Unhallowed Shadows
“And if by chance you come across me, anywhere but within these walls, do not trust me. Kill me without the slightest hesitation!”
“The part where he mentions that should we find him anywhere else we must kill him is repeated elsewhere”, Lahifa explained to Erica. “From what we have been able to gather, the closest he is to the Creature, the better it can control him”. She pointed at the tunnel stretching behind around them. “Hence this place was built so far away from Europe, where it all began. And this is pretty much the end of the story we have managed to piece together from our finds. Ah, we also unearthed some plans of the Temple of Blood!” she added.
“And what exactly do you want from me?” asked the young vampire.
“Well, to kill the Creature, of course! We believe that you are the child of the archangel and the archdemon!”
“Now, how did you come up with that? My parents were humans, I actually knew them you know… and I can assure you they were neither demons nor angels. Up there”, she said, pointing to where the Order’s bunker was, “is a man who knew my parents and can attest to what I’m saying”, Erica said forcefully.
“I do realize it must be extremely difficult to accept what we claim. Yes, the woman you consider your mother did give birth to you, but you are not her child. Serenity’s spell placed you in her womb. I know you have absolutely no reason to trust us, but all the visions of the Great Ayatollah confirm what I’m saying”, said Lahifa, trying to convince her.
“What visions?”
“My father receives visions directly from God. He saw that the child was eventually born some two decades ago in Greece. He saw it growing up and becoming a mighty warrior, fighting evil. And a year ago to this day, when you became a vampire, my father had the most important vision of them all, an infant falling into a pool of blood, teeming with dead bodies. All the evidence unearthed here proves what I say. Why else would Archytas take such a keen interest in you, not to mention the Ancient who turned you, if you were not the child in question?”
Refusing to accept it, Erica shook her head:
“No, what are you talking about? Please, I mean no disrespect towards your father, but I simply cannot accept that I’m the one you have been looking for. I just can’t, I’m sorry”.
“There is a way we could all get our answers, beyond the shadow of a doubt”, was Lahifa’s answer to Erica’s resistance. “I would imagine that you are familiar with the sword of Saint Peter, correct?” she asked and when Erica nodded, continued: “Originally, it was the sword yielded by Archytas and here, in one of these passages, he mentions that its powers can only be activated when in the hands of a person with a pure heart. I would imagine that this was one of the reasons he eventually gave up the sword and hid it since, once he became a vampire, he would be unable to use it. However, he does mention that a creature of angelic bloodline would be able to unlock its powers and yield it equally well as he once did. Now, we have the sword here, so what do you have to lose? After all, it was the sword you were seeking when you decided to come here, no?”
Erica had no answer to either of the two questions and following a brief hesitation, she saw Lahifa smiling:
“Perfect! Follow me, then!”
Casting a last glance around the finds and the cavern, Erica followed her.
She was inside a glass cell, located inside one of the many rooms found in the bunker of the Order. Its door, also made of glass, was unlocked; she wasn’t a prisoner, but Erica sensed that several vampires had met their end inside this cell. Unlike the rest of the bunker, this unique prison had been constructed following the arrival of the Order there. Its glass walls were made of twin layers which had a mirror effect, so that anyone within it could not look out, but those outside could look in.
She did not need to see them; she could sense and hear them just fine. Erica was sitting cross-legged, with the sword of Saint Peter on her lap. Several knights and mercenaries had walked past the glass jail, discussing her chances of activating the sword. Up to that point, most seemed to take for granted that the Great Ayatollah was right.
And yet, Erica had proven them wrong, since, no matter how hard she tried, she had failed to “activate” the sword, whatever that might mean.
Now she had reached the stage where she was willing to try any idea she could come up with or that would be suggested to her.
At the moment, she was meditating, as advised by Lucas, who was also sitting cross-legged before her. She wasn’t doing a particularly good job. She opened her eyes and observed him. She almost smiled; seeing that giant of a man sitting cross-legged, with his eyes closed and his palms pressed together, she felt like bursting into laughter.
“It’s not working all that well, is it?” asked the giant eventually, when she failed to stifle a giggle.
“No, it isn’t, my friend, sorry”, she said, rubbing his arm to temper his disappointment.
She was sincere in her response, so the giant smiled and left the cell.
The next one to come and try to help her out was Lahifa, although, the moment she walked in the glass cell, Travis also showed up; calmly following her in, holding a laptop in his hand.
