The Last Vampire

by Jon F. Merz

  “For what purpose? You want to watch me cry?”

  “My past is endless. My future even more so.” Isella spread her hands and they were alabaster white. For someone who drank a lot of blood, it sure didn’t look like she had much of her own.

  “Your future might not be as endless as you think,” I said. “If I get a chance, I’ll cut it damned short right here.”

  “No doubt,” said Isella. “How long have you searched for me, Declan? Has it been long?”

  “A few years,” I said. There wasn’t much point to lying when she could probably tell what I was thinking. “Once we determined that there had to be a Source. From that point on, the search for you became our driving mission.”

  “Do you know how long I’ve searched for you?”

  I frowned. “I dunno. Maybe about the same time?”

  Isella sniffed. “Typically short-sighted mortal perspective.” She glanced at me as she moved around the room. I forgot that Warsaw and Kort were still there, but they didn’t seem to be figuring into this conversation much. That was fine with me. I just wanted to kill them and be done with it.

  “You have a much longer history than you know.”

  “Yeah, you keep alluding to that, but you haven’t explained anything about it yet. Are you waiting for me to say the magic words?”

  “If you knew them, they might help you,” said Isella.

  Huh?

  “The fact is that you have been a thorn in my side for many, many years. Much longer than you think.”

  “How long?”

  She eyed me, her voice a low whisper. “Centuries.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

  She was in my face again in the blink of an eye. “You dare to think that I would waste my time and energy trying to fool you? That I would deign to expend my intellect in pursuit of someone who seems utterly unworthy of consideration?” She drew her claws across my chest again and I felt the searing pain - crying out - as they flayed open my skin. The scent of blood filled the air and I could see her salivate before pulling away.

  I stared down at the wounds on my chest and wondered if they were actually real or not. She’d only just done this illusion a few minutes previously. Was this another? Was it designed to show me what she could do to me without her actually doing it?

  “I’ve been alive for centuries?” May as well go with it for the time being, I decided.

  “Of course not,” she snapped. “You are mortal. But you’ve been alive multiple times, and each time you’ve set another piece of your plan into action before I’ve been able to find you.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “I’m not surprised,” said Isella. “Did you really think the Mortal Makers were some industrious invention created in this time to thwart the rise of my armies? Did you truly believe someone hadn’t thought of it before now?”

  “I don’t know. Was there ever a need for them before this?”

  Isella smiled. “I am the mother of the undead. From me, all has been spawned. For time immemorial, I have spread evil in every time period. Sometimes, it is in the guise of normal human events: war, pestilence, and the like.” She licked her lips. “But in other times - the dark times - my children have been free to roam and hunt. Free to be what they truly are. My emissaries of death.”

  I frowned. “And my role?”

  “Your role, Declan, was to combat me at every chance you got. And when you could not battle all of me and my children on your own, you created the Mortal Makers to assist you in the battle between good and evil. You. All so many years ago when you read the signs and understood the omens of the coming evil, you raised your own army to fight me.”

  “But I haven’t been successful.” I stared at her. “And neither have you.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Because we’re both still here.” I shifted as much as I could with my hands bound. “If you’d won, I’d be dead. And if I’d won, you’d be dead. But we’re at a stalemate, aren’t we?”

  Isella smiled. “We were. Until now. Until you came to Diablo.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She laughed now, filling the chamber with the horrid screeching that made my skin crawl. “You’ve killed many of my lesser children in recent years, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And each time you kill one, each time you run your staff deep into their hearts, what do you ask them?”

  I thought for a moment. “‘Where is it?’”

  Isella wheeled around, the black fabric that surrounded her swirling like some twisted May Pole Dance. “And they’ve all said the same thing, haven’t they? Each one of them tells you the exact same thing.”

  “Diablo.”

  “Diablo.” Isella smiled. “Do you know why they told you that, Declan? Because I commanded them to. You’ve spent the last several years thinking that you’re hunting me, but the truth is that I’ve been hunting you. And whenever I’ve gotten close in the past, you’ve managed to elude me by choosing a mortal’s death. But not this time. Not ever again. Because this time, I finally learned my lesson and set a trap for you so cunning that even a warrior like yourself couldn’t help but fall for.”

  “You lured me here.”

  Isella nodded. “Yes, Declan. Diablo has always been the endgame. But not for me. For you.”

  27

  So I’d walked into a trap. I tested the ropes binding my hands; they were tight but there was some play to the knots. I might have a shot at wriggling out of them if I could play for enough time. Whether Isella would give that to me remained to be seen.

  “What happens now then?” I asked. “You drink my blood and bleed me dry?”

  Isella hissed. “You do not deserve the honor of mixing with my juices.” She nodded at Kort and Warsaw. “They will kill you as they did your colleague.”

  I eyed Warsaw. “Did you at least have the decency to make it quick before you roasted him?”

  Warsaw shrugged. “I didn’t want to waste the bullet.”

  “You should have,” I said. “It might have changed the course of your fate.”

  Warsaw grinned. “I’d be more worried about your own right now. What was his name? Rask? What sort of name is that anyway? Sounds like a throat condition.”

