Blood Life Seeker (27 page)

“How can you not?” He looked utterly stunned.

“I don't see the Prophesy as being final. Prophesies in their nature are self fulfilling. Just because I fit the bill right now, does not mean that if I die, another won't come along and take my place. Filling that role,
the key,
you call it.”

He shook his head vigorously. “The Prophesy was about
you
. A Nosferatin born in
this
time, in the New Land. It is specific to you. It was written millennia ago. To replace you now would mean a completely new prophesy would have to be written and if that were even possible, which I do not for a moment consider so, then how long before
it
could be fulfilled? It would simply be too late to help us now.”

I shook my head back at him, he just didn't get it. “Just because I die, doesn't mean another Nosferatin can't be born now, in this time in New Zealand. I have a Nosferatin family Nero, I met my cousin. Even if he doesn't hold the gene, I can't believe the New Zealand Nosferatins have died out with my father's death.”

He paused, giving the words the weight they deserved. He did reach over and take my hand at that. “You have found your family, Kiwi.” His voice was soft. Nero had always understood the gaping whole in my heart for the family I had lost before I could walk and craved from the moment I knew they existed.

Then his face reschooled itself and he pulled his hand away. “I still do not believe the Prophesy would be so accommodating.” He paused again, his eyes lowering. “Besides, it is not only the thought of the Prophesy losing you, that stills my heart.”

I didn't know what to say to that. He was my friend, I knew he cared and I'd feel the same way about him, but the tone of his voice conveyed more than the words and I felt momentarily confused.

“I will leave you now. Your kindred may return at any moment, but I
will
meet you in Paris.”

He stood then and took a step away from the chair. I was in front of him in a flash, my hands resting on his chest, to stop his progress any further. I vaguely acknowledged I'd been a blur, more of a blur than I had ever seen Nero be. My speed just kept getting faster and faster didn't it?

Nero looked as surprised as I was, but regained his composure and his hands came up to rest on mine, on his chest, gentling rubbing. As though he didn't even realise he was doing it at all.

“No,” I said. “I will not lose you too. It may not come to that, but if it does, you need to stay safe. You are the Herald and if the Prophesy does re-build itself upon my death, you would make it happen faster by staying alive. Can't you see that? Please, Nero, just trust me on this.”

He looked at me for a long moment, his face so serious, so intense. I almost felt like squirming, but Nero had always been a bit like this, I was kind of getting used to it. Kind of.

“You are the
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
and you are more.” Everyone seemed to be saying that lately, I still didn't know what it actually meant. “You are the Light to the Dark. You call to me, as I call to you. You will always hold the Dark dear.”

Huh. Wasn't that something like what I had said to Gregor just before he flipped out and said I was more than just the
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
?

“What does
that
mean, Nero?”

“It means, you are the Prophesy, Kiwi. I am not quite sure how much of the Prophesy, but you are more than what we had at first thought.”

“That's scary, isn't it? I mean being the
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
was bad enough, what else is in store for me?

He shook his head and reached up to brush my cheek. “I do not know, but I do know that I must respect your wishes on this. I will not come to Paris, I will await your call should you change your mind.”

I was glad he had decided to stay safe, but why? “Why? Why are you doing what I ask now?”

He laughed and his eyes sparkled their mesmerizing combination of autumnal browns and glinting golds. “If you do not know the answer to that, my little Kiwi, then you are not meant to, yet.”

And with that cryptic answer he brushed his lips against my forehead, his now almost routine farewell when he Dream Walked to me and flickered out of sight.

Confused, me? Nah.

The flight to Paris was long, but comfortable. It's not like we had to share a 747 with hundreds of other people, crammed into economy class or even first. We had a
Gulfstream G650 Jet
all to ourselves, Michel's personal aeroplane.

I'd been on his plane before, when we flew to Cairo to help out Nafrini and Nero. So, I knew all about the comforts on board. There was a personal bathroom to rival the
Ritz
and in the main cabin, where we were sitting now, cream and gold plush carpet, with intricately designed dancing dragons throughout. Beautifully hand stitched cream leather couches and arm chairs, 52 inch plasma flat screen TV and every electronic toy you could desire to keep you occupied on a journey to the other side of the world. It was stunning, with excellent kitchen facilities and Michel's own little manservant to bring me nibbles and whatever else I desired. But it was still only so big, could still only travel so far and we had to make two stops on the flight over, making a 15 hour direct flight, turn into more than a full day.

It made me realise that whatever Gregor had flown on, whatever type of jet the
Iunctio
had, it was bigger, stronger and faster than Michel's. That comparison only made me shudder with a little fear. Everything about the
Iunctio
seemed bigger, stronger and faster than us. How on Earth were we going to convince them we were safe, no threat and stay alive?

