The Crucivire

Chapter Thirty One: Weapons of War

"William," said Fara. "I need you to take this to Harold."

"Yes, mistress, at once," said the human formerly known as Gary Frasier.

Fara lounged peacefully on a couch in the mansion's courtyard, vampires and human thralls attending to her needs. Fara handed Gary, now William, a book containing Fara's observations on the recruits that Harold was training before them. She could see Harold in the distance overseeing vampires as they sparred with swords or practiced dodging arrows. Next to Fara stood both the vampire that had initially taken Gary, and the human thrall, Sierra. The three of them watched him go, satisfied with the results of Fara's manipulation.

"Amazing, mistress," said the young vampire. "It's like he's a completely different person."

"I hope you learned something, young one," said Fara, standing up. "Now, to other matters. Sierra, my dear."

"Yes, mistress?" said the human.

"You did exceptionally well in your role," said Fara, standing up. "And you deserve a reward. It's time."

Sierra looked up hopefully, "You mean?"

Fara smiled, "Yes, dear girl. Show me your neck."

"Oh, mistress!" said Sierra, pushing her hair out of the way.

Fara leaned down, holding Sierra by the shoulders as she bit into her neck. Sierra sighed, a blissful expression on her face as Fara drank. Fara kept on drinking for a few minutes, Sierra getting paler and paler by the second. Eventually, Sierra closed her eyes, her smile never leaving her face. Fara pulled away, having drained Sierra of her blood completely.

Fara held Sierra up as she placed her ear at the girl's chest. Hearing no heartbeat, Fara nodded in satisfaction before lifting Sierra into her arms and giving her to the blonde vampire.

"Take her to a room," said Fara. "Tonight, she is dead. Tomorrow, she will rise again as one of us. I'm far too busy to train her myself, so I'll leave it to you to show her the ropes. Don't let your failure with the last human discourage you. You will have further opportunities to redeem yourself in the days ahead."

The blonde vampire bowed, "Thank you, mistress. It is an honor."

While this was going on, William had delivered the book to Harold Stone and began walking back to his mistress. While she was distracted, however, William took a moment to look up at a particular room of the mansion. He couldn't see past the vines covering every inch of it, but that room caught his attention, nonetheless. Earlier, William had heard a voice in that room, and he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Something about that voice had seemed familiar.

###

Jasmine Ross and Cora Mires visited Gordon Brand in the Hospital. The skin had grown over his legs where they had been cut off, and would grow back soon, but it wasn't easy for either of them to see him like this.

"How are you feeling?" said Cora.

"My body is fine," said Gordon. "I'll be up and running soon enough. Honestly? I'm more worried about Phoenix."

They looked at him grimly. It wasn't hard to understand why he felt that way. Jasmine, as hard as this was to see, had something else bothering her as well.

"Gordon," said Jasmine, feeling guilty, "We...we found out how the vampires controlled our agents."

Gordon raised an eyebrow.