“You can do this.”
“This isn’t the movies, Derek. This place is a temple to what torture, mind control, and oppression can do to a mind. I am unable to resist the orders he’s given me and every second I try, my will goes weaker. You need to kill me, my friend.”
“I can’t.”
Bloody tears started to fall from his eyes as he stood over my body, his finger on the trigger. “What’s worse is I know my feelings for Annabelle were a lie. That the desperate overwhelming need for her and worry was all implanted in my head. That she was never in any danger.”
I hoped, against all reason, Annabelle was dead because she was not worth my friend’s pain. I wanted to lie to my friend, tell him she had loved him all along. That the Vampire Nation was worth saving or Dracula hadn’t played him like a Stradivarius. It was all a lie, though, and what I wanted to hear about the Red Room.
“Shannon and I still love you.”
His finger twitched on the trigger.
I moved to one side, right before the gun went off. Christopher jerked back and I jumped up, delivering a brutal right blow to his jaw before punching another and flipping the vampire over into the electrical consoles nearby.
You need to kill him, Bloody Mary said.
Dracula’s the one pulling the strings here, not him. I clenched my teeth, unable to see another way to stop him.
He wants you to kill him. Mary sounded desperate. End his suffering.
Shut up! I said.
I could make you. Mary snapped.
No, you can’t, I said.
White-hot rage started to fill me, my blood boiling with hatred as everything turned around me. The Bloodsword flew to my hands and an overwhelming urge to kill Christopher, to save my life and the lives of any of his future victims, drowned out everything. I wanted to chop him up and seize his power for my own. But I didn’t.
This was still Christopher. Someone who I’d known for years and counted as my friend and brother-in-arms. I’d given myself to the bloodlust throughout this quest, but that had been against the vampires who’d taken him from me. I would not kill my friend, not for Dracula, not for Mary, and not for myself. I am free.
Somehow, I willed my sword to fall from my hands and the sensation of astonishment from Mary couldn’t be measured. The blade clattered against the ground while Christopher advanced, oblivious to the struggle that had just occurred.
Don’t let yourself be killed, Mary begged. It was so uncharacteristic, I had no words to answer her.
Christopher rose from the ruined devices, electrical current swirling around his body, into his eyes, and through his fingertips. Vampirism hadn’t taken away his proficiency with electromancy, it seemed. Indeed, he fed off the power, and all of the monitors and machines went dead around me.
Lifting his right hand, he aimed it at a fuse box and a stream of electricity flew from it into his palm. “The sad part is, I feel the same way. But we’re not allowed to feel. We are just pawns in the game. Move here, move there. Love isn’t part of what we’re allowed to feel.”
I ducked to the ground as he threw a bolt of lightning over my head. If he’d really been aiming, I’d be dead, but he wasn’t. He was going through the motions of trying to kill me, perhaps even trying to work up the resolve to do so. That gave me time to save his life. To figure out a way to break him free from Dracula’s mesmerism.
Ducking behind a corridor, I said, “That’s what Dracula wants you to think. What the Committee does. They can only control us with our consent.”
“Do you think I want this?!” Christopher shouted, his fangs bearing and his visage contorting into something hideous. All around me, the remaining undamaged controls sparked and caught fire. This time, the sprinkler system didn’t put out the flames, letting the fire continue to grow.
I shouted, wondering if there was some sort of mystical hoodoo I could do to fix him. Mind-magic was an untapped field for me. Even if I could, I had no idea of the hows. Instead, I relied on words. “We freed Ashley together. We can free you!”
“Ashley is still dominated by the Red Room, Derek. I spoke to her last month. She’s the head of the Network, spending her life in a futile attempt to cast down the organization that ruined her life. She’s still defined by the system, dominated by it, and unable to escape.”
I processed what he’d said. “Christopher, I can help you.”
Christopher appeared behind me, grabbing me. Before I could respond, I felt an arc of electricity run through me. It was like being tasered, and my entire body went into a seizure that disabled me.
“No, you can’t,” Christopher said, biting me on the side of the neck.
Despite my lengthy experience with the undead, I had never been bitten before. I’d spoken to many victims, and they tended to describe a feeling of incandescent ecstasy. What I felt, instead, was nightmarish pain and agony.
It was like a series of saw blades being jammed into my neck and pressing down deep into my jugular. I moved my hands up to try and press my thumbs against Christopher’s eyes as I felt gulps of blood enter his mouth. But try as I might, I couldn’t get enough force up to make him stop drinking.
Why does it always fall to me to do the dirty work? Bloody Mary’s voice was bored and disinterested.
But I could hear a trace of fear.
I felt Mary’s presence pass from my body through the blood Christopher was drinking. The medium of exchange left me feeling woozy and confused, the vampire dropping me to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I moved my hand to the wound and it sealed over. The magic felt cleaner and more potent inside me. Without Bloody Mary’s presence, draining much of my power to feed herself, I had a strength that I couldn’t believe.
