Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eight Hours Earlier
It really shouldn’t have surprised me. I mean, I knew what a cold, heartless bitch Claudiana could be. I should have seen it coming, but I still managed to be shocked when we got to the warehouse and discovered that it was empty. Call me crazy, but when everyone had been describing the Carnival to me, I had been expecting something of a, well, a party. You know, babes, booze, and blood? A vampire’s paradise? This place was just as dead as it had been in my dreams. “Uh...” I said as we gathered on the catwalk above the main room, looking down into the emptiness. “Where’s the party?”
Stavros put his hands on the railing; he was gripping so hard I could hear the metal creak. “She has led us into a trap,” he said quietly. I could hear the rage in his voice; as he spoke, a little of his power escaped his control to play along our skins. Talk about spooky.
“No, not a trap,” came Claudiana’s voice, sounding distant. I looked around. She was no longer with us as she had been before. Now, she was beneath us, looking up with an amused expression. Her two lackeys were gone.
“Why?” Stavros asked her. “Why do this?” I had yet to notice what he was talking about; I was still trying to figure out what was so trap-like about our situation. I asked Winter, whispering as low as I could.
“Do you not feel them?” he asked. I shook my head, no, and he sighed. “Well, you will find out soon enough, then.”
I was even more wary after his words. What big bad was I not able to sense? I didn’t like that. Didn’t like it at all.
“Times are changing, Stavros,” Claudiana told him. She paced back and forth across the empty floor, her dress twirling in a frighteningly innocent way around her legs as she went. “The ways of vampires must change with them if we are to survive.”
“Changing times has never been a problem for our kind before,” Stavros argued. The metal railing creaked some more as his grip tightened. The last time I had seen him this angry was when he had punched that door.
“Yes, but we are in the age of technology,” Claudiana said. “The humans have weapons of mass destruction to use against each other. Who is to say that they will not make one to use against us? More and more humans are becoming open to the idea of our existence. Soon we will be uncovered, and what then? We must make the first move in this new world, or be destroyed.”
Stavros was silent for a moment. “Why bring us all here?” he finally asked. “What do we have to do with your delusions?”
Claudiana laughed. “You call them delusions, yet I can taste the fear in your words. You wonder if I am right. To answer your question, I must introduce you a friend of mine.” She turned back and held out her hand. Something in the shadows behind her moved. I strained my eyes; unfortunately some of us were still human and didn’t have as good eyesight in the dark as say, vampires or werewolves did. The thing in the shadows moved forward. I could see now that it was a person. Or rather, it looked like a person. The energy coming off of it was not human, but vampire, and it was very, very powerful. The vampire was a girl, and like Mikhail, looked like she had been turned at a young age, fifteen or sixteen, maybe. Her hair was long, brown, and glossy, with irrepressible curls framing her long, thin face. Her black dress fit her at the top like a second skin, yet it flowed loosely around her legs. She was barefoot. As I watched her walk to Claudiana’s side, I couldn’t help but feel that there was something familiar about her. I knew I had seen her somewhere before. One of Mikhail’s vampires? No, that wasn’t it. Or...was it? The more closely I studied her, the more recognizable she became, until...
“Holy fuck,” I whispered, because it was all I could of to say. I knew everyone else, even the vampires a story below us, had heard me. The vampire looked up, and smiled.
“Hello, Kayla,” it said.
Mikhail was there. His fangs were digging into my flesh, he was draining me of my life’s blood, trying to turn me into one of them. I struggled, but it was to no avail. His grip was vice-like as he drained me. I could just see Cassie’s body out of the corner of my eye. Mikhail dropped me to the floor; I cracked my head on the rough stone. Greghor lifted Cassie’s body up–she flopped around like some awful parody of a doll–and handed her to Elizabeth, who turned and ran, as fast as she could, from the room, taking a hidden exit which would lead to the surface. Greghor quickly followed. I watched as Mikhail surveyed his throne room; in the distance I could hear the others coming, their guns blazing. He took a last look at me, and then fled with Winter at his side.
