Read the book: «Embrace The Twilight»

Embrace the Twilight
Maggie Shayne

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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To Christine Norris, just because.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

1

T he gorgio dropped three pieces of silver into the woman’s palm. It was a beautiful palm, a beautiful hand, Will noticed as she closed it into a fist. Dark and slender, but strong, not fragile looking, as slender hands tended to be. She wore rings on every finger, and gold and silver bangles on her wrists, which made tinkling music every time she moved.

“Thank you,” she told the pale-skinned man. “When the predictions come true, tell your friends. And be sure they ask for Sarafina when they come.”

He backed away, nodding, thanking her profusely, but never turning his back on her all the way out. As soon as his feet touched the ground outside her wagon-tent, he crossed himself and ran away.

The gorgios might deny it, Sarafina thought, but they were every bit as superstitious as the Gypsies. Will thought it was odd that he could hear what she was thinking as well as what she said aloud. It was almost as if he had retreated into her mind to escape the pain, instead of his own.

But he was distracted from the odd notion by her smile. She smiled slowly, and it transformed her face from dark and sullen and exotic to something of sheer, glowing beauty. He loved her. Everything about her, from her smooth olive-bronze skin to the masses of raven hair curling wildly over her back and shoulders. He loved her lips, how full they were, how ripe. He loved her eyes, gleaming onyx gemstones, set very wide beneath heavy brows most women would pluck down to nothing.

She tucked the coins into the heavy drawstring pouch that dangled from one of the colorful sashes at her waist. “Ten already this week,” she whispered, as she leaned over the table to drop a black silk scarf over the crystal globe that held court in its center. The “table” was an upturned wooden crate covered in more silk scarves, as was the chair. The chair on the other side of the table, the one for the customers, was also a crate, but an undressed one. She wasn’t about to have one of them sitting on her silk.

Andre. She was thinking of Andre now.

It gave Will a bitter pang to realize it, to feel the little leap of her heart when she thought of the man, but he stayed with her all the same, like a shadow hidden within her own. She left the tent, her strong, bare feet padding down the fold-up steps of the wagon, then pressing onto the cool brown earth as she crossed the camp. Will loved tagging along when she went outside, because the camp was such a fascinating sight; concentric circles of painted wagons and tents, and odd combinations of the two. Bells and prisms hung from most of them. At the center was a communal fire, though many smaller ones burned here and there. The center was where people met. There was often music, dancing. The women in their brightly colored skirts, with their countless scarves trailing them like comet tails as they whirled. The men with their tight-fitting trousers, and red and gold vests. The musicians with their violins and tambourines and pipes.

They were a beautiful, vibrant people, these Gypsies. He didn’t know where they were. He was uncertain when they were. Not that it mattered, since they were mere figments of his imagination.

Too vivid, too detailed, to be real.

Many greeted Sarafina as she passed. The younger ones bowed respectfully, while the elders looked upon her as an equal. She was spectacular, walking with her head high and her hips swaying, proud of who she was.

She was a gifted seer, and she used that gift to bring wealth to the tribe. That earned her the honor and respect of the group, just as it did her far less worthy sister. But Will worried about the woman. Lately, she’d been feeling poorly, and her gifts of prophecy refused to tell her why.

The fire in the center of the camp jumped and danced, yellow-orange flames spreading a pool of light in the midst of the pitch-black ocean of night. The wood smoke smelled good, warm and tangy and familiar. Many of the people had gathered around the fire that night, listening as the old ones told tales. Stories of adventures and the misdeeds of their youth brought gasps and then laughter from those gathered around to hear.

Sarafina loved these people. They were her family, and family was all that mattered to her. And they loved her in return. Except, of course, for her sister. Katerina was her own blood, but she had hated her sister from the moment Sarafina had drawn her first breath. Sarafina liked to pretend the feeling was mutual.

It wasn’t. Her sister’s hatred ate at her like a cancer.

Katerina’s vardo stood on the opposite side of the camp from Sarafina’s, as was always the case wherever the tribe made camp. As Sarafina approached it, leaving the light of the fire far behind, a dark form emerged from the wagon, turned and hurried away into the shadows. A man, Will thought, but he was gone before giving either of them more than a brief glance.

Sarafina stepped up and reached for the door flap, and the bells attached to it tinkled as she drew it open and stepped inside.

Her sister looked up at her with an expectant smile that turned to a grimace the moment she saw who it was. They were so different, the two of them. Katerina’s black hair was long and perfectly straight. Her eyes were small, close set and round. They looked like cold pebbles. Shark’s eyes.

“Did you think your lover had returned, Katerina?” Sarafina asked with an edge in her voice. “So sorry to disappoint you.”

“You’ve done nothing but disappoint me from the day our mother died giving birth to you, little sister. Why begin apologizing for it now?”

The words stung. Will could feel Sarafina’s pain as acutely as she herself felt it. But her heart had toughened and formed calluses over the years, thanks to her sister’s constant attacks. It didn’t hurt as much as it would have once.

Smiling, Fina lifted her coin pouch in her palm, bouncing it slightly so the coins inside jangled. “Ten gorgios have come to see me this week. Ten, Katerina. Twice as many as have sought you out for divination.”

Her sister shrugged. “Your wagon is nearer the road than mine.”

“They ask for me by name,” Sarafina countered. “They come to me because I am the most skilled seer in this camp, and because word of my abilities has spread throughout the town. I’ll have still more of them crossing my palm with silver next week. And I predict you’ll have even fewer.”

“Bah! By the week after that, when not one of your false predictions has come to pass, they’ll see that your only talent lies in deception, and they’ll begin seeking my counsel instead.” Katerina tossed her hair. “We both know the truth. Not only am I the more gifted diviner, I am the rightful Shuvani of this tribe, Sarafina.”

Will cringed inwardly when he heard that, knowing there was not much that could make Sarafina angrier. No one got away with calling her gift into question, much less questioning her status as one of the tribe’s two wise women. Most tribes had only one. There was no question that this tribe would have had only one, as well, had Sarafina been firstborn.

“Thanks to your false predictions, the whites will likely brand all Gypsies liars and cheats,” Katerina went on. “And we’ll be forced to move on, because of you, yet again.”

