There was no such thing as king of the vampires, but if there were, I would be him. For nearly six centuries, my band of merry pirates and I have traipsed this rock having a glorious time. Most vampires don’t really appreciate the freedom that we have at our fingertips. Yes, there are rules we try to abide for the sake of our species’ continuity, but really when you are stronger, faster, and have heightened senses, why not take advantage and put them to the limit. Not to mention there’s the whole immortality thing we have going on with minimal threats to worry about. Only a fool sits on the sidelines and lets time slip by when they’ve been handed such a gift. Conversely, only a fool goes after one of us knowing what we are and what we can do.
When I stumbled across little Trembley stalking my prodigy, I was surprised. Very few normal humans know what we are, and those that do aren’t going to willingly track one of us down. No wonder I was taken with this hellion the moment she was dropped on my doorstep. When my man informed me of the situation in which he captured her, I knew she was clearly not playing with a full deck. And a redhead on top of that. Are you kidding me? Be still my heart.
“I, honeypot, am the owner of this residence, so I believe I should be the one asking questions about strangers in my home.” This response clearly caught her off guard as she slightly lowered her makeshift weapon, which reminded me, “And if you could be so kind as to put down the priceless goddess in your hands. That statuette was made by a friend of mine, and there’s not another one of it anywhere in the world.”
Her eyes glanced at the heavy piece in her hands, and she gave a little smirk before focusing all of her attention on me. Those blue eyes bore into mine, and I felt like I was looking out onto the ocean once more. “You’ll have to give your friend my apologies then if I happen to break this over your head while I make a hasty escape. Also, kidnappers don’t really get to dictate conversation decorum in my opinion.” She’s a snarky one, and clearly raving mad. Who knowingly speaks to a vampire like this?
“Now, now, honeypot, this isn’t a kidnapping. You can’t lay a trap and not expect it to backfire.”
“If this isn’t a kidnapping, then I’m free to leave?” She looked so earnest in this moment it almost broke my heart. Whoever had put her up to this clearly hadn’t informed her of the risks she would encounter. Not a smart tactic on Sarah’s behalf.
“Not so much.” And like that her hopeful face fell away and was replaced with sheer intensity. It was clear she was ready to fight her way out, but she had to know it would be fruitless to try. “I, however, will give you back your weapons as promised. They are just behind you against the wall.” Definitely not one to fall for an easy trick, she backed against the wall and used only her left hand to feel around for her belongings. When she had a rather nasty scythe in hand, she carefully set down the statue. “Feel better,” I asked, hoping to make her feel more at ease. No reason this interrogation had to be completely unpleasant.
“No so much,” she echoed, “but thank you for returning my stuff.” She already appeared to be less tense with the weapon in her hand. Not that it would do her much good. I looked through all of her effects before unlocking the door to her room. There wasn’t a whiff of magic on any of the items, and I doubt she had the speed or strength to get the blade her hand anywhere near its target.
“Now that you are armed can we speak like civilized beings?” I asked with my most flirtatious smile and a wink for good measure. I don’t mean to be vain, but history has taught me that few women are resistant to my charm when I start to weave it around them.
“Again, I don’t think we have the same definition for… well… words in general.” She joked, and it was actually funny. There wasn’t much that surprised me anymore, but this evening has been full of them.
She didn’t move closer to me, but she did start to circle the wall of the room, keeping me in her sights the entire time, until she reached the other chair and sat down. “What do you want to know?”
Honestly, I really didn’t expect her to agree so easily. Usually, the bewitched can’t willingly divulge information. We tend to only get bits and pieces through intensive torture. I admit it would have hurt me to scar up her flawless skin, but I would have done what was necessary to find out where Sarah was. This madness has to stop, so I started with the most crucial question
“Where’s Sarah?” Whether she could answer would also let me know how locked her mind and actions really were.
“Who?” Of course. This is another deadend. The minor hope I was feeling was gone, and in a flash I was at her side of the room. She flinched, but didn’t seem surprised by the quick action.
“Sarah.” I repeated now sitting on the surveillance desk directly in front of her. The other women immediately became intimidated by any show of vampirism. Trembley merely raised her chin in defiance of the fear that I could now detect on her. Brave girl. If only she knew why it was even necessary. Sarah had betrayed her.
“Common name, but I don’t know one. Sorry.” She believed it. Lying usually comes with its own scent of fear or nervousness. Hers didn’t change, which meant she believed what she was saying. I wonder if she agreed to have her mind wiped or if Sarah was just picking them up off the street at random these days.
“You’re not the first you know.” Better to break this news now so at least she knew why I had to do what came next. “You’re the sixth honeypot we’ve run across in the last three months alone, and believe me, there were more before now. But, there’s never been so many at once.”
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s a honeypot?” Her face crumpled into confusion and frustration and for the tenth time in the last 30 seconds, her eyes quickly flicked to the door. “If you want to talk, you need to at least ask me something I might be able to answer.”
