by CK Dawn
Well, at least there’s one monument unscathed by the scorch. The sudden realization wrenched her away from her thoughts. “What the...where the hell have you taken me? Where’s the Spree?” Chloe’s heart began to beat faster and faster She felt like a caged animal, trapped in a sadistic carnival, with no way to escape.
Mordecai rushed her with the speed and power of a hurricane and grabbed her arms. “This is the part where you’ll want to run. Don’t!”
“Let go of me!” She spat. Her hair had blown back from his lightning fast speed.
“I will, but you need to calm yourself right now!” Mordecai scanned the grand room. Several hungry-looking vampires quickly looked away, avoiding eye contact, as his challenging master vampire glare passed over them.
“Don’t try to compel me.” Chloe frantically threatened between anxious gasps of air.
“I have no intention of compelling you if you contain your fear this very instant.” Mordecai took a breath and calmed himself as well, letting go of her arms, and tugging down the hem of his suit. “Most of the frenzied sharks here are civilized, and respect your humble bodyguard.” He tried giving her a reassuring wink at his self-imposed title, though the worry on his face overpowered it. “But when your heart starts beating out of your chest, it’s like chumming the water, and you might as well be ringing the dinner bell. Feral instincts become uncontrollably...aroused, and I know you don’t want that kind of attention.”
“No.” Chloe agreed.
“No.” Mordecai concurred, took Chloe’s free hand, and surprisingly, she let him. “Just breathe. Slow and steady. That’s it, good.” He guided her away from their central location in the massive room, towards the perimeter --a more defensible position-- and where the wall of red doors was located. “Crimson Hollow isn’t exactly a static place in your world. You’re thinking too much like a human, too linear. Here, let me show you.” One by one, Mordecai proudly opened the red doors to the world outside. “Paris, London, New York, and my personal favorite...Rome.” He took a moment to look at the last city on display. Saddened by what stared back at him, Mordecai’s frame slumped as he lingered in the doorway to Italy’s Eternal City.
The destruction was eerily reminiscent to Seattle. She remembered the sad remains of the Space Needle, once a towering beacon in the skyline of her home, now reduced to nothing more than a broken twig, bent in half, dangling down, the remnants of its stub billowing with smoke and death. Her thoughts trailed to the other ruined landmarks she and Bram passed on their way to the Spree. She had been consumed with an anger and fear she had never known, as they navigated the scabs. She was glad most of the scabs were gone now. Even if it took killing Mordecai’s second Osiris to do so. In Rome, Chloe glimpsed familiar piles of rock and ruble littering the streets, and residual black smoke billowing from hollowed out husks of buildings. Rome’s ancient ruins were now mirrored by their once modern-day counterparts reduced to shells themselves. The world’s entire landscape was forever changed by the scorch and what the royals had done to it. But there in the distance still stood the Colosseum. It warmed Chloe’s heart and gave her some semblance of hope that life would go on.
“And the Spree?” Chloe hated interrupting whatever thought or memory had the master vampire transfixed on Rome, but she had to know.
“Should be opening to us in about an hour, right up there.” Mordecai let the door to Rome close and pointed to a grand black marble staircase leading to the second floor. It was massive, like a giant sleeping dragon coiling up and around until coming to rest at a landing of the floor above.
“The Spree, should be opening?” Chloe questioned.
“Mm,” was all the response he would give. He was still lost in his thoughts somewhere.
“And if it doesn’t?”
Mordecai scoffed. “Then I guess I’ll be calling in a few more favors…” He looked her in the eyes then. “Just for you, grandmother. And then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow the damned Mirror down!”
Chloe remained silent and still. Giving the master vampire time to cool down seemed like a good self-preservation tactic. She looked around the room instead. Everyone she guessed had once been human looked so normal, so...alive, even as they feasted on blood. She imagined walking past them on a street and knew she wouldn’t have given any of them a second glance as being anything other than mortal, with heartbeats, and skin warm to the touch. Then there were the devastatingly beautiful ones she deducted had to be fae vampires. They seemed to fit into the fae category of being too vain to appear so ordinary, or maybe, they were simply born that exquisite. She wondered if they were glamoured, hiding their more fae-esque features like the pointed ears all the other fae castes she’d encountered seemed to have. They blended in with their human-turned brothers and sisters, but only just. And none presented the crazed hunger she thought they would. She shook her head in disbelief and whispered to herself. “He lied.”
