Chronicles of Darkness: Shadows and Dust (25 page)

         Helena's experience
showed her that even one tiny carelessness was enough to result in a dangerous
situation. For that reason she always made sure to divide her strength, so she
had some reserves she could rely on, if she needed to.

         After ridding the world
of the third vampire, she turned to the rest of the dark bunch, provoking them,
"You may be faster, but I am much stronger and enduring."

         Incited by the huntress'
bold words, they began to circle Helena again, growling threateningly, like
dogs suffering of rabies.

         She briefly lost sight of
one vampire, who immediately started a surprise attack. She had only enough
time to sidestep him and raise her sword to protect her front. The vampire's
blade slid along her own, weakening the blow. With lightning speed, Helena
turned her sword and disarmed her surprised opponent while slamming the stake
into his chest with her free hand. "Sol invictus!"

         He dissolved into dust.

         "You saw how you
will fare," she threatened. "Tell me, who do you obey?"

         Instead of an answer, her
demand earned her another attack from the front. This vampire was more agile
than those before him. He seemed experienced in sword fighting. The vampire
moved so fast that Helena found it difficult to make out his shape in the
darkness. He constantly floated around between floor, walls or the bridge's
ceiling.

         Helena found herself
backed to the wall, and one quick movement of the vampire's weapon had her
disarmed. The mighty sword of the Leosols scraped over the pavement and slid
out of her sight.

         The vampire stopped a
respectful distance away. Then he closed in and placed the blade against her
throat, hissing, "We obey nobody."

         The huntress snorted
contemptuously, giving voice to her disbelief. The vampire responded with a
hard slap across her face. Her right cheek turned red and began to swell. Blood
trickled out of her nose and from a cut on her upper lip.

         The dark creature's gaze
went from Helena's eyes to the blood oozing from her wounds.

         She saw the terrible
greed awakening inside him. Helena used this moment of distraction to gather
her strength and push him away from her.

         Taken off guard, he lost
his balance and fell to the ground.

         The huntress pounced and
bore down on him with all her might, nailing him to the pavement with her legs.
She slammed her fist right into his face, hitting him again, twice, thrice,
until he groaned in pain, barely able to open his eyes. "You are lying as
well as you are fighting," Helena hissed.

         The vampire tried to
laugh. Blood flowed from his mouth and choked him. He coughed and wheezed.

         Helena saw that he wanted
to say something, but it was hard to understand him, due to his badly swollen
lips. Carefully she bent down, putting the stake aside and pressed his head
with both hands to the floor to prevent him from getting free.

         The vampire opened his
mouth, revealing pointy eyeteeth that glistened with his own blood.
"You... your children... you all will die... it... is...
inevitable..." he gasped. A malicious grin spread across his features.

         Helena pulled the long,
thin dagger from her right boot and cut his throat with one move. Blood
splashed across her face, but the huntress didn't seem to notice. She breathed
harshly, staring at the red fluid that dripped from the blade.

         Jerking back to her
senses, Helena noticed that she had almost decapitated him. She reached for the
stake and rammed it into the corpse's chest, foregoing to say the holy war cry.
Instead, she contemplated the vampire's words.
'Something big is going on
here in Paris, something of horrendous proportions... Skylar... Kyrian... oh
Helena, free your mind from distracting thoughts... and think! What are the
vampires planning?'

         At a loss, she gazed at
the small heaps of ash to her feet. The wind picked up to blow away the last
traces of the fight. Relieved, she retrieved her sword and placed it back into
its scabbard. Then she bent down to pick up the stakes, intending to put them
back into her coat's pockets. Suspicious, Helena paused in that position and
said, "It seemed to me that there were two more of them..."

         Right after these words
of doubt left her mouth, a dark shadow tackled her from above.       The
huntress recognized a very young woman, whose face was framed by red locks and
reminded her of Joséphine's description, before the back of her head collided
roughly with the ground. Helena groaned. Dazed, she saw another shadow that
came crawling at her very fast from above, which should have been impossible
due to the rules of gravity. The huntress looked into the vampire's eyes, who
hung head first off the bridge's ceiling. Light brown hair escaped the hood of
her cloak and Helena thought she was confronted by Luise.

         The head of the Leosols
clenched her eyes shut, trying to regain her senses, but the illusion didn't
fade. The pictures of dead girls had been burnt into her memories and were now
confusing her thoughts. "These are not the girls. These beasts have nothing
in common with the poor children. Their features just resemble each other a
bit," she mumbled.

         Her concentration
slipped, while the throbbing pain in her body grew stronger. Helpless, Helena
had to let it happen. The only thing reminding her of reality were the distant,
joyful shouts of the vampires.

         Next, she felt something
warm pass over her face. The huntress fought to open her eyes and gazed
directly into a pair of deep black ones. For a short moment, she was blinded by
the dark flames. The vampire, who had wrestled her to the ground, was lying on
top of her, savoring the dried blood from the huntress' lip and nose with her
tongue.

         Disgusted, Helena turned
her head to the side and found the second vampire. This one looked over the
shoulders of the first, obviously delighted by the horrible spectacle, her eyes
gleaming with pleasure. She licked her lips greedily with the tip of her tongue
and pushed her companion slightly, who hovered over the huntress. "Hey!
Leave me some! I want to have some fun, too!"

         The first vampire
stopped, turned, and wrapped her lips around the ones of her friend, kissing
her deeply. After they parted, the second vampire looked even more hungry than
before at her victim. "The blood of the mighty huntress...
delicious."

