Thank you for your review, FORD B. The rest of you... :(
But anyway, vampire time!
TV-14 LV
Chapter 25: Awakening – One Sanguine Vampiris is Enough
Previously on Sanctuary…
TESLA: Well, I hope you're all happy now. I'm ordinary.
MAGNUS: There's simply no way to re-vamp you.
LÍA: The Source Blood, what we were made from, is the blood of a vampire. The Cabal spent months devising this serum from the ancient texts they'd collected that were the notes of the scientist Icirus. He was trying to create himself an army that was superior to regular vampires. Icirus named his new race of warriors Sanguine Vampirisa, but kept the name akhkharu for them. He bred them until he had a small army.
Magnus, Nikola, and I had, just the day before, been having a normal day. Or as normal as it ever got in the Sanctuary. Will in charge of the Sanctuary until Magnus got back, Henry was out of town, Kate and the Big Guy were just hanging out, and Magnus, Nikola, and I were researching our separate projects. It was then that Magnus found the clue she was looking for. In the log of an Egyptian archaeologist, she had found notes of odd symbols carved in rock. Praxian symbols. So here I was, in the middle of a desert in Egypt, with another vampire and the greatest researcher of all time, Helen Magnus. We all wore vampire bracelets. Nikola and Magnus were in the middle of a conversation about King Tut's tomb, although what that had to do with early Praxians, I had no idea. I ran my fingers lightly over the cool wall, grateful to be sheltered from the raging desert outside.
"Hello," Nikola said, jerking me from my thoughts.
"Dead end?" Magnus asked, coming over to look.
"Hmm…" he muttered, "I can feel there's power being drawn off behind here." He looked at the blank rock face. "No wiring," he said.
"A doorway?" Magnus suggested.
"Yeah, possibly," he answered, shining his flashlight around, "I could disengage the locking mechanism with a magnetic pulse."
"You're confident of that?" she asked. He looked at her, making her laugh slightly, and then he turned back to the door.
"Remember this moment, Helen. We're about to make history. Again," he said. The sound of rock rubbing against rock permeated the cavern, and the door started to slide aside, revealing a room with many pedestals filled with script. Nikola of course, walked right in, while Magnus and I waited more cautiously by the doorway. The lights went on as he entered. He turned off his flashlight and approached one of the pedestals.
"Oh my God, look at this," he breathed. He flipped his pack off his back and tossed away his flashlight with it. "It's the ancient script of the Sanguine Vampiris."
"Vampires?" Magnus asked, "According to the map this was a Praxian stronghold."
"Not anymore," Nikola said, reaching out to touch the symbols, "It says here that my ancestors drove them from this place, made it a fortress of their own…"
"Nikola wait," Magnus said, "If this was a vampire strong then they must have fortifications. The vampire shield, take off your bracelet!" She pulled hers off, and I did too. Nikola turned around to face us.
"Bracelet? I prefer to think of it as a—" he began. A laser beam came out from the wall, hitting him in the chest and going right through him like butter. He sank to the floor, a hand on his wound.
"Nikola!" Magnus ran forward, dropping her bag as she went, "Damn it!" I followed her into the room, and the stone door shut ominously behind us. Nikola pulled dragged himself over to a pedestal, and sat there, leaning on, one hand still covering his wound. "Stay still," Magnus said, pulling out a medical pouch.
"What hit me?" he asked.
"Some sort of energy beam," Magnus answered. I looked around the cave, searching for another means of escape. Nothing. We were locked in. "This room must be protected by vampire technology," Magnus continued, pulling open the pouch.
"The Source Blood shield hid my vampire DNA," Nikola said.
"It perceived you as being an ordinary human," Magnus said.
"Oh that hurts," he said looking at her. It was well known around the Sanctuary that Nikola hated the words 'mortal,' 'human,' and 'ordinary,' and considered them foul language.
After taking his bracelet off, she asked him, "Alright, how bad is it? Come on, let me see."
