The City of Fire and Shadows

Chapter 12

Once again I found myself at the dungeon cell of Meredith Wrenley. I stood in front of her cell door, and got a thought. If I had to work with her, I wanted to see her face-to-face. Not through a set of metal bars.

"Guard," I said waving over to a nearby guard. "Open Meredith's door. I'm going in. Close the door behind me, and watch it carefully."

"Are you sure?" the guard asked incredulously. He probably thought I was insane, going into a dungeon cell with a vampire. Alone.

"Yes, I'm sure," I replied. "I can handle her."

The guard duly opened the cell door, and let me walk in. When I was in Meredith's cell, the door quickly closed behind me. The inside of the cell was dark; even darker now that I actually in the the cell instead of looking at it. The only light in the room was a faint light source coming from a muted ceiling light. My eyes struggled to adjust to the lack of light.

Meredith got up from her bed and walked closer to me. Even in the darkness, I could see how beautiful she was; how the faint light reflected over her pale white skin; and how her yellow eyes pierced through the darkness.

"That's far enough," I said warily. "I prefer some distance since I'm not able to see you too clearly."

"Funny, I could see perfectly fine. To me, it's actually too bright," Meredith said while waving a pointing finger towards the ceiling light."

"I never heard of vampires that were affected by artificial light sources."

"You'd be affected too, if it was the only annoying light source in an otherwise dark room. Practically torture. I bet poor Ashella is crying herself to sleep at the lack of humane treatment next door. She's serious lacking in the will department."

"You consider yourself a comedian, Meredith?"

"Got to have some sense of humour to keep yourself sane in this topsy turvy world. But come now, to what do I owe a visit from the lovely Audrey Beaumont."

"I came to personally thank you for your plan - the trojan horse plan. And of course your participation, willing or otherwise. The whole thing has been approved by the leadership. In two week's time, the assault will begin. And we'll start it off with you delivering me to Reginald."

Meredith hesitated for a moment. I don't think she expected that. She probably thought I had come to taunt her some more. But I was done with that. If we had to put everything on a high stakes plan to assassinate Reginald, it would do no good if we couldn't just get along, right?

"I'm not going to betray you. I have my own vested interest to see us succeed. For my own rinkar, Valeria Wrenley."

"I believe you, Meredith. I didn't just come to thank you. I thought that...if we were going to work together, we should get to know each other."

"Oh," Meredith smiled. "Like a date...in a prison cell."

"A..date?" I inadvertently blushed. "More like a get-to-know-you sort of thing. A meet and greet."

"Alright," Meredith said, as she plopped back down onto her cell bed. "What do you want to know?"

"You've been serving House Wrenley since you were seventeen?"

"Technically, since when I was ten years old. That's the age I was when I was taken into House Wrenley. Those were...fun years, compared to what I had to endure before. All me, and other children had to do was play with Valeria. Be her friend, her playmate. We got to eat good food, wear nice clothing, and sleep in warm beds."

"There were other children?"

"Yes, Valeria made it her mission to rescue kids like me from terrible backgrounds. But we couldn't stay children forever. We served another purpose: when we were physically grown, maybe around sixteen to eighteen, we were turned into vampires. To protect our house and serve our rinkar."