Chapter 23
Sunlight
Fane had been in a tree as sentry on the opposite side of the coven from where the soldiers approached when the attack began. He and the other two surviving sentries thus had been oblivious to the approach of the troops until the gunpowder exploded and awoke them to attention.
Fane himself could see the smoke and the dust from the explosion rising into the air, he could feel the trembling of the earth as it rattled the tree he stood upon, and he could feel the force of that boom within his ears.
Fane leapt down from the tree and rounded up the other two sentries that were nearest him to confer in secret.
“What in God’s name was that explosion?” one of them asked.
“We’ll find out,” Fane said, “We approach slowly. We can assume the coven’s under attack.”
Together the three of them approached, remaining hidden behind the underbrush as the entrance to the coven came into view. Much to their horror, they saw a large crater just above their coven and two rows of soldiers firing down into it with volley after volley of projectiles.
Fane suggested, “We should circle around, find Sil, and attack them from behind.”
They circled around the troops, but by the time they’d reached the location of Sil’s post, the firing had stopped and Sil was missing.
They saw the body a few moments later and Fane approached and inspected it, pulling away the cloak to expose the neck. A large, round wound in the shape of a jaw, with two semi-circular gashes where the upper and lower teeth respectively tore through, was visible. The skin was paler than normal, and only small streaks of blood stained the area around and below the wound.
“His blood’s been drained, by a vampire,” Fane said to the other two, “Probably by Lina. She must be with them.”
They moved rapidly but softly across the forest floor, slowing to very gentle, silent steps as they came within earshot of the soldiers. A number of clearly trained and appropriately armored soldiers comprised the majority of the group, along with a handful of villagers, whose limited armor and casual peasant dress distinguished them.
Fane told his two fellow companions, “Focus on the armored soldiers. Let’s try to be in and out in an eye blink. We’ll each kill one, then run away and regroup over there. After that we’ll hit them with another attack.”
As Fane and the other two vampires slowly crept in from behind, several screams emerged from out of the crater. Three vampires hiding together in one of the rooms, leapt out through their door in a sudden burst, pouncing upon every human within arms reach. They weren’t looking to kill the human but to keep them from draining out of their pen. They tried to herd the humans backwards by force. The three of them, with all of their strength, pushed against the crowd of people, their arms outstretched, pushing forward with their shoulders. They knocked many persons over, toppling them to the ground in the process and causing a panic as people were forced backwards.
Those few that had been missed by the three vampires, that were already out of reach when the vampires emerged, started to run in the direction of the Great Hall, up the ramp and out of the coven, led by Constanta. Vasile, at the front, heard the scream from the tunnel were he led, and he turned and rushed against the panicked stream of human bodies that ran upwards and out.
The sound and commotion below distracted the soldiers, who turned and aimed their weapons into the crater. Fane realized that this was a perfect opportunity. He ordered his two companions, “Now!” and the three of them ran at the soldiers.
The soldiers were taken by surprise by the attack. In one moment three soldiers all had vampires perched upon them—the massive weight of these bodies pushing them to the ground while feet stood upon their waist and the arms wrapped their shoulders. The vampires didn’t have time to drain the blood. Instead, they reached through the armor to find a bit of neck between the seams. The bit at the flesh and pulled it away with their teeth. Spurts of blood spilled out of the soldiers as they dropped to the ground, and the vampires began to run before any of the soldiers could raise their guns and aim.
Fane hesitated. As he looked down into the crater, only now did he realize what damage had been done. He saw that the crater had exposed their main room to the sunlight. But what most drew his attention was Vasile entering the Great Hall.
Cornel was the first soldier to react to the attack. He picked up the large axe that rested at his side and swung it around directly into the chest of one of the vampires that tried to escape. Between the velocity that Cornel imparted to his axe, and the momentum of the vampire’s mad dash away, the axe was lodged deep in the vampire’s chest, piercing through his rib cage and slicing open his lungs. A fine spatter of blood was thrown into the air and Cornel turned to avoid it. Blood continued to pour out of the great wound onto his chest as Cornel struggled to remove the axe. More blood poured into the vampire’s lungs drowning him from within. When Cornel finally dislodged the axe, the vampire, collapsed to the ground.
