Darkling (28 page)

“Aidan took me to Vienna.” Her face shined with joy.

“I’m so envious,” I said, as we sat on the couch.

“Well now, I see you had a great time as well,” Doris said, eyeing the new painting through my open bedroom door.

“Oh, Belun gave me that.”

“I know, I’ve seen it before,” she chuckled.

“Right, he said he rotates his paintings.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Did he? Okay. I think the name of that one is
The Victory
.”

“I believe he said
The Defeat
,” Nika said and Doris laughed.

“I must have confused it.” She seemed amused by all of this. “And how did you like the rest of the paintings?”

“They’re all awesome! I could never have found something so great on the Internet. And I looked. They seemed so expensive; I couldn’t believe he was just giving it away.”

“You’d be surprised,” she laughed again. “By the way, I dig your choice.”

“Tell me about your weekend, already!” I smiled.

“Ah, when they’d returned from sweeping the area, Aidan couldn’t let go of my hand! The attack and the fact that I had been in such a danger completely freaked him out. Something like that has never happened to us; I mean, I’ve always been in a safe place and he was the one to be worried about. So the next day he whispered that he had a surprise for me. And Vienna was his choice, because that’s the place where we first met. Long before we started dating.” Her look got a little fuzzy, remembering their beautiful moments.

“How do you choose the best memories if you have an eternity to live?” I asked, and she elbowed me.

“First of all, I’m not
that
old. Second, we don’t actually live an eternal life, but you already knew that.” She stuck her tongue out at me.

“I’m so happy for you,” I said. “You know, after you texted me, I felt a little jealous. I’ve never had any boy feel so deeply about me.” I couldn’t keep the blue out of my tone. Doris looked at the painting and then at me.

“You know, Aidan’s not the last great guy on Earth. He is for me, though. But there is one other great guy I know.”  She looked at me knowingly, and I felt like such a cliché:
everybody wants to be loved.

Later, I was almost late to training because I had forgotten about my meds. Lee was the only one in the gym.

“Where’s Belun?” I needed to talk to him.

“I’ll be your trainer for tonight,” he said, politely.

“But where is he? Is something wrong? He wasn’t in the office, either.”

“I don’t know. He asked me to take this training.”

So he had been here, but I missed him. Damn. What was happening? After today’s session with Tertius, I thought he’d be all over me with new ideas. It didn’t make any sense that I hadn’t seen him at all.

The training was tough. We continued with the new dynamics of our last training and Lee didn’t seem to have as much patience as Belun. I didn’t like his methods, but he was efficient. I was super happy to finally be back in my suite in the shower.

Lying in bed with my wet hair, I thought of Doris saying that she was not that old. It made me wonder and I reached for my laptop.

So, what was the math? First eighteen years, and then each year was forty of ours. Doris was nineteen and that would make her—fifty-eight! Ha! She was older than my Dad. Then, if Belun is twenty-four . . . Oh. My. God! Two hundred and fifty-eight?!?

I sat there in shock, the number blinking in front of my eyes. I didn’t know what to think of it, and then his image came to me. All right, he was a vampire, and a hot one, no matter how old. It meant that he was born in 1752. I jumped. Jeez, he was even older than the Declaration of Independence! I wondered where he was during that era.

Put in historical context, his childhood must have been pretty interesting. The waking of civil rights, the Enlightenment, the American and French revolution… It must have really been something living through all of that. I checked the year on
Wikipedia
and it said: the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, the first hospital was opened in the U.S, fire destroyed 18,000 houses in Moscow, and Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was electricity, using a kite and a key.

Out of curiosity, I checked the year of Doris’s birth. In the U.S, a mechanical heart was used for the first time in a human patient—ewww. Elisabeth II was proclaimed Queen. The last execution in the Netherlands took place. The Winter Olympics were held in Oslo, Norway. Ha!

I wished I knew the place of Belun’s birth so I could further investigate it. I googled Belun and, besides some companies names, I found a website of Slavic mythology. Cool. According to the mythology, his name—Belun—was a derivation of White God. How modest. It said Belun was the god of day, heavens, and a bringer of happiness. He was also the god of heaven’s lights and peace. He was depicted as an old man in white with a long beard. So predictable.

