by D. N. Hoxa
“Yes, Doyen.”
“You embarrass me, M. You’re the first vampire I ever made. You made me a Doyen. You need to be my right hand man,” he said. I was proud to hear him say the words. I was going to be my Doyen’s right hand man. “Can I trust you to lead a few of the others to Europe to find my diamonds?”
“Yes, Doyen.” What was he even saying? Of course he could trust me.
“Can I trust you to not run away when you hear people screaming in pain?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes, Doyen.” I didn’t like to hear people scream—that was no secret. But if he wanted me to stay, I would.
“Good. You’ll take Dash, Zuke, Sony and Red to Switzerland, and I’ll take the rest.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. I could lead the team. I could steal the diamonds. It was as easy as running.
“I’ll tell you everything you need to do tomorrow, because I need you to leave early. Once you secure them, you come find me,” Doyen said.
I nodded. I’d find him. He was there, inside me, in my chest. I’d find him wherever he was.
He let me go back to my room, and I crashed just as the sun turned the black sky orange. I barely had time to wonder what Switzerland would be like. I’d never been. But I would go and steal the diamonds. I hated to steal. I hated Ray Bardos, my Doyen. He was my whole life.
The next night, Zuke came into my room. It was refreshing to hear nothing but silence again when I woke up, so I was still in bed, enjoying the peace and quiet.
“I need a favor,” Zuke said. I sat up.
“What’s up?” I liked Zuke. Always had. He seemed to be a nice guy.
“I want to go with Doyen. He’s going to Mexico.” Zuke was from Mexico.
“He is?” I thought Doyen said the others were close by.
“I want to go with him, but he said I was going with you.”
I sighed. “Okay. I’ll talk to him.”
Zuke nodded, then left me alone with my thoughts again.
***
The memory left me just as fast as it had taken over my head, but the screams hadn’t stopped. Tif was in so much pain, I felt it every time he opened his mouth. He begged Ignis to stop whatever she was doing to him. He begged her, but she didn’t.
It took me a few moments to come around. When I remembered the memory, I screamed.
Zuke.
Zuke, the mute vampire.
Hammer knew Zuke. They were made by the same Doyen. A Doyen whose name was Ray, but looked nothing like the Ray who had turned me.
The door to the room opened, and Ignis walked in, together with the cauldron filled with molten silver. Tif had stopped screaming.
“Wakey, wakey,” Ignis said, grinning. “Have you changed your mind yet?”
“Drag, El, Zuke,” I said. “I want to talk to them.”
She raised her brows in surprise, before she laughed dryly. “You know them?”
“Yes, I’ve met them.”
“Wait, do you remember?”
“No,” I lied. “I met them a month ago in America.”
“Oh,” she said, then continued to smile. “Why do you want to talk to them?”
“Because…because maybe they can help.”
“Help how?” Ignis said. “I know you and Zuke were both turned by Ray, but he’s sworn to Alexa, and under my command.” Her command?
“You sent them after Morta Fox?”
Her smile grew wider. “Don’t you already know? Morta is my little sister.”
My mouth opened, but no words came out. Ignis continued to laugh.
“I love that reaction. It’s true, we look nothing alike. Probably because we’re from different fathers, but the same bitch gave birth to both of us.”
Sister. How could she be Morta’s sister? It wasn’t just the looks. It was the way she spoke. The way she acted. Everything about her was different.
“So tell me, how are the boys going to help you?”
“I’ll tell you after you let me see them.”
“I don’t think Mistress will allow it,” she said.
“You want to find Morta, don’t you?”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll ask her, and if she says yes, I’ll bring the boys down to you.” She then appeared right in front of me, and grabbed my chin. “If you promise to tell me one thing.”
“What?” I said, and tried to move away but the chain around my neck wouldn’t let me.
She smiled. “Not so fast,” she said. “First, you promise me that you won’t tell anyone what I ask from you.”
“Have you forgotten what got me into this mess the first place?” It was a promise I’d made to the woman I loved. Had loved, and still did. I wasn’t going to make one for her.
She stepped back. “Suit yourself.” And she went for the door, smiling.
Smiling, because she knew I’d stop her. What other choice did I have?
“Wait, Ignis.”
She turned around slowly. “Yes, Hammer?”
“I’ll promise I won’t tell anyone if you promise you’ll bring the boys down here.”
“I’ll promise to bring them here if you tell me what I want to know.” I had no idea what she wanted to ask me, but it probably had something to do with Morta. Thank God I didn’t have my complete memories.
“Forget it,” I hissed.
She flinched. “If you tell me what I need to know, I promise to bring the boys down here without telling anyone about it. It’ll be like they were never here.”
My mouth opened to reject her offer, but I thought better of it. It was stupid of me to even consider it, but Hammer knew Zuke. And Zuke had looked at me funny when we’d first met. I was sure he could remember me. It was a long shot to ask him for help after how things had ended between us, but I had no other choice.
“Okay,” I said, reluctantly. “I give you my word. I will not tell anyone what you want from me, ever.”
