Worth Dying For (26 page)

He let the man slump to the ground unharmed as Ulrich’s soldiers filled the room. A dozen or more surrounded Bane, Paolo and the surviving guard, forcing them all to stay in place until Ulrich entered.

“What is happening here?”

The old man looked around, scanning their faces in curiosity, as if unsure why the smell of spilled blood hung heavy in the air when they were all still intact. The soldiers blocking his view of Katerina shuffled nervously, and began to clear a path between Ulrich and the body of his daughter, lying broken and drained on the floor.

Ulrich took a step towards her, agony creasing his ageless face. “K…Katerina?” He stretched out his hand and fell to his knees, his ancient body crumbling in pain. “Who did this?” he whispered, just loud enough for his stunned audience to hear.

Paolo stepped forwards. “Bane killed her, Ulrich. I came to confront him over their affair. He made a stake from his bed and tried to attack me.” Paolo paused for effect, his body shuddering as if relaying the story caused him physical pain. “My beloved Katerina tried to save me and threw herself between us.”

One of Ulrich’s men, the head of his personal army, turned to Paolo, regarding him with obvious disbelief. “And you brought two men with you to confront him?”

Bane interrupted. “Two others attacked from outside.”

The man nodded, accepting the information Bane had surrendered without question. He turned to Paolo. “You brought four with you?”

“Bane is a dangerous warrior, as you can see.” Paolo gestured to the carnage around him. “I feared he would attack me but I had no idea he would try to kill me. Bane was outnumbered, that’s why he tried to stake me. He wanted to kill me before my men could stop him.”

Paolo dropped to his knees on the other side of Katerina’s body and picked up her blood splattered hand from the floor. He held it to his cheek in almost comic reverence and turned pleading eyes to the watching men. “I had no idea he despised Katerina enough to murder her. I would never have put her in danger.”

Bane could see that none of the men believed Paolo’s story, but their opinions mattered to no one, and Ulrich had yet to drag his gaze away from his slaughtered child.

Finally, he spoke. “Who came to help you, Paolo?”

Paolo gestured towards his only intact accomplice, who at that moment appeared to be trying to shrink in the hopes nobody would notice him. Ulrich did not look at Paolo so had no idea who he had pointed at, but he addressed him with the confidence of a man who knew that when he spoke, everyone listened. “Tell me the truth. You have but one opportunity to spare your own life. Did Bane kill my daughter?”

The man cast a terrified glance around the room, stopping when he met Paolo’s intense stare. “I…I don’t know. I mean—”

“Tell him, Philippe.” Paolo seemed unsure whether he should allow the man to answer freely. “You simply need to confirm what I have said. Ulrich knows I would never lie to him or harm my beautiful Katerina. You need only to tell Ulrich that I told the truth.”

“Silence!” Ulrich leapt to his feet and turned to the man who held Bane’s life in his hands. “Need I remind you how terrible your death will be if you dishonour me by lying? Speak now, and be quick about it, or I will condemn you to the same fate as Katerina’s murderer.”

“Paolo killed her. Forgive me, Ulrich.” The man dropped to his knees, bowing his head in fear, still expecting to be punished. When he spoke again, he directed his words to the floor. “We came to kill Bane but Paolo told none of us he planned to kill Katerina too. Bane tried to save her. He told Paolo that it was him he wanted and that he should let her go.”

Paolo stared at Philippe in shock. “Ulrich, he is lying. You have frightened him and he is telling you what he thinks you want to hear. Ask the others who came with me. This man is obviously beside himself with fear.”

Ulrich gave no immediate reaction to what he had heard. He stooped to place a hand under Philippe’s elbow and help him to his feet. “You have chosen wisely.” He turned to a soldier standing close by. “Take him away and get the names of the other men Paolo enlisted to help him. If he does not tell you, kill him.”

He turned to his son-in-law. “You are no better than my treacherous brother. He killed my wife and you killed my daughter.”

Paolo tried again. “Ulrich, I swear I had no hand in her death. When you find those other men, they will tell you I speak the truth.”

Ulrich ignored him, directing his next comment to his guards. “Take him to the hill.”

“No!” Paolo tried to dodge the swarm of hands reaching for him. When they dragged him to stand in front of Ulrich, Paolo knew his life was as good as over and any pretence of respect had gone. His lip curled back over his teeth and he spat angry words into Ulrich’s face. “If you end my life, my father will avenge my death. War will break out between our families again. Is that what you want, old man? Do you want to lose what did not belong to you in the first place?”

Ulrich turned away and raised his hand, pointing towards the door in silent instruction. Paolo was dragged from the room, still spitting and cursing. The sound of his protests echoed through the hallways and hung in the air for a long time until they faded away and Bane could no longer hear him.

Ulrich returned to his daughter, picking what was left of her up in his arms and turning to the door without taking his gaze from her. “Come with me, Bane,” he said as he began to walk away.

Bane followed Ulrich to his private chambers and kept his distance as the grieving father placed Katerina onto his bed. Ulrich’s servants had seen him enter with his daughter’s body and their wailing began in earnest as news of her death spread through the house. Ulrich instructed them to watch over her.

He led Bane up to the highest floor of his residence, to a room with dark glass in the windows that allowed a harmless amount of daylight in but gave them a clear view of the hillside and the lone tree at its peak. The ancient oak had watched over the land for hundreds of years.
 

They watched as a black van made its way to the summit and a handful of men got out of the back when it stopped, with Paolo held captive between them. For the time being, he wore the same thick, dark robes as the rest.

Despite his violent struggles, they secured him to the oak with thick ropes strong enough to hold him. One secured his neck to the tree, another ran from one hand to the other around the girth of the trunk, keeping them pinned behind him. Last, his feet were tied together and then that rope was knotted around the base. Given enough time, a vampire could still weaken those bonds and eventually escape—but Paolo would not have the luxury of time.

