Ofelia (The Book of Davoth 1)

by Martyn Stanley

  ‘What mean?’

  ‘The missing page, the letter from the Nazi general guy - Himmler?’

  Ofelia sighed, ‘Yes, the Nazis came looking for me.’

  Ollie leaned closer, ‘Did they find you? Did you know Victor was-’

  ‘No! I never knew Victor was involved. They did find me. I think it was 1942, as the note-’

  ‘What happened?’ Ollie interrupted.

  ‘I told you I got shot during the First World War right? I didn’t want to get involved. I’d hoped to stay hidden in the village. Keep my head down, lie low?’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Some SS troops turned up at the village one night. I didn’t know at the time how they knew there was a “child vampire” as they put it in Transylvania. The officer in charge told the villagers they were searching the villages around Brasov; that they knew one of the villages was harbouring the child vampire and that they would continue visiting each village in the area. Whenever a village refuse to turn over the child vampire - they shoot three random people. I couldn’t let them hide me. I told Sergi, he was kind of like the village leader, to turn me in.’

  ‘But you escaped?’

  Ofelia’s expression grew cold. ‘I told you. I don’t like to harm humans. I don’t want to talk about what happened. I went with them, yes. But by the morning, the officers who had me were dead and I’d vanished.’

  The wind rustled the leaves on the branches. Ollie felt abruptly reminded of how ancient and dangerous his new friend was. He pulled his fleece tighter around him, shivering slightly. ‘So what are you going to do about Victor? Challenge him on this stuff!’

  Ofelia groaned, ‘I know! But I don’t want him to know I went into the cellar!’

  ‘He wants you to trust him, you tell him you went into the cellar, because before you could trust him, you had to know what he was hiding. See what he has to say for himself.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe. I dunno. Hey, I need to think about this. Want to go back to the house for a game of billiards?’

  Ollie shrugged. ‘Yeah, why not. Come on.’

  He jumped down and Ofelia followed. When they got back to the house, Nancy prepared them both a sandwich and they spent the afternoon knocking snooker balls all around the table, occasionally, but rarely, managing to sink one. Ollie offered for Ofelia to have tea at his house. She agreed and actually enjoyed getting out of Tempest House for a while. They watched TV together in Ollie’s room for an hour, then Ofelia made her way home, this time thankfully not having any encounters with sinister strangers. When she got back, the servants had finished for the day and retired to their rooms on the top floor. She read in bed for a while, then snuck back to the cellar for another attempt to open the locked door. It was cold and eerie down in the secret cellar though. She felt like someone was watching her the whole time. Did Victor have a camera? She looked for one, but couldn’t find it. Eventually, she made sure to hide any sign she’d been in, and left.

  Before she went to sleep, she kept going over the note from Heinrich Himmler in her head. As she nodded off, she felt herself slipping into a dream of 1942.

  ***

  It was the dead of night. Ofelia was hiding in a small underground room, underneath Sergi’s barn. They’d seen the approaching headlights winding their way up the hill. Sergi, a greying old man with a bushy moustache, was with her, listening. They heard the rattly engine grind to a halt and the stamping of feet, presumably as troops scoured the village for the inhabitants and marched them to the village centre. Ofelia and Sergi heard a man they presumed was the commanding officer, barking orders in German. [Listen closely! We know about the child vampire. I give you five minutes to turn her over or tell me where we can find her, or I shoot three people. The choice is yours!]

  Ofelia turned to Sergi, and spoke in Romanian. [I have to go! You have to turn me in!]

  He shook his head angrily. [No! I can’t-]

  [Look, if you don’t they’ll start killing, then move on to the next village. I can deal with them. Better to turn me in and be keen about it. Give them a heil Hitler and tell them you’re glad to be rid of me. Don’t give them any excuses!]

  Sergi looked doubtful. [You can handle them? They have a dozen armed troops and-]

  Ofelia glared at him, [I can handle them. Turn me in. Act the part.]

