by Emma Glass
That was probably true, but…
“I don’t understand. You say this is Earth. But that can’t be. There’s only one, and this certainly isn’t my Earth. On mine, there’re more than seven billion humans! But here… vampires! I can see the stars during daylight! Your sky is totally crazy!”
My words stopped in their tracks when I saw the look of horrified fascination on Elliott’s face.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
He swallowed. “Seven… billion… humans?”
“Actually,” I paused to think, “the population won’t stop growing. By now, I’m pretty certain that seven-and-a-half billion is the better guess.”
Elliott slowly regained his composure, and he held his hand over his forehead. “But that’s… that’s unreal! How? How can there possibly be that many humans?”
“Well, mankind is sort of like that,” I told him. “We’ve had a few plagues in the past five hundred years. Every time we get one of those, our race sort of… makes up for lost life? Historically, we always spring back and multiply like crazy.”
“Clearly,” he shook his head.
It occurred to me to tell him about more than just plagues. The last few generations of us had been born in a world that had turned on itself, erupting into hellfire and destruction the likes of which had never been seen before. We’d gone through not one, but two World Wars… and it seemed every day like another one was waiting for us around every corner.
But I was afraid of what he would think. I was scared of the questions he would ask me.
If I truly were the first human that Elliott had seen – or the first human to come here ever by the sounds of it – then I feared the reaction he’d give me. If this vampire, and the rest of his people, discovered just how utterly committed to death and warfare the human race seemed to be…
I wasn’t quite sure that example made for a fitting first impression.
“I don’t know what to make of you yet,” the vampire admitted rather bluntly. “But I stand by our decision to trust one another. For the sake of comfort, perhaps we should continue with this conversation in a more hospitable environment.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” I noted as I quickly realized what that meant. “Wait. There are loads more vampires out there. If it’s true that my blood is that intoxicating, how do I know they won’t rip me to shreds?”
“Simple. You’ll be with me.”
“I know you say you’re a ‘vampire lord’, or whatever that was, but unless you can take on a whole ton of them at once…”
“Clara,” he commanded my gaze.
“Yes, Elliott?”
He leaned forward, staring deep into my eyes. “When you are with me, you’re safe. By my side, Clara Blackwell, you stay under my protection.”
No matter how darkly heroic he was in my nightmares, I couldn’t overlook one painful fact. The real thing thirsts for my blood. It begged the question: were my dreams a guide, or a warning?
What would the vampire become to me?
My cautious answer came in a near whisper. “I want to trust you. Do you truly mean that?”
“Yes,” Elliott nodded. “You have my word.”
Regardless of his intent, there was no obvious way out of this castle. If this strange world were truly filled with vampires, I’d be screwed trying to run away. Worst case scenario, I could bide my time and wait for the right opportunity to escape…
“Okay, Elliott,” I conceded defeat with a plea. “My life is in your hands.”
8
Elliott
By the time the girl followed me out of the room, I’d fully forgotten Lorelei was standing guard.
“If we’re going to keep you safe here, then it’s probably best we get you at least fleetingly acquainted with how our world actually works,” I told her over my shoulder. “Since we obviously speak the same language, there’s no need to–”
“Oh.” Clara froze in surprise. “Who is this?”
“This?” I glanced over to the woman in lavish regal attire, standing silently nearby. “Oh right. This is my mother.” She blinked aloofly, as if she were just returning from some distant headspace. “Meet Lorelei Craven, former ruler of Stonehold.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” the human gave her a polite bow. “My name’s Clara Blackwell.”
Mother turned to us with a congenial smirk. “My… what a pleasant surprise. Not only does our human guest come with the most appetizing scent to her blood, but she’s got manners, too!”
After watching how Clara’s face quickly fell, I dryly added: “That’s your first lesson, human. Lorelei enjoys intimidating people.”
Mother merely smiled, a dark look in her eyes. “Go on without me, Elliott. But remember what I taught you about playing with your food…”
I wish I could forever preserve in my memory that pale, stricken look on Clara’s face.
At my behest, the elevator took us to the top floor.
Clara spent the entire ride up in the opposite corner, warily watching me. I pretended to not pay her any attention, as if she were invisible at worst, or perhaps a mere distraction at best. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but her frightened behavior entertained me.
When doors dinged open, they pulled open to my private quarters. I gestured forward, and Clara scampered out into the contemporary suite.
The entire pinnacle of Craven Keep was mine. The thick, resilient walls boasted fine examples of the greatest stonework in the entire hold, leading up to solid wooden beams across the lofty ceiling. Hardwood floors stretched across the room under various elegant rugs, tasteful dark couches with matching armchairs, and the occasional skinned pelt of an apex predator I’d bested in battle. Dense bookcases stood at attention across one entire wall, offering some of the world’s best literature. Above it all hung a dazzling crystal chandelier.
“Wow, Elliott… this is beautiful!”
“Yes,” I hid a smile, noting how quickly she forgot Lorelei’s little threat. “It works for me.”
