The Golden Lily (20 page)

This guy nudged the herd of dogs aside—which appeared to be some sort of Chihuahua mix—and barely managed to step outside without them folowing before he shut the door.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“We’re, uh, here for the class. The self-defense class.” I felt the need to clarify, in case he also taught about dog breeding or riding the high seas. “I’m Sydney, this is Adrian. I caled this morning?”

“Ah, right, right.” He scratched his beard. “You got the money? Cash only.”

I produced one hundred and fifty dolars and handed it over.

Out of habit, I nearly asked for a receipt, but then thought better of it. He stuffed the cash into the pocket of his shorts.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re in. Go ahead and wait in the garage until the others show up. The side door’s unlocked.” He gestured to a large, industrial looking building—twice the size of the house—over on the far side of the lot. Without waiting around to see if we’d comply, he slipped back inside to the barking dogs.

The garage’s interior, I was relieved to see, was the first thing here that looked like it had some semblance of legitimacy. There were clean mats on the floor and mirrors on some of the wals. A TV and VHS player sat on a cart, along with some defense-related tapes covered in dust. Slightly more disconcerting was some of the decor, like a pair of nunchucks hanging on the wal.

“Don’t touch those!” I warned, seeing Adrian head toward them. “That’s not the kind of guy whose stuff you want to mess with.” Adrian stayed hands-off. “Do you think we’ll get to learn to use these?”

“Weapons weren’t in the class description. It’s about basic

“Weapons weren’t in the class description. It’s about basic self-defense and hand-to-hand.”

“Why bother then?” Adrian stroled over to a glass case displaying several types of brass knuckles. “That’s the kind of stuff Castile does all day. He could have showed us.”

“I wanted someone a little more approachable,” I explained.

“What, like Captain McTropicalShorts back there? Where on earth did you find him anyway?”

“Just did an Internet search.” Feeling a need to defend my research, I added, “He comes highly recommended.”

“By who? Long John Silver?” Despite myself, I laughed.

Over the next half hour, the rest of our class trickled in. One was a woman who looked to be about seventy. Another was a mother who’d just had her fourth child and decided she needed to “learn to protect them.” The last two women in the class were in their mid-twenties and wore T-shirts with angry girl-power catchphrases. Adrian and I were the youngest in the group. He was the only man, not counting our instructor, who asked that we simply refer to him as Wolfe.

I was beginning to get a bad feeling about all of this, particularly as class started. The six of us sat on the floor while Wolfe leaned against one of the mirrors and looked down upon us. “If you’re here,” he began. “You probably want to learn to use those right away.” He pointed at the nunchucks.

I caught sight of Adrian’s face in the mirror. His expression said, Yes, that is exactly what I want to learn.

“Wel, too bad,” said Wolfe. “You aren’t ever going to use them. Not in this class, anyway. Oh, they’ve got their uses, them. Not in this class, anyway. Oh, they’ve got their uses, believe me. Saved my ass more than once when I was out bow-hunting in Alaska a few years ago. But if you pay attention to what I’m going to tell you, you won’t ever need to pick those up, seeing as we don’t have a rabid moose problem here in Palm Springs.” The new mom raised her hand. “You used nunchucks on a moose?”

Wolfe got a haunted look in his eyes. “I used all sorts of things on that bastard. But that’s neither here nor now. Because here’s the thing. With a little common sense, you won’t need weapons.

Or fists. You.”

To my shock, Wolfe pointed at me and fixed me with a steely, one-eyed stare.

“What did I tell you to do when you arrived?” I gulped. “Give you cash, sir.”

“What did I tell you to do when you arrived?” I gulped. “Give you cash, sir.”

“And after that?”

“You told us to come wait out here.”

He nodded in satisfaction, so apparently my answering of the obvious had gone wel. “We’re two miles from any other houses and about a mile from the highway.

You don’t know me, and let’s face it, this place looks like something from a serial kiler film.” Out of the corner of my eye, Adrian flashed me a triumphant look. “I sent you out into a remote building with hardly any windows. You went inside. Did you look around as you were walking over here? Did you scan the surroundings in here before coming all the way inside? Did you check the exits?”

