Vanquished (20 page)

“For what?” he asked.

“We’ve been discussing the elixir,” Father Juan interrupted. “The Tears of Christ are essential. I’ve added cinnamon and cloves to boost strength and suppress pain, and we have everything we need to make the elixir—except that I need more Transit of Venus.”

She blinked. “More what?”

“That’s exactly what I said,” Holgar said. “Except in Danish.”

Father Juan acknowledged Holgar’s little joke with another gentle smile. Gramma Esther stayed quiet, giving Father Juan her full attention.

“Jamie heard rumors that witches were stockpiling a spell-strengthening herb somewhere in England. I think it might be the Transit. It’s a very rare herb, and the secret to its effectiveness is the spell you must cast as you pick it. I don’t know if they’ll have a chance to acquire any on their way here,” Father Juan added. “There was none at Stonehenge.”

“Can Skye cast the spell if she does find it?” Jenn asked. “Does she know how?”

“
Sí.
She and I discussed it on the phone,” Father Juan replied. “She believes that the Transit, or a close cousin, may also be found deep in these mountains.”

“These mountains? Here? No way,” Jenn blurted, excited.

“Way. In the territory of the local werewolves,” Holgar put in.

“The same pack that attacked you?” Jenn asked, startled.

Holgar shook his head. “Those were Romanian werewolves. These are Transylvanian werewolves.”

“Transylvania is part of Romania,” Jenn said, confused.

He shook his head. “Not to them it’s not.”

“Holgar is suggesting that we try to bargain for it,” Father Juan said.

Jenn shook her head violently. “Because every other interaction we’ve had with werewolves has gone so well? Forget it. We can’t risk lives. Especially not if there’s a chance Jamie and Skye will come through.”

Esther cleared her throat and laid a hand on Jenn’s arm. “One of the hardest lessons I ever learned was that you can’t always wait for your friends to come through.”

Holgar nodded. “At least let me try to talk to them, wolf to wolf. I’ll take lots of guns.” He smiled broadly. “And lots of teeth.”

Jenn sucked in a breath. “I’ll go with you. And don’t
even think about refusing. I’m doing no one any good here. I need to get away, do something, not just sit and think.”

Holgar smiled. “Good. I didn’t want to go alone anyway.”

Gramma Esther half raised a hand. “I’ll go.”

“No.” Father Juan gently pushed her hand back onto the table. “You need to recuperate from our adventure. Jenn, Holgar, the two of you will leave tomorrow morning.”

Mutely, Jenn nodded. Then she rose and left the room, heading back to the little bedroom she’d awakened in. She wanted to be alone. No, not alone—she needed someone, someone who could be there for her, who had no other agenda. Someone who might understand just what she was going through.

She opened the door. Sunlight poured through the half-closed curtains, revealing a silhouette on the other side: a man gazing out at the mountains through the glass. Her heart skipped a beat.

“Noah,” she whispered.

When Father Juan gave me this diary, I was going to write a new Hunter’s Manual. Instead I’ve been pouring out my soul. I wonder if anyone will ever read it? What will that mean? That I’m dead? What will the world be like then? What will my world be like? I can’t even think about it. My hand is shaking so hard I can barely write these words.

—from the diary of Jenn Leitner,
retrieved from the ruins

Jenn blinked in surprise at Noah.

“Jenn,” Noah said, pushing away the curtain and coming
toward her as she entered the small room. He was dirty and unshaven, but he looked like home to her. Without thinking, she went to him and put her arms around him. She heard the strong, hard beat of his heart and shut her eyes tightly against the tears that ran down her cheeks.

“You’re safe,” she said. Her brain told her to ask for a report of his mission, but all she could do was rest against him for a moment, just one moment, and know that he was there.

His lips brushed her hair, and a memory whispered in her mind. Had he been the one to carry her from the chapel last night?

She broke away gently and looked around for a place to sit. All there was was the bed. She sank down on it, gesturing for him to join her. Their noses were practically touching. She could smell his cinnamon gum, and a trembling smile broke across her mouth. To stop herself from kissing him, she cleared her throat.

“Why didn’t you call?” she asked.

