Darkling (32 page)

“Oh, here’s a fun fact. A doctor Jean Nicot was born here, and he was the first person to introduce the French to tobacco from Portugal in 1560.”

“A doctor who introduced the world’s most popular drug. Ha!” I said.

“A paradox.”

“That might explain our hosts’ addiction.”

Doris laughed. “Hardly. Shall we get coffee?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

We sat near the window in a place overlooking the whole plateau that had been the site of the forum. There were zillions of types of coffees on the menu, and I needed time to go through all of them. Finally, I ordered Almond Mocha, and when it arrived it was very good.

“Oh, crap. I forgot my pills.” A phone alarm reminded me.

“You still taking them?”

“Yep.”

“Wanna go back?”

“Nah. Let’s hope that I’ll behave in a civilized manner.” She laughed.

“No worries, I’m used to your mood swings.”

“Hey, it’s not like it’s happening that often!”

“Whatever you say, Mr. Hyde,” she said, and I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, I’ve had my moments. Now, meds are working their magic.”

“Yeah, you’ve had them! Like when you pushed Simona into the pool,” Doris giggled.

“I totally forgot about that!” Images of the incident made me laugh. It’s not like the witch hadn’t deserved it. No guilt about that one.

“Oh, and there was an even worse incident... when I bit Belun’s arm.”

“You did what?”

“Don’t ask.” I looked shyly down at the table. Suddenly the smoothie menu seemed really interesting. But Doris couldn’t stop laughing.

“C’mon, who still bites?!”

“It was during training, not that that justifies it.”

She made me describe the whole thing, much to her enormous amusement. When her phone buzzed, she mentioned that Theo would be joining us soon.

“What do you think of him?” she asked.

“As someone separate from Simona?”

“You know, she’s not as bad as you think.”

Actually, everything I had done or said about her had been only in response to her behavior toward me.

“We hung out a lot when I was staying at Kyrill’s court.”

“You were there?”

“Sure. But when Baldur started his Project in Tromsø, creating a healthy environment for a vamp community, the nobles became divided between him and Kyrill. My father supported his Project and he followed him. The Apius family did too, but now only Set is there.”

“The Vasilis family didn’t support Baldur?”

“Nope.”

“So what about Theo?” I teased her. It hadn’t been that hard to notice that they had been close once.

“We’re friends. But a long time ago, he insinuated that he’d like us to be more. I didn’t like him in that way, so nothing happened.”

“Did Belun live at the court?”

“He did. But it was before I was there. When his father died, he took the Warrior call more seriously. We saw each other from time to time, but he was seeking a more complete isolation. He’d visit the court, but it was on rare occasions. And then we met in Vienna for one of Simona’s big parties, and that was when my story began with Aidan.” Her face practically radiated with her smile.

“How come you and Belun are so close?”

Doris shrugged. “I’ve known him my whole life, and he always had strong feelings for me. Maybe I reminded him of his younger sister.”

“Did you know her?” Only after I said it did I remember the two-century time difference.

“I saw her in oil paintings. She was very pretty with big green eyes and pale skin. Belun loved her very much; he has never forgiven Set for breaking her heart. Actually, he can’t forgive Set for getting into a romance with her in the first place. They both knew what love did to fragile girls back then. Belun’s mom was an example of that too.”

“And he blames Set for that?”

“He blames him because Set’s coming into Teresa’s life meant that she’d never grow old happily and die happy.”

So, Belun’s sister was named Teresa.

“But Set didn’t kill her,” I said, quietly.

“I know. You can’t choose who you love. But Belun could never get over it.”

“Set told me that he was next to her when she cut her veins, and that he suffered terribly from her choice to end her life. I don’t think he can forgive himself either.” I thought of Set’s face at the pool bar when he had revealed those things to me. When I lifted my eyes from my coffee, Doris was looking bewildered.

“I didn’t know how she killed herself, Belun never talks about her. I also didn’t know about Set being with her on her deathbed, so to speak.”

“That’s what he told me,” I said, feeling a bit defensive.

“You two got pretty close, didn’t you? I can’t imagine Set talking about Teresa, or worse, Belun’s reaction to it.”

