“And here I thought you’d appreciated a new look, Mr. Grathan,” Chastity declares with a broad grin. Using her telekinesis, she flicks the man’s dirty clothes and crumpled sheets into a hamper. “I won’t insult you by suggesting an indoor bath, but I will not have one of my friends wear such filthy things in my presence. Here are a change of clothes that match your fairly drab style. Don’t hurry on my account though since I’m enjoying the show. Never realized how toned your muscles are . . . All of them as far as I can see.”
“Thank you, but I don’t feel comfortable being naked in front of my female friends,” Luther replies, covering himself with one of the feather dusters. The impish smile on the hostess’s face causes him to realize what the object is for and he quickly puts it back. “I guess this can be me repaying you for saving my life. Those Duragians have created a terrifying spell, which I hope to never face again. Infect the marrow with holy magic and the slightest residue can restart the destruction after healing. We should find a way to counter that.”
“Some of my associates are looking into it, so feel free to leave that issue to me,” the smiling woman says while handing over the clothes. With a wave of her hand, she levitates a sheet around her guest to give him privacy. “Titus and Bob are still here, but Clyde and Mab went to get a few answers in Gods’ Voice. It’s also a test to see how easily a Dawn Fang can blend into the world of mortals. This is such a fantastic transformation. It’s the strongest I’ve ever been and these powers are much more potent than my previous magic. Not to mention I forgot how delicious food was and the joy of my heartbeat racing when I’m entertaining special guests. Do you think you will ever accept this gift?”
Lifting the makeshift curtain, Luther steps out wearing a dirt-pocked shirt and pants that are fraying at the cuffs. Adjusting the leather doublet that he typically saves for special events, he goes in search of his sickles. The weapons float out of a wooden box, their blades polished to a shine and their hilts professionally repaired. He lets them fall into his hands and jumps when his belt wraps around his waist. Eyeing Chastity, the forest tracker sheathes the sickles and sits down to finish getting dressed. Whenever he reaches for another piece of gear, he pauses and waits to see if it comes to his hand. Feeling movement on the bed, he uses the mirror to see that his companion is lying down with her dress splayed around her body. The skirt shifts to be under him when he pushes off the mattress, the print matching his hand perfectly.
“You truly are incorrigible,” Luther mutters, his voice low to hide his amusement. Knowing that he cannot avoid the conversation, he lies down next to the curvaceous vampire and stares at the mirrored ceiling. “Part of me wants to say that I will do what Titus and Bob wish since we are a team. Yet, that makes me come off as incapable of making my own decisions. The truth is that I don’t know if I want to be a Dawn Fang or not. It would be a benefit for me to operate in the sun, but the changes worry me. Long before I fought Titus to a draw and joined this gang, I was a loner and depended on my powers to survive. All of my habits and instincts work off what I am now, so I’m unsure if I can adapt to a new me. Yes, you gain superior power and other advantages, but that doesn’t mean it comes without sacrifice. One needs to consider what they are giving up before making a big decision and I haven’t finished thinking about it. Why did you make the change so quickly?”
“Because I’m fully dedicated to being on Clyde’s side,” Chastity replies, her fingers rising to create a pheromone mist. She keeps the pink cloud away from her friend and has it flow beneath the door. “That really isn’t it, but it gets under Mab’s skin. I feel like there is something coming and Clyde will be the one to set it off. Our shadowy slice of the world can’t stay the same now that he’s around and the council is on the hunt. Those two factions can’t exist together, which means one will die. Besides, I don’t see a reason for fighting the flow of events, so I accepted the change now. Do I miss my more expansive magic? Yes, but that’s the sacrifice I’m willing to give up in return for what I gained. The alternative is to be left behind and get washed away in the flood of whatever is on the horizon.”
“Spoken like a true businesswoman.”
“We are what we are and our powers are only a fraction of that.”
“Yet, it is a very big part.”
“Might be big, but it isn’t the most important part.”
“Do you always talk philosophy with those in your bed?”
