Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) Page 16

  With one last glance back at Otto, I followed Vanko, noting that his movement no longer looked quite so smooth to me. In fact, he seemed rather common now, like an illusionist who’d suddenly lost his mystery.

  Vanko whirled on me suddenly. His hand caught me around the neck and he slammed me against the wall. His fangs were bared and his eyes glowed. “I would watch those thoughts, dearest. I’m not so common as you.”

  My eyes widened and I grew perfectly still. He could read my mind now? Shit. My one defense against the nightwalkers was gone. The wounds of the car accident forever healed so that my mind was vulnerable to them now.

  “Yes, I can read your thoughts; so very easily too. You have a lot to learn if you’re to survive and I have yet to decide if that’s going to happen. I had a use for Otto. I’m not so sure I have a use for you.”

  With a rough shove, Vanko released me and resumed his march up the stairs, his footsteps echoing a little more heavily now as if he were stomping his feet like a petulant child. But I halted that line of thought as soon as it occurred. I wasn’t strong enough to face Vanko head on. I knew nothing about being a nightwalker. As much as I might detest it, I was dependent upon Vanko now.

  I started to rub my throat where he’d held me only to stop myself. The injury was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. There had been whispers that vampires healed almost instantly, but I hadn’t believed it. But it was true. The pain where Vanko had held me, had nearly crushed my throat, was gone. At least there were a few benefits to being a nightwalker.

  Pushing away from the wall, I followed Vanko to the main floor, attempting to move as silently as I had seen Stefan move, but I couldn’t quite accomplish it. Despite my efforts, the boards still creaked here and there. A herd of elephants might as well have been tromping up the stairs. Silence must come with practice and maybe even age. Or maybe I was just a really shitty nightwalker.

  I followed Vanko back into the parlor where I’d almost eaten some soup before he revealed his master plan for me. Before I crossed the threshold, I was once again assailed by the sweet scent of blood along with the hint of what I was starting to think of as the living. It was a strange mix of sweat, dirt, and an almost musky odor. This person’s was sweeter though, almost floral. I knew before entering that there was a human in the room, but it wasn’t Otto’s partner. No, this poor creature was female.

  She was curled on the floor in the corner, trying to make herself invisible in the nearly empty room. With a thin face and even thinner frame, she looked no more than twelve or thirteen. She wore a flannel nightgown covered in cheerful balloons that was now streaked with dirt. Even from a distance, I could see her trembling in the darkness as her breath left her parted lips in sharp little gasps. She was terrified. And she was sick. There was a wheezing to her breathing and she was sickly pale.

  “Now you’ll never be able to say that I didn’t do anything for you,” Vanko said with a smirk, motioning toward the girl.

  “I beg your pardon?” My knees locked and my feet felt as if they were bolted to the floor. There was no way I was moving beyond the entrance of the room. I didn’t trust Vanko. And I no longer trusted myself. “What exactly do you want?”

  “I want you to feed.”

  I lurched back a step as revulsion churned in my stomach. Sated with Otto’s blood, I felt no temptation to attack the helpless girl. Some ghost of my former self lurked inside, to my relief. There were still lines that I wouldn’t cross and there were things that I saw as reprehensible. At least while I was well fed. I wondered if I’d still be able to see those lines when the hunger struck again.

  “I’m not touching her.”

  “What?” Vanko bellowed in rage.

  “I’ve already fed more than enough this evening and I have no intention of harming that girl. She’s terrified and sick. She should be home in bed.”

  “Where do you think I got her?”

  “You’re a monster,” I growled.

  Vanko heaved a dramatic sigh and clasped his hands before him. He shifted from seething rage to frightening calm with amazing speed. “Since you’re already seen fit to feed yourself, then I guess we should move on to your next lesson in what it means to be a nightwalker.”

  “What’s that?” I asked warily. I wasn’t going to like this, but then I hadn’t liked anything that Vanko had done since I’d met him. No reason to start now.

