"Insatiable" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cabot Meg)

Chapter Thirty-eight

9:00 P.M. EST, Friday, April 16

910 Park Avenue, Apt. 11B

New York, New York

Meena could only stare wordlessly at Alaric as he went on. “Lucien-that wasn’t his name back then-and his half brother went into hiding after Vlad, for reasons unknown but likely related to his ambitions to conquer the world, bragged to Stoker about what he was. That was how one of our officers managed to track him down and stake him.”

Alaric had settled back into the armchair and was regarding both Meena and Jon, but mostly Meena, with a grimly serious expression.

“Then Stoker’s novel came out and the name Dracula became infamous and synonymous with evil. His sons have been hiding in the general population ever since, frequently changing their names and professions, trying to stay one step ahead of us. But I can assure you, Vlad Dracula’s death at the hands of the Palatine a hundred years ago made his eldest son, now calling himself Lucien Antonescu, the new prince of darkness. He has to be exterminated.”

Alaric’s blue-eyed gaze was so direct as it met Meena’s, it again riveted her to her seat.

“And you’re going to help us do that, Meena Harper, by telling me where you spent last night with him, so that we can find him and put him-and then all the members of his clan, the Dracul, whom we believe are the vampires responsible for killing those girls, as well as almost killing my partner-down.”

Meena stared up at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. She couldn’t stop remembering Lucien’s face as he’d told her the story of the woman who’d plunged to her death in the Princess’s River rather than be taken prisoner by the Turks.

If what Alaric was telling her was true, that woman had been Lucien’s mother, whom he’d watched commit suicide before his very eyes.

Those dark eyes that Meena had found so filled with sadness.

And no wonder!

But that was impossible. Because if he’d actually seen Vlad the Impaler’s wife kill herself, that would make Lucien five hundred years old.

On the other hand, if she hadn’t been his mother, why else had Lucien made such a special point of showing her Vlad Tepes’s portrait? It had to have some special, personal meaning to him.

Except…

There was no such thing as vampires.

Was she really supposed to think Lucien Antonescu was a vampire who’d magically transported himself into the museum, knocked out all the guards, and turned off the alarms…just to impress a date?

Except…

What had happened to all the guards?

And what about the bats? The bats that had attacked them outside of St. George’s Cathedral?

“It can’t be true,” she said faintly, shaking her head. “He never…I mean, he seemed so…normal.”

Except for the part where he’d been absolutely perfect.

Even to the point that she never got a sense that he was going to die someday. Of course not.

Because he was already dead.

What had Leisha said that day on the phone when Meena had told her about Shoshona getting the head writer gig? If someone who can tell how everyone she meets is going to die can exist, why can’t vampires?

Suddenly cold, Meena reached for the blanket lying on the end of the couch, the one Jonathan often napped all day underneath.

But her arm fell short, and she didn’t seem to have the strength to stretch for it.

He was already dead.

Oh, God.

Vampires were real.

And she’d slept with one.

“They’ve learned to blend over the centuries,” Alaric said with a shrug. “They’ve had to, in order to survive. Look at your neighbors, the Antonescus.”

Jon’s jaw dropped. “What?” he cried. “You’re not trying to tell me that-”

“It’s never struck you as odd,” Alaric said, “that you’ve never seen them outside in the daylight?”

Meena and Jon exchanged glances.

“I’ve seen Mary Lou outside in the daylight,” she said. “All the time.”

“Where?” Alaric demanded. “Tell me one place you have seen her.”

Meena opened her mouth to say that she’d seen Mary Lou on the street plenty of times…outside the building…in the grocery store…at the deli counter…

But then she realized she’d never seen her in any of those places. Never once.

“I’ve seen her in the lobby,” Meena murmured. The chill she felt seemed worse, suddenly.

“Maybe,” Alaric said. “Coming up from the garage where she and her husband keep their car, with its specially tinted windows.”

“Well…yes. I’ve seen her there. She seems to always be there.” In her wide picture hats. And gloves.

“Wait,” Jon said. “They have that huge terrace. They just had us over for cocktails on it.” Then he added, “Although it was after sunset.”

“But they’re huge donors to cancer research!” Meena cried.

“Jack Bauer can’t stand them,” Jon said.

“The dog doesn’t like them?” Alaric asked Jon, ignoring Meena.

“Hates them,” Jon said. “Has a fit every time he sees either of them in the elevator. Always has, since the day we got him.” He looked over at Meena. “Come to think of it, he wasn’t particularly fond of Lucien, either, was he, if the growling I heard in the hallway last night was any indication.”

Meena looked uncomfortable. Jon was right, of course. Still. “Jack Bauer is nervous. He always has been. That’s why his name is Jack Bauer. He has a lot on his mind.”

“He appears that way,” Alaric observed.

