by Ann Gimpel
“Maybe,” the wolf answered her thoughts. “Can you follow the riverbank in your own form?”
“I—I think so.”
“Open your mind to me. I will make your senses nearly as sharp as mine.”
Tairin experimented with her magic until something shifted in her head. The night, which had grown increasingly murky, developed depth and contrast again. The cries of panicked birds and animals, running before the storm’s fury, pummeled her. She ignored them. She might be running from bigger predators than the storm, but her plight wasn’t any different.
With the wolf’s augmented senses pulsing through her, the charnel pit rot smell intensified until her stomach twisted in rebellion and she was afraid she’d be sick. Tairin kept moving. She didn’t have time to stop and vomit.
“They’re closer.” She reverted to mind speech, afraid vampires might have sharp enough ears to hear her.
“Not really. Their nest is on the other side of the road. We’ve drawn abreast of it, and now we’re past.”
“What do they look like? I’ve never seen one.”
“Do you want to?”
The question intrigued and startled her. “Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Not in my form.” The wolf hesitated. “The more I think on it, the more I believe you should see what they look like. They’re beautiful and terrible and very hard to resist. You will need my body, though.”
“Won’t they recognize you as a shifter?”
“Unlikely. They’re mostly sensitive to humans. This is up to you, but there is much evil in the world. You’ve seen very little of it.” The wolf stopped shy of saying the faster she learned, the better she could guard herself, but it didn’t have to.
Lightning flashed, turning the blackened sky brilliant. Thunder followed on its heels. Her hair was plastered against her head, and her clothes were soaked. “I could leave my things here.” She ran to a pile of good-sized rocks high enough off the ground to be safe from flooding and stuffed her sack into a hole between two of them. Her tunic and skirt followed.
Fear lent sharp edges to the shift magic when she called it, and her wolf form took shape. Maybe because she was so wet, the pain was minimal. Or maybe this would continue to get easier the more she did it. The wolf had inferred that might be the case. She’d have to ask for more details, but not now.
“Hold silence until we return here,” the wolf cautioned. “Do nothing that could draw their attention. Vampires aren’t unduly sensitive to expended magic. They’ve sat at the top of the magical food chain so long, they’ve gotten sloppy. Still, no need to take chances.”
“Got it. Let’s go.”
Adrenaline pounded through her as she ran. The wolf’s sleek gait made short work of the distance between them and the nest. She ceded control of their shared body to the wolf, trusting it would know how best to approach the unnatural creatures.
The stench worsened until she almost couldn’t stand to breathe, but not breathing wasn’t a choice. The wolf circled around the bad smell, approaching it from the far side. Lanterns illuminated a rough clearing. If she’d been human, Tairin’s eyes would have been wide as twin moons. Eighteen vampires milled about the tamped down earth. Water streamed down them, but it didn’t dampen their unearthly beauty.
Everything about them glowed—from their perfect hair to their perfect features. Some of the creatures were female, which surprised her. The wolf dropped to its belly at the top of a small knoll, giving her an unobstructed view of the tableau. One of the males wore soaked, cream-colored robes. Golden hair spilled past his waist, and he opened his arms to the sides as if invoking a ritual.
“I am ready for tonight’s festivities.” Laughter followed his words, so melodic and lovely it could have charmed snakes from their dens.
Another of the vampires approached. This one was female with red tresses, her figure outlined beneath her sodden black dress. “I hear, master, and I obey.”
Tairin waited, barely breathing, as the woman retreated to where two other vampires stood, holding a man between them. He had to be human because he wasn’t radiant like the vampires. Fear oozed from his pores. His head was shaved, and he wore an unadorned black robe sashed with crimson.
“Come now, my pretty,” the woman cooed.
As if in trance, the man followed, but the fear stench didn’t abate.
Had the vampires hypnotized him? Tairin added it to her list of questions to ask once they were safely away.
The vampire the woman had called master angled his head to one side, his attention riveted on the man being dragged toward him. “It’s been a long time, Masud,” the vampire said in clear, ringing tones.
“Not nearly long enough.” Masud sneered, showing a mouthful of half-decayed teeth. “My brothers know you captured me. They’ll be along soon enough.”
The vampire quirked one well-shaped, tawny brow. “And here I was going to offer you a gift. I should kill you for what you and the other monks did to my last nest.”
Masud spat at the vampire, but his spittle was driven into the dirt by the pouring rain. “I pick death over gifts from you.”
“Is that so?” The vampire closed the distance to the man, who didn’t make any move to run away despite no one holding onto him. Why wasn’t he making an effort to flee?
“You’re toying with me,” Masud growled, sounding like a caged animal. “Get it over with.”
The pleasant expression on the vampire’s face vanished, replaced by something harsh and forbidding. It was as if the creature had two temperaments, or maybe what showed now was what it really was, and the other had been nothing but showmanship. The Rom were like that. They had pretty faces they wore to woo as much coin as possible out of the gadjo, but their nice sides rarely made an appearance in the caravan. The same men who charmed the gadjo had burned her mother alive.
