The Savage Vampire (The Perpetual Creatures Saga Book 5)

by Gabriel Beyers

  Shufah pointed to Thad and Taos. “You two. Out.”

  “Where are we supposed to go?” Taos asked.

  “I don’t care. Just not here.” Shufah stopped them as they stepped outside. “But not too far. Just in case.”

  Taos clapped Thad on the shoulder. “Women. Can’t ever make up their minds, can they?” He ducked beneath the doorframe and stepped out into the night.

  Thad scratched at his tight beard, an unspoken apology floating in his eyes. He merely shrugged, then followed Taos.

  Shufah didn’t look forward to wrangling the Monster with only Celeste. The blood ring had made them more powerful, sure, but the Monster’s true advantage was his unfiltered fury. It was best not to underestimate him. Many Hunters had learned that lesson over the years.

  But if Danielle was correct, they couldn’t risk drawing Jerusa to them too early. Compared to her, dealing with the Monster was a minor inconvenience.

  The river of time transitioned from shallow rapids to a deep, placid pool. Still moving forward, but imperceptibly so.

  Shufah and Celeste remained stone still, their muscles drawn tight. The only noise, the whistle of icy winds and the moan of the twisted shack. She shot a questioning glance at Celeste, too afraid to speak. Is he coming?

  They’re close, her eyes said. Be ready.

  Still, they waited, drawn tight and ready to strike as soon as the Monster appeared. Perspiration threatened to break upon Shufah’s forehead, despite the cold temperature. Celeste’s fists—which were clenched so tight the tiny bones in her hands could be seen through the pale skin—trembled.

  Then, just when time seemed to fall down dead, and a scream of madness pressed hard against the back of Shufah’s teeth, a familiar sound filled their ears.

  Just beyond the door beat two hearts. One soft, steady, and strong. Easily mistaken for a mortal’s heartbeat had they not known better. The other thundered like the heart of an elephant, dysrhythmic and almost chaotic, yet not rumbling with rage as they had expected.

  Shufah motioned for Celeste to follow her outside. It was her first time seeing the landscape. They had arrived in the daytime with the helicopter sealed tight and then had entered the windowless cabin beneath the sun-blocking shrouds.

  A chilly wind rustled about, but the air was warmer, by far, than at the Ice Sanctuary. Patches of snow smattered the hills surrounding the cabin, but in the valley where they were, thin tufts of grass transitioned from yellow to green. Skeletal stalks of winter-dead wild flowers danced in the breeze, chattering away like a crowd of gossiping onlookers. In a month, this valley would resurrect in an explosion of color, but for now, death still held sway.

  Danielle stood no more than fifteen feet away from the cabin, eyeing the structure’s now twisted frame. “Trouble?”

  “Just what we made for ourselves.” Shufah offered no other explanation, and Danielle asked for none. Shufah motioned to the Monster. “Trouble?”

  Danielle watched the Monster with concern. Not for her own safety, for Victor could do nothing to harm her, or even for the vampire’s safety, but for Victor himself. It was as though she had unearthed a piece of desecrated artwork, whose beauty can never be restored to its former glory.

  “Surprisingly, little. He had left the caverns and was moving across open land. He doesn’t seem to remember me.”

  “Tried to feed from you again, didn’t he?” Shufah asked.

  “Yeah, but I ended up feeding from him instead.”

  Celeste giggled but clapped her hand over her mouth, fearful the noise might stir the Monster’s madness.

  Victor didn’t seem to notice. His eyes—which were not only two different shapes and sizes, but held irises which themselves were a patchwork of blue, green, brown, hazel, and even gray—were fixed upward, where purple clouds swam the starry sky, occasionally blotting out the waxing moon.

  “Is that why he’s so… docile?” Celeste asked.

  “No. I took enough to knock the bite out of the dog, but he didn’t get like this until I mentioned Jerusa’s name.”

  Victor’s eyes snapped away from the sky as if stung. “The girl who sees the dead,” he said with fanatic desperation. “I must help her. I must!”

  The Monster darted toward Shufah, and she thought, for sure, he meant to attack. Shufah leapt back, taking a defensive stance. But instead of attacking, the Monster fell to his knees, sliding in the soft, wet earth, finally tumbling forward on all fours.

