by Ann Gimpel
Aura breathed shallowly through her mouth. They’d reached the front of the building. Viktor twisted the door handle. “Goddammit. It’s locked.”
Ketha moved in front of him. Power flared from her fingertips. A rusty, squealing sound battered Aura’s ears as the lock reluctantly gave way.
Viktor grabbed Ketha’s arm. “Stay back,” he instructed, and gave the door a good, hard kick. It swung open, and he trotted inside, cursing in German, sword raised and ready.
Aura gagged. If she’d thought the smell was bad before, it was nothing compared with now. “What the fuck?” she blurted. “It’s cold here. Far too cold for anything to decay. Hell, I’ve come across carcasses in the tropics that didn’t smell this bad.”
“Yeah. I wondered about the stench too.” Juan angled his body between her and the building and raised the gun to firing position. “I’m going after Viktor. The rest of you remain here.”
Before she could lodge a protest, mention the women’s magic trumped the men’s by a good big bunch, he vanished through the darkened doorway. A long, low whistle followed.
“Safe enough,” Viktor called, his voice gruff. “You all should see this.”
Aura tugged the front of her parka up so it covered her nose and called a mage light. It flickered a soft violet next to her. As prepared as she’d ever be, she followed the other women inside.
Grimy windows let in enough light, she didn’t need her magical one so she extinguished it. Breath clotted in her throat at the scene spread before her. Three men ravaged by various stages of deterioration lay on a scarred beige linoleum floor, but they weren’t the source of the stench. A battered oak desk and two chairs were the only furniture in the room.
Karin crouched next to one of the men. “Pretty sure these animal bites”—she pointed—“happened before he died. Which means he’s been dead for a considerable time.”
Ketha flipped another of the dead men over. “I don’t believe this one was ever a Vamp.”
“This one wasn’t, either,” Karin confirmed. “And when these men died, there was still wildlife here. Hungry seals, like as not.”
“Which probably means Mr. Unlucky Number Three wasn’t a Vampire, either,” Aura gritted out and jerked her chin at the third body. Where the hell was the smell coming from? She still sensed Vampires, but where were they?
Viktor rifled through the desk with a dusty computer terminal sitting atop it. He pulled out an assortment of pens and pencils followed by a yellowed envelope.
“What do you have there?” Ketha asked.
“I have no idea.” Viktor walked over to a window where the light was better. Balancing the saber so the tip rested on the floor between his boots, he extracted a sheet of paper from the envelope.
“What does it say?” Juan clicked the rifle’s safety to on and lowered it before he moved closer to Viktor.
“We want to know too,” Recco and Daide said almost in unison.
“Hang on. Probably nothing beyond a requisition list, but I’ll read it.” Viktor cleared his throat.
“Here we go.” He smoothed the paper in front of him, and his eyes widened.
“Not a shopping list, after all?” Ketha asked.
“Nope. It’s not. Listen up. This looks interesting.”
“Come on, amigo, the suspense is killing me.” Juan craned his neck to peer over Viktor’s shoulder as he began to read.
“In the unlikely event anyone finds this—or our bodies—my name is Richard Laurie. My companions are Chris Stott and Harold Johnson. We’re British citizens, and we’re the last survivors on South Georgia Island. Something hideous happened, and a dark barricade held us prisoner here. No ships could penetrate it, nor could we leave.
“Our communication with the outside world faded after a few years, and we knew we’d die here. Fifteen others died before us, and we buried those we could in the cemetery on the far side of the post office, a courtesy I’d request of anyone who finds us. There’s something odd happening inside the church, so a simple burial will suffice. No need to try for anything like a service.
“But I digress. After we’d been trapped here for about four years, three abominations crawled over the Allardyce Range and into Grytviken—”
“Are those the mountains behind us?” Rowana broke in.
“Yes,” Juan answered.
“Sorry, go on.” Rowana crooked two fingers Viktor’s way.
