Mandy, she was surprised to feel smoldering anger instead of fear. "I thought you wanted me alive."
"That has changed. Though futile, your little chase has disrupted my plans sufficiently that now I have no other choice but to kill you. And to think, had you not resisted, you would have been able to live forever."
"I already will live forever, while you'll rot in the Ninth Circle of Hell for eternity."
"May your religious delusions give you comfort as you die."
"What was that...thing you tried to put in me?"
"It would mean nothing to you."
"Indulge me, Aunt; one last request."
"Why should I?"
"You used to be my teacher. What harm can one more lesson do at this point?"
Mandy gave her a cynical leer. "Very well, if you insist. It was a Fomorian embryo. The Fomorians are ancient demons from prehistoric Ireland. Past a certain point their embryos are able to live outside of the incubation cell, though they stop developing. However, they have the interesting property that if you introduce them into a living host, such as a Human, they can take control of the host's mind, accessing its memories, abilities, and personality."
"You planned to make me your puppet."
"Not quite. The embryo would have an independent will and develop its own personality. However, you are not too far wrong. It would have command of your body, and it would instinctively look to me for guidance. There would be the threat that at some point it might decide it no longer needed me; it might even prove to be more powerful than I am. However, I am older and therefore more experienced. I would know the signs and be able to take appropriate action."
"What would become of me?"
"With your will crushed, you would become little more than a disembodied persona within your own head. In time, you would be completely subsumed within the embryo's ego and cease to exist altogether. But you would have no conscious awareness of anything after it took control of you."
A wave of rage swept through Differel as the shilling finally dropped. "You put one of those things in Father!" She clenched her fists.
Mandy managed to look impressed. "Very perceptive! I see now why Henry had so much faith in you. Yes, I did, but unfortunately it did not work out."
"What happened?"
"Sometimes an embryo is too weak to defeat the host's will, especially if that will is very strong. In those circumstances the embryo dies, and in doing so releases toxins that kill the host. Your father won the battle of wills, but it cost him his life."
"He didn't warn me. Why not?"
"No?" Mandy seemed genuinely surprised. "I thought sure he had. That was why I tried to keep you two apart. That was why I tried to compromise you by force instead of stealth. Part of the process by which the embryo suppresses the will involves releasing chemicals that block memory. It is possible your father had no recollection of the contest."
"You're an embryo, aren't you!"
Mandy chuckled. "That I am, though I have been in residence long enough that I no longer make any distinction between myself and this body."
"Is there anything of my aunt left?"
Mandy closed her eyes, as if looking into herself. "There is something, a tiny bit remaining, but little more than a fading echo."
She opened her eyes again. "But enough of this. You have delayed me too long already. Stand over there. No sense in having bullets ricochet." She motioned to a spot in the middle of the mausoleum.
Differel complied. Once past Mandy, she saw the door was open. However, there were two guards standing in front of it. For a brief moment she considered making a break for it anyway, but she realized she would never get away before they cut her down. She was dead either way, but she decided that she wanted to die standing up to her enemy, not running from it.
"Do not try to run," Mandy said, as if reading her mind. "Even if you made it outside, there are others out there with orders to shoot on sight."
She turned around to face Mandy and saw the other guards with her had moved behind her. "My running is over," she said in a calm, determined tone. "Let's just get this over with. I have a rendezvous with my Father."
Mandy pulled her pistol out of its shoulder holster. "As you wish, but it will not end as quickly as you hope. Do you know what this is?" She held up the gun for her to see.
"A Beretta Model 93R 9mm single-action machine pistol, 1100 rounds per minute in three-round bursts."
"Most impressive! You retain your lessons well. You would have made a valuable asset. Pity. This is a thirty-round magazine. That effectively gives me ten shots. I intend to take my time, as payback for the inconvenience you put me through. I believe I shall start with the ears." She aimed the gun at her, but didn't fire.
"Nothing to say, Niece?"
Differel was speechless, but not from defiance or fear. It was astonishment, from seeing the corpse in the sarcophagus sit up. It turned its head to look at the female guard, its eyes blazing red, a thin trickle of blood seeping from its mouth.
Blood!? My blood! From my wound!
The male guard seemed to sense something, and started to turn as the corpse wrapped an arm around the woman's upper chest and bent her backwards over its lap. She dropped her weapon as she reached up to grab its arm, just before it bent its head and bit into her neck. She screamed a terrified wail, but it lost force and wavered to stillness as the corpse gobbled her blood in great, throat pulsating gulps. When she went limp, it raised its head and let her loose, and her exsanguinated body slipped to the floor. Differel was flabbergasted to see the skin had regained its moisture, though it was still wrinkled like a prune.
It all happened so fast no one reacted, not even Mandy, who had spun around as soon as she heard the guard cry out. The corpse surveyed the chamber, grinning, then leapt up and landed, crouching, on the ledge of the sarcophagus. It shifted its gaze to the male guard, and leered.
Whatever spell held him transfixed broke. Yelling bloody murder, he raised his weapon and began firing. The corpse threw itself at him and knocked him flat on his back, its mouth clamped to his neck. His scream also faded as his blood was drained in moments.
