Quest of the Vampire Lords, part 3

We made our descent through the snow, slowed by an ominous presence. Ursgelda's vibrating blood was filled with caution and anger. I followed at her side. The other vampires spread out behind us. Tanz was silent and steadfast, Uldin nimble and invisible in the snow, and Zelina seemed to be enjoying the run.

We were halfway down the mountain, overlooking the town nestled between us and the next mountain over, when the alarm bells went off. In the crisp cold, my nose burned with senseless scents, and I felt my skin all prickly. I slowed to a stop, and the others did likewise. I hunched in my werewolf form, claws at my side, testing the air with a flex of muscle, a sniff of the nose, and a shifting of ears.

Zelina slid close and whispered, “Vhat is it? I can taste it in ze air from here, but it does not taste right.”

It took others a while to catch on to the fact that I cannot talk. I looked at her, not knowing how to react, so I gave a thumbs down, then knelt.

She climbed onto my back! What the hell!?

“That's not what her thumbs down means.” Ursgelda explained.

She didn't ask Zelina to climb down, however. “She's saying there's bad news, and she's right. I smell blood, and a lot of it, but it's all run away.”

“Or taken.”

Everyone turned to Lord Tanz. The silence weighed heavily upon him as he looked between us, confused by the sudden attention. High above, the two moons drifted behind the clouds, casting us in dull, gray darkness. Reflections on the snow barely outlined the vampires, with their silvery furs and suits. Ursgelda and I stood out a little more, as my black fur could not find compromise between the night sky and the snow, and Ursgelda stubbornly refused to ditch the magician garb.

Lord Tanz gave us a grave look. Easy thing for a vampire. “The man in the cave said something about vampires and changing. I had the feeling he did not mean humans changing into vampires. From what did he escape, then? A vampire would have shredded him to pieces, would he not?”

Ursgelda sat in the snow and folded her arms. “I thought the same. But there's another problem. Put on your hunting eyes and have a look down there. What's missing?”

They all looked, and finally saw what I could already hear and smell.

Zelina narrowed her eyes. “Zere is nobody in ze whole town. But zis vas supposed to be ze centair of population! Ve came in to ze harbor town for ze visitors. Zere should be many meals in zis place!”

“Interesting.” Uldin said, rubbing his chin. “And our scouts had given good accounting of the population here, for...feeding purposes. Are...are we really doing this thing with the humans? Are we going to stop treating them as food?”

Ursgelda turned to Lord Tanz. “This is not my question to answer. You are the Lord of this one.”

Tanz allowed another one of those grave looks to surface. The bluish skin of his face drew back into the shadows, and his eyes frosted over momentarily in the cold, giving him a look of death that made me shiver a little.

“I do not know if the humans will accept it. They will not trust us so easily when the time comes to 'barter for blood' as Lord Ursgelda puts things. But we shall try. We all know it doesn't have to be humans. Not all the time. And either way, whatever happened here puts our food supply at risk. We should protect that much.”

Ursgelda beamed at him. “A good answer. Now, who's ready to risk life and limb to face whatever is down there? Because something tells me we've either got some very angry vampires on our hands, or this is something even your Lord Marask wasn't prepared for.”

Uldin tipped his hat up and scratched his forehead. “Either way, I'm starved for a bit of violence after holding back my bloodlust in that cave. Zelina certainly looks ready to charge into battle.”

I groaned inwardly, but gave in and transformed into the four-legged beast so that Zelina wouldn't be bouncing all over the back of my head. Looks like I was playing steed tonight.

Lord Tanz started forward. “I must take the lead on this one, if I am to think myself a Lord. This is my clan's problem after all, not yours, Lord Ursgelda.”

Ursgelda stood and bowed to let him pass. Very gracious.

We finished our descent and came to rest in the deep snow at the foot of the mountain. There were no signs of life anywhere, so the roads were clear. There was absolutely no way we wouldn't be noticed coming into town, so we climbed out onto a side road, and marched toward the outskirts with Tanz in the lead.

