by Peter Dawes
He bristled visibly, but held back whatever commentary he wished to issue. Kamini glanced at him and he took a deep breath before forcing out a nod. “You’ve proven you can wield our gifts,” he said. “I don’t know what that makes you. No seer I’ve ever known could do that… trick you performed.”
“The one involving light?” I scoffed. “I have not even figured out how it is I can do that. I simply can.”
“Light?” Kamini asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Not witchcraft. Visible telekinetic energy,” Darshan said, as though the explanation should suffice. It did; Kamini looked properly impressed and closed her mouth again. The seer took another drink from his tea, raising an eyebrow. “If you are what you claim to be, why are you in Delhi? And traveling with another vampire?”
I nodded. At last we were straying away from the point of contention. “Robin is my immortal brother and my emissary. He is also an accomplished linguist. We thought it best if I posed as his assistant and not the other way around, given the sensitivity of our mission.”
“What mission?”
Pausing to lift my cup, I shook my head after finally hazarding a sip of my drink. “I am not at liberty to discuss.”
Both watcher and seer peered back at me, their expressions neutral at first. As Kamini glowered, Darshan held up a hand, perhaps seeing his watcher’s reaction from his periphery. At the same time, the look on his face registered offense after a few tense seconds had passed. “You want us to believe what you are without telling us what you’re doing?” he asked, sitting up straight in his chair. “If you were on official business in our backyard, the Order would have said –”
“I am on official business, friend,” I said, interjecting, likewise lifting a hand while setting my cup back down onto the table. My arm settled back onto the table once I ensured myself an audience. The last thing we all needed was an indoor skirmish. “My mission has me tracking clues. Nothing more. I will be here and gone again before you know it.”
“I don’t accept that as an answer.” Emotion bled its way into his tone of voice. He shook his head. “What clues?”
“Something of personal importance.”
Kamini blurted a sharp burst of words in a foreign tongue, preempting whatever Darshan had prepared to say as a retort. He breathed an exasperated huff and looked at her, countering with a biting reprimand which forced her to sink into her chair with a frown. Whatever it was about the response she murmured, the way she turned her head away from him caused the other seer a moment’s pause. I furrowed my brow when Kamini looked back toward him with tears in her eyes.
Darshan’s reaction was much more pointed. He gestured with his hand, his tone of voice turning soft and entreating. I felt like the spectator to something private, as though I might be violating the sanctity of a conversation I could not even understand. That sensation only magnified when she stood, weaving her way through the small kitchen and out into an adjoining living room. Darshan sighed, standing, but hesitant to follow.
“Go after her,” I said, issuing the directive before I could stop myself.
The other seer snapped his attention back to me and raised an eyebrow. I gestured toward the other room, countering his expression with a perked brow of my own. We held a steady gaze, sizing each other up in that manner which read of a silent question being issued, and an unspoken answer offered. He refused to budge and I, on the other hand, felt under cross-examination by my compatriot.
“Personal importance,” was all he could manage to say out loud.
My shoulders slumped and I managed to suppress a grumble. Still, the fact that he remained situated in place meant we had both given ourselves away. He might not know about Monica, but he knew now whatever those words meant, they had more relevance than I had intended to show. My hand gestured toward the doorway with more emphasis. “Go. After. Her,” I said again. “I shall be here when you return.”
Darshan scowled, but responded with a nod. Pushing in his chair, he transitioned from one room to the next with a brisk stride, leaving me alone with my thoughts and a steaming cup of tea. I imbibed several swallows in the time he remained absent, torn between overhearing the conversation in the other room and sorting out just how many cards I felt apt to place on the table. By the time he returned, I had come no closer to a conclusion.
As such, I spoke the first line my mind could summon. My gaze was fixed on the opposite wall, chest rising as I inhaled deeply and held the breath for a few lingering seconds. “My watcher was kidnapped,” I finally said. “I am on a mission to rescue her.”
My eyes flicked back in time to watch Darshan wince. He settled back into his chair, the gesture slow as though stealing a chance to gather his thoughts. At the same time, his demeanor had settled, in part due to chagrin and in part, a reaction to my honesty. Or such was how I felt inclined to interpret the change in the air. He leaned forward, both hands cradling the mug he had left behind. “You are a vampire, and yet, you have very human emotions,” he said, the statement hardly a question.
My lips curled in a wan smile. “I shall attempt not to be put off by how surprised you sound.”
“And I will not take offense to the fact that it surprises you. We hunt vampires. We don’t befriend them.” The weight of his gaze forced mine to linger, even when I felt apt to look away. There appeared to be sympathy latent in the way he regarded me. “Does your watcher feel the same way about you?”
“Yes,” I said, exhaling the word on the tail end of a sigh.
“I thought so.” Darshan paused for a beat before continuing. He finally glanced away. “When I returned here, I was given the professor as an assignment for a reason. He isn’t a vampire sympathizer, but he’s willing to help the wrong… creatures… sometimes.”
