Blood Eternal (10 page)
She caught István’s wrist to show there was no danger and said loudly, “Don’t you ever phone first?”
“Modern man is too dependent on those things. Besides, I told you I’d call.”
Anxiously, Elizabeth watched Konrad and Mihaela advance on him from behind, their stakes still raised. Saloman didn’t betray by so much as a twitch that he knew they were there, but surely Konrad would not be stupid enough to risk attacking him? He’d be dead in an instant.
“What for?” Konrad demanded. “What do you want?”
Still, Saloman didn’t turn. “You have a problem, do you not?”
“One we are capable of dealing with,” Konrad said stiffly.
Saloman’s lip curved. “Really? You couldn’t deal with me. What on earth makes you imagine you can deal with my cousin in thrall to your old friend Senator Dante?”
For the first time, he turned his head and looked directly at Konrad and Mihaela. Mihaela, as if embarrassed at being caught out in an impoliteness, hastily lowered her stake. Konrad kept his where it was.
“Is he?” Elizabeth blurted, as much to distract their attention as because she wanted to know.
“In thrall to Dante?” Saloman rose fluidly to his feet. “It would appear so. Certainly, when Dante calls, Luk runs.”
“Why?” István demanded, moving closer. A concentrated frown marred his brow. “How is that possible? If Dante’s a vampire at all—”
“He is,” Saloman interpolated.
“—he can only be a fledgling. Luk is an Ancient, as powerful as—”
Again, he broke off with a quick glance at Saloman, as if suddenly remembering to whom he spoke.
“At least as powerful as I,” Saloman said mildly. “But power is pointless if you can’t use it.”
Elizabeth walked over and sat down on a garden chair on the other side of the white plastic table from Saloman. “Why can’t he use it?”
Saloman met her gaze. His eyes were opaque, and yet she was that sure behind the glassy screen, emotion was boiling. “Because he doesn’t yet remember how. Or even, probably, what power is.”
“It didn’t take
you
long to remember those things,” Mihaela pointed out, moving around so that she could see Saloman’s face. For all the world like the host of his own party, Saloman graciously indicated the nearby chairs.
you
long to remember those things,” Mihaela pointed out, moving around so that she could see Saloman’s face. For all the world like the host of his own party, Saloman graciously indicated the nearby chairs.
“I never forgot them,” he said, and Mihaela sank onto the nearest lounger, perching precariously on its edge.
“Then why did Luk?”
Gracefully, Saloman resumed his seat. “Our cases are very different. I was conscious the whole time. Luk slept as the dead are supposed to.”
Konrad let out a crack of sardonic laughter at that. Saloman acknowledged it with a faint curve of his lip but said nothing. Elizabeth wanted to ask,
Why didn’t you?
But István was before her, saying briefly, “How?”
Why didn’t you?
But István was before her, saying briefly, “How?”
“I gave him the enchantment of peace.”
“That was big of you, after killing him,” Mihaela observed.
Saloman didn’t bat an eyelid. “I thought so. It wasn’t a courtesy later granted to me, but then, I was the last Ancient, and there was no one left to perform it. The point is, at this moment, I very much doubt Luk remembers as much as his own name.”
“He remembers something,” Elizabeth said with odd reluctance. “He called me Tsigana.”
Saloman nodded. “He smelled her blood in your veins. That’s what drew him away from Dante and the others. But I imagine it was instinct rather than true memory. When he found you, he didn’t recognize that you
weren’t
Tsigana, and his distress at learning of her death makes it clear he has no understanding of the time that’s passed.”
weren’t
Tsigana, and his distress at learning of her death makes it clear he has no understanding of the time that’s passed.”
“Will he start to remember?” István asked curiously, dropping onto one of the chairs and sprawling across the table to lean his head on his hand.
“In your opinion,” Konrad added with contempt.
“In my opinion, yes. And that is when the true danger will begin.”
“When he starts to hunt you down?” Mihaela inquired.
Elizabeth stared from her to Saloman, who merely smiled. “Will he?” she asked.
