Vampyre: Desire Immortal

Chapter 8

It Is Finished

O Unsuspecting Prey,

You think that walls protect you?

I come to you in dreams to feast.

Insensible fools, you sleep.

Corruptible is your flesh which I will eat!

*****

"Do you hear that, Perdix?" the old witch whispered.

"I do. It is the cries of the Damned."

"What's he doing? Are you sure he's reading right spell?" she asked.

"How would I know, Fye. He's a learned man. I know many things, but I don't know Latin."

"Scite," said Fye. "The fat fool will have the whole graveyard up and walking on our heads. We only want the one. Not the hoards. Do something, Perdix. Do it quickly. The bewitching hour is soon to pass. This is our only chance. The Ancients have told me so in a dream."

Perdix looked left and right. It seemed the whole cemetery was about to awaken. The earth covering the bodies in the yard glowed red, like a hot fire had been stoked beneath the sod where each one lay in repose.

The bishop was racing through the spell.

"No! No! No!" Perdix screamed, plowing into the holy man and knocking the book from his hands.

Fye quickly swiped it up and hid it in the innumerable layers of rags she wore.

The bishop was sitting on his ample bottom, red-faced, and sputtering curses at Perdix.

"Are you mad?" he asked.

"Look around you, my Lord." Perdix said.

The bishop cut his beady eyes across the graveyard.

"By God's Grail. They are all stirring."

"Gabriel's horn could not do better," said Perdix.

"I'm getting out of here," said the bishop.

His sausage fingers grabbed the jeweled chalice he had dropped on the ground.

"I'll take this with me," he said, hugging the precious cup. "We'll call your debt paid."

"But you can't leave now," said Perdix. "The one we want still sleeps."

"Let him sleep with the Dead forever."

The chapel bell began to toll.

The bishop looked toward the lonesome sound.

"Stay here if you want, you fools. I don't know why I ever let you talk me into this. You and your dirty little friend can kill yourselves if you like. As for me, I'd rather wake up safe and sound in my own bed than be found staked out here in Purgatory."

"But . . ." said Perdix.

"But nothing."

The bishop disappeared into the blackness.

"What do we do now?" Perdix said. "Fye, what are you doing?"

Fye busied herself, cutting some of the silky black hair from the dead man's head and burning it in the fire. She took off her the rags and the coarse tunic she wore against her body. She bent down on her knees and scraped some dirt from the grave, smearing it on the eyes and mouth and chin and forehead of the corpse.

Naked, she picked up the bishop's book and held it high over her head. She walked around the grave seven times. Spitting in the fire pit, she lowered the book and lay on the ground, placing the sacred text on top of her face.

"When it is still and balanced atop," she said, "take a hot coal from the fire and put it in the center of the book."

"Fye," he began.

"Do as I say, Perdix. That fat man is right. Time is running out."

Her palms were facing skyward. Perdix found a stick and wedged a flat stone in the 'Y' of the branch. He reached into the glowing embers at the edge of the pit. Retrieving a hot coal, he placed it in the center of the book. It burned a small black hole clean through. He saw Fye's palms clench into fists.

Just at the instant he was sure he'd killed his friend, she grabbed the book from her face and tossed it aside. Scrambling up, she smiled at Perdix. A large circular black stain of charcoal marked the center of her forehead.

"I have what we need to know, dear friend, right here," she said, pointing to the black spot on her head. "We must hurry before opportunity escapes us."

Fye knelt down on her knees beside the bones. Solemnly, she began to intone a different spell in Latin. The air around her became electric. Perdix watched as the graves around them ceased to glow. Rings from heaven shot down from the stars and encircled her. They pulsed and vibrated and gave off eerie sounds. Perdix cupped his ears.

Fye began to sway. Her eyes were white orbs in their sockets. Her head tilted up, and she faced the low, full moon. A ray of silver light shot down into the ancient burial ground. It lit the bones of Dyryke . They rattled. Perdix heard their noises. The neck of the dead man buckled, and the lips of the corpse opened wide and voiced a silent scream.

The ground about the bones began to smoke. Grass and vines and all sorts of green plants sprung up from the blackened earth. They wove a cocoon around the corpse from head to toe. Perdix felt his breath involuntarily fill his chest. He gasped.

The full moon moaned above their heads. The plants withered and died before his eyes. Perdix heard the pops and crackles as they fell away. The bones were bones no longer. It was a body, full of flesh, and the jet black hair on Dyryke 's head glistened beside the glowing fire.

Fye finished the spell and collapsed into a heap of dirty rags that lay on the ground. A black cloud swept across the lower half of the moon. A blast of frigid air drove though the gravestones, whistling and groaning as it passed.

He heard the crow caw. The owl screeched. Swooping down from the black night's sky, a gigantic bat flapped right by Perdix's head and landed on the ground atop Dyryke 's still body. Perdix watched in horror as the creature covered itself with one gauzy wing, transforming into a vampire.

The vampire turned back, looking Perdix squarely in the eyes, smiled, and swooped toward Fye. He threw her down on the ground and bit her in the neck. She screamed and fought to no avail.

He yelled to Fye and moved toward her, but the witch was too quick. In a flash, she dashed toward the body, opened the jaws of the dead man, and disappeared inside his mouth and down his throat.

Before Perdix could move, the vampire disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Fye! Fye! What have I done?"