Gawain had probably been asking the question silently for the entire journey, but for the first time Marley seriously wondered who Rhydder and Demyan really were, beyond being rich, vampire and willing to pay a fortune for her illegal services.
The penthouse floor was silent. Marley sniffed. It smelled deliciously, shockingly clean. How long was it since she had really smelled clean? The scent of perfectly clean flooring, fresh flowers in big Chinese ginger jars and not a speck of dust anywhere.
An original oil painting hung on the wall between two apartment doors. It wasn’t screwed down. One door was marked “A” and the other door “B”.
Demyan used his thumb to unlock the door marked “B” and stepped inside.
Rhydder looked at Marley. “After you,” he said flatly.
Gawain grinned. “Me, too,” he said and stepped past him, making Marley’s eyes roll.
“Marley!” Demyan called from the sofa in the center of the main room opening up off the foyer. He was leaning over it, but the sofa was facing the stunning views visible through the panoramic windows wrapping the room and she couldn’t see what he could.
She hurried around to the front of the sofa. A twenty-something petite woman with masses of black, long hair, lay asleep on the sofa, curled into a tight ball, her head on her hand.
Demyan looked at Marley. “I can’t wake her.”
“This is Pritti?” She tugged off her coat.
“She seemed fine when I left her this morning.”
Marley dropped a hand to the girl’s wrist pulse and felt it. It was abnormally slow. She shot out her hand. “A watch,” she said. A watch was placed in it and she glanced at it and thrust it back. “Analogue, with a second hand,” she said.
“I’ll count the ten seconds for you,” Rhydder told her.
Marley glanced at him, startled.
“Vampires have a perfect sense of time,” Gawain whispered to her. “It’s what lets them jump through time.”
“Our memories do that,” Rhydder told Gawain. “But we do have a non-subjective sense of time passing. Ready?” he asked Marley.
Marley concentrated on detecting the almost-not-there beat in Pritti’s wrist. She nodded.
“Now,” Rhydder said.
Silence held the room for ten long seconds as Marley counted beats.
“Stop,” Rhydder told her.
“Far too slow,” Marley murmured and dropped her hand to Pritti’s forehead. “And she’s far too cool. She’s...moribund.” She shook the girl, trying to rouse Pritti herself. “Pritti, wake up. Come on, now. Open your eyes. Say hello to the strangers in your home.”
She tapped her face as she’d seen so many nurses do so many countless times, but Pritti didn’t even stir.
Marley dropped back to basics. She stretched Pritti out on the sofa and tested vital signs as best she could with no equipment, using kitchen supplies and lateral thinking. When Marley tapped on Pritti’s knee with a meat tenderizer, to test for reflexes, the girl moaned.
Demyan, who was holding her upright, almost dropped her. He drew in a sharp breath.
Marley nodded. “That confirms what I thought. This isn’t a coma. It’s something I’ve never seen before. Her metabolism seems to have dropped so below par she can’t move. We have to boost it.”
“How?” Demyan said simply.
“Any way we can. To start, hot and then cold showers. As hot and as cold as you and she can stand them, Demyan. The more extreme the better. It’ll help shock her and her metabolism awake.”
“Me?”
“Someone has to hold her up,” Marley pointed out. “As she stirs, someone will have to keep her under the water.”
“You’re the doctor,” Demyan replied.
“And I just co-opted you as nurse. I’m going to be busy with other stuff. Move your ass, Demyan, and stop arguing with me.”
He blinked. “Yes, madam.” He lifted Pritti like she weighed nothing and carried her into the inner section of the apartment. Within sixty seconds, Marley heard the sound of running water.
She turned and found herself in front of Rhydder. He was just suddenly there.
“What do I do?” he said.
Marley cleared her throat. “Is there a health or supplement store nearby? A pharmacy or chemist store?”
“Probably.”
“And a medical supply store, too.”
He lifted a brow and stayed silent.
She stepped around him, moved into the well-appointed kitchenette and opened the cold cabinet to check the contents, then the pantry to do the same. There was precious little of anything in either.
