Uncle Harry.”
My eyes wanted to tear up again when I read his pet name for me, but I held myself in check grimly. I was sick of feeling weak and girly.
“Sounds like quite a hike,” Michael murmured.
“An hour at least, maybe two.” I said. Well, I was ready to stretch my legs after the long car ride anyway. “It’ll probably be dark by the time we get back,” I told Michael. “I’m going to see if the flashlights Uncle Harry always kept are still good. Not that you’ll need one but I don’t plan to be stumbling around on top of the mountain without being able to see where I’m going.”
“Wait a minute.” He put a hand on my arm to stop me. “Kate, what about your uncle’s warning? What payment are we supposed to bring? And for that matter, who are we paying it to and for what?”
I shrugged. “I’m hoping whoever we’re going to see has information. Maybe they can shed some light on this whole prophesy thing I heard The Monsignor talking about.”
“But the payment?” He frowned. “I don’t like that whole ‘it will be nothing you can hold in your hand’ bit. Somehow I get the feeling that whoever or whatever is living in that mountain cave doesn’t accept credit or debit.”
“Good,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. “Less to carry. Look,” I continued, seeing the stubborn look on his face. “Do you have any other ideas? Because I’m fresh out. We came here for answers—well, this is what we’ve got to go on. And believe me, Uncle Harry didn’t hand out warnings lightly so if he says be careful, I’m damn well going to be careful. But I’m not going to sit around here with my thumb in an unmentionable part of my anatomy just because I’m scared.”
A look of reluctant admiration lit his eyes. “I’ve never met anyone like you,” he said. “I’m still trying to decide if that’s a good thing or not.”
“Decide while we hike,” I said. “Time’s wasting.”
Chapter Twenty
As expected, it was a long, cold hike. Spring in the mountains is still a hell of a lot colder than Spring in central Florida and the thin pink sundress and the t-shirt I was wearing over it didn’t offer much protection against the elements. Michael saw me shivering as he hiked the steep mountain trail and I thought at first he was going to say something. Instead, he took off the brown leather jacket he’d brought with him and draped it over my shoulders. I thought about protesting but he gave me a stern look.
“Just wear it, Kate.” His deep voice held a hint of command that surprised me. He’d been so mild mannered from the moment I met him, I had never expected him to start acting all macho and protective. Of course, earlier I’d been wondering when his natural male stubbornness would assert itself. I supposed it was better that it happened here, on the lonely deserted side of the mountain than in the middle of a fire fight with the vamps.
“Fine,” I grumbled, pulling the butter-soft leather more closely around myself. “But only because you’re the one who made me wear this damn sundress in the first place. If I still had my slayer suit on I’d be warm and toasty right now.”
“That’s a hell of a suit all right.” Michael gave me admiring glance, as though he was imagining me in the tight black vinyl. “When I saw you in it, I thought—”
“What, that I was a dominatrix?” I raised an eyebrow at him but he shook his head.
“Never mind what I thought. Let’s just say it was a good thing I was sitting down through most of our first meeting. Scrubs don’t hide much.”
It amused me to think that I’d made such a strong impression on him. “So you like Goth chicks, huh?” I said, pushing aside the branches of a tree that grew over the trail.
“I like pretty women,” Michael corrected me. “Hell, any guy does. But it wasn’t just that with you, Kate. The minute I saw you I just felt a connection—something I had to explore. I don’t know why.” He looked at me. “Do you feel the same at all? Or is it just me?”
I thought of the way I’d dragged him home with me instead of staking him after he was bitten, of the way I’d cried when I thought he had been blown to dust and ashes by the sun out behind the burned out church. The way I’d let him drink from me…touch me…taste me. Instant connection indeed—I’d been acting against all my instincts from the first moment I saw him. And I still was.
“Kate?” he murmured, his voice soft and I knew he wanted an answer to his question.
“We’re here,” I said, relieved that we had reached the end of our trail before I had to come up with something to say. We’d been getting a little too personal lately and it was making me nervous.
