Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) (30 page)

              "It was no big deal," Sachiko said. "You don't owe me anything."

              "It was a big deal to me," David said. "And I owe you a lot."

              "Where did Sebastian get the poisoned stake from?" I asked.

              David shook his head. "I don't know. And I wasn't going to stick around to find out."

              "I wish I'd been able to get a look at that stake myself," Sachiko said. "The people who made it designed it very specifically to kill vampires. What it did to David was horrible."

              David waved a dismissive hand. "I'm just glad it's all over now. So that's how I got here. And that's why I no longer work for the Russian court. They gave me up for lost."

              "Do they know you survived?" I asked.

              "I don't know," David said. "Maybe they're looking for me. Maybe they aren't. But they won't find me in any event. I've still got the necklace, and that makes me pretty much invisible to them. And that leaves me free to help you."

              "To help me?" I said.

              "David can slip in and out of the castle without anyone sensing him," Sachiko said. "All he has to do is move quietly and keep out of sight. He can get into even the most protected areas. He's done it a couple of times already."

              "I guess that's good," I said. "But what does that have to do with me?"

              David and Sachiko exchanged a significant look, and then Sachiko turned to me.

              "Remember when I told you to ask Anton what he wasn't telling you?"

              "Yes," I said.

              "Well, he wasn't telling you a lot," Sachiko replied. "He didn't tell you the truth about William or the Hunter. Which do you want to hear first?"

              "Tell me about William," I said. "Where is he? Is he okay?"

              David and Sachiko exchanged another look.

              "William is up at Rusalka Castle," Sachiko said. "Whether or not he's okay, that's hard to say."

              I jumped up. "What are we doing here? Let's go get him."

              Sachiko pulled me back down. "It's not as easy as all that. William's being held there. He's sort of a prisoner."

              "A prisoner?" I said. "Why?"

              "William was attacked," Sachiko said. "By a vampire. Apparently he breached an ancient tomb while looking for a legendary sword."

              "Ignis Sacer?" I said. "He's mentioned it before."

              "That's the one," Sachiko said. "He thought he'd found it, and so he broke into this old tomb. But unfortunately, he hadn't found it—mostly because it doesn't exist. But what he did find was a very ancient and very angry vampire. The vampire attacked him and tried to turn him. And that's where the complication comes in."

              "What do you mean?" I said. "What complication?"

              "William's vampire status is, as you know, a little tricky," Sachiko said. "He started as one of the Sìdh and then got turned by a vampire. But the transformation wasn't complete—William was so strong that he was able to fight it off partially. So he's not really all Sìdh or all vampire—he's not truly one thing or the other. If a true vampire, like David, has another vampire try to turn him again, nothing much will happen. You can't make him into more of a vampire. But William's body treats vampire blood as an infection. This second attack may finally turn William into a full-fledged vampire. Or, it may actually kill him."

              Sachiko paused.

              "I'm afraid the second outcome is more likely."

              "No!" I jumped to my feet again. "No! That's not possible. There has to be something I can do. I won't let him die."

              Sachiko grabbed my arm. "Try not to panic. We're going to do what we can to help him. But you can't rush into anything blindly. It'll be hard enough to get into the castle—and it'll be harder still to get to William. He's heavily guarded."

              "Are they trying to heal him?" I asked.

              "No."

              "No?" I said.

              "No," Sachiko said firmly. "They don't want him to get better. That is, they don't want his body to fight off this second attack. They want the transformation to complete itself. They want him to become a full-blood vampire. Then one of their own will be as strong as one of the Sìdh. They aren't treating him at all."

              "So they're willing to risk his life?" I said.

              "Yes."

              "We think he may actually have been set up," David said.

              "What do you mean?" I asked.

              "William's interest in Ignis Sacer is well known," David said. "It's sort of the sword to end all swords. He thinks if he finds it he can defeat the Hunter and the Werdulac—and any other ancient vampires that come along. William believes he can use it to save you. It's too bad the sword isn't real. It really would be useful."

              "A rumor started to float around not too long ago," Sachiko said, "that Ignis Sacer could be found in an old vampire tomb. I can't prove it, but I think the rumor was started by the Russian court. They wanted William to go to that tomb, get attacked, and then finally come over to their side completely. Even before he met you, he'd always kind of kept them at a distance."

              "They set him up," I murmured. I sat back down. "What tomb was it? Was it the tomb of the Hunter?"

              "No, it wasn't the Hunter's tomb," Sachiko said. "Tombs like his are actually prisons, created by the Sìdh to trap the vampire that's interred there. This place William went to is known as the Black Tomb. It's one of the few true vampire tombs—that is to say, it was constructed by vampires for a vampire. And this one is said to be haunted by a vengeful vampire spirit. No one goes there—no one. I suppose that's why William was able to believe that Ignis Sacer could be hidden there. Certainly no one's explored the place."

