Authors: Marie Treanor

Tags: #General, #Romance, #Fiction, #Paranormal

Blood Eternal (40 page)

BOOK: Blood Eternal

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“He does. He just doesn’t know it yet. According to Saloman. That’s why he’s breaking all the old rules, killing without reason, invading minds, inciting chaos for the ill of the humanity he used to care for—”

“All very interesting,” Konrad interrupted. “But what the hell do we do about it? Summon every hunter back to headquarters to defend it day and night? Have we any idea when this attack will happen?”

“Or even
if
it will happen?” Miklós said heavily. “All we have so far is the guess of the vampire Saloman, without any evidence.”

Everyone gazed at Elizabeth once more. “Think about it,” she urged. “Saloman knows Luk; he was educated, turned, initiated by him. They were friends and allies for centuries before Luk’s mind clouded. When we came to this building yesterday, Saloman recognized Luk’s enchantment signature, and it all fell into place. Luk doesn’t just want to kill Saloman; he wants Saloman to fail, to lose his power and authority to
him
. And for that purpose, there’s nowhere better to attack than hunter headquarters. In addition, he has a grudge against hunters: He was their ally, and now, as he sees it, they’ve turned against him, betrayed him.”

She gave a slightly twisted smile. “Besides, as you say, no one has ever attacked it before, or even known where it was. If Luk succeeds in this, he’s perceived immediately as more powerful than Saloman. The vampires flood to his cause; his prestige is enormous, far eclipsing Saloman’s, and so Saloman’s allies abroad change allegiance to Luk too. Because there’s no one left to oppose him or vampire-kind. Destroying the library destroys the organization in the short term, and knowledge in the long term.”

“We’re only one part of the hunter network,” Lazar pointed out.

“Yes, but you’re the pivotal part. Other networks have access, computer links, but the oldest, rarest stuff is here, because this was always the epicenter of vampire activity.”

“We’re hunters,” Konrad protested. “Not helpless civilians!”

“But there are only—what?—nine of you based in Budapest?” Elizabeth said, with a quick gesture toward the window to indicate the country at large. “And the world acknowledges you as the best, so to lose all of you at once would be an undeniable blow to the whole organization. Luk has five Turkish followers left, plus Dante, and we don’t know how many Hungarians have defected to him since the Angel and Saloman’s home incidents. Saloman reckons on ten at the very least. And the biggest weapon of all is Luk himself. He’s an Ancient close to his full power—strong enough now to have a chance of killing Saloman, and I think we can all imagine how powerful that would make him.”

Somewhere, she wondered at the dispassion with which she was able to speak of the deaths of her friends, of Saloman himself. It wouldn’t have been possible if she didn’t still harbor hope of avoiding these tragedies.

“Saloman’s convinced,” István said slowly. “You’re convinced.” He lifted his gaze to Lazar and then Miklós. “I think we have to take it seriously.”

Lazar stood up, throwing his pen on his chair. “Does Saloman know you came to us with this?” he demanded.

“Yes, of course.” She drew in her breath. This was it. “He offers his help unconditionally. To defend this place with you.”

Chapter Nineteen

“
N
o” said Konrad flatly. “Under no circumstances!”

“He’s right,” Lazar said, although at least there was reluctance in his uncharacteristically slow speech. “We couldn’t risk a vampire, let alone Saloman himself, in headquarters without proper guards. And offhand I can’t think of any guards that would hold Saloman.”

“There aren’t any,” Miklós agreed.

“You wouldn’t need any,” Elizabeth pointed out. “He’s on your side.”

“Why?” Konrad demanded. “Why would he be?”

“Because he needs to defeat Luk before there’s any further discontent and all he’s built slips away. He’s holding on to Turkey by a thread, but if Hungary falls, it all collapses like a house of cards. And because knowledge in all its forms is important to Saloman. So is cooperation with you, as he explained in the Angel.”

While they considered that and Lazar sat back down, dragging another pen from his jacket pocket to tap on his knee, Elizabeth pressed the case.

