Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) (19 page)

Pam broke in without hesitation. “What’s this ‘blood pollution’ thing you were saying? Is that how you all got
this
way?”

Blackthorne sat back, ignoring Rhi as she got up and wobbled toward the loaded tea tray. She’d spotted a sticky bun with her name on it. Dieting was out the window if death was this close. Might as well have a few carbs and enjoy herself. And she needed to get a taste of something in her mouth besides the memory of Blackthorne’s kiss, which had lingered for way too long for comfort.

He answered Pam’s question and his eyes once more gave off that telltale spark of fury. “It’s sometimes called the Curse of the Wandering Jew but is much older than the Christ of the Christians. There are several ways to become a vampire. The myths have it screwed up.”

Pam broke in again. “Wandering Jew?”

Blackthorne wiped at the beads of sweat on his forehead before answering. His eyes twitched involuntarily toward Rhi every other moment. His hands held his cup in a death grip. “His name was Malchus. He was the Jew who struck Christ as the Savior walked the streets of Jerusalem carrying the cross. The Wandering Jew’s fate is to wander the Earth until the return of Christ, never knowing peace. A vampire. He became a vampire by being cursed…and yes, Pam, Malchus does exist. He throws great pool parties.”

Pam gaped at him as Rhi instantly pictured a bearded guy in Roman robes partying, a martini in one hand, by an infinity pool in Miami Beach.

“A person can also become a vampire by the taking and giving of demon blood,” he continued, “as in the legends. When the first members of the Brotherhood swore their oaths in the time after the fall of Atlantis, they drank the demon blood that was captured in the wars of Atlantis. This gave us the powers and longevity to guard humanity against its own follies. To join the organization now all one must do for the ‘Long Life’ is exchange blood and survive the change. We are Changelings.”

Rhi looked at Pearl aghast. “You drank demon blood?”

“No. I was bitten by one of the Kings of Hell, an archfiend, during the great fire. The poisoned bite was slowly killing me. I begged Jack for some of his blood to Change…I had a score to settle.”

Blackthorne thoughtfully examined the cup in his hands as he spoke. “We feed off the life force of humans that surrounds their beings but we don’t drink their blood. Our victims don’t miss it and regenerate it quickly. We need human food and drink as well, some of us more than others.” He looked pointedly at the cup in Pearl’s hand from which the aroma of Irish whiskey rose in conjunction with the scent of coffee. She winked at Houston as she took a large gulp from her steaming mug. “Manius turned to embrace the demon blood in full. He feeds the demon spirit within himself with the blood of his victims, strengthening it, binding himself to Satan. He’s a true vampire, feeding on not only blood but also on the terror his feeding inspires. He feeds on and kills without discrimination. He particularly enjoys the blood of the innocent. The members of the Brotherhood do not drink from the innocent and we erase the victim’s memories of the act. We live for eons and are extremely hard to kill. But I chose to die. Most of us do at some point.
You
demanded I stay in this existence,” he said accusingly, indicating Rhi. His eyes bored into hers relentlessly. “
I
was refused the peace of death.”

“You drink human spirit?” she asked in a small voice. She sank back down on the other end of the couch, as far away from Blackthorne as she could manage.

Pearl looked impatient for the hundredth time that evening. “Just a little bit. Like I said…we are
good
vampires. I prefer the term ‘Changeling.’ There are things we can do that
evil
vampires cannot. Contrary to the myth, members of the Brotherhood can bear daylight to some degree and eat and drink regular food, but the sun seems to cause the evil ones some pain. We still need the sustenance of the spirit but none would take an innocent and we avoid killing if we can. We can go into churches and touch crosses and silver, although it makes us itch a bit, which the fallen ones cannot. And we cannot communicate with Manius’ demons…which should tell you that we are on one side and they are on another.”

Rhi gave Pearl a wry grin. “Plus you have a much better eye color that the bad guys do.”

Pearl smiled. “Yes, there is that. It’s just as well because I look terrible in red. Manius always looks like he’s been on a bender. Blue is chic.”

“What kind of score do you have to settle?”

