Cannot Unite (5 page)

He dropped, curling into his long-unused
fetal position to absorb the pain. Nigel was still announcing his
name from wherever the phone had fallen. On the fourth one the
connection went dead with an audible click. KayNan knew why. The
cell phone might not be in KayNan’s control, and nobody allowed a
trace. V.A.L. would probably order a 4D Team. He just had to figure
out how to survive until they arrived. The only thing saving him
right now was the layers of material in this dress suit and the
fact that she’d pulled the cross back when he’d fallen.

He turned his head and found her, although
he had to squint to absorb the ache. She was crouched just out of
arm’s reach, the crucifix propped upright on the floor in front of
her. He had to look away. The cross burned his eyes. And just why
did her eyes still have to look just as deep and mysterious as
before, anyway?

KayNan had never cried. Ever. Not when the
Rus raiding party had destroyed his entire village, killing almost
everyone. Not when he’d been taken captive. Not even when they’d
paraded him covered in nothing but a ragged loincloth at the slave
market in Kiev. Not once had he teared up. Not even when his owners
had him beaten. Consistently and with great amusement. They’d never
broken him. No one ever saw him cry. He didn’t think he had the
capacity for it.

And yet now he actually had to blink
moisture away.

“It works! Holy—! It works. I don’t believe
it. It works.”

KayNan blinked, continued locking his entire
frame into a ball and somehow sucked the moisture back – along with
any desire for tears. His heart was beating so heavily it hurt. He
wondered if it matched hers. And if she’d felt any portion of his
pain. And then he wondered why he thought such stupid things. And
then he listened.

“Oh wow, Jeannette. This is insane. No, no,
no. This is worse than insane. It’s scary. No. This is beyond
scary. Way beyond.”

A thud sound came. And then a sigh.

“I mean…I’m looking and I still don’t
believe it. A vampire?”

“Are you speaking to me?”

KayNan spoke to the carpet in front of his
nose and blinked again as he waited for her to answer. The
individual fibers were coming into focus. That meant he’d conquered
the urge to cry. One point in his favor. Another had to be how the
section of his lower abdomen altered to a throbbing ache. Good. His
injuries were healing. He was grateful to these layers of clothing.
She hadn’t ruptured flesh. Another point in his favor. She must not
know that part. If she wanted a crucifix to work, she needed to
keep it connected to him. The Holy Water droplets were evaporating
too. Those wounds would go from grotesque third-degree burns to
large blisters, and then return to skin. Unscarred, perfect skin.
She must not know that she needed to keep tossing it at him. Yet
another point in his favor. A squirt gun could even control a
vampire – for as long as the Holy Water lasted anyway. It was
contact with the liquid that mattered. That’s why vampire hunters
used stun guns with connected wires that sent a continual drip of
the stuff from tanks on their backs. Very effective weapon. Akin to
a flamethrower.

All of this was extremely odd. If Hunters
were helping her, they’d done a poor job. Or she hadn’t paid
attention to their instructions. Maybe she didn’t like watching
video feeds either.

“I’m not sure I should talk to you,” she
finally replied.

He snorted with amusement. She didn’t like
it, if her intake of air was an indicator. KayNan tensed for
another dose of Holy Water or something worse. Long moments passed.
Nothing happened. He turned his head in her direction again,
squinting against any burn, and got nothing. More oddity. His mate
was woefully unskilled and inept at killing a vampire. She’d even
dropped the cross onto the floor between them so it no longer
pained unless he looked down.

Her eyes looked enormous. Dew-filled, almost
like they glittered with tears. She looked troubled. Unsure.
Concerned. And the moment their eyes met, his heart did a little
uptick motion. And that meant hers did, too. KayNan left off his
squint to look fully into her eyes. Licked his lips. They felt
chapped. Dry. Salty.

“Why not?”

“You’re a vampire. I mean…uh. You’re a real,
live, honest-to-goodness
vampire
. Oh, snap. Listen to me.
I still don’t believe it.”

Her voice held a touch of awe mixed in with
the disbelief and disgust. He wondered what that meant.