We were met at Charles de Gaulle Airport by an
Iunctio
flunky and two big, burly vampire bodyguards to escort us to their complex. It didn't escape my notice that the bodyguards treated us as their charges the moment we exited the plane. I felt like an extradited criminal returning to face murder charges in front of members of my own kind. Not too many words were shared on the trip towards the city centre. The vehicle was a long sleek limousine with pitch black tinted windows, but it was still true dark outside, so they were not essential and instead made it difficult to see the views of the never sleeping city as we sped through the streets. Not that I would have taken too much in anyway, my nerves were a jangled mess, but I was trying my best to shield them from the vampires nearby and seemed to be winning.

Michel sat vampire still next me, which only made me even more fearful. He only ever shut down like this when normal shielding was beyond him and clearly tonight was one of those occasions. I decided to ignore his presence, or lack thereof and concentrated on sending my new
seeking
abilities out into the night. I can be ruthlessly practical when required. It's the vampire hunter in me. This may not have been a hunt, but I was entering foreign territory and I was definitely on the back foot. If this wasn't a hunt, it was still a deadly game and I do not like walking into the ring unprepared.

I centred myself on my heartbeat, despite it being slightly elevated. I've learned to ignore the speed and use the simple regularity of the beat to calm myself down, allowing my mind to enter that black nothingness before Dream Walking, in order to send my senses out and
seek
. There were no vampires around us, we were still too far out of the city centre, but I could sense them, en masse, near the city proper. And in numbers that were staggering. I had been keeping tabs on where all the vampires were throughout the world. Paris has always been that much busier, partly due to the
Iunctio
being here and partly due to the number of magical Ley Lines the city boasts, but the number evident today had more than tripled. Ironic really, that there were so many vampires harbouring such Dark in the
City of Light
.

Why so many more than usual, though?
Why are there so many more vampires here than last time I sought?

I wasn't sure if Michel would hear me, he was still, so still. But he
was
paying attention, perhaps more than I had given him credit for, because he answered my mind-question straight away.

They come for you, ma douce. They come to see the Sanguis Vitam Cupitor.

Oh, I didn't like that. Just what were these vamps thinking? Yippee, she's here! I doubted it somehow. What did I represent for the majority of vampires? I could
seek
them out, tell how much Darkness lurked within
and
Dream Walk to them to possibly kill them. I stifled an hysterical laugh. If I was a vampire, I'd want me dead.

I knew that the
Iunctio
was based as near to the centre of Paris as it could get. All vampires, from the beginning of time, have ensconced themselves in the centre of humanity. Be that a village or town or city. They need the numbers of humans around them to survive and a city the size of Paris offers up a wonderfully easy buffet of transiently populated central suburbs. The
Iunctio's
headquarters, for want of a better word, had been based in Paris in the same building since the 5
th
Century A.D, but it is rumoured they have had a presence there since 52 A.D. It had been called
Lutetia
and is still called that today by most vampires, only humans call it the
Île de la Cité
.

Lutetia
shares its island with the famous catholic cathedral
Notre Dame
, but the
Notre Dame
only came along in the 10
th
Century and was built at the request of the then Champion, or head of the
Iunctio
. Apparently he thought it a lark to pick off the odd parishioner after their Sunday morning Mass.

Vampires are strange, in some ways they cling to tradition with utter ferocity and in others they embrace modern ways in an effort to blend in. All the titles of members of the
Iunctio
have both Latin and English translations, but they only go by their English versions. It is considered
déclassé
to refer to them in their older language. Yet Nosferatins hold onto those Latin names with an equal measure of ferocity. The only exception to the rule, is the Herald. I am the Blood Life Seeker, but any Nosferatin you meet will only call me the
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
. Go figure. Nosferatins are a little more traditional in this regard, than the Nosferatu.

So, Michel had only referred to the Champion by her English title. I still didn't know what the Latin translation of that would be. He had prepared me, as much as he could, for what to expect when we met her. Practically the entire flight over was in discussion of the various roles within the
Iunctio
and those vampires who held them. I felt I knew as much about the
Iunctio
as I would ever know and it did
not
calm my nerves one little bit.

It took over an hour to reach the
Pont Neuf
, the bridge across the river Seine to
Lutetia.
The traffic from the airport had been light, but Paris is big. The closer we came to the
Palais
, the
Iunctio's
headquarters, the tighter the knot in my stomach. But Michel was fairly sure that we would not be expected to meet with the Champion on our arrival, that it would no doubt be tomorrow evening that we would be called to her. I glanced at Michel's watch, I don't wear one, as the sturdy limestone walls of the
Pont Neuf
sailed passed the dimmed windows. It was only 11.30 at night, that seemed way too early to relax. Besides, from what Michel had said, the
Iunctio
never slept and the
Palais
was well equipped to accommodate vampire light-sensitive needs.