I chose to ignore the use of the word ‘creatures’. “My brother Robin says he has discovered immortals are lucrative market.”
“And he gets in over his head. He knows nothing about magic.” My compatriot frowned. “I’ve had to kill several of his clients. I usually wait for their business to finish and follow them. He doesn’t know it’s been me yet, but I know one of these days he’ll figure it out.” Darshan opened his mouth, words forming on the tip of his tongue unable to be birthed. His shoulders slumped and his gaze strayed back to me again. “What clues are you looking for?”
“This task is uniquely mine,” I said. “You have no obligation to it.”
His frown deepened. “I can’t persuade you to tell me anything?”
“If it pertains to your professor friend, I promise he is not in any jeopardy.”
“You’re fooling yourself if you really think that.” Darshan shook his head, leaning closer. His voice lowered. “If I tell you what I know, will you tell me if it has anything to do with your mission?”
I perked an eyebrow. Now, he had my attention. “I suppose so.”
The other seer nodded and settled more in his chair. “You came in asking about a scroll,” he began, “But you’re not the first person who has. Every year for the past three years, we’ve had a steady stream of visitors. And every year, those visitors have gotten more and more suspicious. Last year, a man came to us with an archaic document he wouldn’t ship out. He sent two men to India, neither of them with the parchment, but with plenty of money to offer the professor if he agreed to be put on retainer.”
“Retainer for what?”
Darshan shrugged. “They wanted his help translating it. They wouldn’t tell us anything more than that. After they left, they promised to be in touch, but another man showed up much later, offering money for us to tell him when the first group returned. I tried to follow him to where he was staying, but I lost him and never saw him again. And, like he is with every other vampire, Dr. Singh accepted the money without question.”
“Do you believe this other man was after the parchment?”
“I have no idea what he was after. He never returned. The first two men did, but with pictures. Written down ph
rases. They would stay for several days discussing their parchment and leave. And when they left, the Professor would spend the next hour on the phone with somebody.”
“Your mysterious visitor?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t speak English. Or anything else I speak. I tried having Kamini read my thoughts, but all she could tell me was it was something European.”
Nodding, I sipped from my cup of tea again. “Did your frequent visitors ever bring this document?”
“No. Whenever the Professor asked, they said ‘the Master’ wouldn’t allow it. It happened every few months like clockwork. More phrases, more pictures. They left and Dr. Singh called his contact. It continued happening in a cycle until their last visit.”
Darshan failed to continue. I held the cup close to my lips, imbibing its contents bit-by-bit, waiting for the other seer to elaborate further on his strange visitors. His gaze fell to the tabletop, fingers drumming until he forced his eyes to engage mine again. “This time, they had no pictures. No words. They had questions and the Professor didn’t have any answers for them.” The next few words fought against being spoken. I waited patiently until he finally issued them forth. “I knew the answers, but didn’t tell anyone.”
Silence fell between us once more, with my compatriot unwilling to continue. I furrowed my brow. “What were their questions?”
“They were asking about historic landmarks. Ruins, to be more precise.”
Slowly, I set down my cup and inched forward in my seat. “What about them?”
He shook his head. “First, you must tell me… what is your mission?”
“Why does it pertain to your story?”
“Because my story might pertain to your mission.” He set down his cup as well. “Do you want to see her again? Your watcher. These men, working for some Master… he has her. Doesn’t he?”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Your eyes looked how mine would have if somebody had Kamini. You were willing to kill me first when we fought, rather than die, and that has nothing to do with your desire to live, does it?”
I bristled, tempted to bid him to mind his own business. As he peered back at me, however, I saw the truth transparent before me and sighed past a wave of sympathy. Darshan was not concerned for his employer. He was worried for Kamini’s sake. Something nefarious had been slithering past, right under his nose, and he needed to know what it was.
“It is not your first client who has my watcher,” I said. “Not any longer, at the very least. But your shadow man might. Another vampire made it sound like your shadow man was poised to pick up the slack should your first client fail.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you know who the shadow man is?”
“No, but I know the other vampire. Or, knew more appropriately. He met his end at my hand, but not before he kidnapped my watcher.”
Darshan nodded. “So, you are trying to find the shadow man?”
“Trying to find my watcher. If our paths cross, so be it.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cigarettes, inserting one between my lips before lighting the end. A few seconds were given over to quiet contemplation, smoke filling the air between us as I exhaled. “The parchments are scrolls which date back to the inception of my bloodline, if you believe the myths. Your professor’s first client was a man named Ian Carmichael, who had taken possession of one of the scrolls and apparently undertaken an attempt at translating them. Whatever issue he might have had with that, he had an even larger issue with me.” I drew from the cigarette and exhaled a plume of smoke. “He wished me to join his cause.”
Darshan snorted. “Is this how you became a seer?”
“No, it is not. My watcher brought out my abilities to save me.”
“From who?”
