Blood Bond (PULSE, Book 5) (4 page)

“No, I don't think so,” said Octavius darkly. “No, I think she sent us for a reason.”

“What are you talking about?” Justin turned to him. “You said yourself there was nobody there?”

Octavius shook his head. “I said not a
soul
.” But he said no more.

Jaegar rushed to Kalina, covering her with kisses. She blushed – seeing Octavius and Justin both in the room was too much for her – but she did not stop him. “And when I think of how stupid I almost was,” Jaegar sighed. “How stupid I was – letting you here by yourself. You could have been killed.”

“We did all right on our own,” Justin clapped him on the shoulder – in part, Kalina thought, to keep him from pawing his sister as much as to reassure him.

Jaegar turned around. “Really?”

“I mean, I wouldn't
recommend
leaving us alone with vampires – but we managed to polish off a few of them!”

“We?” Jaegar looked dubious.

“It's true!” said Kalina. “Justin saved my life – a vampire came out of nowhere while I was fighting another one, and he got it by surprise, straight in the back!”

Justin beamed with pleasure, his ears turning ever so slightly pink with embarrassment. “I'm not saying she didn't save my poor human behind a few seconds later,” he said. “The other one managed to get me – and she staked it just in time. Gave me a few nasty bruises though.”

Jaegar smiled. “It looks like your brother's good for something after all,” he said, turning to Kalina. His cocksure smile was enough to make her melt.

“I doubted it for years and years,” she laughed. “Always figured Mom and Dad had him just to annoy me. But now I'm not so sure…” She grew quiet.
Mom and Dad.
Such strange, remote, mysterious figures now.

“And I haven't even got Life's Blood in me,” said Justin. “Just saying – you all have an unfair advantage.”

“Careful,” Octavius said darkly, “you're just asking to be turned.”

The group turned in surprise to face him. Never before had Kalina heard Octavius speak of such a thing – turning
anybody
, let alone Kalina's own brother, was a topic of great sensitivity for Octavius. But his face was unsmiling.

“It was a joke, man!” Justin laughed uncomfortably. “I don't want to turn – no offense to all of you.”

“I shouldn't think you'd
want
to,” said Octavius. “But who knows what we might have to do – if what I think is true. That village made me realize – this place, this beginning of our journey, could not be in a more unfortunate location. These steppes are ancient – the powers here are ancient. And an attack on the palace so soon means that we have been detected. And that one far more powerful than I am is against us.”

“What are you talking about?” Justin asked.

Octavius sighed. “We may need to turn whomever we can get,” he said. “I will spare you for now, Justin – out of respect to Kalina, and to our friendship.” His expression grew grim. “But if you were not Kalina's brother, if you were not dear to her, I would consider doing to you what I have in the course of my life done to many humans with potential to save our kind – against their will. Not out of cruelty, you understand, but out of necessity. The greater good.”

He sat before them. “Mongolia is an ancient place, and here there is a vampire who is older than Mal, older even than Nikolai – my oldest and dearest friend – older than my maker Isaiah. His name is Molotov. In my time at the Consortium I heard his name mentioned. As a friend or as an enemy, none of us knew. We knew he was powerful and remote, and had no interest in our petty Western dealings. Whether he wished for order or chaos we did not know. We knew nothing about him but that he rejected all emissaries, and threatened or killed those who refused. And now we know something about him – at long last. For I doubt this place has any renegades – not if Molotov is as powerful as he was, and I don't doubt he is even as powerful now as then”

“What's that?” Justin turned to him.

“He wants Kalina.”

Chapter 3

“
O
h, hell no!” Jaegar stood up. “If we're in enemy territory, we need to scrap the plan. We need to get out of here, and fast! I'm not willing to risk my hide – not to mention Kalina's – going toe to toe in our present condition. We haven't got any soldiers – we're on the run, not in any position to attack.”

“Calm down, Jaegar,” said Octavius. “I haven't finished yet. Jaegar – that village we were in. It did not feel...
normal
to you, did it?”

Jaegar shuffled his feet. “Well – no...”

“Something uncanny about it?”

Jaegar nodded. “Something about that girl – you saw it too, didn't you, Octavius? It reminded me of a place I'd been long ago. I went to Thailand about two hundred years ago to scout out vampire recruits for Octavius. It was a busy place then – chaotic, noisy. Western merchants and Eastern peasants – so much was going on. But as I walked along the shores into the jungle one day, I found myself in a place of...no, peace isn't the right word. Silence. Solitude. Where I felt more alone than I had ever felt before in all my hundreds of years alive. But yet I was not alone – I felt that rather I was surrounded by something that both was and was not...existing. That was and was not alive, was and was not dead. It was the strangest feeling, and I remember it still. I remember leaving the village as quickly as I could, convinced nothing but danger or worse could be found there. And I never had such a sensation again. Not until tonight. That village the girl took us to...it wasn't...it was empty, but it wasn't empty. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Jaegar,” Octavius nodded. “I understand completely. I thought the same thing. I have been to such places – places that feel as if they are on the edge of the world. Deep in the Russian mountains, for example, I have seen a village such as this one. And a strange sight it was.”

“I don't understand,” Kalina broke in. “What do you mean, dead or alive?”

