Enid spun her golden wedding band. While she leaned on her other hand watching Henry sleep. She should feel like she’d betrayed Lucius, but the bound they had shared had been severed twelve centuries ago. Like a whip slashed through her heart. A hole had formed in her soul, and she didn’t know why. The severing of a soldalis bond while both were still alive was unheard of and she had never spoken of it. Lucius hadn’t seemed to care. And her gift could get no read on him. It was as if he ceased to exist that night when they fought at the edge of the world of the dead and the world of the living. She looked at the ring then back to Henry, he was pale, but he would live. She couldn’t really love him. She had a certain affection for him, but she had felt true love, been bound to her soul mate. Anything else was a pale comparison. Like water with a drop of wine for color. The night of passion had been something she didn’t know she missed. There is a certain unity in sex and then feeding that she had not thought possible. The blood was so much sweeter. Morning come and go a few hours ago. She smiled as Henry opened his eyes and looked at her. He rubbed his eyes.

“No, you’re still there, without your clothes on. I’m not dreaming, we got married yesterday.”

Enid chuckled.

“Yes, my love we did. Then I think I broke you.”

Henry groaned as he rolled on to his back. He went to sit up but then fell back down. Holding his head with one hand, and the bed with the other.

“You might have, the room is spinning, and I feel like was in a joust without a shield.”

“I told you I’d give you a night you wouldn’t forget.”

“You did, but I can barely remember it.”

Enid laughed and crawled on top of him. He looked up at her naked form with a smile.

“Maybe I can jog your memory?”

She leaned down and kissed him on the lips. While her hands stroked his chest. She felt him get firm again beneath her and pushed back onto him with a smile.

“Remembering anything yet?”

“I might be.”

She moved her hips playfully and he groaned and grimaced.

“Definitely remembering something now.”

The pair continued like that for a few minutes, and Henry was done, Enid wasn’t finished but a knock on the door interrupted them. Enid snapped at the interloper; She hadn’t meant too.

“What is it?”

“Milady, Jacob is here to see you, he said you had asked him to come.”

“Take him to my private study I’ll be there in a few minutes, give him some food.”

Enid leaned down and kissed Henry again. Then hopped off the bed with an agility she rarely displayed for him.

“Sorry, I have to go find out from the destroyer of porcine virtue if I missed any rebels. Then I need to question the one that tried to kill me in the church. The work of a cruel noblewoman is never done. Next thing you know I’ll be dragging babies in the street by horse.”

Henry looked up at her, she could see the mix of disappointment and relief in his eyes. He started to get up but then fell back down again.

“I will help.”

Enid pressed his shoulder down.

“I’m not sure you want to be involved in my questioning methods; You might not like as much afterwards. And also you can’t even sit up. I’ll get someone to bring you breakfast and something sweet, you are pale as a ghost.”

“Yes, milady, you’re the healer.”

“Tell that to the fifteen rebels I killed the eve of our wedding, I’m sure they’d believe you.”

“Fifteen, you’re exaggerating.”

“No actually, it was sixteen I was just rounding down.”

He laughed and then held his side.

“I will let you do this today, but I’m Earl now, it should be my duty to question prisoners and investigate peasant revolts.”

“No, its your job to look impressive, and pleasure me.”

Enid pulled on a set of pants and a tunic, along with a pair of boots.

“You’re going out like that?”

“Dresses aren’t meant for this kind of work. And I don’t have three hours to get ready.”

Henry shook his head. And Enid came back and kissed him.

“Don’t worry I won’t put a cloak on, no one is going to think a boy is walking out of here, I could if you wanted though.”

Henry laughed again and threw one of her pillows at her, then held his side and fell back to the pillow. His face was beaded with sweat.

“Get your rest, maybe you’re getting sick. And pull a blanket up I wouldn’t want Mary to get any ideas. You’re my man.”

Henry nodded and sunk into his pillows and pulled the blanket up over his naked form.

Enid made her way to her private study. Seeing Mary she waved her over.

“Mary, Henry is looking pretty weak, I think he might have gotten sick being out in that storm, could you bring him something to eat, and some of those sweets as well?”

Mary nodded and moved off. Enid took a deep breath and pressed her hand on the door to her private study. She frowned.

I can’t believe I’m mimicking the cattle now.

Enid put on her lady of the keep face and smiled graciously to Jacob. Jacob was pale, eyes wide, and his hands fidgeted with his hat.

“Jacob thank you for coming. You look worried, what is the matter? Did someone threaten you?”

