"I, Vampyre" - Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: City of Sin

 

            “We’re not doomed, Nevik,” Siren said, her voice calm and highly amused, trending towards downright excited.  “At least… not just yet.  Have another look, darling.”

            I opened my eyes again.  We were on the roof of the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, sure enough… but not the Eiffel Tower.  It was the replica tower at the Paris Las Vegas hotel and casino.  And it was nighttime, the doom-inducing rays of the sun safely tucked away beyond the horizon.  The near-blinding light was just the garish glow of the Strip.  Las Vegas hadn’t changed much in 2076.  It was just… MORE.

            “Well, that’s different,” Makenna said, finally speaking up again.  Her voice was a quiet monotone, quite a change from her usual vivacious self.  “I think the Bellagio must be… under new ownership…”

            We all turned to look, at the enormous, sprawling hotel/casino on the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard.  Indeed, what had once been the Bellagio was now remarkably different… completely ‘revamped,’ you might say.  The façade of the hotel was made to look like a giant, red-and-black mountain, like a peak straight out of Hell itself.  The famous fountain was now a lake of blood and fire.  Red spotlights painted ruddy circles on the clouds far above, and the new name of the mega-casino was spelled out in fiery red-and-orange neon: DANTE’S INFERNO.

            “You did it, Ad,” I said, and I turned to look at Adrianos.  He looked disturbingly pallid again, but he had a triumphant smile on his face.  Spike propped him up when he started to stumble a bit, and she gave him a kiss on the arm.

            “Anyone else feeling particularly… hungry?” Bellissima inquired, grinning crookedly as she kicked a maintenance hatch open.  Belli deftly dropped through it, and the rest of us soon followed.

There were about twenty people, enjoying the view of Las Vegas in all directions.  It was the last thing most of them saw.  Our sextet was hungry… but, that night, none of us were feeling particularly merciful.

 

* * *

 

A little later, Siren was stroking Adrianos’s hair, trying to assuage his distress as he (unsuccessfully) tried to keep down the blood he had just ingested.  I walked away as they spoke to each other in French.  The last thing I heard was Adrianos, after finishing another sickly-sounding coughing fit �" “We’ll always have Paris, oui?” �" followed by Siren’s melancholy reply:

“Yes, my Lord… but… that was a long time ago…”

I walked past Makenna, who was bent over, halfheartedly draining the last of the blood out of another tourist who’d had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There was still something ‘off’ about her, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I stopped next to Bellissima.  She was staring at Dante’s Inferno, her fangs revealed by an angry sneer as she methodically cleaned the blood off of her dagger.  I was reluctant to aggravate her further… but I had a couple of questions for her.

“You knew Vorenus was the Broker,” I said, and she looked down at the ground.  “Why were you so evasive before?  Why did you try to protect him??”

“I… after Darius died, I became a bounty-hunter.  Vorenus took me under his wing, so to speak.  Over the years, I became his very favorite assassin…”

Belli stabbed the dagger into the metal frame of the tower and put her hands over her face.  “How could I have been so gullible!?  I thought he was helping me when he set me on the path to confront and kill Daemus.  But… he was just having us do his dirty work for him!

“He murdered Darius… poisoned Adrianos, tried to have Siren �" all of us �" killed… he wants to be the last Scion left, even if it doesn’t mean anything anymore!”

I placed my hand on Bellissima’s back, hoping to ease her pain.  Spike came rushing over, wiping blood from her mouth, and she pulled Belli into a comforting embrace.  I didn’t want to do it, not now �" but I had one more question for her.

“Belli… when I tried to ether-pull the Kindred’s Bane, during our fight with the Shadow Council, it wasn’t where it was supposed to be.”  I paused, hoping that my suspicions were wrong.  “Do you… know anything about that?”

“You don’t have to answer that, Belli.”  Spike glared at me as she held Bellissima against her.  “Leave her alone, Nevik!  She’s… got a lot on mind right now, ya know!”

“Yes,” Bellissima whispered, and I felt my blood run cold again.  “I told my sister… I told Aussie Donna to… to…”

“To what?” I insisted, and Spike held her at arm’s length to look at her, too.

“To get rid of the damn thing!  To destroy it!!” Bellissima suddenly shouted.  She pushed Spike away from her, and refused to look me in the eye.  “That god-awful whip only hurts the ones you care about, Nevik!  You told me yourself that you almost killed Llewellyn with it.  And… you almost killed me…”

I felt a dark fury rising in me at her words… but it dissipated just as Belli dissolved into red mist, flowing out of the open windows of the deck and drifting up toward the very top of the faux Eiffel Tower.

Spike gave me a meek look, and she patted me consolingly on the arm.  “I’ll go and talk her down.  Talk to Ad, Siren, and ‘Kenna, figure out our plan of attack, huh?”  With that, Spike’s silvery Mist Form spiraled up and out of the window as well.

I walked quickly back over to the others; Siren and Makenna were helping Adrianos to his feet.  We all looked a bit worse for wear… clothes torn, worn-out, dirtied and bloodied.  Siren, per usual, fixated on that thought as she snatched it effortlessly out of my head.  “I might just be able to do a little something about that…”

Soon enough, we were all back on the top of the observation deck.  Spike had somehow convinced Bellissima to come back down to us, but they were sitting, huddled together, and Belli still wouldn’t make eye contact with me.  Makenna was standing on the very edge of the roof, staring up at the sky, and Adrianos already looked like he was ready to throw-up a fresh batch of blood.  I wasn’t in the best of moods, either.  I wanted my freaking whip, for one thing.