“In Mongolia,” Octavius began, “there are many villages scattered along the steppes. Few outsiders have ever seen such a village; fewer still have lived long enough to make it back to their homes. I am not surprised that there might be, among these villages, one which all have forgotten. Time and chance. All except for the ghosts.”

“That girl....” Jaegar furrowed his brow. “She told me I had to help her. She said vampires were attacking her village, that I had to follow – but...nobody! And yet she felt so real. She didn't sound like she was lying.”

Octavius gave a knowing smile. “I know you are an old vampire, Jaegar,” he said. “But you are still young yet. And you can still experience new things. A rare pleasure, I think, for a vampire. And one I too am encountering. For I have heard of such things, Jaegar, but never have I before experienced them. I believe that, Jaegar, you have encountered a ghost village. And a particularly pained one at that – one that has suffered an incredible loss, experienced incredible pain – at the hands of renegades or else Molotov's men.”

“Ghosts?” Jaegar scoffed. “Humans can't have ghosts; why, they're barely more than...” He looked around at Justin and Kalina. “I mean, of course humans have some life force. But...ghosts? Humans aren't nearly so special as to have supernatural powers. And those vampires showing up just in time when we left?”

“They may have attempted a false alarm,” said Octavius. “But that girl, I believe, was real. Although that does not excuse our absence. Real or not, we owe it to luck that Justin was able to help stave off – stake off, rather – the vampires while we were gone. Of course, it was a good deal more than luck – the boy has shown skill.”

Justin smiled again. “Well, Jaegar did teach me which points were more susceptible to pressure. And I am a doctor – I know something about the anatomy. Corpse or otherwise. I knew where to stake the first time in – and I had the element of surprise. If it had come to proper combat I would've been a goner....”

His voice trailed off. There, standing before them – having glided straight through the door Octavius had so carefully locked – was a young girl. Her bones protruded through her translucent skin; her waifish frame was made all the thinner by the masses of matted black hair that hung around her head. Her eyes were wide and seemed to suck all the light from the room. She looked about fifteen years old, yet in her eyes there was a sense of agelessness. She had lived far longer than her fifteen years.

“Why did you run?” She floated towards them. “I told you we needed protection – why did you not heed us? I was leading you there when you stopped believing me and ran back.”

“You see!” Jaegar crowed. “See, there was a girl – she
was
convincing.”

“She's no vampire plant, either,” said Octavius softly. “No, I can see that. You're telling the truth, aren't you, little girl?”

She gave him an enigmatic smile. “I told you the first time,” she said. “Vampires are attacking our village. They are not far off now, and if you do not hold them off there they will come to your palace, and then they will attack you and kill all of you.” She turned directly to Kalina, and Kalina felt the little girl's eyes boring into her soul. This girl knew something – she saw through Kalina's skin to the blood and soul beneath. Kalina felt uneasy as the girl gave her a long searching look.

“The Life's Blood girl,” the girl said. “But you're more than that, aren't you?”

Kalina said nothing.

“But you must come with me,” said the girl. “We have been waiting for you – vampires and humans alike. My family and friends require your presence. You see, we have been waiting for you. For a very, very long time.”

Chapter 4

T
he four of them followed the girl. With a wry, soft smile, the girl beckoned them forth, leading them out onto the balcony, down the steps into the courtyard, and out the gates once more. It was still dark, but the first cresting of dawn could almost be seen on the horizon, as the inky black night gave way to slivers of crimson and gold. Octavius and Jaegar slid their Life's Blood rings onto their fingers and continued onwards.

The girl led them across the steppes. Where could they be going, Kalina wondered? The expanses seemed so wide and so empty – surely there couldn't be anything at all here, living or dead, only this vast emptiness that filled Kalina with a strange sense of vertigo. Being so far away from civilization, so isolated, made her ever more aware of the strangeness of her situation. She and Justin were both getting tired, their muscles aching more and more with every step they took.

She should have been preparing for Freshman Orientation at Yale; she should have been home, packing her bags, picking out dormitory wall posters at the local Video Store in California. There was so much that she had expected of the summer before her college matriculation. But here she was, in the desolate and deserted steppes of the eastern reaches of Mongolia, with two vampires and her brother, following the pale shade of a ghost-girl. How strange it all was, thought Kalina. How strange it would continue to be.

At last they came to a gorge – what looked like a sheer drop in the steppes – jutting out precipitously from the ends of the desert. Kalina could hear running water. They climbed down the edge of the gorge, a narrow rock-path leading them further and further down, and presently they came to a river.

“No human knows these places,” the girl said as they continued onwards.

Eventually Kalina and Justin grew tired, and the two vampires carried them – Octavius, who was stronger, though weary, taking the heavier Justin, and Jaegar seizing Kalina. Yet the girl did not seem to need carrying. She floated on ahead, faster and faster. In silence they continued forwards and climbed. The area around the gorge was far greener than the steppes – tangles of jungle vines grew up and down the sides of the gorge, their roots extending to the very banks of the bubbling river along which they walked. This was no ordinary walk, Kalina knew – something felt different about where they were going. Something strange. The way the river had just appeared – out of nowhere, it seemed! The way the greenery was growing in this desolate land. Something was up.