“No, no milady. Its just you said you would let the men get a chance to escape and well, they are saying they found eighteen of ‘em dead and not one made it out alive. I was wonderin’ what that meant for me.”

“It means that they can’t threaten your loved ones anymore.”

“But you did give them a chance to surrender, didn’t you? Like you promised?”

“I wasn’t given a choice. And to be honest it was the lightning that killed the bulk of them. I’ve no idea how I survived. And the two that were holding the women, they were the former Lord’s men and they were, well doing things I couldn’t abide. The quick death I gave them was a mercy compared to the punishment that would have been given them.”

Jacob’s eyes went wide as clinched his hat tightly.

“And they say you skewered one to the wall with his own sword.”

“Yes, that is the truth, but he shouldn’t have dropped it in the first place.”

“But he was unarmed.”

“Jacob, I did what I had to do, I do not expect you to understand, nor do I need to explain my actions to you.”

She sat on her desk pulling his hands close folding hers around his.

“You did the right thing and have done right by God. You are firmly in the right and you have nothing to feel guilty for, you protect you and yours and that is all you can be asked to do. The fact you spied for us like you did went above and beyond. I plan on paying you a bounty of two pounds per conspirator. So far that’s thirty-six pounds, more than you’d make in fifteen or sixteen good years of running a pig farm. And for coming in today as I asked, I’m going to round that to fifty pounds. You could give up the farm or expand it. All I need from you today is a list of everyone who took part. Even the tiniest part. I will investigate, judge their intent and it is likely just going to end in a conversation on whether they plan on continuing their rebellious behavior. You know me to be a fair and just Countess. And you are going to be doing your duty, and any I find to be complicit, well that’s an extra two pounds in your pocket. I’d say it’s a fair deal for you. And your help in this matter will be strictly confidential. But that also means you can’t go flashing the money around, people might talk. Maybe you could go away with your betrothed start a new life as a merchant. No one need know your history here.”

Jacob’s eyes were wide, and he was nodding along with her words. Enid moved around her desk and unlocked a drawer and started counting out one pound at a time, then counted out another stack of fifty pounds.

“I see your meaning, milady.”

“I knew you would, you’re a smart man. So, let’s get down to that list shall we?”

Enid smiled and pulled out an ink vial, parchment and a quill. Jacob listed quite a few names, most of which he admitted were victims have having their families kidnapped, Enid nodded and reassured them that would be taken into consideration. Three more he identified were Odocar’s men, he told her where they were hiding. There were a couple he didn’t know, Rolf was one, the other was a woman. Enid knew who she was, another one of the Pugmentia.

Probably fled by now if Rolf warned her.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Thank you, Jacob, very comprehensive. I appreciate your candor and your help. You know I need to complete my investigation, but any more information you can provide on the whereabouts of the woman I would pay quite handsomely for. And of course, I will triple the bounty on my uncles men, they are the ones who burned down the church and raided the Templars. That leaves the matter of this payment. Would you like it all now, or do you want me to keep it in the vaults here until you’ve decided what to do? It will be safe here, and I’m a woman of my word, and I promise you this is yours no matter where it is stored. If you take it and it gets stolen, I can do my best to enforce the law but with this kind of money they’ll likely escape before we can stop them. It is up to you.”

“Will I be able to collect it anytime milady?”

“Anytime, day or night. If I am not around speak to William.”

“And about the lady, is that bounty for any who find her? I’m not so good at looking for folks, but some in town are.”

“No, I’d like to keep that between you and I.”

“Yes, milady, could you please keep the money in the vault for now? I’ll take five pounds though.”

Enid nodded, placing the coins in a pouch for him.

“Remember don’t be flashy with it, it draws attention and it could be dangerous for you. Not everyone is happy for others to have success where they don’t, and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. I like you and wish the best for you.”

“I’ll remember, thank you milady, thank you so much. With this I can convince my betrothed to marry.”

“Good, stop by the kitchen on the way out, get some of the jam tarts for you and her. And a bottle of wine, to celebrate.”

Jacob nodded and rushed off. Enid leaned back in her chair and looked at the list before her rubbing her chin with her index finger.

Damn Pugmentia they just can’t learn their place.

She rolled the list up and sealed it with wax. It was a job for William to deal with now. She stood and pulled her tunic down. Odocar had riddled the keep with secret doors and passages. She made her way down to the crypt. William somehow enjoyed sleeping here, said he felt more at home with the dead when he was sleeping. Enid opened his tomb and put the parchment which included the list of names and instructions to investigate their activities. She then used another secret passage to get to the dungeon. She pulled the shadows around herself and slipped into the torture chamber.