She moved back out to the living room, where Gawain sat on the sofa. “Can you write these down for me?” she asked.
Gawain turned on one of his reading boards and nodded. “Go.”
Marley listed aloud the equipment and supplies she wanted. Vitamin B supplements and their dosages. Intramuscular syringes and injectable saline from the medical supply store. And food, including speed drinks, from the nearest supermarket. She looked at Rhydder. “All as soon as you can get there and back. Gawain, would you pass the list over?”
Gawain sent the list to Rhydder’s phone. Rhydder nodded, looking at it. “They’re going to let me just buy the needles?”
“They have to,” Marley told him. “It’s what you put in them they might object to if they know, but they won’t ask. If they do get stuffy and ask, tell them it’s for vitamin supplements, which it is.”
He put his phone in his coat, turned and walked out of the apartment.
Gawain blew out his breath. “And me?” he asked.
“Scraps cook again,” she told him. “Anything and everything we can scare up from what she has left here. She’s going to eat until she’s sick, then she’s going to eat all over again. She doesn’t look like she’s eaten in a week, anyway. Her metabolism has crashed big time. I’m going to strap a great big rocket to it and light a fire under it. She’s going to eat like there’s no tomorrow.”
Gawain grinned. “The fucking rich...who says they live different, huh? We didn’t have breakfast today, either.”
“They’re different because they choose not to eat,” Marley said dryly.
“Yeah, but the belly cramps are just as painful,” Gawain said. He sounded happy about it.
“What do you make of them, Gawain?” She started water heating and searched for coffee, moving around Gawain as he dug out food and utensils.
“Which ‘them’?”
“All of them.”
“Haven’t seen enough of her to start guessing. Those two, though...hell, too many questions to even pick a direction to start forming a theory.”
“Was does that mean?” she asked, startled.
“They’re lying up to their eyebrows,” Gawain said. “About who they are.”
Marley shrugged. “Of course they are. You don’t hire an illegal doctor and give your real credentials.”
Gawain shook his head as he held up a limp celery stalk and judged it worthy of consumption or not, before tossing it into the garbage. “Not just identities, Marley. It goes deeper than that, I think.”
“Should we be worried?”
“Hell, everyone lies a little. So now we’ve got two grand liars. Yeah, I hate it. It drives me fucking crazy, but we’re protected as long as they need you to take care of Pritti and that will give me time to dig up what they’re lying about and figure out if the lies are of any danger to us.”
“So I should concentrate on Pritti and you’ll work on those two?”
Gawain nodded. “Sure, that seems reasonable.”
“Good, because that Rhydder gives me the creeps.”
“Is that what you call it?” Gawain grinned and went back to slicing cheese. “You must creep him out a lot, too, then.”
Chapter Forty
The Palatine, Rome, 2264 A.D.: Many hours later, Pritti was talking and walking on her own. She sat and ate all the food put in front of her, even though s
he choked it down mouthful by mouthful. In between, she walked circuits of her living room floor, sometimes accompanied by Demyan, sometimes by herself, sometimes with Gawain or Marley for company.
Demyan at first protested at Marley giving Pritti speed drinks, telling her she didn’t understand the consequences. But Marley coldly explained that the ingredients in the drinks would boost Pritti’s ailing metabolism in a way that simple coffee and food could not and if he wanted her to leave right now....
Demyan shut up as Marley opened the can and watch Pritti choke down the contents. He pushed his hands deep into his jacket and walked his own short circuit by the kitchen door, watching Pritti for the next hour until it was clear that there was going to be no fireworks or extreme reaction. Pritti’s body was so badly ailing that even the energy drink barely registered. After that he grabbed his coat and left the apartment for twenty minutes. He returned, subdued and silent and remained that way for the rest of the time Marley and Gawain were there.
Rhydder watched everything with detached half-amusement from his post by the kitchen bar, his arms crossed. He helped when asked, anticipated needs, but otherwise remained uninvolved and out of the way, his black eyes watching and absorbing everything.
