Blood Eternal (16 page)
Mihaela pressed herself back into the wall, probably with terror, reminding Saloman to resume control of his facial features.
What a pity I promised Elizabeth not to kill her friends.
Mihaela’s brown eyes were huge in her pale face. Under his haughty stare, the flash of defiance died into something closer to a plea.
“You must see that’s no way for her to live,” she whispered. “She’s losing everything she is, everything that makes her Elizabeth, just to spend a few days a year with you. Her whole life could disappear like that if you don’t free her. Don’t make her grow old and die like this. While you live on and on, if—”
She broke off to catch her breath.
“If someone doesn’t manage to stake me?” Saloman supplied. The hunter’s words shook him, angered him, mixing truth with possibility, untruth with a disturbing perception that owed nothing to telepathy and everything to intelligent humanity. He managed, not without difficulty, to hold on to his own intelligence, his own plans.
Leaning his head to one side, he regarded Mihaela. “You are a good and decent being,” he observed. “I can see why Elizabeth loves you. But your sharp perception is somewhat blinkered. Is a glass half-empty or half-full? Do we concentrate on the differences or on the similarities?”
Mihaela frowned, but didn’t interrupt. Saloman let his lips curve. “I don’t hate you because some other human chained up my friend, tortured him, and starved him. Why should you hate me for what some other vampire did to you or yours?”
“I’ve fought vampires all my life. I’ve met, observed, and killed rather more than a few!”
“But you’re always fighting the same one, aren’t you, Mihaela?” he said softly, and at last she tore her gaze free.
“What has this got to do with you and Elizabeth?” she all but snarled.
“Everything,” said Saloman. “You misjudge me as you misjudge my people. There is good even in modern vampires, although they need to be taught and disciplined.”
“They need to be eradicated!”
Saloman smiled. “Once a hunter, always a hunter; once a vampire, always a vicious, thoughtless killer. That is no way to move forward. Would it surprise you to know that my people walked the earth before yours could stand upright? Yet I would not take the world from you. I merely deny your right to take it from me. We lived together before; we can do so again.”
“As human slaves?” Mihaela said with contempt. “I don’t think so.”
“I do not want slaves. Neither Elizabeth nor anyone else.”
Saloman smiled and waited until he was sure she could think of nothing to say, and then he inclined his head with civility and, opening the bedroom door, stepped back inside.
Mihaela went slowly downstairs and into the kitchen, where she grabbed the coffeepot and sloshed the remaining coffee into a cup. It looked like mud, but she stirred in two spoonfuls of sugar and gulped it down.
From the French window, Konrad turned and watched her.
István, his laptop open in front of him at the dining room table, swiveled in his chair. “Everything okay?”
Mihaela’s hands shook as she laid the cup noisily back on its saucer. “That guy scares the shit out of me.”
Konrad strode toward her. István stood up.
“Did he—” Konrad began.
Mihaela flapped one hand. “No, no. He’s under some sort of promise to Elizabeth that he seems prepared to keep. He never touched me or her in that way. It’s just . . .” She sighed and flopped into the chair beside István. “He’s
big
. Everything about him is big, overwhelming. But the really scary bit is when he starts to make sense.”
big
. Everything about him is big, overwhelming. But the really scary bit is when he starts to make sense.”
But I won’t give in. And I won’t let him have Elizabeth.
Chapter Eight
E
lizabeth’s dream was intense and sexy, and when she awoke, the first person she saw was Saloman. Although she’d been reluctant to leave the dream, it faded quickly as she realized reality was at least as good.
lizabeth’s dream was intense and sexy, and when she awoke, the first person she saw was Saloman. Although she’d been reluctant to leave the dream, it faded quickly as she realized reality was at least as good.
He sat on the bed, so close to her that the sleeve of his snowy white shirt stirred to the rhythm of her breath. His dark gaze held hers, and butterflies swooped in her stomach. She smiled. “Hello.”
“Hello. You have visitors.”
Bugger.