“You, my beautiful distraction, are a honeypot. I hate to break this to you, but sometime in the last few months or year, you met a woman named Sarah who bewitched your mind. She compelled you to find and lure a vampire to his death. Unfortunately, for you, this also put you in my crosshairs because all the people in my line have been on alert for snacks that come a little too easy.”
“The other one,” she quietly spoke in a faraway voice, seeming to slowly work out what was going on. “I wasn’t sure because it all happened so fast, but he was the one who knocked me out.” Her blue eyes again fell on mine, and if I wasn’t in a hurry, I could get lost in their depths for the foreseeable future. Although I would like to know what it would be like to have them look fondly upon me, instead this mixture of hate and fear with a sprinkle of confusion on top.
“Ah, you mean my man Norman.”
“Norman!” she exclaimed with a mild laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me! I was not taken down by a vamp named Norman.” She collapsed back in her seat with a confounded look at me. “It settles it. This is the absolute worst day.”
“I don’t know what’s got you in a bother. You really didn’t stand a chance against him. That’s my whole point here. Sarah has set you up as her patsy. She never cares if any of you make it out alive. All she wants is for you to lead her right to one of us. It was working for a while until we figured out what was happening.”
“What are you talking about?” she threw up her hands looking around the room and away from me for the first time, leaving her entirely open for attack. “Who the hell is Sarah? Who the hell are you?”
“We really don’t have to play this game, you know. You people are always fuzzy on why you do the things you do and who sent you, but you always know who your targets are.”
“I’m sorry,” she looked up at me with all seriousness, “were you the one who was given a concussion?”
This was new. Sarah always sent them with a message, and they couldn’t deliver the message if they didn’t know who they were speaking to. The girl was not lying. She really had no idea who I was. What was the point of this? Was Sarah tired of trying to get our attention and simply attacking with no forethought.
“Listen,” she said, pulling me out of my contemplations, “I don’t know who you think I am, but there have clearly been some crossed messages. I’ll just be straight with you. I was trying to kill Lucas, not distract him. I don’t work for anybody but me, and your boy is a murderer and needs to go down. I would have finished the job if “your man” hadn’t stopped me and dragged me here.”
“That’s what you were brainwashed into believing,” I told her with a sad sigh. This mind wipe was one of the worst ones I had seen. If another vampire had messed with her memories, I could fix them, but witches are different. A spell cast by someone as powerful as Sarah is practically impossible to revert.
“No,” she said standing up. “I can prove it.”
“How exactly can you prove you are not something you’ve been bewitched into not remembering. You aren’t supposed to know that you are a honeypot so you don’t. I don’t even think there’s like a magical word that can wake you up. If there was, only the caster would know it, and no offense but I’m not nicely walking up to Sarah and asking her to tell me what it is. The next time I see that bitch I’m throwing everything I have at her before she can open her mouth and put me in the grave.”
“If you are defending scum like Lucas, you probably deserve it,” she spat out defensively and with pure disgust in those ocean eyes.
“Lucas,” I shot back through gritted teeth, “would never have done those things willingly.” She had no idea what she was caught in the middle of.
“Yeah because vampires never murder innocent people. What were you planning on doing with me?”
“I can’t speak for an entire species,” I stated in a calmer manner, noticing how worked up she was and how she now gripped the athame ready to strike, “but humans aren’t exactly the prime example of living virtuously. You people off each other all the time, and if more of you knew about us, we would be near extinct.”
“While I would love to debate species ethics with you, can we just move on to you either killing me or letting me go?”
I began to clear up her misperceptions, but the door slid open before I could get out a word. “Boss,” Norman interjected and probably with planned timing. The man was always ten steps ahead. His mind was just one reason I turned him over 400 years ago. The other one haunts me to this day.
I followed Norman out of the room to the empty storage closet on the other side. “I’ve been listening, and this doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Should we start the interrogations?”
“I’m not sure that’s going to work in this case. There’s something off with this whole situation. Don’t you feel it?”
“I don’t know. She was there watching Lucas like a hawk. She was so focused on him; she didn’t even notice me come in and sit right behind her. She was also playing the bait tactic we see every time. Only…” he paused clearly trying to figure out the same thing I was.
“Where was the hook?” I filled in his silence.
“I didn’t see anyone else in the area or signs that there was a trap. Sarah could be learning. She might have a new stage in mind after luring us out. If I had gotten there earlier, I would have just grabbed Lucas and been off.” He shook his head clearly disappointed and blaming himself for this escalation of events.
I patted his back. “This was not your fault. Lucas is nearly as old as we are and he’s a cunning fucker. If he didn’t want to be found, it would have been tricky to pin him down. He was only coming up for the kill, and with the spell making him hardwired to only focus on that one need, he would have completely changed his normal habits and patterns.”