“Only the ones I like and respect, Mr. Grathan.”
An armed vampire crashes through the front door, his limp body sailing towards the bed until it is stopped in midair. Chastity and Luther scramble to their feet while the unconscious man is dropped to the floor. When they check the groaning figure, they find a fanged orchid badge beneath a flap on his armor. The House of Tempest symbol causes both of the vampires to worry as they carefully make their way to the door. Crashes and clangs meet them, the silence spell around the bedroom having prevented the pair from hearing the brawl begin. Mortals are cowering under tables while the goblins bounce on the railings to protect the baking area. The red-skinned creatures expertly deflect anything they perceive as a threat by smacking it with cast iron frying pans, which have already forced five vampires to focus on healing massive head wounds. The patrons outnumber the guards, but their drunken stupors make it difficult to fight back against the seasoned warriors. Standing in the middle of the chaos, Titus holds his ground against Lou who is trying to shove the tall man out of the way. Bob is bounding from table to table, his lance catching enemies that he happily flips up to the chandeliers. The pair are doing their best to avoid damaging anything other than their opponents, but there are already several broken chairs and a dent in the dance floor.
“Excuse me for a second, Mr. Grathan,” Chastity whispers while climbing onto the bar. She weaves her hands through the air to imitate a spell while violently shaking the entire building with her telekinesis. “Do I have your attention? There is no fighting in my establishment unless specific criteria are met. Considering one of those is that I oversee any conflicts that I am not a part of, you’re all breaking my rules. Now, somebody better explain what’s going on before I close the Scrumptious Siren. That means no more drinks, pastries, dancing, or me for you to indulge in until I’m in a better mood. First person to talk gets a free drink or grope, depending on your desire.”
“Lord and Lady want Chastity for talk,” Lou states in a strained voice. The ogre is confused when the woman walks over and plants his hand on her rear for a few seconds. “Questions need answers. Very important. Too many enemies. Too many mysteries. Please take cloak and come with us.”
“Forgot the big guy could talk. I still want to know what’s going on,” Titus demands, his arm coming up to block a guard’s punch. He is about to drive the smaller man into the floor when he hears a foot tapping behind him. “Sorry about that, Chastity, but they wouldn’t answer my questions and the guy over there threw a punch. You know how Bob and I don’t like getting hit. I promise that we’ll clean this all up, especially with Luther’s help. Good to see you awake, buddy. Now, we need answers before we let our favorite hostess go anywhere since this is really suspicious. After all, why would Lord Tempest send you and so many guards to escort someone he considers a friend?”
With a pained expression on his face, the ogre scratches his head. “Road dangerous. No want her be hurt. Lou best bodyguard. Kai give route. Stephanie watch for threat. Need for intel very important.”
“We go too!” Bob exclaims before throwing a broom to Luther. He scrambles under a table and throws the mortals out of his way to get at a well-worn saddle. “You need to rest, so clean up while we’re gone. I may have put a horse in one of the rooms downstairs, but she had such a beautiful mane that I had to claim her for myself. You might need a shovel and a pitchfork depending on what you find.”
“You get to rest at the bar, Mr. Grathan, while your friends clean up this mess and remove another horse from my guest rooms,” Chastity
says as she takes the broom and hands it back to Bob. Putting a gentle hand on Titus’s hip, she eases the warrior away and guides him to a pile of broken chairs. “I accept your masters’ invitation, but need a few minutes to pack. This dress isn’t the right style for a royal meeting, so allow me to freshen up. Please wait outside because I don’t want you to upset my customers any more than you already have. Feel free to clean up after yourselves, Lou, since you have one of your belongings lying unconscious in my personal chambers.”
The ogre bows his head and lumbers towards the broken door while Chastity skips up the stairs to her other bedroom. Titus and Bob are left glaring at the guards, who are dragging their fallen friends out of the building. The goblins continue to chirp and snarl, their frying pans held tightly in preparation of another fight. As the patrons begin to crawl out of their hiding places, free drinks float off the bar and land in front of the nervous mortals. Music begins to play, but it stops when Lou returns and stiffly extends his hand to Titus. The two shake and mutter apologies before the ogre goes back to carrying his drooling companion away. Turning to face Bob, the tall warrior’s eyes dart from side to side in search of something he expected to see.
