I looked into her eyes, surprised by her insight. “My father used to say I took the best of my mother’s nurturing—that my craven hungers made my brother weak and robbed the children who came after him of the very marrow of their bones and the potency of their blood.”
“Father of the Year,” Daisy said with gentle sarcasm, putting her hands on my shoulders.
I wanted to melt beneath her warm, soft palms and supple fingers, but there was, regrettably, no time to waste on such sweet indulgences.
“You are not safe, Daisy,” I began.
‘Tell me about it,” she interrupted before I could go on. “I’m a cop, remember? And we’ve had this conversation before. There is no safe place, Valerian—maybe not for any of us.”
“My brother will come for you in earnest. The thing you found in your shower was only his calling card.” She lowered her lashes briefly, then looked up at me again. I saw in her eyes the shimmering courage that was woven into the very fiber of her spirit long, long ago, at some celestial loom. “Where shall I hide, Valerian? Name the place that you, or creatures like you, cannot enter.”
I could not answer her challenge, for besides heaven itself, there was nothing that could keep me out, no place I could not go if I so wished. The same, of course, applied to Krispin.
I was forlorn in those moments, filled with hopeless despair, but then a stray thought caught in my mind. “This mannequin he left for you—where is it?”
She drew back a little way. “O’Halloran—my partner— took it in for evidence. He thinks we’re dealing with an ordinary human being, you see, so he wanted the thing dusted for fingerprints, after Forensics looked it over, of course.”
I would get the dummy if I had to—I needed to lay my hands to something Krispin had touched—but I preferred to avoid dealings with the police for as long as possible. Now that Janet had been killed, they were almost certain to lay the crimes at my door, and it would be awkward to vanish from their midst when they attempted to detain me.
‘The tie to your robe,” I said. “The one that was used as a noose. Did your partner take that, too?”
She frowned and shook her head. “No. I was afraid I wouldn’t get it back.”
I might have laughed, had the circumstances been different, for I admit to a certain macabre amusement at her reluctance to separate a bathrobe from its matching belt. And never mind that the thing had been used like a hangman’s rope.
“Where is it?” I demanded, but I did not wait for her reply. No, I was already homing in on her bedroom, and the closet within it, and the brass hook on its inside wall.
I snatched the robe from its peg and pulled the terrycloth belt through the loops, holding it in my two hands as I might have held a tame snake. Instantly I had a strong impression of Krispin, and I knew, with both elation and despair, that my theories were correct.
I felt his hatred for me in that bit of cloth, I felt his jealousy, his madness, his fury.
I was more afraid for Daisy than ever before, previous lifetimes included. My brother would not hesitate to kill her—indeed, he relished the prospect. He was saving that act for last, the way a child hoards a favorite sweet.
“Why?” I whispered, in case he had linked his mind to mine and could discern my words. “Why?”
Krispin did not choose to answer.
Not then, at least.
I was compelled to hunt, for I had not fed the night before, due to my visit to Dunnett’s Head. But I could not bear to leave Daisy alone in that apartment, like bait in a trap, tempting Krispin to punish me with her death.
Even in those silly, oversize pajamas, which had probably been left behind by an earlier lover, Daisy was a vision. Her copper-gold hair tumbled around her shoulders, and her eyes were like antique gems I had once admired in a shop window—impossibly green, but opaque with tension. The smattering of freckles stood out against the creamy paleness of her skin.
“How can I leave you here?” I whispered, stricken to the heart.
She drew a step nearer, and I saw the flash of memories in her mind—she was recalling, of all things, the somewhat one-sided lovemaking session in that tacky motel along the road to Telluride. Her desire for me burned bright, like a flare, and such longing seized me then that I uttered a small cry of protest and need.
‘Take me with you,” she said. “Let me sleep where you sleep.”