The elevator closed behind me as I followed Clara into in the room. Even after some extensive renovations and a full year as the vampire lord, it was still difficult to think of this suite as mine.
“You live here?” She turned back to me. “This is the most gorgeous home I’ve ever been in…”
“The reigning lord gets the top floor,” I replied as I strolled past her for the bedroom. This outer cloak was getting on my nerves, and it was time that the thing came off. “When it came my turn to take over Stonehold, Lorelei released these rooms for my use, as per tradition…”
While I listened to her carefully step around the suite, my thoughts drifted back to the gift that her presence offered me: extrasensory perception. It hadn’t worked on Lorelei, as I couldn’t read her, and it sure as hell didn’t work on Clara either.
Funny, I quietly thought to myself. Perhaps Lorelei is immune because of our genetic bond. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would work on the foreign vampire lords…
“Elliott?”
I stepped back into the den. “What is it?”
Clara was looking at the name of one book in particular, a geographical encyclopedia on…
“The Falvian Badlands,” she read aloud before turning to me. “I’ve read that term somewhere in one of the books downstairs, when I first arrived. What does it mean?”
“It’s one of the Eight Holds,” I replied.
“Hold? You keep using that like a noun.”
“It’s what we call them,” I shrugged. “Earth is divided into eight holds; each one is ruled over by a vampire lord. Just like I am now, my mother was before me, her father before her, and so on…”
When her puzzled expression didn’t change, I thought of a different way to answer: “Do you not have holds? Think of them like rival kingdoms.”
“Don’t really have many kingdoms anymore,” she shrugged. “Over the last few hundred years, most of the world did away with them.
There are still a couple left in odd, remote places, but their power doesn’t stretch that far anymore.”
“No kingdoms?” I tried to imagine how that kind of system might work. The thought was kind of interesting, but I could barely fathom how the Earth could function that way.
“Tell me more about this place, the ‘Falvian Badlands,’” she asked, gazing at the book’s spine again. “What’s that one like?”
“In a word? Dangerous. It’s a massive hold of hostile climates. It contains everything from arid, burning deserts to a thick, carnivorous jungle. A major mountain range runs down the edge like a spine, leading to a dark swamp at the very south from which no vampire has returned alive…”
Clara shivered. “It sounds horrifying.”
“The Falvian Badlands are our brother to the south, across the same sea that divides this castle from the mainland. It connects to its closest rival holds by a land bridge.”
“Maybe it’s better to see this on a map?” She looked up hopefully at me. “If you’re going to keep kicking around names like this, it’s time I started to learn about these other kingdoms anyway.”
“That’s a great idea,” I agreed. “You’re bound to gain more familiarity with my world if you can see these places on paper…” I dug around in one of my nearby chests for my folded map. Once I held it in my hands, I brushed a few trinkets from a table and laid it out flat for her.
Clara quietly traipsed up behind me, glancing over my shoulder. I pointed to the small islands northwest of my kingdom, near the very center of the world map. “As you can see here, we are on the Isle of Obsidian, off the coast of Stonehold. To the south is–”
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “How?”
I turned abruptly. “What is it, Clara?”
“But… this is Earth.”
“Well, yes,” I grinned. “Of course it’s Earth.”
“No… Elliott, I don’t think you understand,” she held a trembling hand to her head. “This is the same world I came from.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand,” I sighed. “Didn’t we just go over some of this downstairs?”
“This is my world map, too. It’s just a little different.” Clara pointed to the Isle of Obsidian. “On my Earth, we call these the British Isles. This is where I live. And over here…” Her finger moved to Stonehold. “We call this Europe. In fact, it’s almost the same exact size and shape...”
“British Isles?” I looked at her funnily. “Okay, ‘Isle’ I get, but what exactly is a ‘British?’”
“It’s the people of Great Britain,” she clarified unhelpfully. “This here’s England, there’s Wales, Scotland, and this to the left is Ireland – although, that one’s a little more complicated…”
She wasn’t making any sense. Yet, I found myself fascinated with this fleeting knowledge of her alternate version of Earth. I quietly watched her scan the map with her fingertips, looking ever frustrated by the second.
“You seem rattled,” I noticed.
“The holds… these are continents, mostly.”
Evidently, it was my turn to be confused at the vocabulary. “So, what’s a ‘continent?’”
“The holds on your world are our continents, or great big landmasses which we’ve divided up into smaller countries. For example, down here? We call this ‘Africa’ on my Earth, filled with a bunch of individual countries, but here it’s just one big place you call it the ‘Falvian Badlands.’ And this one over here, well, we call that...”
She scrunched up her face. “Wait a second. Why is this huge chunk missing where the Middle East should be?”
“Those are the Drenchlands,” I patiently replied. “They’re mostly underwater.”
“But…” Clara looked utterly confused. “That’s supposed to be a desert. A giant desert.”
“Now I know you’re not making any sense,” I scoffed teasingly as I put a finger on that hold, just southeast of Stonehold. “The Drenchlands are a scattered archipelago; most of the hold is under the waves.”
