As Shadows Fade (The Gardella Vampire Hunters 5)

“Is she at the tavern?” asked Sebastian.

“Not at night,” Anton?n replied. When Sebastian made a face of disbelief, he continued. “I’ve no reason to lie! Her quarrel is with you, and most likely I’d be rewarded if I brought you to her. But I can’t get the ring for you. She’s never removed it since Germintrude gave it to her. She thinks it will help bring her husband back to her someday. ” He wrapped his reins in preparation to go. “Katerina is a bit… mad. ”

“That is an understatement,” Sebastian muttered.

Victoria glanced at him, wondering exactly what he hadn’t told her. It wouldn’t be the first time Sebastian hadn’t been completely forthcoming. Nevertheless, they’d find Katerina and retrieve the ring. And if the vampire was slain in the process, Victoria would locate another undead for Max’s Trial.

Perhaps even this unfortunate one here. In fact… that might not be a bad idea after all, she thought, looking at the vampire in a new light. Why should Max meet a more powerful vampire like Katerina when this one would suit just fine?

“Follow me to Josevof, the Jewish Quarter,” said Anton?n, backing his horse up.

“Mmm… perhaps you would be so kind as to allow me,” said Sebastian without moving from his path. He reached over and grabbed up the reins from the vampire, wrapping them loosely around his wrist. “I do hope you aren’t offended, Anton?n, but I don’t trust you one whit. ”

The undead gave a bit of a chuckle, and Victoria saw the flare of pink again in his eyes. The tips of his fangs touched his lower lip. “Of course not. Now shall we be off?”

Sebastian and Anton?n led the way with Victoria close behind them in the narrow warren of streets. They passed by the famous astrological clock that looked down on the Town Square, a relatively wide-open area that offered relief from the close streets blocked by three-story buildings. As it was only ten o’clock on a pleasant summer evening, people were scattered about, walking and talking. Victoria noticed Anton?n’s wistful glance at more than one isolated couple.

He was probably wishing he hadn’t been so easily distracted from the simple woman on the bridge.

Her own gaze lingered on the orn

ate entrance to Our Lady Before T?n, the cathedral in which Max was presumably on his knees. She hoped. Victoria felt Sebastian watching her as she looked toward the grand building, which reared up over the square and could be seen throughout the city. Brushing the sky, two ornate spires lifted in dual points.

“One tower represents the masculine of our world, and the other, the feminine,” Sebastian said in her ear. He still held the reins of Anton?n’s horse. Victoria realized that she’d stopped, and was looking up at the asymmetrical towers. “That’s why they’re different. Do you wish to look inside?”

“No. ” Yes . “Let’s get the ring. ”

“As my lady wishes. ”

They left the Old Town Square behind them, Victoria riding past the church without another glance. The unencumbered area gave way again to the winding, narrow streets, which became quieter and darker as they left the city center behind. The back of Victoria’s neck shifted with chill, and she knew that undead lurked about. But though she and Sebastian exchanged measured, meaningful glances, they didn’t detour to investigate.

“Klausen Synagogue,” said Anton?n at last, flourishing his hand toward a simply facaded building. After the detail of the cathedrals and other structures in the Town Square, this gleamed like smooth cream under the moonlight. “Behind it is the old cemetery. Katerina usually stays within, waiting for the odd mortal to venture through the graveyard. ”

“You will show us where,” Sebastian said, dismounting from his horse while holding both sets of reins.

Victoria and Sebastian remained close to Anton?n as he led them past the synagogue and beyond the gate of the cemetery. She’d never seen anything like this dark, shadowy space jumbled with tombstones.

The headstones erupted from the earth as though pushed up by some great internal force, so close together there was very little space to walk between them. Off-kilter, tipping, broken, the thousands of headstones clumped in a small space reminded Victoria of the hair on a cat’s back, rising in all directions.

She found it nearly impossible to navigate between them without stepping on graves, lifting her foot over a grave marker, or even finding grass on which to trod. The space held an eeriness, yet an overriding sense of peace as well.

“Twelve thousand people buried here,” Sebastian said quietly. “Most of them on top of each other, in layers upon layers. ” He stood near her, occasionally offering a gentlemanly hand to help her over a jutting stone.

“Where is Katerina?” Victoria asked, realizing the back of her neck hadn’t changed in temperature-as it would if there were another vampire nearby.

“I don’t know. She should be here,” Anton?n insisted, leading them on, deeper into the center of the cemetery. Victoria saw a grave that looked like a large stone bed, complete with head and foot, and at about that moment, she realized the air had begun to stir.

Not a breeze… no, not even the chill that lifted hair at the back of her neck when she sensed the undead. Victoria lifted her face, flaring her nostrils to draw in the scent on the air.

A blast of chill swept over her as she smelled it… and felt the air’s movement grow stronger. She looked at Sebastian, read the recognition in his eyes, and turned back to their vampire companion. “What is it? Why have you brought us here?” she demanded, her hand falling to the sword at her side.

But he seemed just as shocked as they, his red eyes wide and frightened. “I… What is this?” he cried, stumbling backward over a jumble of headstones.

He tried to run away, but Sebastian caught him by the arm, slamming him into a nearby headstone. The vampire fell as Victoria’s hair lifted and swirled in the rising breeze. “What is it?” Sebastian demanded.

“I don’t know! On Lucifer ’s sword, I swear it… I don’t know!”

Victoria drew her sword, looking up to see that the scattering of stars and the half-moon had become little more than a dull glow behind a billowing black cloud.