Cold Blooded

Chapter one

A case for humanity

Wallachia, 1455

The massive castle door creaked open, sending a wave of fresh air into the dust-coated foyer. Anna walked in, hand clutching her upper arm.

The room was grandiose, from the red carpet at her feet, to the grand staircase leading to the mezzanine above her, to the ornate chandelier hanging above her head. Anna took in the manor's extravagance, while remaining alert for any movements in the shadows. Her hand hovered over her whip, holstered at her side.

The door closed behind her on its own, as if eager to return to its natural state. Anna took one last look at the twilight-soaked plains outside before the door slammed shut with a resounding thud.

"Who goes there?" a voice boomed from up above. Anna wheeled around and looked to the upper floor. There, hands on the railing, stood a pale figure clad in black.

Anna swallowed her fear. "I am Anna," she said. "Anna Stoker. Am I speaking to Elsa Tepes?"

"You are indeed," the figure stated.

"In that case…" Moving slowly, Anna detached the strap holding her whip. Then, leaving it coiled up, she placed it on the floor in front of her.

"Oh?" said Elsa.

"I didn't bring this whip for you," Anna said confidently. "Only to get to you. And if there's nobody else standing between me and you, I no longer have need of it."

"Is that so?" Elsa said.

Then, without warning, she grabbed the handrail, leapt over it, and dropped down. She landed right in front of Anna, mere inches away. Her knees didn't even bend as she landed.

"Well, here you are," she hissed. "Face to face, so to speak. Is it everything you hoped for?"

She was tall, far taller than Anna had expected, and deathly pale. Her black cloak was accented with red streaks down the front, to give the impression of blood trickling down from the corners of her mouth, and her pointed teeth were bared.

Anna flinched, but didn't take a step backwards. "Quite," she said, not breaking eye contact with the towering woman.

Elsa seemed impressed. She began to walk around Anna's, inspecting her. She took note of her bandaged arm, her laden rucksack, and the silver-tipped daggers at her waist. "You're still armed," she noted, returning to Anna's front, though now standing at a more conversational distance.

"With defensive weapons," Anna said. "I'm not so foolish as to discard all of my protection."

"Yet still, your pretense of disarming yourself was a false one."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Would you have me strip naked before meeting with a vampire?"

Elsa eyed her up and down. "Well, I must say, I wouldn't be opposed," she said with a smirk.

Anna folded her arms, giving Elsa an unimpressed stare.

Elsa sniffed. "You're bleeding already," she said, gesturing at her arm. "Trying to make things easier for me?"

"Courtesy of your…doorman," Anna replied. "He was not as open to conversation as you are."

Elsa noted the blood spattered on the discarded whip. "Shame," she said. "He was a good doorman. That door hasn't opened in five years, I'll have you know."

"Yes, that's when the villagers told me the last traveler tried to reach your castle," Anna said. "Intending to kill you, I'm sure."

"I can't say for sure," Elsa said with a smile. "He wasn't too talkative once I ripped his throat out."

Anna said nothing.

"So, tell me, Anna Stoker. Why are you here, if not to kill me?" Elsa asked, beginning to feel genuine curiosity.

"That can wait," Anna said.

"Can it, now?" Elsa leaned her head forward, her grin widening until all of her teeth were showing. "You seem very optimistic about your own life expectancy. Surely the villagers also told you that tonight is my feeding night?"

"No, they didn't," Anna said resolutely. "I figured it out for myself, though. So I came prepared."

She unclipped a waterskin from her belt and handed it to Elsa. Elsa grabbed it, unsealed it, and took a sniff. "Now how did you come by this?" she asked, surprised.

"I stopped by the village surgeon on my way out of town. He had blood to spare." She gestured at her rucksack. "Luckily, your doorman didn't break any of them."

Elsa took a sip from the skin, them turned her head and spat it out. "Cold!" she hissed distastefully. "But that can be remedied, at least." She turned away and strode towards a door, presumably to the kitchen. "Wait here," she said.

Anna frowned. "Now wait just a minute!" she said indignantly. Elsa turned back to look at her. "I have just offered you a drink. Custom dictates that you should now offer me one on return."

She didn't even see Elsa move, but in an instant, Elsa was back in front of her, even closer than before. "Oh, you are bold indeed, miss Stoker," Elsa hissed angrily. "Need I remind you that you are trespassing, uninvited, in my house. If we were to operate on custom, it would be your skin, and not this leather one, that I would be draining. And there would be no need to heat it over a fire, although for you I might do it anyway!"