Their final act before they drove away was to cut the robe from him. Paolo reacted with a violent jerk as the daylight touched his skin. The overcast day may have seemed like a small blessing to Bane, but for a vampire staked out naked in its muted light, it still caused pain. Brilliant sunshine would have caused a swift and more merciful death. In these conditions, it would take Paolo hours, if not days, to die in appalling agony.

His skin began to emit a thin vapour and, even from so far away, Bane heard his low, keening cries turn into bellows of pain. He turned from the window as a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds and Paolo’s screaming intensified. He could not watch as another being, even one who had plotted to kill him, suffered because of Katerina and her father.

“You are becoming weak,” Ulrich said from beside him. Bane turned around to find his eyes still fixed on the macabre spectacle taking place on the hillside.

He ignored the admonishment. “Do you think Paolo’s family will retaliate?”

“I doubt it. They will hear of his actions and know I had no choice. I suspect the days of war are long behind us. I should never have forced Katerina to marry Paolo, but Silas suggested it and I thought it would insult him if I refused. It seemed like a good idea. And Katerina did love him before you…well, you know the rest.”

Bane stayed silent. Ulrich had not yet assigned the blame to anyone but Paolo and himself, but things could change.

“I can sense your anxiety.” Ulrich still could not tear his gaze away from the burning carcass of his former son-in-law. “I don’t hold you responsible but it might be wise if you chose to return to your island for the time being.”

“I will leave immediately.” Bane turned for the door, pausing as he heard Ulrich’s final words to him.

“It would be better for both of us if you stay out of Vechea unless invited.”

As Bane took his leave from the man who held more power than anybody had a right to, he vowed that he would never willingly find himself in Ulrich’s country, or presence, again.

Chapter Fifteen

“Why are the police watching your building again?”

Amber’s mother asked the question out of the blue one Saturday afternoon, as she entered the apartment after a brief trip for groceries. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Dorothy had insisted on coming back to Augusta when Amber had decided just over three weeks ago that the time had come to get back to her old life. Despite her desire to be alone and mourn Bane’s loss in peace, she was pleased her mom had finally left her mausoleum of a house, if only for a while.

“No, Mom. I told you, everything is fine. Stop worrying.”

 
“Then who was that man outside your door just now?”

Maybe some of her recent paranoia had rubbed off on her mother. Amber had convinced herself over the last few days that somebody was watching her again. She felt as if someone’s eyes were on her at odd times—but never during the day. One night, a week or so earlier, the hairs on the back of her neck had risen as she’d laid reading in bed. Amber had turned towards the window in blind fear, thinking maybe Katerina had broken her side of the bargain and that one of
them
had come for her, but nothing more had happened. In the days afterwards when the feeling hit her again for no apparent reason and still no vampires appeared, she’d begun to question her sanity.

 
“They might have been visiting a neighbour, Mom. I’m not the only person who lives in this building you know.” She smiled to soften her words.

Dorothy let it drop. “You’re probably right.” She turned to put the groceries away and laughed as if a thought just occurred to her. “I’d love to know what his mother feeds him on though. I’ve never seen a man so big.”

The glass of water in Amber’s hand smashed on the tile floor, dragging her out of her shock and making Dorothy screech in alarm. It took Amber a second to make sense of what had happened. “Fuck!”

“What on earth is wrong?” Her mom led Amber away from the shards of broken glass around her feet, pushing her up onto a stool. Dorothy shook her shoulder, her voice beginning to show her panic at Amber’s strange response. “What happened?”

 
“Sorry, it slipped out of my hand I guess. Here, let me do that,” she said as her mom went to fetch a dustpan.

“No, you stay right there honey. I have my shoes on already and I don’t want you cutting your feet.” She came back and began to clean up, clucking under her breath and muttering that Amber hadn’t been getting enough sleep or eating enough to keep a sparrow alive. “And I don’t like you using such bad language,” she said loud enough for her daughter to hear.

 
“Sorry.” Amber forced a few breaths into her lungs to fight off a wave of nausea and steeled herself to ask the question hovering on the tip of her tongue. “What did this guy look like?”

Dorothy looked up, surprised they were still talking about him. “The big man? Longish dark hair. Very tall and strong. Why do you ask?”

“What colour were his eyes?”

Her mother laughed. “Heavens girl, I didn’t get that close to him. I might be from a small town but I’m not as green as I’m cabbage-looking. It seemed best to keep out of his way.”

Amber smiled at her mother’s choice of phrase, too numb with shock to do much else. She watched as Dorothy finished cleaning up, chatting away to herself about anything and everything. Amber wouldn’t allow herself to focus on the thoughts swirling in her head until she had time to think about it and react how she wanted too without having to worry about frightening her mother.

She didn’t get that time until much later. Her mom had gone to bed early, as was her habit, leaving Amber in front of a TV show she’d been pretending to watch.

Bane.
It had to be him. Sure, there were loads of huge men around who were nothing more than human but what were the odds one would have been outside her door, acting suspiciously? Okay, the acting suspiciously part was a leap. Her mother hadn’t actually said those words. It
could
have been nobody important at all, but that wouldn’t explain the weird sensations she’d been experiencing.

If they weren’t human and it
had
been anyone but Bane, she and her mother would be dead by now. Unless it had been Solomon. Maybe he’d come back to check on her at Bane’s request.

Since the strange, silent phone call she’d received a few weeks earlier, Amber had tried to figure out who had called and remembered with a jolt that Solomon had her number. She checked with the few people who could have phoned her and they all claimed not to have done so. Her eventual conversation with Richard had been the catalyst for sorting herself out and returning to work.