24

TO KILL A VAMPIRE

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Nikola?"

Helen had a proper British scowl in her voice, standing over Nikola, hands on her hips with her torn jacket caught open exposing her generous chest. His head tilted a fraction in appreciation before her shadow loomed over his face. It was a cool relief from the endless sunlight that had been burning his flesh all day.

"Sitting," came his calm reply. Frankly he was tired as hell and wanted nothing more than to curl up to a nearby boulder and nap. He was even considering snacking on one of their pet humans.

"I'm in no mood for another night in the snow. We need to keep moving if we're going to reach our encampment by nightfall." She looked ahead to Ashley and Joe, chatting animatedly as they walked ahead. "If the humans can manage it, so can we." Helen offered her hand.

"They're young," he complained, letting her drag him up from the snow.

"Don't be bitter, Nikola. You're going to get a lot older."

After two solid days trekking their radio remained silent. No helicopter to hover to their rescue and no supplies – which was fine for Nikola but Ashley and Joe were starting to look peachy. Nikola wasn't sure if prolonged starvation could kill Helen but it certainly made her snappier than a Dionaea Muscipula.

With a huff, Nikola dusted another shower of snow off what remained of his clothes. Cheerful, fluffy clouds kept passing over head, angering to black and dumping sleet as they reared up over the mountains.

"They're dead. You know that, right?" Nikola added quietly, as they descended through the final gorge. The others were ahead, stumbling along the glacier which had started to flatten out as it reached the end of the valley.

"They might have gone home, or this radio might be more broken that we thought." Helen knew that she was clutching at ever shortening straws.

"I'm good with radios." Nikola leered. He'd invented them. "Trust me, it works just fine."

"Amasis?"

"That'd be my guess. He knew where we were camped. It would have been his first point of call after-" Nikola stopped, not wanting to discuss the massacre they'd found on the snow. "I know he might be an ancient vampire but he's been awake through all of human history. Even if he lived in a cave, he still seems to have a reasonable grasp of our technology and he learns fast. We shouldn't have let him read all those books at the Sanctuary. I get the feeling he was preparing for this."

"He was meant to be preparing for his role as an ambassador in our Sanctuary network," Helen muttered.

"I think you can let that dream go, Helen," Nikola lofted his eyebrow at her. "The only vampire you're going to have wandering around is me."

"Half vampire..."

This time it was Nikola that shoved her lightly. "Cheeky bugger."

Where Apries and the Immortal were remained a mystery. They'd not seen either of them since the destruction of the cave. Nikola was fine with that. While ever they were busy trying to kill each other, he could search for the lost keystones. Well, only one of them was really lost. First things first – get out of the mountains.

It was just on the cusp of nightfall when they dragged their exhausted bodies into the compound. As they'd expected, it was quiet – too quiet. The lookout stations were abandoned and vehicles parked oddly around the cluster of frozen buildings. Ashley lifted her torch, the halo falling over the glassy eyes of a soldier laying outside his Land Cruiser. There was another on the ground beside it and three more scattered around the door to the main building.

"How can one vampire leave such a trail of destruction?" Joe whispered, limping along beside Ashley.

"Have you met Dr Tesla?" Helen gestured at the half-breed beside her.

"Utility companies don't count, honey," Tesla replied. Not amused.

"He took my Jeep, son of a..." Helen shook her head at the empty car space then pushed her way into the buildings. Without power, the door had nearly frozen closed, screeching barely a foot. They all squeezed through finding themselves in darkness again. "Nikola?"

"Yeah, yeah..." he vanished, hunting out the electric panel. Ten minutes later the lights and heating buzzed into life. The TV flickered on, the fridge beeped happily, the oven demanded someone set its clock, computer screens lit up with welcome screens and most importantly, the radios hissed.

Ashley and Joe went straight for the heaters, pressing their hands against the metal waiting for it to heat up. They were nearly blue from the cold, shivering together in a huddle, carrying on their conversation from the mountains. Nikola checked the radio switchboard. It seemed undamaged from whatever cut the power. There were a few sprays of bullet holes through the walls but by the placement of the furniture, Nikola guessed those were from older disagreements.

"Where is everyone?" Nikola asked, sitting beside Helen as she got ready to make a call to the nearest Sanctuary.

"Outside, I imagine," she replied, flicking dozens of vintage switches. This whole place was a relic.

"I'm going to go have a look," Tesla stood, slipping on his jacket.

Helen glared at him, holding a set of lime green headphones in her hand. "Do you have to? I could really use your help."

"Yes, I think I should," he strutted out of the main room. The others watched him go. They were too busy trying to defrost themselves to help. Nikola had a feeling that there was more to it. Amasis could have taken a truck and done a runner but he'd gone to the trouble to kill everyone inside the building. Why? Rule number one of civilisation: Never trust a vampire. Especially a really really old one with nothing left to lord over.