When Marley was finally satisfied that Pritti’s metabolism was climbing on its own once more and they were safe to leave, she sat and wrote out a long list of medical supplies and equipment on Gawain’s secondary board. It took forty minutes to complete the list, and required deep thought to remember all that she would need.
“Get these for me as soon as possible,” she told Demyan as Gawain sent the list to him. Demyan sat on the very edge of the sofa, his hands between his knees. Pritti was showering once more and changing her clothes. The girl’s sudden concern over her appearance was a symptom that convinced Marley she was recovering. “The sooner I have this equipment, the sooner I can start Pritti’s treatment,” she told Demyan. “You’re right. She needs it.”
She tried to find softer words to gentle the cruel message, but couldn’t. She was too tired. Besides, she could see that Demyan already knew the truth. She indicated the second list on the board she was holding. “This is a list of resources, including a genetics lab and my original genetics work. I’ll need these, too.”
Demyan glanced at the list, then up at her. A shallow furrow appeared between his brows. “How am I supposed to get these?”
Marley shrugged. “Steal it, for all I care. You’re the one hiring illegal doctors.”
Gawain snorted.
Marley send Demyan the third list. “This is the important one. These are symptoms and signs to watch out for in Pritti and what to do if you spot them.” She went through the list slowly and carefully. Demyan was a good listener. He didn’t interrupt her until she was finished, then asked clarifying questions. She was satisfied he had understood everything.
She got up from the table and stretched, then looked at Rhydder. “I would like to go home now, please.”
Gawain stepped to her side.
Rhydder nodded, reaching into his pocket.
“I’m going to stay,” Demyan said.
Rhydder’ eyes narrowed, the only reaction he gave. Then he nodded. “I’ll see you later,” he said and opened the apartment door for Marley and Gawain.
* * * * *
Chronometric Conservation Agency Headquarters, Villa Fontani, Rome, 2264 A.D.: They jumped back to a formal, blank, still and silent arrival chamber. Deonne looked around the featureless square room, then focused on the big atomic clock readout. 2548226.09234. The numbers seemed to hang in the middle of nothing.
“Julian?” Adán asked, pointing at the numbers.
Justin nodded.
“What is the date?” Adán asked. “I don’t know Julian time all that well.”
“You will,” Deonne assured him. “It’s the official time the agency uses.”
“Then what is the date?” Adán asked her.
“I’m still learning how to instantly translate the way the vampires can.” She shrugged. “Some time in twenty-two sixty-four.”
“September fourteenth,” Justin supplied.
Adán grinned. “May I see twenty-two sixty four?”
Justin unlocked and opened the door. “This way.”
Deonne followed them out, her nineteenth century boots clicking on the hard floor. In a way, she would be sad to take off the ultra-feminine gear. On the other hand, she was dying to slide into something that would bend in the middle when she wanted to.
Both Ryan and Nayara were waiting outside. Ryan was sitting on the edge of a low, backless sofa. Nayara was looking out the windows that lined the wall opposite the arrival chamber door. There was a square courtyard on the other side of the glass, filled with trees and grass. It looked very peaceful. Long columns held up a verandah roof that at first glance seemed to run around all four edges of the courtyard.
“Is this Rome?” Deonne asked. The enclosed court and the old stonework she could see of the building on the opposite side of the court spoke of age. “The new villa?”
“The villa is anything but new,” Nayara replied, turning to look at her. “But it is our new home, yes.”
“What about the secret base?” Deonne asked. “Are you closing that down?”
“That will stay operational for now. We may need to retreat there.” Ryan stood up and held his hand out to Adán. “You are most welcome here, Santiago.”
“Adán, please. I am very happy to be here. It was a near thing.”
Nayara came closer. She sniffed. “You are human.”
Adán lifted his hand. “I am,” he agreed amiably. “And you are…?”
