Giorgio closed his eyes for a moment, perhaps relieved. He would not know that once this rebellion was over I would find him and he would be accountable. Some of the others, however, showed less humility, throwing back their heads triumphantly and looking to their fellow traitors for glory.
‘Lilah will be disappointed, Georgio. She trusted you.’ The slightest of frowns crossed Gieorgio’s face then. I walked from the room and they parted the way.
My heartbeat seemed to slow and my legs grew heavy as I headed towards the dungeon.
Claude
Lewis’s step grew slower and at one point he stopped to take a breath. By the time he reached the dungeon where the vaults were kept, he clutched his stomach and fell sideways onto the floor. I rushed to help him but he lay fixed, his eyes open as if he was frozen in ice.
This was not going to Giorgio’s plan. It took me a few moments to realise that I had been an accessory to something far more dangerous than I thought. I felt uneasy and wondered whether I was right to trust Arianne. Georgio followed my gaze and rushed to help Lewis, laying him carefully on the floor.
‘What is wrong with him?’ he addressed Arianne accusingly. ‘What have you done?’
‘I could not trust him.’
‘He was willing. You should not have done this.’
‘It is too late. My young friend Claude found me a very interesting book. It had much useful information on plants and drugs, and other extreme recipes to cause havoc to a strigoi. Now of course in the wrong hands.’ She seemed pleased with this reference to herself.
‘Well you may have cost your young friend his life if not all of us.’
‘We will just make sure we are gone and that perhaps he never wakes up.’
Georgio bit his lip wondering what to do. He was agitated and it was the first time that I realised he did not have the strength for any of this. That perhaps he was better suited to reading and poetry. Many times he had read to me, funny stories written by his own hand.
‘Make no mistake, Arianne,’ he said. ‘You have gone too far.’
‘You went too far when you approached Laszlo,’ she spat. ‘Lewis will come for you before he comes for me.’
Giorgio looked frightened and I began to tremble, both from the thought of Lewis’s wrath and my own empty stomach. It had been several days since I had killed. The last time was a sheep. I was told that if I didn’t take more human blood soon I would start to wither. Animal blood was not enough sustenance for the strigoi.
Several strigoi pulled open the cage doors where wooden casks and trunks spilled over with loot taken from the wealthy over centuries. There were vases engraved in gold and silver, jewellery with priceless gems and open pots full of coins, which Georgio and others poured into sacks.
‘You had better make sure it is enough for Laszlo,’ she said sarcastically. ‘He will be counting every ounce.’
Georgio leant down to Lewis on the floor and gently touched his temple. It was clear he had some misgivings about the events that had played out, as did I. ‘How long?’
‘Several hours perhaps, but he will feel the effects for weeks.’
‘You cannot stay,’ Georgio said to me and I nodded; though looking at Lewis, I wondered if there was something else I could do for him. ‘He will not forgive you.’
‘And you? What will you do?’ he asked Arianne but it was said without care, more like contempt.
‘I have some unfinished business of my own.’
‘You must honour the promise and bring his daughter back,’ said Georgio. ‘You should allow him that.’
‘I made no promise to him,’ she said.
‘I could kill you if you don’t.’
‘And what do you think Laszlo would say if I didn’t return?’
A shadow passed over Georgio’s face. He had felt the menace. I did not know what Arianne’s plans were from here but knew that she had more to do with King Laszlo than any of us knew about.
I stepped forward then. ‘Please do not let anything happen to Oleander. You must return his daughter for your sake if for none other.’
She looked at me for the first time pensively. ‘So young and clever. You should come with me. I can take better care of you than anyone.’
‘No,’ said Georgio. ‘He comes with us.’
Arianne looked at Georgio and back at me. She shrugged. ‘Just go from my sight, all of you,’ she said dismissively. ‘I care not what happens to any of you.’
I looked at Lewis who had not moved but somehow knew he was listening to every word. Giorgio pressed my shoulder to urge me on and we ran from the room.
Lewis
I listened to the conversations in the room as if I was eavesdropping behind a stone wall, so great was the weight around me. And slowly I woke to a fog made of colours and shapes, and then to feel a kick in the stomach. I tried groggily to focus but this simple effort was difficult. I heard the sounds of a female voice calling my name musically as if it was all a game but the tone beneath was filled with malice. I could not feel my body, arms and legs. That hideous creature, that mockery of a strigoi had fooled everybody. She was controlled by the demon blood she brought back with her the day of her conversion; twisting her mind, and filling it with hideous sound. With every passing day the noises in her head would be getting stronger. I knew this. I had seen it before on others who had not recovered from the rebirthing. Sometimes it happened immediately, and at other times it took several years, slowly building.
I tried to sit but the act resulted in a spasm of pain: my joints were locked and should I stretch them they would surely snap. She had perhaps stolen my spell books; a private collection I had for centuries, which could assist our enemies. Information like that in the hands of Arianne was most unwise. I remembered the wine in my face and the odd smell it left on my skin. Such poison had frozen my power, trapped it within my soul. I had become so obsessed by my wife that I failed to recognise the strength of my enemies. Perhaps there was some truth to what Giorgio had said. Lilah had changed me and not for the better.
