Embracing the Shadows (28 page)

I didn't want to dwell on the problems
anymore, just the solution. I figured Viggo was going to want
something specific at the back end of this, and I'd have to play
dirty to get what I wanted. "Sir, I think you should rest now."

"Rest? Would you care to elaborate?"

"Yeah, I mean, uh, the Eidolon siesta, the
millennium nap. You know what I mean. You're long overdue." When he
frowned, I pushed. "Look, you fulfilled your oath. It's over. After
all those centuries of watching over my line as you promised, it's
done. You kept that promise and then some. Sir, you're world-weary,
I've noticed it for months. Maybe it's tough to accept after so
long, but you can stop now. You need to."

Viggo turned his head away toward the window.
I couldn't tell what was going on in his head. "I have just sired
you," he quietly said. "How can I leave you now? You are so new
into this dark world . . ." He then looked back to me with an
indignant glare and asked, "Have I not been fair and kind to you,
Leo? Have I not been generous? Why do you wish me away?"

I couldn't tell if he was genuinely offended,
or if he was trying to play me so there'd be no objection when he
kept on with his hemo-hoarding compulsion. Honestly, I wasn't
affected either way. "Wait a second, sir. This isn't about me
pushing you away. This is for your benefit. You said you'd rest
when your oath was fulfilled. Well, it's fulfilled. I'm the last of
my line."

"That does not mean my work is complete. You
are my scion. I would be remiss in my duty as a sire to leave you
to your own devices so soon. I watched over my other scions for
years."

I believed Viggo was sincere with that last
bit. "I appreciate your concern, I really do. It's just that I
don't want to . . ." I hesitated, thinking of turning it up a
notch. Sure, what the hell. "Dammit, don't you get it? I felt
guilty enough knowing I was the reason you stuck around so long.
Now you no longer have to, and you still linger out of a different
sense of obligation. All because of me - I did this to you."

"I am grateful for your selfless concern, but
. . . you still have much to learn."

I sat forward and said, "I know. I know I do.
And of course I don't want you gone, but I couldn't live with
myself if you stayed. How's that for selfless?" Viggo was about to
speak, but I pressed my case before he could. "It's not fair to
keep you here any longer, sir. You're tired. I see it. You deserve
to rest now. You've earned it. I've already learned a lot from you;
I can go to the other Deviants for anything else."

Viggo seemed to accept my logic. Well, most
of it. "And which one would you turn to, Leo? Neva - fine company,
no doubt - but she obviously cannot offer counsel. You and Roach
are on tenuous terms at best. I would not consider Mr.
O'Shaughnessy a fitting mentor, unless you choose to learn foul
jokes and various ways to relieve fools of their money. Clara does
have sporadic insights, but she also has the mind of a young girl.
Gothi Michael knows scant more than you do. Mr. Lucida would likely
refuse. And Mr. Merritt's time will be taken for the foreseeable
future."

"Why do I have the feeling you already have
someone else in mind?"

"Because you know me well enough," Viggo
answered simply. He sat straighter in his chair and moved on with
his own agenda. "You have made a compelling case, Leo. I was not
fully aware of the inner struggle you faced. And, truth be known,
you are correct; I long to slumber. However, I require some
assurances so that my sleep is not troubled . . ."

"Like a mentor?"

Viggo nodded. "That is one assurance, yes,
with provisions."

"I should tell you now, sir; this won't be
one-sided. You'll have to barter for your assurances." I didn't
plan to show my cards at that point, but I couldn't be a sneaky
prick and spring it on him later.

His thick eyebrows rose, and one corner of
his mouth curled upward - holy shit, a rare Viggo smile. "Ah, a
scion after my own dark heart," he said. "Very well, let us see how
you fare."

I agreed to have a mentor of Viggo's choice,
someone I could turn to with any problem or question. In return, I
wanted Traeg and Gwen turned over to my care. I also requested any
other minions of his that would age dramatically or die if he
released them.

