He wished he were dead to the world himself, instead of racked with turmoil over the events of the past twenty-four hours. Normally nothing but hunger could keep him awake during the day. Now, as he stretched naked on top of the sheets in his darkened bedroom, his brain simmered with thoughts of Miranda's predicament and, more disturbing, the two encounters with Cordelia. She had wrecked his peace of mind in a few brief hours.
Her learning the truth about him held the potential for disaster. Suppose she lost her nerve and turned against him? In that case, he would have to abandon his current life and establish a new identity, something he'd hoped not to be forced into for at least another decade. If only he could control her like any other human female. Oh, he could doubtless overcome her mental resistance if he used excessive force. That act, though, might damage her mind permanently, a risk he didn't want to take.
He rolled over and bared his teeth in a silent snarl. On top of those concerns, he lusted for her even more than ever, now that he'd had a taste of her essence. Too bad he couldn't dose himself with a potion to induce sleep. Cordelia's delicious blood would do the trick, but he had to deny himself that remedy. His nonhuman metabolism had unpredictable reactions to drugs, and the amount of alcohol he'd have to ingest to get drunk wasn't worth the trouble.
Eventually he sank into the deathlike day-sleep. In the late afternoon he clawed his way up to consciousness just in time to hear the phone ringing. He picked it up and heard Corinne's voice.
"Josef!" She hissed the name like a curse. "I should have known he wouldn't let it go when I told him I had an appointment in the middle of the day."
"Told him?" Karl stood and rubbed his brow. The aftereffects of sleep deprivation made his head ache. "What business was that of his, and why was he with you in the first place?"
"He visits at regular intervals, like a properly dutiful older brother." Scorn tinged her voice. "Actually, I think he's been suspicious of my behavior ever since my supposed failed pregnancy. He's asked more than once why I moved to northern Virginia back then, a location where I had no previous ties. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew about my periodic visits to your place, though I did my best to keep him unaware."
Karl noticed a hint of self-condemnation in her tone. "You can't have guessed he would pry into your affairs so persistently. What happened when you went to meet Miranda?"
"Josef must have decided to find out what I was up to and followed me into Washington. He's old and powerful enough to maintain the optimal distance where I wouldn't sense his presence, but he could still observe me. Once I got preoccupied enough with our conversation, he might have even sneaked close enough to hear part of it. It would have been simple enough for him to shield himself and prevent my noticing him." A catch in her voice betrayed her distress. "That was my one chance to talk with my daughter. I wasn't thinking of anything else."
"After that, Josef obviously followed Miranda home and watched her being kidnapped."
"That raises a question I can't fathom the answer to. If he meant to rescue her, why didn't he do it at once? Not that I believe he had any benevolent motive for that so-called rescue. He's not the kind to change the attitude he's held for centuries."
"True, I can hardly imagine his being smitten with avuncular affection at his first sight of Miranda and repenting of his anti-human prejudice. More important," Karl said, "why didn't he escort her home as soon as he saved her from Howard? Where has he taken her and why?"
"Merde!" Both anger and alarm crackled in her voice. "I have a very good idea where he has taken her. I must go after them immediately."
"Not so fast. You know perfectly well if you try to get her away from him, Josef will refuse just to spite you. I'll take care of everything. Tell me where you think they are."
"He's currently living in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. He bought an abandoned resort hotel that flourished in the late nineteenth century, the kind of place where well-off families from eastern cities used to seek refuge from the summer heat. He restored it and started his own highly specialized business."
"Your brother, working for money? The mind boggles."
"I wouldn't call it work." He could hear her practically spitting the words. "He captures stray humans and sells their blood to paying customers. He runs the place like a small dairy farm selling fresh milk by the roadside or perhaps a boutique winery."
"The elders haven't intervened?" Vampire society imposed few laws on its members, but preying on victims in a manner that would draw attention was forbidden.