  Kort chuckled. “Doc, my throat is all ‘rasky.’”

  I clenched my jaw. Rask was a comrade in arms against the evil in this world - both the living and the undead. And people like Warsaw and Kort were as much a part of the threat to the world as the suckers we hunted.

  “I owe you guys for what you did to him,” I said. “And I’m going to deliver on that payment.”

  Isella swept before my face again. “You have more to concern yourself with than these fools. Your forthcoming death will finally provide me with the the freedom I’ve craved for so very long. I will finally be able to rule this world as I have been attempting to do since I was first created.”

  “So why didn’t you? You told me that I’ve been around for centuries but I kept eluding you. How come you couldn’t just take over when I died?”

  “Because it was not by my hand,” said Isella. “In order for the cycle to be broken, you must be extinguished by me.”

  “But you’re going to have the two idiots over there kill me?”

  “They will deliver the blow that delivers you from this mortal coil,” said Isella. “But at the time your life force extinguishes, I will be there to kill your very soul.”

  “That doesn’t sound very pleasant.”

  “It will not be,” said Isella. “You will cease to exist. Not just in physical form but in spiritual form as well. It will be as if you had never existed at all in the universe. Simply….gone. Forever.”

  “All of my atoms back to being atoms?”

  “They will simply vanish from the fabric of reality,” said Isella. “As if you had never been there at all.”

  I swallowed. Dying didn’t bother me as much as it on
ce did, but the prospect of no longer existing in any form on any plane didn’t sound like something that would be very enjoyable. I yanked at the ropes holding my hands but only managed to hurt my wrists by doing so.

  “And what about Ares?”

  Isella smiled. “She is special, that one. I have plans for her.”

  “I thought I was special, too.”

  “You are indeed,” said Isella. “You created the Mortal Makers to battle my attempts to rule the world and unleash the darkness upon it. For centuries you have been successful at doing just that. But your time is coming an end. You are mere moments away from seeing everything that you worked so hard to protect fall into the misery of the abyss.”

  I glanced at Warsaw. “Is that what you want, too? To help this bitch unleash the hordes of darkness upon us? Because let me tell you something: she’ll keep you around only as long as it makes sense. The moment you and your boy there become expendable or a pain in the ass, she’ll destroy you and everyone you think you’ve been protecting.”

  Warsaw grinned. “Not if we serve by her side.”

  Isella smiled at me. “I’ve already secured their loyalty by appealing to their more primal instincts, Declan. I’m afraid your pathetic attempts to dissuade them will fall on deaf ears.”

  I had some give in the knots and kept working at it. “Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying.” Something occurred to me then and I decided I had nothing to lose by pressing the issue a bit. “So how come you haven’t taken any of my blood?”“I told you,” said Isella. “You do not deserve the honor of mixing with mine.”

  The thought was more solid now. I reflected on everything I knew about the colleagues of mine who had been killed by the suckers they hunted. Killed. Never bled dry. Just killed.

  “You can’t.”

  It came out softer than I’d intended. But then I looked up at her. “You can’t drink our blood. None of you can. That’s why your creatures never bled my colleagues. Death, yes. But never turned. You tore them apart but never once did you ever feast upon them.” I paused and then smiled. “Because you can’t.”

  Isella’s face creased into a horrifying demeanor. Then her lips curled back revealing the pointed teeth that jutted from her mouth. “Your blood is toxic to us. The sense of moral certainty that fires you all changes something within the chemistry of your blood. Such that we are unable to feed upon it. It is an unknown variable to me. I do not understand it.” She waved her hand. “But it matters not. Your death is the only thing that matters now. Not your poisonous blood.”

  “It must drive you nuts, though. Knowing you can’t suck us dry and get vengeance that way for all the misery that we’ve caused you. That there’s no chance of hearing us plead for our lives while you let our very essence flow into your mouth.”

  “I will hear you beg for your life when they kill you. And I will feast for a thousand lifetimes upon the anguish in your face as your soul dies, Declan. It will sustain me for eons.”

  “Don’t count on it,” I said. “I’m not really big on whining and begging. You’re better off just killing me and getting it over with.”

  “And what about your precious Ares? What about her? Would you beg for her life?”

  I frowned. “Haven’t you already killed her?”

  “Of course not,” said Isella. “Her purpose to me is far greater than you know. Far more than whatever fate you had in store for her. Bait, I think you called her. Is that right?”

  “Maybe.”

  Isella sniffed. “Such a fool. The real injustice for you, Declan, is that despite your many lifetimes, you have been unable to call upon any of the wisdom you gained from fighting me over the centuries. Each time you’ve been born anew, you’ve had to reacquire all of your knowledge. All of your hard won insight into battling my creatures. And me. That has severely limited you in what you’ve been able to accomplish. Because if you had been able to recall anything, you might finally have bested me once and for all.”

  “And what would that entail? Killing your atoms as well so it would be like you never existed?”

  She laughed. “You cannot destroy me. You can only banish me for a time. Back to the abyss from whence I sprang so long ago.”