  “Total obedience to your master.”

  Vanko moved too fast for me to react. He closed the distance between us and grabbed me by the front of my blood-stained shirt before throwing me across the room and into the opposite wall. Just as I was starting to get my bearings about me, he was there in front of me again. The back of his hand crashed against my cheek, snapping my head around with enough force that I saw spots before my eyes.

  The beating continued as he knocked me around the room. The force of my body slamming against the walls dented and crumbled drywall. Wood groaned and creaked beneath me, bemoaning the abuse it suffered under my crashing frame.

  If anything, the lesson was that I now knew that I felt pain the same as I had as a human. The only difference was that I healed quickly allowing me to take on more damage before I finally broke.

  “Now...” Vanko said heavily, sounding as if he were winded from his instruction. He bent down and grabbed me by my upper arms so that I was dangling in front of him. “When your master tells you to do something, you immediately do it. No questions. No arguments.”

  My entire body ached from a mix of bruised organs and broken bones. My mind was a maelstrom of hate and pain, but two things remained clear through it all — this bastard could beat me all he wanted but he was not my master and I sure as hell wasn’t going to kill some innocent girl just so he could claim control over me.

  “Fuck you,” I bit out through the pain.

  Vanko growled with frustration and threw me. My limp body crashed into the wooden table we’d sat at the previous night. The table collapsed under my weight and I fell in a tangle of broken pieces.

  A snarl from my maker was my only warning that he was about to resume my beating and that his temper was likely at its breaking point. Fear gripped me and thought froze in my mind. It was probably the thing that saved me. He couldn’t read my mind because there were no thoughts to read. I was just a ball of terror and a will to survive. Rolling onto my back, I snatched up one of the broken legs and moved to hold it before me, anything to keep back my attacker. I brought the stick up just as Vanko was lunging forward to grab me. He impaled himself on the broken table leg, the point driving straight through his chest into his heart.

  A look of surprise crossed his face as he stared down at the table leg I was still holding in my hands. And then life simply slipped out of him. His body went limp and his eyes closed while his entire body weight came to bear down on the table leg. I pushed the leg, throwing him off me while I quickly crab-walked backward, putting some distance between myself and the corpse.

  Great. I hoped this wasn’t a sign for what my future was going to be like. I’d been a nightwalker for less than twenty minutes and I’d killed two people. To make matters worse, one of those people was my maker. I might not know shit about being a vampire or their society, but I had a feeling that killing the vampire who turned you was probably a bad thing. A really bad thing.

  A frightened whimper drew my attention from my own tortured thoughts back to the child cowering in the corner. She certainly wasn’t having the best night. Kidnapped and then forced to watch as one person beat the shit out of another, leaving her to assume that she was next in line for a beating or death.

  Wincing against the lingering pain in my ribs, I slowly pushed to my feet and walked over to the girl, still trying to move as slowly as possible so as not to frighten her more. But when I got within a few feet of her, she screamed in terror and held up her hands as if to ward me off. She was saying something, but I couldn’t understand her. I didn’t know the language.

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p; I stepped back and looked down at my hands, trying to think of some way to calm her when I saw the blood that had dried there. It was only then that I remembered that I was still covered in Otto’s blood. There had been nothing careful about my feeding on his neck. I’d torn into him like a deranged animal, getting his blood down my face and throat until it soaked into my shirt. It was on my hands from where I’d held him and I could only guess as to where else it had flowed.

  To this child, I was just as much of a monster as Vanko and I had to wonder if she was right. I’d killed two people in a matter of minutes and before becoming a nightwalker I’d never hurt a soul. Hell, I wouldn’t even kill a spider in my apartment. I always caught them and carried them outside to be released. Both deaths were accidents, but even as I muttered those words in my head, they didn’t ring true. I hadn’t intended to kill Otto, but then I hadn’t actually thought about attacking him either. And Vanko… what had I been intending to do with the table leg if not kill him?

