Kiss The Dead

“But then, Jean-Claude did demand it, and we lost hope.”

“So, you decided to try to kill him,” I said.

“No,” Weiskopf said, and he looked serious, and shocked. “No, we never advocated violence. On my honor, and the honor of my master, we never encouraged anyone to do violence to anyone. We were most aggrieved to see the dead police officers on the news.”

“You chose vampires that looked like children, or the elderly,” I said. “You meant to appeal to the media.”

“We suggested that we show the media that vampires are not all beautiful and sexy like your vampires. We wanted to show that vampires are truly people in many shapes and sizes, so yes, we chose a group, but we never meant for them to be used in such a vile way.”

“Your master, Benjamin, was their master; he had control of them while they did this vile shit.”

“No, my master is not theirs. We have purposefully not tried to control any other vampires except through speech and the persuasion that any normal human could use.”

“Bullshit,” I said.

He let me see that flash of anger again. “I have given you my word of honor.”

“He’s a master vampire, and they didn’t belong to any other master; it means that a powerful enough vampire exerts more control over them than any human ever will.”

“Only if the master wills it so, and my Benjamin has been most careful for centuries to control no one but himself.”

“Vampires are all about the food chain, the hierarchy; everyone owes allegiance to someone. Your master didn’t just spring into being, he came from a bloodline of some vampire, so he owes allegiance to that line, and whoever created him.”

“His master was killed by one of the long-ago vampire hunters, the predecessor of you, the Executioner. We were told that if the master of our bloodline died, then we would die with him, but we woke the next night. It had been a lie to keep us from attacking the head of our order.”

“I only know one line that had its head wiped out, and only two vampires that survived it.”

“Your Wicked and Truth, yes, they survived as my master survived, but our bloodline sprang into being and fled into the wilderness. He did not want to be part of the hierarchy of blood and depravity, but of course, by being a master and acquiring followers he began to value the growing power over his own good intentions, and they were good intentions once. He meant us to live as holy a life as the cursed could.”

He was talking of some unknown bloodline that had basically tried to run a monastery in some isolated area. “A vampire monastery?” I made it a question, but couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice entirely.

“Exactly; as much as the head of my master’s bloodline could make it. He was devout, so his very faith made holy objects work around him; it was most distressing to all of us.”

I fought not to show surprise, because he was basically saying the vampire had not lost his faith, and his very faith had made holy objects flare around him. I tried to wrap my head around the idea of a vampire that made holy objects work against him, due to his own faith. It was just too weird.

“You may think what you will, Anita Blake, but I am telling the truth.”

“Were you there, or is this just what Benjamin tells you?” I asked.

Weiskopf looked at me, very serious eye contact now. “You know as well as I do how complete the memories can be between master and servant. I know the truth, whether this body was present for the events, or the other body was alone for the making of certain memories. We were there. We saw the truth.”

I didn’t like the way he kept saying we; it was creeping me out. Was that what would have happened to Jean-Claude and me if we weren’t so very careful about all the psychic connections between us? I thought about the months of learning curve when Richard, Jean-Claude, and I had all intruded on each other emotionally, sensorily, and in dreams. If we hadn’t done anything to fight that… I remembered moments when I hadn’t been sure whose body I was in, and who was seeing what. Yeah, if we hadn’t set up rules of psychic etiquette, it could have made us into one mind with three bodies, or that was what Richard and I were afraid of. I wasn’t sure if it scared Jean-Claude or not, only that it scared the hell out of me. To the point that I’d run for the hills for six months at a time, and left them both alone physically, emotionally, and as tight as I could shield psychically.

I sat there and listened to Weiskopf say we, and knew he meant it. They were a we, no longer an I. My skin ran cold with the thought of it.

“What has frightened you?” Weiskopf asked.

Fuck, I wasn’t doing a very good poker face. Double fuck. I tried to rally and distract him. “So, some long-ago vampire hunter hunted the head of Benjamin’s line down and killed him. Killing the master never kills all the little vampires, Mr. Weiskopf. It never has, not a single time, when I’ve done my job.”

He studied me. “But they were small masters, the creator of a bloodline, the fountain of blood, the Fontaine de sangre; slaying that vampire is supposed to kill everyone descended from them. But it was a lie to keep us from rebelling against our creators. It was a lie, because we woke the next night. We, alone, woke.”

“Benjamin was strong enough to make his own heart beat, simple as that,” I said.

“No,” Weiskopf said, and he leaned toward me over the table. “No, it’s not that simple.”

“Then why didn’t the other vampires wake that next night? If it was all a lie, they should have all woken up,” I said.

“The vampire hunter killed many of them. He murdered them in their caskets, their caves.”

“Had they murdered people in the surrounding area?”

He nodded. “Our master had grown depraved with power. You cannot seek to control other vampires without it leading to corruption of your very mind and soul. So we sought to control no one but ourselves.”

“And how did that work for you?” I asked.

“We were drawn to make followers, but we resisted. We traveled, always, so that we did not come to the attention of any other master. We did not want to fight for a territory, and we didn’t want to be forced to bend our knee to any other vampire. We wanted only to be left alone.”

“You had followers. They killed two police officers. One of them was about to kill his pregnant ex-wife when we stopped him.”

“Killed him, you mean,” Weiskopf said.

I nodded. “Fine, yes, killed him, but if it was him or a pregnant woman who’d done nothing wrong besides leaving her abusive ex-husband, I’d make the same choice again.”

“As would we,” Weiskopf said. “Saving the woman and the unborn child was the right thing to do.”

I couldn’t help but frown at him. “Glad you see that.”

“Don’t be so surprised, Anita Blake. We believe in violence to save the innocent. We are not complete pacifists.”

“Good to know,” I said.

“We had followers in the way of any human leader, but we did not make them bow to us. We did not make them take an oath to us. We were very careful to use only words.”

I shook my head. “Weiskopf, a master vampire exerts control over lesser vampires just by being near them; it’s like some kind of preternatural pheromone.”

“You lie,” he said, and he sounded so sure.

“Don’t you understand, that’s how a Master of the City knows another master is in his territory. They sense it.”

“But your Jean-Claude did not sense us.”

I tried to think of a safe way to reply to that. “Which means your Benjamin is very old, and very powerful. Let’s say that he truly is trying not to exert control over other vampires. Let’s say he honestly believes that he is just talking to them, just telling them that they deserve to be free of any master.”

“That is all we want, for us, and for them. Freedom from eons of dictatorial rule, is that so awful a goal?”

“No,” I said, and I believed it. “No, Weiskopf, it’s a good ideal, it’s a great ideal.”

It was his turn to look surprised. “I did not expect you to agree.”

“I’m just full of surprises,” I said.

“I should have known you would be, Anita Blake.”

“Anita,” I said, “just Anita.”

“Being friendly will not fool me,” he said.