Building From Ashes (37 page)

Brigid thought back to their time in university, and it wasn’t the drugs or partying she remembered. She remembered a nervous girl from the country and a warm and welcoming hand of friendship. She remembered Emily’s patience during the worst of Brigid’s social anxiety and her encouragement when Brigid was frustrated with her old, human limitations. She smiled at the young woman and held out a hand for the card.

“I’d like that, Emily. I wouldn’t want to lose you.”

Rome, Italy

May 26, 2012

When is your birthday? I should know these things since I’m in love with you. I don’t know when mine was. I was born in the winter. And my mother complained that I came out of the womb causing trouble. I don’t believe her. I blame my older sisters. I always did.

Did you want children? It pains me that it might have been something you didn’t have the chance for in your human life. But don’t worry, we can always adopt, if you’d like. Whether we add any human children to my crazy brood is entirely up to you. I’m rather fond of children. Haven’t had one around in quite some time, though. It would probably be entertaining.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? I’m good at that.

Gemma told me that women like being courted, so please read the following reasons that you should marry me. (I only included five. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.) And yes, I realize this isn’t a traditional courtship. It’ll work anyway; I’m irresistible.

“Arrogant ass,” she whispered, trying to ignore the smile flirting around her lips.

The top five reasons that you should marry me:

1. My Hawaiian shirt collection. It’s extensive. There have actually been overtures from some museums to add it to their exhibits. I know you pretend to think that they’re ugly, but I see right through you, my sweet Brigid. You’re in love. (With my shirts… and me.)

2. I’m extremely rich, particularly for a priest. I never did all that well with the vow of poverty thing. See, when you’ve been alive a thousand years, it’s just idiotic not to invest. So, I’m very comfortable financially. Not that I think this is a concern to you, but it would be irresponsible not to mention it.

3. My good looks are obvious, so I won’t expound on them.

“This is possibly the worst ‘courtship’ in history,” she muttered. “I don’t really think it’s supposed to work this way, Carwyn.”

4. A thousand years. That’s a lot to make up for. My enthusiasm for certain
activities
will be rather boundless, and I can promise neither of us will go unsatisfied. Please, use your imagination to fill in the rest. (Then tell me about it later.) By the way, your mouth is glorious. I’m thinking about kissing you right now. And Gio is watching me. Awkward. Best leave the room.

She bit back a laugh and kept reading.

5. And I’m back. The last thing I’ll mention is just this: I love you. I’ve lived as an immortal for a thousand years and I’ve never met a woman who warmed my heart, my body, and my soul the way you have. I admired the woman you were as a human, and I’m even more excited to see who you become in this new life. I think you’re extraordinary.

Love to you, Carwyn

Trust him to leave her a bit weepy right before she was supposed to go out on patrol with Declan.

P.S. The collar is optional, you know.

Brigid stood up suddenly, shouting, “What the hell does that mean?” Declan and Tom turned to her, both looking as if she’d just slapped a nun. “Sorry… just something unexpected.”

“Everything all right back in Wicklow?” Tom asked.

She nodded with a tight smile, folding the letter in half. “Yes. Fine.” She folded it again. “Just fine. Just…” She folded the letter again. It was around the size of a business card. She tucked it in her pocket and walked from the room. “It’s all just…
fine
. Let me grab a quick bite and I’ll be ready to go.”

An hour later, Brigid and Declan were leaning against the back wall of The Abbey, a club in town that catered to vampires and their human guests. Murphy was out of the office that night, so Brigid had eagerly volunteered to join Declan as he monitored Dublin’s newest hotspot.

It was a new club, one that Murphy hadn’t approved before it was built, but once the owners made their very generous tribute to the leader of Dublin, allowances were made and the club remained in business. They had a man stationed there every night who reported in. Jack had argued that shutting it down would just force the club underground, and Brigid had to agree.