The flicker of his eyes warned her they were in this room, not waiting for her elsewhere. She sat up as she turned on the bed and saw all three hunters lined up between her and the bedroom door.
The flicker of his eyes warned her they were in this room, not waiting for her elsewhere. She sat up as she turned on the bed and saw all three hunters lined up between her and the bedroom door.
“What’s happening?” she said weakly.
“We have a lead on the vampires. Mustafa and the others found two bodies in an isolated cottage.”
Elizabeth’s false, cozy happiness slid away, leaving her cold. She glanced at Saloman. “Does it tie in with your observations? Do we know if it’s where you left them?”
“It
is
where I left them.”
is
where I left them.”
The hunters glared at him. “Why the hell didn’t you say?” Konrad demanded.
“You didn’t ask me. It doesn’t matter. They’re not there now.”
“We know that, but they must be close by. Judging by when the owners were killed, it was almost dawn.”
“They’re a hundred miles east of the cottage. And traveling.”
“How?”
“Internal combustion engine,” Saloman said dryly.
István was frowning. “How could they go out and steal a car in daylight?”
“Someone must have been unfortunate enough to visit the cottage,” Elizabeth said. She turned again to Saloman. “Do you know where they’re going?”
“Right now? No.”
“Can we catch up with them?”
“Probably not; your detectors don’t have enough range.”
“If you were with us . . .” Elizabeth urged.
“I have to go to Istanbul, and then Budapest.”
He could, she thought, deprive her of breath in so many different ways. “Now? Why?”
“Because there is unrest in Istanbul that I cannot rely on my friends to deal with, and Budapest is where Luk will go. Ultimately.”
“To fight you?”
Saloman shrugged.
“But he doesn’t remember who you are! Or even who
he
is.”
he
is.”
“He does now.”
The thin patience of his answers warned her not to press, but this was too important to leave. “You saw him,” she breathed.
“I spoke to him. And now he’s remembering.”
Elizabeth searched his veiled eyes, looking, as always, for the things he didn’t say. She thought she found some of them, and the ache in her heart intensified. “People are dying, Saloman,” she whispered. “We have to try to stop him.”
“We can’t,” Saloman said flatly. “Chasing him will not stop him; he’ll always be one step ahead. All I can do is limit the damage in Istanbul. When he’s ready, he’ll come to Budapest for me.”
“
We
have to try to stop him before he gets to Istanbul,” Mihaela said grimly, with emphasis on the “we.” “If that’s where he’s going. He’s killing all along the way.”
We
have to try to stop him before he gets to Istanbul,” Mihaela said grimly, with emphasis on the “we.” “If that’s where he’s going. He’s killing all along the way.”
“We do,” Elizabeth confirmed, reaching for his hand and pressing his fingers between her own. His eyes searched her face, looking, she hoped, for what she wanted him to understand: that here was another chance to work with the hunters as well as deal with his own problem.
Saloman drew his hand free and rose to his feet. “Twenty-four hours,” he said. “And then I leave for Istanbul.”
He walked out of the room with perfect grace, and without turning back. Mihaela lifted her brows in Elizabeth’s direction. “Hey, at least he tells you where he’s going.”
“This is stupid,” Konrad muttered, pausing just outside the front door. Saloman’s hired car, a Mercedes with tinted windows, waited right in front of him with its engine running. Saloman himself sat in the driver’s seat, wearing sunglasses, his long, slender hands resting so comfortably on the lower part of the steering wheel that he looked as if he’d been used to driving for decades. “I still think we should take both the cars.”
“He’ll be easier to keep track of this way,” Mihaela said.
“He could kill us all like this and just walk away from the crash.”
“He could,” István said judiciously, “kill us all at any time. There isn’t really much any of us could do to stop him. Besides, he wouldn’t kill Elizabeth.”
“Not deliberately, perhaps,” Konrad muttered. “Can he even drive? Who the hell taught him?”
