by Zara Novak
Rourke took off again, jumping ahead to help Wraith with his fight. Ellie clung to Natalie as another bomb exploded into the night behind them. Rourke and Wraith made quick work of the two Circle vampires, staking them into flame and helping the regular up from the ground whom had been their initial target.
“Thanks for the assistance,” Wraith said to Rourke as they pulled the dim eyed vampire to his feet.
“Thank you,” Rourke said. “A lot of my coven fled at the first sign of the trouble, not a lot of vampires would stay back to help. Grab your servant, we’re heading for the garages up ahead. There should still be a few bikes left.”
Wraith gave a quick nod and ran back to Ellie, taking her hand into his as he met her. The world was a blaze of fire and mayhem, but just being close to him somehow made her feel safer. “Path is clear, let’s get out of here.”
The group ran across the clearing and made it to the garage without any further disturbance. Inside the garage was large and spacious, smelling faintly of grease and oil. Large fluorescent lights flickered overhead, swinging as distant explosions continued to shake the valley. Rourke ran over to a grey box on the wall, punched a code into it and threw open its silver door. He pulled out three sets of keys, hooking one through the air toward Wraith.
“Know how to drive one of these things?” Rourke shouted as Wraith caught his set of keys.
“Sure do. What’s the plan?”
“Grab yourself a couple of helmets from off the wall and take the black dirt bike just behind you. Take the track leading north. My coven is meeting at a town a few days north of here called Skarvast. It’s signposted, you can’t miss it.”
“What about you?” Wraith asked.
“I’ll be along soon. I just want to make sure no one’s left behind. Natalie and I will catch up.”
Wraith gave a quick nod, squeezed Ellie’s hand and turned his gaze on hers. “You okay?”
“I’m holding up all right,” she said, shaking a little from the adrenaline of the attack. “I’ll get the helmets, you get the bike started?”
A few seconds later Ellie was back at Wraith’s side, watching as he fired up the bike, listening as the engine roared into the night like a wild demon. He took his helmet, pulled it on and gestured for her to climb on behind him. Ellie paused and held her hand up “Just a second!”
“Ellie what the hell?!” Wraith called after her over the engine’s roar.
Ellie sprinted across the garage and wrapped her arms around Natalie, squeezing the servant girl tight. “Easy there, blondie!” Natalie said, laughing as they parted. “Y’all nearly crushed me to death!”
“Thanks for everything,” Ellie said, staring into the sallow eyes of the blood servant. “You’ve done so much for us this last day, I really can’t thank you enough.”
“Thank me when you get to Skarvast!” Natalie shouted, another explosion ripping through the night somewhere behind them. “This isn’t goodbye girl, now go!”
Nodding, Ellie turned on her feet and sprinted back across the garage to a less than pleased Wraith. She climbed onto the bike, nestling her front against his back. “Finished?” He said over his shoulder while she put her helmet on. “I don’t know if you noticed, but the world is catching on fire. We ain’t really got the time for heartfelt goodbyes.”
“I’m done,” she said and wrapped her arms around the vampire’s midriff, lacing her fingers tightly. Dust sprinkled down from the roof as another explosion shook the earth. “Go!” she shouted in angst. “Go!”
Wraith turned his wrist on the accelerator, making the engine scream loud and long. “Hold on darling,” he said as he kicked the bike into gear. “I like to go fast.”
They roared out of the garage into the explosion sprinkled night, tearing along the north canyon pass until they were out onto the open road a minute later. Fire curtained the horizon behind them, snow-capped mountains tipped the horizon ahead. The engine thundered underneath, howling as it flashed across the dark track leading to the north.
Ellie tightened her grip around Wraith’s midriff, closing her eyes as she held on as tight as she could. Her attention flickered to a pool of warmth gathering at the side of her torso. She patted a hand over the dark wet and held the blood-stained fingers up to the moonlight. That Circle vampire must have cut her bad when he tried to take her.
