the emperor

The Emperor

I knew it was only a matter of time before his Majesty sent for me. The Brotherhood’s inability to police its own people had gotten out of hand. First, something happened in Washington to cause a massacre. Then, as we were told by our vassal in Vatican City, a Brotherhood outcast killed several members of the Board of the Brotherhood and a great number of their soldiers. So now, as secretary to the Emperor himself, was being summoned to appear before his Majesty.

As I walked down the long hall to the Master’s chambers I felt the uneasiness of being under his gaze. His Majesty was no one to fool with, and he was going to want answers. I had followed the nonsense with the Brotherhood ever since word came to me that rebellion was in the air. And now that it seemed everyone in that part of the world had taken leave of his or her senses. And I, Sir Gordon would now try to explain it to the Emperor.

As I walked up to the guarded door of his Majesty, I nodded to the two sentries.

"The Master has summoned me." I said.

"He awaits my Lord." one of them had answered and opened the door into the his chamber.

I took a deep breath and walked in. the chamber was ancient, with the smells that came from the beginning of time. There were a few candles lit in the large chamber, and there on a platform at the end of the room was a large mahogany desk. Sitting at the desk, was the Emperor. I approached him carefully; one false move could mean instant death.

A few steps from the platform I kneeled and placed my forehead to the floor. I did my best not to move until I was acknowledged.

"Rise my old friend." he said.

I raised my head from the floor, but remained on my knees. The Emperor was something to look at; never would one know by first glance he wielded such a power. He was tall and thin, he looked no older than thirty years of age. He was around four-thousand years old, but in truth no one knew his true age. He could burn someone alive with only a thought, and I tremble in his very presence.

"And thou is right to tremble so." he said, being able to read my thoughts.

"I meant to offence my Master." I said

"Thy fear is a healthy fear."

"Yes my Master."

"I pray thee, what doest thou know of these events that reach mine ear?"

I sincerely hoped he meant the Brotherhood.

"Yes." he replied to my thoughts.

"My Master, several things have gone on that have affected the other. There is a vampire, the offspring of Nelix who lives on an island in Washington State in America. The Brotherhood secretly sent Arthur the One Eye to investigate her.

"Upon discovering she was who indeed they thought she was, recalled him back to Paris to help overthrow Lord Herrick. He did not return as ordered so open rebellion started within the ranks of the Brotherhood.

"Sebastian paid gold to the Romanian Clan to kill Lord Herrick, in which they were successful in doing. Sebastian has taken control of the Brotherhood. Arthur the One Eye is currently at large and under penalty of death."

I played everything I knew through my head for the Emperor. It took less time than explaining it all to him. He would hear the conversations I had with his vassal in the Vatican. He would pick out every detail that I would miss in the telling.

"I see." he said reading my thoughts.

"Yes my Master."

"Did not the Brotherhood understand the offspring of Nelix was to be reported to me?"

"It is unclear what the Brotherhood thoughts were on this my Master."

"Doest thou believe the Vatican vassal?"

"I have no reason to believe this Penelope is like her creator."

"This Alec is fond of the child."

"Yes my Master. But he fears lying to thee more than his love for this child."

"Doest he hath knowledge that she is the offspring of Nelix?"

"That is unknown my Master."

"But thou suspect."

"Yes my Master. But she was unknown to anyone until Arthur."

"Yes. Gordon, thou shalt go to Washington and find this Penelope."

"Yes my Master. And when I find her?"

"Assess the situation and report back to me."

"I shall leave immediately."

"Thou hast my leave."

"Thank you my Master."

*

"What’s wrong?"

"This keeps getting better and better."

"What is it?"

"The Brotherhood wants to have a face to face." I said.

"Why?"

"Because of what happened in Paris.

"Alec said that?"

"Yeah."

"Won’t they try to kill us?"

"Not right now they won’t."

"You believe that?"

"For the time, yes." I said leaning back in my chair rubbing my face.

"Why?"

"Because as long as we’re alive Arthur will look for us. They want him dead, and we’re a means to an end."

"What else did he say? What did he say when you told him about Dave?"

