Circle of Death

by Thais Lopes

  Without a word, I followed him to the hall, where at least a hundred vampires were gathered. All them had the same dull and tired gaze with a touch of madness, and their movements were slow – surely the outcome of days without being able to feed. They were one step away from losing all control and killing everything they found. At the back of the hall, in a raised dais, there was a beautiful chair, almost a throne, and a vampire sat on it with an authoritarian posture. Pietro could pass for human anytime he wanted, with his common features and casual clothes, but his attitude was what made clear he was a vampire, and one of the old ones. I walked up to stand before him, the vampires in the hall moving out of my way.

  “This is quite a surprise, Lucius. I didn’t expect to see you this century.” The vampire said, with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. “I hope you have not remembered this old subject and thought I could give you the solution for our problem.”

  I restrained my smile. I had expected a reception like that, and he didn’t disappoint me. I would never receive a warm welcome from any vampire, even if they were from my line, because I had abandoned them a long time ago, without ever giving any sign that I was still alive.

  “I didn’t come to ask you for a solution, but to require what is rightfully mine: your loyalty.”

  “Loyalty?” He smiled, aggressively. “You ignored our loyalty when you decided to abandon the vampire community. Rumors say you did it so that no one would realize how weak you truly are. It was reckless of you to show yourself now.”

  “Weak? I disappeared because I was weak?” I laughed softly. “I, who was turned by the Nameless himself? No.” I returned his smile, knowing the area round me was heating, a useful trick to impress lower vampires and that wouldn’t mean anything to Pietro. That display of power wasn’t for him, anyway, but for his vampires. “I didn’t come here searching for a solution for the problem about human blood not feeding vampires anymore because, as you can see, it is not a problem for me. That’s an interesting kind of weakness, isn’t it? It is also interesting that such a weak person has the one who gave Seth his scars as an ally.

  A blink was my sign that Pietro faltered. Without hesitation, I grabbed the opportunity. In a movement too fast for any of his vampires, I cut my right wrist, raising it and making sure the vampires could see the blood that slowly run down my arm.

  “This is what you want, isn’t it? This is what you need.”

  “But we will find a way to get it without you, just like we have survived on our own all this time.” He replied, trying to hold his ground, but I knew his confidence was shaken.

  The vampires around me started getting closer, called by the blood, but they stopped in a circle, making sure to stay at least three feet away from me. That was the space where the air was still heating, and now was too hot for most vampires.

  “Did you become a fool, Pietro? Will you face the final death and take all your vampires with you because of your stupid pride?”

  We stared at each other for a tense moment. Pietro’s pride was his downfall; it had always been, since before I had turned him. There was only one way to make him see beyond it, and I would have to be careful about the rest of that conversation.

  A scream cut my line of thought. One of the young vampires rushed me, with madness in his eyes, seeing only the blood that still ran. As soon as he crossed into the area where my power was working, he fell, in flames for less than a second, before there were only ashes left. I glanced at what was left of him, on the ground, before facing his Master, who still had his inscrutable expression.

  “Cheap tricks to impress the youngest ones.”

  “I remember when this same trick impressed you, in Egypt.” I smiled when I saw the glint of remembrance in his eyes. He had been just as awed as the humans who worshiped us. With a thought, I healed the cut on my wrist and lowered my hand. “Are you sure you want to continue with this? How many more are on the brink of madness? How many more are on the verge of doing what this one has just done? How many were you already forced to destroy, before they became a threat to the Otherworld?”

  “Why did you come back now? Why do you want our loyalty back?” He asked, without any aggression in his voice. Instead, I could hear weariness. He knew that soon all those vampires would attack each other, trying to find a drop of blood that would feed them.

  “Two reasons. First, I may have moved away from the vampire community, but I’m still responsible for those I made and the ones made by them. I would never allow all of my line to find the final death if there was something I could do to prevent it, especially keeping in mind that this was done to hurt me and leave us without allies. And, second, because I’m still a Keeper of Death’s Sanctuary, and the vampires will be needed.

  I saw Pietro stiffen when the last words left my mouth. He, like all those I had turned, knew what that meant.

  “Everyone, leave.” His order was dry, and the vampires left the hall quickly, not without many curious and worried glances, besides many others who just showed that too many of them were barely holding on to sanity.

  When Pietro and I were alone, I went up the steps to his dais. He met my gaze, his own still steady, even though I could see his hunger.

  “The truth. What is it? What is going on?”

  “The Nameless is acting. Seth is his ally, and they’re keeping this spell or whatever it is to make human blood useless to vampires, except the ones sworn to Seth.” I told him.

  “So that is why I heard he had been recruiting lately. This way, all vampires would have to join him or face the final death.” He added, understanding. “Once again, Seth is trying to manipulate us all. And the Nameless...?”

  “He is free and moving. But we will stop him, one way or another.”

  Pietro nodded, with a grim expression that seemed out of place in his young face.

