by Jeanne Rose
He hesitated, murmuring, “This could be dangerous for you.”
“Dangerous?”
She pressed her throat against his lips and he took what she had asked him to.
The night swam, danced. Stars wheeled and the moon flew. Clinging to Val, the only solid entity in a shifting universe, Adriana shuddered over and over . . . until she lost consciousness . . .
The room was gray when she awakened later and realized Val had risen to dress. “Going so soon? Don’t you want to stay for breakfast?”
“I am already satiated.”
“You didn’t eat that much at dinner.”
“I need to return to my house. And you need rest from my company.”
She noticed the little creature winding herself about his feet. Val picked up the cat.
“You made friends with Phantom.”
“I told you we would get along.” He came to the bed, petting the purring cat before settling her beside the pillow. “Little Phantom is quite charming . . . like her mistress.”
Adriana lay back and took hold of his lapels, pulling him down. She pouted provocatively. “Are you sure you have to go?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” He kissed her, then pulled back.
Which was when she noticed the dark stain on his jacket. “What’s that?”
“Blood. From Stone Drake’s nose.”
“Oh.” She’d forgotten about the whole unpleasant incident.
“Take care of yourself, Adriana. Sleep in and have some red meat with your meals. You won’t feel so dizzy or weak.”
“Sleep I can understand, but meat?”
“Seriously,” he said. “Even a small amount will help . . . until you make your final choice.”
“Choice?” She gave him a perplexed look.
“You will need to see everything clearly, first.”
“What the heck are you talking about?” Whether she should be a meat-eater or a vegetarian?
He was slipping out the door. “Farewell, my lovely one.”
She started to rise and follow, then figured it was no use. Besides, she could rest easy, knowing she and Val had made up. There would be plenty of time to discuss his mysterious, strange ways in the nights to come.
RED MEAT. Val had been correct about it giving her energy, Adriana thought as she swept out of her building to take a taxi to work that evening. Having found some filet mignon in the freezer, she’d defrosted it and fixed herself a hearty late afternoon brunch of steak, omelet and salad. Afterward, she’d called Frank to say she’d be working, that she felt great.
She entered the club smiling, only to find a lot of somber faces and whisperings among the other employees.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, approaching Frank.
He stood at the bar with Peter. “Haven’t you heard, darling? There’s been yet another murder.”
Gazing at her meaningfully, Peter added, “And this time it was real close to home – Stone Drake.”
Her throat constricted. “Stone?”
“I’m very surprised you heard nothing about this,” said Frank. “He took off last night, didn’t even punch out. Later, his body was discovered on Oak Street Beach, right below your building. The police said a motorist on the drive spotted a struggle between two men and reported it on his car phone. They are searching for the murderer, who is still at large.”
In her mind’s eye, she saw Val throwing Stone into the table at the cafe.
“This time all the blood wasn’t drained so neat and nice out of the body, though.” Peter grimaced. “It was splattered all over the place.”
Adriana recalled the dark stain on Val’s jacket. He’d admitted it was Stone’s blood. But surely he wouldn’t have been so quick to explain, so blithe, if he’d just finished murdering the man. Would he?
Even though he was fiercely jealous?
Her stomach knotted and her knees grew weak.
“Are you sure you want to stay tonight?” Frank asked her. “I’ve already cancelled the radio broadcast. I tried to explain that when you phoned, but you didn’t give me the chance.”
Her mind spun but she knew she didn’t want to go home. “I’ll work. I’d like to be around people.”
Rather than alone. The condo might very well be empty – from time to time, Jennifer spent an entire weekend with Todd.
And, at the moment, Adriana had no intention of conjuring up Val. Surely he wouldn’t, couldn’t have come back to her last night because he’d solved his problem with jealousy . . . by eliminating his rival.
She refused to think so, though the entire situation was giving her the creeps.
Later, working in the sound booth, the shock finally wearing off, she started feeling sad for Stone himself. He’d been a problematic person but he hadn’t deserved to be murdered.
With his blood splattered all over . . .
Adriana shivered as the CD she’d been playing came to end. “And now we have a live band – Evanescence – to play for you.”
She took off her earphones and left the booth, ambling through the crowd and into the bar. There Irina spotted her and started hurrying up the card reading she was doing, no doubt wanting to talk.
Great. But Adriana felt too demoralized to hide from her friend. Or anyone. She ordered a tonic and lime from Peter and wondered when Detective Panchella would be in to see her again.
As expected, Irina headed directly for the bar when she was finished with her customer. “You look a little better than you did last night, but you’re still too pale.”
“I feel a lot better.”
“Even though Stone was killed?”
“I’m upset about that, of course. How could you think I wouldn’t be?” She explained, “I meant I feel better physically.”
“Val didn’t like Stone, did he?”
Adriana hedged, “Val is very protective in an old-fashioned way. He felt Stone had wronged me.”
“Hmmph.” Irina opened her purse, withdrawing a piece of paper. “Mr. Kadar is old-fashioned, all right, and he’s got about six hundred reasons why.”
“Six hundred?”