"He was sorry to hear about it, but glad that Arthur had turned up."

"Yeah, Arthur turning up is great." Anne said without humor.

"Also, something else." I didn’t really know how to explain The Edge to her.

"Is that something, something that irritated you?"

"Yeah." I paused for a moment before I continued, "You remember me talking about the Romanian Clan right?"

"Ah, yeah."

"They’re sending us help."

"And that’s a bad thing?" she asked.

"When the help is the kind we’re getting."

"Pip I love, what in the world are you talking about?"

"The Romanians are sending us a vampire named The Edge."

"The Edge."

"That’s what he calls himself."

"Why?"

I just shook my head, "I don’t know, I really don’t."

"Does he know that that sounds stupid?"

"Who knows."

"So why is he coming a bad thing?" Anne asked.

"Because he’s crazy. I’m literally crazy."

"Like, how crazy?"

"Like schizophrenic crazy." I said.

"Oh great." Anne said and started laughing.

"What, what’s so funny?" I asked.

"I don’t know, I’m just wondering how much more crazy this is going to get." in the middle of Anne’s laugh a shadow fell across her face.

In an instant I knew what it was she had felt, it was the Brotherhood. The feeling came suddenly, like a thundercloud racing out from the ocean. Like a black sky that told you it was time to go in the house because you were about to get soaked.

"Get into your armor." I said and rushed down to get mine out of the wine cellar.

I grabbed Anne’s short swords, spear and the real tip and base. I threw everything onto the bed and quickly changed into my armor.

"How close are they?" Anne asked.

"I don’t know, close."

Once dressed, I changed Anne’s spear back into a deadly instrument. As I

grabbed a sharpening stone and ran it down one of Anne’s swords, Anne grabbed her crossbow out of the closet and started putting on all her arrow heads. Once I was finished I helped her with the last of them.

"I only sharpened one of your swords," I said quickly, "I figured you would want your other hip for your quiver."

"Thanks."

Anne placed the sling on her crossbow and slung it over her shoulder. She was right, as long as she held on to it; she wouldn’t have any trouble flying with it.

"Breathe baby." I said to her, Anne nodded, "Slow and deep."

I could see she was on the verge of hysterics. If she didn’t get herself under control, she would be in grave danger once the fight started.

"Remember what I’ve taught you, you don’t have to hit them hard, just hit them true."

"Got it." Anne put all her arrows in her quiver and hooked it to her belt.

"Let’s go." I said and went out on the balcony and climbed up onto the roof, Anne quickly followed me.

We moved across the top of the house until we could see the driveway. Both of us laid down on the roof looking over the crown. Anne pulled an arrow out of her quiver and armed her crossbow.

I looked to the eastern sky; we had about an hour or so before the dawn. They must have known we were gone and had come back. It didn’t make sense, how would they have know that without us feeling them.

"What is it?" Anne asked.

"Just wondering how they knew we were home."

"I was thinking that too. They must have the place bugged or something."

"What do you mean?" I asked not understanding terminology.

"I mean, I wonder if they have little microphones in the house."

"They can do that?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"What can we do about it?" Anne just shrugged her shoulders.

"Look." Anne said quietly, "Over in the trees."

I followed her gaze, there was ten men following the driveway up to the house.

"There’s got to be more of them."

"There is, none of them are Arthur."

"Where do you think he is?" she asked.

"I don’t know, but he’s here. That I can promise you."

The men stopped when they hit the garage. Slowly they came around it and huddled near Anne’s Cadillac.

"What are they doing? They have got to know we’re aware of them. No one could be that stupid." I said watching them just sit there.

"What do you want to do? I say we kill them."

"That’s a given. Do you see that one by the front of your truck?" I said point over the crown of the roof.

"Yeah." Anne said nodding.

"I want you to shoot him first. Make sure you don’t miss please."

Anne looked at me and smiled,"I won’t. What are you going to do?"

"I’m going to take to the air. We’re going to have to time this just right so keep an eye on me. Right before I hit them from behind I want you to put an arrow in his throat."

"Okay, then what?"

"Shoot as quickly as you can."

"You’re going to fight them by yourself?"

