13

A WORLD OF WHISPERS

The only thing holding Helen and John apart was Nikola's firm grip. His black eyes scanned the darkness over their shoulders. He was looking for a creature. Any creature. Dry wind echoed through the caves around him, kicking up his cloak. The Sanctuary felt empty. Hollow. He startled when material ripped against his claws.

"Tesla, get your claws off my coat," John growled, attempting to free himself of the vampire. Tesla held firm – stronger than his slender frame suggested.

"Only when the pair of you calm the fuck down..." he hissed. Those two could tear the world apart over the origins of English tea. Personally, Nikola would prefer to argue the merits of coffee though neither conversation warranted the end of life as they know it.

"I AM CALM!" Helen screeched – then took a deep breath and had another go at sounding calm. She looked the vampire square in the eyes and whispered, "I'm calm..."

"The hell you are," Nikola tugged her closer until their noses brushed. Helen instinctively turned her head to the side. "We're standing in the ruins of a city that tore itself apart. I think I'm starting to understand why. Now, if I let you go, do you promise not to kill your ex?"

She pulled a few inches from him. "Nikola..." Helen cautioned, eyes fierce. Her dark hair framed her face in messy tangles. He remembered when they had been lovely shade of blonde.

He sighed and set them free. John put his fingers through the claw-holes in his coat, scowling.

"I think I know what destroyed this Sanctuary," Nikola returned his eyes to the ruins of the Sanctuary. He shifted nervously, fighting the desire to un-sheath his claws. There wasn't enough light down here – quite an admission for a vampire. "A creature of terrible persuasion."

"From the crypt?" John offered, then added darkly, "The crypt we just opened."

"For once tag along over here is right. According to your field reports, Helen, you've encountered abnormals that can make powerful suggestions to the mind before – why not a creature that does it softly? The vampires are history's collectors, they might have – "

"You've been reading my field reports?" Helen interrupted with a scorn. Her gaze paused at the faint outlines of ruined columns and piles of rubble. "A Magoi – of sorts. Or something worse. Do you think it will attack us?"

"It doesn't need to. It felled a civilisation with a whisper. I'm sure it's perfectly capable of dispatching us."

"If we're dealing with a Magoi we could very well be standing in an empty room right now." Helen reached out to touch one of the ruined columns. It felt real enough beneath her fingertips. "We stay together at all times. It's in their nature to part us."

At Nikola's insistence, they also kept a silence as they trudged through the freezing water.

In Helen's opinion, it was an ill-advised plan. The absence of conversation let her mind wander into dark corners she'd rather leave untouched. Paranoia creeping from the edges of her mind laced with vivid, horrible memories dredged from her soul. Another hour of this would be too long, let alone a day.

"Stop – stop..." Nikola hissed. He held out his clawed hand expectantly. "Give me your weapons – come on, all of them."

"Nikola..."

"I'm serious, Helen. Immortal or not, I am in no mind to end up embedded on the wrong end of your hunting knife – JESUS!" Nikola's eyes went wide.

There it was, hovering behind Helen's shoulder, using its sharp claws to hang from the roof. It's skeletal hand was poised near her throat, ready to wrap its fingers and claws around her skin.

Nikola pushed Helen sharply. She crashed into the shallow water leaving Nikola to face the creature. Terrible grey skin hung off it's jagged bones; the flesh barely alive. It opened its mouth displaying row upon row of fangs as it levelled a sharp hiss at him. Nikola lunged, claws drawn and fangs gleaming.

It evaded him.

Nikola cracked his elbow on the sharp rocks beneath the surface of the water, landing beside Helen.

"What's gotten into you, Nikola?" Helen growled, perplexed. Blood dripped down Helen's forehead. The nasty cut had already started to heal.

Nikola's thrashed around in the water, looking wildly for the creature. "You're seriously telling me that neither of you saw that?"

John was equally unmoved. "I think it might be you going mad, old boy. Not us."

The vampire scrambled to his feet, flinging himself at the darkness. He scanned his torch over every crevice of the roof corner behind the crumbled columns. "We've got to get out of these tunnels and back into the rooms," he insisted. "It's hunting us down here."

"What is hunting us?" Helen shook the water off her gun and re-holstered it. "Nikola, we didn't see anything." The hell she was surrendering her weapon.

"Claws – withered looking body – bit like a bat with a bad attitude?"

"We're here to find the vampire," John rescued Helen's torch from the water. "Can we stick to one devil at a time please?"

Trying to capture an ancient, hungry vampire was the least of Nikola's worries. He couldn't get those cold eyes out of his mind. Whatever it was, it had been down here in the dark for a long time and now it was waiting for them.

"It's in your mind, Nikola," Helen tried to brush some of his wet hair out of his eyes. "It's playing tricks on you – making you see things that aren't here. You have to concentrate on what's real."

"My mind is perfect," he growled, storming away from her.

The tunnel turned and headed back onto dry land. There was more light here and the narrow walls of the man-built passageway gradually turned into a corridor.

'Nikola...'

The voice unfurled in his mind, calling him. His mother's voice. Nikola looked up to the stone ceiling but of course, she was not there. Those grey eyes had left him long ago.

"Watch it, Tesla!"

Nikola bounced theatrically off the mass murderer's back. The vampire stepped aside, straightening his damp cloak without an apology.

"We're here. According to the blue-prints in your notes, this should be the entrance to the living quarters – hopefully where we'll find our vampire."

