My father was nervous. I’m the oldest so he’s never had to meet a genuine romantic suitor before. I could tell he wanted it to go smoothly.
Andrei walked in, followed by his father, who was wearing, honest to goodness, a cape with a scarlet lining and a tuxedo. Sometimes stereotypes run true. He looked like a Hollywood vampire. Andrei’s mother wore a scarlet dress to go with her husband’s cape. They lined up across from each other and shut down. Nobody said anything. Andrei rescued us by suggesting that we go to our private room and sit down for dinner.
We walked into the back room and stopped. The room had no furniture. I turned around to say something to Andrei and noticed that my family was standing like statues. Their arms hung down at their sides, and they stared straight ahead. Three men threw metal chains around Andrei and his mother and father. Silver incapacitates a vampire. Now Andrei and his mom and dad are standing like statues. I was the only one who could move.
A tall man tapped me on the shoulder. He stared in my eyes and suddenly I remembered the night before. I remembered being awakened by those same deep, frightening eyes. I remembered the instructions I was given; that I had to get them all here, in this room, at this time. I also noticed that I couldn’t move either.
The tall man grabbed my sister and brought her out of her hypnotic state. She could move and feel. She saw the man and tried to scream, but no sound came out. The tall man held her around the waist with one hand and bent her head to the side with the other. He opened his mouth. I saw his fangs grew. Andrei and his mother and father couldn’t do anything but try to talk. Like my sister, no sound came out.
My little sister is a prize for the entire family. I’ve never met anyone who radiated value and enjoyment like my little sister. We’ve always loved her.
The tall man liked the terror inside my sister. He lowered his fangs until they touched her skin. She jumped. He did it again. The next time, I saw the tall man’s fangs drop onto her neck. She tried to scream again, but nothing worked. I watched her writhe in agony as the poison from the bite ran through her body.
She turned gray and stopped moving.
We did nothing for five entire minutes. I was frozen in place with a clock in front of me. I had nothing to do but watch the clock tick and my sister die.
She became more listless and weak as the time passed. Her eyes dulled, and she had trouble standing.
The tall man said to her, “What’s your name?”
She mumbled, “Janice Matthews.”
The man said, “Not yet, but soon.”
We waited another five minutes until he asked her the same question. She said, “I...I don’t know.”
“Good. Do you have an identity? Can you remember whether you have a sister or a mother or father?”
She concentrated. “No. I can’t remember.”
The man dragged her over in front of Andrei and his family. “This will happen to all four of them if you don’t bring me The Book of Towers. I know how much importance you place on... well, our food. We’ll make the man into dinner for several of us and slaves of the women. It’s up to you whether this family loses just one female or all of them.”
A knife appeared in his hand as if it were a magic trick. He slashed his forearm and said to Jill, “If you’d like to live, drink.” He held his arm over her head. She tilted her head back and opened her mouth all the way.
Andrei and his family came to life. I don’t know what it cost them to move against the silver chains. I watched them strain and try to talk. Andrei wanted to get to the tall man. He made his body move three feet before they ran out of time.
The tall man watched their efforts with cynical enjoyment. He laughed once.
The blood from his arm fell into the air. I couldn’t look anywhere else. It seemed to stay aloft for hours before it fell into my sisters open mouth. She swallowed.
Andrei and his family turned their heads. I wish I had. Janice’ body darkened and seemed to quiver. Her face scrunched into a look of intense agony. Her body twisted into odd postures. This seemed to go on for hours, but couldn’t have been more than a minute.
Abruptly, she died. That is, my sister wasn’t there anymore. Her face carried intense evil and an enjoyment of suffering. She sat down at the tall man’s feet and rubbed her cheek against his leg like a cat.
The tall man went from my father to my mother to my sister, staring into their eyes. They moved around, but couldn’t talk. The tall man hit my father with his closed fist. My father fell to the floor. The tall man asked my mother, “Wouldn’t you like to be young again and beautiful? Wouldn’t you like to be that way forever?”
