Anton told Constanta, as she held the vampire medicine: “You’ll want to mix it with something.” He fetched a bowl of oats, added some water and mixed in some of the medicine. It made the otherwise lightly flavored oatmeal potently awful. But Constanta ate it down to appease her brother.
After retching a bit at the taste, she calmed down and could begin to feel the effect. It was overwhelming. She could feel it inside her body like a vapor slowly suffusing from the pit of her stomach to her fingertips and toes, and a rush of energy that surged through her body followed behind. She leapt up and told Anton, “This is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever eaten in my life,” and kissed Anton profusely on his cheeks, leaping about and cheering with excitement.
Anton smiled and said, “Wow! It seems to work even better for you than for me. I’ll definitely have to get as much as I can for you.”
In the coven, Lina too was feeling better. The feeling of sickness was quickly subsiding and her state of health continued to improve even beyond its previous norm, until it felt like her body was humming like the string of a violin. She felt like she could run a thousand miles without getting tired and could leap over the tops of the trees. Her body also felt much warmer than it had before, and she seemed to pump heat out of her bowels like an oven, like someone could stuff raw dough inside her and pull out a baked loaf some minutes later.
“You’re ready,” Sim told her as he entered his room and saw her energetically hopping around, “Let me show you around.”
They stepped out of the room, into a hallway extending in both directions with doors on either side. Up a set of stairs to one side was another level, too, with more of the same doors, all of them leading to the vampires’ private bedrooms. On the wood surface of all the doors animals were carved in relief to distinguish one door from another. As she looked at Sim’s door, it had carved into it the image of a horse, with its four legs extended in a full gallop while the hair of its mane streamed in the wind.
Sim led Lina up a set of stairs to a door on the upper level, which, unlike the lower level, was a curved hallway, with rooms only on one side. At the far end was a door inscribed with the image of a cat, standing on its two hind feet while its forepaws extended forward as if it were actively scratching some unseen foe. Sim opened the door and told her, “Here is your room.”
Lina’s room had a fine bed, with a good carpet spread on the ground and some decoration on the wall. “It formerly belonged to Sol, who was killed shortly before you and I met,” Sim explained.
She didn’t like it quite so much as she’d liked Sim’s room: it seemed smaller, less elegantly decorated and was further away, but she was still delighted. “I’ve never had a room all to myself. I don’t even know what I should do with it,” she said.
As she stepped inside, she noticed, next to her bed, hanging on the wall a small mirror, made from polished silver and glass, and she looked at an image she didn’t often get to look at. She’d never been proud of her visage. She knew she was a girl of no particular beauty: she had an irregular face that was too long with a crooked nose, sunken eyes and an absent chin. But something about her face seemed to be different now that she studied it closely. She raised her lips and closely inspected her teeth, which continued to grow, her canines now significantly protruded and her incisors more pointed and sharp.
Lina remembered that Sim was standing there waiting for her, since he had more of the caves to show her. He watched her with a smile as she inspected herself. She sheepishly apologized and followed behind while he led her down the hallways.
Returning to the lower level, he led her deeper into the bowels of the cave. Their first stop was a room Sim identified as the granary. She only took a peak inside, where she saw large overflowing sacks of wheat, barley, onions, potatoes, cheese, and more. She asked, “What is this for? I didn’t think you vampires ate this food.”
He didn’t answer her question directly, but with a smile said, “Let me show you the next room.”
This next room was vastly larger than even the Great Hall where she’d first been introduced. Its ceilings were average height, but it stretched deep into the darkness, but these depths were blocked from her by a large row of bars that completely prevented entrance or exit. It was so huge and seemed to extend further than she could see, down many separate caves and recesses off into the distance, that she didn’t realize at first what was on the other side of the bars.
<-- Go to
Part 48 Go to
Part 50 -->
You can see what's been written so far collected
here.
Anton told Constanta, as she held the vampire medicine: “You’ll want to mix it with something.” He fetched a bowl of oats, added some water and mixed in some of the medicine. It made the otherwise lightly flavored oatmeal potently awful. But Constanta ate it down to appease her brother.
After retching a bit at the taste, she calmed down and could begin to feel the effect. It was overwhelming. She could feel it inside her body like a vapor slowly suffusing from the pit of her stomach to her fingertips and toes, and a rush of energy that surged through her body followed behind. She leapt up and told Anton, “This is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever eaten in my life,” and kissed Anton profusely on his cheeks, leaping about and cheering with excitement.
Anton smiled and said, “Wow! It seems to work even better for you than for me. I’ll definitely have to get as much as I can for you.”
In the coven, Lina too was feeling better. The feeling of sickness was quickly subsiding and her state of health continued to improve even beyond its previous norm, until it felt like her body was humming like the string of a violin. She felt like she could run a thousand miles without getting tired and could leap over the tops of the trees. Her body also felt much warmer than it had before, and she seemed to pump heat out of her bowels like an oven, like someone could stuff raw dough inside her and pull out a baked loaf some minutes later.
“You’re ready,” Sim told her as he entered his room and saw her energetically hopping around, “Let me show you around.”
They stepped out of the room, into a hallway extending in both directions with doors on either side. Up a set of stairs to one side was another level, too, with more of the same doors, all of them leading to the vampires’ private bedrooms. On the wood surface of all the doors animals were carved in relief to distinguish one door from another. As she looked at Sim’s door, it had carved into it the image of a horse, with its four legs extended in a full gallop while the hair of its mane streamed in the wind.
Sim led Lina up a set of stairs to a door on the upper level, which, unlike the lower level, was a curved hallway, with rooms only on one side. At the far end was a door inscribed with the image of a cat, standing on its two hind feet while its forepaws extended forward as if it were actively scratching some unseen foe. Sim opened the door and told her, “Here is your room.”
Lina’s room had a fine bed, with a good carpet spread on the ground and some decoration on the wall. “It formerly belonged to Sol, who was killed shortly before you and I met,” Sim explained.
She didn’t like it quite so much as she’d liked Sim’s room: it seemed smaller, less elegantly decorated and was further away, but she was still delighted. “I’ve never had a room all to myself. I don’t even know what I should do with it,” she said.
As she stepped inside, she noticed, next to her bed, hanging on the wall a small mirror, made from polished silver and glass, and she looked at an image she didn’t often get to look at. She’d never been proud of her visage. She knew she was a girl of no particular beauty: she had an irregular face that was too long with a crooked nose, sunken eyes and an absent chin. But something about her face seemed to be different now that she studied it closely. She raised her lips and closely inspected her teeth, which continued to grow, her canines now significantly protruded and her incisors more pointed and sharp.
Lina remembered that Sim was standing there waiting for her, since he had more of the caves to show her. He watched her with a smile as she inspected herself. She sheepishly apologized and followed behind while he led her down the hallways.
Returning to the lower level, he led her deeper into the bowels of the cave. Their first stop was a room Sim identified as the granary. She only took a peak inside, where she saw large overflowing sacks of wheat, barley, onions, potatoes, cheese, and more. She asked, “What is this for? I didn’t think you vampires ate this food.”
He didn’t answer her question directly, but with a smile said, “Let me show you the next room.”
This next room was vastly larger than even the Great Hall where she’d first been introduced. Its ceilings were average height, but it stretched deep into the darkness, but these depths were blocked from her by a large row of bars that completely prevented entrance or exit. It was so huge and seemed to extend further than she could see, down many separate caves and recesses off into the distance, that she didn’t realize at first what was on the other side of the bars.
<-- Go to
Part 48 Go to
Part 50 -->
You can see what's been written so far collected
here.
Vampire Wares pt 49
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