he’d learned to sense—that told him she was alive.
Still he lingered, her revelations of a few hours ago running through
his head. Eastern Europe. The Carpathian Mountains. An expedition.
He thought about the day Julian had carried her into this room and
put her on the bed. Jarod had sat next to her, daubing blood from her
face, holding her hand, just as he held it now. He’d felt something that
day he’d never felt before, something he wasn’t supposed to feel. He
wasn’t supposed to get attached to his patients.
His thumb made lazy circles on the back of her hand. It was a
comfortable sensation. He’d grown used to the feel of vampires, the
differences in body temperature and skin texture. The last time he’d
shaken hands with a human, the skin had felt too hot. Julian felt strange
to him now, with his near-“normal” physiology. This hand, though, Lilith’s
pale hand with its long fingers and oval nails, felt right.
Finally he let her go and left the room, pausing in the hallway.
When he started walking again he went not toward his own room but in
the other direction, toward the heart of the Underground.
Julian was in his office, staring at a computer monitor. He sat with
such absorbed, preternatural silence that it was hard to remember he
was no longer a vampire in the strictest sense. He didn’t move until
Jarod cleared his throat, at which point he looked up and blinked.
“Dr. Greene,” he said.
Fleetingly, Jarod wondered if Julian even knew his first name.
Then he realized he wasn’t sure what he wanted to tell Julian, or to ask
him.
“Can I help you?” Julian said after a moment.
“How’s Lorelei?”
Julian shrugged. “Fine, for the most part. Morning sickness is a
bitch.”
“I can give her something to help with that. She should have come
to me before.”
“I think she has a hard time thinking of you as an obstetrician.”
“One of the downfalls of being a vampire doctor, I guess.” Again,
a fleeting thought he barely had time to acknowledge—why the sarcasm?
Why the vague bitterness? But he barreled on, not prepared to
psychoanalyze himself. “I think you’re going to need a doctor on this
expedition of yours.”
“I don’t know who could go. We need you here.”
“Not so much right now. I can’t do much more with Vivian or
Nicholas. We found out what we needed to know, but it will be a minimum
of fifty years, by my estimation, before the experiments produce
a reliable cure for cancer.”
“What about the Children?”
“There are issues beyond the physical. Those need to be addressed
before we do anything else with them.”
“But are you close to being able to help them?”
“Very close.”
“Then what about Lorelei?”
“She’d probably be better off—and more comfortable—if she
found a more conventional OB/Gyn. It’s really not my area of expertise,
anyway.”
Julian looked at the monitor again, then tapped the Enter key. “So
why do you think we’ll need a doctor in the lovely and amusing state of
Transylvania?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? Jarod wasn’t sure he had a
good answer. “Lilith’s been through a great deal of trauma. I’d be
uncomfortable sending her off on a journey of this magnitude in her
current condition without an attending physician.”
Julian nodded soberly. “She doesn’t seem to think that’s necessary.”
“With all due respect, I’m the doctor, not Lilith.”
The corner of Julian’s mouth twitched. “Any other reasons?”
How about I’d like to get the hell away from this place for a
while? How about I’d like to be, just once, somewhere that doesn’t
reek of vampires?
“If her suspicions regarding Aanu are correct, there’s no way to
know what condition he’ll be in when we find him. You may need my
help.”
“I’m not going.”
Jarod blinked in surprise. “I assumed you were.”
“So did I, at first. But I don’t want to leave Lorelei alone for that
amount of time. It makes more sense to send Lucien, while I hold
down the fort.”
Jarod nodded. “So I’m talking to the wrong guy?”
“Yes, indeed you are.” Julian smiled. “I’ll talk to Lucien.”
“All right. Thank you.”
He returned to his room to sleep, and was awakened six hours
later by a knock on the door. Bleary, he looked at the clock. It was
almost one p.m. Daylight. He was hungry. The knock sounded again.
“Yeah, whatever!” He fumbled his way out of bed and to the
door. Behind it stood Lucien.
“We leave tonight at sunset. Be ready.”
It occurred to Jarod, belatedly, that it might not be the wisest thing
to be the only mortal among a group of vampires, particularly right
after dusk, regardless of what he knew about his personal genetic
makeup. Julian had assured him that everyone had eaten, one way or
another, but a couple of them still looked hungry to him.
It was a small group. Lucien would lead the expedition, with Lilith
navigating. Another vampire, Sasha, had also joined the group. Apparently
she spoke fluent Romanian. She looked abominably young. One
of the Children, he supposed. He’d spent a good amount of time looking
at their blood but not much thinking of them as actual beings, Changed
before full maturity. Julian’s project to restore them to mortality had
seemed ridiculous when he’d proposed it. Now it seemed actually possible.
