Carmilla de Styria's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

The house in Styria was Carmilla's now, on paper. She had the standing to build it. She had a husband and a title and Dracula's word. What she did not have was a single vampire sworn to her name. A clan of one was no clan at all. So she left the court and went down to the streets of Walachia to find her first followers. The market row ran long and grand, all carved stone and shop fronts. Vampires walked it at night in fine clothes and finer manners. Carmilla studied them the way she once studied nobles. She needed the strong ones. The ambitious ones. The ones with no house to call home. She did not walk alone. Alexis Tomar came with her, in her black suit, hands loose at her sides. Carmilla had not asked her to come. The spymaster had simply appeared at the gate. At the wedding she had named Carmilla an enemy. Now she watched Carmilla work and said nothing. A group of four passed under a lamppost. They wore black leather and silver thread, red eyes bright. Aristocratic. Unsworn. Carmilla stepped into their path and spoke. She did not lie or flatter. She told them the plain truth. "Every house here answers to someone above it. Mine will not. Swear to me, and you rise as I rise." Her gift moved through the words like heat. Three of them knelt on the cobblestones. The fourth followed. Then two more from a doorway. Then a stylish pair who had watched from the shadows. By the third hour, eleven vampires had pledged their blood to the House of Styria. Carmilla had her clan. It breathed now. It stood in the street with red eyes and waited for her command. She turned, flushed with it, and found Alexis close. "You lied to me about my brother," Alexis said. Her voice was low and even. "I came here to watch you fail." "And?" "And you didn't." Alexis looked at the kneeling ranks, then back. "I've hated you for a week. It didn't take." Carmilla went still. Charm was her weapon, and she had none ready. "I don't do this," she said. "Feeling. I never mistake it for anything real." "I know what you are." Alexis stepped closer. "I am the same thing. That's why." Carmilla kissed her. She meant it, which frightened her more than anything the night had held. Alexis kissed her back, hands fisting the black lace. When they broke apart, neither pretended it was strategy. "I love you," Alexis said, quiet and final. "God help us both." "I love you," Carmilla answered, and heard how strange the words sounded in her own mouth. Her clan was born. Its first followers knelt behind her. But she was married to Ali Gamal to keep this very woman content for Dracula. Now she loved her instead. The marriage that anchored her house had just become the thing most likely to break it.