Invisible Elder

by T S Paul

  Both guards lay dead as I sauntered through the flap.

  “Go away. I don’t wish to be disturbed.” The King lay upon his bed facing away from me. I shook my head. Tactically, this one was very stupid.

  “Too late,” I replied as I grabbed him from behind and squeezed. Holding him tight wasn’t a problem. Forcing his head around, I held him with my eyes to prevent his scream. Not all humans were susceptible to our gaze. This one was.

  “Hold still.” I felt my fangs descend as I took him and began the conversion. Binding a human to service was very close to changing them. You would drain as much blood from them as possible and then revive them. In a perfect world, this was done over and over in the course of days. I was doing this in mere minutes. My team’s orders were to follow me if I made it inside. They were to meet me here, just outside the tent and eliminate any and all humans that tried to interfere.

  “Look into my eyes.” My gaze held him firm as I took the blood from him a third time. He was limp and very near death. Carefully I cut my arm and dripped blood into his mouth.

  “Drink!”

  The King tried to struggle, but my gaze held him tight. His mouth filled with blood and he swallowed it. I continued to drain my blood into him for four complete mouthfuls. “Enough.”

  He blinked a few times and stared off into space. The Vampire virus was tricky. The bound were actually half-Vampires. Modern novelists would say they were Dhamphirs. They were more like the Vampire version of zombies. Brainwashed automatons.

  “Kahleed,” I spoke the name quietly, but if he was present, he should have heard me.

  The tent entrance moved. “Yes, Mistress?”

  “He’s ready. Did everyone make it?” I asked.

  “Yes. These White Huns are poor soldiers. If we are to cross the pass, we must hurry.”

  I nodded. “I agree. Rally the men, I will prepare King Lakhana for travel.”

  The king still lay upon the bed. His face was spattered with blood, and his eyes looked out into nothing.

  “Your Majesty,” I crooned.

  His eyes fluttered, and his jaw dropped open for a moment.

  “You need to wake up,” I whispered into his ear.

  The man’s eyes widened, and he looked over his shoulder at me. “Who?” At that point, my programming kicked in, and his zombie state returned.

  “I need you to dress quickly and walk with us to the entrance to the pass.”

  The King's mouth moved, but nothing came out. He did as he was told and slipped on his armored tunic. Concentrating, the young man managed to croak out a single word. “Who?”

  “Impressive. That is the only thing so far that has impressed me. What happened? Did your elder die and leave you the remains of his kingdom? I overheard the conversation you had with your former adviser. This is an untenable position. You control the pass, but word will get out about you being here. Trade will stop, and your enemies will attack you. Trade is the lifeblood of any government. Without it, there is no civilization.” I took hold of the King’s arm.

  “Come with me. I give you permission to speak.”

  “Who? Why?” the King paused. “Mistress?”

  I smiled at the man. My first servant and the conditioning was holding. “I’m your Mistress. I took your mind and your power and transferred it. You belong to me until you leave this life. My companions and I need to get through the postern gate and across the pass. Your army is blocking my way. Simple as that.”

  “Asked. Could. Have. Asked.” The King struggled to put more than two words together coherently.

  “We could have. Would you have allowed us to go? With our goods and lives intact?” I asked.

  The King shut his eyes and shook his head. “No.”

  “Once we are through, I will release you. You can return to your people and rule.” I told him.

  “Not. Speak. Right.”

  “True. Your voice is affected. I expect that they will think you are possessed or have trucked with demons. In a way, you have.” I flashed my fangs at him and made my eyes gleam red in the darkness.

  King Lakhana shuddered and shook as he walked beside us.

  “Mistress, is he well enough to talk us through?” Kahleed asked.

  I studied the king and noticed that he was failing fast. “We need to hurry.”

  The rear gate guards were just as lax, if not more so than the front guards. We approached without even a shout from the guard house. I whispered to Lakhana. “Tell the guards to let us through. I release you from your binding. If you send them after us, I will bind you so tight you will never escape me.”

