by CJ Flynn
“I need to clear my head. I can't think straight right now.”
“Why don't you tell me where you're hung up, exactly. After that, we'll discuss leaving.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and leaned back in my chair. “It's these matching DNA markers. I need to find their source, and I need to decode their meaning.”
I had sent Ernie periodic emails, relaying my progress thus far, but we hadn't had a chance to talk in person in over two days. I had spoken only to Erika, Daniel and Harding's notes. It felt a little better just to hear someone else's voice.
“Are they identical? What samples are you working with?”
“They're almost identical,” I said. “Approximately 95% of the individual genes in the sequences are identical. But there's also indication that the sequences aren't original in any of the samples. I have several vampires, and at least one of all the...creatures.”
I frowned and let my vision wander the room. I was tired, but my brain was moving. “I don't like that word. All of the samples, whether they're phoenix or witch or vampire, don't really demonstrate that they're a separate species from humans. The changes are almost superficial, appearance or some secondary function or ability. More similar than we are different.”
“How far back do the samples go?”
“Daniel is the oldest sample I have access to. Harding was never able to get samples from any of the princes, or even from Sorrell.”
“You need someone older, perhaps?”
I raised my eyebrows. “That could be helpful. I'm not sure how—”
Ernie held up his hand. “I think you're right. You need to leave, and you need to collect an older sample.”
“I'm not exactly popular right now.” I crossed my arms in front of me on the table and stared down at the ripped, padded cover. “And it doesn't sound safe, either.”
“I have someone in mind. I believe you need to convince Meletine to give you a sample. After all, she is—”
“The oldest living vampire.” I pushed myself up from the table. “Can you help me?”
Ernie nodded. “I'll make some phone calls.”
Chapter 29
The flight to Nuuk was grueling. We went from New York to Copenhagen on a single commercial ticket for me, and a large cargo add-on for Daniel. I didn't ask many questions about what the cargo add-on entailed, but I knew it meant I would be alone for the entire trip.
It was late afternoon when we arrived, and it was already very dark. I caught a small taxi to my hotel room, and was told the airline would make delivery of my... luggage within two hours.
I used the time to unpack my suitcase and take a long shower. The water was hot, and I exited the shower, steam ballooning into the stark, white bathroom. I wrapped myself in one of the thick, white bathrobes and went towards the only bed in the room. I just had a plain double room—no huge suite, or private dwelling. It was the biggest hotel in the city, but it was nowhere near the luxury I'd had over the past year. Every line seemed perfectly straight, and each room, whether private or public, was stark and spotlessly clean.
I ditched the robe and pulled a black t-shirt from my suitcase. The bed felt cold for a few minutes, and I burrowed deeper under the down cover. I set my alarm for two hours head. I was working the plan Ernie had given me: check in to the hotel, and ask for an audience with Meletine a little before midnight. The nap wasn't exactly part of it, but I didn't care. My body still ached from the long flight, and my brain was fighting against the darkness after the days of endless sunlight back in New York.
Meletine. The former Lillith. I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut. Fucking vampires and their crazy rituals and ways. She had been Lillith in my mind for the entire time I'd known of her. I had a mix of emotions about seeing her again: anger at what her actions had caused, doubt that she'd be willing to help me at all, and fear. Very real fear at seeing the Fallen Queen.
I could feel the exhaustion pulling at me, and I pushed thoughts of Meletine away. Little could be done right then. I nestled deeper against my pillows, closed my eyes, and began counting backwards from one thousand. I needed sleep more than I needed self-psycho-analysis.
* * *
I was awakened later, not by my alarm, but the heaviness of an unfamiliar weight in my bed. I opened my eyes, letting them adjust to the darkened room as I looked over at the man resting next to me in the bed. Daniel was stretched out on top of the duvet, his shoes off but his clothes still on. He was staring towards the southern-facing windows that lined an entire wall.
“How long have you been here?” I asked, squinting to read the clock and failing. I gave up and let my eyes drift closed again.
I felt his weight shift as he rolled onto his side. He ran his fingers through the hair that rested across my cheek. “Not for very long. I escaped the crate and rented a car. The airline should be delivering it shortly.”
“Don't you think they'll notice its weight difference?”
He shrugged. “I do not care.” He rolled onto his side and leaned in, pressing a kiss on my lips that I felt clear to the soles of my feet. I stretched into him and ran my fingers through his hair. He broke the kiss first and gave me a wide grin.
“This is a much better way to travel after all.”
I bit back a smile. The darkness, for once, was actually putting me in a better mood. My mind felt sharper as it finally woke up fully, and I was feeling surprisingly rested.
I tossed back the covers and slid out of bed. I knew we had a little time before we needed to leave, but I didn't dare risk missing our midnight appointment. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked towards the drawer where I'd stashed my clothes.
