I shrugged. “They aren’t gory, and when he mentions blood, he makes it sound like spiced wine.”
“It is like spiced wine. To us, at least,” Merrick said, then turned back to his friends. “I know what you’re going to suggest, and the answer is no. We will find some other way.”
“You know, maybe they have a point—” I stopped when Merrick’s phone sang a few bars of “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”
He glanced at it. “It’s the thief taker. He might have some news.”
“About Ellis? Oh, thank goodness. I have been so worried, and so frustrated that there’s nothing I can do to help find him. Where is he? I can take a train out to get him wherever he is.”
“This is the second thief taker, not Savian. I’ve heard nothing from him other than he’s rounding up more sprites.”
Disappointment caused my shoulders to sag.
“Who is Ellis?” Ciaran asked when Merrick moved off to take his call.
I explained about our connection, wanting to complain about Savian not doing a good job, but knowing that it wasn’t easy to find someone who was kidnapped. It wasn’t Savian’s fault if it took more than a few hours. “Our plan is definitely going to work,” Ciaran said, nodding to his buddy.
“What exactly is this sure-thing plan?” I asked.
“We just told you. You tell your cousin to pick you up, and we’ll grab him,” Han said, eyeing me as if I were a particularly choice pigeon, and he a hungry wolf. “It will be easy.”
“Not as easy as you think,” I said, mulling the idea over. “I don’t see why Carlo would fall for it. I mean, he knows I’m with Merrick, and he’s sure to suspect a trap. That’s assuming he’d go to any trouble to capture me again, which I don’t know that he would. I got away from him awful easily, after all.”
Merrick returned, his eyes lit from within. I could feel the excitement in him, the tensed muscles that reminded me of a lion about to spring. “The second thief taker has found Carlo. He’s at an airport booked to fly to Rome.”
“Rome?” I asked, surprised. “But he lives in the north of Italy. Was Ellis with him?”
“That’s where he’s flying to regardless. The thief taker says there are only two men, and that neither matches the description of your friend,” Merrick said, tapping on his phone. “The flight will leave in an hour. If we take a portal, we can be in Rome before him.”
Neither of the other two men said anything—they just turned and walked out of the room.
“Hey!” I said when Merrick started to follow them. “Wait a minute—aren’t we even going to talk about this?”
He frowned. “What is there to discuss?”
“Well, like what am I going to do? Am I going with you to Rome? If so, then I need to walk Kelso first. And what about poor Ellis? What if Savian doesn’t find him?”
“I’ve already instructed the other thief taker to join Savian in searching for Ellis.” He paused for a few seconds before adding, “The portal company will not allow animals through.”
I was relieved another person would be looking for Ellis, but was momentarily distracted by what Merrick said. “Really? Why not?”
He shrugged. “I am not privy to their rules other than they refuse to portal animals. If you wish to accompany me, you will need to leave the dog behind.”
“I can’t leave him,” I said, clasping the furry white head to my side. Kelso leaned into me, making my heart melt. “He was abandoned on the side of the road.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Well, someone let him go, or dumped him, or just didn’t care enough to make sure he was safe and secure, and I’m not going to abandon him now.”
“Fine.” He glanced at his watch. “You stay here. Carlo’s plane lands in less than three hours. I’ll be in contact.”
Then he, too, turned and walked out the open door.
I hurried over to it and called after him, “And what am I supposed to do while you’re off chasing Carlo?”
“Whatever you like,” he said, with a little dismissive wave at me before disappearing down the stairs.
“Gah!” I said loudly, so loud that the door opposite me opened a crack, and an eyeball stared out at me.
“Sorry. Pardon. It’s just that men ... gah!” I returned to my own room, and sat on the bed next to Kelso, and contemplated my immediate future.
It didn’t look particularly rosy.
