Covenant With the Vampire (34 page)

A small smile played upon his lips; with a strength that dwarfed mine, he reached
forward and easily pulled the gun from my grasp, but did not point it at me.
“So,” he said. “You have come to yourself, then.”

“My wife - !”

“It merely seemed fitting that the child should be born here. She is in labour,
but quite well. Dunya attends her.”

“Dunya…” I broke off, having intended to say,
Dunya waits for me outside
in the carriage; it is impossible!
Then I saw the amusement in his gaze,
and closed my gaping mouth in horror at the realisation that both I and the
little chamber-maid had been his pawns.

The merriment in his eyes died abruptly; his tone became hushed, that of one
explaining the most sacred of mysteries. “We shall discuss your wife shortly.
But first… You have learned the truth tonight, Arkady. This is what I am; accept
it, and do not fear us.”

“I can never accept such brutality,” I whispered, inclining my head at the
victims lying upon the table but closing my eyes, unable to look.

“The brutality of Nature Herself,” said he. “We are predators; who can fault
us for struggling to survive?

Who can tell the hawk he must not hunt, the lion he must not kill? Who dares
call that sin?“

“Hawks do not coldly plan to torment and kill other hawks,” I countered, my
voice trembling, my features contorted with disgust. “Nor lions other lions.
But it is murder when humans set forth to do so.”

“Arkady,” he replied softly, “we are not human.”

To this I had no reply, but averted my face, wanting to flee the grisly sight
upon the table.

V. spoke again, in the same reverently somber tone. “Do you remember the ceremony,
and what was spoken of the covenant?”

“I remember.” Bitter, I stared down at the floor, recalling the numbed, hopeless
grief in my father's eyes.

“The ritual is complete. I took your will from you then, to ensure that you
would return to me now. These are the terms of the covenant: That you will assist
us in attaining nourishment; that, for the good of the town, you will prevent
the creation of new
strigoi.
In return, I will never harm you or yours,
but will see you and they want nothing - ”

“But you have broken the covenant! You have harmed Zsuzsa!”

V. lifted his chin regally. “I have given her life; she had none before. For
love, I have made her
strigoi,
that she might know happiness with me.
I accept the responsibility of caring for her always. Will you help us?”

And he raised the gun in his hand. For a confusing instant, I thought he might
aim it at me; instead, he turned the barrel towards himself and pressed the
butt into my palm. I closed my fingers around the weapon and stared at him.

“I give you back your will, Arkady. You must freely decide whether to return
my love or to reject me, knowing what I am and what I require.” V. paused, then
gazed down at the corpses and asked, “You have heard, I am sure, of the peasant
superstition concerning the prevention of new
strigoi”

I looked down at the two dead innocents lying before me and whispered, “I know
it is what they did to Father's body.”

“Yes,” V. said, then turned to gaze at the instruments arranged beside the
table; and I followed that look and saw the mallet, the shortened stakes, the
knives.

I understood immediately what he wished, and cried: “No, I cannot!”

Had I believed I had any chance at all of overpowering him, I would have destroyed
him in that instant with the implements surrounding us - but there was nothing
I could do.

V.“s expression was perfectly hard, perfectly cool, perfectly matter-of-fact,
as though we discussed some business matter concerning the estate over which
we minorly disagreed. ”Your father despised this task, also; and so he procured
Laszlo. If you wish, you may make similar • arrangements. I do not care how
it is done. But this once, it must be done now - and quickly! You must, Arkady.
I cannot. You
must.“

“No!” I turned and headed to leave. Immediately, a gust of wind swept through
the room. The door to the outer chamber slammed shut in front of me, and the
bolt slid into the lock.

Behind me, V.“s voice said, ”If you do not, they will rise as
strigoi…
and they are not bound by the covenant, as I and your sister are. They will
be free to harm anyone: your wife. Your soon-to-be-born child.“

I faced him. “But if I refuse to fulfill my role in the covenant? You say I
have free will, that I can decide, but I am hardly acting of my own volition
if you resort to blackmail - ”

V.“s face was an impassive mask. ”You are free. And I, like any predator, am
free to act in a manner that ensures my survival. I am
voievod.
I do
not deal lightly with those who would betray me.“

“You killed Stefan,” I said softly, hatred suddenly eclipsing fear. “You killed
my mother…”I thought of the wolf-dog who had killed both my brothers, of the
wolf at the window who had come so close to killing my wife, and my knees began
to fail. I grasped the table's edge to steady myself.

