Crimson Dawn (18 page)

I pressed as hard as I could into the cold ground beneath me, as if I could tunnel my way out from under Aurieux by sheer force of will. I concentrated so intensely on everything around me that every blade of grass touching my exposed skin felt as if little knife blades were bearing into my skin. The feel of Aurieux's tongue as it trailed up and down my neck made me close my eyes and grit my teeth. I'd rather be slathered head to toe with dog slobber. I endured the feel of his tongue as it swirled in circles up and down my neck and across the rise of my breast for untold minutes, and then, all of a sudden, his tongue was gone. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but a sprinkling of stars against the night sky above me. I hesitantly lifted my hand into the air and found nothing but cool air above me. As I tried again to get up, I found that I could without any problem.

I rolled over into a low crouch, grabbed my kodachis, and looked back over my shoulder. "You certainly took your sweet, damn time getting here, Irulan."

Irulan walked by me with one arm extended, the fingers on her hands splayed open and she held Aurieux immobilized in midair. "You try keeping one eye on the screen of a phone and one on the road without causing a wreck," she replied. I stood up, and she took note of my state of undress. "You're covered in blood, but that seems to be the norm for today. What did he do to you?" she asked.

I pointed to the headless body with the tip of my sword. "He's the guilty party. He ran a big bowie knife through the small of my back, but as you can see I took care of it."

I sheathed my blades and went to Priest’s side, careful not to touch him for fear of meeting the same fate as the nurse. "I need your help here, Irulan.” I couldn't keep the fear out of my voice as I looked at Priest. Blood bubbled from the corners of his lips, and his skin was dry and flaking off in large patches. Pink tears slid from the corners of his eyes, but the heat emanating from his body evaporated them before they could hit the ground.

He moaned softly and tried to talk but only succeeded in coughing up more steaming blood. "Irulan, now!" I yelled. "He's dying! It’s Soul Fire, and I don't know what to do!"

Irulan came to her knees on the opposite side of Priest and passed a hand over him inches from his body. "This isn't Soul Fire. This feels new, something made to mimic the effects.” She moved to catch him on either side of his face, and I reached out and grabbed her hands. "Don't, you can’t touch him. Remember what I told you about the nurse."

Irulan leaned forward over Priest and frowned, "If this were true Soul Fire, it would have consumed him in under a minute and he wouldn't take others with him. I suspected as much before, but I needed to see for myself. They created Soul Fire to use it as a fast and painless punishment for the condemned. Once the fire hit, it consumed the body almost instantly and cauterized all the nerve endings that deal with pain. This spell is heartless, no better than torture."

Irulan’s voice had taken on a cadence that was reminiscent of Great Britain in the 1800's. If you want to get a feel for the true age of an Extras, then listen to them talk when they're upset. Their accents and dialects become more prominent when their emotions are running high.

Priest moaned out loud, and a thick plume of steam escaped from his opened mouth. His blonde hair was drenched in so much sweat it looked closer to brown. Irulan gasped and turned towards Aurieux, "You will fix this now!" The look of calm on her face couldn't mask the storms that swirled in the depths of her eyes. With a simple wave of her hand, Aurieux moved quickly through the air until he was hovering three feet in the air next to us. Once he was close enough, he looked down at the three of us with contempt in his eyes.

Irulan stood so she could look him in the eye, pointing to Priest as she spoke. "Whatever you did, you will now undo, post haste, before he is too far gone."

Aurieux looked down at Priest and then spat in Irulan’s face, "Fuck you, go ahead, kill me." Irulan’s glamour faded slightly, and I could see glimpses of her true form beneath the ruse as she fought to keep control of her emotions.

The fingers of her hand slowly began to come together to form a fist. As they got closer together, Aurieux began to scream out in pain. Under the shrill cries, I could hear the sounds of bones breaking. Irulan clenched her fist into a tight ball and blood began to run from Aurieux's nose. His body trembled in pain, but he still looked at her with defiance in his eyes, "Go ahead, get it over with, Fairie bitch."

The eerily calm laughter that came from Irulan sent a chill down my back. She looked completely at ease, and she was unafraid of the possibility of failure, although failure would lead to Priest's death. She held her hand out over Priest's body, and as she did so, Aurieux's hand did the same. "It's not often I come up against a magic wielder that can best me, even temporarily, as you did,” she said with a sly look on her face.

"I don't like it. In fact, I view it as a failure on my part. To me, it means I'm lacking in some area, and I don't handle failure very well.” She went to her knees and lowered her hand, bringing his body closer to Priest's, only then did Aurieux's façade of calm break and reveal how nervous he really was.

Irulan's calm settled over her like a blanket as she saw him begin to crack. "Since you're so eager to die, why not share the same fate you've consigned my friend to?" Aurieux was now so close to Priest that he had broken out in a sweat from the heat that was radiating off him. When faced with the prospect of being a victim of his own spell, he broke and began begging for his life. "I'll move you once he's safe," Irulan replied as she moved him even closer.

Aurieux was yelling by this point. "Please, anything you want, just don't let me die like this, please.”

As he realized that Irulan would actually carry out her threats, and he faced the prospect of his own death, all the bravado Aurieux had displayed earlier flew out the window. It was a side of her I had never seen before, but one she was totally at ease with displaying. I briefly wondered what type of life she'd led when she was an active member of court in Tir Na Nog.

Finally, Aurieux relented and agreed to release Priest. He struggled to keep his lips steady as he mouthed the words to the incantation that would end Priest's suffering. Once set free, Priest's complexion quickly returned to normal. He took deep breaths, drawing air into lungs that scarcely need it, the act brought on more out of fear than necessity.

