by Ann Gimpel
“A well-liked Vamp is a dead one,” Juan cut in, his demeanor much too cheerful for his words.
“Sounds hideous.” Magic streamed from Ketha, headed right for Juan.
“Watch it!” Viktor snapped. “She’s been working on controlling me ever since we left the meeting room.”
“I’ve had worse propositions aimed my way. Juan, and I’m at your service, senorita.” He mock bowed and laughed softly. A native of Argentina, he’d been Viktor’s navigator back when they worked for Dynamic Oceans. “The reason I followed you is I want to know if the Shifter’s assertions are true.”
“So you can report back to Raphael?” Viktor asked.
“No. For myself.” Truth pinged cleanly off his words.
They rounded a sharp corner and came to an iron door recessed into the steep hillside. Iron muted everyone’s magic, but Vamps weren’t all that susceptible to it—unless it was part of a blade that beheaded them.
“I’ll get it. Your hands are full.” Juan pushed in front of Viktor and activated the combination of keypad strokes that would spring the latch. The device was mechanical, but surprisingly sophisticated.
“I can walk from here,” Ketha spoke up.
Viktor set her on her feet. The warm place where her body had lain against his felt hollow, empty, and he fought a desire to scoop her against him again. She turned a knowing, golden gaze his way, tilting her head to make better eye contact. Before she could say anything, he clamped a hand around her arm and pushed her through the door Juan had already walked through.
A long, low, rounded tunnel led into the cave system someone had turned into a prison. Water ran down the walls, and the place held a perpetually dank smell. A small, dim globe of violet light formed next to Ketha, illuminating the walkway.
“It would be brighter,” she said, “but it’s a bitch to force much magic through all this iron.”
“Vamps can see in the dark,” Viktor informed her, surprised she wouldn’t know that fact. As he thought about it, though, it made sense. He knew less than nothing about Shifters. Why should they know anything about Vampires?
“Where do you want to put her?” Juan’s voice echoed, amplified by the tunnel’s odd acoustics.
“Same place I was,” Viktor answered.
“Now, there’s a story I’d like to hear,” Ketha murmured. “How long since Rat-Vamp turned you?”
They emerged from the tunnel, and Viktor stretched his back upright. He hated this place and wondered if she’d picked up on his antipathy. Still gripping her arm, he marched her toward the tail end of a series of cells formed out of rock and dirt. Juan already had the door of his old abode open.
Shoulders square, Ketha shuffled inside, mage light still suspended next to her. She turned toward him and held out her arms but didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.
Viktor exchanged glances with Juan. The other Vamp nodded once, sharply, and said, “We can take them off. No way can she work her way out of here.”
Viktor wasn’t certain about that. The caves had held him and Juan and many other humans. They’d never stood the test of Shifter magic, not that he knew of, anyway.
Ketha shook her arms, and the handcuffs rattled against the other manacles. “Please.” The single word—entreaty laced with magic—was impossible to resist.
Before Viktor could react, Juan dragged a small key from his pocket and sprang the cuffs. Viktor’s eyes widened. Juan must’ve used sleight of hand to steal the key from Raphael.
“Do not say one word.” Juan bit off the sentence and stared hard at Viktor. “You and I will talk later.” He pocketed both cuffs and key.
Viktor reached for one of the links holding Ketha’s wrist manacles together. The metal snapped beneath his fingers as if it were plastic, and the length of chain clattered to the ground. Similar pressure made short work of the iron bands circling her wrists. Her mage light brightened immediately.
She rubbed her wrists. “Thank you. Metal burns my skin.” She held her hands close to her light, revealing raw spots that validated her words.
“I can bring salve—” he began.
“No. What I need both of you to do is listen. I can heal myself with magic.”
Juan drew close. “Listen to what, Shifter? Was what you said back in the city true? Is there a way out of this hellhole?”
Ketha nodded slowly, looking from one to the other of them. “An unholy alliance between us began this disaster. Another will set things right.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Viktor demanded.
