The Vampires' Birthright (8 page)

A man clothed only in the gore of his victim crouched over the woman’s body. No, not a man, a hungry demon disguised as a man. He shoved fistfuls of bloody flesh into a jaw that opened on a hinge more akin to a serpent’s than a human’s.

At first, the monster didn’t see me, but when he did, he snarled, baring a maw full of fangs. The vampire, for it could clearly have been nothing else, might have passed for a brother of Xuanxang. The biggest difference was the eyes, not only in their gleaming red color, but also the wild, lunatic stare as he turned to shield the mangled torso of his victim with his own body.

The vampire fixed his gaze upon me with a predatory glare and bared his teeth further in challenge, as if I had any intention of taking the prize of his meal. I felt like a Yellowstone tourist who had stumbled upon a grizzly bear killing a deer for its cubs.

We stood, eyes locked on each other for what felt like minutes, but in reality must have only been ten or fifteen seconds. I broke the gaze first, turning to look over my shoulder. As soon as I did, he dropped the woman’s torso and roared at me. I stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. The children shrieked in terror, hugging each other. The vampire charged me, crossing the shaded ground in a few bounding steps. As soon as he broke from under the shelter of the pavilion and into the sunlight, he howled in pain and shrunk back. Smoke rose from the seared flesh on his naked and bloodstained body.

That gave me hope. Maybe I could rescue the kids and get us all back inside the palace safely. What happened next obliterated that notion completely, and opened my eyes as to how little I truly understood about the new world to which I belonged.

The vampire mutated. His powerful muscles expanded while sharp fins tore through his back and a pair of black horns grew from each side of his head. His skin split and peeled away, revealing the gray scales I had glimpsed earlier. At that time, I had been too far away to distinguish the intricate snake-like patterns along the creature’s arms, legs, and the tail that dropped toward the ground from this monster’s backside. Now that I was closer there for half a second I was struck by the stupid thought of how much the pattern looked like that of a mundane lizard, like some kind of skink. Then I had a chilling realization.

I was so fucked.

My feet felt like lead, as if frozen to the icy ground. But in the few moments before this thing finished its transformation, something inside me came to life. I know it must sound ridiculous, but I heard a voice call to me, with both clarity and power. Power enough to snap me from the mesmerism that had taken hold.

Run, now Mommy!

Wherever it came from, it was enough. Everything became a blur, yet at the same time, I felt as though I were moving in slow motion. I knew that I couldn’t save the children, but then again, this thing wasn’t after them at the moment and I hoped they would escape on their own. I ran as fast as I could, praying my God-given athleticism was enough to save me. I sprinted back to the main palace. As I slammed through the door, I wondered for a second why there were no daytime guards protecting the building. Even across the world, there never seems to be a cop when you need one. I didn’t wait to close the door behind me, I just ran. I had no intention of stopping or looking over my shoulder until I reached my room.

I heard the screams of more terrified children, this time from within the palace―no doubt drawn by the sounds of my panicked flight. The clicks and scrapes of sharp talons against the marble floor were all I needed to know this monster intended to pursue me until it held my trembling body within its mouth or claws.

I scrambled up the stairs to the second floor as my pursuer crashed through the reception area. It sounded as if I might have gained a few seconds on it, since I heard the snap of a table being broken and chairs launched into a wall. I took the final flight of steps three at a time as the fiend raced across the second floor. It let out an even angrier screech, no doubt irritated that I hadn’t even bothered to turn around. That would surely have been a death sentence.

Like when running track, I just kept my eyes forward and ran, and it was enough. I made it to the third floor and felt that burst of adrenaline that always came when the finish line is in sight. I sprinted the last twenty feet from the top step into my room. Thank goodness I hadn’t bothered to lock my bedchamber’s door; I would’ve never made it to safety. The instant I reached the threshold, the thing dove at me. Its talons shredded part of my snowsuit, but the force behind it shoved me into my room. I scrambled back to the door and saw the vampire-turned-dragon’s talons scraping over the marble floor of hallway, unable to stop under the combination of its mass and inertia. It crashed into the wall a short distance away. As it regained its footing, I slammed the door and dropped the bar bolt. We’d had a bit of a laugh at what we considered the extreme nature of the lock when we’d been given the room. Now I understood our Chinese hosts’ intention, and the necessity of such a device. The creature rammed its body repeatedly against the door. The wood cracked and splintered. I had no idea what to do next, and dire panic rose within me. I sought to rouse my protectors from their deep, daily slumber, pounding on every single casket. But they remained comatose, and presumably unaware as to what was going on.

