Chapter 103 – Humans

"MASTER!"

Aurora's voice exploded inside Matt's head.

FWOOSH!

Matt tipped his body backward and the black blade passed in front of his face.

SHAAK!

Several white strands came away, cut. Then he looked at Lucrecia.

"You're going to pay for that."

Lucrecia smiled as she completed the scythe's rotation. The scythe came back around and Matt gave ground.

FWOOSH!

The point went through the back of the armchair where he had been sitting.

CRACK!

The wood split, the cookies jumped off the table and Matt watched one fall to the floor.

'Wonderful.'

Lucrecia had just ruined even that.

"Master!" Aurora insisted. "Let me out!"

'No.'

"Why?!"

Matt dodged another cut. The black blade passed under his arm.

SHAAK!

Part of his shirt ended up open along one side.

Matt took two steps back.

'I can handle this.'

"That woman is trying to hurt you!"

'I don't need an ego weapon for this.'

Aurora went silent.

It lasted one second.

"That was offensive!"

Lucrecia attacked again. This time she advanced along with the scythe.

Matt had to move aside before the blade reached his neck.

TAK!

The point struck the floor and a black line opened across the tiles.

Matt looked at the damage, then at Lucrecia.

"Do you have any idea what it costs to repair this?"

"Quite a lot, presumably."

"Perfect, because you're paying for it."

Lucrecia raised the scythe and Matt ducked.

FWOOSH!

The blade passed over his head. Lucrecia spun the shaft between her hands and attacked from the other side.

Matt had to give ground again.

His problem was not Lucrecia's speed. He could keep up with her.

Nor her strength.

The problem was the scythe.

The long shaft let her hold distance, the blade covered too much space, and every time Matt tried to close in, Lucrecia could turn the same offensive movement into a defense.

She left no clean opening.

'What an annoying weapon.'

Aurora answered immediately.

"I could cut it!"

'No.'

"Master!"

"What are you doing?"

Matt brought his attention back to Lucrecia.

"What?"

Lucrecia had stopped the scythe in front of her.

"Why aren't you drawing either of your weapons?"

Matt looked at her.

"I don't need to."

"I heard you have two."

"Don't put that much faith in newspapers."

"So it's a lie?"

Matt didn't answer, but Lucrecia smiled. Matt looked toward the door. Then back at her.

"You do know I could call the guards?" Matt said, annoyed.

Lucrecia raised an eyebrow.

"What for?"

"To explain to them that I never accepted any duel and that a foreign princess walked into a room of the castle and started attacking me."

Lucrecia rested the scythe on one shoulder.

"Do it," she answered with a smile. "I can say you accepted."

Lucrecia let out a laugh and Matt pointed at the scythe.

"This could cool relations between our kingdoms quite a bit," Matt said, in an attempt to make her see reason.

"I don't care," Lucrecia said, letting out a sigh.

Matt blinked, unable to believe how insane Lucrecia was.

Lucrecia took hold of the weapon with both hands again.

"My mother will sort that out."

"Your solution to causing a diplomatic incident is leaving your mother the paperwork?"

"Exactly."

'Damn it, she's an idiot.'

Lucrecia threw herself at him again, but Matt moved.

FWOOSH!

The blade hit a table.

CRASH!

The furniture ended up in two pieces.

"You're paying for that one too!"

"Stop worrying about the furniture!"

Another attack.

Matt gave ground.

"Besides, I want to know how much you've changed."

The scythe came down.

Matt turned.

BAM!

The blade broke part of the floor.

"When we fought the first time, neither of us knew very much."

Matt remembered that fight.

It had been horrible: two young vampires being idiots, trying to understand powers they didn't control yet.

Neither of them had managed a clear victory, so it ended in a draw.

Lucrecia recovered the scythe.

"I want to see what would happen now."

Lucrecia attacked again and Matt tried to close in.

One step, then another, until he was inside the blade's reach.

Lucrecia moved the shaft.

THWACK!

Matt had to cover. The end of the scythe struck his forearm and forced him back.

'She defends well.'

That was the irritating part.

Lucrecia didn't let the distance disappear.

If Matt came in, she used the shaft.

If he backed off, she used the blade.

He could attack, but he'd have to accept taking a cut.

"By the way…"

Matt saw another attack coming.

"If our kingdoms ended up going to war…"

Matt dodged.

Lucrecia completed the spin.

"…don't you think Etquitran would go after your human family?"

Matt stopped and the scythe passed in front of him, not because he couldn't dodge it, but because the sentence had taken up too much of his head.

Lucrecia smiled.

"Your father, your mother..."

Matt looked at her.

"Your sister."

Matt's face lost every trace of everyday annoyance.

"Say that again."

Lucrecia didn't stop smiling. Matt advanced and the scythe came down.

This time he didn't give ground.

'I'm not human anymore.'

The thought came immediately.

Matt looked at the blade.

Noxx had done something similar against Iris.

