Release Me When the Sun Goes Down (30 page)

“Jakob is back?”

Boy, Jakob totally had cut himself off.  It was probably a safe bet that no one local knew where to find him beyond my intimate circle either.  “Yes, he’s staying at my place if you need him, but he’s kind of shaken up about all of this, so maybe don’t bug him about anything unless it’s super important.”

“Sure thing, boss, I can handle things on this front.  Listen, I also took care of that matter for you with the morgue guy, Bassett.”

“Oh?  Shiny, what did you do?”  I could use a spot of good news for once.

“They’re all taken care of.  It’s set up to look like an insurance policy
.  We’ve got a friend in the company with the big red umbrella made it look all official-like.”

“That’s handy.”

“Maggie provided your bank routing information, the funds went through today, they should be all set.”

“Thanks, Felix, I knew I could count on you.  And I’m sorry about this hunter problem, but try to look at it as a good thing.  Maybe our people need to be reminded they can’t get away with murder so easily?” 

“No offense, boss, but you probably should be careful who you say stuff like that around.  Talk like that is liable to get you impeached.”

Impeached?  Was there such a thing under vampire law?  I’d so
rt of thought regime changes were usually more bloody than that.  “What happened to vampires respecting a show of power?  I’m the Elder, aren’t I?  Shouldn’t I be able to set the policy with regards to vampire behavior?”

“Sure, but you’re talking about overcoming hundreds of years of entrenched vampire behavior.  Make a sweeping statement like that and you’ll lose them.  Just… promise me we’ll talk more about this when things settle down before you make any proclamations, okay?”

“Sure, Felix.”  Provided things ever did settle down.  “I’ve got to go, thanks for the talk.”

“Problems down south?” Rob asked mildly once I’d hung up.

“Nothing that can’t wait for another day.  In the meantime, do you know what the closest airport is to Vadheim?” 

It turned out a jet of our size had to make a few stops on the way to Jakob’s home town.  We refueled in New York, Reykjavik, and Oslo before landing in the smaller regional airport in Florø.  From there it was a hop, skip, and a jump – by which I mean an hour and a half drive – to the snow capped hills outside of Vadheim. 

Rob slumbered in the back seat as we were too close to sunset for his comfort.  Lee drove while I played navigator, a paper map stretched
across my knees since my phone’s GPS was on the fritz and the narrow car didn’t come with one.  From what I understood of Jakob’s texted directions, the hidden valley lay west of Vadheim itself, and I was
pretty
sure I could find it from the natural landmarks he described. 

In the meantime, the scenery was gorgeous, even in the dark,
and the air so crisp and fresh it was all I could do not to ride with my head hanging out the window like a dog to take it all in.  Though there was snow on the tops of the mountains it wasn’t too chilly out, not that vampires noticed such things much anyway.  But I was very comfy in my jeans and cableknit sweater I’d worn riding in Vetis, and Rob had on similar clothes.  Lee didn’t seem too cold in his Wranglers and plaid flannel shirt, though his denim jacket was fleece lined. 

Rob woke up in time to see the sleepy village, but we didn’t bother
to stop, wanting to get to the secret valley while people might still be up and awake.  Jakob had said the last time he was there, the village had been unchanged by the passage of time.  He also said he had no idea what to expect from the supposed protective barrier as he’d never been magically barred from entering the valley. 

As we descended lowe
r, bearing straight for the fjord, we all braced ourselves to crash into an invisible forcefield at any time.  More than once I started to doubt we were on the right track, but then it opened up below us like a hidden jewel.  There were no cars, no power poles, no modern conveniences visible, and the lights shining in the windows flickered from natural candle or fire light. 

Lee pulled over by a copse of trees and we approached on foot, not wanting to be stoned as witches for showing up in a devil cart in case most of these people had never seen modern transportation before.  About fifty feet from the village, Rob tugged at my sweater, his steps slowing. 

