One With the Shadows (31 page)

Gian barked a laugh. “Conceivable? So to speak.” Then he too grew thoughtful. “You have the blood of an Old One in you, rumors have it.”

Rufford’s face fell a little. “That does make it harder.” Kate couldn’t believe he would actually want to have children. Wouldn’t they be vampire too?

Kate cast about for another explanation. “Maybe it’s something about us that sickens her.”

Then she and Gian looked at each other, struck.

“No,” Gian said. “It’s the stones. They suck a vampire’s energy. Maybe if you’re newly made, it affects you more. Do you feel it, Rufford?”

Rufford’s gaze turned inward. “No. Or at least it is so faint as to be almost undetectable. But I do have a bit of the blood of an Old One. Beth has only my blood.”

Gian’s resolve showed in his face. “I’ll take the stones and go.” He strode to the door, almost colliding with Abdullah, on his way in with an ornate silver tea set on a tray.

“Wait.” Rufford chewed his lip. “I don’t want those stones out on the streets of Algiers either.” He laid Beth on the banquette. Kate went to her side. “Come with me,” he said to Gian. “There’s a root cellar at the far end of the compound. Practically a bunker. Perhaps that will mute the effect. And it has a stout lock to keep the stones from being stolen.”

“Ideal.”

The two men left, leaving Abdullah staring after them. “Does Miss want tea?”

“Set it down, if you would,” Kate asked. “And could you get a damp cloth?” The servant bowed and withdrew.

Beth moaned and tried to sit up. “What happened?”

“You fainted. We think it was the proximity of the jewels. To hurt Gian, he must be touched with them, but he says you are much younger.”

Beth took this fantastic explanation in stride. “Oh. And Ian has the Old One’s blood, so he wouldn’t be affected. I expect that was it.” She laid her head on the back of the banquette.

“They’ve gone to lock them in some root cellar.”

“I do feel better.” And indeed the color was washing back into her cheeks.

“I hope waking to the sight of me didn’t startle you.” Kate’s scar could send anyone back into a swoon. Kate managed a laugh.

Beth raised her head and looked at Kate strangely. “Actually, I thought you were very good not to stare at my eyes. People always do, you know.”

Kate poured her out some tea, and handed her the cup. “They are no doubt astounded by your beauty. It’s not the same thing.” Abdullah returned with a cloth and Kate laid it against Beth’s forehead as he withdrew discreetly.

“Not likely,” Beth said, closing her eyes. “I’ve been called a ‘brown little thing’ in the drawing rooms of London. And here, I’m not Egyptian enough.”

“You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.” Kate meant it.

Beth gave a rueful smile. “No, that would be you.”

Was she making fun of Kate? She hardly seemed the type. Probably she was still a little stunned and wasn’t making sense.

Gian and Rufford burst into the room. “Are you all right?” Rufford asked, striding to his wife’s side. His forehead was wrinkled in worry.

“I’m much better, dear.” Beth removed the compress from her forehead and looked around. “A little weak. This tea is doing wonders.” She patted his hand. “I admit I could do with something a little stronger though.”

Rufford was unwilling to leave his wife’s side, so Gian strode to the brandy decanter on a low table. He poured Beth out a little brandy and two substantial glasses for himself and Rufford. He lifted the decanter to Kate in question, but she shook her head. Kate wondered how long Rufford and Beth had been married. The expression in their eyes whenever they looked at each other was … full—that was the only way she could explain it. She wanted to know everything about them. She wouldn’t think why.

“Well, shall we return to the consideration of our problem?” It was Beth who prodded them back to the topic.

“I shall go with you, of course,” Rufford said.

“No. You can’t go, my friend.” Gian looked sorry about that. He obviously trusted Rufford. “Because Mrs. Rufford can’t go. Elyta may try to make contact with you for information about the Temple of Waiting if she doesn’t know where it is. You wouldn’t want her to find Mrs. Rufford alone and try to pry the location out of her.”

Rufford swallowed. “I would not. But that leaves you in the lurch.”

“No it doesn’t,” Kate said. “Gian knows very well that the stones tell me the direction of the temple. He’d just rather leave me behind. And now he can’t.” She smiled at Gian.

“But how is this?” Beth asked, sitting straighter.

“It’s a long story…” Gian made it clear he did not want to go into it.

