"I, Vampyre" - Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Shadow Council

 

            I thought the same thing that everyone else was likely thinking at that moment �" if Katya was, per Aussie D’s estimation, the ‘nicest’ member of the ‘Council… we were in a lot of trouble.

            “KATERINA!!  What are you doing!?” demanded the redhead, Lillith, her dark-green eyes flashing like sharply-cut emeralds as she leaned forward, glaring at the Slavic vampiress to her right.  “The center seat should always be left open, in honor of our Dracul, and the hope for his return!”  Lillith had a touch of a South African accent, and her every word and movement exuded pure sexuality.  No wonder Siren was regarding her with keen interest, sliding her finger thoughtfully back and forth across her cleavage.

            Katya blew forth another frosty laugh.  “Are you mad, Lil?  Did ‘Veris rub off on you before his timely demise?  It’s been over three-hundred years… it is past time that you get it through your oh-so-pretty little head that Caine is NEVER COMING BACK!”  Katya leaned back in the throne and crossed her legs, ignoring the viper-like hiss from Lillith, and the various looks of contempt from the other Superiors.  “Besides, this is my home.”

            Lillith shot a fleeting look at the empty seat on the far right side of the dais, then settled back into her own throne-like chair.  “Why did you summon us, Katya?” she asked.  “It’s so cold here, I was enjoying the summer in Johannesburg.”  Despite her complaint about the weather, Lillith unbuttoned the front of her top �" a velvety red jacket that had already been cut in half below the bust, exposing her pale, taut belly.  She licked her lips, and at first I thought she was looking at me… but it could have been Siren, who was starting to rub up against me on my left.

            “Oui, Dame Katya,” said the Elder Vampire sitting next to Lillith, apparently a Frenchman, with curly, dirty-blond hair and a seemingly permanent scowl on his face.  “I would like to know as well.  Merde… Europe could be burning to the ground in my absence!  We haven’t had une petite réunion like this in decades…”

            “Indeed we haven’t, Lord Montrenault,” said the Superior on the opposite end of the row of seats, Jeremy.  His accent sounded like an Americanized British.  “It’s dangerous for us to meet like this, even now, with the Great Vampire War over.”  I let loose a harsh laugh at that, with a mind to suggest to Lord Superior King that he should tell that to the Aboriginal vampires who ambushed us near Ayer’s Rock.  He narrowed his eyes at me as he took a sip from what looked like an energy drink clutched in his hand: Dead Bull.

            “O sangue é a vida…” declared the tall, tattooed Elder, who loomed over the others even while sitting.  Since Sagaan hailed from Brazil and lorded over South America, I assumed that he was speaking Portuguese.  “Now and always… I’m sure Lady Katya has a good reason,” he finished, staring expectantly to his left at the Russian.

            Katerina pointed accusingly at Bellissima, who still knelt despondently on the floor.  Adrianos moved as if to help her up, but the Inquisitor took the last few steps down the front of the dais, shoving Ad backward.  “She is on trial… for the attempted assassination of myself, and the cold-blooded murder of one of my guards…

            “You now know all you need to know, da?”  I recoiled in abject disbelief �" the ‘Council had just arrived, how could they be prepared to pass judgment already?  Katya smiled sinisterly, swinging her sword in a short arc.  “I find the defendant… GUILTY!”

            “I understand your anger toward this girl, Katya,” Jeremy said, nodding sagely, “but I must respectfully disagree.”  Bellissima looked up at that, the silver chains shifting and drawing forth another sound of seared vampiric flesh.  Katya twisted her head to look at Jeremy, fury painting her eyes a hot-pink once again.  “I sense that this was a crime of passion… and we are nothing without our passion, our emotion.  Besides, you yet ‘live,’ do you not?”  Jeremy allowed a simpering smile.  “The girl is innocent…”

            I sighed in relief, while Spike reached out and tightly squeezed my right hand.  The ‘vote,’ if that’s what one could call it, was now tied, 1-1.  Adrianos loudly cracked his knuckles, glaring hotly at the nearby Inquisitor, who merely grinned, showing his fangs.