I felt the heat creep across my chest and I took my time sauntering across the room in my short, black nightshirt. I damned myself for not having more self-control, but he was giving me a definitively wolfish grin, complete with glittering blue eyes and sexy tousle to his hair.
“Do you need a shower?” I asked, looking between Daniel and the bathroom door.
His grin widened. “Is that an invitation?”
“I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be super-duper clean.”
* * *
We still managed to make it out to the remote hillside before midnight. The residence we were headed to was higher than the street parking below, and we had to ascend a rocky path to reach the gray, wooden house situated halfway up the side of a tall, rocky hillside. There was a small deck and a single light burned near the white front door. Daniel knocked once.
After several minutes, a male vampire appeared. He was small, with burnished chestnut hair, and brilliant green eyes. He didn't speak when he opened the door fully and waved us in.
“What is your business?” he asked, as he motioned for us to be seated on a blue sofa that felt hard as a rock.
I took a seat and let my gaze drift around the room for a brief moment while Daniel settled on the opposite end of the couch. The walls were white plaster, and the floors were a dark, dull wood. There wasn't a single painting anywhere, only the utilitarian couch, one black chair, and a small wooden table in the middle of the room.
“We wish to have a meeting with Meletine,” Daniel replied.
The other vampire stared at us for a long moment before nodding. “I will prepare her. Wait here.”
We sat in the living room in total silence for nearly two hours. Finally, the vampire's footsteps echoed from another room and he stood in the doorway.
“Come.”
We followed him out of the sparse main room to a kitchen. The butcher block counters were scrubbed cleaned and the white appliances look as if they'd never been used. At the far corner of the room was a black door. He crossed to the door and pressed seven digits into a keypad just above the handle. I heard several locks disengage before he opened the door out.
“She awaits you below.”
I stared at him. No introduction required? No crazy test to pass, aside from the silent wait? This guy would probably be smacking so
me panic button as we were locked in the basement and a swarm of vampires would descend upon us. I looked over at Daniel, who appeared to be having... no reaction at all. I had expected so much more to her exile: armed guards, maybe a moat or a big wall. Not an electronic lock and a skinny dude named...
“If you have any problems, call out for me. My name is Lionel.”
Lionel. Not exactly fear-striking.
Daniel, however, didn't seem at all surprised by any of it. He started through the door first, and grabbed my wrist as his feet hit the top of a long, dark staircase. I dragged my fingers along the walls as I moved to catch up to him. Both sides were ice cold rock. I caught up to him and hooked my fingers through the back of his belt loops. I counted as we went... thirty-four stairs, with two turns. It was pitch black.
Daniel came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, and I inched close to his back. I knew better than to trust Lillith... Meletine.
After a moment, a single light flickered to life in the far corner, as a white candle was lit by a shaking, white hand.
When my eyes adjusted to the light, I couldn't fight back the gasp. Lillith, once a regal-looking blonde woman, with perfectly-tailored clothing and a deadly smile, was curled against the wall, with white, whispy hair and a ragged beige nightgown. Nearby, a pine box sat open. The candle didn't stretch far, but I had a feeling the stone-walled basement was empty. I forced my focus again on Lillith, who sat silently with her back against the wall and her red and purple intertwined auras flickering and pale.
“I see even you cannot hide your surprise, Tracer. Do you not know what you and your boyfriend here have done to me?” Her voice still cut. “Isadora, my beloved daughter, felled by this man. And Imala, my darling, driven into the sun by your hideous master. I was a fool to place my trust in him, and it has cost me everything.”
I tried to resist an eye roll, but I couldn't help myself. I had heard Lillith's monologue before, and I didn't have any more patience for it there, in her creepy basement dungeon.
“You can't actually be surprised,” I said, bewildered that I didn't need to summon much courage to talk back. “Imala was responsible for two human deaths because of your machinations, and countless others besides. She was a murderer, and she deserved what she got.”
“Is that what you think?” Meletine asked. “I may be locked in this prison, but the world is not unknown to me. Imala has given Ben an incredible gift, but you killed her before she could complete the change. Now, you have wasted her life and his.”
I tried to find words, but couldn't. There was nothing to argue about.
Meletine. It was easier to remember it now as I stared at her. Her power was nearly gone. Daniel had at least explained this part to me. She would never again receive blood sustenance and her body would eventually fail. I knew she was old, and it was easy enough to guess that her age would speed the process. I cycled through everything I had seen Lillith do, and knew that this frail thing in front of me was not that Queen. The woman I had been so afraid of was practically disappearing before my eyes. Even her skin was changing to something decidedly inhuman.
“We did not come here to debate this,” Daniel said, his voice echoing off the stone walls.
“Then why did you come here? To ogle an old woman?”