Tairin tried to shake her head, but the wolf forced their shared body to remain still. She wanted to apologize for being careless, but piling a second mistake—breaking their silence—atop the one she’d just made would be stupid.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” the vampire purred, his tone lethal, but edged with velvet. Grasping the man’s shoulder with one hand, he twisted his neck with the other and bent his head, closing fangs into flesh that gave way without the slightest resistance.
The air filled with the rich, metallic scent of blood, and Tairin watched the vampire’s throat as he swallowed again and again, fast and efficient. Color left Masud’s face, and he sagged in the vampire’s grasp. When he developed the ashen pallor she associated with death, the vampire lifted his head. Blood fell in crimson streams from his elongated incisors, and he raised his own wrist to his mouth, ripping a hole in it that pulsed with blood so hot, it steamed in the humid night air.
At first, Masud took the wrist the vampire held to his mouth, sucking like a starving infant offered a teat, but then his rheumy dark eyes snapped open and he tore his mouth from the stream of blood.
“No,” he wheezed. “Never.” He spat blood from his mouth, and then spat again, tilting his head back to rinse his mouth with rainwater.
“Too late,” the vampire pronounced, looking pleased with himself. “You drank enough.”
“Noooooo,” Masud shrieked and tore at his robe, shredding it. “Noooooo.”
Tairin’s heart hurt for him. He’d just become something he hated. Would he kill himself? Was such a move possible for vampires, or was he stuck with his new existence?
The wolf slithered backward through thick mud, still on its belly. It stopped when only its eyes were above the level of the tussock sheltering them. She wanted to ask if they were leaving, but didn’t want anyone to discover their presence. Since she couldn’t talk, she used nose and ears to search for clues. The distant clop of horse hooves mingled with the scent of incense.
Must be priests coming to reclaim their brother. No one else would venture out on a night such as this. Tairin had thought it bravado, but Masud told the truth a
bout that part. She eyed the vampires. They’d gathered around Masud, taunting him, cutting more wrists open and spraying him with blood when he refused to drink from them.
The female with the red hair tore Masud’s robes open and grappled with his cock, taking it into her mouth. She worked him until his member grew engorged. Dragging it from her mouth, she cast a spurious smile at the vampire who’d turned Masud.
“Different paths for different men.” She licked her full lips before taking Masud’s erect cock back into her mouth and sucking hungrily.
Masud groaned and drove himself into the vampire’s mouth. His life had just turned to crap. He was a vampire now, but all he cared about was sexual release.
Men. Slaves to their desires.
Women too, an insidious inner voice suggested. Look what happened to Mother.
Tairin and other gypsy children had hidden themselves and watched couples have sex enough times, she understood the dynamics. What was playing out a few yards away was such a perversion of human lovemaking, though, that she felt ill.
Masud grunted, and his cock jerked in the vampire’s grasp. She pumped her hand faster and swallowed. The salt tang of semen joined all the other scents permeating the air.
From out of nowhere, fifty men on horseback swept into the clearing swinging long-handled sabers. The vampires fought back, but their heads rolled from their bodies faster than they dealt death to the group of priests savaging them. At least blood stench trumped the rotten death smell of the vampires. The priests killed mechanically, efficiently, as if they’d done this hundreds of times before.
Who knew? Perhaps they had.
Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled until the air thickened with electricity and stank of ozone. All the vampires were dead. The only one still standing in the mud was Masud. One of the priests galloped to his side and extended a hand. “Ride with me, brother. I’ll see you home.”
Masud shook his head. “You must kill me. I drank from one of the abominations when I was weak.”
“How much?” the priest on horseback asked in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Two mouthfuls, but enough for it to turn me. I already feel the change rooting itself into my body.”
Spewing curses in Coptic, the priest leapt from his horse and held Masud’s head between his hands. Tairin assumed he was using magic to test the extent of his brother’s contamination.
The stark planes of the man’s face yielded to a hopeful expression. “Thank all the blessed gods, we are not too late.” He barked a command. Ten men, all dressed in identical black robes, jumped down from their horses and ran to where he stood. They drove Masud into the mud, chanting over him in a language Tairin didn’t recognize.
It sounded like Coptic, but a far more ancient version. Drawing sharp-bladed dirks from waist belts, the priests fell to their knees and made a series of cuts in Masud’s arms and legs. Blood flowed, but not for long. The cuts healed almost as soon as they formed.
Masud’s head lolled to one side as consciousness left him. Made sense. He couldn’t have much blood left, not after all the vampire had drunk from him.
The priest who’d said it wasn’t too late bolted to his feet and hoisted Masud over one shoulder. Staggering under his weight, he walked to his mount and placed Masud facedown across the animal’s back.
The other men had gotten back on their horses. One trotted next to the priest who’d given his horse to Masud and offered him a hand up so they could ride double. The priest clucked to his horse carrying Masud, and it fell into line with the others.
“Will he live?” the man he rode with asked.
“I hope so. He’s one of our strongest. It’s why he was able to stop after only drinking a little.”
“Did we drive out the demon presence?”
“That we did,” the priest replied. “If Masud dies, it will be a clean death and his ashes can hold a place of honor in our temple.”
The wolf waited until the sound of hoof beats faded before rising to its feet. After a head to tail shake, it took off at a run for where they’d left her clothing.
