Of the Blood
I know, it's been a week... Sorry PrincessEilonwy (and others).
A longer chapter then, for compensation. I hope I have more time to write next week, since I am quite interested how chapter 5 will turn out (talk about teasers ;-) ) Oh, and Corwin will be there too.
Interesting, by the way, that everyone comments on the pan-galactic gargle blasters. Maybe I should just have named my story 'The hitch hiker's guide to Shadow,' forgetting all about vampires and writing instead about an earthling and his friend, who actually is from 'a little shadow in the vicinity of Begma,' and their narrow escape from chaos demons who demolish Shadow Earth to make way for a new Black Road bypass.
Nah. Feel free to take up the challenge, if you like.
Chapter 3
Herr Viktor
Nadine definitely needed to speak to her sire.
As she walked down the Old Canal towards the upper-class neigbourhood where he lived, she felt quite uneasy. The Blood churned through her veins with every step, flooding through her muscles and infusing them with an energy that made her feel she was leaping down the street, instead of stumbling under the burden of sheer power. Still, she did not feel the inclination to stop and rest, or sit down. It was more the opposite: the health and vitality of the blood tore at her undead system, as a young horse would pull at a worn bridle. Nadine had to make an effore not to get washed away by its power.
Fortunately, she had been practising self-control for over a year now. The Beast would not get her, whatever its form. Herr Viktor. She had to concentrate on Herr Viktor...
Nadine emerged from a winding alley – and found herself standing in the street in which her sire lived, or rather, resided. She blinked in disorientation. The walk from the city center to her sire's house normally took about twenty minutes. She checked her watch, then remembered she did not know at what time she had left.
To be sure, she looked where she had come from. It seemed that she had just emerged from a broad street, lined with trees, leading deep into a residential area. A road sign informed passers-by that it was a dead end.
Nadine pressed her forefingers to her temples: she had completely lost the memory of walking this far. She knew from her studies in medical biology that memory lapses were not uncommon after a traumatic incident. Still, it was scary.
But anyway, she was where she wanted to be. Resolutely, she walked up to Herr Viktor's house and rang the bell.
After a minute, a dark figure emerged from the living room, strangely distorted through the nontransparent glass. Nadine's sire opened the door.
Herr Viktor was in every way unlike the vampires of popular fiction. His grey hair, wrinkles and calm attitude couldn't be farther from the sensual-and-wild Dracula stereotype, while his friendly eyes hid a Beast that had long since given up hope of taking over the mild-mannered individual. He seemed to have not a neon-sign, but rather a small, handwritten piece of parchment hanging over his head, saying: "I am just an inconspicuous scholar doing my job." Nadine knew that he was just an inconspicuous scholar doing his job, except on those occasions when he went on an 'evening stroll' for blood, or on that memorable September evening when he had drained Nadine dry and, feeding her some of his own blood, had turned her into a vampire.
"Gut evening, Nadine," Herr Viktor said in his fatherly voice. He had been in the Netherlands for over a century now, but still had not lost his Austrian accent. "Something happened?" He inquired as he saw Nadines grave face.
"Yes, quite."
"Komm in then," her sire said. "I'll make you a cup of Tee."
As Nadine sat down in one of Herr Viktor's comfortable chairs, she felt herself gradually beginning to relax. The worst part of the energy surge had passed, and something in her sire's welcoming room always put her at ease, even the first time she had arrived here, her clothes stained with her own blood, aching all over and feeling utterly miserable.
Within short, Herr Viktor reappeared with two steaming mugs of tea. Nadine accepted hers and took a sip. She couldn't digest the hot liquid, but the taste was comforting anyway.
"So," her sire gently inquired. "What happened?"
Nadine told him of her encounter with the huge, well-muscled man whose blood had tasted so powerful, how he had punched, yet refrained from killing her, instead disappearing into some kind of playing card. She kept silent about her sudden arrival at his house: no need to bother her sire with memory lapses now.
Herr Viktor listened intently. When Nadine was finished, he asked: "So, have you tried to evoke the power of this blood, then? See what it does?"
"Not really," Nadine confessed. "I haven't had
time to experiment."
"Well," her sire said, "try it now."
For a scholar, Herr Viktor could be surprisingly practical. Nadine concentrated and let the blood flow through her arm muscles. She could feel herself strengthening, filling her arms with supernatural might. Then, she attempted to lift one of Herr Viktors comfortable recliner chairs.
The chair felt as light as a wooden stool. In surprise, Nadine threw the recliner chair across the room with very little effort. Herr Viktor's old parrot, who had previously been dozing, squawked in alarm as the chair flew past and fluttered in its cage.
"Amazing," Herr Viktor said after a full minute of astonished silence. Nadine didn't reply: she was still staring at her small, delicate hands.
Herr Viktor stood up and took a closer look at the recliner chair, which was now lying in front of the kitchen door. "Amazing," he repeated. "Could you accidentally have drank from one of the Ancients, perhaps?"