Viktor nodded and turned the page to its other side. “There’s no easy way to say this, and whoever reads this probably won’t believe me, but those three creatures were Vampires. I had no idea such a thing even existed outside of legends and bad television, but I got over it damned fast.
“They grabbed two of our number, drained them of blood, and resurrected them as creatures of evil, of night. Chris and Harold and I knew we had to do something. One thing Grytviken had was a well-stocked laboratory. It’s one building down from this one and locked tight—”
“Hey! Great news!” Ketha crowed. “Bet the air’s cleaner there too.”
“If you all don’t stop interrupting, I’ll never finish,” Viktor protested.
“Sorry. Got excited at the prospect of test tubes and microscopes.” Ketha might have been smiling, but she had her jacket pulled over her nose and mouth the same way Aura did.
“Watch it. I’ll get jealous.” Viktor rolled his eyes. “Last bit here.” He ran a finger over the page, probably hunting for where he’d left off reading.
“We mixed an infusion of silver powder and iron since folk tales suggested supernatural creatures were sensitive to one or both elements. I’m not proud of this next part, but one of our research team was very close to death. She had cancer. A ship had been on its way to pick her up and take her to Argentina for medical treatment when the barricade closed us in. In any event, she agreed to serve as bait and drank the infusion knowing it would kill her.
“The predictable happened. All five Vampires closed in on her as she walked the ocean-side road. We watched from the sidelines to make certain everyone drank from her. They were hungry enough, they all did, after a huge argument about whom she belonged to. Thank God no one suggested turning her, maybe because she was so sick. The next part happened fast. So fast, Linda was still alive when the five of them collapsed.
“We moved like lightning and dragged them into a sub-basement beneath this office. It’s partially sunk into the ground, and the small windows have iron bars on them. We bound the Vampires with iron chains and barred the door from this side, also with iron.
“To be on the safe side, Chris, Richard, and I traded off keeping watch with a shotgun at the ready. You see, we’d made special shells with silver powder and iron filings in the casings, but we never needed them.
“By the time we went back for Linda, she was dead. Ground was too hard to even try to bury her. You won’t find her body. Something got her. Probably seals. I tried to keep track of time, but I may have missed a day here or there. We lived for another year or so after we captured the Vampires. They kicked up an unholy fuss for the first few months but then grew quiet. They never stopped stinking, though.
“Maybe they died? I have no idea, but none of us were willing to go back down there to check on them.
“This is about it. I’m the last. Chris and Richard are gone. We still had food, but the water went bad. It’s what did us in in the end.”
“Jesus.” Viktor glanced up and exhaled briskly. “That poor sod.”
“No kidding,” Juan said. “Is there more?”
“No. His writing got wavery. I suspect he penned this right before he died.”
“At least it explains why we sense Vampires,” Aura muttered.
“Yup, and why we’ll leave the bastards right where they are,” Rowana cut in. “They’ve been here for years, which means they can’t get out.”
Recco crossed to the desk and attacked the lower drawers.
“What are you hunting for?” Daide joined him.
“
These!” Recco withdrew two boxes of shells. “Must be the ones they cooked up with silver and iron. It’s a great idea. We’d be stupid to leave them.”
“They probably aren’t the correct caliber for this gun.” Juan raised the rifle he’d never let go of.
“No, but I bet they’ll work in the old-fashioned firearm on the floor over there.” Daide loped to the back of the room and picked up a dusty rifle, slinging it across his shoulders.
“Nice work.” Viktor nodded approvingly.
“Come on.” Juan led the way out of the room with its air-stealing reek.
“Are we going to bury those men like they asked?” Aura asked once they were all back outside. “I didn’t see Linda on our way up from the town, so Richard was probably right about an animal dragging her into the ocean or its lair.”
“An animal that died from heavy metal poisoning after its meal,” Karin mumbled.
“Recco kicked at the ground. “Pretty frozen after ten years of perpetual winter. It would be hard to get a shovel into it.”
“We could haul them into the harbor and give them to the sea,” Juan suggested.
