Blood Sin (14 page)

His lip curled. “What in the world makes you think that?”

Chapter Seven

O
n a bleak piece of waste ground in Queens, the vampire Severin faced his rival in the darkness, and laughed.

“You really don’t have a clue, do you?” he said, sweeping his gaze from Travis to the bodyguards and followers lined up behind him. “I’ve spoken to him, and trust me, our differences no longer matter. Saloman has more power in his little finger than you and I will ever muster between us.”

Travis, who’d looked slightly irritated by Severin’s laughter, now pushed his trilby hat farther back on his head and grinned. “So, what, you’ve come to me for protection?”

Travis’s followers hooted. Severin’s vampires growled in response, and Severin realized afresh the risk he’d taken in coming here to New York. Probably it was this obvious risk that had brought Travis to meet him so quickly. Jacob, the unaligned vampire who’d carried his civil message to Travis in the first instance, now sat quite literally on the fence some distance away, picking his teeth while the levels of posturing and aggression increased. As if he were hanging around to watch the inevitable fight.

Well, it wasn’t inevitable, and the stakes were too high for him to be drawn into a senseless battle that could ruin everything.

Severin strove for calm. “You couldn’t protect yourself,” he insisted. “Not from him. I came from LA to suggest we lay our differences aside and welcome him to America.”

Travis stared at him. “
Welcome
him? Like some bloody messiah?”

“Yes,” Severin said eagerly. “He’s got vision, Travis, and he’s been making changes all across Europe and Asia. Things could be so much better for us—”

“Trouble is,” Travis interrupted, “I like things fine just the way they are. You want to hand your operation over to me, that’s good. But I’m not giving anything to this Saloman.”

Maggie stepped forward from behind Severin, exclaiming, “He’s an
Ancient
! How exactly do you propose to stop him?”

“I’ll think of something if and when he gets here,” Travis drawled.

He really was a stupid shit. Severin dragged his hand across his forehead, just as Travis, with a more enthusiastic glint in his eye, added, “Unless you actually came to propose an alliance
against
him?”

“Not against him,” Severin said evenly.

“Too scared, huh?”

The vampires behind them began to mutter aggressively. Again, Severin stilled the rumble with an impatient wave of his hand.

“Of Saloman? Maybe
you
should be scared, Travis. I didn’t have to come here; I could just have let Saloman wipe you out.”

“So, what, you want to impress the new boss by our cordiality?” Travis said disbelievingly. “Get kudos from him by talking me around? Exactly how much of an idiot do you take me for?” He strode forward and his vampires immediately came after him. “An Ancient isn’t a
god
. He
can
be beaten!”

“But he shouldn’t be,” Severin argued. “At least, not this one.”

“So you’re just going to lie down for the guy? Shit, I never liked you, Severin, but I never thought you lacked backbone before!”

He should have known better, Severin thought savagely, than to have come here and expected a sensible discussion with this fool who couldn’t see past the nose on his face, who cared for nothing except his stupid gambling joint. And now there had been too many insults for Severin to overlook in front of his followers. Already, Maggie was gazing at him with a mixture of outrage and worry.

“That’s funny,” Severin said deliberately. “I never thought you lacked quite so much brain before.”

That should do it
, he thought resignedly. Maybe they could talk after the fight instead.

Travis smiled and pushed at his hat once more. It was so far back now that Severin couldn’t see how it still clung to his head.

“Then get the hell off my territory,” Travis said softly, taking another step forward. One more and he’d be in Severin’s face. To avoid that, Maggie placed herself squarely in Travis’s path. Travis raked her luscious body with his eyes and he grinned. “Though you can leave your whore, if you like.”

Maggie hit him. Or at least she tried to. Travis was too fast and managed to duck, laughing. Severin yanked her away. “Take that back, you piece of shit,” he said between his teeth.

“All right,” Travis said, straightening, a grin just dying on his careless lips. Only a malevolent flash in his blue eyes betrayed his intention. “
All
of you,
including
your whore, get off my territory.”

The growl of discontent among the vampires on both sides quieted for an instant as Severin and Travis glared at each other. No one gave the order in the end; no one needed to. In a single motion, Severin and Travis leapt into the air and crashed together. Over Travis’s shoulder as each tried to tear ritually at the other’s neck, Severin watched with a sort of resigned anxiety as the other vampires flew at one another.

Only as he and Travis fell back to earth, already disengaging for the more serious fight below, did he notice Maggie, in the midst of it, swinging her stake with a vicious accuracy that turned one of Travis’s followers to dust.

But Severin’s pride in her was short-lived. She staggered under the blow of a fist, and as she fell, a stake stabbed downward and Maggie exploded into nothing. Severin cried out in grief and fury. Kill the bastards!” he yelled. There could be no talking now. “Let the streets of New York run with blood!” For Maggie, his lover, who’d believed in Saloman.

After the bizarre weekend among the rich, famous, and influential, Elizabeth found that marking a couple of late essays on Monday morning was something of a welcome relief.

Promising to stay in touch, Josh had dropped her off in St. Andrews with no more than a cousinly kiss on the cheek, and she was aware that only good manners had prevented him from ranting about the stolen sword for the entire journey. Abandoning his proposed holiday in Scotland, he was flying down to London today, no doubt to be nearer Senator Dante, whom, despite all evidence to the contrary, he still suspected of the theft.