"Not a good idea. The only thing keeping my insides from spreading out across the floor is the magnetic field I'm generating to hold them in," he told her with a sarcastic smile.
"Dear Lord," she said looking at him seriously, and then at the wound. "All right, stay calm." She got up and went over to the blank stretch of wall that was once our door. She pushed against it, trying to move it, but with no avail. Nikola lifted his hand and looked at it, and let out a sound of disgust.
"You know the thing about traps is that they're meant to be escape proof," Nikola pointed out, "Particularly when they're designed by vampires."
"Well, there has to be some other way out of here, Magnus said, fierce determination evident on her face. In desperation, she crossed over to one of the pedestals and scanned the text. She turned back to him.
"How long can you hold on?" she asked.
"For the rest of my life," he answered. That jolted me. He knew, as soon as he let go, he'd be dead. The shocked look on Magnus's face didn't last long. After a final sweep of the room, she came over to us.
"Your pulse is thin," she said, "You're losing blood into the cavity around the wound."
"If you cut me, do I not bleed," Nikola said.
"Oh please, no Shakespeare," Magnus said.
"Do you remember the leaves of autumn, that time we met in Oxford?" he asked, staring dreamily, "And that crimson dress you were wearing?"
"You need to stay focused, your body's going into shock," Magnus told him, "First you'll feel cold, and then you'll want to sleep."
"Yes," Nikola eyes were closed as he nodded.
"You can't give in to it," she said, "You have to keep that magnetic field going. Any more blood loss, and…"
"A sensible person would have worn black. You know, to fit in," Nikola rambled on, "But not Helen Magnus, oh no."
"Nikola!" Magnus cried. She pulled a syringe and shot it into his leg.
"Holy Mother of…" Nikola jumped and started.
"You need to stay awake," Magnus said forcefully.
"There are other ways of getting my attention; I never knew you could be so cruel," he said.
"I'm trying to keep you alive!" Magnus said.
"Why? I have a hole through my vital organs and we're miles away from surgical facilities," he said, "You…are in…denial."
"If I could recalibrate a stunner, to cortilize the arterial damage—"
"Then you'd buy me a slow agonizing death instead of a decent one," Nikola said, "Even I don't deserve that."
"We need to keep the blood circulating while we figure this out," Magnus said.
"Helen! You're going to have to find another date to the prom." Magnus stared at him for a second, before rifling through her medical pouch again.
"You had to rush in, didn't you? You couldn't have waited ten seconds scan for weapons?"
"When have you ever known me to put common sense ahead of intellectual curiosity?' he asked.
She sighed. "There's only one shot of epi left.'
"You wouldn't happen to have any morphine in there instead?"
"If I gave you an analgesic, it would suppress your respiration; you'd just—go to sleep."
"In your arms," he said. Nikola being Nikola, I shouldn't have expected him to change, even on his deathbed.
"And bleed out, instantly."
"Also true."
"Is that really what you want?" Magnus asked.
"No. Tempting as it may sound, I have a different final request." We both stared at him.
"It's not what you think," he said, "Read to me."
"You serious?" Magnus asked.
"Helen, we're surrounded by the greatest trove of vampire knowledge the world has ever seen, and it's killing me. I'm being robbed of my last great discovery. I spent my life trying to piece together my ancestry. Come on. Read." Magnus stood up and went over to one of the pedestals.
"The armies of the third great kingdom gathered. Our enemies recruited unnatural creatures of land and sea and air, marred by fin and fur and scales." She turned to Nikola. "They must be referring to abnormals. It looks like they fought side by side with the early Praxians. And then when the Praxians retreated into Hollow Earth—"
"Those abnormals went with them," Nikola finished.
"Exactly. It would explain why some of their species are so similar to our own."
"You're welcome," Nikola said. She moved on to the next pedestal.
"The weak who remained stayed to serve. Ah, that Golden Age of Vampires of which you're so fond. The Age of Human Slavery," she read before looking over at him, "Nikola!"
