Vasili Fedosov
“Written like a spell,” Heloise said. She lit another cigarette behind Nico, her lighter clicking, then deliberately blew smoke into the holo, disrupting the image. “Triple repetitions; they named you, then what they wanted done to you, try to absolve themselves, and then curse you some more. It opens and closes, spell done. A guilt confession plus incantation to reinforce keeping you away, in one pen stroke.” She blew twice more into the holo image, and then deactivated it.
“Do you think they had access to a weird matter engine?” Nico said quietly.
“If the Soviets had been working on one? Maybe. That’s technology we’ve had and lost repeatedly, since ancient times. The last one known to exist before your period was destroyed in London, around 1880. And it’s highly unlikely you were shoved on to a visiting ship in the M-Triangle. I think this Fedotov used—”
“Fedosov,” Nico murmured.
“Right. Not the sausage maker.”
“He used twelve babies.”
Heloise rested her hand on the back of Nico’s chair and placed her cigarette in the ashtray.
“Whatever he did,” Heloise said, her tone low. “I think you’ve already made up for it by your actions on Darqueworld.”
“The dead babies are still dead.”
“You are the cheeriest little vampire I’ve ever met.” Heloise’s tone was droll. She walked over to the bar and began mixing a drink.
“So my memory loss is deliberate, not because of my trip to here,” Nico said.
“A Baba Yaga or three can do that to you.”
Nico touched the amulet against her chest. The glass eye held a large crack from having deflected the letter’s bad intention, and Bear’s did as well. Nico removed the protective charms and laid them on the holo table, their work done. Jewellery was something she hadn’t worn since...she recalled Heloise’s photograph as a young wife.
“Did Mr Allen give you pearls?” Nico asked.
“No, my pearls were passed down to me from my mother,” Heloise said from the bar. “Her gift for my sixteenth birthday. She said it was for my becoming a woman, but I think she was apologising for my being tall.”
Mom, Nico thought.
She remembered—
Her own fingers, dusted with white particles, dangling the aquamarine stone; mom’s gift to her.
That wasn’t on my birthday. Her stomach lurched, the blank spot in her mind becoming glass—she could recall—
“Nico?” Heloise said.
Nico typed rapidly on the keyboard. She accessed the Again Walkers database and then her own folder. She called up the picture of her living self, smiling and wearing the necklace on her birthday. The aquamarine stone on her jumper front.
I don’t want to remember. Her chest heaved. I don’t want to—
Her mail; her Leningrad apartment. She’d just gotten home after her shift at the hotel. The white envelope she’d opened contained a necklace. It had dangled from her fingers; the gold chain flashing the aquamarine stone mom had given her.
Powder within the envelope had gotten all over her hands.
The paralytic sent her falling to the floor, body numb, as men broke down her apartment door.
They held her down and made her watch a videotape inserted into her own VHS player. Her maker appeared, standing in Leningrad’s Nevsky Prospekt.
“Happy Belated, Nicky.
“If yer watchin’ this, then ya killed me, Nicky. Aw, ya ended me, luv. But ye should know by now, I can’t let ye be the one tae decide the end.
“So much planning I did, all bettin’ on the day ye’d come tae yer daddy’s auld town. D’ya like Leningrad, Nicky?
“Ya must be feelin’ it. That sick, sick feelin’. Oh, my wean. Ya made a mistake now, Nicky. What’d I telt ya about mistakes.”
Nico stood, the chair falling. She turned to Heloise.
“Did you sell me to them. Did you sell me to the traffickers?” she cried, her voice rising.
“Nico.” Heloise’s tone held warning.
“You had data on all of us!” Nico shouted.
“Data that was for the primacy, Nico; I used techno-shamans to protect everything,” Heloise said. “There’s no way.”
“Then what did you sell to get here—” Nico saw red.
