Authors: Aiden James
“You sound like a baby in need of milk and a good slap on the back, no?” teased Armando, which drew chuckles from everyone but Chanson, me, and Tyreen.
“How easy it is to forget what it’s like to be a new vampire!” Chanson lingered the longest on Armando, since his chuckle sounded the most amused. “We could place her under your personal care…perhaps permanently. How does that sound?”
That got him. His haughty smile was replaced by a sullen scowl and a pleading look in his eyes. I worried Tyreen’s feelings might be hurt by his reaction. But her expression told me that she missed seeing it, perhaps focused on Raquel’s enraptured look instead. No doubt, our diminutive imp looked forward to an opportunity to school the newbie vampire on how to procure lasting nourishment.
“I guess I could round up some ‘RH negative’ from the kitchen compartment.” Garvan seemed anxious to escape the sudden tenseness between Chanson and Armando. “I’ll be right back!”
“No, stay right where you are!” Chanson blocked him with her leg from leaving the aisle. “Tyreen needs to feed on the real thing for the first few days, remember? She can borrow from one of the flight attendants.”
Despite her nubile fangs and glowing green eyes, I couldn’t picture Tyreen feeding on anything, whether a jackrabbit, rat, or any other small creature—much less another human being. I still pictured my dear friend as when she was my sweet and vivacious college roommate in Tennessee. Tyreen couldn’t hurt a fly. She’d always wait for Johnny Ayers, her boyfriend, or me to come to her rescue whenever she found a bug bigger than her pinky nail. This was literally the way things were just two weeks earlier.
“Are you sure it’s okay?” A hopeful look began to spread across Tyreen’s face.
As soon as Chanson confirmed it with a nod, Tyreen suddenly disappeared. Only a slight visible blur announced her movement to the rear of our seating area. A shrill scream soon erupted from the hallway beyond, where a stewardess was making final preparations for our arrival in China.
I whispered a quiet prayer for the stewardess’s safety and turned my attention toward the dim images below. At least the fading moonlight was available for a few more minutes—long enough for me to define the enormous sprawling palace complex spread out across three hills below us. Then the plane began its final descent.
Chapter 2
We touched down on a narrow landing strip that nearly took us up to Xu Zheng’s grand entrance. By then, Chanson had organized us all to move quickly inside the palace, as a further precaution against the ever-encroaching threat of Ralu’s minions.
Moving through the ancient granite gates, I’d never personally witnessed such glorious grandeur before in my life. I felt incredibly humbled to be there. The Palace of Xu Zheng gleamed inside a spectacular golden halo illuminated by rows of torches along its towering height. A menacing jade dragon adorned the apex of this main structure to the sprawling complex I first saw from my window seat. It loomed well over a hundred feet above a sheer precipice jutting out from the side of a snow-covered mountain.
The rest of the buildings were spread out upon two other hillsides, although none presented the precarious challenge of being scaled by Ralu’s vicious army as the main structure did. I remember the strange sensation of feeling so vulnerable in a jet airplane with no room for error in negotiating the icy landing strip, and yet at the same time absolutely protected from all harm by my undead companions. Only when we exited the plane did that confident feeling wane to uneasiness, until Chanson and Garvan ushered me inside the palace.
“After we are briefed by Xuanxang, I’ll have Huangtian Dadi’s servants accompany you and Garvan to your bed chamber,” said Chanson, once we were inside the building’s foyer.
Two young children closed the doors behind us. It was hard to tell if they were little boys or girls. Dressed in purple and orange ornamental robes and slippers, they wore their jet-black hair in braided ponytails that hung down to the middle of their backs. They weren’t the only aspects of a bygone era to greet us. Our surroundings were illuminated by smaller torches along the walls and columns and throughout a long corridor that stretched before us. The place felt cold, despite a blazing fire burning in a huge fireplace located in what looked like a reception area just beyond the foyer.
