by E. S. Moore
Adrian walked past us and up the stairs. It appeared we were done.
Nathan glanced at Jonathan, who gave a quick nod. The big wolf hurried after Adrian. I wondered if he was simply going to follow him out or if he was looking for a fight. Knowing Nathan, it was probably the latter.
“Are you really okay?” Jonathan asked once they were gone. I think he expected me to slump against him or something, because he stood so close I could almost smell his breath.
“Yeah,” I said. I wouldn’t show weakness, even to him. “I’m just pissed I let myself get caught up like that. I should have heard her coming.”
Jonathan glanced back at the cell and I followed his gaze. The woman was watching us again, eyes gleaming in what I could only describe as complete and utter madness. The fervor there was so strong, it was a surprise we didn’t burst into flames from the intensity of her stare.
“I will continue to question her,” Jonathan said. “It’s clear she has done this before. People like her could be dangerous.”
“Do you think there are more of them?”
Jonathan met my eyes. He looked worried. “I don’t know.”
“I know.”
I jerked at the gravelly voice. It came from the darkest corner of the room, farthest from the woman. It was hard to see even with my enhanced vision.
A shape stepped out of the shadows of the corner cell. He leaned against the bars and pressed his face against them. He was painfully thin and his throat was a mass of scar tissue. It looked hard and knotted, and was probably why he sounded the way he did.
“Davin,” I said, recognizing the sorcerer vampire at once.
He laughed, a painful-looking grin spread across his face. “I can tell you what you want to know.” His eyes gleamed with as much fervor as the woman’s. “For a price, of course.”
“Don’t,” Jonathan said as I started toward the cell.
I stopped and gave him a look. I didn’t need to say anything. He got the idea. Dealing with a mad vampire couldn’t be any worse than dealing with a crazed religious zealot. We needed to know who she was in case there were more like her.
Jonathan nodded and I turned back to question the vampire I had believed to be dead.
13
Davin didn’t stop grinning as I crossed the room toward his cell. He was wearing little more than rags. Dried blood stained the fabric, and it took me a moment to realize he was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the last time I saw him months ago. He smelled like death.
“I know,” he said, his grin widening. There were two large gaps in his teeth where his incisors once were. He stuck his tongue through one of the holes and wiggled it at me.
I had to admit, I felt a tiny wince of pity for the fallen vampire. He’d once been a member of a Minor House, the second in command to Count Tremaine.
And now look at him. He could hardly hold himself erect. His legs trembled beneath him like his nearly insubstantial weight was too much for them. His cheekbones protruded from his face, the skin stretched so tightly over his skull he was little more than a skeleton. His eyes were deeply sunken, almost swimming in darkness where they had collapsed into their sockets.
Nathan had torn out his throat during the final fight with Tremaine. He hadn’t had the chance to finish Davin off, so Jonathan had brought him here. I wondered if they had assisted him in his recovery.
“Davin,” I said, stopping in front of his cell. I wasn’t sure what else to say. The vampire would have killed me before. I wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t do it now.
“I’ve been down here a long time,” he said. His voice was so degraded it was hard to understand his every word. While his throat might have healed, it hadn’t healed all the way. The damage had probably been too extensive.
Jonathan came up to stand behind me. I glanced back at him and noted his unhappy expression. I don’t think I was supposed to have seen the vampire.
“I’ve spent countless hours here, and yet this is the first time you’ve come to see me.” Davin reached a bony hand through the bars, though it fell well short of touching me.
“I was busy.”
He laughed, withdrawing his hand. “I see, I see. But now you are here and I have something you desire. This information I have, it could be useful to you down the road.”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t seem that important to me. We have her now. She’ll break eventually.”
Davin laughed again. “I doubt that,” he said. “Her kind never breaks. I’ve seen it.”
I wasn’t sure what to think of that. The woman was a Pureblood. There was only so much she could do, so much she could withstand. I had a feeling that Nathan wouldn’t have a problem with torturing her for information.
But if there was an easier way ...
“Okay,” I said, “tell me what you know.”
He tsked. “Do you think I would give this information freely? I have endured so much here and I know I will never be set free.”
“Then what could you possibly want?”
He smiled, exposing the gaps in his teeth. “I hunger,” he said. “I have come near death many times, have felt my strength wane. It ebbs away like a retreating tide. But the tide always returns. I will never regain my full strength, not after what they have done to me, but I still hunger. I wish for blood.”
I glanced back at Jonathan. He stared back at me, showing nothing.
“You haven’t fed him?” I said, somewhat appalled. Why keep him down here if he was only going to starve him? The vampire meant nothing to me, but even though I would have killed him if given the chance, I wouldn’t have tortured him like this.
“We have,” Jonathan said. “But only enough to keep him alive. We do not want him so strong that he is able to use his abilities again.”
“Look at what they did to me,” Davin said. He jammed a finger into the hole where his left incisor used to be. “They have maimed me, ruined me, and yet they fear me.” He laughed bitterly. “I must drink from a cup if I choose to drink at all. What harm could I possibly pose to anyone like this?”