I let out a sharp sigh. I had lost all patience with vampires. “We need the blood of the oldest living vampire,” I said. “Ernie Haden says you're our girl.”
Lillith let out a laugh that sounded like something between a hiss and a howl. “Why should I help you?”
“It's your last chance to do something right. Do something good,” I replied.
“Oh, don't start that with me. I have lived over a thousand years, and if I've learned anything, the difference between right and wrong is but a change in the viewing angle. You have wasted your time. I will not help you.” Her voice was strong, even though her body was weak. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from us.
“You do not have a choice,” Daniel replied, stepping close to her and putting his face in front of hers. “We will get a sample of your blood.”
She opened her eyes and stared at him for a long moment before a small smile grazed her papery lips. “Then I want something in exchange,” she said. “If I don't have any choice at all.”
“What do you want?” I asked, moving closer to her, but still staying well behind Daniel.
“I want to see the aurora, one last time. And I want to die on the beach outside. Tonight.”
“We cannot allow that,” said Daniel. “It is against our laws. You must live out your exile.”
“With no food? No companions?”
Daniel shrugged. “It is not my law.”
“Suddenly so concerned with the law, are we?”
The room fell silent as I considered her request. We had already broken so many vampire laws it really didn't matter anymore. I had no idea how the situation back in New York would end, but I knew our objective here was more important than vampire law.
“I can secure your safe travel home, if that's of any concern for you,” she rasped. “One last favor, from my one last friend. I have asked Lionel to not alert the new Queen of your visit until after your departure. If you play nicely, I can extend that indefinitely.”
“It's a deal,” I said, blurting out the words before I’d fully thought them through. I knew we didn't have a lot of room to wiggle, and safe travels home and back to that weird sun-bubble were extraordinarily valuable. Just because we had managed to get out of the U.S. unnoticed didn’t mean we wouldn’t be seen by some of Sorrell’s goons on the way home. We had doubtless pissed off a lot of the Vampire Court with that little bit of Ernie’s magic and it was only a matter of time before someone noticed we had come out of the safety zone.
She smiled again. “Very well. Daniel, assist me to my feet and we can begin.”
“Just stay there,” I said, my voice quieting as I watched her shift her body. She was so pale she was practically translucent.
I took a collection kit from my pocket. Each tube held a stabilizing compound that would prevent the blood from disappearing and leaving nothing behind but dust. I wanted at least four separate samples, and the work was quick.
I zipped the collection tubes into the case and pocketed it. Daniel helped her from the floor and she shuffled towards the stairs. Daniel was behind her, and I brought up the rear. We exited the house and trudged down the rocky path to the shoreline in single file silence.
I tried to look everywhere at once as we walked. The quiet lights of Nuuk glittered across the water and the sky was bright with a huge field of stars. The climb down from the house to the rocky edge felt short in the glittering night, even as I noticed the storm clouds building in the distance.
“What is it you intend to do?” she asked, as we came to a stop steps away from the icy water.
The icy wind was almost deafening and I had to shout to be heard. “We're going to cure him. We're going to save Ben's life.”
Lillith nodded and reached up to slide off a necklace around her throat. At the bottom of a thin gold chain was a small vile of bluish-red liquid. She pressed it into my hand. “Then you're going to need this.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“It is the blood of the first vampire.”
She turned away from me without saying anything else, and stared up at the sky. The first flares of light were beginning to arc across the night, faint purple, and lime green. I stared up to the heavens, feeling the weight of everything above me, being balanced only by the weight of the tiny glass vial in my hand. The show was brightening, revealing ribbons of teal lights that danced and swirled across the purple curtains hanging over us. The sky filled with the auroras as we watched, and the screaming wind died away in my ears.
It was much too cold for me to linger at the water, and I retreated back to the house on the cliff, watching as Daniel stood guard over the ancient vampire. Lionel sat silently at the kitchen table, havi
ng accepted a considerable sum of cash to pretend nothing strange was happening outside.
They stayed on that beach for hours. When I knew sunrise was drawing near, I dug a parka out from a supply chest in the main room of the house and I wrapped all but my nose and eyes in a scarf. The aurora was still going on as I joined them on the beach and we stood there, watching the Northern Lights dance across the top of the world.
Daniel turned to me and bent down, planning a deep kiss on my lips. “Be careful, Allie.”
I nodded. Daniel would have to hide in the house before sunrise, and I alone would witness the death of Meletine, the longest reigning Queen the vampires had known.
As dawn crept along the horizon, I watched her, wondering at what she must have seen in such a long life. I tried to fathom the depth of time—born after Colossus fell at Rhodes, but before the crusades. She had seen a stretch of human history I could barely remember from my history texts. If I tore away the vampire madness I had seen in their society, I was in awe of the beautiful dark magic that created the witnesses to the march of time.