“Don’t know that I’d be considered such. I’m certainly not on the list of God’s appointed saints, but I know how to deliver these undead directly into the pits of hell. I don’t think He’s been too disappointed with that.”
She studied his eyes for a few moments. “You ever kill master vampire?”
Dominus nodded. “Several.”
“In their lairs?”
Dominus thought for a minute before finally shaking his head.
“See? You know not what you face.”
“And what makes you an expert on vampires in their lairs?” Jacques asked.
“We shield you from the master’s compulsion,” she replied.
“With what? Magic?” he asked.
Volya nodded. “Yes.”
“Well, hell,” Dominus said. “That settles it. We’ll just send you and your brother down there first. Problem solved.”
Her eyes grew cold and her jaw tightened. “You mock us?”
“Ma’am,” he said. “I’ve killed all of my vampires without magic.”
“You said you use holy . . . Are you talking relics?”
“Holy water, bible, blessed salt, and a cross.”
“And yet, you are not Christian?”
“No ma’am, I am not.”
“Then are these things not magic in their own right?” she asked.
Dominus took a long draw on his pipe. Fury was rising in his eyes. He released a long stream of smoke. “Are you a Christian?”
Volya looked insulted. “I am not!”
“Good to see we stand on the same side then,” he replied.
“We do not,” she replied in a low hissing manner. “I have question for you.”
Dominus raised both hands and nodded. “Shoot.”
“Huh?”
“Ask it!”
“If you don’t believe in the power behind these holy relics, why do you think they work?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because they believe? Or they fear the outcome of what their eternity is beyond the grave so severely that they believe they are cursed and holy objects act on that belief. I don’t think it’s magic, but it has worked every time.”
She acquiesced a nod. “Some of what you say . . . is truth. But what happens when you face a vampire who has no fear of what others consider holy? One that has no faith in cathedral objects?”
“I’ve yet to come across one.”
I thought about the point he was making, which was something I had wondered about since I first rummaged through my father’s hunter box. My family was not believers in the cathedral, but I had watched the items used—the cross, holy water, salt—and they worked against the undead. Was it the vampire’s faith, if one could call it that, which allowed the blessed items to work? I wondered. With so many religions around the world, I questioned if these same objects held any power against a vampire that didn’t believe in the cathedral and its teaching.
The arrival of these two heightened my skepticism, especially with Rose’s warning. Rusk had not even hinted of their arrival to us or to Jacques, who he had spent a lot of time traveling back to our cottage with. When we were talking numbers and odds of success, I’d have thought that was a time when Rusk’s memory should have been nudged enough to remember two more would be joining our group. Dominus seemed overly cautious of them, as did I.
Rusk motioned for Volya and Hoval toward him. He showed them what we believed the lair setup to be like.
Dominus glanced at me. “I think it’s time I retire for the evening. Let them work out the specifics.”
“We can tell you the plan tomorrow.”
Dominus laughed. “You can make all the plans for your expectations, but once you arrive, trust me, it all goes out the window. It all boils down to one thing: Kill or be killed. The basic plan is always the best one.”
He stood and walked to the ladder that led up to the loft where we had made him a cot to sleep. I needed to find more thick furs and quilts to set up places for the others to sleep through the night.
Dominus had some valid points, but I worried that perhaps he wasn’t taking the situation seriously. I did. I believed the fight against the baron would be one of the hardest I’d ever face. It might actually become my premature death, despite the lines etched into my palm.
While Rusk and Zsolt explained the details to Volya and Hoval, I got my father to help me find enough materials to set up beds on the floor for Rusk and Zsolt. Jacques volunteered to help. Volya and her brother insisted that they sleep outside in their covered wagon.
I wanted to talk to Jacques and Dominus alone, without the other four hearing our conversation. I was uncomfortable about the overall situation.
By the time I got to the loft where my bed was, Dominus was snoring. I rolled onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. The small fire in the hearth allowed light to dance upon the ceiling. My mind was too preoccupied to drift off quickly. I thought of Rose and her warning. I didn’t like sleeping under the same roof with two complete strangers with two more outside.
Chapter Thirty-two
The following morning after breakfast, Jacques, Dominus, and I began carving stakes from an ash tree Father had cut down. Rusk and Zsolt helped the gypsy siblings with other tasks they deemed essential to us invading Baron Randolph’s lair. They were inside the gypsy covered wagon, which essentially was a small room set upon wheels. The spotted horse ate oats from an attached bag beneath its mouth.
Father was asleep inside. He had stood watch throughout the night until I relieved him about two hours before sunrise. I had the feeling that he didn’t trust the other four any more than I did.
Dominus and Jacques took sharp hunting knives and were smoothing out the long pointy ends of their stakes.
I stepped closer to them and whispered, “Do you trust them?”
Jacques paused with his work and cocked a brow. “Do you not?”
“You traveled with the two for several hours. I expect that you spent the day before talking to them?”
Jacques nodded. “I did.”
“Did they seem trustworthy?” I asked.
“I had thought so.”
“And you don’t now?”