Anna leaned away and trembled, but she didn't take a step back. With a deep breath, she steadied herself and stared back against Elsa's glower.

"Maybe," she said. "But I don't think so."

Elsa's glare softened, first into a look of confusion, then one of mirth.

"Ha!" she said. "For someone who isn't trying to kill me, you have the confidence of those who do! Why, pray tell, do you think I won't kill you?"

"I'm sure you might," Anna said. "That's a risk I had to accept the moment I set foot on your castle grounds. But you're no savage beast - you're quite honorable, in fact."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"You noticed my wound, and smelled the blood coming from it, yet it hasn't sent you into a frenzy. When you spat that blood out, you turned and spat it on the floor, rather than in my face. And the villagers say you only feed once a week, when you need to. I've heard of vampires that go on raids every night, just for the sport of it." Anna folded her arms again. "So you must be a civilized vampire, one of propriety. That's why I have sought you out."

Elsa laughed, a deep booming sound that echoed off the walls of the chamber. The express made it sound as if a dozen vampires were all laughing at once, unable to believe the woman standing before them.

"Well, I suppose I can't very well kill you then, can I?" she said. "I wouldn't want to act uncivilized."

She walked towards the kitchen again, this time beckoning Anna to follow. "Come. I'll get you your drink, and maybe you can give me a reason to maintain my…propriety, you called it?" She laughed again, disappearing through the doorway.

Anna took a deep, shuddering breath. Her hands finally stopped shaking, and she followed Elsa.

Okay, step one complete. Not dead yet.

xxxxxxx

A shambling, decrepit body emerged from a side door. What had once been a young woman now approached them, a vacant look in its closed eyes and its clothes in tatters. It outstretched its arm.

"You're getting slow, Jessie," Elsa said, taking the unlabeled bottle from its hands. "You've kept our guest waiting, for shame."

The thrall showed no sign of reaction to the admonition.

"Return to your chambers," she said with a dismissive wave. The thrall ambled away, a guttural moan of unknown meaning escaping from its mouth.

Anna watched it go, feeling a wave of pity for whoever it had once been. When she turned back, Elsa had uncorked the bottle and was pouring her a glass.

"Merlot," she said, "aged for 147 years. I picked the grapes myself." She handed her the glass.

Anna took a sip. "Very good," she said, although her attention was wandering. Elsa's kitchen was full of strange, highly intriguing devices.

One such device was currently heating the blood she had brought. Elsa had emptied one of her skins into an oddly shaped flask, and now it was held above a sort of tube that emitted a yellow-blue flame.

"This is incredible," she said, examining the device closely. "How do you manage to produce such a consistent, unchanging flame?"

"Why, it must be black magic," Elsa said facetiously.

"And this," Anna continued, reaching for a pair of tongs next to the flame producer. "You ignited the flame using only this utensil." She clicked them together experimentally.

Elsa sighed. "I killed a flame demon and sealed it in those tongs," she said. "If you don't use them with the proper technique, they will explode and release it."

It sounded like she was being sarcastic, but Anna set down the tongs anyway.

Elsa removed the flask from the burner. "It should be warm enough now," she said, pouring it into another glass.

Anna looked at the flask more closely. The blood flowed down a spout into the wine glass, not spilling a drop. "How did you make such an elegant, complex design? Even the best glass blowers I know couldn't-"

"Do you ever shut up?" Elsa asked, irked. "I'm surprised you even made it through the front door without spending hours studying the engravings!"

"Sorry," Anna said. "It comes with my trade. I run an apothecary, you see. This equipment you have here…it's centuries ahead of anything I've ever seen."

"Then you humans have forgotten much, indeed." Elsa took a sip from her glass. She frowned at the glass thoughtfully.

"Well, how is it?" Anna asked.

"As I expected, it's grown stale already," she said. "But it's fresher than I thought it would be. No coagulation at all." She took another sip. "It's healthier than I anticipated, as well."

"It was from a young man," Anna said. "Got into a duel, lost his arm. I specifically searched for one who wasn't sick."

Elsa laughed. "You must've been searching for a long time," she said. She summoned another thrall and motioned for them to heat up the rest of the blood. "Every time I check in on you humans, you seem to have cooked up a new disease to die to." She drank from her glass again.

Anna sipped her wine. "In fact," she said cautiously, choosing her words carefully, "that is more or less why I am here."