Saloman’s eyebrow lifted. “I am his killer and my blood awakened him. Assuredly, he must hunt me down.”
“In hatred? Will he be . . . as he was before?”
“Insane?” Saloman supplied blandly. “Probably. Unless his rest soothed his mind. If it did, I imagine being dragged without warning from something resembling your Christian idea of heaven into the hell of life with Dante will have pushed him back over the edge.”
For the first time, Elizabeth caught the tinge of anger in his beautifully modulated voice. This time, it seemed, Dante had done something truly unforgivable. Like Zoltán summoning zombies, Dante had committed some sacrilege in waking Luk from his peace. Saloman, she realized, felt his cousin’s pain as if it were his own. And this time, there would be no saving Dante from him.
“What about Dante?” István asked, as if he read her mind. “I’ve never heard of a fledgling maintaining any control over himself, let alone over another vampire. Isn’t he more likely to try to kill Luk?”
Saloman seemed to hesitate. Then it was to Elizabeth he looked, as if directing his answer to her.
“Among my people, over the centuries, Luk revived many souls—made many vampires, if you like. Including me. Modern vampires have forgotten that there is more to the ritual than exchanging blood at the moment of death. There are ways of preserving the soul of the creature you revive, and once that is achieved there are ways of teaching the new existence. Luk became Guardian of the Ancient rituals as well as of the prophecies. They are part of him. So while he may have forgotten the teachings, at least for now, to create correctly would come to him as instinctively as drinking blood. I’m afraid what you have now is Dante himself, with all his human failings and all of a modern vampire’s power.”
István lifted his head. “Then your own creations, Maximilian and Dmitriu, missed the bestial fledgling phase?”
“Of course,” said Saloman with a touch of hauteur. “If your records state otherwise, they lie.”
“Will Dante have an Ancient’s strength?” Elizabeth asked hastily.
“No. But he will be stronger than the average fledgling.”
“Why are you telling us all this?” Mihaela asked.
A smile half formed and died on Saloman’s lips. “Perhaps because you need to know.”
“Why?” Konrad demanded. “You want us to take your cousin out for you?”
“You are trivial,” Saloman remarked. “Like your ancestor.”
Konrad flushed in the dim light. He was proud of his ancestor Ferenc’s part in Saloman’s murder and clearly didn’t care to have him insulted. “And you aren’t welcome in our house,” he snapped. Turning on his heel, he stalked away. More reluctantly, no doubt because they sensed there was more to learn from Saloman, Mihaela and István rose to display solidarity with their leader.
Elizabeth stood also, and Mihaela glanced at her with a relief she couldn’t hide before hurrying toward the French window with István.
Loud enough for them to hear, Saloman said, “The eastern commune is moving to meet Luk and Dante. Their strength is growing.”
Mihaela and István turned back briefly, made almost identical nods, and walked on.
As Elizabeth hesitated, Saloman said, “I’m not Dracula. A lack of invitation cannot keep me out. Unless it comes from you.”
Elizabeth looked up at the stunningly clear stars. “Tonight, Saloman, maybe it does.”
She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bear to see that it made no real difference to him. But she felt, rather than saw, the inclination of his head.
He said, “I see. You’ve had enough sexual fulfillment for one day.”
Her head snapped around without permission. “Fulfillment? You used me and discarded me like a toy you’d finished playing with!”
He didn’t move, just held her angry gaze. “I wanted to give you pleasure. And I thought you needed the comfort.”
As I did.
As I did.
He didn’t say the last words aloud; she didn’t know if he’d thought them or if the idea simply entered her own head for the first time.
She said, “You’re going to have to kill him again, aren’t you?”
He didn’t answer, and her pain intensified, fed by his own silent hurt. Her fingers clenched and released as the confusion of shame and rage dissolved into something far simpler that should have overridden all the rest. Love.
She reached out her hand to him. “Come to bed,” she said softly.
He rose and clasped her hand, but he didn’t smile or take her in his arms. “We were never about pity fucks, Elizabeth. I’d rather remember the way you melted into my arms on the hillside. Instinctive passion, instant gratification. Blood and sex and Elizabeth. I want them all.”
