The Ruby Blade Page 20

“Achy but fine. I would like to not get shot again for a while. I hate Georgia.”

  “We’ll need to spend another night here so Raj can finish his business.”

  “Here in Athens or here at this motel?”

  “We might as well stay at the motel. We’ve got rooms already.”

  “I’m not paying another three hundred dollars for a second night.”

  “We won’t have to. There’s a different clerk on duty today. I told her what happened and how much you’d paid yesterday, and she promised to ground her son, tell his friends’ parents what they’d done, and offered us our money back. I let her keep the money, but I don’t think we’ll be bothered again.”

  My stomach growled again. “I need food.”

  “She also delivered a basket of baked goods about an hour ago. Emma is holding on to them for you.”

  I was out of the room and pounding on Emma’s door before Florence finished her sentence.

  Emma opened the door and got out of my way. I worked my way through packaged muffins and danishes like they were manna from heaven. They were the best thing I’d tasted in a long time.

  When my stomach stopped trying to wrap itself around my backbone, I slowed down. “I wish I had some coffee.”

  Florence walked in with a large cup of steaming coffee. “I don’t have cream, but this should be good. I made it with the old-fashioned percolator on our camp stove.”

  Life was good.

  A few minutes after sunset, Raj knocked on my door. I’d managed to get a bit cleaner, but I knew I was still looking a little worse for wear.

  “You are always beautiful to me,” he said. “Are you ready?”

  “What are we doing?”

  “Lee Robinson is the interim Master of Savannah, but that territory extends throughout Georgia, up into the western parts of North and South Carolina, as well as northeastern Alabama and southeastern Tennessee. She should’ve known about this band of vampires. I am going to have a chat with her and find out why I wasn’t made aware of their existence.”

  “She’s new; maybe she didn’t know?” I asked.

  “She was in the top echelon before she was the Master. There are no excuses. Either she knew and didn’t disclose it, or no one knew there was a huge band of unregistered vampires hiding out in Savannah’s territory.”

  “What’s with the unregistered thing?” I asked. “You said that last night.”

  “I will explain while we walk if that’s alright.”

  “Of course.”

  We’d walked for about five minutes before he started talking again. “All vampires belong to someone. Most of those ties are by virtue of family, but some vampires petition to be part of another clan or become too powerful to stay as a lesser scion of their sire’s clan. They can strike out on their own—although there isn’t much open territory anymore, at least not desirable territory—or they can find a more amenable situation. We keep records of every vampire ever made, their bloodlines, their talents, their locations, and their allegiances. It shouldn’t be possible for even one vampire to disappear for too long without an alarm being raised. An entire clan hiding in someone’s territory is unheard of. Who are they and where did they come from?”

  “That is precisely what I’d like to know,” Dr. Robinson, Master of Savannah (interim) said.

  “You didn’t know, then?” I was proud of the fact that I was able to keep my voice even, and that I’d barely jumped when she’d snuck up and scared the shit out of me.

  “I had no idea. Not even the barest rumor.”

  “The Queen will not like this, especially not so close to her doorstep,” Raj said.

  My erstwhile surgeon blanched a bit, not an easy feat for a vampire. “Will you find it necessary to tell her?”

  “Yes,” Raj said. “She is my queen. However, I can assure her that the problem was discovered and resolved within two months of you taking over the city. That ought to be enough of a good word to keep you not only on her good side but in your position as Master.”

  “And will you do that?”

  “If you can guarantee that the rest of our path through your territory is clear,” Raj said.

  I interrupted, “There’s one more thing. The humans who attacked spoke of a bounty on “freaks.” It would be in your best interest and ours to find out what they meant, who’s offering the bounty, and to make it go away.”

  Dr. Robinson looked at Raj.

  “Do it,” he said.

  “As you wish,” she said stiffly. “May I go?”

  “Yes. Someone will be in touch.”