“Where did Luther go?” he asks, nodding at the open seat at the bar
*****
Not wanting to leave any bodies, Clyde sneaks up on the rooftop guard and knocks him out with a slap to the head. Darting back into the shadows, he watches as Mab briefly appears as a silhouette leaping onto another building. She waves while landing on her target’s back and puts her other hand over his mouth. Maintaining an unbreakable grip and squeezing his body with her legs, the burglar gets him to pass out within seconds. The vampires creep to the corners of their rooftops and crouch to avoid being seen by the soldiers who are guarding the entrance to Gar’s Library. Those in the street are not paying attention to the sky, but the five swordsmen on the building next to the temple remain vigilant. None of the mortals in their path show signs of having holy magic, but a woman in dark blue robes makes the pair cautious. The way she walks reminds them of a serpent, which is enhanced by the way the guards repeatedly step out of her circular path.
Clyde is about to jump to the building when Mab does her best bat imitation and signals that she should go in first. Knowing her powers are better suited for the situation, he nods his head and remains ready to pounce. He never notices when his partner leaves her perch, so he is not ready for the startling disappearance of the robed woman. The guards are equally confused since the caster had simply walked into a patch of thick shadows and never came out. Fearing that Mab has gone too far, Clyde moves back to take a running leap. He skids to a stop when the woman falls out of the darkness with a bottle of wine in her hand, her clothes disheveled and torn at the flaring sleeves. She is still breathing, which draws the soldiers in closer to check their dazed companion. A blast of emerald gas erupts from beneath her body and envelopes the men for a few seconds. When the cloud dissipates, all of the mortals are asleep on the rooftop and Mab is going through their pockets.
“What did you do?” Clyde asks as he silently lands next to her. Spotting a ring on one of the guards, he snatches it before his companion can stake a claim. “Are you able to do sleep magic or something? I know it’s bad form to talk during a heist, but we have a moment before breaking into the archive.”
“Picked up one of our favorite toys while you were napping,” Mab replies while she finishes her looting. Returning to the woman, she takes back the empty bottle and puts it on her belt. “I never thought I would have to buy a slumber trap again. Good thing too because tangling with a caster isn’t something I want to do in the near future. Not sure what it was about her, but those voices in my head were screaming about the danger. So, how are we getting into the archive? I believe it’s the top floor, but there are no doors up there.”
“True, but there are windows.”
“Climbing it is.”
“I’ve got a faster way.”
Mab grins when Clyde cups his hands and turns his back to the temple, his head stretching back to check his aim. Walking to the far side of the rooftop, she waits until a patch of clouds has blocked most of the yellow moon’s light. The instant Ult the Autumn Moon is covered, the burglar sprints towards her partner and jumps to land with one leg in his hands. Not wanting to add her strength to his and get launched over the temple, Mab lets Clyde throw her over his head like a spear. Wind roars in her ears and she worries that she might miss the target, which she rapidly approaches. Catching one of the spires, the vampire swings around it several times to stop her momentum and flips onto the rooftop. She scowls at the sight of Clyde calmly standing on the ledge as if he has been waiting for hours.
Delivering a playful smack to his arm, Mab nods her head at the edge and begins to climb down. She is already over the ledge when her hand hits a slick part of the stone and her feet slide off a patch of slime. Clyde quickly jumps down to grab her arm and drives his fingers into the icy cold stone, the sheen of a spell rippling around the damage. He can feel the temple try to eject him while he stares at the windows they have already fallen passed. Using the strength of his one arm, he launches them to the archive floor and embeds his hand into a book-shaped statue. Mab wraps her legs around his waist and leans back to reach the sill, her lock picks slipping out from under her sleeves. Seconds feel like minutes as she gets the window open, the wooden frame creaking once and making the vampires pause. With no lights or sounds of movements, they relax enough to stop their heartbeats from pounding in their skulls. Tightening her grip on Clyde’s torso, Mab pulls herself inside the temple and takes him with her once he frees himself from the slippery wall. Instead of dropping her partner on the floor, she goes into a handstand while bending her legs to place him on his feet. Remaining low, they erase all evidence of their entry and dart into the nearest aisle of tomes.
