Hunting Daylight (9781101619032)

by Maitland, Piper

  “I loved you, Mustafa,” she said grinding her teeth. “I love you still.”

  “Yes, I can see. But love is unimportant.” He sat down in the chair. A scrabbling noise began under the table, then the ferret climbed into Mustafa’s lap.

  “I don’t deserve this.” She put her hands in her lap, balled up her fists, and the diamond horseshoe ring cut into her leg.

  “Your voice hurts my ears, Tatiana. I want you to leave tonight. Find Vivienne’s mother. What is her name? The half-breed.” He flipped his hand. “Bring her to me.”

  Tatiana’s chest tightened. Bring Caro here? “You’re reuniting the holy family?”

  “Listen to yourself. Do you hear how pathetic you sound? I will harvest the half-breed woman’s eggs. Then I will obtain semen from my finest human soldiers. In vitro fertilization will produce many Viviennes. These embryos will produce the daylight serum that I want.”

  Tatiana draped her palm over her mouth, trying to hide the sudden downward turn of her lips. How would an uneducated Turk know about IVF? She lowered her hand. “I didn’t realize you had a prodigious understanding of reproductive science.”

  His smile was machete-sharp. “I know about Western medicine. I have decided to produce a son with this half-breed.”

  “You want to breed monsters?”

  “No, I am building a new world. Now that I am in remission, I will live to see the prophecy fulfilled. Vivienne will allow me to walk in the light. I will own the day and the night. I will be a modern-day Mehmed.”

  “A child army can’t help you achieve this. Unless you drain them and make an endless supply of serum.”

  “They will grow. And if Vivienne dies, I will have another and another and another.”

  Tatiana opened her hand and stared at her palm. She sensed nothing but doom in Vivienne Barrett, a creature that ripped through the veil between daylight and darkness. A miscegenation. So was her mother.

  “I don’t want Caro Barrett in this compound.”

  “That is not your decision.”

  She looked up. His eyes were hard, the pupils dilated. “I want no part of that woman. I’m staying in Sutherland. Let Maury’s guys fetch her.”

  “I do not ask my soldiers to do what they want.”

  “I was more than your subordinate.”

  “That time has ended.”

  “You’re angry because I Tasered your messiah.”

  “Do you not understand my order? You will begin your hunt tonight. Kill the people around her, but do not harm the woman. Or you will feel my wrath. Do you understand?”

  “Yes. But I don’t approve.”

  “You do not understand your own nature. If you remain in the compound, you will hurt Vivienne. You will not be able to stop yourself. Your lack of control will threaten everything I want. I will have no choice but to remove your head from your shoulders, and Fadime will take your pieces to Level 3.”

  A tear caught at the edge of Tatiana’s mouth. “Mustafa, please—”

  He cut her off. “Either find Vivienne’s mother or I will banish you from this compound. If you attempt to stay here, you will be executed. Make your choice. I will give you one minute to decide. Think carefully before you answer.”

  Her heart clenched. She didn’t want to die. But she didn’t want to fetch Caro. The last thing she wanted was to leave the compound. She’d wanted Jude from the first time she’d met him in the Gabon camp. She’d felt something stir inside her, a Freudian glitch. Jude was like her father, a man who had loved her unconditionally. Dr. Pavel Kaskov. Oh, she’d loved him. He’d praised her intellect, her spirit, and gift with languages. She’d loved his honor and the soft plunk that his boots made when he’d set them inside the front door, taking care to arrange them on the pile of newspapers that her mother, Galina, had set down with malice. Galina had killed Pavel in a jealous rage, and she’d forced Tatiana to quit ballet lessons. But Galina had paid for her sins.

  Tatiana pressed her fist against her chest, feeling the erratic surges. She had not expected to find another man with a brown-speckled blue eye. Her father’s jaw hadn’t been square, and his chin hadn’t been dimpled, but Tatiana didn’t expect perfection. Jude saw only her defects, but he would see her virtues. And she would be loved. She rose from the chair.

  “I’ll find your breeder.”