  Sighing, I stepped back from the girl and just watched her, trying to figure out what to do. She needed to get out of here. She needed to be returned to her home where she would be safe and taken care of. She was only going to die from exposure in this cold, drafty house. I also needed to get out of here and figure out….

  And that’s where all my plans and intentions left me. What was I going to do next? I was a nightwalker now. It wasn’t like I could return to my old life. Then what? What was I supposed to do with myself? Hell, I didn’t know how to take care of myself. How frequently did I need to feed? Stefan said he needed to feed only every few weeks so long as he wasn’t injured. But then he was over a thousand years old. Did that mean I needed to feed several times a night? Or at the very least, once a night?

  What about daylight? Was it lethal to me? I was guessing yes since the nightwalkers had that nice little underground lair they stayed in during the day. But could I be up and moving around so long as I stayed out of sunlight?

  I glared at Vanko’s corpse, feeling somewhat disappointed that he hadn’t disappeared in a poof of dust like staked vampires did in the movies. No, he just laid there rotting. It was becoming glaringly obvious why new vampires didn’t kill their makers. Without your maker, you didn’t know shit and you could very easily get yourself killed for good if you weren’t careful.

  Staying here certainly wasn’t a great option since my only source of food was a sick girl and my run through the woods the previous day had proven that other people weren’t exactly close. No, I needed to get moving and the best choice seemed to be a return to Venice. There were other nightwalkers in the city of canals who might be able to help me. It would also give me the opportunity to find out why I’d been framed for murder and then kidnapped. While Vanko might have been in possession of me, I really doubted that he was the one pulling all the strings. I never saw him at the Coven meeting hall and Stefan had certainly never mentioned him. No, I was willing to bet my new undead life that someone else had arranged for my kidnapping and had just given the job of turning me to Vanko.

  Chapter 13

  Slowly backing out of the parlor, I quickly searched the house for a bathroom and immediately wished I hadn’t when I located one of the second floor. It was small, dark room of mold and dirt. The two faucets in the sink were coated in rust and more rust stained the porcelain sink. Disgusting as it was, it would serve my purpose.

  Of course, it wasn’t the state of the bathroom that really bothered me. It was my reflection in the cracked mirror over the sink. I hadn’t actually expected to have a reflection in the first place. This nightwalker shit wasn’t exactly matching up with what all the movie and books showed.

  My face was covered in blood and my hair was frizzy and standing on end with bits of dirt and leaves stuck in the strands. My clothes were also blood and dirt stained from my most recent adventures. No wonder the girl didn’t want to go anywhere near me. I looked like a monster from a fairy tale.

  Leaning close, I’d noticed that the turn had changed the color of my eyes slightly so that they were no longer a mossy hazel green, but a bright, almost electric green. I lifted my upper lip to look at my fangs. They weren’t overwhelming, which was a relief. It was unlikely someone was going to notice them if they weren’t looking for them. Unfortunately now that people knew vampires were real, they were always looking for fangs. It didn’t matter. They looked incredibly sharp, which would be a help.

  With a disgusted sighed, I twisted the knob for the cold water. The loud screech of the rusted handle echoed through the silent house. After nearly a minute, the water finally turned from a reddish-brown to mostly clear, allowing me to splash it on my face. The pink water drained away down sink and I started to look more myself. Except more. Another glance in the mirror revealed that my skin wasn’t frighteningly pale yet, but then that probably came after years of not seeing the sunlight. However, my skin was pristine. Not a mark, bump, or blemish in sight. The color was even too. At least I’d never have to worry about foundation again.

  Returning to the ground floor, I quickly searched Vanko’s body for the car keys, but came up empty handed, not that I was overly surprised. Maybe he didn’t drive. If he’d been born before the invention of the automobile, he might not have gotten around to learning. At least, that had been the excuse of my great-grandfather. I gave the girl a quick look, reassuring myself that she hadn’t moved, before I returned to the basement and searched Otto. Luck finally shined on me as I found the keys in the first pocket I tried.

