The Initiate

by Holly Lujah

  “I do so love Leanna’s cooking,” Mother Superior said as she walked towards Biffy.

  Before Biffy could wrap her brain around what was happening, Mother Superior sat down at the table and blew on the top of her soup.

  “You miss dinner as well?” she asked. Biffy nodded, not thinking about the woman’s lack of attention. She was entirely focused on blowing the heat from her food.

  “I got lost in a good book,” Biffy said when the mother stopped what she was doing and looked at her, evidently expecting some kind of response.

  “As long as that’s the only way you got lost today... or, well, any other day.”

  “How else could I get lost, Mother?” she asked without thinking. There was no immediate answer, the mother focusing on the spoon of soup she held, finding this, the first spoonful, too hot to just eat.

  “There are many places around the academy that wouldn’t be safe for someone still training to go wandering. I don’t want to lose any more initiates.”

  “That’s understandable, but...”

  “No buts, Initiate. I don’t say this often, but I like you. And I’ve lost far too many women lately. They’d have made some amazing nuns. I don’t want to lose another.”

  “Understood,” Biffy replied, aware she wasn’t going to influence Mother Superior at all. But in the back of her mind she had so many questions. Was Mother Superior talking about Spoke? Or how dangerous the academy could be for more normal reasons?

  They ate together in silence after that, Mother Superior quickly lost deep in thought. Biffy found herself growing more than a little uncomfortable. As soon as her bowl was finished she took it to the serving hatch into the kitchens.

  “Just leave it there. I’ll wash it up with mine,” Mother Superior called, still using a small bread roll to mop up the last of her soup.

  Biffy considered arguing and offering to do it herself, or at least checking the elderly nun was sure, but something about the way the nun got to her feet and bustled closer gave her all the information she needed. Nothing she would be willing to say would change anything.

  With Hairwig back on her shoulder, Biffy left the dining hall and considered where she could go and what she could do next. Given how her morning had gone and the aches and pains she now sported, she knew bed would be calling her name soon, but equally, after having one of the first real fights of her life, she also felt wired.

  As the light faded around her and a few nuns scurried back and forth with candles, Biffy made her mind up. She’d watch the nuns on first watch leave together and see if they encountered any resistance close to the academy.

  Rushing to a good vantage point at the front of the building, she gingerly opened a shutter so it wouldn’t make too much noise and looked for the small party that left the same time each day.

  The three Marys weren’t out on first watch that night. All three must have requested leave to go out later, not one seemingly recovered from whatever had happened on their previous watch. All three had kept to themselves, not holding any training and barely engaging anyone in conversation.

  Biffy let out a small sigh as she watched the nuns march out together. Although she’d had a taste of a victory lap today, she wanted to know what it felt like literally protecting the entire town night after night.

  With nothing eventful happening, it took almost no time at all for the nuns to continue out of her sight, leaving Biffy alone in the dark. This didn’t bother her. Part of her initiate training had been to move around in the very dark and pitch black, something that had led to plenty of bumps and bruises, but the three Marys had insisted on the task and if they commanded it, she obeyed.

  Once the shutters and garlic were back in the right place, Biffy found her feet wandering, taking her from one hallway to another while she merely thought about life a little more. It would have been great to go out and fight with the others but she couldn’t yet, and that meant getting better and passing the tasks.

  The biggest problem was not knowing what tasks were coming next. She knew they would be related to the nuns’ vocation, fighting the evils of the world, but she didn’t know any more than that.

  As her mind hit on a possibility, her feet stopped moving. Hairwig wobbled, bumping the back of her head with a wing.

  “Hoot,” she said.

  “I know. It might be totally crazy, but it’s an interesting idea.”

  Hairwig didn’t reply, either listening or not interested; Biffy struggled to tell sometimes. She decided that she’d talk about it anyway.

  “What if Spoke is part of a task? Or is my final task? What if he’s there so they can simulate a small-scale vampire attack?”