He released her hand, and only when she realized he was walking away did she understand how much she needed him to stay. Not just for the sudden lust inspired by his words and by memory, but because he was hurting, and whatever the cause, she couldn’t bear it.
“Saloman, they’re all yours,” she whispered. “They always were.” Although she was sure he heard, he didn’t turn back.
Chapter Five
E
lizabeth woke at dawn to the Muslim call to prayer. Since it sounded as if it were right outside her window, she’d shot out of bed in alarm before she realized what it was. Investigation from the window revealed a loudspeaker attached to the streetlight at the villa gate.
lizabeth woke at dawn to the Muslim call to prayer. Since it sounded as if it were right outside her window, she’d shot out of bed in alarm before she realized what it was. Investigation from the window revealed a loudspeaker attached to the streetlight at the villa gate.
Calmed by the explanation, she went back to bed. But it was too late. The birds were singing. The sun was up, and so were the village animals. Cockerels were screeching at one another as if in some ridiculous deejay contest, a dog somewhere close to the villa was barking erratically, and any spare silence was filled with the braying of an unhappy donkey.
Elizabeth rose and dressed and went to hunt down some coffee. Somewhat to her surprise, the others were already up, sitting around a table on the shaded porch, eating fresh bread and drinking orange juice and Turkish coffee.
Elizabeth’s mouth watered. “That bread smells good.”
István pulled out a chair. “We let you sleep after your long journey yesterday.”
Konrad cut her some bread; Mihaela poured her coffee.
“We heard from Mustafa, one of the Turkish hunters,” Konrad said. “The commune he mentioned yesterday has gone. We think they might have joined Luk and Dante.”
“Saloman said they would.”
Konrad shifted irritably. He didn’t want to be reminded of that. “The Turks are looking for them, using both forms of detector, but so far, there’s no trail to follow.”
“Not even bodies?” Elizabeth said.
“Mercifully, no. Not yet,” Konrad amended.
Elizabeth dipped her bread in some olive oil and ate. It tasted divine.
Abruptly, Konrad said, “What does Saloman plan to do?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know.” In fact, she rather thought Saloman didn’t either.
“If he finds them first,” Mihaela said carefully, “do you think he’ll kill them? Or convert them to his cause?”
Elizabeth set down her coffee cup. “I don’t think ‘conversion’ is an option here, do you?”
“So we sit back and wait for Saloman to kill them for us?” Konrad said disgustedly. He was addressing István and Mihaela, who had clearly already mooted this possibility.
“I think we have to find them before there are any more deaths,” Elizabeth said quietly. “And before they get so much stronger that they become a threat to Saloman.”
Konrad scowled at her. “Is that your priority now, Elizabeth?”
“Konrad!” Mihaela said sharply.
But this morning, it seemed, she could shrug it off. It would hurt later. “No one wants the chaos of a succession war. You’ve told me that since I first woke Saloman.”
Mihaela drew in her breath, giving Elizabeth warning that she was about to say something difficult. “Do you know why he’s here, Elizabeth? When he arrived?”
“I don’t know for certain. I suspect not much before me, or he’d have found Luk sooner. As to why . . .” She shrugged. “He’ll have sensed Luk’s awakening.”
She looked from Mihaela to meet the gaze of each in turn. “I know you don’t like this, but I think we need his help. He can sense farther than your detectors. He probably knows where Luk is right now.”
The hunters exchanged glances. Konrad said reluctantly, “Do you know where Saloman is?”
Saloman. Where are you?
Who wants to know?
came the flippant response.
came the flippant response.
I do. So do the hunters,
she added in the interest of honesty.
Have you found Luk and Dante?
she added in the interest of honesty.
Have you found Luk and Dante?
I’ve been following their trail,
he admitted.
They’re holed up with the commune vampires in some hill caves. This is the nearest village.
he admitted.
They’re holed up with the commune vampires in some hill caves. This is the nearest village.
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