  The problem was the girl. Standing before her waving the keys, I said home in six different languages, which was probably a sad commentary on my own life since I only spoke two languages with a modicum of fluency. Unfortunately, she was either too afraid of me or I didn’t hit a word close enough to whatever she spoke. Damn it, I wish Vanko had told me where the hell I was before I’d killed him. Or I wish that he hadn’t been such a damn asshole so that I hadn’t been forced into killing him to save my own ass.

  Gripping the keys tightly in one hand, I stared down at the child. What about mind control? Stefan had said he could read minds and erase memories. Mira had also hinted that nightwalkers could control humans with their minds. Shouldn’t I be able to do that? Or was that something that came with time and age as well? Damn it! This wasn’t good. I really needed to find someone who could teach me a few things, because I really doubted there was a wiki out there that could help me.

  I shoved the keys in the front pocket of my jeans and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the girl. Laying my hands relaxed on my knees and I drew in a deep breath even though I didn’t need it. With my focus directed on her head, I concentrated on getting into her thoughts. I imagined a door before me and opening the door into her mind. Nothing happened. I imagined a window. A cave opening. A vast dark forest. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

  I really was the world’s worst vampire.

  Groaning, I dropped my head into my hands while resting my elbows on my knees. I just wanted her to stand up and walk to the car so that we could leave. It couldn’t be simpler than that. In my mind, I could see her standing and walking calmly across the room to the front door.

  A scrape of movement had my head popping up and my mouth falling open. The girl had pushed unsteadily to her feet and was now slowly walking toward the entrance to the parlor. Her expression was empty and there was a frightening glazed look in her eyes as if no one was home. Holy shit! I’d managed to implant a command. A part of me wished I knew how the hell I’d done it, but I wasn’t about to question my good luck. The night hours were dwindling away with each passing second. I needed to get this child somewhere safe and I needed to find a new hiding spot of my own against the rising sun.

  Running ahead of the girl, I unlocked the doors and opened one of the back doors so that she could climb in. With her settled, I climbed in the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. I was back in control. At the end of the long drive, I closed my eyes and tried to pull up the me
mory of when I arrived at this place. I’d felt the car turn left. Pulling the wheel to the right, I murmured a soft little prayer that I was heading toward a town. A quick glance at the fuel gauge revealed that the car was sitting on less than half a tank. The idiots who took me had to have left enough fuel in the car to get to another gas station, so we couldn’t be too far.

  We hadn’t gotten far when I discovered that I apparently couldn’t hold whatever trance I’d managed to put the young girl in and drive the car. Her crying resumed after a short scream of surprise. I at least had the good sense to hit the automatic lock button while she curled up in a ball in the back seat. I wasn’t willing to bet that the car had child locks on it, but the locks would at least slow her down a little.

  At first, I tried talking to her, but she didn’t understand a word of what I was saying and if she was smart, she wouldn’t believe a word of it even if she could understand me. When I finally grew tired of listening to her cry, I turned on the radio and flipped through the stations, hoping to hear something familiar. I still didn’t recognize a damn thing anything the announcers were saying, but I finally tripped over a station that played American music. It wasn’t my style, but at least I understood it. By the second song, I noticed that the young girl had stopped crying and was watching me in the rearview mirror. Pointing to the radio, I gave her a closed-lipped smile and said, “Good?”

  She hesitated for a second before wrinkling her nose and sticking her tongue out as she shook her head. A laugh escaped me. Yeah, I couldn’t understand a word she said, but I could understand that. She was right. The music was crap, even if I could understand it. Reaching forward, I turned the station until I found more music and then looked at her in the mirror to find her shaking her head again. We kept trying until she finally gave me a tentative smile and a nod. The music appeared to be regional and I couldn’t understand it, but it had a good beat.