She thought something might have happened to her near the very same windows she now gazed through. Nothing feasible could be tapped from her memory. She quickly moved on from that pondering. More stares. She’d waited for the man to come back with the mercury. More staring. Another minute passed. Nothing of note. Finally, a bird or some other flying creature buzzed in the distance. It flew closer and closer. It flew up to the leftmost window of four and moved to the right then back to the left.
The unidentified flying object flew away from the left window. A loud buzzing came from outside. She finally figured out what it was: a flying drone, like the one Bud had. She furrowed her brow at the thought of her friend. Should she be worried about him? Again, in her current state, Ivy didn’t know what to think or feel.
The sound of glass breaking did nothing to startle her. The drone flew closer to her face and dropped something on the table in front of her. Then it quickly flew in the direction from whence it came.
Ivy picked up the tiny object in front of her. It looked like an earbud. She put it in her ear. It felt strange. It vibrated and felt as though it gently burrowed into her head.
“Ah, very well, I have secured the mercury. More than enough, I am sure.” Vincentas held a large carafe filled to the top with the silvery liquid.
Ivy! Thank God you are still with us! This is Bud! Listen to me, don’t—
Ivy shook her head. She found herself back in the showcase room. The last few hours felt like a dream to her. Vincentas walked into the room with mercury. She tried to get her bearings.
—talk. Do not talk. I have implanted, or rather you have implanted, a telepathic communication device into your head. I programmed it so you can speak to me through your thoughts. You have to think my name and Maeve’s name, and we will hear what you are saying or ‘thinking’ to us. Make sense? Try it.
Ivy nearly fumbled the transfer of the carafe full of mercury. “Uh, yes, thank you. Thank you. I can take it from here.”
“Very well. How much longer do you think it might take? Patience is not my strong suit.” Vincentas moved closer to Ivy and kissed her on the cheek.
“About an hour or so.”
Ivy, please tell me this newly fangled contraption works. It works with our now alive and former undead friend. Ivy! Oh shit. Be back later. Please do try and get ahold of me. Bud’s voice sounded from inside her head, and a creepy man had just violated her personal space, again.
Ivy repeated with the same flat inflection, “About an hour or so.”
Vincentas backed off. “I do have some things to take care of. I will be back, my love.”
Ivy watched him leave the room. A draft of cool air hit her face. She looked up at the broken window. She took a deep breath and let out a big sigh.
Chapter Thirty-Six
BIGGER BOAT
“What the hell was that? Shaw! Shaw!” Bud yelled, securing his tablet into a pocket of his trench coat.
Bud and Maeve climbed the short ladder to the ship’s wheel. No Shaw.
BOOM. Bud tumbled off the platform to the deck. Maeve grabbed the wheel and kept her balance. Another impact hit Nessie hard.
“Where did he go?” Maeve asked.
“Your guess is as painfully good as mine. I haven’t a fucking clue.” Bud held his ribs with one hand and pulled himself back up with the other.
Bud. This is Ivy. Is this really you? How the hell is this even possible? Come in. Over.
Ivy. No need to use radio military protocol. It is possible. We are on a boat a mile or so away from the castle you are currently imprisoned in. Right now, the boat is being attacked. We will handle it. I need you to let us in. Find a way to get us in the castle. I have to go. Think later. Ha, get it? Think later, not talk later.
“Bud, is the diesel engine on? It doesn’t sound like it. I feel like we aren’t even moving anymore.” Maeve turned the ship’s wheel and looked at the instruments that displayed the speed in knots.
“It doesn’t appear to be on anymore. How would the engine be killed? I shall go below deck and restart it.”
“How would you know how to start it?” Maeve asked.
“I saw it in a movie once. Also, genius here.”
Bud pulled on the door in the floor of the deck. Black smoke billowed from the engine. There wasn’t much room to work with. The space between the engine and the place to do any maintenance measured the size of a gym locker. He shook his head and looked around for some tools.
