by Mark Tufo
'Yes, him.” The boy's eyes glowed brighter. “That is one demon who definitely should have been left where he was. He's the reason most of them come. And come, and come!” He rolled his eyes.
“Is he like a fount of magic? Spells or whatever just flow from him?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. Well, he could be, you know. Maybe. If anyone could reach him. They come and they try though.”
“And then go away?”
He just smiled and walked out of the gallery, waving for her to follow.
With a resigned sigh, she did. He had information she needed, obviously.
They walked away from the entrance, deeper into the museum.
“Are you hungry, scary Miss West with the tattoos? I bet they're not just on your neck, right? I have tattoos, too.” he laughed, stopping by a massive human-headed winged bull sculpture. “Tattoos too. That makes a funny sound. Want to see mine?”
Without waiting, he pulled up his sweater to show her the pale skin of his stomach and chest ringed with a spiral tattoo that wound around and around from front to back. Overlaying the rings were crosses connecting squares within squares. As she watched, the ink began to glow as brightly as his eyes. Mesmerized, she found it hard to look away as the spirals. Impossibly, the ink began to turn.
The boy tugged his sweater back into place. “Oops. Don't want to wake them up. Bet your tattoos can't do that!”
“I certainly hope they can't!” Tamsin shivered. Little inky skulls moving all over her body would be beyond gross.
“What was I saying?” Theo gave her an appraising stare. “Oh, I remember. You're hungry. In a Prime way.”
“How do you know I'm a Prime?”
“Glowy light thing,” he made vague motions around his head and shoulders.
“Aura?” Tamsin guessed.
“That's it! Good at auras, me.” He paused and frowned, “Oh, that was so not a grammatically correct sentence. I am good at auras. That's better. Prime's are super glowy. You, however, are looking a little gray, if you'll pardon me for saying. Puzuzu explorers must be in tip top shape. Want a snicky-snack?” He smacked his lips. Without waiting for an answer, he shot down the hallway so fast he was only a blur of motion.
A few moments later she heard him calling, “Miss West! Yoohoo!”
Walking quickly in the direction she saw him run, she passed many more ancient statues but no slim, blond boy. A hand reached out of nowhere and grabbed the sleeve of her coat.
She gave a squeak of surprise.
The hand tugged harder and she stepped into a shadow.
“You squeaked,” said the boy laughing. “I've never heard a Prime squeak.”
They were backed into a little alcove shrouded in shadow. Theo and someone else. A dark-haired, plump little woman security guard tied round with a rope glowing as brightly as the boy's eyes. Theo had one hand over her mouth and she stared at Tamsin.
“Bite her, hurry up. Don't worry, no one will see.” He tugged at a clay pendant on a thin strip of leather around the guard's neck. “It's a shadowstone, linked to me. I'm dark magic and by that I mean an absence of light rather than lack of moral compass.”
Tamsin stared back at the guard, not knowing what to do. Her fangs extended on their own and she felt her mouth watering.
The boy rolled his eyes, “Come on. She's scared and you're scaring her more. Bite her so she can relax and enjoy it.”
The muscle memories of Angelique pushed her froward, leaning in to the woman's neck, breathing in the scent of the blood just beneath the skin. She was losing control.
“Come on! I can't hold this all day. You're not going to hurt her but you are frightening her and that's not nice.”
Something about his voice, his confidence, gave her the nudge she needed.
“Stop me if I take too much,” she said before slipping her teeth into the woman's soft skin. The Prime's tongue moved automatically to lick at the blood and flesh. The woman's sharp gasp of fear almost instantly turned into something else; a sigh of what could only be pleasure. She sagged and Angelique reached out to hold her up. The woman moaned as though in the heat of love's embrace, pushing herself closer, pressing her throat into the vampire's kiss.
The blood was flowed like golden light trickling over Tamsin's tongue, down her throat and illuminating her body. Tamsin began to glow from the inside out, lighting up the dark space.
“Crap!” yelped Theo as the light started to leak out of his shadow magic.
