Rebellious Hood

by Kendrai Meeks

  “Hello!” Caleb clapped. “This isn’t medieval times anymore. Those kind of things can be made with 3D printers. I know your kind sticks to the sticks, but you got to keep up to date with modernity.”

  At the door that led into the courtyard, I paused. “Excuse me? Which one of us just earned a BS in Biochemistry and which one of us thinks Penthouse Forum is high literature?”

  “It was just one copy, Geri. I told you, I don’t normally read those things.”

  But I was done arguing.

  TWENTY-THREE

  A carpet of homes, shops, streets, and just... brown... spooled across the valley. The irony of Schloss Wolfsretter’s secret entrance was that it was in open view. At least from the village below. Probably not so much a consideration at the time it was built, given the lack of telescopes, binoculars and zoomable cameras held by medieval laity. Night cloaked my presence, however, the maturing moon masked in clouds. The stairway that led to the true base of the tower was nothing more than a series of stones that extended out about the width of two hands from where the earth dropped away. A thin error for margin, but the twenty steps I’d need to take with nothing below me but a fall didn’t concern me. That fact that the gathering storm parading across the valley sparked lightning in the distance, did.

  Basic rule of metallurgy: silver is the best electrical conductor.

  Hoods were mortal. We were born, we aged, if somewhat more gracefully than hueys, and we died. We were amazingly resistant to disease, counted superhuman senses and strengths as assets, and could make silver our bitch, as Amy might say. It was in that last gift, however, that we also found our greatest weakness. I’d never had to fear it before; as a nascent, the lightning would not seek me. Now, having claimed my fire, that would no longer be the case. Wolves had always known the best way to outmaneuver a hood was in a storm. We didn’t dare expose ourselves to them, because when lightning struck near enough, it would reach out a finger to us and strike us dead.

  Even though the storm was far away, if I took too long at my task, it would be too late to escape the same way. I’d either need to find another way out, or a place to hide inside until the danger had passed.

  The silver wrapped around my arm obeyed my command, pooling into a thin stream that siphoned into a crevice beneath a stone bearing the crest of the House of Red. Liquid metal snaked its way deep into the structure, finding the lever at last when it had gone so far as to be nearly out of my command. With a shift in my mind’s eye, the silver solidified, forming a chain. With a hearty tug, the lock released, and the faux brickwork concealing the chamber tilted in.

  Into a tunnel of darkness even my sensitive eyes could barely distinguish. Great. I’d been so quick to leap at the chance, I’d forgotten basics like the need for freaking lights when ascending a foot-wide staircase entombed between two massive stone walls.

  “Here, let me help.”

  “Holy shit!”

  The brilliant light struck my eyes and nearly made me lose my footing. Caleb grabbed me just in time with his solarium-free hand and threw me into the tunnel.

  “Sorry, Geri, didn’t mean to scare you. Just thought you could use some help.”

  “Some help?” He winced as I pelted his chest, ignoring the fact that he’d plunge to his death if I did so too hard. “What in the hell are doing here? I’m trying to be all covert and stuff. Did anyone see you? Did anyone follow you?”

  “All the nascents were heading indoors when I passed through. I guess even if they aren’t allergic to lightning, still sucks to be in the rain. I ran through fast; they probably didn’t see me.”

  I’d forgotten that a slayer could run almost as quickly as a vamp. “Good, but you shouldn’t have come. If I get caught inside, it’s bad enough. Bringing an outsider into the Grand Matron’s private study? It looks like my mother’s matronship isn’t as secure as it used to be, and that will be major capital for her enemies.”

  “Relax, Geri. You forget, I’m the master of sly. Besides...” He took a few steps up, calling up a solarium as he did. “...you forgot a flashlight. Pretty cool hidden door trick there, too. How did you open that before you could wield silver?”

  “I didn’t.” The way illuminated as we began the four hundred and eight spiral steps it would take to reach the top. “Not from the outside, anyway. I’ve only been down here once, about a decade ago. My mother showed it to me in case I ever needed to make a quick escape.”

  “Does that happen a lot here? Emergency escapes?”