Siren sighed dramatically.  “Oh, would you all just snap out of it already?  We’re in Vegas!  Yeah, alright, so, we’re about to track down and face a Scion who is apparently so powerful the Shadow Council itself wants nothing to do with him, but that’s neither here nor there.”  Spike giggled softly, and Makenna looked back over her shoulder.

“Mmm-mmm, ‘Kenna, I’m so ready to play dress-up doll with you!”  Siren winked at me.  “Aussie Donna showed me a new little trick… wanna see?”

Not waiting for an answer, Siren waved her fingers at Makenna.  In the next moment, like it had fallen over her from an invisible clothes-hanger, ‘Kenna was dressed in a lacy white micro-dress that showed a lot of leg.  Her rapier hung from a silver belt, and her right arm was covered by a see-through lace sleeve.  Her left shoulder and arm �" her sword-arm �" were bare and unfettered.  Makenna took a couple turns in her new silver, stiletto heels … and she finally smiled.

“Ooo, OOH, me next!” Spike called out.  She had no sooner gotten to her feet, and she was already dazzling in an emerald-green dress with a tight-fitting halter-top.  The middle of the dress was sequined, but also daringly see-through.  Spike placed a hand on her curvaceous hip, and the tattoos on her bare arms morphed again, changing colors, almost seeming to capture the rainbow of lights of the shining city.

Spike strutted over toward Adrianos, and I thought Siren looked a little rueful as she wiggled her fingers at Ad.  He was now wearing a very dapper ‘penguin suit,’ a black-and-white tuxedo, with the tie stylishly undone.  Spike ran her fingers through his long black hair.  “We’re going to fix you, Ad!  Just you wait… we’re gonna be tripping over ourselves, trying to be the one to kill Vorenus first!”

As if in answer to that, there was a ripping noise from Bellissima’s direction.  She now had on a braided black dress, which clung to every curve of her lithe body.  There were already small slits on either side, but she was cutting them even higher with her dagger.  For better mobility, I assumed… but I gulped softly as she revealed more and more of her amazing legs.

‘You might see something else… interesting… over here, darling.’  I looked back at Siren… and my blood rushed so fast and hot, I almost felt alive again for a moment.

She was wearing black leather boots, with heels that looked pointy enough to kill.  Stylishly-ripped black tights were stretched to the middle of her thighs, enticingly revealing pale, silky-smooth flesh just below her solid-black bikini bottom.  The only thing holding her peek-a-boo black lace robe closed was a loose belt just above her waist.  Her gorgeous brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail… and the opal pendant still dangled from its gold necklace, resting contentedly against her chest.

Siren walked up to me, her hips swaying hypnotically, and she tugged on the lapels of the blue, pinstriped jacket that I hadn’t even realized I was now wearing.  I glanced down and noticed the top button of my black dress shirt was open… and then Siren undid another one, her fingers brushing my collarbone.  “You look good, Nevik Roc.  Are you ready to… try and get lucky?”

I started to put my hands on her, but she stepped away, walking towards Dante’s Inferno.  “At the casino, I mean… let’s go, shall we??”  Velvety black wings spread from her back, and she crouched for a moment on the edge of the roof.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked, peering down at all the humans wandering around below.  “It seems a little, umm… conspicuous.”

“Trust me…” Siren said.  And she took off, beating her ebon wings once before gliding toward the wide lake of ‘blood’ (it was just red-colored water… I think) and fire.

The die was cast.  Black demon-wings tore out of my back, but I waited for the others.  Spike leapt from the tower, laughing, her red-and-black cardinal wings not even damaging her bare-backed dress.  Makenna took off next, her wings a purplish-red.  Bellissima was looking back worriedly at Adrianos, but he waved her on.

Belli finally looked at me, her blue eyes wavering.  “Nevik, I…”

“Just go,” I said.  “We’re wasting time.”

Bellissima took her faithless leap, wings a bright, blood-red.  Adrianos walked over at last, and I couldn’t help but notice that he was conspicuously wingless.

“Can you fly, Ad?” I asked.  He shook his head, his features pained.  I nodded.  “Well, as long as we’re going to make a scene…” �" Adrianos took a halting step back as the demon within me reared its ugly head �" “LET’S have a HELL of a GOOD TIME doing it!!”

I grinned evilly, and then grabbed Adrianos in my claws before he could protest.  Again, I had to willfully suppress a mad thought… that if I truly wanted to end Ad’s existence myself, now was the time.

We descended quickly, flying over Las Vegas Boulevard, gliding over the flaming fountain, and I landed in the plaza in front of the casino entrance, surrounded by the four voluptuous vampiresses.  There were people everywhere… but they were laughing, waving, applauding, and taking pictures!  Of course, I belatedly realized �" they thought we were part of a Las Vegas show.

“Vegas, baby,” Siren said, a confident half-smile on her stunning face.

I set Adrianos down and morphed back to my normal self (drawing more ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd).  I felt sort of bad that I had already managed to mess up my spiffy new threads.  With Siren leading the way, we walked toward the doors.

Into the Inferno.

 

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