In a few blissful moments Tamsin felt satiated. Full to the brim. To her surprise, it was easy to stop and pull away. The guard, a beatific smile on her face, slipped down into a sitting position, her legs splayed in front of her.
“Better?” Theo asked as he removed the rope or whatever it was from the guard, tyeing it around his waist and pulling the sweater over.
Tamsin nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She felt wonderful. All the aches and pains and fatigue swept away. And she had stopped.
“Why did she react like that? Like she was enjoying the bite?”
The boy gave her a sharp look, “Enzymes. Prime's have enzymes in their saliva and blood that stimulate endorphins, the pleasure molecules, at an astronomic rate. Wow, I sound smart, and you,” he pointed at her, “sound clueless. Care to explain?”
Tamsin shook her head, “No. Will she be all right?”
Theo removed the clay tablet and handed it to Tamsin, “Put it on. Yes, she will be a-okay. Just a dreamy dream to her.”
As the pendant touched Tamsin's skin, she felt the mantle of shadow magic settle over her shoulders. Together, she and Theo tiptoed away from the alcove. The woman smiled and waved good bye.
◦ Chapter 8
The flavor of the blood kiss lingered on Tamsin's lips. She kept licking them, savoring the faint residue of the woman's golden glow. Theo crept silently along ahead of her in their shadowy shroud and Tamsin wobbled after. She felt drunk and euphoric at the same time from the blood's life-enhancing energy.
They crept across the courtyard to the opposite side of museum, staying as close to the walls as possible, and into what was obviously the Egyptian wing. Tucked in a corner, in every way nondescript, near a display case of painted coptic jars, was a small panel where Theo stopped. It looked like an access door, perhaps for wiring or plumbing.
Opening the panel revealed another door; this one made of metal with the dull gray sheen of steel. From the pocket of his jeans, the boy pulled a small, five or six-sided object. Tamsin couldn't quite see it clearly within the shadow magic. Metal, maybe? Theo slid the object into what was obviously the door's locking mechanism and twisted. With an audible click and a nerve tingling groan of its hinges, the door opened. The steel had to be nearly six inches thick, Tamsin saw.
Theo switched on a little LED penlight pulled from another pocket and motioned Tamsin in first. Following close behind, he shut the door. The cramped little entrance immediately gave on to a slightly less cramped hallway that still had them both crouching, shoulders hunched. Squeezing by, Theo took the lead and Tamsin followed, amazed at what she saw. The walls were made of metal, much like the door, and covered in what must be ancient writing. The chicken-scratch style looked like one side of the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, she thought. The walls hummed with energy and power. There were reliefs of figures scattered here and there as well, hammered into the metal presumably before it was laid on the wall. Tamsin caught glimpses of grotesque shapes in the flashes of the boy's light as he walked confidently ahead. Horns, scorpion tails, claws, hooves and wings; the fierce, frowning faces seemed to follow her as she passed. In a setting such as this, Tamsin felt that might not just be a trick of her imagination.
There were several sets of steps and more heavy doors that Theo opened with the same metal key or amulet or whatever it was. The air grew colder and colder as they descended until she could see her breath. A thin coating of ice on the last set of steps made for some slippery footing. One more turn of the key a
nd they came into a large room, at least it felt large from the cold air that whooshed out to meet them and the echo of their footsteps on the hard floor. Near the door were stacks of big wooden crates. The place smelled like wood, cold metal and something more. A musty sort of smell. Angelique's vampire nose singled it out. Dried up skin and bones. Both human and something else. That probably was not a good thing.
“Violins! No, wait. Voila! That's what I wanted to say.” Theo gave a wide, exaggerated flourish with both arms,“Voila, the secret vault of the old time digging dudes led by Professor what's-his-name.”
Tamsin let Angelique's eyes take over. The Prime could see well beyond Theo's flashlight even in this dark space. The room qualified as cavernous. Boxes of all sorts and sizes stacked on thick metal shelves or on top of one another stretched into the darkness beyond. A bright light flashed in her eyes. Tamsin jumped up and backwards, landing on top of a tall crate, a spell ready on her tongue.