"Keep…reading" he said through clenched teeth.
"The warrior queen Afina and her court were laid to rest in state to rise again in the afterlife…no, that's not quite right. Kianaru."
"After time," Nikola and I said together.
"After time," Magnus muttered, and then resumed reading, "to rule into eternity."
"I like the sound of that. Maybe I'll meet her on the other side," Nikola commented.
"Wait a second," Magnus said, pointing to a character on the pedestal, "laid to rest…there's another character. Laid to rest…here!" She looked at him. Then she began feeling the pedestal, searching for a button. At the bottom, she must have pressed something and there was a small click, and the rock wall on another side of the chamber sank into the floor. Behind it, encased in a purple crystal, was Afina, queen of the vampires.
"Good heavens," Magnus exclaimed reverently. She looked at Nikola, who was also staring at the queen in awe.
"It's the queen of the vampires," he breathed.
"Just think Nikola. We're the first people to see this tomb for thousands of years."
I approached the crystal, and looked deep into its depth, marveling at the quality of the gem.
"Vampire-made," I said, "Nothing exists now that even comes close to this." Before either of us could stop him, he pulled out the last epi and injected himself with it.
"Nikola, no! What are you doing?" Magnus cried. We rushed over and stood by him. "Are you out of your mind?" she asked.
"I'm not missing out on this. Come on, help me up," he said. Together, Magnus and I helped supported him across the room to sit on a ledge by the crystal. His bloody hand smudged the rock with his blood as he lowered himself into the seat.
"Look at her," he breathed, "perfectly preserved. Like an insect in amber."
"They must have mastered crystal replication on an atomic level," Magnus said.
"Well don't sound so surprised, these are vampires we're talking about after all. Every advance we've seen in our lifetimes, nothing but a pathetic attempt to recreate what my race achieved, before the humans even left the caves. Just leave me here among vampire royalty: my only peers."
"I have a better idea," Magnus said. She opened her bag and pulled out a stunner. I took out a hand gun.
"Move aside."
"What're you doing?" he asked.
"If there is even an ounce of fluid left in that corpse," she began, "a few cells of unaltered DNA…"
"Helen, I'm shocked," Nikola said, "Are you offering to revamp me?"
"If you get the hell out of my way I am."
"I have never been more attracted to you than I am at this moment," he said as he moved aside. She shot three times, but it had little effect on the crystal.
"Bloody hell! What is this thing made of?" I approached and examined the crystalline structure and shook my head. I aimed my hand gun from about five feet away and shot the crystal. The bullets shattered on contact, the ones hitting me being absorbed by my skin. It tired me, but not by much.
"You need something stronger," Nikola said.
"On Praxis," Magnus told us, going back to her bag and rifling in it to pull out another weapon, "I used a laser scalpel to cut through the hide of an Earth-moving abnormal. That's the same principle; I just need to focus the beam—"
"No, no, no, no, you'll overload the condenser."
"Do you have a better idea?" She opened the top off the weapon and pulled out a tool.
"Unprotected platinum coils? Wolf-boy. Have a word with him about power efficiency."
"I doubt Henry planned on this kind of repurposing."
"That's no excuse," Nikola said. Even though he was dying, I shot him an annoyed look. Hey, I'm not perfect. "Secure the oscillator or you'll get vibration."
"Yeah, I got it, thank you!" Magnus said in that English accent of hers.
"Yeah well, get this wrong and you might as well pull the pin on a radiation grenade."
"Which is starting to sound more and more attractive." Magnus said.
"Let her work," I told Nikola before firing another few bullets at the crystal in annoyance. She recapped the weapon and shut it.
"Alright," she said, "ready or not, it's time for a field test." She aimed the weapon at the crystal and shot a blue laser at it. She kept at it until she dropped the burning hot weapon out of pain. "Ah! Damn, it's overheating!"
