Infinite Vampire (Book 2): Queen's Gambit

by M. Lorrox

  As they spar, Charlie motions for Enrique to step forward.

  -Hi-ya! Ugh!-

  Everyone but Charlie glances to see what’s happening in the fight.

  “Don’t pay any attention to them. Enrique, what martial skill do you have?”

  “Brazilian Jiu jitsu, sir. Grappling.”

  -Keyaaah! SLAM-

  Charlie steps over to Korina’s squire. “What is your name?”

  “I am Jambavan, sir.”

  “And your training?”

  -Slap, whap, slap, THUD!-

  “Ninjutsu and tactical firearms.”

  Charlie nods and gestures to Enrique. “Have you ever sparred with Enrique, Jambavan?”

  “Yes sir.”

  -Bat, biff, whap-

  “Which of you has more skill in unarmed combat?”

  “Enrique, sir, especially in close-quarters.” Jambavan stands unwavering, stern and strong.

  -Hooahh!-

  Charlie turns and whistles. Eddy is in angled stance with both his fists in blocks near his head. Sky was executing a reverse snap kick. She freezes, balanced on her other leg. “Bow and stand ready.”

  The two stand up, bow to each other, then turn to face Charlie, the knights, and the other squires.

  Charlie walks around the slightly winded young vampires. “Sky, what mistakes did Leo make?”

  She looks at Tiger, who takes a small breath and nods. She collects herself and huffs breath between words. “Leo is fast, and he has studied a lot, but he’s sloppy. I could read his attacks, and counter them before they landed.

  “Leo, where can Sky improve?”

  “She executed the techniques well, but they were all straightforward. She could learn more advanced techniques.”

  Charlie stands and bows to them both. They bow back. He turns to Sky. “Please return to your knight.”

  She walks over and Charlie smiles at Eddy.

  Why are you smiling like that?

  Charlie spins to Enrique. “Leo is tired! Use it to your advantage. Attack!”

  As they spar, Charlie talks with Jambavan. After a couple minutes, Charlie calls Enrique out and sends Jambavan in.

  When they finish, Charlie allows Eddy to sit.

  He chooses to stand instead.

  Charlie explains the reason for the demonstration. He highlights Eddy’s endurance, speed, and breadth of knowledge, but reiterates the areas where he needs improvements. Charlie then asks the help of the knights to assess the other squires’ skills and areas of improvement.

  When Charlie is ready to dismiss them all and return with Eddy to the hotel, he notices Korina’s squire gritting his teeth. “Jambavan? Speak freely. You seem frustrated.”

  He glares out, not looking at Charlie, but tilts his head down slightly. “My fighting skills are poor. I am afraid I have let my knight down.”

  Charlie glances at Korina, who remains motionless. He walks up and places his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Then you have something to work on. I expect you will make significant progress under your knight’s guidance.” He steps back from Jambavan. “Besides, you said your training is in ninjutsu and tactical firearms, correct?”

  He nods.

  “I have a feeling that you may be the deadliest squire in this room if left to your own devices.”

  Jambavan lifts his head with a small nod and slight smile.

  Sky grins. Yeah right, not even close.

  Charlie clears his throat. “Everyone, I’d like to thank you for coming and meeting me and my son. Squires, I hope to learn more about you and assist in your training—as your knights see fit.” He slides his feet together silently and bows to them.

  The squires and the knights bow back, a little lower.

  “Dismissed.”

  Skip and June continue playing with Minnie. June yawns and looks out the window. Overcast and dreary. It might rain later.

  Minnie pulls on her sleeve. “What do you think?”

  June looks at Valentine in Minnie’s arms, then she looks at her dad. “What?”

  “Do you think Valentine needs a haircut?”

  “Oh, that’s up to you. I think she looks quite—” She inspects the stuffed unicorn in detail. Wow, that thing looks a little rough. The fur is flat and matted, worn short in a few places, and the stuffing seems uneven. “She looks quite majestic. Regal even.”

  Minnie squeals. “She is!”

