The Vampire’s Priceless Treasure

by Painter, Kristen

  She put her phone away in her belt bag, now firmly on her hip. Hattie wasn’t the best texter, and there was no telling when she’d actually answer. And Kora had lost track of what time it was in Nocturne Falls. Hattie might be in the middle of gardening. Or asleep.

  Kora closed her eyes. Not to sleep, but to lose herself in thought. For a moment, those thoughts were about the castle and the dungeon and how they were going to find the next clue. But her mind went to Greyson pretty quickly.

  He was about as perfect a partner as she could hope for. He was kinder than she remembered. More patient, too. But maybe that was because of how she’d changed. Maybe she was easier to be around now.

  Whatever the reason, he was being pretty wonderful so far. He took care of her in a way that didn’t make her feel helpless. She appreciated that.

  She also loved the glimpse into his past that she’d gotten. To think he owned that entire apartment building in Paris. All thanks to Catherine, of course, but what a woman she must have been.

  Her decision to turn Greyson made him even more desirable, in Kora’s estimation. Catherine obviously had a discerning eye. When she’d looked at Greyson, she’d clearly seen a man she wanted to spend centuries with. The thought was deeply intriguing, and for a moment, Kora lamented that Catherine wasn’t around to speak to.

  But then, if Catherine had still been here, Greyson wouldn’t be a part of Kora’s life. He’d probably never have come to Nocturne Falls. Never found a need to distract himself by doing jobs for her father.

  In a way, Catherine’s death had paved the way for this very moment.

  Kora laughed. Such a reaper thought to have, that death was a kind of gift. For all the ways she was her mother’s child, so much of herself was cut from the same cloth as her father.

  Her phone vibrated, bringing her out of her head. She glanced at the screen. Hattie had replied.

  So good to hear from you. Love you, too. How are things?

  Good. Did I wake you?

  No, just finished dinner. Going out for a walk with Mae Ellen next door.

  Kora smiled. It was so nice that Hattie had friends now. Have fun.

  Are you sure everything is all right?

  Yes, positive. Why?

  Your father seems upset.

  That was curious. Why?

  I don’t know.

  Kora was suddenly dying to find out. Use your magic. Get Dad to talk. Then tell me what’s going on! She ended with a winky face emoji and a heart.

  Hattie responded with, Will do! And added three hearts.

  Kora tucked her phone next to her and settled in. If anyone could pry information out of Lucien, it was Hattie. The next text should be very interesting.

  Lit on three sides, the Castillo del Toro rose out of the darkness like a monument to the past. An imposing structure with its sloping walls, fortifications and battlements, the stone edifice looked impenetrable. Which, Greyson understood, was exactly the point. And exactly the kind of place to hide something you wanted to stay hidden.

  Kora stood at Greyson’s side. “We’re never getting in there—”

  “It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll figure it out.”

  “You didn’t let me finish.” She nudged him good-naturedly. “We’re never getting in there without breaking in. We’ll have to pick the lock and hope for the best. What kind of security system do you think they have?”

  “I’d say a very good one based on some of the artifacts that are supposed to be on display. And we’re not going in through the main door. We’re also not picking any locks. That way, we won’t set off any alarms. Hopefully.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Then how are we getting in?”

  “I have a plan. Based on some research I did earlier.”

  “Do tell.” She crossed her arms and stared up at him with amused curiosity.

  He wanted to kiss her again. He decided he would, just as soon as the next clue was in hand. “I’m going to scale the parapet on the left side. Supposedly, there’s a window there that’s never been fixed since it was broken by a visiting royal in 1912. They think fixing it’ll bring bad luck or something. Anyway, I’ll go through that window and make my way down to the second floor, where I’m sure I can find an unalarmed door or window to open for you.”

  “What if that window’s been fixed?”

  Yes, he definitely wanted to kiss her. If only to get the smirk off her pretty face. “It hasn’t been. But even if it has, there will be something else. I’ll find a way.”

  “And where am I in all this?”

  “Keeping guard. We haven’t done any recon. Just because we don’t see any kind of security patrol doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”

  “So do we have a signal? Some kind of special whistle. Or a birdcall. You know, in case something comes up. How am I supposed to warn you?”

  He gave her a skeptical look. “Our phones will do just fine.”

  She coughed suddenly, and he could have sworn he heard the word boring. So much sass. Forget the kissing. She needed a good biting. Or spanking. He was up for either.

  He stifled his urges until such time as he could appropriately act on them. “Try not to get into trouble until I can get you inside, okay?”

  “Yes, Greyson, dear.”

  He shook his head, but smiled. “Be safe. I’ll move as quickly as I can. I’ll text you when I’m in.”

  “I’ll be here. Waiting patiently.”

  “I doubt that.” With a wink, he took off at full speed for the dark side of the castle. When he reached the wall, he stayed there for a moment, listening.

  He didn’t think he’d been detected. Human eyes weren’t always capable of picking up vampire movements at such speed. Especially in the dark. He didn’t hear anything.

