“An existence without blood!”
“Dull.”
“I didn’t mean to waken you,” she burst out.
“I know.”
“Then let me go.”
“I’m not keeping you.” As if to prove it, he lifted his arms to waist height and let them fall to his side. But perversely, given permission, she refused to take it.
“I’m told you’ll do anything to take back the power you once had.”
“Who can have told you such a thing?” he marveled.
“The vampire hunters.”
He smiled, a rare, full smile that shot dangerous fire straight to her core. “Bless them,” he said fondly. “Are they still about? Tell them I send greetings.”
“Tell them yourself. I expect they’re on their way.”
He didn’t look frightened. He didn’t even look interested. He seemed more absorbed in holding a strand of her hair up to the light and letting it slip through his fingers. She wanted to step back out of his reach, but something, either the magnetism of his body or her own foolish pride, held her still. “What else do they say?” he murmured.
“That the other vampires will kill you. And me, because I woke you.”
His lips quirked. “Then you’d better come with me so that I can protect you.”
“But you’ll kill me too.”
“Poor Elizabeth,” he said without noticeable pity. “Be easy. I won’t kill you yet. You intrigue me too much.”
“How?” she demanded with such scorn that he dropped her hair and met her gaze.
“Like that.” Without warning, he took her chin between his long, pale fingers and tilted up her face. As she gasped, his fingers spread downward around her throat in a hold that was firm, neither threatening nor caressing and yet might have held something of both. “One day, you’ll have to decide. Friend or foe?”
“Foe,” she spat.
“I wasn’t talking to you.” His face swooped over hers, his mouth coming to rest a hairbreadth from her lips. There was no breath, nothing to stir or warm her skin, and yet she felt something potent and dangerous, drawing her ever nearer. “When I come to you next, we’ll talk. And more. I hope you’ll be waiting.”
He released her and stepped around her. Without looking back, he strode up the aisle.
Elizabeth’s eyes were riveted to his hips as he moved. When he disappeared through a door at the front of the church, she dragged in a shaken breath and started after him, from pure curiosity to see where he could possibly go. But without warning, the big outside door creaked farther open, and two chattering women came in. Had he heard them, sensed them before she had? Did he care that they would see him?
Caught in a moment of indecision, Elizabeth found herself feeling guilty, though for what she had no idea. When the women greeted her with politeness, she muttered a reply and left the church the way she’d come in.
Outside in the bright sunlight, there was no sign of him. But then, there wouldn’t be.
All three vampire hunters were waiting for her in the café, gazing anxiously at the same copy of a newspaper. She didn’t even think of them in quotation marks now.
As Elizabeth sank into the vacant chair, they cast her distracted smiles.
“Look.” Konrad pushed the paper toward her and pointed to the piece at the foot of the front page.
Elizabeth scanned the story about a whole family who had burned to death in a farmhouse just five miles outside Bistriƫa. “That’s awful. Even the children . . . tragic.”
“It’s worse than tragic. It’s Saloman.”
Her stomach twisted. She felt sick. “You’re telling me he did this?”
“Not all of it. He set fire to the building, but they were all dead by then anyway.”
“He killed all those people?” The man—the creature—who’d just spoken to her, teased her . . . Blood pounded in her ears, threatening to deprive her of consciousness. She fought it, trying to listen as Konrad spoke, almost with reluctance.
“Only one of them, I understand. A woman. Zoltán and the other vampires had already killed everyone else.”
“It says nothing about that here,” she said stupidly.
“Well, it wouldn’t, would it?” said István. “There’s not much left of their charred bodies that would show their blood had been drained. But we have an informant who was there.”
Elizabeth stared. “An informant? Where the hell was he? Staring in the window?”
“Inside,” Konrad said. “He’s a vampire. But not a bad creature. In fact, he’s helped us on many occasions, and thanks to him, we know exactly what Saloman is up to.”
“What?” Dread filled her, threatening to overwhelm her.