"Do not stand there like statues, you imbeciles," Mandy raged; "fire!" The remaining five opened up as Differel threw herself against the wall under her father's crypt, and the two by the door rushed to join their comrades.
The bullets tore through the guard's body and the mildewed coat, but a mass of shadow, like a black mist, spread out from under the garment. It divided into streamers that raced around the guards as they turned and spun to keep sight of them. They met and recombined behind another female guard, coalescing into a solid body, and the corpse attacked her, drinking her blood while clutching at her bosom. Differel noted that its skin now looked normal, if elderly.
The other guards opened fire again, with most of the rounds going into the woman's body, as three from the outside rushed into the chamber. They opened up from the door, causing Mandy and the other guards to scatter. The corpse threw the body aside, turned, and flew at them. It rammed its hand into the chest of the middle one, bursting his heart out his back, before pulling him close and gulping his blood. When the guard on the left tried to club it with her submachine gun, it turned, grabbed her by the throat, crushed her larynx, and consumed her blood as well. The guard on the right opened fire, and the corpse threw the woman's body at him. As he dodge, it intercepted him, tore off the arm that held the gun, and took his blood. Each time it fed, Differel noted that its appearance grew younger, though its hair remained pure white.
"Kill it!" Mandy roared at the remaining guards. "Kill it! Send it Hell!" They opened fire from across the chamber. The corpse charged them, dodging left and right, moving so fast it was a dark blur. It swept through them, carrying one off; it drank his blood and threw the body at the foot of the sarcophagus. It turned and charged them again, wading into their midst, grabbing each one at a time and draining him or her dry in seconds, as the others shot or pummeled it. It ignored bullet
and blow alike, as if they meant nothing to it, and Differel watched, in horrified fascination, as its hair darkened with each feast. Finally it stood alone, surrounded by bodies, its hair and mustache now a dark iron gray.
It twisted around a few time, looking for another opponent, but when it found none, it straightened and relaxed. It stared at Mandy for a few moments, as she pointed her Beretta at it, then it focused on Differel. It strode towards her and Mandy followed it with her pistol, but she didn't fire, and Differel realized she hoped it would finish her off. She didn't try to get away; she knew it would be impossible. When it reached her, it stood over her, looking down, and she stared back, waiting for it to take hold of her and raise her up to its face. She was surprised at how calm she felt. She figured she should be terrified, and she could feel her heart pound as her stomach grew a lump of ice, but it was due more to nervousness than fear. In fact, though she expected it to be agonizing in the beginning, she was comforted to know that at least it would be a quicker death than the one Mandy had planned.
But what it actually did startled the living daylights out of her. It bent down on one knee, bowed its head low, and said, "At your service, My Master."
Differel couldn't believe it. She wondered if the stress had driven her mad.
A Vampire, one of the monsters my family is sworn to destroy, my servant?! This is the Van Helsing legacy? It was absolutely insane! And yet, she realized, it made a kind of sense. What else but a monster can destroy another monster?
Mandy's roar of rage cut off her thoughts. The Vampire stood and faced her. She fire at it and it advanced on her, seemingly unstoppable. She fired five times before pausing, as if she realized the bullets were useless. The Vampire charged her, a streaked blur, but she threw out her free hand, palm facing it, and it stopped dead, as if it had hit a stone wall. It struggled against the invisible force, as tongues of eldritch blue flames surrounded it. It bellowed in agony as it writhed, and it rose off the ground.
"No!" Differel shouted, anguished and afraid. "Let him go, you're hurting him! Stop it!"
Mandy focused on her, and the flames disappeared. The Vampire dropped to the floor in an unconscious heap. Differel ran to him, and was relieved to see he was still breathing.
"End of the line, Niece!" Mandy shrilled, pointing her pistol at her. "You have no champions left!"
A hideous banshee caterwaul contradicted her as Mr. Mistoffelees hurtled from behind the sarcophagus. He ran straight for her, launched himself into the air, and landed on the side of her face. He wrapped his forepaws around her head, digging in with his claws, as he bit her cheek and racked at her neck with his rear paws. Mandy shrieked in fury and pain as she danced and whirled around, trying to dislodge the demonic fur ball.
Differel looked at the door. The way out was clear, she could make a run for it, and for a moment she almost went for it. She took a couple of steps in that direction, but then stopped.
No, I can't leave.
The cat was her friend, the Vampire her servant; both had risked their lives for her. She couldn't abandon them to Mandy's mercy.
If only I had a weapon!
She looked around, but the only things in reach were the chunks of granite lying on the floor, and those were hardly suitable. In her desperation, she looked at her father's crypt. The bronze plaque, electroplated with cobalt, stared back at her.
Dear Father, I wish I had something to fight with!
She felt a tingling in her hand, as if it had gone to sleep and the blood was returning to her skin. When she looked, she saw a cloud of sparkles floating over her palm. The cloud thickened into a mist and elongated into a rod shape. Then it coalesced and solidified into a cruciform sword. It was longer than she was tall, with a narrow,
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