So, I straightened my legs before jumping and kicking Christopher in the face, smashing him into the elevators across the room. Christopher retched, choking on my blood. I ran and slammed him up against the wall before punching him hard in the chest, then smashing him across the jaw. Grabbing his wrist, I threw him on the ground and placed my foot on his neck.
“Breaking this won’t kill you. It will, however, stop you from trying to do the same to me.”
Christopher didn’t respond, lying still. His was a ruined mass of gore, regenerating but at a glacially slow pace.
I took a deep breath, placing my hands on my knees. “Please don’t jump up in a few seconds when I lower my guard. ’Cause I can’t deal with that slasher movie bullshit right now.”
I felt a presence leave his body, shimmering as the lights flickered above our heads. The blood of my sister and a dozen other corpses started pouring from their mouths, eyes, and wounds before forming into a puddle. From the puddle started to emerge a feminine pair of hands which then began to claw the ground in front of her. The top of a redheaded woman climbed out of the puddle, revealing the naked figure of Bloody Mary.
She was alive.
Chapter Thirty-Three
All around me was fire, the heat from the burning consoles wafting across my face as the air started to fill with smoke. A suitable atmosphere for the “Aphrodite rising from the waves” scene playing out before me. Bloody Mary herself was not covered in blood, but arose from it like sea-foam.
An incarnate demon.
Incarnates were amongst the most dangerous of all demons. They were physical manifestations of beings composed of thought. As such, they were not bound by things like the laws of physics or biology. It all made sense now. The blood sacrifices I’d been doing left and right had been feeding Bloody Mary’s power. The power you got from killing a human was nothing compared to what you got from killing a vampire. I’d been so focused on getting what I wanted from the Bloodsword, I’d never bothered to think just what the hell Mary was getting in return.
Now I knew. Life.
I was surprisingly calm, and instead of doing something rash like shooting her or attacking, I walked to a nearby fire extinguisher on the wall. Picking it up, I began putting out the electrical fires sur
rounding me so I didn’t suffocate or burn to death. If Mary wanted to kill me, there was precious little I could do about it right now. I’d bet everything on the Bloodsword, and now it was turning against me.
“I can still hear your thoughts, Derek,” Bloody Mary said, frowning. “Really, I’m disappointed. You still think I’m going to betray you? Have I not demonstrated I am on your side?”
“I’m not what you’d call a trusting sort,” I said, spraying the last of the flames out. “One of my closest friends just tried to kill me.”
“Not willingly.”
“This is the Grand High Cathedral of Not Willing.”
“Not one of your better quips.”
“I’m running low. Sorry.”
Bloody Mary flicked her fingers and the shadows around the room swirled around her, covering her body and transforming into a magician’s attire. She had a red top hat with a Queen of Hearts in the ribbon, the top half of a tuxedo, and the bottom half of bikini briefs over a set of high heels. Her makeup was thick and pasty with extra blush, giving her the look of a sexy harlequin.
“Matter from nothing,” I said, staring at her. “Impressive.”
“As a spirit, I am not as limited as a mortal minion.”
“I can’t say I approve of the body, though. Fun house chic isn’t a fetish of mine.”
Mary smiled at me. “Liar.”
She had me there. “What do you want?”
Mary strode over to me, placing her arms around my waist and staring up into my eyes. “To kill Dracula.”
“You don’t have to—” I started to say before she placed a passionate kiss on my lips, biting my lip at the end to draw blood.
I pulled away, licking the inside of my lip. “I don’t think that’s going to help.”
“Yet, you’d be mine if it helped you kill Dracula?”
“Yes.”
She smiled. “I’m insulted. Yet in time, you will come to love me as I have come to love you. As will others you love. Kill Dracula for me, Derek Hawthorne, and I will provide you with the power to be an archwizard.”
“No.”
“No?” Bloody Mary asked, surprised.
“A. Dracula is immortal. So, killing him is like waiting for him to respawn in an online shooter, and B, I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
Bloody Mary wrinkled her brow. “What could be more important than murder?”
It was a bad thing that made me smile, right? “Christopher. I need to figure out how the hell to fix him.”
I wasn’t sure Christopher could be fixed. There was no magical cure to mesmerism and even if, somehow, Dracula did die, then all of the damage he’d done to people’s minds wouldn’t magically fix itself. My father was a master mentalist but even with all he owed me, I doubt I could convince him to help.
Bloody Mary chuckled. “What if I could solve both your problems?”
I had a creeping sensation of dread, but also hope. “You’d think I’d know better than to get myself further involved here.”
She smiled. “You are simply enjoying someone who accepts you for who you are.”
“I have Shannon for that.”
“I could teach Shannon to accept who she is as well. We would make a wonderful trio.”
“I’ll bear that in mind if I need a gang of killers.”
“You always need a gang—”
“How can you help Christopher?”
“Promise to kill Dracula for me and I will give Christopher back his free will. I will also show you how to kill him permanently.”
“You mean kill Dracula forever, right?” Exact wording was important when you were making a deal with a demon.
“Yes.”
I knew I was being tricked here, but I didn’t care. “Agreed.” I’d have agreed to anything to save Christopher.
