Drawn to the Vampire (Blood and Absinthe, Book 4) (7 page)

The clouds were even thicker today, heavy and dark as Welsh slate, and the air was bitter. Kit hugged her jacket close to her body and hesitated.

Before her was the University, its gray stone buildings grouped around grassy quadrangles. There was bustle and life there, students walking to and from classes, talking and laughing.

In the other direction was a cliff overlooking the sea.

Kit hadn’t realized that Snowdon University was so close to the ocean. She’d always felt a strange kinship with the sea, and that, plus her disinclination to be around people right now, made her decide to walk that way.

After a few minutes she came to a rocky path leading down to the beach below. She began to pick her way carefully along it, the sound of the waves crashing on the shore growing gradually more distinct.

Soon she was standing on the pebble-strewn beach, the rough salt wind lashing against her face, carrying with it the tang of the ocean. The sea was fierce and unwelcoming here on the coast of Wales, but even as Kit shivered in the bitter wind she thought it was glorious.

A
frisson
that had nothing to do with the wind prickled the skin at the back of her neck. She turned her head and saw Luke Cadris standing there, his face shadowed within the deep hood of his cloak.

“Hello, Sleeping Beauty,” he said. “Do you know you slept about fourteen hours?”

“I believe it. This is the first time in days I’ve felt rested.” She peered up at him. “What’s up with the outfit? I thought the thing about vampires and the sun was just a myth.”

“It is…for most of us. I’m the lucky recipient of a curse that makes direct sunlight deadly to me.”

A curse. Kit shivered again, her hands fisting in the pockets of her jacket. “Who cursed you?”

She sensed rather than saw his wry smile. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

“An ex-girlfriend did this to you?”

“Something like that.”

She remembered what the porter had said about “Luke’s women”, and his description of forlorn girls at the gates of Snowdon. “Did you deserve it?”

That drew a chuckle from him. “Undoubtedly.”

His voice was low and resonant, with a kind of musical quality to it. It wasn’t hard to imagine being seduced by a man with a voice like that.

Kit frowned. This was a man who treated women so cavalierly that one of them had actually cursed him. She didn’t want to think any aspect of him could be seductive.

“Character points for the cloak, by the way,” she said flippantly. “Bram Stoker meets Bela Lugosi, with a little
Nosferatu
thrown in for good measure.”

“You do that when you’re nervous, you know.”

“Do what?”

“Make sarcastic remarks. Do I make you nervous, Kit?”

“No,” she said firmly.

Luke chuckled again. “You’re a bad liar,” he said, a teasing note in his voice. She almost smiled at him, but she caught herself in time and pursed her lips disapprovingly instead.

Kit turned back to the ocean and Luke continued to stand beside her, the two of them watching the waves crash in. They listened to the wild music of the sea for several minutes, the silence between them oddly companionable.

“How did you know where to find me?” she asked eventually.

“I followed my nose.”

She wrinkled her own at that. “Huh?”

“Vampire senses, Kit. You have a very distinct scent. I could follow you anywhere.”

That was on the disturbing side. Kit wasn’t sure she liked the idea of the vampire tracking her like a predator.

“A distinct scent,” she said quickly. “Is that a polite way of telling me I stink? I really do need a shower and a change of clothes. I’m sure you’ve got a shower somewhere, but I don’t have anything to wear besides what I have on. I didn’t even pack a bag when I got on the plane yesterday. I suppose I ought to do some shopping…”

“Can you wait a few more hours? You’ll be able to take care of all of that where we’re going.”

“Really. And where’s that?”

“Paris.”

“Paris?”

“Paris.”

“The land of the dead is in Paris?”

Once again she detected a smile within the depths of his hood.

“Not exactly,” he said. “But there’s a portal there, in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.”

“I’ve heard of it. Isn’t Oscar Wilde buried there? And Chopin?”

“Among others.”

“How will we travel?”

“By plane.”

“Oh. From London?”

Luke shook his head. “There’s a private airfield not far from here. I’ve arranged for a small jet to fly us to France.”

Kit raised her eyebrows. “A private jet? Very impressive. Maybe the women who fawn over you aren’t so dumb. Apparently you’re rich as well as good-looking.”

