by N. P. Martin
Jennifer took a step forward so that she was standing right up close to me, her dark eyes effortlessly drawing me in. “I may have been born a vampire, but I don’t have to live like one. I take no pleasure in cruelty and spilling blood. Innocent blood. I have as much right to live my life as anyone else does."
“Your mother would likely disagree. So would Sebastian.”
“Sebastian,” she spat, anger showing in her perfectly unblemished face. “That fucking toad. I hate him. He’s my mother’s lapdog. Nothing more.”
“He says you nearly killed him once.”
She nodded. “I regret not finishing the job.”
“You’re not a killer.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if you were, I wouldn’t be about to help you.”
The almost innocent light came back into her eyes. “You’ll help me disappear?”
“If that’s what you really want.”
“It is,” she said. “Believe me.”
"Alright," I said. "Do me a favor then. Get me that bottle of whiskey out of the living room. That's if Jasper the Great hasn't drunk it all in my absence."
Jennifer tittered at that. “Anything else?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sharpen your teeth and polish your claws. I have a feeling you might have to use them before the night is out.”
No sooner had the words come out of my mouth when there was loud crashing noise from downstairs.
Like someone had just kicked in the front door.
15
Tooth And Nail
Jennifer and I looked at each other for a second when we heard the noise from downstairs, both of us knowing that something was up and what that something was.
“Sebastian,” Jennifer snarled, opening her mouth just as her fangs came down.
"Shit," I said, my adrenaline spiking as I heard a loud scream from downstairs, a sick feeling forming in the pit of my stomach as I realized one of Jennifer's friends had just met an untimely death.
Jennifer stood listening for a moment, her previously placid face changing with the anger and aggression building up in her. Eyes darkening to a near pitch black, fingernails lengthening, Jennifer looked dangerous now like a panther about to strike. “This ends now,” she growled in a low voice, her eyes still on me.
Saying nothing, I barely nodded back at her as I prepared myself for what was to come. I had been expecting to meet some violence at some point that night, but not so soon. Clearly, Sebastian didn't believe me when I told him I would bring Jennifer back to the fold. He must have known I would try to help her, which was why he was chancing confronting Jennifer himself, even though she had nearly killed him when he tried to bring her back before.
Running to the window, I looked out into the semi-darkness and wasn’t surprised to see at least a dozen burly looking vampires outside, all gathered around the steps leading up to the building we were in. “There’s more outside,” I said, wondering how I could best defend myself against that merciless looking lot.
Then I spun around upon sensing movement in the room, and my adrenaline spiked again when I saw a massive bald man dressed in dark clothes standing in the doorway. Opening his mouth, he bared fangs at me and then glowered at Jennifer, who had backed into the middle of the room. The vampire looked around for a second with a look of total distaste on his face. "We've come to escort you home and out of this shithole, Princess Crow” he said in a deep voice.
It was the first time I had heard Jennifer’s official title being used by anyone, and it somehow underscored the importance of who she was, at least to her own kin. I also found it interesting to note the differences between the two vampires. As a full-blooded vampire, Jennifer was an evolutionary machine. When her fangs came down they did so to a length not seen in made vampires. Jennifer’s fangs where a good inch longer than the vampire before her (who came about through infection, not evolution), and her claws were much longer as well. To me they seemed sharper too. More deadly.
Jennifer’s antagonist didn’t stand a chance against her, which he surely must have known. I could only conclude he had his orders and that he would die anyway if he disobeyed them. Which made him and the many others like him in the employ of The Crimson Crow nothing more than cannon fodder.
"I don't think so," Jennifer said back, crouched down slightly, both arms out, her lengthy claws ready to strike.
Another scream sounded from the floor above. A girl this time.
“You don’t have to kill them!” I shouted, coming forward slightly, my magick already crackling within me as I thought about blasting the vamp in the doorway with it.
