The Vampire's Crimson Kiss (Editing)

Chapter 40/Salem is sired

Mary had finished several drinks and more than a modest round of venom, and I stood by in my coven girl disguise, being offered none. Mary was flirting with some commander of the guard and ignored the crowd forming near the main alter. Eventually she finish and  got up and we walked to the main event. 

When we arrived, we were at the back of the crowd, and I could only see the Duke talking to the coven with Salem and the high priestess next to him. The Duke had just finished saying something. Then everyone was applauding Salem as she mounted the dais that the Duke and the high priestess stood on. They seemed to be in an odd position, but I noticed there was a large stone sarcophagus also with them. Salem looked odd, I thought. She acted like a bride caught between very nervous and very happy. Then, after some more indistinct words and more applause, the Duke went up and began to bite her on the neck. Internally, I flinched; I had seen enough bloodletting to know. I had also seen enough feeding to recognize messy, wasteful bloodletting when I saw it.

Her eyes closed in rapture. Then the high priestess also fed on Salem. This was followed by one immortal after another. I knew this wasn't good; a familiar could give up to a couple of pints and recover easily. More than that, and you could be in trouble. The feeding continued, and a vampire held her up. Soon, blood ran freely down Salem's body. While coven member after coven member stood up and took more, the high priestess began to chant and read from the book of Ayrbus. Finally, Salem looked practically white with blue veins over her bare body. She couldn't stand without being held up, and she could hardly keep her eyes open.

Dramatically, the Duke took a knife and cut his own wrist, allowing Salem to weakly lick his blood. While she did this, Sadismann handed the knife to the high priestess, who then took it and, with more words, thrust it into Salem's chest. I stood there blankly while the hilt stuck out of Salem's heart. Relatively little blood emerged from her chest. The knife was pulled out, still bloody. The wound leaked, and Salem's lifeless body was lowered into the sarcophagus. I felt rather numb about the whole event. I had never liked Salem that much, but her brutal sacrifice just to please a visitor seemed rather extreme, even for Sadismann. No wonder he didn't want me there. Still, I felt irritated that he thought I was too soft to watch this.

More words were spoken by the high priestess, and then I saw a man being carried in, suspended feet-first from a rope held by one of the immortals named Focalor. The man was partially bare and struggling, his hands tied behind him. This didn't seem to bother Focalor, who held the man up, and I couldn't believe how strong the immortals were. While he did this, another vampire climbed up the wall like a lizard, eventually walking along the ceiling. Near the ceiling, he took a hook and let the man's body hang. So the man was held feet-first over the sarcophagus that Salem was lying in. I could see why Sadismann didn't want me to attend; I wouldn't be able to close my eyes without seeing this for a week. The hanging man was awake, and I could see him writhe.

The man swung around, and his face was now visible, even though he was upside down. I recognized the familiar. It was Tom, the one who had assaulted Cub. He was hanging over the tomb and began pleading, promising that he had learned his lesson and could change. He kept whimpering and desperately saying anything he thought might work. I knew I couldn't help him; I was frozen by the blood ritual before me.

The high priestess came forward brandishing a large gold knife. She began speaking in the shadow tongue, but her accent was very strange, and I could only make out a few words. "We are misery pigs of vendetta's looking glass... the nameless shadows... life eternal unlocked as the vile crooked caterpillar wraps itself in new flesh and lies lifeless in [its] carapace for 30 days, then to crack open and emerge as the sublime immortal butterfly..." Towards the end of her speech, it became quicker. I was relieved when she finally took the knife and cut Tom's jugular. Cardinal-red blood gushed from Tom's body into the sarcophagus. While this happened, the high priestess continued to read from the pages of the book of Ayrbus, the book of the dead. Now dead or at least unconscious, Tom's body was cut down and he fell, dropping into the sarcophagus.