His expression, his voice, were utterly without emotion. “It broke my heart,
of course. But your father could at times be enormously stubborn. It was his
choice to disobey and cause such tragedy.” He lifted a stake and the mallet
from the tools beside the table and proffered them to me. “Just as it is your
choice now. Can you be strong, Arkady? Can you set aside your own self-interest
in order to do what is best for your family? For the village?”

“Are you threatening my wife and child?” I whispered.

And the Impaler smiled, ever so faintly, and said, “It would do no good to
threaten
you,
Arkady. You are too full of romantic notions of heroism
and self-sacrifice.”

I looked into those jade eyes, knowing that I was truly free from their hypnotic
allure, that the Impaler told the truth that my mind was my own. The return
of my will I could not fathom, except to think he allowed it out of some twisted
notion of honour. “If I agree… will you take me to Mary? Will you swear not
to harm her, or the baby?”

V. gave a solemn nod. “As long as you abide by the covenant… so shall I.”

Very well, then; for Mary's sake, I decided I could bear to play his game long
enough to set the Muellers free from the
strigoi’s
curse. Indeed, if
V. would not free them, I was obligated to see that they did not rise.

I took the stake and mallet from him. V. turned Herr Mueller's body over so
that the slack face gazed sightlessly up at the dark ceiling; and then the monster
fastened his keen gaze upon me, his eyes ablaze with unholy light.

With shaking hands, I set the stake so that it dented the greyish white flesh
of the dead man's chest, just above his heart; and then I lifted the mallet
above my head, and with one strong, ringing blow, brought it down.

Mueller's body jerked limply, lifelessly - then writhed, come suddenly to life
in a burst of hideous energy. At the same instant, his grey lips parted to emit
such an ear-piercing shriek that I recoiled and dropped the mallet, utterly
unnerved.

“He is alive!” I cried with horror.

“He shall not be for long!” V. retrieved the mallet and gestured with it at
the miserable creature on the table. My first blow had plunged the stake some
two inches deep into his heart; impossible, indeed, for anyone to survive such
a mortal wound for more than seconds. “See how he suffers! Hurry - release him
from such pain!”

I emitted a sob and stood frozen, unable to bear the sight of such agony; unable
to kill.

And then Mueller let go a moan too piteous for any mortal heart to bear.

“Again!” V. urged, thrusting the mallet at me. “Harder! Quickly!”

I seized the mallet and struck again. Mueller thrashed like a great dying fish
and howled.

I struck again and again, grimacing, tears streaming down my cheeks. Again,
until the poor man stilled at last and the stake was well sunk into his chest - yet
he had shed not a drop of blood. Staring down at his contorted features, I could
think of nothing but Jeffries as I chose the largest, thickest blade from among
the tools and went about the grisly business of separating the head from the
torso.

It was horrid work; sickening work, and I cannot bear to describe it in detail
here. Most sickening, though, was the abnormally bright gleam in V.“s eyes as
he watched me perform the task.

And then the time came to deal likewise with Frau Mueller. For modesty's sake,
I lowered my eyes and averted them as much as possible when placing the stake
between her breasts. I prayed that she, unlike her unfortunate husband, was
truly dead; after all, had not V. forbidden Zsuzsanna to continue drinking because
the girl had died?

Reassuring myself thusly, I struck again - and wept aloud as she, too, came to
life and screamed as heartrendingly as her husband had. I knew then that V.
had intentionally deceived me for some terrible purpose.

“How unfortunate,” he whispered, when it was over and both bodies had been
decapitated. “It seems they were both alive. But how could this be?”

I could only look on him with hate. Did he expect that I would be broken and
do whatever he bade? “I have done what you asked,” I said heavily. “Now take
me to my wife.”