“Hold up now,” he murmured, his hands coming up to test the air. 

“What is it?  The barrier?”

“Getting a bit of a tingle, yeah,” he nodded, doing his best impression of a mime until he gritted his teeth and plunged his hand forward.  His face instantly relaxed and he stepped through, no worse for wear.  “I can feel the magic fine but there’s nothing keeping me out.”  Lee and I approached the line gingerly, and I felt a tiny tingle myself, but it could’ve been nerves.  We both passed through without incident though and focused on the village up ahead.

There were very few people out and about on the streets, and it was difficult to make out what the huddled shapes wore as they hurried inside once spotting us.  As we drew closer, some
of the buildings proved to be somewhat more modern, reminding me of some of the structures we’d seen back in Vadheim.  The air was perfumed with smoky peat from the fireplaces and the smells of horses and leather.  I did catch the occasional whiff of something else – like kerosene – and I wondered if they didn’t have some modern conveniences hiding behind closed doors. 

This was it, the village where Jakob had been born over three thousand years ago.  He’d played on these same rocky paths and laid back on these same grassy knolls to look up at the same starlit sky.  There was a large outcropping of rocks ripe for climbing, the largest boulder carved with childish scrawl.  Would I find Jakob’s initials there? 

I tried to see it as he must have seen it – peaceful and pure, unknown to the outside world but for the people he’d grown up with all his life.  This was where he’d glimpsed the gods.  This was where he’d taken a wife. 

My eyes went to the ring on my finger, the ring of queens, Jakob called it, and I remembered his homecoming to Sanna.  How had she felt living there with Jakob by her side?
  What had her days been like?  Keeping house, going to market, taking the wash down to the water. 

A simple life, a beautiful lie made possible by Jakob’s compulsion.  There but for a few thousand years would I be. 
If I’d been a simple village girl, would I have had the strength to stand up to Jakob when he claimed me?  I wanted to think so, but standing where it all began, I couldn’t be sure. 

The fjord beckoned to me and I couldn’t resist the urge to
see the crystal clear water up close and personal, mission or no mission.  My boots crunched on the rocks as I stepped away from the smooth wooden sidewalks designed to keep the villagers from treading in the mud during the rainy season.   

“Where you off to?” Rob asked, when I left the village
behind to explore the rocky shore near the dock. 

“I want to go down to the water.”
  The salty kiss of the night air on my skin sent a tingle of anticipation as we got closer to the shore.

“
Ain’t going to find what we’re after down there.”

“That all depends on what you’re looking for,” I insisted, my mood inexplicably buoyed by the sight of the silvery moonlight on the shimmering surface of the water.  It must’ve been breathtaking in the
daytime with all the greens and blues, and for the first time I missed the sun. 

“Fine, but you’re not going swimming,” Rob grumbled
, keeping pace beside me as Lee chuckled. 

“Let her have a few minutes, amigo, she’s earned it.  Hell, take all the time you want, darlin’.  I reckon that spear’s been here for a coon’s age and it’ll be here a mite longer.”

I flashed Lee a grateful grin, skipping down to the waterline like a kid, my boots splashing as I reached the edge.  Even under the darkened sky, I could see the stones winking from the bottom of the crystalline water and all of a sudden I just had to touch it.  I couldn’t come all the way around the world and not be a part of at least one pure thing my forefathers had shared. 

Crouching low, I trailed my fingers through the water, smiling over the shimmering eddies they created.  The water
was untainted and pulsing with life.  It made me want to camp out under the stars and hike and fish.  As much as I’d smirked over Rob’s warning not to go swimming, it was tempting to strip down and go for a moonlit skinny dip just to immerse myself both literally and figuratively in my heritage. 

It was easy to picture the longboats skimming over the water, the terrain likely unchanged for millennia.  Easy to see the men repairing nets on the dock and arguing over the day’s catch. 
How it must break Jakob’s heart not to be able to return there.  Sure, he could go visit other parts of his homeland, but knowing he couldn’t return to this particular vale until he made peace with Maeja had to sting.  Especially since he had a tendency to avoid confrontation with anyone strong enough to fight back.