            “Sim, Senhor King,” said the Brazilian.  Sagaan’s white-furred monkey chattered angrily, hopping from one shoulder to the other, and pantomimed throwing something at Katya.  “We owe these Kindred so much, for their deeds in the past.  One misdeed should not be a True-Death-sentence.”  He paused.  “I also find her… not guilty.”

            Makenna made a wordless, hopeful-sounding exclamation, and quickly helped Bellissima get back to her feet.  The Inquisitor took a heavy step in their direction, but Adrianos put his hand on the huge vampire’s shoulder and hauled him backward.  Katya’s werewolves �" one short of an even dozen, by my count �" were starting to draw in closer, surrounding us from the sides and back.

            “Sacrebleu!” André exclaimed.  “Are you two battier than Andilaveris!?”  He stood up from his chair, thrusting the pointy end of his cane threateningly toward Bellissima.  “If we let this one live, what kind of precedent does that set?  We’ll have assassination attempts against us every day!”  I winced as the French Elder swiped the blade of his cane like he was slitting an invisible throat.  “Coupable… GUILTY!”

            That made the vote 2-2… so now it all came down to Lillith.  She seemed to relish having that bit of power, I noticed, as she ran her hands down the sides of her body while humming happily to herself.  She gave Katya a coy little wink, and I felt Siren tense up beside me as Lillith opened her mouth to speak…

            “Lady Superior Lillith!” Siren interrupted in a sudden outburst, and Lillith’s scarlet eyebrow raised itself with obvious curiosity.  “If I may, I’d like to have the chance to… influence your verdict!”

            Katya started grinding her teeth and fangs together, but Lillith only laughed softly.  “Ah, Lady Siren… I heeaar yoouu,” she said, in a lightly mocking sing-song voice.  “And just how is it you think you could possibly influence me, hm?”

            “I challenge you,” Siren said, stepping boldly in front of me, then before Makenna and Bellissima, “to a staring contest…”

            I gaped, dumbfounded, at the back of Siren’s head.  That sounded like the most random and absurd thing I’d ever heard.  But then I noticed that Spike’s eyes had gone wide, and that Adrianos ceased his shoving match with the Inquistor to stare at Siren in disbelief.  Realization dawned on me slowly, much like a new day was inevitably on the cusp of dawning outside the walls of the Palace… such a ‘game,’ between two Elder Vampiresses who were unnaturally adept at the power of Glamour, would be quite the contest, indeed.

            Lillith must have thought so, too.  She flowed out of her chair, her crimson cape trailing behind her as she sauntered down the steps of the dais.  “Oooh, yes, dear… I accept!  Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the most Glamorous one of all??”

            Lillith snapped her fingers, and an unobtrusive-looking wooden table and two chairs popped into existence at the foot of the dais.  She then sat in one of the chairs, throwing her cape over the seatback with a flamboyant flourish.  Lillith gestured to the other chair, and Siren glanced back at me before sitting down as well.  The other four Shadow Council Superiors observed, with differing levels of interest, from on high.

            “Rules?” Lillith inquired of Siren, casually unfastening another clasp on her half-jacket.  Even though she only appeared to be about twenty, I knew that Lillith was likely several millennia old.  And part of me desperately wanted her to finish undoing her top.

            “Simple,” Siren answered, placing her palms on the table as she carefully composed a blasé-looking half-smile.  “The first to blink or look away loses…”

            Lillith nodded at that.  “If you win?” (Lillith giggled to herself at the notion)

            Siren ignored the thinly-veiled slight.  “If I win, you ‘vote’ how I want you to.”

            “Very well,” said Lillith.  “And if I win… I want that lovely little trinket around your tasty little neck.”

            Spike gave me a confused look, and I was surprised as well.  I figured that Lillith would demand Siren’s immortal soul or eternal servitude or something to that effect.  But Lil must have struck a nerve, because Siren touched her fingers to the opal pendant and looked down at it for a handful of heartbeats… before reluctantly nodding her head in agreement.

            “Excellent!” Lillith enthused, leaning forward with her elbows on the table.  “Good luck dear �" you’re going to need it.  Now… let’s begin…”

            Siren and Lillith locked gazes, and, for a moment, nothing unusual seemed to happen.  But, then… I felt a seismic shift in the collective mood within the Great Hall.  Strong feelings began to flow forth, from everyone present, like colors and sounds, tastes and aromas, an odd sort of emotional synesthesia.  It was as if the Seven Deadly Sins were on display… dangerous distractions to Siren, courtesy of Lady Lillith.