“Not to sound like a brat, but I hope my bedchamber is a hell of a lot warmer than where we’re at now,” I told her, seeing light mist from my breaths while looking around to get a fuller impression of what the immediate area was like. I mean, don’t get me wrong…chilly or not, the craftsmanship that went into building the palace was exquisite. I just wished the light jacket handed to me by Armando as we exited the plane was warmer.
Detailed Asian tapestries hung upon many of the polished granite walls with pink marble inlays. The floor appeared to be made up of gray marble blocks with borders etched in gold, and the cornices for each pillar lining the corridor appeared to be solid gold, as well. It reminded me in ways of the Roman/Greco architecture of the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century in Europe and America, and yet at the same time carried a strong influence of the ancient oriental traditions.
“Is it just us or will Gustav, Racco, and his team of servants be joining us, as well?”
For the most part, the main floor of the palace seemed deserted. Chanson shot me a look that said I was acting impatient. But, since so far it was just the five of us—without any of the other vampires who flew from France to China accounted for—I believed some immediate clarity was only fair.
“They will all be joining us, some sooner than others,” she said, and headed down the corridor toward the fireplace without waiting for my reply.
Several more children appeared in the corridor, and these seemed a little older than the ones assigned to handle the main entrance traffic. They were dressed in similar robes and slippers. One of them, an older adolescent whom I could tell was a guy, wore a golden crown adorned with Chinese symbols in jade.
“Come…I believe Xuanxang is ready to meet with us,” whispered Armando into my right ear. He placed his left arm inside my right one while Garvan flanked me similarly on my left side. “It’s been centuries since our last meeting, so this should be fun!”
Fun? I wasn’t so sure this would be an enjoyable experience in any fashion. Unless the Chinese vampires always regarded others with the sullen look I saw upon the face of the decorated teenager who had moved next to the fireplace. Sullen but quite handsome, he awaited our arrival. As we approached, he smiled at us all politely.
“It has been a long time, Chanson.”
His voice was rich and mellow, and it defied his stern countenance.
He stood several inches above Chanson and I—the tallest members in our group. The ornate crown he wore further enhanced his height. He sort of reminded me of the palace’s golden façade outside, as he was entirely dressed in gold. His textured silk changshen robe bore a light green disc in the center, which I later learned represented the moon.
But that wasn’t what set him apart from everyone else in attendance. Nor was it the strong muscular body I glimpsed through the gaps in his raiment. Sleek and chiseled facial features, not unlike Armando and Garvan, would certainly cause a stir in most women. But the thing that captured my fascination were his eyes. They were turquoise in color, and seemed even more luminescent than the vampire quintet that accompanied me from France.
Not that I felt attracted sexually, per se…at least not that night. It was more curiosity about what lurked behind those eyes.
“The last time was when Gustav and I traveled to Hong Kong, back in 1917,” said Chanson, smiling shyly, as if she too were caught in the magical grip of his gaze.
“Ha! I remember how neither of you wanted to be caught up in the carnage of the first European war!” He laughed, revealing a mouth full of perfect teeth and a gleaming pair of fangs. “Yet, was it not worse when France later fell to the Third Reich?”
“No worse than living under Chairman Mao,” she quipped in response.
He chuckled warmly, conceding their harmless joust of words with a nod.
“So, tell me…who have you brought with you?” He turned to study me. “I am acquainted with Armando and Garvan, and I have seen the little one before in your entourage.”
“Do you mean Raquel?” Chanson, motioned to her while smiling at me and at Tyreen, who had just caught up with the rest of us from the corridor. We surrounded him in an arc, while two of the servant youths brought chairs from around the room for us to sit in. “Xuanxang, allow me to officially introduce you to Raquel Meurtrier, Tyreen Davenport, and last but not least, my cousin…the now infamous Txema Ybarra.”
“I am pleased to meet you all.” He allowed his gaze to briefly linger on Raquel and Tyreen, before settling on me.
