Blood Guilt (21 page)

Mihaela’s heart began to beat faster as she hacked through every wire she could see. When Maximilian didn’t immediately return, she drew her phone from her pocket and found Konrad’s number. She wasn’t sure why it was necessary to do this without Maximilian’s knowledge. She just knew that they needed the backup and that Maximilian would be unhappy about the presence of more hunters, whom he feared would drag Robbie into the depths of their organization. Although in such an eventuality Mihaela herself intended to be there for Robbie, she respected Maximilian’s views enough to be glad there was an alternative. Cyn and John, who were already in Malta, were not official hunters.

“Mihaela,” came Konrad’s voice in her ear, sounding neither pleased nor displeased. If anything, he sounded wary.

“Konrad, I don’t have Cyn’s number,” she said, low and urgently. “Tell her tonight, on Gozo, at the prehistoric site of Ggantija. Eight vampires against Maximilian and me. Thanks.” She rang off before he could speak. Already, it was more than possible that Maximilian had heard her speak. But it didn’t matter, not really. She’d tell him if she had to. It was just that secrecy, and turning first to the network, was second nature to her.

She hacked a few more wires with her penknife, and yanked one out completely. She was pretty sure the ignition wouldn’t work. The helicopter was grounded. Pausing only to cover her sabotage as well she could—the extra few minutes while the vampires searched for the cause might come in useful—Mihaela shoved the lock picks, penknife and flashlight back into her bag, along with the cable she’d removed, and left the barn, closing the door carefully behind her.

She knew a stab of guilty relief when she saw that Maximilian was some distance away. In fact, she could hardly make him out in the darkness of the wood’s edge, surrounded by trees. It was only because she was so aware of his unique shape and poise that she spotted his figure among the other blacknesses. She hurried toward it instinctively, wondering all over again at the way her heart lifted at the sight of him.

It was nearly over, and when it was, there would be no more of Maximilian and her. She had an inkling of how ridiculously much it would hurt, and yet she couldn’t regret what she’d done.

Before this fight began, before they rescued Robbie and killed the vampires, before she even focused on Gavril and the cold necessity of revenge, she would take a moment with Maximilian, just to kiss him one last time. The memory would warm her as the years stretched out.

Gradually, she realized that he was not alone. Another figure stood in front of him, half-hidden. It was as if some enchanting mask had just fallen. Maximilian was talking to a vampire.

If she’d had any doubts about this—after all, it was very dark out here—they disappeared as the second figure vanished with inhuman speed. Maximilian walked to meet her.

“Who was that?” she asked. An inexplicable weight of foreboding pressed down on her.

“A passing vampire,” Maximilian said expressionlessly. Too expressionlessly. “I asked him if he’d fight for us.”

“And will he?”

“Maybe.” Maximilian began to walk back in the direction of Ggantija. Mihaela stared at his moving back, her pulses racing. After a moment, she followed him. She had to swallow a lump in her throat, because every suspicion she’d ever had about Maximilian was back with a vengeance.

Chapter Seventeen

Ferdinand was a wily old vampire who knew better than to take anyone else’s word concerning his own safety. So Maximilian wasn’t surprised to sense him checking out the escape route. In fact, it was what he counted on.

He left Mihaela sabotaging the helicopter and ran through the shadows toward the thin wood, from where he could feel Ferdinand’s heavy, lowering presence. Against Ferdinand, he had to use all his masking skills, for the older vampire had always been at least as strong as he.

Maximilian leapt high into the branches of a tree on the edge of the wood and waited until Ferdinand walked silently past him.

Then, unmasking, he jumped. Ferdinand spun to face him, fangs bared.

“Ferdinand,” Maximilian murmured. “Just the vampire I wanted to see.”

“You have a wish for the true death?”

“Not in the slightest. I have a proposition for you.”

“Oh, wonderful. This I have to hear.”

“Give me the child, and I won’t tell Saloman that you were here.”