Cornel next tried to attack Fane, since the third vampire had already escaped, but Fane leapt out of his reach, leaping into the crater in front of him. Cornel pursued indirectly, by running around to the coven entrance, but he trailed far behind.
Fane seemed to float to the ground as he arced through the air towards Vasile. He landed within steps of Vasile, who was running away into the tunnel. Fane reached forward grabbing Vasile from behind and took him in his arms. He opened his mouth, preparing to take Vasile’s life.
Fane couldn’t just give Vasile the quickest possible death. He had to savor it. The hunter that had plagued the coven for years was in his arms, and he would take the opportunity to drain him from the neck. He forced Vasile to the ground, discovering that the old hunter was uncommonly fast and strong. But Fane was finally able to latch his mouth onto that pale neck and drink his blood. He relished the long gulps, even as the soldiers from above tried to fire down upon him, even as an arrow was lodged in his back and a bit of metal ripped through his shoulder. Finished, he tossed the pallid body aside and ran towards his vampire companions to help them push the humans back into their place.
As he approached the vampires, he saw a sight he never thought he’d see. A tiny vampire—still the size of a youngster, not even fully grown—crawled over the top of the crowd and dived on all three of the vampires. Two of them she so forcefully threw against the wall that they fell limp to the ground, and she latched onto the neck of the third and eagerly drained his blood. After the tiny vampire was finished, she looked up, and Fane saw the radiant face of Lina, savage and bloody.
Fane sensed that he couldn’t overpower her. He turned around and ran from her, but she darted after him. Fane had never known a young vampire to be so fast. She caught up to him within moments. The two of them chased across the Great Hall and Lina grabbed him by the cloak and shoved him against the wall just behind the throne. The soldiers directly over their head looked down at them, and she shouted up at them, “Don’t shoot.”
Lina held Fane there, staring into his eyes. He couldn’t free himself from her iron grip as much as he tried, as much as he struggled. He turned away from her in anticipation of her bite, but instead she said to him, “Help me kill Asha and rescue Vad, and I’ll let you live.”
At that moment a loud cluster of gunfire was heard from above. A shout of, “We got the other one,” could be heard. The third vampire sentry had been laid to the ground with several individual pieces of shot lodged in his chest. Fane looked at Lina and he nodded.
Lina led the way through the Great Hall, grabbing Fane by the hand. The humans of the pen were now in full flight, and the great masses of them poured out in a panic. Lina and Fane had to fight with difficulty against the crowd, though people tried to keep away from these two black-cloaked vampires approaching them.
When they found the three vampires that Lina had left behind, she pulled them aside into a room, out of the way of the stream of people. Lina bent down finished off the two other
s by draining their blood.
Fane watched her with a feeling of horror and disgust. What she was doing was something that a vampire was not supposed to do.
After she’d drunk her fill, she leaned back and took a long gratified breath, relaxing from her feast. The way that the blood of the vampires, freshly plucked from their bodies, seemed to engorge her strength was intoxicating. It felt like the intermingled blood flowed through her body in a river of lightning; felt like the humming of her life force was amplified to the ear-splitting volume of a thousand barrels of gunpowder ignited at once; felt like her body was on the verge of transforming into flames. She took many long moments to savor the sensation of the blood within her before she stood up and looked at Fane.
“Vad’s in his room,” Lina said to Fane after a moment’s pause, “I expect that’s where we’ll find Asha too.”
Lina and Fane exited into the hall. The last of the humans were trickling out of the caves, trying to catch up with the crowds that were ahead of them.
Lina walked to the door with the galloping horse carved into its surface and, finding it unlocked, slowly opened it. The daylight that she permitted into the room as she opened the door was the only illumination. It revealed the supine vampire there, tied to his own bed and covered in clotted blood and endless wounds.
