But that could wait until he found Io and reassured himself that she was not harmed. “I must find her. You may accompany me if you desire. I realize that my son seeks your freedom, but Io’s safety must come first.”
“Yes, if she is your woman, then I imagine it must,” David replied with a little amusement in his eyes. “I will accompany you, although I don’t quite understand just who you are.”
“I am Nikola Czerny.” He turned on his heel and left the cell, moving to the last three doors.
“Czerny? Are you related to Benedikt?”
“He is my son.” The next cell smelled worse than a privy. Nikola hastily closed the door and turned to the second-to-last door.
“Ferals. What a tragedy. They are long past saving. I thought you were dead,” David said, peering over Nikola’s shoulder as he unbolted the lock. “Ben said something once about you not being around anymore.”
“That was the incorrect past, according to Io.” He exhaled in relief when a familiar scent caught his nose as he opened the door a crack. The air smelled of warm, sleepy woman, his warm, sleepy woman, one who was lying on her side with her back to the door. “Io! Are you injured?”
She didn’t appear to be. He rushed to her side, quickly making an examination of her body parts. Arms and legs appeared to be untouched, as was her face. In fact, she appeared to be doing nothing more sinister than taking a nap.
“Sweetling, wake up.”
She didn’t seem to want to. He scooped her up and rose, a need to get her to safety overriding his curiosity about where they had been taken, and who was behind their abduction.
“Is she all right?” David asked, following when he strode back down the long, narrow corridor.
“I assume so, since there are no markings.”
“Did de Marco capture you, too?”
“I am not sure. There was a man with a slight lisp and some sort of bulky firearm that Io said was a Teaser, but we were tracking my brother when we found him, so it not clear to me who is responsible for—can you hold her for me, please?”
David looked surprised as Nikola thrust Io’s warm, supple body into his arms. Nikola hesitated a moment, giving the younger man a good, stern look. “You will not enjoy the warmth of her body against yours. You will not admire her satiny freckled skin. You will not desire to touch her breasts and thighs and other parts. She is my woman.”
The therion had the cheek to grin. “You really have it bad. Like father, like son, eh?”
“Io is not like my daughter-by-marriage. She does not perch on the side of my chair and ruffle her hand through my hair. She does, however, sit on my lap, which pleases me more. If you would stand a little out of the light of the bulb, I will disassemble this lock and we shall free ourselves.”
The lock of the door to the corridor was just as old as the cell doors, and it was only a matter of a minute before he reclaimed the still sleeping Io, and followed David up a narrow flight of wooden stairs.
Right into a room containing two surprised-looking people seated around a long table dotted with food and drink.
Nikola took one look at the occupants of the room, and gave David Io’s delicious form again. “Would you mind holding her once more?”
“Actually, I would. I have a score to settle with that man,” David said, handing her back, his voice rough with emotion and his eyes glittering with an unholy light.
“What the deuce are you doing up here?” Rolf, who had been stuffing his face with a turkey leg, sputtered bits of greasy turkey skin and flesh as he shoved back his chair and leaped to his feet. “How did you get out of the cell? Damn me, man, you told me he wouldn’t be able to get out!”
The lisping man who had incapacitated them rose to his feet, as well, but it was David he was staring in horror at, not Rolf. David’s body did that rippling, shifting motion that resulted in him stalking forward in lion form.
“Did you see that, sweetling?” Nikola asked Io, shaking her slightly in case she was on the verge of waking up. “It’s fascinating. I must make a comprehensive study of how it’s done. You can assist me.”
“Dammit, Nikola, I demand to know how you got free!” Rolf set down his turkey leg and advanced, his narrow eyes now only little slits in a face that Nikola was shocked to realize was filled with malice.
He looked for somewhere safe where he could set down Io, but at that moment, she stirred.
“Hrang?” she asked, blinking her eyes and frowning as she tried to focus on him. She lifted a hand and poked him in the cheek. “Nia?”
