In Memories We Fear

by Barb Hendee

  His attitude irritated her. “I hardly think that’s what she’s doing,” Rose answered.

  Again, he just shrugged.

  Julian was on the verge of calling Mary back to the suite for some semblance of a report—anything—when she blinked back into the sitting room. Jasper had been watching television, and he stood up, hitting the off button on the remote.

  But Julian could immediately tell something was wrong. He could always read Mary’s face, even when she didn’t burst into babbling the second she materialized.

  Standing near the couch, close to Jasper, she crossed her arms and made a strange sound, almost as if she were breathing.

  “Well?” Julian asked.

  “They’re all together again, hiding in some old cemetery outside of Oxford.”

  “Oxford? No, wait. Don’t bother with that. Has Philip killed the vampire?”

  She shook her head. “It’s no good. The vamp isn’t so crazy anymore. Eleisha’s got him talking now, and Philip wouldn’t take the swing.”

  While her word choices were confusing, the basic facts came through. Eleisha’s group was reunited, and Philip was back under her spell—and completely useless. Julian nearly closed his eyes. “What have you learned about the vampire himself? Is he new?”

  Again, Mary shook her head. “No. Eleisha said he’s been alone for nearly two hundred years, and I think she meant a lot more alone than any of them. That’s probably why he went so fruit bat crackers. He’s been hiding from you someplace where he’s been really alone.”

  Every muscle in Julian’s body tightened.

  “Have you heard a name?” he asked quietly.

  “Maxim. Does that mean anything to you?”

  It didn’t.

  Putting his fist to his mouth, he rolled all the things Mary was relating through his mind. First, he’d never heard of an elder named Maxim, and yet . . . one existed. Second, Eleisha had this elder speaking again, so every moment he spent with her group was a risk for Julian.

  Jasper was looking back and forth between them expectantly.

  “Mary, where did you find them again?” he asked.

  “In an old cemetery outside Oxford. I can guide you.”

  Jasper turned back to Julian. “Do we go?”

  There was little choice now.

  “Get your sword,” Julian ordered.

  Wade pulled away from Maxim’s memories through sheer effort, choking and gasping for air. Maxim was lying on his side, gagging, when Rose ran into the bedroom.

  She dropped down beside Maxim, stroking his back. “Shhhhhhhh. You’re in the bedroom again.”

  Wade was still absorbing what he’d seen, all the way from Maxim’s childhood through Adalrik’s death. He hadn’t meant to go so far, but once they’d started, he’d just kept going.

  “Oh my God,” he whispered.

  Eleisha should have prepared him. Maxim had been a nineteenth-century literary protégé, and he’d watched Julian take off his maker’s head in their own library. Eleisha should have warned him. But then again . . . she’d just told Maxim to show Wade images of Brandon. She hadn’t known they’d go so far.

  Maxim was still shaking.

  “I’m so sorry,” Wade said. He seemed to be apologizing to Maxim a lot. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  Other thoughts passed unbidden through his mind. Eleisha had compared him to Brandon. Was that how she saw him? As a sexually ambiguous, kindhearted scholar? But he also fully realized what she’d meant when she told him Maxim had lost his gift. That aspect was more complicated than he’d expected.

  He looked around. “How long were we out?”

  “I don’t know,” Rose answered. “A few hours.”

  “And Eleisha and Philip haven’t come in yet?” He stood up. “Did you check on them?

  She looked away. “Seamus has.”

  As if on cue, the front door opened, and Eleisha walked in. She was a mess, with dirt in her hair. But Wade didn’t have time to ponder this. Philip came in after her, and even from the bedroom Maxim could see him and started hissing, jumping up into a crouch.

  “It’s okay; it’s okay,” Wade began saying, moving closer to keep Maxim from rushing to the door.

  “Stay here,” Eleisha told Philip, and she hurried into the bedroom, dropping down beside Maxim. “It’s all right,” she said.