"I'd…I'd say I told you so, but it wouldn't give me much satisfaction at this point," Nikola said, starting to slump over. She walked up to the crystal and examined the hole she'd made. "How deep?" Nikola asked.
"A few millimeters," Magnus said. He looked down at his bloody hand and let out a small cry of pain. He fell over, and I went to support him, but decided it was better to leave him lying down; it would take less of his strength.
"Don't you dare! This is not over!" Magnus shouted. She pulled a bag over and propped the weapon up on it so she wouldn't have to touch it. The laser shot out at the crystal again, and continued until a couple of burst of sparks and clouds of smoke came up from the weapon and it blinked out, leaving the acrid scent of melting metal that made my eyes water and my nose sting.
"It's not deep enough," Magnus said, "Can we pull out the explosive core and pack this borehole?"
"Ah…" Nikola grunted in pain as he fell over more.
"Nikola, no!" Magnus cried.
"Oh, come on!" She hefted a heavy rock and slammed it against the crystal. I picked up another and we exchanged blows on the crystal. Before our eyes, the crystal started to break. Magnus hurried and got a syringe and carefully put it through the shards of crystal. She took out a little blood from the Afina, and went back to Nikola. She leaned over him and shot it into his arm. For a scary moment, nothing happened. Then he jerked, turning into a full vampire again. The wound on his chest healed instantly, and he sat up.
"I'm back baby," he said in the deeper voice of a vampire, "and it feels good!"
I took a look around the cavern while Magnus and Nikola talked. I didn't find anything of use, like a hidden escape hatch. When I rejoined them, they were pressing buttons on a wall. Suddenly I stopped and turned around. There was an odd cracking noise. The crystal was cracking. It was then that I realized this wasn't Afina's tomb. She was alive! They walked up to it and stood there arguing about whether she should call in a proper team. I stared into the crystal, and found an irresistible urge to touch it before it all disintegrated. Nikola and I touched it at the same time. The crystal felt cold and hard when I touched it. Moments later, it fell away, revealing Afina, still standing perfectly still.
"Did you do that or did I?" I asked Nikola.
"I did," he said.
"How do you know?" I challenged.
"Honestly, sometimes you two act like adolescents!" Magnus said, rolling her eyes.
"I am an adolescent!" I protested. Just then, Afina opened her eyes. We guided her down to the place where Nikola had sat when he was injured. Magnus and Nikola kept talking, but Afina just watched us. She sat down, and looked at me, then Magnus, then Nikola, and finally the blood on the stone from his hand. She dabbed it with her finger and lifted it to her mouth.
She was quiet for a minute, and then said, "This…came from you…Nikola." Then of course, Nikola went on and on explaining to Magnus and me how ingenious having blood be like an ID blah blah blah. I was more interested in Afina herself, and how she would react to us. When Nikola was finally done, Afina asked, "Where's my brother?"
"There haven't been vampires on Earth for a very long time," Magnus said.
"But I carry on that legacy," Nikola said.
Motioning to Nikola, she said, "Dormant gene. Activated by exposure to pure vampire blood."
"Helen," Nikola said, "Please. Why do you have to make it sound so clinical? My true nature was reawoken with these dormant genes, and uh my vision, and my genius, my gifts, are all from my ancestors, from you. Practically wasted in this primitive, modern world."
"What about the rest of my people?"
"There's been a shift in power," Magnus said.
"And our beautiful cities? All that we built?"
"Yeah, it's all a little different than what you remember," Nikola confirmed. Afina almost fell over, but Nikola steadied her.
"Thank you," she smiled at him, "If we're the only two left, then I'll have to rely on you."
"It would be my honor," he said, "I have so much to learn from you, and believe me that is not something I would ever say."
"I can attest to that," Magnus said.
"You're not," I said. They all looked at me.
"Sorry, what?" Magnus asked.
"I am one of the vampires of eld."
"What? How did you live?" Afina asked.
