Daughter of the Night

Aerrin’s P.O.V. (Continued)

The stitches came out the next day, as did the vicious beast better known as a hangover. I picked up Wildfire the day after that and informed the Queen of my plans to head out. She wished me luck with the same expressionless mask as always, and I had to wonder if I had dreamed up the momentary flash of empathy that I had seen in our previous conversation. Still, it was maybe four in the afternoon when I set out for Ohio. I had to time this so that the vampire would be awake and coherent at night. If I caught him during the day it would be pointless.

First, though, I had to collect my baby. I already had Wildfire strapped to my back, but my Harley was in a long-term parking garage in the northern tip of the city. It cost me a fortune to drag out my 2009 Nightster after two years of confinement, but I did finally get on the road with it.

Of course, the reason I was on a motorcycle was more because that way I had a helmet to hide my face and inhuman features from prying eyes on the road. And, of course, there’s just something adrenaline pumping at riding a Harley. Riding a motorcycle wasn’t as dangerous to me as it was to normal humans, anyway, because I had superhuman reflexes and strength. While I couldn’t crush rocks in the palm of my hand like Cross, I was still well above human standards.

The hot, dry afternoon slowly faded into an even hotter, dryer evening as miles of roads passed beneath the wheels of my baby. I was tempted to take off the leather jacket, but then if a cop saw me I would surely get pulled over for something, and the last thing I needed was a cop wondering why I had a sword and what I was hiding behind a black-tinted helmet.

The traffic wasn’t bad, and I was going at least five miles over the speed limit at all times (in that respect I’m rivaled only by the good citizens of New Jersey), so I made good time and was in Ohio by around eight.

Uniontown was small, as Morhiannara had said, but she hadn’t mentioned the picturesque neighborhoods lined with small white townhouses or the overall friendly and open atmosphere of the people there. I left my Harley in a small parking lot outside the local elementary school and stood with my hands on my hips, using my instinctive senses to search for true north. The Fae, as do the other Supernaturals, probably, have an internal compass. I also had several other talents unique to my species that even Cross didn’t know about. And, of course, I still had talents unique to the Summer Knight.

I took off my helmet and left it in the compartment in my bike before setting off, rolling my shoulders to get rid of the stiffness and lingering pain. I wasn’t wearing any armor except for a pair of arm braces under my jacket and over my long-sleeved shirt. Anything else was too heavy and constricting for my tastes. If I wasn’t weighed down by armor, I could move quickly enough to avoid damage. If I were wearing armor, I would be milliseconds too slow and would then need the armor.

I placed a hand on Wildfire’s hilt and decided I should get a move on before I got arrested. I looked around to confirm that I was away from the prying eyes of bystanders. Then I inhaled slowly, closed my eyes, and twisted the space around me so that it reflected off of me and rendered me invisible to the naked eye. Using my natural stealth, I silently headed in a northwestern direction. If this so-called ‘vampire hermit’ had any spies or security measures to detect intruders, I had to make sure that I wouldn’t be detected. It was always an advantage to appear suddenly out of thin air before an informant because it was an effective scare tactic that usually made the person talk more easily. Of course, being nice worked too, but I knew as well as the next person that that could only go so far with most vampires. The invisibility thing also gave me an edge as I scanned the area for any possible ambush setups. Anything suspicious, anything supernatural, I would detect without being detected.

Oh, by the way, this method of stealth was how the faerie guard had managed to take Cross by surprise. While she had never said anything verbally, her actions proved that I was the first of the Fae that she had ever encountered. Otherwise she would have been watching for our little invisibility trick. Of course, it appeared that she had several invisibility tricks of her own up her sleeve, as I was only too aware of after that slight misunderstanding in the Queen’s study.

I walked for several miles, watching as the quaint neighborhoods faded into small, worn strip malls and then into an even older, less populated former business district. Several buildings looked ready to collapse, although a sign in front of one particularly dangerous looking building read ‘Stanford’s and Son’. At least, that’s what I thought it said, but the sign had peeled extensively from exposure to the elements and the only thing I could make out for certain was two S’s and a ‘d’. Behind the front lot of the property, I could see the head of an old tanning vat rise above the back of the building. This place fit the definition, so after a last wary scan of the premises I thumbed Wildfire loose from its sheath across my back and cautiously approached in the general direction of front entrance.

