Just like that, the fog lifted. In front of her lay the dark blue water of Yellowstone Lake with the Absaroka Range in stark relief on the far side to the east.
Matthias’ voice spoke in her mind. “Don’t open your eyes. Tell me what you see.”
Coherent thought escaped her. Just the shock of seeing the lake before her as a live image and not as a memory made her forget her purpose. She let her mind drift further. As with their session near Old Faithful, she was not just seeing out the windows but seeing the scene before her, only in her mind and not through Matthias’ eyes.
“There’s a yellow canoe to our left,” she whispered, “close to shore, with two people.”
“Good,” he murmured. “More. Let yourself float, like in a movie, an aerial view. Pan around with your mind.”
She did. It was amazing how easy it was once she tapped into it. She saw the two of them standing on the boardwalk, her head limp against Matthias’ shoulder. If not for him she’d be passed out on the boardwalk. Then she realized she couldn’t feel his body against her.
She raced over the parking area, the Land Rover, and saw a mule deer grazing by the path. She paused, and it looked up at her.
“Go,” she thought.
It bounded out of the parking area.
“Good,” he whispered in her ear. “Follow the road back to the cabins.”
She flew! Over cars, at the top of the trees, she raced across the landscape, amazed, astounded. Over the Continental Divide twice, through Craig Pass, and around to the valley where Old Faithful awaited.
And there she found Robertson and Albert, sitting in chairs outside the cabin, while Moe, Larry, and Curly quietly talked nearby. Robertson looked up sharply. Albert stopped talking, following his gaze.
“What is it, Tim?” he said.
“Anastazia,” Robertson said.
Matthias’ voice cut through the distance. “Come back to me.”
And like that, she was leaning against his shoulder, her knees weak. He caught her, scooped her up, and carried her to a nearby bench. She shivered. She was freezing despite the warm air. He draped his jacket around her shoulders, taking her hands in his, trying to warm them.
Something was wrong. The sun was in the wrong place. “How long have we been here?”
“Three hours,” he said. “I’m sorry I put you through that. I’m sorry we don’t have more time to ease you into this.”
She couldn’t stop shivering.
Matthias’ cell rang. Apparently annoyed at the interruption, he snapped it open. “Yes?”
Taz knew it was Albert. She heard him even though Matthias didn’t have the volume turned up loud.
He looked at her. “We’ll be back…”
Everything went dark.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Taz woke alone in their cabin. She was dressed, swaddled in several blankets, the heater running. Her stomach rumbled. What time was it?
Throwing back the covers, she sat up, and the room spun. Where is Matthias?
Twenty minutes after four. She’d missed lunch. No wonder she was starving. What happened? They were at West Thumb and—
Her stomach lurched, and she held her head in her hands. Cripes, it was worse than a hangover. She must have fainted. She’d been so cold, but now she felt better.
Her stomach lurched again, and she closed her eyes.
Better was a relative term. At least she wasn’t cold anymore. In fact, now she was sweating.
Keeping one hand on the bed for support, she carefully inched her way over to the heater and shut it off.
The door opened. Matthias carried a paper bag. The smell of food sent her stomach into a conflicted battle of ravenous hunger versus gut-twisting nausea.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think.”
He turned the light on, and she winced then looked at the burgers he unpacked on the desk. They weren’t supposed to have food in the cabins, but she figured Matthias wasn’t worried about bears.
That was the least of their concerns.
“What happened?” She took a cheeseburger from him and picked at it, trying to settle her stomach.
He sat next to her. “You fainted at West Thumb.”
And before he could tell her the rest, she reached out with her mind and saw what happened, saw him trying to bring her around, calling her name, his face tight with panic—
“Oh my God, I’ve killed her, what have I done?”
—and then relief when he realized she was breathing, how he ran with her in his arms to the Land Rover, turning the heat up full blast despite how he was sweating, tucking his jacket around her, talking to her, trying to wake her. How he bundled her into bed in the cabin—
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s not your fault. You weren’t ready for such a huge step.” He tenderly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I honestly didn’t think you could go that far. Once you started I didn’t want to bring you back before I knew what you could do.”
The burger tasted good, and eventually her stomach settled enough for her to enjoy it. And her hunger returned.
“I feel like I could eat an elephant.”
“You expended a lot of energy.”
“So what else can we do?” Taz felt ready to have this conversation.
“There are things, like you experienced yesterday and today, that we can do. Not all of us, only the more powerful. Some just have premonitions or really strong intuition. Most cannot consciously tap into what you did today.”
“Can we fly?”
He laughed. “Delta, Southwest, or American?”
“I was flying today.”
“In your mind. If I hadn’t been there, you would have been helpless.”
“Will that always happen?”