“I didn’t know her name.”

“Does Belun know he was next to her?”

I shrugged. “I guess not, since Set told me it as a secret.” But he hadn’t told me to keep it to myself.

Doris’s look was still a mixture of emotions when a familiar voice greeted us.

“Hey, Theo,” she said, pushing aside our conversation.

“How was your tour day?” he asked, sitting down.

“Interesting. The Arena is
magnifique
,” I said, with a smile.

“Great view,” Theo commented, looking through the window. He seemed more relaxed than before, but I still got the same feeling that I had gotten with Vuk. I still wondered why. Maybe being close to
magic
made your features . . . dynamic, for lack of a better term.

His hair was dark auburn and messy, like the first time I’d seen him; his deep brown eyes were warm, and when he laughed, he seemed shy. He was my ticket to the Belun mystery.

Chapter 21

Through the Woods

“So, how was your day?” I asked Theo, when the waiter had brought his drink.

“Semi-successful.”

Okaay, whatever that was supposed to mean.

“Hey, Theo. It’s been a while, where have you been these days?” Doris smiled at him.

“I guess, our roads just haven’t crossed.”

“That sounds nomadic,” I commented, remembering what Blake had told me about him.

“You could say so,” he said, eyeing me up.

“So what do you do?” I asked casually.

“I do a lot of research.” Damn vampires, could they be more vague?

“You’re like a scientist?” I pushed, hoping to get more out of him.

“Something like that.”

“Do you work for someone?” I continued, hoping my innocent little questions could be filed away under the “two-strangers-getting-to-know-each-other” type of talk.

“Theo is known to be a lone wolf,” Doris chimed in. Theo spun a bag of brown sugar between his fingers, smiling shyly.

“What did you do before your work for Baldur?” he asked me.

“I was studying Social Science at UC Berkeley.”

Theo’s face clearly said that that wasn’t what he had had in mind. But he didn’t ask again. He took a sip of his coffee and turned to Doris.

“You look prettier than the last time I saw you.”

“Ah, flatterer!” Doris made an old movie diva gesture with her hand and an avalanche of blinks. “Thanks.”

“Doris said you two stayed at the Kyrill court together,” I said, hoping to get some info on the place.

“Yes, those days were nice.”

“And sunny!” Doris added.

“Speaking of which, how are you dealing with the North Pole cold?” Theo laughed.

“It
is
an imaginary line, but the cold is very real!”

“Did Simona return to Patmos?” Theodore asked, and my alarms went off. Patmos? That sounds Greek enough to be the place of the court.

“She was in Tromsø a few days before we took off,” Doris shrugged. The thought of Simona and Belun somewhere together stung.

“Maybe she’s with Belun.”

“No, she isn’t,” he shot back at me. He seemed pretty sure about it, but only a few seconds before he had asked us of her whereabouts. So he was trying to find Belun—the other day’s question wasn’t just curiosity, but something else. Theodore was snooping around for Belun’s location. Maybe he was tracking him. I knew this guy had something to do with him!

“By the way, Nika shoved Simona into a pool,” Doris said laughing, and Theo lifted his eyebrows. Okaay. That wasn’t a detail that her brother needed to know. But he smiled too.

Good, I wouldn’t be the night’s dinner.

“I guess she was in your way,” he commented, amused.

“Set thought that I was getting in
her
way.”

“Apius? So you guys have been having a good time there.”

“Yeah, and now the crowd is even bigger since the Original’s arrival.”

“Tertius,” I corrected her, feeling Theo’s look resting a little longer on me.

“How’s your Inquirer job going?” he asked.

“It was going well.”

“Then what happened?”

“My unexpected vacation happened.” I looked at him. His face showed the same need that I had for answers. What were his reasons, I wondered.

Doris ordered us another round of drinks, and they started talking about some people I had never heard of. From time to time I would check on Mr. Hyde, but everything seemed to be okay. Even later in my room, I was wondering if I should take the meds or just skip them. Popping off the cap of the prescription bottle, I saw there were only a few pills left. I hadn’t thought of asking for another bottle before we left the compound. And now I had to ration them.

I decided to take them only when in need.

