The Goddess and The Vampire Page 16

Chapter Fifteen

  THE BUCKING COWGIRL was mostly empty. Loud music bounced around the dark room. A bartender watched me walk by and the DJ nodded to himself. Kilestra was in a dark corner farthest from the front door. I’ve never seen a vampire who could turn into mist. Kilestra came as close to that trick as anyone I’ve ever known. Katie took a seat by the front door, just out of the entranceway's light. She was joined by two blood Donors who leaned in toward her. Katie ignored them.

  “I need you to find out what Carlo is doing.” Kilestra said with a ghost like voice that matched her almost presence. “If you can find a place for me in your busy schedule. What with being Master of Fort Worth and fighting to the death with Fedor over his Chosen.”

  “I’m doing the best I can.” I said and rubbed the back of my neck. “Things keep happening.”

  “Put that on my tombstone.” Kilestra said in her spectral voice.

  “I always planned on using some Robert Burns poem.” I said and tried to make eye contact with the mist. “In the off chance that I outlive you.”

  “The chances of that happening go up with each passing night.” Kilestra said, shifted, and blurred in my sight. “Just do a little snooping,”

  “Can it wait till tomorrow night?” I said and looked at my phone to check the time. “It’s getting late.”

  “Do what you think best.” Kilestra said and a phantom kiss brushed my cheek. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Then she was gone, if she had ever been there in the first place.

  I gathered Katie and tossed a few bills on the table by way of thanks to the owner. Katie wrapped her arms around me and let herself be led into the night. Gravel was standing next to the Dodge and doing his best to appear casual. I beeped the alarm off and he opened the door and crawled into the back seat. We left the Chrysler 300 on the lot behind us.

  We drove back to the Mansion in silence. I didn’t ask about Raoul and Izumi’s car and Gravel didn’t volunteer any information. I relaxed and drove on autopilot. Katie had to shake my shoulder to get my attention after I had parked the Dodge. I continued to stare into the glare cast by the headlights.

  “You ok, Boss?” Gravel said and leaned forward. “You need some sleep?”

  “Vampires don’t sleep.” Katie said as she climbed out of the Dodge. “It’s why so many of them are a little bit crazy.”

  “So what do they do in their coffins all day?” Gravel said as we all headed into the Mansion.

  “We return to death.” I said in a tired voice. “Vampires are dead and we are reminded of the fact each time the sun rises.”

  I looked into the big man’s eyes and he stiffened a bit when I put my hands on his shoulders. I smiled and pulled him toward me. He turned his head and left his hairy neck exposed. He tasted of sweat and road grime. I punctured his flesh and drank his powerful blood. I stopped before I did any serious damage and pushed him away. Katie took his place without comment. I repeated the feeding ritual with her. I didn’t risk sharing any power with them. They were my only source of food and I didn’t want to poison the well.

  I walked to my coffin without looking around and lay down as if I were merely going to sleep. I took a few minutes to relax. I let the night’s stresses go. I closed my eyes and waited for the world to disappear.

  I OPENED MY eyes and pushed open the coffin. The room was dim. The only light was the yellow glow from the next room. It peeked around the partly closed door. I went through the rituals of bathing, changing into fresh clothes, and brushing my teeth. Neither Katie nor Gravel was around. My parents were busy watching something on TV. No notes or no warnings going off in my head. For the first time in many nights, I felt perfectly normal. The calm wouldn’t last long, it never did.

  I went to Mother and Father and they looked older than they had the night before. I found gray in Mother’s hair and Father’s scalp was now visible through his own thinning hair. They looked up and smiled weakly at me.

  “I’m not sure what we did to upset you, my dear.” Mother said and held a wrinkled hand toward me. “But we are so glad to see you now.”

  The sight of them in this state caused a twinge in my stomach. They saw the look on my face and turned away.

  “Is this because of the way we treated your Elf?” Father said weakly. “We’re really quite fond of her now.”

  “You know anyone dear to you is dear to us.” Mother said with just a hint of displeasure. “Even Katie.”

  “It’s not that.” I said and turned away from them. “It has to do with the attack at the Consulate. I’m not well, so you’re not well. I’m working on finding a solution.”

  “Work a little harder, son.” Father said as I left the room.

  I went and looked in Grandfather’s room. He was lying on his bed and turned his head toward me. The effort seemed to cost him, but he smiled.

  “Thought you forgot about us.” Grandfather said as I sat on the bed beside him. “Thought maybe you were going to go for an all Elf motif. Just let us die without even saying goodbye.”

