“Good evening, my dear.” Vlad was up and about. Oh boy!
Gillian didn’t need to look at him to recognize the sultry tones of that voice. “Stop saying that. Why does almost every antique Vampire say that?”
Hearty laughter emitted from Vlad’s chest as he strode down the stairs to greet her with a light, one-armed hug and an unwelcome kiss on the forehead. “You continue to be a source of delight, Gillian.”
“I’m overjoyed. Look, I’d really like to know what the hell is going on. This is making less sense as time goes on. Who are all these people? Why am I still in one piece? Why have I been allowed to keep my weapons? And what’s that? Are those the items you showed me on the plane?” She pointed to the cloth-wrapped object under the arm he hadn’t hugged her with.
“So many questions.” Vlad gently laid a finger against her lips. “Everything will be answered for you, right now.”
He gently turned her around to face the crowd. She had to look down because everyone who had been standing was now on their knees. Any question she had about the overall loyalty of the huddled masses was now moot.
“My loyal followers!”
Gillian jumped as his melodiously beautiful voice thundered across the expanse without benefit of electronic enhancement. There was a dramatic pause for effect, then he continued.
“This is the night I have promised for so long. Tonight will be recorded in history as the true Masters of this world ascend to their rightful place. Tonight is the revolutionary rise of the Vampire. The Humans will fall from their unnatural domination of this earth and serve us, as they were meant to do. You will hear this not only from me but also from the Angels themselves. The Vampire is not a cursed Being but a blessing from the Almighty! We are the true descendants of the Angels!”
There was a thunderous cheer from all around them. Gillian wasn’t sure whether it was Vlad’s charismatic oratorical skills at work or his pure, unrivaled seductive power, which was spilling everywhere, commanding everyone’s attention. She half believed him herself, even with rational and educated knowledge of just what he was: a megalomaniacal, sociopathic monster.
CHAPTER 10
THE helicopter carrying Aleksei and the rest landed just in time to see thousands upon thousands of Paramortal Beings and Humans rising to their feet and turning as one body. Trocar was off the transport first, followed by Aleksei, Kimber, Luis, Pavel, Helmut and Daed, then the Egyptian and Greek contingencies and finally Cezar and the rest of his wolves.
Arriving immediately afterward were other land vehicles, military transports and another smaller aircraft, all rallied by Osiris and Dionysus. The new influx of individuals stopped behind an imaginary line started by the original helicopter that had flown in. It had all the timing of an action-adventure movie with none of the glitz.
Aleksei surveyed the area, instantly pinpointing Vlad and Gillian as the living mass covering the desert turned, opening a corridor to allow passage, then closing the gap behind. He didn’t need visual confirmation to know Vlad was at the head of the procession or that Gillian was with him. He could feel his archrival’s power beating at him. Gillian’s own retreating scent and empathic touch were like a cool, clear breath of wind on his senses.
“We are here, cara. I swear that you will be safe.” He sent a brief thought to Gillian, to reassure her.
There was a fleeting, happy surge of emotion from her, then barriers were slammed down, cutting him off. Aleksei felt her attention shift to the Vampire who stood next to her.
“He is beginning his ritual,” Osiris observed.
“We are going to get her out of there,” Kimber stated.
“Why would you do that?” a new voice said, off to their right.
Everyone spun around to face the new arrival, mouths collectively dropping open. Gillian’s doppelganger stood smiling nearby, head cocked to one side, a chilly smile on her soft mouth.
“Hello, Aleksei. Did you miss me?”
“Elizabeta? How is it possible?” Aleksei’s shock and surprise were apparent.
“Lord Dracula gave me the gift of Rebirth when you refused me. Did you never wonder for even a moment what happened to your . . . fiancée?” She spat the last word at him.
Aleksei’s eyes melted from icy gray to platinum as he recovered from his initial astonishment. “I was told you married another and were happy, Elizabeta. There was no reason to seek you out. When I was later told you’d died in childbirth, I mourned your loss along with your family. You were my fiancée for only a brief time before my Rebirth. You made it clear that you wanted my powers as a Vampire more than you wanted me as a man. There was nothing left to wonder about.”
