Chapter 3
“Who is she?” Matthew asked during one of their twilight training sessions.
Stick tossed him a pair of nunchucks, “I found her in an empty village in Greece a few decades ago. She’s like you, we had a deal. She ran errands for me and I trained her.”
The causal explanation to a large question was all Matthew got before Stick made the first move in the fight. Sick’s favorite method of teaching was jumping right into the action. If the weapon or technique was completely new, he might spend a night or two with basic instruction, but after that it was only sparring. The bruises and scrapes Matthew acquired were to be expected, there was no “taking it easy” in Stick’s vocabulary. The two would go head to head with the master offering occasional offering improvements and corrections to his student when he saw the need arise. It had been a frustrating teaching style to Matthew in his youth, but now with more than 20 years of this treatment he had gotten used to it.
“Did you feed from her too?” Matthew asked breathing hard as they were finishing up.
“No,” Stick replied as he put their weapons back into their box. “That wasn’t part of our deal.”
“Why was it part of mine?”
Matthew could hear the smile in Stick’s next words, “You live and learn kid, and I learned you might have some more uses.”
“What about...” Matthew struggled to think of the right way to phrase it. “Did you turn her? Did she ask for it?”
Stick paused, he didn’t usually indulge in answering questions, but it must have been something him is voice. “When the time was right, yes I did.”
That made Matthew freeze with fear. Did Stick intend to turn him too? His mind raced with a million questions and filled with dread.
Before he could continue, a feminine and now familiar voice interrupted him, “He sure is the inquisitive one, now isn’t he?”
Mopping his brow, Matthew turned to face Elektra. He expected to find her ready to spar with him again, but was caught off guard when he realized her voice was coming from a bench on the side of the room. How long had she been sitting there? Had she been watching them? Matthew couldn’t find her in rooms as well as other vampires. Over the years spent with Stick’s coven he had managed to train his senses to be sharper than most humans. Specifically, he had trained himself to find people and things to make up for his lack of sight. Humans were easy, they gave themselves away with everything they did, vampires were naturally more silent and took more effort to locate. Elektra though, she was invisible- when she wanted to be.
“Do you want a rematch?” He asked.
“Rematch? Darling no, it’s play time.” She stood from her bench and Matthew could hear the flow and drag of a long dress whisper as she moved towards him. “Get dressed, we’re going out.”
Matthew paused in surprise for a moment. That wasn’t where he had expected this encounter to go. “Going out?”
“Yes, to a party, now go get dressed. I left a few suitable items in your room.”
With that she turned and walked out of the practice room with loud, measured foot steps. Each click of her heels on the floor signaled to Matthew that the conversation was over with no debate to be had. Somewhat reluctant, he made his way back to his room to find one of his better sets of trousers and a fine linen dress shirt laid out. An accompanying vest and suit jacket hung from one of the knobs on his dresser. For the most part Matthew didn’t have many occasions to dress up, tweed breeches and woolen shirts served him fine on his daily errands for Stick. As he finished putting on the evening coat he realized he didn’t even own a tie, and the overwhelming feeling that he was about to be utterly out of his element sat like a stone in his stomach.
Elektra stood waiting for him in the foyer of their safe house. Based on his dress and her earlier indication they were going to a party, Matthew imagined Electra was dressed in a lavish evening gown. In his mind’s eye he could see her hair done up in ringlets and pulled high to be stacked on top of her head. She took his arm to walk out onto the street together, he felt the soft fur of a fine shawl and smooth evening gloves, and knew his suspicions were correct. They walked in silence for awhile, the growing winter chill in the blossoming night made the breath come out of Matthew’s mouth like a small cloud. The further downtown they went the more the image of the city lit up in Matthew’s mind. The bustle of men wrapped up in coats coming off factory shifts, the smells of women cooking lean winter dinners for their families, the clip-clop of horses as they drew carriages of the wealthy, and the quiet hiss of gas lamps turning on as darkness fell heavier on the city.
“So tell me Matthew, what do you know of this bridge they are building, the one that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn.” Elektra asked.
“It’s, um, been under construction for awhile,” He stuttered, caught off guard by the question.
“Yes, I read about it in a newspaper on my voyage over.” She carried on “A cable suspension bridge is all the rage for the brightest minds in Paris.”
“You’ve been to Paris?” Matthew asked, shocked. Other than his inaugural trip to America, Matthew had never left the island of Manhattan.
“Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athens, St Petersburg, there are many places I’ve been.” She answered with a playful tone.
“Why come to New York?”
Matthew could feel a slight falter in her walking pattern as he asked the question. Not nearly a pause, but enough to give away her moment of hesitation. “Stick has been a generous master, as I’m sure you know. He’s allowed me many freedoms, but now he’s called on my services, so here I am. And here we are.”
The announcement signaled a change in their direction as Elektra stopped and turned them onto the walkway up to a small house. It stood alone from other buildings with a wrought iron fence surrounding it. On the porch Elektra turned to look him over one more time and let out a small hiss of displeasure. She adjusted his collar and coat cuffs before pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. Matthew couldn’t help but feel like a prized show pony as she hummed, finally pleased after finished with him. Satisfied, Elektra reached out and tapped a series of short knocks on the heavy door. The door swung open and a man whose footsteps nearly echoed in Matthew’s ear, a human he immediately identified, showed them inside. The door man lead them to a parlor dimly lit by gaslight. A mix of other humans and vampires mingled amongst plush couches and chairs with the curtains pulled tight to keep any remaining sun light out.
“Elektra darling!” a female vampire cried as they entered the room. She hurried over and hugged Elektra.
The two women were swept up into a conversation, swapping gossip and stories to tell since they had seen eachother last. Matthew stayed at her side as Elektra drifted about the room talking to various other vampires. He recognized the voice or smell of most of them, they were associates he had met during his dealings on behalf of Stick. The others, the humans in the room, did not speak. They sat nervously fidgeting and restless and Matthew couldn’t help but think they seems so young, younger than himself by a decade or more for most of them. They were nearly children and he could practically smell the anxiety coming off them.
Matthew knew the source of their anxiety and of course they had the right to be worried. He had never been to a party like this, but he had heard of them all too often. It was a dinner party of sorts. More established vampires would host them for those in high vampire society. They acted as a sort of status symbol. They had pleasantries in the parlor, played games after dinner, and of course a feast was served. All those young, warm bodies collected and dolled up by the host were served like a fine wine with the main course.
Just as Matthew was beginning to contemplate how or even if he could help his fellow human dinner guests, another human servant came in to announce dinner was ready. Everyone made their way to the dining room, but the table was set for only half of the guests in attendance. All of the vampires took a seat, leaving the humans standing in a ring behind the seated vampires. Matthew was the one exception as Elektra had dragged him into the seat beside her.
The hostess, the woman who had hugged Elektra when they first arrived, gestured to the humans from her seat at the head of the table, “Pets, if you would.”
At that, each human outstretched their arm to a respective glass and made a deep slash to their wrist. The blood flowed and dropped into the waiting crystal, filling it like rich red wine.
“Elektra,” The hostess spoke again after the first course of food had come out, “Darling, forgive me, would you prefer the one you brought with you?”
Matthew shifted in his seat to look at Elektra. If he had to guess, he would say her face might have had a look of amusement on it.
“Oh no, he’s not mine” she finally responded, after taking a sip from her full glass. “He’s Stick’s boy. I just brought him out for the night.”
The hostess gasped redirecting her words at Matthew, “I knew I recognized you from somewhere! So tell me, how is the old man doing these days?”
“He’s doing well, still a cranky old man,” Matthew answered politely as the next course, a steak bloody rare, was set down before him.
The rest of the party passed on just like that, small talk about small things as the vampires sipped their glasses. When they ran empty, their designated human would slit their wrist again with shaking hands.
…
The night breeze was a cool relief on Matthew’s face when he was finally free of that hellish house. He knew exactly why Stick never had parties like that. They were obscene and cruel. But as Elektra hung onto his arm on their way back to the safe house, she seemed content, placid even. Matthew began to rethink his thoughts towards her. Stick may be a hardass and a vampire but at least he wasn’t interested in displays like that. He wasn’t apologetic about killing humans to feed, but he did it humanly, rather than as the spectacle of the evening. In the past, Matthew had been able to stomach the thought of events like that but now that he had attended one it left him… unnerved.
“You seem tense,” Electra interjected, cutting off his train of thought.
“I’m fine,” He answered kurtly.
“You didn’t like the party?” She asked with mock sweetness.
“You seemed to be enjoying it enough for the both of us.”
She made a noncommittal hum, “You live your life serving a vampire and living among us yet you can’t stomach sitting at a table with us.”
