As Shadows Fade (19 page)

“
Summa
Gardella. The woman Venator?” He shifted in his saddle. “But I thought she was dead. Killed in Rome last year.”

“You have faulty information, for as you can see, I am alive and well. If you take me to Katerina…or, better yet, obtain the Ring of Jubai for me, I may perhaps allow you to see another…What was it, Sebastian? Sunset?” She leaned closer and got a whiff of undeadness. “Or perhaps I will not.”

“Is she at the tavern?” asked Sebastian.

“Not at night,” Antonín replied. When Sebastian made a face of disbelief, he continued. “I've no reason to lie! Her quarrel is with you, and most likely I'd be rewarded if I brought you to her. But I can't get the ring for you. She's never removed it since Germintrude gave it to her. She thinks it will help bring her husband back to her someday.” He wrapped his reins in preparation to go. “Katerina is a bit…mad.”

“That is an understatement,” Sebastian muttered.

Victoria glanced at him, wondering exactly what he hadn't told her. It wouldn't be the first time Sebastian hadn't been completely forthcoming. Nevertheless, they'd find Katerina and retrieve the ring. And if the vampire was slain in the process, Victoria would locate another undead for Max's Trial.

Perhaps even this unfortunate one here. In fact…that might not be a bad idea after all, she thought, looking at the vampire in a new light. Why should Max meet a more powerful vampire like Katerina when this one would suit just fine?

“Follow me to Josevof, the Jewish Quarter,” said Antonín, backing his horse up.

“Mmm…perhaps you would be so kind as to allow me,” said Sebastian without moving from his path. He reached over and grabbed up the reins from the vampire, wrapping them loosely around his wrist. “I do hope you aren't offended, Antonín, but I don't trust you one whit.”

The undead gave a chuckle, and Victoria saw the flare of red again in his eyes. The tips of his fangs touched his lower lip. “Of course not. Now shall we be off?”

Sebastian and Antonín led the way with Victoria close behind them in the narrow warren of streets. They passed by the famous astrological clock that looked down on the Town Square, a relatively wide-open area that offered relief from the close streets blocked by three-story buildings. As it was only ten o'clock on a pleasant summer evening, people were scattered about, walking and talking. Victoria noticed Antonín's wistful glance at more than one isolated couple.

He was probably wishing he hadn't been so easily distracted from the simple woman on the bridge.

Her own gaze lingered on the ornate entrance to Our Lady Before Týn, the cathedral in which Max was presumably on his knees. She hoped. Victoria felt Sebastian watching her as she looked toward the grand building, which reared up over the square and could be seen throughout the city. Brushing the sky, two ornate spires lifted in dual points.

“One tower represents the masculine of our world, and the other, the feminine,” Sebastian said in her ear. He still held the reins of Antonín's horse. Victoria realized she'd stopped, and was looking up at the asymmetrical towers. “That's why they're different. Do you wish to look inside?”

“No.”
Yes.
“Let's get the ring.”

“As my lady wishes.”

They left the Old Town Square behind them, Victoria riding past the church without another glance. The unencumbered area gave way again to the winding, narrow streets, which became quieter and darker as they left the city center behind. The back of Victoria's neck shifted with chill, and she knew undead lurked about. But though she and Sebastian exchanged measured, meaningful glances, they didn't detour to investigate.

“Klausen Synagogue,” said Antonín at last, flourishing his hand toward a simply facaded building. After the detail of the cathedrals and other structures in the Town Square, this gleamed like smooth cream under the moonlight. “Behind it is the old cemetery. Katerina usually stays within, waiting for the odd mortal to venture through the graveyard.”

“You will show us where,” Sebastian said, dismounting from his horse while holding both sets of reins.

Victoria and Sebastian remained close to Antonín as he led them past the synagogue and beyond the gate of the cemetery. She'd never seen anything like this dark, shadowy space jumbled with tombstones.

The headstones erupted from the earth as though pushed up by some great internal force, so close together there was very little space to walk between them. Off-kilter, tipping, broken, the thousands of headstones clumped in a small space reminded Victoria of the hair on a cat's back, rising in all directions.