Ketha snorted. “Funny, but my Shifters asked the same thing. I’m a seer. I can scry the past—and the future.” She inhaled deeply, blew it out, and did it again. “I’ve tried to figure out why we became trapped here ever since it happened. It was only a couple of days ago, though, that my efforts paid off.”
“Explain,” Juan broke in.
Ketha turned her hands palms up. “Not sure I can. Some spells are time-linked. Perhaps the one hiding the origins of the Cataclysm was linked to a ten-year mark. What I discovered was if we joined our power and focused it on the shielding holding us prisoner, we could defeat it. What we’d actually be doing is opening a sort of conduit to let the casting that began ten years ago run its course to a natural conclusion.”
“Sounds too simple to be true,” Juan muttered.
Viktor agreed, but he couldn’t figure out why the Shifter might lie about something that would place her and her kin in a vulnerable position. So far, they’d avoided virtually all contact with his ilk. The few Shifters he’d seen had been from a distance.
“Why do you think there’d be a better outcome this time than there was ten years ago?” he demanded.
“Because the last spell was sabotaged.”
“How?” Juan asked.
“By whom?” Victor chimed in.
“Sex derailed it.” She set her mouth in a thin, tight line. “I have no idea who initiated it and threw a clod in the churn, but sex has always been forbidden between Vampires and Shifters.”
“You’ve referred to your Shifters more than once. How many are you?” Viktor asked.
“An even dozen including me. All women. We came to Ushuaia to harvest power from an eclipse—except the Cataclysm occurred first.”
“What happened to your men?” Juan asked.
“We left them back in Wyoming.”
“Do you know if they’re still alive?” Viktor asked.
“How could I? I can’t see very clearly or very much beyond the barrier. At first, I could, but these past two or three years, it’s turned all but opaque. There’s life out there, but I have no idea where or whom. Look.” Her voice softened, and all traces of magic fled. “This isn’t about what we left behind. I don’t know much about what Vampires can do. I figure you’re not familiar with Shifter ability, either. Can you at least determine if someone is telling the truth?”
“Sometimes,” Viktor answered carefully.
“We can pick up outright lies,” Juan added, “but if a person is adept at weaving truth and falsehood, it might feel true to us.”
Viktor made a chopping motion with one hand. “Don’t give her information she can use against us.”
Conflict soured his stomach. The Shifter kindled a spark of hope within him, but he didn’t trust her. Desire sparred with wariness, creating a lethal combination. She sent a speculative look skittering across the air between them, and it made things much worse. She could read his mind far too easily, yet, when he probed hers, he’d found nothing but a blank wall.
“It’s hard,” she said and hobbled to a stone bench set into one wall.
“What are you talking about?” Viktor asked.
“Figuring out if you can trust me.”
Her words were innocent enough, but they proved she’d been inside his head.
She extended her legs and lifted her robes an inch or two to reveal the manacles. “These too, please. Before the metal finishes burning down to my b
ones and kills my wolf.”
Viktor wanted to ask about her bond animal, but the last thing he needed was for Ketha to kindle his compassion any more than she already had. He repeated his actions with the wrist manacles, shocked to see bone already showing through on one ankle.
Ketha bent forward, rubbing the reddened lesions circling both legs. “Thank you. I won’t forget your kindness. Neither will my wolf.”
“Vampires are never kind,” Juan informed her. “Tell us more about how working together will free us. How many of us have to do this? If it’s only a handful—and we can fly beneath the radar—it might be manageable.”
“Before you answer him,” Viktor cut in, “what about the other Shifters in Ushuaia? The ones who were here before you and your group arrived.”
Surprise bloomed on her face so quickly it had to be genuine. “There weren’t any others like us here. The nearest Shifter pack is fifteen hundred miles north in Buenos Aires.”
Viktor filed the information away. It was one more thing Raphael had claimed to know where he’d been mistaken. Who knew? Maybe he’d killed a few and assumed there had to be more nearby.
