by PJ Schnyder
The smell of old death teased at Danny’s nose, faint and dry like the ashes in the fireplace. Deanna didn’t notice when the vampires entered the room on silent feet, so Danny stepped closer to keep himself between the undead and her. Three of them, two lesser and one very old vampire. How he could tell had very little to do with the five senses and everything to do with the vampires. Little cues, and an overall gut awareness of what the other predators in the room were capable of doing.
“It is unusual for one of the werewolf pack to seek me out, even in times such as these. Interesting. Plus, I see a familiar face on a person I do not know.” The master vampire of London must have been Turned in his late thirties, possibly early forties. Hard lines, square jaw. He was the sort ladies would find attractive, the kind who wore a suit well. He exuded confidence and sophistication.
He also stood perfectly motionless, in a way only the very-long-dead can manage. No heartbeat, no rise and fall of the chest, no flow of blood in his veins or even the minute tensing and relaxing of stabilizer muscles throughout his torso to keep him upright. He was a statue, alive yet without the constant motion of living things. Only the older vampires did that. The younger ones, their bodies remembered what it was to be alive. They breathed because they remembered what it was like to need to breathe in order exist.
This master vampire, he’d long since made his peace with being dead. He could stand there for the rest of time if he had a mind to do it, and never move even a millimeter.
But inertia wasn’t a safe assumption for a being such as him. In order to be the Master, he had to be both very old and very powerful. The sense of danger weighted the air, pushing at Danny to shift to phase-form to better face the threat. But he wouldn’t, not unless he had to. Doing so would be considered an unforgivable act of aggression. And Deanna needed him to be as cooperative as possible.
“I am Danny, medic of the London pack.” He’d bet the Master already knew, but best to go about proper introductions. Vampires had a bit of a thing for protocol. If Seth ever thought he could trust the vampires, they’d be right perfect to handle the political bollocks with the human governments. “This human is under my protection. Her name is Deanna.”
The vampire inclined his head. He never blinked. Eerie, that. “You may call me Kenneth.”
Informal. Danny let his shoulders relax a touch. Good sign.
“We’re looking for someone, or to be more precise, trying to find out how she died.” Deanna’s voice held only the barest hint of a tremor. His plucky scientist, incredibly brave. Human as she was, she was sensitive. She had to be aware of the danger, like a rabbit in a den of predators.
It was a survival instinct for potential prey, like the tiny pets trembling in Maisie’s hands. Even if Maisie meant them no harm, they recognized her for the predator she was.
The vampire, though, his intentions weren’t as clear.
“Many have died in this city over the centuries.” Flat. Uncaring. Kenneth might as well have been an automated voice recording.
She persisted. “She would have died a year ago.”
“A night, a year, a decade. These are short timeframes, difficult for the long-lived to remember all they encounter clearly. Isn’t that so, wolf?”
“I’ve seen my share of centuries. And yes, the ways humans measure time are brief, their days blend together in a blur. But...” Danny narrowed his eyes. “If I remember a face, I tend to remember a bit more about the person.”
One of the lesser vampires snarled and lunged at Danny. He sidestepped and grabbed it by the forehead before it could get inside his guard. Its fangs jutted out as it hissed at him, reaching up toward his face. Bringing his other hand up in an uppercut before it could do him damage, he slammed his open hand into its chest. Its sternum collapsed and he reached through the bone fragments. Closing his fist around its heart, he yanked. Just like that and it was over. Had to be. Vampires were too deadly to allow a prolonged fight.
The dishes rattled as the human servant’s hands shook.
“You may go.” The master vampire didn’t turn his head, but the human servant bolted. “Tell my second and third I do not require their presence. I am to be undisturbed.”
There may have been another servant listening or the fleeing girl might have absorbed the message. The master vampire didn’t look to be concerned. Of course, his expression had literally not changed since he’d entered the room with his escorts. Obviously, the second and third were more of a challenge.
After a pause, Kenneth motioned for the other vampire to leave as well.
“You owe me a life.”
Caution might have been the better approach, but Danny was a wolf and hesitation on his part could have been perceived as a weakness neither he nor Deanna could afford. He had to come at it from a position of strength. “You owe the werewolves a dozen or more. We protect our territory but we do not extend it to foolish humans who do not follow our rules. Your agreement with us was that you’d only feed on those who sought you out. I think you’ve been stretching the interpretation of the agreement when it comes to tourists, people easily marked as lost to the zombies. What will you do when there are no more humans to feed on in London? Where will you go?”
Deanna sucked in a sharp breath.
He didn’t dare look at her, nor worry about what she might think of the wolves leaving humans to the mercy of other predators, the vampires. But one monster didn’t deny the nature of another. Their agreement meant only the consenting were prey. It was the best compromise the werewolf pack could make and live with it. Danny would try to explain to her later, if she would let him.
The twitch in the vampire’s face was minuscule, but Danny saw it despite his worry about Deanna. He followed a hunch. “Can you even leave?”
