DR LÉONIDÈS
I soaked Franz's shirt in the clear clean water and used it to caress the wound in his shoulder. The bullet had not gone in far. His breastplate must have slowed it.
"So weak," he whispered, in German. "Is...a...a surgeon nearby?"
"I'll have to do," I said, also in German. "Lie still. This is going to hurt, but that needs to come out."
"What do you mean?"
I just smiled. Kept my right hand out of his eye-line and allowed its fingernails to expand, sharp and ready. I kept his shirt dripping wet, in my left hand, then using the excuse of cleaning his face I pressed against his chin to face him away from me, saying, "I think the injury to your head is not so bad."
Then I dug my fingernails into his shoulder and plucked the bullet out in one quick movement.
To my amazement, he gasped but did not cry out. He did, however, drift into unconsciousness. He had lost more blood than I thought. It still flowed from his wound but I dared not taste it. I did not want him to begin the turn, not yet. I wanted him to heal, which would give me time to sound him out and bring him to my way of thinking. Make him want to join with me. I was still uncertain he would be open to it.
That, of course, is when Gregory appeared on the other side of him, sitting cross-legged, elbows on his knees, watching me with anticipation. He offered me a yarrow poultice, saying, "I made more." Then he just had to add, "And did it correctly. You used too much mud."
I accepted it. "So warm."
"That is how it should be applied. Not that it matters for the horse."
I pressed it into Franz's wound. "But how did you manage? You didn't build a fire."
"Just laid it between some leaves and let them burn away."
"You carry a flint?"
He pulled a small tube from his coat pocket, unscrewed its lid and showed me a grouping of sticks with odd material at one end.
"Safety matches. Swedish, no less. My Frenchman was of a more modern frame of mind than I thought capable." I must have given him one of my wary looks, because he added, "He'd grabbed a page from the German side, and was about to, um, brutalize him."
"Which makes him a normal human beast."
"More normal than you think. Half of the lad's clothes were torn away and my meal had his trousers around his knees, with his dick hard as a rock. The embrace he had the boy in was not loving, merely animalistic. May I assume you approve of my, oh, interference?"
"That depends. Was the boy hurt?"
"I stopped things just in the nick of time." Spoken with such exaggerated emotion, one arm half-raised to the skies, it was comical.
I know I gave him a look of amusement.
He winked. "It's from a melodrama I saw in Paris. The Perils of Sandrine, or something like that."
"Will you be joining the theater?" I asked, fighting a laugh.
"I've thought about it. Might be fun. It's all indoors, so I could even do matinees. What do you think?"
"I think you'd become very well-known."
"Yes, there is that. Notoriety is the bane of any vampire's existence. And one can grow weary of French cuisine so quickly. For example, that Frenchman? His clothing might have been well-tailored and his boots as fine as mine, but he also had this." He held up a leather purse filled with coins. "Gulden, vereinsthaler and francs. From the blood on some, I'd say they came off the dead. Obviously, he's part of high society."
I rolled my eyes. "Looting crosses all social strata."
"So does being unpleasant. I only fed and looted his body, and used the first match on him."
"Did the boy see any of it?"
Now he rolled his eyes at me. "Léon, please. He scampered off, terrified, crying for help. Didn't even think to look back, as he ran. If he had, all he'd have caught a glimpse of was me in that German coat holding onto the bastard. I carried the beast to the other side of the forest, to be safe. My guess is, he was a scout or spy, so no one will miss him. For a while."
I groaned, but not unhappily. "Must you always feed so dangerously?"
"That's half the fun."
I smoothed more of the poultice over Franz's head, then I placed my hand on his heart to bask in the warmth of it. The beating of it. And having my fingers resting against his skin brought to me all the fires of want I had ever felt or would need to feed. A gentle moan whispered from me.
"May I touch him, now?" Gregory asked.
I needed to regroup my thoughts so held back from saying anything. Just took his right hand and placed it next to mine, on Franz's chest. Our fingers almost mingled.
He drew in a deep breath. "One this lovely is rare." Then a truly wicked grin returned and he glanced at the lad's groin and said, "Be nice to see what we have to look forward to."
"We!?"
"In the royal sense of the word."
Said a bit too quickly. The little bastard thought he could play with me.
"I'll carry him to our chateau," I said. "You bring his horse. Then you may help me bathe him. Prepare him for a nice warm bed. We will introduce him to the others, in a day or two."
"He's very pale. Weak. Why not turn him, now?"
"Gregory...the Oiym would not be pleased. And I...I want him well, first."
"He would heal as soon as you turn him."
