Discworld and Member Articles
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Written by Mynona
Friday, 26 August 2005 |
”No, I really don’t think it’s a good idea…at all.”
“But Alexis you must understand. His bonded-to-be just died, he needs some time off.”
“I do not agree. You must understand that the only this he’s got left is ‘duty’. He even left grace behind because of it.”
“But surely a week or two off wouldn’t be harmful.”
“Then he’d have nothing!”
”No, I really don’t think it’s a good idea…at all.”
“But Alexis you must understand. His bonded-to-be just died, he needs some time off.”
“I do not agree. You must understand that the only this he’s got left is ‘duty’. He even left grace behind because of it.”
“But surely a week or two off wouldn’t be harmful.”
“Then he’d have nothing!”
Father and I had been on this for about an hour by this point. We were discussing what to do about Clay, he’d become a ‘bit’ depressed after what happened in Japan and I don’t blame him for it. He had done what was required of him and because of that Grace was dead. I was arguing for him to be allowed to stay on duty while father wanted him to take some time off. Or at least that was what I thought in the beginning I was starting to doubt it though. I think that he wanted me to think about people and what motivates them. Now he was just arguing so that he’d know if I was serious or just had gotten a lucky guess. And of course, because he wanted to argue, something that didn’t happen too often. People kind of assumed he didn’t like arguments and did everything they could to be able to agree with him. It annoyed him to no end, not because he fought for everyone’s right to an opinion, he knew all too well what’d happen if you let vampires run loose without guidance, but because he liked arguments. At least the safe ones, the ones that didn’t end with bloodshed.
“With time off he could find something new.” Father kept going and there wasn’t an end in sight.
“Not if he doesn’t want to look.” I was getting tired, annoyed and hungry. I wanted out of here but I couldn’t really tell him so. He was enjoying himself for once. Though when I heard the knock I couldn’t help but to sigh softly to myself. Saved by the bell. I knew that if the argument would be allowed to continue I’d lose sooner or later. Father was far too good an opponent.
“Ready to give in yet?” He asked.
“Why don’t we just say that I won and let it be over with?” I countered. Not in the slightest prepared for him to agree with me.
“You’re right to keep him working, he needs it. For all the purposes you’ve stated. You’re getting better.” He was training me to become a leader, and a good one at that, I just wasn’t always happy about it. “Enter!” He told whomever was standing behind the door.
Jacque, father’s newest addition to the guards, entered. He was tall, blond and blue eyed despite his name, but like all of father’s other personal guards. I hadn’t really met him, though, so I hadn’t been able to get to know him yet. But after what I’d seen he wasn’t as bad as Nathan.
“I’m sorry to disturb you My Lord,” ‘Wow’ I thought, I could actually hear the capitations there. “but an emissary from Wycliffe has arrived and she says it’s urgent that she speaks with the Rector Lamia.”
“Let her enter.”
“I’ll leave you to this then, Father. I need to feed and I’d like to speak with Emilio before he leaves.” I met a tall woman in the doorway. She had red hair and green eyes, though not as green as Emilio’s, and she had freckles. She was the first vampire ever I’d seen with freckles. I had to restrain myself from staring at her. Instead I politely bowed my head with a ‘good evening’ and left. I made sure to leave at least four corridors behind me before I broke down a laughed. The look at her face when she’d seen me in my father’s chambers. It was… hilarious, though I doubt that she saw it that way.
A few minutes later that was how Emilio found me, laughing with tearstains down my cheeks and lying crumpled on the floor. He also failed to see the hilarity. He was looking oddly at me.
“I was just looking for you.” I said when it’s become clear that he wasn’t going to say anything.
“Is that so?” He was still regarding me with that strange tilt of his head, the one he use when something failed to make sense or I’d done something stupid… again.
“Yes, I wanted to talk to you before you left for classes.”
“About what?”
“Nothing really.”
“Come on, you can tell me. It’s not like anyone’s around listening.”
“It really was nothing.”
“Come on, Alexis, I knew it wasn’t.” He had straightened his head up but he was giving me the puppy-dog eyes. Puppy-dog eyes should be outlawed, especially Emilio’s.
“It really was nothing. I only told Father so because I couldn’t very well stand face to face with him saying that I wanted to go kiss you senseless, could I?” And he laughed at me. I was annoyed for all of the three seconds it took for him to bend down and give me a kiss.
Snuggle-time was, rather unfortunately, cut short by someone who kept knocking the door rather insistently. I voted for staying on the couch pretending not to be here but Emilio vetoed me. And, also unfortunately, at least for him, it was the new guy, Jacques. He kind of entered my bad book after this.
“Yes?” I asked, rather impatiently.
“The Rector Lamia is ordering you to his rooms.” That statement got me going no matter how reluctant I’d been earlier. One, father very, very rarely ordered me to do anything, and second, he’d ordered me as the Rector Lamia. I was up in zero point three seconds.
“Lead the way.” And he did, literally, as if I didn’t know where to find my father’s chambers. When we arrived he went straight through the door without knocking and the guard on duty allowed it. I kneeled while Jacque bowed and presented me. If father ordered me I’d act as a good little minion. Father spoke.
“Alexis, rise. I want to you meet Zorba of Wycliffe. She’s bonded to the High Prince there. Apparently there have been some rather disturbing disappearances in the coven. I want you to go there to investigate.”
“From inside the coven?” I asked, rather confused.
“Yes.” Zorba answered. And suddenly I was frightened. Someone had gotten inside the coven and managed to kidnap vampires without anyone else knowing.
“Are you sure they haven’t just left?”
“Yes, none of them would have left, especially not without telling first. Most of the ones who have disappeared have been rather young ones. They don’t have anywhere else to go.” She sounded tired, both in mind and body.
“Has anyone been killed or is it just kidnappings?” Father looked at me rather sharply at that comment. I didn’t ask because I was rude, I just wanted, needed, more information. I was about to be sent into this, blind, and I don’t fancy that. Information, as long as it’s correct, is a great way to keep casualties down.
“Just one. We thought it was an accident at first so we haven’t really connected it with the disappearances before.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” Father asked rather sharply. No guesses where I’d gotten my habit of collecting information.
“I apologise.” Zorba said. “As I said before, we didn’t connect it with the kidnappings.”