That night my dream brought me darkness. What a shocker. But there was a noticeable lack of breathing. Even the air seemed lighter, unlike the other times. And as soon as I realized this, the density of the darkness started to dissolve.

The image that emerged showed me the view—the other side of the hill that I had dreamed about before. The fog clinging to the ground made it look like a scene from a horror movie, but I wasn’t afraid, even though a large number of graves surrounded me. It looked like some very old cemetery, and all the graves were full, unlike those five empty ones on the top of the hill. I searched for some names, or even dates, but the graves were unmarked. I didn’t feel at all afraid, only curious.

I looked around to see if there was anything besides these graves and saw a shack nearby. Inside it was clean, with a made bed that had digging tools under it. It smelled like a very old place. There was also a worn-out pair of boots under the bed, reminding me of the gravedigger from one of my previous dreams. Did he live here? Was he still digging that sixth grave? I remembered his words: “Just a little bit more.” Who was he digging that grave for anyway?

The silence didn’t seem actually dead; it was more like a sleepy silence. Walking among the graves, I looked at the top of the hill. And that was the moment when I woke up.

Blinking off the sunlight that filled my room, I reached for the ringing phone.

“Hey sleepyhead!”

“Jules!”

“Morning, Nika. I was missing you, so I called,” she said, joyfully.

“I’m so glad you did! How are you?”

“Mostly the same old same old.”

“Mostly?” I asked, pulling the cover partially over my head to avoid the light.

“Well, I have some news I wanted to share.” She sounded pretty excited. “I’m pregnant!”

I was speechless. She had completely taken me by surprise.

“Nika? You still there?”

“Yeah.” I needed a few more seconds to gather myself. “Well, congrats!”

“You’re shocked aren’t you?” she giggled.

“Yeah, pretty much. Sorry. May I ask who the father is?”

“Ah, darling, you’ve met him. It’s François Matthews.”

“The history teacher?”

“Yep.”

“So how do you feel now, considering?”

“Perfect! We found out last night, and I panicked at first; but we sat and talked and decided to go for it.” I could hear her smiling.

“I’m happy for you.” I was finally getting over the shock. “As long as it’s your own decision.”

“Yes the child is. Marriage . . . I don’t know yet. I mean, he wants it, but—”

“I understand. All the stories we’ve heard, love, pain, and getting old.”

“Yeah. That’s the problem.”

“You should give it some time before you decide that one. Enjoy your pregnancy now, you want a kid. Decide later if you want to take him up on his marriage offer.”

“That’s what I think, too. So far, I can see the kid, nothing more.”

“Then follow your instincts,” I counseled her. “What’ll happen with your work now?”

“François thinks that I should quit while I’m pregnant. But I want to continue for the next few months. Things are getting interesting.”

“In the compound?”

“Mm-hmm. Blake thinks I’m imagining things, but he can’t see anything beyond his research paper. Something’s up, I’m sure. You can feel it in the air between the vamps and the Vocati. But I still can’t put my finger on it.”

“Have you talked with Max or Gustavo about it?”

“Tibor’s also aware of some change, and so is Lyndon. But Max just shrugged me off.”

“What is it that made you think something’s off?”

“There’s a certain tension in the air. It’s in the way that the vamps speak, especially when they talk about Baldur. The way they walk, the way the Vocati have started smirking all of a sudden. Thing are different and it’s not just because of my pregnancy.”

“In what way are they mentioning Baldur?”

“I haven’t heard. But there’s lots of whispering, and it wasn’t there before. And as for Gustavo, I haven’t seen him for some time.”

“I don’t know what to say. I haven’t heard anything from everyone here. Not that I would, but if it was something big, I think I’d have caught on to it.”

“Let me know if you hear anything,” she said.

“You too. And thanks for the news!”

“Take care, Nika,” Julia said joyfully, sending me an air kiss down the line.

What were the whispers about? It apparently had something to do with Baldur, but I wondered what story had leaked. I had the feeling that Tertius would know, which made me wonder if Balthazar did too. But he hadn’t joined us for breakfast. Nor was he home for the next few days. Was it something to do with Tromsø? Or Belun? When I asked Clara if Balthazar was normally absent a lot, she only shrugged.