The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

“But, Holy Father, you cannot.”

  “I am not debating the issue. I am going with him.”

  “Then let us accompany you.”

  “No,” he said in as firm a tone as he could muster under the circumstances. “I must go alone. Prepare my carriage.”

  Pius did not speak when they left. The man sat in the seat across from him. Two of his own men took the helm up above. Soon after, they turned into a quiet street and drew the team to a halt. Several riders drew alongside to the left and right.

  “Jump down,” one of them ordered the pope’s men.

  Pius stood up to lodge an objection.

  “Sit down,” his escort warned. “And remain quiet.”

  “We cannot leave the Holy Father,” one of the guards shouted back.

  The same man who had issued the order drew his sword. “You can jump down, or you can die,” he told the guard in no uncertain terms. “Your journey ends here.”

  The guards had no choice but to comply. They looked to each other and jumped down onto the road.

  “Return home!” the man warned.

  The guards went on their way. One of the riders climbed atop the carriage. He took the reins in hand and geed the team forward.

  “You are a cur,” Pius said to his escort.

  “And you are not?”

  “I would not use a woman to lure my prey.”

  “Oft times, it takes more than a piece of cheese to tease a rat from its hole.”

  “You would liken me to a rat?”

  “Would you prefer a snake, then?”

  Pius growled under his breath. “You shall burn in Hell for this.”

  “Mind your tongue, old man.”

  “You shall burn in Hell for this!”

  “Then I shall burn with you.”

  Pius thought back to his earlier conversation with the man. A cold sweat had broken out all over his body when he received the ultimatum. He had no choice but to go. Gina was the one good thing in his life, and he could not see her harmed.

  He realised in leaving, he was signing his death warrant. In his heart, though, he accepted his own welfare did not matter next to hers. He had lived his life. She was still young and beautiful. He had to make the sacrifice to ensure she was safe.

  The rest of the journey did not take long. They led Pius to the Jewish Quarter, an area of the city with which he was not familiar. The carriage drew to a halt outside a house that looked run-down and derelict. One or two flickering lights from inside indicated that it was not uninhabited.

  The man opened the door and climbed out. “Come,” he said to Pius. “The clock is still ticking.”

  Pius did not waste any time, and scrambled out of the carriage and onto the street. His only thought was for Gina. He looked up and down, but saw no one. The street was deathly quiet.

  “Follow me,” the man said, leading the way.

  Pius paused for a brief moment. He knew these men were going to kill him. Three of the riders moved in behind him. Only then did he follow the other man inside. Those already in the house knew he had arrived. Gina still lay unconscious in a back room.

  One of the men threw a jug of cold water over her face, and she awoke with a start. She shrieked out loud, not yet having gotten her bearings. The same man stood over her. When he reached out with a hand, she cowered away.

  “Come,” he said. “I am not going to harm you.”

  Gina did not want to go with him. She trusted no one now. The murder of her escorts remained fresh in her mind. As well as that, these men had assaulted her. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the other room. Several strands of her dishevelled hair stuck to the side of her face.

  Pius walked into the room moments before her. He looked to the man who sat in a chair in the centre of the room. The man looked up at him, his expression not too welcoming. Pius squinted his eyes to make sure they had not deceived him. They had not.

  “I hope you value the life of your woman,” Petrucci said. “If you do, you should not utter my name.”

  Gina entered in that moment. “Franc!” she cried out when she saw him.

  A tear escaped his eye when he heard her. “Gina!” he said, his voice trembling. He was just relieved to see her alive and well.

  They allowed her to go to him. She ran across the room and into his arms. He noticed at once the hefty swelling to the side of her jaw. “You brutes! What have you done to her?”

  The one who had brought him there, stepped from the darker recesses of the room. “She is alive. Be glad of that much.”

  Pius held her close, but kept his focus on Petrucci. “I kept my word, and I am here. Let her go.”

  His captor nodded to two of his men. “Take her home.”

  One of them stepped up behind her and placed a hood over her head. She let out a muffled cry and clung onto her lover.

  “What are you doing?” Pius asked them, the alarm clear on his face.

  “It is for her safety that she does not know where she is.”

  That in itself told Pius he was going to die. They had made no attempt to hide the location from him.

  “Go home, my love,” he urged her. “You shall be safe.”

  “I shall not leave you!” she screamed from under the hood.

  “You must, Gina,” he said, his voice starting to break. “Go, I beg you.”

  The men led her away, and bundled her into the carriage. Pius heard her cries for him for some time before they disappeared into the night. His heart sank. He knew he would never see her again. She sensed it too.

  “Yours was the last face I expected to see this night,” he said to his captor.

  The governor of Siena grinned at him. “When you dabble with the Dark Side, you would be surprised who you might find there.”

  “I wondered how you reached the heights in so short a time. This explains much to me.”

  Petrucci shrugged. “In truth, I am not surprised to see you at all.”

  They had known each other for more than fifty years. Pius was born and lived in Siena for all of his early life. The two had looked on each other as friends a long time ago. He knew Petrucci as one of those men who lurked on the fringes, but never amounted to anything. Then Petrucci had shocked them all with his rise to power, and his fame and fortune. Now Pius knew the means Petrucci had used to achieve it.