“He won’t be content with dominion over the vampire world. He wants to rule humans as well, and expects Zoltán to help him achieve it.”
“That’s nuts,” Elizabeth said, and when they all gazed at her in astonishment, she added, “Well, come on! Every stage and screen villain for the last hundred years has wanted to take over the world! No one ever manages it.”
“This is real,” Konrad scolded.
“Yes? Well, Hitler was real, and he couldn’t manage it either.”
“Are you defending Saloman?” Mihaela asked, curious, and to Elizabeth’s shame, a flush spread upward from her toes, rushing up her neck and into her face.
“No,” she muttered. “I’m just having a hard time believing any of this.”
Chapter Five
“We can’t afford the security of having a safe house here too,” Mihaela explained as she turned on the computer. “We just rent this place, and we have a team in Budapest do all the research we need as it comes up.”
It was a small but decent house in the modern suburbs of Bistriƫa. The vampire hunters had driven Elizabeth here with alacrity when she’d expressed an interest in seeing their documents. Now, discovering that there weren’t any at this location, Elizabeth suspected they’d used her interest as an excuse to get her here. She was going to have difficulty leaving.
“What do you want to know?” Mihaela asked, sitting in front of the screen and pulling over a chair for Elizabeth. Konrad hovered in the background while István went to make coffee.
“Everything,” Elizabeth said, sinking into the chair beside her. “I want to know about vampires, how and when they came to be. I want to know about Saloman and Dmitriu, and how much threat they really are to me. And I want to know about you guys.”
“About us, you just need to ask,” Mihaela said with a quick smile.
“Yes, but I mean the earlier vampire hunters.”
Mihaela lifted her brows. “You’re aware how long the organization has been around?”
“Since the seventeenth century anyway.” She met Mihaela’s gaze defiantly. “Saloman told me.” For some reason, that was difficult to say. She needed to analyze things on her own first, and yet if Saloman was as dangerous as all that—and from the farmhouse incident she couldn’t doubt it—the hunters needed to know what he’d said. For their own safety as well as her own.
I can’t believe this. I still can’t believe I’m buying all this. . . .
She drew in her breath and let it out. “I saw him this morning in the church, while I was waiting for you.” Her gaze flickered to Konrad. His piercing eyes were steady, unsurprised. “He knew about you. He sent you . . . greetings.”
Konrad rested his hip on the back of the sofa behind him. “There have been vampire hunters as long as there have been vampires—almost. Our records go back to the twelfth century.”
“And yet you’ve never shared them? None of the universities have ever heard of you, or have even a sniff of the kind of rare documents you’re talking about?”
“No. Our existence depends on secrecy. Who would believe in us anyway? You’d already met a vampire and still thought we were a bunch of crackpots.”
Elizabeth flushed. “True,” she admitted. “So . . . is your library online?” she asked hopefully.
>
“No,” Konrad replied. “But you can ask anything, and our researchers will do their best to find the answers for you.”
Elizabeth frowned. It wasn’t the kind of research she was used to. She wanted the actual, primary source, not someone else’s interpretation of it, and especially not that of someone she’d never met and knew nothing about, educationally or otherwise.
“I’d love to see your library,” she said wistfully.
“Come to Budapest with us,” Mihaela suggested.
“You’re going back?” Elizabeth wasn’t sure what she felt about that. Panic about being left to deal with all this crap on her own? Disappointment that they would so soon desert the sinking ship when all those vampires were in the same city?
“Tomorrow,” said Konrad, catching Mihaela’s glance. “Tonight we’ll try and eliminate a few of the dispersing vampires.”
“Including Zoltán and Dmitriu?” Elizabeth asked. And Saloman? The question lay unspoken between them, but it was so palpable, she was sure Konrad and Mihaela both heard it.
“Eliminating Zoltán is a tricky one,” Konrad said as István came in with a tray of coffee cups. It was strong, Turkish-type coffee, and Elizabeth reached for hers with enthusiasm. It was just the blast she needed to wake her from this weird sense of unreality.
