Blood Sin (2)

by Marie Treanor

  “We’re nearly at the river,” he said. “But this tunnel has no end, no way out.” He stared at the ground, and under Elizabeth’s anxious gaze, he eventually smiled. “Got you,” he said softly.

  She hadn’t known she was holding her breath until it rushed out in relief. “Really? Josh and Dmitriu?”

  “With Dante and several other humans and vampires. And my sword.”

  “Can you get them out?”

  “Probably,” Saloman said without expression. He glanced at the sky, as if gauging the time. He didn’t look daunted, let alone worried, but Elizabeth could tell by his stillness, by the steadiness of his cool, opaque eyes that he was deep in thought. He was planning, she realized with a sinking heart, not just how to rescue his friend and hers, but how to make this work for his larger plan. Slowly, his gaze came back to her and refocused. “First,” he said, “we need to talk. Come.”

  “What’s the matter?” Elizabeth asked breathlessly as he leapt with her over rooftops and the spaces between until she could see the distinctive terraced walls and towers of the Fishermen’s Bastion. “Would Travis hear us? Sense us?”

  “Not through my masking, if he can even sense through the stone. We just need space to think.”

  The space Saloman had in mind turned out to be one of the Bastion towers, all turrets, archways, and walkways. Catching her breath, Elizabeth gazed beyond the fairy-tale tower across the city. The Danube lay black and still in the darkness, with only a few glinting reflections from the bridges’ lights; and beyond it stretched Pest, the newer half of the city. The view was magnificent, but Saloman chose to sit on the wall with his back to it, so that he could see only Elizabeth and the tower behind her.

  “What are we thinking about?” she asked, just a little nervously. “How to rescue Josh and Dmitriu?”

  “Of course. I could go in now and probably kill all those I need to. I can probably free Dmitriu to help, although he may be too weak to do more than watch my back. I’m fast, but I can’t be sure I’ll be fast enough to save the lives of our friends, should the vampires—or Dante’s human thugs—have orders to kill them.”

  Elizabeth’s stomach twisted. “I can fight. I’m stronger than in St. Andrews.”

  “Stronger even than in New York. I know.” He reached out and touched her cheek, her lips. “But you can be killed by guns. Dmitriu says each of Dante’s four thugs has one. I can’t save you from all of them and take care of the vampires at the same time.” His lips twitched. “Much as I’d love to fight back-to-back with you once more, this isn’t that kind of fight.”

  “I think you’ve already made up your mind,” she observed. “You want other vampires in there with you.”

  “Two, maybe three would be enough.”

  She swallowed. “Would you kill Dante?”

  “Yes.” For Dmitriu alone, that would be his justice. And he’d be saving the world from a dangerous threat. Dante as a vampire was too scary to contemplate. The breeze stirred his hair. Under the pale moonlight, his eyes were as steady and as open as she had ever seen them.

  “And the other humans?” she asked hoarsely.

  “If they stand in my way, I will kill them. I or my companions. Dante’s men have stakes as well as guns. So does Travis.”

  Her stomach twisted, reminding her once more, if she needed reminding, of the huge gulf between her and the beautiful, lethal being who sat on the wall gazing at her. Happy to bring death in his wake to punish as well as to free his friend.

  “But you would bring Josh out alive and unharmed?” she said anxiously.

  His lips curved at one side. “Unharmed by myself and my vampires, you mean?”

  There was no point in denying it. “Yes.”

  “Since you wish it.”

  She licked her dry lips. “And the sword?”

  “I will take it, of course.”

  Of course.

  He slid off the wall, which brought him too close to her. She couldn’t think when every nerve was so aware of him, of what he could do to her. He said, “The argument against this plan is that it is probably too late to do it tonight. By the time I can bring Angyalka and the other vampires I’d prefer at my back, it will be too close to sunrise, and may be impossible to get out in safety.”

  “Do they have another night?” Elizabeth asked in growing despair.