Ferdinand’s lips stretched. “Why should I care what you tell Saloman? My stock with him couldn’t get any lower.”

“It could become nonexistent if you were dead.”

“Maximilian, are
you
threatening
me
?”

“I don’t need to. I have a hunter just desperate to kill all the allies of Gavril, who murdered both her parents. Gavril is a fool, without the talent to bring off this escapade. It’s doomed. My hunter has cut off your escape. Hand Robbie over to me before the fight begins, and we can both leave without a fuss. If you don’t, I’ll let my hunter—or Saloman—kill you.”

Ferdinand’s lip curled. “There isn’t a hunter alive who could take me. What’s the matter, Max? Lost your guts in exile? Along with your backbone. You never used to leave your killing to others.”

Maximilian allowed the pause. He often did, from carelessness or inertia. He said, “Odd as it may be, I have no desire to kill you. I owe you for many things.”

Ferdinand’s fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. “Damn right you do,” he said softly.

“So you’ll do it?” Maximilian asked. Some distance behind him, he could sense Mihaela emerge from the barn. Some whiff of her must have reached Ferdinand, for the older vampire looked beyond him in her direction. Maximilian didn’t let his guard or his gaze waver.

Ferdinand said, “I’ll think about it,” and glided back into the trees.

Maximilian walked on to meet Mihaela. His evasive answers brought the suspicion back to her eyes, and although he couldn’t altogether blame her, it angered him. In the emotional, moral jumble of dealing with Ferdinand, he wanted to throw Mihaela on the ground and fuck her until she saw that this made no difference. She was his, whatever he did and whatever the repelling rigidity of her shoulders tried to tell him.

But that too could wait. They should return to Ggantija and settle into their places for the coming battle.

****

Hidden in the shadowy space between the outside of the temple and the stone circle, Mihaela tried to quell her anxiety and concentrate on the matter at hand: the vandalism of scraping herself a larger peephole in the prehistoric wall, from which she should be able to see the vampires—if they gathered where Maximilian had predicted.

It was difficult to focus, since Maximilian had been distant and monosyllabic after he’d spoken to the other vampire. Something was churning him up, and it scared the hell out of Mihaela. All she had to be grateful for was that Maximilian appeared to be sticking to their original plan.

Nothing’s changed
, she assured herself.
Maybe he’s just realized, as I have, that this will be the end for us. Maybe he’s sad, as I am…
But that wasn’t an idea she could afford to dwell on either. And so she watched and waited, while several yards distant, inside the temple, Maximilian presumably did the same. He was masking them both so that none of the vampires would sense their presence. However, she was very aware that she also needed to be silent. Maximilian couldn’t hide the sound of stones clattering under her feet or the sight of her head bobbing up over the wall. At least, she didn’t think he could.

It was a long, tense wait. As they’d suspected, Gavril was clearly waiting for the dead of night when as many people as possible would be caught asleep inside their houses, unaware of what was happening until it was too late. Mihaela couldn’t even begin to imagine the unspeakable tragedy that would ensue all around the Mediterranean coast if she and Maximilian didn’t stop this.

At last, through the various gaps in the stone, she saw shadows gliding over the ground from all directions. Whether or not they knew of her and Maximilian’s presence, they were being careful. Mihaela thought she would spot Gavril at once, fixated as she was on the features of the vampire who’d slaughtered her family and was about to dishonor them further by so abusing their research.

But it was Robbie who first drew her gaze, small and excited as he bounced among the vampires and the stones, making no effort to conceal his ebullience. If they’d troubled to read his mind, they’d know that a large part of his excitement was down to the fact that she and Maximilian were coming for him. But nobody kept him close. If Maximilian had only hidden farther down the hill, he could have snatched him easily. But they’d planned for the worst case: that Gavril would suspect their presence and hold on to the boy the whole way.