My mother never lets her heart stray from her family. She said, “What have you done to my daughter?”
The tall man beckoned to the person who used to be Janice Matthews. Janice came to his side.
The tall man looked around the room and said, “Come out.” Ten mice appeared on the floor. He picked one up and held it above Janice’s head. She looked up at the mouse and licked her lips. He said, “Eat” and dropped the mouse into Janice’s open mouth. We watched my sister chew the mouse and swallow it. I can still hear the cracking of the little creature’s bones. A drop of blood came out of the side of her lips. The tall man bent over and licked it up.
He said, “Your daughter is dead. This woman is my woman. I’ll do anything I want to her. I’ll let any of our men do what they want. More than that, she’ll kill and feed on children from this day forward.”
My mother grew pale and fainted.
The tall man said, “Enough.” He said to Andrei, “You know our price. One hour.” He gathered his people to him and was about to leave. He stopped and gestured to one of his men then pointed to Jill.
The other man seized Jill’s hair and pulled her head to the side. He bit down on her neck.
That’s what I was doing instead of watching the tall man. I watched the assault on Jill instead of worry about the tall man. I was helpless. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I knew he was coming.
I felt a hand on my chin yanking it to the side. I looked in the tall man’s eyes. He pointed to Jill. “That’s what’s going to happen to you. See it. Watch her eyes lose their humanity. You’re next.”
I felt his fangs penetrate my neck and his lips come down and cover the wounds. I didn’t feel him suck my blood out through the two holes in my neck. I didn’t feel him inject his poison in my body.
A great cloud of dense black nothingness exploded inside me, filling me with the deepest depression. I noticed my personality leaking out. My memories dropped away. Or maybe I just stopped being aware of their existence.
He let go of me. I fell to the floor. I heard him laugh and boast to Andrei, “There now. I’ve given you two anchors to hold down your progress. I’ve taken one daughter completely and infected the other two. If you leave them alone at any time, I’ll come back and turn them. Good luck.” He walked out.
*****
Andrei held me in his arms. I tried to remember my love for him. It was there but it flickered. He said, “Don’t resist it. You can’t. We can guard you and keep him from taking you and your sister. If we can defeat him, you’ll change back.”
I had enough pure panic in me to let me whisper, “What if you can’t?”
“I’m afraid you’ll sicken and die. I’m sorry.”
I raised my arm with all of my strength and touched his cheek. “Go. Go fight him.”
He nodded. “Yes. That’s what I have to do to save you.”
They took me and my sister and mother to my apartment. My father had a broken jaw. They had to take him to the emergency room. I had them put my sister and mother in my bed and me on the couch. I assured them that we’d be fine while they dealt with the evil vampires. A nice, young man stayed outside our door to guard us.
I said goodbye and watched them leave.
As soon as the door closed, I jumped up, completely cured. I didn’t have sense or awareness enough to wonder why I could do that.
I had my strength back and didn’t feel full of darkness, but my will had been stored in a compartment back inside my mind where it wouldn’t cause any trouble.
I knew exactly what I had to do. I walked out of my apartment quickly and tapped the young guard on the shoulder. I said, “I’ve just remembered something. I need to get it to the central committee. Take me there.”
I don’t know what I pictured the headquarters of a coven of vampires to look like, but it wasn’t this. We drove up to an enormous, four-story, Victorian mansion; gorgeous, stately and graceful.
Inside, I saw beautiful women and handsome men. Their bodies came in different sizes, including several women who were shaped like me. I stopped by the receptionist, a lovely girl with auburn hair and light skin. “I need to talk to Commander Stafford”
I didn’t know who Commander Stafford was. I just knew I needed to talk to him.
She showed me into an office that looked like a banker’s office from a hundred years ago. Stafford was in his fifties with black hair and a little gray at the temples. He stood and offered me his hand. I whipped a silver chain out of my pocket and whirled it around him. He looked stunned and sat back in his chair.