Lina ran forward to help, grabbing his head and speaking directly at him: “We’ll get you out of here. You’re going to be alright.” Her words had a certain tender quality, a certain faltering and weakness to them as she spoke.
Her attention was diverted by a dark shadow emerging from the toilet compartment. The shadow spoke her name in a whisper, “Lina.”
Suddenly, Lina was blind-sided by Eta, who leapt at her from behind the bed. Eta pushed Lina out of the room, gripping her neck and pushing her backwards. Eta tried to bite Lina’s neck, but Lina pushed her away. Eta began to grapple with Fane. Asha emerged from the room and grabbed Lina by the neck. She lifted her up, squeezing the breath out of her with her crushing grip.
“It really wasn’t fair that Vad should have had to die in your place. What type of vile thing are you that you should make others be punished for your transgressions? What type of monster are you?” Asha hissed and screeched.
Fane had to knock Eta to the ground, where she lay motionless and unconscious, before he could spring to Lina’s aid. He grabbed Asha and shoved her into the room. Lina took a gasping breath after she was released. Asha reemerged, turning towards Lina and Fane, who both backed away towards the Great Hall.
Asha was ready to lunge at them when a crossbow bolt lodged itself into the back of her thigh. Her step faltered and she turned to see Anton raising his second crossbow and aiming. Before she could lunge, he planted another bolt in her side below the rib cage. The bolt stuck through her, emerging out the other side, and she screamed with pain.
She ran for Anton, shouting, “You don’t shoot at me,” while Anton frantically scrambled to reload one of his crossbows. She was upon Anton within a moment, toppling him over and opening her mouth to bite, but Lina knocked her from on top of him. Asha rolled across the ground, quickly springing to her feet. Lina stood between her and Anton.
“You’re not going to survive,” Asha told Lina, like one cautioning a friend, “Even with their help, you’re not going to survive. You were never meant to survive. Vad was supposed to bring you as food and as the mother of another generation of food. If only he’d done what he was supposed to, we wouldn’t have to be here.”
Asha tried to attack Lina, but seriously underestimated her. Lina was able to dodge, leaping out of the way and pushing Asha aside.
As she turned back and looked at Lina she could see what she had noticed before without really thinking through its meaning: Lina’s face was gorgeous, as beautiful as a vampire approaching their first century, and, with vampires, beauty always comes with strength. Asha approached more slowly this time, waiting for just the right moment to attack, eyeing her options. She also kept an ear open for Fane, who lingered behind her and tried to keep Lina between her and Anton, who had one crossbow loaded and was trying to fire a shot.
In these tense moments of stillness, Eta, beginning to recover, stood up on her feet. She saw Lina nearest her, and shaking the haziness from her head, she lunged at her. Lina heard her before the attack arrived and turned to Eta. She reacted so swiftly that she was able to lift Eta and throw her directly at Asha. Asha ducked out of the way and Eta landed at Fane’s feet. Fane tossed Eta out into the Great Hall, into the daylight. Eta was only lightly dressed and she felt the piercing burn of the sunlight as her skin began to redden. Her suffering didn’t last, since as soon as the soldiers above caught sight of her, they launched several shots and arrows at her, killing her in moments.
Asha used this momentary distraction as an opportunity to attack, her body on top of Lina in a flash. Fane was instantly there to try and rescue Lina, but Asha was now ready for him. She kicked Fane off of her, still maintaining her hold on Lina, whom she held by the neck with one hand. When Anton shot, she ducked to avoid it, the bolt flying over her head and rattling to the ground. She continued to hold onto Lina, who vainly struggled to free herself.
As Asha held Lina to the ground, firmly gripping her neck, Lina felt for the knife that Anton had given her. It had fallen to the ground at her side. When she felt it at her fingertips, she pulled it in and put her hand around the handle. She lifted it up and swung it in Asha’s direction, tearing a slash across Asha’s chest. Asha cried out with pain, and Lina pushed her away with her feet. Asha didn’t let go of Lina’s neck easily, leaving five deep scratches around the side as her nails dug into the skin.