“I don’t know. You might learn to control it, or it might always take you over. You must promise that until you learn to control it, you never do it without me, without controlled circumstances. If you were alone and someone tried to hurt you…” He looked at her. “I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
“Can you do that? What I did?”
“Not like that. Not the way you can. My cousin Rafael can. I’ve heard of others, but I’ve never been able. I have a fraction of the reach you have.”
“What about controlling animals?”
“Sometimes.”
“Changing into bats?”
She knew that would crack him up, and he laughed. “No.” He proceeded to tell her what he knew, what his labs discovered.
The genetic markers that made up the “vampire” syndrome were like any other genetic condition. Except much of it tapped into normally unused portions of the brain.
“Think about wolves,” he said, “how they effortlessly hunt as a pack, communicate wordlessly. It’s what we do, some of us anyways. Who knows? Maybe humans could do this once and we’re the last who still can.”
“What about the blood?”
“There is something in us that lacks certain nutrients. But now, with vitamins and fortified food, we don’t crave blood. We get everything we need off the shelf. There are rituals, most of which aren’t practiced anymore, but a few still remain out of need or…desire.”
He looked at her, and she blushed, a warm tingle growing between her legs and spreading. “There is something in our blood that our digestive enzymes don’t destroy. On the contrary, when we take it in, like we did, like you did for me, our bodies can instantly absorb and use it.”
“I still don’t understand the instant healing, the supersensitive hearing, all that. How we live longer.”
He shrugged. “Neither do I. It’s all part of it. As far as the healing, look at lizards. Some of them, they can regenerate new tails. Have you ever heard of progeria?”
She shook her head.
“It’s a genetic syndrome, where children age rapidly, dying usually by their teens, looking like old men and women.”
Her appetite slipped. “And?”
“It’s caused by a mutation in the LMNA gene. The cells break down prematurely. We think what we have is the exact opposite. It’s a mutation that’s super strong.”
“Does that explain everything?”
“No. There’s more than one mutation. How many, I’m not sure. Like any genetic disorder, it can be passed on. You have people who are carriers and those who actually have it. Being caused by more than one gene mutation supports my theory how some can have certain traits and not others. In your case, I suspect you have most, if not all, of the mutations. I believe your father was also of the line for you to be so strong.”
“Will I live as long as you?”
He caressed her cheek. “It doesn’t matter. Because if you’re not alive, I don’t want to be.”
“So we can’t ‘make’ another vampire?”
“No. Not like you’re thinking. That’s Hollywood myth.” She sensed his thought, but he clamped down on it, and she smiled.
“We could ‘make’ a vampire?” she teased.
“Takes about nine months,” he admitted with a sly smile.
She felt that sensual tingle between her legs again. “But there’s no guarantee.”
He shook his head, serious again. “No. Obviously early on there was a better chance. Now the bloodline is so diluted it’s difficult to have a baby with enough of the traits. Hybrids like Tim and Albert are not uncommon. If you have two powerful vampires, then of course there’s a better chance.”
“Which is rare.”
“Absolutely.”
“How did the whole ‘night rising’ thing get started?”
“Think about someone who didn’t age at the same rate as everyone else. There was a lot of religious persecution then. They were usually marked for death as an agent of the devil, so they were hidden by their families and allies, ventured out only at night. A few had an even rarer mutation where sunlight hurt them. But there are people today with that same genetic mutation who aren’t vampires.”
“And it was a great book.”
“There is that.”
“The undead crap?”
“Someone who doesn’t age, they must be supernatural. Or at least that’s what they thought back then.”
“Can we be killed?”
“Absolutely. You saw for yourself. I would have died if it wasn’t for you.”
“Stake through the heart?”
“Stake through any vital organ. Or a bullet. Or a knife. Car accident, et cetera. Not much different than any other human.”
“Minor wounds?”
“Depends on where and what they are. You’ve probably never had a paper cut, have you?”
She thought about it and started to disagree, when she realized he was right. She’d always thought she was just a fast healer. She might get a minor scratch somewhere, but immediately forgot about it. Most of the time, she healed up within the space of a few hours, a day at the most.
“We are not invincible,” he continued. “We can’t throw ourselves off a building and expect to survive. We’re not superhuman. Better reflexes, yes. In some cases stronger, but not movie-legend strong. Okay, we can move faster. I’ve had hundreds of years of training and practice. It doesn’t happen overnight. But a Hollywood stuntman can move faster and kick the ass of the average couch potato.”
“Robertson said he can’t swing a sword as well as you can.”
Matthias laughed. “Tim doesn’t do himself justice. I am older, and when I grew up we didn’t have Glocks and tasers.”
“Crosses and holy water?” She suspected she knew the answer.
“I spent some time studying in a monastery.”
“Garlic?”
“Love the stuff. Can’t make a good shrimp scampi without it.”
“Are there are vampires who don’t know what they are?”