  CHAPTER 48

  Vivi

  PATIENT TREATMENT AREA—LEVEL 2

  AL-DÎN COMPOUND

  Vivi didn’t know how long she’d slept. She lay in bed, rubbing her chest, feeling the spots. She remembered the jolts of the Taser. Pain. Rigid muscles. Angry voices. Dr. Hazan had taken her to her dorm. She’d been afraid he would give her an injection, so she acted calm and sleepy. After he left, she’d immediately tumbled into a nightmare about bats and blood.

  Her door buzzed and Fadime walked in. “Put on your slippers and come with me.”

  “What time is it?” she asked.

  He glanced at his watch, a fancy chronometer with dials. “Ten A.M.”

  She fit the paper booties over her feet. Now she was starting to see how things worked in the Al-Dîn compound. If you didn’t make a fuss, if you pretended to go along, they would assume you were a wimp and quit watching your every move.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “No questions.” He led Vivi into the corridor, where crimson light pooled in the corners. They walked past the elevator and turned down another long hall, past a large, glassed-in room where the redheaded vampire sat in front of a computer. She followed Fadime to the end of the hall. On the steel doors, DO NOT ENTER was written in French, English, and another language that looked Cyrillic.

  Fadime swiped his security card on a scanner. The doors creaked open, and he led her into a corridor that smelled of disinfectant and animal dung. The walls on both sides had glass walls. On the right, Vivi saw a concrete aisle with cages on both sides. It looked like a dog kennel, but chimps were inside the runs. Another room held little cages, and mice ran inside metal wheels.

  The next set of doors made Vivi think of NASA—they were oval, made of thick metal, and posted with a warning sign: NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL BEYOND THIS POINT.

  Fadime swiped his card again, and these doors made a whooshing sound and came apart like a jigsaw puzzle. They walked through, and Vivi sensed a change in the air pressure. Fadime turned to a keypad. A message appeared on the screen. Close doors? Yes No

  He clicked Yes.

  The doors rumbled shut behind them. Vivi’s ears popped. She moved behind Fadime into a metal tunnel. Another glassed-in room was on the left. No one sat at the desks, and the computer monitors showed a twirling screen saver.

  Vivi turned to Fadime. “Where is everybody?”

  “This way,” he said.

  Halfway down the corridor, Vivi saw three small windows on the left side of the tunnel. She paused beside one, stood on her toes, and peered through the glass. It looked thick, and her nails made a dense, plunking sound as she tapped it. Was something radioactive in there? She pushed closer. The room was dark, two stories, huge and cavernous. Near the hazy ceiling, large black things hung upside down from a wire ceiling. White gunk was piled on the floor. It was spattered on the walls also.

  “What’s in here?” she asked.

  “You ask too many questions.” Fadime pulled her away from the window.

  Vivi’s ears kept popping, and she tugged her lobes as she walked through another set of steel doors. Two minutes later, she and Fadime stood outside a door that read LABORATORY—C.

  He opened it, and cool air blew out, carrying the odor of fingernail polish remover.

  “Doctor? You have a guest,” Fadime called, pulling Vivi inside.

  Which doctor? She thought. Hazan or Barrett?

  “Just a moment,” called a crisp, British voice. It seemed to be coming from behind a shelf, where brown jars were lined up.

  Dr. Barrett pushed his chair around the shelf, the fluorescent light shining on
his dark ponytail. His legs looked shriveled beneath his blue scrubs, but the rest of him looked fit. He wheeled toward her, muscles outlined in his upper arms.

  Vivi glanced behind him, where a long black counter was jammed with equipment. Microscopes, empty beakers, machines, computers, and a Bunsen burner.

  Is he really my dad? she thought. But he makes me feel shy and suspicious.

  “How nice to see you, Vivi.” His smile quivered at the edges.

  What should she say? “Uh, yeah. Should I call you Dr. Barrett or Jude?”

  “Whatever pleases you,” he said. “Jude’s fine.”

  Fadime stepped between them. “Mustafa wants a blood sample from the girl.”

  “Sorry?” Jude said, raising his eyebrows. “Dr. Hazan’s assistant always does that.”

  “Not today,” Fadime said. “Do not argue. I am following Mustafa’s orders.” He removed items from his pockets, heaping them onto a counter: a vacuum syringe with a long, capped needle; a large, floppy rubber tube; glass vials with colorful stoppers.

