"The border watch?" I said. "Is he a vampire?"
"Of course."
The footsteps subsided, but I continued to stare upward. I was expecting an angry vampire to come crashing down the stairs at any moment.
"You can relax," Odette said. "That's just Hadrian."
"Hadrian?"
"Yes. He's not a very effective guard—that's why I knew we'd be safe in here."
"What is Hadrian guarding exactly?" I asked.
Odette sighed. "I thought I told you—he's guarding the border—allegedly. There are three other watchtowers similar to this one in the village. They're set close to points at which the supernatural barrier meets the unenchanted Wasteland. Hadrian is supposed to watch the border in case someone like you manages to get past the barrier. He's supposed to detain the intruder and alert the authorities. But intruders are rare, and Hadrian is usually drunk, or sleeping—or both—so very little actual watching goes on."
"He's drunk?" I asked. "Does alcohol affect vampires?"
"The kind Hadrian favors does. He drinks fermented human blood."
"Oh," I said. "That's disturbing."
"Yes, it is," Odette replied.
I sat down again, and several quiet minutes passed—there were no further noises from overhead. Soon, however, I began to worry about what could be going on outside.
I glanced over at the heavy metal door. "Odette, does everyone in the village know that Hadrian isn't a very good guard?"
"Yes," Odette said. "I thought you were finally going to be quiet. I knew it was too good to be true."
"If Hadrian is so ineffective, what's to stop the vampires outside from coming in here to get us?"
"This tower is government property," Odette said. "No one is afraid of Hadrian. But they're all afraid of the group up at the castle. If anything happens to Hadrian, or if this tower is damaged the perpetrators will be punished—severely. And what constitutes 'severe' for a vampire is far more terrible than anything you humans could come up with."
I was silenced, but not entirely reassured.
After another few moments, Odette stood up.
She held out her hand. "All right. It's time to go. I haven't come up with a particularly great plan—in fact—it's pretty simple. But it's the best I can do under the circumstances."
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Up," Odette replied.
"Up?" I said.
"Yes, up. We have to get over the castle wall, you know."
"Are you suggesting that we fly?" I asked.
"No—not exactly. We're going to glide over the roof tops."
"Maybe you can do that," I said, as panic threatened to overwhelm me. "But I don't think that's something I can do."
"You don't have to be able to do it," Odette said smugly. "As you already know I have powers that are beyond those of ordinary vampires."
I did indeed know—Odette had used her powers to break the seal on Gleb Mstislav's tomb. She was the one who had set Gleb free—so he could come after me.
Odette continued. "I can levitate objects and people—well, people have been a little trickier for me, but as long as you hold onto my hand you should be fine."
I wasn't sure that I liked the sound of this. "We're going to go to the castle I saw in the distance, by way of levitation?"
"Yes."
"But that castle looked very far away," I said. "That's a long way to go off the ground."
"Distances don't mean so much to us," Odette said. "Our speed makes miles seem like nothing at all. Come on. We should leave now. I want to get this over with quickly."
I stood, and the two of us went up the spiral staircase into the darkness. As we ascended, it became harder for me to see, and I wasn't very keen on the idea of stumbling and possibly waking Hadrian from his drunken slumbers. So I went slowly, and I found myself placing my feet on each step as quietly as I could.
"What are you doing?" Odette hissed at me from up above. "What's taking so long?"
"What about Hadrian?" I asked.
"He's sleeping," she hissed. "I'm sure of it. Besides, he's harmless."
Odette said he was harmless, but I noticed she was whispering.
I continued to climb the stairs gingerly, and eventually, Odette reached down and hauled me up by my coat.
The room above appeared to be completely dark at first. After a moment, my eyes adjusted to the gloom, and I could see that there was an arched, open window on the far side of the room, through which a little bit of light filtered. I could also just make out a large shape by the window—a man was sitting in a chair with his feet resting on a spindly table that also supported a burned-out stub of candle and an empty bottle. His head was tilted back at an uncomfortable angle.
The man was clearly sleeping, but his bulk was impressive—I didn't want to meet him when he was awake.
"See?" Odette whispered. "That's Hadrian, and he's asleep like I said. In fact, from the looks of things, he's quite deeply asleep—he's completely dormant."
We'd been talking about vampires sleeping as if it was something normal, but I realized that I didn't actually know what that meant.
"Vampires sleep?" I asked.
"After a fashion," Odette replied. "We do have a period of decreased function—which you know about already—you know that creatures of the dark are weak during the day. But we also do need to go through a period of metabolic repair—that's what sleep is. If you have a body, it will always need to fix itself. But Hadrian's current state is more than that. We can go into a state of deep dormancy if we are badly injured but still largely intact. Wounds and injuries can heal over a period of weeks, or months, or even years. I suspect that Hadrian's current state is self-inflicted. Strong drink can induce oblivion in vampires as well as in humans."
Odette pulled me across the room to the window. Then she released her grip on my coat and climbed up onto the spindly table that supported Hadrian's feet.
She climbed onto the windowsill next and perched there, her shape a dark silhouette in the frame of the window.