When she became aware again, her hand gripped Heloise’s throat. Heloise slowly squeezed Nico’s wrist to force her fingers to loosen. Her other hand held Nico’s that clutched her knife, the blade red. Nico was pressing forwards but Heloise remained firm, her strength greater. Bright red bloomed and spread on Heloise’s white shirt from a gash—fresh, spilt elder’s blood. A scent Nico hadn’t smelled since lying broken in a shallow grave. Nico’s fangs grew.
You’ll drink, Nicky.
Because ye can’t stand dying like this.
Nico tore away. She flung her switchblade against the far wall, burying the blade deep. She swung back and socked Heloise in the chin.
Nico ran from Heloise’s building; she ran down, down, down. Elder vampires recovered quickly. Nico knew to run as if she could forever. A train waited at the platform she found herself on. She ran inside a car and the train departed. Flashes of memory assailed: her apartment, paralytic on her hands, mom’s present. Men breaking in.
They took her from her apartment—Nico knew that was true—they did things to h—
“No more,” she whispered, clutching Bear. “I’ll find you. I’ll find you.”
What did I telt ya about mistakes, Nicky.
The men couldn’t wait; they never waited. They violated her in the van. They violated her at the warehouse. Then they opened her veins for customers who drank vampire’s blood.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Nico said, and got off the train, leaving the memory behind in a car boarded by more passengers. The train left and hurtled into the tunnel. Nico walked the platform.
“Conquer® by One Mind,” a holo ad said calmly to her. “For all of life’s traumas, whether from war, disasters, illness, injury, abuse, or personal violence. Mind and memory adjustment healing to protect you. Take control.”
“It’s too late for that,” Nico whispered.
How long had she been held by the traffickers? Long enough. Stored in a slaughterhouse and fed pig’s blood with other enslaved vampires. Sold and resold to take extreme punishment from sadistic customers and then heal right up again. Rich women especially liked to drink blood from Nico; they chatted about the bouquet, the flavour.
“She tastes like crushed flowers,” one said. Then they poked her with sharp straws and kept them in her bruising flesh, sucking.
I only showed them how tae make more money, Nicky, her maker said, his image playing like some vacation tape of a Scots lad visiting Leningrad.
The sellin’ of vampire bodies tae other monkeys wantin’ immortality.
Our blood. Our flesh.
Our hearts.
Our sex.
Then...
I telt them tae go get ya.
“You’re still dead,” Nico said, abrupt and distant.
Ye’re not facin’ me, Nicky.
“Shut up,” she said.
Come get me.
Come get me. Come get me.
Nico boarded another train.
She brought out Dorothy, her hands trembling, and opened a non-visual connection to Shayla.
“Niky?” Shayla answered, and the diner’s activity sounded in the background.
“Hi. I’m sorry to bother you at work. But I need to ask you something important.”
“What is it, love?”
Nico saw a path to beauty fragment before her.
“If the boogeyman were to snatch you from your bedroom and into his dimension, how would you find your way back? Or—or lead people to find you.”
“I’d use a string, chick. One tied tae my bed, and the other end tae me. It would be a very long string.”
“Thank you. I’ll talk to you later, when—at your place, if that’s okay?�
�
“Always.” Shayla’s voice held concern. “Niky—”
“I like you lots.”
“I like ye too, Niky. The moment I saw ye.”
The moment I saw ye, her maker said.
‘Thank you,” Nico whispered. Good bye. She ended the call.
“Dorothy,” she said, when her voice could work again. “Find me the nearest hardware store selling 250-foot electrical cord spools, please.”
***
The store, Zrysxplx’s Tools & Materials, was located near the hostels sector. When Nico arrived, her spool order was waiting for her. She happened to spy another useful item.
“I would like the super self-adhesive rubber safety mat with tread surface, please,” Nico requested at the hardware store’s service counter. “Yes, the twelve by twelve will do.” When she received the item, she checked the sticky backing; the super glue was fresh.
I’m not making a bomb, but I hope these purchases got your attention, OI and Makepeace.
