by Aiden James
I prayed I wouldn’t have another bout of morning sickness until after we all found some sort of nourishment. Fortunately, it was my only bout with a nauseous stomach that evening, where with most days and nights those first few weeks, I never wanted to be too far from a modern restroom. Unfortunately, that meant never straying too far from my bedchamber. If I did, Chanson made sure one of my protectors brought a vomit bag. Not fun.
That first full night in the castle turned out to be one of our most enjoyable overall. Since it was new to us, we spent the night exploring the various buildings that weren’t off limits. Only the center building, which contained Huangtian Dadi’s personal ‘living space,’ was inaccessible. Two quartets of stern-faced vampires vigilantly guarded both entrances to his abode. Despite the security measures, I overheard Armando discuss a plan with Garvan to breach this fortress and find out what made our host so reclusively protective of his pad.
“Maybe he has a stable of little boys and girls to keep him privately amused,” said Armando, after he and Garvan rejoined us after a brief reconnaissance of the rest of the palace. I doubted seriously that he realized the careless disdain in his remark until Chanson pointed it out. He shrugged with a ‘whatever’ expression when Chanson rebuked him.
That happened while all of them waited for me to finish my supper, which was prepared in the same reception area where we spoke with Xuanxang when we first arrived. Something that tasted like sesame chicken with a small bowl of rice, and a cup of tea were waiting on a small teakwood table in front of a blazing fireplace. Oddly, there wasn’t anyone around—human or vampire. Yet, my food and drink were steaming hot. Five flasks of warm, human blood lined the mantel. Each one was labeled with the blood type and the corresponding vampire it had been prepared for.
Someone must’ve known we were on our way downstairs. At least that was my assumption. But even my vampire companions with their superior senses didn’t detect any activity on the main floor, and they shared my surprise.
Once I had finished eating and the flasks were drained, we set out in earnest to explore what we could. While the guys obsessed with finding a way into Huangtian Dadi-land and disappeared several times, we girls had a ball going through the art floor in the adjacent palace building to the left of ours. Most of the pottery, sculptures, and paintings predated the onset of every Chinese dynasty on record—some items by at least a thousand years, according to Chanson. Thankfully, the subject matter for these works was random, without a single dragon anywhere. Other aspects from Chinese folklore dominated the ancient artwork instead, imagery like warriors, fairies, and detailed depictions of paradise.
The only downside was we pretty much saw everything the palace had to offer that night. I had hoped to visit the archives, where ancient Dao and Confucian texts were carefully preserved. But we never made it past the main library. Interestingly, it was in the library we saw our first non-vampire adult. An old man with a long, Fu Manchu moustache labored over a scroll, and impatiently shooed us away. It might have been because I kind of laughed at the somewhat stereotypical nature of his appearance. I didn’t mean anything by it; really, I was just kind of surprised.
“We’ll see if we can find ways to keep you entertained during the day, Txema, since, for your safety, you should sleep while we’re awake and can watch over you,” said Chanson, after I grew weary and we returned to my bedchamber. It was a few minutes past three o’clock that morning.
“Maybe some naughty videos would be nice, if we can find an old enough VCR to match this obsolete piece of shit. Seriously, isn’t this China where, like, everything is made?” said Armando. He pointed to the little TV set with a salesman’s gesture and exaggerated smile.
Garvan smirked.
At least they shared my view of what I could realistically look forward to while waiting for my baby’s birth. Unless I somehow stumbled across a collection of paperback books in English, or a video game console of some sort, I’d be bored out of my mind very soon. Tyreen suggested the word association games we sometimes played in college while seeing who got tipsiest during a weekend liquor binge. Even Raquel responded to that idea with some enthusiasm. But like anything else, it would surely grow old before long.