  Sergi sighed and pushed the trapdoor up, then he and Ofelia climbed out into the barn. They closed the trap and Sergi dragged Ofelia by the wrist out into the square. In truth Ofelia could have picked Sergi up and thrown him through the air, but she maintained the facade of being weak and easy to subdue. Dusk had fallen and flickering torches and the orange glow of electric lanterns illuminated the square. As he dragged her across the square, Sergi did his best to act as she’d instructed. [She’s here. Take her! We’re well rid of her. She’s been nothing but trouble. Heil Hitler!]

  Several of the villagers stared at Sergi appalled. He tried to give them a subtle wink, just to let them know this was part of a plan. Ofelia wasn’t sure whether this strategy worked. The officer in charge gazed down at her. [So, you are the child vampire. How do I know this is not a trick?]

  Ofelia pointed at the officer’s belt and offered her forearm. [Take your knife. Cut me.]

  He did as asked without question, leaving Ofelia’s arm with a deep gash, spilling blood on the churned mud of the village square. Ofelia simply smiled, spat a huge glob of phlegm into her right palm and rubbed it into the wound, sealing it in seconds. The officer gasped and stepped back, raising his Luger pistol and pointing it at her. [You ARE the child vampire! Quick! Someone cuff her! Get her into the car!]

  Ofelia turned her back and held her wrists together, offering for them to be restrained. [You can cuff me if you like, but there’s no need. I’ll come with you. But why do you want me?]

  The commander was taking no chances, he pointed to her wrists and one of the troops darted forwards and clicked a pair of shiny steel handcuffs on her slender wrists, then took her arm and began leading her towards the waiting open-top Volkswagen Kübelwagen - the Nazi equivalent of a jeep. The troops climbed into a waiting half-track. The commander, a Heir Bockner (Ofelia never learned his first name) sat next to her in the back. As they rolled away from the village, he turned to her. [The Führer knows all about you. You are going to help the German war effort. You are going to-]

  Ofelia snapped at him, [I don’t know how to make more vampires. I can’t help-]

  [But the Führer does! All he needs is your blood.]

  Ofelia rode along in silence. The Kübelwagen would have been relatively comfortable for the rough, rutted tracks of the mountain where she lived, but sitting with her hands cuffed behind her back was most uncomfortable. Once they were out of the mountains and on the road to Berlin, the Kübelwagen stopped and the half-track pulled up a hundred yards behind it. Heir Bockner got onto the radio and informed his superiors he’d acquired the ‘child vampire’ and was on his way to Berlin. This was the sign Ofelia had been waiting for. It should exonerate the village and ensure they’d receive no retribution, now she could escape. Once Bockner was off the radio, the Kübelwagen set off at an alarming pace. As they picked up speed, Bockner must have seen something in Ofelia’s eye, because he pulled his pistol from its holster and pointed it at Ofelia’s head. [Try anything funny, and I blow your brains out.]

  Ofelia didn’t react. She glanced backwards, to see the half-track had struggled to keep up. A female SS officer, presumably Bockner’s assistant, was sitting in the front, next to the driver. She pulled out her pistol and pointed that at Ofelia too. Part of her was interested in following this through to try to learn who knew about her and how they could make more vampires. The answer to this conundrum had eluded her for centuries. However, she hated what the Nazi’s were doing, even though at the time she didn’t fully understand the horrors of the Nazi regime and their vile holocaust. The idea of an army of vampire soldiers, super-fast, super-strong and extremely difficult to kill - was
chilling. They’d called in their report; the village should be safe. It was time to escape. Almost silently she tensed up her arms behind her back. There was an audible ‘click’ as the chain holding the cuffs together broke. Luckily, neither Bockner, his female assistant nor the driver seemed to notice. However, they still kept their pistols trained on Ofelia’s head. She sighed and nestled back into her seat as best she could. [I’m tired, do you mind if I try and sleep for a while?]

  The female officer lowered her pistol. [Fine, but the cuffs stay on.]

