A Touch Too Much (12 page)

He presented her with a clean, metallic bowl of some kind. She took it without thinking.

“What do you want with me?”

“I’m going to run a few tests, and I’d like you to be still. Don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

A string of fear coiled around her throat. Liv took a step back. Her shin banged against the chair, making her wince. Seeing her evident distress, Zontag offered her a genuine smile, the first gesture of sympathy since she had been torn from her world.

“What kind of tests?”

“I need to analyse your body fluids.” With a nod, he indicated a door at the back of the lab. “That’s a private bathroom over there. Would you mind relieving yourself in this bowl and bring it back to me?”

By now Liv didn’t need the king in the same room to know what a refusal would come to. She nodded and did what the scientist asked. Done, she watched him empty the bowl in a sort of cocktail shaker. While her pee turned blue because he had added a liquid from a small bottle, Zontag pointed to a dentist’s chair. God, how she hated those reclining seats! Doing her best to push back mental images of drills and curettes, she settled on the chair.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“I’m looking for any indication that you might be…”

He didn’t finish his sentence. Switching the cocktail shaker on, he raised his head to stare at her as though he sought the solution to an insoluble problem. Whatever he saw must have incited him to reach a conclusion because he expelled a long sigh.

“I don’t know what Rogan told you, but you might be the most dangerous threat vampires have ever had to face since the Dividing War. I believe you’re the Bringer of Death.”

There they were again, back to their prophecy crap. But for once Liv couldn’t have cared less, her heart skipping a beat at the mention of Rogan’s name. Body tensed, she gripped the arms of the chair and blurted out.

“Have you seen him? Do you know where he is?”

There was no mistaking her nervous tone and posture. Zontag smiled when he heard her hopeful babble, and turned off the shaker.

“Can you keep a secret?”

Liv scrambled off the dentist’s chair, her black robe billowing around her legs. Elated, she rushed to the older vampire and grabbed his hand, her breath coming out in rasps. “You’ve seen him, haven’t you? How is he? Is he okay? Why didn’t he come back to me? Where’s he gone?”

“Hush now, I will tell you but I want these tests done. Take a deep breath and get back on that seat!”

Although a little reluctant, Liv did what she was told. As he studied a set of different coloured lights at the base of the shaker, Zontag began writing down numbers on a blank sheet.

“Rogan came back after his encounter with you. Or rather he sneaked back here. He didn’t want anyone to know his whereabouts so we had a private meeting. He told me all about you, and how you saved his life.”

“You knew, yet you didn’t tell the truth to the council! Do you realise they’ve sentenced me to death?”

“I understand your resentment, but they won’t make it final until we figure out who you are. Besides, our meeting was secret, and Rogan asked me to keep the news to myself for the time being. I’m sure he has a plan, but he didn’t have time to discuss it with me.”

“Did he also tell Raskhan?”

Losing sight of his calculations, Zontag gave her a sharp glance. “I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t do that.”

Liv wished someone would explain the nature of the relationship between the two brothers. What or who could have generated such hate? A fight for power? A female vampire? A woman? Then she swallowed when Zontag came up to her with a syringe in his hand.

“This might sting a bit, but it will be over in a sec’.”

“Were Rogan and Raskhan twins back when they were still human? I’m not an expert on the matter, but I’ve always thought people became vampires when they were bitten by one.”

Zontag brought the syringe to her arm. The needle prompted Liv to shut her eyes for a brief instant. She winced when it penetrated her flesh, although she felt almost no pain. Her eyes popping open, she saw the older vampire shake his head.

“And your assumption is correct. It so happens that Raskhan and Rogan are an oddity, the exception that proves the rule.”

“What do you mean?”

His gentleness indicating he was being careful not to hurt her, he slowly drew out blood. Syringe half full in hand, he extracted it to apply a patch on the pinprick.

“They were never bitten and turned. They were born vampires.”

Chapter Nineteen

“Oh, my God, is it possible?”

“If I hadn’t witnessed it, I’d be as sceptical as you are.”

Going around the worktable, he placed a few drops of her blood on a small slab of glass that he inserted in the closest microscope. Then he emptied the rest of the red liquid into a flask. Brow knitted, one of his hands around a knob, he studied her blood cells while he told his tale.

