Chapter 17
The knock on the cabin door roused Valentin, who slid out of bed and pulled on his trousers. When he smelled the human, he felt a surge of tremendous relief. Someone had seen the plane go down; someone had come looking for them.
As he opened the back door to greet their savior, an Asian man lunged at him, knocking him back inside.
Long black hair flew around the human's snarling face as he thrust a copper-bladed dagger into Jaus's shoulder.
Valentin held him off by wrapping his hands around the man's throat and cutting off his air, but the intruder jerked the dagger out of his flesh and lifted it to stab him a second time.
All around the cabin, glass shattered as the windows exploded outward. Wind came streaming through the broken panes, blasting at the two men so violently that it pushed them apart and knocked the dagger out of the intruder's hand.
"Who are you?" Jaus demanded, circling around as he clutched his wounded shoulder.
Lightning flashed, striking so close to the cabin that the subsequent boom shook the walls and window frames. Pieces of glass left in the panes fell out and smashed to the floor.
The intruder scanned the room and snatched a butcher knife from the block on the counter.
"You will have to do better than that, priest." Jaus said softly as he moved, putting the table between them. "They're made of steel."
"So you, maledicti." The intruder threw the blade on the top of the table. "No need weapon."
"Indeed." Jaus bared his fangs. "Neither do I."
The intruder whipped his head to one side, and a blast of lake water came through the window, a solid stream that knocked Jaus into the wall.
The intruder straddled him, clamping a hand around his throat and pinning him to the wall. His other hand flattened against Jaus's chest, where it became an icy, immovable weight.
"You." Hatred flared in the intruder's narrow black eyes. "You turn her."
A sensation as if another Kyn were feeding on him made Jaus, look down. Beads of blood popped out all over his chest.
"See, demon." The man smirked. "Your water mine."
"Stop it!" a woman shrieked. "Get away from him!"
Jaus saw a tree limb swinging through the air toward his face and instinctively ducked, pushing his attacker toward the blunt club. A young blond girl smashed the wood into the side of the Asian's head, sending him to his knees.
Before Valentin could say or do anything, the girl launched a vicious attack of her own.
"Tie me up to a fucking tree?" she screamed, raising the branch to bring it down over the top of his head. "Leave me out there for the fucking bears to chew on?" The branch cracked as she struck him a third time. "I don't fucking think so."
The Asian man fell over and went limp.
The woman holding the tree branch dropped it, and Valentin saw that her hands had actually been tied to one end. He went to her and quickly released her bonds.
"Thank you," he said.
"You're fucking welcome," she snarled, and gulped in air, visibly trying to compose herself. "Sorry." She kicked the unconscious man. "I'm just really fucking pissed off at this guy."
Jaus knelt down to check the Asian. He was still breathing, but a number of large bumps were swelling on his head. He looked up at the girl, who was panting and still trembling with rage. "This man, do you know him?"
"I thought I did. By the way, I'm Melanie Wallace." She leaned over to spit on the back of the Asian man's head. "He's insane."
"Stay here, please, Melanie." Valentin lifted the man over his shoulder and carried him out of the cabin.
He looked through the back window to see the blond girl collapse into one of the kitchen chairs before he jerked the unconscious man's arm up to his mouth, sinking his fangs into his forearm.
He took the blood he needed to heal the wounds the man had inflicted, nothing more. He considered saving himself a great deal of trouble and snapping the man's neck, but three things stopped him: His attacker had the same exotic type of features and almond-shaped eyes as Liling, which made Jaus assume he was also Chinese. He had used the Brethren term for the Darkyn before he had stabbed Jaus. And while he was human, he had some Kyn-like talent over the wind and water.
He decided to keep him alive long enough to interrogate him. Then he would snap his neck.
Valentin picked up the long, limp body and carried him under his arm into the woodshed. There he used some of the cords binding the firewood to tie the man's wrists and legs. After bolting the door to the shed from the outside, he removed the hatchet from the chopping stump next to it. If the man somehow worked his way out of the ropes. Valentin didn't want him using the hatchet for a second attack.
Satisfied that the intruder was as secure as was possible under the circumstances, Valentin returned to the cabin. There he found the girl sitting at the kitchen table with a wet dish cloth pressed to her wrist.
"I owe you my life," he told the blond girl as he closed the door behind him. "I am Valentin Jaus."
"Pretty name. Nice to meet you." She gave him a tired smile. "And I apologize for dropping in on you like this, dude, but it's not like I had a choice." She glanced to the back door. "Did I crack his skull open?"
Valentin shook his head.
