The Dark Blood of Poppies (24 page)

For years, she’d believed her father to be insane. Only through meeting Charlotte had she come to understand that he hadn’t been mad after all. He truly had been the victim of a vampire. And his attacker had been Ilona.

As Ilona slid off Josef’s knee and lowered her savage mouth towards his groin, Violette swooped. In an ecstasy of rage, she seized Ilona and ripped her bodily off her victim.

Josef slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Ilona twisted, eyes blazing, to see who’d thwarted her. “Oh, you!” she spat. Her hands whipped out in attack, but Violette was faster. Catching Ilona’s wrists, she pulled the woman towards her, regardless of her furious struggling.

Ilona didn’t try to escape into the Crystal Ring. Apparently she preferred to fight. But if she had, Violette would have gone with her. No one escaped the wings and claws of Lilith, not even Karl’s daughter.

Violette’s hunger was urgent, but Ilona clearly hadn’t satisfied her own thirst. She jerked a hand free and seized Violette’s hair, pulling hard to keep the dancer’s mouth away from her throat. They were both strong and ruthless. There was a touch of sadistic delight in their conflict.

Violette broke the grip and her mouth clamped to Ilona’s neck. How sweet the firm body felt against hers, taut with emotion. Need overwhelmed Violette and she sank her fangs. Ilona went rigid. The blood was dense, a little sour in a delicious way, like crisp apples. Pleasure throbbed through Violette from throat to loins.

Relief. Release, at last.

Ilona was cursing in her ear. “You – bloody –
witch
!”

And she broke free with an explosion of strength. From the corner of her eye, Violette saw Josef on the floor, huddled and groaning. There was blood all over him… human blood, which she still needed, despite the fluid she’d taken from Ilona. The hunger incensed her beyond reason.

“What did you call me?” Violette said thinly. She advanced on Ilona, who was backing away, her face feral.

“You heard.” Ilona clawed at the wound in her throat. “How dare you touch me!”

“How dare you hurt
him
!” Violette pointed at Josef. “He was mine.”

Ilona dodged the lash of her hands. “What’s this, a new rule that we must put our names down for victims?”

Ilona was fast, but Violette surpassed her. She grabbed the bony shoulders and began to bite anywhere she could reach: face, neck, shoulders, arms. Ilona shrank away, mad with pain, defending now instead of attacking. Violette flung her down and pinned her to the floor, spattering the carpet with blood. “This isn’t for Josef. It’s for my father.”

The impudent face glared into hers. “Not your bloody father again! Haven’t you got over it yet? For God’s sake, you’re a vampire now! You’d do this to him
yourself
!”

Violette gripped her arm and jerked her onto her feet. Ilona began to look genuinely afraid.

“Look to yourself, before you talk of fathers,” said Violette. “I see into your heart, Ilona, though I’ve no wish to look into such a foul pit.”

And she struck the heart-shaped face, hard. Ilona reeled away but Violette followed, striking again and again. “Why don’t you fly away into the Crystal Ring?”

“I can’t, damn you! Stop it, leave me alone!”

But Violette-Lilith, caught up in the dark ritual of vengeance, could not stop. She pursued Ilona round the room in a cruel dance, blows becoming slashes. She tore Ilona’s dress and broke her long necklaces, scattering beads everywhere, then gouged wounds all over her back and chest. When Ilona’s cries turned from protests to pleas for mercy, Violette finally ran her up against the wardrobe and held her there, nails sinking deep into the flesh of her arms.

“You bitch,” Ilona gasped. “Pierre was right. I’ll never forget this.”

“No, you won’t. You hated Karl for making you into a vampire. Do you want your existence to end? Because I’ll oblige, I’ll snap your spine and tear off your charming head, and it will all be over. So, do you want to die?”

“No. No.” Blank terror in her face.

“How surprising.” Violette opened her mouth on Ilona’s soft neck, sucking and tasting the skin. Thrusting her fangs deep into a vein she drew hard, working her tongue to increase the flow so the wound would not heal too fast…

She was drifting away. This victory was empty, actually. It meant nothing. There was something above her that she couldn’t grasp, a mass of darkness floating in the Crystal Ring that seemed to be a house with blind windows and locked doors…

Hands fell on her shoulders, a massive sensory shock. Someone tore her from her prey, as she’d wrenched Ilona off Josef. The hands, transmitting rage, turned her round like pincers in her flesh.