I slipped through an old broken-in window silently, landing in a crouch on the floor on the other side. I scanned the interior of the room suspiciously before rising from my crouch. I was still invisible and ideally still unnoticed, but you never know with vampires.

I padded noiselessly into the back of the factory, using my sense of sound as much as my vision; I could see fine in the dark, but the night was vampire territory and I would have been a fool to believe otherwise. And of course, they always did that freaky rise-from-the-shadows thing that could easily break the composure of even a seasoned veteran.

It was when a tiny waft of summer’s eve breeze tickled my senses that I caught a fresh whiff of the icy cold scent of a vampire. I immediately crouched, resisting the urge to unsheathe Wildfire, and turned in the direction of the smell.

Sure enough, a hazy, dark silhouette behind me was taking on the form of a gnarled, spindly vampire male.

I wasn’t positive that I had managed to take him by surprise, but I figured that if he had found me before I had found him he would have made a more shocking entrance. Riding on my suspicions, I stood and relaxed my posture, feigning nonchalance.

“So you’re the rumored vampire hermit,” I said, running my eyes over the vampire. He was nothing like I had expected. I assumed that vampires could choose what age they wished to look, as could the Fae, because I couldn’t think of any other explanation as to his seasoned appearance. If he told me he was Cross’s great-grandfather, I would have believed him. He was maybe an inch or two taller than I, and his pale grey hair was slicked back in a Dracula-inspired neck-long do. He had pale red deep-set eyes under bushy black eyebrows and a Romanesque nose that hooked like a raptor’s beak. As far as I could tell, he was wearing all black with a swarthy heavy black wool cape that looked like it was taken directly from a Star Wars movie set. “I was expecting someone more, uh, terror-inducing.”

As soon as I said those words I realized that I was supposed to be the terror-inducing one, and at this point I wasn’t exactly inspiring fear. Damn.

“You’re of the Fae,” the vampire rasped. His voice reminded me vividly of shards of glass being dragged over concrete. That was more on par with what I had imagined. I nodded to myself. Now that I was back in my comfort zone, I decided I should start acting slightly more intimidating.

“Indeed,” I agreed. “And I’ve come for the information you’ve promised us in return for your noninvolvement with the Fae scouting warriors.”

“Be there more of you, faerie?” the vampire asked, his eyes scanning behind me as if there were thirty more faeries packed into the rotting rafters trying to hide from his gaze.

“As the terms of our meeting dictate, there are none besides myself.” I crossed my arms to imply that I was all that would be necessary.

“Good,” the vampire exhaled. I got a glimpse of his pearly white fangs, longer and narrower than my own. I wondered distantly at the last time he had fed. I watched as his eyes wandered from my face to the sword hilt protruding over my right shoulder. Something in those red irises gleamed eagerly, and I had to suppress a rising wave of discomfort. There was definitely something not right here.

“The Summer Knight she sent, did she?” the vampire exhaled, kneading his fingers eagerly. “She must think highly of me to send such a warrior.” His tone of voice didn’t sound honored to my ears, merely shifty.

“Technically, no,” I said. “I’m not actually the Summer Knight.”

The hermit blinked as if I had just lit a candle in his face. “What?”

“At least at the moment,” I went on, trying to suppress a snicker at the muddled expression he had. “I was and I will be shortly, if it makes you feel better.”

The vampire shook his head, annoyance and an undercurrent of anger flooding his aura. “You Fae speak in riddles, always in riddles. You have the sword, do you not? Give me the truth, faerie!”

“The truth is that I am the Summer Knight in every sense but the physical,” I elaborated, trying with only partial success not to smirk wickedly.

The vampire stared at me, and I didn’t have to read his emotions to detect his hostility. Deciding to abandon this thread of conversation, I picked a new direction.

“On behalf of my Queen Morhiannara of the Summer Court, I require information on Dracula’s present location as well as information concerning his intentions, his allies, etcetera.”

“A bit undereducated to take on Dracula and his court, are you not?” the hermit mocked.

“If you believe that you are our first and only source to information on Dracula and his Court, then you are a fool,” I informed him haughtily. “Nonetheless, your input is most esteemed in the eyes of the Summer Court and your wishes of solitude will be respected if you provide us with an honest answer.”

