Brightblade

by C. T. Phipps

  I struggled with conflicting emotions as they washed over me. The first was the unnatural hunger that made me want to bite into Alex’s neck and suck on the warm juicy energy within. Not just blood but the power flowing within his blood, that made me instantly assume I was a vampire now. The second was that my long-lost brother had just walked in like he owned the place. It was not the reunion I’d expected and I could tell he was different. He wasn’t someone with a heartbeat, his skin was pale, and there was no urge to run up to him and suck his blood. Oh gross. How could I even think that?

  “What did you do to me? Arthur? Did you? Am I? How? Where have you been?” My questions stumbled out on top of each other. I’d like to say I sounded calm and strong, but to be honest, I was close to panicking. There are things that will do that to you, like waking up with a thirst for blood while at the same time finding a long-lost relative.

  Who was now a vampire.

  Arthur looked over at Alex. “So, I take it you haven’t been filling her in on what’s been going on for the last four hours?”

  Alex shrugged. “She had to take a shower.”

  Arthur narrowed his eyes.

  I backed away from Arthur, wondering if he was still my brother and whether he’d mesmerized Alex into helping him. That was about the only thing that made sense, at least in my current panic induced state. Bumping up against the glass table where the sheathed sword I’d used was, my hand reached down to it and I found myself drawing it. It filled the room with blinding light.

  “Speak now, demon!” I said, shouting as I was filled with the holy power of the weapon. Then, realizing what I said, I immediately sheathed the sword again. Alex had turned away from the light and Arthur had a sunburn across his face that healed before my eyes.

  “Ow,” Arthur said.

  “What’s going on?” I shouted at him. “Am I a vampire?”

  Arthur took a deep breath. “Alex brought you here while you were dying, I fed you a bunch of vampire blood. No, you’re not actually a vampire, though you probably should be. I don’t know how, you have cute little fangs and seem thirsty for blood but you’re still alive. Believe me, you’d know if you were an actual honest-to-Marduk vampire.”

  I sucked in a breath and noticed I was still breathing. “What do you mean?”

  Alex answered for my brother. “Vampires expel all remaining bodily fluids and substances when they’re turned. You…haven’t.”

  “Yeah, it’s kind of gross and by kinda, I mean extremely,” Arthur replied. “Also, you’re still breathing.”

  I caught my breath and took several long puffs of air to confirm that, yes, I was breathing, and the oxygen was reaching my lungs. I also could feel my heart pounding, which was a good sign. The only thing that frightened me more than vampires was the possibility of becoming one—which made my reunion with Arthur doubly awkward. Was it prejudiced to be against people who subsisted on the blood of the living? If it was, could I make up for it by being less biased against, I dunno, weredolphins? I liked dolphins.

  “You’re saying this isn’t a normal thing that normally happens when you give a human blood?” I asked, sarcastically. I put a finger in my mouth to check out the supposed fangs. Yes, fangs. “How do I retract these things?”

  “Technically, you just have slightly longer than normal human canines,” Alex pointed out. “Also, no, this isn’t a normal result of a blood transfusion.”

  “Normal?”

  “Yes, roughly 10,000 people a year become Bloodsworn. You didn’t know that?”

  I glared at him.

  “Sorry, I have a mild case of Asperger’s,” Alex muttered. “It makes reading social cues difficult.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Also, can I get a cup of uh…nothing. I want nothing.”

  “That’s another reason you’re still human,” Arthur said, slowly approaching with a hand raised. “If you were an actual vampire, you wouldn’t be mildly hungry for blood like a cheeseburger. Newborn vampires will kill their own children to satisfy the Need. The fact you’re not indicates to me that you’re just in a half-state.”

  “Reassuring me by saying vampires eat children is not helping!” I said, back to panicking.

  “But you’re not!” Arthur said, spreading out his arms and looking like he realized what a stupid argument he’d just made.

  “Is it possible she’s a dhampyr?” Alex asked, as if this wasn’t my life we were discussing.