“How so?” she asked, and took a sip of the thick, sweet brew. Wow!
Konrad sighed. “Zoltán is strong and brutal, but his removal would create a power vacuum. And in the ensuing chaos, who knows how many people would die, as the vampires compete for power by displays of pure badness? Before Zoltán managed to seize power, it was horrific, believe me.”
“When was that?” Elizabeth asked.
“A couple of hundred years ago. But it is a matter of record.”
“Of course. So what is your aim, then? To keep the numbers of his underlings down to manageable levels?”
“Something like that,” István acknowledged, sitting on the arm of the sofa. “Mostly, it’s the fledglings who’re the indiscriminate killers. The older vampires prefer a peaceful life, drinking from humans but rarely killing—apart from odd breakouts like last night at the farmhouse, which was something of a welcome party for Zoltán, I expect. And an opportunity for Zoltán to show the world—and Saloman in particular—what a badass he still is.”
Elizabeth nodded. Worryingly, she could see the perverse logic.
Mihaela said, “On a more personal note, the bargain they struck last night stipulated that Zoltán leave you to Saloman. For that reason too, we need to terminate Saloman.”
Terminate . . .
“The trouble is,” Konrad went on, “Saloman has destabilized the whole thing. Vampires are breaking cover through fear and excitement, anticipating a war for the leadership. And to be honest, I can’t work out whether or not that would be worse than the alliance that seems to have formed between them instead. Though they’ll never be able to work together. They’ll be jostling for position.”
“Jostling?” Elizabeth queried.
“Well, yes.”
“It’s just . . . I can’t imagine Saloman jostling.” It sounded lame, even to her own mind.
“Possibly not,” Konrad admitted. “I doubt it’ll prove a long-lasting partnership, or a trustworthy one. But before we can find out, it’s important we take Saloman out.”
Why can’t we take Zoltán out instead? Annoyed with her indignant thought, Elizabeth finished her coffee and replaced the cup on the tray.
“How will you do that?” she asked, as noncommittally as she could.
The three vampire hunters exchanged glances once more. “We need to talk to you about it,” Konrad said. “How do you feel about being bait?”
“Are you worried about this?” Mihaela asked. They were in her bedroom while they both changed. Mihaela’s spare jeans didn’t look particularly good on Elizabeth, but they were serviceable with the hem rolled up a couple of times. Elizabeth didn’t care. She was sure she could run as fast in a dress as in trousers, but the others seemed to think it was the thing to do.
“I’m worried that I’m involved. But I don’t think it’s fear—yet.”
“I’ll be with you all the time,” Mihaela said, raising her three sharpened wooden sticks before placing them in her capacious handbag. “And the others will be right behind, watching. Saloman is still weak after his awakening. Between us, we can take him. We have to, before he gets any stronger. Here,” she added, passing another thick, pointed stick to Elizabeth. “Be prepared to use it. Aim straight for his heart or he’ll simply pull it out again.”
Elizabeth stared at the wooden stake. “I saw him do that already. Just awakened, he had no difficulty pulling it out. What’s to stop his doing it again?”
“We are. Anyway, the awakening thing is different. He would feel something akin to an adrenaline rush that gave him false energy, false abilities that wouldn’t have been there an hour later. Now he’s just as vulnerable as a fledgling—probably.”
“Probably,” Elizabeth repeated, taking the stake and running one finger over the finely honed point.
“There hasn’t been an Ancient awakened in centuries,” Mihaela admitted. “Our only record is hearsay, and that’s from a document dated in the fourteenth century, describing events several hundred years before that.”
“Then you’re guessing. It’s doubtful evidence and uncorroborated.”
Mihaela’s flickering gaze acknowledged it. “We have to try—for the safety of the rest of the world. It’s our job to protect people from vampires. I’m sorry—you didn’t sign up for this, and we’ll do our best to make sure you at least survive it.”
