“Kerbasi,” I warned.
His gaze slowly slid to me and oddly there was concern in his eyes. “You might consider being nicer to her. Her memories are most disturbing.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Because I’m the rude one?”
“Well, of course.”
Josslyn had been through a lot of trauma in the last few centuries. Had he been referring to her past or something new? I’d have to ask later.
“Maybe you should tell them about the plague before it spreads any faster,” Ajax said, impatience in his voice.
Right. Leave it to the new guy to get us back on topic.
“What plague?” Nik asked.
“The one that just broke out three days ago and is beginning to spread to all the major cities,” I replied, taking a seat on the couch. “It’s only affecting the supernatural races.”
The vampire frowned. “Are there traces of demon magic entwined with it?”
“Yeah, there are.”
He moved to a bookshelf in the corner and pulled a leather-bound tome from it. One I had seen before. It was more or less a journal passed down through the generations of Nik’s family. It chronicled the various supernatural races, types of magic they encountered, and any major events. He hadn’t been a sensor himself, but some of his family had been before the line died off. Since then, he’d held onto the journals.
Nik set it on the end table and flipped through the pages. “I was around for the last outbreak in the 1300s and wrote a few notes on it. Give me a moment to find the page.”
Guess he’d been adding to it as well. He was so much more dedicated than me.
“Yes.” He traced his finger down a page. “A nephilim named Parthenios did find a cure, but he treated everyone himself until he was killed by an archangel.”
“Why would they kill him?” I asked.
He hesitated. “He’d been hiding a son. When the archangels came to take the boy away, he fought them.”
“And the mother?”
She had to be a sensor because nephilim were cursed, preventing them from having children with anyone else. Only my kind had the immunity to bypass the curse.
He looked back over the page and shook his head. “My notes only say she was deceased before the archangel came.”
“How old was the boy when he was taken? What was his name?”
“Does it matter?” Nik gave me a stern look. “He’s in Purgatory and can’t help you.”
“The fact that you won’t tell me implies he might have been old enough to remember the cure his father used.” Which was unusual. I’d been told nerou were usually taken in the first year after they were born.
“Leave it be. You’re not breaking in there again.” He shut the journal and took it back to the shelf.
“She better not.” Kerbasi pulled a bag of cookies from his coat pocket. “I would certainly not help her get inside.”
The bastard had been nagging Josslyn for food and had some with him the whole time.
I returned my attention to Nik. “I just want to know how old.”
“It doesn’t…”
“How old, Nik?” I demanded.
He sighed. “Sixteen. And don’t ask for a name because I don’t know it.”
“How in the hell did he not get caught for that long?”
Nik shrugged. “From what I was told a powerful witch coven wove a cloaking spell over his home. In return, Parthenios acted as their healer whenever their own magic wasn’t enough. It was only after he failed to save one of them that they chose to break the deal.”
“So did you find out anything on how the nephilim was healing people?”
He glanced over at the shelf. “Only that when I visited his home after he was executed I found he’d mostly been growing garlic plants. Inside there were jars filled with their juice. I can’t imagine what else he might have used that much garlic for.”
“We’ve already started using it.” I waved a dismissive hand. “Garlic seems to slow the plague down as far as we can tell. Anything else?”
He mulled it over. “There was one strange thing.”
“What?”
“I found several large vats with a coating of salt in them. Almost as if he’d been using salt water and it had dried up, but I can’t be sure if it had anything to do with the plague.”
Interesting, but without details it didn’t do us much good. “Did you try talking to the survivors?”
Josslyn brought him a glass of red wine. He gave her a grateful look and sipped at it.
“Parthenios didn’t keep records of who he treated and the few I did find couldn’t recall the cure. They’d been too far gone by the time they reached him to know what was being done to them.”
“Did you ever figure out how the plague spread in the first place?” I asked.
“No.” Nik frowned at his wine glass. “It just seemed to taper off after two years. The best anyone could guess was that someone with a grudge against supernaturals summoned a demon. Once it had to go back to Hell their ability to spread the plague stopped and most of the affected races had developed an immunity to it.”
We couldn’t afford to wait up to two years. I needed to convince Yerik to let me talk to Micah. Lucas’ brother was a nephilim and a strong healer like Parthenios. Maybe he could figure out a way to reproduce the cure. It was a long shot, considering he would have spoken up by now if knew something, but I still wanted to try putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
I stood up. “Thanks for your help. It might not be much, but you helped clear some things up.”
It was only now that I’d finished plying him for information that I realized I might have come on too strong. Here he was still mourning Felisha and I show up out of the blue to pump him for information.
“You’re welcome.” He dipped his chin.
“So, um.” I looked around the cabin. “How have you been doing? Is there anything you need?”
Nik gave me a half smile. “Finally remembering your manners? You’ve never been much of one for proper greetings.”
“Sorry. It’s just that when people are dying I get a little focused.” Especially since I was really tired of it happening so frequently.
“I know.” He came over and pulled me into his arms.
For a small moment, everything felt like it had returned to normal. Nik and I arguing over the latest crisis and then resuming our friendship afterward. I’d missed having him around in Fairbanks. Now I was stuck arguing with Kerbasi all the time.
“How do you feed out here?” I asked after he pulled away.
“We’re old enough we don’t need to go out often, but travelers from the highway come along frequently enough to sustain us for the most part. On the rare occasion we get desperate we visit a nearby Gwich'in settlement.”
