She pinked a little. “Thank you, Mr. Tepes. You're very kind.”
Gazing into her eyes, I asked again, “Please, call me Vlad. Why don't you let me take you to dinner, I'd like to talk to you.”
“Look, I don't know how you and my father... I won't be involved,” she started.
“Why don't you give me a chance?” I could have influenced her decision, but I didn't want to. “Besides, how else do you expect to get to know someone? Wouldn't you like to get to know me?” I wheedled and cajoled. “We really do need to talk.” Seeing capitulation in her eyes, I pressed the point. “Come on, what are you waiting for?It's only dinner, everyone eats.” Everyone except the vampire.
Sighing, she reached for her jacket. “All right, but I'll pay for my own dinner.”
“You don't want to think of this as a date?”
“Is it, Vlad?”
“I don't know, maybe.”
We went to one of the local steakhouses. I used to be a red meat kind of guy a long time ago. Now, I sipped a little red wine, reminiscent of the other red fluid in my life, blood. As we sat, I wetted my lips with the wine and allowed my uneaten steak to grow cold. I watched her eat, enjoying her pleasure. To my surprise, she ate with a gusto not often seen with women, who in my opinion, tried to starve themselves into bodily perfection. But I'd known the old masters, paintings where the female body was glorified for its curves. Sheree had splendid curves, though lithe and wiry, and she must have seen me notice.
“I worked out hard to let myself indulge in what I like. Life would hardly be worth living without a few indulgences.” She smiled and waggled her eyebrows, and I laughed.
As the evening progressed, I told her of my fears. “Your father has made some powerful enemies, and I think one of them is zeroing in on your family, and killing his people. I'm afraid whoever it is might come looking for you too. If anything should scare you, I want you to call me.” I reached inside my jean pocket and removed a card. “Here's my home and cell numbers, I can be reached any time of the night or day. Call if you need me.”
“I know my father has had some problems, and he still has guards around my house, but really, I'll be fine. Don't worry.” She pushed the card back toward me.
“Keep the card. You never know when you might want someone to talk to.” I picked up her hand, turning her palm up and placing the card along her lifeline. “Would you like me to give you a reading?”
She choked a little. “You're full of surprises, Vlad, but no, at least not now. Before I let you see too deeply into my life, maybe we should get to know one another better.” But she laughed, either in nervousness or at the silly thought of having her secrets revealed.
“Let me know, I'm actually quite accomplished at the art. I learned a long time ago from a close friend.” Nodding toward her hand, I saw her blush. “Call me sometime and you'll find out how good.”
“Really? You don't strike me as a man who believes in the supernatural, silly superstitions and legends.” She shook her head twin dimples slipping into place.
I brought the wine to my lips. If she knew me better, she'd change her mind. And maybe that's exactly what I wanted.
Chapter Twenty
We returned to her house where she feathered my cheek with a good night kiss. Though I'd been a vampire for more centuries than I cared to remember, it still thrilled me, the touch of a woman's soft full lips. Maybe I was a romantic, maybe a fool, but Sheree fascinated me. “I'd like to do this again.”
“What? Watch me eat?” She looked at my quizzically. She'd noticed that my food remained untouched.
“Sorry, I guess I wasn't hungry after all. I guess was too entranced.”
She scoffed and laughed. “Anyway, I did enjoy myself, it'd be fun to do it again.” She pinked a little once more.
“Great. I'll call you.” And I intended to.
*****
Vanic paced around the room, agitated by the occurrences of the evening, things were getting out of hand quickly. “It seems my old master has paid a visit to the Council, striking down many of the Draugen. Afterwards, he made an attempt on the Magistrate. Now the Magistrate's demanding a meeting immediately.”
My mind quickly went over a list of our options. If I were Loupgarin, I'd make a fast bloody strike. It's probably what happened in the Chicago area and why we now found ourselves forced into the leadership role for so many vampires.. The Council had to be behind the continued poisoning of the age-old master vampire, driving him to madness. The situation was of their own making, reaping what they sowed. Now, they'd turn the tables, blaming our family for their misdeeds.e. But Loupgarin wasn't so far gone as to forget who was responsible and to want to take his revenge. He would take it out against all those he considered enemies, imagined or not.
