Elixir of Flesh

by Joseph Kranak

  Chapter 16

  Human Heist

  “You grew up in a convent as a novice,” Asha began, “left there by your parents, no doubt; perhaps motivated by some misplaced sense of piety to offer you as their devotional sacrifice to God. I grew up as a whore in a whorehouse, abandoned by my parents due to their own indifference and negligence. I was born a long, long time ago. All I know about my parents is that they were nomads from the East. And, perhaps, because they had too much to carry, they left me in a small city far from here, in the care of an older woman, who, if I haven’t been misled, paid my parents to take me. She paid for me because I would earn for her far more in return. She took care of me while I was young, and I worked by cleaning the rooms of what I would later find out was a brothel. I would clean up after the sweaty sex that the other whores had in those rooms, until I was old enough.

  “I imagine I was about your age when I started having to serve men as a prostitute. I hated it, of course. It was awful. The men were awful: they were ugly and they stunk, and they’re breath stunk, and they would paw all over me with their grimy hands. So, from the very first man, who broke my hymen one painful afternoon, I started to make a list, an inventory in my mind, of all the people that had wronged me: my parents, the Madame at the brothel and the other men that profited from it, and all the men that visited and had me. I memorized their faces as well as their names and anything else about them I could learn. I still remember very clearly the very first man that broke me in: he had a bushy beard and long, greasy hair and this dull, stupid look in his eyes as if it took great mental effort even just to recall his own name. I held onto this inventory of persons because I knew with absolute certainty that I would take my revenge on any and all of them that I could when the time was right. I didn’t know how. I didn’t know when. I just knew that I would. I was waiting, biding my time until that opportunity came.

  “And you know what? It did come. Our brothel was visited one night by vampires. ‘Stormed’ would probably be the more appropriate term since they broke down the doors and started killing women. It was an utter shock to me as well as everyone else. The vampires were completely new to the region. No one had heard a thing about vampires before, nor really understood what was going on when we were attacked. We assumed that the attackers were simply some heathen savages with a thirst for blood, and we tried to repel them accordingly, with no success. Half of the women were killed. I was not.

  “I was deliberately spared. Luce, a vampire already quite old by that time, visited me, and he entered my room where I was huddling in the corner afraid, trying to hide from him. But he didn’t kill me. Smitten by my beauty, perhaps, he simply raped me. When he finished, he told me that he had done me a favor. I thought that was preposterous. Being raped was even worse that those johns taking me for money. But he actually turned out to be right.

  “I became very sick soon after, and when I finally recovered, I was hyper-sensitive to light, I had lost all sexual desire, and my menstruation had ceased. I was also strong, fast, and had gained a hunger that could only be satisfied with blood. I didn’t understand what I’d become, or what I was, but I rampaged and killed. I first slew the Madame, who’d somehow survived the vampire attack and the two nobles who respectively rented out and taxed the brothel. I latched onto their necks and drank their blood and then eviscerated their bodies for due recompense. Then Luce found me out and took me into his coven, this coven, though we hadn’t moved into these caves yet and there were only a few of us. He taught me what I needed to know about being a vampire.

  “Then, with his and the other vampires’ help, we tracked down every man I could find from my inventory. I couldn’t find all of them, unfortunately. Some of them were soldiers or travelers who either died on their own or were settled somewhere far from here where I couldn’t find them. Those I didn’t get to. The rest I found, and I killed them; we killed them, together: drank their blood, desecrated their bodies and left them in the open air for the animals.

  Because I had remembered. I had kept track of all those that had wronged me. I knew their sins, and was prepared to dole out justice, however long it took.

  “I still haven’t lost that habit. I remember. I always know how things stand, and I’m sure to bring justice to those who do wrong. Do you understand?”

  Lina nodded. Asha lastly told her, “If you’re going to go outside, be sure and cover yourself. The sun will burn you up.”