"Oh?" Elsa said, refilling her glass. "Do I finally get the honor of learning your purpose here?"

Anna nodded. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"As I told you, I own an apothecary. My life's work is to obtain and distribute cures for diseases. At first, I worked for the church, but I left them when I realized they didn't give a damn about anyone's health, so long as they had their faith."

Elsa nodded. "An apt observation," she said.

"But before I left, I went on a mission with them, to consecrate a town that had been overrun by the dead."

Elsa gulped down the last of her drink. "Greshit, most likely," she said. "I believe that was the work of Godbrand. A sloppy fellow, that one – always leaving messes behind."

"Well, there was certainly a mess there," Anna said. "The streets ran red with blood, and there were thralls in every building. We took heavy casualties. A third of our own joined the dead by the end of that mission."

Elsa nodded, her face impassive, showing neither insult nor empathy.

"That was where my obsession with vampires began. For a healer like myself, vampirism seemed like…the ultimate disease. At least, that's what I thought at the time."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what do you think the ultimate disease is now?"

Anna looked at her. "Disease," she said. "Disease is the ultimate disease."

She expected Elsa to laugh, but she merely motioned Anna to continue.

"It's been a long time since Greshit," Anna said. "Since then, I've seen town after town suffering from cholera, malaria, scarlet fever, smallpox. Every one of them caused more death and pain than a hundred vampires could. This world is wreathed in a miasma of sickness, and a whole sea of holy water couldn't cure it."

Emotion began to creep into her voice, though Elsa didn't seem moved by it.

"Then I heard whispers, telling of secret medicines, technologies centuries ahead of mere mortals, in the hands of the secretive vampires. Technologies decried as witchcraft by the church and burned as soon as acquired. What a waste, I thought. So I realized that the one thing I had been taught to hate the most might be the best hope for this world."

Elsa drummed her fingers on her empty glass. "So," she said, glancing at the flask heating on the burner, "you'd like me to share my technologies with the world of man, out of the goodness of my heart."

"Certainly not," Anna said. "Sharing your medicines would be beneficial to both vampires and humans. Surely you can see the advantage of having healthy humans to feed on. Unspoiled crops, so to speak. You wouldn't have to worry about-"

"Have you ever tasted cow's blood?" Elsa interrupted.

"What?"

"The blood of a cow," Elsa repeated, running a finger along the rim of her empty glass. "Raw, uncooked, straight from its neck."

"Of course I haven't," Anna said, noticing that Elsa's voice had gotten sharper.

"It's disgusting," Elsa said. "It has a bitter, almost unpalatable aftertaste, as if you're drinking the grass it grazes on. It makes me gag. Sheep is even worse, and pig's blood – well, the less said about it, the better. But they do sustain me."

Elsa was now staring impatiently at the still-heating beaker of blood. Anna felt uneasy.

"When I first came to this land, I tried to subsist on animals alone," Elsa said. "Surely, losing one cow a week would be preferable to losing a person just as frequently, I thought. I wished to avoid human contact whenever possible, and I was willing to debase myself in such a manner to make it happen."

She wheeled around and looked at Anna, eyes now red. "And do you know what they did?" she thundered.

Anna nodded, but said nothing.

"They rejected my compromise. The farmers fed their cattle garlic, and had priests consecrate the pigs' water troughs, so that I would vomit up their blood. And when even that failed to stop me, they organized a mob and assaulted my castle." She began to pace back and forth. "Well, I met their mob…and, for the first time in months, I ate well."

She glared at Anna again. "So, you see, miss Stoker, I am not interested in your proposal. You presume that I would be interested in taking an action that would benefit both myself and humans. But I have no desire to help humanity, even if I stand to gain from it! I would rather drain a thousand diseased humans than ease the pain of even one of them!"

Finally running out of patience, she snatched the lukewarm beaker and drained its contents, pouring the blood directly into her mouth. When it was empty, she slammed it down so hard Anna thought it would break. "Even this, stale and cold as it is, is preferable to their animals. But you have not brought nearly enough, miss Stoker!"

Anna gripped the counter behind her, trembling. Elsa seemed to have grown three feet taller. But she hadn't taken a step forward. Anna drew some strength from this knowledge. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her hunting knife.

"Ha!" Elsa said in a mirthless laugh. "You see? You're just the same as the rest of them! Now that you see me as a threat-"

Anna ran the blade across her wrist.

