Chapter 15 – Valtu #2
“I don’t think we’ve formally met,” Saara says, “but I’m very familiar with him. I trust you had a pleasant journey over here.”
I get out of the boat, Bitrus right behind me, muttering under his breath about seeing crazy shit. “It was more peculiar than pleasant,” I say, gesturing to the plague doctor sitting in the boat. “Can I ask what the deal is with, uh, that?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Saara says quietly, running her tongue over her teeth. “Come along now.”
“Welcome to our island,” Aleksi says, gesturing to the crumbling building, “our humble abode. The perfect place for a vampire, wouldn’t you say?” He grins at me showing too much teeth.
“I don’t know,” I sniff, the stench of death permeating the air, “I think I prefer my house in the city.”
“Aleksi is so very proud of its history,” Saara says, coming over to me and taking my arm.
“Did you know over one hundred thousand people died on this island? The plague pits were just bursting with people. Too bad they were all rotted, their blood poisoned by the disease, otherwise we would have had quite a feast.”
I raise my brow and look between both the siblings as we walk along a narrow path to the building, broken iron gates swung open to one side. “Don’t tell me you were around back then.”
The siblings exchange a smug look. “There’s a reason why this city is so dear to us,” Saara explains. “It’s been our home for a very long time. Back when the locals referred to us as shroud-eaters. Before your friend Mr. Bram Stoker had to sully our names.”
Ah. So maybe that’s part of the reason she hates me.
Notoriety. Vampires can get awfully territorial, and especially entitled.
A lot of vampires don’t like me purely because I am the one the whole world knows by name, as if I’m the Prince of Darkness himself.
When humans think vampire, they think Dracula and no one else.
Vampires are prone to jealousy like anyone else.
“My apologies,” I say to her as we continue to the building. “Bram took a lot of liberties with my life story.” I clear my throat. “May I ask why you invited me here?”
“We have a surprise for you,” Aleksi speaks up. “A gift.”
I look at Bitrus and he just shakes his head slightly.
“Don’t worry,” Saara says, noting our exchange. “You can partake too. Bitrus. It’s a way of saying we’re sorry for the way we’ve come across. As I’m sure you now understand, we’re used to the city being a certain way. Your influence with the Red Room, well, it complicates things.”
“So then why did you leave Venice to begin with?” Bitrus asks.
“You know vampires, we need to keep moving or we get bored,” she says with a shrug, flipping her stick straight blonde hair over her shoulder. I pick up the scent of human blood when she does that. Fresh blood.
“And we had good reason,” Aleksi says, “which will become clear soon.”
I grumble to myself. Things only get murkier, not clearer.
“Watch your step,” Saara says as we head through a broken path toward the building covered with rusted scaffolding. “They were going to do some work here but it got abandoned. It’s just enough to keep the building from collapsing.”
We go past a faded sign that reads Psychiatric Department in Italian and then enter through the main doors. The building feels entirely unsafe and rotted.
“And so where do you really live?” I ask them, looking around at the vines growing inside, the stacks of broken beds, the crumbling walls, and the shattered windows covered in bars, while that unsettling feeling continues to seep into my bones.
“Downstairs,” she says. “Underground. We’ll give you a tour later, but first let’s eat.”
My stomach growls at the mention of eating. It has been awhile since I last fed. I find that when I’m spending nights with Dahlia in my bed, it’s hard to make time for the Red Room. Besides, she’s been distracting enough.
“Eat?” Bitrus says, knowing that we never feed outside of the Red Room.
Saara just nods and we follow her and Aleksi down a damp, narrow hall until it widens at the end. There is a large wooden door with two seven-foot-tall plague doctors standing in front, guarding it. For a moment I think they’re statues, but they move to the side to let us in.
“The fuck is this now?” Bitrus grumbles quietly.
“This is the chapel,” Saara says, coming to a stop in the middle of the room. “And here’s your dinner.”
The chapel walls are white, molding with green fungus, and there are only a few pews standing, the rest broken.
At the front of the chapel, in front of an altar lit with burning candles, are two people, a young man and a young woman, no more than twenty years old.
They are naked and sitting on the floor, duct tape over their mouths, their wrists and feet bound together.
They stare at us with wide eyes, trying to move closer to each other, their anguished sounds muffled against the duct tape that flexes against their mouths with each breath.