I had no response to that, so ignored it.
Gregory noticed and added, "How long do you think it will take him to recuperate?"
"Seven, maybe eight days. I'll send a telegram to Nethys. We should have a response, by then."
"Will he accept remaining with us, for that long?"
"I will see to it."
Gregory rose, glancing between me and Franz and sighed. "So he will be your companion, now. And we will be your associates."
I hesitated. "No, Gregory, no..."
"Léonidès, you can lie to anyone but me. You want to keep him for a week to give you time to convince him to join with you. You don't yet sense that he will do so, willingly. Which begs the question — will the Oiym agree to let you turn him, if he will not?"
To that, I had no answer. I had not visited with them since just after Moscow. Only six of the seven-member council had been on-hand, at the time, with Nethys in her center chair. Which had made me comfortable enough to speak. She had always been the most supportive of me, and the most direct. When I mentioned my thoughts about no longer turning humans into vampires, she had said, "The idea intrigues me, but how would that benefit us?"
"Our community is expanding too rapidly," I'd responded. "People are noticing our actions, more and more."
"Yes, it is becoming more and more difficult to remain in the shadows," Ninsira had added. "Tales of horror are now being written about us."
"Stories to scare children and virgins," Uttah had snickered.
Anileh had barely smiled as he growled, "The churches love to threaten with death and damnation. And always blame others for their own sins."
"True," Ninshu added. "Think of the Blood Libel that was used against Christians by the Romans and then by Christians against the Jews. It is almost comical."
"The manner in which humans use their religions is anything but comical," Luahl had said.
That is when Lugalban had stormed in, furious, still wearing his cloak from his travels.
"Your concern was correct, Nethys," he'd growled. "It's worse than we feared. The Sosenthen coven has been slaughtered."
That sent a ripple of shock through the chamber.
I had long known of the Sosenthen, a coven established as the Roman Empire collapsed. They had wound up ensconced in an ancient castle deep in the Balkan mountains. No Blood Angel was amongst them, but they were still well-regarded. Rumors had begun to circulate that they'd been attacked, and I'd realized the Oiym had sensed the possibility. So Lugalban had traveled there, and now there was no question.
"But how?" Anileh had asked. "Their castle was a fortress."
"That is now burned and hollow. The militia of a local village attacked at noon, not three weeks ago. Caught them unawares. Sleeping. First they killed their doùlos guards then used flaming arrows to set the rooftop ablaze. The Sosenthens were trapped in the main hall as it burned around them. The ceiling collapsed and they were destroyed by a mixture of fire and the sun. Nothing but ashes left."
"Did none escape?" Uttah had asked.
"I believe they would have made themselves known, by now."
Nethys had looked at me and said, "Did the rumors of this factor into your thoughts, Léonidès?"
The rest of the Oiym had stiffened and glared at me, angry that she would dare to ask my unworthy opinion. But she knew I often viewed situations differently from them. Differently from Gabriele, even. She once told me that was probably due to me not having been turned from human to Blood Angel in the normal fashion, but instead almost by accident. So I stood unwavering before their chairs.
"As established as the Sosenthens were, they were still little more than a pack of ravenous wolves running around and feeding as they chose," I'd said. "Weren't there stories and rumors they were descendants of Vlad the Impaler? It is no surprise the human inhabitants finally became too suspicious and tracked them down. They would do the same to protect their flocks of sheep and cattle from the beasts of the wild. Word will spread of this, and other human communities that have been similarly afflicted with become more wary. More aware. More suspicious. And there will be more covens caught and slaughtered if we do not take more care.
"Something else to consider is how many vampires have taken off to themselves, like lone wolves. Feeding on whomever they find, wherever they are found, and leaving their victims behind to regenerate into more solitary vampires. We need to have greater control. Rules, limitations, an overreaching plan to keep our communities safe."
"I understand you already forbid your associates from feeding on whomever they please," Luahl had said, almost staring at me.
"That is true."
"But does that really work?"
"By feeding upon those who are unlikely to be missed by others in the society, we maintain an extra level of protection. Few humans care what happens to those who commit crimes. If a man kills someone or rapes a woman and disappears, most think, Good riddance. And by haunting armies going into battle, many are those who have already been marked for death. Missing soldiers are not much-noticed by their commanders, and the manner of their deaths is impossible to keep track of."
"You also refuse to turn humans," Anileh had said. "Unlike so many others."
"My pack is very insular. We don't wish to add un-knowables to it."
"I hear you rape the men," Lugalban had snapped. He never did like me.