“That looked like it hurt. Bad?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Her voice trembled. He watched as it
transferred to her frame. His mate was bothered by what she’d done?
That was endearing. She might even be the type that had trouble
killing insects.

“May I sit?” he asked.

She didn’t answer. She just watched him with
wariness now claiming most of the dark brown of her eyes. KayNan
flexed every muscle first, and when he did move, it was slowly and
carefully, keeping his eyes locked to hers. It wasn’t because he
worried over a renewed assault. Not only was he prepared now - his
escape route was right behind him. He’d slam through the glass of
her window before getting hit with another projectile. He kept his
eyes locked to hers because that’s how you showed trust to a
skittish innocent. And he moved carefully so as not to alarm or
scare her. So every motion – first to his knees and then
cross-legged onto his ass – was done gradually and methodically.
And then he just sat there. Waiting. Watching.

She spoke first.

“I didn’t know it would really hurt you.
And…I didn’t know it caused actual wounds.”

“No?”

“Of course not. You’re a vampire. That means
you’re dead. Otherwise you’d be a-a-a – oh, I don’t know – maybe a
zombie. Listen to me. Zombies? As if they actually exist. This is
getting complicated. They’re going to put me away for real this
time. And throw away the key.”

This time?

Anger at anyone even touching his mate arced
through him, fanning long-dormant rage and hatred. KayNan watched a
reddish colored haze overtake his vision. And she just continued
talking, as if completely unaware of his reaction. Or
oblivious.

“What am I saying? Vampires exist. You’re
living – I mean, dead – proof. Right? I mean, you’re a vampire. And
you’re right there. And that means zombies might be right around
the corner, too. Right?” she asked again.

KayNan shook his head. Making a sound at the
moment was beyond his capability. It would probably be a snarl.

“Zombies don’t exist?”

He shook his head again.

“Would you tell me if they did?”

He lifted his brows.

“Okay. This is going over the top. I’m
having a witless conversation with a creature that didn’t exist a
day ago…over the existence of other fictional beings. As if you’d
know. This is beyond ridiculous. And I’ve changed my mind. I’m not
sorry. How can I be? If you’re a vampire, you’re dead. You can’t
feel pain. And that means you can’t suffer.”

He swallowed, using the gesture to send the
red-colored emotion to his belly to fester. Much like he had
centuries ago, in another lifetime. With his Arabic masters.

“That’s right, isn’t it?”

“What?” He’d been right to wait. His voice
was a croak of sound.

“You can’t suffer…can you?”

“They tell you that?”

“Nobody told me anything.”

“You didn’t contact the Hunters?”

“Hunters? Oh, come on…Hunters? I suppose
you’re going to tell me there really is such a thing as a vampire
hunter now?”

He nodded.

“Figures. Well, even if they’re real and
could’ve helped me, I didn’t contact them. I didn’t contact anyone.
How could I? Eccentricity is one thing, insanity another. I don’t
need visits with state and local officials in my life ever again.
They already shut my shop down for over a week just because someone
decided to complain that I sold and stocked illegal substances.
Self-righteous jerks.”

“So…who did you contact?”

“Nobody. Aren’t you listening? If you live
just this side of social norms like I do, you don’t go around
drawing attention to yourself by sending emails about vampires. It
adds unnecessary kindling to the fire, so-to-speak.”

Funny she should mention speaking. He was
dealing with a lot of speech and a lot of verbiage, and getting a
whole lot of nowhere when the immediate future probably included a
4D Team. For all he knew, they might be just around the corner.

“You knew about the water. And
the…crucifix.” His voice lowered to a throb of sound on the last
word. He sensed how near her fingers were to it without
looking.

“That’s not a hard leap. Everyone knows
about those. But I should also be wearing a necklace made of garlic
buds.”

A hard leap?
What did that mean?
KayNan pondered how to answer. And why hadn’t Nigel included at
least one video on the latest popular vernacular?

“There’s tons of hoopla on the internet
about vampires, if you choose to believe it. I didn’t. But I had to
prepare somehow. And there you are. Holy Water. And a cross.”

“Hoopla?” That was another new word. He’d
have to check with Nigel on the meaning of that one later, too.