  Lina left Asha’s room without a “goodbye” or a “thank you,” going directly to her room and pulling out the cloak, shoes, gloves and head-covering that she would need to tolerate the daylight sun.

  Lina hustled up the tunnel to the exit and pounded on the wooden door for the guard to let her through. The guard opened the door for her, and after she told him she had permission from Asha, he lifted the rock for her.

  She was surprised how overwhelming the daylight sun was. Even under all the covering, it seemed to beat down on her like a rain of fire. She walked around for a little bit, but this was just to make it look like she was doing something. The reason she’d come out was to see whether she was genuinely strong enough to lift the outer rock on her own.

  After what Lina thought was a sufficient passage of time not to appear at all suspicious, she returned to the rock and prepared herself for the task of lifting it. She squatted down before the rock, rubbing her hands together and taking a few deep breaths.

  After a few moments of hesitation, she put her fingers beneath the underside of the rock and began to pull upward at the weight. Gradually, from the force of her strength, the rock began to move, began to rise. It didn’t seem to float up by her strength the way the bed did, but it was achievable with the full extent of her exertion.

  When the rock was finally raised above her head, she saw the guard on the other side looking at her with surprise. He actually held out his sword in anticipation, not really sure who it was who was lifting the rock, since Lina was the only vampire who was out. When he saw Lina, her face red with exertion and sweat pouring down her forehead, he dropped the sword and rushed forward to help her. With the weight out of her hands, Lina could finally take the breath that she’d been holding through her whole exertion, which was followed by many heavy gasps.

  “You’re already strong enough to raise the stone?” the vampire guard said, “You’re quick.”

  Lina gave a shy “thank you,” and walked inside like one embarrassed. Her body was sticky with sweat, and she was soon back to her room pulling off her heavy clothes, which felt hot and intolerable. Dropping them to the floor and changing into the loose garments that most of the vampires wore in the cave, she was soothed and relaxed by the cool of the cave.

  She looked down at the muscles of her arms and legs and thought she could really tell the difference in how they’d strengthened, how they’d almost overnight improved in tone and seemed stronger, more adult, more healthy.

  She needed rest, both tired by the heat and by the exertion, and she lay down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

  The thought of how to acquire the keys to the pen suffused her thoughts. She recalled a conversation she’d overheard once. Sister Elisabeta was once reproving a repentant former thief, who’d told Elisabeta about his former life. At one point he said something like, “You’d be amazed that you can just snatch a purse right off of a person and they won’t notice because they’re paying attention to something else. All it takes is a bit of distraction, and you can pluck it right off of them.” Lina was skeptical and had considered trying her hand at pickpocketing while she was in the convent to see if it worked as he said, not to steal money, which she had no use for, but to steal something more relevant to her, like the keys to the novices’ rooms or some food. Ultimately, she’d never made an attempt, since her fear of being caught was greater than her curiosity. Now she chided herself, thinking that it might’ve been easier if she’d tried it in the convent where the consequences were still relatively small.

 
; She slept first to recover her strength. She was willing to take her time. Though she felt there was a certain urgency to getting Nicoleta out of there as soon as possible, she also knew that she would have only one shot at this at this, and she wanted it to be done right the first time.

  When the time was right, she grabbed the basket and placed it in the hallway near the kitchen. It was conspicuous sitting there, something vampires would have to move to avoid, but she trusted no one would take it. She took her broom and again began to sweep around and towards the kitchen.

  Ada and Nicu were there in the kitchen as Lina peeked inside. After a long period of lingering, Ada emerged into the hall and departed, perhaps to attend to some errand, and Lina looked inside and eyed Nicu carefully. The opportunity for snatching the key from him seemed poor, both because he was, as usual, lounging on his seat and because she could see that he had two pockets sewn into his trousers, either of which might contain the key. But she decided to move forward.

  “Nicu, I have a question,” Lina asked Nicu, just entering the room and slightly moving in his direction, “How do you make these humans into the red liquid that we eat?”