They looked at Jack Bauer. He was sprawled on his back in his dog bed, all four legs splayed, his belly and genitalia on full display, his tongue lolling as he dozed.

“Well,” Meena said. “Not all the time, of course.”

“I think,” Alaric said, “that the reason your dog is so nervous in the elevator and hallway, and not when he’s at home, is because he’s a vampire dog.”

“Now my dog is a vampire?” Meena cried indignantly. “Who next? Me?”

“I didn’t say your dog was a vampire,” Alaric said calmly. He had an infuriating habit of never losing his cool…even when he was threatening someone with a deadly weapon. “I said he was a vampire dog. Some animals, particularly dogs, are more sensitive to the smell of vampiric decay than others, and because of this they have been used since the very early days of man to help track and control the vampire population. Some have even been bred for tracking and capturing vampires. It appears your dog may have some ancient instinct for sensing and alerting at them.” Alaric shrugged. “I suppose you scolded him for it,” he added, “but he was only trying to warn you about an evil that you yourself failed to sense.”

Meena, feeling ashamed-because she had scolded Jack Bauer for his behavior and even locked him in a bathroom overnight-was relieved when Jon changed the subject.

“If the Antonescus are vampires,” Jon asked, “why haven’t they bitten us, then, like someone did these girls?” He gestured toward the photos on the coffee table. “It’s not like they haven’t had plenty of opportunity.”

“Because then we would have caught them,” Alaric said. “Exactly the way we’re going to catch whoever did this to these girls. Since your boyfriend has become prince, vampires have been under orders to go underground, taking care not to draw attention to themselves by murdering their victims. Instead, they just find weak-willed ‘donors’ they can use as human feed bags, draining them slowly, a little bit at a time. Only instead of the word donor, try using the word slave.”

Meena let out a bitter laugh. “And you think Lucien is using me as one of these slaves? Well, think again, Mr. Wulf.”

“Yeah,” Jon said, looking skeptical. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s nothing really weak-willed about my sister. I don’t think anyone could make her their slave. Except a love slave, maybe.”

The minute Jon said the words love slave, Alaric got a strange look on his face.

He rose to his feet.

“Lift up your skirt,” he said to Meena.

She craned her neck to look up at him from where she sat on the couch. “I beg your pardon?” she said with a disbelieving laugh.

“Lift up your skirt,” he said again in a commanding voice.

So she hadn’t misheard him. “Uh,” she said. She glanced over at Jon, who gave her an uncomprehending shrug. “No. I’m not going to do that.”

Then, more suddenly than she would have thought possible, he’d grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to her feet. Jack Bauer, woken by the shriek she let out, looked up at this sudden burst of violence. Jon jumped to his own feet, his expression alarmed.

“Hey, now!” he cried.

“Stop that!” Meena yelled as Alaric Wulf reached down and began tugging up the skirt of her slip. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“The femoral artery,” Alaric was saying. He was practically dangling her in the air by one arm as he pulled up her slip with the other. “I forgot. The sexual ones always go for the femoral artery.”

“Hey,” Jon said, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t think my sister likes you doing that-”

“I’m not doing this because I like it, you fool. I have to see if she’s been bitten.” Alaric threw Meena back down on the couch, where she landed with her legs spread slightly apart, the slip hiked up so high above midthigh that he was able to point and say triumphantly, “There!” while holding her down with his free hand.

Meena, furious, looked down her torso to see what he was raving about. At the most, she expected to see a love bite. She was willing to admit that, if she considered it objectively, things might have gotten a little out of hand with Lucien last night, it was true. A lot of what had happened in his bed, if she was completely truthful, was a blur.

But she never expected to see that.

It was a bite. There was no denying it. It wasn’t at all unlike the ones she’d seen on the dead girls in the photos Alaric had left on the coffee table. In fact, it was exactly like those. Except not as big or as bruised.

“Oh, my God,” Meena said with a gasp.

Meena quickly closed her legs, mortified, pulling down the skirt to her slip. Now both her brother and this rude stranger had seen her in her sexiest black panties.

“No wonder he sent you a tote,” Jon said in a stunned voice.

“The inside of the upper thigh,” Alaric said. He’d let go of her. “I should have looked there from the start. The femoral artery is often used for catheters and stents in hospitals, due to its easy access to the heart. But bites there generally go undetected.” The look Alaric gave her was inscrutable, halfway between curiosity and disbelief. “Don’t you remember him biting you?”

“I…I…,” Meena stammered. “I remember him saying he’d only bite me if I gave him permission,” she said, feeling confused. And very cold.

“And?” Jon was still on his feet, towering over both Meena and the man who’d lowered himself onto the cushions beside her. “Did you?”

Meena blinked up at him. This couldn’t be happening to her. Lucien had bitten her? The man who’d protected her from the bats outside St. George’s Cathedral? The man who’d given her his coat at Mary Lou’s? He’d bitten her?