“Have you heard anything from anyone concerning the missing vampires? Any demands of ransom?” It was usually the best way to stop father from going overboard, keep asking for more information. He’s almost as curious as I am but he hides it better.
“No, nothing.”
“So, essentially they aren’t kidnapping because those require demands to be made. Do you know how they managed to get the vampires out of the coven? I mean, it’s not like you can drug us. It really does have to entail either cooperation, because of black-mail perhaps, or knocking the poor vampire in question unconscious. Which takes rather a large amount of force.”
“We don’t know. We haven’t been able to find clues to point in either, or honestly, any, direction.”
“So, in short, you know nothing?”
“Eh… yes.” Her voice had gotten really quiet during that last word. She was ashamed of not knowing but I knew that father was as alarmed as I was. I turned back to him. I’d never turned away from him, per se, just shifted my attention but I was now shifting it back.
“I feel that I’ve neglected some of my duties as Ryttir, with the recent trip and everything, and I want some extra guards, so can I bring some of the weres with me when I go, please?”
“Of course. If you feel the need.” And I did, something was telling me that I’d need something else besides vampires with me this time. I also requested Clay but other than that I left the planning up to father. He was better at it than me, and really, I hated doing it. I was rather annoyed with him because he wouldn’t allow Emilio to come but I didn’t make too much of a fuss. I’m not completely stupid… just partially… and only sometimes. I did however, head straight back to out rooms where I pounced, as in ‘actually jumped, a rather startled looking Emilio. I hugged him hard while he staggered to retain his balance.
“I take it you’re leaving.” He said when he could stand straight. He carefully had no infliction in his voice what so ever.
“Yes. Tomorrow I’m leaving for Wycliffe coven. And you can’t come. I asked but father said no.”
“I’ll be all right.” He said and slowly petted my hair. It was an act that I found patronising when anybody but him did it. He did it for comfort, his own as well as mine.
“I’ll be back…soon.”
Thinking back on the last time I’d seen Emilio only managed to make me even more depressed. It’d been two months since I’d seen him. Two months that I’d spent trying to find out what’d happened in Wycliffe. Two months of nothing happening at all.
When we arrived to the coven I immediately demanded a house outside of the coven because I wanted to know what’d happened, true, but I didn’t fancy meeting the kidnappers on their terms. After a bit of talking, some asking and in the end, demanding, I’d gotten my way. We were to live in a house outside of the coven, some way away so it couldn’t be connected directly to it and I needed a house to be able to keep all my people with me. There seems to be more people travelling with me every time I go somewhere, even though Emilio was missing. I had three wereleopards outside of the regular six guards plus two extras, who father had sent along because they, apparently, needed more training and was thus ordered to come with me. I thought father was just worried but he couldn’t admit it out loud. And yes, Jacque was one of the newbies in need of instruction. He had been behaving better than I’d expected but since I’d been expecting Nathan the Second, that doesn’t really say much. Sure there had been incidents where he and I hadn’t seen eye to eye and there had been even more where we’d misunderstood each other but he wasn’t bad in any way.
Currently I was sitting by my desk trying to compose a letter, or rather two, one for father and one for Emilio. I wanted to write the latter but had no idea what to write, the former would just say ‘nothing to report… still’ but I didn’t feel up to writing it. That’s why I still sat here three hours after I’d first gripped the pen and I hadn’t made that much a progress. I heard faint sounds of talking but it really didn’t bother me, we were, after all, ten people living in the same house. Sure, you had to show some consideration but I wasn’t going to demand that they didn’t speak. The voices nearing my room did shake me out of my self-induced stupor, though. Clay was talking to someone whose voice I didn’t recognise.
“So what are you all doing here?”
“Serving Her.” Yes, her with a capital ‘h’. I had no idea how he managed that… that was some mean feat of talking. I suddenly longed to be a hundred years older.
“Her? Who’s that? The same one you were talking about earlier?”
“Yes. And here we are.” Clay, or at least I assumed it was him, knocked on my door. It took a couple of seconds to stop staring at the door and willing it to open and actually speak out loud. Clay entered as bid and was joined by a youngish looking male. About 18 I’d wager, with rather unassuming looks. He didn’t look bad, not at all; it was just that nothing about him really turned heads either. Dark brown hair fell in small, untamed, curls around his head and made him look vaguely mushroom-like.
“Yes?” I asked when it was made clear that neither of them would speak. Clay knew not to speak out of turn, he also knew that I’d heard at least the end of the conversation held outside the door. The anonymous human just seemed to have stuck. As if someone had pulled the plug. I had some weird images of humans wandering around with cords stuck to their navels before I shook my head clear. Of course humans weren’t plugged… they were cordless. And I really needed to stop thinking.
“Lady this is Dennis Cooper. He’s here to talk about some kind of neighbourhood watch he and some others are running.”
“You see, we’ve had some trouble with thieves and people disappearing in the area and we all know that the police never manage to get their thumbs out in time to do anything so about half a year ago we started the neighbourhood watch.”
“That sounds interesting but what is it all about?” It really didn’t… sound interesting that is, it sounded like someone had been watching far too many old westerns. ‘Oh help us, the bad guys are coming lets pretend we can do something about it’ and everyone dances in the sunset.
“Jane, she’s one of our generals, saw you practice knife fighting with someone and she wanted to know if you wanted to join. She was impressed by what she saw and we need guys like you.” I could feel Clay shrink back while actually staying in place. The guards were responsible for the perimeter and keeping it clean, someone hadn’t done their work properly. I wasn’t going to say anything about it, yet, though. I needed to get the strange human outside first. And out of sight I added.
“She did? It’s nothing special. My father required that I learnt some self-defence and I did.” That was true, technically… it just wasn’t all of it.
“So you want to join?” Dennis sounded really enthusiastic about it all and I suddenly didn’t want the extra century. I felt old enough anyways. Couldn’t he take a hint? My reluctance this far should have paid off.
“I honestly don’t know if I’ve got the time.”
“Oh, you don’t need to put that much time to it. If you don’t want to join the watch proper you can come down a night or two a week and practice with us. Give us some hints.”
“Are many people involved in this?”
“Almost everyone of age that lives in this area. And it has really paid off, the crime rate really is going down.” Ok, that proved another obstacle. If ‘everyone’ had joined we needed to too, to not look suspicious. Though, as I’d said, in all sincerity, I didn’t know if I had the time, if anyone of us had the time.