  She took off into the night, leaving Raj and me alone. “Now what?” I asked.

  “Now I follow her at a distance to see if she’ll do as I’ve commanded. I’ll meet you two nights hence at a safe house in Mississippi.” He brushed his lips over mine. “I will walk you back, but then I must go if I’m to catch up to her.”

  We drove to Hattiesburg the next day and found the safe house where Raj and Petrina were waiting for us. I was hoping to get to know Petrina better, although I wasn’t sure how long she’d stay with us. I thought she’d just been brought in to break the spell at Ringing Rocks, but didn’t want to question my good fortune of having another vampire, especially one with magical and healing skills, on my side. Plus, maybe she and Florence would hook up. I wasn’t sure if they had anything more in common other than being lesbian witches, but everyone’s got to start somewhere, right?

  “Really?” Raj asked. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”

  Everyone looked at me and I glared at Raj. “If you’re going to comment on my internal monologue, at least do it so no one else can hear.”

  “I want to know,” Emma said.

  “No,” I replied.

  Raj just laughed. Traitor. He sobered up immediately, and I realized that I’d inadvertently brought the subject back round to his imminent betrayal. Dammit.

  “Sooo,” I said. “Here we are. In Mississippi. Louisiana adjacent. We’ll be here for six weeks. I can feel a subtle tugging, but we’re not close enough to get any directions. I’ve no idea where in the city the gate will be located. We’ll have to go there at least once so I can get a general idea. Plus, Raj has to go meet with Marie and give her the city of Savannah and Rasputin’s head. And we need to find out what kind of deal she made with Finn and what kind of deal she wants to make with Raj. Have I summed up everything?” I looked around the room, but there were no objections. “We’ve got less than a week until the full moon cycle starts, and I’d like to get this initial meeting out of the way. Shall we go tomorrow evening?”

  No one objected, so I declared the motion carried.

  I barely slept that night. We’d stayed up late playing poker and taking all of Emma’s pennies. I wasn’t very good at poker, either, being a terrible bluffer, but I was still better than her. Finally, Petrina, Emma, and Florence headed off to their respective crypts—I wasn’t actually sure where Petrina was spending the day—and motel rooms and left me alone with Raj. I knew he wouldn’t stay long, but I was really missing waking up next to someone.

  “I’m sorry, my sweet,” he said. “When this is over, if it ever is, you should come stay with me at my house in Portland. You can sleep in my bed, which is in the basement and protected from sunlight.”

  “I thought the sun didn’t bother you?” I asked, a bit petulantly if I was being honest.

  “It doesn’t burn me, and I can handle a fair amount of indirect sunlight, but it bothers me. I prefer to stay out of it if possible, and definitely prefer to sleep somewhere it can’t touch me.”

  “Where are you sleeping today?” I asked. “Maybe I could come with you.”

  “No,” he said. Before I could protest, he raised a hand. “There are two reasons. The first is that every day, it gets harder and harder to resist you and the promise I made to wait. I don’t want to stop, and I don’t want to put you in a position where you have to ask me to stop or regret what we do. It’d
be easy to rationalize a small bite or a bit more skin-to-skin contact and say we could stop, but you and I both know we are skating a very fine line in terms of self-control. I will always respect your boundaries, and part of that means we have to make decisions we’d rather not make. The second is that I’m sleeping in a place that would be uncomfortable. There’s no bed. It’s basically an unfinished, windowless, and rather damp basement. A nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell.”

  “Ahhh, so not a hobbit hole, then?”

  “No. It doesn’t even have a nodding acquaintance with comfort.”

  “Well, then, I guess I’ll leave you to it.” I tried—and failed spectacularly—to keep the misery out of my voice.

  “I can stay until you fall asleep,” he said.

  “That’d be nice. I’m going to change, but I’ll do it in the bathroom.”