The vampire measured me with his eyes for a long moment before nodding. “I distanced myself from the Court long ago,” he told me with his raspy voice, “although I have heard from vampires in the area of their more recent antics. Historically, the Court has always been in Romania, of course, but our father has established a more Western location several decades ago. In Chicago. More than that, I could not tell you, although I’m sure even you incompetent Fae have heard of that. T’is common knowledge, after all. As to the members of his Court, they are almost all Ancients.”

I knew enough of vampire lineage to understand the reference. “And how many of those are there?”

“By my estimation, likely around sixty. Yet there are only twelve acting members of his Court at any time, to limit the say of the rest of the population in any of the Count’s decisions.”

I nodded and watched suspiciously as the hermit slowly glided backwards toward the window as he talked. I nearly missed his hand darting out of the window to form a signal because by the time I blinked, it was back at his side as it had been before. I wondered how far away they were, that I hadn’t detected whomever he was signaling before I had entered the building.

“And what of their strength?” I asked. “The strength of the Ancients?”

The old hermit peeled back a corner of his mouth in a sneer. “They are quite powerful. They are more susceptible to the usual weaknesses, such as sunlight or objects of faith, yet they carry infinitely more abilities than a regular vampire.”

“What of their shapechanging abilities?” I asked, more out of personal curiosity than anything.

The vampire tilted his head, grinning at my ignorance. “The more powerful the vampire, the larger the range of potential forms. The basic idea is that a vampire can take the form of anything that resembles the vampiric nature, alive or not.”

Great. That didn’t do much to clarify Cross’s escape.

“It is fortunate that you are so curious,” the hermit hissed, and I could feel satisfaction radiating from him like waves of heat. I looked at him to see deception in his eyes, and then I heard the whistling of the air outside the window behind him. “Otherwise you might have been disappointed to learn of my other visitors.”

Finally, some action.

I threw myself into a forward roll onto my left shoulder, smoothly unsheathing Wildfire at the same time as a vicious white hand shattered through the concrete of the wall I had had my back to, groping for where my neck had been milliseconds before.

When I came to my feet, Wildfire was an extension of my arms. I couldn’t see the vampire above me, but I felt as it dropped from the ceiling with killing intent. I kicked off the ground and twisted to meet the vampire in midair, Wildfire singing as I infused it with my magical energy. At my will, the lines of fire dancing along the blade seemed to come to life, glowing a soft golden orange. The vampire quickly dissolved its form to avoid Wildfire’s bite, but I whipped around my torso to feed momentum to my sword and caught the vampire’s neck as it solidified below, feeling the stone-hard flesh and sinew part under my blade.

At the same time, I embraced my inherited calling of invisibility and used the momentary confusion to sink a throwing knife from my belt into the eye of another vampire below me with my left hand.

I spun and caught my weight on my feet as I landed on the ground to assess the situation. I had just dispatched two of the vampires, but I knew from experience that they were the weakest. Inexperienced or overeager vampires had a tendency to attack before analyzing the situation. I released my hold on my invisibility, because although it was a neat trick in battle it would not fool a vampire over extended periods of time, and while I had Wildfire activated the sword itself would still be partially visible.

It took me maybe several hundredths of a second to determine that there were seven more vampires, not including the old hermit. How had all of these vampires escaped my attention? I had been expecting an ambush, because this was too clean a setup to begin with, but my personal pride was injured at the thought that I couldn’t sense a group of nine vampires within a mere mile radius.

The vampires were poised to attack, fanned out around me as they were, but now they were on their guard. I took momentary advantage in the hiatus of fighting to turn to my host.

“You are very right,” I said to the hermit vampire with a bloodthirsty grin, “I quite like your other visitors. Ancients, you said?”

The old hermit had fleeting unease cross over his aura, but he hid it well. The other vampires were still sending me killing intent, but a new wariness and even some curiosity. This was turning into an interesting situation.

My host opened his mouth to respond, but one of the vampires cut him off with an angry snarl. She turned to me and I noted her long red hair over pale features and deep, vermillion eyes.

“Who are you?” she spat at me.

Several smartass comments ran through my mind, but I settled on mocking courtesy.

