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-Ovid
Chapter Thirty-Five: How to Turn an Enemy
"So I just… press the button?"
Salvador nodded. "Tap that little button and the app will deploy. And, as each vampire phone updates the app, it'll start pinging locations to us in real time."
Vera's finger hovered over the little red button on Salvador's phone, the word 'DEPLOY' in big, bold text right beneath it. Then Lisa darted in and tapped the screen, playfully sticking out her tongue.
"Too slow," she said.
Vera sighed. "Well… that's done. I guess we'll see how it goes. I've got to head to work."
She thought about their 'VampTrack' app at work - it was designed to run underneath the special messaging app that the vampires used, to increase the rate at which the phone updated its location to the messenger and to send that information along with information about the phone's user to a separate tracker file, which they could then analyze for current and past locations to track overall patterns. She could imagine little red dots popping up across the day as each phone auto-updated its program, of information flooding in to reveal the various sanctuaries and hiding spots of the Palmetto Nocturnal Society's august members.
She thought about it over lunch, slurping down a chilled blood pack out of a thermos like it was a smoothie - it had been Lisa's treat to her. Where her girlfriend had gotten the stuff, Vera couldn't say, but it was a nice gesture and the blood was clean. Bagged blood lacked some of the oomph of fresh blood, but it got the job done and wasn't as objectionable as Vera might have thought. It was a hell of a lot better than animal blood and brought her to a nicely-sated buzz. She thought about it as she loaded Ms. Clapman in for a follow-up thoracic scan, forgetting that the woman was north of 300 pounds until Brandon jogged in to 'help' her, making a show of flexing muscles far less powerful than Vera's svelte, vampiric ones. And, as she watched the sections resolve on the monitor, inspiration struck: she could send the cell phone location information to the Charleston coven. From what she understood, they were markedly weaker than the Palmetto coven, even after the recent loss of four vampires. But they were rivals - apparently, they even had a different patron demon… Valefar, she vaguely recalled - and now Sophia Clandest had declared a vendetta against them. So Vera's brilliant idea was this: give the Charleston vampires the location of the Palmetto City ones as a great equalizer and let the two groups wipe one another out. Vera would stay in the safety of Maxie's place whenever she wasn't at work, and everything would sort itself out. Easy!
The big question was: how did she reach out to the Charleston vampires. She couldn't just say, "Hi! I'm one of the Palmetto City vamps! I want you to wipe out all the baddies in my coven, so here are their deets!" if only because it would be way too suspicious. On the bus ride back home, she tapped away on her phone, coming across an idea that might work: Charleston had a Juvechrome clinic. It was a little thing out in a medical park along Route 17… the same route 17, in fact, that she and Lisa took to get to the coven temple, albeit way further south. It was maybe a tenth the size of the Palmetto City facility (which was one of the largest), but that hardly mattered. Where there was Juvechrome, there were vampires. She set up a burner email account and fired off a message to the Charleston office with the subject line 'VAMPIRES':
To whom it may concern,
As a concerned 'citizen' regarding the recent spate of bad blood, I wish to provide you with information on the Palmetto City Juvechrome personnel. I have attached login information for an app that will show you where the most familiar employees and even some executives are located. Use this information as you will.
Regards
A. Vamp
The Charleston office responded with an even briefer message almost immediately with the subject line 'RE: VAMPIRES':
Who the fuck is this?
Vera didn't bother to follow up - if they wanted to look a gift horse in the mouth, they were welcome to get themselves massacred by Clandest in her insane quest for revenge. But, Vera genuinely hoped, the Charleston coven would understand the value of this information and use it to take out the Palmetto City leadership. She felt a bit bad for Mistress Xia, who had never seemed all that bad… even if she was still a bit creepy. One didn't stick around for centuries and centuries without becoming a bit 'off'. But hers was a less sinister, more rational flavor of creepy.
Figuring it might be her last chance to get some things before shit got real, Vera stopped by the apartment before heading back to Maxie's, rummaging through the dozen or so bags of high-end clothing that Lisa had simply abandoned and seemingly forgotten about there. There were some real gems to be had, including a rebellious-looking faux-punk denim ensemble and more yoga pants, which were fast becoming Vera's go-to clothing. As she rifled through, Vera heard the buzz-buzz-buzz of a phone. She tossed a Neiman Marcus bag aside and found Lisa's vampire phone, still plugged into its charger and reading: 53 unread messages.