“We could,” Viktor agreed. “The part I don’t understand is why the demise of the Cataclysm didn’t strip whatever’s in the basement of their Vampire essence. By my count, they should have turned into Shifters or back into the humans they once were.”
“I was thinking about it,” Juan said, “but you won’t like what I came up with.”
“Which was?” Viktor leveled his green eyes on his friend.
Juan shrugged. “It’s clear enough. We may have beat back the Cataclysm around Ushuaia, but its energy is alive and well elsewhere. Not at full strength, or we’d never have been able to sail into King Edward Cove, but the world truly is one ocean, and we’ve barely covered one percent of it between Ushuaia and here.”
“Makes it even more important for me to see what’s left in the lab,” Ketha said. “According to Richard, it’s one building over.”
Karin narrowed her copper eyes. “I still think it’s a risk. Touching anything here may well bring contamination aboard the ship.”
“Too late. We already laid hands on the corpses.” Viktor rattled the letter still clutched in his hand.
Recco held up the boxes of shells and shrugged. “Not leaving these here.”
“At least if I found a decent microscope and some chemicals, I might be able to identify stray microbes,” Ketha argued.
Karin tossed a hand skyward. “Fine. If you come up with some mutated bacterium we don’t have an antibiotic for, it’s on your head.”
Ketha made a sour face. “What are the odds?”
“Maybe two or three percent.” Karin shrugged. “Don’t mind me. I have no idea why I’m so crabby. I spoke out of turn when I inferred you might bring doom down on us. My wolf is giving me hell over it.”
“Thank God for the bond animals.” Ketha grinned and headed toward the neighboring building. “I’ll be quick about this,” she called over her shoulder.
“Need help?” Viktor ran after her, the saber still clutched in one fist.
“Sure. Two of us can carry twice as much stuff.” Ketha turned to wink at her husband.
“Daide and I will take charge of those bodies,” Recco said. “Once we’ve deposited them into the harbor, we’ll bring the raft back for Viktor and Ketha.”
“Excellent,” Juan said. “The women and I will go back for the raft Viktor left on the beach near town. At least we all have a weapon. Vik has the sword. I have this rifle, and you two have the other one.”
Daide glanced at it. “It’s an old bolt-action Remington. Nice gun. I’ll clean it up once we’re back aboard Arkady.”
“Let’s get moving, Bud. I want to get this over with.” Recco walked back inside.
Daide followed. “We won’t be able to lock it up once we’re done,” he called over one shoulder.
“See if Ketha can’t secure it,” Juan replied.
“Will do.” Daide vanished inside the barracks building.
The road was wide enough for them to walk four abreast. For the first half mile, no one said much. Aura enjoyed Juan’s solid presence by her side, but he probably wasn’t aware she’d been casting surreptitious glances his way since the lot of them fought the Cataclysm.
“I’m not sure quite what I thought we’d find beyond Ushuaia.” Rowana’s voice lacked its usual sarcastic edge.
“Me, either,” Karin said. “But I didn’t expect imprisoned Vampires.”
“None of us did,” Juan agreed. “I’ve been puzzling through what it might mean for other locations. And trying to figure out where the three Vampires came from in the first place.”
“Are there other settlements on this island?” Rowana asked. “Seems big enough.”
“It is,” Juan said. “And sure, there were other settlements. Lots of them. Leith Harbor. Stromness. Godthul. Ocean Harbor, to name a few. They’re all lined up on the northeast aspect of the island because it’s the lee side. The southwest coastline is an absolute bitch. It’s where Shackleton ended up before he engineered his heroic crossing to get help for the men he’d left on Elephant Island.”
Aura smiled. “You sound like a tour guide.”
“Sometimes I was, in a pinch.” Juan grinned back. “Anyway, I figure the Vamps showed up here on a ship. Maybe the same storm that drove our other boat aground at the very front end of the Cataclysm nailed them too. This is all conjecture, but once they ran out of food on the windward coast—or got sick of the storms—they crossed the mountains and came out in Grytviken.”
“The smell of human blood would have drawn them.” Karin nodded agreement.