“Look at you. All the Clans try to keep track as much as possible. In Asia it was easier because they lived in a remote region and controlled who married whom. As I already told you, the Eastern European Clan was nearly destroyed by the World Wars. The African Clan has encountered problems because of civil wars. Many of them relocated to Europe and merged with the Western European Clan for protection. The South American Clan is scattered, but I have contacts there. Many of them are descended from the Eastern European Clan.”
“Do they all run businesses?”
“Well, to a certain extent. Our Clan here is descended from the Western European Clan, which is now based in Great Britain. The Eastern European Clan handles the EU region. The Indonesian Clan takes care of Australia, too. We all help each other, try to identify and bring in anyone who—”
“Is like me.”
Matthias nodded. “If someone is just a hybrid, we try to leave them alone but keep tabs to see if they develop a strong and traceable mutation. Not all hybrids have the longevity and healing ability.”
“Are you the oldest in the States?”
“That I am aware of.”
“What about your cousin, Rafael?”
“He’s three hundred and forty. His grandfather and my grandfather are brothers. He’s very strong, but quite not as strong as me.”
“Why do we start out like normal humans?”
“Not totally normal.” He smiled. “Tim said you were powerful, even as a baby. The best guess we have right now is hormones. At birth your blood would have appeared nearly normal. Not different enough to raise any red flags. Once the body finishes puberty, hormones settle, the aging process slows to a crawl, and genetics takes over. The mutations you have determine how fast you age.”
Her mind reeled again, and her stomach growled. He took the burger wrapper and handed her another. “Eat. We’ve got to go to dinner.”
She started to protest, then realized how famished she was. She gobbled the burger down in just a few ravenous bites. Still, she felt hungry. “Why can’t the government know about us?”
His expression grew hard and cold. “When have you ever known the government to take knowledge like this and use it for the common good? Do you want to end up a lab rat? Vivisected, lying on a table while they ask you questions about how it feels to have them poking around inside you?”
“Okay, okay.” Her appetite faded again. “I get it.”
“That’s why one of my divisions is research. I’ve purchased three different pharmaceutical companies and four research labs to squelch research that threatens us.”
“Has the government captured any vampires before?”
He nodded. “One that I know of. I missed his lineage. He enlisted in the army to fight in the first Gulf War. I learned through my contacts they had him in Atlanta at the CDC, but before I could develop a plan to get him out, he’d killed himself. Fortunately, I got my hands on the files, and his remains were cremated before being returned to his family.”
She gasped. “Why did he kill himself?”
“If you realized you were going to spend the rest of your life as a science experiment, with no possibility of freedom, wouldn’t you rather die?”
She shuddered. “Yes.”
“He didn’t know what he was. Had he known, he most likely could have found a way to escape.” Sadness lined his face. “I don’t want anyone else to experience that again if I can help it. I work very hard to prevent our kind from being captured.”
“So is there or isn’t there supernatural stuff? What about the Others? And the daemon pulverem?”
He considered his answer. “If you took a working television back to the time of Jesus, what would they think?”
She considered. “That it was some sort of possessed box.”
“Or the word of God speaking.”
“What?”
“I’m not saying that’s what happened. But you and I would say, ‘Oh, that’s just Matt Lauer and The Today Show.’ We would think it’s normal. Consider some of the extremely isolated indigenous tribes. What they must have thought the first time they saw an airplan
e fly overhead.”
“Okay, I get your point. Just because it’s weird and outlandish, doesn’t mean it can’t be true or natural.”
“I’m not saying I’ve got all the answers. You’ll hear me tell you, ‘I don’t know,’ quite a lot, and I’m sure it’ll piss you off.”
She snickered, but he continued. “I won’t lie to you.”
“Anymore.”
“Anymore,” he agreed.
“Why didn’t you try to date me instead of hiring me?”
“You wouldn’t have let me. You would have run so far in the other direction I never could have gotten close to you again. You would have sensed something was up and kept me at arm’s length.”
He was right. Damn it.
She looked at him. “I’m a vampire?”
He nodded. “You and I are vampires.”
“That’s going to take some getting used to.”
He noticed she’d finished eating. “Come.” He held out his hand. “Let’s go to dinner.”
She stood then sat down again.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked at him. “I’m not on the Pill right now. I don’t want to get pregnant!”
“You won’t. It’s not the right time of the month.”
“How would you know.” She looked at him, and he blushed. His face turned bright red, in fact. Her eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”
“No,” he said quickly. “I just mean…” He looked at her. “I just know. I can only sense it with you, if that’s what you’re wondering. I don’t know how I know. I don’t know if it’s because of your scent or because of what we’ve gone through together or what.”
She held up a hand. “Never mind, big guy. Sorry I asked.” She studied him. “Will you let me know if it’s not safe?” Now that she worked the calendar in her head, he was probably right.