Niko’s half-naked body moving above me was a different story, but it proved to be a strategic move, allowing him to retrieve hidden caches of rope and crampons from within the rocky crevices, which he sent down to me at intervals, only to hoist back up for re-concealment.
“You see? Magic,” he called down to me. Nothing supernatural, just old-fashioned human ingenuity. “You doing great! You sure you never climb before?”
I had to spit/yell my answer from the gust of wind that sent dirt and dust into my mouth and eyes. “Pretty sure.”
Not quite as easy as Niko had promised, getting beyond the initial sheer wall did make everything else that followed that much more manageable. Carved foot and handgrips began to appear in the rock face soon after. Without Dimitri’s blood, though, my arms and legs would have probably given out long ago.
What else, I wondered, might I be capable of? And would it serve as protection against Haemon and Kassandra? More than ever I was eager to reach Dimitri. There was so much I needed to learn about myself, about what I was still becoming.
“Almost there.” Niko’s encouragement echoed down the cliff-face.
When we at last reached the base of the medieval wall, I was able to stand on a narrow ledge, instead of dangling in mid-air. I also couldn’t help eyeing Niko’s sweat-drenched torso, his pants stained dark at the crotch, waistband, and behind the knees. His dusty curls clung to his forehead, which he wiped back with a tanned forearm. Large, swollen veins stood out like cords beneath the smooth skin of his arms and hands.
“The entrance is there,” he said breathing heavily. Then he narrowed light brown eyes at me. “You are not wet.”
Not so long ago, human me would have been dripping within the first ten minutes of a run—and this climb was a lot tougher than any cardio workout I’d ever put myself through. Yet only a trace of perspiration dampened my forehead.
“Guess I’m not much of a sweater.”
“The Gods would be proud,” he responded, bending to place both hands on his knees and breathing deeper still. “The last twenty meters are—”
I followed Niko’s sudden alarmed gaze to the top of the crenellated wall four stories above. A trio of young males were staring down at us with budding interest.
“This is bad. They cannot see where we go.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
He leaned against the ancient wall, a look of mischief crossing his face. “They are Greeks, no? I can to make them go away easy.”
Pulling me against his sweaty chest, he covered my mouth with his own and kissed me deeply, his tongue tasting faintly of salt and licorice. It was more the enthusiasm he brought to the kiss than the plan to rid us of our nosey neighbors that prompted me to pull away.
Within seconds of breaking the kiss, angry shouts hailed down from the trio above, followed by a series of vulgar arm and finger gestures. The plastic bottle of water one of them launched missed my head by inches before sailing into the abyss. I’d nearly lost my balance.
The cruel and thoughtless act sent me into a rage, and I shoved Niko against the fortress wall, bracing my forearm against his upper chest and glaring up at the young men. The one who’d thrown the bottle was laughing the hardest. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to—
“No, Mr. Austin!”
Niko’s protest grew distant, the world bleeding away around it. All I could see was the hatred in that young man’s face, hear his ridicule echoing down the wall at us. The look in his eyes said a couple of faggots had missed an opportunity to die and should have.
Then his laughter stopped.
With cold satisfaction I fixed on his eyes and watched them take on the helpless look of an animal right before the predator tightens its jaws. That final moment when teeth connect with muscle and bone and the world erupts in a shower of red.
He clutched at his throat, tearing at the invisible hands I visualized strangling the life out of him. His friends stared back at him in bewilderment, not yet comprehending what was happening. What I was doing to him.
He choked something out to them and they tried to pull him away from the wall, but he continued to kick and jerk, his olive skin turning purple.
First his hatred, now his fear. They were like a drug of which I wanted more.
Cries of panic went up from the other two, their desperation bringing another bitter smile to my lips. I was going to drag that hateful fucker over the edge and watch him plummet to the valley floor. Exactly what he’d hoped would have happened to Niko and me.
But Niko’s continued dissent was pulling me out of my trance. The hate fueling me began to dissipate, and with it I grew weak to the point of collapse. If he hadn’t reached out to me for the second time today, I’d be the one to falling onto the outcropping of jagged rocks below.
“We must to hurry,” he warned, his arms holding me tight. “Others will come now.”
My body went rigid in his embrace, his silver pendant pressing into my chest. I could barely tip my head back and my eyes struggled to fix on the spot where the three young men no longer stood. I wanted to tell Niko that the trio was the least of our worries. The sun was coming.
Powerless, I watched it strike the crenellated stone blocks of the upper wall, the illumination giving them an etched, almost halo-like appearance. Under ordinary circumstances, the effect would have been beautiful.
Niko urged me forward. “We cannot let them find us here.”
A lurid image of Haemon and Kassandra flashed behind my eyes. They were somewhere familiar. If I stayed immobile much longer, they wouldn’t need to find me on this island. The sun’s rays would finish the job for them.
The thought of nearly burning to death yesterday sent a shock-wave of adrenaline through my limbs that shattered the spell of paralysis.
“Thank the Gods!”
Niko’s voice sounded as though it were being funneled down a long tube, as he continued to steer me further along the narrow ledge and toward a small protuberance in the hillside.