“Sorry. I wasn’t sure of this place,” he replied. “Things have happened. I had to do something I already regret.” He shifted on the bed, leaning back on his elbows. He looked exhausted. “Goes with the territory,” he added. “Regrets.”

“We don’t have time for riddles,” she said, sounding more waspish than she intended, because she felt ashamed for wanting to kiss him when Antonio was in hell. “Fill me in.”

He let his head fall back and looked up at the ceiling.
The sunshine etched his profile, and he was solid and real and
there
, and she held on to that as she prepared herself. It was obvious to her that he hadn’t come with good news.

He sat back up. “I should do a full debriefing for the team.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he added, “But you should hear it first. Alone.”

“You’re scaring me,” she said, all hope flooding from her. He was going to tell her that Project Crusade had failed in its mission, whatever that was; that Greg and the others had been massacred; that they were the last resistance cell in the world.

That all hope was lost.

“Michael Sherman was there,” he said.

“I was in the States when the team worked with him,” she said.
I was attending Papa Che’s funeral. And nothing has gone right since then. Please, let there be good news from Project Crusade. Please.

Noah nodded at her. “Well, as your teammates said, Sherman’s a vampire now. But he’s working with the black crosses. He’s on humanity’s side.”

Jenn stared at him in ecstatic disbelief. “So he’s good? He stayed good?”

The strangest expression came over Noah’s face. “He swears he’s evil. He’s obsessed with developing something that will rid the world of vampires. Which, for us, is a good thing.”

“Why does he want to do that?” She waved her hands. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t interrupt anymore.”

Noah nodded slowly, as if he were choosing his words carefully. “This thing he’s making. It’s a virus. Airborne. The molecules just have to touch them. And then . . . they are destroyed.”

“Whoa.” She smiled at him. “
Whoa.
Oh, my God, that’s so great! So is it close to being finished? How do we protect Antonio from it? Do they want us to take him to their compound?”

“Jenn.” He took both her hands in one of his. Then he locked gazes with her, the expression in his large brown eyes steady, serious. “They’re not going to protect Antonio from it.”

When she started to jerk away, he held her fast. He put his free hand on her shoulder and held her still. “There’s no antidote.”

Her face went numb. For a moment the world went dark. She couldn’t see him. Couldn’t hear anything. She was spinning, falling.

Then she felt him tugging on the neck of her sweater. A hand on her neck. On the bandage.

“What the hell is this?” Noah said in a low, angry voice.

She slapped her hand over his to stop him from pulling away the dressing. She couldn’t breathe.

“What do you mean, there’s no antidote?
What do you mean?
”

Noah pried her hand off the gauze and lifted it up, revealing the stitched-up wound. To anyone who knew anything about vampires, it was obvious that it was a bite.

“Who did this? Did he do it?”

“Noah, stop!” she said, batting at him. “Tell me about the virus!”

“It doesn’t matter that there’s no antidote,” he said, biting off each word. “Because I’m going to kill Antonio right now.”

He whirled on his heel and headed for the door. Jenn gripped his arm; he shook her off. She raced around him, facing him as she flattened her back against the door.

“Noah, calm down. It was an accident,” she said, and then her voice broke.

“Move, Jenn,
now
,” he said.

“No.” She flattened her hands against his chest and pushed him as hard as she could. But he’d been ready for her; he wrapped his hands around her forearms as he stumbled backward, bringing her with him. Then he forced her aside, threw open the door, and stomped into the hallway.

“Don’t you do anything!” she screamed, charging after him. “Noah!”

As Jenn ran into the hall, she nearly collided with Noah, who was facing Father Juan. The priest stood in front of the door Noah would have to take to go downstairs. From the other side of the doorway, the monotonous chanting rose and fell.

“There are other doors,” Noah said in a low, menacing voice still audible above the prayers for Antonio’s soul. “Stand aside.”

“I know how you feel,” Father Juan replied, holding out his left hand as if Noah were a wild animal he had to calm. His right hand was behind his back. “But he’s necessary.”

“
Necessary?
After what he did to her? I know you’re there, Jenn. Stay clear of me.” To Father Juan he said, “Get out of my way.”