Vera cracked the case and popped the battery out, adding the battery-less phone and phone-less battery next to her own in her backpack. Bags in hand, she headed out the door and back to Maxie's.
+++++
When she returned to Maxie's, it was approaching nine o'clock and Lisa was still out. They'd already discussed staying put, but Lisa insisted that, if Vera was still going to head into work, then she was going to do… whatever the hell it was that she did during the day. Lisa was usually evasive about that and often returned in a state of blood-satiety. If Vera had to guess, she was sweet-talking half the city and getting thousands of dollars in free stuff. That seemed to be her MO of late.
Maxie looked like hell, and Vera worried that the witch was going to actually die rather than turning. Her heart beat had myriad little arrhythmias to it, her face was ashen, her odor was all wrong, and she sat curled on the broken couch with a visibly-concerned Namaste, who licked uncertainly at her palm. Maxie cradled a mug of tea, but it was lukewarm.
"I can barely taste my tea," Maxie said, her voice sounding as rough as she looked.
"Um… here, try this," Vera said.
She unzipped her backpack, slid a reusable straw into her backup thermos, and handed it to Maxie. The witch took an experimental sip, her eyes going wide. She took another, more substantial sip.
"Goddess," she muttered. "That's amazing? What is this?"
"Blood," Vera said. There was no point in lying about it.
"Fuck," Maxie said. She grimaced but didn't stop sucking until the straw started gurgling up bubbles. She looked at Vera, blinking in surprise. "Oh… oh, wow."
"What?"
"Your aura. All of the auras have been getting fainter and fainter all day… I could barely even seen Eva's, and I think she's got the strongest aura of anybody I know. But now they all just popped out… yours is so pretty, Vera. Do you know that? Blobby red and pink with all kinds of dark and patterned bands… they aren't really colors, obviously, but they're like colors."
"Sure," Vera said, though she hoped it was clear she had no idea what the hell Maxie was talking about. "That's good, right? You'll still be able to do witch stuff, at least part-time?"
"Maybe," Maxie said. She cracked the thermos open, took a sniff, and let Namaste lick the inside residue up. "I've got to survive this first. I feel like I'm dying."
"You are dying," Vera said. She squeezed Maxie's hand - it was cool and slightly damp. She stifled the urge to cry. "But not forever. You'd better not. What would we do without Aunt Maxie?"
Maxie chuckled. "Aunt Maxie. I like that. You're good people, Vera."
"You, too."
She and Maxie hugged, and it felt good, Maxie's hair smelling faintly of patchouli and pressed against her face, her little beads clacking. Maxie really did feel like an aunt or a spiritual mentor, and Vera hoped to God… or whatever supernatural entity might be listening… that Maxie would turn into a perfectly normal, perfectly healthy, perfectly dead vampire. Vera found herself crying, infinitely glad that Maxie had allowed her back into her home and seen the real Vera beneath the vampiric exterior. They hugged for a good few minutes, and Maxie made a little sigh. It took Vera a minute to realize that Maxie had stopped squeezing back well over a minute ago.
"Maxie?" Vera said. She pushed her away and Maxie simply slumped back down into her chair, not moving, not doing anything. She was dead. "Oh fuck… oh fuck," Vera mumbled. "Maxie! Maxie, wake up!"
In the back of her mind, the rational part of Vera's brain told her that this was what happened when people turned, that this was a normal part of becoming a vampire. But another part wondered: what if Maxie wasn't coming back? What if Vera had just squeezed her too hard while she was ailing and she'd died? What if the turning didn't work, as many of them apparently didn't? She wept, sitting there across from Maxie's slumped corpse at the coffee table, periodically nudging her as if that might do anything. But, as tended to be the case, Maxie stayed dead.
Vera was starting to recover from her crying fit and pondering a safe place to put Maxie to wait for her to rise - somewhere out of any sunlight and unlikely to be disturbed - when Eva and Hector returned from somewhere. They smelled of alcohol… domestic beer for Hector and something with mint and vodka for Eva… slightly drunk but carrying sturdy black duffel bags. Vera inferred that they'd been using Hector's contacts to gather supplies - weapons, defenses, and probably various witchcraft stuff for the three witches to use. They were two steps into the living room when Eva noticed Vera near the dining table, obviously distraught, cheeks streaked with violet vampire tears, with Maxie's corpse slumped right behind her, one eye opened and rolling way back.