  I shrugged, despite the fact that being in front of me, Caleb couldn’t see. “I don’t think so. I think she just thought that I was finally old enough that I’d keep it secret. Guess she was wrong.”

  “If it helps, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Especially not Amy.”

  He paused, looking at me back over his shoulder. “Why would I tell Amy of all people?”

  “I don’t know, you two seem to have a way of getting in to one-uppings.” I gave him a little push, urging him on. “Why did you do it, by the way? Offer to make her castellan of the slayers? You guys don’t even have a castle.”

  “Maybe not, but I have a corporation. Or at least, a big part of it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You don’t think I was giving Inga my blood out of the kindness of my heart, do you?” He laughed as he turned forward. “Everything was very quid pro quo. Inga got biweekly feedings. I got a big slice of WWL ownership.”

  “Wait, so basically you’re...”

  “God-maddening rich, yes.” Caleb shrugged. “Amy will be well-compensated, don’t worry about that. Should finally get her away from those self-involved parents of hers, too.”

  “Why do you care about that? I thought you hated her.”

  “I don’t hate Amy. I just hate being around her. And you didn’t hear her side of the conversation when she called home. After the ‘thank god you’re alive’ part, I kinda questioned if they really were. Thankful, I mean. I don’t know exactly what they said, but after a few minutes, she just went all quietlike, letting them get their licks in. Can you imagine what you have to say to Amy Popowitz to make her mopey? Oh my god, how long is this staircase?”

  “Just keep going. You do realize you just guaranteed being around Amy for, like, well, until you figure out how to get rid of her, right?”

  “She’ll be free to leave at any point. Tell you the truth, though? I don’t think she’s going to. Amy’s a drama junkie, and being in our world has given her a steady supply. Notice she hasn’t man-shopped once since we left Chicago?”

  “During which time we’ve been hunting vampires or running from them.”

  “Exactly,” Caleb said. “No guys. Girl just needs a new thrill every couple of weeks.”

  Finally, the stairs ended. The Grand Matron’s study wasn’t as private as the official residence on the several floors above the tower were. It wasn’t uncommon for her to host meetings with other matrons or even passing hoods here, though only by invitation. While on my side of the entry, the door looked like something taken from a barn, from inside my mother’s study, it was hidden behind a very large painting of the Schloss made in the eighteenth century. I pushed it gently, checking that the coast was clear.

  And came face to face with my mother.

  Reclining against her desk, her arms folded over her chest and wearing street clothes, I had to wonder just how long she’d lain in wait.

  “Well?” she asked, a slow, impatient draw in her voice. “Coming in or not?”

  Not knowing what else to do, I pulled myself erect and crawled in. “Caleb is with me, too.”

  “I assumed it’d be him, since I sensed no wolf. Well, hurry along, then. I do have other matters to attend.”

  I looked back in the portal at Caleb, jerking my head. Hesitation lingered until I gave him a death glare. “I didn’t ask you to come along. Now suffer the consequences.”

  “You know, Geri, if you wanted to come of
f as the nagging wife, you really should have said yes when I proposed.” The slayer stepped in, and as soon as we were in the room proper, proceeded to act like we’d just arrived for a scheduled appointment. Extinguishing his solarium, he offered his hand. “Mrs. Kline, Grand Matron, you’re looking lovely this evening.”

  Brünhild rolled her eyes. Then, pushing herself off her desk, leaving Caleb’s hand hanging, she circled toward the fireplace. “You’re still officially relinquished. If my adversaries find out I’ve let you into the tower, they’d have my head and yours.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry. I know it’s exceptional that I’m even being allowed to stay in the compound. But...” Why was I twisting my hands? “I think Vlad is heading to Spain, and I think he’ll have Tobias with him.”

  “Interesting, but not the answer to the question I asked.” She folded her arms over her chest and stared into the fire.

  Caleb took up the details from there. “Grand Matron, let me explain. To start with, vampires are not, in fact, immortal. They get about five hundred years after they’re reborn in the creche before becoming ash. But they can extend their lives by drinking supernatural blood. I mean, wolf doesn’t do anything special for them, but a meal of slayer or hood blood every couple of weeks keeps them going.”