There was no hint of anything but death in the scattered shacks. There were at least thirty little, snow-covered structures of thick timber, as stable a hovel as one could hope for in these desolate extremes. The death itself was a mix of smells, with the obvious recent slaughter. Yet there were also smells of animal meat, probably hunted by the locals and easily stored in this cold without the need for refrigeration. A lot of that was still here, and I could even pick out which shacks were used for storing the food in bulk.

The food had been sitting some time. Nobody was here, and yet...

We came to the first set of shacks, which were a little larger, and obviously some welcoming or receiving center for supply shipments. They had ramps that ran down to little entryways from the road. Nobody greeted us as we approached. There was no doubt that something awful had taken place here, but now things were getting really strange. We passed by the shacks, slowly, keeping an eye out for anything strange. If I hadn't detected any hint of an ambush, there was little to worry about, but even Ursgelda seemed astounded at her surroundings. There were no bodies. The others took turns examining some of the shacks. There were blood stains, just as there were in the roads running through town. All human, though. No vampires had been killed here.

“Is there any reason,” Ursgelda said, slowly, “to suspect that Lord Marask might have gone a little mad with bloodlust, upon finding a vulnerable town in the middle of nowhere?”

Tanz and Uldin were gazing into the shadows cautiously. Zelina seemed to be enjoying her ride on my back, but I could tell she was a little concerned as well.

Tanz said, “I wish I could say 'yes' to that, Lord Ursgelda. I would feel better about running into Lord Marask right now, even if this was his work. But no. Lord Marask was not that kind of vampire. The very embodiment of collected. Whatever did this, I would prefer not to meet it.”

Zelina rested her elbows on my head. I frowned as much as my wolf features would allow, but I suppose this is how the vampires always treated their pet wolves, so I didn't fuss. What would I do? Explain my position in song? Besides, she was leaning forward, and I could feel her intensity as she peered into the distance. She had spotted something.

I spotted it as well, and I shivered. We all stopped as the thing stooped out from a shack. It was taller than Lord Tanz and had a pallor white as the snow, but touched by death. Strands of hair poked out from its head in mangled knots, and it eyeballed us sidelong with enormous, white pupils as it crept into the road. Stopping halfway, it turned to us, raspy breathing filling the air. The monster was rather slim, but its hands were nearly claws, iced over and as threatening as my own paws. The gloom of the creature, sunken in its burly coat, struck me with a dread I had not felt in some time. Yet it had no scent. Not too many creatures had no scent, and from the top of my head, the best examples were the vampires.

“By ze hells of old! It is Lord Marask!” Zelina squawked.

Ursgelda narrowed her eyes. “I wager this is not as you remember him?”

“Not at all.” Uldin said. He seemed as stunned as Zelina. Lord Tanz was looking on with horror.

“Something is wrong with Lord Marask. That is not his walk, nor is it his stare. He has a good stare. Frightening. Wise. Nothing so terrible as this.”

The hideous shadow of Marask raised an hand and pointed to us. Then, after a long silence, he let out a piercing scream that shook the mountains. The sound battered my wolf ears to the point of pain, so I flattened them as we all froze, stunned by this outburst. I considered singing right back at him. A little jingle about Ladotte Oil Filters ought to settle down this seething visage.

But the mountains really did shake. I felt the rumbling, accompanied by a terrible smell that drifted down on the winds. In the distance, an avalanche rumbled forth, and I watched the snow slide down one side of the mountain, converging at the road out of town. It was heading right for us.

And it wasn't snow.

Ursgelda took a few swift steps forward. “Here's that trouble we came looking for. Lord Tanz, you and your clan fan out behind me. I'll take point with Silence. We'll filter whatever these things are your way. Don't let them block our exit, and make sure we can hit the skies if we have to. I~”

My eyes were on the creatures that had been summoned by this zombified Lord. They dragged themselves our way on hooked legs, moving like crabs, but at a speed that made those appendages look like carving daggers. They were gray as the stone of the mountains, mottled in places, and had small jaws that distended at the lower front end of their bowl shaped bodies. Some kind of shell protected them, and each one was covered in jagged spikes that protruded enough that they could stake a vampire's heart. We were looking at a hundred, easy, and they were already entering town. Perhaps they weren't as fast as me, but they were fast enough that the numbers were troubling. They rumbled into town with a sound that made each one of the dastardly critters seem made of concrete. Now that I could make them out clearly, their size put them at about my height in my largest werewolf transformation.