His age, though, was something that continued to fascinate me. Two hundred and fifty-eight. He had witnessed so many things and must have gained so much knowledge! I wished that I could live a life parallel to human life, following their history on a simple time line.

Deep in this mixture of thoughts, I fell asleep. But not quite
asleep
.

I found myself in a pitch-black space hearing belabored breathing. It was someone, or something, that I couldn’t see. I searched the floor for it with my hands, but there was nothing to find. After a while, I gave up my search and I sat, leaning against the wall. Being awake in that darkness lasted for too long.

Chapter 18

Early Vacation

When I awoke the next morning, I felt like I hadn’t had any sleep, considering the dark place where I’d spent all those hours. Then I realized that chilly air was filling the room—the window was ajar! This time I was certain it wasn’t me who had opened it!!

I wrapped myself in a blanket and looked out the window, expecting to find some trace. But no, nothing out of the ordinary. I closed it and returned to bed. Stretching my hand out for the phone to check the time, I saw an unusual figurine on my nightstand. And it wasn’t mine.

“What the f—” I leapt out of bed. My eyes flew around the room, scanning it for any intruder I might have missed. The figurine was made of metal, its coldness caressing my palm. It was small, and made in the shape of a guitar leaning on a piano. Just looking at it created a strong feeling in my chest. I knew who the intruder had been! Belun! But why had he been in my room? What was with the figurine? Was it a goodbye present?! Where was he going?

Questions hysterically piled up in my mind, and I started squeezing the figurine as if it could give me all the answers. Should I go to his room and check for him? Would he even be there? My eyes flashed to the painting—okay, it was still there. I had an odd feeling that he had taken everything that was his. My anxiety dimmed. The metal against my palm reminded me that he hadn’t taken everything; he had also left something. To me. Why?

There was a knock at the door and I froze. Something was wrong.

“Good morning, Nika. Mr. Baldur sent me for you,” Lena said.

“Where’s Belun?” The question flew from my mouth, but she only gave me a confused look. She had no clue.

“I don’t know. In his suite, I guess. I’ll wait for you to dress.”

As we walked the halls, I wondered why I needed an escort to Baldur’s office. Or was I getting too paranoid? My fingers played with the figurine stashed safely in my pocket.

“Ah, Nika, dear!” His irritating voice reverberated through the library.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Good, it really is!”

Good news? Did it have something to do with Belun? I fiddled with the metal in my pocket.

“Good news for you, my dear,” he said, with a smile. “You are getting an additional month of vacation!” His grin was overwhelming, which was too annoying. He looked at me expecting an equally enthusiastic reaction.

“How come?” I asked, carefully.

“Your team leader, Belun, has taken some days off.”

Why? He hadn’t mentioned anything to me! A month?!?

“But we’ve just started to make progress with Tertius!”

“Your Vocati will be here when you come back.”

I remembered Tertius saying that it might take a while until our next meeting. How the hell would he have known something like that?!

“Is there a way for me to continue with my work?” I asked, hoping to continue to have access to the cell.

“You prefer work to vacation? Come now, my dear, you should start exploring exotic destinations.” Baldur looked away, expecting no more discussion of the matter.

“Is it normal for a team leader to just leave like that, in the middle of progress?”

“They have their lives too.”

Really? I wanted to wipe that absentminded grin off his face. Which reminded me that I hadn’t taken my meds that morning.

“I didn’t have the chance to tell you, but what you did near Oslo the other day was rather stunning.”

“I didn’t feel much myself that day,” I admitted.

“It does not diminish the act. Well now, you should go and plan your vacation.” Baldur dismissed me and I felt something inside growl. “Just tell Lena when you leave.”

I nodded, exiting.