  “I won’t do it.” Jude folded his arms across his chest. “Not until I talk to Mustafa.”

  Vivi saw a stiffness in Jude’s shoulders, one that suggested he was a fighter. He couldn’t walk, but she bet he was tough. She bet his mouth had gotten him into trouble with Mustafa and his rat-bastard army.

  Fadime crouched so he could look in the doctor’s face. “If you do not cooperate, I have been instructed to draw the girl’s blood myself, and I will not use a needle.”

  Jude made a fist. “Now, see here—”

  “It’s okay,” Vivi said.

  “See?” Fadime said. “The girl, she is smarter than you.”

  “Fadime?” Vivi said. “Could you leave me and Jude alone while he gets the sample?”

  He snorted and flashed a cocky look. “No.”

  “What about afterward?” Vivi said. “Can I have a minute with him?”

  Fadime tilted his head, as if giving the matter serious thought. “No.”

  Vivi forced herself to breathe in and out, gathering her thoughts the way Sabine had taught her. Fadime, give us time alone. Go in the hall and wait.

  His eyelids flickered, and then he reached for the doorknob. “I will be in the hall.”

  She waited until the door had clicked behind him, then turned to Jude. He pointed at her cheek. “Who hit your cheek?” he asked quietly.

  “Forget it. I’m fine.” If he was worried about her bruised face, he’d really get upset about the Tasering. Better not mention it.

  She forced herself to breathe, and then she gave him a little nudge. Jude, tell the truth.

  “Are you my dad?” she asked.

  “Yes.” His eyes filled. “You’re my Meep.”

  She leaned forward, studying his arm. “You have a green snake tattoo like Mustafa.”

  “It wasn’t always like this. Mustafa added the snake after he brought me here.”

  Vivi felt confused. “Added it? To what?”

  “When I became a vampire, I received an infinity tattoo. It’s the logo for the Salucard Foundation. Raphael has one. So does your uncle Nigel.” He frowned at his arm. “Mustafa was a member of Salucard. He broke away and added the snake.”

  “A serpent for a serpent,” Vivi said. “If you spell Salucard backward, you get Draculas.”

  Jude smiled, and then his eyes fogged. “How’s your mother? Is she here, too?”

  “No. She’s with Raphael.”

  “With him? I’m not following you. How did Mustafa’s soldiers kidnap you if Raphael was around?”

  “He wasn’t. Neither was Mom. They were in Paris. I was in a little town in southern France. Near Grasse.”

  Jude’s eyelids flickered. “Who was taking care of you?”

  “A French doctor. A lady. Not a vampire. But she’s like mom—half immortal. They’re related somehow.”

  Jude rubbed his temple. “Is your mother still in Paris?”

  “Who knows? She’s like a great white shark. Always moving. But now I understand why. Try not to freak out. If Mustafa’s army shows up, Raphael will beat the crap out of them.”

  Jude gave her a long, searching look. “How is he?”

  “Fine.” She stretched her arm on the counter. “Fadime won’t stay gone forever. We can talk while you get my blood.”

  Jude tied the rubber strap around her arm. “Make a fist. There you go. I’m sorry. I hate doing this.”

  “I don’t mind.” She stared down at her arm. Blue veins ran along the inner aspect of her elbow. Jude fit a tube into the vacuum syringe, then swabbed her arm with an alcohol pad.

  “You’ll feel a stick,” he said.

  Vivi saw her blood splash into the tube. She looked away.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’ll take a moment or two. I’ve got to fill the lot of these tubes.”

  “Why do you need my blood? For a paternity test?”

  “I know you’re my daughter,” he said. “Mustafa wants your blood for another purpose.”

  She turned back to him, eyebrows lowered. “What kind?”

  “I can’t explain right now.” He cut his eyes to the door, then back to Vivi’s arm. “Fadime might hear.”

  “Do they have security cameras in here?”

  “They’re broken.” He leaned over her arm and replaced a blood-filled vial with an empty one.

  “You talk like Uncle Nigel,” she said. “The British way.”

  Jude glanced up. “You have an ear for dialects?”

  “I guess. Mom and I travel a lot.”