“Well, I haven’t been able to find any references on the specific sword just yet, but I did find several articles on metaphysics from some websites maintained by Satanists, on how to enter churches which are protected by wards against evil. Now, if all else fails, we might be able to make the sword think that you are an archangel”, he told her and passed the laptop to her; on the browser, there were several tabs displaying those webpages.
Erica’s eyes widened, while Lahifa cast him the coldest look she had given to anyone in her life. Travis, unware of his blunder, looked at both of them, somewhat confused that they had made no comment on his suggestion, until he realized that Lahifa would not be at all happy with the solution he had put forward. Turning to the warrior and smiling as innocently as he could, he added:
“As a last measure, should all else fail!”
Red as a beetroot, he turned about and exited the glass cell, but he did leave the laptop behind.
Erica kindly lowered the screen of the laptop, before turning to the young Arab warrior. Extending her arms to the sides, gesturing that she was open to all suggestions, she said, trying to defuse the tension:
“I seriously doubt anyone could come up with a worse idea than all this”.
Lahifa laughed good-naturedly and found the courage to speak her mind on Lucas’ approach:
“To tell the truth, the first time I laid eyes on that mountain of a vampire, I wouldn’t have guessed that he was the type who dabbles in yoga!”
“Oh, yes, he’s full of surprises”, Erica agreed. “Sadly, the solution he suggested did not work, either”.
“I am convinced that in the end you will succeed”, came the answer, but the young vampire couldn’t bring herself to make any comment on that.
“I do apologize, I came here thinking I might help out with the sword, but the truth is that I also wanted to ask you something”, continued Lahifa. She took a deep breath and immediately afterwards spelled out what had been troubling her: “How does it feel? Being a vampire, I mean. Excuse my bluntness, but I happened to notice the tattoos on your arms. Once, you pledged allegiance to the Order, you used to be just like me, regardless of the fact you served another God. How does it feel? How does it feel to have your God wrested from your hands?”
The young woman was biting her lips, almost certain that Erica would bare her teeth and lunge at her. However, the vampire carefully considered her answer and eventually she spoke with sincerity:
“I miss that. At first, I wasn’t even thinking about it. Vampirism can be an intoxicating feeling, knowing that you are going to live forever, that no disease can kill you and that death is now something for you to decide and by no means a certainty, something that is going to happen sooner or later. However, what I had before, the ability to pray and have someone who would answer those prayers,
granting me strength, figuratively and literally, is something now lost to me and I would be a fool if I claimed that I do not miss that. Perhaps it is one of the reasons I’m trying to hunt down the Creature. Yes, I do know it wants to kill me and that a powerful offense constitutes the best defense. Yes, I know that and I wouldn’t have left things at that. At the same time, I will be doing some good and that is something that the old Erica would have been proud of”.
The two women looked at each other. The answer in part left both of them unsatisfied and in part left nothing more to be said. Without realizing it, they both thought at the same moment to ask each other what they thought, which God was the real one, but they both decided that they couldn’t have asked such a question.
Lahifa left and Marcos walked in the glass cell. Erica forgot at once the previous conversation and smiled; her mood improved instantly.
“Hello”, she said, still smiling. “How’s my favorite spy doing?” she asked, teasingly.
“Couldn’t be better! I got my ass kicked from a particularly angry vampire in a silk suit and then I was captured by modern knights”, answered Marcos in the same playful spirit, but when he noticed the worry in her face added: “Don’t worry, the blood you had given me kept me alive”.
Erica looked at him, somewhat surprised, but did not persist.
“So, tell me!” she said. “What wisdom have you come to share with me?”
He sat cross-legged in front of her.
“Wisdom? I think I’m the wrong guy to be offering any advice to you. I just came to save you from all these crazies!” was his answer.
“They have high expectations of me, that’s why they act this way”, said Erica, trying to explain their behavior. “Plus, they’re feeling the stress. In fact, you’re the first human I’ve known to look this calm when in the same room with vampires!”
Marcos’ face got serious.
“Look… The first time I saw you, my goal was to solve the murder of a friend of mine. I thought you had some involvement in it. Later on, when I saw that other vampire turn to dust, with you straddling him, I stopped thinking; I was certain. I wanted to follow the thread of this story to the very end… and actually ended up in your place, once you saved me, and managed to see your human side. I saw Erica, a young woman talking about ancient vampires and a terrifying world, a world of knights and magical swords…” He paused briefly and then continued: “Wish you could have seen her!” he joked.