            Screams of terror echoed in the hall, and I immediately turned to look.  Dozens of humans had suddenly appeared, dressed in the attire of civilians �" likely tourists, previously lined up early to see the sights of the Hermitage Museum attached to the palace.  They were now getting more than they could have possibly bargained for, set upon and devoured alive by a pack of ravenous werewolves.  I was appalled at the gluttonous display, but I had to wipe drool from my mouth… the vaguely metallic tang of so much spilled blood manifested itself as a scarlet haze in the air.

            Lillith clucked her tongue, her eyes unwavering and unblinking.  “What a shame for those poor, poor people.  Can you believe all that blood, Siren?  Just look at it…”

            I looked back at Siren, and she narrowed her eyes, but did not break her intense eye-contact with Lillith.  “Sucks to be them.  You’re going to have to do better than that, Lil.”

            “That’s ‘Lady Superior Lillith’ to you, Dani.” Lillith seethed.  “You shouldn’t even call yourself a Scion anymore.  Didn’t Lord Adrianos ‘conquer’ you!?”

            That statement caught my attention, and I tried harder to fight off the strange prickling sensation I was starting to feel throughout my body, as if it was in my very blood.  It got stronger when I happened to glance at Bellissima, so I did my best not to look her way, or even think about her.

            I focused, instead, on the long and sordid history of the Scions.  There had been sixty-or-so at the start, over three hundred years ago, chosen by the ‘Council using criteria known only to them.  And each of those Elder Vampires immediately knew that they were expected to find, confront, and defeat the other Scions.  The last one left would ascend to the Shadow Council, becoming their seventh, the new ‘Dracul,’ their leader.

            So many perished in fights to the death, a centuries-long war of attrition.  But Siren and Adrianos figured out a loophole, of sorts: ‘defeat’ didn’t have to mean ‘destroy.’  They had fought each other, in some form of competition that I still didn’t know all the specifics of.  All I knew was that Adrianos had been the victor… and Siren had not seemed terribly distraught at losing.

            I listened intently for more details, but Siren only chuckled in response.  “That he did… but I’m afraid that the details are just between us.”

            “The things that we fear,” Lillith intoned, her green eyes flashing, “are a weapon to be held against us…”

             A loud snore from the left side of the dais caught my attention, and the sound ‘tasted’ disgusting.  Lord Superior King was being particularly slothful, sound asleep in his chair �" a bit odd, seeing as how he had just quaffed an entire can of Dead Bull.  Siren winced every time Jeremy figuratively sawed another log, but still she stared.

            “This is cheating!” I protested, but that just brought about a round of sarcastic clapping from Lady Ivanov.

            “Bah!  Nonsense, boy… this is entertaining,” Katya insisted.

            “I agree,” said Lord Montrenault.  Grinning evilly, Katya ether-pocketed a large hand-mirror, which she then passed to André.  “Oh, merci beaucoup!”  I glared at the narcissistic Frenchman as he peered at himself in the mirror, adjusting a curl or two of his dark-blond hair.  I gulped audibly when he turned the mirror around so that it was in Siren’s line-of-sight, the shine from the mirror falling upon her suddenly frightened-looking face.

            “Pride comes before the fall,” Lillith whispered, her eyes twinkling deviously.

            I knew Siren well enough to know that, despite the stakes, she wouldn’t be able to resist looking at herself in a mirror for long.  “Spike!” I called out, turning to the distraught-looking sorceress.  “Do something about that damn mirror!”

            Spike waved her hands halfheartedly, and the mirror did seem to vibrate for a moment in André’s hand, but then… nothing.  Spike sniffled loudly, dropping her hands to her chest, scratching forlornly at her neck again.

            Shaking my head in annoyance, I brushed past Spike, heading straight for Montrenault.  Katya yelled something in Russian; her Inquisitor abruptly hurled Adrianos halfway across the room and moved to intercept me, his half-hidden red eyes glowing brightly.

            I backed away and looked as Adrianos skidded to a halt, sliding across the floor and through a nasty pile of discarded human-parts.  A trio of werewolves surrounded him and started to pounce… but only succeeded in banging their heads together as Ad suddenly vanished in a swirl of smoke and Hellfire.