“And to think I was looking forward to being a Beloved ... oh, maybe that’s him now, apologizing.” I dashed around the bed to where my phone was charging, my eyebrows lifting at the name of the caller. “ELLIS! Where are you? Are you OK? What’s happened to you? Did Carlo hurt you? Is Savian with you?”
“Darling, slow down! I can hardly make out what you’re saying because it’s all coming out one big noise.”
I relaxed against the headboard, so relieved to hear Ellis sounding hale and hearty that I was willing to forgive any amount of snark. “Thank the heavens you’re OK. I was so worried that Carlo would strike out at you because I escaped. He didn’t, did he?”
“Not in the least, although he certainly did swear up a blue streak, and made several cutting remarks about your life choices of late. Now, darling, I don’t have long to talk because the reception here in St. Gennevier is bollocks, simply bollocks—isn’t that a divine phrase? I got it from dear Armande—but I wanted to tell you that you were right.”
“Of course I’m right,” I said absently, my mind busy with thoughts of how to get wherever Ellis was. I’d simply have to drive the car to him. My phone’s GPS should help with that. And I’d have to let Savian know Ellis was safe so that he could stop searching, and cancel the other thief taker. “Who’s dear Armande?”
“A very delicious Englishman with one of the best accents you’ve ever heard. But don’t let’s talk about him or I won’t be able to stop, and I have to tell you something important.”
“That I’m right? You already said that. What exactly am I right about this time?”
“Vampires, lovely one, that’s what I’m trying to tell you, only you keep distracting me with smutty thoughts of Armande!” His voice rose a little when the sound of cheering broke out in the background. “I have to hurry, darling. The wet T-shirt contest is about to start, and I’m the judge because I’m the newest. Now listen closely—vampires are real.”
“I know that, you silly,” I said, somewhat exasperated. “I have Merrick, after all. Well, not have, but we’re connected. Who is holding a T-shirt contest? Just where are you?”
“In St. Gennevier. I told you that!” Now he sounded just as exasperated as me. “You have to listen to me, Tempest. I’m in the basement of the house your cousin Carlo was renting. But he’s gone now, and I wanted to call you before things got too crazy here, and tell you not to worry about me, and that you were right, and that I know now that vampires are real.”
“It sounds like you’re having a party.” I paused when something struck me. “Wait, why are you so insistent on telling me vamps are real when you didn’t believe me about Merrick? You said I was letting my lust see him through vampire-tinted glasses.”
“I know for a very good reason. Yes, yes, I’m almost done, Armande. Tell the boys to go ahead and line up. I’ll be there in two ticks of a leg shake, or whatever it is you adorable Englishmen say. You still there, Tempest?”
“Yes, although I’m confused about what you’re talking about.”
“Darling, if you would just listen! I’ll say it as plainly as I know how: I know vampires are real because I am one. Carlo demanded that dear Armande turn me, and he did, and it’s all really rather exciting. There goes the music cue—must dash, sweetie. Don’t want to miss the first contestants! Smooches to you and Kelso.”
I stared in stark, absolute disbelief at the wall across from me, unable to believe my ears.
What the Jolly Green Giant was going on?
Chapter Fifteen
“Right,” I told Kelso a half
hour later, consulting a map of France on my phone. “Savian says driving there is too far, even though it looks close on the map, so driving to the town where Ellis is being a vampire is out of the question. We’ll have to take the train. Luckily, we can catch one in half an hour. Done pottying?”
Kelso wandered over from where he had been watering a shrub, and snuffled my shoe. I took that as an assent, and went inside to order a taxi to the station. A short while later, we were seated, the countryside slipping past us in a hypnotizing blur.
From: Merrick
What are you doing?
To: Merrick
Right now? Sitting on a train looking out of a window, and trying to ignore the woman across the aisle who is glaring at Kelso sitting on the seat next to me.
From: Merrick
Where are you taking a train to?
To: Merrick
St. Gennevier. It’s the town that Carlo had a rental house. Ellis is there. Didn’t Savian text you? He said he would.
