The Vampire's Rival

Not needing the past, until the past needs you

The weeks flew by faster than I thought they would. Tristan, Kitari and I spent the first few days bringing the Enclave back to order, making sure we knew the residents who were back and those who weren't. And finding out whether those who weren't back were dead or if they had defected to another Baron's Enclave. That had happened before. I knew a lot of vampires who'd moved out of Lujeo's Enclave to Trisca's. After our time at her Sun Festival party and the debacle at her cave of horrors, I now knew why, and it still made me sick to think about it. Paluri's Enclave had also received plenty of vampires from Lujeo's Enclave in the past.

My Enclave now.

Not Lujeo's.

It was going to take a while to get used to that.

Most of my people had come back. At some point I had sent Tristan to Paluri's Enclave with a few Freelancers to help with the dogs, as promised. While he was gone, Kitari and a few of the Freelancers who were still around helped me inspect all the Enclave buildings, checking to find out if they were occupied or abandoned or being repaired from the wreckage and havoc caused by both the Vampire dog attack during the Sun Festival and the chaos of the Masters Battle. The Enclave was slowly stiching itself back together. Slowly healing.

There was just one more place left to visit. I had left it for last, and I was glad I wasn't going there alone. it wouldn't be a pleasant visit.

"I thought all the residential homes had already been checked," Kitari said, walking beside me.

"Not this one. I told the others to leave this one." I explained, trying not to get too distracted by how close she was, and how she would sometimes intertwine her fingers with mine as we walked.

"What's so special about this one?" she asked.

We'd grown closer in the last few weeks, after almost a century apart. But I knew that, even as she held my hand now, it wasn't the same as before. It could never be. I'd broken that. And she had moved on.

Besides, my heart belonged elsewhere now.

"The woman who lived there was called Miss Trudy," I said. I let go of Kitari's hand and put mine in my pocket. It didn't break her graceful stride. "We never found her body at Lujeo's mansion, which might mean that she either didn't go to the Sun Festival, or she somehow made it out alive and escaped."

"That sounds like every other vampire we've been looking for these past few days," Kitari said. "What's special about her?"

"None of her friends have seen her for weeks now." I said. "And they insist that she wouldn't just disappear on them, even if she'd chosen to defect to another Enclave. I think I know what happened to her, but I need to make sure."

Miss Trudy asking me to look for her lost fledglings, Sejih and Dijal, seemed like a lifetime ago, rather than a few months ago. Back before Hadley. Before everything. The fledglings were dead, both mauled by the vampire dogs. I wondered about their deaths sometimes. If it was what caused the dogs to turn. However, the fledglings were far too young for their Ambrosia and blood to be powerful enough to turn another creature. Maybe it was the combination of their blood together, the little ambrosia they both may have had, and the rabies virus afflicting the dogs that made the Turn possible. Maybe that was what created the vampire dogs. That killed the boys. Miss Trudy's only fledglings.

I opened her door and walked in.

I knew what to expect, but it was still a shock.

The creature rushed at me through the mess it had created by breaking every piece of furniture and décor in that lovely little house. I had never seen one of these personally. Only heard stories. Stories that failed in every way to convey the horror inspired by the creature. How long had it been lost in the act of destruction? The ghoul slammed me back outside and we both crashed to the ground. Its eyes were soulless, but its resolve was single minded and without equal: to make me join it in its madness. The Miss Trudy zombie maniacally chomped at the air towards my face.