LANCELOT

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “I can’t believe he’s only eight years old,” Gwen commented.

  “That makes three of us,” Vivian laughed.

  “He talks and acts in school as though he were eighteen,” Gwen declared, nodding.

  “We heard he had some trouble,” Lancelot interjected.

  “Arthur sometimes pops off one-liners that hit their mark a little too hard,” Gwen explained, giggling. “He doesn’t do that anymore.”

  “He sticks up for kids who get picked on,” she added as she watched Arthur walk back toward the limo, “and it works, because they know he’ll fight whether he wins or loses.”

  “You seem to like him a bit,” Lancelot quietly noted.

  “Yes…yes, I do.” Gwen looked squarely at Lancelot.

  The intensity in eleven-year-old Guinevere’s eyes tightened Lancelot’s throat, as he remembered Guinevere’s farewell to the King at Arthur’s tomb. In that moment, Gwen appeared far older than her eleven years. If any doubt remained about who the little girl was, it disappeared from Lancelot’s mind forevermore.

  “Hey, why so grim?” Arthur joked, sliding in next to Gwen, and shutting the door of the limo.

  “Nothing, Arthur,” Vivian replied. “We were just talking.”

  “I think Diane doesn’t hate me anymore,” Arthur stated with obvious relief. “Man, she can be brutal at school sometimes. I should have been nicer to her. Thanks for the tip earlier, Shrek.”

  “Shrek?” Gwen repeated with some confusion.

  “Oh, sorry, Gwen, it’s just a joke. Jim’s so big, I call him-”

  “Shrek.” Laughing, Gwen nodded, looking again at Lancelot. “He’s much better looking than Shrek, though.”

  “Thank you, Gwen,” Lancelot said with a grin. “As you can see, Arthur injects much too much into what he says to us too.”

  “We’d like to meet your parents,” Vivian suggested, and then added, “We should have gone to Diane’s door with Arthur, to say hi.”

  “Sure,” Gwen agreed. “You can say hi tonight if you want. They’ll be up. It was odd that they actually let me stay out this late on a Sunday night, but Mr. Merlin is very persuasive.”

  “Great,” Lancelot said, following Vivian’s lead. “We’ll just say hello really quickly, if you don’t mind.”

  “Gwen told me something else we had in common today.” Arthur spoke up, his eyes alight with what he considered a significant addition. “She’s adopted, too.”

  “That’s very interesting, Gwen,” Vivian noted. “I grew up in foster care myself.”

  “Really?” Gwen exclaimed. “That…that’s so cool. It always seemed as if I were the only one around who’d ever been adopted. I…I was pretty upset after my parents told me. They always reassured me with the usual stuff about how I was chosen, and all, but it was still tough to handle. When Arthur started at our school, and I found out he had a guardian, it was neat having someone else around who had a similar background.”

  “I know what you mean about being upset,” Vivian commiserated. “You and Arthur handle it a lot better than I did. I was always mad. Trouble of my own making followed me everywhere. They floated me from one foster home to another. I did know my real mom, but she was a druggie, and foster care was a lot better than my time with her.”

  “Wow, Vivian. I guess I am pretty lucky,” Gwen acknowledged, with some surprise in her voice concerning Vivian’s origins. “It’s a lot easier now than when I was younger. I always imagined a hundred different reasons why my real parents gave me up for adoption. I’m okay with it now. Do you know who your real parents were, Arthur?”

  “Not really,” Arthur answered. “My guardian has had me so long that I never give it a thought anymore.”

  “You talk like you’re twenty sometimes instead of eight,” Gwen declared, smiling at Arthur.

  “It evens out, Gwen. Sometimes he talks as if he’s two,” Vivian confided, drawing laughter from everyone, including Arthur, who made a move as if to tickle Vivian, causing her to cringe away with a warning squeal.

