SCROLLS OF THE DEAD-3 Complete Vampire Novels-A Trilogy (55 page)

Where were they when this happened, Dolan wondered. He returned to his room and tried to throw out his net of consciousness to pick up the missing Upton, but he caught nothing but the fearful coming together of the monks as they set about to share what information they had and give orders for the search.

"Jesus," Dolan whispered, staring out at the hot summer evening casting lengthening shadows over the courtyard. "I can't believe he did it."

Mentor had told Dolan the maniac Charles Upton did not understand his vampire powers or how to use them. He had never changed bodies until now.

Upton must have changed bodies. If he was not present in his own body, he must have taken . . . the monk's. Joseph. But how?

Dolan, like any vampire who had lived beyond a normal life span, had transferred from one body to another. No one had to really explain it to him or teach him how. The pure necessity and urge to survive helped draw him from a dying body toward a live one. After the first time, usually an abrupt event where one's body gave out suddenly, a vampire tried to be aware of his host body so as not to be taken by surprise and without a plan.

Had Upton's body been dying? It shouldn't have been as Upton hadn't been more than eighty-three. A powerful, strong, vibrant eighty-three at that. His disease had been healed and his body appeared to be near optimum health. Had he simply left his old body when it wasn't dying at all? Had he taken the monk's body just to escape?

Of course he had.

Since Dolan had never abandoned his own human form until it was of no further use to him, he couldn't imagine how such a thing was done. He imagined it would take a very powerful entity to do it. Someone so determined he could jerk away his consciousness from one body and enter with it into another.

Then what happened to the monk? Had he been thrown out of his own body by force or had he fled it for some reason?

It was all a mystery, but one Dolan hoped would be cleared up when they caught the monster again.

The monster who walked now in the robes of a vampire Buddhist monk.

~*~

Upton straightened from the ground and reached down to pull out the bone-handled knife from his chest. Blood gushed at first, but the flow lessened as the edges of the slit skin came together, and then beneath the skin, the muscles mended, the organs that had been pierced by the knife's point healing in scant moments.

He was truly vampire.

He had a brand new body, whole and strong and brown as a walnut.

As the young man, Upton stared down at the carcass of Joseph and kicked at it until he could get the body rolled off the path and into the cover of the jungle. He looked behind him and saw no one in pursuit. But he knew they would be coming soon. Someone would find the spilled blood in the corridor, or one of the monks would casually look for him in his cell and find his old dead body.

Upton didn't know where he was going, but he knew he could move faster if he were a low, sleek animal and not a man. Even a fast young man could not outrun some of the faster jungle predators.

He closed his eyes and focused his energy, changing rapidly into a black jaguar. He found himself on four paws, his vision at ground level. He could smell the scent of hot blood left back on the path during the stabbing. His nostrils flared at the smell of death from the old one who had been kicked and prodded away from the path. A long pink tongue snaked out and curled around his lips. He would like to eat the dead man. But he hadn't time, no time, no time.

He leaped up the path, bounding forward and then into the jungle, running as fast as his strong animal body would carry him. He noted monkeys racing away from his passage, screeching madly. Birds fluttered from branches into higher cover and small furtive animals made for burrows, but Upton ignored everything. He must put distance between himself and the monastery. He thought a village lay in this direction, but wasn't altogether sure. He relied on his animal sense of smell to lead him toward where men lived.

Within a half hour he was many miles away from the monastery. He lay on his belly at the edge of a clearing. He had run faster than any man could have followed. He could see ahead of him a small, thriving village where people moved about in a natural manner, unaware of his presence. He slithered back on his jaguar belly, digging into the soft ground with sharp claws and stood when he was in the shelter of cover by a wall of thick green foliage. He focused again and his molecules spun, whirling into a dark cloud first and then forming the outline and finally the solid body of the young man he had possessed. Energy remembered the matter it came from, returning to the same form it had left. He marveled at this, at how much power he'd been granted by being made vampire.