"If it’s just these ten than yes, I’m willing to bet there’s more of them someplace."

"If there is?"

"We get the hell out of here." I said.

Anne and I looked at each other for a moment; the same thing went though our minds. We were looking at what neither of us could live without.

"Be careful please." Anne said and gave me a quick kiss.

I scooted away from the crown and took off into the air. As I circled over the backyard to gain altitude, I saw a rowboat beached behind the house.

"Damn!" I said.

I was willing to bet Arthur was in that group. I circled around towards the house; I could see Anne looking up at me as I went by. I tried to point back

towards the beach, but she clearly didn’t understand what I was talking about.

Whatever.

Arthur wanted a fight, I wanted Arthur. I would accept his invitation to battle. Did he know about Anne? Probably. Would he expect her to be hiding with a crossbow? I doubted it. We would fight and see where each other stood. I had kept an eye on Anne as I circled above the men in my drive way. I couldn’t see anyone else hiding, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. I went off of the old saying, if you couldn’t see your enemy, they probably couldn’t see you.

I drew my sword and came down behind the men. Anne timed her shot perfectly, but it was too bad she didn’t time her aim as well. Her arrow missed the guy I told her to shoot and hit the guy behind him in the forehead. It didn’t matter, the effect was the same.

Their attention went to the dead man. I crashed into them and killed a man before they even noticed the ambush, then the fight started. These men weren’t like the ones in Seattle, they were all experienced fighters. I quickly realized I was in over my head.

The men didn’t even blink at the loss of a man and attacked. I checked their attacks and moved back, I needed to get back into the air but they weren’t going to let me. They came to hard and fast. I flapped my wings to help moved away from them.

Anne shot another down but it helped very little, I was being overwhelmed. The only thing I had going for me was I could move fast than they could. My speed would not let them surround me. I swung my sword relentlessly at the attackers. They would check my swing and counter. I was grateful for the armor I was wearing, I knew I was being hit and it was protecting me.

I was able to get a good strike off and hit a guy in the throat and Anne shot another down. My odds were starting to improve; it was now five on one. With the number standing as they were I was able to go on the offensive. But the men stood their ground and fought back relentlessly.

A wild shot from Anne hit me in the chest, the arrow went through my breast plate but the leather and chain mail stopped it. With a quick swipe of my arm I broke the arrow.

"Not helping!" I shouted at the shock of Anne’s shot.

Poor Anne, I couldn’t help but worry what she was thinking. I pushed it from my thoughts and continued my attack. Then the odds changed horribly. There was a loud shout to my right. I quickly looked and saw twenty plus men rushing into the fight.

"Oh s**t!" I said and took an arrow through the throat.

"PIP!" I heard Anne shout.

I felt myself falling forward, as I fell to my knees I saw a large man with a scared face rush over me to strike me down. I watched horrified knowing this man would be the last thing I saw on earth. But Anne saved me; she came flying down and swung her spear like a club from above her head. Before she crashed landed, I saw the scared man’s head explode as the club end of Anne’s spear crushed his head in sickening crack.

Anne’s suicidal charge momentarily caught everyone off guard. She jumped to her feet and swung her spear around over me backing everyone up. She grabbed me by the back plate and was able to take to the air.

At first, I didn’t think we would clear the trees. Anne was flying for everything she was worth trying to get us away. She circled towards the water and headed north. I could feel myself starting to slip unconscious, I looked around and knew we would be safe for the moment. Not wanting to lose my sword, I sheathed it and passed out.

*

"Shoot her." I said, "When they see the arrow, they’ll attack."

"What about the female on the roof?" Ryan asked.

"If your shot is true, she’ll come on her own." I said.

As Ryan took aim I looked around at our position, we were well hidden in the flank. I was worried when I saw the creature Penelope take to the air; she had seen the boat and tried to warn the other vampire who was hidden up on the roof.

I watched as Ryan let his arrow go. It was a clean shot and struck her in the

center of her chest.

"She’s wearing armor Ryan. But nice shot."

"Not helping!" I heard her yell.

"She thinks her lover did it." Ryan said.