“My predictions are not lies! I am a far better seer than you, and you know it.”

“Not so great a seer, I think. Or you would know the identity of the man who just left my vardo. ”

The words were a blow that knocked the very breath out of Sarafina’s chest. She looked around her sister’s tented wagon, even as Will whispered to her to be calm, to resist rising to her sister’s bait. But he knew she couldn’t hear him. She never could.

The sleeping pallet was untidy, the blankets upon it rumpled and askew. The table in the corner, not a crate like Sarafina’s, but a real table that had belonged to their mother, held no crystal, no cards, but a blazing oil lamp, two tin cups and a wine jug lying, uncorked, on its side.

Katerina’s soft laughter brought her sister’s head around fast.

“He’s far too good for you, you know. But he knows now that a real woman desires him.”

“Are you saying it was Andre I saw creeping away from here as I approached?”

Will thought that if Katerina valued her life, she would deny it.

“Of course it was Andre. He’s the handsomest, the strongest, the wealthiest man in the camp. I couldn’t very well let you have him.”

“ Bi lacho bitch!” Fina shrieked the words even as she lunged forward. She brought her hand across her sister’s face, nails slashing her cheek.

Katerina didn’t even pause to give note to the pain. She lurched forward, eyes blazing, arms flailing. The two collided, tumbled to the floor and rolled in a tangle of skirts and scarves, ring bedecked hands and bangled arms. They hit the table, and it tipped over. The oil lamp shattered, and the oil spread in a pool of blue flame. Panic rose in Will’s chest as they pummeled and bit and clawed each other, both of them shrieking.

Will tried to shout a warning. He focused everything in him on Sarafina and on shouting one word. Fire!

Sarafina shoved her sister off her in one mighty thrust, looking around as if she’d heard something. Will realized, though, that a crowd had gathered outside the tent, probably drawn by the commotion of the fight. They were shouting at her, too. He had no way of knowing which voice she had heard. It didn’t matter-not now. He saw her face change as she realized the entire wagon was ablaze.

“Look what you’ve done!” Katerina screamed. “We’ll burn alive because of you!”

Sarafina looked for a way out, but the fire was licking at the sides of the tent all around them. Then, suddenly, someone plunged in through the flames. A form, swathed in blankets. He dropped his makeshift cloak. It was Andre, his dark eyes blazing.

“Wrap yourselves in blankets,” he ordered. “Quickly!”

Both women hastened to obey, as Andre grabbed the water vessel from near Katerina’s bed and doused them with it. Then he retrieved his own blanket from the floor. “Run, right through here,” he said, pointing. “You must run as fast as you can. If you hesitate, you will die.” He gathered Katerina in his left arm, Sarafina in his right. Will braced himself, all but holding his breath. “Now!” Andre shouted.

Sarafina closed her eyes and plunged into the wall of fire. There was searing heat on her face and on her feet, but only briefly. An instant of torture, and then she was falling to the cool earth.

She landed hard. Wrestling free of the dampened blanket, she sat up, the fire blazing behind her. Will was nearly limp with relief that she was all right.

Most of the tribe surrounded her, looking down at her and her sister, who had landed close beside her, in stark disapproval as the flames lit their soot-streaked faces. Will knew that Sarafina’s dignity was deeply wounded, as was, perhaps, her standing with the tribe.

“It was all her!” Katerina shouted, scrambling to her feet. “She accused me of trying to steal her man and attacked me. By the Gods, all I have is gone!” she cried, waving a helpless arm at the leaping flames.

People gasped, muttered, shook their heads in pity as Katerina’s tent and her every possession burned to cinders before their eyes.

“She lies,” Sarafina said. “It was she who began this. I only finished it.”

Andre bent to help her to her feet, pausing a moment to study her face, then pulling her close to him. His arms went around her, holding her intimately, tightly. Will writhed with jealousy.

“Oh, Sarafina, tell me you don’t believe that I could be tempted to another. It’s you I love. You I’ll take as wife. No one else.”

Sarafina stared at him, and she suddenly understood that her sister had lied to her. Katerina was only trying to plant seeds of doubt that would grow to destroy the love she and Andre shared, she told herself. Someone had crept away from Katerina’s vardo tonight, but it hadn’t been Andre.

Will shook his head slowly, whispering in his mind, in her mind, “Oh, Sarafina, don’t be such a fool.”

Sarafina glared at her sister in triumph, but then she went still at the look Katerina returned. It was cold, steely and deadly.

Before she could begin to understand what that look might mean, there was a horrifying scream that rent the night from somewhere beyond the camp. Everyone went stiff and still for one brief moment, as if the sound had turned them all to stone.

“No. For the love of Devel, not again,” someone whispered. Will thought it was Gervaise, the reigning chieftain of the tribe. He didn’t know what Gervaise meant and wondered if he was about to find out.

But before he could learn anything further, he was shocked out of the fantasy by the sensation of his lungs slowly filling with ice water.

A hand clasped him by his hair and jerked his head out of the tub of frigid water. Will dragged in a desperate, hungry breath, before that hand shoved his head into the tub again, holding him under.

His hands were bound together behind his back, his legs bound at the ankles. His body screamed with pain, pain he had managed to escape only moments before. But all that dulled beside the stabbing need in his lungs as they spasmed in search of air. Small red explosions danced behind his tightly closed eyes. He was going to pass out, and then he would drown.

The hand jerked him out of the water again, and even as Will sucked in greedy, noisy breaths, slammed him down into a small, ladder-back chair.

Water ran from his hair and face, soaking his ragged, filthy shirt.

A bearded man wearing a spotless white headdress lifted Will’s chin and stared down at him, then spoke to one of the guards, using one of the tribal dialects in which Will was fluent, though he had managed to keep that fact from them…thus far.

“He has returned to his body. You may resume the torture now.”

“Why should we waste our time? He will only leave again when the pain becomes too much for him. How does he do it? Where does he go?”

The first man shrugged, crossing the floor of the cave to where a fire had been burning earlier. It was now a bed of glowing coals. They’d placed long iron rods in the embers, and it was one of these the man pulled out, using a piece of fabric as a makeshift pot holder. The hotter end was neon-orange and reminded Will of the beer sign hanging in his favorite bar back home.