Not trying to avoid everything.

Accepting damage, getting in, and hitting. He was a vampire, after all. His body could regenerate and that thing was not an ego weapon. A normal wound was going to close almost immediately.

'Fine.'

Lucrecia cut, but Matt advanced.

Lucrecia's eyes opened slightly.

SHAAK!

The blade went through Matt's chest and entered under the collarbone, coming out through his back.

The blood stained his shirt.

Lucrecia stopped the weapon.

"Matt?"

He was already inside her reach.

"Found you."

Matt raised his fist, but stopped when he heard a voice.

"A war doesn't sound so bad either…"

Matt stopped.

'What…?'

A woman's voice he didn't recognize, inside his head again. Lucrecia took the opening and spun the shaft.

SHAAK!

The scythe opened Matt's chest from side to side and the blood went out across the floor.

Matt gave ground.

"Master!" Aurora shouted, sounding nervous.

Aurora.

That one was Aurora.

Matt brought a hand to his chest, and the wound was already closing. The red line disappeared in a few seconds.

Lucrecia watched him regenerate.

"Impressive."

Matt wasn't listening to her.

'Who was that?'

Nothing.

"Aurora."

"Yes…?"

'Did you say something about a war?'

Aurora took a moment to answer.

When she did, she sounded nervous.

"What…?"

"Princess Matt!"

The door opened.

Four guards came in. Two with swords, two with spears. Their eyes went first to Matt. Then to the blood. Then to Lucrecia and the scythe.

"Princess, what's happening?"

Lucrecia raised the weapon, and Matt looked at the guards.

He could end this.

Say Lucrecia had attacked him.

Have her arrested.

Cause a diplomatic incident.

And then probably spend the next several hours explaining all of it to Elyra.

Matt imagined that conversation.

The queen smiling.

Questions, documents, ambassadors, reports…

And his family…

'No.'

He had enough problems already.

"Leave."

The four guards lowered their heads.

"Yes, Princess."

They all went out and the door closed.

CLACK!

Lucrecia waited barely a second.

"I knew you'd do that."

Matt looked at her.

"You're becoming unbearable."

"Becoming?"

Lucrecia attacked.

Matt raised a hand, and mana came out from his fingers.

VMMM!

Metal.

A simple shape.

A long shaft appeared between his hands.

Then a point.

A spear.

Matt caught the spear.

CLANG!

The scythe's blade struck against it. Lucrecia's eyes opened a little wider.

"Oh."

Matt pushed, and Lucrecia gave ground.

"What?"

"I didn't expect a Nivea to know how to do that."

Matt attacked.

FWOOSH!

Lucrecia moved the scythe and turned the point aside.

Matt tried again.

Neck.

Abdomen.

Leg.

Lucrecia blocked all three.

Now she was the one giving ground.

"With the ego weapons you have here, I thought you'd never bother learning this."

Matt spun the spear and struck with the other end.

THUD!

Lucrecia took the hit in the side and went back two steps.

"You have to be prepared."

Lucrecia smiled.

"For what?"

Matt drove in a thrust.

She turned the point away.

"For when you can't use your ego weapon?"

Matt didn't answer.

Lucrecia noticed.

"Ah."

Matt attacked again.

This time the point reached her arm.

PSHK!

A cut, small, but enough. Dark blood ran down her skin; Lucrecia looked at the wound, and smiled.

"Thank you."

Matt felt he had just made a mistake.

The blood stopped falling.

Instead of reaching the floor, it climbed up Lucrecia's arm and passed into her hand. Then it ran along the shaft of the scythe.

VMMM!

Red lines appeared on the black metal, Matt raised the spear, and Lucrecia attacked.

CLANG!

The impact almost tore the weapon out of his hands.

"Much better."

Matt answered.

FWOOSH!

The point went through Lucrecia's shoulder.

She didn't even pull away, she only moved the scythe.

SHAAK!

A cut crossed Matt's abdomen.

They both gave ground.

Matt's wound began disappearing almost immediately.

Lucrecia's did too, but more slowly.

They clashed again.

CLANG!

Matt shoved the scythe to one side and attacked.

Lucrecia spun.

The spear point opened part of her back.

She answered with the shaft.

BAM!

Matt took the hit in the face. His head snapped around and a little blood came out of his nose.

Lucrecia took a thrust in the thigh.

Matt lost part of his forearm to a cut from the scythe.

The hand dropped.

THUD!

Matt looked at the stump.

"Wonderful."

New flesh started growing.

Fingers.

Nails.

Matt took hold of the spear again.

Lucrecia let out a laugh.

"Your regeneration has improved, but… you know? I hated this part at first too."

Matt attacked.

"I've already heard your damn story."

Lucrecia blocked.

"All of it?"

"Yes."

"I doubt it."

"You told me you were a man."

CLANG!

"That they transformed you."

CLANG!

"That you killed your family."

CLANG!

"And I decided you were insane."

