Flores Vitae: The Flower of Life

Chapter 12: I am the Weapon

Rose

There was an access road that followed the interior of the security wall the surrounded the property. It wasn't my favorite route to ride, because I knew there were cameras mounted up there on the walls, and I knew we were being watched. However, it was a smooth and easy trail for Heather, who still got nervous over rough terrain. She rode in a western saddle, and kept a death grip on the saddle horn. At first her mouth ran non-stop, but I wasn't really into talking when I was riding. Being on horseback in the woods was a time for quiet meditation. It was a time to watch for wildlife, admire the trees, lift your face to the dappled sunlight, and listen to the sounds of nature. It was a time to be at one with the horse, to feel how he moved underneath you, to let your body relax into his gait. After awhile when I refused to answer her or acknowledge her chatter, she stopped talking, but she was still humming to herself.

We were probably a couple miles out from the stables when Charlie stopped abruptly. His head came up, his ears pricked forward, and he blew out sharply through his nose. Something was wrong. I felt his body tense, prepared for flight. "Easy boy, what do you see?" I tried to speak in calm, soothing tones, but his anxiety was immediately my anxiety. I peered into the woods, trying to see what he saw. Charlie didn't mind about the deer we often passed. He might spook if he startled something out of the bush, but he was not a very skittish horse. I thought perhaps we had wandered upon a predator, a bear or a mountain lion. I had heard of mountain lions dropping down out of the trees to attack horses. "Heather," I said quietly, but firmly. "Turn Stormy around and head back to the stables, slowly."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it. Something is in the woods."

Heather did as she was told, and the pony happily started to plod back toward the barn. Charlie however, did not want to turn his back on whatever was out there. He trembled and took some steps backward, but he didn't respond to my direction to turn.

Then they showed themselves. They were predators alright, but not from the animal kingdom. They were vampires. Three beautiful men and one pretty young woman, dressed for the sun, in sun glasses, long sleeved shirts, and hats. Charlie had been raised around vampires, so the fact that he was frightened told me that these were not friendly familiar faces. His animal instinct knew that these four were dangerous. I pulled hard to direct rein Charlie's head around, and dug my heels into his flanks. This time he was ready to flee. He pivoted and launched himself off so fast I was nearly unseated, and lost a stirrup in the process. But no matter. I fisted my hands into his thick mane and leaned low over his neck, urging him to go faster.

In no time at all we had gained on Heather. "Run, Heather... just hang on and run for the barn." As we went past, I swatted Stormy on the butt to encourage him to go faster. I glanced behind and saw that the vampires were following us, and would easily overtake us. Even though we were galloping on horseback, they were still faster. I glanced desperately up at the wall, wondering if Matthias's security cameras were watching us. But even if they had seen, I knew they would be too slow to come to our aide. Even as I was thinking it, one of the vampires got a hold of my shirt and hauled me off Charlie's back. The horse continued to run toward the barn without a rider, Heather and the pony hot on his heels.

I hit the ground with a thud that knocked the wind out of me. For a moment I couldn't breathe, and the strange faces blurred in front of me. In the next moment, one of the men had hauled me to my feet by my hair. "Wow, guys, do you smell that?"

He buried his head in my neck and took a deep whiff of my scent. I had nothing to fight with. I guess I should have asked Matthias to give me a weapon of some sort. I did the only thing I could think of as I struggled, I rammed my head into his. "Ouch, jeezus she's a feisty one."

"Remember what she said," the woman warned, "Don't bite her, she's poisonous."

The man groaned, and used my hair to crank my head back and expose my neck. "But she smells so f*****g good..."

"Focus! Kill her now before you do something stupid."

I felt the man sigh, and the hand in my hair snaked around my neck like an iron bar, while the other was trying to hold my body still. As sometimes seems to happen when I'm very frightened, time became distorted. I felt that everything except me was moving more slowly. I had time to think. I have no weapon, but I AM the weapon. If they won't bite me, what if I bit them? Was my saliva also poisonous? Somehow I didn't think so. After all, Matthias had kissed me on the lips, and he didn't die. But it seemed like the only option available. If I turned my head and twisted, I could just reach his bicep. I had to bite through the cotton shirt, and cutting through tough skin with dull human teeth is harder than it sounds. It took all the strength of my jaws to break the skin, and then I shook my head like a dog to tear it open. I got the taste of his blood in my mouth and I gagged.

