The Journal of Vincent Du Maurier Trilogy (Books 1, 2, 3) (53 page)

I thought the Empress
would remain docked, especially since I took her captain and favorite guard,
but I would not make assumptions about the wily queen. I could not know if she
orchestrated Evelina’s capture because she defeated Mindiss, or had killed her
donor. Perhaps this was her way of ridding herself of the novice. “Stay close
to the Empress,” I said. “Find out what you can about the abduction, and who we
can trust. But be careful. Be discerning, know your enemies from your friends.”

“I will pray …” he said,
leaving the offer hanging like his faith. “I will watch for your return with
Evelina.”

The sun was high when we
set out to the east. Two more vampires volunteered for my crew: Hari, a
thousand year old from the most ancient city in India, and Pechu, born in
Nagoya in the seventeenth century. It did not surprise me when the two older
ones volunteered to accompany me. Though age is not a measure of loyalty, both
vampires recognized my ancient nature, and they were both expert shots. I
apprised them of my enemy as we rode to shore.

“Two shots, then,”
Huitzilli said. “The fiends will need two each.”

“We must strategize our
approach, ancient one,” Hari said. “The leader, this Rangu, will not leave
himself in the open. If he has set a trap, he is prepared.”

“They obey him?” Pechu
asked.

I told him I did not know
how but explained what I had witnessed in my hill town.

“Zhi has doubled the
poison in these,” Hari said, showing me the store of darts. “But perhaps I
should double again.” He set to work melding the poison together, opening the
bottom caps of the darts and making a stronger mixture.

“Is it harmless to us?” I
asked.

“Not really,” Hari said.
“A single shot of half a dose will paralyze the strongest of us.”

“Where does the poison
come from?”

The vampire shrugged and
looked back at the ship.

“Do we kill the nomad?”
Pechu asked.

“Let me,” Huitzilli said.
“He must suffer for taking Tepin.”

We understood one
another, as if Evelina was the sealant between us. Captain Jem was the only
misfit in our crew, but Hari kept him close, giving him a dart gun and showing
him the most efficient way to reload. His hands shook for the lesson, but I was
not concerned for the drunk. If he did not return with us, we would find
another skipper.

Zhi considered himself
too valuable to risk and wished us luck from the shore, refusing to disembark.
“Send out a signal when you return,” he said. “We’ll be
watching—waiting.” He handed us flare guns, and I tucked mine in my
waist. It was not all that long ago he had forced the Damascus steel on me and
left me to a similar fate. I knew my purpose then, though I was also driven by
my desire to see my girl again. Evelina, my fierce novice,
I am coming for you
. That was my mantra all along, every step we
took, every trail we followed.
I am
coming for you
.

Facing the sunlight would
make her fearless, and that gave me some comfort. We believe our seventy-five
years of darkness prepare us for immortality.
Once a vampire sees the sun again, he knows
he will live forever. She may have suffered the fireball before her time but
she has been inducted into its power nevertheless. She will recover from her
burns, and when she does, she will know she is immortal. That is the strength
that will drive her, the new power she wields.
I am coming for you
.

We traveled east through
an overgrown landscape, abandoned fruit farms and large tracks of vibrant
scapes that seemed resistant to the sun. Cypress lined the path, as we hustled
to find a trail. It looked hopeless, though I suspected Rangu would make it
easy for me. He wanted me to pick up his bait, surely, to find his trap. I just
hoped he had not made her his as he had done with my others. I would turn to
stone if so
.
I am coming for you
.

The scenery was free of
bloodless until we reached a small ravine in a valley, running through two
hillsides. Several swarms had gathered on the slope opposite our position. They
had not touched water yet, though they were headed toward the stream. We pushed
forward, unafraid with our arms. Captain Jem clung to Hari, keeping his eyes
closed most of the way. The bloodless sensed him and circled toward us.