“Is it ok just to come by on occasion? I’m rather busy as it is. Or if just someone from this household showed up?”
“Of course. Why don’t you come by tomorrow and you can talk about it with Jane.”
“That could be arranged. Where is it, by the way?”
“Oh, just about three blocks from here. You know that blue house at the beginning of this road? It’s there.”
“Oh yes. The one with the barn.”
“Yeah.” He looked about ready to leave, thank god. “What are you doing? If you don’t mind me asking.” He hastily added.
“I’m writing a letter.” I answered though the lack of letters on the paper should have indicated the opposite.
“Why not use the computer?”
“Because my father is a bit old-fashioned. He wouldn’t come close to one of those things.” I could feel Clay’s amusement at this. ‘a bit old-fashioned’… father was a technophobe.
“Oh, bye then. See you tomorrow.”
“Yes. Clay will show you out.” And he did, when he returned I cut him off before he could even start thinking about opening his mouth.
“We need to appear, at least, semi-normal. If most people around here had joined their ‘watch’ we have to too. And find out who should have been guarding the perimeter but obviously didn’t.”
An hour later I was no closer to having finished my letter so I decided to procrastinate. At least a bit, and I left for the coven. I wanted to talk with the High Prince again and see if anything had happened since I was there two days ago. I doubted it but it wasn’t as if I had anything else to do.
Something else was nagging me too, I’d checked the backyard, which we’d used to practice in, and it was very well sheltered by natural growth so anyone who’d actually seen us had to have been spying on us. Regardless of whomever it was who hadn’t done his or her duty they had been checking up on us. Luckily we hadn’t been doing anything more incriminating. From now on we’d have to keep it that way too. I’d thought about telling Sergei, Wycliffe coven’s High Prince, but I decided against it.
Sergei was a good leader of his people, though his sect was small it was strong and held its place in the vampire politics. Sergei stood tall and proud amongst his people with hair so black it bordered on blue and brown eyes dark enough to rightfully be called black. He was big, in every sense of the word, but he acted and moved with a grace I couldn’t help but to envy, a little. He had a quiet sense of humour that I liked; people in power mostly take themselves far too serious. That makes them boring, if you asked me. Sergei had been around for many, many years, in fact, he was older than father. He wasn’t the Rector Lamia because, as good as he was, father was better, and stronger. What annoyed me was that I couldn’t help him, them. There hadn’t been any kidnappings, or deaths, or anything, since a week before I arrived and, though I believed it a coincident, it made it harder for me to figure it out. If it even was out-figurable.
“Alexis, it’s nice to see you again. Is it too much too hope that you’ve found anything to help us?”
“I’m afraid so, lord. Nothing has happened and if the perpetrators had left clues in the first place you would have found them yourselves.”
“How nice of you to think so.” He said with a bemused smile.
“I do, I was just sent here because my father can use me as an important ambassador. I’m not overly good at anything. Except maybe annoying father’s councillors.” His smile widened.
“You should think better of yourself. And don’t look down at annoying councillors, it’s a very important skill, useful for when you don’t want them around.” He said and it was my turn to smile. But it faded as Sergei suddenly looked sad. “You have no idea how lucky your father is to have a child, a real child.” And in truth, I didn’t. I had some inkling but I was young still. Despite my forty plus years.
“I have some notion but you’ve been around for far longer than me. I know that it’s very rare for vampires to have a child like me but I’m not sure how rare. And I’m not positive I want to know. Being father’s heir and the Ryttir is far more than I ever wanted to be.”
“You’re the first one in fifteen hundred years to be born. The one before that was about two and a half thousand years removed. None of them still alive, though they were very powerful vampires.” I got a bit miffed at him for telling me when I’d said that I didn’t want to know but it wasn’t like I’d challenge him for it. “But I can see that you’ll make a good leader. You accept the power as it’s given to you, you don’t demand it, and neither do you see it as your ‘right’ to have it.” He continued and suddenly the whole conversation had turned into a competition in giving compliments. I could give compliments but I’m not as good in receiving them.
“I don’t accept it graciously, I must confess.” He smiled again. Somehow I’d ended up being the comic relief. I wasn’t sure if I should be happy or get mad.
“It’s often that way. I’ve seen you around your people though, and you know what you are doing.” ‘How nice of you to think so,’ I almost added, because I knew I had no idea what I was doing. Or why he was commenting on it.
“Er… yeah.” But what was one to really answer that?
“I know you are Ryttir, and I also know what it entails. What do you think of us getting a group of weres?” He was all business, stone-faced. I liked him better when he wasn’t.
“I think it’s a good idea.” I said, knowing that I was close to convicting a group of people to something akin to slavery. I also knew that they’d do fairly well here, considering some of the other options. It wasn’t an easy decision to make but I couldn’t afford to make them too hard. “I think that the falcon’s would fit you, and fit in here.” I did some kind of vague gesture implying all of the coven.
“Falcons, interesting. I’d thought about tigers or maybe the bulls.” He was aiming for power but he didn’t have the information he needed to make a good choice.
“The tigers are few and they really don’t do well in groups. They’d need a larger coven than you have access to. The bulls are rather bull-headed and not very bright. They’re strong but not much else. Falcons may sound weak but they aren’t. They’re intelligent and independent but not so far as to shun and fight others of the same kind. True, their form leaves them with a weakness, the wings are very delicate, but no one’s perfect.”
“Hm, you really mean that, don’t you?”
“Of course I do, or I wouldn’t have said it. Being Ryttir means that I want what’s best for each group and each individual were. I think that you’ll take good care of them, whoever comes here, but I also think that the falcons are the one best suited to your needs. And you can fulfil their needs.” If needed I could be as stone-faced as him, almost. I had been practicing with and against father though I kept losing it, breaking down laughing at the most inappropriate moments. I kept saying it wasn’t my fault though.
“You have an interesting point of view but you are also speaking of what you know. I haven’t been able to find much information at all about the now-living weres. I’ll honour your request, I’ll send an envoy to the falcons.”