“Very well,” he replied, and conducted me to a doorway hidden behind the throne.
This opened onto a dark narrow passageway, which led to a heavy wooden door,
from behind which came, very faintly, my wife's agonised cries. V. put his hand
upon the door, then hesitated, and turned back to face me, half smiling.

“You have performed admirably, Arkady. There is but one more small thing. I
have an unexpected visitor who according to his letter has been waiting in Bistritz
since dawn for my caleche to arrive. But Laszlo was indisposed this morning” - and
here his smile widened - “and now is even more so. Could you… ?”

“I cannot leave Mary! And I have not slept in days - ”

V. gave a gracious nod. “In the morning, then? After you have had time to sleep?
Only this one small thing, and then you may remain with your wife as long as
you wish…”

I heard the threatening undercurrent in his tone. At that moment, I could scarcely
bear to stand listening to my wife's groans, could not bear to think of anything
keeping me from her side, knowing that she was so close by, and so I agreed
wearily, “Yes, yes, of course - I will go in the morning.”

“Excellent.” V.“s smile widened again to reveal teeth; he turned and pushed
open the door.

The chamber beyond was windowless and small, and like its owner, full of glitter
edged with decay - festooned with cobwebs, limned with dust, but magnificently
appointed with golden candelabra, cut crystal, and a great canopy bed draped
in gleaming gold brocade. Dunya sat at the bedside on a velvet stool, and when
the little chambermaid glanced up at us, her gaze went blank, vacant upon meeting
Vlad’s.

I shuddered, unable to hide my disgust and dismay at the revelation that V.
had used her to betray us. He saw my expression, and the ironic smile returned
to his lips. “I will leave you now to your privacy on this remarkable occasion,”
said he, and left, closing the door behind him.

On the bed lay my struggling wife, her golden hair damp and dark with sweat,
her face flushed bright with effort. I went at once to her and took her hand,
and we wept together.

“We cannot trust her,” Mary said tearfully, in English. “Her neck… I have seen
her neck.”

She did not so much as glance at Dunya, who sat beside her with the most innocent
of expressions, unable to follow our conversation. “He has bitten her?” I asked
softly; Mary nodded and bowed her head, overwhelmed by grief.

Soon the pains began again in earnest. I wished to do something to help, but
apparently my dismay at seeing her in such agony added to her distress. And
so I sat just outside the doorway, where she could see me and be reassured by
my presence, but could not glimpse my tormented expression.

For a few moments, when her labour grew intense and she and Dunya were distracted,
I slipped downstairs to learn that the doors leading out of the castle have
been bolted from the outside.

So I sit outside my wife's elegant prison, writing it all down on the perfumed
stationery I discovered within the room.

God help me, I am twice a murderer. And we are prisoners, with no hope of escape.

The Diary of Arkady Tsepesh

21 April, mid-day. Addendum on separate parchment.

Exhaustion at last overtook me and I slept in the hallway with my impromptu
diary upon my lap until the grey morning light filtered through the open door.
Heart pounding with fear, I leapt to my feet as I recalled our circumstances,
then dashed into the room where my wife was confined.

The child had still not been born. Mary was so worn and pale, her lips so grey,
that I was frightened. Dunya, her face somber with concern, said Mary must not
be moved at all for fear she might bleed to death. This I believe to be true
and not some suggestion put into her mind by V.; a glance at my poor wife confirmed
it.

Even so, I asked Dunya how much longer the birth might take. She shook her
head and opened her mouth to speak, but I could not hear her reply for my wife's
sudden anguished groans.

The sound caused tears to fill my eyes, for it seemed she was crying out because
of the misery I had caused her, bringing her here. Dunya saw my distress (Poor
child. The horror of it is she is still herself, with a good heart; I do not
think she is even aware V. controls her), and immediately ordered me to fetch
more pain-relieving herbs from the kitchen.

I hesitated to leave Mary; but I had heard the servants’ whispered claims that
the
strigoi
slept by day. Certainly, this was V.“s custom, and so I
felt Mary was safe - at least, for the moment.