Duel Nature

by John Conroe

  Behind her I saw alarm flicker across both Len and Gramps faces and both started to shake their heads at me in warning. I ignored them.

  “That you do T, that you do,” I said with a smirk.

  Her glare could have peeled paint. Her punch to my already sore shoulder felt like a brick breaker.

  Chapter 25

  The message was waiting on both our cell phones when we got back to the farm house. A text directed us to check in with the Coven and when Tanya made the call the dispatch center directed us to return to New York and the Citadel.

  “What’s up?” I asked, noting both her puzzled expression and the mental buzz on our private link.

  “I’m not sure. I didn’t get to talk to Lydia or Nika or any of the others, which is odd. They were all in meetings,” she replied.

  “Well it is a busy place, but I could call Chet,” I suggested, expecting her to say no.

  “That’s a good idea,” she answered, her bright blue eyes alert. The bond between us told me that her political instincts were humming.

  “Dude! How’s things?” I asked when I got through to Chet.

  “Yo man! Good to hear your voice! I hear you and the beautiful one are coming in soon,” my brainy buddy answered.

  “Yeah, we’re on our way. What’s up? Any ideas?” I asked.

  “Something big,” he said. “I’ve been told to double up on IT security. New encryptions, changing the biometrics on the system access, the whole nine yards! There’s a meeting that’s suddenly been called…something called a Conclave?”

  Tanya stiffened across my bedroom where she was packing her suitcase. I watched her body language and got a bad feeling.

  “Well, we’re heading out soon so we’ll see you in a few hours.”

  “Great, travel safe,” was his response.

  I turned off my phone and watched my personal night angel speed up her packing, tension radiating with every motion.

  “T?” I asked.

  She stopped and looked my way.

  “A Conclave is an extremely rare event in our world, even rarer than in the Roman Catholic church,” she said.

  “Wait, isn’t that where the Cardinals pick a new Pope?”

  “Yes. Ours is used to pick a new Elder,” she said, her tone flat.

  “You pick your Elders?” I asked, confused. “I thought they sorta appointed themselves based on age and overall degree of bad assness?”

  She shook her head. “Not exactly. It usually works out that way, but it is still a formal process. The eldest vampires in the world will all convene and vote to pick the next Elder…the one to replace Fedor.”

  “That was over two years ago. They’re just getting around to it now?” I asked.

  “Chris, two years is an eyeblink for the older ones. You don’t know what they’re like,” she said, looking pensive. “I..we thought it might not be for four or five more years. Something or someone must have stirred things up. They never move this fast.”

  “Senka’s not like that. In fact, she always seems to be...well not in a hurry, but at least not dawdling either,” I said.

  “Senka is very unique. She’s also extremely excited about us,” she said, waving her hand between us.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Chris, you’ve only known her for a couple of years. Our introduction stirred things up. That’s why she’s mostly here in the States so much. She’s very old, and the old ones get lethargic, tired of life. But when I was ‘born’ she got very interested. Re-awakened as it were. Then you bumbled into the picture and she’s like a newly Turned vampire, her interest in life and the world completely revived.”

  I still didn’t know much about the politics of the vampire world. I knew that the North American coven was considered a relatively new enterprise and Lydia had mentioned that Europe and Asia were the bastions of most of the old vampires.

  “So why are you bothered?”

  “The last Conclave happened three hundred and fifty years ago. It was, by every account I’ve read or heard, an extremely bloody affair. Sometimes they go easy and other times they’re open warfare.”

  “Who was elected last time?” I asked.

  “Senka,” she said. “There was a lot of opposition. Her ideas and beliefs didn’t sit well with many of the others.”

  “I thought she and Tzao were the oldest?” I asked.

  “They pretty much are, now that Fedor is dead. But Senka has always been something of a progressive sort. The old vampires, even though they are mostly younger than her, don’t like change. Many of them are not fans of her ideas.”

  “What ideas?”

  Tanya paused and considered. My link to her told me she was concerned about her choice of words.

  “Senka has different ideas about humans,” she said, carefully, frozen over a folded sweater.

  “You mean she sees humans more as people and not just as food?” I asked.

  She was surprised. “Yes, Christian, that is what I mean,” she said, one perfect eyebrow slightly raised.

  “Lydia has told me that what I’ve seen in the NY Coven isn’t the norm. I mentioned once that I thought vampires would be much more violent, bloody and such. She told me that they are, that in most parts of the world they treat humans much differently.”

  “You never mentioned that conversation?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve always had a short-term outlook on life, T. I never thought I’d live to twenty-five. So I just thought I’d take your world as it came. I saw how the Loki Spawn treated life, human or were, so I don’t think I will be shocked.”