“Years.” Irina unfolded the piece of paper. A photocopy. “Take a look at this. It’s a portrait of that Hungarian nobleman we were talking about, the Kadar.”
Adriana felt compelled to look, moving the photocopy beneath one of the lights that hung over the bar. A somber visage stared out at her, a man with high cheekbones, a straight nose and a wide, sensual mouth. He seemed to be dressed in a tunic of some sort and had shoulder-length dark hair, but she had to admit the portrait resembled Val enough to give her a chill.
But some photocopied picture couldn’t make her believe in superstition. She was far more concerned that Val might be a murderer than a vampire. Not that she could share her horrible doubts with anyone, including Irina.
She objected, “I’ve taken an art history course. They didn’t do portraits like this in the thirteenth century.”
“It’s from the sixteenth century. Legend has it that the Kadar was already three hundred years old then.”
“Uh, huh. Legend.” Adriana handed the photocopy back.
“That’s not all. A chemist tested that herb mixture.”
“The herbs?” Adriana frowned. “The ones you scooped up from the bar? There wasn’t very much.”
“Enough to analyze. The mixture contains crushed carrot seeds, flax seeds, millet, mustard, paprika and some sort of ground tree bark.”
“So?”
“According to my aunt, that’s a classic mix for curbing vampirism.” Irina paid no attention to Adriana’s sigh. “But herbs only curb the syndrome, not cure it. He would still have the power to appear and disappear at will, superhuman strength.”
Adriana became alert. “Superhuman strength?”
“Not to mention that vampires can fly.”
“Fly?” Her dream coming back in great clarity, she nearly choked on a swallow of tonic water.
“He wouldn’t have to take
a bat form, of course. He could just zap around here and there when he wanted to.” Irina leaned closer, concern in her expression. “I can tell you’re freaked. Seen him hovering around your windows lately?”
Adriana refused to let legend overwhelm logic. “I simply can’t believe in vampires, Irina. If I did, I’d also have to believe in everything else – sorcerers, werewolves, fairies, leprechauns.”
Now it was Irina’s turn to say, “So?”
“You actually accept such beings as reality?”
Irina looked perfectly solemn. “I accept them as possibilities. No one can prove they don’t exist.”
“But no one can prove they do, either.” Adriana leaned against the bar. “Valentin Kadar is a very unusual man but that doesn’t mean he’s supernatural. And he’s honorable and decent.” At least most of the time. “He can be very kind,” she stated, in a way trying to reassure herself. “He gives money to the homeless and the lost and he takes in stray animals.”
“As far as the homeless are concerned, he’s either paying them as spies or showing off for you. And animals . . . well, vampires can often hold simpler life forms in their thrall. Especially night creatures like cats and owls and bats.”
Cats and owls. Okay. “What about dogs?”
“They use them as watch animals. A dog guards his master’s residence while he sleeps.” Irina went on, “Actually, vampires are rather animalistic themselves. They can charm just about any kind of beast except a white horse.”
“A horse?” With a thrill, Adriana thought of the carriage steed the night before.
“White horses can detect the undead. In Europe, people used to lead them across cemeteries when they suspected a vampire was hanging out in a grave or crypt.” Irina added, “Ah-hah. Your eyes are really big. I know the stuff I’m saying is getting to you.”
She could only shake her head. “I feel like I’m living in some sort of dream.” Or nightmare, actually.
“I can imagine. You didn’t really break up with Val, did you? He’s been hypnotizing you, charming you, making love . . . and taking blood when he gets the chance. You’ve got your hair pulled forward, but I noticed the mark on your throat.”
Adriana placed her hand there protectively. The wound throbbed slightly. Val had bitten her.
“What does it feel like?” Irina asked. “The process must be pleasurable or victims like you wouldn’t get into it.”
Pleasurable wasn’t the word for the way Val’s passionate ministrations made her feel. But Adriana didn’t intend to admit anything to Irina, who had not only gotten on her nerves but was truly frightening her.
She eased herself off the stool. “Look, I appreciate your trying to warn me about all this, but if I have some concerns about Val, it’s not because I believe he’s a vampire.”
“You think he’s just a straight killer.”
Irina certainly had good instincts. But Adriana objected, “Nothing has been proven.” And she suddenly remembered the botched abduction two nights ago. “Furthermore, there’s somebody else involved in this whole mess because some crazy guy tried to haul me off in a stolen taxi on Thursday.”
“Yeah?”
She could tell Irina was surprised. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you about it because I was sick on Friday night. Val obviously has an enemy who’s doing these killings and is trying to frame him.”
Which made her feel better. All the other details Irina had mentioned in trying to prove her point simply had to be a set of very bizarre circumstances.
But Irina’s expression had become worried. “Now I see. There’s probably a pack of vampires and they’re having a war!”
“Vampires” Upset all over again, Adriana wanted to tear her hair. “I’ve heard enough about this subject – I’ve told you that before.” She made one last threat before heading back toward the dance floor, “Don’t bring it up again or I’m not even going to talk to you.”