BOOM! CRACK! Bud lost his balance again. His shoulder hurt again. Not the best landing.
Bud lay next to the open engine compartment. The black smoke billowed more and began to puff and move rather strangely.
“Maeve! My dear. You might want to come down here!” Bud yelled.
“Be right down!”
Bud rolled away from the engine compartment and stood up. He ran to the aft of the boat to grab his crossbow. Bud pulled up on the seat cushions and scanned the deck of the ship near where he’d left it. Lost. Hopefully temporarily.
He turned around. Maeve readied her sword with two hands, still above the main deck. The boat no longer drifted. A downed tree on the left side of the narrow passageway impeded their progress.
From below deck emerged a tall, blackened creature with serrated teeth and large, webbed claws.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
THE CREATURE
Bud’s heart pounded. The creature’s dead eyes burrowed into Bud’s very soul. Bud couldn’t swim, and to think of something like this mutant man-fish lurking in the depths of bodies of water, he would never be compelled to learn.
“Maeve! It’s looking at me! Make it cease!” Bud took a step back into standing water. The boat was sinking.
The creature lunged for Bud. Maeve jumped from the wheel platform with her sword pointed down and aimed at the nasty monster’s back. Maeve’s sword barely dented the creature’s scaly skin.
Bud jumped onto the seats. The creature stopped its lunge and turned to Maeve. Bud quickly scanned for his crossbow. The water bubbling from the engine compartment and the angle of the sinking ship forced a bunch of junk towards him. He knelt down on the seats. He shivered after he put his hand in the cold water. The crossbow had to be here somewhere.
After Maeve’s failed lunge, she retreated into the small cabin beneath the ship’s wheel platform. The creature busted through the door. The angle of the boat made it difficult to keep her balance, and she would fall into the arms of the monster should she lose her footing. She held the sword out in front of her with one hand and grabbed the window frame with the other.
The creature swiped at her face. She ducked underneath its mighty attempt. Mighty, due to wood chips bursting from the wood wall behind her. She wouldn’t be able to effectively use her sword without proper balance. Maeve used the wall to push off.
The monk of the Order used the sinking boat to her advantage and speared the creature to the deck. They slid toward Bud. The creature chomped at the back of Maeve’s neck. Maeve attempted to stand up. The creature managed to pull her down with its long arms and sharp claws. It squeezed her. Maeve never felt such pressure before on her neck and upper back.
Bud kicked at the creature’s face.
“Let her go! You smelly bastard!”
The monster smelled of decaying fish and waste.
His kicks were ineffective. The creature rolled starboard with Maeve in its vise grip. Bud grabbed a fire extinguisher that floated towards him and looked up with his readied metal weapon. But the monster and Maeve had disappeared off the deck of the ship. Bud stepped starboard, and the bubbles showed where the creature had taken Maeve under.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
THE FOG OF WAR
Bud couldn’t swim. He so wanted to be able to jump in the water and pursue the sea creature that had taken Maeve.
Bud tried his telepathy tech to reach her. Maeve. My dear Maeve, let me know where you are. I can try and get the boat working again and find you. Wait! There m
ust be a life vest or raft somewhere! Please respond.
He waited to hear back for a few seconds. Nothing.
The aft of the ship was nearly swallowed by the sea. He carefully climbed his way to the deck cabin to search for a life vest. He scanned the walls and compartments.
“Shit. Nothing. Why would Shaw have standard safety equipment? So daft of me to assume.” Bud’s knees were submerged. The water swallowed Nessie more and more. He didn’t have much time. He needed to climb out of the water and onto the tree that had stopped their progress initially.
The front of the boat began to tip up into the tree that snagged the pulpit’s rails. Bud had to make it to the narrow platform that jutted out from the ship before the branch broke, a victim of the sinking boat. Bud pulled himself to port and would practically have to climb the rest of the way.