I gasped as the memory I had buried came flooding back to me. I couldn’t believe it–Cassie’s body hadn’t been destroyed in the fire at the warehouse. She hadn’t even been dead, at least, not completely. They had taken her. Taken her and turned her into the one thing she hated most. I felt my eyes stinging, and bile rise in my throat. I quelled both. Vampire slayers don’t cry. Or vomit.
Her power was like a slap to the face. So much of it, thickening the air. How was she so powerful? She was only five years dead. No vampire gained power like that in just five years, unless...
Oh.
“You’re the one that’s been taking other vampires’ powers,” I said.
It–I refused to think of it as Cassie–smiled. “Yes. Clever, isn’t it?”
“You’re breaking all our laws, Claudiana,” Stavros said, trying to reason with the psychotic child vampire.
“Laws that are outdated need to be broken, Stavros,” she told him. “Our world is changing. Has changed.”
“I still do not understand why you brought us here.” Now Winter spoke. “Will you not even explain your reasoning?”
“Yes, I suppose I will.” She gave another tinkering, child-like laugh. “You see, I am tired. Of it all. Of eternity. Tonight I will have my power absorbed by Necressius; I am leaving my city to her. She is the dawn of a new era for vampires. Once she has taken hold of San Francisco and brought it out of its present chaotic state, she will be moving on, conquering all the other territories in the state. Starting with yours, Stavros.”
“I will never consent to this,” Stavros said. “And neither shall the other masters in this state.”
“I knew you would never agree, never see the brilliancy of my plan,” Claudiana told him. Her smile at that moment was so maniacal it would have made lesser humans cry. “I can’t have you, Stavros, or any of your officers standing in my way. That’s why I have brought you all here. I’m afraid you’re all going to have to die.”
“And you’re the one who taught...” I paused here, unsure I could say her name. “Necressius how to take the powers of another vampire. You needed her to be powerful enough to conquer all the other masters.”
“You really are very bright, Kayla,” Claudiana told me. “It’s such a shame that you won’t live through tonight.”
“The hell I won’t,” I said, turning towards the door we had come through, that would lead us back through the office. The strange blonde vampire of Claudiana’s, whom I had finally learned was named Nicholas, was standing in front of the door, blocking our path. He wouldn’t be for long. I grabbed one of my guns–UV bullets–and started to point it at his head. Before I could get aimed, Winter laid a black-gloved hand on my arm.
“Do not provoke him,” the vampire said to me.
“Why the hell not?” I demanded, trying to lift the gun up, but he held my arm down with ease.
“Can you not see?” he asked. “She has starved him. Have you ever tried fighting a starving vampire?”
I shook my head, suddenly wary. “No,” I said, “but I’ve heard of fights with starving ones, and I don’t think I want to.”
“A wise choice,” he told me. I put my gun away, although it physically hurt to do so. Still, even with Nicholas blocking the door, there had to be some way we could get out. I turned; two large, burly werecreatures of an undisclosed variety were blocking our other side. They were carrying guns modified to shoot silver stakes. A silver stake would kill anyone in our group. We were royally fucked. Our only way to go was down the stairs, into the lion’s den. Or the child vampire’s den. Whichever sounded worse.
One of the burly werecreatures pressed his gun into Nick's back. "Um, can we start walking, please?" he said. "I wasn't planning on getting impaled so soon into the evening."
Enraged, Stavros started down the steps, and we all followed like good little ducklings. I realized Claudiana was right; everyone there was an officer, to some degree. Stavros trusted us all enough to keep us around him. I really hoped we didn't fail him tonight. Of course, there was no telling what the evening had in store for us. The tables had already done a one-eighty on us. I wasn't sure what else could happen.
Soon we found ourselves standing in front of Claudiana, who wore an amused smirk on her face. I was just itching to slap it off. Or shoot it off. Probably shoot--that would be more satisfying. And then there was Cassie, standing so smug beside the child vampire. It made me want to weep, seeing what those monsters had done to her. I didn't think of all vampires as monsters any more, but these certainly were; monsters in the true sense of the word. She caught me looking at her, and she smiled, baring her fangs. I could see her in my mind, eating Bashkim's heart. He was a traitor, yes, but I didn't think he quite deserved what she had done to him. I shivered despite myself. It was just so strange--I had had hallucinations, daydreams, about Cassie being a vampire, but I thought that's all they were: daydreams and hallucinations. I never once thought what I was seeing could be real.
