by T S Paul
I nodded. That part had made me wonder. He was told to keep me alive. Varro didn’t have to feed me proper food. “He was kind to me.”
“Varro is one of my children. We have so few that we trust completely. He was a prince among his people once. Did he tell you that?” The Master asked.
I nodded.
“He, like you, was lost. His father was defeated in battle, and his uncle was trying to kill him. Much like yours, his story is one filled with pain and heartache. He spoke to me about you.”
I looked up surprised. “He did?”
“Yes. Varro said you were tough. Regardless of what hardship he laid upon you, you worked through it.” The Master continued to watch me.
My words came out in a whisper. “My father… My father told me to always climb to the top. To never, ever, be the rabbit. I take his advice every day.”
“Do you wish to join us or do you wish to stay here?” The Master spread his hands to encompass the room. “I will leave instructions that you be left alone to work. No one will drink of you.”
“I could stay here? What about Varro, is he coming back?” I asked.
The Master cocked his head to one side. “Varro is running an errand for me of sorts. Whether he comes back at all is up to him. We may see him soon or later. Only time and space will tell. What is your choice, child of the architect?”
If I stayed here... I would die. Did I truly want to be a Vampire though? I asked a question. “Can I be a Royal?”
The Master began to laugh. “So you did listen and learn. We were not sure you would understand the difference.”
“Varro explained the difference,” I replied
“Did he? Those two that attacked you. They are regular Vampires. All they care about is work and food. We use them as guards and fighters. They are easily made and easily destroyed.”
I nodded again. That was similar to what Varro said.
“They are not what I am. I am of the royalty, for me with age comes power. Power over the living and the dead. For them, all they do is get old.” The Master looked down at me. “Are you prepared to work? To better yourself and enhance the race?”
Swallowing I spoke through suddenly parched lips. “I want control of my life. Everyone is always telling me who to be or who to marry. I want my choices to be my own, to fight on my own for something greater than myself.”
The ancient Vampire stared at me with a stern expression. “It is a bargain we shall have then. You will become my apprentice. If and only if, I am satisfied with your work will you be transformed into what I and very few like me are. A Royal Vampire. Failure to meet all my expectations will result in you being sent to the pit. Few survive that experience. Are you in agreement?”
I nodded and answered. “Yes, sir. I agree.”
“Come then.” He motioned for me to follow.
For just a moment I looked back at the slave cells and smiled. Octavian and the others were watching from the shadows.
“Sir, what of them?” I asked.
“The first rule of our society is this. Survive. Always have a plan for escape and survival. Worry about yourself, child. They will find their own solutions,” the Master replied.
I felt my body shudder at the thought of being locked in the slave quarters with no hope of escape. Octavian and the rest were flesh eaters. Varro called them ghouls. They would fall on each other until none were left, for I had the only key. Carefully I reached up and felt it lying around my neck. A small prayer escaped my lips. “Mother Goddess protect me from harm.”
”Pray to the Gods, child, for they are the only ones who will help you now.”
Following my new Master, I carefully climbed the stairs up into the dark city and my future.
<<<>>>
“Boss, I think we might have something.”
Agatha looked up from her computer screen and turned toward Chuck. “What’cha got?”
“I sent an inquiry to the Bs and the Director’s office just before we left Quantico for Ana’s early records with the FBI,” Chuck replied.
“And?”
Chuck tapped a few keys on his console and replied. “They sent me almost the whole thing. Several parts are redacted, especially much of the Demon War files, but almost the entire thing is here. Did you know she was J Edgar Hoover’s assistant for over ten years?”
Agatha nodded. “She mentioned that to me once. It was after they caught her during one of the California evacuations.”
“Yes. This says she was in a refugee camp. They sniffed her out with government Werewolves. That might be a way to find her.” Chuck pointed out.
“Those units were disbanded longer than we’ve been alive. You got a time travel button in that kit of yours, Chuck?” Agatha asked.
Chuck shook his head. “No, I mean we could ask all the packs to sniff for her.”
Agatha cocked her head to one side while she considered it. “I really want us to be the ones to catch up to her first. Cat, could your father help with that? He represents the Pack organization after all.”
“It’s not all that organized. Calling it an organization is being nice. I’ll pass it along to him…” Cat looked over her shoulder at Bill. He appeared to be working and not paying much attention to the rest of the team. Still, he was human, and all paranormals were bound by certain oaths of silence. Shaking her head slightly, she looked back at Aggy. “He can organize them if need be.”
Cat’s father, Robert Moore, also worked for the Species Council and was supposed to be leading the search from his end already. The humans were not supposed to know about the council. At least not officially.
Agatha turned back to Chuck. “What else do you have?”
Chuck flipped through the virtual pages on the screen quickly. “Not a whole lot. She stayed with J Edgar all the time, so we have a pretty good record of her movements. We know now that she was drinking from the members of her teams back then.” He looked up at Agatha.
Agatha made a ‘come on’ motion with her hands.
“Do we have a compendium of Vampire powers somewhere? I mean officially they don’t have heartbeats and burn easily. But what do we really know about them?” Chuck asked.
