Duel Nature (27 page)

The center of my chest warmed suddenly. The
God Tear made its presence known. I glanced down then touched it.
Tanya spun at my motion.

“You back?” she asked softly.

I held one peanut butter covered hand out
flat and wobbled it back and forth. “Sorta,” I said.

“Doctor, please take Hosokawa-san for
treatment,” Senka said, not taking her eyes off me.

“Ah, hey Spikey, got anything to drink? I got
peanut butter mouth,” I asked Lydia, who walked over and handed me
the last item she held. A large size Monster energy drink.
Perfect.

Chapter 27

We left the gym, passing a crushed golf cart
that appeared to have been thrown into the steel door. Several
vampires remained in the larger gym space and they all stopped to
stare. Now that I was coming back to myself, I became aware of my
condition. Drying blood matted the back of my head, my clothes were
torn and blood-soaked, my hands and face covered in a greasy mix of
donut crumbs and peanut butter. Vampire noses sniffed my blood, but
the angel of death walking next to me helped them keep their
restraint.

Tanya led me to the locker room and pushed me
gently into the shower. Senka left at that point, promising to
check back later, but Nika showed up with clean sweats and some
more food.

I stripped, which was easy as my clothes
basically fell apart, and started to wash up. Tanya watched me
morosely, while Lydia and Nika tried to talk to her. The fact that
I was standing naked ten feet from them didn’t appear to bother
them, although they completely failed to look away. In fact, all
three sorta stared. Lydia even winked.

“Okay, so that was a disaster,” Lydia
said.

Tanya shrugged, still looking at me. “If the
intent was to train Chris on fighting older vampires, than it was a
complete success.”

“He looked in tough shape,” Nika noted,
motioning at me.

“He was moments from killing Hosokawa. His
dark half will evolve new skills almost exponentially,” Tanya said,
her voice flat.

“Sooo, that’s not all bad, right?” Lydia
asked, trying to understand Tanya’s mood.

“Lydia, his dark side is learning and growing
so fast that his other side might get left behind. If he reacts
with ultra-violence to every stimulus, where will he be? Plus, he
could have died in there,” she said with a sigh. “Sure, he’s
probably got a duel well handled, but he is also prone to being on
a hair trigger now. See, he’s been teaching his dark side to use
degrees of response. But the so-called ‘training’ with Hosokawa
wiped that control out. It taught him that measured responses will
get you killed. Respond with overwhelming force instantly.”

“Oh! Maybe he could work with Hosokawa to
re-learn it?” Lydia suggested.

“That’s unlikely to be a good idea, Lyd,”
Tanya said.

“So I stay away from nasty old vampires as
much as possible,” I said, turning off the shower and grabbing a
towel and the sweats.

“That is a start,” Tanya said, as we climbed
into another golf cart for a fast ride to our quarters. “You will
not need to be around for much of the opening events, but you do
need to be with me for a few of the formal announcements.”

“Why don’t I go over the cast of characters
with him. Introduce him to the Deck of Significants, work on
protocol and coven meeting survival,” Nika suggested. “I don’t need
to be there for most of those events either, in fact my presence
tends to make some uncomfortable.”

Even vampires get creeped out by a telepath
that can read their every thought. She never let it show, but Tanya
had told me that the beautiful blonde mind reader hated being
shunned for her talents.

We pulled up in front of our suite of rooms
and Lydia led the way inside.

“Deck of Significants?” I asked.

“Like a deck of playing cards, but more
similar to say baseball cards,” Lydia answered. “Photos and stats
on all the major players in our world.”

“I never heard of them before,” I
commented.

“There is an enormous amount you haven’t been
exposed to yet,” Tanya said. “That is actually a really good idea,
Nika. Thank you.”

“Notta problem. Give me a chance to hang with
my brother-in-law,” Nika said.

“Just don’t watch him eat…it’s disgusting!”
Lydia said, a grimace on her face.

“Oh great! A vampire with a weak stomach!” I
said.

“I’ll have Remy bring him more food,” Tanya
said.

“Way ahead of you T. He should be on his way
any moment,” Lydia said.

“Good! He doesn’t have much meat left on
him,” Tanya said, smiling sadly at me.