            My incredulous “What the fang!?” and Spike’s enthusiastic “SQUEE!” simultaneously announced the immediate reappearance of Adrianos, as he ‘ported right on top of the unsuspecting Inquisitor.  I dimly heard Lillith’s irritatingly overconfident voice �" “RAGE, anyone??” �" but I paid little mind to the furious pummeling that Ad was now administering to his opponent as I strode up the stairs of the dais.

            I grinned at André as he turned his head toward me, a look of mild annoyance on his face.  I envisioned the Kindred’s Bane, and greatly looked forward to whipping that mirror out of the pretentious Frenchy’s hand (or possibly taking off the hand itself, a la Reybeart).

            The ether pocket opened with a thought, and my right hand dragged across earth and stone, the designated spot deep within Ayer’s Rock.  But… but… my questing fingers failed to find the grip of the ‘Bane!  André smirked at me, and I was at least half-successful in that he did drop the hand-mirror… but only so he could pull the cane out from under his left arm and stab me in the shoulder with it.

            I fell backward down the steps, the pain from the sharpened-silver tip of the cane brief but agonizingly intense.  I turned my head to the left as I landed on my back behind Lillith, and I saw Siren grip the sides of the table so hard that it began to warp.  A single red tear bled down her cheek… but she still stared determinedly into Lillith’s eyes.

            Makenna had been standing protectively by Bellissima all that time, but now she ran over toward me.  She ‘accidentally’ kicked Lillith’s chair in passing, drawing forth a hiss from the Superior that took the form of a greenish-black vapor that hung threateningly over Lil’s head like a thundercloud.  “Nevik!  Are you okay?” ‘Kenna asked.

            I nodded shortly, and Makenna must have seen the look in my eyes, because she turned to look up at the roiling vapor-cloud.  It suddenly shot a short distance across the room… disappearing into Spike’s chest.  Spike took a couple steps back, closing her eyes.  When she opened them again, they were a spooky shade of green I’d never seen before.

            “Spike?” Makenna asked, fearfully.  “Are you…”

             She never finished her concerned query, as Spike flew forward, kicking me in the head as she attacked the other vampiress.  Makenna landed on her back on the stairs of the dais, and she cried out as Spike rammed her fangs into her neck, slurping and suckling loudly.  I started to sit up, but fell backward again as the pain from the fresh stab-wound cascaded into a flare of renewed agony from the bullet-wound in my back.

            Tilting my chin up, I looked across the Great Hall and had an upside-down view of Adrianos, who was faring fairly well, but had his hands full with the Inquisitor and squad of werewolves.  My attention was drawn back to Lillith as she taunted Siren again.

            “Look at that,” Lillith said, tilting her head slightly to the right.  “I hope Spike doesn’t get too greedy, or it’s bad news for young Makenna.  Just as well, really… we don’t think too highly of the spawn of Edict-breakers, anyhow.

            “Now then,” she continued, rising slightly out of her chair to lean in even closer to Siren, whose eyes were wavering noticeably.  “Which delicious little sins haven’t we covered yet?  Ah, yes… envy and lust.”  Lillith ran a finger down Siren’s forearm.  “Envy is where you will come in, my dear.  And, heehee… as for lust…”

            Suddenly, I felt all the pain leave my body, replaced with that prickling sensation I’d felt before.  I stood up, taking off the bearskin coat and dropping it, glancing with only mild interest at Spike as she continued to rapaciously drain the blood from a weakening Makenna.  My gaze passed over Siren like she wasn’t even there, until my eyes fell upon the most beautiful creature in the room… hell, in the entire world… Bellissima.

            I walked over to Belli, and she turned her wild-eyed stare from Spike and Makenna to me.  Bloody tears immediately began to well in her eyes, and she embraced me best she could, given that her hands were still shackled in silver.

            “Oh, Nevik!  I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to shoot you, you know that, right!?  I panicked… I was trying to… I wanted… I…”

            “It’s okay, Belli,” I said, running my fingers through her long red hair.  I clenched my teeth and did my best to ignore the burn of the silver chain as it pressed against my bare chest.  “I know, it was an accident.  But… why did you try to shoot Katya?”