“Two things to remember,” the wolf said. “Vampires mesmerize their victims. It’s why Masud didn’t run away. He couldn’t. Sometimes they use sex to immobilize their victims, sometimes a form of mind control. Shifters are immune from both. Vampires can still kill us, but they can’t immobilize us to make it easy for them.”
“The priests seemed awfully proficient.”
“They are. That sect exists to annihilate vampires.”
Tairin considered it. “Are there that many vampires?”
“Oh my, yes. You saw how easy it is for them to replicate themselves. Thousands roam through Egypt. Many temples have dedicated themselves to eradicating vampires. If they didn’t, vampires would be a much worse problem than they already are.”
“Are the newly formed ones as powerful?”
“Not for a number of years.” The wolf woofed softly. “That was an excellent question.”
It stopped next to where she’d left her clothing. The rain was abating and night had fallen. “Before we shift, can we hunt a few more mice?” she asked.
The wolf made a snorting noise. “Watching death is hungry business. Of course, we can hunt.”
Tairin followed the wolf’s lead. The vampires were dead. Masud was an honorable man who’d done the right thing. Still, seeing the deadly creatures ply their trade had been a brutal lesson.
The world is full of evil, just like the wolf said.
I’d better get used to it because no one will step in to shield me from any of it.
She stopped thinking as they closed their jaws around a succulent young otter, displaced from the swollen river. By the time they’d fed on it and a dozen mice, she was ready to find her human form, dress, and close her eyes for a short time.
If the goddess were with her, vampires wouldn’t haunt her dreams.
“I will watch over you,” the wolf said. “Now and always. It’s what bondmates do.”
Chapter 9
They arrived at the outskirts of Cairo near evening two days later. After the one vampire nest, nothing else unusual had materialized to slow them down. They’d taken to the wolf’s form after discovering her cloth sack fit nicely around its neck, and they’d made good time sticking close to the banks of the Nile. No people had seen them, so they’d avoided impossible-to-answer questions.
At least so far, no one from the caravan had come after them, or if they had, they’d headed south rather than north.
After a midday break, she’d reverted to her human form and returned to the road. It became much more crowded as they neared the ancient city, but she blended in with the ragtag masses surging toward Cairo. Cities offered work, remunerative begging, and food. Rich people threw scraps away, scraps that could be scavenged.
“Where will we find Father?” she asked the wolf.
“We must pass through the city to its far side. Once we’re past the walls, we will climb west into the hills.”
“Why not go around instead of through? Wouldn’t it be faster?”
“No. Not faster. Undesirables who’ve been kicked out of the city mill about its borders and set up camps outside town. You’ve never been here without your caravan. It provided a measure of safety.”
“You know a lot. How did you come by your knowledge?” Tairin had grown bolder. It seemed the wolf knew almost everything about her, yet she knew next to nothing about it.
“I have been alive for a long time. You are not my first bondmate.”
“What happened to the others?” Tairin chided herself. Curiosity was one thing, but that was an extremely personal question, akin to asking a lover about who else had shared their bed. “Never mind. Not my business.”
For once, the wolf didn’t answer.
Tairin kept moving. People jostled her from both sides, but all she had were a few clothing items in her sack. It hung from her neck, making it difficult to steal. The sixth time someone bumped i
nto her, supposedly by accident, she grinned. Romani were accomplished thieves. Hard to pull one over on someone like her who’d been trained by the best.
The city’s mudbrick walls came into view, and she quickened her pace. They’d close the gates at sundown. It was still possible to enter—and leave—but not without talking to a guard. She had no bona fide reason for being in the city, but the majority of the stream of humanity pushing forward on all sides of her probably didn’t, either.
A name.
She needed a different name. Just in case. Tairin tried out and discarded several, settling on Eshe. It meant life, and she hoped she’d still have one when the dust cleared. Last names were trickier. If she had a last name, it would mean she had a father who’d claimed paternity. Better to stick with Eshe. If one of the guards questioned her, she’d say she had no idea who’d fathered her.
She swept beneath a high, arched gateway. The actual gate was constructed of rusted metal staves. Currently it folded back flat against the mudbrick wall, suspended from several massive hinges. The choking tide of humanity drew her along with it. Cairo was enormous. The only part she was familiar with was the old town center where her caravan had set up its wagons. She started for it to help gain her bearings.
“Bad idea,” the wolf spoke up.
“Why?”
“Another caravan will be there. Someone might recognize you.”
She breathed a silent thank you to the wolf and set as straight a line as she could manage through crowded, twisting byways. Vendors called to her, offering wares from foodstuffs to clothing to charms guaranteed to make the man of her dreams wed her.
The food carts smelled delicious. She hadn’t had anything to eat as a human since fleeing from her caravan, and she missed bread and cheese and dates and sweetmeats. Tairin eyed the wares, considering how to swipe something and run.
“Don’t do it.”
Tairin exhaled briskly. She’d gotten used to the wolf being a permanent resident in her head, but sometimes its suggestions annoyed her. “Why not? See those roasted nuts? The vendor went around a corner. He’d never notice.”