Later on the couch, I examined the figurine more closely. A guitar leaning on a piano—I guessed the symbolism was us. Nice gesture, but why had he left it with me? And as an intruder in my room, nonetheless! Why hadn’t he given it to me two days ago in the restaurant? Was it a friendly or romantic gesture? I squeezed it again, wanting it to be the latter. And what was with the abrupt departure, anyway?!

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here.” Julia entered the room.

“I had an early meeting with Baldur. As it turned out, I’m on a vacation now.”

“Oh? Problems?”

“Not mine. Tell me, is it normal for a team leader to just leave in the middle of progress?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Rarely. Why, has Belun left?”

“Yes, and we had just made a huge breakthrough with Tertius.”

“It probably was something urgent.”

Apparently, but what? He didn’t have any family that could die. “Pills!” I jumped, going for them. I shouldn’t be forgetting them.

“Mr. Hyde’s making an appearance?” she asked lightly.

“I wouldn’t make jokes about him… You know how mean he can be.”

Julia brought me a glass of water.

“And what’s the deal with the other team leaders?” I asked, returning to the common room and accepting the glass from her.

“I’ve never heard of an Inquirer being left in the lurch. I know Gustavo travels a lot, but I’m not familiar with the arrangement he has with his team. The rest of us have never had any problems like that. At least not since I’ve been here. Didn’t he tell you anything the last time you saw him?”

He could have told me in the restaurant. We were there for hours after all, but he hadn’t even suggested that he was leaving. I felt a slow warmth spreading through me; the pills were kicking in.

“Baldur gave me a month off.”

“That’s cool. Where will you go?”

“Don’t know yet.” I didn’t want to go anywhere. I wanted to work here with Belun. And he wasn’t here anymore.

“Don’t go home.”

“Why?”

“You might be disappointed by the people around you. You’re not the same person anymore,” she said. I guessed she had had a rough time when she had been away.

“That didn’t even occur to me,” I admitted.

“I suggest some exotic place. Blue sea, white sand . . .”

“Yeah, you and Baldur too.”

She laughed, waving me off with her hand.

“You gonna ask Doris to join you?”

“Right! Doris! She did mention that she had missed traveling.”

The day dragged as slowly as ever. I used to think that stupidity was the worst thing that happened to humanity, but, no—boredom was. I called Doris, and she was so excited at the prospect of a month off that she immediately started to plan where we could go. I wasn’t actually interested in choosing right now, so I left it to her. I wasn’t sure if things would have been different even if I had been interested. She started rolling off places and people and everything, which was okay with me. It’s not like I’d seen any part of Europe besides the surrounding wilderness—just about anything sounded fine to me.

Later, the girls dropped by.

“Nice painting,” Mia said, and I saw Doris giggle.

“Do you guys think that it’s strange that Belun just left like that? We were making progress with my Vocati.” I hoped to get some info. But a thought occurred to me, and an unpleasant one at that. Back at the restaurant, Simona had mentioned him joining them for something. Had he taken her up on the offer and left? An uneasy feeling filled my stomach thinking of him in a hot tub with her. But why would he have left the figurine?

“He didn’t say that he was going anywhere,” Doris offered, and Mia shrugged. “It’s nothing official, because Aidan would know. And today he told me that Belun stood him up for a morning meeting or something. He tried to reach him on his cell, but he only got his voice mail.”

Didn’t they find it odd? A month of absence! What did he need it for?

“Last night I met Vuk for a drink, and when his phone rang he got all serious and stuff. After the call he said he had to meet with Belun later. That’s all I know. He hasn’t called me since,” Bryn exhaled deeply.

So, the night before, Belun had had a meeting with the Priest, and it seemed to have been over a serious matter. Why had he wanted Vuk and not a Priest from the compound? I hadn’t noticed that they were close, which could mean that he was avoiding the official channels. And you do that when you don’t want someone to find out about certain things. That
someone
was probably Baldur and people close to him. But the big question was: what was Belun trying to hide? Whatever it was, Vuk seemed to have known, but the oddest thing was that he hadn’t told Aidan about it. Why keep his best friend in the dark? Safety? I didn’t like the direction my thoughts were heading.