A Dance in Blood Velvet (53 page)

Karl strode to him, grasped his arms. Andreas, alarmed, tried to pull free. “You’re a fool, letting her do this to you. You realise you’ll be too weak to enter the Crystal Ring, perhaps for weeks? You should have had more sense.”

Ilona touched Karl’s elbow, as if worried that he was actually going to attack Andreas. “You are really upset about this, aren’t you?” she said. “Why?”

Karl turned to her. Her twisted expression was an alloy of bitterness and triumph. “I don’t care what you do, as long as I’m not forced to witness it,” he said tonelessly. “Particularly not with my friends. You could at least have chosen somewhere private.”

She shrugged. “It was rather too... spontaneous. Andreas jumped on me. Has it occurred to you that his sudden desire for me might have something to do with you and Katerina?”

“Ah, so I’m to blame?”

“For the love of God, I’ve had enough of this,” Andreas said, folding his arms. “Ilona, shut up.”

Ilona moved closer to Karl, pressing against him. “I can’t believe you’re reacting like this. If we were human, and I was fifteen years old and you caught me in bed with your best friend, then I’d understand your anger. But we’re not father and daughter now, are we? That stopped the day you brought me into the Crystal Ring. We were almost the same age in human years, and a century has passed since then. We cannot be parent and child any more. We are not human.”

She put one arm around Karl’s waist, slid her hand under his shirt and caressed his lower back, flesh to flesh. “So what is wrong with you?” she said. “It’s not fatherly love, is it? It’s jealousy. Because you want me for yourself, don’t you?” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him full on the mouth, lips parted.

Karl did not respond. All he felt was sorrow. There was no truth in Ilona’s words, but her need to play this game made him despair.

When he stood like marble under her hands, she pulled back, angry. “You must have turned to ice when you were made a vampire!”

“But how can I win with you, Ilona?” said Karl. “If I’d kissed you back, you would have been completely disgusted. And rightly so.”

“You’re lying to yourself.” She walked away from him.

“And you’re playing games. What is this? You want to prove that my remaining scraps of morality are a lie, and destroy my friendships at the same time? That would be two victories in one, would it not?”

“Oh, damn you to hell,” said Ilona. “I thought we could work together, for once. I was wrong.”

She vanished so suddenly that Karl barely heard the soft crackle of the Crystal Ring receiving her. He exhaled, weighed down by regret.

Andreas’s hand touched his forearm. “I am sorry, Karl.”

“There’s no need. She’s only behaving as she has always behaved, to punish me for changing her. I don’t know why I still hope for anything different.”

“Katti and I miss you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m with you.”

“In theory only.”

Karl turned Andreas to face him. The wounds Ilona had made were already healing, but he was still horribly white. Karl said, “Come here,” and they embraced, everything forgiven, nothing resolved. Andreas’s lean body felt ice-cold. “Are you so unhappy?”

“I’ve been thinking of leaving you both,” Andreas said miserably.

“Andrei, don’t.”

“I wish you meant it.”

“Go and feed. You’re freezing.”

He kissed Andreas on the cheek; they looked at each other, not quite smiling, resigned. A scream arrowed into the silence; Holly’s voice, torn with agony. Then Karl felt the flutter of demonic wings all through the house.

Andreas gasped. “My God, what was that?”

Not answering. Karl ran into the hall and upstairs to Benedict’s room. There he found Holly in an armchair, Katerina and Benedict leaning anxiously over her.

“I’m ready when you are,” she said, her light tone incompatible with her ghastly expression.

Ben ground the heels of his palms into his forehead and moaned.

“What has happened?” said Karl.

“Oh, God. Holly, where are you?”

“Leave her alone,” Katerina said briskly. “Give her a chance to recover, at least.”

Ben straightened up, grimacing. “We’ve located Lancelyn,” he said grimly. “He’s at our parents’ house, Grey Crags. Good God, I can’t believe he’d go there! But no, it’s perfect... the bastard! There’s only my father left now. Neither Lancelyn nor I have spoken to him for years. It’s the last place I’d expect my brother to go - which is precisely why he chose it. A twisted joke. Karl, we have to assemble the others and travel there immediately.”

Holly said, “Whenever you’re ready, little brother. I’m waiting.” She laughed. Her eyes were mindless.

