Darkling (27 page)

“You guys have no respect for humans, do you?”

“What do you mean?”

I smiled insecurely. I mean if he didn’t see how they’d ignored me, what could I say?

“Kyrill has different thoughts on humans than Baldur.” So he did know what I meant.

“So anyone from his court’s supposed to hate people—umm, humans?”

“Not hate, just simply not give them significance.”

“Because we’re an inferior race?!”

“Vampires are above humans on the food chain,” he stated. “Were you insulted or something?” Belun teased, and I arched an eyebrow. Yes, I had been.

Soon he asked for the check and we headed back. The way Simona had referred to him—Andrei—irritated me. Everything about their intimacy had. Andrei. How would it be if I called him that? I had a few short mental conversations where I used his name, and it didn’t feel natural at all. He was definitely Belun for me. And most people, I guessed. But, no, she had to call him by his first name. Argh.

Thinking of that reminded me of his expression when she touched his arm.

“I see your arm’s still sore.”

“Yeah.” His voice sounded normal, but he wasn’t into talking much about it.

“I didn’t hear from Doris today,” I said.

“She and Aidan ran away somewhere for the weekend.” Now that explained my cell phone’s silence.

“Any interesting dreams lately?” he asked.

“Not since I started the meds,” I smiled. “That’s a good side-effect. But when I was in a coma, I dreamed something creepy: five empty graves that always seemed that way, and some old guy who was digging the sixth.”

“That is creepy,” he agreed, with a smile.

Chapter 17

A Weak Link

We had never spent that much time together talking, and it was nice and easy. So that was the way I spent my Thanksgiving Day. Later in my room, I couldn’t stop smiling. The new painting looked perfect, and before I collapsed into bed, I read a little. It was the best way to finish a great day.

The next morning I was awakened by a noise from the common room.

“Julia!” I exclaimed, hugging her tightly.

“Good to see you decided to stay. I wasn’t sure what you would decide, you were really in bad shape, hon,” she said, looking at me with her warm eyes. She held a glass of milk, her suitcase was nowhere on sight, and the door to her room was open. With the TV on, it seemed that she had arrived a while ago. We sat on the couch.

“And that ‘bad shape’ has put me in some weird circumstances,” I said, and her eyebrows shot up questioningly. “Let’s say I was easily irritated and that I behaved accordingly. I made some stupid moves and, above all, I killed a Vocati.”

Julia’s face distorted from the shock. She had obviously heard nothing about the incident.

“What?!” was all she managed to say.

“I was at a spa weekend that turned into a nightmarish party with a Vocati attack. There were four of them. So massage, manicure, and pedicure never actually happened.”

She was still in shock, trying to accept what I had just told her.

“I’ve never heard of a human killing a Vocati,” she finally said.

“I’m not sure about that
never
part, but people do avoid them. All I can say is I wasn’t exactly myself at that moment and I attacked one of the two who were on Belun. I barbequed him.” Oddly, I found the bizarreness of it all entertaining, while she just stared at me in disbelief.

“I see you found a sense of humor, as well.” We both laughed at that.

“I ended up in a coma for a couple of days, and since then I’ve been taking meds that help to control my anger attacks.”

“A coma?!” She sounded very much like my mom.

“From the shock.” I explained.

“Well, a lot happened here after I left, apparently.”

I nodded with a smile. “Mmm hmm. Blake’s writing an interesting research paper about his project. A night ago, they organized a movie night for me and we watched
Dracula
. Even Lyndon was there.”

Then I remembered the reason why she had left in the first place.

“How are you—after everything, I mean?”

She exhaled deeply.

“I stayed longer than planned, I had to sort out some things with my family. My father and my brothers purposely didn’t tell me about her illness before, so that I’d feel guilty about leaving home. Idiots. I could have provided her with better treatments and medicines and seen her before she died!”

I was speechless. Why would someone do a thing like that? Julia shook her head with anger.

“I missed you,” I hugged her. “We all missed you.”