She smiled so big, her cheeks probably hurt. She appeared in front of me again, and as I looked at her dark eyes, I was surprised again by how different from Morta’s they were. Hers were black with a soft, brown ring around the iris. Ignis’s were a light, muddy brown.
“I want to know Mistress’s real name.”
Real fucking great. “Are you kidding me? I have no memories!” I hissed.
“Doyen said you’re getting them back.”
“I get some things back, but nothing of importance,” I lied. “Not one thing. I don’t know Chandra’s name.”
“She must’ve told you at some point. She was your mate,” she hissed.
“I don’t remember!”
“Until you do…” she said, then took the ladle, and moved it so fast, silver sprayed all over my chest. Most of it fell on the torn shirt I still had on, but some of it touched my skin. It burned worse than how the sun had burned Hammer in my memories.
“I’ll be back.” Ignis winked at me, and disappeared out the door.
XXXI
There was no more screaming that night, but it continued on the next. The guilt was terrible. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t even come up with a reason why Ignis would want Chandra’s name. If I could focus, maybe I could think of a way out of there.
But I couldn’t.
The night seemed to last forever as Tif’s screams turned to Lance’s, and his to Penny’s. When Mohg came into my room, looking every bit the boy he wasn’t, I barely saw him. My vision was blurry. My shoulder ached. My chest ached. I needed blood. So much blood that my teeth wouldn’t turn to square no matter how many times I tried.
He spoke, but all I heard was the screams. I didn’t know if they were there yet, but they were forever etched in my head, playing like a broken record.
Someone slapped me, and I hissed like a snake.
“Look at me,” Chandra said. Her voice was clear enough to understand, and her face grew sharp in front of my eyes after a few seconds. “Doyen wants to speak to you.”
It was times like those I wish my mouth produce
d more saliva so I could’ve spit in her face. I could do no other damage since I was tied like a dog.
“Do you understand what is happening here, Mask?” Mohg said.
I laughed, I think, but it sounded awful. How could I not understand?
“Have you remembered anything else?” he continued when he realized that I wasn’t about to answer his first question.
“No,” I lied. My voice sounded like someone else’s.
“If and when you do,” Mohg said, though I saw in his eyes that he knew I was lying, “you will be able to understand why this is necessary and come to your senses.”
“You have me chained like a fucking dog!” I hissed. It was much harder to speak with sharp teeth than I’d imagined.
“And I shall unchain you when you understand.”
He was out of his fucking mind. “What is there to understand in torture?”
“The answers will come with your memories,” Mohg said, and turned to leave.
“Then make them come faster!”
I wanted nothing more than the answer. If I was able to think like Hammer, I would have a better chance of getting out of there. If I could remember…
“My part is done, dear boy. I’ve opened the way. It is up to you to invite them back.”
“They come back whenever they want to. I have no control over them.”
“But you do,” Mohg said. “If you think hard enough, long enough, you invite them, and they come.”
Mohg left, but Chandra stayed with me. She touched my face, my body, inspected the wounds caused by the silver, then—as if she was feeling sorry for me—she bit her wrist and offered it to me.
Cold blood filled my nostrils, and reason fled my mind. My teeth dug into her flesh, and I took as much as she let me, which wasn’t a lot.
She took her hand back and licked the messy wound I’d made, never looking away from my eyes. As the cold blood coursed through my veins, everything came back into focus. Chandra, the room, my chains. My body healed itself and expelled the now hard pieces of silver from my shoulder and chest.
“Doyen said not to feed you.” Chandra grinned.
“Then why did you?” I said as my head cleared more. I looked at her wicked eyes and wondered, was everybody trying to screw everybody around there?
“I told you before, but you wouldn’t believe me, my love. I do whatever I want to do, and what I want to do is help you.”
“You don’t want to help me. You want to help yourself,” I hissed.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter. You’re not getting out of here without agreeing to help us.”
“What did she take?” I said before she reached the door. “What did Morta take from you that you want back so badly?”
She only looked at me like she was willing me to never speak again and disappeared.
I squeezed my eyes and concentrated. I had no other option but to take Mohg’s word for it. If I invited my memories, they would come back to me. It was my last chance.
Chandra’s name, Chandra’s name, Chandra’s name…
The screaming started again, but there was blood in my veins and I was stronger. I couldn’t help them by freaking out.
Hammer’s memory of Chandra’s name didn’t come until the next night, and when it did, it was the shortest one I’d ever had.
***
Something was wrong.
Chandra and I liked to play games to pass the time. We disappeared sometimes and hid others. But never for longer than a week.
It had been almost two months since she disappeared without a word. I searched for her far and wide, everywhere I thought she could be, but she was nowhere. The ROW wall stretched long before me, and I was tempted to cross it, get to the other side, just to see if she was in there. She never liked Washington, and that was why I’d gone there last.
She wasn’t anywhere in the broken parts of the country, and I doubted she could’ve passed the wall and hidden there. Humans knew how to spot us now.
