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Cassandra Palmer 1(85)






I'd heard a few horror stories. Best-case scenario, the new vamp simply never rose. He or she stayed dead after three days, and you knew there had been a problem. Worst-case scenario, they rose without any higher brain functions, a horrible mess called a revenant. They were like animals who lived only to hunt. And because they couldn't reason, they didn't acknowledge the mastery of the one who made them. The only thing to do was to hunt them down before they went crazy on a group of humans.



«What could someone with no more power than a new ghost do in, what, about an hour?» I looked at Tomas. «Is that right? How long were we there?»

«It could not have been much longer, but we were exerting ourselves heavily. We might have been able to prolong our stay otherwise.»

«Yeah, but I wouldn't know how to interfere with a vamp making a new servant, and even as a spirit, I wouldn't like to try. How would she do it?»

«The sybil has Rasputin to tell her what to do,» Louis-Cesar reminded me. «She would go with detailed instructions, and possibly others to aid her.»

«It would not be so difficult,» Mircea added. «The individual in question has to be pure, with no bites from another vampire in the last few years. They have to be willing and at peace when they are made, and healthy, or at least not seriously ill. If someone tampered with any of these conditions, centuries later, a powerful master such as Rasputin might be able to override the weakened bond.» He thought about it for a minute. «Interference in the first condition seems to me unlikely. That would result in the subjects failing to rise, which would not help Rasputin's cause: the master would have simply selected other servants. It is also likely that a master would detect another's bite and pass them by.»

«What would she have to do?»

He shrugged. «There are many possibilities. Poison them with a slow-acting toxin, for instance. They would die before it became obvious that they were seriously weakened, and the poison would not harm them once they rose. Yet it would severely diminish their attachment to their master. Or they could be given a stimulant powerful enough that they remained aware and afraid through the transition, instead of peaceful and euphoric.»

«But you can't take stuff with you in spirit form,» I pointed out. «Where would she get the poison?»

«She likely retrieved whatever medium she used from where her allies had placed it. The Black Circle has existed almost as long as the Silver—it dates to the middle of the third millennium B.C.E.—and poison has always been a favorite weapon of its members. They could easily have provided what was needed.»

«But why would the old Black Circle trust Rasputin?» If he was strong enough to cause this much hell, I doubted the guy had actually been born a Russian peasant in the latter nineteenth century. It was probably a name he'd adopted, possibly after killing the owner or by making it up and using mental tricks to make people believe his story. But it didn't seem likely that he'd been around long enough to have been at Carcassonne when I was there. The Senate would not have so badly underestimated a vamp that old.

«He is allied with their modern counterparts, who could tell him what to say,» Mircea explained. «The sybil could have taken a message to the dark mages, asking for aid. The Silver Circle is allied with us, and it is an old alliance. Disrupting it would be a coup for the dark.»




My head was swimming. I had a hard time believing that the Black Circle in any era would exert themselves for future gain that none of them would live to see. But it wasn't my problem. «What do you expect me to do? Go back and arm wrestle her or something? Shouldn't you be more worried about the duel?»



«We are.» Louis-Cesar was grim. «In less than twelve hours, I am scheduled to duel Rasputin to the death. I will defeat him, if I am still here.»

«You planning on going somewhere?»




I meant it as a joke, but he didn't look like he found it funny. «Possibly. Rasputin agreed to the duel believing that he would face Mei Ling. It was thought that, when I was named champion instead, he would withdraw. But he did not, even though he must know that he cannot defeat me.»



I decided not to point out how conceited that sounded. «But he can't interfere with you. You're a first-level master; he isn't strong enough to influence you. Even if he weakened your bond with your old master, at your level, it doesn't matter anymore. The tactics he's used on the other vamps won't work.»

«No, but he could prevent me from being made at all.»




I debated whether to point out the obvious. I decided to risk it. «No offense—I'm sure you deserve your rep—but there's got to be other champions the Consul could choose. She's been around two thousand years; she has to know people.»