  “Katie’s a randy little minx.” I said and smiled at Grandfather through a sudden moisture in my eye. “I need your help keeping her happy.”

  “Oh, well then.” He said and smiled as he stirred in his bed. “I’d better stick around then.”

  “Get some rest.” I said and smiled at him. “I’ll see you later.”

  I was feeling pretty weak and tired as I left his room and headed for the garage. Where was a subservient Elf or Werearmadillo when you needed one?

  I DROVE INTO downtown Fort Worth. I pulled into one of the parking lots around Carlo’s gothic residence. It still looked like a church, but it wasn’t exactly a holy place any longer. I doubted that Carlo considered it his home. Older vampires tended to think of ‘home’ as the last place they had been alive. This was just the place where their body rested now.

  I had a clear line of sight to the building across the street that had been converted to a garage. Large roll up doors and a bank of small paned windows above them. Lots of pipes and exhaust vents of some kind. The odds were good Carlo had a private fuel station inside. He was showing the unusual courtesy of maintaining a clean air supply.

  I drove slowly around the building. I counted two doors in the rear and several windows high up on the walls. Either the main entrance was on the side where the cars came and went. Or it was underground and would require a bit more legwork to find. I pulled back into the lot and pondered my next move. A tap on the window made me jump. I looked over and saw Gravel standing beside the Dodge.

  “Hey Boss.” Gravel said and looked over at Carlo’s compound. “Nothing going on here at the moment.”

  “Good to know.” I said and looked at Gravel. “What are you doing here?”

  “You told me to keep an eye on the place.” Gravel said and shrugged his massive shoulders. “So I’m watching.”

  “I don’t remember doing that.” I said and rubbed my eyes. I looked up at Gravel and smiled. “As long as we’re both here.”

  Gravel got in the Dodge and leaned over toward me. I put my mouth to his neck and found that he had shaved it and it had a light dusting of baby powder. I nodded my approval and sank my fangs into his flesh. He made some kind of noise that might have been pleasure or pain as I poured just a bit of power back into him.

  “Let me know if anything happens around here.” I said and left Gravel hiding in the shadows. He was a lot better at it than I was.

  “AH, THERE YOU are.” Grandfather said as he let me into his apartment.

  “You’re looking better.” I said and walked into the apartment. “How are you feeling?”

  “Good.” Grandfather said and still looked a bit older than he should have. “Katie here has a few skills that are helping your parents and me cope with your little problem.”

  “Really?” I said and looked at Katie. “So why aren’t you helping me?”

  “You’ve made it pretty clear you don’t want my help.” Katie said and lean
ed back on a plush red sofa that I didn’t recall having seen before. “I just couldn’t stand listening to them whine any more.”

  “Why weren’t you affected by The Little Death?” I said and took a moment to notice the Elf’s health and vitality.

  “I’m not a vampire.” She said and smiled at me. “And I’m not a blood slave to a vampire, like Jackie or James here. Our relationship is more pure. I’m a different kind of slave. I don’t need your bite to keep me alive and make me do whatever you want.”

  “I could fix that.” I said and let my power flash in my eyes.

  “Wait until you’re cured, ok?” Katie said and smiled at me. Her eyes took on that deep green of the Goddess and a flash of power washed over me. I felt better, but still not perfect.

  “Thanks.” I said and looked from Katie to Grandfather. “What are you doing here?”

  “You said you needed my help.” Grandfather said and smiled. “So I’m helping.”

  “How exactly?” I said.

  “Like you care.” Katie said and rolled her eyes. “I’m translating for him. He’s got one of Fredric’s books and I’m helping him with a few of the passages.”

  “I thought that book was locked.” I said and looked at Grandfather. “And it was in Kilestra’s possession.”

  “Different book.” Grandfather said and shook a finger at me. “This is another one from Fredric’s Private Collection. Kilestra is loaning it to us.”

  “How did she get it?” I said and let a little power flash in my eyes.

  “Kilestra doesn’t want us to tell you.” Katie said. “You suck at shielding.”

  “Fine.” I said and sat in a red chair that matched the sofa. “It’s only the fate of the universe you two are playing with. Feel free to keep it to yourselves.”

  “See, Katie? He does care.” Grandfather said and rubbed his hands together. “People aren’t meant to live forever, but I’ve decided it’s better than the alternative.”

  “You make it sound like there’s just one.” I said and rubbed my eyes. “Our world has never been that simple.”