Following Chanson’s advice, I began retiring earlier and earlier each night, until I was sound asleep by midnight. That allowed me enough rest to where I was up by 7:00 a.m. At first, I hated the shortened visiting time with her and everyone else. The palace often felt like a mausoleum, not least of all due to the coffins in my room. The thing that got me up and rolling each morning was the incredible view outside my bedchamber. The immense wall of glass framed a breathtaking view of the highest peaks in the Himalayas.
I could see part of Mount Everest from the hallway, and the view was always spectacular. On the rare occasion of a clear blue sky, what I beheld was almost indescribable. It changed how I felt about the primitive accommodations as compared to what I had grown up with.
But it was also quite lonely.
I often thought about my Papa and Momma, as well as my grandmother and brothers. My heart ached for them, and I worried I might never see any of them again.
I also thought about Racco and Peter some. But, I guess since, in my mind, Racco had willingly left my side to return to his life in France, and Peter had returned to the States with only a slight protest, I considered them both deserters. They heard the word ‘baby’ and took off. My feelings were conflicted because I was angry with both of them, but I also missed them desperately, so I tried to put them out of my head as much as possible.
My Papa especially would love the view, since he always sought to explore the highest peaks in America. He was the reason I learned to ski—and ski well enough to receive a scholarship offer at the University of Colorado during my junior year in high school.
At least the view stirred something in my soul each day. It made the dull routine of going downstairs to a limited menu of fish, poultry, and vegetables with a small bowl of rice and a cup of steaming tea somewhat bearable. Every night I’d return to the reception area with my vampire companions, and again it would be the same rice and whatever P.F. Chang’s frozen entrée for me to eat. All kidding aside, I think the only thing that kept me from bitching too much about this arrangement was the fact my vampire friends had to drink the same warm blood set out for them in carafes.
Tyreen was the only exception. Chanson made an arrangement with Xuanxang for the newest vampire in our group to feed on volunteer adolescents secluded in a section of the palace that was another off limits place for me.
The only time I saw Xuanxang was when he came to escort Tyreen each night, and I never saw Huangtian Dadi. I ran into Gustav a few times, but rarely anyone else from Europe or for that matter any of the other Chinese vampires. If not for an occasional ‘drive by’ greeting from Nora and Kazikli, I would’ve thought the damned place was as deserted as the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s novel, The Shining.
As December wore on, I became lonelier and lonelier for my family and my home in America. That’s where I wanted to be, and it was truly where I belonged. The bitterness of what had happened to me was beginning to grow at the same time a wonderful tiny life developed within me.
By Christmas Eve, my intuitions told me that I no longer carried a primitive fetus. My daughter would soon become a viable human being if something happened and she were forced to come prematurely she will have developed far enough to at least have a chance outside my body. That was pretty cool to think about, and it made me smile. I believe this is where fate stepped in and began to shape my future in a way that even the smartest vampires could not predict or control.
Since it was Christmas Eve, I decided to get up a bit early and just sit for a while in front of the immense window outside my room. Taking in the grandeur of a fabulous morning following a night of blustering snow, I let my gaze linger on the drifted snow banks below the window. I hadn’t done it much before, since surveying anything connected to the palace
provided an instant reminder that I was a glorified prisoner on house arrest. Better to focus on the eternal freedom the mountains enjoyed—or even the eagles and lammergeiers that glided effortlessly, until they dove beyond where my vision could follow them. I envied that ultimate freedom.
But, December twenty-fourth was different from all previous mornings in the palace, and I felt the urge to study the icicles and snowdrifts instead―and saw the tracks.
Even from the elevation and distance of my vantage point, I could tell the three-toed footprints were large—bigger than any human footprint I’d ever seen. The tracks moved along the side of the main building to the palace and curved along the snow bank as the path moved beyond the back of the building. Intrigued, I studied the tracks again, and following their course with my eyes until I noticed something else.