Upton did not know what he looked like except that he was rather tall, with long limbs and large bare feet. His skin was dark, his face and chest hairless. His hands were finely formed with slender fingers. He wore a pair of beige shorts streaked with dirt and a striped polo shirt stained with rusty droplets of blood. He did know his vision was perfect, his teeth all present and whole, and the internal organs that supported the frame were as healthy and vital as could be. He could not have asked for a healthier body, but he didn't know what the face looked like and because of that went into the village shyly, holding his head down as he walked. For all he knew he was an ugly creature with a deformed face, a face only a mother would love. But at least he was Thai and wouldn't stand out the way he might if he had been entering the village in his old white man's body.

He found a worn bench carved from a tree trunk and sat in the shade of a crumbling building that housed both a tea shop and an old watchmaker's shop. He sat on the bench, watching life stream around him. The people of Thailand were beautiful to him—slim, small-boned, dark-haired. They smelled of spice and sesame oil. The women, especially, drew his attention. For the most part they were short and small breasted, with shiny hair twisted into intricate buns at the back of their delicate necks.

Watching the women, he realized he was ferociously hungry and also sexually excited. Being in a young body that had never tasted blood increased his appetite tenfold. It also had reawakened his sexual appetite. He waited for dusk and for darkness to fall so he could snatch a victim. He would take care of his sexual needs later, when he felt safe, but he didn't think he could go much farther from the monastery until he fed. His stomach seemed rolled over onto itself and his intestines all tangled.

He kept his mental energy high to watch for enemies who might enter the village searching him out. They would know him, know his true spirit, despite the disguise of a new body. Vampire knew another vampire, that was certain.

The day waned quickly, though not quickly enough to suit Upton. However, he was practiced in patience. He sat immobile, watchful, head down, making himself as invisible as possible.

A little boy approached, a ragamuffin living on his own, or away from his parents for the day. Upton turned his head on his neck stiffly and glared at the youth. He hissed at him and rolled back his lips to show how he could cause long new fangs to slide down from his upper gums.

The boy froze and caught his breath.

Breathe not a word, little man. Upton whispered to the boy's mind. Take yourself away from me and hide if you have any wish to live beyond the setting of the sun.

The child blanched, going pale through he was normally the color of toasted coconut. He turned on his heel and beat a path away and into the throng of villagers until Upton lost sight of him. Upton smiled, thinking what a tasty morsel the boy might have made.

What a really tasty morsel, fine and tender enough to make a hungry man smack his lips in anticipation.

~*~

When daylight left the sky and night descended, the village emptied of commerce and workers and shoppers. Only a few men strolled the dry dirt streets, going and coming from the two bars. One of the bars boasted the only neon in the village, a gaudy pink sign that Upton could not read, though he did recognize the liquor bottle outlined in purple neon that hissed like a perpetually alarmed snake.

Unable to wait any longer, he moved toward the darker bar, the one without any electric sign to splash light around the entrance. There Upton lounged against the wall outside the door, waiting. He did not have long to wait. A smaller, older man, stumbling and mumbling from drink, came from the bar and turned down the lane. Upton stalked him until they were near a small opening between one-story buildings. He was upon him in an instant, taking him from behind, twisting his head to the side so he could get at his throat.

He had sunk his fangs in and was taking the old man's blood in great draughts until his mind warned him of another vampire—a Predator—nearby. He brought his mouth from the drunkard's neck, holding the comatose body around the waist so he wouldn't fall. He listened with his preternatural hearing and heard the footsteps passing the bar and coming toward where Upton stood holding onto his burden.

He dropped his victim immediately and sped away down the opening between buildings. When he reached the rear, he turned right and rushed on, heading for the edge of the village and the jungle beyond. He would change to jaguar again and disappear into the leafy camouflage.

He didn't know who the Predator might be, afraid to probe him to find out, but he suspected it was one of the monks, sent to search the village.

Having reached the road leading out of the village and the jungle that pushed against it on both sides, he changed into the big cat and padded on all fours into the deep emerald greenery. He hurried, beginning to leap and bound, jumping over low bushes and tall grasses and fallen limbs on the jungle floor.