  Hairwig blinked.

  “I said it might sound crazy.” Biffy sighed. It potentially was crazy, but there was an element of possible truth too. And it led to one very important thought. Would it be cheating to try and get to know him better and find out his specific weaknesses?

  She’d been able to practice the assault course before they’d made her do it under test-like circumstances, and she was training for the weapon-based tasks currently. Was the vampire in the under-croft a way for her to train for another test?

  There was no way to know for sure without asking someone. Biffy’s feet came back to life, suddenly bearing her down the corridor again, but she didn’t know for sure where they would lead.

  On one hand, messing with forces, people and situations beyond her control and skill level was generally a bad idea, but on the other hand, it was also important for her to show initiative and learn as much as she could to become an effective fighting nun.

  Mother Superior’s recent warning played through her head. It was pretty clear she was being dissuaded from going to speak to Spoke, but was that out of danger or something else entirely? Biffy had no idea.

  Chapter 11

  Whatever drew her body onwards, Biffy soon found herself at the entrance to the under-croft. Her tool belt was fully loaded. It had been all day, but now she mentally checked the items off. Holy water, garlic, a small knife and bandages. Her father’s cross was tucked where it always was, under her sleeve.

  “Hoot,” said Hairwig, flying over to the same perch she’d used the last two times Biffy had gone underground. The bird just didn’t like it. At all.

  Biffy sighed, always feeling a little wrong without her feathered friend, but she couldn’t have stopped her feet if she’d wanted to. Something about Spoke had drawn her back for a third visit.

  Unlike the previous two times she’d gone down into the under-croft, Spoke wasn’t even trying to hide, but stood in plain view for everyone to see. He turned and their eyes met as she shuffled closer.

  “You come back again, pet? Wasn’t expecting that. You feeling all right?

  Biffy nodded, even if it was partially a lie. She didn’t know how to respond or begin a conversation. She had just been led there somehow, by some internal force.

  “You... smell...” Spoke said, sniffing the air as he took a slow step closer. “Tomatoes.”

  Spoke let out an amused chuckle, the sound somehow both contagious yet dark, mocking whatever thought he was having.

  “Did Gladys let those things loose again?” he said a moment later.

  “I don’t think it was deliberate,” Biffy replied, frowning. She wasn’t sure it was funny.

  “Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t, but some people shouldn’t be in charge of such dangerous experiments.”

  “No one was hurt.”

  “Not this time. I assume you were one of the unfortunate nuns dispatched to sort it out.”

  “I volunteered.”

  Spoke raised his eyebrows.

  “You’re keen then, pet.”

  “I want to rid the world of all those vermin. I am willing to help any way I can,” she replied, doing her best to sound more emphatic about the last part. It earnt her another laugh.

  “You didn’t know what Gladys’ tomatoes were capable of before you offered your aid, did you
?” he asked. “Almost no one is willing to do it again. Would you?”

  Biffy didn’t reply, watching him from a distance. She didn’t know what to do. A part of her wanted to plonk herself down in a chair and have a conversation. Another part of her wanted to stick a stake in him, then and there. Anything to wipe the smug look off his face.

  “So, how long have you been here?” she asked.

  “Long enough,” he replied, grinning once more. It was like he knew why, as well. Something she was still entirely in the dark about. But it was time she got to figuring it out. Why did the fighting nun academy have to have a vampire chained up in such a dark, miserable place?

  “Are they treating you okay? she asked, not ready to give up so soon. For a moment he tilted his head to the side and looked thoughtful.

  “Yes, but not as well as I’d hoped. I think they’re keeping me hungry. Keeping me busy with other stuff so I can’t completely think straight, or stop them.”

  A shiver rippled up Biffy from her feet to her toes. If it was deliberate, then what was she going to do? The situation was starting to look more complicated. And Spoke was starting to become a victim. Caught up in the academy’s schemes.

  “I hope if I prove to be right, you’ll consider that when we fight. They’ve set us up against each other. I don’t want to fight you,” he said.