  “I was just about to fix my guest a little breakfast.” Grandfather said and moved toward the kitchen at the room’s other end. “It will only take a few minutes to fry up some bacon and eggs.”

  “He’s fixing me bacon.” Katie said as she came over and sat on my lap. “Not Quinoa and Apple cereal.”

  She put her arms around my neck and laid her head on my chest. She shivered a bit and settled into the coolness of my embrace. I took in the smell of her hair, the weight of her body, the warmth of her blood.

  “I just want you to be well.” I said and looked over at Grandfather. “A normal person would have had a heart attack decades ago.”

  “I think he knows that.” She said without raising her head. “I missed you.”

  “I’m sure you did.” I said and let my arms rest around her. “I needed you earlier.”

  “I was busy here.” Katie said and looked guilty. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”

  The smell of bacon wafted through the apartment. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts drift back. There was a time when I had been human and eaten and enjoyed bacon. It had been more like salt pork, rough-cut and beautifully marbled, and tasted amazing. I shared the memory with Katie and risked pouring some power into her. I took a little blood and tickled her pleasure center enough to make her squirm. It was all I dared to do with her now. She got up and went into the kitchen to eat her early breakfast.

  “I’ve never been that fond of Elves.” Grandfather said as he took Katie’s spot on the sofa. “But I like this one. She’s a healer and she has the power to destroy reality within her. I kind of like that in a woman.”

  “I always value your opinion, Grandfather.” I said. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to let her read that book?”

  “Katie is on our side, Sonny.” Grandfather said and looked at me seriously. “She’s pointed out a couple of things I would have missed. She’s proven herself pretty useful.”

  “I’m not sure I’d get too attached if I were you.” I said. “People never seem to remain a part of our lives for long.”

  “Good thing I’m not ‘people’ then.” Katie said around a mouthful of bacon and eggs. “Isn’t it?”

  I CLOSED MY eyes. My mind was filled with Katie and Gravel, my family, Sally and Kilestra. And the random necks and bodies that always seem to be just a smile away. And now I had Jackie to add to my list. Though I never fed on Andy, he was important to the work that needed doing. He was there during the day to do things I couldn’t do myself. Compared to some vampires it was a small, almost tiny, entourage. For me it was getting to be more than I wanted to think about.

  “Oh come on.” Grandfather said and patted my knee as he caught bits of my thoughts. “You only spend a couple of hours a week meeting our needs. So far as I can tell, you don’t do a damned thing as Master of Fort Worth. Hell, you don’t even cut ribbons at openings or go to Conventions in the Carpathian Mountains. Not that I can blame you much on that one.”

  “I did have an exhibit at the Nightshade Gallery that took a lot of my time.” I said and marveled at how so much time slipped by while getting so little done. “I do have things to do.”

  I waved goodbye to Grandfather and I walked out to the Dodge. Katie walked beside me and it felt natural, as if she had always been there. I reached out and took her hand in mine. Her eyes flashed a darker green for a second and a soft warmth flowed over me. The mood was broken when my phone started blaring the opening bars of I Fought the Law. Sally was calling.

  “Sally.” I said and got into the Dodge. “I was just thinking about you.”

  “Yeah.” Sally said. “I’ll bet it was while you had an Elf curled up on your lap.”

  “I seriously need to start shielding better.” I said without thinking.

  “Did you talk to Victoria and Fedor yet?” Sally said coolly.

  “I don’t think that’s a problem anymore.” I said and leaned back into the leather car seat.

  “Think again.” Sally said. “I got calls from both of them.”

  “Ok, I’ll deal with them tomorrow night.” I said

  “Sure you will.” Sally said. “Any chance I can see you tomorrow night?”

  “How about first thing?” I said. “I can always have Katie make room for you.”

  “Yeah, funny.” Sally said with a bit of a pout in her voice. “I’ll be there when you wake up.”

  KATIE GOT INTO the Dodge as soon as I lowered the phone. She held up her wrist in the familiar gesture that meant I was running the risk of becoming a pile of ash. Not too much of a risk, I could see the Mansion from here. Grandfather might be spreading his wings, but he wasn’t spreading them too far.

  I was heading up the hill that the Mansion sat on when the Dodge stopped moving. It wasn’t as if we had hit something; it was as if we had never been moving in the first place. I looked through the windshield and saw Vladlena. She was standing in front of the Dodge in the pool of the headlights. She was moving her hands in the kind of complex gestures really old vampires used when they were fucking with reality. Then the lights went off and the engine died.

  “How long till the sun comes?” I said in a flat voice.