The gray tail of an enormous lizard whipped back and forth, and then slipped around the corner of a building. I wondered for a moment if I was losing my mind or hallucinating―feeling again like poor Jack Torrance from The Shining. The tracks were proof of my sanity. I began to wonder if the dragon ornamentation all around the palace was some exaggerated artistic expression of a local creature, unknown to and hidden from the outside world. Perhaps some mountain version of a komodo dragon, adapted for the cold. My curiosity welled up inside me; you may remember I was studying to be a veterinarian and the thought of seeing some new species, all but unknown was pretty thrilling, and since the vast majority of servants I had seen to date were children, the danger seemed to be fairly negligible. The thing had bolted, and I doubted I would get close enough to even see it, but even the footprints would be fascinating.
I gathered my snowsuit from the closet in my bedchamber and rushed to put it on. Then I set out in earnest to find whatever it was I just saw. Rushing downstairs, I picked up my pace as I followed the corridor back to the rear entrance to my building. I barely glanced at the tiresome entrees laid out for me in the reception area, but did take a look at the clock. 8:36 a.m.
I encountered nearly a dozen children on my way to the back entrance, which eased my fears even more. Also I thought that perhaps I had finally caught a glimpse of the stewards who brought me breakfast and cleaned my room? They smiled curiously at me, and I politely returned their smiles. But I was on a mission―a fact finding one that had nothing to do with vampires or the supernatural. I felt like one of the explorers who discovered the Galapagos Islands surely must have felt!
Bundled up, I stepped outside into the frigid air. Although the sun hung low in the sky, the temperature felt like it couldn’t have topped zero degrees Fahrenheit. My nostrils were sticking, which used to happen to me as a little girl in Richmond, Virginia when the temperature sometimes hovered in the single digits.
That hardly mattered once I saw the tracks. They led across stone sculptures and a dormant marble fountain covered in ice and snow, as if the maker of the footprints was in too big of a hurry to step around the damned things. I was okay up until then, as far as honoring Chanson’s instructions to me. I could make it back to safety if it became necessary to flee danger. But then the tracks kept going, angling next to Huangtian Dadi’s sacred compound.
“Ah, shit!” I hissed, pausing to consider the possible consequences I’d face for deviating from my cousin’s specific direction. The voice in my head reminded me I had more than my own skin to look out for. I put my hand on my belly, though it was impossible to feel anything through it. My daughter was utterly helpless and curiosity be damned, all of the sacrifices I’d already made required me to defer to her safety one hundred percent.
I reluctantly turned around and began trudging back to the palace’s main building―until I heard the voices. Children’s voices, and from my guess at least two of them. They were whimpering.
I stopped, concentrating harder while my heart raced.
One of the voices screamed.
Call it stupidity, but I prefer to think of it as a new mom’s instinct to protect the young, even if the child wasn’t my own. Regardless of the origin of the impulse and heedless to the danger, I ran toward the screams. The noise emanated from beyond the side of Huangtian Dadi’s secluded estate—his royalty’s splendid abode. As I approached, I saw two children. A little boy held a younger child that appeared to be a three-year old girl. They both sobbed uncontrollably in the frigid sunlight while facing something thrashing around in a shadowed open pavilion.
Streams of crimson stained the snow around a ravaged corpse. Limbs had been torn from the torso and been strewn haphazardly about, some beneath the pavilion’s roof, an arm and leg partially in the sunlight. The head was still attached and the woman’s long hair spread above her. Her eyes were open, but the light was gone from them, she was obviously, mercifully, dead.
A man clothed only in the gore of his victim crouched over the woman’s body. No, not a man, a hungry demon disguised as a man. He shoved fistfuls of bloody flesh into a jaw that opened on a hinge more akin to a serpent’s than a human’s.
At first, the monster didn’t see me, but when he did, he snarled, baring a maw full of fangs. The vampire, for it could clearly have been nothing else, might have passed for a brother of Xuanxang. The biggest difference was the eyes, not only in their gleaming red color, but also the wild, lunatic stare as he turned to shield the mangled torso of his victim with his own body.