Elsa faltered. "What?"

Anna raised her wrist high, then held it over a bowl. The blood began to drip off of her arm into the bowl. "I brought plenty," she said confidently.

"You're mad, girl!" Elsa said, conflicting emotions battling within her. "You'll bleed yourself to death!"

"I know how much blood a human can lose and still live, miss Tepes," Anna said. "I know because I've seen it. I've also seen the look of fear from a man that knows he's about to die." She continued on, now finding it much easier to keep her voice steady. "I've seen children, not yet realizing their wounds are fatal, trying to comfort their grieving mothers. I've seen doctors sink to their knees in despair, because they know they won't be to save their patient."

Elsa reached out towards her, then pulled herself back.

"I know how foolish it is to come to a vampire and ask for medicinal help," Anna continued. "I know that you kicking me out with nothing to show for my efforts would be one of the best-case scenarios. But I'm desperate. Humanity is desperate. People die every day from wounds that could easily be healed with proper treatment. The church does nothing but offer prayers while their congregation suffers and dies."

She was getting dizzy now. She grabbed the table with her other hand.

"You can't live without humans, miss Tepes," Anna said.

The bowl was overflowing.

"So you might as well…learn to live…with them…"

Her grip slipped.

"Anna!"

xxxxxxx

This was not her bed.

That was the first thing she realized when she came back into consciousness. It was too soft, for one thing, and the sheets were too plush, too luxurious.

She opened her eyes and saw red – red wallpaper, red sheets, red and black décor. She was in a gigantic bed, cradled in several layers of sheets and blankets. She still felt a little dizzy, but the room gradually came into focus.

"Eat."

Anna jumped. She hadn't even noticed Elsa, as her cloak blended in perfectly with the drapes. She was staring out the window, looking at seemingly nothing in particular.

"Elsa-"

"I said eat," she repeated, her tone more scolding than angry.

Anna looked to her right. On the end table, there was a large platter of food, ranging from fruits to meats and cheeses. She selected a pear and bit into it, finding it sweeter and juicier than any she had had before.

"Thank you-" she began.

"Idiot," Elsa interrupted.

"Sorry?"

"You're an idiot," Elsa said. "You break into my house, whet my appetite, bleed yourself dry, and then pass out. I'm surprised you didn't jump directly into my mouth."

"Oh," Anna said. She examined her arm and discovered that it had been neatly and expertly bandaged. The wound in her shoulder had been rebandaged, with just as much dexterity.

The fact that she could see the bandage clearly tipped her off to the fact that she had been stripped down to her underclothes.

Fighting off a wave of embarrassment that she knew full well was nonsensical, Anna shifted her mind back to the conversation. "I hadn't planned on that last part," she admitted.

"I would be even more concerned if you had," Elsa said, a hint of a wry smile forming at the corner of her mouth.

"I didn't want to leave you angry and hungry," Anna explained. "If you left for the village with barely any blood and a renewed anger at them…well, I'd be to blame for whatever happened next."

Elsa turned to look at her. "So you risked your own life and blood for strangers you had only just met?"

Anna looked her in the eyes. "That is the entire reason I came here," she said.

Elsa considered this. "I suppose you are correct," she said after a time. "It was not more foolish than what you had already done." She sounded more cheerful now than in their entire conversation beforehand.

She raised her arm to reply, but that action alone felt physically demanding. She instead opted to return to the platter. She briefly tried to cover herself with the sheets, but eventually abandoned her modesty – who did she think had undressed her to begin with?

Elsa watched her devour the food. "Yes, eat," she said. "Regain your strength. Your lessons start tomorrow, and I won't have you blacking out while I'm teaching you."

Anna wheeled around to look at Elsa again. "Teaching?" she said, spraying crumbs all over the bed. She swallowed her mouthful of food and started again. "You mean…"

"It would be entirely counterproductive to kill the one human with no desire to kill me," Elsa rationalized. "And if I send you away without teaching you anything, you'll just go knocking on some other vampire's door and die there. So it's really the only option I have."

Anna leaned forward as best she could. "Thank you so much, Elsa," she said. "You won't regret this."

Elsa turned away, but not before Anna saw the smile on her face. "The sun will be rising soon," she said, walking toward the door. "I'll expect you in the kitchen come sunset."

"I'm looking forward to it!" Anna said enthusiastically.

Elsa paused as she exited the room. She smiled enigmatically.

"The strangest thing is, so am I."