“Yes, sweetling, it’s me. Sit here while I deal with my brother.” He placed her in a chair and turned to Rolf, who had snatched up a long carving knife and was advancing upon him.
A soft, slithering noise behind him had him whirling back to Io just in time to see her fall off the chair and land face-first onto the floor. She lifted her head slightly, and said in a voice thick with befuddlement, “Ow. Nikla?”
“Stay there, my love,” he commanded, turning back to face his brother. “Rolf, I am disappointed in you. If Mother were alive, you would have broken her heart.”
Rolf froze, fury overtaking his expression of malice. “How dare you mention her!”
A scream echoed from the far end of the room where David the lion had pounced on the lisping man.
“Do not kill him yet,” Nikola called to David as the lion began savaging the man now crawling on the floor and babbling for mercy. “He conducted an act of Teasing against Io, and thus I must exact my revenge on him, as well.”
“Taser,” Io said thickly. “That was it. That precious guy had a Taser. Gonna whack him on the kneecaps with it.”
“You were the one who brought her endless grief,” Rolf yelled, gesturing with the knife. “If you had died like you were supposed to do, she would have gotten over it. But no, you had to bargain with that demon lord to make you immortal, and she worried herself into her grave over what happened to you.”
Nikola stared in stark surprise at his brother, ignoring the sounds behind him of muttered swearing and a chair scraping as if someone was using it to pull her still-dazed self to her feet. Do not harm yourself, sweetling. I will be able to assist you just as soon as I’ve dealt with Rolf.
I’m OK, she answered, her thoughts still a bit confused and somewhat scattered. I love you, Nikola.
He shot a startled glance over his shoulder.
Whoops. Did you hear that?
Yes.
Frak. Can you pretend you didn’t?
No.
An adorably indignant look crossed over her face. She made an effort to straighten up and glare at him. Well, I think you could if you put your mind to it.
We will talk about this later, Io. Right now I must ascertain just what Rolf meant by his statement.
What statement? Rolf is here? She squinted past him. Oh, yeah, he is here. Can I break his kneecaps?
He shook his head, turning back to Rolf. It is not seemly for me to stand by and do nothing while you mete out revenge. No, I must be the one to break his kneecaps. I am nothing if not generous, however, and for that reason, I will allow you to box his ears.
I have no idea what’s involved with ear boxing, and frankly, I don’t think I’m going to want to know, so you can just get off your he-man high horse, and let me have a shot at the kneecapping—Nikola!
Io screamed in his head just as Rolf lunged at him, the knife held high. Nikola, long a devotee of esoteric manuscripts from the Far East, lashed out with his foot and knocked the knife out of Rolf’s hand.
Rolf screamed in a perfect echo of the lisping man, who was now blocked from view by the large body of an extremely annoyed lion. “You’ve broken my hand! My own brother has broken my hand!”
“No,” Nikola said coolly, picking up the knife and gesturing with it. “But I will do so if you attempt to harm Io or me again. How did you know about the demon lord who cursed me? I never told you how it happened.”
“Who do you think arr
anged for him to kill you?” Rolf said sullenly, clutching his hand to his chest as he slumped into a chair, defeat visible in his posture.
“I knew it,” Io said, limping forward.
Did he harm your leg?
No, I whacked it on the chair trying to stand up. Did you hear him? He as much as admitted that he was the one responsible for hiring the demon lord to off you. Io snatched up a broom and continued on toward Rolf.
“Keep your whore away from me,” Rolf said with a curl to his lip, leaning to the side just as if she were polluting the very air with her presence.
Gee thanks.
Pardon?
For thinking that bit about me polluting the air.
I didn’t say you were, I was merely noting to myself what Rolf did, so that I might record it in my notes at a later time. No, my love, do not try to beat him with that broom. For one, you aren’t strong enough, and for another, he is not the one responsible for my curse.
He just said he was! Do you need to clean your ears or something?