“Working for Stick is a job… a duty. I’m still a human when I work for him, parties like that seem…”
“Monstrous?” she offered. “To tell you the truth, that’s not my cup of tea either.”
They walked in silence for a few blocks before something caused Elektra to perk up. She abruptly changed directions and jerked him down a side street. He guessed it was less of a street and more of a narrow alley based on the way the sound bounced off the walls of the buildings. Elektra untangled her arm from Matthew’s and let her shawl fall to the ground. When she sprang from the ground her movements were noiseless, but as she landed on a lip in the stone work of one of the alley walls more than 10 feet off the ground she purposefully landed hard, making plenty of noise.
“Let’s have some fun. Can you follow me?” She asked.
Matthew nodded but before he could raise any protests or ask any questions she was off leaping to another perch. He shrugged off his jacket and unbuttoned the vest he was wearing. It had been awhile since he had had any need to scale any buildings like this or run along roof tops. His movements were clumsy and awkward at first as he struggled to keep up. Once they made it to the flatter ground of the rooftops Matthew settled into an easy pattern of listening for Elektra, finding her, and moving to catch up. They had traveled a few blocks before she finally came to a stop overlooking the edge of a building.
“Why... why did we stop?” Matthew asked, panting slightly at the impromptu exercise.
“Down below is a man named Marcus” Elektra began, looking down the few stories to the city street. “he was one of our fellow party guests. He likes to take young and pretty human girls from their homes and sell them to anyone willing to pay his price.”
Matthew startled at that information, “How do you know that?”
“He was more than happy to tell me at the party,” Elektra answered. “And I think a man like that shouldn’t be allowed to go on doing those sorts of things.”
The words she was speaking were enough to make his blood boil and the dark, sultry tone of her voice and the actions it was suggesting were enough to arouse his own desire for action.
“And what, do you suggest we do about it?”
She paused for a moment before stating, “There’s a stairway to the alley on the next building over. Meet me down there, don’t make your move until I give you the signal.”
With that she leapt from the building and Matthew could barely hear her land, quiet as a cat, five stories below. He kept his hearing trained to Elektra’s quite movements below as he stalked towards Marcus, but he also began to navigate to the alley floor. He perched himself on the ledge of a second story window and waited as he could now hear two sets of footsteps walking towards the alley. Just like before every fight and sparring match Matthew had in Stick’s arena, every muscle in his body was coiled tight like a spring. It was fight or flight and he knew he had to fight. The idle chatter of the vampire pair came to a crashing halt as the sound of the heel of Elektra’s boot colliding with something fleshy and boney, most likely a cheek bone, popped through the night air. All the energy in Matthew’s body liquidated and came full force as he sprang into the beginning fight. It was short lived though, no sooner than he had found his rhythm in the swigs and jabs of Marcus’ punches that Elektra swept Marcus’ feet out from under him. Matthew jumped on top of him, pinning the vampire to the ground with his body weight.
“The girls,” Matthew questioned. “Where do you keep them.”
“I won’t,” Marcus gasped “I can’t tell you.”
The response was met with a few more blows to the face, Matthew’s knuckles landing hard. He felt the pop of cartilage as Marcus’ nose broke.
“Again, where are the girls?” Elektra asked this time.
“I can’t tell you” Marcus gasped and subsequently flinched as Matthew raised his fist again. “Wait! Wait, I can’t tell you because I don’t know. I sold them, all of the girls I had, two weeks ago.”
“Then I guess we can just tie you up on a roof and leave you for the sunrise.” Elektra taunted.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Matthew agreed.
“I can tell you who I sold them to! And I have a guess where they’re being kept too.” Marcus took a moment to spit out a mouthful of blood. “It was a man in downtown, called himself James, he was a human. He had the girls delivered to a warehouse on 19th street. They might still be there.”
“That’s a good start, Matthew if you would?”
She didn’t need to ask twice. Matthew grabbed Marcus by his shirt collar and lifted his head and chest up off the pavement just enough to slam him back down. He did it two more times before Marcus’ eyes had snapped shut and his body went limp under Matthew’s.
“If he doesn’t wake before the sun comes up I wouldn’t feel too badly about it,” Elektra said as Matthew got to his feet.
Matthew only grinned in response, “Let’s go get those girls.”
“I’ll lead the way,” Elektra laughed as she took off, back to the roof tops.