Chapter 14

 

I had to admit that the timing of learning to summon Beli as a projectile weapon was convenient—if I ever had to take out Mercy, doing it from a distance would be my best shot. Not that it had come to that yet—eliminating her now would certainly incur the wrath of Nico, who still had my parents enthralled by his influence. In truth, I wasn’t sure how extensive his power was. But it was at least nice to know that the new ability Oggie had taught me gave me another option that the vamps might not see coming. After all, when they’d “tested” me before, I’d never dispatched any of their lackeys beyond close range.

It was a difficult tactic to master—after my afternoon practice session with Mikah, I managed only modest success. It was enough to show some promise—I just needed more practice. Beli had manifested as a crossbow of sorts, with a bolt that was just as good as a stake if it were to strike a vampire in the heart. And due to the unique ability my dragon blade/stake/crossbow offered, it would send the vamp directly to the realm of the dead, to Samhuinn, where they belong.

Mikah grabbed my arm, stopping me mid-stride. Maman Brigitte and Aida-Wedo were standing outside the first-year dormitory, clearly in a heated argument.

“What did you think would happen?” Aida-Wedo asked as the python curled around her neck hissed at Brigitte. “He was bitten just a few months ago and barely recovered. And you bring a vampire into the Academy!”

“Unless you forget, it was a Petro Loa, Kalfu, not one of the Ghede, whose dark aspect assaulted your initiate!”

“Excuse me?” I asked. “Did something happen?”

The two Loa looked at me disdainfully—it wasn’t personal. But by speaking to them directly, I was breaking protocol.

“Speak to Ogoun about it,” Brigitte said curtly.

“And now you’re one to insist on following tradition?” Aida-Wedo said, narrowing her eyes at Brigitte before turning to me, softening her countenance. “Our new vampire initiate claims that Pauli attacked her. He’s being held by Erzulie now for questioning.”

“Pauli wouldn’t attack anyone,” I said. If he were of his previous mind, he wouldn’t. But I couldn’t deny what he’d told me. Around vampires he got a hunger… something came over him. But did he attack Mercy?

“That doesn’t sound like Pauli. Is Mercy okay?” I asked.

“She is fine,” Aida-Wedo said, Brigitte still turned away from me before snapping back at Aida-Wedo.

“It is the principle of the matter,” Brigitte said. “A student who attacks another student… that is an assault in its own right. But since he likely attacked her for no other reason than that she is a vampire, this is a hate crime. Forget expulsion, he should be banished!”

“A hate crime?” I asked. “You can’t be serious. And how do we know what happened anyway?”

“Mercy reported the incident straightaway, which Pauli apparently denies,” Aida-Wedo said. “It is his word against hers.”

“Can I see him?” I asked. “Pauli is my friend.”

“When Erzulie is done with her inquiry, he will likely be permitted to return pending a formal disciplinary session. Barring any third-party witnesses, he is entitled to a fair hearing.”

“Which will leave my initiate susceptible to a second attack!” Brigitte protested.

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” I said.

Maman Brigitte glanced at me condescendingly before storming off down the hall, Aida-Wedo briskly following behind her. Maman Brigitte didn’t believe me. And frankly, I wasn’t sure how long I could defend Pauli anyway. Erzulie and Brigitte were in league with one another before, and if Mercy insisted that he attacked her, if she told them to believe her, they’d agree with her without even thinking about it. There was only one way to fix this, and that was to take it up with Mercy directly.

I leaned over to Mikah, grabbed his hand and squeezed. “That’s from Isabelle,” I told him.

Mikah kissed my cheek. “And that’s for her. You both did a great job today.”

I smiled. I gave Isabelle half of the afternoon session once I felt I had summoning Beli as a crossbow down pat. With the herbal remedy Mikah had made, I’d quickly resumed control and avoided the headache entirely.

I turned and walked into the dormitory. Mercy stood next to my bed anticipating my arrival. So far, she was the only other student who had made it back from training aside from Sauron, who was snoring like thunder.

“Sorry about your friend,” Mercy said. “He was a liability.”

“He didn’t attack you, and you know it.”

Mercy shook her head. “Not yet. But you know as well as I do it was just a matter of time. But don’t worry about him. I will tell them to clear his name and forgive the charges entirely once we’ve finished our task tonight.”

I gulped. “Tonight? Are you serious?”

“What? Did you think I enrolled here so I could further my education? I’m here for a reason, and I do not intend to linger pointlessly. First, you need to get changed. You can’t go to the land of the dead looking so… alive.”

“You want me to take you with me to Samhuinn?”

Mercy nodded. “And there should be quite a crowd there… all the vampires you’ve staked, all looking for their revenge.”

“But Baron Samedi dwells in the in-between, in some kind of purgatory hidden in the ley lines. That’s where I found him before.”

Mercy’s tongue danced across her fangs. “And I’m inclined to bring him back after you’ve turned him green. Before Erzulie can pull it off and he tries to exert his influence over us… over Nico and me. But we have another task to complete first. We’re not going to the Baron. Not immediately.”

“Excuse me? Isn’t that what Nico wanted?”

“You are going to help me bring Ramon back. Is that too much to ask, or do I need to command it?”

I sighed. “You realize you could do better than Ramon. He has no control. He’s been a vampire as long as you, but he’s still basically a serial killer.”

“He was turned as long ago as I—even longer. But in the last century he’s spent no more than a few months without a stake in his chest. He needs time to tame his hunger. And I can make sure he does. I can command it.”

“I can’t stop you from making me do this. But it sure sounds like you love him.”

“It isn’t love,” Mercy hissed. “I do not need to explain my feelings to you.”