Bloody Mary gave me another kiss on the lips. “Excellent.”
The demon turned around and walked to Christopher’s side, placing her hand to his forehead. Her body collapsed into blood and the blood soaked into Christopher’s skin, disappearing. My fallen comrade thrashed on the ground, looking like he was being eaten alive. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound escaped his lips.
Then he fell still.
Christopher’s mouth again opened, slowly this time, and a bloody red mist poured out, reforming into Mary. She was still wearing her peculiar costume.
“It is done.” Mary said, conjuring a plastic magic wand like the kind you bought at costume shops.
I decided to believe her. “How do I kill Dracula for good?”
“Break his contract with Tiamat-Abaddon.”
I glared at her. “I already knew that.”
“But you do not comprehend,” Bloody Mary said, smiling. “A contract between a god and a mortal is like any other magical spell. It can be dispelled with sufficient application of magical force.”
“You want me to just wave my hand.” I did so for emphasis. “Then, poof, Dracula is vulnerable?”
“It will require much more effort than that, but yes, that’s more or less what you have to do.”
“Uh-huh.”
Bloody Mary made her wand disappear and put her hands on her shapely hips. “I have not given you all the magical power you could ever need for you to fail, lover. Believe me, you have enough power to kill the Warlord.”
I stared at my hand, wondering if it were true. “Is that what this all about? You want someone to kill Dracula?”
“Is it so hard to believe someone loves you unconditionally?” Bloody Mary asked. “That they wish to help you because you are an avatar of war?”
“You need to look up the word ‘unconditionally’ in the dictionary. I’m not going to change to be your professional warrior.”
“Oh, dearest Derek, I don’t want you to change at all because you already are.”
Bloody Mary vanished into a swirl of blood while I felt the pressure from my brain release. She was gone.
For now.
I didn’t have time to think about that. There were other things on my mind, like the fact that I was in a war zone with the people I cared about most. “Christopher . . .” I said, stumbling over to his side.
Christopher then hissed, his fangs extending. I jolted back, but he didn’t go for my throat. Instead, he rolled over and began retching again. Clearing his throat, Christopher’s face returned to normal. “Derek, your blood tastes terrible.”
Lifting my pistol to his head, I said, “Remember that the next time you decide you want to snack on me. What do you feel like?”
Christopher rubbed his forehead. “Like killing Dracula. Sleeping with Shannon. Sleeping in general.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you trying to get me to stake you?”
“I’m just being honest.” He looked up at me for several seconds. “Okay, I don’t feel like killing you.”
“Will wonders never cease.”
“What did you do?” Christopher asked, looking at me.
“What I always do. What I had to.”
Christopher climbed to his feet and ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s like I’ve been asleep for years. Everything is sharper now. I remember what’s happened in the past but it’s just . . . nonsensical. My past reasoning makes no sense.”
“Because you were brainwashed.”
Christopher looked up. “I’ve killed, Derek.”
“Join the club.”
“Innocents. Men, women, and—”
“Don’t tell me anything you don’t want me to know.”
His hands shook as he looked down at them. “I’m still a vampire. I smell your blood and want to taste it. All the corpses here smell delicious, too. It’s … disgusting. I can hear the gunfire and the death. They sound like music.”
I moved my pistol toward his heart. “I can end it if you want.”
“After all the effort you went through to not kill me?”
“You weren’t yourself before.” I didn’t want to hurt Christo
pher, not when he was finally back. Really here for the first time. If he didn’t want to be a vampire, I respected that. I’d help him die if he desired it.
Gods help us all.
Christopher took several breaths, even though he no longer needed oxygen. “I want to live. I want to rend flesh. I want to help people. I want to kill Dracula. I don’t want to kill innocents. I have a whirlwind in my head now.”
“You’re still a vampire. That’s not going to change.”
“No shit.” Christopher looked up, meeting my gaze. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I lowered my gun. “Don’t try and kill me again. Next time, I might not be so nice.”
“I won’t,” Christopher said, feeling his fangs. “There’s no chance the House would take me back, is there?”
“Would you want to rejoin them?” I asked, imagining him as a vampire agent in service of those he’d betrayed, however unwittingly. No, I couldn’t picture it. They might use a defecting vampire, but they’d never trust someone who’d served the Red Room once only to become an agent of another power.
Christopher looked around the ruined control room. “No way in hell. This place is insane. That doesn’t mean I’m not in the mood to kick some ass.”
I looked out one of the control room’s windows to the gas-filled prison cells below. “I know what you mean. There’s a war coming. One I can’t stop. You need to keep your head low during it, unless you want to be killed.”
“I have friends who’d be willing to help me set up a new life. Ones without fangs. I don’t suppose you can replicate whatever you did to me. There’s plenty of my kind out there who’d be decent people if they weren’t mind controlled out the ears.”
“Sorry, I think this is a one-time deal.” I walked over to the Bloodsword and picked it up, sheathing it in my coat again.
“Pity. There are people out there who know something about breaking vampire mesmerism. Maybe I can help others of my kind break free.”
Eldritch Ops Page 28