She lifted the dish cloth and inspected the livid red marks on her wrists. "Let me catch my breath, and I'll give it another shot."
"It is not necessary," he told her. "I tied him up and locked him in the woodshed."
"It is so necessary. That guy is crazy. He kidnapped me, you know? With a gun and everything."
Valentin knew the Brethren had no hesitation in using humans to further their cause. "Who is he?"
"He told me his name is Kyan," she said. "He didn't say much else. I thought for sure he was going to feed me to the alligators or some gross serial killer shit like that." Her voice trembled, and she buried her lace in her hands. "Oh, God."
Valentin gave her a few moments to compose herself before asking gently, "How did you come to meet this man. Melanie?"
"He doesn't speak English very well. Think, like, totally slaughtering it? Anyway, he hired me to come on his boat and translate for him." She lifted her hands, showing him her palms. "Dude, I am so sorry about this. I had no idea he was, like, a killer psycho wazoo or whatever he is. Honestly. I thought the guy was just a tourist." She shook her head slowly. "I can't believe I slept with him."
He prepared a drink for her while she told him about the trip she had taken with Kyan downriver, and how when she had tried to quit he had abducted her at gunpoint.
"Then he stopped here, and I saw the lights on in the cabin. He must have figured out that I was making noise, like, to warn you, so he tied me up to a tree and left me out there." She nodded toward the tree limb on the floor. "He didn't notice the branch was broken, so I hung from it and swung back and forth until I broke it off. Then I was like. Hey, a club, and I came after him."
Jaus admired her ingenuity. She seemed quite young, and yet she had responded to the situation like a trained soldier. "Did this man Kyan tell you why he was coming here?"
She shrugged. "I got the impression he was looking for someone. And, dude, do you know you have, like, a humongous plane sitting in the bottom of your lake out there?" She jerked a thumb toward the broken window.
"Yes." Jaus realized he now had two human females to look after, and a Brethren operative who could kill them all. Was this the man whom Liling had feared so much? "Unfortunately. I landed it there."
"Maybe you should, like, retake some flying lessons." She cringed as thunder boomed outside the cabin. "Can you call the cops now and have them come out here and arrest him?"
"There is no phone here," he told her.
"Damn. I really want to see his ass hauled off to the county lockup." She rubbed at the red marks on her wrists. "And I was nice to him because I thought he was cute. What a jerk. I am so, like, never watching The Matrix movies ever again."
Jaus went to the window and checked the skies. The storm rolling in from the south looked dense, and the wind was rising. "If you are hungry, Melanie, there is some food in the pantry. I am going to wash up and dress."
She gave his chest a weary but sweetly lecherous look. "Don't do it on my account, dude."
Liling heard someone singing an old Chinese cradle song, and slowly emerged from the dream. The room she lay in was dark, but flashes of light briefly illuminated a young, smiling female face.
"You're awake. Hey." The blond girl tucked a pillow behind Liling's head. "I heard you calling for someone. You okay, sweetie?"
She spoke in a combination of Chinese and English, which Liling found as surreal as her presence. "I'm all right. I speak English. Who are you?"
"My name's Melanie," the blond girl said. "I just got here. Is that German dude, like, your boyfriend?"
"He's Austrian." Liling wondered what Valentin would think of her calling him a boyfriend. "He's simply a good friend."
"With benefits. I bet. Does he have a brother?" Dimples appeared in her cheeks. "He's, like, totally hot."
Liling couldn't help smiling back at her. "How did you get here?"
"I was kidnapped, sort of." Melanie launched into a rambling account of a Chinese man who had lured her onto his boat and taken her downriver. After she finished relating the details of her ordeal, she added. "I think Kyan was looking for you, because he kept saying 'she.' And I don't think he knew you spoke Chinese, or he wouldn't have dragged me out here."
Kyan. He had found her.
Liling looked over as Jaus entered the room. "Valentin, where is Kyan?"
"He is tied up in the woodshed." He looked down at Melanie. "Miss Wallace, would you excuse us for a moment?"
"Sure." Melanie didn't move, and then she smacked her palm into the side of her head. "You want me to leave; got it. I'll just go hang in the kitchen, then."
Liling grabbed the girl's wrist. "Where did Kyan leave the boat?"
The girl described the pier on the other side of the lake. "I know how to drive a boat, if you guys want to get out of here."
Liling saw Valentin glance at the windows as he gauged the conditions outside. She had to tell him about her and Kyan, and why they had to leave at once. At the same time, she didn't want to alarm the young girl.
"The storm is growing too strong," he said at last. "We will have to wait until it passes."