  Charlie pulled up in front of Vivian’s house and announced the arrival formally, to the amusement of Arthur and Gwen. Lancelot and Vivian left the limo first, followed by the two children. They walked up the short driveway together, moving to single file as they passed a late nineties Buick parked in front of the single car garage. The steps to the left of the driveway led up onto a small patio and the front entrance to the house.

  “C’mon in,” Gwen invited them, opening the screen door.

  The solid core entranceway door opened before Gwen could step in. A man with longish brown hair, in his middle thirties, dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and a white polo shirt, stood in the doorway. Lancelot figured his height to be nearly six feet, but the man’s thin build made him appear shorter. He smiled at Gwen, holding open the screen door.

  “Have a good time, honey?”

  “Yeah, we did, Dad,” Gwen answered, gesturing back at Lancelot, Vivian, and Arthur. “Dad, this is my friend Arthur, and his friends, Jim and Vivian. They wanted to meet you and Mom.”

  “Hi, folks. I’m Rick Andreyev. My wife Karen’s a little under the weather tonight. Could we take a rain check on the intros tonight?”

  “Sure thing,” Lancelot said, shaking hands with Andreyev. He noted that the man’s smile appeared forced, after Gwen requested that they meet Rick and Karen.

  “It has been a long day,” Vivian added, shaking hands with Gwen’s dad. “We know it was pretty late. Maybe next time. C’mon, Arthur, let’s get going. Bye now.”

  “Bye, Arthur.” Gwen waved through the screen.

  “See you in school, Gwen.” Arthur waved back, as Vivian led the way off the front porch. “I hope you can come over and play video games with me again sometime.”

  “I’m sure she can, Arthur,” Rick reassured him as they walked away.

  “Rick seemed pretty nice,” Vivian commented as Lancelot opened the limo door for her and Arthur, peering closer at Lancelot, who was looking back at the house. “What’s up with you, Monte?”

  “Something I smelled when Rick had the door open,” Lancelot said, meeting Vivian’s inquiring gaze. “I’m trying to figure out what it was that bothered me about the smell.”

  “I didn’t smell anything, Shrek,” Arthur said. “What kind of smell was it?”

  Lancelot stayed silent, staring at the house. Vivian gripped his arm as Lancelot’s mouth tightened, and his hands clenched into fists.

  “Monte…what the hell is it?”

  “Graves…damn it. I smelled graves.”

  Chapter Nineteen: Dunkan

  “Vampires?”

  “Vampires,” Lancelot confirmed in a whisper, reaching under his shirt in the back, and pulling out his Colt automatic. “Cast the dusting spell, Viv. Take my Colt in case they have shape-shifters. Let’s get in the car and drive down the street.”

  “We…we can’t just leave her there!” Arthur grabbed Lancelot’s shirt in his small fist.

  Lancelot spun the boy around and into the limo smoothly with Vivian following, Colt in hand. She closed the limo door. Lancelot shook the boy off gently.

  “Easy, my King. They’ll kill her if they suspect that we know.” Lancelot spoke into the intercom to Charlie. “Drive fifty yards and pull over, Charlie.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ll go with you, and we’ll have Charlie keep circling with Arthur,” Vivian said.

  “I wish,” Lancelot admitted, not knowing what he would be facing. “Keep circling, but you need to be with Arthur, in something they can only get into where you can see them. If you go with me, we leave Arthur unprotected, and expose you. There may be shifters in there with the vamps, and you’d never get the Colt aimed in time.”

  Vivian nodded her understanding, with Arthur looking from one to the other anxiously.

  “I wish there was time to get Serge over here, but I’m afraid they’ll move her before he can arrive. I hate to admit it, but this goes beyond Mallor.”<
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  “Just save Gwen, Lancelot,” Arthur pleaded.

  Lancelot gripped Arthur’s shoulder momentarily, and then he went through the limo door quickly and quietly with but one more glance at Vivian.

  “Go with him, Vicky,” Arthur urged solemnly. “I’ll be fine until you return. I knew he wouldn’t let you go with him because of me. Go now.”