“The race of men won the Dividing War. They appointed the greatest enemy warrior as king and exiled all vampires into the Overworld. Assisted by a council he had selected, the king ruled over our world for thousands of years. Right until the day fate decided to claim him.”

Eyes wide, all thoughts of drills and needles having left her as soon as the tale began, Liv sat up straighter in the chair.

“He fell in love with a human. She must have been about four months pregnant when they met, and the king took great pains not to harm her. However, a month later either his compulsion got the better of him or she asked him to bite her. I can’t say for sure, but he did it. Such is love!”

Liv knew for sure. She had been there. She had seen Rogan battling with the overwhelming compulsion to sink his fangs into her neck. She had felt the irresistible impulse, and had commanded him to sink his fangs into her. Mindless of any consequences, she had asked to be bitten.

“The king poisoned her. Before she’d had enough time to turn into a vampire, something unexpected happened. As the vampire’s venom infiltrated her blood, delivery began. I was immediately called to her side. I did my best to save her, but her weak body couldn’t withstand the transformation. She died giving birth to two boys. Two tiny creatures bound to die because, by that time, the poison had already made its way into them.”

“Go on, what happened?”

“A genetic abnormality. Instead of killing the boys the poison saved them. What’s more, two weeks later they had reached the size and weight of regular human newborns. So the king held a council meeting to pass a law. If need be the firstborn was to succeed him.”

“Why did he do that? I mean, come on, he’s immortal.”

“Love had slain him. When she died, she took his heart with her. The day after the council meeting, he entrusted the boys to my care. Then he went to your world and stepped out into the sunshine.”

A sensation of pain pulled Liv out of Zontag’s fascinating story. Vampires were capable of committing suicide out of love? She gripped the arms of the chair so hard that her skin showed the marks. Letting out a long sigh, she rubbed her palms together.

“This is unbelievable. But about the boys, what are they?”

“I guess the best term would be ‘mutants’. Their vampire abilities are stronger than any I’ve ever seen, but they age as humans do. I delivered them into the world thirty years ago, and so far they’ve evolved like men. They also feel certain things as a human would do.”

“What kind of things?”

“Love, guilt, anger, sympathy, passion, jealousy. You know, the whole range of emotions. And hate.”

“But vampires don’t?”

“We do, just not in any way as intensely as the boys. All their senses are heightened. I’m also positive they don’t need refreshing because they’re mutants, but I haven’t told them yet.”

“Why not?”

Zontag stuck his head out to look at her, a smile illuminating his features.

“Nah, they’d get too cocky!”

Good point. Raskhan certainly was cocky enough for her taste. As interesting as their story sounded, Liv needed to ask the question that had plagued her since she had laid eyes on the king of the Overworld.

“How do you tell them apart?”

“Their voices. Rogan’s tone is slightly lower-pitched than Raskhan’s. Unfortunately for you, this vocal difference is too fine to be perceived by human ears. To us vampires, it’s unmistakable. They speak a single word, and we know who’s who.”

Zontag’s clarification seemed to lift a heavy weight from her shoulders. Telling them apart appeared as easy as breathing to everybody around here, and that fact had contributed to exacerbate her feeling of being out of place.

Learning her inability had everything to do with her being human somehow brought immediate relief. She was neither crazy nor irrational, she just wasn’t a vampire. And considering that she still hadn’t changed after two vampires’ bites, she probably wouldn’t be.

“Why do they hate each other?”

“It’s been like this since they were children, although nobody knows for sure. If he feels so inclined, that is for one of them to tell you.”

A hard plastic stick in his hand, Zontag seemed to have forgotten all about his microscope as he came to stand in front of her.

“Now, open your mouth.”

With it he scraped first the inside of her cheeks before moving on to the back of her tongue. Trying not to gag, Liv let him collect whatever he needed from her saliva and mucous tissue. When he turned away to go back to his worktable, she waited until he faced her again.

“I’m not your Bringer of Death, you know.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Ha ha.” Then he set the stick inside a weird machine that looked somewhat like a mixer.

