Deadly Assessments

by Drew Hayes

  None came, and Arch yanked the door open without issue. Together, we all walked back out of the concrete bunker and into the late evening of our own world. Stepping across a magical border into part of another realm had certainly made for an interesting experience, but I didn’t think I’d ever been happier to set foot on Colorado soil.

  “I hate to impose, I really do, but would it be possible for Fred and me to take one of the cars back alone?”

  Deborah’s voice was calm, pleasant even, yet I grew still at the sound of it. She wanted to get me away from the others for this next part. That didn’t mean for sure that I was about to die, but it certainly wasn’t a vote of confidence.

  “Um, I just spent six weeks camping out in the fucking fey lands. If you think I’m not spending the ride catching up with my man, then you’ve obviously forgotten everything about being human,” Krystal snapped. “Also, hello, and who the fuck are you?”

  “Deborah is here representing the Blood Council; she’s been conducting an assessment on Fred since you left. Since the day you left, in fact.” Arch had taken the chance to light up one of his endless supply of cigarettes before we got into the cars, almost like he’d known there would be a discussion before departure. “If you were too distracted to catch it when Hellebore addressed her, Deborah is serving as Prudence.”

  “Oh, well, in that case, sure, I’ll happily let a member of the Blood Council drive off with Freddy in her clutches. Yeah, no, that’s not happening, and remember, I’m not under fey rules to hold back anymore.” Krystal’s hand dropped a little lower, that much closer to her gun.

  In response, Deborah raised her arms, reminding us that she was technically unarmed. “Relax, Agent Jenkins. This is simply a good chance for Fred and me to have a final discussion regarding his assessment and put the whole ugly matter to bed. The sooner the assessment is done, the sooner I leave, and isn’t that ultimately what we all want? I will even offer a guarantee of safety: Fred shall be delivered to Charlotte Manor completely unharmed and before sunrise. I swear it on behalf of the Blood Council.”

  It was a good offer, but Krystal didn’t so much as bat an eye. “Look, asshole, you don’t know me, but I’m not one to repeat myself, so step away—”

  “Krystal, it’s fine. I’ll go.” Interrupting someone was, of course, quite rude, but I couldn’t risk letting this spin out of hand. “Deborah has been acting as my bodyguard this whole time, and I’ve come through it safely. One last car ride isn’t going to hurt, and if it means wrapping all of this Blood Council business up, then I’m for it. We’ll be perfectly fine.”

  I genuinely had no idea if that was true. Deborah would probably keep her word, since she’d sworn on the Blood Council, but that didn’t stop her from snatching me up the next time I stepped outside. The only thing I knew without question was that if this was going to get violent, I didn’t want any of the others getting dragged in. Better to take the ride and put myself at risk than take the chance of Deborah deciding to bring me in by force. If she did, the others would fight, and even if they somehow won, there would be casualties. That was possibility was unacceptable. I was the head of this clan; I was the one who should be put at risk.

  “Let them go, Krystal. She ran everything through the proper channels. She’s got the right to do this. And she’s smart. Deborah knows the kinds of enemies she’d make by going rogue on this, especially now that she’s sworn on her office.” Arch stubbed out his cigarette in the box he always kept for ashes, then pulled out a set of keys. “Going to be snug for the rest of us, so everyone get ready to squeeze in tight. Albert, you and that sword are riding in the back.”

  Slowly, warily, the rest of my friends piled into the first SUV. Krystal was the last to go, giving me a long kiss, followed by staring Deborah down for several seconds. “I’ve been doing nothing but hunting and fighting for over a month; don’t think I won’t happily keep it going for a few more days. Freddy, be safe, and get home soon.” One last kiss, this time to the cheek, and then Krystal finally got into the vehicle.

  Doors slammed, an engine revved, and the SUV drove off down the same dirt road we’d arrived on. With everyone gone, Deborah and I climbed into the front of our vehicle. Neither of us said anything until the seat belts were clicked into place and the engine was running.