  “I still don’t approve what you did, abandoning us. But it is not up to me to approve or disapprove the actions of one of the firstborn, let alone the one who created me. If there is this way to survive without giving our vow to Seth, and that will allow us to fight the Nameless, you have my loyalty, Lucio.”

  And so he knew the name I used now… Not that it was a surprise. Just as I had watched them, it wouldn’t be unlike Pietro to have watched me.

  I nodded, and he cut his right wrist with a quick movement, using his claws. I accepted that as his answer, and cut my left wrist and moved closer to the other vampire. He drank from my veins without saying anything, just before I grabbed his wrist and drank, too. In a second I could feel that strange bond between a vampire Master and his subjects come back to life. Pietro and all his vampires were once again under my command. Now I only needed to talk to Semele, the Master under whom were all the other vampires who had once been loyal to me.

  5. Kelene

  I left the shower with my mind racing. There were too many things to worry about, too many possibilities to consider. I dressed quickly and was tying my hair when Alice entered, that excess of energy that was so much a part of her contained, to my surprise.

  “Kelene! You really are alive!” She almost shouted when she saw me, that energy visible for a second.

  “I am, thanks to you.” I smiled as I answered.

  She came closer and, after a moment’s hesitation, hugged me. The gesture caught me by surprise; she was the closest to a friend I had, but still I had made sure to keep some distance between us. I avoided physical contact at all costs, and not even for her that had changed. Alice had always respected it, and the gesture, now, showed how worried she had been.

  “We didn’t do anything important.” She added, releasing me.

  “You held the Song of Day and Night. You were the ones who guided the melody of power until the end. Didn’t you realize it?”

  “I thought the Fae…”

  “No, they only gave their strength. Most of them didn’t even remember the song, without you it would have been impossible. Thank you.”
>
  “Then don’t thank us.” Alice smiled. “Consider it as a payment for all you’ve done for us since you moved to the complex.”

  I nodded, surprised, while I remembered when I had moved to my apartment. They were a tight group of friends, but they wanted nothing, looked forward to nothing. They didn’t want to study, and said they would take any job that appeared. Some of them were on the way to becoming addicted, and others were aggressive, seeing everything as an excuse to start a fight. In my first week there, I saw one of the guys arrive home in a police car after getting into some kind of trouble. That was when I decided to do something. They thought I was just a girl like them, who was lucky she didn’t have parents to bother her. They had no idea of what I was, of what I had already lived. Slowly, they started listening to me, and started changing, until they became the group of humans who had guided a melody of power while the Fae stood by lending their strength.

  “So be it, then.” I smiled back.

  “Great. Now let’s go, everybody’s waiting.”

  We left that building, and I saw that the city – I couldn’t call it a ruin, not when almost everything seemed intact – looked just as it must have looked back when it was built. The ones who lived there had made no adaptations outside. It was a beautiful place, and bigger than I had imagined. Buildings two and three stories high rose all around us, partially covered by vegetation. Without hesitation, Alice moved on, showing the way, until I recognized where we were. This was one of the abandoned cities which were already old in the time of the Intervention, and I had been there before, to take a particularly strong shifter.

  “How did you manage to stay here?” I asked, remembering that their parents would be worried by now and knowing that, if Alice was still here, everyone who had joined the circle would be, too.

  “The Nameless started working immediately.” She told me, serious. “When we called home, they had already heard about destroyed cities and unexplained deaths. We told them we were with you, and that right now it was the safest place anyone could be, considering what was going on. We didn’t even have to lie.”

  I laughed softly. I had never imagined that strange trust I had won at the complex would be so useful. Alice was right, this was the safer place they could be.

  We followed a path between the building, until a place which had been, a long time ago, the governor’s palace. One day, that place had been glorious. Now it was just a taller and more imposing building than the rest of the city, with a nice empty space around it. Without hesitation, we climbed the stairs to the palace’s terrace, where many of the Fae waited, along with Lilian the Seer, my neighbors, and some of the people who lived there. Death was also there, apart from everyone else and looking…more human, somehow.

  “Thank you. All of you.” I said, knowing that almost everyone there had been a part of the circle that had held me to life.

  I heard a loud whisper, the muffled whispered answers of everyone. I noticed some of the people from the city staring at us with hostility, unhappy with our presence there, but they didn’t dare to do anything, as they were outnumbered.

  “Does everyone know what’s going on?” I asked.

  “Everything I knew,” Avés answered, stepping from between a group of Fae and greeting me with a nod, his eyes showing his relief at seeing me well. “I told what happened to anyone who wanted to listen, including what you, Lucio and her” he pointed at Death, “represent.”

  “Then you already know what we have ahead of us. We have much to do and almost no time. This refuge will be our central base, as the witches’ and the Fae’s protections are already around us. The humans…

  “We’re not leaving!” Alice interrupted me, shouting from where she sat with the rest of my neighbors.

  I nodded.