Kimber, Trocar, Helmut, Daed and Luis were staring at the Vampire who might have been Gillian’s twin. The resemblance was astonishing. Thoughts of transference and countertransference whirled through Daed’s psychiatric sensibilities. Was this why Aleksei loved Gillian? Did he still harbor love or guilt for this woman he believed to be long dead?
Helmut was thinking the same thing, until Aleksei finished his sentence. Whatever Aleksei had felt for this woman was long past. The hostility in his voice radiated around them all. Helmut glanced over to Daed, locking eyes for a brief moment. No, Aleksei’s love for Gillian had nothing to do with her strong resemblance to this woman. Guilt and depression might have brought Aleksei to Gillian’s therapeutic couch, but love and trust kept him by her side.
“You harbored guilt over my ‘death’ for centuries, Aleksei.” Elizabeta was not willing to drop the issue and sneered at him. “The entire region talked about it. Do not try to deny that you loved me. I know you loved me. You even sought therapy because you loved me.”
“I deny nothing.” Aleksei’s power swelled, sending tingles over everyone near him. “I did love you, but you are wrong about the reason I wanted a therapist. I felt undeserving as a man. I knew that your attachment and desire for me increased tenfold when you discovered my newfound abilities.
“You did not see me through the changes, Elizabeta. You wailed and cried when Tanis brought my drained body back to the castle, then ran when you found I had been attacked by Vampires. Tanis is the one who helped me keep my sanity. My family and my village are the ones who sheltered me and kept me safe. You only returned when you learned of the powers I received after being Reborn, and because the Vampire virus was the only way to ensure you kept your youth and beauty. You wanted my power, my gifts, my money, my lands. I was simply part of the package.”
“You love her because she looks like me.” Elizabeta gestured in the direction Vlad and Gillian had gone.
“I love her because she is completely unlike you,” Aleksei shot back. “Gillian is honorable, trustworthy and intelligent. She is the most courageous person I have ever known. She is so utterly different from you, Elizabeta, that I cannot help loving her.”
Elizabeta awarded him with a stinging slap. “Liar!”
Aleksei stood rock still, then caught her hand as she moved to strike him again. “You were an unfortunate lapse in judgment, Elizabeta. I was young, unsophisticated and arrogant. My guilt was because I believed I had allowed you to die, calling my name. My anxiety was from learning what a lie our relationship was. My shame and depression were from wasting so much time and feeling on worrying about an empty shell of a woman like you.
“I have changed personally because I wanted to change. You, however, are still the same. Vain, selfish, petty and empty inside. Even if I had Turned you, I would have left you when I learned just how shallow you are. If you call that monster ‘Lord’ and do not realize that he has used you, just as you tried to use me, then you are also naïve and ignorant.”
“Ooh . . . that was good, Aleksei.” Kimber flanked him, a flamethrower in her hands. Her sparkling green gold eyes locked with the other woman’s. “Look, bitch, we are going to rescue Gillian now, so back off if you don’t want me to fry your pretty hair, understand?”
Elizabeta’s lip curled into a snarl as she j
erked away from Aleksei’s grasp. “This does not concern you, Human.”
“You heard her.” Aleksei stepped between them. “Leave us. You have no place here, and I have more important things to attend to.”
It looked like Elizabeta might press the matter when she edged around Aleksei to square off with Kimber again. Aleksei frowned, stretched out a hand and mentally pushed. Elizabeta stumbled backward as if he’d physically shoved her. Her eyes widened in fear.
“That is not possible. You do not have his level of power!”
“It is possible. I have evolved,” Aleksei informed her, then turned back to his group and hustled through the crowd after Vlad and Gillian. The throng parted again, the power of three Vampire Lords pushing everyone aside, enveloping their entourage in a protective envelope.
Vlad didn’t lead them very far from the plane. There was a natural ring of sorts formed by the rock obelisks, stretching almost twenty yards in diameter. It was an uneven circle, but there was room for the assembled masses to gather round. Some were on the ground; some climbed or levitated to the tops of the small monuments. The local population of Akabat had swelled further since the sun had fallen. The Vampires had risen, both those loyal to Dracula and those on Osiris’s side of the proverbial fence. There was an increase in the mumblings and mutterings from the ever-growing crowd around them as the different factions intermingled and voiced individual opinions.
