by Izzy Shows
It was senseless violence. There was no rhyme or reason to it, and it was impossible for me to accept that this was Fred. How could he do something like this?
“Stop,” I begged, but no one heard me. Or at least, no one reacted to me. Fred certainly didn’t.
The violence raged on for what felt like hours, until every single member of the village was dead.
No survivors.
I closed my eyes to the scene in front of me, not wanting to see any more, waiting for it all to go away so I could be back in my living room again. But this had happened. It didn’t matter that I was physically in a place where it wasn’t happening--this was a real event that had actually happened in the past.
Fred had done this.
After several minutes, I opened my eyes when I realized that it wasn’t ending. That there was more to see.
A tall man with dark hair and a long, flowing black cloak approached Fred. He stroked Fred’s head.
“You have done well, Druxglieqfredhelic. A fine job,” he said.
Fred turned and looked up at him with soulless eyes.
The vision swam in front of me, and I was once again in my living room. My cheeks were wet with the tears I had spent, and Fred was staring at me with a horrified look on his face.
He was waiting for me to condemn him.
I swallowed my revulsion, shivers wracking my body as I tried to absorb what I’d been shown.
Fred had murdered people.
“This is why, Miss, I am not allowed to leave my masters’ houses. It was Ordered,” he said. His voice was so quiet, so small. I knew he was afraid of what would happen next.
“Why?” I croaked. “Why did you do it?”
“I has told you. I is not my own person, not truly. I is a reflection of who I is belonging to. He was a bad, bad man, and he hurt so many people when he was walking this Earth. It took many, many, many of the First Hand to kill him. If I is saying a truth, I is even thinking that maybe he is not dead. But is over, and I is not his.”
Right. It was over. He was never going to do anything like that again--I knew that for a fact. He was a reflection of his master, and I would never in my life order him to do something like that.
My stomach rebelled, and I thought I might vomit. I pressed a hand to my mouth as I swallowed, fighting the reaction.
It had been so horrible. I wished that I’d never seen it, never known it.
I couldn’t unknow it.
“Is you hatings me now?” Fred curled into a small ball, not looking at me.
With a deep breath, I shook my head. No, I couldn’t blame Fred. It was in his nature to do as he was told, although he argued with me quite a lot--maybe because he was a reflection of me, and I was quite the one to argue. I reached forward and pulled him close to me, gathering him into my arms.
“I don’t hate you, Fred. It’s never going to happen again,” I said.
“Thank you, Miss.” His voice trembled, and I knew he was fighting tears.
“Everything’s going to be OK.”
At least, that was what I hoped.
I would do everything I could to make sure of it.
Five
I tugged my jacket closer around me to keep the cold out, but the chill was inside my bones. After seeing what Fred had had to show me, I didn’t think I’d be free of the cold for a while. But that didn’t mean I got to shirk my responsibilities. I had a duty of care to the residents of London, and it was time for me to go patrolling.
It had been a while since I’d done this, a few weeks now, and I was kicking myself for it. Gods only knew how many innocents had been hurt while I was busy with other things. I needed to get a better schedule together, but I’d been so damned busy with all the other things that had been on my plate.
The Utakar had been a particularly nasty beast, and it had trumped any other responsibilities. And then there were the trials, which had left me so exhausted that I hadn’t been able to do anything but sleep and go back for another helping of pain.
I inhaled the bitter London air and pushed those thoughts out of my mind. There was no sense in dwelling on what I should have been doing. There was only the now.
Yet the city was quiet as I walked down one of the alleys. There were no noises for me to follow, no second sense prickling the back of my neck and telling me that danger was near.
Was I disappointed?
A little, if I was honest with myself, and that was a bad thing. I should never be disappointed that there was nothing on the streets for me to clean up. But if there was nothing on the streets, did that mean that London didn’t need me anymore?
Or maybe the silence was more sinister than I gave it credit for.
Listen, listen, listen, it seemed to say to me. I stopped walking and closed my eyes, sending my senses out into the night. There was another reason for silence, and that was fear. Being afraid to leave your house. Being afraid of the creatures that roamed the night. If that fear was keeping people inside their homes, there was a need for me after all.
More likely, though, the city was at peace, as Diego had suggested it was. Nothing had been amiss, according to Fred, while I was busy with the trials. Days had gone by without anything to be worried about. Maybe that had turned into weeks.
After all, not every night could bring with it a new and terrible danger for me to face. If that many creatures were crawling through the London night, that would be something to be concerned about, indeed.
I frowned and opened my eyes. I couldn’t sense anything. I would keep going, though, until the sun rose. Then I’d get a few hours of sleep and go see Diego. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have anything to report to him about my night-time activities.
It had been his idea that I keep this up. But what if he would do a better job at it? What if there was something I was missing? What if I wasn’t picking up on the danger in the night anymore? There was every possibility that my skills had gone rusty with disuse.
But it hadn’t been that long. So, no, that didn’t make sense.
I kept going, walking down another alley, and that was when the scent hit my nose full-force.
