Twice Bitten

by Aiden James

  But, December twenty-fourth was different from all previous mornings in the palace, and I felt the urge to study the ice-cycles and snowdrifts instead. That’s when I saw the tracks.

  The three-toed imprints were large—bigger than any human footprint I’d ever seen. The tracks moved along the side of the main building to the palace and curved along the snow bank as the path moved beyond the back of the building. Intrigued, I studied the tracks again, and visually followed their course until I suddenly noticed something else.

  The gray tail of an enormous lizard whipped back and forth for a moment, and then disappeared beyond where I could see. That got me going. Since it was quite cold outside, I gathered my snowsuit from the closet in my bedchamber and hurriedly put it on. Then I set out in earnest to find whatever it was I just saw.

  Moving quickly downstairs, I picked up my pace as I followed the corridor back to the rear entrance to my building. I barely glanced at the tiresome entrees laid out for me in the reception area, but did take a look at the clock. The time was 8:36 a.m.

  I mentioned that I rarely saw anyone, but encountered nearly a dozen children on my way to the back entrance. They smiled curiously at me, and I politely returned their smiles. But I was on a mission—a fact finding one where I simply had to confirm if I actually saw what I thought I saw, or if my bored mind and overactive imagination had gotten the better of me.

  Bundled up, I stepped outside into the frigid air. The sun was out, but the temperature felt as if it hung around zero degrees Fahrenheit. I didn’t see a thermometer, and God only knows what the temperature was in Celsius…roughly a twenty degrees difference when it got down to zero, right? Or something like that. All I knew was my nostrils were sticking, which used to happen to me as a little girl in Richmond, Virginia when the temperature sometimes hovered in the single digits—above or below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

  That hardly mattered once I saw the tracks. They moved across stone sculptures and a dormant marble fountain covered in ice and snow, as if the maker of the footprints was in too big of a hurry to step around the damned things. I was okay up until then, as far as honoring Chanson’s instructions to me. I could make it back to safety if it became necessary to flee danger. But then the tracks kept going, angling next to Huangtian Dadi’s sacred compound.

  “Ah, shit!” I hissed, pausing to consider the possible consequences I’d face for deviating from my cousin’s specific admonishment. The voice in my head reminded me that I had more than my own skin to look out for. By then, Chanson and Gustav had confirmed that my baby would be a girl. My daughter was utterly helpless and needed me to defer to her safety one hundred percent—my insatiable curiosity be damned!

  I reluctantly turned around and began to trudge back to the palace’s main building. But that’s when I heard voices. Children’s voices, and from my guess at least two of them…and they were whimpering.

  I stopped, concentrating harder while my heart raced.

  Then all at once, one of the voices started screaming.

  Call it stupidity if you must, or maybe a new mom’s instinct to protect someone young, as if the child were my own. Regardless, I ran to where the screams came from. It was just to the side of Huangtian Dadi’s secluded estate—his royalty’s splendid abode. As I approached, I saw a child. A little boy held a younger child that appeared to be a three-year old girl. They were both sobbing uncontrollably in the frigid sunlight while facing something thrashing around in a shadowed open pavilion.

  At first, all I saw were streams of crimson soaking into the snow. Then I saw the terribly mutilated body of a young woman, whose limbs and head had been torn viciously from her torso. They laid haphazardly upon the snow—some beneath the pavilion’s roof, and an arm and leg partially in the sunlight.

  I could only assume that this woman must be these poor children’s mother, and I felt profound despair for their loss. This whole scene was beyond horrible. My knees began to buckle, and my body felt drained of every ounce of energy and strength I had. But that was not the worst…the worst was the hungry demon feeding on the woman’s open torso, making terrible sucking sounds as it fed on her bloody flesh and entrails.