She found herself looking into Karl’s face. His anger, cold and ferocious, was alarming. She’d never seen such rage in his eyes before.

“Leave my daughter alone,” Karl said quietly.

Charlotte was behind Karl, staring at Violette. She looked shaken, but said nothing. Instead she went to Josef and dropped to her knees beside him, her head bent in concern, more like a daughter than a vampire.

Ilona was leaning back against the wardrobe, white. Her neck, bent to one side, was jewelled with blood.

“The protective father,” Violette said wearily. Her fear evaporated as Lilith’s rage stirred again.

His fingers tightened. “What have you done to her?”

“Ask her what she was doing to Josef.”

“As if you care about him,” Karl said grimly.

Despite his fury, he seemed very controlled. So it was to her astonished horror that he bared his fangs and lunged at her throat.

“Karl, don’t!” Charlotte cried.

Violette sprang to life, broke Karl’s grip and thrust him away. Lilith’s strength returned and she knocked him halfway across the room. There was a moment of stasis, black and distorted. Violette surveyed the scene as if watching a play: Karl, holding onto the chair that had arrested his fall, Charlotte hovering, not knowing which of them to protect.

Poor Charlotte
, thought Violette,
forced to watch her loved ones trying to destroy each other.
Ilona struggled like a broken-winged bird, while Josef curled around his anguish and shame. How wretched this was. How ghastly.

Even Karl is not physically stronger than Lilith
, she thought.
Perhaps no one is. And this gives me no pleasure. It is meaningless.

She wanted to flee. Instead she stayed, held by their unearthly stares. Karl circled her, as if giving a wide berth to a snake, and gathered Ilona in his arms. Violette heard her whisper, “Get off me!” The remark brought a cold smile to her lips.

“You’d better take Ilona away, Karl.” Charlotte’s voice was low, shaky. “I’ll look after Josef.”

“And Violette?” No inflexion in his voice, but Karl gave Violette a look of wintry contempt. Her own emotions withered to grey stillness. She loathed herself.

“And Violette,” Charlotte said firmly. “She won’t hurt me.”

* * *

Charlotte was so angry, both with Violette and Ilona, that she could barely speak as she helped Josef into bed. He stumbled as he went, clutching his torn clothes around him with both hands. His face was white. He would not meet her eyes.

“Are you all right?” Charlotte asked gently.

“Yes. Yes. She took no blood.” Lying back on the pillow, Josef closed his eyes, pain ploughing his forehead. “Not much, at least.”

“I’ll send for a doctor,” she said, looking at the wounds all over his chest. The punctures from a vampire’s fangs healed quickly, but Ilona had made most of these with her nails.

“No!” he exclaimed. “No doctor, please.”

“But some of these might need stitching.”

“And how in heaven do I explain how I got them?” He shuddered. “She – Violette stopped her before it was any worse – Oh, my dear, I am so sorry.”

Seeing his distress, and knowing Ilona’s habits, she could guess what had happened. Dismay washed through her. Ilona liked to seduce before she drank. Although Charlotte could not rationally hold Josef to blame, she felt a pang of disappointment that he hadn’t resisted.

She’d idealised him, but he was only human.

“No, it’s my fault, Josef. I put you in danger. I meant no harm, but one vampire draws others.” She went to touch his forehead, but he jerked away.

“Don’t touch me,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m ashamed of what happened,” he said hoarsely. “So ashamed.”

“Do you want me to send for Robyn?”

“No! She must never know.”

“But your wounds need dressing. If you won’t have a doctor or Robyn, there’s only me.”

He turned away, folding up around his pain. “I know you mean well, but leave me alone, please.”

Sighing, Charlotte left him and went to Violette. The dancer was sitting in an armchair, legs crossed, one foot pointing and flexing in the air. Extraordinary that she could switch from violence to repose so quickly.

“Is it true?” Charlotte said. “Did you save Josef from Ilona?”

The vivid blue-violet eyes came into focus. “I was saving my father,” she said.

Charlotte caught her breath. “Dear God.”

“Yes, I caught her about to do what she did to him. The same mutilation. I had a crazed idea that if I saved Josef, I’d somehow save my own father. As if I could turn back time and prevent the trauma that ruined our lives. That’s why I went crazy with her.”

“Were you going to kill her?”