  A few minutes later, I was under the covers, and Raj was lying on top of them. It was much warmer in Hattiesburg than it had been in New Jersey, and I was beginning to feel that I might be a Southern girl after all. I snuggled into Raj and laid my head on his shoulder. “Thank you,” I said.

  “You are welcome.”

  “How many lovers have you had over the past millennium?” I asked.

  “Do you mean how many people have I had any kind of sexual contact with, or do you mean how many people have I had a relationship with?”

  “Relationship.”

  “Five, not counting you.”

  “In a thousand years, you’ve been in five relationships?”

  “Yes, counting Mehmed before I turned him.”

  “When was the last?”

  He was quiet for a while, and I almost fell asleep waiting for him to answer. “Mid-nineteenth century.”

  “Tell me about her,” I said.

  “Him,” Raj replied.

  “Were all five men?” I suddenly felt very inadequate in the penis department.

  “Four were men; one was a woman. You are a woman. I am—what do the kids call it nowadays?—heteroflexible.”

  “I think they call it bisexual,” I laughed. “You’ve been in too many relationships with men to simply be heteroflexible.”

  “That is probably true. Overall, I have a mild preference towards men and have had more relationships with men than with women. I still very, very much enjoy women, though. There is one woman in particular that I am looking forward to getting to know better.” He brushed a kiss on the top of my head.

  “Tell me about the man then, the mid-nineteenth century man.”

  Raj started his story, and I fell asleep almost immediately as he was describing how they’d met while India was under British rule.

  The next evening, I was waiting for Raj to appear so we could make our official game plan for the big meet and greet with Marie. Emma and Florence were in town, scouting for supplies to keep us fed and happy for the next few weeks, but I’d stayed behind on the off chance that I’d get some more quality make-out time with my boyfriend.

  I heard footsteps behind me, and I spun around, a silly grin already plastered on my face. I didn’t want to delve too deeply into self-examination, but I was definitely feeling more emotions towards this vampire than I’d intended.

  Petrina stood behind me, hands clasped behind her back.

  I tried not to let my expression change too much, but I must have given myself away.

  Petrina smiled just enough to give me a peek at her fangs. “Expecting my father, were you?”

  “I was. Not that I’m not happy to see you. I am. Happy. I’ve been wanting to get to know you better. Because we should be friends. And I’m babbling.”

  Her grin widened. “I would also like to get to know you better. My father not only speaks well of you, but he also speaks more of you than he’s spoken of anyone in a long while. You’ve captured his fancy, at the least. It is rare for him to act like an adolescent in love for the first time. I find it refreshing watching you two sneak around and steal kisses when you think no one’s watching.”

  “You’re okay with this, then?” I asked, waving my hands around trying to signify me and her father and everything.

  “Some of it confuses me,” she said. “I worry that you will hurt each other inadvertently with the depth of your feelings. But I think I like you, and I know I like seeing him act this way.”

  I grinned. She liked me.

  “But enough of this. Let us talk of other things besides the one man we both know. I am interested in more than whether you are a worthy partner to my father. I want to know if you are a worthy woman for me to follow into battle. I fought by your side before because he asked me to, but I will not stay longer if I don’t believe in you.”

  I opened my mouth to answer, but she kept talking. “I support the idea of opening the gates in theory. I’m old enough to remember the time when magic still was prevalent, although it was already fading from the world when they tried to burn me at the stake.”

  “Wait, what now?”

  “One of the saddest things about the witch hunting crazes that swept Europe was that any real mage worth his or her salt wouldn’t be easily caught and executed. Most of those killed were simple midwives, or poor folk who became the objects of scorn and suspicion, or widows of means with no family to either defend them or inherit their possessions when they died at the hands of the witch finders, which meant their possessions became the property of the local government.”

  Fire flashed in Petrina’s eyes, and I caught my first real glimpse at how terrifying she could be. “However, in my case, they caught me unawares by the most underhanded of methods.”