“Aerrinaekaiyan, Summer Knight of the Court of the Fae, for our purposes,” I said with a flourish and a bow. I smirked at the annoyance that ran across her aura. “And who might you and yours be, lovely lady?”

She got really pissed when I addressed her that way. I got the sense that she didn’t mind flattery, but my acting suave and cocky after dispatching two of her party certainly dispelled my charm. Even though there was certainly a lot of charm on my part.

Throwing back her head, she bared her teeth at me in a seductive yet lethal smile. “You have the pleasure of meeting Vanessa of the House of Paris, Third Seat of the Court of Dracula and his direct descendant.”

Damn. She was on par with Cross. It fully occurred to me that I might not actually walk away from this battle. Of course, that was assuming that this vampire had developed her skills to the same extent as Cross. I had never encountered a vampire that could be Cross’s equal in my past experience, and I wasn’t too certain that that would change today. It was debatable how much combat these vampires had actually seen in comparison to my panther. Cross took care of herself on the streets of New York, but I wasn’t certain what life was like in Dracula’s court for his nobility. Probably lush. Dangerous, sure, but how often had these vampires had to fight for their lives?

“And your underlings,” I finished for her with a derisive smile at the other vampires.

“Indeed.” Her answer was brusque and icy cold.

“And exactly what purpose do you have here?” I asked with a broad grin. “Hopefully you didn’t come just to rid yourselves of me.”

“I am to destroy any Fae and allies that I encounter here as a message to your Queen,” Vanessa of the House of Paris told me, her French accent making her words slightly more difficult to decipher. “That you are Summer Knight is but a delightful coincidence.”

“So delightful,” I agreed. “Now, if you have a free moment before we continue this, you could answer the question that I had asked this gentleman here before you rather rudely interrupted our discussion.”

‘The gentleman’ referred to the hermit, and ‘the question’ referred to information on the Ancients and Dracula’s court members.

The redheaded vampires threw back her head and laughed, a sound similar to tinkling glass. “Since you are fated to die here anyways, and since you intrigue me, perhaps I could answer your question.”

“Splendid,” I said. She was curious about me, that was true, but I was certainly enhancing her natural curiosity as well. I was also doing my best to smother her thirst for my lifeblood, at least for the moment. When the time came, I would not be one to weasel out of a fight. Still, if I could play this right, I could get more information out of her than I did out of the hermit. “So, how many number among Dracula’s court? Who are his allies? What are the powers of your Ancients?”

She had tilted her head the way a cat would while watching an unwary sparrow, which amused me. She was completely unguarded from my Fae talents, ignorant and completely open. For the moment, I ignored the other vampires, because they would always defer to the one in charge.

“There are seventy-eight of us who rule as members of the Court of Dracula, but only twelve hold places of real consequence,” she told me, measuring my reactions expectantly, as if assuming I would drop my sword in shock. “Seventy of us are Ancients. There are seven of us, including myself, who are direct descendants.”

“Does that include the vampire known as Cross?” I asked before reigning in my tongue.

Her reaction was immediate. Her face darkened and her lips pealed back to expose fully extended fangs.

“That bitch,” the vampiress snarled, “had everything. He favored her, showered her with attention and wisdom! He turned her himself, the first direct descendant born in over four centuries! And she repaid him with scorn and hate, and then she left him. Left! I will gouge out her heart myself if I can find her!”

The vehemence and sudden hate in her emotions had caught me off guard, so I had lost control of her bloodthirstiness. I shook off my surprise and soothed her fury, but I couldn’t entirely subdue it even then.

“What was his relation to her?” I asked, my own curiosity far outweighed by slowly dawning horror.

“She was his concubine, of course,” Vanessa replied haughtily. “All of the direct descendants are. Yet she spited him for it! It is an honor above all else! How dare she scorn him so? How dare she mock us so? Does she think we are to be taken so lightly? Hiding out by herself for the past seventy years, snug in her false sense of security? I will show her we are not to be taken so lightly!”

Vanessa’s pupils had dilated so that they were mere black slits in her vermillion irises and her teeth were bared as if she was a wolf. It occurred to me that she had a serious Dracula obsession complex, but I didn’t voice my opinion about that. I was swept up in a fury of my own.