An era of sadness passed through the woman vampire’s violet eyes. “One of the ‘crib’ girls he took to play his horrible games with during the gold rush wasn’t a crib girl at all…she was my younger sister. She was an innocent. The local law turned a blind eye on the whole thing. They tried to hush up the murders because they wanted Cripple Creek to be the new capital of Colorado. A scandal of these proportions was
not
what they needed. After all, the victims were
just
whores. Women were even more disposable in those days than they are now. I decided to seek you out for help, Rhi. Or Raven, as your fruitcake mother had named you. Your family was a part of that whole ‘spiritualist’ movement in the late 1800s. There were mystics falling out of trees in those days, a reaction to the industrial revolution. A few of them were notorious fakes…I knew of two sisters who became millionaires holding séances to connect their wealthy clients with their dead relatives. They said the ghosts talked by making this weird clicking noise which in reality was the older sister cracking the joint of her big toe. But you were the real thing. All of the witches of Manitou Springs deferred to your mother because of you. The premier spiritualist of the era, Madame Blavatsky, was terrified of your powers. You and Jack came to me before I had a chance to contact you. One day I had the thought of contacting you and the next day, you were there. You had been having visions and you knew I had been in the midst of the controversy.”

Visions. She didn’t want to believe she was anyone other than the person she had fought to become in this lifetime, but the mention of visions shook her again. “I am not this person you think I am, we just happen to look alike,” she protested. “I’m a blackjack dealer…nothing special.”

The madam walked slowly to a small ornate chest that sat on a nearby mahogany console. The heavy hinges on the box gave out a creak of protest upon being opened and she pulled out an old daguerreotype and stared at it for a moment. “If your dreams and the portrait in the hall don’t prove this to you, perhaps this will.” She came to where Rhi sat frozen and handed her the picture.

Her hands shaking, she looked down at a lovely sepia toned wedding photo of…herself. The original of the painting in the hall, Rhi was dressed in full Victorian wedding finery, her dark hair gathered on her head in a precise imitation of a Gibson girl of the era. She stood proudly, one thin hand on the shoulder of the man sitting in the ornate chair beside her…a smiling and ever handsome Blackthorne in an era appropriate suit. Rhi felt the sudden urge to vomit.
Damned sticky buns.

Pearl sighed and turned to face the portrait of a young girl that hung over the fireplace. “I knew there was more to all of this than Jack was telling me. At the very least he suspected more. Then all hell broke loose. Manius kidnapped you to try to use your powers to open the gate. You tried to fight Manius but you were too weak from years of fighting tuberculosis. He…tormented you…when you were Raven.” The madam’s shoulders reflexively shuddered upon this statement. Blackthorne shifted imperceptivity like a man in sudden, controlled pain.

Pearl ignored the torment on his face and plowed relentlessly on. “Manius put you into a trance that forced you to search the past for the knowledge to open or destroy the gate. We, along with some members of the Brotherhood who were able to get here and join a pretty huge lynching party, went to war with him to get you out. But it was too late…you were dying. And we made our greatest mistake. We let Manius live. And Raven—you—made your greatest mistake. You hid the skull from everyone. Including your husband. We could destroy neither of them…all auguries cast said that Manius would have something to do with the destruction of the gate. I shudder to think of how many pieces of chicken guts, bowls of water, piles of bones, and tarot cards were looked into to come up with that brilliant idea. We couldn’t kill him. The Brotherhood imprisoned Manius and warded his grave to hold him. Then we all settled down to await Raven’s return, in one form or another. Your blood is upon the skull and only you know, somewhere in the mists of your mind, how to find the skull and erase
this
gate of Hell from the Earth. With Manius arisen and Raven reborn as you, Rhi, the skull will turn up like a bad penny at any time. Fate is having its way with us.”

“Having its way with us, hell. Fate has risen up and bitten us on the ass,” Pam said from the depths of her chair between dainty sips of hot chocolate.

Blackthorne stood to his full height, bones popping. “Fate does like to jerk me around when it comes to this woman,” he said bitterly. He looked down to address Rhi directly. “I failed you before, I know that. It will haunt me forever. But perhaps you’ll trust me enough this time to at least let me know first when the skull pops up before my brother tries to take you again.” Rhi winced at the word “trust” but said nothing.