Once there, I peered into a slanted fissure in the rock face, which appeared wide enough for us to fit through single-file. Niko entered first, his hand a comfort in mine. He pulled me through the pass until the breach narrowed, forcing us to slip between the rock walls sideways.
With no direct sunlight and cooler temperatures, I could feel my strength returning. With it came the realization that I’d been close to killing another human being for the second time today. Unlike Vardoulakis, my mind had been the instrument of near-death. I’d pictured that young man choking, envisioned hands around his throat, squeezing the life out of him. If Niko hadn’t intervened, if my power hadn’t failed when it did, I’d have dragged him over that wall and watched his body shatter on the rocks below.
Did coming into my incubus powers also mean becoming a straight-up killer, or was the vampire blood in my system to blame for my sudden taste for cruelty?
I had little opportunity to give the answer much thought, because Haemon and Kassandra flashed in my mind again. Only this time, I did what Dimitri had instructed me to do. I visualized a wall rising up around me to sever the connection.
Not, however, before leaving them with a parting gift in the form of a flash of white hot energy that crackled through their minds like the sting of a whip strike.
I laughed at the brief glimpse of them crumpling to their knees in pain as the link between us collapsed. Clearly, I was tapping into more and more of my incubus nature. And this time the result didn’t horrify me.
Niko, on the other hand, looked anything but relieved. He bent to retrieve a canvas bag stashed in a small recess. Undoing two elastic straps, he removed a pair of tennis shoes, which he hurriedly slipped onto his dusty feet, and then cast an uneasy glance in my direction.
“It’s cool,” I said. “I’m okay.”
He wasn’t convinced. “The main entrance is not far.”
Further along what had developed into a modest cave, a pungent stench hit me like a fist. This
was followed by soft crunching beneath our feet. The chorus of agitated, high-pitched squeaks coming from high above our heads were the source of both. Bats at the entrance to a vampire’s lair. It was a living cliché.
Niko stepped around me and headed toward the rear of the cave. Not one inch of floor space was free from the putrid layers of bat droppings, out of which wriggling creatures made their homes as well as their buffet. Now I understood why Niko needed the tennis shoes.
I stomped my feet a few times to ensure that none of the creepy-crawlies had found their way into my boots. I might be turning into a heartless demon, but I still hated bugs.
“Tell me Dimitri doesn’t live like this?”
Niko forced a smile, but I could see that he was afraid of me now.
I tried to ignore this, because it rekindled some of the residual anger I felt toward those young Greek men outside. Instead, I focused on our new surroundings. The fissure behind us allowed in enough filtered light for me to see that the cave was fairly unremarkable, with the exception of a narrow iron door at its rear and the stinky, squeaking bats.
Niko wrested a flashlight from the canvas bag, slipped it into his back pocket, and then reached up to slide the outer casing of his silver pendant down to reveal an odd-shaped key. He inserted this into the lock and gave it a twist. A metallic clank echoed from the other side, followed by a creaking groan as the door swung open.
I peered around him into perfect darkness.
The only thing missing was a matinee monster lurking inside. On second thought, I already had monsters in spades. Two were out to kill me, a third more ambiguous one was waiting for me inside, and the fourth was following Niko through the doorway, which he secured behind us, eliminating what scant light we’d had.
My eyes adjusted with astonishing speed. Soon crude brick walls revealed themselves via minute shafts of daylight seeping in through the rock and inner masonry. Ingesting a large quantity of vampire blood appeared to be a real boon to my night vision.
Niko gave the flashlight a few quick taps against his palm until it turned on. “This way.”
The artificial light had briefly illuminated his chest. Long enough for me to glimpse the bruise across his right clavicle region. No need for him to tell me how it got there or who’d inflicted it. When I shoved him against the wall outside, this was the result.
I took the flashlight from him to better examine the damage. “I’m sorry, Niko.”
I’d been saying that a lot today.
“It is nothing.” The wince he made slipping back into his T-shirt indicated otherwise. He then cautiously relieved me of the flashlight. “Please, follow me.”
This was what my life had become. A slow but steady degradation of my humanity. I could feel it slipping away from me and frantically grappled to keep hold of it.
I thought about Mark and Christie and how very much I missed them. Would I ever see them again? I also missed the feel of sunlight on my skin without bursting into flames. I longed to return to the comfort of my quaint carriage house back in Los Angeles. And finally, I missed a thousand and one other banal things that made up my life there; a life that was probably gone forever.
All this new one had to offer was horror and an Austin with a penchant for hurting people.
“You punish yourself unnecessarily.” The acoustics in this part of the cave lent a surprising baritone to Niko’s voice.
When I turned to comment on his keen observation, I found Dimitri Ravello standing there instead. He was regarding me with a wistful smile, or was it pity?
“You are not a monster, Austin. You merely lack the understanding to harness the power inside you.”
I breathed in the exhilarating scent of him and my pulse quickened. “Don’t bet on that.”
“The increase in your strength and accelerated incubus gifts are remarkable,” he pressed. “But you must show this newfound power that you are its master.”
“And you can teach me to do this?”