  The back of her shirt and her jeans were smeared with dirt. Maxim’s dark eyes moved over her face in relief. “Leisha.”

  “I’m here. I’m sorry I was so long. Did you show Brandon to Wade?”

  He didn’t answer, so Wade said, “Yes, and a lot more.”

  She looked at him. “How much?”

  “Too much.”

  She frowned at him, and then scooted across the mattress to lean against the wall, holding out her arms. “Maxim, come here. Let me show you pictures of the church.”

  “Library?”

  “Yes.”

  Like a child, Maxim crawled over, sitting beside her, pressed up against her, and they both closed their eyes. Philip stood in the doorway. Wade expected him to react with his usual selfish jealousy.

  But he didn’t.

  His coat was open, and his hair was crusted with dirt, too. He just watched Eleisha with an almost-accepting expression, as if he actually understood what she was doing. Something between them had changed. Wade couldn’t bring himself to ask, but he was suddenly worried that Philip might be more human than he’d ever realized.

  “It is her mission,” Philip said.

  Wade turned back to Eleisha and Maxim. True enough; this was the mission. He could always take comfort in that.

  By the time Julian’s taxi reached Caufield Cemetery, dawn was less than an hour away, and he’d come to a decision. A shed and small house were directly to the left, but Mary had explained that Eleisha’s group was farther away, hiding in the shack of an abandoned graveyard from years past. So as soon as the driver stopped the cab, Julian reached over the seat, grabbed the man’s head with both hands, and snapped his neck with a loud crack.

  Jasper glanced over as the man’s head lolled forward.

  “Get rid of the car, and meet me back here,” Julian ordered, climbing out. He looked up at the sky. “But don’t be long.”

  Without waiting for an answer, he walked through the headstones toward the house, his long black coat swinging around his legs. He heard the taxi pull away. The shed was dark, but he saw a light in the house. Someone was an early riser. He tried the door, found it locked, and kicked it open.

  A large woman sat drinking coffee on her couch, watching the early news.

  She stared at him in the doorway and began to jump up.

  He turned on his gift and hit her with a wave of fear. She fell back, and the sleeve of her right wrist came up, exposing a white bandage. The sight of it bothered him.

  She appeared too filled with terror to even scream, but her mouth twisted as she writhed on the couch. He crossed the distance between them and grabbed the back of her head. She wasn’t at all to his taste, and he didn’t need to feed yet, but he was never one to waste an opportunity. Driving his teeth in, he ripped out part of her throat and then began drinking, gulping until her heart stopped.

  But it stopped beating too soon.

  He was surprised by how quickly he’d drained her, and he dropped her body on the floor, watching residual blood leak into the cracks of the hardwood.

  Mary materialized, and made a face. “Jeez, Julian, make a mess much?”

  He pointed to the woman’s wrist. “While watching Eleisha, have you ever seen her feed from someone’s wrist and then leave the victim alive?”

  “Sure, she does it all the time. So does Philip . . . but he still kills people sometimes, when he’s hunting alone.”

  He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “And it never occurred to you to tell me?”

  Her expression shifted to anger. “How am I supposed to know what to tell you unless you ask? You got pissed off whe
n you found out Philip was sleeping in Eleisha’s bed, but then you tell me not to speak to you unless you ask me a question. What do you want, Julian? You can’t have it both ways!”

  He was trembling slightly, wishing he could strike her, and trying to digest this new development. Was he already too late in trying to stop a resurgence of the laws? Should he just take Eleisha’s head and then turn to destroying her companions as quickly as he could? If she was feeding and replacing memories and leaving victims alive, she was already practicing the first law, whether she knew it or not.

  He closed his eyes. No, not yet. This changed the situation, but she was still unearthing elders—and they responded to her call. As soon as he was certain she’d exhausted her resources and could not find anyone else, then he would catch her outside the church and end this.

  Jasper walked in and glanced down at the body.

  “What are we doing? You want to attack now?”