Corinne sniffed. "Josef carefully takes only donors without close ties. He feeds them well, and he doesn't kill them outright. When they become too ill to be drained anymore, he wipes their memories and abandons them at a generous distance from his property. If they suffer permanent mental damage or waste away from complications of anemia before they can get adequate treatment, well, that's no reflection on him. As long as the fate of those ephemerals can't be linked to Josef and his minions, the elders don't care what he does."
"He has minions?" Most of their kind preferred a solitary existence. If it weren't for the seriousness of the situation, Karl would have laughed at that melodramatic term.
"I know of two younger vampires who live at the hotel with him."
Karl's flesh went even colder than normal. "Surely you don't think they plan to add Miranda to their stable?" If any member of their species would do something so despicable, he could believe it of Josef, with his low opinion of the human race.
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of. Even in the short time I spent with her, I sensed she had a touch of psychic talent, which would make her appetizing."
"You're right," Karl said. "She possesses a slight empathic gift and a bit of psychometry, which she uses to enhance her Tarot readings. Cordelia carries more of your heritage, but Miranda isn't a typical human female, either. She has your pale skin and gray eyes as well as those talents."
"She's certainly human enough to provide nourishment. They both are, aren't they?"
An involuntary snarl vibrated in his throat at the thought of any other vampire's teeth on Cordelia's flesh. "Yes, but I give you my word I won't allow either one to be violated that way."
"Josef would consider the tinge of nonhuman flavor in Miranda's blood a particular enticement. He would charge an exorbitant sum to let his clients feast on such exotic prey." Corinne's voice quivered with tightly leashed anxiety.
"If he does, he'll be crossing the line once and for all. The elders wouldn't tolerate using a vampire's child as a victim, even if she's half human."
"So they'll punish him after he drives her mad or drains her to death? That would be a bit late to do her any good."
"Don't worry, I'll get her away long before either of those can happen. Where is this place of his?"
She recited the directions, which Karl committed to memory. "How would Josef react if I showed up at his door?" he asked. "I have an idea, if you think he'll fall for it. Does he ever sell members of his stable?"
"I have heard he sometimes does so."
"Then I'll pretend I'm seeking a pet and offer to buy her. He's not aware of my connection with your daughters, is he?"
"Not that I know of."
"Then he'll have no reason to suspect me of ulterior motives. Doubtless he thinks all vampires secretly share his attitude toward ephemerals, so he shouldn't take much convincing, especially if I offer him enough money. I may be able to rescue her without coming to blows at all."
"You won't have to offer him anything, because I shall save her myself."
"What? Corinne, you can't. Josef wouldn't turn Miranda over to you. He'd refuse just to hurt you."
"I don't intend to ask. I'll simply take her." She breathed heavily as if to keep from exploding in rage. "My own carelessness put my child in this danger. I've been wrong all these years. Either I should have kept the twins and protected them with my life, or I should never have come near them. But it's too late for regrets. The most
I can do is make up for my poor judgment. I won't leave her in his hands one minute longer than necessary."
"I wish you'd reconsider. I have a reasonable chance of saving her with minimal risk. You don't."
"Don't waste time on arguments. I will not change my mind."
He sighed. "Then at least use some caution. If Josef catches you, don't drop the slightest hint of Cordelia's existence, let alone my patronage of their family."
"Of course not. I may have acted like a fool all these years, but I'm not stupid."
Chapter 6
* * *
At intervals during work on Friday, Cordelia sneaked glimpses of her throat in the ladies' room mirror at the library. Rather than a pair of punctures like the mark of a snake's fangs, she found a thin, red line like a tiny shaving cut. She felt no soreness when she touched it, only a tingling that zapped to her most sensitive spots like static electricity. By late afternoon, she wondered how she'd let herself fall under Karl's spell deeply enough to believe the tale he'd foisted on her. Now she felt ridiculous for having hung a delicate silver cross around her neck when she'd dressed that day. Vampires didn't exist. He and her mother couldn't be bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures out of legends and horror films. He must have lied to her, yet why would he make up a story that would draw unwelcome attention to himself? Was he delusional, like Thomas Howard? Impossible. Unlike the kidnapper, Karl seemed too composed, too in control. Knowing she'd have to face him that evening, she almost hated to leave the library with its soothing routine and freedom from random outbursts of emotion.