The door started to give, the splinters giving way to larger cracks. A moment later, the hole was large enough to accommodate a human fist―or face, and I half expected ‘here’s Johnny.’ I cowered behind the last coffin in the row of five next to my bed to await my impending doom. It was the smallest one, which belonged to Raquel. Wood shrieked in protest as the door fell in to the room, and the creature’s angry maw opened as it hissed in triumph and, perhaps, delight. At that moment, the lid to Raquel’s casket flew open and she sat up facing the doorway. She screamed, and the combination of movement and sound was almost too much for my heart to handle. I was as frightened by her sudden appearance as I was of the fiend in the hall. Her eyes glowed blood red, quite unlike their usual lavender beauty. Her teeth looked a hell of a lot sharper than I remembered ever seeing, even from the side; the fangs in particular seemed elongated and far more viper-like than usual.

I scurried under the table nearby, terrified and unsure what to do next.

I realized the shrieking from Raquel wasn’t an incoherent challenge as I had first assumed. I could make out guttural syllables and words in some language unlike any I had heard before being repeated in a regular cadence. Whatever Raquel chanted had some effect on the dragon. It slammed itself against an unseen force powerful enough to hold it back and prevent it from crossing the threshold into our room. It howled with furious impotence as the invisible barrier repulsed it again and again, each blow resounding with an almost sub-audible thum like a massive kettle drum. Finally, it hurled itself against the wall facing the hall one last time. I heard the brittle crash of breaking glass.

From the sound, I knew that the creature had exited via the immense window that faced the highest reaches of the Himalayas. My gaze turned fearfully toward the window in my own room. I remembered well how the creature had seemed to scurry over the statues like a garden lizard over a wall, but thankfully, either Raquel’s sorcery protected that entrance as well, or the creature was too dim to try and go around to it. Instead, the monster’s angry cries grew softer and softer as it retreated. When the sounds finally faded away to silence, my diminutive protector stopped chanting, closed her mouth and eyes, and lay back down inside her casket as though nothing had happened to disturb her. I tentatively stood and stole a peek into her daytime resting place. She looked calm and peaceful, like an angel at rest.

here’s no way we can stay here!”

My latest protest landed upon the same deaf ears as the previous ones had. After pacing around my bedchamber for hours while waiting for the sun to set, I was in no mood for the collective nonchalance that greeted me when my vampire “friends” awoke. Only Tyreen shared my anxiety; her repeated glances through the gaping maw of the empty doorway into the gathering darkness beyond the palace at least reassured me she was listening to my concerns, or perhaps had some of her own. Beyond the physical threat to me and my unborn child, their callousness to the horrifying fate of that poor woman reminded me that despite their beautiful exterior and fact they drank blood in fine crystal chalices, I was still in the company of monsters.

It should have been telling that while my own companions were blowing me off, the team of Chinese vampires tasked with the nightly ritual of scaling the palace walls to light the hundreds of torches covering the main building seemed concerned by the fifteen-foot jagged hole in the third floor window. It’s worth mentioning here that we had recently learned that the glass was nearly four inches thick, and designed to withstand hurricane-strength winds or any other assault from Mother Nature. No doubt, the window would prevent certain caliber bullets from breaking it, as well… but not a furious vampire/dragon.

“I’ve already spoken with Gustav. He agrees with Huangtian Dadi that you interrupted the feeding time for one of the descendants of the founders of Xu Zheng,” said Chanson. “As long as you don’t willingly seek this one out, you’ll never encounter him again. Personally,
I’ve
not even seen this kind of vampire before―that’s how rare they are.”

“So, you’re
okay
with what it did?” I was incensed and incredulous. “You’re saying that you… and it are the same thing and it’s okay? Are you justifying it? Or yourself? That thing is a demon as far as I’m concerned! It orphaned two children who watched while it fucking devoured their mother! There’s
no
way—”

“Sh-h-h!”
She placed her cool hand over my mouth to prevent me from saying anything else that could get me into trouble with her. “It’s not for us to judge the customs of another culture, Txema. We are not the same as them, any more than we are the same as you. I don’t like this either, but we’re in no position to enforce our ways upon
any
members who follow the Order of the Dragon. The leaders of the Order are connected to an ancient power, older and greater than even Gustav or Huangtian Dadi.”

“So, you are saying that we should just turn a blind eye to what’s going on around here?” I moved away from her hand to at least try and get out what I wanted to say. I desperately needed her to hear it. I needed
all
of them to hear me loud and clear! Wrong was always wrong, regardless of whether it offended someone to speak up about it or not. I couldn’t have cared less about some ancient Order’s moral or political code. Chanson, as my cousin, should’ve appreciated my stance, since the women in our family would’ve never put up with this kind of shit! It was as integral to our birthright as the fact we can make some vampires handsome or beautiful. “At least we now know why there are only a bunch of kids running the place―their parents have all been eaten!”

Chanson stepped back and studied me. She knew exactly what I was talking about. Tyreen, being from a more contemporary age, shared my values. Raquel nodded in agreement, though with her, it could have been she simply wanted a fight, although it was clear there had to be more than a single rogue vampire orphaning the palace staff.