“Shall we put them down,”
Huitzilli said, pulling out his blowpipe and shooting off three darts before the
other two had taken their first shot. Huitzilli was by far the superior warrior
of the three. I stood guard, surveying our surroundings and the three vampires
took down the swarms without getting closer than thirty feet. The bloodless
dropped one by one and we traveled ahead. The sun was still high, revealing
mid-afternoon.

“Chrissake,” Captain Jem
said. “There’s a shitload and they all want me, don’t they.”

The Toltec laughed at the
human and said, “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not that tasty.”

“We must move quickly,” I
said.

Hari agreed and said,
“Let me remedy our speed,” picking up the captain and tossing him over his
shoulder.

“Put me the fuck down,”
Captain Jem said. “Right fucking now for Chrissake.”

The vampire scolded the
captain for his feverish attitude and reminded him he would be happy to drop
him on the ground and leave him behind.

“Aw, fuck,” Captain Jem
said, accepting his position.

We rushed forward at a
speed most befitting our energy but it took us some time to pick up the trail.
I had been searching for her frequency, hearing nothing until a small cry, like
a breathless chirp, ripped into me. The call increased, as I drove us forward.
“We are close,” I said. “Be ready.”

I could not get a sense
of Rangu or the others, but when Huitzilli said he also felt vibrations, I knew
the Hummingbird had picked up their frequencies.

“It’s like a barrier,
ancient one,” he said. “The waves are cut off up ahead.”

Hari and Pechu flanked me
while Huitzilli had my back. I took the natural lead, guiding them into danger.
Our route had been flat until the plain in front of us began to incline. We
would have had the more vulnerable position had this been a battlefield, but I
encouraged the vampires to spread out with their scopes readied. A swarm could
come from anywhere, especially from the pass above us. We were blind to the
hilltop, but she was there, her call frantic.

Once we reached midway up
the hill, the peaks of trees revealed themselves. The shade of the olive grove
gave me some relief, thinking she would be hidden in the darkness—but I
was wrong. Huitzilli saw her first, displayed for all. He pointed her out to me
and I flew to her, but the Hummingbird called me back. “Stop,” he shouted when
I was midway to her. I did not retreat. Hari and Pechu rushed up the nearest
trees and positioned themselves on the branches, firing off shots. I was driven
to Evelina, strung up by the ankles as the bait that she was, and I missed the
swarms closing in.

And then, as though from
the sky, Veronica dropped down, tackling me, driving me into the ground. She
was wholly unrecognizable now but hissed and spat her black muck all over me.
She pecked at me with her graceless beak and tried to tear into my hardened
skin. I pushed up on her, but she was stronger now. Her eyes were cloudy, and I
did not think she could see me.

“Min-n-n-n-n-n-e!” She
squealed with the voice of an animal. “She-s-s-s-s-s-s-s min-n-n-n-n-n-e.”

I could not get my gun
out to take a shot since she used her clawed feet to pin my arms on my torso,
but by some miracle I thought of the flare and slipped it out of my waist,
cocking it upward through the middle of us, as I made some headway getting her
off of me. When I got the flare gun pointed at her chest, I dug it into her
flesh, ramming the barrel up inside her. I could feel the vigor of her heart as
it pounded with the force of an air-pressured gun. I did not hesitate, and
pulled the trigger, sending the burning flare into her flesh. She squealed and pulled
her torso up off of mine. Her chest was eviscerated and the flame ate its way
up her neck. I pushed her off me and sprang to my feet. Bodies were everywhere,
but my vampires were still in the trees. Hari and Pechu had pelted Stephen with
darts, though they could only bring him down with a flare, as I had done with
Veronica.