  “Are you okay?” Skip leans over and touches June’s arm.

  “Ouch!”

  He jolts his hand back. “What?”

  “You shocked me. It just startled me.” She rubs her arm.

  “Oh, I didn’t feel anything… Well, are you okay?”

  She shrugs. “I dunno. I feel a little frazzled, I guess.”

  Skip scoops Minnie up. “Why don’t you play with Valentine on the couch? Set her up in a throne, and when she’s set, you and I can be her subjects.”

  “Ooooh yes!”

  Skip winks at June. “I think I bought you some time. Why don’t you take a little nap?”

  She gets up and walks to the bedroom. She pauses in the door and looks inside. It’s dark and quiet inside. Empty. Lonely. Chilly. She closes her eyes. She imagines her old bedroom with her computer and pictures of her friends. The comforter she kept on her bed and the window that looked out over the driveway where her dad would work on his truck. She opens her eyes again to the lonely hotel room, and without knowing why, she begins to cry.

  “June?” Skip stands and walks over to her, then places his hand on her shoulder.

  She turns and buries her head into his chest. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “It’s okay, dear, you’ve had a lot happen to you.”

  Why did it happen to me? Why me? Why this? Everything seems so...wrong.

  “Why don’t you lie down and rest?”

  She pushes him away with tears streaming down her face. “I can’t! It’s like I’m tired, but...I have these strange feelings, and it doesn’t work. I just can’t!”

  He approaches her and tries to calm her down. “It’s okay, it’s—”

  “It’s not, Dad!”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to minimize anything. I can’t even imagine what this has been like for you. I wish I could help.”

  “Just...” Just leave me alone. She sighs.

  “Dear, can you think of anything that might help you feel better?”

  She closes her eyes. “I don’t know.”

  “...Would a walk help? Some fresh air maybe?”

  “Maybe.”

  Skip watches as her breathing slows down a little. “I’ll stay with Minnie; you can do whatever you need to do. Okay? Just stay safe.”

  She nods.

  Minnie decides that June has calmed down enough, and she walks over to her.

  June looks down at Minnie. Be nice... “Hey.”

  Minnie opens her arms wide. “Hug?”

  June bends down and picks her up in a hug. “Thank you. That makes me feel better.” If only it were that easy.

  Minnie smiles and closes her eyes. “Me too.”

  After a drinking a glass of water, June grabs her green sunglasses and heads down to the lobby. She looks in the courtyard for Beatrice, but she’s not there. She walks out into the courtyard anyway and looks up at the sky. It’s definitely going to rain.

  She wanders over to the pool, but at a couple is lounging by the side, and June leaves. She loops around through the exercise room, then walks down the back hallway half-awake—half-asleep.

  Suddenly, a cheerful woman that looks to be in her early thirties pops out of a door to June’s side and nearly knocks into her.

  “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there.”

  June looks at her and blinks. “Don’t worry about it. It was probably my fault; I’m kinda out of it right now.”

  The woman shakes her head. “No worries. Say, are you feeling alright?”

  “Not really. I mean, sorta. I... I dunno.�
�

  The woman looks her up and down. “I’m Candace, I’m working the infirmary right now. Would you like to come in and sit down?”

  June takes another breath and looks around. It’s her. She smells like fruit. Why? “Are you wearing any perfume?”

  Candace tilts her head a little. “No...?”

  “Sorry, I’m just feeling a little funny today.”

  Candace extends her arm for June to take. “Here. Fancy a little walk?”

  June nods and takes her arm, and they walk down the hall.

  Candace walks at June’s slower pace. “What’s your name?”

  “Oh, it’s June.”

  “That’s a beautiful name. Classic, but uncommon. I wonder if it’s coming back into style.”

  “How old are you?”

  She laughs. “Older than I look. I turned fifty last month.”

  “I guess that’s a good thing.”

  Candace looks at June sideways. “So, you mentioned you weren’t feeling well? Have you happened to eat or drink some of the hotel’s blood supply in the last couple days?”

