The Cat Burglar - 2. Konstantin

Seven days later, they let me leave Doc’s newborn vamp ward, which they’d put in the basement of the Night Clan’s main house. How did Doc explain the reason to me so very succinctly again? Ah, yes. “Because sunlight causes insta-death to vampires, at least to the very young.” Something those book authors, storytellers, and moviemakers apparently got right. Of course, my overactive brain provided dozens of questions my stupid mouth instantly asked. “What about garlic? And silver, and holy water?” Another thought was that I never liked garlic, so if they got that right too it wouldn’t be a problem for me. But the sun? Gods, I would miss the sun. A vampire exists in eternal night. To belong to the Night Clan suddenly felt like a symbol to me.

But there was hope for soon-to-be sun-starved me. Doc said that once I reached the age of a few centuries, a brief exposure to the sun would give me only first or second-degree burns. The older a vampire becomes, the more resistant to UV rays they get. It’s rumored there are some who are older than a thousand years, as unfathomable as it seems. They are called day-walkers, because only a little sunscreen is necessary for them to be out and about during the day. As long as they avoid noon. I wasn’t sure if this prospect was meant to comfort or torture me. In the end, I think this ray of hope was the reason I didn’t pursue my second death at the earliest opportunity.

I got my own space, a room on the second floor with the ambiance of a generic no-tell motel, still locked from the outside, of course, all for my own good. Dusk and dawn - yes, yes, I stole that from the movie sue me - were marked by the rattle of black metal blinds. Deep fatigue befell me every time humanity drank their first coffee, or whatever beverage they preferred to feel awake in the morning. Two blood bags donated by my unknown sire were breakfast or dinner. Additionally, I had snacks, mugs of lukewarm blood, what they call body temperature here, kindly provided by the clan’s donor pool. It sounded atrocious at first, I wanted to hate it, but I found out I liked blood. I was almost always hungry in the beginning, even if I didn’t suffer the gnawing hunger that drove some younglings into a blood rage so they needed to be terminated by the local City Lord’s soldiers as soon their number became too high or if their sire was negligent. I learned a lot about vampires in those early days.

One morning, I sat on the bed sipping a mug of A positive, contemplating if I might have seriously pissed off at least one of the three fates, maybe Lachesis. If I’d be honest though, I inwardly whined about the no-sun thing. I mean, isn’t it ironic that my second birthday falls on the same day as my first? In fucking winter! I couldn’t even enjoy those rare, crispy, cold, sunny days anymore.

Then someone knocked on my from-the-outside-locked door, which I found hilarious.

It opened before I could say ‘Come in’. In walked a black man in a black suit, a black Henley shirt, and black boots; his black hair tamed by many tight cornrow braids, a gold strand threaded through some of them, the ends twined through a gleaming hematite pearl. I had a mineral collection at home if you wonder why I am so knowledgeable.

“I’m here to pick you up. Mother wants you to witness my punishment.”

As soon I felt his presence, my first impulse was to shoot up from the bed to the other end of the room, my fingernails extended into claws, each tip dotted with a drop of dark red blood. This vampire was extremely dangerous. Don’t ask me how I knew.

He didn’t step any further into the room though but nodded crisply. “Good instincts.” He pointed at my hands. “Don’t worry about the bleeding. It will stop doing that the more times you push out your claws.”

“Good to know.” I casually leaned back against the wall, trying to play it cool although my heart would probably have been hammering in my chest if it could have still done that.

He fixed his dark brown eyes on me. “I am Konstantin.” My sire had finally come.

“I thought you’d be taller.” My fucking mouth would be the death of me one day, but not that day. I held my breath, but like the heart that didn’t beat anymore, I didn’t need to breathe. It was just a habit.

Unexpectedly, Konstantin grinned. “I hear that a lot.”

I was surprised he wasn’t angry, but I still felt the need to explain my rather unfortunate choice of greeting. “W-when you grabbed me at the beach and pushed me down on my knees so effortlessly, I thought you’d be broader and at least seven feet tall like Doc.”

“And now you’re frustrated that I’m not some behemoth, but a small guy of five-eight who subdued you so easily?” He lifted his eyebrows. “Lesson number zero: Size doesn’t always matter.”

I had to restrain myself to not roll my eyes. No way he was five-eight...five-seven max. There was still a question I needed to be answered. “Why me?”

“You were available.”