“What?” Michael frowned.
“The silver birch, see?” I gestured to the tall, graceful tree. “And look, right beside it is the flowering bush.” This early in the Spring, the flowers were mostly buds but it was clear this was the bush Uncle Harry had written about. It was flush against the side of the mountain and almost as tall as I was.
“Oh, I guess so.”
“Great.” I pushed the curtain of long, willowy branches to one side. Sure enough there was an opening and a kind of tunnel that ran around the inside of the bush. I drew my Glock. “I’ll go first.”
“Why?” he demanded, frowning. “Why should you always walk into danger first?”
Great—here we went with the macho bullshit I’d been waiting for.
“Because I know what I’m doing,” I snapped. “And I’m armed.”
“But I can see in the dark,” he pointed out. “I’m supernaturally strong and fast and a lot less breakable than you. You let me help search around the safe house earlier.”
“That was different.” I said shortly. “It was still daylight then.”
“Day or night, it doesn’t matter. Kate…” He cupped my cheek gently in one large, warm hand, tilting my chin so that I had to look up at him. “Let me go first, okay?” he said softly. “You don’t always have to protect me. Let me protect you for a change. Please?”
His soft request seemed to take all the wind out of my sails. I’d been prepared for a fight—for him to act tough and misogynistic and try to put me in my place. Instead he was standing there, cupping my face and looking down at me with a warmth in his gold-flecked green eyes that made my stomach quiver in the strangest way.
“All right,” I heard myself saying, though I didn’t remember making up my mind to agree to his request. “You can go first but don’t blame me if you get your head ripped off.”
“Thank you.” He surprised me by stooping and pressing his lips to mine briefly—a kiss so soft it was like the tender brush of a butterfly’s wings. Then, before I could protest, he turned and headed through the flowering bush and into the cave.
I followed cautiously, looking around him as well as I could with my Glock in one hand and my last half vial of holy water in the other. Damn it, I was already regretting letting him go first. I wanted to be out in front where I could assess any threat that might come at us. He might be supernaturally fast and strong but I had a hell of a lot more experience in combat situations. I wouldn’t have let him talk me into going second if he hadn’t given me that look from those gorgeous green eyes of his…
“Thiss is my housse. How dare you intrude? Halt and sspeak your namess.”
The dry, hissing voice coming from the darkness before us had me reaching around Michael to point my Glock in its general direction. I didn’t shoot—not yet—but I had about two pounds of pressure on the trigger and I was ready to unload in a heartbeat if the speaker turned out to be a threat.
“I’m Michael and this is Kate. We were told we could come here for help.” Michael sounded cautious but not frightened which wasn’t good. A little fear is healthy when you’re facing monsters in the dark. Then again, the tunnel we’d been traveling through wasn’t dark to him, I reminded myself. He could see even in pitch blackness now, as he had pointed out earlier. So maybe the owner of the voice didn’t look very threatening.
Then a torch flared to life in the darkness and I got a look at our host. Okay, I wa
s wrong—she definitely looked threatening—but mostly from the waist down. From the waist up, she was a woman. A naked woman with large, pendulous breasts barely covered by her long, green hair. Her skin had a greenish tint too which intensified around her lips so that they were a deep, emerald color. As I watched, a forked tongue flicked out from between them, making me bite back a gasp.
But forked tongue or not, it wasn’t her top half that drew most of my attention. From the waist down, she appeared to be some kind of a snake. A python, maybe? I couldn’t tell. I only knew that her shining coils undulated, shimmering in the firelight as they slithered over and under and around each other until I had to look away—the effect was hypnotic.
While we were studying the snake-lady, she was also studying us. She didn’t make any sudden moves but I didn’t lower my gun. If she had a forked tongue, I was betting she had fangs to go with it and nothing is faster than a snake striking. It was best to be prepared.
“Open your mouth and let me ssee,” she hissed and I realized she was speaking to Michael.