I could not see the
captain, Huitzilli or Rangu, but I made for Evelina’s tree again. She was
nowhere to be seen, and I closed my eyes to listen for her frequency amidst the
pandemonium. Rangu tackled me from the side, I think, for I did not see him
coming. My irons shot out and I wrestled with the fiend until I was hanging off
the ground. He squeezed my neck with his mammoth force and I saw slivers of
light. His face was unchanged but he was speechless this time. With his irons
out, his tarred mouth looked like a metal mine, and when he came at me with his
disfigured beak, I raised my arms to block my chest. He bit through my hardened
hand, and I suffered enormous pain, like the pain forced on me with the tainted
blood. The venomous bite took my attention, as I concentrated on the pain
alone, oblivious to the shots he took in the neck from a distant dart gun. He
released me when he threw his hand up to his neck, and I hit the ground hard,
practically sinking into it, blacking out as I succumbed to the agony in the
right side of my body.

I do not remember much
else, Byron. The rest is blank and I have yet to hear the untold story.

I woke alone on my berth
with the wretched donor at my side.

“Feed again,” Hal said.
“You probably need another hit.”

He stretched out his arm
and I yanked it closer, ripping into the soft spot beneath his bicep. I sucked
up his blood with abandon. The narcotized ichor had healed me of my pain and
when I finished, I tossed his arm from me and told him he could go. He reclined
in the chair by my berth and gazed off. His blood was similar to Paul’s, I felt
the same torpor, but the healing properties are superior to anything I have
experienced. My arm was wound-free when I woke.

“You can go,” I said.

“I’m not to leave you.”
His voice was gruff, which I attributed to his drugged constitution.

“Get Peter,” I said. “I
want to speak with him.”

I tried to sit up, which
is when I noticed the irons on my ankles. My legs were chained together.
“Unlock me,” I said to the donor before he slipped from the cabin, shutting the
door
behind him.

I could not break the
irons, though I had recovered. The titanium anklets were too tight to get a
hand under to snap off, and they were bolted to an anchor buried deep inside
the bulkhead. It was not long before the Empress came into my cabin, a
cigarette dangling from her lips. “I was told you were awake,” she said. “How
is the arm?”

“Unlock me,” I said.
“Now.” My boldness was plain. She was afraid to test my rage, for she stayed
just out of reach.

“I can’t do that,” she
said. “Not just yet.”

“What happened—how
did I get back here?”

She smiled in an unctuous
way and I let my iron fangs out. I would not temper my nature anymore.

“Put them away,” she
said. “Your anger is useless. You’ve lost the upper hand now that I’ve left
Evelina behind.”

It was almost as if I
heard the ship’s engines roar at the same moment she said she had left Evelina
behind. I could feel the ship’s movement now and was racked with anxiety. “Why
have you abandoned her?” I did not recognize my own voice, the growl was lower
than guttural.

“She served her purpose,”
she said. “She was indispensable for one reason—getting you onboard. Once
she was gone, and you were back, with or without her, I could leave. Believe me
when I say she is unnecessary to the cause.”

“What cause?”

“You, Vincent,” she said.
“You are the cause.”

I bit my tongue,
deliberating my options, and then squashed the irrational outburst festering
inside me. I would hide my true feelings once again. “What use am I to you
here? I thought I was free to go?”

“You are wanted in the
Nortrak, Vincent,” she said. “There are things—well, let’s just say an
ancient one is expected to heed certain evolutions.”

Her riddles sickened me,
but I held steady.

“Fine,” I said. “I will
happily sail west with you, but let me get Evelina first.”

“My progeny is wasted,”
she said. “The nomad will take care of her if she survives.”

I asked her to remove my
chains again, and she said, “In time, I’ll send someone in to take them off,
but for now, I like you where you are.”

“What is all this about,
Cixi?”

She bit down hard on her
whalebone holder, locking the trinket between her molars like a dog chewing on
a bone. She sneered and came a little closer, though not near enough. “Where
were you at the height of the volcanic ruptures?” She asked.

She spoke of the Great
Fracture, the biblical-sized event that had lava spoils eating up a third of
the world’s dry land over a decade ago.