"Fine with me; I hate lightning. And you want to be alone, so let me get out of here." To Liling, Melanie said, "Are you hungry, sweetie? I can make you some soup or something."
"No, thank you." The thought of eating food made Liling's stomach turn. When the girl departed, she sat up, holding the quilt over her bare breasts. "We must take the boat and go now."
"We will, after the storm passes." He sat down beside her on the bed. "You look pale again."
"I feel strange." Talking made something inside her mouth hurt, and she touched her lips. "When we crashed, did something hit me in the mouth?"
"No." He spanned her jaw with his hand. "Open for me."
Cringing a little, she parted her lips, then closed them in embarrassment as she felt a trickle of something warm run down her chin. "Ugh. I'm drooling."
"No, you are not." His hand tightened. "Open again." As soon as she did, he put the tips of two fingers in her mouth and rubbed them against a sore place on her palate. It was so sensitive the slight pressure made her flinch.
When he drew his hand back, his fingers were stained with blood.
Why was she bleeding? "I don't remember cutting my mouth on anything."
"You didn't cut it. Your teeth did. You are growing two more now. They are your dents acérées." He got up from the bed and dragged a hand through his hair. "How can this be?"
"Valentin?"
He turned his face away for a moment, his shoulders rigid, and then regarded her. "Liling. I don't know how this has happened, but you are changing. You are no longer human. You are becoming a vrykolakas. We call ourselves the Darkyn."
The last word stole all the breath out of her lungs.
Darkyn. If he had punched her in the stomach, she would not feel as shocked. "No. I can't be that. I'm human. I can't change into a demon."
"We are not demons, Geliebte." He reached down to take her hand in his. "We were human once, like you. We are still like humans in some ways."
"But it's not possible." How could she explain to him what she was? She shoved her fingers in her mouth, and pulled them out again to stare at the clots of blood. "You're wrong, Valentin. I'm sure they're only fever blisters. When we go to Atlanta, I'll see a doctor."
"We are not going to Atlanta," he said quietly. "As soon as I can arrange transportation, I am taking you back to Chicago."
The pain in her mouth doubled, making it hard to speak. "You can't do that."
"I will protect you from the Brethren, Geliebte."
She backed away from him. "If you take me back the priests will find me. Now that they know I'm alive they'll never stop hunting me. They'll hurt you to get to me."
As soon as she said that, she recalled that he was one of the maledicti, and if what the priests had taught her was true, he could not be harmed or killed so easily.
That's why he didn't drown. She changed tactics by saying, "They could find where you and your friends live."
"Geliebte, they already have tried." His expression changed, grew gentle. "The pilot who hijacked my plane didn't know who I was. He had been sent to abduct and murder you."
All of this had happened because of her? Liling curled up, pressing her forehead against her knees.
The priests had taught her about the maledicti, how evil they were, and how the order had been formed to fight them.
They had wanted her to do the same. Now Valentin was telling her that he was Darkyn, and everything she knew about him directly contradicted the teachings of the priests.
It seemed almost funny that she might become one as well. Was it revenge, or some sort of twisted justice? Did he even know what she was?
"Did you do this to me?" Liling asked him without looking at him. "Make me like you?"
"I did not intend to. I would never curse you or any human with my fate. I cannot explain how it happened, only that my blood must have mingled with yours… and then…" He trailed off as if unsure of how to explain it.
She raised her head. "You can do this to a human being and you don't know how it works?"
"Our blood is poisonous; we know that," he admitted. "It is why we never try to turn anyone. No one had survived a change for centuries. But in these last few years, there have been a few who didn't die. Other women. You must be like them somehow."
Liling went cold inside. He didn't know what she was. He might not believe her if she told him. It didn't matter anymore, not now that Kyan had found her. "Whatever is happening to me, it is not your fault. I don't blame you. But you must do something for me now."
"Anything."
"Kill me."
He drew back. "Anything else."
"You must." She saw in his eyes that he wouldn't, felt it in the shift of tension in his skin. "Very well." She climbed out of the bed, holding herself with her arms. The door seemed so far away as she hobbled toward it.
A cool hand touched the back of her neck, holding her back. "Why do you want to die?"
"I want to live." The pain inside her body was nothing compared to the agony in her heart. "But I can't. Not like this. He is… Even if I get away… you'll despise me."
"Never." Jaus spun her around and pulled her into his arms. "You will live. You will live for me, do you understand? Whatever it is that frightens you, we will fight it together. I promise you."
Liling closed her eyes as he brought his mouth down over hers, and felt something punch through the sore place on the roof of her mouth. He used his tongue to stroke the sharp points that had come down into her mouth, and she tasted blood, both his and her own.