  “The one who is dead yet lives,” Victor said, sobbing. “She is the key.”

  Shufah gawked at the colossal creature kneeling before her. Her mind tumbled, unable to grasp the moment. She looked to Celeste, but the augur suffered the same jarring surprise. Danielle watched on in inquisitive interest, but didn’t look the least bit shocked.

  “Victor,” Shufah said, her voice sounding distant and small in her own ears. “Who told you of the host? The one who is dead, yet lives?”

  “The little vampire,” he said, his sobs dwindling. “The tiny augur who returned my name to me.”

  “Sebastian,” Celeste said in excited triumph. She had been right all along. The Dwarf had been sending them clues.

  “Victor,” Shufah said, trying her best to bring his disjointed mind into focus. It took saying his name several more times before he would look up at her. “What did the Dwarf tell you to do with the one who is dead yet lives?”

  The lumbering behemoth rocked over onto his haunches and hugged his knees to his chest. His excessively long arms and legs, once again, reminded Shufah of a giant insect. She noticed, with some chagrin, that he now had seven toes on each foot (though not in nice even rows), six fingers on his right hand (two thumbs on either side) and eight on his left (three fingers fused to the top of his hand).

  “The cemetery,” Victor started. Buried within his raspy, growling voice, she thought she could hear the man he had once been. “I was supposed to save the girl with the ghosts. You wanted to harm her.”

  The sudden edge in his voice caused Shufah’s skin to prickle. His massive form tensed, as though on the verge of lashing out, but then, he relaxed and returned his gaze to the ground.

  “We meant Jerusa no harm, Victor. We wanted to save her, too. But the Dwarf was correct. We only made things worse.”

  “The little vampire told me my name. Showed me the faces of my wife, my daughters. Told me that I wasn’t the Monster any more.” He sat for a moment, drawing in deep, ragged breaths. “I thought, if I could save the girl, if I could protect her, she’d find my family in the land of the dead, and bring them back to me. I failed. She burned.”

  Did Victor understand Jerusa had survived the Hunters’ fire? That she was now a Divine Vampire? His intellect had once been as sharp as his fangs, but his fractured mind now seemed on the verge of collapse.

  Shufah looked to Celeste. The augur nodded for her to proceed. “Victor, the girl with the ghosts still lives.”

  “I know this,” he snapped back as if she were stupid. “The Dwarf told me. She lives, but she’s sick. Overtaken with the savage dead.”

  “That’s right. There is a man—a mortal—who can help her. But he is hiding. Will you help us find him?”

  The Monster fell over onto his side, still clutching his knees. “The Dwarf says not to trust the mortal. He says the one who is alive and yet dead is the only way to save the girl. Girl and ghost must be reunited.”

  Shufah swallowed hard. Her mouth had gone dry and her tongue clucked in the back of her throat. “We can’t get to that one. She’s being guarded by one even more fierce than you.”

  The Monster shrugged as if to say what else is new?

  “What if there’s another way to save Jerusa, Victor? Will you hear our plan?”

  The Monster chuckled. It was a terrible sound, like that of bone being ground to dust. “The Dwarf showed me the only way. An impossible way. I am the Monster no more. I am Victor. And I think I will just wait here for the sun to carry me back to my family.�
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  Shufah wanted to argue with Victor, but the wind had been knocked out of her. There was nothing left to say. She knew the pain of his broken heart, and part of her longed to lie down next to him and await the sunrise together.

  Danielle watched this all from her silent post behind the Monster, arms down at her sides, the wind tussling her short, brown hair. She looked down upon Victor, not as the crazed, bloodthirsty beast of legend, but as a misunderstood creature, tormented and abused to the point of madness. Something to be pitied, not hated.

  Celeste, however, watched Shufah with an augur’s knowing settled in her intuitive eyes. Her head tilted to the side, her face pinched in painful realization. The question, why? sat upon her lips, yet she wouldn’t speak it. Celeste knew what Shufah was planning to do. She didn’t agree, but she knew.

  Shufah turned away, embarrassed. The worst part, the look in Celeste’s eyes hadn’t been one of judgment or accusation, but of simple hurt. Shufah stepped toward the cabin, placing her face upon the coarse outer wall. The coldness embedded in the wood felt good against her burning cheeks.