The small group reached the other Zodiac.
“Does anyone want to explore the town before we go back?” Juan asked.
“What’s here?” Aura took in a series of buildings in various stages of disrepair.
“The museum and gift shop are in the same building, and it appears to be intact.” Juan jerked his chin at a whitewashed structure. “Even if it’s locked, that doesn’t stop you guys. And the church up the hill was in decent shape.”
“Richard mentioned the church in his letter.” Rowana frowned.
“Yeah. He said there was something odd about it.” Karin rolled her eyes. “All churches are a wee bit odd, if you ask me. Modern organized religions never approved of Shifters.”
“So we stick with the museum.” Juan smiled. “I’d like to see it again. We may never get back this way.”
“Given the Vampires, it’s a sure bet.” Aura snorted. “Never was a lock a determined Shifter couldn’t defeat.” She scanned the harbor and saw the other Zodiac headed for the middle of the bay, presumably with Chris, Harold, and Richard’s bodies. “I feel sad for those men, the ones who sat guard over the Vamps,” she murmured.
“Why?” Karin drew her brows into a thick, thoughtful line. “I wish we’d thought of poisoning Vampires with silver and lead. Might have made the last decade easier.”
Rowana shook her head. “Nah. Too many of them in Ushuaia. Once we’d lured one group and destroyed them, the others would have gotten wise to us.”
“Maybe so.” Karin twisted her mouth into a grimace. “Those years in Ushuaia would have been ever so much better with only us and the humans, though.”
“Even I agree with your assessment,” Juan said. “And I used to be one of the enemy. Come on. Let’s see what’s left in the gift shop. If they have warm clothing the mice haven’t turned into Swiss cheese, I say we move it aboard Arkady.”
Aura followed him up from the beach to a network of branching dirt streets. They’d held up better than the one leading to the barracks, probably because the ocean hadn’t had as much of a chance to erode them.
Juan turned to her. “If the museum hasn’t been plundered—and there’s no reason to believe it was—there’s a stuffed wandering albatross suspended from the ceiling. Sucker had about a fourteen-foot wingspan. Those birds could t
ravel thousands of miles.”
“You love this part of the world, don’t you?” Aura cast a sidelong glance his way in time to see him nod enthusiastically, hazel eyes glittering with excitement.
“That I do. We spent summers—northern hemisphere summers—in the Arctic because we couldn’t afford not to work half the year, but I couldn’t wait for winter to return. I was born in Buenos Aires and spent my entire boyhood yearning to travel south.” He stopped in front of a wooden door with the varnish peeling off in ragged strips.
Aura reached for the knob, turning it to check if it required magic. It rattled but refused to turn.
“I’ve got this,” Karin announced, and a quick, hot jab of magic pulsed from her. The knob turned of its own accord, and the door creaked open.
The smells of camphor and lemon wafted out in a blast of stale air. “Whew! This place has been closed up for a while.” Rowana slipped through the open door.
“Careful,” Aura called after her. “We don’t know—”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” Karin followed Rowana inside.
“Do you sense anything?” Juan asked and closed his fingers around Aura’s arm. Heat from the contact seared her, and she leaned closer.
“I’m not sure. My cat’s been quiet. If something bad were here, it would warn me.”
“Good to understand how being a Shifter works. I’m still getting to know my bond animal. I figure it will take years at the rate I’ve been going.” He tugged gently on her arm. “Come on. Let’s have a look at the albatross.”
He led her through the door and into a small museum. Time slipped by as they examined old log books and clothing and accoutrements left over from the 1800s. Everything was covered with years’ worth of dust. Juan was a veritable treasure trove of information, and she could have listened to his deep, rich voice forever.
“Wonder what happened to Karin and Rowana?” Juan glanced around.
Aura had been thinking the same thing. “They both love to shop,” she said. “Bet they got lost pawing through things.”
“Let’s round them up,” Juan said. “The gift shop isn’t very large.” Worry lined his words, and a frisson of discomfort frittered down Aura’s spine.