Just hold on, her mind raced as she wrapped her arms tight around Wraith again. It was too soon to stop now, and making Wraith pull over would only mean getting caught. It’s just a scratch, she told herself. It’s nothing. It was nothing. That was all. Nothing to worry about. No sense in causing any further trouble.
Ellie closed her eyes, pressing the side of her head against Wraith’s back, clenching her jaw over and over again to stop herself from passing out. Dark drops of blood splattered onto the black road, leaving a trail behind the speeding bike.
The night was just beginning.
12
Valdis Thorn didn’t take much satisfaction in meeting with vampires. He found the creatures disgusting, abhorrent and repulsive in every sense of the word. If someone had told him five years ago that he would one day be journeying into the very depths of their dark world on his own volition, he would have called them mad and shot them right there.
But here he was, about to do just that. Again.
He stood in his office which was in the top spire of the white fortress, looking over the impenetrable stronghold that acted as the permanent base for his army of soldiers. His door was locked, his schedule was cleared for the next hour and he had his contingency gripped tightly in his right hand.
You’re a mad old bastard for even doing this again, he thought to himself. He lifted the red portal stone in his left hand and cast it against the wall ahead of him. The stone shattered, and red light burst across his office walls as the portal flooded over the stone, swirling in front of him as an undulating doorway of plasma. He looked through the red miasma and saw the destination on the other side. The Red Keep.
Mad bastard. Mad! Valdis took a deep breath, stepped through the cold portal and found himself standing on the other side, alone in a large marble room that was almost dark. A staircase lay just ahead of him. Thin windows stood at the very top of the room, letting in thin slivers of light. A quick glance around revealed that the only exit would be via the staircase in front of him. The portal snapped shut behind and Valdis jumped at hearing a voice on his right.
The vampire appeared from shadows, almost seeming like she’d walked through the walls themselves. She was tall and shapely, with red eyes and long dark hair. She strode toward him on tall heels, wearing next to nothing.
“Greetings sir,” the vampire said as she stopped a few paces in front of Valdis. Valdis jerked his head back instinctively, raising his hand in reflex and reached for the stake-gun on his belt, the gun that wasn’t there.
The vampire’s bright red eyes flickered to his waist at the gesture. She smiled and held her hands out to diffuse any misunderstanding. “Relax. My name is Lae. I am here to escort you to the High Vistor.” The vampire held out a slender arm as if to her offer her hand. Valdis stared at the hand, his brow knotted with fury and suspicion. There’s no way he’d be touching that thing.
“I’ll just follow,” he said with a low growl. “Lead the way.”
“Oh,” the vampire said and dropped her hand to her bare side. “Very well.”
Valdis didn’t dare take his eyes off the girl. She was a brilliant host, a perfect move from the High Vistor. Valdis wouldn’t expect any less from the creature that was boasted to be the ruler of all vampires. The female vampire certainly looked lovely. Long shapely legs. Slender waist. Full breasts and milk-white skin that was smooth from the neck down.
She looked just like Lyra with her long black hair and thick-lashed eyes. Hadn’t she said her name was Lae? It was no coincidence on the High Vistor’s part. Greet the vampire hunter with a woman that looks just like his dead wife. Psychological chess at its fi
nest.
The vampire girl lifted her bright red eyes and focused them on the shining orb clutched tightly in Valdis’s hand. Her pupils flushed with black momentarily in fear as she realized what it was. She looked up at Valdis. “Is that…”
“Atomic daylight,” Valdis said proudly as he lifted the shining orb up for the vampire to see. The woman took a few steps back instinctively, glancing at the device in apprehension. “Primed to explode at a moment’s notice should I so desire. One word and everything around me is flashed with beautiful daylight. Powerful enough to blind a man.” Powerful enough to torch any vampire in a mile’s radius should anything go wrong. The contraption was extremely new, only developed by the scientists within the Order over the last few months. Valdis hadn’t made a journey to the Red Keep without it.