"Only those deserving of more than death," I'd replied, "and of a certain beauty."
"That is an obscenity."
"More-so than killing innocents, like so many of us have done? As I said, those we choose are deserving."
"And no bodies connected to Léonidès have been left to be discovered," Nethys had added. "The only times any search has been made for those fed upon were due to sloppiness of the other covens. Lugalban, isn't that what caused the militia to attack the Sosenthens?"
"No," he'd growled. "A girl about to be wed was seen talking with one of the Sosenthen males, then her body was found on the path to their fortress. She had not been killed by them, but they were blamed."
"Are you so positive?" I'd asked, knowing he would never make a statement like that were he not one-hundred percent certain. It was just a little dig at him and his attitude.
He had glared at me and snapped, "Yes. She had been ravished by a couple of gypsies, and smothered. Where they left her body was deliberate."
"Why would they do that?" Anileh had asked.
"One of their women vanished. I suspect they believed the Sosenthens were behind it. There had also been trouble with the locals, so..." He could not continue, for a moment, then looked at me with his usual coldness and added, "This is nothing but suspicion, on my part. But the gypsies immediately broke camp and were gone when she was discovered. Another reason the militia blamed the Sosenthens rather than them."
"I would say the people already had their own suspicions," Uttah added, "and the girl's death merely set them off."
"It would appear so," Lugalban muttered. "They were not sloppy, as you put it." He'd shot that at me. "But they had been in the area too long, and with no story to cover for them not aging. As careful as you might think you are, there will always be some who will see, and gossip will commence and more careful attention paid to gather more information for more gossip and..." His voice had trailed off into a sigh.
"Which is why I think we should establish a set of actions for ourselves to align with," I'd said. "A plan to help us remain in the shadows and unnoticed. Perhaps faster ways to communicate, as well, should there be trouble in the future."
"Carrier pigeon?" Anileh had chuckled.
Only Nethys had joined in his merriment. "There is much to consider, Léonidès."
"I would like to know if I am correct about the gypsies," Lugalban managed to ask in a decent tone of voice. "So if you are open to your form of justice..."
I'd said I was, and would, and did, just to get on his good side. I had the assistance of Tellis and Doric, the two gypsies in my group who had a better idea of how to track their caravan. They had located the gypsy encampment and brought me the two men they suspected. Neither of whom was of great beauty, though one was not hideous. It was his knife that had been used to control the girl as she was dragged off to her doom. So the whole of my pack had happily joined me in making certain their deaths were neither simple nor easy.
A few months after that meeting, the Oiym had handed down their edict. Most of the clans had understood the reasons for it and agreed while the rest were brought into line. And everything had settled down, nicely. There were still individual vampires getting trapped and killed, but not one coven had been taken, since.
That's why I felt they would let me turn Franz. The Oiym owed me a favor for setting it all in motion and letting them take credit for it. So I answered Gregory's question with, "They'll have to."
"Oh, Léon. Sometimes you are the most aware of us, and sometimes the most innocent. Have you even wondered what you will do if they say no?"
I knelt beside Franz. He lay there as if sleeping, but unlike Helffing beauty radiated from him. I let my right hand caress his face. The warmth and energy that flowed from him into me was exquisite beyond belief. I found myself saying, "Gregory, have you ever known loneliness? Of a type so deep in your heart you feel as if it could never be filled? An bottomless well of nothing?"
He joined me on the grass, saying, "What do you mean, Léon? You have us." He put an arm across my shoulders. "Seven of us who stay with you. Care for you. Support you in every way."
I continued with, "I know, and I do appreciate you all. Enjoy hunting with you. Being with you. Taking pleasure with you. But this is different. It does not envelop me often, but some nights. And I...I only began to feel it after Moscow."
"Dmitriy."
I gave him a small shrug of assent. "Some days, I feel as if I am wrapped in nothingness."
"Why have you never said this to me?"
"I've never spoken of my deepest wants and needs."
"You could have. Any of us would have happily done whatever it took to banish such sad thoughts from you."
I smiled. "I know, but it's not something a vampire can do. Only a Blood Angel can fill this, now."
"Could that be why Gabrielle chose Dmitriy with so little thought beforehand?"
I sort of shrugged. "Possibly. But I will...I will take my time with this lad. Learn about him. And if he will not be with me, I...I...I will let him go."
"Well, the thought is good. Question is, are you capable of following through with it?"
I cast him a sharp look and saw only concern in his expression, so said, "I will have to. So I will. I will."
He rose and backed over to Grünnald, saying, "We'll see." Then he led the horse away.