I’m doing this in a place I’ve never been before and using knowledge I didn’t know I had. But I’m doing it.
I swung a painting away from the wall and said, “What’s the combination?”
Commander Stafford’s voice sounded strained, as if it had to battle to get past his teeth. “Turn the dial to the letters ‘B-r-i-g-h-t-a-n-d-S-h-i-n-i-n-g’. “ I spun the dial and the door opened. I looked inside at a leather bound book with gold lettering saying ‘Towers’. I knew it held every bit of information the evil vampires needed to defeat Andrei and his army.
*****
Andrei and his fighters waited in an alley. They had all of the weapons they needed to eliminate an evil vampire; crossbows with wooden arrows, darts with feathers dipped in concentrated garlic and holy water kept in glass vials.
The evil vampires flew against them in waves. Andrei’s army was outnumbered five to one. Andrei and his men stopped the first and second wave with arrows from their crossbows. The third wave got closer but fell to the darts carrying the garlic. The fourth and final wave overwhelmed them and landed unopposed. Andrei and his fighters had to use swords and knifes. They killed in reckless numbers, but they were still outnumbered.
Andrei slashed at the evil vampires. He and his men were stronger than the attackers but there’re so many of them. He was pressed back against a wall facing five evil vampires with axes.
*****
I looked at the book for a long time. I reached out to touch it and stopped. A memory clouded my mind. I couldn’t make it clear. I knew it was important. Something a man did to me that changed me. I took deep breaths and tried to concentrate.
I won. I remembered the feel of Andrei’s touch on my cheek and his kiss on my lips. I withdrew my hand. I removed the silver chain from Commander Stafford and said, “They’re outside the building. Andrei can’t hold them off much longer.”
The Commander hit a big red button on top of his desk and shouted. “All hands to the south side.”
Love had won. My love for Andrei defeated the evil hypnotic state I was in.
*****
Andrei felt three blows from evil axes against his arms. The men fighting him were joined by two more. All around him, small glass vials of holy water exploded. It slowed them down.
He saw something from the side of his vision. Evil vampires flew through the air like discarded newspapers on a high wind. His opponents saw it as well and tried to run. They were cut down by fresh fighters with crossbows.
*****
I watched from Stafford’s office three floors above the fight. I could see Andrei leading his men. The battle ended and I watched him run inside the building.
We were alone in Stafford’s office. He wanted to hold me, but I held him off. I bawled like a baby with colic and blubbered, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it.”
A silver streak flew between us. A knife buried itself into the wall.
I wanted to be part of the fight, not a bystander. I grabbed the knife and sliced into Andrei’s forearm. I planted my mouth over the cut and sucked. Andrei jerked his arms away from my mouth. He shouted, “No. You’ll die.”
“No, she won’t. I didn’t give her the injection.” The tall man smirked at us. He closed the door behind him and locked it. He continued, “You’re so easy to fool. We couldn’t have used her if she’d been infected. We just hypnotized to make her look like it.” He lost the smirk and laughed, arrogantly. “It worked. Everything worked. I just have to dispose of you, you self-righteous asshole. I can have whatever I want from the bitch then take care of the other bastards in your coven at my convenience.” He looked past me to the Book inside the safe. “Thanks to Becky, we now have the Book of Towers. That’s all we need.”
Andrei had wonder and excitement in his voice. “You’re alone.”
“Yes. What of it?”
“It’s an incredible opportunity. I can rescue three women.”
“Only if you defeat me.”
I concentrated and found I could follow this fight. A second later, I wished I couldn’t.
Andrei started well. He lunged for the tall man and cut his leg. The man danced back and laughed. I really hated that laugh. As we watched, the wound in his leg healed. I looked at Andrei. It had shaken him. He was thinking the same thing. How can you defeat a man who can heal himself faster than you can cut him?