And what’s more…she was under the distinct impression she’d liked it.

“I said yes,” she murmured to her lap. She could feel her cheeks turning scarlet. “Oh, my God. I think I said yes.”

In the silence that followed, Jack Bauer gave a sneeze. He jumped to his feet, yawned, then stretched delicately. Then he walked over to the couch, leapt up onto it, gave Alaric Wulf a cursory sniff, then curled up into Meena’s lap, rolling over onto his back to have his belly scratched.

“I don’t understand this,” Jon said, beginning to pace the room. “If these…these vampires are roaming around all over the place, just hiding in the general populace, feeding off innocent women like my sister, why do people like you keep it such a big secret? Shouldn’t there be public service announcements so girls like Meena don’t get themselves into this situation? Huh?”

Meena stared at her brother. Jon had always been slow to anger.

But once he got there, he was almost impossible to calm again.

“You think it would be better if things were like they were back in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds,” Alaric Wulf asked mildly, “when thousands of innocent human beings were falsely accused of vampirism and murdered by their neighbors because people like you, who were upset because their sister had been bitten, pointed fingers at the wrong people? No. I don’t think so. Better for them to think such things don’t exist and for professionals like myself quietly to take care of the problem.”

“Okay,” Jon said, still pacing. “Fine. Then how do we do this? Holy water? Wooden stakes? You got any extra? Because I am totally coming with you. I want to pound a stake into this guy’s chest. Let’s go. I’m ready. Come on.”

Alaric stayed where he was, sitting beside Meena. “No,” he said calmly.

“I mean it,” Jon said. “I’m not scared. Prince of darkness? Doesn’t scare me. Nobody bites my sister and then sends her a tote and gets away with it. Come on. Let’s go. Meena, tell us where the guy is staying. We’re wasting time here.”

Meena, rubbing Jack’s stomach, glanced from Jon to Alaric and back again. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do. There was a sudden roaring sound in her ears. It felt as if the bottom of her stomach had dropped out.

No. Not her stomach.

Her soul.

“He already said you’re not going, Jon,” she said, reminding her brother.

“I’m totally going,” Jon said. “Just tell us where he is.”

“No,” Meena said, her fingers tightening on Jack Bauer’s silky fur.

Alaric, taking up so much space on her couch, turned toward her. “Meena,” he said. “I know that this man, the prince, told you things that maybe made you feel…things for him. Feelings of love or even pity. But despite what he might have told you, he’s a bad man who does bad things.”

“I don’t believe that,” Meena said. “You just told me yourself Lucien didn’t murder those girls.”

A muscle in Alaric’s jaw twitched. His already small mouth seemed to shrink even smaller in frustration.

“What is he even doing here if he didn’t kill them?” she demanded. “Tell me. He’s here to find the person who did it, isn’t he?”

“Ye-es,” Alaric said slowly. “But that doesn’t make him a good man. He’s not even a man. He’s a monster. Look what he did to you. And you did not even know it. What he is…it’s a dead thing. It’s not natural. And he’s created others like himself…That’s what the Dracul are. His minions. And they’ve gone on to create their own minions. You see how it never ends? And it is one of those others that’s killing those girls. That’s why my colleagues and I have to stop him. Before things get even worse. So, please, just tell me where he is, and I will leave here. You will never have to see me again.”

Meena shook her head. Her grip on Jack Bauer’s ear was hard enough that he jerked his head, annoyed. Her fingers felt like ice.

But she still didn’t let go.

“I…can’t,” she said.

“You can’t?” Alaric asked her, raising both his eyebrows. “Or you won’t?”

“I won’t,” she said. Even her voice had begun to shake.

But what, exactly, was she supposed to do? She’d never liked vampires.

And now he had brought them to her door.

Well, she supposed he hadn’t been the one to do it. That, she supposed, she’d brought upon herself, that night she’d put the leash on Jack and gone on that walk outside St. George’s…

“Come on, Meena!” Jon shouted at her. “What are you doing? You aren’t that girl! Protecting your abusive boyfriend? Are you kidding me?”

“I’m not protecting him,” she said through frozen lips. She was visibly trembling now. She couldn’t help it. She had never felt this cold, not even during the most brutal of New York’s winters, when the wind whipped down Madison Avenue in front of the ABN building. “I’m p-protecting the two of you,” she said quietly, fighting back tears. “You d-don’t understand. He’s going to kill you. For trying to keep me from him. He’s going to kill you both.”

Alaric had turned toward her, one arm draped along the back of the couch. “What,” he asked Jon, “is she saying?”

Jon’s face had gone a little green. “She knows,” was all he said in a faint voice.

“She knows what?” Alaric demanded.

“How everyone is going to die.” Jon flung him a dazed look. “She’s always known. It’s what she does. She just knows. If Meena says he’s going to kill us…we’re going to die.”