In the seemingly prosperous, but in fact quite a cruel and hard world of the Community, the cost of living was extremely low.
The Community traded and did business with everything and anything you could think of, weapons, drugs, human or otherwise flesh for sexual pleasure, human or otherwise flesh to satisfy the needs for consumption and so on.
The city guard, the guardians of law and order, had a purely palliative function everywhere, they could not deal with the crime, or rather, they did not want to destroy the whole business that fed people (and non-people) at all levels of government. and the city guards themselves, as I suppose you already guessed. Everything was structures around crime one way or another.
However, there were the Unwritten Rules of the bandit world, united in something like a Unified Moral Code.
I have already mentioned the Rule of Silence - the Omerta.
Another important rule that I also mentioned at the beginning of my story was the Rule of Untouched Asylum. Religious temples and health facilities had the status of such - from the smallest reception rooms to the largest multidisciplinary hospital in Burg Central. No one, in any way, had the right to encroach on the lives of the beings in them.
Well, with rare exceptions, it has happened that some madman desecrated the Asylum with murder, but then he was killed by all possible means both by the law enforcers and the bandit organisations hunted him down, and made sure his death was horrible.
This is why anyone rarely touches doctors. Well that and it's unwise to anger the people who can cure you when you're injured.
Now, I've found myself in a difficult situation.
If I didn't kill the werewolf tomorrow night, I'd reduce Lucy's chances of surviving, if she is still alive at all.
If I do kill him, even without being caught, it does not change the fact that I would have trampled on the most important principle in the art of medicine - Primum non-nocere! (First do no harm!). I had accepted it as my life credo the moment I decided to break free from the darkness that enveloped my youth and even if I had not always followed it, at least in my civilian life, as a doctor I have always tried to hold true to it. It had been hammered into our heads during our long studies at the medical school. With it began the Humane Oath we took when we graduated. I was going to become a perjurer, and there was still no guarantee that my wife would be left alive.
If I killed him and they caught me, I would be a Defiler of The Asylum. In the worst case, I would be lynched at the entrance of the clinic, in the best case I would have a short trial, the outcome of which is always one, the death penalty.
Lucy, of course, would die too after that…
So I’m stuck between bad outcome after bad outcome and best case scenario is doing what the vampire said and hoping that he’s honest? Which he most likely is not, which begs the question if Lucy is even still alive?
Well there is one way but the past is better left in the past.
----------------------------------------
Every doctor will tell you that there are no worse patients than doctors themselves. I am equally irritated when patients do not follow my prescriptions or when my colleagues try to prescribe me treatment.
The summer afternoon was progressing.
The vampire was long gone.
At the same time, I was dying for sleep and I was over-excited in that crazy and exhausting combination that everyone sometimes experiences.
My head kept throbbing with pain, images of my surroundings blurred before my eyes, and there were slight urges to vomit that I managed to hold back. I knew very well what my fellow colleagues would advise me about my condition, complete rest for at least a week, no irritation of the senses, such as reading books or listening to music, no cigarettes, and no alcohol.
That's what I was thinking too, as I pull on the cigarette in my hands and was preparing to take a hot bath. I had already poured an insane amount of Lucy's relaxing salts into the water and lit the scented candles around. I was performing the rituals I had always associated with my wife probably because of the dull ache in my heart and I was painfully missing her.
I relaxed my body in the foam, closed my eyes, and thought about what to do next.
Nothing occurred to me. Not a single plan or idea. Annoying.
At least I managed to fall asleep…
----------------------------------------
I was awakened by the melody of a small bronze gong hanging on our front door, which someone had struck with the tiny hammer attached to it. Despite the heat, I wrapped myself in a robe as there was no time to dry myself and put on something lighter.
My headache had subsided and I could now feel it as a dull throb in the occipital area around the bump. The double images before my eyes were gone as well so now I could actually see again.
I opened the front door and I was met by a beautiful young woman standing on the stairs. I gave her twenty-one or two years, but in The Community, there is hardly anything more relative than the apparent age.
Her cobweb-coloured hair was pulled back in a tight bun. Her long silver sideburns, descending almost to the corners of her lower jaws, seemed to accentuate her strange beauty.
The black leather corset, fastened at the front with crossed straps, the tight-fitting trousers of the same fabric, and the massive black military boots with metal tops gave her extra Gothic charm. Despite the hellish heat outside, there was no hint of sweat on the exposed parts of her body, which were few.