  “I’m pretty sure neither of our parents were vampires,” Arthur said, turning back. “Believe me, they would have been way cooler if they were.”

  “Our parents were accountants for the House,” I said, sighing, “They died in a plane crash.”

  “Allegedly,” Arthur said.

  “Not allegedly!” I snapped. “Why does everything have to be a conspiracy with you?”

  “I dunno, because they worked for an ancient conspiracy?” Arthur replied. “If you’re a member of the Knights Templar, don’t bitch about The Da Vinci Code’s inaccuracies.”

  “Actually, I’d argue they would be the best people to bring it up,” Alex said. “Jacques De Molay’s son is a vampire and he had many pointed comments on the book.”

  “There’s a book?” Arthur asked. “I thought it was just a Tom Hanks movie.”

  God, I’d missed Arthur.

  “It could be the holy sword!” Alex said. “Perhaps the magic in the blade interacted with the vampire blood that would have turned her at the moment of death but didn’t because of the weapon!”

  “It’s also possible all the experiments the House did on us to make us extra-special super-duper psychics affected us!” Arthur said. “It’s why I’m like ten times as awesome a vampire as a normal Youngblood. Not to brag but, yes, kind of bragging.”

  I literally said that about ten minutes ago, Zadkiel said. Well, not the bragging part. I don’t know what kind of vampire your brother is.

  I wasn’t paying attention then, I snapped, alarmed I was now caught between life and death.

  Obviously, you weren’t, Zadkiel muttered.

  Arthur paused and rubbed his beard. “You know, this could be temporary. You could make the Change or not. You’re stabilized now but it could go either way depending on what happens to you soon.”

  “I could become a vampire?” I asked, not bothering to disguise my horror.

  “Versus being dead, yes,” Arthur said, clearly offended.

  “I’m sorry, Ashley,” Alex said, looking dejected. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

  “Then she’d be dead,” Arthur said, clearly not happy with the implication being a vampire was worse than death.

  “I was in bad shape,” I admitted. “The sword told me I was going to die. He sounded serious. I…probably shouldn’t complain so much about being alive. Even if I’m…abnormally thirsty.”

  I had a million questions and, unfortunately, my present circumstances prevented me from asking Arthur. How had he become a vampire? How was he doing? When did he buy a strip club? How did he know Tracy? Why had he taken so long to contact me? Did he have a girlfriend? It was weird how the occult questions mixed with the mundane.

  Arthur nodded. “How about I prepare you a glass of the red stuff and you choke it down. Then I explain to you what I’ve been up to. We also can decide what we’re going to do about…this.”

  “I don’t want any blood,” I said.

  Arthur ignored my protests and in a bit of no time the microwave rang and I was presented with a glass of thick, red fluid. It was horrible, thick, and the smell was…was…wonderful.

  A moment later I was gulping it down as fast as I could. Feeling it slipping down my throat was pure ecstasy. It might not have been the best sex I’d ever had, but it was well above average. Any efforts by myself to look calm and professional failed when I began licking the remnants of the fluid from my glass.

  Then wiping the leftover from my lips onto my hand and licking at that. I managed to put the glass down, but not before thi
nking hard about how much of the remaining sheen of fluid I could get out of the glass.

  “More?” Arthur asked.

  “Screw you and yes.”

  “She doesn’t care for vampires, does she?” Alex asked, looking up to Arthur.

  Arthur looked down. “Solomon Academy trained its students to be weapons against the supernatural. I thought you would know that, being House royalty.”

  “I’ve done my best to purge myself of those thoughts,” Alex said. “My father was an evil son of a bitch and I’m not terribly fond of my brother. I try and judge each person I meet on their own merits.”

  “That’s a mistake,” Arthur replied, surprising me. “Vampires are monsters. Sexy, awesome, but terrifying monsters.”

  “I thought you loved being one,” Alex said, as if Arthur was a close friend who revealed he was a bigot against snarky FBI agents.