I held back a shudder. No matter how open-minded I tried to be it still bothered me that vampires had to feed on innocent people. I had to hope he didn’t visit that settlement too often. There weren’t that many Gwich'in—a native tribe to Alaska and Canada—left and they didn’t need to be weakened by vampires.
“Melena, if you’ve finished…” Ajax said, coming into the sitting area.
“Right. Guess it’s your turn.”
I backed away and headed toward the table where Kerbasi sat.
The shaman cleared his throat. “Actually, I’d prefer it if you could give us some privacy.”
Kerbasi’s expression turned livid. “I will not stand out in the cold while you discuss your weaknesses as a shaman with the vampire. The ceremony you wish to perform can’t be that difficult to figure out on your own.”
The guardian must have dipped into Ajax’s head when I wasn’t paying attention.
“What ceremony?” I asked.
“The one that will allow me to connect to my land.” The shaman shot Kerbasi an annoyed look. “I haven’t been able to make it work yet.”
Nik put a hand on his shoulder. “I watched Charlie do it several times when he was performing his spring renewal. Looking back on it I suspect he’d invited me along knowing it would be useful once he was gone. I can tell you the basics now, but I’d advise you wait a few months to perform the full ceremony. Spring is when you’ll find the strongest connection.”
The expression on Ajax’s face turned to one of relief. “Thanks.”
“This is going to be boring,” Kerbasi grumbled.
And here I’d hoped we could stick around a little longer and listen in, but not if a certain guardian couldn’t behave.
“We’re going to head off for the Jeep and will wait for you there. Can you find your way back alright?” I asked the shaman.
He nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
“Just don’t take too long,” I warned. “I’ve got a meeting I have to attend later this morning.”
I gave Nik another hug and turned to Josslyn. “Call or write if you need anything, okay?”
She smiled. “I will, but please do come back and visit again when there isn’t a crisis. It gets lonely here.”
Her gaze darted to Nik. The poor woman was so in love with him, but he wasn’t at a stage where he could return the feelings at the same level.
“Count on it.” I squeezed her arm.
It wasn’t until Kerbasi and I got well out of hearing range before I had to ask.
“So what else did you dig out of everyone’s heads while you were in there?”
He grimaced. “The two vampires were intimate less than an hour before we arrived.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
Kerbasi hesitated for a moment. “Every time Nikolas starts to slip into depression Josslyn threatens to walk into the sunlight. I fear one day she may make good on her threat, regardless.”
That was disturbing. It made me feel guilty I hadn’t visited when she’d first written. I’d been too busy avoiding reminders of what happened to Felisha to consider how it was affecting others. Except for Emily and Lucas, I hadn’t bothered to worry about anyone else.
“I’m surprised you care if she does kill herself,” I said.
“That woman has suffered a great deal of pain—more than I have inflicted on anyone. The things she went through…” He shuddered. “Even I would not harm such a gentle soul.”
Somehow, I doubted Kerbasi would have said the same thing a matter of months ago. Maybe I was making progress on him if he could feel empathy for a vampire.
Chapter Eleven
“I’m pulling up to the building now. Looks like Yerik’s already inside,” I told Lucas, who’d called me on the way to my meeting with O’Connell.
The DHS agent had gotten himself an office in downtown Fairbanks. It was much better than his weird proclivity for former auto repair shops. He could even wear a suit to work without looking strange.
“Good. It’s better if you don’t go to the meeting alone,” Lucas replied.
He sounded exhausted.
“Is it that bad in Juneau?” I asked.
“The plague has spread quickly here. I’ve yet to determine how, but it’s already taken several lives. We’re testing possible cures to see if anything works.”
Until about two years ago Juneau had been run by a cambion—the offspring of a human and an incubus—named Aeson. He’d been killed by a demon prince during a battle we’d fought. Lucas had been good friends with him and felt an obligation to protect his city now that he was gone. Sayer, one of Lucas’ ancient vampire servants, usually took care of supernatural problems in Juneau for him, but with the plague outbreak he’d taken a personal interest in handling the problem.
“Any luck?” I asked.
“Nothing yet.”
“Okay, well, I’ve got to get inside, but I’ll call you later tonight.” I’d have preferred to be with him in Juneau, but I couldn’t leave Fairbanks. It was bad enough I’d be leaving Emily for the raid this coming weekend.
“Take care, sensor,” Lucas said.
“You, too.” I hung up.
“No heartfelt goodbyes?” Kerbasi lifted a brow.
I looked over at him in the passenger seat. “Only when I feel like annoying you.”
“That explains much.”
“Let’s go.” I opened the door and got out of the Jeep.
The parking lot was covered with snow and ice. It had been leveled down by snow plows sometime recently, but it was still a bit dicey. Kerbasi cursed from the other side of the vehicle and grabbed hold of it. If I saved a dollar each time he slipped or fell, I could almost pay for the first semester of Emily’s college by the time she finished high school. He was a walking accident waiting to happen.
I locked the doors and headed down the street.
“You must move somewhere warmer,” the guardian said, eventually catching up to me. “I hear Florida is nice at this time of year.”
“Forget it. You’re just going to have to get used to Fairbanks.” We reached the entrance to the office building.
“You live here just to punish me.” He gave me a dark look.
Admittedly, there was some appeal to that idea, but that wasn’t the real reason I stayed in Alaska. It had become home to Emily and me. We’d grown used to the craziness of the place and we had friends here. There was nowhere else we’d want to live.
I opened the door to the lobby and let him go through first.