He lifted his head. "You must take more of my blood to complete the transition. Then you will be stronger, more like me."
Liling's stomach surged. To take his blood, she'd have to bite him. "I can't do that."
"You must." He tilted her face back, making her look at him. "However it happened, I did this to you. It is my blood that runs in your veins. You are my sygkenis. You belong to me now. Liling. You must let me take care of you."
Liling's teeth throbbed, and as wretched as she felt, a deeper, hotter rhythm of empty longing echoed between her legs. The press of his body, the feel of his penis, long and thick and straining under his trousers, called to the need inside her. She moved, intending to put some space between them, but her body had other ideas. Suddenly she rubbed against him, seeking, inviting.
"You see." He filled his hands with her hair. "You feel it as I do. You know me now." He kissed the place just under her chin, sliding his mouth up to her ear. "Do you want me inside you when you bite me?"
She couldn't speak. He asked too much of her, and she wanted to agree, to surrender, to do exactly as he wished. If she did, she suspected that she would never be able to leave him.
Valentin caught the lobe of her ear between his teeth, biting down until she quivered. "You were made for me, for my pleasure. I will give you everything you desire. Do you want me?"
She struggled against him, pushing and then pulling at him.
He would not relent. "Tell me."
"I want you. Yes. I want you inside me." She was begging, and she didn't care. She needed this; she needed him. He would keep her safe. He would answer her longing. He would fill the hollow places inside her. She wanted him to do that. She wanted to feel him so deep inside her that she could never take another breath again without feeling him there.
"If I take you, there will be no more talk of dying." He sounded furious now, his fingers tightening against her scalp. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes."
His eyes were changing, the pupils splintering, the pale blue glowing with fierce passion. "I am your lord now. Your master."
Something melted inside her, perhaps the last of her resistance, perhaps her heart. "You are."
"Who am I?"
"You are my master."
She allowed Valentin to guide her head to his throat, and there she kissed the smooth skin with her lips. She knew what he wanted, but she waited, tormenting him as he had her.
"Liling." His hand clamped on the back of her neck. "Take my blood."
Her mouth opened, and the unfamiliar teeth stretched, aching and eager for what he offered. She could feel his blood rising, pulsing under his skin, coming to her, luring her, until with a soft sound of defeat she bit down, driving her fangs into his flesh.
"You did not tell me there would be alligators." Rain complained as he shouldered his way through a tangle of palmettos. One of the fan-shaped leaves sprang back and slapped him in the face. "Or that I would be molested by vengeful weeds."
"It was your nose that led us down this path." Farlae stopped and scanned the area before them. "The alligator did not bite you. If you keep complaining, however, I will."
"No, you won't." Rain predicted gloomily, and filled his chest with the damp, chilly night air. "When we find Jaus, I will ask him to reward me with a place among his jardin. He will make me his seneschal, and give me leave to collect all of the tin windup toys I wish."
"If we find Jaus before I throttle you," Farlae corrected, "we will radio the major and he will send the helicopter, and we will return to the Realm. Then I think I will throttle you anyway."
Rain stopped and turned. "I am twice your size, and I love you. Rather more than my collection of windup toys."
"Of which you never tire," Farlae said. "God help us."
Rain continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I have done wicked things with you for years that, should I ever die, are going to be the reason our heavenly Father sends me to burn in hell for all eternity. And you liked them, or you would have surely cast me aside for another. So why are you always bullying me?"
"If I did not," Farlae said, "we would be back at the Realm playing strip Monopoly instead of finding Suzerain Jaus."
Rain's broad, plain face crinkled into an enormous grin. "When we get back, you can be the thimble."
The two men moved deeper into the marsh, slopping occasionally to check the air. After another hour of searching, Rain muttered something and crouched, filling his cupped hand with water and bringing it to his lips.
"There is oil in that water," Farlae warned. "It will make you sick, and I will not kiss you until you wash your mouth out with soap." He looked again, and narrowed his flawed eye as he saw the subtle coloration of the pollutant. "That is not oil. It's petrol, but not like any I've seen."
"Jet fuel." Rain brought his wet hand up to his nose and breathed in, and then tasted the water again. "Humans, three of them, but not like humans. Two females and one male. And Jaus." He plunged forward, dunking his head into the shallow water before lifting it out. He pushed his dripping hair back and pointed. "Some distance that way."
"Some distance?"
Rain fiddled with his radio. "Ten miles, perhaps fifteen. There is blood; one of them is injured. Which button do I push to call the major?"