“Why?” I demanded before he could answer.
“Becausse I wish to know if my guesss is correct.” She flicked her forked tongue again, her scales writhing in the light of the torch. They made a dry rustling sound like fallen leaves rubbing together against the stone floor.
Michael opened his mouth obligingly and the snake-lady slithered forward, peering at him.
“That’s close enough.” I stepped forward, keeping the Glock pointed at her heart. Or where I thought her heart would be, anyway. Since she was half snake her anatomy inside might be as strange as it was outside.
She hissed but backed off a little. Still, it seemed she had seen what she wanted.
“Fangss,” she said as Michael closed his mouth. “You are a child of darkness.”
“Not really,” he said mildly. “I’m just a regular guy who got bitten by a vampire.”
“I ssee. And who is this you travel with?”
“Michael already told you our names,” I said tightly. “I’m Katherine Cosenza. My uncle, Harold Cosenza, said I could come here for answers.”
“Ah…Cosenzzzza.” She drew out my last name with apparent relish. “Shhow me your mark. Prove the truth of your wordss.”
“Fine.” Keeping the Glock pointed at her, I reached with one hand and pulled up the skirt of my sundress, baring the cross-shaped mark on my inner thigh for the second time that evening.
“Ahhh.” Her golden eyes blinked strangely and I realized she must have a second set of eyelids the way some reptiles do. “A slayer—a child of the light. Tell me, little slayer, what are you doing in the company of a child of darkness?”
“Looking for answers,” I told her, dropping my skirt. “And you’re wrong about Michael—he was bitten by a vampire and he grew fangs but he’s not like a regular vamp. He can be out in the daylight without getting ashed.”
“But he sstill thirstss for blood, doess he not?”
Well, she had me there.
“Yes,” I admitted shortly. “But he’s able to control it. He hasn’t killed a single human since he was turned—not even when he first came out of the long sleep.”
“Who hass he been drinking from then?” she asked and her second eyelids did that weird blink again.
“None of your business,” I said at the same time Michael said,
“From Kate. But I’m not going to anymore—it hurts her when she has to disinfect the bite.”
“Ahh…a child of darkness drinking from a child of light. That I would like to see.” Her tongue flickered out again and the look on her face was one of greedy lust.
“Not going to happen,” I said. “Look—what can you tell us about this?”
I unfolded the brittle piece of parchment I’d found in the family Bible and held it out so she could see it.
For a long moment she looked at it, then she held out a hand.
“May I?”
Reluctantly, I handed it over. She studied it more closely, then shook her head.
“I can make nothing of it in thiss light. Come, let uss go into my lair.”
I didn’t like the idea of going into any kind of “lair” especially not with a creature that wasn’t completely human. But she had my only clue in her hand and she didn’t give us a chance to protest. She simply turned and slithered further down the passage, her scales making that dry, rustling sound against the stone.
Michael looked at me and I frowned.
“Come on. But I’m out front this time.”
He looked like he wanted to protest but I wasn’t backing down again. I pushed out in front of him, my Glock at the ready, and followed the undulating back of the snake-lady further into the tunnel.
We took a few twists and turns which made me nervous but at last the passage opened up into a much larger chamber. It had been decorated, strangely enough, as a kind of living room. There was a fireplace in one corner with a roaring fire hot enough that I could feel its heat across the room. Beside it was one of those long benches with a tilted back—a chase lounge I think they’re called. I don’t’ know for sure—I’m not exactly into interior decorating. My own house is decorated in Early American Yard Sale which is fine for me since it’s just a place to crash between vampire kills.
The chase was upholstered in blood-red leather and the snake-lady flowed onto it and reclined against the side, apparently at ease.
“Have a sseat.” She motioned to a matching red leather couch across from the fireplace and the lounge. Michael and I exchanged glances and settled ourselves on it as she perused the parchment with the family tree by the firelight.