“Rusk is like me, a werewolf. I sense the pack bond between us without any power struggle for dominance over me. He stressed his hatred for vampires because he had been held in bondage to the same vampire I had.”
“Then why didn’t he tell you about these two?” I asked.
Jacques frowned. “I’ve asked myself that last night and all this morning.”
Dominus cleared his throat and whispered in his deep voice, “If you ask me, they have something more they wish to gain from this attack.”
Jacques turned and faced him. “I had thought maybe the same thing.”
“What’s your opinion about them, Dominus?” I asked.
“I agree with Jacques about Rusk. He seems on the level, but then again, he never told us about the gypsies. I’ve been around people who worked magic in New Orleans, but those practiced a different type of magic, much darker. And whatever they’re doing, they’re certainly not including us in it.”
“What about Zsolt?” I asked.
“Typical hunter. Young and boastful, but he doesn’t seem to have faced any true challenges. I doubt he’d have survived what you did the night before by himself.”
The compliment made me feel good, but now I worried about how well Zsolt could handle himself once we were at the baron’s chamber inside the lair.
“Now the brother and sister,” Dominus said, “I don’t care for either of them and wonder what their true hand is on this.”
“I wonder about them, too.” Jacques nodded, setting his freshly sharpened stake onto the pile with the rest of them. “We have two dozen stakes in addition to what we carry on our persons.”
“That should do,” Dominus said.
I grabbed a burlap sack and began setting them inside, carefully lining them so I could bundle them by wrapping the r
emainder of the sack around itself to make carrying the stakes easier. The rear door of the wagon opened. Rusk and Zsolt stepped down the crude portable steps attached to the wagon.
“What’s been going on in there?” Dominus asked. “You decide to get more sleep while the rest of us work?”
Rusk grinned and chuffed a small laugh, but Zsolt looked insulted.
“Actually,” Volya said, stepping down the steps of the wagon. She held several golden medallions attached to narrow leather bands that formed necklaces. Her brother did not emerge. “I work to bless these pendants for us to wear when we enter the lair.”
“And that was necessary to do without us present?” I asked.
Her eyes flicked to Dominus. Her jaw tightened. “Yes. As some do not share our belief.”
“Now, lady,” Dominus said, taking a step toward her. I placed a gentle hand on his forearm.
“All the same,” she replied, looking nervously at him. “I made one for you as well.”
Volya walked to each of us. Since she was much shorter, we had to bow slightly forward so she could slip the leather necklace over our heads. While bowed, she kissed our foreheads and chanted something in a language unfamiliar to me. When she got to Dominus, he removed his hat, staring her in the eyes as he bowed toward her. She was hesitant and uncertain, but after a few seconds, she slipped the band over his head, kissed his wrinkled brow, and repeated her chant. When she finished, and he had put his hat back on, he took her tiny hand into his.
While slightly bowed forward he kissed the back of her hand. “Dear lady, my humble apologies for my rude behavior last night. I don’t warm up to people I don’t know right away, and when I’m exhausted, I can be one cranky old man.”
Volya’s eyes softened, as she detected his sincerity, and she slowly slipped her hand from his.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
He gave a single nod and winked.
Her face reddened, and she looked to me. “Your father? Where is he?”
“Still asleep,” I replied.
She pointed toward the door. “Do . . . you mind if—?”
I shook my head and smiled. “Not at all.”
Volya offered a small curtsey.
After she entered the cottage, we glanced at Dominus with odd expressions. Had he been bewitched?
“What?” he asked, somewhat defensively. “Why are you looking at me like that? Look, we’re heading into the baron’s lair. A strong master vampire. We have to be on the same side, regardless if we don’t all agree on the same things. She and I won’t ever see eye to eye on our beliefs, but I mustn’t allow that to keep contention between us. Who knows if I’ll need her to protect my back or the other way around?”
Jacques smiled. “I agree, but . . . that was a sudden switch of attitude.”
“My mother always insisted I treat a lady like a lady,” he replied. “And she was kind enough to include me in her blessings, which tells me a lot about her, especially since she didn’t have to.”
Volya stepped back outside of the cottage. Her eyes causally looked toward Dominus. She blushed and quickly turned away.
Jacques said to her, “Could you get Hoval to join us? We need to discuss the best time to set our attack.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. She hurried to the wagon to get him.
I went to awaken my father.
A few minutes later we met at the front of the cottage, standing in a circle. Jacques and Rusk stood side by side.
Rusk asked, “Is everyone comfortable about invading Baron Randolph’s lair tonight?”
“At what time?” Zsolt asked.
“Midnight?” Jacques asked.
“Sounds good to me,” Dominus said.
Zsolt nodded.
A thought dawned upon me, which I could only explain as being from hunter instinct and not a direct thought of my own. It was an impulse that I knew I couldn’t shrug off and ignore. It was guidance from a higher plane. I glanced at Dominus. “Do you always hunt vampires after midnight?”
He shrugged. “Ever since I found them during the Civil War, yes.”
“Why?”
“That’s when they are on the prowl,” he replied. “And when I can easily find them.”
I nodded. “Exactly. But aren’t they also at their strongest? We know where Baron Randolph’s lair is and what his chamber room looks like. What happens if we attacked during the day, say around noon, when the sun is at its strongest? Wouldn’t that be when he’s at his weakest?”