  “So, what are you planning to do with me?” Pius asked.

  “You failed him. He is very upset with you.”

  “And you have come to mete out his justice?”

  “Yes, you know the price of failure.”

  “Then do it, and put an end to this. I am tiring of the charade.”

  Petrucci stood up. Pius looked down and saw the glint of a blade. He tensed himself as his old friend drew close. Petrucci raised his arm to strike. Pius threw his arms out in front of him out of instinct. When he did, his nemesis crouched low and ran the blade across the back of his leg.

  Pius gasped and fell down. He lay there, waiting for the fatal blow. To his surprise, it did not come. Petrucci knew what he had done would prove enough. He had laced the blade with a deadly poison.

  “Come,” Petrucci said to the others. “We must go. Leave him here.”

  They left him there alone in the old house. Pius managed to find a way out when they had gone. He felt sick and stumbled over many times. After an hour, his guards found him in a lonely street, and brought him back to the Vatican.

  Over the next two days, he fell seriously ill. The wound on his leg ulcerated and festered. He died in his bed only twenty-six days after becoming pope.

  Chapter 43

  WALLACHIA. THE VLACIA FORESTS.

  NOVEMBER, 1503.

  Radu hid away in the Vlacia forests, where he had stayed in the time since his resurrection from the grave. The thought that someone might look upon his face, filled him with dread. He was glad of the solitude the forest afforded him.

  The scars from that night eight months ago ran deep. His brother had taken t
he worst revenge against him. The physical pain had lasted a long time. Worse still, for Radu, was the psychological pain of the act. The scars of that would stay with him for all eternity.

  Dracula destroyed the one thing that had seen him through his mortal life. He had taken away his brother’s looks. Radu had possessed no great talent. He had enjoyed a rich life only because of a favour of birth and for his striking appearance. The loss of his face left him terrified of the future. He was beautiful no more, and his brother had condemned him to an eternity in the shadows.

  Radu struggled to come to terms with what he had become. The joys of the daytime no longer existed for him. Each night, he fed on the wildlife in the forest, but the taste was not to his liking. After he had drunk the blood of an animal, he would often feel unwell, and in need of more. As time passed, he felt his body growing ever weaker.

  He knew he needed human blood. Sometime soon, he would have to venture down to the towns on the edge of the forest. Perhaps then he might begin to feel better. When he did, he could look for a way to heal his face. It was this idea that kept him going.

  His new powers did excite him, though. He loved to fly, and the great feeling of freedom it gave him. But most of the time, the forest felt like a prison. Although he remained there by choice, he needed a release from it. The night skies gave him this.

  The night hid nothing from his sight. Though little more than charred stumps, his ears picked up the faintest of sounds. Even the heartbeats of the people who slept in the nearest towns, caught his attention. The more he heard them, the greater their lure.

  With each night that passed, he edged closer and closer. Some nights he found a spot in a tree on the edge of the forest to watch and listen. It was rare that he saw anyone out that late. When he did, his heart raced. The scent of blood came through strong and clear; human blood.

  In time, he chose his first human victim. He eyed a merchant leaving the town late one night. For more than an hour, he tailed him at a safe distance. The merchant had two riders with him. Radu realised that the man had to have a fair degree of wealth. Because he had never been in this position before, he felt nervous. He did not know the full extent of his abilities, and wondered if he could overpower three men, two of whom seemed very able. The need for blood, though, dictated his course of action. Every sinew in his body craved it.

  He waited until the small group was miles from anywhere. Then he swooped. He flew down at speed from the night sky, his target the larger of the two riders. Radu felt the blow knock all the wind out of his victim. The rider did not resist as the vampire lifted him up over the trees. Only when Radu set him down against the trunk of a fallen oak, did he get his breath back.

  “What was that?” the second rider asked.

  The merchant looked at the riderless horse. “Where is Matei?”

  “I do not know,” his bodyguard said, confused and more than a little afraid. “He vanished into thin air.”

  His words seemed to spook the merchant. “That is not possible.”

  “I thought I saw something fly down out of the sky, but I could not have.”

  “Then where is he?”

  “I really do not know, sir. He was here, and a moment later, he is gone.”

  “I saw nothing.”

  “I am not certain of what I saw, but I do not see Matei.”

  “Then ride back and find him. It is a dark night. Perhaps he fell from his horse.”

  Both men knew this was not the case. The rider drew his sword and rode closer to the merchant’s wagon. With each moment that passed, he felt certain he had not imagined it. Something had swooped down and whisked Matei off.

  Radu did not take the man right away. It was the first time he had felt a mortal’s fear. He could smell it, and even taste it.

  The man could see the faint outline of his face. Is it a face? It was a grisly sight, and it terrified him.

  His thoughts filtered through to Radu. For the first time, he felt conscious of how he looked. Before now, he could only tell by touch. Even when he had gazed down into the surface water of a pool, he could not see his reflection. Perhaps it was because he no longer had a soul. Either way, he had no idea of how awful his face looked, but the reaction of the man told him all he needed to know.