  June shakes her head.

  “Has anything changed recently?”

  June glances at the woman in disbelief. “Yeah, you could say that.”

  “Oh? That could have something to do with why you’re not feeling well. Do you want to talk about it?”

  June drops the woman’s arm. “You seem really nice, but you could be some-crazy. No offense, I just mean I don’t know you, and, uh, I’m not used to people being so nice, I guess.”

  Candace laughs. “I might be just the right kind of crazy!” She turns around and walks back in the direction of the infirmary. “Come with me, I’ll show you.”

  Inside the hotel room turned infirmary, Candace spreads her arms out and hugs the space. “This was just an empty room, but finally I’ve been given the opportunity to help people.” She turns to June and extends her hand.

  She takes it, and Candace leads her over to a wall with pictures on it. “I’m pretty sure they’ll be upset that I put holes in the wall, but they’ll just have to paint over it when we’re done here.” She smiles at June who looks at the photos.

  Candace points to one. “This is me, fifteen years ago, studying hematology and experimental pathology at Yale. The man next to me is—”

  “Dr. Melgaard.”

  She nods. “Yes. In a way, he recruited me, and we started working together after my Ph.D. He’s brilliant.”

  June looks at another picture. It’s a black and white image of small girl on a gigantic horse. “Is that you?”

  “It is, I grew up on a ranch. That was my Daddy’s horse, Silver-Shoe. He was way too big for me to ride, but my uncle brought over a camera and took that picture. I still remember growing up on the ranch, with big skies stretching for miles and miles.”

  Big sky country? Out west? “Think you’ll ever get out there again?”

  Candace squeezes June’s hand. “I hope so. Someday we’ll heal this country, and yes, I’ll ride along the border of the ranch at sunset.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  She smiles and sniffs. “Look at me being all sappy! Oh, boy.” She lets go of June’s hand and turns around. She walks over to a table and grabs a tissue. “Can I offer you anything? I have a stockpile of basic over-the-counter medications, free of charge, of course. If you need anything; aspirin, ibuprofen, etcetera, just let me know. Okay?”

  June studies the woman. She smells like fruit. A delicate fruit, like…apple. She takes a deep inhale of it. That’s nice. June drops her head and reaches one arm across her stomach, holding onto her other arm near the elbow. “Well, I just turned the other night. I was out for almost a day, but I haven’t slept since. Is that normal?”

  Candace walks over and places her hand on June’s shoulder. “I was turned too. It was very hard for a while.”

  June nods.

  “Your system might still be adjusting, and not sleeping could be associated with stress. You could try a sleep aid, but I can’t be sure it’ll work.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugs. “Well, lots of reasons. Everyone is different, and everyone reacts to medicine differently. Over-the-counter sleep aids are just antihistamines, you know, like allergy medicine. I can’t give you anything stronger, and you see, sometimes antihistamines have odd side effects with vampires.”

  June frowns. “Bad side effects?”

  Candace shrugs. “It’s hard to have a bad side effect as a vampire—that’s the blessing, if you want to call it that—but if you’re anemic, an antihistamine can really knock you down. I can check your blood if you want, and if you have a good cell count, then you’d be fine to take some.”

  June recoils from the woman. “I, uh, I don’t like needles.”

  Candace puts both palms up to June. “Just an offer.” She drops her hands and chuckles. “I used to be afraid of needles too, believe it or not—a hematologist afraid of needles.”

  June looks at the woman and smiles. “That’s funny.”

  “It is.” Candace smiles at her for a second. “I’d just need to prick your fingertip, and then throw a drop of blood under my microscope for a quick peek.” She motions over her shoulder to a little lab table with a microscope and some equipment beside it. “It would just take me a second to look at it and make sure you’ve got plenty of red blood cells—to make sure you’re not anemic.”

  June breathes through her nose. Strawberries? No, peaches.

  “It’s up to you, but I can’t in good conscience advise you to take any sleep aid or antihistamine without first ensuring that you’re not anemic.”