"Come on," she hissed.
I climbed onto the table and tried not to glance at Hadrian or the bottle. As I reached the window, Odette's dark shape vanished, soaring upward.
I gripped the ledge and looked down into the street below. A single dark shape glided down the street and disappeared. I wondered if the figure below had spotted us.
"Hurry up," Odette hissed.
I looked up, and I could see Odette standing on the tower's pointed roof, a sliver of moon visible just over her shoulder, her red hair fanning out in the wind.
I glanced back down at the street below. It seemed very far away.
"I'm not sure about this," I whispered to Odette. "Are you sure we can't give the ground route a try?"
Odette crouched down and held out her hand. "I can do this. And so can you. Now get out here."
I climbed onto the ledge and grasped Odette's hand. Although I shouldn't have been surprised by Odette's strength any longer, I was startled by just how easily she hauled me up and set me on my feet.
Up on the roof, the air seemed even colder, and the view was dizzying. A strong wind whipped around us, and I found my boots slipping on the roof's shingled surface.
I grabbed frantically for Odette, and she set me on my feet again. I noticed for the first time that she was clad only in a filmy black gown—her gauzy sleeves fluttered to the side, leaving her alabaster arms bare. She grasped my hand again, and this time I was sure—I could indeed feel the chill of her skin through the fabric of my gloves.
"Stay calm," Odette ordered. "And don't let go of my hand. I won't be able to buoy you up otherwise. Remember that."
I wasn't likely to forget.
Odette suddenly leaped forward, and my feet left the solid surface of the roof. I felt my body soar out into the open air, and I twisted and turned in panic, trying to grab onto Odette with my free hand, trying to grab onto anything that would break the fall that was sure to
come.
A horrible thought popped into my head.
Had Odette brought me out here to kill me?
All she had to do was let me drop—I imagined she could save herself pretty easily.
Had I been, as Odette had said not so long ago, too trusting?
Of course, Odette could have killed me at any point while we were sitting in Hadrian's tower, or she could have done nothing earlier and simply let Veronika kill me.
These thoughts passed through my mind quickly, and just as quickly, I decided I could trust my cousin. Though panic still coursed through my body as we continued to soar through the air, I tried to quiet my mind, and I clung more tightly to Odette.
We dropped suddenly and landed on the rooftop of a nearby house.
"Stop wriggling so much," Odette said impatiently. "You're going to be fine—for now. Getting to the castle is the easier part. Things will get much harder once we get to the castle."
Odette took off again, and though I was expecting the feeling of weightlessness that followed this time, it was still terrifying.
Once again, I found myself twisting in the air, flailing wildly for something to grab onto.
Odette brought us to rest on another rooftop.
"Seriously, stop wriggling," she said.
Before I had quite caught my breath, we were off again, and we soared from rooftop to rooftop with dizzying speed.
After several more successful landings, I began to relax just a little bit. I managed to raise my eyes and look around when we came to our next stop, and I realized that we had halved the distance to the castle. The immense stone structure now loomed much closer, and I could see that its narrow windows were illuminated by a curiously subdued silver light.
"Why is everything so dark around here?" I asked.
"It is night," Odette replied. "And as you can perhaps imagine, vampires have an uneasy relationship with the light. Too much of it is hard on our keen senses—that's one of the reasons why we don't like the sun. The sun's harsh light floods our eyes, and its heat can be too much for our skin. There are disadvantages in having super-refined senses. But we do need some light to see by—we can't live in complete and total darkness. So, it might look dark around here to you, but to me it's as bright as day."
Without warning, Odette grabbed my hand again, and once more we took off into the night.
After several more jumps, Odette brought us to rest on a broad roof with a gentle slope. We were perhaps a quarter mile from the castle, and in the dim light I could see there was a lot of activity along the castle's parapet wall—there were men in what looked like leather armor positioning themselves into the crenellations of the parapet. The men seemed to have spotted us, and each one trained a weapon on us.
"Are those crossbows?" I asked, squinting.
"Yes. They know we've been heading toward the castle, and vampires are a suspicious group. I told you this would be the hard part."
"Are they going to kill us?" I asked.
"They're certainly going to try," Odette replied.
"But they don't know why we're here," I protested. "Isn't there someone we could talk to? Some sort of gate official, or something like that?"
"Vampires do not look for diplomatic solutions," Odette said. "And they're under more strain than usual at the castle these days—they're under imminent threat of invasion. No doubt we look like spies."
"What do you mean by 'imminent threat of invasion'?" I asked, startled.
"I'm sure William will explain it to you," Odette said. "And I'm sure he'll keep the others from killing you once we find him."
Odette stood up. "I want you to give him a message from me. Tell him that they're planning to attack the human village during the Firebird Festival."
"Who are 'they'?"
"The hybrid army. This information comes from a very good source."
"Why don't you tell him yourself?" I asked.
"Because as soon as we locate your William, I'm going to disappear."
Before I could ask any further questions, Odette had pulled me back into the air. We landed on three more rooftops, and then Odette stopped and turned to me.
