Shadows of Mist, page 6
part #8 of The Vampire Gift Series
Finally, I snap. “What?”
He looks taken aback. I know it’s just an act. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
“I was just thinking--” he begins.
“The less you do of that, the better,” I interrupt.
He ignores me. “I was thinking of what we’re going to tell Eleira when we return. We achieved our purpose. We got her what she wants. That alone should be good enough. But…” he leans closer to me, “I can’t help but feel that you will decide to burden her with the tiresome details.”
“I intend to tell her exactly what happened,” I say flatly.
Phillip taps his lips. “Would that be so wise? After all, you come out of it looking the fool.”
“I would not lie to Eleira.”
“Oh, no,” Phillip mocks. “Lying is such a ghastly thing. Of course you wouldn’t do that to her.”
“What do you want?” I repeat, my patience growing thin.
“I propose we simply neglect to mention the set of circumstances that led me to give my blood to the witches, instead of you.”
“Why would I agree to that?”
He grunts. “Are you really so dense? Because it makes you look weak. You tried to trap me with that horrid collar. It backfired on you. Backfired badly. You almost died, in fact.”
“How else do you propose we inform Eleira of this… link,” I say in disgust, “that we have between us?”
“I propose we don’t.”
I look at him for a long moment. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“No.” Phillip leans back. “How do you think your precious Eleira will react when she finds out the man she is promised to has failed her once more? I am only offering this as a benefit to you, dear brother.” He looks at his nails. “I am perfectly fine giving her the full truth.”
I eye him with suspicion. “And what do you get out of this particular arrangement?”
“Are you always so cynical?” Phillip smiles. “I get to have my stronger, older brother back. I get our family name to remain untainted. How do you think the other vampires will react, the Incolam, the Elite, when word spreads of how you almost died?” He tilts his head one way. “That would be almost as bad as your failure with Liana.”
I can’t help it. That taunt enrages me. I surge out of my seat, quick as lightning, and crash into Phillip, slamming him against the wall in the small, enclosed space.
“I warned you,” I growl, “not to mention her again.”
Phillip remains unfazed. If anything, he seems more satisfied.
“There’s the vampire I helped unlock,” he says. “Your eyes are storming, Raul. The miasma is taking hold.”
I shove him back. “What in the blasted hells are you talking about?”
“Take a look at your reflection,” he tells me. “You will see.”
With a grunt, I push off and stalk through the cabin, ignoring the Forsaken Sisters, and lock myself in the restroom.
I grip the counter hard as I press my face close to the little mirror on the wall.
What I see shocks me. Phillip was right. My pupils are small, focused, tight. Around them is the iris, then a ring of white, and past that…
A raging storm of black specks, moving chaotically like sparks from a flame.
I rip away. I rub my eyes. I look back in the mirror and see the same thing.
My mind races. The witches said I was bound to Phillip—but I did not know it meant to this extent!
I realize I’m shaking. An all-consuming rage takes hold of me. I don’t feel the darkness controlling my body, my mind, my emotions—not like when I was stabbed by Dagan’s poison blade—but evidence of the corrosion is right there, staring at me in the mirror.
I try to calm down. I tell myself this is only temporary. I tell myself it is not that bad—that it could be many times worse.
The thing is, I don’t believe any of those platitudes.
I holler in rage and slam my fist against the mirror. It shatters into many fragments. It’s not enough. I take hold of the sink and rip it out, water from the pressurized pipe bursting everywhere.
I’m about to throw it through the nearest wall, when Phillip slams into me and holds me down.
“You idiot!” he curses. “Do you not know where we are?”
I gasp. For a moment I can see through the cloud of rage.
That single moment of clarity is enough for me to let go of the sink. It clatters on the ground. I deflate.
“That’s better,” Phillip grumbles and eases his grip. “What the hell has gotten into you?”
“My eyes,” I say softly. “I saw… my eyes.”
“And they have the miasma, as I told you, so what? Do you want all of us to die in a fiery crash because you can’t handle what’s happened to you?”
A sense of shame takes me. Phillip is right.
“I’m… sorry,” I mumble. “I was out of control.”
“Damn right you were.” He lets me go completely.
“Phillip, it wasn’t… wasn’t me,” I say. “I lost control. This is what I’ve always feared.”
“That’s your damn problem,” he says, his eyes piercing mine. “You fear too much. You fear your true nature instead of embracing it. It’s what has always held you back.”
“I’m not the one who wouldn’t feed on human blood for most of his vampire life,” I say.
That earns me a jaded laugh. “Maybe not. Back then I too held back, sure. But you are just as guilty of it. When was the last time you embraced the vampire inside you? Truly embraced it, brother?” He shakes his head. “I don’t think you ever have. I think your whole life you’ve been at eighty-five, ninety percent, max. You were never willing to take the very last step. Whereas I, yes, sure, I rejected it completely—but when I embraced it, I embraced it completely.”
“You don’t know the things I’m capable of if I give in entirely,” I say softly.