His smile vanished. “Come. Let us find sanctuary together.” He turned to Niko. “You have done well. I am pleased.”
Niko glanced up from the earthen floor and seemed to reanimate. “Thank you, Master.”
With all that had happened to me, was still happening to me, my mind rife with questions for the man standing before me, the fact that both Vardoulakis and Niko had referred to Dimitri as Master was what bothered me most right now?
That, and the fact I’d completely forgotten about Niko with Dimitri’s arrival. I felt bad about that, too. Jesus, am I ever going to stop feeling conflicted?
“Go now and help your sister’s preparation for our guest,” Dimitri instructed him.
The young Greek nodded, all trace of the vitality I’d witnessed at the base of the mountain gone, as he headed into the darkness ahead of us.
I wanted to call out to him. Say something that might make up for injuring him, but I couldn’t find the words. If we survived whatever Haemon and Kassandra had in store for us, I’d think of a way to make it up to him.
CHAPTER 26
Dimitri and I emerged into a much larger space and passed between two crude columns that supported a hefty lintel. My night vision wasn’t as good in here for some reason, but I could still make out that the room was circular and bore carved niches in the walls at regular intervals.
Wait. Not niches.
Doorways.
Impossible to see through the darkness beyond them, it quickly became apparent that my enhanced sight wasn’t the only vampire trait on the decline. My fangs were also shrinking. So why hadn’t any of my super strength diminished? I could still feel its power coursing through my muscles, ready to serve me whenever I needed it.
Just one more of many reasons to reach wherever it was we were headed so that I could press Dimitri to answer this and the countless other questions I had for him.
Especially if learning more about my incubus nature would improve our odds of surviving Haemon and Kassandra.
Speaking of Dimitri, why did a millennia-old vampire need to carry a flashlight?
“It’s for you,” he said, handing me the electric torch. “I can sense the influence of my blood in you fading.”
One questioned answered…a whole bunch more to go.
I accepted the flashlight and sent its beam around the cavernous gloom in slow, vertical movements that revealed a series of Doric columns. Supporting large architraves, their elaborate friezes and thick cornices abutted the dozen or so doorways encircling us.
“They’re mausoleums,” I said in a stunned whisper.
“And sanctuary.”
Dimitri brushed past me and headed toward one of the twelve crypts. The brief contact produced a wonderful little crackle of metaphoric lightening that roused the Hunger in me.
“Temper yourself,” he said over his shoulder. “There is much to accomplish this day.”
Surprisingly, I did what he asked.
Until we entered the crypt.
From luxury yacht to a narrow, decrepit rectangular tomb housing a ruined sarcophagus and two crumbling statues on either side of the entrance. How the mighty had fallen.
Granted, it was probably the last place on earth Haemon and Kassandra would think to look for us. But the idea of squatting in some dismal crypt for God only knew how long was hardly living. The air in here was as long-forgotten as the structure itself.
“Patience.” That single word conveyed more than a hint of irritation.
Dimitri stepped around the ancient marble coffin at the rear of the tomb, where he depressed a stone in the wall. A muffled grinding sound accompanied the sarcophagus’ slow progression toward us, which I approached it now to peer down into yet another dark opening.
This had to be the true entrance to his lair.
“Follow me and proceed with care,” he instructed. “Use the flashlight and keep to the wall at all times. Understand?”
Time to play the dutiful incubus and trail my cranky vampire protector dow
n the flight of earthen stairs and into complete darkness. “Yes, Master.”
A short distance into our descent, the meager shaft of light proved useless against the gloom. Still, I continued to focus it on the steps ahead and hugged the walls as directed, using my left hand and fingertips as guides along their unevenness. Although my vamp vision had officially fizzled out, I was certain that the steps formed a wide, circular pattern.
For all I knew, Dimitri was leading me down into the Nine Circles.
After what felt like an eternity, we reached flat ground and I walked straight into his back, forfeiting the flashlight to the compacted dirt floor where it flickered out. The contactwas all it took for the Hunger to flare between us.
The dark chamber grew closer, more alive, and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out and wrapping arms around Dimitri’s waist to pull him to me, as I breathed in more of his intoxicating scent. “Do you feel that?”
A thrumming energy rumbled up through my body, as if my bones were the drums for some primal ritual song calling the Hunger into greater existence.
Dimitri turned in my embrace, seizing my hands and bringing them to rest on the firm muscle of his broad chest, rising and falling in rapid succession.
I leaned in to brush the tip of my nose against the hollow at the base of his throat and took in more of his thrilling scent. It was like the forest after a rainstorm. His body was calling to me, begging me to take what he offered, and so I felt for and grabbed the gap at the top of his linen shirt and ripped it open. The buttons went skittering in the dark across the hard, earthen floor.
When I trailed my hands down the firm planes and valleys of his flat stomach, he rewarded my touch with a low moan, his body giving over to tiny, erratic spasms. At the waistband of his trousers, the ancient drumbeat intensified and I lowered my hand. His excitement twitched against the insistent press of my palm.
About to free it, Dimitri sucked in a deep breath and knocked my hand away. “Don’t!”
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