“How does that work?”
“Without a lot of landmass, the Drenchland vampires inwardly fought for precious resources. Yet, technology marched on. Everything changed when their scientists finally learned how to safely colonize down underwater. Now they have all the room they need.” I tapped on the hold beneath my finger. “None of us hear very much out of them. They’re one of the more passive holds. Not very interested in the rest of us here on the surface.”
“That’s basically the exact opposite of what we have there in my world,” she told me. “On my Earth, some of the most territorial and dangerous people come from the desert there. They’re not all bad. It’s a vocal, deadly minority with a lot of worldwide attention…”
“Interesting.”
“And what about Australia?” Clara glanced up at me. “I don’t see that one here.”
“I swear you’re making these words up.”
She pointed to the open ocean in the bottom-right corner of the map. “There’s a continent here on my world. Everything except the edges is more or less uninhabitable, and it’s filled with hostile, dangerous creatures. It’s the smallest continent, about the size of our lower United States.”
“Wait. Are you telling me that your Earth gets a United Kingdom and a United States?” I couldn’t help a laugh. “That just seems disproportionate.”
She scowled at me.
“You might want to have this spot checked,” she pointed back at the empty ocean in the corner. “There’s an entire continent there on my world, and it’s full of some of the deadliest creatures on the planet.”
“Sounds pleasant,” I observed dryly.
She ignored the sarcastic comment. “Maybe on this world, there’s something out there? Isn’t it worth a look?”
Impatiently, I folded my arms over my chest. “Except, we already had a look. Over a thousand years ago, in fact. All the holds had cartographers from every corner mapping out the entire world. Their findings were made public knowledge. This must simply be a difference between our Earths… there’s just no possible way that they all missed something as large as what you claim.”
“I guess,” Clara shrugged nonchalantly. “That said, you guys have an underwater kingdom in the spot of our biggest desert civilization, so there’s no telling what might be out there.”
All this talk of her world delighted me, but she was growing stubborn. It was also true that I was increasingly willing to prioritize a meal over the conversation. My entire evening had become derailed by the arrival of this strange human, and that included dinner.
“Fascinating,” I muttered coolly. “Either way, I am starving. Are you hungry? Please tell me that you’re hungry. Otherwise, you are just going to have to sit there and watch me dine by myself.”
Her eyes lit up. “I’ve barely eaten today.”
“Really?” I smirked. Being the lord of a castle had its perks, and she was in for a culinary treat. “I guess we’d better fix that then, you and I…”
9
Clara
While his servants rushed around the dining area, at Elliott’s request I stayed quietly hidden away from them in his bedroom.
It didn’t take long to discover that the closed door muffled every last noise. The longer I kept my ear pressed to that door, growing ever bored, the more I realized an opportunity at hand.
I couldn’t resist taking a peek at his life.
The vampire’s appreciation for hardwood floors stopped abruptly in his bedroom doorway. It gave way to a polished, highly refined surface of pure black obsidian. The walls were covered in silver slate panels, hiding any hint of the stones. Against one wall stood an imposing fireplace with crackling logs, dominating from atop a slight rise. Directly across stood an imposing pair of large, dark oak bookcases, crammed with more books.
But the main attraction was right in front. Atop a blood-red rug stood a large canopy bed, rife with enough gothic extravagance and beauty to pull tears out of
Edgar Allen Poe.
The dark, ornate cathedral frame set the first impression, accented with crimson curtains. The formidable bed was packed with countless ebony pillows above a thick, lush duvet that was dyed in an impossibly black hue. Guarding the structure on either side were floor-to-ceiling windows, both filled with glass and dressed in red, regal drapes.
It didn’t matter that it looked like he’d ripped this out of a Romanian castle in its prime. Elliott’s bed was possibly the most startlingly comfortable one that I’d ever seen.
His bedroom was such a stark difference that I wondered how it could even be part of this suite. But the more I thought on it, flipping through a random book off his bookcase, the more that it made sense. Personal guests might see the outer suit; yet, where Elliott slept was his most private place in the entire world.
The chamber was so purely, intimately him: a powerful and sophisticated vampire at heart.
Carefully, I slipped the book back on the shelf. I walked over to the closest window drape. A faint movement of my hand, and I brushed it aside.
Night had fallen over the Isle of Obsidian.
The starry twilight was beautiful against the painterly swash of purple and black light. With all that majesty in the sky, it was hard to remember that, just this morning, I’d woken up in a different room on a different world.
No wonder that crazy lady wanted to come here.
I barely noticed the creaking door, or even the presence that was behind me now. A soothing, dark voice whispered just against my ear.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it, Clara?”
I nodded faintly. “It’s mesmerizing.”
Elliott stood so closely behind, one half-step back would bump me into his chest. Suddenly, I was well aware of my pounding heartbeat…
Just before I could lean back against him, he pulled away. “Dinner is ready, human.”
The predatory smirk in his tone sent a shiver down my spine. There was nothing about the way he worded it that made it sound like a threat, but my body reacted anyway.