Nikola started inside, moving through the corridor which was lined with men's quarters and a few living areas. All of it looked as though it had been abandoned in a hurry – chairs kicked over and food left out. He opened each door, peering into the empty rooms, one after the next until he came to a door that refused to open. It was the in the rear of the building, nestled between the kitchen and the laundry. If memory served it was the private quarters of the permanent base staff. Nikola knocked. There was no answer.

He frowned, testing the door with his weight. Unlike most of the doors here, this one was only made of wood. Nikola backed up, taking a moment to judge the distance then rushed forward and it with all his force. The door creaked and gave way, sending Nikola flying into the room, smashing awkwardly onto the ground as the door remained attached to the frame by one, stubborn hinge.

Tesla groaned in surprise. He'd landed on something – something soft. Something cold and -

Nikola recoiled when he saw the bodies beneath him. Six men, all dead, faint blue skin and eyes open in death. All of them were shot point blank in the forehead except for the figure slumped over the desk. Nikola scrambled to his feet, wincing as he stepped through the bodies. He wove through the chaos of paper, clothes and broken glass on the floor.

The desk, military style and simple, took up nearly the whole width of the room. It was piled high with files on one side with the remains of a tea service balanced on the other. The cup was still full but the tea had frozen into a sad, brown lake in the well of the cup.

Nikola recognised the man as a liaison from the Parisian Sanctuary. He was a specialist in pre-human ruins, or 'supposed pre-human'. Nikola always thought that he was a bit of a nutter with oversized spectacles and grey hair defiantly dyed brown, swept from one side of his head to another. He'd known him since he was a young college graduate that Helen had poached from Cambridge when he started going on about wild theories of ancient vampire cultures... Nikola had thoroughly enjoyed teasing him for decades while never admitting to being a vampire. Drove the poor old sod mad.

Helen didn't feel the same way. She'd appointed him one of her chief researches, first in London then Paris after she'd acquired an old library. He spent most of his time in the Parisian Sanctuary's enviable library building up Helen's extensive database of Abnormals throughout history.

The entire left side of his head was missing – half his brain and fragments of scull showered over the desk, now frozen. Nikola averted his eyes from the dead man. It was awkward to see a bookworm at the scene of such brutality.

He'd been held at gunpoint while his friends were shot, one by one. Everyone was dead so his secrets had died with him. That took courage and for that Nikola cave the corpse a soft nod.

What had Amasis been after? Judging by the glaring error messages on the screen he'd had a good go at the system.

Nikola carefully moved the dead man's hands from the keyboard. He nudged the computer into life and quickly hacked through the entry level security protocols. He'd been the architect of Helen's computer grids and this was one of the low end offshoots. It seemed odd that -

He flicked back up the page, scrolling to an entry.

Magoi.

Nikola tilted his head and followed a few more links, bringing up a map with various locations marked with notes. This was one of them. He clicked on the note, broke through a few more password walls and stared at the final picture.

"Helen – can I have a word?" Nikola stood in the doorway of the main room, arms folded across his chest. She was making tea for the humans, the radio transmitter giving off a comforting crackle. "Now!" he added, when she didn't reply.

She followed him crossly down the corridor. "What's this about, Nikola?" Helen stopped she looked upon the sea of frozen bodies. Many of them people she knew well. "Professor..." she gasped, seeing the old man folded over the desk. Nikola tried to stop her from lifting his head but Helen was too quick and saw the grisly sight of what was left of his head. "He just – killed them all!"

"Amasis was looking for something and your old friend didn't give it to them."

"Looking for what?"

"Magoi," he replied, showing her the screen. Helen shot him a sharp look for hacking into her database again, but soon turned her attention to the screen. "He must really want those things dead after what it did to his Sanctuary."

"Revenge doesn't strike me as his style."

"Why else?"

Nikola showed her the map with known colonies of Magoi clustered around. "I think our tame vampire is terrified of his big brother. Considering Apries is a General and severely pissed at being locked in a coffin for a few thousand years, I think Amasis is smart to try and hide."

"He wants to sever all telepathic links and the Magoi acts like a sounding board to their low level telepathy."

"Hell, even I develop a little bit of telepathy when I'm near that thing."

Helen eyed him disbelievingly. "What am I thinking now?"

He rolled his eyes. "Obviously it doesn't work without a nearby Magoi! But I can tell you what I'd like you to be thinking."

Helen swatted him sharply. "We're in a room full of dead bodies! Show some reserve."

He shrugged. One day she'd give into him, even if he had to wait ten thousand years. "The point is, we very much want Apries to find his brother and preferably kill him. My chances of survival are greatly increased if we keep those two at odds for each other. Three vampires, two immortals, that's not a very difficult equation, Helen."

She shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not going to kill you, Nikola, if that's what you're worried about."

"No offence, my dear, but I'm more worried about the other Immortal." He had absolutely zero chance of surviving against him. "Are our pet humans going to survive?"

"They're fine, nothing that a bit of tea can't fix. Our ride is swinging by first thing in the morning. We should be home by tomorrow afternoon if everything goes smoothly. I checked with the Sanctuary, it's still quiet."

"Shall we turn in then?" Nikola held her gaze. He'd shifted a fraction of an inch closer to her. Last night they'd been snuggled together in a great huddle of human, vampire and immortal warmth in the snow but it wasn't quite the same when the children were around. There were plenty of rooms in this compound though. Privacy and -

"Best if we all sleep in the lounge room. It's the only place we've been able to heat up."

The disappointment was clear on his face as he trailed her back down the hallway.

Amasis switched his plane for a taxi as soon as he touched land. Old City was a sprawl but its roads and buildings all followed a uniform pattern, rolling down toward the grey-watered bay. It was easy to remember and with Magnus's Sanctuary the tallest thing for miles, he had no trouble directing the car.

He couldn't pay but a quick swipe with his claw to the cab driver's throat settled the bill. The taxi was left in a dark alley several blocks away with only a few splatters of blood on the windscreen. Amasis swept through the streets, no one noticing his unassuming figure draw closer and closer to the Gothic monstrosity of granite and sandstone. It didn't resemble a Sanctuary so much as a tomb.

Amasis took a left, following the iron wall around beneath a line of oaks, bowing under the weight of their leaves. There was another gate, a smaller one where a tall figure waited, hidden among the trees.

At first, John didn't recognise the young man stalking closer. He was barely ten feet away when he realised that Amasis had snipped a few centuries off his age. He was jealous...

"You are late," John drawled, not yet unlocking the gate.

"I did what I could. It's not easy sourcing a plane in the middle of nowhere. I'm afraid I left your woman without a lift."

"She'll live," John hissed. "She always does."

Amasis gestured at the gate and the fact that it was still locked. "I brought what you asked."

The wrinkles on John's forehead lifted in either amusement or suspicion, it was impossible to read him. "And where would it be?"

Amasis touched his forehead. "In here."

"Typical vampire, then."

The vampire lounged against the wall. It wasn't just his looks that had changed but his entire demeanour. He was literally a young man – impatient with the world again. "Well are you going to invite me in or leave me standing in the street until your ex-wife gets home?"

The gate unlocked, opening with an ancient creak.

"Follow me..." John drawled.

John's quarters were below ground level. He'd opted for a hollowed out cellar, the ghosts of windows set into the wall with sandstone arches bricked in. Instead of glass and daylight they held twisted, ironwork lights. The candles had been replaced by electric bulbs nearly a century ago and never upgraded since then. John wouldn't be surprised if those were the original light globes from Edison's lab – just to piss Tesla off.

There was a bed on the far side that looked as though it had never been slept in; a table by the wall with a laptop, desk lamp, pile of unopened letters and a silver letter opener that looked more like a weapon for staking vampires; a fireplace with glowing coals providing a thermal of heat, rug and two leather chairs facing it. John gestured for the vampire to sit in one of the chairs.

"And it's still here?" Amasis asked.

John nodded. "They're keeping it upstairs under lock and key. There's no way that I can get to it without the puppy noticing."

"How long have you known about their blood, Mr Druitt?" The vampire asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Since I paused to read the hieroglyphs in that lovely tomb you built for it." John sat down, lording over the chair rather than simply sitting. "Funny... Tesla and Helen are always so proud of being 'the explorers' but they're too busy hunting after treasure to read the fine print. The Magoi is treasure. Mind you, I was a bit worried when Tesla started snooping around the Magoi silk but apart from some super-strength space suit material, he has no idea what the Magoi is worth."

"Their blood is useless to vampires," Amasis snapped. "I spent more than a century trying to replicate the effects. It turns humans into – into gods," he looked toward the dying coals with a dark streak of jealously. "And we get nothing."

"And it destroyed your entire Sanctuary in revenge."

Amasis glared at Druitt, his black eyes deeply upset. "Yes. That was – regrettable."

"So, do we have a deal then?"

The vampire started at Druitt for a very long time. He'd done his research on this one. A famous murder – one of the most feared and grisly of his age and yet he didn't hold a candle to the warlords of the past. Still, Amasis didn't trust him. He didn't know what Druitt was loyal to and if you didn't know a man's loyalties then you had no protection.

"For now, yes, we have a deal."

"Well," John cracked his knuckles then withdrew a long, sharp, curved knife from his belt. "Let's get to it, shall we?"