“Vanic, this could lead to many more deaths. Suppose Loupgarin starts killing those he even suspects. The risk to the human population, the risk of our exposure, the risk of newly turned vampires contaminated with Valerian madness was beyond the scope of imagination.” The horror of it filled me.
*****
As a whole this time, our family travelled to find the Council. They had moved to a more secure location in the basement of the old armory made to sustain a missile attack. The Magistrate was demanding to speak with Vanic and I before confronting the rest of our family, including our newest member Raymond. The Magistrate had already made his position clear where Raymond was concerned. It made me wonder what the Vampire Hierarchy had in store for us this time.
We waited in one of the subbasement rooms with noticeably fewer golden eyed guards. Loupgarin had decimated the Draugen. The remaining few showed new battle scars from tangling with the ancient viciousness. Whatever the Council had done in the past to Loupgarin, he had reaped his revenge fifty times over with the breach of the Magistrate's stronghold. A feeling of foreboding brushed against my senses, the Vampire Hierarchal Council had been shaken to its very core, but had the lesson been learned? Or would more need to die, both human and vampire, before the Council realized it could no longer commit the mistakes of the past, and get away with them.
When the Magistrate entered the room, his power surged through me, nearly lifting me from my seat to bring me to my knees. It was only by pushing the power away, I managed to remain seated, but it was difficult, draining. Glancing at Vanic, I could see I wasn't the only one suffering from the Magistrate's power surge. With a brush of his hand, and a twist of his head, the power flowed back toward the Magistrate. If it was going to be a battle of wills, Vanic might be the only one to leave this room unscathed. Sarah and Raymond would be no match for the rebuffing at all.
The Magistrate came toward us at a deceptively slow pace in a relaxed manner. But anger was roiling through his body, flashing in his eyes as it bled into the sparsely furnished room that was unlike the well appointed ones he was used to. Loupgarin's visit was profound in more ways than one.
“I can assume, by the recent attack we suffered, that your old master still remains in his unnatural existence,” he grounded out, belying his casualness, pacing as he spoke. His face became even more twisted than it had on our first meeting where he demanded my subservience.
“You assume correctly, Magistrate, but I beg to know how he knew where your offices were? Had he been there at one time?” Vanic enquired with an innocent lift of his shoulders, a question anyone would be entitled to have answered. “As I understand it, the Council values its privacy, rarely sharing the Hierarchal domain. Or is someone working against the Council, drawing the old rogue to your ranks?” Again Vanic shrugged. “All valuable questions needing to be pursued if Loupgarin is to be contained.”
Anger rolled off the Magistrate. “What is it you're implying, Lord Tepes? Are you daring to question the Council and the Council's authority?” They were quiet questions, but held a threat of rolling violence.
“Most certainly not, Magistrate.” He looked appalled. “I was merely wondering how Loupgarin could have possibly know
n of your location. He only came here to find our family, isn't that what we were told at our last meeting, what you wanted us to believe?” He sat facing the Magistrate while anger boiled in his eyes. “You'd inform my family if it was for another reason, wouldn't you, Magistrate? You'd offer us the same protections as you'd like us to offer in return?” he spoke, angling his pale face away from the Magistrate, his lips drawn in tight lines, his eyebrows raised questioningly as he turned back to face his newest nemesis. We'd find no friends on the Council, and most likely, in the entire Vampire Hierarchy.
The Magistrate showed us his eyes, glowing red with unspent anger and bottomless hungers, and we were the unlucky ones to be on the receiving end. “Vlad Tepes, rise and stand before me.”
