Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer by Lucy Weston Page B

cloaks that were the style a year or two ago. They have the look of second and third sons such as the country gentry send up to London in hope that they will find advancement in the mercantile houses or the law courts. Judging by their wide-eyed stares and vapid expressions, I surmise that all three will be back whence they came in short order, assuming they survive their brush with debauchery.
    They take their seats amid much nervous glancing about and murmuring to one another. The boy in black approaches. A small debate ensues that I gather has to do with finances, but eventually two of the crystal vials are set before them.
    Debauched and bankrupt. Truly, their families will be proud.
    We wait, pretending interest in our refreshments, in each other, in anything other than the pale man and the hapless youths. I watch him watching them and my stomach churns. Having partaken of the contents of the vials, they slump in their chairs, empty smiles plastered on their faces, eyes rollinghere, there, and everywhere. One of them expounds some garbled point of philosophy as though it contains all of revealed wisdom, while another giggles and the third pays no attention at all, being occupied in studying his fingers, which he flutters before his face.
    I wonder how much longer I can keep my scantily padded rump on the hard wood seat. My newfound power stirs restlessly.
    “Perhaps we should look elsewhere,” I say, but just then Dee flicks a finger, drawing my notice back to the trio. The philosopher has risen to announce that he needs to take a piss. He staggers over to the back door and disappears out it.
    Unnoticed by his companions but not by us, the pale man also stands and slips away after him.
    “Now.” I rise from my seat, filled with urgency, resolute and, I hope, indomitable.
    The back door gives onto a narrow, fetid alley framed by the tavern on one side and a high wall on the other. Even in winter’s chill, the alley reeks of urine and refuse. Heedless of the stench, I look in both directions at once but see no one. The drugged youth has vanished, as has his pursuer.
    I pick a direction on instinct alone and turn in it. “They can’t have gone far.” Please God let that be so. If Mordred’s ability to bend time is common among the vampires—
    But it seems that it is not for scarcely do I get beyond the alley than I see, on a small path leading down to the river, the shapes of two men. Or a man and something that masquerades as one.
    “There!”
    I trust that the others are following me but I do not wait to be sure. Skirts flapping, I run as the light takes flight within me.My cloak having flown open, my ivory skirt and bodice glow like the moon, my pulse keeps time with a wild, feral tune.
    I will have him, I will! And he will tell me all I need to know. All of Mordred and the rest. What I must do to defeat them so that I will prevail. Will live. Will rule. Queen regnant until in the fullness of mortal time, as it please God, I die.
    Does my step falter? Surely not for my resolve is firm. There is no question of what I must do. The temptation Mordred poses, vastly greater than any the crystal vials can provide, is no temptation at all. So I tell myself. I know my purpose, I will not shirk it. For the sake of my immortal soul, I cannot.
    What good really is an immortal soul when an immortal body is to be preferred? Young, strong, and beautiful forever.
    No! By God, I will not be tempted! The man is limp in the other’s arms. The pale one bends over him, the tender flesh of his victim’s neck exposed, and I…
    I leap, through air and time, the light pouring through me, out of me, ready in an instant to strike.
    He who I suspect of being all manner of unholy things lifts his head, and in that instant, I see, in the light I am suddenly made from, the carmine stain of blood on his bared teeth, his stretched lips, his furious, beastly beauty.
    This vampire snarls and, raising both arms to shield his eyes, drops the