The Obscurati (6 page)

There is even a university down the street. Her building is full of human blood donors, but they are both male and female. The first time I visited was also the first time I took blood from a woman. It was in the 1930s. My blood donor was a college student, and she reacted about the same as the young men at Menz’s estate. From the look in her eye, I probably could have had sex with her if I wanted. I didn’t want. In fact, she and I would have had nothing to do in a bed. I’m sure she graduated many years ago.

The queen kept her building as invisible as possible. She made sure it blended in: never over-the-top modern and never so old that historians would want to study or document it. The queen kept her facilities uninteresting to archeologists and architects.

When we arrived, several cars were in the parking lot. I’m sure they were owned by human employees of the queen or belonged to vampires who couldn’t float or jump.

The lobby always has someone on duty. Always—night or day, holiday or not. What most people don’t see is that the ordinary-looking office building is also a fortress. If somebody wanted to attack the queen, the guards or the queen herself could throw the entire building into lockdown. Steel sheets come out of the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. The building becomes a bunker from the outside, and the interior is divided up into sections. They test the security system regularly, but I don’t think it has ever been used.

It isn’t as though the queen needs all the extra protection. She can handle herself in a fight. She can kill you just by wishing you dead, and that is about as scary as it gets.

I think the protection is for the benefit of the others in the building. Maybe it is the queen showing just enough muscle to make potential enemies think twice before attacking. There are plenty of vampires in Europe who would attack her if they thought they could win. It is a vamp-eat-vamp world when you get into the upper tiers of the vampire pecking order.

There are plenty of master vampires who would like to be king or queen of Europe, and some have tried over the centuries. I don’t think any of them are still with us today. If they are, they’re permanently stored in some silver-lined coffin somewhere, wishing they were dead.

“
H
ELLO
, Mårten.” It was Pierre. I think he’s a vampire, but I’m not sure. After the queen, Pierre is just about the scariest creature I’ve ever met. He is pleasant, like the queen, but every pore oozes with the confidence of a soldier from a special operations group. Pierre isn’t an in-your-face tough guy because he doesn’t need to be. You see that he is confident, and you just know it is because he can take care of himself. In a fight, Pierre is one I’d want by my side.

The problem is that I never know where Pierre is. One of my vampire talents is the ability to track others. I can track animals and people, but I excel at tracking other vampires. It is like a kind of smell or scent, but that isn’t exactly right. It is a kind of sixth sense that has no aroma. Does that make sense? Let me feel something you’ve touched, and I can go find you even if I give you a day’s head start.

Pierre doesn’t have a scent or energy. It is like he isn’t there. I see him. I can talk to him and shake his hand, but I can’t feel him. He can sneak up on me any time he wants to, and it scares the crap out of me. He always tries to make some kind of noise while he is some distance from me, just so I don’t freak out.

“Oberon, Hamlet,” Pierre said as he moved closer to us. “Thanks for coming on short notice.”

“Not a problem,” I said. “And thanks for using English. A hundred years has not been enough for me to master German.”

“We’re in Bern, Mårten,” Pierre said. “Most Germans would say what we speak isn’t really German.”

Oberon nodded like he agreed with Pierre’s self-assessment.

Hamlet just smiled. Pierre was Hamlet’s type: military, biker, SWAT, whatever. Hamlet was just happy to be around Pierre. He could have stood and drooled all night.

“Come on, the queen is waiting,” Pierre said, using mind-words. I guess there are secrets even in her home/office/bunker/fortress.

“Au contraire, mon ami,” the queen said as she walked into the reception area. “La reine n’attend jamais.”

“Ma’am,” he said with a bow. I have no idea what they said, but she was smiling. A smile on someone who can rip your face off with a thought is a good sign.

“Come,” she said to the three of us, “walk with me.”

We followed her through a set of doors that led to the largest indoor garden I had ever seen. Artificial light made it look like it was in the afternoon. It was beautiful. This was a sight that I thought I’d never see again: a gorgeous garden during the day.
The electric bill must be….

