Indeed, the young woman standing before her took a step back, as if something had hit her; she opened her mouth, as if to protest, but then lost her strength to resist and nodded, compliantly:
“Yes, yes, of course I can help. Come in, I’m sure we can find you something”.
“Thank you”.
Together, they picked a few clothes that somewhat fitted Erica, a black trouser and a white shirt, which were a bit baggy on her. Erica changed in front of the young woman, indifferent to her presence. When she was ready, she turned to her and continued with her plan.
“I’ve a couple of chores next door, in my room; could you give me a hand with those, too?”
Like before, Erica felt her body responding readily to her commands, offering her the magic she needed. This time the woman, whose name she hadn’t even asked, simply nodded. Slowly, her mind was being consumed by Erica’s magic.
They went next door to Erica’s room and there she forced the woman to lie down on the bloodied bed. Then, she effortlessly picked up the body of the drug dealer from the floor and dropped it on the bed as well.
“Bite him”, she ordered, mentally projecting to the woman exactly what she wanted her to do.
The woman obeyed without the slightest hesitation. Her brain was now fried.
Erica waited patiently for her to complete her task and when she was satisfied that now only the woman’s bite marks would be found on the body of the drug dealer, she told her to stop and lie still, no matter what. She raised her hand and forced herself to create the desired effect. At first she failed, but eventually she got the result she was aiming for. The woman’s skin caught fire, as if made of paper, and the flames quickly engulfed everything. The whole place was on fire, but the burning woman did not make the slightest sound.
A wave of fatigue hit Erica; that power she had just used took a toll on her body. Fortunately, she had recently fed and she quickly felt better. Without wasting any more time, she opened the blinds and window, letting the moonlight in. She didn’t know how much evidence would escape the flames, but she wanted to improve the chances that the team sent by Sir Philip would not look for her. With a bit of luck, they would assume that one of the bodies discovered at the hotel belonged to her. But even if they probed deeper, on the body of the drug dealer they would discover only the bite marks of the other woman. The only way to ascertain that the body was not hers would be through the information stored in the database of the Order, and Erica had a pretty good idea about how she could make that disappear, as well. She made sure that the fire had caught on and then jumped from the window. She was on the second floor, but she landed as if she had hopped down from a few inches. She walked to the drug dealer’s car, taking advantage of her stunning speed; got the packages with the drugs she found in the trunk and effortlessly tossed them through the window of the burning room. She got in the car and drove away, without glancing back once.
Chapter 3
The sound of the bass at the club thumped in her ears like a cannon; she felt as if the music was alive, enveloping her. Her body was now able to much better appreciate all the senses, experiencing them under a new light. Around her, dozens of people were dancing, unaware of the vampires present among them, Erica being just one of them. A few days had passed since she fled that hotel, across the island of Baranof, and now she was in the city of Tower, in the Southern States, where she still hadn’t found what she was looking for. However, that night she knew that she was fairly close.
She had changed her clothes and now was dressed in a way that made her look even more attractive. Several men had tried to approach her during those last days and a few had been unfortunate enough to be chosen as her next meal. Those hapless men at first thought they had managed to score with a stunning woman, only to wake up the next morning exhausted, with bite marks in their bodies and no memory of what had happened to them. However, at the time no one was trying to talk her up. She was making her way through the club, looking for a specific vampire and was relying on her powers to keep at bay anyone who would approach her. She was walking amongst them as if she were invisible.
Eventually, she spotted him. There, at the corner of the bar, seated on a tall chair, talking to a young woman. He was tall and overly thin, of African descent, his hair breaded in dreadlocks, while a hawkish nose accentuated his bony face. He had managed to magnetize the young woman, using his vampiric powers, but from the looks of it he wasn’t doing as well as he would have wanted. Clearly, he meant to make her want to leave that place with him, so that he could lead her somewhere quiet and feed off her blood. Judging by his body language, possibly he wanted something more than that. Erica approached him without hesitation, immediately catching his attention. At once, his pupils widened, realizing that she was a vampire, too. He stopped focusing on the young woman and turned his attention to Erica, studying her carefully. He was trying to determine whether her intentions were peaceful or not. Erica approached them, grabbed the young woman by the arm and looked her straight in the eye.