  “Not going to happen,” Vivian replied, speaking into the intercom. “Drive around a block away from here, Charlie, slow and easy.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Look, kid, I know you’re getting attached to Gwen, but one thing I know about Lancelot is that if I leave you alone, and something happens to you, I lose everything. Some things you have to let run their course. Lancelot’s a force of nature. I didn’t tell you yet, but he and I have a connection. We can sense each other’s thoughts.”

  “Cool,” Arthur said, somewhat awestruck one could know the thoughts of another. “Maybe Gwen and I will have a connection like that.”

  “Time will tell,” Vivian allowed, looking out the window. Glancing down at the Colt in her hand, she jacked a live round into the chamber.

  Lancelot vaulted the left fence-corner that separated the back yard from the front, landing catlike on a small flower bed. He was thankful that the wind had picked up, and wind chimes on the Andreyevs’ back porch musically sounded with each gust. Silver-bladed knife in hand, Lancelot crept around to where a window allowed some vision into the house. Peering into the front living room through a crack in the curtain, Lancelot saw three vampires: a woman and two men. Rick and Karen, tied and gagged, sat side by side on straight-backed chairs. Gwen stood near the female vamp, clearly horrified. The world she had known had turned upside down.

  Rick had brought his adopted daughter into the living room, where Karen sat in a dull stupor, tied to the chair. Gwen looked up at Rick, only to see a thing of nightmare smash him to the floor. The thing of distorted face and fang yanked the unconscious Rick off the floor. When Rick was tied up next to Karen and gagged, the female vamp leaned down and smiled benignly at Gwen. Gently, she stroked the cringing Gwen’s face.

  “Don’t be frightened, girl. Do as we say and make no noise. If you behave, perhaps your parents will not be hurt.”

  “What…what do you want?”

  “We need to take you somewhere. You are very valuable, little missy. My name’s Tia.”

  Tia straightened and patted Gwen on the head. “Rolf, take the girl with you. Take their car. Canton and I will follow.”

  The tall, black-haired vampire whom Tia addressed as Rolf looked with a grin toward the tied-up Rick and Karen. Taking Gwen’s arm, he pulled her along toward the back door.

  “But wait!” Gwen resisted, pulling back against Rolf.

  Dipping down to Gwen’s level, Rolf showed her his real self: contorted face of horror, with fangs dripping. Gwen froze in terror, unable to even scream.

  “You’re going with me, quickly and quietly, understand?” Rolf declared in a hissing growl of a voice.

  Gwen shook her head rapidly in acquiescence. Rolf pulled Gwen along as Tia laughed at Gwen’s reaction. Rolf dragged her through the back door. Gwen heard a wet sliding sound, and looked up in time to see Rolf dissolve into dust around a knife held in the hand of a huge dark figure. In a split second, Lancelot pulled Gwen the rest of the way outside, and shut the door.

  “Gwen, can you be brave enough to stand here for a moment?” Lancelot asked her in a whisper. “I have to save your folks.”

  Biting her lip, Gwen hugged Lancelot. “Please save them. I…I’ll be right here.”

  “I won’t be long, little one, I promise. Don’t move from this spot, okay?”

  Nodding, Gwen stepped back. She watched Lancelot go quietly through the back door again. Inside, Tia and Canton prepared to feed on Rick and Karen. Lancelot saw the male vampire go toward Karen to untie her. It was his last action ever. The silver-bladed knife flew straight and on target, with such power that only the handle protruded from Canton’s temple. Silver poisoning his brain made the vampire fall to the floor, convulsing violently. Little sounds of pain burped from him with each spasm. At one instant, Tia bent toward Canton, trying to ascertain what had happened, and in the next moment, her head got locked in a grip she could not break.

  “I wish I had more time for you, bitch,” Lancelot whispered in Tia’s ear just before he ripped her head off. Seconds later, he held only dust.