Agatha leaned back in her desk chair and sighed. Pursing her lips, she stared at the screen in front of her for a moment. Then she nodded. “Officially, the details are a bit limited.”
“What about unofficially?” Cat asked, joining the conversation again.
“Between my grandmother and Jack, I do know a few things about them that the Bureau doesn’t or at least pretends it doesn’t know,” Agatha replied.
“There are two types of Vampires, Royals and everyone else. Have any of you met the other Vampires in the Bureau?” She asked.
Chuck and Cat shook their heads ‘no, ’ but Bill nodded. “I had the chance to work with them once in Georgia. Why?”
Agatha leaned forward a bit. “Tom and Roy are examples of ordinary Vampires. They have speed and stamina better than humans. To live, they must have fresh or recently packaged blood every other day to survive.”
Cat made a face. “Recently packaged?”
“Blood banks?” Bill asked.
“Yes. For both of you. We have a government facility as back-up for our Vampires. Bill, you may have noticed they carry around a cooler wherever they travel to. When they are on the government clock, they aren’t allowed to feed ‘off the hoof’ unless it’s an emergency. And according to regs, it has to be a real doozy,” Agatha replied.
“They are considered ordinary due to how they were brought across the barrier between life and death. Grandmother explained the process to me. The potential Vampire must be drained of almost all blood and be on the verge of death. Living blood is exchanged like a virus from the host Vampire. He has only seconds to transfer his blood to the new Vampire. If he falters or doesn’t make it in time, the potential will die. Giving dead blood to someone at the edge of death will create something that resembles a Hollywood Zombie, but i
s known as a Ghoul. Ghouls need human flesh, not blood to survive. They are the reason that changing humans is restricted.”
“What about the other kind of Vampire? I assume you don’t mean the Ghouls,” Cat asked.
“No, not them. Be aware that even the Ghouls are intelligent. It ultimately depends on how smart they were at death. Changing someone reduces their brain somehow. Everything I just told you is different when talking about Royals. She didn’t admit it, but Anastasia is one of those. According to grandmother, there is a Magickal ritual that allows the souls to cross over without damaging the body,” Agatha replied.
“They have Vampire Witches?” Bill asked.
Agatha shook her head. “No. It’s a religious ceremony. They get the power to change someone directly from the Goddess Hecate. She is their patron Goddess and the source of much of their abilities. As to what all of those are we are still researching. None of our researchers at the FBI had any knowledge that Ana wasn’t a regular Vamp.”
“Do we know how old she is?” Bill asked.
Agatha looked at Chuck. “Anything in there?”
“This says two hundred, but if she’s an elder, it could be double that.” Chuck pointed out.
“Multiply that by five, and we might be close. We’ve got nothing else on powers. Grams hinted around at a few, but I need to research it some more. Great-Grandmother Verity wrote about Vamps in her diary. I was going to dig into it. We need to know what we might run into.”
Chapter 14
You would think that working for the leader of the Vampires would be fun and interesting. Not so much. Looking back, I sometimes wonder if I should have stayed doing Varro’s job.
The true city of Stari Ras was an architectural miracle. I didn’t get to see much of it, however, since I was focused on my work. Alukah was the Master of this colony of Vampires. He wasn’t their only Master nor even the oldest of their kind. A brief history lesson was the first thing pounded into my head.
Mesopotamia is where the race originated. The exact details were lost to the depths of time, but from what Alukah could tell me, it was a miracle that formed the first true blood drinker. A man died in one of the human wars common to that part of the world. He was found wandering the battlefield miraculously healed from wounds that should have killed him. The man explained that a mystic figure with a kind face told him to rise up and greet the world. The local authorities sent word to the government of the area informing them of the suspected miracle, but when military forces arrived the entire town was either dead or missing. Bodies were found to have all the blood drained from them.
According to my new Master, the soldier was the first Vampire. He didn’t explain to me how the ritual to create Royals was created or even why. From just watching the interaction of the two castes I knew becoming a Royal was what I truly wanted.
“Who is your new dog?” The woman was dressed in the manner of the Egyptians and acted as a Royal.
Alukah turned toward the speaker. “Her name is Aeliana. She’s Roman.”
“Interesting. My contact with them has been one of pain and suffering. They conquered my people and destroyed much of the culture we built. Can I have her?”
I jerked my head around but didn’t say anything. My understanding of the Egyptian language was very poor, but I understood enough. Demetrius had been teaching it to me when news of the Emperor's death came to us. Alukah had been very clear. “Do your task and stay quiet no matter what you hear.”
“Kleos, you are not old enough to take what is mine from me. I will remind you that your transformation was a favor to your uncle and not one sanctified by the body of elders. You may be royalty in your country, but here you are not. Do not make me correct you again, you won’t survive the experience,” Alukah replied.
The fancy Egyptian woman stiffened and glared, but kept her mouth shut. She bowed as my Master passed her by.
I was learning. The Vampire race was everywhere. They ruled the entire world by hiding in the shadows. It would not surprise me to learn that one of them was responsible for my father’s death. To be a Vampire was to be in control of those around you. Whether they be humans or others.