“The number of Shifters isn’t relevant. How many Vampires will you need for your scheme to work?” Juan repeated after casting a pointed look Viktor’s way.
“I don’t know. When your goons nabbed me, I was working on scrying the future to clarify details like that.” She scrabbled through pockets and closed her teeth over her lower lip. “Damn it. I’ve lost my glass. It must be back where those Vamps found me.”
“Will it work in here?” Viktor asked. “You’re deep within a hillside.”
Ketha’s mouth curved into a smile. “Shifters derive their power from the Earth. It’s purer down here than I’ve felt in quite some time.” She drew her brows into a thin line. “If I wasn’t always hungry, I’d probably have thought of this strategy myself. Although, since I didn’t know there were any caves in the region, likely I’d not have been successful locating one.”
“You’re saying you’re stronger in here?” Juan clarified.
Ketha nodded. “And my power will continue to expand. At least for a while. There’s a tunnel system beneath Ushuaia, but its energy isn’t as clean as what I feel here. It’s been one of the only places my wolf perks up.”
“Yes, I know about the underground network.” Viktor strode from one side of the cell to the other, the motion disturbingly reminiscent of the months he’d spent penned up in this space. “What do you need?” he asked.
“Food. My glass, if you can find it. It’s an oblong two-sided mirror, about eight inches around.” She tilted her head toward the sound of running water. “Is that fresh water or salt?”
“Fresh,” Viktor replied, not bothering to elaborate it was the reason he’d chosen to sequester her here and not in one of the other cells.
“If we get you those things, will you find out more details about how we can escape the barrier?” Juan asked.
She clacked her teeth together. “I don’t want to give you false hope. But I did scry a very small group of us who’d banded together to blend their magic. The Cataclysm that broke the world originated from their efforts.”
“How can you be sure?” Viktor asked, feeling skeptical. “I never met a Vamp who was looking to mingle—or share—his power with anything.”
“I’m sure because of the question I asked when I set my spell. For years, I asked the same question and came up with nothing.”
“Might be a trap,” Viktor muttered.
“Set by whom?” she countered. “The more I find out about you, the more certain I am Vampires don’t have enough power to pull something like that off.”
“Maybe not Vampires like Juan and me,” Viktor countered, “but Raphael and the old ones are powerful.”
Ketha shook her head. “Not in the right way. That type of inducement requires subtlety, refinement. I’ve yet to unearth any evidence Vampire power holds those elements.”
“She’s got that right.” Juan made a derisive, grunting sound. “We have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.”
Viktor bit back a harsh laugh. “You seem to know a lot, Shifter. Why are your kind and mine sworn enemies?”
She sent an incredulous look bouncing between him and Juan. “You don’t know that?”
“If he did, he wouldn’t have asked. We know less than nothing about Shifters,” Juan said. “Our law forbids contact with you, and neither Viktor nor I knew a magical world even existed pre-Cataclysm.”
“Of course. Sorry.” Ketha tucked her knees under her and arranged her robes around her body. “Sparing unnecessary details about the longstanding animosity between us, Shifters are linked to Earth magics through our animal bonds. We protect living creatures and respect nature. Gaia, mother of the world, watches over Shifters and guides our hand.”
“While Vampires were spawned from darkness,” Viktor muttered. “Living in shadows on blood—”
“With no respect for anything beyond our next feed,” Juan cut in sounding far more bitter than Viktor had ever heard him.
“You can see the divide,” Ketha said. “We protect. You kill. It’s as if we’re opposite sides of the same coin. But know this too,” she hurried on. “Everything needs its opposite to exist. It’s why Shifters never made any effort to eradicate Vampires. Our magic might have faded if you’d disappeared from the world. Or worse, another opposing magic would have cropped up to fill the void.”
“Better the devil you know?” Juan met her eyes, but not for long.
“About the size of it,” Ketha replied.