She found it nearly impossible to navigate between them without stepping on graves, lifting her foot over a grave marker, or even finding grass on which to trod. The space held an eeriness, yet an overriding sense of peace as well.

“Twelve thousand people buried here,” Sebastian said quietly. “Most of them on top of each other, in layers upon layers.” He stood near her, occasionally offering a gentlemanly hand to help her over a jutting stone.

“Where is Katerina?” Victoria asked, realizing the back of her neck hadn't changed in temperature—as it would if there were another vampire nearby.

“I don't know. She should be here,” Antonín insisted, leading them on, deeper into the center of the cemetery. Victoria saw a grave that looked like a large stone bed, complete with head and foot, and at about that moment, she realized the air had begun to stir.

Not a breeze…no, not even the chill that lifted hair at the back of her neck when she sensed the undead. Victoria lifted her face, flaring her nostrils to draw in the scent on the air.

A blast of chill swept over her as she smelled it…and felt the air's movement grow stronger. She looked at Sebastian, read the recognition in his eyes, and turned back to their vampire companion. “What is it? Why have you brought us here?” she demanded, her hand falling to the sword at her side.

But he seemed just as shocked as they, his red eyes wide and frightened. “I…What is this?” he cried, stumbling backward over a jumble of headstones.

He tried to run away, but Sebastian caught him by the arm, slamming him into a nearby headstone. The vampire fell as Victoria's hair lifted and swirled in the rising breeze. “What is it?” Sebastian demanded.

“I don't know! On Lucifer's sword, I swear it…I don't know!”

Victoria drew her sword, looking up to see that the scattering of stars and the half-moon had become little more than a dull glow behind a billowing black cloud.

Again. No, not again.

Chill that had little to do with undead presence battled through her body, freezing her fingers and slowing her reflexes. One look at Antonín's face told her that no matter what trap he'd led them to, he hadn't expected this.

“Stand up, you bloody fool,” Sebastian roared, yanking the vampire to his feet. “You'll stand with us or see the end of my stake.”

“But they're…demons,” he said, his voice distorted by the rising wind. The horribly familiar black clouds stewed above them, wind tossing Victoria's short hair wildly. “They'll kill us.”

“Or I will,” Victoria muttered, turning away from the ridiculous undead as the first swipe from the black-clawed, red-eyed creatures scored over her scalp.

She cried out and swung up with the sword. The blade sliced through, and ice shivered along her weapon, through her arms, and up into her body.

Staggering, Victoria stumbled into a tombstone and fell, crashing into another nearby stone. She screamed in rage and arced the blade up again. Fallen leaves and old sticks lifted from the ground, battering against her like pummeling fists. She pulled to her feet, using the point of her sword against a moss-covered stone, felt it scrape metal against rock, and battled back at the black demon.

Another swipe, and she slowed further, slicing the wraith's head while accepting the paralyzing cold that trammeled through her body. Sebastian bumped into her and their backs came together. His warmth bled into her, and she was able to move again.

“Idiot,” he shouted at Antonín, who cowered down between the cluster of stone markers. Sebastian swiped up with his own blade.

Digging beneath her coat, Victoria ducked as another black creature swooped close again. A small jug hung at her side, protected by a snug leather holder and a strap that went over her shoulder. She pulled it out, feeling Sebastian struggling against the demons above her, protecting her as she worked the cork free.

“Ready,” she called over the rising gale, turning toward Sebastian. He struggled for a moment, pulling out his own store of holy water as she sliced at one of the black creatures. Again the unbearable cold shocked her, staggering her.

Sebastian caught her arm before she lost her balance on the unsteady ground and spilled her holy water. They looked at each other for a moment, barely able to discern the other's features in the maelstrom of leaves and fog, gauging the moment.

“Go!” shouted Victoria, and they both whirled, winging the holy water from their bottles up and around into the hurricane about them.

Sizzling sounds, fizzing and even a scream of rage…The winds settled as the water spewed into the clouds and onto Antonín, who'd remained huddled against one of the taller gravestones.