Gillian’s position was unenviable. She was two feet away from Dracula, armed to the teeth, but with Erzsébet and Sweeney flanking her, and thousands of Dracula fans inches away, there was absolutely nothing she could do. There might be a chance of a lucky head shot before Sweeney cut her throat or the Blood Countess broke her neck . . . or the mob literally tore her apart. Resistance was indeed futile. She’d have to ride this one out and gauge her responses on what happened next.
“Now, Gillian, we will call down the Heavens,” Vlad said to her.
He knelt on the gypsum- frosted ground and removed the Antikythera mechanism and the Phaistos Disk from the covered box. Adjusting the mechanism carefully, he spread the cover on the ground and laid the object on top of the dark, coffee- colored cloth. Gillian could see there were glyphs, hieroglyphs and runes embroidered around the edges of the rich-looking fabric.
Lifting the disk high so that everyone could see, he spoke. “Now is the time for our redemption! Now is the time for our justice! Join with me now, my friends, my fellows and even my enemies . . . Tonight the barriers fall and you will serve a new, enlightened Master!”
There was a deafening cheer from everywhere around them. The noise filled the bleak, barren desert of Akabat, causing the very ground to tremble as countless Paramortal voices signaled their approval. The much smaller number of dissenting cries were drowned out in the din. When the noise faded, there were shouts of anger and rebellion. From all directions, the crowds parted as Aleksei, Osiris, Dionysus and their entourages stepped forward to join Gillian, Dracula, Erzsébet and Sweeney in the circle.
“Stop it, Csangal . . . or whatever you are calling yourself this night.” Aleksei stepped up to Dracula, reached past him and pulled Gillian to relative safety at his side.
“Rachlav, I have centuries on you in power. Do not think you will deny me my right or my prize.” Vlad’s beautifully toned voice turned scornful.
“I will deny you,” Osiris said simply. His hand came up and Vlad literally flew through the air to slam against an obelisk. Utter silence reigned as Vlad shook his head and painfully climbed to his feet. He wasted but a moment on a contemptuous look at Osiris.
“Kill them. Kill all of them except Dr. Key.” All hell broke loose as the crowds surged forward toward them and against one another. Saying chaos ensued was a drastic understatement.
Osiris, Aleksei and Dionysus ringed Gillian, facing outward as the fighting began. Helmut, Trocar, Luis, Daed, Oscar, Pavel, Cezar and Kimber were literally plucked out of the crowds by the three Lords and deposited in their crudely constructed circle with Gillian. Isis, Tehuti, Anubis, Sekhmet and the Greek Vampires, Hades, Thetis, Nyx and Persephone formed another ring surrounding the Shifters and Humans. The Barbary Lions, Cheetahs and Wolves were already fighting in front of Osiris, Aleksei and Dionysus. There was no time for greetings, thank-yous or reunion statements. This was the moment where they would live or die.
Vlad was protected for the time being by Gillian’s proximity, the Vampires protecting her and the bubble of fighting around him. He raised the Phaistos Disk where he stood and screamed out words in a dialect and language no one could understand. His voice pierced the cacophony of noise in a thunderous, poetic diatribe.
Abruptly there was a tremendous crackling sound, then an enormous boom as if lightning had struck right at their feet. The noise brought all activity to a standstill. The landscape shimmered near where Gillian’s group stood as a metaphysical Doorway formed. A heartbeat later, hundreds upon hundreds of heavily armed Elves poured from the Door, pushing back the crowds from the defenders in the circle.
At the head of the Elves was one familiar face, then another. Prince Mirrin Everwood, Gillian’s former lieutenant and High Elf regent, stepped forward and greeted his ex-commanding officer with an eons-old salute: right arm across his body and a slight bow. It was a gesture of respect that Gill returned before grasping his forearms in greeting, warrior to warrior. Hierlon, Mirrin’s friend and right-hand man, moved into view to greet Gillian, Trocar and Kimber as well.
