by T S Paul
“Activate our people in the OSS. Have them check border crossings and any recent activity in Canada or Mexico. Anastasia may have left the country already. The new customs sensors may have caught her leaving,” Marcella ordered.
“Understood. I’ll put my best people on it right away.” Robert stepped away from the table and over to a computer console.
Chapter 12
Vampires. The man I trusted the most in my young life sold me to Vampires.
Thinking back through the depths of time, I can remember my confusion and disbelief even now.
Every Roman child knew that monsters existed. Our Gods and our leaders taught us this. But my tutor had said that Odysseus and Hercules were but myths. According to him, real monsters were evil men that stole children from their beds. Even the slaves knew of this. Evil men were what we really feared, not the things that caused bumps in the night.
Strigoi! That is what the slaves in Stari Ras called them. Within Vampire society it was a derogative term. I was beaten more than once for daring to use it. I cried, I pled innocence, and I prayed to the Gods of my father for someone to save me. No one came... and no one cared. I was a thing. A toy to be played with and abused. Suppressing a very faint shudder, I remembered.
The voices had been demanding. They pulled from me everything Demetrius taught me from politics to the way the legions were paid. Their questions seemed never-ending. My entire life lay bare before them as answer after answer poured forth from my lips. Try as I might I couldn’t stop talking. Eventually, they ran out of questions and my tongue, moisture. Large hands caught me before my head hit the floor.
“Take her below to the pens. Instruct Varro she is to be cared for, but no feeding. She is not to be included as part of the rotation. We may need her alive. Much of the human world is controlled by the use of leverage over each other. If the Emperor wishes her death, she may be of some use yet to us. Send out scouts. We must understand this new Emperor called Hadrian. Balance must be kept, and the city protected. Do you understand?”
As I lay on the floor, I could see both my captors nod. Whoever this voice was, he held great power. Blinking, I tried to clear the dust and tears from my eyes. The men scooped me up and returned to dragging me. I barely had time to catch my breath.
“Who are you? Why are you hurting me?” I cried to the large men who dragged me further into the underground city.
The man on the left paused stretching me like a chicken wing. “Shut your mouth, and you might live to see the sun again.” He cuffed me across the face with the side of his fist.
“The Master said no harm,” the shorter man remarked.
The man I was calling ‘tall’ in my head, laughed. “She’s still breathing. The quicker we get her to Varro the quicker we can have a taste.”
“But Lord Alukah said…”
“Tasting isn’t feeding. Learn from your betters boy, and the world might become a better place for all. Pick her up. This is taking too long.” The tall man dropped my arm allowing my body to sag.
I don’t remember all that much after that. Later, I learned that standard procedure for those two was to drain their victims almost to death and drop them to Varro to deal with. Varro was a completely different sort of man than anyone I had ever dealt with in my short life.
“Wake up.”
“WAKE UP!” The screaming voice froze me with fear. My eyes popped open to the sight of a screaming man with a heavily scarred face.
I found myself lying flat on the ground surrounded by bodies. For just a moment I thought I was still in the estate's slave quarters. Flies and excrement were everywhere around me.
The man stood up and looked down at me. “My name is Varro. You would do best to remember that. What is my name?”
I swallowed and started to sit up.
A large hairy fist cuffed me on the side of my head knocking me down again. “DID I TELL YOU TO SIT?”
I shook my head. The screaming man terrified me. “No, Sir.”
“What is my name?” He asked again, his fists at the ready.
“Varro, sir,” I replied.
“Hmmm. I like the sir at the end. Keep doing it. What is your name?” Varro asked.
“Aeliana… “ I remembered that father always gave his birthplace as well. “Aeliana of Sirmium.”
“Sirmium. I knew a man from there once. Does Zlatenko the Wise still govern there?” Varro asked.
Demetrius had educated me on who ran the city we lived in extensively. ‘It was always good to know who you were paying’ is what he used to say. But Zlatenko was not a name I was familiar with. “I’ve never heard of him, sir.”
Varro nodded. “Then he’s dead. It has been more than a long time. Who rules the Scordisci now?”
My eyes widened. Father had just told her that they were one of the last barbarian tribes to join the empire. How old was this man? “My father told me they are part of Rome now. They follow the Emperor.”
“They are fools then. I am the last.” Varro looked down at me and smiled a sickly smile. “Who is your father?”
“Apollodorus of Damascus.”
“You may sit.” He watched me as I pushed myself into a sitting position. My head ached terribly, but I didn’t cry out. I was a Roman, not a child.
“Why are you here, Aeliana of Sirmium? What brings you to the halls of the Strigoi?” Varro smiled once more.
Strigoi? “What is a Strigoi? I was sold to you, by my tutor Demetrius.” I answered.
“Demetrius? Really? Interesting. He has lain just as you are for me. I didn’t know he was allowed to leave. Few are.” Varro breathed a heavy sigh and swiveled his head from side to side. I could hear faint cracking noises. “Strigoi is not a word to be used lightly. Especially up there.” He pointed toward the ceiling. “You may stand. If you try to run the punishment will be more than you can bear.”