She looked around the room, she reviled it. She didn’t agree with torture, it rarely produced results and was just a way of humans to abuse other humans and feel superior about it. A Vatican inquisitor was here and had the man on what she believed was called a Judas Cradle. He couldn’t have been there long his face wasn’t twisted in agony yet, but it soon would be.

And the Vatican calls us monsters.

She walked in the door allowing her presence to be known.

“Who do you think you are? This is an interrogation!”

“I think I own this keep, this land and this torture chamber, and that this man tried to kill me, it is my right to perform the torture. I suggest you leave before I replace him with you on that thing.”

“You dare speak to an inquisitor like that!”

Behave Enid, behave.

“You dare question a noble in their own home? A noble whom I might add the Archbishop of Canterbury owes his life too?”

The inquisitor seemed to contemplate the situation. Then looked at her. And then waved dismissively.

“Go back to your kitchen woman.”

I could kill you in so many ways.

Enid frowned as she looked the inquisitor up and down. He must have realized his mistake, because he stumbled backwards but it was too late. He looked around and there was nowhere to run or hide and no witnesses save for someone he was torturing. Enid leaped at him and sunk her fangs into his throat biting down hard and moving her head back and forth, usually it’s a painless process, but she did her best to make him suffer. And suffer he did, his screams echoed through the keep. She drank and drank, draining every bit of him then tossing his body aside like so much trash. She turned to the rebel who’d tried to kill her. He screamed and begged for mercy. Enid was quite scary looking her fangs were out and blood was dripping off her chin. She was in a near blood frenzy.

“You are going to tell me everything I want to know, or you will suffer a fate a thousand times worse than him. He insulted me, you tried to kill me.”

“I’ll tell you anything, anything, just don’t…”

Enid stalked towards him. She paused her head turning to the side and her eyes rolling back in her head. Her stomach felt like it was revolting. She could feel the blood being forcibly ejected. She fell to her hands and knees and started vomiting up the blood she’d just drained, all over the dungeon floor. She continued to dry heave long after. The prisoner vomited himself as he was splashed by gore. She had been so violent with her feeding on the inquisitor chunks of his flesh were coming out with the blood. Enid stood unsteadily leaning on another piece of torture equipment. She kept dry heaving.

What the fuck.

She dripped with blood now, her clothes hair, hands, every bit of her was drenched in it. The prisoner had sunk down on the point of the spike of judas chair and he was screaming. She ripped him out of the hoist and off the chair he landed with the puddle of blood and flesh. He writhed and screamed.

“Shut up. I need to think.”

She kicked him in the face, and he stopped moving. She held her head she was actually dizzy. Which was impossible she was a vampire. She’d heard of vomiting up fouled blood, but the blood was pure. She picked up the unconscious rebel and bit into his neck and drank some blood then tossed him back on the floor. She could feel it again the blood welling up in her stomach, and she vomited it back all over man’s unconscious form. When the dry heaves finished she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She stumbled to the rack and shoved it against the door.

Can’t have anyone seeing this.

She slid down the wall beside the door holding her stomach. Her whole body ached and her she could feel unconsciousness creeping on. The world was black until she awoke with a start, she looked down and a heretics fork was sticking out of her chest. The prisoner was standing over her. She reacted instantly. Pouncing up from the ground. His eyes widened and before he knew it she was on top of him growling the fork pressed against the flesh of his cheek and almost piercing his eye. Enid stopped short she was breathing raggedly. Her hand shaking. The wound on her chest healed rapidly.

“The things I’m going to do to you will be legendary. You will suffer like no man in the history of this world has suffered and you will beg for me to stop but I won’t. I’ll feed you more blood and you will heal and then you will suffer it all over again. Then I will leave you on the brink of death and you will realize hope, you will have an escape and then I will pull you back and we will start again. And because you’ll be my blood slave you’ll love me the entire time and wonder what you have done to disappoint me so badly. Part of you will want the punishment, beg for it so you can maybe earn my forgiveness, part of you will cry out for release. And I’m going to do it for a thousand years. I’m not even going to ask you any questions. So, the next time someone even thinks of attacking me they will piss themselves at the very thought of my retribution. I’m getting fucking tired of people trying to kill me.”

She smelled urine and felt warmth on her knee. She shook her head and stabbed the fork into the stone floor beside his face with such force the metal prongs bent, and the stone shattered. The man’s started to sob uncontrollably, his whimpering begging had turned into unintelligible gibberish interrupted by gulps of air. She slapped him across the cheek.