Cross? A… concubine? To… Dracula? Never. I would never believe that. It wasn’t true. Couldn’t be true. A free spirit like Cross would rather die than be enslaved in such a manner. All of a sudden, the vampires surrounding me became repulsive and hideous in my mind. I wanted them gone. Fortunately, I knew how to achieve that goal.

I winked momentarily out of sight while leaping forward and bringing Wildfire singing downwards in a crescent arc aimed at the French vampire’s head. She swayed sideways with indescribable grace and my blade missed her by millimeters. I corkscrewed around so that I hit the side of the wall with my feet and kicked off again, angling upwards this time.

I aimed myself at the two vampires closing in at ten- and four o’clock. I brought Wildfire under and up in a feint to one vampire’s jugular before slamming the back end of the hilt into the solar plexus of the vampire on my left. I threw myself off the body of the vampire so that I was falling to the ground, but I flipped sideways to extend my reach and caught the other vampire’s hamstring on my blade. As he fell on the floor next to me, I shoved Wildfire through his heart. I threw myself backwards into a one-handed back spring to avoid another vampire whose fist was reaching for my throat and landed neatly on the shoulders of another surprised vampire.

As soon as he felt my weight on his shoulders, his form dissipated into fog and I fell to the floor. A fevered vampire came at me from below the ground, her claw like white hands smashing through the concrete ground only to grip my right ankle in a bone-crushing grip. Ignoring the sensation that my foot was being forcibly removed from my leg, I crouched low and swung Wildfire horizontal to the ground, shearing the vampire’s fist from her arm.

Still, I wasn’t quick enough freeing myself to avoid the two other vampires that attacked me. One got its fangs into the upper bicep of my left arm while clawing at my face, while the other one landed a solid punch to my kidney. The fire of the vampire venom in my veins and the sudden lack of feeling in my stomach told me that I was in a bad condition. Still, I had managed to switch Wildfire to my right hand as the attacks came and unsheathed a hidden dagger from my belt. As the vampire sank his fangs into my right arm I shoved my dagger into the side of his neck with my left hand before rolling my torso with the force of the other vampire’s punch to lessen the impact and snapping Wildfire around so fast that even I couldn’t follow it, bringing the blade straight through the side of the vampire’s chest, piercing his heart. Black blood fountained from the corpse.

The one-handed vampiress screeched as she reached me from behind and I threw my weight backwards while pivoting onto my right foot, sending Wildfire forward in a controlled uppercut. The vampiress dodged neatly, fury and malice clear in her eyes as her remaining hand came towards my neck in a karate chop. She didn’t see my dagger until I had jammed it into her heart, however, and then it was too late.

As her body fell it twisted the dagger from my grasp, so I abandoned it and switched Wildfire to my left hand because the vampire venom in my right arm was quickly immobilizing the whole limb. My right foot was also incredibly shaky, unable to support my whole weight, and I really didn’t like the creeping agony in my gut from the vampire’s punch.

Four down. Three to go.

I placed my right hand behind my left on Wildfire’s hilt, more to still the uncontrollable spasms than anything, and turned to face the next onslaught of vampires.

Vanessa herself fell on top of me, her black cape spread out in the forms of bat wings to control her flight. I rolled sideways out of her way, spinning Wildfire skillfully as I rose from my tumble so as to keep her off of me before I attacked.

I felt the stirring of the air behind me just before the killing blow of the vampiress behind me landed and I leaped over her outstretched arm backwards, bringing Wildfire hissing in a deadly pattern down onto the vampiress’s shoulder. I pulled myself around and hit the ground on my feet, now fully behind the vampiress. I quickly pulled out Wildfire and decapitated the vampire before moving again to avoid the blow of the vampire that was above me.

The blow never came. I stopped, confused, Wildfire instinctively coming up in a diagonal shield across my body. I looked around before spotting Vanessa and her last follower on the other side of the factory, watching me with furious red eyes. The vampire she was with was breathing raggedly, and I saw a sword wound across his abdomen, spilling his damned blood. My own work. The way she was supporting him on her shoulder left me little doubt that they were mates, although I wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work out, what with her being Dracula’s concubine and all. The hermit was cowering somewhere between us, unwilling to enter the fight on either side.

