How to Seduce a Vampire (Without Really Trying) (Love at Stake) (12 page)

Her armor had made her appear like an ancient Greek soldier. Had the armor come from her father? When had a Greek army traveled that far east?

He turned on his computer and did a search. Alexander the Great had reached as far as India before his army had rebelled, demanding to return home. Had one of the soldiers deserted, fleeing north into the mountains? He winced at the date: 326 BC. Could Neona be over two thousand years old?

“Damn,” he whispered. He was used to always being the older one, but this made his eight hundred years seem puny.

Two thousand years, living in Beyul-La, protecting . . . what? The fact that they were old? What was the point in living that long if you lived in a prison? Unless there was something else they were protecting.

Like what? It couldn’t be gold or jewels, not when they lived so simply, with their homemade clothes and shoes. He racked his brain but couldn’t come up with anything else.

A sudden thought caused a chill to run down his spine. Neona might have been alive in 1241. She might have been one of the fierce warriors who had avenged his mother’s death. She might have even shot the arrow that had killed his father.

“Shit.” Was he falling in love with his father’s killer?

Chapter Eleven

T
he next evening after sunset, Zoltan jerked awake in his hidden bedroom at the townhouse. With a burst of energy, he showered, dressed, and teleported to the kitchen of his castle for breakfast. One good thing about being a Vamp, he thought as he waited for his bottle to heat up in the microwave, was that no matter how troubled he was, he always slept like the dead. Literally.

Now he was alive again, and the worries were back. Had Neona taken part in the murder of his father and the deaths of so many villagers back in 1241? How could he ask her such a question?

Innocent or killer? It kept going back to the same question. He wanted to believe in her innocence, but reality kept showing him something else—Neona shooting arrows at him that first night. Swinging a sword at him. Hell, she’d raked a knife down his body last night. But that was to convince him to leave. She wasn’t trying to kill him anymore. She wanted to protect him.

Would that change when she found out he was a vampire?

The microwave beeped and he removed his bottle, glancing at the time. Would she meet him at the cabin again at midnight?

“Shit!” He slammed the bottle down.
The watch!
He’d promised her a watch!

“Dammit.” He knew he’d forgotten something.

“There you are.” Howard entered the kitchen, carrying a new sat phone. “I brought this for you.”

Zoltan ignored him and guzzled down his bottle of blood. He’d teleport into town. There was a jewelry store on Main Street that catered to tourists. Old man Janos would have some nice watches.

Howard set the sat phone on the counter next to him. “Some packages arrived for you today. Two boxes of books. But before you leave—”

“I have to go somewhere first.”

“What? Where?”

“Town.” Zoltan tossed the empty bottle into the recycle bin. “I need to buy a watch.”

“You have a watch.”

Zoltan gritted his teeth. “Are bears always so damned nosy?”

“Ah. It’s for your girlfriend.”

“Do me a favor and put all the books in a duffel bag. And there are some weapons on the table in the armory. Pack them up for me, too. I’ll be right back.”

“You’d better come back,” Howard said quickly before he could teleport away. “We moved the mummy this morning, and Elsa wants to make sure you’re happy with it.”

“Fine.” Zoltan teleported to a dark alley close to the village square where the two streets intersected. Main Street and High Street.

Some villagers were seated outside the pub, drinking, while some others sat in front of the restaurant, eating. A few waved and called out greetings as he strode toward the jewelry store. He waved back, then pulled on the door handle. Locked.
Damn.
Janos was closed for the day?

He teleported inside. “Janos!” The old man lived in the back, so he should hear him. “Janos?”

“Coming!”

Zoltan wandered toward the first glass case, looking for a woman’s watch. Necklaces, rings . . . a set of wedding rings caught his eye. Simple, but elegant.

“My lord?” Janos limped slowly into the room. He’d suffered an injury back in the second human world war. “I was just about to have supper.”

“My apologies for disturbing you. I won’t take much of your time. I need a watch.”

Janos’s gaze shifted to Zoltan’s wrist. “You have a watch.”

“I need a woman’s watch.”

Janos gasped.

Was it that shocking? “I’ve bought jewelry for women before,” Zoltan growled.

“Not in my lifetime.” Janos stepped closer, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “Are you serious about her, my lord? Will there be a countess soon at the castle?”

Zoltan grimaced. It was a bloody shame he didn’t have time to buy the damned watch online. Now Janos was going to spread the word, and before the night was over, the whole village would be planning his wedding.

“I have some lovely engagement rings over here.” Janos scurried behind the first glass case, moving exceptionally well for a man with a limp.

“I want a watch,” Zoltan muttered. “And no publicity regarding the matter.”