  “Oh, yes, I think so. They’re feeding Josh, you know. Dante wants him healthy for when he drinks his blood. And Dmitriu can stand one more night unfed, since he knows I’m coming for him. But it will have to be quick. If Dmitriu doesn’t agree to change him by then, Dante and Travis will force him.”

  “Force him? How the hell—” She broke off. “No, don’t answer that.” She stared at Saloman. “We need to be in place by sunset. Soon after may be too late.”

  “It may.”

  “Which makes it difficult for vampires.”

  “We can walk in the dusk. Or in shadow.”

  “Will that be enough?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “And you could be seen.”

  “You are too concerned with secrecy. Sooner or later the world must learn about vampires.”

  “That’s another day’s fight,” Elizabeth said impatiently, and he inclined his head, still watching her. She drew in her breath, running her teeth across her lower lip. “I have another plan. We make the hunters our allies in this.”

  When his expression didn’t change, she hurried on. “They don’t care about sunsets or sunrises, and they can enter the castle when they choose without reference to official opening times.”

  “I can see you would be happier with human allies,” Saloman said smoothly. “But they would not work with me, and I’m afraid I insist on being there.”

  To make sure Dmitriu lived, and to take the sword. “There’s no choice,” Elizabeth said in a voice that sounded hard even to her. “We need you there.”

  Again, he inclined his head, and Elizabeth had the bizarre, almost dizzying feeling that she’d just carried out his wishes. Was it possible he actually wanted the hunters there?

  “The hunters must not kill Dmitriu,” he warned. “And I still take the sword.”

  “No,” Elizabeth said.

  Still his eyes did not change and she knew her veto made no difference. He would take it anyway if she could not convince him. And God knew she didn’t want to prod that particular wound. She gripped his arms, slid her fingers up to his shoulders.

  “Saloman, I know what the sword means to you, but you must see that they can’t allow you to have this added power. It doesn’t matter to you; you’re already more powerful than any other being! The hunters would keep it away from your enemies, from all other vampires and humans, and never use it themselves. Knowing that, would you not let them have it? I’ve been thinking about this so much, Saloman, and I believe it’s the only possible solution.”

  For a moment, he was rigid under her hands, neither throwing her off nor embracing her as she made her plea from the heart. Then, at last, his eyes softened and he took her in his arms.

  “Elizabeth, this is one request I won’t grant.” He kissed her protesting mouth, silencing her. “But if I tell you the sword’s true power, I think you’ll no longer ask it of me.”

  Elizabeth, trying to quell the leap of her body in response to his kiss, tightened her hold on his shoulders. Finally, she would learn the truth about the sword. She drew in her breath and said shakily, “Tell me.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “No” said Konrad, staunchly and predictably “I think we’ve already proved that alliance with vampires, even to catch other vampires, is unreliable and counterproductive.”

  They had met her, as requested, in the underground station at Heroes’ Square. The platform was quiet in the middle of the morning. A train had just been through, and now there was no one there but Elizabeth and the three hunters.

  Elizabeth said, “Zoltán was never trustworthy.”

  “And Saloman is?
” Konrad exclaimed. “Elizabeth, the bastard drank my blood!”

  “But he didn’t kill you,” Elizabeth said quickly.

  “Only because you were jumping up and down on his back at the time,” Mihaela said dryly. “I saw you.”

  Elizabeth shrugged that off. “It’s not really relevant anyway. The point is, Saloman has found Josh and is prepared to help us rescue him.”

  “If you know where he is too,” István said reasonably, “then we don’t need Saloman. We’ll go in and get him now.”

  “We can’t. There are too many of them. The American vampire Travis is protecting Dante, and he has three other vampires with him. Dante has four armed human thugs.”

  “So we need backup,” Konrad said, reaching for his phone.

  “Maybe,” Elizabeth said urgently. “But some of us will still die. We have more chance if we make Saloman our backup. What’s more, his speed has more chance of saving Josh. We’re talking about a small tunnel, a small room already full of people. We can’t take nine or ten more humans in there and expect them to be able to fight.”