“Thank you.” I said. “I hope they agree. If I’m not here when they arrive, send for me, and we’ll talk about rights. Rights for both sides.” I was going to be Ryttir, I was going to take care of those who I considered mine. If this were follow through the falcons would be the second group to belong to someone. Quite a few covens had tried to get their own weres but none of them had managed to get anyone yet. I believed in Wycliffe, though, and I really hoped that everything would work out.
“Of course.” He said, and smiled. He could afford to, now that the negotiations, or whatever to call them, were over.
The house which Dennis had been speaking about was, indeed, easy to find. Getting in proved to be harder.
“Who are you?” Before we could even enter the yard proper we were assaulted by someone who thought herself important. She was clad in jeans and a blue t-shirt with some symbol printed on it. She had a self-conscious hairdo. Everyone knows that how you wear you hair changes with where you’re going. The way she kept her hair was more at home in the courtroom than in a yard and she was about 20 years to young for it.
“I’m Alexis Smith, this is my friend Clay Stevens. We’re the new ones from down the street. Someone called Dennis Cooper came by yesterday and invited us.”
“No.” She even did the little diss thing with her head, you know. When you tilt your head like that and look down your nose while doing a short backwards nod.
“No?” I asked, confused. “No what?”
“You’re not allowed to come in here. Only members are.” She looked down at us, quite feat considering I was three inches taller than her and Clay stands a whole foot taller than me.
“You’re saying that we aren’t allowed in despite being invited?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Me, the ever-curious.
“Because that’s the rules.” Oh… the rules. Of course…
“What rules?”
“Our rules.” She answered and I was on the verge of going completely sarcastic. Clay’s hand on my arm prevented it, at the moment at least.
“Listen. I was invited by Dennis to come here and talk to someone called Jane. She’d been asking about us, apparently.” I had a new mantra. It was something along the lines of ‘I will not lose my patience, I will not lose my patience’.
“Well, whomever he was he was lying because we don’t have anyone by the name of Jane here.” The important look was back in her eyes. She was one of those persons who doesn’t do well with power. She obviously thought that she’d have more power if she restricted everyone else. A pretty stupid habit in someone who was supposed to guard your front door. I was about to turn around and leave. I had made some sort of agreement with Dennis that I’d show up but if he hadn’t seen fit to inform the doorgirl about it I wasn’t going to make the trouble.
“There you are!” A voice spoke up and was soon followed by the appearance of Dennis. He’d come from whatever lay beyond the white and red barn.
“Hi Dennis.” I answered, mostly to have something, at least halfway intelligent, to say.
“I thought I recognised your voice. Why didn’t you come in?” Was he as clueless as he sounded or was it just me? I looked pointedly at the doorgirl who’d started to squirm her way away from us.
“Someone didn’t believe me when I said that we’d been invited.”
“Oh,” He said before turning to the girl. “I told you we were expecting company today, Marcia, and I remember telling you to let them through.”
“They could have been impostors.” I didn’t like the sound of that. If this was your usual neighbourhood watch they wouldn’t be concerned about ‘impostors’ though there was the chance of Marcia making it up to make herself more important. Also, who in his or her right mind would put a doorgirl to stop anyone from entering a neighbourhood watch meeting. It isn’t like the thieves would spy in on them, would they? Though I decided not to say anything about it, at least for now. It might be worth bringing it up amongst the others. Just to make them aware.
“Now can we go see Jane?” I asked but I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted a positive answer or not. I got both, to my utter confusion. Marcia still claimed that there wasn’t anyone called Jane while Dennis simply said sure and turned around to lead the way. Marcia looked decidedly unhappy but Dennis didn’t appear to care. I kind of liked that part of him. The rest of him I could manage without. He was naïve and childish in a way that had nothing to do with ignorance but everything to do with a lack of hardship. With the lack of pressure of having to grow up. I knew I shouldn’t think bad of him because of it but for some reason I did anyways. It wasn’t his fault but I couldn’t seem to get my brain to accept that fact. I just hoped that he’d grow up soon, before something bad happened that make him take responsibility for something he wasn’t ready for.
He lead us through the barn rather than around it and though it didn’t make sense while we were doing it, it soon did. If we’d gone around the barn we’d ended up behind the targets. Not a very good place to stand at the best of times but now it was even worse. This was obviously the beginner’s course in knife throwing. I know a lot of things that are more comfortable than getting a few dozen assorted knives stuck in me. And I could clearly see why they needed help. A few of them couldn’t even throw the knives towards the target. I swear I saw one of the knives go backwards. A little besides the main throwing area there was a woman standing. She was rather tall, even for a man she would have been, she had blond hair pulled back in a high ponytail though I strongly suspected the colour was fake. Blond hair comes with highlights because it’s easily bleached by the sun, even in wintertime. Hers had this all over flat colour that usually means that the colour came by chemicals rather than genes. The expression she wore said the same thing I’d been thinking a few minutes earlier. The knife throwers needed some serious help. Dennis, on the other hand, noticed nothing of this and continued rather excitedly to wave the woman over. She started to make her way around the field, carefully skirting several feet behind the throwers, evidently she’d seen the errant knife too. She reached us and held her hand out immediately.
“Hi, I’m Jane.”
“Hello. I’m Alexis Smith, this is my friend Clay Stevens. I was told you wanted to meet me.” As we spoke I gave her a second check over, and a closer look at the yard. And suddenly I realised that I’d been amongst vampires too long. No human neighbourhood watch would use knives or any weapon at that. It could be that they were just overzealous but I really wouldn’t bet on it.
“Yes, I walked past your backyard one day and saw you practicing. I was impressed and I have to tell you that I’m not easily so. You must have been practicing for quite a while.” Of course she just happened to see us. I knew that she’d have to have tried to actually have done it. I couldn’t’ really understand why, though, and I was going to keep quiet until I had more information. Dennis had spoken about disappearances amongst the humans and it could be connected to the vampiric ones. I don’t know why, or how, but there was a slight possibility and I didn’t want to miss anything that could be important. Especially since I hadn’t found a clue since coming here.
“Yes, my father was concerned about my safety so I had to learn. I must say that I had some really good teachers to help me.” And Clay had been, and still was, one of them. I wouldn’t’ tell her that though. We looked to be the same age and it’d be rather conspicuous if I was to have learnt from someone my own age.
