Bloodlines - Bathory and Thorne

Thadeus and Elias slip into an ancient servant’s quarters off the marble hallway. Dust lies thick across narrow beds, cupboards, and portraits darkened by age.

Peacebringer remains in Thadeus’s hand as a glowing chain whip, its blue light sliding over painted faces. Erzsebet Báthory watches from one cracked portrait, severe and unmistakable.

Elias eases the door nearly closed and keeps his attention on the hallway beyond. Nothing approaches, though the castle’s distant creaks continue through the walls.

Thadeus calls Marla. After a burst of static, her voice answers from Detroit, faint but steady through the phone’s speaker.

Marla studies the transmitted images and identifies a narrow symbol recurring beneath several vampiric figures. Its hooked lines match the markings associated with the presence pursuing Elizabeth.

Thadeus angles the phone toward the far wall, sweeping the camera across portraits and carved panels. Through the tall windows, night has fallen beneath a full, gleaming red moon.

The phone captures three ankhs beneath a darkened mural. Marla isolates their alignment and identifies a concealed servant passage behind the wall panel, giving the group a quiet route deeper inside.

A heavy metallic rhythm enters the hallway. Two animated suits of deep blue armor lumber past the quarters, each carrying a double axe with an unusually short handle.

Thadeus lowers the phone and slips it into his pocket. The metallic rhythm continues beyond the quarters as the blue-armored figures move farther down the hallway.

He examines the wall beneath the three ankh portraits, pressing along the carved panel until one section gives a hollow reply beneath his hand.

Thadeus works a loose brick free. Instead of a passage, the recess holds a gold ring engraved with an ankh, its center set with a small, finely cut ruby.

He pockets the ring and replaces the brick as quietly as possible. The portraits remain fixed above him, their painted eyes catching the red moonlight.

Beyond the nearly closed door, the armor’s footsteps fade into the castle. The concealed marking offers no further movement, leaving the quarters silent again.

Elias signals from the doorway that the hallway is clear. Thadeus slips out first, Peacebringer glowing softly as both men move quickly across the marble.

Through the great arched windows, moonlight pours brilliantly across the castle hallway. The full moon hangs red above the dark grounds, painting the portraits in crimson.

A faint woman’s voice drifts through the corridor, carrying clearly between the stone walls and calling for Elizabeth. Thadeus and Elias follow it deeper inside.

They pass the side-view portrait of the same hallway, its painted windows glowing with red moonlight. The image seems to mirror the passage around them.

Ahead, the two blue-armored figures reappear beneath the archway, double axes hanging from their short handles. Their metal footsteps resume as they continue down the hall.

Thadeus and Elias reach the armors’ path and move after them, keeping pace beneath the brilliant crimson moon while the voice echoes farther ahead.

Elias’s boot catches the leg of a wooden table beneath the arch window. The table scrapes loudly across the marble, and both blue-armored figures turn at once.

One armor raises its short-handled axe and hurls it. The weapon spins beneath the brilliant red moonlight, its edge cutting straight toward Thadeus.

Thadeus drops backward, clearing the axe’s path as it tears through the space above him. His shoulder strikes the marble, but the attack passes harmlessly.

The axe continues down the hallway, then abruptly reverses direction in midair. It rotates back toward its wielder, following a clean, impossible arc.

The armored figure catches the returning weapon effortlessly. Its featureless helm remains fixed on Thadeus while the second guardian advances one heavy step.

Thadeus rises from the marble and swings Peacebringer in a bright blue arc. The chain strikes one armored guardian squarely, driving it into the other with a deafening crash.

Both figures stagger through the nearest arch window and vanish into the night. Shattered glass rains across the carpet, while the recoil tears a sharp ache through Thadeus’s already bruised shoulder.

Elias leans toward the broken window. Far below, dense forest fills the darkness, dozens of feet beneath the castle wall. No metal movement rises from the trees.

One double axe lies abandoned on the marble, its short handle gleaming beneath the crimson moonlight. Thadeus turns toward Elias and indicates the weapon.