I had not consciously cast a spell over Daisy; to do so would have been an abominable liberty, tantamount to rape. No, it was not magic, but plain fear that made her want the scathing comfort only I could give her. “But when we spoke of safety, you said—”
“I said I would not be your prisoner,” she interrupted gently, putting her arms around my neck. “But I will be your lover.”
I ached to have her, even to make her into my true mate, but of course I could do neither. The recollection of Elisabeth’s death, following so soon after our intimate union, was preying upon my mind. Too, the need to hunt was urgent—were I to encounter Krispin or some other enemy before feeding, I would be too weak to protect either Daisy or myself. Once I had taken sustenance, I must immediately resume the search for my brother.
“This is not the night,” I told her gently. I am certain that my disappointment was greater than hers.
‘Take me with you, then,” Daisy urged, running one fingertip down the chilled, pale planes of my cheek and upper jaw. “Please. I can face this killer—this thing—I know I can. But not tonight.”
I kissed her forehead and wrapped her in a loose embrace, and she tucked herself against me like a nestling seeking shelter beneath the wing of a larger bird. “Very well,” I said and fixed my mind on the lair hidden well outside the city’s bright, tattered edge, beneath the desert sands.
We were there in an instant, standing in my gracious living room. Daisy swayed a little, from shock no doubt, and I steadied her.
“You are probably safe here, for the moment at least,” I said, aware that time was passing at its usual merciless and inexorable pace. “Vampires are not gregarious creatures, and they are, therefore, most uncomfortable in a stranger’s lair.” I stepped back, left her teetering there in her pajamas, and moved one arm in a broad gesture intended to take in the whole of my splendid hiding place. “I must go now, Daisy. Explore to your heart’s content. I’ll be back an hour or so before dawn.”
With that, I vanished, carrying with me the look of unadulterated surprise I had glimpsed on her face, smiling a little over it. Mortals have such a difficult time accepting new realities.
Daisy
The Vampire’s Lair Outside Las Vegas, 1995
At first Daisy was so overwhelmed by Valerian’s latest flashy disappearance and her own recent introduction to broomstick transport that she sank onto the leather couch and stared blankly into space. Her next coherent thought, coming some time later, was the wish that she’d taken time to change her clothes.
Trust her to show up for the experience of the aeons in the pajamas O’Halloran had given her for Christmas the year before. He’d been making a point about equality between the sexes at the time, but Daisy couldn’t quite recall what it was.
She levered herself off the expensive sofa, once she’d recovered the required muscle control, and stood shakily, her knees trembling. Valerian might have spumed her seduction attempt, however politely, but he had flat-out invited her to check out his house, and she wasn’t about to miss the opportunity.
Daisy soon realized that the whole place was underground, a gigantic and very luxurious bomb shelter. The light was artificial, of course, but of such clear intensity that it might have sprung from the sun itself. Besides the living room, which appeared to be equipped with every modem electronic plaything in existence, there was a large, lagoonlike swimming pool and smaller hot tub, both surrounded by a jungle of lush plants, and a kitchen containing every conceivable appliance but no dishes, silverware, pots and pans, or food. There was nothing in the giant refrigerator except a lightbulb
and a box of baking soda.
Daisy considered calling out for a pizza, just to see if the delivery driver could find the place.
The master bedroom was a suite, decadently appointed with antiques, paintings, and sculptures, all priceless. Besides a huge bed with a canopy and velvet draperies, and a working gas fireplace, there was a marble tub of truly decadent proportions set right into the floor. The faucet and spigots were gold, and the exquisite tiles surrounding the bath were hand-painted and very old.
Daisy found six other bedrooms opening off the same hallway, all sumptuously furnished and obviously unused, all with their own marble-and-gold bathrooms, spectacular enough to suit the most hedonistic guests. She hoped to find clothes to borrow—Daisy took care not to think too much about who might have left such garments behind, and not just because she felt proprietary about Valerian’s attentions—but there was nothing.