“No it’s not.” Kate turned to the others, who waited with raised brows, agog to know what she was talking about. “I see visions, sometimes.” There, she’d admitted it. “And looking at the stones always brings one on. I don’t go mad,” she hastened to interject. “Or at least not madder than usual. And I can feel them wanting to go home. They … pull, for lack of a better word, in the right direction.” She looked at Gian. “But only for me.”

Gian sighed. “Miss Sheridan is a woman of some talents.” The words escaped through gritted teeth. “That doesn’t mean she should go on this expedition.” The arrogant bastard really hated admitting that she was as much a part of this adventure as he was.

“I can see how you wouldn’t want to put her in danger, Urbano.” Rufford gave his wife one of those full looks. “But I can’t see any way out of it.”

“And the good thing is that I was planning to excavate the Kasbah at El Oued. I’ve organized a caravan to leave in two days. If we take some of their supplies and accelerate the preparations, you could leave tomorrow night.”

“Excellent.” Gian looked relieved.

Beth chewed her lip. “Use the pass at Blida over the Atlas Mountains. The temple is on the southeast side of the middle range. If you use every available hour of darkness—maybe eight or nine days.”

“Do caravans travel at night?” Kate asked.

Beth smiled. “My caravans do.”

But of course they would. What kind of a woman organized caravans and excavated Kasbahs? Kate found Beth fascinating, not only for who she was, but for the fact that she seemed at ease with what she had become.

“We’ll travel both night and day, if you can tell us where to exchange animals.” At the look the Ruffords gave him, Gian bristled. “I’ll cover up. I’m older than you two, even though you have an Old One’s blood, Rufford. I’ll be fine. Kate will need to ride a camel.” He glanced at her in apology. “Horses are not her strong point.”

It was Kate’s turn to bristle.

“If you are going to take her with you, she will need rest, as will the drivers. You can’t just push them all to exhaustion, Gian,” Beth scolded. “They don’t have your strength.”

Gian looked exasperated.

Kate wanted to distract him from the fact that she would be such a drag on his purpose. “Will you two assemble another caravan and carry on your expedition? You might as well.”

Rufford laughed. “I was not included. Beth was going to explore lost civilizations on her own. Deserting me in fact. Alas, I am chained to Algiers at the moment. We are still cleaning up after our little war.”

“He means they are arming the populace with knowledge of how to kill any left of the poor creatures Asharti made vampire for her army.” Beth sighed.

Realization struck Kate. “That terrible plague that hit this area two years ago … Is that plague what you call the North African Vampire Wars?”

“That’s the story we put about. And it was a plague of sorts,” Rufford agreed. But then he looked at Gian. “It wasn’t easy, what we did. And it wasn’t clean. Innocents were hurt on both sides. But it had to be done, Urbano. You know that.”

Gian, still at the sideboard, downed his glass of brandy at one gulp and poured himself another. He was upset by this “war” that the world had thought a plague. “It may have been duty, but we sullied our souls,” he said. “There was no honor in it.”

“That’s the price for keeping the balance between vampire and human.”

“The only reason you two weren’t killed along with all the others who aren’t born to the blood was that you destroyed Asharti,” Gian said, and downed the second glass. “According to the Elders, making a vampire is an abomination. If the Elders had sentenced you and Mrs. Rufford to death too, would you still think it had to be done?”

“I would have taken Beth and run for the hills. She’s my first concern. But they didn’t condemn us. So I fought, as you did. Beth fought in Tripoli with Khalenberg. It’s a rough world. But we play the hand we’re dealt. Then we live with what we’ve done.”

Beth smiled. “You are too hard on yourself, Gian. Yet you are so courageous. Both of you.” She glanced to Kate. “For our part, we’ll deal with Elyta if she comes through Algiers.”

She rose. “I’ll write you out contacts for supplies and animals along your route. Use my name. You’ll be treated well.”

*   *   *

“You’ll find these much more comfortable for desert travel.” Beth bustled into the room with an armload of clothes, followed by two maidservants carrying boots and coats and belts and all manner of things, along with two very large carpetbags bound by complicated straps. She held up an example. Breeches. “One really can’t ride a camel except in breeches or a burnoose. You seem comfortable with trousers. These will be much better than the ones you have.”