“Also, consider what strength you have. Even if Lazar fights and you have all the Hungarian hunters present, you’ll still be outnumbered. Possibly badly. Together, without any other distractions, you could probably kill Luk. But there
will
be other distractions; he’ll be surrounded by devoted protectors who’ll lose everything if he dies. They’ll keep you apart. I’m the only one who can kill Luk without help.”

Her smile felt twisted. “But anyone can kill me. Anyone at all. And they’ll all want to. Without Saloman, I don’t really have much chance. None of us do.”

That went home. It was almost tangible.

“For what it’s worth, he has also offered the help of other powerful vampires whom he trusts: Dmitriu, Angyalka—”

“No.” They all spoke at once, in such perfect time that Elizabeth threw up her hands in surrender.

“All right. We both thought you’d say that. They would bring us extra strength, but Saloman’s presence isn’t conditional on theirs. It’s him we really need.”

“That’s debatable,” Lazar said. “I don’t deny his strength would be bloody useful, but once we let one vampire in here, we’d never be safe again.”

“Lazar, we aren’t safe now! Luk can come in here whenever he likes. Saloman can help us defeat him, and he can reenchant the place afterward.”

Lazar looked at Miklós. Mihaela exchanged glances with István and Konrad. There was a long, drawn-out silence during which Elizabeth was chiefly conscious of the word “please” repeating in her head over and over like a prayer.

At last, Lazar swung around on his hunters. “Well? You’ve had more to do with him than I have. What do you think?”

Mihaela’s intake of breath shuddered. “I think we have to take the chance. I’ve come to believe he doesn’t mean us ill, whether or not I agree with him. We have to trust him or go under.”

Elizabeth smiled. As an accolade, perhaps it was lacking, but nevertheless, knowing Mihaela’s feelings about their relationship, it warmed her.

“I agree,” István said quietly.

Konrad lifted his shoulder from the wall and walked into the center of the room. He was the leader of the team. His opinion counted; it counted a lot.

He said, “I don’t agree.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes.

“I don’t care how plausible the bastard is,” Konrad’s voice went on, hard and implacable. “He’s a vampire. I don’t even care that he’s on our side in this venture—and he probably is; I don’t see any other alternative for him. But he’s still a vampire and our fundamental enemy. If we let him in here, we lose more than we would if Luk simply took it from us. We have to rely on our own strength and pray it’s enough. It always has been in the past.”

“That’s no guarantee of the future, Konrad,” Mihaela said, low. Proud of her, Elizabeth opened her eyes again.

“We have to find a way that doesn’t involve him,” Konrad insisted. “For God’s sake, we’re
vampire hunters
! That’s why Luk’s after us in the first place!”

“And if we die,” István said conversationally, “if the library and the whole network are destroyed because we refused to bend, will it still be worth it?”

“Or will you not care, because you’ll be dead?” Mihaela added. The decision wasn’t yet made, Elizabeth realized with hope. Mihaela and István frequently disagreed with Konrad, but when it came down to the wire, they backed him. She hadn’t expected them to go this far to support her against him. Of course, it had as much to do with the impression Saloman had created on them in the last couple of weeks as with friendship.

“It’s a belief I’m prepared to die for,” Konrad said steadily.

“It’s possible there will be more than you who die for it,” Lazar pointed out. He got to his feet again, pacing the room. He shot Elizabeth a penetrating stare on the way past, then spun around and fixed his stormy gaze on each of the hunters in turn before resting it finally on Miklós. “I don’t like this,” he said. “I don’t like it at all. They may be right that we can trust Saloman; we have no precedent to base any decision on. But I think—at least until we know more, if we ever do—I have to side with Konrad on this.”

Elizabeth sat down in Lazar’s vacant chair. Miklós was nodding. “As do I. Lazar, you’re in charge of defenses.”

“What defenses?” Elizabeth raged. “What can you possibly do to defend against
this
? You’ve relied on enchantments you don’t even understand for hundreds of years!”

