The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires

'What do I do now?' I yelled to the boy.

'Simply go through them to the center.'

'Simple, my ass,' I grumbled to myself, desperately trying to keep my feet pointed toward the horrors in front of me. 'There's nothing simple about this. I doubt if the word exists around here.'

I took another step forward. The nearest Hashmallim seemed to swell up, looming over me, drenching me in fear, loathing, terror, and a hundred other emotions that had me seriously wishing for death.

'I may have neglected to mention that only the pure of being can pass by the Hashmallim,' the boy called to me, his voice thin and reedy on the increasing wind. 'Those who are not pure…'

'Sweet sanity, he couldn't have mentioned that earlier?' I took a deep breath, my body racked with trembling so great that my teeth chattered as I yelled back, 'What happens to them?'

'They do not leave.'

A thousand and one sins flashed before my eyes, things I'd done in my life of which I was not proud, starting with a favorite toy I refused to share with a childhood friend, and ending with the loss of Theo's soul. Was I now being called to account for them? The thought of remaining in that place for eternity was almost enough to bring me to my knees, but just as I was convinced I couldn't do it, that I couldn't pass by the three Hashmallim, an image of Theo came to my mind. Theo laughing at a silly joke, Theo's face tight with passion as he found his release, Theo sleepy and adorable and so endearing it made tears prick behind my eyes. If I failed, I'd never see him again.

Theo loved me. I knew he did; I felt it in the soft touches of his mind against mine. And what was more, at that moment I knew with the certainty that I knew the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit was 5 x 10¹⁹ electron volts that I loved Theo with every molecule in my body. Surely I couldn't love someone so deeply, so completely, so absolutely without having some redeeming qualities?

I lifted my chin and stiffened my back, holding my gaze firm on the nearest Hashmallim as I took the hardest step forward I'd ever taken. 'I am not a bad person. I have done some things in my life that I regret, but I am not evil. I don't abuse animals or children. I don't steal, try not to lie, and only kill really nasty bugs that are attempting to sting me. In a world divided into shades of good and bad, I am a good.'

The Hashmallim didn't move as I forced my legs to move, closing my eyes as I brushed up against the edge of one of them. I fought to hold onto the knowledge that I was myself, a person with flaws and errors in judgment, but fundamentally good at heart.

The ground slipped out from under my feet, and I felt myself falling. I opened my eyes to stare unbelievingly at the grassy lawn of the Petitioner's Park as it zoomed up to meet me. The stone benches, the people standing around watching, Theo crouching on the ground over an inert body—they all rushed up to me until I realized I was actually plummeting down to the earth.

'Aieeeeeeeee,' I screamed, my arms and legs flailing wildly.

Theo leaped back from the body on the ground as it disappeared, looking up toward me. I had a moment to see stark astonishment on his face.

'Catch me!' I yelled.

He leaped forward, his arms out.

I hit the ground a foot away from him, my fall somewhat broken by the soft lawn. It wasn't so soft that it cushioned me entirely, though. I lay facedown, spitting out bits of lawn, my head spinning, my chest aching, all the air having been slammed out of my lungs.

'Portia! Salus invenitur! Tell me you're all right!'

I lifted my head to glare at him, spitting out another mouthful of grass. 'Exactly what part of 'catch me' wasn't clear to you?'

'Woman, you will be the death of me yet,' he said, pulling me up to an embrace that would have broken the ribs of a lesser woman.

'I'm going to be the death of you?' I looked pointedly at the Portia-shaped faint indentation made on the lawn.

'I'm sorry,' he said, his lips twitching as he hugged me again. I thought I'd lost you.

I'm not so easy to do in, I said, kissing him back when his lips found mine. Ow.

How badly are you hurt?

I doubt it's anything major. I wouldn't want to ravish you on the spot if it was, would I?

He chuckled in my mind. The desire is mutual, you know. What happened to you?

I ran into a couple Hashmallim.

You what?

'It would appear you have passed the fifth trial,' Disin said as Theo helped me to my feet.

I brushed off bits of grass and dirt, straightening up slowly. Other than an ache in my chest and knees where I'd struck the ground, I seemed to be relatively unharmed, which was amazing considering the fall I'd taken. 'So I gather.'

It was small of me, I know, but I found satisfaction in the fact that Disin looked nonplussed.

'This result is not what we anticipated,' she continued. 'We will discuss the ramifications.'

The three mare leaned together. Around us, the crowd was oddly hushed, the expressions on most of the faces present making it clear that few people had expected me to pass the fifth trial. I took satisfaction in their surprise, as well.

'What did the Hashmallim do to you?' Theo asked, brushing a strand of grass from my hair.

'Other than almost scaring the pee right out of me? Nothing. Oh, there was the fact that they returned me to the Court a good forty feet above the ground, but that point pales in relation to the fact that I didn't die from the drop. Why wasn't I more seriously injured? I'm not immortal yet, am I?'

'Not in so many words. You bear the gift of a virtue, though, so that makes you more or less an immortal candidate. You have a bit more stamina than you had before.'

'I'm not going to bicker about that,' I said, pressing carefully on my ribs. Already the pain was diminishing.

'We have come to a decision,' Disin said, gesturing toward me.

I took Theo's hand, my fingers twining through his.

'Child, come forward.' Irina, the white-haired mare, nodded at me.

Disin had her mouth open, as if she was about to speak, but she snapped her teeth closed at Irina's words.

Theo and I walked to the old woman.

'You are too tall. Sit.' She waved a hand gnarled by arthritis toward the grass at her feet.

We knelt before her. She took Theo's face in both her hands, peering intently into his eyes. I felt a jolt of surprise in him at her examination.

What is it? I asked.

Before he could answer, Irina nodded at Theo and released his face, only to take my chin in a surprisingly strong grip. She tilted my head back so she could look deep into my eyes.

The impact of her gaze on mine shook me to my toenails. If was as if she was seeing everything I was, stripping away all the layers of societal mores and pretenses, of protective layers, exposing my true core to her faded eyes.

'Child, you are lost,' she said, still examining me. I felt like a squirming beetle pinned to a board. 'Your path is hidden. You have much to do to find it, but I believe you will. You will be released to do just that.'

Irina released my chin, using both hands on her cane to push herself to her feet. I wobbled forward for a moment, almost dizzy with the relief of having the soul-stripping ended. Theo grabbed my arm, and pulled me up to my feet.

The other two mare stood as well.

'It is decided that the mortal known as Portia Harding will be released,' Disin said in a loud voice, her eyes cold as she turned to me. 'The Hashmallim have deemed your being pure, thus you will not be held. Your behavior in this place, however, is beyond tolerance. You are hereby banned from the Court of Divine Blood.'