Karl looked closely at her. She was in a deep state of shock, possibly beyond recovery. Repulsed by Ben and his methods, he said, “What about your wife? You can’t leave her. She’s ill.”

Ben turned on him, eyes ferocious. “D’you think I want to leave her like this? If she’s in Lancelyn’s power, the only way to help her is to stop
him.
I’ll get the housekeeper to stay with her, invent some story to cover myself, and tell Mrs Potter to call the doctor if need be.” He gazed helplessly at his wife. “I know it’s not good enough but it’s the best I can do.”

“And if Lancelyn attacks her while you’re not here?”

Ben drew himself up to yell at Karl, then his fury dissolved. “I can’t cover everything. Too dangerous to take her with us. I have to make a decision - and we’re going to Grey Crags.”

Katti looked at Karl. “Well?” she said.

“I suppose we have to go with Ben.”

“If Lancelyn’s still there to be found.”

“I’ve a feeling he will be,” said Karl.

He touched Holly’s wrist, wishing he could soothe her. Yet as he felt the hammer of her pulse, desire for her blood surged through him. God, that rich dark pull... Karl dropped her wrist quickly and moved away.

Vampires cannot help humans,
he thought.
How often do I have to be reminded? We can only destroy them. This is the one immutable law of the Devil’s maze.

* * *

“Well, why not leave immediately?” said Simon.

Karl and Katerina had explained to the others, who received the news with pleasure, glad there was to be action at last. Fyodor and Rasmila flanked Simon, seeming too serene, too eager. Karl thought suddenly,
They are all still an unknown quantity. I trust no one to guard Holly. This cannot end well.

“There is no real hurry,” Karl said wearily. “Benedict says the house is near a small village north of Bakewell, by the Peak District. About sixty miles from here. He’s told Katti and me how to find it. We can travel swiftly through the Crystal Ring, but he cannot - and neither can Andreas. They’ll have to go by car, which will take a couple of hours at least.”

“Well, we have time to rest and hunt, then,” said Simon. “I think we should, don’t you?”

“Yes,” said Karl. “Benedict is getting ready to leave. We’ll meet outside Grey Crags as soon possible. It’s best if the vampire contingent arrives first, to estimate any danger.”

Katerina said, “Stefan hasn’t appeared. If he comes now, he’ll find no one here, except Holly and the housekeeper. I trust he has the sense not to frighten them to death.”

“We’ll leave him a message,” said Karl. “Ilona was here, but decided not to stay.”

“Another quarrel?”

Her words induced a sting of pain.
Always,
he thought,
when I think I’ve resigned myself to Ilona’s nature, something happens to reawaken the futile anguish of hoping she will change.
He only said, “It was nothing.”

“Then why do you look as if you want to kill someone?” Katerina said, smiling. Her remark did not require an answer. Andreas, Karl noticed, was carefully looking in the opposite direction.

“If we’re slightly reduced in number, it doesn’t matter,” said Simon. “We are still ten against three; surely that will be enough?”

“If it is not,” said Fyodor with fierce amusement, “we deserve to die anyway!”

“Speak for yourself,” said Andreas.

Karl felt apprehensive. He thought,
I’ve seen the daemons, I know they’re more powerful than us... if there is no resolution to this, if they only want to fight and destroy us...
He felt a sudden violent thirst, and a need for the silence of the Ring. Oh, for the sweetness of Charlotte’s embrace...

“Shall we begin, then?” Simon said cheerfully. “Don’t be afraid, Karl. We are immortal!”

Rachel, Malik and the two monks stood at the fringes of the parlour, with Karl at the centre. Simon, Rasmila and Fyodor formed a triangle around him. They were smiling for no reason, he noticed; strange smiles, without warmth. Katerina stood nearby but seemed excluded. Karl found himself blending into the other-realm without trying, as if they carried him with them. The room vanished, but the vampires were all around him, changing colour and form. Only Andreas was left behind.

The sky exploded into life above them. The nine were gossamer moths against the cloudscape. They rose fast. Karl flew without conscious effort, as if the others were lifting him; it felt pleasant, exciting.

The realm became dark and tempestuous. Thunderous purple clouds congealed from nowhere. The ribbons of magnetic force, usually a reliable guide, rippled as if caught in turbulent water.

Simon set the pace, Rasmila and Fyodor flowing effortlessly with him. Karl looked down and saw Katerina, Rachel and the others struggling to keep up. As he watched, they dropped further back.