Viktor was fairly certain Vampires had no idea killing off Shifters would impact them in any way at all, but he kept his mouth shut. Perhaps Raphael and the other old ones held such knowledge, choosing not to reveal it.
“Something’s happened to Vamps since the Cataclysm,” Viktor began, not certain if sharing anything with the Shifter was wise, but she wasn’t holding back, so perhaps he shouldn’t, either.
“Yes?” She leaned forward. “I asked you about that earlier, and you said turning wasn’t as predictable. Is there more?”
“Juan and I and the others who were turned post Cataclysm aren’t exactly like Raphael,” Viktor said.
“Mainly, we can’t turn anyone. Never could,” Juan cut in. “Even Raphael and the other old ones are having problems. Only a handful of those they try to turn become Vampires these days.”
“What happens to the others?” Ketha asked.
“They die,” Viktor said. “The ritual includes draining the potential Vamp. They return to life once they drink from us. Except it’s not happening that way. Raph drains them, but about half never revive enough to drink his blood and live again.”
Ketha scrunched her forehead in thought. “Any other differences?”
Viktor considered her question. “Not really. Nothing important.”
“You don’t have to answer this, but do you still keep human slaves to feed from?” Ketha took a ragged breath. “I was certain all the remaining humans were safe from you—unless they were stupid enough to leave their compounds.”
“No slaves. Not anymore,” Juan said and elbowed Viktor, urging him to continue.
“Before you helped them build those enclaves...” Viktor began, struggling how to word what was deplorable and indefensible. “Some of us raped humans. When they gave birth to our offspring—babies who cried for blood rather than milk—they left them where we’d be certain to find them.”
Ketha made come-along motions with one hand. “What’d you do with them?”
“Turned them into food.” Viktor’s voice held a cold, dead undernote that told him how repulsed he’d been. “Vampires haven’t the first clue how to raise an infant. We’ve always been able to have sex, but new Vamps came from turning an adult.”
“Are there no women in your ranks?” Sadness streamed from the Shifter in dark-gray waves.
“Yes, but all of us have been living on short rat
ions for years. The last thing anyone wanted was to share their hard-to-come-by blood with a baby. After half a dozen of those infants, Raphael made it clear he’d personally behead anyone who bedded a human,” Juan said, adding, “After he followed through, that was the end of the baby problem.”
“Why would he care?” Ketha asked.
Viktor shrugged. He’d asked himself the same thing. “Hard to say. If he has any soft spots, I’ve never found them.”
Juan nodded in agreement. “It’s past time to leave. I’m going to look for your glass. And I’ll try to come up with some food.” He plodded out the cell door.
“Appreciated,” Ketha called after him, and then turned her unsettling, golden eyes on Viktor. She waited until Juan’s footsteps faded before saying, “You were going to free me. Why’d you change your mind?”
“Why do you think?” he countered.
“Because Rat-Vamp would kill you.”
“Smart Shifter.” Viktor drew her to her feet and stood close. “I want to believe what you’ve said. And I want out of Ushuaia more than I can articulate, but it would be hard to explain why you’re not in this cell if Raphael comes to talk with you. And he will. You piqued his curiosity with your hints about escaping the barrier.”
“Better to play along?” She winked and wrapped her arms around him.
Her heady scent—wildflowers and Antarctic beech trees—held Viktor in thrall, and he stopped thinking. He crushed her against him and gave in to the temptation to close his mouth over hers. Memories of being human, of making love with women, spilled through him. She opened her mouth to him, tasting of summers and promise and bliss. He slid his tongue inside her mouth, and she moaned low in her throat, all heat and fire and need pressed as close as she could get.
Before he did something he’d regret and hiked up her robes to lift her over the thickness throbbing between his legs, he ripped his mouth from hers and ran out of the cell, slamming its door behind him.
He thought he heard a wolf howl, but he must have been mistaken.
Chapter Four: Mirror, Mirror Tell Me True