Another faint smile. “One of the advantages to living forever is that you have plenty of time to meet wealthy and important people. The man whose plane we’ll be using is one of those. He owes me a favor.”

“I probably don’t want to know what that is, do I?”

“Nothing to shock your innocence. I catalogued his rare book collection.”

“Hm. You’re a man of many talents, Mr. Cadris. So when are we leaving?”

“Now, if you like. I’ve made all the arrangements. We can take your rental car and leave it at the airfield. I’ve hired someone to drive it back to London for you.”

“Wow. You really think of everything, don’t you? Are you sure you can just…up and leave like this? Your Vice-Chancellor doesn’t mind?”

He shrugged. “Merton wasn’t exactly thrilled, but he’s used to me by now. Once in a while I get restless and take a trip somewhere. He’ll need to take a couple of lectures for me, but there are only a few days left before the end of term.”

“Did you tell him why you were leaving?”

“No. He had a bee in his bonnet last night about some vision he’d had, something about a mysterious female stranger. So I decided not to tell him that I’m leaving because of a mysterious female stranger. He thinks I’m going to Prague to do some research.”

“Oh. But what if you—”

At that moment a tiny wavelet broke at her feet, leaving behind a small white shell on the damp sand. Kit stooped to pick it up, and when she straightened Luke grabbed her arm.

“Hey! What are you—”

“Look,” he said, pointing offshore. There was a group of rocks several yards away, surrounded by the ocean on all sides. On the largest was a small gray seal.

The seal was looking straight at them with wide, deep, and disconcertingly human eyes.

“How lovely,” Kit breathed.

“Make a wish,” Luke ordered her.

She looked at him in surprise. “Huh?”

“That shell you picked up. It landed at your feet the same time the seal appeared. A gift from the sea, and a seal within sight. Don’t you know your fairy tales? There’s powerful magic within reach. Make a wish! Legend has it that whatever you ask for will be granted.”

The shell fit perfectly into her palm. Kit closed her fingers around it and returned the seal’s solemn regard.

“I don’t read fairy tales.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me,” Luke murmured. “But it won’t hurt to make a wish. Go on, Kit.”

Daughter of the sea,
Kit thought to herself, and wondered where she’d heard that phrase. The sleek gray head was tilted to the side, the seal’s expression thoughtful and unafraid as she looked back at Kit. Her eyes were dark pools of quiet intelligence.

Kit’s heart ached at the sight of such beauty and innocence.

“I wish you joy, Daughter of the Sea,” she said impulsively, squeezing her hand around the shell. “I wish you a long life and many children.” Then she raised her arm and threw the shell as far as she could, out into the waters it had come from.

It disappeared beneath the waves. In the same instant the seal raised her head, made a sound that Kit could almost understand, and dove into the ocean behind the rock.

Kit took a deep breath and glanced at Luke. Now that the moment was over she felt a little silly.

He just looked at her, his face shadowed.

“What?” she asked defensively. “I know I could have wished for anything…”
Like to get Peter back,
she thought with a sudden flash of regret.

No
,
she told herself firmly.
Never regret a generous impulse,
her mother had told her once.
We humans have so few of them.

Something about the vampire’s gaze was making her uncomfortable. “Stop looking at me like that,” she said crossly. “It’s too late to change the wish now. And I’ll bet that story is just an old wives’ tale.”

“That’s possible, of course. Still, you passed up an opportunity to ask for magical help, and frankly, we might need it before we’re done. Do you have any idea what we’re getting ourselves into?”

For some reason, the fact that he used the word
we
was strangely comforting.

“Probably not,” she said cheerfully. Maybe she hadn’t made a very smart wish, but her heart was lighter, somehow, after her encounter with the seal. “But I’m still going.” She smiled at him. “I even have a plan.”

Luke fell back a step and gestured back the way they’d come. “After you. Do I dare ask what your plan consists of?”

Kit began to make her way up the rocky path. “It mostly consists of you,” she said over her shoulder.

