see his betrayers cold in the ground.
Nothing happened.
Above him, the stars spun, blooming into life and winking out, as though millions of years were passing in mere seconds. The statues around him stood silent and impassive, staring down at him with empty eyes. The altar remained nothing more than a lump of stone.
Vlad slumped against it, the fire gone from him as quickly as it had arrived.
Why am I here? If not for some devilment, then why? Perhaps I am mad.
You are not mad, whispered the voice he had heard in the clearing. But you are stupid.
Vlad looked around, but still nothing moved inside the silent circle of statues. The voice was cruel, and mocking, and he tried to think what it could mean, why it was questioning his intelligence. His gaze landed on the brown stains atop the altar, and clarity burst through him. He dug the fingers of his right hand into the wound on his arm, tearing the flesh open. Vlad grunted in pain as blood began to run thickly down his arm, coating his hand; he lifted it high above his head, and paused.
If I am not mad, then only damnation awaits me here.
You were damned long ago, hissed the voice, and Vlad knew in his heart that it was right. He flicked his hand, and dark red droplets of his blood pattered across the surface of the altar.
Instantly, the air was full of energy; it crackled round Vlad’s head, lifting his long black hair from his shoulders. He watched the hairs on the backs of his arms stand up, and felt thick, greasy power in his teeth and bones. The statues began to move, rumbling to life on their pedestals, inflicting their tortures on one another in slow, gruesome thrusts, a writhing wall of agonised, abused stone. Before him, the altar began to run with a black liquid that appeared to be bubbling up from the microscopic holes in the stone itself, a thick oil that seemed to absorb light. When the entire surface of the altar was covered, a mouth, impossibly wide, and full of teeth the size and shape of daggers, opened in the liquid, and appeared to smile at him.
“What are you?” asked Vlad, his voice trembling.
You could not hope to understand, replied the mouth. It was the same voice he had been hearing since he had run blindly into what it had referred to as the deep, but now it was smooth, almost friendly. And it does not matter. What matters is that I know what you are.
“What am I?”
A monster. The mouth curled into a wide, awful grin. Capable of cruelty that impresses even one like me. A carrion bird. A parasite. A—
“Enough,” said Vlad, as forcefully as he was able.
The mouth on the altar grinned even wider.
And brave, up to a point. Often to the point of foolishness. Or danger.
“Why did you bring me here?” demanded Vlad.
You brought yourself. Your rage cried out across the deep. I merely lit the way.
“Why?” asked Vlad. “Why, for God’s sake? What do you want from me?”
I want to offer you something. In return for something you haven’t used for a long time.
“What are you talking about?”
Your soul, said the mouth, and bared its teeth. I want your soul. It will amuse me for millennia. And I will pay you handsomely for it.
Vlad stared at the slick surface of the altar. The mouth was still smiling, and he felt his stomach churn.
“What would you offer me?” he asked. “What price could be enough for what you ask?”
I can give you revenge, on everyone who has ever wronged you, or failed you. I can give you life everlasting, that you might hunt your enemies to the end of their days, without ageing, without dying. I can give you the power to lay your world in ruins. All this, I can give you.
“I sense deception,” said Vlad. “Such an offer is surely too good to be true.”
You are correct, replied the mouth. There can be no light without dark, no reward without punishment. But I deceive you not. You had not asked to hear the terms.
“I ask to hear them now.”
Very well. You will never see the sun again; to look upon it will mean your end. You will not take food, or drink, as humans do; only the lifeblood of other creatures will sustain you. You will be safe from mortal hands, and mortal weapons, and you may share your new life with others, as you see fit. But when your time on this plane comes to an end, your soul will belong to me, and Hell will await you. For all eternity.
“I accept.”
The words were out before he even realised he was going to say them. The abomination’s offer would condemn him to a life lived in the shadows, in the presence of death, and blood, but for Vlad this would not feel unfamiliar, and the alternative was not worthy of consideration. The life he had lived was over, he knew it all too well; the Turks would hunt him to the ends of the earth, and he would stand tall in the darkness rather than run and hide in the light.
I never doubted that you would, said the voice. But I wasn’t finished. The grin widened until it began to spill from the edges of the altar, running in thick black trails towards the dark grass.
“What do you mean?” cried Vlad. “What trickery is this?”
No trickery at all. You accepted my offer, without hearing the last of its terms.
“Tell me what you are holding back! Tell me at once!”
The mouth set into a hard, straight line, and when it spoke again, its voice was the sound of freezing blood, of pain and hopelessness.
You have nothing left to barter with. I suggest you refrain from issuing demands.
Vlad began to tremble, with rage and the terrible, creeping feeling that he had been outsmarted. Fear was again spilling into his stomach and up his spine, and he regarded the altar with horror.
“I apologise,” he forced himself to say. “I humbly ask to know the final term of the covenant.”
That’s better, said the mouth, its smile returning. The final term is this: the first blood you take is the sole key to your undoing. Your first victim will carry the only means of ending your second life.
“What kind of deception is this?” cried Vlad. “You promised me everlasting life!”
I promised you nothing. I told you that I could give you everlasting life; whether you achieve it is entirely up to you. If you were incapable of dying, then how would the contract ever be fulfilled? But I have given you more than any human who went before you, and I would see you more grateful for my generosity.
“What gift is this that I receive in return for my soul, full of conditions and caveats?”
I promised no gift, replied the mouth. I offered nothing more than the covenant that has now been agreed.
“Then I withdraw my acceptance!”
Too late, said the mouth, grinning
