by Craig Zerf
Bastian slammed his fist down on the table, cracking the two inch thick Oak as if it were fine china. ‘What were you thinking?’ he shouted at Nathan. ‘She’s a bloody child and you put her in harm’s way. Why did you leave her there?’
‘She survived,’ countered Nathan with a sulky look on his face. ‘Not sure how, but no harm no foul.’
‘Jesus, Nathan. Don’t be so blasé about this. You took an amateur into a battle zone.’
‘I didn’t know that it was a battle zone. I thought that she’d be fine.’
‘Hey guys,’ interrupted Emily. ‘I am right here you know. Don’t I get a say in this. Also, Bastian, I’m not a child.’
The Jamaican shook his head. ‘You’re eighteen years old. Nathan and I are both over one hundred years older. You are a child.’
Emily stuck her tongue out at him. ‘Look, Bastian, I’m fine. Thanks for the concern but it worked out okay. So let’s drop it.’
Bastian pointed at Nathan. ‘I’m not happy, Nathan,’ he said. ‘This isn’t over. You and I need to go round and round for a while.’
‘Up yours,’ retaliated Nathan. ‘You don’t get to tell me what to do. None of you get to do that. There was a time when kings and presidents hung on my every word, and now I have a Jamaican street thug telling me off. You’re all a pathetic bunch of losers. Stuff you, Bastian,’ shouted Nathan as he stormed off, slamming the door behind him.
‘Man, talk about over reacting,’ said Bastian. ‘And that door slamming is beginning to become a bit of a habit as well.’ He turned to look at Emily, holding his gaze on her for a full minute, until she began to feel really uncomfortable and looked away. ‘How did you survive?’ He asked.
Emily shrugged. ‘Just lucky, I suppose.’
‘One vamp, yep. Pretty sure that you could take one.. Two, probably not. Maybe with a lot of luck. But four, no ways.’
‘Well thanks for your total lack of confidence in me,’ returned Emily.
‘It’s not that,’ said Bastian. ‘But Ambros just got hold of me. The clean up team took the bodies to the manor house. Two of the vamps were real old. Well over six, seven hundred years. I can assure you; even I would have trouble taking out those two, let alone all four of them. So, how did you do it?’
Emily shrugged again.
‘Come on, Emily. What aren’t you telling? Seriously, talk to me.’
Haunting images of burning green eyes filled Emily’s mind. And lips, red, kissable. Damn it, she thought as she cursed herself. What the hell is wrong with me?
Bastian was still staring at her. Awaiting an answer.
In desperation Emily said the first thing that came into her head. ‘Umm – what is the corona potestatem?’
Bastian did a double take. ‘What? Where did you hear that?’
‘One of the vamps said it. He told me that they were going to kill me to stop me looking for the corona potestatem. Which is a bit dumb because I don’t even know what it is.’
The Jamaican sat down, took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.
‘Hey,’ complained Emily. ‘No smoking indoors. Anyway, I don’t care what you say, those are bad for you. Coffin nails.’
Bastian’s lips twitched up in a tiny smile. ‘Come on, Em. I could drink battery acid and smoke crack cocaine and it wouldn’t kill me. You know that crap like that doesn’t affect us.’
‘Well it’s still a gross habit. And…Em?’
Bastian shrugged. ‘You don’t like being called Em?’
Emily thought about it for a few seconds and then grinned. ‘You know what? It’s not bad. I’ve always been the full Emily but Em is fine. Anyway, this corona potestatem thing. Fess up, dude.’
‘It’s a myth. Doesn’t exist.’
‘Cool, so a bunch of bloodsuckers want to kill me over something that doesn’t exist. Come on Bastian.’
Bastian took a drag of his cigarette and blew a series of perfect smoke rings into the air. ‘I’m not sure exactly what it’s supposed to be. Some say it’s a crown, some a ring. Whatever, the myth dates back many hundreds of years. The upshot of the whole thing is that this object, the corona potestatem, is meant to be able to give vampires the ability to walk in the daylight. It makes them immune to the sun. Not only that, it protects them against silver and, apparently, frees them from the need to drink human blood. Which means that they would become pretty close to invincible.’
Emily shrugged. ‘So? I mean if it only works on one vamp at a time, what’s the big deal? We could still take him out, surely?’
‘The big deal. Em, is that the only thing that stops a vamp being right at the top of the food chain is the fact that he has so many inherent weaknesses. Yin and yang. Balance. He has speed, strength, rejuvenation, immortality. Not to mention their capacity to glamour people into doing their bidding. But against them we have the power of light and silver. A vamp who is a daywalker is a big problem. I mean – he could become president of the United States if he wanted. Who could stop him? How could any normal human resist his glamour?’
Em nodded. ‘Okay. So this is bad then?’
‘Yeah. But fortunately, we’ve all been searching for this so called corona potestatem for hundreds of years now and Ambros is pretty convinced that it doesn’t exist. Or, if it ever did then it has been irretrievably lost. Still, if the vamps are seriously hot for it and they’re willing to openly go to war over it then, regardless of whether it actually exists or not – it’s a problem. I reckon that we pack up and head back to the big house. We need to talk to Ambros and the rest of the troops.’
Em nodded her agreement.
Chapter 16