  The King shook himself as if throwing off a weight. He looked at me with fear in his eyes and stepped into the guardhouse.

  I motioned to my men. We quickly passed through the gate and hustled up the escarpment. Lights began to flicker as the King roused the guard, but we were too far away from arrows or pursuit. I doubted the King was able to make it clear what we truly were.

  “Will they pursue?” Kahleed asked.

  “Doubtful. Even though I released him, Lakhana will be hard to understand. He may never recover his intellect. If he had any, to begin with,” I answered.

  “I don’t understand. Isn’t he like the other bound servants from the city?”

  “Not so much. The making of a servant is not beyond your strength, Kahleed. You do not have to be Royal to do it. All you need is a strong Gaze and blood. You have to remember that the process dumbs them down. If you start with a smart man, you get one that will do as you wish. A dumb man gets you an idiot. That King back there was not a bright man.”

  Kahleed looked at me for a moment. “Where does it go?”

  “Where does what go?” I asked.

  “The intelligence or whatever. Do the Gods just take it?”

  “No, Kahleed. The Gods do not get it. We take it. Those who create a child get the benefit of it. Whether the child is a half or a full, we get powers and strengths beyond imagination.”

  Chapter 19

  “Do we want to wait for the tactical team?” Bill asked.

  Agatha slipped her body armor over her clothes and began loading her web gear with pre-set spells. She shook her head. “No. The longer we wait, the longer they have time to plan their escape. Chuck, you’re sure you saw Ivan watching us?”

  Chuck was quickly typing on his computers. “Yes. He was tucked in between that Mexican place and the hair salon. Just calmly sitting at a table. He was wearing a big floppy hat and drinking a margarita trying to look like a tourist.”

  “Then they know we’re here. Cat, is it possible you can get the Were’s surrounding Ana’s house to move? I’m afraid they might interfere,” Agatha asked.

  Cat winced. She too was throwing on armor and weapons. “I can try, but you know how they can get. Too much machismo and not enough sense.”

  Bill spoke. “I’ve got the local sheriff on alert as well as the beach patrol. The Coast Guard is standing by at sea in case they have a hidden boat or whatever. Do we need Navy support as well?”

  “I think I can handle it before we involve the military. The Navy and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye sometimes. They’re still pissed at me for that rope incident,” Agatha stated.

  “Hey! What about me? Don't I get armor or something?”

  Agatha looked down to see Fergus standing on her desk looking up at her.

  “You keep saying you have Magick and don’t need armor. Besides you get to be under my armor here.” Agatha patted her vest.

  “I can have armor. Who says Unicorns aren’t worthy of battle?” He trotted off and slammed the door to his barn.

  Agatha sighed and looked down at the new barn. Sitting to the left of it was a box of stuff to upgrade it a bit. It still needed a new paint job and carpeting.

  “What’s wrong?” Cat asked.

  “Fergus. The usual,” Agatha replied.

  Cat peeked into the barn. “Well, pick up his cranky little ass and let’s go. Time’s
a’wastin’.”

  “I need his power boost, but not at the cost of making him mad at me. He can stay in the barn if he… Oh, my god. Where did that come from?” Agatha started to say.

  Fergus stepped out of his barn wearing a full set of medieval armor complete with saddle. He even had a proportional shield attached to it.

  “See. I have stuff.” With a clank, Fergus hopped over a pencil on the table top.

  “How in the hell did you put that on? And where did the saddle come from?” Agatha peered closer.

  “I have skills,” the Unicorn replied.

  Cat looked at Agatha. “He’s done a lot of crazy things over the years, but this one takes the cake. I’m actually impressed.”

  “See, the stinky Cat woman thinks I’m impressionable!” Fergus shouted.

  “That’s not what she said, but you’re right. You are impressionable. Why did you get armor?”