  “So, what comes now?”

  “Now, we start at the beginning,” Deborah replied. “When did you first discover you were immune to silver?”

  I could have lied, pretended I was like this since I’d been turned into a vampire, but I really didn’t see the point. If nothing else, letting her in on the truth would show her how impossible a task it was to recreate the situation. How many dragons of Gideon’s power ended up captured? And how often would a vampire be in a position to help free them? Whether the truth would make me more valuable alive or not was impossible to predict. But at this point, honesty was all I had left.

  “I didn’t start out immune to silver. In the beginning, it hurt me the same as any other vampire. Something . . . happened to change that, though, something involving the King of the West.”

  It was one of the few times I’d seen a flash of surprise on Deborah’s face. She put the SUV in drive and stepped on the gas, sending us in the same direction as the other vehicle. “Sounds like you’ve got quite a story there, which works nicely since we’re looking at a long drive. Take your time, and tell me everything.”

  7.

  It might have been the first time I’d seen Deborah truly stunned, let alone shocked into silence. The only sound after I finished explaining my incident with Gideon was the occasional squeal of tires or click of the turn signal. I didn’t try to push the issue: as long as she wasn’t directly threatening or killing me, I was happy to let her take all the processing time she needed.

  “If this were coming to me from anyone else, vampire or parahuman, I wouldn’t believe it. You helped to free a dragon, the King of the West, and in the process, he used you as a conduit for his will and power, the result of which is that you’re somehow immune to silver. That’s crazy, Fred. Pure, unrestrained crazy. Yet, somehow, I think you’re telling the truth . . . partially because you’re not a particularly adept liar, but mostly because I’ve witnessed the evidence with my own eyes. Insane as that story is, it’s matched by the proof I’ve seen. That a vampire can just . . . shrug off one of the most ubiquitous parahuman weaknesses in existence . . . it is just the silver, right?”

  “So far as I know, yes. Sunlight still stings, garlic gives me the usual reaction, and fire makes me skittish. I haven’t tried setting myself alight, staking, or decapitation yet, but I’ve got no reason to think they’ll be any different. I can be hurt; I’ve been injured several times since the incident.” Pausing, I debated over how far to take this. Deborah knew my main secret, and that was bad enough. There was more, though. The only question was whether or not I wanted to go all-in with my confession to a member of the Blood Council. Deborah might be my best shot at an ally in this, but that would be less likely if she found out that I was still hiding things from her.

  Ultimately, it came down to answers. I wanted some. I wanted to know what had happened to me; I wanted to know what else might be on the horizon. No one knew at the moment, true, but the resources and knowledge of the Blood Council made finding those answers a lot more viable. I couldn’t do this alone. I’d learned that lesson over and over since the moment I’d been turned into a vampire. Pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness though she was, Deborah wasn’t cruel. She didn’t kill without purpose, so I had to hope that I was worth more to her undead than fully dead.

  “There is one more thing. I’m sure you’re aware of my sire, Quinn, and his attack on an Agency base last year. During that time, he was using some collar that amplified his natural control as a sire to command a squad of innocent people that he’d turned. It didn’t work on me.”

  “Well, your sire is an unmitigated bastard, so I can’t say I’m too choked up over that part
,” Deborah replied. “Although, it does make a certain amount of sense.”

  That was the first time anyone had used the word “sense” about my condition, so naturally, I was intrigued. “How so?”

  She took her time responding, changing lanes a few times to get past a small block of traffic that was slowing things down. Every move was fluid and perfect; Deborah knew where she would end up before she ever touched the turn signal. Things like this, like me, events that could catch her off guard, must have been rarer and rarer as the centuries wore on.

  “A vampire is a dead body animated by magic. Yes, we keep our minds or souls or whatever it is that can linger on in ghost form after a body dies, but at our core, that’s what we are: corpses held aloft by strings of magic. Legends say that the first vampire was the one who found the magic, who gifted it to those he felt deserved eternal life, and we’ve been passing it along ever since. We are part magic, part flesh. The flesh can be changed; use the right weapon and you can leave a wound that not even we can heal from.”