Finally she returned to Valerian’s room and helped herself to one of his pleated dress shirts. The tails reached almost to her knees, and she finished the ensemble off by taking a tie from his vast collection and knotting it loosely around her waist for a belt.
She was just entering the living room again, planning to stretch out on the leather sofa and try to sleep, when the biggest television screen she’d ever seen—and there were some enormous ones in the casinos—slid down out of the ceiling with an electronic purr.
Daisy looked around, thinking she must have touched a button inadvertently, but there was nothing like that in sight. She stared at the screen, and a peculiar sensation of mingled terror and excitement stirred in the pit of her stomach.
She made her way to the sofa as the great expanse of glass flickered and then brightened into light. Sliding both hands along the back of the couch, Daisy made her way to one end and collapsed into the deep cushions.
A field of flowers nodded on the screen, breathtakingly beautiful, bending and bowing gracefully in a twilight breeze. Daisy waited for credits, for any explanation of what was happening, but in some half-conscious part of her brain she’d already grasped the truth.
The image she was seeing wasn’t being transmitted from any television station. This was vampire magic, but the trick wasn’t Valerian’s. He wouldn’t have frightened her like that.
She watched the flowers, daisies mostly, bathed in the lavender of approaching night and at the same time reflecting a peculiar crimson glow. When she saw someone in the upper right-hand comer of the screen, she felt tension coil in her stomach, and when that figure drew near enough to see clearly, she gasped aloud.
The woman was a stranger, a tall, brown-eyed blonde, and yet Daisy knew she was looking at herself. Valerian had not told her about this incarnation, and she suspected that was because he hadn’t known about it. By some mysterious cosmic fluke, she’d gotten past him that time.
Watching the screen, fascinated and terrified at the same time, Daisy struggled to remember being this person, but not so much as a glimmer came to her.
She stood up, squinting, realizing only then that the living room, so dazzlingly bright before, was now lighted only by the flickering glow of the screen. A chill dripped down the center of her back, like a trickle of icy water, and she shivered, studying the face of that other self.
She sank down onto the cushions again a moment later, when her knees would no longer support her.
She forced herself to stay calm, to watch. Daisy was in danger, and she knew it, but her years of training and police service stood her in good stead. If she panicked, if she failed to pay close attention, she would not survive.
Daisy took careful note of the image on the screen— studied the reflection of this being who was and yet was not herself. The clothes her double wore were ragged and old, garments a peasant woman might have worn in any one of several different centuries.
She scooted forward, gripping the edge of the couch with both hands, heart thrumming, upper lip moist with perspiration.
The woman on the screen began to call out for someone, raising both hands to cup her mouth, scanning the field with worried eyes. There was no sound except for the faintest murmur of circuitry, but Daisy recognized the name on those lips so similar to her own.
Shock rocketed through Daisy, and her heart began to beat painfully fast; she barely overcame an elemental urge to cover her eyes with both hands.
The flowers were wilting, and a garish light had arisen in the background, crimson and orange, leaping, hot to the eye as it would be to the touch.
The fire was drawing nearer.
She watched herself begin to run, and realized that the flowers and grasses, all fainting beneath an undulating, glimmering tide of heat, grew in a graveyard.
Suddenly Daisy was not sitting on Valerian’s couch, watching the scene—she was in it. She was the pretty woman-child running between tilting headstones. She felt the heat of the approaching fire scouring the flesh of her back, even through the rough weave of her shift. The earth was rocky and uneven beneath her feet, her lungs burned fit to burst, and she was scared enough to pass water without slowing down.
Between one instant and the next she forgot that she’d ever been called Daisy Chandler, would not have recognized the name except as one she might have heard long ago in a dream.
“Krispin!” she screamed, tripping, falling, and rising again, all in a virtually simultaneous motion. The blaze roared as it ate up cottages and fields and churches behind her, gaining on her like the fleetest of runners.
She ran on, making a whimpering sound when she wasn’t choking on the rolling black smoke, until her legs gave out a second time. She toppled to the ground and crawled behind a great huge monument with a French name chiseled into its side.
