— — —
Nel watched with narrowed eyes as the vampire took off after Eva.
Keeping the notebook in hand in case Eva had more for her to write down, Nel followed the two. She couldn’t let the vampire be alone with Eva while the girl was in such a vulnerable state. It wasn’t so much a matter of if but when the creature would stab them in the back.
Though, as Nel watched the vampire pat Eva on the back, she had to admit that the situation was disconcerting. Every vampire that she had ever met had been a bloodthirsty monster bent on killing as many of her sisters in the Elysium Order as they could before they got put down.
One acting… civilized just didn’t mesh with what she knew to be true.
She knew that they could act civilized. Sometimes, at least. If every vampire was in a constant state of madness, they wouldn’t be half as hard to find.
“I’m fine,” Eva said, shrugging the vampire off her back. She wasn’t too steady on her feet as she made her way to the sink and started washing out her mouth. “It’s just the smell. I don’t know how he can just ignore it.”
“Do you want to lie down for a few minutes?”
Eva gave a slow nod of her head. “I don’t think he’s going to be doing anything interesting for the next while. He’s performing surgery on the corpses. Currently, he’s removing the stomach–or what’s left of it–of one of the bodies.”
The vampire slung one of Eva’s arms over her shoulder and helped her over to the bed. “Sounds like you’re in for a long night.”
“Maybe Nel would be willing to light up some frankincense?”
Nel blinked at being addressed. “I thought you hated it.”
“I do,” Eva said. Her eyes were closed, but Nel could still feel some imaginary glare. “But if it overpowers the scent of rotting and bloated humans, I think I’ll take it.”
With a shrug of her shoulders, Nel went to her bag and started rummaging through. Frankincense had been one of the things she had brought plenty of. Keeping some lit for a while would hardly dent her stores.
It didn’t take her long to pull out the burner and a few pellets of frankincense. With her gemstone focus, Nel sparked the burner and stoked the flame. She carried it into the main room to help Eva sooner rather than later.
Soon enough, the wooden scent of frankincense filled the small room.
Nel gave a slight start as she realized that she had forgotten something. She grabbed the roll of duct tape and slapped a few strips over the smoke detector in the room.
That could have been bad, she thought with a sigh. She was relatively certain that incense wasn’t allowed in motel rooms. There were no smoking signs all over the building. Incense was quite similar to smoking, at least as far as fire-causing embers and staining smell everywhere went.
“Alright,” Nel said, “I’ve–”
A heavy knock at their door interrupted her. Though she had to wonder if it was actually a knock or not. It sounded more like someone took a sledge-hammer and used that as a door knocker.
Nel gripped her focus in her hand. No one had ever disturbed them at the other motels. Now they were extremely close to Sawyer and someone knocks?
She took a quick glimpse of the other side of the door.
As soon as she saw the motel logo on the man’s shirt, she let out a long breath. “It’s just the manager right? He works for the motel, at least.” Serena had taken care of the paying, so she hadn’t actually seen any employees. “He must have been walking by and smelled the frankincense.”
“Or he broke through my geas and realized that we didn’t actually pay him anything,” Serena said as she walked out of the bathroom, though she looked just as wary as Nel felt.
“It’s a human,” Eva said, still looking sick and leaning over the sink. “That’s all I can really tell you. I’ll stay hidden back here.”
There was another heavier knock against the door. If the guy knocked any harder, the door might come off its hinges.
“Best not to keep him waiting,” Eva said.
Serena stepped towards the door. “I’ll handle it. I’ll see if I can’t make him think that the frankincense is just his imagination.”
While Serena moved, Nel shuffled her feet. The chalk-drawn ritual circle was between the room’s two beds with part of it underneath one bed that had been shoved aside while it was being used. Most of it was out of sight from the door, but some poked out. She tried to disguise as much of it as she could before the manager saw. As long as he didn’t enter the room, it should be fine.
“Is something the matter?” Serena asked in a too-sweet voice as she opened the door. Her smile was just a bit too unnerving for Nel’s tastes. She had mastered the art of giving wide, polite smiles without revealing her fangs.
The manager didn’t respond right away. First, he glanced around the room. His eyes found Nel’s without delay. There was hardly any reaction before he dropped his gaze to the gemstone in her hand and again to the chalk dust around her feet.
Nel’s grip on her focus tightened. He knew.
But he still didn’t say anything. He wrinkled his nose slightly as he sniffed at the air before he turned back to Serena.
“My master wishes to meet with you and your two thralls. Immediately.”
All of the false humor vanished from Serena’s face as her smile turned to a grimace. “And your master is?”
“Lord Kuvon will accept no argument in the matter. Fetch your thralls and come with me.”
“There are only two hours until sunrise,” Serena said without so much as a glance towards the clock.
“Then I suggest that you make haste.” The manager took a step away from the door, back into the open air of the parking lot. He clasped his hands behind his back as he stared up at the night sky.
Serena turned back into the room with her grimace having shifted into pure anger.
Eva stepped out of the bathroom with her eyes still closed. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” she said, apparently having heard the conversation.
“I used my geas on the thrall of another vampire,” Serena said through grit teeth. “And then I drank from him. This vampire is going to want a tribute for that offense.” Her eyes widened as she looked towards Eva. “He’s going to smell you. He’ll want a… taste. At the very least.”
Eva’s eyes opened. Just a thin slit of red peeking out from under her eyelids. She mouthed three very clear words. ‘I’ll kill him.’
“You’re in no shape to fight; that might not be an option. We’ll see. But we can’t ignore this. If we do, we’ll likely see a gang of thralls breaking in here. In the middle of the day.”
Eva grit her teeth. “Let me get my blood,” she said, turning towards her suitcase.
Nel hadn’t moved since she realized just what was going on. The hand gripping her focus was shaking. Her other hand was slowly stroking the black skull that hung from her choker. The symbol of Lady Ylva’s ownership of her.
It was a comforting motion, even though she knew that there would be no help coming from that front. Lady Ylva had asked her to handle the Sawyer situation. She wouldn’t be sending reinforcements.
Both Eva and Serena had completely disregarded Nel as any kind of possible help. Not really a wrong decision.
Nel was an information gatherer, not a fighter.
But she could use the magic of the Elysium Order. At the very least, she could unleash a wide blast of flame and give an opportunity for Eva to do something.
Vampires were the Elysium Order’s specialty, after all.
Chapter 011
If Eva had been regretting the ritual before, she was now thinking that it just might be the death of her.
Sawyer was still dissecting corpses around the ritual ring. By the looks of things, he would be at it for a while.