  “You have it, I wanted some too. Besides the metal is shiny.” Fergus looked over his shoulder at himself.

  Cat laughed. “He’s your Unicorn, alright.”

  Agatha looked up and gave her friend a funny look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Cat looked innocent for just a moment and then tapped her watch. “Nothing. We have to go.”

  Shaking her head, Agatha snatched a protesting Fergus off the table and dropped him into her pocket with a clank. “We’ll discuss this later.”

  Cat winced as she stepped around her friend and left the bus.

  “Chuck, please monitor the raid. If anything and I do mean anything, appears to disrupt or cause issues let us know. OK?” Agatha asked.

  “Yes, Boss.”

  “We’ll be on channel three,” Agatha told him.

  “OK let’s do this.” She stepped off the bus and climbed into the waiting black SUV. They were just going across the street and up a block, but it wouldn’t look professional running there.

  “Remember the orders we were given. The FBI wants Ana alive… Dead.” Agatha paused for a moment. “Alive or dead or whatever. They want her mobile. She has to present herself to that group.”

  Bill looked over his shoulder at her. He was behind the wheel pulling into traffic. “I never did get that straight. Can you tell me again which group she’s hiding from?”

  Agatha glanced upward for a moment as if saying a prayer. “It’s a Vampire group. Their elders want to talk to her, and she took off.”

  “Oh, OK.” The SUV turned onto Anastasia’s street.

  Cat gave her friend a nudge. They couldn’t keep lying to the man forever. He was going to be pissed when he found out the real truth.

  <<<>>>

  “They’re here!” Ivan yelled from downstairs.

  I ran to the window and peeked outside. A large black SUV was pulling onto the street. With my enhanced vision, I could see Agent Bill Maxwell driving.

  Did I surrender peacefully or did I resist? That was the question I needed to answer. Agatha’s Magick was the biggest issue. Could I resist it? I couldn’t the last time I ran up against a Witch that really wanted something. My thoughts flashed back in time for just a moment to the last time I dealt with Magick I couldn’t control.

  <<<>>>

  It was Constantinople in 1453.

  The battle had been raging for over a year. Sieges were a nasty way of fighting. It was the Byzantine Empire’s last gasp. The mighty Rome that had raised me was now dying a hard cold death. Their opposition was the Ottoman Empire, and it was a battle to the death.

  I was in the city to negotiate a trade deal between one of our Vampire cities and the Empire. The Elders that sent me here were not concerned that the Byzantines were outnumbered and outgunned. They wished the deal to go through. They also knew something that I didn’t.

  Constantine Palaiologos, the current Emperor, was a Necromancer.

  He was openly using his powers in front of humans, breaking treaties and rules in the process. A Grand Council had been convened more than five hundred years before. It laid down the rules that the separate races were to follow when it came to humans. We might control them, but they outnumbered us by the millions. If it came to war, we would lose by attrition. My Masters didn’t care. Having servants and workers that didn’t eat, complain, or need sleep was more important to them.

  This was why I was ordered away from my city in the East and made to negotiate the deal. My skills as an expert negotiator and ambassador had grown in the almost thousand years I was in China. I was an Elder, and I was powerful. But not powerful enough. Alukah was still the Master, and I did as I was told.

  “Mistress the outer walls…” My servant at this time was a former pirate king named Feng. He came to my service unwillingly, but I had saved his life in the process.

  Craning my neck, I could see the upper walls on the far side of the city falling by pieces into the inner moat. The Sultan’s forces were using massive siege cannon built specifically to destroy this city.

  “We have but a little time. I expect the city to fall within the week,” I told him.

  “Escort me to the apothecary's shop. You can enter the undercity near there. Find our representative and prepare the way. We may need to evacuate before the Emperor performs his spell.”

  The apothecary shop was an anomaly to me. A woman ran it, which at this point in history was rare. She was also immune to my gaze and power. The first time I saw her, I suspected she knew exactly who I was and why I was in the city. Her name was Verity.