“I don’t know how or why you’re here, but I’m glad to see you.” Gillian was delighted that the cavalry had shown up in the nick of time.
“Trocar’s message was of concern to us all, Mellina.” Mirrin’s turquoise eyes swept around, missing nothing. He noted that Gillian stepped back toward a tall, handsome Vampire with ghostly pale eyes.
“Aleksei, this is Mirrin. He was in my Special Ops unit in the Corps. We’ve known each other for years.” Gillian realized she was babbling nervously and clamped her mouth shut. Now was not the time to explain everything. And why hadn’t anyone shut Vlad up? He was still bellowing in an archaic language.
“I can see that,” Aleksei said dryly.
“The platoon has got this area sealed off. No one gets in or out. Oh, and the press is filming everything,” Daed informed anyone listening. No one had noticed him screaming into his cell phone over the ruckus that had been going on.
“Stop him! You must stop him!” a new, bombastic voice called out.
Everyone stared in surprise as a literal knight in authentic shining armor rode through the multitude and into the middle of the circle on an enormous gray draft horse. He leapt to the ground, drawing a massive two- handed sword from a scabbard slung across his back. In the space of a breath, he reached Dracula and neatly flipped the clay disk out of his hands and onto the hard ground. It shattered into a hundred crumbled pieces. The sword was then pressed against Vlad’s throat. When Sweeney and Erzsébet tried to stop him, they were slammed backward by an unseen hand.
“I swear by God above that I will stop you!” the stranger yelled in Vlad’s face.
Since everyone was virtually pressed together with no room to maneuver, Gillian handed her rifle to Kimber, drew two of the pistols, then pushed her way through the press of bodies to see what was going on. Aleksei was right on her heels.
“No, Gillian . . .” He put out a hand to stop her, but she brushed him off, still moving forward.
“Aleksei, that new guy . . . He’s registering to me as a Vampire. He’s very old . . . Master level . . . but not hostile toward us.”
“I know, piccola. I can sense him and so can everyone else with your abilities or mine.” He pushed his way around to stand slightly in front of her. She might not like it, or even notice, but he was going to protect her.
“Well, who the hell is he?”
Before Aleksei could answer her, the new Vampire knight spoke up, loud enough for everyone to hear. “I am Sir Georg Frankenstein. I fought against this m
onster long ago and have hunted him through the centuries. He made me what I am, and I am bound to kill him before he completes his task.”
“You are too late, Georg. It has already begun,” Vlad informed him, his crystal green eyes raised to the sky.
Everyone looked up. A pinpoint of light shone down, illuminating Dracula’s forehead, then his face, then his body. He looked like he was standing in a Broadway spotlight.
There was no sound of trumpets, no heraldic chorus, just the literal opening of a Gate to whatever dimension or supernatural place that Angels come from. The entire desert was suddenly lit by a blinding flash of light. The less courageous Vampires and dwellers of the dark shrieked in terror, expecting to be evaporated.
Gillian was absurdly proud of her friends. Not one of them flinched, from what she could feel. Her empathy was on overload, swamping itself with conflicting messages and responses. She felt flushed, giddy, terrified and secure all at once.
The arrival of the Elves and this strange knight seemed to bring a sense of solidarity and strength. He was still brandishing his sword at Vlad’s neck, but he too was looking skyward with the rest of them.
Beings, seemingly made of the light itself, materialized on the obelisks and pillars around them. They glowed so brightly that a full view of the mob and landscape was possible. In truth, they were so spectacular, everyone’s eyes welled up from the piercing light and from their sheer beauty. Tall, aristocratic, noble . . . There weren’t enough words or the right words to describe them.
“You have called us for a less than righteous purpose, Vlad Dracula, but we are still compelled to answer. Speak, so that all may know what you desire.”
Gillian clapped her hands over her ears, nearly knocking herself out when she forgot she had guns in both hands. The tone was so pure, so lovely, like heavenly bells. But it tore through her like a flood. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see everyone else was cringing and squinting too. The night was actually cold, but the Beings brought with them a fragrant, balmy breeze in the wake of their arrival.
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