  “Like Quinn’s arm,” I said.

  “Precisely. So, if the flesh part of our equation can be changed under the right circumstances, then it isn’t reaching to consider the idea that our magical aspect can be influenced, as well. It’s never happened before, but we’ve also never had a vampire wander into a situation where a dragon needed to flood them with power. The magic of a dragon is already unpredictable. What you channeled must have left a mark of some kind behind that slightly changed the foundation of whatever it is that lets you continue living even though you’ve died.”

  I stifled a sigh, albeit poorly. So badly, in fact, that Deborah took notice. “Something wrong with my theory?”

  “Not at all. It’s the same one Arch and Krystal came up with after we discovered my change. My apologies; I didn’t mean to be rude. I suppose I was just hoping that you might have more insight or answers. That’s an unreasonable expectation, though; this is as new to you as it was to us.”

  We exited the highway, heading toward Charlotte Manor, and I noticed that Deborah was slowing down. It wouldn’t have stood out if not for her normally aggressive driving style. She wanted to keep talking; this discussion wasn’t over yet.

  “Trust me, we both want answers. And the Blood Council will, too. What you have is not exactly a game changer—there are plenty of non-silver weaknesses out there for us—but it is something a lot of vampires would do deadly, dangerous things to have. The good news for you is that until we fully understand your condition and whether or not it can be replicated, the Blood Council isn’t going to even entertain the idea of killing you, especially since you already passed your assessment. The bad news is that they’ll want to study you. Since you’re marrying an agent and officially aligned with the Agency, as well as the King of the West, I don’t think they’ll have the clout to force you into captivity, but there’s no way we’ll just let this go.”

  “It’s a free country, and Winslow already has another vampire clan living here. Let them move out here if they like. I do my business in the open; they’re welcome to watch all they want.” I made a conscious effort to sound calmer than I felt. This wasn’t the time to let on just how nervous the idea of even more vampires in my town made me. At least the House of Turva felt the need to play nice due to all the other parahumans around. Would the Blood Council have such compunctions?

  Deborah shook her head. “Not the kind of study I mean. But, as Prudence, it is my evaluation that taking you into captivity by force represents more danger than is wise. What you have, what you are, is fundamentally connected to the power of a dragon. That means the King of the West has a stake in this, and moving against his pawns often comes with a heavy toll. I think establishing a more cooperative relationship with a willing participant would make things easier on all of us. You get to keep living your life, and we don’t have to sacrifice thousands to Gideon’s wrath just to put you in a cage.”

  “If you’re more worried about Gideon than Krystal in that situation, then you need to spend more time with my fiancée.” It really wasn’t the time for jokes, but sometimes, you get through a situation using any tool that carries you forward. “I get your meaning, though. Either I play nice and we all get along, or I push the matter and throw us all into a world of trouble. Maybe it’s worth the losses to you to take me in, maybe it isn’t, but either way, people will probably end up hurt, or worse, in the conflict. That about sum it up?”

  “Nicely so.” Instead of turning down the road toward Charlotte Manor, Deborah took a slight detour, putting us in the parking lot of an old grocery store that had shut down. She didn’t kill the engine, though she did shift it into park. “I’ll do my best to shoot straight with you on this. Granted, I don’t have many answers to offer at the moment, not until I talk with the others, but I can still try to put your fears at ease. I’ll recommend that we do this peacefully, and the others will listen. What shape that cooperative effort takes is something we’ll have to figure out in time. As long as we’re on the same page, we can do this in a way that keeps everyone happy and doesn’t trigger a small war. Any questions on what little we’ve got so far?”

  I actually did have a question, one that had been bouncing around in my mind for a while. It wasn’t exactly on topic, but I wasn’t one to pass up an open opportunity for knowledge. “What is the Prudence? Sebastian mentioned it, Hellebore called you that, and you just used the word yourself. It’s a title, I take it. I’m just not sure of the context.”