“I can’t, Noah,” Father Juan said. “I have cast the runes over and over, and the answer is clear. To win this war, we need Antonio.”

Noah laughed harshly. “Father Juan, who’s throwing those useless rocks? He’s like a son to you.”

Father Juan continued as if Noah hadn’t spoken. “Antonio is contained. He can’t get out. The monks—”

“Monks,”
Noah jeered. “Don’t you get it, Father Juan? This is not some holy war. This is a real war. We have very few soldiers left on our side, and if you leave that monster alive to kill them, we may as well leap out of the tower of this monastery now, because the vampires will win. And I, for one, won’t be taken.”

“You’re talking about Masada,” Father Juan said. “The Israelites chose mass suicide rather than be taken by the Romans. And what was
that
but a holy war?”

“Don’t twist my words,” Noah said.

“Antonio has been chosen to help us,” Father Juan insisted.

“And
my
people were chosen, and we were practically annihilated. The Final Solution, didn’t Hitler call it?
To round up the Jews and send them to camps, and then to murder them. In poison showers. In ovens. Well, guess what, priest. Our side—the good guys—they’ve invented a Final Solution too. A virus. It’ll wipe out all the vampires. Including that bastard downstairs.”

Father Juan turned white. Noah started walking toward him.

Father Juan brought his right hand from behind his back. In it he held a gun, and he pointed it straight at Noah’s chest. Jenn covered her mouth with both hands to keep herself from screaming. She jumped backward, not because she was afraid of being shot, but to prevent Noah from taking her hostage. She couldn’t believe this was happening. It was as surreal as Antonio’s attack on her.

“I’ll drop you,” Father Juan said.

“I know a dozen ways to disarm you,” Noah said.

“
We’ll
drop you,” Holgar said.

Holgar was standing behind Jenn, and Gramma Esther stood beside him. Both of them were armed with submachine guns, and their weapons were pointed straight at Noah.

And behind them Father Wadim stood in front of at least a dozen monks crowding the passageway, all similarly armed.

Noah huffed and shook his head. “You’re insane. All of you.”

“Tell me about the virus,” Father Juan ordered him. His voice rang out, almost vibrating with strength. To Jenn’s ears it didn’t quite sound human.

“Dr. Sherman invented it,” Jenn said, fighting back tears. Her legs had turned to rubber, but she forced herself to remain upright.

“It’ll be airborne,” Noah said. He was seething. “There’s no cure.”

“Was Greg there?” Gramma Esther asked. “Did you talk to him?”

“Yes,” Noah replied shortly, and there was something in his voice that sent chills down Jenn’s spine.

“Did he mention Antonio? Is there a—what do you say—safe heaven? For him?” Holgar asked.

“Safe haven,” Gramma Esther corrected him.

“He didn’t mention Antonio. He didn’t want any of you to know anything about it. He tried to kill me, to keep the secret.”

“Oh, my God,” Jenn whispered.

“How did you get away?” Father Wadim asked.

“I’m Mossad,” Noah said, as if that were explanation enough.

“You’re Salamancan,” Jenn corrected him.

“He’s not. If he were, he wouldn’t try to kill his teammate,” Holgar argued.

Jenn thought of Jamie’s two guns, the one with silver bullets and the one with wooden ones. How many times had she feared that he would try to kill Holgar and Antonio both?

“Listen to me,” Noah barked. “I know you care about Antonio de la Cruz. Jenn, I know you love him. But he’s going to die either way. Sherman said the virus would be ready soon.”

“No,” Jenn choked out, and Noah slowly pivoted and looked straight at her.

“You can’t let a monster live, no matter how much it costs you personally.” A strange look crossed his face. “I think I know what my wife said to me,” he said slowly, half to himself.

“I know about your wife. Chayna,” Father Juan said. “I know what happened, Noah.”

Noah stiffened, but kept his gaze trained on Jenn.

“She died in your arms,” Father Juan said.

“I killed her,” Noah said flatly, still looking at Jenn.

Jenn gasped. Holgar reached forward and pulled her back toward himself, farther away from Noah.