“You sent me away,” Aleksei growled, glaring back at me over the top of Anasztaizia’s head.
“Well, you lied to me!” I shot back, using whatever bourbon was still in my system to be reckless. “So I guess we’re even.”
Extricating herself from his embrace, Anasztaizia caught hold of Aleksei’s chin and spoke to him in a sharp tone. I didn’t understand the words, but I caught the general gist. She was telling him to knock it off. His chest moved as he took a deep breath, and I felt a palpable drop in the tension. Taking his hand, Anasztaizia led him back to the kitchen.
Aleksei pulled out a chair, took off his coat, and draped it over the back. He then set about moving it next to his girlfriend’s so the two chairs were now side by side. I hid my grin by covering my mouth with a hand before resuming my own seat. Anasztaizia busied herself making a fresh pot of the delicious coffee.
“You are first person never to have believed me,” Aleksei grumbled, folding his arms across his chest. “And I am sorry to lie to you,” he added with a sigh.
I knew the apology was being given at Anasztaizia’s behest, and I got the feeling it wasn’t something that happened very often. I decided I could be magnanimous.
“Apology accepted,” I told him.
He grunted and stared at me. I told myself he was regarding me with newfound respect, but who was I kidding? He was probably calculating how much pressure it would take to snap my neck, and judging from the size of his hands, it wouldn’t be much. But he had underestimated me earlier. Something I was sure he wouldn’t do again.
“Gabriel has told me to answer questions.”
“What sort of questions?” I ventured warily.
“About vampires,” he said with a scowl. “There are things you are wanting to know, yes?”
Although Anasztaizia had assured me that if my demise was something Gabriel wanted, I’d already be pushing up daisies, I hadn’t totally believed her. I did now. It was plain to see Aleksei was not thrilled by the prospect of being my go-to guy for all things vampire. And I didn’t see Gabriel wasting his second-in-command’s time making him play twenty questions if he was only going to kill me afterward.
“So, what do you want to know?” he asked.
“About vampires?” I stared at him for a long minute before giving him a sly smile. “How about . . . everything.”
Of course I didn’t need to know that much. I already knew at least three things about vampires that couldn’t be disputed: drinking blood was necessary to their survival, daylight was a big no-no (which explained why Gabriel never stayed the night with me), and they had to be invited to cross a threshold. But it was good to see the big guy momentarily flummoxed by my answer.
“Actually there are only three things I want answers to,” I said, holding up the appropriate number of fingers.
“Only three? You are surprising me, Rowan.” Aleksei being sarcastic, who knew?
“Yeah well, they’re kind of biggies, so don’t get excited.”
“Tell me.” He smiled, first at me, then at Anasztaizia, who put mugs of hot, steaming coffee in front of us.
“What does it mean . . . I’m Gabriel’s Promise?”
Anasztaizia’s sharp intake of breath took me by surprise. Apparently they hadn’t been expecting that. Score one for me. Their hesitation and the way they surreptitiously glanced at each other made me even more curious. And also scared.
“You do not know?” Aleksei asked quietly, spooning sugar into his mug.
I sighed. “Would I be asking if I did?”
“This I cannot tell you. Ask me different question.”
Not the informative start I was hoping for, but I wasn’t about to give up just yet. “You can’t tell me anything?” I prodded stubbornly.
He glanced at Anasztaizia, who made the tiniest movement of her head. “All I can tell you is you are bound to Gabriel by ritual. One that cannot be broken.”
“What exactly do you mean by bound?” I wasn’t sure if he was referring to kinky leather restraints or something with matrimonial implications. Neither prospect gave me the warm fuzzies.
“I don’t know,” Aleksei said, looking angry. “Talking about a Promise is forbidden.”
“You’re kidding, right?” We hadn’t even begun to play twenty questions and he was already shooting me down. “You can’t tell me about it even though it involves me?”
Ignoring me, Aleksei raised his mug to his mouth.