“Of course you don’t,” I said. “But if you’re capable of love…”

“Then maybe I wouldn’t be a monster?”

“That’s not what I was going—”

“But it’s what you meant.”

When she speaks of Ramon, she sparks an aura. It’s dim, but it’s there. I think we should help her.

I sighed. Had she bitten a romantic? Consumed something of a soul inclined to love? Maybe over time the vampire’s capacity to love returns as their hunger wanes through the centuries. Isabelle had sensed something human about Nico, too. He had an aura. If Mercy was developing one… and Nico had one… it meant vampires could be saved. It meant there was hope for my parents. If there was any chance that bringing back Ramon would make Mercy something close to being human—someone who could love, someone with a conscience—I had to agree to help. After all, with her abilities, there was no telling what she could do without a conscience. Helping her recover some sliver of humanity might, at the very least, give her some pause before manipulating people—even the Loa—toward her will.

“Mercy, you don’t need to command anything. I’ll help you.”

Mercy nodded. “Then sit down. I need to prepare you for death.”

“Excuse me?”

Mercy grinned widely, again showing off her vicious chompers. “To prepare you to encounter death. I do not intend to kill you. I will require your abilities in order to return, so it is in my interest to see to it that you are protected. In this guise, you will not fool anyone. But you will honor the dead as such, and they will permit your passage into their domain.”

“Prepare me, how?”

“The traditional death mask was used by the ancient Aztecs who had apparently summoned a gateway to the realm of the dead. When the elders would travel there, they were not going to deceive any of the souls who lingered there that they were truly dead. But the mask was a way of honoring the dead—of showing that the living did not take their lives for granted. For them, death was a mystery every bit as profound as that of life. It was a way to exist that was not less than living. It was simply the next chapter in our cosmic existence.”

I squinted as Mercy began applying white paint to my face. “I didn’t take you for the… scholarly type.”

Mercy huffed. “I’m not. Not usually. When you’ve lived more than a century, you’ve seen everyone you loved in life grow old—grow old without you. You’ve seen them die, and then you’ve seen their children grow old and die, too. You come to realize that you’ll never join them, that you’ve been somehow spared a death… or robbed of it, however you choose to look at it.”

“I never thought about how hard that must be,” I said.

“As a vampire, you have two options. Use that to fuel your rage. In that case, you’ll be condemned to a death of sorts. But as you will see, the vampires who die are not whole, even in death. They linger on the outskirts of the realm of death, lacking a soul, unable to get through. It’s where we go, temporarily, when staked. It’s where your blade sends us in total—leaving us there without any hope of coming back, without a staked corpse that might one day revive.”

I cringed, even as Mercy’s cool brush tickled my cheeks. “I never thought about it that way. You said you have two options? What’s the second one?”

“If we don’t use that to fuel our rage, then perhaps we can use it to fuel our… perseverance. It’s the path Nico has taken, and the one I hope to follow. As we gradually recover something like the humanity we lost, even as we grow more powerful, the hope is that some power, some ability, some opportunity might arise that we could become whole again. That we might recover our souls.”

“And that’s why you’re using me…”

Mercy took her brush and dipped it into a cup of black paint, which she had set on the edge of my wardrobe. “You represent an opportunity. For centuries Nico has held on to the hope that you, the same girl who damned him, could also be the one who redeems him.”

“And that’s your hope, too?”

Mercy pressed her lips together. “I’m older than most vampires. But not nearly so ancient as Nico. Still, I’ve gone more than a century without being staked. Not once. I’ve been careful. All I know of the realm of the dead is what Ramon has told me. I know enough from his example that being there too long can make us more monstrous rather than less. It makes us more dangerous when our stakes are removed than we were when they went in. But Ramon has spent nearly as many years there as I have here, on this earth. He cannot be faulted for his… eccentricities.”

“Isn’t calling a serial killer ‘eccentric’ a bit of a euphemism?”

Mercy dropped her brush and looked me in the eyes. “You have not felt the craving that I live with every single day. When a human being kills, he acts contrary to his better nature. He is warped, diagnosed a sociopath. He’s told he is less than what he is, less than human. When we kill, we are acting according to our nature. For a vampire, to kill and eat a human is no different than it is for you to raise and slaughter cattle.”

“Then why are you any different?”

“I’m not.”

“You don’t rip limbs from their bodies. You don’t bury them under your precious tree. You don’t kill out of sport. Not like Ramon.”

“I don’t?” Mercy leaned over and whispered in my ear. “What makes you so sure?”

“There’s a spark of humanity in you, maybe something left over from before, maybe something new that has come with time. But there is a goodness in you, I can sense it.”

“All the better to trick you into becoming my next meal, my dear.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m no Little Red Riding Hood. And you’re not a Big Bad Wolf.”

“You’re right,” Mercy said. “I ate the Big Bad Wolf for breakfast.”

“Besides, you don’t have to trick me. If you wanted to feed on me, you’d just command it.”

Mercy huffed. “You’re right. I could. But that would ruin the thrill of the hunt. There’s no sport in that.”

As Mercy finished, I opened to door to my wardrobe and checked myself out in the mirror. I was stunned. There was a deathly beauty to the way Mercy had painted my mask. It was a look I wasn’t at all used to. I usually try to associate my appearance with adjectives like vivacious or full of life. But this death, the beauty of it, I had to admit there was something alluring about it.

We’re stunning, Isabelle remarked.

I grinned at myself in the mirror.

“Who ever said that death has to be repulsive?” Mercy asked as she took my hand. I gasped at the chill of her touch, my heart fluttered. I hated that this vampire had such an effect on me. Mercy was like death itself—repulsive, but somehow irresistible. “You can admire yourself later. Let’s go.”