“What do you want me to do with her?” He nodded back in the direction of the surveillance room. “Do you want to keep her here?”
“No, she can’t stay here. Our numbers have been dwindling enough as it is. I can’t have someone dead set on killing us all staying here, even if confined. If she were to get out, someone would get hurt.”
“I’ll take her back with me then. I’ve recently reinforced my cellar, so she can stay down there until we have decided on our next steps. Who knows she might come in handy for luring Sarah out of hiding? Maybe that’s why this is different. Maybe this girl means something to her.”
“Maybe,” I rolled over the idea in my mind, but it just didn’t sit right.
~
It wasn’t a shock to anyone that the girl was less than thrilled to be handed off to Norman. And while he didn’t complain, I knew how important his privacy was to him, so bringing her to his home was a huge sacrifice. But he didn’t complain. Norman never complained. At one time, I saw turning him as retribution for his crimes and felt nothing but loathing for him, but in our long time together, he has become a trusted and most loved companion. So, I did feel bad for putting the girl off on him.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The brain-swiped are hard to deal with. We’ve been dealing with Sarah’s victims going on 25 years. We’ve tried everything to restore their memories. Nothing has ever worked effectively. Sometimes, we can jolt them into glimpsing moments of their past, but most of them describe it as looking at someone else’s life. They don’t recognize it as their own. We’ve seen someone deeply devoted to their spouse completely forget about them the next day. Humans don’t recognize their children. Vampires don’t recognize members of their lines or partners they’ve had for centuries. It was always brutal to witness.
Now, as I sit across from Lucas, I’m reminded just how gut wrenching these spells were. I met Lucas in the 1700s as he was fleeing the room of a recently married Lady. Apparently, the two had been having a long standing affair that extended into her marriage bed, but on that night, the Lord of the manor had come home earlier than expected. This had caused Lucas to dive out the window onto the third floor awning. I watched the display from across the courtyard, which was otherwise vacant at that late hour, and was brought to tears from laughing hysterically at the situation. Once I gathered my wits, I helped him escape and we had been great friends ever since.
“Lucas, do you know who I am?” I asked, hoping with every syllable that my jovial, carefree, womanizing mate was still there. The blood craze seems to drive them out of their mind.
“Of course I do,” he said with a cruel smile. “You’re Harding; King of the Pirates. You know I’ve always thought that was such an egotistical title. We’re vampires. We don’t have kings. I became a vampire to get away from pompous asses like you. If I’d known I would have been stuck with one for eternity, I wouldn’t have bothered.”
“You’re being driven mad with hunger, so I’ll forgive that disparagement of my name.” I tried to joke with him, but it didn’t even register. His entire being was focused on how to get out of the chains he was draped in and then, I imagined, the best way to escape. Lucas had spent about as much time in this house as I had, so he knew the layout inside and out. Hell, he helped me build the prison we were now sitting in when we first began trying to save our people from Sarah. He knew the extent of security measures in place.
After a few moments, Lucas focused back on me. It was like he temporarily forgot I was there. “Lucas, do you remember how Sarah bewitched you? If you know anything maybe we can reverse this.”
“How could you possibly reverse this? You are powerful, Harding, but you aren’t magic. You are no match for her. We all might as well stake ourselves now and be done with it.”
“You don’t mean that. You just can’t see clearly right now. We–”
“Can you see clearly? When does this end?” he yelled so hard I could see veins bulging across his neck and face. “My skin is crawling. I feel like I’m on fire and freezing. Just the thought of sucking a human clean makes me want to dig out of this room with my nails until there’s nothing left of me but a husk. Even in my early days, the thirst did not compare to this.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I pleaded with him.
“No,” he looked at the ceiling, took an unnecessary breath, and then looked back at me, “we really won’t. Please just kill me.” I could see the pain flowing off him. Not just the physical torture this spell was wrecking, but also the torment his acts were doing to his soul.
Norman had relayed the murders to me. My Lucas would never do such a thing. He was above all kind. Sure he sometimes looked at life as an amusing game, but it was never one where he set out to harm. This creature in front of me had been stalking and ravaging young women up and down the country. Even if we were able to pull him out of this, could he go on living with what he had done? I was not sure I could if the roles were reversed.
“You know what this room can do,” I reminded him. “It will soon anyway. I can’t let you go.”
“No, Harding, you do this,” he commanded with some of his former fire now. “Please, don’t make me go alone. I know I don’t deserve it, but please.”
“My friend,” I said kneeling in front of Lucas, “you deserve so much better than all of this.” I wrapped my left arm around his head pulling him in for an embrace. After a few moments, I heard snarls coming from his throat and felt him angling for mine. In that instance, I knew there was nothing we could do for him if he was starving so badly that undead blood would do. I pulled him tighter, cursing the witch in the same breath I said, “Goodbye,” and in the next second, my dear companion was nothing more than ashes.