When she walked into her house shortly before six thirty, she found the living room shrouded in dimness by the closed curtains. She didn't remember leaving them that way. She dropped her purse on a small table in the entryway, as usual, and toed off her shoes. Only after she'd taken a couple of steps away from the front door did she notice the gleam of two red sparks in the area of the couch.
She jumped and pressed a hand to her mouth. Staring into the shadows until her vision adjusted, she recognized the glow as a pair of eyes.
"Karl?" He hadn't lied. He had the eyes of a predator, not a normal man.
He reached over to switch on a lamp. "Sit down, Cordelia. Surely you aren't going to be afraid of me, are you?"
Trembling, she collapsed into a chair. “You--you're not human."
"I thought we covered that this morning. Do we have to go through it all over again?"
She drew the cross on its fine-linked chain out of her blouse.
He said with a sardonic smile, "Have you forgotten I'm not a supernatural monster? You can't hurt me with that trinket."
She released the chain. "Then crosses don't affect vampires?"
"Only the unlucky ones who've absorbed human beliefs from those blasted movies or the general culture and developed a phobia of such things. We're highly adaptable, as I mentioned, which has its negative side. Most of the time what religious symbols do, if anything, is to protect the wearer from being mentally controlled. That is, if the person has a firm faith in the symbol, which I sense you don't. Your aura flickers with uncertainty."
She sighed. "You're right, even if I believed you were a resurrected corpse, I wouldn't expect waving a piece of jewelry in your face to drive you away." That sounded more like superstition than religious faith. "How did you get in?" The door had been locked and undamaged. "Mystical vampire powers?"
"Hardly. Remember, your father gave me a key for emergencies. I got in here the same way you invaded my house."
"I guess I should be glad you didn't break down the door."
Topaz leaped onto the couch and rubbed against Karl until he stroked her. Cordelia remembered how her pet, as a kitten, had fled from Karl at first, then suddenly switched to fawning over him. Now she realized how he'd worked that transformation. If he could hypnotically control people's minds, he must have a similar power over animals, like her own gift.
"We don't have any time to waste," he said. "I have to get to Miranda as soon as possible. She isn't safe with Josef."
Her pulse quickened with alarm. "You know where they are?"
"Almost certainly. I talked to Corinne this afternoon. She told me her brother maintains a place in the mountains of North Carolina--a blood farm, so to speak."
"That sounds bad." Her stomach knotted when she realized what that phrase must mean. "Don't tell me he has people penned up like livestock and harvests their blood?"
"In a sense. He sells other vampires access to his stable."
Revulsion briefly swamped her brain. When coherent thought surfaced again, a logical question occurred to her. "Sells? Why bother? Aren't all vampires rich?"
Karl laughed softly. "Got that from the movies, too, didn't you? But as a matter of fact, most of us do get rich, even if we don't flaunt it. Anyone who lives long enough and makes sensible investments accumulates wealth. You'll find an occasional vampire among the lowest classes, but that's usually a matter of choice, a way to avoid attracting attention. Josef has an almost human obsession with making money, though."
"Almost human, huh?" That sounded like a slur. "Why?"
"When he was a child, long before Corinne was born, he and his mother lived on the streets for a while. She'd lost her wealth and temporarily fallen into poverty. I don't know the details. The back alleys of a medieval town were no safer than the slums of a modern city. A gang of thugs attacked them, too many men for even an adult vampire and her half-grown son to fend off. They beat and raped Josef's mother while he lay on the cobblestones nearby, half-conscious."