  When I entered her shop, she spoke to me first and called me by my true name.

  “Everyone will die soon. What will you do, Ambassador Aeliana, when he enacts his spell? Will you take part in this monstrosity and take his offering to your Masters?”

  I looked sharply at her, and for the first time in almost half a year, I actually saw what she was. A Magick user. One of the Witch clans.

  “How?” I asked. The ability to keep yourself disguised from someone such as me was incredibly complex.

  The Witch smiled at me. “Magick of course. You have a touch of it as well. It is hidden well.”

  I looked at her with widened eyes. Magick? “I have no Magickal power.”

  “You do. It is very subtle, but you are God-touched. Have you made a deal sometime in your past?” Verity asked.

  I flashed to my change ceremony and to the bargain Hecate made with me. “Maybe.”

  “Then you knew it was there. Have you lived up to your part of the bargain or have you spurned the Gods?”

  That extra little push that the Goddess promised would be there has only happened a few times in my life. Those few times I would walk into a room, and just know that they were to be saved or helped along whatever path they were on. This woman, this Witch, was one such person. It was amusing that she knew it too.

  “I like to think I have done what the Goddess Hecate has asked of me,” I admitted.

  Verity’s eyes widened at the mention of the Goddess. I intended for her to be impressed. Hecate is also a Goddess of Witches.

  The Witch bowed her head to me. “Shall we throw all niceties aside and speak our minds?”

  I nodded.

  “Good. This city is doomed. You are here to make a deal. I am here to stop you.” Verity stated.

  I reached into my pocket for a knife just as she spoke a word of power. The room froze. Everything except for the Witch was frozen in place. She could easily kill me, and I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it!

  “I know you can hear me. Your eyes are still moving. Spells don’t always work the way they are supposed to for the God-touched. They become erratic or do the opposite. It is a clue to finding the touched ones.”

  Verity stood in front of me as she spoke. “I don’t want to kill you. Your Goddess is one of mine as well. We both serve the common good. Constantine is an abomination. He is one reason Necromancers are usually killed on sight. There are helpful ways his Magick could be used. Magick is neither Black nor White. It just is. The caster
sets the tone. Do you understand me?”

  If I could have nodded, I would have. I was familiar with Witches and their powers. Most Vampire cities have a small population of Witches in them. They are often low-powered and used to set alarms and heal our servants. Most are dream walkers. My Master and the others use them to control human leaders and watch for aggressive trends. This woman, however, was a potent force.

  She continued, “I am here to take him into custody. He is to stand trial before the Witches Council for heresy and Necromancy. I need your help to get him out of the city before he can raise the dead and destroy the city.”

  Verity mumbled a word, and suddenly I was free! I immediately started laughing.

  “How am I supposed to do that when I’m under opposing orders from my Masters? They will know when I break faith with them. Don’t you know anything about Vampires?” I asked and continued to laugh.

  Verity closed her eyes for just a moment. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear with my words. What if I can help you to block your Masters? Would you like the ability to stop them from interfering with your life, forever?”

  Now it was my turn to stare. I stopped laughing. “That’s impossible. I asked that once of our own Witches.”

  “Anything is possible with enough power. Anything. For a Vampire to cast spells, they would need an incredible amount of borrowed power or Magick that belongs to them and them alone. Like you,” Verity replied.

  “But you said the Goddess placed it there. It belongs to her, not me,” I answered.

  “Gifts from the Gods are permanent and part of the recipient. She would have had changed your entire physical makeup to do it the other way. Trust me on this. That power is yours.” Verity paused.

  “It will take practice and willpower to make it work. You must train a part of your body to do something it has never tried before. The ability will come, but not instantaneously.”

  “Then how will I block them now?” I asked.

  “A spell. I will cast it for you. Do we have a deal then?” She smiled at me.