              "It's haunted?" I said.

              "Supposedly," Sachiko replied. "That's the rumor, anyway. I don't believe it myself. But there is something there. I think there's just a really old, really insane vampire living in the tomb who attacks anyone who goes there. The few vampires who've been foolish enough to go to the Black Tomb do get attacked—always. But the attacks are real enough, so I figure a real vampire must be behind them. Spirits don't have teeth to sink into their victims. Vampires can be a strangely superstitious group at times."

              "The Russian court is practical enough," David said. "They would never have tricked William into going there if there hadn't been a real vampire in the place. They needed a real bite to try to turn him. A ghost bite wouldn't have done it."

              "That's true enough," Sachiko said. "The attack on William was terrifyingly real."

              "He's bad?" I said.

              "Very bad," Sachiko replied.

              "Then what can we do?" I said.

              "We'll take him to the healer," Sachiko said. "The same one who saved David. We think she might be able to save William, too. But to do that, we've got to get into the castle, get past the guards, get William, and get out again—without being pursued. We don't want to lead them right to the healer. And there's one other thing we need while we're at the castle, so this is going to take all of us. I figure you and I can get William, and David can get the other thing. Since David's got the necklace, the part of the job that needs the most stealth will go to him."

              "What's the other thing we need?" I asked.

              You know how I said that Anton wasn't telling you the truth about the Hunter, either?" Sachiko said.

              "Yes."

              "Well, the thing we need has to do with him—"

              David interrupted. "We need to get a disguise for Katie. And we need to get moving. You can explain to Katie what you guys need to do once we're out of here."

              "You're right," Sachiko said. "We won't be safe here forever. We need to get in, get out, leave town. We may have eluded the Hunter for a little while, but he'll find this place soon. We'd better get going."

              Sachiko looked at me thoughtfully. "The wine worked well enough to sneak you in here. But this isn't exactly the best part of town. We've got to think of a way to get you all the way through Zamochit and up to the castle without anyone sensing that you're human."

              "What about David's necklace?" I asked. "If it disguises vampires, maybe it disguises humans, too."

              "It's possible," Sachiko said. "But I really don't know if it has the same effect on a human that it does on a vampire. And I don't think we should risk it. We might not be able to save you if a whole pack of vampires converges on you because they can scent human blood."

              "What if I don't use a disguise?" I said. My heart was beating quickly, but I rushed on anyway. "What if I go out as myself—the infamous ghost girl—and you and David pretend that you've caught me and you're turning me in? We might be able to get all the way up to the castle that way."

              Sachiko shook her head. "That's too risky, too."

              "I agree," David said. "We might be able to get up to the castle that way, but once we were inside, they'd have us. Sachiko and I probably wouldn't be allowed free range of the castle, and you most certainly wouldn't. In effect, we'd all be prisoners."

              "But I thought you said that Innokenti and the king don't want me harmed," I said.

              "They don't," Sachiko replied. "So once they had you, they would lock you up to keep you safe. And David and I would probably be locked up, too, just so they could keep an eye on us. We might all end up languishing behind bars, not far from William—and completely unable to help him."

              "Sachiko's right," David said. "We have to get into the castle undetected. They can't know we're there."

              We all lapsed into silence.

              "I've got it!" Sachiko said suddenly. She grabbed my hand. "Come with me."

Chapter 22.

The first thing Sachiko did was to lead me to a small bathroom at the back of the house where I could rinse the wine out of my hair and just generally dry off.

              She also gave me new clothes and shoes—although to be strictly accurate, both the shoes and the clothes were old. Sachiko changed her clothes, too, and then she sat me down on the edge of the bathtub. She rummaged around in the shadows and then came up with several compacts that I could dimly see contained makeup.

              "Hold still." Sachiko began to brush powder from one of the compacts over my face.

              I glanced down curiously at the porcelain bathtub I was perched on, and then I glanced upward. The light from the jar candle Sachiko had brought with us threw fantastic shadows on the ceiling and walls, but despite the gloom, I could still see that there was a showerhead attached above me on the tiled wall.

              "Vampires take showers?" I said.

              "Seriously, hold still," Sachiko said. "And of course they do. Vampires are vain, remember? Anything that walks on this earth gets dirty, and no self-respecting vampire would go around covered in grime or wearing clothes that weren't clean. So that means showers and washing machines. And that's why they tend to go after young, beautiful victims, too—they like good looks and good health. That's something we can use to our advantage."

              "You talk sometimes like you're not one of them," I said.