“Mad as a hatter, eh?” she asked, with a feline smile.
Marcos looked and her and thought about saying something, but he changed his mind. He smiled awkwardly and changed subject, leaving behind the answer he would have wanted to give.
“So, tell me, what’s the problem with this sword?”
The young vampire looked at him for a few seconds, as if considering something, and then began explaining:
“Fine, look. I’m supposed to have within me the strength to ‘activate’ this sword, whatever that means, but my vampirism prevents me from doing so… At least, that’s the latest theory they’ve come up with”.
“You don’t believe them, then?”
“No, I do not feel like the child of an archangel, that’s for sure”, answered Erica, clearly annoyed.
Marcos made no comment, just looked at her and waited to hear the rest of it. Erica exhaled, irritably, and tried to find the words to express how she felt:
“For a year now, I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that, where once I was an aspiring knight, I became a vampire… and now I’m asked to accept… what exactly? That I’m a former aspiring knight, currently a vampire, spawn of an archdemon, child of an archangel? This whole thing is beyond ridiculous!” she exclaimed.
A shadow flashed across the length of the blade. Erica and Marcos both froze, staring at the magical weapon. A few moments later, once nothing else had happened, Marcos commented, almost whispering:
“I think it reacts to your feelings…”
Erica said nothing, her mind a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts.
With uncharacteristic effusiveness, Marcos got up from where he had been sitting, went behind the young vampire and began massaging her shoulders.
“Try to relax and focus on what you want to achieve”, he told her; he resembled a coach trying to loosen up his wrestler. “You’ve seen that you can do it. Stop thinking about what you should or shouldn’t have become. Your vampirism cannot take away from you all those other things you mentioned. You are a vampiric knight with some unusual lineage and if anyone’s got a problem with that, well, too bad for them”.
The young woman did not respond and for a fleeting moment Marcos feared he had gone too far, until Erica brought her hand around his left arm, gently pulled it down and touched her teeth on the veins of his wrist. She did not bite it immediately; she waited to see the way Marcos would react.
When he stayed still, she closed her eyes and bit down on it. His blood was different to anything she had tried in her first year as a vampire, though she wasn’t able to tell exactly how it was different. In any event, she stopped quickly, so as not to exhaust him.
She opened her eyes and closed her palm once more around the handle of the weapon resting on her lap. The blade, as if fluorescent, began flickering and at first some shadows appeared and, as Erica was getting up from the floor, gradually surer of herself, the sword was responding more and more.
She looked Marcos straight in the eye and, again, she smiled.
“I did it!” she told him, and he closed his arms around her waist and excitedly lifted her up.
They were both smiling happily, staring each other in the eye. With her free hand, Erica lightly touched his hair and he brought her a little closer to his face, pulling her lightly from the waist. Swords, prophecies and demons were forgotten, as they both leaned in at the same moment to kiss.
The happy squeal of one of Lahifa’s sisters, who happened to be passing outside the cell at that moment and saw the sword shining, interrupted them. Embarrassed, Marcos stepped back and Erica turned her eyes away. Soon, the glass cell was swarming with people wanting to see the vampire and the sword. While the barrage of questions continued, the two of them could do nothing but steal glances at each other.
The following hours passed in feverish preparations. Humans and vampires were getting ready to storm the Temple of Blood. Erica was sensing that the Creature had captured the magical structure, but she told the others she couldn’t be certain of it. In any event, they were all trying their best to prepare for any eventuality and Lucas was sharing advice on how to combat the Dead ones, should the need arise.
All those who were going to participate in the mission were asked to memorize the plans of the Temple, which they had found in Archytas’ notes. Lahifa presented Erica with the magical orb which would grant them access to the Temple. It looked different to what Lucas remembered. Instead of resembling a ruby, as he had told her, it was a smooth, black stone. When the vampire took it in her hand, the stone glowed for a few moments, a deep red color, but nothing more than that.
“Are we positive we’ll be able to get in the Temple with this?” Erica asked both of them.
“Even if we were to fail, we are duty-bound to try”, Lahifa answered with determination.
With those words, the subject was laid to rest and they continued their preparations for the long journey that would take them to the Sahara desert and the Temple of Blood. Coordinating with the humans, Travis secured a military transport airplane for them which would take them across the Atlantic and over Libya, where they would land and board helicopters for the final stage to the Temple. The cost for transporting all these people, plus their gear, was astronomical, but Erica covered it without hesitation.