  Nicu raised his eyes, just noticing Lina’s presence. He replied lethargically, “We call it ‘the brew,’ and the process of making it is too complex for a little girl like you to understand. Maybe some day if you apprentice in the kitchen, then someone can teach you how. Though I imagine not: not just anyone is capable of possessing the skills for it.”

  “Do you ever go into the pen?” she asked, just trying to look for something to talk with him about.

  “No, I don’t. It reeks in there. The collective smell of so many unwashed humans is far too much for a chef of such a refined nose as myself. Those beasts are disgusting.”

  Lina was now close to Nicu and decided to ask, “Do you have the key to the pen?”

  All he said in response was, “Why?” But before he did, he touched his right pocket, just to check.

  Seeing this, Lina decided to try her hand at distraction. Touching his shoulder, she pointed to a random pot on the wall and said, “What’s in that pot?”

  Though Nicu was far beyond the point of tolerance, he still looked in the direction where her right hand pointed and said with an annoyed sigh, “It’s just another step in the process of making the brew.” But as he was turned and was speaking, Lina reached down with her left hand into his right pocket, plunging her hand deep into it and clasping the metal object she found. She hid the key behind her back when Nicu turned to her.

  She waited for him to notice, to ask what she was doing in his pocket, to angrily insist that she return the key she’d just stolen, but instead he simply asked, “Are we done here? I have work to do.”

  “Do you need to pull a human out of the pen for slaughter?” she asked, hoping this might prompt him to leave the room.

  Instead he just asked, “Isn’t there somewhere else that needs cleaning?”

  Lina nodded and backed away. Holding the key firmly in her hand, she said, “I’ll just clean up real quick in here.” She grabbed the broom and swept in the kitchen. Nicu eyed her, irked by her very presence. But she didn’t notice, since her mind was carefully running through her options.

  Once she had circled around the room and noticed an empty pot sitting on the table, she made up her mind, deciding she would face up to the consequences of her actions later. After Nicu relaxed and stopped watching her, she quietly set down the broom. She picked up the large, heavy pot in one hand, and she swung it at Nicu’s head with vicious force. The metal connected with the flesh of his head with a brute clang and knocked him to the ground.

  Lina dropped the pot and ran straight for the door to the pen. She shoved the key into it and twisted hard at the bulky lock. The sweet click of the door unlocking was clearly heard, and she pulled with all her force to open it.

  When Lina ran into the pen the humans looked at her with confusion and fear, used to only being visited by Mir. She called out, in a quiet voice, “Nicoleta, Nicoleta,” again and again looking between the persons who timidly backed away from her.

  After some frantic scrambling about that seemed to last agonizingly long, she finally found Nicoleta in the arena, still watching the work of Oana’s altar, not even noticing Lina’s entrance. Lina had no time for explanation. As soon as she reached Nicoleta, she grabbed her in one arm and whisked her away.

  Nicoleta cried out in fright, screaming and panicked, initially thinking that she was being taken away to her death. Lina yelled at her in a whispered shout as she carried her out, “Shut up, shut up, shut up. I’m freeing you.”

  It took Nicoleta a minute to notice who was carrying her, looking up to her and asking in a confused voice, “Madalina?”

  Lina had no time for explanations, now racing out the door and through the kitchen. She shoved Nicoleta into the basket and said, “You make a sound, and we’ll both die!”

  Lina looked around in all directions to see if anyone had noticed. At that moment, she heard a pained groan coming out of Nicu’s mouth from within the kitchen.

  Lina ran back into the kitchen and closed and locked the door to the pen. She dropped the key into Nicu’s pocket, just as he began to move about, reaching up to touch his aching head.

  Instead of trying to disappear before he saw her, Lina decided that it would be better to attempt some more misdirection. She leapt onto the counter and started eating from the pot of the special vampire brew that’d been made for Asha. She figured the consequences for knocking Nicu out and stealing some food would be much more modest than freeing a human, and she hoped that Nicu wouldn’t be in as much of a hurry to chase after a girl who’d only stole a little bit of vampire brew. When Nicu opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Lina, gulping spoonfuls from the pot of vampire brew. He groggily asked, “Lina?” which she took as her signal to depart.