Looking at Sasha’s too-young face and ancient eyes, he hoped
his hypotheses proved valid.
Then there was William, the last member of their entourage and
the least likely, as he really had little to offer the expedition. Julian and
the accountant had never gotten along, although Jarod wasn’t sure
why. Maybe Julian just wanted William out of the way for a while.
Julian briefed them on where they were going and why, how they
would get there and how long it would take. Jarod, who knew most of
the plan already, paid less attention to Julian and more to Lilith.
She seemed tired, a little too pale. She’d drunk the plasma drinks
as he’d instructed, but he wondered if she needed more. He’d have to
catch her on the way to the airport, see if there was anything he could
do to help.
When Julian finished speaking, she headed for the door, behind
Lucien. Jarod started to follow, but Julian caught his shoulder.
“A minute?” Julian said.
“Of course.” He turned to face the not-quite-vampire and suddenly
noticed the tension around his mouth, the gray hue behind surprisingly
human skin. “What’s wrong?”
“My head,” he said. “I need something for the pain.”
The pain must be beyond human comprehension for Julian to ask
for painkillers. “Do you know what caused it?”
“I had to access the Senior’s memories to set up this trip. I had to
sustain the connection for several hours. It always gives me a headache.
This time is worse than usual.”
Jarod took a moment to process what Julian just said. “You have
access to the Senior’s memories?”
“Yes. Apparently I absorbed them with his blood when I killed
him.” He squinted, as if against the light, and Jarod could see a vein
bulging in his temple.
“Does William know this?”
Julian shook his head, his lips thinning. “No.”
“He should. He thinks you hate him. Hell, everybody thinks you
hate him.”
“You’re right. But I’m not ready to deal with that yet.”
Jarod begged to differ. Julian should have addressed the issue a
long time ago. William certainly had a right to know that Julian carried
the Senior’s memories of their century-long relationship. But now wasn’t
the time to discuss it.
“There’s a variety of painkillers in my drug cabinets,” he said.
“They’re all clearly marked. I’d guess you’ll need some of the really
heavy-duty stuff to even make a dent. But be careful with it—you’re
not a vampire anymore.”
Julian nodded. “Thank you.”
“And get topside for Lorelei. Find as many different kinds of ginger
as you can. Tea, crystallized, raw, fresh, ginger candy. One of
those should help her.”
“I’ll do that.”
“All right. I suppose I should get going.”
“They won’t leave without you.”
He met up with the rest of the group in the hallway, and they went
on together. He fell in next to William, but within a matter of a few
steps, realized Lilith was pacing him.
“Is Julian all right?” she mumbled. “He looked ill.”
“He’s fine,” Jarod answered, then realized she’d asked out of
more than polite curiosity. There was fear in her eyes. “Nothing serious.”
She studied his face a moment, as if looking for a lie. “Good.”
They left the Underground in a seedy part of town—all the exits
were in bad parts of town—to find a stretch limo waiting. The human
driver ushered them into it and took their bags. Lilith eyed him closely,
and he gave her an uncomfortable smile.
“He’s not on the menu,” Jarod told her.
“Neither are you, more’s the pity.” She raked him from head to
foot, then flashed a predatory grin as she got into the limo.
Her look caught him off guard.
“Doesn’t it make you nervous?” she asked as they settled into the
seat. “Having all these vampires around?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted.
Sasha cocked a brow at him. “It shouldn’t. Your blood reeks.”
Jarod nodded. “I’ve been told that.”
Lilith seemed surprised at the comment. “Doesn’t smell too far
off to me.”
“I wouldn’t try it if I were you,” Sasha cautioned.
Jarod watched the exchange with interest, especially when Lilith
turned her attention to him, sizing him up like a box of chocolates.
“Why?” she said. “Would it piss somebody off?”
“Yeah. And it might kill you, too.”
Lilith frowned at Jarod. “Is this true?”
Jarod shrugged, amused at her reaction. “Maybe. I haven’t quite
figured out the chemical reactions yet. I did find a genetic marker,
common to the vampires here, that exists in my blood.”
“You’re serious?”
“I’m a doctor. I’m always serious.”
She bent toward him, her nose almost touching his throat. She
sniffed delicately, then touched her tongue to his skin, right on top of his
pulse.
He wondered fleetingly if she was going to bite him right there in
front of the rest of the group. They had become the center of everyone’s
attention. Strangely, though, he wasn’t embarrassed. Nor was he particularly
frightened. Instead, he was quickly becoming aroused.
Her tongue trembled there, right against his pulse. It occurred to
him that, in all his ten years in the Underground, he’d never been aroused
by a vampire. Maybe because none of them liked the smell of his
blood. He wondered what her mouth would taste like if he just turned
his head and kissed her. His mind conjured a picture of stroking her
tongue with his
“Either eat him or eat him, if you get my meaning,” Lucien said
laconically.