“Leave, and never return to this club”, she commanded her.
The woman obeyed at once, unable to resist Erica’s power. The vampire next to her seemed to have been taken by surprise.
“Hey, why did you do that? I wanted her! I’d been trying for some time to win her over!” he complained, angrily, and at the same time somewhat scared, for he had witnessed the ease with which Erica had affected her.
“Let’s find a quiet spot where we can talk”, she replied, coldly.
“No, no, I think I’m just fine right here. It’s nice and cozy, let’s stay here!” he said, as his anger had evaporated, leaving behind an even more pronounced sense of fear.
Erica had no time for this; she grabbed him by the neck and squeezed tight. With a little more force, his spine would snap like a twig.
“I could kill you right where we are; I’ve no need to take you elsewhere. Get up and move, now”, she commanded him, with an icy voice.
This time he did not resist her. He got up immediately and together they walked out of the club. She led him to her stolen car and forced him to get in. At that point, the vampire could have used his powers to escape, but the place was too busy, he wouldn’t have dared to pull such a stunt. Erica got behind the wheel and they drove away, speeding through the streets of Tower, which were relatively quiet at that time.
The metropolis of Tower in the Southern States was built on an expansive valley, named after the massive black tower which had been built on the single hill in that area. The specific building had been constructed three centuries earlier, at a time before the abolition of slavery in the States, and had served as a prison for African-American “troublemakers”; namely, for anyone in the valley who wouldn’t submit to slavery. The tower also held the families of the slaves, at least those members unfit for work. A strong military garrison at the foot of the hill saw to the preservation of the status quo, making sure that no slave could attempt to escape from the valley, at least without putting in danger their families. Following the abolition of slavery, the tower was quickly converted into a fort for those opposing the decision and served as their main base of operations during the ensuing civil war. The end of that war and victory for the forces of freedom was sealed by the destruction of the tower by the slavers themselves, who torched the place when their eventual defeat became unavoidable. Tens of families of African-Americans who were being held captive within the tower’s walls met a grizzly death, along with their tormentors. Following this tragedy, the ruins of that structure were deemed to be a historical monument to the cause of freedom of the African-Americans and later, in modern times, a law was introduced which prohibited the construction of any building taller than the tower. The metropolis which gradually came to encompass the entire valley soon became a sanctuary for all oppressed social groups and a hub attracting all free-thinking people around the globe, thus becoming a city famed for its academia and its particularly advanced economy and technology.
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The vampire that Erica had taken captive was looking absent-mindedly at the various small skyscrapers belonging to tech giants which dotted the city center, while his captor was speeding through the well-lit avenues. They were leaving downtown behind them, with the ruins of the black tower receding in the distance, visible even at night thanks to the tens of spotlights around its base.
“So, when are you going to tell me what is it that you want exactly?” asked eventually the vampire, once he managed to gather his courage. “Every now and then, one of you comes along, looking for me. And each time I tell them the same thing, they don’t want to go about messing with me. Not your lot, not without a clan to back you up. Do you know what happened to the last stray mutt who tried to force me into doing a ‘couple of favors’ for him? My brethren came along and presented him the Light”, he said, with unconvincing bluster.
The phrase he had used, about the Light, was the expression of choice for the vampires to say that one of their kind had died. Erica’s prisoner kept on trying to intimidate her:
“Are you looking to meet the same end? Let me go! Now!” he ended up screaming at her.
Erica turned and slapped him so hard that teeth flew from his mouth. Before the vampire had time to react, she grabbed him by the neck with one hand, steering the car with the other.