No, I wasn't hoarding. I just wanted to save
who I could, and let them retain their normal lifestyles. In Gwen's
case - and any others who hadn't been minions too long - I planned
to stop feeding blood. Once they were clean, I'd give them the
choice of being my minion. I was not going to force or coerce
anyone into being my servant. And no, I didn't tell Viggo any of
that.

He agreed to my request, but amended that his
oldest minions could choose between me and Aldo (if he wanted
them). Besides Rune, I had no idea how many other old minions he
had. It was a responsibility I really didn't want. I didn't know
what those old minions did for Viggo, and I didn't care. If my plan
worked out, I was gonna have enough on my plate to deal with. I
privately hoped they all chose Aldo.

We negotiated on a few other little things -
including me getting roped into checking up on his stupid fish -
until Viggo got to his last subject of concern. "There is one more
issue, perhaps the most important one," he said. "You must look
after Clara for me."

There it was. I normally would've been happy
to agree, no deals or barters necessary. I liked the girl. She was
a little lost, a little broken, but she had a good heart. It was
obvious Viggo treasured Clara like a real father would his own
daughter. And, in a truly shitty move, I was going to use that
emotional bond against him. "Clara, hmm; that could turn out to be
one hell of a chore . . ." I drew it out like I hadn't already
planned that exact scenario. "Alright, fine," I finally agreed,
"I'll look after her . . ."

"Ah, good; now we can -"

"If," I interjected.

"If what?" he asked cautiously. "I thought
you simply agreed."

"Not so easy, sir - you wanted to see how
well I barter. I have to pay you back for tricking me into that
whole extinct fish thing. Now, I'll look after Clara . . . if you
give me all of your hoarded numen."

I'd never felt like a bigger piece of shit in
my life. I just hoped it was worth it.

CELLS

"You do not know what you are asking for,"
Viggo said in a rumbling, serious tone.

"I think I have a pretty good idea, sir."

A frown crossed his cracked-earth face. "If
you truly did, then you would know that I cannot agree to your
terms in their entirety. And to use your sister as a pawn . . ." He
shook his head in disapproval.

"Sir, we've both got our own agendas. I just
had to play the game for mine. You should've known that I'll always
look after Clara - you didn't have to ask. Either you doubted my
character, or I'm a better actor than I thought. It doesn't matter
now; I still respect you, I still look up to you, and I'll miss you
while you're gone. But you have some numen stored away somewhere,
and they'll do me a lot more good than they would a slumbering
Eidolon. So, tell me why you can't agree to the 'terms in their
entirety'."

Viggo stood, held an arm out, and said, "Let
me show you why."

Void-walking into a place of darkness and
stale air, Viggo told me, "There is no other way to this location
than by the means we have just taken." I could tell by the sounds
that he opened a nearby door and stepped into an adjoining space. A
bare bulb clicked on in an overhead socket. Blinking the spots out
of my eyes, I saw that I stood in a stone hallway. In front of me
was the open door that led to a small room. Behind me, the hallway
went for another ten paces and stopped where the bedrock had
collapsed.

A large stone sarcophagus dominated the
small, roughly square room. Carved onto the heavy lid were letters
and runes. Near it on the floor was a box of wooden stakes. To my
left was a matching wrought iron set of desk and chair, and a car
battery on the floor next to them. Attached to the battery was a
pair of wires that ran up the wall and across the ceiling, powering
the bulb. The wires continued to my right, into another chiseled
hallway.

Viggo gestured for me to take a better look
down that lit hall. I stepped into the room and went to the entry
of it. I stood there for a minute, looking at the hallway I dreamt
of once. Into the bedrock was cut a six-foot wide passage that
stretched a long way back. It looked bigger because of the high,
uneven ceiling. Along both sides were rough entrances into small
rooms, dozens of them, stretching away into the distance. Each
entry had an iron gate for a door, with a simple latch for
each.

"Holy shit," I blurted before I could stop
myself, "how many hemos have you got down here?"

"The number of numen stored here is not as
important as why some of them are here. Some were merely
irritants," Viggo explained with a shrug as he started down the
hall of gates. "Mr. Dean, for example, is in this room here." I
peered into the room; the hallway lights shone on a simple wooden
coffin with a manila folder lying on top of it. "I promised Mr.
Tomasino I would release him," he said with a twinge of regret. "I
will see to it tomorrow evening."