Nico went to the register, watched the amount flash at the credit chit reader, and then gathered up her purchases.
Right when she stepped out of the store, she realised that one other knew to track her credit chit’s activity too. Heloise’s Faering Shearwater nearly jumped the kerb as it came to a screeching stop. Heloise stepped out.
She still wore her bloodstained shirt. Her jaw bore no bruise, and Nico hoped the cut across her chest was healed too. Heloise exhaled cigarette smoke, an anxious, angry cloud. She stepped to approach.
“Not now, Bathory,” Nico said warningly, and Heloise stopped.
“I—I’m not Countess Bathory,” Heloise said in confusion. “Nico, what—”
“You shouldn’t smoke,” Nico said. “You should’ve broken my arm.” He would have. “Here, have a mint.” Nico fetched her tin, opened it, and offered two to Heloise.
Heloise glanced at the mints as she dropped her cigarette and stepped on it. She accepted and put them in her mouth. Then she pulled Nico’s switchblade out of her pocket, and Nico stilled.
Heloise held it out, the blade closed. Nico’s insides turned cold and bleak. She reached for it, hesitant, then looked away as she took the blade.
“Nico,” Heloise said. “The vampire primacy was destroyed. Yes, I sold the database for passage, but the under-holarchy was my buyer.”
Nico nodded.
“Look,” Heloise continued. She shook her head, as if shrugging off something. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but—”
“I don’t know what I’m planning either,” Nico said. “But I’m meant to do something, aren’t I? It’s here. Something came over with me from Old Earth.”
“What?”
“Do you know who my maker is? Isn’t he in your database?”
Heloise blinked rapidly. “Yes.”
“I stalked him for four years,” Nico said quietly, “and the whole time, he was remaking me.”
“Nic—don’t...” Heloise suddenly slumped against her vehicle, her back sliding. Nico caught her. Heloise blinked more, her gaze glassy, and Nico felt it in Heloise’s grip; the trust that Nico wouldn’t let her fall.
Heloise spat out the remaining mints in her mouth. “You... little...”
How many times had she seen a woman’s will removed from her—had the same done to herself? Nico opened the vehicle’s door and helped Heloise into the seat. She tucked Heloise’s legs in, and Heloise’s hand slackened and slid off her arm.
“You’re not him,” Heloise uttered.
“I’ll make certain,” Nico promised.
She opened the tin and spilled the mints into the street while Heloise fought to keep her eyes open.
“I will never, ever, disrespect you like this, ever again.” She dropped the tin, then reached in and secured Heloise’s seatbelt. “This is a new world, and you’re going to have a future.” Nico activated the dash’s holographic interface and touched the word Home. “Take Ms Allen home,” she commanded. “And seal the car door.”
***
Heloise had known to look for her at Again Friends; Nico guessed that was why the older vampire had reached the hardware store so fast. But that also meant Shayla would soon come to the hostel too. Nico had shut off Id alerts to ignore Shayla’s communications. When the messages stopped, Nico knew she was coming.
“We are so lucky to know these women,” Nico said to Bear as she quickly walked down puke street. She’d cut a length of cord, run it through the spool holes, tied it off, and then hung the spool across her body. She cut another length off, about five feet long. “My meeting Heloise or Shayla would have never happened on Old Earth. And if it had…” If it had, he would have been so dead.
Nicky, her maker said from the VCR in her apartment. Ya understand why I sold ya, don’cha?
I telt them not to use yer mouth, cuz ya bite.
“Stop,” Nico said, her switchblade in hand. People scurried away from her on the walk. She put her knife away, having reached the intersection where the YOBA stood. She made a noose with the cord while waiting for the light to change. No Makepeace stood upon the roof. She looked at every rooftop while she walked: still no Makepeace. When she reached Again Friends, she didn’t see any vehicle or loitering person who might be OI. She gathered the noose and held it against her rubber mat, concealing it.