No doubt, a werewolf, I thought and raised my eyebrows questioningly, but the next moment I realized how stupid I looked with my tousled wet hair and wearing a light blue robe that had yellow ducklings drawn on it.
Don’t blame me! Some time ago I shared one of my meager childhood memories with Lucy, my mother kissing my tiny naked body, which makes me giggle frantically, and then she puts me in a yellow plastic tub half-filled with lukewarm water. Rubber yellow ducklings swimming around me.
At our last wedding anniversary, surprise, surprise, I received the duckling robe.
In the werewolf's anxious gaze, however, I found no trace of ridicule. She studied me intently, and somehow I felt that even if I had opened the door completely naked, she would not have been impressed. Which is a somewhat disappointing thought.
“What would you like?” I finally asked.
"That's not the right question, Dr. Alistair Chambers, the question is do you want to save your wife?"
It was as if they had punched me in the solar plexus - for a moment I was unable to catch my breath, and the dagger of pain pierced my brain.
Then I gathered myself and invited her in with a nervous gesture. It seems as if everyone’s interested in me and my wife today.
“On the right is the living room, we can talk there in peace”
"We don't have time, Doctor! I'm afraid that the vampires are not facing the dilemma of whether to leave your wife alive! This kidnapping is no different from any other kidnapping. The relatives collect the amount specified in the negotiation process, they hand it over to the kidnappers, but they never see the victim again. The victim is killed at the very beginning of the negotiations, that's the easiest way to handle it! The only difference with you is that they are not blackmailing you for money but are making you do something, aren't they, Doctor?”
I gritted my teeth, swallowed the lump that was stuck in my throat and then said,
"Give me five minutes!"
"Get some used clothes for your wife as well," the werewolf called from behind me. "Something that has kept her scent!"
I took off my robe while moving and in three leaps reached the closet in the bedroom, opened it, and frantically rummaged through my side of it. I stopped at a T-shirt and shorts with some grey camouflage motifs. From the laundry tub next to the bathroom, I grabbed Lucy's tank top that was bunched up in a ball. I returned to the hall, where I put on my comfortable rubber hiking sandals. I locked the front door and turned towards the werewolf.
"I parked behind your house," she said. "I'll explain everything during the drive. By the way, my name is Tatiana but you can call me Tania.”
"You already know mine, so start talking!"
I led her across, through the garden where Lucy grew her multicoloured shrubs with so much care, and we went outside on the street.
"I'll start by telling you where your wife was taken! The way there is about thirty minutes, and I will use the time to acquaint you with the situation! Have you heard of Belial's Tooth?”
The werewolf asked as I got into the aerate-car next to her. She pushed a button to release the air mixture that circulated in a closed system and that propelled the vehicle's wheels forward, and it slid down the road.
Having done everything necessary to upset the ecological balance of the Community in the last century, we have been looking for alternative forms of transport for several years. Pneumatic cars proved to be a good option with their environmental friendliness and the relatively high maximum speed they achieved. Flying carpets also moved with a gas mixture, as we sometimes called them but were actually open or closed platforms with balloons attached to them, which traveled through the air and were intended mainly for urban conditions.
"Belial's tooth?" I repeated. "No, doesn’t remind me of anything."
"I do not doubt it, I heard it for the first time from Dorian last night."
"Dorian? Dorian doesn’t tell me anything either."
"The name of the werewolf you rescued on your night shift. Dorian told me about The Tooth. It turns out that this is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the vampires. According to their legends, Belial is the Arch-vampire, the first vampire in the world, who lived for exactly nine hundred and ninety-nine years and from whom all their clans originate. On the last night of the last year of his life, he pulled out his two canine teeth with his own hands, gave them to his two closest to him in his retinue, and went out to meet the dawn while saying the words, ‘He who has conquered death once is not afraid to do it again!’"
I shook my head in surprise. Just my luck to get embroiled in something to do with ancient history.
"What have I got to do with all this phantasmagoria?"
"We'll get there, Doctor," Tania said. "The first of the Teeth is definitely known to be the property of Caligulas Nergal, a vampire chief in Burg Parallel, an informal leader of all vampires in The Community, and, as he himself claims, a direct descendant of one of Belial's two chosen ones. Traces of the other Tooth were lost centuries ago until a week ago when treasure hunters accidentally found it in the dust at the bottom of an urn, in a vampire tomb here at The Crossroads. Thus it found itself in the hands of Ghamborz. There is no doubt about it, the inscription carved on the airtight box in which it was placed, certifies its origin.”