Slowly, I climbed to my feet. The room I was in was dark and lit only by torches. The flickering light made the bodies around me seem alive.
“What happened to them?” I asked, watchful for an attack.
Varro nodded at me and asked, “Them?”
“Yes.”
He chuckled. “Playthings, food, or maybe just because they were human. Your kind doesn’t last long here in this place. You get used up and thrown away in the trash.”
I looked around me at all the bodies. Young, old, men, women, and children were all represented. It was a chamber of horrors.
“I have instructions about you though. Someone up there wants you for later. Maybe a snack. I’m to keep you whole and away from the others. You will assist me for now,” Varro told me.
“Assist you with what?” I asked.
He smiled. “You get one question, and that was it. I will tell you what you need to know when you need to know it, and nothing else. Understand?”
What choice did I have? I nodded and replied to him. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” He pointed to the body next to me. “Grab the feet. We have work to do.”
Not wanting a beating, I did as I was told. Moving the bodies took hours. I didn’t know the hour or even the day anymore. Water clocks were rare even among the rich, in the Empire and candle marks were non-existent here. Without the sun, I couldn’t tell you how long it took.
Varro’s job was one of disposal. He was the overseer. The dead and the dying were usually dumped on him to do away with. He would feed himself on the dying and feed the dead to creatures that lived in the depths of the city. Even I never learned who or what they were.
If Varro was to be believed and early on I had my doubts, he was a barbarian prince exiled from the Scordisci at the dawn of time. Anytime I asked about his crime I either got a fist or curse. I learned quickly to not ask. He was completely serious about not asking questions.
After the end of an incredibly long day, I was tossed into the slave pen. Not everybody given to Varro died. Those that survived either crawled back to their masters upstairs or ended up i
n the slave pit. Few survived the pit, it was everyone for themselves down there.
“Well, well, well what do we have here? Fresh meat for the taking?” A voice spoke from the darkness as I entered the slave area.
“It looks fresh. Let’s have a taste and find out.” The other voice was closer.
“Run, little rabbit. Run.” Yet another voice cackled from within.
Blam! The door behind me slammed closed. Varro stood in the doorway looking through the bars. “None of that! She is to be untouched by order of the Masters above. Any tampering and I will toss the lot of you into the pit. If you survive that, it will be feeding time for you. Understand?”
There was an uncomfortable silence from the darkness. I looked behind me. Varro’s eyes were bright red and actually glowed in the gloom. Unable to help myself, I made a squeaking noise and quickly dropped my eyes.
When I looked up, Varro was gone.
Looking around I could see nothing. There were rags that might be beds in piles around the room as well as a foul-smelling bucket that served as the privy. Two small torches lit the room that looked to be hewn from the very rock, so there was no chance for escape.
“Who are you to be given such treatment by him?” The voice was harsh and cold. I turned my head to see a gnarled man with black teeth and rheumy eyes staring at me.
Peeking into the room from the darkness were several others. They shared the runny-eyed look the man was giving me.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“You had to have done something. Tell us. This place it’s a horror beyond the Gods. Tell us!” The man’s fetid breath reminded me of the grave and of the room where the bodies were dumped.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. Leave me alone!” I ran to the corner of the room and crouched down low. It was like being a child all over again. Covering my face and head, I waited for the beating I knew would come. It didn’t. I awoke in silence broken only by Varro’s pounding. Time to start the day.
It’s hard to think back to those days. Especially to just before I was turned. Making a Vampire is easy but making a Royal is hard, and that is what I really wanted. To be a Royal Vampire. Varro actually explained it best. When on that rare occasion he explained anything.
“Don’t use Strigoi. Especially up there.” Varro pointed up.
“They won’t tell you the story but I, Varro the brave, will. Our race is old. The rulers of our kind came to this world through a doorway. It is said that the way is now blocked, and we cannot return. But once our kind traveled the stars and crossed the Universe. But that was long ago. Our Master…” Varro pointed up. “He might remember that time, for he is older than civilization itself.”
Varro pulled a knife out of his boot and pretended to sharpen it. I say pretended because he sharpened everything he owned each morning. “Take care of your weapons and they will take care of you,” he used to say.
“There are two ways to make a Vampire. Blood and ritual. You have not spoken of him but your father, he was royal?” Varro asked.
“Not exactly. He was the Emperor’s architect.” I replied.
“So, a man of importance. To us, only the Royal Vampires are such. The others just do all the work. It takes an extraordinary ritual to create a Royal. One of the Masters must first wish to bring you across. Any idiot can be a Vampire. A smart human can be a Royal.”
At the time I thought Varro was the toughest and strongest barbarian prince I had ever seen. He protected me and cared for me as if he was my father. But he only did so under orders until one day he wasn’t there anymore.
“Get up!” I opened my eyes to see Black Teeth in my face. His real name was Octavius. He was scared of Varro and usually stayed very far away from me.
I stood up from my pallet by the door. My back was to the wall, and Octavius was right in my face.
“Not so special now are you. The suck up. The boss's little project. Now you are nothing! We run this place now.”
Inching my way along the wall, I yelled out the open door. “Varro!”
“Weren’t you listening? He’s gone. We run the place now.” Octavius told me.