I knew with enough blood, Davin could become a serious problem. He might never regain his incisors, though. Jonathan had probably torn them out clear to the root, if not deeper.
“Is that all?” I asked. “Blood?”
“What else is there?”
There was a gleam to his eye when he said the last. He wanted something else, and he was going to make me ask him.
“What do you want, Davin? I’m not going to stand down here all night.” At least I hoped it was still night. I really didn’t want to hang around the Den all day, waiting for the moon to rise, especially with Nathan and Pablo glowering at me every chance they got.
“I know I will not be released, even if my information might save you trouble later,” he said. “I accept that. I know I’ll be trapped down here until I am of no further use to my captors.”
I shifted from foot to foot. This was too much like what a vampire House did to its prisoners for my liking. If the Cult was starting to veer toward keeping prisoners and torturing them, I might have to do something about it.
The thought made my stomach do a flip and I nearly staggered. I felt Jonathan move toward me as if he might support me and I waved him back. I was tired of people trying to help me.
“And?” I said.
“And I wish to see the moon,” Davin said. “I don’t mean I wish to be free. I wouldn’t last an hour as I am now. I also know I will not be allowed a human to drain.” He looked at Jonathan hopefully.
“No,” Jonathan said, his voice firm.
Davin sighed and slumped against his cell. “Just the moon,” he said. “I wish to be taken outside so I can look upon it again. I wish to bathe in its light, breathe the night air.”
“I don’t think they’ll let you out long enough for that,” I said. Jonathan grunted in agreement.
“They can leave me in chains,” Davin said. “They can stab me with silver if they wish. I d
on’t care. Just as long as I can see, it will suffice.” He closed his eyes. He looked weary, like he was tired of living. “Please,” he went on, “that is all I ask. One night under the moon.”
I glanced back at Jonathan. He stared straight ahead, not looking at anything. I couldn’t tell if he was considering it or not.
I turned back to Davin. I didn’t like the idea of letting the crippled vampire out any more than Jonathan did, but what could it hurt? He had no fangs; he was unable to use his magic from what I could tell. All anyone would have to do is stick a silver knife into him and he would be helpless.
Yet, alarm bells were clanging so loudly in my head I was surprised no one else heard them. Davin was up to something, I was sure of it.
“Please,” he said again. “I promise my information will be valuable. It could save all of your lives.” His gaze traveled down the length of cells to where the woman stood.
I glanced that way. I had to admit, I was more scared of people like the woman than I was of Davin somehow escaping. She had managed to sneak up on me. If there were more like her, then it could put a serious kink in my way of doing things. I couldn’t have that.
“All right,” I said without consulting Jonathan. This was my deal. If I had to be there when they took him out to see the moon, then I would be.
Jonathan made a sound deep in his throat but didn’t protest.
“Is that all?” I gave Davin a hard look, daring him to ask for something else.
He looked relieved. “Yes,” he said. “Thank you.”
I didn’t want his thanks. “So tell me what you know.”
Davin used his fingers to push back his scraggly hair. He walked deeper into his cell and sat on a cot. I’m not so sure his legs would have supported him any longer if he had tried to remain standing.
“The Left Hand,” he said. “That is the group she belongs to.”
I frowned. “That means nothing to me.”
Davin smiled and closed his eyes. “Not many alive know of them. They make sure of that.” He opened his eyes and gave me a sinister smile. “In a way, they are a lot like you.”
“That woman is nothing like me.”
Davin’s smile only widened. “They sneak through the night, hunt their victims, and then kill them as quickly and as quietly as they can. They leave no witnesses. Does that not sound familiar to you?”
He had me there. “How many of them are there?” I asked, doing my best to ignore the comparison.
Davin shrugged. “Dozens? Hundreds? No one knows. I’m not even sure they know themselves.”
“But who are they?”
“The Left Hand. As in the left hand of God.” Davin’s eyes gleamed as he spoke. “They think of themselves as messengers. Their message is of a cleansing, to rid the world of taint so that the humans can live without fear of the night.” He sneered.
“If they wanted to send a message, wouldn’t they want everyone to know about them?” I glanced back at the woman. She was grinning as she listened.
“I don’t know why they work as they do,” Davin said. “That is something only they can tell you ... if you can get anything useful out of them.”
It all sounded unreal to me. Purebloods never fought back against the supes. They just resigned themselves to the day, leaving the night to the rest of us. It might not have created a perfect harmony, but at least it hadn’t devolved into a war.
Davin was silent for a moment and I assumed he was done. I wasn’t so sure the information he had given us was all that useful. I might have to run the name The Left Hand past Mikael sometime and see if he knew anything.
I started to turn away when the vampire spoke up again.
“You are Lady Death, are you not?”
I glanced back at him, surprised. It wasn’t until then I realized he’d never truly known who I was. Not even Count Tremaine had figured it out until the end.
“I thought so,” he said. “It makes sense. I should have seen it back then, back before I was left to this.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept silent.