My captor howled and threw me aside, grabbing his arm. "She bit me, the f*****g poisonous b***h bit me!" I scrambled to my feet and started to run. I shouldn't have been able to get 10 feet from them, but time was still out of order. They chased me, but even with their super-human speed, they couldn't catch me. It was like they were moving through mud, while I was moving through air... but still I'm not fast enough, or fit enough to run for long, even with the adrenaline coursing through my body. Slowly, so slowly they were gaining on me, until one of the men made a dive for my legs and caught me by the ankle, bringing me crashing to the ground again. He rolled me over so that I was facing up at him, and I saw him pull out a knife, and raise it over my chest. And just when I thought the knife would plunge into my heart, a shadow moved over me, a sword glinted in the sunlight, and my attackers head slid off his body ever so slowly. Blood sprayed over me, and I screamed. A giant hand hauled me up off the ground, and it took me a long moment to realize it was Boris. He was wearing big sunglasses and his bulging biceps were comically covered in a very preppy turtle neck shirt. He pushed me behind his body and faced the others. The man I bit was still clutching at his torn shoulder. The woman had pulled out her own sword. The other man had something else in his gloved hands, it looked like a silver garrote.

I knew Boris was a great fighter, but we were outnumbered. Or so I thought. There was a whooshing sound, and other bodies flew by me at warp speed. "Keep one alive for questioning!" Boris bellowed. I recognized Matthias, and Jenny, but there were others I still did not know. Someone drove a stake through the woman's chest, and she dropped her sword and fell forward onto her face in the leaf-litter. Matthias went at the man with the silver wire, without any weapon in his hands. He grabbed a hold of the man's head, and with a mean wrench and twist, he ripped it clean off. That was even more gruesome than seeing a man beheaded by a sharp sword. In another second, Jenny had the silver garrote around the injured mans neck, and he was on his knees screaming.

"No! No! She bit me! Just kill me! Please just kill me, I don't want to die like this."

"Will he really die from my bite?" I asked Boris.

Boris grinned at me. "He will die very, very slowly."

"Ohmigod." I felt a little sick to my stomach. But before I could think too hard about it, Matthias flew into a rage. I guess I've always known that he was powerful and dangerous, but I had never until that moment felt truly afraid of him.

"How did this happen? How the hell did they get inside the wall undetected? Why weren't the lasers tripped? Where is the security footage?" He was roaring. His eyes were black with fury. The way he looked from one man to another, and to Jenny, I thought that at the slightest provocation he would happily rip their heads off, just like that vampire. He pointed a long finger at me. "I promised her safety inside these walls. I f*****g guaranteed it. When I find out who the hell f****d this up..."

Jenny was the only one brave enough to put a calming hand on his arm. "Master, let us question the prisoner, and review all the footage. We will find the problem. In the mean time Andrew will run a full scale diagnostic of the security system, look for any breaches and abnormalities. And Collins will get out the aerial drone and check all the perimeters. Someone needs to take the woman back home."

"I want a full report." He growled, and then he strode over and picked me up like I was nothing. I had missed him this past week, but I didn't feel very good about being near him like this.

I struggled in his arms. "I can walk."

"No."

No? Just No? Like I had no say in anything?  I thought about arguing with him, or trying to push myself out of his steely arms, but I was a little scared of upsetting him even more than he already was at the moment. His eyes were still dark and cold, his mouth was set in a hard, grim line, and both of us were covered in blood. "What about Charlie? And Heather? Did she make it back okay?"

"Sam will take care of the horse, and the girl is fine." He snapped. He was moving at warp vampire speed, which made me wonder again about how time seemed to slow down and shift sometimes. Within minutes he had sped past the barns, through the gardens, and back into the castle. He did not stop until he reached the tower door. Then he set me down, gently, opened the door, and locked it behind us.

Without a word, he took me by the wrist and dragged me toward the bathroom. "Take off your clothes." He barked.

My fear was overcome with annoyance. I crossed my arms over my chest. "No. I don't take orders from you."

He stalked closer to me, dangerously.   His voice was very low and deceptively soft.  "You stink of that other vampire. I can not stand his scent on you. You can disrobe yourself, or I will tear the clothes off you, you choose."