overlapping one another.
Once outside, Sarah’s teeth started chattering. She yanked herself free from his grip.
“I’m going to get my coat.” She whirled around, but Valek caught her and spun her forward again. This time, he draped one of his arms around her shoulders, not to make her warm, but to keep her there rather.
“I need to speak seriously with you, and I want to do it right now It won’t take long, Sarah.”
He removed his own topcoat and gave it to her. Winter didn’t bother him. Anything he decided to adorn was to maintain the lie that was his gentlemanly façade.
She wrinkled her pixie nose at him as she shrugged it on.
“I should probably remind you that I am not your house Witch. I don’t have to listen to what you say. If I want to go back inside, I will!”
Valek stopped walking, wheeling around to face her. He held her face in his hands.
“I do not mean to speak to you as a slave, Sarah. I am asking you as my friend. I need your help,” he begged, watching her glare finally go soft. “May I take you for a drink?”
He tried to smile.
She pulled away from him, arms flying up in the air. “No!” She clasped her hands around her throat. “Get your Light magic somewhere else!”
Valek sighed.
“I meant, can I treat you to one at Howler’s?”
He indicated the small tavern wedged between an arcade of shops and the old Elven church tucked near the far corner of the square. The doors were set open, welcoming patrons to an escape from the frigid air for a spirit or two.
“Oh.” Sarah’s cheeks flushed and she dropped her hands. “I can’t be too sure anymore now that your palate has been trained for…other tastes.” She looked him up and down.
“Witch’s blood is of a darker magic. You do not appeal to me at all.”
He didn’t want to sound impolite by going on to explain how sour Witch blood tasted. It smelled like rancid milk disguised by lumps of sugar.
“Well, neither do you, bub!” She put her hands on her hips.
He chuckled, grasping her elbow lightly. “About that drink….”
“No, thank you. I don’t drink. And at any rate, I am mad at you!”
“Right. You’re not the only one,” he sighed.
“How come you never said anything? How could you hide something so huge?”
“How could I ever anticipate this would come back to haunt me? That part of my life was over one hundred years ago!”
“You had a son!”
“I gave him up! I delivered him—brought him to an institution. I was newly-created. My addiction was terrible. Insatiable! How could I have ever cared for a child?”
Sarah gasped, her hand flying over her lips, her eyes growing into large lavender moons.
“Charlotte!” She punched him in the chest. “That’s why you took her! That’s what you meant about redeeming yourself! It wasn’t for all the lives you claimed…it was because of your son. You’d been punishing yourself all those years. You found her all alone in the world. Vulnerable. It was your chance at redemption!”
Valek inhaled slowly, his gaze falling to the quiet snow. With his hands in his pockets, he slid his eyes closed.
“I am a nightmare.”
Her tiny hand pressed against his sternum and he snapped his lids open again to find the little Witch frowning sadly at him.
“You are,” she nodded. “But your heart is still good, Valek.”
“My heart is dead.”
“You can make this right.”
“They want me destroyed. They’ll be watching the borders. They’re forming attack plans. How do we leave?”
She sighed. Her eyes lifted toward the bar again. “Fine. We’ll talk. But no alcohol and I’m still mad at you.”
“Tea, then. You will have tea. And you can stay angry,” he offered and glanced over the top of her head at his home.
Just as he expected, Charlotte was standing in the bedroom window watching them. She still looked terribly hurt.
Sarah refused to budge. “What are your conclusions about her disease? That she is uncontrollable? Her desires are almost as bad as yours!”
“The conclusion is that she dies,” he said. “If she suffers when I am around, I have to give in lest she be in unimaginable pain. Her addiction is not an addiction at all, but rather an incurable disease that consumes her from the inside. It’s a virus, Sarah.”
His shoulders slumped. He truly did feel desperate. The future seemed auspicious once they’d been successful in thwarting Vladislov. Occult creatures could cross borders freely and without fear. There was finally a sense of liberation among the Dark kind.
“Fine. Come on,” she called as she started ahead of him. “But you will listen to everything I say.”
Valek caught up with her easily and they made their way farther down the snowy path.
“I will not change her, Sarah. I’ve made up my mind about at least that.”
“I think we can avoid something so drastic,” Sarah said. “But we’ve got to leave Bohemia as soon as possible.”