“Our deal was that I would conduct you safely to the land of the dead,” he reminded her. “What else did you have in mind? I might want to renegotiate my payment.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Kit assured him, scrambling up the last few feet to the path along the cliff’s edge. “It’s such a little thing. I’m sure you’ll agree it ought to be included in the original price.”

“I see,” said Luke, who’d finished the climb as well and was now standing beside her. “Why don’t you tell me more about this little thing?”

“The Gem of Fanor,” Kit said, trying to sound casual and confident. “You stole it from the land of the dead. I thought it would be a nice gesture if you returned it. Specifically, if you told the king of the dead that I convinced you to return it.”

Luke started to walk back towards his tower. Kit followed, taking two steps for every one of the vampire’s long strides.

“A little thing, you call it. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to steal that damn—”

“Absolutely. Quite a feat. My cousin sounded very impressed when she told me about it. Really, you’re a legend in your own time.”

“For someone asking a favor, you’re pretty free with the sarcasm.” He hesitated. “All the same, I was never able to use the Gem for its intended purpose, so I find myself inclined to accede to your request. On one condition.”

Kit glanced at him sideways. “What is it?” she asked suspiciously. Facing forward as he was, his face was completely hidden by the black hood.

“Just a little addition to my payment. Not even an addition. A clause in our contract, if you will. Something we never specified and that I don’t want you arguing about when the time comes.”

“I don’t think I like the sound of this.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just that I can take my blood from any place I choose.”

She frowned. “You mean if we’re in another country?”

“No, Kit. I mean anywhere on your body.”

Kit felt like the air had been sucked from her lungs. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. They walked in silence until they reached the tower.

She composed herself as best she could before turning to face the vampire, who had taken off his hood in the shadow of the building. He was looking at her with a particularly evil grin.

“I thought the neck was considered traditional,” she said cautiously, glad that at least her voice was calm and steady.

“It is,” Luke said. “But I’m not.”

Kit felt herself blushing from head to foot. She couldn’t help imagining Luke’s mouth on forbidden parts of her body, parts of her body that no man’s mouth, and particularly no long, sharp, deadly fangs, had ever been near. The worst part was, she knew it wasn’t only embarrassment that had her heart pounding.

Suddenly she was angry.

“You did this on purpose,” she said, glaring at him. “Now I have all these images in my head, images I’ll probably never be able to get rid of, and
you
put them there. Well, you know what? I don’t need the Gem of Fanor. I’ll find some other way to save Peter. If you think for one second—”

“It won’t hurt, you know. No matter where I bite you.”

“I don’t care about that! Well, yes I do, but that’s not the point here. The point is…”

“Yes?”

“The point is
no
. A big, fat no. You will not take your blood from any place you want. Call me old-fashioned, but we’ll be sticking to the neck. Is that clear?”

Luke was looking at her appraisingly. “You’re absolutely lovely when you blush, did you know that? Some women get all blotchy. Not you. Just a nice rosy glow.”

Kit folded her arms. “Is that clear?”

Luke folded
his
arms. “You really mean to say you’ll let your only brother languish forever in the land of the dead just because you’re repressed?”

“Re
pressed
? Are you crazy? This isn’t about repression. I do plenty of wild, crazy things with normal, human men!” This wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t have to know it. “This biting thing might be sexual for you, but it isn’t for me. It’s just something horrible I have to do to save my brother, and when it’s over I’m going to do everything I can to wipe you out of my memory banks forever. I hear hypnosis works great for that.”

Luke only smiled lazily. “If you’re going to wipe out the experience anyway, then why not just give me what I want? You don’t even know where I’ll decide to take my payment. I may go for the neck after all, just to surprise you. Maybe I only brought the subject up because it’s fun to tease you.”

Suddenly Kit felt deflated. She backed up a couple of steps and looked at him.

“Fun, huh? Must be nice for you. None of this is fun for me. In a way, though, maybe it’s a good thing this happened. I was almost starting to trust you, to think of you as an ally. It’s good to be reminded of what you really are. And you’re right. The location of the bite won’t make the experience any worse, because nothing could. So I guess I accept your condition after all. I’d appreciate it if you’d go get the damn Gem and whatever else you need. I’ll be waiting in my car at the gate.”