"The entrance to the – I never had any blue-prints in my notes!" Nikola frowned. Helen was unfolding a water-logged map, holding it against the wall. John leaned over her shoulder, nodding. "Give me that!" Nikola snatched it away and held it up to the light.

"Nikola!" Helen hunted after him, retrieving it. "Please, you're starting to worry me."

"That's not my map, Helen," he insisted.

"Henry printed it before we left, said he found it buried in your secret archives." She shook her head at the vampire, then flashed her torch into his eyes. He ducked away, glaring. "Your eyes are dilated."

"It's dark." And now he couldn't see.

"You're ill."

"You're the one playing with an imaginary map." Nikola stalked toward the door and pushed. It opened.

"What's in there?" John asked.

"Living quarters..." the vampire muttered.

Ashley ducked, sliding down the wall as the vampire's claws scraped through the rock above her. Granite dust stung her eyes. Tears ran down her cheeks as she kicked forward, striking the vampire's shins. He tumbled backwards in shock, rolling away in a shadow of cloth. Ashley rolled as well, finding her feet and taking off through the corridors.

A sharp crack of electricity chased her. Blue light flared for a moment, then died. Again. Again. It drew closer as she tripped down a rotten set of stairs and hit the stone floor. Her knee cracked but did not break.

"Up!" she hissed at herself, dragging her body away in time to evade a fan of claws.

The vampire had turned, taking her by surprise. One minute they were discussing her grandfather and then next his eyes were red, his fangs salivating at the sight of her. He'd lunged at her neck but she was too fast.

Her torch slid free of her grip. She had to leave it, flying further down the ancient corridors. Soon the darkness was absolute save for the occasional flare of electricity. She reached out, letting her fingertips brush against both sides of the corridor as she ran.

It was behind her, dragging its claws along the stone.

Never trust a vampire. Never trust a bloody vampire. Isn't that what her father had said? She remembered her mother in Rome. Tesla was meant to be one of her oldest friends and yet, for a moment he'd turned on her too.

She lunged forward when its claws caught her jacket. The test-tubes inside her pocket rattled dangerously against each other as the material ripped straight through and she was free again.

God god, there it was.

Henry tilted his head to take in the wall of black rock, arching up over the forest like a ghastly wave. The mist swirled around his waist, hiding the ground entirely. The first rays of sunlight struck his skin. It was the beginning of an angry dawn. New light was stretched by banks of smoke turning it crimson and gold. It was obscured by a stain of smoke from the village.

"Let's try this again," Henry whispered, morphing into his wolf form. He vanished into the mist, padding silently over the ground and into the mouth of the Sanctuary.

Henry felt his claws slide as rock replaced dirt. They tapped against it, sliding uneasily. He didn't like this place. It stank of death and dust. A few tunnels in he turned a corner and backed away. There was a pit of bodies, swept into the natural depression and left to rot into bones.

He growled, scaring a few rats.

Henry...

Henry looked up, searching the darkness He could have sworn that he'd heard Helen call his name.

"Henry – over here..."

No, he'd definitely heard Helen. Her voice was coming from somewhere deeper in the tunnels.

"Someone's coming – in quite a hurry." Nikola looked toward the door. "It's Ashley."

Helen turned. "Ashley..."

"Mum!" The blond girl fell into the room. She was drenched, covered in dirt and cuts with her hair tied back in a matted pony tail. She pushed herself off the ground, stumbled towards her mother and threw herself into her arms.

Helen drew her arms tight around her daughter, burying her head against her shoulder. "My little girl," she whispered.

John ducked his head out the door and eyed the tunnel suspiciously. He found it empty but closed the door anyway.

"I'm sorry..." Ashley whispered.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," Helen murmured, kissing the top of her head.

Over her mother's shoulder, Ashley's eyes met her father's. He shook his head. Neither of them would ever tell Helen what really happened all those years ago.

"There's no cure," Ashley pulled back gently from her mother, wiping her face with what remained of her sleeve. "I found the vampire – begged him to help me – but he just laughed..."

"Is that who's chasing you?" John asked. Ashley nodded. "We can't stay here – we're cornered. This whole Sanctuary is a giant maze."

"Perhaps the vampires never solved the blood disease," Nikola added cautiously. "It was the Praxians that unleashed it on them and this is an ancient vampire, from before the complete fall of the empire. He probably knows little, if anything of the modern world."

"He's crazy, mum," Ashley whispered. "One minute we were talking and the next – he just turned on me like I was some kind of snack."

"He's hungry..."

"That's enough, Nikola," Helen said quietly.

"We should leave while we can," John motioned to the door but Nikola stepped in front of him.

"We can't leave without the vampire. Remember why we're here, Helen. Your protege will live out his life as a cursed sand creature if you walk away now. This vampire is old, all of us could take him if you've still got those silver-tipped tranquillisers you're so fond of."

"Are you hurt?" Helen asked. Ashley shook her head. She handed her daughter another clip for her gun.

"I'm all right," Ashley nodded.

Nikola inspected his claws. "Are we ready? Remember – we need this one alive," he levelled his gaze at John, who lifted his hands innocently.

"Alive – as you command..." John mocked.

There was a sharp crack of lightening and then something that sounded like thunder rumbling down the corridor outside.

"Here he comes..." Nikola whispered.

Ashley shifted, checking her gun. Helen withdrew a slender gun from her holster and started sliding silver-tipped bullets into the shaft. Nikola tilted his head, watching her closely. It always worried him that she kept that particular weapon close – as if she didn't entirely trust him.

John lingered at the door – a butcher knife clutched in his fist.

"Ready?"