  Lancelot walked over to the back door. He opened it, expecting to see Gwen huddled against the wall. Instead, he found her waiting anxiously at the door, her little fists clenched in fright. Lancelot took Gwen’s hand and drew her inside, past the convulsing Canton, and over near her parents. Lancelot quickly pulled Rick and Karen’s bonds apart, allowing them to have a joyous reunion with Gwen. While they held each other, Lancelot grabbed Canton by one foot and dragged him outside the house.

  Come to me, my lady, Lancelot projected. Walk in the front, and comfort Gwen and the parents. I have one out back I need to question. I’ll stick him in the trunk, once you’re inside.

  “We’re up, kid,” Vivian said, calling Charles on the intercom to park in front of Gwen’s house once again. “It appears that there are fewer vampires in the world.”

  Vivian walked up to the entrance of Gwen’s house with Arthur at her side. She walked into the now well-lighted front room cautiously, unaware of what she’d find. Rick and Karen sat on the couch in a dazed but happy state. They looked up questioningly, and somewhat fearfully, as Vivian and Arthur entered the living room. Gwen, who was standing next to them, waved at Vivian and Arthur. Vivian went to Rick and Karen. Having placed her hands on their arms, she closed her eyes to concentrate. The haunted look drained from the couples’ faces. Arthur grasped Gwen’s hand.

  “I’m Vivian. I know you two have been through a lot tonight. Hang in there, and we’ll explain this to you both the best we can. Please don’t be alarmed. I’m going to cast a protection spell over the house. It will only take a moment, okay?”

  “Anything…anything you can do, we’ll greatly appreciate,” Rick said, hugging Karen to him. “Was…that your friend Jim who saved us?”

  “Yes. He’s rather an expert in these matters,” Vivian replied, standing up and away from the couple. She raised her arms, murmuring barely audible Latin phrases. A moment later, she lowered her arms and opened her eyes. “There, that’ll do it. Excuse me for a moment. Stay with them, Arthur.”

  Stepping around the pile of ash and clothing, Vivian walked quickly out the back door. She avoided the second pile of vamp remains. She looked over to the place where Lancelot stood waiting for her, on the left side of the doorway. Canton lay jerking uncontrollably, bleating piteously with each convulsion. Vivian walked over and kicked him right in the balls, sending him into a jackknifed posture. Lancelot smiled appreciatively.

  “I’ve set the spell. Nothing enters this house after we leave. Should we explain this shit to them tonight?”

  “I think they’ve had enough to absorb for now. We’ll leave the remains in case they forget completely. In the morning, we’ll pick up Gwen for school.”

  Vivian gave him an annoyed wave off. “You will, maybe. I’m sleeping in.”

  “As you wish, my lady,” Lancelot bowed slightly. “I’ll stick this thing in the trunk, and we’ll be on our way. Little Guinevere is a real trooper.”

  “She had better be,” Vivian replied wryly. “Are you sure you can’t dust this clown right now? What the hell do you think he can tell us?”

  “If Mallor is set on sending the vamp hordes against us, I think that would be a useful piece of info, don’t you? It means our truce is meaningless. If this is a vamp idea, it would be good to know what the point is, and who calls the shots.”

  “You’re right…as usual. I’ll go through the gate first and open the trunk. Watch for me to give the all clear.”

  Lancelot nodded. He followed Vivian through the gate, with Canton twitching ov
er his shoulder, hanging back until Vivian had Charlie open the trunk of the limo. She looked around the deserted street and signaled Lancelot. He jogged over to the limo and threw Canton quickly into the huge trunk. Vivian closed the lid. The couple then walked together through the back gate, and into the house once again. On seeing Lancelot, Gwen ran over and hugged him.

  “Thank you…thank you.”

  Gently, Lancelot patted her back, smiling at Rick and Karen. “It’s okay, Gwen. We’d like to give Gwen a ride to school and back for the time being, if that would be okay with you two. We’ll explain what’s going on here tomorrow. Please keep an open mind regarding what we have to say.”