“Sorry.” Theo held up a battery-operated lantern like campers use, waving it back and forth so the shadows jumped. “Didn't mean to freak you out. No one except me and mine come here anymore. The digging guys...”
“Archeologists.”
“I do know what they're called. I just like saying 'digging guys', okay?” There was just the hint of irritation in his voice.
“Fine, whatever.” She leaped down beside him.
“The ones who built the vault stopped visiting years ago. I don't know whether the secret to the chamber was purposely lost or they're just frightened.”
Tamsin looked around the room, trying to use all her senses to 'see'. “What's there to be frightened of?”
“Quite a lot, actually. Come on.”
He threaded his way in and out of the boxes and shelves coming to a stop in front of what looked exactly like a bank vault, giant metal door, lock handle and all. When Theo said 'vault' she assumed he meant the whole room. Guess not. There were little mountains of gray dust and piles of bones scattered here and there. Human bones.
She frowned at him.
Setting down the lamp, he held out both hands. “Not what you think. Well, I don't really know what you're thinking. You might be thinking vampire thoughts of, 'Yum, tasty snack of old bones'.” He smacked his lips. “Or you could be thinking, 'Gads, this lad has brought me here to kill me' or something.”
“Did you bring me here to kill me or something, little Theo who talks so much but says very little?” She allowed her fangs to fully extend.
“Not in the way you mean.”
“Is there another way?” she growled low in her throat.
“I brought you here to help me and by virtue of helping me, help yourself. To the little statue. You're looking for the runes, of course.”
She couldn't hide her surprise.“You know about them?”
“Everybody knows about them. Supernaturals and mages, real and imagined, show up here on their rune quest. Including the occasional Soul Eater. Who, just like you, are chasing the four symbols to create the whatchamacallit sigil to stick together bodies and souls.”
Every nerve in her already overstretched nervous state jumped. It was hard not to leap up to the ceiling, dig in her vampire nails like a cartoon cat and cling there in surprise.
“Yeah, I know what you are. What the Soul Eaters did. Their magic lingers on you still. I can taste it. Very unpleasant. Going to need mouthwash later.” He frowned and stuck out his tongue. “Anyway...um, where was I. Oh, Soul Eaters and other assorted seekers of greater knowledge arrive and I bring them here. Just like I brought you. Unfortunately not one of the lot has been able to get their hands on the casket Puzuzu is in. This happens,” he pointed at the bones. “Or worse. And then the cycle starts all over.”
He took her by the arm and propelled her over to the vault door. “You go inside, then I shut this. The vault door has to be closed for the next step. There's a large room with three doors and three locks.” He pressed an old-fashioned key ring into her hand threaded with three metal objects that looked more like medallions than any key she had seen. “These will open the doors. Okay? Big for the door on the left, bigger for the middle and biggest for the one on the right. All three have to be unlocked to release the inner bolts and enter the next chamber. Go through the door on the left. Only that door. The other two are traps and you will die in really nasty ways. On the other side of the door on the left,” he looked significantly at her.
“Left,” she nodded. “Got it.”
“Okay. There is another large chamber, as big as this one. In that room is the statuette, little statue, whatever you want to call the stupid thing. Inside a wooden casket with a clay seal on top. Break the seal and open the lid.”
“And where will you be while I accomplish this? Here, courageously by my side?”
He dropped her arm and started turning the heavy door handle, “Nope.”
“Nope?”
“Nope. I am forbidden,”
“Forbidden.”
“F-o-r-i-b, is there another 'b'?”
Tamsin nodded.
“F-o-r-i-b-b-d-e-n. Can't enter the chamber here,” he pointed at the vault. “Until all three doors have been unlocked. And then can't get inside the one beyond unless the seal on the casket is shattered. That particular spell, the one on the casket, was there long ago. I mean looooong ago. The idiots brought the magic with them when they dug all this stuff up and set the same seals in place.”
“They wanted to keep you out, not the digging guys. I mean the archeologists. Others. Ancients.”