“More will be coming,” Davin said. He sounded completely resigned, as if he knew he had nothing to live for. I don’t think the prospect of blood and seeing the moon again was enough for him.
“More?”
“Of The Left Hand,” he said. “She is but the first.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve seen it before,” he said. “Before I lived here, I belonged to another House in another town. They came, slowly at first, and then all at once. They killed so many and we caught none of them. My House was destroyed and I fled here, barely escaping with my life.”
“You seem to do that a lot.”
He gave me a bitter smile. “I do,” he said. “Though this is not so much of a life.”
“When will they come?” I asked.
“Soon,” he said. “It could be weeks, a month.” He shrugged. “It’s hard to say. They will sneak in one by one, kill as quietly as they can, and then vanish like smoke.”
“They can’t be that bad,” I said.
Davin spread his hands. “I’m only telling you what I know. You would have to ask her if you wish to know more.” He gave me a hard look. “I’m just glad I’m not going to be out there to deal with them.”
I glanced across the room at the woman. She was still grinning. It made me want to break her neck.
I walked away from Davin, leaving him slumped on his cot. Jonathan followed me as I approached the woman again.
“How long until others arrive?” I asked.
She gave me a sweet smile full of venom. “You’ll know when you feel the bite of our blade on your throat. His Hand will guide them to you.”
I’d had enough. I turned and stalked toward the stairs, just wanting to get out of there. Jonathan gave me a worried look, his shoulders as tense as I’d ever seen them.
“You’ll all die,” the woman said to my retreating back. “The Left Hand will strike you down. We will leave no survivors!”
I kept walking, ignoring her. As long as the others weren’t here, she was nothing but talk. I would deal with them when I had to. There was already too much shit I had to worry about without having to watch for Pureblood assassins.
The last sound I heard as Jonathan closed the hidden passageway behind us was the sound of the woman’s mad laughter.
14
“Do you believe him?”
We were sitting in Jonathan’s office. Nathan stood by the door, arms crossed. Adrian thankfully had left, leaving the three of us to discuss what we learned from Davin.
Jonathan tapped his fingers on his desk. “I don’t know. It’s hard to believe anything he says.”
“But why would he lie?”
“To get something for nothing,” Nathan said. He sounded angry.
“I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I.” Jonathan gave me a pointed look. “We should keep an eye out for others like her.”
“Don’t we already have enough to worry about?” I really didn’t want to add another problem to my growing list. It was starting to get to be a bit too much, even for me.
“Do we have a choice?” Jonathan sighed. He rubbed at the right side of his face where his glamour hid his scarred features. It was odd to watch. His fingers didn’t sink into the flesh or anything, but it didn’t look right either. “If Davin is telling the truth and others like that woman show up, we could be in some serious trouble.”
Nathan grunted. He’d been filled in by Jonathan and it was clear he didn’t want to believe Davin. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to either.
“They’re Purebloods,” he said. “What could they possibly do to us?”
I looked at him like he was a moron. He didn’t deign to notice.
“We should just stay vigilant,” Jonathan said. “If one of them can sneak up on you,” he gave me a nervous look, “then we should all be watchful. None of us is safe.”
“But what
about our murderer?” I said. “Are we sure this woman isn’t responsible? She seems crazy enough to walk right into a vampire House.”
“She wouldn’t have survived,” Jonathan said. “You saw what it was like. I just don’t think she could manage it on her own.”
“Maybe she had help.”
Both Jonathan and I glanced at Nathan. He shrugged and looked away.
“It’s possible.”
“But unlikely,” Jonathan said. “Does she seem like someone who would work with werewolves? We know a wolf is involved if the claw marks on the bodies are any indication. We can’t start assuming that one possible murderer is responsible for every murder that takes place.”
I felt that one was aimed at me. “Then where do we stand?”
“The same place as before.” Jonathan sat back in his chair. He was staring at the top of his desk and I wondered if there was something on one of his monitors that was interesting. “We keep looking, but now we watch for suspicious Purebloods walking around with poison.”
I shuddered. “How long was I out?” I asked. I was feeling much stronger, but it felt good to sit down for a few minutes. I still had to get home at some point and wanted to leave soon. It was hard to find the willpower to rise.
“Not long,” Jonathan said. “Adrian brought you straight to us and we took you upstairs. I had just enough time to question the woman before you came down.”
That was a relief, though it didn’t make much sense. “But the silver should have knocked me out longer. It never wears off that fast.” Especially since it had been injected straight into my bloodstream like that. I should have been out for hours.
“The silver wasn’t pure,” Jonathan said. “There was just enough to keep you down for a few minutes, an hour at most. Whatever was in the injection that knocked you out was the most potent.”
“She wouldn’t need you paralyzed that long to finish you off,” Nathan said.
He was right. If the plan was to incapacitate me long enough to cut my throat, they could use the slightest traces of silver in the mixture and it would do the job.
Of course, that did beg the question as to where she had managed to obtain the silver. It wasn’t like it was easy to get hold of these days. The silver I used came from a demon, and I was pretty sure she would have nothing to do with something like that.