Book: The First - Part: One - Chapter: 17 - Installment: v

Ruthven scrambled to his feet, now looking ridiculous with his clothes half on and the enormous footwear making each step awkward, the pants shackling his ankles.

Sarah rolled over for a better look as up from between the joists in the floor rose what appeared to be a woman. She was thin and her skin barely seemed to hold on to her body. Tattered scraps of clothing hung from her, sticking to the bloodied flesh so as to blur the line between what was human and what was cloth. Someone had trumped them all in this game of fantastical theatrics, the costuming and make-up would stand up in the best of horror cinema.

Newcomer swiftly reached out to an Adjuvant and pulled him in close. Her lips pulled back, revealing perfectly formed custom fangs. Several of the haematophages Sarah knew had spent ridiculous amounts of money on similar artificial dentition. The newcomer buried her face in the Adjuvant’s neck. Blood squirted past her lips like the blood from the goat’s pierced artery. For his part, the Adjuvant made the most of it, with a spine-chilling mortal scream.

Sarah looked on, amazed. How had that effect been created? Could the jet have actually come from a blood pack hidden in the woman’s mouth, behind her fangs?

The tattered woman held tight to the Adjuvant’s neck as he gave up the fight and fell limp. She then reached for another and as she reeled him in he protested, finally breaking character more completely than anyone else in the room. Someone had finally given in to the escalating charade.

“Okay, that’s enough for me!” He said following it up with a nervous laugh.

But the newcomer didn’t stop. She lunged at his neck, not letting the game abate. As she made oral contact, the Adjuvant cried out. “What thaaaahh…!” The cry took on a new character. One that seemed a bit too real.

The mood in the room turned from uncertain excitement to stunned horror.

Ruthven reflexively back-peddled, but with his feet caught up in his pants he quickly lost his balance and landed in a heap behind the daybed.

Sarah sat up, suddenly very aware of her nakedness in the presence of this violent stranger.

One of the remaining Adjuvants dropped his hood and rushed at the woman. Two others leapt to his side as soon as they recognized his intent. They spread out around the woman, circling to ensure that one would always have the advantage of being behind her.

The newcomer dropped the limp body of her second victim to the ground as Sarah pulled the edge of Ruthven’s cloak up around her. The stranger’s arm’s reached out so quickly that they seemed to stretch out in two directions at once, sharply nailed fingers plunged into sockets of four eyes nearly simultaneously. Before the screams could begin, the third Adjuvant’s head had been turned 270 degrees. His lifeless body slumped to the ground as the newcomer turned with proud menace to face the remaining students in the room. She stood, arms outstretched, taking in the room.

The keening wail of the two blinded students seemed to recede into background noise as the terrifying stranger spoke for the first time.

“Who has restored me?”  She spoke with a subtle but unmistakable German accent.

Sarah pulled the cloak tighter around herself and tried to get her feet to the floor, but the cloak was too long, she could not get them free, and soon found herself tumbling to the boards beside Ruthven.

He looked at her. Sarah was scared, but Ruthven was genuinely terrified. Perhaps facing the threat of impending death for your entire life had its advantages. Smeared on the floor beneath him was the evidence of his terror. She looked back into his shamed face and recognized that he had come to the same conclusion that she had. Their theatrical game of pretend was over, they were now faced with a very real vampire.

     Installment vi