And what others! Shapeshifters and monsters were in attendance here as well.
A roar from somewhere in the city made everyone at the party freeze for a moment.
“Master, why do you keep that thing among us? She will kill us all one day.”
Alukah looked to Marius, the Master of the Royal Guard. “She is the great mother of myth, the last of her kind, and chief executioner for the city. Her names ring down through the history of man. Why kill something so unique?”
Marius bowed his head. “I understand that, Master. But why keep her in the city? She could live below.”
“She would eat what dwells in the dark. We can’t have that, can we? Those creatures are our last line of defense.” Alukah replied.
“But the roaring.”
“Is like music to my ears. She is a creature of the night that makes such beautiful music.” Alukah turned his head toward the roaring.
I knew from experience that the screeching would only get louder and louder. My Master held captive the last Echidna. The true mother of monsters if the stories of the Gods were to be believed.
<<<>>>
Thoughts of Echidna broke me from my memories of the early days. Could she be alive still? The spell that created the event known as the Purge was supposed to pacify only Vampires. The mother of monsters wasn’t one of us. Only Alukah protected her from the world. She might have survived without him provided she could get out of the city. I made a mental note to research that when and if I returned to the FBI. Having a monster of her magnitude running loose could be very bad. For just a moment, I wondered how Agatha and the rest of the team were doing without me. Chuck was very talented as a forensic tech, but his computer skills weren’t as good as my own.
<<<>>>
“Boss, Ivan Vasily received a traffic ticket in Dothan, Alabama less than a week after Anastasia disappeared,” Chuck yelled.
Agatha spun her chair around and looked at him. “Is it the same man? Is it our Ivan?”
Cat stood and walked to Chuck’s desk. She peered at the screen over his shoulder.
“It might be. I’m pulling the dash and body cam videos right now.” Chuck typed quickly on his keyboards.
“Alabama is a really long way from Montana. How did she get so far so fast?” Agatha asked.
Cat stepped back to her own console. “At the time, we didn’t have her destination back in Montana.”
“Look at all forms of ground transportation. Ana's been in government service for a very long time so her civilian creds might not be up to par. I doubt she took a plane out,” Agatha directed.
Cat pulled up a chart on the big screen. “Train service is out unless she stowed away on one, but the only line that goes through the area is East to West.”
“Did we check the trains when she first disappeared?” Agatha looked sternly at the screen.
“I checked those, boss. The only train in the area that week was a cattle one headed toward the slaughterhouses in Chicago. We had the regular FBI stop and check it completely. They filed a report, but they cleared out and checked each car using teams of four to avoid being mesmerized by a Vampire. They claim there was no one found,” Bill reported.
“Thanks, Bill. I remember that report. Just checking. What about buses?” Agatha asked.
Cat nodded. “I think that may be it. There was a direct bus out of Butte to Pendleton, Oregon using Whitehorse Bus Lines. Chuck, check news reports or anything from the area around there for blood loss or thefts.”
“On it,” Chuck replied.
“Boss, she could have gotten a direct bus from Pendleton to Salt Lake City and another to St. Louis. There were over a dozen stops along the way where she could have had a snack to keep going.” Typing a moment, Cat sent an email to Chuck. “Chuck, I just sent you a map to check towns on.”
>
“Once she was in St Louis, getting to Atlanta was child’s play. She either hooked up with Ivan there or took the one and only bus to Dothan. Chuck, all those stations have cameras in them,” Cat pointed out.
“Gotcha. I’m working on it.” Chuck was using three different monitors showing three different searches. “I got the body cams from Dothan. It was definitely our guy.”
The team looked up at the main monitor as the picture changed. Ivan Drago could be seen sitting in an old station wagon on the side of the road in a split screen of body cam and a dash cam.
“Sir, license and registration please.” The officer’s body cam captured Ivan’s face quite well. A second officer stood at the rear of the car with his hand on his weapon.
“Of course, officer.” Ivan handed over his driver's license and a small packet of paperwork. “Was I speeding? Your American signs are confusing at times.”
The Alabama cop held up the license so the body cam would capture it.
“Did you get the name, Chuck?” Cat asked.
“Yes, running it now,” he replied.
The picture froze for a moment on the screen. The picture was the same man but not the information. Here, it said his name was Ivan Strigoy. It was a Florida license.
Watching the rest of the stop play out on the screen, Agatha nodded. He had been coached by someone. His movements were careful, and he kept his hands in clear view of the officers at all times and didn’t try to get out of the car. Almost no one kept their car information in an easy location. Much less the license. Most men carried it in their wallets. A police officer couldn’t tell if it was a wallet or a gun you might be reaching for. That was something Cappy told her back in Briarwood. Always have a backup for traffic stops.
Chuck’s computer beeped a couple of times as he typed. Switching screens he stared for a moment. “Boss I have a news report of a strange illness in a small town just outside of Salt Lake City. Several people at the local bus station were discovered sleeping. Attendants were unable to wake them, and emergency services were called. At first, it was reported as an outbreak of Trypanosomiasis, but no flies or larvae were found at the station.”