“Now, Colonel Stone,” the man said, speaking heavily accented English. “You will tell me what I wish to know.”

“I’ve told you already,” he said softly, though it hurt like hell to talk, because of his split, swollen lips and the dryness of his throat. “There are no American spies in your training camps.”

There were, actually. There were thirteen, to be exact, and Will knew who they were, what names they were using and what camps they had infiltrated. They would have received word of his capture by now. They would remember their training, and they would know exactly what to do, where to go, when to meet there for extraction. It would take them another forty-eight hours to get out of harm’s way, he thought. Judging the passage of time was tricky, given the circumstances.

He had to hold out until the men were safely out of the country.

“If there are no spies, then how do the Americans always seem to know our plans?”

Will didn’t shrug. The movement would have hurt too much. “Technology?”

The man laid the cherry-red end of the iron flat across Will’s chest. The pain was beyond bearing, and he tipped his head back and grated his teeth against it, while the smell of his own burning flesh choked him.

Even when the rod was lifted away, the pain remained. Burning, scorching pain deep inside him. He closed his eyes, tried to find that place inside his mind where he’d been hiding before. That place where the pain couldn’t reach him. He saw the woman, standing far in the distant reaches of his subconscious. Sarafina, the dark, exotic fantasy woman who lived out her tales in his mind so vividly that she swept him away from the torture, the pain.

He’d stumbled upon her quite by accident, when they had beaten him nearly unconscious. He’d been hovering on the edge of oblivion when he’d seen her in his mind’s eye. Just her eyes, glowing black eyes. He found himself focusing on those eyes, getting caught in them, sinking slowly into their black-water depths, into darkness. He’d felt himself sinking deeper, and as he did, the pain vanished. Once it fell away behind him, he emerged on the other side, in some other place and time, as a silent, invisible observer of the woman’s life.

Ever since that first time, he’d found he could use the pain to find that place again. The trick was to just give himself over to the agony, not to fight it, but to embrace it. And then he would close his eyes and search for hers. All he had to do was find her eyes, stare into them, and he would sink again into her world, where the pain couldn’t reach him.

She was pure fantasy, as was her story. He knew that. But she was also his salvation. And the salvation of those thirteen Americans who would be tortured to death unless he kept their names secret.

So he closed his eyes as they placed the hot brands on his skin. He relaxed his jaw and tried not to fight the pain. He let the pain drive him closer to her, closer, until she turned and faced him. Her eyes opened wide as he fixed his upon them and rushed willingly into their cool black depths. Then he was completely immersed, having left his body far, far behind. He swam, every stroke taking him farther. And he wondered if one of these times his captors would do him the favor of simply killing him, so that he could remain in that other place. But would it remain, opening, welcoming him inside? His own custom-imagined heaven? Or would it vanish as his brain cells slowly died?

At this point, he wasn’t certain he cared.

2

F or only a moment, Sarafina felt an alien presence in her mind. As if someone else, someone unseen, were watching her. Watching over her.

Many times she had felt this unknown presence. Many times. She sensed him-and yes, she knew he was male, though how she knew, she could not have said. He felt male. He was protective of her. He filled her with warmth and a sensation of security. As if there were one all-powerful spirit in the entire world, and its only job was to take care of her. Love her. Watch over her.

She thought of him as her guardian. Her guide. And each time he came, she thought she came a bit closer to being able to see him, speak to him, touch him. She’d heard him this time-very briefly, but clearly.

She tried to focus on her beloved spirit, but he seemed to withdraw. Fina sighed in stark disappointment before shaking away the feeling, and hurrying to join the others, who were already racing into the woods, toward the sound of the horrible screams. Like her, most of them knew already what they would find.

She was the fastest runner, despite her ill health of late. More than that, she knew exactly where to go. How she knew, she could not have said. Some dark instinct led her, and she didn’t question it. She was a gifted diviner and a Shuvani. Knowing things she oughtn’t know was a part of that. So she quickly caught up to the tribe, then broke off from them, veering through the woods at an angle that led her unerringly to the spot.

She came upon the two of them moments before anyone else. Melina, an old woman, a cousin of Sarafina’s dead mother, crouched on the ground, her body bent over that of her teenage daughter, Belinda. A torch lay on the ground beside them, its flame struggling to survive. Sarafina picked it up to better see the old woman rocking and weeping, and the young one lying so utterly still. By the light of the torch, Belinda’s slender arms and her face were as white as snow, and her eyes were open wide but already bore the unmistakable glaze of death.

Placing a hand on Melina’s shuddering back, Sarafina said, “Come, rise up away from her. She is gone from this world now.”

Sobbing, the woman straightened her back, lifted her head and wailed in anguish as tears streamed over her weathered face. “My Belinda is dead, killed by a demon!”

“Come.” The others were arriving now, drawn by her cries, many of them bearing torches of their own. Sarafina helped the old woman to her feet, hugged her close and looked over her quivering shoulder, down at Belinda. She had been more than a cousin. She had been a friend. Lifting her torch higher, Sarafina let her gaze skim the girl’s pale throat, until she saw what she had known she would see. Two small wounds, scarlet ribbons of blood trailing from each of them.

Something deep inside her stirred, as if waking from a long slumber. She couldn’t take her eyes from the wounds, and involuntarily, she licked her lips.

“It’s happened again,” a man said. It was Andre, standing near her. Katerina was right beside him, watching her sister with narrow eyes. Had she noticed Sarafina’s odd reaction to the scent of fresh blood?

She forced herself not to look at the body again, nor at the two wounds in its throat. But the scent of the kill made her nostrils flare and her stomach clench into a hungry knot. Sickening. She detested her body for reacting this way yet again.

And just like the other times, she could sense the creature that had done this. It was near, she realized suddenly, and she shot her glance toward the edges of the gathered group, where small children with huge, frightened eyes clung to their mothers’ skirts.

“Get the children away from here,” she whispered, pointing at the little ones.

The most respected man in the tribe, the Chieftain, Gervaise, looked at her, crooking a dark brow. “Sarafina?”

“It’s here,” she told him, her voice dropping to a bare whisper. “It is still here, I tell you. Gervaise, get the children away.”

