by Kingsolver
“Will it work when it’s wet?” Sam asked.
With a big smile, Lizzy said, “I didn’t say inside her mouth. I’ll put it under the skin. It won’t get wet. Either your cheek, or your neck if that’s better. It’s no big deal.”
I couldn’t help it. I blurted out, “Is there anything you can’t do?”
She shrugged. “Find a boyfriend? I don’t know. I’m young, but Mom says I have potential.”
“I still don’t think having some backup is a bad idea,” Sam said. “I’ll check with some people who are getting cabin fever downstairs.” He got up and started for the door. As he walked past me, he laid a hand on my head. “You be damned careful. Losing Jolene would be a tragedy. Losing both of you would be worse.”
Trevor drove me to my apartment, and I opened the door to get out of the car.
“We’ll be with you every step of the way,” he said, reaching out to pull me into a hug. “You be careful, okay?” Then he kissed me and let me go.
Lizzy held up the little tracking mirror and gave me a thumb’s up sign. She had held the tracking chip on my skin next to my left ear, then sketched a rune and said a Word. I felt a little buzzy-itchy tingle, and then nothing. When I looked in the mirror, my skin looked untouched.
As soon as Trevor pulled out of the parking lot, a car parked in front of one of the other buildings started its engine and rolled toward me with its lights out. It stopped in front of me, and the back door opened. I bent down and looked inside to see Constance Gardner sitting in the back seat, her right arm in a sling.
“Get in, Miss McLane.”
So, I did. The driver was the guy from the bar, the one we suspected of kidnapping Jolene.
“We must blindfold you,” Gardner said. “If you don’t allow it, Miss Carpenter will die.”
I allowed her to slip a black bag over my head. There was a cutout for my nose and mouth so I could breathe, but I couldn’t see.
They didn’t say anything, so the trip was a quiet one. Judging by the time we spent traveling, I assumed that we drove downtown. The driver eventually turned the car down a steep hill with quick, sharp turns. It felt like we were entering an underground parking garage. He parked, and Gardner leaned over and pulled the hood off my head, then we got out of the car. I followed her, and they led me to a nondescript door set in the wall. As we passed through it, I felt a buzz of magic. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that I had probably disappeared from Lizzy’s tracking mirror.
They led me down a long concrete corridor with occasional doors in the right wall. We stopped at the fourth one, where the driver punched in a code on a little box on the wall, then he pulled the door open.
So far, no one had said anything about me being shielded, nor had they attempted to search me for weapons. Of course, dhampir didn’t have magic themselves, and I assumed that was what both of my captors were.
Another corridor led to another door, which led to another corridor. I counted my steps and the number of doors, and calculated that we were under a different building than the one with the parking garage.
The next doorway we entered again gave me a magical buzz and led to stairs going upward. Every two flights, we passed a door. My guides finally took me through a door on the thirteenth-level landing, even though the stairs continued going up. We stepped into a hallway with carpet and muted lighting. It looked like either a hotel or an apartment building. Halfway down the hallway, we entered another door, number 1345.
The lights in the room were red, and the room was dim, but I could make out features, including the furniture and the exits from the room. Jolene sat curled in a large overstuffed chair, looking pale and tiny. The man by the window turned to face me.
“Welcome, Miss McLane,” he said, the French accent a little more pronounced than it had been on the phone.
I ignored him, crossing the room to Jolene.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I bent over her.
She turned her head to the side and languidly pushed her hair out of the way so I could see the bite mark on her neck. “Yeah, I’m okay.” She took a deep, ragged breath. “He didn’t feed very long.”
I spun around. “You said she wouldn’t be harmed.”
“And she hasn’t been. I took very little. One must be careful when drinking from magic users. A little bit of a high is fine, but routine intoxication leads to madness, you know. Witch blood is different from mage blood. Did you know that? Like the difference between fine wine and strong spirits. Mage blood is very dangerous, but it seems that some in this city are unconcerned by that.” His voice had a compelling resonant timber. I couldn’t see his face, except the glow of his eyes, which seemed to look into my soul. He was very old, and very used to getting his way. I reached out to pull more energy from the ley line, and was relieved when I was able to do so.
“I’m here. Let her go.”
“In due time. I assure you she will be set free before dawn.” I thought I heard a note of humor in his voice. He hadn’t expected me to push back. It was about four o’clock, and sunrise would be around seven, so I only had to hold out against him for a few hours.
“So, what do you want?” I asked.
“Come with me. We have private business to discuss.” He left the room and I followed. His dhampir stayed with Jolene.
The rooms reminded me of a hotel suite, but being new in the city, I didn’t have any idea which one it might be. I remembered that Blair said the cops had traced Gardner to a luxury hotel downtown. Heavy curtains were drawn back in the room the vampire led me to, as they had been in the room I first entered, and I could see the city outside.
The room we were in was a bedroom. A small table and a desk sat on the side near the windows. He passed the bed, and turned on a small desk lamp.
“Do you remember me?” he asked, turning to face me.