Farlae took the radio from him and clamped a hand around Rain's strong neck before he brought his mouth down and gave his lover a slow, deep kiss. "You," he said, "are brilliant."
Rain gave him a smug look. "And I didn't even have to use soap."
Pain washed the darkness purple, then red.
Kyan had not felt such sensations in decades, not since his training in the catacombs. Even then, the brothers had been careful not to administer too much pain. Enough to chastise, but not enough to enrage.
Even then, they had feared him.
He opened his eyes to colorless darkness and took stock of his physical condition. He had several painful contusions on his scalp, thanks to Melanie's fury with the tree branch. Two spots of heat burned on the inside of his right arm, confirming that he had been used by the maledicti for blood.
He would survive the head injuries, but the loss of blood was a more serious matter. It had left him weak and unsteady. He needed to replace the lost fluid as quickly as possible, for it was the only thing that would restore his balance and strength.
The smell of resin and wood dust filled his nose. His hands and legs were tightly bound with old, dry rope. The wood against his back had been seasoned, stripped of all moisture. The earth beneath him was bone-dry. As weak as he was, it would take him forever to gather what he needed to revitalize his body, heal his wounds, and escape.
The sound of a bolt sliding made him look up, and the door to the shed opened. The American girl stood in silhouette, looking in at him.
"Release me."
She came in and closed the door behind her. "You really are crazy if you think I'm going to do that."
She was angry with him, of course. "I am not deranged. I am trying to protect you."
"Protect me?" she echoed, incredulous. "You pointed a gun at me. You kidnapped me. You tied me to a tree. Then you stabbed that nice man." In English she added, "You fucking idiot."
Kyan had to make her understand how much danger she was in. "That man is not nice. He is a killer."
"Like you'd know, right?" She came over and tugged on the ropes around his legs and arms. "Don't start celebrating. I just wanted to make sure you can't get loose and hurt anybody."
Kyan tried again. "The man inside the cabin is not human."
She smirked. "Yeah, I thought his chest was pretty godlike myself."
"He is a demon, a real demon," he insisted. "He will take what he wants from you and leave you to die."
"Dude, please," she said. "He, like, untied me from the branch and made me some Gatorade."
Kyan strained at the ropes. "He is deceiving you. That is how they trap their prey."
Now she snorted. "Right, I'm going to believe that coming from you, Mr. Honesty."
"You have to believe me," he said. "He will kill you if you don't execute him first. Find the dagger I used on him. It will be in the cabin somewhere. You must stab him in the heart with it. If you cannot do that, thrust it into the back of his neck. It is the only way you can kill his kind."
Melanie laughed. "Oh, man. I did hit you on the head too hard."
"I am not joking." He had to convince her, and the only way to do that was with the complete truth. "The man inside the cabin is a vampire. He lives on human blood. There are no others here for him to feed on besides you and me. Can't you see? He will have to use us as food, or he will die."
She gave him a strange look. "Really."
"Melanie, please. I know I should not have abducted you and tied you to the tree. That was wrong. But I am trying to save your life now."
"Maybe you're wrong," she said. "Maybe he's not a vampire. Maybe he's a werewolf who's going to, like, rip out our throats and take a bath in our blood." She tilted her head. "If I turned into a werewolf, do you think my fur would be blond?"
"Melanie."
"If you're truly this crazy. I shouldn't be making fun of you, I guess. I am sorry I hit you." Rain rattled on the roof of the shed. "I'm going back inside. Good night."
Before Kyan could say another word, she left, locking the shed door behind her.
Kyan closed his eyes and concentrated. Tiny drops of her saliva hung in the air, his to command. He gathered them together and sent them out through a crack in the shed to join with drops of rain pelting the ground. He created a thin stream of water and funneled it after Melanie as she ran back into the cabin. He sent the stream under the door and dispersed it, surrounding her with a mist too fine for her to see. His water entered her body through the fluid in her eyes.
He couldn't read her, but he could see, hear, and smell what she did. He watched her take a can of soup from the kitchen cabinet. He heard the sound of a moan, and smelled blood. He heard her light footsteps as she walked down the hall. The scent of blood grew stronger as she opened the bedroom door a few inches. He saw with Melanie the girl and the demon on the bed, their bodies locked together in a passionate embrace. He tasted the sex-drenched air, and watched the girl sink her teeth into the demon's throat, his blood spilling into her mouth.
Now that she saw it with her own eyes, Kyan thought, satisfied, she would do as he had told her.
Melanie did not return to the kitchen; nor did she look for his copper dagger. She slowly walked out into the rain and moved away from the cabin, heading toward the pier and Kyan's boat.