I used the only spirit magic that was left to me, wishing to examine the extent of my condition to see if I was still whole. Floating above myself I could see that my body, arms and legs lay twisted and limp. I did not venture too far from my physical form in case I was unable to return.
Arianne suddenly looked above her sensing me hovering there. ‘What trick is this?’
I quickly returned to the pain once more.
‘What did you think? That you could escape me in spirit?’
Arianne was clearer now. She stood before me dressed deceptively angelic in a flowing gown of white and a halo of silver beads around her head.
‘How does it feel to know that many of your strigoi have deserted you when you needed them most?’
‘Oleander.’ I uttered, barely, but enough for her to understand. The muscles in my face were softening. ‘Get my daughter.’
Arianne turned her back on me. ‘I know what you tried to do and it did not work. You sent someone to kill me. As you can see you failed. That strigoi I tore to shreds and buried parts of him across the land.’
It was true. I had sent an assassin who had failed to return.
‘But I returned the favour by telling the Brodnici; sending your location to their dreams.’
‘Gabriel,’ I said breathlessly and then in a whisper ‘should have killed you a long time ago.’
‘I daresay you asked him to.’
‘You were never going to be one of us. Gabriel is weak when it comes to the female kind. That is the only reason you are still here.’
‘Hmm, and not just partial to one particular kind. I hear he has been on an extended trip.’
‘His journey is of no importance to me right now. I want my daughter.’
‘I thought you should like to know that I spent several days in Venice at Carnevale, spying on them. Would you like to know what your wife has been doing?’
I did not say anything, hating th
e very mention of Lilah from her lips.
‘You do look droll lying there strangely with your mouth open and your eyes wide.’ Arianne threw back her head and screeched with laughter. Although paralysed I felt every bit of her hate.
‘Do you not love her enough to be curious about her journey perhaps?’
‘If you have harmed her…’
‘What will you do?’ she mocked. ‘No. Don’t worry she is in safe hands. In fact, so safe he can’t keep them off her.’
I shut my eyes to try and block out her talk.
‘She has a new lover, Lewis, and a very handsome one at that – someone you trusted with her care.’
I waited then for her to finish for my life at that moment rested solely with my abductor.
My clouded mind slowly pieced her words together creating an unwelcome image, which I then tried desperately to remove. Her lies were to hurt me. This quarrel must only be about Oleander’s safety.
‘You think that I am to be messed with,’ she tested.
‘What do you want?’
‘You know why I am here. I want a new body and I want you to do the transfer.’
‘But that’s not the full story is it?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I know that you left Gabriel before your affliction was exposed, fearing that he might try and destroy you or worse, abandon you before you had the chance to leave him first. Before he saw how advanced your madness was becoming with the voices.’
She did not cover her surprise that I knew this then paused slightly to touch her temple. ‘They began in the months before I left London,’ she said reflectively.
‘You are one possessed,’ he said. ‘It does not always work.’
‘You knew this would happen, yet you still performed the rite.’ She circled me and I could not turn my head to see her.
‘I have seen it happen before and sometimes the sounds lie dormant for years.’
‘You could have stopped me.’
‘You begged for this. Don’t whine and come to me now you mad bitch. I had to cure Gabriel of his infatuation.’
She kicked me hard in the jaw with the tip of her boot.
‘You lie. You did not tell me that there are voices above me that torment me when I try to sleep and they grow worse by the day. Only killing relieves it.’
‘Sometimes when you leave your body you can bring back the spirits from hell with you. You were lucky. You may not have come back at all.’
‘Lucky! I am the living dead!’
‘I warned you that rarely has such a ritual worked.’
‘It has worked for Claude and Laszlo. They are not tormented.’
‘Witches can be converted without issue. It takes witch blood to become what we are. As for Claude, perhaps only those with a strong mind and pure thoughts do not attract malice. Malice attracts malevolence; and those of weaker character like you are better candidates to carry demons back from hell. Time will show that Laszlo has carried those also.’
‘I am happy to admit that I enjoy killing indiscriminately and that I crave only the finer niceties of life. I will even admit to not caring about anyone but myself,’ she said her voice slowly rising with anger. ‘But you need to cure the constant noises in my head.’
‘I can end that for you.’
‘How?’
‘By killing you.’
She shrieked. ‘You would create then kill. No, you must reverse this. You must try again!’
‘There is no spell that has worked. If I try you will most likely end in strigoi darkness, a fate worse than human hell. The best way is to burn alive; the only way to destroy your strigoi soul.’
‘I will bring a new body to you and you can change me over. It might remove the voices.’
‘It won’t work. The spirits will follow you whether you change bodies or not. They have attached to your soul.’
‘Then you will never see your daughter again unless you find a way to undo what you have done.’
She grabbed at her hair trying to free herself from something I could not see, and fled then before I had a chance to respond. I knew I would have to hunt her down and kill her. I sent my plea for help to all those still loyal to me.