  “I do,” Arthur said. “The same way that I prefer being a lion than a gazelle.”

  “What happened to you? How do you two know each other?” I said, smelling the empty glass and debating licking the insides like a toddler would a mixing bowl. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten you haven’t answered my question about where you’ve been either, Arthur.”

  Arthur brought me a plastic milk jug and I grabbed it in my hands. “Another sign you’re still alive. This is animal blood and you’re drinking it like it’s Dom Periogne.”

  “That’s not how you pronounce it,” Alex said.

  “Like I give a shit, rich boy,” Arthur replied.

  Alex took a deep breath. “Arthur is the Priest of Marduk in the city. He’s one of the people who is trying to help me track down the artifacts of Nakoso. He’s only now revealed he knows what they are and what they can do.”

  “You’re a priest?” I asked, looking at Arthur. “The guy who said organized religion was designed by wizards to control us?”

  “That was a long time ago,” Arthur said, surprisingly serious. Whatever had happened to him had impressed upon him the importance of spirituality.

  Being killed and raised from the dead as an undead horror? Zadkiel suggested.

  Hush you, I snapped.

  I knew a little about vampire religion due to watching a special on the History channel one night. Millennia ago, the Elder Gods (scary demon monsters) shared their power with human cultists that became the ancestors of both the vamps and puppies. Possibly brights and wands too but I tried not to think everything supernatural came from demons.

  Not everything, Zadkiel said. Just most things supernatural.

  Gee, thanks.

  If it’s any consolation, Lucifer was originally an angel, Zadkiel said. So, it all comes from the Creator after a fashion.

  I rolled my eyes. Can the Sunday school lesson, would you? I’m talking to my brother.

  As you wish.

  Anyway, the vamps and puppies overthrew the Elder Gods and the world had become the rainbow-filled paradise it was from the Bronze Age onward. Marduk was Vampire Moses and if not the first vampire then one of the early ones who led the slave revolt against the demons. It was good that vampires had their own religion since just saying the name of God, Jesus, Buddha, or Elvis was enough to burn the ears of most undead.

  Arthur shrugged and sat down across from me. “I went to California, met a girl, she was a vampire, she turned me into one. I took up vampire religion due to the fact it involved a lot of meditation and sex with Goth girl groupies trying to get changed.”

  I grimaced. “I did not need to hear that.”

  Arthur smirked. “Revenge for all those times you picked up girls I liked. I didn’t come back to meet you because I was afraid you’d drive a stake through my heart to save my soul. You know, despite being the most stubborn nonbeliever I know after Anna.”

  “I’m more nay theist now,” I said. “It’s just omnipotent gods who supposedly give a crap I don’t believe in. Like where is God’s help when the world is suffering?”

  I’m right here, Zadkiel said.

  I said hush! I replied. You don’t count. For some reason I’ll think of later.

  “So, no big spiritual experience, huh?” I asked.

  “There was,” Arthur said. “You can only encounter true evil so many times until you want to start fighting it—even if it’s with a lesser evil.”

  That raised some questions, but I could tell Arthur didn’t want to elaborate. Instead, I decided to change the subject. I looked down at my half-chugged blood jug. “Uh, please tell me this is animal blood.”

  “It’s cow,” Arthur said. “I prefer to take my human blood directly from the tap. This is more a midnight pick-me-up.”

  “Thank goodness I’m not Hindu,” I muttered, feeling a little racist after I said it. “Sorry.”

  An awkward silence occurred as I didn’t know what to ask my brother and he didn’t say anything in return.

  “Well, I know what we need to do,” Alex said, interrupting the silence. “We need to recover Nakoso’s wand!”

  “Why?” I said, clutching the almost empty jug in my hands. “I’m sorry, Alex, I know I said I’d help you but meeting my brother after eight years is a bit more important.”

  “Because the wand can cure vampirism,” Arthur replied. “Why I want it destroyed.”