“I guess it’s just us,” Nico said to Bear. She stood outside the door until Dann noticed her. He waved and buzzed her in.
“Uh, are you here to do repairs?” Dann said, looking at her cable spool and the mat she carried.
“No, I’m here to sign your sheet again.” She walked up and put her rubber mat aside.
“That’s great.” Dann pushed the sign-up sheet towards her. “Hey, are you friends with holo stars? Because this hot vampire came in and asked about yo—”
She grabbed his hand and pulled his arm through the slot. Dann’s face collided with the cage.
“Oh gods, oh gods,” he uttered, cheek pressed against the steel. Nico trapped his arm.
“How does a coin collectors shop on another planet end up with too many Leningrad metro passes?” Nico asked.
“If—if this is about that rejection earlier?” Dann gasped. “I’ll go out with you.”
Nico shoved his arm and body back into the booth, then pulled him into the cage again.
“Ow! Oh gods.”
“Why did you want me to sign in every night,” she demanded. “Why did you want me to go to Chaikov’s?”
“I don’t know—I swear—I don’t know why! They wanted you to stay here, so badly—”
“Who wants me.”
“I don’t know! I don’t—I get messages from Charity Housing. That’s all. Just my messages.”
“Can your booth’s intercom page the entire building?”
“Yeah-yeah, it can do that.” Nico banged his face again. “Ow! Cripes, I’m not lying, yes it can! The booth can lock every room, too! Gawds, Neko, I don’t know why the controls are like that, I just work here.”
“Can you keep the front door unlocked?”
“No-no, I got nothing here that can do that.”
“Page Jess and tell her to get her ass here.”
“Righ—uh, Jess, um, which one’s—”
“Do it,” Nico ordered. She loosened her hold on Dann’s arm, allowing him to grab the microphone with his free one. He pressed the mike’s button.
“Testing,” he said, the building-wide intercom blaring. “Vampire Jess, can you report to Dann’s booth please? Thank you.” He released the button and looked at Nico, his lip bloodied. “Can I have my arm back?”
“No. Now lockdown the bathrooms and the rec room.”
“Oh, like right n—? Yeah-yeah, on it.” He flipped switches. Nico heard the echo above of doors shutting.
“What?” Jess said as she entered the entry hall. “Did you lock the rec room, Dann? There are people still—what’s going on?” she added in alarm. Nico pulled Dann’s arm to her, bumping him again
st the cage.
“Ow,” he cried.
“I’m going to kill him,” Nico said.
“Oh gods, no,” Dann whimpered.
“Just let him go,” Jess said. She approached cautiously with her hands out. “We can talk this out, ay?”
“Do you see what he did to me?” Nico demanded.
“Wha—” Jess said.
“Look what he did!” Nico said tearfully.
“I don’t know, uh, what I did,” Dann mumbled against the cage.
Jess looked at her and Dann, bewildered, and came closer.
Nico tossed her noose and snagged Jess around the head, then neck.
“Oi! Whacke—” Jess’s face collided with the cage as Nico pulled hard, the younger vampire spraying blood at the impact. Her knees gave out.
“Oh my ga—you busted her face!” Dann cried. “Did you have to do that?”
“Don’t worry,” Nico said. “She’s a bad vampire.” She tugged at the leash, putting the knot to the nape of Jess’s neck, then pulled her back, the vampire too dazed to do more than clutch at the cord tight around her throat. “Now grab the mike and give it to me.”
“How do I—there’s only room for one of my arms.”
“Bring it over, and I’ll let go of your arm.”
“Oh, I get it. Here you go, Neko—ow!” Dann cried as Nico released his arm and grabbed the one that held the microphone. She pulled his arm through, trapped it beneath her armpit, then pressed the button on the mike.
“Vampires in the dorms,” Nico announced. “This is Nico and Bear. You have five seconds to get out before I kill all of you. And I will. I’m having a really bad night.”
Monster Stalker Page 24