There’s no blood anywhere but I spy two holes on their necks, most likely sampled by Saara.
It’s then that I notice their legs. Both their ankles are smashed in, flattened, so they can’t walk or escape.
If it wasn’t for the heavy stench of death and decay in this place, I would have noticed the adrenaline and horror flowing from them.
“Who are they?” I ask Saara, trying not to meet their fearful eyes.
“They are your gift,” Aleksi says. “An apology dinner from us. Come now, feast.” He gives me an eerie grin, breathing in deep. “I can smell how hungry you are.”
I shake my head. “No. No, this isn’t right. You won’t hold me back if I get carried away.”
“You have your friend here to mind you,” Saara says, placing her hand on my shoulder and leaning into my ear. “I already had a taste of them,” she whispers. “Their fear is the sweetest I’ve ever had. You should be so honored to get your fill from them.”
I close my eyes. “But who are they?”
She pauses for a moment, her nails digging sharply into my leather jacket for a moment.
“It doesn’t matter who they are. Young adults separated from their church group.
I don’t know. They’re here now. No one will ever find them here, probably no one will notice them being gone.
” She pulls back and frowns at me. “I’m starting to think you aren’t appreciating my gesture. ”
Remember to play nice , I remind myself, though this is making it quite hard.
“Brother,” she snaps at Aleksi, while still looking at me. “Bring me the girl. She at least has nice tits he can eat.”
“Saara,” I warn her, but Aleksi picks the girl up by her throat and lifts her with his supernatural strength so that her broken ankles are dangling above the floor, then brings her over to me.
The girl pleads with her eyes, bright blue eyes, for me not to hurt her. She knows now we are vampires, she knows what’s going to happen to her. Even if I refuse to feed from her, she won’t be getting out of here alive.
“Valtu,” Bitrus says from behind me. “You don’t have to do this. I know you’re hungry, man, but we can go back to the Red Room.”
I open my mouth to agree, I get ready to turn away, but suddenly Saara takes a knife and slices the woman’s throat wide open, right below the jaw.
Her scream gurgles as the blood rushes out like a waterfall. The sight of the crimson river, the sharp scent of horror-filled blood, combined with the deep hunger inside me, flips a switch.
“Drink her before she goes to waste,” Saara says. “Suck her dry.”
I watch as it splashes all over her tits, over her belly, down to the floor where it splatters and for a moment I think of Dahlia and I think about all the times I wanted to feed from her, wanted to taste her blood and didn’t, and I guess there’s only so much restraint a vampire can stand.
I let the monster inside me take over.
I grab the girl, my mouth at her neck, and I drink and drink, losing myself to the pure frenzy of it, letting myself be the creature of darkness that I am. For once I don’t have to hold back. She’s already dead and dying and I can just let myself go.
But the hunger only spurs on more hunger. When she’s bled out, all her blood coursing through my system, I set my sights on the man. I don’t see that tears are streaming down his face, I don’t see the pain in his eyes, I just see another meal.
I’ll put him out of his misery.
I lunge for him, leaping on top of him like a panther and then I’m tearing into his jugular, ripping out flesh and muscles and arteries, and I am just gnashing teeth and claws and everything bad and dangerous in this world.
Humans foolishly pride themselves on thinking they are the deadliest predators on earth, but if they knew at all that vampires exist, they’d be quickly put in their place.
Soon I’m as satiated as I’ve ever been. I can’t remember being so full of blood, it would have been the last time I enjoyed murdering someone. And while I don’t want to say I enjoyed what I just did, it does feel good to feel satisfied for once. It feels part of my nature.
I look up, dazed. I’m sitting on the ground, my clothes drenched in blood, beside the body of the dead man, barely recognizable now from what I did to him.
The woman is a few feet away where I left her as a molted heap on the ground.
Saara and Aleksi are standing behind her, Saara with a book in her hands, and Bitrus is nowhere to be seen.
I clear my throat. “Where is Bitrus?”
“He’s waiting by the boat,” Aleksi says. “He didn’t want to intrude on your feast. It was for you, after all, not him.”
I nod at the book she’s holding. “And what’s that? Turning to the Bible now?”
Saara gives me a sharp look. “It’s why we left. It’s our prized possession. And thanks to you, we’ve unlocked another door.”
“What do you mean?” I frown, getting an uneasy feeling in my chest.