"I fought in the battles like all else. When we lost, instead of going to Bhalasaam to hide, I returned to my home island. I was later found by a group of people who called themselves the Cabal. They had weapons that far exceeded any we had in our kingdom, and they took me and wiped my memories. Touching your crystal has brought back that much, but before that I have no recollection."
"You are truly a vampire of eld?" Afina asked.
"I am, your majesty," I said.
"Your majestic beauty," she corrected. "Then you shall be very useful. And what about you? Are you of the kingdom?" she asked, turning to Magnus.
"Well, it's a little complicated," Magnus said. Afina raised an eyebrow. Magnus sighed. "I was injected with the same blood. I gained the gift of longevity. But I cannot transform like you do."
"Then you are no vampire," the warrior queen said distastefully.
First chance we got, Magnus pulled me away to talk confidentially.
"What do you think you're doing!" she hissed.
"Discarding the walls of deception that surrounded me," I answered. She looked at me angrily, either believing my story and mad that I didn't tell her or angry because I was taking a huge risk by deceiving the vampire queen. Completely oblivious to our hissed conversation, Nikola was delightedly learning more vampire history, and Afina was reading the pedestals for him.
"Afina, can you tell us how to get out of here?" Magnus interrupted, but Afina glided past her like she was beneath her notice.
"This security system was designed to protect me from my enemies. Anyone who broke in would be killed instantly and sealed in with me."
"Yes, the Egyptians did the same thing, thousands of years later," Nikola told her.
"How did you set it off, if you are of vampire blood?" she asked.
"Ah, well, that's a story for another day. The question is, how do we get out of here now?" Magnus said quickly.
"There's an escape hatch behind that wall. A human couldn't shift the weight, but one of us could." She regarded me and then turned to Nikola. "If you have the strength? I'm afraid I don't. I need to feed!"
"Nikola and I have devised a regimen of nutrients and animal plasma, gives you everything you need. But that we'll have to wait until we get to the surface," Magnus said.
"Animal plasma," the queen said, looking between Nikola and I, "That's what you eat?"
"Well, it's not as bad as it sounds," Nikola replied. I bowed my head as if ashamed of my conduct.
"It sounds terrible."
"There also used to be a local antelope that I was quite fond of."
"Nikola." Magnus's expression told him she was disgusted.
"Don't worry. We'll figure everything out," Nikola promised, touching Afina's arm.
"That corridor leads to another part of the cavern. Only my most trusted servants knew of it. And now you two." She looked at Nikola and me as if Magnus didn't exist. Did that mean Magnus wasn't going to be around much longer? I had to do something, but I didn't know how I could get Afina to accept Magnus.
"Thank you," Nikola said, completely oblivious to the danger Magnus was in.
"Could you excuse us for just one minute?" Magnus asked, leading Nikola away. I stayed with the vampire queen like a vampire of eld would have. I had to show my allegiance was to her, not them, in order to save Magnus. I could hear them clearly, though, and I had a sinking feeling that Afina could too.
"I don't like this. We have no idea where that tunnel leads," Magnus said.
"Why would she lie to us?" Nikola asked.
"The woman is used to ruling over a population of serfs! You don't think she's working her own agenda?"
"Look. If she was actually bent on world domination, why would she complicate our trip out of here?"
"You're assuming all of us are going!" Magnus said, "Are you familiar with the fox and the chicken parable?"
"I am," he said, "Which are you in this story, the chicken or the fox?"
"The farmer," Magnus said, "I don't feel safe letting her go first, and I certainly don't feel safe leaving her behind!"
"You have a Sasquatch for a butler and you travel the world with history's most notorious murderer and now you don't feel safe? Helen, green is not a good color on you."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"She's intelligent, powerful, remarkably well preserved for her age...everything I look for in a woman. And unlike someone else I know, she's actually interested in me!"
"I'm not engaging in this childish conversation," Magnus said.
"The more you deny it the truer it is," Nikola said.