  He listened harder, focusing on the castle’s interior. The thick stone walls made it difficult to arrow in on any sounds, but he thought he detected something faint. It was a repetitive sound. Like a heartbeat.

  They might have company inside. Would make sense to have at least one overnight guard. Greyson and Kora would just have to do their best to be quiet and stay out of the man’s patrol path.

  He gave it a few more seconds, but there were no other sounds. Content with that, he moved away from the wall about six feet to give himself some space, then took two big steps and leaped to the second level.

  He bent his knees as he landed, absorbing as much of the sound as he could. He repeated what he’d done below: found some shadow for cover, then listened for any sign that he’d been heard.

  Satisfied that all was clear, he made his way to the parapet with the broken window. If it had been repaired, it was about to be broken again. He wasn’t climbing all the way up there just to come back down again.

  He stayed on the dark side of the tower and ascended with careful precision, using the nooks and crannies of the stone block construction as his ladder. He wasn’t particularly fond of heights, but he kept his eye on the prize. The walkway at the top.

  Falling wouldn’t kill him, but it wouldn’t be pretty either. Kora would have to get him to safety in a bucket. And the recovery would be long and painful.

  He dug his fingers a little deeper into the next crevice, using every ounce of his extraordinary vampire strength to cling like Spider-Man to the tower’s sheer wall. He moved with as much haste as he felt was safe. He did not need to be discovered like this.

  At last, he made the walkway, hurling himself over the battlement to land on the stone ground. He lay there for two seconds, appreciating his own hard work, admiring the stars, and thanking the universe for not letting him become a vampire pancake on the ground below.

  Then he righted himself and went to find the broken window.

  It was, most happily, still broken.

  He carefully hoisted himself through it and dropped onto the steps that wound up to the walkway’s entrance.

  A quick listen now that he was inside revealed the hea
rtbeat he’d thought he’d heard earlier. And a second one.

  Two guards. He and Kora would have to be twice as careful.

  But vampire stealth was a very real thing, and he descended the steps with all the quiet of the undead.

  On the second floor, he did a quick round to ascertain where the guards were. First floor and stationary. As much as he wanted to go down and see if they were sleeping, he didn’t. He and Kora could handle that together. First, he had to find a way to get her inside.

  Like she was reading his mind, his phone vibrated with a message from her.

  What’s going on? Are you in?

  Your patience is remarkable, he texted back. Looking for a way to get you in now.

  He found that way in a small room with narrow windows. None of them had alarm sensors, maybe because of the size of the windows. But Kora could fit. She was tall but slim.

  Although there was her chest to deal with. A thought that derailed him for a moment.

  Second floor, he texted. Look for three narrow Gothic windows, one open. I’m there waiting for you.

  On my way.

  Then, not more than fifteen seconds later. Are you kidding? I don’t think a three-year-old could get through there.

  You’ll fit. All you have to do is jump to the second story, then use the bottom of the open window to pull yourself up.

  A moment went by, then he heard a dull thump, followed by a soft grunt.

  “A little help?”

  Two hands gripped the windowsill. And that was about all the width there was. He went over to give her an assist, leaning out to see her. “I may have overestimated the size of the window.”

  She shot him a look. “You think? I’m going to have to come in sideways. I need help for that.”

  “You got it.” He took hold of her right arm just below the wrist and lifted her until she could slide her right foot through.

  “Don’t let me go.”

  “I won’t.” And he meant it. Kora would come to no harm on his watch.

  She wriggled through with the grace of a limbo dancer, finally hopping down to stand beside him. “I’d much prefer to walk out of here, if that’s an option.”

  “If we can find a way out through the dungeon, it should be. But we have company.”

  “Guards?”

  He nodded. “Two on the first floor. They weren’t moving, so either they’re asleep or playing cards or staring at the ceiling. Not making enough noise to be doing anything else.”

  “Still, we’d better be quiet.”

  “Agreed. Thankfully, the priceless antiquities are all on display on the ground floor, so I can’t imagine they do much patrolling up here.”

  “We have to go down there, though, to access the dungeon.”

  “I know. But we don’t know how to access the dungeon.”

  “Ah.” She smiled and held up a finger. “But we do. I put Birdie on it. She was able to find a set of plans for this castle. As best she can tell in comparing those plans to the most current set, the passageway that was bricked off is through the armory.”

  He was impressed with her resourcefulness, but then, there wasn’t much Birdie couldn’t get done. “Do you know where the armory is?”

  “Not a clue. But Birdie also said there was a princess here, once upon a time, whose beloved was imprisoned in the dungeon, and she had a secret passageway constructed to visit him while her father was off at war. Or something like that. Anyway, that can be found in the library.”

  Greyson frowned. “The library is where the antiquities are displayed.”

  Her brows lifted. “I guess we’d really better hope those guards are sound sleepers.”

  Having Greyson lift her through the window had made Kora’s insides slightly fluttery. It wasn’t a reaction she’d expected. Sure, she liked the guy and was pretty jazzed that they were going on a real date when they got back to Nocturne Falls, but she was a vampire-reaper hybrid, for crying out loud.