Gabriel
We neared the castle shortly before daybreak.
After Venice, we stayed at various inns and Lilah’s warmth and companionship was above any I had ever known. But with every step closer to the castle, she grew distant. During the last few days of our journey we slowed down our pace, both of us knowing that this might be our last time together. Lilah’s plan to escape was not spoken about, though she did comment once that things would change forever. I wanted to tell her that everything would be alright but I did not know for certain, and she would see through the lie.
Several nights earlier we had spoken of returning to Venice with Oleander, and to purchase a house there. I told her how we could acquire one of the abandoned houses on the canal and I would patch up every hole in the walls and install new glass to replace the wooden ramshackle shutters. Lilah said that she would start her own coven there, a safe house for witches to come and learn their craft so that they may go out into the world and heal and watch over all those in need of a better life.
But with every step towards the castle I felt that dream slipping further away. Lilah once said that her only hope of leaving the castle was that I am left in charge. I had already asked Lewis not to leave me with such a burden. Yet without my governing, my fear was that with someone else in charge there would be no-one to keep a watchful eye on her. The future for us seemed futile and my heart was despondent with reality.
At the edge of a stream we stopped to refresh. It had been a long journey for her and Lilah looked drawn and worried. I put my arm around her suddenly afraid for her. I had known Lewis for two hundred years. I had seen the very worst that he could do and was suddenly faced with the guilt for what I had done. Would he look upon us and know of our deed? How would we be able to hide what we feel? We had not talked about this. Our former home seemed ominous now. Whatever our fortunes I knew that I could no longer live there. Perhaps I thought I would tell Lewis the truth. I only knew that we had to be together. How naive I was.
The last part of the journey was on foot. We released the horses and walked hand in hand between the trees. Our thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of other strigoi from the coven getting closer, and their thoughts were hostile.
Lilah looked frightened for she had felt my tightened grip.
‘What is it?’
‘They are coming?’
‘Who?’ she said but they had already arrived before I had time to answer.
Georgio stood in front of us. Beside him were several reborn: Lucretia, Claude, Nokëg, and several others. They did not speak, their faces paler than normal, their heavy hearts worn in their expression, and what put me on guard was also a sense of wantonness and treachery. These strigoi before me were no longer my friends. It was a repellant air around them that told me that our relationship had changed.
‘Giorgio? Claude?’ Lilah stepped forward but I held her tighter to prevent her from getting too close.
‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘What have you done?’
‘It is over for us in the coven. We are no longer part of it.’
There was an accusation in the look he gave Lilah and I knew then that our troubles were greater than I had imagined.
‘We are leaving,’ he said. ‘We have bargained with Laszlo to be a part of his royal court to help make decisions concerning the government of this land. To come out of hiding and be who we should be. To rule as kings like we did centuries ago.’
‘Then you are a fool. Laszlo is untrustworthy.’
Giorgio did not say anything and I suspected it was not the first time he had heard this.
‘Please don’t go Giorgio,’ pleaded Lilah.
‘I do not want to hear you speak. If it wasn’t for you and your band of witches we would not
have left. But you have brought us instability. It is only a matter of time before we are attacked by other covens once they learn that we have armed ourselves with weakling witches.’
Lilah was confused. ‘But I thought we were friends.’
‘We were never friends. I humoured you to look after myself, to disguise my feelings towards Lewis’s rule, nothing more. You have brought division among us and fed Lewis your ideas. He stopped listening to any of our concerns after your arrival.’
Georgio ran past us then and disappeared into the night with the others, except for Claude who turned back to approach Lilah, but when she reached for him he drew back. ‘I’m sorry. We did not mean for your daughter to be taken.’ And he quickly departed to follow the others.
‘What is happening?’ She had begun to panic. ‘Something has happened to Oleander.’
I felt a jolt go through my body. Lewis! He was calling me.
‘Come! We must hurry now,’ I urged. She ran after me and I had to slow regretting suddenly that we had let go of the horses. I carried her for the remainder of the way as fast as the wind.
I could sense that Lewis was in the dungeon. I cautiously stepped through the entrance. What frightened me most was the absence of other strigoi.
We went first to Oleander’s bedroom. Her bed was unmade as if she had left in a hurry and her window was open, the curtain billowing in. I looked below us to the ground far below and thought that only a strigoi could jump from such height.
Lilah grabbed my arm. ‘Where is she?’
We ran through the maze of hallways and beneath the ground floor to reach the dungeon.
Lewis lay on the floor unmoving. His eyes were wild with rage, his face filled with burst blood vessels, and the vein at his neck protruded from the effort he was making to speak: ‘She has Oleander.’
‘Who?’ interrupted Lilah who bent down to touch her husband on the shoulder and listen to his speech. ‘What has happened to you?’ Her concern was genuine.
‘Leave me,’ he barked. He did not look at his wife. ‘It is Arianne,’ he said to me. ‘She has taken my child and she has plans to harm her. It has something to do with their bargain with King Laszlo.’ Lilah cried out before covering her mouth.
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