  It angered Radu. He grabbed the man’s arm and twisted, causing him to cry out in pain. Radu pressed his cheek against that of his victim. He felt the faint throb of a heartbeat through his skin. The sound excited him, as did the scent of his blood. It was stronger now than ever before. Radu felt as though it actually called out to him, and he needed to taste it.

  He grabbed the man by the hair and pulled his head to one side. His heart raced when it exposed the man’s neck, and though his victim tried to resist, he could not. Radu held him there with ease, and gazed down at the throbbing jugular. It looked so inviting.

  Radu still did not bite him, but held him firm. The man’s thoughts flashed through his mind as though he were reading the words off a page. It was the first time he had done such a thing. He liked it that he could. It gave him a real feeling of power. He had enjoyed the same while ruling in his mortal life. The fear power induced in men had always excited him. In that moment, he realised he could take it to a new level, and the prospect excited him no end.

  The man wondered about his fate, sensing it was his moment to die. His mind wandered from his fear of death to his wife in Brasov. That was where they had met and made their home. He knew he would never see her again, the thought filling him with despair.

  Radu felt no compassion for him. “You would be right to think that.”

  The man tried to turn his head, but could not. With Radu’s forearm against the side of his face, he found it hard to speak. He did manage to ask, “What?”

  “You shall not see her again.”

  Radu felt the jolt of fear race through the man, and drew pleasure from it. The man realised this beast was reading his thoughts. He struggled for a moment, but Radu just tightened his grip.

  He pressed his mouth against the man’s neck. The man trembled as he felt Radu’s tongue there. In the next moment, his whole body tensed. Radu punctured the skin with his fangs. When the first drops of blood transfused into his body, he clamped his jaw hard against the man’s flesh.

  The man screamed, the pain of the assault worse than any he had known. The pressure tugged on the arteries around his heart, stretching them to their absolute limit. He wavered on the brink of consciousness and was helpless against it. All he could do was succumb to death.

  For Radu, the sensation was electric as the blood transfused from the man’s veins into his own. It flowed to every muscle in his body, and brought his every nerve to life. He felt his muscles grow taut where his heart pumped the blood through him. It made him eager to drink faster, and he sucked hard. He felt more alive now than at any time in his past life. Light-headed and giddy, he closed his eyes to savour it.

  He allowed the waves to run through him, but still he sucked. Even his toes tingled. But more than anywhere, he felt it in his genitalia. His scrotum stretched as his testicles swelled. His penis grew solid and throbbed.

  Radu sucked the man’s blood long after his heart had ceased beating, taking every last drop from him. He then stood up with his eyes still closed. The muscles rippled and twitched all over his body, straining against the material of his clothes. He had never felt so good. Even the nagging pain in his face subsided for a moment. It was the greatest feeling he had ever known.

  The merchant and the other rider had heard Matei scream.

  “What was that?” he asked his man.

  “It was Matei,” the rider said, his sword poised. “The thing that took him is sure to come back for us.”

  “Then we must leave at once.”

  The rider looked at him. “There is no point. Did you not see the speed with which it took Matei away?”

  The merchant did not answer. He sat there and trembled with fear.

  “It would
catch us with ease. Our best hope is to make a stand here and fight.”

  The merchant was ashen-faced. “How can we hope to fight it?”

  “What more can we do?”

  The men fell silent when they heard a roar from the forest. Radu lolled his head back and cried out at the top of his lungs. A thousand birds fled to the night sky. Every animal in the area scurried as far away as it could, the beast that lurked close by terrifying every last one of them.

  Radu then stopped, his bladder suddenly feeling like it might explode. He freed his aching erection and relieved himself against a tree. As the ruckus made by the fleeing birds faded, he looked through the trees and saw the two men were waiting for him. The rider remained astride his horse, his sword in hand. The merchant looked to the trees, frozen with fear.

  The rider also looked up into the trees. He saw a faint blur career towards him from the darkness. In a bid to save himself, he raised his sword. Radu was much too fast, and caught the man high across the chest, lifting him from his mount.

  The horse reared up on its hind legs, whinnying out loud and striking out at the air. Its rider was gone. The merchant saw him vanish just as Matei had done and, in a panic, he cracked the whip. His team of four horses lurched forward. He cracked it again to prompt them to take him away from there as fast as they could.

  Radu let the merchant go, knowing he would catch up with him in a while. For now, his interest lay with the second rider. He found this one a lot feistier than the other. The man tried to gouge his eyes with his thumbs.

  The man cried out when his abductor let him go, but the fall of twenty feet to the ground silenced him. He landed hard on his back, the impact shattering his pelvis. When Radu touched down beside him, he lay prostrate on the hard earth.

  Radu grabbed both his feet and swung him around. The man cried out in agony before the vampire dumped him down again.

  The merchant heard his bodyguard scream. He brought the whip down harder to urge his team on faster.

  Almost paralysed with the pain, the man gazed up at Radu. He found the image of the beast horrifying. Radu saw the look of revulsion on his face, and dived on him. He ripped away the rider’s hosiery, before biting hard into his exposed inner thigh. The man screamed, but could do nothing. He fell silent as death took him.