  “I’m not worried about shocked, Christian. I’m worried about explosive rage. You are very dangerous, but you haven’t gone up against vampires in the 700 year class. And it won’t be just one or two, but many more, maybe several dozen, each with a retinue of forty or more younger Darkkin.”

  A thought occurred to me.

  “How do they treat you?”

  A flicker of emotion crossed her face, too fast to identify by sight. My bond told me it was distaste mixed with a tiny amount of fear.

  “Beings who have been alive for seven, eight or nine centuries are not impressed with the idea of a born vampire. Some ignore me, some are mildly interested, some are….unpleasant,” she said.

  She was deliberately downplaying the unpleasant part, worried about my reaction. What can I say, I’m consistent.

  “What do you mean unpleasant?” I asked, my voice changed by Grim’s surge of anger.

  She watched me struggle with myself, felt the conflict through our bond, concern written across her features.

  “This will not do, Christian. You cannot lose control around these Darkkin. Neither of us will survive it!” she said.

  “Neither?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.

  “Yes, my hot tempered Chosen, neither of us. If you, how do you say, ‘freak out’, you will start a fight you cannot win – and I will be forced to join you,” she said, watching to make sure I understood.

  If I Hulked out over the actions of one of these older vamps and got drawn into a fight, she would never let me fight on my own. We would both die.

  She nodded as she watched my reaction.

  “It’s more than that, Christian. These Darkkin are adept at manipulating others. We will undoubtedly be tested to see if we can be used against rivals, to destabilize alliances or even weaken Senka’s position. They’ve had centuries to practice, to learn the intrigues of every civilization on earth. We are not remotely a match for them.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be there?” I suggested, my stomach suddenly informing me that it was considering hurling. I sucked at politics at the playground level. I wouldn’t have a prayer at the vampire Olympic level.

  “We absolutely shouldn’t,” she agreed. “But we have to. You were there at Fedor’s death and we were both part of the events that led to his demise. Our presence at the next Conclave is mandated.”

  “So what do we do?” />
  “We listen, we watch. We absolutely refrain from reacting to perceived insults and innuendos. We run everything we hear or see past Senka. We do exactly what she tells us to do, no more, no less.”

  It wouldn’t work – not for me. I hated Survivor on television or any of those other shows that depended on mercurial alliances and group politics. I had always lived outside those groups, never learning to operate by their rules.

  She read me like a book.

  “We have many, many advantageous, zayka. The Citadel is our territory, every inch of its electronics are controlled by Chester. Nika is the strongest telepath in the vampire world. Senka and Tzao are on our side. We also are…popular I guess you could call it, with the younger vampires.”

  “And offsetting all of that is my temper,” I said. She stood still over her toiletry bag, her shiny black hair a curtain over her face.

  My temper has always been a factor. But I challenge you to live my life and not have a few anger issues. Add a syringe of demon blood and a separate personality that thrives on combat and suddenly the term ‘anger management’ becomes a life path and not just the title of a funny movie.

  “Grandmother will have some ideas on that Christian, but you have to promise me you will restrain your dark side,” she said, her link worried.

  I sighed and nodded. “Hell, maybe I can just avoid most of the meetings?” I pondered.

  “Maybe,” she responded.

  ***

  Five hours later found us in Manhattan, maneuvering our car down to the lowest level of an underground parking garage. Slotting the car into an empty slot near the back of the level, we hopped out and grabbed our bags.

  The elevator had numbers for all the levels above us, but when Tanya pressed her right thumb over an innocuous black square on the top of the control panel the numbers started to go down instead of up.

  The doors opened into a concrete hallway with a door that could have worked nights as a bank vault. This time my vampire used a retina scanner and the two-foot thick door popped open with a soft hiss.

  A six pack of Arkady’s security vampires awaited us, quickly loading our luggage onto a stretch golf cart that immediately careened down long empty hallways. We were on the outskirts of Citadel and after a moment or two I realized we were using one of the least utilized access points. Coming home by the back door as it were.

  Well before reaching the center of the complex we turned off, heading in a direction I had never been before, not that I’ve ever seen the entirety of the complex. Citadel was built to house and protect the entire New York Coven during times of danger and included space enough for several thousand people. As the Coven only numbers 300-500 vampires at the best of times, there is plenty of room. So it wasn’t shocking that I had never seen this stretch of tunnels before, but what was a surprise was the number unfamiliar vampires we were passing. My ability to gauge the age of a vampire was telling me that the Darkkin we were seeing were mostly in the 400-600 year range. In all my time in Citadel or even in the Big Apple, I had only seen a handful of vampires in that age group.

  Our cart came to a halt in front of a group of vampires. Arkady and Lydia were in the front, but I noted several much older vampires, including a giant that I had seen once before. There were also quite a few younger vamps that I knew to be locals.

