the ancient Egyptians?" She humored him. She supposed she could understand it, she loathed it when people used her full name, Tatiana. Only her Nana had ever gotten away with it.
Smiling like the cat that got the cream, he answered, "I think they did succeed at finding a way to make a human immortal. But maybe only one select cult knew how to do it, and the others were offering a poor imitation in the form of mummification."
She blinked. "So... this cult, the cult of Nephthys, made vampires?" she asked, looking at the book with newfound respect. "From scratch?"
"Yes," he darted forwards and opened the book, flipping through to a specific page. "This is from a temple in Sepermeru," he tapped an illustration, depicting a person being mummified. "You see, the Egyptians had a sort of visual code, so someone reading it could tell if a person was alive or dead. This man, he is still alive."
She took a closer look. He certainly looked like a regular human, but it was hard to tell with the highly stylistic sideways figures. "So he's not being mummified?"
"No, most of the rituals are missing: the removal of the organs, the preservation in natron. They wind him in linen, alive, and put him into the temple chamber." He flipped the page. "Nephthys comes, and she takes something away from him—it doesn’t say what—then gives it back. And then here," he pointed to the opposite illustration, "he arises a god."
The egg timer went off, and he left to find some teacups. She turned the page, and saw another picture, with the man-made-god at the top and a dozen tiny men underneath of him. There was a caption beneath it which read ‘His power could be conferred on to other priests of the deity's choosing.’ Holy crap, but it makes a lot of sense.
"So tell me, Tatiana," he said as he set a cup and saucer in front of her, with one of the rescued pastries beside the cup. "Have you really met a vampire? What are they like?" He sat opposite her, and leaned over his tea like an over-eager student.
"Yeah..." she blew on the tea, thinking. She wasn't much of a tea drinker, but she thought it would probably be rude not to drink it. Still, she waited until he took a drink and a bite of pastry. "They're um... they're really awful, Seth. I hate to burst your bubble."
He tilted his head and frowned. "What do you mean?"
Tanya took a sip of the tea. She was surprised to find she liked it, it was much lighter in flavor than she would have imagined. "Maybe this is how it started out," she flipped through the book pages, "but it's... it's different now. They're evil. They kill people, and they don't give a damn about it. Almost happened to me about six years ago, that’s why I started hunting them." She rubbed her arm thoughtfully, pushing away the memory of cold, steel eyes.
"Again, you thought I was a vampire?" he sounded less flattered this time.
"I... well... someone gave me your name." She realized that Etienne du Lac must have thought it was quite a joke, sending her after another potential enemy instead of a vampire. "Before I kill a vampire, I promise them that if they tell me the name and location of the most powerful vampire they know, I'll let them go."
"You don't kill them?" he seemed confused.
"No, I lie. But they believe it and tell me anyway. You should see the look on their faces," she laughed, and then stopped when she saw his expression. "See, when you kill this guy," she pointed to the big demigod in the book, "all of these guys die too," she dragged her finger across the minions below him.
Seth nodded. "It makes sense, they would be dependent on him for power. But what about..." he turned the book around and flipped forward a couple chapters to another illustration, "this. If a priest served this man-made deity long enough, say a century or two, he was released from service and allowed to go found his own temple as a god in his own right. If you killed his maker, would he still die?"
She stared at the picture. "Damn, I don't know." Sitting back, she thought about it. There were a lot of Master vampires. If you killed the Master of a Master, would they die? Somehow, she doubted it. "Well, fuck. There goes my brilliant plan."
If he was offended by her colorful language, he didn't show it. "It was a good idea, Tatiana. Knock off the top of the pyramid, and the rest of it will crumble."
"That doesn't make any sense," she moaned, and dropped her head on the table.
"Well, no, I suppose not." He was thoughtful a long while, sipping his tea.
Suddenly Tanya's phone beeped, and she checked it to find a text from her dad. Where had the time gone? It was already 8:00! "Shit, hang on, I gotta give my dad a call." She hit the call button, and waited for him to pick up. "Hi Daddy, yeah, I'm okay. No, I just... It was a bust. The guy's not a vampire. He's actually pretty cool.” Glancing up, she gave Seth a quick smile. “Yeah. Yes, I'm fine, I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, I forgot. Right. Okay, well, give Mom my love and I'll call you later, okay? Love you too. Bye." She hit end.
Seth looked surprised. "Your parents know what you do?"
"Just my dad. Mom doesn't believe in vampires," she rolled her eyes.
"I see."
There was a long pause, although it wasn't too awkward, where they drank their tea and thought. When he spoke again, his voice was low and quiet. "What if... what if there was a way to make you more powerful, so you could fight them more easily?" he asked.
Tanya put her teacup down. "Like what? Some kind of magic spell?" The sarcasm was rude, she knew, but she had just lost her best idea for the eradication of vampires.
To her surprise, he smiled. "Something like that." He glanced at the book. "It could be risky. But if you could, Tatiana, if it would make you strong enough, would you take that risk?"
She looked from him to the book. What had he stumbled on, searching through all those dusty pyramids? She doubted it would be superpowers like on TV, but still.... "The truth is, without even meaning to, I’ve devoted my whole life to this," she told him. "I would do anything to get an edge. I won't stop, not until they kill me, or until I kill every last one of them. Even this guy," she pointed to the demigod in the book.
"Well then." He set his teacup down as well, and took off his glasses. "You might find that more difficult than you imagine."
"Why is that?" She frowned as he pushed away from the table and stood up.
He smiled at her. Not the polite, friendly smile he had been using that evening. It was a sharp, deadly one she had glimpsed only once before, at the museum. Suddenly the room was full of that strange but familiar electric buzz she knew all too well.
He reached up and pulled off the bandage on his forehead. There was no bruise beneath it. "Because I have absolutely no intention of dying," he said, and his voice was liquid power. His eyes flashed, clearly glowing like small blue flames in the dim lamplight.
What. The. Fuck. The wheels of her mind locked up, and then tried to peel out, getting no traction. She darted for the door, knocking over her chair in the process. He got there first and clotheslined her, moving faster than she could see. She managed to get her knife out of her boot as she came up, and slashed him in the chest. He jumped back, and glanced down to see the line of red across his white shirt.
She took the opportunity to turn and try to dash for the door, but he pinned her against the wall, his long lean body pressing into hers. "Where are you going, Tatiana?" he teased.
Oh god. Tanya suddenly