  “About fifteen minutes.” Katie said and pointed to the brightening sky in the east. “Is there some reason Vladlena isn’t worried about it?”

  Katie vanished from her seat and was replaced by Vladlena. She was holding a long silver sword that barely fit in the front seat. She drove the blade expertly into my right bicep. A fine gray smoke rose from the wound and a single note of extreme pain rang in my head.

  “You’re coming with me, Wilhem.” Vladlena said and placed her hand on my shoulder. We didn’t fly or vanish in a puff of smoke, we just moved faster than I knew any vampire could move. Vladlena led the way and dragged me behind her like a small child that was dawdling at the market.

  We ended up in a storm drain a mile o
r so from the Mansion. The tunnel was long and had many branching sections. It was far enough underground that we would be safe from the light of day. It was also wet and cold and the air was filled with all kinds of decay and mold and insect life. Vladlena threw me into a shallow stream that was slowly trickling down the tunnel’s center.

  “I was thinking that if I could just put a little scare into you.” Vladlena said and her voice echoed all around me. “That you would see the wisdom in leaving me alone. Maybe you could tell Fedor to leave me alone. And maybe Fedor could put out one of his famous reports. He could send it along the line to other Consulates and even the Commission. Then they would all leave me alone.”

  “Why would I want to help you?” I said and clamped my hand over the seeping wound in my arm. I stood up and stared through the darkness at Vladlena. She was standing in the middle of the tunnel with her hands resting on the hilt of the sword. Her feet were spread like a comic book superhero.

  “I’m going to tell them you forced me to kill those other vampires.” Vladlena said and nodded at her own cleverness. “You are a powerful vampire and I had no choice but to do your bidding.”

  “My Servant saw you.” I said and moved away from the little stream. “You’re forcing me, I’m not forcing you.”

  “Oh, but you are.” Vladlena said as she warmed to her subject. “I know about that little spat you had with Fedor and Victoria. They both have their doubts about you anyway. Everyone has their doubts about you. I’ll tell the Commission you ordered me to kill Fedor and when I refused, you attacked me. I had no choice but to defend myself.”

  Vladlena reached up and wrapped her hand around a chain that was hanging from the ceiling. She gave it a yank. The sound of metal scraping against concrete reverberated down the cement tube. I looked up in spite of myself. I saw a sliver of paling night sky through an open manhole cover far above. At a guess, I would say I had less than five minutes before I was dead for the day. Sometime around noon the sun would fill the hole overhead and I’d be dead for now and forever.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” Vladlena said and was instantly beside me, holding me in place. “You’re thinking you can move to a far corner of the tunnel and be safe. You’re thinking I will also be killed. You’re thinking one of your mindless servants will rush in at the last moment to save you. But I think you are wrong on all counts.”

  I struggled to free myself from Vladlena’s grip. She had a couple of centuries on me and had skills I didn’t to boot. I also had the small matter of my left arm not working as it should with a wound that didn’t want to heal. I tried to reach out to someone, anyone. Vladlena was doing a good job of blocking my ability to call for help. She punched me in my wounded arm and my attention snapped into place.

  “I don’t want to kill you, Wilhem.” Vladlena said softly next to my ear. “I just want to scorch you a little. Make it look like you were trying to execute me and I was able to turn the tables at the last moment. Then Fedor will lock you in the Vampire Consulate’s basement. And I will be given counseling and all will be forgiven.”

  My thinking is often just a little too slow, but this time I didn’t have time to think. Vladlena was holding me in place, waiting those last few seconds for me to be dead for the day. She would have a few more seconds, long enough to flash away from the light. Her face was close to mine. Her arms were wrapped around me.

  I twisted around to face her. Vladlena still held me, but I wasn’t trying to escape now. I wrapped my arms around her and held tight. I pushed a thought at her that the sun had risen. Vladlena looked up toward a now blue sky visible through the manhole. When she did, she exposed her neck to me. She shifted her feet to support my weight. My face fell onto her neck and I sank my fangs as deep into her ancient flesh as I could.

  An ancient’s blood is one of the rarest on earth. Out of a population of seven billion people and 70 million vampires, there are only a few hundred truly old vampires. The fact that I’ve known several of them is interesting, but not impossible. The flow of Vladlena’s blood into my body had the effect of changing my view of the universe. Time dilated, slowed, and then stopped. One of the reasons there aren’t as many Ancients as there could be is that they tend to go a bit mad. Some of Vladlena’s madness flowed into me with the blood. Her view that she was a God and could do whatever she wanted had some basis in fact. She was a Rogue and an Ancient, so living without rules or reason made her a dangerous thing.