“Oh.” Janos’s shoulders slumped. “Very well.” He hobbled over to another case as if he were suddenly in pain again. “I’m afraid we’re running low. The tour bus this afternoon was filled with newlyweds, and they bought the best ones.”

“What?” A frisson of horror skittered through Zoltan when he realized the watch case was practically empty. “I only need one. A pretty one.”

“I ordered some more after the tour bus left. They’ll be here in a few days.”

“I need something tonight!”

Janos winced. “Well, as you can see, we have a few men’s watches. And then there’s this one.” He retrieved a watch from the case and set it on a square of black velvet. “These are very popular, especially among the younger women. I suppose your lady friend is on the young side?”

Zoltan gritted his teeth. She might be over two thousand years old. He eyed the watch with its hot pink band and sparkly decoration. “What is that? A cat?”

“Hello Kitty,” Janos murmured. “I can give you an excellent price for it.”

Zoltan grabbed the watch and studied it closely.

“Is she fond of cats, my lord?”

He snorted. “I suppose so. Box it up. And when your new ones come in, save the most expensive one for me.”

“Yes, my lord. Of course. We’ll let this one be on the house, shall we?”

“Thank you, Janos.” Zoltan shoved the small gift box into his jacket and teleported back to the castle. He found Howard in the armory stuffing the box of arrows into a huge duffel bag.

“Good, you’re back.” Howard set the last of the books into the overloaded bag and struggled to zip it shut. “I promised Elsa you would drop by the chapel. I helped Alastair move the mummy this morning before the tour, and Domokos followed us the entire time, warning us that you would throw a fit if anything happened to it.”

Zoltan snorted. “I don’t throw fits.”

Howard gave him a curious look. “Domokos said it was special to you, but he wouldn’t explain why.”

“I’ll go there now.”

Howard straightened. “Wait. You need your—”

Zoltan teleported to the courtyard and looked around in the moonlight. The main keep where he and his servants lived was in excellent shape since he’d renovated it about twenty years earlier, but the east wing and tower were in bad shape. They were now sectioned off with yellow tape.

He zoomed over to the chapel. Built five hundred years ago, it still boasted the original stone walls, but he’d had to replace the roof and stained glass windows two hundred years ago.

Inside, he found Elsa equipped with a spray bottle of glass cleaner and a roll of paper towels, busily polishing up the glass case that housed the mummy. The wooden chairs had been removed to make room for the glass case, which was now resting on several wooden crates so it was waist high.

“Good evening,” Zoltan said.

Elsa jumped, turning to face him. “Oh, you came.” She set down the Windex bottle and paper towels on a windowsill. “The glass got all smudged with fingerprints from the tourists. I wanted to make sure you were happy with the mummy’s new home.”

Zoltan walked around the glass case, studying the familiar form inside. “She looks fine.”

Elsa approached. “I thought it might be a woman, but I wasn’t sure. Did you know her?”

Zoltan nodded, his mouth quirking with a wry smile. “She would probably find it amusing to be housed in a chapel.”

“Why? Was she very religious?”

Before Zoltan could answer, Howard rushed inside the chapel and screeched to a halt.

He glowered at Zoltan. “You had to teleport here? Don’t you know exercise is good for you?”

Zoltan snorted. “Would I live longer? What took you so long?”

“You left your sat phone in the kitchen.” Howard handed it to Zoltan.

“Guess what?” Elsa grabbed her husband and pulled him over to the glass case. “Zoltan just told me the mummy is a she. I already suspected that, though. See the long hair? And she’s a little short, just around five feet, although I suppose men were shorter, too, at one time.”

Howard leaned over the case and grimaced. “All I see is a shriveled-up, horrid thing. Why would anyone want to keep something so creepy?”

Zoltan winced as he pocketed the phone.

“Oh no!” Elsa fussed at her husband. “She’s very interesting. If you look closely, you can see all kinds of detail. Like the gown. Another reason why I thought it was a woman, although I think men used to wear long robes, too. But look at her sleeves and the hem of her skirt. See the embroidery? It’s deteriorated over time, but I bet it was beautiful when it was new.”

“But look at that.” Howard pointed at the mummy’s right hand. It reached out, the blackened fingers outstretched like the talons of a bird. “It looks like she’s trying to grab hold of you. How creepy is that?”

“It does look kinda scary,” Elsa conceded, then glanced at Zoltan. “Do you know why her hand is like that?”

He nodded. “She was buried with a Bible under her hand to keep her soul from roaming the Earth and seeking vengeance. Over the centuries, the Bible deteriorated but left her hand frozen in that position.”

“Creepy,” Howard repeated, and Zoltan shot him an annoyed look.

