- XXVIII -

Andreas Tanis was getting nervous. Although he had been accommodated in quite decent quarters, he wasn't content with his situation. As the only mortal in a castle of vampires, he feared to become someone's next meal every hour.

Since the disaster down at the Danube, he hadn't dared to ask for the reward he had been promised. They had, of course, expected their little expedition to lead to the original werewolf's death, but actually, Tanis had fulfilled his part of the agreement by guiding the Elders to William's lair. Viktor hadn't specified what his reward would be, but the monk wasn't eager for gold or silver. Instead, he would ask the Lady Amelia to make him immortal.

Although he wore the cowl, Tanis was not really a faithful man. He had made his vows for the purpose of gaining access to the monastic libraries – the only place where one could obtain education and knowledge – not for the purpose of salvation or of devotion to God, whose existence he doubted more and more with every scroll he read. Therefore he wasn't very conflicted when musing about becoming one of the unholy blood drinkers himself. Quite the contrary, he would have an eternity to discover all the secrets of this world. Thus, he would ask Amelia, and he would do it tonight, for staying fair game among dozens of predators any longer would surely drive him insane.

He bathed, then slicked back his hair, shaved thoroughly, and put on a linen tunic instead of his cowl, wanting to present himself to the Elder at his best. Then he ascended the wide stairs to the quarters where he knew Amelia resided.

With no moon shining through the heavy fog outside, the castle lay in deep, dark silence, and the sound of his footsteps echoing from the massive stone walls did nothing to calm his stressed nerves. When he reached the top of the staircase, he was met by two crossed halberds.

"Where do you think you're going, mortal?" one of two guards asked in a sharp tone.

Tanis swallowed but tried to keep his voice steady.

"I wish to speak to Lady Amelia," he said.

"The lady doesn't receive visitors," the other soldier answered.

"I am here to..." Tanis said, but then stopped abruptly when one of the halberds suddenly pointed at his heart.

"You better leave, mortal, before we get annoyed," the first guard growled, his elongated fangs flashing white in the dim torchlight.

Tanis swallowed and took a few steps back from the pike of the gruesome weapon.

"I apologise, I didn't mean to bother you," he muttered, then turned around and walked down the stairs a bit too quickly.

Viktor's blood hadn't helped. It hadn't strengthened Amelia. Instead, she got weaker and weaker every night. By now she wasn't able to stand up from her bed anymore. The servants kept bringing her bull's blood, but she refused to drink it. The very smell of it made her stomach turn.

Alone in the silence of her bedroom, she stared at the wall. The vampires had been hunting the damned werewolves for decades now, or was it centuries? But for what? To not get a hold of the source of that pestilence in the end. To get frustrated, weary, injured? Was this what their immortality was about?

She once had been enthusiastic about fighting, about strategy. Now, however, she wasn't sure if she still wanted a life like this. The longer she thought about senseless battles, about immortal blood shed for nothing, the more she relished the silence of her chamber, with its absence of the wolfish howls and the clash of swords.

Amelia needed to rest.

Tanis leaned against a cold stone wall, considering his options. With the two guards armoured to the teeth, he definitely had no chance of reaching out to Amelia. Pity. He would have preferred to get turned by the beautiful female Elder.

He overheard the servants talking about Viktor being gone to hunt down William again, about which he was almost relieved. Getting bitten by the cruel warlord would surely have been his last choice.

So if he wanted an Elder to turn him – and he didn't want anyone beneath them, because this would make him even lower in rank – there was only Marcus Corvinus left. As far as Tanis knew, the original vampire was currently imprisoned in his own rooms for helping his wolfish brother escape.

Climbing the steps to the other wing of the castle, Tanis was soon facing two guards again, but they didn't look half as fierce as the ones at Amelia's door. They lazily leaned against the wall, and one of them cradled a cup of red liquid in his hand instead of holding onto his halberd.

Tanis had to clear his throat to make them notice him.

"Well, if that isn't the mortal monk!" The guard with the cup grinned.

A bit bewildered, Tanis nodded, unsure what to make of the malicious look the vampire was giving him. He knew that they were officially forbidden to drink human blood, so the guards wouldn't attack him right in front of an Elder's quarters, would they?

"Seems like we'll get a little distraction from our dull watch..." The second soldier laughed and bared his fangs.

Tanis made two steps back. He had learned that duteous vampires were threatening, but it seemed neglectful immortals were even more dangerous. This was exactly the situation he had wanted to avoid by becoming a vampire himself as soon as possible. But he couldn't just run away now, for they would surely come after him. No, he had to calm them somehow.

"Gentlemen, I don't want to disturb... I am only here to ask if..." Tanis's voice broke, when suddenly a gauntleted hand seized his throat.

"He smells nice!" The vampire licked his lips.

"And I bet no-one will miss him," the other guard added, his eyes flashing up blue in the torchlight.

Unable to fight the immortal's strength, Tanis felt his body go limp, his vision blurring.

Now this is the end of Andreas Tanis, the man who was foolish enough to try playing games with blood-drinkers, he cynically thought to himself.

The vampire opened his mouth wide and brought his fangs close to the protruding vein on Tanis's neck. The mortal closed his eyes, prepared to die at any moment, when there was the sound of a heavy door swinging open.

"What's that racket? I'd like to study in peace!" Marcus Corvinus's annoyed voice echoed in the corridor.

The soldier immediately let go of Tanis's throat, which caused him to collapse on the rough stone floor, coughing. Then, a halberd pointed to his heart again.

"We have caught an intruder, Milord," the soldier reported to the Elder.

Tanis wanted to protest, to rectify the guard's false statement, but his throat was so sore that he couldn't get a word out.

Marcus approached him, towering over the hunched mortal, but despite his height, the original vampire didn't look very regal. He wore a crumpled dressing gown and had dark circles around his eyes. His auburn beard hadn't seen a razor for days.

"Tanis, isn't it? What do you want here?" he asked.

The monk coughed again, struggling to find his voice. He couldn't tell Marcus what he wanted straight away, not here in the corridor, with the malicious guards listening.

"I heard you were... confined, Milord, and so I thought maybe you'd want some company," Tanis said in a still hoarse tone, carefully choosing each of his words.

Marcus suspiciously eyed him for a while. The mortal was the one who provoked all this. Without him he wouldn't have needed to stand between the other Elders and his brother, wouldn't have fallen into disgrace. But on the other hand, the monk had only imparted his knowledge of William's whereabouts.

"Come in, then." Corvinus sighed and gestured for Tanis to follow him.