  At first the monster didn’t see me, but when it did it snarled at me. I’m not talking about some lizard, as this monster was once a man, and now surely a vampire. A raging lunatic with gleaming red eyes and long fangs, the vampire could’ve passed for a brother of Xuanxang if not for the eye color. Holding the bleeding torso as if it were a mere pillow, he eyed me predatorily. I had somehow trespassed into a sacred realm…like a Yellowstone tourist stumbling upon a grizzly bear killing a deer for its cubs.

  He dropped the woman’s torso and roared at me, and I stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. The children shrieked in terror, clutching each other tightly. Meanwhile, the vampire stepped into the sunlight, but then howled in pain and shrunk back as if he had just stepped into a fiery furnace. Smoke rose from the seared flesh on his naked and bloodstained body.

  That gave me hope…maybe I could rescue the kids and get us all back inside the palace safely. What happened next, however, obliterated that notion completely.

  The vampire began to mutate. His powerful muscles expanded while sharp fins tore through his back and a pair of black horns grew from each side of his head. His skin began to peel away, revealing the gray scales I had witnessed earlier. But I had been too far away to distinguish the intricate snake-like patterns along the creature’s arms, legs, and the tail that dropped toward the ground from this monster’s backside. Not to mention the elongated snout that was forming along with an ever-widening mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth.

  I was so fucked.

  My feet felt like lead, as if secured to the icy ground I stood upon. But in the few moments before this thing finished its transformation, something inside me came to life. A voice that I heard so distinctly, and so powerfully, called to me. Perhaps the soul of my child to be? All I know is it told me to run!

  Run, now, Mommy!!

  From there it was a blur. Yet at the same time, I felt as if I was moving in slow motion. I couldn’t save the children, but then again, this thing wasn’t after them anyway. I ran as fast as I could, praying the God-given athleticism that made me a high-school star and earned me the athletic scholarship to UT was enough to save me right then.

  I threw open the back door to the palace, wondering ever so briefly why there were no day-time guards protecting the main building in the complex. I didn’t wait to close the door, and I sprinted down the corridor toward the front of the building. I had no intention of stopping or looking over my shoulder until I reached my room.

  Meanwhile, the door exploded behind me, and I heard the screams of more terrified children. The clicks and scrapes of sharp talons against the marble floor were all I needed to know this monster intended to pursue me until it held my trembling body within its mouth or claws.

  I scrambled up the stairs to the second floor just as my pursuer crashed through the reception area. It sounded as if I might have gained a few seconds on it, since I heard the snap of a table being broken and chairs launched into a wall. But before I made it to the stairs to the third floor, the fiend was racing across the second floor to catch me. It let out an even angrier screech, no doubt irritated that I hadn’t even bothered to turn around. Do that, and I might as well have said goodbye to life as I’ve known it.

  I had less than a twenty-foot lead when I made it to the third floor. If I’d bothered to lock my bedchamber’s door, I would’ve never made it to safety. Just before I reached the door, I felt the thing lunge itself at me, and part of my snowsuit was torn away as I slipped into my room. The angry vampire-turned-dragon fell to the ground, and before it could right itself to pursue me inside my bedchamber, I managed to get the door shut and locked using the bar bolt provided by our Chinese hosts. At least I knew then why it was needed.

  The creature on the door’s other side slammed its body repeatedly against the door, and it st
arted to give. I had no idea what to do next, and dire panic rose rapidly within me. I sought to rouse my protectors from their deep, daily slumber, knocking loudly on every single casket. But they remained comatose as to what was going on.

  The door began to splinter. I cowered next to the last coffin in the row of five next to my bed to await my impending doom. It was the smallest one and belonged to Raquel. Just as the heavy wooden door fell into the room, and I saw the creature’s angry maw and open talons, the lid to her casket suddenly flew open and she sat up facing the doorway…screaming. Screaming a litany of chopped words and guttural sounds.

  She scared the holy shit out of me, and I was almost as frightened by her sudden appearance as I was the menace in our doorway. Her eyes were glowing blood red—unlike their usual lavender beauty—and her teeth looked a hell of a lot sharper than I remembered ever seeing—even from the side. Not to mention, her fangs looked especially elongated…so dangerous.