Elizabeth, experimentally pushing the stake up the sleeve of her borrowed jacket, paused to glance at the other woman. “That’s what you do all the time, isn’t it? You risk your lives against . . . monsters so the rest of us don’t have to believe in them.”
Mihaela gave a lopsided smile. “Something like that.”
“How come? How do you get to be a vampire hunter? Are you ‘chosen’ like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”
Elizabeth knew she sounded too flippant, but fortunately Mihaela laughed. “Hardly,” she replied. “We’re just ordinary people who’ve come in contact with vampire evil one way or another and decided to do something about it. The rest is simple training—mostly.”
The point of the stake dropped down into Elizabeth’s palm, and she twisted her wrist to grasp the shaft and pull it out. Watching, Mihaela nodded with approval.
Elizabeth said, “I can’t not admire that. It makes what the rest of us devote our lives to seem trivial.”
“It’s not trivial,” Mihaela argued. “If it were, defending it would mean nothing either.”
Elizabeth smiled. “You’d make a good academic.”
Mihaela laughed, shouldering her bag. “Ready to go?”
Elizabeth nodded and followed her to the door. But there, she paused. “Mihaela? Does it ever feel like—murder?”
Mihaela’s hand slid off her door handle, leaving the door closed. “No.” She glanced back at Elizabeth, her perceptive eyes searching. “Elizabeth, he’s not human. He’s not a tame animal or a creature of instinct. He’s a calculating, self-seeking monster who’d kill you as quickly and as easily as he did that woman at the farmhouse. Your blood is more, not less, necessary to him, and the fact that he hasn’t taken it yet is not because he regards you as a friend—or anything else.”
Rising blood seeped into Elizabeth’s face. “He’s playing with me. Amusing himself. I know that.”
Mihaela hesitated, then said, “Vampires, particularly the older ones—and there are none older than Saloman—have a certain sexual magnetism. Even those who hate them or fear them the most are aware of it. No one is immune. It shouldn’t shame you. But you mustn’t give in to it either. He’d take your blood with your body.”
Heat curled through her, reminding her unbearably of the few occasions she’d been close to him. Worse than anyth
ing was the surge of excitement at Mihaela’s words, dampening her underwear and propelling her into movement because she couldn’t be still.
“I know,” she mumbled, fiddling with the stake in her sleeve as she brushed forward, reaching for other reasons behind her distress. “It’s not that. It’s just . . . I’ve never killed anything before. Not even spiders if I can avoid it.”
Mihaela opened the door. “Don’t worry,” she soothed. “We’ll do the killing.”
Elizabeth’s sense of unreality intensified as the evening progressed. She and Mihaela spent time in the bars and cafés frequented by younger people—making sure they were seen—while Konrad and István took it in turns to drift in and out, to hang around the bar, or to sit over a bottle of beer and a newspaper.
Sitting at a pavement table just outside one of these modern, friendly establishments, Elizabeth found it hard to believe that any dark side to the city existed, and if it did, that any darkness would notice her here, let alone report it to Saloman.
And yet he’d found her in the church. He’d spoken inside her head. Though she wasn’t quite sure why, she hadn’t told the vampire hunters that part of the story and didn’t think she would. But she wondered whether that was how he’d tracked her and whether he could be in her head now. The idea appalled and excited her at the same time. However, she could feel no trace of the tiny electrical buzz that she’d imagined in the church, so she doubted it.
Over one glass of wine and a cup of coffee, the twisting knot of tension inside her began to relax a little. The vampire hunters were wrong. Saloman would not be seduced into any trap. On the other hand, her hoped-for research at the vampire hunters’ house had never come to anything, except in a very haphazard, need-to-know sort of a way, and right now she had Mihaela’s brain to pick and a lot of questions that still needed answering.
Twisting the stem of her wineglass in her fingers, she said, “How come he was in the church? Could he be living there?”
“He might have been,” Mihaela allowed. “But he isn’t now. Konrad and István checked.”
Blood on Silk Page 7