But before I could do anything, Jennifer leaped at the vampire in front of her, who was almost twice her size. She became a blur of movement as she went about slashing the bigger vampire with her claws and biting him with her fangs. The other vampire tried to fight back, but he was much slower than Jennifer was and she easily evaded every one of his blows, finally latching herself onto his back and grabbing hold of his enormous bald head. Then, with a shrieking sound, she pulled hard and ripped the vampire's head right off his shoulders, immediately tossing it away like it was mere trash. The head bounced off the filthy carpet and landed somewhere around my feet. I couldn't help fixating on the still open eyes, disgusted by what lay before me, but even more shocked by how awesomely lethal Jennifer had been. Suddenly, I didn't feel as insecure about the situation. I could also fully understand Sebastian's reticence about going after Jennifer himself.
Jennifer stood looking at me for a second, hardly out of breath after her whirlwind assault on the bald vampire. “I hope you’re ready to fight, Creed,” she said, before licking a spot of blood from her lower lip.
I nodded at her, realizing fully then that I had chosen the path that I was now on. I could have been moving in the opposite direction by then, avoiding what was about to happen. But even as the fear I was facing rose in me, I was somehow still confident I had made the right decision. No one said putting down roots in a place like Blackham was going to be easy after all. "I'm ready to fight," I told her.
As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait long in order to prove my intentions, for a second later, two more vampires burst into the room, the female of the duo locking horns with Jennifer, the other male vampire rushing at me with one hand out ready to grab my throat and rip it out.
Luckily, I was ready. As the vampire came arrogantly forward, plainly seeing me as no threat at all, I shot out the palm of my right hand, so it was level with the vampire's face. Then out of my hand came a beam of almost pure white light that immediately made the vampire stop dead and scream in pain as he covered his face with his arms. As I continued to beam the magickal light down on the vampire, I was aware of Jennifer and the other vampire fighting furiously beside me, sounding like two feral cats going at it. As distracting as the tussle beside me was, though, I kept my attention on the vampire in front of me, who was still screaming as the light from my hand caused his skin to sizzle as if it was being exposed to direct sunlight. The light from my hand would not kill the vampire. His pain would ease the second I stopped beaming it onto him, at which point he would try to kill me again, probably just as Sebastian had ordered him to do.
So with my left hand, I reached inside my coat and pulled out the knife that was sheathed inside. The blade on the knife was twelve inches long, curved at the end, as razor sharp as the fangs of the vampire in front of me. Normally, it would take a wooden stake to end a vampire for good, but the knife in my hand was no ordinary knife. It was over a thousand years old and forged by Druids to help kill their many enemies at the time. The Druids wanted a tool that would kill anything they stabbed or cut with it, so they used their magick and alchemy skills to make what became known simply as a Death Knife, for that was its only purpose. To cause death. And on that front, the knife did a very thorough job.
Of course, when I plunged the knife into the chest of the vampire, he didn't know his life was about to end. St
aring at me with the same supremely arrogant look on his face even while his skin continued to bubble under the light from my hand, he thought I had stabbed him with an ordinary knife and was about to come forward so he could attack me again. But when he went to move, his face changed as he realized something was wrong. He looked down at the knife still in his chest, then up at me again, his eyes full of shock. That's the thing when you think you're immortal. When someone kills you, it's like the biggest kick in the balls ever as you realize you aren't going to be around forever after all.
When I pulled the knife from the vampire's chest, he staggered back a step and fell to his knees. Then as I watched, the once immortal being seemed to fall apart all at once as if whatever dark force had held him together previously had now vanished, taking with it every ounce of the life it once gave, right down to the very last cell. What remained after the vamp had fallen apart was just a pile of gray dust on the carpet.
“You’ve done this before.” Jennifer stood over the dusty remains of the other vampire whose heart she had ripped out of her chest, and which she still held in her hand as blood dripped from it onto the floor. Two seconds later, the heart turned to dust like the rest of the vampire, the tiny grains flowing through Jennifer’s hand like sand in an hourglass.