Kate had been feeling lost, with everyone out making who knew what arrangements. She was going across the desert on a camel into mysterious mountains where temples were buried, carrying deadly jewels the size of apricots, with vampires on her trail. Not to mention that she was going with a vampire to do it. And speaking of that vampire, with all the preparations, he had been nowhere in evidence. He had been studying maps, and making notes, and … and he didn’t seem to have time for her. But that was good. She didn’t want to get more involved with him. Not when they might be killed.

And if they weren’t killed, then what? She had no idea. In fact, there was so much puzzling about Gian, and what she wanted, and what she was afraid to want, that she couldn’t even think about him.

So she welcomed the life that entered the room with Beth. The women dumped their load of clothing on the bed and the maids retreated murmuring to each other. One made the sign against the evil eye. Kate sighed.

“I’m sorry about their reaction,” Beth said.

“Don’t be. I’m used to it.” Kate shrugged as though she didn’t care.

“You are a strong person. Gian has told me all about you.” Beth sorted clothes into piles.

Kate was appalled. “I don’t know what he could tell you. He knows nothing about me.”

Beth glanced up, smiling. “Only how you came to be involved with the stones.”

“You mean that I picked the pocket of one of Elyta’s vampire friends and stole the emerald?” There, that would shock her.

“He quite admires how intrepid you are. Your skills saved him from Elyta.”

“He just knows my tricks. That isn’t me.” Kate fingered a fine pair of loose wool trousers dyed red. Dressing like this would be … different at least. She could put her reticule, with her tarot cards and money in the capacious pockets.

“And what do you know of him?”

The question was innocent, but Kate felt as though Beth was challenging her. “That he is arrogant. That he’s used to having whatever women he wants. That he can be incredibly stubborn.”

Beth sighed and smiled. “In short, a strong and attractive man. Aren’t such men all like that?”

Was she dismissing those observations? Very well. “I know he values his honor and his duty to these Elders, whoever they are, more than his life.” She let her tone tell Beth how stupid she thought that was. “I know he cares for his mother.” She paused. “He’s generous to his servants.” She shrugged. “He has courage.” She wouldn’t say that he was also an extremely generous lover. Or that he made a thrill inside her loins even when she thought about that. That was just a measure of her weakness, not of him.

“He is all of those,” Beth agreed. “They are part of what I value about him. With what he went through during the wars, I worried for him. Ian and I both did. He seemed so … lost afterward. Ian thought this mission to find the stone would help him find his way back.”

Gian lost? That didn’t seem right. “I know he hates what he did in the war, somehow.”

“Yet he wants to find purpose in fulfilling a duty at incredible personal cost. That is a courageous man.” She held up a sheepskin jacket. “It is cold at night in the mountains.”

“He’s just arrogant enough to think there’s a purpose to life.” Kate was thinking out loud. “And that he is the one to find it.”

“And isn’t there?” Beth folded clothes and put them into a valise.

“No.” Kate found herself at the arched window surrounded by blue tiles, looking out over a courtyard with olive trees in it. “The only purpose is survival, and to grab what comfort or happiness you can for as long as you can hold it.” She could smell the jasmine on the night air. “And that’s usually short enough.”

“I agree with you.”

What did that mean for a woman who was vampire? What comfort and happiness could there be? But how could she ask someone about that? Desire warred with discretion in her breast. Discretion lost. “Are … are you sorry you’re a vampire?”

“No.” Beth’s gaze was frank. “I find the night a comfort now. And the blood? I once worried about that. But you’ve no idea how sweet it is to feel the thrill of life along your veins when your Companion tastes the first copper richness of blood. In fact, the feeling of being alive and … more because you are two beings together is something I can’t imagine being without. The senses…” She closed her eyes, a look of bliss passing over her face. “You can’t imagine the heightened smell, the sight—even at night—and touch … Oh, I love the sense of touch.”

Kate blinked. She knew what or whom Beth was thinking of touching.

Beth opened her eyes. “I’d wager Gian doesn’t feel how special it is. He was born to it. But it’s like opening a window and seeing a whole other world outside.”

“Mr. Rufford made you vampire?”

“He had no choice. I’d been infected by Asharti. He had to give me his blood. Without immunity from a vampire’s blood, reaction to the parasite kills you.”