              Sachiko shrugged. "I'm not. Technically, I'm one of them. But I don't really fit in. Now let me see your hands. Both of them."

              I held out my hands dutifully. "Can I ask you a question?"

              "You've already asked me quite a few of them," Sachiko said. "But I suppose you mean you want to ask me a question that you think might touch on a sensitive subject. You don't have to worry—you can go ahead. I believe in the truth."

              "Why are you doing this?" I said. "All of it? Why did you come to Elspeth's Grove to warn me? You didn't have to do anything at all. You could've just stayed out of it. Why are you helping me?"

              Sachiko paused in her work on my hands. She looked up at me, and her dark eyes were unreadable.

              "You remind me of me," she said at last. "I know who you are and what you're supposed to do. I also know you didn't choose that life—that life where you have to walk in the darkness and not in the light. I didn't choose that life, either. It came to me, and I wasn't allowed to say yes or no. It just happened. And actually, I don't mind this life. I don't think I was terribly happy before."

              Sachiko began to dab at my hands again. "But even though I don't mind it, I still didn't choose it—and I'm still an outsider. And so are you. We're all outsiders in this house, you, me, David. And we're all being used by them—that group up at the castle. I would help anyone in that position."

              Sachiko straightened up. "I think that's good enough."

              She held up a battered mirror, and I peered into its murky depths.

              For just a moment, I thought I saw a light flicker somewhere in the dark glass. I remembered Cormac's words about his final gift to me, and I wondered if I was seeing the lights of the Sìdh. Did they know at this very moment that there was a vampire nearby? Were those lights meant for her? But even as I stared at the light, it vanished, and I was left alone in the mirror's cracked surface. I continued to stare deep into the mirror, but the light did not return. Perhaps I'd never seen it at all—maybe it was only reflected candlelight. I turned my attention to what was actually in the mirror.

              In the dim light, I peered at my reflection. Sachiko had darkened my eyebrows considerably, and my face and neck appeared to be liberally caked with mud. There was also a scar now that ran across my cheek from my ear to my chin, and the scar looked both angry and old. Even though I knew it was fake, it looked frighteningly real to me, and I couldn't help putting up a hand to confirm that the scar was only makeup.

              Sachiko swatted my fingers away. "Don't touch it. You'll ruin my work."

              "How did you learn to do that?" I asked.

              Sachiko propped the mirror on a shelf and began to apply makeup to her own face. "Vampires have a lot of time—we learn to do a lot of things. I'd give you some messed up teeth, too, but we don't really have the time. After I do my face, I've got to do David's, too. Then we'd better get out of here."

              "What are we supposed to be?" I asked.

              "Sanitation workers."

              "Sanitation workers?" I said. "Like garbage men?"

              "Yes. You sound surprised."

              "I am."

              You didn't think vampires had garbage men?" Sachiko said.

              "I'd never really thought about it," I said. "But if someone had asked me, I would have said no."

              "Well, we do have them. Any community generates waste of some kind, and that waste has to be hauled away. But vampires, in their vanity, don't like to think about garbage. They like to think they're above all that and that they're pristine and perfect. But they aren't, and somebody's got to take care of the garbage."

              "I imagine, then," I said, "that being a garbage man isn't just a normal job like it is for human beings."

              "No, it isn't," Sachiko replied. "Around here all sanitation jobs are done by the less fortunate—at least in terms of looks. Vampires are supposed to heal easily—not have scars and blemishes and the like. But sometimes things go wrong—limbs don't always heal properly, discolorations and blemishes don't go away, scars remain. Vampires with problems like that can sometimes find themselves shunned by their more perfect brethren, and they often find themselves working at jobs other vampires avoid. Oddly enough, some of the disfigured vampires actually prefer things that way. Most vampires want to be beautiful—but there is a less-glamorous subculture. They like to think of themselves as actual monsters. And that's a further point of contention."

              "So we look like the kind of vampires other vampires don't want to associate with," I said.

              "Exactly," Sachiko replied. "Our appearance will keep other vampires away. And then there will be the smell."

              "The smell?" I said.

              Sachiko turned a gap-toothed smile on me.

              "I couldn't help blackening just one," she said. "And, yes, we are going to smell truly awful. I plan to take us on a trip through the garbage heaps. We'll really need to immerse ourselves in the role, so to speak. And the aroma should help to disguise your human scent. Wine alone wouldn't be enough to get you all the way through Zamochit, but the smell from the heaps should do it."

              There was a knock on the door, and then David poked his head into the bathroom.

              "Are you two just about done yet?" he asked anxiously. "Because we really need to get going."

              "I think we're both good," Sachiko said, waving him forward. "Come here, and I'll fix you up, too."