“Oh, I don’t know. I saw lots of ‘meat’ a
minute ago,” Lydia said, smirking.

Tanya snorted in amusement, kissed me
goodbye, then towed my spikey-haired nemesis out of the room,
leaving me with my blush.

Nika, ignoring the banter, headed to a set of
Tanya’s drawers in the corner of our room and pulled a cloth bag
from the top drawer, which I had thought was strictly the realm of
bras and undies. Of course, anytime I had seen it open, I had been
too distracted by the tiny wisps of silk, lace, cotton and nylon to
notice anything else.

Nika smiled at my thought.
“I would be worried if you
had
noticed anything else!”

Nika had trained me in shielding my mind from
her, which it turns out was fairly easy to do with my aura, but I
usually didn’t. Too many times in the past, all the way back to my
first meeting with vampires, her ability to ‘see’ my thoughts had
been beneficial.

“You’re in a very small minority that feels
comfortable enough to do that,” she said, having again glimpsed
inside my head.

“Lydia would say that I can’t form any
thoughts worth hiding,” I said with a shrug.

“Lydia loves you like the little brother she
lost,” Nika replied.

“Lost?”

“He died of Spanish Influenza when they were
both little. She’s decided that you’ve replaced him. Which means
that she is honor bound to poke and prod you.”

“Some of her comments are decidedly less than
sisterly,” I said, thinking of the quip she left on.

“Well, you fill the role of little brother,
but you’re not really related. It seems to have slipped your notice
Chris, but most unrelated females are going to have a hard time
ignoring your, eh , assets,” she said with a quick little
smile.

“I’ve spent my whole life being ignored by
the ladies, it’s hard to adjust is all,” I said.

“Most males would have gone hog wild with the
attention,” she suggested.

“Umm, most don’t have my background,” I said,
thinking of how the demons I hunted would treat a girlfriend or
date.

Nika froze, motionless, as she read that
train of thought. After a moment she locked her gaze to mine.
“Thank you for sharing your past with me,” she said.

I double checked to see if she was sincere or
sarcastic. Her even gaze and nod answered my question.

“Almost everyone around me goes on lockdown
or outright panic when I’m nearby. But not you. That’s rare. Then
you show me your past like just now. I appreciate the gift.”

I shuddered. “Most people wouldn’t think my
past was much of a gift.”

“I see it filtered through your eyes, so I
get the horror of what you have dealt with, but that horror is
limited by the knowledge that you already dealt with those
horrors…severely in every case,” she said. “It helps me understand
you better. Anything that helps me understand the ‘Young Queen’s
Chosen’ is valuable.”

I grimaced at that title. She nodded at both
my expression and underlying thought.

“Tanya feels the same way, maybe more so. Too
much pressure to be something that no one has even defined. The
young vampires all revere her and the old ones are either
threatened, insulted or amused by it.”

“Does she have a role to play in the
Conclave?” I asked.

“No, not really. It’s just the old vampires,
basically the ones over 600 years or so,” she answered. “That’s
what the cards are for.”

She opened the cardboard box, which was black
with red letters spelling ‘Significants’ in drippy looking letters.
Then she pointed at the door, “Remy is here.”

I bolted to the door and pulled it open to
find a small vampire pushing a waiter’s cart of food. He was not
shocked by my abrupt opening of the door, but his expression was
one of severe disapproval as he looked over my nutrient starved
body. Tsking to himself, he guided the cart into the room and
started setting out dish after dish of food. A storm of odors
assailed me, an overwhelming mix of flavors. Lasagna, chicken parm,
fried eggplant with mozzarella, two large steaks, four baked
potatoes covered in bacon bits and sour cream, half a banana cream
pie and a half gallon of raspberry sherbert. Remy reached down to
the carts almost empty second level and pulled a metal pitcher and
glass out.

“A Remy original protein
smoothy. You
will
drink it all?”

It wasn’t really a question, more of an order
from my chef.

“Yes sir,” I answered, already filling a
plate.

“Good boy. This is all left overs. I’ll start
on some fresh stuff,” he said, pushing the cart back out of the
room with a wave.

Nika’s expression was incredulous as she took
in the amount of food on the table and on my plate.

“You’re really going to
eat
all
of
that?”