  “Which was why Vlad kept his harem,” I jumped in. “They hunted down most of the race but kept a select few to breed and live off of.”

  “And asenaic blood not only keeps them alive, it makes them even more powerful.” My mother’s eyes met mine. “I know all this.”

  Of course, she did. She probably knew a lot more than I did about tons of supernatural lore. If only she’d ever shared with me the stuff that truly mattered.

  “Papa told me he was meant to be the last of his line in the Americas. He said those words very exactly, which tells me there may be others of our kind in Spain, where Papa’s family immigrated from. I know Igor was visiting them, drinking from them. I need to find out who those people are and warn them about Vlad, and I need to be there if the Ravens show up. When they show up, because they’re already on their way.”

  “Really?” She arched an eyebrow. “And what makes you so sure?”

  I gulped down my nerves. “Because during the quickening, I heard Vlad say as much. That was a few days ago now. They’re either already there, or about to be.”

  If this surprised my mother, she showed no signs of it. Instead, she looked bored. “You still have not answered my question. Why are you here?”

  I sucked in a breath and all the courage I could summon. “Because I think there’s a book here that lists the history of the asenaics. I’m pretty sure it’s the one I was looking at once when you caught Markus and me snooping around. I need to see it, so I know where to go.”

  Brünhild walked forward, bracing her hands on the back of a guest chair on the opposite side of her desk. “Last chance, Gerwalta. Why. Are. You. Here.”

  Confusion drew my eyebrows down as I tried to figure out what I was missing. Then, suddenly it dawned on me. She didn’t mean just in this office. No, her question was so much broader than that.

  “Because I love Tobias,” I said. “Because I want him as my husband, and I want to be his mate.”

  “He already had a mate,” my mother said. “Her name was Kara.”

  I nodded. “But Vlad’s got some kind of gene therapy that’s unraveling the wolf instincts. Undoing bonds. Tobias had already been exposed to it in Istanbul. I know because he... He kissed me.”

  Though that didn’t explain it all. He’d told me he loved me before the Ravens had taken him, kissed me before he’d been lost to me, but I didn’t want my mother aware of his idiosyncrasies any more than was necessary. It might give her fodder later to condemn the man I loved.

  To my surprise, my mother smiled. “Finally. And if you don’t remember that from here on out, you’re not going to succeed at anything.”

  Expecting fire and getting only kindness, I found myself aghast. “You’re ... not ... mad? All my life, you’ve drilled into me that hood begets hood. You even tried to convince me to marry Markus, for Christ’s sake.”

  Caleb blew a raspberry. “As in your cousin?” he asked. “Ew.”

  “Such pairings are not uncommon in our society, Mr. Helsing. And given the extraordinarily small gene pool your kind will be swimming in for the immediate future, I think you’ll find they’ll be somewhat common in yours.” Then, focusing back on me, she added. “I was trying to find you a protector, because I’ve always known this day was coming. Markus loves you, though sadly, not in the way I would have liked. I appreciate Cody Ryland, but I never thought of him as the kind who could be a leader. Happily, he’s proven me wrong on that account. Now, Tobias Somfield... He’s good for you.”

  I swallowed my disbelief. “What?”

  “Do you not think I above all people could be sympathetic? I love your father, even knowing that I’m supposed to hate him, even want to destroy him. You need to be sure you feel that for your wolf, because even if I, the Grand Matron, accept you, that does not mean everyone will.”

  I was dead. Or in a coma. Whatever was happening, it couldn’t be real. “Accept me?”

  But in my mother’s characteristic fashion, she considered the matter closed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Pushing herself off the desk, she spun in the direction of her bookshelves. “I destroyed the book you’re talking about. I cannot show it to you.”

  And... there was reality, crashing back down around me. All the hope I’d felt? Like pure oxygen, it caught a spark and leapt into flame. “What? Why? You... Son of a bitch, how dare you destroy something that—”

  Caleb pulled me back, putting a hand over my mouth. “You really need to work on your communication skills. Don’t you get it? She didn’t destroy it to piss you off. She did it to protect you and your dad. Which, based on my limited knowledge, sounds like what she’s been doing all her life.”

