Haldred Chronicles: Alyssa (21 page)

Slowly, the huge
door opened inward with a hiss, and a puff of steam emerged from the hinges. 
Alyssa could quite honestly say that she had never seen anything so odd in her
whole life; steam escaping from a door was not an everyday occurrence.

“Ok,” said Katy,
still displaying no signs of surprise at all.  “Come on in to...the vault!”

The small group
wandered in, Katy setting about lighting a variety of small lanterns hanging
from the walls.  Whilst Alyssa didn't need the light, she agreed that three
sets of eyes looking for the cure would work better than one, even if that
meant that light was a requirement.  Slowly, the room started to light up and
Alyssa beheld the repository of knowledge.

Her heart sank. 
The room was nowhere near as large or as extensively packed with books as she
had expected.

“This won't take
long.” she sighed, feeling more than a little disappointed.

“Give us a
chance.” said Katy.  “There's actually a lot here.”

With not a great
amount of confidence in that statement, the group started the search.

* * * * *

Victoria chanced
a look through the open door and then ducked back.

She had slipped
in and had rather quickly figured where the youngsters were headed.  The yell
of 'ouch' had been a real help and following the lantern had been easy.  She'd
almost tripped over a discarded box of books, and nearly banged her head off a
couple of wooden support pillars but other than that nothing had hindered her
in following them down here.  All three of the youngsters were in the vault
like room now; searching through the bookcases.  She had to admit, the room was
a lot smaller than she had expected.  Were they really going to find what was
needed?  Victoria doubted it but, all being well, that might not matter by the
end of the night, if her rather insane plan worked.

Too late to
back out now.

She leaned
against the wall down from the door, and waited in the shadows, listening to
the rustling of paper and the occasional muttering.

* * * * *

* * * * *

With each
discarded parchment, Alyssa's heart sank further.  This was not what she had
expected.

She had expected
a vast library, one that would take hours, or even multiple visits, to go
through; one that would maybe, just maybe, yield what she needed.  Yield a
cure, or a ritual or something.  Instead, she had a room no bigger than her
ground floor back home; a few hundred books that they would search through in
just a few hours, if that.  It almost laughed in the face of the hope that Katy
had ignited in her heart.  She dare not tell Katy her concerns.  The little
girl thought she was helping.

Well, let's
not spoil it.

She pulled out
another book from the shelf she was looking at.  It had no title on the spine
and its pages seemed fresher than many she had already checked through.  She
flicked through it but quickly found it was in fact an ancient ritual book from
the Far East.  For growing potatoes quickly.

Great.  Why
is this even here?

She hung her
head.  How many more disappointments would she endure tonight?  For once she
wished Vlad was available.  He just might have been some use here.  Then again
he'd probably not be pleased with her aspirations for turning back into a
human.  Maybe him being in the box at the moment was a good thing.

“Found
something.” said James from behind a stack of books.

Alyssa glanced
over.  James was looking over a very aged looking book; a huge leather bound
one, dusty and practically ready to fall apart.  Despite its appearance, she wasn't
confident.  He'd uttered those same words several times already tonight.  She
gave him the benefit of the doubt yet again.

“What is it?”
she asked.

“A ritual” he
said.

Ah.  Another
one.  Wonder if this one will tell us how to make grass greener.

“Ritual to
remove the vampire’s blessing on the unworthy.” he intoned, seeming to be
reading from the book.

Alyssa frowned.

Ok.

She wandered
over and he let her look at the page he was on.  It was in a barely legible
script, obviously a very old book.  Various symbols were dotted about the
ageing page but true enough, at the top, were those very words.

“Should they
that are given the blessing be found wanting.” she read from the book with
difficultly, the common tongue barely readable on the ancient pages.  “and the
punishment of True Death be found to be too harsh, the Master may taketh from
them the blessing of our people.”

N
ow I'm
getting interested.

James let her
take the book from him and she read with renewed vigour.  Katy joined them.

“To do so, the
Master must find for himself a virgin of either sex.  By force or by trickery,
they must make the accursed drink of the virgin's blood.  Then, the accursed
teeth must be shattered, broken apart into many pieces.  In such a way, the
blessing of the vampire is taken from the unholy and they shall revert to their
human self.”