Men’s
raucous laughter startled me out of my reverie, thinking my vivid imagination had somehow brought the ancient Vikings to life, but it was only the men in the village, reminding me that we weren’t alone at all.  

It was time to find what we’d come for. 

Only the residents were less than helpful.  Anyone we got within ten feet of suddenly found an elsewhere they had to be.  Sure, I could’ve put on a burst of speed and forced them to talk to us, but then again, I had no idea if any of them even spoke English in the first place.  Besides, with a powerful
Ellri
for their protection, the last thing I wanted to do was throw my weight around and out myself as a vampire. 

Jakob had made it sound like the great hall would be so easy to find, but none of the main buildings in the village center looked anything like a meeting hall.  It was Lee who suggested we focus on the oldest buildings and expand our search beyond the main drag.  Sure enough, we found
the ancient structure to the south of the village, the entrance hidden by row of ginormous spruce trees.  The hall bore the traditional Viking architecture of sloped oval walls and a thatched roof over huge wooden beams. 

Once we slipped past the protective wall of trees, it felt like we were completely cut off from the rest of the world, the moon all but obscured by the towering branches
, the village sounds effectively muted. 

“Holy smokes… this
truly is like stepping back in time,” I whispered, not wanting to disturb the eerie quiet. 

The
main doors opened just as we approached, casting a golden glow from the firelight within.  A tall woman in an ankle length dress of blue wool stepped out with a wicker basket on her hip.  Instead of long flowing hair to match the old fashioned dress, her blonde hair fell in a blunt cut, reaching just past her jaw without wave or curl.  Her blue eyes narrowed immediately and the basket shifted to her other hip, revealing a sizeable dagger strapped to her waist within easy reach. 

Deciding to be bold, I stepped right up to her with what I hoped was a friendly smile.  “Hi, do you speak any English?”

“You may not pass,” she said in heavily accented, but perfectly understandable English.  Her eyes remained wary, but I tried to smile past the waves of barely restrained menace I caught coming off of her, despite feeling Lee and Rob tense behind me.

“Oh good, you do!  Listen, I know we don’t have an appointment or anything, but we were wondering if maybe we could see Maeja?  Is she in there?”

“Is she knowing you?”

“
Ah, no, we’ve never met, but we’re kin in a roundabout way.”  Okay, so that was a stretch of the word kin, but I had to try something to get my foot into the door. 

Her mistrustful stance didn’t lessen one bit.  “Maeja is not liking your kind.  You would be best to leave the village before the dawn.” 

“Blondes?  Cause there seems to be plenty of…”  Nothing.  Not a twitch of humor or even a roll of the eyes over attempt, just that steely gaze.  “Sorry, I was going for a joke, which I can now see is completely stupid.”  But just as stupid as not liking vampires considering what Maeja was.  “What’s your name?”

“Why you are needing my name?”

“Told you this was a bad idea,” Rob muttered under his breath, but I ignored him.

“
To be polite?” I tried again.  “I’m sorry, I should’ve gone first.  I’m Anja, these are my friends Rob and Lee.”

“I am Nelleke,” she said with a short nod. 

Progress!  “Oh, that’s pretty.  Listen, Nelleke, I really need to get in to see Maeja.  We’ve come a long way and we need her help.”

“Maeja does not concern herself with
vampyr
affairs.”

“This is more of an
Ellri
affair.  I’m caught in a feud between Lodinn and Jakob.”  This time I saw interest come into those light eyes, as clearly the names had some meaning for her.

“
A moment,” she said, slipping inside the hall.

“Real friendly bunch here,” Lee drawled, looking around.  Apart from the occasional
scurry of woodland creatures, there wasn’t a sign of life anywhere.