  Celeste turned from Shufah and approached Victor. She hovered near his head, her throat dangerously close to a mouth packed full of other vampires’ fangs.

  “Victor,” she whispered, her voice slow, soothing, like that of a hypnotist. “Open to me all that you are. Be one with our coven. Let us be your family while the world still stands.”

  Victor, the Monster, the Hunter of Hunters, sat up like a man half taken in a pleasant dream. He rubbed at the sides of Celeste’s face with both hands, amazingly gentle for such large, mutated hands.

  Celeste moved her hands slowly up to his temples, the tips of her fingers just barely tickling the horrid patchwork of flesh. “See, dear Victor, how we would save Jerusa. How we would save a world full of wives and daughters.”

  Victor’s body went rigid, but he seemed neither agitated nor in pain. Then, his eyes grew distant once more, and his breathing slowed near to ceasing.

  To explain their plan in words to one such as the Monster was no more effective than trying to write a novel in the sand. No matter how fast you wrote, or how deep you etched the words, eventually, the restless tide would sweep in, wiping all blank once more.

  But Celeste wasn’t writing in the sand. She chiseled the ideas into the bedrock of his mind, where neither pain nor madness could scour it away.

  A broad smile spanned Victor’s face, showcasing far too many razor-sharp fangs. Shufah didn’t need to be inside the Monster’s mind to know what Celeste was showing him. Only one thing would bring such happiness to this tortured soul. The fall of the High Council and the Hunters.

  Shufah hoped Victor would get to smile that smile for real someday.

  Celeste slowly removed her hands from Victor’s temples as though she feared any quick movement would incite an attack. He blinked his mismatched eyes several times, each time rising a little further from the swamp of his own mind.

  When he had fully returned to this world, Victor looked about as if measuring an oncoming battle. Shufah tensed with sickly anticipation, but then, Victor swallowed hard, shook his head, and looked up at Celeste. She brushed his forehead with the back of her hand, not as a lover but as a mother shooing cobwebs from the face of a child.

  Victor climbed to his feet, seeming somehow even larger than before. His eyes were still fastened upon Celeste’s, and though they seemed kind, Shufah could still see a flicker of menace deep down.

  “The Divine over there has wearied me,” he said, nodding toward Danielle. “I must rest before we travel.” Without another word, he went to the cabin, ducked beneath the door, and vanished inside.

  As soon as Victor was out of sight, Celeste dropped like a stone.

  Shufah rushed to her, but as fast as she was, Danielle beat her by a good half-second, leaping the distance.

  Celeste laid on her back, staring at the stars, panting in slow, heavy breaths. “I’m okay,” she said, glancing between the women. She shuddered. “I just need a moment. I’ve never encountered a mind such as his. Terrifying.”

  Danielle placed her hands upon Celeste’s forehead. “This should help.”

  Celeste gasped, but more from shock than pain. She sat up, the rosy blood returning to her cheeks. “You didn’t have to—”

  “It’s fine,” Danielle cut her off. “I didn’t give you much.” She helped Celeste to her feet. “Did you soothe the savage beast?”

  Celeste eyed the open doorway. “Yeah, I think we’re good. He understands who we are and what we’re up against. He’s agreed to help.”

  “And behave?” Shufah asked.

  Celeste shrugged. “For now. How long that lasts, I have no idea. The Monster is trying to surface. Victor is fighting, but it’s only a matter of time. I think it’ll help him to have this mission to work toward. It’ll keep him grounded.”

  “I hope so,” Shufah said. “Because after tonight, he’ll be all mine. You won’t be around to seal up the cracks should the Monster come sneaking back through.”

  “I tried to impress upon him that you are in charge. Victor agreed, but the Monster recognizes no authority.”

  Danielle clapped her hands as if this conversation was dreadfully boring. “Okay, sounds like you’re on your way, then. I need to be on mine. I hate to think what Jerusa has been up to in my absence. Silvanus will need to recharge. We’ll try to keep Jerusa away from you for as long as we can. No promises, though.”

  “Thank you,” Shufah said, bowing to Danielle. “May we reunite in peace.”