  “Where you wait for another time to come back,” I said.

  “When time is infinite, there are always new chances to spread evil,” said Isella. “And we are patient, if nothing else.”

  “You sure I can’t interest you in a drink of my blood?”

  She smiled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “Well, it’d be preferable to be killed.”

  Isella’s hand grabbed my jaw and she forced my head to one side, exposing my neck. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my jugular. It was as if she could enhance the way my heart pumped my blood. I felt a rush in my head and I saw Isella leaning forward, drawing her lips back as her fangs edged ever closer to the warmth my blood contained.

  And then she pulled back away laughing. “So, you’re not completely powerless. Interesting.”

  What the hell did that mean? Had I somehow exerted some sway over her?

  “You know, Declan,” she continued. “I’ll make you a deal.”

  “Not interested.”

  “A chance to stay alive?” Isella cocked an eyebrow. “A chance to save Ares from a terrible fate? You wouldn’t jump at the chance to stay here rather than be destroyed forever?”

  “If I did, I’d no doubt be selling out every last bit of honor that I’ve ever had.” I nodded at Warsaw and Kort. “And I’m not like those assholes over there.”

  “No, you’re not,” said Isella. “But think about something while you consider my offer: the universe doesn’t reward the just or the honorable. What you’ve fought for, all the moral high ground, the strict codes? It’s all been a lie. And I know just how to prove it to you.”

  28

  “How so?” I asked. I was still struggling to get my hands free. I had no idea what I was going to do once I managed to do that. My weapons weren’t in my possession. My staff was leaning up against a wall at the far side of the chamber and I didn’t think I could manage to get there before Isella would be all over me. She could rip my head off before I could blink.

  Isella gave me another one of her creepy smiles. “What do you miss most about your old world, Declan? What do you long for beyond all longing?”

  I clenched my jaw. I saw the images float past my eyes. “My family. My wife and son. I would do anything to have them back.”

  “But you killed them,” said Isella. “You drove those pieces of wood into their chests. Did you hear their sternums crack? Did you feel their hearts resist and then pop open as you drove the stakes into them while they screeched and wailed? Did you watch their eyes go vacant as death came for them?”

  My eyes felt hot and my vision blurred. “I didn’t have a choice. They were what you made them into. They couldn’t be reasoned with and they would surely killed me, too.”

  Isella sighed. “Such a shame when one’s family lets one down. I swear if there was ever a universal truth I’ve heard over the centuries that I’ve been on this accursed rock, it would be that one never expects one’s family to betray them, and yet, that is what ends up happening more times than not. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a simple misunderstanding or something far more serious. The results are the same. Someone is going to walk away with a knife jutting from between their shoulder blades.”

  “I didn’t have a choice,” I said. “And to leave them as they were would have put others in jeopardy. I couldn’t have that on my conscience.”

  “It’s fascinating,” said Isella. “The things we do and how we rationalize them to make ourselves feel better. How we’re able to come up with reasons and excuses to forgive just about anything we might do. It’s one of the true wonders of the world, if you ask me.”

  “No one asked you,” I said. “What I did will stay with me forever. Regardless of what you do to me, I will never stop c
arrying that guilt with me. I did what I had to do but that doesn’t mean I don’t hurt every single moment of every single day with the memory of it.”

  Isella stopped walking and eyed me. “I don’t think you’re lying, Declan. You’re an honorable man. A fool, yes, but honorable nonetheless. I don’t think you’d lie about grieving over what you did - what you say you had to do.”

  “Thank you.”

  “So let me ask you this: from your perspective, is it understandable what you did? Can you justify the actions you took that night? Are you worthy of forgiveness?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. I took a breath and stuttered something out that didn’t even sound like words. I took another breath, steadied myself and then looked Isella in the eyes. “I can hope to find forgiveness one day. Some day, maybe.”

  “Would you be able to forgive someone who betrayed you?”

  “It depends,” I said. “On what they did. How they betrayed me. Some things, yes. Others, I’m not so sure.”

  “But that makes you a hypocrite,” said Isella. “After all, you’re saying you killed your family but you still seek forgiveness. Yet, you put conditions on giving that same forgiveness to someone else.”

  “I’m a fallible human being,” I said. “I try my best, but I’m not going to simply state that I’d forgive anyone for betraying me. I don’t know if I could do that. Rather than lie, I’m just being honest.”

  Isella sighed. “It’s almost admirable how you cling so desperately to these notions of grandeur like you do. It might be, if it weren’t such utter nonsense. You should simply choose to give in and feel the power of your wrath. You’re a powerful man, already Declan. But you could be more. So much more.”

  “Is this your speech to lure me over to the dark side? I’m not interested.”

  Isella laughed. “I wouldn’t presume that you would. I’m merely trying to show you how utterly false your world has been. How much of your life was wasted on antiquated notions of honor and morality. How it was all garbage.” Her expression changed into one devoid of compassion. “Everyone betrays another. Even those we consider our most cherished, even them, Declan. They all do things in their own self-interests. Even those we love.”