“You too.” Her face was a mixture of sadness and pain.

Later I received a text from Doris saying that Aidan had surprised her with a romantic weekend and that she was enjoying it and also thinking of me. Nice of her, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sting of jealousy. It would be so cool to be taken on a trip by your boyfriend after a few days apart—such a great way to show you how much he had missed you. I had never had anything like that. I was really happy for Doris, and a bit sad for myself.

I spent the day with Julia and Tibor, mostly in his common room. Blake joined us for a short time, and then returned to his research. Later, Max came and things felt nice and easy. I was relaxed, but I was also missing a face with green eyes.

The next morning, when I said hello to Lee and Jacob at work, I noticed they were whispering something. Of course, as soon as they saw me they stopped. But something was up.

“Is everything okay?” My question surprised them.

“Of course,” Jacob said.

I entered the cell, wondering what it was all about.

“Good morning,” I said, and Tertius shrugged for an answer.

“Do you know why the guards outside were whispering?” I asked him in a nonchalant tone, as if he held all the answers. He eyed me carefully, probably trying to figure out if this was another trick. Considering our last session, it seemed he had decided to be more cautious.

“Should I know?” One bushy eyebrow lifted.

“I thought you knew everything,” I flattered. “And maybe you could share the knowledge.”

As I said that, I was thinking of his alleged telepathic ability with the Vocati he had created. But he watched me without any particular emotion, and then he laughed. Laughed! Ha! Either he had figured out that I knew about the telepathy thing, or I was totally on the wrong path.

I decided it was his turn to talk, so I looked around the cell as I usually did when he was silent. Finally, after too much time had passed, I knew had to break it.

“Next time I’ll bring you another one,” I indicated the dry flower in the vase.

“Next time? That could be a while.”

“What do you mean?”

He grinned, but it looked more broken than sly. Unfortunately, he continued to stay silent.

“Why the silent treatment—you angry with me?”

“No.” And that was the whole answer.

The silence was unbearable.

“So, how many Vocati have you created?” I tried, with a direct question, because, apparently, he wasn’t in the mood at all. He shot me a look. Straight into my eyes. If his look had been his hand, my head wouldn’t be in its place anymore.

“Where did that come from?”

“It just crossed my mind.” I shrugged, sticking to my plan.

He eyed me for a while before saying, “I always kept the same number.”

Finally something!

“Why’s that?”

“I have found the perfect balance.”

“A balance?”

“Yes,” he answered.

What was that supposed to mean? Why the balance? If there were more of them would it be a different story, and why?

“I thought there was no limit.”

“There is not.”

“Then why the balance? A blood loss? I mean, I know you feed them with your blood after you turn them.” It was the first thing that came to me; hopefully I’d get the right answer.

“Because of their voracity.”

“What voracity?” I wished I had big blue eyes and long eyelids—this would be the perfect moment to blink at him naïvely. “Is it hard to provide them with meals?”

“Something like that. Nevertheless, I have already told you that there are different kinds of hunger.”

“A hunger for knowledge?” I gave him my most innocent look.

There it was! Again with the piercing look. Jackpot!

He studied me, as if he wanted to read my thoughts. He seemed insecure about things I might have found out from our last session. Maybe Belun would have better insight about this one.

“How big is your hunger for knowledge?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Enormous!”

“Then what would you do to gain it?” The question seemed like an awkward transition in a different direction. But he was the one leading it; he wanted to give me a hint about something. Maybe. Or maybe he only wanted to mislead me. We’d see.

“They say that knowledge is power. And people do everything for power,” I said.

“It
is
power. And not only
normal
people want it, but the ones who already have power also seek it.” His eyes were intense. What was he trying to tell me? Sure, powerful people were greedy for more power, there was nothing new about that. But his intensity seemed to hide something different. Speaking about
people
in general . . . was he thinking about humans or vampires? The thought of powerful vampires suddenly switched on a bulb. And one word popped in: Elders.