  She ran into the hall, picking up the basket, running up the stairs to her room and closing the door behind her. She’d passed a few vampires in the hall, who didn’t give a second thought to a young vampire taking a basket from the cache into her room, but she was worried that this large basket would become suspicious if she tried to carry it further.

  Lina opened the basket and lifted Nicoleta out. “I’m getting you out of here,” Lina told Nicoleta.

  Lina pulled out her outdoor clothes. She started to put them on, reserving the cloak for last, and told Nicoleta, “Now hold onto my back.” Nicoleta hopped onto Lina’s back, piggyback style, her arms wrapped around Lina’s neck, her legs wrapped around Lina’s stomach. Lina put on the cloak to cover both of them.

  She checked herself out in the mirror, the thick, flowing coat was an effective cover and hid Nicoleta quite thoroughly from the front. On the other hand, if someone saw her from behind or from the side, it was clear she had a massive bulge protruding from her back. The dim light of the cave would probably help, but she’d have to do what she could to hide her backside. That no one at all would notice the huge bulge on her back seemed unlikely, but she didn’t have any time to think up a better solution. Someone may already be looking for her, and the first place they would look would be her room.

  She stepped out into the hall, looking both ways, and saw no one immediately in sight. Walking quickly but in a way that didn’t look hurried, she strode towards the Great Hall. When she stepped inside, she saw an unusually high number of vampires lounging around. The beams of light that pierced through the ceiling illuminated the room, and Lina felt immediately exposed.

  Nonetheless, she kept on moving forward, trying to angle herself to keep her backside out of sight of the vampires. She climbed the stairs and moved towards the ramp. A few vampires looked in her direction, and their eyes lingered on her longer than a casual glance. If nothing else, it was unusual to see a vampire heading surface-ward during the daylight hours, and they perceived that something about Lina was unusual.

  Lina though, didn’t give them enough time to intervene, movi
ng into the shadows of the ramp and up towards the wooden door.

  She pounded on the door, and the guard opened up and looked through. He looked down at her with a wary look, asking her, “You’re going outside again? Wasn’t once enough for you?”

  “I won’t do it again for a while, I swear. Just a short jaunt outside,” she pleaded.

  He looked at her as if he didn’t want to let her through, but he conceded and waved her through, saying, “Come on.”

  As he was about to close the door, a shout emerged from below, “Is Lina here? Have you seen her?”

  Another voice answered immediately, “She just went up the ramp a minute ago.”

  The guard looked down at Lina and saw her guilty, frightened look, then finally noticed the massive bulge on her back. As he reached down to grab her wrist and hold her, he shouted back down the hall, “I’ve got Lina. She’s right here.”

  Lina swiftly pushed his away hands and, mustering all the strength she had within her, pushed the guard through the wooden door. He was a strong, heavy creature with rapid reflexes, but he was unprepared for the surge of strength and energy from what he perceived to be only a tiny vampire. He tripped over and fell through the door, which Lina promptly closed behind him.

  She applied herself to the rock. She had been barely able to do it before and now that sinking weakness from the food in her belly made her struggle. But the rock did give way and she had it raised above her head as she heard the sound of several vampires scrambling to unlock the door.

  The vampires opened the door a crack, but immediately recoiled from the sunlight with screeches of pain. She leapt out and let the rock drop behind her with a resounding crash that was so loud that it caused Nicoleta to involuntarily jump and cry out. Lina had to tell her, “It’s nothing. We’re good. Now hold on tight.” Then she began to run with all the speed she could muster.

  The first thought that crossed her mind as she ran was that she was leaving the coven for good. She realized, now, for the first time since she’d planned on hatching Nicoleta’s escape, that there was no going back: she was either going to end up dead or permanently banished and at enmity with Asha’s coven.