"Good, she doesn’t know we’re here yet." I said, "Shoot her again." I said as the men charged.

Ryan let another arrow fly, this time the shot was perfect. He hit the creature in the throat and she went down.

"PIP!" I heard from the roof.

"Here comes the other one. Get ready." I said to Ryan.

I watched as one of the men readied himself for the kill.

"He doesn’t see her." Ryan said watching the other creature coming down off the roof.

"Too bad for him. When fighting vampires you need to pay attention to you surrounding, especially when a creature’s lover is near."

The lover’s blow was devastating; the man’s head seemed to go to exploded. She swung her spear like a lunatic around her fallen lover.

"Shoot her!" I said quickly.

Ryan took aim as she grabbed the wounded vampire and took to the air. His shoot struck the lover in the lower back, but her armor protected her.

"Damn." Ryan grumbled.

"Couldn’t be helped. That was a hard shot to make."

"Yeah I know. But if I would have made her drop the wounded vampire it would have been something worth bragging about. All I managed to do was end the battle."

"There’ll be others. Come on." I said patting Ryan on the shoulder.

We walked over to the driveway. As I walked up to the man with the crushed head I shook my head.

"I want you all to look at this. Everyone here knew there were two of them. This is what happens when you forget to look around once in a while. This won’t be a lesson he will need to learn a second time." I said poking his brains with my toe.

"What do you want to do?" Ryan asked.

"Drag the dead into the house and burn it."

"That will bring the cops into this." Ryan said.

I shrugged. What did I care; I didn’t live in Oak Harbor.

*

"Pip?!

I opened my eyes and tried to look around.

"Don’t move baby, just hold still. The arrow went all the way through and is caught in the back of your collar."

I reached up and felt the arrow in my throat and tried to speak.

"Don’t try to speak baby." Anne said.

"Sit me up." I gurgled out.

Anne sat me and I looked around. We were sitting on the beach behind the Navy’s old rifle range; the sun was just starting to come up.

I reached up and grabbed the arrow right where it went in my neck and broke it. The pain from doing it about made me pass out, I sat there with my eyes closed until it passed. I made the motion with my hand instructing Anne to pull the arrow the rest of the way though my neck. Anne looked horrified at the thought.

"I can’t do it." I managed to say.

"Okay I’ll do it, stop trying to talk."

Anne pulled my collar back and looked down at the back of my neck. When she did, because the arrow was stuck in the collar, it pulled the rest of the arrow into my throat and got stuck. The pain was instant; I reached up and tried to claw out the broken shaft back out of my neck.

Once I got it unhooked, I placed my hand over my face and took deep breaths trying to will the pain back under control.

"Sorry." Anne said on the verge of tears.

I waved her off, "Unhook, from the collar first."

"Okay." Anne reached in and freed it from the back of the collar.

Being able to my neck somewhat helped ease the pain I was feeling. I leaned my head forward so Anne could get a hold of the head. Anne grabbed the arrow and paused.

"On three." I nodded the best I could.

Before Anne even counted she pulled the arrow free. It felt like a lightning bolt went through my throat. I felt blood poor out everywhere, but I knew it was out. Anne put pressure on the back of my neck with her hand and I held the front.

"I thought you were going to count."

"I was, but I didn’t know how much longer I could look at that thing without passing out."

"So you just pulled it."

"Sorry."

"Thank you. You saved me." I said.

"It was just an arrow. It wouldn’t have killed you."

"No, but the guy whose head you smashed would have."

"Oh yeah."

"Did you see where the arrows came from?" I asked.

"No, I was too stunned at seeing the first one. And by the way, why did you think I shot you?"

"Didn’t think about anyone else might have done it at the time." I explained.

"The men were bait for a trap it seems."

"Yeah."

"Can you move?" Anne asked.

"I think so." I said as Anne pulled me to my feet.

"What are we going to do?" Anne asked.

"The Navy has some old farmhouses near here, let’s hope one of them empty."

Anne and I walked off the beach. Slowly with help we made it to the road and headed towards the farmhouses. Luckily, the smallest of the three were empty. Anne broke the bathroom window and let us in. Anne helped me into the living room to help me lay down.