Was it true? After what felt like months, Varro still wasn’t responding. Octavius started to cackle and laugh. “Run, little rabbit, run. We are the Masters here.”
The word rabbit jarred me. My father’s words came back in a rush that strengthened my resolve. Don’t be the rabbit. Unlike Octavius and the other slaves, I had been receiving fresh food and drink from outside the enclave. Food meant for humans, not animals or scavengers. Using my strength, I struck back.
Using skills that were beaten into me, I punched Octavius. “You.” Punch.
“Are.” Punch.
“Not.” Punch.
“My Master!” Punch.
I kicked and screamed and kicked some more. Octavius crawled back into the slave pen, and I slammed the door shut behind him. If anyone was going to be the Master down here, it was going to be me.
Chapter 13
Keeping the slaves in line was the easiest part of Varro’s job. As long as I kept them on the rations that they expected, they left me alone. Varro’s job was pretty easy. Dispose of the dead and save the living.
Teddy Roosevelt said to walk softly and carry a big stick more than fifteen hundred years after I did it. Nothing beats a cudgel upside the head to correct someone's attitude. The only issue I had was the Vampires. How do you stop someone bigger, stronger, and supernaturally faster than you?
“Look at that, Kaeso. She still lives.” The taller man pointed at me as the short man dropped a body off in the collection room.
The short man dropped his load and leered at me. “So she does. Varro didn’t eat her after all. Too bad we can’t say the same of him.”
“I could use a short snack. How about you, Marcus?” The short man asked.
Marcus looked at me as if sizing me for a wooden box. “She’s survived where no one else has. Did the Master forget about her?”
Kaeso licked his lips. “I need a taste of that. Catch her for me.”
These were Vampires. I knew from experience that I couldn’t outrun them if I wanted to. But they were still men, and I knew just where to hit them to make them hurt. I raised my cudgel and waited.
“Catch her yourself. We still have work to do.” Marcus pointed toward the stairs.
“The dead can wait. It’s the living that interests me now.” Kaeso motioned towards me. “Come here, girl.”
I felt the pull that a Vampire can have on a human. Varro’s effect on me was more effective than this one. I was able to resist Kaeso just a little. “No.”
Kaeso looked at Marcus in surprise. “No?”
“We have work to do. Leave her be. She’s the property of the Master,” Marcus repeated.
“No mere female gets the better of me,” Kaeso stalked toward me. He was clenching his fists and scowling.
I knew in my heart that I couldn’t stop him, but I refused to bow down and be a victim, so I struck first. Swinging my cudgel up I caught him in a glancing blow right between the legs. Right in the sweet spot.
Kaeso screamed just as he fell backward clutching himself. “You bitch!”
I ran forward and hit him again, this time in the head. He was a Vampire. I couldn’t kill him, but I could try to slow him down some.
Marcus sighed. “Not a good move, girl. Now I have to punish you. Hurting one of us is death, or didn’t Varro tell you that part? Too late for you now.”
Marcus ignored his friend on the ground and charged straight for me. I swung the cudgel again, but he was expecting it. A lightning fast fist knocked it out of my hands, and he was upon me. His hands were like iron manacles as they gripped my arms and pulled me toward him.
“No sense wasting you. One drink and you’ll pass to the afterlife. Ready to meet the Gods, girl?” Marcus bent his head, and I could feel his hot breath on my neck. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that my father would forgive me my sins.
“My instructions were she was to be unharmed and untouched. Was I not clear in this?” The voice was the same as the one from the city my first day.
Marcus choked out what sounded like a yes. The Master threw him across the room. His body hit the floor making a crunching sound. The cloaked man looked at Kaeso and kicked him. “You had one job, and you failed at it.” Reaching down he pulled Kaeso’s head right off his body. For him, it was as easy as killing a chicken. Not even looking at Marcus, the cloaked man called out to him. “If you wish to survive, leave now.”
“You have strength for one so young. Why did you take over Varro’s job?” The cloaked man asked.
I looked up at the tall man. “I wanted to live.”
“And did escape not come to mind?” he asked.
“To where? The Empire is hunting my family. I think they already killed my father. Here is just as safe as out there,” I replied.
The man reached up and removed the cloak from his face and head. He was old. Not as old as my father but his hair was flecked with silver. “My spies tell me that this new Emperor had him executed. Your lands are his now, and the former estate is destroyed. What do you want?”
I didn’t know what to say. Standing there and listening, I cried a silent tear for my father and for poor Zina, the woman that raised me. They were gone, and I was adrift in a sea of forgetfulness.
“There are choices to be made. We saved your life to use you as a leverage with Rome. They believe you dead. What use are you to us beyond a meal? What is it you wish to do?” The Master Vampire looked down at me.
Don’t be the rabbit. My father’s advice has gotten me this far. “Why did you save me then?”
The Master smiled. “You show promise. You are educated. Trained in some form of defensive arts. How else did you stay above the rest down here?”
I pointed behind me. “They are just weak from lack of food and safe water.”
“Yes, they are. Think of Varro as a form of scout. He searches out those who are worthy and those who are not. Did you think he was feeding you out of kindness?”