"I don't think he was a vampire," Nadine muttered. "He was warm and breathing when I bit him." Furthermore, an Ancient would not have shown mercy, as far as she knew. She understood her sire's question, however: old prophecies declared that the night of Gehenna would come soon, the night when the most ancient vampires would arise to feast on the blood of their progeny. But the big man had surely not been a vampire.
"A Wehrwulf, maybe?" Herr Viktor asked. "I've heard they have very potent blood."
Nadine shook her head. "Could have been, but... I don't think so."
"Vhy not?"
"A werewolf would instantly have torn me apart. Besides, their blood would taste much more spicey, more..." Nadine groped for the right word, "...primal."
"Vell then," Herr Viktor sighed, "I give up. Can I see some of your blood? To feel its Essenz?"
"Of course." Nadine cleared her throat and spat blood into her opened palm. The red liquid glistened in the soft lamplight. Carefully, Herr Viktor extended a wrinkled finger and touched the fluid. Having devoted much of his unlife to the study of blood, Nadine knew that her sire could feel its power and origin as easy as he could feel its liquid warmth. Herr Viktor closed his eyes.
Suddenly, he staggered back, as if struck in the face. Quickly, he wiped the blood off his finger and stared at Nadine with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
"Ve need to do some laboratory research," he said and glanced at the clock. "Soon, but not now. Kann you come back tomorrow?"
"Of course," Nadine said, puzzled. Could Herr Viktor, who had been researching human and vampiric blood for over a century, be as baffled by her powers as she? And if so, what did that mean?
Well, tomorrow they would go to the laboratory and sort everything out. That ought to be the end of the mystery. Until then, she would try to get a good day's sleep.
"Tomorrow evening, then," she said. "Goodbye, Herr Viktor."
"Till tomorrow, Nadine," her sire said. "Don't run into any trouble."
Nadine laughed to hide her own nervousness. "Don't worry," she answered. "It's only one day. What could possibly happen?"
"I don't know." Herr Viktor shrugged. "Just be careful."
"As always." She smiled as she left the house and waved her sire goodbye. Now, all that was left was a brisk walk through the city to her small student home...
As she turned the corner, she almost walked into her front door.
Nadine took a step back and regarded the house. It was definitely hers. And it was definitely not in the place it used to be – no: she was not where she had expected to be. She was surrounded by familiar concrete student housings, and a long walk away from her sire.
A memory lapse, again?
"Weird," Nadine muttered as she opened the door, went in and collapsed on her bed.
---
"Excuse me, miss, but ye're not allowed to ride a horse on the freeway. May I have your name, please?"
"Of course." The small lady, clad in a grey-and-green riding cloak, looked down on the police officer with clear, blue eyes. It seemed as if her luxurious red hair glowed to match the colours of the setting sun, or the reddish-brown coat of her slender riding horse. "Princess Fiona of Amber."
"Princess?" The police officer frowned.
"That is correct," the lady answered. "Are you not going to kneel before me?"
Immediately, the officer kneeled. He remained kneeling as the lady rode away, until several hours later, another police officer happened to pass by, shook him out of his hypnotic trance and fined him for obstructing the traffic.
---
As Nadine opened her eyes, she saw the handsome, finely-sculpted face of a lady of indeterminate age. Her first impulse was to scream in surprise, but the lady issued a calm reassurance that made Nadine hesitate for a second.
"Good evening," the lady smiled.
Then, her wide, blue eyes seemed to beam straight into Nadine's skull. She wanted to look away, but found herself unable to move.
The piercing gaze bored into Nadine's mind, searing away her fragile resistance and absorbing all of her memories and thoughts, down to the most private and painful ones. It was as if the lady's pupils had become two enormous black holes, hungering for Nadine's knowledge. The eyes drained her and she was helpless to resist, just as when Herr Viktor had drank all her blood before turning her into a vampire - now the eyes saw that memory too. Nadine desperately tried to do something, anything, but the gaze kept her pinned down to her bed like a butterfly to a collector's board, wringing all she knew and held dear out of her.
Suddenly, it was over.
The eyes, and the lady, were gone. Nadine wanted to cry, scream, run away, but she felt numb and paralysed. Someone had just broken into her mind and seen everything that Nadine had meant to keep private. She vowed never to look directly into those eyes again.
Nothing that happened tonight could be any worse.
Fiona walked away, riffling through the vampire's memories as she did so. In the time it would take her to ride back to Amber, she could examine them carefully and note what Gérards blood had done to her. It was probably of no more than academic interest, but...
Fiona froze in her tracks.
The vampire had walked through Shadow.
This opportunity called for an experiment.
Fiona turned around and strode back.
With much effort, Nadine clenched and unclenched her fingers. They were tingling and prickling in protest. Within a few minutes, she would probably be able to get up.
Then the lady strode into view again.
"I've changed my mind," she said. "You are coming with me, to walk the Pattern."