         Helena was shocked that
the vampires knew so much about her.

         The redhead that was
still lying on her locked eyes with her again. "Our creator won't be too
happy if we keep the huntress to ourselves."

         Giggling amused, the
other replied, "We just tell him it was an unfortunate accident."

         Helena wasn't able to
form another clear thought as a pair of long teeth pierced her throat,
searching for the main artery. Desperately the head of the Leosol family arched
up, trying with all her might to push the female vampire off her. But it was in
vain.

*****

         Frustrated beyond all
meaning, Skylar banged her forehead against the yellowish pages of the book,
which she had been reading only moments before.

         Monique opened the door
and entered the library. She had to laugh as she saw the girl. "Well, I
guess that means it doesn't want to get into your head, hmm?" the cook
asked, amused.

         Skylar looked up and
wailed, "I will never understand it. This language is way too complicated
for me."

         "Nonsense,"
Monique replied, trying to cheer up Helena's little daughter, while she stroked
her cheek. "Don't hang your head. You will see, eventually you will
understand it."

         "I dare to doubt
that," Skylar shot back stubbornly, crossed her arms in front of her chest
and poked out her lower lip.

         Monique realized it would
be better to quickly change the subject. "I just wanted to let you know
that we are off to bed. I wanted to see if you need anything before we turn
in?"

         "A bigger brain to
get all the French words in. Do you have something like that to offer?"
Skylar asked, quite serious.

         The cook giggled.
"No, I'm sorry. But if you'd like, I could help you with the vocabulary,
tomorrow."

         With renewed hope Skylar
looked at the woman. "Really?"

         Monique nodded.

         "That would be
fantastic," the girl exclaimed, a small smile forming on her face.

         "Alright, I will see
you tomorrow then. Good night, Skylar." After that, the cook left the
library.

         "A good night to you
too, Monique!" Skylar called after her. Alone again, the girl closed the
French book and put it on the table. Once more, her gaze fell on the scrolls
and papers of her mother. "This is far more interesting than trying to
learn that bloody French," she decided and engrossed herself into the
documents about the vampire clans.

         Suddenly the door flew
open and a loud, "Aha! Got you now!" erupted.

         Caught, Skylar discovered
her brother, who grinned and joined her at the table. "Hey, you little
rascal. Snooping around in Mama's stuff again?"

         "I am not
snooping
,
I'm searching for something," she defended herself.

         "And for what, if
you allow the question?" Kyrian followed up, looking over his sister's
shoulders.

         Skylar showed him the
scroll with the vampire clans' symbols and pointed at the golden phoenix.
"I have been searching for that. Have you seen this ever before?"

         Kyrian shook his head.
"Another clan?"

         Skylar shrugged her
shoulders. "I don't know. Not so long ago, I asked Mama about it, but she
didn't give me an answer. That's why I thought I would go through her notes to
find some hints, but no. Nothing, not one tiny trace."

         "What about the
little note book the police chief gave to Mama. Have you looked there?"

         "No," Skylar
responded shaking her head. "Mama took it along. She always carries it
with her, since it has been a present from Monsieur Dutroit and all..."

            'Damn!'
Kyrian thought to
himself.
'I need this book. I'm sure that every important note is in there.
I need it to catch the vampire.'

         His sister was shaking
his arm wildly and that brought him back to the present. "Hey, Kyrian! Did
you listen to any word I said?!"

         "W-what is it?"
he stuttered.

         A bit nerve-wracked,
Skylar rolled her eyes. "I asked you, if you have noticed that the police
chief comes to visit us quite often?"

         "So what? They have
a lot to talk about, what with the case and so on."

         "I think there is
more," Skylar remarked and bent to her brother, grinning conspiratorially.
"I think our Mama has caught the eye of the good Monsieur Dutroit."

         Kyrian wrinkled his
forehead, regarding the girl questioningly. "What makes you say
that?"

         "He has a certain
expression in his eyes, just like you do when you see Christine. Aaaaand... I
was right about you and her. Wasn't I?"

         "Alright. That's
enough now," her brother replied, scooped up his sister and placed her
upside down over his shoulder.

         "Hey!" Skylar
squeaked in surprise. "What are you doing? Let me down, right now!"
she ordered firmly.

         Kyrian only laughed and
carried the twisting and kicking, loudly protesting girl from the library.
"Time for bed, little Mademoiselle smart-aleck!" he announced and
went upstairs.

*****

         In this moment of
hopelessness, the huntress thought only about her children. The thought of
Kyrian and Skylar gave her the strength she needed to break free. Her fingers
reached for her belt and pulled the double-edged dagger from it. Helena rammed
the blade deep inside her opponent's chest.

         The eyes of the vampire
bulged and she began to scream in piercing tones, until blood came out of her
mouth, silencing her inhuman wails. Unmoving, the female vampire lay there,
slowly bleeding dry.

         Only with great efforts
did Helena manage to free herself from the body and got back on her feet.

         The eyes of the other
vampire gleamed with murderous lust. Screaming outraged, she leaped at Helena.

         The huntress threw the
dagger at her with such force that it stopped the vampire's attack. The
double-edged blade nailed the furious vampire to the wall. Helena drew a deep
breath of relief. "Even a huntress needs to have some luck." Then she
ripped a piece off the lifeless vampire's dress and wrapped it around her own
bleeding throat. After that, she thrust a stake through the fallen vampire's
chest. "Sol invictus!"