“Why did they think she would seek revenge?” Elsa asked.

Zoltan stepped closer to the case. “She was murdered by the villagers.”

Elsa gasped. “Why?”

“It’s a long story.” Zoltan placed his hand on the glass, where it rested over the outstretched hand of the mummy. “They thought she was a witch.”

“Oh.” Elsa’s eyes widened. “So that’s why you said she’d think it was funny to be here in the chapel.”

“She was executed for being a witch?” Howard asked.

Zoltan sighed. Both Howard and Elsa looked fascinated, so it was obvious they would hound him with questions if he didn’t tell them more. “The villagers couldn’t decide whether to stone her or burn her, so they did both. And then they couldn’t bury her in holy ground in the churchyard, so they stuck her in a cave and sealed it. Years later, there was a rock slide down the mountain that opened up the cave, and the villagers discovered that her body had mummified.”

Howard made a face. “So they brought her out and put her in a glass case? Why would they want to look at something this creepy?”

Zoltan gritted his teeth. “They thought it was the best way to keep an eye on her. So they could make sure she stayed dead.”

“But you knew her, right?” Elsa asked. “Was she really a witch?”

“No. I’ve always believed she was innocent. The count at the time was a merchant who traveled the Silk Road to China. He’d lost his first wife when she gave birth to his son, so I suppose he was lonely. He came back from one of his journeys with a new wife from the East. The villagers didn’t know what to make of her. She didn’t speak Romanian, she wasn’t Christian, and she looked a little different. She converted and took the name Donna Maria, but people still suspected her. When the Mongols invaded and killed most of the villagers, the survivors pointed their fingers at her. She was from the East, so she must have caused the Mongols to invade.”

“She became a scapegoat,” Howard concluded.

“Exactly,” Zoltan agreed. “Everyone had lost most of their families, so they were eager to blame someone. They tied Donna Maria to a post in the village square and decided to execute her.”

“But she was married to the count,” Elsa protested. “Surely he stood up for his wife.”

Zoltan shook his head. “The count’s eldest son was killed by the Mongols. He was so devastated that the poisonous gossip from the village took hold of him. He started to believe that he’d brought home a witch. The thought that his son’s death and all the other deaths were ultimately his fault made him fall into a deep despair. So he did nothing to save his wife.”

Elsa winced. “The poor woman. She must have felt so betrayed.”

“I’m sure she did.” Zoltan regarded her sadly. “But at the same time, I can see why people thought she was a witch. She could communicate with animals and birds.”

Elsa stiffened. “I can communicate with animals. And my aunt can communicate with birds. Thank God we live now and don’t have to worry about being stoned to death.”

“Wait a minute.” Howard lifted his hand and gave Zoltan a pointed look. “Aren’t you able to communicate with animals?”

“What?” Elsa’s eyes widened. “Can you really?”

Zoltan nodded. “Something I inherited.” He touched the glass above the mummy’s face. “Along with the almond-shaped eyes.”

Elsa gasped. “Oh, my God.”

Howard stiffened. “You mean . . . ?”

Zoltan nodded. “That’s why the steward said she’s special to me.”

Howard blinked, then snorted with laughter. “Your momma’s a mummy?”

Elsa swatted his arm and whispered, “Don’t make fun.” She turned to Zoltan. “I’m so sorry your mother suffered like that. I’m sure she was a lovely woman.”

“Yeah.” Howard shifted his weight, wincing. “Sorry about calling her creepy.”

“Repeatedly.” Zoltan gave him a wry look. “I should be going now.”

Howard nodded. “I brought the duffel bag. It’s just outside the door.”

“Thanks.” Zoltan glanced one more time at his mother. He was ninety-nine percent sure that she had come from Beyul-La. It would explain her odd gift. And her secrecy about her past.

Had Neona come with the other women to avenge his mother’s death? Did the arrow on the wall in the armory belong to Neona? Innocent or killer?

He swallowed hard. For the first time in centuries he was falling for a woman. He needed to gain her trust, but she was convinced that men couldn’t be trusted. Was she basing that assumption on what had happened to his mother? For there was no doubt in his mind that his father had betrayed his mother in the cruelest way. When she’d needed her husband the most, he’d turned his back on her. Abandoned her to a horrific death.

That was the main reason why Zoltan had never wanted to avenge his father’s death. He’d always figured the count had gotten what he deserved. But still, he wanted answers.

What had happened that day in 1241? He’d tried to protect his mother, standing in front of her and taking some of the stones meant for her, even some of the flames. But somehow he’d awakened the next day a few miles away from the burned village with no memory of how he’d gotten there. Would Neona know?