Two other guards waited on the other side of the door and heard with frightening immediacy the sound of the rock being lifted and the other guard being knocked against the door. In quick succession they’d heard the guard collapse and heard him kick against the door as he struggled for life. They’d quietly opened the door to investigate, and saw a cloaked figure there, gnawing on the neck of the other vampire. As soon as the partially exposed face of Lina looked up at them, they fled.
Lina was able to catch one of them, and, tearing off her head-covering, wrestled him to the ground and sapped his mortal blood. The other was beyond her reach, and he ran into the Great Hall screaming in panic, “It’s Lina! Lina’s back! She’s attacking! Everyone to arms! It’s Lina! It’s Lina!”
She’d hoped to make a more dignified and memorable entrance, but she could’ve thought of no better way to lure all vampires into the Great Hall, than to announce her presence, and so she followed right behind him, and said proudly, “It is Lina! Come and attack me!”
Shortly before Lina’s arrival, Asha had stepped into Sim’s room to see him. She dismissed everyone from the room, leaving her alone with Sim to talk with him one last time.
Sim still lay upon his bed, barely alive, barely conscious, delirious and confused, the fear and agony deadened by weakness and fatigue. His half naked body was covered in wounds. Dried blood was caked all over his chest, his legs, his arms. A large circle of red covered the sheets beneath him, and his head swayed back and forth as he muttered incoherently.
“If you can hear me,” Asha said to him, “I’ve decided to give you your reprieve. Your little minion isn’t coming back. So it seems only fair to kill you in her absence. I’ll make it quick. I guess you deserve that, for the services you’ve rendered to me in the past. Unfortunately, I can do no more since we in this coven cannot permit the even least betrayal.
“In fact, I’ll tell you a story before you depart from us. You want to know how I killed Jule oh so many years ago, when you were a young vampire? It wasn’t by hiding in the toilet, as they say, though I have to admit I do like that story. No, you see Jule had a certain lust for human flesh not typical among us vampires. A sexual lust. He was uncharacteristically potent, and liked young human girls. Not us vampire women, of course, since we’re as barren and frigid as a mountain peak. He would have his guards bring in a girl to his room, then the door would be closed and he’d be left alone with her. And after he was done, he’d kill her, drain her blood and impertinently dispose of her. All of this was, of course, kept fully confidential, but I found out.
“The guards always hooded the girls when bringing them to Jule, to facilitate the secrecy of this whole practice, so I bribed one of the guards to hood me, and send me in as one of the girls. Once alone in that room with him, I had my chance, and I didn’t let it slip. I chopped his head off with my knife before he had a chance to resist, and this time it was his body that was drained.
“But the important thing was what I did with that guard that betrayed Jule. I couldn’t have a guard that could be bribed into betrayal. He had to be killed. We here cannot permit the least betrayal. It erodes the mortar that holds our coven together. As recompense for what he’d done for me, I gave him a swift and honorable death, and I will do the same courtesy to you. You will not be eaten. I will have to drain your blood, though.”
Asha touched Sim’s face, wiping from it some of the sweat, then gently pushed his head to the side to expose his white neck. She leaned down, opening her mouth.
But the sound of commotion in the Great Hall arrested her attention. She departed Sim’s room in haste, telling Sim, in case he was aware of what she were saying, “I’ll only be a moment.”
The Great Hall had quickly flooded with vampires, though none dared to approach until Asha arrived, which was only a minute later. Asha came to an abrupt stop when she saw Lina, her face now exposed, her lips and teeth stained with blood, her pale face glowing with the beauty of a vampire many times her age. Even beneath the gore that stained her face, she had a radiance that was captivating and intimidating.
Asha commanded, “I haven’t time to draw this out. Just kill her.”
At this moment, the two rays of light that pierced through the ceiling, were simultaneously severed. The dim light of the room faded into near darkness and everyone turned to look up. Lina recognized this as the signal and without pause turned around and ran.
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