The vampire fixed his gaze upon me with a predatory glare and bared his teeth further in challenge, as if I had any intention of taking the prize of his meal. I felt like a Yellowstone tourist who had stumbled upon a grizzly bear killing a deer for its cubs.
We stood, eyes locked on each other for what felt like minutes, but in reality must have only been ten or fifteen seconds. I broke the gaze first, turning to look over my shoulder. As soon as I did, he dropped the woman’s torso and roared at me. I stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. The children shrieked in terror, hugging each other. The vampire charged me, crossing the shaded ground in a few bounding steps. As soon as he broke from under the shelter of the pavilion and into the sunlight, he howled in pain and shrunk back. Smoke rose from the seared flesh on his naked and bloodstained body.
That gave me hope. Maybe I could rescue the kids and get us all back inside the palace safely. What happened next obliterated that notion completely, and opened my eyes as to how little I truly understood about the new world to which I belonged.
The vampire mutated. His powerful muscles expanded while sharp fins tore through his back and a pair of black horns grew from each side of his head. His skin split and peeled away, revealing the gray scales I had glimpsed earlier. At that time, I had been too far away to distinguish the intricate snake-like patterns along the creature’s arms, legs, and the tail that dropped toward the ground from this monster’s backside. Now that I was closer there for half a second I was struck by the stupid thought of how much the pattern looked like that of a mundane lizard, like some kind of skink. Then I had a chilling realization.
I was so fucked.
My feet felt like lead, as if frozen to the icy ground. But in the few moments before this thing finished its transformation, something inside me came to life. I know it must sound ridiculous, but I heard a voice call to me, with both clarity and power. Power enough to snap me from the mesmerism that had taken hold.
Run, now Mommy!
Wherever it came from, it was enough. Everything became a blur, yet at the same time, I felt as though I were moving in slow motion. I knew that I couldn’t save the children, but then again, this thing wasn’t after them at the moment and I hoped they would escape on their own. I ran as fast as I could, praying my God-given athleticism was enough to save me. I sprinted back to the main palace. As I slammed through the door, I wondered for a second why there were no daytime guards protecting the building. Even across the world, there never seems to be a cop when you need one. I didn’t wait to close the door behind me, I just ran. I had no intention of stopping or looking over my shoulder until I reached my room
.
I heard the screams of more terrified children, this time from within the palace―no doubt drawn by the sounds of my panicked flight. The clicks and scrapes of sharp talons against the marble floor were all I needed to know this monster intended to pursue me until it held my trembling body within its mouth or claws.
I scrambled up the stairs to the second floor as my pursuer crashed through the reception area. It sounded as if I might have gained a few seconds on it, since I heard the snap of a table being broken and chairs launched into a wall. I took the final flight of steps three at a time as the fiend raced across the second floor. It let out an even angrier screech, no doubt irritated that I hadn’t even bothered to turn around. That would surely have been a death sentence.
Like when running track, I just kept my eyes forward and ran, and it was enough. I made it to the third floor and felt that burst of adrenaline that always came when the finish line is in sight. I sprinted the last twenty feet from the top step into my room. Thank goodness I hadn’t bothered to lock my bedchamber’s door; I would’ve never made it to safety. The instant I reached the threshold, the thing dove at me. Its talons shredded part of my snowsuit, but the force behind it shoved me into my room. I scrambled back to the door and saw the vampire-turned-dragon’s talons scraping over the marble floor of hallway, unable to stop under the combination of its mass and inertia. It crashed into the wall a short distance away. As it regained its footing, I slammed the door and dropped the bar bolt. We’d had a bit of a laugh at what we considered the extreme nature of the lock when we’d been given the room. Now I understood our Chinese hosts’ intention, and the necessity of such a device. The creature rammed its body repeatedly against the door. The wood cracked and splintered. I had no idea what to do next, and dire panic rose within me. I sought to rouse my protectors from their deep, daily slumber, pounding on every single casket. But they remained comatose, and presumably unaware as to what was going on.