“Myself. As the expression goes, every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. I am currently more of the saint, but such has not always been the case.”
The expression on Darshan’s face changed, his frown deepening by a slight, barely noticeable margin. “Our client wanted you to join his cause and took her to injure you.”
I nodded. “To lure me would perhaps be more accurate. You ask about my mission, when truthfully I am only uncovering it in pieces. This is the first I am hearing Ian had his eye on historic landmarks. This path began with my kidnapped watcher and has led me here.”
“I feel foolish for how quickly I’m believing you. But that sounds like the hand of the Fates. Which means you were sent here for a reason.” He furrowed his brow. “Are we keeping this conversation between the two of us?”
“Such is how I would prefer it,” I said, reaching forward to tap the ash from my cigarette into a dirty tray, littered with a few extinguished cousins of the one I held. Studying the tray, I waited until I brought the cigarette back to my lips before making eye contact with Darshan. “From both ends.”
A nod provided all the answer needed, switching the tenor of the conversation just as soon as it was issued. Darshan stood, pacing closer to the kettle after plucking his cup from the table. He lingered next to the stove for a few beats before setting it down and reaching for the handle. “I told you I was raised north of Delhi, but what I didn’t add was that I knew about vampires before becoming a seer. Assuming the Fates sent you here – and because the person you sought asked the questions that he did – I think you were meant to visit a place that has haunted me for a long time.”
Darshan paced back to the table and sat. Both hands cradling his cup, he met my gaze with the soberest of expressions. I perked an eyebrow, listening with rapt attention as he opened his mouth and spoke again.
“Let me tell you a story about my childhood.”
Chapter Ten
“They were beasts of men, both of them short, but with feral, hungry looks in their eyes. They had to have heard my pulse as they wandered past, but who knows why they didn’t stop? Maybe they knew I was too young and too small to make for a decent meal.”
A shiver ran up my spine, ignored as much as possible while my eyes examined the passing countryside. I sat alone on an overnight train ride, barreling further north through an unfamiliar landscape, with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. Not for the first time, I questioned leaving Robin in New Delhi while unable to grant the desire to have him with me any practical justification. More than enough people spoke English. I had ample money for sojourning the two evenings it would take to complete my trip.
With a sigh, I shut my eyes. I had no notion what this mission even was, let alone what it meant in the grander scheme of things, but I could not deny Darshan’s point. If Ian had considered the location of some importance, then it at least bore examination. At the same time, the other seer’s story presented an unprecedented challenge, one he seemed more convinced should be my responsibility the longer I had lingered in his home.
If this was the hand of the Fates at work, I once again had to wonder at their methods.
Lids lifting, I fought the urge to grumble. The landscape in motion consumed my sight once more, a pensive frown tugging at the corners of my lips. Each passing minute brought me closer to reckoning, and the darker the midnight sky became, the more I built upon that need to embrace the seer within. It seemed an impossibility, even as dawn approached and the train arrived at my first stop. I settled into a hotel room for rest, pausing to regard the emerald-eyed vampire slayer while peering in the bathroom mirror.
He appeared just as at a loss. We held a steady gaze, taking a steadying breath in unison, both of us reaching the same conclusion at the same moment.
“For Monica,” I said, before turning for my bed, bent on retiring for the day.
I rose with the last embers of light and boarded a bus to take me the rest of the way northward. The hour approached midnight when I arrived in Srinagar, my feet touching the road, the vinyl bag slung over my shoulder carrying my sword and nothing more. My coat draped over my arm, I might have been a peculiar sight had much of the populace been
awake at that hour. The silence enveloping me was eerie, the barest minimum of activity evident.
At the same time, nothing preternatural afflicted me either. The few pedestrians were natives, making me the sole foreigner, and while the architecture suggested this place was no stranger to tourists, any present had probably since retired. A bicycled rickshaw passed and I waved it down, boarding and instructing the driver to head for the nearest hotel.
We passed a row of houseboats, neighborhoods that resembled something out of a National Geographic magazine, and wove around the edge of a large, serene lake. Mountains loomed dark in the horizon, but it was as I peered into the lush hills that I saw the outline of a building, barely visible in the moonlight. We stopped in front of a large block of suites. I alighted from my seat, taking out enough money to pay for my transit, and remained standing in place, even after the driver peddled away. Something about the ominous glow of the stone façade near those mountains…
“I had gone exploring. My father told me not to wander into the hills after dark, but I didn’t listen. I couldn’t help myself. The way the stars lingered on top of that part of the sky, I almost thought the gods were telling me to go there.”
Those same gods had summoned me as well.
I nodded and finally wandered inside the hotel. The formalities of accommodations took mere minutes to sort out, and once I had settled in my modest room, I took stock of what I had brought, wondering if I should have grabbed the daggers as well. Something more in the way of weaponry, even if not them. More crutches, if I had to be honest with myself. No, I had only brought the sword, and a fledgling whisper grew in volume, telling me that would be enough.