To refuse would have drawn the Draugen down upon us. With little choice, I rose to my feet and mechanically walked to the Magistrate. When I stood before him, his power slammed into me, forcing me to fall to my knees. The pain was excruciating and I fought the need to respond. “Magistrate, I've found his hunting grounds.” I wheezed. “The scent is heavy with freshly poisoned Valerian. We're trying to understand how this can be. But it has not deterred me in my mission to find and remove the vampire from his sick existence.” The pain burst fresh, rifling through my body, like the razor sharpness of a jagged blade. The magistrate forced my prostration, my hands and face scraped the rough carpet covering the subbasement concrete. It was frigidly cold, chilling my bones. The power pushed harder, and my bones started to give.
“Why is it you've had so little success in finding him, Vlad?” His mind rushed into mine, his thoughts unclean.. “Could it be you're hoping for the old vampire to kill your current enemies? Maybe you'd like him to take the Council?” I struggled against the intrusion, fought to push away his infectious touch.
The Magistrate grinned at my efforts. “I could let you experience the Black Death again.” As I knelt before him, he eviscerated my body as my arms and face blossomed with fresh trails, pus seeped down my cheeks like sticky tears. Panic filled my body. I never thought I would experience the horrific effects of the Black Death again. At that very moment, I wished for my own true death, and as if the old vampire heard me, he threw back his head and barked out a vicious laugh. “I could accommodate your wish, young one, leaving you no more than a pile of dust for your family to grieve.”
Shuddering, I struggled harder, and it fed the Magistrate's own sick desires. “Magistrate, what is it you want from me?” Speaking through clenched teeth, I tried to see past the illusion and pain.
“Or maybe, I'll let you experience the end of your mortal existence one last time.” My heart ripped and seized as it tried to beat, a bullet lodged deep within, making me clench my teeth. A cry of pain broke from my lips as my brain froze from lack of oxygen, my heart stuttered, and my human life fled my body once more. Death's grimace filled my vision. Again I cringed in pain and fear of death, reliving the worse days of my life.
“Enough!” Vanic's voice thundered through the subbasement, echoing off the concrete walls, shaking loose bits of dusty cement and chipped paint. “This is not Vlad's fault. You know that as well as I do. So why don't we cut this play of power and get down to it?”
The Magistrate sneered at him, a promise in his eyes that he would be next.
“Vlad was ultimately the one that the Council chose to be the law enforcer and yet you try to limit his abilities, try to work against him.” Vanic's voice grew lower, becoming menacing as he paced the gun metal colored space.
The ugliness and lowliness of the Magistrate's new home was obvious and the probable the reason for his current temper. How far the mighty had fallen. Still the Magistrate persisted, my face pressed harder against the cold concrete floor, blood trickled from my nose, from my ears.
“Magistrate, stop this madness!” Vanic roared urgently. “I need Vlad if we're going to destroy Loupgarin, his beast is the strongest.” He turned away from the struggle between the Magistrate and me. “If you're going to kill him, I advise killing us all, for I will not rest until he is avenged. By his death, so shall you bring your own.”
The menace in his voice was enough to stop even the worst of enemies. The golden eyed guards answered to the Council, but with his words, they took a cautious step back. The power rolling off Vanic was a killing force, and the Magistrate began to feel its effects. The skin on his bald alabaster skull glowed, blue veins zigzagged across the paper thin skin, bulging and pulsing with grotesqueness. Vanic's power erupted, ready to rupture arteries. He was going to kill the old vampire even as he ended my undead life.
The Magistrate loosened his grip. “Lord Tepes, do not question the Council again, or the pain this young one suffered will only be the beginning!” Then he grinned. “I assume you brought your wife?”
Vanic roared with outrage. “If she comes to any harm, you, Magistrate, will pay the price.” As if the power he had used to halt the Magistrate's torture had merely been a show, true power now zinged across the room, causing the Magistrate to almost crumple at his feet.
Pushing back with little effect and struggling to keep his feet, the Magistrate fought for control. He blustered, “I expect you to have this problem resolved before our next meeting. Vampires can heal almost any wound, but it can be very painful when layer after layer of skin is removed, even as it tries to regrow.” The Magistrate showed me his thoughts, and I felt exactly how painful the torture could be.
With a change of tactics, Vanic growled out an unexpected response. “Magistrate,” he began, “is Lord Rafael amongst you?” He glanced at me, but the old vampire was instantly distracted, giving us our answer even as he tried to deny it.