“Fathers do have a tendency of being overprotective.” She said and we shared a smile. She didn’t know that I needed that protection, and in the beginning I’d needed it pretty badly. I still wasn’t allowed to travel anywhere without my guards but I really didn’t care. They were, mostly, good companions and friends so it didn’t bother me as much as it used to. I’d also realised that no one of my standing travelled without them, that had also helped soothe my ruffled feelings.
“Yes they do. Please tell me about this watch. Dennis really didn’t tell much.”
“As I’m sure he told you about the crime-rate going up rather drastically a year or so ago. At that point we were only a group of neighbours that looked out for each other and their possessions but it evolved a bit since then.”
“Yes, I can see. I’m just not sure what I can do to help. As I told Dennis I’m rather busy and I’m not sure I can devote a lot of time to something like this.”
“Oh, it’s all right. You’re good enough as it is. It’d be great if you could come by a night a week, or something similar, to teach the others.” She looked back towards the field. “As you can see, some of them needs a lot of help.” I just nodded. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I wasn’t a teacher, I had no experience at all teaching others. I’d been taught for the last twenty-something years but I hadn’t been teaching. I didn’t even know if I could. Didn’t you have to be one of those nifty pedagogical persons to do that?
“Maybe you can start right now. Give them a few tips.” I heard her mutter ‘god knows they need it’ under her breath but I knew that I wasn’t supposed to have heard it if it wasn’t for superior hearing.
“Ok, I can try. But can I do it my way?” I asked. If she said yes no one could call me on doing anything wrong because it’d right in my way. If she didn’t I could just say ‘too bad’ and refuse to teach them. I had learned some things hanging around my father for all this time.
“Sure.” She answered and I almost felt like strangling her. Now I’d be stuck teaching them. She turned towards the seven people practicing.
“Group!” Ok, rule number seventeen: never trust someone who actually uses the word ‘group’ like that. “This is our new instructor Ms Smith. She’s a very accomplished knife fighter. I want you to pay attention to her and respect her as you do me.” I almost winced, I stopped myself in time though. She was treating a group of 18-25 year olds like a preschool class. Someone should have stayed with the five year olds.
“Can you give us some help with this?” One of the younger females was asking.
“I can only say what my trainers said to me: ‘If you throw your knife you have a chance of hitting one person. If you keep it you can do damage to several.’”
“What do you mean?” The same girl asked. The others, including Jane and Dennis looked intrigued.
“What I meant was that it’s stupid to give up your weapon while fighting. You have a perfectly good knife, why waste it by throwing it away? If you ever end up in a fight you’ll do much better if you hold on to whatever advantage you can.”
“So… you’re saying that we shouldn’t throw our knives?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.” I really hoped that they picked up fighting faster than this or I’d find myself running out of patience. Not that I have a lot to begin with.
“Oh. What are we supposed to do instead?” The same spokes-girl asked. And suddenly I had nine very expectant faces turned towards me. And one that was looking decidedly smug. Clay was really enjoying this. I had a feeling I’d hate him before the night was over.
That prediction came true, unfortunately, but after having used Clay as dummy to show some moves on, sometimes a bit more violent than needed, he stopped looking smug. And I didn’t hate him as much. If I was suffering it was just right that he was too. We were both bruised when we walked back to the house later that evening although neither of us minded. What got to us was the fact that Raphael, one of father’s most trusted guards, was waiting for us, me.
“Lady.” He said as he bowed down low. Raphael was one of the few guards that had never called me by ‘little lady’. I had thought at first that perhaps it was because he hadn’t spent all that much time around me but I was told later that one, he was a sucker for what’s appropriate and not, and second; he’d been the one to take me to my adoptive parents. I had also learnt how he became as protocol bound as he is and it’s not repeatable.
“Yes?” Something must have happened to make father send Raphael here and I didn’t particularly want to know. Of course, it could be good news but I doubted it.
“Lady, the High Prince requests that Clay of the honour guard return to the coven immediately.” I can honestly say that I didn’t expect that, at all. I wasn’t going to fight it though. If father needed Clay for something, anything, he’d get him. And yes that sounded fishy to me too.
“Of course. Will you be accompanying him?”
“No, I was told to stay in his place. Our Lord did not want to leave you short on guards, Lady.”
“Did Father tell you why he wanted Clay?”
“No, Lady.” I didn’t turn from Raphael as I spoke to Clay.
“You heard him. Father wants you in the coven.”
“Yes, little lady.” He answered with a bow and left. I waited, more or less patiently, for him to have gotten far away not to overhear.
“You don’t happen to know why he’s sent back, do you?”
“Grace returned.” That was a good a reason as any. Raphael obviously hadn’t been told why he had been sent to fetch Clay but he’d probably seen Grace somewhere in the coven. I was happy for Clay though I also feared his reaction when he saw that she’d been alive for all this time. I had no idea how, or why, but she’d made it out of that Japanese village alive.
“It’s nice to have you here. Please have one of the others to show you a room.” It was a bit hard talking to Raphael, though. He was very good at what he was doing and kept protocol but he also stood fast that everyone else would follow it too. I really wasn’t that good at it at it and I actually had to think about what I did and said to not make any grave mistakes. Needless to say, Raphael had been one of my tutors. He’d also been one of the hardest, but seeing how knowledgeable he was I could see beyond it. I needed to speak with him about the humans and their watch though. I knew he wouldn’t say anything about it, or disagree once I’d told hi, but he needed to know so he wouldn’t be caught of guard. Raphael didn’t do well when someone changed the rules.
The next day I spent with Sergei and an older lady called Sandra Dag, who was leader of the werefalcons. She was nice, though not an easy lady to negotiate with. She saw me as a threat despite me and Sergei trying to convince her otherwise. I also tried to tell her that they’d have to join a coven sooner or later and that Wycliffe was a good choice. She didn’t agree with me.
“Please understand Mrs Dag, the Wycliffe coven is a good place.”
“No place housing vampires can be good.” I sighed and looked at Sergei. There was just one thing left to do. Or rather there were two, but bringing her to one of the bad covens was not a good idea.
“Would one of you please fetch Daniel?” I asked my guards. Daniel was one of the three leopards I’d brought with me. He was a brash young male who didn’t stop at anything, but me… for some reason. Raphael didn’t move, and I hadn’t expected him to, he takes his duty very seriously, so, William, the other guard, left instead. It wouldn’t long for them to return.