“Why not?” I asked, sounding like a bratty kid who can’t get her own way.
“Because it is not permitted,” Anasztaizia said firmly, taking her seat next to Aleksei and patting his beefy bicep. “No vampire is allowed to talk of a Promise. Doing so, even among themselves, means punishment.”
These were vampires we were talking about, and from the little I’d seen, they were a pretty resilient bunch. Katja had actually pushed her dislocated shoulder back into place while crab-hopping down a hallway with a swollen knee. What kind of a punishment could they possibly be given? Lock them in a room and make them listen to Justin Bieber CDs until their ears bled?
“So who can tell me what being a Promise means?”
“Gabriel,” they both said together. Right. Should have seen that one coming.
“So, what is second question?” Aleksei had obviously decided we were done with the whole pesky Promise issue, and he was ready to move on. My feelings didn’t seem to count for much, but as I was already treading on thin ice with him, I let it drop.
“How does someone become a vampire?” I asked. “Do you just have to bite them?”
He rolled his eyes, and Anasztaizia reached for his hand.
“Rowan! You smart girl saying stupid words!” he chastised. “Think about what you say. If this is how vampires are made, then the world would already be full of vampires.”
Embarrassment made my face burn. He was right, of course, but in my defense, the prospect of vampires running rampant across the planet wasn’t something I generally thought about. If all it took to create a vampire was simply being bitten by one, then both species would have died out centuries ago. No wonder Aleksei was annoyed with me—I was annoyed with me! Hadn’t Anasztaizia shown me where her boyfriend had had a little nibble earlier? And she was very definitely not a vampire. Good Lord, what was wrong with me?
“And you should know not every human can be made vampire,” Aleksei said. “Only those possessing the proper marker can be turned.”
“What’s a marker?”
It was Anasztaizia who answered me. “Think of it as a recessive gene.”
Did I really look like the type of girl who reads DNA Digest or Genetics Weekly? What did I know about genes, recessive or otherwise? I counted myself lucky to remember enough basic biology to recall how many pairs of chromosomes were in the human body.
“It makes it possible to survive the transition,” she clarified, “and helps with adapting to a vampire existence.”
I brought my gaze back to Aleksei. “And do I have this marker?”
“No,” he said very decisively.
“How do you know?”
“You are a Promise.”
“And that means I can’t be turned into a vampire?”
“Exactly!” He looked positively smug.
“So I’m bound to a vampire,” I said slowly, “but I can’t be turned into one.”
Two heads nodded at the same time, and though I felt sure this was a good thing, I was uncertain which one of us the distinction affected more—Gabriel or myself. The idea that a vampire would be bound to a non-vampire, and vice versa, struck me as potentially problematic. However, the look on Aleksei’s face suggested I’d have more luck asking my toaster oven for further clarification. This dealt with my being a Promise, and I decided not to annoy him by asking questions he wouldn’t answer. Gabriel was going to have a lot of explaining to do. “So how do you change someone?” I asked instead.
“Vampires cannot change a human,” he said. “It is
something only a Fallen can do.”
“A Fallen? What’s that?”
“They are the Original Vampires,” Anasztaizia said, keeping her voice so low I almost didn’t catch what she was saying, “and they are the only ones who can let you look death in the face, but not take his hand.” I appreciated the romantic spin, but it didn’t really tell me anything. My feelings must have been evident because she gave a small sigh before continuing. “To turn a human into a vampire, the process must begin at the exact moment of the final heartbeat—too soon and the body will not respond. The skill is in knowing which beat will be the last, and only the Fallen possess this knowledge.”
For the next few moments the only sound I could hear was the low hum of the motor in my fridge. It sounded like it was only a couple of revolutions from conking out.
“And Gabriel is one of these Fallen vampires, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Aleksei said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“And he turned you into a vampire, didn’t he?”
