by Al K. Line
But I'd learned from long and painful experience that stillness is often a precursor to violence, especially when I'm somewhere strange and not at my finest. I was definitely somewhere strange. I was absolutely not at my finest.
Pushing through the thick wooden doors into the grand hallway of Morag's ostentatious home made me nervous. I gathered magic like it was going out of fashion and solidified my inner core of power, focusing so strongly I could hear my body thrum.
Ink swelled dangerously, fat patterns dancing over my body and pressing against my shirt like I was pumped up from working out. It was a comfort, same as always. Such a beautiful thing, and mine, all mine.
Confidence grew along with my abilities, and I took in the scene before me. My senses were alert, magic ready to blast from fingertips still raw and tingling from touching the orb sat angrily in the satchel over my shoulder. It was as if it knew we were close to the end game and was screaming for release. The chance to go home to its host, manifest as physical form and be part of the world once more. But that would never be, for if Morag had an ounce of sense she would refuse this terrible gift I bore and find solace in the fact she could end her days without anguish or more madness than she already carried in her twisted mind.
Remains of the party were strewn all over the house. Discarded glasses and stacks of dirty plates covered every surface, piled on antique furniture and scattered on the floor. Streamers and half-deflated balloons hung from chandeliers along with sundry items of clothing—a sure sign the party had been halted in a hurry and nobody had cleaned up since.
I moved through into the large ballroom where the festivities were centered; the scale of the aftermath was staggering.
The room wept with violence.
Tables were upended, their contents smashed and left where they fell. Chairs were scattered across the room, cakes seemed to have been used as missiles, and the expensive furniture was covered in fluids, and not just alcohol.
Which brings me to the bodies.
Something had gone down that resulted in a lot of death, far more than could be explained by the few bodies in various states of grossness. I spied three, witches by the looks of it, the usual frumpy clothes and strangely dyed hair a clear giveaway. Each had wounds only inflicted by an animal. Wild and raw, faces chewed, insides strung out and savaged, now blackening from exposure. They hadn't been dead long. Several hours at the most.
Other smears and stains told of violence going back days. Dried blood and strange animal and human prints all over the walls spoke of epic fights. Splatter marks across the walls, arcing high, told of extremes of violence I could only guess at.
My fears for Kate's safety rose as I crossed the room. Something caught my eye. A movement from off to the right, what I thought merely a pile of clothes, shifted and rose, and kept on rising. The man I'd beaten down days ago? No, something different. This was something stranger. As he got to his feet it was clear he was exhausted, body weak and no real threat. The chaos of jackets fell from him, revealing a naked torso, shredded jeans just about covering his modesty.
"What happened?" I asked, loath to ask but knowing I should before I went to find Kate.
"People came, to kill my Queen. I stopped them," the man said, voice deep and gruff, the nature of the beast he almost was making him sound inhuman. He was covered in patches of fur and his jaw was extended, his nose that of a dog's, almost. He was one of Morag's experiments, no doubt, stuck in a limbo between man and animal, but clearly faithful.
"What about all this? Guess the party was called off?"
"After you left, my Queen sent everyone away, and dismissed her staff. Then the haters arrived. One, then two. Then more. They killed so many. Her work, they left, ran. I remained, with others. We fought. Only I survive."
"Ah, okay. Well, are Morag and Kate all right?" I asked calmly, wanting to shake him and wake him from his stupor. But it would have been no use. He was almost gone, seemed oblivious to the tear in his side. He'd been bleeding badly, and for hours. The man would be dead soon.
"Alive, fine, yes. In there." He pointed back where we'd spoken with Morag almost a week ago, and I began to move. The creature shifted to stop me but then turned aside, maybe knowing he stood no chance, maybe remembering I was a friend. Ha, friend. As if!
I nodded at him and left the room, kicked through the chaos and then was at the door.
I knocked. The door to my future opened.