“Well, yeah. They wanted to keep people like you out as well. So? The deal is, there's someone inside that last room who means very much to me and I want her back. Someone special.”
“Someone? In there?” That put a new light on the venture. This was personal for Theo. Now that made sense. She understood personal justice and vendettas very well.
She looked searchingly at him, trying to gauge if he was telling the truth. “Has it been a long time? Since you lost her.”
Theo didn't seem to care if she was looking at him or not. He swung open the heavy door. “In terms of the evolution of the universe? No, no time at all. On a more personal measure, very long indeed. I was trying to, lets say accomplish something, when the diggers triggered all the wards. I managed to get out but Kit...”
“Kit?”
“My nickname for her. That's sort of the English version. She has a very long, complex full name. Just as I do. She was always just Kit to me.” He stepped behind Tamsin and started to gently push her towards the door. “Come on, come on. Times wasting.”
Tamsin grabbed onto the cold metal of the vault door and dug in her feet. The smell of death was stronger. “Why has it been so impossible for anyone to get through and what makes you think I can? Judging by the carnage, this is obviously not as simple as it looks.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. “The issue is a soul. In order to open the small casket containing the statuette without dying, cause anyone can open it, really. But without the dying part, you must have no human soul. I think I'm the only one who knows that particular part of the magic. 'Cause the diggers kept opening the casket and dropping dead. You'd think they would have walked away right then and there but noooo, didn't want to let go of their magical figurine. Built this crazy ass vault and hid it away. Thinking, I guess, one day they'd be able to open it.”
“Wait, you said the Soul Eaters have been after the image.”
He nodded.
“Soul Eaters are practically overflowing with souls. You knew they couldn't get in. That they'd be killed if they tried.”
His smiled turned into something very different, “Yes, I did.”
She got the idea the boy did not like Soul Eaters. Well, they had that in common at least.
“Go, okay? Go, go, go! Once you break the casket seal I can come in.” He made shooing motions with both hands.
What choice did she have? Right now Tamsin felt she, or Angelique, could accomp
lish anything. Possibly that was still the giddy infusion of blood talking rather than common sense. At least Theo had a plan. Besides, the more she learned, the easier it would be to try again if she died. Though she would very much prefer not to. The statue and the runes were her reason for being here. It would be so great if she could accomplish that in just one body.
An image of Drake flashed into her mind as she stepped into the cold, steel vault. His wide smile and laughing eyes. No. That wasn't why she was in Chicago. That could never be why she was here.
◦ Chapter 9
Theo swung the massive door shut behind her and she heard the bolts slide home. Only then did she realize he had closed off the only source of light. The room was pitch black. There was a hum of generators and the air suddenly swirled and whirled, whipping her hair in her face. A circulation system of some kind, maybe?
The vault was about twenty feet across and double that the other way, she'd seen before Theo locked her in. The three doors directly on the opposite side. Each door was separated by around ten feet of space.
She was a Prime Vampire now, with other senses to call upon. Giving a little shout, she was thrilled to see, actually see. the echoes of sound bounce off the walls. Maybe this was what bats tracked when they flew or dolphins as they swam; chasing a beautiful map of shining light stretching out into the darkness.
Trilling a slightly off key sort of “la la la” to find her way, Tamsin followed the light beams of sound to the first door. Her feet crunch, crunched on some kind of gravel or grit. Kneeling down she felt it. Sand. How did sand get inside a steel vault? At the door, she jingled the metal keys. Little bursts of silver light guided her to the lock; an oddly-shaped depression in the door. That made sense since the key was very oddly shaped as well. Apparently it was made to press into the lock like a puzzle piece. With a little effort, she pressed the first pendant-shaped key in, feeling the metal click home.
Removing the key, a squealing sound behind made her spin, straining to see. The bursts of soundlight showed her panels or doors of some kind sliding down into the floor. The smell of death grew stronger as the hum of machinery behind the walls swiftly changed from a hum to a roar. The silver lights illuminated two massive propellers set into the wall. They began to rotate counter clockwise, spinning faster and faster.