“We have detectors,” Miklós said with dignity.

“Which have never gone off in my lifetime,” Mihaela muttered. “Do we even know they work?”

“Yes,” Lazar said seriously. “Large and small, integrated and mobile, they’re all tested and reset every afternoon at five o’clock, three in the winter.”

Elizabeth frowned, distracted. “Why is resetting them so important?”

“Er . . .” Clearly baffled, Lazar glanced at István.

“Over time, they adapt to changes in the atmosphere—temperature, moisture, light, even the chemistry of passing people. It gets too jumbled for them to pick up any changes—such as vampire presence—accurately. So they’re switched off every morning to recharge, and reset every night. As you know, the mobile units, especially the pocket ones, are switched off until we enter a place of possible danger, which is effectively resetting them. The new ones we developed to detect Ancients—”

“Yes, exactly, we get the point,” Miklós interrupted. “Which is that we have them and they work and they will give us warning and locations of any attack.” He turned back to Lazar, saying fussily, “We have to be ready for this by tonight, because it could come at any time—”

“Wait.” Elizabeth sprang to her feet once more. “You’re prepared to believe Saloman about the attack but not about anything else? Can’t you see the inconsistency of that? If you trust him, you trust him!”

“We don’t,” Konrad said simply. “The defense is a precaution.”

“Oh, no. You
know
it will happen, and you know the chances are you and all of us will die and leave the world unprotected. Or do you expect Saloman to do that for you? Supposing
he
survives Luk?”

Catching the flash of anger in Konrad’s bright blue eyes, Elizabeth swallowed more hasty words and tried, deliberately, to rein in her temper. “Okay. I know you don’t trust him. It’s a huge leap of faith for someone who’s been a hunter all his adult life. I get that. But you trust
me
, don’t you?”

“I trust you,” Mihaela said staunchly.

“And I trust you,” István said.

Konrad didn’t glance at them. “I do trust you, Elizabeth. Just not in this, not about . . .
him
. I know you wouldn’t mislead us, not knowingly. I just believe you’re mistaken.”

Elizabeth’s lips twisted. It wasn’t quite a smile. “The feeling, as they say, is mutual. But I’m not mistaken, Konrad. In the last year, I’ve grown to respect my own beliefs and conclusions, my own instincts. I haven’t always acted on them, and that’s when I’ve been most miserable and things have gone wrong.”

She looked around at them all, desperate to make them understand. “Everything changed for me when I awakened Saloman. I had to look beyond academia and trust my decisions in real life as well. And do you know what? They’re
good
decisions. I chose to trust you. I chose to believe Saloman is not evil, that he can do good in the world. Over the last year, I’ve been tugged both ways, and done things I knew were wrong in order to please you. I tried to kill Saloman; I
did
kill the vampire Severin in America. I’ve hidden information both from you and from Saloman so as not to betray the other. These things ate me up because I
knew
in my heart I was wrong, even while I was doing them.”

She grasped the back of her chair, holding on hard, as if the force of her grip would somehow compel her audience to believe. “When we rescued Josh, when we tried to stop Dante and find Luk in Turkey, I was at peace here in my heart.” She thumped her chest for emphasis. “Because that’s when you and he were pulling together. That cooperation is what my instinct tells me is the right way to go, not just in this crisis but in the whole future. Every instinct I possess screams this at me, including those I’ve acquired as the Awakener and a part-time, unofficial hunter. My intellect tells me the same thing. I learned to trust that before I even met you. I wish you would too. Please let Saloman help us. We need him.”

For the first time that she could remember, István put his arm around her shoulders. It wasn’t just a gesture of comfort, although now that her speech was finished, she had an overwhelming urge to lean into it for strength. It was proof of solidarity.

Mihaela gave her a slightly watery smile of stunned approval.

Miklós stood up. They’d had rather more than his ten minutes. “You are eloquent, Elizabeth, but I’ve made my decision.”

BOOK: Blood Eternal

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