Delicately, Lilith moved away, and Jarod shifted in his seat, hoping
no one looked too closely at the changed contours of his lap.
Lucien went on. “If you eat him, Julian won’t be pleased. The
doctor has several projects at home that I know Julian’s counting on.”
Lilith’s gaze was still on him. “And if I eat him?”
“None of us really wants to see that.” He tapped the glass behind
him and gestured to the driver.
“I do,” said Sasha.
Jarod gave her a dark look. He almost told her that was no way
for a teenager to talk before he remembered she wasn’t a teenager.
There was no telling how old she really was.
The limo slowed and turned. “Look sharp,” Lucien said. “We’re
almost at the airport.”
They debarked near a runway on the outer edges of JFK Airport.
Jarod could see the lights of the airport proper some distance away. A
hundred or so feet from the car sat the huge, bulk of an SST.
“Since when do vampires own supersonic jets?” he said to Lucien,
the question mostly rhetorical. “Besides, I thought they retired the
Concorde.”
“Retired but not destroyed,” Lucien answered. “We don’t own it,
but when you have to get to Eastern Europe before sunrise, you make
things happen.”
“No wonder Julian had a headache.”
A man approached them across the tarmac, pointing a flashlight
in their general direction. “Are you Lucien?”
Lucien stepped forward. “I am.”
“I’m Buck.” The man put out a hand for Lucien to shake. “I’m
the pilot.” He looked warily at the vampire’s face. “This is everybody?”
“This is it.”
Sasha leaned toward Jarod. “His blood smells quite tasty.”
Jarod turned to see her lecherous smile. So did Lucien. Jarod
gave her a tolerant smile, but Lucien looked grim.
“No one touches the human helpers.” His voice was cold and
brittle. “Anyone who does, answers to me. And I’ll ask for your life.”
Sasha looked chagrined. “Jeez, it was just a joke.”
“Not a funny one.”
She was stuck at sixteen, and it showed, Jarod thought. He wondered
what she would say if he offered her the possibility of returning
to mortality.
Buck looked decidedly uncomfortable. He shook his head. “Damn.
I’ll never get used to you people.”
He led them toward portable stairs that had been pushed against
the plane. Lucien followed directly behind him, his imposing presence
enough to keep the rest of them in line. Even Jarod felt as if he’d done
something wrong, and he had no desire whatsoever to exsanguinate
the pilot.
The plane was big, a full-sized Concorde. Jarod headed for the
middle rows, choosing a seat near the wing. There was certainly plenty
of room. They could sit far enough away from each other that they’d
barely be within shouting distance. Which was fine with him. A little
isolation sounded good right now.
Seconds later, Lilith plopped down in the seat next to him.
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“That depends. Are you going to lick me again?”
She grinned. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Not so much.” He looked out the window at the distant lights
and the empty, black tarmac. “Look, I was planning to grab some sleep.”
“You’re kidding, right? With all these vampires around?”
“Lucien won’t be sleeping. He’ll keep an eye out for me. Besides,
you heard what Sasha said. They don’t like they way I smell.”
“I didn’t get that. Why?”
“Because, somehow or another, all the vampires here are related
to Lucien, and so am I.”
Her eyebrows rose. “How could you be related to Lucien?”
“The four First Demons had biological children as well as Blood
Children. Their blood carries specific genetic markers. Lucien’s and
Ialdaboth’s are far more common than the other two. Particularly Aanu,
as he’s been missing—”
“So I’m not part of the family?” she broke in, afraid he might go
on in the same didactic way all night—he seemed the type who could.
“That would be my guess. You’re more likely related to Ialdaboth,
or the fourth First Demon. His name was Ruha, but I don’t know if he
still uses it.”
Lilith looked distant. “Of course he does. Those two liked the
demon names.”
“As did you, apparently.”
She blinked coolly. “Lilith wasn’t always a demon. Neither was
I.”
“You were never a demon,” he said gently. “Not like Ialdaboth.”
Her face relaxed, and she smiled a little. “You can say that because
you didn’t know me before.”
He shrugged, not sure how to answer.
“You just sleep,” she said. “I’ll make sure nobody bothers you.”
“Not even you?”
“Not even me.”
Lilith peered past the sleeping Dr. Greene to look at the sweep of
night sky, the wing of the plane silhouetted against it. Then she looked
down the aisle, where she could see Lucien’s hand dangling off the
edge of the armrest.
All the passengers had settled into silence. The pilot, of course,
Knights, Katriena - Vampire Apocalypse Book II.txt Page 3