Suddenly, the vampire was across the room and facing Deanna. Danny whirled with a growl, but the vampire had her by the throat.
“Ah, ah. Delicate. Fragile.” Kenneth stared at Danny with ice-blue eyes, flat and without mercy. “Too easily crushed if you were to threaten me now.”
“Let her go.” Red edged his vision and logic wouldn’t hold for long while Deanna was in danger.
“Werewolves have many advantages over vampires in terms of natural weaponry and defensive form. As we grow older we learn ways to even the odds. Speed, for instance.” Kenneth’s voice remained void of emotion. “You must blink and we can move in your moment of blindness.”
Danny growled. He could kill the vampire, but not before the arrogant prick killed Deanna. She was clutching at the vampire’s hand, trying to pull his fingers from her throat. She might as well have been prying at marble.
“Your concern is valid, but unnecessary. I will give you the information you seek.”
Falling silent, Danny waited. Both to hear what the vampire had to say and to find an opening to get Deanna out of his grip. Patience came hardest in situations like these, and the gamble to take no action could result in the unbearable.
“Helen was your sister, I am assuming.” Though the question was directed to Deanna, Kenneth did not turn his head from Danny.
“Y-yes.” Deanna had relaxed in his hold, ready to move when the chance arose. Danny hoped it was that and not a calming thrall of some sort. Most vampires required a taste of the victim’s blood to exert that power over will, but Kenneth was old enough to have heightened abilities. Especially if he was fast enough to move in the blink of an eye.
“I wasn’t aware she had a twin.”
“You knew her.”
“Yes.”
“She wrote about you.”
“She did.” No surprise and he didn’t phrase it as a question.
Deanna was doing a fine job of keeping her wits, but the scent of her fear was rising in the room. It cut at Danny, made his wolf aspect wild with the need to remove the thing scaring her
so badly. But not while it had her by the throat.
“What happened? You didn’t kill her. I know you didn’t.”
“No.” A change of inflection. Sadness? Regret? Hard to believe. “She encountered me on the city streets. I had already had a successful hunt. I needed no further sustenance. It amused me to accompany her to a pub and listen to her speak of finding herself. Instead, she’d found me. She was refreshing.”
Danny could relate. There were times when every person around a man blurred into every other idjit he’d ever known. Easier to let them all fade into anonymity than hurt for every cherished friend lost to a shorter lifespan. Still, when one personality burned brighter than the rest, grey days of existence took on a splash of color.
Deanna coughed, struggled to speak more. The vampire eased the pressure of his fingers a bit. “You popped up again and again. You searched her out. She said it would’ve been creepy, but she was so happy to see you.”
“Yes.”
“And she figured out what you were.”
“Regrettably.” Kenneth released her neck, but had her chin between forefinger and thumb. Deanna pulled to get free, but couldn’t get loose. “I thought her face—your face—singularly beautiful. Ironic that there were two of you.”
“What happened to her?” Deanna asked the question again. This time, unshed tears were in her voice.
“She asked me to Turn her. She wanted to spend the rest of eternity with me.”
A shocked silence hung in the air. Apparently, Deanna hadn’t ever entertained the idea of living forever.
“That’s crazy. And you didn’t love her back, did you?” The question came as barely a whisper, still crystal clear to Danny’s hearing and the vampire’s too.
“We do not Turn wielders of witchcraft.” Kenneth didn’t blink. Danny couldn’t help staring, waiting for him to, but he didn’t. “It is not possible to Turn other supernaturals, shape-shifters or fae. The danger in Turning those humans with the natural talent for magic lies in the unpredictable outcomes. It is because of me your sister looked for a different way to see eternity. When I refused, she applied her creativity to the issue.”
Deanna’s brows drew together. “I don’t understand.”
That made two of them. More importantly, her skin along her jaw was growing red from the pressure of the hold the vampire had on her chin. Danny couldn’t watch her hurt much longer without doing something rash.
“She searched for a spell to Turn herself into a vampire.”
“It doesn’t exist!” Disbelief cracked her voice, or it could have been fear.
Danny’s inner wolf slammed against his control.
“Whether it does or not, I simply give you the information you requested. She tried to create one. She explained, after it was too late, that she’d fused science with witchcraft. It was supposed to have mimicked the vampirism virus and changed the cellular structure of red blood cells.”
“She didn’t have the expertise to do that, even if it could be done.” Deanna was crying, and every tear ripped at Danny. He needed to get her out of the vampire’s grip now.
“Witchcraft, like other magics, has its own will at times. Instead of recreating a virus that already existed, it created a different one.”
Deanna’s eyes widened. “No, no, no. It affected prions instead of platelets. Neurodegenerative instead. Oh no.”
There aren’t a lot of coincidences in this world. Her words echoed in Danny’s mind. They were twins with a supernatural bond. Even if Helen hadn’t the expertise to guide her spell, the magic had to have followed the template of knowledge from somewhere. It’d recognized through their bond that Deanna had the talent for the micro world and the education to understand the consequences. Helen’s talent wouldn’t have had the same expertise to guide her intent.