  Ofelia closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. She kept her eyes closed tight for as long as she could bear. Time began to lose its meaning once you’d been alive without aging for five centuries. It could have been minutes, or hours, Ofelia didn’t know. But when she slowly opened her eyes just a sliver, she could see Bockner and the lady had lowered their pistols and weren’t watching her anymore. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw they were driving on a rutted track through a dark forest. Pines stretched up the mountainside to their left and fell away in a sharp drop to their right. She could no longer hear the distinctive grinding noise of the half-track. The faster jeep must have left the slower troop carrier far behind, in Bockner’s bid to get to Berlin as fast as possible. Still peering through her own eyelashes, she saw a tight hairpin bend approaching, in the dim orange headlights of the Kübelwagen. As they approached, in one swift motion she lurched forwards to the front seats and yanked the wheel to the right. Bockner and his cronies were too slow to stop her. The car veered off the road and began tumbling and rolling down the bank, bouncing off trees and being upended several times. While the car rolled and slid, its occupants’ screaming, Ofelia gripped the bottom of the seat in front of her and crouched, clinging close to the floor of the car.

  It eventually came to a halt upside down in a rushing brook near the bottom of the valley. Bruised and battered, Ofelia crawled from the wreckage through the shallow stream. Her soaked clothes were torn and she ached all over. The chain joining them was broken, but the individual cuffs were still firmly locked onto her wrists. Removing them might prove difficult...

  As she stood, catching her breath, she noticed Bockner, the only other surviving passenger. He’d been thrown clear of the vehicle and was now dragging himself through the rushing water, his pistol still gripped in his right hand. His back must have been broken, as he appeared to have lost the use of his legs. He crawled closer, then pointed the pistol at Ofelia. As he pulled the trigger, she jolted sideways, spoiling his shot. Before he could aim again, she was upon him. She grabbed his hand holding the pistol and snapped his forearm, making him scream in agony and drop the pistol. At this point she spotted a set of keys hooked onto his belt and took them - Bockner was in too much pain to resist. She unlocked one cuff then the other. Then she knelt down and placed one palm under Bockner’s chin, and the other at the back of his head. In a sharp, swift motion, she twisted, snapping his neck and leaving his head facing backwards. The life left his eyes instantly. It’d been a long day and she’d not fed recently. She bared her fangs, sunk them into the corpse’s neck and drained. Once she’d drank her fill, she stood, cast him one last look, then trekked off into the forest. Wars came and went. This war would be over soon. For the time being though, it would not be safe to return to Dealul Negru.

  The dream was vivid. It was almost a perfect playback of the events of that night. Only now she understood how the Nazis knew about her. Now she knew why they were looking for her. It was Victor. What deal had he done? She had to ask him. Despite feeling she didn’t really understand what had been going on back in 1942, she had to suppress a growing anger at Victor. There and then she decided, if he didn’t have a good explanation for this, she’d leave Tempest House and find her way back to Romania.

  Chapter 26 - Victor’s Return

  Ofelia spent Sunday catching up with her homework and reading. She did text Ollie to ask if he wanted to come over, but he was visiting his Nan with his mum. Victor returned to Tempest House late on Tuesday afternoon. He called ahead and instructed Amy to prepare him a meal. Once he arrived back, he immediately dismissed Nancy for a couple of days. Ofelia ate in silence in the kitchen opposite Victor, who looked decidedly smug. Meanwhile, Amy pottered about the kitchen washing the pots, clearing up and making a pot of tea. As they both scraped their plates clean, Ofelia looked Victor in the eye. ‘Successful trip?’

  He grinned. ‘Very much so. So much so I have a surprise for you. Meet me in the library afterwards. I’ll send Amy upstairs for the night.’

  Ofelia nodded, curious as to what Victor had arranged that could be construed as a reward.

  She got her answer twenty minutes later when she followed Victor into the oak-panelled library. She took her usual seat, but when Victor picked up the absurdly expensive whisky, Ofelia raised her palm. ‘No! I don’t want to drink fifty-thousand-pound glass of whisky. I want my cut. When do I get a bank account stuffed with cash?’

  Victor poured himself a glass and took his seat, smiling. ‘Never. I have something better for you.’

  Ofelia watched him throw a brown A4 sized cardboard wallet onto her lap. She looked up. ‘What’s this?’