  “Why not?” Biffy blurted without thinking.

  “It’s not fear, pet, don’t get me wrong. I still think I’d beat you. Hands down, but that doesn’t mean I want to. I like you. You’re the first to show any compassion and concern in a long time, pet.”

  “It’s only concern I would show for anything suffering. Humans should be better than to allow others to suffer, whether they deserve it or not.”

  “If only all humans thought that. Maybe us undead would never have got a foothold and slaughtered your kind.”

  “We’re not beaten yet. There’s always the chosen one.”

  Once more, Spoke snorted.

  “Chosen one? You believe that myth then? Does it help you sleep at night?”

  “You like to mock what you don’t entirely understand, don’t you?” she replied, finding herself leaning against the nearest pillar. It was only as she folded her arms that she realised he was too. One of them was mirroring the other’s body language.

  Frowning, Biffy dropped her hands to her sides, but she soon found she had no idea what to do with her hands. It didn’t feel right to be leaning back and just have them hung limp by her waist, but she didn’t know what else to do. The initiate habit had no pockets to put them in. In the end she tucked her thumbs into the rope tied around her waist, tugging it out of place accidentally.

  She knew she must look ridiculous, but she was committed now. There was no going back. Somehow she had to make it look genuinely cool.

  “You seem to ignore what you don’t understand,” Spoke replied as soon as she was still, a knowing grin on his face. She sighed. There was no way he’d bought her little display. She’d come across as awkward as she’d felt.

  “You’re the one ignoring stuff. What makes you think the chosen one is a myth?” she asked, diverting the attention away from herself.

  “If there was a chosen one, she’d know it by now. Or be a fighting nun. There’s just the Marys, and they can be beaten.”

  “Not so sure about that. They’ve not been beaten yet.”

  Spoke laughed, the sound sending a shiver up her spine. Once more he sounded like he was mocking something she said. It was a refreshingly irritating conversation. If she were a teenager, she’d be worried this was the person she was destined to fall in love with. Teenagers were always falling in love with some irritating person they’d just met. Like it was some kind of life lesson to look beyond the superficial.

  “Keep believing, pet. I won’t put such a downer on your dreams tonight. Although, isn’t it past your bed time? Don’t normally see your type down here after dark.”

  “You can tell it’s dark?” she asked. He nodded slowly, running his tongue along his teeth as he looked at her.

  “Of course I can. Vampires get stronger at night. Hungrier too. And right now you’re looking far more delicious than you did the last couple of visits you paid me. Despite that awful tomato smell.”

  “I’m not going to make it easy,” Biffy said, subconsciously reaching for the cross up her sleeve.

  “Oh, don’t worry, pet. I’m not going to try and eat you. If I ate you, who would come talk to me? No one else does anything but insult me and keep me here, half-starved and always chained up. Enough to drive a vampire to do anything. Not that I was a very good vampire anyway.”

  “You weren’t?”

  “Nope, pet. Apparently having morals and being a blood-sucking undead don’t go very well together.”

  “I didn’t think vampires had morals of any kind.”

  “Ouch.” Spoke put his hands over his heart like he’d been wounded. “Of course we can have morals. We might not be fully alive, but our emotions, our memories and our passions stay intact.”

  “Then what makes you so moral?” Biffy found herself folding her arms again, but this time she didn’t stop herself. Maybe this time she wouldn’t look like an idiot. Spoke looked thoughtful, studying her for a moment.

  “I’m a romantic. Like to think a woman shouldn’t be fed on unless she wants it. Unless she wants to make the sacrifice.”

  “Let me guess. You never had many offers?”

  He chuckled. “You could say something like that. Then when I did... She turned out to be trying to trick me. And I thought I loved her too. Was going to turn her. Make her my queen.”

  “She betrayed you?” Biffy found her heart thumping as she considered how painful that must have been.