“I was tempted.” Violette opened her expressive hands. “I was very close.”

Charlotte put her hands to her face. “Karl would have loathed you for all time.”

“I think he does, anyway. I don’t suppose he’ll ever forgive me, but I don’t care.”

“Don’t you?” Charlotte flared. “I can’t bear this. You’re both impossible!” When Violette didn’t reply, she continued with less heat, “He wanted to help you. Now you’ve made two more enemies, when you might have had two friends.”

“Oh, should I have left Ilona to her feast?” Violette said frostily. “Can you not understand the reason for my anger?”

“Of course, but Ilona is still Karl’s daughter! He couldn’t stand by and say, ‘She deserves it.’ God knows, it’s hard to feel sympathy for her – but how can I feel any for you, having witnessed what you did to her? If you and Karl go on fighting, it will kill me.”

The lovely eyes widened. “Tell
him
that. He attacked me, Charlotte! I wouldn’t kill him, for your sake – and how else could I really harm him?”

“You change people.”

“Anything I’ve done to Ilona can only be an improvement, then.”

Silence. Violette turned away. She was beautiful in the half-light, the quintessential ballerina in black. Charlotte worshipped her, even while she felt like strangling her. And she feared her, always.

“Why were you here, anyway?” Charlotte snapped. “Hoping to destroy Josef, whose only crime was to trust me?”

Violette’s eyes and voice softened. She looked down. “No. I came to talk. To see if he really could tell me… what I am.”

* * *

“Leave me alone!” Ilona repeated the words fiercely as Karl helped her along the hotel corridor. But she uttered them as if saying a rosary, trembling and boneless in his arms.

A short man with round glasses emerged from a room, stopped and stared. Karl cursed: he wanted no witnesses to his daughter’s distress. He met the man’s eyes; the man gazed back mindlessly. Then a change, a dreadful realisation, came over his face. Paling, he gagged as if his heart had stopped, and stumbled back into his room.

Karl gained the door to their suite with no further intrusions.

Vampires often fed on each other. This act expressed anything from love to dominance. It could be a divine exchange or savage violation. Karl suspected, though, that Ilona was in distress due to something deeper than blood-loss.

In the room, he let her go and she sat on the edge of the bed, arms folded tautly on her knees. Karl put no lights on. The room was cavernous in darkness, his daughter rimmed by a fragile pearly glow. Karl found a towelling bathrobe and draped it around her.

Despite the state she was in, he felt angry. Decades of pain they’d caused each other. Always this implacable conflict between them. Every time he thought the battle was over, it flared up again.

He sat beside her, pushing his anger aside. “Why didn’t you let us know you were here?” he asked, falling into the
Wienerisch
dialect of the last century; a language they seldom used these days. A rare intimacy. “Why are you always doing this?”

“What?” Her words escaped through a knot of pain.

“Following us. Saying nothing. Destroying people in order to hurt us.”

“You know why.”

Karl placed his hand on her cheek and made her face him. Her cruel spirit seemed quenched. In her eyes he saw fear, confusion, thoughts dwindling to points of fire in an abyss. The revelation shook him. He hated what she’d become after he transformed her – but seeing her like this was worse.

“Did she take much blood?”

“Enough, thank you,
Herr Doktor
,” she said. He offered his wrist. She stared at the tender flesh, turned her head aside. “I don’t want yours.”

“But you need it.”

“Not from you. Why don’t you just –”

“Leave you?” He spoke coolly. She could not know the pain she inflicted by refusing his help. “No. Not until you tell me what Violette has done to you.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“I mean mentally.”

Ilona shuddered. “You know why I’m compelled to torment you.” Her self-control seemed to collapse like a dam before a flood. Karl realised that he’d never seen her cry since she was a human child. Never, until now. As she leaned into his shoulder, he held her as if she were a stranger. As if some terrible contagion would soak into him with her tears. “You took my life from me. I wanted my husband and my child. You took them away from me. You even took Kristian! You wanted me to be a vampire, so that is exactly what I became.”

“But Ilona,” he said gently, after a moment, “you had no child.”

“But I would have done. I was pregnant when you came for me. The transformation killed it, of course.
You
killed it.” And as she spoke she collapsed against him, sobs convulsing her like dying breaths. Karl’s hand played absently with her hair. He felt numb, the revelation a distant thorn-prick.