I had a moment to wonder how she’d gotten the furniture up here in the first place. And for that matter, how had she picked it out? I couldn’t exactly see her going to Kanes or Haverty’s and saying, “I want that one in blood red.” Maybe she had found her stuff online but how good could her WiFi be in the side of a mountain? And who in the world would deliver up here?
“Well, well, well…Yess…I ssee…” The snake-lady hissed thoughtfully to herself, breaking my train of thought. The long tip of her tale flicked idly, making strange shadows on the walls.
“Well?” I asked. I know patience is a virtue but it’s one I lack. “What do you see?”
“I ssee much. But thiss record iss incomplete.” She looked up at me. “It showss only the children of Catarina and Vittore. There iss no mention of her offspring with Niccolo.”
“She had children by both of them?” Michael asked. “Who was she?”
“An innocent…a virgin who was debased and yet rose above her debasement,” the snake lady hissed.
“What?” I said impatiently. “What does that even mean?”
“Sshe lived many hundreds of yearss ago.” Her golden eyes seemed to glow in the firelight. “A noblewoman of fine lineage from Modena, Italy. Sshe sswore to take no lover or husband for her life was devoted to purity and the healing artss. One night two brotherss came to her door—priestss, both of them—in need of aid.”
“Were they hurt in some way? Injured?” Michael raised an eyebrow at her and I could see the doctor part of his brain at work.
“They had been infected by eeevil.” Her forked tongue lashed out and caressed her lush green lips as though she savored the word. “They had been performing an exorcism, you ssee. The demon they sought to oust was a powerful one—a Prince of Darkness. It bit them both before it fled. They sought Catarina for her healing touch for they had knowledge that she was the only one to cure their condition. It iss ssaid that only purity of sspirit can cure a demon’s bite. Catarina tried her best…she ssaved their lives. But Niccolo repaid her poorly.”
“What do you mean? What did he do?” I asked, frowning. This was my ancestor we were talking about here—or someone related to my ancestor. I wanted to know about the skeletons in my family closet—even if they were centuries old.
“The evil had infected his ssoul. He raped her,” she said bluntly
. Her tongue flickered again and I saw Michael flinch at the ugly word. “Through him sshe conceived a child.”
“So that would be the empty line under Niccolo’s name?” I asked, gesturing at the parchment she still held.
The snake-lady nodded. “Afterwards, Vittore sought to comfort her. He sstayed with her until her firsst child was born. Their love grew and ssoon thereafter she gave birth to a child of love who took her name of Cosenzzza, as Vittore wished to return to the church. But it was her first child, the child of hate, conceived of rape, that concernss uss now.”
“Who was he and why does he matter to us?” Michael asked.
“That, I cannot tell you. As I said, thiss iss an incomplete document.” She made the parchment rattle again. “I can tell you where to find a completed genealogy that sspeaks more fully of the descendents of Catarina and Niccolo and that when you find the son of Niccolo you will find your answers.”
“What answers?” I asked eagerly. “Does it have anything to do with The Monsignor?”
She recoiled at my words and I do mean recoiled—her snaky bottom half twisted and slithered as though trying to get away.
“Why do you sspeak this name to me?” she demanded, her eyes flaring from gold to orange in the firelight. “What knowledge does a child of light have of such darkness?”
Well, that answered my question about The Monsignor—one of them anyway. He was definitely one of the bad guys—not that I’d had any doubt about that. But I still feel incredibly stupid—after all, I had been working for him for the past four years.
“He was my boss,” I said, hating to admit it. “He came to me after my Uncle Harry was killed and said he was his mentor. He offered to mentor me too and since he had me killing vampires day and night I thought he was legit.”
“A foolish missstake,” the snake-lady snapped, looking at me with disapproval.
“Yeah, well, I realized that when I heard him telling an Elder vampire that Michael’s blood was the key to some prophesy and I should be killed,” I snapped back. “That kind of brought it all home for me that he wasn’t exactly one of the good guys.”