I felt like we should all be sitting this one out.

But Ursgelda was calling the shots, so...Oh, wait. Someone had interrupted her.

“My dear Lord Ursgelda,” said Lord Tanz, shuffling forward with his hands behind his back. “I wouldn't dream of troubling you with this small matter. If you don't mind, my vampires and I will see to this. Uldin?”

Uldin smirked and lowered the bag from his shoulder. I turned, popping up on my hind legs and taking the form of a bipedal werewolf, ready to toss some spikeball critters around if necessary. But I turned away from the oncoming horde momentarily to see Zelina smile wickedly, and Lord Tanz held out a patient hand.

Uldin opened the bag and untwisted something inside. The smell hit me instantly. Even as he pulled a slender tube from the bag, I sniffed the familiar powder wafting through the air. He reached over and placed the slim article in the hand of his Lord.

It was a rifle. Don't ask me what kind. I can tell you about rabbit stickers and picture books, and fun little bags that I used to carry that had happy little ducks on them. Alternately, I could tell you about milking cows. All I know is that it looked like a nice rifle, and the confidence in Lord Tanz's eyes as he watched the infestation looming ahead, well...it was quite reassuring.

“Vell? Come on, do not vaste so much time, Uldin! Vhere are mine?”

“Patience, Zel, patience...Yes, here you go.”

Uldin handed the giddy girl a couple of pistols, and she – how to put it? – she “vas avash vis joy!”

Finally, Uldin produced a high-capacity shotgun, which he checked and loaded with some ammunition that he'd plucked from the drooping bag. Ursgelda was watching in fascination as the trio loaded their weapons, and Lord Tanz stepped ahead, taking aim, while Zelina dashed away to our right and took a position beside one of the shacks, waiting for the monsters to move into range. Uldin stayed close, ready to clear out anything that got too close to Tanz.

The first shot went off. I flattened my ears again, but the sounds was followed by a shriek and the collapse of one of the weird rock-bug things. I eyed Ursgelda, who snickered.

“Well I'll be! Vampires with guns? I can dig it. I can dig it!”

She sounded utterly stupid when she tried to slang, but I had to admit, Tanz, Uldin, and Zelina made a smart assault team, and they looked cool doing it. Zelina must have watched spy films or something, because every movement she made reminded me of a femme fatale bracing for a firefight. Tanz stood out in the open as if hunting ducks over the misty, morning lakes. I could see him in flannel. He approached this task with practiced ease, and I watched him pick off a few more bugs as the danger mounted. He wouldn't be able to hold them off, but by the time Zelina and Uldin started to fall back, there would be much less for Ursgelda and me to deal with.

Ursgelda drifted over to Uldin, and grimaced at him. “Got one more for my sister? She's got a ghost in her head that could hit one of those things from a mile off.”

Uldin smiled. “So happens that I brought both of Lord Tanz's rifles.” He reached down and shook the bottom of the bag, depositing the final weapon. It had a golden gleam and some fancy copperwork that made it seem more decorative than anything, but I could tell when Uldin tossed it to me that it was heavy enough to be the real thing. I searched my head for Pault the sniper, a man who had once tried to kill my boss, only to find that his sniper rifle did not get him far enough away. Pault was already there, jumping at the chance to get his hands on this new weapon. I gave him use of my uncovered eye, my arms, my legs, and everything in between, and he did something with the weapon that involved a lot of noise and moving of parts, loading of things, etc., all that other stuff that was his domain. He brought the rifle level with my eye, pinpointing a target that had leapt from the swift flow of the stampede. He fired, and a streak of red blotched the sky momentarily. The creature fell on its back, into the mass of movement, probably trampled and sliced by the others of its kind.

You have a lot of trust in me this time. Don't worry, vampire girl. I'll put twenty of these things down, easy.

If you say so, is what I would tell him if I could. Pretty sure I only felt nine bullets in my paws.

