Elixir of Flesh

by Joseph Kranak

  * * *

  After the sun sank over the horizon and the stars appeared in the sky, after the candle that Ileana kept by Andrei’s bedside so that she might keep her all-night vigil beside him had burned down to its nub, Ileana began to drift off into sleep. She sat in a chair beside the bed, and as the night wore on and a day of attentive worrying took its tool, she sank into the chair and fell asleep.

  Andrei could hear her faint snore, and he took the opportunity to silently slip out of bed, sliding across the bed beneath the sheets and touching his feet to the ground. He grabbed some clothing from his wardrobe, gave his wife one last kiss and tiptoed downstairs.

  He still felt some of the weakness of illness, and decided to raid his stash of vampire wares to fortify himself, sneaking into his own store and grabbing several containers off the shelf. He wolfed down all he could stuff into his mouth, with only a little bit of water to wash it down. For reasons that seemed inexplicable to him, he actually enjoyed the taste. Before the vampire wares were an unpleasant medicine he’d hold his nose and swallow down; now they tasted like ambrosia.

  He put on a dark heavy cloak and found some of Vasile’s arms—two crossbows and two knives—and he took them with him as he walked out the back door of his shop.

  Andrei turned back to say his last goodbye to his home and business. The solid walls and sturdy new back door stood like a bulwark against the night. After a moment’s look he turned around and walked into the forest.

  He had learned from Anton and Vasile approximately where the coven was located, and he strode in that direction, slowly passing through the trees. He could feel the last remnants of sickness leaving his body as he breathed in the cool air of the night and he basked in the darkness.

  After a long walk through the woods, he arrived at the crater. He stood at the edge and looked inside. Aside from the obvious destruction—the hole in the ground and the fallen columns and fractured walls—there were few remnants of the battle that had taken place: some arrows and crossbow bolts lay on the ground next to bullet holes and bloodstains, but there were no bodies. All of the bodies had been cleared away, making it look like a deathless battle.

  Andrei found the entrance that led down into the coven. He didn’t know if he would find the remaining vampires there, but it seemed unlikely they would be able to find another place. He doubted there were any other caves of sufficient size for more than fifty leagues from there.

  He entered the remnants of the Great Hall, which was now bathed in moonlight and still bore traces of its former splendor. He stole a torch from one of the walls and was able to light it using a small fire he built on the floor. He entered the hall and began, one after another, to open each door, to inspect it to make sure no vampires were hiding inside, and to move on to the next.

  The vampire’s wealth was on clear display in these rooms: the luxurious beds, the beautiful decorations and the elegant furniture. He didn’t know for sure, but could only assume that these fineries were the result of generations of raids, stealing the wealth of the aristocracy, perhaps in exchange for (or in addition to) their blood. But Andrei found no vampires in these rooms. In fact, most of them looked undisturbed, as if the occupant was simply stepping out for a few moments and would be returning shortly.

  When Andrei arrived at the barred room, he realized that this must be where the humans were kept. He entered the kitchen, which was empty and looked like an unremarkable room. He saw the door to the pen, and fortunately found it unlocked.

  What opened up for him on the other side were only more caves, extending further and deeper into the underground. The quality of the caves had clearly changed. For one, the smell was not as pleasant, and for another the caves appeared poor and dirty.

  He continued walking cautiously, though now the caves began to branch out in multiple directions, and it became more difficult to follow where he was. After some aimless wandering, he realized that he would have to mark his way. He used a stone to mark on the floor with an X sections he’d travelled through, and marked arrows on the wall to indicate which passages he’d travelled down. He became aware that he had been walking in circles, since rooms connected back to other rooms that connected back to the first via branching passages that led back to where he’d arrived. It took a great many trials and wanderings before he was able to narrow down the places where he’d been and find new rooms to explore.

  His explorations were eventually successful, and he saw a dim light in the distance. He snuffed his torch and walked in the direction of the light. His eyes were surprisingly capable in the darkness, and as he was able to see everything clearly, even in the light of a distant candle.

  He tiptoed slowly, raising one of his crossbows in preparation. He turned a corner and could see the candlelight through the open doorway of a room. He walked to the doorway, and once the interior of the room became visible, he could see the unmistakable form of three vampires inside talking with one another.

  Two of the vampires he could only see obliquely, but he had a clear view of Lina. She was assisting one vampire, who was lying on the bed, and speaking with another.

  Andrei decided to kill Lina first, since she was the one he least wanted to kill. Better to do the hardest task first. He pointed his crossbow at Lina, took aim and let the bolt fly.

  Andrei was a poor shot with the crossbow and only managed to lodge the crossbow bolt in Lina’s upper arm. It caused her to leap with surprise, as she once again felt the pain of that familiar wound.