There was no hesitation. Gervaise gave a nod, and nearly everyone obeyed, turning to hurry back toward camp, all of them gathering the children close as they went. Several of the young men remained, including Andre. Katerina stayed, as well.

“Set guards around the camp,” Gervaise said to the young men who stood awaiting his word. “Put others to work building the coffin. Two of you, go fetch weapons and come back here. This spot shall be guarded until dawn.” The men rushed off to obey.

“How did you know?” Katerina whispered.

Sarafina trembled at the tone of her sister’s voice. She had noticed. She’d noticed Sarafina being the first to arrive, and she’d noticed her reaction to the sight of the demon’s kill-neither one for the first time. “How did you not know?” Sarafina asked her. “You’re supposed to be a seer, like me.”

“Unlike you, I have no bond to demons.”

“Do not accuse me, sister. You know nothing of this.”

“It’s the same as the other times,” Andre said, rising slowly from Belinda’s body. He’d examined the wounds, all without touching the corpse. Then he glanced at the weeping old mother. “I am so very sorry, Melina.”

“The demon has found us again. We must bury her quickly and move on,” someone said.

“What good will it do?” Katerina asked. “It will only pursue us, find us again, just as it has ever since our tribe was cursed by the birth of my dear little sister.”

Melina gasped, and Gervaise frowned deeply. Andre put his hand on Katerina’s shoulder. “This is not the time-”

“You all must know it’s true! The first time this demon took one of our people was the summer Sarafina was born. I’ve studied on this, consulted the spirits. Every sign, every omen, tells me she is somehow bound to the creature that stalks us. She’s the reason it plagues us so.”

“That’s madness!” Sarafina shouted. She looked at the faces around her, the speculation in them as they studied her.

“You knew it was near,” Katerina said. “You always seem to know.”

“I am a seer.”

“It attacks only by night. You, more and more, are becoming a creature of the night yourself. Up until all hours, sleeping long into the day.” Her gaze swept the others. “You’ve all seen it.”

Melina nodded her head in agreement. “It’s true.”

“I sleep when I’m sleepy,” Sarafina said softly. “That does not mean I am in league with this creature.”

Katerina looked around her, perhaps saw the doubt of her accusations in some of those faces, and shrugged. “If it isn’t you the demon follows so persistently, then I say we should put it to the test.”

Frowning, Sarafina searched her sister’s face, her eyes, for some clue what she was up to. “Test?”

“Leave us. Leave the tribe. Stay behind this time while the rest of us move on. If the demon follows again, even without you among us, that will be proof of your innocence.”

Andre stepped forward, putting a protective arm around Sarafina’s shoulders. “I won’t permit it, Katerina.”

“Nor will I,” said Gervaise. He studied Sarafina’s face, leaning heavily on his staff, his back bowed and his once jet hair long since gone to silver. “We are all frightened and aggrieved at the loss of Belinda. But turning against one another is not the answer. We must not let this evil divide us.”

Now everyone present was nodding, including the two young men who had returned from the camp with rifles. Everyone except for Katerina.

Gervaise fixed his stern gaze on the two sisters. “You two will prepare Belinda for burial.”

Katerina paled visibly. Sarafina felt her own blood run cold at the prospect and blurted, “Surely you can hire a pair of gorgios- ”

“You two will do it.”

“With respect, Gervaise,” Katerina said, “my home and all my possessions have burned in a fire caused by my sister’s carelessness. I must see to it that I have shelter tonight.”

Gervaise crooked a brow and rubbed his chin in thought. He truly was the wisest man in the village, but he was unused to having his commands questioned. “You, Katerina, will share your sister’s shelter and her possessions. It is high time the two of you learned the meaning of family.” Then he glanced at Belinda, and his voice softened to a mere whisper. “Do neither of you understand the role you play? Your mother is dead, and, since last summer, your grandmother, too. You are the seers. And you are the Shuvani. ”

Melina shook her head. “I said from the start, they are too young to be the tribe’s wise women.”

“They are all we have.” Gervaise patted her gently before refocusing on the two sisters. “Now do your duty to Belinda. She lies dead while you fuss and fight. Do not shame us.” He glanced at them. “Belinda is trapped between the worlds. You know what must be done?”

“I know,” Sarafina said softly. She glanced at her sister. “Gather sticks,” she said. “We’ll need a small fire.”

Gervaise set the young men a few paces away on either side, close enough to guard the women while they worked over the body, but far enough away to give them the privacy that was necessary for the rite. Katerina had taken Melina back to camp, to set her to work gathering the clothes with which Belinda would be buried. While she was gone, Sarafina arranged twigs and sticks carefully on the ground beside her cousin, but not too close.

Katerina returned, three bundles of dried herbs in her hands. She handed her sister a bit of each. “Are we ready to begin?” she asked.

Sarafina nodded, and lowered her torch to the pile of twigs and sticks. It caught on the first try, a very good omen. The flames spread rapidly. Fina jammed the torch into a notch in a nearby tree.

“First the thyme,” she said, and they each tossed a handful of the herb into the fire.

“Next the sage,” Katerina whispered. “And last the rosemary.”

They cast the remaining herbs into the fire in the correct order, then began to walk backward and countersunwise around it as fragrant drafts of smoke billowed to the heavens. “Belinda Rosemerta Prastika,” they whispered together. They walked round the fire, round the body, and increased their pace, chanting the name of their cousin over and over, a little louder each time. Seven times around the fire they went, and Sarafina felt the power they raised growing stronger all the while. At the end of the seventh time around, they stopped, each at the same instant, faced the body and lifted their hands.

Sarafina felt the energy-and, she hoped, her cousin’s spirit with it-shoot forth from the circle they had trod, straight into the heavens.

Letting their bodies relax, they stood still and silent, each in her own thoughts.

Sarafina closed her eyes and sighing, lowered herself to the ground.

“The ritual is the job of the Shuvani, ” Katerina said. “One of honor. And we have done it well. Preparing the body is not.”

Handling a dead body was a despised task among the tribe. When their own grandmother had passed, she had been bathed and dressed in her finest clothes even while she lay dying. No Gypsy wanted to touch the dead.