Checking the spines as they wander, the vampires keep an ear out for footsteps and repeatedly sniff the air for the scent of blood. Coming to an intersection, Mab nudges Clyde and points at a floating sign that lists various categories. Touching a section creates a glowing arrow on the floor, which prompts the thieves to rush out of sight and wait to see if anyone investigates the unexpected light. After a few minutes of silence, they creep back into the open and Clyde taps the section that mentions the Great Cataclysm. Nervously watching the guide spell, they can see that it is a bright trail, which weaves through the stacks. Not wanting to be too close to the arrows, Mab climbs to the top of a bookcase and tries to spot the end of the path. A distant stairwell catches her attention because of a flicker of movement, which repeats to reveal it is nothing more than a curtain caught in a strong draft. Having a general idea of where they are going, she drops to the floor and leads the way using a longer route with a few cautious backtracks that nearly get them lost.
Instead of rushing into the circular nook, the vampires stick to the shadows and check for signs of a trap. Unable to be sure, they move cautiously and avoid making contact the table that sits in the middle of the reading area. Examining the wooden chairs without touching them, they finally give up on their preparations and take opposite sides of the nook. Seeing no reason to be neat, Clyde and Mab grab tomes on the Great Cataclysm and read as quickly as their keen eyes allow. Completed books are dropped on the floor, so they move carefully to avoid stepping on them. After an hour, there is a small pile between the vampires who are gradually reaching the middle of the section.
“They have a lot less than I expected,” Clyde says as he finishes a book on the shifting continents. Taking in the mess, he begins putting things away even though he is not sure of the original order. “I was hoping to find evidence of incidents that were similar to what happened to me. If there was another Dawn Fang progenitor out there then maybe I could get some answers or figure something out. All I found was more on the continents moving and changing, but nothing on the one that disappeared completely. That makes me think Windemere was reinvented, wh
ich could explain why a new breed of vampire exists.”
“Our people have been around since the early years, but one wouldn’t think of us as an essential piece of the landscape,” Mab points out while thumbing through a book that lists all of the extinctions. Reaching the end of the depressing tome, she puts it back and picks a thick catalog of spells gone wrong. “None of this helps us with the council though. I know I keep talking about wanting to be like we were in the old days, but that’s a current problem we shouldn’t ignore. Not only how to stop them, but we need to find out if they know more than we realize. Lately, information has been getting to people far too easily. We could have handled that and then broken into . . . This is strange.”
“Let me take a look,” he requests, the half-read book in his hand falling to the floor. Taking the large catalog, he scans the pages until he comes across the section that has caught his partner’s attention. “I guess this could have done it. Shouldn’t be surprised since there had to be someone who escaped the Durag Temple destruction. There were so many people on the outskirts, so at least one had to consider running as soon as the ground shook. Still, it’s a big jump to think someone could see my execution being vaguely mentioned here and figure out that I came out a Dawn Fang. At the very least, a person could read this book after I returned and think I shouldn’t have survived.”
Mab takes the tome back and reads further along to see if there is any more information, but sees that it ends with Gar’s holy symbol. “This means they are still seeking the truth, so you’re an open case. Weird that we’ve never run into a Knowledge Seeker since they have to know you’ve come back. It isn’t like this thing is in a restricted section and they have a spell on it to make it easier to find for updates. For some reason, you’re a mystery that they want to look into, but they’re not making you a priority. Is it wrong that I find this stroke of good luck more worrisome than comforting?”
Loyalty Page 22