Lucrecia shoved the spear away.

"You're missing a part."

"I don't want to hear it."

Matt went for her side.

Lucrecia gave ground.

"When they transformed me, I tried to go back."

Matt slowed a little.

Only a little.

Lucrecia saw it.

"Go back to what?"

"To being human."

Matt attacked again.

"I don't believe you."

Lucrecia used the reinforced blade.

Matt blocked.

CLANG!

The mana spear cracked.

Matt reinforced the metal with more mana while Lucrecia smiled.

"Humans have a cure."

Matt lost the next exchange.

The scythe scraped his shoulder.

He didn't even look at the wound.

"That's a lie."

"No."

"If it existed, the queen would know."

Lucrecia let out a small laugh.

"And who said Elyra would want to tell you?"

Matt attacked harder.

Lucrecia blocked.

The floor under her shoes cracked.

"Careful."

"Talk."

Lucrecia raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I was boring you."

"Talk."

Matt attacked again.

Lucrecia gave ground.

"Do you really think the humans of our world don't know we exist?"

Matt stopped.

So did Lucrecia.

"What?"

"Think about it for a moment."

Matt held the spear.

Lucrecia started walking to one side.

He followed her with his eyes.

"Our kingdom needs men. So do others."

"I know."

"And how many do you think have been abducted? Some of them were probably fathers, or good-looking young men… or layabouts… there are even cases of brothers…"

"Get to the point."

Lucrecia jumped backward.

"What do you think humans do when they keep getting more and more disappearances for that long? People vanish for centuries and nobody investigates?"

Lucrecia raised a hand.

"Maybe at the beginning it worked."

Matt was no longer attacking.

"Some farmer, travelers… people nobody important would look for very hard."

Matt was listening to her.

Lucrecia lowered her hand.

"Now there are dozens of vampire societies."

Matt felt the information starting to fit together in a way he didn't like.

Dozens.

All of them needed men.

Some to reproduce.

Others for conversions.

And if they had been doing that for centuries…

Lucrecia went on:

"Do you honestly think that in all that time not one queen or noble abducted somebody important simply because she liked the look of him?"

Matt remembered Elyra.

How easily she had walked into his life.

How he had disappeared, and how his family had been left knowing nothing.

Lucrecia smiled.

Matt looked up.

"And you're saying they have a cure?"

"Something like that."

"How does it work?"

"I don't know."

Matt looked at her.

"How convenient."

"I was a newly converted princess when I tried to get hold of it."

Lucrecia shrugged.

"But I saw it with my own eyes."

"How?"

"My mother showed me."

That did manage to keep Matt still.

Lucrecia took the chance to come a little closer.

Matt raised the spear again.

"You're lying."

"Why?"

"Because I've never heard anything about this."

"Elyra isolated you."

Lucrecia pointed at the castle with the scythe.

"You lived here right after they changed you, you trained here, and you learned what your queen decided to teach you."

Matt hated that this was possible.

It didn't mean Lucrecia was right.

But it was possible.

And with Elyra, something being possible was already enough reason to distrust it.

"There's more."

Matt raised the spear.

"No."

Lucrecia smiled.

"What? You don't want to hear more?"

"No."

"Then make me stop."

Matt attacked.

Lucrecia answered.

CLANG!

The weapons clashed.

Matt pushed.

Lucrecia let him get closer.

"There's another thing we almost never talk about among vampires."

Matt didn't want to hear it.

He really didn't.

He had enough already.

But Lucrecia said it anyway.

"Human women can be converted too."

Matt missed the next movement.

The scythe passed close to his head.

"What did you say?"

Lucrecia smiled.

"You heard me."

"That's a lie."

"Why?"

"Because if it were possible…"

Matt didn't finish, because he didn't know what to argue, because he had never looked into it.

Lucrecia raised the scythe.

"Did you never wonder why almost nobody talks about that?"

Matt felt rage.

Not only at Lucrecia.

At Elyra.

At Iris.

At that whole damned place.

And at himself for listening.

That was enough.

'Aurora.'

Nothing.

Matt frowned.

'Aurora!'

There was no answer.

Lucrecia was still talking.

"The process is different, but…"

'AURORA.'

Matt extended his hand.

Nothing appeared.

No bow.

No spear.

Not one golden spark.

Matt looked at his palm.

"What…?"

Aurora always answered.

'Aurora.'

Nothing.

Matt closed his eyes for a moment and felt the connection.

It wasn't broken or damaged, but Aurora couldn't reach him.

There was another presence in the way.

The same voice from before spoke, much clearer this time.

"Don't call her yet."

Matt stopped listening to Lucrecia.

His hand was still extended.

'Who are you?'

The voice didn't answer that question; instead, it let out a small laugh.

"I want to hear a little more of what Lucrecia is saying."

Matt felt a fear he hadn't experienced in years.

Inside his own soul there was somebody else, again, and it had just stopped him from calling Aurora.