Another scream from the man David was attacking diverted his attention for a moment. “David?”
With reluctance, the lion backed up a few steps, shimmered in that unique way he had, and resumed the shape of a man.
“Holy naked man!” Io’s eyes widened as she stared at David.
“Er…hello. You must be Io.”
“I am. And you’re…you were…were you just a lion a second ago?”
“Yes. I am a therion.” David made a little bow to her that had her jaw dropping a smidgen.
“Avert your eyes, sweetling,” Nikola told her. “I know how distressing it must be for you to view another man without his clothing on.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s terribly distressing,” Io said, continuing to stare as David picked up his clothing and once again began to don it. “I’m feeling traumatized. Wow, he really has a nice—”
Nikola scowled. Io bit off the sentence and gave him a weak smile. “Sorry, punkin. It just took me by surprise. Carry on.”
“Thank you.” He turned back to Rolf, who was now moodily watching the lisping man weakly flail around on the floor. “Rolf, tell me how you know about the demon lord.”
“Which one? The one who cursed you, or the one who helped me find Lemuel?”
“Who is Lemuel?”
“Him.” Rolf nodded toward the man writhing and moaning on the floor.
“Just so. You have met with a demon lord recently?”
“What business is it of yours?” Rolf snapped in reply.
“It most certainly is my business if you arrange for Io and me to be kidnapped and taken to a lichmaster who evidently has an interest in torturing Dark Ones.”
Rolf shrugged. “I don’t know about a lichmaster, but I did talk to Ashtaroth, a demon lord who put me in contact with Lemuel. He said his master would reward me greatly once he found out about the portal in Zauberwald.”
“Ashtaroth,” Nikola said slowly. David, now fully clothed, moved around to stand slightly behind them. Io gave him a long look before returning her attention to where it should be.
That’s the guy who Ben and Fran were looking for.
Yes. He has a lion form, as you saw. Later, we might make a study of how he shifts form.
We might make a study?
I thought that you might wish to assist me in my studies.
She smiled, and warmth flooded through his loins, spreading out to his limbs. You’d let me help?
Of course. You, too, have a scientific mind, and like to learn new things. You will be of a great help to me.
Nikola, I think that’s just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Is Ashtaroth the demon lord who made you a vamp?
No. That demon lord’s name was Magoth. “How did you know to contact a demon lord?”
Rolf’s expression was sulky and somewhat petulant. “I suppose you’re going to push and poke until you have all the answers, aren’t you? You always were like that. You just had to know the answers to everything. That trait has always irritated me, do you know that? You don’t care, do you? You never did. Well, brother mine, let me assuage that annoying curiosity of yours—I knew how to contact Ashtaroth because I read my father’s letters.”
“Your father was the one who summoned Magoth,” Nikola said, nodding. It fit with what he knew of his brothers—they might be aggravating, and whiny, and constantly demanding more money from him, but they were not the murderous whoresons that Benedikt had hinted.
Your stepdad had you made into a vampire? Io asked in disbelief. Why?
“Io wishes to know why your father summoned Magoth,” Nikola told Rolf. “She did not know him as we did. She does not realize that he hated me, and resented the fact that I was the firstborn.”
“You think you know everything, don’t you?” Rolf’s upper lip curled. “Well, you don’t. How’s that feel, brother? Don’t like it, do you? I can see by the look on your face that you’re not going to let it rest until you hear it all, and since my head hurts and I want to go to bed and get some sleep, I’ll tell you what my father did. Yes, he summoned Magoth, but he paid the demon lord to destroy you in the most heinous fashion he could manage. The stupid demon lord double-crossed my father, though, by making you a bloodsucker instead of tormenting you to death.”
“That is just about the most obscene thing I’ve ever heard,” Io said, clutching her broom tightly. Nikola put an arm around her to keep her from rushing his brother. “I’ve heard of some asshat stepparents before, but none of them were so jealous of their stepkids that they actually hunted down a demon lord! OK, so I didn’t know there were such things as demon lords until Nikola told me, but still, my point stands.”