The first view of the
Palais
was from the side. Large imposing stone walls, that appeared pitted and greying with age and decay, consumed the view from my window as we slid past on the roughly uneven cobbled road. I've been around old buildings before, not in New Zealand, we're an extremely young country, but in Cairo, in the suburb called
Old Coptic.
The buildings or walls there, at least, went back to Roman times. But this, this was ancient. How it was still standing, I have no idea, but I could sense the wards and they were off the scale.

I don't know why I was surprised by that. This was the centre for all vampire hierarchy, it would of course be well protected, but what I sensed now was a mixture of magic. Spells overlaying each other, some so deeply entrenched they would have existed for centuries, others newer but stronger and still more pulling on Nosferatu or Nosferatin powers. I'd only recently been able to tell the difference between a ward placed by a vampire and a ward
placed by a Nosferatin. They were subtle in their differences, but their objectives were much the same. I knew that the
Iunctio
was powered by both Nosferatu and Nosferatin power, but for some reason it felt wrong that Nosferatin power would ward their building. It just did. These guys were still the bad guys, or at the very least, could turn bad in a heartbeat.

We came around the corner of the building and finally I got a glimpse of its front façade. It wasn't pretty like the Gothic
Notre Dame
or the majestic
Palais de la Justice;
home of the Paris Police. Or the even more fairytale
Conciergerie,
part of a hotel. They all shared this island, but the
Iunctio's Palais
was blocky and straightforward, as though whoever designed it made it for strength and strategical defence purposes, not to enhance the locale like its prettier neighbouring buildings. That saddened me a little. Vampires on a whole are fashionable people, they usually dress in the height of fashion and we were in Paris. It seemed such a shame that their central government building was nothing more than a fort. It brought the mind back to the basic desires of a vampire. Survival at all cost. You'd never forget your enemies strengths when faced with a building this ugly.

We drove into the courtyard, passing the multitude of external wards like passing under a waterfall. I felt my skin awash with a cold tingling, that left me shivering and unable to stop. Michel placed his arms about me and pulled me close. He didn't seem affected by it, but was aware of its effect on me. He quickly rubbed his hands up and down my arms, trying to bring the warmth back to them, but still I shivered. Nothing he could do could stop the shaking or the chattering of my teeth. Some greeting.

The limousine stopped by the main stairs up to the front doors, even from my seat in the car I could see how oppressive it all looked. Two vampires were manning the huge wooden doors at the top of the stairs. They didn't come down them to open ours, the vampire bodyguards with us did that. We followed our guards inside, past the intricately carved doors, which on closer inspection displayed vampires in various forms of battle. A nice secondary reminder of their strength. Michel had let go of me by then. It wouldn't have looked good having to cuddle me on the way in. A show of our own strength and confidence was required, so I had to battle the shivering myself. Why wasn't it stopping?

The guards led us to a moderate sized room, not far off the entrance hall, which had been covered in cold stone floors and starkly bare stone walls, not a decoration to be seen. From the intricacies of the carvings on the front door, I had expected more displays of vampire strength and prowess inside, but then it occurred to me that starkness said more than opulence or fearful images ever could. It said
we are what we are and if you don't know us by now, you've already lost.

That didn't help my shivering any.

The guards left us, probably to man the only door, which we had just come through, from the outside. Nothing was said, I almost began to think they may have been mute. The room held several smaller tables and chairs, nothing comfortable, nothing calling out for you to lounge upon, everything was so utilitarian and bare. I really did feel sorry for them all, working in this stark and bleak environment.

Be sure to speak in my mind and not aloud, ma douce. They will be listening and watching our every move.

I turned to face him, still shivering, still chattering and wanted to curve myself against his chest, wrap myself up in his arms, but knew he was right. They were watching. So I nodded and just walked around the room, trying to get some warmth into me, trying to stop the damned shivering. I was dressed in my usual hunter garb. Michel had packed my suitcase, but I hadn't seen what he had packed yet. He hadn't said a word when he found me in my black short skirt, tights and Tee, with another of my custom made black jackets - this one fitted, not denim, a step up from my absolute casual best - when returning to his chamber. He either wanted me to feel comfortable, or he thought it was appropriate. I was also armed. He had said that I may be disarmed upon meeting the Champion, but not necessarily. It was considered a Nosferatin right to be armed in the presence of vampires and those of the
Iunctio
would be well out of my class.

At least my hunter outfit travelled well. I had freshened up on the plane, which makes a huge difference psychologically, the outfit itself just didn't crease at all. I looked as fresh now as I did when I boarded, just shivering.