Always a Price
Teeth of the vampire greeted me, dripping milky venom and ready to tear my throat out. First time I'd ever been glad to see that!
"Faz! Thank God!" Kate flung her arms around me and sank against me as if trying to crawl inside my skin.
"You okay?" I asked gently, stroking the back of her head, searching the room for danger.
"I am now. Are you hurt?" She pulled away and checked me over. See why the new suit was so important? Gotta hide the bruises and the gnawed bits.
"I'm fine," I said breezily, my terrible lie not fooling her. But this was for Morag's benefit more than anything. "What about you? What the hell's been happening here? There's a dude out there said he fought off some witches."
"It doesn't matter. Some tried to get to us, but Morag's people fought, and I had to help. It's over now."
"You never said."
"Didn't want to worry you. Nothing I couldn't handle." Kate smiled weakly. This had clearly been a terrible honeymoon for both of us.
There was obviously a lot more to this story but now wasn't the time. Kate was alive, and Morag too, and at this moment all I cared about was getting answers and getting the hell out of the country.
"Has she behaved? Not tried anything funny?"
Kate shook hair in serious need of a wash, and as my nerves settled the stink of the room tickled my cilia, making my eyes water.
"We had to stay in here the last few days because of all the attacks as Morag weakened, but she never touched me, kept her word."
"I always keep my word," came the raw voice of Morag, sucking on a cigarette, the holder discarded. Half-finished cigarettes overflowed from the ashtray next to the chair she was slumped in, butts littered the floor, and there were partially eaten meals and cups everywhere.
"Damn, you two been having a sleepover?"
"Don't ask," said Kate, putting a hand through her hair and frowning, as if only now realizing the state she was in.
"You can tell me all about it later, but it looks like you've been having a serious adventure of your own." I tried to keep my voice light but inside I was heavy with anger. Kate had clearly been fighting for her life, to save Morag just so she'd tell us what she'd promised. Not that she had any choice. The fact she was here meant Kate was in as much danger as Morag when every enemy came after the evil witch as the news spread of her slow demise.
I held Kate's hand and we turned to face Morag. She looked truly terrible. Her bodyweight had halved and she wasn't exactly plump to start with. Her skin was wrinkled and loose on exposed arms and her neck looked like scrunched up cellophane and just as translucent.
It was her face that showed the worst signs of aging. Below patchy white hair that had fallen out in clumps, her eyes were sunk deep and her cheeks poked out sharply. Her teeth were stained as yellow as her fingers with nicotine and her breathing was irregular and raspy.
It was nothing less than she deserved, yet I saw the greed in her eyes, the refusal to give up. The hunger for more life.
I got straight to the point.
"Well, how does a vampire become pregnant? How do we reverse what the poison does? Who do we have to see? What spell is involved? A potion maybe?" My heart stuttered as I spoke the words. I knew I was talking fast and asking too many questions but I couldn't help it.
Exhaustion had finally caught up with me, the sight of Kate alive and well all I needed to see. Could there be more? Truly? Family. Mine and Kate's. A baby. A child. An answer. A future I never once imagined I could have.
Morag smi
led what I think must be the cruelest, nastiest, most despicable smile I have seen in my life, and I've met some ridiculously ugly and mean creatures in my time, and said, "Why, Spark, you need not see anyone. No potion can fix Kate, no spell, nothing like that."
"You lied!" accused Kate, ready to rip Morag's wrinkled throat out. "You cheated us."
"Watch your tongue, child," snapped Morag, my good deed having failed to improve her demeanor one iota. In fact, she looked meaner and crueler than ever. The ruination of her body had turned her into something colder than before. A woman on the verge of losing it all, blaming the world for her problems rather than admitting she'd brought it all on herself.
I felt as sick as an imp trapped in a jar of Marmite, the taste in my mouth just as foul. Black, sticky, and like tar. My mind and guts churned and if it wasn't for the way Morag had spoken, an underlying message she was telling me, then I would have destroyed her, not happy until she was nothing but goop under my heel. But I pushed down the blackness in my heart, knew it would do no good to let it consume me, and just asked, "So how do we do it, Morag? No more games. I'm too damn tired for this. You owe me. Tell me!"