From: Merrick
No. What is he texting about? Why aren’t you at the hotel?
To: Merrick
Ellis called me. He’s fine, so I told Savian to stop looking, and to cancel the other guy. I’m so relieved that Ellis is OK. Which ... uh ... reminds me that there’s something I need to tell you.
From: Merrick
Are you insane? You can’t go there by yourself! Get off at the next station, and go back to Nice. I’ll return as soon as your cousin lands in Rome and we capture him.
From: Merrick
You’re making a face, aren’t you?
To: Merrick
Yes.
From: Merrick
I knew it. I would apologize for sounding domineering, but you know as well as I do just how dangerous Carlo is. You can’t go to his house alone.
To: Merrick
I’m not alone.
From: Merrick
The dog doesn’t count.
To: Merrick
Now you’re being an ass, and I don’t want to talk to you anymore. And before you text me again demanding that I stop doing what I’m doing, which you know full well annoys and irritates me, just remember that my cousin, if he is Victor, is on a plane heading straight for you.
From: Merrick
We don’t know who he left behind.
To: Merrick
We’ll know soon enough. And you might want to brace yourself for some news about Ellis. He called and in between telling me about this man he met, and a wet T-shirt contest he was going to judge ... well ... never mind. I’ll tell you in person.
Merrick didn’t answer after that, and I spent the next couple of hours alternating between wondering what was happening in Rome, and considering whether Ellis was in his right mind.
The town of St. Gennevier was small, barely worth stopping at, or so I thought as I surveyed one main street, and a few scattered houses that seemed to crawl up one side of a mountain. Green terraced fields indicated grapes were a primary form of agriculture, but other than that, and a very ruined castle on the top of a big hill, there wasn’t much to see.
Luckily, I had managed to get the name of the house out of Ellis before he hung up, so I stuffed Kelso and myself into a tiny little taxi, and we headed out to see what was going on.
“This isn’t very much like a villa that has a dungeon, is it?” I asked Kelso when we were deposited at the entrance to what looked like a modest rambler set against a sheer rock face that led upward to several terraced fields. To one side stood a small shed, outside of which were a couple of goats, who stared at me with bored eyes.
The house didn’t even have a fence to keep people out. I glanced around, didn’t see anyone other than the goats, and, with a mental shrug, went up to the door and knocked. “Stay with me, though, just in case something bad is going down that we don’t know about,” I told Kelso. We waited for a couple of minutes, then knocked again. Faintly, a woman’s voice could be heard approaching, and after what seemed like another two or three minutes, the door opened to reveal a short white-haired wizened woman.
“Oui?” she asked in a husky voice, then proceeded to fall into a coughing fit. She wobbled and weaved like she was going to fall down, so I hustled forward and, taking her by the arms, got her onto a wooden bench just inside the door.
“Are you OK? Man, that’s a dickens of a cough. Can I get you something? A glass of water, maybe?”
The woman hacked up a few more times, then waved one gnarled hand at me, and said in heavily accented English, “You are American?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I have met Americans before,” she said, pausing to cough a little more. “The Americans liberated our town. They were very nice, very pleasant.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Are you sure about the water? Is there someone I can call for you?”
“Non, non, I am well. It is my lungs, they do not march, you know?”
“Uh ... sure.” I glanced around the inside of the house, but like the outside, it was perfectly innocuous, with open doors showing what must be a sitting room, where a TV burbled loud commercials, while farther down, the hall opened into a big country kitchen. “How about some water?”
She shook her head, and gave me a curious look. “Guy, my grandson, will be here soon for supper. Who are you?”
“Sorry, we didn’t get to introductions, did we? I’m Tempest, and this is my dog, Kelso. Er ... what’s your name?”
“Belloir.” She got to her feet, her knees popping loudly as she did so. She barely came up to my shoulder, so must have been under five feet tall.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. You wouldn’t happen to know of another American who is supposed to be here, would you? His name is Ellis.”