  I was desperate to hear more of the story but didn’t want to seem too eager. I was stuck trying to impress her. “Ummm…so then what happened?”

  “It is a story for another day, but I will give you the short version. Witch hunts were sweeping Europe, and Sweden was caught up in the frenzy. I lived in a town called Torsåker, infamous for being the site of the single largest trial and execution of witches in Sweden. I was one so accused, being a childless widow of independent means, but thought my lover at the time would help me escape imprisonment and trial. Instead, he framed me, and with the help of the children that horrible priest tortured into testifying against us, I, along with about hundred other people, was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to be beheaded and then burned. Or maybe burned and then beheaded. The details fade, and I’ve never wanted to revisit that period of my life. I was near death when Raj found me. He’d participated in the Thirty Years War and found Sweden delightful enough that he stuck around after it ended. He changed me to save me, and that’s how I ended up here.”

  “You are undoubtedly the sanest of his offspring,” I said.

  “That is indisputable,” she laughed. “Although I never met Mehmed, my sister is quite mad. The Basarab boys are also playing with incomplete decks, even Mircea, who manages to fool everyone into believing he isn’t insane.”

  “I appreciate the time you took to tell me your story. I’m sorry that happened, and I hope that there isn’t a repeat of that kind of witch-hunting craziness now.”

  “There will be,” she said. “People fear what they do not understand, especially if they are forced to confront it before they are ready. Having the presence of supernaturals suddenly forced on people will make them scared, and scared people are unpredictable and violent. They will find what scares them, and they will want to hurt it, the way a person afraid of spiders will squish the bug that is doing them no harm. I only hope that there are enough voices of reason this time around to protect those who truly are innocent in the way that neither you nor I are. We can take care of ourselves, but the wealthy, eccentric widow who collects crystals but has no power cannot. I will not watch innocents die if I can prevent it.”

  A lightbulb went off over my head. She wasn’t telling me the story as some kind of sisterhood exchange; she was testing me to see if I was worthy of her aid.

  “I
killed a lot of people when I opened the first gate. Too many.” The thought of it still pressed against my chest so hard that I could barely catch my breath. No matter how many times I reminded myself that I didn’t know and that when I found out, I took steps to prevent it happening again, it hit me hard. Acid roiled up in my stomach, burning my esophagus and souring my throat. I swallowed back bile and met Petrina’s eyes. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t regret what happened. I vowed that I would let myself die before I’d open another gate if that would prevent innocent loss of life. That’s why I sought out Florence. She had the knowledge, and between us we had the right combination of power, to slow the release of the magic into the world. I can’t stop the effects, and people die every day because there’s no electricity or refrigeration, but I am doing everything I can to save as many as possible.”

  I held her gaze and waited for her judgment. It seemed like an eternity before she reached out and clasped my shoulder. “You are a good woman, Eleanor. I am proud to be on your side, and I will fight for you. I hope someday to call you friend.”

  My shoulders sagged in relief. She liked me.

  Chapter Sixteen

  WITH RAJ STILL absent, I decided I should ready myself for my audience with the queen instead of mooning about like a lovesick teenager. I found clean clothes and wondered irritably how people had existed before daily showers. I felt grubby and itchy and disgusting. I tried to use baby wipes to give myself a cursory bath but just moved the dirt around more than anything else. I thought longingly of Raj’s penthouse in Brooklyn and the servants who brought hot water on demand. I finally gave up on the baby wipe bath and just got dressed. We were meeting someone who called herself the Queen of New Orleans, who had her own Wikipedia page, and who could raise and control the undead. What did one wear to an audience with someone like that?

  In the end, I decided on a nice pair of jeans, and loose, flowing blouse that caught at the wrists, and as many weapons as I could reasonably wear without clinking. I settled my scabbard on my back and covered most of my weapons with the leather jacket Isaac had gotten me in South Dakota. I braided my hair—it was getting much too long to wear any other way—and was ready.