“You’re pathetic. You’re an insect. And you thought you could kill me? I’m a goddess to you.”

She wrapped her hand around his neck as the rage swept through her again. He started to choke and struggle for breath. Then she released him. He clutched his throat struggling to catch his breath again. She punched him on the side of his face. She heard teeth shatter.

“Tell me who else you’re working with.”

She grabbed him by the neck again and pressed him against the wall. He pulled at her fingers but the may as well have been made of steel to his feeble hands. His nails broke as he clawed at her. He twitched and then went limp and she released him, and he feel to the ground. She screamed and punched the wall shattering another stone. She realized she was gulping in air. She tried to stop but her body refused as soon as she did she began to feel light headed.

What is happening to me?

She looked around the room, there was blood everywhere, then down at the prisoner and she gasped holding her hand to her mouth.

What have I done? What was I thinking?

She kneeled down and checked to see if he had a pulse. He did.

I can’t let him live after what he’s seen, but I didn’t need to torture him.

She sat down beside him, leaning on the wall putting her face in her hands. She pulled away and looked at her blood-soaked palms and fingers.

What is going on? I need to find father, he’ll still be here. But I need information first.

“Hey.”

She shook the prisoner until he woke up. His eyes went wide when he looked up at her. She met his gaze.

He’s lost it, I broke his mind.

“Hey look in my eyes.”

She held his chin and forced him to meet her gaze.

“You’re at home, I have men with a sword to your wife’s throat. You can give up your cohorts or she can die. Or you can tell me what I need to know, and you will be given money and passage to leave here. Go some place safe, warm. You’ll be safe from the church.”

“I’ll be safe from the church.”

“Yes, just tell me who told you to kill me at the church.”

“It was a woman, she fed me blood, told me I could live forever, and save my wife, all I had to do was to kill you. She said I could just shoot one of the windows and it would do it, but I didn’t believe her. I figured I’d get caught. So I tried to shoot you, but I missed. Will you make my wife better?”

“Yes I will make your wife better. Do you know anything else of use?”

“There was a blond man, he was like you, looked normal, but he was a monster inside too.”

“Was the man you saw, twelve to thirteen stone, taller than you? Blonde? Blue eyes? Scar on his right cheek like this?”

“Yes, that is him.”

Enid screamed again punching the wall smashing another stone. Her actions broke her hold over the man’s mind and she held his chin looking into his eyes again.

“Stay with me, where is the woman staying?”

“I…I… can’t”

“Tell me or my soldier will slit your wife open chin to legs.”

“I…I.. can’t she said I could tell anyone. I love her. I don’t want her to be hurt.”

Enid frowned and pressed harder against his mind with hers smashing through the barriers her would-be assassin had put up.

“If you help me, I’ll help your wife, if you don’t, I’ll take her to the torture chamber, and you know what happens there don’t you. We’ll put her on the same thing you were on, and she won’t be as strong as you, she’s a woman, she’ll survive longer. Just imagine how much pain she’ll be in. Or my soldiers can leave and I can get my herbs out and she will live a long and healthy life with you, away from this place. Far away.”

“She’s staying in the house on the southeast corner of town the one with the red door.”

“Thank you so much for your help. Oh no your wife has a escaped my soldiers, where might she go to hide? If she is really so sick as to need help you’d best tell me right away so I can get to her quickly and help her.”

“She’d go to our farm, hide in the hollowed-out tree. That’s where I told her to wait. She’ll be there. Thank you.”

She reached out and snapped his neck and let go and he fell the floor. She rubbed her hands on her pants. She was covered in dried blood it was making her skin itch. She moved the rack and barred the door. Felt like it was close to dusk, she must have been unconscious for a long time. She moved to the crypt where William lay sleeping and waiting for him to wake. When he finally opened his tomb she sighed with relief.

“William, I need your help.”

“Aye, you do, what manner of blood bath ‘ave ye got for me to clean up then?”

“Its in the torture chamber. I need you to dispose of both bodies discretely make sure you melt down the inquisitor’s jewelry add it to the treasury. If you see my husband tell him I am investigating some new leads.”

“You look unwell if you don’ mind me sayin, milady.”

“I’m going to address that with my father once I get cleaned up.”

“I’ll take care of the mess for you milady, ‘ave no fear.”

Enid patted him on the shoulder and made her way deeper under the keep to a reservoir of water, something built by the Romans, she had recognized the construction immediately during her explorations. She started to clean herself off with a barrel of water she kept for such a purpose. She shivered as the cold water hit her skin, her teeth chattering.