“Another American? From the liberation?”
“No, no, one like me, only male. He said he was at Villa Pinoir.”
“This is Villa Pinoir,” she said, nodding, and, grasping my wrist to brace herself, shuffled into the room with the loud TV. “There is no one here but me. Not until Guy comes home.”
“Oh.” My shoulders sagged a little when she released me to plop down in a padded rocking chair. “Either I got the name wrong, or he did—”
“There are the Dark Ones, of course, but they are below,” she said, gesturing with a tissue toward the floor. “In the wine cellar. They were not here during the war.”
I gawked at her for the count of ten before I managed to get my wits gathered up again. “You have vampires in your wine cellar?”
“Oui. Monsieur Carlo, he arranged for them to stay there.” She clutched a remote control, and changed the channel. “Ah, it is time for my shows. Close the door behind you when you leave. Guy tells me never to leave the door open in case the Dark Ones try to escape.”
My head was spinning a bit at the matter-of-fact way she was speaking about vampires. “Would you mind if I made a quick visit to the wine cellar? My friend might be down there.”
“It matters not to me,” she said, her gaze glued to the TV, which was displaying some sort of game show with scantily clad men and women. “The key is next to the door. Don’t let them out. Guy would not like that.”
“I will do everything in my power to keep Guy as happy as a clam,” I said, feeling the full weight of the surreal situation. I found the key next to a wooden door that opened into the kitchen. There were three chain locks on the door, all of which I unhooked before using the key, and opening the door just a smidgen.
I don’t know what I was expecting—maybe a group of vampires clustered on the other side of the door just waiting to knock me down in their haste to get out of their prison—but there was on no one on the stairs.
A deep pulsing beat of music could be heard, however.
I looked down the wooden stairs, dimly lit by a naked bulb dangling overhead, and back to the kitchen.
“There is no way I’m going to go down there when the door can be locked against me,” I told Kelso, and, after a moment’s thought,
took one of the kitchen table chairs and wedged it under the doorknob.
“There. Now no one can trap us. I’m so glad I watched all those horror movies last month, or I wouldn’t have thought of the door. You ready, boy?” Kelso, who had been watching me with interest, wagged his tail. “That’s as good a yes as I’m going to get. Onward, my brave one!”
We descended into the near darkness, an odd thumping noise seeming to come up from the ground. I really wished I could reach Merrick by mind-radio, but he hadn’t answered when I tried earlier. The noise was creepy enough it gave me goose bumps.
“It’s like it’s a heartbeat,” I whispered to Kelso, glancing around once we arrived in the cellar. There was not a lot to be seen, certainly not a wet T-shirt contest full of partying vampires. A few wooden crates lined one wall, while the other bore a massive black iron coal furnace, a hot water heater, and a fuse box.
The heartbeat continued to throb. “Just like we’re at the heart of the house. OK, now I’m freaking myself ... what are you doing? Leave it, whatever it is. Kelso!”
With one eye on the still-open door at the top of the stairs, I shuffled over to where Kelso was pawing and snuffling something on the ground. The dim light just barely revealed a metal ring set into the stone.
“Clever dog,” I praised, patting Kelso on the head before curling my fingers around the ring. “Let’s pray that Ellis is under here, and not some horrible disembodied heart beating away.”
I was expecting to have to fight the trapdoor, but it swung upward without too much effort. I staggered back regardless, not due to the effort, but from the blast of pounding music that exploded upward.
I peered down into the hole to see a dirt floor, colored lights flashing around in a simulation of a rockin’ nightclub, and six men spraying one another with bottles of what looked like champagne. “Ellis?” I shouted over the pulsing techno music. “Ellis, are you there?”
“Darling!” One of the men in the back pushed forward, dancing an intricate step until he was directly under the trapdoor. “You rescued us! How thoughtful. Everyone, this is Tempest, one of my oldest friends, and vamp hag.”