"That's an excellent scientific—"
"Thank you." She grabbed his arms and shook him.
"Really good—!"
"I can hear you," Afina said, appearing next to them in the blink of an eye. "Vampire, remember? You need to learn to trust me."
"And if I don't," Magnus challenged.
"That's when bad things start to happen." She grabbed Magnus in full vampire mode and slammed her backward against one of the pillars.
"Afina!" Nikola called. She turned to him and grabbed his wrists, forcing him to his knees. She bit his arm, drinking his blood.
"What are you doing?" Nikola asked frantically. The warrior queen finished and pushed him backward into the cavern below, the "escape route" she wanted us to take. Magnus got up behind her, and Afina cried, "Changing the rules!" She turned to us. "Welcome to the New Age." I inclined my head as Magnus stood there, shocked. "Follow me," the queen hissed.
"Nikola!" Magnus shouted futilely.
"Don't worry, he won't be disturbing us. That old trap was designed for a true vampire, a warrior, not a schoolboy."
"Why did you do that?" Magnus asked.
"When I repopulate my species, I plan to do much better than a mixed blood mongrel." She moved as fast as lightning, one hand over Magnus's throat, pushing her up against the wall.
"You though, will be quite useful."
"How? I'm less vampire than he is."
"Exactly. A blood donor that stays young and fresh forever...but without the bitter aftertaste."
"I hope you choke on it!" Magnus replied. Still pinning Magnus, she said, "And you. You shall join my court." I said nothing, but she released Magnus anyway and continued down the hallway.
After several twisting passageways and many hissings of the vampire queen, Magnus was still arguing. "You'll never succeed," Magnus told her.
"I already have. I'm alive, aren't I?"
"The entire human race will stand against you."
"You think so? In my experience, the human race never stood together on anything."
"They won't tolerate enslavement, that's for sure."
"You really don't understand your own people, do you? They want to be told what to do. They crave it. They elect leaders for the sole purpose of taking difficult decisions out of their hands. I'm here to offer a different alternative."
"Dictatorship?"
"In exchange for advancement, knowledge, progress."
"We've done just fine on our own."
"Oh yes, you've come so far. And yet I bet you still spend all your time fighting over land, resources, or my favorite: conflicting beliefs. Am I right?" Magnus said nothing. "Aww, it's alright. It's human nature. And that's why I know I'll succeed. I know you better than you know yourselves."
I could faintly hear the sounds of Nikola waking up. I was sure Afina could too, but she made no move to stop and go back.
"Ow. Ow... Oh, that hurts," Nikola's voice murmured faintly, "Ah…how very nice." There was a moment of silence, and then a loud grating sound, like claws on rock. "No, no…That back-stabbing, blood-sucking bitch!"
"There doesn't have to be a war," Magnus told her, "You could come back to the Sanctuary, learn from us, see what we've become."
"And then what, we'll share power equally? Please."
"You won't win. We have weapons that could devastate the entire planet."
"Your loss."
"You'd have nothing left to rule!"
"Then we'll start over." She looked at Magnus. "You're so shocked. It's lovely."
"You'd really destroy the world, just so you could conquer it?"
"Why not, if it's there for the taking? Oh come on, you didn't really think you'd rule forever? For an inferior species, I think you got a pretty good run."
"So did you, before we defeated you."
"That won't happen again."
Magnus looked around. "We're going deeper!"
"Spotted that, did you?"
"I thought we were going to the surface."
"We will. We just have to make a quick stop along the way." We entered another room that looked a lot like the one we were just in, except it had a peculiar device before a solid stone wall. "There's that shocked look again," Afina commented, "You know, I expected more from you Helen. You read the legend. Afina laid to rest to awake kianaru: the time of returning."
"But not just Afina."
"That's right. Afina and her court." She hit a few buttons on the device, and symbols flashed on the screen.
"What is this place?" Magnus asked. The stone wall lifted up, revealing hundreds if not thousands of crystals, each holding a living vampire.