I was surprised at what seemed a major revelation, and so was everyone standing around me. It made perfect sense. Attack the vampires when they least expected it.
Jacques and Dominus marveled, nodding their heads. Both walked to me and clasped my shoulders.
“I never thought about that,” Dominus said.
“Nor I,” Jacques said. He glanced toward the sun’s position. “We’re three hours from noon. We’d best get moving.”
Chapter Thirty-three
We entered the cemetery about a quarter past noon, much to Dominus’ disappointment. He grumbled something about high noon, but I didn’t understand his translation. The sun was bright and the sky cloudless. Hoval parked their wagon near the center of the cemetery and tied the horse to a low tree branch.
We stood in a circle, each hunter holding his box, and the werewolves holding a stake in each hand. Volya held a lantern in one hand and an odd stick in the other, which I guessed to be a wand. She had never said. Her thin frail brother had the rolled burlap sack with the extra stakes slung over his shoulder. He looked strained and stressed trying to support the bag’s weight. He also held a lantern. He and Volya had agreed to carry the light since we’d be preoccupied with our weapons.
The pendants we wore, she told us before we left the cottage, were most powerful in her presence. I wondered if that were true, or if she simply led us to believe it so we fight harder to keep her alive.
Like at Glodrim, I had stakes tucked at each forearm, two at my back, one inside each boot, and several inside my deep coat pockets. In my pockets were vials of holy water, a cross, crushed garlic stored in small glass globes, and the ax with a claw on one end. I had the blessed dagger tucked in its sheath on my belt. I also had two more daggers fastened on the other side of my waist. I never knew when I might need an extra knife.
Dominus loaded his crossbow with a gleam in his eyes.
Excitement rose inside of me before we opened the doors. Other thoughts passed through my mind. The largest one, of course, was wondering who in our group was going to betray me. I fought to thrust it aside because I didn’t need any distractions to prevent me from successfully killing the baron. Not that I’d be the one who actually killed him because I agreed with Dominus. Kill any vampire that you came into contact with, and that was acceptable to me. But deep inside I hoped that I’d be the one who drove a stake through that bastard’s heart.
Rusk stood before the double doors and looked over his shoulder at us. In a near whisper, he said, “Ready?”
We all nodded.
He pulled the doors outward. The rusted hinges creaked, and we all tensed, holding our weapons ready. What we had hoped to achieve was entering the catacombs silently and reaching the third level down without being noticed beforehand. Although the creaking sound wasn’t excessively loud, the noise seemed magnified because of my apprehension. I often wondered why whenever I had tried my hardest to be quiet that was when I unintentionally made the most noise. It never failed.
A cool musty, earthen breeze mixed with the scent of death and decay blew from the opening. For nearly a minute we stood watching the stairwell that vanished down into the darkness. Rusk motioned Volya ahead of him, so we could use the light of the lantern to see the steps on our way down. Rusk stood behind her, followed by Zsolt and then Jacques. Dominus was in front of me. My father followed me. Hoval was at the rear with his lantern. While they offered light for us to see the stairs, they were also exposed, making themselve
s the most vulnerable to attack. As far as I was concerned neither of them were equipped with ready weapons, but I doubted stakes would even help them.
Hoval’s frailness wasn’t a subject of any debate, and Dominus had been more than ready to state the fact the previous night, which had hurt the young man’s feelings. But denying the truth didn’t change anything. I knew from Glodrim that vampires were stronger than they appeared in size. The female vampire that had boosted me off the ground was a third of my weight and much smaller in stature, but her stern shove had left me immobile for the better part of a minute. Enough time for her to lunge on top of me as she tried try to bite me. I couldn’t imagine the damage she’d have done to Hoval.
In single file we walked down to the first turn in the stairs. Like Father had mentioned, there was a door that opened into a narrow tunnel. Volya hesitated as the lantern lit the side of the wall beside the doorway.
I tightened my hands around my stakes until my fingers ached. I half expected something to rush toward us, but the only sound was our slow steady breathing. The tension increased around us, but none of us made eye contact with one another. We watched the door.
Rusk finally nudged Volya’s shoulder. She stiffened at his touch but then advanced past the doorway on tiptoe and made her way around the column to find where the stairs descended. For a moment her eyes met mine. I read her fear before she turned her attention back to the stairs and took the first step downward.
I didn’t like knowing she was afraid, especially not after her argument with Dominus about faith. She had seemed to indicate her magic was strong, and now I questioned her true purpose for coming.
She held the lantern in her left hand, slightly pulled back to her hip, and extended the crooked stick with her right hand. It wasn’t sharpened and was incapable of piercing anything. I wondered exactly what she planned to do should a vampire rush at her.
At the bottom of this set of steps, Volya turned, allowing Rusk, Zsolt, and Jacques to step beside her. I peered down and saw the man, standing at the doorway that led into another tunnel. I recognized him. He was the human servant that had given my father and I the message on the day Momma died.
Forrest Wollinsky: Vampire Hunter [Book One] Page 24