Cordelia gasped in shock and reluctant pity.
"He blamed the attack on their penniless condition. Ever since, he's clung to the security of material possessions like any human miser. He also thinks he has good reason to hate your kind."
"Okay, he had a horrible experience," she said, "but it's no excuse for kidnapping people and selling their blood. He's allowed to get away with that? The rest of you don't care?"
"Although we do have ethical rules, they are few and simple. We don't normally kill our donors, but short of conspicuous violence, almost any behavior toward ephemerals is tolerated. Not approved, perhaps, but tolerated. The only restriction is not to draw attention to our peculiarities."
"Peculiarities!" His dispassionate tone fueled her indignation. "Don't you have any laws to keep you from treating people like fast food packages?"
"Many vampires think of the human population as exactly that or, at best, pets. We do have an authority structure, but it's as simple as our laws. We're solitary predators. Our council of elders interferes only in dire situations."
"Which they wouldn't think this is?"
He shook his head. "Most of our kind would consider Josef's arrangement perfectly all right. Even if some of the elders find it distasteful, it doesn't rise to the level of a punishable transgression."
She clutched her head, which felt about to explode, and gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. "Then what would?"
"Killing human prey without covering up the act. Murdering another vampire."
"Randy's half vampire. Doesn't that count?"
"Possibly. By the time we forced one of the elders to take notice, though, it might be too late for her."
"If our mother knows all this, why hasn't she done something?"
"She intends to," Karl said. "Unless she had second thoughts, she's already on her way to rescue Miranda. I told her she was being unpardonably reckless and urged her not to take the risk."
"Why not?" One minute he talked about how urgent it was to save her sister, and the next minute he said he'd tried to stop their mother from doing just that. Maybe he thought of human lives as disposable, too, regardless of his claim to protect their family.
"Because her confronting Josef would do no good and might make things worse. He would refuse Corinne's plea just to punish her for ignoring his opinion about interspecies mating."
"He hates the idea that much?"
"It disgus
ts him. Besides, I think he feels a certain personal bitterness. As Corinne's older brother, he would have been adviser to her child if she'd borne a purebred vampire infant. Thanks to your birth, he lost his chance to act as mentor to that nonexistent child."
"Unbelievable." The shredding of Miranda's optimistic daydream about finding their mother's family brought tears to Cordelia's eyes. Blinking them away, she said, "I can understand why he'd ignore us, but treating Randy like a dairy cow? That's revolting."
"Yes, his behavior toward your sister is especially vile because, as her uncle, he should be her special protector. He probably lured her into trusting him by playing on that relationship. From what I know of him, I suspect he might have spun a tale about Corinne deliberately keeping him away from you." He hesitated before continuing, "From his viewpoint, he must see her as a valuable prize. Psychic powers such as yours and Miranda's infuse the donor's blood with a unique flavor."
"Mine, too?" Her insides fluttered, half queasy and half excited at the memory of his lips at her neck. "Okay, you said we have to hurry, and I'm convinced. So why are we sitting here, and what's your plan?"
Karl said, "According to your mother, Josef doesn't know I have any particular interest in you and Miranda. I'll get access to her under the pretext of buying her."
Cordelia swallowed the acid that welled in her throat. "Like a pet."
"Precisely. If I can't slip her out by trickery, I'll simply pay his price. I only hope Corinne's impulsive actions don't ruin my chance. I'm not likely to beat her there, with the head start she has, but I have to try."
"What's this I thing? If you think you're going without me, you're even more delusional than Howard."
With a long-suffering sigh, Karl said, "I expected you to say that. And I suppose if I refuse, you'll try to follow me on your own."
"No trying about it, and if you force me to do that, I'll cause more trouble than if you take me along. You ancient creatures of the night may not be up to speed with it, but this is the information age. Now that I know Josef's name, I can find him on the Internet. Since he owns a house, he pays property taxes and who knows what else."
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