Werewolf Knight 3, page 8
“I always had a special love for the Moon Goddess,” Imelda sighed. “I felt so connected to her my entire life.”
“Do you remember what happened?” Sybil asked.
“I was in the temple arranging candles for a harvest celebration,” Imelda replied and then frowned. “People were laughing and talking, and I was singing a favorite song while I worked. And then… it changed. I didn’t realize at first that the laughter had turned to screams. I remember I started to turn around, and something punched my neck. That was the last I remember of my life as a human.”
“That’s awful,” the aristocrat murmured and shook her head. “These vampires have been a plague on Lupercalia for so long. Oh, um, but I mean, not you…”
“It’s alright,” Imelda sighed. “I was a plague on Lupercalia. After I was changed, I used to live with Wenderoth and his followers, and our job was to hunt and kill anyone and anything that came too close to Wenderoth’s domain. We had to hunt together, live together, do everything together, and if someone started to break away, Wenderoth would make us kill them as well.”
“Sounds like a cult,” I said. “But how did you end up here?”
“I ran away,” she replied. “I knew they would kill me if I didn’t. They were sharing less blood with me after each hunt, and I was growing weaker every day. I didn’t have anything they wanted, so they would laugh and taunt me with fresh blood, and then let me starve to death. So I ran away, and I came back here because it was the only place I could remember.”
“Are there other vampires in the basilica?” Tabitha asked.
“There are a few others, but they stay inside,” Imelda replied. “I’m the only one who would ever venture beyond the door. There’s no… connection between the vampires here. Not like the one Wenderoth had over us. We just do our own thing, and honestly, I’m not even sure I would notice if one went missing. But I suppose that’s what happens when you don’t have a soul.”
“That’s not true,” I said. “You seem like you have a soul.”
The sapphire-eyed beauty looked up at me and seemed to stare straight into my thoughts.
“I don’t have my thirst anymore,” she said. “Just these teeth.”
She flashed her fangs at the three of us, and Sybil let out a low, kind laugh.
It seemed like Wenderoth had ruined her life and taken her from everything she held dear. I didn’t want her to feel hunted anymore, though, so I decided that it would probably be a good idea to tell her that her tormentor wasn’t around anymore, even if his cronies were more than happy to deal out damage on his behalf.
“Imelda,” I said. “I have something important to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked in her soft voice.
“I killed Wenderoth,” I said. “He’s gone. Some of his henchmen are still around, and they still want to carry out his plans, but Wenderoth himself is gone.”
Suddenly, the pale beauty’s facial expression changed. Her mouth practically dropped to the floor, and her face glowed like a full moon.
“You can’t be telling the truth,” she said. “Nobody could defeat Wenderoth. He was far more clever than anyone expected a vampire to be. The humans and the wolves, even the vampires. They were all absolutely terrified of him.”
“Well, he’s gone,” I said. “I promise. I killed him, and I stole his opal dagger, which is what I was going to kill you with before the… the…”
I racked my head for a word to refer to whatever had happened back there, but I couldn’t even begin to fathom the power that had caused it.
“It was a divine intervention,” the priestess declared. “That was what it was. I could feel it coursing through me. Her power. The power that I used to feel as a child whenever I was in the presence of the Goddess. She called me for this life, and she saved me again when I most needed her help.”
It was so touching that I almost felt moved to tears.
“Hank was chosen by the Moon Goddess,” Sybil said. “And she’s acted through him before.”
“I knew that the nobles received their abilities from the Goddess,” Imelda said, “but I’ve never seen anyone who could channel a power like that before.”
“Well, Hank’s not from around here,” Tabitha replied. “He’s not even a blue blood by birth.”
“Really?” the curious priestess asked. “So you’re not from Lupercalia, but you’re a shifter?”
“I didn’t always used to be a shifter,” I said. “I used to just be a regular human in a very faraway land called New Jersey.”
“New Jersey?” she whispered. “How far away is it?”
“Difficult to say,” I said as I held out my left hand. “We travel back and forth with this ring that the Moon Goddess gave me.”
Imelda inspected the ring for several moments, and her pupils widened as she studied the stone. She reached out slowly and touched my hand with hers, and then she looked up like she wanted to make sure it was okay.
A shiver raced down my spine at her touch. Her hand was unbelievably soft, and I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to protect her.
“You really were chosen by the Moon Goddess,” she said. “These runes are sacred to the Moon Goddess, and only she may use them. It’s an honor to be in your presence, um… what was your name again?”
“Technically, it’s Henry,” I said. “But you can call me Hank. That’s what all my friends call me.”
“Well, Hank,” she said and giggled softly. “Isn’t this something that the Moon Goddess would smile upon? Saved by the knight who was going to kill me. I don’t know how, but you killed the vampire I had become and freed me from that curse. I cannot thank you enough.”
I looked over to Tabitha and Sybil, who were both smiling.
“Just to be sure,” Tabitha said. “There’s no chance that a vampire is going to come out here and, you know, attack us, right?”