"What the fuck did you do?" Eva asked. Hector froze in his spot, his tan complexion suddenly going ashen.
"Nothing… didn't Maxie tell you she got dosed?" Vera said. Eva looked pissed and she was carrying a huge bag full of weapons - it wasn't the time to raise her ire. "She's turning… I hope. She'll be a vampire in a few hours." Vera did not mention that there was a better than even chance that any given turning wouldn't work and that Maxie might just stay dead.
"Oh hell no… I thought we were past this bloodsucker shit, Vera. But you kill Maxie, you better believe I'm gonna kill your ass."
"I didn't…"
Eva wasn't having any of it. She dropped her duffel bag and unzipped it. Vera glanced to Hector, who flattened himself against the wall and put his hands up in submission - whatever was about to go down, he wanted no part in it. Hector wasn't usually one to freeze in a fight but, in a fight between his hot witch girlfriend and his vampire best friend, it seemed that he wasn't sure which trumped which. By the time Vera devoted her attention to Eva, she'd recovered a carved yew wand and what looked to be a katana. Probably a katana plated in silver specifically for vampire-slaying purposes.
"Don't do anything stupid, Eva," Vera said. "Remember your loving kindness…"
Eva spat. "That's what I think of your loving kindness. You don't feel love. You don't feel anything at all, do you? Maxie let you into her home, gave you her trust, and to you she was nothing more than a side of meat to use and discard. I wanted to believe in good vampires, but that was just a lie, wasn't it? I let you drink blood from my hand, you bitch… I thought you were gonna be our key to taking these assholes down. Are we anything to you?"
Something in Vera… something very tightly coiled within her… started to fray. She felt her fangs extruding, the venom glands burning deep within her cheeks. "Of course I care about you. You're my friends… or I thought we were getting there. I would never hurt Maxie, but I had to dose her after Suleiman… the vampire we killed in here…"
"So you're… what? You'll turn us all into bloodsuckers?"
It hadn't even crossed Vera's mind to turn anybody else into a vampire. Not then, not ever - she'd used her crimson venom once to save Lisa and once so that it was her venom rather than Suleiman's that took Maxie. Using it in anything other than desperation had never even occurred to her…
Eva did something with her yew wand accompanied by a chant, and Vera suddenly found herself wrapped in some sort of invisible bond, a great airy chain wrapping around her feet and working its way up. Chains like iron but invisible, made of some magical fiber. As she was incapacitated, Eva raised her katana and dashed in, swinging once… twice through the air, missing only because Vera twisted enough to fling herself back out of range, collapsing to the floor and still meshed in invisible bindings.
The katana came down and Vera rolled again. The blade sliced right into her leg with a flash of white-hot pain. It dug through the side of her right calf right to the bone - a pretty serious wound if you weren't a vampire. She used all her vampire strength to pull at the bindings, but they were too strong… maybe they could only be broken with magic. Which gave Vera an idea. She barely knew any witchcraft… but she knew that Maxie usually put useful herbs into her teas and there was a puddle of the stuff dribbling to the floor. She squirmed under the table as Eva swung down, cracking the table but catching her sword, if only for a moment. Vera rolled herself in the tea puddle and then imagined the aura bond between herself and Maxie - a bond between Vera and Maxie and between the tea she'd just rolled in and the tea in poor dead Maxie's belly. Hopefully, that made enough sympathy between them…
Maxie! Help! Vera called out - her understanding was that, if Maxie's soul was still around somewhere, it might be able to reach out and help her. And maybe it was just confirmation bias, but in that moment Vera could feel something push into those magical chains and loosen them. And, with a surge of all the vampire strength she could muster, Vera broke the chains, the broken magical energy pulsing out in a violet slash, and leapt to her feet, spinning on her good foot to avoid Eva's next sword strike. Before the witch could react, Vera yanked the sword and the wand out of her hands and threw her against the kitchen wall, sending pans clamoring to the ground and cracking half the plates in the drying rack.