“No, actually,” I said, staring now at the remains of vampire I had killed, then at the bloodless knife in my hand, unsure of how to feel. In the past, I had killed a few full-blown monsters and had banished or obliterated several spirit entities. But never a vampire. It was hard to shake the feeling that I had just killed a person of sorts, a human being, albeit one who was already dead.
“Hey,” Jennifer said so I turned my head to look at her. “Process later. We gotta go. Babylon, remember?”
I nodded, bringing my focus back to the whole reason I was there in the first place, which was to help Jennifer escape the evil constraints of her mother. “We have to get out of here then.”
As I said it, a voice called from downstairs. “Princess Crow.” It was Sebastian. "I have your boyfriend here, Princess. If you don't come down, I'll snap his neck."
Jennifer snarled, showing her fangs. Then she went to the door and shouted down, “If you hurt him, I’ll kill you, Sebastian. You know I can.”
“It won’t come to that if you just come back with me,” Sebastian shouted back. “Your mother just wants you home, where you belong.”
“I don’t belong there! How many times do I have to tell you and her? You're evil, both of you!"
"Fine. I'll snap the boy's neck then."
"No!" Jennifer flew down the landing to the stairs, and I ran after her. As I reached the top, she was already at the bottom, standing in the downstairs hallway. I went down the stairs, pausing halfway when I saw Sebastian standing in the dimly lit hallway, holding a terrified Jasper tight to him, one arm wrapped around Jasper's neck. Behind Sebastian stood two dark-suited men, and behind them, more out on the street.
“Don’t let him kill me, Jennifer,” Jasper pleaded in a frightened voice. “Please…”
"Let him go, Sebastian," Jennifer said, her tone less aggressive now as if she didn't want to antagonize the older vampire any further.
But Sebastian wasn’t even looking at her. He was staring up at me. “Mr. Creed,” he said. “I assumed you were dead already.”
“You thought wrong.”
“That’s a nice knife,” he said, smiling.
“Why don’t you let the boy go, Sebastian,” I said. “He has nothing to do with this.”
“Neither do you, Mr. Creed. You were only supposed to retrieve the girl, not help her run.”
“I didn’t ask to be involved in the first place. You and your mistress forced my hand. Now I’m just helping the right person.”
Sebastian shook his head. "I knew you'd be the wrong choice for the job. But then, no one listens to me, do they, Jennifer?"
Jasper made a choking noise as Sebastian's forearm tightened further around his throat.
“Don’t!” Jennifer shouted. “Wait! I’ll go with you. Just let him go, Sebastian.”
"I'm not a fool, Princess,” Sebastian said scowling at her. "The second I let him go, you'll attack. Which is why Jasper here is coming with us."
Just as Sebastian’s smile returned, something happened that I didn’t expect. Despite only being half conscious, Jasper’s hand flew up as if he was attempting to slap Sebastian in the face. But out of his hand came a weak sort of magick blast that was barely visible such was its lack of potency, though it was strong enough to shock Sebastian into releasing his arm from around Jasper’s throat so that Jasper fell to the floor in a heap.
If I’d had time, I would have smiled at Jasper’s tenaciousness and his daring use of magick. For a hedge magician, he didn’t do too badly. But I didn’t have time to think about any of that because I knew I had to act so that Jennifer and I could take full advantage of the opening Jasper had just given us.
Knowing that Jennifer would immediately go for Sebastian, I sent a double magick blast at the two large vampires standing by the front door. A bright sphere of amber energy hit each of the vampires on the chest, sending them flying back through the front door and out onto the steps. Then I telekinetically slammed the front door shut before any more vampires could come pouring into the house (no doubt Sebastian had already issued them all invitations, after one of Jennifer's friends had unwittingly invited Sebastian himself in).