“Yeah. You know. Vampire lore. And there’s a
lot of it.”

“There is?” Lore? Sounded like another word
for myth or legend.

“I researched online today after…well,
after. Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff. I took most of it to be
archaic religious brouhaha from the Middle Ages, while the rest is
little more than nonsense dreamed up by new-age vampire
wannabes.”

Brouhaha? Wannabes?

KayNan didn’t answer. He didn’t know what to
say. He was conversant in several different languages, and
innumerable dialects, and yet he felt like when he’d first been
taken by the Swedish raiding party called the
Rus
. Some
words were familiar and some made sense. The rest he’d had to learn
with trial by error. And quickly.

“But I had to do something. I knew you were
coming for me.”

“You knew I was coming?” he repeated.

She nodded.

“And yet still, you armed yourself?”

She nodded again.

“You’re not making sense.” Or maybe he was
denser than Nigel intimated.

“You’re a murderer. A killer.”

He considered her for a long moment, his
heart rate matching the elevated pitch of hers. Then he answered.
“I’ve been a vampire for a long time. I only kill in self-defense.
Or if there’s a contract for it. Uh…usually.”

“You killed…Carlos Carlotti. I saw you.”

“I know. I saw you, too.”

“And that’s why you’re here now.”

“Yes.”

“You see? I was right.”

“My name is KayNan,” he finally offered when
all she did was look across and up at him as if he knew what to
answer.

“Are you here to kill me? Because if you
are—”

She had her fingers around her crucifix.
KayNan called on every reserve not to even flinch. It only worked
because he was entirely focused on keeping his eyes connected with
hers, ignoring any glance downward. The religious symbol would only
work if he looked at it. Or touched it. Or had it held against him.
She may not know that yet, but it would be an easy lesson if she
picked that cross back up.

He was rewarded finally by the slightest
frown between her eyes. He heard the same slight thud sound as the
crucifix dropped onto the carpet between them again. He smiled. It
held relief.

“I’m not here to kill you, Jeannette.”

“How…do you know my name?”

“You talk to yourself. You named it for
me.”

“When?”

“Just before the sorry part. Can we move to
something else now? I’m not here to harm you. You’ve my word on
it.”

Her features dropped into a deadpan look.
Her head tipped the slightest bit. He was absolutely certain her
expression looked as disbelieving as she meant it to.

“And just what is a vampire’s word
worth?”

“Depends on the vampire,” he answered.

She actually looked even more skeptical.

“Listen, Jeannette. I already told you. I’m
old. Old enough to know the value of a man’s word, once given.”

“Twenty-six is old?”

KayNan smirked. “Twenty six at death. Maybe.
I died in the year eight hundred and eighty-five. Of the Common
Era.”

“Impossible. I told you. I researched it,
and vampires aren’t that old. That Dracula character came from some
real historical person named Vlad in…I can’t recollect exactly, but
it wasn’t much past the fifteenth century. Just before science
debunked the vampire myth and made you completely fictional.
Or…whatever you are. Geez. I suppose somebody should tell the
scientists they’re wrong.”

“We need to do this later. We don’t have
time for this.”

“You’ve lived over a thousand years and now
don’t have time to explain?”

KayNan caught the sound before it got too
loud.

“I suggest you make time, Kay-Nan. Right
now.”

She split his name into two distinct
syllables. That was sweet. Like his mother once had. He had to
glance away for the slightest moment before returning to her gaze.
He cleared his throat. And then he started explaining.

“Vampires have walked the earth for eons,
Jeannette. Every culture has a vampiric legend or two. Do your
research again. You’ll see. We go back to the earliest of humanity.
As for me, I’m from the forest area of what is part of the Soviet
Union. No. Wait. It’s one of the Baltic countries now. I’m Slavic
by birth. Taken in a Viking raid. Sold into slavery. I won’t
describe that time. It would be too close to reliving it. Nobody
needs to hear. And a decade later I tried to escape. I failed. I
was killed – well…almost killed. That’s when I was turned. And in
all that time, both living and undead, I’ve never broken my word.
It’s my bond.”