With Asha now upright, Anton launched another bolt from his crossbow at her chest, planting it in her rib cage. She screeched with pain, but instead of faltering, she hissed at them, “When are you going to realize that these tiny pinpricks aren’t going to kill me?”
Fane grabbed Asha from behind, wrapping his arms around her neck. He pulled her, dragging her feet along the floor towards the daylight in the Great Hall. She pushed Fane’s arms away and knocked him to the ground, but Lina was there to immediately further Fane’s attempt. With all her strength, she shoved Asha towards the light. Asha toppled over Fane and landed on her back with her face staring directly up into the sunlight. It painfully burned her skin, and even in the seconds of exposure her face received, it was already bright red.
Asha hastily sat up, escaping into the shadows. But Lina didn’t let up, leaping at Asha and kicking her whole body into the light. The burns only escalated, now covering all of Asha’s exposed skin, the color rapidly darkening.
Though Asha squealed with pain, she still attempted to rise and save herself. But before she could sit up an axe stroke swung down upon her neck and silenced her. Lina looked up and saw Cornel standing over Asha. Her beautiful head was now separated from her body. Cornel’s axe was stuck deep in the stone floor between Asha’s torso and head, and he was rocking it back and forth trying to dislodge it.
“Thank you,” Lina said looking up at the burly blacksmith that hovered over her.
Cornel simply nodded his head and said, “Nothing to it, ma’am.”
Blood poured from out of the neck, and Lina looked down on it hungrily. Unable to restrain herself she bent down and began sucking what blood remained out of Asha’s body, even lapping up the blood from the floor. Cornel turned away in revulsion, and many of the soldiers that looked down from above emitted groans of disgust. But Lina ignored them, relishing in the unparalleled taste of Asha’s aged blood.
The intoxicating feeling of the vampire blood set fire to her heart and filled her with pleasure. She felt like an angel dancing on the surface of the sun. She felt like she could leap high enough to shatter the crystal spheres of heaven. Her body felt alive, like it had been metamorphosed into light and flame and was ready to zip across the sky like a falling star. After she finished, she lay back in the shadows and stared up at the ceiling.
When Lina stood up, she felt light-headed and realized how tired she really was. Quietly she went into Vad’s room, untied him from the bed, and carried him back into the darkness. Fane followed, and they walked into the pen.
Lina found Ada in Dragomir’s former room. She’d organized the pots that she could salvage just outside of it, and was reclining on his bed. When Vad arrived, he was given the bed, and Lina began to nurse him back to health.
Anton, as he was leaving the pen, saw the corpse of Vasile, awkwardly sprawled across the floor of the Great Hall and threw himself upon him. He cried softly as Cornel came over to comfort him and help him properly remove the frail body.
Anton and the soldiers were told by Lina to leave the vampire dead. The remaining vampires would clean them up themselves. The soldiers took their own dead, including Vasile, with them and headed back to Vallaya, with now a giant crowd of dazed, sickly, pallid people walking beside them.
Anton ran all the way home with Constanta on his shoulders. The rest of the crowd, as well as his father, lagged behind. When he arrived home, his mother was out in the fields.
When she saw Anton and Constanta jogging towards her, she ran out to greet her children. She shouted the name of her daughter with arms outstretched, and Anton placed her daughter into her arms. Viorica wanted to hug her until her muscles ached and her eyes hurt with crying.
“Where’s your father?” Viorica asked.
“The old man’s slow,” Anton laughed, “He’ll be here in a few minutes.”
She breathed a sigh of relief and took her daughter inside, ready to pamper her with every indulgence, and thinking that she would never let the girl go further than an arm’s breadth away from her as long as she should live.
Shortly thereafter, Anton went to visit Andrei to tell him the good and the bad of the day’s events, but when he went to visit the quiet shop and pounded on the door, there was no one there to answer.
Elixir of Flesh Page 66