“The electricity is provided by an array of solar panels on the roof,” the queen said. She can read minds, and she doesn’t mind that you know it. “Plus we have a fairly large array of wind turbines in the country, which sells electricity to the rest of Switzerland. Our actual electrical bill for this building is only a few euros each year.”

“Impressive,” I thought.

“Responsible,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What I am about to tell you,” the queen said aloud, “must remain between us. Mårten, Oberon, Hamlet, do you understand?”

We all nodded.

“I mean that nobody—not Menz or anyone else—is to know.”

We all nodded again. I must have looked puzzled.

“Don’t worry, Mårten. It is nothing bad. We just work in secret.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” I said.

“I hear you are a good shot, Mårten,” she said. “What is your favorite rifle for long range?”

“The M40 or the PSG,” I said.

“You have a PSG?” Pierre asked.

“No, but I have used one. It is lethal up to eight hundred meters.”

“I have friends on the GSG-9,” he said. “I will get you a PSG.” The HK-PSG1 is an ultra-long-range sniper rifle used by the German police’s GSG-9 unit. They are a cross between a SWAT team and a military antiterrorist unit. The GSG-9 is full of really scary humans. I would have to have a really good reason before I tried to attack them. They don’t have silver bullets, but the bullets they have can make a vampire’s head explode. No head, no vampire.

“They’re so expensive,” I protested.

“You’re a good shot, so you deserve the best sniper rifle,” the queen said.

Sniper? This was the first inkling that she wanted me to be a sniper. I like to fire rifles, but I have concentrated on hitting paper targets and empty bottles. It was always with the idea of being ready to help Menz protect our part of Germany, but I have only protected the estate from threats made by beer bottles and empty food canisters. It is true that the manor house has not been attacked by any bottles or cans since I started shooting. Being a sniper? Me? It would mean that I was going to be hunting my own kind. Could I go after another vampire?

The queen went on to describe a group of vampires that work around the world. This was the ultra-secret die-if-you-even-mention-it vampire council. What I didn’t know was that the group works worldwide. I thought it was just a European council.

For the sake of my own safety, I’m going to call this group
the Obscurati
. That is my made-up word. In Latin, it is the opposite of the Illuminati, which has gotten publicity in recent books and movies. “Illuminati” means “the shining or enlightened ones.” “Obscurati” means “the hidden ones.” Vampires work only at night, so Obscurati is my fake name for the vampire council. It is kind of a personal joke.

If I were to tell you the real name, I would be dead within the hour. There are plenty of good reasons to lay down your own life, but a stupid word isn’t one of them. The moment you say the real name, other Obscurati sense it. They interpret it as a cry for help, and they respond with blazing speed. When they arrive but find it was just idle chatter… let’s just say that they are not amused.

So the Obscurati has members from all over the world. The queen said she doesn’t really know how many. The members get together only by using mind-words. The entire group has one big virtual meeting yearly. All the Obscurati in Europe have to be in a special room inside the queen’s fortress/office building. There is something about that room that puts our heads in contact with all the other Obscurati. Outside the room, we can use mind-words with one or two members, but not the entire group.

“I want the three of you to be Obscurati,” the queen said (only she used the real name of the group).

“Hamlet,” Pierre said, “you are a very effective fighter. I have seen you grow over the years, and I’m not sure I ever want to fight against you.”

Hamlet blushed. Yes, vampires blush. It isn’t pretty.

“Mårten,” Pierre continued, “your fighting has improved greatly, but you are still the most insane warrior I have ever seen. You are completely out of control in a fight, and that makes you scary and dangerous. That’s one reason you are here. But the main reason is that when you fire a sniper rifle, you don’t ever miss. You can drop a rogue vampire from hundreds of meters away, and the bad guy won’t even know what hit him. You can track vampires as well as the best trackers in the world.”

“But….” I started to say.

“I know, you want to mix it up,” Pierre said. “You like fighting, and I’m sure you will see some of that, but that isn’t the main reason you are here. You are a deadly sniper and a first-rate tracker.”