  Two young men wandered onto the platform, both talking at once, and Elizabeth turned her back on them, facing the frowning hunters instead and lowering her voice. “Look, Saloman has an interest in the success of this. He wants Dmitriu alive.”

  “And the sword,” Mihaela said in a hard voice.

  Elizabeth glanced at her. “And the sword. But then, everyone wants that. My first priority is Josh, not the sword. My second priority is to prevent Dante from becoming a vampire. Aren’t those things your duty too?”

  “Oh, yes—along with killing vampires like Saloman and Dmitriu,” Mihaela snapped. “What’s gotten into you, Elizabeth? We’ve been hunting Saloman for more than six months. You’ve been in on at least two attempts to kill him, and now, suddenly, you want to take him along as your pet assassin? This is Saloman! Nobody’s pet!”

  Elizabeth bit her lip on the sharp retort already forming there. She couldn’t help being hurt by Mihaela’s attitude, because although theirs was an odd and erratic friendship, they had never actually quarreled. Apart from the time she’d stormed out of the hunters’ library, but that had been aimed mostly at Konrad and initiated entirely by Elizabeth.

  Gazing at Mihaela now, she recognized the desperate worry behind the anger flashing in her brown eyes. Mihaela knew there was something wrong, had known she was hiding things since she’d first arrived.

  But then, she’d always hidden this from Mihaela. From all of them. It wasn’t something she could speak about easily to anyone, but she knew, at last, that she couldn’t and shouldn’t keep the secret for much longer.

  She drew in her breath. “Look, I know this seems strange to you. A bizarre, untrustworthy alliance. And I know you think it’s weird that I’m even on speaking terms with Saloman. I’ll explain all that to you later, if you want me to. For now, we need to make plans to rescue Josh.”

  She paused as a train raced out of the tunnel and came to a halt, silent until passengers had gotten on and off and the train pulled away again. Then, as footsteps faded away from their empty platform once more, she said, “Would it help to know that he wanted to take his vampires in and do the job without us? I persuaded him that you would be better allies for this job and he agreed—on condition you don’t kill Dmitriu.”

  They were all frowning again. “Why did he agree to that?” Mihaela asked flatly. “He can’t trust us any more than we trust him.”

  “Perhaps . . . because he wants you to believe he isn’t the monster you think he is.” The words came out with difficulty, and yet she was sure they were the truth.

  “Is he?” István asked.

  She felt the smile flicker and die on her lips without permission. “I don’t know.” She met his gaze, then shifted hers to Konrad and finally Mihaela. “But I think, at least in this case, we have to take the chance. For Josh.”

  Mihaela’s breath came out in a rush. “I hope you’re right.”

  Elizabeth smiled, knowing she’d won. Mihaela’s faint responding curve of the lips felt like a reward. “So do I,” she said fervently.

  “We’ll talk to him,” Konrad said sternly. “I’m promising no more than that. We can’t trust the evil bastard, and that’s the bottom line.”

  Elizabeth raised her voice. “Saloman.”

  “Oh, shit,” said Mihaela, and Saloman strolled out of the passage on the right.

  Each of the hunters made an instinctive jerk toward pockets and bags, depending on where they kept their emergency stakes. They drew infinitesimally closer together too, keeping Elizabeth within their protective circle.

  Saloman looked artistic and bohemian this morning, in dark trousers and a white silk shirt with wide sleeves. His hair was tied behind his head, and he carried the familiar leather coat over one shoulder. Although he must have seen the profound, if discreet impression his presence had made on the hunters, he gave no sign of it, merely halted a couple of feet away and inclined his head like a prince greeting his subjects.

  Whatever the setting and whoever else was present, he always managed to look splendid and totally in command. And sexy.

  Dragging her wayward thoughts away from that direction, Elizabeth murmured, “I doubt formal introductions are necessary.”

  “I don’t believe so.” Konrad stared directly at Saloman, perhaps to prove he wasn’t afraid. “The last time we met, you bit me.”