I felt disrobed, but the coldness of his stare made it hard to tell if his intent was sexually predatory or just curious. I returned his gaze unflinchingly, wondering if he could discern my thoughts with the usual vampire lucidity, or if he would encounter the same new protective wall that the other vampires sought in vain to overcome. A slight flutter upon his left eyelid made me think that my mind’s privacy remained intact.
I noticed his skin seemed flushed, and that he looked no paler than any of the young servants present with us. Chanson and Raquel looked especially pasty in his presence, since neither one had fed. If I’d not been told earlier that Xuanxang was the ‘eternal’ servant and protector for Huangtian Dadi, I might not have immediately concluded he was a vampire. Then again, he did have those crazy eyes and a pair of incisors that would count as lethal weapons in most countries.
But the brief consideration of Xuanxang as a warm-blooded man stirred something inside me that would make more sense later on. At the time, I thought it was merely a hot flash brought on by raging hormones from the onset of my pregnancy.
“Please, sit down so we can visit for a few minutes. Then you can rest for a few hours, until three o’clock. At that time, you and the rest of your vampire contingent will join our Himalayan assembly for a meeting with Huangtian Dadi and Gustav.”
“I thought they wanted to meet with us tonight, which would allow us to rejuvenate fully after our battle with Ralu’s forces at Racczis de Saint Germain’s castle near Perpignan.” Chanson frowned while glancing at a large gilded clock sitting on a table next to the fireplace. Hard to read the time from where I was sitting, but it looked as if the hour hand pointed to twelve o’clock, midnight. “I presume that other unfortunate developments have taken place since we entered China’s airspace.”
“Yes, that is correct,” he confirmed for her, and then looked at me again. “As far as the details involved, unfortunately, everyone must wait until our two leaders can address us all at once.”
“That sounds really serious,” I said, without first considering how customs were handled in the Himalayas’ vampire-land. Everything seemed very formal so far, and I worried for a moment that I might’ve come across as too assertive.
Xuanxang gave me a look that suggested I should act like a good little girl and keep my mouth shut.
“It is
quite
serious.” He held me in his gaze until Armando noisily cleared his throat. “I cannot stress this fact enough to all of you!”
He allowed his stone-like gaze to survey us all as we sat there. Despite his forceful tone, his countenance remained controlled, confident. There were no obvious signs of simmering anger fueling his words, bubbling somewhere beneath the coolness of his façade. Instead, his persona remained solidly stoic and calm.
“Will we have access to every building here?” Tyreen seemed the most comfortable among us, and voiced this concern with the same fervor she once held for pep rallies in college. “I was hoping to get started as soon as the sun sets this coming evening.”
“You shall have unlimited access to almost anything here, except for Huangtian Dadi’s private quarters,” said Xuanxang. He motioned to one of his servants to come to us, who carried a tray bearing a lone porcelain cup of tea and several crystal flasks filled with a crimson beverage. Steam rose into the air in gentle wisps, more from the tea than from the flasks that surely bore standard, human blood warmth. “For as long as you are here, we will see to it that you enjoy privileges extended only to our most cherished guests.”
“I assume our caskets will be transported to somewhere safe from daylight,” said Armando. I followed his gaze to the upstairs veranda and a wall of glass that surrounded us on all sides. The soft glow from a multitude of outside torches would be replaced by the onset of daylight a few hours after our conference with Gustav and Huangtian Dadi began at 3:00 a.m. “Will any of us be placed near Txema’s chamber?”
Great question, and one I would’ve considered asking sooner or later, I’m sure. With the ever-present threat of Ralu and his army finding me, knowing where my nocturnal bodyguards slept during the day was critical information to know.
“Chanson and Garvan will be accommodated in the same chamber as Txema,” said Xuanxang. A slight grin tugged at his lips, as if he relished Armando’s indignant scowl in response to this news. “The rest of you will join your comrades—all ninety-six of them—on the fourth floor. Some coffins have already been placed upstairs, and more should be delivered to their chambers well before dawn.”