Alyssa blinked.

No it can't
be that simple!

She had been
reading aloud the whole time and met the gazes of her two friends.  James was
the first to speak.

“So what it's
saying is, drink the blood of a virgin, then shatter the teeth...and that's
it?”

“According to
this,” said Alyssa. “Yes.”

“I don't know.”
she added, looking over the verses again.

“What have you
got to lose?” said Katy.

“My teeth are
what allow me to take blood, to sustain myself.  Without them...”

She shuddered.

Was this it? 
Was this the real thing?  Was this the end?

She desperately
wanted to believe it, desperately wanted to believe that this was the start of
a new life.  She read over the page again, then started to flick through the
book.  Quickly she realised this was something of a vampire 'manual', one that
seemed to have been copied from something much older; that explained the use of
the Common tongue. 

She saw
instructions on how to feed, how to avoid sunlight, how to dream.  For a brief
moment she thought she had found how to turn someone into a vampire, but the
pages had been torn out.

Maybe this is
real.

From her own
experiences, the instructions in the book were all accurate.  Some even had
crude diagrams.  Ancient vampire instructions.

Maybe the ritual
was real.  She looked to her friends.  Katy was the first to speak up.

“What do you
want to do Alyssa?”

Alyssa pursed
her lips.  Could she take the chance?  Take the chance on this?

“Alright” she
said with an accompanying sigh of trepidation, taking herself off guard with
how quickly she decided.  “Let's try it.”

“Yes, let’s.”
came a voice.

The three of
them spun round.  James lantern illuminated Victoria as she stood in the
doorway of the room.  She had a pistol drawn, and aimed.  To Alyssa's eyes, she
didn't look all that happy
.

Uh oh.

“Hello again.”
Victoria said, her voice not as angry or surprised as their previous encounter.

“Ah, hey.”
replied Alyssa, giving both a confused and at the same time fearful wave.

“Who might this
be?” asked Victoria next, stepping into the room but keeping her pistol primed
and pointed at Alyssa.  She was directing her question at James.  James didn't
flinch.  Alyssa was impressed.

“My name is
James Fogan.” he said, meeting Victoria's eyes.  “I'm her boyfriend.”

Alyssa did her
best to hide her pride.

“Cute.” remarked
Victoria.

“So” she said
next, keeping a respectable distance from all three of them.  “You've found a
way to change her back?”

Alyssa and her
friends exchanged glances.

“Yes” said Katy.

“And you're
going to do that right now?”

“Yes.” said
James next.

“Good” said
Victoria.  “Won't be needing this then.”

She holstered
her pistol.

“So, how can I
help?”

Ok?
thought Alyssa. 
The
hell?

“You want to
help us?”

“Don't look so
surprised,” said Victoria, taking a more relaxed step toward the group.  “You
changing back into a human actually helps me.”

“How?”

“You'll see. 
And don't look too happy.” added Victoria, looking directly at Alyssa.  “I
still owe you for blowing me into a snowdrift.”

Alyssa adopted
an apologetic expression.

“Yeah.  Sorry
about that.” 

“Anyway, here's
the deal kids.”

Victoria
outlined what was to happen.  It generated a lot of surprised expressions, and
a few raised eyebrows.

“That's your
plan?” asked Katy, eyes betraying a great deal of uncertainty and communicating
what all three of them felt.

“Granted, it's
not my best,” she looked to Alyssa again.  “but for you, it might offer your
only way of living a normal life after this.  That is assuming you change back
into a human.  I caught what you were saying, but how's it going to work?”

Katy, with
caution, passed the book to Victoria and James kindly lifted the lantern so she
could see properly.  Victoria's eyes very quickly went wide.

“Ouch.” she
concluded.

“Yes.” agreed
Alyssa.  “I'm not looking forward to that.  I'm not sure how we'll do it.”

Victoria drew
her pistol again.  “I'll do it.”

Alyssa gulped,
and Victoria smiled a very chilling smile.