“Tell me, Mrs Dag, have you ever met anyone who’s lived in a coven before this? That isn’t a vampire, that is.”
“No, I most certainly haven’t. Why would I meet with scum like that? Nothing good has ever come from a coven.” I could feel Raphael stiffen behind me when she said that. It was not a good sign.
“Calm down.” I told him, though my eyes never left Sandra.
“You cannot tell me what to do!” She screeched and Raphael tensed even more. She really should have been able to see it by now but she was probably too focused on her own little world. As most humans are, as most living beings are.
“I wasn’t speaking to you.” She bristled at my rather chilly tone. I didn’t understand her. I’d been talking to several werefalcons before and none of them had mentioned her being quite this big a nutcase. I just hoped we’d survive the evening.
“Why not? And in that case, who were you talking to?”
“Everything that happens in this room isn’t connected to you. I was talking to my guard, not that you need to know.” Raphael started to calm down as I spoke. I don’t know why, really, maybe because I was handling it myself or because he’d been late hearing the order.
“That’s just like you! Thinking you’re all-mighty and important enough to warrant guards. That’s preposterous.” I don’t know if she was trying to get a rise out of me or what it was but I refused to respond. We sat in silence until William returned with Daniel. Sandra went of as soon as she saw him.
“And now you’re trying to intimidate me by numbers! That is so crude, you have no idea who you’re dealing with!” I almost felt like replying with the same thing but I left it up to Daniel.
“Don’t you diss the lady, woman!” Oh yes, I was going to enjoy this.
“How dare you speak like that to me, you horrid blood-sucker!” Daniel let out something between a curse and a hiss.
“I’m no vampire.” He calmly stated as he allowed himself to transform. I knew that transforming outside of the full moon hurt them badly. I had no idea that Daniel would do something like that to prove my point but I was happy he did.
“You can’t be much better if you allow yourself to be used by them!” That woman was seriously getting on my nerves. Raphael was moving restlessly, he was annoyed because he wasn’t allowed to defend me, that is was left to someone who wasn’t even a guard. I’d have another problem soon if I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t talk while Mrs Dag and Daniel were fighting, though, so I hoped he could hold it together as long as the fight lasted.
“I’m not used! I would never allow myself to be used! We have an agreement, and the truth is that I’m, we are, treated better by the vampires then we ever were by the humans who found out. How can you speak so lowly of them when you don’t know them?”
“I can say whatever I please.” That did it, I wouldn’t, couldn’t stand this anymore. Faster than Mrs Dag thought possible I stood up and crossed the room to place myself in front of her.
“I grow tired of your idiocy.” I said and grabbed her neck and hurled her into the wall. There was a nice dent in the stonework as she crumbled to the ground. She slowly pulled herself to her hands and knees before crawling towards me and staying like that, head bowed down. Now… why the fuck hadn’t I tried this first? Why go through all that stupid stuff just to be able to solve it nicely with a bit of violence.
“Well, that solved that.” I said and turned towards the kneeling woman. “Are you going to consider the suggestion?”
“Yes, lady.” Oh, I liked her much better now.
“Go with Sergei and he’ll show you around and you two can talk about what you want and need from this. I’ll be here if you have any trouble.” They left and I was alone with William and Raphael, I turned towards the latter. Daniel had left to get something to eat before changing back.
“You know why I couldn’t let you act.” I told him, stern, firm and unbending.
“Yes Lady.”
“No, I don’t think you do. I needed to have the support of someone who isn’t vampire. I know that you will always defend me.” He kneeled down before me and I felt as disturbed about it as always, though I knew he needed it.
“Thank you, Lady.”
The following month I spent one or two evenings a week at the watch yard, training the people there. In the beginning I only had a hand on the beginners but it soon changed. And I realised just how hard it was to hide my supernatural abilities. Amongst the beginners it was easy because they were bad and if I did slip up they’d just think it was me being better at it than them, but those who knew what they were doing. Let me just say that I panicked the first time and suddenly I was faster than I was supposed to be. I calmed down rather a lot after that and had to allow myself to get hit from time to time to avoid suspicion. That’s a lot easier to say than to do. If someone comes at you with a knife you badly want to defend yourself. Instead I was just to stand there and do the block too slow or too late. My guards though the whole thing hilarious, except for Raphael but he hadn’t been invited along yet. At first they’d been frowned upon and looked at with great suspicion and it wasn’t until after the tentative question about how many boyfriends I really had things cooled down. I explained that my overprotective father had sent them along as bodyguards and they seemed to buy it. Or at least some of them did. The point was that the guards could stay in peace after that.
One night when we arrived there were a lot more persons around and about than usual. I was thoroughly confused but refused to act upon it.
“Oh, it was good that you came Alexis.” Jane neared me with a hasty stride that I think was supposed to look purposeful, didn’t work too good, though.
“What’s going on Jane?” I recognised about half the people here and it made me nervous. I didn’t like not knowing what was going on. Especially not since this was kind of a side thing to the disappearances. William was standing beside me acting as a rock, someone to lean on and take strength from. I didn’t visibly do anything but knowing I wasn’t alone in all this chaos helped.
“We’re planning an attack.”
“Attack?!? I thought you were a neighbourhood watch.” Ok, I just went from confused to lost, outside the map with no compass and no knowledge of the local language.
“Yes we are, we just take a little more active stance on things than most neighbourhood watches do. We have heard of, and confirmed, the location of a perpetrator and we’re going after him tonight.” What? Talk about taking the law in their own hands. What in the world were they doing?
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, 100%.” She was looking sure. Her ponytail was bouncing self importantly as she turned and twisted trying to look at everyone, and me, and being a part of everything that happened on the yard while at the same time talking to me. It was hard trying to keep up with her, not physically but mentally. She was everywhere.
“Should I go home then? Surely you have no need for me if you’re going away.”
“You’re coming with us.” Ok, father was going to kill me if I died doing something ridiculous as this. And he’d make it painful.
“Why?” I asked, it could have been rather obvious but I hadn’t exactly been trusted with anything before. We’re they really so low on experts that they needed me there. Or was this some kind of initiation? Or was it some kind of test?