“What?” Here I had envisioned various, imperative reasons why it had to be me of all the people partying at the beach, and then it was a pragmatic and practical decision of availability or—simply bad luck.

“Sorry to disappoint you.” He shrugged, then tilted his head to the side. We don’t have time for long-winded explanations now. Mother hates to wait, especially for her entertainment shows.”

I didn’t ask what he meant with entertainment shows; he was clearly in a hurry as he almost dragged me out of my room, up the stairs to the top floor, across a thick red runner down a hallway without any doors except a gleaming black portal with gaudy, golden handles.

Two vampires in dark suits were guarding it. It all was so cliché it was ridiculous. What else should vampires wear, but black suits, right? Even the female. As soon as we reached them, they stepped forward and frisked Konstantin thoroughly for weapons although I was sure my sire didn’t need any weapons to kill or maim. After hesitating briefly, he endured their searching hands stoically. He lifted his arms and spread his legs when prompted. After they were finished, one of them grimaced. “It’s required.”

He opened the door to a huge windowless room that looked like a bad seventies’ porn movie setting. Two more guards were on the inside and stepped aside so we could enter. Behind an overly-ornate oak desk sat Mother in a throne-like chair, her lips pressed together in a hard smile. Her fluffy pink angora cardigan and white silk blouse were very grandmotherly and sweet, and this could have been an invitation for tea, had there not been the sturdy metal chair with chained manacles mounted to its armrests placed on a wrinkled plastic tarp in the center of the room.

“You’re late.”

Konstantin bowed deeply, his right hand on his heart. “I apologize, Mother.”

And again, I opened my stupid mouth. “It’s my fault. I had questions.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Already loyal to your sire, I see.” She turned to her right. “It speaks for your method, Doc.” Only then did I see Sebastian standing on the side in the shadows. A sudden pull at my sternum brought me down, and my knees hit the floor hard. “You do not speak until you are spoken to.” She lowered the finger she had lifted like a teacher at school. “You have very much to learn.” Then she smiled. “But that is the reason why you are here. I will teach you exactly what you have to know to please me.” She waved her hand. “Go and stand beside Doc.” She lifted the pointer finger of her right hand once again. “If you move, speak, or make any other kind of noise, you’ll die. Understood?”

I scrambled to my feet. “Understood.” I went over to Doc’s left side. I might have tried to hide behind his massive body a little. But he didn’t let me. He even stepped behind me.

“A quick learner, very promising.” Mother nodded at a blond woman in a beige pantsuit hovering behind her. “Simone. Read the charges.”

The woman picked up a clipboard and turned a page. “Konstantin Navarro, you are accused of repeatedly ignoring your clan leader’s direct orders. You were forbidden explicitly to enter Delacour territory by any means. You did it anyway. You were forbidden specifically to contact Katherine Delacour under the pretense of her being your bloodsong.” The last word Simone spat out as if it were a foul-tasting morsel. She turned the page with a sharp movement of her hand. “Because of your ignorance, you almost caused an incident that would have ruined the reputation of the Night Clan irreversibly in the eyes of the new City Lord and his people. You could have discredited and embarrassed Mother in a very delicate phase of her negotiations with Caspian, and thereby played directly into Henri Delacour’s hands, and his devious plan almost worked. Lured in by Katherine, you entered their house, and foreseeably, she betrayed you—”

Konstantine took a step forward. “She didn’t betray me.”

“Silence!” Mother slapped her flat hand on the desk. “For this impertinence alone, we will add partial starvation to your punishment.” Through clenched teeth, she uttered, “Continue, Simone.”

The woman immediately straightened up, cleared her throat, and narrowed her eyes at Konstantin. “As expected, Katherine betrayed you and alerted their soldiers as soon you entered their territory. You got caught. They held you captive and purposefully starved you for weeks until your hunger was so great you were close to losing control. Then they let you escape near the beach in the hope you’d succumb to blood frenzy and slaughter some of those drunken frat boys who party there on the weekends. It’s hard to imagine what would have happened to our reputation if a high-ranking member of our clan had committed a massacre among humans. Only by sheer luck, did you manage to suppress the compulsion to feed and kill and drained only one human. Delacour must have been furious his scheme failed, and that, only that, is saving you from greeting the sun on the rooftop tomorrow. Another plus on your long list of negatives is that you raised our number by turning the human. But, because you turned him without his consent and thereby violated yet another rule Lord Caspian legislated lately, Mother will add to your punishment.” Simone slowly turned to the clan leader. “We’re expecting your verdict, Mother.”