But she still didn’t trust the owners. They were two Norwegian humans who had letters of introduction from the immortal leader in Oslo. Murphy was being cautious, but politically smart by allowing the club to remain open as a favor to the other vampire, who had powerful connections in shipping that he wanted to exploit. The political considerations grated on Brigid, who was sure the club was funneling drugs. She just wasn’t sure through whom.

“Where the hell is Jack?” she muttered, kicking a loose pebble in the street.

“He probably found a sweet-smelling girl and is taking a nip.”

“He was supposed to meet us half an hour ago.”

Declan shrugged. “It’s Jack.”

“Does that vampire understand the concept of ‘on time?’”

“What do you think?”

Just then, the alley door opened and a body was tossed out into the road. Brigid smirked. Stupid, drunk human…

“Jack?” she gasped when she recognized the mussed hair and torn shirt. She rushed over. Declan was just behind her. “Jack, what the hell?”

Declan flipped him over. “He’s… passed out? It’s nowhere near dawn, how can he be—”

“Feel him.” Brigid put both hands on his face. One on his neck. “Feel his amnis. It’s all…”

“Scrambled,” Declan mumbled. “It’s like it’s coming in short bursts. What the hell is this?”

It was unlike anything Brigid had ever felt before. Jack’s amnis was still there, still a current running under his skin, but it jumped and died under her hands, as if an electrical surge had knocked out the power and his computer was restarting.

“Have you ever felt anything like this?” she whispered.

“Never,” Declan said. “Jack?” He patted his friend’s cheek. “Jack, wake up.”

“I’ve never seen one of us passed out before.”

“It must have something to do with his amnis. We need to call Murphy.”

“As soon as he’s awake.” Brigid was trying not to panic. “I don’t even know what to tell him.”

The starts and stops were evening out and she could see Jack’s eyes fluttering open. His pupils were dilated and he was… wet. Soaking wet, she’d just noticed. As if someone had thrown him in the bath with his clothes still on. Worry gave way to irritation. What the hell had the vampire gotten himself into now?

“Jack!” Brigid slapped him. Just to wake him up. Mostly.

He groaned. “Feck, Brigid, stop hitting me. I promised to stop making passes at your friend.”

She glanced at Declan. “Doesn’t seem to have scrambled his brain any more than it was already.”

“Jack.” Declan pulled at one of his eyelids, checking his pupils as Jack tried to bat him away. “What happened?”

“Well, there was this girl…”

“How did I know it was going to start out that way?” Brigid muttered.

“Shut up, Brigid. I’m not afraid of your fire-y, fang-y ways. I hate that you have such a great ass, though. Makes it hard to keep focus sometimes.”

She snarled and Declan pulled Jack up by his shoulder. “Jack,” he said. “Watch your mouth and tell us what happened.”

“This girl took me to one of the private rooms for a quick snack and…” He glanced at Brigid. “…well, a quick snack. She was gorgeous. And she smelled so good, I practically came just from sniffing her—”

“Just the facts, please,” Brigid said.

Jack scowled at her, but continued. “We were just getting down to business when I… What happened?” He squinted. “I don’t fecking remember, Dec. I think…” Jack reached over his shoulder. “Something pinched me.”

Declan frowned. “Pinched you?”

Jack was rubbing his shoulder, then his hand drifted over the base of his neck, slid down. “Not a pinch. More like—”

“A bite?” Brigid hissed as she looked over his shoulder to the twin holes in the back of Jack’s shirt, right between his shoulder blades. She quickly split Jack’s shirt so she could see his skin.

“Jesus, Brigid, if you wanted my clothes off, all you had to do was ask.”

“Declan, look at this.” There were two punctures in Jack’s skin, not unlike small tears. They weren’t bites, didn’t seem to go very deep, and they were already healing. The area around the punctures was singed, as if Jack had been hit by two very small beams of sunlight. “What the hell is this?”

“I think I know.” Declan’s voice was grim. “I’ve seen it on humans before, just not vampires.”

“What is it?” Jack was reaching to feel the wounds. “It actually hurts. That’s… odd.”