Something is dreadfully wrong.

She dried off and then pulled on one of her extra sets of clothing. She made her way through the secret passages to the room where her father had been staying. She could hear him talking to Henry.

“I’m sorry Henry, I haven’t seen her, don’t think I will, she’s got a temper and a long memory. And I’m afraid I said something to upset her. If I see her I’ll let her know you were asking after her. But if you’ll excuse me, I was just working on a letter to her I’d like to finish before I go to bed, I need to leave in the morning.”

“Of course.”

Enid heard the door close and her father’s voice shortly after.

“You can come out now.”

Enid pushed the secret door open and looked down at the floor.

“What has happened? You do not look well.”

“I don’t know father; I was feeding and I couldn’t keep the blood in. Then I lost it, killed an inquisitor, almost killed someone I needed to question, I couldn’t control myself. I blacked out and I can’t stop breathing!”

Sextus embraced her tightly, patting the back of her head.

“Shh, shh, lets take a look at you.”

He started to chant in the same ancient language Enid had used to call down the lighting, the words where different more harmonious, soothing. He raised an eyebrow as he hovered his hand over her abdomen.

“That is strange.”

“What is it? Tell me!”

“You’re pregnant, just pregnant.”

“That is impossible, I’m dead!”

“Well, a better description would be, mostly dead, and also mostly alive.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I rescued you, I had to use a special fruit, it is from the dawn of creation.”

“Why are you talking nonsense?”

“You’ve read the bible I’m sure, read about the Garden of Edan?”

“Yes.”

“Fruit of knowledge, Fruit of life?”

“Yes, what does that Hebrew fairy tale have to do with anything?”

“Well the garden was real, and when man rejected God’s rule, he threw it in the trash. I dug through it and got a fruit of life to save you with.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you can never truly be dead. Your body is probably rejecting the blood and forcing you to breath, and likely eat, sooner than later because you’re pregnant.”

“Get it out!”

“No!”

“Get it out of me now!”

“I refuse to take an innocent life.”

“I’ve taken thousands of innocent lives on your word and you refuse to take one to save me?”

“What do you mean save you?”

“I need blood to live, you should know this you made me a vampire.”

“And did you drink your fill recently?”

“Yes.”

“You could live off your blood if you’ve filled up for decades.”

“But I can’t heal, I can’t use my blood magic, my speed, my time manipulation, those all require blood.”

“So don’t use them, I gave you so many more gifts. The gift of steel, the gift of wisdom, the gift of magic. All of these can still serve you.”

Enid grabbed the front of his tunic lifting him up her hands shaking with rage.

“Get! It! Out! Of! Me! Now!”

Sextus looked down at her, the look a parent gives a child, one of disappointment and annoyance. Enid put him down gently.

“Enid, if you think about it, you don’t want me to do that. You love children and have always had a soft spot for them. I know you go out of your way to avoid killing them when you’re covering up vampire crimes.”

Enid’s hands dropped to her side and she looked at the floor, nodding. Sextus wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

“What are nine months to someone who is thirteen hundred years old? Blink and you’ll miss them. You’ll get to experience what it’s like to be human again, the miracle of life growing in you, the true, unfettered love of a child when they see their mother for the first time.”

Enid buried her face in his chest.

“I know this is an adjustment, but you can make it, you are capable of so much more then killing. You have a heart that can love so strongly. It is why you are so quick to anger. Your feelings have always been so intense. Slow down, enjoy this.”

“Yes father.”

“That’s my little girl.”

“You realize I’m thirteen hundred years old right? You even just said that.”

“And I’m hundred times that, you will always be my little girl. And the heart I was talking about that is why I want you to succeed me.”

“Maybe that is why Lucius tried to have me killed, that he thought some human can do it was insulting through.”

Sextus pushed her away holding her shoulders looking in her eyes. His own eyes widened.

“You aren’t lying.”

“No, either someone told the human who tried to kill me exactly what Lucius looked like down to the scar, or he is working with a Pugmentia in town to have me killed. He’s responsible for the uprising, the assassination attempt. You know I can’t be lied too.”

“There is something else going on here, I will return home and determine the truth of it. I will send a letter when I know more. I’ve a couple of things to that need attended to before I leave, tell me about this Pugmentia who tried to have you killed, I’d like very much to speak to her personally.”

Enid laughed.

“Like you spoke to my first father?”

Sextus nodded. Enid smiled and began to relate to him what she had learned.

“What is the other thing father?”

“I have one more thing to teach you. You’ve lost your center of balance. I will help you find it.”