"He's gonna need blood as soon as we can get it, to heal this much damage, Irulan," I said.

Irulan jerked her hand through the air causing Aurieux to drop to the ground beside Priest. "Here, let him be the generous donor. He made this mess, he can help rectify it.” He tried to crawl away from us, but the broken bones in his arms and legs prevented him from getting very far. I dragged him back by one ankle, lifted him over Priest’s body, and bit into his neck.

As Vampires feed, we release small amounts of toxins in our saliva that enter our donor’s bloodstream. The toxins, Combined with our glamour, help induce strong emotional responses from those donors. Most of the time, we choose to induce pleasure, but we can also inflict great amounts of pain. Aurieux got pain in spades. When I pulled away from his neck, he was shrieking at the top of his lungs. I held the bleeding wound over Priest lips, letting the blood run down into his mouth.

The reaction was instantaneous. Priest's arm came up and around Aurieux to hold him tightly against his greedy mouth while he fed. Contrary to what movies may portray, it takes time to drain a Human body of all its blood, two or three minutes just doesn't do it. In reality, it takes about fifteen minutes for a vamp to drain an average sized body, which is yet another reason our Council frowns on total consumption of a Human. The longer you feed from one person while hunting, the greater the chance for being caught, which means exposure.

Priest fed for five minutes then rolled Aurieux's body off him and jumped up stretching his arms and legs. "Next time, super dyke," he said as he flexed his arm, "We all come at once, no splitting up, even if I have to carry you on my back while I run."

As far as Priest went, that was a heartfelt 'thank you for saving my skin'. Irulan and I both stood up with smiles on our faces, grateful to whichever god that watched over us for sparing his life. Irulan patted him softly on the side of his face. "I must admit you're growing on me, dead man, but if you call me dyke, lezzy, carpet muncher or any other derogatory remark concerning my taste in lovers one more time, the next time I take your voice, you won’t get it back."

Priest took a step back with both hands raised in the air in a show of mock surrender. "Whatever you say, Sexy Red, whatever you say.” A low moan of pain from Aurieux drew all our attention back to him. I motioned to Priest, and he hauled him up into the air by the neck. It took a level of control I had no idea I possessed, for me not to sink my hand into his chest and pull out his heart as I threatened. I shifted my face back to normal and ran a hand across my stomach where the knife had been earlier.

"You realize, Aurieux, you attempted to end the life of two Sentinels while they were in the line of duty. One alone is enough to get your mind wiped. Two is a death sentence. But what would you care about that, the laws of the CMS don't apply to you, right?" Aurieux's only response was another moan. I reached out and held his head up, so I could look him in the eyes. "What happened to the big bad man that was all geared up to commit rape a few moments ago?" I asked sarcastically. Aurieux tried to jerk away from my touch, but I held firm, "We came for answers," I said. "Now, you're gonna give them."

Aurieux weakly shook his head no, in protest. "I can't, can't give yah what ya’ll want."

When Irulan spoke, her voice still had a soft English lilt to it. "You're hardly in a position to deny us, Aurieux. Either you answer the lady's questions, or I see what other bones I can break in that fragile body of yours."

A single tear made its way down Aurieux's face, "Do what you have to. Broken bones ain't shit compared to what Tristan will do to me if I dime him out."

Irulan began to draw the fingers of her left hand together to form a fist, but I reached out and touched her arm. "You don't need to do that. I'll go into his head and find what we're looking for," I said.

"You think Tristan hasn't planned for that? He taught us all to shield," said Aurieux on pained breaths.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Then drop them. If Tristan questions you, tell him I broke through them."

Aurieux shook his head in exasperation, "That'll never work. Tristan won't buy that."

"Tristan will buy anything you tell him when it comes to me and my abilities. By now he knows I drained four of his children, so he’ll expect a boost in my power."

Irulan smiled, "Everything she says makes sense, Aurieux. Give us what we want, and we can get you to the CMS to get the medical attention you require."

With a sigh of defeat, Aurieux opened his mind to my probing. I caught flashes of rituals. So much darkness surrounded his mind that I had a hard time focusing. I inched through the turmoil until I saw what he was still trying to hide from me. Tristan had four nests in the city, including a nest of Deadborns created for the sole purpose of food. Young innocents turned against their will, and then kept in line with promises of power when a fictitious new age of the 'Reign of Vampires' began.

I shook my head, trying to make some order out of the clustered images I was receiving. "He's not strong enough to handle the power, so he feeds from his children," I stated quietly to myself. I pushed harder, drawing the scenes from Aurieux's conscious that he begrudgingly allowed me to see. I saw Tristan's frustration as each of his attempts to become the 'Vessel of Ancient Power' failed, and I felt his excitement as he found a way to twist Soul Fire into something it was never intended to be, a horribly painful weapon wielded only in close proximity. I took in glimpses of every atrocity Aurieux helped Tristan commit until I finally hit pay dirt.

"We've got him," I said. "I know where he's making camp." My mind jumped back to what I'd learned about the faux Soul Fire, and then added, "The spell Aurieux used can only be executed by someone close. Someone in the CMS was responsible for those deaths.” Irulan didn't look surprised, and Priest looked down right pissed.

"Irulan, my phone, please.” She passed me my phone, and I called Marcus instead of Descantes as he had directed me to do the night before. Marcus answered on the first ring as always.

"What do you have for me now, Trumaine?"

"There's a rat in the CMS here. The spell used on Amanda Jones is a proximity spell. I was wrong about the sire's link. Someone in that building killed a fellow Sentinel, in cold blood, to keep her quiet.”

Marcus's voice gave no hint as to whether he was surprised or not. He merely replied, "Continue."