“Hmm?” Mordecai was pulled from his thoughts.
“All these half-bloods, er, humans turned vampires are not what I expected.”
“Dusk bloods.” Mordecai corrected.
“Sorry. Dusk bloods.” It was Chloe’s turn to become quiet, lost in her own thoughts, thinking back on what Bram had told her happened to humans when turned into vampires. He made her believe they became nothing more than bloodthirsty monsters. “Bram acted like if a human were to be turned, they’d only be one step above scabs on an evolutionary scale.” She shrugged. “Something like that, mindless, blinded by bloodlust. But...they’re not.” She looked up at Mordecai in disbelief. “He lied.”
“It’s not a lie if he believes it to be true...they all do.”
Chloe gave him a questioning look.
“That lie, hiding dusk bloods in plain sight, has kept them and this place safe for centuries. If the other Fae Castes knew the truth, they would have annihilated all of this long ago.” He scoffed under his breath. “They almost did.”
“Seems like a pretty big secret you’re entrusting me with. How do you know you can trust me?”
“I don’t.” Mordecai smiled at her. “But I choose to, otherwise I wouldn’t have brought you here.” A devious glint reached his eyes. “That, or I can always just kill you.”
4
If at Fae You Don’t Succeed
“Something’s wrong. Nothing’s happening.” Chloe’s heart began to quicken. She couldn’t help it.
“So I see.” Mordecai said through gritted teeth, reacting to her heightened emotions.
“The Mirror...it’s not opening!”
“I know!” The master vampire hissed and squeezed down on Chloe’s hand hard.
“Ouch! That hurt you asshole!”
“Good! Get angry, pissed at me, whatever...anything but freaked out with that damned fear coming off of you like sexual pheromones, or you’re going to get us both killed.” The master vampire straightened his tie and cleared his throat. “I need a drink. Do you need a drink?” He didn’t wait for Chloe to answer before he started walking up the black marble staircase, passed where the portal should have been on the landing, and disappeared.
Chloe followed after him, grasping the black sculpted banister as she went up the grand staircase. The large round ball atop the handrail twisted round in her hand with a screech. She wondered how many decades it had taken to make such a formidable thing wear down and move from shear use alone.
“Scotch, rocks, nothing under fifty.” Mordecai was already sitting at a long mahogany bar with his back to her.
“Macallan okay?” A tall burly bartender asked.
“Perfect.” Mordecai’s velvety voice answered. He seemed pleased with the expensive sounding libation. Chloe sat down beside him at the bar. “Best make it red...and a double.” He added in response to her presence.
“You got it.”
“Funny, being a master vampire and all, I thought you’d be more of a ‘shaken not stirred’ kind of guy.” Chloe provoked.
“C
ute.” Mordecai’s tone was short.
“A shaken martini is sacrilege. And what did good gin ever do to that Bond boy anyway?” The bartender rolled his eyes and began mumbling under his breath. “Vodka martini. Psh!”
Mordecai chuckled and tapped his fingers silently on the bar top. “You do realize your reference makes you my love interest who almost always ends up dying in the end, right?”
“I, uh...” Chloe was caught off guard.
“Ooh shall we give you one of those hilariously ridiculous names as well? What’ll it be? Gimme Grief? Frida Fearsalot?” Mordecai teased.
“Don’t-Know-Drinks Diddly?” The bartender chimed in.
“Okay, okay, touché.” Chloe surrendered, feeling ganged up on.
“Horseman Hottie?” The bartender added unprompted.
Mordecai shot him a disapproving look.