“Dracula will not be pleased,” Vanessa hissed at me. “You will suffer his wrath. After so many of his servants killed here, you will surely die by his hand. You would die by mine if you had not injured Jean-Pierre so, rest assured. This day has sealed your doom.”

As her last word reached me, her form dissipated into shadows along with that of her mate. She was gone.

I slammed Wildfire into its sheath on my back, heedless of the black blood staining its blade, before crossing angrily to the hermit vampire. I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. While I didn’t possess the devastating strength of a vampire, my fury channeled power into my hands and the hermit winced as he was pinned against the wall.

“I’m done fooling around,” I said in a low voice. “You will answer me truthfully.”

His aura was stained with fear and panic, so I knew I had him. “O-of course, sir,” he wheezed into my face.

“Where. Is. Dracula?”

The vampire coughed a bit, attempting to clear his throat. “He’s been secure in his castle in Romania for decades, sir, but… I’ve heard that he’s moved to Chicago to reign in control of his Court.”

“He’s in Chicago, then.”

“Y-y-yes, sir.”

“And what informant did you hear this from?”

“I learned it from a ninth-generation vampire, the daughter of a Court member. She fled to Europe, though, to somewhere in Britain. Liverpool, I think. She was trying to form a coup against the Court, similar to your cause, sir.”

From reading his aura, I could tell that he was saying the truth. Interesting.

“Her name?”

“Wilhelmina Tucker, sir.”

“And what are Dracula’s plans?”

The hermit coughed again, his panic constricting his throat. “As far as I know, sir, he wants to establish absolute control over his Court before he makes any movements. But he would see the Fae… subdued, sir.”

I snarled silently. “Does he have any spies? He clearly has little information on the Fae.”

“None that I know of, sir, but I wouldn’t know of information like that…”

“Of course not. And what of his alliances? He seems to have grounded the werewolves under his heel rather efficiently.”

“He blackmails and bribes them, sir, but he has not made an alliance as equals. They despise him but lack the discipline or leadership to throw off his yoke. His main interests are in tracking down human sorcerers to conscript to his cause, but as they are few and far between, to my knowledge he has had little luck. He has tried to keep that information discreet, however, because the Fae would excel at such an activity more than the vampires.”

Another vital piece of information. I shook the hermit roughly, trying to ignore the stench of his breath. “Anything else you know? Anything at all?”

“That vampire you mentioned… Cross. Dracula has begun to look for her again. He blackmailed a pack of werewolves into searching for her.”

I wanted to slap my forehead. How could I have forgotten that? “What does he want her for?”

“He heard that the Fae were trying to locate her, and he wanted to keep her knowledge from them… you. He has been long looking for an excuse to track down his descendant though… The Court’s desire was the sole reason why he did not take action earlier.”

I digested this information silently before nodding to him and dropping him to the ground. Being a vampire, the instant I relaxed my guard his fist shot out towards my chest. I swiped the hand away with my arm brace before slamming my other forearm under his chin, forcing his head back against the concrete. He probably would have been able to overpower me if not for the lethal dagger I had poised barely a centimeter in front of his eye.

“I will kindly ignore that you did that,” I said to him, “if you swear on your blood that you will never attack, kill, or lead another of the Fae into danger ever again.”

The hatred that had powered his actions was once again overcome by his fear, and he nodded, whimpering.

“I swear it.”

“Good.” I dropped him tastelessly to the ground, where he crumpled like a paper bag. After collecting the small arms I had lost during battle, I walked stiffly towards the exit, doing my best to ignore the still-raging pain from the vampire venom. The shock from the wound to my gut was fading and the dull roar of pain was coming on. I could barely stand on my right ankle, either.

When I reached the exit of the abandoned factory, the black cape of one of the vampires was spread across the ground. Miraculously free of damned blood, it must have been torn off the back of its owner during combat. I picked it up thoughtfully, admiring the miniature seams and the black leather sewn into the design.

After several brief seconds of consideration, I folded the cape over one arm and continued limping out of the factory, hoping that I would be lucid enough to drive my Harley without wrecking it. I was also fancying the idea that the vampire venom would eventually evacuate my system, although from the way my veins ached that was an unlikely possibility.

I finally dragged myself to my beloved Nightster and revved the motor before directing it towards the highway, leaving that Godforsaken factory in the dust.