Elizabeth had e-mailed Mihaela a request for information on the sword, together with a brief description of recent events and a stark announcement that Saloman was in Scotland in probable pursuit of it and of Josh. By now, the British hunters should be aware of Saloman’s presence in the UK, though she doubted they’d know any more than she did about his precise location.

Apart from that, she was making a determined effort to move on from the weekend. When the knock came at her office door, she expected one of her students and called, “Come in!” at once.

The figure who stepped over the threshold was a complete surprise.

“Senator.” She almost gasped, springing to her feet. Annoyingly, she felt like a schoolgirl whose formidable headmaster had just walked in the door.

Senator Dante smiled as he crossed the room to her, hand held out. “How are you, Elizabeth?” His handshake was as firm and warm as she remembered it. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I’m on my way back to London—decided to take a quick detour here for a round of golf. Can I talk you into a game?”

“Oh, no! No, thank you. I’m working.”

“Of course you are,” he said regretfully, looking around her untidy office with its scattering of books and papers and coffee cups on the tables, and the shelves of books that lined the walls. “Quaint,” he observed.

“Messy,” she corrected, and he laughed. “I’ve got time for a coffee, if you’d like one,” she offered.

“Oh, no, thank you. I’ll get one at the clubhouse after my game. I really just called in to say hello again. It was great meeting you at the weekend.”

“And you,” Elizabeth said politely. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“My pleasure. You’re a most intriguing young woman.”

Elizabeth blinked. “I am?”

The smiling blue eyes were steady. “You know you are. I’m in the presence of the Awakener, am I not?”

Elizabeth sat down slowly, heart and mind racing. She played for time while trying to straighten her thoughts. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You told Josh you awakened Saloman.”

Straight from the hip. They did say the senator was a straighttalking man. She said, “I didn’t realize Josh paid attention to anything I said on that score.”

“Josh can always surprise you. How in the world did you do it?”

She dropped her gaze, wondering if she could avoid the question. But it was too late for that. Dante was a believer. Worse, he seemed to know of the legendary Saloman.

“By accident,” she managed to say ruefully. “My finger was jagged by a thorn and I dripped blood on his so-called tomb. If you believe that sort of thing, it worked because I’m descended from his original ‘killer.’ ”

“You must have been terrified.”

“I’ve never been more frightened in my life.” That, she could say with complete candor.

“He didn’t kill you,” Dante observed.

“I think,” Elizabeth said, “he was too weak at the time. I bolted.”

“A wise precaution.” Amusement as well as admiration seeped into his smile. “So where is Saloman now?”

You mean since he left your house?
“I haven’t the foggiest idea. Probably Eastern Europe, where most of his kind are found.”

The senator continued to gaze into her eyes, blinking so seldom that it made her thoroughly uncomfortable. Worse, his eyes were sharp and perceptive, and Elizabeth had too much to hide. She went on the offensive.

“You amaze me more at each encounter, Senator. You should be calling me batty, not believing what I tell you about vampires—which I’ll have to deny in public, by the way. I have a very precarious reputation as a serious academic to preserve.”

Dante’s smile came back. “I’ll keep your secret, if you keep mine.”

“Sure,” Elizabeth agreed, relieved that the senator seemed ready to leave.

“I’m sure we’ll meet again,” he observed. “Interests such as ours are rare. We have to stick together.”

Elizabeth smiled and offered her hand again. “Good-bye, Senator. Thanks for dropping in. Enjoy your golf.”

“Oh, I will, I will.”

From the window, she watched him climb into his large, sleek car and be driven off down South Street.

“Now, what,” she murmured to herself, “was that all about?”

From the roof of his London hotel, Saloman was irritated to witness the young vampire, Del, stalking the waitress who’d served Saloman earlier in the evening—in more ways than one. Having accepted the wine she’d brought to him and his new business associate in the hotel bar, Saloman had followed her into the quiet passage between public and staff entrances. She’d seemed glad enough to be accosted, and her blood was good. Saloman had taken care, as he always did, to seal both wound and memory, and the girl had still been smiling at him in a coquettish sort of way when he’d finally left the bar.

Although young, Del was more than a fledgling, perfectly capable of controlling his hunger to the point where he didn’t kill the girl. On the other hand, by now he should also have smelled Saloman on her and backed off to look for other prey. And so Saloman watched him leap on the girl, clap his hand over her mouth, and sink his fangs into her throat, no doubt right over her other healing bite. The girl struggled, her legs kicking uselessly, trying in vain to scream for help.

Saloman had seen enough. Although it was easy for him to access the thoughts of most beings, he generally didn’t, partly because reading everyone’s thoughts all the time was a quick road to insanity, and partly because he generally respected people’s rights of privacy. In this case, only one thought could save the attacking vampire’s life, and Saloman was pretty sure he wouldn’t find it. He didn’t.

Saloman stepped off the roof. Before the idiot vampire had even registered his presence, Saloman landed on the ground behind him and jerked him away from his victim, who stumbled back into the wall, falling onto her weakened knees.

Del’s eyes were wide with more than fear. It wouldn’t save him.