Elvira Night took her time. She tapped her fingers on the desk and watched Konstantin and me. While we waited, it became clear to me that Konstantin wasn’t the mindless killer, the bloodthirsty monster I thought. On the contrary, with unparalleled control over his hunger, he managed not to give in to his baser instincts and cause a massacre among my brothers and friends. He had only killed one, me. And to make up for it he turned me and gave me my second life, not that I had been happy about that, but one might think it was the lesser evil.

After a pause, Elvira Night imperiously waved a hand at the two vampire guards standing by the door. They instantly grabbed Konstantin by the arms, pushed him to the chair, and pressed him into it, securing his arms with the manacles.

I don’t know how I knew this, but he allowed them to handle him like that. If he’d wanted, he could have easily escaped their grip.

After he’d been shackled, Mother stood up and walked up to my sire, and stopped directly in front of him. Her eyes changed to a pale eerie violet. “You are no longer a legate within the Night clan. The rank will be stripped from you and go to Simone.” The woman smirked and lifted her chin. Mother tried to intimidate Konstantin by towering over him. By looking at his relaxed body posture, it clearly didn’t work. “You will never again represent our clan or lead our soldiers into battle.” She nodded to the two guards. One of them went to her desk and fetched a silver metal box and brought it to her. “To make your shame and your disgrace visible, and point out your complete and utter meaninglessness to every vampire, your fangs will be removed.” Someone gasped, and Mother instantly scanned the room, trying unsuccessfully to find out who it was. After a while, she continued. “You’ll be reduced to the fangless ape you are.”

For effect, she hesitated briefly before she opened the box’s lid. The inside was lined with blue velvet. In deep indentations lay two silver dental forceps of different sizes and a strange contraption consisting of black leather and pieces of silver metal.

Simone ordered two of the guards, “Fix him.” They grabbed Konstantin’s shoulders and pressed him further into the chair. One of the others took his head in both hands, and the second forced his mouth open with his thumbs. Then Simone lifted the leather metal construct from the box and untangled it. On first look, it seemed to be some kind of bridle. She gave it to Mother, who shoved it into my sire’s mouth and secured it with the leather straps. Only then did I realize that it was meant to hold his mouth open. Then she took one of the forceps and gave it to the tallest of the guards. I could swear he looked apologeticly at Konstantin before he closed it around his left fang. He held onto his jaw with his other hand and pulled. Nothing happened. Next, he braced himself against Konstantin’s chest with an arm and knee to have greater leverage and pulled again.

Somehow, I could feel my sire’s pain, not entirely, but I could sense it.

Mother watched me through the whole procedure, a cruel grin on her lips.

When I thought I couldn’t remain quiet anymore, my sire narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

It was horrible. Konstantin clasped the ends of the armrests with his hands, claws out, bloody tears running from the corners of his wide-open eyes. When the guard finally held the first tooth between the tips of the forceps, Mother went to her desk, opened a drawer, and picked up a glass jar with a silver screw lid. To my utter horror, it was filled with vampire fangs. She opened it with a satisfied smirk and held it out to the guard, who dropped the tooth into it. Then she leaned back against the desk and crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to the guard. “Go on.” Then she continued to watch me.

What I hadn’t understood then was that I took part in Konstantin’s punishment. She fully expected me to make some noise or even protest against what they were doing to him. Then she would have all the reason to go through with her threat and kill me right in front of his eyes. Due to Doc’s blood transfusion method, my sire and I had already formed a strong bond. My death would have torn it, which would have harmed Konstantin depending on how brutal she would have killed me. He might have gone mad eventually.

But I was calm. I was silent and didn’t move, exactly as she had ordered. I stood beside Doc and watched her torture Konstantin without showing any emotion, as if my feelings had been muted. When I first had felt Doc touching the backside of my left thigh, I was irritated, but when my agitation instantly vanished, I understood why he hadn’t allowed me to hide behind him. He was doing something, and the way we were positioned, he was able to press a finger against my leg without anyone noticing it. Later, I learned it was only due to Doc’s special power, that I managed to stay still and silent and survived.