"You've done the research," she said turning serious. She lit up a cigarette and took a puff like it was the first one ever. "Aah, tastes so good now I know I'll be whole. As I was saying. You've done the research and the number of female vampires who bear children is almost non-existent. Rikka's mother, she was one, and that was many hundreds of years ago. There have been a few other cases, but it's almost impossible."
"We know this, Morag, we looked into it. It's rare but a few a century is about it. Just tell us."
"It's simple," she said taking another puff. Her lungs expanded, ribs pushing tight against taut skin above her strange, archaic dress. "Kate has to be given magic of her own. Hidden magic. From the would-be father."
"I don't understand," said Kate, frowning. "Hidden and humans can't mate, they're basically different species."
"They are," agreed Morag.
"Unless a human gets given Hidden magic, made part Hidden," I said, understanding only too well what Morag was talking about. Also realizing why she was so damn pleased about it.
"You?" Kate asked me.
I nodded. "Me." I turned back to Morag. "So it's been there all along, the answer? I can give Kate my new magic and then she can make the changes herself? Will it to happen?"
"She doesn't even need to do that," said Morag, frowning at her cigarette now burned low. She stubbed it out in the ashtray angrily. "It's what she wants, what you both want. If you give your Hidden side, and she accepts, then she will be fertile. That's it. No spells, no potions, no dangerous mission. Spark, you can have your family." Morag made family sound like a dirty word, but I didn't care.
She was right. She spoke the truth. I felt it inside. It rang true. How had nobody known this? I suppose because it was so rare for a human to have true Hidden magic. I wondered who Rikka's father really was, how he'd gained such a thing himself, but put such thoughts aside as they rose. Rikka was in the past, all of it was. This was what was important.
"No, I won't let you," said Kate, sad as all hell but resolute nonetheless.
"Ah, so you understand the cost?" asked Morag, enjoying the show immensely.
"I understand. Faz, do you? Do you know what this means? You can't do it, I won't let you. You can't give up all you've worked for, go back to all the pain."
"It's my choice to make, Kate," I said, so much sadness in my voice, so much longing, love, fear, and downright dread I couldn't speak above a whisper.
"No, it's our choice. You can't, it's too much to ask. You'll hurt too much. I can't bear that, won't let you."
"We want this. It's a small price to pay." It wasn't, it was a very high price, but I'd pay it regardless.
The Exchange
"I've kept my part of the bargain, now hand it over," Morag ordered, holding out a skeletal, shaking hand. She was close to the end, and I could have easily sat and watched her wither away like the evil crone she undoubtedly was, but she had to know the truth.
Even after all Morag had done, the disgusting person she was, and the cruel sneer of joy knowing what I had to do if I wanted a family, I still didn't want to subject her to this. Better to fade into oblivion than face what awaited her should she take this corrupted soul back inside herself.
It was no longer her, but something broken, beaten by the madness of her endless confinement. Tormented beyond all the human mind, or the essence of a mind, could bear. There was no way out of this for her and I hesitated, part of me wishing the punishment on her, but knowing it would haunt me. She was done, close to breathing her last, and that was revenge enough on this cruel woman. Enough punishment for the things she'd done to others and the glee she reveled in as she waited to get herself back and then watch as I paid the ultimate price for a future I craved.
I lifted the crystal ball out of the satchel and held it carefully in my hands. Kate's eyes widened and Morag gasped. Summoning what little strength remained, Morag pushed out of her chair on frail arms, her legs unsteady. Her arms shook but her face was almost angelic, so thirsty was she to return to the powerful witch she had been for so many centuries.
Eager to inflict more pain and punishment on other human beings because she enjoyed it.
"It's no good, Morag, Jerard has done something terrible to your soul. It's broken."