  I scurried under the table nearby, terribly frightened and unsure what to do next.

  But apparently whatever Raquel had uttered had some effect on the dragon. It was somehow prevented from crossing the threshold into our room. It howled angrily, but after being repulsed again and again, it slammed loudly against the wall facing the hall one last time and then I heard an immense crash from breaking glass.

  Having abruptly exited the palace via the immense window that faced the highest reaches of the Himalayas, the monster’s angry cries grew softer and softer as it ran away. When the cries finally grew faint and difficult to hear, my diminutive protector closed her mouth and eyes and laid back down inside her casket. I tentatively stood up and stole a peek into her daytime resting place. She looked so calm and peaceful, like an angel at rest.

  Chapter 5

  “There’s no way we can stay here!”

  My latest voiced protest landed upon the same audience’s deaf ears as the previous ones had. After pacing around my bedchamber for hours while I anxiously waited for the sun to set, I was in no mood for the collective nonchalance I was greeted with when my vampire friends awoke. Only Tyreen shared my angst, as she repeatedly looked out my empty doorway into the gathering darkness beyond the palace.

  Even the team of Chinese vampires that had already completed their nightly ritual of scaling the palace walls while lighting the hundreds of torches that covered the main building seemed quite concerned by the fifteen-foot jagged hole in the third floor window. I should add here that we had recently learned that the glass was nearly four inches thick, and designed to withstand hurricane-strength winds or any other assault from Mother Nature. No doubt the window would prevent certain caliber bullets from breaking it, as well…just not a furious vampire/dragon.

  “I’ve already spoken to Gustav about it. He agrees with Huangtian Dadi that you interrupted the feeding time for one of the descendants of the founders of Xu Zheng,” said Chanson. “As long as you don’t willingly seek this one out, you’ll never encounter him again. I’ve not even seen this kind of vampire before—that’s how rare they are.”

  “So, you’re okay with what it did?” I felt incensed and incredulous. “That thing is a fucking demon as far as I’m concerned! I watched it orphan two young children who were forced to watch it gruesomely devour their mother!! There’s no way—”

  “Sh-h-h!!” She placed her cool hand over my mouth to prevent me from saying anything else that could get me into trouble with her. “It’s not for us to judge the customs of another culture, Txema. I don’t like it any more than you do, but we’re in no position to enforce our ways upon any members who follow the Order of the Dragon. The leaders of the Order are much older and more powerful than either Gustav or Huangtian Dadi.”

  “So, what are you saying—that we just need to turn a blind eye to what’s going on around here?” I persisted, moving away from her hand to at least try and get out what I wanted to say. I desperately needed her to hear it—I needed them all to hear me loud and clear! Wrong is always wrong, regardless of whether it offends someone to speak up about it or not. I couldn’t have cared less about some ancient Order’s moral or political code. Chanson, as my cousin, should appreciate my stance, since the women in our family would never put up with this kind of shit! It’s as integral to our birthright as the fact we can make some vampires handsome or beautiful. “At least we now know why there are only a bunch of kids running the place—their parents have all been eaten!”

  Chanson stepped back and studied me, and I could tell she was having a hard time being stern. She knew exactly what I was talking about. Even Tyreen and Raquel nodded in agreement. There had to be more than a single rogue vampire orphaning the palace staff.

  As for the guys? They looked concerned, as if also wanting to take my side, but were afraid of any consequence for doing so. For the moment, they remained tight-lipped as they watched the volley between the vampire they had often deferred to as their ‘princess’ and me.

  “Very well …we shall agree to disagree. Okay?” She stepped closer, lowering her voice to just above a whisper. “But for now, I ask that you act as if this unfortunate event never happened. At least—”

  I started to protest, but she immediately stopped me.

  “At least until it’s safe enough to do otherwise.” She nodded her head in an effort to get me to do the same. The weight of her stare burrowed into my frazzled psyche, and I relented. “And, I mean safe enough for us all.”