  Tanya hopped out of the cart and walked up to Arkady and Lydia. I got out the opposite side of the cart and had to walk around it. I was still approaching when Tanya gave a small, formal bow and said: “Rover Team 29 present.” No friendly greeting to people who were family.

  “Rover Demidova, welcome back,” Arkady said. The omission of the title that Arkady had practically coined, ‘Young Queen’ was glaringly obvious. The feeling of relief I got from Tanya was palpable. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much pressure Tanya felt from that two word phrase.

  Arkady glanced at me. “Rover Gordon,” was his greeting.

  “Security Chief Barsukov,” I replied with a bow as close to Tanya’s as possible. Our link practically wrapped me in her approval of my actions as well as a message; we were being watched and judged.

  The giant vampire behind Arkady moved forward. I think his name was Ondrej. He was Senka’s bodyguard and possibly the largest individual I’d ever seen. Over seven feet tall and had to go well past 300 pounds.

  “You will come with me, Rover,” he said to Tanya, his voice like two boulders rubbing together.

  I started to follow, but he froze me with a stare. “Not you Gordon. You go with Hosokawa-san,” he said, motioning with his chin at another older vampire. Five foot, five and built like a gymnast, I had also met Hosokawa before. He was Elder Tzao’s bodyguard. Pitch black eyes locked onto me and he waved me after him. Behind us our luggage was swiftly disappearing from the cart, headed to our quarters I hoped.

  Chapter 26

  Hosokawa led me silently through the hallways, his steps eerily silent on the concrete floors. Several minutes of walking brought us to a gymnasium that was busy with vampires sparring with both weapons and without. Sidelong glances followed us as we walked through the large space to a doorway at the rear. Passing through the small archway led into a smaller studio space, maybe twenty-five feet by fifty. A rack of weapons was fastened to the far wall. I had been thinking that Hosokawa’s black uniform looked much like a martial arts gi.

  Hosokawa stepped to the center of the room and turned to face me. Behind me an unknown vampire closed the door, which part of me noted was heavy steel. Locking bolts ratcheted into place.

  The small dangerous vampire in front of me was over 800 years old and his face was a frozen mask that gave nothing away.

  “You are ill prepared to face a Conclave,” he stated as fact. Not knowing what to say, I decided to say nothing. I know…shocking. Mark a calendar.

  “I will prepare you,” he said, another fact.

  His bow was fast, his attack much, much faster. Too fast for me…without Grim. The rear wall of the room was hard, at least according to my head and right shoulder which had just slammed into it. I wasn’t sure just what he had done.

  He was frowning. “I was told you were faster than that?” he asked, sounding offended.

  I shook concrete dust from my throbbing head and moved forward. “Part of me is,” I said.

  That particular part was howling to get out. I let it.

  “Part of you?” he said.

  I just nodded and continued to approach. He slid forward as if on grease, his front foot headed for my sternum. Grim stepped us slightly to the right, just enough for the calloused foot to slide under my left arm, which trapped it. Another step put my right foot behind his left, my right hand slamming a palm heel to his chest.

  In the world of human jiu-jitsu, this combination of moves will often result in your opponent falling to the floor, leg still trapped by your arm. In vampire-fu, with an opponent who had probably helped create jiu-jitsu the result was not so much. Hosokawa had Posted his balancing leg, effectively turning it into an iron rod sunk deep in the earth. He would not be falling over anytime soon.

  The fun part about my demonically influenced combat personality is that he’s nothing if not adaptable. In fact, I almost felt a mental nod acknowledging a theory proven.

  The take down ineffective, Grim pulled us close to the Japanese vampire, dropping the leg and shooting both arms under Hosokawa’s armpits, Posting our own legs in place – then he Pulled on the rack of weapons. All manner of swords, spears and other sharp pointy things shot straight at us and more importantly, the exposed back of our/my opponent.

  Hosokawa exploded upwards, propelled by powerful vampire legs, yanking himself right out of my arms and leaving me to face the sword storm. Grim yanked my body to the floor, and Pushed the incoming blades upward with my right hand.

  Rolling backwards on the floor, I came up in time to see all the blades but one, miss the vampire who was Clinging to the ceiling. One small knife blade tore the bottom of his pant
s, but otherwise missed him completely. Grim snatched a falling spear from the air and jabbed at the black form that was spidered on the concrete above.

  Hosokawa rolled, folded and slipped away from every attack. Then he flicked his right hand in my direction and I was Pulled to the ground as if gravity had suddenly quadrupled. Somehow, he had projected his energy into the concrete below me and then exerted it against me.

  I was trapped by a column of vampire energy, unable to move as my opponent dropped lightly to the ground. Grim wasn’t done though, instead ratcheting up our response by using my aura to slice the pillar of energy holding me down.