Vampire.
I hurried along, taking my hands out of my pockets and pulling a stake from the holster on my thigh. Adrenaline began to thrum in my veins, and anticipation filled me. Gods, but I wanted the fight.
A fight to the death was unlike anything else. And while the fight with Viktor had been a very close call, it hadn’t been a fair one. I’d been fighting to keep myself alive, but not to kill him. If I’d wanted to kill him...well, I thought I would have been able to do it, but there was no knowing if that was the truth.
I could only hope that I’d never find out if I could take on one of the First Hand. I didn’t want to be on the wrong side of those obsidian blades.
As I turned a corner, I found three vampires standing in a triangle around one human man. My blood boiled at the sight of it. That was the only confirmation I needed that these vampires were fair game. It was forbidden to kill a human in the city of London. The locals were not to be fed on. If someone was breaking those laws, I was allowed to kill them without starting an all-out war with the local Baron--Dudley.
“And just what do you think you’re doing?” I raised my voice so that it carried down the alley.
The three of them turned to look at me all at the same time, an eerie sort of motion, and I rolled my shoulders back to diffuse the tension it created.
“What’s it to you, little human?”
“She’s got a stick, Jon.” One of them tilted his head back and laughed. “What do you think you’re going to do with that stick?”
I arched an eyebrow. “I think I’m going to shove it into your chest and watch you burn.” See, my stakes weren’t just wood. They had intricate spellwork laid into them, and once activated, they set fire to their victim. I didn’t take any chances with killing vampires. It was bloody work, but it needed to be done.
And it was worlds better than having to stick my
hand into their chest and pull out their still-beating heart. I’d done that once, and I was loath to repeat the experience.
“We’ll get to you in a minute,” Jon said, and he turned back to the human pressed against the wall. “We have our dinner to finish first.”
I didn’t hesitate. I pulled a dagger from my hip and hurled it through the air. It stuck in the side of his head. He staggered back a few paces, shock apparent on his face. That wouldn’t do anything to him long-term, but it was enough to get him away from the human man.
I launched myself forward, running as fast as I could, kicked off the wall, and landed a kick to his chest. Jon went down to the ground with me on top of him. I still had the stake in my hand, and I pulled my arm back, about to slam it into his chest, but one of the other vampires grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off their fallen comrade. They hurled me backwards against the opposite wall, and my head smacked it with a sickening cracking sound.
The stake hit the ground. That was OK; I had a backup. “No one kills in my city,” I said between panting breaths. I was still giving them an out, giving them an opportunity to get away from me.
“That’s lovely,” one of the others replied. “But our dear Baron’s laws don’t matter anymore. I can kill whomever the hell I want.”
The third vampire had his arms crossed over his chest and was regarding me with a hungry expression.
I looked down at Jon. He was starting to sit up.
“Stop talking to the bitch and kill her already,” he said.
The second vampire apparently didn’t need any more encouragement than that, because he launched himself at me in the next second. He was smart; I’d give him that, because the first thing he did was rip my stake out of my holster and throw it down the alley.
I was going to have to grab the other one off the ground or dispatch him some other way.
I grinned at him. I didn’t mind getting my hands dirty.
“Vis,” I said, and slammed my fist against the side of his head. I repeated the word and brought up my leg--the one that had the tattoo on the ankle that doubled as a strength focus--to kick him in the groin. He doubled over and fell to the ground. Apparently, vampires are just as fond of their private parts as human men are, because he was gripping his groin and swearing up a storm.
I didn’t waste time. I didn’t want to wait and see if the third one was going to engage me now. I snarled the same word again and plunged my hand into his chest, closing my fingers around his heart.
He stared up at me, blood dripping from his lips.
“You--”
I didn’t care to hear what he had to say, so I yanked my hand out, bringing his heart with it.
I turned to look at the other two vampires, then threw their comrade’s heart down on the pavement in front of them.
“No one kills in my city,” I said.
They ran.
Six
I wasted no time getting to Dudley’s mansion after the attack. He needed to know that he was losing control of his vampires, and I needed to know what the fuck had happened to cause this.
Dudley’s rules don’t matter.
That was what they’d said, that the rules were bogus now, and that wasn’t good. The rules were all that kept order in London. They were the only reason I coexisted with the vampires peacefully, the only reason we weren’t in an all-out war.
Taking a deep breath, I looked up at the great mansion in front of me. Marble stairs formed an upside-down ‘U’ leading up to the door, with a fountain and a manicured lawn sitting in the middle. I remembered the last time I’d had to come here, when the vampires had gone rogue in London. Possibly affected by the same disease that had claimed Lilith, but I hadn’t known about that then, and I hadn’t been able to save them. They’d forced me into a situation where the only option had been to put them down. I hadn’t enjoyed it, but it was what it was.
If only that would stop the nightmares from haunting me. If only that would keep their dead eyes from showing up when I closed mine. If only that would stop them from asking why, why, why.
Why did you kill me? Why didn’t you save me?