"We're going over the castle wall now," she said. " Do not panic. Do not twist and flail around. This is going to be hard enough without your acting like an idiot. I need to pay attention to what the guards are doing. I can't do that if I have to focus on hanging on to you."
Odette seized my hand. And then, impossibly, we were soaring up into the sky, higher and higher. I felt terror rising in me, but I fought it down. I saw from high up that we were sailing over the castle's parapet. The guards had turned their crossbows on us, and a barrage of flat discs hurtled toward us. The discs split into three razor-sharp arcs, and then burst into balls of flame.
Despite Odette's warning, I couldn't help crying out and trying to twist out of the way. I was sure we were going to be killed.
I could feel that we were sinking. And then, somehow we were on the ground.
We were standing in a courtyard, and there were vampires rushing toward us from all sides. Odette, however, seemed to know exactly where to go. Pulling me with her, she ran at blinding speed toward a door at the far end of the courtyard. As we reached the door, a man stepped into her path.
Something flashed in Odette's hand, and one of the discs that had been fired at us, shot out and buried itself in the man's chest. Then it burst into a bright ball of flame.
The man fell to the ground, howling.
Odette smashed in the door in front of us, and then she dragged me through the castle's gloomy halls, which were lit only by an odd silver light.
Vampires came out to stop us, but Odette had another disc in her grasp—this one she held on to. I watched as her slender white hand lashed out again and again, leaving bloody gashes in faces, necks, torsos, arms.
We reached another door that Odette smashed in.
The door fell heavily to the ground.
Two men stood in the room before us, and they spun around.
I was now looking at Innokenti.
And William.
Odette turned to me, her eyes bright, her face and arms spattered with blood.
"Don't forget that I did this for you," she hissed.
Then, in a streak of black and red, she disappeared.
Chapter 21.
William started toward me immediately.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
He was suddenly beside me, pulling me further into the room.
William's eyes flashed fire. "What do you think you're doing?"
I found I couldn't answer him.
I was stunned to see William standing right in front of me. I had believed he was lost to me forever. I had believed he had left me for the Sìdh.
And yet here he was with the vampires.
William was clearly very angry. As I looked at him, I felt tears stinging my eyes.
Vampires swarmed into the room, and William turned to face them.
He moved to stand in front of me.
"Get out of here!" he shouted. "Get out of here all of you!"
The intruders stopped, staring at William uncertainly.
Innokenti looked on in mild amusement.
"Thank you, all," he said evenly. "You have acted quickly and decisively to come to our aid. The flame-haired vampire woman was the truly dangerous one, and she has now departed. I do not believe that she will return. The one that remains is human—she's as harmless as a kitten. You may all depart. I thank you for your concern and your quick action."
The vampires eyed me as if they longed to tear me to pieces, but one by one they melted away.
Then I was alone with Innokenti and William. Innokenti continued to look amused.
William continued to look furious.
"Your entrance was somewhat unorthodox, little one," Innokenti said. "But it in no measure lessens our delight in seeing you. Welcome to Rusalka Castle. I must apologize for the overzealousness of our guards.
I trust you are unharmed?"
Once again, I found that I couldn't answer—the situation was just too surreal. I found myself looking around the room—looking at anything so that I didn't have to look at William's angry face.
The room we were standing in was well lit, especially in comparison with the rest of the castle. Tables and racks laden with weapons lined the walls. The room itself was vast, and at the far end were several stands supporting bulls-eye targets. A crossbow similar to the ones wielded by the castle's guards was lying in the floor a few feet away.
My eyes moved involuntarily to William. He was wearing leather armor like the guards.
"What's going on here?" I asked.
"Target practice," Innokenti said conversationally.
"Target practice?" I said.
"This is our weapons development room," Innokenti replied. "We work in here where the walls are specially reinforced to prevent any accidents from harming the innocent."
His eyes flicked across the room. "Of course the door has unexpectedly turned out to be a weak point."
Innokenti went on, and his tone became reassuring. "But under ordinary circumstances, this room serves its purpose admirably well. We test weapons here to make sure that they meet our high safety standards. Then we take them outside to uninhabited areas to do further testing. The locals have seen the flames from our ammunition tests, and in the most amusing fashion, have taken to calling it 'witch-fire.' There's no witchcraft about it, however."
"Why are you telling her all of this?" William asked sharply.
"Why not?" Innokenti's tone was mild. "Do you think she'll use the information against us?"
"Katie, you don't need to know about all this," William said angrily. "What are you doing here? I have half a mind to—"
He stopped and looked away.
I had known that William didn't want me—he'd disappeared, left me completely alone, and hadn't thought enough of me even to say goodbye. Even so, I was stunned by the coldness of his reaction—I knew he had loved me once.
How could his love have vanished so completely?
I was suddenly seized by anger.
"What am I doing here?" I cried. "What are you doing here?"
The tears that had threatened before began to fall. "Why did you leave me alone? Why did you disappear? You left me without saying a word when I needed you the most."
Ignis (Book 2, Pure Series) Page 29