            Bellissima pulled back, and I could see the lie in her blue eyes before she even spoke it.  “I… I thought she was attacking you… she was swinging her sword, and…”

            “Don’t insult my intelligence!” I interjected, but I softened immediately when Belli flinched like I had physically struck her.  I rubbed her back, fingers lingering thoughtfully for a moment at the clasp of her brassiere.  “You wanted to kill Katya… and I think I know why.”

            Bellissima nodded, sneaking a furtive glance at Katya, who was whispering something to André as the two continued to watch the proceedings with acute interest.  “I hate her.  She… had an affair with Darius, and…” �" she glanced to her right, a brief smile flickering on her lips as Adrianos punched his antagonist right in the throat �" “…I think her Inquisitor might have been the one who killed him!”

            “So you don’t think it was Lord Daemus, after all?”  I put my hand on Belli’s cheek; her skin was so soft and inviting.  I heard a nearby sound, like the growl of a lioness, but ignored it.

            Bellissima shook her head sadly.  “No.  Not after what the Nozzies… I mean, what that Nosferatu woman said.  And, even after we killed Daemus, I never felt… at peace.”

            Lillith began humming a wordless tune, and when Bellissima looked up at me again, there was a flare of red in her gorgeous blue eyes.  “You bring me peace, though.”  She ran her fingers over my chest, and it felt delightful.  Then she tilted her head back, her lips parting, and she said, “Kiss me, Nevik…”

            The feminine growl turned into a choked-off cry, but I didn’t care, as I pressed my lips to Bellissima’s.  I caressed her firm behind as I pulled her tightly against me, and we kissed like lovers who had been kept apart for eons.  I had no idea how much time had gone by before we finally pulled apart, Belli sliding her tongue out of my mouth as she licked along the length of my fangs.

            “I want you inside me again…” Bellissima breathlessly exhorted, and I kissed her again before laying her back onto the top of a nearby table.  There were two vampiresses sitting there, but they were just staring at each other �" one of them leaning forward so much she was almost standing, the other shrinking back into her chair and trembling mightily �" so I didn’t think they’d mind too terribly.

            I leaned down as Bellissima writhed lustily on the tabletop, fondly kissing the scar next to her bellybutton.  I had a vague recollection of a fierce threat from Draconus, but I shrugged it off… Belli’s scar was perfectly pretty, to me.  I planted a kiss on her waist, and had a passing thought that a flick or two of a claw would be all that was needed to remove the nuisance of her undergarments.

            ‘Fight it, Nevik…’  A soft voice in my head.  ‘Please…?’

            “I don’t want to fight it,” I said, in a monotone voice that barely sounded like my own.  Lillith hummed happily to my immediate right.  What a sexy-sounding song it was, too.

            I glanced up as I ran a finger down Belli’s leg, enjoying the silky feel of her thigh.  Spike was still sitting on the stairs of the dais, an unconscious Makenna in her lap, blood still flowing from the bite in ‘Kenna’s neck.  It occurred to me that Spike sort of looked like her familiar, Skaar, drinking milk from a saucer… as she contentedly lapped at the blood that had pooled in Makenna’s corset-constrained cleavage.

            “NEVIK!”  A harsh shout from behind me.  I looked back for a moment, just long enough to see Adrianos, his arms held behind him by a pair of banged-up-looking werewolves, getting his face pounded repeatedly by the vampiric Inquisitor.  Too bad.

            I turned back to Bellissima as she looped the chain between her ankles over my head and across the back of my waist, trapping me against the edge of the table.  I kissed the inside of her right knee, and starting working my way up… to my ‘favorite spot.’

            Right before I sank my teeth in, at a point on Bellissima’s leg that could barely be politely called the uppermost part of her thigh, Sagaan’s capuchin monkey began screeching anew.  It drowned out Lillith’s lovely little tune, and I felt the pain from my wounds begin to flare up again.  I heard Katya shouting �" “Sagaan, shut your familiar up NOW, or I’ll have Yarost eat it alive!” �" and I felt Belli stiffen.  She said a name as I bit into her sweet flesh, a name that I was slowly starting to abhor:

            “Darius!”

            And then I saw him… her lost love, her Dari.

            And everything changed.

 

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