“Considering your reputation for being one of the best hackers, you’re not that observant. Want to see my ‘clan’? Look at my hands”, she said, harshly.
At first, the vampire sitting next to her looked her in the eyes, almost too scared to contemplate what he was about to see and then turned and noticed her hand holding the wheel. And, indeed, on her lower arm, a few inches above her wrist, there was an impressive cross.
“The Order? Someone managed to turn one of you into a vampire? Shit! I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead! Tell me what you want me to do, just, please don’t kill me. Shit!”
“Relax, there’re a couple of things I want from you. To begin with, something fairly simple. You will tell me all you know about vampires, the various families that exist, or clans as you call them, how many vampires lurk in this city, everything. Now, the next part… well, that’s a bit trickier, but then again that’s how we ended up knowing you as one of the best hackers in the vampire camp. You will make sure that no trace of my identity is left behind at my Order. And then… we shall see”, said Erica, coldly.
Upon hearing those last words, the vampire chose not to speak and tried to calm down, closing his eyes. He knew that the chances to survive were not that good.
“Fine, I’ll do what you ask. Just, don’t kill me”, he said eventually, defeated.
Erica smiled, contentedly.
“Upon completing your training, you shall be strong enough to deal with a common vampire, should the fiend attack you. The best among you will be able to take on two or three opponents, simultaneously”. The instructor paused for a while, as he observed his audience, looking at each one of them in turn, to see how attentive they were, before continuing: “But, what about ten? Twenty? A hundred, perhaps? The Order of the Silver Sun has been blessed by the Lord, but we, too, have our limitations. Where our bodies fail us, we must use our minds. We must be prepared, organized, always following a plan and, of course, always having a backup plan to deal with any… unforeseen developments”.
The memory of that lesson at the shelter came to her as if she had experienced it mere moments ago. Erica’s memory had become sharper, following the same path with her senses. Now, she felt like she could remember all that she had lived. Each memory had been stored, like a photograph, in her mind and she was free to process and analyze it far better than before.
Instinctively, she raised her hand, parrying the attempted strike by the vampire sitting next to her. It was a vain attempt to escape. She grabbed his hand and with a quick twist snapped it, as if it were a pencil. A scream of pain immediately followed, but she didn’t even look at him. Turning the wheel, she followed an exit from the highway, leading to a road snaking up towards the forested mountains dominating the landscape around the Tower valley. Following a meandering route full of turns, along darkened dirt roads, flanked by massive trees, they ended up before a relatively large but abandoned church. Its stone walls were covered in moss. The wooden windows had fallen off long ago and the cross that should have been standing on its roof was missing. Erica brought the car to a stop before the dilapidated stairs and, grabbing the hacker by the neck, pulled him out of the car from her side. She was in no mood to entertain further escape attempts. She got him to the building, almost dragging him and closed behind them the twin door which, somehow, was still standing.
Inside, the church was dark, thick with cobwebs and bugs which nestled there. The walls were covered by rows of shelves, filled with large boxes. The smell of tinned food that had gone bad was fairly strong, but Erica was able to ignore it. She kept dragging her prisoner towards the back end of the church, where there was a small room. She pushed him inside, tossing him towards the single chair in there, before a dusty desk. An ancient computer was sitting on top of it and, the moment the vampire saw it, despite his fear, he laughed.
“Sorry, honey, I may be undead, but I can’t resurrect dead things!” he said, with more bravado than he actually felt.
Erica ignored him. She went before him and turned on the computer which, despite its sorry appearance, was in perfect condition. The vampire quickly turned his eyes towards the screen as the machine booted up and seemed surprised.
“A modern computer sitting in this dump… And it gets power from where?” He let his questions hang in the air, uncertain whether he should have even asked them.
Erica sat on the desk, pushed aside the keyboard and pinned him down with her stare.