  “I’m not sending you away. You were right when you said this was the safest place for you and, besides, you can help. Remember our strategy games?” I smiled when they nodded. “Use the defense tactics here. Vigilance perimeter, territory study, you know what you need to do. The wards they put around the city will help, and we probably won’t be attacked. Seth and the Nameless will wait until we go after them, but it’s better to be prepared. I want you to be able to monitor any living being that comes within a day of the city limits. Avés, please, choose some of your people to work with them.”

  The sidhe nodded, calling a couple of names quickly, and some of the Fae moved away to join my neighbors. Once again, I asked myself what had made me teach all that to them. Without really understanding what I was doing, I had trained them all in strategy, through team games, and they had learned it very well. They also knew many things that most of the Otherworld didn’t know, things that I only knew because I was a Hand. It was as if I knew I would need their help. That had already saved my life, and might just save us all if Seth or the Nameless decided to attack the city.

  “We’ll need to send teams to the attacked places, to try to save any survivor. We also need to figure out the potential targets and evacuate as many people as we can. Also, I can bet the human media is going crazy about all this” I went on.

  “My people are under your orders, Kelene. Tell us where to go and I will send a team from the closest city.” Avés offered.

  I knew that when he said something like that, it was true. I was probably the only non-Fae who knew Avés was one of their princes, and he had the authority to offer all their resources.

  “We’ll take care of the human media.” Lilian told us, that eerie touch in her voice making me shiver. “Humans always turn to the Council when they want any kind of information about the Otherworld, as they fear the vampires, can’t find any leader of the weres, and the Fae king refuses to deal with them.”

  “Great.” I nodded before facing Death. “I’ll need a map and a list of the places that were attacked so far.”

  She held my gaze for a moment, and then approached. I couldn’t avoid smiling when I saw how everyone moved away from her, with fear in their eyes, as if her touch was enough to kill them. Well, actually it was. But Death’s power was bound by rules, contained in such a way that the touch of a Hand – my touch – was far more dangerous than hers.

  “Move away from the central circle.” She said, indicating the perfectly polished stone in the center of the terrace.

  We obeyed, giving her space, and she bent down to touch the stone, which became a whirlwind of colors. Then she started speaking, in the language of power that had been lost years ago, in the Nameless’ ascension, and that now was simply know as Death’s Language. Under her command, the colors began to settle, forming a map in the stone.

  “The map will answer to both of us, Kelene.”

  I bent down and touched the stone, feeling that characteristic tingle of Death’s power. Yes, the map would obey my commands.

  Death closed her eyes for a moment, and many red dots appeared in the map. I didn’t need her to tell me those were the attacked cities. For a second, everyone forgot their fear and got closer, trying to see it, while I enlarged the map in the most affected areas, trying to find a pattern to the attacks.

  I felt Death’ hand against my back one second before the pain hit me, dozens of the small scars in my arms being crossed at the same time. She held me upright when I wavered, and I closed my eyes and locked my teeth. This pain… It was almost too much, it was more than I had ever felt before. I had never paid so many lives at the same time.

  It took time for the pain to ease, and then I took a deep breath, trying to control myself. With a grateful whisper, I moved away from Death, looking around.

  “Lucio’s sworn vampires are on our side.” I warned them, making sure my voice carried.

  6. Lucio

  When I moved away from the vampire community, those who owed their loyalty to me were divided under two Masters. Pietro was one of them, and even now he was sending his stronger vampires as messengers to the lesser Masters, to “advise” them to resume the old vows
. Slowly, I could feel more and more Masters through that strange mental connection a vampire had with his subjects. None of them had defied Pietro’s emissaries, but that was expected, that was how vampire hierarchy worked. If he, the strongest of them, had accepted the blood vow again, it wouldn’t be the lesser Masters who would challenge me.

  Now I was in front of a nightclub, the biggest and most imposing one I had seen in all that time. The place looked like a mansion, the classical façade hiding an interior that had been turned into an erotic club. The music sounded high, with a hidden rhythm that was a beating heart, a disturbing combination. That place was so perfect for Semele that I caught myself wondering how she had spent the years before places like this existed.

  I moved across the big room, trying to stay away from the mass of half-naked bodies. There were dancers in strategic points, both male and female, and each of them had a small group of people around them. Shaking my head, I went straight to the vampires I could see in the back of the big room, guarding a black door with sculpted images that made me think of the old times. Behind it, I could feel the presence of many other vampires and a stronger power, which could only mean Semele was there.

  The two vampires guarding the door didn’t even glance at me when I opened it and entered. They either were there only to stop humans from going inside, or I was already expected.

  I saw myself in a room not very different from the one I had just left. The dancers were in raised platforms and balconies. And, instead of a dance floor, there were many divans and lots of empty space. But all the room was a big orgy, involving vampires and those addicted to our venom. The fact that human blood no longer fed us didn’t seem to matter to the ones who where there. I caught and held a couple of gazes, noticing that the hunger was there, but the madness of starvation was still far away.

  “What’s your pleasure? Blood, sex, or both?” A woman asked, approaching. A young vampire, I realized, with only a shadow of the hunger in her eyes. Like all the women I could see that weren’t naked, she wore only a corset and long boots, all in red.