Seven Vampires: A Judge Dee Mystery by Lavie Tidhar

Author:Lavie Tidhar [Tidhar, Lavie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-02T06:00:00+00:00

5.

Jonathan cowered.

Jonathan was good at cowering.

The brigands fell on the travellers from their hiding places.

They had steel swords and a lust for blood.

The vampires had sharp teeth and an equal lust for blood. Melissandra turned into a wolf. She tore one of the attackers’ throats out and growled.

Jonathan cowered further.

Even Brother Borja joined the fight.

‘Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do!’ he cried. Then he fell on one of the attackers and sank his teeth into the man’s neck and began to feed like a starved dog over a hot supper. Blood jutted over Borja’s face and arms. Jonathan had never discounted Borja as the possible murderer and now his suspicions rose further. Clearly the former Benedictine was as dangerous as the rest of them.

Two men with swords went for Jack. He snarled and whirled like a dancer. He was lightning-fast. Jonathan could not quite make out what happened next, only that suddenly both men were on the ground and they weren’t moving. Jack howled laughter at the moon. Jonathan crawled behind a rock and tried to make himself as small as possible.

He couldn’t see Judge Dee, and he couldn’t see the Lady Aisha.

‘Here’s one!’ he heard someone shout.

Jonathan looked up.

A giant man with scars on his face towered above him. A sword glinted in his hand. The sword came down on Jonathan.

Jonathan screamed.

A wolf jumped out of the shadows and bit the attacker’s hand off. The sword cluttered to the ground. The wolf turned back to Melissandra.

‘Hello, duckling,’ she said. ‘Oh, stop screaming.’

She turned to the attacker. The man stared at her in horror, his awful wound jutting blood. Melissandra smiled.

‘Yum, yum,’ she said.

She jumped on the man.

The man screamed.

Jonathan screamed.

Melissandra fed.

The battle was brutal and short. Only the moon shone down to illuminate the aftermath. Jonathan emerged cautiously from behind his rock. Corpses littered the ground.

The vampires seemed drunk. They staggered, their bellies so full they protruded. Jack burped. Melissandra farted. Borja stared into the distance with vacant eyes and licked his lips.

Jonathan tried to back away to his rock, but that only drew the three vampires’ attention.

Their eyes fell on him.

‘Hold on, hold on,’ Jonathan said desperately.

‘Yum, yum,’ Melissandra said.

The three vampires staggered drunkenly towards him.

It was Judge Dee who came to his rescue. He materialised out of the night and stood between Jonathan and the three vampires. He looked at them coldly.

‘The Lady Aisha is dead,’ he said.

The vampires blinked. Reason came back slowly.

‘Dead?’ Jack said. ‘Whatever for?’

‘Good,’ Melissandra said. ‘I never liked her.’

‘May God have mercy on her soul,’ Brother Borja said. His lips were stained with blood.

‘Come, Jonathan,’ the judge said. Jonathan followed his master. They came to a depression in the earth, a little way away from the site of the battle. The Lady Aisha lay on the ground there – what was left of her. She really was old, Jonathan realised. There was little left of the beautiful lady he remembered. The corpse was withered. It looked like a tiny mummy.

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