No sooner had I thought it than Pault took another shot, and the bullet whipped through three of the bugs, all lined up. I will gladly eat those words and say I was impressed.

Pault bolted up a snow embankment. He took a position that gave him clear sight down the main road. The man had patience. I watched with some degree of fascination as he slowly turned, slight pivots giving him sweeping coverage of distant areas. The guy was taking a shot through a barely opened window! Bam! Two more down!

Ursgelda shouted out to me. “Silence! I'm going after Marask! Hang back and keep our friends company. Oh, and have fun!”

I nearly tried to wave, but I didn't want to interrupt our ace shooter. Ursgelda darted into the road, heedless of the swarm. She leapt right into the crowd, and her wings ripped through the back of her clothes, unfurling under her cape. She had that cane out, and smacked the creatures away as they tried to bite at her from below. There was no stopping her as she dipped and darted between the monstrosities, easily outmaneuvering them, even surrounded. Ten at once leapt toward her, and she slipped past them with little effort. I might have been faster, but Ursgelda's small size made it easy to slide between the bugs in fluid motion. I felt, then saw, her shadow magic exuding from her coattails, and she became such a blur that the creatures gave up and continued forward toward a more enticing enemy.

Zelina, meanwhile, crouched behind the thin planking of a porch, taking potshots at anything that came too close. She was losing ground, and had to step out into the road and fall back, closer to Lord Tanz and Uldin. There was no doubt that we would soon be assaulted from all sides. The bugs were already spreading around the side streets and filtering through various routes around the shacks. Gunshots burst into my ears painfully, and I had to give credit to Pault for not flinching even once from all the noise. He wasn't used to werewolf ears or a werewolf body, but he was adjusting quite well.

The power in these arms! I've never made such steady shots before. I could hold this position all day with strength like this!

But I heard a certain buzzing in my head out of nowhere. A persistent voice began to lash at my hind brain. The ghosts were all a-chatter, and there seemed to be a commotion that I could not parse properly. I ignored it for now and watched as Zelina fired away. The recoil from her pistols was as nothing to the strength of a vampire. She emptied both clips, then replaced them with fresh ones from the little pouch she'd carried. Lord Tanz, too, had ammunition in his pouch. He was calm as ever, even as the enemy closed in.

They came down in a great wave. From the sides, they leapt onto my snow bank. I took the reigns, noting that Pault had taken twenty down, as promised. With barely a glance, I tossed my rifle to Tanz, who dropped his own and caught the hurtling stock in midair, already lining up a shot on a shack-sized bug. It exploded in red from the blast of the weapon, but five more were tearing through the iced roads right behind it. Uldin stepped forward and took his first shot, stopping two of them dead. Zelina put two bullets in one of the bugs just as it flew toward her from behind a shack. It fell, and she took down two more that were moving in from the main road. I slid to the front of the death circle, keeping out of range of Uldin's weapon, and smashed one of the bugs over the head with my metal arm. They might have been heavy and thick-shelled, but they were paper to me. I searched my head for a little help and caught a hint of criticism aimed directly at me.

You waste much movement. You have had your fun with the rifle. Now allow me to show you how we fight with our hands.

Fair enough. I let that one have control. Instantly, I felt my body go loose, and turned to stand sidelong as four of the beasts raised their claws at me. The sudden whirlwind of kicks and fists that marked my place on the battlefield made me feel wholly inadequate. I recognized some of this movement, and concluded that my body was now under the guidance of one of the Sun Cult's monks, trained in the many sutras of combat. Whoever this was had phenomenal control, even beyond what I myself could manage with my body. He was not as talkative as Pault, but there was no way for me to know every one of the thousand ghosts in my head.