“We have people from out of town here, today, to help us. We’re undermanned really, and you’ve been introduced as one of our combat experts. We need more people and you’re going to come. Your guard,” She said ‘guard’ but everyone heard ‘boyfriend’. “has to stay at home. We can’t risk anyone.” That didn’t go over well, neither with me nor with William. Partly because William was supposed to be guarding me and he’d get hell if he let me out of his sight and partly because William was one of the best unarmed combatants in the coven and he was very able to take care of himself. I had to send him home though. What I really wanted was to drop all this and go back to Emilio but since that wasn’t an option I’d do the best of the situation.
“I’ll send him away. Is there anything else I need to know or do before we leave?”
“No, just follow my orders, protect anyone from here and kill anyone else.” That was short, concise and utterly useless. If it was one thing I’d learnt from father it was that minions needed trust and knowledge to work at top efficiency. If anything happened, out of plan that is, you wanted your minions to know at lest enough to make good decisions on their own. How the hell would anyone accomplish that if you don’t give them information? At the moment, though, I needed to speak with William, alone… far away from prying ears. Jane’s in particular. She’d always stricken me as a bit odd but after I’d seen what was going on here, today, she’d gone way up on the weirdness scale.
“William, I want you to return to the house…” I didn’t get any further before he tried to stop me. I raised a hand and halted his protests. “and get the others. Have them follow us at a distance, they- you- are not to be seen. Understood?” He nodded before leaving. He was not happy about it, not at all, and honestly neither was I, but he’d do what I’d ordered. He’d do it as fast as possible too because he didn’t want to leave me without protection. It wasn’t as if any of us trusted this neighbourhood watch, or whatever it was, thing.
I was being led, with a blindfold of all things, through some trees. I don’t think it was a forest because it wasn’t dense enough and I had yet to hit my head in anything but it wasn’t the suburb where the trip had started. They’d put me in a car and put the blindfold over my eyes before we left. They didn’t want me to know the location, but it didn’t matter because my guards could tell me later, I was more interested in why they didn’t want me to know. I tried to ignore thinking about it. There was going to be fighting soon and I needed to prepare for that. Spending energy and mental resources on that type of questions was idiocy at present. The fight, had to concentrate on survival.
What I hadn’t expected was to recognise where we were. They’d pulled the blindfold off, not even I can fight with my eyes covered, and I knew where we were.
Outside the Wycliffe coven.
Now came the interesting questions, why, how and why now. Were these people somehow connected to the disappearances in the coven? And if they were, how did they manage that? They aren’t that good. Jane chose that moment to speak up.
“There are a couple of things you ought to know.” ‘No, you say’ my brain urged me to say but I didn’t. I keep my thoughts on a short rein.
“Um, like what?” I couldn’t help but to sound apprehensive. I knew some of what was going on but I really didn’t like going into situations like this one without proper intel.
“Do you know what a vampire is?”
“Er, yes. I fail to see what that has to do with catching thieves, though.”
“Michaels!” She yelled and continued when she saw that he was working his way towards us. “Michaels will tell you more about them. The most important thing, though, is that they are vile creatures that shouldn’t be allowed to exist.” ‘Thank you very much, I hate you too’ my brain supplied but I tugged the reins and threatened with a sharper bit if it didn’t start behaving better.
“So you’re the new ‘wonder’ recruit.”
“Er, yes?” I guessed. I had no idea what they called me behind my back, but that’s not overly strange, not many people do. Often you don’t want to know, either. It’s just not worth it.
“You realise that we’re going against vampires, real live ones. They are real and very much so. They are stronger and faster than usual humans so you have to be on guard here.”
“I thought you were a neighbourhood watch. Not some kind of secret society hunting fictional characters.” I answered.
“We’re slayers.” Oh goodie. I was the first vampire, ever, to be recruited into the slayers association. Their standards really had fallen. I didn’t know if I was supposed to laugh of cry. What I did know was that the whole situation had become a lot more grave and that many people, both humans and vampires, could end up dead if I didn’t handle this right. And I had absolutely no time in which to do it. Great.
“Oh. So vampires really exist?” Yes I was stalling. I was also trying to act like someone who’d just gotten to know that vampires are a reality. It was twenty years since I first had learnt of it but it still surprised me sometimes.
“Yes. And you’d better get very good at fighting exceptionally fast.”
“Er, ok. So what’s happening? I mean, you’re obviously not hunting a thief.”
“We’ve noticed some activity in the coven, that’s what vampires call their homes, the last few days and we’ve learnt of a new arrival. You see, not all people are vampires in the coven, no, they are far more cunning than that. They intermingle with humans to make it appear as if they are human too. In this coven we’ve found six vampires, not counting the one we’re going after today.” Well, six vampires, the same amount that had gone missing. I supposed that they were dead. From what little I’d heard about slayers they weren’t known for their mercy. I tried not to look too apprehensive, though, but I knew that there were more than six vampires in the coven. The whole Wycliffe sect held about 600 vampires though only about half of that was currently living in the coven. These humans really had no idea what they were doing.
We entered the building through a very well hidden backdoor. I had no idea that it even existed and considering that I’d seen the blueprints, which was a very bad thing. Someone must have been helping the so-called slayers from the inside. This made the situation even more dangerous and volatile than it had been from the beginning. Father really would kill me if I screwed up and managed to die at this point. I also needed to get in contact with my guards, something that was made quite a bit harder because I was kept in the middle of the group ‘for my own protection’. Gah, I was better suited to survive this than any of them, in all senses of the word.
Once inside the narrow, and luckily dark, corridors I made a run for it. Though I didn’t as much run as just step sideways into another passage and let the others get ahead of me. Their poor eyesight helped a lot. My moves hadn’t gone undetected though, Raphael was soon besides me.
“They are slayers. I need one of you to warn the coven. Allow passage for the humans to wherever they want to go but keep everyone out of sight. We’ll catch them when they’ve reached whomever screwed up enough to give their identity away. I want some information form them so I need some of them alive. Preferably the best fighters.” It was quite a dangerous order to give but the best fighters would be those who knew the most so it was them we had to get our hands on.
“As you wish, lady.” I quickly joined the humans again. I hadn’t fallen too far behind because they had to walk slowly in the dark. My conversation with Raphael had been quiet and even if someone had overheard they wouldn’t have understood since I’d been speaking in vampiric. I’d been forced to learn vampiric though it was mostly a dead language. It was mostly used in rituals these days but it did have its uses.