“Perhaps Gervaise wishes to teach us the lesson of humility,” Sarafina suggested. “Quiet, now. Melina returns.”

Melina carried a bundle of clothing, a pail of water scented with herbs and oils, and a soft cloth. She glanced at the small fire that had been left to burn itself out but said nothing. She had lived a long time and had no doubt seen the fire before. She knew better than to ask its meaning. The death rites were secret, known only to the Shuvani, passed from grandmother to granddaughter. Sarafina and her sister had learned them from their grandmother, as they had so many other things.

Melina knelt, watching in silence, waiting for the two of them to do the job they had been given. Sarafina thought in that moment, that even her hardhearted sister felt moved.

So they knelt, and they gently undressed the shell that had been Belinda. They washed the young woman carefully, even though every touch made chills race up Sarafina’s spine. Belinda was not yet cold, but cool to the touch. She tried to keep the cloth between her palm and Belinda’s flesh, but sometimes it slipped.

When the washing was finished, the two women unrolled and unfolded the red fabric Melina had brought; then they laid it out beside Belinda. Sarafina rolled the dead woman up onto one side, because she knew that while touching the corpse chilled her to her very marrow, her sister simply could not bring herself to do it. So she rolled poor Belinda, and Katerina tucked the cloth beneath her as far as she could manage. Then Fina lowered the body gently onto the cloth and rolled it up onto its other side, so Katerina could pull the fabric through.

They did a good job of it, Sarafina thought. The body rested almost perfectly centered on the open bolt of scarlet cloth.

Sarafina laid a small bit of fabric, cut in the shape of a perfect circle, upon Belinda’s chest. Then, she took one side of the cloth, and her sister took the other, and they wrapped Belinda in it as carefully as they would have wrapped a baby, leaving only her head and her bare feet uncovered.

“I intended to use that bolt of cloth to make a dress for her,” Melina whispered. “Now it becomes her shroud.” She unfolded the clothing she had brought, turning the blouse and skirt inside out before refolding them carefully and stacking them beside her daughter’s body.

The little fire had died to smoking remains by the time they had finished. Katerina leaned over the water pail to scrub her hands.

“There should be more light,” Melina whispered. “We mustn’t let her lie in the dark this way.”

“My work here is done,” Katerina said, straightening and wiping her hands on her skirts. “I’m returning to camp. I’ll send someone back with lanterns.”

Melina only nodded, not even watching her go. When the sounds of her footsteps died away, she glanced at Sarafina. “You may as well go, too. I’ll watch over her until morning.”

“I’m staying with you,” Sarafina replied. “I won’t leave you alone.”

Melina lifted her head, met Fina’s eyes, and for a moment seemed to be searching them. Almost as if she were not entirely comfortable staying alone with her. It was dark in the hardwood forest. Oaks and elms towered around them, and the ground was thick with ferns and weeds. Only that single torch spilled a circle of pale light around the two of them, and it was burning low. The night was silent, eerily so.

Then Melina glanced past her, at a sound from one of the young men who stood guard, and she seemed to relax a bit. Sarafina sat down on the ground beside the slender body wrapped in red cloth and wondered why anyone, even a demon, would want to murder her cousin so cruelly.

I didn’t kill her, I set her free, and deep down you know it’s true.

Sarafina’s head rose with a snap at the clear sound of a man’s voice. A man she knew full well was not her beloved spirit. “Who is that?”

Melina paused in her rocking. “What are you talking about?”

“That voice. Didn’t you hear it?” She got to her feet, brushing the twigs from her skirts and staring at the woods around her, every sense on full alert, her very skin prickling and aware. There was laughter then, deep, ringing laughter. “There,” she whispered. “Don’t you hear that?”

“I hear nothing, Sarafina,” the old woman said. She got up, as well, backing a few steps away from the younger girl. “Perhaps…you should go back to camp.”

“No. It’s out here. I can’t leave you alone.”

That’s right. I’m here. But you know deep down it’s not the old woman I want. It’s you, Sarafina. It’s always been you. Leave this band of traitors and come to me.

“No!” she cried, pressing her hands to her ears. “Leave me alone! Leave me alone!” She turned to run away, but collided instantly with a hard chest and looked up and into Andre’s concerned eyes. Sobbing, she clung to him, burying her face against his chest.

But she stiffened when she heard the voice of her sister. “What is going on?”

Blinking, Sarafina lifted her head from Andre and looked around until she spotted her sister standing a few feet away, aglow in light. She sniffed and hoped none of the tears remained on her cheeks. “I thought you were staying in camp.”

“I decided to help Andre bring the lanterns.” She glanced down at the glowing lanterns she carried, one in each hand.

Pulling away from Andre, Sarafina saw that he, too, carried lanterns. She understood then why his arms hadn’t come around her hard and fast as they usually did.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing. Nothing, I-I’m afraid, that’s all.”

“Take her back to camp, Andre,” Melina said. “Take her and go. Katerina will sit vigil with me until sunrise.”

“But I can stay. I’m fine,” Sarafina said.

The old woman only shook her head, even as Andre set his lanterns down on the ground and put an arm around Sarafina, gently leading her away.

Sarafina knew perfectly well that old Melina was going to tell her sister everything that had happened. It would only be more ammunition for Katerina to use against her. She wouldn’t be happy until she was the sole Shuvani of the tribe. She knew Sarafina, though younger, was better, stronger, more talented-and she couldn’t stand it.

Andre helped her back to her vardo, and she climbed inside, tired to her very bones. It would be dawn soon. And yet she couldn’t go to sleep, not just yet.

“Would you like me to stay with you, watch over you while you sleep?” he asked.

Sarafina shook her head. “No. I want…I want to be alone.” She didn’t, not really. She wanted to feel the reassuring presence of her guide, her angel. She wanted to hear his voice again-clearly enough so she could listen while he explained all this to her. What was happening to her? To her life? To her tribe? And why?

“Something frightened you out there tonight, Fina. Won’t you tell me what it was?”

Again she shook her head. “Everyone is afraid of…whatever sort of creature killed poor Belinda. And the others before her. Why should I be different?”

“I don’t know. It seemed like…more than just fear.”