He sensed the Predator now on the road, but he hadn't yet left it to come into the jungle.

I've lost him, Upton thought exultantly, moving even faster, his paws hardly touching ground. In a moment he would give up all his personal hold on the animal he had become and let the animal body and mind take over as it raced away from danger. No Predator would track him as a jaguar, if he cleared his mind.

Even as he began to let go of his own thoughts, and as he outdistanced the vampire at his back, his hunger returned, never having been satisfied. He could still taste the liquor-polluted blood of the old man he'd had to let go. Don't think of that, he scolded himself. They can track you if you think of blood and feeding.

Damn him, Upton thought, a snarl escaping his cat lips. Damn the monk who chases me, and may he fry in hell along with Joseph.

~*~

Mentor paused on the road in the darkness, bending his head slightly in thought. He tried to pick up Charles Upton's intelligence again. Without warning, he'd lost it all of a sudden, like a lightbulb going dark.

Mentor kept completely still, sure he could find the other vampire again if he tried hard enough. Surely Upton had not learned how to evade him. He'd learned many things—how to change into a cat, how to leave his body and become Joseph and then leave Joseph's dying body and finding another body to inhabit. But how had he discovered the trick of cloaking his mind so no one could detect him?

Mentor could hardly believe it. He mentally searched the area again, feeling his way slowly and meticulously around the jungle on both sides of the road. Where Mentor stood had been the fast place Upton, in the form of a jaguar, had passed. He'd fled in some direction off the road, but which direction?

This would not do. Mentor sent out a call to the monks wherever they were in their searches. Come to me, he commanded. He's where I am, but I've lost him. Come and help me.

It wouldn't take the monks long to reach him outside the village, but every minute gave Upton a chance to move even farther away. Mentor tried to search out every large cat in the area, but knew that would take a while. He had to test each one, entering into each mind to find the alien presence of a vampire.

Still, he was not too upset at Upton's disappearance. No matter where he went, he'd find him eventually. He'd track him until he found his lair, and there he'd bind him and haul him into a private place where he would set him on fire. This time they would not imprison him. They'd held off killing Upton over the years because of Mentor's reluctance, and his hope Upton might one day mature into a vampire with a conscience. Now he knew he had been wrong. He should have listened to Ross and the others. Upton grew in strength and cunning with each year that passed. He saw now it had only been a matter of time before Ross' protégé escaped.

Several monks pressed around Mentor, touching him to find out what he knew. Wordlessly, they spread out into the jungle, going in opposite directions on each side of the road. They would cover as much area as possible, seeking contact with every animal in the vicinity in case Upton changed from jaguar to something else.

Mentor chose to enter the jungle closest to where he stood, thinking he had at least a fifty-percent chance of finding Upton. He moved rapidly, focusing on every leaf and stem for evidence of recent passage. He picked up the scent of a large cat, possibly the jaguar, and followed it.

He spent hours searching, losing, and retracing his steps, seeking to find the jaguar's path again. He received mental reports from the monks, who had no better luck than he did.

Morning rose and many of the monks returned to the monastery to help the few guards they'd left behind. They must attend to the prisoners' feeding and take care that someone else didn't escape.

Mentor doggedly trekked on, hope dwindling. He searched all through the day and into the next night without pause. At some point in the day he lost the jaguar scent altogether and thought Upton had changed again, either to man or another animal.

He didn't want to admit it, but Upton had outsmarted them all. He feared he was gone, at least for now. He'd had too much of a head start and his incentive to be free was strong. While imprisoned, he'd been an annoyance, but set free, he was a formidable problem. He'd had nearly two decades to form a plan to take over the Predators. All their clans were loosely governed; their only true sin was to turn renegade. It was Upton's ambition to give all the Predators freedom to do what they wanted to in their dread hearts. Like him, they might start to believe they had a right to kill off the Cravens and a duty to release the Naturals from their reliance on blood banks.