“Some joyriding hooligans on a Budapest housing estate,” Elizabeth said with relish, brushing past him to open the front passenger door.
“What a comfort you are to us all,” Mihaela marveled as she reached for the one behind.
By late afternoon, when they halted in a small town to pick up some bottles of water and some
pide
—rather tasty Turkish pizza bread—familiarity had at least reached the point where István was prepared to take the front seat beside Saloman in order to stretch out his long legs.
pide
—rather tasty Turkish pizza bread—familiarity had at least reached the point where István was prepared to take the front seat beside Saloman in order to stretch out his long legs.
For a moment, after they all piled back into the car, Saloman didn’t move. They’d parked in the village square, under the shade of a large almond tree, and he appeared to be watching a group of men climbing the stairs into the mosque at the far end of the square.
He said, “Luk is masking. I can no longer follow them.”
The hunters exchanged glances. István said, “Are you out of range, perhaps?”
Saloman turned his head. “Range is unimportant. Luk has remembered his skills, and they far surpass Dante’s feeble efforts. Luk will not be found until he chooses to be.”
“But he must leave some kind of trail,” Mihaela interjected.
“Of bodies? Perhaps. But he isn’t a fool.”
“What the hell is he doing?” Konrad demanded, dragging his hand through his hair in frustration. Elizabeth leaned closer to Mihaela to avoid his threatening elbow. “Where is he going?”
Saloman shrugged. “Gathering support so that he can enter Istanbul with a strong bodyguard. He knows you’re looking for him, knows you’ve already killed some of his followers. He wants peace to recruit—to gather strength as well as vampires.”
“Can’t we stop him?” Elizabeth asked.
“Not until he comes to us.”
“But then he’ll be too strong!”
Saloman turned his shades in her direction. “I’ve defeated him before.”
Elizabeth drew in her breath, glancing around the uneasy hunters. “What do you want to do?” she asked them.
“We can’t take his word,” Konrad snapped. “We have to look.”
“Where?” Saloman asked mildly.
“Where you lost the trail would be a good start.”
“In what way,” Saloman asked with interest, “would it be a good start?”
Konrad scowled. “You promised us twenty-four hours.”
Saloman straightened and started the car. “The scenery is very pretty. You’ll enjoy it.”
For the next two hours, Saloman appeared to turn himself into their tour guide. Elizabeth, convinced he began the game to make the point that they were wasting their time, suspected he soon started to enjoy it. His stark pointing out of beauty spots and famous views grew richer with stories and names from the past and histories that she was sure never made it into books.
At first stunned, even suspicious, the hunters didn’t seem able to stop themselves from asking questions, and as they fell under his spell, Elizabeth felt an emotion akin to pride in all of them. Even when the light faded and darkness fell, and they could no longer make out with any clarity the mountain peaks or dry riverbeds that inspired him, still they listened and questioned.
And then Saloman stopped the car. There appeared to be no reason for it, on a winding road between villages, with no view to speak of, no houses to be suspicious of. Saloman gazed out of his side window, and some distance from the road, across scrubby ground, Elizabeth could just make out a few uneven shapes, perhaps a camp of caravans and tents.
“Gypsies?” Elizabeth hazarded.
“Or itinerant workers. Once.”
“Once?”
Saloman opened his door. “The only life there is the animals.”
Peering into the gloom, Elizabeth caught the faint movement of a goat and some horses standing tethered in the shade of a large bush. She had a bad feeling. “Maybe they’re away working,” she tried, as she got out of the car.
“In the dark?” Mihaela said, following Saloman across the road.
“Eating, then.”
Saloman said, “It smells of death. If you prefer, I will look.”
“We don’t prefer,” Konrad said tightly.
There was no one left alive. The vampires had been on a spree, draining and dropping the bodies where they found them. A caravan had been turned on its side, perhaps to empty out its terrified occupants, who now lay sprawled and grotesquely bloodless around it. A tent had half fallen in someone’s struggle to escape. A couple had been dropped contemptuously one on top of the other.
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