  “Knocked me out with some funky-smelling stuff... I woke up here.” Spoke lifted his hands, motioning to the under-croft around him.

  Biffy considered asking the woman’s name, but she wasn’t sure she dared. Did she want to know that another nun had used such trickery to capture one of the undead? She knew it was a fierce war between her kind and his, but she’d have hoped that the fighting nun academy would have been far better at their task. Not to mention, how uncomfortable they ought to be with lying. The preaching the last Sunday had been on something relevant to that. Ensuring they distinguished themselves in the good fight by exhibiting all the Christian elements they ought to. While they were one of humanity’s only lines of defence, they were also nuns and had been the latter first and foremost. They couldn’t neglect it now.

  The faint sound of Hairwig’s hoot brought Biffy back out of her thoughts. She looked to the steps up and away from Spoke, wondering what had made her familiar call out. Was it a warning? Was someone coming? Or was her feathered friend just bored?

  Frowning, Biffy tried to concentrate. The text book she’d been reading had implied the sight-sharing should work both ways, but she’d only ever managed it one way so far, and not outside of the test.

  A moment later Hairwig called again.

  “I’ve got to go,” she said a moment later, already beginning to drift back in the direction of the stairs.

  “That owl your familiar?” he asked. She nodded absent-mindedly as a noise made her hesitate to go after it. “Were you trying to communicate with it some way?”

  “Sight-share,” she replied, barely above a whisper.

  The next thing she knew, a small door somewhere must have opened because a small patch of light appeared. Fighting a gasp, Biffy darted behind a pillar. Someone was coming down to visit Spoke and she didn’t have a way out. She was forced to hide.

  As footsteps shuffled down the steps, she slid around a few more pillars, creating an arc for a pathway and putting a little more distance between her and Spoke.

  The visitor didn’t seem to notice, but she wore a habit, just like most people in the building.

  “Hello again,” Spoke said as Biffy pressed herself against a pillar near the wall, as out of si
ght as she could get. “Didn’t expect you again today.”

  “Shut up, undead. I have no wish to converse with you,” Mary Beth said, her voice sounding harsher but still somewhat innocent, like always.

  “Then what’s got your panties in a bundle, chick? Someone starch your bonnet wrong? You break a nail when you staked one of my brethren?”

  “Silence! I came to check on you given the strange behaviour in the city tonight. And I heard voices.”

  Biffy held her breath as Spoke didn’t respond, looking everywhere but at her body, almost entirely sheltered apart from a thin sliver of her legs, no more room behind the pillar as it curved down to the floor.

  “I’m getting a tad lonely. Can you blame a guy for talking to himself?”

  Mary Beth paused, looking thoughtful, her eyes narrowed. “Very well, vampire, but you don’t get to feed in any other way. You don’t get any freedom, and you mostly certainly won’t be listened to.”

  Spoke rolled his eyes but didn’t reply, acting as if she wasn’t even there. With another laud harrumph, Mary Beth stormed away. Thankfully, her eyes never strayed near to Biffy’s location, and soon the woman was gone, leaving Biffy alone with Spoke once more.

  Taking deliberate steps forward, still listening for noise outside, Biffy came closer to the vampire. Their eyes met, the darkness around them forgotten in that moment.

  “Thank you,” she said, barely above a whisper, not completely sure what had just happened.

  “Don’t mention it, pet. Not going to rat out my kindest visitor now, am I? Who’d I chat to?”

  “Do you know who that was?” she asked. Spoke nodded.

  “Mary Beth. And I told you they weren’t the greatest fighters. The Marys are a good team, but not that amazing solo.”

  Biffy didn’t say anything, not entirely agreeing.

  As Hairwig let out another hoot, this one gentle, Biffy said her goodbyes and also crept towards the door. It was time to go to bed and leave this strange vampire for the moment.

  But there was something about him, and even half an hour later, when she’d climbed her tower, pulled on some more comfortable night clothes, and got into bed, she saw his face in her mind.