“Only I venture outside,” Imelda assured us. “The other vampires don’t leave the dark basilica. Maybe it was some instinct, some knowledge that I’d be able to change back, but I used to step into the light as a vampire. It stung my skin, but it felt good for some reason. And there was a part of me that wanted to punish myself for being such a hideous beast. I craved it.”
I nodded at the priestess’ dark sentiments. I suppose where there was deep devotion, there was always a dark undercurrent.
“I’m glad that you’re feeling better now,” I said. “Does the sun still sting your skin?”
“No,” the white-haired girl replied. “And the thirst is gone.”
“What did it feel like?” Sybil asked in a low but eager voice, and Tabitha shot her a look like she had said a bad word at the dinner table.
“Like my throat was constantly dry,” the ex-vampire. “Like there was nothing keeping my body moving, no life inside of it. Drinking the blood made me feel for a minute like there was life inside me, but it was an illusion. Even though vampires are creatures of the dark, they still crave the feeling of life in a way.”
For a moment we all paused and looked at the young ex-vampire. She rolled onto her side before pressing her palms into the ground and slowly standing up. When Imelda stumbled, Sybil gently grabbed her upper arm and helped her the rest of the way.
“Thank you,” Imelda whispered, and she brushed herself off and looked at the three of us.
“Sorry for hitting you with that spell earlier,” Sybil said with a nervous laugh. “I really thought that you were going to… you know, suck all my blood out.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the priestess said, and she waved her delicate hand as if to brush it out of the way. “I would have done the same thing if I had a rabid vampire charging straight at me. My goodness, it’s good to be a human again. Nothing compares to the feeling of blood pumping through your veins.”
“That’s amazing to hear,” I replied.
“You three have saved my life,” she said to us with a trembling voice, and I noticed that her eyes started to water slightly before she wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. “I suppose I won’t be able to stay around here much longer, or the vampires will want their revenge. And I can’t go to the village of the Obsidian Temple. Not after the years I spent there under Wenderoth’s control. I wish that I still loved my home, but I don’t think I could go there without being sick.”
The beautiful ex-vampire stared at the ground, and Tabitha lifted an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms.
I knew exactly what she was expecting.
“You should come home with us,” Sybil blurted out before I had the chance to make an official offer. “Hank has a big estate that we all live on, and there’s rooms for days.”
The blonde, blue-eyed girl looked up at Sybil with a sense of wonderment. It looked like her face was glowing again, and I wondered whether that was an effect of the Moon Goddess’ divine intervention or whether this girl really just glowed when she was happy.
“Really?” she asked and turned to me.
“Well,” I said with a laugh. “Before Sybil so kindly took the words out of my mouth, that’s what I was going to ask. No pressure, of course, but I’d like to know that you’re safe after everything you’ve been through, and the easiest way to do that is to take you back to the estate.”
The girl looked up at me, and I couldn’t resist her piercing blue gaze and glowing skin. She was so otherworldly that I wondered if some of the vampire magic still flowed in her veins.
“There’s only one thing to consider,” Tabitha murmured from behind her. “Not to be a killjoy, of course, but you were a vampire just a few minutes ago, Imelda. And you know just as well as I do how the Lupercalian nobility regard vampires.”
“But she also used to be a priestess,” Sybil pointed out. “Surely that counts more? It’s not like she wanted to be a vampire and did it by choice. And the Moon Goddess just intervened to redeem her soul. It’s clear to me she is destined for some great purpose. Like Hank.”
I weighed both of the options in my head. On the one hand, the devout Lupercalian nobility would revel in her story. A vampire transformed by the Moon Goddess herself back into a human was nothing short of a miracle. She’d been a Priestess in one of the most sacred holy sites in all of Lupercalia. And now? She was practically a saint. Surely they’d take that into account.
But then there was the other, darker reality. The Lupercalian nobility’s hatred of the vampires was more visceral than it was logical. People practically shuddered at the mention of them, and the entire palace was littered with depictions of the Moon Goddess leading the werewolves in triumph against vampires. Many of the old knights had seen towns torn apart and pillaged by the dark and insidious creatures, and some of them might have even lost their own family members. The problem seemed practically as old as Lupercalia itself.
I knew that several nobles thought the only good vampire was a dead one, and Imelda’s story might make them suspicious. She still had the teeth after all, and she had definitely taken lives and caused destruction as part of Wenderoth’s clan.
As much as I respected the Lupercalian ways and beliefs, though, the decision wasn’t difficult in my head. I had an instinct for goodness, and I could tell that she had been transformed by the power of the Moon Goddess. The evil that had been in her was gone, and I would happily attest to that.
There would be plenty of naysayers at first, but if anyone could bring a one-time vampire back into Lupercalian society, it would be me. After all, I was just a red-blooded human turned shifter from a parallel world that nobody knew about when I first arrived, and now I was one of the King’s favorite knights. I was also the man who had killed Wenderoth and the zombie werewolf, and the King had proclaimed me the Savior of Lupercalia.
“You’ll come with us,” I said with a nod. “We’ll make sure you have a place.”
A smile started to form on the girl’s face. She glowed brighter than ever before, and her chest rose and fell with an impressive speed.
“Hank,” she said. “How… how could I ever thank you?”