I let him do his thing, and in his twirling and leaping, I watched what I could of the battlefield. My legs kicked a bug away, and I saw Uldin reach up and casually slice open its belly with his heavily manicured claws. Blood poured over the snow, and over Uldin and Tanz as the twitching corpse sailed above and landed with a crunch. My metal arm grabbed one of the hooked claws and twisted, flipping the bug head-over-crabby leg things, bringing it down, spikes-first, on one of its friends. Zelina fired at a mess of the things as they tried to overrun me, and the monk did a twelve-foot back flip over the bodies as they slid beneath me on the slick, bloodied road. Tanz was now taking shots at the outliers, while his minions picked off the closers. They were very synchronized and careful, watching each other's backs, but all the while, Uldin and Zelina seemed to be treating this like they were dancing at a party. Vampires had great senses, but I couldn't remember seeing them carry guns before. Ursgelda didn't use them, and vampires had never needed them, even when faced with armed men that were bent on putting them down. Most of the time, if you had sights on a vampire, you were already too late.

Whatever these things were, the firepower was certainly welcome in dealing with them.

But where had Ursgelda gone? We'd opened a moment up in which I took my body back and spun around to gaze over the carpet of oncomers and try to catch a glimpse of my own Vampire Lord. She was there; a little pinprick of shadow, trying to get to the emaciated Marask, but held back by a wall of the bugs, lashing out at her when she tried to move in close. There was something else, too. Marask seemed to be pulsing with a shadow magic of his own, but it squirmed and whipped at Ursgelda, struck back only by her own dark tendrils. I was surprised to find Ursgelda unable to make headway.

And again, that strange buzzing in my ear. I tried to focus on it and give the other ghosts some signal to let me hear what was going on, but as I've mentioned before, I can't communicate my thoughts to them. I dashed back, converting once more to my vampire form, and stood with the Tanz clan as we readied ourselves for the next wave.

...madness. It is madness. I've seen it before. I was there when the world itself was cracking, and I've seen this before! Girl, you must listen to me! This is an evil beyond any you can imagine! If only that Peril fellow were here...Oh, you must not let the madness consume this world! For what awaits...

Okay, so, on a scale of ominous to whatever the hell that was...

Tanz piped up in my ear. “It appears we must try to weather this fiasco. Your Lord is having a rough time.”

I glanced up the road again. Not only had Ursgelda failed to get close to Lord Marask, but she was also struggling with this absolutely insane horror of black tentacles that had risen from the ground! Well, Ursgelda was used to being menaced by monsters herself, but I wasn't just here for looks. Much as I felt a little disgusted by the weirdness ahead, I guess Ursgelda largely fell under the heading of “friend,” so I motioned for the others to join me, and we sprinted ahead. Uldin took the lead, pumping his shotgun and filling our enemies with explosive death at the vanguard. I gave our monk friend the steering wheel once more, smashing and kicking anything that got too close to the vampires. In my vampire body, the kicks weren't quite as effective, but the metal arm more than made up for any lack of power. Zelina kept us from getting overwhelmed by quickly reducing the numbers as we cut a swathe through our foe, and Lord Tanz was masterful in his execution of the exact bug that would slow the rest down in its collapse.

It wasn't enough, and I could tell that we would soon need a better plan. It wouldn't be long before everyone had to reload, and I wasn't sure how much more ammunition they had to...nevermind. Zelina unzipped her coat, and now I recognized the smell of ammunition that had been hidden by her deep pockets. The vampires were going to town.

...their voices...

I paused in my own head, listening.

Is that you? You can hear me, right? I need their voices. The old man is right. I don't know a lot of the old magic, but I can get rid of them, get you a path. It's word magic, so it won't really work from your lips, and if you sing here, all you're going to do is put the vampires to sleep. It won't work as well on them, because they are being controlled by the Dark One.

I felt a chill crawl up my spine. Up ahead, I saw one of the black tentacles swat Ursgelda from the sky. She crumpled to the ground, but only momentarily. A human would be dead, but Ursgelda wasn't ordinary even by vampire standards. Nevertheless, I didn't want to leave her alone on this one. I motioned to Uldin my intentions. He picked his moment, and with a knowing nod in my direction, he shouted to Tanz.

“It's us on the defensive, Lord Tanz! The quiet one has a plan!”

I can't believe it! All I'd done was motion toward Zelina and made a chopping motion, and he'd fully understood! I won't say he was ideal, but I gave Uldin an honorary mention on my “boyfriend material” list. It was an awkward mention, because I had basically asked him to take Zelina out with a quick strike, which is what he did, spinning suddenly and giving a quick tap with his hand.