It was coming on dark now—or was it just the smoke darkening the sky?—but where was her beloved? He’d promised to meet her here, to take her far away from London—perhaps to Paris, he’d said, or Rome or even Istanbul.
“Here’s the truth of it, Maddie Goodtree,” she whispered to herself, choking on the thick, acrid air between words. “Either he’s gone up in flames like a scarecrow, your fancy man, or you’ve been made the fool.”
Maddie leaned around the end of the monument, which felt hot as brimstone to the touch, and peered toward the line of thundering crimson on the horizon. London was gone, that it was. And at the rate the flames were traveling, they would gobble up the rest of England as well. Paris might have gone up, too, if it weren’t for the waters of the channel blocking the way.
She tried to rise, to run again, but all the feeling had gone out of her knees. Other folks, fleeing the city, scrambled past, dragging carts, mewling children, and the doddering old behind them.
No one stopped to help.
The fire drew nearer, and Maddie found it more and more difficult to breathe. She managed to gain her feet at last and stumbled after the others. The sun had set, but one would never have known it, with the sky so hellish bright.
Then suddenly he was there beside her. He smiled and took her hand, her beautiful lover, and told her not to be afraid.
There were shrieks puncturing the darkness all around them, cries of terror and of pain, and Maddie would have thought she was lost in hell itself if her beautiful, fair-haired angel hadn’t been walking beside her, showing her the way.
Krispin had found her at last.
They escaped the fire in a twinkling, it seemed to Maddie, taking refuge inside cool, dank walls, where there was no light at all. He drew her close, and their lips and bodies seemed to melt into one as they celebrated the darkness. . . .
Slowly, slowly, Daisy returned to herself.
The television screen had disappeared, and every light in the place was blazing, and she heard a soft, seductive voice that should have come from anywhere except within her own head.
“You were mine in that lifetime. Not Valerian’s. Mine.” There was a pause, no longer than a heartbeat, followed by a throaty chuckle. “He didn’t know you were alive, and you belonged to me. A
s you shall again.”
CHAPTER 13
Valerian
Outside Las Vegas, 1995
I returned to my underground lair just before dawn, exhausted and frustrated beyond measure. I had combed the earth, from one pole to the other, over the last few nights, and found no sign, no hair or trace, of my prey. Krispin had hidden himself very cleverly indeed.
Daisy was lying on the couch when I returned, clad in one of my handsewn shirts, artfully belted with a necktie. She was pale as a medieval snow.
I extended a hand and swayed slightly on my feet, for I was already beginning to succumb to the vampire sleep. I had sought my brother with little regard for the thinning darkness, and dawn was only moments away.
I could barely focus my gaze on her, and speaking was a greater effort than I could manage. I struggled to regain my tenuous grip on consciousness, knowing all the while that the attempt was hopeless. Yes, there had been times in my past when the mysterious slumber had not wrestled me downward, into inner darkness, but this night I would not be spared.
Daisy rushed toward me, and I sagged against her. She supported me with surprising strength, speaking rapidly, but by then her words were no more than an unintelligible murmur. The last thing I was aware of was the couch beneath me, still pulsing with the sweet warmth of her body.
Daisy
The Vampire’s Lair, 1995
Daisy knelt on the floor beside Valerian’s resting place, holding his cold hand in both of hers, both horrified and fascinated. His flesh, always unusually fair, was white as alabaster, and there was a stillness about him, so absolute that he might have been dead.
She laid her head to his chest and heard no heartbeat, felt no rise and fall of ribs and muscles and flesh. Had she not experienced Valerian’s magic for herself, over and over, she would have mourned, believing she’d lost him forever. She remained as she was for a long while, her ear chilling against his hard breast, struggling with the knowledge that she not only knew a vampire personally, she’d fallen in love with one.
Time Without End (The Black Rose Chronicles) Page 19