“Yes.” He jutted out his chin as if daring me to dispute it. Why would I? It hadn’t been that difficult to figure out.
I looked at Anasztaizia. “Is he going to make you one too?”
She shook her head. “No . . . I cannot be turned.” The regret in her voice said she would like nothing more, and seeing her hand disappear inside Aleksei’s huge paw, the reason why also wasn’t difficult to figure out.
“Did he make Katja a vampire?” I asked.
“No,” Aleksei said with a shake of his head. “She was turned by Ryiel.”
The rush of relief I felt was quite unexpected and very intense. If Gabriel had turned the exotic beauty into a vampire, then, to my mind, her feelings for him would border on the creepy and incestuous. “So . . . who’s Vladimir?” I asked.
“You know Vladimir?” Anasztaizia looked at me with surprise.
“He was in the house,” I told her. “He asked Katja who I was.”
“And she told him?” Anasztaizia seemed stunned by the idea.
I nodded. “Yeah, but I got the impression he wasn’t very happy at me being there.” I paused and looked at both of them. “He told her that if things went south he wouldn’t be able to protect her.”
“He said that?” The blonde pursed her lips, looking faintly troubled.
“Well, not in those exact words,” I said, “but I’m pretty sure that’s what he was implying.”
“I didn’t know Vladimir was there,” Aleksei said, his mouth becoming a grim line.
“Maybe I’ve got the wrong guy? Tall, aristocratic-looking. Like a movie star from the fifties with a great widow’s peak.”
An odd snorting sound made both Anasztaizia and me stare at Aleksei. Covering his mouth with a hand, he seemed to be giving his full attention to the floor, fascinated by the patterned linoleum. Unfortunately, having shoulders as big as his was sometimes a liability. I could tell he was trying not to laugh by the shaking motion they made. I looked at Anasztaizia, who spread her hands and shrugged in bewilderment, as puzzled by the big guy’s reaction as I was.
“What’s so funny?” I asked when he finally raised his head and looked at both of us.
His mouth continued to twist in a humorous smirk. “You think Vladimir is aristocrat.”
I didn’t think it was that funny, but what did I know about vampire humor? “From your reaction, I guess it’s fairly safe to assume he’s not, then?”
Clarification was delivered with a deep rumbling chuckle. “Son of goat herder from Carpathian Mountains.”
I still didn’t think it was that funny.
“Why would you think it was Vladimir who turned Katja?” Anasztaizia asked curiously.
“When I asked Katja if he was her father, she said in a way, so I just sort of assumed . . .” I let my voice trail off, acutely aware of the other definition of the word assume.
“Well, he is, in a way,” Aleksei said, generously coming to my rescue. “Vladimir is the one who asked for Katja to be turned. He was guardian.”
“She needed a guardian?”
He nodded. “Yes, it was his responsibility to see her through the transition, then help her to live as vampire.”
“And is the guardian always a male?” I asked curiously.
“Not always. A female can be guardian.”
Who would have thought equal rights were alive and well, and had very sharp teeth? “You said Vladimir asked for Katja to be made a vampire.” I could see Aleksei’s eyes gleaming with interest as he wondered what I would inquire about next. “Is a request to turn a human ever denied?”
“Sometimes.” He sounded hesitant. “If there is good reason.”
“Such as?”
“Instability.”
I thought I’d misheard him, or misunderstood. Katja didn’t strike me as being exactly level-headed. In all fairness, I had no idea what her personality had been like as a human, but I was willing to bet the basic fundamentals hadn’t really changed. Still, I felt like Aleksei was leaving something out.
“Can a person change their mind? Do they have any say in this?”
“Of course.” The big guy looked faintly annoyed with me. “They can always refuse, but I have never heard it happening.”
No, I just bet he hadn’t. Saying no to a vampire didn’t seem like much of a choice at all. I sat for a few minutes, toying with my rapidly cooling mug of coffee, as my mind ran through everything I’d just been told. I wanted to be certain I had the order of events straight.