  “No. Find something to cover those windows.” Julian paused. “We’ll let them sleep out the day, and we’ll move in after dusk, when they have just woken for the night. That is the best time to catch someone off guard.”

  Jasper nodded, picking up a heavy blanket from the back of the couch, seemingly glad for something to do. “Tonight,” he said.

  chapter fifteen

  Wade woke up a few moments before dusk, lying on one end of the mattress. Rose slept at the other end, with Maxim between them.

  Eleisha and Philip were asleep on the floor, curled up on top of Philip’s coat.

  Before falling dormant that morning, Maxim had objected to this arrangement strenuously, but Wade didn’t have much sympathy for him. If Maxim was going to live with them, he’d have to learn to deal with Eleisha’s attachment to Philip—just like the rest of them had.

  Maxim’s eyes opened. Then Rose’s.

  Wade sat up and looked over to see that both Eleisha and Philip had opened their eyes.

  Dusk must have fallen, and their bodies were like unnatural clocks. He’d never awoken with four vampires before, and the experience was slightly unnerving, almost creepy.

  Before anyone could speak, Maxim hissed at Philip, in a clear combination of fear and open hatred.

  But Wade understood this better after reading Maxim’s memories. Maxim seemed to divide men into two categories: those to be feared and those to be trusted. The latter group was incredibly small.

  As Eleisha got up, Philip hooked the machete back onto his belt and picked up his coat. “I’ll go outside so you can calm him down,” he said.

  Wade nearly gasped. Philip was thinking of someone else’s feelings? Had the world gone mad?

  But he had to admit that the second Philip left, Maxim became much easier to deal with.

  “Rose, he looks ridiculous in Philip’s clothes,” Wade said. “They’re too big.”

  “I wear that sweater all the time,” Eleisha objected.

  “Yes, and you look ridiculous,” he answered. “It hangs nearly to your knees.”

  Rose tried to hide a smile. “What do you suggest?”

  “Can you show him my suitcase,” Wade answered, “and help him pick out something else? My clothes will fit him better, and it’ll be good for him to start making choices.”

  “Of course.” She motioned to Maxim and let just a hint of her gift flow. “Come and look at these clothes with me. Tell me what you like.”

  Curious, Maxim followed her out into the main room, and he crouched beside her as she showed him a pair of black socks.

  Eleisha moved over to the mattress to sit beside Wade. “Speaking of clothes, did you sleep in that jacket? I don’t think I’ve seen you take it off since we landed in London.”

  There was a good reason he kept his jacket on—and buttoned—but he had no intention of sharing it with Eleisha. “It’s freezing in here,” he answered.

  “Hopefully, we won’t be here long.” She looked at him more seriously and lowered her voice. “What do you think?”

  He knew what she was asking, and he glanced out at Maxim. “The time frame makes it harder,” he whispered back. “A mortal alone in the forest for even twenty years would be nearly impossible to rehabilitate, but Maxim . . .”

  “I know,” she said. “Decades upon decades. Do you think you can bring him back at all?”

  “Yes, but I don’t know how far, and I can’t make any promises about his gift.”

  She seemed troubled, and he wished he had better news for her, but she said, “I do want him to get better, but I hope you don’t revert him too much.”

  “What? Why?”

  “You saw him before he was turned . . . and just after. I like him the way he is now. The old Maxim wouldn’t have grabbed a tree branch and jumped in front of Philip.”

  Well, that was certainly true.

  Wade nodded. “Maybe we’ll end up with a combination of the old and the new.”

  She smiled at him. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  He had no response to that, so he watched Maxim trying to pull on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Eleisha moved to help.

  “Let him do it,” Rose said.

  The jeans were still too long, but otherwise, they fit. Once he was dressed, Maxim reached out for Eleisha. “Outside.”

  She turned back to Wade. “He wants to go running in the forest. We won’t be long.”

  They both slipped out the back door, leaving Wade and Rose alone. Seamus had not appeared yet tonight.