“Now you sound like my sister. I suppose you suspect me of being in league with demons, as well?”

“Of course not.” He stroked her hair lovingly. “Get some sleep, Fina. You don’t look well.”

“I will. Good night, Andre.”

He leaned close, kissed her mouth briefly, then turned and left her alone. Sarafina didn’t go to bed. She closed her tent flap carefully and went to the small table in the center of her home. Her hands trembled as she unwound the silk from around the crystal ball. When it was uncovered, she sat down before it, in the darkness, and gazed into its depths. She let her mind go still, let her vision slip out of focus, let her eyelids grow heavy. She had never tried to summon her spirit this way before. But suddenly she was moved to try. “Come to me, my beloved. Come to me, for I need your wisdom now. Tell me, what is my destiny?” she asked. “If it is true I am linked to some demon, how may I break the curse?”

The crystal clouded and then the cloud vanished, and instead she saw a person take shape before her. A man. He was darkly handsome, though not a Rom. His hair was wet, dripping, and his shirt was torn open to reveal a ghastly scar on his chest.

As she stared at this vision, wondering at it, he lifted his head and looked right into her eyes. He looked at her-through her. And she knew him. “I have seen you before,” she whispered. “Who are you?” But even as she asked, she knew the answer. This man was her guide, her spirit, the voice who spoke to her, the presence who walked with her. But why was he wet, and so battered? Was he the ghost of some martyr who had died for his cause?

He only kept staring, clinging to her eyes as if by sheer will. There were men around him, men in foreign robes and headdresses, and they were hurting him. Branding his flesh with hot irons.

Sarafina’s heart twisted in her chest, her palms pressing to either side of the crystal as if she could make the torture stop, but the man never flinched. His eyes held hers through the glass.

Then the crystal clouded over again, and he was gone.

Fina sat back, breathless and sick to her stomach. He was not the demon who hunted among her tribe. She knew that without much thought at all. He was her spirit. Her spirit had a face now. But why was he so tormented? He hadn’t, during those moments when they had held each other’s eyes in the crystal, seemed like a spirit at all. He had seemed like an ordinary man. Though not from this place, nor perhaps, her mind whispered to her, from this time.

3

“W hy do we keep him alive? If there were any spies among us, they fled when the Americans declared victory and pulled their troops out of our lands. It is impossible to know who they were, when we have so many men missing, so many dead and left behind in the desert.”

The conversation was spoken in yet another dialect, one Will knew, though not as well as some. He was able to make out the words. That the U.S. had pulled out did not surprise him. This had never been meant to be a sustained operation, like the one in Afghanistan. This leg of Operation Enduring Freedom was a simple, short, potent lesson with clear parameters. Infiltrate terrorist cells, then, guided by spies on the inside, launch strikes on their training camps and then get the hell out. It had worked. The cells had been decimated, the survivors scattered, the leadership cut off. This band who’d captured him had unfortunately spotted him as he made his way to the extraction point. He had been within sight of the chopper when he’d realized they were on his tail, and he’d had no choice but to take cover and open fire, holding them off long enough for the chopper full of American soldiers to get clear.

“I say we put a bullet between his eyes and leave him for the vultures.”

Fine, he thought. Just do it and get it the hell over with. How long had he been here, now? Weeks? Longer? It was impossible to be sure. The goddamn broken foot and ribs ached so badly he couldn’t sleep, and whatever freaking bug he’d picked up had him so weak he spent most of his time lying in the corner, shivering-at least when he wasn’t hunched over in the opposite corner throwing up.

He had expected U.S. forces to come after him. Apparently he was presumed dead or they would have by now. Of course he was presumed dead. He hadn’t talked. None of the men who had infiltrated the other terrorist cells in the area had been identified. They’d had time to get out. The U.S. would assume he had died a hell of a lot more readily than they would assume he’d withstood weeks of torture without uttering a single name.

The voice of the man who wore the silk turban and diamond pinky ring, apparent right-hand man to the leader of this small pack of jackals, came next. “We will shoot him when Ahkmed says we shoot him. Here.” There was a rattle, as if of paper. “Have him hold this and take his photograph.”

“You intend to ransom him?” one of the underlings asked.

“They took our men to their Bay of Guantanamo as prisoners. Perhaps we can use the colonel to get some of them back.”

“Over my dead fucking body,” he muttered. He would have shouted it, but his throat was so raw that muttering was the best he could manage.

The lock of his kennel scraped open, and two men whose faces had become familiar stepped inside. He stayed where he was, huddled in the corner of a metal box that had once been part of a cargo truck. It was his own room within the caves where they were hiding out, though not deeply enough to benefit from the one plus of cave life: a constant temperature. This place was oven hot by day, freezing cold by night. His furniture included a large tin can he used for a toilet and a pitcher of stagnant water he supposed they expected him to drink. Most days it was tough to tell which smelled worse, though when you got thirsty enough the smell of the water didn’t make a hell of a lot of difference.

When the light spilled in from the open door, it blinded him, and he covered his eyes with his hands.

“Come out, pig. We are to photograph you.”

He lifted his head, squinting at them and made his way forward. Every step on the broken foot was sheer agony, but he had learned cruelly what happened when he hesitated or disobeyed.

They pulled him out when he got close enough so they could grip his arms. He was struggling to see. The caves were lit by floodlights, powered by a generator he could hear running somewhere in the distance. Probably near the entrance.

They slung him into a chair. One held a rifle on him, while the other shoved a newspaper into his hands. He glanced down at it. Jesus, it was in English.

“You hold this up so the date is showing while we take a photo.”

He lifted his gaze to meet the speaker’s dark brown eyes. “This says the Americans have left the country. Are you trying to give them a reason to come back and kill you all?”

“You should shut up and do as you are told, Colonel Stone. We will trade you for our prisoners. This is your only hope of leaving here alive.”

He shook his head slowly and decided to use this to his advantage. His wounds were infected. He needed to clean them. “They won’t even recognize me like this,” he said, running a hand over his unshaven face. “And if they do, they’ll be so angry at what you’ve done to me that they’ll just renew the bombing.”

The two men blinked and stared at each other. “He could be right. Do you think we should clean him up first?” one asked in his native tongue.