“Why should it be any of your concern if he was, Lord Tepes? The Council answers to no one but the Hierarchy.” But his eyes darted away, Rafael couldn't be far, probably listening to every word, every nuance the Magistrate used. It was now Magistrate who needed to tread with caution.
“How long was Loupgarin held, tortured, and poisoned at Lord Rafael's hand? Years? A century? More? He is mad, you know, with Valerian poisoning, and I fear the exposure of us all.” He sighed. Council politics would bring death to all of us.
The Magistrate spun around and with a quick burst of power, he lashed out at us. But Vanic answered with his own show of strength. He pushed the Magistrate back a step, and then another as his anger filled the room.
“I will not have you harm any of my people for your own mistake,” Vanic thundered. The golden eyed guards reluctantly surrounded the Magistrate as he gestured to them. “I'll be taking my family and leaving now. Further repercussions from you,” his gaze fell upon the Magistrate, “will be sent immediately to the Hierarchy. Their judgment is our law. If I and my family are to be destroyed, at least one member of the Council will answer their wrath as well.” He eyed the Magistrate with disgust. I knew in that moment, once Loupgarin was destroyed, the Magistrate was going to make a bid for Vanic's life, and with him, the rest of his family. Then, he would feel the power of my beast, just because I'd held it in check didn't mean I wouldn't set it free upon him, the Council, the entire Vampire Hierarchy if necessary. I'd have little left to live for anyway.
We gathered Sarah and Raymond, and with steps quicker than the human eye could see, we left him and what remained of his guards to wonder if the threat offered would be fulfilled. The answer that came to my mind was a resounding yes, death would be coming for the Magistrate's and, if necessary, to myself in turn.
*****
With the first brush of dusk, I rose and searched out Raymond, bringing him quickly from his death-like slumber. We didn't bother with one of the cars, we could travel faster by foot.
Arriving in one of Crifaseno's lowly neighborhoods, I scented the air. Loupgarin had been all through the area, but the scent of Valerian was strongest in one direction. Following his scent, we tracked him as he circled his hunting grounds, looking for the perfect prey. The circle grew wider, elliptical, and I realized he was also scenting a
nd tracking a flavor that was familiar to me as well.
Digging out my cell from an inside pocket, I called Crifaseno's residence reaching Donny after a few rings. “I need to talk to Franc now!” I shouted into the phone.
Donny flustered for a few seconds. “Yes sir, Mr. Tepes.”
Almost immediately Franc's voice filled my ear. “Vlad, what can I do for you?”
“Have you checked on Sheree? Are there guards with her?” They would be mostly ineffective, but it would slow Loupgarin down, obstacles to overcome. It would also give me time to reach her.
“Course I do, they check in every thirty minutes. Donny, when did Sheree's guards last make contact?” I could hear Franc demanding.
“Bout twenty minutes ago...” Donny's tinny reply bled into the phone.
“Franc, pull your guards tighter around your home and Sheree's. The one we've been hunting, his name is Loupgarin.” I was breaking all kinds of rules tonight. “He's extremely old and powerful, insane with a vampire poisoning, and he's tracking you and your family. For some reason, he's focused on Sheree. Call her guards, Franc! Do it now!”
The phone thudded out of Franc's grasp, and I heard him barking orders. Men scuttling to comply with the boss's demands. Donny yelled to his boys as phone calls were made. Then Franc was back on the line, his voice strong, but a new fear echoed in it, etching into the very lines.
“I've pulled the guards in, she's inside her home, and my guards are at her door, but there's a problem. She's so damn hard headed, just like her mother. She's demanding to leave. Got her fucking keys in her hand, threatening to gouge their eyes unless they get the hell out of her way.”
Closing my eyes, I could see her, riled and pissed, ready to take on the world. “I'll take care of it.”
I ended the call and found her number. She answered in what could only be described as a murderous tone. “Look, Dad, get the guards out of here! I'm not going to be a prisoner!”
Vlad Tepes, the Vigilante Vampire Page 15