I shuddered and started up the stairs, my fingers trailing on the marble railing as I walked up to the magnificent oak doors. It always surprised me a little when vampires elected to have wood around them--you'd think they’d avoid it like the plague. And for most things they did, but when it came down to utility or glamour, they chose glamour every time. Stuffy old coots.
They didn’t expect people to use the wood around them against them. They underestimated their opponents. For now, though, I didn’t have to worry about that. I’d reclaimed both of my stakes after the vampires had fled the alley, and they were safely stowed in the harness that surrounded my thighs. My wands protruded from my boots on either side, a guarantee that if I needed magic, I wouldn’t have to rely on the painful act of pulling it out from within me.
Magic fucking hurts, OK? It’s not a blessing, but a curse, and it doesn’t hesitate to remind you whenever it’s given the opportunity.
I knocked on the door, then took a step back. A few moments went by before the door opened, and there was the good old butler, scowling at me.
“You come to our house with weapons. Again,” he said, taking me in from head to toe.
“Yes,” I said with a heavy sigh. “Again. Just like I will every time I walk into a house full of vampires. Dudley doesn’t mind. Why do you?”
“It is an insult to our honour,” he said, sneering at me as he took a step back. He lifted a hand to gesture inside, an indication for me to enter. He wasn’t going to invite me in, and I knew why, but it didn’t really matter. Vampires don’t have a threshold. You can’t stop a Wizard from carrying their magic in with them if you’re going into a house full of vampires.
I stepped into the mansion and felt a slight tug--a feeble attempt at preventing my magic from coming with me--but pushed past it. I felt the way my magic dragged behind me, but it snapped back to me a moment later, refusing to be left at the door.
“Old habits, eh?” I winked at him.
He glowered at me. “Wait here. I will alert the master.” He shut the door behind me, then walked up the stairs that led to the next floor, where Dudley’s office was.
I debated following him, just to get on his nerves, but decided against it. There was no need to be impertinent, because I knew that Dudley would allow me up. I didn’t need to be a jerk and assert my dominance here, and it could bite me in the arse if I decided to do that.
Instead, I busied myself with looking at the artwork in the foyer. There was a giant painting of Dudley, but there were also various landscapes and other portraits of men. Always men. Apparently, vampires like their patriarchs, because I didn’t see a single portrait of a woman.
What really interested me, though, was the lack of debasing paintings. You’d think that in a vampire household, there might be some signs of debauchery, that they might lower themselves to a certain point, but not here. Dudley was ever the classy one; he liked to portray an image of himself that held to old-world tastes.
The butler came back a minute or two later, his face twisted into an expression of distaste. “You may follow,” he said. He hadn’t fully descended the stairs, and he turned around to walk back up.
I went after him. It didn’t bother me that he didn’t treat me with respect; I understood that a human who served vampires was never going to see anyone but a vampire as someone worthy of respect. He’d probably been brainwashed to think they were the most amazing creatures that had ever walked the Earth.
Either that, or he had been here since birth and had some weird, twisted form of loyalty to Dudley and his kind. I didn’t bother examining the relationship any further; his reasons weren’t important to my visit.
I wasn’t eagerly anticipating telling Dudley that his vampires were getting out of control. I knew this was going to be a conversation that wouldn’t go well. Hopefully, he’d listen to me and be
worried about it, and he’d do something about it. Maybe he’d even have information as to why this was going on.
But he was old-world, and he wouldn’t want to appear weak, so my hopes were most likely for naught.
The butler showed me into Dudley’s office. The vampires’ Baron was sitting behind his desk, looking down at paperwork with a frown on his lips, his brow heavily creased. Important work, no doubt, and I was sorry I was interrupting it. He wouldn’t be pleased to hear my news, and he appeared to be in a bad mood to start with.
“Hullo,” I said, forcing a smile to my lips. Maybe I could get him into a better mood before I gave him the news.
He studied the paperwork a moment longer, then looked up. “You may go,” he said, speaking to the butler and waving his hand dismissively. The butler turned on his heel and walked out, shutting the door behind him.
Now, it was just me and Dudley.
Someone else might be afraid to be stuck in a room with a vampire--and I had been, not that long ago--but now I knew better. Dudley and I had a symbiotic relationship; we both wanted London under control, albeit for different reasons. He hadn’t liked Aidan very much, but as long as I didn’t go around slaughtering his vampires...
Oh, right: I’d done that today. But Jon had attacked me. I’d acted in self-defence, and hopefully Dudley would be able to see that. Along with seeing the larger picture. The vampire hadn’t been loyal to him, and that was dangerous in and of itself.
“How can I help you, Miss Sheach?” Dudley leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of his chest.
“What, a girl can’t come to chat with a vampire without having a reason?” I grinned at him, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Anxiety was running through my veins, but I did my best to keep it to a minimum. I knew he’d be able to hear my heart pounding, so I took a few deep breaths in an effort to calm it down.
He sighed. Ah, not a good sign. “Out with it, Miss Sheach. You don’t have time for pleasure visits, and neither do I.”