“I—”

“I—”

“No, of course you didn’t,” he interrupted. “No one ever does. And that is the first rule of self-defense. Don’t assume anything. You don’t have to live your life in fear, but know what’s around you. Be smart. Don’t go blindly into dark aleys or parking lots.” And like that, I was hooked.

Wolfe was astonishingly well prepared. He had lots of stories and examples of attacks, ones that kept reminding me: humans are some of the most vicious creatures out there, not vampires. He showed us pictures and diagrams of various unsafe places, pointing out vulnerabilities and providing pretty practical advice that should’ve been obvious to most people—

but wasn’t. The more he spoke, the more foolish I felt about what had happened with Sonya. If those guys had wanted to attack Sonya badly enough, they would’ve found a way somehow. But there were a milion things I could have done to be more cautious and possibly avoid the confrontation that went down that night. That idea turned out to be a huge part of Wolfe’s philosophy: avoidance of danger in the first place.

Even when he finaly moved on to discuss some very basic moves, his emphasis was on using them to get away—not to stick around and beat your attacker into the ground. He let us practice some of these moves in the last half hour of the class, having us pair up to work with classmates and a dummy since we didn’t realy want to hurt each other.

“Thank God,” said Adrian, when we broke out to practice.

“Thank God,” said Adrian, when we broke out to practice.

He and I were partners. “I thought I’d come to a fight class to learn how not to fight.”

“But he’s right,” I said. “If you can avoid the fight, so much the better.”

“But what if you can’t?” asked Adrian. “Like with your sword-wielding friends? What do you do once you’re in trouble?” I tapped our blank-faced stuffed practice dummy. “That’s what this is for.”

Wolfe’s main move today was on how to break out of someone’s hold if we were grabbed from behind. He had a couple of techniques which weren’t much more complex than head-butting or stomping on feet. Adrian and I took turns being the attacker while the victim practiced the maneuvers—in slow motion and with almost no contact on our partners. That was what the dummies were for. I was about five inches shorter than Adrian and seemed pretty implausible as an attacker, which made us both laugh each time I made a move. Wolfe chastised us for not being serious enough but gave us high marks for learning the techniques.

This made me feel a little arrogant, enough so that when Adrian turned his back to get a water bottle, I sneaked up from behind and flung my arms around him, pinning his arms in turn.

Wolfe had shown us how to break that type of hold, and I honestly thought Adrian had seen me coming enough to slip away before I even touched him. Apparently not. He froze, and for one moment, we stood locked in time. I could feel the silk of for one moment, we stood locked in time. I could feel the silk of his shirt against my skin and the warmth of his body. The lingering scent of the overpriced cologne he wore floated around me. No smoke for a change. I’d always told him the cologne couldn’t be worth what he spent, but suddenly, I reconsidered. It was amazing.

I was so awash in sensory overload that I was caught completely unaware when he did push me away.

“What are you doing?” he exclaimed. I’d thought he’d be impressed at my sneak attack, but there was neither approval nor humor on his face. My own smile faded.

“Testing if you could handle a surprise attack.” My tone was hesitant. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong. He looked uncomfortable. Almost upset. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” he said gruffly. For a moment his eyes locked onto me with an intensity that left me breathless. Then, he glanced away, as though he couldn’t handle looking at me. I felt more confused than ever. “Never thought I’d see the day when you’d throw your arms around a vam—someone like me.” I barely even noticed his public slipup. His words drew me up short. He was right. I’d touched him without even thinking about it—and not just a formal Moroi handshake, like usual.

Sure, it was in the context of our class, but I knew that I never could have done this a few months ago. Touching him now had seemed perfectly natural. Was that why he was upset? Was he worried about the Alchemists and me?

Wolfe stroled by. “Nice work, girl.” He gave Adrian a teeth-rattling slap on the back. “You were totaly unprepared for her.” rattling slap on the back. “You were totaly unprepared for her.” This seemed to distress Adrian even more, and I could’ve sworn I heard him mutter, “That’s for damned sure.” Some of Adrian’s swagger returned during the car ride home, but he was still quiet and thoughtful. I again tried to figure out his shift in mood. “Do you need to stop by Clarence’s for swagger returned during the car ride home, but he was still quiet and thoughtful. I again tried to figure out his shift in mood. “Do you need to stop by Clarence’s for blood?” Maybe the class had exhausted him.