As I was now walking in the very end of the line of humans I could feel that one of my guards had once again picked up his duty. By the sound of his steps I was willing to bet that it was William. I would have preferred it being Raphael but he’d undoubtedly gone and seen to that my orders were obeyed to the letter. That was a good thing, it would reduce the chance of vampires getting injured and killed.
We arrived at an intersection where the corridors started to become wider and also lit. There was some surprised exclamations about me ending up in the back of the line but it was swiftly stifled with an embarrassed confession that I’d managed to make a wrong turn. Of course hearing them wander off in the distance had corrected my mistake and I managed to catch up with them again. Now, when everyone was still I could hear vampires moving all around us. They made sure not to show themselves but I could hear, and even feel, them.
I didn’t know exactly where we were, not being familiar enough with the coven, but I think we were heading towards the guestrooms. I was relatively sure that there weren’t any vampires living here. We, my guards and I, were the only guests at present and we were living of the premises. Drawing nearer to our intended target I saw that this was, indeed, the guestrooms. But who were they after? We, or rather they since I kept in the background, burst into the room.
It was Sandra Dag’s room, the werefalcon.
Someone’s intel was way of. Sandra was one of the most anti-vampire persons I’d ever met. Why would someone thing she was vampire. And if they had help on the inside that someone should have known that she wasn’t one. Lies, deceit, spies, betrayals. This was shaping into one hell of a night.
The room was rather large, for a guestroom that is, and all fifteen so-called slayers managed to fit in rather nicely. I stayed in the doorway trying to locate Sandra. She was sitting behind a big chair and none of the slayers had seen her yet. It was just a matter of time.
“What are we doing in here?” I asked. I was stalling, and trying to get some information. Sandra did not deserve to die just because someone didn’t like what he or she was.
“That!” Michaels said. “is a vampire. They take life to further their own. They are evil.” Sandra stood up looking thoroughly confused. I could understand her.
“She isn’t vampire.” I said and Sandra nodded her agreement.
“She is. She’s trying her mind-tricks on you. Get away from her!” Michaels was ranting and the others were watching the slightly frantic person. Sandra looked like someone’s preschool teacher, not the savage monster they had been expecting.
“She is not. Change Sandra!” I said the last part with a bit of force. Not loud, just imitating father’s ‘obey me or else’ voice. She did change and in front of us stood soon a beautiful part-falcon part-human. She had become two feet taller and her human like body was crowned by a falcon’s head. The large eyes were the same blue as her humans one, though, and her plumage was a rich teal colour. Wings sprouted from her back in a high sweeping arch they descended towards the floor. They looked impressive but I’m not sure if she could really fly. She had arms, and hands ending in black sharp talons. The feathers were thickest on the head and shoulders and thinned out as they went down. She’d kept her clothes on but her shirt had been hopelessly ripped. The slayers stood in dumbfounded silence. I was a bit impressed too, her form was magnificent, but I had been expecting it.
“See, she is a were, not a vampire.” My voice broke the silence and also the spell that had kept them silent and in place. Half of them were now moving backwards, towards me and the other half looked as if they hadn’t decided which way was safer yet.
“Changing form is a part of the known vampiric powers!” Michaels still didn’t want to let it go. He was like a dog with a bone, he wouldn’t give in until he’d hurt himself.
“Since when?” I idly wondered, I’d never heard anything of the sort. And I mean, I should know, shouldn’t I?
“Everyone knows that!” And to my surprise several of the slayers nodded their heads.
“Why don’t we fetch a real vampire and see if that’s true.” I said. Yes, it was mean but I couldn’t hold it any longer. My brain had bucked me off and was currently heading for the plains at top speed. Hopefully no one would get hurt in the process, but they’d have to suit themselves, really, for standing in the way. For some reason all of the slayers was now facing me, stunned expressions on their faces.
“Raphael.” I said, my voice distinct but still not loud. He appeared beside me quietly, like a dream, or perhaps in this case, an experienced and powerful vampire. I turned towards our slayers-turned-audience. “This is Raphael, he’s a vampire, and old one, and he’s about 560 years. Isn’t that right?” I asked Raphael, and on some level, the audience.
“Yes lady.” He bowed at me but didn’t take his eyes of the humans. He knew his job, to protect me, and those humans were a threat.
“How do you know this!?”
“Kill it!”
“Prove it!”
“Stay back!”
“She’s one of them!”
“He’s no vampire!”
“He’s dangerous!”
“Are there more of them?”
“Why don’t you kill him?”
Questions and ‘orders’ were hailing from everywhere. In the general chaos that had suddenly come into being I gestured for Sandra to get out of the room, and she did. Point for her. If something happened I didn’t want her in the middle. She was a guest and shouldn’t end up in petty squabbles such as this one. Well, yes, it was a kind of assassination attempt but anyways. The sound soon died down, though, and Jane took the lead.
“He calls you ‘lady’.” She said, a bit accusingly.
“Yes.” There was no point denying it.
“Your so called guards also do that.”
“Yes.” I answered again. It was better for them this way, to figure it out by themselves.
“You know a vampire.” He voice was steady but it was a false calm. She did not like where this was going.
“No.” I denied it, it wasn’t true. I knew several vampires. Yes, I’m very aware that I’m splitting hairs.
“You know him. The others… they’re also vampires.” The last part was somewhere between a question and a statement.
“Yes.” I answered.
“How can you live that close to vampires without getting killed?”
“Think on it, you’re a smart woman.”
“You’re also vampire.”
“Yes.” What little movement there had been ceased.
“But… you don’t look or act like a vampire.”
“Tell me, how does a vampire act?”
“They kill everyone they can put their hands on. They can’t be out in sunlight. I’ve seen you out during daytime! You’re lying!” At the threatening tone in her voice Raphael tensed and I could feel William and Steven closing in on my back though none of the humans could see them yet.
“I’m afraid not. I tell the truth. You have been greatly misled. Vampires can exist in sunlight and despite having to feed on blood to survive, we do not kill. Unless forced to. If you kill the sheep you can get wool once, if you shear it you can get wool once a year.” What happened next wasn’t really clear. Michaels attacked me but Raphael stood in his way and stopped him quickly and, remembering my orders, he
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