Circle of Death (22 page)

“You are being more useful than I expected.” The leader said. “Remember, we will not make any vampires here. Kill all those who are not at their best. Children, those still entering adulthood and past their prime don not interest me.”

The vampires nodded, passing the instructions to their army through that strange mental connection they had with the ones they made. In a matter of seconds, they were ready to start purifying the city.

The soldiers didn’t have a chance to stop the vampires, who entered the city as if they didn’t even exist, killing those who didn’t interest their Masters and ignoring the rest.

Smiling fiercely, the three men who had entered first removed their cloaks and joined the attack.

Those who served the Nameless’ plans were left alive, in a city covered with the all the others’ blood.

But I had gone back, not long after the Intervention, to kill everyone who survived our first attack.

“Why would someone do all this?” One of the vampires who followed me asked, his gaze on a little girl, her body twisted in like a broken doll.

“The Nameless is cleaning Earth, destroying everyone he doesn’t think is worthy of immortality, before destroying Death herself.” I answered, forcing myself to ignore the memories. “Search for survivors! He will have left some alive!”

We spread through the city, searching for signs of life and taking the survivors we found to the place where we should have waited for the Fae, which was far enough that the smell didn’t reach us. The Fae team had just arrived, and they accepted the task of keeping the humans there, as they didn’t seem eager to enter the city after the first human started describing what he had seen.

The group of survivors was varied, but the age group was clear: between twenty-five and forty years old, and only those of perfect health. Anyone who didn’t match that was useless to the Nameless’ great plan.

A long time ago he had been close to getting what he wanted. No matter how much humanity had changed, that scene was too similar to what I had seen and done in the beginning of my existence as a vampire, before the Intervention. I had forced myself to forget all that, but now I was wondering if I could have avoided it if I had remembered.

“We’ll take you to a refuge.” I said, considering my duty to explain what we would do, even if we ended up using a compulsion spell to force them to obey. “You’ll be safe there while we start hunting the creature that is causing this.”

My words were received with hostility and disbelief, as I had expected. Without time or patience to try to convince them we wouldn’t harm them, I gave the signal to the Fae, and soon all the humans were under their spell. My vampires added mind control to the compulsion, and soon the humans entered the pathway through the limbo that would take them to one of the old cities.

Seeing them leave, I reached out to Kelene through our bond.

“
What happened?”
She asked.

“
We need to move faster. A lot faster. I remember the Nameless’ plan from before, and it seems he is doing the same thing. If we don’t make our move soon it will be too late for humanity.”
I quickly explained about those who were useful to his plans and how he had everyone else killed.

“
It will be tomorrow. I need a couple of hours of rest, and we need to change our plans. I’ll get in touch.”
Kelene’s voice was cold as she said it, and I felt her presence disappear as soon as she finished speaking.

Quickly, I searched for the mental bond with the Masters and told them what they would find in the attacked cities. We still needed to take the survivors somewhere safe, but now our priority must be evacuating the next targets.

“What is this power?” I asked Death as soon as we stopped, in the same house Ivan had taught me, only hours before.

No one knew that, but what had happened in the Sanctuary had haunted me since then. What had I done? I had already been the weird one, the aberration, once before, when I was a child with strange powers, back when I met Avés. After all those years, I thought I knew everything I could do with the powers I had inherited from my father and what I had earned as the White Hand. But no power, no known ability, was able to stop Death herself. No. There was one thing. The Nameless had done something like that to make sure Death couldn’t reach him. What was I becoming?

“This is the true Death’s Power.” Her answer was blunt, even though she seemed lost in thought. “The pure power, without the filters that come from the negotiations of the naturally imposed limitations.”

“Death’s Power? How?” I managed to ask, too surprised to think about what it really meant.

“Your mother was a White Hand, you probably guessed this years ago.”

No, I hadn’t. But she didn’t give me time to question that.

“She had an amazing ability for contact, it was almost instinctive for her. We were almost always sharing mind contact, and I think that’s the reason some of my power went to her, and then to you. But, honestly, it’s just a theory.”

And Death had already started to lie. Or maybe not lie, but she wasn’t telling me the truth. I really had Death’s Power, and my mother had been a White Hand with and unusual ability for contact. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but I could guess. And, somehow, I was sure she wasn’t telling the truth about the rest. She
knew
why I had that power, but wouldn’t tell me. I knew it was important to know, to understand why, but I also knew Death well enough to notice that she wouldn’t tell me anything now. I would need to find another way to discover the truth.

“And why did the White Hand marry the Nameless? There was no way she wouldn’t know who he was, and he would have realized what she was, not to mention that…”

“That it was improper, almost a betrayal, that a Hand of the White Hand married my greatest enemy.” She finished my line of thought, her harsh and annoyed voice telling me she had thought about it more than once. “But it was our best chance to find a weakness, a way to imprison him again. She approached the Nameless under my orders, and he never realized who she was.”

I didn’t answer, finally understanding. Death hadn’t been able to imprison the Nameless that time. I had done it, with the Fae’s help. This was a clear sign that he had become stronger. But how? And, for the first time, I was sure Death wouldn’t be able to defeat the Nameless again.

“You…” I started, but she didn’t let me finish.

“You gave me the answer to this problem. He will fall.”

Something in the way she spoke made me shiver, and I was almost relieved when I felt Lucio reaching out for me.

“
What happened?”

“
We need to move faster. A lot faster. I remember the Nameless’ plan from before, and it seems he is doing the same. If we don’t make our move soon it will be too late for humanity.”
I saw the city and the survivors as Lucio saw them, and also the images from his memory, from when the Nameless had made the vampires and used them as his personal army. I was sure Lucio hadn’t meant to show that to me, but I had seen it and understood his fear.

