The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal (25 page)

The young vampire swung the Nightstick well
over my head. I ducked and spun around to see the pinchers connect
with the leader’s neck.

I watched him wrench his leader’s head
off.

An unholy shriek came from inside the
vampire’s headless neck. I’d never heard anything like it, in this
time or my own – no vampires had ever made noise after we destroyed
them. It took all my training to keep from dropping my Nightstick
to cover my ears, but many of the other ’Pires doubled over,
screaming.

The sound – a mixture of a crow’s shriek, a
wolf’s howl, and a snake’s hiss, amplified a thousand-fold –
continued as the young vampire slammed the Nightstick into the
leader’s body and head, until both dissolved. The unholy sound
ceased.

The rest of the clan panicked and started to
run. I didn’t want them to escape, I wanted them dead. I didn’t
question the young vampire’s motives, I just drew one of my spare
Nightsticks and started killing them as fast as I could.

Someone was behind me and a hand reached
under my cloak. He pulled the last Nightstick out and wielded two,
just as I did. He put his back to mine and fought, almost as well
as one of The Order.

A few vampires ripped the long, heavy
curtains back and jumped out a window that led to the courtyard.
“Stop them! Get them into the pond,” I shouted to him in
French.

He raced to the window and leaped through.
Screams came from down below.

I was still surrounded, but having help,
even help I didn’t understand, made a huge difference – I was
faster, better, more confident. Vampire after vampire fell before
me. In less time than I would have guessed, the floor was
cleared.

With the curtains open it was easy to see
the second stairway at the opposite end of the room. I found my
skullcap and goggles, put them back on, and went to it. No door,
just a small set of stairs leading up to the bell tower. There were
no vampires up here, but I did have a wonderful view of the
surrounding landscape.

None of the vampires had escaped over the
wall as far as I could tell. Only one body moved down there and it
was my helper’s. His heat signature looked odd – not human, but not
vampiric any more, either.

I didn’t have time to ponder this, because
we weren’t so lucky outside of the Abbey’s walls. There were
vampires in the town, and from what I saw coming up the hill, the
entire populace, like all the monks, had been turned.

I raced downstairs and reached the
antechamber as the young vampire came inside. “More are
coming.”

“
I know. Are you willing
to help me against them?”

“
Willing and able, my
saint,” he replied. “I am your servant, Alain de
Fondeeur.”

“
Your family were metal
casters?” I asked, wondering if I’d translated his name
correctly.

He smiled. “Yes. And your weapons were not
cast by any in this land. This is one of the ways I know you to be
sent from our Lord.”

I didn’t argue, we didn’t have time. “Are
there any humans still here?”

He shook his head.

“
Then, can you help me to
destroy every vampire left?”

He looked confused. “Vampire?”

“
What you are, at least,
what you were.”

“
Ah. Yes, I can help
destroy the demons, with great willing, my saint. But can none be
saved as you saved me?”

I was stunned, but we had little time for me
to question what was going on. “Doubtful. If they turn on their
kind, maybe. Otherwise, rip their heads off and allow God the final
decision.”

“
As you say, my saint. I
am but your disciple.”

I considered luring the rest of this vampire
hoard into the chapel, to use its very existence as a weapon. But
there were enough of them to wait us out and then we’d be truly
trapped. “Are we better off staying inside the Abbey or going out
to the streets?”

He considered. “The streets. Little of the
water is left in the pond and all can leap the courtyard walls.
There may be less ways for us to be cornered outside.”

I wondered if he was right or if this was
some elaborate trap. But I’d asked for his advice. “Outside, then.
Good luck.”

“
God is with us,” he said
serenely. “I fear nothing now that you are here, my
saint.”

I didn’t share his optimism, but I didn’t
tell him so. I just prayed he was right.

We left the Abbey and I was relieved to note
none of the vampires had reached us yet. They were moving more
slowly than I expected. “What’s wrong with them?”

“
They are held in thrall,
my saint. None of them are full demons yet. Most have been turned,
just not completed.”

“
They haven’t drunk the
vampire’s blood?”

“
No.” A look of revulsion
passed over Alain’s features. “No, they have not committed that
sacrilege. They took orders from our leader. I have killed him, so
they have no one to provide direction now.”

I had a wild idea, but one worth trying.
“Alain, order them to stop.”

“
I will try, my saint.
Hold, all of you!” he shouted.

They slowed even more, but didn’t stop. “Try
again. Speak in Latin – your leader didn’t use French.”

He complied, shouting for them to hold in
Latin this time. Many of them stopped, and Alain shouted the
command in both languages a few more times until all the vampires
were standing still, just waiting. “Now what, my saint?”

Now, I had no idea. This was new, completely
new. Alain, the village vampires, none of this was within my realm
of experience. Years of training and a lifetime of fear and hatred
made me want to just kill them all.

Instead I forced myself to examine them.
Alain came with me. They were all pale, as Violet had been when
she’d been drained. But none of them looked feral, as vampires
tended to. Alain wasn’t as pale. He looked almost healthy, as if he
were alive.

“
Why do they understand
Latin?” I murmured to myself. Liam had stressed that Latin was
reserved for the Church and high nobility only. Alain and the rest
of the vampire monks speaking Latin made sense. The peasantry
understanding it didn’t.

“
Because our leader only
spoke Latin, my saint. He was not from here. His communication
taught them what they needed to know.”

“
Do you know where he came
from?”

“
He said Romania, if the
words of a demon are to be believed.”

The pattern I’d searched so long for was
set. The Order’s scientists had been right – we’d been sent exactly
where and when we should have been. “So, vampires are
telepathic.”

“
I don’t understand you,
my saint.”

“
The leader spoke to you
in your mind.”

“
Oh. No. No words.
Feelings. Thralls are controlled by words, yes, but more by desire
of the master. If the master demon desires something, the thrall
will obey.”

“
The master wanted you to
kill me.”

Alain smiled at me. “He did. But God sent
you to save me, my saint. I was deceived by the demon’s words, we
all were. We believed his lie that God wanted us to become higher
beings, to save the wretched from sickness and horror.”

“
Did you save
anyone?”

“
No, my saint. Infected
blood makes us ill. Only healthy blood nourishes us.”

I looked at the thralls. “None of these are
ill.”

“
No, our village was
spared one kind of death, but we embraced another. We have used
these thralls for food for many months. Once we drank the master’s
blood, we became demons, just as he was, so it seemed…right. He
wanted us to make more in our image, to spread our kind across the
land. He had done so before.” Alain looked up at the sky. “He will
not do so ever again, my Lord.”

“
Thanks to
you.”

Alain looked back to me. “No, my saint.
Thanks be to you. What will have us do with the thralls?”

Again my first desire was to say we should
destroy them all. But the thralls weren’t attacking or defending,
merely standing there, waiting to be told what to do. Sheep are not
threatening and these vampire thralls were sheep.

But I was a warrior, not a shepherd.