I listened to the werewolf's monotonous story, hoping for some clarity, but my confusion grew even greater.
“Now comes the most interesting part, according to legend, the vampire, who has both Teeth, will gain the absolute power of Belial. True or not, neither Ghamborz nor Nergal will voluntarily part with their artifacts, on the contrary, they will spare no effort and effort to gather the other Teeth in one place, and this can cause inter-clan war!”
"I still don't understand how the wounded werewolf, uh-uh, Dorian, and I ended up at the center of this mess of legends?"
"Let me finish! Half a year ago, at a reception where he was guarded by Chief Reinout's bodyguard, Dorian met the vampire Neronia, the daughter of Ghamborz, who was also invited.”
I frowned. I could imagine nearly everything, but the sight of vampires and werewolves mingling in a noisy crowd with cocktail glasses in hand was a bit too much for me. Am I even expected to remember all of this information? I’m still struggling with remembering who Dorian is!
Tania obviously noticed my grimace because she smiled crookedly.
"Don't be surprised! Vampires and werewolves have been at war with each other for as long as they can remember, but enmity is enmity, and business interests are quite different. It is often because of them that bandit leaders find themselves at the same secular event. At that time, the girl had just reached the age of majority, and, as usual, her father began to take her with him. I don't know the exact details, but she managed to turn Dorian's head. According to him, the other side did not remain indifferent so it was not one-sided.
During these 6 months, the two saw each other several more times, and the feelings intensified more and more.”
I couldn't stand it here anymore and laughed, slightly nervously.
Tania shot me a glance and I noticed flames of anger in her eyes.
"You don't know Dorian. Despite his physical strength and the temperamental nature of werewolves, he is extremely romantic. In his free time, he reads a lot. He adores the legends of people, especially those that speak of suffering and unhappy love. Tristan and Isolde. Romeo and Juliet. I'm sure he somehow identifies with them. Anyway, Dorian found out about Tooth when he met Neronia last night and finally decided to come and tell me everything. He also told me that Reinout had known about his adventure for some time. Whether Reinout himself noticed the signs of the nascent attraction between him and the vampire, or a colleague of Dorian's bodyguards betrayed him, it doesn’t matter but surprisingly, when he found out, the chief did not get angry and even encouraged him. He explained to him that there was nothing wrong with his feelings, as he put it, he would combine work with pleasure in order to receive information from the closest in the enemies circle. Because it was rumoured that Ghamborz kept no secrets from only two people in this world, his advisor and Neronia. When I flew into my house, Dorian was going crazy, the inner confrontation between his loyalty to the chief and his feelings for his beloved drove him mad. He realized that the information was too valuable, and if he passed it on to Reinout, he would use it in the most profitable way to destroy his old enemy, whom his daughter still loved dearly. She, he told me, was an extremely modest and conscientious creature, withering in the shadow of her cruel father. Dorian mentioned that Ghamborz had apparently found out about both of them, Neronia had expressed such doubts last night. The attack on him took place a few hours later, and the fact that the vampires are so desperate for his death shows unequivocally the most important thing, Ghamborz has learned that Neronia has betrayed the secret of the Tooth. I can only guess, but knowing the vampire leader's cunning, those forty-seventh-street mockers got a good amount of money to shut Dorian's mouth up and take on the wolf gang’s wrath. As you have seen for yourself, Ghamborz does not like to get his hands dirty if he can achieve his goals indirectly. Do you now understand why your patient must die, Dr. Chambers?”
Then I asked the question that excited me all day and is probably the most important part of this story, at least to me.
"And why did they stop at me?"
“Quite simple! You are the main culprit in the failed assassination attempt. Ghamborz hates things not going the way he wants them to. As long as Dorian has a chance to live, he will be a threat, because no matter how powerful he is here at the Crossroads, he is not yet ready for open conflict with the clans of Caligulas Nergal of Burg Parallel.”
"Seriously!? I'm being blamed for doing my job? Doctors save people! Er, werewolves. Really unfair." I ranted, and then after a slight lull in the conversation, decided to ask the second question that was burning me up with curiosity, "And why did Dorian choose you as his mouthpiece?"
Tania pierced me with her golden-brown eyes.
"The answer to that question is very simple, Dr. Chambers, Dorian is my brother!"
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.