Worth Dying For (22 page)

Large gates, carved of wood made silky smooth by centuries of erosion from the salt in the sea air, opened as he reached them. A young face he didn’t recognise greeted him on the other side and Bane stepped into Vechea for the first time in one hundred and fifty years.

The city lived at night so the main square bustled with activity as the residents went about their business. In the human world, the town would have been a tourist attraction—the medieval buildings were still in pristine condition, although altered a little to accommodate modern living. But now, unlike the last time he had been inside the city walls, artificial lights, electronic music and the noise of a thousand different TV shows streamed from the windows. Bane wondered if their lazy way of life had numbed their senses. He could barely stand the abuse on his ears.

Beneath that sound though, another still lingered, one that had always been there. The cries of the humans—men and women captured, imprisoned and fed upon until their tormentors killed them by accident or they died of terror.

The youth led him through narrow streets lined with market stalls selling clothing and entertainment goods. DVDs, CDs, video games—everything one could want, as well as the equipment needed to play them all. Expensive cars and motorbikes lined the sidewalks, used more as toys than essential modes of transport, Bane surmised. Many things had changed in the outside world in the last century and a half but he’d never dreamt the same changes would be taking place inside the ancient walls of Vechea.

Bane turned to walk up through a long alleyway he knew led to Katerina’s residence but the youth stopped him.

“Ulrich wished you to be brought to him as soon as you arrived.”

“He’s expecting me?”

“But of course.”

Bane hesitated, torn between following the summons he dared not ignore, and finding Katerina to ensure she’d kept to her word. Katerina solved the dilemma when she appeared at his side.

Her beauty hadn’t dimmed in the years since he had last seen her. She still bore the face of an angel. Seductive indigo eyes framed by thick lashes and a rosebud mouth could make one forget she was the monster Bane knew her to be. Her hair hung in a long, sleek curtain to her waist, its baby blond strands catching the light as the breeze whirled it around her head. The skin-tight leather trousers clinging to her shapely legs, and a tiny vest top barely restraining her pert young breasts, were the only discernible changes Bane could find. She no longer wore the corsets and bustles that had been fashionable at the time he left.

“I’ll take him from here, Jason. You may go.” She dismissed the boy and turned to Bane. “You barely made it in time.”

Katerina waited for his answer with a benign smile on her face, no doubt oblivious of the depth of his hatred for her and the almost visceral response he had to her presence. Bane inclined his head in a show of deference, aware Amber’s life depended on his ability to keep Katerina in good humour.

“I am here as agreed. Have you called off your men?”

“Yes,” she breathed, stepping closer. “Solomon has informed me your little friend is safely back in her hovel.”

“And Alexandra?”

“On her way to meet Solomon.” Her perfect lips formed a pout and she gave him a look Bane knew only too well. “Must we talk about such things? Aren’t you pleased to see me?”

Bane straightened up as she took another step towards him. “Yes, of course. How are you, Katerina?”

Her forwards advance continued until her body was pressed right up against his. Stretching up onto the balls of her feet, she tried to close the six inch height difference that still separated them and press her lips to his. Bane leant back, avoiding her mouth as his brain searched for a valid reason to delay the inevitable.

“There’s plenty of time for this later. Your father is waiting for me.”

Katerina hissed, her eyes narrowing in spite as pushed him away. “Don’t try my patience. Your dowdy little friend will suffer for it if you do.”

“I am worried about offending Ulrich, that is all. Let me deal with him and then you will have my undivided attention.” He smiled, trying to inject some real warmth into the moment. He would have to do better if he intended to keep Katerina happy. “Do you have any idea what he wants?”

 
“Some political intrigue, I imagine. You know my father.”

“Yes I do, and if he summoned me, I can only imagine it’s important.” He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek, suppressing the growl that threatened as his body rebelled against touching her. “I will come to you as soon as I can.”

She pouted again. “Don’t keep me waiting too long, Bane. You know the mischief I can get into if I feel I am being neglected.” The words were spoken in Katerina’s soft, lilting voice, but held a very clear threat.

Bane nodded, averting his eyes lest she see that the thought of being with her made his flesh crawl. He turned towards her father’s house, distracted from his hatred of Katerina when he saw Ulrich in the doorway to his home, gesturing that Bane should come to him.

He trudged up the road towards his leader—grateful to get away from the harpy who had ruined his life, but fearful that whatever Ulrich had to say would involve Amber’s fate.

Did Ulrich know how ridiculous he looked dressed in such modern attire?
His expensive trousers and silk shirt hung from his skeletal frame like clothes on a hanger and Bane might have laughed if the being he approached did not wield such power.

Unlike the many he had created over the centuries, Ulrich and his brothers had been born vampire and looked nothing like their subjects. His skin, although unwrinkled and without blemish, barely covered the bones of his skull. Had there been blood pumping through his veins, Bane would have been able to see it clearly through Ulrich’s flesh. His hair had long since rubbed away, leaving a bald, waxy pate in its place. Ulrich had been alive so long that he'd eroded into no more than a fossil of the being he once was.

Bane knew his strength had not diminished with the passing of time because, despite his position of privilege and power, Ulrich still needed to eat. He could quite easily have commanded that his food be provided for him—humans caught by his subjects and brought to him for slaughter—but to hunt was his nature and he could not survive without it.

“You have returned at last like the prodigal son.” Ulrich smiled as if amused by the biblical reference.

“I regret to say it is not through my own choice.” Bane didn’t bother to lie to his leader, aware Ulrich knew everything that happened in Vechea. His staff watched his other subjects constantly, extending the range of his eyes and ears. Ulrich relied upon the knowledge he gleaned from them to maintain control of his domain.