It was worse than I thought. Dozens of hemos
were staked and thrown in boxes down there. Their cheap tombs sat
in the dark cells of a lost underground tunnel. Some of those poor
bastards, like Dean the douche, were prisoners only because they
were pains in the ass. How much of a problem could Dean have been
for Viggo? Hell, I could kick his butt when I was human. And here
was a kicker: some of those hemos had been locked away a hell of a
lot longer than Dean. Viggo stole their lives for being irritating.
"Okay, so what about the others?" Part of me didn't want to
know.

"Many of them are the reason I cannot fully
agree to your request. Some have developed serious derangements." I
almost made a comment about the irony of him saying that. "Others,"
he continued, "have succumbed to the dark ardor; they have
degenerated into beasts in constant states of blood-lust. None of
them should be allowed to rise again, although it is not for me to
end their existences."

I wondered if Viggo ever listened to himself.
He'd already passed judgment, so why half-ass it? Then again, I got
why some of them were down there in the first place. "Does anyone
else know about all of this?" I asked. It'd be good to know who
knew what.

"Only to a vague degree," Viggo casually
answered. "I did state at Lady Le Meur's last Gathering that I was
the cause of disappearances within the collective over the years.
But as for all this, only Aldo and you have seen it. Clara, through
her insights, is aware of it. Aldo has offered in the past to do
away with those individuals who are unfit for society. For his
sake, I did not allow it; systematic elimination such as he
proposed leads down a cold, dark path. I presume you have no
intentions of placing any of these individuals into his stern
care?"

"No - hell, no," I quickly replied. "That
might make me greedy like him, but I don't care. Skala won't get
anything from me other than hospitality and a thin layer of
respect."

"Although he is one of my own scions, I
understand your perspective."

I wanted to ask about the Deviants who were
most likely locked away - Harlan, Wayne, Pedro, and Ragna at least
- but I figured we'd come across each one soon enough. I planned to
read the folders of each and every hemo down there, and make my
list of who I wanted.

Yeah, I know, that was pretty damn judgmental
on my part, too, but I couldn't take them all. By the sound of it,
there were some hemos better left down there. I couldn't fix 'em,
and I wouldn't kill 'em, so there really wasn't an option.
Sometimes having a conscience sucks.

NUTSHELL

Reading files and making my own notes took a
while, but I'd made my selections of hemos who wouldn't
automatically go ape-shit when I woke them. We were both sleepy by
the time we were done. Viggo slept in the sarcophagus. He decided
to get used to the padded interior since it was where he planned to
take his extended slumber. Good placement, too - no one would ever
find him down there.

I had no other options than to lay down on
the cold, hard floor for some shut-eye. Nothing new there; I'd had
to deal with the same type of accommodations a few times while on
military missions overseas. That didn't mean it didn't suck.
Surprisingly, though, I didn't have any sore muscles or numbness
when I woke up. It was one of the few perks of being a hemo.

Moving filled coffins and ourselves via the
void, Viggo and I stepped out into one of Traeg's warehouses. I
chose that location to temporarily store the chosen hemos because
there was room for them to be hidden, it was relatively safe, and I
couldn't think of another good spot. Viggo called Traeg to let him
know what we were doing and not to fuck with the cargo. Once the
coffins were stacked in a corner and covered with a tarp, we
void-walked back to the thunderdome.

Up in the lounge, Viggo commented on my
place. He said it was functional and had its uses, but he hadn't
planned for it to be a permanent residence. He called it drab, and
that the neighborhood was lean for proper feeding. I didn't want to
look a gift-horse in the mouth, but I had to agree.

"No scion of mine should be relegated to such
a locale," he stated. "Leo, I offer you better lodgings of your
choosing. Bear in mind that it should either be completely hidden,
or given a public purpose for the sake of camouflage. What would
you desire?"

"Public purpose . . . You mean like a
business or something?" When he nodded, I said, "Well hell, if
there was a house or apartment magically attached to a shooting
range, I'd be tickled pink."