And in fact, Gavril called Robbie to attention almost as soon as they reached the outer wall of the temple—surely only feet away from Maximilian. Through her tiny, manufactured peephole, Mihaela finally saw Gavril and a group of other vampires surrounding Robbie. She couldn’t make out the instructions Gavril was giving. But she saw Robbie’s pale, wide-eyed face turned up to the vampire as he listened.

Gavril backed into the temple wall, and, reaching for Robbie’s hand, he yanked the boy over beside him. Another vampire took his other hand, and for the first time, Robbie made a jerk of obvious protest. He didn’t want to touch the vampires.

Mihaela’s heart surged with pity and fury.
Never again,
she promised Robbie grimly.
They’ll never touch you again. No one will, against your will
—

“Good evening, human,” a cool voice said above her.

Even before the fear struck her, her stake was raised and aimed over her head. But the speaker didn’t appear to be paying her any attention. He sat on the wall of the lower stone circle, gazing toward the other vampires who were lining up at the temple and wandering over from various other parts of the site. She’d glimpsed him only from a distance before and it was still dark, but she recognized him at once. It was in the stillness, the power that radiated from the very old. And as many of the old vampires did in a preplanned battle, he wore a sword at his hip.

“You must be Maximilian’s hunter,” he observed.

I’m not his!
Fortunately, she didn’t make the mistake of saying the words aloud. The other vampires would have heard her voice. So she just stared at him, stake still ready for his first sign of attack.

“Pleased to meet you,” the vampire said politely. “A word to the wise, hunter. You may be his, but he isn’t yours. He will betray you.”

And I should believe you, why?

Again, she didn’t speak the words aloud, but the vampire gave a little smile of amusement as if he sensed her feelings pretty accurately.

“He offered me a deal, you know. My life for the boy’s. He pretended it was to pacify you, his soft-hearted hunter, but I know differently. He wants to kill Gavril and use Robbie himself—in partnership with me as before—to topple Saloman. Then he, not Gavril, might take up the reins of power.”

The vampire cast a lightning glance down at her—harsh, piercing blue eyes like shards of ice. She gripped the stake more firmly, but he made no move to attack. Instead, he shifted his gaze back to the temple.

“You’re wondering how I could possibly know this. Well, I know Maximilian. I stood behind him when he took Saloman down. I kept my bargain. He didn’t keep his. I was to have been honored through my creation Maria, whom he promised to make his companion. He didn’t, and I had to watch Maria wither and die for love of him, for loss of him, until a hunter gave her the true death she sought. We lost everything, my progeny and I, by Maximilian’s betrayals and failures. Don’t make the same mistake.”

Another of those glances, deliberately casual, perhaps in case of watching eyes.

“Ferdinand,” Gavril’s voice called impatiently, and the vampire on the wall lifted one hand and slid to his feet.

“His ambition,” said the vampire Ferdinand, “is as it always was. That alone doesn’t change for Maximilian.”

Maximilian, the great betrayer. She had no reason to believe Ferdinand beyond the ring of truth in his speech and the fact that he had no reason to warn her. Unless he was deliberately sowing dissent between them? But then, if he wanted her and Maximilian to fail, why didn’t he simply tell Gavril they were there? Or had he? Whatever, there was more, much more to this.

Maximilian had shown her that vampires could suffer. Well, he wasn’t the only one. It was Ferdinand’s suffering that made her believe him, and she had no time to analyze the tragic truth behind the relationship that had formed with such apparently explosive spontaneity between herself and Maximilian.

She shoved the crumbling pain aside. It didn’t matter. Even if Ferdinand was lying through his teeth, she couldn’t afford to take the chance. Only preventing the earthquake mattered. And saving Robbie. These things alone were too important to endanger. Everything else had changed, including her plans. It might have been reckless, but right now, her new plan seemed less dangerous than trusting in Maximilian.

“Liar,” she said distinctly and hurled herself over the wall, plunging her stake for the kill.