I had no other choice. I promised her I wouldn’t use her real name ever, only if it was a life or death situation. The fact that I’d lied to her about my own real name had kept me from summoning her for two months, but this was it. I had no idea if she was dead or alive. I ran up the tallest building I found and looked at the black sky above me as I pictured her face in my mind in detail.
“Teagan.”
***
“Ignis!” I called as loud and as long as I could, as soon as the memory left me.
Mohg was right. All I’d thought about every second since he came to see me was Chandra’s name. It had taken a night to come to me. I couldn’t even be happy about it.
Ignis came to me not two minutes later with a wide grin on her face.
“Hello, there,” she said.
“I remembered,” I whispered. Surprise registered in her wide eyes for just a second.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
“Cut the bullshit, Ignis. Make your promise, and I’ll make mine.”
“You know, I never could understand how you killed Ray in his past life,” she said, grinning. “He won’t tell me. How did you?”
“Do you want her name or not?” I hissed. I was tired. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
“I do. But I thought you could give me some tips on how to kill your Doyen. We’re practically friends now, aren’t we?”
“Why do you want to kill her so badly? She made you, didn’t she?” It wasn’t hard to guess.
“She did,” Ignis said. “And I have my reasons.”
“How can you?” I remembered how Hammer had felt about Ray Bardos, his Doyen. I didn’t understand how he ever killed him, but it couldn’t have been just because he wanted to, like Ignis did.
“Aren’t you a naïve little bunny,” Ignis said, laughing. “I died once, remember? Every tie I had to her died with me and never made it back. I gave my heart to get out of the Red Dimension, not my mind.”
“I did. I gave my mind.”
How could Hammer have been so stupid?
“Yes, and Ray gave his face. He was desperate to look different for some reason. I didn’t have any use for my heart, anyway,” Ignis said. “Just like you don’t feel Ray, I don’t feel Mistress.”
“I haven’t been close to Ray to know if I feel him.”
“Sure you have. He’s here with us,” Ignis said. “And if you’re willing to tell me how you killed him, I can offer you something better than the boys.”
“I can’t tell you what I don’t remember.”
I didn’t have another day to invite the fucking memory back.
“For now, I’ll settle for the name. But if you do remember how you killed him, I’d be more than happy to get you out of here.”
“What?” Holy shit.
“I give you my word that I will bring Drag, El, and Zuke to this room and never tell anyone about it.”
Without wasting another second, I spoke: “I promise to tell you Chandra’s real name, in exchange for Drag, El, and Zuke to come see me, without anyone knowing,” I said. “Good enough?”
“Perfect,” she said and put her ear right next to my mouth.
“Teagan,” I whispered before I could think about it any longer. I’d made an oath, but it was life or death, wasn’t it? Dublin said I could make them in life or death situations.
Ignis laughed again. “I knew she was Irish,” she said.
“How fast can you get them here?”
“As fast as I can without raising questions. In the meantime, try to remember how you killed Ray.”
XXXII
Knowing that Ray was close by made me restless. What if I would suddenly start to feel him the way Hammer had? What if I had the urge to follow him, listen to his every word, like Hammer had?
But Ignis didn’t have reason to lie to me. And I hadn’t felt Ray for long enough, had I?
I woke up with those thoughts in my mind the ne
xt night, and enjoyed the silence. There was no screaming. But when the door opened and Drag, El and Zuke walked in, the screams started at almost the same second.
“Fucking hell,” El said as he looked at me, torn and bloody, still chained to the walls.
“Hello, boys,” I said, as I tried to block out Tif’s screams. It was no use. My ears were filled with them.
“You look like shit,” Drag said.
Zuke only looked at my face like he saw a ghost instead of it.
“Hi, Zuke,” I said. I wanted to smile, but why the hell would I? “You didn’t tell me that we were of the same gild.”
The boys turned to look at Zuke.
“You’re of the same Doyen?” El said.
“He can’t fucking speak, El,” Drag said, then he turned to me. “So you’re the famous Hammer, who died, then came back to earth without any memory.”
“So it seems,” I mumbled. “Thanks for coming, guys.”
“We didn’t have a choice,” El said.
“Thanks, anyway.”
“Why did you bring us here?” Drag said.
Zuke slowly walked towards me, and looked at every inch of my body without any expression on his face.
“You missed me, didn’t you?” It wasn’t funny, but I was happy to see them.
“Just get to the point already,” El hissed.
“We are at the point. You have eyes, don’t you? I need help,” I said.
“Why on Earth would we help you?” Drag said, and took a step closer to me.
“He’s crazy,” El mumbled.
“Because I helped you.”
“You lied to us,” Drag said.
“And I helped you.” It was complicated but I did help them.
“I’m not going to risk being chained for eternity like this,” El said, waving at my body, “to help you.”
“You said we were friends once.”
I knew not to expect them to help me, but the stupid hope wouldn’t let go.
“And we were. Until we found out you lied to us,” Drag said. “I’m not going to lose my life to help a liar.”
“I lied because I love her,” I said.
El laughed. “Real funny. What are you, Romeo?”