The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 2: Chapter 11

I hurried through the fortress, trying to keep the noises I made to a minimum. I had seen only a couple of humans since darkness fell and I could only assume that they were hiding in their sleeping quarters, hoping desperately that their bloodsucking masters would leave them undisturbed for another night.

Moving forward, my eyes did what they could by the light of the flickering torches on the stone walls, while my ears attuned to the silence around me. Bloodsuckers were quiet when they wanted to be, and could sneak up suddenly, so I was sure to check behind me frequently so it would not get a jump on me.

Doubts began to cloud my mind. Perhaps I would have been wiser to try to get more information out of that leech Dana before I took it out. It had seemed inclined to play and I could have used its overconfidence to my advantage if only I had been thinking. It would have known if there were other leeches currently in residence.

There was no changing what I had done. I focused instead on the dark corridors. I had not spent a lot of time with her at night when I had stayed there, but even when I had found her in the kitchen in the capital or seen her in her windowless chambers, there had been sources of light. I had not questioned it at the time, but perhaps she kept the lights on in deference to human sight rather than because she preferred it herself.

Would my quarry be sitting in darkness like the black-eyed demon I knew it to be, or would it use light? If it did, perhaps it would be easier to locate, and it would certainly be to my advantage to meet it when I could see properly.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and I removed one of the torches from the wall and carried it with me. Perhaps it would make me stand out, but there were so few humans now that darkness had fallen that I was not overly worried about discovery by them. If I chanced to be unlucky enough to be spotted by it first, I would deal with that when the time came.

I scoured every inch of the fortress lair that I could find without any luck. There were clearly hidden chambers where they would spend the daylight hours, but finding those would be of no benefit to me now. I considered my options. If Jack found the remains of the leech I had staked before I found it, it would be on its guard, if the demon leech was even here at all.

Or, I could try to get it to find me.

My lack of time thrummed with the beat of my heart in my ears as I made my way back to the hallway were I had first snuck into the fortress. I set the torch I had stolen back into the sconce on the wall and I continued on in the semidarkness of the halls. Soon, I was back where I intended to go and I readied myself to convince a vampire that I was needy and nonthreatening.

"Master? Excuse me?" I called out as I began to move back into the fortress as if I was entering for the first time.

I continued walking along with the most nervous gait I could manage while saying things so pitiful that they turned my stomach.

"Master?"

I tried to summon my Marcel impression, but even he would probably balk at this sort of attitude for anyone but his mistress. His dedication to her made more sense in retrospect of her surprising goals. I bet he would be just as eager to stake another vampire at her command as I was to finally get my knife into Jack.

Even my repulsive acting did not summon forth the demon. My dismay at not finding it built with each second my pathetic display went unanswered. I wandered out through the halls into the wide inner courtyard that I had not dared to visit during the day.

I tried again, "Master? I only beg a second of your time."

Maybe, instead of wasting my time looking for that demon, I should have cleaned up and hidden Dana's remains. If I were fortunate she might be the sort of unreliable vampire who they would assume had simply left to see to her own amusements rather than guarding her sire's lair while he was gone.