Victoria considered leaving him, but instead, she grabbed him by the sleeve and dragged him haphazardly behind her as they dashed around and through the cluster of headstones. She had to swing up with her sword only once more before they found the cemetery entrance. The cold wasn't as daunting as before, but it slowed her enough that she gasped in pain.

Once they were out of the cemetery, as before, the demonic cloud lost its strength and remained behind them, rumbling and gurgling wickedly. Then, as Victoria watched, it swirled into itself and settled into the darkness below.

“Did you have to do that?” Antonín cried.

Victoria turned and saw that the holy water had caught him straight in the face. His skin had peeled away, leaving one of his eyes sagging in its socket. He held a hand to his destroyed flesh, but seemed less concerned over that than the mass of evil they'd left behind.

And indeed, as before in London, they'd left it behind, weakened by the holy water.

Or it had chosen not to follow.

Victoria wasn't sure which.

She shivered and whirled at the vampire. Before he realized what had happened, her stake was poised over his chest and a great handful of his shirt was clumped in her fist. “What kind of trick was that?”

“No trick, no trick!” he cried. “I swear it! Do you think I would have gone into that if I had known?”

“If you don't take us to Katerina—” Sebastian began, but Victoria interrupted.

“No, he'll come with us now, and we'll find Katerina in the morning. When the sun is risen.” She bared her teeth at the vampire, furious. “We're in need of undead blood, and he looks more than willing to share.”

Sebastian nodded and helped Victoria bind the vampire's hands together behind him.

“I've never seen anything like that,” he whined. “I've never seen it. I swear it. I heard something…Just let me go, and I'll take you to Katerina.”

“You heard something?” Victoria repeated as they climbed back onto their horses. She glanced back over the cemetery and saw that the angry cloud had all but dissipated. She hadn't noticed the malingering fog when they'd arrived at the cemetery, although she'd been more distracted, having expected an ambush of undead…not one of the frightening demons. “What do you mean, you heard something?”

“Recently,” Antonín said, “there have been incidents…I've heard about them. And Katerina seemed to be worried about her cemetery. I didn't lie about that,” he added defensively. “She usually is there at night. But I didn't know. It was horrible.” He shuddered. His vampire countenance twisted with fear, made all the more grotesque by the ragged flesh near the one side of his mouth.

Victoria ignored his last statement and looked at Sebastian. Her rising worry was reflected in his set face, even though she couldn't see the details of his expression.

More demons—demons that even frightened the undead.

Demons that had driven a powerful vampire from her cemetery lair.

That realization as much as anything else worried her. Vampires hated demons, but they didn't fear them.

At least, they never had before.

+ Twelve +

Wherein Sebastian is Reminded That Hell Hath No Fury

“The only way you'll get
the ring from Katerina is by killing her,” said Antonín companionably, apparently having recovered from the unexpected demon attack. His face had also begun to show signs of healing, the peeling skin falling away to reveal fresh baby pink flesh beneath.

Victoria swallowed a drink of wine from where she sat on the edge of the bed and replied, “I don't anticipate a problem.”

She'd kept Antonín out of sight and quiet while Sebastian found a room at a small inn, and now the three of them had settled into the chamber for the night. At least, she and Sebastian had settled in. The vampire was well and truly trussed in a corner, yet he seemed to be feeling rather talkative.

“I wouldn't mind something to drink,” he said at that moment. “Perhaps a wrist or arm?”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Sebastian said, looking up from a sheaf of curling papers. A dusky blond curl fell from his forehead and into his eyes, reminding Victoria that he still had the ability to make her insides go soft.

“I'm thirsty. Unless you wish to offer me even a drink of wine if you won't give me a wrist? You could hold the cup.” His voice lifted in a bit of a whine.

Victoria ignored him and looked over at Sebastian, wondering not for the first time what he was reading. He'd pulled the pages out more than once during their trip, even late at night, often sitting in the small circle of candlelight to pore over them, while she and Max pretended to ignore each other.