Deep Graves by Lucius Valiant

Author:Lucius Valiant [Valiant, Lucius]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Thirteen

Shadows chased each other over the stern-looking facade of the Clayfield plague hospital as I approached it. Like many of the buildings that have been erected during the 20th and 21st Centuries, Clayfield had been slapped together in haste in order to serve a need, without, it has to be said, much consideration given to aesthetics. The bare walls, the paneless windows, and the unadorned front door with its heavy lock were all testimony to this tragic fact.

Last night’s conversation with the Elysion twins had turned out rather constructive. I’d learned that Isadore was the bottleneck, and that his reluctance to offer me the blood had to do with his own qualms and sensibilities. I was furious of course that Isadore would deny me the gift of immortality, simply because he was struggling to consolidate his vampiric nature with his creative gift. I mean, how selfish does one vampire have the right to be?

At least I’d left there feeling confident that I’d succeeded in planting a seed in Isadore’s mind. A seed that I was fully committed to keep feeding and tending to, until it bore fruit.

But now to the matter at hand. I was here to collect Elizabeth after one of her many long and arduous shifts. And, as a secondary motive, I rather hoped that showing my face and smiling affably to a few of Elizabeth’s colleagues and patients might help to stamp out any of the unfortunate necromancy rumors about me that were in circulation.

This wasn’t the first time the rumor mill of St Bride’s and neighboring parishes had been abuzz with my name. This month it was necromancy, and at various points throughout my mortal life, it had been the implicit crime and devastating moral offense of homosexuality. I had never been careless enough to feed the rumor mill a shred of tangible evidence, but that was of very little consequence.

To this day, I still like to take a sort of aloof but direct approach to dealing with rumors. You cannot stop them from cropping up, but you can go out there and amass a proportionate amount of goodwill to balance them out when they inevitably do. Being a well-known figure around the neighborhood seems a formidable cloak of invisibility and protection.

Of course, the moral offence that could potentially warrant my execution in the 21st Century is vampirism. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another, know what I mean?

I watched as the locked door leading into the hospital creaked open, revealing a glimpse of bustling activity as a tall and rather bony plague nurse left the building. Framed by the door, I could see more nurses hurrying back and forth, their faces drawn with varying degrees of exhaustion. They were all wearing long gowns as well as hoods and gloves made of heavy fabric designed to cover as much of the body as possible. Not for the sake of modesty but to prevent the disease from making contact with the wearers’ skin.

As the departing plague nurse stepped out, I slipped through the door.

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