“Slow down,” he said, but no one answered. He felt invisibly linked to them, unable to pause and wait.

Katti drew ahead of the others below. She had one hand outstretched, a cloak of torn lace and snakeskin swirling around her in the wind.

This felt wrong. Karl looked into the too-benevolent faces of Rasmila, Fyodor, and Simon; they grinned, teasing him.

“Of course, you have realised who we are,” said Simon.

“Who are you?” said Karl.

“We are the immortals who created Kristian.”

A dark and terrifying excitement rushed through him, too electric to be pure fear. He was horrified yet bewitched.

“Why did you do it?” he whispered.

Fyodor answered. “It seemed an excellent joke. In life Kristian was devoutly religious, a preacher of hellfire and damnation. What better way to plunge him into sin than to make him a vampire?”

“It didn’t work, though.”

“Oh, it worked all too well,” said Simon. “The change made his beliefs even more gloriously extreme.”

“And he turned on you and put you in the
Weisskalt.”

“But now we’re alive again,” said Rasmila. “Alive!”

Air-currents rushed loudly in Karl’s ears. The skyscape raced by so fast that he no longer saw detail, only billowing cream and golden surfaces. Sketched on this blankness were three dark figures... not attenuated beings like him, but huge transparent shapes, like shadows thrown from the feet of Simon, Fyodor and Rasmila...

Lancelyn’s daemons.

He tried to shout a warning. Everything was streaming out of control. He looked down for Katti, saw her climbing frantically to gain height. Her mouth moved but he couldn’t hear her.

“Simon, look out!” Karl cried.

The three daemons swooped. Oblivious to Karl and Katti, they threw themselves at Simon, Rasmila and Fyodor, who spun, arms raised to defend themselves...

As if in an underwater dream, Karl watched them engage soundlessly.

He wasn’t sure what happened next. There was no attack, no fighting. Rather, there was
assimilation
. Shadows and vampires dissolved into each other; in their place appeared three gleaming shapes.

One was fire-red, one white, one blue-black. Not bright, yet hard to look at directly, elusive like after-images of the sun. At first he felt no fear. He simply watched, certain he was hallucinating, that the Ring was playing eerie tricks.

He saw Katerina flailing upwards, and heard her voice calling faintly, “Karl! Karl!” Behind her, very small now, came Rachel, Malik, John and Matthew.

What was the danger? Karl looked at the three fiery figures. Insubstantial, as if seen through water. Serene and deadly.
Angels,
he thought,
who can crush vampires as we crush mortals...

In a fluid movement that he did not see coming, they seized him. Arctic cold enveloped him and he thought,
They’re taking me to the
Weisskalt! Fangs unsheathed, he began to struggle. Below his attackers he saw Katerina arrowing closer. He must warn her away...

Karl felt wolf-teeth freeze into his throat. The white one - Fyodor still, or something else? - was biting him. Hideously strong... rousing memories of his battles with Kristian... but this was worse. This being had no weight, nothing to fight, yet it was sucking out all his strength.

Katerina reached him and began to claw the indigo daemon that was clinging to his back. “Let him go!” she shouted, but her voice was tiny and distant. “Let go, let go!”

Suddenly Fyodor released him, lunged, and grabbed Katerina. She struggled and screamed, a fox in a steel trap. “Karl!”

The darkest one peeled away and plunged at Malik, John and Matthew, scattering them like leaves.

Now the copper-red angel bore Karl away. His limbs were useless, as if chained. Twin needles pierced his veins. His strength faded with his blood... he was dissolving like an ice-crust, yet in clear focus he saw the white daemon tear Katerina’s flesh, drink, then fling her aside like a broken doll. He saw the vermilion wound in her throat as she arced away against the vast canvas of the Ring; dwindling, gone.

Katti...

They were all lost to sight now. Karl was alone. The dark angel and the light one flew back towards their red companion, the purge complete.

In a fluid motion, the red-gold angel whirled to face him and Karl found himself looking into Simon’s face. His eyes were spoked golden wheels filling Karl’s vision.

“We made Kristian,” Simon whispered, “and you killed him.”

The three held him between them, taking turns to sip from his throat until he lost the power of movement, speech, even reason. Still they sucked at his veins. Dogs licking a dry marrow-bone. And yet they held him gently, as if he were made of eggshell, and their hands felt delicious, and their unintelligible voices were like birdsong.