"What do you mean?" she snapped. "Give it to me. Right now!" Morag stumbled forward and reached for the globe but I moved out of reach beside Kate.
"It's tainted, corrupted. You're close to death and this isn't the answer. What's left, in here," I pulled a finger off the freezing glass, losing skin, and tapped the orb. The blackness within darted away from my fingers, "is no longer you. You can't release it, you'll become it if you do. There will be no rest, no peace. An eternity of madness and unknown suffering is all you'll get. Better to die without it, have peace."
"What nonsense," she crowed. "Whatever he did to my soul, I am still me. I can become whole again, live for millennia. I will not be denied."
"Faz, what do you mean? You promised. You have to give it to her." Kate was confused, and she looked exhausted, but she was good for her word and the thought of not completing the bargain went against not only her nature but the vampire nature. You didn't go back on your word.
I was trying not to, trying to explain the consequences, but nobody would listen. "It's not there, not now, Kate. She's been trapped in here for endless years. Time is different in there and this soul has lost any sense of identity. It's mad, quite mad."
"And when it returns to me I will make it whole again," insisted Morag. "And you made a deal. Do not cross me, you must return it."
"Faz, it's her choice," said Kate, and it was.
Distracted, Morag snatched the globe before I could stop her, the weight almost dragging her to the ground. She let out a small cackle of delight as her hands wrapped tight around the soul's prison.
Repercussions
For all Morag's obvious intelligence and innate power, she was also exhausted, close to death, impatient, and angry. Most of all she was afraid.
She was terrified of death, had admitted as much, and the thought if this being her last ever day on earth, her last experience, was unacceptable.
Clutching the orbuculum greedily to her chest like a mother reunited with its baby, she sighed with relief, eyes half closed in a form of ecstasy.
She didn't even notice as her hands went from pale to blue when the tips of her fingers froze and the nails blackened. Kate went to speak but I shook my head. Morag was already lost.
"I tried," I said. "She won't listen, but she's made a terrible mistake."
Morag moaned, louder this time, the anticipation overwhelming her. A smile spread across her face and her eyes snapped open. Cold, hard, and uncaring.
"You have your answer to the question you sought, and I have my payment. You can leave." She walked backward slowly, li
ke a dog with a bone, wary in case we tried to steal what was hers. Ha! I wanted nothing to do with it, but still I felt I should warn her even though I'd silenced Kate. This was my doing; I was responsible.
"You'll live, if you release the soul, but you won't be you, Morag. You'll be that thing. You can't beat it, it's the real you now."
"I will be whole and it will be part of me, allow me to live. I'm the most powerful witch this city has ever known and I will not be denied."
"It's your funeral," I said, reaching for Kate's hand and squeezing tight.
"You fools, you and your pathetic need for love and a family. You make me sick. So needy, craving like weak children. I pity you."
"You're one cold bitch, you know that?" I said quietly, wondering when she went so wrong in her life. I knew it was jealousy, that she scorned emotion because she could never hold on to it, accept love or friendship, but she yearned for it, nonetheless.
"You've lost. You lost a long time ago," I said, knowing my words fell on deaf ears.
Morag hit the chair with the back of her legs and half sat half fell. She moved to reach out with a hand, screaming as her skin ripped away from the globe, leaving thick pads of flesh stuck fast. She stared at her hand in horror. The one still holding the globe tipped sideways in shock and I watched as it upended, suspended with her palm facing down like a magic trick.
Slowly, as if taking lifetimes, the heavy crystal tore from her fingers and palm. Thick with bloody flesh, the power within frantic and slamming side to side against its prison, it fell to the floor.
Kate and I jumped back as the globe smashed into a million pieces, shards of ancient, magic-drenched crystal spreading out across the floor like a bomb had gone off. Blinding, milky light seared across our retinas then howled up and filled the room. Vision cleared rapidly and I watched the insane blackness eddy around the ceiling frantically for the briefest of moments.