“Vienna, three years ago, but I’m afraid I never caught your name,” I said. He was an old vampire. Very old and very powerful. He had been a minion of Vienna’s Master of the City, Karl von Altmann. Von Altmann and most of his senior followers had found the final death, but a few had escaped. This one had run quickly, not even pretending to put up a fight, immediately after Von Altmann fell.
“And I never caught yours,” he replied. “We only knew you as the Scorpion.”
“What do you want?”
He smiled, but without showing his teeth. “Westport.”
“None of my business. I try to stay out of vampire affairs.”
He shook his head. “You’re not doing a very good job of that. But you have done a fairly good job of maintaining your neutrality, and for that I have to commend you. Why do you think Lord Carleton’s children treat you so courteously?”
“I try to be polite to them, and they are polite in return. Manners are the lubrication for social interactions, or so I was taught.”
He barked out a laugh. “Yes, your masters taught you well. I think it’s because the vampires here are afraid of you, and rightly so. Carleton seems to have been selective in his choices, at least as far as intelligence goes.”
I couldn’t argue with that, Barclay’s madness aside.
“Do you know how order is established out of the kind of chaos that currently reigns in Westport?” he asked me.
“Those who have followers will kill each other off until only one is left.”
He nodded. “That is one method. If I were to go to a city with an established master, that is how things would happen. But the leaders of the various factions here are so young. None of them would have a chance of standing against me. I think that is why they are so enamored with you. I am virtually certain that Flynn thinks you could not only help him seize power, but that you could protect him once he did. They are youngsters, ambitious and intelligent, but also very aware of their limitations, and so they fear.”
He hadn’t given up on trying to compel me, his voice an audible lure of attraction. I realized it was a mark of Gallagher’s insecurity tha
t he had used a magical charm instead of his own vampire compulsion.
The vampire walked over to a small refrigerator and opened it. Bending down, he pulled out a pitcher and poured a dark red liquid into a glass, then put the pitcher back. Turning to face me, he took a drink, all the while watching me.
“You are also very young,” he said, “and very intelligent. But you are not afraid. Why is that? I think that you believe you’re living on borrowed time. That every day the Illuminati don’t find you is a gift. But I have the power to take that gift away.”
He crossed to the little table, pulled out one of the chairs and sat down. Gesturing to a chair across the table, he said, “Please.”
I pulled out the chair and sat, allowing my coat to fall open. The short sword was still hidden by the folds, but I knew I could draw it in an instant. And although the old vampire would be invisibly fast, he couldn’t get through my shield, and that gave me the advantage.
“You know my name,” I said, “may I have the courtesy of yours?”
He gave me another of those tight smiles. “Gabriel Laurent. I was a knight, owing fealty to Phillip the Fourth, when I was turned in 1290.”
“Phillip the Fair, destroyer of the Knights Templar,” I said.
“Ah, you know your history.”
“The Illuminati were founded in the wake of that catastrophe,” I said. “Mages felt the need to band together to protect themselves from Phillip and also from the Inquisition.”
“Just so. Too bad their original purpose became so corrupted through the centuries. It is a pleasure to converse with an educated woman. We shall have to spend more time with each other. But I was telling you about vampire successions, wasn’t I?”
He took another sip of blood, his eyes watching me over the rim of his glass.
“There is a way for one man to take charge,” he continued, “without any more deaths. Flynn, Montgomery, and Barclay would have to swear fealty to me. The ceremony is very similar to the turning. I would feed on them until almost death, then they would feed on my blood. As I’m sure you know, that stops the heart of a living person, and then they arise after three days. It works the same for a vampire. It would kill them, but it wouldn’t be the final death.”
I was learning something new every day. I thought about a billboard the university had on the road near my apartment building. Make a commitment to life-long learning.
“That’s very interesting,” I said, “but what has that got to do with me?”
“I want you to convince them to make the intelligent choice. End the senseless slaughter. Do what’s right by their followers.”
“Why don’t you do that yourself? As you said, they’re intelligent. I’m sure they would listen to reason.”
Laurent shook his head. “That’s not the way it works. You will never see two Masters in the same room. I’m afraid we’re governed by our bloodlust, no matter how old and wise we pretend to be. If I met with Flynn, one of us would die. If he did not pledge fealty, I would kill him. It’s not a matter of choice, you see. I’m weary of wandering. You deprived me of my home, and I’m really a homebody. I don’t like change.”
“And if I don’t agree to help you?”
“Then I will let your secret be known. How do you think sweet little Jolene would react if she knew you were a vicious serial killer? Senators, congressmen, bishops, rabbis. Both the innocent and the guilty, whoever stood in the Illuminati’s way. I’m also sure the Columbia Club would be interested, and would spread the word of your identity and location to other paranormal councils around the country. The Scorpion’s trail of death is absolutely remarkable for how short a time you operated, and a number of those councils would probably like a word with you.”
I allowed myself a tight smile. “And then again, I could just kill you, and solve all my problems.”
“You probably could. I watched you kill Von Altmann and seven of my brothers, old and powerful vampires all. You are incredibly good at killing. Does the name Rudolf Heine mean anything to you?”