“Bud! Bud!” Maeve’s voice sounded from behind him near aft, which had been completely taken by the loch.
“Maeve! Oh, wonderful! Did you dispense with the creature?”
“Of course I did. Where are you?”
“I can’t swim, so I am attempting to climb onto the tree the boat is snagged on.”
“Never mind. Come back down here, and I can swim you to land.”
“Oh, very good. That would be easier, I suppose.” Bud let himself slide back to the cabin and into the water.
Maeve trod water just outside the cabin where the aft used to float.
She was a sight for sore eyes.
“I will come get you out of there.” Maeve swam into the cabin.
With the water now chest deep, Bud could still feel the cabin floor beneath his feet.
Bud. It’s me, Maeve! That is not me! I am still underwater but headed your way! Again, the elixir probably helped me hold my breath for this long. Get the hell away from it. The creature is a shapeshifter! Shaw’s body is down here on the bottom! I saw it change form into me!
Bud shook his head. His eyes went wide. He tried to hide his sheer look of terror by turning away from creature-turned-Maeve.
“I believe I left my weapon on the foredeck. I will be right back!”
He felt a tug on his ankle followed by a hand in his collar. Bud was pulled under. The bubbles from his scream were still visible in the waning light of dusk. Bud had never been underwater before in his life. The imitation Maeve’s face looked determined and chilling, unaffected, as it watched him drown.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
STORM
Bud panicked underneath the water, attempting to free himself from the clutches of the monster. He tried prying its fingers from his collar, but they didn’t move at all.
Maeve! Help! I am drowning! I can’t get away from it!
Ask and ye shall receive! the one true Maeve responded.
A cloud of black liquid spewed from the creature. It loosened its grip on Bud. Bud hit the surface in the cabin, the ceiling of which was only a few inches away from his head.
Maeve surfaced too. Bud. It’s the real me.
Bud coughed and gulped for air.
“Let’s get you out of here.” Maeve held out her hand.
Bud grabbed it, and Maeve took his other hand. She turned around and wrapped Bud’s arms around her neck.
“Don’t choke me. Oh, and grab that. I secured it to the cabin’s net after you left it on the seat cushion.”
Bud grabbed his crossbow and bag of bolts from a corner net hanging from the cabin ceiling. The enchanted weapon was still in walking-stick form. He held it and wrapped the bag over his shoulder and across his chest.
Maeve swam out and away from the nearly-sunken Nessie.
“Wha-what did you do to the monster?” Bud asked.
“I stabbed it in the side. Didn’t kill it. It swam away. So, yeah, there’s that we still have to deal with. Hold on tight. We need to storm the castle asap before that thing comes back.”
Ivy faked working on the elixir once more.
Bud. Are you guys okay? I can’t take it anymore and had to ask. Over, Ivy think-asked.
Ivy. Again, not necessary to say ‘over.’ We could be better, but we made it. Headed your way. Any luck on finding us a way in?
Bud. Every so often, a puff of steam or fog shoots out from underneath the room you flew the drone into. I would check there. Maybe a venting system for what they are doing in the dungeon. They have a team of people working there. It’s underneath the east tower. A large boiler like one used to make steel there. They need to keep the dungeon cool somehow. They want me to make the elixir for them. I keep stalling.
Ivy. Good, keep up the obstructive behavior. That elixir in their hands would be bad. Our friend has turned into a superhero. I don’t say her name because then the telepath tech would send the thought message her way and disrupt our conversation. You do know that you are dealing with vampires?
Bud. I read Bram Stoker. A bat warned me not to trust them. I will explain more later. Their leader they call Vincentas, but we know him as Evince, that New Age music guy. He almost seduced me with his powers. He definitely hypnotized me too. I woke up standing in front of a lab table working on the elixir when you flew the drone in and snapped me out of it. I will do what I can for you guys up here. Shit. Here he comes. I am not sure I have much more time before he throws a fit.