“I’ll show you something.”

As she slithered down the dentist’s chair, he pressed a button on the side of his worktable. Then he gestured for her to turn around. The back wall of the lab slid open. Not the entire wall, but a square the size of a window. His hand on her back, Zontag prompted her forward.

“This is a two-way mirror. Take a look, he won’t see you.”

On the other side, the large room appeared to be a relaxing place of some kind, reminding Liv of a spa. Two empty brown loungers sat in front of bookcases filled with thousands of books. Apparently, some vampires spent a lot of time reading. In the far corner, two massage tables lay side by side, waiting to be used. Beside them, Liv saw a large hot tub drained of water.

“Our former king had this room equipped for the human he loved. He wanted her to spend most of her days here, and enjoy herself as if she was in her own world. Now, do you recognise him?”

In the centre of the room, a vampire sitting at a school desk was busy drawing. Although he seemed vaguely familiar, Liv didn’t place him until he raised his head. But when he did, she gasped. Back in the warehouse, he had been the warrior who had come with Khord, and failed to send her to the Overworld. No way she’d ever forget his face.

“I thought you might recognise him.”

“Who is he?”

“One of our hunters. Well, at least he was until yesterday.”

Zontag’s strange tone caused Liv to glance at him. Head a little cocked, eyes glazed from staring too hard, he appeared totally mystified by the vampire in the other room.

“What’s different about him today? He looks the same to me.”

“Indeed he does.”

Zontag left her side to go back to his worktable and activate the closing of the two-way mirror. The panel slid shut with a barely audible sigh, blocking her view of the warrior. Turning round, palms up, she waited for the scientist to speak. He retrieved the plastic stick from the machine and placed it on the worktable.

“Rogan told me about your fight in the warehouse. He said you touched the hunter, but as nothing happened he was sent home.”

“That’s right. Why? Didn’t he come back here?”

“He did.”

“So what’s the big deal?”

“He isn’t a vampire anymore. He’s human.”

Holy mackerel, she hadn’t expected that! Did Zontag mean her touch had changed a vampire into a human? Now that would be an extraordinary feat, especially considering that, at the time, the force had seemed to fail her. Or had she wrongly assumed the experience had been a failure because she didn’t see any physical effect on the warrior?

“Is he the reason why everyone here seems wary of me?”

“Absolutely. He recounted the episode to the council, and, true or false, the whole community is aware of your power now. Besides Khord became an eye witness when he backed up his partner.”

“Oh, the nerve of that monster! Khord had already gone when it happened. He didn’t see squat!”

“Yet it’s his word against yours. In such a matter, only Rogan could set the record straight.”

But Rogan had disappeared. He wasn’t here to stand by her side, to protect her, to save her from an impending execution. Accusing her of a crime of lese-majesty was only an excuse. Even if the council believed Rogan alive, they’d still kill her to eliminate a threat. As if reading her mind, two fingers on his chin, Zontag nodded.

“By changing vampires into humans, you have the power to eradicate our race. It means you are…”

He faltered, his blue eyes seeming a shade darker. Understanding lifting the veil she had been enfolded in, Liv finally appraised her true condition. Without a blink, she ended the sentence for him.

“I’m the Bringer of Death.”

They stared at each other. About two feet apart, she closed the distance between them. Even if all clues pointed to her being some kind of vampire killer, a part of her still wanted to kick up a fuss.

“But I can't be!” The words tumbling out of her mouth, she grabbed the older vampire’s hand. “You see, when Rogan was dying from Khord’s silver bullet, I saved his life. I healed him.”

“Rogan briefly mentioned…”

“Believe me, it’s true. That’s my power. I heal vampires!”

“No, you don’t. I believe you healed Rogan only because he’s part human. But when a true vampire is in your hands, your power destroys his essence and it all comes down to your blood being pure.”

As Zontag’s hand pressed her fingers tighter, she read absolute certainty in his blue eyes. He wasn’t putting on a show to mislead her. He was actually telling her to acknowledge facts. As long as she’d be trapped in the Overworld, her power was the key to her survival. The scientist’s hands relaxed while he carried on his explanation.