Just as Jennifer predictably flew towards Sebastian, I rushed down the rest of the stairs, stepping over Jasper (who was gasping on the floor) and past the whirlwind of violent motion that was Jennifer and Sebastian. Then I put a ward on the front door by placing my hand on the wood and uttering a few words that would prevent any of the vampires getting through it. If they tried, a blast of energy would come from the door and knock them back.
When I turned around again, Jennifer was on top of Sebastian, lashing her razor sharp claws across his face, back and forth at incredible speed so that the flesh on the other vampire's face became a shredded mess. Nothing that wouldn't heal in time, if Jennifer let him live, that is.
As much as I disliked Sebastian and his cold-blooded ways, I had seen and caused enough bloodshed for one day. There was no need for Jennifer to kill Sebastian as long as she followed the plan I had worked out for her. "Jennifer!" I shouted to get her attention.
Jennifer stopped hitting the unmoving Sebastian and snapped her head around like some carnivore that had been disturbed during feeding time. She stared at me with pure violence and bloodlust in her eyes, and at that moment, I couldn't help but be amazed, and more than a little unsettled, by her complete transformation into a lethal predator, her carnivorous vampire nature at once awesome and truly frightening. The longer she looked at me, though, the more her feral mask began to slip, until eventually the innocent girl's face I was used to seeing came through once more. "What?" she said, her face flecked with Sebastian's blood.
“You don’t have to kill him. We should just go.”
She shook her head just as Sebastian groaned underneath her. “I made the mistake of not killing him last time. He will keep hunting me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, coming towards her. “Where you’re going, no one will find you. I’ll make sure of that. Trust me.”
Staring hard at me, she considered for a moment. Then she got off Sebastian. “I trust you,” she said.
“Good. We need to leave then.”
“You’re leaving?” Jasper said, sitting up on the floor now, nearly recovered from almost being choked out.
Jennifer looked down at him. “I have to, baby. I’m sorry.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jasper said, standing up.
“No,” I said. “You can’t.”
“Fuck you!” Jasper snapped. “Who the fuck are you anyway?”
Jennifer went to Jasper then, putting her arms around his neck and focusing her dark eyes on his, her voice taking on a low, soothing quality as she
spoke. "Jasper, baby, you're going to forget you ever knew me. You're going to forget everything that happened here tonight. After I kiss you, you're going to go out the back door and go home to your parent's house, and you won't remember any of this. In fact, you will realize how much you've missed your parents, and you will make it up with them. Okay?"
Jasper nodded in a dazed sort of way. “Okay,” he said.
Smiling, Jennifer leaned in and kissed Jasper softly on the lips, then she took her arms from around his neck and stood back. “Now go.”
Nodding once more, Jasper turned and made his way to the back door before leaving the building. And that was that. He was gone.
"Nicely done," I said. "Not your first time, I'm sure."
“It was the kindest thing to do,” she said.
“Yes, it was. You ready to get out of here?”
“How? My mother’s goons are outside. They’ll bust in here soon enough, once they realize Sebastian isn’t coming out.”
I went forward and placed my hand on her shoulder. “A new method of transportation I’ve been working on,” I said. “Teleportation.”
16
Travel Arrangements
Teleportation is something that takes a long time to master. You have to manipulate a lot of different strings at once to pull it off successfully. I mean, it involves splintering yourself into a gazillion tiny pieces and then transporting those pieces across space and time so you can reassemble them all afterward. Imagine if you threw a handful of sand as far as you could, and then tried to rearrange that handful of sand into the exact same formation as it was in before you threw it. Every single grain. Does that sound hard? Impossible even? Well, that's the level of difficulty you're up against when you attempt teleportation.
Fortunately, magick is on hand to help out. With magick, one can achieve the impossible after all, but you still need to know what the hell you're doing, and you still need to manipulate the magick correctly, so it does what you want it to do. So it follows your intentions to the letter. That in itself is hard enough to do, nevermind anything else.