* * *
There was a knock on the front door of Andrei’s store. Andrei called out, “Who is it?” and the voice of Anton replied, “It’s me.”
Andrei opened the door and glanced at the beautiful colors of sunset visible in the sky. The clouds opposite the sun were painted a rosy pink and the sun, low on the horizon, enflamed the sky in a bright orange.
Andrei told Anton to come inside. He closed the door behind him and locked it. “What is it? Why did you ask me to come?” Anton asked.
Anton was still wearing his soiled work clothes, and he smelled of the sweat of a hard day’s labor. His hair was dusty and messy, but he still smiled with that youthful confidence when he looked at Andrei.
“This way,” Andrei gestured and led him into the workroom. There in the room was seated Vasile and Ileana. And beside them was a small female vampire, who immediately caught Anton’s attention.
“I know you,” Anton said to the vampire, though not quite able to place from where he remembered her face. Then it came to him: the night when Constanta was taken, the tiny vampire being carried on the other’s back.
His brow furrowed, his eyes turned red, and he lunged at her as soon as he remembered. His arms were outstretched, aimed directly at her throat, which he grabbed as soon as it was within reach and squeezed as hard as could.
“What did you do with her? What did you do to my sister?” Anton shouted at her. Vasile and Andrei both leapt forward to restrain Anton, but it was unnecessary. Lina was able to easily remove his hands and kick him away with her feet, sending Anton falling backwards onto the ground.
Anton stood up and was ready to lunge at her again, but was this time successfully restrained by Vasile and Andrei. He still shouted at her, “Just tell me you killed her and we can put an end to all of this! I can kill you and you can turn me over to them so they can kill me! And it’ll all be finally over!”
“We’ve brought you here to protect her,” Andrei said directly into Anton’s ear while him and Vasile held onto the boy.
“Her? Why?” Anton asked in disbelief, relaxing himself and stopping, “She’s responsible for my sister’s death. She was there when they took her.”
“How old is your sister?” Lina asked, and Anton was able to hear the strident quality of her voice for the first time. She calmly sat in her place and stared blankly up at Anton after she spoke.
“She’s twelve, almost thirteen. Why do you ask?”
“She’s alive then. Most probably. I don’t know exactly who’ve they’ve got in there, stored in their cage; there’s many hundreds of them. But they hold on to young girls. They’re the most valuable,” Lina explained.
Anton paused for a long time as he stared at Lina, who placidly looked back at him. He was trying to gauge her, see if she was sincere and honest. He searched her face for some indication of trustworthiness. What he saw was a face that was surprisingly innocent looking and beautiful despite its experience.
Anton asked, “If she’s alive, how do we free her?”
“That is why we are here to protect this vampire,” Andrei interjected.
Anton turned to him at this point and nodded his head. “Alright,” Anton said and sat down, ready to hear about the attack that they were expecting.
Another knock was heard at the door. This one Andrei was not anticipating, and he looked around to see if anyone knew who it was. He went to the front door and asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s Lucian,” said the voice on the other side.
Andrei opened the door, and there indeed stood Lucian, dressed formally and cleanly in his jacket and wig. Andrei led him inside and Lucian began without greeting, “I hear that you have a vampire in here. I’ve come to try to persuade you to return her to her coven.”
Andrei let Lucian inside, only so that he could close the door behind him and keep the place secure, though he was not open to being persuaded.
“We just signed a truce,” Lucian explained, “which is very valuable in saving the lives of a great many of the people around here: the parents and their children—especially the children, who are particularly vulnerable. Yes, I know what you’re doing is not technically in violation of our treaty, but the treaty is built on mutual respect. We don’t want to have to enforce it with arms; so we must take the precautionary approach and avoid aggravating our enemies. Most probably, this vampire is running from some crime she has committed against her fellows vampires, and we are only giving her harbor and undermining their laws.”
“She has come with a human, a human she freed, a human that is supposedly one of hundreds,” Andrei said.
Lucian was brought to the quite unusual experience of having nothing to say when he heard this. He could only ask, with evident shock, “What did you say?”
Andrei replied to Lucian by speaking as slowly as he could, “The vampires are keeping hundreds of humans prisoner in their coven. Hundreds.”
“By the blood of Christ,” Lucian swore with shock.
He fell silent as indecision pushed him to and fro. “Still can’t we just release this vampire to them?” Lucian tried to compromise, “Just release her?”
“I think we’ll need her help if we ever hope to free these people,” Andrei said, “Besides, I don’t want to imagine what they’ll do to her if they should get a hold of her.”
“For the love of God, she’s a vampire,” Lucian indignantly replied, “Why do you care? These things are beasts. You chop them up yourself and make them into medicine.”
Andrei shrugged his shoulders and admitted, “So maybe I’m a hypocrite. But I won’t back down. She’s staying with us. She saved someone, a young girl. That’s enough for me.”
Lucian backed away at this point, opening the door to leave. Once the door was open, he turned back to Andrei and told him, “This issue isn’t over.” Lucian left and Andrei closed and locked the door behind him.
Elixir of Flesh Page 47