  My mother softened. “Perhaps this one is more than a shameless flirt and pretty face. Here I thought his only abilities were flattery and insolence.”

  “No, Matron, I can be as insolent as fuck. You could have asked Inga herself, if you hadn’t killed her. Forget about the book, Geri. Remember in the council meeting when your mother said she was closing in on the Ravens’ location? Your mother knows what you’re after.”

  I turned on her, tapping a foot. “Well, do you?”

  Emotions cycled across Brünhild’s face. Annoyance, disappointment, finally... acceptance. “At the council, I mentioned there are five. Two, of course, you know: you and your father. Three more survive in Navarre, on the edge of the Pyrenes. Pedro, Elenara, and Indigo Muñez.”

  “Indigo?” Caleb’s voice filled with glee. “’Ello, my name is Indigo Mon...”

  His words turned into groans as I elbowed his stomach. “Not the time, Helsing.”

  “What is he...?” My mother looked at my ex like he was a mental patient.

  “Something about vampires and slayers,” I said. “They have a thing for The Princess Bride. Pedro, Elenara, and Indigo Muñez in Navarre. Got it. I’ll leave just as soon as I have my supplies gathered.”

  “Just like that, you’re going to flee?”

  Was she kidding? “What would keep me here, our warm and sentimental relationship? You think one hug in a moment of weakness overwrites the years of disdain and cruelty? Look, I am thankful that you’ve given the slayers refuge, that you recognized my claim on Mina, for saving us from Inga. But you lost me the moment you kept me from my birthright. You attacked me with silver flame, mother. Me, your own flesh and blood. How did you know it wouldn’t kill me?”

  The barely visible lines on her face grew taut. “It was never my intention to hurt you. I had hoped it would... It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  Struggling to keep my voice even, the heels of my hands bore the grunt of my frustration. “Thank you for telling me the names of the other asenaics. I’ll do what I can to let them k
now the danger they’re in.”

  Just as I turned, she said perhaps the only thing that could get me to stay. “There’s a reason, you know, why Tobias Somfield can love you.”

  I tried to burn her with my glare. “Because it can’t be my charming personality?”

  Her jaw worked. “The book you saw? It contained more than just the details of the yellow bloodline from which your father descended. Stuck in the pages was a letter written to my grandmother in 1944 by Igor Kharmarov.”

  I tried to downplay that fact. “What does that have to do with Tobias?”

  “Gerwalta Faust gave birth to a healthy asenaic baby. And that child, when she matured, had twins. The father, by the way, was also lupine.”

  I didn’t know why that knowledge caused a pang in the pit of my stomach. I had two wolf ancestors erased by time? How many more secrets were hidden in my blood? “How would Igor know that?”

  “Because he’s the one who raised Bianca Baron.”

  “Gerwalta’s daughter?” I scoffed. “Are you serious? Igor would have told me.”

  “Besides,” Caleb chimed in, “a vampire would never raise another supe’s baby. Especially not a Dracule. It’s just not in their nature.”

  “I suspect he would not have done it, if he had not felt some guilt. You see, Gerwalta Faust was not, in fact, called the betrayer because of her affair with Andreas Baron. It was because she learned of a plot by the Ravens to destroy werewolves; likely the same plot they’re playing out now, only enhanced by modern science and technology. She was ordered to stay out of it, but she refused to not fight for the wolves. It is Gerwalta who entombed the Ravens in jars of silver.”

  Someone had just shot my brain with a confusion cannon. “Wait a minute, you’re saying Igor... The sweet little professor with a pet cat, raised the Betrayer’s kid?”

  “And her twins, until he became aware of the hyper-restorative power of their blood. He knew then that this new asaenic bloodline could restore the Ravens to power if ever they escaped. He even separated the twins, untwisting their fate. One whose nature proved more hood than wolf was adopted into the Casa de Amarillo in Navarre. The other, whose nature tended towards lupine, was sent faraway to England, where he was raised wolf.”