"I’m going to go check the garage and see if I can find something to wrap up your neck."

"Okay." I whispered.

I didn’t know how long Anne was gone, I fell asleep. She woke me up wiping my face with a wet wash towel. Though my neck was tender, I let her treat it as best as she could. As she started to walk away I noticed something and started to laugh.

"What?" she said turning around.

"You have an arrow stuck in your back."

"What?" she said and reached behind her, "When the hell did that happen?"

"Come here." Anne walked back over to me; I sat myself up and pulled the arrow from her.

"Here." I said handing it to her, "They must have got you when we flew off.

"B******s."

Anne and I rested for two days in the old farmhouse. We cleaned ourselves up, sharpened weapons and tried to figure out what we could do next. Anne thought we should try to get to the boat and take off.

I considered it until I checked the news on my phone and saw that Arthur had burned our house down. Not only that, he had hid the bodies of the dead there and now the cops were looking for me. I had to admit, Arthur was good at causing trouble for someone while he was hunting them.

Anne came in and sat down next to me and leaned her head against my shoulder.

"Like I needed another reason to hate Arthur." she said.

"Don’t worry about it. The house was insured and we’ll get the money even if they blame everything on me."

"How?"

I smiled at Anne, "Because you’re the beneficiary of everything."

"What?" she asked surprised.

"Everything I have is yours baby. What would you have done if something happened to me?"

"Oh Pip." she said tearing up.

"So please, don’t worry about the house. We’ll build another."

Anne and I felt it at the same time. It was like a weight pushed down on us.

"What the hell is that?" Anne said getting to her feet.

I felt suddenly very cold, I knew what that was. It wouldn’t have matter if I was blindfolded, upside down and underwater. There was no way I could explain it to Anne, we were in danger. Real danger, not like Arthur and his band of merry little men. I jumped to my feet and started buckling up my plate armor.

"Get your stuff on, we have to go. Anne, we have to go now!"

It didn’t take Anne a second goading, she moved with a sense of purpose.

"What is it, are we in danger?" she said on the verge of panic.

"Run now, talk later!" I said jumping through the living room window.

Anne was right on my heals, once outside I tried to figure out what direction I needed to go. It was getting dark, but the presence we were feeling was so overwhelming I couldn’t figure what direction in which to go.

My eyes shot in the direction of the garage. Anne saw him at the same time I did, her face instantly change and snarled. The man walked towards us like he didn’t even notice Anne’s challenge. She snarled again and charged.

"NO!" I shrieked.

Anne didn’t get ten steps from him. The man’s hand shot out like he was going to stiff-arm her but he didn’t even need to touch her.

Anne went flying back through the air like she was hit by a truck. I quickly drew my sword as I watched her land on the other side of a barbwire fence that kept people off of the Navy’s property. Anne had flown good fifty yards, when I saw she wasn’t getting up I faced this new horrible threat.

"Who are you?" I said drawing my tomahawk with my free hand.

The stranger walked slowly up to me unconcerned by my weapons, and why would he? This was by far the most powerful vampire I had ever come a crossed. He was in no danger of me, he proved that with Anne.

His look was nothing out of the ordinary. He was shorter than me by a few inches, medium build. Short blond hair and green eyes. His dress was an older design, but not nothing that would stand out today.

Then something unexpected happened. It would have been funny if not for the amount of danger we were in, my phone rang.

"Is that one of those modern marvels of technology?" he asked.

I didn’t answer him; I didn’t even take my eyes off of him.

"Well, are you going to answer it?"

Very slowly and put my tomahawk in my belt and reach under my armor and grabbed it. I didn’t take my eyes off of him to check the caller ID, I just answered it.

"Yes."

"Hold for Alec please."

a voice said in Latin.

"Penelope, this is Alec."

"Yes?"

"You have a serious problem."

"Alec I need to call you back."

I said flatly.

"Penelope, this is important. You have a bigger problem than you can believe, bigger than Arthur."

"I know, he’s standing in front of me."

"What?! Who is?"

"My bigger problem. I need to call you back."

I said and hung up.