  Again, Saloman inclined his head. “You tasted good,” he said politely, as if giving a compliment.

  Inappropriate laughter caught at Elizabeth’s breath. Mihaela coughed, as if she too had to cover her reaction; then she said curtly, “What plan do you propose?”

  “You must gain us entry to the castle before sunset. I’ll take you to the tunnel where they’re hidden and mask your presence until we break in.” He shrugged eloquently. “After that, we fight to free our friends. I will agree to protect Josh if you agree to leave Dmitriu undead.”

  “Can they use the sword against us?” Konrad demanded.

  “Not for long.”

  “The sword must remain with us,” Konrad insisted.

  “As long as I am with you.”

  Konrad opened his mouth to dispute that in no uncertain terms, so Elizabeth said hastily, “Perhaps we can deal with that issue once we have our friends safe?”

  “As you wish,” said Saloman. He addressed Konrad, as the leader of the team. “Be in the castle grounds by seven thirty. Elizabeth will show you the way.”

  “Earlier would be better,” Konrad challenged. “We can arrange to get you there safely.”

  “Shutting the castle to visitors and staff?”

  “What?”

  “Collateral damage,” Saloman explained. “And too high a price. Seven thirty.” He bowed his head once more and, turning, sauntered back along the platform, passing a woman with a buggy as he turned in to the exit passage.

  As soon as he was out of sight, Konrad and István sprinted after him. Elizabeth and Mihaela watched in silence until they returned only seconds later.

  István spread his hands wide. “Gone,” he said helplessly.

  “Is this about Josh?” Mihaela said abruptly.

  Elizabeth looked up, blinking. “Of course it is!”

  They had gone together back to Mihaela’s flat, eaten a light meal, and were now preparing for the battle ahead. There had been no animosity apparent in Mihaela’s attitude, although Elizabeth was grateful for the silences during which they each appeared to be thinking their own thoughts.

  Mihaela’s question had come out of the blue, as had her presence at the bedroom door as Elizabeth fastened her jeans.

  Mihaela smiled faintly and leaned against the doorframe, watching Elizabeth clear out her bag. “No. I mean this alliance with Saloman. I understand your need to get Josh back at any price. My only worry is that your judgment has been impaired by . . . Josh.”

  Elizabeth placed her charged phone and her purse back in
the bag and picked up the sharpened wooden stake before she answered. “You mean am I madly in love with Josh Alexander?”

  “It crossed my mind. You were talking the other night about unsuitable lovers. I can’t think of anyone less suitable to someone of deep loyalties than a movie star.”

  “Actually, I’d say Josh is pretty loyal,” Elizabeth said judiciously. “But trust me, you’ve no need to worry on that score.”

  “I do,” Mihaela said ruefully.

  Elizabeth smiled. “Worry?”

  “Trust you.”

  Elizabeth swallowed, blinking away the sudden tears. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Mihaela came and put her arms around her. “Elizabeth . . .”

  Elizabeth hugged her once, hard. “You’re right to trust me, I promise you. And if I’ve kept things from you it was because I couldn’t bear them myself. After tonight, I’ll tell you everything, if you still want to hear it.”

  Mihaela drew back, gazing seriously into her face. “But you are all right?”

  Elizabeth choked out a laugh. “In many ways I’m more all right than I’ve ever been. It’s just all so complicated. . . .” She stepped back, dashing her hand impatiently across her face. “Are Konrad and István really okay with this?”

  “They trust you too. Although Konrad has a theory that Saloman plans to shut us all in the tunnel while his vampires run loose over Budapest.”

  “He doesn’t need to shut us in a tunnel for that to happen.”

  “That’s what I said. Shall we go and meet our evil ally and kick some foreign vampire ass?”

  Elizabeth picked up her bag. “Yes, please.” She dropped her solitary stake into the bag and glanced up. “I don’t suppose you have any more stakes, do you?”

  “Cupboards full of them,” Mihaela said largely, waving one hand toward the wardrobe. “Help yourself.”