"All right, Claudiana," Stavros said, dropping any pretenses of being kind to her. I suppose he was allowed, considering she wanted us all dead. "How are you planning on ridding yourself of us?"
"I hadn't really planned too far," she said innocently. "But I thought they might help."
I started to ask, "they, who?" but then I heard it. A trickling growl coming from behind us. We all turned. Two doorways had opened up on the other side of the warehouse, the side that was built into the ground underneath the parking lot. There were things--big, growling things--coming at us through those doors. When they moved into the light, I suppressed a scream.
The things were bears, larger bears than I had ever seen before in my life. Granted, I had only ever seen bears in a zoo, but I doubted bears in the wild grew to be this size. That meant that these bears weren't normal bears, but werebears. Jesus H. Christ. I knew suddenly what the two werecreatures of an undisclosed variety were. Bears must have been Claudiana's animal to call. There was no telling how many of them she had at her disposal.
"Oh, shit," someone said. I had no idea who it was, but I agreed with them completely. All around me I heard machinery whirring, guns clicking. We were all preparing. Even Stavros, Winter, and Ardian had brought guns. No one had been willing to take any chances. It was apparent we had made the right decision on that front.
The two guards with the silver-stake guns grinned and pointed their weapons at us, shifting as they did so. Clothing ripped, and in a matter of moments what stood before us was two bear-men. It was much scarier than the wolf-man form that Chase had used the first time I had met him. At least the wolves were a reasonable size. The bears loomed over the tallest of us, and let's not forget their fully-changed comrades that were slowly surrouding us.
Claudiana watched in amusement as her bears moved around us. "I truly am sorry it has to end this way," she said. "You could still change your mind, Stavros. Join me, give up your territory willingly, and I'll let every one of your officers leave, alive. You, however, must stay."
Stavros turned back to us. His face was grim. "I will not condemn all of you to death," he said.
"And I will not leave you," Winter told him, slipping his hand into his lover's.
"Nor I," said Ardian. "I've been with you since you were a fledgling, I'll not be leaving now."
Shadow and Thorn nodded their agreement. "As your dragons, we will fight for you until the death," Shadow said.
Morgana spoke next. "You took Chase and I in," she said. "You saved us from this place. We owe you our lives."
"Us, too," Frithick said. "Broderick and I were just pups--we would have died."
The only people who hadn't said anything were the humans, i.e. myself, Cassandra, and Nick. We shared a look. I stepped forward. "You're more than just my boss," I said slowly. I hated sentimental moments and right now I was in the middle of a huge one. "And I'm not going to sit back and let you have all the fun." He knew it was my way of saying that I, too, would stick by his side. I'm glad he got it, because I was not up to explaining myself at the moment.
I turned to Cassandra and Nick. They weren't tied to Stavros in any way, other than by knowing me. Sure, they were my friends, but I wasn't going to ask them to say and commit suicide over Claudiana's bullshit. "What about it, guys?" I asked. "You still have a chance to get out."
Nick just scoffed. "The hell I'm leaving," he said. "The job just started to get interesting again."
I just shook my head at him, but inside I was glad he was staying. Not glad about the potential death, but hey, you can't have everything. "What about you, Sandra?" I asked. "You could save yourself."
She glared daggers at me, which was funny, considering daggers was her specialty. "How dare you," she said. "Twenty years ago, when I first became a vampire slayer, I made an oath. I promised to protect against evil. Like I'm going to go back on that after all this time."
I felt my eyes widen; I knew she, Elle, and Vann had done this a long time, but twenty years? Most slayers got to ten, if they were lucky.
"How sweet," Claudiana said, her voice suggesting she thought the scene was anything but. "They are all willing to die with you. Such loyalty is hard to find in these modern times."
Taking Cassie's hand, Claudiana turned to one of the werebears with the guns. "Spare no one," she instructed. She and Cassie disappeared from sight as the bears closed in.