The old man nodded. “Ah yes, Katerina. She is a wilful child. But you know that already.”

“I do.” Bane fought to keep the hatred out of his mind. Ulrich read others too well and would be offended if he knew how Bane despised his beloved offspring.

“I have never been able to refuse her anything.” Ulrich’s expression changed and his stare held Bane’s. “And I would never put the needs of a human above my daughter’s wishes. You test my patience with this pathetic obsession you have for that woman.”

Bane suppressed his rage—Ulrich could never know how much Amber meant to him. “She is a fascinating creature and I had planned to enjoy using her for a while longer but she is nothing to me.”

“Yet you killed two of our kind to protect her?”

“No, Ulrich. I killed to protect what was mine.”

“Why did you not kill her?”

“As I said, she enchants. Maybe one day, when Katerina tires of me as I am sure she will, I will visit her again.”

The elder would understand Bane’s supposed weakness for a female, Ulrich himself still had many lovers, both human and vampire. The curiosity in his eyes caused a moment’s fear that Bane had said too much and piqued the old man’s interest. Making Amber sound too rare or special would attract his attention and he would have to have her, if only to exert his power over Bane.

 
“So, she is beautiful?”

“No, quite plain.” Bane laughed as convincingly as he could. “I do not know what draws me to her.”

“Have you tasted her then? She is sweet, I wager.” Ulrich visibly salivated at the thought.

“No…she is unclean.” Bane hit upon the excuse at the last second, knowing Ulrich would accept it without question. He cringed at the memory of the time he had taken blood from a human with an illness. The smallpox virus had done no more than make him sick to his stomach for days but it had been a lesson he would never forget. “She got ill just after I took her. I had planned to wait until she was well.”

Bane feared that his actions and the lengths to which he’d gone to protect her would intrigue Ulrich. He distracted Ulrich from the topic at hand by engaging him in conversation about Vechea and its welfare.

The last thing Amber needed was a new—and unstoppable—threat. If Ulrich wanted her while she was still human, there would be nothing Bane could do to stop him taking her.

* * * *

“Yes, Detective. That’s the man I saw in my apartment.”

Amber turned her face towards the man sitting opposite her, trying to still the nervous tic in her eyelid as she held his gaze.

 
“So this guy we’ve got in the cells, he murdered your boyfriend, busted you out of jail and held you hostage for a week? Why would he take you back to your apartment when he knew we’d be looking for you?”

“I told you already.” She banged her fist on the table in front of her, remembering that someone wrongly accused of lying would be acting indignant by now.

Detective Gillion wasn’t impressed. “Well, tell me again.”

He leant back in his seat, wheezing out a rancid breath as he moved his considerable belly away from the table. Amber recoiled from the stench of whisky and cigarettes—could the man emit any more smells? The small room already smelt like an armpit.

Tears welled in her eyes, caused by both the unrelenting interrogation she’d been subjected to and the traumatising experience of the past few hours. Solomon had shown none of Bane’s restraint and allowed his nature free reign. The whole time they had been together, Amber had been terrified. She consoled herself with a reminder that she need never see him again, but with the comforting thought came a more painful one—she would never see Bane again either.

Amber looked at the detective, trying to recall exactly what she had said before. She repeated the story about Solomon in a flat monotone. “I don’t know where he kept me hostage or why he decided to take me back to the apartment. He kept me blindfolded until he had to take me out of the car and walk me down the street. That’s when you guys showed up.”

“Where did he leave the car?”

“I’m not sure. On Johnson, I think.”

“You don’t know?” Gillion pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the perspiration from his face and the shine from his bald head.

“No.” Her stomach clenched as she tried to convince him of the one detail Solomon hadn’t thought to cover when he had told her the plan. Solomon thought he could just confess and that they would leave her alone. But he hadn’t known about this detective—the same one who had interviewed her after David’s death—the one who looked at her now and saw through her lies. Amber could sense his frustration and knew he had no intention of letting her go anytime soon.

“Why aren’t you asking Solomon these questions? He’s the only one who knows the details or why he did it.”

In fact, why was she answering questions at all? Detective Gillion hadn’t followed protocol. She should have seen a doctor and talked to a lawyer. He knew that, and he wouldn’t risk jeopardising any future conviction he might be hoping for if he really had anything on her.

“Have you spoken to him?” He nodded. “And what did he say?”

She knew she had him when his gaze left hers for the first time in what seemed like hours. “He confessed,” Gillion said, in a voice more suited to a grungy kid than the fifty-plus walking heart attack he was.

Amber got to her feet. “Then what am I doing here?”

Gillion looked at his paperwork and used his pen to point towards the chair she’d just scraped across the tile floor. “Sit down, Mrs. Kirkwood. I haven’t finished with you yet.”

“Charge me with something or let me go.” She leant over the table, locking her gaze with his, almost daring him to do it. Two or three weeks ago, the guy may have scared her, but not now, not after what she’d been through.
 

He got to his feet and scowled, not even trying to hide his irritation. “Don’t leave town.”

Gillion turned to the door and held it open for her as if he was kicking her out. Amber smiled at his attempt to act like the decision she could leave had been his. He handed her over to another officer, instructing him to take her home and walked away without a backward glance.

An hour later, Amber let herself into her apartment for the first time in almost two weeks. She fell onto her bed, too tired to care about the dirty sheets or the rotten food and stale milk in her refrigerator that needed to be thrown away. And too tired to cope with the emotion it would take to think about Bane.