Zelina dropped, and the enemy stormed. Uldin and Tanz took the lead and peppered the crowd of bugs. I shot back, placed a hand on Zelina's forehead, gave the ghost passage, then hurriedly picked up Zelina's guns. Pault returned to his station and started picking off the bugs, one after the other, barely looking before taking each shot. At this range, he could casually spray death into the maws of these creatures, and even when they unhinged their jaws and came within a foot of me, Pault didn't flinch. He pulled the trigger, and moved on to the next target.

Zelina slowly rose, brushing herself off.

“Right. Yes. The spell. I never thought I would see these things again. Horrible way to die. Oh, I remember the pain! But alas...goodness, so this is what a woman's body feels like. It's as cold as I imagi – right, vampire. Anyway, pardon me. Haven't been in a body in a thousand years.”

I heard the rumblings of a voice that seemed to reverberate on itself. The sound was not unlike the strange manipulations of air and magic that I could construct with my singing voice. There was definitely a sense of magic in the air. I didn't know what was going on, who this was, or what he was trying to do, but I had felt his intentions, and he was very confident that this would work. I made it my priority to give him space. He uttered words under his breath that my wolf ears could tell were very quiet, yet the sound in the air seemed to grow, like the steady beating of drums. I'd never heard magic like this! Not even from my master's cousin, the sorceress. It was starting to make my blood vibrate, and my vampire blood doesn't move much unless I force it to. Uldin and Tanz noticed it, too, but Tanz seemed to be surprised rather than upset by it.

“Wizards? Thought they were all dead? Oh, but he's a ghost, so I guess he is.”

I'd never met any wizards in my travels, unless I count that weird guy that used computers to replicate magic. I couldn't understand the words, but looking at Zelina, I could make out some pretty intense concentration in whatever her possessor was doing. Tanz and Uldin held our position, with Pault making sure we weren't overwhelmed. I listened closely, and could almost make out familiar vibrations in these chants. I felt like letting my voice flow, but restrained myself, remembering the cautions of this newcomer.

Suddenly, Zelina's eyes blazed with a golden light, and she thrust her arms out. The voice of the ghost, struggling against the strange throat of his borrowed body, burst forth with words I couldn't comprehend.

“Th'lek hn'gessk kuloxenfrei!”

I felt a shockwave. It rattled me slightly, and the energy passed through all of us, but when it struck the bugs, they shrieked and flailed. Some of them scattered. They rolled onto their backs, writhing in pain. Agonized screams filled the air, and I couldn't stand it, so I pulled my hood over my ears. The bugs were toppling in every direction, sliding to a halt, falling into the snow. They ceased movement altogether.

I turned to our new friend.

“I have severed the connection. These are the creatures that devoured me, back on our own world. There are tales you should hear one day, from the old man in your head. But for now, you might want to kill that thing up ahead. I do not think the vampire inside can be saved.”

And then I felt the ghost slide back into my head. Zelina blinked, staring at me.

“Vy don't you quvit doing zat? Zat man totally made...ah...made ze arrest...or...vhat is it?”

“Copped a feel.” Uldin helped.

“Yes! He vas like ze officer, doing ze thorough investigating!”

I gave Zelina an embarrassed smile and skulked off to help Ursgelda.

With the bugs down, we made a bee line. Ursgelda was bleeding from the side of her head, and she was giving a good thwacking to the tentacles with her cane. Moving outside their reach, she raised a hand, warning us to stay back.

“Lord Tanz? I was hoping to rescue your former Lord, but given the situation...”

Ursgelda motioned with her chin at the black tentacles surrounding Marask. From within, he glared at us, simultaneously with hunger and anger. The tentacles shivered violently, ready to strike out if we came too close. Whatever they were, it was clear Marask was as much a puppet as those bugs had been.

Lord Tanz, Zelina, and Uldin all stared grimly at their former Lord. The situation was deplorable. Asking them to kill their fallen leader hit right in the vampire blood, which meant that Ursgelda and I could also feel their hesitation.

Tanz loaded his rifle. “Then let it be done.”