I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was playing with me or if he actually was trying to suggest something. Tertius persisted in his glare, which seemed somewhat expectant. He definitely wasn’t thinking of humans. But if it was about the Elders, why would they want more power? I mean, they were like the kings among their race. And that made me think not only about the vampire’s Pentarchy, but of the Vocati Originals as well. They were also the powerful ones of their race.

“But the powerful already have power.”

“There is always a weak link.” His look pierced me. He wanted me to realize something. But what? The fact that he was speaking in riddles meant he probably didn’t want someone else to understand him. Belun? The guards? And speaking of powerful people—Baldur?

I couldn’t collect my thoughts, and he didn’t let me. It was probably easy for me to instantly think of Baldur, especially since I didn’t have a good opinion of him to start with. But Tertius might have been thinking of Kyrill. He was, after all, the other Elder. However, he must have known I had had nothing to do with him, and therefore wouldn’t get his riddles. Which brought me back to Baldur again.

On the other hand, he might have been thinking of the nobles. It was all so confusing.

“Can the Vocati fight against each other?” A new thought was stirring inside me, and Tertius’s eyes widened into their blackness. Looking at him, I definitely knew it wasn’t about the Vocati; he was trying to tell me something about the vamps.

“The one who thinks he’s the last is always the weak link—because he craves the status quo,” Tertius said, and then he went significantly quiet.

Based on his behavior, it wasn’t hard to realize that his last sentence should clarify some things for me. Unfortunately, I had no idea what he was trying to say. Who thought he was the last? And last what? I could think of Baldur as the last Elder. But what status quo would he want?

Argh, this seemed completely beyond my deductive abilities. I lowered my look in an attempt to show him that he had totally lost me, hoping that he’d add more. But he kept quiet. Then something else crossed my mind.

“How did they manage to catch you?” It was a question that had been bothering me for months.

“A moment of inattention.” A sly grin crossed his serious face.

“Do the vampires know what you’ve been looking for?”

His grin widened, while he slowly shook his head.

“Have you found it?” I realized I’d never thought of that before. Tertius nodded, his eyes locked on me.

“What do the Vocati want?”

“Their place in the order of things,” he said, like a true leader.

“What order of things?”

“Of everything.” Okay, that ideological answer didn’t lead me anywhere. How could I get him back on the telepathy thing?

“How do created Vocati develop their new instincts?” I asked.

Tertius didn’t make any gesture or sound. He seemed especially secretive about all of that. Well, he probably didn’t want the vamps to know about it. But I had to. I remembered that Belun had said Baldur had looked like he was hiding something when asked about telepathy. Maybe it wasn’t only a Vocati ability after all.

If Tertius could communicate on that level, why would he have led that Vocati team south? Why wouldn’t they rescue him instead? It wasn’t logical. Anyway, what had he been searching for in Iowa? Maybe that was the priority of his rescue mission. Ah, my head was gonna explode!

Writing my report later, I was careful about what I put in it. I censured all my thoughts and kept it objective, as in: the subject was trying to confuse me, to play with me. It was strange that Belun wasn’t in our office. I wanted to brainstorm with him, thinking that he might find some way out of this maze of thoughts.

His computer was on, and, seeing his coffee mug and documents on the table, it seemed I could expect him any time soon. But he didn’t show. After I finished my report I lingered, but still no sign of him. Okay, I’d catch him later on at training. I could stop wondering if his absence had something to do with Jacob and Lee’s whispering.

After lunch Doris texted me that she was coming over, so I cleaned my room.

“Julia, meet Doris.” I gestured toward each of them.

“Nice to meet you,” they said simultaneously.

I noticed Julia was nicely dressed, and I wondered if she was seeing anyone.

“Have a good time, girls. I’m off,” she said, sending us air kisses.

“Nika!” Doris jumped on me for a hug. “I had the best weekend ever! I hadn’t even realized how much I missed traveling.”

“Where were you guys?”