"My court. My warriors. And they'll be very pleased with the blood donor I've brought them. All hope came crashing down in my head. There were too many to defeat with just Magnus and I and maybe Nikola; if he survived the fall. Even weak from hunger, their numbers would overcome us easily. There was nothing I could do. It was over.
"Not as crude as the way you released me," Afina said, "Have I thanked you for that by the way?"
"I could always put you back in," Magnus said as the queen crossed to the other side of the room. Magnus broke a long sharp pole from the underside of the device.
"It's too late for that I'm afraid," Afina gloated, watching her warriors, "These are the first seeds of a new master race." Magnus hefted it as Afina said, "You're lucky to be with us for a first-hand—" Magnus swung the pole at her, knocking her in the face. She slammed against the wall, and Magnus stuck the pole straight through her heart. I ran over and pulled Magnus back as the queen pulled the pole out of her body and pushed Magnus, who went skidding across the floor a full five feet. I was too slow to stop the blow, and besides, I needed the queen to trust me and think I was on her side. The warrior queen morphed into a vampire and said, "You should not have done that." Magnus was on the floor, breathing heavily, watching Afina advance. I didn't know what to do. If I fought Afina for Magnus and lost, we would both be doomed: me for a prison somewhere if not death, her to be the queen's blood supply. On the off chance I won, that would be great, but she was trained in fighting and me—well, not so much. Plus, could I defeat her and figure out how to stop the others from waking? If I remained where I was, Magnus could be killed in the queen's wrath. The indecision tore at me, and by the time I decided to help Magnus, the queen had her pinned. "I would have shared everything with you," Afina said, "All the wonders of a new age."
"While keeping me as your personal canteen," Magnus countered.
"In my days, it was an honor to serve the queen."
"I'll pass," Magnus said.
"Suit yourself," Afina replied, about to strike Magnus. "And you," she growled over her shoulder, "Have you decided to join my court or will you fight me for her?"
"I will join your court and not oppose you," I replied, "on one condition. You leave Magnus and the rest of the Sanctuary Network alone."
"I accept," the queen answered, "but first I'll need the blood to feed my waking warriors."
"No," I said, "She will be my personal blood canteen and mine alone. No one else will drink from her, and you will leave the Sanctuary and everyone in it intact."
"Very well," Afina replied, "I agree to your terms. But know this: since we do not have any blood in here, we will have to get it out there, from the local people." I swallowed, knowing I might be about to sacrifice thousands of lives. But I couldn't let her kill Magnus and my other friends in the Sanctuary; Kate, Will, Henry.
My mouth was just forming the words, "I kno—" when suddenly, Nikola was there, pulling the queen away. He stopped in front of Magnus.
"Hi!"
"Hi!" she said back, even though she looked surprised. He held up the grappling hook.
"Nikola," Afina said loathingly, "You're out of your depth, mongrel!"
"I'd rather be a mongrel than a stuck up, inbred bitch!" he shouted at her. He threw the grappling hook at her, which caught her in the stomach and sent her fling into the wall.
"Just keep her under control," Magnus said, crossing over to the device.
"My pleasure," Nikola replied.
"I need to try and reverse the process before the others wake up," Magnus said, and began pushing buttons. The queen and Nikola transformed and fought. Afina threw Nikola across the room, and Magnus called, "Nikola!"
"I'm fine," he said in his deeper voice of a vampire. The queen growled and started toward him. "You worry about that," he said, gesturing to the crystals. Magnus hit some more buttons and the stone wall descended. She turned around and saw the queen about to kill Nikola.
"Wait! Stop! Don't kill him! I have a proposal."
"Now you want to negotiate?"
"The Praxians, your enemies, they left you the surface while they retreated into the depths of Hollow Earth."
"Helen, no," Nikola said.
" They're still there, in a thriving city, more advanced than anything you had in your kingdom." She pulled out the map and unfolded it.
"Don't do it," Nikola said.