  Not a teenage girl who’d spent her afternoon writing Mrs. Greyson Garrett on the back cover of her notebook three thousand times.

  What was going on with her? This kind of emotional softness was very confusing. On one hand, she imagined it was all part of her maturation process. On the other hand, it made her feel weak.

  And she didn’t like weak.

  Weak could get a vampire killed. These new feelings were doubly hard to take when Kora had lived most of her life believing that her mother’s death was caused by weakness. Finding this treasure and getting the truth couldn’t come soon enough.

  Greyson insisted on going first down the wide stairs to the first floor. She let him, since her own thoughts had taken part of her concentration.

  He went to check on the guards and came back a moment later. “Two, asleep as I suspected. We should be fine, but they are right at the entrance to the library.”

  “I can creep as good as the next guy.”

  “I have no doubt.” He gave her a wry smile. “All right, let’s go. If they wake up, we—”

  “Knock them out?”

  He frowned. “Use our speed to get out of their sight line.”

  “Party pooper.” But she smiled to show him she was kidding. “When we get into the library, you take the right side, I’ll take the left.”

  “Deal.”

  They went into stealth mode, moving past the guards with as little sound as possible. The guards continued to snooze.

  Once inside the library, they had to remain silent, but that was harder to do as they searched for the secret entrance to the dungeon. There was nothing to hide behind either. In a room that had once held shelves and shelves of books, it was now a wide-open space filled with waist-high display cases showing off the treasures of past eras and long-gone nobility.

  The walls were all they were concerned with, however. The wood panels were the perfect height and width to provide entrance to a secret passage.

  With the guards just feet away, knocking on the panels to see which one had empty space behind it was out of the question.

  Kora watched Greyson. He was holding his hands in front of the panel seams. Feeling for a draft, no doubt.

  Smart. But she could accomplish that more effectively with a simple tool. She dug the lighter out of her belt bag, flicked it to life, and used the flame to look for escaping air.

  Greyson turned at the rasp of the flint, then nodded his approval.

  Few vampires were fans of fire, but she hadn’t grown up with that fear, since she’d been primarily raised by her father. Carrying the lighter was something she’d started doing after setting fire to a department store (with matches found in the employee breakroom) had proved to be the perfect amount of distraction for her to escape a sticky situation.

  Of course, that wasn’t the kind of situation she imagined she’d ever be in again, now that she was on the straight and narrow.

  But old habits die hard, and the lighter was once again proving useful.

  Greyson was pushing on a panel as if hoping to spring a hidden latch. When nothing happened, he moved on to the next one.

  She returned to her own work, testing the air around the panel seams and watching for the flame’s telltale flicker.

  One of the guards let out a loud, choking snore. She froze, glancing at Greyson with eyes wide.

  He held up a finger and mouthed the word, “Wait.”

  After a few moments, the guard’s snoring returned to the same cadence, but her nerves stayed tightly wound. It was silly to feel that way. The human guards were no match for her and Greyson. The humans were slower, their sight was impaired by the relative darkness, and they didn’t have a vampire’s strength.

  And yet, the thought of being found out twisted Kora’s belly into knots.

  With a shake of her head, she went back to work, moving the lighter slowly past the seams. It was slow going by necessity. Moving the lighter too fast would cause the flame to quiver and make her think she’d found something.

  Ever
y once in a while, she’d glance over at Greyson. From the set of his jaw, he looked frustrated. She understood. She was, too. They’d been at this for nearly twenty minutes and had nothing to show for it.

  But even frustrated, he was handsome. And very hard to take her eyes off of. Besides the frustration, was he feeling the same thing she was? Disappointment?

  Because she’d expected to saunter in and find the passageway instantly. Why she’d thought it would happen like that, she wasn’t sure, but the longer they were in here, the more hope she lost.

  They might have to get a room and come back tomorrow night. Or go back to the plane. But the idea of sharing a room with him had appeal for reasons better left unexplored at the moment.

  She stopped watching Greyson and went back to her own wall. She started on the side of the next panel.

  The flame flickered.

  She went as still as stone. Easy to do when you had no pulse and no need to breathe.

  The flickering continued, bending the flame nearly in half. She moved the lighter down the seam. The flame danced and wavered, even when she held the lighter still.

  In a nearly inaudible whisper, she called out, “Greyson.”

  He joined her a second later. He smiled at her and nodded, the wordless equivalent of good job.

  She moved out of the way, and he put his hands on the panel, pushing like he’d done with the others.

  A soft snick rewarded his efforts, and the panel protruded a few centimeters on one side.

  He got his fingers under the edge and opened it.

  The squeal of rusted metal shattered the silence. Both guards came to life with the sounds of being woken. Voices followed.

  Then footsteps.

  Greyson yanked the panel all the way open. “Go,” he whispered.

  Kora dashed in. He followed and closed the panel behind them.

  Darkness descended. The pitch-black kind, devoid of even the tiniest bit of light. Even vampire eyes needed a speck of illumination so they could see.

  Kora reached out for Greyson and found him next to her. The passageway was narrow and short, so they were both stooped down. Her hand closed around his arm. He put his hand over hers.