But in the isolation of the sound booth, playing CDs throughout the remainder of the night, she couldn’t help brooding on many, many things: Stone claiming Val had had big teeth and glowing eyes. The snarling sounds and the torn taxi door. Val’s strength, the way he could pick up grown men and throw them around. The rearing white carriage horse.
And the list went on: Val’s seeming ability to appear and disappear. The dreams of flying. Her vision of his hovering near her bedroom window.
The way he drew her to him, made her pulse thrum. The sublime ecstasy he created whenever they made love.
Ecstasy. Adriana touched her throat with a trembling hand, appalled because, at the moment, legend and superstition actually seemed to make sense.
MIKLOS RAKOSI laid out his most desperate plan, the only one that made any sense. There would be no more anonymous phone calls to the police, useless after the murder of Stone Drake. He would have to depend on his own cunning to rid himself of Kadar.
In the wee hours, he called Zeke and another burly thug into the main cabin of The Buckthorn.
“Go get the woman tomorrow morning and bring her back to the boat.”
“How early?” asked Zeke.
“Six or seven. As soon as the sun rises above the horizon.”
“Alive or dead?” inquired the other thug, a man who liked to act macho.
“Alive, of course. Kadar won’t appear otherwise.”
“How would he know?”
“He will know, believe me.” Not that a fool like this would understand, unless he’d heard gossip from those who’d seen Kadar interrupt the craps game. Rakosi had tried his best to play that down but he knew that many of his employees, hardened men, were frightened. “Be careful. There is a doorman to avoid.” He handed Zeke, a former thief and the more intelligent of the two men, the piece of paper. “Here is the message you are to give her sister.” He had written it out carefully, in case neither man got it straight.
The sister would take action.
And the last chapter on the medallion would be written.
After waving the men away, Rakosi sat back, fingering and admiring his treasure. The only inheritance he would ever receive from a father who hadn’t looked backward and a harlot of a mother who’d wanted a passing thrill. She’d abandoned her son on some peasant farmer’s doorstep. It had taken him years to find out who and what he truly was.
Then he’d had to risk life and soul to gain the legacy due him. The medallion he’d stolen wasn’t much to look at, merely ancient iron and bloodstones. But the power it gave . . .
Rakosi would fight to the death to keep it.
Though he hoped he wouldn’t have to. That’s why he was sending his men to do the initial legwork while he rested and conserved his energy, readying himself for the final confrontation beneath a blazing sun.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ADRIANA DIDN’T WANT to go home alone. She didn’t want to face any shadows, dark windows or dreams tonight by herself.
Yet she avoided Irina and the other employees when her final shift was over. After Frank said he didn’t mind if she used his phone for a private call or two, she quickly slipped up to his office, eyes darting about.
Murder and mayhem.
Spooked and paranoid, she longed to be with someone she could trust, someone who had her feet on the ground, someone she’d known all her life. Jennifer had a car and if she pleaded, her sister would surely pick her up.
She couldn’t help the hour. She would have called earlier if her head had been clear. Punching in numbers, she counted the rings before Jennifer’s answering machine kicked in.
When the message had finished, she spoke anxiously, “Jens, are you there? Grab the phone, will you? I need you to drive over to the club and get me. Come on, Jens.”
No one answered. Damn. Since Jennifer never turned off her phone, this meant that her sister had stayed another night at her fiancé’s or was too deeply asleep to respond. She slammed the receiver down, gave the machine a little time to rewind, then called again. The message only played a
second time.
“Double damn!”
Riffling in her purse, she drew out her little address book and tried Todd this time. She wanted to scream when his answering machine picked up. Where was everyone when she needed them? Taking a deep breath, she tried three more calls – one to her own machine, which held no messages, the second to Jennifer’s number, the last to Todd’s again. Only machines were responding at this hour.
She was almost thinking of calling her parents, who now lived in Florida, when she realized such action would only upset them and do her absolutely no good. She would simply have to take care of herself, make her own decisions. Inhaling a deep calming breath, she tried to settle down, wondering if she should drop by the police station to stay the rest of the night.
But what if Irina’s theories were as half-cocked as anyone with a rational mind would doubtlessly think they were?
What if Val were innocent of any wrongdoing?
What if he weren’t?
What if he truly did have . . . special powers?
In case her lover could sense her moods and desires, she concentrated, speaking into the empty space of the room, “Stay away from me, Valentin Kadar. I don’t need you, I don’t want you and you’d better not show your face anywhere near me again!”
She almost added that she’d be carrying a sharpened stake and wearing a garlic necklace just to make sure, when the ridiculousness of the whole situation struck her. Starting out with a giggle, she was soon chortling, then laughing aloud before choking up with unshed tears.
This wouldn’t do. Taking a deep breath, she slammed her fist down on the desk. “I won’t get hysterical. I won’t! I can take care of myself.”
In fact, a plan had already formed in her mind. With only a few hours left until dawn, she’d simply gird her loins and take a taxi to the all-night steak and egger in her neighborhood. The place was always busy on weekends – Val or his enemies couldn’t come and sweep her away without someone noticing.
Besides, she was hungry. Not having eaten since the meal she’d fixed before work, she’d treat herself to a juicy burger while she read the Sunday papers and waited for the sun to rise.