“
It will be tomorrow. I need a couple of hours of rest, and we need to change our plans. I’ll get in touch.”
I answered, ending the communication, far more worried than I seemed to be.

It’s one thing to hear someone telling you what’s going on, to know that there is a slaughter happening. It’s quite another to see the results of that, as I had just seen through Lucio’s eyes. If I had any idea it would be like that, I wouldn’t have waited not even those few days before making our move.

“Did you know? This “purification” the Nameless is doing, did you know about it?” I turned to Death, furious at the thought that she had hidden it from me.

Something in her expression made me freeze before she spoke.

“No. I did not know. I don’t remember what happened before the Intervention.”

That surely wasn’t the answer I had expected. How was it possible that Death herself didn’t remember what had happened? Even in the Fae’s legends, that time was remembered with horror, even though most of it had been lost. It was impossible that someone who had been there had forgotten it. It was clear Death wasn’t telling me the whole truth, but I couldn’t say that had been a lie. I knew her well enough to recognize when she was only telling me
part
of something. And, just like when she had talked about my mother, it would be useless to insist.

“Rest, Kelene.” She said, sounding grim.

“No. I need to learn how to control Death’s Power.” I reminded her of why she had taken me there and of what I still planned to do. “And I need to try to free the White Hand’s Circle from Seth’s control.”

“Not if you want to be able to confront Seth and the Nameless soon. You will need all your strength, and the best way to release the Circle is killing Seth. We will have to trust your instincts to help you in keeping the power under control.” Death’s answer was harsh, and again I saw that expression I couldn’t understand. “While you sleep, I’ll see what they have been doing. In the morning I’ll have at least the rudiments of a plan.”

I nodded, knowing she was right, and went back to the city’s central area.

I was sure Kelene had noticed when I spoke half-truths, but there was no other way. She had shown me what I needed to do, and I wouldn’t allow myself to make any other mistake. I had already made too many of them. Death needed to stand strong.

Seth was moving over another city, but with far less victims now. I could feel their spirits leaving, crossing the Veil into the beyond. Apparently, Lucio’s vampires were succeeding, at least partially. Yes, the vampires and the Fae had found a way to make their alliance work, and were quickly doing their part. Consciously, I blocked the images of destruction he sent through the mental bond he didn’t know existed, the one between a Sanctuary’s Keeper and Death. To him, everything was a repetition of the past, of when him and Seth became vampires. But for me, it was all new.

I didn’t see the days before the Intervention, and had only seen the destruction while the Nameless was acting that last time, not long ago, when he had escaped and been captured by Kelene. Back then he hadn’t shown his power like he did now.

Also, I didn’t see the birth of the Nameless, when he deceived Death and started to gather power from the old knowledge, as the stories told. I only knew that it was then that humans and the Otherworld had taken different paths and the old ways were lost.

How do you fight an enemy you don’t know? How to destroy something whose origin is shrouded in mystery?

My mistake was bigger than anyone who knew what was happening could imagine.

Hearing Kelene talking to the people who lived in the city, I realized I had fallen in the same trap I swore I would avoid. It was easy to see how the Nameless strength was becoming bigger than mine, and I needed to be ready to do what was necessary.

I already knew what we all must do.

In a few moments, I was back to the inhabited area of the city, and went to the building where the humans usually gathered. As I expected, Alice was there and got up before I needed to say anything, following me outside.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She was honest. “But each of us will have a role in this fight. I will fulfill mine.

Satisfied and even more impressed with the strength that young woman showed, I entered death’s pathways. Alice didn’t need help to open the way and enter, and I gave her an approving nod. She was a fast learner.

Without hesitation, I started walking towards the Sanctuary, and Alice followed me.

I had left that first group of vampires and joined the one that was running ahead of Seth, trying to evacuate as many people as possible in the cities marked as possible targets. Fortunately, both him and the Nameless were keeping to the medium-sized cities so far, probably leaving the big cities for last.

We were sending another group of humans to one of the refuges when I felt Death, through a mental bond like the one I had with the Masters. How had I never recognized it? I had always used that kind of communication, I should have noticed it before… Unless Death made sure it stayed hidden.

“I need you at the Sanctuary immediately.” That was all she said.

With a quick warning to the vampire who would take charge of the group when I left, I took one of death’s pathways, going to the Sanctuary.

“Welcome, Lucio.” Death herself was waiting, as soon as I crossed the door. “It’s time for the preparations only we can make.”

With a wide gesture, she indicated one of the Sanctuary’s altars, in an area with more images and tapestries but not many candles. It was one of the consecration altars, made of a marble dais from which rose a large statue, a raw representation of a human body with its arms outstretched. The only candles which lit that altar were on the statue’s hands.

Alice was tied between the statue’s arms, with no fear in her expression. The ceremonial ropes were around her chest, in an intricate pattern consisting of three sets of knots, one over her stomach, one over her right breast and the last over her left breast.

For one second, I was transported back to when I was still alive, when I had stood in that same place and waited for my consecration as a Keeper of Death’s Sanctuary.

“She has chosen to become a Keeper?”

“Yes. And you are responsible for her initiation.”

Death handed me a sheathed sword. On first sight, considering the sheath and the handle, it seemed an ordinary sword. But that impression disappeared as soon as I drew it. The dark blade had bluish veins shinning softly, like the flame from the Sanctuary’s candles. That was a Keeper’s sword, part of life and death at the same time, and that only Death could offer to anyone. Hesitating for a single moment, I took the sword and moved towards Alice.

I stopped in front of the bound young woman, looking into her eyes. The certainty and confidence there surprised me, but I shouldn’t have expected less from a candidate. And then I already had the sword’s point in the center of one of the strange patterns of knots, the one over her stomach. Death walked until she was beside me, and I could feel the ice of her power when she started to speak.