New Tales of the Vampires #1: Pandora by Anne Rice

Author:Anne Rice [Anne Rice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Horror, Vampires
Published: 2011-01-20T08:00:00+00:00

I could feel, positively feel, the little tumult in the heart of the distant concealed Roman. Again, there came that sense of something familiar about this creature. Of course I was no stranger to necromancers, astrologists or oracles. But this man had mentioned specific names - Antony, Lucius.

He was an astounder.

"Tell me, oh, mysterious one," I said. "How dose do my dreams come to what you've read in the old writing? And this blood drinker, the one that's roaming Antioch, is he a mortal man?"

Silence.

I strained to see the Roman more dearly but couldn't. He had in fact receded somewhat into the darkness. My nerves were on the breaking point. I wanted to kill Lucius; in fact, I had no choice.

The Roman said softly, "She knows nothing of this blood drinker in Antioch. Tell her what you know of him - for it may be he, this blood drinker, who is sending her the dreams."

I was confused. The woman's voice had been so clear in my head earlier, Et is I who summoned you.

This was causing confusion in the Roman; I could feel it like a little turbulence in the air.

"We've seen him," said the Priest. "Indeed, we watch, in order to collect these poor drained corpses before anyone finds them and blames the deed on us. He is burned, burned all over his body, blackened. He cannot be a man. He is an old god, burnt black as if in an inferno."

"Amon Ra," I said. "But why didn't he die? In the dreams, I die."

"Oh, it is a horror to behold," said the Priestess suddenly, as if she could contain herself no longer. "This thing cannot be human. Its bones show through its blackened skin. But it is weak and its victims are weak. It barely staggers, yet it can drain the blood from the poor maimed souls upon whom it feeds. It crawls away in the morning as if it hasn't the strength to walk."

The Priest seemed impatient.

"But he's alive," said the Priest. "Alive, god or demon or man, he lives. And each time he drinks blood from one of these weaklings, he grows a little stronger. And he is straight from the old legends, and you have dreamed of them. He wears his hair long in the old Egyptian style. He is in agony from his burns. He spits curses at the Temple."

"What kind of curses'?"

The Priestess interjected at once. "He seems to think that Queen Isis has betrayed him. He speaks in old Egyptian. We barely understand him. Our Roman friend here, our benefactor, has translated the words for us."

"Stop!" I demanded. "My head is reeling. Don't say anymore. The man over there has told the truth. I know nothing of this bloody burnt creature. I don't know why I have the dreams. l think a woman is sending the dreams to me. It may be the Queen I described to you, the Queen on the throne, in fetters, who weeps, I don't know why!"

"You have never seen this man?" asked the Priest.

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