“I…let us ask Ahkmed.”

The two of them turned and left him there, alone, in that section of the caves. Granted, there were no weapons in sight, and he couldn’t try to escape, since there was only one way out of this section, and they had taken it. But still…

He got to up onto his one good foot and hopped over to the table, where a pitcher of water and a partially eaten loaf of bread were sitting, ignored. Picking up the pitcher, he sniffed it, found the water cleaner than any he’d had in days and drank deeply. He shoved a large piece of the bread into his mouth, chewed, then washed it down with more of the water.

And then he noticed the knife. It was blunt edged, not meant to cut anything. But he took it all the same, along with the rest of the bread, and he hopped across the room to his box, tossing both deep into the shadows inside.

He got back to his chair just as the men returned. One of them carried a large basin of water. The other had a stack of clothes in his hands, a razor and a bar of soap on top.

“Ahkmed says you are to wash up and shave. Then put on these clothes.”

The basin was set in front of him. “Make good use of the water, Colonel. You’ll get no more.”

He nodded, glad they’d taken the bait. Without getting up, he peeled off his torn, bloody shirt. He took the bar of soap, which was the ugly brown-yellow hue of homemade stuff, hard as a rock and, he thought, probably strong enough to burn out his eyes. There was a washrag, too, and he made use of it. God, it felt good to wash some of the filth away.

The men stood back, guns at the ready, watching him. He cleaned the burns and cuts on his chest and arms, even though the soap felt like battery acid when it touched them. Lye soap, it had to be. Jesus.

“It is your face that needs cleaning, Stone. Get on with it.”

Nodding, he cleansed all wounds he could reach on his back, fearing he’d missed more than he’d hit, and finally rinsed the cloth in the water and washed his face. Next, he leaned over the water basin, dipping his entire head into it and then scrubbing the soap over his wet hair, dipping it again to rinse. Finally he lifted the razor to his face, but paused when he glimpsed his reflection in the basin of water. The beard was coming in nicely. It would be excellent camouflage if he ever got out of here.

He set the razor down again. “I would like to keep the beard, if I may.”

They looked at each other, then at him. “You are an American. You’re not worthy to wear a beard. Take it off.”

Sighing, he didn’t see the value in arguing the point. He shaved the beard with the dull razor, scraping his face raw in the process.

“Now put on the clothes,” one of the men ordered.

He braced his hands on the table to push himself up onto his feet, though he kept his weight on the good one. Then he balanced there as he managed to get his pants undone and off. The shorts went, too. He didn’t have a single qualm about baring himself, because it meant being relatively clean for the first time in a month. He snatched up the soapy washrag and washed his lower body before they had time to object.

The water was filthy by now, and littered with whiskers floating in the soapscum. It was still valuable to him.

“The clothes, Colonel Stone!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He managed to pick up the basin of dirty water and set it on the floor near his chair, as if he were moving it to make room for the clothes.

One of the men set the stack of clothes in the now-empty spot, in between splashes of water. Will cringed when he realized the clothes placed before him were the uniform of an American soldier. Regular Army, by the looks. Not green, but desert camo.

He pulled on the pants. No shorts had been provided. “Where did you get this?”

“Shut up and put it on.”

Will shut up and put it on. But first he sat down in the chair, bent to quickly roll up the pant leg and lowered his wounded foot into the basin of water. There was enough of the lye soap floating in it to disinfect the open sores, and the water was ice-cold, so it couldn’t hurt the swelling. As he sat, surreptitiously soaking his foot under the table, he pulled on the tank-style undershirt and the long-sleeved sand-colored outer shirt. He buttoned it up slowly, stalling for time, looking at the chest for any sign of the uniform’s origins. All the patches and insignia had been torn away, leaving darker spots where they had been.

“I guess I’m ready.” He pushed his hand through his wet hair, finger-combing it.

The two nodded, brought the newspaper to him.

He held it in his hands obediently as they took his photo with a Polaroid One-Step camera that seemed completely out of place here.

Then they examined the resulting photo while it developed, finally nodding in approval. One left the room, presumably to show the photo to Ahkmed, The Brainless One, while the other stayed to watch him. So far neither had noticed his aching foot, soaking in the water under the table, or, if they had, they didn’t care.

Will’s left foot throbbed constantly. It was an interesting mix of colors-purple, black and blue. A little green here and there around the edges of the purple. It was swollen to twice its size and shaped rather oddly.

One of their methods of questioning him had been to place the foot in a vise and tighten it each time they repeated the question.

It hadn’t worked. He didn’t take much credit for courage in the face of torture. Frankly, part of his motivation in keeping silent had been knowing he would be shot in the head the minute he gave them the information they wanted so badly. Part of it had been the knowledge that other men, some good friends of his among them, would die if he talked. But the rest had come from anger. They’d pissed him off. He would be damned before he helped their cause.

“Ahkmed says the photo is good,” said the one who had left, as he came back into the room. “Come, back to your cell now.”

Nodding, he took his feet out of the basin, rising on one leg, turning to begin the hobble back.

One of the men muttered to the other in their own language, “By the wings of Allah, the foot has worsened.”

“Let it rot and fall off. He’s an American.”

The first looked more worried, though. Will deliberately stumbled, and the man with the microscopic trace of decency came beside him to help him to the metal box. Leaning close, Will whispered, “I will tell my people who was kind to me and who was cruel when they make the trade, so that when they come back here again, they’ll know who to kill and who to spare.”

The man glanced behind them nervously, but his comrade hadn’t heard. He had remained several yards away. As he helped Will into the box that was his cell, the younger one said, “Take this.” He handed Will the white sash that had been wrapped around his waist. “Use it to bandage your foot.”

“Thank you.”

The man nodded, quickly closing the metal door. Will braced his back against the door as the man pulled the chain as tight as he could and snapped the padlock through it. He waited until his captor had walked away to let off the pressure, then he turned and saw that the chain was lax. He could push the door open a couple of inches.

And that, he thought, was all he needed.

That night, the illness that had been growing steadily worse seemed to hit its peak. He fought it as the fever heated his blood and his body shook with chills. He had to wait them out, stay awake until they all slept, hours from now.