              "Do we really have time for that?" David asked.

              "It'll just take a minute," Sachiko said. "And we don't want the whole thing to fail because one of us was too good-looking to be a garbage man."

              "Fine," David said.

              Sachiko quickly got to work on him, and before long, David had a scar over his eye and a face covered in mud.

              Sachiko stood back and looked at her handiwork. "I think that will do."

              David sprang up from his seat on the bathtub. "Finally. Now let's get out of here."

              Holding the candle high, Sachiko led the way to the door of the basement. She paused at the door and turned to me, her face bathed in the soft light from the candle.

              "Whatever you do," she said, "don't say anything while we're out there. And if I tell you to run for the barrier and save yourself, then I want you to run. Don't worry about David and me. We can look out for ourselves. We've been doing it for a very long time."

              She blew the candle out.

              We slipped quietly out of the basement, and Sachiko led the way up the stairs into the alley.

              After the near darkness of the basement, the soft, silvery light that suffused Zamochit was a welcome relief. Sachiko ran across the alley swiftly—but not so swiftly that I couldn't see her—and I followed her. David followed behind me.

              The three of us ran through the streets of Zamochit, slipping from shelter to shelter, with Sachiko picking out the path. As we ran, I noticed that the houses and buildings we passed—which were already shabby and dilapidated—were growing steadily shabbier.

              Eventually, I began to see small shapes with bright eyes slinking through the shadows, and I couldn't help crying out when I caught a clear glimpse of one of the creatures in the silver light.

              It was a rat.

              "Quiet!" Sachiko hissed at me. "The rats are nothing to worry about. They get in everywhere—even the barrier can't keep them out."

              She led us on, and before long, I caught a strong scent of decaying refuse.

              "We're close," Sachiko whispered. "As if you couldn't tell. Just keep following me."

              We ran on, and soon we were in amongst dark mounds of discarded materials of all kinds—we had found the garbage heaps. The heaps seemed to stretch for a very long way, and I was glad for once that I couldn't see very well—the light was sufficiently dim to keep the things in the heaps largely a mystery.

              But the one thing that wasn't a mystery was the smell of the place—it was so strong that it was nearly overpowering.

              "I know it's bad," Sachiko whispered. "But that will work to our advantage. Trust me."

              I looked around in alarm. I had a terrible feeling that Sachiko was about to tell me that I should roll around in one of the heaps—the better to cover myself with the smell that would conceal me.

              Sachiko glanced at my face.

              "Don't worry," she whispered. "You won't really need to touch anything around here—at least not with your hands. I think it will be enough for us to get our shoes dirty. That should carry enough of the garbage smell to cover your scent. This stuff is pretty powerful."

              Sachiko spotted a dark, unpleasant-looking puddle, and she hurried over to it and stomped through it with both feet. She stopped then, and bending up one shoe, she sniffed at it gingerly.

              "That should do it," she said.

              She waved me forward, and I reluctantly followed her example. David walked through the puddle after me, and then Sachiko gave us both an experimental sniff.

              She wrinkled her nose in displeasure.

              "You're both good," she whispered. "Time to fly."

              Sachiko grabbed me by the hand, and we took off with blinding speed, streaking through the shadowy heaps till they became nothing more than a long, dark blur.

              I could just make out David racing along beside us—he was a smaller, paler blur that had a vaguely human form.

              Soon we had left the garbage heaps behind, and we were back out into the village of Zamochit. We ran through the streets at a pace that only a vampire could summon up, with Sachiko pulling me along by the hand, and from time to time, we crawled up onto a rooftop so we could rest in relative safety.

              As we sat on the roof of a small house on one such rest, there was a thumping sound beneath us—as if someone in the house below had just knocked over a chair—and Sachiko stood up quickly. There were shouts after that.

              "I'm sure it's nothing to do with us," Sachiko whispered. "In fact, I know it isn't. It's just two vampires arguing. But all the same, I think we should move on."

              Sachiko took me by the hand, and the two of us clambered down the side of the house. David slid down after us.

              A door opened then, in the house across the street from us, and a woman stood silhouetted in the doorway.

              I stepped away from Sachiko, and I stared at the woman for a moment, transfixed—I was suddenly reminded of my first visit to Zamochit. On that night, after I had accidentally crossed the barrier, I had wandered through the streets alone with no idea of where I was or where I was going—and curious eyes had begun to follow me.

              A young girl with blond ringlets and the face of an angel had come to my aid then, stepping out of her house and beckoning me toward her door. She told me that her name was Veronika, and she had warned me that Zamochit was full of vampires—at the time I'd had no knowledge of the city at all. But Veronika hadn't wanted to help me—her well-lit door and promise of safety was actually a lethal trap.