He left the group in the room silent. Pam once again came to Rhi’s rescue. “So all we have to do is live long enough to find the skull first and get Rhi to remember how to destroy it and the gate. Great. I hope whoever they get to play me in the movie adaptation of this has big boobs.” The others looked at her askance. She gave another infectious grin. “I’ve always wanted big boobs…but I’m too chicken to get a boob job. I don’t get that whole ‘beauty is pain’ thing.”

Pearl moved about the room, refilling coffee and cocoa mugs. She skipped Pam, who had already helped herself to gallons of the aromatic liquid. None of the humans in the room had taken a moment to ponder the idea that the drinks could be tainted, Rhi realized.

“I’d like you all to stay here tonight,” Pearl said. “This place is protected and Manius seems to be in a mood. So is his brother, for that matter.”

“I have to get home to Ellie Mae. She’ll worry. And although the doghouse in her kennel is warm, she likes my bed better.”

Pam nodded. “And I have an entire menagerie to feed. No one has bothered us at home so far.”

Their hostess stood. “That’s because as soon as I realized who Rhi was I took measures to protect that little hill your houses are on. The entire mountain and your homes are warded. But getting there might be a problem.”

Rhi sucked down her drink and stood to stretch, trying to make herself look as tall as possible in the shadow of the ex-madam. “I’m going home to my dog and sleep in my own bed. Period.”

The little ex-fighter pilot had been silent overly long. “Miss Pearl,” he said respectfully, “I think these ladies have had enough for the evening.
I
have had enough traumas for one evening myself, and I’m the one who used to fly over the Iraqi Guard and flip them off for kicks on a regular basis. We’re going home.”

Pearl nodded graciously to the man. “I’ll take you back to your cars, then. Don’t stop for
anything
on the way home. If something throws itself out into the middle of the road, run over it.” She addressed Rhi directly. “We do have to talk, however. You have a role to play in this, whether you want to or not. The skull will be popping up like a zit on the nose of the prom queen the day before school pictures. It has a wicked little mind of its own and it wants its master. And the true master of the skull I think none of us want to meet.”

“If you talk to her, you talk to us all…Pearl,” Pam said, purposefully avoiding any kind of title for the lady changeling as she loped over to stand beside her small companion. Rhi took her friend’s hand, wondering how she had ever thought Pam was wishy-washy. “We can talk after the funeral we have to attend tomorrow. A funeral that would probably not be occurring if you had bothered to warn someone this was coming.”

“After several decades of fighting for right, I’ve come to the realization that I cannot save everyone. What was I supposed to do…run through the streets screaming out the fact that an ancient crusader knight possessed by an even more ancient evil was coming to destroy us all with his minions? And by the way, I’m an undead madam from the gold rush era that pops into town every fifty years or so to live for a few years until people notice I don’t get older? But truthfully, there are folks in this town who have been warned and are preparing.”

“No one’s ever truly recognized you or realized what you are?” Houston asked in amazement as he helped Rhi on with her coat.

“Of course there are those who have recognized me, Houston. But people in this town are nothing if not discreet or stark raving mad so no one takes them seriously anyway.” Pearl broke off as Blackthorne reentered the room, pulling a new leather jacket back onto his broad shoulders. Rhi felt a stab of jealousy as she realized that he was staying at the madam’s house and seemed to consider it home.

“Are we ready for the trip up to your chalets, ladies?” Blackthorne said, his composure regained and the maddeningly serene mask back in place over his well-cut features.
He didn’t bother to try to get us to stay
, Rhi thought bitterly. Pearl
was
exquisite and appealing in spite of her checkered past.

“I think the girls and I can handle it, Mr. Blackthorne. I’m going to bunk on Pam’s couch and I’m going to try to get Miss Rhi to go fetch her dog and come back to Pam’s for the night,” Houston said, making his way to the door. He still had his cowboy hat in his hand. His reverent treatment of Pearl De Vere was on the verge of making Rhi sick.

She protested. “No, Houston. Whatever is going on, it’s after me, not you guys. You’ll be safer if I’m at my house and you’re as far away from me as you can get. Pam should be going to her mother’s to stay with Katie and not risking herself over me.”