Oberon shifted his weight. He was being left out of this, and that made me uncomfortable.

“Oberon,” the queen said. “You study munitions.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is it a hobby, or did you study engineering?”

“Both… but mainly a hobby now.”

“Never a straight answer from you.”

“He’s not ‘straight’, ma’am,” I said.

“Thank you, Mårten,” she said. “I’m five thousand years old, but I’m not blind.”

“I studied engineering in college,” Oberon said, “but that was just after the First World War.”

“Okay, I’d like you to take your engineering and get it up to date. We lost several members of the Obscurati in a fight in India a few months ago, and it was because our warriors were outgunned. I don’t want to lose Hamlet, Mårten, or anybody else just because some jackass vampire has better science. We can no longer send a dozen warriors into a situation, because technology has made it possible for one bad vampire to wipe out the entire team.”

“I understand,” Oberon said solemnly. I could tell he was relaxing. The queen had got him here for a real job, not just because he and I were a couple.

“I am going to be sending you some engineering equipment, machinery that you can use to make prototypes of whatever you are working on. I will also be sending you an engineer, temporarily. He has a PhD in engineering, so he can get you started on projects. You don’t have to limit yourself to what he suggests. He is just there to get you pointed in the right direction and to make sure you know what all is available these days. Be writing down questions for him.”

“He is human,” Pierre said, “so you will quickly find that he doesn’t think like a vampire.”

The queen added, “I need you to be more advanced than the best rogue vampire. I need you to be more devious than the most underhanded bad guy.”

“What about Menz?” I asked. “Won’t he know what’s going on?”

“Menz is smart,” the queen said. “I’ve known him for a thousand years. Yes, he will probably know what is going on, but I’m sure he will never say anything because he knows the rules. If he asks, tell him you are doing some things for me. If Menz objects to you using the basement, we will find another location for the workshop. I know him well enough to say that I think… I mean… let’s just say that he won’t say anything. You ask a good question, but Menz will not have issues. If anyone else asks, tell them it is a hobby.”

“Remember how we took out the vampires that kidnapped Paco?” Pierre asked.

We all nodded.

“That was the Obscurati in action. When something bad happens, you get no advance notice. Either the queen or I will notify you where to go. Someone will always meet you at the site. It is always one person, so if you see nobody or if you see more than one person, leave at once. There might be trouble. The one person who meets you is your guide. Listen to that vampire, because it could be the difference between life and death for you and the others.”

Pierre paused to let everything sink in.

“I will come to Bavaria every few months just to check in,” he continued. “Mårten, work on your technique. You are mainly going to be our tracker and our sniper, but let Hamlet make sure you’re the best fighter possible.”

“Okay,” I said. Hamlet gave me a sly grin.

“Oberon,” Pierre said, “you are not a fighter.”

“He has other talents,” Hamlet said.

“Halt die Klappe. Schweinerei,” Oberon said before remembering the queen was in the room. He forgets English when he gets angry. I’ve seen him get so flustered that he speaks German to me and English to everybody else.

“Entschuldigen Sie mich,” he whispered.

She just smiled and winked.

“He does have other talents,” Pierre said with a grin. “The Obscurati needs more members like Oberon. The guys who died in India might still be alive if we had had Oberon working on fighting tools. Oberon, can you do this?”

“I’d love to,” he said with that absolute self-confidence that I’ve grown to love. Oberon never merely tried to do anything. He just set his mind to it and made it happen.

“So keep an open mind and run your engineering lab or machine shop to come up with new ways to make Hamlet and Mårten even more lethal than they already are.”

A
ND
that was it. We didn’t chat with the queen about the affairs of the European vampires. We didn’t find out how large the Obscurati is. We were clueless as to how many vampires existed in Europe.

That day, we became Obscurati. We became part of the vampire “special ops” representing the queen of Europe. We became the vampires that other vampires never want to see. We were part of a worldwide group of the scariest vamps anywhere. I didn’t feel scary, and I was convinced that if you tried to tell anybody that Hamlet was scary, they’d die from laughter. Friggin’ nelly vampires.