For a moment, memories I’ve long-since suppressed come bubbling to the surface:
I’m in a tiny village, somewhere in Europe. I led Mother’s expedition back to our home shores, taking with me a team of fifteen of the Royal Guard.
Together, we have plundered and feasted upon village after village of humans. We’ve breached castles, killed all those inside, leaving nothing but a bloody trail. We looted all their gold, all their jewels and treasures, with the explicit purpose of bringing it back to The Haven and increasing our material wealth.
Two weeks ago, we came upon this village. I gave the order to attack. We took them in the dead of night, with our superior speed and deadly skills. We laid waste to it in the matter of an hour. Some of the humans fought—I laugh.
None of them so much as stood a chance against us.
Two weeks ago, we raided them. Their stores of gold proved inconsequential. But there was something else, something about their village that I sensed on an instinctual level, that told me we had not uncovered all of its treasure.
The nagging feeling followed me as we plundered the rest of the countryside. Finally, when we had gotten what I deemed as a sufficient amount of wealth to bring back to Mother, we turned back… but this village remained on my mind.
So, at the last moment, I commanded my group of vampires to take a detour and return to this place.
“Raul?” one of the guards says from behind me.
I turn to him. It’s Sebastian, one of the most loyal vampires in the whole of the Royal Guard.
“Yes?” I ask.
“It’s the church” he says, pointing to a faraway building. “We think we may have found something.”
“Well, by the gods, man, let’s go!” I say, and we hasten the way forward.
All around us lie the decaying bodies we had left before. Mostly women and small children—there were surprisingly few men.
I wrinkle my nose as we walk by. There is nothing sweeter than fresh blood. But the dirt is soiled with old, rotting blood, and there is no greater anathema to a vampire.
We reach the little church. It is a small, square, stone building. The only distinguishing feature it has is a tiny white cross on top.
Well—it used to be white. We vampires have no use for the humans’ fake God. I personally severed the priest’s head in the battle, leapt to the cross, and impaled it on the top.
The head leaked blood all over the artifice, leaving it stained red.
I open the doors and discover all of my vampires already assembled.
They have thrown all the furniture to the sides. Benches lie in broken piles. And there, in the center of the floor, they have excavated… something.
They stand around the hole in the earth. I come closer to peer down—and discover a massive stone trap door lying a few meters below the earth.
I frown. This might be older than the village itself.
“We waited for you before going forward, my Prince,” one of them says.
I nod absently and jump down. The moment my feet touch the barrier, a strange type of wooziness washes over my body.
It lasts only a second before I shake it off. I kneel down and trace a hand over the stone hatch. “There’s silver underneath,” I tell the others. “Presumably an enormous amount.” I wipe some of the dirt away. As I do, my fingers come upon very clear ridges in the stone.
“There’s also an inscription,” I say. “In the stone. Come, help me uncover it.”
The others jump down. I stand back while they sweep the surface clean.
“It’s Latin,” I say, when I see some of the text. I wait for them to uncover all of it, and then, seeing as I’m the only one to have learned the dead language, read it out loud to them.
“It says… ‘Beware, ye creatures of the Devil, for God has graced this earth’.” I scoff. “Some warning.”
I take another step back and motion to the guards. “Lift it up.”
They grab the edges and start to heave.
Despite their immense strength, the slab does not budge.
“Interesting,” I note. “Sebastian. You remember the blacksmith’s place? Go there with the others and bring us some instruments. We’re going to break through this entrance.”
The Royal Guard look at me, a trifle uneasy. But when I bark, “Well? Go!” they all run off.
I am left alone in the church. I think on their hesitation for a moment—and realize it must be because of the silver. I felt its effects the moment my feet touched the stone slab. But I am many times stronger than any of them.
To them, the effects would be much more unnerving.
I shrug. I cannot concern myself with their problems.
As I wait, I stroll around the perimeter of the pit. My instincts have never failed me. They told me we had overlooked something in this village. Here is the proof.
As I’m waiting, a faraway creaking sound catches my attention.
Immediately, I fly out of the church and speed toward it. It came from one of the nearby houses.
I burst in. The walls, the floor, are stained with blood. Two decaying bodies of husband and wife lie discarded by the beds.
I flare my senses… and, there!
I catch the faint hint of human life, so thin and frail that it would have been overlooked by any of us.
I look in the direction. There’s a trapdoor leading to the basement under the table. I flip the piece of furniture over and rip the trapdoor out from its moorings.
Inside, just a half dozen feet under the ground, is the saddest-looking girl I have ever seen.
Her eyes are wide and haunted.
She is hours away from death. How she has survived this long, I cannot say. She must have hidden there during our attack and scavenged out every few days to seek out whatever food might still be found in the village.
She holds her knees tight to her body as she looks up at me. I feel her fright—feel it as a more palpable thing than even her life force.
She looks at me and knows she is looking death in the eyes.
I go to my knees. I reach down for her. “Don’t worry,” I say, using the vampire influence to make her completely beguiled by me. “I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help.”