But in the end, the fever took control. He fell into a fitful, painful sleep, and he was there again; in the forest near that Gypsy village, following the bright flashes of a woman’s colored skirts as she ran through the dark woods.

It took him a moment to get oriented. But he finally realized where he was, what he was doing. It was a shock that his foot didn’t throb when he stepped on it, until he remembered that this place wasn’t real. He wasn’t certain why he was following the woman through the forest, but he knew it was important. Somewhere deep inside, he ached to see her again.

The beauty finally stood still in a small copse of trees, looking around her, as if searching for someone. As if she knew he was coming.

But when he drew nearer, Will realized it was not Sarafina he’d been following but her sister, Katerina.

She had a stench about her that shocked him, but only until he saw the necklace of garlic cloves she wore. That explained the smell. He wasn’t sure how to explain the fact that she wore it. What the hell was she doing in the forest, in the dead of night like this? Meeting Andre, he would bet, although the garlic was a baffling touch.

Then he remembered his last, pain-induced visit. There had been a murder. He’d been in and out, but he’d witnessed some of what had happened. He supposed his imagination was about to add a touch of Universal Monster Classics to the mix.

“Come out, show yourself!” she called suddenly. “I know you’re near. I have something you want!”

He was startled at first, wondering if she were speaking to him.

“Come, I haven’t much time. I’m supposed to be sitting vigil at the side of your latest victim.”

So Sarafina’s sister had not remained at the grave of Belinda as she had said she would. She had begged off with some excuse and instead had wandered into the forest. In search of Belinda’s murderer?

Fingering a pouch at her side, she wandered a few more steps. “Creature! Vampire! Come, make yourself known. You’ve nothing to fear from me.”

Will sensed something, some dark presence, behind her. He tried to shout a warning, but of course the woman couldn’t hear him. A man emerged from the shadows-or at least, he looked like a man, a very large man who was exceedingly pale and moved without making a sound. He crept quietly up behind Katerina, leaned close and whispered in her ear, “ I’ve nothing to fear from you? Do you want to be my next meal, Gypsy girl?”

She jumped at the first words he spoke, whirling to face him, one hand pressing to her chest.

“By the Gods, you reek of garlic,” the vampire said, grimacing in a way that provided the merest glimpse of his elongated incisors. Then the grimace turned into a smile. “You’re amusing to me. Garlic is indeed a powerful root. It can clear a room of negative energy, purify a human body, and banish demons and malicious spirits. That you expect it to keep you safe from me means that you equate me with those things. Poisons, impurity, demons. Is that what you think I am?”

She held up her little pouch, backing away a few steps. “Keep your distance, vampire!” she shouted, shaking the pouch at him like a weapon.

The vampire sniffed the air, then shook his head. “Wolf’s bane? Well, that might work, were you dealing with a lycanthrope. But you are not.”

“I called you here to talk. Only to talk.”

“Then you are a fool. I don’t talk to mortals, I feed on them. I am going to drain you dry in a moment, and there is not one thing you can do to prevent it.”

Will saw the fear in her face, in her eyes, and he knew the man-the vampire, if that were what he was-saw it, too. He seemed pleased by it. But Katerina tried to hide it, lifted her chin and forced herself to speak. “I can give you Sarafina,” she said.

“No!” Will shouted the word but who would hear?

The vampire went very still, frowning at her. She had his full attention now. “She is my sister,” she said. “And I know she is the reason you follow our band and prey on us.”

The vampire rolled his eyes, smiling. “You know nothing, mortal. I take only those who need killing. And I follow only to protect.”

“To protect her?” she asked. “Nonsense, you want to kill her, as you did Belinda.”

He said nothing, but he licked his lips, and his gaze returned to her throat.

“The others are beginning to question Sarafina’s link to you now,” Katerina said, speaking quickly, one hand pressing to her throat, as if it were a protective collar. “They’ve seen her behavior. She isn’t well. Something…weakens her.”

“It is always the way,” the vampire whispered.

Will frowned. What on earth was that supposed to mean?

“What are you talking about?” Katerina asked, echoing Will’s own thoughts.

“Nothing. Tell me, why would you hand your own sister over to a creature you believe would kill her?”

She shrugged. “That’s none of your concern.”

“I watch your tribe, Katerina,” he said. And she gasped, surprised, perhaps, that he knew her name. “I know about you and the man-Andre. And I know your burning jealousy. It blackens your soul and clings to you like a foul stench, more powerful, even, than the garlic you thought would repel me.”

She jerked backward as if he had struck her a blow, but she caught herself quickly. “Do you want her or not?”

“I want her,” he said. “But I want her alive and unharmed.”

She nodded. “There is a cave, that way, with a tiny stream at the far back. Do you know it?”

God, not another cave, Will thought. He’d had his fill of them.

The vampire nodded. “I know it.”

“She will be there waiting for you tomorrow night. Midnight.” Katerina started to turn away.

The vampire stopped her, a massive, pale hand clasping her arm.

She went stiff. “If you kill me, you won’t have her. Your chance will be gone.”

“I’ll have her either way,” he said. “On my terms, and in my time. So tell me now, how will you do it?”

She blinked in fear. “Nothing harmful, I promise you. Only a sleeping powder. I’ll put it into her evening meal tomorrow. By midnight its effects will begin to wear off. She will be awake and alert for you to use as you wish.”

He released her quickly and wiped his hand on his trousers. “You are a poor excuse for a sister, Katerina. I will likely kill you after this is done, despite the fact that I imagine your blood will taste bitter as bile.”

“I shall not be an easy target, vampire,” she told him.

“No doubt your garlic and wolf’s bane will be a challenge for me. Go on. Go back to your pathetic band before I decide to do mortal man a favor by killing you now.”

Something, some urgent sense, told Will he had to withdraw from this place in the depths of his mind. But he didn’t want to obey. He had to see this through. He found himself following Katerina as she hurried back through the forest. Eventually she slowed her pace, and he soon saw why.

The old woman sat there still, her head bowed low, as she rocked slightly beside the still, waxen body of her daughter.

The words of the vampire floated through Will’s mind again. “I take only those who need killing.”

What had the young Belinda done that made her “need killing,” according to that creature’s twisted logic?