“You can’t bring that in here,” the vampire said, her cool composure flickering. Valdis was about to argue his point back when another voice echoed out across the dark room, slicing through the air like knives on stone.
“He can,” the voice said, scraping through the darkness.
Valdis and the girl both looked to the silhouetted figure stood at the top of the marble stairs. The girl gasped at the sight of the figure, dropping to her knees, touching her head against the floor. “Sire! I did not expect to see you out here!”
Jaw clenched, Valdis stared up at the figure. The High Vistor. He squeezed the contingency plan in his hand once more, reminding himself that he had an out anytime he wanted. “Vistor. I didn’t expect a personal welcome.”
“Change of plan today Thorn,” the Vistor answered back across the room, his voice sending shivers across Valdis’s flesh. “There is something I’d like to show you. Escorting you to the throne room would be pointless when we are nearer here to my destination.”
“Fair enough,” Valdis said back with little affection. “Let us go then. I don’t have much time.”
“Time,” the Vistor whispered the word back to himself, chuckling at its absurdity. “Such a mortal word.” He turned his head slightly to look at the female vampire who was still bowed against the floor in respect. “Leave us girl and mention to no one what happened here. This meeting is secret. Follow me Thorn. Quickly.”
The Vistor turned from the top of the stairs, disappearing at once as he retreated back through the dark room. Valdis took after the vampire with a start, jogging up the stairs and across the floor until he had caught up to him. Their journey stretched down endless corridors of exquisite marble, across bridges in seemingly bottomless caverns, turning down the many hallways of the Keep, journeying deeper into its heart, feeling more lost each and every second.
“Here,” the Vistor said simply as he stopped abruptly by an indistinguishable metal door that flushed against a red marble wall. He held his hand up to a keypad at the side of the door which beeped a moment later. They stepped inside the door and into a room which contained a vast laboratory. Valdis stepped forward a few paces ahead of the Vistor, mouth hanging open as he looked out at the technological labyrinth.
“What is this place?” he said as he stared back at the hooded figure.
“It has no official name in your language. In Vrakal it is only known as Hravras.”
Valdis winced at the sharp sounding word spoken in the vampire language. He’d only heard the tongue a handful of times in his time on this earth, and it always sounded just as unpleasant. “What does that mean?” he asked, following the Vistor as they ascended a flight of metal stairs into a room that overlooked the vast laboratory.
“I couldn’t begin to attempt to translate. English is such a poor substitute against a language as expressive as Vrakal. In the simplest terms I can think of it means place unknown. This is the High Laboratory. The bastion of our war effort. The only vampires in the Keep that know of this place are standing in this room right now.”
Valdis stared out through the tall glass windows to look at the lab below. “This is what you wanted to show me? I thought we had met to discuss the war?”
“Indeed,” the Vistor answered in his cold voice. “We have, and we shall do that first. Please. Take a seat.” The Vistor held out a withered hand and pointed at the long empty table behind Valdis. They were in an empty boardroom of some sort, where one long table was surrounded by dozens of vacant chairs. Valdis took a seat at the end of the table closest to him. The Vistor stalked slowly down the table until he was at the other end, sinking into the chair like he was part of the furniture itself.
The unnatural grace of the old man sent a shiver down Valdis’ spine. He watched in disgust as the creature pulled back the hood on its cloak to reveal the leathered face of an ancient old man. Luminescent red eyes shone back at him across the dim board room. Brighter than any he’d ever seen before. Valdis shivered, sat forward in his chair and placed his hands on the table, turning the bright orb of light over in his palms.
“The attack was a success,” Valdis said. “From all accounts your men took the northern gate with very little trouble. There were a few casualties on your side, half a dozen vampires downed by the coven that were holding the town at the time. Apart from that there was very little trouble. The few vampires that survived the attack took off from the town and have fled to the north.”
“Very good,” the Vistor answered after a brief moment, his eyes glowing with delight at the news of the victory. “And how did your men do? Any casualties?”