Nayara gave him a stiff smile. “Please forgive our bad manners. You must understand, Adán, that you are the first vampire that we know of who has jumped forward in time. We were not sure if your symbiot would go into stasis or not.”
“You must be Nayara, then,” Adán said. “Only a leader speaks so casually of ‘we’.”
She gave him a slightly warmer smile. “I am. As Ryan said, you are most welcome here, Adán Santiago. We have arranged accommodation for the three of you—”
“But—” Justin began.
“We need you here, not Sydney, Justin,” Ryan said, cutting off his protest. “Well, to be perfectly honest, we need Adán.”
“Me?” Adán said, surprised.
“You have certain qualifications that we need for a…well, a mission.”
Nayara rested her hand on Ryan’s arm. “Give them time to recover, Ryan. I’m quite sure Deonne is dying for a shower, proper food and a mirror.” She smiled at Deonne. “Adán may be hungry, too.”
Adán looked like he was going to refute her guess when a woman stepped up by his side. “I can show you where the dining hall is,” she said. “If you’ll come with me?”
Deonne studied the woman. Dark auburn hair, sleek and long, hung down the woman’s back. She wore a suit that made the most of the woman’s hour-glass figure, an attribute that Deonne had missed out on, being elongated and tall. The skirt of the suit swirled around her knees, and she wore smart, heeled shoes that squealed femininity.
Adán smiled down at her. “That would be wonderful,” he told her.
The woman pulled out a reading board and checked something off and that was when Deonne blinked and felt her mouth open. “Mariana?” she asked, her voice lifting.
Mariana smiled at Deonne. “That’s me.”
Justin walked around Mariana, taking in details. “What happened?” he asked. Then he held up his hand. “None of my business, sorry. But…crikey!” He stood back to take in her appearance as a whole.
“You did not look like this…before?” Adán asked.
Mariana smiled up at him, her beautiful eyes dancing. “Not for a while,” she said cryptically.
“There you are!” The voice came from the big archway to the right, which gave access to rooms beyond the arrival chamber. Cáel Stelios was leaning against the arch, loosening his
shirt collar. The jacket that went with the pants he was wearing was hanging over his shoulder, held there by one finger acting like a hook.
Nayara caught her breath in a quick gasp and spun to face the archway.
Ryan’s face worked for a moment, as strong emotions battled there. Then he drew in a breath and his face dropped back into neutral. But his eyes were shining.
Nayara hurried over to the archway, almost running. She threw herself against him. Cáel dropped the jacket to the floor and wrapped his arms around her. He smiled as he looked down into hers, then kissed her. It was a thorough, deep kiss, and Deonne got the impression that neither of them cared about their audience…or had forgotten them altogether.
Ryan walked over to the pair and tapped on Cáel’s shoulder. Cáel lifted his mouth from Nayara’s. Happiness was glowing in his eyes and his expression. Ryan took his face in both hands and leaned over Nayara and kissed him. His kiss was no less thorough than Nayara’s had been.
Nayara was stroking Cáel’s chest and shoulders, as if she couldn’t believe he was actually standing there in the flesh. Her face glowed with the same happiness Deonne had seen in Cáel’s eyes.
Adán pulled Deonne next to him and curled his arm about her waist. He did the same to Ryan, all while watching the three people standing under the archway. “I am home,” he pronounced, sounding utterly content.
Chapter Forty-One
The Palatine, Rome, 2264 A.D.: “You don’t like Demyan much, do you?” Gawain asked, leaning forward between the seats. Gawain was antsy as hell and verbally fidgeting again as Rhydder sped through the two a.m. streets like a slick bullet.
“Gawain, really, not now,” Marley said earnestly.
“I like Romanov a bit more than I like you right now,” Rhydder answered.
“But not much more. Yet something keeps you together and it’s not Pritti. You have no feelings about her at all. Demyan does.”
Marley saw Rhydder’ chest rise and fall sharply. A sore point then. The depth of Demyan’s feeling for Pritti must have caught him by surprise tonight. Clearly, he hadn’t enjoyed the revelation.
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