  That drew a half-chuckle from Deborah, and her gaze momentarily softened. “You can be an odd one sometimes, Fred. That’s not the question most people would ask in this situation. Still, I made the offer, so I suppose you deserve a response. Those on the Blood Council have roles they serve, and titles to go with them. The exact wording has changed with time and language, yet the purposes of our roles have never shifted. I am the current Prudence, the member tasked with caution, planning, forethought, all the sorts of things you’d probably expect given our time together.”

  She raised her right hand, slowly closed it into a fist, and then began to raise her fingers one by one. “Prudence. Wrath. Pride. Wisdom.” There was a pause, slight but unmistakable, between those four and the final finger. “Control. Those are the five aspects of the Blood Council. Wrath is our version of a general; he oversees combat-related issues and drops the hammer when it is deemed to need dropping. Pride handles our alliances: diplomacy, image management, anything related to ensuring vampires are properly feared and respected. Wisdom is our researcher, both in terms of ancient lore and modern secrets—and yes, upon leaving you, he is the first one I’ll be calling. Control coordinates the other four, resolving disputes and leading the Blood Council overall. We all have a say in things, but Control is the one who breaks the ties. Those are the roles we all serve, and many of us have held them for a very long time.”

  Worrying though it was to discover there was someone higher up the ladder that Deborah would have to deal with, I was also intrigued to discover more about our ruling body. Besides, I’d learned to trust that Deborah wasn’t one to promise anything she couldn’t deliver on. If she felt she could smooth things over, then I would trust her.

  “One more question,” I said. “What comes next?”

  “In a general sense, I take you home. You reunite with that woman who was so happy to see you. You find a new bodyguard, since my assignment is over. The Turva clan shouldn’t be a major concern going forward, there was merit to the question of whether you were fit to lead so I won’t wipe them out, but they’ll still get some pain and a firm warning to steer clear of your clan. Have to make sure my fearsome reputation stays intact. As for future dealings with the Blood Council, being ageless means we’re not prone to jumping into things without giving all the angles proper consideration. Soon, you’ll hear from us. Just do your best to keep out of trouble until then. That’s what comes next in the long-term, mind you. In the short-term, we have a matter to settle
before I take you home.”

  Digging into a pocket on her side, Deborah rummaged around before pulling out an empty bottle. Twisting off the top, she jiggled the glass container while meeting my eyes with a serious stare. “I’m going to need some blood.”

  The possibility had occurred to me, and at least she was asking, in a way. Vampires had blood—it made sense, since we were always drinking the stuff—though we didn’t have as much as humans. When wounded, my blood had always seemed thicker than the normal version, as though it was heading toward congealment but hadn’t quite made it yet. It meant we didn’t bleed much, even when injured, which was normally a good thing. Tonight, on the other hand, it was probably going to make this process much harder than it otherwise would have been.

  Slowly, I sank my fangs into my left forearm, creating a pair of holes inches below the wrist. Holding it over the jar, I watched as droplets of blood began to fall. I’d discovered last year when I chomped into Quinn’s ankle that the fangs of a vampire made potent weapons even against our own kind, so it didn’t surprise me when the holes I’d made healed more slowly than they would have otherwise. Even with that, it took two more bites before we got the jar to halfway full. I started to pull my hand away, but Deborah reached out and grabbed it.

  “One moment. This is the first question I’m going to get upon returning, so we may as well knock it out now.” She leaned in and licked the remaining blood from my forearm just as the wounds fully closed. I could see the darker red on her tongue as her mouth closed, followed by her eyes moments later. “Hmm. Tastes like normal vampire blood, which is to say terrible. Never drink from another vampire if you can help it. While what we’ve got is still considered blood, most of the nutrients are already gone, since our bodies absorb them. You can sometimes get a residual boost off whatever parahuman they last fed from, but it’s rarely worth the risk. This time, it’s unavoidable, since I have to test the obvious.”