“Well, funny you should ask,” I said. “Because the reason we’re here in the first place is to find something that once belonged to Wenderoth.”
She shuddered at the mention of his name, but she nodded.
“I’ll help you with anything,” she said. “After what you’ve done for me. You saved me from an eternity of misery, and I will do everything in my power to make your life an eternity of happiness.”
Sybil smiled and squeezed the ex-vampire’s hand.
“We’re looking for a notebook,” the young witch said. “And we believe it’s here. The cipher who was decoding it attached a tracking spell to it, and we used a compass to look for it. That’s what brought us to the basilica in the first place.”
“Well, then it was fate,” Imelda said. “I am broken free from the shackles of being a vampire, and you can regain the notebook. I’m sure it’ll be in the basilica, and I can even tell you which vampires were probably responsible.”
“Perfect,” I said, and I felt a smile stretch across my wolf lips.
I loved when fate worked like this.
Chapter 6
Imelda turned around and brought her finger up to her mouth to signal for us to hush.
“You can’t hear anything outside in the basilica,” she said. “But once you’re in the basilica, it echoes everywhere. You can hear something happening on the other side of the building, and you don’t even have to listen that hard. When people used to spend all day singing their praises for the Moon Goddess, it was a beautiful thing to hear. It was like everyone was singing just for you. But now, we have to be quiet.”
“Wait,” I said and put my hand on her shoulder. “If they hear us going in, then it means that we probably have to act quickly. I have an idea, but we need to know the layout first.”
“Just what I was thinking,” Tabitha said with a nod. “So, Imelda, what can you tell us?”
“I know that place like the back of my hand,” she said with a sigh. “The entrance hall is called the Holy Crescent, and it’s shaped like a waxing gibbous moon. The altar is at the other end, but there are rows of columns that lead to it that are big enough for someone to hide behind.”
“How big is it inside?” I asked. “If you had to estimate.”
“I’d say half a pig field,” the priestess answered.
“But doesn’t that depend on how big the field is?” I asked with a frown.
“It doesn’t,” Sybil said. “It’s a unit of measurement.”
“Of course you’d know that,” Tabitha said and snickered.
“Yes, of course I would,” Sybil said with a shrug. “From what I can remember about your New Jersey measurements, I’d say that it was about two hundred yards in length and width.”
“Okay,” I said and nodded. “So two hundred yards long with a row of columns on each side. Does that sound right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Imelda agreed. “The vampire that lives here is called Portimus. It should be easy enough to coax him out as long as he thinks he’ll enjoy some fresh blood or have some shiny new trinkets to play with.”
“And where do you think the notebook will be?” Tabitha asked.
“The altar,” she said. “I have a feeling that’s where it must be. It’s a precious object, and it’s the only secure place in the temple. Besides, vampires love drama, and what could be more dramatic than desecrating an altar to the Moon Goddess by using it for their own devious plans. And Portimus is trying to turn this place of worship for the Moon Goddess into a place of worship for Wenderoth instead, so the notebook would be a sacred item of sorts.”
“Ew,” I said. “Okay, we need to get that notebook back, so we can find out what else that little shit Wenderoth had in mind.”
Suddenly, the determined ex-vampire giggled and brought her pale hand to her mouth.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ve never heard that word before. But I liked the way you said it. Something about it was funny.”
“Let’s stay on track, team,” Tabitha said. “You lure the vampire into the open while we hide. We ambush him. We go for the notebook at the altar. Easy. And if the notebook isn’t there?”
“I take out the vampire, and we search high and low,” I replied. “And use the compass, of course.”
Tabitha had been holding the compass the entire time, but now she checked the arrow like she’d suddenly remembered she had it.
“It’s pointing north,” she said.
“That would be in the direction of the altar,” Imelda confirmed. “Now, we have to work quickly once I open the door. I will say something in the vampire language, while you head for the altar.”
I looked at the two other girls, who nodded.
“I’m ready as ever,” Sybil said.
“Me, too,” Tabitha added. “Let’s go."
Imelda led us up to the large wooden doors that marked the entrance to the basilica. They both had curvaceous bronze handles that curled upwards at the end like a waxed mustache. She pressed down on one of the handles and pushed the door in.
“Stay here,” she said. “Until I’ve distracted him.”
The first thing that hit me about the basilica was the smell. It was similar to the rank odor of Wenderoth’s hideout in the Obsidian Temple, and I could tell that there had been several rotting corpses in there. The sour, rancid stench hit my nose, and I watched as Sybil immediately rummaged through her basket for a lavender cushion.
The witch handed a small sweet-smelling pillow to Tabitha, took one for herself, and then looked at Imelda. But Imelda didn’t seem to be bothered by the smell of death, even though she was no longer a vampire. Maybe all those years of living with the smell had made her immune to the stench, or maybe her human sense of smell hadn’t returned yet.
Imelda shook her head at the offer, took a deep breath, and then stepped inside. The place was covered in smeared blood, but beneath that, it was obviously a place of quiet beauty. It was all white marble that would shimmer in both daylight and moonlight, and despite the signs of violence, it still had an air of tranquility.