  “She’s too easy on him,” Rose said. “He needs to do things for himself, and she shouldn’t always give in to whatever he wants.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be the bad guy if need be.” Wade had seen down the corridors of Eleisha’s life all the way to her childhood, and he knew how exactly she’d spent much of the last two centuries. “It’s just her way. She took care of someone a lot like him . . . for a long time.”

  But this was part of their need for the mission, and Maxim was a perfect fit. Eleisha needed someone to take care of, and Wade needed a new patient.

  He had no delusions about this at all.

  Mary materialized in the graveyard of Caufield Cemetery just as Julian and Jasper stepped out the front door.

  She couldn’t help studying them for a moment; they were so similar and yet so different. They were both pale with dark hair, wearing long black coats and swords on their belts. But Julian towered over Jasper, and his shoulders were broad, while the smaller Jasper moved more easily, as if his bones were liquid.

  Although she was sure they’d never meant to or planned it, the two of them made an impressive-looking pair.

  “You’ll have to split up the group,” Julian ordered the moment he saw her. “I need Maxim as isolated as possible.”

  “Already done,” she answered, glad to give him some good news for once. “Philip’s out walking alone in the old graveyard, looking at headstones. Wade and Rose are still in the shack. Eleisha and Maxim are in the woods.”

  At first, this news did seem to please him, but then he frowned. “Eleisha’s with Maxim?”

  “Yup.”

  Mary didn’t know why, but Julian was most afraid of Eleisha.

  “How do you want to play this?” Jasper asked. He looked so confident, so very cool, standing there, ready for orders. She wished she could tell him how he looked.

  Julian was still thinking, but he finally said, “Wade and Rose are nothing. Ignore them. I’m going after Maxim. Mary, you guide me and keep a close watch. If I miss on the first swing, you’ll have to drive him away from Eleisha and keep her from getting a direct sight line to me. Do you understand?”

  “Why can’t she get a . . . ?” His face clouded, and she said, “I understand.”

  God, he could be a pain sometimes. If he were not so secretive, she could probably provide him with a lot more useful information. Half the time, she didn’t know what was important to tell him and what wasn’t.

  “Jasper,” he went on, “you go to the old gravey
ard and keep Philip busy.”

  That got her attention, and she floated closer to Julian. “To Philip? No way. You’re not sending Jasper after Philip . . . alone in some graveyard. Jesus, Julian, no way.”

  Before Julian could bark a retort, Jasper cut in. “Stop it, Mary! I can handle Philip.”

  “No, you can’t.”

  Of all the stupid ideas. Philip gripped that machete as if it were part of his hand. He’d have Jasper in three pieces before Mary could even blink in.

  To her shock, Jasper glared at her, and he was about to say something else when Julian raised one hand. “Quiet!” His mouth tightened, and he grew more thoughtful. “Mary is not entirely wrong. Jasper, don’t engage him. Just keep him busy. Keep him from going into the woods. That’s all.”

  “Why can’t I fight him?”

  “Because his father started teaching him to use a sword when he was six years old, and after he was turned, his body remembered every lesson.” He lowered his face toward Jasper’s. “Just keep him busy. Make him chase you, but don’t let him catch you.”

  Jasper looked away, pissed off.

  But then he nodded and headed for the old cemetery, and Julian headed into the trees. Mary blinked out, following Julian. She didn’t care how this played out as long as Jasper stayed safe.

  Eleisha and Maxim ran together for a little while and then slowed to a walk, moving through the dense trees, and she tried talking to him about the future.

  “We’ll be going home soon,” she said.

  Maxim pointed back to the shack. “Home.”

  She had to admit that he looked better in Wade’s clothes. Both the jeans and the long-sleeved T-shirt fit him well. She’d buy him his own clothes in Portland, and she made a mental note to pick up some long-sleeved T-shirts in dark colors.

  “No, that’s not our home,” she told him. “Home is the church I showed you. Remember? With the library?”

  “That is home?”

  “Yes.” She had told him this before, several times.

  But he seemed concerned now, anxious. “Where?”