When they were pulling at Konstantin’s second fang, he grunted. The very first noise he made. After they successfully ripped it out, he yelled. It had taken the guard at least ten minutes and several tries. I think I had never heard a sound like that. Pulling out a vampire’s fang must cause indescribable pain. By the time it was done, his voice was hoarse and sounded broken. After the blood-dripping tooth had been dropped into her jar of horrors, Mother quickly lost interest. She nodded at Simone— “You will think of something adequate”—and left the room.

Simone however, wasn’t done. Smiling, she ripped out Konstantin’s claws with her bare fingers. He barely reacted. “That’s for turning a human without his consent.” She picked up her clipboard and read, “Doc will not help you and lighten the pain by any means. You are not allowed to use the donor pool to feed until further notice. Beg us for blood and see if we grant it. Now leave.”

The guards opened the manacles. Doc and I helped Konstantin up and led him out of the room.

“Where to?” I asked Doc.

“To his room.”

“What did she mean by not helping him? You can’t help him, but I can?”

Doc scowled. “Human pain medication doesn’t work with vampires anyway; that was just a sick joke.”

“But if I can think of something that would help him, I am not disobeying any rules?”

“I think so, but what could you do?”

I ignored his condescension. “Where is the kitchen?”

“The kitchen?”

“Yes, the kitchen. You have human donors. Humans need to eat. You must have a kitchen.”

“We do. Down the steps, two flights, through the hallway on the left, the second to last room.”

“Okay wait in his room for me.” Without waiting for an answer, I ran to the kitchen. I found a woman and a man eating at the table. They immediately got up from their chairs when they saw me.

“Can we help you, sir? Do you need to feed?”

I stopped short for a moment. Of course, they would think I wanted to feed. What other reason would a vampire have to go to the kitchen? “No, I need ice, lots of ice, and plastic bags.”

The man frowned, but the woman instantly understood me. She went to the freezer and filled a huge bowl with ice cubes and topped it with two bags of frozen veggies and a roll of freezer bags.

Suddenly the door banged open, and Simone stood under the door frame. “What are you doing here?”

The man rolled up his sleeve. “He asked to feed.” He pricked a vein on his wrist with a needle and let the blood drip into a mug.

Simone waited until I had emptied it before she left again.

Fortunately, the woman had cleverly hidden the ice in the sink. After waiting a while, I grabbed the bowl and ran to Konstantin’s floor. Doc was waiting for me in front of one of the doors. He ushered me inside. “What the fuck are you doing with this shit?”

I filled the bags with ice, snatched a towel from a chair’s back, and wrapped it around the bag. “We’re doing it the human way.” I pressed the towel to Konstantin’s jaw. “It’s what we–they do if we have our wisdom teeth removed.”

Konstantin sat slumped down in a padded chair. I waved for Doc to do the same for his other side. Then I put the frozen veggies on his bloody, torn fingers. To my astonishment, his nails were almost healed. “Wow. You’re almost healed. Do you even need the ice for your mouth?”

“Fangs heal extremely slowly, and it hurts the entire time.” Doc pressed a towel with ice to Konstantin’s left side.

“What is extremely slow?”

“A year?”

“What?” I almost dropped my ice bag. “What could speed up the healing process?”

”Blood.” Konstantin could only whisper because of his bruised vocal cords.

“Shit.”

Doc glared murderously at the door.

“Does the ice help with the pain at least?”

Konstantin nodded. “Perfectly, thank you, Kavan.”

I had an idea. “And if he’d feed on me?” Konstantin immediately shook his head. “They didn’t forbid that, only feeding on Doc.”

“He’s right.” Doc looked at me, contemplating. “You’d have to drink more from the donor pool when you feed Kon.”

“Then it’s decided.” I pushed my shirtsleeve up and held my arm out to Doc. “Show me how to prick the right vein.”

Konstantin groaned when he smelled the blood dripping into the rinsed-out wine glass. He refused to drink it. “They will find out you’re drinking more from the donors, and then they’ll kill you.”

Doc pushed the glass in his direction. “We’ll hide it. They will help us. You’re well-liked among them.”

“Doc, what’s a bloodsong?”

“Who, not what. That’s complicated. I’ll explain it tomorrow.”

I hope the chapter answered a few questions and provokes many more.
Thank you for reading chapter two. What do you think of Konstantin? Was he the vampire you expected? Comments are greatly appreciated. I'm curious.
 @Valkyrie for your help.