As Eva reached for a paring knife, Vera was on top of her, clamping down on her arms and sinking her fangs into Eva's throat. She felt the blood gushing, hot and rich and nourishing, and took two big gulps before she remembered she wasn't there to kill Eva. Her instincts told her to suck this enemy dry and discard the corpse for the animals to find, but Vera wasn't a mindless killer ruled by instincts. Instead, she injected Eva with all the crimson venom she could muster… not quite a full complement since Vera hadn't fully replenished what she'd used on Maxie. But it was easily enough. She added a bit of the yellow venom… just enough to feel Eva slacken… and Vera lowered her to the floor.
"Wh… wha?" Eva gasped, her legs too wobbly to bring herself back to her feet. "I'll kill…"
"I've dosed you with enough venom to turn you into a vampire," Vera said. She sat on the floor across from Eva, still wary for any sudden movements, should Eva be overplaying her incapacitation. Hector stood in the doorway, silent as if waiting for Vera's approval to intervene. One look from Vera was enough to tell him to keep back for another minute. "I've dosed you, Eva, and now you're going to turn into a vampire. If you hate us so much, I guess you'd better kill yourself."
Eva brought the paring knife, still loose in her slack fingers, up. With a trembling hand, she held it to her own throat, tears streaming down her cheeks, the hate in her eyes boring straight into Vera. "N-no," she said, her words slightly slurred, and she started sobbing. The knife clattered to the floor. "Why? How could you do that to me?"
"Maybe I am a monster," Vera said. "And maybe you're just too goddamn stubborn to listen to reason."
"I… what do I do?" Hector asked. It wasn't clear who he was talking to, and he was on the verge of weeping.
"Take her somewhere safe and get her red meat and blood. I'm standing vigil over Maxie until she rises, and if I catch a single whiff of Eva in this house… and I can smell pretty damn well… I'm going to drain her dry and I won't even feel bad about it."
Ooooh, consequences. It felt really good finally seeing Eva get punished, I always felt like she was getting off waaaay too easy. You don't just repeatedly try to kill someone and get off scott free.
I really wonder if she's going to die, though. I imagine Vera's power makes her venom less likely to kill people as they're turning, but even then, having Vera, Lisa, Maxie and Eva all surviving would be surprising, even if her conversion rate is something like 70%.
Also really interested to see if Lisa's going to get some sort of wakeup call at some point. Her attitude is pretty worrisome at times
Thanks for the chapter! Can't wait to see what happens next
Ironically it's a 'punishment' that many people would love to have, but it's about the worst thing you could do to Eva since she has such a deep-seated hatred of vampires. Assuming Vera's conversion success rate is something like 70%, then she has a roughly 1 in 3 chance for her first three conversions to be successful - not great, but not terrible, either. I guess we'll find out soon enough. Thanks for reading!
Hold up. Wasn't the reason Maxie was dying was Eva's random entrance in the first place? She was there with the others killing Suleiman, she was there to see Maxie bleeding out and dosed with enough crimson venom to turn. Did nobody tell Eva about this or was she on a drunken rampage this time?
Though I have to admit... This is probably the best possible eye opener for Eva. I get the feeling that anything less wouldn't be enough.
Little off topic and probably should have brought it up in the chapter it happened. Why did Suleiman snap and go straight for kills from just Eva walking into the room and saying "Who the f*ck are you?". I can imagine he was getting paranoid, especially after accusing Vera and Lisa of not being youngbloods and going into a magic filled house, but was that it? The transition from that state of paranoia to straight murderous rampage was REALLY fast.
Suleiman was basically growing suspicious, but it was still plausible that they were in the house of Vera's familiars. But Eva reacting that way destroyed any possibility of that, since a familiar would *never* say something like that to a vampire. And, when he decided that there was no way that he wasn't being lied to, he reacted as if he'd found himself in a dangerous trap, because that's exactly where he was.
As for Eva, she was injured during the fight and didn't realize that Maxie had been given a turning dose of venom. Suleiman didn't drink too much blood, so Maxie only looked a bit shocked and bewildered after the fight. And Eva's paranoia resulted in her concluding that Vera wanted to turn the whole coven... which she didn't but which kinda 2/3 happened anyway.
Oh Eva... I had expected your raginess to kill you sooner or later. But the possibility of a not-permadeath is ... quite ironic.
I'd call it just desserts.