“You are Travis Bennet, a vampire known to my Order by name, and you are the reason we had to hire an expert to protect our electronic equipment”. As she spoke, Erica was pointing at him and then she turned her index finger towards the computer. “This is one of the few terminals with direct access to the mainframe at the Order. It is activated only in emergencies, so that the mobile units have access to whatever information they need. It is fairly protected behind firewalls, but I’m confident that you won’t have trouble bypassing them, without leaving a trace behind you. I want you to erase the files on all the knights of the Order, making it look like a virus got into the system. I want these files completely and utterly unrecoverable. Do your worst. Obviously, this computer has internet access, so you can pull of your tricks”.
Travis was looking at her, stunned, as she spoke, but Erica went on, regardless:
“You can try whatever you want in order to escape, but first I expect you to complete this project I’ve given you. You do not want to disobey me, trust me on this”.
Not expecting an answer, Erica walked out and closed the door behind her.
“Paradoxically, common vampires behave in a fairly human way. They will attack with all means available to them at the time and attempt to flee, should they feel the odds are against them. When massed, they act like a mob; they rely purely on their superior numbers. Problems can arise when they are being led by a superior vampire, either a fiend that has existed for a very long time and their powers have been enhanced or a creature gifted since its creation. When such a vampire engages our forces, the main priority in our battle plan will be to isolate the particular fiend from the rest of the pack…”
The lesson she had attended all those years before kept playing in her mind. That day, they had been given several examples and at the end of the week each trainee in her class had been asked to present a hypothetical scenario. Erica had spent days over a piece of paper, erasing and rewriting her work. When the trainees submitted their papers, the instructor selected her scenario and announced that they would simulate it, as a final exercise. The trainees would take on the role of the knights, against their instructors, who would serve as vampires. Erica’s excitement had been shattered within th
e opening minutes of the exercise, when she saw the experienced knights unravelling her carefully crafted plan, fairly easily. Her pride had taken a strong blow that day, but tonight the lesson learnt that day would prove invaluable.
Sitting cross-legged at the center of the church, her eyes are closed but all her senses are alert. She can hear everything, the rhythm of Travis’ keystrokes, the light breeze coming from the broken windows, even the scratching noises of the bugs. Two cars stop some way from the church. As if the vehicles pull up beside her, she can hear the doors open and men coming out. The next sense to trigger a warning is that of smell. She can detect at least nine different odors, but only one truly interests her. And yet, she waits patiently, while the men walk towards the church.
Two of the enemies approach the door and, taking a deep breath, a habit lingering from the time when they were human, open it wide. Still holding their breaths, they move towards her, bodies tense. Freshly turned vampires, acting as meatshields for the rest of the team, in case the place is trapped. They get next to her without any trouble and stop to observe her. Erica is still sitting down; she hasn’t even opened her eyes. One of the men watching her whistles twice, loudly, and then the two vampires take positions on opposite sides. The rest, who were waiting outside the church, walk in. They scatter around the room, without touching her, searching around, looking to detect the presence of other hostile vampires or humans, but find nothing. She senses their eyes trained on her, they’re ready to shred her to pieces should she make the slightest move and, once they have all settled to their preferred spot, she decides to grace them with a look. She opens her eyes and sees the one she knew he would be coming, flanked by two vampires, scanning her with his eyes. No one speaks, it is as if the room is populated by statues. Impressed, Erica observes him from head to toes.
She had heard talk of this one, as she grew up. He was a truly monstrous vampire. Standing at over six feet six, he looked almost unreal, with those massive shoulders and arms that resembled tree trunks. His neck was entirely covered by tattoos, which reached up to the lines of his face, a face plowed by scars. The only difference, compared to the descriptions she had heard, were some details on his face. The fiend was a veritable legend among the knights, always described as a terrifying giant with blood-curling abilities in combat, but from this distance Erica was better able to appreciate the rumors. His face, despite the scars, possessed some interesting characteristics. His black eyes shone with the knowledge of centuries and she felt inside that the vampire appreciated her much more than she would have expected.