  Danielle waved her hand as if the bow embarrassed her. “Enough of that. The old ways are gone. Let’s just try to stay in touch.” Then she was gone.

  Celeste rubbed her face, turning away from the spot where Danielle had been. “You know, we’d all be better off if no one could do that.”

  “I agree,” Shufah said, and a sudden fear that her brother would materialize in the same spot gripped her heart. She snapped her gaze away, and Celeste didn’t need to ask why. “Can you find your way to Taos and Thad?”

  A mischievous smile lit on Celeste’s face, drawing out her girlish beauty. “With my eyes closed and my ears plugged.”

  Shufah rolled her eyes. “Right… Augur. You should go now. Call me when you find the boys and let me know your location. If we’re fortunate, Lamorak can be ready by tomorrow night.”

  “Something tells me they will be. I get the feeling, helping us is their primary mission right now.”

  “I hope you’re right. Go on. I’ll be fine.”

  Celeste turned to leave but stopped with her back still to Shufah. “There’s something you should know. Even though Victor said he would help us, he truly believes we’re traveling the wrong path. You heard him say the only way is to set Alicia free. That we have to kill the human holding her. I’m inclined to believe him.”

  Shufah let a deep sigh fall from her chest. “I know, but we don’t have that option right now. Maybe, if there were more Divine Vampires left alive, but even then, I’m not sure they could defeat Suhail. Not with what he’s become. And there’s no way to get to Alicia without going through Suhail. I’m afraid we must exhaust all other options before we consider that path.”

  Celeste didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t disagree. “I’ll call you soon.”

  Shufah smiled at the augur. She felt a sudden, terrible need to explain about her suicide plan… and thank her for not trying to talk her out of it. But the words just wouldn’t come. “Stay as far away from the Furies as you can, but try not to reach too far with your mind to find them. I don’t know if Jerusa can detect augurs, but Suhail sure can.”

  Celeste nodded that she understood and then darted off into the night. Shufah watched until she was nothing more than a speck kicking up a tail of snow in the upper hills.

  When Celeste was gone, Shufah looked at the cabin. It leaned hard toward one corner, making the roof far too flat on one end. The wooden beams comprising th
e walls were buckled in several places. It would most likely stand for another couple of seasons, but she didn’t trust it to keep the sun off of them until next nightfall.

  Inside, the Monster laid on his side in the far corner, with his face toward the wall. His hulking mass rose and fell with each breath as though some long-neglected machine at the end of its life strove within him.

  Shufah eyed the pile of reflective blankets wadded up in the opposite corner. The others had forgotten them here, and she hoped that wouldn’t prove a fatal mistake. It was too late to do anything about it now.

  She didn’t want to wake Victor (let sleeping Monsters lie), but they needed to take shelter somewhere else. They could cover themselves with the blankets, but the cabin afforded them no security at all. They’d be vulnerable to even a human attack.

  The night was young, and the air inside the cabin had grown stuffy, despite the coolness of the evening. Shufah stayed outside to do a bit of thinking. She took in the snow-flecked hills enfolding the valley. The almost-full moon revealed every detail to her vampiric eyes. There were caves in abundance to hide from the sun in, so no problem there.

  Yet, something troubled her. Something beyond the dangerous mission looming before them. Beyond the guilt of having Celeste discover her plan to walk into the sun. Even beyond the prospect of being trapped in a cave with the fractured personality of Victor the Monster.

  Shufah’s mind rolled from Jerusa leaping all around the world to make savages out of the few blood drinkers left alive, and passed quickly to Alicia trapped within the mortal woman.

  He says we have to set Alicia free.

  Only death waited at the end of that path. Shufah craved death, and if she could guarantee that only her life would be sacrificed to liberate Jerusa’s ghost, she would gladly give it. But Shufah feared—no, knew—it would cost them all their lives, and Suhail would most likely still come out the winner.

  The original plan was better. Safer. Wasn’t it?

  Shufah spiraled outward from the cabin, moving at a slow pace until the valley took a steep turn upward into the hills. She spied a cave a couple of hundred yards further—a dark eye in the hill large enough for even Victor to slide through—nestled beneath an outcrop of ancient granite. She couldn’t tell exactly how deep it was, but she had hidden in enough caves to know it would be enough.