“As a start,” I answered around a mouthful of
chicken parm. ”Actually, this should fill me up, but it won’t last
long.”

“How can you physically hold all that?” she
asked, curious.

“Dr. Singh thinks that my body rips it apart
far faster and more efficiently than a regular human would. All my
digestive acids and enzymes are hopped up. The jar of peanut
butter, donuts and protein bars are already gone. I feel like I
haven’t eaten in days,” I said, patting my flat stomach.

“And you’re like that every day…all the
time?”

“No, nothing like now. My average regular day
is somewhere around 7,000 – 8,000 calories…about like an Olympic
level swimmer in regular training. I actually get full and feel
sated. But now, after fighting like that…well, it’s tough to get
full.”

“You did look mighty skinny in the shower,”
she said.

“Tanya says she can see me regain weight at
times like this,” I said.

She tilted her head sideways, considering.
“You know – she’s right! Your face looks fuller, discounting the
mouth full of food, of course.”

I swallowed the eggplant I was chewing and
nodded. “Of course,” I agreed with a grin.

“Okay, time for school,” Nika announced,
fanning out the deck of cards. She plucked three right off the top,
placing them in a row face up.

“The Elders: Senka, Tzao, and Fedor,” she
announced. Fedor’s card had been crossed out with black magic
marker. She tapped the center of the black X. “Hence the need for a
Conclave.”

“The Patrons: there are currently eleven,”
she said, laying out a second row of cards underneath the three
Elder cards.

“From Turkey, Gultekin,” she pointed to the
photo of a dark haired male.

“Japan is represented by Chika” she said,
showing me a blank faced female. “Chika and Hosokawa will be the
only older vamps from Asia besides Tzao, by the way.”

“Hosokawa is just a bodyguard, I
thought.”

“No, he’s much more,” Nika said, handing me
Hosokawa’s card.

“The Duelist?” I read.

“Some of the older vampires are known by
additional terms…nicknames you might say. Arashi Hosokawa is the
foremost duelist in our world. He has never lost a fight, almost
all of which were death matches….till today.”

“Ah, he mostly kicked my ass, Nika,” I
said.

“He had a three-inch hole blasted through his
shoulder when I saw him headed out of the gym. I’ve never even
heard of him being wounded.”

“So how many fights has he had?” I asked.

“Thousands,” was her answer.

“Great, so now I’ve pissed off the vampire
reigning champion,” I said.

“His guard was down when I passed him. I
caught a glimpse of his thoughts,” she said.

“And he hates me,” I said with a groan.

“Actually, I think he might be in love…at
least in a bromance kinda way. He was so excited about finding
someone that could give him a fight he wasn’t even bothered by the
pain.”

“Oh,” was all I could muster.

“Now, next we have a bonded pair, Tavian and
Elisabeta, both of Romanian descent, from Europe, both almost nine
hundred years of age.”

“Wait, why are Hosokawa and….Chika the only
ones from Asia?”

“Because Tzao has told the rest of them to
stay home. Chika and Arashi will be their proxies and cast their
votes for them,” she said.

“Runs a tight ship that Tzao does, huh?” I
asked.

“You have not the faintest
idea. But yes, and a good point to remember is that she is also on
your side. And I do mean
your
side. She always sorta resented that Tanya was
born to Senka’s line, but she has proof that your vampire genetics
come from her line. That’s why she sent her foremost fighter to
prepare you.”

“So that’s good right?”

“Very.”

“So tell me about Tavian and Elisabeta?” I
asked.

“One of the oldest bonded pairs, over 900
years, they are of Vladislava’s line,” she answered.

“Vladislava?”

“A previous Elder. Fedor replaced her 400 odd
years ago.”

“How did she die?” I asked.

“Treachery, which is what usually kills most
older Darkkin; Elders and Patrons alike.”

“Makes you wonder why some don’t retreat from
the Coven and live the quiet life,” I commented.

“There are rumors of some that have done just
that, but they’re unsubstantiated. Back to Tavian and Elisabeta.
They were supporters of Fedor, which sounds counter-intuitive,
because he most likely engineered Vladislava’s demise. The key here
is that Vladislava was a cruel bitch of an Elder and they hated
her,” Nika said.