Last Vampire 6(42)
"You will barter," he promises. "Fool! There is no part of you I cannot touch. No aspect of you I cannot defile." He stops. "Hear something, Sita?"
The beating of the heart grows louder in my ears.
In my head. Even when I cover my ears it doesn't help.
He shoves the heart toward me and I am forced to stare at it.
This is madnessIcannot even close my eyes.
"Kill her and it will stop," he says.
"No!" I cry.
"Kill her and your friend will live! Kill her and you can kill me!"
The blood of the pounding heart splashes through the barrier and catches my face. I taste the waste of Cia's perverted life on my lips and the pounding in my head increases ten-fold. Surely I will go mad if I do not stop it in the next few seconds. Whirling toward the chained girl, I do not know what she hears except that she suddenly screams. Maybe the sight of my crazed expression makes her scream. What is one human life, I think? In four thousand years I have murdered thousands, ripped the lives from a parade of innocents. I need her heart, just for a second. Her sacrifice is necessary to spare the torment of billions in the future. She should be happy to die for such a noble cause. God should see that I have no choice in the matter.
But he will not see that and I know it.
Because I am fivenot fourthousand years old.
I know to murder innocents is to murder my own soul.
But the pounding grows louder.
It is a miracleL andulf's voice can be heard above it.
"You can rip out my heart when you are done with me," he says. "And then you will finally be at peace. Peace, Sita!"
My body balls up in pain.
I squeeze my ears between my knees.
The beat of the dead heart. Nothing can stop it.
Tears run over my face. Bloody tears.
The girl swims in my red vision.
My head will explode, I know.
"Kill her, Sita!" Landulf implores.
My mission will fail. Billions will burn.
"Rip out her heart!"
In my head. The pain. The pounding. Please.
"Do it!"
I do it. Finally, just this once, I listen to him.
Leaping toward her, giving her almost no time to react, I thrust my left hand into her chest, smashing through her white gown and her pale ribs. Yet for a fraction of a second, she knows what I am going to do. She feels the absolute horror of the ritual execution. That is what Landulf wants, what he needs, to activate his black sorcery. The battery of the bastard is tied to perversity and pain. The girl's heart is in my hand. I feel its life, and still I yank it from her chest and leap toward the circle. Out the corner of my eye I see her staring at me, and understand the betrayal she is feeling deep in my soul. Her eyes are as blue as mine. Even in death, they could be mine.
I land inside the circle, at the tip of a point on the pentagram.
The pounding stops. The agony in my head.
The dead girl's heart seems to melt in my hand.
Landulf has picked up the mystical spear.
"They are always hungry," he explains as he nods toward the heart vaporizing in my left palm. In moments it is entirely gone. There is not even a stain of blood left on my hand. Landulf raises the spear and takes a step toward me. He is pleased with me. "You have passed the second step," he says.
I ready myself for his attack. I shift to the right side.
My foot touches fire.
I whip my foot back. There are no visible flames.
"You are now in hell," Landulf says. "You are required to stay inside the lines of the pentagram. But I am free to roam where I wish, all over the circle."
He lunges at me with the spear. He is fast.
I leap over to the adjacent star point.
He barely misses me. He flashes me a smile.
"Isn't this fun?" he asks.
"Delightful," I say.
"There is one other rule you should know. Don't jump or walk through the center of the pentagram. There is an invisible being waiting there that might consume you alive."
"You expect me to believe you?" I ask.
"You don't have to. But then, I will lose you forever, and you will be trapped in a dark place forever." He raises the spear once more. "But do what you want. You may even try to escape from the circle, but you won't be able to. Once you are in here with me, you will stay in here."
He makes another stab at me. I leap to the next point on the star. He misses, but I realize that I cannot keep on like this forever. His freedom of movementgiveshim a devastating advantage. His speed and strength are a mystery to me. But perhaps they come from the sum total of all the demons he carries in his heart. He is not necessarily as strong as I am, but his strength is close. I can tell by the power in his physical bursts. And he has the mystical spear, and I have to wonder if Christ's dried blood is an advantage or disadvantage in this cursed place.