  In other words, I needed to keep my mouth shut until we were no longer guests of Xu Zheng Palace.

  ***

  With such an unpleasant start to Christmas Eve, I assumed the entire holiday would be a somber, and thus a lonelier, affair. Especially since I seriously doubted that our Chinese hosts gave a flip about this predominantly Western holiday. There wasn’t a single hint that Christmas even existed in the palace…no decorations, colored lights, and certainly no Christmas trees. Not even Asian or bonsai style, if there were such a thing in the Chinese Himalayas. Just the mundane Eighteenth century comforts and a meager menu of unimaginative oriental dishes served with rice and tea, and of course, warm, human blood for my vampire friends.

  Lovely. Just fucking lovely.

  I believe if it had only been me this upset, my companions might’ve been tempted to lock me up in a dark closet and not let me out again until January arrived. But Tyreen also was dealing with deep sadness—despite her new nature as a vampire. The human side of her would take decades to kill off, unless she was as resilient as the vampires in our immediate circle. They seemed ‘human’ enough despite the fact all were at least three centuries in age. Even so, I certainly was seeing more and more where compassion for the true human condition was a perspective of convenience.

  “Hey, sister, how are you holding up?” she said, when the others prepared to leave the room for what I assumed would be another typical night of ‘pick your plasma preference while Txema picks at her food’.

  “I’ll be okay, Tyreen…I just need to take my mind away from this shit for at least a night.” I forced a smile that she returned with genuine warmth. The softhearted girl I once knew lingered in her eyes. They were glistening as if she might cry, and remember that for a vampire this normally means the presence of blood. For her it was no different, as pink halos formed around the rims and a deeper spot of crimson was filling the edge of her left eye’s tear duct. “How you are doing, is the more important thing.”

  “I’ll be okay, too,” she said. “But I really miss my mom and dad back in Atlanta…. And I miss Johnny even more!”

  Her lips trembled for a moment, and I so admired her efforts to hold in the pain…for my sake. There wasn’t much mercy for a new vampire. Tyreen was expected to ‘tough it out’ on her own. Surely, this had been the case long ago for most if not all of my immortal companions when they were ‘turned’. Assuming this, none of them could be expected to behave differently, or faulted for not showing compassion to a nubile vamp struggling with the steady decay of her h
umanity. Just five weeks earlier, Tyreen talked excitedly about traveling home to Atlanta from Knoxville for Thanksgiving break to introduce her parents to her college beau, Johnny Ayers.

  “Oh, sweetie, you’ll always be able to count on me to be there for you.” I reached out to embrace her, and a deluge of pent up emotion exploded from her. She wept bitterly. “There, there…it’s okay.”

  A good thing I didn’t wear something white that night, or I would’ve immediately needed to change my wardrobe. But if I could wear her genuine tears on my dark burgundy sweater for the night—which I intended to do—it was a burden worth carrying. Especially since she seemed revived after her cry had ended.

  “What will I do when you get old and gray?”

  That’s the ultimate question that seems to haunt all immortals when faced with the loss of those they’ve cared most for while still human. Raquel once mentioned how the first such deaths are always the worst to endure.

  “What then?”

  “You’ll make her into a vampire and call it a day!”

  Count on Armando to get the party back on track. He floated beneath us and popped up his face between ours. His comical expression and timing were impossible to resist, and both Tyreen and I laughed a little. It felt good…really good.

  “But I suggest you not wait so long to do it,” he continued his playful rant, after somehow disappearing from between us and reappearing next to Tyreen’s right shoulder. “Sometime before Txema turns into an old, craggy witch of a woman…maybe when she’s thirty, no? Unless you two keep chitchatting tonight away. If you’re not careful, I’ve seen how Chanson’s great, great, great, grand niece gets when she hasn’t received prompt nourishment—and you have too, Tyreen. Txema might become that craggy witch much, much sooner and be completely ready to become a vampire this very night!”