  “That’s how you got your nickname. Because you spent your babyhood in airports.”

  “Yeah, Mom told me.” She felt another wave of shyness and looked at his his left hand. No ring. No indention in the flesh. No mark.

  “You lost your wedding band,” she said. “Mom still has hers. She keeps it in a box.”

  “Mine was stolen,” Jude said.

  “By whom?”

  “Someone from Al-Dîn.” He removed the rubber tourniquet, took the needle out of her arm, and put an alcohol swab on the puncture.

  “Glad that’s over.” Vivi folded her arm.

  “One more thing.” Jude held up a long Q-Tip. “I need to swab your cheek. Open wide.”

  She opened her mouth. “Ah,” she said.

  The swab was in and out in a flash. He snipped off the end, dropped the white part into a tube, and added a liquid. “What’re you doing?”

  “I added lysis solution. Lysis is the Greek word for ‘separate.’”

  “No, I meant, what are you doing with that swab?”

  “Oh, I’ll extract your DNA.” Jude nodded at the counter. “Everything is set up. A warm water bath, microcentrifuge, micropipettes, more solutions.”

  “Why would anyone care about my DNA?”

  “Mustafa thinks—”

  The door opened, and Fadime stepped into the room, looking befuddled. “Are you finished?” he asked.

  Vivi was just about to Induce him again when Jude spoke up.

  “No, not entirely,” he told Fadime. “I’ll need to run a few more tests. Bring Miss Barrett to my lab in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 49

  Caro

  VILLA PRIMAVERINA, ISLA CARBONARA

  VENICE, ITALY

  When I awoke, Raphael was gone, and for a moment I thought we were still in Paris. Then I remembered. Vivi was gone. I rolled into a ball and pushed my face into the pillow. I felt hollow and scraped out. A part of me had always feared this might happen. I’d tried to cast a protective net around her, the same kind my parents had drawn around me. But evil possessed a stronger force than goodness. I hadn’t sent Vivi to a safe place. I’d sent her into the heart of danger.

  How do you keep breathing when your child has been taken away? Was she hungry? Scared?

  Arrapato wiggled out of the blanket and licked one side of my face, his tongue working meticulously. I caught his face.

  “Where’s Raphael?�
�� I whispered.

  Arrapato snorted. I looked at the gold cherub clock. Nine fifteen P.M. The sun had set.

  I put on a black long-sleeved dress that matched my mood, then I opened the bedroom door. Arrapato stayed on the bed, licking his paws. I shut the door and stepped into the hall. Raphael’s study was on the lower terrace level, under the kitchen and the main entry.

  I walked down the stairs and passed through a wide hallway. At the far end, a massive walnut door stood ajar, showing another hallway. A light spilled out of Raphael’s study and I heard voices—Beppe’s Germanic accent, La Rochenoire’s French lilt, and the softer Italian tones of Raphael and his detectives.

  I didn’t want to disturb them—no, that wasn’t true. I couldn’t be around anyone right now. I’d lost my place in this world. I turned toward the French doors. Rain forked down the glass panes. Beyond the doors, floodlights brightened the grounds. Mist crouched in the garden, lurking around a statue of Athena, stalking a menagerie of topiary animals that had been shaped and sculpted into mythological beasts. A dark shadow edged between a unicorn and the Kraken. I blinked. My saliva tasted sour and metallic. And I smelled ketones—not pomegranates or cherries, but something fetid and earthy.

  My pulse bumped under my jaw. Had I suffered a complete breakdown? Would vampires dare come to Villa Primaverina? Could they bypass Raphael’s small, well-armed navy?

  The back of my neck tightened as I inched closer to the window. The wind shook one of the Kraken’s tentacles. Further out, the island of Murano was hidden by smoke and clouds. Someone was out there, waiting and watching.

  Stop being paranoid, Caro. No one is there.

  I glanced over my shoulder, toward the hallway. What was keeping Raphael? I heard the faint sound of Arrapato’s barks from the bedroom, and I turned back to the window. A woman stood on the other side of the glass.

  I jolted.

  Her hair was plastered to her head. Blue lights leaped in her eyes. She wore a black body suit and combat boots.