"Be quiet!" the queen ordered, getting off of him, "Tell me more." The buildings materialized here, just like they had in our library when Magnus placed the orb in the center. It glowed as the buildings rose, Afina looking around in surprise.
"Unbelievable," she said.
"Leave the surface alone. You can have Hollow Earth; take revenge on your old enemies" Magnus said, "That's my offer."
"How do I find it?"
"The second level activates on a Praxian voice command. You tell us how to leave, I'll tell you how to talk to the map."
The queen smiled. "Humans," she scoffed as she prowls around Magnus, "I'll honor your deal. But it won't last. Once we've conquered the world down there, we'll be back."
"I don't doubt it," Magnus replied, "we'll be waiting."
"I would have so liked to have you for my court," she said. Magnus only smiled. "In my chamber, there's a sensor outlet near the door."
"How do we activate it?" Nikola asked.
"Blood, of course," she answered, "Now, the password."
"Gateway," Magnus answered.
"Kha harag!" Afina thundered.
"It should take you where you need to go." As we ran out of the room, I could hear it start to scan her. We ran back to the chamber in record time, and stopped before the pedestal.
"Which is it?" Nikola asked.
"Uh…here!" Magnus answered. He bit himself, and rubbed his vampire blood onto the symbol. The stone wall slid open for us, and we ran through it, knowing we had only seconds before the whole place went ka-boom. The floor started shaking as we neared the end of the passage. We were thrown to the ground, the sand cushioning our fall, as a huge fireball erupted from the ground behind us, creating a massive crater. We ended up sitting on a rock ledge, grateful for our lives, as billows of smoke floated up around us. Magnus looked down at the steep rocky cliff below, and said, "Cut it a little closer than I would have liked."
"What, me? It was you who handed over the map," Nikola said, "How did you know she was telling the truth about the door?"
"I didn't," Magnus answered, "But I had to stop her either way."
"Well thanks for telling me about the suicide pact," Nikola said.
"Sorry," Magnus told him.
"It's a shame we lost it, you know, we'd only downloaded a fraction of that database."
"Small price to pay," Magnus said.
"For my life?"
"For saving the world from human enslavement!"
"Oh, right, that too."
"Sorry your glorious legacy didn't turn out to be all you were hoping for."
"Please. She was an entitled bitch with a Nazi complex. The world in her image? I don't think so. No, we mustn't forget the most important achievement of the day." Magnus looked at him blankly.
"My resurrection," he answered.
"Oh, here we go," Magnus said, shaking her head and smiling.
"I guess your plans for world domination are back on track then?" I asked.
"Yes," he answered, and then sighed, "Sweet, sweet resurrection!"
**~~o0o~~**
"Hey," Will came into the conference room, "How was your field trip?" Magnus and I glanced at each other. "Any treasure in the latest Praxian stronghold?"
"More of a summer palace for vampires, really," she told him. She and I shared an amused glance.
"Okay," Kate prompted.
"You'll be interested to know that our world once again contains exactly one Sanguine Vampiris," she said.
"Tesla," Will said. Kate looked at him.
"Oh…what…? How did that happen?" Kate asked.
"In case of emergency, break glass?" Magnus offered.
"Is that a good thing? I mean, who knows what that mad scientist is going to get up to now," Will pointed out.
"Trust me, Will, you'd much rather have Tesla representing that vampire race," she told him. "Now, I understand that our taminsail problem has been unexpectedly front burnered." Will and Kate looked at each other.
"Yeah—Yeah, that…that's on me, umm…" Kate looked down.
"No, no," Will cut her off, "It was a team effort. If there's any problem, I take full responsibility."
"It's not a problem," Magnus shook her head.
"Well then, I take full responsibility," Will told her. We all smiled.
"You put some heavy hitters on notice," she spoke to Kate. "Feel good?"
"Feel better when we deliver," she said.
"Count on it," Magnus nodded. Kate smiled and looked down again.
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