The vampire behind the regal tavern-style bar dropped his head in submission. Chloe watched as he began pouring the aged scotch into a crystal rocks glass over a large sphere of dark red ice. The sphere spun as the scotch drizzled over it, taking with it some of the melting ice, and creating swirling colors of amber and red. Chloe took one guess at what the sphere of red actually was. “Well that’s something you don’t see every day.”
“Care for one?” Mordecai tipped his glass and laughed at the horrified expression she was giving him. “Minus the frozen AB negative of course.”
“No thanks.”
“Suit yourself, but I’m not letting a $30,000 bottle of scotch, let alone the rarest blood type from your realm, go to waste.”
“$37,000.” The bartender corrected.
Mordecai pointed to the man in agreement, downed his drink, and poured himself another.
“Do we have a plan?” Chloe whispered. She felt stuck and at Mordecai’s mercy, but she wasn’t about to let her fear surface again.
“I always have a plan. I just don’t like the plan.” He downed another drink. “Bean?”
“Yes, boss.” The bartender answered.
Mordecai poured another shot of the Macallan. “Have you seen the Moirai sisters?”
“I’m sure they’re skulking around here somewhere.” Bean’s tone instantly turned to one of worry. “Why?”
“Tell them I’ve decided to grant their request, then bring them to me.”
“Boss...are you sure?”
“Yep, ‘fraid so.”
Bean reluctantly walked downstairs without another word in search of the Moirai sisters.
“What was that all about?” Chloe’s curiosity was piqued. She remembered the name Moirai from her Greek Mythology class and wondered if these sisters had anything to do with the legend, or were the actual Fates themselves.
“You don’t get to ask such things of me.” Mordecai was staring straight ahead, his jaw tense.
“Why not?”
“Because you’ve made it abundantly clear that we aren’t friends...we aren’t anything! So until we are, or you at least stop looking at me like I’m some vile three-headed monster all I want to hear from you is thank you! A simple ‘thank you, Mordecai, for getting the Mirror open’ will suffice upon my return.”
“Where are you going? You can’t leave me here…”
“Bean will watch over you while I’m gone. Won’t you, Bean?”
“Sure thing, boss.” The bartender said, stepping back behind the bar without making a single sound.
Chloe hadn’t even heard him come back up the steps. She looked at him then. He was giant and had to be at least six foot seven. “Bean as in Jack and the Beanstalk?” She didn’t wait for his affirmation. “Clever.”
“I thought so.” Bean poured Mordecai another drink in his awaiting glass.
“I won’t be long.” The master vampire said, downing his drink as fast as it would slide down his throat.
“At least an hour.” A female’s voice purred from downstairs.
Chloe heard the banister’s round marble final screech as someone stepped onto the staircase.
“No, two.” Came a second sultry woman’s voice, only this time, they were closer.
“Mm, better make it three.” Identical triplets had finished each other’s sentences and appeared at the top of the polished black staircase and stood all in a row.
“Speaking of three heads.” Mordecai spat under his breath.
The three freckled nose redheads were dressed all in white, completely monochromatic from their crisp fitted dress shirts with French cuffs, to their pleated miniskirts, all the way down to their knee high socks. Their shoes however were glossy black platform Mary Jane stilettos, which made them at least six feet tall. The fiery haired temptresses were in their mid-twenties and wielded full pouty red lips. The only thing differentiating them were their hairstyles. One wore her hair long --wavy and seductive, the second had playful pigtails, and the third wore fiery locks tightly slicked back into a bun at the nape of her neck. Chloe wondered if the slight difference depicted their personality traits somehow.
The Moirai sisters went to Mordecai and fawned over him, one on each arm, while the third loosened his tie and unbuttoned his jacket.
“You’re a pretty thing.” One of the sister’s addressed Chloe.
“Care to join us?” Another of them asked her.
“That’s highly unlikely. Besides, I don’t like to share.” Mordecai kissed one of the sisters on the pulse at her neck, but he was looking straight at Chloe when he said it. “Bean, our mortal guest’s tastes run a little more...tame, I’d wager. A warm bottle of milk perhaps instead?” He gave Chloe an evil smirk.