  ‘Simple. Your adoption certificate. I set this in motion shortly after you moved in and got it fast-tracked. You are now officially my daughter. You are free of the jurisdiction of the British care system. No more Rita sticking her nose into your affairs. No risk of you being sent back to Harper House.’

  Ofelia shrugged. ‘Harper House and care system wasn’t so bad. I get money, clothes, mobile phone and fed.’

  ‘You don’t need money here. If you want anything - you only need to ask.’

  ‘I want my own bank account with my own money in it. I want to feel like I’m in control, and not your pet or puppet or something like this.’

  Victor rolled his eyes and took a sip of whisky. ‘Fine. I’ll get you an account set up and when I turn my next customer, I will wire you a share of the money - I think that’s fair.’

  Ofelia picked up the wallet and flicked through the papers within. It was true. He’d adopted her. She was now theoretically Ofelia Drake, but that didn’t sit right. She looked up again. ‘Who is the happy customer then? Did the transformation go to plan?’

  ‘It did. I told you who I’d got lined up a while ago, that African dictator of a country, so small it’s barely on the map? I want to keep this low-key initially. I could probably get more for the turning, but allowing some less well-known individuals to get turned first for a fair price will prove to the other elites that it works and that I hold the secret to turning people.’

  ‘And you have me. They will try stuff to turn people, but they have no female vampire, so they will fail. I can see why you want me.’

  Victor sipped his whisky. ‘Of course.’

  Ofelia leaned forwards and glared at him now. ‘There is one thing I don’t understand. Maybe you can help me with this. Back in 1942, some Nazis came to my village. They knew there was a child vampire as they put it, in the area. They threaten to shoot people if the village don’t hand me over. I don’t know how many villages they visited before my village. I don’t know how they knew there was a child vampire living in Transylvania. At the time I thought I’d killed all the other vampires in Europe. Now I learn you survived. Did you know about me then? Were you-’

  ‘Of course I was!’ Victor interrupted. ‘I knew you existed. I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing, but I thought you were regularly returning to Transylvania. I needed to ensure your safety. The war was raging, tanks, planes, bombs - nowhere was safe. You have incredible healing powers as a vampire, but a bomb or a tank shell would kill you in an instant as it would any human. I didn’t think the Allies had any interest in the occult and supernatural. I also thought the Nazis were winning. I picked a side and offered them a deal. If they could find you and get you to Berlin, I’d flee England and make my way to join them. I’d turn the senior members of the Third Reich, then I�
��d help them create a small army of invincible vampire soldiers. I was right too. If Hitler hadn’t invaded Russia, he would have won.’

  Ofelia drummed her fingers on the arms of the chair, pondering for a moment. ‘What if the Nazis had won the war? Did you ever stop to think about the world you might-’

  Victor shrugged. ‘I don’t think anything I could have done would have changed the course of the war. I just saw the way the wind was blowing and tried to take advantage.’

  ‘What kind of world do you want to make though? If you start making the rich and powerful immortal-’

  ‘What kind of world do we want to make Ofelia?’ Victor interrupted. ‘We can be a team. If we control who gets turned and we don’t let anyone else in on the secret - we can rule the world. I’ll need another sample of your blood soon. I want to see another customer next week.’

  Ofelia rose and sighed. She left the library, pausing at the door and glancing back at Victor. ‘Good night Victor.’

  ***

  Ofelia retired to her room, shut her door and pulled the curtains around her four-poster shut. As she lay back and closed her eyes, Victor’s words were ringing in her head. His goal was clear now. He wanted to rule the world. He could play a patient game. The fact that he’d spent nearly four centuries waiting to get his hands on Ofelia was proof of that. Victor could take as long as he liked. The only danger was, someone, somehow managing to turn another person without female vampire blood. Or someone realising how the transformation worked and kidnapping Ofelia to use her to make more vampires themselves. There was a risk Ofelia could become so valuable to Victor, he’d never let her out of his sight. If people learned the secret, she’d soon find some of the wealthiest, greediest, most powerful men in the world after her...

  She shuddered and rolled over, curling up into a ball, still fully clothed and on top of her covers, but desperate to sleep.