Ivy. Be careful. We are close.
“Please tell me it’s ready.” Vincentas entered the room with a smile.
“Very nearly done.” Ivy looked to be quite busy. She turned on the Bunsen burner and laid a beaker over it.
Bela followed Vincentas into the room, his tail between his legs once more, if not always.
“Bela, what is it?” Vincentas turned around, his chest heaving.
“Quint has been injured. The visitors should be arriving shortly. He is most regrettably sorry,” Bela said.
Vincentas picked Bela up by his throat and threw him out of the room. There were no screams from Bela. He just lay there.
“What are you looking at? You have the elixir to finish.”
Ivy’s face and shallow breathing belied that the hypnosis still worked. Ivy panicked and ran to the door, hoping to push past Vincentas and run away. Far away.
Chapter Forty
PUNCTURED
Vincentas didn’t hesitate, nor care, about the feelings he’d experienced earlier. He grabbed Ivy with both hands under her armpits. He pinned her against the wall next to the door.
“Master! Don’t. Don’t. You said you’d had enough!” Bela yelled from the hall.
“Fuck off, Bela. She’s mine. One last time.” Vincentas’s eyes burned red. His fangs protruded from his mouth. “You hear that, little Ivy? You will make my elixir. You will also serve me. My every need will be satisfied by you.” He lifted her higher up the wall. He drove his fangs into her jugular. The blood filled his mouth quickly. Her little heart beat so much blood into his mouth that it dripped to the floor.
Vincentas burned with fury and pleasure all at once. He’d felt it many times. Struggled with the monotony of a life cursed to feast off the life of others. Soon the elixir would cure him of that curse, and he could restore Ivy if he wanted to. But he wasn’t so sure. She’d let him down and probably wouldn’t be on board with the ultimate goal, however.
He dropped Ivy to the floor and watched her head and fingers twitch. Her chest bounced up and down.
“Bela, do prep her for transformation. I think she will need the extra support. Then get her back in here as soon as possible to finish her work.” Vincentas wiped Ivy’s blood with his sleeve.
The vampire walked out of the room toward the dungeon. The plan would be enacted imminently.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. Bud felt a few raindrops pelt the back of his neck. He was very cold but tried his best to ignore it. The cold may have done his sore body some good actually. He held on tight to Maeve, but not too tight. She swam quickly even with Bud’s extra weight. The castle lay ahead in all its medieval glory. A giant fog plumed from the rocks undernea
th it.
“That is what Ivy must have meant. Every so often, there is a cloud that bursts forth from underneath the castle. She said the east tower, so head right.”
“On it. I will drop you off there. Use your grace power if you need to, Invisible Man.” Maeve breathed only slightly heavier than normal, even when swimming full bore.
“Where will you be?”
“I will provide the distraction until you can extract Ivy by knocking on the front door.”
Bud saw the four large windows above them. Another batch of fog filled the air.
“This is where I get off. Meet us in the middle courtyard when all is said and done.” Bud moved from Maeve’s back to a pebbly space in between two large brown and grey boulders.
“See you on the other side, Bud.” Maeve smirked, winked, and swam away.
Another loud crack of lightning followed by the roar of thunder rattled Bud. He watched Maeve swim away. He missed her already.
Chapter Forty-One
CRANKY CLIMB
Bud blew hot breath into his cupped hands. The cool air combined with being soaking wet did little to comfort him. He looked up to the castle and the room Ivy was in, set about thirty feet above the rocks. On cue, another lightning bolt flashed, splashing the east tower with light for a very brief moment. Another fog plume. Bud noticed an orange glow from one of the boulders closer to the base of the castle.
“Time to bloody climb.” Bud used his stick to help him up the incline. He kept to the spaces between the boulders, moving slowly. He imagined that if this were medieval times, he’d be shot with arrows from trained archers atop the castle wall. He wouldn’t have a chance in hell.
The Castle Page 9