  I pulled more of Vladlena’s power into me. The sun was close to rising for real, but to my heightened senses it was still a long ways off. I pushed Vladlena down the drain pipe until we reached a branching tunnel. Then I pulled her into it with me. She was the one struggling now. I pushed a thought into her mind that she didn’t want to kill me. That she was happy to be in my arms. I poured a bit of fear into her and she stiffened and dug her heels into the cement floor. This is what I wanted. We were well away from the manhole and the coming light now.

  “You are a fool.” Vladlena thought in a burst, but I couldn’t tell if she was talking to me or herself. One of the few weaknesses the old ones have is that they tend to rely on main strength. They have so much of it. They have all kinds of vampire power, but they seldom put it all to use. In my current state, I had forever to flip through Vladlena’s memories and emotions. To pull out her traumas and ecstasies. She knew what I was doing and she tried to push me away. It had been too long since she last fed. I had taken enough of her blood that the fight had literally run out of her.

  Her powers were a constellation of white lights in my mind. She had skills she hadn’t used in a very long time. One power glowed more than the others. This one she had used until it was more powerful than all the others. I reached out to it and wrapped my hand around it. It was the power to control the flow of Time. I took the power like plucking a grape and made it my own. Vladlena mourned its loss for a moment. But she had lived long enough for loss to be a constant companion.

  I had to guess she wouldn’t miss it much seeing as she possessed other time related Powers. I left her other Powers untouched. In my experience taking more than one at a time leads to problems. Killing her would make them forever beyond my reach. Some of them looked pretty interesting. I didn’t want to kill her anyway.

  A thought of Katie and Gravel flashed through my mind. I was able to reach out to them now and I sent them an image of where I was. My mouth was still on Vladlena’s neck and my body pressed down on her. She was as helpless as she had been since that night long ago when she had been brought over. I pulled away from her and she stared at me. The fire in her eyes a mere shadow of what it had been. Then her features relaxed, the light went out, and she was dead to the world. I had taken enough of her power that I could stay awake a few more seconds.

  Distant sounds of water splashing and conversations echoed along the storm drains. Katie and Gravel were approaching from different directions, trying to find me by triangulating my position. I looked down at Vladlena. Without the force that animated her, she was just another corpse. Cold and soft and empty. It occurred to me that this is what I looked like during the day. It was a thought that had never struck me before. I lay down beside Vladlena and let my body relax. I released my hold on time and the world ceased to be.

  I OPENED MY eyes to darkness. It was a familiar darkness. I pushed up on the lid of my coffin and found Sally reading a thick book. She put a marker in place and closed it without reading to the page’s end. She smiled at me and gave me a hug the moment I was standing.

  “Why do you do this stuff?” Sally said and pushed away from me. “Vladlena nearly killed you. For real.”

  “But she didn’t.” I said and pulled Sally gently toward me again. “Let me show you something.”

  “I’ve seen it before.” Sally said and smirked at me. “But I don’t mind seeing it again.”

  I put my hands on her shoulder and let some of my energy flow into her. It seemed safe so long as I didn't feed on her. I closed my eye
s and merged with Sally’s body and mind. She squirmed in my grasp and let out a moan of pleasure. I held us in that state for several moments, stretching time for her. Making her orgasm last until the pleasure threatened to eclipse her reality. She protested weakly, her fist tapping my chest. I released her and sat her back in the chair.

  “You learned that from Vladlena?” Sally said once she had recovered enough for rational thought. “You stole some of her power while you mind raped her. I can’t approve of that.”

  “Well.” I said and smiled at her. “She was trying to kill me at the time.”

  “Hmm.” Sally said and closed her eyes. “No, she wasn’t. But I guess maiming has the same general self-defense rules.”

  “I can’t help but overshare with you, Sally.” I said, “Did you get a chance to do a little more research on Desiara?”

  “I found a lot of dead ends and sealed archives.” Sally said and narrowed her eyes at me. “What I was able to learn was that she was an Elven Goddess Not a nice one either. Her father was able to gain her trust long enough to put some kind of a powerful spell on her. The spell is the stuff of legends having been worked on by dozens of Elven Mages. And that’s it. Rumors and fairy tales.”

  “Godhood, eh?” I said and nodded. “Ever think about the patience of Gods.”

  “You don’t seriously think Katie is this Goddess Desiara?” Sally said.

  “Yeah, I do.” I said and held my hand toward her. I led her to the bedroom.