“My father didn’t give a snap for Nikola being the firstborn,” Rolf said, his shoulders slumping. He looked, Nikola thought, every one of his more than three hundred years.
“Did he want Nikola’s castle, then?” Io asked, pressed close, her warmth seeping into all the dark places inside him. He wanted to scoop her up in his arms and locate the nearest bed, whereupon he would allow her to seduce him for several days. Nonstop.
“Pfft. Have you seen it? It’s a ruins,” Rolf said dismissively. “He didn’t want the castle. He wanted the money, money that should have gone to my mother rather than Nikola, and thus to us.”
“You were right,” Io said with a look of admiration that warmed him to his toenails. “They didn’t want your castle. This was all about money. But I don’t understand why this demon lord dude turned you into a vamp instead of torturing you to death.”
David laughed as Nikola gave her an outraged look.
“Sorry, punkin, that came out wrong. But you know what I mean.”
“The demon lord was deranged, that’s why,” Rolf said, reaching for the pitcher of ale. “Papa paid him to destroy you, but Magoth thought it would be funny to make you into a bloodsucker instead. Papa was furious, of course, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it because he had an apoplectic fit and died two days later.”
“Well,” Io said, setting aside her broom. “I can’t say that I’m sorry to hear that. What a poop.” She glanced toward Nikola. “So now what?”
“Now we get you out of this place, and contact Benedikt to let him and Imogen know where we are.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to do that,” David said with a sudden smile, strolling across the kitchen to open a door that allowed sunlight to flood the room. Voices that were barely audible from outside grew louder, and before Nikola could so much as pull out his notebook to record the pertinent events of the last half hour, a group of eight people rushed into the room, voices high with excitement.
Benedikt and his soon-to-be ghost-by-marriage were at the front, with several other men following, and Imogen and Francesca bringing up the rear.
“David!” Benedikt shouted upon sighting his friend. The two men embraced as Francesca pushed forward.
“Nikola! Io! Oh, I’m so glad you’re all ri
ght. Ben, look, your dad found David.”
Much confusion followed in the subsequent quarter hour, but it was Io who put an end to it by the method of standing on the long table, and placing her fingers in her mouth to perform an earsplitting whistle that froze everyone in their tracks.
“Right! Let’s all simmer down so we can figure out who is who. Ben, are those dudes werewolves like David?” Io asked, pointing at the four other men who were in a circle around David, all of whom were talking at the same time.
“Sorry, yes, those are members of his pride. We called them in when it became apparent that you and my father had been taken. The lich whose head we finally convinced to talk told us about this place. No one else was close enough to help, and we had some hope that if we found you here, we’d be able to gain information about where David was being held, as well. We had no idea that we’d find you all together.” Ben clapped his friend on the back, his smile of such happiness that Nikola was well pleased.
My son is generous and free with his affection, he told Io, unable to keep the pride from her.
She slid an arm around his waist. He is. I like him now that he’s done being a jerk to you. I like Fran, too.
And Imogen? You will have no problems dealing with her? I have brought her up to be a modest, gentle maiden, but she always had her mother’s will, and sometimes would not yield to my desires the way she should.
Io laughed into his head. I’m sure she had you wrapped around her little finger. Yes, of course I like her. She’s very nice, and I think she’s very much in love with that Viking ghost. Him, I’m not so sure of, but he seems to be crazy about her, too, so I guess all is well.
Yes, all is well. We can return home knowing that my children are as happy in their lives as we are in ours.
Io shot him a look, but said nothing.
The Incredible Adventures of Iolanthe Tennyson
July 23
Boy, I can’t tell you how good it is to be typing this up on a laptop, rather than writing with that horrible goose feather, or even writing it all out longhand on a spiral notebook from the St. Andras drugstore.
A Tale of Two Vampires Page 26