Valek and Sarah entered through the open archway to the gloomy inn. Even this tavern, which only a few short months ago had been crowded to capacity every night, now fizzled to a mere coterie who all seemed to know each other well.
Firelight and spluttering candles in the iron chandeliers overhead cast dancing spots of gold on the dusty oak floors. As Valek made his way deeper, Sarah at his heel, an eerie hush descended. Every face was shadowy and quiet. The room filled with modest wooden tables and bearskins felt gimmer under the fallen whispers of taciturn speculation.
Glasses stopped their clinking. Ogres and various types of Shifters stared maliciously at him as he advanced toward the bar. It became so quiet Valek swore he could count each of their sloshy pulses.
A pair of portly Trolls sitting at one side of the bar glared Valek up and down. They sneered at him before turning to each other. One whispered, “What’s that leech doing here?”
“We should turn ‘em in!” said the other.
The first called a little louder, “There ain’ no blood bein’ served at this bar.”
They each chuckled quietly to each other before turning their attention back to him.
Valek grabbed hold of Sarah’s arm, stopping her from taking another step. He watched them slowly stand from their bar stools. One of them cracked his knuckles—a warning that he intended to act should Valek chose to stay.
“Hey!” one called out to him, reaching around to itch his rear.
His paunchy gut, covered in sparse black hair, poked out from between his stained shirt and tattered slacks. Thin, leather suspenders stretched over his tremendous size. He snorted the thick contents of his nose, gulping it down his throat. It was enough to make even Valek nauseas.
“Blood suckers aren’t welcome here! ‘Specially you, Ruzik!”
The Troll gripped the neck of his ale bottle and chucked it toward Valek’s head.
Valek swiftly dodged it, the glass shattering all about the floor, beer splattering against the far wall. The rest of the tavern patrons reacted to the noise with hoots and quiet jeers.
“Won’t be long now til Cinder lops off yer head an feeds it to Meridith and Danek Price of supper, aint it?”
They chortled again.
“For a dreaded Vampire, they’re not too afraid of me, are they?” he muttered down at Sarah.
“They’re drunk. You’re always braver when you’re drunk.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Gentlemen, I do not seek trouble here.”
The other Troll hocked the slimy contents of this mouth to the floorboards and said, “How unlucky for you, then, parasite. Trouble is exactly what ya found.”
The two slowly pursued Valek, Sarah frozen behind him.
“Well, isn’t sh
e a pretty thing….” The other grinned when he noticed the Witch. “Bring her here!”
Valek’s eyes shifted black as he crouched low like a wild cat. His talons seemed to lengthen as a minatory hiss slipped from his throat. If they took another step, he would tear out their jugulars and empty them there on the tavern floor.
The larger Troll pulled an axe from his belt. The other one shouted, “Chop off his head!”
Valek roared, baring his fangs—his best weapon.
They lunged at each other, the Trolls’ masses seeming to be of no hindrance to their agility. Despite their stealthy moves, the floorboards thumped under their immense weight as they ran at him.
“Congelo!” Sarah blanched with her arms raised into the air, one hand pinching her needle.
The entire world bent to her command with a wave of light that seemed to explode from her hands. Valek, as well as the pair of Trolls, hung suspended in mid-air as time stood still. A twinkling purple light formed in the space between the Witch’s arms, stretched above her head. It spun and swirled, the bright, white center seeming to plunge downward like the dripping sands of time as she walked slowly forward. Things that had been in motion seemed to take on an odd sort of liquid form, slowly rippling like a pond surface in slow motion.
Valek was conscious in the freeze, but the sensation was strange. He’d never experienced anything like it, like his solid body had suddenly been reduced to something gelatinous.
He watched as Sarah carefully lowered her arms, the light still hanging brilliantly above her in the air as if she were balancing it there. It gave her divinity –set her eyes and skin aglow. She dipped her hand into its starry center and pulled out a fistful of the glittering white. Sniggering with delight, she blew it like grains of dust at the Trolls, causing their flies to unzip, their pants to drop around their ankles. Quickly, she moved around back of them and with one, swift kick in each of their inflated rears, the two hurtled out of the tavern doors and into the center of town square.
“Impetus!” Sarah chanted, flicking her needle, and Valek dropped to his knees.
Time came back to him. He attempted to stand up, but regaining his balance after what she’d done proved difficult. His knees still felt like jelly.
Of Blood and Magic Page 28