Of course it did. Master Rudolf was the second-in-command of the Hunters’ Guild and a member of the Illuminati Council. I tried to keep my face impassive and didn’t answer him.
“I don’t know what disaster befell the Illuminati,” Laurent said, “but my understanding is that it wiped out the entire council, save for one. Heine was in Washington at the time. I have a third dhampir, Miss McLane, who is currently in Washington, and she has instructions to tell Heine about you if she fails to hear from me every week. I’m not going to tell you whether I last spoke to her yesterday, or six days ago. The choice is yours. Act as my messenger, facilitate my plan, or I will expose you.”
“Is that all? Can I take my friend and go now?”
He nodded. “I shall give instructions for you to be delivered back to Rosie O’Grady’s. You have my number, and please, Miss McLane, do no violence to my thralls. I would take it very badly.”
CHAPTER 24
I drew on ley line energy, then picked Jolene up in my arms and carried her out the door. The nameless male dhampir held doors for me through the halls and the stairways as I carried her back to the car. I tried to be stoic, but the tears came anyway.
“Don’t cry, Erin,” Jolene said. “I’ll be okay.” I couldn’t believe she was trying to comfort me after the harm I had caused her.
Later, halfway down the stairs, she asked, “What did he want?”
“My soul.”
She was quiet for a minute or two, then asked, “Did you have to fuck him?”
I froze and looked down at her face. “Did he rape you?” It still wasn’t too late to go back upstairs and kill him. He didn’t have the power to stop me.
Tears ran down her face, and she buried her face in my shoulder. “No, but he made me want him to. I would have let him.”
I closed my eyes, but couldn’t stop the tears.
“That’s part of their power,” I finally managed to say. “It’s not your fault. I barely was able to resist him. We’ll make sure he never touches you again, and you’ll heal.”
I opened my eyes and saw her looking up at me.
“I needed to hear you say that. That it’s not my fault,” she said, squeezing me. “I knew you’d come, though. I prayed, but I never doubted it. Lizzy says you’re the best person she’s ever met, and I believe it.”
I had to stop again, my sight so blurred that I couldn’t see the stairs in front of me. I used my sleeve to try and wipe my eyes.
“No, I’m not a good person,” I managed to say. My throat felt as though it was swollen shut. “I’m a terrible person, a killer. And I’m so, so sorry I hurt you.”
“You didn’t hurt me. You love me, and love heals.”
I had to stop again. When my eyes finally cleared enough to see ahead of me, I saw the dhampir standing patiently on the landing below me. I continued, and when I caught up with him, I said, “Thank you.”
He turned away and started down the next flight of stairs. I barely heard him say, “No matter what you think, I’m human, too.”
He held the door of the car for me, and I deposited Jolene in the back seat, then crawled in after her. He handed me two of the black hoods, and I fitted one over Jolene’s head, then pulled the other over mine. I heard the door close, then the car start.
We held each other tight, the only noise in the car the sound of the engine. Eventually, the car stopped. I heard him get out, and then the door next to me opened. I felt a hand touch my head, and he pulled the hood off. I turned to Jolene and pulled hers off and threw it out the door.
He stood aside and let me get her out of the car. We were parked on the street across from the Huntsman Hotel, and I could see Rosie’s sign down the side alley. The eastern horizon showed the first faint glow of dawn.
“We aren’t monsters,” the dhampir said as he closed the door, then he walked around the car to get in the driver’s seat.
“It doesn’t require a monster to do monstrous
things,” I said. He froze, a fleeting moment of anguish showing in his face, staring at me. “There is a price to pay when you harm other people,” I said, “even if you do it to save your own life. We have choices, but all of them have consequences.”
I didn’t wait for a response, picking Jolene up and carrying her toward Rosie’s. Just as I reached the entrance to the alley, a vampire jumped out from the shadows. I wasn’t in the mood, and without missing a step, I sent a ley missile that vaporized him. Behind me I heard a car’s engine start.
I didn’t want to set Jolene down, so I kicked the door a couple of times, then stepped back. Sure enough, the door swung open, and Sam stood there with his bat and a pissed-off look on his face. His expression softened when he saw us, and I walked past him.
“Thank you,” I said.
Everyone near the door was looking at us, and like a wave, those farther away turned in our direction, and all sound in the place died except for the TV in the back room. I headed for the stairs, and Sam trotted to get in front of me. I climbed after him. He opened the door to the apartment and stood aside, pointing to one of the bedrooms.
As soon as I set her down, Sam crouched in front of her. “Are you all right, baby girl?” he asked.
She gave him a brave smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Walk in the park.” She tossed back her hair and showed him her neck. “One more thing I can cross off my bucket list.”
Sam’s face seemed to swell as it turned red, and I reached over to grab his shoulder.
“You think you could get her a potion?”
I managed to get him out of the room. “She needs something to sleep, and to help mentally with the trauma,” I said. “Not an amnesiac, but just something to create a little distance, you know?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I keep it up here rather than under the bar.” He went to the refrigerator and brought back a small vial with ‘PTS’ on the label in Steve Dworkin’s wife’s neat handwriting.