“Yes. Your sister tried to become the vampiric undead and became the first zombie in London instead.”
“No, no, no.”
The root cause. Patient zero.
“Before she died, she set a ward on the city.” Kenneth finally turned his head to look at Deanna. “It is exceptionally strong, unexpectedly so. My brood has not been able to leave, until now.”
A ward could survive the death of the caster. Danny had witnessed it in the past. But blood called to power and even if the caster was dead, blood could be used to break the ward. Only Helen’s would have been mutated when she died. It wouldn’t have broken the ward, leaving the vampires trapped.
Danny went cold.
Deanna’s blood would give them the power to break the ward.
Danny lunged. The old vampire moved faster, released Deanna and dodged toward her instead of away. As Danny tried to twist in the air to face him, the vampire backfisted him. Lights exploded inside Danny’s head and again as he crashed into the fireplace.
Deanna!
He struggled but the dark closed in around him, yanked him into unconsciousness.
Chapter Nine
Deanna woke as a sharp pain burned along the inside of her right arm. Her eyes flew open and she struggled against the hands holding her, panic shooting cold through her veins. Heavy manacles weighted her wrists.
“L-let go!”
“In due time.” Kenneth stepped into her line of sight, or rather, he was just there suddenly. Bastard was too fast to actually see moving.
“What did you do to Danny?” No, no, no. Danny couldn’t be dead. But she’d seen him smash into the fireplace.
“On his way, I’d imagine.” Not a twitch, nor sign of concern. “But he will not be in time.”
This vampire was like the ball-jointed dolls she’d seen. Lifelike, but not. And freaking creepy. His words sank in and relief washed through her, pushing the pain to the back of her mind. Danny was alive.
“I have your blood now, Helen’s blood. I can break the ward at any time. But the werewolf owes me a life.” Her heart froze. “And your sister’s face should not be worn by any other.”
The human servants holding her had her by the arms and legs. They lifted her and she yanked, twisted, kicked and fought, but she couldn’t get free.
“A singular beauty, her face. I will not see my Helen again. Not even the ghost of her in her sister’s eyes. She would want you to join her.”
His Helen. He had loved her back. Or at least some version of love, whatever a vampire was capable of.
She didn’t have time to respond as the servants lifted her over a metal railing and dropped her into a pit sunken in stone. It wasn’t a far drop. She was able to land and roll off some of the momentum. Jagged remains of an old, old wall lay scattered across the bottom. From the looks of the sky, the pit was exposed to sunlight when there was any. But as she squinted into the shadows, she realized most of the day must have passed before she’d woken and they’d tossed her in here.
Wait. Join her.
There was movement in the shadows. A figure emerged, clothes mostly intact for having been worn for so long without care.
“H-Helen.” Tears welled up. Her sister was almost unrecognizable after more than a year. Her body had rotted but was surprisingly whole. Helen had all her limbs, for the most part. The hand that reached toward her was missing the tips of each finger, as if Helen had worn the flesh and very bone of her most distal digits away scratching at something...like the wall of this pit. “You kept her.”
“I’d vowed to care for her all her days even though I refused to Turn her. Stubborn woman. She did this instead.” Kenneth stood looking down on them. “She has remained well-preserved with regular feeding. Though she does not always finish. The resultant zombies are removed so they do not inadvertently damage her. And yet, the true spark of her personality is gone.”
Deanna hoped so. Staring in horror at her sister’s corpse, she was glad she hadn’t faced Helen
closer to death when the zombie before her would have looked more like her twin.
All the dreams made sense. And Deanna might have always known and not wanted to face it. Her sister had turned into a zombie. Worse. Her sister had created the zombie virus.
“You didn’t isolate her right away.” Keep him talking while she thought. Her sister, no, the zombie was shuffling. It hadn’t yet done more than reach a hand out to her and it was still several yards away. She had space to run, a little.
“No. She stumbled into a health clinic, infected others before I realized the nature of her ailment. By then, I chose to isolate only her and let the city resolve the issue. After all, I’d given my word to look after her alone. The rest weren’t of my concern.” A pause. “It has taken some time, but it is stabilizing.”
“You call what’s out there stabilizing?” Really?
“Deanna!” Her name echoed across the ground in a roar. Danny. As it faded, a howl and then another rose up in the distance.
“Ah, your wolf has awakened and made his way from the hotel. And he has called in his pack. Excellent.” Kenneth motioned and the human servants left the pit railing. “We will be having a discussion as you are reacquainted with your twin. It is time the wolves came to a new agreement with my brood.”
Deanna stared up at the place where he’d stood. Too high. The wall was too high to climb, especially with her wrists and ankles manacled.
A low groan drew her attention. The zombie was sniffing the air. Deanna stared down at the gash on the inside of her forearm. It wasn’t deep, but it was bleeding freely. She didn’t have much time before the blood loss would make her dizzy. And now that the zombie’d scented her, it’d come after her more actively. The pit gave her room, but she couldn’t avoid it for long.