“Nah,” he said. “Don’t want you to be late. But maybe … maybe you can come by this weekend, and we can do a group trip over there?”

“I’ve got the dance on Saturday,” I said apologeticaly. “And I think Sonya was going to take Jill to Clarence’s tomorrow after school. Probably she can pick you up too.”

“I suppose,” he said. He sounded disappointed, but one day wasn’t that long to wait for blood. Maybe he was afraid Sonya would recruit him for experiments again

—which wouldn’t be a bad thing, I thought. Suddenly, he straightened up from his slouch. “Speaking of Sonya … I was thinking of something earlier. Something Wolfe said.”

“Why, Adrian. Were you paying attention after al?”

“Don’t start, Sage,” he warned. “Wolfe’s crazy, and you know it. But when he was giving all his words of wisdom, he mentioned that stuff about not giving out personal info to strangers and how victims are often staked out in advance.

Remember?”

“Yeah, I was there,” I said. “Like, an hour ago.”

“Right, so. Those guys who attacked you and Sonya seemed

“Right, so. Those guys who attacked you and Sonya seemed to know she was a vampire—the wrong kind, but still. The fact that they showed up with a sword implies they did some research. I mean, it’s possible they just noticed her on the street one day and were like, ‘Ooh, vampire.’ But maybe they’ve been watching her for a while.”

Noticed her on the street … I gasped as a milion pieces fell into place in my mind at once. “Adrian, you’re a genius.” He flinched in surprise. “Wait. What?”

“The week before the attack. Sonya and I got dinner, and we were stopped by some random guy who claimed he knew her from Kentucky. She was pretty freaked out because she was a Strigoi the whole time she was there, and obviously, she didn’t hang out with humans a lot back then.” Adrian took a few moments to turn this over in his mind.

“So … you’re saying they’ve been checking into her for a while.”

“Actualy, you’re saying that.”

“Right. Because I’m a genius.” More silence as we both considered the implications of Sonya’s situation. When Adrian spoke again, his tone wasn’t nearly so light.

“Sage … last night.

You never acknowledged my comment about vampire hunters.”

“The Alchemists have no records of modern vampire hunters,” I said automaticaly. “My dad once said that occasionaly, some random human discovers the truth.

I’d figured her attack was something like that—not some huge organized group or conspiracy.”

“Is it remotely possible that somehow, somewhere, the

“Is it remotely possible that somehow, somewhere, the Alchemists might have missed something? And what do you mean by ‘modern’ exactly?” Alchemist history had been driled into me nearly as much as the philosophies that governed our actions. “A long time ago—

like, back in the Middle Ages—when the Alchemists were forming, a lot of factions had different ideas on how to deal with vampires. Nobody thought humans should associate with them.

Those who eventualy formed my group decided the best way was to work with Moroi just enough to keep them separate from humans. But there were others who didn’t take that approach.

They thought the best way to keep humans free was to eradicate vampires—through any means.” I was relying on facts again, my old armor. If I reasoned away this argument, then I wouldn’t have to acknowledge what it would mean if there were people actively hunting Moroi.

“Sounds like vampire hunters to me,” Adrian pointed out.

“Yes, but they weren’t successful. There were just too many vampires, Moroi and Strigoi, for a group like this to take out.

The last records we have of them are from, oh, I’d say the Renaissance. Those hunters eventualy faded away.” Even I heard the uncertainty in my voice.

“You said that sword had alchemy symbols on it.”

“Old ones.”

“Old enough to be from the time that splinter group was breaking away?”

I sighed. “Yes. That old.”

I wanted to close my eyes and sink into my seat. Cracks were I wanted to close my eyes and sink into my seat. Cracks were appearing in my armor. I still wasn’t entirely sure I could accept the idea of vampire hunters, but I could no longer rule out their possibility.

I could see Adrian studying me out of the corner of my eye.

“Why the sigh?”

“Because this is all stuff I should have put together sooner.” He seemed very pleased at the acknowledgment. “Wel, you don’t believe in vampire hunters. Makes it hard to realy consider them an actual threat when you operate in a world of facts and data, huh? But then … how would they have stayed under your radar for so long?”