“I'm an
excellent shot so don't worry.”

“Next question,
which virgin?  Cause I'm not doing it”

Alyssa, Katy and
James all managed to give Victoria the same look of surprise.  Victoria glared
back.

“I just haven't
found the right man yet!” she protested.  “Which virgin out of you two?”

She nodded to
Katy and James.  The two of them shuffled nervously.  Alyssa wasn't looking
forward to inflicting it on either of them.  That was if they were both
virgins.

“We can try eeny
meany mini mo if you like?” said Victoria with a smirk.

“Not helping.”
replied Alyssa.

“Me.” said James,
stepping forward.

“And me.” said
Katy, doing the same.

Alyssa caught
Victoria rolling her eyes.  “Youngsters, she needs just one of you.”

Alyssa looked
from one to the other, before settling on Katy.

“We'll need you
to get us out of here if things don't go according to plan.” Alyssa said, by
way of explanation.  Katy seemed to understand, nodding.

“Good luck.” she
said, stepping back and giving Alyssa and James room.

The two of them
stared at each other.

“I love you,”
said Alyssa.  “but please don't look at me when I do this.  I...”

She swallowed,
looking down, not able to meet his gaze.

“It's
monstrous.”

She felt a hand
gently raise her chin and she looked into his eyes again.

“If it gives you
back your humanity,” he said with that wonderful caring voice of his.  “then I
don't care.  I'll do whatever it takes.”

He turned,
exposing his neck and obediently closing his eyes.  That was sensible
considering the last time he'd fainted at the sight of the teeth.  Twice.

Alyssa closed
her eyes likewise, summoning her courage.  She opened her mouth and her fangs
extended with that same horrible sound they always made.  She leant forward. 

And felt them
pierce his flesh.

* * * * *

Victoria had to
fight every urge in her body not to bring her weapon up and blow the girl's
head clean off.  She was acutely aware of the vampire aura that made her
involuntarily tense and wary.  She forced down the instinct.

No, let her
try.  Even if it doesn't work, let her try.  After all, it's giving Malak more
time.

Time was what they
needed now.  By now Horna would know that the girl was here.  He, and his men,
would be on their way.  Malak for his part of the plan needed not to beat him,
but to arrive more or less at the same time.  So Victoria watched.  Watched
this scene as the girl drank her fill.  Alyssa pulled back as the deed was
done.

Promptly, the
lad fainted dead away.

“James!” Katy
rushed to his side and Alyssa stepped back.  Fear was in the girl’s eyes,
despite the fact it was she who had done the deed.  To Victoria's mind it
hadn't actually taken that long.  Victoria watched as Katy checked him putting
her ear to his chest.  There was a tense moment, when everyone held their
breath.  Victoria's thumb found itself hovering over her pistol’s cocking
hammer.

“He's ok.” Katy
said at last.

Victoria nodded,
and Alyssa turned toward her.

“Gal'm geady.”
she said with the oversized fangs still protruding.  The girl opened her mouth
wider, tilting back, the fangs out.  Victoria moved to one side, and brought
her pistol round to aim at the side of the two extended canines.  The idea was
that the bullet would shatter both teeth and then embed itself safely in the
far wall, without injuring anyone else.

“Katy, stay
down.” she ordered, just to be sure.

Victoria and
Alyssa stood still and Katy ducked down by James who was still lying on the
floor, out cold.  This was it.

“Ready?”
Victoria asked.

Alyssa nodded. 
Victoria could have sworn she saw beads of sweat on the girl's forehead but
disregarded the notion. 

She squeezed the
trigger.

* * * * *

Alyssa's eyes
opened.

She found
herself on the floor of a dark room, its edges lost in shadow.  Adjusting her
glasses she found a single light source was above her, focused on her.  She was
not in her work clothes of the night but in her burgundy dress, the nice one. 
It was clean too.

Ok this is
odd.

She remembered
the shot and the searing stab of pain.

Her hands leapt
to her teeth and...

They were fine. 
She could feel her canines and there was nothing, nothing to indicate they had
been shattered or otherwise broken.  In fact they felt normal, not quite as
sharp and pointed.