Declan was furious. “Why the hell haven’t we thought of this before?”

She was still confused. “What are you talking about?”

“I think… it’s from a Taser.”

Her heart dropped. “Oh hell.”

Of all the weapons that could be used against them, Brigid had been warned about swords most of all. It may have sounded medieval, but cutting off a vampire’s head or burning it were really the only two ways they could be killed. Guns, knives, none of them were truly dangerous unless the spinal column was severed at the neck. They were immune and self-healing, even able to regenerate limbs over long periods of time. The sun or fire could burn them, and burns took a long time to heal—as evidenced by the scars on Carwyn’s chest—but even those did mend eventually.

Amnis
, everyone repeated. It was the key. Amnis was what regenerated them. Kept them strong. Let them connect to their element and manipulate their energy. It was the electrical current that ran under their skin, the unseen armor that every immortal depended on.

So why had she never considered a Taser?

“I don’t know why we never considered it before,” Murphy said quietly. They were sitting in the office. He’d sent Angie home, so it was just Tom, Declan, Brigid, and a still-recovering Jack. He was shaky and drinking a bag of donated blood cold. “It makes so much sense. Bloody technology will kill us all in the end.”

“Hits us right where we’re most vulnerable,” Tom said. “Amnis controls everything. It may seem like magic sometimes, but it’s all just energy, isn’t it? Same as electricity. If you shock us—”

“It’d be like a power surge in a computer,” Declan interrupted. “We’ll restart, but be all scrambled. We’re used to being the ones frying electronics, not being fried. If a human—”

“Or a vampire,” Brigid interjected. “A vamp could customize one. We’ve all become used to making accommodations for other electronics. Plastic coatings and cases. If a vampire wore gloves, they could probably use a Taser.”

“You’re right,” Murphy said. “And if you used one of the ones that shoots out the wires, you could shock a victim without getting close enough to have it affect you, too.”

Brigid said, “Damn it, this is the perfect weapon.” She frowned. “But why was he soaking wet?”

All five were silent for some time. Finally Jack said, “What if it’s a result of the shock?”

Everyone turned to him.

“Think about it. What if it makes your amnis…
surge
right before it shorts you out? If that happened, your element would react. We’ve all had that experience before. Our amnis gets excited by something and we have an elemental reaction. All the water in the air might have been drawn to me like a magnet, which would drench me and make the electrocution from the Taser worse, too.”

Brigid gasped, thinking about what her own reaction might be. “Oh, this is not good.”

“Any word from The Abbey?” Murphy asked Tom.

“I sent men over to question the guests and employees, even had them use amnis, but no one claims to know anything. A few people saw the girl Jack disappeared with, but she was already gone and no one recognized her. Not a regular.”

“The owners?” Declan said.

Murphy answered. “I’ve already called them in for a meeting tomorrow night. They claim to know nothing, of course. Apologized for a lack of security, but then asked why my men hadn’t made their club safer, considering all the tribute they were paying me.”

“What?” Brigid said. She felt her fangs descend. “They should have their own—”

“We’ll make it clear tomorrow, Brigid. Calm down.” Murphy stood up and patted Jack on the shoulder. “Time to head home for the day. Everyone take precautions and avoid being alone, if possible. This is… new.”

Brigid fell silent. New drugs. New weapons. New enemies.

Things in Dublin had just become very, very interesting.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Vatican City

May 2012

Carwyn tugged on his collar as he walked down yet another lavish hallway. The timid priest in front of him glanced over his shoulder with a smile.

“Just down this corridor, Father.”

He grunted and tried not think unkindly of the young man who represented so much of what annoyed him about Rome. Soft. The city was soft. He wondered if the young priest had ever picked up a dying child who was lying in a gutter. Or cared for a human who smelled of disease. Had he ever prayed with a family who had just lost a loved one? He tried not to be judgmental, but it was difficult in a city known for its layers of complicated historical bureaucracy that separated its residents from the world. The Vatican was even isolated from the very city that surrounded it.