  June studies her face. This is a nice woman. “If it’s a quick thing, and if you don’t make any record of it—not with my name or anything.”

  Candace nods. “It is very quick, and I’m with you on the privacy thing. You’ll learn that we vampires are very discreet, and we like it that way. I don’t need to record anything, and besides I’ve already forgotten your name. Suzie, right?”

  June laughs. “Alright. I really want to be able to sleep again.”

  Candace nods. “I bet you’ll feel much better after a good night’s rest.” She motions to a chair with a cushioned arm. “Here, take a seat.”

  Ten minutes later, June thanks Candace for the medicine. “You’re welcome, any time, Elizabeth.”

  June laughs. “Nice.”

  “I hope you sleep well tonight. Come by and see me tomorrow if you need anything else.”

  June nods. “I will.” She walks out. And if I still can’t sleep, somebody’s gonna die.

  After she leaves, Candace smiles to herself and looks around the infirmary. She walks back to her microscope and removes the slide with June’s blood on it. She pushes the slide’s cover plate off and into a sharps/biohazard trash bin, then she sets the slide into a rack of other slides to be sterilized back at the lab.

  Now let’s see, what was I doing before? Oh right! COFFEE!

  Charlie tries to keep up with Eddy as they walk back to the hotel. “Slow down! Jeez, I thought you might be tired after all that sparring.”

  “It was awesome!”

  “And hopefully you learned something.”

  “Jambavan is better than he thinks; he should just chill. He’s got an epic reach, he’s stronger than me, and he’s pretty fast too. Faster than Enrique.”

  Tactical firearms… I bet that’s impressive to see in action.

  “Enrique is super strong, and he has good technique, but he’s kinda slow and a little limited to grappling. He almost put me in an arm bar, and that would have been it for me, but I squirmed out and rolled over to escape.”

  “I haven’t met his knight yet. I’ll look forward to introducing myself and complimenting him on—”

  “Sky was really good, and if she expands her repe-repertoire? Is that how you say it? Then she’d be really tough. She’s faster than she looks, but she relied on the same techniques and—”


  “Eddy!”

  He looks around, startled. “What?”

  “Shut up for a minute.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re annoying me.”

  He laughs. “Anyway, I like Sky... I mean, I don’t like her, I like them all. You know what I mean? They’re cool.”

  “I’m glad you got along with them. By the way, how’s June doing?”

  “Okay, I guess. It seems like she’s having a hard time with the change.”

  “It can be difficult. You never had to go through it, so it’s hard for you to understand.”

  “I know you went through it.”

  “Yeah, but it’s different for June. For one thing, she’s living with these secrets, and another, it’s got to be a real mind-fuh…uh, it’s got to mess with her. Is that how you say it?”

  Eddy laughs. “Yeah.”

  “If she needs you, I know you’ll be there, just be careful to not get too close, too fast.”

  “What do you mean?” We’re already so close.

  Charlie clears his throat. “Well, we’ve never talked about you and her being romantic, but now…” Charlie shrugs. “Now she’s like us. Now it would be easier, if that’s what you two wanted.”

  Eddy puts his hands in his pockets. Romantic with June... “I hadn’t thought about it much in the past, because, you know, we were different, and she and I were friends.” He brushes a twig off the sidewalk with his foot as he walks. “I suppose now that could change.”

  “I’m just saying, if you two go down that road, you have to be cautious and go slow. Most kids probably have girlfriends or something growing up, but you didn’t. It would be your first romance, right?”

  “Dad, c’mon.”

  “What don’t I know?”

  Eddy spins around and walks backward, looking at him. “No, you’re right, I just mean, lay off would ya?”

  Charlie extends his arm and Eddy falls under it, allowing it to drape across his shoulder. “Try and stay cognizant of the fact that she’s going through a lot right now. She might act in funny ways and reach out, or she might push you away. Just be patient. Be her friend.”

  Eddy shrugs with a nod. “Uh, okay.”

  “Trust me.” Charlie swallows ancient pain back to his gut. You don’t want to lose her.