“So only a human with the proper recessive gene, and who wants to be turned, can be made into a vampire.” Aleksei nodded and seemed quite pleased that I’d caught on fairly quickly. “But they can be turned only by an Original Vampire, one of the Fallen, right? And Gabriel and this other vampire—Ryiel—they’re both Fallen . . . so how many are there?”
“How many what?” Anasztaizia asked, her eyes shining brightly.
“How many Fallen?”
“Nine.”
“What happened to the rest of them?”
“The rest of who?” Now it was Aleksei’s turn to ask.
“The Fallen. Nine doesn’t seem like an awful lot. Weren’t there more of them?”
He shook his head and looked puzzled. I was guessing no one had ever considered this before. “No. There have only ever been nine,” he stated emphatically.
My life was rolling down a path where everything was a lot more complicated than what I’d known before. I had no idea where exactly a Fallen existed within the vampire hierarchy, but it seemed to me that it was pretty high up. I hadn’t failed to catch the reverence in Aleksei’s voice when he said the word “Fallen.”
I fixed my gaze on the Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers, standing guard on either side of a wedge of holly-printed paper napkins. Time passed. It could have been a minute or fifteen or fifty before Anasztaizia’s gentle voice broke the silence.
“Rowan, is there anything else we can tell you?”
Breaking my trance, I smiled at her before bringing my gaze back to Aleksei’s scarred face. “Yeah,” I said slowly, “how do you kill a vampire?”
CHAPTER 7
If revealing vampire secrets made Aleksei uncomfortable, then the idea of sharing information on this particular topic turned him downright prickly. I couldn’t really blame him, I suppose, but it did make me wonder just how broad a directive Gabriel had given him. From the look on his face, if I hadn’t crossed a line yet, then my toes were dangerously close to the edge.
The vampire’s face turned cold, his eyes steely, and I felt a shiver go down my back, the kind my father always said meant someone was walking over your grave. As a smart-mouthed teenager I’d been quite scornful of all my father’s favorite sayings, and this one was no exception. How would anyone know where I was going to be buried? What if I decided on being cremated instead, with my ashes scattered at sea? Did that mean instead of people walking over my grave, a school of dolphins was now swimming t
hrough the area? Such a possibility still ranks very high on my Way Cool chart.
I’m pretty sure the temperature in the kitchen dropped a few degrees as Aleksei asked, “You want to know how to kill a vampire?”
Not trusting my voice, I nodded. The sudden warmth of his smile took me completely by surprise. All I could assume was that he had forgotten I was human and, to his mind, a physically inferior species. Perhaps my sudden inability to speak had reminded him. At any rate he obviously decided there was no harm in telling me. What was I going to do with the information? It wasn’t like I was ever going to be able to actually put into practice anything he told me. Every vampire I’d met so far could flatten me with one hand tied behind his or her back. Including Vladimir, the not-so-aristocratic matinee idol.
As it turns out, killing a vampire isn’t that easy.
“So, the whole stake-through-the-heart thing isn’t true?” Aleksei’s scornful laugh was enough of a reply in itself. “Vampires cannot be killed like that. Is stupid fairy tale.”
“Why not?” Curiosity got the better of me. “I mean, you do have a heart, right?”
It was a pointless question because I already knew the answer. I’d been lulled to sleep by the steady, rhythmic beat of Gabriel’s heart on more than one occasion, and I wasn’t about to forget those other times when it went all jackhammer in his chest, usually as he was coming. I suspect most women get an incredible rush knowing they can evoke this type of physical response in a man. Knowing I could do this to a vampire was suddenly a hundred times more delicious.
“Yes, I have a heart,” Aleksei said, “but becoming vampire makes other changes.”
“That recessive gene again,” I said with a smile.
He grinned back and tapped his sternum with the tips of his fingers. “Is true. It protects heart with muscle that is very strong.”
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