Slowly, with one trembling arm, she reaches out.
I grab her wrist. My grip is so sudden and so tight that she gasps. I yank her out in one harsh jerk, nearly dislocating her shoulder in the process.
The poor girl is skin and bones.
Hardly enough blood.
“I am an angel,” I tell her softly, “here to rescue you.”
Her eyes, for the very first time, glimmer with a new shred of hope.
“But for me to do so,” I say sweetly, continuing the outflow of influence, “you have to trust me completely. Can you do that?”
She gives a thin, feeble nod.
“Come here,” I say, holding my arms out to her. She takes a cautious step forward, then one more.
I close my arms around her in a reassuring embrace.
“You have nothing to fear,” I whisper in her ear. “As long as I am near, no harm shall befall you.”
And then, in a vicious downward thrust, I sink my fangs into her neck.
She gasps and struggles and cries out, her body knowing instinctively this is the end. One quarter mouthful of blood is all I take—it’s all she can spare me—and then I bite an incision in my wrist and press it to her lips.
She fights against the taste of my blood. But she is so weak that I must give it to her first, to strengthen her body, before injecting her with the serum that will catalyze the transformation.
“Drink!” I demand, throwing my influence at her. As soon as it hits, she starts to gulp down my blood.
With every swallow her body grows stronger. It is like giving water to a dying plant. She soaks it all up, meanwhile, always asking for more.
I let her feed on me, let her be as gluttonous as possible. After many long minutes, I sense she’s had enough, and I bite into her neck one more time to gift her with the serum.
Immediately, my blood mixes with hers. Hers mixes with mine. And together, we form a single body, a single entity, one proper being made whole from two separate beasts.
When it’s done, I rip away. I gasp for air—making new fledglings has always been an almost spiritual experience. But this one, this transformation, with this malnourished girl so very close to death, has taken me a long time to recover, to burrow out from the ecstasy overcoming me.
My vision clears, and I can see in front of me again.
This little girl is looking down at her body in amazement. Her gaze runs over her arms, down her legs. She tests her fists, flexing her hands, all in a state of amazement.
I go to her and take her by the shoulder. “You are mine,” I say to her, slowly. “For however long I need you to be.”
I let her go and turn away, hearing my vampires already returned to the church.
“Come,” I command, and she follows me, as if in a trance, staring at me like I’m a god.
We cross the street. The signs of death and destruction do not seem to bother her any. She is fully enamored by me.
We enter the church building. The guards have started attacking the hatch. I hold a finger to my lips, motioning for the girl to be quiet.
Together, we step to the edge and look down.
The vampires there are busy hacking away. The rock is strong, but nothing is impenetrable in this world, not if you have a team of vampires determined to break it down.
Of course, they sense my presence—and the presence of one more.
They stop their excavation and look up. I put a protective hand in front of the girl.
“You found a survivor,” Sebastian says. “You made her one of us.”
His voice is flat, devoid of judgment. He knows the rules of our coven dictate that only the Queen can choose the fledglings who come into our fold.
But we are out of her jurisdiction now.
“Yes,” I say. “This is…” I realize I don’t know the girls name.
I decide to bequeath her with one. “This is Alissa.”
The moment I say the name the girl seems to stand taller.
“Alissa,” she whispers.
“She survived on her own the two weeks we’ve been away,” I continue. “For that, she has demonstrated abilities rare in a human. Rarer still, for someone so young.”
“Yet you’ve stunted her growth,” Sebastian mutters. “She will be trapped in that body for all eternity.”
“Maybe not,” I whisper, running a hand through her hair.
A cruel, dark smile touches my lips.
“How many hours until daybreak?” I demand.
“Four. Maybe less,” a guard answers me.
“So, then you have two hours to break through that seal. And two more for us to load up whatever we find underneath to bring back to the Queen. Get to it!”
“Yes, my Prince,” they obey, and resume work.
“Walk with me, Alissa, won’t you?” I say.
I lead the way out of the church and into the dirty street.
I walk slowly in silence. The girl keeps step with me, not daring to speak for fear she might break the spell she must think she’s been put under.
We walk all the way to the edge of the village. A waist-high stone wall surrounds it. I jump up onto it, then lean down and offer Alissa a hand.
She surprises me by jumping up, much as I had, instead.
Maybe she’s not so meek, after all.
I turn back to look at the buildings. “This was your village,” I say. “It is all you’ve ever known.”
She nods.
“You were born here. You thought you would live your whole life here. You thought you would die here. Is that so?”
Silently, she nods.
“But then, one night much like this one, all you knew was destroyed. Your parents were killed. Their friends were killed. All the adults, all the children, were killed. Yet you survived. How?”
I peer at her intently.
“I… I ran,” she says. She points to the edge of the woods. “I hid there all night. When day came, I came back, and saw…”
“It’s all right,” I say. “You don’t have to say.”
She nods, biting her lower lip.
I squat down beside her and take both of her shoulders. I fix my gaze onto her eyes.