  The conversation ground to a screeching halt.

  “You want to stop people from being cured of vampirism?” I asked, appalled. “You know, the curse of vampirism? What’s wrong with you?”

  Arthur stared at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  Arthur continued to stare at me.

  “Could you put your sunglasses back on?” I asked, finally.

  Arthur did so. “I like being a vampire, Ashley.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Immortality, never getting sick, able to recover most injuries, and I don’t have to be a part of hypocritical human society anymore,” Arthur replied. “It’s also where the people I love are.”

  “Like who, vampire strippers?” I asked, half-snarling.

  “Hello!” Tracy said, popping her head through the door. “I heard you were awake.”

  I was deeply glad to see Tracy and not just because a familiar face was a welcome thing to have after being double-teamed throughout this conversation. There had been a time I would have done anything to have Arthur back in my life (about five hours ago it seemed) but he’d dropped a lot on me in a very short amount of time. I also missed Alex, particularly when I didn’t have anyone in my bed and that was most nights, but he was reminding me of why we broke up. It always seemed like a weekly action drama whenever he entered town and tonight was no exception. That was when I noticed someone else besides my half-vampire friend and it wasn’t Bryce.

  Standing behind Tracy was a tall, statuesquely so, blonde woman of Eastern European descent wearing a red dress suit top with a miniskirt and stiletto heels that somehow looked like high fashion rather than trashy. She was unearthly beautiful in a way only the inhuman were. I recognized the monster inside her as old and powerful. The empath in her felt nothing but love and hunger toward her brother. And there was something inside me that quailed at her age and power…which somehow I knew because I could feel the thing inside her making mine feel small. What the hell?

  Alex looked at her. “We can use the wand to reverse your condition.”

  Okay, too many things were going on at this moment.

  Arthur gestured. “Ashley, this is Ashura—”

  I blinked, looking up. “Wait, the former voivode of New Detroit?”

  About two years ago, the city of New Detroit had gone through a kind of crisis among its resident breathless population. The leader, Ashura, had been a beautiful model-looking vampiress who had ruled all the other ones as their official pretty-pretty princess. Suddenly, she’d disappeared, and the city had ended up ruled by a racist cowboy for almost a year.

  Tourism had taken a serious hit and the state government had considered revoking the vampire’s special p
rotections. There had also been a serious spike in disappearances, assaults, and other vampire-related crimes. A few months ago, a vampire named Thoth had taken over and things had returned to whatever passed for normal in the city.

  The woman didn’t look identical to the one I’d seen on television, but vampires could shapeshift after a certain time. It was why the Old Ones all looked like models. There was a sadness to her, though, and the slightest signs of scarring around her face that I wouldn’t have thought a vampiress her age to have.

  I put my gallon (well, half-gallon now) of blood aside, unwilling to be seen drinking it in front of anyone else suddenly. I was blissfully unaware of just how much was on my face by that point, though. “Clearly, this is a bigger mess than I was aware of, if you’re here.”

  “She’s not here for the Nakoso business,” Arthur said, embarrassed.

  “What?” I asked, looking between them. “Uh, hi, Your Highness.”

  “Just call me Ashura,” the woman said, approaching and placing her hand on mine. There was a hint of madness in her eyes. “You’re my sister-in-law after all.”

  Tracy chuckled.

  Chapter Nine

  Meeting the In-Laws for the First Time

  I stared at the gorgeous woman before me and blinked several times, not quite processing what she said. It was, to my considerable shame, partially because I had difficulty believing my brother could be married to a vampire so beautiful. She looked like one of the ones from the movies and as voivode, former or not, she was centuries old as well as richer than God. He was batting out of his league.

  Ashura, somehow, heard that and cocked her head to one side. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Your brother is intelligent, sincere, and loyal. I have created dozens of vampires over the centuries and only one of them came to my aid when the Council of Ancients sealed me up with nothing but ghosts for company.”