Ferdinand blurred into darkness. She landed on the stony ground. He moved with Maximilian’s speed, and an instant later, his powerful hand hauled her to her feet by the neck of her sweater. She took him by surprise, stabbing as he yanked her around. Her thrust was fierce, sure, unhesitating, and it drew blood before he casually knocked the stake from her fingers and secured both her hands brutally behind her back.

She twisted once to test his strength and then was still.

“Hey, Gavril,” he said. “I’ve got us a hostage to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

All the undead heads turned in her direction. She had never been so helpless under the glare of so many cold, vampire eyes, and it made her spine tingle with revulsion and fear. Ferdinand shoved her forward with enough force to make her stumble.

Then a tiny whirlwind flew across the ground from the temple with a cry of “Mihaela!”

Robbie threw his arms around her waist in a hug that broke her heart. With her hands tied, she couldn’t even hug him back, although she bent toward him in an instinctive gesture of protection she hoped he’d understand.

“Hello, Robbie,” she said as reassuringly as she could. “I thought I’d drop by and see how you are.”

Behind him, Gavril loomed and began to laugh.

You’re dead
, she thought with a rush of hatred that shook her to her toes. She couldn’t afford that. She had to remain calm and focused, because she’d just changed the rules and the plan. She was on her own now, unless Cyn and John had made it in time.

****

Maximilian was uneasy when he saw Ferdinand position himself at Mihaela’s hiding place. All his masking hadn’t hidden her from the old vampire. While Maximilian poised to rush to her aid—even for an experienced hunter, Ferdinand was a formidable opponent to face alone—he wondered what the hell was going on. Was Ferdinand checking out Maximilian’s story? Preparing to change sides and release Robbie?

Maximilian blocked out the low-level noise of the other vampires and focused on Ferdinand. He heard it all.

Bastard. Just enough truth there to sow suspicion. Maximilian didn’t need to see into Mihaela’s mind to feel the doubt and pain radiating from it. The pain pleased him in a perverse kind of way because it proved the depth of her feelings. And yet the pain would not have been there if some of Ferdinand’s barbs had not gone home.

Don’t, Mihaela. Stick to the plan…

She changed the plan. Which meant only one thing. She was on her own.

For a moment during the brief struggle that led to her capture, the colors of the night faded to black, deep and impenetrable.

One word from an unknown vampire and all her trust in Maximilian vanished into dust. Perhaps he was stupid to have imagined anything else. She was a hunter he’d known only days. And yet she was his lover.

The betrayer betrayed
, he thought bitterly.

Then, as he always did, he began to plan again. With his brain working once more, he recognized another thing that had been wrong about Mihaela’s little struggle with Ferdinand.

It had been too quick and just a little too easy. Mihaela had meant to be captured.

To get close to Robbie, he realized, as the boy ran across the ground and flung his arms around Mihaela. She couldn’t trust anyone but herself to save him now.

Ferdinand dragged her on into the midst of the vampires, who’d broken ranks to see what was going on. But Robbie clung around her waist, declaring his allegiance just a little too openly. The child had been brave and curious over the last few days, but he’d been without a human, without anyone at all who even pretended to care for him. Mihaela was his anchor, his lifeline.

Good luck with that, small friend,
Maximilian thought bitterly.

Gavril produced rope from his pocket. Perhaps it had been intended to tie Robbie if he became recalcitrant, but it served now to bind Mihaela’s hands and ankles. Then she was thrown against the temple wall.

With a cry of distress, Robbie ran to her again.

“I’m staying with her! I’m staying with her!” he cried. “I won’t do it if I can’t stay with her!”

Robbie was kidding himself if he imagined that would make any difference. Since he hadn’t really much clue exactly what he would or could do, he couldn’t prevent it happening once the vampires linked their minds through his and the stone. But Gavril, apparently, wanted him compliant. Certainly a small child in a tantrum was a problem, even for a vampire, if the vampire wasn’t prepared to kill him, and Robbie seemed to sense that much.