Valdis shook his head. “None. We were protected up in the hills of course, as arranged before the fight. It was unlikely we would have lost any men, and we didn’t. The elevated position gave us the advantage to drop the explosive charges. We used nearly two dozen boxes on the attack, it gave your men a massive advantage when they made the first strike.”
“A brilliant unison,” the Vistor said, his thin lips curling at the edges as he glared across the table at Valdis. “Vampire and vampire hunters, working together at last, defeating a common enemy, each benefitting the other…”
“Uh… yes,” Valdis said, unsure how to respond to the comment. There was no doubt the union between the Order and the Red Circle had helped to maximize casualties against vampires in the Belmont valley, but that union still deeply unsettled Valdis. The true motivations of the Vistor still remained unclear to him. The creature wanted the Order’s assistance in ending the prophecy, knowing full well that it would bring about the end of his own kind.
“You still wonder,” the old man laughed from the end of the table. “Why we are doing this? Why I approached you in the first place?”
“It had crossed my mind,” Valdis said, rolling his fist over the smooth tabletop with unease.
“While I can’t divulge my full intentions, I can only share that our goal is the same. Vampires have reached their natural end. It is time for them to die out. Nature has spoken. I can sit here and watch as my people starve over the next millennia, or I can drag them kicking and screaming to an end that has less suffering for everyone in the end. The time of the undead is over. I hold my hands up and offer the earth back to humanity, as much as it might pain me to do so.”
The vampire hunter studied the old man carefully for a moment, sitting in silence as he mulled his words over. None of it really made sense to Valdis. He’d certainly suspected it was a trap when the Circle had approached him all those months ago, but he’d since played it over in his mind from every angle and found no way for the old man to beat him in this situation. The ‘king’ of vampires was willingly dragging his people into the jaws of doom and he’d handed Valdis the fucking key.
Probably insanity¸ was the only thing Valdis could reason as he played it out in his mind over and over again. Whatever it was, he no longer cared. The old bastard had clearly lost his mind and wanted Valdis to help wipe every last vampire from the earth. And that is more than okay with me.
“Anyway,” Valdis said, bringing their conversation back on topic, “The attack on the northern gate was successful. The Red Circle now controls the northern border
leading into Belmont Valley. That location will be a massive geographical advantage in the coming months when we launch our joint attack against the Castle Belmont. We’ll have the other gates under our control by then too and you will have slowly filled the areas surrounding the valley with Order soldiers. Every vampire that wants the prophecy to succeed will be surrounded on all sides.”
“Indeed,” the Vistor answered with little interest. “Your men will have victory against these families with our assistance, I guarantee it, but tell me, what other news happens in the valley? I hear rumors another daughter may have been found? My sources whisper tale of many mysterious things that happened in these last few weeks.”
Valdis froze in his chair, grinding his teeth at the mention of the second daughter. It seemed that the Vistor did have ears to the ground in the valley, even if he pretended he didn’t. He tried to laugh the question off, hoping to skirt around the inevitable subject. “Mysterious happenings? I must say it’s a regular thing in a valley full of vampires. Nothing of vast importance has happened to my recollection. We soldier through each day regardless, carrying out what work is necessary.”
“But the prophecy,” the old man said, his voice whispering through the air as a knife. “There has been talk of happenings. They did find the other girl? Did they not? Taken by a feral nonetheless?”
More silence on Valdis’s end. So, the old man did know. There was no avoiding it any longer. “You’re referring to the incident at the burned-out church.”
A dry smile and a knowing nod answered back. “That’s the one. That night. Tell me. What happened?”
Valdis sat back in his chair and pushed it back from the table slightly, taking a breath as he did so. “Well, from what I understand there was a small battle between several factions. A group of vampires stormed the church, led by Eric Belmont and other renegade vampires that serve alongside him. The church was being used as a hostage point by a shifter pack. It was the same pack my group made an alliance with when you first approached us.”