The three sisters giggled and took turns mocking her innocence.
“Too bad. Such a pity.”
“And so pretty. Are you sure,”
“You won’t come play with us?”
“I’m sure.” Chloe gave them a condescending smile.
The triplets shrugged and led Mordecai down a long dark hallway. They disappeared out of sight, presumably towards a bedroom, and thankfully, out of Chloe’s mortal earshot.
Bean watched her from his station behind the bar as he polished glasses with a white linen cloth. Chloe just sat there, staring behind her down at the row of bright red doors that led to cities around the world. When would she ever get another chance to simply walk through a door and be in Paris or New York? I’m never going to see Italy again! She thought, reminiscing about her high school graduation present from her parents and how impossible human powered travel was going to be for a long time to come. Her thoughts wandered to Mary and the Spree. If Avery was willing to devastate her world’s entire civilization in an attempt to rule, what was she capable of doing out of retaliation and anger? Images of dead witches and bloody and broken familiars littering the Spree’s cobblestone streets invaded her mind. The powerful Hilgrid, defeated, and her cat Bast’s tiny lifeless body loyally remaining at her feet was more than Chloe could bear. It made her want to throw up. She took small semblance of comfort knowing Tenebris was alive, hoping he’d be able to lead her to whatever the Hamadryad Forest was and to Mary somehow. But first she needed to get to the Spree.
Chloe got up and placed the iron toolbox on the bar top with a loud clunk. She knew taking possession of the sword again was probably a bad idea, even if it’d only be for a little while. She didn’t care. Three hours! She scoffed to herself. Chloe hated waiting around, feeling helpless. She just wanted out of Crimson Hollow and whatever vile things Mordecai was doing with the Moirai sisters. Without another thought, she opened the lid, grabbed the sheathed sword handle, and strapped it to her thigh before heading for the staircase.
“Where are you going?” Bean asked after her.
“When in Rome!” She shouted from over her shoulder. Power from the Horseman blade surrounded her, encouraging her forward with it at her side. Waves of emotions, from anticipation and excitement, to rage, rained down on her. She kept walking.
“Wait. What? I thought you were going to just stay here.”
�
�You thought wrong. I’d rather take my chances out there amongst the humans than sit in a mansion full of feasting vampires for three hours.”
“I can’t let you go.” Bean was already right beside her, walking with her down the steps.
She knew she wouldn’t be rid of him, but she wasn’t staying either. “Well, I guess you’re coming with me then.”
“No, you’re staying put.” But he kept pace with her as they descended the stairs.
Chloe stopped mid stride. “Can you even go out in the daylight?” She glanced at his ears and truly looked at him for the first time, wondering what kind of vampire he was, and if he was glamoured. Had he once been human, or was he fae? With Bean, she wasn’t sure.
“Of course I can go out during the day.” Bean seemed offended. “There are ways around such things, even for dusk bloods. It’d be a dead giveaway for us otherwise. Literally.”
“You don’t say? Huh, learn something new every day.” Chloe started walking again. “You know you pretty much just admitted that you weren’t going to stop me, right?”
“Shit.” Bean grumbled.
Chloe looked back at him from the base of the steps. “So? Come on. Andiamo!”
“How the heck is that still working?!” Bean asked, looking at one of Rome’s water fountains, pulling Chloe’s attention away from the disappearing Gothic red door that every human walking by was oblivious to.
She made a mental note of its location incase things got hairy and she needed to know where to look for the hidden doorway. She and Bean fazed into the city without a single glance from mortals, walked down the street, and away from the invisible Crimson Hollow.
Bean was still staring at the cast iron cylinder jutting up out of the ground, apparently confused by the idea there could be any running water, let alone gallons of it flowing so freely.
“The nasoni? They’re all over the city.” Chloe watched as Roman citizens took turns filling bottles and buckets from the cast iron fountain, taking them back to their homes, and shelters. “The fresh spring water comes in from the mountains above the city.”