  However, this time, unlike the first time she had been shot, she did not feel so helpless. It only took her a moment to look out the door and identify the source of the arrow: an indeterminate shadow that stood just outside the room. The first suspicion that crossed through her mind was that it was Ada, since she was the only one of the four of them not present in the room at the moment. She ran towards the shadow and knocked it to the ground with her shoulders. Andrei had just fired the second crossbow bolt, and it harmlessly soared over her head. She pinned and restrained him on the ground with her knees and finally had a chance to see the face.

  “Andrei?” She blurted out.

  He looked up at her pathetically as she grabbed the arrow that was in her and pulled it out with a profound wince of pain, leaking some of her blood onto her arm and onto Andrei.

  “Why are you here?” she asked, “Why are you shooting at me?” Andrei struggled to breathe a bit under the great weight of Lina’s body pressed down against him, and he gave her no response, keeping his mouth stubbornly closed.

  “Something’s different,” she noted. She took several sniffs, leaning close to his body and taking in his aroma. “You’re a vampire,” she said, “I can smell it. You’re infected.”

  “It’s true,” he nodded, the sad look on his face only intensifying.

  “What are you doing here, then?”

  “I’ve come to kill you, all of you,” Andrei admitted. Fane and Ada were both hovering over Lina as he spoke, “It looks like I’ve failed.”

  “Why?” Ada asked on behalf of the others.

  “To put an end to the infection,” he said, “I would’ve killed myself after I killed you all. I have nothing but repugnance at the thought of living the rest of my life as a vampire.”

  Lina looked up at her two companions. Neither of them knew Andrei as anything but the man who made and sold vampire wares, and they were looking at her, wondering why she hadn’t killed him already.

  Lina looked back at Andrei and asked, “What would you do, if we let you go now?”

  “I’d kill you,” he admitted.

  “Even if we just spared your life? Even after all I’ve done for you? Does all of that mean nothing?” Lina asked.

  “It doesn’t matter what you do,” Andrei shouted, “Your body gives sanctuary to the infection. That’s all that matters.”

  Lina grew quiet and once again stared despondently at Fane and Ada. They were growing impatient now. To them it seemed
Andrei had given them every reason to end his life.

  After many long moments of hesitation she leaned down to bite his neck. She whispered something in his ear before she bit. “I would’ve paid you back tenfold for what you’ve done for me,” she whispered, “If you could just join with us.”

  She still waited for him to say something, but he remained silent. She finally opened her mouth and bit. She drained and drank the blood, while Fane and Ada looked on. Andrei groaned with pain at the first bite, but as his body was sapped, he settled into death, closing his eyes and passing into unconsciousness.

  Lina cut herself off in the middle of the process, realizing that she should share her boon, and dragged the still living body to Vad’s bedside. She woke Vad from a slumber and coaxed him to take a drink fresh from Andrei’s neck. It took him a moment to realize whom he was drinking from, and he pulled away and looked at the face, saying, “Andrei? How did you get him here?”

  Lina let Ada and Fane finish Andrei off, and last of all, the deceased corpse was handed over to Ada, who began to prepare it for processing.

  “It’s not a bad way to go is it?” Lina asked to no one in particular, “To die by having your blood drained. Probably something like drifting off into sleep.”

  As Ada stripped off Andrei’s clothes and shaved off the hair, Lina asked her, “How much food do we have? I mean, how long will it last the four of us?”

  “If it was the whole coven of sixty-one vampires, what we have might last three or four weeks. So, I would imagine that, for just the four of us, it would last a year or more.”

  “Then what?” Lina asked.

  “That’s a long way off,” Ada said, laughing slightly, “We needn’t worry about that for a while.”

  “We’ll have to do something for food then. What’ll we do?” Lina repeated her question.

  “I suppose we’ll have to hunt for more food,” Ada said. Lina nodded in agreement. She returned to Vad’s bedside and to the process of nursing him back to health.

  * * *

  Ileana made no effort to search for her husband after she found him missing the next day. On his own, Anton tracked Andrei’s path through the woods, but when he saw Andrei’s footprints descending into the cave, he pursued no further.

  They both attended the funeral for Vasile and the other soldiers and both had their chance to say goodbye. They lay Vasile’s remaining weapons with his body, a longbow with arrows resting on top of his chest, a crossbow at his feet and a dagger beside him. After solemn words, they carried the four coffins down into the crypt. The four coffins were pushed into separate slots within the walls of the crypt beside other former members of the convent, where they would be left to wait until the End of Days, their names and dates chiseled into the stone.

  Ileana never remarried, but she was joined by Nicoleta, who left the convent and was adopted into Ileana’s household. She brought in Anton as a business partner. Their first step was to liquidate their stock of vampire wares. Once this was spent, they removed the “Apothecary and Vampire Wares” sign that swung in front of the shop and replaced it with a smaller sign that simply read “Apothecary.”

  ###

  Discover Other Works by Joseph Kranak

  Mr. Eberling's Son

  The Aresan Clan

  The History of a Secret

  Delicate Wedding

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